Omg, Transformers in disguise! This movie has been a long time coming, I'm totally ready for it!

Dude... Venom. I'm pretty stoked about this. Anyone else?

Sneak Peak: dCreep Mage, alpha ver.

Hey All - I thought I'd post a little snippet of what I've been working on with Dungeon Creep. These are the names of the skills a Mage will be able to learn as he progresses in experience. I have left out their descriptions because this list is still under development but I thought I'd post it anyways to get your imagination muscles going. Remember, I'm going for a simplified, action, Final Fantasy-like, adventure RPG so if this list looks small, it's ment to. Don't worry though, if we end up needing more I can always add more skill groups. Anyways, enjoy the list. My personal favorites are "Summon Door" and "Conceive Familiar".

Core Skills:

• Death Stare (Magic)
  
• Electric Fingers (Magic + Melee)
  
• Frozen Wind (Magic + Ranged)
  
• Posionous Cloud (Magic)
  
• Dragon's Breath (Magic + Ranged)
  

Utility Skills:

• Recall/Mark (Magic)
  
• Limited Teleport (Magic)
  
• Illusion (Magic + Mind)
  
• Comprehend (Magic + Mind)
  
• Identify (Magic + Mind)
  

Creation Skills:

• Goblin Genesis (Magic)
  
• Construct Golem (Magic)
  
• Awaken Elemental (Magic + Mind)
  
• Summon Door (Magic)
  
• Conceive Familiar (Magic + Body)

New Super Mario Bros: Complete

Since I just finished the New Super Mario Bros on my DS lite, I decided that I would write up a mini review.

First off, I want to say, I love this game. The New Super Mario Bros is an elegant addition to the already respected Mario Bros collection. This is the kind of game that Nintendo needed to make, and that I hope they continue to make. Side-scrollers should never die just because graphics are getting better and better. A side-scoller is a perfectly fun and entertaining sytle of game and the New Mario shows that it can still be fresh. I would fight thru 99.5 zombies with a chainsaw to get to a copy of this game so that I could play it in the last waning days of my life. For all you Mario veterans out there (I'm looking at you Todd) this game is a must. The music is uplifting, the graphics are clean, and the levels are well designed. Of course, I kind of blew right threw the game, leaving two whole Worlds unexplored and a bunch of other secrets. I plan on going through the game again as Luigi (At the file screen, Left + Right, press A) conquering those last two Worlds and collecting ALL of the big coins.

Time to do the Mario!

Explain this one... Science.

So I woke up this morning with a thirst for some sun sweetened orange juice. I went straight to our glass cupboard to get one of those huge glass cups with the lemon design on it (I know, orange juice shouldn't be put into a glass with lemons on it, but I'm a rule breaker!). These are our biggest glasses so it's the best way to get the most juice out of one sitting, I'm sure you'll all understand.

Anyway, I went to pick it up and to my surprise I found that something very odd had happened to it. The top part of the glass had come clean off in a thin band. WTF? The glass cup had just been sitting there, in our cupboard, and it looked as if someone had cut off the top part with a glass cutters. ??? Can anyone give me a good explanation for why the hell this would happen? I took this picture of the glass, I hope it's clear enough, I've never seen this before, and I find it really bizarre.

Happy Birthday Todd!

Welcome to the 23 years club.

What I learned from Scene 2.

That even though there wasn't any action in the scene, I really enjoyed the dialogue that went on between the characters! I found that each of your character's personalities really stood out, and that it was delightful to read the post over a few times to fully enjoy the complete scene.. not that it's finished just yet... or is it? Which brings me to the main question I needed to answer from Scene 2.

When is a scene truly over?

As of right now the dialogue between the players could continue and Josh, a player not currently in the party, has yet to respond with his action. Todd and I were discussing this issue yesterday and this is what we came up with: The limit on how long the scene will last is up to my discretion. The scene offically ends when a new scene is posted. At the time the new scene is posted anything posted afterwards in the previous entry will not "count". This is what I'm working with at the moment....very organic and I like it a lot... but should this be done another way? Should, for example, posts last a certain amount of time? Say, three days? Honestly, I don't think this would work (due to some folk's access to a computer) but I'm not opposed to hearing your guy's input.

The next issues that Todd and I discussed was what to do if one player is holding up the group by not posting an action comment? (As in this case, with Josh. **note to josh** Don't worry buddy, you're not guilty or at fault for anything.. these are just important issues that need to be addressed and you just happen to be the useful example. You're not dead to me... yet.) Todd suggested that I use the dice to decide if the party spots Josh in the shadows... this is a pretty good fix, but not the best. (Ideally I'd prefer to have at least one action from each player in every scene.) But what if Josh is revealed and in the next post the party reacts to him and Josh still doesn't post his action!?!?! O!M!G! DISGAASTErrR!!!11!

Or is it? I suppose in that situation I will have to be creative (Like you've been with your action comments! good going!) and work the next scene around the non response.

What do you guys think?

The Broken Hallway - scene 2

As your party walks carefully down the broken hallway the feeling you are being watched grows more intense. As the group walks down the hallway, Spudler, the humble shepherd, places marking stones so that the party doesn't get lost. As he places the stones the red little mushrooms that grow through the cracks in the floor release seemingly harmless puffs of spores. Javabomberman, with both his swords drawn, stands in the middle, leading the party down the hallway, he walks with the confidence of a man who has taken many lives. Blackfish happily spots a lamp, hanging from a chain in the middle of the corridor just 4 meters away. He starts to cautiously walk towards it in order to light the lamp...

Meanwhile, In the shadows, WlfSamurai sits quietly in the darkness, calculating his next move.

Peter's Blog.

Is Peter's blog messed up for anyone else? It sort of just half-loads part of the first post for me, and nothing else. Peter, what did you do? Did you start to update the blog template and forget half of the code? Or have you used up all the bandwidth blogspot allocates for you and now your site is refusing to load?

And now for something a little lite-r.

So, I was thinking about it, and that last post was a bit heavy... Let me change course and I'll talk about something lighter.

Today, as you can see, I redesigned the prescriber. I wanted to go for something pleasant because the leaves are back on the trees, and I felt a change in look was needed. It seems to work in firefox and IE, but it does something strange in Safari, so anyone using a Mac is missing out on what the design should be. It's still readable in Safari, it just doesn't look pretty. I have no idea why it turned out this way, and since I'm no HTML expert I'm not going to change it.

The other thing I did today (besides watch futball matches because I didn't have work) was pick up a DS lite. I read on Hebert's blog that he also got himself a DS, too. This thing is very sleek. I am impressed. The original DS Fat looked like a toy. The new Lite has an apple iPod vibe. It's very cool. I picked up the New Super Mario Bros game along with a free copy of Brain Age (with a coupon from Best Buy). Both games kick butt. Brain Age is great cause it also comes with Sudoku, which feels very natural to play on the DS touch screen. In a few months Nintendo will be releasing an Internet browser cartridge (based off the Opera browser) so the DS will be able to surf the net over WiFi. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow, the PNI servers at work will be down again so I'll be home all day.... which is good and bad. There is, however, plenty to do! The World Cup is on, and I've got the princess to save!

The Nuclear Horizon.

Could it be that sometime in the near future we will see a nuclear weapon harm a civilian population? Is this possible? What if it is an American population? This is indeed a horrific question to ask, and an almost impossible question to truly comprehend.

I was listening to a congressional committee on c-span debate issues of national security about a week ago. They brought up the very real threat of a nuclear attack on U.S. soil. The thought of this truly frightens me. I want to have faith in our democratic system, but in this political climate I truly feel that our constitutional government has become very fragile and that an attack of this nature would finally shatter what we hold so dear.

After the events of Hurricane Katrina unfolded before our very eyes last year, and we saw the government botch the relief effort so throughly, I can no longer believe that the government is there for us. Therefore, I believe, that even though we aren't being constantly reminded of a nuclear threat (like they did for the U.S. populace during the Cold War), we should brainstorm a plan of action. We are paper and pencil gamers, for Pete's sake. These kind of scenarios are what we play games around. Here are some points and questions I've been thinking over:

• If a nuclear attack happens far away from our homes, would it be best to stay put and watch the news unfold the events for us? Or get in the car and drive as far away from our given population centers and further into the rural areas. As in the Katrina disaster, buying gas might become a problem. Is it really a good idea to get in the car anyway? and I think if I did get in the car and drive into the country I would take the back roads instead of the highway.
• Communications, if someone is near an effected area, but still relatively safe, I think knowing that they are alive, and figuring out if we can help them is key. Even though it sounds slightly silly, I would post my status on my blog if I was near an effective area (and if I could get to an internet connection). My close friends and family read this and I feel it's probably the best way of getting information about my situation to a mass of people.
• Should rescue missions be attempted? Say chicago is a target. I for one would want to mount some kind of rescue attempt to help out all of those in the chicago land area. This of course, might be a foolish thing to do. Maybe it would be better to set up a meeting point.
• Depending on how serious the situation is, I think a meeting point would be beneficial. Maybe Josh's parents land in Wisconsin, or my grandfather's cottage. I would assume we could coordinate using the net, using these blogs.

It is impossible to guess how the political climate would change after an attack of this magnitude. Would martial law go immediately into effect? Would there be mass chaos in all the cities with people fearing that their city would be next? These are all questions that one should consider, and as gamers we have considered by playing in apocalyptic campaigns. After all, Civilization is only three meals away from anarchy... it is that possible anarchy that we must be prepared for.

The home team takes it.

So the Germany vs. Costa Rica match is over with Germany taking the lead. (final 4-2). It was an exciting match and I thought Costa Rica put up an amazing good fight in the first half against the Germans crushing control of the ball... but... the Germans just have this way with their play style. Like a unit of Panzar tanks they seek to inflict heavy control over the ball, slowly chipping away at their opponent's defenses and then when there is an opening it's Blitzkrieg baby!!11. yikes. Todd must be feeling the collective depression of the Costa Rican people right now. Futball has an amazing grip on the psyche of the world. It's an awesome game.

That being said, I want to say how terrible it is to watch "soccer" on ESPN 2. God. It is awful. I hate hearing American announcers talk about the game. They are a bunch of condescending asses. I just couldn't watch the game all the way through on EPSN 2 so I switched it to Univision Network (a Spanish Channel). Even though I don't know spanish, those announcers sure have spirit!!! GOOOOOOAAAAALLLL!! That's how futball is suppose to be!

Next up. Poland vs. Ecuador. I'll be rooting for Ecuador because the western hemisphere is where it's at. Screw the old world!!!

p.s. I just checked out ESPN 2 again and the announcers are now British (or, I think maybe Irish). Sweet! I can tolerate that. :) So it's back to my native language.

Damn it feels good to be a gamer.

So I found this list on digg.com: "Reasons why it's worth it to be a PC Gamer in 2007". Not only does this list show why it's great to be a gamer in 2007, it also makes me realize that it's almost time for a massive upgrade. (ug!) Well, without any further ado, here's a list of the games that caught my eye.

• Supreme Commander, I've only heard about this game in passing, but I watched the trailer video on gamespot and it looked very impressive. Supreme Commander is claimed to be TA's 'spiritual successor'. I never played Total Annihilation (not even a demo) but I've always heard good things about it. The HUGE map in the trailer has got my attention and that amazing nuke!!11
  
• World in Conflict, I'm a sucker for alternative history settings where the Soviet Union is still around. (Red Alert, I love you!!!) Things to note are that there isn't resource gathering in this RTS, which will be interesting to see. Also, the multiplayer is really interesting, similar to FPS games like DOD:S or BF2, in World of Conflict you pick a role (infantry, armor, or air? I think) and then you work with your team-mates to try to capture points. Sounds like fun.
  
• Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, this one should be pretty obvious. The screenshots I've seen so far have been impressive. Lets just hope, since Westwood was bought out by EA, that EA doesn't screw C&C 3 up. !!!!
• Spore looks interesting, and there is a lot of internet buzz about this game, but I'm still not completely convinced it's going to be as amazing as people think it'll be. Basically you start the game as a little microbe and as the game progresses your creatures evolves into higher-life forms all the way up until they are able to explore the galaxy. It sounds interesting, but I'm cautious about it.
  
• Crysis, a FPS made by the guys who did Farcry. I played a good amount of Farcry in my day and it was a blast. I think Crysis is due to impress. They only thing that worries me about this game is its high graphics demand. I think if I played this game on my current system it would break down and cry.
  
• Dragon Age, I don't know much about this game, but it's made by Bioware. Anyone who's a fan of RPG's ought to be interested.
  
• The Witcher is another interesting RPG. I've read a little about this game and the reason why I think it's cool is because it sounds like the developers are working hard to blur the lines between good and evil. This is my kind of style. Are you really sure the necromancer is evil because he summons Zombies, or is he using the Undead to defend an orphanage? It sure is hard to tell, he is wearing black, after all.
  

There are a few more games on that list that I'm interested in but this post is getting too long. Enjoy looking through the list and let me know what games your interested in and why.

And there we have it, a quick look at what's coming in 2007.

GOOOAAALLL!!!

The first game of the 2006 World Cup is today!!! Woooooooohoo! GERMANY vs. COSTA RICA. It's on EPSN 2 starting at 10:55 cst. I've got the day off so that's what I'm going to do today! Fuck yeah!

Todd you are damn lucky, Costa Rica is going to be a great place to watch the first game! I hope you can manage to go to a bar or something. I was in Turkey during the 2002 World Cup when Turkey placed 3rd place (They didn't make it into the World Cup this year, HUGE BUMMER) and the whole country went nuts. I really hope Costa Rica beats the shit out of Germany today (even though Germany has an amazing team) because you'll get to experience the madness that is futball! (One of the reasons America is lame is cause people don't go nuts here for futball.) So I'm going to be watching the game and I'll be rooting for Costa Rica! If they win you'll get to see some good old fashion futball madness.! You lucky dog, you! Be sure to tell us all about it!!! :-D

edit: Or you'll see what mass futball depression feels like since Costa Rica just lost to Germany (4-2). Ouch. I've experienced that feeling too when I was in Holland during the European cup. Boy, were the dutch depressed. Very, very, very depressed.

On the play-list.

I was in the mood for some mindless killing so I loaded up Diablo 2 (plus expansion) and began my quest for hell again as a Sorceress. The Sorceress, was the first character class I beat the game as. I wanted to return to my roots, and the Sorceress provides me with those satisfying distance kills that I'm too lazy to hunt down with a melee class. I figured I'd let you guys know that I'm playing Diablo 2 again. I saw Peter mention it, so if anyone wants to get an internet game going to make the monsters tougher and drop better loot I'm all for that. just IM me.

"magic is the knowledge that you are free."

Internet humor in t-shirt form.

Blackfish said: "Oh right, because Hans is morally opposed to healing. /moonkin dance!" Is that so? Well in that case, Hans should check out this T-shirt.

I was just randomly surfing the net like I usually do and I stumbled upon that T-shirt website. I was pretty impressed by their line of clothing. For example: NPC, I wish they had one that said DM. They do however have this one: Carpe DM. Oh, and I laughed at this one: Half-Orcs. Anyway, pretty good line of shirts, though I don't know if I'd ever wear a Dungeons and Dragons T-shirt cause I tend to hate explaining to people what my T-shirt means.

Oh, btw, /train FTW...

Quick community news update.

It looks like Hebert decided to come crawling out of his cave and post something new on his blog - It's been awhile. I feel this blog community is getting stronger. People seem to be posting more often and with lots of vigor. I'm pretty proud of what we have here. So stroll on over and post on Hebert's blog to encourage him to post more. He is discussing the idea of a perfect burger, which I believe is an extremely important subject. Burgers are fracking awesome.

Speaking of the blogging community: Reynolds, having lost his password and user name, has created a new blog to share news with what's up with him. I'm pretty excited about this too. He's down at University in Illinois so I bet he's having some wild times that he'll share with us. haha. I was talking with him tonight about Dungeon Creep and he's interested in playing, so it looks like I'm going to create a new class, for a total of 5 Dungeon Creep classes - which means more rule making for me. He's interested in playing a melee character, so I've decided to let him play the new 'Monk' class. Dungeon Creep is still being worked on, so everybody, hold your horses.

So our community is growing and becoming more active. That is 9,000 and 20 zombies sweet. I love the idea of having a strong blogging community between friends so we stay in touch. The times we live in are fast and busy... for me this community is a way of hanging out with you all even though I'm hundreds of miles away. With that said, I think we should pull more into the fold. I'd like to see a Poke Blog, if anyone sees Poke mention it to him.

Alright, so that's the community news. cobalt'gerk' - over and out.