Such an enjoyable lifestyle

A couple of months ago on his blog, Wil Wheaton mentioned something that really got my attention: being a geek is fantastic.  We get the coolest shirts, some of the best narrative experiences (geek-leaning books, games, etc.), and some of the most diverse folks around.

This got me thinking…it seems that our culture comes in waves.  The summer has been pretty much devoid of any fun gaming material.  Yes, there have been some amazing movies that have been released, but there haven’t been any gaming releases that I’ve been excited about.  There has been such a dearth of new games that I actually started to question the point of gaming.  Last winter was the winter of Mass Effect for me.  Yes, Mass Effect has its problems, but the act of playing through Mass Effect twice, back to back, likely ranks among my favourite gaming experiences of my entire life.   Will I ever get a chance to have more?  Would there ever be another game that got to join the exclusive ranks in my mind as not just being memorable, but legendary?  I actually got slightly depressed about this.  It worried me that I might be losing the first love of my life: gaming.

Overall, the summer was actually somewhat entertaining from a gaming perspective.  I’ve been investing a fair amount of time into playing my PSP.  I had a decent time playing Chains of Olympus (even though I beat it on Hard Mode in only 6 hours, it reminded me why God of War is one of my favourite series.)  I played through Loco Roco, flOw, Killzone Liberation (which was fantastic) and a few others.  I’m still in the middle of Final Fantasy Tactics; My save game has just under 20 hours logged, and I’m somewhere in the third act.  I’m also going through Lost Planet for the first time on my 360, and Assassin’s Creed waits for my first go at it as well.  Still, even with these games providing me new experiences (since I never played through them when they were new), I couldn’t help but feel…bored. I took it upon myself to check out wikipedia’s game release schedule, and suddenly I was re-energized.

The next few months are going to be INSANE.  In fact, I daresay that the remaining four months of 2008 just might be the most exciting four months in gaming history.  We have Spore, Fable 2, and Fallout 3, amongst a TON of other super exciting stuff.  Games that we have been looking forward to for literally years are almost upon us…and they will be descending upon us within a very short period of time.

Think about it.  Spore is going to be released in a matter of a couple of weeks.  WEEKS.  This is madness (and Sparta!)…I mean, we all knew that Spore was going to eventually come out…but to actually know that it is so close is crazy.  Same thing for Fallout 3.  Fallout 2 feels like it came out an eternity ago.  You bet your ass I’m going to be taking the tin Fallout 3 lunchbox from the Special Edition to work.  And finally, after a long long wait, Fable II will be unleashed upon the masses.  Fable II looks to provide everything that Fable I should have been. 

While Spore, Fallout 3, and Fable II represent the games I am most excited about, there are plenty of others.  Gears of War 2, Legendary, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Infinite Undiscovery, Warhammer: Battle March, Pure, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Just Cause 2, Guilty Gear 2, Rise of the Argonauts, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Rock Band 2, Fracture, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, Sacred 2, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, Last Remnant, Left 4 Dead, Brutal Legend (god willing), Velvet Assassin, Damnation, and Borderlands. 

Early 2009 sees Afro Samurai and Resident Evil 5.

One thing is for sure: this is going to be one hell of a fun winter.

My life for the Horde

My buddy Mike came over for my birthday this past Friday, and came up with a suggestion completely out of nowhere: “Hey.  Lets play Warcraft III!”  First off, back when Warcraft III came out, Mike and our friend Nik completely pwned the ladders.  I don’t know about Nik’s gaming history, but I knew that Mike had played a LOT of RTS back in the day.  Because of this, it would make sense that he was itching to load it up again.

The other thing you need to consider is that I absolutely LOVE RTS games.  I have a very strategic mind, and can usually outsmart my opponent quite easily…however, I lack the micro ability to actually be effective at playing an RTS.  Still, I thought what the hell, we’ll load it up.

Boy how times have changed.  We’ve only played a few games, and I’ve only put a few hours into it on my own, but my micro has definitely increased over the years.  Maybe it got a short boost from playing Ninja Gaiden Black recently, maybe I’ve just gotten better…but for some reason, I’m able to dart around on the screen much quicker, and I’m getting a fairly solid build order ironed out for Orcs and the Nelfs. 

I had forgotten how much I enjoy RTS, and I’m able to enjoy it even more now that I have some decent control abilities.  I think if my control abilities were able to catch up with my strategic abilities, combined with Mike’s abilities…we could be a force to be reckoned with on Battle.net. 

Even after years, Warcraft III still has decent graphics, good mechanics, and easy controls.  Damn I love Blizzard.

Wonderful! Betta zen Mama…

For the past couple of weeks, Brittnie has been binging on Cooking Mama on the Wii.  While it’s not really my style of game, I’m still very happy that she has a modern video game that she can really sink her teeth into.  She has taken it slightly beyond just gaming, and is attempting to get gold medals on every recipe.  The last (and to my knowledge, first) 7th-gen game she approached with this kind of fervor with was Viva Pinata.

I tend to get very immersed in any game I’m playing…I do my absolute best to achieve as much as possible, to see as much as possible, and to get as good at possible at any game that I spend time with.  I’m glad to see that she has chosen one that doesn’t just require trial and error, but consistency as well.  I’m REALLY looking forward to Okami coming out for the Wii, I know she is gonna go apeshit over it.

The moral of this post is this: you may not always personally enjoy the video games that your partner really gets into, but so what.  Just be glad that they have found a game that they want to devote some time to.  Seeing Brittnie put so much effort into something like Cooking Mama has me thinking of other things she could equally get into…Oblivion, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Fable 2 (supposedly gonna have some INSANE co-op), and some other modern games. 

Hell, despite my complete lack of rythmic ability, I might even pick up Rock Band one of these days…

Pleasant surprises

Last night, I was awoken around 3AM.  My eyes slowly opened, and I had the standard “gzawahhuh?” kind of feeling you get when woken up.

Peering down on me was Brittnie’s beautiful smile.   She gently put her hand on my cheek and whispered “Hi Angel.  We’re back.”  I was barely able to keep conscious because I was so tired, but I haven’t been that happy in a very long time.  I’m not sure when she finally came to bed, but I do know that I wrapped my arms around her tight. 

You know that saying “you don’t know how much you miss something until it’s gone”?  I have a better one. 

“You don’t know how much you miss something until it returns.”

Doomsday, and another evening of randomness

Our friend Rob sent me a text today, asking if I wanted to see a movie.  Seeing as how Brittnie is away until tomorrow, I figured I should go see something that I know she likely would not want to see.  We ended up going to see Doomsday.  He came by shortly after 7 PM, played a few rounds of Wii Bowling, then headed off.  I’ll write up my review of it tomorrow, but definitely make some time to see it; awesome, awesome movie.

I was glad Rob hit me up.  I wasn’t really looking forward to another lonely night.  Definitely good to hang out with someone, and the Kuney is quite the character.  Overall, an entertaining evening.   He left about ten minutes or so ago.  I’m likely just going to fold the laundry while watching Black Adder III, then will prolly put on Eastern Promises.  So good.

It’s strange.  I turn 24 next week.  I find myself feeling a little bit like an adult, acting a bit like an adult, seeing the world like an adult…and yet, ensuring that I maintain a feeling of childhood.  When I sit down to play a video game, be it by myself or with others, I feel like I’m ten years old all over again.  I think that’s one of the reasons why I like gaming so much; it allows me to harmlessly still feel like a kid while avoiding the denial and bad thoughts that go with being an adult who feels like a child.  These are strange times for me…my thoughts are a bit cloudy.  I find the days slipping away much faster than they used to, and I sometimes catch myself talking about things only adults talk about.  At almost 24, I know that technically I’m an adult…but it feels kind of good to be getting older.  Much as I enjoyed my teenage years (despite some crazy stuff that went down), I’m kind of looking forward to getting older.  I aspire to be the wise older guy that can still identify with younger folks, primarily because I still feel like one.  Not changing my interests, sticking to the things that I have always been interested my whole life.  It enables me to not lose my identity, to retain who I have always been.

Interesting.  I just described Rob.

The complete SNES Playlist

In continuing with documenting every game I have ever played, I just completed my SNES list.  They are in alphabetical order because I used Wikipedia’s list of SNES games to go by.  I couldn’t remember them all off the top of my head, but seeing a massive alphebetized list, I could remember if I had played it or not.  About 2/3 of these were played on actual SNES hardware with the real cartridge.  I only own about 25 or so SNES games, so most of these were rented or borrowed from friends.  The Olney Video Store got plenty of money out of me from game rentals, that’s for damn sure.  Next to some of the games, I have little comments as well.  Also, I can’t remember if I beat these or not, though I’m quite sure I beat more of them than the NES games.  My SNES is still hooked up and fully functional.  Unfortunately I had to put down my SN ProPad that I used for years just a short few months ago, as the left trigger and the X button don’t work properly.  Both of my original SNES controllers are still fully functional, tight, and clean however.

And now, it is with great pleasure, that I present to you the list of all 118 SNES games that I have ever played:

_________________________________________________________

AAAHH!!! Real Monsters
ActRaiser
ActRaiser 2
The Addams Family
Aero the Acro-Bat
Al Unser Jr.’s Road to the Top
Alladin (One of the best platformers ever)
Alien3
Animaniacs (Also an amazing platformer)
Arcana (AMAZING card-based dungeon crawler)
Axelay (Mode 7 graphics at their best)
Bass Masters Classic
Batman Forever
Battletoads & Double Dragon (I actually preferred the look of the NES version)
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (HELL YEA)
Beavis and Butt-Head (The night we rented this, my bro and I ate 5 Cadburry Creameggs each)
Blackthorne
Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure (Hard as hell, but super fun)
Breath of Fire (SUPER classic RPG)
Breath of Fire II
Brett Hull Hockey ‘95 (One of my fave hockey games)
Bubsy in: CLaws Encounters of the Furred Kind
Bugs Bunny in Rabbit Rampage
Castlevania: Dracula X (Fantastic)
Chuck Rock
ClayFighter (Revolutionary game for graphics and art direction)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (Damn near impossible)
Cybernator (Metal Warriors was vastly superior)
Darius Twin
Demon’s Crest
Dirt Trax FX (Rented this one more than 10 times…shoulda just bought it)
Donky Kong Country (I STILL HAVE THE NINTENDO POWER LIMITED BEHIND THE SCENES VHS TAPE!)
Donky Kon Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Doom (Horrible port)
E.V.O.: Search for Eden (One of my favourites, slightly unknown)
EarthBound (One of the funniest RPG’s ever…Come on Nintendo, bring Mother 3 to the USA!)
Earthworm Jim (Best animations on the SNES)
Earthworm Jim 2
Equinox
F-Zero (Who HASN’T played this one?)
Faceball 2000
Family Dog (Slightly unknown and definitely underappreciated)
Final Fantasy IV (AKA Final Fantasy II in the US)
Final Fantasy VI (AKA Final Fantasy III in the US.  Best Final Fantasy game ever.  Epic.)
Final Fight 1-3
Goof Troop
Gradius III (Awesome)
Harvest Moon
Illusion of Gaia (One of the few games that has ever brought me to tears)
Judge Dredd (Another fantastic platformer…this seemed to be the SNES’s strength)
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (MANY hours spent with my brother on this one)
Killer Instinct (Nothing needs to be said about this one.)
King of Dragons (Hell yeah!)
King of the Monsters
Kirby Super Star
Kirby’s Dream Land 3
Knights of the Round (Awesome)
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Hands-down best Zelda game ever released.)
Lemmings
Lethal Enforcers (A waste of time…arcade version WAY better thanks to the lightgun)
The Lion King (Very similar to Alladin, great platformer)
The Lost Vikings (Blizzard is made of win)
Madden NFL ‘95
The Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse (Groundbreaking graphics for the SNES)
Mario Paint (MANY hours spent with this one and my friend Brandon)
MechWarrior (Fairly decent port, all things considered)
Mega Man X (HELL YEAH)
Metal Warriors (One of my all-time fave…WAY better than Cybernator)
NBA Jam (MANY hours spent with my brother on this one too.  Unlimited Turbo ftw)
NFL Quaterback Club (I rocked the contests)
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (Proof that Strategy games could be done on a console)
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (Very weird game)
Pilotwings
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (SUPER hard)
Pit-Fighter (Inferior to the arcade game, naturally.)
Primal Rage (Lotta time spent with my brother and two sisters on this one)
Raiden (AKA Raiden Trad.  Awesome frantic shooter)
Revolution X (Worthless.  Arcade version was vastly superior)
Rock N’ Roll Racing
Rocko’s Modern Life: Spunky’s Dangerous Day
Secret of Evermore (One of the best games of all time)
Secret of Mana (AKA Seiken Densetsu 2.  GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME, HANDS DOWN)
Shadowrun (Excellent port of the analogue RPG)
Super Smash TV
Sonic Blast Man
Sparkster
Spawn
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (HARD AS HELL!  Red Cartridge ftw)
Star Fox (Mastered this one in its entirety)
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter II Turbo (HUGE number of hours with my brother)
Stunt Race FX (Fantastic)
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG (Who knew the Mario universe would make such a good RPG?)
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (didn’t play much of this one, but it was awesome)
Super Metroid (Best sidescrolling Metroid, hands down.)
Super Off Road (More fun in the arcade, but an excellent port nontheless)
Super Off Road: The Baja (My fave racing game for years)
Super Punch Out!!
Super R-Type
Super Star Wars
Taz-Mania
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Best TMNT beat-em-up ever)
The Tick
Tin Star
Top Gear
True Lies (One of the better top-down games ever)
Turn and Burn: No-Fly Zone (For years, my favourite flight sim)
Uniracers
Weaponlord
Wolfenstein 3D (semi-ok port…heavily censored, however)
Wolvorine: Adamantium Rage (Hard as crap)
Yoshi’s Cookie
Young Merlin
Zombies Ate my Neighbors (Some of the best co-op of all time)

The complete NES Playlist

As stated in a previous post, I am putting together lists of every game I have ever played.  I just completed my NES list.  They are in alphabetical order because I used Wikipedia’s list of NES games to go by.  I couldn’t remember them all off the top of my head, but seeing a massive alphebetized list, I could remember if I had played it or not.  Only a couple of these were played recently on emulators… most of them I went through during my childhood with the actual cartridge and NES hardware.  The Olney Video Store got plenty of money out of me from game rentals, that’s for damn sure.  Next to some of the games, I have little comments as well.  Also, I can’t remember if I beat these or not, though I’m quite sure I beat less than half of them.

And now, it is with great pleasure, that I present to you the list of all 112 NES games that I have ever played:

___________________________________________________________
3-D WorldRunner (AWESOME)
720 Degrees
The Addams Family
AD&D: Hillsfar
Adventure Island
The Adventures of Bayou Billy (GREATLY underappreciated)
The Adventures of Lolo (One of the best puzzle games EVAH)
The Adventures of Lolo 2
After Burner
American Gladiators
Arch Rivals
Arkanoid
Bad Dudes
Balloon Fight
Base Wars (Robots + Baseball + Weapons = Made of Win)
Baseball
Bases Loaded
Batman Returns
Battle Chess
Battletoads
Battletoads and Double Dragon
Bionic Commando
Blades of Steel
Blaster Master
Bomberman
Bonk’s Adventure
A Boy and his Blob
Bubble Bobble (Brittnie’s Favourite)
Burger Time
Caesar’s Palace
California Games (I loved making the frisbee go above the screen)
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers (This was the first game I ever beat with no help)
Commando
Contra (Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start)
Deadly Towers (Much to my embaressment, I actually owned this one)
Dick Tracy
Donky Kong
Double Dragon
Double Dribble (Double Dibble!)
Dr. Mario
Dragon Warrior
Dragon’s Lair (Most frustrating jumping since Prince of Persia)
Duck Hunt
DuckTales
Elevator Action
Excitebike
Faxanadu (One of my favourites of all time, quite unknown)
Fester’s Quest
Final Fantasy
Fun House (Another one of my favourites, also quite unknown)
Galaga
Gauntlet (WIZARD NEEDS FOOD…BADLY!)
Ghosts ‘n Goblins (Impossible game)
Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
Gradius
Gyruss
Ice Climber
Ice Hockey (I loved the fat guys)
Ikari Warriors
Jaws (Rented it once…loved it)
Joust
Kid Icarus
Kirby’s Adventure
Kung Fu (My brother was the master at this)
The Legend of Zelda
Lemmings (Completely sucked at it, but fun times)
The Little Mermaid (Don’t laugh, this game was fun as hell)
Little Nemo: The Dream Master (One of the best ever)
Lode Runner
Marble Madness
Mario Bros.
Master Blaster
Megaman 1-6 (Megaman 3 was my personal favourite)
Metal Gear
Metroid (Justin Bailey!)
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (None of that Mr. Dream crap, we had the real thing)
Milon’s Secret Castle
Monster in my Pocket
NARC (last boss is hard as hell)
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
Paperboy
Pinball
Pro Wrestling
Q*Bert (I ruled at this one)
Rad Racer
Rampage (My brother and I beat this in one 6-hour nonstop session)
River City Ransom (This was played a few years ago with my friend Mike)
Rygar
Skate or Die!
Skate or Die 2 (One of the absolute greatest ever)
Smash T.V. (VASTLY superior on SNES)
Spy Hunter
StarTropics
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (Your Princess is in another castle/stupid dog)
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Taboo: The Sixth Sense (We didn’t know what to do with this one)
Tecmo Bowl
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Hard as hell)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Tennis
Tetris
Track & Field
Volleyball
Wizards & Warriors (A true classic, and suprisingly somewhat unknown)
Wolverine
Yoshi (Brittnie’s other favourite)
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Empty beds are lonely

So Brittnie and her friend Emily went to visit some friends down in VA for a couple of days.  Last night was the first night since she moved in that we have slept in separate beds.  After sleeping next to someone every single night for months, you don’t realize how used to it you are until they aren’t there.  I stayed up until 3 AM, primarily because I didn’t want to lay down by myself.  I played a bit of Fight Night Round 3, watched some Future Weapons vids on YouTube, and watched Boondock Saints. 

As I was laying there alone in bed for the first time in months, I realized just how much Brittnie means to me.  She doesn’t just tolerate my geeky obsessions, she shares them.  My whole life, I’ve had relationships where the other person I was with merely tolerated them (or, in a couple of cases, hated them.)   I feel that with Brittnie I am able to behave the closest to how I am when I’m by myself.  I didn’t realize how important that was until she moved in. 

Tonight, I will likely finish off Prey, or possibly go over to my buddy Mike’s house for some Smash Bros. Brawl goodness.  While I enjoy having a couple nights to myself in which I can do whatever I want for however long I want, I cannot wait until my bed is no longer empty.

Have a good time, darlin’.  Can’t wait for you to get home:-)

Priorities

As I previously mentioned, I had been on the lookout for a copy of the old MiltonBradley game HeroQuest.  Expensive upon its release, the price has gone up even moreso since the game has been out of print for years.  There are, of course, eBay auctions all over the place for HeroQuest, but most of them are incomplete or damaged.

I have found a gold mine.

This afternoon, at 4:53 PM, I won an auction for a copy of the game.  The auction went for a total of $75, including shipping.  I had originally planned on buying Dark Sector today, but…well…this took priority.  I have been excited about Dark Sector for over a year now…but this auction was for a copy of HeroQuest that was unpunched, unplayed, with the dice still sealed in their plastic baggy.

You read that correctly.  All the miniatures, doorways, EVERYTHING.  Still attached, unpunched.  I knew that when I saw this auction, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Dark Sector, you will be around for a while…this game was destined to belong to me.  And so begins the making of quests, characters, weapons, and fun

HeroQuest and a gaming log

I have recently begun searching for a copy of the board game HeroQuest.  My friend Brandon and I used to play this game for hours on end, some of the games spanning multiple days.  It’s essentially D&D, but with figurines and a board.  It also has doorways, chests, stairs, etc.  The best part of the whole thing though is that it is COMPLETELY customizable.  You can certainly use the included weapons and quests, but you can make your own if you wish.  Using D&D item lists and Monster Books are also popular ways to play it.  There are also a few programs online that allow you to make your own maps, items, enemies, and quests…if I remember correctly, there is also a program which you can use to play a game of it on your computer.  This can be useful as a DM in keeping track of everything that is happening.  It’s actually quite easy to find on eBay…it’s finding one that is in good shape and doesn’t have anything missing that is the trick.  I have bids on a few different auctions right now, here’s to hoping I actually get one.  While back in my D&D days I wasn’t a fantastic DM, my imagination and creativity has improved since then.  I’m conjuring up all kinds of crazy stuff.

In other news, Brittnie and I have started a gaming log.  Over the next few days, I’m going to be going through all of the major consoles on wikipedia, seeing which games that are listed I have played (I couldn’t possibly remember them all off the top of my head, but by reading a list I will know if I ever played it or not)  The final goal is to create a list of every video game I have ever played.  I think the PC list is going to be the hardest…once I have the list finished, I will upload it onto the website.