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Games what I played at Mike’s on Friday

Halo 3: Awesome. Good and getting better.

Gears of War: It’s like they built a game out of spare parts. My character busted Mike’s out of jail, and we fly in a copter to speak to a central casting Commanding Officer who shouts at us about The McGuffin (I translated his dialogue by shouting “McGuffin! McGuffin McGuffin, McGuffin!” at the screen) while his Hot Assistant looks on. I was ashamed to play that game, and more ashamed to enjoy it.

Guitar Hero X: Either two or three. Or possibly some Greatest Hits amalgam. I am not great at this game yet. Possibly having to do with practicing left handed and playing right, possibly because it’s the first time I’ve ever played it. It is fun, though, although I think it’s more enjoyable to watch people play than to actually play it. It’s particularly nice to watch to guys playing very intently and then suddenly shift their bodies to bring the guitar vertical (they’re activating their Star Power, you see). The onscreen graphics are also pretty much completely wasted on the players, as they are watching the falling notes like hawks of some kind.

Flying Plane Game In Fantasyland: Air Combat something or other. Strange game in which Not Russia and Not America go to war. The premise was so pulse poundingly dumb that I couldn’t really pay any attention to the gameplay, but it involved flying around a lot, locking on and shooting missiles. Top Gun, but without the excitement or homoeroticism (which are two different things for me).

I particularly enjoyed the training session, which told you to “fly slowly”, but never seemed to indicate what it meant by “slowly”. So I’d go as slow as possible, and then time would elapse. WTF? So I just crashed my jet into the ground repeatedly.

I DID duck my jet under a bridge, though, which is proof I am awesome.

Virtua Fighter: Two decades later, and it’s still down to puncheminnaface. Without the cabinet frame full of esoteric moves to attempt, it was a button mashing paradise. Wheee!

Assassin’s Creed: The greatest game EVER. “Jog around medieval Palestine and kill white people.” The Cake is Not a Lie.

I also managed to dive off of an Eagle Eye platform and NOT find the haybale below. Something of a record, apparently.

Amusing factoid: Wikipedia’s Assassin’s Creed page is blocked from my work.

We may have played a few other games, I cannot recall. 

At this time, My 360 catalogue consists of MUA and some racing game (included), H3 & Oblivion.  I suspect that last one will keep me busy for a while. 

HYPNOTOAD COMMANDS YOU!

Finally I understand iamheavenrender’s icon.

So, Saturday Cynra & I went out to Kitchener Waterloo (or, as the hipsters call it , “Kay Dub”) to watch Futurama episodes with Chris & Valerie (and have turkey, yum!).

We watched some highlights of each season (making sure to catch the X-Mas episodes, as well as as many Zap Brannigan eps as possible) as a prelude to watching Bender’s Big Score.

The eps were fun (and Luck of the Fryrish was a touching ep, but not nearly as depressing as Jurassic Bark).

We watched Where No Fan Has Gone Before and I wondered as to how large its Wikipedia entry must be. Surprisingly, not that big.

Bender’s Big Score was notable for one of the biggest brain bending time travel episodes ever, as well as lots o’ nudity. And man on narwhal loving. Philia loving, in any case, but still.

The producers include an extra that diagrams how the various time traveling personae interact, and it gave me a headache. We’re talking barometric pressure headache.

We also watched the episode of Everyone Loves Hypnotoad included on the disc. Arresting!

Game like an Egyptian

After reading (read: flipping through) my new copy of Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra, as well as my pre-existing copies of Testament and Sandstorm from WotC, I am now heavily jonesing for some ancient Egyptian themed gaming.

I am contemplating A) seeing if I can get a group together for a few games, and B) changing my Ice-O-Hedron game from M&M to EA:H.