Dana took some amazing shots of the Packard Plant in Detroit. I know she has a ton more to show, but this is an excellent start

Last time I was at the Packard Plant it was guarded by security. I was told that I couldn't go inside because it was under a "police investigation". I didn't really believe the guy but listened and only took photographs of the outside structure from the road. You can see those photographs here – http://wp.me/p10YdF-m Turns out, I was right, the security guard was lying to me. I saw on the news the next day that they were filming parts of Transfor … Read More

via DMB Photo

With SWG closing at the end of this year, so will this blog. I won’t delete it so I can look back at all the awesome memories I’ve been able to record. I will be focusing my time on my other blog, MasterCosmoSolutions.wordpress.com as I explore the possibilities of creating my own mobile development company. I have a ton of ideas for games and other solutions so we’ll see.

 

Thank you all for visiting and encouraging me to do all the research that I did! I will never forget this game nor this community.

 

May the force be with you.

 

MasterCosmo signing out

Wow what a rush! One off the greatest experiences off my life! I’ll have a video on youtube soon I hope! 🙂

This Labor Day weekend, I get to experience something I have dreamed of doing my whole life. I’ll be leaving early Saturday morning to drive to Tecumseh to jump 14, 000 feet out of an airplane. I’m so excited that I don’t have any room in me to be nervous or scared. It’s going to be a day to remember for sure. I’m going to be jumping with my brother in law who I think is crazy since this will be his first time in a plane even! I can’t wait to tell everyone about this experience.

this is a placeholder for updates.check back often.

Here is a link to the album I’ll be storing all the screen shots to get the info out as fast as possible. I’ll go through and make it more user friendly when it’s over. Click here

*Updated link with a non-mobile web link 😉

I’m going to be updating with as much info as I can over the next two days. I will be given so much insider info as possible so keep your eyes open!

The 2010 Olympics have started and I’ve watched a few minutes of women’s ice hockey in preparation for the men’s hockey to begin today! I’m excited to see the best of the best face each other and actually give a damn unlike the all-star game no one plays with a sense of pride (and we often see players skip the all-star games on purpose). No one would skip out on a chance to play for their country in the world games. It is truly an honor.

Now, I was reading up on the rules and how the standings will work as my family was discussing it the other day. I didn’t know how it really played out, but the main aspect that drew my attention right away was the “3-point system” they use in the standings. Yes, the idea was thrown around in NHL meetings before and it was quickly dismissed, but in today’s game, I see almost every day a team playing to get to overtime, NOT to win in regulation. Getting into overtime guarantees the team at least 50% of the points, with a 5 minute overtime and shootout to decide who gets the extra point. Most games will not end in overtime and will almost always go into a shootout, which turns the team game into a couple of skilled players against a goalie… And suddenly, 3 points are awarded per game instead of 2 like before the shootout.

I love the shootout for the exciting element it brings to the end of a game. I hated seeing games played hard for 65 minutes and no one wins. I mean who really enjoys watching 90 minutes of soccer that ends with a final score of 0-0? The shootout guarantees that someone will skate off as the winner.

The shootout is making the standings a complete nightmare. Because they are awarding a team the same points as if they won the game outright, teams that can’t complete a game, but have a couple players that have insane moves are in the playoff running, when they really should be fighting to finish a game. The system right now is severely flawed and needs to change. The best need to be rewarded for finishing the game in regulation instead of being neck and neck with a team that can do well in a shootout.

For those that do not know, the 3-point system works like this: If a team wins in regulation, they are awarded 3 points and the loser will end up with nothing. If the game goes into overtime/shootout, the winner will receive 2 points and the loser will get 1 point. This ensures that every game played in the NHL is worth the same amount of points, so the true winners will stand out from those that can’t finish a game. This will drive teams fighting for a playoff spot to do everything they can to win a game in regulation instead of having a second chance in the shootout. It’s annoying to see teams tied with a couple minutes to go play pure defensively to ensure they get half the points.

In this manner, we’ll still have the exciting shootout, we’ll have teams fighting harder to win in regulation, and we’ll have the teams that deserve to be playing in the post season there. The NFL, NBA and MLB do not reward teams for losing a game any more regardless of how long it takes for a game to end, but having a team in the NHL get 0 points for making it into overtime would not be the best route for the NHL either. The 3-point system will do the NHL great to adopt. It will make every game and every minute count, and the playoff run that much more deserving.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=1049070

From the SWG forums posted by a good friend of mine…

This is a screenshot taken when he was updating his subscription using SOE’s Station Launcher. It will try to entice you to pick the Station Access plan to have access to multiple games.

Clone Wars is listed, yet no information has been released anywhere. The cat is out of the bag, just announce it already!

Edit:

This is just a continuation of numerous rumor posts that were made about this game back in September. Hopefully official word won’t be far behind, but knowing SOE, they’ll wait for a big announcement place… such as SOE Fan Faire later this year.

-MC

I recently purchased a PS3 after a long while waiting for the price to drop and the right time. I’m excited to go play the games I was anticipating the most when they first came out, but only having to spend 20 bucks to buy them instead of 60. This 2010 year is bringing some amazing games to the PS3 system that I probably won’t be able to wait.

The game that is number 1 on my radar (and yes I know FF XIII is coming soon…) is Heavy Rain developed by Quantic Dream. You may have never heard the name, but I’d be shocked if you didn’t hear of Heavy Rain before. Heavy Rain is a Psychological Thriller game unlike any other. The tag line that is thrown out everywhere is “how far you’re willing to go to save someone you love“.

The story from what was revealed so far revolves around 4 main characters. Each character is tied to each other in different ways, but the main focus is on the “Origami Killer” that takes peoples lives and leaves little origami shapes behind as his (or her?) calling card. You will take control of each character as they progress through the story and how you interact with the world around you will shape the story differently. I read that when a group of people had a small demo to play, not one of the testers had the same sequence of events. You’ll be “controlling” each character to progress through the story in hopes of solving the puzzle and saving more lives from being taken…

The reason I put controlling in parentheses is because this game is unlike any game I have seen before. The gameplay is almost like a movie. In the game world, you will see objects around you. Some of the objects will have specific controller trigger buttons over them. Pushing the select trigger will cause your character to interact with the item, such as picking up a weapon, hitting people, escaping, etc. Many sequences will call for quick time events, in that you must react to the given sequence fast to avoid a situation, such as getting stabbed or hit by a truck.

I love playing games that have a storyline that is affected by your interactions in the world. The games that I’ve played that follow a structure  are BioWare’s KOTOR series and Dragon Age. It is my impression that Heavy Rain will 1000x more mailable to your reactions than any other game we’ve seen so far.

I love that it takes 4 normal people and doesn’t add anything supernatural. There will be a ton of plot twists that will keep you thinking. This seems like it’s a game that I could sit and watch and enjoy just as much as playing. The game is scheduled to be released on Spring 2010 with no official release date known. This will more than likely be my first new game purchase for the PS3 system and I certainly hope this game is everything I hope it is and more.

Read more about it here and be sure to watch the videos:

http://ps3.ign.com/objects/811/811232.html

Dana and I decided on Friday night to enjoy ourselves and get some shopping done and go see a movie. I had accumulated a lot of money in Best Buy gift cards from Christmas and from other means, as well as some cash from my awesome wife’s side of the family congratulating me on graduating from LTU. My wife and I agreed that if we didn’t get a PS3 now we won’t for a long time. We decided to put our TV purchase further into the future as we make sure we can afford other important things we’ll need when we move in the next couple months.

We did some shopping and decided to get the PS3 after the movie so it wouldn’t sit in the cold for hours. We enjoyed a great dinner at Rojo and saw “Up in the Air” at Emagine. It was a good movie but pretty depressing, especially with the state of the economy here in MI.

After the movie, we went straight to Best Buy near the theater. Of course they were sold out. The only Best Buys in the area that had PS3’s in stock were Ohio (which isn’t in the area at all…) and Ann Arbor. We decided to drive to Ann Arbor to get it instead of wait a couple weeks for new shipments. We didn’t have our GPS on us, so we used my phone to get some general directions and luckily we found it.

On our way home, we weren’t sure exactly where we were going, but we had a general idea of what we had to take to get back. I accidentally got off the expressway early, so I had to get back onto it. That added 5 minutes to our drive, but the rest was easy.

When we got home, Dana’s parents were watching TV and we stayed in the living room talking with them as I was holding my new PS3. We were talking to them about the fact we’re going to put off getting a TV for now because we couldn’t afford the one we wanted yet and we didn’t have a lot of room.

I went down into our room to put my PS3 on my desk to get ready to play it on my 23″ monitor I bought recently. When I opened the door, I saw a huge box sitting near our bed. It was basically the same TV Dana and I had wanted to get all along. I was totally stunned when I saw it there.

Dana’s parents got it for us as a late wedding gift. It was totally unexpected. They were silently laughing at us when we were telling them that we were going to find a way to use the PS3 on my monitor. The funny thing about this was that they just got home from a different Best Buy 5 minutes before we walked in the door. Had I not have taken the wrong exit earlier, we would’ve been home at the same time. That little delay allowed them to complete their full surprise, and us getting the PS3 was perfect timing 🙂

Obviously the Dana’s dad and I set it up while the girls watched. We set it on top of my computer desk which has become a massive entertainment desk now (complete with 2 computers, 23″ monitor and now a PS3 and 40″ TV). I had bought an HDMI cable for $30 from Best Buy because I didn’t want to wait, but i instead borrowed one from my bro-in-law to test it out. We watched Wall*E on Blu-ray.

I spent the next day “testing” it out by playing NHL ’10 and confirmed that it kicked ass.

Today, I was looking up an HDMI cable to buy and I saw that I could get a MONSTER cable for 90 bucks, or spend 3.07 for the same thing from another retailer… I really can’t believe that people buy those… Research saves a ton of money guys!

That’s my story. This Christmas week has been a very busy one but probably one of the best weeks in a LOOONG time 🙂

-MC