Pixel Theories | a gamer getting older...

2K Final Four and my bracket (shot to sh*t)

Okay I never qualified for 2K's Final Four competition on XBL.  But after some of the exploits I encountered during playing on-line, I really just got disgusted with the whole process.  In related news, my bracket is busted all to hell and gone.  Really sucks when you expect a defensive powerhouse to make it to the sweet sixteen and they get knocked out in the second round.  I imagine a lot of people expected G-Town and Duke to make it to the Sweet 16, but I had both teams advancing far enough that when they lost, my chances for winning my office pool went down with them.

UCLA escapes again!  This is the team I have winning the whole tourney and they just keep making the tourney interesting.  Before March Madness began I thought that they were the most naturally talented team in the field.  But now it seems they have been exposed as a careless team when trying control the ball  and execute offensively that is only offset by excellent team defense.  My guess is that they'll struggle offensively against Xavier as well, so we'll just have to see how they can handle a stronger and more experienced opponent.  They've made what should be an easy path to the Final Four look extremely difficult.

Bring Down the Sky...in less than two hours!?

Mass Effect's first bit of downloadable content, "Bring down the sky," is lackluster at best.  In a 400MP pack you get an asteroid full of mercs and lame side quests that you will most likely dominate in less than hour, if you cut out the side quest within the DLC.  My real fear is that EA who bought BioWare last year will continue to release the rest of the DLC for Mass Effect in small portions similar to the Bring down the sky pack.  Most of which will likely be small story arcs that have nothing to do with the SPECTRE's, Turian/Human conflict, or any other major topics of interest that could help flesh out the universe.

I hope I'm wrong, I really do.  But EA is just EA, and among their buyouts of other devs, BioWare is just the latest firm to be finely tuned into a profit shop.  And we the gamers get the shaft, yet again.

Qualifying for 2K's Virtual Final Four Pt. 2

Long story short, I am really just getting my ass kicked online.  Mainly, because my settings that I play with offline, do not match those of the settings that are standard online.  This being said I have completed a total of 5 games so far with three disconnects, for a total of 8 games.  It would seem that if I gain a slight lead or a manage to keep the game tied for more than the first five minutes of the game, gamers are disconnecting.

Not like I expected much more than this anyway.  Gamers don't like to lose, and thus they either adapt and get better, which few do; the remaining find exploits within the games' AI.  In sports titles this is the largest issue, gamers use star players that never fatigue and rarely exhibit cold streaks.  So for the last five games I have been playing against individuals who use the full-court press and double team exploits for the duration of the game.

Though I have found a way to beat both exploits, my major problem with CHOOPS online is the latency issues that affect shooting.  Granted it's a problem, but one has to wonder if this is something that has to do with the VIP recording functions from the 2K server.  I certainly hope not, but I just can't help feeling that this is what's happening.

In summary, my lofty goal of 35 games is being reduced to 12 maybe more if I can get a win streak started.  The (I am getting owned online stats) Stats:

Record: 0-5
Rank: 5949 (this is the leaderboard rank)

The Wire Series Finale "- 30 -"

Wow.  I am really going to miss this show.  To be honest, I had been turned on to The Wire two years ago by a friend of mine.  Season 4 and the following of the youth of Baltimore, really had a grittiness that felt so real.  This 94 min conclusion wraps up the series nicely, putting all the characters you know, hero & villain, to rest in one way or another.

If you haven't seen the show, now is the time, I would suggest getting caught up from S1.  Though like many series that had initial sleep-like success you'll have to suffer through about four slow epi's before the show really starts to take off.  However, those with the weak stomachs and clean ears should approach this series an epi at a time, The Wire is simply too straight a shooter for some.

-Spoiler-

If there is one complaint I have about S5 it's the segments of the show that featured the newspaper.  This part of The Wire features a beat writer trying to make it big at, or out of, The Baltimore Sun.  As the season hits it's stride, this writer slowly erodes into a plagiarist and a fraud, and he starts to manufacture news to stay the top dog, similar to Stephen Glass of the New Republican.

Unfortunately this character never gets exposed and as the series ends we see him receiving a Pulitzer for the work he created.  While I realize that The Wire tries to emulate life as much as possible, this really bothered me.  I guess it's the writers way of showing that how much murder, crime, and dirty politics erode at a cities heart, we all allow some form of "crime" in all industries, whether that be to succeed or merely stay afloat.

Book Review: Microserfs

This is one of the best books I have ever read.  Now, I guess I should start off with why I chose to even read this book in the first place.  About eight months ago I read JPod(2006), another novel by Douglas Copeland, which details the lives of six videogame programmers who are working on a skateboarding game at an infamous Vancouver, B.C. game publisher.  Why are the lives of JPod interesting?  Copeland brings you into their sick, twisted and hilarious world of adultery, drugs, human trafficing, and business.

Microserfs, which was published back in 1995, is by far and away one hell of a story, which for all it's similarities to JPod, a complete 180.  Or should I say JPod is a complete 180 from Microserfs.  Which deals with an ensemble cast of charachters with their own unique problems, in very interesting ways.  What makes Microserfs so good is that the characters are dealing with real problems that have tangible solutions.  The story is one of love, friendship and how people deal with the loss of both.

The book itself is written in a diary format, similar to JPod, and takes place in the early 1990's.  This circle of friends start out working for Microsoft and find their lives going nowhere, burined so deep in their work, they have no idea of who they are and what they want to become.  Soon the team moves down to Silicon Valley to start their own venture, and find that the possibilities as well asthe pitfalls are numerous.  And while the book as a whole will keep you engaged and entertained it's the journey as well as the last four pages that make Microserfs worth reading more than once.

Edited for grammar.

Qualifying for 2K's Virtual Final Four

Crap...I completely forgot about this.  Worst part is I have been playing my "Closed Legacy" with UC Davis quite regularly.  For those of you who don't know, Pontiac is sponsoring a Virtual Final Four Touney on College Hoops 2K8.  To qualify you must play at least ten ranked games between now and March 14th, to gain as many points as possible (points are based upon wins and quality of opponent).  From there, depending upon user registration numbers they will choose anywhere from 256-2048 qualifying contestants.  Who will be separated into 64 man brackets, draft teams to compete with and narrow each "mini-tourney" down to one champion who will then be inserted into another 4-64 man bracket.

As of this morning, I just registered, there are approximately 3415 contestants, yes I am at the bottom.  With many, whom I guess plan to just play 10 games to qualify, I will attempt to play 25-30 games within this window.  However, I will also be traveling on business from 3/3-3/7, so I will be cramming many games as possible into each day.  The stats so far:

Record    0-0
Rank        3415