| Fez

I gotta get Fez. It's on my Steam wishlist. I think it even showed up in a Humble Bundle once, maybe as a "pay more than this, get these games" addon, and the only reason I didn't get it was I had all the other games. SOME DAY IT SHALL BE MINE!

Grabbed Torchlight 2.

Also picked up Marvel Heroes on Steam. It's a Diablo style action rpg from the lead-designer of Diablo 1 and 2, but also MMORPG-ish because there's a bunch of other players around the open world parts. It's free to play.  You can pay for diff characters and costumes, but you can also earn gils for that in game. I got to be the Thing and ali fuck shit up.

I've never seen my wife binge watch a show on Netflix like I always used to, but she made us jam thru 23 episodes of ARROW. Don't get me wrong, it's a totally fun superhero show - better than most. But I think all the gratuitous man-abs played a part. Arrow is RIPPED, yall.

Way to sell me on Torchlight II, jerks.

I've been playing Fez lately. I love this game. Played a ton on the 360, which corrupted my save file and then died, so I picked it up on Steam for sale a while back and finally got around to restarting it. It's actually a lot better on PC because it's easier to take screenshots. It's structurally a platformer, but the platforming isn't very difficult: mainly a way to pace mood and tone. There are no enemies, and dying just puts you back to the platform you fell off from, but there's still this really interesting, mysterious, sometimes unnerving and even threatening vibe, even in the peaceful places you travel through. A huge part of that is the soundtrack, which I really like. linky

Besides platforming, a lot of what you end up doing is taking note of all the weird glyphs and codes that are scattered around the place. I mean, what is this shit?

The owls are not what they seem, unless they are exactly what they seem? I'm so confused

It's not horribly confusing or anything, you can figure things out and it's satisfying. It really reminds me of playing Myst back in the day, where NOTHING makes sense at first and then it starts coming together.

But anyway, I could probably use some time in a straightforward hack-and-slash game just fighting stuff is what I was getting at thanks for reading this far guys.

PS Man, Diablo 3 was a pretty big let-down from D2, huh? Really a surprising fall from grace.

| Torchlit?

Rude - Have you played the first one?  It's pretty much the same under the hood.  A few tweaks and improvements here and there.  Male/female character choice.  More Pets!  (greatest idea ever).  The gem upgrade is now randomized (kinda forces you to use them instead of hoarding them).  Basically a Diablo 2 game in technicolor.  If you're looking for mindless clicky gaming, it works for me.

It also looks like Steam has a free demo if you want a test drive.

Minecrafting - I spent tons of time looking for mesa biomes (colored clay blocks), ice spikes and acacia trees!  No luck.  Saw tons of horses though.

| NYC Grit

I saw those pictures yesterday and said the same thing. NYC was super gritty coming out of the 70s. The trains look like something out of a third world country. Brutal.

I have been playing Torchlight II off and on, logging in 8 hours of game play. I like it fairly well. It fits the bill where Diablo III stumbled. So if you liked Diablo II, its a good proxy. If not stay away. Compared to DII, it's a little more colorful, loot is easier to rate and the zones don't refill with creatures every time you quit and restart the game (big plus). Pumpkin has also logged in some 9.5 hours, so he may have some commentary too.

Popped onto Minecraft a few times this weekend. Yay fun. Boo Carpal Tunnel pain. I have to lay low on the game time these days. The past few weeks I have been such a desk jockey, my wrist has been acting up again. I blame GTA3/Vice city and GT3 back in 2004 for wrecking my wrist.

Say, that's a nice bike eLzar.

r00d, I definitely had a good laugh at some of the real estate photos. Some were priceless with the added commentary.

D>M>

| kornucopia

Elrick - how is Torchlight 2? I see you have put in 0.6 hours and while it's on sale, I must know if I should get on that. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Did a little better in Minecraft yesterday for like 20 minutes. Collected sand and dirt and logged off as soon as the sun set. Progress!

Try out LOVE LETTER with [REDACTED]! It super duper wifey-friendly and even KID friendly. You discard 1 of 2 cards in your hand. Then do whatever that card says. That's it! Rounds are buku-quick, and you eventually remember what the card text is just by looking at the picture. I think it is a game your whole family will enjoy.

This gallery of 80's New York subway pics is gnarly! And I don't mean the sandwich shop you guys!

RE: Tim & Eric. They have a unique style of comedy. Cringe-worthy at times. Purposefully "bad". People honestly love it or hate it. I hated it forever without ever actually watching any of their shows, but I finally saw some and really got into it. Super absurd and ridiculous. I think their site has a bunch of their shows you can watch, and Netflix had their movie "Billion Dollar Movie" which I loved but I could totally see people hating.

The Eric Andre Show is another insane masterpiece of gonzo fun times. It's a "talk show" but SUPER fucking strange and wrong and messed up. I think it's worth checking out. (Also on Adult Swim)

Based on this, it looks like players can individually toggle creative mode on themselves on a survival map if they're operators. Doesn't seem like restarting the server would be required. Would it be possible for you to set me up as an operator?

Also, can you send me your credit card info and SSN and set me up with power of attorney? Just in case I have to make any Minecraft-related purchases on your behalf?

| Good Times

Fiddling around with yet another Minecraft server admin console means I get to find new ways of messing things up.  Not that anyone other than I have spent any time on the server yet, but I found a way to delete the entire world through trying to add a whitelist and then restart the server.  Apparently restart means restart the whole world with a different world.

So there goes a bunch of hours.  Ah well, it rained there too much anyway.

To answer your question jr0n, it looks you can 'toggle' between creative and survival... all it appears to take is a quick server restart....

Maybe next time you should play in your night room. HA!

I hopped onto the server a couple times today, and E-rock got to see me die over and over. I'm friggen horrible at that game! The best thing was I was playing on my laptop in our sunroom which is super bright, so during the day all I can see on this computer is my own reflection. Not super helpful.

Funny this is coming up, because I just reinstalled Minecraft last night.

That said, what I REALLY want to do is build another house of tricks n' traps using Creative mode. Is there a way to temporarily switch the server game to that mode, then switch back? You can do it in single player, not sure about multi.

| Holiday Minecraft

The holiday season makes me think of online Minecraft!

So I made yet ANOTHER server, all paid for (I picked the cheap $4 a month plan), you just need to join it. I'm not sure if you need the world name to join or not, so I'll post it here too:

Name: Action World II
IP/PORT: 216.158.79.162:25705

I just logged in so it works!  It's vanilla as hell, but I think I can do addons later.  I believe I have everyone whitelisted already, so you should be good to go!

Doo eet!

I look forward to exploring everyone's creations again, building my roads and signposts, and eventually defeating the Ender Dragon!  I won't do it alone this time :/

| Crafty!

You also need to record that awful enderman noise and play it anytime Wy makes eye contact with your neighbors.

Speaking of the crafting of mines.  Anybody try out the new update?  Tons of new things.  New biomes, new trees, flowers and colored glass!  Haven't had a chance to look around yet.  It came out last Friday.  I'm foreseeing a minecraft bender this weekend.

Picobrew consolation prize?

Well, I think Enderman is terrifying, so I'll definitely avoid your son's gaze in the future!

* scratches elzar's house off the trick-or-treat route *

| For Enron

| Hargapslappy Hellowigbean!

For the first time in I don't know how long, possibly high school, I will be dressing up for Halloween.  Our family has a theme this year:

Wy: Enderman
Elzar: Slenderman
Les: Cross-Dressing Man (which is really just her dressing normally)

I'll try and post some pics.  Building Wy's Enderman head was fun; I haven't been crafty in some time so it was fun to bust out the Xactos, gluegun, and cardboard (along with LEDs and fabric which are both mediums I need more experience in....)

Love Letter: I haz it, but of course have never played it.

Tim and Eric: I think I need to know more and understand those fellows because it just didn't tickle me.

Re-Animator:  That tape made the rounds with me way, way back.  I think Ryan Goss had cable and recorded it from like Cinemax or Select TV and we watched it all the time.  IIRC it had boobs, lots of blood, and talking decapitated heads.  I'd like to see it again (yay Netflix!) because it's a sort of spoof/homage to Lovecraft's "Herbert West: Reanimator".

Real Estate Photos: Hilarity ensued!