Mando.org

Well, not exactly. But there’s a preview disc out, that’s got a couple of tracks and 2 cars. It’s not officially being distributed in the US, but GamePro.com has a way to get it via the Toyota website.

I can’t wait for mine.

Or, rather, InfoCom games. Play Zork via IM.

Totally sweet.

Last night I went to my first meeting of the Austin Go Club. It was about as exciting as one might expect a meeting of Go players, but it was a lot of
fun.

The folks were really nice and patient and didn’t make fun of me when I made stupid moves. Tracy and Matt in particular were very helpful in showing me the ropes.

They meet every Monday at Thor’s Hammer up on 183 at around 6:30. If you’re at all interested in Go, come on by.

Well, not really, but pretty close.

This is the first story that I’ve seen that gets the details of Child’s Play right.

Again, way to go Tycho and Gabe.

Silent Storm is hard to describe. Here’s what the website says:

Silent Storm is a true 3D tactical turn-based Role-Playing-Game set against the backdrop of WWII.

And that’s what it is: a true 3D, tactical, turn-based RPG set in WWII. But you can’t really get it until you play a bit and see it for yourself.

It’s kinda like the Matrix. No one can tell you what Silent Storm is: You have to experience it for yourself.

But it’s good, like the Matrix. The first and second ones, not the last one.

By all accounts, Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play toy drive was a smashing success. Approximately $175,000 worth of toys and $27,000 in cold, hard cash were donated to the children’s hospital. That’s a lot of mojo and Gabe and Tycho deserve some recognition for pulling it off.

So what do they get? Anews story that says that a local catholic school donated $1000 worth of toys. Wow. Not only where they off by like a factor of 100, but how those guys got confused with catholics is beyond me. Maybe some sort of special alien catholics with crazy super powers, but definitely not your run-of-the-mill catholics.

Now, I’m not one to attribute to malice what can be explained by sheer retardation, so I’ll give the media the benefit of the doubt and simply say they’re a bunch of idiots. This is the kind of thing that should have been put on the AP wire, spreading holiday cheer and goodwill throughout the world.

But it didn’t.

So, in my own tiny way, I’ll say thanks to Gabe and Tycho.

Way to go, fellas. You guys are an inspiration to gamers and non-gamers alike. Thanks for pulling something like this together and letting the disenfranchised gaming community contribute. I hope there’s a Child’s Play II, Child’s Play II, and on and on and on until my children’s children are donating Playstation 75’s and copies of Duke Nukem Forever (ZING!).

I’ve been sidelined by the flu since New Year’s Day, so I’ve been able to catch up on my Prince of Persia playing. Last night I finished it off, and here are my observations:

1. Game roxxored! The game play was awesome, as were the story and presentation.
2. Some of the puzzles became tedious at times, but never so much that I wantedto stop playing.
3. 750 animations for the prince?! Great googly-moogly. That explains why everything looked so freakin’ smooth. But here’s a nit that I shall pick: One more weapon-sheathing animation without the dagger motion wouldn’t have killed you guys. I only mention it because when everything is flawless any errors
   stand out.

I think it’s True Crime time now .

And to Mando @ bananapancake, yes I did steal your name. Sorry about that. You should have gotten a copyright when you had the chance .

I finally finished off KOTOR. I’d been slacking on finishing it off, but it was oh so worth it. I went down the dark side path, so I ended up being The Greatest Sith ever.

Boy, where do you go from that?

I won’t go into the gory details about MP2. I’ll just give you my impresssions of the game, with the understanding that I loved Max Payne and fully expected to love Max Payne 2.

I did love Max Payne 2. It was just as fun as the first one. Max Payne is one of the few games (Final Fantasy X is the other one) that my wife sat and watched me play. The graphics and gameplay (and I think the choice of 3rd person helped in both cases) pulled her in, and the story kept her watching. Max Payne 2 caught her attention in the same way, so that says something about its overall quality.

The levels are good and the gameplay is just as good as the first one. All in all, I really enjoyed the game, with 2 gripes:

1. Game length: It was awfully short. I know that there are more gameplay modes unlocked once you beat the game, but it’s the story that kept me playing, and now that it’s over, I just don’t have the desire to play any of the other modes. In other words, more levels, more story.
2. Nothing new: This was more of an expansion pack than a new game. There’s nothing wrong with that, I suppose. But when games like Enter the Matrix do an incredible job with something like bullet time, you’d think that Max Payne’s developers would take notice and at least copy them.

I got my Planetside beta discs in the mail yesterday. I’m quite excited for a couple of reasons.

1. I NEVER get picked for early betas. I always end up in the last round with a bunch of people that are already sick and tired of the game. This is my first early beta.

B. This game ROX! Granted, it was my idea (Honestly! It was MY idea. I have no idea how Sony got a hold of it, but they owe me big time), but the idea of a persistent world FPS has a lot of potential.

Like most things, proper execution is key, so I’ll wait on passing judgement until the beta is finished (or at least almost finished). But so far I’m stoked.