jimmyhasablog
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Crackdown 2: Yup It’s Badass
Jul 19th
I managed to get my hands on Crackdown 2 a couple weeks ago, but I’ve just now found some time to write about it. The first Crackdown was really fun. It combined a lot of the Grand Theft Auto styles and included some of it’s own. In fact I am pretty sure that this game includes some of the developers and team members from Grand Theft Auto, however I could be wrong.
That said, Crackdown 2 takes a bit of a turn and introduces a bit of a different gameplay then the first game. An organization, The Cell has taken over most of Pacific City and has shutdown all the reactors which you need to reclaim. When you reclaim a section a beacon is then deployed which you need to activate. The game also introduces a new breed of hell dubbed “the freaks”. These mutants are a product of the organization you work for. With each beacon activation you clear out the freaks from that section of the city.
Basically your objectives in the game are to reclaim the reactors, activate the beacons and get rid of the freaks. There are also points in the city controlled by The Cell which you can reclaim as well. The game keeps true to it’s original version by including agility races and car races each which when won boost your driving and agility abilities. The abilities ‘leveling’ is something that I really like and could even be considered a reason as to why I like the Crackdown series over Grand Theft Auto. It adds another element to the game, and makes it a bit more fun and rewarding.
There were a couple difficult and frustrating parts within the game. I found myself having to play a few areas multiple times because of poor camera angles or odd controls or unusually difficult enemies. The most frustrating parts I think were a few of the beacon activations as well as some of the end level areas. I would get a bunch of enemies that surrounded me and each of them would have
a rocket or grenade launcher and would be continuously firing on me so I could never stand up to move or run away. I also found the last mission to be a bit of a pain. I think I must have played through that one 10+ times before I finally got it right.
Overall I am very impressed with the game. It was a lot of fun to play. The world of Crackdown 2 is huge and a real pleasure to play in. The game includes a bunch of new weapons and cars. The story line was a nice change from the usual ‘track down bosses and beat them to win’. I for one am definitely looking forward to a Crackdown 3!
My New iPad
Jul 8th
Today I finally got my hands on my very own iPad. I ended up trading my MacBook for a 32GB WiFi iPad. It was actually from a person on Craigslist and I was happy with the transaction (even though I did get a bit lost meeting up with him). While I did have a bit of trouble getting the iPad to work out of the box it wasn’t something I couldn’t resolve. I guess working for Apple (er a reseller) and being a huge fan of Apple and a complete geek helped. The iPad at first just wouldn’t boot into the system. It was stuck at the Apple logo and refused to move anywhere. I placed the device into recovery mode and just restored the system. This resolved the issue and I then proceeded to install some of my favorite applications. More >
Zombie Wonderland for iPhone
Jun 30th
I found this game while perusing the App Store for iPhone. It actually didn’t have very many ratings so it seems not many people have found it yet. Even now it seems to be pretty low-key. However, I can see it getting bigger shortly. The game itself is pretty fun. Basically you’re to protect the homes of a few residents in your town from the zombie outbreak. There’s a few different types of zombies as well as various methods you can use to protect your home. Zombies range from normal ones to giant zombies and even screaming old granny zombies. You’re provided with wooden boards and even a machine which can help fend off the attacks. Another neat twist in the game is that if a zombie does make it inside the house, you’re still able to kill them, but the zombie will leave a trail of guts which needs to be cleaned up in order to successfully complete the level.
The game includes some achievements as well. It probably only took me an hour or so to complete the whole game, which is a bit saddening. It would have been nice to see more levels, I believe there’s really only 4 (with 4-5 parts to each level). It would have also been nice to see a wider variety of weapons and ways to protect your house. The variety of zombies could have been a bit more as well. For only 0.99 cents you can’t go wrong through.
Google Chrome for OS X (in Blue)!
Jun 18th
I’ve really been enjoying Google Chrome on my Windows workstation, so I figured I would give it a shot for OS X. I should also mention it’s my web browser of choice when using Linux as well. I really dig it! Now it’s really simple to install for both OS X and Linux. Google offers up installers for both. You can snag your own copy from the Chrome site.
The one thing I didn’t like about the OS X version is that the default theme is not that blue one you see with the Windows and Linux versions. I guess this is nice, since the default blends in with the OS X UI a bit better, but I much prefer the blue theme. Fortunately you can install this by downloading and opening the downloaded file from this guys website! The result is as below and I love it!
On Hacking the Nintendo Wii…
Jun 14th
This past weekend I was visiting a friend’s house and he had a modified Nintendo Wii. Being curious I started asking him questions and at the end of this I basically rushed home to start modifying my own Nintendo Wii. Now, I had read a bit into all this before but never ended up modifying my Wii because it seemed to be quite a pain. However, after doing a bit more research I found out this process was a lot easier then I thought it would be. I basically grabbed a 512MB SanDisk SD card, placed some files from BootMii on there and within 5 minutes had the Homebrew Channel installed on my Wii. Now this is sort of where I got all confused, fortunately my friend came over and helped me out.
More >
Summer 2010 Focus
Jun 4th
I’ve been pondering about how to write this entry for a couple days now. I want the focus of this article to convey what I hope to accomplish this summer. I feel like having it written down will allow me to refer back to it should I ever get off track. I almost placed this entry in one of my more personal areas on the web but I felt that I could use feedback or ideas from others.
One could even consider this a to-do list of sorts. The goal may be too cross off items while others areas may just be to make sure I have focus on the item, not to necessarily complete it.
1. Concentrate on Japanese language studies. Ever since I started learning Japanese a couple years ago, I haven’t made much progress at all. In fact I’ve probably forgotten a lot of what I’ve learned. I need to re-focus on learning the Hiragana characters. I think by the end of summer (September 2010) I would like to know how to write the basic set of characters along with some phrases (such as greetings, some basic questions and goodbyes).
Tools to accomplish this: iKana (for OS X and iPhone), Japanese dictionary for iPhone, Rosetta Stone Japanese, Japanese for Busy People (Kana and Romanized versions), An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese I. Also watching Japanese movies, TV shows and anime helps (I’m starting to understand some of the basic phrases being used).
Plants vs. Zombies (iPhone)
Jun 2nd
After playing the little flash version of the game that PopCap has online I went out and spent the $3 on the game. Completely worth it! While there’s a couple frustrating spots in the game which required me to play a level 3 or 4 times to complete them most levels are pretty easy to complete as long as you’ve got your tactics down. The game overall is really simple though. You need to protect your home from the invading zombies. You have a wide variety of different plants which you can plant to protect your home. Plants range from the simple pea shooter to fun plants like the venus fly traps and cat tails. Just as your plants vary, so do the zombies. There’s normal zombies, to zombies driving zambonies, to Michael Jackson zombies and more.
The game also include achievements so I felt a little bit better about having spent all that time playing the game. At least now I can show off some of the achievements I got! When you complete the game you unlock the Quick Play mode which allows you to select between levels and the mini-games. The ability to go back and reply any of these levels is really great as well as choose any of the mini-games. It adds a lot of replay to the game itself. It also makes grabbing some of those achievements a lot easier.
For the $3 I spent on the game, I’d say it was well worth it. I’ve definitely gotten my monies worth and I highly recommend this game to anyone with an iPhone/iPod touch (or PC/Mac). When and if I ever get the Apple iPad I’ll be purchasing the higher definition version of the game as well. Check out the Plants vs. Zombies website if you haven’t already and try out the online version they’ve got up. You’ll get hooked!
Bayonetta
May 2nd
After completing Final Fantasy IX I was going to work on Final Fantasy X-2 but I’d been kind of Final Fantasy’d out. After asking for a couple ideas of what to play instead, Bayonetta popped up a couple times. I didn’t know much about the game, but I had read and heard it was pretty bad-ass… More >
New Blog: jimmyhasadog.com!
Apr 20th
After putting some careful thought in what I would like, I’ve come to the conclusion that I would really like to own and train a dog. Of course not just any dog, but a German Shepherd Dog. I’ve put together a small blog which I plan to use to track my or rather our progress. So far it’s just a couple postings and a video or two, but it’ll definitely pick up when I actually get the dog! Check it out at jimmyhasadog.com!
