My New Year's Resolution is...

...to play more!

Season's Greetings!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

"Crysis" Whimpers Off the Shelves

"Crysis" is on the old Amazon.com wish list. Being a big fan of the game "Far Cry", I was ready for the development team's next project. I followed the development of "Crysis" with every beautiful screen shot that was released on the web, drooling over the lush environments that made great wallpaper. But when I slapped down $50 on the counter to buy a game, it was "Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat" that went home with me.
Why? System requirements, pure and simple.
My gaming rig is one year old... ONE YEAR OLD... and doesn't even meet the minimum requirements to play "Crysis". I've listened to the game reviewers who say that even they couldn't max out the graphics when they reviewed the game, and these people have gaming rigs to die for. The reviewers also said that this is a game that you buy now and in a couple of years, you will have the technology to play the game as it was meant to be played. Excuse me, but I'm playing the stock market. If I buy a game, I want to play it as soon as I get home. I am not going to put that shrink wrapped PC-DVD on my shelf and wait two years to uncork it.
And now, Joystiq.com posted this story about the sales numbers for "Crysis". It's really a shame too because I know that a lot of love was put into that game by the developers. So, if you need me, I'll be busy installing "Call of Duty 4". Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Y'all.

Sold Out!

If you were on the fence about buying Guitar Hero 3 or Rock Band this holiday season, guess what? The fence has been pulled out from under you. Both rhythm games for the Xbox 360 are on the back order list. A quick check of Amazon.com finds that Rock Band for the Xbox 360 is sold out until at least January of 2008. Guitar Hero 3 is also sold out for the Microsoft box.
Talking with our local game stores, they only received two Rock Bands for the 360 and on a recent stroll through Wal-Mart, I found four Rock Bands for the Playstation 3. It almost makes me want to buy a PS3 just because games are available for it... nah.
So much for a rockin' Christmas.

Tis' the Season

This weekend, our family got out the Christmas decorations including our fake tree. Not five seconds had passed when our neurotic cat made herself at home in the Christmas tree box. Our dog let the cat know that she wasn't supposed to be in there. The cat didn't care.

Halo 3 Line Experience

It was a cold, crisp September night. The appointed hour was almost here. The anticipation was building. Within minutes, Halo 3 would be ours.
It was Monday, and I and my family had just returned from a nice weekend getaway. My son and I had plans to head over to the local GameStop to stand in line for Halo 3. Rather than get a few hours of sleep in to be fully rested for the midnight release, we ended up playing Halo 2 until it was time to leave. With about two hours left to go, my daughter asked if she could go with us. This took me by surprise as she is more of a driving gamer rather than a FPS gamer. We climbed into the car a little after 11:00 PM and headed to Wal-Mart to pick up our Halo 3 food supplies. We got our Halo Rings (Funions) but couldn't find any Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Time was running out, so we got back in the car and headed to GameStop.
As we pulled up to the store, we could see that the line was pretty long, but not too long. The line looked like it was comprised of college aged males. The three of us got in line behind a group of four guys. Soon after we arrived, another group of four or five guys got in line behind us. For the purposes of this story, we'll call the group ahead of us Group A and those behind us, Group B.
Group A was chatting about Halo, gaming and music. Group B was hurling insults at each other. Then it happened, the first of many F-bombs came out. Let me state for the record that I am by far a prude and do, on occasion, let a profane word fly. But with Group B, it was F-this and S-that and B-the other. Group A did let a few choice words fly, but once they saw that I had kids with me, they toned it down. It was just a very sad representation of gamers by Group B.
Once 12:01 AM hit, a little excitement rippled through the crowd and the line began to move. But, it was more a bunching up of bodies rather than people moving through the checkout line. It took a little over an hour for us to finally ready the front of the line, and then about two minutes to get the game.
We stopped by a local convince store to grab our game fuel and then headed home. We stayed up until 4:30 AM playing Halo 3.
Wednesday came and it was back to the old grind and so I guess I'll get to play it again sometime this weekend.

To Halo, or Not to Halo, That is the Question

So the countdown to the release to Halo 3 is on. I have been working so much overtime at work that the fact that Halo 3 is a week away almost took me by surprise. My son looked across the table at me during dinner yesterday and held up one finger. I look at him and said "One what?" He said, "One week until Halo 3, dad." That took me by surprise. The days have been blurring by with the 68 hour work weeks. But a little pre-planning goes a long way.
In January, I requested September 24 and 25 off not even realizing that Halo 3 would be released at midnight on the 25th. And I reserved a copy of the game at my local gaming store. All of the chess pieces are in place... now let's get gaming!

2 Weeks Without Internet

"Welcome back, your dreams are your ticket out". As the title of this entry notes, my internet connection at my home died two weeks ago. We had a big thunderstorm roll through town, two days after that, no wireless internet. It seems the storm, with its many lightning strikes, knocked out my wireless internet provider.
After multiple calls to my i.s.p., I came to the realization that they had no idea what was going on with my connection. It was a week and a half after the service went out that I received a phone call letting me know that their tower was down.
So, I switched to a different wireless internet provider and had to wait over the Labor Day weekend to finally get service up and going. Let's just say that it's been a very long two weeks!

Up For Sale

I've listed my old Xbox on Ebay. You can bid on it by clicking here. The auction closes on August 10. Remember, bid early, bid often.

We Interrupt Your 360 Gaming to Bring You... Guitar Hero 2: Encore!

I finally got one game of NCAA 2007 on the Xbox 360 under my belt when I forgot, I had reserved Guitar Hero 2: Encore, Rocks the 80's! I had been so focused on this whole 360 thing that I forgot to pick up the latest expansion of the Guitar Hero 2 franchise. So, now it's back to rocking out the Rat Cellar and the Van's Warped Tour with rockin' tunes from the 80's. There was a big learning curve for me when I first picked up Guitar Hero 2. But now with the Encore pack, I've breezed by Easy mode and am half-way through Medium in less than 24 hours. As great as rockin' out to the Romantics, Poison and Asia is, I'm just not feeling it like I did when I first picked up the wired axe and wailed to Van Halen, the Police, and the Pretenders. We'll see how long I'll stick with this one before I move on to Rock Band.

No Time... No Time...

The 360 arrived on Friday (July 27). I had plans to be out of town over the weekend. It wasn't until Sunday night that I was able to plug it in. Monday, it was taking out our old dishwasher and fixing our family's DVD player. Tuesday, it was installing our new dishwasher. In the few minutes in between I've been able to log on to Xbox Live and set up my gamer tag ("Fenn101" by the way) and try out a few courses on PGR3. Friday, I'm taking the day off from work just so I can get to know my new toy.

Passing Through the Mile High City

With respect to the late singer John Denver, my new Xbox 360 is experiencing a Rocky Mountain High. The console left New Jersey on the 20th of July. Yesterday (the 24th), it checked in at the Denver facility.
Gone are the days of sending away for 100 plastic Army men for $1.99 and waiting six to eight weeks for them to arrive in the mail. After the fifth week of checking the mailbox everyday, you forget that you even ordered them and then, viola! there they are.
Of course, I think I would have driven my parents just as crazy if I had a tracking number back then.

Fears Dissuaded

I emailed the seller of the Xbox 360 and within a couple of hours, they emailed back and said that they had a problem with printing out a shipping tag from Paypal. They got the package out the next day and now it's in the hands of the USPS. I've disassembled my Xbox and have cleaned and prepped it for shipping. Once the 360 arrives, I'll put the system up on Ebay. I'll be lucky to get $70.00 for it.
I've noticed that the prices on a lot of the 360 games are getting slashed, good news for me. I'll be able to play catch-up with some of the back titles.

Waiting for the Xbox 360 Goodness

Here it is, Tuesday, and I have not had any response from the Ebayer who is selling the Xbox 360 that I was the high bidder on. That little voice in the back of my brain is now planting the seeds of doubt. I'll give it one more day before I start blanketing this seller with e-mails.
In the meantime, I went online to see the various 360 games (new & used) that are for sale. What is the one game that I need to start out my 360 library with? NCAA 2008 comes out this week, soon followed by Madden '08 or should I rummage through the bargain bins for a discounted title?

Xbox 360 is on its Way

The deal is done. Over the weekend, I was the highest bidder of an Xbox 360 on Ebay. The downside now is that I have to wait the five to ten days to have it shipped. Oh well, I've waited this long, I can wait a few days longer.
I dismantled and cleaned my old Xbox. The hardest part was deleting all of my saved games. We had some good times together.

Getting Back in the Game

So, I'm making the plunge. I've decided to get an Xbox 360. Now, I know, it's been out for almost two years now, but I think it's time to jump into the pool.
My question now is new or used? The budget screams "USED!" but can I trust those who are selling on Ebay that I'm not getting one with the "Red Rings of Death".
I'm scouring Ebay and making my bids but no success so far. I felt guilty that I'm looking for a 360 that I went back and played NCAA '06 and PGR2 on my Xbox just so it doesn't feel left out.