My review of Midnight Club LA for the Xbox 360

I'm a fan of driving games, so after watching all the commercials for this one on TV, I was pretty excited to give it a try. Street racing, outrunning the cops, earning respect and cash to buy new rides? Sounds sweet. I popped it in this weekend and sat down expecting some fun.

My first impressions were positive. The world of the game is indeed beautiful. It's set in Los Angeles and you can drive all the way from the beach to the Hollywood hills. Some missions actually have you do this. It's a Rockstar developed title and while it's not as interactive as Grand Theft Auto, it looks just as nice. It's not quite as interactive though. You can't mess with the computer AI, and when you try to run them over, they dive out of the way. While the game is open world, your only options are "Win race" or "lose race". I did a lot of both.

You start out with one of three crappy cars. Many racing games do this to you, as a way of teaching you the ropes of the game. Usually, after a few races, you earn a better car or the money to buy one. This doesn't happen in Midnight Club LA. I started out in a piece of shit VW and 4 hours into the game, I was still driving the same piece of shit VW, even after winning a ton of races in it. By this point in most other racing games....I'd already have myself 4 or 5 new cars, but maybe this is a street racing "simulator" and they want to teach you that in real life, no one hands you the keys to their Corvette after two races in a crappy VW.

Around 6 hours in, I still didn't have enough cash to buy a decent ride, so instead, I bought a middle of the road Ducati motorcycle. It was much faster than my piece of shit car, and I was unable to win a few races with it. I finally unlocked a piece of crap Camaro that was slightly faster than my piece of crap VW. I went online to race a few people with my new car. They all had awesome Vettes, Saleens or other supercars and blew me away. Guess they'd put more than 6 hours in. I logged back out, and sat there wondering how long I wanted to grind in this game.

Instead of grinding for cars, I decided I'd try for some achievements. There was one for taking 15 pictures and submitting them to the site. Since all I had was my bike and my piece of crap car, I took 15 boring pictures in order to get the "Paparazzi" achievement. Here are a couple of my favorites:


Here I am getting ready to race against some souped up Fast and Furious car. This is exactly why I play video games, to simulate being someone who sucks at life.



At a glance you might think this next picture was me burning out my tires in an awesome show of acceleration and torque. In actuality, I believe my piece of crap car probably just needed a smog check.



One of the best things about Midnight club is supposed to be the police pursuits. Of course, the car they start you with doesn't go much faster than the speed limit, so in order to start a pursuit, I tried parking outside of the police station while playing some rap music really loud. They didn't chase me.



Finally, there were 10 gamerscore to be had for submitting your car to "rate my ride". I sent mine up, and it's been rated 11 times so far. The verdict? 4.64 out of 10. That's about the same score I give this bullshit game.

New Xbox Experience

So, the New Xbox Experience launched this morning and everyone on my friends list is slowly popping online with new avatars. Here's what mine looks like.

I think he's going to need a better costume than this though. Perhaps they'll make some stormtrooper armor soon. :-)

Lazy Sunday

No, I'm not talking about the awesome song. That's just all that can be said about today.

Yesterday evening after the yard work ended, a couple of folks came over and we watched some movies, had some pizza and Craig brought a cake for dessert. I opened a bunch of birthday cards and presents. After that, it was lots of Guitar Hero World Tour (My gift from John) before a break to listen to Wing from South Park sing happy birthday to me courtesy of Elizabeth. I didn't know what was going on at first, but apparently...if you buy her CDs, she will call you from the Netherlands and sing to you on your birthday and other occasions. She called at 11pm and I put the phone on speakre so we could all listen. It was pretty funny. Afterwards, we played games late into the morning, then went into the hot tub until it was almost light outside.

I didn't get to bed until 6:45am or so, then I woke up at 10:30 only because my clock said it was 12 and I thought that was a good time to be awake. Turns out it said 12 because the power had gone out for a minute the day before (thanks to the industrial saw Craig brought over blowing a breaker). I watched a movie with Heather then went back to sleep from 1-5. When I got up, we watched some more TV, then I beat Fable 2 and went to bed around midnight. Hopefully, that normalizes my sleep schedule.

The day

So, this morning I woke up around 7:30am to a birthday text message. Ordinarily on a Saturday morning, waking up this early would be cause for grumbling, but I had to get up at 8am anyway for Craig to call me so it was all good. He called right on the dot for my credit card number (he was buying some lumber for the fence) and I went out to the living room to play some Fable 2. I got almost to the end of the game before it was time to start yard work.

Craig and I worked on the fence until lunch time, then made a trip to Home Depot for some more lumber and some Carl's Jr. for lunch. When we got back home, he started cutting stuff for the trellis we're putting on the fence and I went up on the roof to get rid of the leaves. We worked until dark...then called it a day.

Now for some relaxing.

Secret Samadhi

11 years ago, Live released their 4th CD, which was a huge deal for me. Back then, Live was one of the biggest bands in my little musical universe. I had never even heard of them 3 years prior, but some friends convinced me to go see them play and I was hooked after that. A year later, I had followed them all over the northwest on their Throwing Copper tour, and Mental Jewlery and Foursongs had become two of my all time favorite CDs.

When Secret Samadhi came out, I remember being unimpressed with "Lakini's Juice" (the first single that was being played on the radio and MTV), but I bought the album anyway hoping it would grow on me. This is back before MP3s, so buying an album when you didn't even like the single was a risky proposition. I listened to it a lot, but none of the songs "clicked" for me. I tried to like it, but I just couldn't get into this album the way I did with their other music. Looking back now, I think maybe I just loved "Throwing Copper" so much that anything they released to follow it up would have been a letdown at that point in time for me.

2 weeks ago, I saw Zack and Miri make a porno and during a pivotal scene in the movie, "Lift me Up", (an unreleased track from the Throwing Copper days) came on. The next day I found myself listening to all my Live records again. One album in particular stands out more now than it ever did in the past.



I was completely wrong about Secret Samadhi. It's just as good as their first three disks and possibly better in some ways. I've listened to several of my Live cds on and off since the 90's, but this one has always been missing from the rotation. No more. This is on my mind tonight because I've got the record on and I can't seem to turn it off....even though it's a work night and I should be in bed.

Heather managed to sleep through my little evening of Live and almost the entire Secret Samadhi album, even though she's just one door away and I have the sound up pretty loud....but I think my singing just woke her up.

That's probably my cue to call it a night.

+Live+

You have a blog?

I'm on the "instant blogging" service Plurk with my friends all day long at work....but I don't think I ever really say anything there. Talking about what I had for lunch or where I'm going after work isn't exactly newsworthy. "News" like that might belong on a site like this, where no one reads regularly. :-)

At the beginning of this year, I tried blogging once a day. I couldn't hang. Later this year, I found plurk, and I don't think a day has gone by since I joined up where I didn't post there at least once.

I may start this daily thing up again. Can I make a calendar year? We shall see.

Election day once again

I got up this morning around 7am, actually excited to go vote. By 7:30 I was standing in line at the elementary school near my house, along with about a dozen other people who were waiting to vote in the 20 polling stations (all full). By the time I left, the line was twice as long...but everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

At this point, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that someone I voted for will actually win this time.

Little Big Planet

Last week on October the 21st, I got up a little bit early to head out in search of a copy of Little Big Planet. Sure, I knew that the title had been recalled because of some sort of offending song but I was hoping to find a retailer that hadn't heard the same news yet.

I tried Target first, where they had copies in, but their computer told them it was not to be sold until November 7th. My next stop was Fred Meyer, which actually had a sign up saying they wouldn't be selling the title. I drove across the street to Sears where the salesman laughed and said "We never get games the week they're out, man". I called around a bit more, but everyone else was abiding by the recall.


Flash forward to this Saturday, I'm browsing around the internet for news on when Little Big Planet might finally be released and I find a story on Joystiq that says it's out now at Gamestop. Excited, I call the closest store, only to find that they're only selling to pre-order customers. I call 4 more Gamestops before I find one (which used to be an EB Games) that is selling copies to normal folks like me. I asked Heather if she wanted to go for lunch, then we rushed down to the mall. They had 2 copies left...and I bought one of them.

Woohoo!



When I got the game home, it was a lot of fun. I played for hours and hours, enjoying the offline modes. I couldn't connect to the servers to experience the online features of the game, and I thought this was strange...but assumed maybe they were keeping them off until everyone could buy the game.

It's a fun little platformer, some of the levels caused me to curse and yell at the screen (always a good thing). Others were so fun and cutesy that I breezed right through them. On Sunday, the online features still weren't working, but I put a few more hours into it anyway. Monday, I read reports online that the servers were up, but by the time I finally got home from work last night....they were broken.

Today is Tuesday the 28th, a full week after this game was scheduled to ship...and the online mode is still broken. I'd love to give the game a full review, but I can't....because half of it doesn't work yet.

This sucks.

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PAX 2008 Day One: Friday

So, it's Tuesday morning and I'm still not fully recovered from PAX 2008. This year's PAX was quite possibly one of the most exhausting ones since the very first, and also the biggest one yet. It was so packed with events that this year, I didn't even have time to sit down and blog about it in the evenings afterwards (something that has been sort of the norm each year). I'll try to recap it all now, starting with Friday:

Friday morning began with a little breakfast at the Brown Bag Cafe in Kirkland with my dad and Ryan. Although both of my nephews were planning on coming up for PAX, Ryan was the only one who could actually make it. My Dad flew up with him (he was down in California on business anyway) and we enjoyed a hearty meal before heading down to the first day of the con.



When we arrived, the lines were as insane as ever. We met up with John, Scott and their friend Mike who had gotten there just ahead of us and started playing a little Mario Kart DS with insane lag.



Later, Jason, Montine and Shawn showed up and joined us in line. We waited for about 3 hours before the line started moving. Once inside, John went to the console tourney lines and found out that Halo signups weren't until Saturday (a good thing), while Ryan and I went to the Bungie booth to try to line up for the Recon challenge. It wasn't started yet, but they were demonstrating the new Halo map, which we got in line to play several times.



I spent a little time walking around the Expo hall on Friday, but mostly gravitated towards the Bungie booth trying to get into that Recon challenge with Ryan. At about 4pm, they decided to start it up, and a line instantly formed. We ended up waiting 2 hours and being the last two people to challenge the Bungie employees for a chance to win Recon armor. We lost 15-5.



After that was over, we had some dinner over at Pacific Place with John, Jason and Montine and then came back to try a little Rock Band. Our regular band did some practicing while Ryan played some Guitar Hero and challenged people to Smash Brothers (a game he doesn't have but is somehow good at). Eventually, our band entered our best score to qualify for the Rock Band tournament the next day. I took a peek at the signup sheet...and it appeared that we'd have a good chance at making the top 32 teams (that was the cut off). Unless there was another page somewhere, I figured we were good to go.

After Rock Band, we all walked over to the concert hall, but it was so packed that Ryan and I decided to take off and get some rest for Saturday instead. The rest of the group stayed to rock on through the night....

Next up, Day Two of PAX, which I'll do in a separate post later.

A Weird Weekend

This Saturday morning, Heather and I got up and headed to Vancouver for the Weird Al concert at the Boulevard Casino in BC. The drive up was nice and quick, with a stop at Arby's and only 10-15 minute wait at the border. It was tough to find the hotel, because apparently, Canadians do not believe in road signs. We could never tell which road we were on, which highway we were about to enter, or what the directions we had from google actually corresponded to in real life. We ended up finding our way to the hotel not using our directions, but by a combination of instinct and blind luck.



We got to our hotel, and had a nap (we were both tired from John's birthday party the night before) and then got up for the show. Once again, the directions to the casino weren't any help at all. They got us to the right freeway, but once we exited, we had absolutely no idea where we were. The directions called out streets we couldn't find signs for and mentioned places we didn't see. We ended up finding the casino using the black and white map on the Google directions and intuision for directions. That got us to the general area, and then there were a couple of 1 foot tall signs that said "Casino" with an arrow on them. Those helped.



The Casino is a lot bigger than I had imagined it would be, and had a more "Vegas" feel to it than some of those tribal and domestic casinos I've seen in the past. It was big, with lots of slot machines, gaming tables and a huge 6 story concrete parking garage. We ate dinner at their little food court, Heather had pasta and I had some sort of shrimp noodle soup.


The theater itself is housed in a separate two story building. You enter through a lobby, where there is a bar, the merch booth and two staircases on either side of the lobby. You take the staircases up to the second floor, where there are more bars and two entrances to the theater itself. The seating was ampitheater style, and the front row seats Heather and I had gotten required walking all the way down the stairs to the bottom of the venue. Two in house monitors were on the left and right of the stage, and then the band had the three hanging monitors above them on stage.


As usual, Al came out into the audience during "Wanna B Ur Lovr"and climbed the stairs towards the top of the theater.




They said at the door that cameras were not allowed, but I saw several people using them during the show, I was really bummed that I didn't try to sneak mine in. I did get several pictures with my camera phone. They aren't the best, but I'll share them just the same.


This next one was taken right after Al sang the "Bomb" verse to Heather. She was happy, as this was the second time he's come down into the audience and sang to her during a show.


People seemed to be really into the TV clips (you could tell lots of folks were seeing them for the first time). They particularly liked the Canadian themed ones (Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne got big laughs and cheers). Halfway through the show, there was one glitch, which actually made things more intersting. During the opening of The Saga Begins, Reuben lost keyboard audio, and Al was singing it acapella. I wondered for a minute if he'd just keep going, but they managed to fix the sound before it was time for the band to come in. No Stormtroopers at this stop, and Yoda had that new part of the chant I don't know how to do yet...but this was still my favorite part of the show up to that point.


During the part of Amish Paradise where most people swing their arms from side to side, the guys next to us weren't doing it, so Al leaned down and waved his hands at them until they started. I thought that was hilarious. Near the end of "Smells like Nirvana", our section got soaked by the cup of water. I remembered about 2 seconds beforehand and put my phone into my pocket. I forgot to warn my wife. :D



Fat was a great finale, and afterwards, no one got up to leave. There was a real standing ovation, which was cool because the crowd wasn't as rowdy as other shows I've been to in the past. Cell phones had everyone on their feet, and then it was followed by the best performance of Albuquerque I have ever seen.


There was lots of singing along, the part with the donuts was REALLY extended, and he kept asking about "Nanaimo Bars", something I had never heard him do before in concert. During this song, some fan went right up to the stage to take a picture of Al with his camera phone. Security was on him right away and was about to move him away, but Al grabbed the security guy and sang directly to him while the fan took the picture.



It was hilarious and people cheered, but the down side was, Al's kindness inspired a few other morons to try and do the same thing...and they ended up being ejected by security for it. The guy sitting next to me was filming this with his camera, so it'll probably end up on youtube.

During the "Lost my train of thought" part of the song, the band ended up starting all over again, which I loved. I'm not sure if this is a part of the tour now...but I thought it was hilarious. Albuquerque is one of my favorite Al songs of all time...so that just made it even better.

Overall...it was a great show. Best seats I've ever had for an Al concert (I've gotten front row many times, but it's never been that close in an indoor venue). I wish I would have had the foresight to try and sneak my camera in (using it would not have been a problem, since they didn't seem to care). Still..it was awesome, and if he ever plays there again, I'll definitely go back. My only gripe was that we didn't leave earlier yesterday. We were watching TV and by the time we got breakfast and got on the road, it was about noon. We ended up stuck at the Canada/US border for 3 hours, and then spent 3 more in traffic back to Seattle. Worst. Commute. Ever.



Still a great weekend though! It was worth that horrible, horrible drive. Bring on the fair tomorrow!

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The saga of the Dare

I've been after a new phone since my 3rd Motorola Q9m went out on me. The Windows software on it was ok, but I broke three of those darn devices doing nothing more than simply using them for what they were intended to do (email and phone calls).

Sometime around February I shut mine down for the final time, and went back to my RAZR. I sold the Q on Ebay and hit the Verizon store. My upgrade date was in three months and I wanted to find out what the new hotness was so I could be ready to order it first thing in July. I zeroed in on the Samsung Glyde sometime in June, and started counting down the days.

A week before my upgrade was available, I went to the Verizon store in Factoria to do one last demo of the phone I wanted, when the salesman offered to show me the LG Dare. Instantly, this was my new favorite phone ever. They weren't going to go on sale until a few days later, but my upgrade date wasn't for a week anyway, so I was golden. This would be my new phone.

I started reading forum posts, early reviews and watching youtube videos. Through these, I realized the Glyde was nowhere near as good as the Dare, and the Dare rivaled the iPhone in features. I got even more excited about it. A (very slow) week went by while I waited for my upgrade date. When that glorious day finally came, I was ready...cash in hand, but the phone was not available for my upgrade yet. I waited some more.

On July 25th, I headed down to Zach and Amy's wedding. Turns out my younger sister Juniper had the Dare. She had just upgraded a week earlier and while she "wasn't sure whether to get this one or not", she liked it so far. I proceeded to be jealous of her for having my awesome phone and not even appreciating how awesome it was. When I got back from California, I started calling Verizon stores all over the area. None of them had a Dare I could buy for my upgrade. Either they were only selling them to new contracts or they were out. I searched Craigslist, but the only people selling the Dare on that site wanted way over retail for it. I finally found an "authorized reseller" that was willing to sell me one for the full purchase price (409.99) and drove down there. This was July 30th....a full 18 days after my upgrade date.

I bought the phone, verified that I could return it if there was ever a problem (even though they're not officially Verizon) and walked out to my car. I opened it up, right there in the car...too excited to wait until I got home. To my dismay, it was a used phone. Fingerprints all over the screen and opened plastic packaging inside told the tale. I went in and returned it. I wanted the phone bad, but not bad enough to use one someone else returned for God-knows-why.

The next day...Heather sent me the following picture message on my phone with the text: "You owe me big!"



She had apparently gone to one of the stores I'd already tried and used her charms to get me the phone I'd been after for a month. She had purchased it for me already, so by the time I met her for lunch, she had it ready for me to pick up. It was even activated. Needless to say, it's awesome...and my RAZR has finally been retired from active duty.

I finally have a phone that does email properly (work and home), browses the web well, takes pretty nice pictures and actually works well as a phone. I'm sure something else will come out in a month that I'm going to want more (Blackberry Thunder is the current one I'm curious about) but for now...this is the best phone I've ever used.

PS3 launch, 2 years later

Since the day the Super Nintendo released, I've purchased pretty much every video game console I've ever owned on it's launch day (or very close to it). I saved up dishwashing money to buy my first Gameboy, Sega Genesis and Turbo Graphx-16. I purchased the Atari Lynx from David, and received both the Sega CD and TG16 CD drive as Christmas gifts (back to back years I think). I delivered pizzas in order to buy my N64 on launch day (and had to drive 70 miles away from my home to get it). I skipped from the Gameboy color directly to the GBA and bought the Dreamcast when it launched on 9-9-99. I believe that was the same year I also bought a Furby.


When the Playstation 2 launched in 2000, I was on a business trip somewhere in Atlanta. I had just ordered room service after a long day and was watching the news before bed. The top story was about all the kids lined up for the PS2 launch...and I suddenly realized that I should be out there. Despite the fact I was in a strange town and had no idea where I'd be going, I set my alarm for 3am, woke up, got some directions and jumped in the rental car. I drove down to the Target parking lot I had seen on TV where they had about 36 to sell. I was number 32 in line and ended up flying my trophy home in my carry-on luggage.


A year later, the original Xbox would launch. I had tickets to a Weezer concert on the night of my birthday, but I spent the evening before lined up with 300 other dorks waiting to be the first to get my hands on the most powerful console out there. It was probably one of my favorite birthdays in recent history (second only to the ones spent in Vegas). John and I showed up before anyone else, but when we realized there was no line, we left to get pizza. When we got back, we had become number 7 in line......and Microsoft had showed up to hand out free slices. Damnit. The news was there, and we held our systems high in triumph as we headed home to play some Halo multiplayer. This console spawned the "Halo party", something that has easily become my favorite gaming tradition of all time.

The next console I picked up would probably be my Gameboy SP (I actually bought two of these and gave one to my nephews), followed by the Gamecube. I did not buy that on launch day, only because they didn't ship with a Mario title. I waited for Mario Kart and Super Mario Sunshine, then picked it up. I think those are the only two games I ever really used it for.

In 2004, there would be a midnight launch event not for a console, but for a single video game title. It would be my first time standing in line for hours to buy a single game, but certainly not my last.



2005 marked by the beginning of the "Next Gen"...with the 360. I had a pre-order all lined up for that one, but ended up giving it to John after I snagged a special launch one through MS. A few months later I picked up my first Mario Kart flavored red DS (which I later sold when the white DS Lite version came out). I picked up my PSP in 2005, and haven't used it much since.

In 2006, the Wii shipped..and I picked mine up on the used market from someone who wasn't impressed with it shortly after launch. 3 days after I bought it, I realized why he sold it to me. The thing sat dormant for a year until Mario Galaxy came out, then Mario Kart...which quickly became the killer app for that system so far. The PS3 also launched in 2006, but there weren't any games I wanted for it...so I passed.


2007...was basically the same story as far as the PS3 went. Because I already owned an Xbox 360, the Playstation 3 just wasn't worth buying that year. The best games out for it were all available on my 360, where they looked better and could add to my gamerscore. I was waiting for Metal Gear.


The last couple of years have brought several decent game releases to go with all the new systems I owned. I managed to get hooked up with Grand Theft Auto without having to stand in line, and I have recently devoted several posts to the glory that was Mario Kart Wii. My Xbox 360 and my Wii have been seeing a lot of action in the first 6 months of 2008.


Tonight, MGS4 was released, and I decided it was finally time to break down and buy a PS3. It's been kind of weird knowing the thing was out there for 2 years now and I didn't have one, but tonight's big game released pushed me over the edge. Luckily for me, the release of MGS4 was almost like a product launch all over again. My trek to get this system was no less eventful than any other system launch night...perhaps moreso. How so? Read on.


Wal-Mart was selling the 80GB machine bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4 along with a 100 dollar free gift card, and I wanted one of those. I called all the local Wal Marts, and they were all getting these bundles...but didn't know how many. Only 3 Wal-Marts were open at midnight on the 12th, so on the 11th...I started calling them. It was 6pm and Lynnwood had 6 consoles coming and 4 people in line. I drove up there....doing about 90mph all the way.


When I arrived, there were already 6 people in line. I had just missed my shot. I decided to head home and try getting up early the next day for the morning release (seeing as the other two midnight Wal Marts were up north, and were not giving out gift cards). On the way home, I stopped at Best Buy to exchange a CD I had purchased there a few days prior. On the way in, I noticed that there were only about 10 people in line for MGS4 there.


I asked the clerk in the video game department how many they were getting. He said he couldn't tell me, but that it was between 40 and 60. I asked the folks at customer service if they would be price matching Wal Mart. They confirmed that they would, if Wal Mart had them in stock. I decided I would be taking my chances tonight and that this would be my store.


It was just after 8pm when I got into line in the 14th spot. John joined me shortly after...and by 10pm, the line had stretched around the corner of the Best Buy. Craig showed up sometime just after 10 with two lawn chairs he had borrowed from me and my niece. She became the youngest person standing in line for the M-rated video game, but eventually got a little cranky and had to go home to bed. She's probably a Wii "fangirl".





Above: The folks directly behind me in line enjoy my lawn chairs (I had been sitting at work all day and was in a sharing mood) while John, Craig and Sasha smile at the camera.



Below: The line around 11pm.





This gentleman in the shopping cart specifically said: "This picture had better not end up on your Myspace page". Technically, it never did. :-)



Below, I am apparently giving the "PS3" gang sign (which is very confusing considering the fact I'm wearing a giant roman numeral "4" on my sweat shirt).





Just after 10pm, we had some Pizza Hut pizza delivered. We ordered 4 medium pizzas for just over 30 bucks. I chipped in 10, and the folks in line made up the other 20. It was more than enough food to share with everyone we'd been chatting with all night.



At 11:45, the Best Buy folks came out to let us know "the rules" of the sale. They'd be letting in small groups at a time, and there would be no pushing. We pulled one of the salespeople aside and asked about the price match with Wal Mart.

"We won't be doing that, because they aren't open" said the Best Buy employee.
"Lynnwood, Tulalip and Everett are all open 24 hours and will selling them" I replied.
"Well, We're not going to call them, so you'll have to have the ad ready" he said.

I was suddenly in trouble. I had no paper copy of this ad, I had planned on using the "call it in" method of price matching. My hope was that even though Wal Mart only had 6 bundles, they'd confirm they had it in stock as the clock struck midnight, and I'd get 100 bucks off. One soul in the line actually had a print out of the gift card ad, so I took a grainy camera phone image of it and hoped that would suffice. A dozen other line dwellers crowded around this kind patron and snapped pictures with their phones as well.

Midnight struck and they filed us in. John and I were in the first group. I grabbed my PS3 and headed right to the customer service desk, but was directed to the register instead. I informed him that I wanted to price match, and he said "Wal Mart? No problem". They were ready for us.

He handed me a single gift card from a stack of dozens, I paid and was on my way. Outside, other eager folks were busy counting consoles as they came out, and one asked "Are they price matching?".

"Yes" I said. "I didn't even need the ad. Good luck".

I drove home with my prize....the latest, but certainly not the last video game console line having been a complete success. Now..I just need to find some time to play the damn thing.

Mending Fences

A year and a half ago, a windstorm hit King County and knocked my fence down. I had planned to put it back up last summer, but we never got around to it. This Cinco De Mayo weekend, there was plenty of sunshine and no excuse NOT to do it. Craig offered to come over and help...so on Saturday morning we got started bright and early.



Saturday the 3rd was spent tearing down the existing fence and digging post holes for the new one. I got to knock down most of the old fence with a log splitter and a dry wall hammer. It was fun (and I think it may have even been a bit theraputic). Sigh...look how green the grass looks in this picture. It dies every summer...and comes back in the winter when we're not interested in going outside to use it.





After our day of destruction on Saturday (and mixing a bunch of concrete to set the fence posts) our work crew took a celebratory hot tub and had some drinks. Sunday morning, we got started bright and early with a trip to the Home Depot. Craig and I grabbed all the fence boards we'd need for the job and then some. Turned out we actually needed an entire pallet, which we somehow got into Craig's truck with the help of a shopping cart and a fork lift.



We spent almost all day Sunday framing, and by the evening, we had completed just 5 panels of the fence. That left 17 to go for Monday.



Monday morning was Cinco De Mayo and I was a bit hung over from the "post-work celebration" the night before, but Craig showed up bright and early just the same. He started work around 9am and I stumbled out of bed a few hours later to make a trip to the dump with all the old fence debris. After a quick lunch break, we finished up the rest of the fence by 6pm (just in time to have a Cinco De Mayo dinner out on the deck).



We still need to add a trellis to the top of the fence (and do the other two sides of the yard) but that's all going to be saved for June or July.

Weekend of gaming

So, this weekend turned out to be pretty much exclusively devoted to video games (with a brief break for some yard work). Aside from all the Mario Kart Wii playing I did this weekend, I've also been playing a lot of Rock Band. We've had 7 different visitors come over during this weekend and we've either played the Karts, the Band or both.

Good times.

Tomorrow, it's back to work...then the midnight launch of Grand Theft Auto, which I may or may not participate in. It's a great week to be a geek.

Gotta go, they need someone to sing Sabotage on Rock Band.

Mario Kart Wii update 4: 50cc is complete

I kept working on the 50cc class after my last post, determined to beat it tonight. As I was finishing the last cup, John showed up with his Wii and we ordered some pizzas. He cracked open the second copy of Mario Kart Wii that I picked up today, and practiced for about half an hour while we waited for the pizzas to arrive. Just as I was finishing the last race, the pizzas got here. I sent this little message over to John's machine from mine:

That's how it looked on the projector in the living room. Anyway, after a brief dinner, we started playing in the online Vs. mode with random people from all around the world. It's not quite Xbox Live (no voice, no gamertags, no easy way to set up a party of friends to go race random people) but it's still decent. After you've swapped 12 digit PIN numbers (which is a pain in the ass), you can finally find each other and play.

John was able to join my race in progress, which he spectated while I was competing against 9 or 10 other people. After that, he hopped in and we were part of a 10 or 12 person race. We did similar races like this until around 11:30 when Andrew showed up. Andrew joined John on his Wii in the living room hooked up to the projector while I played in the office on my smaller TV. Andrew was also the first of us to try playing with the Gamecube controller. He says it's pretty good (I stuck with the Wiimote, Nunchuck combo so far). After many online matches, I moved out to the living room too and we played some good old fashioned offline Vs. mode.

The first thing we tried was the new battle mode but none of us liked it much. It makes you pick teams, so instead of a random match with just the three of us, we had a bunch of computer partners playing. It was pretty hard to tell what was happening. Battle Mode was definitely the one problem with the game so far and I miss the old version already.

After that one crappy Battle Mode match, we switched to offline VS. Mode which was much more fun. We raced 5 or 6 more races, which John won pretty easily. Finally called it a night around 1am. So there we have it: My first 7 hours with Mario Kart Wii. I must say, it's a pretty damn awesome game. So far, I rate it as one of the best two (if not the best version) ever.

Mario Kart Wii Update 3

Another hour has gone by and so it's time for another little mini-review. I figure there's no better time to capture my initial impressions than as I'm having them.

I've spent this last period of time using the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo. I find that I have a lot more control this way. I can do the drift boosting and the stunts with no problems.

I've completed the first four cups on 50cc, with Star and Leaf next to go (and two question marks to unlock). I'll probably try the classic and Gamecube controllers later this evening, but right now I want to check out all the tracks.

The old updated tracks are great. Sherbet Land from the N64 now has a new ramp you can do a stunt off of (otherwise, it's just as I remembered it). Waluigi stadium from the gamecube has all kinds of half-pipe stuff added so you can go do stunts off the walls if you want to. The DS tracks seem pretty much the same, but that might be because I don't have as much experience on them as I do the N64 and before versions.

Alright...enough posting, on to the Star cup!

Mario Kart Wii Update 2: 15 minutes in..

I got home in about the expected amount of time, mowed the lawn then started playing Mario Kart Wii. I've already beaten the first cup in the 50CC Circuit, using the wheel. The wheel?
Yup.

After reading this article on Joystiq I decided to start playing with the stupid wheel to see how I like it. The steering is smooth and responsive, although when a sharp turn comes up, I'm finding myself over-correcting. I've tried the automatic and manual drift settings, but so far, drifting is still a mystery to me.

John and Andrew are coming over later for our first un-official Mario Kart Wii event. Time to kick the tires and light the fires (or at least the sparks).

To be continued...

Mario Kart Wii

Right now a brand new copy of Mario Kart for the Wii is sitting in my car.
2 days before the official launch, I've managed to get my hands on it...and I can't even play it!

I've got meetings from 3:30-4:30 and then I can go home. I'm only 13.59 miles away from my house. That's 18 minutes with no traffic...probably triple that in Friday rush hour. If only I had a lightning bolt, an invincibility star and a bunch of red shells...I could be playing much sooner.