Year of Video Games - 2009

Following up on the games I played and finished in 2008...

This year is a bit different since I recently got an original Xbox and new PS3 Slim which lead to more non-Nintendo games finished as last year. Out of all the games I finished last year I'd have to say Modern Warfare 2, Half-Life 2, and Zelda II were my favorite.

Modern Warfare was a completely different gaming experience than I was used to, giving a blockbuster movie storyline with plenty of twists and challenging environments that keeps you going "just one more chapter"

I played the Half-Lifes in order starting with the first and ending on Episode 2, and even though Half-Life 1 was exception, Half-Life 2 had that same type of playable movie quality that I really liked. The levels and game play were exceptional and kept you hook till the final climax.

Unexpectedly Zelda II was, for me, more fun than Ocarina of Time. Ocarina is constantly praised as one of the best games of all time, but when I played it I didn't really see it. Zelda II offered and extremely, but rewarding challenge and once I was finished I felt a sense of loss that it was over.

I still have a goal of beating all the Zelda's before I'm 30, and with Ocarina and Zelda II out of the way I have the major hurdles done. Spirit Tracks should go quickly since it's on the DS and I really like the cell-shaded top-down 3D style it has. Unfortunately I'm not too excited about the two remaining 3D games and wish I had done those first and left the classic top down ones for last.

Since I've entered the current gen of systems with the PS3 I've found that the movie-style of these games is more appealing than I originally thought. Heavy Rain looks like next-gen Hotel Dusk and games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed have the action adventure element I like.

The iTouch games made a small dent this year too, with me purchasing classic games from my youth; Sim City, Myst, Wolfenstien 3D, Doom, and adventure games. As the platform matures and mobile gaming takes hold I have a feeling I'll have more to add to the list.

Finally I found that Steam, PSN, and Virtual Console are a large contributor to my gaming experience. The method of downloading a game and having it "permanently" tied to you account and not a piece of hardware is cool.

Finished Games for 2009

Gameboy Advance
Metroid Zero Mission

Sony PS3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Microsoft Xbox
Halo: Combat Evolved
Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City

PC
Half-Life
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Portal

Wii
The New Super Mario Bros Wii (finished cooperatively with Oanh!)

Virtual Console
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Metal Slug

Currently Playing
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
The World Ends With You
Beneath a Steel Sky (iPhone)
Halo 2

Goals for 2010
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed 2
Okami
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Super Paper Mario
Deus Ex
Heavy Rain

LVM Disk Recipes for Debian

After much wrangling and researching I finally figured out how to get LVM disk recipes to work with Debian preseeding. The following recipe will create a partition layout of what's in the table. When making these recipes make sure that you account for extra whitespace that may be hiding (especially spaces) otherwise it may yield unexpected results.

Mount Point	Type	VG	LV Name	Size (MB)	Filesystem
/boot	Primary			100	ext3
/	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/rootvol	4096	ext3
/var	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/varvol	1024	ext3
swap	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/swapvol	2048	swap
/home	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/homevol	remaining space	ext3

Recipe file:

Ubuntu/Debian Custom LVM Disk Recipe ::

100 1000 100 ext3                              
    $primary{ }
    $bootable{ }
    device{ /dev/sda }
    method{ format }
    format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ }
    filesystem{ ext3 }
    mountpoint{ /boot }
.

100 100000 -1 lvm
    $primary{ } $defaultignore{ } 
    method{ lvm } vg_name{ vg00 }
.

4096 10000 4096 ext3                        
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ rootvol }
    method{ format } format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ / }
.                                             

1024 4000 1024 ext3                           
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ varvol }
    method{ format } format{ }
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ /var }
.                                             

2048 5000 2048 linux-swap
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ swapvol }
    method{ swap } format{ }
.                                             

1024 1000000 -1 ext3                  
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ homevol }
    method{ format } format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ /home }
.