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As well as the OzChat Posting Board, one of the other forums I frequently... er... frequent is the Penny Arcade Phorum. One of the subject of most of the rants going on there at the moment is "Why videogames suck so much these days". Don't get me wrong, video games rock, but these days the market is being inundated with so much crap that it makes me wonder whether these game developers actually realise that their game has to be good to make them money. Graphics seem to be taking pride of place over gameplay, and the quality of the CD-filling FMV sequences seem to take preference over the story actually being told. But I think for myself, there seems to be more to it than just this. I think for me, it was the step up from the Commodore 64 to the Amiga... I remember vividly saving for weeks until I could afford the latest release, whether it was ' Skate or Die', ' Spy vs Spy' or ' Paperboy'. I would then rush home, pop the cassette in the datasette, PRESS PLAY ON TAPE, then go do something for 20 minutes while the game loaded. Once loaded, I would play the game until beaten or until I needed sleep. The technology was new, the graphics were great, sometimes I'd just leave the chip-music playing just so I could listen to it. It was an uber-happy time of my life. Now, I have a disposable income which has been spent on over 50 games across 4 platforms, any of which can be loaded in 5 seconds, played for one minute, then set aside. Over 2000 MAME roms at my disposal, and all I want to do is play Galaga. The exceptions are exceptional... Xenogears and Final Fantasy rock my werld on the PSX. Conkers BFD and Zelda, likewise on the N64. My DC gave me many hours of enjoyment through Skies of Arcadia and Soul Caliber. And I'm battling through Monkey Island 3 & 4 on the PC. Nowadays, if the game doesn't eat away a chunk of my life, it hardly seems worth playing, let lone buying. My point is, I think, that enhanced graphics and 3D hasn't neccessarily driven the nail into the coffin of decent gaming. I dont care if a game's been done before: I enjoy every Final Fantasy or Megaman game I play. I just think that the answer is different for everyone depending on their gaming history and what attracted them to games in the first place. |
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| Posted by a very reminiscent MadDog
on Sunday June 10, 2001 at 5:16 PM - 0 comments |
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... and lots of them. Yep, I'm sick. I absolutely hate being sick. It starts off as a sore throat, then comes the sinus congestion. then the sore throat goes away and you're just left with that phlegm that tickles at the back of your throat and theres nothing you can do about it. I bought a box of tissues yesterday, those cool Kleenex ones with the Aloe Vera ('ello Vera!) that's nice and soft on your snozza, and they're almost gone. Now I'm living on a cocktail of cough syrup, decongestant, cold and flu tablets and Red Bull, and I'm feeling a little bit better. Hopefully I should be back to (ab)normal in no time. |
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Well in one sense of the word I am anyway. DeviantArt is a great site where budding artists can submit their art, application skins, wallpaper images, poetry, icons, photography and more and have it perused and commented on by the masses. I've known about this site for a while, but havent really become inspired enough to join until now. Check out my profile now... if you like... please? |
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I was on my way home from Numurkah after dropping home a friend last night when this cow bolted out into the road. I swerved to miss it, and it's good thing too otherwise it would have been a head-on. Its head hit the left side mirror, and it flew forward smashing the front passenger side window, showering glass all over inside of the car. The back door also got a bit of minor damage. In Gracie's car no less... She's not too upset. She's come to expect me to smash her car up every now and again. I'm fine. I was mighty shook up though. The cow was in better shape than I was. I was scared at first, then angry, after I realised that I'd have to pay for it. I could get the owners of the cow to pay for it if I could identify the cow. Fat chance of that. It was all over in a few seconds, and all I saw was the shadow of the cow ambling off into the bushes on the side of the road. Now I just think the whole incident is funny, looking back on it... UPDATE: Gracie just came in with a couple of quotes... $1,200... Okay... I'm angry again... We can pay about $300 now to fix the window and get the car secure again, then pay the rest later. Gracie's insurance company doesn't like us very much. We've made a few claims and we'd like to avoid raising our premium even more so if possible. Apparently I can make a complaint to the police and they have to investigate to try and find the owner of the cow. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? If so, I'd like to know how you fared, or if you've got any advice, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. |
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| Posted by a very vengeful MadDog
on Tuesday May 29, 2001 at 10:53 AM - 0 comments |
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| Posted by a very eccentric MadDog
on Thursday May 24, 2001 at 9:40 AM - 4 comments |
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This quote comes courtesy of AdStar, and was too good to pass up a mention on here:
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989 |
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| Posted by a very skeptical MadDog
on Wednesday May 2, 2001 at 11:10 AM - 0 comments |
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 Before you become too alarmed, I'll fill you in. 3 weeks ago (just to show you how slack I've been in updating the site) Gracie had her corneal graft done. She's had bad eyesight all her life and she had finally reached the stage where surgery was the only solution. But this isn't your average namby pamby poofter laser eye surgery. The procedure involves taking a little cookie-cutter/apple-corer type tool and removing the front part of the eye, then they do the same thing with A DEAD PERSON'S EYE (all together now, "AARRGGHHEEUUUGHH!"). They then get the donor cornea and SEW it on to the eye. When we went back to the surgeon for a check-up, the doc said that everything is going really well and although she's experiencing a bit of discomfort at the moment, she should be able to see much better in a couple of weeks. He also took a photo of the eye with his magic eye-photo-thing machine as you can see above (Click it for an enlargement). Yes those are the stitches you can see there, with the knot tied near the top there. Gross. |
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Man, this is the funniest shit I've seen in ages... Just when you thought that the whole All Your Base phenomenon was dead, these guys bring it back to life. Check it out. While you're at it, check out AYBABTU.org, another site I made just for the hell of it... There's not a lot there at the moment, but that's sort of the point. Just go there. You'll see what I mean. |
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You know the saying "Small things amuse small minds"? Well, theres one thing that never ceases to make me chuckle to myself. I love drinking a cup of coffee, and then when I get towards the bottom of the cup, and I can see my reflection in the bottom of the cup. My head looks all distorted (though some would argue that I look like that normally), my eyes look bulgy and my lips look all weird as I slurp down the rest of my coffee... Man that cracks me up... Don't mind me, I'm just mental. |
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Some people have an engagement party. Some people don't. We had to go and have four. Yes, four. The full story and photos are now online in the Output section. |
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| Posted by a very fed up MadDog
on Wednesday March 14, 2001 at 10:25 PM - 0 comments |
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It seems that most of my hits come from people searching for pics of 
