mkreku

Bah. Finns and their weak cold. It was a manly -20 in Stockholm yesterday.

78 out of 100? What made it deserve 78 instead of 77? And what made it miss out on 79?

Too easy? My weapons do maybe 600-1000 damage per hit. A normal enemy has maybe 60-100,000 hitpoints. Me, on the other hand, has around 6-7000 hitpoints (at level 33 or 34, I forget) and a shield that's supposed to be 4000 of something, but it's useless as it disappears if a fly sneezes nearby. Enemies hit me for around 3000. Per shot. 2-3 hits and I'm gone. I die a lot. I've only found one way of winning. Stay behind cover, slag them and headshot them repeatedly with a fast sniper rifle. This is the reason why I kept that orange level 13 sniper rifle for so long. It had a 27 shot magazine, a fire rate like an assault rifle and it was very stable through the scope.

No, sorry, I don't. I only ever owned an MSI motherboard and it was OK. Nothing fancy and no problems.

Still playing Borderlands 2. Great game, having loads of fun. It's better written than the first game and I love the characters (except the one I play myself, Salvador). I love Tannis. But.. three things. One, I have never found a good weapon! Is this how it's supposed to be? All guns feel like peashooters! I meet a normal enemy, 1000 bullets later it's gone. If I meet a badass, I'm in trouble. Maybe I am unlucky with drops? Level 33 and found 3 orange items so far (two from quests and one from a one armed bandit). Two of them were absolutely useless, but the level 13 orange sniper rifle was so good that I used it until level 28-29. Ok, so I found ONE good weapon Two, the skills are nowhere near as much fun as in the first game. Almost all skills are of the type "While your shield is gone and the moon is less than a quarter and your mom is sleeping blah blah.." meaning that they are dependent on a game state to occur before activating. The most annoying thing about this is that half of those skills are only activated after you've been shot down! I don't want to spend my skill points on skills that only activate when I fail! I don't like this at all. I'm actually not at all happy with my Salvador build, but since I reached level 33 with him, I thought I'd finish the game with him anyhow. Three, the variation between guns actually seems to have decreased since the last game. Isn't that weird? They brag about having even more guns, but in the game it feels like there are maybe 20 different guns and the rest are tiny variations of these 20 guns. And every time I find a seemingly great gun, it says "Consumed 4 rounds per shot, magazine size: 3 rounds", rendering the weapon useless. It's annoying. The first game made you feel powerful after leveling up and spending your skill points. This game makes no difference when I spend my skill points (since the skills activate in the weirdest of situations, and usually 0.2 seconds before I am dead) and because the weapons are all so alike and powerless, the combat is not nearly as satisfying. I like it, but it feels like a small step back from the first game.

I'm suddenly interested in next-gen.

I would actually not buy either of those. I would try to find a laptop with a slightly stronger GPU. Unfortunately they also usually have a slightly 'stronger' pricetag. The Alienware is around $1150. For that price I would go with the MSI GX60: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152372 But it's a 100% AMD product, and I know some people are brand sensitive.

It's such a strange feeling to wake up and be nervous about checking the NHL results in the morning, in a good way. This year it has been almost.. pleasant. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY CRAPPY LEAFS?!

What the hell? Why didn't the pic work? Grr. MOUSTACHE

Yeah. He's small but makes up for it with an impressive moustache. http://mapleleafshotstove.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mikebrown3.jpg

I loved Level 5's Dragon Quest 8.. excellent story and characters. Wonderful world and satisfying combat. How is Ni No Kuni as a game? Turnbased battles? Open world? Linear? Give me more info!

I must admit I'm a little bit proud of my Leafs so far. They have the same amount of points as the Penguins.. while not exactly having Malkin, Crosby or Fleury in the team. But hey, we seem to be doing OK with Kadri and van Riemsdyk instead

Still trying to grab a copy. So desperate that I'm now going for the German version. Deutschland regiert!!! Huh? Webhallen has plenty of copies? Edit: Here's a handy link: http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/spel/playstation_3/114959-ni_no_kuni-wrath_of_the_white_witch If you live close to Stockholm you can just walk by their store on Sveavägen. They have 40+ copies in stock. They treated me like dirt when I had an issue with them, so I refuse to do any business with them. Since Webhallen is easily the best game store in Sweden, I will from here on assume you ARE dirt.

Still trying to grab a copy. So desperate that I'm now going for the German version. Deutschland regiert!!! Huh? Webhallen has plenty of copies? Edit: Here's a handy link: http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/spel/playstation_3/114959-ni_no_kuni-wrath_of_the_white_witch If you live close to Stockholm you can just walk by their store on Sveavägen. They have 40+ copies in stock.

I thought this was pretty cool:

Fallout is set in an alternate world that was abrupted in the 1950's, with all the culture and technology (almost) intact. Wasteland was set in an alternate world where the apocalypse took place in the 1980's. What I really loved about Wasteland was that it used real life weapons and equipment. I knew that a M16 is better than an AK-47 because that's how it is in real life. I knew what kind of ammo fit which weapon because it's the same in real life. Wasteland also used a learning-by-doing skill system, but one that actually worked. I never felt the need to grind skills, like I can feel in the Bethesda games. I am not sure why this is though. Wasteland had a real world map, where Fallout had that quick travel map. Other than that, it was much the same. Same humour, same diverse quests, same variety in locations. I felt that Wasteland had a more serious tone than Fallout and more difficult puzzles to solve, but that's just my opinion.

I hated Steam in the beginning (and I still feel a certain animosity against it regarding their European pricing), but then I realized that I own over 100 games on it.

For fun I downloaded Borderlands 2 to my 2+ year old netbook (http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/Eee_PC_1215N/) and tried to run it. Imagine my surprise when it actually started. Not only that, it was entirely playable. At medium settings! I've enjoyed my old netbook quite a bit over the years, but this was probably the first time I've been properly impressed by it.

Crysis is a brand new game. You mean you pay full price for a game, try it for 2-3 hours and then uninstall it? Where did you buy it?

These new guys are so ****ing cuddly I'm almost missing the flame wars with Bukkake and the right wing nuts I forgot the name of.

Omg someone has another taste in games than you!! QUICK, UP ON YOUR HIGH HORSES AND WRITE DEROGATORY POSTS ABOUT IT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

I thought it was an impressive demonstration. Sucks that they didn't show the actual console, but the games definitely looked good. I guess they're saving the box reveal for E3. No big deal. I was very surprised when they announced it has 8 GB GDDR5! Sounds like it'll be an expensive piece of kit. Love the new features, like background downloading, playing games before they're downloaded, sharing gameplay videos (great feature!) etc. A huge step forward from the PS3. Like the look of the new controller too. A bit bulkier than the PS3 version (which is good) and much better analogue sticks and trigger buttons. Also like that they made the move functionality mandatory. Maybe now there will actually be games that use it? All in all a very good show.

And all because of a Swedish rookie goalie..

Did I ever mention that owning fully automatic assault rifles with 30 round magazines is actually legal in Sweden..? My father owned one up until a couple of years ago, but traded it for a hunting rifle (which is more practical when you, you know, actually hunt). This one. The irony is that Sweden's gun laws are actually more lax than in the US. The big difference is control. Imagine that.

Ok. You know the Leafs are having a good season when you don't wake up to dread every morning to check the NHL results. Matt.. Frattin?