Epiphany

Today Ajax and I played a demo of Resident Evil 5. My second coop first person shooter game.
2 reasons why I didn't like RE5.
(1) too gruesome! I don't like so much gore and blatant violence. Guns is one thing, but axes and knives are totally different.
(2) I prefer distanced fighting. It is stressful (I don't know if that is the right word) for zombies to physically attack you.
oh and the controls seriously sucked! The controls of resistance are so much better!
The other girl in my clan also didn't like RE5 because she felt it was too stressful.

Dare I generalize the above two reasons for all female gamers?

Speaking of luck...

My husband is a very lucky, LUCKY man.
He managed to hook his wife on a game.
Now she cajoles him into playing one more game.
Last night:

husband: I am so sleepy. I am going to sleep.
me: no just one more game. We have a good group going.
husband: no no I am really sleepy.
me: Just one more game.
husband: no...
me: puh-leaze! I'll owe you one...

That man is a lucky lucky man. I thought women were the ones that tried to change men once they got them in a relationship. Alas he is the true Pied Piper in our relationship.

Addiction

Dear Diary,
they say the first step towards fighting an addiction is to recognize that there is a problem.
So here I am, proclaiming that yes I do have an addiction.
Every day, I get through my day with thought of the coming night when I sit on my IKEA couch in front of the Samsung TV, turn on the PS3 and first check which of my clan members in online and what they are playing, and then turning on the game Resistance: Fall of Man. Dear diary, I play and my heart pounds and my muscles are tense and i physically lean back and forth as I try to dodge software bullets. I usually suck, I shout out profanities to the heavens and the character(s) of the game who is pwning me and then in the end I am usually last on that list of rankings. But oh the rush, the energy, the adrenaline.
I cannot turn off my TV till late, very late. I go to bed and when i close my eyes, I dream of the light trail left off by those damn snipers that get me out of the blues.
Dear diary, I recognize that I have a problem, but really, do I have to do anything about it?
Love,
xoxo

A tip of my hat to La Gillen

La Gillen gave the following link as a comment, but it is so hilarious it deserves its own front page announcement. The following is a most hilarious song about a boy and a girl ... and what happens at night. It is such a deja vu it is not funny. I lie, it is actually hilarious!

Australian Comedy act Tripod performing "Gonna Make You Happy":


ps I already know some people (you know who you are) are going to complain about the xbox mention. Suck it up!
pps La Gillen is seriously the best for continually introducing me to new music and hilarious shows and... the world! :-D

Games

Last night Atlas and I were invited to a game party where we spent all evening playing all different kinds of games. It was so much fun!! We played Taboo (which I LOVED), apples to Apples (random), Fact or Crap (really random because hardly anyone could tell them apart!) and Spoon (a hard hitting card game). I used to play monopoly and other card and board games a lot when i was younger but these days it is always video games. Well no more I say to you. Today is the dawn of a new era and the name of this era is...

Mortal Komedy

Mortal Komedy

If you have ever played Mortal Kombat, you will ROFL and LOL and all types of other acronyms at the above video.

Mortally wounded

How does one get a bruise on the pad of their thumb?
By playing Mortal Kombat till the wee hours.
We have discovered a new nightly activity.
Me Mileena, Altavisto Raiden. Round 1... Fight!

New Ear Worm

This is the song at the end of the puzzle game Portal which was very cool indeed. The gamer is promised cake if they solve the puzzles but at the end they find out the cake is a lie. There is a HAL-type computer GLaDOS who provides the commentary and this is her voice singing at the end. It is such a darkly funny and catchy song!!

'Still Alive' by Jonathan Coulton: http://www.jonathancoulton.com
and sung by Ellen McLain

Lyrics:
This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Aperture Science
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat gun.
For the people who are still alive.
I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!
Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
And we're out of beta.
We're releasing on time.
So I'm GLaD. I got burned.
Think of all the things we learned
for the people who are still alive.
Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you'll find someone else to help you.
Maybe Black Mesa
THAT WAS A JOKE.
HAHA. FAT CHANCE.
Anyway, this cake is great.
It's so delicious and moist.
Look at me still talking
when there's Science to do.
When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are still alive.
And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive.
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
And when you're dead I will be still alive.
STILL ALIVE

Zzzzznoina

It seems another Juan is sneaking in here and trying to compete with the big girls and boys. I am caught in a dilemma - do I offer encouraging words or do I taunt him? I mean seriously, what is a girl to do? I know what... until he really becomes a threat, I will encourage him :-D Go JuanA you can do it!!

I will leave it to the reader to decide if that was a taunt or encouragement! :-P

New Topic:
Do You Feel Holy? why don't you converse with God and Repent.

The Age of the Gadphly

Oh yes Juan can attest, I am beating him senseless. He considers himself a gamer? huh - but then that would make me, lets see, the Queen of the Gamers. It is a new age... The Age of the Gadphly.

For those who have no idea what is going on, Juan and I have been competing against each other in the Towers TD game and lets just say, he is eating my dust.
Oh how rude, may I offer you some water with that dust?! :-P

To see a ranking of the score, search for the group Juanpwns here. I guess the group is a misnomer now huh!

Oh Mein Gott!!

Dorian Gray is just awe inspiring. I am not sure if I am happy to see this video.

Have I mentioned how i dream in blocks now? not the blocks of tetris like in the past, but now the blocks of towers. the game is killing me. but softly. gently. with love. I sacrifice my hours with love.

Two Games to Try

I don't have time to try the following games right now, but these are all supposed to be fun. Definitely something to try. If anyone tries any, let us know how they are :-)

Enigma is a puzzle game inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga. The object of the game is to find uncover pairs of identically colored Oxyd stones. Simple? Yes. Easy? Certainly not! Hidden traps, vast mazes, laser beams, and, most of all, countless hairy puzzles usually block your direct way to the Oxyd stones...

Silverspehere: Get the Silver Sphere in to the Blue Vortex. Some more info.

oh and it seems the PS3 launch in Aus didn't go down very well!! :-P

Confusion over what is real

This is a funny blog about a commentary from NPR about how the Wii offers "a false sense of what it's like to compete in the world" from NPR.

From the blog: National Public Radio posted a commentary from Kelly McBride, a concerned parent, regarding her children's frequent use of the Wii. Rather than relishing the fact that the new toy has them off the couch and swinging their arms, Kelly worries that her children are equating the game version of the sports with the real-life counterpart; that is to say, the children are gaining "a false sense of what it's like to compete in the world."

It is actually quite hilarious if you think about it - violent games are too violent and non-violent games are too... wussy?!!
But the funniest part were some of the commentaries from this Digg user:

[mazerrackham]I'll never forget the bitter disappointment of losing my first war after trying to take my chess skills to the streets. The other guy's horses ran in all crazy patterns around my helpless pawns, slashing at their throats. And then when I tried to switch places with my castle to hide it wouldn't even move.
Now look at me -- dead-end job, low self-esteem...All thanks to my proficiency at chess.

Anyway, the best part of this post was this guy's comment. Very funny indeed!

Bill Gates

I watched an interview of Bill Gates with Charlie Rose - it was very interesting. I really liked what Gates was saying - he talked about vista, he talked about xbox, zune, etc.
It was really interesting what he said about OS and what features come with it by default. He was basically saying that the anti-competition movement was mostly about software companies versus customers. The inclusion of say IE means that a non-technical person no longer needs to worry about what browser they need to get. Don't get me wrong I know the argument of at least what Alvaro is going to use, that you should have the option of specifying what software goes on it and what not. But it is also understandable that it would is more economic to have only one, it is easier for MS that they use this IE for upgrades etc. Anyway the bottom line is that the there is another perspective here and that is the usability of the software for the users.

Another interesting thing was what he was saying about xbox2. He basically said they got a lot of things wrong last time with xbox, except for adding Live - which transformed gaming. Anyway this time they cut on the price, they cut on the shipping date, etc. and they moved from a distance second to a possible leader here. Meanwhile it seems Sony is making the same mistakes as they did the first time around.

DDR Info

My wonderful Seshat has been investigating DDR possibilities. Our friend Song has bought a DDR for her PS2 and it is so much fun. I am eager to own one so I asked Seshat to research it.

Here is the report that he sent me, which I thought would be interesting for others as well. You only get this much detail from a PhD graduate :-P

So I did some research about Dance Dance Revolution for the Gamecube and the reviews seem okay, However!! The music seems to suck!! They put mario-based music for dancing!! Anyways I have been searching for DDR and I think in general all games are the same (for non-aficionados, which I think we are) and thus the recommendation is just to select the version that has the better songs.

For the Ps2 there are 5 DDR games.
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution 2
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2
Dance Dance Revolution Super Nova

The songs for the two last games released are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution_EXTREME_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution_SuperNOVA_song_list (at the end of the webpage there is a version for the ps2)


For the Gamecube there is only one DDR game
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
with songs from Mario videogames!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution:_Mario_Mix