i'm being bribed (and i love it!)

much like my new xbox friend, brian crecente, i received not only a copy of gta iv from rockstar games (who up until this point, i didn't think i would get anything from), i also got neat reviewer prizes!

i call them reviewer prizes, because editorial perks, giveaways and all other descriptions seem lame.

i prefer to think of them as prizes. that way, i win.

i got two copies of the game (one on 360 and one on ps3) as well a miniature of liberty city's own statue of happiness...


and a bunch of wicked cool stickers for my bike!

i don't actually have a bike and i don't want to let my tone fool you, these are actually really sweet and i'm so excited to add them to my already large pile of gta iv stuff that came with my collector's edition.

livin' large and in charge (of his cubicle),

JD

p.s. many apologies for all the kotaku links but the unboxing pics from luke plunkett were so good, i don't think i could do any better.

gta iv is... (a quick explanation for media exposed peoples)

great.

i know you'll read everywhere that it's great, but seriously. g-r-e-a-t.

and for anyone who doesn't get gta, here it is in a nutshell:

take your favorite mob/gangster flick (the departed, goodfellas, casino, basically anything scorsese) and make it interactive.

it's not a murder simulator. it's like a choose your own adventure. you play the game to progress the plot. i mean, as a former teenage male, and as a current early twenties guy, i can identify with the sheer glee associated with destruction and violence but at it's heart, the main appeal of gta has and always will be the underworld of crime, gangs and the story of one man.

just an fyi for your internets,

JD

what's wrong with this picture (actually, it's a screengrab...)

ok, ok. i get planet earth. and i can tolerate young indiana jones. heck, i like juno and dexter.

but 27 dresses? joey!?!??!!?

seriously canadians. we need a culture infusion in our tv purchasing decisions, badly.

/rant

JD

who wants an n64 in attractive packaging?

when i was asking about the probability of another super mario strikers (ie. failed canadian street date) while making the manager of my local eb (where i'm now considered a regular) very nervous about me running into the back and stealing my copy early...i noticed this:

you can get an n64 for $15!!!!


who needs GTA IV when you can play goldeneye or mario kart 64?

i remember when i was buying one for $200! and it was only because my grandparents had bestowed upon me and my brother large sums of money in pounds which we had brought back and combined to buy our first current-gen system (as in, not one they had stopped supporting).

it's kind of depressing.

what am i, old now?

JD

gta iv tomorrow? huh.

ok, yes, it's the biggest game of the year. there's little question of that.

and yes, you've probably seen game footage already, seen the opening credits or maybe even played an illegal copy of the full game (which has been circulating the net on torrent downloads for over a week now).

i mean, i'm excited, and with good cause.

but it's taken me a while to get here.

back in the day

i'll take you back two years and a bit to halifax and my third year of j-school.

i was living in the city in my first home away from res and around...i don't know exactly, but probably february or march, i saw a very subdued and subtle display that only showed the preliminary (and subsequently discarded) box art for a fourth GTA game.

while i was a little excited by the prospect of a new GTA, I wasn't that stoked, because i'd been a little disappointed by san andreas, and wasn't sure about another GTA on the PS2.

but then i saw the release date. 2008.

i'm the kind of guy who can obsess over things, so i knew i had to just let it drop. at that point, there wouldn't be any real info on the game for another year, and even then, no sign of it being good or bad for another year after that.

now, today, and in 17 hours, tomorrow

somehow, it's finally here. but now, a day away, i'm giddy like a kid on christmas eve, wondering how i'll sleep tonight or last through tomorrow's work day.

in other GTA news, my hot tip got picked up on kotaku and i know this makes me a huge nerd, but i was super stoked. to the point that i actually showed it to jen, who just shook her head in what looked like a mix of horror, shame and 'i'm marrying you this summer?'.

a tidbit for the tense,

JD

p.s. for those of you who don't know, jen also likes hockey.

blogging about not blogging

i was just going to post a very tiny post apologizing for my blogger neglect, but i figured i'd try to muster some energy and get out a decent post.

i had another late night last night, but this one for a purpose (other than watching all 24 episodes of real world: las vegas in under two weeks, only watching between 11:30 and 2am).

i was fixing the internet.

the rogers debacle

ever since we switched our services to rogers we've had issues of one kind or another.

and because of that, we've actually hung on to our bell internet (which they were supposed to be sending us a return kit for).

but last night, i attacked it with fervour.

should i even call it tech support?

after having to get a tech in twice to fix our cable, and then having an incredibly unsuccessful call with a tech over the fact that our modem lit up but didn't provide any actual 'surfability', where he told me to call apple because it was probably a 'mac problem' i'd had enough.

not to mention the fact that they've charged me the installation fees that i was told would be waived if i bought a $20 pack in store when i booked my installation.

so last night i was not going to take no for an answer.

earlier in the week the modem had begun working plugged straight into jen's laptop, but i couldn't get it to work with our wifi router or with my xbox.

method and results

last night i started by trying out the bell internet with the router.

aha! the router worked. so it was not the bad link in the chain.

then, in between the first and second overtimes (i know! seriously tense!) i started testing all the cables i had used in my chain. i had 4 different ethernet cables going and was convinced that if the router wasn't the problem, one of the cables must be.

i was right and ended up throwing away the s**ty cable the came with the router.

hooked it up with the bell internet, it worked, so hooked the entire thing up with the rogers and presto! working wireless internet.

warning! overly technical section coming up next!

now, since i'd received complaints from jen in the past as she didn't like my security methods (wpa2 with password and invisible ssid) because she said she doesn't like having to write out the ssid each time or having to remember two things, i finally figured out how to use mac ids in wireless security.

so i kept the wpa2 and made it a visible ssid, but changed the security to allowable only from an assigned list. this makes it just as safe (i hope) but easier for jen. and that makes my life easier. hehe.

end of technical jargon-y section! phew!

so that's why i'm groggy and cranky today. all because of a useless tech at rogers (who should have just told me one of two things: a) that i should wait a couple days because rogers internet is testy and sometimes doesn't work right out of the box and b) that I should have tried another cable) and because it takes a long time to troubleshoot wireless internet that is designed to be used with windows, and a router that is designed to be used with windows, with a mac.

but it's all hooked up and working now, now if i can just get back my installation fees they inadvertently charged me...

JD

new stories/reviews

stories

check the side bar under 'stories' for all my new stories, including the 'ambitious' bell gps nav conversation review i did with jen.

i think it turned out pretty rad, but feel free to leave a comment on pcworld.ca, on the blog, or on my facebook page and let me know what you think.

there's also new reviews popping up every week so be sure to keep track of what's going in there every few weeks as i'm constantly writing, constantly publishing.

hockey

after a shakey start on friday, and a second visit from a tech, we have our digital cable up and running.

and, like the cable, after a shakey start (with a heart-breaking 5-4 loss to the caps in game 1) philly stormed back and took a shutout 2-0 win, in washington.

i promise i won't fill this blog with all my hockey obsessive junk, but it's a big deal for biron to pull out the shutout in game 2. now they get to take it back to philly and win a couple in front of the home team crowd.

enjoying my rogers 'on demand' eps of the real world,

JD

what i'm playing this week (crackdown edition)

well, in the tradition of playing games i missed out on when they were new, and going even further back i've been revisiting an impulse buy i made when i got the xbox, crackdown.

i forgot how much fun it was just traveling around in the game, and i'm looking forward to finally leveling up my agent and getting to see what level 4 agility, guns and driving are like. sounds like fun in italics.

i'm also excited to announce that, since it is impossible to avoid any longer-with the start of playoff hockey-i have buckled and bought cable.

i was avoiding it for a number of reasons, one being the writers strike at the end of 2007, and another being cost.

but i've picked up rogers vip service for $52 a month as well as bundled it with internet for under $100 (which is close to how much we were shelling out to bell just for internet-they hadn't mentioned that we were going over our bandwidth and paying almost double the cost of a regular bill!).

last weekend was a blowout in terms of actual rest since jen had visitors from out of town and i had a s***ton of work to get done for monday. hopefully this weekend, with the inclement weather, will let us veg in front of our newfound 125+ channels (probably less in reality) and enjoy a weekend of inactivity.

from my couch, salutations,

JD

quick note: pc edition

so i decided, after painstakingly trying to edit out the errors on that post with the device, that it wasn't worth it and left whatever is left there in.

it was an experiment and i feel satisfied that i tried and succeeded in blogging 'off-computer'.

in all seriousness, however, i don't know if i've ever been more excited for a weekend of nothing.

just chilling. i think there may be some apartment cleanup and wedding stuff, but barring that, there is just chill-axing in my immediate future.

come on 5 o'clock, stop being so damn slow and get here already!

coutin' down the minutes,

JD

quick note: mobile edition

so, i've been trying to review this mini tablet pc that nokia sent me for quite some time and just today i managed to get it on the net.

the odd thing is it's virtually useless without an internet connection.

if you want to checkit out, it's the n810 by nokia. it's a weird little device that i've already taken far too long to review, and i still can't decide if i like it or if it's useful at all.

the good news is that i finished portal last night and am finally 'in' on the biggest inside joke in gaming.

i was trying to explain why it was so important to jen last night using an analogy from my grade school days:

remember when if you missed a show that was in at the moment you would have nothing to say at school the next day and you would be scared of not being 'cool' if you missed it?

my analogy failed because where she grew up, in a small nova scotian town, they didn't get cable til she left for university...

so i tried to get her to watch the portal credits with me and get excited about still alive. she didn't really 'get it', portal or the song, and remains unimpressed.

have i really become that nerdy?

taping the nose piece on my glasses,

JD

p.s. typing on this thing takes FOREVER...though it might take longer if i cared about capitals.

what i'm playing this week (orange box edition)

what i'm playing now

in my illustrious tradition of trying to catch up on all the great games that everybody played months ago, i just grabbed a used copy of the orange box for my 360.

super stoked to finally play portal and figure out what this means:


hehehe. if you're going to try to ruin it for me, however, i must warn you that i'm almost done-it's not that long a game, and i don't suck at games that much...

what i just finished playing

i finally got my last achievement for bully:se, making it my first 1000/1000 gamerscore game in my collection, and the first game i've played 100% through since my obsession with the godfather game on wii.

really a satisfying game, despite the technical hardships-freezing, stuttering and missing audio, etc. i also am offically done with assassin's creed as i somehow missed one conversation with lucy, therefore meaning i'll have to play through the entire game again for that achievement. f the flags. f lucy. f any more time achievement point grinding on that game.

liked the game, hated the emphasis on dumb collecting challenges.

bully got that one right. while you have to collect three different types of things in the game-smash gnomes, grab g&g cards and rubber bands-they put them on the map for you and each one disappears when you get it.

there was no guessing as to whether you got it, consulting a faq for help, and then getting even more annoyed because you couldn't figure out on the map which one you had and which you were still missing!

argggh.

either way i'm done with them and on to good times with new games on the horizon too.


can you say gta iv?

gouranga!!!

JD

and the winner for best april fools joke is...

microsoft gaming division of all people!

it turns out that i was wrong on two counts...

1) they DO have a sense of humour at microsoft (also proved with bill gates' last day video, quite good)

2) they inadvertently created their own version of the mcfly 2015's, an xbox i desperately want to own, minus the 35 button remote:



special mention goes to the first april fools i saw today, the google/virgin venture, virgile, a mars colony that isn't quite 'safe' yet.

"...Sure, the work will be hard, the broadband rates low, the commodes decidedly open source, and yes, your life might be extinguished in a fiery instant of catastrophic technological malfunction..."

there were many more, but just wanted to list my two faves.

best holiday ever!

JD