Hiatus. Not, “Hi, hate us.”
Even though it feels like I haven’t posted in an unreasonable amount of time, one has to recall February 2010. That month only experienced four updates, and they were all poor. I hate to toot my own horn, but I am extremely proud of what I have done this summer. Posting four to five times a week was semi-grueling, but I had a lot of fun doing it.
That being said, I have moved back into Wolpers Hall, and for the next few weeks I will be physically unable to post to this website. So, instead of leaving you readers in the dark, I’ve decided to tell you cool cats that I will not be updating We Keep It Real for the next two-ish weeks. I may be able to post some dinky content, but don’t expect substance.
It may have fallen through back in July, but when we return from our hiatus, expect your favorite blog to have a new look.
-Zach
/afk
Dead Rising 2 Scares Me
The original Dead Rising is one of my favorite games. When asked which current generation game tops my charts, my mind immediately jumps to Capcom’s zombie masterpiece. I can fully understand why several people dislike this game, though. It is extremely flawed, and has that odd controller-based difficulty that only Capcom puts into their games. I may sound odd that I (of all people) like a fundamentally flawed game, but something in my head always wants to go back and play through it. I was pumped to an unhealthy degree when details on the sequel started to appear, but now, I’m cautiously optimistic.
I have heard reports that the game just isn’t running well. There are framerate dips aplenty, load times that have exceeded several minutes, and that the game doesn’t have the same odd, japanese-y feel that the original did. I am excited to download Dead Rising Case Zero, which is a title that bridges the story of Dead Rising to Dead Rising 2 that uses the same engine as numero dos. Though it may only take twenty-five minutes to beat, I would be willing to drop five dollars in order to see how well the true sequel will run.
I just hope that one of my favorite games in this past decade doesn’t receive a poor sequel.
-Zach
Zach’s Response
A week ago, I asked you people to fill out a survey with two feedback options:
1 - I want to see more…
2 - I want to see less…
Some of you offered legitimate feedback, while others saw a text box and took advantage of their web anonymity. Let’s go over the responses, shall we?
I want to see more:
Boobs.
Happy to oblige.
Cats with fruit.
Here you go.
Controversial, debatable topics. emails when someone responds to my post.
While the RealID post had a lot of debate and discourse attached to it, none of it pertained to what I wrote. It was an unintentional side effect that I enjoyed. As for the email response, we’ll see what Pado-san can whip up.
Your already doing a really great job but the blog seems a little one dimensional. Shake things up. Any average person can have a blog and write a review. This site has a lot of potential to be something really creative and interesting. Think outside the box, incorporate your other interests that excite you, and you will come up with something spectacular!
I like the positive attitude, but I’m a little offended. I always thought the depth of my posts came in the form of the personal touches I put into them. I have spent a lot of my time turning this simple website into something that houses my creative ventures. Average people don’t do that.
Zach Fleeman… oh yes…. you know what I want. But really, more coverage of the RealID thing, as well as a review of SCII
I have said my piece about the RealID system, and I will say my piece about Starcraft II if I ever get to it.
deeper subjects discussed/opened.
Will do.
Cool shit
That is the ultimate goal, is it not? Oh well, I hope this will hold you over.
gayness
I’ve always been under the impression that this was a pretty hetero blog. I’ll go nail a broad real quick, bro.
original reviews/stories.; like the xbox one, the iphone 4 review, arrested development etc
I do like writing them stories. I’ll try and do more.
Now, I want to see less:
Dicks.
I’ve never posted phallic content. But yes, I’ll try to post less of it.
telemundo
¿Cuidado?
alcohol.
I try not to post alcohol-related stories on here, because I understand that it is a sensitive subject for some. However, it would be odd to ignore this part of my life, because I like to imbibe every once and a while, and I enjoy posting about stuff I like.
…
Look who’s Mr. Clever! Found a way not to respond to the survey, eh?
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…
Are you making fun of my phone? I don’t get it.
guys.
I post about video games, mostly. I don’t think I post about guys that much.
Vigi game/bullshit
You are clearly reading the wrong blog, sir.
about your life
See the above comment.
random clips
Aw, I thought people enjoyed those. I know I do. I’m going to ignore this suggestion, because I don’t think people should complain about what they can watch for free.
You can continue to fill out the survey if you like, but let’s try and keep it more constructive from here on out.
-Zach
Froyo a Go-Go
The news that original Motorola Droid users will be getting Android 2.2 “Froyo” sometime this week gives me a reserved feeling of excitement. Why is that? Well, let’s say that Droid users were teased with Android 2.1 an unreasonable amount of times before it actually landed on my phone in April. I had to struggle to make that sentence longer in order to fit all of the disappointing posts.
So, we’ll see if this update actually happens. Let’s just say I reserve the right to be skeptical.
-Zach
My Loss
Last week, I was watching Arrested Development on my Xbox 360 while comfortably tucked into bed, and I realized a couple things: I was sweating, and I had the volume turned up to an unreasonable level. Both of these inconveniences could be traced back to the Xbox. Everybody knows that Microsoft’s little-console-that-could runs hot, but it has yet to be rightfully advertised as a space heater.
In order to prevent unfortunate rings, the system’s fans were spinning at a rate that drowned out Tobias’s gross one-liners. Annoyed, I cranked the volume, and tried to enjoy my Netflix experience in a puddle of sweat.
I knew what the obvious solution was: buy the remodeled 360, and sell your old one. So, the next day at work was spent researching the new model, and I eventually took the plunge by purchasing it. Now that I was all giddy, I rushed home to back up all of my data. I had pretty low expectations about the ease of backing up my game saves, so I was very surprised when I saw a nifty menu item labeled, “Transfer Content” staring me in the face.
Now that all of my content was on my portable drive, I removed it from my old Xbox only to get told to reinsert the device. Thinking that there was some sort of ‘safe eject’ feature I was missing, I went into the USB memory menu and thoughtlessly selected ‘Remove Xbox 360 Storage’. Once a progress bar appeared, I immediately knew something was wrong. After it was safe to eject, I unplugged and plugged the stick back into my console. With trembling hands, I navigated back to the memory menu, only to have a dialog prompting me to format my stick for proper use.
All of the air in my lungs: vacated. Bowels: shaken. Tears: formed. I had just lost every save file on my Xbox 360. I thought this was something that happened to other people. I have never turned a blind eye to format warnings, and thought the people that accidentally formatted their drives were just stupid. Now that I am one of those people, I began to feel sympathy for them. Maybe they were misled like I was. I misunderstood this semi-cryptic menu option, and now I’m left to suffer.
In order not to collapse and sink into self-destructive pit that could have been borderline Durden-esque, I asked myself if I really needed those saves. The only game I was playing through at the time was Crackdown 2, and that only took me around eight hours to beat and get a whole bunch of orbs. That is going to be an easy replay later this year, but I can’t say the same for Puzzle Quest 2. That is a game that will never be finished by my hands, because I refuse to sink another fifteen hours of my time back into its single player. Oh, and Commander Shepard? He’ll be fine, considering that I will undoubtedly be playing through Mass Effect 1 & 2 again before the third comes out.
Now that all of my panic was subdued, I decided to move on, and start my New Xbox Experience on a very clean slate. Though, after fumbling with my power supply while my Xbox was in a shutdown state, I was greeted with this screen when I flipped my power back on:
This was a no-biggie, because I had all of my digital rights migrated to my new console. Annoying? Yes. Fixable? Yes.
So, what have I learned from this terrible mess? Not much, but my incessant whining for a cloud-based save system will only get louder.
-Zach
Starcraft II for I
Starcraft II was released a few days ago to millions of odd fans across the globe. Why do I call them odd? Well, when I see people cry over an obsolete plastic disc, I tend to be a little weirded out. There are several other things that confuse me when Starcraft is being discussed, and a few issues that I believe are being overlooked.
I own a copy of Starcraft, and I have put what I would consider a considerable amount of hours into it. My purchase was driven by curiosity back in high school because of all the amazing stories my friends would exchange about their online experiences with the game. They would rave about how they were messing with people after playing a few mod maps, and then changing their names to something like, “I Stole Corn.” It sounded like a blast. So, I dialed up, played some mods with them, and completely ignored the single player campaigns (which are conveniently summarized here).
Most of my Starcraft shenanigans took place back in 2004, six years after the game released. I always found it odd how a game so old could still have a massive online following. There were still thousands of people playing this game online, even though I considered it to be irrelevant to the majority of the population. I thought Starcraft’s core gameplay mechanics were pretty bland (probably because I had been playing a lot of Warcraft III at the time), and it was only interesting because the mods were something I had yet to experience in an online community. Why was this game insanely popular during twelve years before it’s successor was released? I think its simple, back-to-the-basics fundamentals resonated with a few gamers; it’s the same effect that Dragon Quest IX is currently having on me. It has a simple formula that takes the genre back to its roots.
The fact that Blizzard is wasting their time by pumping out a retail copy of this game is troubling. Your retail disc doesn’t do anything extra-special-cool that somebody’s digital copy lacks. Tangibility is an outdated desire, and needs to be wiped out of our minds. Even though this game is sixty dollars no matter how you buy it, at least you don’t have to pay tax on a digital copy. Save some money and shelf space, and visit Blizzard’s website to drop your money on a twenty-five-character activation code.
I’m not afraid to say that the driving force behind the development for Starcraft II was nostalgia. It is hard for anything to stay relevant in the public eye after a twelve year hiatus. This game could have been canceled a year ago, and you would only hear an uproar from the die-hard fans. Now that the game has been released to unbelievably good reviews, the Starcraft brand will be hopping back into the spotlight not only because it has a massive fan-base, but because it is a great game.
I have yet to buy Starcraft II, but I have received a guest pass from a friend which lasts fourteen days or seven gameplay hours. I will give this beast a spin over the weekend, and pass judgment on whether or not it is worth the absurd sixty dollar asking price. I am extremely excited to see how the mod community will work with this game. IceFrog better have his mitts on this one…
-Zach
