So I recently purchased Forza Motorsport 2, and I’ve been playing around with the customization options. FM2 lets you apply vinyl “shapes” to your car in layers to produce some amazing results. My first few attempts have been pretty crappy…I’ll admit, but I’m working on an OS X themed car, and I think that I’ve got the aqua style down. It’s a work in progress, and I’ll keep posting pics as my TT coupe gets more Apple-fied.
My 360 is dead…temporarily. I am kind of in mourning, as I realize just how often I used the thing. For those of you without a 360, it is so much more than a gaming console. I watch DVD’s on it, I video chat with my homies, I browse the marketplace and download many things…come to think of it, the 360 is much like my beloved G5 PowerMac in terms of the way I use it. The title of this post is a verse from the Bible, and taking it out of context and relating it specifically to my situation, I’m convinced that the verse refers to all of the n00bs I have pwn’d in my recent online gaming exploits:
“You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.”
Dave will be glad to know that he’ll have something to play while Lowell sleeps on his chest after dinner.
Last night I was playing Rainbow Six: Vegas (Here’s my quickie review, “It’s a great game!”) on Xbox Live. None of my friends were playing, so I was just hopping onto Team Survival games because they tend to be one of the quicker game types. It was a 5 on 5 match, and about a minute into it, I was the last person left alive on my team, and the other team was at full strength, having suffered zero losses. Anyone who has played “online gaming” with me knows that one of my key strategies is hiding. So, I found myself a little corner of the basement behind some large crates, and I just sat there….waiting. One by one, the opposing team walked by my hiding place, only to find themselves dead from the barrage of my silenced assault rifle. When I had scored 3 kills, the opposing team actually tried using some strategy. One of the two remaining enemies started lobbing grenades to my hiding spot, and the other one came around to flank me when I was flushed out. Unfortunately for them, I had already moved from my corner to the opposite corner, and I was able to easily take out the flanker, much to the cheers of my fallen comrades. I then darted back to my original hiding place, just in time to catch the other guy (who, by this time, had run out of grenades) walking past me, allowing me to humiliate him by shooting him in the back. Post-game, my team celebrated wildly, while the others hurled expletives my way. My hands were literally shaking from the intensity of the moment, so I popped in Viva Piñata (Here’s my quickie review, “It’s a great looking game!”) to help calm my nerves.
Checkin’ out the 360, uploaded by davejenbarnes
I just wanted an excuse to use the James and Gaming categories for the same post.
I just created my Gamer Card.
Maybe one day it will be incorporated into a Dave portion of the website, but for now, it is in this post.
**UPDATE** Yong and I both made gamer cards today at different times. We ended up with almost identical cards…same picture, same zone, strikingly similar tagline.
**DOUBLE UPDATE** I just created a page to house my Gamer Card and the Gamer Cards of my chums. Check it out
Man, it’s been a while since I last posted anything. So, let me sum up the past few months.
Fatherhood
All of the parenting entries pretty much sum up that topic from Jen’s point of view, but being a dad is nothing like being a mom. Here’s a few reasons why:
1. Thankfully, I am not designed with functional mammary glands (On a side note, I saw a commercial where a dad was shirtless and carrying his baby. The baby then latched on to the guy’s fatty pectorals and words appeared Sonic commercial style which read “need to lose some weight?”).
2. I work all day, somethimes on weekends, so I miss alot of the new and exciting things that James does during my work day.
3. I don’t get to cook as much. Allow me to explain: when I get home from work, all I want to do is play with James. This leaves very little time for me to prepare dinner like I used to. Jennifer has really stepped up and taken over much of the responsibility in this area to give me the most James-time.
Okay, so you get the idea. I love being a dad, but I have no where near the material to speak of that Jen does, so I’ll leave the rest of the parenting posts up to her.
Halo 2
Here’s something that’s quite strange. Halo 2 is a game that I purchased almost a year ago. I enjoy playing it more now, than I ever have in the past. Here’s a few reasons why (do you see the pattern yet?):
1. More Maps! Since my maptacular post, 5 more maps have been added! Backwash, Elongation, Gemini, Relic, and my new favorite map, Terminal.
2. The Banhammer! Cheating became rampant with the release of maps that resided on the easily hack-able Xbox Hard Drive. Matchmaking play became a frustrating and unenjoyable experience. Bungie, being fully aware of the problem, implemented an automated system that could detect many different forms of cheating and automatically ban the cheaters. Since then, I’ve had very few encounters with cheaters.
3. Teamwork! Since I basically play with the same chaps over an over, we’ve developed many strategies (some that work well, others that work well in theory, but never quite work in real life) and we’ve taken on different roles in our gameplay. I’m not saying we’re unstoppable, but I know that if I’m sniping, there’s someone watching my back to defend me, and vice-versa. I feel like I’ve actually achieved something when I work with my teammates, as opposed to just winning because I’m stinkin’ good.
Summary: Still playing Halo 2, and probably will be for a long time.
Other Games
I’ve purchased and rented a few games over the past few months. Here are a few:
1. Sid Meier’s Pirates — Absolutely fabulous game. It’s an incredible pirate simulator that lets you do everything from wooing the governer’s daughter in any one of the ports-o-call to waging all out war with a fleet of five battle frigates.
2. Burnout: Revenge — The next game in the Burnout series seemed to take a step backward, while taking several small steps to one side or the other. In previous Burnout games, all traffic was deadly, all the time. This game adds “traffic checking” (checking as in “I was playing hockey and body checking everyone!!!”) which in effect allows drivers to slam into traffic as long as it is going the same direction. This eliminates much of the tension of the older games, and makes good driving much less important. Track design is close to flawless, and each track is designed with takedowns in mind, whereas the previous games’ tracks were designed as race tracks.
Basically, even when I have other games, I always end up playing Halo 2 with my buddies.
Apple
Apple has been busy as of late. Here is another list of products that conforms to the pattern of this post:
1. iPod Nano — This replaces the iPod mini, and has been getting mixed reviews. The press loves it, and some consumers are complaining about their screen getting scratched up. My thoughts: the Nano’s plastic screen cover is made out of the same material that regular iPods’ screen covers are made out of. A similar sized scratch on the two respective ‘Pods will look proportionally huge on the Nano.
2. iPod — They still just call it an iPod, but now it plays video! When I first heard rumors about this, I thought to myself, “That sounds like an okay idea, but what the heck would I want to watch on an iPod?” Luckily, Apple was thinking the same thing (see #3)
3. iTunes 6.0 — You can now purchase TV shows, Music Videos, and several of Pixar’s animated shorts for $1.99 each. Here’s the really great part. You don’t have to just watch them on your iPod. When you download them, you can watch them on your computer (if you have your compy hooked up to your HDTV, you could watch them on TV). In my opinion, this is way cooler (and cheaper) than owning a season of your favorite TV show on DVD. The downsides: there aren’t any shows available that I’m interested in, and you can’t burn them onto a DVD if you wanted to.
Summary: I’m glad to see Apple continuing to push forward with great ideas and products that seem to speak to the masses. I hope they keep it up as the transition to Intel chips begins shortly.
Food
In order to use as many categories as possible, I’m going to mention this. Jen found a wicked awesome Blog. I’m hooked.