Tuesday Update

Yeah, I know. I'm late again. Trust me, it's not all been fun and games this last week. There was a bit of personal stuff I had to deal with right away so the blog has be slightly neglected. But it's sort of back on track now so here's a quick update. I've played through the Too Human demo on XBL this past weekend. Took me about 45 minutes but I was taking my time, customizing my character, etc. I played as a Champion, which likes to fly around the screen and jump a lot. It was pretty fun, I would imagine it as a dumbed down Diablo clone (if that's even possible to dumb D down any further *read: SOJ, Dual Leech). I think I will give the game a chance when it comes out, I won't be putting down $60 for it since it's definitely not worth that but it's worth a few hours of my attention. The other major gaming event in my life is that I've started to dual-box for my World of Warcraft account. If you guys are up with WoW, you will know that the latest Refer a Friend has some pretty sweet incentives but since all my friends already play WoW and those that don't are simply not interested, I decided to refer myself and reap all the benefits. So far, it's been pretty good. I leveled from 1-15 on 2 character in a mere 2.5 hours. That's a personal record considering that's on 2 characters at the same time. I'm excited in seeing if I can bring this dual character up to 60 ASAP (or at least before I'm going back to work). Speaking of work, I'm looking to head back to my old job mid September. Hopefully they will have me, otherwise you will be able to visit the Ikeagamer at your local Wal-Mart soon! Podcast will be up tomorrow, and you can take that one to the bank!

Monday Update

I'm going to start a new regular segment on the blog with this post and that's going to be a weekly Monday Update. Since the podcast is somewhat irregular (hold the bran jokes!) the Monday Updates will keep the blog full of fibre goodness! Since my last update, I have gone through another set of electronic-geektoys. I was so enamored by the stupid iPod Touch, I went and upgraded to an iPhone 3G. I'll speak more about it during the podcast this week (look for it tomorrow) but so far, I'm loving it. I had real reservations with it since I've been using a blackberry since University and that is something that's a tough habit to break. But so far, I've gotten really used to the keyboard and hooked up exchange without much problems. A few glaring features that I hope Apple will patch in the near future is cut and paste (WTH, you think this would be standard in a smart phone, I don't know why they would leave it out) and the ability to send invites from your iPhone's calendar. Aside from that, battery life could be better but that's to be expected from a 3G device that isn't the size of a brick. Also having better receiption while in 3G would be appreciated (but that's more Roger's problem than Apple's). I find that I'm keeping the phone in EDGE mode more than 3G just because of the lack of quality receiption in 3G. My calls actually dropped a few times while my EDGE connection was 100%. I ended up selling my Blackberry Pearl for about the same price it cost me to upgrade so no harm there. I did have to switch my number but that's been painless thus far. On the gaming end, I'm now level 31 in World of Warcraft. Ok, that's piddly but that's also a 10 level jump from just a few months ago. Considering how little I actually play, I have to say I'm happy with my progress. Job is a bit weird at the moment but listen to the podcast and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. As for the blog, you may have noticed that it's now located at www.ikeagamer.com. The name is sticking and I'm actually getting quite a few readers currently. This is exciting since it's really the only public blog I've ever run so hopefully it will continue to grow. Look for a new format with the podcast as well since there's more content that's being added to it. That's it for now. Thanks for reading and remember to send your questions and comments to the address to the top right of this page! Cheers!

And it's now World of Guitar Hero

My plans for World (of Warcraft) domination was unsuccessful. I played for 3 hours on Christmas Eve and that basically led me to discover that I have somehow lost interest in the game during my time away. It was difficult as I found myself increasing bored the longer I stared at my character. I'm not sure if this is a lasting affliction but certainly for the next month I will not be logging in (which is too bad as I am paid up until March! Serves me right for signing up for extended membership!) Instead of playing WoW, I ended up finishing Guitar Hero 3 on the Xbox 360 on Medium setting. Now that's a game that I'm addicted to! Gets you off of the couch and lets you move around to the music. I especially liked the Halo Theme redux that you can download for the game (*gasp* yes, I don't hate all things Halo, the song is actually really moving). There's also a remixed rendition of the classic "Devil went down to Georgia". I also started into Mass Effect, which is the first Bioware RPG I have ever played. After a few hours, I immediately understood why people love their games. It's a very engaging experience, much more so than any Final Fantasy I have played. Instead of watch a story unfold, you are living the story through your character. This is "role-playing" that blurs a player's perception of their own reality. It's exciting to see it unfold, especially in 10 years when they look back at the "pioneers" of Immersions RPG (yes, I'm coining that term right now!) and lists Mass Effect and KOTOR, you can tell your 13 year old son/daughter that, "Yes, Daddy did play this game on the Xbox 360. I know the toaster has more processing power but that's not the point!" So, thus ends the reign of WoW over my life. What's going to happen as I move forward? Probably more Guitar Hero and maybe some Rock Band!

Where's the F***ing Tree??

Merry Christmas everyone! Yeah, okay. I'll skip the pleasentries since I'm not a big fan of Christmas or, more accurately, what it's become today. I'm sure you've all heard the rants of other like minded individuals so I won't bore you. But rather I will explain my cyber absence since October. So my last few rants have been mainly about work so I'll continue the tradition: I quit my old job. Wait for it....And I got the same job, just at a different company. Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler quits his old job and then gets a new one, only having it be the same thing? Well, I'm doing the same thing but just getting more perks. Which is not to say that it's a bad thing, but it's not totally different. But I'm really looking forward to this year's Christmas time. It's going to be my first Christmas where I don't actually have to work! What are my plans? I plan on hitting level 50 in World of Warcraft, that's what! With the new experience patch active, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. /crosses fingers With the new job and trying to make a good impression, it's going to be tough to post. Well, it's not like I'm getting lots now anyway but I'll keep it short for now. I'm still planning on posting up those reviews I said I would, look for those before the year's end!

Ooooooo.....Scary!

The weekend came and went, and I have to say, it was rather uneventful. Although I was able to log in about 2 hours of Team Fortress 2 on Friday night, it was not nearly enough as the rest of the weekend, I spent doing other chores. On a brighter note, I have complete the yard work required for this year in preparation of winter. The dog-run in the backyard is complete, save a few fencing and enclosures, which we will do next year.

TF2 was exhilarating as always and I was able to convince my brother-in-law to pre-order the orange box as well. He has always been a valve fan but has been devoted to Day of Defeat for longer than I care to remember. With the continued changes in that game, it’s become a completely different beast and he’s no longer enjoys playing it. With the introduction to TF2, he has found a new shooter that he can immerse himself into.

We also played a bit of Bioshock, and sadly to say, that game is NOT for me! I have never been a fan of horror games. Even the slightest amount of occult will cause me to lose sleep at night. I remember vividly when I first found this out. It was my friend’s 10^th birthday and we were having a sleep over at his house. He had just received a brand new Castlevania game for the NES and we were all determined to play it through. And I too my turn playing Simon Belmont and things weren’t so bad. It wasn’t until the sun set and the music started to get eerie did I start to notice shadows moving and felt eyes on my back. I know, most of you will think I’m a chicken for getting chills from a 8-bit game. But just think, if I’m that freaked out by an 8-bit game then, how much more freaked out would I be with Bioshock! I was able to play through Doom 3, Quake 4, no problems. I never played system shock so I can’t compare but with Bioshock, that’s just one creepy game! My brother in law was just as freaked out as I was and we decided then that TF2 was much more up our alley. Which is too bad as I can see that Bioshock is truly an experience. Perhaps if I run through the game full powered....but that topic is for another time.

My next project, depending on time, is going to be the continued leveling of my World of Warcraft character. I have yet to take a character to 60 and I would love to experience some of the higher end content. We will see, since 2.2 patch apparently broke a whole lot of add-ons, I may not want to continue if I have to reset all my buttons again in the UI. That’s just not worth my time right now.