Plain Sight

May 4th, 10 / 0 Comments

Ninja Robots? YES PLEASE!

I cannot express how much I love this game. Plain Sight is, quite possibly, one of the best “run around killing stuff” game I have EVER played.

**.•{ EVER }•.**

I’ve always enjoyed multiplayer, deathmatch style, games; I’ve never been that good at them, but I’ve enjoyed playing them. Plain Sight, however, is the first deathmatch-style game where I consistently rank in the top three (for full games .. not necessarily when I just drop into one already in progress). That has never happened before… I’m not sure if it’s me getting better, or that the game is just easy… whatever it is, I love it!

The biggest difference between this game and other kill-everything-you-see games is how you score points: You collect points as you kill other players, sure (you can also earn points by collecting Stars scattered around the arena – Stars also sometimes give you power-ups as well, such as a Fire Sward, Chain Detonation, or Shield Boost), but those don’t get added to your score until you self-destruct. That’s right, you have to kill yourself in order to bank those points you’ve collected! If you don’t, and someone comes along and kills you, that person now has all those points you collected! hahahaha… BRILLIANT!

Self Destructing banks your points, and allows you to buy upgrades for your robot ninja, but does take you out of the fight for a good 30 seconds or so – Naturally, the longer you’re in the arena, the more points you can collect… however, the more points you collect, the bigger your robot becomes, and your color trail changes hue. Everyone in the arena will know you have a lot of points stored up, and suddenly you become an even bigger (ha-ha) target in the game!

Check out the preview video – You wont be disappointed. Currently, the game is available for $10, and can be purchased as a direct-download through Steam, Impulse, Gametap, Metaboli, Direct 2 Drive, and Gamers Gate.

There are a few different types of games, most of which I’m sure you will be familiar with: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag… and some that might be new to you: Ninja-Ninja-Botzilla – One player is the Botzilla, super huge with a fire sword and wearing a godzilla’esque mask, and all the other players gang up to take him down! Lighten Up – this is a variant of Deathmatch, only you don’t get your points unless you self-destruct while standing on whatever platform is lit up at that moment; the “explode here” platform switches about once every 2 or 3 minutes (if i remember correctly); the person with the biggest point-value explosion (in the designated area) gets the points for that round.

This game is a lot of fun, and I can’t recommend it enough. Check it out. You wont be sorry

Let’s Get Dangerous

Mar 10th, 10 / 2 Comments

Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck is my hero. I have many superheros I revere, for one reason or another, but Darkwing Duck holds a special place in my heart. While I may admire the Green Lantern‘s willpower, Superman‘s infinite compassion for humanity, Batman‘s dedication to justice-by-any-means, and Wonder Woman‘s roundhouse-kick-to-the-face, Darkwing Duck is a character I have always been able to identify with.

When I look at Darkwing Duck, and his genuine attempts at heroism, oft turn slapstick, I see what I would be if I attempted “Hero.” His whole heart was in it; all of his sincerity and passion was dedicated to vanquishing the evil-doers and saving the innocent. His biggest obstacle was his own mediocrity – an average Joe, with a heart bigger than his deeds were able to match. In his constant struggles to do-the-right-thing at a heroic level, he often failed – and quite spectacularly at times. That, of course, is what made it a great cartoon… but it is also that which caused me to view Darkwing Duck as my cartoon alter ego.

Would I have the courage, the gumption, the get-up-and-go, to put on a mask and attempt to save the average innocent from the average crime, I too would fail to live up in deed to my heart’s expectations; perhaps a real-life unintentionally-comedic hero, bumbling around providing less than what he had hoped. Sometimes I fear this is how I perform in life anyway… full of good intentions, but actions that leave me just shy of the hero my heart feels it should be.

War Fans of Culinary Fury!

Feb 28th, 10 / 3 Comments

I … LOVE … this commercial. It totally reminds me of some D&D chick wielding duel War Fans! Totally rocks!

Dental QQs

Feb 25th, 10 / 3 Comments

The last time I was at the dentist for a cleaning (This is not one of those, I haven’t been to the dentist in 20 years, stories .. I go regularly), the Doctor noticed one of my molars had fractured. He asked me a bunch of questions about when/how … to which I could only shrug. One would think a person would remember if they bit down on something so hard their teeth actually cracked under the pressure, but I had no recollection of when or how this fracture could have taken place. Hurrah.. <sigh>.

The tooth wasn’t falling apart at the moment, so it was decided to wait until a preliminary test was going to be done on a new type of porcelain-heating method supposedly able to generate inlays,onlays, and crowns 10x harder than conventional heating methods.

My tooth, however, had other plans. This past Monday, as I sat at my desk enthralled in my work, my fractured tooth decided it was time to give up the ghost. I was horrified when I started spitting out pieces of my tooth. Immediately, I picked up the phone and made an emergency appointment with my dentist.

Example of a Dental Crown

Long story short, I now have a temporary crown, while “the lab” uses this new heating method to create a the permanent one for me. It’s more expensive, but because of the way my jaw is structured, 100% of the work done by my teeth is handled by only 4-6 teeth in the back – therefore, any dental work done back there needs to be way stronger than normal. Joy of Joys.

Add to this, my resistance to conventional anesthetics, which makes any visit to the dentist that much more nerve wracking (HA!) for me, and you have the *best*day*ever* for me, yesterday. By the time I got home, I was in so much pain, I took some ibuprofen and passed out for about 4 hours. WEEEEEEEEE!!!!

So… yeah. And this whole ordeal isn’t even over; I have to go back to get the permanent crown put in, in a few weeks. Oh, and the payment is due at that time as well – yeah, insurance isn’t going to cover this since I had a filling put in that same tooth fewer than 5 years ago. I’m so overjoyed. I don’t think there is an appropriate emoticon that truly represents just how elated I feel.

Update – 3/1/2010

I talked with someone at my Dentist’s office, and it may not be as bleak as I originally thought. There is a chance the insurance will pay for half of the work. That still leaves hundreds of dollars for me to shell out, but 50% fewer dollars is quite helpful, if it goes through.

Plugin Woes

Feb 4th, 10 / 0 Comments

Ugh … I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a headache I’ve caused myself with my blog. I just can’t leave things well enough alone – I just constantly tinker with plugin code, trying to force every square peg into the round socket I’ve decided it simply MUST fit into. This, of course, undoubtedly ends up having strange things happen from time to time. Considering the low traffic my site gets, it’s not *that* big of a deal since I’m usually able to fix things before too many people see the site in a screwed up state.

Oh well. I’m sure none of you mind the occasional hiccup, right? If you see something truly outlandish though, please let me know so I can try to get it fixed!