TS Fay redux...

But first the 360 must speaketh...

"My power supply almost exploded! NotStyro turned on the juice and we did some serious gaming! 5,725 points of total gamerscore is pretty good. Admit it. That is a profit of 30 points over last time! He made some progress on Unreal Tournament® 3 winning 1 achievement, and oh... don't tell NotStyro this, but I have been getting in a little video chat in the off-hours. Booyah!"

Awesome.

Now then, TS Fay has been raging off-n-on all damn night. Wind, rain, wind-n-rain, lightening, etc. Just like a really bad and really long thunderstorm. Wind is currently moving at an average of 20 mph. Yesterday we received 2.8 inches of rain, and today we already got 3.6 inches with more on the way.

TS Fay is supposedly heading to the NNE. From the current 'eye' to the label for 'Merritt Island'. She's going to go give NASA some wind up at the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral (they are already making changes to protect the shuttle & Oct-8 launch window).

Update: Duke Nukem 3D for the 360! Ok, not Duke Nukem Forever, but still awesome!

(image removed - use your imagination)

Fun with TS Fay...

Knock, knock...

Floridians: Who's there?

Tropical Storm Fay...

Floridians: Arrrrggggh!

Another fun day, or two, in paradise...

(image removed - use your imagination)

Keeps on playin'...

From da blog...

"Oh man, NotStyro was totally in the gaming zone yesterday when he fired me up to play. 5,695 points of total gamerscore doesn't do his skills justice. That is a gain of 60 points over last time! He made some progress on Unreal Tournament® 3 adding 2 achievements, as well as basked in the glow of my great blade navigation interface!"

Alrighty! Finally making some progress. I got a bit stuck at the end of chapter 2 (or was it 3?) due to needing a high degree of teamwork, and expecting the bots to deliver. Yeah, right. The bots get stuck doing the usual things that NCPs do - running into walls, guarding while facing walls, trying to drive tanks into impassable areas and just generally being unhelpful.

It probably helped when I found the way to send a command to the team and they somewhat did what was asked. There was still a high degree of chaos and stupidity in the bots actions, but I guess I have to expect that.

Still, playing UT3 on the big monitor/tv is a blast. If I thought the developers will put out more maps, mutators, mods and bot upgrades I would be inclined to purchase the game. Add some more content and it might just push Crackdown off the top of the 'dumb & fun shooter' category.
 

'Sup...?

So, I've been away for awhile, missed me? Anybody? Hmm...?

Had family visiting from out of town so that took some time while waiting for Gamefly to send something good my way. GF certainly threw some gaming lovin' my way...

I'm playing UT3! On the 360! Woot!

UT2004 is one of my favorite games on the PC. It is among the first apps to be installed after reinstalling windows and a criteria for successful tinkering with the winbox. If UT2004 doesn't work, the whole thing gets done again.

I was so excited to start playing UT3 the other day it was almost like losing my virginity all over again. Slap the disc in the box, sign-on, load, goto instant action and...die...respawn...instagib...respawn...splat!...WTF?!? It seems the default controls have some issues. Namely the developers dialed-up the sensitivity to max and the usual 'what does this button do'. Took me some testing with Crackdown & COD4 before I believed the sticks weren't completely screwed-up.

Now that I've got the controls squared away (for now), I started the SP campaign. Funny thing, I don't even remember if UT2004 has an SP campaign. At any rate, the UT3 SP is just a bunch of deathmatches, CTF, team play and control matches strung together around some rather loose 'story'. I figure I'll work through this getting the achievements and then maybe play with MP and Instant Action.

OK, getting back to the family visiting. My niece, her son and BF came down from Georgia to visit for a week. Stayed at my sisters place and I did the paparazzi thing following them around taking pictures.

Here are some...

The rest are on my photostream at Flickr.

Oh yeah, we had a blast. An active 4 yo, beaches, waterparks, zoos, beaches, sleep-overs at my place, the kid had a great vacation before starting pre-school. I plan to try next year to bring him down for a couple weeks without his mother. I figure we can hit the Orlando theme parks (Disney, Universal & Aquatica) and then head down here. His mother can then drive down and pickup her well-spoiled son. Probably be some type of summercamp/babyborrowers thing that I think he'll really like.

Finished...

Well, finished BF:BC. Nice game, some issues, but overall still a good rental.

"NotStyro must have heard my calling... I was practically startled when his greasy finger pounded my power button. I mean come on... be a little gentle... I am fragile. Just some helpful advice for someone with a 5,625 gamerscore. That is an improvement of 85 points over last time! He rocked out to BF: Bad Company adding 4 achievements, and then I came out of my trance and realized it was all over."

So the game goes back to GF and I await the next rental...

I heard from my sister that my neice will be driving down and staying for seven days (!). She'll be doing some night driving with her longtime BF doing navigator duty. I just hope they pack the emergency gear and know what they are geting into. They'll get in sometime on Saturday morning and my sister and her hubby will have to sit with the 4.5 yo while the drivers get some shut-eye.

Funny thing, the BIL said he isn't watching the kid and my sister is kinda put-off by the idea also, so I said I'll watch him. Yeah, the single guy that hasnt raised any kids will step-up. At least until I have to go to work and then maybe see if he likes to color or draw with crayons or somesuch. The kid is pretty active so I dunno if that'll work, but it is something for a few hours.