So, about 3 weeks ago (I know, I'm a little behind) a 15 year old boy named Brandon Crisp ran away from home. His parents took away his xbox 360, which they felt he was obsessed with (I believe they watched that Doctor Phil episode). In all truth, this kid probably was quite obsessed, although the reasons most people give are crap.
Most people -> "He was part of a cult [aka a guild] that required him to be on every day, or he would be kicked out". (1) I doubt it was that drastic. (2) a lot of people are part of different guilds, its like a social circle. (3) so... something that means you have to be there every day, or get kicked off.... that sounds like.... a football team.
Truth -> he was part of said guild (don't remember the name). However this kid was also missing school, to play CoD4 (Its a good game yeah... but come on... next to no one is on during school times anyway), his parents would often find that he woke up in the middle of the night and started playing. Most days he would play for about 6 hours (these are weekdays), some would be 12 hours.
That is obsession. However the media (and most ignorant people - so the majority of everyone) have made it sound like everyone with an xbox 360 is obsessed. Actually scratch that; everyone with any video-game interaction. That's what I hate, stereotypes because of people like this. Like how everyone thinks WoW is bad because "everyone is obsessed"; there are 11 million players, about 1/16th of those may be obsessed - in most cases its just "nothing better to do", or "its fun". Or how D&D is evil, because of those kids that killed themselves - what most people don't realize is: those kids had mental disabilities in the first place.
His parents originally posted a $25, 000 reward for finding him, then Microsoft (see? they do have a heart) added to that, bringing the total up to $50, 000 (they could just buy a new kid for cheaper).
ANYWAY! This kid was missing for 3 weeks, and it was assumed that he ran away and was hiding at one of his CoD4 friend's houses. Well usually (in most runaway/amber alert cases) after 48 hours, they think the kid is dead. Well.... he was. Infact I would say he was "very dead". I'm probably being offensive His body was found today, not too far from his house infact, in an area police had "generally searched" because it was close to his house.
I wonder if they still get the reward for finding his body.....
Well I thought Bandit Tom had a high gamerscore and a lot of achievements. Then I found someone with almost double Tom's score...
Toms played 205 games, and has some pretty embarrassing games on his list with 1000/1000: TMNT, Avatar (to name a few). Now his score is high because he has a lot of games, and a pretty decent score in some of them. However he's got a lot of 0's and under 200's.
Ezekiel 08 has an INSANE score. 159 games played. Most of which are 1000/1000 (or close to it). However he doesn't have Avatar on his list.
(by the way: Achievements rock, don't make fun of 'em until you get a 360. They're fun, give you a sense of accomplishment, and give you something more to do in a game.)
Both of these guys are clearachievement whores. However that doesn't change the fact that even if you are an "achievement whore" they're still hella-fun, and your playing a lot of games, a lot of good ones too... and a lot of crappy "easy achievement" games. Tom's score is a bit more understanderable however. He has a lot of games played.
On the topic of achievements and achievement whores: there was this funny (I laughed solidly for the duration of the video) video I found.
the spoiler whore part is definitely the funniest part of the whole thing.
01. The Retail DNA Test - Not sure its yours? buy this. 02. The Tesla Roadster -Now, I'm not a car kinda person. This however is one hell of a sleek car, its stylish, its 'affordable' (if you have $100, 000), and its powerful. Thats a pun! HA! It's an electric sports car :). 04. Hulu.com -Its like TV... but on the Internet... and unlike downloading and streaming... its legal. 05. LHC-Its the biggest thing in science... and number 5? NUTS! 08. Bullets that shoot bullets - defending our soldiers, since 2008. 09. The Orbital Internet -just incase the astronauts need to google a star entity. 14. The Bionic Hand - It starts with hands, then its arms, then its torsos, then its the destruction of the human race. 17. The MDS - see? terminators AHOY. 20. The Everything Game - Spore. Not that great, winning lots of renown. 22. The Shadowless Skyscraper -as cool as it is, did we really need to waste the money? 26. The Speedo LZR racer -yeah... it shouldn't be on the list. Oh well... it looks... nifty and futuristic. 28. Invisibility Cloak - *Fwoosh* there go our soldiers, and it wasn't even my fault. 32. Facebook for spies - Likes: hiding bodies in closets, stealing Russian schematics, long walks on the beach, headshots. Dislikes: Commies, pudding. 36. The New Ping-Pong Serve - Ok, this is not an invention. However it did happen. And it was funny. 39. Enhanced fingerprints - No more wiping guns clean. Sweat + metal = erosion (however little) throw in electricity and bam! you have a fingerprint. 40. The Seven NEW Deadly Sins - Yeah... the pope decided there should be more: bioethical sins, morally dubious experiments that harm human embryos, drug abuse, polluting, social injustice, accumulating excessive wealth and creating poverty. 41. The Peraves Motercycle - Its futuristic, and pretty. 42. Disemvoweling - a fun word to say, and a fun Internet sensor. It takes out all the vowels, so you can't really understand a disemvoweled sentence. 50. The Camera for the Blind -it projects a brail picture-image on the screen. AWESOME!
Yeah... there are a lot, as previously stated, so I have to do some cleaning up. This does not however mean I will be back to my regular 2.5 posts a day (that was the good ol' ratio). I still have a lot of work to do, I still am not too impressed with what is happening in my life, and I probably wont make it past Wednesday. No, I'm not going to killmyself, but I have to drive (driver's ed) with a kid who had major issues driving around Campbellford and we have to drive for 6 hours (between the two of us) to Peterborough, around Peterborough, back from Peterborough, and its from 3:15-9:15, which means 1/2 of that will be in the dark. Anyway, to blogging.
(by the way, I don't like this format for blogging, because it doesn't look great, but I don't have an better ideas)
Also whomever it was that commented that I should take the Kotaku banner out of the background of my banner, and put in something that says "there is no cow level" should be informed that the name of the blog is in the banner. Its in the "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED" area. I though it was a cool way of incorporating it.
----- 1. Mario + Micky = Creepy.
Dave Bondi (some random sculptor) has "combined his two favourite character icons into one" - Micky Mouse and Mario. It is a 9" tall figurine, and its going for $65. Too bad Halloween passed, because this is one creepy tribute. If you went "AH! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS PURE AND VIDEO-GAMEY WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" then you had pretty much the same reaction as I did. I think its the nose that is the major creepy thing about it....
------ 2. Who ordered the pile of shit?
Hollywood did, that's who. There has been a long line of video game (culture) movies - resident evil, silent hill, Max Payne, DoA, etc - and all have been painfully terrible. It's bad enough that they choose good games (and culture. By the way I'm referring to the Dragonball Z movie that's in the making) to make bad movies, but when they choose a game that was "not so great" and decide it should have a movie... well... that's a failure before it starts. EA already approached the "non-video-game-playing" Director, and he agreed.
It started with Shogun: Total War, then came Medieval: Total War, Rome: Total War, Barbarian Invasion - Rome: Total War (expansion), Alexander - Rome: Total War (expansion), then Medieval II: Total War. Each one of these games won the Real Time Strategy of the Year awards, and I personally am a huge fan of the series.
This game allows you to risk-style build armies and deploy your armies around the world, attacking places, defending towns, etc. but when your armies are attacked, you command your troops in battle.
Now the timeline progresses to Empire: Total War, where you play in the time of Napoleon and such. That means muskets, cannons, and ship-to-ship battles. The best part? In the previous Total War games you had to auto-resolve your ship battles (which generally lead to loss for the player), but now you are able to actually fight them.
Sadly it doesn't have a release date yet, but its set for 2009... there's one more thing that will empty my already meager sum of money.
It looks amazing... but im not sure it'll play on my desktop... /frown.
Well, I already said how Obama was buying advertising in video games, but now it gets better. Sarah Palin and Obama are featered in the Mercinaries II: World in Flame DLC (Downloadable Content). That means you can have Obama and Sarah palin running around, hijacking tanks, blowing stuff up, breaking necks, you know... the fun stuff.
(P.S. Sarah Palin in real life = epic fail)
------ 5. Grand Theft PC.
Ah... its been around for about a year, and its only now coming to the PC... sorta. Grand Theft Auto IV was definitely the best in the series (because it didn't suck) and if you missed it when it came out for the 360/PS3 then you can soon get it for the PC. You had just better hope it can handle the specs.
Minimum System Requirements * OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3 * Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz * Memory: 1.5GB, 16GB Free Hard Drive Space * Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
Recommended System Requirements * OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3 * Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1Ghz * Memory: 2 GB (Windows XP) 2.5 GB (Windows Vista) * 18 GB Free Hard Drive Space * Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870
That "16-18 GB free HD Space" is kinda scary... and so is the video card needed, and so is the RAM needed... everything about this game's specs is scary. My computer is lagging just thinking about it.
----- 6. Elder Scrolls: Fuck Im Lost. Coming in 2010.
Bethesda (the makers of oblivion, and more importantly Fallout 3) have said there will probably be a new Elder Scroll game for 2010.
This seems kind of weird because Oblivion took a long time to make, Fallout 3 just came out and IT took a long time (and a lot of people are complaining its too much like Oblivion), and now in pretty much a year they plan on getting another game out?
There is a 121 pound, 7' 11" tall, Brotherhood of Steel (from Fallout 3, they're the big armored guys seen on the cover) statue up for auction on Sam's club. Currently the price is $500+ and the auction ends November 11th... so... if anyone wants to buy this for me... feel free to...
So, about 3 weeks ago (I know, I'm a little behind) a 15 year old boy named Brandon Crisp ran away from home. His parents took away his xbox 360, which they felt he was obsessed with (I believe they watched that Doctor Phil episode). In all truth, this kid probably was quite obsessed, although the reasons most people give are crap.
