The Hordes are Coming

   "The Horde Mode" was a concept that been around in some form or another for many years on PC games, but its introduction , to wide spread fame came along with its name as well in the video game release of Gears of War 2. It caught on so much that many other games added there own form of "Horde Mode" to there titles. Some are really bad others are forgettable, and some have taken the concept to new heights. Wether your a gamer or not you probably heard of some of them. I want to focus on 3 that stand out.


   First and formost there is "The Horde Mode" the one that really started this new craze, and soon to be followed up by "Horde 2.0" in the upcoming Gears 3. Horde mode ended up being the star of the Gears of War 2 multiplayer lineup.  You and four other players pick a Gears character and choose weapons. Then you’re dropped on a relatively small map littered with ammo and perfect areas for cover, sniping, and dying like an idiot when you get cut off from your group.
The idea is to survive wave after wave of Locust hordes that the game throws at you. You lose if every member on your team is killed. You win when you kill every Locust in a wave of the horde – after that, the game pauses to show you which players had the most kills and then chucks you back into the map with another wave. Chances are Gears 3 Horde Mode will set a new standard for other games.

   Next up is "Fire Fight" , Bungie's answer to epics Horde Mode, Fire Fight added a competitive feel to it as if you were in a tournament of some kind, rather raw and some times unforgiving in its first form (ODST) and refined for its Matchmaking debut in Reach. and it offered staggering amounts of customization making the replay value very high. Now that 343 industries is handling the Halo franchise all to themselves it will be interesting to see where they take it.

  
   Last but not least its the Zombie mode aka Call of Duty Zombies, a mode at 1st that seemed like a cute little easter egg tack on that was added to the end of COD World at War. Treyarch added there own identity to the COD series and set themselves apart from Infinity Ward's versions of COD, with this. Infinity Ward then added "Spec Ops" to there subsequent entry but it did not achieve the same level of success, a good mode in its own right, it did not strike a chord with players like Treyarch's Zombies did. While treyarchs mode had no competitive feel like Horde or FireFight, and almost no customization, it more than made up for it in  easter eggs, and nods to the player. And most of all made it fun. Black Ops Zombies gave the players even more easter eggs and a bit of back story to the zombie madness.

   Will these 3 hold the top spots in the future? Or will some one create the next big thing, only time will tell, All I can say is I can't wait to whats next out there.

Console vs Console

   Just the other day I was reading an article on G4's website, I decided to comment. That's when I noticed the comments had turned into a fanboy argument. Once again its the old ps3 is better then Xbox and vice versa.
  You would think by now it would have gotten a bit better but no its still idiot vs idiot. Each system has its pros and cons, depending on what you like to play and which exclusives you prefer more. Whether it be Halo or Killzone, they're all good. So why in the hell cant people just play their games and stop trying to convince the world that they have the superior console? The harder you try the more it looks like your trying to convince yourself that you bought the right one. Play your game enjoy your console of choice (or both) and shut the @#$& up people! 

Race and Attractiveness

For the longest time (actually always) those two things have played a part in my life, not in a huge way like some sort of Oscar winning story line about having to deal with racism or ugly people having inner beauty and what not, but just in a subtle way. All my life since I was a kid I was told I was unattractive by my peers (no this is not an attempt to get words of encouragement that im not that ugly I know im not.) any ways, in high school I was out right told I was "ugly" now when your a teen or younger that can be really devastating. Mind you now I'm no "Brad Pitt" but I think im pretty cool. thats just the way its been, even today I get the occasional remark, subtle as it may be its still there. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but some people just have a harder time of it than others.

Racism, well actually I don't know really if I could call it that, maybe more along the lines of being stereo typed, I'm Hispanic and to some people that means that I should love to work out doors, that I'm really strong, that I speak perfect Spanish, and that I should not know much about the modern world ( you might ask why not the chiseled Latin hunk type you see in movies? well I mentioned earlier looks play a part in that), if you didn't know me, I look like just swam across the river so to speak. The generic I work in the fields possible illegal alien Mexican stereo type. So naturally when I have a good idea at work I just get a nod but when some one else has a simular idea (some one who is more attractive or not a so so looking Hispanic they get a bit more attention. Maybe other people feel this way maybe not, this is how I feel, now I don't raise to much of a fuss because I do get heard , I just have to try a little harder than my good looking or non Hispanic counterparts. Well hopefully anyone reading this isn't offended by me because im not outraged or because they think I am making something out of nothing, but if anyone else deals with subtle or outright stereo typing or being a little over looked because of your "looks" well you are not alone. remember just because a person looks a certain way doesn't mean they are.

I love technology, (why did I say that? eh I just do)

A departure from the norm

Ok its been a while but hey, here I am. Today there is no rambling just a proud dad, you see my youngest son Caleb, has been writing scribbles on paper or old note books or almost anything he can write on. He said he wants to be a published writer someday, so we figured he could try to maintain his own blog (with a little supervision from mom and dad of course) little stories from the mind of Caleb he does have a morbid sense of humor so its mostly ghost/zombie/monster stories. could my son be the next Steven King? well at least he learn some typing skills and what not. Who knows perhaps fame and fortune await him if he truly enjoys writing. or maybe this is the beginning of a life long hobby? as long as hes happy and he loves what he does its all good :)

Go and visit calebsdarkland

Has Microsoft gone to far?

I am speaking about Xbox live policy enforcement, I have been reading their forums, the ones in regards to suspensions, only to see that people are being permanently banned for playing a game early. Now by no means should you be able to get away with it, but permanent suspension? that's going to far maybe it should be like if you play the game 2 weeks early, your suspension lasts until 2 weeks after the games release. Many other things are disturbing as well, apart from the obvious reasons, swear words, sexual orientation, religion, scamming and so forth on a profile that do warrant suspensions but there are others that don't quite make sense, one person was band and the response from enforcement team was that he had his real name on his profile, yet xbox live has a place to put your actual name on your bio!
Xbox live should definitely continue to police their product, They provide a good service, and I'm sure that it is not an easy job policing millions of users. Maybe they should change there terms and code of conduct, just a little bit, perhaps with the help of actual user input through surveys or polls. It's good to be politically correct just don't take it to far. Maybe they should also consider giving the individual user more power to block what they don't want to see or hear for themselves.