Minecraft Monday - September 27th

Hopefully you've heard of the game Minecraft by now, but if you haven't I'd suggest going and checking out videos on Youtube (I'll recommend looking at stuff by Seananners, X, and awesomemattg they're my favorites). Then you should go buy it because, since it's in Alpha, it's only like 13 bucks and you'll get a lot of play time out of it.

In this space I'm just going to post updates about what I've been doing in Minecraft (someday soon I'm hoping to start uploading videos, but until I get my new computer that's not going to happen). Obviously since no one can see my map this is mostly for me to chart my progress on my "domain".

The other day my map got deleted when something messed up with the Seecret Friday update so I've had to make a brand new map. Luckily, as I was walking around I found this sweet arch that's just giant and was begging to have a castle/fort built into it. So far I haven't really gotten a lot done on the castle part because I was watching awesomemattg show off his quarries and I decided I wanted to make one. I also wanted to make one just a little bigger than his and tailor it to my personal tastes, which mostly means I build a huge tower out of planks in the middle that goes from bedrock up to cloud level. Currently I'm not super far down yet...probably halfway, but I should finish it by the end of the week, which is when my castle will get built. All that's up in my castle thus far is a side room that contains about 20 chests, filled with various things and a wall of furnaces...about 30ish in all that pump out clean stone by the boat load. Right next to the chest room is my lava spring incinerator that I basically copied from mattg and X. It's nothing special, but it serves it's purpose. I've also started clearing out the front of the castle to build a grand entrance to the fort...it's about 1/3 done and is going to take awhile. But it's not going to take near as long as the waterway I'm trying to build to my second digsite. This is probably going to be my most difficult undertaking so far because it's so far to the location and it takes forever to fill it with water, let alone build it. I'm just hoping to finish it as some point and not just get fed up and quit.

That's all I've really been doing in Minecraft lately outside of the random cave exploration (there's actually a huge cave system inside my fort, which is really cool). Hopefully next weeks update will see a few of these projects completed.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Sunday Stories - September 26th

Update on earlier post: Vikings won...despite Old Man Favre tossing two INTs. Yes, I spell his name wrong on purpose because I hate him. I really wish we could of somehow traded for Mike Vick or something, that 40 year old man needs to go sit in his Lazy Boy.


Anyways, I don't really know what I want to do with this day yet so for now I'm just going to tell a story that I think is kind of funny. Today we're going back to yesteryear as I recount one of my more humorous tales from my baseball playing days as a high school freshman. Hopefully this isn't a "you had to be there" tale, but if it is...who cares, I'll probably be the only one to read this.

So to set the stage I'm sitting in the locker room with my friends Bilbo and Mark. Also in the room are a few random guys, this guy Comstock and a senior Fike. Now to give a little background Fike is a triple black belt whose dad runs the local karate school. Plus he's about 6' 5 250 pounds of solid muscle. Comstock on the other hand is about 5'8 and 175 pounds. Fike also has this girlfriend, Jessica, who he's very protective of, so of course, Comstock waltzes up and asks, "Hey Fike what would you do if I made out with Jessica?"

Fike looks up with a glare in his eye and mutters, "Chop your head off with my hand."

Comstock, unable to take a hint, says, "Ok, but what if I just touched her?"

Without missing a beat Fike gets up and stares down at Comstock and says, "If you touched her? Well I'd have to rip both your hearts out with my hands and make you eat them before you die. How's that sound Comstock?"

Comstock finally senses he's in trouble and bows his head and walks away and Fike turns his head to Mark, whose like 5'4 120 and says, "You got anything to say about it faggot?"

Mark looks like a little dog who just got yelled at, and is practically crying as Fike turns away and goes back to cleaning his catcher's gear.

Well see ya next time. Some time, same place.

Saturday Shorts - September 25th

(Note: Internet was down yesterday so I'm posting this a day late).

Just some quick news that I've seen over the week.

Denard Robinson not withstanding we had some shake-ups in the Heisman race this weekend. Ryan Mallet came out throwing against Bama...throwing interceptions that is. His two touchdowns (one on the ground) may of kept him in it for now, but having three INTs is no way to make a statement against the number one team in the nation. On the other side of the gridiron Mark Ingram looked like he was back to his old ways, going for 157 yards and two scores. He's looking to be back into the race and with a few more big games against the SEC competition could make him the second ever repeating winner. Much like Ryan Mallet, Andrew Luck missed his chance to get a big "Heisman moment" against Notre Dame on TV this week. Also like Mallet, Luck still isn't out of the race after throwing two INTs and one TD, but he missed out on a great chance. Terrelle Pryor on the other hand had a huge day (albeit against greatly inferior competition) getting four TDs passing, one rushing, and one receiving. That's six touchdowns ladies and gentlemen...one receiving...for a quarterback! That's a huge day and could help him out a lot come ceremony day. So here's my current list, complete with stats and a little analysis:

1) Dernard Robinson- 731 yards passing, 4 TDs, 688 rushing, 2 TDs. Even though he only played about a quarter this week Robinson made his presence known with 129 rushing yards and two TDs. We'll see if Michigan can keep winning come league play to see if he can stay on top.

2) Terrelle Pryor- 939 yards passing, 10 TDs, 269 yards rushing, 3 TDs. Pryor is probably on top right now realistically because I don't think Michigan can keep winning with that terrible defense so at the end of the season I think Robinson will slip a little. I really think this guy has a great chance to win it.

3) Ryan Mallet- 1438 yards passing, 10 TDs, 2 rushing TDs. I find it funny that Mallet has two rushing TDs and minus ten yards rushing. I understand that it's because he gets sacked, but it's just funny to see that stat. I think Mallet will bounce back and has a legit shot to overtake Pryor...really, for me, those two are who it's going to come down to unless Ingram keeps averaging 9.3 ypc.

4) Kellen Moore- 873 yards passing, 8 TDs. I'm not really a fan of Boise State. It's not that I don't think they should play in the BCS or anything and to be fair they did beat my least favorite team, OU, a few years back so I like them for that, but I just can't find anything to like. Moore will probably rack up crazy stats the rest of the year, but if Mallet, Pryor, or some other player from a big conference has comparable numbers I can't give it to Moore.

5) Mark Ingram- 308 rushing yards, 4 TDs. This maybe a little soon to put him in the top five, but good golly is he playing well. He's going to keep this up and he's going to have a shot at the end of the year if he doesn't get hurt. Plus I just can't bring myself to have a list fully populated with quarterbacks.

Just missed: Andrew Luck and my homer pick Justin Blackmon the wideout from Oklahoma  State...eight TDs in three games? Dez Bryant who? Just kidding Dez I love you.

The other big sports news of the week it would seem is that the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings are in a good position to pick up their first wins this week. I've probably just jinxed my Vikings, but hopefully I'll also jinx the Cowboys because I don't like them at all. I mean if someone else could just take Dez off their hands and then the stadium exploded I'd be okay with that.


Finally, Dead Rising 2 is coming out soon and I can't wait to get my hands on that. Since money's tight (and really when is it not when you're in college) I'll probably wait and see if my brother buys it and if not I'll have my mom rent it for me next time I visit home. That said I couldn't be more excited for it, I've never technically beat the first game, but I've put in a good 40 hours of just killing zombies for fun. That shows how a great a game it was...if you can play a game for 40 hours and not even care about the story you know you have something amazing. Especially if it's someone like me we're talking about who plays games like Halo through on easy just to get the story and then never plays it again.

Well, see ya next time. Some time, same place.

First Look Friday - September 24th

If any of you guys out there are Game Informer subscribers then you'll be sure to of noticed the Fall Out: New Vegas that led off the Preview section. As someone whose played every Fallout through multiple times I can't tell you how excited I am for this to come out. As I've said before I'm a big fan of the post apocalyptic setting and Fallout is one that always delivers a good scenario in that mold. I really like the idea of a desert setting along with the New Vegas setting as it seems like it's going to lead to some feelings of being all alone with the super mutants when you brave the open desert. Rummaging through the buildings of Fallout 3 was simply breathtaking and super scary when you were running low on ammo (something that seemed to happen often), so I'm a little scared that we might lose a little of that awesomeness that made me feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend when we go to a more deserted place. That said I'm still super excited.

In the new GI they talked about a few of the traits in the game and that got me wondering what kinda cool stuff they would have in the new game. I was a big fan of using the less helpful traits in 3, such as the talking to kids one and the guardian angel one. Even though these didn't really make me a killing machine they still gave me a great time. I'm also hopeful the bounty hunter contracts from three will come back in a big way. That would be awesome to get to run around in the open wastelands making contract killings. Speaking of bounty hunters why has no one made a game for this generation about those guys in Star Wars? I mean they're easily cooler than Jedi and it would give people something else to play besides lightsaber games.

I seriously can't wait to grab this game the day it comes out...hopefully it will be as good as the last one and as good as I was hoping Metro 2033 to be. Well, see ya next time. Same time, some place. 

Throwback Thursday - September 23rd

First and foremost I haven't been able to do much in the way of posting recently because my internet connection has been so terrible recently. Hopefully that's sorted out and I can get back to doing dailyish posts.

Anyways, on to the throwbacks. For the past few weeks I've gotten kind of bored with Diablo 2 and have moved on to some other old favorites, namely Goldeneye. My brother got a N64 for his birthday and let me borrow it for a month so my friends and I could recreate the dorm room Goldeneye battles of yesteryear. At first it was awesome because I was the only one who could remember how to play and was winning games with scores like 22-2 and other ridiculous wins. But as we continued to play everyone caught up and now it's more even which really is more fun because it's an actual challenge.

Goldeneye is such a great multiplayer game because it's a split screen you can play with your friends and, with the lack of sophisticated aiming like in current titles, everyone is on a fairly even playing field. One of my friends is a Halo god and you can barely ever kill him because he'll just headshot you from somewhere you can't even see and win. In Goldeneye he can't really do that because the aiming mechanic is so old. Really the best way I've found to play is to use the crouch mechanic and then strafe using the C-buttons. I'm sure there are more effective ways to play, but this seems to win me a lot of battles when neither person really gets "the jump".

The only thing I don't like is how easy it is to steal kills from far away with rockets. This is the bane of my existence and I'm currently trying to outlaw rockets as a playable loadout (just as we've done with Oddjob). I can't count the number of times I've had my kill stolen by some jerk with a rocket. Now I don't really care if you steal a kill with a gun because then I still have a decent chance at also killing you or getting away, but most rocket shots into someone else's firefight end up in a double kill...the cheapest thing ever.

So if you've got a chance to pick up this bad boy and give it a replay (or go buy the new Wii remake) I'd recommend it because this game mostly holds up and is an awesome time with friends.

See ya next time. Same place, some time.

Saturday Shorts - September 4th

I still haven't really decided what I want to do with this day, but I'm thinking I might just post my rp stuff from Warcraft because I need somewhere to put it. However, since today is the first full day of college football I've been really busy watching games and haven't really had time to think of anything to write  so I'm just gunna cover a few short topics for today.

My Oklahoma State Cowboys absolutely destroyed WSU tonight, which admittedly isn't that impressive, but a wins a win. Kendall Hunter had an amazing 2008 campaign and after being hurt last year he's picked it up right back from where he ended. I said two years ago he could/should contend for a Heisman if the team was any good and tonight's game proved it. He went for around 250 yards and 3 TDs and just dominated an overmatched WSU squad. The real test will come when Big 12 play starts, but it probably won't matter what he does because we'll probably only win 4-7 games this year. Justin Blackmon also had a great night with 4 total TDs, 3 receiving. I'm much more hesitant to get excited about this because he's had big games in the past and then played terrible in the rest of the games. The new QB, Old Man Brandon Weeden, had a good first showing and was super accurate, going 22-30 with 3 scores. The most exciting development was the play of the defense. Before the two starting DTs went out the D was dominating in every facet of the game and continued to play fast and smart when the DTs went down with injuries. Again, this is a lesser team in WSU, but still I'm much more excited for this season than I was before the game started. We'll just haveta see how next week goes against Troy.

The other big news for me this week was the US sweeping the prelims. I'm not quite sure if we'll be able to win this whole thing, but I feel like we have a good shot to at least make the championship game. Our biggest problem is going to be teams with size because we have a lack of it. Hopefully they can overcome and take home the World's for the first time in awhile.

Well, that's all for now...tune in next time; some time, same place.

First Look Friday - September 3

Now obviously I'm not going to be getting any actual first looks at the games I want to talk about on this day, but there are quite a few games I'd like to talk about that haven't come out yet. Think of this as more of personal preview of sorts. Today's first look is a little game called Rage by a little known developer id Software, who made games like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstien.

This new game they have coming out this time next year is being called Rage and it's a post apocalyptic shooter with some car combat and racing thrown in for good measure. Personally I love when developers use a post apocalyptic setting in games as it just has a really cool feel to it. My favorite being Fallout 3, but I also liked Metro 2033 (more the idea than the actual game) and to a degree Borderlands (it's more of a back water alien world, but it feels post apocalyptic). With a developer like id you  know you're going to get a great shooter with a really moody atmosphere and from the current screen shots you can tell that at the very least this is going to be a beautiful game. I'm not usually a graphics whore, but dad gum this one is doing it for me.

Not only does the shooting aspect of this game seem sweet, but I really think the car combat could be cool. Back in the day I used to play Twisted Metal: Black and Road Rage all the time and if this game can come close to that one it could be awesome because you'll get a great shooter with some cool car combat tacked on. It's been said that they're going to let you custom upgrade your vehicles which should be legit. Here's hoping I can get a Wayne's World Pacer with chain guns for side mirrors and a rocket cannon in the back seat...with  tiny flames on the side of course.

I'd like to encourage you to go check out the trailer on id's website if you have the time, but I gotta get outta here and go play some WoW. See ya next time some time, same place.

Throwback Thursday - September 2nd

This themed day could easily changed based on my mood, but recently I've been playing an old, old favorite, Diablo 2, out the whaazoo because my internet is super slow and Warcraft isn't an option. This was the first game I ever really got into, spending entire weekends up in my families computer room trolling games trying to grab free stuff for my many level 90+ characters. That was the guy I was back in 7th and 8th grade; leveling up characters to 90 and then using mule characters to get them better gear by going into games titled things like "free stuff" or "free things" or "freeeeeeeeee". I'm sure most people would look down on this way of playing, but dad gum if it wasn't fun. I want to share one particular story that has always stayed in my mind even after I moved on to other games (read WoW).

So, like I said I would level guys up and then troll for free equipment so I didn't have to do a ton of work, but I would also go magic find on my sorceress, Cocourpebbles5 (yes, all my characters were named Cocourpebbles and then a number and my mules were named Cocurmule and then a number). I had everything one would need to be a good mf sorceress...a 125+ def. shako, Tal Rasha's, etc. etc. So one night I was out slapping Meph around in Hell, just completely dominating his crap until I ran into a pocket of monsters while teleporting there that I just couldn't get out of in time. For some reason I decided to put on my decent pvp gear and go after my old stuff, unfortunately I died again on the way there. This ticked me off a ton so I rage quit and created a new game to get my stuff back. Now those of you who've played Diablo will know that when you quit a game after death you get the last body you died in back. Since I had quit after dying the second time without getting my mf gear back I lost it all. Staring dumbfounded at the screen, completely disgusted at how stupid I had just been, I exited out of the game, calmly went to my computer settings and uninstalled Diablo, vowing to never play again.

Well its been quite a few years and I've grown much wiser in my time away, but I gotta say this game stands up even when you can't play online. I was able to push through Baal in a couple of days on a Druid and have been doing a ton of Meph runs to try and get some gear together to play some games on LAN with my newly obsessed roommate. I can't believe how great this game can still be; I mean there's really nothing better than this for a loot whore like myself and playing it so much over the past couple of days makes the wait until Diablo 3 comes out almost unbearable.

Welp, that's all for now. Tune in next time...some time, same place.

WoW Wednesday-September 1st

Good evening sports fans!

As the title would suggest today we're going to talk about Warcraft, specifically what I've been doing in game during the past week. Now the school I go to is having some internet troubles, which I plan to talk about later on in the week so I haven't been able to log in very much, but when I do I've been working on leveling up two of my alts. I've been playing a Hunter since about two or three months after the game went live and have only once took a class past 20 (a terrible warrior that I quit do to getting ruthlessly ganked in STV). With the changes coming in Cataclysm though I've decided to go 1-80 with a new class to see everything before it changes. This little critter has come about in the form of a, currently, level 23 troll mage named Jofro (I let my 8 year old brother name all my bank alts...the best so far, Priesticles). I haven't been able to really get super into leveling him because it always reminds of how awesome things used to be. For instance, I can remember the days when getting a mount was a big deal and I had to save for weeks to grab my first mount at 40 (which I really got at like 45). Nowadays I get it 20 and it's not even much of a gold sink, especially with an 80 main. I'm sure that if I had to wait for 40 I'd hate it, but I still feel a little cheated in having to go through it the hard way. I also long for the days when Allies and Horde had week long (if not longer) battles in Hillsbrad. I mean these things were EPIC and maybe the most fun I've had in a PVP match (the only thing that comes close is old school AV battles that could last forever). I remember seeing hordes of Alliance coming through the field by Tauren Mill on their mounts and 50+ of us Horde were there ready to defend something that didn't really matter.

Enough of me pining for the olden days when I had to walk up a hill both ways just to get to the AH in Orgrimmar; lets talk about my other alt I've been working on. One of the main reasons I have no money in game is that I love to level up professions. I've gotten skinning, leatherworking, mining, blacksmithing, tailoring, jewelcrafting, and herbalism up to 450 on my main and its cost me a ton of money. With that in mind I decided I would finally level up my DK that was specifically made for RPing purposes for my main (something that I will hopefully delve into later). So I've been taking him through Outland and leveling up his herbalism and alchemy. I think this is the way for me to get my profession fix without leveling up different things over and over again on my main. I've also been working on my mage's tailoring and enchanting (Running old world instances for things to disenchant on my main ftw) and plan to roll a goblin rouge who gets engineering and something else (skinning or mining just for ease of use....or maybe leatherworking/blacksmithing...I can't decide, I might need more alts!). Other than working on getting these guys to max level and slowing accumulating mats with my main (skinning/mining) to help level up engineering on my goblin when Cata drops I haven't really been doing much of anything outside of the random BG.

Speaking of BGs I can't wait for the rated BGs that will come with the Cataclysm. This will be my dream as I'm not really into arena or raiding, but do love to pvp at a high level. This new game mechanic should help me out a lot in the gear portion of the game and I can't wait to get some guildies together on a semi-daily basis and curb stomp some gnomes. I'm really looking forward to the new BGs and hope they can recapture the magic that is AV. Really, there is nothing better than getting together with a healer and a few other damage dealers to get on D and ruin some Allies day. If that doesn't come to happen then I'm also fond of trying to force my team into a turtle and rack up some insane HKs...nothing makes me feel better than dropping 300+ kills in one game, especially if it involves lots of gnomes or paladins.

The last thing I want to touch on is this new mechanic we hunters have called focus. From what I understand this is going to cause my class to be much more frugal with our focus use than we were with mana. Now I'm all for making it a little bit more difficult and requiring players to hit more buttons, but how is this going to effect us on the damage meters? I'm not a fan of checking them much, but other people are and if making me take less shots causes mine to go down will they still bring me to raids? Like I've said I'm not the best player and don't do progression raiding so this doesn't effect me much, but I gotta look out for my fellow huntards. I could of missed something as to how this is actually going to work and would love for someone to explain it to me if they could. From how I've had it explained to me now it seems like we have a high chance of becoming a lower tier damage dealer. As I write this I realize that I've almost for sure missed something because there's no way someone smarter than me hasn't noticed this already, so if you know what's up then tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Tune in next time...some time, same place.