07 September, 2008

Recent Gaming Activities

I've been console gaming since my brother's original Pong game. Yep. Sounds cliche'd, but there it is. Got my Atari 2600 around 1981, an Apple ][+ the following year (getting me into the world of PC gaming), and I'll skip all the stages since then, but culminating with my current assortment of PS2, PS3 (personal favorite), GameCube, Wii, NintendoDS, and my dual-core PC.

Currently playing...

PC: HALO: Combat Evolved (original but patched), Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Second Life (if one can even call it a game)

PS3: Warhawk (Just started last night), Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Next Project...

Now that I've got all my router ports configured for the latest games, and an MTU adjustment to prevent my router from dropping packets, I'm going to turn my attention to getting HALO2 to run in XP (designed only for Vista). I hear it can be done.

The Gamecube and Wii belong to the kids, and aside from an extremely rare occurrence when we play together, I play nothing on them. Cool boxes though.

I've got an old-school DS, pre-LITE, and I don't use it. I'm thinking of selling it...but it's tough, cuz I won't get much for it, and the trade-in value, for a DS Lite, is not really worth it...unless I can convince myself I'd use the Lite.

That's about it from the gaming scene. So, a shout-out to all you fellow gamers, and I'll see you in-world.

Related Links
Halo:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/PC/halo.aspx - Description of the game and related links.
http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/downloads.aspx - You can download a functional demo of the game.

06 September, 2008

Mini-Review of Genesis: When in Rome

I checked this out on MHD..or whatever it's called this month...oh yeah, Palladia Network.  MHD is now Palladia.  Okay.  Whatever.

Anyway...

Genesis: When in Rome

The concert was well shot, but the song list was kind of strange.  I didn't recognize two of the songs, so they were either brand new or super old.  Either way they were extended album cuts.  Decent, but in this modern age of ADD I lost interest in the stuff I didn't know, as the music itself was not unique enough, from the stuff I do know, to get me to pay attention.  Perhaps there was more stuff, on the real DVD, that the network opted not to show...checking...yeah.  The set list, from the DVD, is as follows.  Much to my chagrin, "Home by the Sea" was not on the broadcast version, which is stupid, since it's a great tune.

Concert:

  1. "Duke's Intro" (Behind The Lines, Duke's End)
  2. "Turn It On Again"
  3. "No Son Of Mine"
  4. "Land Of Confusion"
  5. "In The Cage Medley" (In The Cage, The Cinema Show, Duke's Travels)
  6. "Afterglow"
  7. "Hold On My Heart"
  8. "Home By The Sea"
  9. "Follow You, Follow Me"
  10. "Firth Of Fifth"
  11. "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"


Regardless, the musicianship was, of course, top-notch.  Mike Rutherford and Milwaukee's Daryl Stuermer traded guitar and bass roles constantly.  Chester Thompson handled the drumming when Collins was off singing...or when he was playing the drums (typical dual mode, fun to watch).

I recommend a one-time viewing if for no other reason than the film-makers get it right and actually show them handling their instruments, versus just showing their faces.

Gaming a bit again - Original 'HALO'

Work is a challenge, in that there's so much to do right now.  All kinds of stuff going on!  Great stuff and great colleagues, so I don't mind it at all, but it can be mentally draining.

To alleviate the stress, I dug out my copy of the original HALO game, loaded it up, played it for an hour -- after only having played it twice before, about 8 months ago -- threw up a server, and had my pall Kirby connect.  We played for about an hour and a half, and it was a blast.  We set it for "five kills makes a winner", and Kirby hosed me the first few times out (HALO vet).  I soon got my legs, and we ended up swapping matches throughout the rest of the night.  He and I did a lot of Ghost Recon, back in the day, and I'd consider us equals, with either of us able to trounce the other when we're "on".

Since then I've configured my router to pass Windows Messenger audio to my gaming rig so that we can taunt each other.  I tend to "play blue", so I apologize in advance for any naughty words he hears in-game.

I highly recommend it as a way of letting off some steam.  One can usually find it at the used game stores for $9.99, or shell out $19.99 for a new copy.