Gaming Online and a Broken World

I’ve got somewhat a hand full of topics today. So let’s get started shall we?

Issues with Gaming Online

It’s pretty bad when Adam Sessler from G4 has to come out and say something about the foul mouths on XBOX Live. In his recent Soap Boax episode he covers the topic about 10 year olds and even adults making racial comments and more. I have to agree with what he is saying in the video. I subscribed to XBOX Live to be apart of a community and to an enjoy a game with fellow gamers, not to hear some one blurt out a racial comment. Sure you can block the player and mute them. But it still doesn’t solve the problem. I’m not sure what else to say here. I’ll let Adam’s video do the rest of the talking. Please note that he does curse towards the end of the video, but it is bleeped out.

http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/26397/Sesslers_Soapbox_Attention_Bigots.html

Z100 says it’s ok to cheat?!

The other day I was listening to Z100 in the morning. I happen to like their morning show, though some times it can get boring. Every now and then I’ll listen to Star 99.1 but a lot of the topics they cover tend to get drawn out for to long. On top of that I can’t stand the whole “Bible or Not” thing. As soon as I hear that really dumb long intro, I go right back to Z100 or put something on in my CD Player. Anyways as I was saying I was listening to Z100 the other day and they were talking about having an affair. But it wasn’t in the sense of discouraging it or anything, it was more of in the sense of encouraging it. They were talking about a book that says how affairs can improve your marriage and they kept saying that they are in no way promoting it. I however thought otherwise. I mean they were discussing how it improves your marriage by hiding it, shows what your missing out on in your marriage, etc. So how is this not promoting it? I mean it’s unethical and just flat out wrong. If your marriage isn’t working then get into marriage counseling and find out what’s wrong. Don’t take the easy way out. It’s a shame how this world makes it seem like it’s ok to do certain things. I love the morning show and all, and having listened to their other discussions before the hosts definitely have a good head on their shoulders. They know whats right from wrong, but I feel that some how they unknowingly were promoting it and just didn’t think so or realize it.

I mean here I am a 21 year old college kid, that is looking for a relationship that is something special like that and can see that something like an affair is not ok! How come a 21 year old college kid can realize this but society cannot? For example some one called into their station and flat out said on the air that they are having an affair, like they were proud about it and didn’t care about how their spouse felt! What if that person was listening, and recognized their voice? I can only imagine they would have been crushed!

In fact I can relate to being crushed like that. My Sophomore year of High School I was in a relationship I should not have been in. Grant it things did not go as far as they could have, but still when I say I should not have been in this relationship I mean it. Before that relationship though, I so to speak cheated on the girl I was dating at the time with the girl  I’m about to talk about. Let’s say the girl’s name is Ashley just to protect names and all. I cheated on my girlfriend at the time with Ashley.  Here’s what happened after we were together for 7 months. Long story short on mine and Ashley’s 7 month anniversary she gave me a gift for the occasion but then a minute later, broke up with me. You think that’s bad, it only got worst. We got back together and then we continued to be on and off for 3 days. That following weekend though, I found out she had cheated on me as I had ran into her at the mall and she flat out told me she was seeing some one else after asking her at least 4 or 5 times why she was running towards the escalator holding some other guys hand. I was crushed and was for a long time. Here’s the thing though, you know that saying what comes around and goes around? Yeah it happened to me, Ashley (again not her real name) had cheated on me.

Since that day with every relationship I’ve been in I’ve never done such a thing. After feeling that pain, I understood how hurtful and damaging it can be. Maybe this is the reason why I understand all of this, maybe it’s not. But I think everyone can see the point I’m making. So some one please explain to me why society is saying it’s ok?

The week has finally come to an end

The week has finally come to an end and how do I feel? Relieved it’s been a bumpy ride this whole week dealing with no air conditioning at home, problems with certain things at work (a nightmare), allergies, dermatologist, giving a friend some tough love and oh so much more. I’m just ready unwind! I’m taking my guitar tomorrow to Tommy Hayes for free set up day. Hopefully he can fix every problem I’ve been having with my guitar. So overall I’m kind of just wiped out, though when am I not? Here’s a bit of a tip for those of you who see me and ask me how I am. Make sure I really am being honest. There have been a few time’s where I nod my head and say that I’m doing ok or am just fine. Well thats all for today! For those of you at or attend Liquid Church (Jeff, Mike and anyone else) maybe I’ll see you guys this Sunday! Take Care!

P.S. I’m still trying to figure out out a name for my blog. Any ideas are welcomed! If I choose yours I’ll give you credit and I’ll be registering the domain name. On top of that this blog might go from just a blog from me, to maybe 2 other people as well. We’ll see what happens! Oh and I haven’t been posting comics so here’s an image from my deviantart account. It’s an old one, but I love how it came out!

Mario Kart Wii Impressions

So I’m taking some time out of my busy schedule (which is probably a big mistake) to quickly write about Mario Kart Wi.

After for about a year and maybe even a little more Mario Kart Wii was finally released on Sunday April 27th. The game got little to no coverage at all and it’s a shame that it didn’t too. The game definitely goes back it’s traditional roots of the N64 Mario Kart. It’s packed with plenty of new and old maps from the previous titles, even including DS, GBA, and SNES Versions/Titles. There are a few new characters and of course you’re traditional but it appears they took out a few in favor of some of the new ones.  There are some new weapons and unfortunately they removed the Item Stealing Boo. Why this was done I’m not quite sure but there is probably a number of reasons for this that I can think of.

The menu has changed a lot compared previous versions. While in a race you can’t just press start (+) and choose “Restart/Retry” like in previous versions. You can only choose “Quit” and “Continue”, this was probably most likely done to prevent everyone from being sore losers and to play the game like it was meant to be played. Choosing Quit will obviously bring you back to the main menu and you will have to start all over. In multiplayer they took out the same option but also the “Change Character” option. This in my opinion was a bad move. But hey I don’t work for Nintendo so I have no say in what goes into the game, plus I wouldn’t know why it was taken out. I’m sure they have good reason’s and I could make a few guesses why but nothing concrete.

Online play is fantastic and 10x better then SSBB. It usually takes less then 5 minutes to connect with other players and if you do not successfully connect or people drop out well you get taken back to the menu where you choose if you want to play regional or worldwide. I felt that they could have just simply put you back into search mode but I guess they wanted to give you the option of trying worldwide for example if regional didn’t work. I didn’t get a chance to try out the Mario Kart Wii Region Boards yet but the nice thing is you can access it from the Wii Channel with out a disc. Installation of the chanel takes only seconds. Nintendo got it right this time around for the online play. Now they need to implement this on they’re other upcoming games. Oh and might I mention that it’s lag free?

The Wii Wheel is great and definitely gives you a different playing experience. It’s quite easy to master but it does have it’s qwerk’s at times. For example when you go around a turn and you press B to slide some times the Wheel registers the action as sliding in the opposite direction of the turn. Luckily you can pull out of it by simply letting go of B. The power slide now has two options which are Automatic and Manual. Automatic does the slides automatically for you but you lose the ability to get that extra boost, mean while Manual you press B when going into the turn and you get the Mini Boost if you hold the slide long enough.

As mentioned before there are new characters introduced into the game. One example would be “Baby Peach”. I don’t recall there ever being a “Baby Peach” in the series but hey maybe there will be a new game featuring her in the story in the future. The new characters are all unlockable especially the “Cups” unlike in the N64 version and Double Dash if I remember correctly. Some of the original Characters must be unlocked as well. The AI can be a pain though, I’ve been in First and got bombarded by Banana’s, Shell’s, the Squid Ink all in one shot, even when I fall back to 3rd just so I don’t get hit by the damn Blue Spike Shell.

The soundtrack is nice and it’s catchy, but it can be repetitive. I mean it is Mario Kart but hearing the same tracks over and over again can get tire some. The Battle Mode has been changed to Team Based and you keep getting new balloons till time runs out. You’re goal is to hit has many players you can with items to score points before time runs out. There is also a Coin Collection mode the differs from that. I haven’t gotten the chance to try this out yet  but if anyone is familiar with the multiplayer on Mario 64 DS with the coin collection I believe it might be very similar however with Karts and Motorcycles.

The Bikes are very well balanced and are very easy to use. I was concerned about this when they were frst announced them but they were implemented very well into the game. For now I’m sticking with the Karts in Multiplayer but I’m slowly making my way over to the Bikes. Tricks have been implemented to both the Karts and the Bikes. Each controller is different but once a trick as been activated when launching off a jump, you’re character does a small move in the air and then once he/she hits the grand they get a speed boost.

I’ve pretty much covered the basics of Mario Kart Wii. Anything I missed or would like to know more about let me know and I will post an update. I highly reccommend this game and anyone who had doubts about picking it up shouldn’t as it will keep you entertained for hours with friends, family, online play or even by yourself.