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.

Yeah, Rock Band is not much of a challenge when it comes to the guitar. You are 100% right that they're more for party gaming/fun; Guitar Hero is the series you play when you are an expert shredder. RB2 is slightly harder than RB1 I guess but still, I haven't failed out of any songs yet (although the solo on Man in a Box was pretty tough). I'd honestly stick with drums for single player.

Rude, you HAVE TO go back and beat that final level of Braid! It's really not that hard, certainly compared to what came before (you just need to do things as fast as possible) and has a VERY cool ending. Then you gotta go back and get all the secret stars! Including the one that takes 2 hours to get... /sob

| Rock Band: Degraded

From a purely solo studio musician guitar players point of view, the guitar experience of RB is getting stale for me. I think the root of my problem is that the songs in the game are better suited to be played in a group/band format and are designed to be enjoyed as a party-style experience.

Sure, playing Eye of the Tiger was novel as the first song and got me fired up to play the game because I was eager for the experience of RB. Playing it again as a challenge set instantly became boring because (for me) it is mind-numbingly simple and repetitious. This simplicity problem spans almost all the songs I have encountered so far (I just played through the songs in Dublin and London last night).

There have been a few songs that are just so much fun to play despite their simplicity (Journey, Jimmy Eat World, for example) and I totally get into the song I forget it is actually boring from a gameplay perspective. The real problem is that so many of the songs are boring in their own right, that I can do nothing but focus on how boring they are to play and how much I wish the song, or my life, would end so I could stop.

I see the songs as 2 things: puzzles to figure out and conquer, or good-time simularockstar experiences. If the song sucks at both, then I am wasting my time.

AND ANOTHER THING, I d/l'd a few metal songs to sort of beef up my challenge level (All That Remains pack 01, Machinehead, Devildriver) and beat all of them on my first go at expert. I am not tooting my own horn here, I am just concerned that the game as a guitar game for me is possibly dead because these songs are rated 5 star difficult on guitar, and I didn't fail out on any of them.

All this being said, the story MOSTLY changes completely when looking at the game from a drum perspective. I have muted the drums somewhat and moved the kit to the garage so I can play at night. I think I will give the game one more night to impress and challenge me on guitar and if it is akin to grinding murlocs for a random drop, then I may hang up the axe and go all drum all the time.

I have been thinking about singing some songs too.... *shudder*

| Pitch Black 3: Chronicle for Leibowitz

The world with the rings in Braid was the only place I had to look up a solution as well (and I HATED myself after for doing it.) I never beat the "braid" level at the end, but someday I'm sure I will.

Did you pick up Castle Crashers!? That shit is fun as hell.

Rad, didn't know there was a new Stephenson book out. I'll def track it down.

Hey Ja-El! Sorry we missed you last weekend.

We picked up Rock Band 2 as well. So far, a good time, although we're only a couple clubs into the game. Eye of the Tiger is super fun to play on Expert!

I had a weird day. I've been having a lot of eyestrain lately, so I went to the doctor this morning, not realizing that they would end up dilating my eyes and therefore I'd have to end up taking the day off. I ended up sleeping until 2:00, waking up to eat some chips and salsa and then falling asleep again. Feels like college or something.

Things I've been enjoying lately:
- Braid. Really fun, I only looked up the solutions to a few puzzles at the end (ring world) when I got sort of exasperated. I also looked up a story guide after completing it -- wow, all that stuff went totally over my head. Good moody game.
- Warmachine. It has been enjoying a mini-Rennaisance lately. So fun!
- Descent. We're finally nearing the end of our epic campaign. Saturday's session was actually one of our most fun yet, way better than the last one (which kind of turned into a festival o' defeatism on the part of the non-Action Team players). I think the odds are in my favor as the evil Overlord, but it feels sorta close.
- Anathem. Neal Stephenson's new book. Very strange sci-fi novel taking place in a convent in an alternative universe. It's good to read something sci-fi by him again. Like his recent books, slow to get going but really interesting once it does. Kind of reminds me of Chronicle for Leibowitz.