I had heard a rumor that the GBA slot could be thought of as a kind of "expansion port" for the DS, extra content for existing games could be stuck in there. That said, I wasn't aware that Metroid Prime Pinball was going to include a "Rumble Pak" along with. Being an inherently tactile game, pinball would (in a purely theoretical universe) be well served by the option. I'm told that Metroid: Hunters and the upcoming Mario & Luigi RPG will also take advantage of it. Our foes at IGN have an article about the Pak you might be interested to read - I thought mine might have been defective as well, because the rumble (which they accurately call a "chirp") is audible over the sound of the game. I leave it in the machine for now, I like what it adds, but if I ever take the DS someplace I always put a GBA favorite in that slot - an extra "clip," if you will. My arsenal in this regard be prodigious.
Serious Sam 2 retail is, quite simply, a no-brainer in absolutely every sense of the word. No brain is required to play it, only the animal memories that have slept long in the human sinew. What's more, provided you can haul a couple friends along, the purchase price of thirty dollars ladels up some of the highest ROI this year. I've been playing it with one friend and then leaving a slot open to the Internet, you know, heavens forfend, but it's something else that Sam makes obvious. For one thing, everyone is playing for the same score - everything done by every player contributes to this number, which confers extra lives to each "investor" at interval. For two things, it's easy to set it so that items stay out for each player, so there's no anonymous grief activity. For three things, the game adds more opponents based on the number of players. It is improved by the addition of random people, like last night's "TRON." I forgot to constrain the number of players when I started the server originally, and now I leave those slots open as a matter of course.
I'd love to tell you about F.E.A.R., but the SecuROM security on the DVD won't allow me to install the game that I bought legitimately. I'm currently trying to decide if I should return it for a CD version I might have better luck with, or just return it straight up and get my hands on one of the other ten absolutely necessary games hitting this month.
For years now people have thought that Gameskins shirts were Penny Arcade shirts, which honestly we've never minded because a) his designs are amazing, and b) Gameskins proprietor Kiko is a friend of ours. In any case, it's about to become literally true - we've been trying to get him to move up here for years, and eventually we hauled out the big guns and offered him a job. Eventually, his stuff will be on our regular store, but in the meantime he's holding a "fire sale" in which "everything must go" to ease the move up here. I am told that the "manager" is currently "out of town," and as a result he is able pass the savings on to you. I would tell you what items are on sale, but every God damn item is on sale over there.
(CW)TB out.
You can certainly mail the networks he appears on. You can even send letters to their advertisers. You can contact the senators he speaks with and demand they ignore him. If enough of us do that sort of thing and we do it long enough they will eventually get the message and drop him just like the National Institute on Media and the Family did. Would that be a good thing? I’m not sure.
Jack is not special. He is not a unique snow flake as they say. He is just the latest vocal opponent of whatever is "corrupting" our youth at the moment. When my dad was growing up it was rock and roll devil music. Then it was comic books then movies and rap music. Today it’s videogames. If we were to succeed in getting Jack blacklisted from the major news outlets someone else would simply take his place. Imagine him as an actor playing a part in a play. The point is that Jack Thompson is not important. If he were to be fired a new actor would simply take up the role. The same lines would still be delivered in the same way and the same audience would pay to see it. We are actually fortunate that the current actor is so impotent in his role. Imagine what might happen if some charming, efficacious attorney took his place. The more I consider it the more I think we may be lucky to have Jack playing the part of the alarmist. The alternative might be someone who is actually capable.
-Gabe out
First up we have the Deeprun Rave on October 28, 2005
This is being organized by the “Disciples of Divx” guild and here are the details they provided to me:
- The party starts at 6pm pacific/server time
- People can tune into our shoutcast (courtesy of Tyrun and heartwidget) for live music and announcements *details on it will be provided in the forums*.
- There will be a judged costume contest where appropriate prizes will be given out around 7pm. Prizes include a pair of shadowskin gloves courtesy of Alryc and Taynt. Skycast is donating a load of greens. Revcerberus is trying to get a whelpling to give away. There will also be cool horde pets from Gadgetzan.
- During the times when there is no "event" happening, people can chill, hang out, listen to music, get drunk, run races naked down the tram, and throw some of our 60 heavy leather balls around.
- Around 8pm, we'll have a raffle for the gold that has been donated. As of right now we have 20g that "Annarchy", "Knights of Arcadia" and "The Fancy lads" have donated. The Disciples of Divx guild bank will match their donation, and Orum (me) will personally donate 50g. So we'll have at least 90g with several days to go to gather more. We think that'll be the highlight of the rave.
- The raffle will be decided by the 3 costume judges. Who will be 3 Divx officers of high standing. We'll be running the chat logger that Blizzard provided. The people will group real close to the judges and do a massive /roll 10,000. The logger will record the results and we'll go through the log and find the winner. Double rollers and other cheaters will be DQed.
- We're going to have Disciple Volunteers going around that you can say "Trick or Treat" to, and they'll open up a trade and give you a free stack of booze or Candy. Depending on what they're loaded up on. The other thing is that I've heard reports of possible large amounts of fireworks as well.
- For the most part we want to limit this party to the Ironforge side of the tram but if enough people show up to crowd that side we'll be spreading it down the Tram as the crowd grows.
Next up we have the Naked Night Elf Race organized by another one of our Dark Iron PA guilds, the “Keepers of the Wang”.
Saturday, Oct 22
All the details can be found at this forum thread.
Essentially everyone makes a lvl 1 NE alt. The race begins at the NE starting area and we race to check points, the faster you get to one check point the sooner you start toward the next one. The race will finish in the SW kings room and the first one there gets 2/3 of all the entrance money and second gets 1/3.
So there you go. If you’re on Dark Iron I recommend you hit one of these events. They sound like a lot of fun.
I’m heading out this afternoon to pick up Shadow of the Colossus. I guess it runs in widescreen and progressive scan. So I’ll also be picking up some component cables for my PS2. I’ve never really needed it before but it seems to me like this game will be worth it.
-Gabe out
-Gabe out
*Update*
if you want more stuff from these guys check out their site, www.purepwnage.com
-Gabe out
The Return is an amazing piece of machinima done in World of Warcraft. Period. As a person who is mindful of the world and its lore as I play in it, they evoked the spirit of that place better than I thought would be possible.
(CW)TB
