Killing terrorists with a smile on my face.

Posted on March 27, 2008

I’ve been having a swell time tearing through the new Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 maps over the past few evenings with my online Xbox buddies. I love cranking up the sound on the HD and then having to shout over it, relaying enemy positions to my teammates. But the real icing on the cake is when I go to reload my submachine gun. I just have to laugh when I see my photo realistic avatar (thanks to the Xbox Live Vision cam) staring back at me as I swap out magazines.

I never posted a shot of my previous Rainbow character, so I made sure to snap this one while I was dodging enemy fire last night. What I really wish I had a shot of is Hasser’s custom avatar, which is positively FRIGHTENING. I’m not afraid of Al Qaeda, avian flu, or super-AIDS - but Hasser’s screen face has got a me a little freaked out.

My child wants to learn murder.

Posted on December 22, 2007

While out shopping in the next few days, and you find yourself in a video game store like Gamestop, here’s a fun thing thing to work into the conversation if one of the employees come over to help you. The clerk says, “You finding everything you need?” and then I like to reply with (in a completely unassuming tone), “Yeah, um…my son is seven years-old and he wants me to get him an Xbox game.” At that point they either ask you, “Which game?” or you just casually say, “It’s..um…Manhunt 2.”

For those of you not up on the video game news, Manhunt 2 is supposedly the most brutally violent game out right now (or least it’s the one that the conservative anti-fun crusaders are whining the most about), so the game store clerks should’ve been warned to not sell it to kids and stupid parents. The guy will either find the game for you, or sorta get freaked out and not know how to handle the situation. Either way, it’s been something that has brought me much joy over the past few trips to the mall.

Another case of the crud.

Posted on December 12, 2007

I’ve been kinda sick lately, which has unfortunately has helped my productivity drop-off quite a bit, but it’s good news for my video game characters in Mass Effect, as I’ve been slouching about with a game controller in hand. Last night I had some beers with dinner, followed by some Tylenol PMs, and about 13 hours of sleep. Today I’m feeling like much better, and ready to get back to bloggin’.

Here’s a screen capture of me, showing off my WiFi Detector T-Shirt at the GSATC “GadgetFest” meeting on Wednesday.

My presentation went well, and I pretty much just talked about how dorky it felt to be standing around in front of a hundred people wearing a tight, glowing electronic shirt that sniffs out wireless signals.

Random: If you write a blog post a with Hannah Montana in the subject line, you may get a trillion hits, sending your spam filer will work overtime. My inbox keeps getting daily Wordpress notifications about random links and spam comments from that damn Hannah Montana post. Although, hopefully writing about it won’t make the problem worse.

In space no one can hear you scream (for cheats)…

Posted on November 25, 2007

For the most part I can tear through most video games without the use of a strategy guide. But for the large, open-ended roleplaying games (like the newly-released Mass Effect), I like to have ‘em handy so that I don’t go out of my mind second-guessing myself over all the seemingly miniscule decisions I make along the way. And as it just so happens, my pals Bryan and Steve actually wrote the Mass Effect strategy guide (something I overlooked when purchasing the book), so my thanks goes out to them over this holiday weekend for giving me several key suggestions for forming my badass space crew - although now I can’t read the book without hearing Bryan’s voice in my head.

Two random things I’m obsessed with this week:

Posted on October 21, 2007

Portal - It was packaged as an added value to The Orange Box for Xbox 360, but ends up stealing the show. You play the game as a human lab rat, making your way through deadly mazes armed with a gun that shoots only teleportation portals. Thanks to YouTube, some of the more difficult (and insane) levels now have visual strategy guides. Folks who don’t have a game system can play a really sweet, side scrolling flash version of the game. Can’t get enough portal.

Dexter - I finished reading the third Dexter book last week. It was good, but it definitely wasn’t as strong as the other two novels - maybe it was too different. The cable show is still going strong, but I can’t bear to watch it in anything other than HD.

Move over, Arbiter! There’s a new sidekick in town.

Posted on October 15, 2007

I don’t want to share any spoilers or anything, but here’s a screenshot from the upcoming Halo 4 game. This time the Master Chief teams up with a plucky comic sidekick to take down an Asian Triad gang and save a kidnapped child. I’ll be honest, much of the story has been copied from the Rush Hour movie franchise.

Anyway, when I saw that the Chief was on display in Vegas I was thrilled, but kept my geekiness in check until the right moment. And as soon as we got close enough to the Venetian I suddenly went, “Hold on, everybody! I have to do something” and ran off to get my photo. Also, the Chief was really nice in person, but that Cortana was a real bitch.

Side story: The movie studio folks are pointing fingers at Halo 3 as the reason the new Ben Stiller movie tanked at the box office. [insert crybaby sound efx here]

This is what I look like in Halo 3…

Posted on October 1, 2007

Getting my head blasted open, over and over again. But that’s what happens when you run around in multiplayer deathmatch arenas with twitchy tweens.

I’m much better in the campaign part of the game, where I single-handedly save the universe (rather than the multiplayer arenas where I single-handedly get my team slaughtered). Also, computer people are a lot nicer when they’re not real, the real-life deathmatch kids are evil. I’ve been called a lot of stuff recently. The “n word”. The “c word”. But I’ve also been called the “f word” - which was nice. That word being: friend.

And since I’ve started unintentionally writing a Halo 3 review , I’d like to mention that my favorite part about the whole Halo 3 experience is the in-game theatre. It’s a brilliant feature that allows folks to watch virtual highlight reels of any portion of the game they play, and then view the experience from every angle imaginable. From there you can send video clips and screenshots to your pals online. Not only did they put an awesome game in the hands of their fans, but also handed over the tools enabling them to help market the game. Brilliant.

On the topic of Xbox and what not.

Posted on September 23, 2007

It’s been a while since I posted anything, so here’s this week’s vodcast (it’s sorta timely since Microsoft is working overtime to get broken Xbox’s into hands of Halo fans this week):

Man, I hope that my Xbox 360 never dies, or at least hangs on until the next one comes out in three years. On a related note: I find myself getting really excited for Halo 3, as I’ve come to realize that I’m often prone to falling for marketing hype. I didn’t get all crazy about Halo 2, but I think that it’s because Everquest 2 came out the same day. Whatever. I’m ready to get into some Master Chief action this week - however, I’m not waiting in line all night to get the game.

Sadly, this was the highlight of my weekend.

Posted on September 16, 2007

Every time I get into a conversation about the Xbox lately, Halo 3 always seems to come up. I eventually mention that I hadn’t preordered the game yet, and then the person I’m talking to - like clockwork - has a faux freak out, “Oh man! You didn’t order it yet?!.” I feel guilty for a fraction of a second and then remember how I saw a billion copies of Halo 2 days for days after the release. But after the fifteen, “I was smart and ordered my copy of Halo months ago” I decided to just play it safe and put down a deposit.

I decided to go with Best Buy over the dork shop in the mall for my preorder, as I would rather be clunked over the back of the head with a shovel than ever order something at Gamestop. Anyway, I walked out of the store, clutching my preorder box with a feeling of accomplishment, moments later I felt kinda let down, seeing that the box is empty and the game doesn’t come out for nine more days.

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