Ring in the new year with depresso time!

Isn't it interesting that we ring in the new year with a HUGE dose of depressants in our system? We drink alcohol all night long, and then ring in midnight, go to bed, and wake up to feel crappy. "National Hangover Day" as they're apparently calling it this year.

It seems like to me that symbolically, we should be doing good things on New Years Eve, so we'll wake up refreshed and ready to go. Of course, then they would just expect us to work on New Year's Day.

So I guess it is a good thing we drink to silliness on New Years Eve. Even if we pay for it later, at least it makes New Years Day relaxing.... everyone is too hung over to do anything.

Ring in the new year, Wii-less.

Sigh.

Well, I still have no new Nintendo. I had a great chance at getting one recently, I was in gamestop pre-ordering two copies of the Burning Crusade, the new expansion to WoW, and the sales guy told me they should be getting Wiis in on the UPS shipment that afternoon. Wouldn't let me preorder or anything of the like, apparently after they're released no more preordering. So I waited, and waited. And waited. For the (at this point) exceedingly late UPS truck. By the time the truck got there, there were 4 people waiting around for a chance at the Wii.

Alas, it was not to be. The truck arrived, and that day, there were no Wii's to be had. Looks like I won't be playing until 2007.

Soon my Wii.. Soon....

Nintendo Wii

So as a 360 owner, I've been ignoring the Wii since launch. I didn't want to buy it, I know it has the new Zelda, but I was halfway hoping it would die on impact and keep me from buying multiple consoles this generation. Obviously from the post a few days ago, I didn't want to buy another Gamecube that had a few great games over the course of several years. Then of course, Tomasland had me over to play it, and now I have to have one. I'm amazed at how intuitive the control is. It makes every game feel like the huge motion sensitive games at the arcade. It's so much more intuitive to just swing your controller like a golf club, instead of hitting a button as you start to swing, hit a button as you stop to swing.

Of course, the hardest game to win at this point is finding one. Hopefully in a few days I'll be posting my impressions of the new Zelda.

Backwoods Cephalopods

So... I've watched Squidbillies since the show started. I never really liked it, but it was sandwiched between shows I watched, and because it's 15 min it was not too obtrusive.

Here's what scares me. After all this time, I'm actually starting to "get" the show. I can't figure out whether the show has gotten better, or I've just become so accustomed to the animation and characters that they've become more entertaining. Initially, I really felt like it was something that would run for a few episodes and then die quietly in the dead of night, never to be heard from again.

At this point though, I think they're building a loyal fanbase. It might be around for awhile.

Anyone else watching this insanity??

Requiem for a Gamecube

Rest in Peace my console. I hardly knew ye.

Except for all the dusting of you I had to do when I wasn't playing a console that had games released for it.

In memoriam....

Eternal Darkness
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Bros Melee
Zelda : The Windwaker (Along with what is still my favorite preorder bonus ever)
Mario Kart Double Dash
Metroid Prime
Animal Crossing
Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles
F-Zero GX (DAMN YOU F-ZERO GX!)
Resident Evil 4 (Sure it eventually came to PS2, but GC had it exclusively for almost a year! I'm counting it, it was amazing on GC).

Oh my old friend, we had some good times. You had the first wireless controllers I ever truly loved, before that they were all 3rd party and never as good as the wired versions.

You forced me to buy the component cables DIRECT from Nintendo, the only console that has ever done such a thing, and I spent my 50 dollars and still forgave you, as I hit yes on the "Load progressive scan?" screen with a smile.

You made grown men play animal crossing with their children, girlfriends, or wives. We played it for them, but we turned it on when they weren't around to see if we had mail. And maybe go fishing.

Your cute little discs sat side by side with my conventional sized 4.7 GB discs, staring them in the face as if you were just as big as they were.

You gave us the hope of a sequel to the Wind Waker, a great game that was almost destroyed by a 5 hour sailing session at the end, leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

We hoped and prayed to have a triumphant sendoff before your final requiem. One that never came.

Farewell my Console. Perhaps Wii will meet again.

WoWmageddon!

Well, the patch day came and went.  The servers were down for about an extra 8 hours, not surprising considering the amount of stuff changed in the patch.

So right now, I'm having kind of a Eureka mini-marathon with all the repeat episodes I saved on my tivo (the first run of the season is over).  I have to say, this show definately endeared itself to me, while it's not the most intelligent or well written show, it is definitely enjoyable, and generally nice and happy ending.  

Has anyone who reads my insane ramblings been watching Heroes?? I really felt like while this season did spend 80% of it's time building up character backgrounds (a necessary evil when you're trying to flesh out SO man characters), it really gained momentum in the last few episodes, and I can't wait to see the rest of the season after the new year.

My grandparent's are celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary this week. We're going out for dinner with the whole family tonight (tex-mex) and doing the celebration thing.  59 years!  Good lord.  I can't even conceive of it.  That's twice my lifespan at this point, and they've been married that long, and still seem to be happy. Some days I don't feel like I'm going to be happy for the next 20 minutes.

So on the Eureka I'm watching, an android built by a notoriously unfeeling C.E.O. of a major corporation just died (or ceased functioning).  The C.E.O. cried for him.  It's a nice show.

Better now!

Well, I'm feeling better.  Which is awesome. First off:

There, that should be in everyone's head for a few days.  Such a catchy tune.

Moving on, today is WoWmageddon.  They're rolling out a 500MB patch to every single client.  Can you imagine?? 500MB on dial-up?? That's insanity!!

More to come later as the fallout hits.

Sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick

Being sick sucks.  Sitting around with your whole body all achy, fighting off stupid germs that want to kill you, and wishing you were well even though it means being at work instead, just blows.

 

At least i'm getting to finally test out my HD-DVD drive.  It looks awesome.  I'm pretty sure I have the flu, that's what's been going around the office.  Oh well.   At least I made it through the holidays before I got knocked out.

Thanks for the Giving!

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone.   Personally, I'm still in shock from how much food we consumed.  My family went to a nice hotel that was having a thanksgiving feast, it was excellent.   Everything you could want and a whole turkey on top of it! ;)  As well, once we were done eating, everyone just gets up, and goes home, and no one is stuck cleaning for another several hours.

The only downside I could come up with, was that it's much farther from the hotel back to the couch, than it is from the kitchen to the couch.  So that's unfortunate. (They didn't have couches set up that you could pass out on and watch football.)

I did have my first banana's foster made right in front of me though, which was excellent.  It's a relatively simple dessert, and I think the wife and I will be making them at home soon.   Yummy flambe!

 

Beyond that, I've been trying to get online to play some Halo 2 with the bro (he pulled me out of gears of war), but turns out now you have to freaking download the add-on maps, since they're in standard rotation.  So I'm about 20 min into downloading all this crap, once that's done it'll be game time. 

He really needs to get a 360, I want to play some Gears!! :)

Sooo pretty.

Ok, so I wasn't wrong preordering Gears of War.  It's so amazingly pretty.  I've played it for several hours, and every time I start the next level it's even better. 

 

However, the online multiplayer is tough.  I've done O.K., but there are a lot of people who are very good already (and the game's only been out for two days.)  Apparently either this game is amazingly well balanced, or I just can't figure out the trick. :)

I can't wait until someone I know picks it up for some online co-op.

Best Game Trailer Ever

So I just downloaded this off Xbox Live, and I had to come find a copy to share.  What an awesome choice of music.

P.S. they were very specific to say that this was all made IN-ENGINE, it is NOT CG.

Gears of War Cinema trailer

Whew!!

Almost forgot a big one!!  I get to buy TWO copies of this sucker! 

25 man raid limit will definately be different.  We've been raiding with a group called the Stormseekers lately.  Started out slow, went a little crazy and ended up raiding 5 nights a week.  It was TOO much.  Ended up just being exhausted all the time.  

So now we're just gonna be nice and relaxed, raid a couple days, take care of the rest of life in general, and all that good stuff.  Till the expansion comes out.  Then i'm sure it will be insane race to 70 time again.  

Tis the life. ;) 

Good lord!

 

Why is it every single year they do this to us?? All summer there's an extreme drought of games, and then all of a sudden it's time to be broke!

Here's what's hitting in the next 2 months that I will be picking up.

 

 - October 16th

 - October 17th - November 7th

 

- November 7th

 

 

- November 20th  - This one is just a possibly, it originally looked like it was going to be AMAZING, but now i'm going to wait for reviews.

 

 

 - November 20th.  What?  The first one was fun!  No, really!  And there's a casino!  Everyone loves casinos!  Also, A jetski game like wave race!  Oh, and I hear they're using the FULL processing power of the xbox 360...mmmmm... processing..

 

And not to mention, the MASSIVE bomb -

 - 360 HD-DVD player - November 17th

 

 - THE WII!! NOV 19th!!

 

 

 - New ZELDA!! NOV 19TH!!

 

The credit card companies are going to love me this year.  All this, and I won't have bought a single present for anyone else. 

Being a grown-up is awesome sometimes.

Dead Rising

So lately, besides World of Warcraft, my time has been completely sucked away by the game Dead Rising.  I finished the normal storyline weeks ago, but I'm completely infatuated with finishing the achievements.   I've literally sat and watched my character stand around to unlock outdoorsman "spend 24 hours outdoors".   It's insane.  I wonder if Microsoft knew what they were doing when they actually came up with achievements.   That they would be a driving force behind getting the most gameplay out of a game.

 

I picked up Lego Star Wars II this week.  I've only played through the first level, but I picked it up on the 360.   Which was 10 dollars more.  And why did I get it for that, instead of one of the other cheaper systems??  Because the wireless controllers rock, and my 360 is already hooked up to the system all the time.  And why is that a copout?? Because, I got it for the achievements!! ;)   It's like when I first started playing WoW.  I would think about playing other games, and realize "but that would be wasting time that I could better spend in WoW leveling.  It's another level to the Carrot on a Stick.  How brilliant.

A new day has dawned!

 Well, a new day of weblogging has dawned.  I have downloaded the Windows Live Writer beta.   I entered my weblog information, it downloaded the supporting files, and now i'm updating from an application.  I continously find excuses to not login to the website and update my blog, hopefully updating directly from this application will force me to do more updating.