The Second-to-Last Straw

I give up! You win. I'll never play console-ports again.

Last night I came to the (sad) conclusion that whenever it comes to pc games that you'll (see: me) always encounter weird problems that you'll rarely have if you just bought it for a console instead. Sure, it'll play better, have better graphics and integration.. but the convenience of knowing it will work is starting to become a big factor.


Take Skyrim for example; when I first blogged about it, I was trying to decide whether I should get it for the pc or 360. I had at the end chosen the 360 because I knew that there would be no problems at all. I did have the very rare crash which had me very paranoid causing me to save every 5 minutes. In my defense though, you can do alot in 5 minutes. 


Then you try it on the pc with the first obstacle of installation; it was like jumping through hoops and it took forever (7hours), unlike the 5ish minutes of installing it to the harddrive of the 360. Almost like day and night, playing the game with a mouse/keyboard configuration was much more convenient and accurate. Hot keys for weapons, spells and potions made combat much easier. Then came the familiar gray screen of death; sometimes coming after a meer 30 minutes of gameplay.. othertimes after 2 hours. I saved even more frequently but gave up last night. Trying to go to safe mode crashed my pc. Deleting registries and reinstalling drivers didn't work.


So I then tried to play some Mass Effect 3, because it worked without ever a glitch, right? WRONG.
Somewhere between the new dlc and all the deletion of registries, updating my drivers, I lost the PhysX driver.. which I prevented the game from loading. I found and reinstalled it from the internet but no luck. Maybe re-incarnation is real and I was a bad bad hacker in my last life and in this life i'm meant to suffer with unending pc issues.


I'll probably try to get a new video card (got mine second-hand from my cousin)and see whether that fixes everything. But it makes me realize how much effort I put into gaming and how it could be better invested into other areas like personal fitness or photography. I've decided (at this point) that from now on, if there is a game that is both on the pc and consoles, ill get the console version. 


Maybe board games... they don't crash.

Great Updates

Result: I bought a Kia Forte Koup 2010 from Kia Markham

It should look roughly like this; it'll be red, with tinted windows and Xeon lights. Kia Markham did a great job and fought hard (and fairly)for my business.

Note: Do not go to Kia Oakville; worst sales manager there EVAR. They have some reps there that 'seem' nice, but the one we got was horrible.

My last post on cars will be pics of the actual car.. I promise; then only gaming ;)
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Taken from Spinks:

Wouldn't it be cool if the next town was north west of the northern pass of that map, the road path (leading East) is much safer but a longer route, while going through the wilderness will have more dangerous mobs but is much shorter. Choices.

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I want this Tron limited edition 360 controller.

Looks sick.

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I've been playing alot of Left 4 Dead 2 on pc; i found out that by lowering the graphic's settings it allowed my pc to run and couldn't tell the difference. Great game; love fast scary zombies.

Downloaded Magic: The Gathering from Steam.. and every time I log into it, 2 minutes into the game, it'll cause my monitor to go black and tell me that no data is flowing.. but i can clearly hear the game music in the background. BLAH. Glad I only paid 2.50$ for it.. but its sad.

Big Steam sale right now; buyer beware; its a good platform.. but it has its problems.. :P

Xbox 360 Arcade on Sale

Only $129.99

This is the best time to get one if were on the fence of getting the system. Its not a perfect system but its a good deal at this price:
Quick Pros:
- great online system (tho not free) via Xbox Live
- lots of great action/shooter games
- comfortable controller
- easy online marketplace which allows downloads of expansions, patches, demos, and games-on-demand

Quick Cons:
- RED RING OF DEATH; not the most reliable system (nearly everyone I know that has one has had to replace it so far vs the ps3 which is rarely replaced [xp via working at EB Games])
- channels not as intuitive as the ps3

I'm thinking of buying it just to have an extra!

I'm not the biggest fan of the PS3, but I love their funny commercials!

Clash of Heroes

I'm not the biggest supporter of Ubisoft (and if that was true, I shouldn't mention them at all), but coming soon to Xbox Live Arcade is Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes.

http://kotaku.com/5490290/might--magic-clash-of-heroes-goes-hd-for-xbla-psn

I am a huge HoMM fan from the original to even the first person rpg and even the not so popular Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. CoH initially came out on the Ninendo DS, but I guess it was popular enough to come out for the 360. I'll have a review when I give it a try when it releases later this year.

Progress

The article at Kotaku..
http://kotaku.com/5422154/achievement-chore-she-plays-for-gamerscore-whether-its-fun-or-not

Basically about the obsession of getting Gamer Points on the 360 for that gamer. It speaks to me b/c thats what this original blog was all about; getting and showing readers how to get those rare tome unlocks in WAR; on the 360 i loved the gamerscore and achievements concept... but its kinda cooled down as I don't think i'd get an extra 10k points to be as high as my friends who has had the system for over 2 years.. and the points don't give anything special unlike WAR where you may get titles, items or pocket items.

I guess its the same when you play together to get achievements, but I may not go as far as to throw games to give others achievements..