It [Was] snowing in October...

Hey viewer, sorry for the lack of blog post for a while. Turns out I had tried blogging in October during the big power outage after the hurricaine but turns out it never submitted and I was left with a half-finished draft (which I will post below).

Anyway, we did lose power for a week in October, which was weird... I've been doing more work since, and hopefully the new banners on our home page are pleasing to the eyes. I'm not sure about the font I chose for the older posts (yes I worry about these things... it's a rough life) but I like the blue gradients I've included in recent ones and I feel that I'm improving with time. 

Quick update:

• Finished Bastion- probably my game of the year and best soundtrack in a game ever.
• Finished Saints Row The Third- I need to get a review for this done and posted. This game was fantastic and also had a good music collection.
• Tons of reviews on the way, brace yourself. 
• I have my new laptop, so my steam rating has been at a constant 10. This is a curse more than a blessing. 
• Skyrim Talkthrough is not going to happen, sorry. I'm considering doing more videos in the future, but most likely I won't.
• I'm currently teaching myself app development, so there may be an Average Player App in the future. 
• Netflix Instant Queue is sucking my soul and time away. 
• This is so darn adorable.

That about covers my thoughts recently. Here is what I thought I had posted way back in October (well, the first half of it at least...):

I think the title of this post pretty much sums my thoughts up nicely. I'm currently writing this from a laptop, piggybacking the weak wireless signal from the public recreation center. So far I've concluded two things:

1. There are a lot of old men in my town.

2. Public showers are the most frightening things ever.

This past Saturday, it started snowing. I thought nothing of it and turned on my PS3 and resumed playing Mass Effect 2. I was exploring the facilities where Jack was experimented on as a child when I saw a dark corridor and heard an eerie noise. I crept around the corner and at that moment, I lost power. It was terrifying. I fell back in my chair and was left stranded in my pitch black basement. 

That's where I was when the snow came. 

Hmm. I could probably sell this story to some hot-shot movie producer for a milli

That's all... Bye !

Oh Hai, Viewer

Long time no blog!

Last week I picked up the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus collection and it is completely amazing. I don't know why but I always forget how truly incredible those games are and playing through them both in HD is just thrilling. I beat Ico last night with a game time of 4 hours and 7 seconds. This only frustrated me because there is a gold trophy for beating the game in under 4 hours and we all know how much I love my trophies... 

Anyway, if you haven't read my review of El Shaddai, well then BLATANT SELF PROMOTION! You should check it out. That game was awesome. Also, you may have noticed that I started incorporating images into reviews. I added images to the two new reviews by Chris and Andy but did not play the games so I couldn't add captions to them. I'm hoping people stop being lazy in future and add images themselves.

I also have plans to adjust the home page by combining text with banner images to give it a cleaner look. Once college applications are over I'll have time to work on that. 

OH! I'll be using some of my free time to MAKE NEW VIDEOS AGAIN! Yes, that's right, viewer! With my birthday this month, I'll be getting a new laptop that can actually run games well and allow me to record videos with more ease. I plan on a Skyrim Talkthrough, which is going to be absolutely insane. Hopefully that will work out, though. 

On a more gaming-related note, Catherine is one of the greatest games I've ever played and right now I'm torn between that and Bastion as the two best games I've played this year. But there is still Skyrim, so I can't decide just yet. 

Anyway, back to Team Fortress 2 for me!

Happy gaming.

Just Checking In

Hello. 

As usual, it has been a while... probably my longest gap of not updating. 

Yeah, I've been lazy with the videos but Spencer and I have jobs now (this doesn't count!) and we are going to pool our money and purchase a Hauppage PVR so we can record from the PS3 in HD. The Dazzle doesn't look very good and is incompatible with my TV for some reason.... 

Anyway, we have a new staff member. So let's welcome Stephen... and say goodbye to Kevin (the old news boy), Erica, Mike, and Zach. For the time being their blogs are disabled but I'll figure out a place to put all of their articles. 

I just got Catherine, and once the new podcast is up, you'll understand how much I love it. Its a wonderfully addicting yet impopsicle game. Also, many weird looks were received when purchasing it because of the cover art. And the art book with the soundtrack is a nice bonus. Atlus is pretty awesome. Maybe I'll get around to playing more Persona 3. 

With school starting soon I've been busy with AP work (my excuse for being a lazy bum all summer) and hopefully I'll be able to help with the site or make videos in the midst of all of that and college applications. 

Oh, and I'm also currently playing El Shaddai which is just completely weird and makes no sense so far but I'm going to finish it and hopefully get a review up soon. 

Anyway, once all of us get into the groove of school and not being lazy because of summer, the site should pick up a bit, hopefully with videos, and definitely with reviews, blogs, content, news (as always), and featured articles. I guess that's all I have to say for now. 

So bye... or whatever.. :D

Nerd Rant

Hey reader. It's been almost 2 months. I apologize. I've been lazy with blogging. On the bright side, I've been releasing a lot of videos! I know they haven't been too consistent so allow me to explain:

My original plan was monday through friday videos. 

Then I realized that I go out every single friday and don't even have time to upload a prerecorded video. 

I then decided on monday through thursday videos. This worked for a bit, until spring break came. I got incredibly lazy over spring break and accomplished absolutely nothing. However, when Portal 2 came out, I was inspired to get my ass in gear and make daily videos, which I have been keeping up with up until today. 

My excuse for today? Way too much homework. I have AP tests coming up soon and 2 essays due tomorrow. I just couldn't take the time to do a video. I apologize! :(

You may be thinking: "But Nick! You're taking time to write this blog!"

In response to that, I say: "Shut up."

I'm writing this because I'm going insane from boredom and procrastination and I wanted to rant. Right. I almost forgot about that. This is the reason I am blogging:

You may have noticed on facebook or elsewhere a certain survey that asks what 6/2(1+2) is equal to. The two answers are 1 and 9. An alarming amount of people have chosen the incorrect answer. Right now, that number is well over 500,000. I am starting to lose faith in the math departments of our nations' schools. 

The mistake they are all making, is incorrect use of PEMDAS, or Parentheses, Exponent, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction. The idea is to follow these steps in order until the problem is solved. Simple, right? 

So start with the parentheses and you get 6/2(3). 

Then, nothing for exponent, so proceed to multiplication, right? 6/6=1? Wrong.

"Parentheses outrank exponents, which outrank multiplication and division (but multiplication and division are at the same rank), and these two outrank addition and subtraction (which are together on the bottom rank). When you have a bunch of operations of the same rank, you just operate from left to right."

MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION ARE THE SAME TIER/RANK/LEVEL. Stop being stupid, internet. You read from left to write. The correct answer is 3(3) = 9. Nine. Number nine. Numero nine. 

Don't believe me? Whip out your TI-83 or TI-84 calculators and plug it in exactly how it's asked. You'll get 9. Even plug it into the Google machine. 9. 

Rant over. I'm just shocked at how many people suck at math. It saddens me. 

Also, while I'm ranting, back off of Sony. They are doing their best to fix the PSN and they could do with a little less harassment. Your credit cards were encrypted. Chill. 

Okay, I should really get back to work. I'm going to be up all night. I will try to keep the Talkthroughs coming. I think I'm just about done with Amnesia so any suggestions for a new game would be appreciated... although probably nobody is even reading this... if you are... thanks! :3 

Bye.

>.<

March Resolutions?

Hey faithful reader. ITS MARCH! And you know what that means.... wait you don't? Damn. I don't either... 

Well that was awkward...

As you may have noticed, I haven't written anything in about two months. Honestly, I've been busy and lazy but I want to get more content up at a more regular pace. I am going to attempt to post Talkthrough videos for Amnesia daily until (if) I finish the game. I'm currently in a love/hate relationship with Amnesia. I love the game because its great, but I hate it because it's so freaking terrifying. I apologize for my half-explaining of what you don't get to see in my videos... (my bad for hitting "take screenshot" multiple times instead of "capture video") but hopefully they get better soon because I have just moved past from where I played and as a wise man once said, "Shit just got real." So hopefully I can stick to my daily video promise.

As for the blog, I'll try to keep updating as much as I can.

Lately I've been finding some good videos and songs and posting them for my friends on facebook, so I figured why not post them here, too? If you care, here are some videos that I enjoyed or mattered to me:

Funny/Impressive: The Entabulator

You really won't find this funny unless you know that all of this is entirely made up... This was Rockwell International taping their first introductory video, but this was just a rehearsal for camera, lighting, and stage crew. Everything he says is meaningless nonsense. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIS5n9Oyzsc

Funny: Leaked iPhone Commercial

Pshhh i already have all those apps... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k3zvI2tyPM

Scary: Marble Hornets

These are some pretty terrifying videos. I'm still not sure if these are real or not (probably not) but I haven't watched them all yet. Either way, they keep me on the edge of my seat and are very well done. They remind me a lot of House of Leaves, the current book I'm reading, which I also recommend. This is the introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmhfn3mgWUI

As for music, this is some of the stuff I have been listening to lately:

Peter, Bjorn, and John- Objects of My Affection - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxVRhcLXftg

Lost Campesinos!- There Are Listed Buildings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dbs9nzErz4

King Charles- Ivory Road - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sJFojs6jvQ

Anyway, I know a lot of that was rambling or completely unrelated to gaming, so I'll wrap it up by saying what I have been playing lately. I bought 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the DS and it is by far the best DS game I've ever played. It's really more of an interactive book with a few puzzles, but it is fantastic. The characters are mysterious but interesting, the story is suspenseful, surprisingly well-written, and complex, and the sounds and music are simply perfect. I cannot praise this game anymore. Go get it. Now. Bitch. 

Also, I just traded in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Red Dead Redemption for $60 and got Killzone 3, which is on the way. I was in the Killzone 3 multiplayer beta and that one level alone convinced me to buy the game. I got bored with Black Ops, and as you know I was never a fan. Read Dead was one of the best games I've ever played, but I beat it nearly 100% so I didn't mind parting with it. I'm eagerly awaiting Killzone 3, but for now I have the new Fallout: New Vegas expansion, which just arrived on PS3, to hold me over.

Wow, long update! But that's about all on my mind for today. Peace!