This is a video game:
This is a screenshot from an upcoming game called Project CARS. It’s going to be available on a few different platforms. No word on an Atari 2600 release yet.
Pretty amazing how far games have come when you look at the screenshot from my previous post.
Just What I Needed
Yesterday was the first time in a while I didn’t leave the house. Well I didn’t leave the driveway at least. No work, no travel. Just some honest to goodness free time.
First I slept in. I highly recommend it if you ever get to try it, but like anything else, you don’t want to get used to it. So I rolled out of bed at 8:15am and started up some coffee, and went out to the garden and pulled up a nice batch of potatoes and a fresh yellow onion. We didn’t have much for breakfast, but I fried those up and Andrea made some muffins and it was a pretty alright breakfast! Just needed some bacon and eggs to be perfect!
Afterwards I went back outside and aired up the pool for Luke and I to play in. It was a hot day, but didn’t feel too bad once you hopped in. Luke did pretty good, but the water was a little bit deeper than his bathtime, so he had to get used to the fact that he couldn’t just crawl and flop around like he’s used to. He inhaled a big gasp of water once, and that was a little scary, but he coughed it up, and went right back to playing again. Haha.
I also got to play some of my “new to me” Super Off Road game I scored for 99 cents on eBay. I remember renting the game back in the day, but I never owned it. I probably played it for almost an hour non stop. I made it as far as race 40 and was getting my butt kicked. That one sitting was worth the 99 cents right there. So my NES collection continues to grow.
So it was a great Sunday. And even with that one day of R&R I feel ready to face the week. Of course it helps that it’s going to be a short week with the 4th of July smack dab in the middle. That helps the motivation too.
06.28.12I Am Ready
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-CB0hheQRg]
It’s been a long wait, but finally the day is coming. I’ve missed out on the last few chances to play Guild Wars 2. I missed the previous beta weekend as I was in Wichita, and yesterday’s stress test was only a couple hours while I was at work. But at least I know that here in a few short months I’ll be able to play any time day or night! Plus there’s still one more beta weekend event coming up at the end of July that I’m hoping to get in on too.
I’ve been trying to take vacation at work for a long time. Last time I had scheduled a 5 day weekend, all but one of my days off got cancelled because of scheduling conflicts. This time I’m telling them I’ve spent thousands of dollars already and I’m leaving the country. In reality, I’ve spent a hundred or so, and I’m not going anywhere but my house. Seriously, you won’t be able to crack me loose unless there’s a fire.
The AC finally got fixed. Turns out it was the thermostat. They replaced it and it seems to be working. Though they replaced it with one that isn’t programmable. Not a huge deal since Andrea’s a home most days now. When we both worked, it was nice to set it a little higher during the day while we were gone. But just glad it’s working again.
Honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. We would open up all the windows at night and turn on the attic fan. It would get down to the mid 70’s at night and really cool it off in the house. Then before I went to work in the mornings, I would close up all the windows to try to keep the cool air in. Didn’t work too bad. I think the highest it ever got in the house was 90 upstairs, which translates to about 85 or so downstairs. So if we retreated to the basement it wasn’t too awful, even on the days when it got up to 111. But certianly less convinent. I guess we’ll save a little money on our power bill from the time it wasn’t running in the sweltering heat.
I’ve started to play Metroid Prime again. In fact I’ll be heading to do that as soon as I finish this post. I’m making progress. The new upgrades I’m getting are making getting around a lot faster. Which is good because I seem to be back-tracking a lot, probably through my own fault. But I feel like I’m finally settling in with the game… only 8 hours into it. =P
So I officially have to beat this game before August 25th. Because after that, I won’t be playing much of anything else but Guild Wars 2.
05.26.12PODCAST – Can’t save to save my life
I beat this guy… twice.
Well here we go. I recorded this yesterday and am just now getting it on the site. The inability to save seems to be a theme. Not only with what I talk about in the show, but my computer even crashed while trying to save the audio.
Topics Include:
Metroid Prime
How I suck at Metroid Prime
My phone is old
Garage Sales
Podcast Music
Mystery Song
The previous mystery song was from Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3!
DOWNLOAD YE!
05.23.12Why games are a bad investment
Just saw this on eBay today. At first glance that looks like a pretty impressive price. Definitely more valuable than the average Super Nintendo game, and far more valuable than anything in my collection. Even still, if you look at that game solely as an investment, it still wasn’t worth it.
Warning, old geezer talk to follow:
When that game came out in 1992 it sold for $59.99. And while granted the game is worth more today than it was back then, your money still would have been better placed into the stock market. Over the last 20 years that average rate of return that the stock market has provided is 9.4%. So if you would have invested that $59.99 into an average performing mutual fund on the day this game came out and left it alone. Today that investment would be worth $390.28. Almost $300 more than what this game sold for.
So if you’re holding on to all those old games thinking they’ll be worth something someday… you’re doing it wrong.
But if you love PLAYING these old games… then keep ’em. Because there’s nothing like blowing into an old cartridge, clicking on a power switch and saving a princess. After all, if you never sell it, who cares what it’s worth!
05.21.12PODCAST – Getting Back in the Groove
I am finally starting to feel like myself again after a long and stressful month and a half or so. I was in a good mood this morning so I took the opportunity to record another podcast. I literally had no intention of recording a show until I got into the car in the driveway, so absolutely no planning whatsoever went into this one.
Topics Include:
Backlogged Games
Garage Sale-ing
Eclipse Watching
Podcast Music
Mystery Song
The answer to the previous mystery song: Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
DOWNLOAD HERE
05.17.12Good Greif
I hate to complain (never seems to change anything anway). But it’s been an exhausting last few weeks. So much work and travel. I think I went 3 or 4 days without seeing what my house looks like in the sunlight. Luckily I get to see Andrea once in a while when her and Luke stop by the radio station to hang out. Lately I’ve been so busy thought that even then it’s tough to spend any quality time.
Well yesterday my schedule was pretty clear, so I made huge strides in getting caught up! Felt good to not only be productive, but to be productive in the areas that I chose! I have a little checklist at work that I use to make sure I don’t forget anything, and I finally got back to where I need to be on that. Still some long term stuff that I need to get done, but I finally feel like I’m making progress again.
I actually left work a little early yesterday. It felt almost like a vacation day! I used my extra time to re-plant some peppers and corn in the garden, and start digging out the old pole that a satellite dish used to sit on. Eventually that will become my new fire pit! That’s gonna be a lot of work though for sure.
I actually sat down the other day and played some Guild Wars. The original. Actually had a lot of fun. Since all the main story is done, I now have to make sure I just pick a direction or goal I want to work on and go at it. Because it’s so easy now to sit in an outpost and just wonder what to do. So I decided I was going to go work on my Asura reputation so I can get another title and some Asura armor to add to my Hall of Monuments. When GW2 comes out, the more progress you’ve made in your HoM the better rewards you will get in GW2.
So there’s a little recap. Sorry I’ve been so absent. I really hope that it slows down soon because I don’t enjoy such a frantic pace to life. So from henceforth I’m dialing it back!
04.29.12Beta is Over
I wish I could stay up for the finalie, but that’s going to be at 1AM. I don’t think I can handle that.
I’ve had a ton of fun this weekend. This game is seriously as good as I would have hoped and more. It’s fun to play, and the sheer scale of it, from size to the number of things there are to do, it’s just amazing.
It wasn’t without its flaws. It was a little tough to play together with Biebs as we’d end up in different instances of the same world. Something the development team says they’re working.
I really want to keep playing, but sleep, work and the impending end of the Beta weekend keep that from happening. But there’s supposed to be one weekend per month until release… when I can then quit my job, ignore my family, and forego bathing to play this game without end.
At the very end, Andrea showed me how to enable hi-res screenshots. I wish I had this the entire time! The pictures it renders from the game are absolutely jaw dropping! The amount of detail in this game is ridiculous!
I’m posting scaled down versions here, but CLICK HERE for an example of one of the screenshots in its full 5656×3308 glory!
Dead bears. It was us or them. They started it.
This is my kind of monastery. They brew ale!
Divinity's Reach in the distance. It IS as epic as it looks.
That same city, from the inside.
More Divinity's Reach...
And more Divinity's Reach. Seriously this place is gigantic, so from here on out it's all the same city in these screenshots.
This is the picture in full res above. I recommend making it your desktop wallpaper!
The upper city. The palace and senate are located on this level of the city. Along with this incredible garden.
What's the one thing this city doesn't have? A huge aquarium? Actually.. no. It already has one.
Dwayna Highroad. Everywhere you go the city feels alive.
Highroad looking across the city.
Crafting stations.
Durmand Priory. A guild that focuses on researching and preserving history.
Just another part of the city I found pleasant.
Undertaker's cart near a cemetery. I just can't get over the detail put into this game!
Another highroad. Look at the man to the left of my character for scale. The banners you see hanging wave majestically in the breeze. The screenshots only do half justice. In motion it's even more gorgeous.
Steps to the Senate.
Inside the Senate. I'm surprised they let me bring this big ass sword in.
Probably an attendance book of some kind.
Beautiful stained glass. In most games you are left to imagine what is inside a building like this.
In Guild Wars 2 you can go in that building and see for yourself! Behind each of those stained glass windows is a statue of one of the six gods. Beautiful artwork!
More inside the same temple. Notice the water pouring down the wall on the left. Again, you've got to see it in motion!
There are six highroads in Divinity's Reach, each named after one of the gods. At the end of each road is a beautiful sculpture like the ones seen in the temple above. This is a statue of Lyssa.
And that’s just one small part of the small part of the game I was able to play.
04.29.12
Early Morning Gaming
Staying up late playing Guild Wars 2 these past couple nights has really made me realize how different my sleep schedule is now compared to how it used to be. I’m no stranger to late night, even all night gaming sessions. On more than one occasion the cue for me and my friends to go to bed was the pre-dawn light filtering through the window blinds.
The past couple nights I’ve been up until about 2 am playing and by this time, I am just beat and have to drag myself to bed. Then this morning I found my self awake 5 short hours later at about 7:30 like it was time to get up. In my past going to bed at 3am was the norm. Especially when I was working the night shift in Junction City. I’d get home at about 10pm, stay up until 3 am. Then sleep until 10am or 11am. That was normal for me.
Now if it’s 11pm, not only is it past my bedtime, but I’m beat. Of course I’ve been waking up 6:30am and “easing” into the day.
But regardless of how this messes up my sleep for the week to come, it’s worth it. Guild Wars 2 is an awesome game so far. I’ve played a lot of it, but there’s still a lot that they haven’t unlocked yet. I’m excited to play even more tomorrow. So I’d better actually get to sleep for tonight. I’ll post some feedback once the beta weekend is over.
04.28.12It’s Awesome
I largely have no idea what I’m doing. But so far Guild Wars 2 is a blast!
Here’s a few pics before I go to bed. Haven’t stayed up until 2AM gaming in a LONG time!
There's dogs in Guild Wars 2.
The lighting and shadows were most impressive on this giant lizard.
