As most of you know, Call of Duty: Black Ops released today, and it has the potential to blow away the sales numbers of CoD: MW2. However, I was a bit surprised to see that the player reviews for this game was only at 8.1. I got it last night at midnight, and played it for a couple of hours, and admit that it's way better than I was expecting. It's got the excitement, gun play, and awesome explosions that you come to expect from a Call of Duty game.

We all know about the Activision debacle between them and Infinity Ward. That was a messed up thing to do to game designers and developers. They work long hours, and put a lot of work into these games, and sometimes they get shafted in profits, pay, and other thing of the sort. This is part of the business. As a game design student, I know about this and still am wanting to get into the business. I will take a pay cut, and will probably not have the benefits that I currently have now, but there are some things that are worth taking a put cut for, and enjoying your job is one of them.

All true game designers have this passion. You can see it in the games. Some of the worst games ever made have some parts of it that are very well designed. Even Two Worlds had this. The scenery and large-scale areas were pretty awesome. Too bad it was a terrible game.

Back to Call of Duty: Black Ops. As I said before, when I saw that the player reviews were only 8.1, I was surprised. I was expecting it to be because maybe the online was not as well done, but that was not the case. People are actually giving this game a 1.0 score because they feel that by doing this, Activision, or even Mr. Kotick will be affected by this.

THEY WON'T!

There is something that I have noticed about all major game companies. While they appreciate the praise of the players, they really do not notice complaints by them, unless it comes as a high percentage. Basically if there are 1 million players and 10,000 players complain about the game's company, thats's 1%. No major company cares about 1%. Remember Microsoft's RRoD? Of course you do. Well, complaints about the RRoD started to hit Microsoft during the first two months of release, but since it was such a small percentage, Microsoft basically blew it off.

When you give a game a score, you are scoring the game. You are not scoring the company. When you give a game a low score, you are saying the game is not a good one. So why miss out on a good game because you do not agree with the company that houses it?

What can you do?

Basically, you can start a petition. There are websites that offer free petition makers. You can simply build a petition, and tell people about your petition and why they should "sign" it. Then, if you get enough, you send it to the company. Not just one, no. You have as many people as possible send the company this petition. Only when you get to the investors of this company will you actually have a chance to affect the company.

I am not saying that I agree or disagree with what Activision or Kotick has done in the past, I am saying that you shouldn't miss out on a quality game, or punish the game developers, because you do not agree with the companies past decisions.

If you are interested in making an online petition, you can go tohttp://www.care2.com/create/start-petition. I have little to no details about this site (I googled Online petition and this site was first) but from the quick glance, it seems to be free and easy to do.

If you do decide to do this, let people know! If you really want to stir the Activision pot, this is one of the best ways to do so.

My initial opinion of Black Ops is that its a very good game thus far, and if you are a fan of any of the CoD games, you should play this one. This is Treyarch's best game yet. I have yet to play the online portion of the game.

....but the Kinect is awesome! I got mine last night, and played it for an hour. My wife and I had a blast! We have only played the game that came with it, I think its called Kinect Adventures. It is so fun. I have just enough room to play it in my living room (would me more room, but the angle of the entertainment center is a little wonky) but it was fun!

I have seen all these haters (would call em fanboys, but I don't want to insult Sony like that) do nothing but talk crap about the Kinect, and I LOVE IT!

HATERS = JEALOUS D-BAGS HAHAHAHAHA!

Also, they have not experienced it, they have not even played it, and they are hating on it.

BRING IT ON! IT MAKES MY DAY!

Bottom line, I can control my dashboard (Kinect area, dashboard controls coming via patch) with just my hands and voice. The controls are perfect, very sensitive, and picks up my movements better than the Sony Ice Cream Controller, and the Wii waggle stick.

Oh yeah, you can control the Kinect while sitting down, and you can talk in a party through the Kinect, so no more headset!

This thing is the future, and will only improve with time.

As you may or may not know, I live in a small area outside of Seattle, Washington. I was born and raised in a very small town called Walters, Oklahoma. When I left a few years ago it was a town of about 2,200 people. Today it has a population of 3,500.

Guess word spread that I left town....

Anyways, I bring this up because what you probably did not know is that Seattle is also the zombie capital of the WORLD. Yes, we had a "parade" of people dressed up that exceed the population of my hometown 394 peeps. Thats rights suckas we had 3,894 people dressed up as zombies and paraded around Seattle.

The craze for zombie events like this have made ZombieCon here in Seattle a huge success. Last year, the Godfather of zombie flicks, Mr. George A. Romero (thanksdchispirtle), showed up for autographs and pictures. Awesome! Well, this year is even bigger with a much more awesome event happening. This couple, who were planning on getting married at ZombieCon, sent a message on Facebook and asked the director of this convention if he would ask Bruce Campbell to marry them.

Sounds like a shot in the dark eh?

Well, apparently not because not only did Bruce Campbell agree to do this, HE WENT AND GOT ORDAINED! This means that he is a legal minister and can legally perform legitimate weddings! After the wedding, if you want to renew your vows legitly with Bruce Campbell you will be able to during the event. One stipulation, you have to be dressed up like a zombie.

So you gotta fit in....

That is awesome! Bruce Campbell, I raise my glass to your awesomeness. You sir are a true actor. Other actors and actresses should see what you do for the fans, and follow in your footsteps.

I love Seattle, and I love Bruce Campbell!

Hey guys. I have been really busy this week, so no time for any real game playing (besides the occasional WoW and that is just checking auctions and such) because school started up again, and I am taking..... political science.

I can't believe there is actually a science to being a politician! I thought you just went around and took a bunch of peoples monies and told them what they wanted to hear, while not fulfilling any promises.

So anyways, moving on.

I have my costume, its pretty cool.

So here is my costume. I bought a different (and better) mask, gloves, and an evil looking staff. I was going to make a costume, but I think I will hold off till I lose some more weight. I have the materials to be Hades from God Of War III, even the chain hooks! I will do that some other time.

I am paying off Fallout: New Vegas today. I am excited about this game! Although, I will not be able to play it as much as I was with Fallout III so it will take me even longer to finish. I have like 267 hours into Fallout III, and was told at PAX that this one is actually like 40% bigger than the third one, so we will see how much of my life will be drained into this one lol.

Sometimes I hate this state..... I just heard on the radio that there is a traffic problem on one of our interstate highways. The reason for this problem? There apparently is an injured Seagull that is on the shoulder, and the State Highway patrol has blocked off a lane to take care of it. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?! It's an effing seagull! They are EVERYWHERE HERE!

....sorry, had to get that out.

I was thinking, and I have not even taken my Dead Rising 2 CE out of the box yet..... I might return it. If you guys know me, I am not one to part with any video game that I buy, but I really have no desire to play it now. Of course, when I do get rid of it, there will be some addon that makes the game awesome and I will wish that I had it (read the Red Dead Redemption Zombie Outbreak pack addon comments to see what I mean).

Well, I am going to go to lunch now. I will drop a line later.

Also, sorry for having so few comments on your guys blogs. I wish that it would notify me of ALL my friends who post new blogs rather than just a handful. I try to keep up, but I miss a lot of your guys awesome posts, so I am sorry about that. I am not ignoring you at all, just ill informed. Yes Kelly, I still love you.

Later.

Hey guys. I gave up on the PAX pics. I must've overloaded the system with awesomeness. Whatever, moving on. So I was at Gamestop the other day, and I saw a copy of Bionic Commando for 8 bucks. I grabbed it and checked out the back. It looked decent enough so I took it to the counter. I mean hey, for 8 bucks I'll at least try the thing. The two guys at the counter were practically begging me NOT to waste my money on it. I finally had to tell them that for 8 bucks I would at least try it, and they said just bring it back later and they would give me a refund. So right out of the gate this game is null and void.

I finally played it and I have to admit that they were wrong! Bionic Commando is a fun game. It's like Prototype, and there are people (like me) who enjoy it, and people who hated it. Hey, for less than an XBLA game its worth it in my opinion.

I also picked up Enslaved. This game is really fun too. It's like if Kratos and Laura Croft "wallpapered the closet" and had a child. Maybe Nathan Drake was in on the action too. I liked the demo a lot.

Lastly, I just ordered the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow CE on gamestop.com. This game is all sorts of awesome. I mean, if its got Patrick Stewart doing voiceovers, I'm sold. The game demo was really fun too.

I watched both the Enslaved and Castlevania reviews and found something that was rather odd. In the Castlevania review, the reviewer slams the game for not helping you out when you need it, and the reviewer for Enslaved slams the game for holding your hand. So which is bad to them? Is a game dinged for not helping you out, or is it dinged for helping you out. In this case its both, which is a lose-lose for videogames. Oh yeah, and try to not fall asleep during the Enslaved review.

Well, thats all for now, talk to you soon.

I got modded for saying that in my opinion NINTENDO IS AN EGOTISTICAL PILE OF CRAP! Cry me a river, if you cant handle my opinion then go play in a traffic jam!

So the CF Foundation is doing this little contest through Pepsi. If you send a text message to a number you give the CF Foundation a vote to get $250,000.00! As you may or may not know, my wife suffers from CF. It's completely free (except for it costing you 1 text message) and is easy.

If you have 2 seconds and a cell phone, please send 102534 to 73774. You can do this once a day. Your vote counts, and would mean a lot to me.

If done correctly, you should get a thank you message after you send it.

This is not a scam, but rather an easy contest to give CF big funds!

Thanks guys!

P.S. Michelle says thanks too.

Hey guys. Sorry about the pics. My account that I use for my pics is messed up and will not let me upload images. I am trying to work around it.

I saw this story on Yahoo! and thought that you guys might be interested:

"Brian Wood spent his life thrilling millions of faceless gamers, but his last moment was spent saving the lives of those he loved most.

Wood, a 33 year-old lead designer at popular game developer Relic Entertainment, was on his way back to his Washington home whenhis wagon was struck by an oncoming Chevy Blazerbeing driven by a 21 year-old woman believed to be driving under the influence. With his pregnant wife Erin in the passenger seat, Wood swerved his car to put himself directly in the path of the oncoming SUV -- a decision that ultimately cost him his life, but protected his wife and unborn child from harm. Two other passengers riding in the backseat of the Blazer were also killed.

"All the policeman say that if we had hit the car head-on all of us would be dead," Erin Wood toldThe Province. "At the very last second (Brian) braked really hard and turned right so that he would be put in the path of the SUV and not me and the baby, and that is the only thing that saved us both."

"He was always sacrificing himself for me and the baby," she added.

But while Wood's impossibly brave act left a permanent void in the life of Erin Wood, the same people who Brian strived to please with his work have returned the favor with a striking show of support for his bereaved widow.

A memorial trust was set up within days of the accident. Countless game developers, journalists and fans posted links on Twitter and Facebook, leading to literally thousands of supportive comments, messages and financial donations, prompting Wood to send an open letterto the gaming community to popular game blog Kotaku.

"Brian always told me about how close-knit and wonderful the video game community was, but I had no idea until this tragedy just how special a group it really is," she writes. "From all the articles and comments, to the emails and donations, I am simply stunned and so touched by the love, kindness, and generosity shown to me and my family."

At the time of his death, Brian Wood was working onCompany of Heroes Online, a free-to-play version of Relic's award-winning strategy game. It's currently in open beta-test.

To help Erin, please visit theBrian Wood Memorial Trust."

-Yahoo!

So guys, if you can help, please do so. Its easy to do, and doesn't have to be much. If you cannot, its not a problem either.

Thanks.

Sorry guys, I'm having issues at home, thus writing this quick blog via work internet. I will have the rest of PAX pics up soon. Sorry guys.

The day opened at 6:15 a.m.

James, Nikki, Michelle, and myself grab our crap and head out!

As we were walking in we saw this!

Yeah, this is the real one! Used in the movies! I found out that I can sit in it! I am gonna do that tomorrow.

We got there about 45 Mins. late and found this.....

Yeah, thats about 2,000 people in one big-ass line!

This picture was taken at 7:45 a.m., PAX doesn't even start till 10.

BUT, Once we got in We saw THIS:

and this:

...and a Hummer thats an Xbox 360!!!

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

Yeah, this is real, and yeah I PLAYED IT! I feel your jealousy and it feels AWESOME!

And finally some random pics to end this blog on.....

Oops, I will have to post more on the Day 2 episode tomorrow.

This day was a relatively short one, we left by 2:30. I didn't want to leave, but everyone else was tired. I told them that tomorrow is the marathon so they better sleep good tonight!

Thats all for now, I will have much more to post tomorrow. STAY TUNED!