Ok. I think I'm ready to uninstall just about every other computer game, sell my Xbox and all my games, and just play WoW all the time.

Well, I'll keep the Xbox, but really, this has to be the most "into" a computer game I've been since I played Grim Fandango. When I used to play GF, my wife would site in the room and watch me play, helping me out with puzzles, etc. With WoW, she wants to do the same, heck she wants to play (I need another computer!)

I play from about 9:00 PM CST until, well, 2:30 AM. I should really be quitting much earlier, but I usually get caught up in quest, or like last night, exploring new lands. The game is simply so vast, wanderlust takes over and you just end up wandering around checking out new things.

I think I've made some companions as well. My favorite traveling partners have to be Zomara and Zocara, Night Elf twins. They've gone as far to purchase matching outfits! Another favorite is Swra, a gnome warrior. She actually helped me get started with the basics of the game a week ago. It's definitely more fun traveling in small groups, killing all that stands in your path.

So, back to the grind. Perhaps tonight I'll keep my Wowing to a minimum.

My World of Warcraft experience began last night around 9:00 PM central and Mandingo, my little gnome rogue was born in the Feathermoon realm. I've never played a MMORPG, hell, it's even a pain to type that, but this I had to try. I've always been a fan of all things Blizzard; they really haven't made a bad game yet.

The first few minutes are spent just figuring out how to move your character around, how to interact with people and more importantly, chat with fellow adventurers. I'm playing on a "RP" or role-playing server, which means people talk all weird and say things like "aye" alot. Luckily, it's not a realm where the focus is on killing fellow players (PvP), because I wouldn't stand a chance.

After teaming up some female gnome compainions, I managed to find myself at Level 5 and venturing outside my little gnome village and into the big expanse. After several hours of playing with a very helpful gnome woman, I logged out as I rested at the inn, which means more experience upon my return most likely sometime tonight.

It is odd to be paying a monthly fee for online entertainment like this, but is it really? I pay for a SI subscription (~50 bucks), which entertains my wife and I with sports stories, nearly weekly. I pay for GameSpot membership, where salivate about the latest in interactive entertainment (~20 bucks). Dunno how long i see myself playing this game, but 3 months at 41.99 isn't terrible. Perhaps I can sell more stuff on Ebay to find my pursuits?

Ok. So it's not video game related, but I really am pulling for my Buffalo Bills to win today, and the Bronocs to lose. If this happens, Buffalo makes the playoffs. After going 0-4 at the start, this is a major achievement for these guys. My wife is a Jets fan, and they need a win today. Secretely, I'm hoping they blow it, giving Buffalo a better shot at a playoff spot. Above all, the Bronocs must lose. Hopefully Peyton will play.

Got my Xbox fixed. Just popped in another drive, a Philips this time purchased from some local kid on Ebay for $40.00 cash money out of the back of his 300zx. It was a sketchy transaction, but my Xbox works again, so what do I care.

I finally was able to play Burnout 3, which has turned out to be an enjoyable game. If I didn't have a 1 year old running around, I'd be playing that non-stop.

Well, after a year of making use of my once new, then repaired Xbox, it's broken again with the now famous "dirty disc error".

It's annoying. It was working fine earlier in the day when I played a couple games of NFL 2k5. Now, nothing. No games work.

Sigh. I was really looking forward to playing Burnout 3 tonight.

It's amazes me that these things fail as often as they do. The DVD drives used we never intended for this type of heavy spinning and long term usage. I have one of the Thompson drives, which are the worst of the bunch.

So, rather than getting Microsoft involved, again, I'm going to go the "fix it myself" route. I was amazed to find a wealth of fix your Xbox resources online, including sellers of replacement drives--albeit Thompsons--on Ebay. Funny how the Thompson drives are like 30 bucks and the scarce Samsungs and Phillips drives are like 60-80 dollars. I'm going to get my some Torx wrenches and open this mother up. Perhaps I'll try and clean the heads first.

Since I felt like I was missing out on the gaming revolution if you will, I did a couple things this week. First, I signed up for Gamefly, the Netflix for console games and promptly received Halo 2 in my mailbox today. I cracked it open tonight and booted it up. It instantly made me think of Marathon again, and how I felt when I first played it way back when. I tried the single player on "Hard", which I think is a mistake. The big dudes with shields are whomping on me...big time...

I tried multiplayer...

Let's just say I'm not quite ready for that yet. However, the interface for creating games is flawless if not perfect. It's the ideal interface for getting your game on. It has tips scrolling by when you wait for the game to start, chat in the lobby, everything has been though out, designed and implemented in this game online-wise. Bravo to Bungie, and well, I guess Microsoft.

I think once I can hook up with some friends online, I'll try Halo 2 online again. I might even ask a buddy to stop in to try the split screen out.

Gamefly is cool too. I think I'm going to stick with it for the duration and sample some more titles. I'm curious about some of the racing ones.

That leads me to point #2...

Half Life 2, finally comes out tonight. At least I think it does. According to rumor, 2:00 AM central is the time for HL2 to be enjoyed by those of us in the Lone Star state. I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm going to stay up to see it!

I may try some Halo 2 again. It was very fun, pretty looking, but I need to play it when I can crank the volume up and enjoy on the big screen. With a baby around, that doesn't happen too often. Perhaps I should take my Xbox to my parents for Thanksgiving....not.

Ok. 1 hour 30 min till I guess I get to play HL2.

I haven't played Warcraft in like...months, so, since I was inspired by some of the World of Warcraft screenies, I installed the latest update and played a single player scirmish. I'm just tooling around,as I always do, building crap, when I get owned as I usually do. That game is based on repeating a known forumal and knowing the foil for every attack coming at you. It's a great game, it's just gives me a headache playing it anymore. I just like the pretty pictures and the voice work. I think I may have to check out World of Warcraft.

Played CS:S last night, was ok for the most part. That game has issues registering hits on a server under heavy load. Also played a new poker game, Triple Draw, which was cool. I ended up winning this tourney on my first attempt. My buddies were getting ticked as I despensed my strategy for a game I had only just learned to play.

Bills play the Pats tonight. I'm predicting a win. The Bills have some fire in their gut, thanks to McGahee at HB. I'm thinking the Bills might be able to win this one, 21-17.

Seems with the launch of Halo 2, there has been a resurgence of Bungie energy if you will for the Marathon games. I actually met up with some folks via the AlpehOne Yahoo group who actually claim to play Marathon over the Internet with each other. Seems shaky at best, just like before when I attempted to use IPRemote to make Appletalk work over the Internet. I may try and play around with it this weekend, and I'm defniitely looking through all my old crap at my parent's place to find my old Marathon discs.

Running an online Xbox football league is hard. The worst part is managing everyone's egos. Some people play for fun, and for the experience of playing football with someone else. Win or lose, the enjoy themselves. Others are out to win at all costs, crush the opposition and rub it in your face. Others do this and don't even know it. As the league admin people write me messages crying about how they had to quit because they got beat badly by a "cocky" owner in the league. What am I to do? Nothing really. It just gets sad when you have to massage everyone's broken ego because they are not very good at Xbox NFL2k5 football. I'm not that great as well, so I play for the fun of it and the real-life type football experience the game provides.

Going to try and play some Battlefield Vietnam tonight, or BFV for short. I play with the same group of guys from Beer For Breakfast, but we've all been taken up with CS:S lately to care about 'ole BFV. It's time to fly some choppers again and planet shovels behind enemy lines.

Read about this game called Psychonauts today, done by the Grim Fandango guys. Looks very promosing. Great to hear they have the same guys doing the music and stuff. The music made Grim Fandango so enjoyable for me. Very memorable themes.

Link:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/psychonauts/index.html

It's also really starting to piss me off that I cannot paste anything into this window from a Firefox browser. Really gay. See, I would like to paste links to other areas of Gamespot.com which I'm sure the Gamespot.com faithful would appreciate. But alas, I cannot do so.

So in the words of a great crumudgeon of a friend of mine, "If you want links, go find them yourself".

My wife is going out with some friends tonight. It's been a long time since she's gotten out of the house and away from Mom duties for awhile. It's just means I won't be playing my NFL 2k5 league game tonight.

Click here to check out my league.

Halo 2 came out today. I guess if I wanted it real bad like all the other kids out there, I could've got in line at 11:59 and bought it last night. Frankly, that game is not all that great. I applaud Bungie for turning a humble software company into the bread-and-butter for Microsoft's Xbox console. Let's face it, it it wasn't for Bungie, the Xbox would not have had the impact it had when it launched.

After reading the reviews on this site regarding Halo 2, it's apparrent what Bungie is doing with Halo 2. Seems storyline is secondary to action providing on Xbox Live. I guess I have gold-ole-days syndrome. I miss the care and quality of a good game story, such as in Bungie's greatest success (in my opinion), Marathon. I played Marathon quite a bit back in the day. Don't believe me, see for yourself: http://www.marathon.org/cantina

Also, I have yet to embrace the shooter genre on Xbox. Give me a mouse and keyboard anyday over two analog thumbsticks. I just don't feel the same level of accuracy and control with the console controller when it comes to being able to get off accurate blasts. Even the controls on GTA3 on Xbox are weird to me. Again, I'm old, and out of my gaming "prime" perhaps.

I am playing Counter Strike again on the new HL2 source engine. It's neat. Same crap is happening though. It's already being overrun by hackers, looking to bask in states vs. participating in a great team-based gaming experience. If you are looking for a fun time, with a bunch of older, fun dudes, then head to http://bfb.bogleg.org for some Beer For Breakfast good times.