Playstation Network Back on

   Playstation Network has been brought back to PSP and PS3 users, and it has been missed. I have to say that Sony deserves some slack because they worked very hard to do what would have taken a few months to complete. However, if there is another threat in the future, I hope that there isn't a 3 week time frame once again, otherwise Sony will be screwed.
   The first game that I decided to try out again was Crysis 2's multiplayer, which I found was a bit "unbalanced." My reasoning for saying that as I have in the past is because this game and MoH's multiplayer require you to shoot constantly to get a "kill" but games like COD take only a couple of shots in the foot to kill someone due to LAG between yourself and the host. I do have to say that this game has much better designed maps, but keeping the powerups that you get to use in the single player makes the game feel less polished than it actually is. It plays and seems a lot like COD, but it lacks the fairness that COD would have.
   As for Killzone 3's multiplayer, it feels like an unbalanced version of Team Fortress 2, in the sense that everyone plays as either the spy or.... the spy. When someone tries to be a medic, they are usually across the map from where your wounded player's body is. The maps aren't quite as polished as Killzone 2, possibly because they were trying to be closer to COD. The thing is COD has such a unique gameplay style that whenever other games try to borrow off of that, it just doesn't work.
   As I may or may not have said previously (few months ago) Medal of Honor is supposed to be difficult. What makes it difficult is that you can't just run out and start killing players. You have to stick with your team (somewhat) and stay out of the open, which gives the game a PC shooter style. I like that, because it adds a different type of strategy to it. Black Ops is fun, but it requires a different strategy that most PC gamers are willing to use, because the sticky aim (AKA aim assist) is what allows players on consoles to kill each other with seemingly good accuacy. As a side note, the aim assist really has to be used, because a mouse and keyboard have a lot more precision than a controller. Actually, if COD developers decide to add new features, they should have a lobby/servers that don't allow aim assist at all, to make it feel like the classic CODs. Perhaps they could call this classic mode.
   Anyway, I'm just glad COD is back up. I know I've already commented on these games before, but I wanted to make the point that CODs style and gameplay mechanics only work with COD, not with any other shooting game.

Alternative Fuel Sources Post 5

  I found another very interesting article on my topic, alternative fuel sources. This actually kind of goes against many proposed ideas about alternative fuel. The article almost "shuts down" at least the idea of ethanol from corn. One excerpt made the point that ethanol is less efficient than gasoline and would cost more for motorists. This is a good point, but because oil in the Middle East is already causing gas prices to rise, I personally could see ethanol as just a part of a combo of alternative fuel. While it's important to try to use cleaner fuel, it ends up being more expensive for the consumers (which are the people who ultimately have to get the gas at the gas station).
   Here's a little excerpt from this article:

"For the first time since the push to use more ethanol in American vehicles began five or six years ago, ethanol costs more than gasoline. E-85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, has recently been priced higher than regular gasoline at some stations.

"It's not going to last," said Wallace Tyner, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University.
The reason is that E-85 is a bad deal for motorists when it costs as much as gasoline. Ethanol contains less energy per gallon than gasoline. A gallon of ethanol normally will propel a vehicle fewer miles than a gallon of gasoline."

   While I may have recently implied that we should use more alternative fuel, this opened my mind a little bit, and made me realize potential problems with alternative fuel such as ethanol. I kind of see why America hasn't made a whole lot of effort over the past few years to try to use more alternative fuel. That being said, however, the U.S. is dealing with rising gas prices because of imported oil, and because China is in the ballpark to compete with America, it's time to take extra measures to make sure that dependence on imported oil doesn't lead to another attack similar to the 9/11 attacks.
  It's time that America toughens up a bit more and starts initiating in more research to find the right combination of alternative fuels (not just one type alone) to create cleaner fuel and more energy efficient fuel for vehicles.

Alternative Fuel Sources Post 4

  Here's a link to an excerpt of the "Clean Air Act," which was first issued in 1963. Amendments were made to this act in 1966 and 1990. The reason why I bring this article up is because this indirectly relates the reasoning for why the U.S. should ideally switch to cleaner and more abundant sources of energy. Basically this act discusses includes uniform standards for controlling air pollution. This act, however, wasn't limited to regulating the pollution from cars, but I imagine it contains regulations for factories, and what regulations were ideal for keeping the air clean. I'm actually a little surprised that this act was released in the '60s, because I wouldn't totally associate efforts for cleaner air with the 1960s, but I guess that can be considered an ignorance on my part.
   Anyway, this post could imply that I believe in the theories about global warming, which is a separate issue that I'm not working on for this project. Let me just put out there that the link I posted here does not imply any of my opinions on global warming. While many people, including the more Democratic-sided politicans, believe that America needs to stop depending on oil for fuel because the Carbon Dioxide is contributing to global warming, I believe that there are different reasons that more people can agree on for gaining an independence for fuel and energy. Our dependence on the Middle East has proven to be dangerous, and many of the places where we get our oil from are in countries that we are essential fighting against. If America stops depending on these countries, then the U.S. can move forth with new ways to fuel cars, buses, trucks, airplanes, and other vehicles. While many people disagree with offshore drilling, perhaps it's the only way we can transition from oil to cleaner fuels.
   I'm just trying to get people to think about this.

Alternative Fuel Sources Post 3

   I recently found a fascinating article from nytimes.com that discussed a specific proposal over my topic, which is Alternate Fuel Sources. The author of the article, Joe Nocera, discusses about a friend of his, Boone Pickens, who drills for natural gas, rather than crude oil. The author of the article suggested that the U.S. should use natural gas to power vehicles, not just the 140,000 trucks and buses that already use clean energy. One of the facts that was made in this article was, "There are already 12 million vehicles around the world that use either liquefied or compressed natural gas."
   The author referred a bill that proposed the increased use of natural gas as the Boone Pickens bill, which suggests that America goes towards the path of gaining an independence on foreign oil, and start using natural gas, which the U.S. has more of an abundance of, to power vehicles, especially one's that use diesel fuel.
   Here's a little chunk from the article that Boone specifically agrees on, "Although Boone believes that our continued reliance on OPEC oil is dangerous, he also knows that even if you drill, baby, drill, as many Republicans want, it won’t make much difference. Quite simply, America is running out of oil. The Pickens plan calls for increased use of wind, solar, nuclear, even coal. ”I’m for anything that’s American."
  I agree with this, but the concern that I personally have is how America would be able to switch from Middle East oil to natural gas. Again, if I didn't post this is one of my previous posts, the people like Boone who drill for natural gas have to actively start drilling as if America was already using it, that way it will be accessible for newer cars to use. The transition is probably the most critical part of this process of swtiching over to cleaner fuel, because the U.S. can't just suddenly stop importing oil over on night. At the same time Americans who support cleaner gas can't just get rid of the cars that require regular gasoline. Hopefully there will be a solution to this conflict that I forsee happening.