Anyway, I was looking through the logs to see if there were any interesting search terms being used when it came to my attention that just about every single one was an interesting search term. Check this out (and beware of excessive of narcissistic adulation):

The first search, female nude male gaze, and the second to last search, objectification alba, both lead to Female Roles and the Male Gaze. It’s actually an essay I wrote while in college about the use of the male gaze in film. I posted it as a response to an article I read on some website. I guess a lot of people do research on the male gaze or are looking for easy ways to finish a paper because this is the most “found” article on my site. Maybe people just like Jessica Alba.

The fact that someone searched for snuggie drives some to drink is pretty funny in and of itself. But when you add that it results in my thoughts on the Snuggie as the number one result, well that’s downright hilarious. Maybe if they pop in some Polyphonic Spree they’ll feel better.

There was a time that Shannon’s review of the final episode of Dawson’s Creek was the most visited page on this site; it still has more comments than anything else nearly six years later. While it’s popularity has died off quite a bit, there are still some people out there interested in Joey and Pacey, as evidenced in someone searching for who does joey end up with in dawson’s creek. So who did Joey end up with after all? Answer: Tom Cruise.

The search for fallout 3 ending continue is another popular one. The Fallout Ending Controversy is probably the second most “found” post here. Evidently people aren’t very happy with not being able to continue playing after completing the Fallout 3 storyline. Maybe once the final download content is released this post will fade into obscurity.

One thing I find interesting is that while some of these pages, namely the Fallout and the Male Gaze ones, receive a ton of search engine traffic, no one leaves a comment. They’re practically response free. It’s a little odd. Maybe I’ll ponder that one some day. Or maybe people are afraid I’ll make fun of them again. Who knows. What do you think about that?

25 Random Things…

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you (thanks s-rod). If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people [in the right-hand corner of the page], then click Publish.)

1. My favorite movie is currently Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
2. I have never in my life been to the armpit of the country, also known as New Jersey and I certainly wasn’t born there.
3. Despite what you may think, Windows ME is the greatest operating system ever released.
4. If I were into cosplay, I’d totally be Dr. Horrible — before he joined the Evil League of Evil though.
5. Kristin Wig is hi-freaking-larious.
6. I’m just not that into you.
7. I’ve read all of the Twilight series and New Moon was my favorite.
8. I can’t believe it’s not butter.
9. I once threw a standardized test because the teachers said it wouldn’t count for anything and that the results would be used to set FCAT standards.
10. This page intentionally left blank.
11. I think things are a lot funnier than the really are.
12. I used to read Dave Berry like it was crack cocaine.
13. There is no thirteenth story.
14. If a movie were to be made about my life, I’d want either Shia LaBeouf or Keanu Reeves to play me. Woah!
15. I’ve never seen a movie I truly hated.
16. I really don’t think Berry Bonds is all that bad of a guy and the fact that he used steroids shouldn’t keep him or his records out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
17. I’m having a lot of fun writing this.
18. I cried at the end of Shawshank Redemption.
19. Fallout 3 is the greatest video game ever created followed closely by Grand Theft Auto 4.
20. [Insert witty quip here.]
21. I think the writing on SNL is way better than it was just 4 years ago.
22. Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray have a lot to do with my desire to travel to Japan.
23. If I could have anyone read this list, it’d be you.
24. If I won the lottery, the first thing I’d do would be to pay off my debt, then buy a MacBook Pro, and then have all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
25. Everything you have read here is completely true.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed my list of 25 random things that are completely mostly false. Oh yeah, I have to tag people. Well, tag, you’re it.

Did the gameplay in Fallout 3 justify the ending?

I try to keep away from video game reviews for the same reason I try to keep away of movie and TV reviews: they spoil things. However, with Twitter, message boards, and friends comments sometimes it’s hard to avoid some sort of knowledge of what’s to come. A few weeks after Fallout 3 was released I started to see gripes about the ending to the game. I chose not to pry further into it, but I knew a lot of people were upset with the outcome of the game. I chose to leave it at that and continue to enjoy the game I was playing.

Earlier today I finished Fallout 3 and I can see where the gripes come from. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that considering the extremely expansive and fairly open-ended gameplay, Fallout 3’s ending is very abrupt and fairly straightforward. This, however, isn’t what I believe people were so upset with. I believe the gripes come with the result of the ending. Being a role playing type of game, the ending carries a choice between two options, neither of which are exactly beneficial to the player.

I actually don’t have a problem with the ending. While it’s not a happy ending, the ending is justified by the rest of the game. The game presents plenty of choices for the player throughout the course of the game and all throughout there is never a perfect option. So why should we expect that with the ending? THe game justifies the ending — there isn’t anything to complain about.

After all, it isn’t anywhere near the level of horribleness the ending to the original Devil May Cry had. Devil May Cry, while extremely difficult, was a very fun game where you play as a character killing all sorts of evil creatures with a combination of guns and swords. The ending put the player in control of a biplane — yes a biplane — and flying out of a collapsing cave.

This Devil May Cry ending was unfortunately repeated with the otherwise flawless Resident Evil 4. After finding and protecting the presidents daughter from parasite infected zombie-like Spaniards, you’re tasked with riding a jet ski — yes a jet ski — through a cave out into the sunset.

These endings where horrible and completely unjustified by the game they belong to. While Fallout 3’s ending might be displeasing to the player, it’s fitting to the game and, in comparison, not to bad.

Installing

Considering this is a completely new operating system for the XBox 360, I figured the download would take a while and was planning to wait a few days after the update dropped on Wednesday. To my surprise, the updated downloaded and installed in less than five minutes. Once installed, you’re treated to a wild, but strange, introduction video.

Setup

After the video, I was asked to choose which account to login to. Once logged in, I began the avatar creation process. When I first heard about NXE avatars I figured it was a pretty cheesy Mii rip-off. It seemed to cheapen the 360 experience a bit. They also seemed pointless. All that said, I did have fun creating my avatar and trying to get it to look like me. I’d show you how it turned out, but short of taking a picture of my tv (which is lame) I can’t get the image off — the XBox.com site won’t display them yet.

Dashboard

I don’t even know if it’s called the dashboard anymore, but that’s what I’ll call it for lack of a better term. Despite looking completely cluttered and slightly unorganized, finding what you’re looking for is fairly simple. The graphics make the old “blade” system look rather archaic (although that is more or less what you get when you hit the XBox button on the controller) and look awesome in HD. There is now a quick button to the Marketplace to make purchasing Rock Band songs even easier. Also easier to find is the newsfeed that was added in the last console update, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Games

If there is a game currently in the drive, the first panel on the Games blade (are they still called blades?) is dedicated to that game. In my case, there is a pretty cool image of a member of the Brotherhood of Steel letting me know Fallout 3 is currently ready to go. Subsequent panels feature recently played games and a much better way to look through a games achievements.

One of the NXE features that I didn’t find out about until recently is the ability to install games to the hard drive. It took about 10 minutes to install Fallout 3 to the hard drive and while I didn’t really notice any in-game load differences, the initial launch seemed more snappy. Though playing a game without hearing the crazy-loud disc drive was a huge bonus.

Netflix

A huge addition to the NXE, and one of the reasons I left Blockbuster, is the ability to stream movies from Netflix. This comes in the form of a 3MB download that, once run, gives you an activation code to enter on Netflix’s website. Once activated, about 30 seconds, my instant queue was brought up. There is no way to add titles to the queue, though you can remove titles and rate them. Quality is pretty good and looks a little worse than a typical HDTV broadcast (I tested with an episode of the Office). The function of the Netflix portion of the NXE is great and goes a long way in making the 360 an actual entertainment hub, especially for us Mac users.

Network

The 360 is notorious for having trouble handling extended networks using Apple routers — using multiple routers to extend a wi-fi signal. In my house, I do just that. My 360 is on the complete opposite end of the house from the initial router and, despite an AirPort Express relaying the signal only 20 feet away, the 360 has trouble with the network. Now, I have absolutely no proof or way to test this, but it seems that with the update I have better signal strength. Again, there’s no way to know if this is a placebo effect or not, but it does seem quicker, especially when downloading things from the Marketplace.

Final Thoughts

Note: One thing I want to test but haven’t yet had time to do so is the DVD playback. The 360’s playback has always been mediocre at best, especially when displaying text. I’m hoping that the NXE update addresses this issue, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

All in all I’m pretty impressed with the New XBox Experience. Looking at the pre-release features it looked like the NXE could be a lot of eye candy and very little substance, but instead the update is a welcome change. While the avatars do seem a bit cheesy, they aren’t too bad. Unfortunately I can see the money hounds on the horizon as paid avatar updates and themes will come — there’s already a spot for it on the avatar editing screen. It’s a nice update and if you have a 360, be sure to download the update on Wednesday.