My (Late) Summer Break

[digitalpress]

Please pardon the rather self-indulgent nature of this post, but I truly feel like a kid just out of school for summer break. My 2004 has been: design, add content, edit DP Guide Advance; work with Manci Games; work with Video Game Collector magazine; work with Tips & Tricks; scout out new CGE location; plan and administer CGE's exhibit at E3; plan and administer CGE. Then there's the "real job" that keeps me away from the work I really love but more importantly ALL of this stuff has kept me away from enjoying my free time. With CGE over, my "Summer Break" has officially begun.

A few things before I get into my journal :)

Adam "SpasticFuctard" is the site administrator for the time being. Adam and I chat just about every day and see each other every week, he's also much smarter than I am and better with computers. The site is in good hands.

"sisko" and "dreams" are monitoring news and keeping the front page updated so the site doesn't appear to have frozen in time.

DP feature columns, advertisements, screen shot updates, game reviews, database updates... I'll be receiving them but the online versions of these won't be as frequent for the rest of 2004. Trust that everything that comes in will eventually appear online but it's going to be slow. It's my time for a little while :)

So everything is in good hands as I take the first real "vacation" I've had since 2001. This vacation will be catching up with a substantial amount of games that I've wanted to play, spending time on Xbox Live, and yeah, even spending some time with Mrs. digitalpress. We have some catching up to do, too.

From here out my contributions to this thread will be my personal experiences with the games I'm finally getting to. Do you know that I still have a half dozen games that I got for Christmas that haven't been opened? That really sucks, and it's about to change.

Some people use livejournal.com for this kind of thing. Since everyone here is my friend, I'm going to share my vacation with you all right here. Starting .... NOW.

Game ON > ME!

[jgenotte]

Good for you. Have Fun!!!!! If you play project gotham racing 2 on live, ill see you there.

-james

[SpasticFuctard]

*Cue Evil Laughter*

SF - I'm Rick James!

[hydr0x]

well, what can i say, enjoy your free time ;) and enjoy mrs. digitalpress 8-)

let's see if i can reach the 20.000 posts now before you do LOL :D

[tholly]

enjoy your free time and enjoy doing what we can all spend more time on...playing games.....and enjoy everything else that you may want to do now that your main responsibilities are over with (for now)....

[Videogamerdaryll]

....Awesome....Enjoy the Vacation..

[captain nintendo]

A well deserved vacation indeed.


Of course now that SF is in charge X_x Can the end of the world be far behind :P

[Oobgarm]

I look forward to seeing you on Xbox Live at some point during your vacation, Joe.

Enjoy!

[ubersaurus]

If I see you on Live, I'm calling you out on Crimson Skies :D

Enjoy some time off, you have it coming.

[undead455]

Play hard and relax, You deserve a rest for all the great work you do. :)

[buttasuperb]

Cool, have fun, and hopefully I'll see you on live.

buttasuperb - The REAL Site Administrator

[Cmosfm]

Cool, have fun, and hopefully I'll see you on live.

buttasuperb - The REAL Site Assministrator

:hmm:

;)

Have fun DP, don't get in any trouble!

YAY SUBSTITUTE! NO WORK AND ALL PLAY!

[Sotenga]

Well, Joe... have yerself a good time, take things easy, and we'll all be gaming on, as I hope you are, good sir. :)

[Crush Crawfish]

Enjoy your Vacation. With all the stuff you do, you definitely deserve it.

[NE146]

See now that's the way to do it.. Got some free time? SPEND IT AT HOME! For some reason every time I get off.. the wife wants to hop on a plane and travel somewhere :roll:

Staying at home with nothing to do for a week or so is my true dream vacation. Have fun dude :P

[Querjek]

Have fun, and indulge yourself into a nice few days of Pikmin 2 :)

[digitalpress]

NIGHT 1.

After a few rounds with Links (Xbox) I realize that my Xbox custom music library is severely lacking. I spent most of this evening ripping tunes to my Xbox hard drive. I don't know how most people do it, but I segmented my folders like this:

80's
Pop
Punky
Wild
Mellow
Techno

Noticed that some of my burned CD-R's don't read in at all. Others, no problem. i'll have to solve that one because I have some MP3's that need to exist on my Xbox soundtracks.

On to Links Golf 2004. I really like this analog pull back/push forward with direction style. I quickly realized that the difference between intermediate and expert is pretty severe and since I'm just getting back to daily gaming, I'm going to treat myself to intermediate. I can screw up a little and still post reasonable scores.

Turns out my custom soundtracks don't go so well with Links. Golf and 80's music... not as seamless as you'd think. Still, it's pretty cool to have your guy blast a shot off the tee to The Cars "Up and Down".

More tomorrow. My chip shot/recovery game needs some work right now.

[Balloon Fight]

Hey Joe, have fun with your time off. Now you can actually play some of those games you own. ;)

[DigitalSpace]

Have fun!

[nesuser2]

No more rick james.... LOL (WHAT?!?!?)

Anyways, Joe...definitly take your time. It stinks that the biggest game lover here has to give up game time to keep us happy so take some time off, blow some things up, have a good time with Mrs. DP and relax. We'll make it here, considering you've taught us all well :D

[Cmosfm]

No more rick james.... LOL (WHAT?!?!?)

Anyways, Joe...definitly take your time. It stinks that the biggest game lover here has to give up game time to keep us happy so take some time off, blow some things up, have a good time with Mrs. DP and relax. We'll make it here, considering you've taught us all well :D

nesuser2, check the mirror man, you've got something brown on your nose.

:P

;)

[digitalpress]

Day 3.

It took about ten hours to finish The Suffering (Xbox). I had played the game a teeny bit before this hiatus but it was well worth playing all the way through. VERY cool stuff, great story... and they DO eventually explain why you can change into a monster in the game (which I found perplexing for quite some time). Lots of great battles and even some challenging puzzles. You can play the game in first or third person mode and it's very much like Silent Hill (one of my favorite series) but with much more gunfire and fast action.

My next game is Chronicles of Riddick. SpasticFuctard says it's great, I like the concept and characters. Game time!

[dojosky]

Cool enjoy ur vacation u deserve it for all the hard work u do ! :) keep on gamin' and do whatever makes u happy :D

[grimbal]

Turns out my custom soundtracks don't go so well with Links. Golf and 80's music... not as seamless as you'd think.

What do you mean they don't go well together????

Throw some Journey in there and you can kick it Caddyshack style. :)
And if you do a good Rodney Dangerfield impersonation you're all set!

[tynstar]

Did you get the new ESPN NHL 2k5? If so look me up. General Genesis

Enjoy the time off.

[SpasticFuctard]

Dude! Are you going to show up on Xbox Live or what? I've been hunting noobs in Mechassault for days now. (BTW: I hate everyone online. All of them)

SF

[digitalpress]

DAY 4.

I got through quite a bit of Chronicles of Riddick. Got the "shine" eyes which is a really cool effect, allowing you to see in the dark but if there's a light anywhere the area becomes a blinding white and you have to shut it off and usually take out the light. I got to the point where you're back in prison and fighting the inmates one at a time. After getting bashed around a number of times by the final guy I put the game away. I'll get back to it.

Funny you should mention Mechwarrior, SF. That was the next game for me. Becoming re-acquainted with this old gem was lots of fun. Leveling entire cities is good. I didn't get online with it, but I did send out all of the friend requests so by now everyone here who has an Xbox gamertag should have an invite waiting from me.

After about two hours of Mechwarrior I decided to try out my custom soundtracks in a few other games. Am I missing something or does SSX 3 not have this feature?! Seems like a mistake to have left that out. Still, while I had the game in I ran a few races. My favorite part of this game are the really long races - the ones that take you down an entire peak (these last upwards of 15 minutes each). I haven't played through the third peak yet but I'd imagine the downhill of the entire MOUNTAIN is pretty cool, too.

Last game of the night was the fairly recent Test Drive: Eve of Destruction. Folks, if you liked the original Destruction Derby series or demolition derby-style games in general, THIS ONE is a winner! Not only does the game do a great job with damage models but it has a ton of different event styles and really puts you in that redneck atmosphere, complete with video cut-scenes of real live rednecks talking about some of the event types. I've never heard of half of this stuff but it makes for some really cool gaming: the "chain race" pits you against other drivers but each driver has a car in neutral chained to their back! The "detention" level is just your schoolbus against all of the cars. "Catch the moth" has you chasing a specific car in a timed event. There are all kinds of races where you have to go from area to area and either stop there or turn around and go the other way - events sure to create great collisions.

I do plan on spending more time with this one today.

[PapaStu]

Ah, Chronicles of Riddick... A very very good game, all be it really short. I think where you are at the prision fighting part is close to 50% through already. Make sure that your talking to everyone and doing as many of the side quests that you can so you can get all your packs of smokes, cause thats what gives the game that little extra depth.

Something that I noticed with my roommates custom soundtracks when he was using them on some of the "Custom Capable" games was that they actually messed up quite abit. They would get stuck on the same song over and over or only play a very very small number of them (usually no more than 3) over and over. A cool option that was neglected in the beginning, its now almost completely overlooked in games because its no longer a selling point of games to have that feature in it. It just seems easier to just turn down the volume on the game and crank up your media player/cd, ot in your case that vinal/cassette tape you retro-gamer you ;) :D .

[digitalpress]

NIGHT 4

I mentioned this yesterday but I'm really serious. If you enjoy demolition-style racing games, you MUST get Test Drive: Eve of Destruction. This game does it all so well and has terrific replay value. I got about two hours in last night in "career mode" and am halfway through the rankings (you start at 99) at 50th.

The game isn't perfect: the interface could really use some work, though an argument could be made that it's intentionally low-budget to match the game's ambience. The game does have a split-screen mode but this would have been a great online game, with 16 players per event.

I spent the better part of the evening with Mrs. digitalpress, who is by now probably wishing I'd go BACK to working after dinner, as I'm rather difficult to pry off these days :)

[davidleeroth]

Thanks for the heads up.
Just watched the trailer, it looks like fun. I'll have to pick it up when it's released here.
Now go back and play. ;)

[kainemaxwell]

I take it Eve is for X-Box?

[digitalpress]

I take it Eve is for X-Box?

Xbox and PS2.

[SegaAges]

it's a good thing that i pretty much am obsolete from this place during the weekends. i know i am late saying this but, enjoy your vacation dude.

if you are catching up on games, if you own it, avoid simpsons skateboarding at all costs. i love tony hawk games and am pretty good at them, but simpsons sucks (there are so many aspects that make the game bad, i will leave it at that).

i hope you keep gaming after your vacation, as by the time i am living in a place with xbox live, you will be nowhere to be seen, and i would love to school you in some capcom vs snk 2.

[digitalpress]

NIGHT 5.

So last night I get home and pop Test Drive: Eve back in, played that for about an hour and hit a wall with climbing the ranks. I got to 32 and suddenly everyone has a much faster car than me. I'm kinda glad that happened because I was cruising too easily through career mode (though it's just as much fun winning as it is losing).

I'll come back to this one another time.

Next up is Spider-man 2. I'd heard the game has an open-ended system and that greatly appeals to me. The game opens up with some very funny tutorial/commentary by Bruce "Evil Dead" Campbell, even my wife was cracking up as we watched and played along.

Sure enough, open-ended it is. There is clearly a linear plot running through the game, but you don't have to tap into it unless you want to. Instead, you can take on any number of side missions, mini-crimes, pizza deliveries, or - as in my case - get the "hang" of the web-slinging travel system. The feeling of flying through the city is a very good one, indeed. The graphics are smooth and stylish, and there is a believeable feeling of physics and speed.

I played the game to chapter 5, met Spidey's friends, caught up to The Black Cat, delivered a few pizzas, stopped a few bad guys, and turned in for the night. Good game, I can see this one taking up some time in the days ahead.

[nesuser2]

Speaking of Spiderman 2...

I played that game a little bit here recently only to find myself critisized by a couple of my friends because I knew exactly what was going to happen. Well, they proceded to tell me how a game was lame if you knew what was going to happen, and these guys play NCAA 2004/2005...Seems pretty lame to me, seeings how it's only 4 quarters of Football, it's plain old Football...nothing more.

Anyways, after that blab...I really loved the game for the short time that I made time to play it. The comments start to get a little bit old after a while, like:

People telling you to get a job
Name calling
Missions

The missions actually get worse but I still didn't get to perfect the catching of people as they fall from buildings. But I played until approximately chapter 5/6ish, I can't exactly remember anymore. However(the reason for this post), as I was swinging around in 5, the tutorial guy freezes me and he says didn't you know that holding L2 while your swinging will increase your speed? Well anyways, I don't know if I missed it earlier in the game or if I forgot to RTFM but to any consequence....make sure you tap L2 when you swing, it definitly gives the game that final star because speed rocks! :evil:

[digitalpress]

NIGHT 6.

I played a few more missions of Spider-man 2. I'm pretty good at getting around but after just five levels I'm starting to see the repetition in the game. Same "random" people (with very bad stereotype accents), same cut-scenes for mini-crimes, same sound bytes from the street people. I guess it's to be expected but it's REALLY obvious. When I go back to the game I'm going to go straight for the storyline missions.

I also opened up "Dog's Life" for PS2, an interesting game that's been discussed in some detail on these forums previously. Innovative play mechanic where you are the dog, complete with human voice and personality. My first impressiion is that the game is a little TOO cutesy for me but I'll give it a little more time. The draw is in its innovation so it's worth playing a bit for that alone. Good looking game, too.

I won't get a whole lot of "play time" on 9/11 but I'm looking forward to Sunday, lots of opening day football with videogames at halftime :)

[digitalpress]

WEEKEND 2 :)

Lots of gaming on Friday and early Saturday. I'm on chapter 8 with Spider-man 2 (Xbox). The battles with the radio dude in the arena were a bitch. It took me awhile to figure out that I had to grab and dump guys into the lit up holes and not just the hole nearest me (or my color). I really should pay closer attention.

Friday night was almost all about Simpsons Hit & Run (PS2). A damn fine game that has its share of very real challenges. Those missions where you have to ram the pickup truck to get it to drop the "meat" icons and manage to grab enough of them before time runs out... and the one where you have to get 30 monkeys in a time limit. WOW. That's tough stuff! Got thru it eventually. Love the game.

Early Saturday was my first experience with Rallisport 2 (Xbox). Great rally racing game. I generally do well with rally racing games, and am taking to this one nicely. I'm going online with this one during the week if anyone's around to take up the challenge!

I opened up Madden 2005 (PS2) early today to get in the spirit of opening day NFL season. Great game, tough call to pick the better game between this and ESPN. I was unable to get online with ESPN today (probably everyone else getting into the same spirit) which kinda sucked, that gives Madden a +1.

All this modern-era gaming has been fun but I started feeling the itch for my retro favorites. I set up the ol' 2600 front and center, so you'll be hearing a bit about the enduring Atari system from me in the days ahead.

This is the best. Break. Ever.

[nesuser2]

Friday night was almost all about Simpsons Hit & Run (PS2). A damn fine game that has its share of very real challenges. Those missions where you have to ram the pickup truck to get it to drop the "meat" icons and manage to grab enough of them before time runs out... and the one where you have to get 30 monkeys in a time limit. WOW. That's tough stuff! Got thru it eventually. Love the game.

I hear that. I spent a while with this game and didn't regret a moment of it. I think the whole game took me around 2 weeks but I never did finish each level 100% because it gets so old looking for the cameras and whatnot but it's still very fun. On the other hand, when you get to the end of the game....that's probably one of the hardest missions. I won't SPILL all the beans though ;)

[le geek]

All this modern-era gaming has been fun but I started feeling the itch for my retro favorites. I set up the ol' 2600 front and center, so you'll be hearing a bit about the enduring Atari system from me in the days ahead.

Huzzah! :D

Cheers,
Ben

[geelw]

nice take on test drive: eod, joe! i'm GLAD to see tha someone "got" the game, as people seem to be comparing it to burnout 3 for some oddball reason. anyway, have you tried SRS: street racing syndicate yet? it's sorta up your alley, as it has fast cars AND a couple of live girls in video footage to ogle (you "collect" them during the game)... it's not perfect, but it's definitely nice to look at...

g.

[Oobgarm]

nice take on test drive: eod, joe! i'm GLAD to see tha someone "got" the game, as people seem to be comparing it to burnout 3 for some oddball reason. anyway, have you tried SRS: street racing syndicate yet? it's sorta up your alley, as it has fast cars AND a couple of live girls in video footage to ogle (you "collect" them during the game)... it's not perfect, but it's definitely nice to look at...

g.

And it's on Xbox Live, too! Burnout 3 is also recommended (I recommend it over SRS, actually), if you're longing for some more racing action.

[digitalpress]

NIGHT 9.

HOLY SMOKES BURNOUT 3. Here I've been raving about Test Drive: Eve of Destruction and I pop this game in. I wouldn't really compare the two, as one is highly focused on arcade-style point grabbing and the other on a finely balanced demolition-style series of events, but for sheer mayhem factor I don't think I've ever seen anything reach the level Burnout 3 does.

I'm sure it's better explained in someone else's thread but the game is essentially an arcade racer with lots of destruction elements: you get points for just about everything mischievous you do, from ramming an opponent from behind to taking them right out of the race (though they seem to always return). Even if you crash you can get extra points via "aftertouch", where you can guide your smoking, spinning wreck into more traffic for extra points. It is sheer adrenaline, ultra fast, and incredibly fun.

That was my night. Almost got to the Atari 2600 but it looks like it's getting bumped one night. Takes a pretty powerful next gen game to steer me away from Atari 2600 Reactor. Well done, Burnout 3, well done.

[videogameking26]

Have fun...

Burnout 3 is the bomb...I'm loving the crash junctions :D :)

[digitalpress]

NIGHT WHATEVER :)
(SEPTEMBER 14)

Five straight hours of Burnout 3 later and I'm detecting that my wife misses using the big screen TV for her evening viewing. I will have to finally transfer over to Atari 2600 for the remainder of the week to play fair with her.

After about 9 hours total I'm at 54% complete. The collector in me really needs to get all of those trophies, postcards, and photographs, not to mention all of the gold medals for each event. When I pick the game up again (probably over the weekend) that's my next order of business.

[SegaAges]

you still on vacation dude?

i just wondered, because if you are, thats awesome, and something I swish i could do

[digitalpress]

you still on vacation dude?

i just wondered, because if you are, thats awesome, and something I swish i could do

Depends on what you call a vacation. Basically I've put off all Digital Press and CGE work and do not use my computer outside of my day job. To ME, that's at least a "hiatus". It's just been great to spend some time having actual conversations with my family and of course playing GAMES again :)

<-- gamer

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

you still on vacation dude?

i just wondered, because if you are, thats awesome, and something I swish i could do

Depends on what you call a vacation. Basically I've put off all Digital Press and CGE work and do not use my computer outside of my day job. To ME, that's at least a "hiatus". It's just been great to spend some time having actual conversations with my family and of course playing GAMES again :)

<-- gamer

Hope you are having fun, i do have a question though, when exactly are you going back to work with the CGE and website stuff?
________
Meadowbrook (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/Dodge_Meadowbrook)

[digitalpress]

Hope you are having fun, i do have a question though, when exactly are you going back to work with the CGE and website stuff?

NEVAR!!! HAHAHAHA

SEPTEMBER 15 & 16:

I did finally get a little bit of Atari 2600 action in, and at the same time proved a point that I've made to many who have asked over the years. "Why classic gaming"? My answer invariably includes the fact that you can plug in a game and play for five minutes and get complete satisfaction from the experience. Case in point, I didn't spend more than 5 minutes with Burgertime on the 2600, that was just one complete game and though the game is far from perfect, it really IS charming. Just look at how hard they tried to imitate the arcade experience, even though they had to use a "Mr. Breadstick" because a two colored Mr. Egg would have been impossible to replicate!

And on the other side, you can't spend 5 minutes with a game like Fable (Xbox). I opened that one up and have put about 3 hours into it between the two nights. It's a really nice open-ended RPG that reminds me a lot of the Morrowind series in that pretty much everything you do has some implication on your stats in the future. I'm sure I'll be on this one again over the weekend which is FINALLY about here!

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

smiles :D and waits for more Tribe Island prize news updates if any
________
mflb vaporizer (http://mflbvaporizer.com)

[digitalpress]

SEPTEMBER 17-21

It's been all about Fable. The game is really quite short. I finished the first time just under 18 hours. I was kinda surprised that so many loose ends were left, but that's where the replayability comes in. I felt like I just had to start over and find the things I didn't find the first time around, do all of the optional quests, open all of the chests, have all the tattoos, etc. So I started over on Sunday night and am about three hours into my second game.

It's good fun. It's hardly anything revolutionary, but it's very well done, the graphics are terrific (except for the characters which could have really been much better) and the open-endedness of it all makes it very addictive. Playing as an evil character (the first time - this time I'm somewhere in between) was a blast. Get married, behead your wife in town, see who comes after you. The repercussions for being evil aren't nearly as bad as they are in other games like GTA, but it's effective enough.

I took a break from the gaming in there somewhere to tear up a section of my basement floor which desperately needed to be re-tiled. That's all done now, ending my "home projects" quota of ONE for the year :)

Looks like I'm going to be on this game for at least another 15 hours.

[Oobgarm]

I took a break from the gaming in there somewhere to tear up a section of my basement floor which desperately needed to be re-tiled. That's all done now, ending my "home projects" quota of ONE for the year :)

Maybe I can catch you on Burnout 3 then! :D

[digitalpress]

Haven't updated this blog'ish thing in awhile so I thought I'd add a few recent notes.

After finishing Fable for the second time (and that's pretty much going to be the last), I spent two days with my Atari 2600. There were four games that got me hooked for whatever reason. Sometimes it just works out that way, you get in a certain frame of mind and something you didn't give much time to before is suddenly difficult to put down.

Details on these four games can be found here:

Burgertime:
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/burgertime_2600.htm

Reactor:
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/reactor_2600.htm

Meltdown:
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/meltdown.htm

Targ:
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/targ.htm

Hence.... it is Atari 2600 week at digitpress.com :)

Monday I started playing X-Men Legends for Xbox. I was initially thrown off by the graphics and after two nights totalling ten hours of play I can still say that I don't really like the graphics. I'm sure the style was intentional, it's sort-of a cel-shaded thing so it's made to look like comic book art, but I don't like it. I find it difficult fo pick out the good guys from the bad guys in a melee and overall things look kinda PS1'ish.

But the GAME is really good. It's Baldur's Gate meets the X-Men and the two styles go very well together. You start as Wolverine and various characters are unlocked as you play through. The underlying story (which is a side-story as you play the first few missions) is the discovery and develoment of Magma (X-Men fans familiar with New Mutants will know this character too). The missions are VERY long and the game is addictive. The character development system is very good, much like Baldur's Gate "assign points to whichever attributes you'd like" but each character has their own unique set of skills. Choosing who goes into a level with you is important and fortunately there are frequent save points where you can change your team.

I do plan on playing this one to the end, so you may not see another blog-like entry from me for a few days. :)

[Quickclaw]

Your Burgertime review was the best way to cook a patty.

[digitalpress]

The Mrs. and I played Donkey Konga for about three hours on Friday night. Fun game... I don't think it's one of the better rhythm games I've played (I'll still take Guitar Freaks or Beatmania over this) but it's good enough, and I'll bet with four players it is truly special. Liz got good at the game in a hurry, so now I'm going to have to "practice" to maintain household superiority :)

Between football games today I wrapped up X-Men Legends (Xbox). Solid game, and I'm convinced now that I can enjoy anything that uses the Baldur's Gate engine. Nice job of bringing the X-Men characters home, certainly the best X-Men game I've played. I was a little disappinted in the ending, there's really nothing to carry over to another game other than costumes. Would have been nice to play through the game with all of the characters unlocked from the start or play on a harder level with your current leveled characters but oh well... at least I can put that one away now, completed.

What's next? I'm thinking it's time to get back to Xbox Live and Star Wars Battlefront.

To be continued.