I keep reading all of these reviews hyping the online co-op and multiplayer components, but I can't help thinking that there are SO many better games out there for these things.

The campaign is dull: not enough stealth to be as fun as a Splinter Cell, not enough action to be a shooter, a bland and unengaging storyline and setting...

The only things that I liked about the game are the soundtrack, the hot protagonist (I have a thing for red-heads), the cover system (it was pre-Gears of War) and the door-hacking mini-game. Unfortunately, that's not enough to keep me interested.

So, as per my New Year's Resolution, into Gamestop I go with this, GRAW, and Rayman's Ravin Rabbids. I'll probably either pick up Condemned 2, GRAW 2, or Resident Evil 2 for the Gamecube (which I can play on the Wii).

Holy crap.

That phrase best summarizes my experience, enjoyment, and astonishment with this game.

Obligatory Late-to-the-Party Explanation: I HATE fanboys, and by extension, approach their games with trepidation. This includes the Halo, Mario Brothers, Civilization, and Zelda Franchises; Crysis (still haven't purchased it yet), Oblivion (still haven't played it yet), etc.

But I can only hear the hype (propped by an occasional voice from one I respect) for so long, before I get curious... or lucky.

A few years ago, I purchased a new piece of computer hardware (graphics card?) that came with Halo for the PC. While it wansn't fantastic or groundbreaking, it was intruiging and fun enough to make me finish the game and enjoy the time spent. "If this is the best thing Xbox owners have, I pity them. But at least the game doesn't suck," I thought.

After buying a Xbox 360, I borrowed Halo 2 from my brother-in-law. It was ok. It should be noted that I don't often play console games for multiplayer - I prefer competing with a mouse and keyboard The game advanced the plot, but I couldn't help but feel that the script was a failed literary attempt at reproducing "The Empire Strikes Back."
I'm glad I played it, else the third game's plotline would have left me clueless.

After copmleting Halo 3, I see that Bungie has put its money into wise territory: polish and production. While the gameplay, art, story, etc. all felt like staple Halo, every aspect of the game seemed to gleam with polish. I could practically envision the large pile of paper that sat in the editor's trash can. Everything just felt tighter, more alive, and better presented.

The only gripe I have (yes, only one) is the AI for friendly drivers. To illustrate the low quality pathfinding skills the AI possesed, I had a ten minute conversation with my wife while my character electronically fought-back nausea due to his companion's constant donuts. That's right, the AI had the driver of a Warthog (like a Humvee to the uninitiated) driving back and forth, round and round, over 20 feet of the map. This ceased when I finally yanked the driver from the wheel, steered the vehicle forward 5 feet, turned around a tree, and then gave him back the wheel.

That easily-bypassed issue aside, I enjoyed this game so much, I may actually go back and play on a harder difficulty, try co-op, or even multiplayer.

Yay, stomach flu! I spent half of my weekend at the cottage sleeping, or running to the bathroom. Not fun.

It's too bad that I'm so LTTP on so many great games. I guess that continues to be a function of my overbuying past, and my "need" to make up for the 10 years or so I missed as a gamer. Case in point: trying to find a multiplayer GRAW match on Xbox Live.

Oh well.

The game kicked; I gave it a B. The only complaint that I have is a lack of "easy" mode. The game was slightly too dificult for my standards, and I got to know the loading screen very well for several sections of the game. I guess I can't complain too much, though, because I knew that the game was labeled a "tactical shooter" going into it.

I was going to beat this, Perfect Dark Zero, and maybe one other game, and then trade them in at Gamestop for Condemned 2, but now I'm wondering if I should pick up GRAW 2 instead. Hmmmmm....

Any of my online friends have an opinion either way?

I'm currently playing:

Finishing (hopefully) the original Resident Evil on the PC. Man, what a great game. I can't believe how many gems have escaped me when I went on a decade-long gaming hiatus. :( I'm definitely thinking of getting the next Resident Evils on Gamecube, however, as the PC version's graphics are killing me. How ironic.

Everything great that has been said about this game is true. A real "war game" of a FPS. I'll never look at warfare the same way.

Like most of my fellow Valve-loving PC friends, I'm excited by the continued free (hear that, Microsoft?) development for Team Fortress 2. Now my favorite **** the Pyro, is getting the latest round of improvements (new weapons).

Another game that I was interested enough in to buy, but not interested enough to slog through all of the super-difficult portions (the opening of level 2). Henceforth, I will play this bird on "easy."

Although I beta-tested this game, and Maura bought it for me more than a year ago, I finally (today) got around to creating my first character. He's a fire-throwing mutant bad-ass named "Adam Blaize." I'm so happy NCSoft decided to make this game free to play for those who already have a City of Heroes subscription.

Dear Red States:

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California. To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,
Author Unknown in New California

1. Your co-worker has 8 body piercing's and none are visible.
2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.
3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.
4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.
5. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?
6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.
7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown, and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.
8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?
9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.
10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.
11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.
12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.
13. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?
14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station: 'STORM WATCH.'
15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cells or pagers.
16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.
17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????
18. Both you AND your dog have therapists, psychics, personal trainers and cosmetic surgeons.
19. The Terminator is your governor.
20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one.

Maura and I have started a new band together; The Cleavage Surfers (copyright pending review).

After working through the single-player tour in Rock Band, we decided to combine our forces for the bad of mankind.

Maura is "Roxy," the hot-bodied, red-headed ex-groupie with pipes of an angel.

I am "Vaden", the hot-bodied, blue-haired particle physicist who just discovered a talent for beating some skins (other than his own).

This game becomes infinitely better with a "band."


Just some random "Rock Band" picture

"What time is it? It's summertime. It's our va-ca-tion."
-HSM

could it be any more obvious that I have a five year-old girl?

As of yesterday, my students are done with their 9th grade year. Well, technically, about 28% of them are done with their 9th grade yar. The remaining are going to have to repeat. I still have a few more days of meetings, pre-meeting meetings, and forthcoming news. But that still doesn't mean I'm not excited to have more time to myself.

I'm also pretty proud of my accomplishments this past year. I've reached my pedagogical goals in many aspects: better ****oom managment (ongoing); better student progress tracking; better/faster data analysis; a faster turn-around time with homework, quizzes, and tests; better and more frequent parent communication; more effective ****wrap-ups; and improved faculty discussions.


This weekend is also Father's Day, and so I'm getting tons of gifts: a stuffed duck Webkin from Phebe; two hours of guilt-free gaming, a $10 gift card for DD, and a full-body massage bucka-chucka-wow-wow! from Maura. On a semi-related note, I'm happy to report that a new Tim Horton's is opening within one mile from my home. Well, tons is relative. To some people, my gifts may not seem like much, but I'm thrilled.

I'm still playing Rock Band with Maura, but we've moved onto practicing new songs as opposed to touring with our band, The Cleavage Surfers.

I've jumped back into Lord of the Rings Online recently. I've decided that my play****is that of an "explorer." While I enjoy the storyline that this game offers, my favorite part of the game is definitely exploring the world of Middle Earth.

I jumped back into Diablo II as well, only to die and quit in under 45 minutes. I'm not seeing why this game was so incredibly well-received. I'm guessing it has something to do with online cooperative multiplayer through Battle.net. In it's time, I'm sure that was a huge thing. *shrug* Oh well, I'll keep jumping in from time to time, and quit when I get bored.

I've also recently watched the movie "Bloodrayne" and decided that as long as I accept the fact that it's a B-movie, it's not too bad. There, I said it. Uwe Boll is not 100% crap.

Great director? No
(self-described)Genius? Definitely not

But I loved the game Bloodrayne (and it's sequel) enough to watch this flick. Not bad, it was.

So graduation came and went last night, and as usual, itrevealed more about the character of my students' families than it celebrated the students' achievements; which is sad.

Firstly, I should start with the postive aspects of the night. The majority of the senior ****obtained enough credits to graduate, or sit within one credit of graduation (which summer school can cure). The graduates were proud, respectful, and appeared to enjoy their evening. Encouragingly, the top three students earned a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.6 or higher, and at least a quarter of them have already received their college or university acceptance letter. Two students are going to study game design.

Ok, now on to the rousing finish: I think that a small group of the parents misheard the principal's continual requests of "clear the isles" as "free pie and chicken, please rush the stage." About twenty to thirty people not only rushed the stage, but they also blocked the aisleways, which blocked the graduates' return trip to their seats. Hell, some women even stood in the middle of the graduates' rows of seats.

I know that there will always be a few fools at a graduation of hundreds of students. But there were as many fools as there were graduates.

Creme de la creme: when I asked one woman who was standing in the graduates' seats taking pictures to "please move, as (she was) blocking the graduates," she responded with "I **** heard you the first time," and proceeded to take more pictures. ****.

Today's word is "ghetto-fabulous," as coined by another teacher.

We (the school staff) definitely need to find a solution for the parents who want to take pictures of their children graduating. But that doesn't mean that you should block your child's peers from sitting, swear at a teacher, and refuse to move.

...and we wonder where some of our students learn this behavior from.