What kind of craziness is this?!

Okay, so the The Mask clip wasn’t totally necessary, but.. I think you’ll agree.. the new look is much, much better.

-Mini.

I saw it last night and I loved it to bits… however it got me thinking.

Check this out:

Real world -> dream -> dream -> dream -> dream.

If we assign a number to each the real world and the dreams Cobb is in EG:

0 -> 1 -> 1 -> 1

So, technically speaking IF we ever see Cobb in the real world, we can designate that as ZERO.

The moment he enters a dream, 0 + 1 that equals 1. So he’s in ONE level/dream.

The moment he goes in further, 0+1+1 equals 2. He’s two levels deep.

If you get a kick, you go back a previous level.
Let’s say for example Cobb and his crew are 4 levels/dreams deep. If he and the team get kicked back you wind up in the previous dream. 4-1=3. You’re in the third deeper dream.
So you need to ground your base in a “reality” in this movie.

I need to go back and watch it again during the Mombasa scene to see if there are any ‘quick jumps’ in the scene, because I’m starting to think that Mombosa = Floor, Level, Dream 0.

If you add a number to each sequence where you think a dream is occurring because of a notable jump, you can track back to where your reality is planted, eg: Your totem dream.

Cobb’s children are his totem, the spinning top is just something he does to calm his nerves and remind him of his wife… he told Ariadne that “in his dreams, we are together”, and he also called the copy of his wife “the best I can do.” He’s trying to recreate Ariadne as his wife in his dreams, but he can’t because he can’t remember her because he’s using her totem (the top!), remember what he said? Don’t use other people’s totems because otherwise you will get lost and never find your way out? He was so reliant on his wife’s totem, he lost focus of what his real totem was, his children.

Keep subtracting numbers from any fixed point in the film after you establish a “Dream 0″, and you’ll come up with some interesting results.

Another side note: His children don’t age in what we the audience see as the “real world” in the final scene when he “wakes up”. Did you take note of how long the guard stared at him before welcoming him “home”?

There’s a reason for it. Cobb isn’t home. He’s lost in limbo. His wife was trying to save him but she can’t anymore because he has “killed” her in his mind.

Thoughts?

Actual weight at the current moment: 196-197 (depending on the scale).

Weight in September: 215.

That’s a grand total of 19 pounds lost so far.

Just three days ago, my father made good on his promise that if I lost near 20 LBS, he’d get me a Wii Fit+.

Three days ago.. I started using it.

My calves feel like they’re on fire, my back is straighter than it’s ever been (or at least it feels that’s straighter), and I’m sleeping better than I ever have in years.

I walked into my dad’s office the other day for the first time in months and his staff immediately told me “You’ve lost some weight haven’t you..”

Isn’t it amazing to know what 19 lbs off the gut can do to a person?

Your encouragement is greatly encouraged folks!

No more candy bars, 7-11 Slurpees, or overly fat hamburgers and meals from fast food. I’m watching what I eat and trying to shoot for 59.. yes.. 59 (a small child’s worth of weight) more pounds to go.

Excuse me now while I go pass out.

Mini.

What in particular?

Betas and Quality Assurance / Control.

What’s been making me think about these?

Simply the fact that I just recently filled out my own personal LinkedIn “Resume”, of sorts, and it dawned on me..

I’ve played these MMOs (in alphabetical order for ease of reading!):

Aion, Auto Assault, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Anarchy Online, Asheron’s Call, Asheron’s Call 2, Champions Online, Chronicles of Spellborn, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Dofus, Dragonica, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Dungeon Runners, Eve Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Free Realms, Guild Wars, LEGO: Universe, Lineage, Lineage II, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Tabula Rasa, MapleStory, The Matrix Online, Priston Tale, RF Online, RuneScape, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, World of Warcraft and it’s two expansions (and soon to be third).

Of the listed games above I have beta tested:

Aion, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Champions Online, Chronicles of Spellborn, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dungeon Runners, LEGO: Universe, The Matrix Online, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade.

Each of these games I have played to at least level 25, and have spent more than three weeks in game. Some of these aforementioned (World of Warcraft in particular) I have been playing or played for years. I have been playing World of Warcraft for five years.

Have I really done this ? Have I put so much effort in to games that really, don’t… go on past the “beta” stage?

Sadly yes.

I’m going to ask some hard questions here.. and I want each of my readers to think about them very hard before they answer them in comments.

What’s the point of doing a beta / Quality Control when most of the issues that go reported, don’t get solved?
What’s the point of having a beta or Quality Control session that is open to the public where you control how much your players can discuss / talk amongst themselves in the game?
At what point in a beta or Quality Control session does it become the actual players responsibility to report problems or errors in the game?
If you’re going to have an open beta or qc session why ignore severe issues and let them slip through to the “final” product?

I’ve been playing games for so many years I can tell you that open betas / quality control sessions aren’t what they seem, they’re actually “finished” games, but they’re just allowing people to find minor things.

Quality Control Specialists sit and do things like sit in a room and jump in corners for hours just to see if anything will happen. By anything I mean: Clipping, Hall of Mirrors (where you can see hundreds of walls at the same time), falling through the world, etc.

When a company does an “open” beta for a game like an MMO, for example, Aion, or a bigger better example, World of Warcraft; it’s to stress test the entire world under the stress of having hundreds, if not thousands of players in the game at once.

This will expose every single flaw that the world itself has.

Some companies are smart.. I’ll point out two that come to mind right away:

Valve and Cryptic.

When they do a beta, AFTER the game releases, they actually keep a bug report tool in the game itself. What’s this mean? It means they know their games are flawed and bug ridden, and encourage people to click the little report button and file away a report. Without this, the feedback is invaluable.

But, again, I ask..

When things like this are in the beta, and are reported numerous times, and they still slip through to final game (and to my knowledge, still exist in game.. I haven’t done the Mr. Zombie quest in a while, but I do know it wasn’t mentioned in any patch notes as “fixed”)… what’s the point?

Or there are other games..

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, for example.

While Brad McQuaid’s “Vanguard Saga of Heroes” may look .. “beautiful”, it was hailed by Gamespy as the “Biggest Disappointment” award for 2007. Vanguard also won the awards in the categories for “Least Fun”, “Most Desolate” and “Lamest Launch” in the MMORPG.com MMOWTF Awards for the worst games of 2007.

There also have been numerous criticisms of the game by the game press and the fan base.

Content was low for high-level players, and spotty even in some lower-level areas, and if you even got to the “high level content” much planned high level content was not included at launch.

Large numbers of bugs and performance issues, which make gameplay difficult, and on some systems rendering the game virtually unplayable.

At release, performance was poor on many systems, including some high-end configurations. For example there was no anti-aliasing, and anisotropic filtering support was buggy.

What caused this?

I’m not kidding you when I tell you the game was released BEFORE it was ready.

So.. what happened to the “fan base”‘s precious V:SoH?

Sony Online Entertainment (Hereafter known as SoE), decided to make it the test bed for everything they wanted in massively online multiplayer games.

Reread that again. SoE decided to turn Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, if you’ll pardon the expression, into it’s bitch.

I remember playing the beta and having numerous issues where you’d fall through the world, only having to reconnect to find your place miles back from where you were. At one point in the beta, I leveled 5 times, and the server disconnected (ok.. that’s fine.. it’s a beta.. server disconnects are excusable.. but what happens next isn’t) only to log myself back on after the server came back up to find my character: sex changed and level one and gearless. Now mind you.. My character was level 25 before. V:SoH was like the original EQ in terms of hardness. You could grind for a period of 4 days and not hit 15. I felt like I’d been robbed, and at that point I said “screw it”, and never came back.

I still have friends who play the game who say the game is still “plagued by issues”, yet, its “better.”

Which raises another interesting point..

At which point do you stop playing a game even if it’s bad..?

I gave up on Vanguard because it just .. wasn’t working. The bug reports weren’t being responded to, SoE simply refused to give into the players requests, and things just .. died. I’m surprised the game is still alive at this point. SoE, if you read this.. you need to realize, your player base is what makes you who and what you are.. the game may still have it’s loyal people, but if you don’t listen, and stop making the game a test bed, the game will die.. and you’ll have no one to try anything IN the game. No one will care.

I’ll continue this some more probably tomorrow, but.. I think I’ve raised some thoughts in your head readers, so .. I’ll let you reply when you can.

I have officially made my mind up to lose 37 pounds (2.64 stone for our European minded friends!).

That would put me at a respectable 163 pounds (11.64 stone) instead of the weight I’m currently at.. 200 pounds (14.28 stone).

I’ve said before that I feel like I’m a bloated whale, and I’m tired of it.. but this month, I’ve decided that I’m actually going to put a fair bit of effort into losing weight.

How?

One of my dad’s friends gave my father 2 months of Nutrisystem® food, that weight loss program stuff?

It came with a manual in each box, and my dad said he’d do it (sure, and the waters of Hell will rise).. but he wanted to know if I wanted one of the one month boxes.

I openly said “Sure” because I wasn’t sure how much work would go into the program.

Well..

Today’s the first day:

Today’s breakfast:

1 packet Nutrisystem® cereal. 120 Calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 170 milligrams of Sodium, 8 grams of Protein.
1 cup Silk Vanilla flavored Soy-milk. 80 Calories, 1.5 grams of fat. 96 mg of Sodium, 300 grams of Potassium, 10 grams of Carbohydrates.
-Note: In the “sample week day” packet manual, it says to use fat-free milk, I may have screwed up here, but, I don’t think too badly.-
½ of an Orange.

And that’s it.

Yeah, that’s .. it for my “breakfast”.

It says later I can have a breakfast snack if I’m hungry, a dairy item or a protein.. (like 1 oz. of cheese or 1 oz of turkey).. but we’ll see how hungry I get.

Lunch is another Nutrisystem® item, a vegetable (of my choice, and if I so choose, 2 tablespoons of fat free dressing), and a protein.

Then comes an “afternoon snack”, again, if I’m hungry. (As you may have already guessed, dairy or protein.)

Dinner is a Nutrisystem® dinner entrée, another vegetable or fruit (and again, of my choice, and if I so choose again, 2 tablespoons of fat free dressing) and a “fat” of some sort. It recommends things like Figs and what not as they’re high in fat, but they’re also vegetables (still good for you!).

Finally, after the hard days work of eating all that (read: starving myself), I get a Nutrisystem® dessert entrée.

Did I mention it recommends at least six to eight glasses of water per day while I’m on this diet?

It’s a good thing all I drink is water when I don’t have anything else to drink..

Oh and another thing?

It recommends working out for 25-30 minutes during the day/night too.

This should be a very, very interesting time.. especially as I’ve got vacation coming up soonish and I’ll have to be careful to what I eat during the trip.

What do you guys/gals think?

Am I nuts?

A.

So, as promised tonight’s entry should be a fun one for you all to read…

My pet peeves and things that annoy the ever living bajebus out of me.

People who wear their pants like this.

They’re nicknamed “Ghetto Pants”, or as I like to call them, “Easy access”, yes, I’m saying if you wear your pants like this, you’re asking for your bum hole to be probed until your hole no longer looks like this: o , and instead looks similar to this: O.

Next up?

Movie theaters who put lights next to entry and exit doors. Especially when you’re sitting in back rows next to those exit doors.

People go in and out of those doors people. Every single damn time you open the door, you’re like a deer in the headlights. I mean damn.

While we’re on the subject of movie theaters and things like it (theatres, plays, concerts, etc).

Serial coughers. Yes. I’m talking the people who cough like they’ve got the whooping cough or the bubonic plague and simply refuse to get up and do something about it. No one will kill you if you get up and grab a drink of water. Hell, if I ever run my own theatre, play house or whatever, I might even stop the show so that you can grab that damn glass of water.

Speaking of running my own play house/theatre.. here’s something else that’ll never ever happen.

Kids that are under the age of the movie’s required age limit to be in the movie.

The ratings I’m talking about?

G. Anyone can go in. I don’t care who you are.
PG. 8 and Below.
PG-13. If you’re 13, you can get in. Below that. You ain’t steppin’ foot in my theatre. EVER.
R. Guess what 17 year olds? You’re no longer welcome here. Sorry! You’ve gotta be 21.
NC-17. 21+. If you can buy a drink at my theatre, you can now see this movie.

If you’ve got any questions think about it this way..

If you’re a 17 year old trying to get into an R movie, I will throw you out.

Yes, I am aware this would restrict 17 year olds and all to seeing movies that are PG-13 and below, but here’s the thing. If they’re going to act like they’re young, they should see movies that are geared around that age group. I’m sick and tired of people talking on cell phones, talking, and doing general tom-foolery in theatres while I’m trying to watch a movie. I don’t care if I pay 75¢ for said movie or 7$. I paid for it, I don’t want to be disturbed. Why pay for a movie if you’re not even going to watch it?

This goes for people bringing kids into theatres as well. Why in hell would you bring a baby in to an R rated movie? When they cry or get upset because it gets too loud and you’re too upset to take your kid out.. ? Is it really that damn hard to call 1-800-Babysitters, or call a friend? Jeez people. Granted, I’m nice enough to not reach out and smack you, but, I’m sure if I wasn’t a morally north and correct guy, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

Ok. On to the next one.

People who were watching the UStream last night can follow this one:

People who think they’re “hot stuff” and know everything or something that other people do not when they’re just pulling a load of bull pucky out of their yin-yang and it’s completely totally apparent they are.

I have no idea how to describe how much this infuriates me.

So and so who is related to so and so who said so and so said so and so’s cousin who said this is happening! — I mean .. how credible is that?!

This next one I’ve been catching a lot of UStreamers on lately.

“Wat” “Wut” “U” etc.

If you are on a keyboard. Please. For the love of whatever deity you choose to believe in, before I smack you and make you believe in one, SPELL YOUR WORDS OUT.

I understand if you’re charged per character on your cell/mobile phones, but if you’re on your keyboard, spell your words out. Now that I think about it, I don’t know very many cell/mobile carriers anymore who charge per character anymore. What do I mean by character? I mean if I type out each word out like this: T H I S I S A C O M P L E T E S E N T E N C E . Even that makes me sick to do.

The next?

People who believe total lies before researching things in their full ability. Though, for some people that may be a stretch.

What do I mean by that?

.. Well, check this image, from my Facebook in a new window.

Does that explain it? I hope so.

Under that same tree, is a different acorn (pardon the political joke people), ignorant and racist (they’re one in the same..usually(?) aren’t they?) people.

Oh boy, I have no idea how idea how to describe how much this irks me off.

What do I mean here?

Well.. People who hate gays/lesbians or bisexuals just because of the people they decide to love. (This is the big one.) In this same vein, people who hate people because they have a different color skin or because they’re disabled, or Hell, because they have *gasp* a different religion.

Atisha of the Buddhist religion had the greatest saying about how we should live our lives.

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

I have lived my entire life this way, 29 years so far, and Deity willing, several more..

Under this same tree, falls the Shallow People Acorn.

The shallow people acorn really hits home for me as it hits me quite a bit.

Confession time: Yes, I’m a straight guy, but I’ve got several quirks.

I’m Autistic. I think with both brain sides. Left and right, which means, not only am I an analytical thinker, but I’m an artistic thinker.

I actually prefer to think with my right side of the brain, instead of the left.

What does this mean? They say that the left brain side is better for Logical and sequential thinking, rational thought, analytical and objective thinking and looks at the parts instead of the whole. Meanwhile the right side of the brain does the exact opposite; random thoughts, it’s supposed to be intuitive, it’s supposed to holistic synthesize things, is very subjective and looks at the whole thing.

I sadly, or awesomely, my whole life have thought in both ways even when on my medication. That’s why my life is so difficult for me.

I’ve gotten to used to it but it’s still kind of crazy.

Along with these quirks, I’ve got a ton of hobbies, and a great great love of all things. One of these things is music, of all kinds. I’ve been seeing loads of musicals and plays lately.. and one of the biggest things I’ve always wanted to do is work in stage work with plays and musicals. I’m crossing my fingers because I’ve been putting my name in local theaters and hoping that they’ll call me in for an internship.

If the internship works out.. things may go further. However, where does this fall under the shallow acorn? I’ve been called gay because of my love of musicals and plays, among other things. This has actually made it so that I can’t get dates, or, in one case, have been abandoned by a date because I didn’t have the gumption to ask her if she’d like to sleep with me. Deity knows why the heck that would mean I’m gay, I assumed that sleeping with someone is something you do after you’ve been with them for a while.. not after two or three dates.

Ah well.

That’s a pretty good list to start off.. perhaps, if you like this entry, and tell me you do, I’ll continue it sometime down the road.

This has been the longest entry yet.. 1,445 words not counting this sentence..

Let me know what you think.

Mini.

EA Canada develops a game called Need for Speed.

Most cars and tracks are available at the beginning of the game, and the objective is to unlock the remaining locked content by winning tournaments. Surprise surprise.. EA doesn’t make you buy the additional content. This is where my love of racing games started. I owe this all to Joe. Yes, my friend of (currently) fifteen years is, and has been obsessed with cars since he was.. well.. since I’ve known him. The guy can tell a car just by the sound of it’s engine. He’s that good. He brought this game over to my house one day in 1995 and said that I must, must try it. This was prior to us getting our licenses (I’ll get to that in a while), but we knew that this was where it was at. Awesome speed and it was a great time.

1996 (1997)

Need for Speed 2 comes out. Joe gets it. I abstain from getting it. I was lucky enough to get.. *drum roll*, the Need for Speed II: Special Edition which included one extra track, extra cars. The big deal here was it had support for Glide, the then-burgeoning 3D graphics standard used in 3dfx’s Voodoo and Voodoo 2 graphics cards.

That’s right. 3dFx Voodoo and Voodoo 2 graphics cards folks. Your smart cell phone (iPhones, G1s all have more graphic horse power than those cards did back then. That’s how far we’ve come in such a short time.

The special edition was a much better deal.

Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit came around in 1998.

This was the first the new fangled multimedia as the CD-ROM by featuring audio commentary, picture slide-shows and music videos. This NFS game also is the first in the series to allow the downloading of additional cars from the official website. As a result, modding communities have sprung up to create more vehicles which would otherwise be unavailable to the game. This remains to be the best feature they ever added to the game. The PC version is also the first game in Need for Speed series to support Direct 3D hardware 3D acceleration. (Yes, I know I said above that NFS:2:SE did, but you have to reread that! 3dFx Voodoo and Voodoo 2 graphics cards. 3dFx and Direct 3D 3D acceleration are two different balls of wax. They render in completely different architecture and one is more streamlined than the other, therefore runs better for gaming purposes. (Which one still exists to this day and is the better format? Hint: It ain’t 3DFx!)

Enter Need for Speed: High Stakes in 1999.

The first.. “forgettable” NFS game. Give you an idea, I had to look this up on Wikipedia:

High Stakes introduced several new types of gameplay: High Stakes, Getaway, Time Trap, and Career. High Stakes is a racing mode (within Career) in which the reward was the losing player’s car. Getaway requires the player to outrun many pursuing police vehicles for a given time period. Time Trap is where the racer has to finish a certain amount of laps within the time limit, with police cars trying to slow them down. Career mode incorporates a monetary reward system that allows a player to purchase vehicles and performance upgrades while earning cash by racing in a chronological set of tournaments. Another innovation is the introduction of damage models. Vehicles which have been involved in accidents featured visibly crushed car bodies and suffered from performance penalties. After a race in Career mode, the player is given the option to purchase repairs. The mode also allows players, for the first time, to upgrade cars, although the feature simply consists of switching between three upgrade levels for each car.

I cannot remember this game, at all.

Enter 2000. Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed revs on to the scene.

This marks the first game that I can proudly say that I love.

The vehicle handling is considered the most realistic in any NFS game, and there is an in-depth catalogue of different Porsche parts that span throughout the years. The player had to win races in the Evolution career mode to unlock cars in chronological order from 1950 to 2000. Porsche Unleashed also featured a Factory Driver mode, where the player had to test Porsches with various stunts and move on with his career.

In terms of game construction, it is most often hailed as Need For Speed’s best collaborated effort to bring forth one singular car brand and amplify and deepen the depth of knowledge both on history and motor functions. It features historical videos and many pictures of old photos of Porsche vehicles. The Evolution concept was a hit for many people, creating many new Porsche fans due to the game’s high level of academia and depth of Porsche cars. The Factory Driver was also a different kind of unlocking, except to do with performing and excelling in certain slaloms, speed races, deliveries, etc.

This is where the Need for Speed series hit it’s high point, this and the next game. I used to play this game for hours. It’s also the game that introduced me to the Porsche 911 Turbo, Type 964. Spurring my love for small, beautiful cars.

I mean what’s not to like here? Just imagine it in yellow! Oh yeah.

2002. The final game where things really hit their high point.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 was the debut Need for Speed title from the newly formed EA Black Box (created after the purchase of Black Box Games in Vancouver), and the first Need For Speed for the sixth generation of consoles. Hot Pursuit 2 draws primarily from the gameplay and style of NFS III; its emphasis was on evading the police and over-the-top tracks featuring lengthy shortcuts. Although the game allowed players to play as the police, the pursuit mode was drastically less realistic than preceding versions of NFS; players merely needed to “tap” a speeder a certain number of times to arrest them, as opposed to using actual police tactics such as the PIT maneuver to immobilize a speeding vehicle.

This was the first Need for Speed version since the start of the series that did not feature a true “in the driving seat” camera view, complete with steering wheel, dashboard etc. In some ways this can be considered to be the landmark in EA’s move from realistic racing to arcade street racing. It is also the last game in the Need for Speed series for PC to feature the split-screen two player mode introduced in Need for Speed II.

For the multiplayer mode of the PC version, GameSpy’s internet matchmaking system was used in place of Local Area Network (LAN) play.

Hot Pursuit 2 was also the first Need for Speed to forgo an original instrumental rock/techno soundtrack in favor of songs sung by licensed song artists under the EA Trax label.

After this, I sort of gave up on the Need for Speed series. They just haven’t hit their high point again.

So, in total this is the entire NFS series:

1. NFS 1 (SE).
2. NFS 2 (SE).
3. NFS: Hot Pursuit.
4. NFS: High Stakes.
5. NFS: Porsche Unleashed.
6. NFS: Hot Pursuit 2.
?. Motor City Online (R.I.P.) -- This was an MMO that lasted about .. four weeks, maybe four months, either way it wasn’t that good and it wasn’t surprising when it died.
7. NFS: Underground.
8. NFS: Underground 2.
9. NFS: Most Wanted.
10. NFS: Carbon.
11. NFS: Pro Street.
12. NFS: Undercover.
13. NFS: Shift (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP).
14. NFS: Nitro (Wii & DS).
15. NFS: World Online.

This video will take you upto 2007 so you can relive a lot of my youth with this series:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJRUajHLrE4

If anyone has any idea if NFS: Undercover is any good, please let me know. It’s supposed to be sort of like NFS: HP 1 & 2, but until I get some judgments on it.. I’m not going to plunk down money on it (unless you readers chip in on it and demand to see it on stream if it has a windowed mode! ).

So, as I promised, I’d do an exposé on NFS.

As far as licenses, I’ve gotten my permit before, I never really saw the point of getting a license (I’ve never had a job that was good enough to support having the bills for a car + gas expenditures. You can bathe in a car but you get some weird looks, so I opted for the house route. Not to mention everything I need is within walking distance.) Though, Joe got his as soon as he could.. and he’s still in love with racing games as am I. Though, we’ve progressed on to things like Gran Turismo or my personal favorite at the moment Forza Motorsport 3.

I’m sure you’re about to ask, out of all the cars I’ve ever raced in these games, which is my favorite?

If I ever had a choice to get a sports car.. I’d want a 1976 Alfa Romeo (in yellow of course), or a Lamborghini Diablo GTR Variant, (the only thing that’s different with the GTR and the standard Diablo is the GTR’s most important features are a modified chassis frame with integrated roll bar, improved suspensions, central fixing nut for the rims, race braking system, additional radiators for transmission oil cooling, very high performance rear wing (directly bolted to the chassis), simplified interiors and weight reduction. The engine is basically the same V12, 6 litre, of the Diablo GT which thanks to the adoption of a specially tuned exhaust system, without catalyser, delivers 590 hp (440 kW; 598 PS) (575 in the GT model)..) 40 Lamborghini Diablo GTR’s were made. 40.

So.. yeah, there you go, there’s my basic racing game youth history.

What’s next? We’ll see. We still have to go upto the modern consoles don’t we?

Mini.

We’re no longer

Minifig’s Monologue on Gaming.

We’re now just:

Minifig’s Monologue.

What does this mean for you readers?

Quite simply.. more to read.

Yes, that’s right, more to read.

Why? Because this gives me a place to write about whatever comes to my mind. This means you’ll hear everything from my random rants on movie theaters to my random rants and complaints about life to .. pretty much everything. As you all have gotten to know me pretty well on the UStream, I’m a fairly open minded individual and I frankly don’t really care what you guys read, see, hear about my personal life. There will be things that I’ll keep quiet of course, but over all, if I want to write about something, it’ll probably turn up here.

Yes, that means you might have to check this site more often, but, hey, who said anything about me doing this just for gaming entries? I sure as heck didn’t .. and if you even began to think that it was just for entries about gaming and my life, you were sadly mistaken. Sorry!

So, do you like this new development?

Let me know.

Mini.

I admit, I have very few memories of the N64.

I will admit I owned the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time and I actually owned this:

It was one of the very first games I can remember pre-ordering. This was before I discovered EB Games or Gamestop so I ordered it from Bestbuy.

So, anyway, after beating it, I loaned it out to .. I assume, it was Joe, but he says he never saw it, but whoever I loaned it out to .. I never got it back.

Pretty much the only other memory I have of the system are things like Mario Kart 64 and Mario Tennis 64.

Carrying on the tradition of having a youtube video in almost every blog, here’s the intro of Mario Tennis 64:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-nJXolbrG4

I still love this game, though, I don’t own it, as I don’t own my 64 anymore.

Now onto the Gamecube.

The Nintendo Gamecube came out November 18, 2001. I got mine late, as usual.. but believe it or not, I got mine because of a very good friend of mine visited from the UK and picked it up for me. I still owe Steve (A few of my readers may know him as Reno) a great deal of thanks for visiting.. it was one of the best weeks of my, and I’m sure, his, life. I’m hoping he can visit again soon.

There really isn’t much to say about this system, by this time, I was computer gaming more than I was console gaming.

I owned the Zelda game like any good gamer should..

I also, and I still own (because it’s so rare and I’m assuming a collector’s item now), a very odd game called Cubivore:

I’m not quite sure if you will be able to read the IGN review on the box art there, if you can’t it says: “… One of the most bizare videogames ever created…”[sic] -- IGN

This that simple one line doesn’t even begin to describe how .. odd .. the game is.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PafTV11nZuY

It took me a while to locate a good video of this game, but, I am hoping that this will show you just how weird it is. If I ever compile a list of “weird games” this will be near the top, I can promise you that.

Anyway…

At one time or another I also owned Viewtiful Joe, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

I wasted a ton of time on Animal Crossing and my friends and I spent hours and hours on Super Smash Bro. Melee. As a matter of fact, we actually still get together and play Smash Bros, only the new version, on the Wii.

Metroid Prime 2: Echos is probably my favorite game of the system.. there’s something about the dark and light world system, and tying that in with time that, no matter what game it is, I will probably enjoy it. Good examples of this are games I’ve already mentioned: Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, and Metroid Prime 2.

Got any more games like this? Suggest them, I’ll give them a shot and write a review or give a shout back on this page.

So, we’ve got two systems covered here.

What’s up next?

More PC gaming believe it or not and a series of games that I’ve been neglecting as they’re an integral part of my youth..

In the next entry I’ll do a full exposé on them..

The once great series known as Need For Speed.

Including, what I consider to be the top two games of the series:

and

Until next time!

Mini.

First thing’s first:

Wolfenstein 3D came out.

This was the first first person shooter that ever really caused … “controversy” in gaming. In more than one way. I remember bringing it over to a friends (who still is a very good friend) house and installing it on their families business machine because it couldn’t run on my families own personal computer at home. (The 286 class CPU, and 640 KB RAM requirements were just simply too high !) Well.. Joe’s parent’s computer ran it fine.. for.. oh.. four levels. What glorious levels those were:

Nazi’s yelling “Mein lebein!”, or “My life!” in all 16 bits of glorious sound, or as Joe and I thought back in middle school, “My liver!”. Though, I will admit at the time I didn’t know my mother knew German so, I never thought to ask her. We thought it was just good fun.. until.. the computer died.

Yes, that’s right. The first computer game I ever brought over to a friend’s house to play, also pretty much fried their business machine. His parents harbored a grudge against me for it for some time (we’re talking years here folks!) (and we still get a good laugh out of to this day)..

What else happened in 92?

Great system or The greatest system?

Yes yes, I know it came out in 1990.. but.. I got mine (I think) for Christmas 91.

There are so, so, so, so many things I can say about this system. Both.. good and bad.

How about we just relive some memories together?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaFBbdpc8b0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC0KIrKIEYM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDH4pLa7TI0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrNiDAHFDRQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmzNFTShPWM

Need I go on?! I mean.. this system had so many gems.

And then, it had it’s piles of well.. I’ll let this video talk for it’s self:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcPfKN35o0c

I mentioned I got a Genesis in this era.

There’s only really two games I care to mention (and it’s not Sonic. I have ADHD, so Sonic always seemed slow, though Sonic and Knuckles was pretty damn cool.):

These two games nearly cost me my Middle School career.

What else killed my youth?

Doom. Doom was.. everything. When my friend (Joe) and I got machines that could run it, we’d play it until we felt like our eyes bled.

That was nothing for what September 30, 1994 had in store for us.

Doom 2 forever solidified ID Software as my favorite developer status (as a kid).

Sure, we had Duke 3D, and stuff like that.. but for me, Doom 2 was the end all. I still play it. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

Had I known Bethesda Softworks was around back then and produced a game known as Daggerfall:

I’d probably have loved Bethesda Softworks as a kid then too… (They’re my favorite game company as an adult.. for good reason.. but we’ll get to that.)

Doom, Doom 2, etc kept my friends and I busy until 2001.

What happened in 2001?

The Gamecube.

We’ll get to the Nintendo Gamecube in the next installment!