The Big 100th Post...!

Yeah, I know something like having 100 posts doesn't really mean all that much if you think about it. Does it mean something meaningful? Will it bring world peace? Will it end all the bitching and screaming and moaning and groaning about the Super Ferry in Hawaii?

As much as I'd like to say yes it could, well...

OK, so maybe it could very well be possible that this 100th post could change the course of events around the world. I mean think about it, it is a pretty strange world out there where all sorts of weird things happen every second of every day. So to think that a 'mere' 100th post could change the world... hell, it just may very well happen!

(I'd rather have my 100th post win me the biggest lottery jackpot in the world, but eh... can't win 'em all...)

So much to say and write and all that, but where oh where to begin? I think I am beginning to pressure myself out here, just thinking about just how big (in my own little mind) this 100th post really is!

For starters, I'm gonna hit up something I haven't written about in quite a while, which would be wrestling.

You can say how fake the matches are and yes, the matches are pre-determined before the guys ever hit the ring. But with everything in the news about it lately, I think it is safe to say that professional wrestling has become very, very real.

Still, at the end of the day I still do wonder if everything that is coming out will really make a difference in the end. Take the WWE for example here folks, this isn't the first time they've been called out about steroids. Obviously the fact that they are at it again proves that things haven't really changed. I mean sure, they have a wellness program in place. But does that really make a difference?

I just hope that these men and women that go out and perform are taken care of and helped if at all possible. One thing I'd like to not see for a very long time is another wrestler death. Enough is enough, hopefully people snap to and change their ways (if they have a problem that is).

Switching gears, although we are still going wrestling talk here, and this is about the rumors of Chris Jericho's possible return.

Now as a fan I am pretty excited to hear that and the idea of not having cable TV makes that all the harder to deal with. Sort of. It has been a little over a year since Jericho was on WWE TV? Maybe 2 now? I can't remember these things, but anyway... I guess all I can do is sit back and read about what goes on and maybe I'll find a video or 2 of his return (should it happen) on YouTube.

Switching gears again folks, now we go towards Dynasty Warriors and the 2 games that have recently been released under this banner.

I've been meaning to write something about Dynasty Warriors: Gundam and Warriors Orochi, but I just haven't had much of a chance these days. Anyway, if given a choice of which I like better, the hands down winner of this face off is Warriors Orochi. No question about that choice folks, that absolutely (in my opinion) choice wins by a landslide.

That isn't to say that Dynasty Warriors: Gundam is a bad game or anything. OK, so maybe the action manages to fall behind the standard Dynasty Warriors paces. Is that even possible? Surely they are both hack-and-slash games, but somehow DWG manages not to be as fun as Warriors Orochi. Not to mention if you don't know anything about the Gundam Universe, this game will be a confusing mess (I only knew of Gundam Wing).

Another thing DW: G lacks is options, modes... something more then just the confusing story itself. Original Mode is OK, but really... it isn't much different then the Official Mode.

As for Warriors Orochi... now that game felt like home to me and it played exactly as can be expected. The only real gripe that I have about this is the lack of extra modes (just like DW: G). Besides Free Mode, there aren't anything else like previous games, such as Rampage, Time Attack, etc.

What surprised me about Orochi was the changes that were made to the game. I think the biggest change is the ability to chose three warriors to go to war with and you can change among your trio at any time. It keeps things feeling fresh and you can basically mix and match up your team of choice from the officers you've unlocked from both the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games.

The story itself is interesting also, which pretty much goes a little something like this: Orochi, the Serpent King, wishes to test his might against the most powerful fighters in history. And to that end, Orochi pulls the warriors from Feudal Japan and Ancient China. Now the basis of this game is how Orochi basically holds hostage the leaders of Shu, Wei and Wu and uses most of their top fighters (mixed up with the fighters from Samurai Warriors) to crush any resistance and to also weed out the weak and leave only the most worthy and powerful.

Does that all make sense? Hopefully I didn't gut the story and ruin it... just trust me when I say that it is a pretty damn good hack-and-slasher!

Now onto a subject I never thought I'd be writing about here, in my humble little blog, ever again. Final Fantasy XI is coming out with a brand spankin' new expansion and Square Enix is tossing in new jobs! Again! Why do I get the feeling that the majority of the new content will be aimed (still) towards end gamers? I hope I am wrong and if so, who knows... I may very well go back...

I mean why not right? I'd love to see my Elvaan as a Dancer and who knows what else. I suppose we shall all see as SE unleashes more details in the coming months.

News flash: Work still sucks! Now back to the regular blog fodder!

Honestly I do miss playing Final Fantasy XI, but what I don't is the hours of waiting and all the shit that goes with having to form a party. I've wasted more hours then I care to remember doing stuff like this. Surely it is all a part of the game and the 'experience.' It did feel good when I left and started back up on offline games. The joke I told the few friends I made while gaming on FFXI was at least now I didn't have to beg people to join my party or people leaving after 10 minutes of fights or even wait for 6 hours to get into something!

Yes, it was a great, great feeling.

Speaking of playing, I've been playing Halo 3 with my girlfriend and lemme tell you all this. We suck. We're playing it on easy because anything higher then that would result in our faces splattered across the screen. Oops, sorry... got that mixed up with Gears of War.

(In either case, the end result remained the same.)

I think we've only played through 2 chapters? I don't know/remember off hand how the game is broken down. The story sounds interesting and the game play is as fun as we both remember it from both Halo and Halo 2.

Random topic: I'd be playing my XBox 360 right now, but it is fairly warm (Read: Hot) where I live right now and I am a paranoid man. Paranoid that my XBox will flash me those dreaded red rings of death... I don't think I'd take all that well if that should happen any time in the near future.

Funny story, which I am slightly repeating from a previous post from ages ago it seems, and this goes back to when I first got my 360.

Gotta love Wal-Mart and their belief that I was somehow lying to them about the XBox they sold me being previously used and broken for that matter. Yeah they plugged it in and oh, it works! See the problem was that the night before (the night that I had bought it), it had stopped reading XBox games. After letting it sit for about a half hour, it'd read the game again for a short time and then freeze up and stop again.

Well they did not believe me and somehow I guess they thought I was trying to scam them. How? I don't personally know for myself and my poor mind just couldn't connect with their thought pattern on this one. Anyway, after they wasted my time for about an hour and talked to me like I was lying, I did get it replaced. Needless to say, all I wanted to do was leave and get the hell home...

What lifted my spirits (after being talked to like a goddamn criminal) was when that jerk of a girl that was "helping" me took the XBox back up front and plugged it in again. Guess what popped up and greeted her stupid face? Those bloody red rings of death CAME OUT FOR THOSE SONS OF BITCHES!

Ha! Serves you all right, jerks!

Oh that was bliss... pure, unadulterated bliss...

Do I hold a grudge? No, not really.

But I do take offense when someone decides to call me a liar and doesn't even know what he/she is talking about. Then again, while they did waste my time, the ending is what always brings that smile of mine back to my face. After that, I have been worried that those red rings would return and kill my poor XBox and so I've gone through my own hell to be sure I don't do all that much to kill that expensive bastard.

Then again, there is a lot of good games still coming for the 360 and so I guess this will serve as a fairly good test to see if my box will survive or not. Hell, if nothing else, I think WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 will do all the testing I need, considering it ends up being a better game then the '07 edition.

I mean it has flaming table matches! ECW wrestlers! And um... and other stuff that makes this game great! Actually, I play it just to mess around with it's create-a-wrestler mode. Everything else to me is secondary. I love to create stuff, people, anything. I loved The Sims (original, though wishing I could play The Sims 2...) and games like Stronghold. OK a game like Stronghold I spent a good deal of hours building up a massive castle and then laying it to waste and rebuilding it again.

I don't know what it is, but creating is fun for me and addictive even more so since there are a few games out there that allow that sort of freedom.

Oh, did I mention I was a wrestling fan? I bet that was a difficult thing to figure out.

So fast does time fly and I think I was having fun writing all of that somehow. Not to mention the fact that I've just caused my brain to go empty, since I've finally gotten to write out much of what I've been meaning to write for the past week or two. Hopefully this is a worthy 100th post or else I may have to spam my own blog to reach post 200 to try again.

Hmmm...