Virus Attack

I finally got my computer back and fully working on Thursday, 14th April, 2011. It wasn't the greatest thing ever since it had to be completely wiped and reset to the factory settings after getting a boot up virus for a second time. This leaves me without any of my many downloads, but I can always get those again. It's better to have nothing left on the computer than to not have a working computer...I'm sure many people out there who use the Internet or PC regularly will agree with me on that.

After receiving the virus for a second time on Wednesday, 13th April, 2011, I figured out where this boot up virus may have come from. However, I do not have the link to the website, so I can't really warn anyone about it. I do know that at least one of my Facebook friends had liked a couple of jokes that were posted on the website, but I can't remember which of my many friends that was, so there's no way I can find the link without going through everyone's pages looking for it, and I don't really have the patience to do that. Kind of disappointing when you'd like to warn everyone not to visit the page unless they want there computer to receive a virus that will prevent them from starting up there computer.

Now, I'm not computer illiterate, and I do know how to start up in Safe Mode etc, but I couldn't do that at all. I tried several times to do everything I could possibly think of to get the computer to work, but when it won't let you start up the computer in any way, there's not much you can do without the right tools. I ended up having to call a guy named Simon and explain to him what had happened. The first time I received the virus was on Friday, 8th April, 2011. I walked into town that day to use a computer at the library to update my Facebook and explain that I may not have a computer for days, maybe even months since I didn't know how to repair it, and don't have the money to buy a new computer (something I really need to do anyway). However, Facebook will not work at the library, but I remembered that there was a kind of Internet cafe in town. The bad thing was that I didn't know if the place still existed since I hadn't walked out that way in quite a while. Luckily for me, it was still there. In the window was a number for Simon who could repair computers, so I copied to down onto my cellphone after updating my Facebook. I called him several times after getting home. The reason? I never got a reply the first few times of calling.

He managed to rip the virus out of the boot sector of the computer, so I could keep all of the stuff that I had on my computer. I got the computer back on Wednesday, 13th April, 2011. This was when I worked out how I'd gotten the virus. Not too long after Simon had left, I went to sign into Facebook, but accidentally clicked the link from which my friend had gotten the jokes. I had the page bookmarked. Apart from that, the only pages I had been on was Google Mail, and YouTube, where I watched a Foamy the Squirrel toon. I know that neither of those were responsible for the virus since I'd used them on three other computers with no problems. Clearly, this means that the virus had computer from the page from which my friend had liked a joke. I called Simon again and he said he'd collect the computer on Thursday, 14th April, 2011, and would reset it to the factory settings for me, free of charge since he was sick of the sight of my computer.

He returned it later in the day on Thursday, 14th April, 2011, and had told me he installed some extra RAM into it which he found laying around his house in a box. Didn't charge me for it or anything, which was really kind. I now have 512 megs of RAM in my computer instead of 265 megs. I know, it's not a great amount of RAM, but it is, as Simon had said, the minimum recommended amount of RAM for computers currently. He recommended that I buy myself a new computer though, something I knew I really needed to do anyway, but am lacking the money to do so.

Yesterday, I received my copy of the PSP game The 3rd Birthday, a game I've really been looking forward to getting since I'd heard about it. It was only released here in the UK on the 1st April, 2011, and I know from YouTube videos that it was released some time in 2010. The game is a lot of fun, at least in my mind. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would disagree with me. Hell, I enjoy Final Fantasy XIII, and I know there are 100s of people out there who find that game completely fucking crap. I'll admit that it's not as good as the Final Fantasy games released before Final Fantasy X, but it is enjoyable, and is definitely a lot better than Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII. Final Fantasy X wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either.

So far in The 3rd Birthday, I've met two characters that people who have played Parasite Eve 2 will instantly recognise. Kyle Madigan and Eve Brea. I was shocked about what Kyle had told Aya about Eve. I am not going to spoil that for people who haven't played The 3rd Birthday though. Anyway, The 3rd Birthday will definitely make more sense to a person who has played Parasite Eve 2 since you will know a lot more about Kyle and Eve than you would if you've only played The 3rd Birthday. So, if you're interested in playing The 3rd Birthday, I would really recommend at least playing Parasite Eve 2 as well. There's not HUGE links to PE2...so far at least, but you will learn more about Aya, Kyle and Eve if you play the 2nd, although I'm sure it's not a HUGE requirement to play that game if you can't get ahold of it.

The controls in The 3rd Birthday take a bit of time to get the hang of, but once you understand them, the game is a lot of fun. Knowing the controls though does not make the game real easy. I've been playing it in Easy Mode, and it's not all THAT easy. Monsters like the Reaper can pretty much kill you in 2 hits in Episode 1, and no matter how much you shot at it, you can't cause it any damage, so you have to run as fast as you possibly can before it kills you. I know. I'm a pansy when it comes to games and whenever I play a new game for the first time, I always play in the easiest mode so that I can get used to the controls and all that. I know that a lot of people will jump into the game the first time on either Normal, or Hard Modes on their first playthroughs, not go for the Easy Mode. But, since most games will never keep the same controls between games, I always like to use the easiest mode so I can get used to everything before tackling it on a harder mode.

I'm hoping that the replayablity of The 3rd Birthday is as high as the replayablity of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (another Square-Enix game released for the PSP). So far, I've completed Crisis Core twice, and started a third playthrough, however I put that on hold as soon as The 3rd Birthday arrived in the mail since I've been wanting to play it since I first heard about it. It was the same for Crisis Core too. When I first heard about that, I couldn't wait to play it since I'd always been interested in the story of Zack, a character you barely see in FFVII.

I'll post a lot more about The 3rd Birthday when I complete the game.