So, something I haven’t posted about in a while are some of the games I am playing. You may remember that we were playing Lord of the Rings Online, and shooting the episodes of Stupid Hobbitsess in it. Well with School, work, relationships, Andrew, and many many other things, that has trailed off. We got some good responses to the filming but over all things were just too disjointed to organize. LOTRO is still a good game but I think it’s time for me to take off the MMO hat for a while and do other things.
We did try out the beta for Tabula Rasa, and while the game is good, and the interface is fantastic, I just didn’t find myself playing it as much as I should to warrant paying for another MMO.
Now, one thing I am not giving up is my 360. Most of you know that last month we hit an important date in Xbox History…. The Release of Halo 3. While I was not one of the psychos that waited in line on the midnight before release, I did manage to pick it up on the first day. “How did you manage this feat” you ask? Simple! Everyone and their mum had Halo 3 in stock. It was painfully easy to get a hold of it. That said, it’s a pretty good game. I wouldn’t say it’s the best game on the 360, but it’s damn good and fun to play.
Before Halo 3, I was playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I picked it up used so it was cheap, but it’s pretty fun. The other fun part about it is that it’s 4 player! Sarah, Andrew, and I have been logging in to play it. I have been Playing as Spiderman (of course) and Sarah takes over Deadpool. Andrew usually chooses Blade. I highly suggest it if you want a good clean family fun type game. (or if you are hard core comic book fans)
Lastly, The Orange Box. Valve Software has produced the single purchase disk that I personally believe EVERY 360 owner should pick up. The Orange Box brings together 5 total games onto one single disk. It’s actually very innovative how they did it. The engine for the games remain the same. All 5 of the games use the Half Life 2 engine and are basically re-skinned versions. But they are re-skinned enough so that they are essentially new games (that don’t take up a lot of space!) We have seen this a lot in the PC world where people will just re-skin and re-script a game using a single engine. It’s very cool to see this done in the console world.
The Orange Box includes Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1 (which is an extended story from the main), HL2 Episode 2 (more of the story), Team Fortress 2, and Portal. The first 3 may sound like all the same game, and in a way they are, but really it’s just Sequels to the first. The last 2 are where the game shines. Team Fortress 2 is an online FPS that deals in a variety of team based objectives. It has a boat load of humor thrown in. Portal is a mind bending Puzzle type game that will warp your brain to mush. To give you an example, here is a flash version of the game that gives you a taste: Flash Based Portal
If you are on the 360 and want to hook up, please feel free to add me. My gamertag is Wizzer2801
So I guess I haven’t really blogged in the last month or so…..so I should probably give out some updates.
The IP’s usually are just 3-5 pages written out (in APA format) about whatever the weeks topic is. The DB’s are 3-5 paragraphs on something and then a few replies to other students. Once per session/class we do a group project which is like the IP but involves a few other students. All of these assignments are due on the Saturday after they are assigned (so we get a full week). With work and everything else I usually end up just taking that Saturday to work on homework and get it all done then. There is the occasion that I have to do something on the weekend so I do my best to get things done before hand. 
In other news, it’s getting on Halloween time so it’s time to break out all the decorations! I have a few good ideas for the porch this year so make sure you come back to see pictures. I hope to get everything done this coming weekend. 
Wow, it’s amazing how something like DragonCon sneaks up on you and bam! It truly is some sort of time space anomaly because it felt as though we had been there for like 2 weeks, and yet it was over so fast. We drove down on Thursday starting at butt crack early in the morning. This put us in Atlanta by around 4:30pm which was nice because we got the chance to run around and get things done. Along the way we learned a very important lesson….never eat Chinese food from a truck stop! I know it sounds like a bad idea to begin with but I was in panic mode. We had gone without eating for a while and Sarah and I were both in the “Need food now or Hulk Smash” mode.
Thursday night was MIB night (as per usual) so we stopped in and got our badges and then went to change clothes. Actually we sat Andrew in the line for the badges and came back before he was up. After registration, we made our way up to the Hyatt Bar where everyone was meeting. One of the volunteers actually stopped us and (very seriously) said that we needed to Peace Bind our guns. ……… No, Not kidding. Our supper giant water guns that we painted silver needed to be peace bound. I am not even sure how you would do such a thing! Anyways, we met up with Monkey boy and chilled out at the Bar for a while. Pretty much from here on is a blur. Because of this, I will hit on a few bullet points.
Monkeys may try and steal your underwear at night, but at dragoncon that’s not an issue as NO ONE WEARS ANY!! This is where Kilts are not your friend.
Sarah in her Catwoman looks DAMN good! So good that people told me to get out of the way for pics even though I was in costume!
It was great to see the Green Lanterns out in force, now if we could only get them more organized! Seems like there were always a few here and a few there. We tried to get everyone together but that didn’t work. Why can’t I REALLY use my ring to communicate!?!
Nightwing and Oracle went of fantastically! We met up with the Super hero photo shoot and everyone instantly recognized Sarah as Oracle! We got some great shots with her and the Birds of Prey
Major Victory is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. Every time we went by his booth he was awesome to talk to and had a great personality!
Sunday was a good Chill day, Pirate for me and Raven for Sarah. She hooked up with a few other Titans and had a blast. From what I understand it took 4 shampoos to get rid of the purple hairspray.
Sunday also saw Andrew doing his Emo Black Spiderman which looks great, until it’s time to eat lunch. Removable gloves make all the difference. 
Finally the drive home we learned to not dis the Cracker barrel because they control the traffic. Ask me about that sometime.
