Thrawn of the Dead

I've realized this whole daily blogging thing during a GSL is freakishly hard, but I'm not playing this week, so it should have been easier. It should be a normal week with a few special topics and whatnot (there was supposed to be a special topic yesterday, in fact) but that has not happened on account of business and illness.

Business: I'm a little behind on my research (surprise, surprise), so I've been spending five-hour jags in the research lab coding data... doing that is not a good way to maintain sanity over a prolonged period of time, but it must be done.

I also spent the majority of last week working on my first short story for my creative writing class, and it's now finished. It's a horror story set in Japan, based on a Japanese urban legend. I was thinking of serial-posting it on this blog, but I'm pretty protective of my fiction and don't want to put it where anyone can "borrow" it. So, if you're interested in reading it, give me an email and I'll send it to you. This way, I have a rough idea of who has read it.

Illness: I've had a cold for a week now, and yesterday was a day to forget. Woke up with a persistent throbbing headache that lasted all day, and I couldn't focus on anything. Therefore, besides playing Stoked, I got nothing done at all, and now need to do double today. Fun times. I felt like a total zombie.

I felt a lot like this yesterday.

AND IN GAMING NEWS...

In speaking of feeling dead, Resident Evil 5 comes out on Friday, and I'm super excited for it. I'm going to need an online co-op partner for it, as I have to test out the co-op as part of the review process, and I'd rather not play with some random person. So far, my message to all friends has been fruitless, as my friends are either busy with a GSL, time zones wouldn't work well, they aren't getting the game, or they're just being lame. Whatever the cause, I'm still looking. Ducky Dan has offered to buy the game and play with me, but since he hated Dead Space, I'm probably going to tell him not to bother, as it seems improbable to me that he would like it. If he does get it, I'll work with him. That should be... interesting...

Want to co-op? I'll let you be Chris this time...

I'm going to get cranking on the Stoked draft today now that I'm feeling better, but it probably won't be on the site for a couple more days.

Week 4 is about to begin in the GSL, which I'm unfortunately sitting out due to my work load and review obligations (though I'd been hoping to be the one to review RE5 for months, I'll admit). Next week is my spring break, and since all my friends are going skiing (I hate skiing and refused to waste my money on something I would have no fun doing), I'll have nothing to do but play games, so it should be a double points week for me (I'll probably still be trying to get some work done as well though).

In my 360voice challenge, I've temporarily moved up to #3 thanks to 440 points in Stoked (which is not a GSL game, BTW, unless you're really, really good at games of this genre), but that won't last. Koala is playing, I'm not. It'll be interesting to see how badly the competition burns me this week, and if I can claw my way back into the top three during Week 5. I really want to finish top three and get some challenge points for my efforts. It's an added source of motivation beyond moving Hand of Thrawn up the team ladder. There's no such thing as too much motivation, is there?

Oh! Maw DLC #2 comes out today!!! You should go download it. Right now. That game is amazing. I think I'm going to go get is as soon as this has been posted.

DOWNLOAD ME!!!!!

Messages from the Holonet (Episode 2)

It's been a while, but I finally have accumulated enough interesting messages to merit a post. I figured I'd take a break from Stoked (my next review) to type up the post.

BL4CK SiLv4 writes (2/15/09):

ugh im sick as a dog i cant even sit up on the pc :( good thing the flu hit me this week. Derek: Dont forget to save you are almost lvl 7 :) and Thrawn:... DuckyDan thinks you're cute

(Silva on why he should sit out Week I... and more)
Response: I know Ducky wants me, but after I used the doll to show the nice policemen where he wanted to touch me, he's not allowed within 10 miles of me anymore LOL =P

Buck Wyyld writes (2/24/09)

f dat silva he still owes me a kiss

Response: Buck, if I remember the events of the Viva Pinata Party Animals boosting session correctly, Silva owes you more than a kiss.

Bionik Kommando writes (3/2/09)

Interrupting this gaming session to bring you the following announcement. Italians only eat pizza, pasta, and ice cream. Every stereotypical portrayal of the italian accent, ever, is 100% spot-on. I need to do homework now... Bye.

Response: LOL. That is all.

FinTacular writes (3/6/09)

!YAY! Personal Thrawn gamerpic ! Good for you.

Response: Thanks. I used my vision camera to snap a pic of Thrawn off my PC. If you're on my friends list, you can see this gamerpic. I've had the vision camera for ages... I can't believe the idea didn't come to me sooner.

BL4CK SiLv4 writes (3/7/09)

Madden 08 is for noobs real men play afro samurai

Response: I'll tell you all about what real men play when I see My Horse and Me 2 shows up on your gamercard. Enjoy one last week of decency before people can mok you forever LOL

BL4CK SilVa writes (3/8/09)

100k sigh i miss when I was a casual gamer back in the 34k range in June of 08 then you f***ers got your dirty little hands on me it's a shame...my nerd cred is thru the roof now!

Response: I seem to remember you jumping into the fray pretty eagerly. Don't blame us. We didn't make you sign up. It clearly said in the fine print that The Silent Assassins were a cult that you could never leave after joining. Not my fault you can't read. Who doesn't love internet nerd cred?

BL4CK Silva writes (3/9/09)

Podcast = hilarious. Do you think any of the other teams are having as much fun with each other as we are?

Response: I too listened to Minty and Krazie's 5+ minute bitch-fest about the GSL. I hope it was therapeutic (and I'm sure they needed/deserved a rant), but it was a little much. I'm sure a few of the laid back teams not even trying are having a good time. Are any other of the teams in the top six having as much fun as we are? Possibly, but I doubt it. KOTOR isn't, knowing how they opperate. I can't say for the other teams.

As you can see, many of my best messages come from Silva LOL. That'll cover me for today. Gotta get back to playing Stoked.

Week III Final Thoughts

Things went decently, though not spectacularly, this week. I was too stupid to write down people's start scores, which is something I'll remember to do in the future. It looks like, with about 4,500 points, I was the team's top scorer this week, followed by Silva, then Derek, then Sabre. I think this is the second week in a row we've fallen short of our team goal... I'm not sure. As I said before, I messed up the numbers this week. Perhaps the goals I'm holding us to are too ambitious (I want to set high goals, but not be a slave driver), but I can say at least I nearly met my 5k goal despite losing nearly 2 full days of playing time.

Young Guns have pulled to within about 3k of us, so we'll have to watch out for them next week. In happier news, we picked up about 3.5k on Sinister Six, the next team above us, and Silva cracked 100k on the nose. Way to go Silva! Next week WILL be better, as Dark makes his much-awaited return to action after 2 weeks off, and is going to kick ass, and Bishop will be back in action. Sabre's going to be taking his first sit of the season, while I'm sitting again so I can work on the reviews for Stoked and Resident Evil 5, as well as get cranking on my research and homework, so Week V (my spring break), I can go absolutely point CRAZY. We're going to be toe-to-toe with Sinister Six for 4th place by the end of Week V, if things go to plan.

My week of crazy scoring moved me to #3 in the 360v challenge, though I'll fall to 4th by tomorrow. Still a lot of time left, but I can tell it will be quite tough to crack the top three. I'll do my best to make it happen. It was a pretty fun week, and week IV will be even better.

Completed games this week:
Sonic's UGC
Rapala's Fishing Frenzy 2009

Baby Nerf Me One More Time

This week has been one with a decent start, but many frustrations. I came out to a huge start by dropping 425 in Sonic's UGC, and 530 in Xmen, then maybe 200 more in Lego Star Wars II. With over 500 points in NCAA Football 08, things seem to be going amazingly thus far, and I jumped from 57th to 4th in my 360voice challenge, so why would I be frustrated? Because this week was supposed to be HUGE.

What has gone wrong?

1. Gamefly never received Scene It: Box Office Smash. After a week, I reported it missing. They're now sending my LOTR: Conquest, but I won't get that this week. So, a shipping error nerfed me a possible 1k.

2. My disc of Madden 08 will not play, no matter what I do. I can't get out to Gamestop to exchange it this week. Nerfed another 1k.

If only we were talking about this kind of nerf.

3. In NCAA 07, there is no sim function, and apparently if you do too many achievement goals in one game, nothing pops. I played a game for like 90 minutes and got no points for it. It'll take much longer to get points from this than expected.

4. I got a call from a high school buddy yesturday, who wanted to know if he could crash at my place Friday. He has grad school interviews in Stout on Friday, and here in Eau Claire on Saturday, so he wanted to stay here rather than drive back and forth from Minnesota twice. Since I'm such a good friend, I'm helping him out, which means I'm losing almost all of Friday for scoring. It'll be good to see him, and we might go see Watchman, so I'm not complaining about seeing him, but it would have been nice to know sooner, so I could plan for it.

5. I'll be out all day Saturday on a snow-tubing trip that has been in the works for over a month. Wasn't supposed to be a big deal if all my games worked and I had Friday to game. Now I'm looking at a late night Thursday and Late Saturday/Early Sunday.

So, I'll still do OK this week, but my expectations have been lowered quite a bit. I'll have to try to do better next week.

Awaiting Week III

Tuesday was a slower day of gaming, as I really didn't want to go all-out when that's exactly what I'm going to be doing Wednesday through Sunday. I pretty much got done what I wanted to in Xmen and called it quits.

I'm rather irritated with Gamefly (or maybe the USPS) right now, as I've been screwed over this week. I mailed them back Scene It: BOS over a week ago, and they still have not received it yet. I reported it lost yesterday, hoping that will get the ball rolling on me getting a new game, but nothing has been sent yet, so I'm probably stuck on a single gamefly game this week. Lame! Despite this annoying setback, my weekly goal remains the same, though I'm really going to miss that extra possible 1k.

I'm also in a challenge on 360v, so that the points I earn count there too. You can follow the action of that HERE. I'm hoping to finish in the top three and thus rake in a nice haul of points (there's 70+ people in it). It'll be a tough competition though, as the current top two both started with scores under 10k, and they have people hooking them up with tons of easy games. There's also the fact that I can only put down points Wed-Sun for the GSL. So, it's an uphill fight, but I know how to score points. I can't wait for the gloves to come off again, so I can show them how its done.

Dolce is One Mean Cookie

Recently, I've been working at two gaming objectives. The first is to make my way through my second playthrough of Eternal Sonata, the second to make progress of any kind in the turd known as Xmen. Seriously, how can any game make Wolverine suck? He does in this one... Seriously, he goes down faster than my old high school football team. And how bad was my high school football team, you ask? Well, surely some stats from my senior year's team will help that joke make sense:

Shakopee Football at its finest:

Overall

Win %

PF

PA

1-8-0

0.111

183

288

Home

Away

Neutral

League

1-3-0

0-4-0

0-1-0

0-7-0

Rankings:

National

State

6490

165

In Eternal Sonata, I was making pretty smooth progress, until I hit Dolce's pirate ship in chapter 4. That place sucks! First, I'm stuck with my total B-team (Salsa is the only character in the party at this point that I use when I have the choice) and everyone else stinks. No Viola. No Allegretto. Absolutely no Jazz... and somehow I'm supposed to take out Dolce, who is truly one mean cookie. When I reached her the first time, she wiped me out so fast I don't know what happened. After grinding out a few levels and selling a ton of photos to finance the obscene healing item bills this place is giving me, I tried her again. While the fight was more competitive, she still kicked my ass. She's super fast, and likes to attack from behind where I can't guard. I've ended up blowing my wad of healing items waaaay too soon in the fight, and thus lack the stamina to finish (yes, those metaphors may have been inappropriate... moving on...). I can hardly even build up my harmony chain with these losers (not you Salsa... I still love you). So, I'm probably going to be stuck in Dolce's ship for another couple hours grinding levels, so I can take her down. It's a horrible place to have to grind, since there is only one type of enemy, and the dungeon design is so bland. I'll just have to suffer through this bottleneck I find myself in so I can get back to enjoying the rest of the game.

Viola, Jazz... I miss you!!!

Xmen... what can I say about you? You have no checkpoints, so if I die I have to start the whole mission over! I love that! Thanks for making Wolverine a total wuss, and making the combat system for Nightcrawler that Jumper would totally try to rip off later. Thank you for back-loading all your points, and requiring me to track down asinine collectables. Thank you for not straining my eyes with your PS2 graphics. Thanks for your bottom budget "cinematics," and taking everything cool about Xmen and making it lame. I love you so much right now. I'd take you off my card, but I've done that once before already. Now I have 20 points in you, which makes us buddies for LIFE.

(Sigh) LAME...

So yeah... it was a dicey day of gaming. Hopefully tomorrow (and GSL Week III) will be much better.

Week II Final Thoughts

Well, Week II of the GSL has come to an end, and it certainly was an interesting week. When things started, Young Guns, Woodcock Johnsons, and Hand of Thrawn were within 1k of each other. WJs exploded to +17k on us, YG imploded (this week, at least) to 3-7k behind us (not sure what their official score really is) and we own 6th place for now. The new goal is to climb into the top five, which is certainly a challenge, but we're down for it. L4A has announced that their team goal is to catch up to us... I do love motivational rivalries. I encourage them to do their best... my team thrives on people gunning for us. Week I it was Ducky's Angels and Rogue Squadron (crushed em), Week II it was L4A (they gained a little ground), Week III it will be L4A and YG (results obviously TBD). Come and get some =P

A couple of my teammates did excellent work, a couple underperformed a little... it comes with the territory (I think they all know how they did). Next week, I'm hoping for as much or more from everyone, as I think we failed to meet our goal for the week (except you Silva... you don't need to kill yourself... it's called SLEEP =P get just a tiny bit of it LOL. If we had 1,000 points for every time you sent we a message saying you were about to die, we'd be beating KOTOR {I exaggerate a little}). I'm not excepting myself from this; I too will strive to do better than my Week I score. Look for Silva to pass the 100k milestone next week. There's still six weeks of action left, so I'm sure there will be plenty of movement. I know my team well enough now to guarantee we'll remain consistent throughout.

After playing Week I, sitting out a week was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I spent the time doing some preloading, boosting teammates in Prey and Timeshift, and playing games for fun, like continuing my second playthrough of Eternal Sonata, where I've progressed to chapter 4. Sitting back and watching the point whoring squad you've assembled do their thing certainly has its own satisfactions.

Thinking long-term, I think this will be my last GSL for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love these, and my team now is every bit as fun as TSA was (Despite the lack of Ducky's singing or totally non-PC gay jokes with Buck... we still have to break in the new guys to our randomness a little =P). My temporary retirement from GSLs will coincide from my temporary retirement from achievement whoring. Once I hit 100k, my focus is going to shift drastically from whoring points to scoring points in games I enjoy, and improving my completion percentage. My year-end goal may be 100k, but even if I reach it before May or June, I'm not setting a new goal. Operation Jedi and completing RPGs will keep me busy enough. As I look for jobs and try to establish myself post-college, I also won't have the time (or $$$) for it for a while. Assuming x360a continues GSLs, I'll probably sit out season 8, and actively avoid playing anything that smells like easy points, so that I'll have a lot of ammunition when season 9 rolls around, at which point I'd like to reform TSA or Hand of Thrawn and make a serious run for it... but that's a ways down the line.

On a separate note, while I cannot 100% confirm this yet, it looks like my next two reviews will be Stoked and Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. One of those I'm actually looking forward to. The other I have no idea what to expect. I'll let you figure out which is which.