WOW!  Just got finished watching the Dallas/Buffalo game, and it was probably the craziest NFL game I’ve watched in the last few years.  Romo threw 5 picks, fumbled once, and Buffalo capitalized on a lot of those for points.  There was no way Dallas was going to win this game.  But at the very end, Dallas kicked a 53 yard field goal (twice!!) to win the game, 25 to 24. 

Now Dallas is 5-0 heading into Sunday’s battle with the unbeaten Patriots.  I just hope that Dallas can recover and play a more technically sound game.  But I can’t ask for any team to play with more heart and battle back.  Dallas didn’t deserve to win tonight - they played poorly.  But they stuck together and did just enough to pull out the win. 

So now my Cowboys are 5-0 and my Aggies are 5-1 (2-0 in conference).  Great football season so far. 

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All you need to play an MMO, or any PC game for that matter, is a mouse, a keyboard, and probably a decent headset (or speakers).  Any old thing will do, right?  Er….maybe not.  At least not for a lot of people.  The gaming peripherals we use to play games and MMOs specifically actually do matter to a lot of folks.

Now I don’t know how “leet” the stuff I use is, but I like it well enough.  I’m using a Logitech headset that I bought at Best Buy a few years ago for $40 or so.  They haven’t failed me yet.  For keyboard and mouse, I’m using the Logitech MX5000 wireless combo.  The mouse has never failed me, but with the keyboard I’ve experienced the occasional “No Connection” issue.  Usually switching out the batteries helps get things back in line, but from time to time I’ve had to plug in an older USB keyboard in the interim.  But again, these problems occur maybe 10% of the time.

One of the companies I keep hearing about when it comes to mice (and now keyboards and headphones too, apparently), is Razer.  They’ve been known for their gaming mice, but recently they’ve announced a new gaming keyboard and headset as well.  Might be worth checking out here at some point, maybe when I get into my next MMO addiction. 

So do you personally care what kind of gaming peripherals you use?  Do you think it makes much of a difference?  Maybe it’s all about personal style and ergonomics.  If you are playing an FPS, then the response time of your keyboard and mouse would be critical.  In an MMO it’s probably less so, but tell that to the guy whose spell went off a bit too late on a boss fight and the group wiped, or the guy who was 1.5 seconds late in PVP and got ganked.

Anyone got a favorite gaming mouse or keyboard they think rules the roost?  If so, let me hear about it.  I’m always game to try some new gadget, and I’m starting to get the itch for a new keyboard and mouse.

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I’m going to be in a friend’s wedding this coming Saturday, so I guess I have wedding stuff on the brain.  When I saw this story tonight I just had to link it here for you guys to see.  Some pretty cool stuff this guy did for his wedding.  Wives that understand (tolerate?  Haha!) gaming ftw.

Follow the link for the full story and the pictures (they are must-see), but here are some highlights:

Super Mario Bros. wedding cake (So. Cal. designer Erica O’Brien)

Legend of Zelda ice sculpture/vodka luge (So. Cal. Union Ice). The sculpture doubled as a vodka luge for martini’s and shots at the wedding. If you look close at the images in the gallery, you can see the channel flowing diagonal down the center of the sword/shield for the alcohol to flow.

Tables were all named after video game consoles, head table was called “Press Start to Begin”. There were 23 tables ranging from NES, NeoGeo, to Xbox360.

The grand entrance music was The Legend of Zelda’s overworld theme and the wedding party’s music was the Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 theme.

Sounds like that would have been a pretty cool wedding to be at.  Now if he’d had plasma screens set up around the edge of the reception with various MMOs going, that would have made it perfect. 

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If you’ve played video games of any stripe for any length of time, you know that the story elements are what drives a game forward, what defines it.  From backstory and lore to quests to NPC narrative, someone had to write it all.  And we quickly recognize bad writing when we see it, and appreciate great writing when we experience it.  I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for the video game writer, even though in MMOs I’ve been as guilty as anyone of speed-clicking through quest text.  Why the soft spot?  Because writing is probably one of the few jobs I’d have a snowball’s chance at landing in the industry, and I’ve always loved writing.  So it’s with pleasure that I read this news brief today:

“Videogames are written and many are written very well. By recognising the skill and craft of videogame writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work, said WGAW president Patric Verrone. “We aim, we shoot, we score.”

The award is also intended “to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, to improve the status of writers, and to begin to encourage uniform standards” within the gaming industry.

“Writers are finally being recognised and valued in the videogame industry. Both artistically and financially, videogames matter - and videogame writers matter to the WGA,” commented WGAW New Media Caucus member Jay Lender.

I like the “encourage storytelling excellence” bit.  I think this is a great thing, and I know the folks that write for our favorite games must be excited.  This is recognition that is long overdue, so kudos to the WGA.

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Been enjoying the “next gen” consoles lately?  Well, take a moment of silence and salute one of the great granddaddys of them all, the Atari 2600.  It originally rolled off the production line in October of 1977.  Some of you may not have been alive in 1977, but you still got to respect your gaming history!  Here’s to many hours of Defender, River Raid, Pitfall, Pac Man, Indiana Jones, and countless other Atari Games.  Happy 30th Birthday!

More info here and here for those who’d like to reminisce.

You may now return to feeling like an old gamer…not that I do…er…

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I’ve never played the Halo games and probably never will, but I am experiencing a bit of “shock and awe” at the hard sales numbers the hype generated.  This is one for the history books folks.

Over $170 million in sales generated in the first 24 hours, in North America alone.  Bigger than Spider-man 3 or the latest Harry Potter novel.  Is the game just that good, or is the hype partly responsible?  Herd mentality?

The Xbox Live service crashed as a result of all of this (more than a million players coming online to play within the first 20 hours), and Microsoft is officially declaring Halo a “pop culture phenomenon”. 

Just wanted to put this on the old blog to record it.  My gosh.  Pretty impressive stuff.  O.k…now back to my non-console life.

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I don’t even own a console, but this game alone is really tempting me to get one.  Looks like this is a new trailer for the game and it’s pretty darn cool.  You can also find the trailer here. 

Why do you not join us brother?  Is there a problem?  That is all…

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Well gang I’m headed out of town again this weekend for another round of board gaming goodness.  I think we’ll mostly be playing Heroscape, but we may get another game of Descent in the mix.  I put up some topics for discussion hoping it will tide you over for the next two days!  I will try to log on and comment from my bud’s computer, but if not, I’ll see you folks on Sunday evening.  Hope you all have a terrific weekend and keep gaming!

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I’ve never really been a console person.  Sure, growing up I spent a fair amount of time over at friend’s houses playing Zelda, Metroid, Mario and other console games, but it was always my PC games I came home to.  Only this year have I really started to seriously think about buying a console.  With the games I’ve seen coming out this summer and some due at year’s end, it’s tempting to dive into the console arena.  Well, one game I heard about originally on the VirginWorlds podcast “Top 10 MMOs of the Future” is a console game - a multiplayer game called LittleBigPlanet.

I took the liberty of checking out the site and some of the videos over the last two days and I must say, I’m pretty impressed.  The game just oozes creativity and fun - it’s like watching muppets run around in the ultimate playground built by you (or others).  Just watching the video made me laugh as the devs created some items and played around.  From putting a face on an orange to connecting flowers to your head, anything seems possible.  Not only that, but creating things and placing them in the world is incredibly easy.  Everything is done off a central menu that you can call up and access above your character’s head.  As stated on their website:

There’s no complicated level editor; all of these skills can be learnt by simply playing the game. Creativity is part of the gameplay experience and playing is part of the creative experience. Players can make their world as open or as secretive to explore as they like.

When it’s ready, they can invite anyone within the LittleBigPlanet community to come and explore their patch – or can go and explore everybody else’s.

If you don’t know much about LBP, or want to watch more videos, check out their site or YouTube.  This game just looks like it would be a blast to mess around with, be creative, do silly and funny things and see what other odd worlds people have built.  This game may finally convince me to be a console guy.

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Wow…I’ve literally watched today as this thing has sped around the blogosphere.  Seems that we’re all eventually going to have to give up the goods.  Thanks to Keen, I now have the dubious honor of thinking of answers to these questions… 

Four jobs I have had in my life (not including current job):

1.  Grocery store sacker

2.  Mowed lawns

3.  Worked for a major oil/gas company

4.  Youth group intern at a church

Four Movies I have watched over and over:

1.  Star Wars movies

2.  Matrix movies

3.  LoTR movies

4.  Back to the Future movies

Four places I have lived:

1.  College Station, TX

2.  Livingston, AL

3.  Chicago, IL

4.  Houston, TX

Four Shows I love to watch:

1.  Heroes

2.  LOST

3.  Boston Legal

4.  The Office

Four Places I have been on vacation:

1.  Disneyworld

2.  Disneyland

3.  Ruidoso, NM

4.  Chattanooga, TN

Four of my favorite foods:

1.  Any Mexican food

2.  Mac and Cheese

3.  Fried Okra

4.  Any Italian

Four favorite drinks:

1.  Dr. Pepper

2.  Coke

3.  Water

4.  Tea

Four places I would rather be right now:

1.  In the Warhammer beta

2.  Collecting lottery winnings

3.  Having a great evening with a fun date

4.  In the Warhammer beta…

And I pass the torch on to…

1.  Pvthudson at Wife Aggro;

2.  Talyn at Pumping Irony;

3.  Hailin at Gaming Tramps; and

4.  Brackish at Brackish Waters 

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