Friday, September 30, 2011
Well, I was planning my regular insanely long blog today since it has been two months since I have updated, but I ran into another unfortunate bout of car trouble with my Ford Ranger, and that pretty much took everything out of me getting that sorted out. I told myself earlier this year when the pulley and service belt went out that next time I had a problem with it I would be looking for a new vehicle. I guess it is about time I start perusing the car lots. Anyways, I will just try to quickly touch on some things I wanted to address that happened during the past two months.
I went on my last camping trip with my dad, and my brother tagged along too for a day. For our third straight camping trip, one of the two days we were camping it was dominated by rainy weather. Luckily we brought some movies, which resulted in my finally seeing the John Candy classic, The Great Outdoors for the first time. That was a fun trip with my dad, another one was just last week I went to my first ever pro sports game with my dad as witnessed the Twins lose to the Indians 6-5. My dad started frequenting a senior center earlier this year, and they had a special with roundtrip busfare and a Twins ticket for only $65. Even at the Twins game, we had to endure a consistent light rain throughout the game, which was just light enough so the game was not cancelled. That case of precipitation did not deny my dad and I from devouring a chili dog and some overpriced ballpark beers! The bus ride there and back was fun too as my dad and I played a bunch of multiplayer DS with classics like Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS and Atari Classics Collection.
I played a lot more tennis against Derrick since the last update. This summer is easily the one where I have played the most tennis yet. Last couple months we have been playing with actual tennis scoring, and Derrick has been winning most of the matches, but I have finally won a best of three set match about a month ago with set scores of 4-6, 6-0, 7-5. Not only have I been playing a ton of tennis this summer, but I have been starting to get into the routing of going on some light jogs and gradually building my conditioning. Tomorrow I am giving up two of my favorite foods, pizza and burgers, so hopefully this will all combine in me dropping some serious pounds in the coming months.
In podcast land, the latest episode of On Tap features Matt and I reviewing Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, and we then proceed to geek out with 16-bit nostalgia to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the SNES. click here to give it a listen. On the most recent Cheap Pop, it was Mark Henry appreciation night, as we give major props for ending his 15 year odyssey by winning his first major world championship. click here to download us giving the World's Strongest Man some major props.
In the latest in gaming, I have beat a ton of games this past two months. August I only beat two XBLA comic book themed games with Unbound Saga and Comic Jumper. Unbound Saga was pretty mediocre and forgettable, but the over arching story had a few interesting twists. Comic Jumper has superb presentation, and after I finally adapted to its controls I found myself having a blast with it. In September I finally beat Mortal Kombat's story mode after picking away at it since its launch, and damn is Shao Kahn still one tough motha! Still loved the story and presentation, with well produced cutscenes between each fight puts MK's story in a league of its own. I also finished the second Penny Arcade Adventures downloadable game in a much quicker fashion than the first one. Had a great time with it and am glad Penny Arcade announced they found a new developer to make episode three. Joey and I finally finished Dead Nation in coop after picking away at it for a few months now. I thought I was burnt out of too many zombies in games lately, but putting them in a isometric dungeon crawl with guns turns out to be a fun fit.
As mentioned above I finished Killzone 3 and Resistance 3. I just could not get completely comfortable with Killzone's controls and found myself dying far too frequently. The story is also incompetent all over the place, and I found myself disconnected throughout a majority of it, but it is easily one of the best looking PS3 games. Resistance 3 is a big step up from the disappointing second game. It goes all out with the shooting action and survival horror sections, and factor in Resistance's trademark arsenal of unique weapons, and you have one of the best games of the year.
Last game I finished since last update was Gears of War 3. I have been psyched for this game for countless months and it did not fail to deliver. I broke my rule and attended a rare midnight launch and met up with fellow Gears heads Rich and his wife Kristine and we immediately set up a LAN and dove right into the campaign. We ended up beating the campaign within a day, and the story has a good sense of closure and answers a lot of questions (while still leaving some open) that have been dangling in the Gears universe for awhile. Ended up playing quite a bit of online horde and vs. multiplayer in Gears 3 this past week, and the online multiplayer is vastly improved from before. I could go on forever, but for now I will say be on the lookout for episode 166 of On Tap next week, because we are dedicating the next On Tap entirely to Gears 3.
A couple months ago I picked up a DSi XL. I had (and still have) pretty much no interest in the 3DS, but I have such a huge DS library that I cherish, and the DSi XL's huge screen looked like a huge advantage for some text heavy games I play like Last Window/Hotel Dusk and the Phoenix Wright games. While the system is most noticeably on the bulky side, it is a minor concession to make as I am now getting far more out of my DS games than before. I will miss the GBA support, but I still have my DS Lite and GameCube GameBoy Player (yes, I still have it hooked up!) for those. I also got to try out several DSi Ware games that I read some rave reviews of, there are not many classic DSi Ware titles, but there are some definite gems and I had some good sessions with games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Photo Dojo and X-Scape. If you have a DSi or 3DS please make sure to download Photo Dojo, it is brilliant, hilarious and only $2!
Kudos to the 49ers for starting 2-1! Gore is not really producing and already hurt, Michael Crabtree came back week 3, but not look 100%, and the 49ers have just been sneaking by in their last few games, but I was surprised they took the Cowboys all the way to overtime and nearly upset them. Playoffs???? Ehhhh, well I guess it is possible to win the NFC West with a 7-9 record again because the Niners are leading the division with a 2-1 record so far.
This may look like a decent length blog, but trust me it is about half as short as I usually ramble for. Thanks for sticking with me, and we will see you next time!
I went on my last camping trip with my dad, and my brother tagged along too for a day. For our third straight camping trip, one of the two days we were camping it was dominated by rainy weather. Luckily we brought some movies, which resulted in my finally seeing the John Candy classic, The Great Outdoors for the first time. That was a fun trip with my dad, another one was just last week I went to my first ever pro sports game with my dad as witnessed the Twins lose to the Indians 6-5. My dad started frequenting a senior center earlier this year, and they had a special with roundtrip busfare and a Twins ticket for only $65. Even at the Twins game, we had to endure a consistent light rain throughout the game, which was just light enough so the game was not cancelled. That case of precipitation did not deny my dad and I from devouring a chili dog and some overpriced ballpark beers! The bus ride there and back was fun too as my dad and I played a bunch of multiplayer DS with classics like Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS and Atari Classics Collection.
I played a lot more tennis against Derrick since the last update. This summer is easily the one where I have played the most tennis yet. Last couple months we have been playing with actual tennis scoring, and Derrick has been winning most of the matches, but I have finally won a best of three set match about a month ago with set scores of 4-6, 6-0, 7-5. Not only have I been playing a ton of tennis this summer, but I have been starting to get into the routing of going on some light jogs and gradually building my conditioning. Tomorrow I am giving up two of my favorite foods, pizza and burgers, so hopefully this will all combine in me dropping some serious pounds in the coming months.
In podcast land, the latest episode of On Tap features Matt and I reviewing Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, and we then proceed to geek out with 16-bit nostalgia to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the SNES. click here to give it a listen. On the most recent Cheap Pop, it was Mark Henry appreciation night, as we give major props for ending his 15 year odyssey by winning his first major world championship. click here to download us giving the World's Strongest Man some major props.
In the latest in gaming, I have beat a ton of games this past two months. August I only beat two XBLA comic book themed games with Unbound Saga and Comic Jumper. Unbound Saga was pretty mediocre and forgettable, but the over arching story had a few interesting twists. Comic Jumper has superb presentation, and after I finally adapted to its controls I found myself having a blast with it. In September I finally beat Mortal Kombat's story mode after picking away at it since its launch, and damn is Shao Kahn still one tough motha! Still loved the story and presentation, with well produced cutscenes between each fight puts MK's story in a league of its own. I also finished the second Penny Arcade Adventures downloadable game in a much quicker fashion than the first one. Had a great time with it and am glad Penny Arcade announced they found a new developer to make episode three. Joey and I finally finished Dead Nation in coop after picking away at it for a few months now. I thought I was burnt out of too many zombies in games lately, but putting them in a isometric dungeon crawl with guns turns out to be a fun fit.
As mentioned above I finished Killzone 3 and Resistance 3. I just could not get completely comfortable with Killzone's controls and found myself dying far too frequently. The story is also incompetent all over the place, and I found myself disconnected throughout a majority of it, but it is easily one of the best looking PS3 games. Resistance 3 is a big step up from the disappointing second game. It goes all out with the shooting action and survival horror sections, and factor in Resistance's trademark arsenal of unique weapons, and you have one of the best games of the year.
Last game I finished since last update was Gears of War 3. I have been psyched for this game for countless months and it did not fail to deliver. I broke my rule and attended a rare midnight launch and met up with fellow Gears heads Rich and his wife Kristine and we immediately set up a LAN and dove right into the campaign. We ended up beating the campaign within a day, and the story has a good sense of closure and answers a lot of questions (while still leaving some open) that have been dangling in the Gears universe for awhile. Ended up playing quite a bit of online horde and vs. multiplayer in Gears 3 this past week, and the online multiplayer is vastly improved from before. I could go on forever, but for now I will say be on the lookout for episode 166 of On Tap next week, because we are dedicating the next On Tap entirely to Gears 3.
A couple months ago I picked up a DSi XL. I had (and still have) pretty much no interest in the 3DS, but I have such a huge DS library that I cherish, and the DSi XL's huge screen looked like a huge advantage for some text heavy games I play like Last Window/Hotel Dusk and the Phoenix Wright games. While the system is most noticeably on the bulky side, it is a minor concession to make as I am now getting far more out of my DS games than before. I will miss the GBA support, but I still have my DS Lite and GameCube GameBoy Player (yes, I still have it hooked up!) for those. I also got to try out several DSi Ware games that I read some rave reviews of, there are not many classic DSi Ware titles, but there are some definite gems and I had some good sessions with games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Photo Dojo and X-Scape. If you have a DSi or 3DS please make sure to download Photo Dojo, it is brilliant, hilarious and only $2!
Kudos to the 49ers for starting 2-1! Gore is not really producing and already hurt, Michael Crabtree came back week 3, but not look 100%, and the 49ers have just been sneaking by in their last few games, but I was surprised they took the Cowboys all the way to overtime and nearly upset them. Playoffs???? Ehhhh, well I guess it is possible to win the NFC West with a 7-9 record again because the Niners are leading the division with a 2-1 record so far.
This may look like a decent length blog, but trust me it is about half as short as I usually ramble for. Thanks for sticking with me, and we will see you next time!
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