Tag: fun

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First Real 17c Shakedown.

July 21, 2013 Results:

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(Other competitors names blurred to protect the innocent, but let’s just say I know 2 of them pretty well and they are very very good shooters.   I don’t know the guy who was A4)

Seriously though, it was a good outing, even though I blew it on Stage 2.   But as someone once told me; “A Win is a Win”.  Smile

It was also the 2nd fastest non-rimfire time for the evening.   Beaten only by Sean, who’s not human so he doesn’t count.

This is my poor man’s 9mm Open/Unlimited gun:

17c

  • Glock 17c (compensated), factory ported barrel.
  • Trigger mods (polishing, connector, lightened striker + springs, 11lb recoil spring, more polishing).
  • C-More STS 7MOA, plus lever so that you don’t grab the C-More to rack the slide.  C-More is currently mounted in the rear site dove tail with the standard adapter.
  • Not shown: Extended Magazine Release (catch).

Last week did not go so well, as I had forgotten to add the extended magazine release, and reloads were neigh impossible at speed.

Is the 17[c] part significant?  I don’t think so.  It certainly makes more noise but I’m not convinced it shoots any flatter than my non c 17, and certainly not any flatter than my 34.

But it sure is fun.

If you’re interested in shooting steel.  Friday Night Steel is a great place to start.   Very laid back and noob friendly.

-MD

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The cake is a lie!

Yeah I know I’m a little late to the party but last night I finished ‘Portal’.

Portal is this amazing game that’s part of the ‘Orange Box’ from Valve. It’s one of 5 games in the game pack, and in my humble opinion the only game in it worth playing.

It’s a 3D puzzle game that puts you as a test subject at the Aperture Science Institute. “We do what we must because we can.”

The portal concept is difficult for some to get. I’ll try to explain it.

There are two portals, one orange, one blue. If you walk in one you come out the other. In early stages you only get to control one, the blue portal.

Imagine that if you walked out your front door. But instead of walking out onto the porch you ended up coming in the back door of your house. Like wise you could turn around and walk out the back and instantly be in your front foyer, as if there was no ‘outside’. That’s what a portal would be like, only you get to shoot them and place them where you need them in most cases.

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There’s a 2D flash version on the net that might help explain this [here].

I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t played it.

I played this on the PS3. It’s available for X Box, PS3 and the PC platform. You can buy Portal by itself for $20 from Valve and I’d recommend that if you’re not into the half life series.

On the PS3 the game played fine, though it loaded like a slug.

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EA Skate for PS3

At the same time that we purchased Ratchet & Clank for PS3 we also bought EA Skate.

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As skating games go this one is pretty good. The reviews of this game coming in around a high 7 to low 8 are pretty spot on.

What differentiates this game from other skating games is the ‘flick-it’ controls. Rather than push a button to start a trick, you ‘flick’ the right analog stick to perform Ollie and Nollie tricks. The tutorials throughout your career are pretty good and get you down the right path. It’ s all about timing and that takes some time to learn.

Throughout the career, I’ve had two times when pulling the appropriate trick was nearly impossible. In some challenges you’ll have to do a Nollie 360 and grind on something. It has to be a “Nollie 360”, not a “Nollie 360 Pop Shuvit”, or anything else that’s very similar. The differences between the two on the Analog stick are very hard to discern and do with consistency, at least for me. Of the two PS3 controllers that we have, one seems easier than the other. Perhaps it’s not as worn out?

What sucks about these types of challenges is that you must do the called for trick in the called for order. It would help if you could do a couple different types of tricks to satisfy the requirement.

The other bad part of this game is there is no walking. You ride everywhere. You have to Ollie up every little curb and step, which can sometimes make getting lined up for a run somewhat tricky. If you could stop, pickup your board, walk to where you want to be, set it down this game would be much more user friendly. I fully expect that will be implemented in the next installment of this game.

The game can get somewhat redundant at times, but forging forward to get the X-Games unlocked brings all kinds of fun.

I currently ‘Own’ my 16 year old son on X-Games Big Air 🙂 He’s getting frustrated and there are still tricks that neither of us can pull with consistency.

Poking around the web you’ll find a number of ‘cheat sheets’ for the tricks. There aren’t any ‘cheats’ that I know of other than unlocking some clothes that you don’t want anyway.

This game takes time to master and certainly isn’t as much fun as saving the day and blowing stuff up, but as a sport game it is quite fun.

I highly recommend it. For me it was a lot more ‘realistic’ and fun than say a Tony Hawk game where you can pull any trick, any time, anywhere, w/o consequences.

I give it two thumbs up.

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Ratchet and Clank Future Tools Of Destruction.

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Well it’s finally here.

The reason to own a Playstation 3

The quest into this 5th installment started last night with the return of our ‘dead’ PS3 from the Sony repair facilities.

After approximately 4 hours of game play here’s my initial reaction.

It’s friggin beautiful! By far the most visually appealing game I’ve played for the PS3.

Game play

  • Is as smooth as butta. It’s a pleasure to play and is just simply visually stunning.
  • Even the parts that use the 6 axis for control, this is by far the best implementation of this technology.
  • It’s not hard. Though no Ratchet and Clank game has been all that ‘hard’, this is somewhat too easy. After 4 hours of play I died only a handful of times, most of those were from jumping off into the abyss by accident and not by the hand of any of the foe’s.
  • Some parts of the game, like piloting the ship and fighting the big bad Pirate ship on the way to a planet are down right dumb. There isn’t any skill involved in this portion of play. Just fly in random circles and shoot. You won’t die, and if you do this long enough, you’ll eventually beat the pirate ship.
    • Note: in this day and age of video games, no games should be so easy a monkey could play it, and that’s not what I bought R&C for.
  • You start out with too much stuff. In prior adventures you’d have to work a bit to find the good gadgets. In Future Tools, you start out with too many.
    • Granted, if this installment was aware of prior quests, and you started out with them because of that, I’d be OK with it. I don’t know yet if I’ll receive any super cool weapons or discounts because of these prior quests as in previous games.

The Weapons

This is what we buy R&C for. To blow stuff up in creative ways w/o any attempt at realism. There’s no blood or gore, it’s just down right fun.

4 hours into it, and with a few weapon upgrades, I’m a little disappointed. But perhaps I just haven’t unlocked the fun stuff yet. I don’t have a Quack-O-Ray, or a Taunter, or anything fun (yet), nor certainly anything as devastating as the Flux Rifle. But time will tell.

The whole game feels as though it was rushed by Insomniac. The storyline/plot is same/same. Game play is great, but it’s missing the ‘hook’. The comedy and wit isn’t nearly as good as in the past. It really feels like I’m playing a previous version that was simply mastered for high def. It’s like watching the Newly mastered Jungle book from the Disney archives. Same story only prettier. Less exciting be case after four hours I haven’t been ‘wowed’ yet by anything other than the artwork.

If Resistance was given a 9 out of 10 stars, then Future Tools will score an 11 just based upon the smooth game play and visuals. It’s still entertaining, dot get me wrong, but it’s lacking something. Something you just know Insomniac would give you.

I’ll report back when I’m finished and hopefully I won’t feel so torn.