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Review: The Sims 3 & the state of EA games

I’ve written about EA games in the past and every now and than I will pick up a game from EA just to see where they are at as far as quality. I purchased the Sims 3 On sale after Christmas, since in January there are not many A level games around this time that appeal to my gaming sense.

Out of the box the sims 3 is very familiar in terms of game play. Its one of the few games that EA was smart enough not to change the core game play unlike any EA sports game.

Most EA sports game needlessly complicate the fuck out of the controls. I bought NHL 2009 out of the bargin bin for $4.99 for one reason on the box it listed “Play with classic controls”. After installing the game I played the game for about a week. The game itself is barely passable, but the game itself has some very poor coding. for one you can not play widescreen, you are stuck with standard 4:3 resolutions. If you try to change the control options theres no real way to customize the controls.

The sims 3 after playing for awhile is almost refreshing in the sence of quality from EA. But there are a few glaring things. In order to patch the game you’re almost forced to install EA’s Download Manager. The EA download Manager is pretty much a useless version of steam. Steam is Extremely well thought out but the EA download manager just feels like its an advertising program more than a game content client.

Manual patching for the Sims 3 is possible though but its incredibly aggravating.  Since you can’t Patch to the current version from the retail disk without some hunting around. Since the EA support site does not have the patches on the site you have to go look around for patches, As i’ve found the patches.  You can’t patch directly to the latest release version  and have to download a few patches to get to the point of the patch you want to be at.

The game however is an improvement over the sims 2, although when I play the sims its not exactly in the sense of playing the sims its more like How to drive your sim mad in 3 easy steps.  Theres less micromanagement in the sims3, unlike 2 where you cant just let it run all night to see what chaos comes about.  to me its like an ant farm  you give it a shake once in a while to see what the hell happens.

I think the most annoying fact of the sims 3 is it feels unfinished out of the box, and i didnt figure out why till I actually read the insert that came with the game. EA gives you 10$ to buy random stuff at the sim store, truthfully i find this annoying. its worse than a DLC. Why would you go online to buy a chair for a game or some other virtual furniture the prices are a little high in terms of value per dollar, most stuff is 75cents or a dollar but still, The online store should be a place to buy items and not to finish a game that is missing items.

as for the sims its ok with a few glaring issues that bug me. Patches/Unfinished feel out of the box / and no way to let the sims run on there own for a long period of time.

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Fun With Teva shoes

In the early half of 2009,  I purchased Teva aravalli mens shoes. For years I have worn Teva shoes since Timberland shoe quality went downhill.  Now since I do not drive a car, quality of shoes are important to me.

Around Mothers Day in 2009 I purchased these shoes and out of the store they were very comfortable. but, after a month these shoes started to fall apart which aggravated me.  The glue to hold the sole together had was very inferior due to the fact that the more you walked the more that the sole separated from the shoe.

After I had returned the first pair I figured that the shoes were a fluke.  In june I the second pair and those too fell apart in no time.   Since I needed shoes and the older Teva shoes I had some holes in them, the retailer I bought the shoes from did everything in there power to help me out, but to no avail. finally I had emailed Decker shoes the parent company of Teva figuring that i’d get no response. About a week late to my surprise I received an email back

Hi Mike

Thanks for your email.  Honestly.  We really appreciate you taking some time to connect with us and share your feedback.

First, I’m sorry to hear of your most recent issues with Teva products.  You are absolutely correct in your frustration, we definitely owe you a huge apology and a new pair of shoes.  I hope you will accept both from me and know that I will help in finding a resolution.  Teva prides itself on high performance, quality and, as a sign of our camaraderie, our customer service.  I’m sorry to hear we fell short in these department for you.

As you may know, the Aravalli is no longer available in our current line.  However, I would be happy to replace your shoes with a pair from our current selection.  I would like to offer something like the Riva Leather eVent or the Riva eVent.  You can check both out here.  If these aren’t exactly what you’re looking for, just let me know if something else stands out.

Once you choose a style, please let me know your size and address for shipping.  I’ll go ahead and get these out as soon as possible.  Also, for all of your troubles, I would like to also extend an offer for a pair of our Mush flips.  I know it’s starting to change seasons but year-around these are a definitely a treat for your feet.

Thanks again Mike for reaching out.  We’re glad to hear from you and I apologize again, on behalf of Teva, for your troubles.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

jaime

Jaime Eschette

Teva Public Relations

Goleta, CA

(###) ###-### x1178

 please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

After a few email exchanges Teva sent me a pair of Teva Riva Event shoes, These shoes are amazingly comfortable, A little tight at first but after you break in the shoes. they are very light, durable, and weatherproof. I really have to hand it to Teva/Deckers shoes for helping me out and fixing this problem with my shoes.  Really as far as shoes go I never thought of Teva for shoes, I used to use Timberlands for shoes but, as there quality went downhill I was happy to find this brand.

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is 1080p Really worth it?

Since buying a monitor with a HD tuner  in march I’ve been watching some tv but a pattern has emerged that I’ve noticed.  The lack of 1080p tv, Even though that all the major providers say they have HD , it seems like the definition is about as tangible at best.  There is lack of 1080p on tv itself.

Since the introduction of  “HD” there seems to be a downhill slide of quality of the programing what was on tv a year ago seems to be in a better quality than today’s HD.  Mostly you notice the highest quality in sporting events. but if you look at a sporting event today you’d notice that there either using compression or a lower quality camera than before.

I have to laugh when it comes to the sale of a TV with the push of “OMG IT DOES 1080p!” In most cases with that the difference between 1080i/p 720p is going to be barely noticeable. Best Buy has there 1080p caroling commercials on lately and it begs this question…

Is 1080p worth it?

personally my opinion is NO unless all you do is watch movies all day as far as a tv is concerned. You can get along just fine with a 720p TV (which will likely do 1080i) . The HD market is a bad place theres alot of market speak that would leave ANYONE confused.

If you buy a TV to watch TV the best thing to do is save yourself perhaps hundreds of dollars by getting a 720p tv , if your the mad movie watcher or have a PC hooked to the TV 1080p is the way to go.

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EA … Its not in the game anymore and the PC and the $$$$$ (for .99 cents you can buy the letter z in this post)

EA for years has been known for abysmal games of poor quality, although they have improved in some matters but, its really false positive in my mind.

Sure there are a handful of good games from EA as of recently – Crysis, burnout paradise,the sims 3(I guess) *orange box doesn’t count because its a repackage from steam

Continue reading “EA … Its not in the game anymore and the PC and the $$$$$ (for .99 cents you can buy the letter z in this post)”

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Coffee grinder recall , may cause coffee to taste different due to ..

Laceration hazard… OW…

Starbucks has received three reports of hand lacerations when the product — sold as  and Seattle’s Best Coffee Blade Grinder — turned on unexpectedly during cleaning. The company has received 176 reports altogether of the grinder failing to turn off or turning on unexpectedly.

I dont know about you but when cleaning anything with blades, batteries or a plug, generally the idea is Unplug first than clean. from the article it sounds like a poor power switch was used and triggers easily .

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Dunkin Donuts Focus’s on making good coffee…. NAH…

Apparently dunkin donuts is trying out new ad based system in order to up there sales, rather than trying to make there coffee not suck.  I used to goto dunkin donuts all the time. Over time there coffee got worse and worse.  I found that honey dew donuts had much better focus on coffee rather than carpet bombing the nation with dunkin donuts.

Dunkin’ Brands, the Canton company that operates the Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins chains, said it is marking the official opening of its 15,000th store today.

Anyways rather than make coffee they are investing in a system which uses camera and reconizes the person.

Ad targeting is coming to a store near you.

In the latest effort to tailor ads to specific consumers, marketers are starting to personalize in-store promotions based on products the consumer recently picked off a shelf or purchased — and in the near future, based on what the shopper looks like.

The problem with dunkin donuts is they have given up on making an acceptable brand and would rather just plop down coffee stores every 10 feet from each other.  After there “you kin do it” campaign, they seem to be still trying to get new customers even through dunkin has gone way downhill. but this new marketing is funny they are trying effectivly a popup ad which you know how well those work.

Really, is this sort of advertising needed ? NO!, Most people who go into dunkin donuts have already decided what they want weither its a coffee (if you can call it that). but, needing video camera for serving ads wtf?

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Mind over matters, E3’s motions controllers. (project natal)

After following the news for E3 for awhile I knew MS and Sony would announce there motion controllers.  The funny thing that comes to mind is that for 2 years most people complained that the wii motion controls were a gimmick .. alrighty than.

Interesting yes but, As far as the Microsoft motion controller is concerned it has many faults that are not pointed out.  I could point out that this system is the eye toy but thats been beaten to death with a dead horse. From the demos I have seen there are seemingly a lot of lag time in motion to screen reaction, at one point in on of the demos you could clearly see that the person and on screen avatar were completely out of sync, The wii’s controls seemed more in sync than this and I’m curious that the people playing around with natal were just in a state of ZOMG NEW TOY mode rather than objectively using the device.

The second thought of this is natal with more than one player it just doesn’t seem like it will even work,  If it does it maybe more a space issue since your stuck in the field of view of the lens. Just imagine trying to play rabbids in the point of view of a camera with two or even 4 people, Hospital visits would rise to the point of Armageddon and Bruce Willis would have to be sent in to nuke your console.  From another site

Natal is so smart, in fact, that, if your room is narrowed by a pair of couches, it can signal to a game to narrow the level. It can see about 15′ x 20′ of a room, according to project leader Kudo Tsunoda’s informal estimation.

(this was part of a post I made on june 5th but I decided to hold off to see if this held water or not.  I left this part of the post originally to show where my thinking was at the time. Anyways)

2 weeks later and finding out where the motion controller is now, and many articles later.

gamemediasites

Sony’s motion controller seems to be playing the same Houdini game where its a announced and disappears. I think its because its closer to the wii controls and everyone’s uppity about the project Nu-toy, As i had Started to point out the Microsoft Motion controller seems to have more faults than positives.  Even further It seems that the technology in this “controller” (to which i lightly say) implemented is going to confusing as fuck compared to the normal – In a video of them playing burnout paradise it looked closes to step dancing for dummies playing that game. Car Racing games is not really the best format to show responsiveness.  Microsoft here has put up the unicorns farting rainbows approach to marketing this device, Hyping the living hell out of it.  It almost feels like a Fail in motion.

the second thing about the microsofts control setup is that all gaming sites have jumped on this like its the best advance since pong(again eye-toy).  As far as I’ve seen with the pre-natal, It just seems more of a “gimmick” than the wii-mote, I mean since “you” are the controller do you really think people are going to play Halo with this? also the lack of a device will make the experience more confusing, it will basically come back to the hell people went through of getting the powerglove to work  right.

Everyone’s gone bullshit over this to the point of gollum and the one ring.  but as far as the experience is concerned microsoft is expecting you to fill in too many blanks, There has to be some device in between to work and feel correct.

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bing? bing.. Its just uhh.. yeah..

Microsoft has been flapping there PR mouth over there new search engine bing. After the failed livesearch and another companies shit fest of a search engine.  It seems like Microsoft has learned a thing or two about search engines but, not much. It was more like “lets just rip off another popular search engine. ” Microsoft has been smearing there new Bing.com everywhere, Hulu is running ads , likely there is ads on TV . but, it appears that bing will be not ignored like cuil was, Microsoft will likely force bing down our throats every way possible.  Just to give an idea how microsoft will pull is.

  • Windows update will force some update as “critical” to internet explorer forcing bing to the front
  • Update MSN clients to have bing built in
  • Windows 7  will likely have it forced on the desktop
  • Come out with some goofy firefox plugin (maybe already done mystery plugin for firefox had come out *cute stealth install too*)

hemantm writes “A routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component installed on tens of millions of computers has quietly installed an extra add-on for an untold number of users surfing the Web with Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser.”

Looking into the name  bing the first definition that comes up on dictionary.com is

bing

1 –noun British Dialect. a heap or pile.

As funny  as that is , Bing is almost an identical ripoff of  Google.

binghere’s the same same search in google .

googlethe result pages look almost EXACTLY the same.  Microsoft has made an attempt to make a search engine but, its a blatant ripoff of Google.  Playing around with Bing it seems alright but, again looking at the search engine there’s no fucking difference. The supposed Smart search engine that bing is just tries to give you the same results. Yes there are features in this search engine but Google already does 99.99% of bings search results.

Do we need another Google? NO, if Microsoft actually made something unique it would be one thing, At least cuil made an attempt at being unique.  In order to do something better with the search engine Microsoft should try something different than work from there with a dynamic interface that takes opinions from users.

But my vote on this search engine is no , its a shamefully blatent ripoff of google.  Its insulting, microsoft has billions of dollars yet they can’t come up with there own search engine?

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Star Lens flare Trek

I watched StarTrek in the theaters a few days ago and the movie in it self was pretty good and, as a series “reboot” (i hate the word reboot for movies).  It Does a somewhat good job of distancing itself from the previous movies while keeping homage to the original series in a way.

The biggest problem with the movies is lens flare….. not just lens flare holy shit lens flare

flare_At first we though if we made  drinking game out of the lens flare it would be funny .. well yes.. it was .. exactly 30 seconds into the movie we lost count of the “lens flares’ more so if you even attempted this you’d be worse than a G W bush Drinking game and probably dead.

As for the plot of the movie it was fairly ok, but it had some momentum issues. it does keep your attention through the movie but, I felt like it tries to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole movie,  the Dark Knight suffers this, and through the whole movie it kind of devalues the scenes after awhile of constant action.  I mean pretty much if you wanted to simplify the movie its:  *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**kirk does something funny* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**spock and uhura get it on* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**kirk meets spock* *action* *action* *action* *action* END OF MOVIE ……

still and over all good movie but I felt at some points it lacked character depth, There are some scenes where you go “where the fuck did that come from (spock and uhura scenes) Also it does a fairly good job of distancing itself from the previous treks without causing all trekkies to jump out and say “OMG THAT NOT HOW IT HAPPENS” .

Over all its a good movie and worth the watch in the theater , Just be prepared for lens flare.. ALOT OF IT. Even the trailer does not prepare you for epic lens flare. Even Rick flair could not prepare you for it.