My Latest and Greatest Achievement

I generally try to keep my blog focused on gaming, but today I want to brag on myself for something that is totally unrelated to gaming: I haven't had a cigarette in over a month. There is no bad reason to quit, but I had a particularly good reason to do so: my Dad died in his 50s from COPD that he got because of his smoking. He desperately wanted me to quit smoking throughout his life, but especially after he was diagnosed with the COPD. I tried, but could never do it. I have tried to quit a million times, but I have always used some sort of product that promised to make the quit more tolerable. In fact, I tried a new one this time. Initially, I used Chantix to help me get quit. I took that medicine for 10 days into my quit before I realized that the Chantix, as a nicotine receptor blocker, didn't really do anything unless I chose to smoke. Since I was committed to quitting and since I felt that I had gotten over the worst hurdle, I decided to proceed without the Chantix crutch (not to mention that that stuff is very expensive). I also got a lot of vital information and support from a cold turkey quit website called www.whyquit.com. Anyway, by now, all of the nicotine and all of the Chantix is out of my system. I still think about smoking every day, but the thoughts are becoming fewer and farther between. I know that I have to stay focused and not let my guard down, but that all I have to do to stay an ex-smoker is to never smoke another cigarette.

Posted by BrodysDad46 @ 11:36 am EDT | Permalink | 10 Comments

Greatest Valentine's Day Gift EVER

Leading up to the big day, my wife had mentioned that she got me a V-Day present that will actually cover our anniversary and my birthday in the process.  I tried to think of more expensive items that I had mentioned wanting and the only one I could really think of was the Tritton 5.1 surround sound headsets.  Those are pricey, but not really three gift-giving occasions pricey.  So, I thought she might have gotten me a PS3, but I don't know if I have shared my growing interest in getting a PS 3 with her other than maybe an off-handed mention.  Also, my wife tends to know better than to get me any sort of electronics as a gift without getting the exact make and model number of what I want.

So, last night, she handed me my gift.  It was too small to be a PS3.  It was too light to be the Trittons.  So I started opening it.  Couple of Reese's PB Hearts (a Valentine favorite of mine), a pair of Atlanta Braves boxers, and a little container that looked like the containers that the McDonald's apple pies come in.  I opened up this container and it was full of a bunch of folded up papers.  Here is what the papers said though:  April 18, 2008, I will be in Atlanta with my wife, sitting directly behind home plate (18th row up) watching the Braves play the Los Angles Dodgers. 

Now, this may not seem like much of a big deal to some, but we live in Amarillo, Texas, so there is a damn expensive flight and hotel involved.  Plus, I have been a die-hard Braves fan since 1982, yet I have never seen them play in Atlanta.  In fact, I have never been to the state of Georgia.  I frequently get asked how I became a Braves fan when I am not from Georgia  and my answer is always the same: I have always loved baseball, was born and raised in Oklahoma (no professional team within 300 miles), but I had cable (so could follow the Braves on TBS).  To give you an idea of my devotion, check out the following pics:

My desk in the one room of the house that I get to decorate.

The guest bed is in my room.  The comforter is actually a Braves comforter, but we keep it covered so the dog doesn't get hair all over it.

My gaming set up.

My wife and I went to Disneyworld for our honeymoon.  That isn't unusual, but what makes it relevant here is that we scheduled our wedding so that we could see the Braves play a spring training game while we were on our honeymoon (the Braves spring training facility is in the Wide World of Sports portion of Disneyworld).

Anyway, without belaboring the point further, I could not be more happy about my Valentine's Day present.  w00t.

 

Posted by BrodysDad46 @ 12:56 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

DMC 4 Demo

I have been an XBox guy for as long as the brand has existed.  I briefly owned a PS2, but I never played any of the Devil May Cry games.  So, I was pretty excited to finally get to see what all the fuss was about when the demo was released on XBL late last week.  I was even more excited since DMC is a Capcom game and I absolutely loved Dead Rising.

The first thing that I noticed about the demo is that the game is very pretty.  It is very Japanese in style, but the graphics are amazing for what Capcom is going for.  But the gameplay seemed extremely weak to me.  It felt like I was playing a beautiful version of Castlevania.  The demo leaves the impression that it is just a button masher.  It may get deeper as the game progresses, but, if so, the demo didn't do it any favors.  I also hated the targeting system.  It would auto target the enemy that was closest to me and I couldn't see any way to override this auto targeting.  Most of the time, you will want to target the nearest enemy, but there are times when you want to finish one before moving on to the next to reduce the number of enemies that can attack you.  I won't hold that against the game too much because there is likely some way to change the target and I didn't spend a ton of time playing around with this.  However, the biggest complaint that I have with the demo is the camera.  Why is it that the camera can't go through a freaking door with me?  If you walk up to and through a door, the camera immediately switches to the other side of the door essentially making the controls a mirror image of what they were before you walked through the doorway.  Thus, you have to change the direction that you are pressing on the L stick as soon as you go through the doorway or you will wind up walking right back through the doorway that you just walked through.  That is freaking insane and very 90s for a AAA title released in 2008.  I am sure that you would get used to this switching camera, but that just begs the question of should I have to.  This ridiculous solution to a real camera problem on previous generations of consoles was probably the best that could be done at the time (the early Resident Evil games - also Capcom - did the same thing), but why is it still employed in 2008 with consoles that can seemlessly follow you through the doorway?  I don't know if this system is included as nostalgia for the long-time DMC fans, but it was irritating to me.  Another issue that I had with the camera is that it isn't adjustable during the platforming parts of the game.  Having an off-center side view when trying to leap from one ledge to another makes the timing more difficult than it should be. 

In the end, since DMC 4 is a single player only game, I was likely only going to rent it before I played the demo.  That hasn't changed now, although the demo has convinced me to drop DMC 4 a few spots in my Gamefly Que.  What did you guys think of the demo?

Posted by BrodysDad46 @ 12:55 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New Old Spice Challenge

I remember Tank blogging when this thing was announced and again when it started, but I am not sure if everyone here realized what it was.  What it is is a competition between a group of people that can be chosen by the person that sets up the challenge (the Administrator) to see who can get the largest gamerscore increase during the duration of the challenge.  Old Spice has provided a number of prizes for the winner of the challenges and they are really pretty nice prizes, especially since the only thing that you have to do to participate is to register at www.360voice.com (the challenge is only available to residents of the US though).  The prizes range from a $20 Amazon/Best Buy gift card to an HD DVD add on or 12 month subscription to GameFly.  By having the administrator only allow 2o2p people to compete, we can keep the rewards within our own little online community.    It is really a nice deal considering that it affords an opportunity to win some cool stuff for doing nothing more than most of us would do anyway (play games).  My clan has started one (it will officially kick off in the morning) and one of us is going to win 8,000 MS Points (that is $100 worth of points).  Anyway, the challenges have to be completed by 3/14/08 to be eligible for the prizes. 

Posted by BrodysDad46 @ 4:02 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Brief AC Wrapup

I finished the game over the weekend.  The ending was confusing to me, but I got the gist.  Anyone that finishes the game should go to the AC forum on this site and read the Ending Explained thread.  I sure as heck would not have taken the time to have done that much research into what everything meant, but it was a very interesting read.  I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't go into my thoughts, but I really enjoyed this game and am looking forward to AC2.

Posted by BrodysDad46 @ 10:06 am EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments