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Well, only one more day to go until I leave for New York City (New York City?!?!). I'm not sure that I'll get another entry in or if I'll even be able to get anymore gaming in before I go *gasp*, so I thought I'd fill you all in on what's been going on and next time you hear from me, I'll be in the Big Apple!
1. I bought the Halo books this past weekend and am currently in the middle of "The Fall of Reach". Yes, yes I know these books are old but I'm just now getting around to reading them. I must say that I am really impressed so far and I am enjoying this first book very much. This will be nice to have with me on the plane. Or...
2. I could play my new DS Lite I got a few days ago. I traded my old one in at GameRush for maximum credit and then was without one for about a week before I took the plunge and got the Lite. Very glad I did! Except now I'm hearing rumors of a pink DS Lite coming out in Japan which just figures.
3. The new COD2 map pack is coming out this Thursday which would be a good thing except that I will not be home to download and/or play them as I will be getting ready for my flight. Which means: no maps for ICandee until she gets back home. Up yours Infinity Ward! (Just kidding, I love you Infinity Ward!)
4. I saw Superman Returns last night and enjoyed it very much. Anyone that has a chance to see this in an IMAX theater should definitely take it. The movie was made for IMAX. My favorite parts in the movie were any scenes with Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey in them. Go Evil, Go!
So that's all for me folks! Get in lots of gaming while I'm gone...kill baddies while screaming "ICandee!" or better yet, in the game lobby make sure to say, "This one's for ICandee!" right before the match starts. That should be good for dramatic tension and team morale. Game on everyone!
Well, only one more day to go until I leave for New York City (New York City?!?!). I'm not sure that I'll get another entry in or if I'll even be able to get anymore gaming in before I go *gasp*, so I thought I'd fill you all in on what's been going on and next time you hear from me, I'll be in the Big Apple!
1. I bought the Halo books this past weekend and am currently in the middle of "The Fall of Reach". Yes, yes I know these books are old but I'm just now getting around to reading them. I must say that I am really impressed so far and I am enjoying this first book very much. This will be nice to have with me on the plane. Or...
2. I could play my new DS Lite I got a few days ago. I traded my old one in at GameRush for maximum credit and then was without one for about a week before I took the plunge and got the Lite. Very glad I did! Except now I'm hearing rumors of a pink DS Lite coming out in Japan which just figures.
3. The new COD2 map pack is coming out this Thursday which would be a good thing except that I will not be home to download and/or play them as I will be getting ready for my flight. Which means: no maps for ICandee until she gets back home. Up yours Infinity Ward! (Just kidding, I love you Infinity Ward!)
4. I saw Superman Returns last night and enjoyed it very much. Anyone that has a chance to see this in an IMAX theater should definitely take it. The movie was made for IMAX. My favorite parts in the movie were any scenes with Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey in them. Go Evil, Go!
So that's all for me folks! Get in lots of gaming while I'm gone...kill baddies while screaming "ICandee!" or better yet, in the game lobby make sure to say, "This one's for ICandee!" right before the match starts. That should be good for dramatic tension and team morale. Game on everyone!
Last night we conquered the "Coffee Plantation" co-op mission in GRAW. Finally! This mission was a nightmare trying to complete...until we tried the Shipping Dock mission. Sheesh...Part of it is simply not knowing the maps yet or the best way to go about completing objectives and part of it is what I like to call "too many cooks in the kitchen" or "too many gamers in the map" syndrome. But we ended up with some great teamwork and you really need it during Coffee Plantation. (I admit to getting a slight thrill when I would tell them not to cross the bridge and they would do it anyway only to drop like flies. Muwahaha, I do know what I'm doing some of the time you know.)
The best part of the night for me was during the Coffee Plantation mission when there's a vehicle that shows up near the beginning of the mission. It will usually either come across the bridge towards you or come in behind you. What made the moments with this vehicle so funny was that if you didn't take it out right away, you'd hear one warning "Here it comes!" and then your team members deaths would start scrolling at the top of the screen. The vehicles in that mission are no joke. Awesome!
That's about as far as we got last night, completing one mission and getting schooled on another but it's all shiny happy fun. I'm hoping to get in much more GRAW action before I leave for New York on Friday. Go GRAW go!
Oh baby, GRAW Chapter 2 is in the Marketplace and after attempting to download it for 3 years I was finally able to get it around 5 in the morning. (Actually, I just re-started the download and went back to bed) So now it is mine, all mine! Sidenote: They show really cool episodes of the X-Files on TNT early in the morning. I mean the really cool ones, not the ones with all the government crap, I mean like the ones with inbreeding and the amputee that left his body to kill people...Rock on classic X-Files!
Anyhoo, despite playing for 2 or 3 hours and still not completing the Coffee Plantation mission, I am loving the new content. I even got to play with some Spacers last night which was fun. All in all, $15 is quite a lot of change to spend on downloadable content, but for GRAW I'll spend it gladly. Ghost Recon, I salute thee!
In lieu of any actual gaming, I decided to post entries involving my Top Fives. In this first edition I want to share some of my favorite You Tube videos. Instead of embedding them, I've listed the links for you. Most are older and you've probably seen them a million times but like an episode of The Simpsons, they never really get old, yes?
1. How To Talk Smack Over Xbox Live
This one is so well done. It's a spoof on those old 50's educational films they used to show in schools. This video is about smack talking using Halo 2. Very funny!
2. Marble Blast Level 60 in Under a Minute
I've seen this one more than a dozen times and it still amazes me. I can't even finish this one with no time limit, much less getting it done under par (which is 3:30), much less getting it done in less than a minute. I bow to thee oh Gaming One!
3. Napoleon Dynamite meets Halo
This one has been floating around a lot lately but it's still worth another look. Basically this one uses Halo to recreate the bike scene in Napoleon Dynamite using the Napoleon audio from the movie. I'm a big Napoleon fan so I enjoy this one quite a bit.
4. Let the Console War Begin
There was only one thing worth watching during G4's "coverage" of this year's E3 and this segment is it. Funniest representation of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to date in my mind.
5. The Daily Show on Congress and Video Games
I just caught this today. John Stewart's hit on Congress and the current political climate of video games. Classic!
And there you have it! My current Top Five Favorite You Tube videos. If any of you have any other gaming You Tube favorites, let me know!
I decided to have Gaming Arts and Crafts time again today. Just a little Mario Bros. type scene this time. I made the figures, pipe, coins and bricks out of clay, printed a blue box with a cloud in Paint Shop Pro and then basically just super glued everything in the shadowbox frame so that it would stay put...forever. Voila!
As you can see from my recent games played, last night was Arcade night for me. I keep thinking I'm in a gaming slump but I think the real reason is that I'm too excited at the thought of DLC for GRAW to concentrate playing much of anything else.
I cannot wait for this content and I'm hoping it does show up in the Marketplace this week instead of next week. I'm leaving for New York next Friday and would love to get plenty of GRAW action in before I go. We'll see...
Last night was awesome, both in the games played and the view of said games. The picture was so clear and sharp on my boss' TV that my retinas were burned right out of my skull, but it was worth it. We put in GRAW for a little while before they left and then once the kiddies were in bed I played some Table Tennis, Hexic, Burnout Revenge, UNO and Call of Duty 2.
Last night was the first time I had played COD2 on Live in a long, long time. This game really is fun in multiplayer. I got my share of kills in deathmatch as well as a run of "spawn-take two steps-die, spawn-take two steps-die" moments but it was a lot of fun none the less.
The best thing that happened last night was watching my boss' 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter play Star Wars Battlefront 2. The 6 year old kept forgetting to use the right thumbstick to aim and she still ended up with more kills than me. Oh well, start 'em young I always say. My boss says that his son is better at Halo 2 than he is...hmmmm....experiment time! I say my boss should keep his son up one night. His son could be playing Halo 2 with us while my boss would stay on the headset talking with us as if he's the one playing. I'd love to see if everyone would get schooled by an 8 year old.
Speaking of kids, to all the Dad Gamers out there: Have a great Father's Day!
Tonight I am off to babysit for my boss. His wife's birthday is today and they are renting a party bus to go downtown with a bunch of friends. Now you may be thinking to yourselves, "Poor ICandee, stuck babysitting while the rest of us get to play games...what a sucker!" Well you would be wrong my friend, terribly wrong.
The kids go to bed about 8:00 which is about the time I'll be getting there. My 360 hard drive is in my purse and ready to go and tonight I will get to play games on this:
That's right, my boss' 57" Toshiba CRT rear projection HDTV widescreen started acting up a few months ago and he had an extended warranty. They never came out to fix it so he got them to pony up for a 60" Sony 3LCD. So up goes the sort of still working 57" to the kid's playroom and yours truly will be playing all night on the newest TV hotness. Check out this screenshot of GRAW he took on the new TV and this is just taken with a digital camera (I resized it smaller so it doesn't look quite as smashing as in his thread at TehBias.com:
*drool* I love babysitting...
Well, I finally got a chance to play some GRAW last night with TormentX, SuperGhost, Schuey and CAtrainingbra, along with Sean and RuFfNeCk. You know, playing with them was cool in itself but the fact that we were playing GRAW made it that much sweeter. It was so nice to get a chance to play with some awesome Spacers after reading their blogs for the past few months. Thanks guys!
In other news, I have a lot of subjects I want to write about but I may have to restrain myself to writing one at a time. Keep a lookout here at ICandee, You Game...No telling what's going to be posted here in the near future...Not that it will be cool or particularly interesting, but watch out for it anyway...
Viva Xbox Live!
You must all go read Tim Schafer's latest news blog regarding backwards compatibility for Psychonauts. You know, it's developers like this that make me like gaming that much more. Double Fine could put out a game where you wash dishes and file taxes and I would buy it.
Read it here. Go now...go on, you can do it.
In other news, I jumped into some Halo 2 action last night with the guys. I had my backside handed to me in a sling but it was fun. I so need to play that game more...any FPS teachers out there? ;)
What I Would Do If I Were Rich
by ICandee
1. I would create a video game where one of the bosses would be a prepubescent trash talking gamer. Everytime you shot at him, he would split off and multiply into 2 or 3 incarnations that would shout obscenities and slurs. After defeating him, you would be rewarded with the "Smack Talk" power up with would enable your character to upgrade to a "Smack Talk Fog" which when shot at an enemy would cause them to become offended and leave the level you're currently in.
2. I would create a television station specifically for gamers, by gamers that would only show actual gaming related programs. It would be designed to appeal to all types of gamers, including televised tournaments, interviews with industry members and game reviews for all game platforms and genres. It would not include The Man Show, Fastlane or Star Trek 2.0 and late night programming would not be called "Midnight Spank".
3. I would buy better dog food so my dog wouldn't jump on my bed while I'm sleeping and throw up all over me.
4. I would buy a PSP so that I would have the right to complain about the lack of a second analog stick, nitpick about the games and watch movies.
5. I would open up a retro/vintage clothing store called "Reservoir Togs".
6. I would pay Uwe Boll to stop making movies out of video games.
7. I would buy the 4GB hard drive for the DS Lite so that I would have the option of doing all sorts of cool stuff I would never end up doing..
8. I would buy a DS Lite.
9. I would buy all Oblivion players the Horse Armor from the Marketplace so they would quit whining about paying too much for it.
10. I would pay all the women that pose nude with game controllers in strategic places to quit posing for said pictures. Or at least teach them what the phrase "too much make-up" means. I would also pay boys to cease saying "I'd hit that".
And because this list goes to 11:
I would pay Double Fine to make Psychonauts 2.
Yesterday was the Day of The Game as it seemed like I played a lot. I finally won the Amateur Circuit in Table Tennis, watched some of the TehBias guys play a tournament, got my 300,000 points achievement in Feeding Frenzy and worked a little more on getting that last achievement I need in Hexic. I ended the night in UNO with RuFfNeCk and Sean80. Quite a busy little night, but it was nice to get excited about playing games again.
I even played some Brain Age and started a new town in Animal Crossing on the DS. I decided to just tear down my previous town and start over since I hadn't been in my first town in months and I was scared to go back. I'm not sure that was the best idea because once I started over I realized that I had done a lot in the first one that I now have to do over again. (I had collected every fossil, caught a bee, had a few rare flowers, had every fruit and had the biggest house and store upgrade.) Oh well, back to the drawing board for me!
Once again I have come face to face with my love/hate relationship with Perfect Dark Zero. You know when you break up with someone and you see them in public for the first time and it's awkward but you want to make sure that you look your best and that you don't care that they betrayed and disappointed you and you act like everything's ok? Well, that would be me and PDZ. I admit it to all of you, yes, I did spend 500 MP today for the new maps. Then RuFfNeCk (Chris) and I played through them all with some of the new bots.
Now, I was actually pretty impressed for the most part with the new scenery. My favorite is Trench for sure, but they all had their charm about them. One complaint I can make is that 3 of them are nighttime maps and let me tell you, they are nothing but night. That can make for some visibility problems and I couldn't help but wish that I had Lara Croft's boob light to help me see better. As Chris said, it was "perfectly dark". All in all, not bad. But once again, the spending 4-5 clips of ammo on a bot just to kill it is still very frustrating for me. But I did get quite a lot of kills so I was satisfied.
In other news, the podcast is up and running at TehBias.com. You can get it there now or wait for it to be posted at the TehBias podcast.net page. The TB podcast page is good to go to to download all the ones you've missed, so go there and the "girl" edition should be up sometime soon. Enjoy!
I'm sure that's legal somewhere...
As all of you I'm sure know by now, GRAW is up for some major DLC at the end of June. All I can say is I love you GRAW! COD2 was vying for my affection but GRAW's coming back! New maps, new lighting on current maps, new game modes, new camo and faces and 4 brand spanking new co-op missions. Can this day get any better? When I first heard about it, my mouth literally filled with saliva. Yes...I love the game that much, I have no shame...
Oh right, my speed issues (internet speed that is). Well, my sweetheart of a RuFfNeCk brought up a theory that someone in my neighborhood was stealing my bandwidth. What?! That fiend! That thief! They must be found and shot down at once! So we investigated and yes, someone was stealing bandwidth and that devilish, devious miscreant was...
Me.
Apparently, the security on my router was set to "three sheets to the wind" mode which caused me to go from being on my router while on Live to someone else's router in my neighborhood and vice versa. For the love of...But RuFfNeCk fixed everything for me with tighter security to boot so all is right with the world once again. Sorry mysterious neighbor!
In other news, after we recorded the podcast, we got into some Burnout Revenge online and were actually able to get 6 of us in the room. What a rush this game gives you! Vrrrroooommm...
Lagbusters!
Well, the dashboard update finally came in yesterday and I could see a difference almost right away. Unfortunately that difference wasn't all good and I'm really hoping it's just me and not the update itself. My 360 seems to not be responding to certain things, such as when I try to join a game with friends and when it asks me to insert the disc and I click "ok", it doesn't start the game.
The biggest issue I'm having at the moment however is that it seems something is funky with my internet speed (and I don't mean funky as in getting down with my bad self). Private chat, online games and even navigating the menus are running at slideshow speed. What it basically boiled down to last night was that I ended up playing Hexic while my friends where tearing it up in COD2. Nooooooooooooooo!!
On a side note, it looks like Ridge Racer 6 and Condemned have joined the ranks of the $40 360 games. Which would be great news for me if I wasn't such a sissy and could play through Condemned. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the 360 game price drops. Yay Next Gen! (When do we start calling it "current gen"?)
The podcast is a go to record tonight so my 360 will be getting a rest although I'm going to try and get my speed back up so I'll be ready to get my frag on soon enough. I'm so going through withdrawls at the moment...
In an effort for global domination...oops, I mean in an act of good sense, the Overlords (i.e. gracious mods) of TehBias.com have asked lil ole ICandee to take part in the next edition of the official TehPodcast. What?! Could this truly be? Yes, you read correctly...
Soon everyone will be able to listen to my mellifluous (it's a word, look it up) voice on their personal computers, laptops and MP3 players as I discuss gaming and mouth breathe into my headset microphone. Nations will be at peace, people of the world will unite and Double Fine will decide to make Psychonauts 2. Or we'll just quote Anchorman all night and no one will listen to it, whatever.
In conclusion, you have been warned. I will post a link when it's ready for your listening pleasure. Start making room on those hard drives and memory sticks now. You will want to download this edition of Teh Podcast...believe me...
1. Jewel Quest has seen fit to finally give me my "Finished the Game" achievement. Once I logged into the game again, it updated. Woo hoo! Finally, my Quest is complete...
2. I apologize for not being on Live very much the past couple of days, I find myself still in a little bit of a slump but hopefully that will turn around soon.
3. Part of the reason I haven't been on Live to play with anyone is that I recently bought New Super Mario Bros. for my DS. Anyone that has a DS needs to have this game. Period.
And the real reason for this blog: My mom is very supportive of just about everything I do and this includes gaming. She has listened as I tried to explain exactly what next-gen meant. She has sat patiently as I showed her Live, different games I like to show off to non-gamers (i.e. Oblivion, PGR3, etc) and even seemed interested in what happened at E3 this year. But I guess that's the role of moms, to support their children in whatever halfway sane hobby they may be interested in. My mom has recently entered the "My Mom Rules" Hall of Fame. Check out what she had made for me. If you can't tell what it is, it's a necklace that's says ICandee. The picture's posted below. My mom is so cool...
Have a great weekend everyone!
There's a lot I want to tell you guys about, but I think that I'll just start with one topic at a time and add as I go today.
My thoughts on Microsoft bailing backwards compatibility. You know what? I really don't care about backwards compatibility. Yes, this kind of stinks but since I've gotten my 360 I've barely played any of the games that are currently BC, much less dying for others to be added to the list. Now, I would love to have say Psychonauts on that list, but let's be realistic here, I would probably play through one level if that and never touch it again. I really don't blame Microsoft for bailing on this. I would much rather have them focusing on new games to give me than old games, that while good and I would love to have available, I wouldn't play much anyway.
Case in point, I love Jade Empire and it's BC. How many times has it been played on my 360? Zip. Fable The Lost Chapters? Nada. I kept my original Xbox to play those games that didn't end up BC and it's currently collecting dust on my shelf. I love DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball, but with the new one coming out (hopefully) soon, why do I need to worry about the first one not being BC? If it's a choice between playing my original Xbox and playing on my 360...You'll always find me on my 360.
There are great games that will never be BC on the 360. It's regrettable but I'll survive. I'm much more interested in games coming for the 360 than getting my panties in a twist over Microsoft not letting me play old ones via BC. As far as I'm concerned, the important ones (i.e. the Halo and Ghost Recon games) are already up and running so I'm content.
o bored today...need to be entertained...frightened by G4's new Filter hostess cupcake, now with 40% less fat and only 2 net carbs per serving...must find something to do...
I know!
Get out all of my old polymer clay and make The Prince from Katamari Damacy complete with Katamari for his sitting comfort!
