I am not surprised at the amount of show we received here in the mitten. We were told up to 12 inches, and we got around four or five. Everybody at work (a high school) was talking about the district being shut down for the remainder of the week, but I was skeptical. Looks like I was right... damn it.

My "What I'm Playing" to the left is a partial lie. Those are the games that I wish I was playing at the moment, but I've been busy. Actually, "busy" is relative. I am working two jobs now, but that's not taking all of my time. Most of my time has been spent either with my wife or trolling various websites. I'm still not used to being finished with my Master's program. I'm still playing Elemental: War of Magic in hopes of finally getting off of "novice" difficulty.:shock: I'm also dabbling in Planetside again, but mostly on Thursdays when a small group from my online gaming group is also playing.

I still haven't touched either of my consoles in months. Poor things are gathering dust. It's not that I don't have good games to play on them, I do (Alan Wake, Halo Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2...). It's just that I can't pry myself away from my PC.

Somehow while attempting to make time to play Elemental and a little bit of Planetside (the populations have increased now that SOE is releasing pictures from the upcoming game, currently title "Planetside Next") I have realized just how precarious my family's financial situation is. Parsing our budget it quickly became apparant that I needed more income, necessitating the aquirement of a second job.

Enter Facebook. With expert timing, an old friend from high school announced via Facebook that a guy he knows is looking for part-time or full-time help to quality-inspect Chrystler headlights. So now every Saturday I head to a local warehouse where I turn screws, stare at light boundaries and measure the distance between plastic pieces.

Extra money is good.

An now, some screenshots of Planetside Next gadgets:

The Vanguard

The Galaxy

I've always been a sucker for the underdog. So when I heard that a local Michigan company, Stardock (makers of Demigod andSins of a Solar Empire), had released a game that was released too early, I was interested. Elemental: War of Magic not only shipped with major crash bugs, but from what I understand, features were missing. To earn back the public's trust, Stardock not only continued to patch the crap out of the game, but they also promised free expansion packs for anybody that purchased the game in 2010. Hearing this, I pounced on the chance and bought the game. So far, it's pulling me in to turn-based strategy in ways that the Civillization series could not.

Normally, a lack of tutorial, difficult beginning, and buggy nature would completely turn me off from a game (der). But for some reason this game has me playing, losing, and playing again; trying to learn from my mistakes, and figuring out the mechanics of the game from the inside-out. Just... one... more... turn.

I admit, I was one of the many PC gamers who thought that Valve should have continued to develop Left 4 Dead with expansions instead of jumping immediatley into Left 4 Dead 2. But with all of the hype and great scores, this game finally jumped out and screamed "buy me!!!" when it went on sale this past holliday season.

So far, it's definitely more of the same, but with the addition of new locations, new boss-infected, and the addition of melee weapons (the one thing that I truly feel should have been added to the original game). But more of the same is pretty great when "the same" is awesome.

With STEAM, Impulse, Direct 2 Drive, Games for Windows Marketplace, and Gamer's Gate, I have purchased a crap-ton of games on sale from Thanksgiving to now. Note: STEAM's sales will go on until January 2nd. A list of the awesomeness that I was able to purchase for about the price of 2-3 normal games:

Viva Pinata
Blacklight: Tango Down
Penumbra Complete Series
Amnesia The Dark Descent
Command & Conquer 4
Elemental War of Magic
King's Bounty Crossworlds
King's Bounty the Legend
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Cryostasis
Left 4 Dead 2
Metro 2033
STALKER Call of Pripryat
Torchlight
Tropico 3
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Red Alert 3
Far Cry
Far Cry 2
Bionic Commando

Then add on the three games that I received for Christmas, and I have a backlog that is higher than my desk.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Endless Ocean: Blue World

2010 was a decent year in terms of finishing games for me. I blame my Master's Program for reducing the number of completed titles this year, but overall I still think I had a lot of fun. Fun notwithstanding, I only now realize just how much I ignored my two consoles; this entire list was completed on my PCs.

While I played a lot more games than the following, many titles were simply traded via Goozex when I grew tired of playing them.

Dragon Age: Origins

Indigo Prophecy

STALKER: Clear Sky

Sam & Max Episode 101

Mass Effect 2

Mirror's Edge

Medal of Honor

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Space Siege

Penumbra: Overture

Penumbra: Black Plague

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (SP)

After seeing both sides, I now make the following conjecture: teachers enjoy snow days more than their students.

I was always used to playing games on my desktop, but then I got a laptop to serve, well, as a laptop (mobility, ability to use on the couch, etc.). Now I have a netbook as well. I play different games on each. The meatier games are played on the desktop, the intermediate games are played on the laptop, and then the netbook is pretty much for games with ultra-low system requirements.

As you can tell from my list of "What I'm Playing," I'm currently having gaming ADD in that I'm playing way too many games at once.

Desktop Games

• Battlefield 2142
• Penumbra (though I could play this on the laptop, it's scarier in my office without people around)
• Oblivion
• Borderlands

Laptop Games

• Defense Grid
• Space Siege

Netbook Games

• Torchlight
• World of Goo

Today instead of just picking up my younger daughter from my wife's church, I decided to go in and sit for a service. I don't consider myself a Christian. If anything, I tend to follow Buddhist philosophies, simply because I find them so universal but lack the requirements to believe ina specific deity. Regardless, it was a good message today, and I'm glad I went. With all the recent stresses, I needed some kind of emotional release.

I'm currently looking at Oblivion's Game of the Year Deluxe Edition on Direct 2 Drive, Impulse, and STEAM, and noticed that they're all priced the same. I feel retarded now that I remember that I traded in my boxed copy through Goozex a few months ago. If given the choice among all three of these services, which do you choose and why?

I personally like to buy through Impulse, because they are a Michigan-based company (located about 20 minutes from my house) and because they're the underdogs in the digital download world.

It's officially November. That means it's that national independent writers' month. I don't know what the actual acronym is, but I simply call it Nano-Reemo-Rhymo-Romo-Homo just to annoy my wife. Yeah, it's immature, but most fun annoyances in a marriage are.

My wife writes chick-lit without the sex scenes (or so she says). I get to sit next to her, tease her with "Family Guy" quotes, and lament the fact that only one of us can use the laptop while we are downstairs. Hence the looking for a new netbook/notebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbou_r7ODs&feature=player_embedded

So far, I've found some good deals at a few online vendors. I'd mention who/where, but they're low in stock and I'd rather not announce to the world where these great deals are, for fear of losing out on the item myself.