I haz them! Well, let's see what's been going on in my gaming world. Star Wars: Force Unleashed is a decent game. I've played through it twice, since it's pretty short. I'm working on a third time on the hardest setting right now to see if it makes it a little more fun. The force powers are pretty satisfying actually. I always have fun coming up with new combos and such to whoop up on some Stormtroopers. One thing I find highly annoying is the targetting system. It's nice when you actually have time to single out what you want and grab it, but most of the time that's not possible, especially in a crowded location, or when there are 100 things happening at once. However, the story is amazing. I love how the story went, and also the choice of two endings. Several time throughout, I was totally surprised at what happened. Overall, it's a decent game, and worth playing, if anything just to punt Jawas... Lego Batman was my 2nd purchase in a week. I'm a huge fan of the Lego series games, and of course Batman, so I had to get it. So far I've played through one episode. It's not too bad, although I think they certainly could have made it better. Several times through the first episode were extremely frustrating. Whether it was gliding the wrong way, or not being able to judge a ledge, it got old after a while. I do like the steady stream of enemies though, and it seems that they are tougher than in the previous games. The story is kind of confusing so far. Since the game doesn't follow any movies or , it'll be interesting to see where they go with it. Co-op is decently fun so far. I hear it's pretty good, so I'll have to be sure and play through the game once with a friend. We just did the first level together, and it certainly helped since the friendly AI sucks.

Orange Box I purchased a while ago, and I haven't had a chance to play it. I also started Assassin's Creed, and never got around to finishing it. Before the end of the year, my goal is to play those games, and beat Gears 2 as well, since that has been pre-ordered for me. I still want to finish my 2nd playthrough of Mass Effect. I never got around to doing that, and there are a ton of things I didn't do the first time around. Any other games will be bonus playing time! Anyway, sorry for the little lack of activity. Been extremely busy lately, but that changes next week. Expect me around more then :)

O wait....I mean Force! Unleash the Force! Or was it Force Unleashed? :? In any case, I am definitely having fun with ridiculous Force powers and killing and lightsabering and all that stuff. I must have played like 7 hours of it today. So far I've only run into a little glitch like twice, so I'm pretty happy with that. That's about it. It's nice to get back to some real gaming, and it seems I'm over 5k on the achievement points! Lucas, you better start playing ASAP!

So, I normally don't watch the news, but today was a special occasion. Charlie Gibson (who is good, but nothing compared to Peter Jennings) is in Alaska interviewing the Republican nominee for VP, Sarah Palin. The interview is in two parts, one tonight, and one tomorrow. Let's just say that Palin got owned so hard I'm not even going to bother watching tomorrow, and this doesn't do it justice: No amount of facepalms can express how utterly disgusted I am with her. Palin is got to be the LAST person I would vote for. She avoided almost every question that Gibson threw at her. He even called her out, telling her he got lost in all the words, and just wanted a yes or no answer. She still didn't give him one. Not only that, but when he asked about the Bush Doctrine, SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS. HE HAD TO EXPLAIN IT TO HER!!!!! Give me a damn break, even I know what that is. McCain is way old, and he must be going senile to pick Palin. If he croaks, we'll be stuck with Palin, and that's not something this country is ready for. I certainly don't want someone with the intelligence of a 12-year old running the place. Guess I know where my vote is going now, although Obama isn't much better... Anyway, I know N3MO is with me....SAY NO TO PALIN!

Especially those that work at game stores. I love it. Not only can they hook it up with scoops on when games are actually out, but they have wicked discounts. I picked up Orange Box yesterday for 360 for $20 brand new! It's still $30 most places, so that's pretty awesome. It's not like I have a chance to play it at the moment, but I will shortly, so I'm excited. She can't get discounts on new games, but I'll take what I can get! Also, I pre-ordered Force Unleashed and Lego Batman. Can't wait to get my hands on those! Gears 2 is already on pre-order from my birthday (first time anyone's gotten me a game), so that's a steady amount of game play coming up! I'm looking forward to it....it's been a while since I've had a ton of games to play :)

Games that freeze. Nothing pisses me off more, especially games that don't save within a level. You get through the entire level, spend a good 20-30 minutes on it, are almost finished, and then BAM, progress gone, just like that. SO AGGRAVATING! So yea, that's all, needed to vent. +10 points to the first person who gets the blog title reference.

I love using the random spellings of words for blog titles. It makes them seem like so much more fun. Anyway, if you can't tell already, I am back from work and the mini-vacation. The non-work portion was fun, and involved myself, my brother, a few friends, drinking, his 21st birthday, more drinking, a trip to San Francisco, more drinking, eating, and yet more drinking. Birthday celebrations are grand! Speaking of which, tomorrow, I actually get to celebrate my birthday. It's only a week late, but hey, it's better than not celebrating! In gaming news, I downloaded the demo of Star Wars: Force Unleashed. Amazing. I've played through at least 5 times, and I want more NOW! Still working on getting myself more time to game, but it seems that's not going to happen for a little while longer. I'm still not making any purchases in order to get ready for Star Wars and Lego Batman, both of which come out next month. So, I have returned, and I bring modlings! It seems we have some new mods running around, which is always nice. I shall do my best to haze them relentlessly, and teach them the ways of the force...Congrats to you guys and gals!

We all will eventually have it, a job is needed to survive. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, and they are extremely flexible, but today, it pissed me off. Just a little background on my job first. I am a Senior Network Admin, as well as Project Manager for a computer company here in San Diego. We do lots of work around the country as well, which is where some of our contracts take us. There's one in Phoenix that 2 of my people have been working on for about a year. Well, today, they ****ed up so incredibly bad that I have to fly there at 5am tomorrow and fix it. I'll be in Phoenix from tomorrow until Friday. Now, normally that wouldn't piss me off, BUT, Thursday is my birthday. We had the party bus set up, 27 of my friends confirmed for a night of celebration.....NOT! So much for that plan. I will now be spending my birthday with myself, in a hotel, in Phoenix, where I know noone. Yay.... /rant

So, I'm not one to complain usually, unless something really stands out and is worth mentioning. Well, as you all know, Gamespot rolled out their site update yesterday. I'd have to say that I like most of the changes. A few of them bug me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. One thing that really stands out is the mini-feed. If they switched the tracked blogs with the mini-feed, and collapsed blogs like when the beta was first released, profiles would look way better. I'm more interested in reading blogs from people, not seeing who uploaded images. Anyway, the real reason for this blog is because well, looks like we aren't getting an ice theme. Mailer made this topic about ice, and Don has stated that there is not plans to roll out a theme for us. I accept all the changes they have made as part of the site update, and it will take some time to get used to, but not having an ice theme? Come on. I've used ice for the entire time I've been here, and it looks amazing. How can you get rid of such a great feature? It makes no sense to me. So, I ask you to go post in that thread, add links to your sigs, blog it, do whatever you like (no breaking the ToU :evil: ) to get people to notice that we would like the ice theme back!

Seriously, there's nothing like it. It's just plain amazing. My friend's birthday was this past weekend, and he wanted to take a ride. So, we met up a few days before and chose the ride we wanted to take, S6 to Palomar Mt. A friend had told us about the road, and we decided to check it out. I found this website that gave a description of the road. It said this: "Palomar Mountain is one of the most favored and challenging roads for motorcycles in Southern California." as well as " It features several very tight corners, lots of elevation changes, and a few decreasing radius corners. The S6 is a road you don't take for granted. It requires your full and complete attention for the entire 7 miles." My immediate reaction was, HELL YEA! So, on Sunday, we took our ride up said road. Let me tell you, it was something else. The first little bit was challenging, just getting the feel for the turns and curves, but after that, we were absolutely destroying that road. We were taking 15mph hair-pin turns at 35mph, and on the way down the mountain, we were killing 40mph turns at about 75mph. About half-way up the mountain there's a guy that takes pictures of bikers taking corners. You can find his website here, which is where I got this baby: Now, I cropped it down so that it would fit in this tiny blog area, but the full picture is here. I'm looking pretty damn sexy, if I do say so myself! If you can't tell, I'm leaning hardcore right there. My right knee is about 4 inches from touching the ground, and I'm probably going about 50mph. I didn't know that they were taking pictures, or I would have dug in even farther, or tried to pose ;) But, anyway, if you have the time and the money, and don't have a family to provide for, get a motorcycle. I'm single, and I have to say that this is the best purchase I've made. And don't worry about thanking me, because I'll just say I told you so :P

So, I've been wanting to take a stab at the reviewing aspect of gaming for a while now, and I found my first victim. Lego Star Wars II, while an older game, is a game that I love, and recently played again. I had played the PSP version when it came out, but found the 360 version at EB for $10 and picked it up. And, without further delay.....here you go. Feel free to leave me feedback/criticism all you like. If you are going to say that it sucks, make sure to tell me why, so I can improve ;)