There really isn't enough good things I could say about this game. I've been a fan of the Half-Life series since HL1 had me staying up until 4am on school nights. If you played Half-Life 2 and enjoyed it, without a doubt get Episode One. It's Half-Life 2 with everything slightly improved.
I really didn't think I would end up with a sports game in my collection. Not to mention, a ping-pong game! But Table Tennis is just great fun and easy to just pick up and play. I've even played a few games with my 7 year-old daughter who had no problem learning the controls and how to use the various shots.
If you've been here before, you might have a question or two for me right about now. For those that were using the Back in Black style, I apologize. It will be back (again). Let me explain just what is going on around here. Since July of 2005, I've been working from home. Up until recently, for other people. Some shit went down and I found myself in a situation where I needed to find a new source of income stat!
The last of the "big three", who's in a bit of a different situation than Nintendo and Sony since their next-gen effort is already on the market. I was curious to see what announcements would be made and if any new games would be announced for the Xbox 360. Not only did they pull through in the games department, but they also unveiled a whole slew of peripherals and gave 360 owners lots of things to get excited about.
I had a good week's worth of posts planned out, that is until 1&1 decided to crap out on me. On Tuesday afternoon around 1pm my site returned a 404 in three different languages. This love error was displayed to the world for the following two hours. All the while, I was calling their 1-800 "expert technical support" help line to find out WTF was up. Not once did I even get put in a queue. For the most part, I would hear an obnoxious beep followed by "We're sorry, all of our circuits are busy right now. Please calling back later." Do you realize how infuriating that is when your site is offline and you can't even be queued for support?
While Sony failed to impress with their lack of innovation and effort, Nintendo came out swinging and left me with a huge smile on my face. Even though the majority of the games they've been showcasing don't appeal to me in the least, I'm still extremely stoked on the Nintendo Wii and the direction Nintendo is headed in the next generation of console gaming. It didn't take long to get over the name (Wii) and even less time to convince me that the Wiimote/nunchaku controller is the way to go. It's apparent that Nintendo has a clear vision of where they're going and they're serious about changing the way we game.
E3's come and gone once again. We're left with some things to be really excited about. Others, not so much. It's interesting to see how people's perspectives change from the week leading up to E3 to the week after the event. Going in, Playstation 3 was at the top of most people's lists and with the backlash following the announcement of the official name of Nintendo's next console, they were pretty close to the bottom. Since the Xbox 360 is already on the market, Microsoft certainly didn't have the hype train running full force as they did last year.
It's been two months, almost to the day, when I kicked the old habit and bought an Xbox 360. Since then, I haven't spent more than a couple hours total playing games on my PC. I jumped on a couple times and played a couple quick rounds of Battlefront 2 and the odd level from Quake 4. But considering how much time I used to spend PC gaming, that there is pathetic.
I've accomplished something I've always wanted to do with my site - have multiple styles and let the user choose their preference. As promised, I deliver onto you, "Back in Black", which is essentially my latest revision with the old colours. A bit more bold, as all the links are coloured where as they were only underlined with colour in my previous incarnation. The style switcher stores a cookie on your computer, so every time you come back (granted you haven't cleared your cookies) you'll see the style of your choice. Fun!
Nearly a month ago (April 11, to be exact), Battlefield 2 Modern Combat was released for the Xbox 360. As I've mentioned a couple times before, I was a huge fan of the first couple Battlefield games but had major problems with Battlefield 2 for the PC. It seemed every time a patch was released, I would end up spending a couple hours trying to get the game running again which normally resulted in me abandoning the game out of frustration. Although Modern Combat is not the same game as the PC version, I was really hoping that I could catch up the time I missed out on and finally enjoy the Battlefield series again. Unfortunately, I'm lead down the same path of repeated disappointments.
There's a pile of video hosting sites online these days. It seems like there's a new one popping up each week. I've tried out most of them and have found at least one or two things that have prevented me from using them. The big ones being; Re-encoding your videos to a lower, much shittier resolution. And, only supporting 4:3 aspect ratio videos - stretching others to fit the video window.
Well, here we are. A day early (just like last time) with a fresh, new site. Well, sort of. If you've been here before, you're no doubt squinting due to the brightness. I'm sure you weren't expecting to see a site of mine on anything but a black background. I really wanted to do something drastic, but at the same time, maintain the level of organization that has brought me so much love. Hence the white background, but familiar three column layout.