Stories From The Offline (Day 4)

DAY FOUR:

Ok, I am starting to miss having the world wide web in my home. Apart from the obvious, in missing Xbox Live and the general browsing of stuff, it's the little things that are starting to annoy me...

If I'm unsure how much money I have (or DON'T have), I have to drive to an ATM - stuff that! I'm also missing my daily doses of podcast, and if I have the desire to watch a movie I don't have the DVD for, I cannot simply download it. I probably should goto Video Ezy and PAY for a movie - is that what 'normal' people do? That seems like a real backwards step though.

But before I have to go and fork over some hard earned, I'm going to utilise the extensive video library on my laptop. Prior to the move last weekend, I downloaded Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I loved that show when I was in school! I wonder if it is still the ultimate in coolness? I'm sure it is =)


SYNCHRONISE SWATCHES!

Last night, I got the desire to watch some Warehouse 13 (I recommend you *ahem* legally acquire Warehouse 13 - quality sci-fi), but didn't want to watch it on the tiny laptop screen. So, instead of going without, or watching it on the laptop, I unboxed my router and set up a small offline network. Now I can stream movies from my laptop to the xbox & watch them on my big screen.

Gaming wise, I've still been plugging away at Limbo, Crackdown 2 & Deathspank: 3 great games. I have the urge to play some Forza 3, so I might do that tonight? I really want to play some Bad Company 2, but noooooo, I don't have the internet at home.

Peace out, homies.


EDIT - I really should do a writeup of TV shows you should all be watching - with some mini reviews maybe? We'll see. One day, I'm sure.

Stories From The Offline

If you don’t already know, I am currently ‘off the grid’ at home. The reason for this is the Canuckistan HQ being moved to a new house over this past weekend. Usually internet connection takes a couple of weeks to get done, but due to financial constraints (and fucking Telstra), I probably wont have internet at home for about a month. As this house is brand new, there has never been a phone line activated. Before I can connect with iiNet, I have to pay an upfront $299 ‘connection’ fee to Telstra. I don’t have $299, so internet has to wait. Telstra are scumbags. If I were connecting with them, I doubt that this fee would be required upfront – it would be billed. Telstra are losing customers at a great rate, and this ‘Telstra tax’ is another way to still fuck us over. Thanks for nothing, Telstra.

The new house is great, and has a lot more space than the old one (I’ll get around to posting a photo of Canuckistan HQ soon). The one thing I don’t like is the shower head. In the old place, we never replaced the shower head with a watersaver one: It wasted a lot of water, but it was soooo great. Showering in the new place feels like 4 knives stabbing you in the back. Let’s just say that the days of the 10 minute shower are over, heh heh.

So, it probably wont be another month or so until I get the interwebs connected, so there will be only single-player gaming going on. That probably means the PS3 & Wii could get some game time, but probably not LOL. Limbo, Deathspank & Crackdown 2 will be played on the 360, Ratchet & Clank on the PS3, and I have a lot of Mario games on the Wii too. There are many other games which I haven’t played much on the 360, so there are a lot of gaming options.

As the days, and weeks of being offline drag on, I do plan on blogging here to let you know how I’m coping. The STORIES FROM THE OFFLINE series should be quite therapeutic for myself, and hopefully will be a good laugh for you all too.


STORIES FROM THE OFFLINE (DAY ONE)

It’s only been 1 day offline so far, and I’ve been crazy tired from moving house, so I haven’t yet missed anything. I have been enjoying Deathspank (which is primarily a single player game) a lot, and dabbled with Limbo for about 30 minutes until my brain hurt. Hopefully over the next few days, I'll find the motivation to write some Impressions for Limbo & Deathspank... We'll see how that idea goes.

Bad Company 2 Mythbusters?

I found these two videos on the Battlefield website. There are some interesting myths in there. Enjoy...

Canuckistan FC Is Ready!

Now that the Football World Cup is over, the real football can begin. Thats right, the next Fantasy football season for the English Premier League (EPL) will be starting soon.

Last year, T-Rexington Athletic did me very proud (and had the best uniform in world sports), but it is time to move on. I am very pleased to announce that Canuckistan has it's own entrant this season, creatively named, CANUCKISTAN FC...


We are also doing our bit for breast cancer awareness this year, in our sporting pink uni's. =)

I love fantasy football, not for the winning, but for the friendly rivalry you have when you're in a league with your mates. I wish to invite you all to join in the festivities this year, by signing up your own team. KC from this community has already signed up his team, Townsville Chiefs.

To join up, you'll first need to head over to fantasy.premierleague.com to register your team. Once you have done that, you can join our league by using this league code: 28647-10698. The first round of action begins on the 14th of August, so you have plenty of time to register your teams.

I hope you can all join. Please let me know if you're having troubles with your teams.

Impressions: Onslaught mode for Battlefield Bad Company 2

The Onslaught DLC for Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BC2) has been out for a couple of weeks, and I have had a few sessions with my buddies since its release.

Onslaught mode is a co-op mode for upto 4 players, with the players working together to capture checkpoints, fighting against AI opponents. One of the things about the Battlefield games which sets it apart from its rivals is the teamwork (especially when playing in a squad), and Onslaught really stays true to that concept. Working as a team is vital, as the AI opponents can sometimes get overwhelming (especially when playing solo), and each of the 4 kits (assault, engineer, medic, and recon) can play a strong role in achieving a victory. Currently, there are only 4 maps, but they each offer different challenges, and each match is timed, with an emphasis on beating your best completion time.

DICE have done a great job in enhancing the already high level of teamwork in BC2, and making a very strong variation to the standard multiplayer modes. Sometimes playing BC2 online can be douche-heavy (like most online shooters), so playing Onslaught with your buddies can be the perfect alternative. I do hope that more maps are released in time, as there are many more of the standard multiplayer map settings to choose from.

Onslaught mode for BC2 can be purchased in-game for 800 space bucks (on 360 – about $10 on PSN?), and I highly recommend it.

Mr. Perfect

I was supposed to have written this post about a week ago, but got lazy. That shouldn't come as a big surprise, but yeah... I was supposed to have written this post about a week ago. Last week, I fully completed the single player for Red Dead Redemption. Thats right, 100%.

I don't fully complete many games, let alone any games as big as RDR, so I was very chuffed when I finally finished it. Unlocking a 100 point achievement certainly made all of the time and effort worthwhile. To get to 100%, there are many obscure things you need to do/find. Here is a brief list of things which need to be covered...

Story Missions
Rare Weapons
Outfits
Houses
Jobs
Hideouts
Challenges
Bounties
Strangers
Mini-Games
Map Locations

Now that I am done with the single player, RDR is almost on the trade pile. Like any game on the cusp of being traded, I am now looking to milk as much gamerscore as I can from it. I'm looking to finish the co-op missions, before trading it in.

It does take a while (it took me four and a half days), but completing any game 100% feels great.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that RDR was a really enjoyable game. Rockstar did an excellent job of creating a realistic and highly detailed world, with excellent characters. If you're not interested in going for 100%, I highly recommend you complete the main story missions. Red Dead Redemption is an excellent game.