Cliche Post

Everyone always says this.  But I gotta say it.  Sorry, it's been so long since my last post.  Sorry, like anyone reads this or cares.  I'm really saying sorry for myself.  It's only the blogger affected in these situations.  Usually.  And here's the part where I give my reasoning as to why I haven't posted in months.  I've been working on a podcast and a new band!  Check out The Podcast.  It's pretty awesome.  We are in the process of possibly creating a blog for The Podcast.  If we do create it, all my posts will be on there.  I might copy/paste on to this blog, but I probably won't.  However, if we don't do a blog, I will try to make the effort to blog on here more. 

Too Long

     It has been too long since my last post.  I took a vacation and then got really sick and then very busy.  However, I did accomplish some things.  I'm now 1000 points away from my gamerscore goal and with Halo: Anniversary and Saints Row 3 coming out soon it will be real easy to get 1000 gamerscore.  Also, in my absence, I got together with Tony and Ashley and recorded The Podcast's first episode.  Check it out!  I also have a capture card on the way so I can record game footage and start making some achievement videos and get started on some other videos I've been meaning to do.

Planning

     I'm working on some planning for some videos I am going to release online.  So far, the plan is to release a series about my girlfriend Ashley Rae, casual gamer, experiencing the world of a hardcore gamer.  Another series will be Real Life Achievements.  Think of it like a VERY tame Jackass type thing but with a gamer twist.  Each thing we do will be an achievement with points attached to it.  If you complete it you get the points.  Anyone who has played Xbox 360 knows what I'm talking about.
     I'm also thinking of doing a monthly or maybe even weekly podcast with Ashley and two other people we know (Tony and Mark).  The podcast will be us talking about our video productions, pop culture and news and basically just life in general.  The four of us have views that differ enough that I believe would keep it interesting enough for people to listen every time we release one.  First there's me, who tends to get very angry and rant about some semi-controversial stuff.  Like when I found out about the all black cast version of Death at a Funeral.  Also, I LOVE to argue with people.  Then Mark, the cynical logger who has a very pessimistic view of the world.  Tony, the 30 something musician with a laid back attitude.  Although he will argue a point if he thinks he is right, just not as in your face as I do.  And Ashley.  It's hard for me to describe why I think she would complete this mix and keep it interesting because I see her every day.  When you know someone like that it's hard to split their personality into explainable chunks.  So, basically think of her as the Wild Card.  Although having similar views, she sees things in a very different way than us guys.  Also, she will help round the show out with her female perspective.  At the start of the podcast I think it will be a monthly thing but if it does well and we feel we can handle it weekly we will definitely try to produce it on a weekly basis.

New Goal

  So, I figured out what my next achievement goal is gonna be.  23,000.  Why?  Because that's how old I am!  Not 23,000...I'm 23.  Didn't really make that clear...  Anyways, I figure it's a decent jump, that's like completing three whole retail games so it will take some time.  But it also won't take me like a year to complete.  So it should take some time and effort but not be too challenging.  Well, I'm off to borrow some games so I can get to work on my achieving.

Upcoming Awesomes

  As some of you may know, I am dating hot gamer girl, blogger, and unique plants and gifts shop owner, Ashley Rae. You should check out her blog (click her name to get there) if you wanna know about the things she sells in her store or wanna learn how to do some pretty interesting stuff.  Such as making homemade vanilla extract!
  Both Ashley and I have many interests and want to do so many things its hard to have time to do most of them.  For example, I wanna play video games all the time, watch movies/tv shows, read, I want to play live music with my band, write a novel/novels, and write/film/act in a movie.  That's just the stuff  I want to do right now.  It seems like every couple of years I get a new interest.  It's hard to find time to do all that stuff.
  One of the things that has recently become an interest of mine is creating regularly released online videos.  Kind of like the guys (and girls) at Roosterteeth do.  They produce shorts, comics, achievement hunter videos, and, of course, the popular Halo-based web series: Red vs Blue.  Luckily, Ashley is also interested in producing online content of this caliber.  We've done some light planning recently and I think we have enough ideas to start some pre-production on some videos.
  Some of our ideas are: Gamer Girl: From Casual to Hardcore! and Real Life Achievements.  Gamer Girl is gonna be a series about Ashley's gaming.  She is a casual gamer and I plan on showing her what it's like to be a hardcore gamer and possibly training her to become one.  Real Life Achievements is not necessarily a new concept.  I have seen numerous videos spoofing the xbox 360 achievements.  However, our videos aren't going to be a spoof.  We are actually going to be achieving things in real life.  We will decide achievements for each other and film us doing them.  The achievements will range from things what will be hard to do to things we really don't want to do.
  So, hopefully within the next few months we will have some interesting videos being released.  I will keep you updated as we make progress towards this goal.  Make sure to check back regularly!

Fighting Games: Story?

  I have always loved fighting games.  Some of my earliest gaming memories are playing Mortal Kombat on Sega with my brother.  One of the great things about a fighting game is the wealth of characters.  Most fighting games do a great job of keeping these characters very different with very different stories.  There's so much possibility for rich narrative.  Unfortunately, the "story" is most fighting games barely exists.  Normally a short scene at the start of the game or a blurb in the manual tell the basic story which barely explains anything at all.  Then after fighting through, usually, a very hard arcade mode you get a couple of lines of text related to the character you just worked so hard to beat it with.  And sometimes we get a very short video that last just long enough to almost tell you something.  I will never understand why game developers put so much time and effort into the appearance of the characters and what seems like very little time on the stories of each character.
  However, it seems Ed Boon has noticed this.  The new Mortal Kombat actually has a story mode.  Like a real story mode.  It's just wandering from fight to fight as it goes through an alternate story of, I believe, the first three MK games.  But it has cinematics and an actual story putting it far ahead other fighting games on the market right now.  I hope other developers take notice of this and try to include similar features in their games.  I would love to see Mortal Kombat take this even further in the future, like being able to choose the character you play or even which side you are on.  It would be great to play as Liu Kang or Johnny Cage helping Earthrelm, or Reptile assassinating for Shang Tsung, or even Scorpion, being lead by Quan Chi in his own schemes.  As much as I want to save Earthrelm, it would be awesome to see the other sides of the story.
  I'm sure story isn't the biggest worry for fighting game developers.  They gotta worry about playability and for some reason, new characters.  I would rather have the story develop more for the characters that have been around than learning to care about a bunch of new people with each game.  But I'm crossing my fingers that more fighting games will follow Mortal Kombat in this new territory.  Soul Calibur V is on its way and Project Soul seems like they are trying to bring some new things to their formula.  Hopefully in the near future we will have some fighting games with stories!

No Turning Back!

  I did it!  I finally hit 20,000 gamerscore!  I was trying to hit it right on the button but I accidentally got an achievement while playing Soul Calibur IV that put me at 5 over.
  So where do I go from here?  Well, I'm still addicted to the sound it makes whenever I get an achievement, so maybe setting a new goal?  Unfortunately, I don't have the time or money to go for a high gamerscore like 50k or even the impressive 100k.  I guess for now I will keep trying to get achievements for the games I do have and see how high I can get my gamerscore.  Maybe try to 100% percent some games.