Dream of Waking Ne Cede Malis

Bugged

This is lame. I might not be able to finish King Kong. My copy of King Kong is bugged. Yes, bugged.

You play as some dude named Jack on most levels but on some you play as King Kong. Well I just finished a Kong level, the next level starts, and before I can do anything, I'm treated to the sounds of Jack dying. This goes on and on unless I try to interrupt by pausing and then it'll start right back up again once I unpause.

I'm kind of pissed. It's a pretty fun game, probably one of the best games based on a movie I've played, and I've put some time into this thing and now I'm fucking stuck. I think the worst part is that since it's an Xbox game I can't patch it or find a workaround, really. I'm just stuck with this bugged game and all I can do is send up a support request to Ubisoft. There's no way I'm cheating, not twice in one year, especially since this game is really easy and I'd rather not miss any of it. So I'm stuck. Like Chuck.

pwning games

I finished two games this weekend. I wanted to make it three but King Kong is actually much longer than I thought it was. Might finish that one tomorrow.

I had to cheat to finish Breakdown on Xbox. I haven't cheated in a game for ages but I was at my wits end on this one. Not only because the game is so awesome and I really wanted to see how it ended (which was totally worth it) but because they throw you at a gauntlet where the first wave and the last wave are damned near impossible. So if by some happenstance you manage to beat the first wave, you trudge through three more just to be utterly destroyed by the fifth. So run out and buy Breakdown for a whopping $10, if that, and enjoy simply one of the most cinematic video game experiences ever. Just make sure you play it through on easy that first time. There's no turning back when you realize you'll never finish it because it's gotten way too hard.

I got Advent Rising on Xbox for no more than $12, shipped and brand new. I thought it sounded like a winner when it was being heavily previewed. Then Microsoft dropped out as publisher. Majesco picked up but that's one hell of a red flag. It came out, got very mixed reviews, and I decided to let it drop to bargain prices before picking it up. Well I got on Thursday and beat it yesterday, on Saturday. And I spent all night Friday sleeping. It basically provided about 5-6 hours of gameplay. That's short, by anyone's standard. It's also the first part of a trilogy in a series that's been aborted due to poor sales. It ends on a cliffhanger and the sequels will never see the light of day. It is, however, fun as hell. And it's pretty much beautiful and the story is somewhat compelling if a little hackneyed. But the biggest showstopper here is the bugs. I got stuck in the level geometry more than once. The game on a whole locked up at least five times during the short time it took to finish it. The whole game feels like it's a beta really, which is awful. With a healthy dose of polish, this could've been an awesome game and an awesome series. As it stands though, I think I got just about what I paid for. The price of a movie and snacks for six hours (at most) of enjoyment with a couple bugs.

I'll probably finish King Kong tomorrow. Don't know where I'll go from there but I have no lack of games that I haven't finished.

Assholebot

I started playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again. Every time I play it I end up asking myself why I stopped in the first place. It's ridiculous how well done this game is.

Of course I'm still the asshole dark jedi that I've always been and this is the best way to get some laughs out of this game. It's absolutely hilarious how bad of a person you can be. I just drafted the assassin droid HK-47 into my party. I've heard of him beforehand and I was expecting some cartoonish, KILL ALL HUMANS Bender ripoff kind of character but this is really well done. He kind of sounds like Dick Clark in that soothing upbeat tone of voice and he's very nonchalant about violence and murder and I think that's a thousand times classier than KILLTRON 4000 THE KILLER ROBOT THAT LIVES ON HUMAN BLOOD crap. I'm very much looking forward to finishing this game off.

Digg revolts

I read Digg religiously. I wake up, I check Digg. I'm about to go to sleep, I check Digg. I get bored, I check Digg. I've been up for 36 hours and I could end up passing out on my keyboard and what will be on the screen? Digg. It's user-driven as in users submit the stories, users vote for what stories they want to see, and users popularize a story by "digg'ing" it.

So what happens when clever people find the key to HD-DVD encryption? They post that they've found it on Digg. Sixteen hexadecimal digits of HD-DVD digital freedom. The MPAA catches wind and tells Digg to delete stories that contain this key. Digg, stupidly compliant in this case, deletes stories, bans users, whatnot.

It's 10:19PM Central Daylight Time. Go see Digg. At one point every story on the front page had that number on it. And more are being posted. Some are being clever about it, some are posting about their own banishment from Digg for posting the number, some are just putting it out there for all to see like a worn out old prostitute sitting on a street corner, spread eagled. But it's there. And it's not going away. Enjoy the user-driven internet while it lasts.

Digg it. Digg all of them. Tell your friends to digg it too.

Oh and fuck the MPAA.

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