Way back in 2004 I had to pass on playing Half-Life 2 on the PC. Not only was my PC woefully inadequate to meet the minimum requirements, but also I had other things more pressing. Badger played the heck out of the game and continued to rave about how awesome the game is. This week I got to play it. Now I'm a believer. The game was so compelling I had to play with the sound on. I'm sure my neighbors were nonplussed. My wife certainly balked at the abundance of gun fire and the too-frequent use of profanity. Despite being predictable, the story was pretty awesome. The gameplay, however, has been king.

Orange Box has helped me forget all about those pesky 5-point achievements I am missing in Halo 3. For me that is huge.

I don't think I can begin to describe the awesomeness of the concepts featured at the London Games Festival's Dorkfest event. I read GameSpot's coverage this morning and immediately fell into a rabbit hole. The article covers a few radical ideas that have been self-developed and implemented. Regardless of what you think of knee-high boots, using them as controllers for a game of Pong is rather unconventional.

When I read about Mobility Masterc|ass (design to the left), I immediately thought of one of my aging cohorts at school. I showed him the game design. He not only foud it uproariously humorous, but we agreed it was an impressive aging simulation. While obvious comparisons to Frogger can be drawn, the challenge of a walker-wielding member of society trying to cross a busy road is something all of us can understand.

Is it politically correct? Probably not, but the homespun idea and garage-created execution make it an endearing proposition. The creator, Tim Hunkin, seems to have a collection of great concepts in a penny arcade entitled The Under the Pier Show. Having perused the site, it is more than a showcase of Frankenstein's monsters, but an interactive showcase of prospects for redefining the arcade scene.

The show seems to represent a shift backward to arcades. The executions appear to be as mechanical as video. The designs reminds me of some low-scale arcades and pier/fair experiences. Hunkin's machines take users back to core experiences with either an immersive set-up or a preposterous slant. Watching a Jane Fonda workout while in a moving bed, hearkens back to moments of Barbarella but with even more oddity injected into it. These are high-concept low fidelity innovations on the game formula. The machines also mirror a lot of Warioware experiences.

Granted this entry is mostly an ode to arcade oddities and a momentary reflection of experiences half a world away. That said, Will Jackson's Brainwash would be a great primer for a Heroes game. How many powers can you get for Sylar?

Today I hope to have my first opportunity to watch On the Spot live from the video production booth. I'm going to be up at CNET HQ for some other meetings, but given the opportunity, my hopes are high. While I have seen live shows taped before an audience before, I am excited. The only thing more exciting is the reason that brings me to the CNET building in the first place!

. . . More news on that later, maybe.

The one drawback is that I will be unable to take my place in the Room 0 chat today. Hopefully Dave, Rawr, Sid, edu, kevb, T-Bo, and the rest of the regular gang will hold down the fort in my absence.

Last night my old school chums jumped online and we hit the campaign hard. This morning Edu, Peldon and I rolled three-deep through the last two levels of Halo 3. Peldon demonstrated some truly Legendary driving during the final sequence. After an accumulation of 250 points, my total score stands at a reflective 42224.

Mmmm, palindromes.

I was very excited to play through the single player campaign on Legendary difficulty with some old college friends. Unfortunately, work/game balances have not been synchronized. With travel schedules, differing commitment levels, and signficant others looking for that precious personal time, we haven't really done well getting through the fourth mission.

At this point, the single-player campaign is wearing on me. While I have at least some interest, I am going to go head's down this weekend to finish off the campaign coo-op on Legendary. If you want to join me, let me know. I'll probably be kicking it off with mission 4 somewhere around 9 am (pacific) Saturday morning. When I am done . . . I'm done. The 250 achievement points should get my completion percentage out of the doldrums. . . and I guess I could scoop up five more online wins to get that Officer achievement.

PS: Blog post 545.

Last night was the grand finale of the one-month free subscription to Netflix. My wife scored a free trial and we milked that for all the movies we could possibly watch. The final movie we watched was The Magnificent Seven.

Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and Yul Brenner not only made the movie a star-studded delight to watch, but an interesting take on Kurusawa's Seven Samurai. I can't remember ever seeing The Magnificent Seven, but I am glad to say I have. While I didn't relly know they made a handful of sequels, not including the TV series, I can see why they would. It was a magnificent piece of American cinema. I find it fitting that the movie to be the last great hurrah for Hollywood Westerns was the last movie we watched during our trial.

If you like Westerns, you owe it to yourself to watch the Magnificent Seven.

By unlocking another achievement in Halo 3, I have returned to a beautiful score: 41,814

I've written about my palindrome fixation before, but whenever the score lines up, I remember just how exciting it is to have those numbers line up. It is almost too perfect to change.

Over two weeks, two major titles have been announced to make an appearance in new incarnations:

Bionic Commando

The Princess Bride

Both of these intellectual properties were around or were in development 20 years ago. I have been hoping for a new Bionic Commando game since I played the amazing arcade game years ago. The NES version was superb, but the depth, challenge, and timeliness of the original property will certainly cast a long shadow on any update. Renaming the main character, renaming the enemies, and carrying over c|assic characters is a sound way to update the franchise. Personally, I would have thought Radd would be an ideal name in 2007/2008, but whatever. Bravo to Capcom for being willing to make another Capcom game. I'm not sure how the political intrigue of bionic vs. non-bionic people will factor in, but all prejudices aside, I am interested in seeing the game. Hopefully it will be fun to play.

The great beauty of Rob Reiner's 1987 movie was the timeless aspect. It had an all-star cast and a perfect role for Andre the Giant. The movie had a sublime charm and a happy ending. Along the way we are able to meet six-fingered father killers, Sicilian scoundrels, revenge-seeking Spainiards, contemptuous aristocracy, and a little boy who would rather eschew kissing. All of the charm is arguably tied up in the flow of the film. Translating that to a game would not only prove difficult, but arguably impossible. That said, if the developers borrowed from the movie, i'm sure fantastic screeching eel minigames, RoUS burning gameplay, and left-handed fencing achievements would emerge. Honestly, the action and adventure within the story hold a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the awareness of the movie most game players have is arguably low. This is a game that should have come out no less than 17 years ago, not during Q1 2008 when some of the most anticipated AAA titles are slated to emerge. It is a movie tie-in. Unless there is some massive Princess Bride resurgence I am not seeing over the horizon, the game will have to be on par with Burnout Paradise, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, and many other high-profile titles. . . but that is only if the digitally distributed title is after the same game-playing consumers.

I could be making assumptions about the casual game player or the legion of untapped female players. Both might respond to a digitally distributed Princess Bride game on the PC. It could end up being the hot game of '08 and pave the way for other titles like Into the Woods: the Musical Game of Giant Slaying, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, or (my personal favorite) Xanadu:Bring All of Your Dreams Alive.

I am happy to report I have finished the fight. All 1,000 gamerscore has been harvested from Call of Duty 2. I can see why the game was such a hit when the 360 launched. I can't imagine playing it any more though. Having played it one time (and one time only) on Veteran difficulty, I have little desire to repeat the process. During multiple segments of that game I wondered if I'd ever make it to the end. If it hadn't been for friends who had successfully done it before, I may have lost the will to go on.

As it stands, I have probably done everything required for the Special Operations achievement (in Vegas) 4-5 times over. As yet, the achievement is still not unlocking. I've been scouring the Internet to find a suitable answer to my dilemma, but it seems no one answer is available. A lot of people seem to be having problems unlocking it, or it unlocks too soon. The fact that I have satisfied the requirements many times over is making me resent an otherwise exceptional game more and more. Special Operations is a scant 50 points, but it represents many nights of round-after-round playing and it is one of the last three achievements yet to be unlocked. Hopefully the achievement will unlock serendipitously one of these days. While I am not holding my breath, I have said more than one silent prayer in the midst of my bouts of frustration. That should count for something.

If nothing else, CoD2 and Vegas have helped me see the level of commitment I have to the things I want.

I'm not sure how many people are still tuning in to Heroes, but after sitting in the Comicon Heroes panel, I'd say at least 10,000 people are watching. I don't really want to disparage new characters, but so far none of them have been sufficiently compelling to get my wife watching again. She has a cursory interest in major plot points, but past that: nothing. At this point, I am watching episodes just to see if it will go anywhere interesting.

Maya and her brother are certainly making a go at getting to America. Thus far, their plight is clear but not interesting. The characters, despite encountering the same dilemma each episode, don't seem to be developing. We already know about the black tears and the desire to find a cure. Just because we are watching them get closer to the Mexican/American border doesn't mean we are along for the ride. I respect the interest other viewers may have in the wonder twins, I just wouldn't cry if we dropped their storyline altogether and got more Haitian, more Nathan Petrelli, more Hana Gitelman, or more of the FBI agent Parkman was paired with.

Heroes: Season 1 proved the writers are not afraid to terminate major characters. The first three episodes of this season are bringing back the body count. The revelations of the last few minutes in this week's episode are hinting no character is safe from meeting an ominous end. If the framework from season 1--artistic foreshadowing of a final episode's events--is strengthened and carried over for future seasons, I may stay on board. However, I don't watch just to see who will be the next character to land in a body bag. During the last season, I wondered about the sustainability for a series that removes supporting characters every episode. The latest turn of events for Sylar actually makes him interesting to me again, but his realization came at the expense of a character that arguably had more potential than some of the main characters.

I'm not sure flinging the cast to the ends of the earth is the way to bring viewers together. I respect the producers' collective obligation to create a global show with a diverse cast in diverse places. Maya and Alejandro are representative of that. The Nakamuras, Peter's new life, and Mohinder's recent globetrotting are arguably supposed to help viewers of differing ethnicities, nationalities, and perhaps social moores stay on board the show. I respect that. However, some of the coverage could really be saved for the Origins episodes.

While bringing the heroes together may create a team within a show that has--thus far--focused on individual lives, I don't think having a team combat evil eclipses the individual development of the component characters. Seeing Parkman, Mohinder, and Bennett work together is not only a step in the right direction, but also a collaboration of naturally complementary motivations. At the end of Season 1 DL was alive. Out of the entire Sanders family DL was the character who actually seemed to develop. I can't fault a child for not growing up, but really what does Micah add to the show? Extra cash from ATMs?

Are you still watching?

if you are, what do you think would improve Heroes?