Uncharted 2 - finished

I finished Uncharted 2 on normal this weekend along with playing some multiplayer.

Spoilers!

I am glad the game didn't turn into a survival horror game.  It did get weird at the end and you did have three scenes where you had to fight the monsters that I knew was coming.  But it wasn't bad and those scenes were short.  The uniqueness of each level is awesome.  On one level you are trying to get to the engine of a train.  On the way there you are fighting bad guys along with didging signs when you are on the outside of the train.  The level where you you have to drop the three bladed to reveal the entrance to the map room is a great climbing around level.

My only complaint with Uncharted 2 is the puzzles were more simple than Uncharted 1.  Everything, for the most part, was obvious what you had to do.

As for multiplayer I am going to give it another chance this weekend.  3rd person view multipalyer games just aren't my thing.  However, why does everyone run adn gun when the game has an excellent cover system?

Uncharted 2

I got Uncharted 2 yesterday.  I liked the first Uncharted up until the zombies.  The game played as a typical Tomb Raider style game but with really good voice acting and animation.  It felt like you were in a movie.  But towards the end of the game when the zombies appeared it turned into a survival horror game.  Boo, if I wanted survuval horror I would play L4D or RE5. 

So far Uncharted 2 is just as good if not better than Uncharted 1.  The voice acting is awesome, storying telling is great.  The puzzles are a little easier than the first one though.  There are still times though when the game doesn't really give you clues on what you need to do next.  I like how the game rewards your curiosity.  I'll see a ledge or something I could probably get to and wonder what is there.  Usually a collectable is in those locations.  I found one in a quite difficult spot to get to.  I was climbing around this building just to check the view.  I see a twinkle below me in the sewer outlet.  Yep, treasure piece.

The big thing with Uncharted 1 and 2 is the level of detail.  It's amazing!  Many times you can just sit and stare at the background or start reading signs in streets and forget about what you were suppose to be doing.

However, I can speculate there is going to be some survival horror later on in the game.  I got to chapter 6 or 7 in one sitting.  I couldn't put it down.  So far in the story we are still looking for Marco Polo's treasure.  But with what has been happening I suspect the "dreadful" thing is not the treasure, but some type of monster or curse therefore the game will turn into survival horror again.  This comes from the blood trail you have to follow at some point.  Nathan suggests it is due to Marco Polo's men resorting to canabilism.  Some of those blood marks are big drag marks.  My suspicion then is for some reason only that dagger they found can kill it.

The game needs more sneaking around to steal treasure levels.  Stealing the green lamp with just tranq guns was a lot of fun.  They did a really good job of syncing your partner's actions with your own when you had to do double take outs.  Though once the AI guy was caught by the guards and I had to restart the checkpoint.

That reminds me, both uncharted 1 and 2 have a create save game system.  You can save at anytime, along with automatic checkpoint saves.  In a game like this it is how saves should work.

One thing I like in this version is you can be more stealthy.  Many areas you can try to take all the guards out using stealth.  This is nice because then you get to save on ammo.  I am always running out of ammo in the gun fights.  That then means I have to run out into the open, pick weapon up and nearly get killed doing so.  What really sucks is if the only weapon you can pick up is the shotgun then you can get screwed and have to restart the checkpoint.

I haven't tried multiplayer yet.  I was in the multiplayer beta and it seemed cool.  Third person multiplayers aren't a big thing for me.  I like graw.  I don't like gears.  I tried 3rd person mw2, yuck.  The problem with 3rd person is often the camera position can become a problem.

Snow is melting :)

Spring Fever.  I has it.  I has it bad!

Might have to clean up the bike tonight, you know, to make sure it is ready.  I know, two more months till I can realistically take it out on a regular basis.

One thing the PSN got right

Ok, two things.  First, they use actual dollar amounts, not points.  Second is because of the way it is structured and since it had full downloadable games before Live has they perfected the system.  Right now you can get the full game Burnout Paradise with all of the DLC as a bundle package for $30.  I don't think Live could do bundles with the way it is structured.

I haven't put a game disc in my PS3 for sometime.  The netflix disc has been pretty much a permanent part of my system.  I only have two disc games though - UT3 and Hot Shots golf.  Games that I have been playing have all been downloadable games - equivilent to Live's arcade.  I would like to do the game On Demand on Live but those are outrageously priced.

Google Voice and prepaid cell phones

I've had Google Vocie for about a year now. I haven't done much with it since I only have one phone number. I chose a phone number that was local for my parents. My parents live int he country and use a land line. My mom has a Tracfone for emergencies. Though now she started using it for long distance calls because it is cheaper than the land line long distance. So, to be nice I made my number a local number for them so they don't have to burn up minutes calling me.

My Sprint contract ends this week. Witht he new job and moving I am no longer in a Sprint area. I can use my phone in roaming but that sucks up battery life. The only contract companies in my area are Verizon and US Cell. Verizon is expensive and US Cell doesn't have much for phone selection. I was going to switch to US Cell. However, my mom suggested I look at Tracfone. I didn't know much about prepaid phone services. The last couple of weeks I have been doing my research.

Prepaid was intriguing to me. I don't use my cell phone that much. I communicate mainly using the internet (email, facebook, skype). 6 years ago I chose Sprint because they had features other companies didn't, like no roaming costs and nights starting at 7pm. Because of that I don't use up many minutes. I probably used about 200 minutes a month, a little over 100 of those would be during no charge times. I maybe used 70 of the 500 minutes a month. Many of those are just from checking voicemail. Since I couldn't use my phone at work I would check voice mail right after work. So I really don't need a contract plan.

I checked out some of the prepaids out there. My mom suggests Tracfone because that is what she uses. I checked out some others. Amazingly most are owned by the same company. Tracfone, Smart Talk, and Net10 are owned by the same company. All three are at my local Walmart. They target different phone users. I think Smart Talk is aimed at people that want data. I think Net10 is aimed at the person who talks alot and texts. Tracfone is aimed at low to mild users - which I am.

Prepaid can be a little confusing at first. There are three things you need to buy to get started - a phone, service time, and minutes. I think many people that say they had bad experience from prepaid don't realize service days and minutes are seperate, even though the most common way of getting them is from a card that contains both. The phone tells you how much of each you have left on the main screen. You can go online and purchase each sperately. When you run out of service days you loose your phone number.

My Sprint bill was $40 a month for the minimum plan that has 7pm nights. That's $480 a year. I bought a Tracfone with double minutes for life and a 1 year card with 400 minutes (800 once doubled) for $170. Somehow I got 200 bonus minutes so I am starting with 1000 minutes - I am thinking from a promotion I didn't know about. I am going to guess the minutes will last me 10 months. So this is going to save me a bunch of money.

What really surprised me is the features prepaid supports. I bought the most expensive phone in my area - the LG 290c. It was only $50. But it has all the features I am looking for. It is a slider phone, has a 1.3mp camera, very nice LCD, Bluetooth, and data support. don;t go on LG's site and look up the phone, you won't find it. It's only used by Tracfone so Tracfone supports it. Text messages cost .33 minutes per message. That's not too mad. I do text but probably 10 messages a month. Data is expensive. I have that a shot to see how it works with prepaid. There are too many charges. There is a .5 connecting charge, then at regular intervals more time comes off. I downloaded a ringtone just to see how many minutes that would eat up. In lesst than 5 minutes or real time I ate up 12 phone minutes. I immediately locked data usage. I didn't want someone to use that by accident if I lent my phone out.

For a $50 phone I am amazed. I read reviews on the phones Tracfone supports before I bought one. The LGs they use seem to have the best reviews. This on in particular doesn't have a bad review. The sound quality is great and features are good. However, I think I have a defective unit. I tried out the hand free headset. When I unplugged the headset the phone still thinks it is plugged in. So now I get to find out how support for a prepaid works. From what I can tell they are either going to send me a replacement or I go exchange it with Walmart. If I do the exchange I am going to need to purchase the new phone first, have Tracfone port hte phone number tot he new phone, then give Walmart the defective one and a rebate.

Checking voicemail does use minutes. This is where Google Voice is going to be handy. When I got this Tracfone instead of giving all my friends the new number I gave them both my Google Voice and cell phone number. I told them to make Google Voice the default and my cell a secondary number. This way when I call I am identified. But when they call me they go through Google. This means Google will take the voice message, not Tracfone. I can use my email or any internet connection to check my voice mail messages. This should considerably reduce the minutes I use up. As long as Google Voice stays around I think I am going to like this setup.