Game collecting thoughts

I buy too many games. Now granted, I buy them very cheaply, but I still don’t have nearly enough time to play through them all. At best I get to try them here and there and play through a select few. That’s why I’m playing through Batman Arkham Asylum now.

Since the Catching Up post I’ve bought a handful of more PS2 games. I work at GameStop and we have this “buy 5 PS2 games for 20 bucks” deal that I’ve used a bunch of times. And I also found Shadow of the Colossus at an independent used games store. Now I just need to find Ico. And maybe the Subsistence version of Metal Gear Solid 3. Not that I will play them all, but… you know. Actually, fuck it, collecting games is fun too. The excitement of going through shelves of games just to find that special one that you never thought of. Gitaroo Man was one that I found the other week. I’d heard about it and checked out a few video reviews on my phone right there in the store and it was highly regarded, so I got it as one of the five-for-20 that time.

I thought about getting LA Noire, but then I thought that since I probably won’t have the patience to play through that kind of game, I might as well watch a “let’s play” of it. So I did and I found out that it was pretty repetitive. I got the experience without having to pay for it and I didn’t have to endure the repetition. I could strike the game from my must-buy list. That list kind of looks like this right now:

Halo Anniversary
Batman Arkham City
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Max Payne 3
The Witcher 2
Fez
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare
Ico (PS2)

That’s it right now. And since I already have a goddamn mountain of games I intend to find these gems on the cheap.

Here are some pictures of my collection right now.

Yeah, I should stop now…

Trying out my new phone

I’m just trying out my new phone to see if this works. I am using the speech to text function and it seems to be working really well. This is really cool, I can’t wait to use it a little more consistently, so I guess this is it. I should go make some dinner.

Catching up

I’m a gamer. I love gaming. My Top 300 Games list here on this blog is pretty good proof. That list is also proof that I’ve missed out on some really good games. Well, the last two months I’ve tried to take care of that. It all started when I got a job at GameStop and we had this really great deal on PlayStation 2 games. I had borrowed a PS2 from a friend but hadn’t used it a lot, mainly because I kind of felt it wasn’t really mine. Yeah, I know, I’m weird. Anyway, I bought that PS2 from my friend and started collecting games for it. I had already gotten a few to play when I borrowed it, but that was like two or three.

Now, I know that I won’t play through all of these. I might not even try all of them. But playing them is only half the reason I got them. I just got this idea that I should have a good, solid collection of PS2 games. Since I could get most of them really cheap, I thought “fuck it, why not?” and then I went out and bought stuff, resulting in the following collection.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Stolen
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Resident Evil 4
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Black
Killzone
Jak 2
Jak 3
God of War
God of War 2
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Prince of Persia: Two Thrones
The Mark of Kri
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Psychonauts
Viewtiful Joe
Guilty Gear X
Tekken 4
Tekken 5
Tekken Tag
Soul Calibur 2
Persona 4
Odin Sphere
Final Fantasy XII
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance
Okami
Tony Hawk 3
SSX 3
Amplitude
Burnout Takedown
Burnout Revenge
Burnout Dominator
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec
Gran Turismo 4
WRC II Extreme

Pretty solid list if you ask me and I got most of them dirt cheap. I’ve also borrowed ICO and Shadow of the Colossus and I will also get Ratchet & Clank 3 (Up Your Arsenal in the US). And I have Final Fantasy VII for the original PlayStation that’s playable on this baby along with an old memory card.

So I guess we’ll see when I’ll get around to playing all of these. Right now I’m happy just owning them. And yes, I’m aware that I’m nuts.

Oh, and do you think anything is missing?

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 41,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 86 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 328 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 37mb. That’s about 6 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was November 28th with 402 views. The most popular post that day was Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 300-276.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were youtube.com, dobberhockey.com, facebook.com, en.wordpress.com, and forums.sarcasticgamer.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for baldur’s gate, splinter cell, baldurs gate, nfs carbon, and need for speed carbon.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 300-276 May 2010
6 comments

2

Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 125-101 June 2010
9 comments

3

Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 225-201 May 2010
8 comments

4

Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 150-126 June 2010
6 comments

5

Dakkster’s Top 300 Games, 175-151 June 2010

My first legit headphones

Today I ordered a pair of headphones. I’ve bought headphones before. Small $15 earplug pop-ins that are integrated into a necklace to hold your mp3 player. They don’t count. They’re not proper headphones. Today I ordered proper headphones. Apparently they’re called DJ headphones. Yeah, that’s how in the know I am about this.

The reason is that my neighbor has been banging on my wall if I listen to a podcast. It’s completely fucking ridiculous that I can’t even listen to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant talk shit about Karl Pilkington without my neighbor banging on the wall after 10 PM. It’s a goddamn podcast and I hardly have the volume up high. And this apartment complex is supposed to have good isolation. That has been the reason why I haven’t played a lot of games late at night the last few months. I’ve had plenty of opportunity, but I haven’t done anything with that time and opportunity to entertain myself with my Xbox.

That’s why I went and placed an order for a pair of proper headphones. I figure I can sit there and listen to my games without having to worry about having my wall broken down. What pisses me off even more about my idiot neighbors is that they’re completely clueless about how their kids are INCREDIBLY annoying, yelling their asses off just outside my balcony. Do I complain about it? No, I don’t. I should start to even out the odds.

Anyway, I looked around and first I thought I should get a pair of Sony MDR-XB400. Yeah, says about as much to me. They’re headphones, they’re black. Apparently they’re also not very good. Then I started looking at different KOSS headphones. Couldn’t really find a pair that appealed to me that much. Threw out a few tweets to people who might be in the know and got a tip about the brand Skullcandy. Found some interesting models in my price range and a few a bit above my price range that were really interesting. Read a whole bunch of tests and customer reviews and really wanted those a bit more expensive ones. Then I got a call that I got the job I interviewed for yesterday, so I figured “fuck it, I can take that extra $20 hit to my wallet. I got these:

Skullcandy G.I. Red Print

I’m not a very extravagant person, especially not when it comes to clothing and style. I was very close to ordering a black model. But I figured this would be interesting. I can use them for my mp3 player but I will be using them mostly at home. According to the listing on the site where I ordered them, I should be getting a 3m extension cord so I won’t have to buy an extra just to be able to connect it to my receiver for the Xbox. It should arrive in the mail on Monday or Tuesday.