I think this could be considered my first actual game review on this blog. I have spent roughly 30 hours playing Left 4 Dead since the demo release. The AI Director doesn't impress me as much as it used to, and I agree with Tycho (of Penny-Arcade fame) when he says that what is really needed is an intelligent variation of the terrain, rather than the variation of the zombie horde that we have been led to expect.

The AI Director is supposed to vary the music, the zombies, etc. What it really means is this:

If you play too slowly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.
If you play too quickly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.
If you play somewhere in between quickly and slowly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.

The "variations" in the music have to do with a specific music being played right before zombies attack en-masse. It's predictable. Very predictable, and I love it. My complaints aside, this game is fantastic. Even though it isn't as "random" as I have been led to believe, it still keeps you on the edge of your seat, I still jump a little when I get jumped by a hunter. I still curse under my breath every time I get covered in Boomer vomit. My heart still pounds like mad when I see a tank lifting a hunk of cement and hurling it at my head. I still...ummm...Smokers are kind of annoying.

Where the game really comes alive is Versus mode. As good as the zombie AI is in the game, it is nothing when compared to 4 human controlled zombies, working in unison to ruin the survivors day. If you are playing as the zombies, it's ridiculous fun trying to separate the survivors, and you get such a rush when you finally bring them down. If you are playing as the survivors, it is a tense, frightening, and fast-paced fight for survival. If you do manage to reach the safe house, it is usually by the skin of your teeth.

Despite my problems with the AI Directors control of the music, I love the atmosphere in this game. There is no point where you are brought out of the setting. It always feels dangerous, like death is waiting around every corner. You are constantly checking behind you, and frequently find yourself in situations from which there seems to be no escape.

The bottom line is that if you have three friends, you owe it to yourself to own this game. The single player will keep you occupied for as long as you want it to. Even with only 4 campaigns, there are countless hours of gameplay available to you.

Left 4 Dead gets 9.5 shambling corpses out of 10.

After the tragic accident that took my Sims lives on Wednesday, I restarted the simulation, gave them a bigger, better house, blah blah blah. The result was that they grew to hate each other, eventually culminating in their son being sent to military school, and the parents both too depressed to work.

I. Shit. You. Not.

Some would say that this means the Sims is flawed as a life simulation. I disagree. I think the Sims provides social commentary on the human condition. It says that human beings are pathetic, useless creatures. That without the help of some "higher power" they are completely unable to live their lives effectively. Without constant supervision, human beings will piss and shit themselves rather than use a toilet. They will go weeks, even months without bathing, laying on their backs on the hard, hard floor, screaming about how unfair life is, and how they only want to be happy, why won't someone just make them happy!!

But they miss the point...they are in control, they don't need someone else. They are empowered. They can use the toilet, they can bathe themselves. They simply need to stand up as one and, in the words of some guy I once saw in an impressive rickroll compilation, say "Yes We Can!"

Either that or the Sims just sucks, and is flawed as a life simulation.

I put together a computer yesterday for the express purpose of playing the Sims. I wanted to let them live their own lives, and I would just check in on them and buy them new sofa's and stuff. It took them nearly 6 hours to burn their house down, and themselves with it, after that, the bugs moved in.

I am going to reset the experiment later today, and probably buy them a smoke detector and maybe a fire extinguisher.

The Sims, for those who don't know, is a simulation of life. It is not an accurate simulation of life, but it covers the basics. You create a family, buy a house, furnish the house, get jobs, make relationships, etc. You can actively control the peoples lives, or you can just let them kind of do it themselves.

The people in the Sims try to live their lives according to their personalities and their moods. If they are hungry they eat, if they are tired they sleep, so in this way it is somewhat accurate. What they don't do is plan ahead. For instance, a dude might have a carpool picking him up at 6:00am, but that's no reason not to go to sleep at 5:45am is it? Fuck no! Then, when his carpool arrives, and he tries to pull his tired ass out of bed, he invariably won't get there on time, lose his job, then burn down his house, wife, and kid.

I downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo through Steam today, and I am very impressed. Not blown away, but definitely impressed. The demo only allows you to play the first to parts of one of the "movies", so i played it a couple of times on single player campaign mode, and it was hella fun. The AI Director works wonderfully, each time I played it was like a new experience. I am going to play it a lot more over the next couple of days, and buy it as soon as I have some spare cash.

My computer has some problems with it. I can only run it smoothly at low resolution, but even then it doesn't look horrible, mind you that is my laptop, so I may tear open my desktop and see what I can do with it. It may make the difference between impressed and blown away if I can get it to run with a higher resolution.

I have to get some people together to play the co-op mode as soon as possible, like...now...I want it to be people I know, and I have to get my microphone working.

Nice! The commercial for Left 4 Dead just came on Spike TV, which I believe can only be a sign from god that I must own this game.

My wife brought up something about Lego Star Wars II that I forgot to mention. In Chapter 2 of Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), you are traveling through the swamps of Dagobah when suddenly you build...a green, presumably John Deere, tractor.

From what I could tell, the tractor didn't add anything useful to the scene. It didn't help me accomplish any task that a more...Star Wars-esque vehicle wouldn't have done. While I did get a great laugh watching Yoda bomb around the swamp on a tractor, it removed any possibility of the game feeling like Star Wars.

It came up again in Episode VI, again serving no purpose that an AT-ST couldn't have done, and again completely removing me from the feeling of being in a galaxy far, far away.

I finished the story mode in Lego Star Wars II (The original saga) last night. There are some games, such as Bioshock or Assassins Creed, where I play the game, immersed in the story, and I just can't wait for the ending, even though I will be sad when it's over. Lego Star Wars wasn't like that at all. I suppose it is hard to get wrapped up in the story, I have only seen it eleventy billion times. Still, getting to fly the Falcon, blowing up Death Star Part Deux, defeating the emperor, returning peace to the galaxy, all of these things should be great to play through, even in lego form.

I guess my complaint is that the game isn't bad, but it also isn't star wars. It follows the story fine, but there is something elsewhere...elusive...I can't put my finger on it. I think the game may be more lego than star wars.

By comparison, Lego Indiana Jones was amazing. It was both Lego, and Indy, and the two blended beautifully. It made me want to watch the movies, I want to go back and play through all the levels, just to complete the "Treasures". I absolutely don't want to go through Star Wars again to get the extras...I still may, for the piz-oints, but I won't enjoy it.

I will probably pick up the Lego Batman game at some point, I don't think you will catch me picking up Episodes I-III of Lego star wars though.

It's been a little over a month since my last post, which is something I told myself I would not do. There are a thousand possible excuses, and rather than bore you with mine I will let you make your own.

My Play by Post campaigns are starting to lag, and I am trying to figure out what I can do to revitialize them. My Pen and Paper game has missed a few sessions as well, but I don't think it is in any danger of dying out completely just yet.

The bane of my existance as a DM is my imagination. I am a storyteller, and when I design a campaign I am trying to tell a story, I am trying to make the world I set my players in reflect the actions they choose. I want it to have meaning. All of this makes for exciting campaigns, I like to think. My problem is that when I miss a session or two, my mind wanders. I start thinking of other campaigns, other stories, that I want to run. I get so wrapped up in those other campaigns that I get disinterested in my current one, and my players suffer. Since I began playing with my current group, we haven't seen a campaign run it's course. Right now, I have too much on my plate to begin thinking of other campaigns, so my players are safe (for now).

Aside from D&D, most of my time is taken up with playing Team Fortress 2. I haven't been so wrapped up in an FPS since my old Counterstrike/Day of Defeat days. If you play Team Fortress 2, check out the [Double][Dead][Redux] servers. There are two, which always run the Orange x3 map and have 100% crit chance on. It makes for a deadly game, but be warned, once you get used to 100% crit chance, it's hard to go back to a regular game. I find myself using the sniper and hitting someone and when they don't immediately die I assume they are cheating, then I remember that I need to actually get a headshot to crit in a regular game.

I also tried my hand, finally, at some of the Lego branded games on the 360. Lego Star Wars II and Lego Indiana Jones to be specific. Both are tons of fun, especially the cut scenes, but if I had to choose just one to bring to a desert island it would be Indy. Playing it made me want to watch the movies again. I don't have the movies on DVD. I had to set up my VCR to watch them on VHS and I felt very old and slightly dirty.

November has some amazing, amazing games coming out, none of which I will get to play. I have so many games to get through before I can justify buying any other games. I still have to finish Lego Star Wars II, Gears of War, even Beautiful Katamari which we got the same week we got out 360. I also have a bit of hankering to play some Viva Pinata...we will see.

The one game that I do plan to get, as soon as humanly possible, is Left 4 Dead. I was mostly undecided, but then I saw the opening video and my mind was made up for me.

Yesterday was my birthday, bringing me a year closer to being fertilizer. The day started off well, with a visit from some neighbourhood raccoons. They come to our back door from time to time, and my wife fed them pita and avacado, ensuring they will come back often. We got some pictures that turned out poorly, and I may put some up here eventually. My wife put up a nice post on her blog about the experience.

My son is sick, so I didn't do much in the way of true birthday celebration, however, a friend of mine got me Team Fortress 2 (for the PC) and it runs beautifully on my machine, which is a relief. It is a bit of a change playing it on PC instead of Xbox, but a welcome change since now I have access to the heavy update, and soon I will be knee deep in Sandvich.



After the boy went to sleep, we watched Sweeney Todd. It was excellent, and even as a musical it was easy to follow the story. I wasn't expecting it to be so graphic, but I wasn't disappointed either. We made cupcakes, and I quickly inhaled 3 of them, then took my time and savored the 4th. I still have a few left over, but the chances of them making it through the day are slim.

As soon as I get some birthday money (from my mom...naturally), I will be picking up the Adventurer's Vault, which I have perused and found to my taste. There are no D&D supplements out this month that I am interested in, so I will probably wait for Martial Power, which comes out in November.

My forums are up and running, with two play by e-mail games going concurrently, a third (non-D&D) game may be starting up soon, which pretty much brings you up to date with my life.

It's never a good sign when I have to log into my blogger account again...means i've been away for far too long. I've been busy, not so busy that i couldn't throw a post up now and then, but busy nonetheless. So a bunch of short stuff for today I think.

(On an unrelated note, it always amazes me that nonetheless is a word.)

I am on my second or third week of the play-by-post campaigns. You can take a look at the progress at the Myrador Forums. There are two PBP games going on, and both are going well (near as i can tell).

My actual D&D campaign is going very well also, and takes up a great deal of my off time. The main Myrador site has fallen behind, with no major updates in a while, but I aim to change that shortly by finishing the overland map and getting it up this week.

Music - Flight of the Concords (if they can be considered music). Specifically, I have repeatedly been watching the video for "If you're into it".



Books - Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series. I just finished book two, and I am really enjoying them, probably only because they have Vampires and Werewolves (SPOILER!). Honestly, if you can get past the 90210 high school dramaz, and the "OMFG this is so Cliché", there is a really deep and interesting book about...well...vampires and werewolves i suppose, and the difficulty of having relations with said entities.

There is a lot of stuff I really need to get around to, that I just can't seem to get off my ass and get done (*cough* blogging *cough*). So that is all for now. I am making a commitment to you right now that I will update at least twice a week, for a whole week! (this post counts as one of them)

ok...so, long story short, i forgot i had a blog...it happens, life is busy, i've been working a lot on a campaign setting for 4th edition dungeons and dragons, as well as making sure i am up to speed with my pen and paper campaign, planning two play-by-post campaigns (which started today) and playing in a Qin campaign sunday nights.

I have everything pretty much ready for the Play by post campaigns, the pen and paper one is ready, and the sunday night one is doing good too, so i think I am getting back on the blogging horse...or wagon...or horse drawn wagon.

you will have to forgive me, it's been a while.

i am still perpetually web-stalking sweetafton23. I now follow her on twitter, lj, youtube, and wordpress (but not myspace...never myspace). She is a little young for me I know, but then I am a little too "married with kid" for her, so i think our relationship could work out...at least in parallel-dimension comic form. (neil gaiman could write it, and it could be illustrated by sam keith). Maybe that's a little too creepy for this blog, so i will skillfully change topic in a way that will make you forget i wrote that.

I haven't bought a new video game in a long time. I thought long and hard about soul calibur 4, but yoda is just weak sauce compared to vader.

Did you know Keira Knightly was in Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace? She played Sade or whatever her name was (padme's twin/clone person). I had no fucking clue! Seriously, I have always said that they looked alike, but to put her in a movie as someone's twin, that's balls right there. (bravo lucas...bravo).

Back to games. Too Human was something I was going to wait for reviews on, and i'm glad i did. I thought briefly about spore, but then i remembered that i only like will wright for his random knowledge, and that i generally don't enjoy his games. i think i am saving myself for fable 2.

Rock Band 2 came out today I think...lemme look that one up...ok...yesterday. Whatever. I can't afford that just yet, i will wait until i can walk into a store and just buy one, instead of searching all around the city "wii-fit" style for a copy.

I never finished gears of war, and actually didn't even enjoy the small bits of it i did play. I will go back to it eventually, maybe.

my paragraphs are getting shorter and shorter, which means i am probably running out of interesting things to say, so i'll cut this short.

Lots of things caught my eye on the internet this month, and with the month drawing to a close, i figured I would share a couple of them.

First of all, my new wallpaper, on all 4 (soon to be more) of my computers.

Then there is a dramatic reading of a real break-up letter. I nearly pissed myself laughing at this one.

Thanks to Sweetney, I now know the joy of Cake Wrecks.

I have two new favorite Facebook Apps: Send Pokemon (which i am sure drives all my friends crazy) and D&D: Tiny Adventures, which is just all together awesome fun if you are into D&D at all. Search for either one of them if you are interested.

I am collecting as many pictures as I can of the camping trip and I will do a nice video montage of them later to the tune of "Take Me Higher"...stay tuned for that one.

Got back yesterday from the LOA Camping Trip. Had a fabulous time, but at the same time it was great to get home and see my wife and son. Rather than write the whole blog post, I will just copy my post from the LOA Forums.

Walking up to the campsite for the first time was a surreal experience for me. Kamui and I walked up and Methus was there right away to make us feel at home. Got our tents set up and lamented at how small mine was (I had tent envy all weekend, but thanks to FireEyes I don't think mine was the smallest). With my tent set up, I turned around and there was Solf with some happy juice. (I was amused at the name happy juice until saturday morning when I decided that happy juice and myself were no longer friends)

Friday night was lots of handshakes, more than a few laughs (McLovin...heh), and I failed/shamed my fellow canadians by heading in for some sleep before everyone else. (America 1, Canada 0)

Saturday morning came much faster than I expected, the fire was already going by the time I crawled out of my tent. More conversations went on while I stared at the flames trying to wake up.
Saturday afternoon came around and it was time for River Wars 2008. We headed down and I got into the raft with the Geek Squad (Patent Pending). We were weaponless, had 4 people, 3 paddles (one of them broken), but that wouldn't stop us from getting into the fray. For the first bit, we approached a heavily armed raft and began the attack. (Jerith|Tony fell out during that exchange, and Livvy got some pictures so I imagine they will surface eventually). We beat a hasty retreat, and decided that the lead boat needed to be attacked. We headed down river to begin the attack, and felt the pain of not having any weapons once again. We decided that there was only one thing we could do, and headed back to the other rafts to call a truce and see if we could procure a weapon or two. We got a little more wet (i'm not sure how that was possible) and Kamui got pulled overboard but Demeth's boat was nice enough to lend us a weapon which we immediately put to use by attacking them (i got a little talking to for that so we decided to put our new weapon to the test against the lead raft again). The attack was successful, with Brimstone almost losing an eye thanks to a well placed shot by Kamui. I could go on and on with this but take my word when I say it was a blast.
Back at the camp we dried off and hung out until poker. Our table moved the action around an awful lot and I took the early chip lead (it didn't last). We were sure Brimstone was going to be sporting a new cowbell before the night was through, but he slow-played it like a pro and spent as much time as possible away from the table, and managed to just be second out. Kayelle was collared and took it all in stride, I didn't last too far past that point either. The cards were amazing quality (thanks Brim).
Saturday night was more drinking, some more shots, and a great time. I went to my tent around midnight to take a little break and woke up at 8 in the morning on Sunday. (America 2, Canada 0)

Sunday was bittersweet for me. Seeing people pack up and head out, it was hard to deny that the trip was coming to a close. Thank god we had creed playing all morning to lift our spirits (or "Take Me Higher" as some would say). Brimstone saved the day with his Durango (my hero).
Went for a swim and got to show off my amazing football skillz (was it just me, or were there far too many warm pockets of water?). After that it was drying off, lunch and then Jerith|Tony ran his 1st Annual Dungeons and Dragons adventure. It was great fun, and everyone who played got some nice trophies. (Dice, dice bag, clipboard, character sheet, pencil, and power cards...everything a gamer needs).
I learned how to play dominos and 4 wins later I was just about ready to proclaim myself domino grand champion of the words. I was put in my place though.
After that was hanging around the camp fire, telling jokes (horrible, horrible, jokes...) and just generally hanging out. I made sure to not head to my tent until absolutely everyone else had head in to theirs though (America 2, Canada 1)

Monday we took off, and the drive home seemed so much longer than the drive there. Can't wait for next year.

Some other memories:

- Pamela becoming the new offical spokesperson for Alexander Keiths India Pale Ale
- As soon as the Beer Bitch was named, Brimstone yelling "I'M ALL IN!"
- Those two people at the campfire making out and groping each other. (they were going at it so long I thought they were paid entertainment)
- Kamui's face when he was first named McLovin (and every other time he was called McLovin for that matter)
- Those potatoes sunday night, I don't know who cooked them (Lady A? Livvy? Pam? FireEyes? God?) but whoever it was, TEACH ME!

As usual with this sort of thing, I brought a camera but didn't take a single picture. I would just much rather be out there having fun than hanging back with a camera. As such, no pictures yet, but I am collecting all the pictures I have and I will upload them to Picasa in the next day or two.

So a member of my guild (LOA) has a sister who is trying to win this Pepsi Superfan contest over at Much Music. I figured I would throw a link up on my blog so that my three readers could help her out. You get one vote a day, and if you don't vote then the dreaded Ashley could win, which I think we can all agree would be a travesty.

My weekly gaming days have been re-branded. Although the activity curriculum stays the same, they are no longer "D&D Game Night", they are now "Tactical Playtime Training Days". In the words of our almighty leader:

"Let us band together with the one singular vision of creating a world based on the simple ideology of making fun the top priority."

- Dr. Steel

I also made buttons! These will be given out at the next gaming day (tuesday), with encouragement to spread the message.

I haven't posted in quite a while. Spent some time down near Toronto, and then had a bit of a lazy week. My 4th ed. Campaign is still in full swing, with the characters nearly at 4th level now. Matrix Online has fallen to the wayside, and isn't going to be continued next month. Money is tight so I doubt I will be getting into anything else until at least October. Some highlights from the last week and a bit.

• 4th Ed. D&D, obviously the campaign is still going, with "Flakey Friend" not having flaked out on me yet. (Unprecedented)
• Began playing a TT/TD Game over MSN of Qin: The Warring States, and I highly suggest that you check out this game if you like Warring States period fiction (Movies such as Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Etc.)
• Added something like 20 new pokemon to my Pokemon Diamond Pokedex
• Rekindled my devotion to Dr. Steel (who is now on twitter)
• Added new blogs to my bloglines
• Finally saw The Dark Knight, and also finally saw Wanted.
  

Aside from that, my time has been spent preparing new material for Dungeons and Dragons, and working (which definately takes up most of my time).

I have a nice new computer set-up, having taken my computer from the office (which I need for as long as I am helping out with tech support still). I now have a nice little home office, with two personal computers and two work computers.

As an aside, I am not entirely sure that House of Flying Daggers is set during the Warring States period, but the abilities of the characters are very similar to those of the Wu Xia showing in Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Those two are specifically mentioned in the "Sources of Inspiration" section of the book, along with a lot of titles that may or may not have made it to the western world. (A personal favorite is The Emperor and the Assassin)

In the last post about the Rock Band drum kit, I mentioned that I would put up a video, so here it is.

I went out yesterday and bought some new dice. I am hoping they will be ready for playing by tuesday, but you never can tell with dice. Dice, like the gamers who use them, are all different. They have different personalities, some dice roll extremely well in practice, but during a game they choke under the pressure. Some dice roll badly because they have been treated badly, or because they were introduced into a setting with dice they don't like. I prefer not to take those kind of chances, and I don't let my dice mingle until they have gotten to know me and I have earned their trust.

I have a friend who once put his dice in a torture chamber for bad behavior. The chamber was a small glass box filled with coke, and I think he may have left them in their for over a year. While I don't condone such practices, I can see where he is coming from. I myself have hurled dice into a woodstove for bad rolls, and have more than once thrown them out the window and into traffic.

A lot of people have rituals for breaking in new dice. I always store mine with the high value up for at least an hour a day after getting them. I talk to them sometimes, and I like to carry them in my pockets for a few days before using them for the first time. I hardly ever do any practice rolls with them, I like to save it for the game, and I don't introduce new dice into my dice bag until they have become old dice.

For this particular set of dice, I have constructed a treasure chest to be their home. I use the word constructed loosely, because what I have actually done is taken a red plastic treasure chest and painted it.That's it. For the next two or three weeks I won't use dice other than these new ones, and I won't let these new ones see my old dice. Once we understand each other, I will begin introducing my older dice one at a time, so as not to stress out the new ones too much.

It's been a few days since I updated, which is something I hoped to avoid (but ultimately knew would happen, for I am notoriously lazy (not to be confused with notorious B.I.G....who is dead)).. A lot has happened on the geek front, so I will dish it out here quick-like using the simplistic (yet genius) un-ordered list.

• I beat Pokemon FireRed for the GBA, including the Sevii islands and catching Raikou and Mewtwo.
• I proceeded to import some Pokemon from FireRed to Diamond (finishing this will take a week)
• I began an in depth Pokemon breeding regime (this will take more than a few weeks)
• On Tuesday, had another D&D4e gaming session
• Taught my son that by drawing in PictoChat he doesn't waste paper (this kept him amused for an entire bus trip and left me with regret that I can no longer safely play my DS around him)
• Helped convert my wife's blog (www.damenamedredd.com/blog) from crappy wordpress to bitchin wordpress (can i mention wordpress in blogger? Am I going to be blacklisted and given like an NC-17 rating now?)
• Delved into the depths of the machine of slowwwww that was my wife's laptop and cleaned it up nicely.

I think that should bring me close to up-to-date with geek affirmations. My "post something in bold every day to prove I am a geek" bullshit fell to the side pretty quickly and I decided it was probably better to just keep going with a personal blog with a strong geek theme throughout.

Joystiq did an article on Zombies!!! coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the future, which I am extremely excited about. It removes all the crap about playing Zombies!!! (like flipping tiles every turn and placing zombies) and keeps all the good stuff (like...ummm...rolling dice i guess).

Also, from Joystiq, comes news that Soul Calibur IV might not actually have downloadable Star Wars content after release...which is complete bullshit.

Final thought: Why does my Firefox dictionary have a problem with the word Pokemon but is completely fine with me adding 4 extra W's to slow (making it slowwwww by the way, incase you had no intention of looking up 4 paragraphs)

So i'm only about 3 days into play Matrix Online, and I already know I won't play it past a month. The game isn't bad, don't get me wrong, and it's biggest pull is that it is an official continuation of the Matrix storyline, which is awesome in many ways. The problem with it is that it isn't as good as a lot of the other stuff out there.

The combat system is the biggest difference between MxO and other MMORPG's. It is innovative, it takes careful consideration of your actions and the potential actions of your opponents to be successful. It is also slow, clunky, and unintuitive. What should have been used to set MxO apart was an immersive storyline that makes you feel like your actions actually do make a difference, instead you get a generic storyline that just guides you through a story where your actions don't play a part in the greater plot.

MxO combines two of my least favorite aspects of MMO's: Grinding and Menus. The interface literally gets in the way of playing the game, and that's bad design. Monolith originally owned the game, before sony bought it, but that was 4 years ago and a lot of polish could have been heaped on this thing to make it worth playing.

To give you an idea of how bad it really is, I have started playing Puzzle Pirates as well, since MxO isn't holding my attention well enough. I think, that after this month is over, I will go back to WoW for a bit, since I at least know I like it.

It's been a day or two without a post, I've been busy building a website (ooohhh). Not an reason, just an excuse. Yesterday, I took the MMO plunge, but not in the way you would think.

I was looking through my old MMO's and trying to figure out which one to play to get rid of the shakes. Should I play World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Star Wars Galaxies? Should I go back in time even farther and play Everquest, or Ultima Online? Then something caught my eye...A game I had played in beta, and then repurchased for my wife when she was pregnant and on bed rest. The Matrix Online.

Now, for those who don't know, the Matrix Online is "one of those" mmorpg's. The ones that came out just shortly after World of Warcraft and were crushed in it's wake. There are probably some out there who didn't even know Matrix Online existed... but sadly, it did. I figure, it's been 4 years, it got bought out by sony, maybe it's better now? Well it is. I played it for a few hours last night, I will play some more tonight no doubt. It was fun, I met a charming fellow by the name of "MoThugz" who let me join his crew, he even gave me a yellow thug jacket to show my "gang colors".

I should probably check with the guild to see if anyone plays this, but I suspect I already know the answer.

Final thought: I brought this up with my wife last night, as we were getting close to falling asleep...it hit me that, in Resident Evil 2 (the game), there was the T-Virus, which turned people into zombies...ok...I get that. It also mutated animals (crocodiles, and spiders, maybe some others I have forgotten) making them larger and scarier. I get that. But on some other animals (dogs) it turned them into zombies like humans, and on other animals (ravens, or...I suspect, probably crows) it just made them bad ass so they flew through windows and pecked at you and shit. What is up with that? Why the differences between different animals?

My wife came up with the solution that "You are Dumb, Go to sleep". But I think there is something deeper at work here.

A friend/work acquaintance/boss of mine is looking at selling his frac set-up (or at least one of his frac set-ups) to make some room in his basement.

Head over to Muffwiggler's Blog for more info.

Today's geek affirmation comes in the form of setting up a drum kit on my laptop using the Rock Band Drum Controller for the XBox 360.
Here is Ash, throwing down some mad beats.

If you have Rock Band, and want to do the same thing, head over to andrewrudson.com to get step by step instructions and the drum kit software. Basically, as long as you have DirectX 9.0c installed, windows will automatically detect and install the drivers for your drums, so all you need is the software to start rocking out.
It lets you add you own .wav files as samples and assign them to whichever drum pad you want. It is a little limited with only 4 pads and 1 kick, but hopefully the software will be updated when the Rock Band 2 drum controller is available.
I will try to throw up a video tomorrow, I had one made, but it didn't turn out so well, so a picture is all you get for today.

i'm getting that old familiar itch...and if you have ever played WoW, you know exactly what I am talking about...unless you are still playing WoW and are constantly getting your itch scratched. I want to play again, but I am afraid.
Why did I give up playing WoW? It was starting to feel like a job, that's what I told myself...instead of feeling like I wanted to play, I was feeling like I had to play. It wasn't fun anymore. It's a game, so if it isn't fun then I should stop playing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
The point is that I want to play it again...maybe it would even be fun. It's the sort of thing that I should traditionally pass by my wife (who will probably read this anyway, an occurance that will be followed by my mysterous disappearance from this world). So I will pass it by my wife, and then I will march down to my local EB, or Microplay, or Shack and pick up a 30 or 60 day game card, and away I go, hacking and slashing like there is no tomorrow (which indeed there may not be).

I do realize that I missed yesterday's geek affirmation, and so here it is now:

Yesterday I figured out a new way to create my combat encounters in D&D so that I can have all the information I need on one page, which excites me because it will streamline combat encounters and speed up gameplay.

I suppose I also need one for today, which could be my decision to go back to World of Warcrack, but I suppose I need to follow through on that decision first before it becomes a true affirmation. I guess that means I will be writing another post later when I figure out what the hell I have done today that constitutes geeky.

I have another geeky thing to add to my list for today. Today, I played accountant! I suppose technically i just did accounting, but everything in life is more fun if you pretend it's a game. My wife has her own business, and i like numbers, so I take care of the accounting for her, which is what I did tonight.

Wonderful way to spend an evening.

We were contemplating getting bicycle's today, and Redd's mom brought over some bike helmets incase we went through with it. Ash attached himself to one of them immediately, and has been wearing is since. I got some pictures of him playing with one of the cat's toys.
Here he is, examining the fish at the end of the cat toyHere he is, explaining (proudly) that he is playing with the cat toy.
I only kept this one because it looks like my son got attacked by a head crab. Even the finger curl on his left hand his perfect. This is what having kids is all about.

In other news, I played some Gears of War today. Being the poor ass gamer that I am, I don't usually check out the A-List titles until like a year or more after their release, and such is the case with Gears. I only recently finished Bioshock as well...i have no excuse for my actions.

I don't have an item to put in bold today, but I did do more work on my D&D campaign (which we will hopefully be playing this week, and I played Gears, so I suppose that counts for something....you know what? Fuck it. I'm putting this entire paragraph in bold.

First things First:

Yesterday, I played Munchkin (by Steve Jackson Games), I also watched the last Act of Dr. horrible and worked on more power cards for my Dungeons and Dragons Campaign.

Now that that is out of the way, UFC Fight Night Live Silva vs Irvin was on Spike TV last night, and it didn't disappoint. Silva was, if anything, even more dominating at 205 lbs. There wasn't much to the event beyond Silva's fight. I actually found myself ignoring the fights most of the time and thinking, "dis is the stupididest UFC event EVAR!" but after the Silva/Irvin fight I was all "OMG! BESTEST EVENT IN DA WERLD!" (For the record, my inner monologue is always spoken in lolcat.) That fight, and the one undercard fight they showed afterwards were both impressive knockouts and made the night worthwhile.

Everyone else in the world has already moved on, but I feel it is my responsibility to mention that today is your last chance to see Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog without paying for it. So for got sakes, just take the half hour or whatever out of your life to watch it. This isn't just about the content, this is about supporting a form of media that comes directly from the creator (in this case Joss Whedon) to the user (in this case, your mom). I will be buying the DVD when it comes out, for the extras as well as to support me medium.

Just got through watching XPlay run down the top games for each system from E3. I mostly agree with their choices, except that they didn't mention MAG, but I think they were only going off of games that showed actual live gameplay, and not bullshot's.

Left 4 Dead looks really good, and it's a game I didn't mention in my previous post. There are actually a shit-ton of great games coming out late 2008 and early 2009 that I will have to prioritize and figure out which ones I can lay down some green on. Left 4 Dead is at the top of the list, unless I can convince the wife to let me get a PS3, in which case I will probably crawl my way back to MGS4, and finally play Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, which I have wanted to play ever since I saw the commercials.

Today, I cleaned up my home office and made sure that it included a TV with a Playstation...you know...for extra productivity.

That's all folks. Remember, tomorrow is Act III of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and it's also Silva vs. Irwin on Spike TV. Gonna be a good day I think...yes...a good day.

This is important, this is more than important actually...it's something much more. This is Amazing. If you haven't heard about Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, it's something you really need to look into.

It's smart, it's funny, it's a musical, and most importantly of all, it has NPH himself. When you are at the site, make sure you check out the master plan, it's a letter from Joss Whedon explaining how Dr. Horrible came into existance, and what you can do to help.

Also, make sure you catch this before Midnight on Sunday July 20th, because then it goes away and you won't be able to see it for free.

Didn't do much exciting, worked on the D&D Campaign for next session a little, made some notes and printed off new power cards for my players. Which brings me to my daily geek affirmation:

Today, I printed off new cards to keep track of characters powers, replacing the old cards, which I am no longer fond of.

And that pretty much sums up my night. Just going to go play some pokemon before I go to bed.

Yesterday we kicked off the third session of our Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition home game. The combat was fierce, and almost deadly on more than one occasion. Obviously it stands to reason that my geek affirmation for yesterday is:

Yesterday, I played me some Dungeons and Dragons

It was fun, it always is. At some point in the night, the game got slightly derailed, and we began talking of old dungeons and dragons moments. I figured I would share a few (as i remember them).

Scenario 1: Epic Level Game; The party is hiking through the mountains towards a city rumored to be crawling with undead. There has been a recurring enemy in the form of a Lich that the party has faced but failed to defeat several times. While coming around a bend in the mountain trail, they come face to face with the lich. Neither them, nor the lich, had been expecting to find the other here. Everyone stops and stares, not sure what to do. One of my players, Derek, was playing a druid. He whispered to my other player, Rob, who was playing a class certainly, but not one I remember, and said "Psst...Rob...I have a plan, give me all your money..." Rob did as he was asked, and handed Derek almost 2000 gold pieces. Derek slowly and quietly put the money into his bag of holding, and then went back to staring at the Lich, having pocketed all of Rob's money.

That is probably my very favorite role-playing moment of all time. The only other one I will tell is the story of why my wife doesn't play Dungeons and Dragons with me any more.

Scenario: The party was low level, 1 or 2 maybe, and had been fighting some kobolds in caverns north of the city, where their paladin had died. They left without bringing his body back, and were asked to go back and retrieve it. On the way back, they found a halfling, surrounded by rotting zombie dogs. I should probably note at this point, that my wife was playing a halfling bard, who was less than good (alignment wise).
The party attacked the zombie dogs. All of the party, that is, except my wife, who weaved her way through the zombie dogs to get to the halfling. From behind, she bludgeoned him to death with a sock filled with gold coins. While the rest of the party fought zombie dogs, she cut the skin off his head with a broken piece of mirror, and then pried his skull open with a crowbar, so she could feast on his brains. She managed to eat his brains, undergoing many fortitude saving throws to combat her bodies urge to vomit.

Somewhere, she had gotten it into her head that by eating the halflings brains, she would get his powers...when I told her that was not the case, she was pretty upset, and since then she has never played dungeons and dragons with me.

in the wake of the E3 press conferences from the big three, i have some thoughts and opinions that i need to put down somewhere so that i can refer to them later when i lie about every having had them. I will do it in order

They announced a few games that I am excited about. Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2. Yeah...we all knew they were coming out, but Fable and Gears will at least be out this year.
The dashboard overhaul i could take it or leave it. I read on Joystiq that you will be able to keep the blades if you really want to, which i think i do.
The avatars I am undecided on...i mean...i have a mii on the wii (that rhymes) which doesn't really do much for me, but the avatar on the 360 looks like it will be much more polished (naturally). What I am really interested in is getting something from achievements other than bragging rights. I am 26, I work from home, I have a 2 year old son, i obviously don't have friends to brag to.
FFXIII doesn't do much for me either, but I can see how it would do something for jrpg fans. Final Fantasy died for me somewhere around FF9. I may breakdown and get this one, simply because every once in a while i need something to grind that isn't bejeweled.

to my shame, i came into the event about 20 minutes after it started, so i missed a lot here. what i did see didn't blow me away. they announced a star wars game where i don't get to use the wiimote as a lightsaber, and a sword mini-game as part of wii sports resort that could have been 9000x cooler if they just made the swords glow.
seriously...i'm not hard to please, give me a sword, that glows, and let me swing it around. (and no more heroes doesn't count...it has to be a lightsaber, or make me think it's a lightsaber)
wii music had me super excited until i realized it didn't require skill.
i missed most of the game announcements, so...that's pretty much all i have to say about nintendo.

sony spent a long time showing me nothing particularily amazing. resistance looks good, but then, everything on the ps3 looks good. they announced god of war 3, which i am sure will be great, but they didn't even show any gameplay, just a shitty teaser trailer.
a few games i am interested in, and a small price drop on the 80gig model in september.
little big planet, fallout 3 again (microsoft showed it first), some DC universe online monstrosity, and then...MAG.
MAG...Massive Action Game. I finally, really and truly, absolutely, NEED a ps3. i need one...plain, simple. it is not a want. it is a need. I will be following the development of this game very closely.

that's it folks. if i had to place them in order of "OMGWTFBBQness", it would look like this
keep in mind, that's just based on their press conference event thingy's, and not an actual representation of my preference for either company.

with that out of the way, i can focus on my daily geek affirmation

Today, I printed out detailed Monster Stat Cards for all of my encounters in tomorrows D&D4e session (which I am running)

I guess the only other thing I want to share, is this epic, epic, fail.

it started very simply, i think.

i am a father, a husband, and a part-time geek. i used to be a full time geek, and though i can't recall what it was like, i have vague recollections of a time when i wasn't a father. gone are the days when i would line up to be the first to get the latest video game title. gone are the days when i would pull and all-nighter with fellow geeks, playing dungeons and dragons and magic the gathering. did you know, i once placed 2nd in a regional magic the gathering qualifier? of course you didn't. i am a dried up husk of a geek, no longer relevant to the world of gaming.

the geek-a-day project is my attempt to combat my failing as a geek, by posting one thing a day that i did that was geeky. in addition, since we all need somewhere to place our random musings other than twitter, i will use this space for my personal journal.

I will start with today.

today, i started a blog called "the geek-a-day project" to catalog my continuing life as a part-time geek.

i would say that constitutes as a good start.