| Rudy and Ryan's Roundtable Blogcast

I think I found an acceptable name for it!

But yeah, it's cool me and Eric were able to get a cool Skype setup going that sounds pretty great so I think they only thing to do is start taping some conversations.

I listen to quite a few podcasts (mostly video game related, but also Astronomy and Old-Time Radio) and the ones that I enjoy and I think work best are the ones where it's just dudes sitting around bullshitting. If the people mix together well, there you go.

If we could get some of you dudes to call in on occasion, I think it'd be pretty fun (if for nothing else than for ME to talk to some of you guys more than once a year at Kubla.)

The kind of things I'm interested in listening to and talking about are things like DND 4th Ed. I have no group here, so I have to live vicariously through Jon and you guys talking about it. And of course, I'm a video game addict, but boardgames too. Just the sorta shit we talk about when we meet up at the convention.

I'm not a stickler for STRUCTURE and I don't think these things need to be taped so much in a "go for one hour LIVE and stick to the script!" Segments work fine, and that's where I think the whole "everyone's too busy" part can be worked with - Eric can call Aaron up on skype and they can talk about fucking auto-parts (Aaron's expertise!) or whatever. Get Dennis on to talk about painting mini's or whatever goofy stuff you guys feel like chatting about. And then I can slap the pieces together to form some thrashin-AT action/dramedy.

[Holding back tears] I just really miss you guys and want to hear your voices... do you still think about me? [Sob]

| The AT Podcast

Rudy and I have been hammering out some technical details over the past week regarding our new little podcast and I wanted to send out a call and request out the rest of the AT for info and input.

1) Clearly, everyone is very busy. Does anyone have any interest in making time to be a part of this? Right now, R00d and I have been working on it at night from like 9.30 to 11.30-ish. For me that works best as the family is asleep an I can do what I gotta do. Anyone feel like they could possible free up that block of time every so often?

2) Does anyone want to be a part of this in the first place? Everyone in the AT has a valuable point of view to add to a show about gaming (mostly), so don't feel that you don't. Heck, I play less games than anyone on the blog, with the exception of probably Ryan, and I feel I can contribute. Ryan has a place on the podcast too, for sure.

3) What should we name it?

We got our sound quality up to par (for a first podcast, certainly), we got some material and a format, we just need to get started and we wanted to see if anyone else wanted to be a part of it!

Didn't want to speak for you Rudy, so please add/subtract anything you want here.

| OF COURSE

I wanna try skype to do a remote podcast! Lemme know your account name, and I will actually try and search for it right after I post this message!

I have a mixing board and mic here, so I know the signal to you should sound nice if I can figure out what I am doing. My only problem is that I am wireless in the garage, and if I want to talk at a decent level at night, I will need to be in there. Unless we get REALLY serious and I run a cable out my front door and into the garage....

I know the Instance guys have one dude in Utahrr and another in Austin, TX and occasionally someone from France, and their sound is awesome. I also think that they use skype, though I will check their forums to see if there are more details on their setup.

DO IT AND I AM THERE! Can I talk about ASL? *grimaces ever hopefully*

Hey Eric - do you wanna try at some point soon to mess with the Skype confrence call feature? I don't know if it works with the free version (I have no friends to test it on) but I can pump the audio-out of my pc into my laptop which could be dedicated to recording confrence calls - I don't know how sweet that'd sound (I'm guessing "super sweet") but I wanna test it out sometime.

Hey, don't you get 1-month free of the Live Gold membership when you buy one of those things? Add me as a friend so I can cyberstalk you and see what you are doing at all time. My gaymor tag is: PoundRock

We can play the one free game, Aegis Wing together. And then when your Gold membership runs out I'll force you to play Eve Online with me. EXCEL WARRIORS UNITE! (Just kidding, I've been MMO-free for quite awhile now.)

Edit: SPEAKING OF PODCASTS! I don't know if you guys have peeped this one out, but the "Gamers with Jobs" one is really good and I just got turned onto it. Old dudes like us talking about games of the video variety. I guess a lot of gaming podcasts are dudes our age, but alot of those are douchey and obnoxious - these dudes are more mellow and thus eek out approval from yours truly. INSPIRATION! I'M READY ERIC!

Usually she likes games like Braid. She has a few puzzle cutsy games for the DS and she loves platformers. Oh well, maybe she will warm up to it later. Anyway, I like it, so it is definitely not a waste either way. I have been looking at Castle Crashers. It looks cool and seems her type as well, but then again I am batting .000 at this point. Oh well, what are you going to do?

j0rn really likes the Lego games too. I guess he is either a girl or perhaps he set sail for... well you know where. Lego is totally on her level. She played the hell out of Indy Legos on the DS. Maybe I'll pick up Star Wars Legos.

I played Geometry Wars and it is neat, but I got really frustrated. I sort have really bad reactions and so I didn't fare well. Maybe I will give the demo a try and see if I can get past the frustration point. I am interested in Fallout 3 when that comes out. Looks good. In the mean time I will continue to run people over and jump back in time while I let my smokin' wallet cool off.

D>M>

| NEXT GENNN, FRIES, and a COOOOOOKE

Nice work Aaron! Welcome to the next gen of extreme dating! gaming! err.

Braid is cool - doesn't seem very girlfriend friendly - more of a guys puzzle game. Let me run off some of my sweet Live Arcade titles you guys might dig.

UNO - everyone loves UNO. It's cheap (400 points or something?) and if you ponied up for the Gold membership, there's always online games over Live - chicks dig it.

Castle Crashers - It's a beat-em-up sorta ala the old arcade TMNT game but with sorta RPG elements and just the greatest hand-drawn art. 4 player same machine or over Live gameplay - it's a fuckin' rad game, no regrets. (I don't know how gf-friendly it is - try the demo, maybe she'll like it.)

Girls apparently love those goddamn horrible Lego games. I hate them very much. Lego Batman just came out, feels like Lego Indianar Wars. HATE! But girls and their sappy boyfriends LOVE!

Ok, I'm totally boring the hell out of myself, so let me rundown really quick what I've played and generally have mass appeal and are awesome games.

TRY THESE DEMOS:

Ticket to Ride
Carcassanne
Catan
Lumines
Puzzle Quest
Pac-Man: Championship Edition

Prolly not so chick friendly (but my personal faves):
N+
Geometry Wars 2

Ok, I'm going to stop. Egads.

| Dresden & Braid

I read a bunch of the Dresden files books last year. They were perfectly suited for reading material during my commute to work. The books are light and easy to set down at anytime, which was ideal for Muni commutes due to the typically large number of distractions and interruptions. Usually, when I am on my way to work or on my way home from work, my brain is a little slow, so it worked out real nice. The books were predictable, somewhat cheesy and a bit of a guilty pleasure, but good for what they were.

Last weekend I decided to throw down some bones on the refresh of the Xbox 360 Pro, 60GB, and the new lowered price. I finally decided to move to the next generation console and put a fork in the GameCube and PS2. So far I am pretty happy. I picked up GTA4, of course, and an XBox live game called Braid. Braid is pretty cool. A little puzzle solving platformer with a pretty neat theme. Although, I thought the gf would be more into it. She likes the theme and the music, but the puzzles sort of irked her, which is odd. Either way I think it is a well designed game. There is an interesting feature that enables you to move backwards in time to undo mistakes and to interact with some objects that are unaffected by the time reversal. In some cases the puzzle can not be completed without some time shifting. jr0n I think you may have mentioned this game recently to me.

D>M>

| Warhammer Online

I have heard mixed reviews, as is the case with anything, but hearing your opinions are certainly more useful and interesting to me than from other sources. I THINK I know your opinions on PvP and groups and all that (I think you don't care for them), it is telling that you don't seem displeased with the heavy emphasis on PVP in WAR.

I don't really like PVP WOW style either, infact I have exactly 5 PVP kills in Docnorvell's lifetime. I was turned off to WAR because of the heavy, almost integral, PVP elements to the game. Then other bits I heard described the PVP as so essential, it was almost like a PVE with smart AI, and it happens so much that it has a different feeling than WOW PVP which reeks of everything that Enron says is bad about WOW - n00b calling, swearing, childish antics, min/maxing, etc.

WAR sounds more and more interesting, but since you are probably going to pass due to PC restrictions, I will probably pass as well and see if I can ding 64 with Doc before Wrath of the Lich King comes out and I am depressed because not only have I not hit 70, but now I have to hit 80!

But still, it is Warhammer and I have always liked the World, no matter how cliche and derivative it is, it still is embedded in my DNA to some extent. At least 3rd edition WHFB, WFRP, and Rogue Trader is, the new stuff not so much. Very tempted....

- RB Update: So I am playing an 8 song set for what I guess is my album deal or something, and I rock the crap out of the first 6 songs, and then they spring Painkiller on me. Not a problem normally, but I was so fatigued by that time I just could not get past the ridiculous solo part and failed 4 times in a row, losing 200k fans along the way. It is currently on pause with the TV turned off in the garage.... will... not... admit... defeat.... Will report back if the Red Rings of Death greet me when I return to my home tonight.

- Started reading the Harry Dresden Files at work. About 20 pages into it and it is a fun, light read so far. Just finished reading World War Z prior, and I swear to goD there is a game in that book just screaming to be realized. I took copious notes along the way as to how it might work, so we shall see.

- Added an RSS feed (finally) to The Action Team, so I can now read all the non-existent new AT posts from my Outlook at work! And you can too with your cool iPhone, freeware, non-MS product, cooler than thou, RSS readers too!

So I've had Warhammer Online for about a week now. Unfortunately my pc is below specs, so it runs choppy, freezes up and looses terxtures regularly. I can't even run the intro movie properly. I would have to get a new computer if I really wanted to immerse myself in play. Probably going to cancel after my free month play expires. If I upgrade my pc maybe I'll come back. That said here are my impressions:

It is focused on PvP play. Given the background it makes sense. If I understand it right, one could capture enemy cities, affecting access and such for the opposing side. Makes the world feel more dynamic. If you want solo/exploring adventures, I'm not sure how much they have for that.
Tome of Knowledge: basically a stat/achievement database. You get achievement rewards like Xbox games and keep track of every monster, kill, loot and quest you've encountered.
I've only made it to about 9th level, but so far the world doesn't feel as big and expansive compared to WoW (physical area).
I need more time with crafting.

Denis like:
- PvP better intergrated into the game and maps.
- Public Quests - as soon as you enter the area, the quest pops up. The quest cycles, so one could come to it at any point. rewards are given (provided the quest is completed) depending on amount of participation (amount of combat). The problem is that you have to be there prime time when more people are doing the quest. You can't finish these by yourself at 4 am (booooo).
- Dark Elf Witch Elves!

Denis don't like:
- Chaos warriors and marauders can only be male. You only worship Tzeench right now. Maybe the other chaos powers are for the expansion.

| Nose

- So I am getting over sinusitis by nothing more than faith healing. Yay for me.

- And as much as I would love to put Wylie in a cool costume for Halloween, I think we are gonna stick with the skeleton pajamas again. He is becoming fairly particular with what he wears, so anything exotic (particularly things as crazy as a ballcap) won't fly. I guess I could say he is going as Glenn Danzig?

- RB Update: I finally failed out on the Testament song! It is a WAAAAAAAY different recording than I am used to so it totally caught me off guard! Hooray! I then followed that fail up with failing the ridiculous grindcore song! It is like the Dragonforce song from GHIII in stupidity (at least as much as I saw of it).

- The 4e DM's screen appears to be really useful. Not that I will ever find out just how useful it is, but there you go.

| My baby's a LARPer

Hey Eric - I see you don't have the Flawless Drumming or Solid Gold achievements yet in RB2. Go download the free song by Stephen Colbert.
Stephen and the Colberts - Charlene (I'm right behind you)
It's short, pretty funny, and easy to play. DL that shit!

Yeah, vocals are scary. I've only tried it on my odd day off when no one in the neighborhood is around, and I'm still too embarrassed (and it's hard as shit.)

| Is Sarah Palin a gamer?

Just a heartbeat away? God I hope not.

Wait, what do computers have to do with that video Ryan? Is that shit not real!? Did they piece that together from his Ghandi performance or something!?? o.O

Ben Kingsley as Ian MacKaye.

Pretty rad. I wish I was better with computers I would totally do things like this.