Year's End

Yeah, so I've been pretty quiet lately. Let's see if I can do a quick recount of the last month or so.

Been spending a lot of time at work, very busy doing difficult things at the moment. Nothing I can talk about since the game is unannounced, and to be fair it's just normal 'that's why they call it work' stuff and it isn't that interesting.

I've also playing a few games on the XBox 360 and PS3. Finished Demon's Souls the other night. Even managed to get through the first level, defeating a PvPer and the first boss, and then back to the Nexus with all the souls I got for defeating the final boss. I didn't really defeat the PvPer so much as not follow him into the monster spawn he thought I was stupid enough to follow him into. Shot him with some flaming arrows instead. He ran away and fell down a hole which made me giggle especially since I'm sure I had already destroyed his expensive armor with my Scraping Spear.

Starting the God of War series, not really liking the whole 'mini-game' aspect of it. Especially when I can't quite figure out what they are telling me I should be doing. "Oh, when you show the button being tapped, what you really mean is 'change the way your holding the controller so you can mash the button in some insane attempt to push it through the other side and therefor need to replace it with a new one." Took a quick peek at the God of War III demo and I like how they put the button you are supposed to press on screen where it is on the controller. I never could remember what position the four buttons are in. But it still breaks me out of the game to be watching for the button symbols to show up on screen and the game doesn't give you much of a time window to press the button before it's too late. Also don't like how they teach me I can climb up the side of the boat using this netting, but not back down the identical netting next to it and things like that.

I LOVED Shadow Complex! If you liked old school Metroid and haven't gotten this $15 game from XBox Live Arcade, you are missing out. Only two things drove me nuts, when they put two items in the same 'square' of the map. One is in the same square as a Save Room so you don't see the dot. The other removes the dot when you get the first item even though there is still something else hidden there. First one didn't get me, but I spent forever trying to get the last part of the key due to the second issue. I'll just say that when you find the mask that lets you breath underwater, keep looking around there for a part of the key. That isn't a spoiler, consider it a bug fix.

We finally got around to finishing off all the divorce stuff, so I am legally single again. I even tried dating again for almost 3 weeks, but it didn't work out so well. Somehow asking her if she had already gone to lunch ended with us breaking up. ...via text messaging even! How sad and depressing. Kind of ruined my whole Christmas break. It actually happened on New Year's Day, so 2010 isn't starting off very well.

Just got around to updating the blog to replace the Interzone and Auran links with the Jet Set Games logo. I wish I could figure out how to put a background into the posts, so that I could replace the background with the one I use for my twitter page. See how the game boxes are crowded over on the left, I can't let them go any further to the right or you wouldn't be able to read the post text in a smaller screen resolution. I tried poking around in the HTML but without an example, using the same template, to steal from I'm over my head. Also I'm still using the old templates from before Blogger upgraded them a few years ago. I'm afraid of losing all the tinkering I've already done if I upgrade.

Also did a real quick resume update, always hate defining what I do into bullet points. I wanted to convert the resume MS:Word file to a PDF, but the first converter program I found didn't keep the margins, extending it to a 3rd page and did some other odd things. I'll work on that later since I'm hopefully not sending it out again anytime soon. Though next time I do, I will definitely convert it to PDF first so it can't be altered easily. Recruitment agencies like to put their own giant logo across the top of all the pages. I understand why they want to do that, they need to remind the employer who is representing you, and I suppose it works with most resumes. The last time it was a disaster for my nicely laid out, 2-page resume. Since it also indented what I wrote, it turned into a 6-page resume, 2 pages wide by 3 pages long. It was confusing and an almost unreadable mess. They also did the same for my 2-page published title list. It was an embarrassment for them to even have sent it out like that and who knows, may have even contributed to me not getting the job. It's okay since I'm much happier where I am.

Finally, I found out that I can get a rebate on my taxes for the sales tax I paid on my car; which is great considering the tax burden I'll have this year.

Okay, that's it for now. Be safe.

Netflix's Customer Service Box

Dear Netflix, please let me out of your little customer service box.

I hooked up the PS3 streaming disc as was watching a movie. One of my PS3 controllers was low on battery after an extremely long session of "Demon's Souls" which is almost impossible to pronounce correctly. Go on try it and remember, apostrophe 's' and plural.

Anyway, I plugged the cable into the PS3. The controller wasn't actually connected to the cable which may or may not matter. The result; however, was the PS3 shut off. Is this a problem related to the PS3 or Netflix. I dunno but I thought I would report it to Netflix. ...only I can't.

Netflix's website insists on pre-defining your customer service experience. There is no way for you to actually enter an issue they haven't expected you to have.

Let's start with even trying to report an issue with streaming through the PS3. The only options you are allowed to have are:

• The disc arrived broken
• The disc is scratched or unplayable
• I received the wrong disc
• I have lost the disc, and need a replacement
• I haven't received the disc

Absolutely nothing about any problem you having with the service itself, not even an option for "other."

What if I went to the section to report a problem with the movie? That doesn't work either; because, the only options that come up are to report problems with movies that I already watched. The movie that I was in the middle of watching isn't listed.

What if I decided to go off the sidewalk, and just report the problem with the movie I failed to watch by selecting one I did watch, did not have a problem with, but is on the list that I am allowed to choose from? I could just explain that this wasn't the movie I was having a problem with and detail my problem, right? Nope, because there is no way to explain the problem again, only pre-defined choices:

Please tell us if you experienced any of the following problems. (Check all that apply)
• Audio did not match the picture/was out of sync
• Parts of the audio were missing or cut-off
• No subtitles on a foreign language film
• Picture was blurry
• Picture was unwatchable or missing
• Wrong movie/TV episode started playing
• Unexpected pauses/frequent stops and starts

There is a continue option at the bottom, and from the way it words the question, leads me to believe I don't have to select any of those options and can go onto the next page where I can actually tell them about my problem. Nope. You press continue, even without selecting a single problem from their list, and you get, "Thanks for your input. We will investigate and resolve the problems as soon as possible."

Good to hear, glad their on top of things.

Though to be fair, I am enjoying my Netflix subscription and really haven't had any other problems. Now that I'm working again, I have even increased my disc limit to two DVDs at a time. I really can't believe all the good, new TV shows that came out and you people let get canceled while I was in Australia. Shame on you.

I Break Things

Things don’t work for me, mostly electronic / computer type things. Unless somebody is watching. I may have mentioned that before, but this is a story of what my evening has been like.

I got one of the new Xbox 360 Wireless ‘N’ Network adapters. It is brand new, ordered from Amazon and shipped the day it was released. I put the Driver disc in my new Xbox 360 as instructed and it doesn’t install any drivers. It just tells me it is a “Mixed Media Disc” with only the option to eject it. I popped it into the computer and I can see the files on it just fine. But I am told that just popping it into the 360 should start running the driver install process.

I went to the Xbox website. They don’t even list the new wireless adapter on the site. I filled out an email service request form. When I pressed submit, it told me that nothing matched my search. I am sure I wasn’t filling out a search. Luckily, when I pressed the back button my data was still in all the fields. When I pressed submit again it went through. I gave me an email service request number, but oddly enough didn’t send me one of those generic “We have received your service request and somebody will answer you soon” generic emails. It has been 24 hours and no response, they not work weekends?

I decided to see if I could Google some information. I found an article on the new adapter on Tom’s Hardware. Mostly the comments section was divided between the people who were going off about how Microsoft and the Xbox suck and those people who just thought the adapter was way to expensive. I posted a comment… I know, I know. But that isn’t the point, and please don’t bring up the Xbox/PS3 debate or even how expensive the wireless adapter was. I needed one for reasons that are none of your business, and that isn’t the point of this.

The point is that Tom’s hardware lets you make the comment and then just asked for you user name and an email address. It then sends the follow email:

Thank you for your participation in Tom's Hardware!

You have less than 48 hours to register with your Username and Email Address.

Username : "XXXXXXXX"
Email : "XXXXXXXXXX"


To register, please click on the link below:
http://www.tomshardware.com/membres/#registerForm

If you don't validate your account within 48 hours, your Username and Email Address will be automatically deleted.

Tom's Hardware Team

------------------
This email is generated automatically; replies are not read. To contact us, please use the contact form on the site.

You can see the link isn’t tied to my email address as a confirmation or anything. I just takes me to their registration page which gives me two options: “Sign up for free by clicking 1” and “Already member.” You’ll note that both of those don’t actually make sense.

I suspect the first should be reworded to “Sign up for free!” and then have another title that says, “New Member.” he second one is missing the article and should be, “Already a member.”

Anyway, I fill out the first one. It tells me, “The email address is already in use.” If I click on the “Already member” option it asks for a username and password, which I don’t have. I try entering what I would have as a user name as password if I did have one, but that didn’t work. The window has its own “Not a Member” link but when I try to fill it out, it keeps telling me that my email in the two fields (you know, the standard thing where they make you type it twice just in case) don’t match. I copy and pasted them in making sure there were no extra spaces screwing it up and even reloaded the page and tried it again from scratch.

Finally, I go to the recover account information and enter my email which it tells me does not exist in their database.

I can’t find the “contact form on the site” which the email mentions but does not link to.

So, is it just me or is it Tom’s Hardware that is fubar? I am willing to believe it is just me; because as I've said, this stuff happens to me all the time!

So in the end I’m going back to playing Demon's Souls on my PS3.

I've finally arrived at the next generation... updating...

Back in October-ish of last year, I was in San Diego visiting the Sony Online offices. And because of somethings that were in the works finally bought a next gen game system. I think I would have gone XBox 360, but because of the SOE stuff I got a Playstation3 instead. I also bought Little Big Planet and Resistance 2.

Now in generations past I always bought every system, as soon as it came out. But living in Australia with the region codings, had me just skip this generation. I didn't want to buy a U.S. region 1 system and have to import the games and I didn't want to buy a Australian region 4 system with the risk that I'd be back here in the U.S.

I was worried about customs and such bringing it back with me to Australia, so I took it out of the box, roughed up some of the manuals, tangled up the cords, and then dragged the box across the parking lot to scuff it up. Turns out all that was completely unnecessary, but still a little fun.

Then it sat there. I couldn't find my power converter since moving from Brisbane to Perth. In February I moved back to the U.S. (and found the power converter as I was packing up the house.) It was on a boat for a few months and then when it got here I really didn't have a proper TV to hook it up to... and so on.

Then the other day I decided to take my previous generation systems down to Gamestop and trade them in. They told me they no longer take XBox systems or games, so I still have those to sell on Craig's List or something. But I did sell them my Nintendo GameCube, Playstation2, lots of extra cables & controlers, and about 35 games. In return I got Batman: Arkham Asylum, Wolfenstein, a subscription to Game Informer magazine (which is part of their Edge Card deal, which got me bonuses and discounts that affected my total), and Picross for the DS (which I had bought for Connie and she either remembered to take back from me or I lost). I also have $10 left over.

I had one PS2 game that was unopened. I was on the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Game of the Year panel, twice. They are supposed to send you copies of the games that have been nominated. Only they tend to send you only about a third of the games you are supposed to get, a third that seem to be just random games they had lying around, and the final third you just don't get at all. As a result of this I had a few unopened games, but my roommate years ago checked out all by one of them. The Gamestop manager says he isn't allowed to take unopened games and can't buy it from me today.

I understand this is policy implemented to discourage you from stealing new games and selling them. I asked if I could go outside, open it, and come back in.

He gave me a deadpan look and said, "I can't take this from you... today."

So, I took it back and sold it to him two days later. He also gave me some advice on how much some of my XBox games are worth. The two Baulder's Gate games are supposed to fetch top dollar.

Anyway, I finally decided it was time to get the damn system hooked up. Got my LDC TV (unfortunately kinda small and not High Def) out of storage and started plugging things in. I was kinda surprised that it not only worked right away, I even got it to connect to the internet on the first try. After that shocking turn of events, I was kind of afraid to put a game in the thing.

When I finally overcame my fear and decided I needed to, as Brad Pitt said it, "kill some Nat-zies."; it told me that I needed to update the PS3. Waiting...

Then once I got that done and tried again to play, it told me I have to update the game. Still waiting...

I almost felt like doing the old man voice, "When I was a boy, Console systems was different. Didn't have no bugs, cuz you tested'em real gud! Once they was out there in da market, wasn't no way to do no updates. That was it! If ya screwed up, you was screwed!"

Woot! Update done!

Our Princess is in Another Castle

Alright, now I have to figure out what I did to turn on the feature that publishes my blog on my Facebook page. I think there is a way to just get it to post a notification that I have published a new blog entry, without it posting the whole blog entry. The reason is that I have noticed a drop in the numbers of people visiting the blog which is probably because a good number of my readers are also my friends on Facebook. Also people are commenting on the Facebook posting instead of the blog itself which can mean two different comment chains.

On a related note, I saw the Google Wave presentation video and can't wait for that to come out. I've been trying to tell people about it, but nobody seems interested enough to watch the video.

I know I have said it before, but I should also get around to moving the blog over to the new blogger templates. Can they even be called the "new" templates anymore? It has been awhile since they upgraded the system. Lots of new features though and I am sure that the Google Wave thing will require the new stuff to work on the blog.

I have also been wondering if I publish negative things and complain too much on my blog. I do rave about some of the things I like, but I don't think I do it often enough. I am going to make more of an effort to do so.

Actually, what I really need to do is start seriously playing games again. I took a forced break when I moved from Australia and I had to wait till my stuff arrived. But even then I didn't really start playing anything. I think it is a matter of this not being my house, I don't have my gaming computer set up and the TV here is pretty old and wouldn't handle the PS3 very well. Been playing some browser games, but nothing overly exciting. I am getting pretty itching to raid something, fight off a hoard of zombies, or save a princess. Jones'ing to actually get back to making games as well, two promising irons in the fire at the moment, keep your fingers crossed.

All your XBox 360 faceplates belong to me!

As a follow up to my "I post all my own ideas" post regarding the Australian Gamer forum, it turns out that my reply post to El Taco was nominated for the October Post of the Month. So get on over there and stuff the ballots voting for me so I can win another XBox360 faceplate. Never mind the fact that I don't own a XBox360. Its those region coding issues I've gone on about numerous times before. Anyway, the "I do all my own stunts" t-shirt is pretty cool, I'd wear that.

Speaking of the Next Gen Console systems (shouldn't we call them 'This Gen' by now) I did try to rent a PS3 from Blockbuster Thursday night. They rent them for $50 bucks a night. $50 bucks!!! And they only have one, which was already rented and not due back till Monday. With that kinda of return on investment why do they only have one?! And Mr. PS3-Renter... if you are going to spend $200 bucks, assuming it was Thursday that you rented it, just go and buy one!

I'm a Playstation3. I'm a Nintendo Wii.

Ah, so many possible jokes I could add to this and yet so little time. I believe the parody is from G4TV.

So with that look at where we are now with the current generation how about this pictorial history of video games consoles.

I used to have pretty much all of those including some other dedicated pong machines they don't show. I had them on display in my office at Westwood Studios at one time but wound up giving most of them away to Goodwill when I had to pack up and move to Australia. I sold the later ones and kept the current generation ones and the Vetrex.

If you tour the office of any game developer and don't see a Vetrex sitting on somebodies desk, something is horribly wrong.

I took the Vetrex home from my office and EA shut down Westwood, need I say more?