Hey All. I’m in Nashville right now working on phase 2 of my Summer Games - finishing my friggin’ album. I’ve been working on it since May 2001 and it needs to end! Yeah, 9/11 happened and the world went nuts and everyone ran out of money, but now it’s time to move on. I’m hoping to mix 3-4 songs this week and finish the whole thing in a month or two.

The Monday after I get back, I’m going to embark on the gaming binge to end all gaming binges! Prepare to cross out a couple games from my list Jeff. I’m closing the blinds and ordering delivery!

So I am playing Donkey Kong JR. Growing up the whole Donkey Kong Series was my favorite, for some reason I really felt for the big ape. but the series [despite RareWare lame effort to restore the franchise for Nintendo] has never seem to gotten the respect it deserves. I mean, not only was it Miyamoto’s début in America, it was the game that gave us Mario!

I mean, where would Mario be without the big DK? I mean, it really is the most tragic type of showbiz success story, when the “sidekick” eclipses the headlining star.

[Check Extended Entry for full story.]
(Read on …)

Finished 3 more levels of Recon. The secret to blowing the bridge was to hug the cliff face and set everyone’s guns to recon mode. The next level was even harder and bullets were flying all over the friggin’ place. The secret to that level was to quicksave after every kill. Finally, the third level I completed had me knee deep in the swamp and gunning for Russkies. Somehow I’ve managed to finish all three levels without any casualties. None that is, except my pride:

“Man this swamp water is cold. I freezing my–”

“Ahhhhhh . . . . . . that’s better.”

I am certainly going to be able to entertain you all with screenshots from Star Wars Galaxies. This is surely just the beginning. I actually told EJ last night that I was only playing for two hours and then exactly how much we played. You have to be careful with these online games, cause its not like you can say “when I am done this race or mission, I’ll stop playing.” So here goes with the screenshots….

First, I’m showing my character’s best fonzie dance, each character dances different, I think depending on race. Well I got the most feminine of styles….

Here we had to stop playing cause I was too sad from killing the baby eopie. You can see the three of us are clearing in mourning. I saw him and thought only about the xp he was worth, and not the grief I would feel when the last blaster shot finally put him down.

We’d like to welcome Ted E and Steve D to the site. Ted’s what I like to refer to as a marathon gamer. His sessions aren’t too frequent but when he does game, he does it for days. Steve is a Marathon gamer in the sense that he will kick my ass, your ass, and your friends’ asses in Marathon. We look forward to their contributions to the site.

Here’s my favorite screenshot from Red Faction so far:

I Spit on Your Grave

I know this game isn’t on my list and I “should” be playing Warcraft 3, but I think the important thing is that gaming is being gamed. This is the first Recon level to really challenge me. I’d been thinking of upping the difficulty, but maybe not. I succeeded in defeating the same camp Will and Jeff had their vacation at. Apparantly after you left, some Russians moved in and continued to slow grill those fish.

There’s no escaping Camp Carnage.

Unless you slither down the poopshoot and swim to freedom.

After slaughtering Boy Scout Troop 318, I headed down the river to blow up the bridge. I succeeded in setting the charges, but then got tanked badly - as in a tank killed everyone. I’m thinking next time that I’ll just send one demo expert down so as to be less conspicuous. I guess that would require starting over so I can change my squads.

BTW - I just discovered yesterday that I have specialists and can assign those mission points to make my guys better. That could’ve come in handy! Now with a stealth level of 2, Private Phlatus only farts every other step.

I had played Red Faction a bit on the Playstation 2 and wrote off its lack of fun to the PS2’s lack of a hard drive which resulted in numerous and long load times. Turns out it sucks just as much on the PC. Let me set up the excitement with the game’s solid storyline. You’re a guy who has had enough of the hectic rat race on earth so you decide to relax by becoming a miner on Mars. It makes sense right? When you get stressed out at work, don’t you just want to go work in a FUCKING MINE? Me too. After going to work in the mine of relaxation, you realize that your job is boring and so you’re going to kill people until the job gets better and you get a dental plan. Here are a few interesting points about the game:

1. They went all out and hired ONE person to do all the voice acting. So when you fight with several enemies at once, it’s like listening to some crazy crackhead screaming at himself.

2. You can blow holes through pretty much every wall thanks to Volition’s patented GeoMod technology. This would be awesome if you had a reason to blow holes through the walls.

3. The ridiculous load times are still there. I timed it and sometimes you get about 25 seconds of gameplay between load times.

That said, allow me to share some cherished moments from this steaming pile of manure.

Awesome! Party time!

Loading mid-firefight: kick ass!

All right! More loading means more fun!

I did find out that some fun can be had with the medics who are sworn to heal everyone, friend or foe.

“I’m bound by my Hippocratic oath.”

“Yeah, I’m bound to go crazy like a miner!”

Hey look. I found a boat. So that’s what those Russians were fighting to protect. Ah, their lives were spent in vain as I already have one just like it. Oh well . . .

On to the next mission where the Russians release their secret weapon; “Project Puncture”.
Look out behind you specialist!

Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

After securing the bank, checking out the dead pilot, and arriving safely at the helicopter pad, my next assignment was to gather intelligence on the infamous “Bubble-Butt Brigade”.

Autonomous Region indeed! I better aim for the head.

Do you think it was a Russian Dragon?

While I must say that I am so sick of downloading UT mods when I play on the network, I would dearly love to see Peter Griffin lurking around the corner in Codex of Wisdom. TAKE THAT FATTY. WHERE’S YOUR TALKING DOGGIE NOW?

My departure from games has been two fold. First, the weather, its too damn nice out to be in my little basement room playing games. But I have purchased a carrying case for my Xbox so that now these trips I take to NH can be even more exciting. Secondly, Star Wars Galaxies. I got this game for my birthday, and its some goodness. I mean not only do I have a sweet jawa rifle, but just the other day I got some sweet new cargo pants. You guys are missing out if you aren’t playing this.

Another beautiful weekend in Boston, another weekend free of gaming. But here’s something I did find. A funny little site called the Video Game Museum. It’s a good source for nostalgia like this:

Archon - Chess Without All the Thinking

Anyway, I had to put something about gaming up here because the fans are getting pissed. Hope everyone has some good gaming this week.