Saint Patrick, Patron Saint of Hangovers

Yesterday was Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Saint Patrick's Day, celebrating the patron Saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. As noted in the linked wiki article, Saint Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland. If he were around today, he might be tasked with chasing the snakes out of Washington, D.C., a task which would require something stronger than a stout sail éille (shillelagh). He might use it to knock some sense into their heads, tho.
Have you any idea how difficult it is to find Saint Patrick's Day graphics which don't look cheesy? I gave up... Now try finding a graphic of a cute Irish girl with a gun. I had to settle for Gabrielle Anwar from Burn Notice, whose deliciously vicious Fiona Glenanne is one of my all time favorite gungirls.

 

Riverdance

Posted by Joker961 @ 8:39 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Saint Paddy's Day!

Trinity wants me to buy her a Guinness!

• Major Nelson: Show #353: Wil Wheaton, MW2 Stimulus Package and Supreme Commander.
• Complex: MW2 DLC maps less complex than we hoped.
• Headline of the Day: GameSpy: MW2's Stimulus Pack: 1,200 MS Points, 40 Percent Less New Maps.
• Runner-up Headline of the Day: Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack Priced, Wallet Raped.
• Quote of the Day: "Well, I’m here to tell you it’s too late, and by simply having the balls to make this the price point in the first place, Infinity Ward has already won the war." And, of course, they did it first to the PC gamers, if you recall. There's a lesson there
• Kotaku: Brits build real-life Modern Warfare 2 level.

More Gaming Links:

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review: Worthplaying (PS3).
• Nothing to see here: 1Up: Medal of Honor Extended Gameplay Trailer. Why would they release this rehashed vid only 2 days after the Tier 1 trailer?
• VoodooExtreme: Metro 2033 PC preload available on Valve's Steam service.
• Destructoid: 2K confirms Bioshock 2 on-disc DLC, tries to justify it.
• Joystiq: OnLive's Perlman would rather stay out of the hardware business.
• GameTrailers: Pach-Attack, Episode 106.
• Kotaku: War Machine Toy Captures The Essence Of Don Cheadle. I thought they did that in Boogie Nights.

    Non-Gaming Links:

• Kotaku: John Carmack Has Three Lifetime Achievement Awards, No Early iPad.
• iFail: Consumerist: Rhapsody Announces New iPhone Feature With Video iPhone Users Can't See.
• MaximumPC: Freeware Files: Five Apps for Advanced Virus/Malware Elimination!
• Australia considers .02 BAC limit.
• I used to joke "Hey, my feelings were hurt. Can I sue?" Not a joke anymore, I guess: Former student wins $1.25 million lawsuit for racially harrassed in high school.

 

Posted by Joker961 @ 7:00 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ides of March +1 (Or is it St. Paddy's -1)

    This time change has me a bit discombobulated. It doesn't help that the power's been jacking with us lately, tho we're certainly better off than the 500,000 people without power over in New Jersey and points South in the Tri-State area.
    Yesterday was the Ides of March, and it's famously the day in 44 B.C.E. when Julius Caesar ventured forth into the streets of Rome against the advice of his wife, Calpurnia, and a seer. Once at work in the Senate, he was stabbed by his closest friends, proving that good metal detectors make for good government. The back-stabbing that takes place in government is more figurative than literal nowadays, which saves a lot of mopping up afterward.
    Amazing, clever folks those ancient Romans. Tho, Caesar might have at least had a bodyguard or two with him. Just in case. The debatable big news this week, of course, is the pricing on the anticipated Modern Warfare 2 "Stimulus Package".  The Xbox Live Marketplace download will set you back $15 US. Kotaku and a few other sites appear to think the price is excessive, especially when compared to the $10 US price for the first World at War Map Pack back in March of '09. I'm like Meh. I thought they would bone us for $20 US! On to the links:

Featured MW2 YouTube Video

• GameSpy: Modern Warfare 2's Stimulus Pack Priced Up on Xbox Live. $15, US.
• CVG: Call of Duty 7: What OXM wants to see.
• MaximumPC op-ed: The Game Boy: The Case of Infinity Ward Vs. The People.
• Xbox Live Account Suspension forum: No, you won't get banned. But you're a cheating douche.

    More Gaming Links:

    I finally got a chance to watch the Medal of Honor Tier 1 trailer, linked again below, at my leisure. There doesn't seem to be all that much new stuff in it. Some footage of Tier 1 SUVs, a few new combat sequences with the regular troops, including a very MW2-esque scene of a Tier 1 apparently catching a falling player by the wrist. But I noticed that there were some sequences reused. (I'll keep on the lookout for a detailed analysis.) The same shot of the Tier 1s entering under a sliding door was recycled, for example. While watching, I even thought how cool the ending to the first trailer was, with the bomb-jacketed terrorist on the office chair being kicked out the window before he could detonate in the midst of the operators. It was disconcerting therefore to have the new trailer end with the exact same game footage. (And Kotaku thinks so, too.) Yeah, it's teh awesome. But the fact that they used it again makes me wonder how much actual new stuff they have available. Is it a sign of trouble over at the Medal of Honor camp?

• GameTrailers: Tier 1 trailer.
• TechDay.NZ: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review.
• Kotaku: Two Surprise PlayStation Move Maneuvers.
• Destructoid: GDC: Zipper Interactive does Move control right; SOCOM 4 hands on.
• Kotaku: 2K Sports finishes MLB 2010 patch.
• PushSquare: God of War III Playstation 3 review.
• GamesRadar: Aliens vs Predator: PlayStation Home intergalactic dance-off.
• Joystiq: GDC: Sims creator Will Wright predicts social games will grow to 25 percent of market.
• Destructoid op-ed: Video game fans need to shut up about everything.
• Joystiq: Best of Big Download, March 8-14.

    Non-Gaming Links:

• Gizmodo: Inside the Apple-Google war: It's personal.
• Tom's Hardware: Apple Employee Framed "Law and Order" Star Richard Belzer.
• Richard Belzer does not play well with others.
• R.I.P. Peter Graves: LA Times: Peter Graves found dead at his home.

Posted by Joker961 @ 10:18 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

MW2 Map Pack, 3 new, 2 old, $15 US

 

Well, another night of MW2 gaming was cut short due to power problems. While Reibo and I were in the pre-game lobby with JKDJose, Big Bad Wolfe, Koala Lama, and BG Johnny, the power went out on us for a minute or so. After it came back on, we messaged everybody that we were thru for the night. A while later, the power went out again momentarily, reinforcing our decision. It was a mercy killing for me. I got annihilated on Highrise by a team using FMJ attachments to spam through all the walls. I did manage to get a Rival challenge by shooting one guy 5 times in the same match, but it was cold comfort considering I went double-negative in the match. There was no way to hold down any area at all since the bullets came flying through multiple walls like they weren't even there... And, of course, graciousness was in short supply on the winning team, also. Douchebags.

The details of the Model Warfare 2 DLC have been released. In this Xbox Live Marketplace link, the DLC shows a release date of 01/01/0001, so it's possible that the offering was not meant to be visible yet. "The Stimulus Package delivers 5 additional action-packed multiplayer maps featuring a variety of locations: "Storm," an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; "Salvage," a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars. Two legendary fan-favorites from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare return, including "Crash," a war-torn urban environment; and "Overgrown," which features a massive dry creek bed." Today, the new is out that the map pack will cost you $15 US on Xbox Live, which is sure to piss a lot of people off. On to the links:

 

Featured MW2 YouTube Video

• IGN: Modern Warfare 2 DLC maps IDed.

More Gaming Links:

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review round-up: The Province; Thunderbolt; GameHub (PS3).
• GamingUnion: The Worst Bugs On Bad Company 2 Right Now Are...

 

• Joystiq: Overheard at GDC: The Cliffy B "Pie Analogy".
• Kotaku: Bioshock 2 DLC already on game disc.
• GameSpy: Metro 2033 screenies.
• Voodoo Extreme: Splinter Cell: Conviction trailers.
• ShackNews: Mass Effect 2 paid DLC preview.
• CinemaBlend: OnLive could theoretically put Xbox 360 and PS3 out of commission. Not unless they fixed the lag on multiplayer games.
• GamaSutra: GDC: Sid Meier on Gamer Psychology.
• Ars Technica thru Digg: At GDC, Valve's Gabe Newell shares his thoughts on DRM.
• Kotaku: Jack Thompson has a moment of clarity.

Posted by Joker961 @ 8:53 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

MW2, BC2, and MoH stuff...

 

I managed to get on for a few hours last night -- before I once again got cut off by a power outage! We had just finished our pizza break, and the lights started flickering. After about 10 mins, they went off for good. The wind that had kicked up during the storm caused a branch to hit a power line and apparently blow a transformer somewhere down the line. The lights did come on after a couple of hours, but it was a pretty nervous night for Reibo and me.
What gaming there was was pretty good. It was fantastic to get together with Reibo and Matt64 again after our long drought. I was pretty sucktacular in a couple of games, but we were short 2-3 regular players during the whole session. I managed to get a lot of challenges done, tho, including one sweet Ninja Pro challenge where an enemy player literally walked into me around the corner just in time to eat a burst from my SCAR-H. Because he was close enough to kiss, it counted as a Ninja distance kill. Woot! Another sweet moment was a flash bang impact kill from 5 feet away on Favela. A dude was running up from the playground area and I was running down the stairs and thoomp! he took the grenade in the chest!

A little over 2 weeks before the Modern Warfare DLC release! Despite my many disappointments with the glitches and cheaters of MW2 multiplayer, I'm still excited, especially if a couple of my favorite Call of Duty 4 maps are revamped for MW2. Although many folks prefer only new content, I really like a mix of the old and the new. UT was always good at achieving that mix. Either Epic would have touched-up classics pre-loaded or the mapping community would whip them out in short order. After all, what's UT without Deck 17? I couldn't find video of the classic Unreal Tournament Deck 17, which was teh awesome, but here's the UT3 PC version:

Today's featured vid is a Throwing Knife only FFA by SeaNanners, tho he does use the melee knife twice in the game. On to the links:

Featured MW2 YouTube Video

Posted by Joker961 @ 6:39 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments