I'd Rather Be Gaming

One of these days I'm going to get that on a bumper sticker. Anyway, since we're on the subject, I thought I would let everyone know what I've been up to recently. I just bought another 512 megs of RAM for my PC. He's now running on a full gig and we're both very happy about it. I even broke down and bought a new keyboard and mouse:

Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
I bought this keyboard mostly for the backlit keys. Now I can chat with my party members in style. I can touch type for the most part but it helps to see the keys every now and then. Plus it looks really cool and goes with the overall aesthetics I try to maintain in my office/inner sanctum. The keyboard is a lot sturdier than it appears at first glance. The adjustable wrist rest is a nice addition but isn't the best solution. I'm not a big fan of hard plastic wrist rests. It does its job though and if you don't like it, you can always take it off. All in all, I'm fairly impressed with the keyboard and I'm glad I bought it. Of course, this is coming from a guy who doesn't really use WASD for playing games. If you're just looking for a solid keyboard with backlit keys, then I highly recommend this bad boy.

Logitech MX518 Mouse
I was initially drawn to this mouse because of its look but being able to adjust the sensitivity and the additional buttons on it really sold it for me. I'm sure there are better mice out there for gaming if you're really hardcore about it. For example, the Logitech G5 has adjustable weights and a higher resolution. It's also not very pretty, in my opinion, and it's more expensive. Do I really need adjustable weights in a mouse? Anyway, I'm really happy with the MX518. I'm still getting used to it but I think I've finally nailed down all of the custom resolutions I want. Being able to switch the sensitivity on the fly is awesome and I don't know how I ever lived without back and forward buttons.

So what I have been playing? World of Warcraft, of course. I'm sure the game gets old at some point but I haven't reached that point yet. I'm thoroughly enjoying my dwarf hunter, and I've made it a personal mission of mine to collect as many animals as I can. I'm working on that Tiny Crimson Whelpling right now. That along with exploring, questing, fishing, engineering, and first aid keeps me pretty busy. I'm even running a custom interface because I needed more buttons. How geeky is that? With my interface fully tweaked and the additional memory, WoW and I are very tight. I actually would be playing it right now if the servers weren't down. It looks like they've updated the launcher, which is nice. It's more like AC2's launcher now with news, updates, etc. Now might be a good time to get back into the game, too. With the new expansion on the horizon, things are moving on up....to the east side....to a deluxe apartment in the skyyyyyy.

I recently had a little birthday shindig at Dink's Cafe, and I think a good time was had by all. I know I had a great time. Before I knew it, five hours were gone and it was time to go home. The highlights of the evening were playing Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Shadow of the Colossus. We played Deathmatch in a map that is basically an upgraded version of the Facility from Goldeneye. You have not fragged until you've killed your opponent with a bathroom sink. The gravity gun in this game is incredible. I'm dead set on buying Half-Life 2. I downloaded the demo and it's nice but I could really use a graphics upgrade. I sure hope I didn't make Santa's naughty list this year.

I was right about Shadow of the Colossus. If you own a PS2, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. I bought it and I don't even own a PS2. I took it to Dink's so we could play it there. I've only played a couple of games on the PS2 and I haven't played my PS1 in forever, so it took me a while to get used to the controller. The camera in the game can be frustrating at times, and I was a little disappointed with the graphics on the main character. But that's my only major complaints. The rest of the game is a sight to behold. The landscape is gorgeous and riding to each of the colossi is a treat for the eyes. In case you don't know, the premise of the game is that its basically 16 boss battles. You may have some platform jumping or terrain navigation between each colossi but that's it. It's pretty much find a specific colossus, kill that colossus, start back at the temple, rinse and repeat. You won't be fighting any minor characters in this one. It's a very straightforward kind of game but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The fun in this game comes from finding each of the colossi and then trying to find a way to get on it. You have to attack certain weak points on them to take them down and this is where the game is at its best. I may have to break down and buy a system to finish it.

For my birthday, my wife got me X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse for Xbox. I've only spent about an hour with it but so far I like what I see. I never played the first game although I found the idea appealing. Command a squad of mutants and fight the forces of evil with action and RPG elements. I've only completed the tutorial mission and haven't even started playing the "actual" game. They don't hold back the good stuff though. After the tutorial, I was able to create my own team and even choose alternate costumes for some of the characters. Narrowing down my mutant choices to four was really tough but I think have a solid team. If this was only an action game, that would probably be enough to sell the idea. They took it up a notch though by adding RPG elements. You can level up your mutants, equip them, and you actually have stats that I'm sure mean something. I was surprised to find a trivia game in there as well and was even more surprised to find that I don't know as much about the X-Men as I thought I did. I may break down and actually buy the first game, since it's only like $20 now.

Long post over. Nothing more to see here. Move along folks.