Saturday, January 19, 2008

Whoa, you guys heard about the new Ghostbusters video game? The story for it is written by Dan Akroid and Harold Ramis and it will even have the voices of Bill Murray and the guy who played Winston (remember he was at some Con we went to!) That's kinda epic! Hope the actual game is good.

| Actionshots

And so Theactionshots site has risen from the ashes, better than ever. I am still working on adding more images, but at least this method is a lot less time intensive to update and raw files are available. To protect the innocent, and by innocent I do not mean you jArks, I have password protected the Actionteam images.

To visit, go to: http://polychromatic.smugmug.com/ and select on the section for "The Actionteam". The password is the answer to this riddle: Something Batman punched the joker into. Hint: Two words with no spaces in between, no caps. Still having issues? Let me know and I will email it.

I went and saw No Country for Old Men last night. I enjoyed it fairly well. I really liked the characters, the time period and the location the film was set in. I would definitely recommend it to most ActionJacksonTeam members, but be forewarned it is a bit grim. Sort of a darker, southwestern version of Fargo.

jr0n: I would totally rock some rpg if you busted it out. Do IT!

D>M>

| Drumz Pleaze

eLzar: h4Xor away on your drums.

I think my TiVo is getting sick. The HD is having occasional spurts of heavy bearing whine. Sounds like the bearings are coming to their end of life. Booo... I really don't want to have to play with the guts on that thing, but I may have no choice.

Hooty McTired
Your post made me laugh. I'm disappointed you didn't memorize the whole list... I bet you don't even remember whether Outlaw Golf: 9 More Holes of X-mas is on there. (Here's a hint: it is.)

About the Bioware games, Mass Effect is a lot more ambitious but Jade Empire is tighter and more assured. It's kind of like comparing the music we made in the JP Can't Come Over era, when it was really fuckin' improvisational and deep and shit, and we'd do things like wear a clown mask and a crayola outfit just because we fucking had the inspiration to do it, but maybe sometimes it was sloppy, versus the plastic, corporate bullshit we soft-served out into neat little piles in the Holophrastics.

Another good comparison would be comparing an ambitious but sloppy rock opera by The Who to one by Queensryche. (Note to research assistant: is this a valid comparison? Rudy likes music, so, I need this paragraph, fucking, rock-solid.)

Or another way of phrasing it, that isn't retarded, is that some of the issues with ME are due to things that Jade Empire doesn't implement, namely the inventory system and sidequest system that are the weak points of ME simply have no equivalent in Jade Empire. So in Mass Effect they're trying some different things that don't always quite work but when they do work they're really good. Jade Empire the experience is a little flatter.

I could go on.

Friday, January 18, 2008

I DID read the list of games you suggested, but I failed to commit the xbox compatibility chart to memory. Basically I was browsing for Ninja Gaiden (and that fucker still sells used for like $25 kongbucks, so um, no.) and saw other games you suggested. GREAT FUCKING SUGGESTION, THANKS.

Yeah, Jade Empire has been pretty fun. I'm about 2/3rds through I think the second chapter. It had 3 big parts from what I can tell, and all I have left to do is get a wind map. But this is seriously better than Mass Effect!? Hmmm. It's definately WORDY as hell, which I've heard M.E. is too.

Oh yeah, don't forget we all get the XBLA game "Undertow" for free "beginning next Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST" for all the Live outages and fuckups stemming from xmas time. It's usually 800 points, and I checked out the demo, it was alright. I guess its good when you get 16 ppl playing it online. Anyways, dl that shit free next week you dicks.
To quickly wrap up this matter...

I didn't shout "Charlie Murphy," but I did shout a stream of imprecations.

Why the situation didn't lead to a fight? I'm still not 100% sure but I believe it was a combination of four factors.
1. Perhaps the guy realized that he had erred.
2. Perhaps I was acting so out-of-character crazy that he was stunned.
3. Maybe he didn't want to get in a fight at work for fear of his job.
4. He probably figured he would kill me if we did fight. <-- the most likely situation

As for why it didn't go to HR:
1. For better or worse, that's kinda not how QA rolls (working in QA generally being like working with a bunch of precocious 14-year-olds, who are in the Mafia).
2. Mutual friends of ours immediately worked to calm the situation down in the subsequent days.
3. Although my actions were indubitably wrong, his behavior in the weeks and months leading to my flipping out was traceably bad as well, and a likely result of reporting the situation would have been a Pyrrhic double-firing.
4. Similar to #2, our immediate supervisor acted to chill the situation out. For a lot of reasons... one of which certainly being that if it did come to light, she would have been at the very least severely chewed out for allowing the situation to develop that far. Also that both of us were pretty invaluable to the project and losing either would've been really bad.

It was all really lame, immature and embarassing.

Anyway Rude, yeah Chronicles of Riddick is NOT on the back compat list. I should've been clearer about that. Or, maybe you should have read what I wrote? (Just kidding dude! I'm cool.) Actually, that game is GOOD... it's almost worth borrowing somebody's xbox to play! Or buying the 360 version when it comes out later this year, with better graphics, at a mere twelve times the price you paid!

Game stuff I'm excited about:
1. I haven't played Warmachine in a while (playing my first game in some time against Mike tomorrow, in fact), but suddenly I'm all excited about painting warjacks again! I hate painting infantry (and have the shelf of half- or unpainted infantry to show for it) but love painting warjacks! I believe that from now on I will refrain from painting anything that is not either a warjack, or something with boobs.
2. The Warhammer 40K role-playing game (featuring the players as Inquisitors) comes out later this month. I've read a bunch about it and am totally into running it! In fact, I'm declaring that I'm doing it at the next EricCon/AaronCon. If you're getting it, don't read the adventures Aeryk!!! I don't have time to write my own anymore!
3. I picked up a neat set of rules for fantasy miniatures wargaming called "Song of Blades and Heroes" (terrible name) that I am excited to try. Basically it's a VERY fast playing game (30-45 minutes) with stats for all kinds of generic fantasy beastors. It seems great to play with D&D minis and/or the old Chainmail minis sitting on my shelf.
4. I dug out Jade Empire and am playing through it again. Actually, it's really good and in a lot of ways it's just as good or slightly better than Mass Effect. I'm also itching to play Rock Band against once my shoulder finishes healing, which shouldn't be long now.
Speaking of Rock Band, I still don't have the $160ish to drop on it (maybe down the road) but some guys in the neighborhood got it, so almost everyday when I'm getting home from work and walking up to my pad I can hear horrible 80's music and the clack clack of the drums and usually some asshole singing to boot. It's pretty funny.

Oh yeah Eric, for goonskate you need to get yourself an FLV downloader (i'm using a shareware one HERE) and then upload your vids to ea skate reel site. Then when you go to a page to view one of your videos, view page source, [find] "flv" and then copy that location (usually something like "http://download.ea.smokesacock/bighairydingdong.flv") and you download it using that program. Then it's easy to just upload the flv onto goonskate. You only can have 3 videos at a time on the ea site so gotta rotate em out. SO cool to d/l em even to just keep on your computer yourself. (I have another random freeware flv player from when I would rip stuff from youtube etc.)

The directions for goonskate in a clearer way are the 2nd post in the Skate thread on SA here: click

| Da Rumms

eLzar: there is a way to get your sweet rockband drums to work you computer. You can program the drums and all of that good crap. When I get home I will post the sweet link.

D>M>
Well, fuck. I went for the new Burnout game (I friggen loved the demo - SO much fun - everyone in the multiplayer is just laughing their asses off - it just makes you giddy) - it doesnt come out till tuesday but people have been lucking out at random stores/dumb clerks - but I got shot down. ANyways, so I picked up Chronicles of Riddick and Sands of Time.

Sands of Time is GREAT! Really friggen fun right off the bat. Stupid and annoying that you can't save anywhere but I gotta remember I'm playing console games. 8 bucks, well worth it.

Riddick on the other fucking hand... only 5 dollars! And the disk is in PERFECT shape... oh, and it's not supported by the 360. :( So I gotta take it back. I was looking forward to it too. FUNGUS!

Eric and Jon - I got about 10 or 15 "coupons" for 48 hours of xbox live gold (minus the voice - just lets you play games online) - it was some doritos contest and I kept entering and it kept giving me codes. If you guys ever wanna try it so you can play rock band together or whatever let me know and I'll float you some sweet codage. You just enter it on the screen that says "redeem code" or some BS on one of the Live pages.

| I hope at least you yelled "Charlie Murphy" before the smack!

- Check this awesome ad from the French release of 1st edition Blood Bowl! Chilling! Fortunately it was not a South African ad.


- Skate is fun, though I have had other things to do at night recently rather than play it, it is fun. Sorry Rood, I only have the silver membership, so no multiplayer skatin' for me!

- BTW, how do you upload videos to Goonskate? There seems to be little to no information about the site, on the site itself.

- I was contacted by a retired USMC d00d from BGG to play some wargames! He lives in Santa Cruz, is really into historical mini's and is setting up a 6 - 8 player game of Flames of War this next weekend which I might attend (early war British vs. Italians in North Africa. This should make Denis wet!). He and some of his friends are willing and able to play most wargames on their dedicated 8x5 gaming table, so as long as he is not a creepy guy looking for love in exchange for gamin, and he really is married with two kids and a 19 month old grandson living with him, I think this is promising for my two-player wargame fix! Huzzahr! Will keep updated.

- Denis?

- Yeah, um, I have become the Michael Anderson of the fantasy hockey league. I have not checked in I can't tell you how long, and I have not seen a game in probably longer. I don't have Center Ice, so no Kings games, and don't care enough to record and watch the Sharks. So there you have it, I am the biggest hockey and Kings fan to never watch any games. Supposebly, Comcast will upgrade our service and I can get Center Ice next year, but I am not holding my breath.

- My first drum lesson was SO MUCH FUN!!!! He has an electronic kit so it was quiet, but sounded good with all the sound emulation. I learned me some paradiddles, some triplets, some syncopation, and had an absolute blast! No joke, playing Rock Band drumz on hard and expert is a really good training/prep for learning legit drums. I am scouring the internets for a cheap 'lectric kit so I too can play drumz in the garage, just like I am 15 again! They are really not THAT expensive, all things considered.

- Also, speaking of being 15 again and not really feeling like I could start a 'learning' band at 32 playing the music that I like, the place that I take lessons from put on these kinda weird 'shows' for kids that are like musical group recitals. So, they get together and choose songs to play, then perform once every few months. The place also does this for adults in my position. So, we could all agree to rock out to some Misfits covers, then learn our parts, and put on a mini-show every so often. Kinda lame, but I am also really excited to get together and play some songs, too!
That guy's reaction after just getting smacked in the face!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

...Totally. I'm also confused. Jon! clarify! I could totally imagine Jon doing something like that though, maybe not an outright hearty slap, but kind of a taunt-like touch on the cheek, like "eh what's up with that" then like a cheek-touch. Of any one of us, I can imagine Jon getting away with something like that and then not have the opposing party bring it to HR. We need the truth. But somehow short of Jon's suicide in 2003, is he even still alive???

| get the heck out you nerd

I dunno Jon! I can't really picture you slapping a MAN across his face and there not being a fight afterwards!? That's way too core. I'm confused.

This looks pretty bad-ass. Watch till the very end and see the joke.. well I guess I spoiled it already. Anyways, looks like a fun one! Bionic Commando: Rearmed for xbla.

| crazy...

I thought bitchslappin was adamantly restricted at work, then again, maybe that's just me. It's also usually lists very high on the um.. "terminable" offense BUT man... even more awesome is to hear you got away clean and clear with that one! I don't think I could have ever talked my way out of that. Jon, youre my hero. Anyway, i'm never well liked where i work at, so maybe that just constitutes part of my hero worship.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Yup. A few times. Not very hard. It was more like a counter-instigation/escalation technique. (Which fortunately didn't happen since, a) as I mentioned, the guy would have thrashed me, and b) I probably would have lost my job -- not that I cared much at the time due to the continuous stress due to the personal bullshit and 60-90 hour work weeks, but still, not a great career building move. I wasn't thinking too clearly at the time.)

Like I said: proud, mature moment in my life.
Wait a minute dude. What do you mean when you say you SLAPPED him? Like, across the face?!?!

| My Only Regret Is That I Have... BONE-ITIS!

Wow, do I feel like an old-timer today. I sprained or tore something in my shoulder doing push-ups so I'm gimped out for the day. I remember the days when I could do 500 push-ups and still have the strength to save a bunch of virgins from a flaming building. Now I do 25 push-ups and two days later I can't lift the water filter out of the fridge. Creeeeak.

Oh well, at least I can use my time off today to catch up on my internets!

Hey Johnny, I never answered your question about Onyxia. No, we did not ever beat Onyxia in the WoW card game. What happened was that me and one of the guys in the group wore on each other's nerves more and more during January and February '07 to the point where we almost got into a fistfight at work. Specifically, he continued instigating to the point where I started slapping him. It was a really mature moment in my life. To be fair to myself, the guy was constantly taunting me (he's one of those kinds of guys) a lot at a time where I had been in a high-pressure work situation for over three months. To be less fair to myself, I really shouldn't let such tactics work on me now that I'm older than, like, fourteen. Slapping the guy around seemed like the only course of action at the time, but it was super dumb and I am extremely lucky that I didn't get fired. It's also good we didn't get into a full-on fight because this guy would have fucking kicked my ass. The only good thing about this experience was that it gave me first-hand experience on what it feels like to be aggro'd by the "Taunt" skill and hopefully a little perspective in general. Cue "One to Grow On" theme song.

Anyway that kind of derailed the card game group. Incidentally, a lot of time and apologies later things have settled down and now we're really friendly with each other and a lot more careful about pushing each other's buttons. (With exceptions.) But I still don't think WoW will be happening anytime soon, as honestly, I don't think it's that good of a game. It's almost exactly like Magic if Magic had nine colors and no color crossover possibility, and the distribution of cards is such that takes a lot of horse-trading to build up a pool of cards for your class, even commons.

So, yeah. Onyxia FTW.

Oh and Rude, I've been meaning to get around to giving you a list of good classic Xbox games that are compatible with the 360 (see this list. Don't worry, no awkward stories tied to this, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Of the games on the list, I liked Fable: Lost Chapters a good bit, Jade Empire (which I never finished -- think that'll be the next game I play, actually), Jet Set Radio Future (rad soundtrack too), Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden Black, Prince of Persia Sands of Time (didn't play the others but the first one is GOOD), the Silent Hill games (well 2 anyway), and Thief 3 (probably better on the PC though).

Stubbs the Zombie is supposed to be really good but I haven't played it. All the Splinter Cell games are fun. Unreal Championship 2 (not the first one) is really fun and unique for a fighting game (it's a third person, kinda kung-fu feeling game where you can fly all over the map and shit -- it's awesome). I'd skip the KOTOR games, Star Wars is tired and honestly just play Mass Effect sometime, it's almost the same experience. Teh Haloz are OK, and cheap, and they look a little better on the 360 than on the xbox so it might be worth playing through.

There are two games I'm bummed aren't on that list. Beyond Good and Evil is one of the best action-adventure games EVAR, and Chronicles of Riddick is the best FPS made for the Xbox. I hear they're remaking Chronicles of Riddick for the 360 with some extra levels, actually; whenever that comes out I plan on buying it. It's really good, a bizarre reversal of the usual licensed title phenomenon. Who woulda thunk? Anyway, I don't think you have a PS2, but if you do, they made Beyond Good & Evil for that as well, and it's well worth picking up.

Monday, January 14, 2008

| The action team RULEZ in Fantasy hockey

well.... for some.

Philippines flyers is headed straight for the Fantasy Stanley cup currently ranking in high 3rd. Odd thing is SF team spearheaded by the non-active and often absent Enron is placed in 2nd. Good coachin man!

Seriously, the Draft is probably 95% of the match.... there's only so many awsome-awesome star players, and once theyre drafted not much changes. The automatic rankings are fairly accurate, but it only generates based on last seasons numbers and has absolutely no validity to if the player is incredibly aging, prone to injury, or had a fluke season.


YES I AM EXPERT..

no... i'm not but i have fun. and that's my 2 cents. heed it or not.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

I don't know if I don't actually try.... I just think there's lonely girls out there just like a lonely guy like me and I just happen to get lucky to meet these lonely ones. The numbers definitely dropped though since i've been getting older.
Dude, nice work Johnny! You don't even try, these girls are friggen approaching you! That's some smooth operating. I like!

| New Girlfriend

I'm totally politically-dumb, so i wont' chime in. I wish I knew more about politics anyway, dot period. I think things get so dilluted who knows the real issues... meh

On the other hand! I went out with this chick yesterday, met her at a restaurant, and she asked for my number. So after a few text conversations we agreed to meet on sunday, and SHE BRINGS HER LITTLE BROTHER! WTF, for the win. Friggin noob. So of course I was shocked, but in a way I could understand the chaperone thing. Actually i'm used to this concept already, as it's pretty common here to do something like that, ie bring a friend, a parent. I should be lucky it wasn't a parent. Anyway, I thought about it and what better way to impress a girl than to treat her little brother right?

So the night went pretty great, and I made a new friend, even if we don't date, I'm pretty happy that I met someone nice. Hopefully its a genuine nice, but she's real young so, usually at that age you don't have too much of an agenda. I THINK...

Aight, that's all the news in the Western Front...
Aaron, sometimes best to just do a 'mass reply' to that crap so everyone in the previous email blast gets the note, and simply retort that the entire thing is a fabrication and a manipulative lie.. linking to the Snopes page that debunks it.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

I'm more surprised that you're surprised that the average 'educated' American laps this bullshit up. When one in five of Americans can't even find the U.S.A. on a map, and 50% of this country believes in a 'young Earth' Biblical literalism, so on, so forth.

I'll say this, while I don't necessarily agree with all of his policy, I think he's the one guy that has a real shot at winning that isn't a complete lobbyist-owned fuckwad or a Bush clone, or both. I'd also say I'm a huge Ron Paul supporter, but I don't know if the mouth-breathing masses can handle that level of signal.