So I havent posted in a long time for good reasons...
My first child was born... and my wife is going through some very serious health issues.
But as great and terrible as those things are, life keeps on going... and so does gaming.

Recently I've restarted playing a TextBased RolePlaying game... its been around since about 1996 or so and I think is really the grandfather of MMORPG type gaming.  Dragonrealms might sound exactly like WoW or EQ2 by describing it here: Theres 10 classes, several different continents to explore, hundreds of skills to learn, litterally hundreds of thousands of items, several crafting systems, events, magic spells ect... ect...

I've always had a lot of fun reading and imaging the story, the characters... and this always has really done that for me, Im sure in much a way that zork did for people. (Dragonrealms and zork are like Online Vs Single Player)

Lets see also new, Indigo Prophecy for the PC, at $10.00 greatness 5 years old but so different... and it just plays wonderful.
Hotel Dusk for the DS. At $20.00 also wonderfully fresh and different and cheap.

Many many other games currently going on but Dragonrealms really has me right now... It may be an accquired tase... but I love it.

Ok so not really game related but... yeah Star Wars is ok to talk about since its in that culture and has spawned and will continue to spawn great games forever.

At the SMM (Science Museum of Minnesota) the special exhibit has been Star Wars where Science meets the Imagination and Oh yeah I was so totally there, and as a member of the museum I got in for like nothing... booya!

SWSWMI exhibit is a wonderful collection of Props, Models, Costumes and assorted other stuff from all six of the Star Wars movies.
The full model of the Millennium  Falcon and Vader's costumes were defiantly my favorites. All in all there was probably about 40-50 different props... Oh yeah the biggest and also very impressive was the land speeder from episode IV, Who knew it actually drives?!? Was really tempting to jump in it and try to break outa there and get the thing onto the street... but yeah... jail isnt good for me.
 
The exhibit did certainly bring out the weirdos (looking in my mirror right now folks) and they were snapping photos like a pool of starving paranah nibbling on Rosey O'donnel. But it was a good show and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys anything about star wars.

If you do enjoy the real world too that is actually the point of the exhibit, as well as all the star wars stuff are New Props demos and schematics from the real world like things from artificial limbs, robots, moisture collectors, lightsabers... sort of... anyway I didn't really care for any of that because damnit I was there so see Star Wars Stuff... not Real Stuff, but I bet some people liked it...

Also at the SMM was the Omni movie Special Effects which kind of focused on the special effects used in Star Wars, Independence Day and something else I cant remember... showing the tricks and scams behind movie magic... an interesting show... but more than a decade old and was just lumped in because of the main Exhibit.

In the gift shop after the Exhibit it was hard to resist the $700 Darth Vader costume... even funnier when a toddler almost pulled it down and her mom started screaming bloody murder... I guess she didnt have 700 big ones on her... they made a pretty fast exit.  Besides some of the "official endorsed" costumes anything in the gift shop could be purchased anywhere, I picked up a tee shirt (read the topic line) and that was that.

Crap did not want to let my posts get this far in between oh well... I was a busy man *plays with the ring on his left ring finger*

I finally broke down and picked up Call of Duty 4, I have been trying to save some money lately by not getting some games right away... unfortunately all this seems to do is it makes me wait 8 months to pick up a game that I have really wanted for all that time at the same price as it was one day one... so yay I get an old game for 100% of the price AND it usually goes on sale a week or so after I buy it.

Anyway CoD4 is great just as everyone talks about... the single player is short but it feels more condensed than anything really... and I just think of it as the best and longest tutorial mode ever... because if you didn't buy CoD4 to play it online then... Well you probably didn't buy it. Its awesome is all I can think to say, I have zero problem finding lag free, cheating free, good quality games of any mode that I desire.  The guns feel like guns and getting shot feels like getting shot... this isn't quake or unreal where 99% of the time your insta-glibed and you have no idea what the hell just happened. 

Which reminds me of my new favorite thing in Online Competitive Shooters... The Kill Cam where when you get killed you see a replay marking out you and them. Its just fantastic to stop everyone from shouting "WALL HACKS!" when the mystery of how you just got shot in the face is revealed.

Seriously tho, The best part of Call of Duty 4 online is the XP system where you get XP points for completing objectives, killing other dudes, completing special goals (I.E shoot dude in head 50 times).  As you gain XP you unlock new Perks, (Side note: Perks are good in any game... awesome in Fallout 1,2,3 and awesome here. Everyone Loves Perks!) which are nice to stop the Assault guy is just an Assault guy cookie cutter feel of the classes, new guns, new custom class slots, new new new, fun fun fun.  I should say a little more about custom class slots which are a god-send.  You pick main and sub weapons... with attachments and camo patterns, Grenade types, three perks and then can save it all to a slot with a name of your choice, awesome. Only gripe about it is that you cannot edit your custom classes during a battle. So you better come ready.

So as I ramble on... I love CoD4 and I have some favorite servers, as an avid counter strike player around the turn of the millennium CoD4 is right up my alley. OH yeah I forgot the BEST Part! IN COD4 THERE ARE NO VEHICLES!!! I know everyone lover driving around a tank in Battlefield or a Walker in Battlefield 2142 but come on, their always horribly unbalanced and it takes so much to kill one that usually its already respawned back at the base.  It takes a lot of guts this day and age to not have vehicles in game.. and CoD4 I salute you.

GBA SP LOVE

Last night I stumbled on to my long lost GBA SP, ok ok it wasnt lost I knew right where it was the whole time.  About four years ago I went on kind of a GBA rampage buying quite a few games and spending quite a bit of time playing it.  I still love my GBA SP. Something about the way it folds into something smaller than my wallet (which is not small but not large either) is just dreamy... yeah dreamy... there i said it.  Its like a little box of gaming goodness...

• Metroid Fusion
• Metroid Zero Mission
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
• Sword of Mana
• Phantasy Star Collection
• Mario Golf
• Mario Pinball
• Super Mario Brothers Super Star Saga
• Super Mario Advance 1,2,3
• Super DodgeBall
• GoldenSun
• Fire Emblem
• Zelda: Minish Cap
• Final Fantasy IV
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy I and II

The list just goes on and on and on.

Metroid Zero Mission

In this frenzy of GBA SP lovin I happened to find Metroid Zero Mission... whats so special about it? Well... I am ashamed to admit (I didnt even know it at first) I had never finished it before!!!  I probably know why, something happens to me about 85% of the way through a Metroid game... I A) Realize my time score sucks and I'll never get the good ending B) I Realize I have no where near 100% completion and I'll never get the good ending. So when this happens sometimes I read a bunch of guides... pretending like I'm going to memorize everything and do a 100% speed run... (yeah right)... and sometimes I just stop playing.  Well the latter must of happened to Zero Mission.  However today I could not put it down, starting this morning I clocked, without cheating and no strat guides or FAQS, a time of 4 hours 3 minutes and 74% collection rate. MAN DO I SUCK AT THESE GAMES OR WHAT. Anyway the game is awesome fun, fast, exciting, responsive, challenging but not overpoweringly so... the cut-scenes are great, the extra story at the end is like a dream world bonus *drools* I <3 u Samus Zero Suit. Also as another bonus the game comes with the original Metroid (which zero mission is modeled after) in its entirety. Neat!

It might not be the world record of runs but I did it in one sitting, with some breaks, and no prep and no cheating and no help... so there, if that doesn't score me some extra points well then I guess I just have to learn to enjoy the crap endding and watching the good ending on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYaWIYhQLkk.  Hrm... I feel better about myself all ready! I love you youtube!

Ok heres the 100% on hard mode ... drool away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2nwmBIOfI&feature=related