A strange idea came upon me while I was getting ready for this trip. I had planned out all of the photos I was using for the 365 project, but I ran across an idea for a photo that I couldn’t pass up. I have a few Lego mini-figs and a few of the Doctor Who building block kits. They use the same scale and interlocking system, so I thought, Why not combine them! I thought it would be cute to have two of the Stormtroopers take off in the Tardis.
With my travels, it was a great chance to take them along and take some shots of them in the Tardis in different locations and situations. Thus, the Trooper Adventures was born. When I get the chance to pull these guys out and let them have fun, I do. They even brought along a friend! Keep an eye out on the Flickr Set for more adventures.
Sarah is very happy with the garden she has in the front yard. On occasion I have taken some pictures out there of some cool looking flowers. Lately, though, there has been a flood of pesky bugs that have moved in. In order to combat this, Sarah has ordered an army! Well, an army of praying mantids. What I was expecting was this:
But what we got was these VERY tiny little mantid. They will grow to be larger, (maybe not a rideable size) but in the meantime, I get to do some Macro photography!
I have been thinking of trying to get a weekly post up of what I am playing and maybe put it out to see what you guys are playing as well. I have seen a lot of sites do this to get a good discussion going and maybe get some ideas about a game I wouldn’t normally pick up. So, seeing as how I am the only one here, I’ll go first.
The past week or two I have been working on some house type stuff and reconfiguring things on my network. After picking up the new Xbox 360S (I traded in my old 20gb Xbox) I decided to upgrade my router to a Wireless N to use the new Xbox’s N device. I bought the Belkin Play Dual Band Wireless N router and replaced my crappy Netgear G. Long story made short, I can’t stream media from my PC to the xbox anymore and have no idea why. While I am not a hard core network guy, I still know my way around a subnet and have spent the past 2 weeks tweaking and such to figure this out. It’s kind of a pain.
Outside of that I have been playing some Lego Harry Potter with Sarah. It’s one of those games where we pretty much only play together. I believe we are towards the end of Book 3 right now. the Quick review on it, it’s a Lego game. Same basic premise and humor. That’s not a bad thing, because I love the Lego games. Aside from that I have picked up Risk: Factions from the Xbox Live Arcade. They found a way to really make a Risk game fun for everyone! We have played as a family, as well as through the solo campaign. Enjoyable all around. May have more of a full review on it up soon.
In the life department, I also picked up an Elliptical machine and am using it to get back into some sort of shape that’s not “round”. My hope is to turn some of this belly fat into muscle in time for DragonCon at the beginning of September. We’ll See, as of this morning I was at 192lb. My target is Around 175lb but I would be happy with a strong 180-185lbs. The goal is not so much loss but re-distribution. Wish me luck!
Tuesday is new game release day, and Wednesday is new comic day. Now I don’t typically buy as many new games as I buy comics, but I tend to keep an eye on what’s getting released in the same way. This last Tuesday saw two releases that I have been watching for a while now. Lego Harry Potter, and Naughty Bear. I knew what to expect with any Lego game, while they may tell different stories, the game play is similar across the board. The Sleeper was Naughty Bear. I had seen a number of preview videos and some of the trailers, and to be honest, they did their job well and I was enticed. It looked funny/cute in a “Happy Tree Friends” sort of way.
Sadly, I was wrong. I bought Naughty Bear at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, got home and played through the first “episode” and instantly knew that I had made a mistake. I toughed it out and finished the episode, then packed it up and headed back to Gamestop. Thankfully the gracious personnel there were nice enough to let me swap it out for Lego Harry Potter.
Side note here. I was warned, by Erin when I bought Naughty Bear, that it was going to be bad. I decided to make my own judgment.
So what made it so bad? Well, The idea was good and funny. Unfortunately that was the extent of the good. The Premise was that you played Naughty Bear, the bastard step child of this “Care Bear” style island where everything is puppies and kittens. Some of the other bears on the island have treated you unfairly and you decide to get back at them by being naughty. Being Naughty can range from scaring them, sabotaging their stuff, or even bashing their stuffed heads in with a baseball bat. Who wouldn’t think that could be fun?!
What it ended up being was a series of “Challenges” where you had to sneak around and scare/kill your fellow bears while disrupting their activities. I guess that you could play the game more Sam Fisher style and sneak in the bushes then pop out and scare them, but after the first time you do that they all know you are there, so no more sneaking will help you. From there is just becomes “I’m going to run around and hit you with a bat”. When you finish with the bears, you can gain a few extra points by smashing stuff. And that was it! After a while, even the narration is grating.
Now, I think the game may be not as bad as I am making it out to be if it weren’t for one more glaringly bad problem, it was release at the price point of $49.99. For the same price as something like Lego Harry Potter, you get a game that may have done well as an Xbox Arcade title, for maybe $10-$12 bucks
The Graphics were just ok, the actual game mechanics were horrible. I had to maneuver myself around and fumble with the view to get into a position where I could actually scare another bear. Just Awful, one of the worst games I have tried. This may, and I emphasize MAY, be worth it when the price drops down to like $5, which I have no doubt that it will fall to that.
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