It has been a cool rainy dreary day down here in the dirty south. So while I was getting in some quality gaming this afternoon I decided it was perfect soup weather. So on the menu this evening is Taco Soup. Fatal asked that i post the recipe, so here it is...

Taco Soup

About a pound or so of  ground beef**

1 packet of Taco seasoning**

1 can of Green Giant Southwestern corn with black beans

1 can of Hunts Diced tomatoes with green chilies

Franks or Texas Pete hot sauce.. added to taste

Prepare the ground beef as if you were going to prepare Tacos. Then simply add the remaining ingredients; corn and black beans, the diced tomatoes and the hot sauce. Cook on medium until it starts to bubble, the reduce to simmer for about 45 minutes or until ready to serve.

**I prefer to make this when I have day old taco meat in the fridge. Also remember that as you add "heat" or hot sauce, the longer it cooks the more intense the heat can be so becareful when adding hot sauce.

This is best served with Jiffy brand corn muffing mix prepared in a cast iron skillet if you have one.

Enjoy

20,000th blog view winner is SoupNazzi!!

I think it's awesome that a guy who gives so much to those here is the winner. I know his blogposts are one of the first things I check every day.

Congrats, Soup!!

Original image, for the doubters: img197.imageshack.us/img197/3388/20000l.jpg

The clan request is in.

Most of the time when I write I feel so amateurish... but gotta start somewhere, right?

****

Like everyone on this site, I love gaming. It's a fun diversion. I'm also a chick, which means I follow Oscars*. This year, as always were some pretty heavy stuff. Precious, Avatar, Hurt Locker... not lite faire. Which gets me thinking...

Where is the true art in gaming? Yes, games can tell a story... but the stories they tell are not the stuff of epic dramas.  What we have so far is pretty much a straight summer blockbuster. Nothing wrong with a summer action flick... but it sure doesn't transcend the human condition. And I agree, there are some great stories: I have been told that Heavy Rain is such a game. But if we are honest (and literate) we can admit that the games we play, while fun, are not necessarily high culture.

For a game to really be called art, it would transcend the media: non-gamers would hear about it and think "Damn... I would love to experience that." Books, TV, plays, movies are all forms of entertainment that can, and have become more. Gaming isn't there yet.Why not? What is getting in gaming's way?

Gaming isn't an evolution of something we already have. We have had plays since the cave-man days. We became literate, and then we took our oral storytelling and wrote it down into books and scripts for plays. We don't know how the oral tradition changed once it became written. Or maybe we do... but that is stuff for eggheads smarter than I. Screw that, I only do so much research.

Movies were the first time technology drastically changed an artform. It started off as an entertaining, but technical feature. You could pay a dime and watch such riveting vignettes as "Man walks Down Street." Then we got silent movies that had a simple story, eventually telling great stories. These silent movies were still basically plays, but with a camera in front of it. Talkies came around and the genre had to adapt. Today movies are much more complex than these simplier times, however much is the same. You have actors acting out dialogue. There is a script written by a writer (playwright). A director takes charge. Yes, of course there are so much more to movies than this, but the evolution is still there... plays transformed into movies.

What about gaming? Gaming didn't come out of plays, but out of playing. Games didn't have a "high" tradition, but rather were the outcome of some geeks who wanted to have fun. And so, games aren't like anything we have seen. Okay, we have some movie elements: actors, scripts. Read the credits for a game and it really does seem like credits for a movie. However there are two main differences that we may not have our heads around yet.

The player controls the action. Let's think about this. I would love to sit Kathyrn Bigelow down ask her to make Mass Effect as a movie. "Okay We got a trilogy. Each segment is going to around 60 hours long, and the audience can stop and start the game at any time. It will take about a month for most people to finish your movie. The audience will control the camera angle. The audience will control the pacing. The audience will control which characters live and die. The audience controls what parts of the story happen and what time. Oh did I mention that someof the audience will have access to other storylines. There will be a bunch of different endings depending on the choices you make and these choices follow you from part one through part three of the trilogy. Okay... go." 

This sounds like an impossible task, even for directors that are great. Too many choices, too many variables. When you think of it that way, I am not sure that game developers have their heads around this mechanic. How do you give so much control to the audience, yet still maintain artistic integrity?

Tied in with player control is the reason for player control. That is gameplay: games kinda need that .. you know. To be a game and all. What does that mean? It has to be fun. What is "fun." Tragedy is universal. Fun is different to different people. Let's think of one genre, the first person shooter. Halo players do not find Call of Duty fun and vice versa**. What is fun for a Halo player is not fun for a Call of Duty player. You even get thin slices within a game. Some people play Halo, some play MLG Halo. Some people are serious Call of Duty players, some like to fuck around and shoot friends in the head. Each person has fun, but in a very different way.

Lastly, gaming is a very techinical persuit. A dude with a camcorder and some buddies can make a movie, and throw it up on youtube. But to make a game there needs a wide variety of talents. A writer (who can write this user controlled script). Animators to make a character move properly, and a voice actor to breathe life into that character. Some guy who can code all this shit. It seems to be such a diverse group of talents, some artistic and some incredibly technical. And importantly, someone to bankroll this venture. Someone who is willing to take a chance, to make a game that is artistically relevant, but may not make the money back in sales.

Perhaps the problem is that gaming came into being at a time when making money is key, and artistry is not.

But on the plus side... think about gaming in the 80's. The games usually didn't really have an ending, there was no real story at all. Gameplay regulated to platformer. Twenty years later and the medium has grown by leaps and bounds. No other media has grown so far, so fast. So maybe it will happen, and happen soon.


* Okay I only follow enough to be able to beat my man in our annual Oscar pool. I lost this year. James Cameron, you fucker. Try harder next time. And RDJ was HAWT and can pull off sneakers and a tux.

** Be quiet. I know that some people like both. But let's face it, even within a genre there are games we like and games we don't. Others disagree with our choices. So settle fanboy.

OK Folks, I usually try to make sure that my blog icon does not show up twice in the page-top feed, but I could not wait to post this update. I just received some exciting news from Gary Vincent and Mike Stuir of the American Classic Arcade Musuem located at Funspot in Laconia New Hampshire. Many of you may know of ACAM and Funspot from the movie The King of Kong featuring Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Gary posted a couple of very special announcments on the messageboards for our local classic coin-op collectors group here in New England and I thought I would share this info with everyone here.

From Gary Vincent

The American Classic Arcade Museum is pleased to announce that on Friday, March 26th and Saturday, March 27th, we will be having the first public showing of Crazy Otto since 1981 at PAX-East. PAX-East will be taking place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

Ms. Pac-Man started life as Crazy Otto, an enhancement hack of Pac-Man. Developed in Massachusetts by General Computer Corporation (GCC), the game featured a number of improvements over traditional Pac-Man gameplay including randomized ghost algorithms, multiple new mazes, new music & sound, new intermissions and bonus items that float around instead of popping up in the same place.

GCC showed their game to Midway (Namco’s American distributor for Pac-Man), attempting to bluff Midway into approving the release of the enhancement kit by telling them that GCC won their lawsuit against Atari involving a similar enhancement for Missile Command. Midway had nothing in the pipeline to follow up Pac-Man, so they suggested that GCC create a true sequel to the original Pac-Man instead of an enhancement kit. The result is Ms. Pac-Man.

Crazy Otto has been in GCC's possession since 1981. It was not released in arcades and it has not been emulated. Our exhibit of Crazy Otto is a one-time showing to the public.

From Mike Stuir - ACAM Board Member

With PAX-East just around the corner, I am proud to announce the ACAM Classic Game Developer Panel that will be taking place on Saturday, March 27th. The panel will take place in the Wyvern Theater at 7:30pm.

I have an exciting discussion planned. The panelists are former employees of General Computer Corporation in Cambridge, MA. GCC was involved in game development, and between 1981-1984, they designed products that created over $750 million in revenue for Midway and Atari. Some of those products include the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game and the hardware for the Atari 7800 console.

My panel guests are:

Steve Golson (Super Missile Attack, Crazy Otto, Ms. Pac-Man, Atari 7800)
Mike Horowitz (Crazy Otto, Ms. Pac-Man)
Jonathan Hurd (Food Fight)
Tim Hoskins (Jr. Pac-Man)
Tom Westberg (Jr. Pac-Man, Atari, other arcade)
Kevin Osborn (Atari 2600/7800 games)

We invite all PAX-East attendees to join us for a fun discussion of classic game development & history.

The American Classic Arcade Museum will be in room 310 at PAX-East. We are setting up a museum exhibit in that room that will consist of classic coin-op games & pinball machines, along with static displays of gaming history. All four of the GCC-designed arcade games (Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Food Fight & Quantum) will be on display in our museum-style retro arcade environment. We will also have two classic laserdisc games (Dragon's Lair and Us Vs. Them) hooked up to projectors so the entire room can watch the gameplay.

Mike Stulir
Board of Directors
American Classic Arcade Museum

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.

• 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.

AstroGaming has released a new headset, the A30s.

www.astrogaming.com/products/detail/80/A30-Audio-Systems

It retails for $20 less than their top of the line, the A40 headset.

I really don't understand this. Wouldn't the smart move be to try and get into the consumer space? The Tritton/Turtle Beach $120-$150 range? Or maybe move to wireless?

Here's a comparison of the headsets.

www.astrogaming.com/products/3/Audio-Systems

To me, this just confuses the market. By the price and being the official MLG headset, it places them as the premier headset for serious gamers to get. I know a couple of people that have been suckered into getting the A40s because of that marketing(*cough* cough*Hawk*cough*cough). However, I think Astro now confuses consumers with comments like:

A40
Ultra-accurate mid-range frequency response, flatter lows and highs than traditional audio headsets

vs

A30
Frequency response boosted at lower & upper ends for richer bass and piercing highs - more traditional audio tuning

or

A40

Circumaural, "over-ear" cushion design.

vs

A30

Supra-aural, "on-ear" cushion design.

I don't get it, after reading about both headsets, which one will give me the best gaming experience?

As a comparison, let's take the Tritton AxPros vs the Ax720s. One has true surround sound, the other has simulated.

Or the Turtle Beach X31s vs the X41s. One is stereo, the other has surround sound.

Nothing in the marketing materials , including the price, would make me want to pick one Astro headset over the other.  Or even pick an Astro headset over the competition.  All this plus the fact that it is only available direct ($30+ shipping and handling) which makes it about $140 more than the AxPros should make anyone with half a brain to pick the Trittons.

I just don't get it.

Venom
 

ASTRO A30's launch today

http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_9978/Astro_A30_Gaming_Headset_Launches_Today_for_Xbox_360

DRAGON AGE : Awakening review

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1864/Dragon-Age-Origins-Awakening/p1/

PRISON BREAK, 'conspiracy' trailer

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/22303/Prison-Break-The-Conspiracy-Trailer/

JUST CAUSE 2 will get 'lots' of DLC

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/expect-a-lot-of-just-cause-2-dlc/

DANTE'S INFERNO 'trials of st. lucia' dlc preview

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/dantes-inferno-the-trials-of-st-lucia-dlc-preview/

METRO 2033 review

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/metro-2033-video-game-review/

rumor: microsoft delaying GEARS 3 to April 2011 due to Halo and Natal releasing

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/rumor-gears-of-war-3-in-april-2011/

Rapture Personified

PAXEast is now just 10 days away and I could not be more stoked. For those of you who have been lost from society or locked in a panic room somewhere, you should know a few things. First, Boston has become a slightly (oh ever so slightly) drier version of Rapture (Take THAT 2K Marin) over the past several days. After more than 72 hours of continuous rain, the sun has finally begun to shine once more in Beantown. However, the return of the light did not arrive quickly enough to save us much gnashing of teeth as we do our best to literally keep our heads (and in my case my collection of classic arcade games) above water. Early Saturday morning I noticed that the floor in my basement was beginning to darken with moisture. By Sunday, standing water was collecting on one side (luckily the one without the arcade cabs). As I left for work on Monday, I had a dehumidifier and sump pump running to keep the water at bay and my collection dry. By luck of the draw and with a bit of ersatz praying to the rain gods to move on, my games were spared any actual soaking or water damage. Several of my fellow collectors in the area (and my office) were not so lucky. Upon arriving at work yesterday, I was met with 4" of standing water in one area of our store (not the video game/comic book establishment, but my "real" place of employment) and water rapidly rising in another. After a few hours at work, I returned home to make sure that my basement was still dry (and it was). Some of my local arcade collecting friends were not as lucky, including one who reported that he had 18 vintage pinball machines sitting in over 3' of standing water in his basement. As I stated earlier, the sun finally came out today and things are now beginning to dry out. We have a forecast for at least a week of more sun and warmer (60 degree) weather. So hopefully you won't need a snorkel to get around by the time you arrive here in Boston for PAXEast next week.

Let the Games Begin

With a little over one week until people begin to arrive for PAXEast, planning for this event has ramped up to critical stage and things are getting a bit chaotic. I am working with our partners over at SFX360 to pull together the final pieces for our Gamers Gone Wild Event, scheduled for Saturday March 27th at Lir from 7:00 pm - 1:00 AM. We have so many cool things planned for this event, I don't know where to start. As you probably know by now, Carlos Ferro will be joining as a special Guest VIP. Carlos, who did the voices for Dom Santiago (Gears of War I & II) and Leonardo DaVinci (Assasin's Creed II), will be on hand to play some Gears of War 2 with attendees, sign memorabilia and judge our Rock Band Contest. Both 2old2play and SFX-360 will be holding special contests in the coming week that will give a few lucky folks special VIP access to meet and hang out with Carlos, so stay tune for more details coming soon.

Playing Gears of War 2 not enough for you COGs out there? Well then, how about a chance to win a custom-designed, Dom Santiago-themed Project Total Domination Gears of War Xbox 360 Elite from GamerGrafix.com . Our good friends at GG have been working very hard to pull this incredible machine together in time for our party. Check out some of the work that Omega and Co have done so far.

You do not need to be present at the event to win this beauty and can enter the drawing online. Carlos Ferro will draw the winner via a live online feed at Gamers Gone Wild, so head over to Gamer Grafix for details on how you can enter, before it is too late.

So You Want More?

The Gears of War Goodness above not enough to make you come hang out with 2old2play and SFX-360? OK, fine. We have much more in store for those who do turn up for our little party. Harmonix has graceously provided us with several Rock Band Bundles for our tournament, which will be held on the 3rd floor of Lir on Saturday. This is your chance to get a group of your friends together and show the crowd your moves. Winners will receive tons of cool gaming swag from our sponsors and bragging rights for the rest of the night. Here are the details for the contest:

• Hit the stage in our 3-6-0 Rock Band Tournament: 3 Judges, 6 Rounds, 0 Talent!
• Starts @ 9pm, bands must register before 9pm to qualify.
• First Place wins a $50 GameStop gift card per band member, up to four (4) members!
• Every participant will receive a prize, so sign up and rock Gamers Gone Wild!

Still not enough for you? Well then, dress up as your favorite Gamer Geek Icon and enter our Gamers Gone Wild Costume Contest.

• Starts @ 12am, contestants must register before 12am to qualify.
• Best Mens & Womens costume to be decided, Best Overall wins a Rock Band 2 bundle!
• Every participant will receive a prize, so go all out and steal the spotlight!

And yet you want more you say? How about a chance to win a full-sized, fully functional Street Fighter II Arcade Cab signed by Justin Wong (current Street Fighter IV World Champ)? All you have to do is destroy the competition in head to head, one-on-one brutality during our Street Fighter II Tournament. I am working to fully restore the cab as I type and pictures will be posted this weekend. Justin and his fellow Empire Arcadia Crew will be hosting demos and pointing out tips leading up to the tournament (No, Justin will not be in the actual tournament. We are not THAT mean).

Empire Arcadia Members in attendance will include:

• Justin Wong: World Champion- Street Fighter IV
• TriForce: Guinness World Record for Tetris DS and 30 other World Records
• Sanford "Santhrax" Kelly: 2009 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 World Champion
• Andre "Jago" Lambert: Street Fighter 4 Pro Bison Player
• Ariel "FightingGM" Capellan: Tekken 6 Pro Lee Player
• Micheal "IFC Yipes" Mendoza: 2007 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 World Champion
• Kevin "DieMinion" Landon: Street Fighter 4 Pro Guile Player.

Party with and challenge these gamers while they show you how to win like a pro in: Tekken 6, Tetris Party, Street Fighter 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars. Do you have what it takes to defeat the Empire?

And if all this still were not enough to get you to come and hang out with us on a Saturday Night, check out what else we have lined up for you. Additional swag provided by all of our incredible sponsors, including officially licensed t-shirts, games, and tons more!

All the action will be STREAMING LIVE @ ufragtv.com, so join us March 27th at the Lir Irish Pub, 903 Boylston Street in Boston, Mass. at 8pm for the most unforgettable, unimaginable party for the gaming community during PAX East weekend!

NO cover, NO inhibitions, NO excuse not to be there!

Some body building and weighlifting buds didn't believe me when I said you get a good pump from the P90X workouts. This is right after Chest/Back/ABripperX and is the first workout of week 3. I think there are some new believers and I hope the ones that get bored trying to lean back up give it a try. It's a tough, yet great, training system.