Back to Azeroth

Everything started around 2004 or 2005, can't quite remember... but I do remember that it was a great experience passed on to me. World of Warcraft, nowadays it sounds really cliché, mainstream and a commercial household MMO RPG game, but that doesn't take away that is a good game indeed, I don't care what other people say, that is what I think so shove it beeatches.

I quit Warcraft last year, I think the last time I played Warcraft was near the Burning Crusade expansion release or a little bit afterwards, I was going through so much stuff in my life that I just didn't have the time to play, in addition that I had a 56k modem connectivity so the game play was always a laggy experience. Because of that and other reasons I had to return the account to the original owner, who eventually got hooked up again and leveled up his old character to level 70 on the expansion.

After quitting Warcraft I started collecting video game consoles (I started with a PS2, then a Genesis and so on) and its something I am still obssessed with I already got most of the consoles I wanted and many fo the games.. they are still a few I want but DAMN those collectors prices. With these video game consoles I never get bored but.... do I get totally satisfied? See, that I loved from Warcraft is that there were now rules, you just entered the world and do whatever you want, that could be either terrorrize other opposed faction towns (I recommend a couple of high levels to go with), farm some instances for money, dedicate yourself to your profession and look for the materials to execute it, play in battlegrounds, help people level up, dance for money, get drunk, manage a guild, everything! That is waht I loved from the world of Azeroth, you could do everything and many of your actions could be remembered through time..because other peopel are playing in the same world and they are witness of your actions.

My character name is Unbroken (a interesing fact is that couple Months after I quit Warcraft a novel related to the game was published named Unbroken, brutal!) and when I started I was a member of couple of guilds along with some friends until I decided to make my own THE OATH, and in that guild is where I had the best experiences, friends tell me that to this day, they still see members of the guild roaming around, and I think that is amazing because that guild is over 2 or 3 years old and I do remember that I passed my leadership some weeks before quitting and I remember I told them... "'till the end".. I guess they took it seriously. In that guild we were a fucking family I can still recall many of the members,Broken (my ingame brother and real life friend Rodrigo) Varsen (who I met after one year of me not playing), Noemi, Loughlin, Jaderis, Zamuck, Kistel (from costa rica!), Bluekiller, Kongar, Meangreen, and my closests friends Chivo (Jolge) and Cruroar (Carli) who both later on became members of the best Horde Guild in Gilneas RAID INC. In fact I found and old address of the guild's website... look for yourself:
http://www.pnxmedia.com/theoath/

I could write a book about all the experiences we had on the guild, like helping each other out, escorting a low level friend friend from the oppossed faction across the world without being killed, (I had guild members meet him at different check points around the world then we would rotate by using friendly transports in sea and air since he couldn't use them), it was amazing, eventually when that character leveled became our enemy and I remember I planned and ambush on his group on a trench in the Shimmering Flats near Tanaris... total destruction, its funny the same people that helped him...destroyed him..I dont regret it.

I really had my fun in warcraft, until people started to get greedy farming for items and leaving for other end level guilds, and I started to have less time to paly and couldn't keep up... so that was it for me.

Until couple weeks ago... In last years Christmas gift exchange at my work place Moira gave me a World of Warcarft game. In hte mean time I was using the borrowed account in which my character was leveled up, so I ddn't ahd to use the game she game, I even tried to sell it on a Flea Market... but no success, so last week I decided to open it and install it, started leveling up a character..but its like wow... it took me 9 months to level mine at my own pace... so I think I am not up for that again. But guess what? The account where my original cahrater was wasnt activated so I asked for it back and..wallah! Unbroken lives again.

The game changed a lot, I needed help from Chivo (who is making a comeback too) to get use to some of the new stuff, and wow..it really changed.. now people go through level 60 as if nothing till to level 70, so they miss all the fun stuff a 60 could get. So now when people see me or Chivo (who agreed to stay 60 for life...who knows thou) tell us we are old school, because we have gears and items 60 get a year ago. We have old school moves and gear and attitude in the battlegrounds... here I can prove it... a converstation that happend when I rescued a post on an old fashioned reckless warrior way (also using a viking helmet from the Lost vikings in which charged and stunned the first opponent only availbe through farming an instance people ignore nowadays). Here it goes:






I know to other people its stupid..but it is cool when people recognize you, it means that they remember my actions...so my game play gets immortalized for the moment hehehe.. oh fuck it was jsut cool.

I dont regret getting back to this game, it is jsut fun and I get satisfied in a way other games that cant even thou taht they can be really good games it jsut doesnt trigger that geek/nerd inside of me who always wanted to be a hero...
Merry Christmas

Christmas update

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a week since the last time I wrote in this blog, so many things happend thou. So I will put everything in themes... so here is the first one:

FINALLY MOVED

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Yes I am officially living with my girlfriend, I even paid the first part of the rent. Do I like it? Yeah, I mean, I liked living with my mom stepdad and uncle, but fuck, I am old enough to be living with them, so my girlfriend offered me live with her..so I took it. Hell, I lived with my ex and she had 2 children (who I miss, they are cool kids) in a big house with pool and everything, so I am used to live with people. Now I live on a "walk-up" I htink is pretty cool, first experience, and yeas I like it, the first week was sepnt getting everything foir the apartment, table, entertainment center, etc. Its cool, its like a reality check...you are an adult... you are not a kid or teenager anymore... so its time for responsabilities. Still, I got a room for my self (for now), so I have all my video game and consoles set up already, my desk with the computer, My record player and records, my guitar and bass, my amp, my weights, my toys, everything..its like a room I had back in high school... I never get bored in there.. NEVER. And yes since it is christmas, I already bought the tree on a stormy night... Ill talk about it later on in this post.

RAD SQUAD

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The same day I bought the entertainment center for the tv and stereo Ih ad some extra bucks on the bank and took the opportunity to buy a skateboard. Yeah... a skateboard. I always loved skateboarding and in line skating... but for now I think I can enjoy more skateboarding and since my friend Jolge bought it couldn't be a better choice so we can skate together and vandalize. Because of that we formed the: RAD SQUAD. It s all about old school skateboarding tribute group..compose of well 3 people, Jolge, LuisFe and Me. So yeah, I bought a skatebaord, the people at the store called Chatarra... can be translated to Junk. They are pretty cool, they are into skatebaording and their clients too... they asked of us pictures (Since the Rad Squad bought 3 skateboards from their store), its like if they are our sponsors (which is not true at all) and want to see our progress in getting back into skating...well we have them some news; last week Jolge fractured his elbow.

It was the same night LuisFe bought his skateboard...so we met at the mall then decided to run in my apartment parking lot but becuase of the noise we needed to go some place else... here is a pic of that night:


Here you can see the basketball court and LuisFe... resting I guess and me..I jsut did the Rip and Shred signature move.. its interesing you speed up at a moderate speed then you Shred doing a turn form the insde out on my right grabbing the skateboard as a surf board...then quickly I put both hand on the floor and do a inside turn to my left which is the RIP.. then I stand up and do a floor 180 to go back to my goofy riding stance.

Rip and shred motherfucker.

Well how Jolge fucked his elbow up? To start with saying that it happend on my skateboard and not his..since he didn't wanted to run that night..I insisted that he should've. It happend as easy as this.. I let my skate roll to where he was and isntead of stopping it he decided to jump in while it rolled...and well not a bright move..he fell on hiss elbow and ass. I thought he fucked his ass or something, but then he said it was his elbow that hurt, and he talked about how much it sucked to have a hand broken and how he should be more careful etc. To make the story short, after he left me at my apartment with some ocmpalints that his elbow was hurting... I got a call form his mother next day telling me that he was on the hospital cause his elbow got swollen and had a miniature fracture. Fuck yeah. Now that hi is injured and LuisFe is I dont know where.. I am the only RAD SQUAD active member for the moment! Brutal.

Christmas Tree Surgery

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My girlfriend took this picture (I say this before she freaks out about she not being credited, seriously I will get my own camera).

Now we can start, the tree house I bought is some how crooked and doenst fit right on the stand... so it was a pain in the ass making it stand right. I had to take it off and chop a little more than an inch on the bottom to make it more steady and allow it to absorb water better, and that ladies and gentlemen it was a hard procedure. First we tried with a knife... no success what so ever, then I asked for a Machete...too messy no success, then we had to go to my girlfriend's parents house to geta Saw... it worked a lilttle bit but we needed an extra help from a screwdriver and a hammer to open the gap, it worked but to make it even better I used my drill. It was a total mess but it worked. That same night the tree fell, but the next morning I did some adjkustments and its still standing... hopefully will be like that when I come home from work.


And yes thats us... celebrating after we completed the surgery.

EDIT #1: I am writting this after I posted this entry... yes this picture is also from my girlfriend..it was a timed shot, she used a chair as stand. Just in case she freaks out, ;) .

Well I am still at work so I can't continnue talking about the other stuff that happend... but stay tuned cause it will be my: Return to World of Warcraft... and I'll explain why I did suck thing... Fuck you Gaby.

LOADED!

I realized today that I really like reviewing games. But reviewing games that I really had the opportunity to live them thru, not just a new game that I just played like 2 or 3 levels the most... and just talk baout its hype...(fuck halo). I wanna talk about games that are considered old or obselete or whatever. Games that people will be like.. "Yeah, I heard of that game years ago, wow I didn't know it was that cool." Many hardcore gamers right now, are people that were born on the 90's, or many of them were just kindergarden kids when the 16 bit consoles were at their peak, and the 32bit consoles were entering the market and probably most of them might see 8 bit consoles as prehistoric sytems that somehow it games are only availble thorugh Xbox Live Arcade, Virtual Console or emulators. Having that in mind I want to wirte reviews from a technical way and personal way combined, bringing forth the positive and negative sides and how can both be balanced, and take those points and compare them to current generation games and how at certain points old console games are more fun to play than today's.

Here is a review of the Playstation's game Loaded, the game is one of my favorites and I was glad that I had the opportunity to review it on Ebay... here is the review:
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Search and Destroy Gore Fest

I think LOADED was a game that was ahead of its time back in 1996 (at least its theme). It is a game which gameplay is borrowed from GAUNTLET (top view moving characters blasting their way out of the level) but with some twist and mature content that is special nowadays on first person shooter games. With this elements LOADED is a pretty fun game to play, you got 6 (psycopath) characters with unique abilites and special attacks which adds to the gameplay specially if you are playing on a cooperative two player mode, which I thinks is were everything turns out to mayhem (good of course). The game was pretty violent and bloody (your shooting path looked like a slaughter house afterwards) and had adult content deep within.

The game theme is dark and morbid/fun and you can tell by looking at the inspirational characters illustrations and reading their profiles. The graphics is all what you expect from a first generation Playstation game so expect some pixelation, slowdowns etc.. but its all good and all becomes part of the game...as a historical technological check point Also some premature 32bit compressed FMV are included.

The music fits the game perfectly, I just cant describe what type it is, but its something that you can tag the 90's electronica or industrial theme on it (maybe I am wrong). Artist involved is: Pop Will Eat Itself.

My own experience with LOADED:
The first time I got in touch with LOADED was from a demo disk that came with my Playstation back in 1996.. from all the games that were included WARHAWK and LOADED were my favorites, constantly playing it even thou it was one level and one character available. So years later on a PAWN SHOP / COLLLECTORS STORE in Fort Lauderdale Florida I found the game on a shelf for around $10. The store owner told me it was a really wanted game sought after by collectors, and that everytime it came to the store it was sold as hot bread, and this was back in 2001. That same game copy I bought I accidentally broke it 2 years ago... and now I got a copy recently purchased from Ebay(just bought the disk only since I still had the original box), and still play the game, over 10 years later and still love this game. It is just fun to play.. pick up and shoot, blast everything that moves or that stands in your way.

FINAL WORDS:
If you buy this game, do not expect current generation graphics or gameplay (its an early 32-bit era title!), think of it as a classic top view shooter game with enhanced graphics and sound, and of course with awesome characters and their unique special attacks. I gave the game a "Good" review instead of "Excellent" because it might get too repeatative further into the gameplay, but that is how it is. If you are into shooters, violence, psychopaths, deatailed characters illustrations, Gauntlet, Contra, adrenlaine rush and all that cool stuff... then what are you waiting for? For the rest this game is a MUST for a 32bit Playstation or Saturn console. "Body bag not included"
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Ill try to do more reviews whenever I can, maybe I will try to get a post on the local newspaper talking about it..instead of sucking on ad hype supported games that really suck. And yes I finally moved in with my girlfriend, its all coming out great even better than I thought.

Super Contra III: The Alien Wars

I wanted to write this post once I had played Contra 4... but since I do not have a Nintendo DS and neither the game... I rather write about the best Contra game ever, Super Contra III: The Alien Wars.

Last night I was moving into my girlfriend's apartment with the help of her and Jolge, after we finished moving the sutff, (I carried a computer desk by myself from the parking to the room in the third floor thru the stairs) I turned in the Super Nintendo in the living room and popped in Super Contra (Jolge bought it for me couple weeks ago in Play n Trade). Well, I felt like it was the summer of 1992 all over again, since this was the first time I played the game...over and over again.

What I always liked of the game is just the pick up and play/destroy intensity. Endless ammo, screen full of enemies and explosions, glorified military soundtrack. It is excellent, this game first level is an perfect example of what I am talking about here is a speed run of the first level:



Intense.

The game just gets more pumped up through out the levels, with more enemies, giant mini bosses and bosses and the level designs only are full of action. I always thought of this game is a game made out of RAMBO (Sylvester Stallone) and COMMANDO (Arnold Shwarze.. whatever you know), they even used pictures of them for the first Contra game, here is the original cover and a tribute version I did:

Original box cover art for Nintendo:


My version jsu because..:


There is similarities on the pose, that element alone makes it a great game.

When I played the game last night, I forgot how much fun it was as a 2 player cooperative mode. The gameplay was faster and more chaotic, but we had to stop because it was already late, but we were kicking ass I guess, but sure it was fun man. Can't wait for another play.

This game is one my top 10 games of all time, one day Ill psot my list, it will be hard to make the order but I will do it... some day.

There is a version of these game in Gameboy Advance... but is not the same, but still is a good play, also there are other Contra games that are among my favorites and is Contra: Shattered Solider and the first Contra. I should collect Contra: Hard Corps from the Sega Genesis and Neo Contra for PS2... but some day when I get extra money. ... For now.. get this game, if you don't have a Super NES, get it emulated (warn you..is not the smae has some graphical issues), you won't regret it. Now, Ill just wait for the day Ill get to play CONTRA 4:



Hope Santa gives me a Nintendo DS with this game (Contra 4)...along with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin....got it? "Santa"?