A Bunch Of New Things

It's been awhile since I've updated so I thought it'd be good to give a rundown of what's been going on.

Since my last update, works been keeping me busy traveling back and forth between the coasts. I think we're done traveling for a bit now though. I did get a nifty coin out of it though!

Hmmm... what else has been going on? I bought a bunch of new hotness in the gaming department (Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto 4, Wii Fit, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One) and I've put a bunch of more time into playing WoW again. My guys have been sitting idle for a few weeks.

Vivendi leaked some data that the blizzard expansion for WoW, Wrath of the Lich King is going to be out by the end of 2008. I'm guessing probably somewhere in the late November time frame. With the new WoW expansion comes the first Hero Class in WoW, the Death Knight. To create a Death Knight you need a level 55 character on a server. As most of you know, I'm a very casual WoW player and I don't have any 55 dudes. So to get ready for WotLK, I've been leveling up my main hunter. He's sitting at 53 now and should have no trouble dinging 55 by that time. Now the conundrum is at 58 I can hop into Outland and score some better gear. I have the feeling that once I ding 55, the urge for 58 will be too compelling to pass up. Not that that's a bad thing.

Rock Band is a blast. We've held a few Rock Band parties and everybody seems to enjoy. Even a friend or two who are completely unfamiliar with the music in the game, can pick it up and chug along with many laughs. I really haven't touched it in a few weeks, but we really haven't had alot of people over. Also the drums are annoyingly loud, especially when you're playing by yourself.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a godsend. The game is so gosh darn good. The story is more mature and more interesting. The characters have much more depth to them than previous games characters. The game looks damn good, even on my poor mans standard def tv. One complaint is that the text is basically unreadable on a standard def tv, that includes the cell phone. This is by no means a new issue on the 360 (and presumably the PS3), but I guess I'll have to deal until either game devs consider standard def tv people as viable customers or I get an HDTV. Aside from those issues, the game is near perfect. It's enjoyable to walk around the streets and see distinct people, carrying conversations with the people around them or on their cell phones chit chatting. The addition of built-in multi-player (no more mods woot!) is fantastic and fairly easy to use. It's integrated well with the main game play and it's accessible via cell phone. Much like how we generally initiate multi-player in the real world. I could go on and on about all the WOW moments I've had playing the game, but go out and try it or play it at a friends house to see for yourself. Judging by the sales numbers, you're probably not more than 2 degrees of separation away from somebody that has it. Hell, you bring a six pack and you can come play at my house. Call ahead to arrange time :)

Rock Star has tied GTA4 to their Social Club which has some nifty features and shows some overall stats. I dig when games have that depth of integration with the real world. WoW started doing that with the WoW Armory, but I wish companies would take it further. Like in GTA, I should be able to check my in-game email and maybe my text messages and what not, especially with my problems reading the text in-game. In WoW I'd love to be able to check how my auctions are doing and check any in-game mail.

Wii Fit is a blast. I've been trying to follow an exercise regime these past couple weeks and it's tough, but it makes me feel good. I picked up Wii Fit as soon as it came out, although I had to hit up a few stores before I found one that had available copies. I really want it to track my status over time, but the exercises and activities it comes with have their own fun. I like the balance exercises where you get to really see what the balance board peripheral can do in terms of game play. I plan on picking up We Ski soon as it integrates well with the balance board. After the balance games, I think yoga is probably my second favorite. I like the idea of doing the yoga poses while also having a visual indicator of my balance. A visual indicator, to me, is really helpful. I've always been awkward in trying to figure out if I'm aligned properly. After a few weeks of use, I'll have to remind myself to put an update as to how I've progressed. I know I always say I'll update and never do, but I'll do my best to remember this time.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. This guy is unique. From the site:

"On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic RPG-adventure game series set in a deranged comic-book meets-pulp-horror 1920s universe. Armed with unconventional weaponry and witty repartee, you join forces with the Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency to make war on bizarre enemies and solve the mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia."

- playgreenhouse.com

If you didn't know already, this is a game that's been in the works for while. It's a creation of the dudes from Penny Arcade, a well known gaming web comic. It's the first game on their new game distribution site Green House, and it's pretty fantastic. It's got a funky setting and a funky style, and it works great. The games style is all comic book. Cut scenes are in classy 2D, and the game play is all 3D. It's got a diablo-esque left click interface. Combat is sort of Final Fantasy 7-ish, but it's not seperated from the main world. When a creature is defeated, it's smoking husk remains a smoking husk in front of you after combat. Not the mention the selflessly defiled fruit. I like that the combat offers a mechanism for blocking attacks. Successful blocks drasticly reduce the damage taken. I've got to cut in some time for this game between WoW, GTA, Wii Fit and Sudoku on Brain Age 2 to get deeper in. So far the dialog is great and the game play is fun. I'm excited about getting deeper into this one. My pal omlette, though, has had trouble getting the game to run. It will most often not load at all, and when it does, the mouse doesn't work. I hope that's something that can be remedied.

Some great movies have come out lately also. Namely Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I saw them both, and I enjoyed them both, but I'm not a movie critic so I won't get into the granularity of what I liked and didn't like about each. If you like good guys winning and kicking some bad guy ass, then you'll like these movies. Oh yes, Indy can still kick some ass. If you're looking for fancy-this or fancy-that or some other crap like that, then you're probably gonna like it anyway. Who doesn't like good guys winning and kicking some bad guy ass? Unless you don't have time to spare from chillin in starbucks writing wrist-slit poetry.

I've started to use Twitter as a way to keep people up to date as to whats going on with me, so feel free to check me out there. I'll probably throw up a Twitter widget or something on here as well. I'll have to see what plugins WordPress has for Twitter.

Mark is going to India for a month next month for work! Craziness, I know! Last weekend we took a trip down to Atlantic City to unwind. We had a great time. Harrah's turns their pool in to a club at night. Quite fantastic. That's gonna be the place to be in the summer time.

Saturday is a music fest in New York City. That should be fun! I like music!

This is a lot of text... congrats on reaching the bottom!