A very special thanks goes out to . . .

I knew I shouldn't have done a "thank you" post. Someone in particular has been down right whiny about being left off. But I'm not going to name names (just check out the last person listed). Like I said in that post, I didn't want to list everybody but I'll include a few more here (some that I forgot initially and someone because they deserve it, good or bad.

Thanks to:
MadMax for being the first person I befriended when I got my Xbox 360; introducing me to another girl gamer (his wife) and for immediately chatting me up to see how I was doing after the break in. It's nice to know someone you've never met does care. But harder to flirt with when you're friends with his wife.

Thanks to:
CyberWrat for always willing to help and give pointers to someone who picks up a game completely out of their comfort zone and skill set. And who still plays like a noobie. And for asking me about "Dark Matter". You're my mech-knight-in-shining-armor. (Those treads look good on you, by the way.)

Thanks to:
Snakes Venom for wanting to know where we first met (typical guy). And making me relive those happy memories at a time when there wasn't much happiness to go around.

Thanks to:
Double Blind for making a girl feel sexy even bundled up in heavy winter clothes. Tonight I might be able to fulfill that holiday wish you asked for. You know where to find me.

AND A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Pogue Moran for reminding me that this world is filled with idiots, jerks, jackasses and pussies (his word, not mine). For taking the heat and then turning the temperature up. For being caustic, annoying, grating but still lovable and funny at the same time (mostly). For pimping his site Xbox 360 Gaming World until I finally joined. And for all the friends I've made from there. I thank him for sticking up for me when strangers attack my gameplay. I thank him for his one liner come backs and that he knows so many gamer's mothers. I thank him for being single and being able to flirt with him shamelessly without guilt. Maybe someday his wildest fantasies (and my worst nightmares) might come true and we'll meet. I'm thankful he lets me rib him (and no, I didn't say rub him) constantly and doesn't take it personally. While it might be somewhat embarrassing to admit this in public, but Pogue Moran is a good guy. AND IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!! Happy Birthday! Merry Christmas! And thank you!

There, are you happy now?

New Poll - Spare time and Best Multi-player

TWO POLLS! Two for the price of one. Because I'm lazy and generous all at the same time.

Poll #1

If all your gaming equipment was stolen what would you do with all your new free time?

Immediately buy new systems/games and keep playing
Curl up in the fetal position and cry like a baby
Knit all my friends beanie hats for Christmas
Learn how to read a book again
Introduce myself to my family again
Investigate this thing they call sunshine

Poll #2

What is the best multi-player game(s) ever?

Halo series
Star Wars Battlefront series
Call of Duty series
Gears of War series
Counter Strike

You have until just after Christmas to vote in both polls.

Am I girly enough?

Am I girly enough to ask for the metallic pink DS Lite for xmas? I like the color but it just looks like I should be 8 years old with curls or pigtails in my hair and an old Barbie in my pocket when I look at it.

On the other hand am I "mature" enough for the more adult looking metallic blue/onyx color? I also like that one. But I don't want to settle.

Not that I'll get either of them, but what do you think?

Spouses as wildlife?

I'm not married so I couldn't relate personally to this, but I still thought the latest Pearls Before Swine blog entry was funny. For some reason it made me think of MadMax and Hell Weasell. I wonder why that is.

What I am thankful for . . .

There doesn't seem like much to be thankful for, game related, this year. Having someone break into my house and steal all my video games and systems just sucks. But I've been thinking, and there are some things I'm thankful for. Like:

1) killafoola
He's the first person that let me follow him around in Star Wars Battlefront and really learn how to play the game when I was a noobie. I sucked, but he didn't mind. I learned a lot from him. Tactics I still use today.

2) Evil Ric
He's the first person to ever talk to me during a video game that wasn't related to me. I think he's also the first person to send me a friend request instead of me sending one to them. And believe it or not we're still friends and we talk almost every night. I guess if he can stand me after 5+ years maybe there's something lovable about me after all. (Of course he might tend to disagree with that.)

3) MasvHdWndHarry
During a rather troublesome Gears of War public match (on Escalation) some of the other members of our team (not friends of either of us) started barking at me and what a horrible player I was. Masv stood up to them and let them have it. I've always remember that and I can't tell you how much his chivalry has meant to me. Then and now.

4) El Sand Dog
When I play with him I always feel good about how I play . . . even if I suck. He just has a way to make even your most embarrassing, or game losing mishaps, nonstressful and totally hilarious. He's the only one I played Wingman with that asked my opinion about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. He never strayed far from me either. We were a team. And I got an achievement for that. Besides, all he has to say to me is "How you doing?" and I get all tingling inside.

5) Hell Weasell
I love his sense of humor. He disarms you with his quiet, calm nature, but man he lets off some zingers. He's cracked me up on more than one occasions and sometimes during a bad night of gaming his comebacks might be the only reason why I stick around. And even though I'm a girl and I'm not suppose to be reading his "Bro Code" entries on his profile, I just have to say I love them. I hope he's saved them.

And my list could go on and on, but there's one more I'm thankful for that might seem a little strange.

6) c5ride
c5 gets a little excited and intense when he plays games. And when I do something stupid, which is not hard to do for me, it's not uncommon to hear "Pengwenn, what were you thinking?" or "Pengwenn, where were you?" or even "Pengwenn, for the love of all that's holy why didn't you kill that guy?". You would think I wouldn't be thankful for getting yelled out, but I am in a way. Thankful that he hasn't removed me from his friend's list because of my stupid game play. There might come a time in the future when he does, but for right now I take that fact that I'm still on his friends list to mean that I'm not a complete ass when I play.

It's not much to be thankful for when it comes to playing video games, but when all your stuff gets stolen you take what you can get. And for those of you not specifically mentioned I'm thankful for you too. If I listed everyone on my friends list and what they mean to me I might overload blogspot's servers and crash the site. I am thankful for you all. And I mean that. "Truly. Madly. Deeply." And if you can guess what movie that last part is from I'll be even more grateful to you. And I mean that too.

So what are you thankful for?

No more snip, snip?

If you haven't figured it out yet I'm a huge fan of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. The cartoonist also has a blog and I thought today's entry was hilarious. And after the day I had today I needed something to laugh at. (And I don't mean my co-workers.)

Your comic for the day

Based on some recent conversations with friends, I thought today's strip from Pearls Before Swine was hilarious. But then again, maybe it's just me. See for yourself.

If you got my message...

If you got my message respond here.

Poll Results - Befriending based on gamer pic/avatar

Better late than never, right? Here's the latest poll results and (what you've all been waiting for) my opinion.

Have you ever befriended someone based on their gamer picture or avatar?

Yes, their gamer picture was hot = 0 votes
Yes, their avatar was hot = 0 votes
Yes, their gamer picture AND avatar were hot = 0 votes
No, I don't like making friends = 8 votes

With my system crapping out around the time of this poll I can't remember if I voted or not. If I did I would have/did vote for "No, I don't like making friends". And based on how everyone else voted it's kind of amazing that any of us have people on our friends list.

Here's how the poll started.

I was messing around with my avatar trying to find something I liked. I went into the game based extras that you can get to trick out your avatar. Nothing really excited me (except for the lightsaber, but I'm too cheap). I had a small odd amount of points to use so I bought a corset from Fable II. Then I started building an outfit and an avatar around that. I wasn't happy with the results but I left things alone for a couple of days to think about it.

In those couple of days you wouldn't believe the number of friends request I got from total strangers. It seemed that every match I played (no matter what game) someone would send me a message about my avatar or send a friend request. Some I deleted right out. Some I gave a chance too. And some have since been deleted. But it got me thinking.

I remember when our friends list was limited to, I think, 99 people. I had a friend who I have played with since the old Star Wars Battlefront days that didn't have room on his list to add me once I got my 360. He had to delete someone to make room. In the original Xbox, and prior to Party chat on the Xbox 360, you would be stuck in a room listening to everyone who was playing on your team. Sometimes that was good. Some times that was down right horrible. But despite that, I picked up a few friends along the way.

Not having the ability to restrict who I talked to like we can in a Party Chat I got to know MadMax, c5ride, Fbody, cyberWRAT, and a number of other people who are now on my friends list. Since we started to have the ability to use Party Chat I haven't been able to listen, talk to, or get to know anyone I'm playing with outside of my chat circle. Since then my friends list has remained pretty much static. Until I changed my avatar.

Thus the idea for my poll was born.

If we're not talking and getting to know someone via their game play, how else are we making friends? Maybe it's their gamertag (see the "hot chick" posts I did awhile ago). Maybe it's their gamer picture. Maybe it's their avatar. Apparently, based on this poll, nobody likes to make friends.

It's not that I'm not happy with the friends I've already got. You all keep me very entertained on a nightly basis. But sometimes a girl would like a friend who will finish an old game (like Gears of War) on insane mode because she can't do it alone. But, NOOOOOO, that friend is going to trade that game in to get Modern Warfare 2. Come on! My friendship can't be traded in for the latest game out there.

Or maybe a girl just wants a friend to kick back with and play a little arcade game every now and then. Gauntlet is sooooo much better when played with friends. And there's so many arcade games to choose from. I'm just saying.

But if any of you are wondering if your avatar is hot enough to get someone's attention, my dog, Zoe, really likes to jump up to the screen and stare at cyberWRAT, Genghis Khan, MasvHdWndHarry, and Zenra Nukenin's avatars. She hasn't seen Zenra's Halloween wolf yet so maybe she'd change her vote if she did.

Day 3 and beyond of Xbox 360 Purgatory

So, my first couple of days didn't go so well back on the PS2. It's certainly not the consoles fault. I'm just a little rusty with the system. Everything will go much better now. Right?

Not exactly. I gave up on Half-Life. I just wasn't in the mood to replay the opening part again for at least the 4th time. Time for a new game. So I put in SSX Tricky. If there's any game that could get me out of this funk that would be the game to do it.

Except I couldn't get my controller to activate. No matter what buttons I pushed or how many times I plugged the controller in and out it just wouldn't do anything in the game. So I took the game out and put in another one. After all the controller worked during Half-Life so that couldn't be the problem. Right?

I put in TimeSplitters. If SSX Tricky couldn't do anything for me TimeSplitters should be able to pick up the slack. When the game booted up my controller wouldn't work in that game either.

Maybe there's nothing wrong with the game, but something is wrong with my controller.

So I now I had to figure out where my extra Playstation controllers were kept. I still have boxes I haven't unpacked, could they be in one of them? Or maybe there in a box or plastic crate that I have opened up, but just haven't done anything with. And then it hit me. I unpacked a bag of extra controllers for all my systems, along with extra cords of all kinds, and placed it behind the TV. After pulling out the bag and rummaging around for a Playstation controller I finally found one and plugged it in. I was ready to play. And it worked.

I played through the first mission in the story mode of TimeSplitters before I got bored (it's just not the same playing by yourself) and then went back to SSX Tricky. I picked the character Zoe (because of my dog) and headed down the first mountain as a refresher course. I was starting to hang of it so I started the second race. That was when the real Zoe decided the only place she wanted to be right then was sitting on my lap. And the only thing she wanted to be doing was licking my hands. I couldn't get her to stop. And I couldn't play while she did it. So I turned the system off, turned the TV on, and let my dog get comfortable in my lap. Twenty minutes later she was off to play with her Wubbie, but I was too tired of hassling with things just to play a video game that I didn't bother turning the system back on.

The next day, after work when I had a chance to play again, I decided I was going to play an RPG. And old RPG. The kind of game that got me hooked as a gamer in the first place. So I took some time and flipped through my book of games trying to decide which game to play.

I wanted a game to get lost in the story. If it was something I had already started I didn't want to be too far along in the game because I either wouldn't know what was going on or I would have to restart it and play through parts I had already done. That left a lot of the Final Fantasy games.

I also didn't want to play a game that was on 4 disks. I wanted something quick and not something that would take months to play through. That left out .dot Hack, the Final Fantasy games (again), Xenosaga (even through their multiple "games" it's still one story line to me) and number of other games as well. I also eliminated the Grandia series even though their not 4 disks in length. If I played the first one I might very well want to move on to the later ones as well and then when would I play my 360 when I get it back?

After a couple of other elimination rounds I had it narrowed down to my two Arc the Lad games or Chrono Trigger (and then Chrono Cross if my system was out that long). On the one had I had played through Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits and I think I got to the end but I couldn't beat the final boss. I didn't have the right armor or weapons and I was caught in an area that wouldn't let me leave to go find them. So I had restarted the game (see, I'm always restarting games) making sure I keep the required weapons/armor for that final boss. And then stopped about a quarter of the way through the game. I didn't want to start from scratch again, but since I've already played the game it didn't have that much appeal for me this time.

On the other hand I really wanted to play Chrono Cross, but that's a game I've started at least 3 times that I can remember. I love that game. But I have a problem with that game. I'm a completionist at heart so I want to collect every single playable character there is in the game. But once I have them in my party I have a hard time managing all their skills and growth. I get overwhelmed. Find out I missed picking up another characters. So I restart the game with a specific game play in place for when I pick up new characters. I love working with the battle system and field effects. But I have a hard time picking the right characters for the right battles. If I played this game I know I'd want to start all over again, but the first 2-3 hours of that game are boring because I've played them so many times.

So after looking at all the pros and cons I decided on playing Chrono Trigger. It's a game I don't think I've played (although the first 10 minutes looked a little familiar, but maybe I just watched dain play the game) and I didn't have a saved game file for. I could start fresh. Yeah!

I put the disk in, played for 41 minutes (according to the save file) before I got to a good stopping point before going to bed. But before I went to bed I remembered I had the strategy guide for this book and I should probably get it out to have handy just in case I get stuck. Once I got it out I started flipping through it and found out that I had missed exploring half of the opening area, missed out on half of the mini-games at the fair, and didn't do one of the things I would need to do later on in the game. Great. Re-start anyone?

I went to bed debating whether I should re-start the game (great, another re-start) or just make do with what I've done so far. One of the things I failed to do (win a clone of yourself) I could do later on in the game but would be harder to get. Plus I had spent all my meager gil on items that I didn't have enough to fully equip myself when I set out. If I had explored the other areas mentioned in the book I would have had the money to get everything I wanted and I would be better prepared for battles to come. What to do?

After a long day at work I decided I would re-start the game, explore all the areas available to me, have a hand at all the mini-games in the fair and win myself a clone. Like I said I'm a completionist at heart. When I got to the same point where I had saved before it had only added 20+ minutes to my game, but it was well worth it. I had enough gil to buy anything and everything I wanted and I had mastered two Techs, whereas the book recommended one. And every since then that is all I have been playing. When I get further into it I might post a review.

I should have my 360 back by this weekend, if not sooner. Until then I'll keep playing Chrono Trigger and maybe I can finish it. And maybe I'll just keep my PS2 out so I can play other games. Every now and then.

Days 1 and 2 of Xbox 360 Purgatory

So my Xbox 360 died and I had to send it back. This leaves me in some kind of purgatory. Do I wait until my console comes back? Do I buy (another) back up because it's going to be awhile? You knows.

What I do know is that the first time I had to send my original console in for repair all my friends who had done them same said it took them 1-3 months before they got their system back. I couldn't wait that long. So I bought a back up. Who knew that I would get my original system back a week and half from the date I dropped it off at the UPS store?

It worked out to kaiakapero's advantage when I let him borrow my original, while I played on my backup. Then within in the last couple of months kai's died (again) and I had to make arrangements to send that back. That time also only took a week and half to two weeks for the total turn around time (even though he was out of a system much longer because I didn't send it in right away).

So how much time will it take this time?

Who knows.

This time it's a different error. The dreaded "E 74" error. And probably related to the graphic chip set. This isn't going to be an easy fix. Will they repair my console, which could take awhile, and then ship it back? Or once they receive my console, ship back a different one that they have already repaired? I hope not. In the mean time I'm left to wonder how long it will take before I have an Xbox 360 back to play on.

In the meantime I've decided to pull out my PS2 and catch up on some old games. It hasn't gone well so far.

Day 1:
After watching TV and eating a relaxing dinner I pulled out my PS2 and dusted it off. Then I had to hook it up. Apparently that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. The TV cable wasn't connected in the back and I didn't feel like moving everything around to get back there to connect it. The multi-cable system I had in the front didn't seem to want to connect all the way in. I couldn't figure out which TV a/v input channel to put the TV on. I had a hard time finding a controller. But finally I got to turn it on and start the gaming. At least that's what I thought.

I realized that I needed a game disk in order to play something on the PS2. I know that sounds funny, but with all the Arcade games I own on the 360 there's tons of games I can start playing immediately without having to bother with a disk. And don't get me started on carrying around a CORDED controller again.

I pulled out my binder with all my PS and PS2 (and original Xbox) games and had to dust that off as well. Then I started flipping through all those pages of games. So many choices . . . so little time. I finally decided on Bust-A-Move '99. Why? because it was towards the front (alphabetically) and it would be a quick, easy transition into the Dual Shock controller. Except that it wasn't quick.

The load times were terrible. I think I sat and waiting for screens to load longer than I actually played the game. If this was what the system was like for a simple bubble popping game what would an RPG or FPS be like? I couldn't remember.

After my frustrated warm up I decided to put in a game that would give me a greater sense of achievement (unfortunately without the beep and a little pop up box). I pulled out Final Fantasy Tactics. I loved that game and I've played it recently on my PSP so the game mechanics were familiar to me even if I hadn't played it on the PS since 2007 (according to the save game file). Even though I didn't spend a whole lot of time getting familiar with my current cast of characters I picked some out and jumped into my first battle. Big mistake!

On the map there was a high wall that separated my team from the enemy. Unfortunately I didn't have anyone with a high enough jump skill to get on top of that wall or anyone with a range to cast a spell past that wall (or more than a couple of squares away). Within three rounds my whole team was dead except for one and he wasn't going to last until his next turn. I killed the power, called it night and went to bed.

Length of gaming session? 30 minutes (at most)

Day 2:
This day I was going to be prepared. I thought long and hard about what I was going to do and I had a plan. I was going to play Half-Life. I've started it several times (like so many of my older games) but hadn't gotten very far. If I just focused on that game and played it every night for a week and a half (based on past experiences) I could be well into the game to continue once my system was back . . . or will have finished the game by then. And if I finished? I could play Half-Life 2 on my Xbox 360. Win-win situation right? Not so fast.

After putting the disk in I got a message that it couldn't read the disk. Oh great. Is my PS2 going to die too? Or maybe there's just too much dust collected inside for it to work properly. I took the disk out, made sure there wasn't anything on it and blow into the disk tray. I put the disk back in and after a very long time for the system to be "reading the disk" it finally loaded up. Yeah!

Then I was left with a decision. I had a saved game file but I didn't know where I was in the story (and I couldn't remember the controlls or story line). Do I start over? Or pick up where I left off? I decided to start over.

I rode the tram through the facility and listed to the announcements and sat through annoyingly frequent load screens. I finally got to a put where I could move around and I started off on my merry way. Got my hazard suit on. Headed down the hall. Tried to access a terminal. And got stuck. Literally.

Apparently I tried to access a terminal at the same time a NPC walked up and stood right in front of it. When I tried to walk away my character couldn't move. When I tired hitting the access button all it would do was talk to the NPC. So I decided to wait until he moved off. Surely I could move then. Unfortunately he couldn't walk away because I was stuck right behind him. Great. I can't move until he moves. But he can't move until I move. I'm having so much fun.

NOT!

I decided to load the save file and see where that put me. Apparently I didn't make it through the training the last time I played.

Power off.

And goodnight to ya all.

Length of gaming session? 30 minutes (at most)

I think this is going to be a long week and a half. And for my own sanity I hope it doesn't take longer than that before I get my Xbox 360 back. If any of you have any suggestions of other, more productive, things to do with my time let me know. Or if you have older games you'd like me to play and review/chronicle my woes in drop a line in the comments. Who knows what I'll play tonight. If I get to play anything at all.

Zombies!? Are you kididng me?

Okay, I promised you a post about zombies . . . and it's going to be a whopper. But first I think you need some back ground info.

On a writing forum I'm a member of we've been having a discussion about the appeal of vampires (and how they've changed through history) as they're portrayed in the media (books, movies, etc.) these days. The more we talked about it the more I realized that from a geek/nerd perspective, it's not vampires, but zombies. We love our undead. Just look at all the zombie killing games that are out there. Hunter the Reckoning, Resident Evil, Left for Dead, Zombie Apocalypse, Dead Space and even Call of Duty: World at War. Just to name a few.

But unlike vampires, the undead have remained creepy. There's no love story between a lonely female human and the undead, but handsome, creature she stumbles across. If one of the undead (handsome or not . . . and usually not) stumbled across a human (male or female) the only thing going through whatever passes for their brains would be "Mmmmm, warm flesh, me hungry". And that doesn't bode well for the human.

With that said, that very same night I had that brilliant epiphany (I thought it was brilliant) I got an email from Borders Books with the subject line "Star Wars and Zombies". Eh? At first glance I thought they were trying to put those two ideas together, but then I figured it was poor editing/proofreading on someone's part and what they were trying to say was "we have new Star Wars books and new Zombie books". It is, after all, the Halloween season. And there's no shortage of suckers for anything Star Wars. As a geek AND a nerd (and a sucker) when it comes to Star Wars I opened up the email and found this book:



My first thought was "Oh, it looks creepy". Then I read the plot details.

Apparently the subject line of the email was not an error, but in fact there are now zombies inhabiting the Star Wars universe. Zombies? In Star Wars? Are you kidding me?

The story is about some virus that spreads rapidly through a prison transport space barge and turns troopers/prisoners into zombies. Seriously? We've seen that before. Hunter the Reckoning happens with inmates in a prison. Dead Space has zombies in space. Now you mix those two together, throw them into the Star Wars Universe and WRITE A BOOK ABOUT IT? Are you kidding me?

Have the geeks and nerds of this world become so infatuated with zombies (like teen girls and the Twilight novels/movies) that we have to tarnish the most Holy of all geek/nerd-doms with zombies? Is that what is going to keep the Star Wars universe relevant to today's kids? Or is Lucas Arts that hard pressed for fresh original ideas that they decided one day "let's add zombies to Star Wars and see what the fans think"?

Well, this fan (and one who buys everything/anything Star Wars related) was revolted. I wanted to throw up. I felt like my innocent childhood of big dreams and epic space operas had been violated . . . by a lurching mass of the undead. Yes, I will most likely read this book. After all I am a Star Wars geek/nerd to the tenth power. Do I think this book will be an entertaining read? Possibly. Will it be great literature? I doubt it. But then again someone did put zombies in Pride and Prejudice. I guess they had to do something to get kids these days to read.

And she's down for the count

I just got the dreaded E74 error message on my console. I played some zombie matches with Pogue, MadMax and Genghis Khan and was having some graphical difficulties. As long as I didn't look around or things moved in front of me I was okay. Once things, or I, started to move around things would get all wonky on me. We took a break for dinner and when I logged back in the dashboard was all wonky right from the get go. I turned it off, made sure every cord was connected properly and then I got the E74 error message. I tried several different things but it wouldn't go away. So I set up a repair ticket, printed off the shipping label and will stop my the UPS Store to ship it off tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take long (and I'll get my same system back). I hope you all don't forget me.

Now I guess I have no excuse for not hooking up my PS2 and getting back to some of those games.

New Poll - Make new friends?

Hey, look it's a new poll. 8-) Yes, I know I haven't posted in awhile. Maybe more on that later. Until then I have a new poll for you. Here it is.

Have you ever befriended someone based on their gamer picture or avatar?

Yes, their gamer picture was hot
Yes, their avatar was hot
Yes, their gamer picture AND avatar were hot
No, I don't like making friends

So, which is it? Vote now and we'll see what the results are in a week. I promise I'll post something before then. I'm working on a whopper of an idea. It has zombies.

Comic Planetary Alignment

Sometimes in life things line up to be very funny. I'm calling it Comic Planetary Alignment. Here's how it worked for me:

Wednesday afternoon (while at work):

I talked to me mom on the phone and decided that I hate my job and would like to do something else. Unfortunately I don't think my present job is really giving me the skill sets to find another job, not doing what I'm doing now.

Wednesday night (while on Xbox Live)

I finally got to play with some of the boys. My brother kai brought back the Call of Duty: World at War disk I left in the 360 that I recently got back from repair. I was testing it out before giving the console back to him and totally forgot I left the disk in the machine. That was last Saturday night. Since then it seemed like I was a pariah with everyone on my friend's list. Nobody wanted to play with me. At first I was sad, but then I took advantage of my quarantine and did some more work in Lost Odyssey and other single player games. Once I had the disk back I played with the guys and it was good to hear their voices again (and to know I no longer had that "leper-outcast-unclean" stigma just because I didn't have a particular game).

Thursday lunch (in the office cafe)

Someone left a newspaper out on the table I sat down at. Normally I read the newspaper online but I thought I'd riffle through it for kicks. I found the comics and couldn't remember when the last time I read ANY comic stripes was. When I got to Pearls Before Swine I laughed out loud. It took my job experience combined with Genghis Khan's voice to finally put me in a good mood (at least good enough to get through the day).

Here's the Comic Planetary Alignment courtesy of Pearls before Swine (click the image to see a larger view). And a link to the website so you can follow the whole story.

Poll Results - Alaskan cruise adventure?

Here are the results for the latest poll:

What's going to happen to me on my Alaskan Cruise?

I'll accidentally fall overboard = 0 votes
I'll piss someone off and be pushed overboard = 0 votes
I'll get lost on a shore excursion in the middle of the wilderness = 1 vote
I'll meet the lumber-jack man of my dreams and stay in AK = 3 votes
I'll go through video game withdrawal and have to be committed = 4 votes

I didn't vote in this poll. I couldn't find the time before I left and when I got back it was too late. If I would have voted before I left I think I would have picked the first one. After I came back I wish it would have been the second one, but I'm too polite to piss anyone off (however much I wanted to while on the cruise).

I heard there was a very high ratio of men to women in Alaskan so I wish I could have met the man of my dreams there, but alas those single men I did meet were college kids (or just out of college) looking to pick up cash in summer employment. They were way too young for me. I'm not the cougar type.

As for going through video game withdrawal? I was prepared for that. I took my PSP with me on the trip (I still can't find where I packed my GBA SP). Unfortunately I never even took it out of the case. There was just way too much stuff to do on the ship. And when I did have some free time to kill and nothing interested me I took a book to read or some cross stitch project to work on.

I thought about playing the PSP but I didn't want to get in the middle of a dungeon and have the battery die out. Since there's not an abundance of outlets on the ship in the common areas that meant staying in the cabin. Every time I tried to get some peace and quiet by doing that my parents walked in 5 minutes later . . . and then yelled at me for hiding out in the cabin. Five minutes after that I would be walking out the door (with a book in hand) trying to find some quiet place where nobody would annoy the crap out of me.

As for the trip itself, it was fantastic. Except for the fact that I came home with pneumonia. I had that for 3 weeks before I finally started to feel better this week. Unfortunately the last week of the month is always the busiest time for me at work so there's been no rest for the wary. I have a CD of all the pictures I took but I haven't gone through them yet. When I do I'll post a couple from each port and tell ya all what I did. I know you're just dying to find out.

As fun as the trip was I did miss you guys. With some of you I felt I had to introduce myself again. But they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Did you miss me too?

New Poll - What's going to happen to me?

So I'm going on an Alaskan Cruise soon and I've got just the right poll for the occasion. Here it is:

What's going to happen to me on my Alaskan Cruise?

I'll accidentally fall overboard
I'll piss someone off and be pushed overboard
I'll get lost on a shore excursion in the middle of the wilderness
I'll meet the lumber-jack man of my dreams and stay in AK
I'll go through video game withdrawal and have to be committed

If you're all nice I might bring ya' all back something. Ah, who am I kidding, you guys aren't nice. Bon yoyage!

Poll Results - How's your summer been so far?

So here are the poll results:

How's your summer been so far?

Hotter than normal = 2 votes
Cooler than normal = 4 votes
Wetter than normal = 0 votes
Drier than normal = 2 votes
Same as always = 2 votes

I think that's a pretty even split, don't you? At least as even as I think it could be.

I voted for "drier than normal" but I could have voted for "cooler than normal" as well. When the average rainfall for where I live is 3 inches a year AND those 3 inches usually come in the summer monsoon season things should be pretty wet. But when the weatherman says that we're 2.5 inches below our average AND there are no storms on the horizon things get pretty dry here in the summer.

Outside of a 2-3 week period in July it really hasn't been hot like it normally is either. It's either that or I'm getting more acclimatized to the weather than I once was. But I remember when 115 degrees was pretty standard for the summer and that was pretty much every day. I even remember a 122 degree day that was just dreadful. They had to shut down the airport until things cooled off.

Hot days like that are pretty typical . . . except for this year. I don't think we had too many days where the temperature got above 110. At least not as many as we usually get. Which on one hand is nice because it's not so hot. But on the other hand it takes longer for the swimming pool temperature to get up to a bearable level. I went swimming the other day and I thought I was going to freeze. The pool temperature was 86 degrees.

Since I prefer to a little cold instead of a little hot I guess I can't complain too much. Maybe the winter will be hotter than normal to make up for the cooler summer. Maybe then I can swim in the pool longer. Or at least invest in a wet suit.

Choices of the poor house

I remember a time when I could buy any game I wanted. Sometimes that could mean 3 or 4 a month. Money was no object. Time was the only problem. I never seemed to have as much as I wanted to play video games. Now it seems both are in short order.

Ever since I started saving up to buy a house I've taken a closer look at the money I spent on video games. That doesn't mean I curtailed what I did spend . . . it just means I looked more closely at the game and my desires and THEN bought it. There might have been one two I didn't buy, at least right away, instead I waited for the price to come down to a more reasonable level of what I thought the game was worth.

Since I bought my house, and wiped out my saving to do so, my video game purchases have almost dried up completely. I've still bought a game or two here and there by making the sacrifice to my food budget. Or relying on lower electric bills in the winter time. But now that summer is here and my electric bill has doubled in recent months my gaming budget is running in the red. Or at least it would be if I bought everything I wanted to get.

First I couldn't decide between buying Ghostbusters or Red Faction: Guerrilla and then I heard about Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. Now I only had money for one game but there was three of them to buy. I went into research mode and started asking my friends their impressions of the game, read reviews, watched trailers, etc. If I could only afford one (and even that was a stretch) I was going to make sure it was the right one. After a couple of months I finally narrowed my choice down to Sacred 2. But by then I heard of more games coming out that I wanted.

So far the list of games I'm lusting after is thus (in no particular order): 1) Modern Warfare 2, 2) Assassin's Creed 2, 3) Little Big Planet (PSP), 4) Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, 5) Red Faction: Guerrilla, 6) Ultimate Alliance 2, 7) Wolfenstein. All of these are either out already or will be by the end of the year. Back in 2007 I would have had the money to get them all on street date and then some (and I'm sure there are more games out or are coming out that haven't made it onto my radar yet). Unfortunately that isn't the case here in 2009. I know I can squeeze one out of my budget and maybe a second one too. Or I could wait until the price drops and pick it up as a bargain (or used).

But the problem with waiting until the price drops to pick up a game is finding out that the online community for that game has moved on as well. I have several older games that I would love to play online, but I'm not sure if there is anyone playing them any more. Games like: Burnout Revenge, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2 and 3, and co-op in Kameo. If there are achievements tied to online or co-op play and nobody is playing those games anymore how will I get those achievements? Kind of like what's happening to Chromehounds in January.

Metallicorphan gave me a link to an article that says Sega is shutting down the Chromehounds servers on January 6th 2010. After that, no more online play. Although with Chromehounds I've given up on ever getting the online achievements. There is too much boosting going on in the game for anyone to earn those achievements legitimately. If you want 'em you've got to cheat in order to get them. I'm not a cheater. But the thought that I'll have a game that's worthless to play (once I get all the single player achievements) annoys the crap out of me. And what's the point of selling it back since the game will have no resale value. It was a niche game and now that niche is being shut down. So what about other games?

Is is worth it to try and play online matches in the original Gears of War? Or how about Rainbow Six: Vegas? Or Marvel Ultimate Alliance? I have seen several people pick up MUA in anticipation of the sequel coming out, but as for the other two the sequel is already out. And that's not even considering Call of Duty 2 and 3. Those have been eclipsed by 4 and 5.

Should I be spending my time playing those older games while there still might be a chance of enough people playing them online? Or should I just stick with the newer games that I already own where I know there will be people playing online? And what if I do wait to get Wolfenstein or some other game 6 months or a year or two down the line? Won't I be in the same position with that game (or others) that I'm in right now with the ones already listed? Should I just buy a game, play the hell out of it when it first comes out, and then sell it back so I have the money to get the next game on my list? I'm pretty sure several of my friends are doing that. But what happens when new DLC comes out that makes me want to pick it up against, but I've already sold it back? Would I have the money to buy the game all over again AND the DLC? I don't think so.

I miss those days when I could walk into GameStop and buy any game I wanted (and then some). I can't do that now, but not because of the economy. This is of my own choosing. So no matter how bad a day I'm having I will continue to drive by 3 GameStop stores all within 2-3 miles of my house (along with 2 more directly on the way home from work) and not walk in for some retail therapy. I will continue to do my research on the right game for me and hope that when I do eventually buy a game there will still be people playing it online. And if you are one of my few friends that still own any of those older games maybe we can get a match going online sometimes. You never know, we might single handily bring new life to an old game . . . especially for those of us who can't afford the new ones.

Things that make you go hmmm....

There's been a couple of things that have struck me as odd lately. Good and bad. So I'm going to tell you about them.

1) I can't believe we played something other than Gears of War 2.

The regular crowd really cranked it up in Gears during the double points week for the new maps. Of course when the week was over we were pretty much burned out on Gears. Oh, we still played. But are hearts weren't really into it and we played badly. So I was only a little bit surprised when a bunch of us picked up Call of Duty: World at War and started playing that.

Of course that game just came out with more zombie maps, and who doesn't like killing zombies? A couple of the guys had already sold their original copy back in order to get another game (come on, why do you people do that?) so they had to purchase the game, yet again. Evil Ric couldn't find a used copy so he had to purchase it new . . . again.

We did some zombie killin' and jumped into a few multiplayer matches. One thing that hasn't changed is the glitching and manhandling we got occasionally. Yes, they complained about it. I did too, sometimes. But I'm more use to being the lowest scorer on the team, with more deaths than kills, so I guess the unfairness of it all doesn't bother me as much.

2) I can't believe we played a non-FPS game

On Wednesday 1 vs. 100 was doing a "Movie Quotes" game that Evil and c5ride suggested we join in on. I didn't think the idea would fly with everyone but Evil, c5, Genghis and I jumped in and started guessing. Evil and c5 really know their movies. There were quite a few that I just randomly guessed at (once I used up all my skips). It was fun, but mostly for another reason. Who knew c5 could cut a rug? It was hilarious to watch the three guys bust a move during the down times. I think I even heard c5 giggle like a school boy at some of his avatar's more spectacular dance steps. It didn't matter that I came in last either because I laughed so hard that even after a night of killing . . . I mean dying in the game we played next, I still went to bed with a smile on my face. Thanks guys.

3) I can't believe I got to play with Cleelost.

Clee's a friend from back in the old Star Wars Battlefront days. I played a lot with him when we first got our 360s. Lately though it seems like every time I see him come online he's watching a video instead of playing a game. When I got an invite from him to play Gears of War 2 I immediately jumped out of my Texas Hold 'em tournament and joined. And as an added bonus (I think it was a bonus) I got to hear MarcDNPain's voice. At least he use to be that gamer tag, now I don't know what he calls himself. That cackle of a laugh in my ear was unmistakable though. It was fun to reconnect with those guys for a night. Let's hope it doesn't take another several months before that happens again.

4) I got to talk to El Sand Dog.

Sand Dog's Xbox 360 has been on the fritz lately and he hasn't been able to play some of the games that he usually plays. Because of that his time online has been very limited or restricted to what he can do. I haven't talked to him in ages and I always love hearing that deep, slightly stoned out voice of his. He's one of those guys that can actually get the line "How you doin'" to work for them. It's worked on me. I miss Sand Dog. He's a blast to flirt with and a great guy to play with. I hope he gets his 360 issues worked out soon.

5) I got a message that I'm sexist

In my profile online my bio lists both the address for this blog and the address for the Xbox360GamingWorld site that my friend Pogue Moran (yes, I called him a friend) runs. I got a message from a total stranger, after playing some Texas Hold 'em that said "ur website is sexis". Yes, those typos and netspeak were in included. At first I thought they were talking about this blog. Sexist? Here? I don't see it. Yes, it's called "Life of a Gamer Girl" which might be sexist, but since I am a girl, AND I play video game, AND these entries are mostly about my life playing video games I really don't think it's sexist.

As for the Gaming World website? Eh? Maybe. There are quite a few guys on the site from all around the world that like to do a bit of chest thumping and fist pumping, but it's mostly guys just being guys and showing off. There have been a few avatar pics/vids that I wouldn't want to open up while at the office, but since the site is now banned at work for "gaming" because of all the flash games it's not a problem anymore.

There are quite a few girls on the site as well. We tolerate the boys for the most part and have put them in their place if the moment warranted it. But one things is certain those guys on the site are thrilled about girls playing video games. No matter how much trash talking, chest thumping or fist pumping they do, none of them have every berated a girl for playing video games. No "you suck because you're a girl" or "girls can't play video games". In fact some of them are very happy to admit when a girl gets the better of them in a match. Some other guys might call that a little perverse, but I find it welcoming and inclusive. I met a lot of great guys through that site and I don't regret any one of them, although Pogue isn't for the faint of heart. He's more of an acquired taste.

So a bunch of highs and lows for the week, but overall a very good week in the gaming world. It would be better if I didn't have to go to work but could stay home and play games all day. But then again, without the job I wouldn't be able to afford to buy new games or pay for the internet to play online with the games I do have. I guess I'll keep the job for now. My gaming habits will change a bit over the next couple of weeks, but only temporarily. You'll read more about that in a post sometime in the next couple of days.

New Poll - How's your summer been so far?

Here's the latest poll:

How's your summer been so far?

Hotter than normal
Cooler than normal
Drier than normal
Wetter than normal
Same as always

Remember you can always leave a comment to tell me why you voted the way you did. You don't have to be a registered member of Blogger to do so.

Poll Results - OVERALL best movie franchise

Here are the poll results:

What movie franchise has the best OVERALL movies?

Lord of the Rings = 3 votes
Star Wars = 3 votes
Alien = 0 votes
Rocky = 1 vote
Star Trek = 2 votes

I think two of you are letting one good movie (released this summer) sway your opinions, but I won't mention which one.

I will admit that I tried to cheat with my vote on this poll. I voted from my computer at work. At home I was going to vote from that computer. I wasn't going to vote for the same movie either. I just couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted to cast a final vote for.

I never got around to voting from home so only my vote at work counted. That was for Star Wars. How could I NOT vote for Star Wars? I have a whole bookcase dedicated to Star Wars books, a closet full of Star Wars toys and I own the original trilogy in at least 4 different versions/formats . . . possibly more.

What made me doubt the overall integrity of the Star Wars films was there were some very horrid things about the last two that I didn't like. I'll get to that later.

My other vote would have gone for Lord of the Rings. I think those are great movies. They're engrossing, entertaining, imaginative, beautifully filmed and solidly cohesive as a franchise. They are long (especially if you get the extended, director's cut editions) and are not for those with bladder control issues who can't sit still long to watch them uninterrupted. And they're worth every minute too. I would have gladly sat through a four hour movie in the theaters if the results would have been the same. I will admit that I might be a little biased about these movies, but not in the way that you think.

See, I haven't read the Lord of the Rings trilogy yet. I've read The Hobbit at least 3 times, but I've never gotten around to reading the other books. I own them, just haven't read them. So why does that make me biased? Because I haven't read the books I don't have any expectations to the story. No, what did they leave out? Or, that doesn't happen in that order. I walked into those movies with no preconceived notions as to what to expect. And I wasn't disappointed.

I wasn't surprised at getting votes for Star Trek. Although I haven't seen all those movies I hear they are either really good or just plain horrible. Since this question asked for the "overall" result I had to eliminate Star Trek (and not because I'm a Star Wars fan).

I was a little surprised that Rocky got one vote and Alien didn't get any. These are two other franchises where I haven't seen all the movies. I heard Rocky movies went downhill fast, except for this last one which I heard was okay. The first Alien movie scared the bejeezies out of me. There was no way I was going to see a sequel . . . especially in a theater. But I've heard they're pretty good. And I'm not counting the Alien vs. Predator movie as part of that franchise. I thought for sure that Alien would get at least one vote because of how well it did at the box office and the scary/creepy factor. Oh well.

But back to Star Wars.

I loved the first trilogy (I think I've already established that) and I couldn't wait for The Phantom Menace to come out. I think I saw it 30 times in the theaters that summer before I stopped saving my ticket stubs. It was different than the original movies (they were so much more chatty) but I liked it. And Jar Jar Binks doesn't bother me as much as he does other people.

When The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith came out I equally as excited. And then I was disappointed. I don't want to get into a debate about every little detail of the films but let me point out some high (or should that be low) lights as I saw them.

1) I don't think Hayen Christenson did a very good job as Anakin. It's more than his hair is curly where as Jake Lloyds was straight. He over acted his part. I would have much preferred to see Ryan Phillipe in the role instead. I think he would have brought that quiet menacing aura to him that I think Darth Vadar needs to have (even though he wasn't Darth Vadar yet).

2) the dialogue was horrible. The worst line (at least to me) is when Obi-Wan and Anakin are trying to rescue the Chancellor and they finally get surrounded by droidekas. Obi-Wan says "Come on, we're better than this". Cheesy. Lame. And so unlike the witty, sharp dialogue of the other movies. And so unlike the Jedi. I cringe every time I hear it. And unfortunately that isn't the only line that is bad. There are many more so I won't quote them. I wish those that helped make the first trilogy so great could have worked on the scripts for the second trilogy.

3) the movies looked too digital. The first trilogy was shot on location, real people were used in real costumes, that may or may not have been easy to move in. The movies looked like they were full of real life, in a real galaxy, far, far away. For the most part the second trilogy (especially the last two movies) were all shot on a sound stage and the backgrounds filled in digitally. TPM had locations shots and maybe that's why I like it better than the others. When Padme and Anakin frolic through the hills of Naboo it's almost the only scene shot outside. I think the whole of the last movies was shot inside. Yes, I know they can do things with lighting and digital effects to make it look they are outside, but to me it comes off more as a painting than an actual place teeming with life. I just miss that in the later films. Not filming "on location" might have kept those costs down so they could apply that money to the digital budget, but I don't think it necessarily made the movies better.

I could go on, but I won't. I don't hate the Star Wars movies. I think they offer more to imagine and wonder at than the Lord of the Rings movies. Besides, those were based on an existing story. The blueprint to the tell the story was already created. Star Wars, on the other hand, was created especially for the screen. It wasn't based on anything so it could be free to explore or do things without being constrained to an existing structure. For that imaginative quality (have you watched the movie just to stare at the people going to the theater, or in the bar scene?) I have to say Star Wars gets the edge over Lord of the Rings. Even if I tried to cheat and vote for both of them.

I'm changing my gamertag

No, I'm not changing it to "Hot Fantasy Girl", that one's already taken. And I'm not changing it to any derivative of that name either. We encountered HFG again last night. The guys reception of her wasn't as warm and fuzzy as before (I think it didn't help much when she kept killing them with the Hammer of Dawn).

I'm going to change my name to "Buzz Kill". Or maybe "Kill Joy". Or "I ask a question and suck the life out of the party and distract my teammates so we lose the match". Do you think it's too long?

In my defense we weren't actually in a match at the time I asked the question. It just carried over into the match. And I thought it was a simple question to answer. Yes, I know there's a lot of baggage that comes with asking an ex-soldier what the Medal of Honor is usually given out for, but a simple "it's the grand-daddy of all war medals for going above and beyond the call of duty" would have sufficed. I don't think that belittles the recipients of what they achieved when they've earned a Medal of Honor if you sum it up that way. After all, I'm not military so my feelings are much more pedestrian than what an ex-soldier would feel when the talking about the Medal of Honor.

I'm sorry I brought it up. Not because we played horribly and lost the match. But because I'm sorry that it seemed to suck the life out of the party and turned a couple of outspoken-extroverted-guys-who-thrive-blowing-the-heads-off-of-locust into a couple of thought-provoking-introverted-let's-sit-and-ponder-about-it-road-kill in the middle of what should have been a fun match. It won't happen again.

And to mark the occasion and remind myself to keep my mouth shut I'm changing my gamer tag. I'm kind of partial to "Kill Joy" but what do you think?

Just one of the guys

You know you're "just one of the guys" when your teammates get all hot and bothered playing against "Hot Fantasy Girl" and you lose a couple of rounds because of it. And then when "she" sends an invite to play they start squealing like little school girls at a Jonas Brothers concert. Maybe I need to crank up the flirting again. After all, I'm a girl too, you know.

So, how you doing? *wink wink*

I don't remember joining the circus . . .

I had a REALLY bad day at work yesterday. All I wanted to do was go home, have a glass of milk and go to bed. I didn't care what might be on TV or whether the sun was still up or not. I was hot, miserable, tired and grumpy. Throw in a few more adjectives and I would have been all the seven dwarfs rolled up into one.

One of the things that made me grumpy was paying my bills. I was already set to leave work when I realized I hadn't written the checks for my bills and they needed to get out in yesterday's mail. So after hanging around work for another 1/2 hour while I wrote check after check after check and watched my bank account dwindle to almost nothing I finally packed up and left the office. I was so tired that instead of turning toward the post office I started towards home. Oops. I made a U-turn and headed in the right direction. Now I wanted to get home and go to bed more than anything . . . and I was getting hotter by the second.

On the way home I realized that the new maps were coming out for Gears of War 2 today. While this thought was not earth shattering in its nature it was enough to brighten my day and I started to look forward to getting home and playing Gears and then going to bed. But I was still hot. I figured it would take a while to download the maps so I planned to log in as soon as I got home, start the download of the maps and then go out swimming to cool off while the map pack was being delivered to my system. Sounded like a good plan to me.

When I got home all that changed.

I changed into my swimsuit, logged onto my Xbox and went to the marketplace to download the maps. I saw that it would cost me 1,200 points to do it and I only had 990 points in my balance. I was hoping it would only be 800 points, but I figured I'd have to buy points anyway. I hit the button to "add microsoft points," selected an appropriate amount and then selected "confirm payment". Unfortunately I realized my credit card had expired in June and I forgot to update the expiration date. Because of this the system wouldn't allow me process my purchase. No points. No maps.

At the same time I started getting invites from my friends to play Gears. I jumped in the party and told them I was trying to download the maps and would be on later. I guess swimming might have to wait awhile. After looking around for five minutes for a place on my Xbox 360 to change my expiration date on my credit card (I opened up every menu options and then some) I realized I would have to change the date by using my computer. Great.

I went into my office and turned on my computer. I waited while it went through the boot-up cycle before it came to the screen for me to pick my log in ID (dain also has an ID on my computer for repair purposes). Then I had to wait while it loaded all of my preferences. Then I had to wait while my system ran it's virus, spyware, etc. checks. Once that was all done I clicked on my internet icon (Firefox) and waiting for my internet browser to open. What I got instead was a pop-up message box saying my Firefox application was being updated. Great. And how long was that going to take?

Now I was hot, tired, miserable, even more grumpy and looking at my dog I could tell that she couldn't figure out why I had my swimming suit on but wasn't going out side into the pool. I decided to say "screw it" and take my dog's advice. I would stay out and swim and cool off in the pool as long as I like and would come back in to change my expiration date, buy points, download maps and play Gears when I bloody well felt like it. So there.

At least that's how I thought it would go.

After about five or ten minutes in the pool, just when that knot in my head and body was starting to unravel Zoe went ballistic at the back gate. I floated over there to see if I could tell what set her off. All I could see was someone going back and forth in front of my house. Great. What now?

I decided to get out of the pool, go inside and see if I could tell what was going on in front of my house. So dripping wet, I trundled to my front window and looked out. There was a kid (jr or sr high school age) riding a skate board back and forth on the sidewalk. Really? It's 115 degrees outside and you're skateboarding? Go home and stay in the AC idiot.

Since I was already inside (when the AC kicked on it did a really nice job of cooling me off, but that was because I will still dripping wet) I decided to check up on my computer. I put my towels on the chair and sat down. Apparently after the update my system froze and I lost all access to my desk top. The only thing for me to do was to turn my system off and restart it. Which meant I had to sit through another boot-up, log in, virus check, etc. Once I got through all of that it took 2 minutes for Firefox to open up a web page. I was just about to give up for good and go back to my original plan of going to bed when I decided I came this far I might as well finish the deed.

I found the right web page, changed my expiration date and selected the map pack from the marketplace to download to my Xbox 360. While it was downloading I went and changed out of my wet swimsuit and waited for the system to finish. When it finally did I checked my friends list and found all of my friends were already playing in full groups. I thought about trying the new maps on private so I could walk around and learn them before I actually had to fight on them, but I had had enough. I put in Eternal Sonata hoping a nice quiet RPG with bright colors would improve my mood.

That's when the invites started coming again.

I seriously considered not joining Evil Ric and G Sneaka in their game but I had jumped through so many hoops just to play these news maps I wanted to see if it was worth it. I felt like a dog at the circus, performing trick after trick, and now I just wanted to hear the applause. What did I think of the new maps like, you ask? Eh.

I think I played 5 matches. Two on Sanctuary, two on War Machine and one on The Highway (I think that's the name). After that I just didn't care to play anymore. Not that they are bad maps (although I don't think I like the new War Machine) but I just wasn't in the mood. Sometimes at the end of the day this old dog just wants to lay down in her kennel and call it a night.

I went back into the pool afterwards and spent a good twenty minutes or so trying to relax. After that I packed it in and crawled under the covers. I was in bed about a quarter after 10pm and asleep abut one minute later. For me, going to bed before 11pm is early. I usually end up in bed by 11:30 and I don't usually fall asleep until around 12am. But last night I needed it. Who knew this circus life could be so tiring. I wonder what feats of daring I'll have to perform tonight when I get online. And you know, you can teach an old dog new tricks . . . it just takes too much out of her when you do.

New Poll - What movie franchise has the best OVERALL movies?

Here's the new poll:

What movie franchise has the best OVERALL movies?

Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Alien
Rocky
Star Trek

Vote and tell me why in the comments.

I've got a picket fence

I did it! I finally beat the last boss in the expansion pack to Puzzle Quest and got those last 20 pts I needed to get my gamer score to exactly 11,111. I'm so proud of myself. And relieved. It was hard work making sure I didn't play games that might give me some points that I didn't want and then trying to play games to get the points that I did want. I'm exhausted.

Kralon congratulated me on my "picket fence" and I kind of like that idea. They almost look that way don't they? I think metallicorphen asked how long I would leave my score that way. Long enough to blog about it. It's not something I plan on hanging onto for a long time.

I'm also not like some of the people on gaming forums that I frequent that are flipping out because they've picked up an achievement that does not end in a number divisible by 5. They think all achievements should end in either a 5 or a 0. Oh, please. I remember when I started getting achievements in Cloning Clyde and the numbers were all funky. I thought it was brilliant. Sure, anyone can make achievements in nice 5 pts increments. But that's boring and cookie cutter programing. I thought it took real genius for someone to f*#$ with the system and do those funky amounts. And those amounts were what made it possible for me to get my picket fence.

I remember when I first got my Xbox 360 and my gamerscore was in the hundreds. A lot of my friends had scores in the 1,000s. I wanted to break that barrier. I finally did. Then I had to break the 10,000 point barrier. Done that. Now I don't really care. Until this opportunity came along. Could I do it? How much self-control would I have to exercise. I hate exercising. The hardest part was getting that last 20 points. I knew I had achievements I was close to getting, or could get easily, or so I thought. It turned out that last one was a SOB. But I did it so I'm happy.

Now that I have a spot open on my Gamer Goals I've been thinking about what new goal I could add. I thought about a gamer score of 12,345. That might look cool. And it's not far away, only 1,234 points to get. But that would mean I have to "even out" my gamer score to end in a 5. I think picking up the next achievement in Cloning Clyde would do that but right now I'm hopelessly stuck in that game. Not to mention extremely frustrated with it. It's those stupid sheep clones that I can't seem to control that get me every time. Maybe I'll pick a goal unrelated to my gamerscore. I just don't know yet, but I'll take suggestions. Do ya got any?

Poll Results - Have you created an Avatar that looks like you?

Here are the poll results:

Have you created an Avatar that looks like you?

Yes, but only at first = 2 votes
Yes, as close as I could make it = 3 votes
Yes, it looks exactly like me = o votes
Ne, it's what I WANT to look like = 2 votes
No, it's my own personal eye candy = 1 vote

Okay, who's going for the eye candy? My Avatar now is all eye candy. Yes, that's a rocked out, but sensitive, guy and not a butch girl orphie. But I didn't vote for the eye candy.

I voted for "only at first". Which is mostly true. My very fist Avatar looked a lot like me except for the fact that I had to add the Princess Leia hairdo. What? I'm a Star Wars fan and I couldn't resist. Of course after I had that avatar for a while I wanted to get rid of it and go back to being anonymous. Unfortunately once you've gone Avatar you can't go back. So I changed it. I think that next one was the naughty school girl that everyone seemed to like so much.

Anyway, I get bored with my avatar, but I love looking at all of yours. Sometimes when you change the appearance drastically I have to stop and figure out who you all are. I think both MasvHdWdHarry and G Sneaka both went from dreadlocks to bald. That took some getting use to. And seeing Mad Max with blond hair and wearing a wife beater just doesn't seem right (and he was complaining about MY avatar).

Then there are my friends that keep the same face but just change the outfits. I'm sorry Genghis Khan but the preppy look doesn't suit you. And Pogue Moran . . . well, you won't be able to miss him in a crowd (especially when the crowd runs screaming from his face). And Evil Ric must think he's some kind of gunslinger with the long coat and cowboy hat.

And then there are my friends who haven't changed their avatars and I don't think they ever will. c5ride, Fbody and kaiakapero all seem to have the same avatar from day one and they don't seem to be changing it. I know what kai looks like, being my brother and all, so I wonder if c5 and Fbody really look like their avatars. Like I'm ever going to know.

If all things were equal between Xbox 360s and PS3 would the Avatar be enough to tip the scale in a purchasing decision. Absolutely not. At least for me. They're fun to play around with but I get bored of them quickly which is why I decided to change mine based on my current poll. This way I'm always reminder to put a new poll for you guys. And it's fun (for about 5 minutes) to try and get just the right avatar to match the poll.

But since an avatar isn't the real me I guess you'd like to see a real life picture of what I look like. The photo's a little dated, but what do you think?

40 points and counting

Speaking of Gamer Goals I'm close to crossing another one off my list.

One of my goals was to get my gamer score to 11,111 exactly. I was stuck at 10,981 for the longest time. That is only 130 points away so I thought I would put in Lost Odyssey and finish the game. You get 125 points for finishing each disk and I am working on the last one. That would mean I would only need 5 more points to reach my goal. Very doable. But after looking through the achievements for Lost Odyssey I decided against that.

There are a couple of achievements that I'm probably close to getting and it would be just my luck to finish the last disk and have several achievements pop up putting me over the magic number. So as mush as I want to play that game and finish it up I'm not going to put it in for awhile.

So that left me trying to find a way to maintain control over my score and get the points I need. That's when I started playing Battlefield: 1943. I've picked up several achievements in that game and now I'm only 40 points away from my goal. Those achievements are very easy to get and I'm sure I can control which ones I get and when I want them. Of course that might me I immediately jump out of a game when I get my 40 points just so I won't accidentally pick up another achievement.

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if I finish this goal before the weekend is over (since I'm sure to get some Gears of War matches in as well). I'm sure I'll blog about it when it happens and everyone will have to check out "my sticks". Maybe my next gamer score goal should be 12,345. Do you have a gamer score goal? If so, tell me about it. Please!

The June blues

Yes, I wasn't posting much in June and it was one of my "Gamer Goals" to post three times a week. But I have my reasons . . . okay, they're more like excuses, so just hear me out.

Excuse #1:
Normally the May/June/July time period at work for my territory is very quiet. I can take it easy. Relax. Blog. The busiest time is usually Sept/Oct/Nov. So far this year that hasn't been the case. I don't know what it was but my work load has gone through the roof. In this economy I guess that's good, job security and all. But it doesn't leave much extra time for blogging. I normally like to type a blog post up at work while on a break. If I don't, they might never get done except for on the weekends. By the time I get home during the week the last thing I want to do is fire up the old computer and stare at another monitor screen. On the weekends it's not so bad. If I'm busy at work that means I have less time to post to my blog. Oh well, whatever pays the bills right?

Excuse #2:
From the end of May through the middle of July it's birthday season in my family. Just in my immediate family I've got my dad, 2 brothers and my birthday in that time period. Throw in extended family and you can add a niece, a couple (or three?) of nephews and an aunt. And I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. It seems there's a certain time of year when people in my family "get busy" if you know what I mean. Since I always want to give the perfect birthday gift this time of year can be very stressful for me. And when money is tight, as it is this year, that only adds to the stress. You'll know when I just kind of give up finding that perfect gift when I give out gift cards (sorry dain, maybe next year).

Excuse: #3:
As mentioned above, my birthday is in June. I hate it. Why? Because it's a yearly reminder that I haven't accomplished all the things I said I wanted to do with my life. Am I rich and care-free? More like in debt and stressed out. Have I written a NY Times bestselling blockbuster novel? I can't even write a post on my blog. Married? Nope, single. Kids? Well . . . I do have a dog now. She's like a two or three year old so maybe.

And before all of you with kids say it's not the same things listen up. Zoe finally got into the pool all on her own the other day. Every time I've wanted to have her go swimming I've had to carry her into the pool. She's so unsure of the whole thing that she nows runs away from me when she sees me in my swimming suit (I'm sure that's the only reason). When I say her tentatively putting a foot out trying to find that first step I got all misty eyed and couldn't help but cheer her on. I'm just a big softy.

Having a birthday makes me reflect on all those things I wanted to do in my life. And when I find out that I haven't done any of them I can get very depressed. Rich? I guess I could start playing the lottery, but I don't want to waste money. Write a best selling novel? That would require getting an idea and following it through to the end (and playing less video games and writing instead). Married? I have to find single guy friends instead of you married types. Kids? Well, I do have my dog. And if I'm stress now with a new house and dog do I think adding a kid to that mix is going to make me LESS stressful? I guess that's why I have nieces and nephews. Love 'em, play with 'em, then send them home. Although I still would like to have a kid some day, but at my age those "some days" are getting numbered really fast.

Excuse #4:
Stress and exhaustion have been taking their toll on me. And now it's the heat. I waited all winter long until I could get into my swimming pool without freezing. When it was finally warm enough to get in I couldn't get the chemicals balanced properly and the water looked a little cloudy. Who wants to go swimming in that? And then there's the weeds. Why won't they just go away? I pull. I spray. I pull some more. But they just keep coming back. It's very annoying. I've got weeds growing all over the place, but can I grow any grass? Not at all. I think I just might let the weeds take over. At least they're green.

It's not like there hasn't been things to blog about. I had a front row seat for a spectacular two-for shot by c5ride. He shot a Long shot or maybe a Torque Bow that went through the head of one player and killed the guy standing behind him. Both of them were chasing me and I turned around just in time to see the shot. It was like sitting in the front row of a Gallagher or Shamu show. Too bad I didn't have a towel on me.

And I could have done a post about the new accessory I think all my male friends might be keeping handy when we play. What is it, you might ask? Why, a pillow of course. I say "of course" because my group of friends seem to have become a little "randy" lately and I'm always happy to oblige and . . . um . . . peak their interest if the conversations sways that way, if you know what I mean. If you don't, wait until your voice drops and you get out of elementary school, or at least go look for your dad's old Playboy magazines. I mean what's a little bit of *cough* innocent *cough* flirting among friends? I respect marriage vows so nothings going to happen on my end (pun intended) . . . which is why I'm probably still single. Oh well.

So anyway. Now that work has stabilized, birthday season is over and my pool is filled with sparkling clean water I think I can get back to a more normal three posts a week schedule. And boy do I have a lot to say, so stay tuned.

New Poll - Have you created an Avatar that looked like you?

Here's my next poll:

Have you created an Avatar that looked like you?

Yes, but only when we first got them
Yes, as close as I could get it anyway
Yes, it looked exactly like me
No, it is what I WANT to look like
No, it is my personal eye candy

My avatar might change daily with this one. So check me out and see which answer I might be referring to.

Poll Results- What music do you listen to?

Here is the latest poll results:

What kind of music do you listen to?

I'm a Country boy at heart = 0 votes
It's still Rock 'n' Roll to me = 3 votes
I'm a head banding bobblehead = 2 votes
It's all that Jazz for me = 0 votes
I'm an East (listening) kind of guy = 0 votes
Anything with a beat will do for me = 3 votes

I voted for Rock 'n' Roll. That's the closest to what I listen to today. Over the course of my life I've listened to a lot of things.

I think the first record I bought was the soundtrack to The Muppet Movie. And that was on vinyl. The first cassette tape I bought was Lionel Richie's Dancing on the Ceiling. I listened to that tape that I've almost worn it out. And yest I still have it to this day. When I was younger my interests were Lionel Richie, Rick Springfield, Corey Hart, Howard Jones, Genesis and especially Styx. My sister had all of the Styx albums on vinyl and I would love to go to her side of the room when she was gone and just pull the album covers out just to look at them. If I knew she would be gone for awhile I would put them on her record player and listen to them really low so I could hear if she came back down the stairs. I remember one time I barely go the record off the player and back into the jacket and everything turned off before she walked into the room. I kept waiting for her to touch her record player and realize it was still warm and then my cover would be blown.

When I was in high school and college my sister still influenced by musically tastes. She turned me on to "alternative" rock. Back in the day that meant Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, REM, Bare Naked Ladies, the B52s and They Might be Giants, etc. She moved out, got married and had a kid so I was over there to babysit a lot and this time I had permission to use the stereo.

My family is very musical. Both my parents were in community choirs at one time or another (my dad was in a Barbershop choir). We've all song in school or community musicals while growing up. So I've always liked musicals. The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, West Side Story, etc. Even the more obscure ones like Brigadoon or Pippin were ones I liked. My sister turned me onto one other musical that is my favorite to this day. Chess. For those of you who say you've never heard of that musical before, I say you've probably heard one of the songs from it. If you've heard "One Night in Bangkok" you have. That's from the musical. My sister would play the tape in the car when she was taking me to/from college and she would sing out loud while it played. Do you love a song enough to sing it out loud in the car with someone else present? I didn't think so. At about the same time I fell in love with the musical Evita. This was before the movie with Madonna came out. I saw a production at college done in the "theater in the round". I was hooked. Now I love to listen to those soundtracks and sign along while I drive to work.

Over the last couple of years my musical tastes have changed . . . and I feel guilty for it. I now love listening to Linkin Park, Evanessence, Tool and Franz Ferdinand among others. I feel guilty because the music seems like it's meant for the angst ridden late teen/early 20 something who's just realizing the cruel facts of the real world. And since I'm not an angst ridden late teen/early 20 something I feel like an old geezer pervert if I like the same music as them. I'm not a pervert, by the way. Old, yes. Pervert, no.

I've also found that a good beat or drum rhythm will get me hooked in a song more so than a good guitar riff. That's why I fell in love with Tool. There's something intoxicating about a good primal drum beat. Acoustic or electronic. Either way is good. Just listen to Closer by Nine Inch Nails and see. Of course those lyrics might have something to do with it as well.

Of all those music choices listed the only two I have problems with are Country and Jazz. I can only listen to about one or two country songs in a row before I can't take the whinning and the southern twang anymore. And I've never heard an upbeat country song in my life. I'm surprised more country singers don't blow their brains out after singing all those depressing songs.

And I don't get Jazz. I'm talking real Jazz. Jazz doesn't conform to the regular patterns that the rest of music seems to. Verse, chorus, verse chorus, etc. Or verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus. Every song you hear on the radio is going to fall into one of those patterns. It's predicable, but I like it. Jazz is sometimes all over the place and because of that I can't really get into it.

So my musical tastes have changed over the years. For better or worse. Whether my tastes have progressed and matured, or regressed and immatured, I don't know. I likes what I likes and there's no explaining what I likes. So tell me who you're favorite band is.

New Poll - What kind of music do you listen to?

There are reasons for the absence lately, but I'll get to that in another post . . . I promise. For now here's the latest poll to go along with my avatar.

What kind of music do you listen to?

*I'm a country boy at heart
*It's still Rock 'n' Roll to me
*I'm a head banging bobblehead
*It's all that Jazz for me
*I'm an Easy (listening) kind of guy
*Anything with a beat will do for me

If I have any female readers I apologize for the "boy/guy" references. I'm not politically correct and I have no intention to change that. So there.

Grrrrr

Grrrrr.

Grrrrr.

Grrrrr.

Stupid glitch.

Ugh! I just want to chuck my Fable 2 disk through my tv, use it as a pooper scooper then toss it into my pool. I got "the glitch" last night and I'm pissed.

There's a glitch that seems to happen in random places. There's a guy on one forum who had it happen to him in The Crucible. It happened to me in the Cemetery.

After going into the Cemetery I decided I didn't want to fight 100 Hollow Men right then. So, I tried to leave. Unfortunately the game wouldn't let me. It would dump me right outside of the Cemetery, but no matter what direction I headed it would put me right back into the Cemetery. I tried that three times before the game finally let me leave. It put me near the harbor and the problems really started.

The first thing I noticed was those little glowing orbs were pointing me to where the guy is to take you to Knothole Island. I knew that wasn't my active quest so I pulled up my menu and looked at it. Apparently the game reset my active quest to Knothole Island and when I tried to reset it the game wouldn't acknowledge the change.

Then I started to move. Or tried to at any rate. If I tried to move outside the glowing orb path my character seemed to get pulled back towards the orbs no matter what I did. And when I did follow the path my character moved in jerky movements. I've never had this happen before and even though I've installed the game on my hard drive I figured it was just running through a load sequence and it would get better soon.

It didn't.

When I got to the Knothole Island guy on the pier he had 5 enemies surrounding him and attacking him. I tried to come to his defence but I couldn't pull out my crossbow. Or my great axe. Or use any spells. At this point I was in the middle of them and they started hacking at me and I didn't have a way to defend myself.

So what's a girl to do? I used the quick travel menu option and picked a spot close to where I was. A couple hours of the game clock and one load screen later I was standing safely at the entrance to Bowerstone. Except I couldn't move.

I couldn't walk or run anywhere. I couldn't do any expressions. And I didn't have my dog with me. In fact I couldn't remember the last time I had seen my dog. The Cemetery, maybe? So I went back to the quick travel menu and picked another destination. Same thing. It didn't matter what place I picked, once I got there I couldn't move.

Now, I've read about this "immobile" glitch in the game from several forums. And I'm sure I read there's a way to fix it too. So I saved my game (big mistake) because I had done a lot of things prior to start of all my problems, but I hadn't saved for a long time. Before I decided to go online to find what to do to fix the problem I thought I'd see if exiting the game and reloading my save would fix things. It didn't.

So I ripped the game out of my system and promptly put it back in my game case. Then I got online to figure out how to solve my problem. Apparently this problem was suppose to have been fixed in an update to the game at the end of March. Since I had all the updates I should have been good. But obviously I wasn't. I did some more research and found out that the only way to "fix" the problem was to restart the game.

WTF?

Do you know how many hours I've invested in that game so far? My character was completely evil and completely corrupt (no small feat that). I had a 5 star ranking in both woodcutting AND blacksmithing. I completed the Hero of Strength quest, had not one, but two statues created in my honor and completed many other side quests of the game. So what if I couldn't figure out how to have sex and wake up with a baby? I think I've pretty much given up on that for the time being when for the last couple of days whenever I tried to use a bed I would get this message: "You can't rest here." It didn't matter what bed, in stranger's houses or either of my marital houses it just wouldn't let me do it. And now I find out I've got to start over? You've got to be kidding me?

There's a big difference between a glitch that allows a player to "hide" in a wall and shot at people passing by but not taking any damage from bullets themselves and a glitch that makes your game completely unplayable. That kind of glitch is totally unacceptable. The "guy in a wall" glitch can be dealt with and the game will go on. An "immobility" glitch stops the game cold and pisses off the gamer like you would not believe.

This glitch makes the trouble I had with a boss encounter in Lost Odyssey where the boss dealt only in magic and my party (forced on me) was weak in magic defence look like a walk in the park and then a joy ride. After that boss I put Lost Odyssey aside because I was angry and frustrated with how many attempts it took me to defeat him and picked up Fable II. Now maybe I'll put Fable II aside and go back to Lost Odyssey. Once I finish that game (I'm on disk 4) I can finally go back to Blue Dragon which is a game I've been dying to get to for awhile.

If Lionhead Studios want me to invest in Fable III when it comes out they need to do a better job at doing their job. That one lousy glitch might turn me off the game for a very long time. I might not even go back to finish the first Fable game (which I haven't done yet). It just makes me go grrrr!

Old School is not always fun

So Gears of War 2 this Memorial weekend was an "old school" weekend. Teams were now limited to 4 players instead of 5. Stun grenades kept your character upright, but stunned instead of knocking you half way across the map. Old school rules applies.

And it wasn't all that fun.

Now, I LOVED the original Gears of War and have many fond memories of playing that game 'til all hours of the night. But once you've played with a squad of 5 players it makes it hard to go back to just 4. Take the River map for instance. With 5 players you send 1 down to pick up the Boomshot under the bridge, 1 to cover him immediately, 1 to grab the frags and then come down to cover him (or throw them up to the sniper spot if there is no resistance at the boom), 1 player up to the sniper/torque on your side, and 1 player to keep an eye on the bridge/cover the player going for sniper/torque and maybe even go for the mortar is possible. With only 4 players someone isn't going to have enough protection for very long.

If you send 3 down for the Boomshot (1 with frags) that leaves the sniper vulnerable to someone coming across the bridge and coming up behind them. If you send 2 in each direction then there is some confusion as to where the frags would be best used. If the guy going for the Boomshot waits until he has frag support, the other team will get the Boomshot. If the person getting frags goes to help cover sniper, then they can't be used to throw up at the other team's sniper spot.

If you split up and travel in pairs to back each other up no matter where you go, if one of you gets killed that leaves your buddy all along to face who know how many enemies. Besides, it's a whole team effort, not mini Wingman matches in a larger game. Having that fifth person makes all the world of difference especially on maps where you can use them as roving support. Helping out where it's needed once you've learned the enemies attack pattern. Maps like Ruins.

And the frags? In Gears of War 2 I've thrown a stun grenade at an opponent knowing it would knock them back 10 feet right to the feet of my teammate who would promptly blow their head off. One down, four more to go. With the "old school" stun frags, the enemy just stands there cowering until they can move again. This reaction seems to not last as long as if the player was knocked down and had to get up. It's much harder to get over to someone to kill them if they don't have to take that extra time to get up.

Now, I'm sure someone will say that the original rule for GOW2 has made me lazy and that playing "old school" made you work harder to get your kill. Possibly. But another thing I did noticed while playing this weekend is that playing "old school" made my team communicate much less than playing with a squad of 5. Maybe it was the fact that we knew if we came upon the enemy we'd have to deal with them ourselves because help wasn't coming. With five man teams we could send 3 players to rush the enemy, 1 to stay pack and snipe and 1 to act as a scout and protector for the sniper. We would communicate all the time. Telling each other where enemies were; where they were headed; and where not to go because they tagged something. Maps that felt large with 5 player teams needed a lot of communication, but with 4 player teams you'll either end up dead or the victor before you could get any help.

A five player team also means you have someone who acts as leader. Someone to decide if your team is going right or left on Day One. If someone disagrees and it comes to vote, there is no tie. Someone steps up and takes charge. And sometimes it varies on the map. I have some friends who experience the kiss of death on certain maps and others who excel on those maps. We all know our strengths and weaknesses and with more players participating we have a better chance at exploiting that.

Supposedly these "old school" rules ended last night. We'll see what happens today when I play (and you know I will). Hopefully we'll be back to the way Gears of War 2 was meant to be played. While playing "old school" games can be fun, sometimes playing new games by those rules isn't.

I've been chastised

At a family gathering yesterday my little brother (kaiakapero) chastised me for not keeping to my "3 posts a week" goal you people set for me. Things have been crazy busy at work and since I love to take a break and type up my entries at work I haven't had much of a chance to do so lately. Yes, I know I could do it once I got home, but after staring at not one, but two computer screens all day I just can't stand to look at another monitor at home. It might be because I've got two 21" flat screen monitors on my desk at work and one 19" old CRT monitor on my desk at home. It makes a difference.

And speaking of my brother kai, his birthday is coming up on June 11th so be sure to pester him with well wishes for growing old. Yes, I know I'm older than him, but I've come to terms with my old age. I'm not sure he's done that for himself yet. Besides, sometimes I think he's lonely playing Call of Duty 4 by himself. We all keep talking about going back to that game. Maybe someday we'll do it and join ya, kai.

And don't worry about this being my only post for the week. I've got another idea rattling around in by brain that I'd like to spill out, once it's more fully framed. And kai and Genghis Khan are to blame if you don't like it.

New Avatar coming soon!

Keep an eye on my Avatar if you want a clue as to what the next poll is going to be. For the last couple of polls I've created an Avatar to match. A Little Sister for the Big Daddy poll, a Librarian for the reading poll, and a hooker for the sex poll. What will I come up with next? Wait and see.

Poll Results - Have you had sex in a video game?

Here's the latest poll results:

Have you had sex in a video game?

"black coffee" was HOT! (GTA) = 2 votes
I hired a hooker in Bloodstone (Fable II) = 1 vote
I've only slept with my spouse (Fable II) = 0 votes
I don't kiss and tell = 1 vote

Well, unfortunately I couldn't vote in my own poll. I haven't figured out how to have sex yet. I'm not giving up (since one of my husband's status is "wants sex"). I'm determined, horny and pure evil now in Fable II since I picked up the Paradigm achievement the other night. (I killed a villager to get it. It was worth it.)

But speaking of sex, I think my friend metallicorphan needs to change his name to "horn dog" or something similar. He's had a lot more "experience" and he admitted it too. I totally forgot about the prostitute in Fallout 3. I've only recently met her (lovely lady) but that's as far in the game as I've gotten. And I haven't played it for awhile. Orphie came up with a bunch more games I didn't even know about.

I remember when "black coffee" came out and the uproar about that episode, which was hidden in the game. Yet, there doesn't seem to be the same out roar for Fable II, Fallout 3 and other games with sex in them. Are we getting to the point where, as a society, we are more open to sex? Will Netflicks on Xbox Live now start distributing porn? If so I don't think the PS3 has a chance. Microsoft is going to have to build a larger hard drive. And if that happens, I know a few guys I might never play a game with again. I just might have more than one "horn dog" show up on my friend's list.