Core Dump #1

Well I wasn't sure it would ever come to this, but I feel like blogging and I don't feel like taking the time to structure my thoughts, so I'm just gonna do a core dump on the last few days (that's a programming joke which inspired the name of this blog, for those of you who didn't know. See the very first post).

I pre-ordered my copy of Shadow of the Colossus yesterday. They say they should get it tomorrow, and I've been feeling like a little kid on Christmas Eve ever since. That game is by FAR my most anticipated game of the year. I just can't wait to play it. According to the Gamefaqs message boards that game is being hyped like there's no tomorrow by gaming critics. As much as I feel the game deserves credit just for really trying to stick its head out from the heard, I find it totally stupid to see so many scores of 9.5 or above. This further reinforces my point that Gamespot is the most credible site for game reviews. You can't just go around handing out 9.9s to every game that you like. That's just stupid and it encourages stupidity among gamers who suddenly start thinking that any game that gets a score of 8.9 or under sucks.

Speaking of which, I've been spending most of my Gamefaqs-time hanging around on the Next-Gen Gaming board. I gotta say the amount of immaturity there is astonishing. I thought the fighting game boards were bad. Fanboys REALLY annoy the hell outta me, but they also entertain me: a love-hate relationship. The main thing I like about the NGG board is that it's active like hell. Anytime I check up, someone's posted within the last two minutes, so I can go there, post something, and check back in like 20 minutes and actually have a decent shot at reading a response to what I said.

I stumbled onto a link today that sent me on a 20-minute oddysey reading up on Jack Thompson, his proposal to the gaming industry, and the Hot Coffee mod in GTA:San Andreas (links will be left as an exercise). Though I think that alot of people are over-reacting to that Hot Coffee mod, I officially have no sympathy for Take Two or Rockstar. I read that they issued a press-release stating that that mod was an un-authorised hack, which is just STUPID. I have no idea when the press-release was sent and I don't feel like checking right now, but I gotta admit I knew that you CAN access that mod on the PS2 if you have a Gameshark or any other cheat device. This totally blows away the theory that hackers decompiled their code, added Hot Coffee and recompiled it, which is what they were saying. It's a lose-lose story: Either they're lyars, or they have no idea what the fuck is on their CDs when they ship them.

That's it. I am now playing:

• We love Katamari
• Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
• FF1: DoS