Oh my gosh, I'm totally obsessed with the Games for Windows podcast. SO GOOD.
CLICK ON TO HERE

I know, I know. A podcast with writers from a video game magazine that no longer exists. Sounds great! But it's just SO sucks you in. Interesting and pretty funny bunch of guys talking shit on all sorts of stuff, the least of which is PC games (which is supposed to be the focus.) The most recent one was kind of weak because they've got a guest on there who is such a fucking nerd, it's just irritatingly unlistenable. But just go back and start checking out random ones. Grade A shit.

More Info
www.bloodbowl-game.com/
Wonder if this is going to be good! Very little info on the site (other than it's coming for PC, PSP, DS, Xbox 360) but looks cool.

| Never a Better Reason for a DS FlashCard

I have seen the Light, and it is this guys pet project.

NetHack for the DS.

You can also find information and pics of his various knitting projects on the site...

Ugh, speaking of war, again. I'm watching 2nd season of ROME (which is fucking AWESOME!) and they just had this gnarly war scene (Battle of Philippi)of 17 legions vs 19 legions and it's just fucking sloppy stab-stab murder slop death. BLECH. And just like Private Ryan, there's shots of like the bloody fucked up dudes just kinda wandering through the melee all out of it with that stare. Fuck 300, this shit is just so depressing. STAB STAB. Stab in groin. Stab down the neck into the jugular. Hack into center of head. What a fucking mess.

WAR! / puke

| War never changes...

God man, that's a sad picture. It looks SMEARED. Eww...

Speaking of the western front, I got GTA4 in the mail this afternoon so I've been playing it for awhile. Pretty good shit. Kinda wished I hadn't played Bully recently, because it seems to be a very similar game style.

Yeah, the game comes with 1 month free of Gold, so you guys have no excuse (other than girlfriends, wives, kids, jobs, :( ) to not play with me online games. I played a few multiplayer games with dudes from Something Awful - that shit was hectic. Kinda fun, kinda too chaotic. I think everyone's so new to the game, it's all this "RAAAR!!" over the voice chat, so pretty rough. BUt the game modes are fun and it was pretty lag free. Seems like it's got LOTS of potential.

Single player is pretty neat. Looks like it's going to be a good story. But so far, really just seems like Bully with really good graphics (at least first few missions.) With all the ravingly good reviews, I hope something in it really clicks with me.

| Paschendale

Here is a before and after aerial shot from a little town in Belgium that hosted a 3 month long WWI battle, Paschendale. Only 800,000 or so casualties, so it's cool.

See, sometimes Gamefly pays off. I did the thing where I had 1 open slot and the only game in my Q was GTA4. I was gonna buy it if I couldn't rent it, but they shipped it today, so sweetness. I'll keep it for a few weeks or so and if I really love it maybe I'll buy it later on down the road. I also got a year of XBL (it's $40 bucks instead of $50 at Circuit City right now) so I'll be doin bookoo online.

EDIT: Oh and apparently the game comes with a 1-month free Gold trial, so maybe we can all play games together, that would be cool.

I'm picking up GTA4 as well on Tuesday! Definitely want to check that one out.

I wonder if like a handheld tape/digital recorder would be good enough for a con podcast, haha. That'd be fun, we could do nightly recaps of the day.

I've just casually started listening to some video game podcasts. A good one is the Games for Windows one from the guys at 1up.com (the brodeo... hurr..) Their magazine just got canned (Games for Windows, formally known as Computer Gaming World) so the one I was listening to was just after they found out so they were reminiscing and just talking about the industry. Interesting and funny stuff. I guess overall it's supposed to be a good podcast (I guess they get paid to do it being a part of 1up.com) and they're all writers and pretty well spoken/goofy.

I also listened to a Song of Ice and Fire podcast that just started up with people from the Something Awful thread about the books. It's not that great. They use Skype, so sound levels are rough and it's a little too loose and unformatted. But it's interesting to see what works and what doesn't.

What sparked my interest in podcasts again was, I was eating lunch the other day at some outdoor area and the table next to me was a bunch of old brauds talking about their cell phones. They were pretty much all wrong about the technology and shit that they were telling each other, but one of them brought up how you can download podcasts to your iphone. That led them to explaining what a podcast was to another lady, and that was some awkward shit to listen to. I really wanted to butt-in, but nah. Anyways, interest re-sparked.

GTA4 comes out Tuesday. That shit looks cool. Never owned a GTA before, but I'm seriously considering getting this one, AND getting the xbox live gold subscription. There's gonna be what sounds like fun 16 player multiplayer modes, so if I get the game and it's cool, I might hafta go online.

Holyshit, I been playing a ton of Puzzle Quest. It kinda gets old after awhile, but it's very easy to come back to. They really nailed it with that game.

Rented that show Extras. It's pretty fuckin' hilarious. Sheesh, they really know who to do that uncomfortable stuff so well. The first episode, he's at a catholic prayer meeting even though he's an atheist. Oh my gosh, that scene is incredible.

| Podcast

I actually recorded a podcast prolly like a year ago. It was called "Chapter K" and was all about my learning ASL. Chapter K is the tutorial chapter from the rulebook, btw.

I d/led a bunch of good software, and picked up a mic, stand, and mixing board on the cheap. I think you remember all that gear in the back room, don't you R00d?

Anyway, it was fun, and I am sure I would get more interesting with experience and practice, but it was sort of dry. Duh. Then again, some of the podcasts out there are pretty dry, it's just that they talk about stuff that is interesting to me so I listen anyway. Maybe I would have a million listeners if I released it.

I listen to "Point 2 Point" about Wargaming, the D&D Podcast to pretend that I still roleplay and am interested in it, and I used to (and might start again) listening to an audio replay of Masks of Nyarlathotep RPG sessions by some British folks. TERRIBLE sound quality, but again, it is like playing and RPG without all the effort and fun.

I could bring my shit to the con and we could do our first ever podcast! Dunno how Skypecasting would work, but I am sure it could be done. I have tried to have a 4 person conference call with me, Art in NV, and two guys in North Carolina and it was terrible, so mileage may vary.

Of course, no doubt we would never find a topic we all could agree on so this will never happen. Anyone want to do a podcast about wargames? Anyone?

Hey, where's our podcast!? I started listening to podcasts again and some of them are so fun to listen to. Didn't you guys get to a point where you were testing out Skype 'n shit!? I'm ready to record!

| suicide puzzle game

These two little games are tons of fun:
Karoshi 1
Karoshi 2

(Download link at the end of those initial posts - I don't like messin' with applets or whatever so I played em off my computer.)

Puzzle game - have to kill yourself to clear the puzzles. The first one is a little more straight forward but still cool, but then you get to the sequel and it's just pure awesome (less platform, more puzzle.) You REALLY gotta think out of the box in quite a few of these. Just took a couple of hours to jam through both but there's some cool shit in there.

Just got back from New York. WHEW, I am pooped. Didn't get a chance to catch up on the old posts but I'll read em in a little bit.

Quick observations:
Air-travel is pretty fucking sucky. I guess it beats having to take a steamer around Cape Horn, dredging through the jungles of Panama, or a goddamn covered wagon across the great plains. BUT, fucking air-travel is still shit. I can not imagine flying internationally on those like 15 hour + flights. I would go absolutely bat-shit insane.

The airport book I picked up was "The Ruins" by Scott Smith. It's pretty good! Horror book, just turned into a movie - his other book/movie deal was "A Simple Plan" which I think won awards and nominations. But so far this is straight-ahead horror Stephen King stylee, so it's weird - but good! So far! I'm so tired!

I finally finished Quicksilver today! Definitely not the easiest Neal Stephenson book to get through, as it combines a slow first three hundred pages, with lots of talk about AP European History which, as I am a Gosh Darn American and therefore can't find Canada on a map, made for a tough start. Once it started getting into the exploits of Shaftoe's ancestor Half-Cocked Jack it started getting a lot more engaging, and stayed that way, even if it only got out of second gear towards the end.

But, at this point I might as well stay in it. The second book, The Confusion, is already off to a good start with cannonfire, explosions, etc. And I have heard that the second and third books are far more exciting than the first, and that the third even has a really good ending! (Not always something you can assume with Stephenson.)

Lately my habit is to put whatever book I'm reading at the time into the comment field of my MSN Messenger at work. This is an appropriate time to change that field to "The Confusion" because nobody at that place knows what the fuck they are doing. So we had a ship-or-die date of May 15th for my latest mega-project. Of course various departments have showed surprisingly brazen incompetence about working towards that goal (to the point where the CEO was literally draping Superman capes on the shoulders of the fuckups). When I discussed that with my boss, he said, don't sweat it, there's a backup plan. Turns out the backup plan is to work OT straight through Memorial Day weekend and ship two weeks late, on May 29th. The executive team should have run the backup plan past me first. I'm not skipping Kubla Con for this company; fuck that. I have my priorities.

| I Love Garfield Minus Garfield

I've posted the link before, I think, but... so funny.