Fable II Patch Looming in the Distance

Word on the net has it that Lionhead's game is getting a patch released before the Knothole Island DLC, in fact next time you boot up your copy you will see that familar pop up notifying you that you need to update. Apparently a number of gamers have run into glitches in parts of the game's quest that renders their character stuck or unable to complete the quest. In fact, I remember not being able to complete the first TOBY quest because the item apparently never spawned in the game world. When I get my copy of the game back from my friend I plan on thoroughly testing the patch and seeing if it fixes my troubles. Although minor and I was still able to complete the game, it is a bit annoying not being able to finish a side quest just for completion purposes.

I'll keep you guys updated on anymore developments for this game, particularly when Knothole Island is released to the public. Keep on doing your thing, Gamers.

Game on.

Adventures of Jack Malick, Part 2

So my buddy, Jack, has that radio I told you about. Well turns out he figured out how to overide the Taco Bell drive-thru finally but the only downside...he doesn't know the frequency to listen in to the customer's so any pranks would only be half as hilarious. Some digging on the net showed us that the possible listen in frequency for Taco Bell are out of his radio's receiving capabilities. Seems like he should have just waited and saved up some money to by the next model, the Yaesu VX-7R which can receive a ton more frequencies than the VX-5R he bought.

Jack was slightly disheartened by this turn of events, but in usual Malick fashion...he found something else to cheer himself up with. This time a blatant Federal offense in the fact he's been whispering "tacos" at the local police department randomly for the last hour or so. For those who haven't caught on, it is extremely extremely illegal to broadcast on a police frequency or any other emergency frequency listed. I feel sorry for the fire department since "they seem really bored, and fires only happen here and there in this area so why not?"

I doubt Jackie-boy is ever going to change. He's found something he is good at, causing mayhem and mischief. Granted it isn't the best thing in the world to do....according to society that is...but when have I ever decided that society has been right about every single little part of life? Have fun Jack and I will see you around some time.

Tales from the Crypt

I thought the title was appropriate considering I will be briefly (probably not) discussing my PSP. This old lug has been around with me since a year after its release. Good times. Now my PSP found little use for many many months after my initial receipt because I never bought many games. That all changed when I stumbled across the modding community and found out that Lumines could downgrade my PSP and let me install Dark_Alex's custom firmware. Needless to say I have been a loyal user of his firmware ever since.

Things started out simple and I only toyed with things that wouldn't screw up anything in fear of turning my little pal into a brick. When the Jigkick battery and Magic memorystick were released to the general public that fear went out the window. Thank you Team Pandora and Dark_Alex.

I have used my PSP for many purposes on and off over the last few months. Anything from getting on MSN to streaming Youtube videos. Now what I realize is that this little thing is a great tool for a good prank. At least from what my friend Jack Malick has told me. He described a few scenarios and I have to agree with him.

One such scenario involved using Ahmen's shell replacement IRShell and using the infrared capabilities of the PSP-1000 to mess with people in department stores near the tv's. Not a bad idea all in all. May have to pull something like this on my old job. I am sure Malick would be more than willing to help out with.

I don't know if Sony realizes the potential some homebrew software and games have. I have played some interesting games and I've already mentioned some of the capabilities of the software out there for anyone with a modded PSP. I keep a memory stick in my PSP case that has all my homebrew apps and the few games I like to stop for a bit to play. Homebrew honestly has been the one thing that keeps me picking my PSP up here and there. probably will be since good PSP games in my book are hard to come by. Last good PSP game I played was Crisis Core, but I will save my full opinion on my adventures with that game for another time. Yes, I know. Cheap way of ensuring a future post. Gotta have something to do right?

With the release of the PSP-3000, a claim was made that it would be nearly impossible to hack. My first thoughts, someones just raised the red flag of a challenge. So far the only progress made is being able to run unsigned code on the user level portion of the kernel. This is just the beginning and I am sure Dark_Alex is out there working on this obstacle lain down by the Sony development team. Good luck to the homebrew developers out there, I'll be looking for some of those killer apps to give me a reason to use my PSP more than I do now.

The Battle Begins

Now I didn't find this website on my own, one of the founders ran across me on Twitter and followed me so I got curious. Turns out this site is a hub for competitive gaming and is fairly unknown since it is brand new. I am liking the way it looks so far because it will give me a whole new reason to play Halo here and there again. Playing to piss people off does need to be changed up occasionally you know.

I am a member of the site and already one of the staff of it has added me to their friends list, and he seems like a nice guy. I have yet to enter in a battle but I get the feeling that I will by the end of the day. Winners of a battle get spoils of victory too, usually in the form of Battle Points which can be redeemed for prizes. You can purchase credits (one dollar = one credit) so you can play matches for real money.

The site is very easy to navigate and I may just remain a member for some time to come. Might use it to pick up a few prizes that have caught my eye, need a new copy of Starcraft after all :P


The Battle Begins

Halo Wars

I think I will just throw out my little posting guidelines since I keep getting good little tidbits of news. This time around I received an update on Halo Wars. I have been looking forward to an RTS Halo themed game for some time so the release of this game has been very anticipated in my book. Joystiq posted an update that on Feb. 5th there will be a demo released on XBL for everyone to download. Thanks for the update Joystiq.

Halo Wars Demo Coming to XBL

Top Ten Suicide Countdown - Halo 3 Montage

Now, normally I would not put up so many posts in one day but I think this deserves a slot. Curiousity got the better of me and I popped on by Bungie.net to see if any news had sprung up. No major updates from them and just as I was ready to close the tab, I glanced down and saw a post with a Youtube video. I had time so I clicked on the url and let it load up. At first it was mildly amusing, but really the last three shown (numbers three, two, and one) really just made me laugh. Number one is truely the biggest Halo fail to have ever happened. Watch it for yourself.

Top Ten Halo 3 Suicides

Adventures of Jack Malick

Jack Malick is the name that will be given to a local techie in my area that loves to raise mayhem just so he can get a cheap laugh. Jack has himself a Yaesu VX-5R, thing is...he doesn't have a ham operator's license so he shouldn't jump on a local repeater and start chatting it up with the others. Instead his expensive toy is currently being used to play very very annoying music to the Wal-Mart managers in the next town over. Yes, he discovered the frequency they operate on and has been messing with them every single time he is within a few blocks of that store. I have to admit I did get a laugh after he played Banana Phone by Raffi for them. Apparently that song is "excruciating" when piped directly into your ear courtesy of an ear bud.

I am waiting for the day he contacts me to tell me he has the frequency of the drive thru headsets for my old job at McDonald's. Now that will be one time I believe I will join Jack Malick in his mischievous fun.

Fable II Awarded the...Wait...What?

It has just come to my attention that Fable II, exclusive to the Xbox 360, was awarded the 'animal-friendly videogame' award by none other than PETA. I'll link you to the article here in a moment, thank you Twitter updates to my phone and PlayTM, but first I want to quote one little line I thought was hilarious from their update: "In other news: Peter Molyneux has chained himself to a railing outside Burger King in Guildford High Street..." ~Luke Guttridge

Just read the article, I got a good laugh out of it despite the shortness and I can see why PETA supports it. You should take a look for yourselves rather than relying on my word for it.

Vegetarians Back Fable II - Play.TM

New Year, Same Focus

So this site never really took off like I had hoped but that is the way things work. New year has rolled around and nearly everything has stayed the same for me. Single? Check. Still working on computers? Check. Have a job at some crappy place? Negative.

Oh yes, that is the one thing that did change. Work places are pricks about this time of the year it seems and they get rid of their holiday staff as quickly as they can for the smallest reason possible. So currently unemployed and searching for a way to make some dough so I can keep on gaming and testing out cool computer stuff. Support me by clicking the ads if you wish or if you want to get your PSP unbricked/downgraded contact me. It is a free service I offer but donations of hardware or cash are welcome. You just pay shipping both ways.

Letter to Bungie

    April 15th, 2008 3:59AM on a Tuesday morning. After several hours (read: six hours) of waiting, the time had come. The Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack was released, those like myself rejoiced. Starting at 37% I posted in the "official" release thread started in the Halo 3 forums. Every post I made in that thread after that always ended with my download being at an interval with 7 in the ones digit. 47%, 57%, 67%, 77%, 87%, 97%, and I made one last post with my Gamertag in it so my fellow brethren of Halo 3 could join in my celebrations. I tried to make it obvious I was paying homage to Bungie by only posting when my download percentage had a seven in it, those of you who are fans will understand.

    Twenty minutes of watching the download bar and posting in the forums...I was ready. I added slamer780 to my friends list and invited him to private chat. Slamer780 was envious that my download was finished and it was then I made the decision to see how much I could irritate him by loading up Avalanche (his personal favorite) and describing to him in relatively vague detail of what it looked like. Slamer780 cursed my name, and the names of any of my future children. I, meanwhile, just laughed and continued. Next on the list was my most anticipated, Blackout.

    I loaded up Blackout and slamer proceeded to curse my future children and myself once more as I vaguely described the level. He had his questions and I answered them. "Where are the weapon spawns?" to which I answered "The same as Halo 2's Lockout with some added ones, the equipment is new so that will make things interesting." "I saw the door deals in the vidoc.." and I simply responded "Mapmaker? Yea, they are here." and he continued "Do they fit in the level well?" and my response before I moved on to Ghost Town "Yes, they fit the level design perfectly."

    Ghost Town was my final conquest before slamer780 ever had his download finished. Once again he cursed my name, but I think he forgot to curse my children. I did not spend long in this original map: slamer780 rejoiced because his download was finished. I jumped back into Avalanche and he joined my party. We proceeded to "dick around" with the giant man cannons until we decided to try to get six other people and go into DLC Slayer and get our four months of free Bungie Pro. Unfortunately we could only get seven and we were paired with a person with only the Heroic map pack. We were forced to play Standoff.

    After that horrible incident (horrible to us anyway), we picked up an eighth member and proceeded to load up DLC Slayer once more. The first map chosen was Standoff again and we vetoed then Avalache was the next map chosen. Slamer was on my team and I wonder if he was having too much fun with the warthogs and man cannons to take the game seriously, what makes me think that is he only scored three kills for the entire game. Admittedly I have no room to talk...I was having too much fun driving a mongoose around and jumping it into man cannons so I was in the same boat as he was.

    The last bit of my celebration took place in Forge as I explored each map bit by bit, a sense of respect is what I first noticed when examining the textures and lighting effects. I have seen those that say Bungie screwed themselves and us over when they made the maps the way they did. That no one is going to buy the map packs now because of the "problems" with the maps. I disagree, these maps and access to the screen effects is just what some of my friends and myself needed. I thank you Bungie for these new playgrounds you have bestowed upon your creation. I look forward to your future projects and I hope there will be many more in the near future. Thank you once again for listening to us, your fans. I will continue to be a member of the following, The 7th Column.

Sincerely,
James Sailor a.k.a Shadow Ryo Nightfall
GT: Ryokea Hakubi