Results tagged “Games” from ScottandMargo.net

I try not to post things that are too locally oriented, but I'm making an exception today. If you're not within a reasonable driving distance to Chantilly, VA, this one's probably not for you.

There's a group of us that meet monthly in Chantilly to play Counterstrike:Source and we could use some more regular players. It's Bring Your Own Computer, but we've got the network covered, there's a snack bar and we usually do a pizza run around dinner time. Some of us are good, some of us are (ahem) not so good but we're playing for fun.

There's group on Meetup that we use to track the schedule and logistics. If you want to come down and blow some stuff up, check out the Chantilly Counterstrike LAN Meetup Group.

I played a lot of D&D growing up. Shocker. I mostly stopped once I really got into computer gaming in the early 90's.

Oddly enough, I usually picked Chaotic Good for my characters' alignment.

via Maureen's blog

What is your d&d alignment?

You are a Rebel, Chaotic Good.

Chaotic good characters works towards good in their own ways, without regard for the expectations of others or the rigid guidelines of society (imposed by church or government). They are particularly disturbed by those who try to push people around and intimidate them. They are less honor-bound than the other good alignments, particularly in dealing with those who are not good. They may on occasion lie, threaten or kill for a good cause (with an evil person, perhaps). As a general rule, chaotic good characters do not attack unarmed opponents, harm the innocent, refuse an honest appeal for aid, take bribes or betray their friends. They usually prefer to cut through red tape. Robin Hood is an example of a chaotic good character, particularly prior to the return of King Richard.
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I love Freezepop and I love Guitar Hero. I love keytars too. Good thing they come together...even if it is a bit odd that a band with no guitar is in a guitar game.

Less Talk More Rokk is one of the bonus tracks on Guitar Hero 2. When I'm just playing around, it's one of my go-to songs behind Jordan. Freezepop just put out a video for it...It's watchable below. Fun stuff.

Also, the new album Future Future Future Perfect is up for pre-order at Newberry Comics

Technorati Tags: Games, GuitarHero, Music

Interestingly, the Wii's Mii characters have a little bit of social netowkring built into them. You can allow them to mingle with other players' Miis on their Wii. I'm not sure how that affects setting up multi-player gaming sessions over the net yet, but it's an interesting idea.

In Wii Sports, apparently other players' Miis show up in the audience to watch. There's a Mii Parade feature that's supposed to show you what Miis are currently mingling on your Wii.

The only problem I have so far is that Nintendo added a request/authorize step that needs to be completed before your Mii can go anywhere and before anyone's Miis can visit you. The procedure seems a little complicated...I'm not going to repeat it here...it in Google.

For anyone reading this with a Wii, my Wii number is: 6517 4737 3499 4541

Technorati Tags: Wii

I have an odd fascination with the supply/demand surrounding the Wii vs the PS3. Sometime since Christmas it's become a habit of mine when I'm in a store that would carry them, I wander over to the electronics department and see how many PS3's are sitting on the shelf (usually several) vs how many Wii's are sitting on the shelf (usually none).

I was in a local Target yesterday afternoon when I made my way to electronics. As I approached, there were some people walking out of there with Wii boxes in-hand. When I got to the Wii aisle, there was a Treget staffer pulling a Wii box out of an otherwise empty box and almost automatically held it out to me. I didn't reach out to grab it right away. "Do you want the last one?" Initially, I said "No thanks" and he put it on the shelf.

I had second thoughts a couple minutes later, went back and bought it.

Setup was easy. I had a little trouble getting it on the wireless network, but it wasn't that big a deal.

It's an interesting little device. The nunchuk has a lot going on with it...a lot smarter than I thought it'd be. It's comfortable to use too. Bundling Wii Sports with it was smart...it's a fun set of games that very easily gets you up to speed on how to use the controllers.

Now I don't have to pay $500 to play Guitar Hero 3. In the mean time I need to find out what the good Wii games are.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

I have a free idea for Dell or Gateway or Alienware or Falcon or whoever wants to run with it. It would be nice to see my name engraved on the chipset if it gets to market but I understand if it doesn't. I'd still like to see it happen.

I want to see an external PCI-X (or similar) connector on a laptop. Then I want nVidia, ATI and Ageia to make versions of their products to connect to that connector.

While modern CPUs can be throttled down to conserve power, modern GPUs and Physics cards don't so you end up with a compromise on laptops for gaming power. Either you get something something light and portable with no gaming capability or you get a gaming beast that weighs a ton and has no battery life.

External GPU and physics hardware would allow people like me game on our terms. 90% of the time, I want a laptop that is small, lightweight and portable (currently, I'm running a 12" PowerBook). But for that other 10% of the time, it would be nice to plug in some extra power and be able to play the games I want. It would also be nice to be able to upgrade without having to replace the whole laptop.

This came up from attending my first LAN party in about 8 years or so. All of the laptops I had access to had decent CPUs but way underpowered video hardware. It made for a very frustrating experience.

Technorati Tags: Technology

The fact that I enjoy playing Guitar Hero and have recently started learning how to play a real electric guitar do not have a cause and effect relationship, but they're still part of my reality. Back when the only guitar in my life was plastic and had no strings, I often wondered how real guitar skills affects Guitar Hero play and how Guitar Hero play affects real guitar skills.

When my real guitar arrived right before Christmas, I stopped playing Guitar Hero and started working on how to learn to play guitar. I didn't play Guitar Hero again til the end of January when we hosted a party and the nephews wanted to play.

So far I've learned that getting good at Guitar Hero doesn't help you much with a real guitar, but learning to play a real guitar can help with Guitar Hero.

I think that the only thing that Guitar Hero really helped me on guitar was the fact that I was already kind of used to using my pinky so fingerings that require the pinky weren't as difficult to pick up. Other than that, Guitar Hero isn't much help. There's a lot of details to left-hand technique that just aren't in the game and probably shouldn't be,

I did notice that my practice with a real guitar has helped my playing of Guitar Hero though. The reach in my left hand has improved quite a bit..not enough for a real guitar where I'm shooting for a 6-7 fret reach, but definitely enough for the mini SG controller. The Green-Orange reach is no big deal now. My left hand fingers are a lot more independent so certain combinations that used to be difficult are a lot easier. I'm more consistently going back and forth between Blue and Orange without moving my other fingers.

I'm glad that my guitar practice is helping my Guitar Hero skills. I'm much more likely to get through Jordan in the game than I am likely to get through Jordan with the real thing.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, GuitarHero, Health, Music

I spent yesterday morning at the local Microsoft Technology Center today. F5 was using some of the meeting space there to host a discussion about PKI enabling applications using the Common Access Card. Specifically, they were looking for information on what challenges we were having as customers so they can work on figuring out how to get a more complete solution than they're currently offering. I think the discussion was helpful all around.

On the way to the conference room, I passed an Xbox kiosk that was playing Red vs Blue videos, which was actually what prompted this post. I just thought it was fantastic that someone decided to put up something funny and cool into a kiosk instead of just the expected demo versions of a couple of games.

Too bad I didn't bring my camera.

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, F5, Games, Machinima, Microsoft, Technology

The first ad below is one of the new ads for the Nintendo Wii. It's the first in a series and shows some of the gameplay possibilities with its new controller concept.

I like it. "Wii would like to play." There's one with better games here but they don't want to allow embedding for that one.

This next ad is for Sony's Playstation 3.

WTF? Weird, creepy stuff. I don't get it.

Will it work? I don't know. Personally, I'm leaning towards the PS3 anyway but am having a hard time with the idea of spending $600 on a gaming machine. I can get an Xbox 360 and a Wii for less and keep my PS2 for my old games (Guitar Hero anyone?)

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Technology

E3 2006: Rock Out with Primus on Guitar Hero II (IGN.com)http://ps2.ign.com/articles/707/707004p1.html

Gamespot also has a gameplay/demo video from E3 on Guitar Hero II that shows some of what I love the game, and what it's like to play, etc here in the Live Stage Demos area.

My hands are starting to cramp up already thinking about playing the bassline from John the Fisherman. I think the Gamespot demo did this on Medium difficulty from the looks of it. At the beginning they were getting killed by Strutter and I heard them back out to the menu where you'd change difficulty. The IGN article mentions that instad of the excellent covers we're used to in Guitar Hero, John the Fisherman is going to be the album track. I'm kinda disappointed about the single-player being all about lead guitar,while you have to do multiplayer to get bass. I'll get over it though. Good excuse to get Margo playing....they're letting you pick different difficulties for the different players in multiplayer too which is smart.

I'm gonna be busy when Guitar Hero II comes out.

John the Fisherman is one of my (many) favorite Primus songs and probably one of my favorite songs period. It's definitely in my "Desert Island" playlist if I ever do one.

I love the bouncy groove that it has, not to mention that it's so opposite what people normally think about bass in a (kinda) rock band. This song is part of the reason for me wanting to learn to play bass (waaayy cool) and part of the reason why I haven't tried still (how the hell am I supposed to learn to play like that??).

For those that are unfamiliar with the song, here's a YouTube video of a live performance here.

Technorati Tags: e32006, GuitarHero, Music, Primus

I'm about two thirds of the way through the hard level. Some days I'm better than others but I'm getting better at it all the time. Won't help me with most of what I'd expect to see at Jamfest now (though Spanish Castle Magic and Crossroads, maybe Godzilla could be close). I'm having a hell of a time with Guitar Hero. It's loads of fun, and has a very playable learning curve. It's actually kind of seductive...when you start getting good you're almost left feeling that you could pick up a real guitar and play it on that too. The music's good too if you're into guitar rock.

There's a conversion out there where you can plug these controllers into USB and use it as a MIDI controller. That could be fun.

I have some other ideas for Jamfest next time. Will post on that when I have it more fleshed out. It might work out, but it might not. Will see.

Technorati Tags: Lotusphere, Review, Music, Jamfest, GuitarHero

Here the video of Will Wright speaking at the Game Developer Conference this year. He talks a lot about his philosophy on gaming on how the more empowered you make the player of a game to make their own content, the more the player will respond to the experience. You can't argue much with the kind of success he's had. During the talk, Mr Wright illustrates with a demo of his new game: Spore. Starting with evolving bacteria up to being master of the universe seems like a tough game to put together, but they're doing it and it looks incredible.

Technorati Tags: Software, Technology