This one is a bit delayed because of where I've been over the past week. The week after living it up at PAX 08, I flew down to Los Angeles, California to take a week long Carnival cruise to Mexico. This was my fourth cruise, but my first on Carnival. There were only three shore days, and I'll be starting a new album on flickr soon, for anyone who's interested, but the days at sea were a bit lacking in activities. There were a few days with Guitar Hero III competitions, but that was only an hour each and were pretty weak, so I got some Xboxing done in my room, and surpassed 38,000 points in the process. Here's the rundown:

Days since 37,000: 35 days

Forza Motorsport 2 (0 new points (970 total)) - Yeah yeah yeah, Forza keeps popping up in my games played list. I've been playing a bit lately trying to get that elusive 1,000,000 online credits achievement.

Braid (110 new points (185 total)) - Finished off Braid, and I'll guarantee that I'll be coming back to it, again and again, even more than I did with Chu Chu Rocket (I woulda gone with the acronym there, but realized it's the same acronym for one of my fav bands!). Anyway, I got all the achievements except for the speed run achievement, which is very challenging, and apparently stressful.

Penny Arcade Episode 1 (130 new points (150 total)) - It took me a rediculously long time to really get into this game. Like I said before, I've been waiting for this game for years, but when I got it, I quickly put it on the back burner. Well, a few days before PAX, I quickly loaded it back up, and OTRSPOD quickly picked up steam. A truly outstanding game for the price and media forum, the writing is more hilarious than you can imagine (if you're a P-A fan, atleast). Episode 1 is all around fun, and will net you up to about 10 hours.

Castle Crashers (15 points) - w00t. Another game anticipated for years! Now I get to anticipate the patch. I had beta'd Castle Crashers many many months ago, and it was actually a lot easier, the controls were different, and the level design was quite altered, but I really like the new version, as well. What I don't like is getting kicked from any attempt at online co-op after just a couple minutes.

Madden NFL 09 (765 points) - It's so nice of EA to start selling achievements again! lol, jk. Actually, the achievements in 09 are easy, but atleast the game is really worth playing now. I really like the Superstar mode when it first came out a couple years ago, but I didn't get as much out of the rest of the game. Now, I'm enjoying the full game, and working the hell outta my running back! Definitely the best Madden yet.

Current gamerscore stands at: 38,027

Current world gamerscore rank: 18,333

The Penny Arcade Expo, that is. AND I'M GOING!!!! This will be my fifth PAX, and will be absolutely incredible again. I've been looking forward to PAX all year and it's finally here!

Talking about Tropic Thunder. I had to make the choice tonight to either watch the new Star Wars cartoon movie, The Clone Wars, or Tropic Thunder. I didn't think Tropic Thunder would be great, that's why I saved Star Wars to watch with my Dad. I was definitely wrong, however. Tropic Thunder was OUTSTANDING! Much of the humor was a little uncomfortable, but it was remarkably funny. Even the intro, with the Bootie Sweat drink commercial made me cry from laughing.

Tropic Thunder: highly recommended.

It's an interesting looks, but I've been used to the same setup for years, now I don't know where to look. I hate it! Your thoughts?

Wow, that was a relatively quick one. Hell, 700 of the points, I scored just last night within 1 hour! I've been pretty busy lately with work and now watching the Olympics (go USA!), but I still managed to pull off a quick 1,000. Here's the rundown:

Days since 36,000: 15 days

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (60 points) - Very Gauntlet, in its gameplay. With that, it really needs to be co-opped. Unfortunately, it's not an amazing game, and not many people seem to have it. I only rented it, but if I can't find any co-oppers, I'll probably just send it back to Gamefly pretty soon.

Rock Band (0 new points (275 total)) - Man, points sure are hard to come by in this game! Still hangin out with the drums, loving the new set and getting better with the double kick pedals. Up to 111 downloaded songs! Definitely looking forward to Rock Band 2, though.

Call of Duty 4 (160 new points (220 total)) - I really like this game. I haven't gotten to multiplayer (and most likely never will), but the single player campaign is really fun gameplay. It's pretty tough, though, could definitely use some help in co-op.

Jumper: Griffin's Story (700 points) - Lmao, this game is a joke. Scored 700 points in about an hour. The gameplay is mildly interesting, but gets very redundant. Only recommended for achievements.

Braid (75 points) - I wasn't going to get Braid, especially since it was 1200 points ($15). I have been playing the weekly releases, trying to win the 100,000 ms points, and demo'd Braid. It looked cool, but not worth that much money. Then I read the latest Penny-Arcade and decided that it must be worth it. Tycho was definitely right. Braid is a very unique, Chu Chu Rocket-esque side scroller, with elements of Prince of Persia and Super Mario Bros. A very cool game, I certainly recommend it. There's a reason Gamespot gave it a 9.5. Comparing it with other arcade games, $15 seems expensive, but imagine if you saw a brand new 9.5 game in a games store for $15, you know your ass would pick that up in a second!

Current gamerscore stands at: 37,007

Current world gamerscore rank: 17,875

I've had my golden 360 since 2005, which has been awesome for me (sorry chaos). One minor issue is that I'm getting the slot 1&3 RROD, which indicates overheating. I think I just have some dust issues, and it's only happened 3 times in the past 3 months. Anyway, I got a 120gb hdd for it, and I figured I needed all the best for my 360, so I went out to get an elite model with an HDMI port (daddy needs 1080p!). Unfortunately, I accidentally knocked it over yesterday, and it not only scratched the hell outta my Rock Band disc, but also apparently damaged the 360. Luckily, I got the 1 year warranty for $20, which I might wind up needing if I keep knocking over xboxes. So, long story short: I'm still playing my gold 360, and the black one is going back.

Btw, I had trouble transferring my licenses over on my new 360, has anyone else had trouble with that?

Laterz

It has definitely been a while. My gaming was minimal for a while from working so much, but I finally made it. I was between 35,000 and 35,100 for over a month and a half, so I got most of the last 1,000 during this past week. I also got a few new games during this period. Here's the rundown:

Days since 35,000: 61 days

Grand Theft Auto 4 (80 new points (545 total)) - I think I'm pretty much done with GTA4. I could get some more achievements, but I honestly don't feel like playing it anymore. It was pretty good while it lasted.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (10 points) - I was big into the first one, but am having difficulty getting motivated to delve deeply into this sequel. It also seems considerably harder, #1 was really easy.

Hitman: Blood Money (0 new points (750 total)) - I finally found it in the bargain bin for less than $15. Great, great game. I plan to spend some more time with Agent 47 soon to gather up those last couple achievements. This game has major replay value.

Call of Duty 4 (60 points) - Ok, so I gave in. Truth is, the only reason I never played it before was because I was too busy with other games, it just never fit into my schedule. But I got it and am slowly working my way through single player. It's a pretty outstanding game so far, and really works great with my theater sized tv and booming sound system. This game is on deck for my 360.

Rock Band (5 new points (275 total)) - Got the "Riding on Coattails achievement." Also, I finally broke my drums. As a matter of fact, I broke my drums and the kick pedal! But it's ok, I just received the new one yesterday which I ordered on ebay. I also got a steel heavy weight kick pedal, which works amazingly. In addition, I got some great new sound dampening pads and a modulator to use 2 kick pedals at once. As a matter of fact, I've spent a helluva lot of money on Rock band to date. In addition to the above and the game itself, I've bought 3 pairs of drum sticks, a microphone stand, other sound dampening pads, high end headphones, and over 100 marketplace songs. Expensive stuff.

Bully Scholarship Edition (855 points) - I really got into Bully over the past couple weeks. It's a very addictive game. Minimal replay value, but it certainly was fun for a while. The ending provides little closure, but atleast it lets you keep running around finishing up achievements. I bought the game for cheap, but will probably never play it again. Pretty easy points, just took a good amount of time.

Current gamerscore stands at: 36,012

Current world gamerscore rank: 18,421

suck it, sony.

I'm a big fan of movies, so I was upset when I got off work late last night and decided to stop by my local theater to see what was good and saw nothing even worth seeing for free. 2008 is shaping up to be the year for movies that should have been blockbusters, but turned out to be duds. Here's a list of recent flicks I'm talking about:

Get Smart: Great show, really great, but weak weak movie.

The Love Guru: Somebody should have killed Mike Myers after Austin Powers 1, or maybe after So I Married an Axe Murderer.

The Happening: Wow, so disappointing.

Indiana Jones: It's 1999 again and I'm seeing Star Wars Episode 1 for the first time all over again. I'd rather show up on test day in my underwear completely unprepared.

Speed Racer: WTF was that? I should have done a whole bunch of acid to enjoy that movie. How about keeping great cartoons in their original mediums?

On the bright side, it's not all bad, there have been a couple beacons of hope so far:

The Incredible Hulk: Not bad enough to make the previous list, but not great enough to make this a big year. Still, I gave it a B.

You Don't Mess With The Zohan: About as funny as I expected. Could've been a little better, though.

Iron Man: I loved Iron Man, saw it three times. If Iron Man doesn't get atleast 2 Oscars this year, I'm....I'm........selling my Atari collection!

As I said last time, this one will include GTA4. I focused on a few games here. There was Superman Returns, which was just a points rental, and my 3 favorite games right now. Here's the rundown:

Days since 34,000: 50 days

Grand Theft Auto 4 (465 points) - It's GTA4. Has some issues, I wouldn't give it a 10, but i wouldn't go as low as an 8, either. Biggest issue right now is that the environment isn't big enough. San Andreas seemed much bigger.

Rock Band (50 new points) - Finally got the Tug of War Champ and Jet Setter achievement. Tug of War is a worthless cheating piece of crap game mode, btw.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 (20 points) - This game I've been awaiting for even longer than GTA4. Jerry Holkins (Tycho Brahe) from Penny-Arcade has an extremely unique sense of humor and his writing really comes through to make a great game.

Superman Returns (340 points) - Not as bad as you might think. Not a great game by any standards, but if you liked the Spiderman: the movie game, then you'd like Superman.

Current gamerscore stands at: 35,002
Current world gamerscore rank: 15,888