Played me some Star Warz MMORPG tonight and it was pretty good! It's a Bioware game, so it very much feels like KOTOR meets Mass Effect. They've taken the Mass Effect dialog-wheel (Good/Neut/Bad) and overall KOTOR aesthetic and vibe and married that to your typical WoW mmo.

The good: One cool aspect of the game I've never seen before are these "story zones" which are specific to each player. So, we may be on Planet Ewok with everyone, but when I go into the Ewok chief's hut, I'm suddenly in "Rudy's Ewok Story instance" so the dialog and happenings are specific to wherever I'm at in that storyline. If I'm grouped, my space homies will see the same cutscenes as me, but they won't be able to effect the outcome via dialog, etc. It works pretty well because it doesn't seem over used. Of course, it also means you'd probably see the same cut scenes a grip of times if you're rolling with your galactic-gal-pals, but they all seemed pretty brisk so far. When you leave said "story instance" you're back in the shared game world. It doesn't break with a load screen, so it flows nicely.

The bad: It's an MMORPG, so my quests have literally been "kill 6 Separatist Snipers" "Disable 3 Separatist Jamming Devices" and "Collect 3 Republic Medicine Crates". Wee, MMOs.

I made a fake Han Solo. I'm gonna play some more this weekend but I'm leaning towards buying it in December and maybe playing a month or two. I hear the pvp is fun but I haven't gotten the opportunity to try it yet.

I keep hearing it's so much better than Space Hulk, so yeah, I totally want to play it too and judge for myself. I don't think you can really beat Space Hulk's theme though.

Yeah, no, Earth Reborn would be a definite girlfriend fail. In fact I tried playing it with Aeryk the other weekend and it was kinda complicated for us... just using the first scenario... although we HAD had about three beers by that point (it was within 40 minutes of Aeryk arriving). I'm really fired up to play it though. I've read about half the rules (up through the funky ability icons). I basically want to get Enron over here for a day or something and just plow through it.

San Juan really isn't that complicated once you put it into practice. Although, the wife and I had played Puerto Rico first and it shares a lot of concepts. (We played with Enron, so imagine him saying: " 'ave another tea, guv'na!' " in a falsetto every time the Governor card comes up, which is every turn). I imagine it would cut the other way as well and San Juan would be a good lead-in to Puerto Rico.

I like playing certain games on consoles for the reasons you mention. Also, just sitting on the couch using a controller is relaxing in a way hunching in front of the computer is not.

Have you tried playing Earth Reborn with Janice yet? Thematically it doesn't look particularly girlfriend-friendly, so I don't know if I'm ready to try and bust that one out yet. I bet I'd have better luck with one of the D&D boardgames because at least it's co-op.

Roll Through the Ages has been the biggest hit so far, followed by Lost Cities. Honorable mentions to Ticket to Ride, Carc, Forbidden Island, and Through the Desert. She didn't really like Jambo (me neither) but I kinda screwed up bringing it as the only game on a Catalina trip once. When Jambo's the only game you've got, trials and tribulations. We'll revisit it again in the future.

I think for the mass-introduction of Euro-style gaming to her friends and family, I'm gonna try Ticket to Ride. I'll also have Carc, Roll Through the Ages, and Through the Desert on standby. Also, Gang of Four. I've had San Juan for awhile now and I've been afraid to try and play it with anyone because it just seemed too daunting. Might have to bust it out and see if the time is right.

/end cardboard
/run electric'

Cool that you liked Arkham Asylum! That's a badass game. I'm pretty excited to get the new one soon. Was going to get the PC version, but thinking about it now, I might end up grabbing a console copy only because you can sell them back so easily. I got burned bad on Battlefield 3 for PC. It's an awesome game in theory, but it's such a buggy/crashy piece of shit, I'm all but done with it. Fuck that shit. And of course since it's a PC digital copy, I can't even recoup $20 bucks or whatever.

Through the Desert is solid! It doesn't hit the table every night or anything, but it's always fun when we do break it out. Next stop: Earth Reborn!

I decided to actually build a house for once (in Minecraft) so today I spent a little bit of time building the foundation, then spent a little time wiring up a doorbell. Uh... make that a lot of time. Took me like three hours! And it's not quite done yet....

Maybe Chez-Rudy will be a dug up graveyard/mummy-doll wharehouse. That's some morbid fucked up shit I expect to see show up on a Law & Order next year. Yuck man.

Got into the Star Wars:Old Republic beta for this weekend only, woo! The game comes out in December too, so if anything, this will act like a crash course demo to see if it's got what it takes to capture my heart. Played a little DC Universe free mmorpg this week, and it was predictably boring. To be fair, it's more along the lines of an action rpg/beatemup in that you go around punching, kicking, and blasting dudes using a controller. But it still has a really generic feel that kind kills any desire to play it, free or not. I'll take a pic of my dude next time I load it up because he looks sweet.

I'll try to build something in Minecraft this week, but I'm still pretty burnt out on the game. I was CRAZY into it for a month or two and then it just kinda lost it's luster. I like the new shit they've added, so that's a positive. Maybe if I treat it less obsessively than last time, I'll get more fun from it.

Picked up "Through the Desert" and played it a few times with my gal. Very girlfriend-friendly game with great pieces (pastel camels!). It's fun and plays really fast which is a plus. I imagine with more than 2 players it being absolutely chaotic and look forward to trying that out. I'm trying to organize a "game night" with her siblings and their SOs to try and introduce them to some awesome not-monopoly board games.

Watched the Twin Peaks pilot for the first time yesterday. It was great! Rememeber watching Season 1 on VHS a long time ago with JP, Jon, and some other random homies ( I think) but I'd never seen season 2 or the pilot. Gonna work my way through the entire series, can't wait. I know S2 is supposed to suck, but I'm still mucho excited and going in with pretty clear expectations.

| Don't be surprised if you come across this...

... in the WebcamRPG Cthulhu sessions. This is one of the most disturbing things ever. EVER.

Russian historian keeps 29 mummified corpses DRESSED AS DOLLS in his apartment

And now, back to your regularly scheduled, light-hearted, Minecraft posts.

Sweet!

When you start getting closer, we'll have to figure out where to hook it up. Are you doing a raised bridge-like thingy or on-ground path? lol

I need to get back to town and find everyone's stuff. Half the fun of Minecraft is seeing what everyone's up to!

I think my next project is to build some farms in the biodome looking hills behind the castle/keep thing I've got going on. Making the day trips out to Che Pump to till his fields is effective, but time consuming. I try to leave half the haul in the pantry for others to use.

| Public Works, at your service.

Since I'm content (or at least less-inspired than others) to make my little beach house in Minecraft, rather than giant, awe-inspiring compounds, my contribution will be Public Works!

My first task has been to create a road system that connects all our "homes" together so at least we can find our way around. So far Chez Biggdork, Pump, Botz, Enoto, and the Keep on the Borderlands have been completed - next step is to link Shopvac and the elusive Chez Rudy.

See, I can contribute!

| Oh, and screenie of the improvements..

Got the lava cross working, swapped out the dirt for dungeon block on the front of the castle, tower #1 built out. Needs to have interior shiz / fluff added like beds, book cases and whatever else. That's gonna have to wait. lol.

| Mind the Creepers

LOL.. had a funny moment tonight with Jon. He was helping me check out the new castle tower for aesthetics and function.. went out in the night time to take a look and typed "hey, let me know if you see any creepers coming". So I poke my head over the edge and see one running for him and type CREEEEEEPEEEERRRR into the chat. But, Jon thinks I'm just joking around and stands there.. haha. About a half second later the obvious happened. SSSSSSSSSssssssssssssss... BOOOM! :(

We had a good laugh about that, lol.

I went ahead and fenced off Enoto's crater as a memorial, with the statement of "Was only trying to help" etched below the Enoto Memorial sign.

Also, took a pic of the squids living in my waterfall.. and a shot of Pump's place in the distance from the ramparts of the new tower.

Haha, that's awesome.

I've had both kiddos on my knees playing Minecraft with me the last couple of days. Haylee was NOT happy with daddy for the environmental lava disaster that killed all those trees on the hillside, lol.

Bennett is all about GET THE BAD GUYS DADDY.

| Arkham Asylum

Thanks for the recommendation on this Rude and Aeryk! I'm almost done (just down to a couple boss fights I think). Love the slick design, finding things is fun, great graphics, and really good combat. Always satisfying to finish a fight with one of Batman's big "non-lethal" moves. For the couple of you that might not have played it, it's definitely worth picking up cheap on Steam or for PS3 sometime. Next up: Demon's Souls!

I was playing Minecraft today and got really freaked out when I thought I heard a zombie right behind me -- turned out it was just my kid snoring.

Been great goofing off in MC with y'all. It's good to have the Jones back!

Found a giant underground city under my keep that is crawling with buddies.. I'm gonna need help with it I think. Adventure time! lol

In other MC news, almost done with the shell on the southern tower.. then just another 1000 blocks for the north tower, weeeee!

Not quite sure what to do with the interior space on these things. Guess i could throw in some beds/chests for the guard barracks levels, lol.

Can you even make "fireplaces" anymore? Thought I remembered hearing about people going into the aether level to grab glowstone..?

At any rate, Im still a ways off from having the goods to make a portal.

PS Jeez Aeryk, try letting your wife and kid out of the house once in a while, sheesh!