Watch me pull an achievement out of a hat . . . and other news

Watch me pull an achievement out of a hat.  Well, it’s not actually a hat.  It’s a plastic container with a lid.  And I did pull an achievement out.  Sort of.

I seemed to have lost a lot of my motivation when it comes to prolonged playing of video games.  I like getting on for an hour or so, but then I just start loosing interest and would rather do anything else.  Like watching paint dry or counting the bumps on my popcorn ceiling.  It’s weird for me to feel that way and I’ve been trying to think of something to do to get myself out of this funk.  And I came to a solution.

I printed out a list of all the Xbox 360 games I own, cut them up into little stripes with one name per slip and put them all into a plastic container.  My plan is to pull a game out at least once a week and play in that game until I’ve at least earned an achievement and/or hopefully find renewed interest in playing video games for longer periods of time.  Who knows.  I might find that one game that gets me out of my funk and start playing games for hours on end every night.  At worse I play something until I get an achievement and then put it aside for something else.  At least my gamer score would be going up.  I had a new year's resolution to hit 30,000 last year, but I didn’t make it and I won’t let that happen again.

So after I finished cutting everything up, I shock it around and pulled a game out.  The first one I pulled was Rock Band 2.  At first I was okay with that, but then I realized that I had just played a lot of Rock Band Blitz (and picked up a bunch of achievements – see the sidebar) and wasn’t even remotely in the mood to play another music game.  Plus, I’m not sure if my guitars even work anymore.  I put the game back in the tub and spent the weekend thinking about what an idiot I am.

Today though, I decided to give it another go.  This time I pulled out Borderlands 2.  That’s a game I’ve played and had 165 points in so far.  I stopped playing the game because there’s one side mission that I can’t seem to do fast enough and it was really annoying me, so I quit.  Plus I’m having a hard time with the fact that you can’t carry health vials with you when you get hurt.  I always forget to keep an eye on my health so I die a lot.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get another achievement in that game but this time I was going to make the effort to play it and see what happens.

At lunch I put the game in and started to play.  There was a side mission right where I was located so I didn’t have to go far.  It was to Assassinate the Assassins so I jumped in and started playing.  I remembered I had a gun turret as my special and I should try to use that more often to help me fight a lot of enemies while I take cover while my shield recharges my health.  So I threw the turret out for fun while I figured out all the controls again, and after 2 kills (puppy skags, no less) the achievement for getting 100 kills with the turret pops up.  I got 20 gamer score points for that in less than 2 minutes in the game.  I could have quit and done something else (taking a nap before going back to work sounded like a good idea) but I stuck around and completed the mission and turned it in.

It was nice playing that game (even without health vials to use) but I was so rusty with the controls and how to find things in the menus.  I got better by the end of my lunch and I just might try some more missions after work.  I put a tick mark on the slip of paper for Borderlands 2 and put it back in the tub.  This way I’ll know I’ve played it and gotten an achievement if I happen to pull it out again later.

I did include sequels in the tub even if I haven’t played the first game in a series.  Who knows, I might find playing Halo 3 more engaging than playing the first Halo even if I don’t know what’s going on in that world.  I just want to get back in to the habit of playing video games like I use to.

And speaking of playing video games, I’m seriously looking in to getting an Xbox One.  The only problem is I have to get a new TV if I want to play it.  My current TV is a big 32” CRT monstrosity of a TV.  It doesn’t have any HDMI connections, although it does have component video.  The X1 seems to only be an HDMI connection so it won’t do me any good to buy one if I don’t have a TV to play it on.  I’m hoping to take care of the TV part by next weekend.  The X1 might have to come a little later because I have some other plans I’m trying figure out that will definitely put a crimp in my finances. 

Specifically I’m trying to find and buy a new computer.  I would love a laptop, but realized that I could get something cheaper if I got a desktop instead.  I want it to be a gaming PC so that I can get back to gaming on the PC which is something I haven’t done in a VERY long time (X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter anyone?).  Depending on how much I spend for the computer depends on how much I have left over for the X1 system.  Plus there’s other things factoring in to my decision but I can’t divulge those plans just yet.  You’ll just have to stay tuned and see what happens next.

So, I consider my drawing plan to be a success.  I played a game and got an achievement.  It don't know if it is enough to get me out of the funk, but it's a start.  Hopefully I'll re-find that gaming spark and pull myself out of this funk when I pick a game.

Rock on! I'm starting a band.

Just a reminder that there is only 4 days left to vote in my latest poll so you can tell me what to play. And remember if I don't get 6 votes or more then I'm throwing the whole thing out the window and I won't listen to what you have to say. We're getting close (5 votes last time I checked) so tell your friends or vote from multiple computers. This is your time to boss me around and I know some of you have been waiting for this day for a long time. Here ends the public service announcement.

Flick your lighter on, make devil horns with your fingers and raise your hands in the air and rock on dudes! No, I haven't raided anyone's weed stash. I've just been feeling very rock and roll lately.

Last week was a very hard week at work. I was fed up dealing with morons, idiots, incompetents and lazy-ass folk at the office. On my way home I stopped off at GameStop to put a pre-order on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I also picked up Warriors of Rock bundle.

I checked the price online prior to leaving the office and found it was in my budget for the month but when I got to the store the price was different. The price online was for just a guitar bundle. The box I picked up was for the whole band bundle. I asked if the equipment was compatible with the Rock Band 2 stuff (which I already had) and they said yes, but they weren't very confident or convincing about it. I could have switched to the guitar bundle but I previously purchased a game that "would be compatible" with RB2 stuff, but wasn't. I wasn't going to go through all that again so I got the whole thing.

Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play that game yet. I've been battling a stuffy head with some aching and coughing for the last couple of days and I didn't feel up to playing guitar, drums or singing. By Sunday night I was feeling a little bit better, but instead of getting everything out of the box and wasting time to set it all up I decided to pull out RB2 and play around on that game first.

It took a while before my fingers didn't hurt while playing. It's been a very long time since I played that game. I played a few tour dates, played and unlocked a lot of challenges and had a great time. Unfortunately I still can't figure out why some of the songs that I downloaded from the marketplace are not appearing on my song list. Someday I will look into that.

One of my friends offered to play some sets with me that night but I was still just trying to limber up my fingers (I'm still only playing on the easy level). I would love to play in a full band with friends online. As long as there wasn't any lag issues that would be total awesome. I would also like to get the drums out of the box and give those a try someday too.

Maybe it's just the young teenager inside of me who always associates rock and roll with rebellion and "fighting back against the man" whomever that might be. But letting off some steam through rock and roll on RB2 was very therapeutic. I just wish I had had the stamina to do it sooner so I could have enjoyed the rest of the weekend playing something else.

By the end of last night's performance I had changed my character to a more rocked out, hard playing, guitar grinding, rock goddess. She frightens me. Where once my character was what I would want to look like if I was rocking in a band, now she's a rocker chick that you could find playing for Franz Ferdinand, No Doubt or some other band. She doesn't look like me. She doesn't act like me. She isn't really me. But man, what I wouldn't do to really be her for one night on stage. Maybe I'll post an advertisement for band members in my bio on Xbox Live. Anyone interested?