Yearly Archives: 2009

Bioshock

I have a pretty difficult time playing multiple video games at the same time…  I like to concentrate on playing through one before moving on to the next.  So with Halo 3 ODST finally out and available, I was desperately trying to get through Bioshock.

I started playing Bioshock about two months ago.  For me, it’s a bit of a slower paced game that I had a little bit of trouble getting into initially.

WARNING – MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW.  IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED BIOSHOCK AND CARE ABOUT THE STORY THEN YOU NEED TO STOP READING.

The premise of the game is very interesting.  I’m not going into huge details because most people who are going to read this already know what this game is.  Long story short; a mad scientist has created an under water city called “Rapture” where he has executed DNA modifications allowing all kinds of crazy shit to happen in this city.  Your character crashes in an airplane and is thrust into Rapture.

The creepy atmosphere was very difficult for me to play, ESPECIALLY at night.  I am a grown man and I am not embarrassed to say that this game made me terrified.  Playing it, I was always on edge and felt an extreme sense of hyper tension.

Being a first person shooter, I didn’t have much trouble getting used to the controls.  I played through the game slowly; saving often and always looking for more ammo, guns, health, and eve.  The plasmid system is amazingly cool – but I could never get myself to use the plasmids very often.  I played the game like any other first person shooter, totally concentrating on the guns and ammo.  This playing style came to really hurt me in the end.  I always had tons of EVE but was ALWAYS low on ammunition.  And in the last level I was completely out – which ironically forced me to use only my plasmids and wrench to complete the most difficult level in the game and become a Big Daddy.

Thankfully the game is not a complete bastard and it let me completely ammo up before the end boss.

JUST A REMINDER – HUGE SPOILERS.

The game was absolutely amazing.  Even though it was tough for me to get into the game initially, the story ends up fully immersing you sort of without you knowing.  Before I knew it, I was feeling a personal vendetta against Andrew Ryan and longed to destroy Rapture.  For all the slow-paced gameplay in the early levels (inventing the lazarus vector, etc) – the final act is just completely epic.

I thought the entire goal of the game was going to be killing Andrew Ryan, Rapture’s creator – but in reality this happens and there are still 4 or so hours of play time left.  Even so, Ryan’s death was just an amazing video game sequence.  He coldly practices his putting while he faces his death.  ” … a MAN chooses … a slave OBEYS …”   Frickin’ amazing – possibly one of the best gaming scenes EVER.  No joke.   Watch it:  short version.   long version.

After Ryan’s death, you proceed to find that Atlas, your friend and guide through the entire game, was actually Fontaine.  Fontaine has enslaved with mind control and used you to take over Rapture.  And, with Ryan out of the picture there was only one thing left to do.

The rest of the game was fairly difficult… I was constantly trying to find and buy ammo and I really struggled.  In the last level of the game I actually skipped saving three little sisters because there was no possible way I was going to defeat a big daddy in my condition.  I had to retry the fight with Fontaine one time – but on the second try I whooped his ass.

The ending of the game was short – but still very good.  And, really it’s a perfect ending to the game.

I really enjoyed playing Bioshock, even though it took me a good 4 or 5 hours to get myself mentally into the game.

General Football Post

I would like to take this opportunity to offer some thoughts, hopes, and predictions for the upcoming NFL, Collegiate, and Fantasy footbal seasons

The NFL
As the 2009/10 professional football season kicks off, there are a number of things on my mind.  First and certainly foremost are the DETROIT LIONS.  I have been a Lions fan for as long as I can remember.  I love professional football and I grew up in what could only be described as the “prime” of the Detroit Lions.  Players like Herman Moore, Mel Gray, and Barry Sanders made the Detroit Lions an actual decent football team that could compete at the professional level without being laughed at by the entire planet.  I long for those times to return to Detroit; but I’m happy for now just laughing with the rest of the world.

Some young talent with Calvin Johnson, Kevin Smith, and Matthew Stafford do present some interesting possibilities for this team – and AT SOME POINT, the lions MUST pick a Quarterback who isn’t a NCAA allstar/NFL Flameout.  It seems the lions have picked up every single college quarterback that just cannot cut it at the professional level – HOPEFULLY in all caps, MATTHEW STAFFORD can begin to break the mold and turn into a top performing quarterback within the next few years.

As much as I hope for the opposite, I predict Stafford to struggle this year fairly extensively – and he’ll end up splitting starts with Daunte Culpepper.  The Lion’s definitely don’t go winless this year, but they also certainly won’t be a factor.  I predict a modestly awful 5-11 record; just bad enough to keep the lions out of any possibility of a beneficial draft pick next season.

NCAA Football
My family has always been a “Michigan” family.  There’s never really been any burning reason for this that I can think of or recall, but it’s been the case starting with my Grandfather.  I usually have a bit more difficult time being a fan of college football for a few different reasons.  First and foremost is the ridiculous bowl season.  Every team in every conference plays in some type of “Bowl” game which is just a disgrace to sports.  I personally couldn’t care less if  Southern Montana Community College scores a last second victory against Northern Maine’s Intermediate School District in the dreaded “Tampax Heavy Day” bowl.

It’s completely stupid.  I HATE the college football bowl season.

NCAA basketball has it perfectly conceived.  A single elimination tournament to determine one winner of one championship game.  If the same model were applied to college football, the resulting championship series would be a larger event than the Super bowl.  But, whatever governing body of misguided and un-educated people makes such policies simply cannot see that and they continue to support the meaningless, sponsor driven, rancid, abysmal, and absolutely feces laden NCAA Men’s Football Bowl season.

Another big reason that I have problems being a fan of college football is the players.  It seems that every standout player that I would start to be a fan of would end up in the NFL the very next year.  The roster turnaround in college is just too fast; and I don’t have a chance to gain a fan attachment for any college players it seems.

But, that has all changed this year – My first cousin, Ryan VanBergen, is a starter for Michigan’s defense.  VanBergen, #53, is a defensive end that ends up playing most defensive series this year.  It’s really pretty amazing for me to see my cousin on television as a starter for a school like U of M; and this year it has provided me with the fan-attachment I needed to get back into college football.  I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s U of M vs Notre Dame matchup.  It was a great back and forth game which was mostly well played by both teams.  Turnovers, penalties, and officiating made huge differences in some very significant places of the game.  And, in the end, Michigan pulled out a very exciting finish by scoring the game winning touchdown with somewhere around 10 seconds left.  It was awesome!

I am looking forward to watching the up and coming U of M program under Rodriguez – they run a very unique and fast paced offense that is really fun to see executed.  This year, they’re executing it MUCH better than they did last year.

Finally, Fantasy fooball
My fantasy team is pretty solid this year.  I am very happy with the team I drafted:  Tom Brady QB, Roy Williams WR1, Vincent Jackson WR2, Lance Moore/Donald Driver WR3, Michael Turner RB1, Marion Barber RB2, Dallas Clarke TE, and NY Giants as my Defense.   I was really hoping to get Tom Brady with my 2nd round pick, and that did end up working out.  I was desperately hoping to pick up either Randy Moss or Wes Welker as another WR, but that didn’t end up working out.  Even so, I’m working on trading to get one of them.  But, even without that I am pretty happy with my team and I should be pretty competitive.

Fantasy football will follow some of the NFL trends; so my forward looking trends are as follows:
I think Roy Williams is going to shine this year with Terrell Owens out of the picture.  Last year he came to the cowboys in mid-season, and playing behind Terrell Owens.  Now with an entire off-season to get work in learning the offense, and “Owens” out of the picture, I look forward to Roy Williams enjoying a 1,000 yard / 10 TD season for my Fantasy team.

I am also looking forward to seeing what Correll Buckhalter can do for Denver.  He has spent the last few years behind Eagles’ running back Brian Westbrook – So I’m gambling on the hunch that Buckhalter could be this years Michael Turner.  A 2nd string back that can really shine when there’s not somebody like Westbrook in front of him.  Michael Turner showed the world last year that behind LaDanian Tomlinson was one of the NFLs best running backs.  Here’s to hoping Buckhalter reaches even half that status serving as my backup RB and maybe my flex position!

For the “Worst People Ever” I predict an unfortunate victory by “Mortar and Bones” – But in all reality I’m just being humble.  I think I’m going to win the league this year. 🙂

In conclusion, this is simply an epic football post – and I am really excited about all the various football that is starting this time of year.  It seems like I get more and more excited about football with each season that comes along.  I love football.  :-/

Fantasy Footoball Preview

This year, I’m looking forward to fantasy football even more than previous years…

My first venture into FF was just disgusting. The 3-11 record still lowers my self esteem to this day. I drafted as a “Fan” instead of as a intelligent FF owner; and my horrible record reflected that perfectly.

My 2nd year was a big turnaround – I drafted MUCH better, and picked up some really good players on the waiver wire. Kurt Warner and DeAngelo Williams both just kicked butt for me; which made up for my serious flops of Derrick Anderson and Chad “Ocho Cinco” (still bitter about that).

My team scored the most points in the league during the regular season; but even with that I BARELY made the post season in 8th place. I was still happy with that; since I was pretty competitive overall…

We’ll see what happens this year – but I’m making a personal pact to pick COMPLETELY different players from last year. I want a totally different team with no “Fan” based drafting. Bring on Fantasy football 09

Grey Matter Theme

Today I was browsing through WordPress themes in search of something better than my previous “Panorama” theme…

I really liked Panorama, but in the end I think it had a little much going on for my taste.

Enter Grey Matter theme – a clean, simple, elegant theme for WordPress that has the same base color palette that the Panorama theme had.  But, as you can see – much less to it.

For once promising myself that I was never going to switch away from K2; I sure have been changing themes around alot.

I’ve got everything pretty much how I want it except for my Pictures page – still a little style.css tweakage to clean that up will be necessary.  But, all the other main components have been updated and integrated to fit with my sidebar/footer/header/page content.

I really like WordPress.

The Twitter Enigma

Love it or hate it, Twitter is really a pretty amazing thing.

I’ve been using twitter for a little over a year now, and I’ve gone through phases ranging from daily use to weeks without tweets. Overall, I’m a fan and I think it’s a “cool” technology.

Granted you’re always going to have the annoying too much information or 100-tweets-a-day type of annoyances that really nobody likes. But, you also can really do some cool things.

Example 1
I posted a “tweet” regarding my frustration at Best Buy for canceling my order for a $9.99 52” television. CNN reporter Abbi Tatton, searching Twitter, finds my tweet and looks up my contact information. I am then interviewed and referenced on a CNN airing of “The Situation Room” and also countless online news sites that seemingly feed from CNN. A mild 15 minutes of fame that is then followed up by a radio interview about the whole situation. The entire thing started because I posted a tweet – and that is just amazing to me.

Example 2
Yesterday I had a pretty creative idea for Google Voice, a service I have been happily using for about 6 months now. I thought it would be pretty cool if Google Voice had the capability to set a wakeup call. This would be set just like any other alarm, and then maybe even have the wakeup call go to different phones on different days.

Surprised at myself for actually coming up with a good idea, I post a tweet directly to Craig Walker (co-founder of GrandCentral and top dog at Google Voice now) about the wakeup call idea.

He replies: “@vanberge love this idea”

So, very possibly this functionality may actually make it into Google Voice some point down the road… All because of Twitter. I was able to directly pitch an idea to the person that can do the most with it. Simply amazing.

Like I said – love it or hate it, Twitter makes some pretty cool things possible. Here’s to hoping for a wakeup call functionality to show up soon under my Google Voice settings page.

Driving Test

Today on a Motortrend.com blog post, I happened to see a link to take an online driving test (the written portion).

There wasn’t any signup or email required – So, for fun I decided to see how well I’d do.

Umm…. I passed… ?

Could you pass a driving test?

Created by Auto Insurance.org

Now, to be fair here – I didn’t Google for any answers, and some of them were pretty frickin’ obscure questions. Like “How far away from a Stop sign should you park” and “how far behind a firetruck should you drive” which I think are stupid. Oh well… I passed. C+ is GG for me.