Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Games: So a while ago I gave up on my dream of completely finishing Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) since the upper-rank missions are clearly designed for team play, and I've been unable to find a group of people to quest with. However, my good friend @SilentHitoshura recently got into the game in a big way and I've also made contact with a few other folks who were interested in getting a group going.


Score, right? Well, not exactly.

First, the PSN outage killed any potential of long-distance connection since MHFU only supports local play. There is a program available on PS3 called AdHoc Party which acts as a local hub to enable long distances between players, but we all know what's been going on with Sony's online presence.

As an alternative, I checked into Xlink Kai, which is an independent program created to allow games to connect over long distances, much the same way as Sony's program works. However, I was unfortunate enough to purchase a new computer when they were still being bundled with Vista, and as anyone knows, Vista doesn't work with anything. In fact, Vista barely even works. I am personally of the opinion that Microsoft owes every Vista owner a free copy of Windows 7, but since they aren't handing them out yet, I refuse to pay any more money for another OS. (I didn't want to deal with the hassle of changing over, either.) As a result, Xlink Kai was not a viable option.

Just conncect, damn you!

As of last night, PSN reinstated limited functionality which would have been good enough to finally get a game going until I discovered that AdHoc Party does not work with 20GB PS3 non-wifi models.

The type of 20GB I have does not sport native wi-fi connectivity, but I figured that an adapter or some type of device could be purchased to enable a connection. Unfortunately, from what I've read so far, that assumption was wrong. I'm not exactly clear on what the problem is, but it seems as though there isn't a third-party piece of equipment that will make my 20GB work in the proper way with AdHoc Party. So, it seems as though my only option is to trade in for a newer model.

(As a side note, I was recently informed that GameStop had sent out e-mails offering $100 off the purchase of a new PS3 for certain members of their discount-card club, of which I’ve been a part of for somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen years or so. However, I did not get this e-mail so I did not get the coupon required for the $100 off. Thanks for nothing, GameStop.)


I have to admit that having so many barriers to get through has been very frustrating, but after putting over 300 hours into MHFU, it seems ridiculous to quit now that I've found a few people to help me out in putting down those nasty, nasty high-ranked monsters.

The quest will continue.


Games: Apparently I'm the only person on the entire Internet who hasn't read this epic takedown of all the plot holes in Mass Effect 2 by Shamus Young. It's a great read, and if you (like me) were left feeling hollow and unsatisfied by the complete cop-out, let-down, WTF-are-they-serious?-ness of the game’s central storyline (yes, there was one) then this is required reading.


Thanks go out to @unangbangkay for pointing it out in his own blog here, in which he has a novel solution for solving the ME2 stupidness problem.