Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

This cropped screen shot was captured on my Facebook homepage. I don’t know what the girl in the picture has to do with winning an Apple iPad but it certainly got my attention. I hate ads like this because the image has nothing to do with the ad itself, its just an easy way to get clicks. Unfortunately I’m sure it has received a million clicks by now, further surrendering our internet civilization to sex in more and more ways. They say sex created the internet, but I believe the internet spread sex just the same.

Twitter users at the game and watching from home and bars around the nation have overloaded the Twitter servers.

If the infinite care package glitch has become the bane of your existence then you’re just like me. Luckily for us Infinite Ward has dealt with the exploit and has issued a patch that is now under Xbox 360 certification. This will be the second fix on this same issue. It turns out the glitchers found an alternative way to do the same exploit.

I still need to give props to whoever these glitchers are who spend hours upon hours to figure out how to exploit the game. However, I hate the fact that they spread these glitches like wildfire which in turn allows the mob to dishonorably use it in ranked matches.

Patch details:

• Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.
• Fix for “infinite care package” exploit.
• Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry.
• Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.
• Fixes to prevent various XP hacks.

I was watching Memento late last night and noticed a split second shot I’ve never seen before. At one point in the movie (1:30) while Lenny is talking about Sammy Jankis there are a few frames where Sammy is replaced in the shot by Lenny himself. The transition is quick and may not even be caught if you’re not looking out for it. Kind of like the spliced penis in Fight Club.

The subliminal message is that Lenny has been recalling facts about Sammy Jankis but are actually about himself. By the end of the movie Teddy explains that Lenny is the one who overdosed his wife with insulin but because of the memory conflict you never really know the truth. Director Christopher Nolan makes it perfectly possible that Teddy is telling the truth but at the same time allows Lenny’s version of the past to remain a possibility as well.

You can believe Lenny makes up his own memories to shield himself from the physiological pain of killing his wife or you can believe Teddy is just making up another story so he can manipulate Lenny. The subliminal message pushes in favor of the first argument but doesn’t necessarily prove anything.

I guess in the context of damaged memories it really doesn’t matter if you caught it or not.

The last Madden 10 will be released for Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow (Feb 6th 2010) in time for the big Colts vs Saints game. As you know EA Sports has slacked off this year with their roster updates. In the 20 weeks of NFL football only 12 Roster updates have been released. A couple of the roster updates were actually released prior to the beginning of the season but EA soon retired to their old ways. While this year’s basketball games have seen an increase of roster updates (daily), the uncontested Madden series has regressed.

This final update will close the book on another year of Madden. A year that saw the birth of online franchises (still flawed) and Madden Ultimate Team. I still feel that the Single-player Franchise Mode stats are terrible, and would benefit from adding a simulated game slider. The addition of gang tackling was nice but didn’t seem to play a huge role, not enough to be part of every commercial and advertisement. Sometimes I still see players just fall over instead of joining in and tackling. Here’s to hoping Madden 11 will be a good year. Go Saints!

To get the updated Rosters select Xbox Live or PSN from the Madden main menu then select Depth Chart. Instructions.

Link to roster details

Earlier today the demo for Sega’s new Alien Vs Predator game was released on Xbox Live and PSN. The Demo features a multiplayer deathmatch on one map.

Last year when this game was announced I was excited to hear that Alien Vs Predator was receiving a reboot. The production team is introducing a brand new story with gameplay built from the ground up. This will be the first game of the series to be rendered in HD graphics and so far it’s looking pretty nice.

Even though they have claimed this will be a complete reboot it seems like not much has changed as far as features. You’ll still receive 3 single player campaigns, one for each race, and a online multiplayer modes. I’m just hoping the controls are upgraded from the last game.

As Lent approaches the idea of sacrifice looms. I am not of Christian belief but my girlfriend (for 7 years) is a Catholic. I usually don’t participate in Lent but I do end up not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. This year I will give up my biggest daily addiction. Video games.

On a daily basis I play about 2 or more hours of Xbox 360 or PS3 almost everyday after work. On weekends when I don’t have any plans I’m also playing 3 or more hours. What can I say, it’s become part of my daily routine. I even have a blog almost solely dedicated to video games. I don’t think my habits are to the point where its a problem but I do feel like I could be more productive without the wasted hours. If Josh Hartnett could give up sex for 39 days I think I can handle this.

With the extra time I intend to work on my other hobbies such as photography, guitar, and programming. Maybe I’ll finally get into iPhone development. I bought the stupid laptop almost 6 months ago now.

I’ll document what happens from here on out. I plan to continue my current habits until Ash Wednesday Feb 17th when Lent begins.

Originally dated for a February 4th release, the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo got an early start by launching late last night (1/27) on Xbox Live. EA has openly expressed that Bad Company 2 is their response to the Modern Warfare 2 phenomena. The first Bad Company was actually pretty good but never garnered the same attention as Modern Warfare.

I’d have to attribute the drop off to the less than stellar shooting mechanics, it just never felt tight enough. What Battlefield games excel at are the vehicles and large scale maps, something Modern Warfare never aimed to address. Bad Company simply made it clear that tanks, boats and helicopters are still fun. Bad Company was also the first in the series to generate destructible environments. Everything from trees to houses could be demolished.

The single player missions were interesting but had a completely different feel than the Modern Warfare series. Bad Company felt like you were following a very fictional story while Modern Warfare tried to push the envelope with realism and patriotism.

On the multiplayer end both games try to get players wrapped up in gaining experience points to unlock weapons/perks. Modern Warfare definitely did a better job in structuring their unlock system but Bad Company wasn’t far behind. The large scale maps of Bad Company give the multiplayer experience a slower feel at times and for some odd reason makes death seem inconsequential. On the bright side this can make the game feel lighter and less stressful as opposed to Modern Warfare.

I’m looking forward to seeing the updates they’ve made to Bad Company 2.

The second patch for NBA 2k10 was just released for Xbox 360 yesterday Jan. 21st more than a week after the PS3s Jan. 11th release date. Still no word on why there was a delay but it’s safe to assume they found some issues during the approval phase. The patch aims to address multiple issues that continue to plague the game months after its initial release. To download the patch simply start the game while connected to Xbox Live or PSN.

It continues to disturb me that more and more games are released with core problems. Part of it is due to insufficient testing but at the same time I believe the developers become aware of the bugs but consider them low priorities. Also because video games have become such a large market, pressure from the top won’t allow ship dates to be delayed for bug fixing. Instead they just assume everything can be fixed through on-going patches.

Complete Patch Details

In December of 2009 Myspace bought out the popular music streaming website imeem. Since then iPhone and Android users have been left with login errors when trying to access the app. Myspace has issued the following message on their website regarding the Smart-phone applications.

The imeem mobile app for iPhone and Android was created specifically for use on their network and unfortunately will be disabled momentarily. It will take us a little time to relaunch the app incorporating MySpace’s own music licenses and other features that we feel are valuable to users. When ready, this update will automatically push to your smartphone, giving you the option to upgrade. Thanks for your patience.