While I continue to wait on word from my potential future employers (and waiting IS the hardest part), I have tried to distract myself with a crap-ton of games.

Battlefield 2142 continues to be my late-night go-to game for fun, but I've also started a new single player character in Hellgate: London. That being said, I've also begun jumping back into Borderlands, in preparation for Gearbox's next batch of DLC. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed arrived in the mail (thank you, Goozex), and it's also proven to be fun. Aaaaand last night my wife and I played some more Rock Band, and not only got 1,000,000 fans, but also unlocked the jet. Kickass.

All in all, distraction = mega gaming time.

I have a home server, which I usually run WinXP Home on, simply because, well, that's the only OS that I have that isn't being used. I tried Ubuntu once and didn't like it. I have used Windows Home Server once as a trial, and really liked that it did everything that WinXP Home does and more. Specifically, it does daily automatic backups of your computer, wherein it only changes the files that have been altered. It also adds new drives to a storage pool, rather than just as a separate drive.

Anyhow, a new version of WHS--"Vail"--is being beta tested, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far, it's a more reliable version of WHS1, but with a shinier interface. There are a few bugs though, and I think some of them are just plain funny. A few things I've run into in my short use thus far:

• Vail installs on Pacific Standard Time (where it is developed). Don't change the time until after one day of use is up, unless you don't feel like being able to connect the server to other computers.
• I can't connect to Vail through the clinet dashboard. It just hangs. I can, however, connect to it through Remote Desktop Connection and through it's Launchpad, so that's ok.
• It doesn't come integrated with Windows Media Center, which is a major turn-off for many people who want one server to run 24x7 and do it all.

I'm not going to knock Vail for these issues so far, because it is a beta after all.

So I was recently laid-off from my job, with the opportunity to interview for the position that I once held. Make sense? Well, it's been weeks, and each piece of new information simply says "we'll tell you in the next week or two." I've been on two interviews, with one more coming in the next few weeks, and I have to say I'm nervous. Really nervous. As in we-might-lose-the-house nervous. It's been really hard to sleep and enjoy gaming (though God knows I've tried), and I've been eating more than usual lately. Yikes.

Although I'm not the stereotypicaly fps monkey, I have played my fair share of multiplayer fps games: Planetside, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake 3, Quake Wars, Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Medal of Honor beta (the latest one), Halo 2, Halo 3... you get the point.

I have been playing a crap-ton of multiplayer FPS games lately. My flavor of choice has been the Battlefield games, but not the Battlefield game that everyone else seems to be playing. Instead of Battlefield Bad Company 2, I've been going slightly retro and playing Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield 2.

I have found that my best role, as it was in Planetside, is as a medic/soldier. Consequently, most of my points have come in the form of playing in those roles. I think I chose these because a.) I'm not as good as others in fps games and b.) there always seems to be a lack of medics on the field. This reflection led me to notice a few things that I have learned about playing multiplayer fps games. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but rather a few points of advice from one player to another.

1. Always identify friend from foe - not only does this save lives when the server's friendly fire mode is set to "on", but it saves bullets too.
2. Mouse and keyboard > Gamepad - for accuracy, when possible.
3. Always reload after an encounter with the enemy - that empty magazine sound just isn't cool in the middle of a firefight.
4. Never revive somebody until the area is clear - doing so will result in a spawn countdown (like the one pictured below) for both yourself and your would-be patient.
5. Practice, practice, practice a good headshot - the hitbox on the head is typically worth at least twice as much damage as the body's. Aim for the mellon.
6. Know the maps - this is especially important in games that have health packs, like the Unreal series.
7. Back off when injured - once the adrenaline gets pumping, it's difficult to remember this one. But many newer fps games have rechargable health meters that replenish when you're not taking refined uranium to the chest.
8. Check your corners - I can't tell you how many times I ran for the next cover without seeing the sentry turret that was about to gun me down on the right.
9. Buddies are essential - even if you can't get a group of friends on the same voice-chat server, at least travel with another soldier into battle. You can watch each other's backs.
10. Play to your strengths - don't choose the sniper package if you can't hit a flea off a dog's back at fifty paces.

Recent **** aside, I still am happy in my Wii purchase. With games like Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Brothers, Endless Ocean, Wii Sports, and Mario Kart Wii, I've been happy with my inexpensive purchase. These titles notwithstanding, my Wii experience lacked a more mature set of games (note: I have yet to play certain titles in my library, like Resident Evil 4). I tried No More Heroes, and was bored to hell by it. I tried Bully: Scholarship Edition, and was simultaneously bored and disgusted at the visuals.

Then Mad World came along. Not only is this a bloody title, but it's--dare I say it--fun! Mad World is a beat-em-up with a running comedic commentary, lethal set pieces, great artistic design, and a short put pointed running time. There is blood everywhere, exceptionally lethal fighting moves, opportunities for dismembermant and decapitation everywhere, sharp black and white visuals, and an understanding that the type of fun it offers doesn't last; so rather than stretch the forumula on for too long, 5-6 hours seemed about right to the developers. For me, this is the definitive adult-orientated game for the Wii. Maybe I just got really unlucky with the previous two games previously mentioned.

Yikes.

I've owned a Wii for a few years now, enjoying the occassional game that fit my perception of a family-centered console. But from time to time, I've felt that I'm short-selling the little white box, and that I should branch out into more "hard-core" games. Hence my aquisition of games like Mad World, No More Heroes, Bully: Scholarship Edition, Metroid Prime Trilogy, etc. Well, so far, so bad.

No More Heroes had horrible gameplay. Like I have mentioned before, there were a few moments of excitement punctuated into an otherwise blanket of boredom. Knowing this, I approached Bully with trepidation. Would this game live up to the good reviews? Would this game be playable on the Wii?

Yes and no. Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of Rockstar games in general. The gameplay is ok, and from what I can tell, typical Rockstar gaming: open world, multiple missions to choose from, etc. But I feel that the Wii is short-selling what could be interesting. First of all, the visuals. Just look at the screenshot below:

Big, blocky heads, arms and hands; ugly detailing on the faces; etc. Then there are the loading screens. I don't know if the Wii can't handle transitions to new areas well or not, but my gaming experience went something like this: run to a bulding, loading screen, run to ****oom, loading screen, play minigame and exit room, loading screen... You see the problem? I don't know if the other console's and PC's version had loading screens, or if they're just much shorter, but I got so incredibly tired waiting to play my game.

Within one hour, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy the rest of this game. Which is a shame, because I have heard good things about it. I'm trading this sucker in.

Going into Mass Effect 2, I reminisced fondly on my playthroughs with the first iteration. See, I initially bought the game within the first month, when only the Xbox 360 version was out. I played it, my wife watched, and we loved it. In fact, Mass Effect is still the game that my wife enjoyed watching me play the most. Fast forward to the release of Mass Effect 2, and I realize that I had stupidly deleted my save files from the first game. Sigh. Deciding that I wanted to carry over my character from the first game into the sequel, I began to eye the PC version on STEAM. See, I enjoyed the Xbox 360 version of the game, but heard that the PC version was superior, with its improved textures, better user interface, and included DLC. So when Mass Effect went on sale through STEAM, the pick up was a no-brainer. I played through the game again, making nearly all of the same decisions as I did the first time. This time, however, I had my character romance Ashley Williams instead of the alien Asari.

Here I am now playing Mass Effect 2. Wow. Wow. And yes... wow. I figured the developers at Bioware would discover new ways to polish the game and enhance features, but never did I think they would produce a game as refined as this. Don't get me wrong; the game is not perfect. But even though I thought the original was worthy of a B+, this game screams A. Gone are the tedious mako missions (replaced however, by planet scanning), improved are the shooting mechanics. Paragon and renegade moments are better intertwined in the cut-scenes, and those choices seem to have more of an effect on the world and your choices at interacting with said world... the graphics seem to have also been tightened on level four. There was also more DLC available for free, which I have heard may be an attempt to combat piracy and the used-game market. Last, the NPCs that make up your party have more depth. Granted, I felt a connection to Garrus and Wrex from the last game (and it was cool to not only see so many of my old crew while completing several side-missions, but also to have Garrus re-join my squad), but these new characters have had their back-stories fleshed-out more.

My current character's romance scene in Mass Effect 2

The only major complaint that I have are the bugs. Oh, the frequent bugs. Really, I should say BUG. It seems that once every three missions or so, my character will get stuck on some piece of geometry. Attempting to free my avatar, I will press random movement buttons, only to see my character begin to float higher and higher in the air. Somehow, the y axis gets confused with the z axis. This results in my character--and sometimes NPCs too--hovering in air helplessly until I resort to loading a previous save. This is a bit of a let-down, because of the frequency of the bug for me. You'd think Bioware would have put priority into fighting it. Then again, maybe I'm one of a small minority who experiences this issue. Goes to google. Nope.

I just received my invitation to join the OnLive founding program. This means one year free of the service, which includes many thirty minute demos. Beyond this, I can pay either $3 or $5 for a few days of playing the game, or standard price to buy the game. More on this in a minute.

For my first game I played Batman: Arkham Asylum. The controls were a milisecond behind the usual game, and the video was restrained to 720p, but THE SYSTEM WORKED. I got to demo Batman for free for thirty minutes. Oh wait. You can do that here indefinitely. Hmmmm.

For now, the games that they have include Assassins Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Dirt 2, Dragon Age: Origin, Just Cause 2, Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, Mass Effect 2, NBA 2K10, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell: Conviction. Future games include Alpha Protocol, FEAR 3, Dawn of Warr II: Chaos Rising, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Kane & Lynch 2, Homefront, Two Worlds 2, Driver, Dark Void, Red Faction: Armageddon, Metro 2033, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Darksiders. Souns like a good future line-up. Out of all of these, I know I'd like to try FEAR 3, Homefront, Metro 2033, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. To think that I could play each of these games for about $20 instead of $200 is pretty sweet.

Well, for the games that DON'T have demos, being a founder of OnLive works well. Being able to rent PC games for a few bucks--like most console owners have always been able to do thanks to Blockbuster or GameFly--is pretty damn sweet. For that one reason alone, it's about damn time.

What really sucks about OnLive is their business model. Not only do you have to pay for the games you rent or buy, but you must also pay for a subscription on top of that. The first year's subscription is free, after all, so that's not a big deal... for now. But the huge problem is the method by which you purchase games through OnLive. Once your subscription is up, you can't play the game that you purchased anymore. I'm not talking about the games you rent for a few games; I'm talking about the games that you pay $50 to "buy." So you can never really buy a game and own it outside of OnLive. Or another way of saying it is that to buy a game from OnLive, you must pay $50 plus the subscription price * every month you want to play your game. Yikes.

Two more games in the bag.

Sam & Max Season 1 Episode 1 is done and done. Not quite all it was cracked up to be.

Maybe it was because I never played the original Sam & Max games... maybe it was because I had played Telltale's later games and expected more refinement... but Sam & Max Episode 1 did not go down as well as I thought it would.

The story is cute, quick, and full of good random humor. The characters and locales are memorable. But what sticks out like a sore thumb is all of the back and forth. It seemed that Telltale limited the locations you can visit to a small handful of places in order to speed development along on these episodic games. Fine. But you're not really dragging out the story by having me go from place A to B, then to C, back to A, then to C, then B again, etc. Hopefully the later installments iron out those issues.

Still, I bought the entire first season during a STEAM sale, so I'm definitely going to give them a try.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky is done. GREAT game. Review below

The developers of STALKER Clear Sky took everything that was learned from the first and did their best to improve it. They succeeded in some areas and failed in others.

One major success in this game was the connection between it and the original STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl. Upon liberating an army base for a faction, I now understood why that faction occupied a seemingly out in the middle of nowhere base in the original. Imagine that; a prequel that explains the original. Still, being able to witness all of the tie-ins was a fun connection.

The firefights seemed to be toned down a bit from the first one. While I was not used to the enemies hurling grenades at you with pin-point accuracy, the battles definitely seemed easier to accomplish.

I also loved the new artifact-finding. No longer were they just out in the open, ready to be picked up. No, you had to get a good detector and manually track them down through anomalies.

I didn't like the ability to see an enemy on my radar from a mile away... literally. I'm guessing that this is one of the refinements made to hopefully bring in the more casual crowd in that the feature makes the game easier. Then again, I can't see the casual crowd gravitating towards any of the STALKER games in the first place.

Overall, this was an improvement on the original, and I hope Call of Pripryat continues in this direction.

How do you expect me to type--much less think--when I'm surrounded by people talking to me about the most useless and mundane of crap? I really don't care how your week was, nor do I care about what you're planning on doing with the next seventy two hours of your life? And guess what... I don't need three different people all asking me the same question, especially when the real question should be "why the hell can't we all just leave you alone so you can do your work"?