I don’t normally like earbuds. They get into your ear and create space where space wasn’t meant to exist. Often times painful and awkward while trying to lay on your side while wearing. Not at all conducive to falling asleep while listening to something. The Sony Qlasp headphones really provided a unique solution to this problem for me. They were comfortable yet very, very secure given their clip on mechanism under the speaker. At first I thought this would just make things worst and be even more painful, but I hardly noticed that they were attached. The first earbud cups worked well for me, but there are a few other sizes for even the most mousy of ears.

I also found that they had amazing sound quality for their size. The first thing I did was listen to Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach in its entirety with the Qlasps, and was surprised to be hearing the subtle bass tones that I got with larger Sennheiser models. The only issue I had with them with them was the color. I don’t normally pick green for my first choice, in anything other than money. It does however make them very easy to find when you lose them while sleeping (don’t tell me no one else tosses and turns). Still, the design of the other models is very sleek and stylish with the color options.

One thing that I like is the cord length. For some reason, the other earbuds I’ve used have lopsided cord length for right and left speakers. This design makes no sense to me. It doesn’t help me at all, and it just makes it awkward when putting them on. The Sony Qlasp headphones keep them both the same length like normal headphones should be.

I can’t really say I’ve ever used a more comfortable set of earbuds that have actually STAYED in my ear while laying down. I’ll use them all the time for my go-to headphones. I’m also going to be picking up a separate pair so I don’t have to switch them between my iPod Touch and Android phone.

Running a self-funded video game site isn’t easy. You have the paid journalists to compete with, the insider affiliated semi-pro blogs, and the blogspot bloggers to contend with. And then there are the multitudes of gamers and fans who will dog sites like IGN, Kotaku, Joystiq and Gamespot for gross negligence and then criticize YOU yourself for not having any journalistic credibility. It’s a walking, talking, breathing double standard no matter how you slice it. The one thing I never expected to happen was for one of us to get barred entrance after pre-registration.

On April 23rd, two staff writers Axel and Jesus both began their pre-registration processing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo’s main site. They both received confirmation details and badge numbers from E3, and Axel received his last week in the mail. Jesus however did not. He called almost daily, requesting confirmation of his eligibility and received it every time. Naturally as we do not pay, he had to check his schedule to be let off of work to attend. He was unable to travel to Los Angeles until today, and it was probably a good thing he didn’t go yesterday and miss work.

It seems that the situation was this: on average our site receives roughly 3-5,000 pageviews a week. A site like IGN or Gamespot receives somewhere around over a hundred million a month. It’s just numbers. Based on our traffic, we were only eligible for one writer to attend E3, and even that was a stretch. The blame of this can be placed on a lot of things. When they checked our traffic in April, we weren’t writing regularly, and as such it appeared that we had less than our normal visitor count. However, just this Sunday we had a post that has had nearly 2,000 visitors in a single day.

So yes, I’m officially giving E3 the right and even agreeing with their decision to not let us in. I understand that allowing every person free admittance into your show is a pretty bad policy. Everyone who hasn’t been says “LET US IN!” Everyone who has says “DON’T LET THEM IN!” So I understand their choice. What I don’t understand is why to wait until a person is at the very door to bar their access? If Jesus hadn’t called almost every day I would have put all the blame on him. But he did, and he was told to simply come pick up his badge. I live in Florida, and if I had flown thousands of miles to LA and was told I couldn’t enter E3, I would be in jail right now. This is a terrible system, and at the very least E3 should check access restrictions over the phone.

So at the very least, let this be a cautionary tale. If you’re doing this as a hobby expect to be treated as such. The industry doesn’t respect you, the people that aren’t in the industry don’t respect you, and given how dedicated you are to it, you probably don’t respect yourself.

Now, I will leave you with the immortal words of Jesus Escobar.

Dude, they won’t let me in! Call the Master Chief!

Jesus

May is indeed a terrible month for purchase conscious gamers as a number of high profile games were released on the same day. This leads me to believe that current management staff at several publishers should be handing in their badges and tweaking their resumes`. Red Dead: Redemption has been getting stellar reviews although it wasn’t near the top of my to-do list. Alan Wake’s psychological thrills and Split/Second’s pants washing pandemonium make for more hair raising excitement. I’m not too bothered as Hollowman is tackling Super Mario Galaxy 2 and I am still amiss on the first game’s campaign.

Which leaves me in an awkward position with my last gaming fling–Splinter Cell: Conviction. I admit, I was enthralled with it’s first few levels, but towards the end it began to drag on me. It was probably the fact that me and stealth share a less symbiotic relationship and more of a lackadaisical summer romance. I’m not one for getting into a room unnoticed if there isn’t a giant sign that says “hide here” or a dark corner for me to creep around. I admit I can’t think creatively about killing someone sneakily when I have the option to make them scream bloody murder.

I’m also trying to get better about my backlog. Here I’ve had Final Fantasy XIII since March and it’s still in shrink wrap. I guess I don’t have to think of it as a terrible purchase and more of an advanced gift that a time traveling version of myself left me for my birthday two months ago. I like that rationalization better.

While I’m at it let me gripe about the reviews Lost Planet 2 is getting. Now let me be forthwith that I’ve never had any issues with the controls in ANY recent Capcom title. I loved Lost Planet, Resident Evil 5, Dead Rising, and Devil May Cry 4– but there was always ONE thing that bothered me about each one of them. LP: being able to receive damage when you were knocked down. RE5: can’t think of anything major… DR: save system. DMC4: backtracking and frequent character switching when Dante > Nero (that’s two things which counts towards RE5 in this case). Nevertheless, the fact that LP2 is a co-op game doesn’t bother me too much. It’s the fact that I don’t know anyone who would touch the game with a ten foot pole. Word to the not so wise, I suggest you make sure there are four people in the world who like your game before you build it around 4-player co-op.

So I’ve been playing Halo: Reach’s beta since the cool people were let in on May 3rd (I wasn’t offered nor given a chance to play the beta early like so called “Friends & Family” and after this blog I expect Bungie would call me neither) and I’ve got to say, for a beta – this is really pretty poor. I know, there’s a million underpowered Assault Rifles pointed in my direction, but at least let me explain myself. I’ve enjoyed parts of the beta a lot. The new Armor Abilities are a dynamic change of pace to the tried and true gameplay, the menu system is more intuitive and encourages group play, and after the initial hurdle the matchmaking isn’t causing me any grief.

There’s only one aspect that really grinds my gears in the experience, and that would be the map selection. I remember the three Halo 3 maps by heart. Snowbound, High Ground, and Valhalla. Three maps that really would become the best maps in all Halo 3. The latter ones didn’t grip me in the same way, and honestly due to an awfully suspect vetoing mechanic I rarely got to deviate from them in the retail version. But still, each of the maps offered a switch in play style ranging from close quarters to expansive all out ballistics warfare. Reach’s maps…not so much.

We’re given Sword Base, the maker of which should be fired from the development staff and have his resume red flagged (I’m not trying to be mean or over-dramatic, we as an industry just can’t risk him spreading), Power House which can suffer no real complaints as a level only that it’s the ONLY good one to be found, and most recently Boneyard which confines itself to only one game mode. Whereas Halo 3′s beta felt more like a dip into an enjoyable experience thanks to it’s variety (solely in retrospect) in maps, Reach has actually felt like a bit of work.

But the maps are merely the instrument for which the irritation shows itself. Fans of Halo 3 will be hard pressed to find a weapon they click with as much as their beloved Battle Rifle and Assault Rifle combination. Reticle bloom seems to be what this game is trying to innovate with, and I couldn’t complain much about it if the weapons did any sort of damage to a foe’s head. You will get off a couple of shots to your opponents head, and strafe in for the melee kill, only to be jarringly met with two swift melees and a reality check. More than that, the health system supposedly taken from Halo: CE doesn’t really feel like an evolution in much more than frustration. Frag grenades that would merely deplete your shields allowing you to be softened up (even in the previous Halo games) now can kill you with full shields active. A death sentence to almost anyone but a sniper or those who are equipped with the cloak ability.

Your Assault Rifle now shoots pellets that would tickle a fowl, rendering a 12ft Elite hopelessly unamused. You’ll find yourself switching to your pistol at the start of every respawn, overpowering the frightened and confused AR users who hopelessly melee you in an attempt to survive. The DMR itself isn’t a bad weapon, but it cannot be considered a Battle Rifle replacement without the advantage of a headshot kill system. That said, it’s impossible for players in Halo to not figure out interesting ways to kill each other. New power weapons and old favorites like the shotgun and hammer are given new life by the Armor Abilities, giving rise to outrageously dramatic killing sprees.

Bungie has said a number of times that they’re going to be making some important changes to Reach in regards to gameplay before it ships. I just hope they’re the ones that NEED to be changed. I think the future is bright for Halo: Reach as a game, but as a beta, I’m a bit underwhelmed with what Bungie decided to serve up. Bungie, if you’re still reading this, here’s a list of things that are good and bad with this beta.

Pros:

• + Armor Abilities
• + Stockpile
• + Grenade Launcher
• + Elites
• + Sword Blocking
• + Assassinations (but more variety please)

Cons:

• - Sword Base
• - Unbalanced Health system (we need HSR)
• - Weak Melee
• - Assault Rifle
• - Being able to headshot each other at the same time

And in case some of you doubt my skill and knowledge of Halo, just watch this video to clear all doubt from your minds.

Halo: Reach Rendered Videos

King of the Hill | InVaDeD | WHAT THE %#&$ DRIVER!? | Tank U

Again. I’ve been thinking about getting into it again, even after I found it fucking boring as hell in previous attempts to play it. Now, I’ve returned to the most popular MMO ever.  I’d like to possibly get a group together, since being a rogue solo is a bit hard. But, if anyone’s interested, you can talk to me in the game through Damderberger (on the realm Boulderfist), or you can leave a comment here.

Also, I have joined Twitter, and I have no idea why. But, if you want to read the manliest twitter page ever, you can follow me here. Now, go punch someone in the face.

I’m sure Final Fantasy/RPG fans around the world will be following suit and at midnight tonight there will likely be a lot of people thinking of excuses for the inevitable sick week off work.

With days passing in the blink of an eye, insomnia sure to set in and missed calls on my phone mounting up, I’m wondering, is being such an avid gamer a good lifestyle choice? The answer is probably not, but would I have it any other way, absolutely no chance!

This is a game of epic proportions, with only fellow fans able to understand the true potential and many possibilities of a game such as Final Fantasy XIII. Sure it will no doubt be some ‘barely out of school’ main characters. With slight builds, some geeky speeches and the appearance’s of that untouched by the battlefield (I still have no idea why Square Enix refuse to even contemplate a Marcus like main character). But that aside, if its even half as good as it looks then I personally cant wait!

In a week or two, I might be a couple of pounds lighter, with some serious eye bags and in desperate need of a shave but I’ll be able to hold my head up high with knowledge I beat the bad guys and added some serious points to my gamerscore.

Mum, dad, I’ll call you in a couple of weeks! J

I haven’t had much time to do any writing as of late, at least not the sort of writing that I enjoy.  My legal philosophy class has been tying up a great deal of my time, but at least the end is finally in sight and spring break is right around the corner.

I was fairly surprised at the response to my first editorial submitted to Couch Campus, and while I am overjoyed that anyone is willing to take but a glance at what I put out there to be judged by the masses I found it quite interesting, and more so amusing that some thought I was simply a viral advertiser for Heavy Rain.  I can assure you I am not, but if Sony or Quantic Dream believe that they owe me some sort of compensation, feel free to send me a check.

My next editorial is in the works, but as I noted before I’ve had very little free time, and as such it hasn’t progressed much further than the introduction.  I hope to have it done by Sunday, but more and more that is beginning to seem like a fever dream.  Work has been getting in the way, and after three years I’m beginning to think I should find a job that doesn’t have me working from 8pm to 4am every night.  I also still have Darksiders, Heavy Rain, and Bioshock 2 sitting on my bureau unopened, and it stands to reason that the moment my nine day reprieve begins I will delve so deeply into these games that I may never see the light of the sun again.

At the moment I simply hope to make it through the day.

Heavy Rain comes out today.  Normally I never run to the store a grab a game on the first day that it comes out, and never do I even bother to reserve one.  It doesn’t much sense to do that anymore, places like Best Buy and Target aren’t going to run out of copies.  However, I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, and I plan to grab it on the first free moment that I have today.  If you haven’t seen some of the footage of the game that has come out I suggest you take a gander.  There’s even one scene that will make you squirm, especially if you’re a parent.

While the characters at time appear stiff and forced on the screen, I’m hoping that the game play and story are able to rise above it.  So for the next few days I plan to shove myself into a deep, dark hole with a PS3 and a copy of the game.

As for my video game interests I am an RPG nerd through and through.  Many a night I’ve gone sleepless with my good friends Link, Cloud, and others.  Having said that I also like, FPS, music games, RTS, platformers, and anything else that captures my interests.  I can also routinely be found on World of Warcraft.

So once again I’m glad to make your acquaintance.

I customized my Shepard, and I’m not disappointed at the results (unlike the first game). They really strove to correct the inconsistencies in the first game. You’re given a code during the creation process that tells you the ID of your character. Say if maybe someone made an awesome Brad Pitt or a Denzel Washington clone, they could copy and paste without trying to pay attention to detail. And all BioWare’s people say ‘amen’.

Yes, the overheating ammo discharge is gone, but I’d take this style of gunplay over the old any day. It’s tighter, more precise, and it feels more intense. I never remember enjoying the standard pistol so much in the last game. Picking up a grenade launcher was also epic. Finally something beyond the 4 default weapon types.

This isn’t an IGN review (I’m admitting that I’m only one hour in). I just thought it was so awesome I had to tell someone about it. Oh, here are pics of my Shepard. Custom armor FTMFW!