Two work nights down, one to go... Yay!

 GungirlTM Marketa needs to focus on

that front sight more...

    Well, another month is drawing to a close. I'm trying real hard to look on the bright side, but it's been a pretty horrible year so far. It started out with continued unemployment, segued right into major health issues with multiple family members, and on and on. Things are beginning to look up. As I mentioned in the Midnight Vent from Thursday night, Mom sat up for an hour on Thursday. It's Friday afternoon as this blog is being prepped, so I'll be calling her in a couple of hours to see how today's physical therapy progressed...

    As noted in the main blog, retailers are beginning to list the 'Hardened' and 'Prestige' editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops. What makes a good game collectible? It has to be instantly identifiable with the game, and it can't look cheap. I didn't get either special edition for Modern Warfare 2. The 'Hardened' edition didn't really offer me anything. (I already owned and played CoD on PC; why pay for it again?) The 'Prestige' edition's big selling point was a clunky, fragile-looking pair of faux 'night vision goggles'. Feh. It's open to speculation what the CoD Black Ops special editions will feature. Some gaming news sites already are breathlessly fantasizing about what each edition will contain. It's likely the 'Hardened' edition will contain a DVD or booklet; the 'Prestige' edition will have everything the lesser edition and include some 'exclusive' tchotke that you can display on your desk.
    Today's featured Modern Warfare vid is some Sandy Ravage goodness. Second up is Episode 20 of the top 5 plays from GameplayUnited. Moving on...

Featured Modern Warfare 2 Video
Sandy Ravage - 'Duke Mode' on Trailer Park

Uploaded 27 July 2010 by Sandy Ravage

    Call of Duty Links:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Prestige' and 'Hardened' editions listed by retailers. 
• MMOMFG mutters to itself, speculating what could be in the CoD Black Ops 'Prestige' and 'Hardened' editions. Bobby Kotick's head on a stick is out of the running, apparently. 
• And speaking of Bobby Kotick: Call of Duty Online in China could net Activision $100 million in 1st year. Don't know how they're going to feel about that whole 'VietNam' thing in Black Ops, tho.

Top 5 Plays Episode 20

Uploaded 30 July 2010 on GameplayUnited

    More Gaming Links:

Top 10 Halo 3 Kills, 29 July 2010

Uploaded 29 July 2010 on IGN Entertainment

• Platform Nation contrasts the 'reality' of Medal of Honor vs. Modern Warfare 2.
• StarCraft II leads multiplatform titles in US and UK.
• StarCraft II known bugs list gets an update on Battle.net.
• Blue's News has linked clues to a new Operation: Flashpoint game, Operation Flashpoint: Red River.
• Likewise, Blue reports that a new patch for the alpha build of FPS Terminator is available for download. The freeware Unreal engine shooter with was previously linked here on the 24 July 2010 blog. 

Kinect-style inteface used for an FPS

Uploaded 15 July 2010 by jovlem

• Kokugamer: Retailers in UK expect Kinect pre-orders to exceed 500K. Maybe that Pachter guy was right.... Nah!
• Xbox 360 sales increase as video game sales decrease.
• TopTechReviews poster Alfred C discovers the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. They're fun. Really!

 I've had this 'fun' three times already! And - like holidays - the fun seems to come back each and every year!

• GoldenEye 007 for DS detailed.
• PS3 3.41 firmware causing hard drive problems?
• Games to play before you die.

    Non-Gaming Links:

• Mars rover Curiosity takes its first baby steps - on Earth.
• Cosmological model describes universe with no Big Bang, no beginning. I've had blind dates like that.
• Asteroid collision with Earth in the year 2182. Not marking it on my calender...
• How much 'space junk' orbits the Earth?
• Pollution makes half of China's water undrinkable. Explains a lot about the General Tso's Chicken I had last week...
• When phones are too big for your pockets. 
• Perv Squad: Woman's nude pics end up on internet after call to tech support.
• Inception review: Autostraddle.

Credit: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

PS.