RagingBull888's Blog - 2old2play

Rock Band 2 and GHWT Set Lists

Full on confession: I’m as stoked for the release of Rock Band 2 for the 360 this Sunday as I have been for just about any game, including Halo 3. If you would have asked me a year ago if there would be any game that would displace Halo (or a FPS at all) as my preferred multiplayer game, I probably would have laughed my head off. That will likely all change with Rock Band 2. The original has kept my attention since purchase in April even without a very robust multiplayer. Jamming with my clan mate Big0ne actually got me back on his friends list (LOL). I’ve even had the pleasure of rocking with other clan mates as well as members of 2o2p I had never really played a game with before (Sharpshooter is an awesome jam mate). So I think my love for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 pre-release is well stated. However, I’m about to throw a curveball in this blog as the folks over at Activision and Neversoft have done their impression of a candy thrower at the end of a parade route and just dumped what was left of the Guitar Hero World Tour set list onto the ground. It is time to take a look at the two set lists.

The first thing to note is that Rock Band 2 has 84 songs on disc but will come with a code that will allow you to download 20 to be named songs in the future. Guitar Hero World Tour (GHWT) features 86 on disc songs. 13 of the on-disc songs are on both discs and most of those 13 songs are fairly well known. The highlights include Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac), Eye of the Tiger (Survivor), Livin on a Prayer (Bon Jovi), and American Woman (The Guess Who). An additional 13 artists are featured on both discs but have different songs. The big names with different songs include Metallica, Nirvana, Billy Idol, and the Steve Miller Band. Looking at a comparison of the 13 songs (and some of the bands I’m not very clear on), I think as a whole I would rather have the 13 RB2 songs as opposed to the 13 GHWT songs. I’ll use two bands as an example: 1) Rock’n Me is on RB2 while The Joker is on GHWT (Give me Rock’n Me (Steve Miller Band) 2) One Step Closer (RB2) vs. What I’ve Done (GHWT) (Linkin Park’s older song is a tad better, even if a lot of Linkin Park’s songs sound the same to me). I really don’t need to go into the issue of artists on GHWT that already have DLC for RB1 or featured on disc for RB1 but if you care for my opinion on that matter, the Rock Band model for RB1 disc songs and DLC means you can have something to fill those urges.

Now on to the big debate, the artists that, at this time, only appear in one game or the other. On Rock Band’s side, you have AC/DC, Bob Dylan, The Who, Jethro Tull, Megadeth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Rush, The Grateful Dead, and The Offspring (among others). On Guitar Hero World Tour’s side, you have Bob Seger, Coldplay, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Michael Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne (you lose the use of Paranoid in RB2), The Eagles, Van Halen, Tool, and Wings, (among others). This is of course a list that could diminish for either side based on DLC in the future but this is the information I’m working off of. Who wins the big names battle? I would probably give the nod to Rock Band if I were entering the market for the first time although this is a real dicey battle since the list could have been rearranged by your definition of who is a big artist. The final war is in the trenches; those artists and songs that aren’t going to be in the forefront of the discussion but can ultimately make the game. As I delved deeper into both lists, I find that RB2 has more artists and songs that I would be interested in playing. It also appears that the RB2 list is going to be a bit more female friendly than GHWT (not that I can sing one way or another hehe). One final thing that puts a damper on GHWT’s set list is the fact that 3 of the songs on disc are by Tool, 2 by Jimi Hendrix, 2 by Ted Nugent, and 2 by Ozzy Osbourne so instead of 86 individual artists and songs, you are only getting 86 songs by 81 artists. It may not seem like much to fans of those artists but it is something to note. At the end of the day, the Rock Band 2 set list just has that extra punch to it to appeal to a wide audience while Guitar Hero World Tour’s set list seems to be all about the big names with the back end stuff getting short shift or appealing to a much narrower audience. GHWT will probably sell better on a name recognition basis but I think you would find more fun to be had in Rock Band 2’s songs.

Perhaps some other time I will discuss the concept of DLC as that is what may really set the two games apart and in that department, the head start of Rock Band is something that they need to make more clear.

I'll leave you with a classic set of song lyrics to remember the next time you are discussing music with someone....unless that someone is my wife in which case she can and will be wrong about some things musically. ;)

"There ain't no good guy, There ain't no bad guy, there's only you and me and we just disagree."

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James Bond Movies

Rebooting a character seems to be a big thing in the movie world these days so it should come as no surprise that James Bond was due for this sort of treatment. The first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming gets its first non-spoof big screen adaptation with the release of Casino Royale. Daniel Craig will try to etch a name for himself against such former Bonds as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan. Will he do it? I am eager to see but I thought that in the meantime I would share some of my favorite past big screen adventures of 007.

10. The World is Not Enough – I do not know why I like this one better than Tomorrow Never Dies. I think it might be because Tomorrow Never Dies hits a bit of a snag in the Germany section. This one has some really strong points (villains and opening sequence) and some really weak points (Christmas Jones and final sequence on the sub). I could go either way on this picture.

9. Thunderball – A classic plot that rides right off the back of Goldfinger’s success. The story was reused for the movie Never Say Never Again. This one plays slightly better although there are parts of NSNA that are improvements on the original. Like Survivor, you rarely go wrong with sunny beach locales.

8. You Only Live Twice – There is just enough over the top stuff in this one to make it my #8 favorite. The assault on the volcano lair set the stage for later big set pieces. James Bond in Japan is something we should see a lot more of.

7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – If you can get the thought of Sean Connery out of your mind and watch this with an open mind, you will likely enjoy this. You will wish Diana Rigg could have been in every James Bond movie. The music will be familiar to you though and it is very good stuff.

6. Live and Let Die – This one set up the glib tone that the Roger Moore pictures would take. A low key finale, in comparison to Diamonds are Forever, helps things out immensely. I could throw this off the list and probably not be too disappointed but it is fun to see the 70’s finally take over the Bond series.

5. For Your Eyes Only – This movie is actually Roger Moore’s best but one of his other movies will show up higher because of the fun factor. FYEO is a melancholy film that has very little of the sardonic humor that peppers Moore’s other movies. It holds up well because the villain is not a megalomaniac and the Bond girl is believable as well.

4. Goldeneye – The first effort by Brosnan is his best in my eyes. Sure, there are flaws (the music score is way wrong) but the movie is aided by the best Bond girl duo of any of the movies. It also explores some of Bond’s character a little bit better by having a villain that is his equal. The name of course will be recognizable to any serious gaming fan.

3. The Living Daylights – If only Timothy Dalton’s second Bond picture was more like this one, he probably would have gotten a third picture. He plays the role very well and the plotline of the picture worked well, at the time (Soviet defections etc.). A realistic henchman who does not come off as a caricature serves as a serious threat. Pleasant surprises abound in this one.

2. The Spy Who Loved Me – The girl, the car, the villain’s henchman, it all falls into place for Roger Moore in this one. You basically have Roger Moore’s Goldfinger and that certainly cannot be all bad. Too bad the main villain in the picture is a zero in the charisma department. TSWLM even has a score that works well despite being a product of the times. Now that is an impressive feat.

1. Goldfinger – “Do you expect me to talk? No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.” With that little line, the movie solidifies its place at the top of my list. The rest of the movie is awesome and is filled with moments that will live in your memory. It really set the standard for later films in terms of gadgets, girls, and villains. If I could only have one Bond movie on a desert island, this would be it.

Well, there you have it my 10 favorite Bond movies. You might be asking, “Where is From Russia with Love?” To be honest, I have never actually watched From Russia with Love all the way through. The parts I have seen are great and I bet it would likely move into the top 5 but I figured I would be honest with you. As for the ones I would tell you to avoid, the three I would say that you should most avoid are Die Another Day, A View to A Kill, and Moonraker. Those three have the worst villain (DAD), worst Bond girl (AVTAK), and worst plot (Moon). You’ll thank me later.

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The Bull Pen 27

It is your old pal Raging Bull back with another edition of The Bull Pen! I can just see all your faces light up with joy at the possibility of reading this blog. In fact, if you have made it to this sentence, you may qualify for a special discount on the next blog.

The NHL season has kicked back into high gear and while hockey is still not on as much as it used to be, I can at least watch national games on Versus. Even better still is the fact that the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team I support, have somehow managed to get all but one game televised on Fox Sports Ohio. This leaves me to wonder, what exactly is wrong with the one game they left out? This lone offending game is a home game on March 9th against the Dallas Stars. The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is some sort of March Madness tournament that has to be shown on Fox Sports Ohio. It would probably be the MAC tournament and I can honestly say that I would much rather be watching the Blue Jackets than the MAC. Anyhow, the Blue Jackets are off to a fast start, at least by their standards, and could actually contend in the West for a playoff spot, albeit the 8th one. The season squarely rests on the shoulders of one Rick Nash though. His time away from the ice last year pretty much doomed the Blue Jackets to another losing season. Mark it down gang, Rick Nash will be voted MVP of the NHL within the next 5 seasons.

This next section is going to feature a dose of brutal honesty from me. I am not ashamed to admit this but I must answer for my actions. What am I admitting you ask? I admit that I like to kill people…in Halo 2. I like to think of myself as a team player and someone who wants the team to do well but let us not beat around the bush. I am happiest when I am killing folks in mass quantities. Actually, amend that to say, ‘…in mass quantities and WINNING THE GAME.’ I certainly killed a lot of folks (61 to be exact) in a game of SWAT KotH the other night but left the game with a loss. While the kill totals were jaw dropping, the loss still stung. There have been other times when the team has succeeded and I end the game with the win but I have left feeling like I have not accomplished anything except see a reload screen a lot. This can lead to frustration and cursing on my part. I would like to give a blanket apology to everyone who may have ever been offended by anything I have ever said over XBOX Live (see, that was nice and easy) except for WallyBR. Good ole Wally knows I’m gunning for him every time and he rarely gets the better of me.

My parents recently returned from a sojourn to Philadelphia, with a half day jaunt to Atlantic City. They were kind enough to bring back some Hard Café Pins for me. My favorites of the 6 they brought back (4 from Philly and 2 from AC) were a bald eagle playing a black guitar with 2006 on the HRC logo and a guitar with a roulette wheel on it from Atlantic City. Pin trading has become something of a craze over the last 5 years and I have kind of caught on with the craze. However, for some strange reason, I just enjoy collecting them instead of trading. If any of you readers out there have collected Hard Café Pins, just share some thoughts about your collection and what you like the most.

I read today that an elementary school in Massachusetts has banned kids from playing tag and other chase style games. The reason that the principal gives is that “Recess is a time when accidents can happen”. Has it really come to this in society? Maybe I come from a different day and age (the 80’s) when schools were supposed to prepare children for the realities of the real world. Instead, it would appear that the fear of the almighty lawyer has turned schools into impotent messes. Is the teacher so pre-occupied that he/she is unable to police the children and inform them when something they are doing is out of line, such as using excess force in a tag? This seems to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The school is creating a system that does not teach what is right or wrong about certain actions within the parameter of the game but instead says the game is flawed and should not be played. It is the same principle that ran through the case of the woman who spilled hot coffee on her while driving. Those folks who are able to act with normal human behavior are forced to subjugate themselves to that minority who do not act within reason or who do not wish to take responsibility for their own actions. Caution: Living is dangerous to your health.

Hey, you made it this far, why not read the final paragraph and go out with style.

Custom Game of the Week: Sure, Halo 2 is on the downward spiral and it is hard to get enough for custom games, even on custom game night (THAT’S FRIDAYS FOR YOU OMM’ERS WHO CAN DRAG YOURSELF AWAY FROM CHROMEHOUNDS FOR EVEN AN HOUR) but I am still here for you fine folks who need to add a little spice to your game selections. This week’s featured game is a little game I just invented this past Friday and it was a hit, at least I think it was. Surrender is the name of the game and it is a capture the flag game. What gives the game its name is the fact that the flag holder moves slow with the flag and the flag indicator is ON when the other team has it. That is a little twist from normal CTF flag games where you do not know where the flag holder is. Add in the double random weapons, damage resistance, and extra damage for non-flag holders and you folks have yourself quite a little game. This is a 1 flag per team game and works best on symmetrical maps. The time limit for the game is 10 minutes, score to win is 3, player respawn time is 5 seconds, and flag respawn time is 10 seconds (bump to 30 on bigger maps). You will definitely be saying ‘I Surrender’ when you grab the flag in this game.

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The Bull Pen #26

Well, it has been a while since I posted one of these so I figured I might as well come back with a whole bunch of random stuff that is only connected in the fact that it all is important to me. Or is it?

I went to Indianapolis on Saturday on a spur of the minute decision as my wife Tracey got called off work. It was a rainy day and I am sure she was not to thrilled about the idea of spending an off day out of town until I used the 3 magic words: South Bend Chocolate. It was just that simple; I get to go to Indianapolis and see the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art as well as dine at the local Hard Rock while she gets to stock up on her favorite chocolate in the world. I know a few of my clanmates (namely BigOne and Stryker) may be curious why I did not pay them a visit while in town but it was a whirlwind schedule and I seriously doubt asking to pay a visit to gaming buddies would have gone over well with the queen of the house. Back to the chocolate, I highly recommend checking out their website and ordering something as they have some of the most delicious chocolate going. I purchased a milk chocolate bar and a milk chocolate coated rice krispie treat. The rice krispie treat was excellent while the milk chocolate bar is cooling in the fridge at home in order to be enjoyed at a later date, more than likely this evening. The final highlight of the trip was stopping at the Hard Rock Café and picking up two more pins to add to the collection while enjoying the Hickory BBQ burger. It was not the best I have ever had (Atlanta seemed to do a much better job) but it was satisfactory. If anyone cares, they should message me and I will point out where they can see the two pins I bought. A boring 1-3/4 hour trip back down I-74 and I-275 and we were back home.

The Cincinnati Bengals have gotten off to a 3-0 start for the second season in a row and that includes a victory over the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. It may not have been a pretty victory but there is something I have learned from years of watching sports. Championship caliber teams can win games that by all logical reason, they should have lost. They burn you for almost every little mistake and grab victory from the jaws of defeat. The Bengals played that sort of game yesterday as they took incredible advantage of two fourth quarter turnovers to send the Steelers and their fans into the bye week with a 1-2 record.

The DVD format can best be seen as a concept that brings out the best in studios and the worst in studios. It brings out the best as you have a format that allows full television series to be shown regardless of their cancellation. There are also the DVD extras that allow you to get a little more value rather than just paying to see the movie and maybe a preview or two that was on a standard VHS tape. However, the worst side of DVD’s also applies to extras; the case in point is the recent release of the Lord of the Rings movies on DVD with both versions attached. The concept of Double Dipping has become more and more prevalent with major releases and it irritates me to no end. You do not want to wait a year and a half to purchase a movie but if you buy early, you risk missing out on some stuff that was conveniently ‘left out’ of the early release. I guess as long as there are nimrods out there that need to own every single version of a certain movie and every known extra, this practice will continue.

I have not been playing a lot of Halo 2 lately and it seems as though I’ve been slacking on playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow as well. Part of it may be the lack of fellow OMM playing but I think another part of it is the fact that I have found other stuff to do that catches my fancy. It can be rather addictive going to zone.msn.com and playing some of the word or puzzle games. An hour can go pretty fast when you are trying to create 6 letter words in order to advance to the next round. I still enjoy playing Halo 2 and I still enjoy inflicting, er, sharing my custom games with fellow clan members. I just wish it would not have rained so hard Friday night because I was really ready to pull out a lineup of solid games.

Oh, I almost forgot one great advantage of DVD’s. That advantage is the fact that some things can be shown uncut and in their original versions. Something that takes full use of this principle is the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD’s. A funny joke at the end of a certain Bugs Bunny cartoon involves Bugs pointing a gun at his own head (in order to blow his brains out) and missing, while hitting Yosemite Sam. Heaven forbid if you watch the cartoon on regular TV these days as virtually any reference to a character blowing his/her brains out is taken out of the cartoon. I really am not keen on when cartoons that were meant for adults are sanitized and politically corrected so kids can watch them.

I think I am happy that I am not playing fantasy football this season as it has been a wild and crazy ride for some fantasy stalwarts during the first few weeks. I will just rest on the laurels of my two championships from a season ago (one against seriously weak competition) and return at a year of my choosing. Besides, I’m too busy trying to win at Hardball Dynasty at Whatifsports.com to be bothered with fantasy football.

Have you considered the fact that in the time it took for you to read this sentence, you could have been clicking over to deadspin.com and reading something that may or may not in fact be funnier?

I am now forced to ask the question that some people do not want to ask; exactly who does Stuart Scott have pictures of that allows him to remain in such a high position at ESPN?

To close out this ever diminishing blog entry, I leave you with one final key piece of information.

Professor Plum with the Revolver in the Conservatory.

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Just a friendly reminder

You can still read past Bull Pen's for excellent custom game ideas.

I'm also here to provide the following Public Service Announcement: Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears Vol. 1 will be released on DVD in November. My wife is wigging out over this announcement. Now all Disney has to do is release the Wuzzles on DVD and the world will be whole again. The long wait for The Muppet Show, Season 2 will continue on though.

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The Bull Pen #25

Well, I see that last week’s blog of nonsensical statements was not a big hit. I would have liked to do a column based on a Larry King style but it is too hard for me to emulate his unique style of gibber gabber. I can do a column full of topics that do not really relate, so here goes.

A movie that I enjoy watching that may have been overlooked by you is The Hudsucker Proxy from the Coen Brothers. It is quite an amusing movie with some memorable quotes, solid acting, and an excellent score. I’ll leave you with one of the better quotes from the movie, “You know, for kids.”

I went ahead and downloaded a CD’s worth of 80’s music from I-Tunes and have been playing it almost non-stop since. A sample of the music includes: Rock the Casbah, Come on Eileen, Centerfold, Always Something there to Remind Me, Our House, Video killed the Radio Star, and Vacation. I can list the others if you are interested but they are along the same lines.

The real sign of the cultural apocalypse is the fact that a program such as American Idol can generate so much buzz and pull in so many viewers for what amounts to singers who will be lucky to be playing state fairs within the next 10 years. Is it any surprise that stations that used to be Top 40 formats (meaning the current hits) are increasingly playing older stuff? It is a sad state of affairs when an anthology series called Now that's what I call I music (which has very little interesting stuff on it) can top the charts.

If you have not visited an amusement park and ridden a roller coaster this summer, why not? Most of America lives within a 3 hour drive of an amusement park with at least one roller coaster. The new ideas keep getting crazier and yet traditional roller coasters continue to thrive. A summer without riding at least one coaster is a summer that was wasted.

I would like to point out as a public service announcement that The Simpsons Season 8 is being released this week on DVD. This and season 9 are the last of the golden age seasons before the descent into more wildly outlandish plots and rehashed ideas. It has one of the best Treehouse of Horror editions and some famous episodes, such as Homer’s Enemy (featuring Frank Grimes), the Springfield Files (parody of the X-Files, and Homer’s Phobia (where Homer is forced to deal with his homophobia).

Does your office have Muzak playing over the loudspeakers? There are times when I could shoot the people who create bastardized versions of good songs for this system. The system also tends to play a couple of songs over and over again that no one recognizes. Sometimes silence can be golden.

I have noticed that the ladders are starting back up again for Halo 2. I might be more interested this time in joining a team. I know I enjoy MLG starts but I also know that the competition is really stiff on the MLG ladder. I kind of fall in the middle in the skill level set as it pertains to Halo. I am good enough to be a nuisance to the top players but not good enough to consistently equal or better their score. I have long said that my best scores come when there are one or two people better than me on the team so that the other team’s best players have to focus on them.

If there are any special games that my clan would like to play (that I have set up) following the Royale fun on Friday nights, please let me know in room. I try to pick games that are fun for everyone but also try to mix it up. That may mean playing a SWAT game followed by a Fiesta game followed by an objective game, etc.

Custom Game of the Week: Nothing for you this week except to say that my custom game moment of the week came last week right at the end of my clan night fun. Let’s just say that WallyBR was probably having ‘Surprise’ haunt him for the rest of the evening. If not, well, I still had fun dropping from the second level of Foundation to assassinate him with the sword for my last kill.

P.S. You should really read last week's blog for some funny statements.

P.P.S. An all-time classic is the children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If you have never read it, go out and read it now. I do not care that you are over the age of 25, the book is great for Adults as well with the imaginative illustrations. I saw a copy sitting on a table in a Macy's the other day and was reading it while my wife returned an item. It still garners laughs after all these years. Update - Apparently a movie is going to be made out of this book as the information was just released today.

[7 Comments]

The Bull Pen #24

The jade monkey watches over the pale faced little girl in the crystal castle. It was a dark and stormy night. A shot rang out from behind the curtains. Two men walk into a bar, buy a few drinks, and leave. If you gotta go, go with a smile. The time of your life is usually indicated by a large digital clock that flashes 12:00. I am going out on a limb and predicting that the Carolina Panthers will be playing football well into December. The blind squirrel may find a nut every once in a while but not usually before getting run over by a car. It was the best of times; it was the blurst of times. You will never learn everything you ever need to know, let alone learn it all in kindergarten. This statement is plagiarized from my mind. I have not yet decided whether I am going to finish this state. Top scientists today proved that when you are not inside, you are outside. The tooth fairy is actually a global conspiracy designed to teach children that they should be rewarded for having something natural happen. When life gives you lemons, throw the lemons at someone else. The phrase ‘floating on the river’ does not have the same appeal as ‘rolling on the river’ does. A little bird once told me that I should stop listening to birds. Customer service representatives should be psychologically screened. The Marquis De Sade would probably enjoy being a telemarketer. I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain, but I’ve never seen sunny Acapulco. If there is not a light at the end of the tunnel, then it likely is not a tunnel or it is very late at night. I have seen the enemy and he is suffering from the heartbreak of psoriasis. Whoever believes that the world is better that we can now share our opinions with the world over the Internet probably needs a rectal probe. Soylent Green may be made of people but that’s a lot better than making it with dog crap. It is not really a donation if you are practically forced to do it. I would like to thank those who are responsible for this blog, which is pretty much everyone from the first humans onward. Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this blog without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited. James Bond will return in You Only Blog Twice.

Custom Game of the Week: Redneck Rampage is probably a game you have played before but this is the name I have given to it. It is neutral Capture the Flag with shotguns and grenades with SWAT rules. That means no shields and no motion sensor. You can play it with two teams or four teams depending on your map. I think you should be able to figure out what maps would be ideal to play it on. Despite my hesitation with using the shotgun as a weapon in most cases, I have had fun playing this game. You know, I could afford to get a little better at Halo so I could hang with some of the bigger guns that I seem to end up playing against lately. Then again, I would just be curious about my reputation as a teammate and opponent because it is always good to solicit outside opinions. All I know is that if the game features a BR start, I’m usually a happy camper. Are you non-OMM and reading this? If so, I want to know. Heck, even if you are OMM, I want to know since you cannot tell who is reading it.

[3 Comments]

The Bull Pen #23

Have you ever had a song that makes you get all teary-eyed? Sure, we all will admit to socks we enjoy rocking out to but what about songs that move us to get all watery under the eyelids. I will say that there is such a song that gets me every time: The Rainbow Connection. It is not a sad song by any stretch of the imagination and is actually a warm uplifting tune but the song always reminds me of one thing, the fact that Jim Henson died way before his time. Every time I hear it, it makes think back to news clips of his funeral and of all his friends and colleagues singing the song in his honor. I do not believe any other song gets me teary eyed in such a sentimental way like that although I am sure there are a few songs that have driven me to tears because they are so bad.

I am now happy to say that my collection of The Simpsons DVD’s is complete after I finally purchased Season 2 over the past week. I have been buying them in an unusual order as I was financially unwilling to buy them in the order in which they were released. At one point, I had owned Season 1, 3, 4, and 6. I have now managed to rectify that situation with season 5, season 7 (Marge head case), and season 2. The stores have been most willing to help by marking the seasons down to $24.99 or, in Best Buy’s case, down to $19.99. Ironically enough, the season 8 DVD will be released halfway through August and the collection will be incomplete again, or at least until I decide to get it. Just think, this will be the 8th DVD set and there will still be 9+ more to go!

It is never too early to discuss the next summer movie season, especially since the 2006 summer movie season seems to be grinding to a halt with nothing much interesting opening in the next couple of weeks. If you like to play roulette, I would advise betting on the number 3 as the 2007 summer movie season will feature both Spider Man 3 and the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, both of these blockbusters will open up in May so any movies opening up in June and July will have their work cut out for them. To make an incredible meat inside this sandwich will be Shrek the Third and you can plainly see that May is shaping up to be a record breaking month at the box office. These three movies alone would be enough to drive the box office for the entire summer but wait, there’s more. Look at July and suddenly you get the releases of Transformers (please don’t f*** this up Michael Bay), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and to top it all off, The Simpsons Movie. Are you kidding me? I have not even mentioned Ocean’s 13 (which I will see despite being disappointed in Ocean’s 12), Ratatouille (Pixar’s next), or Rush Hour 3 (my wife likes these and so do I). I would ask you to tell me a summer lineup that will produce as well and/or had as much potential. I would call 2007 the equivalent of facing the 1927 Yankees or the 1975 Reds, a lineup that is strong from top to bottom. Oh, why must we wait so long?

Custom Game of the Week: You might be wondering what took so long to list this game considering it is one of my favorites but I am finally featuring Nucking Futs this week. The game’s name usually gets a chuckle but it is the gameplay that makes the game so crazy. I take one King of the Hill game, make the hill move every 30 seconds, turn team multiplier off and contest hill on so that only one person in the hill can earn time. Throw in a random starting weapon and play on a smaller map with lots of hill spots, such as Sanctuary, Beaver Creek, or Ascension. Finally, get as many people as possible to create as much chaos as possible and make the time to win 3:00 minutes so that the hill will have to relocate at a bare minimum 6 times (likely at least 12). Voila! You have a game that causes people to reverse the N and F in order to get the true intention behind creating this custom variant. In my experience, this game seems to rate high on the popularity scale when you want to unwind after a hard fought or tense battle. It also seems to do a good job of frustrating people when they kill 3 guys to get to the hill only to see it move.

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The Bull Pen #22

In lieu of actually having some good material for the first section of my weekly blog, I just decided to throw out some choice quotes from The Simpsons.

Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you dont show up tomorrow dont bother showing up on Monday.
Homer: Woo-hoo. Four-day weekend.

Ralph Wiggum: Me Fail English? That’s Unpossible.

Homer: Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Homer: Weaseling out of things is important to learn. Its what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel.

Homer: Im normally not a praying man, but if youre up there, please save me Superman.

Troy McClure: Dont kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, hed eat you and everyone you care about!

Homer: You couldnt fool your own mother on the foolingest day of your life with an electrified fooling machine!

Marge: Homer, you dont have to pray outloud.
Homer: But hes way the hell up there!

Marge: (After Homer complains about Moe taking credit for the Flaming Homer) Well Homer, maybe you can take a little consolation in knowing that something you created is making so many people happy.

Homer: Oh, look at me! Im making people happy! Im the magical man, from Happy Land, living in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane! (Leaves the room, then pokes his head in through the door) Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic. (Leaves again)

Marge: Well, duh.

I would like to give a shout out to CapnHun, who was kind enough to compliment me on my ability to call out locations when playing a multi-flag game on Sanctuary the other day. In the post game lobby, she was mentioning the person who was able to calmly point out where the enemy was attacking from despite the dangerous threat. I would like to believe that at most times, I try to give out useful information over the communication lines but I have been known to get frustrated (recent Gulch Wars games have proven that). Defense is what I like to do best and coordinating that defense with solid and concise information can prove useful to almost any team. You can contribute with more than just kills in a Halo 2 game. Map knowledge and enemy spotting are just as important. Sun Tzu said it best, “Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time.”

Custom Game of the Week: No custom game of the week but just some comments about recent custom game action in the clan. By the way, I’m curious as to how many non-OMM have enjoyed these custom games. Anyhow, Cheap PORN is a resounding success with possibly the best game played over the weekend. A battle on Beaver Creek ended with a mere 1 second left for the losing team and both of the remaining players held a ball at the time. I had a chance to break out a dusty classic, Fiesta Grande, and it played out well on Ascension with teams realizing that sniper rifles, while strong on the map, are not invincible when multiple random weapons are involved. There was no Battle Royale or Royale with Cheese last weekend because I was out at a festival but maybe there will be a chance for the Royale fans to play a Cheese game during the week. I’m also eager to play some SWAT Potato again as it has been far too long since the last one of those games. Throw in a game of Ghostbusters on Headlong and there could be a nice variety for a larger party of OMM folks this week.

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The Bull Pen #21

Well, I was one of the many who helped Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (PotC) beat many box office records over the weekend. It certainly was the most enjoyable summer movie I have seen this year, even though it was by far the longest. The thing that impressed me the most about the movie was the action sequences. There were some extended bits of action that really kept you involved despite how long they were progressing. I give high kudos to whoever came up with those innovative scenes. There were new references to the rides in this one and solid enough references to the last movie. Some folks may be disappointed in the cliffhanger style ending as it leaves a lot of things unresolved and the things it does resolve are a tad trite but there is a third movie to be made and luckily we will not have to wait long to see it. As others have said, if you sit through Dead Man’s Chest, there is little doubt that you will want to see the third and final movie. The characters in this movie (with the exception of the human antagonist from the East India Trading Company, who was kind of woefully used in this picture) are done well enough to warrant watching them again and you want to see how they will top the action in this one.

On a totally unrelated note, I have to wonder how many of my fair readers have been to a Hard Rock Café? Okay, it is one thing to have been to one but do you also enjoy collecting pins or souvenir crap? If so, we may have something to talk about because I am the kind of person who makes sure to hit the HRC if I am ever in a town that has one. It all goes back to my school’s European bike trip in 1992. I stopped at the one in London and picked up a t-shirt for a friend but did not eat. However, when we got to Berlin, it became prime eating territory since I was getting kind of homesick for American style food. It was also nice because it had just opened and was not very popular yet. When I returned from the trip, I had managed to secure 3 pins from the café, each with the German flag colors in the pin. These pins are now worth over $20 each and are the prize of my collection. Since then, I have managed to eat at the following locations: Cleveland, Indianapolis, Orlando, Louisville, Nashville, and Atlanta. I was foolish enough to not even go to the Gatlinburg café on one vacation but thankfully my mom picked me up a pin from there when my dad and she went later in the year. A few of the pins I like in my collection include: a guitar pin from Orlando that features a roller coaster on it (duh), a pin from Louisville that was taken from their city t-shirt (the design is way too complicated to describe but I can hook you up with a link to a picture), and my most recent pin, a musical note pin from Atlanta that uses a peach along with its stem and a leaf to form the note. I could go on longer about my HRC experiences as quite a few have been memorable but I will leave it up to the readers to find out if they want to hear more or even share their own thoughts.

Custom Game of the Week: A simple little game I like to call Cheap PORN. Take a Low Ball setup and make it 2 balls with 30 seconds to win status. Make the only weapons Sentinel Beams with grenades on the map and grenades to start. Throw in a couple of friends with teams of 2, teams of 3, or however you want to do it. Play game on Ivory Tower, Midship, Beaver Creek, or perhaps other map you want to try it on. Have fun. If you are not grabbing your balls in this game, you had better be shooting your golden stream or tossing a number 2 because the action is fast and crazy, even with 3 teams of 2.

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The Bull Pen #20

It is hard to believe I have actually written 20 of these. Sure, some folks pepper their blogs almost every other day with a little snippet and some folks post a nice sized blog every now and then but I have tried to make this a weekly entertaining reading experience. On that note, I would like to point out that the last (seemingly) major summer movie is going to be released this Friday; the movie of course is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The first PotC movie kind of snuck up on me. It had an interesting look about it and threatened to be a decent movie but not one that yelled out, “SEE ME ON OPENING WEEKEND”. Well, after some outstanding buzz, I managed to see it and was impressed with how they not only managed to make a decent movie out of a Disney ride (and a legendary one at that) but also made a movie about pirates that people actually talked about. While the movie was exciting, had a lot of action, and was directed by a competent fellow, the movie’s success was pretty much 75% contributed by Johnny Depp. I mean, when you get nominated for an Academy Award for playing a role that is not a) based on a real person b) handicapped or challenged in some way or c) has some sort of inner psychological demons, then you must have created a role that really caught the attention of some folks. To put in simpler terms, when was the last time someone was nominated from an Action-Adventure picture? So, Johnny Depp carries the movie on his back as Captain Jack Sparrow and Disney finally makes boatloads of money off a ride based movie.

Fast forward to 2006 and now we have the second PotC movie to look forward to on July 7th and the third one by May of next year. By early reports, it appears that this one is just as appealing as the first one, once again due to Depp. It may shock and surprise people but something tells me that Captain Jack Sparrow is going to be kryptonite to Superman. I know I will be there this weekend to see what mayhem will ensue. Backing up to an earlier statement, it seems as though this is the last major release of the summer as there appears to be very little buzz around any of the pictures to be released the rest of the month or even in August. Sure, Miami Vice is still yet to be released but the rest of the schedule just kind of looks blah. I remember when August still held a few of the good summer movies. Now, May through the first half of July seems to be the era of the summer blockbuster. To top it all off, what may be a summer blockbuster can be very deceptive in this day and age as worldwide gross has become as important as domestic gross. One of the best examples is the movie Troy. Troy only made $133+ million in the United States and is usually seen as a failure compared to its cost of $185 million plus marketing costs. However, when you factor in that the movie made another $364 million worldwide at the box office, you can plainly see where the United States is not the only box office that counts. In fact, if you want something that may blow your mind, the IMDB shows that US box office receipts for Batman Begins was $205,343,774 while non-US box office was $166,510,009 making worldwide receipts $371,853,783. Compare to Troy’s $497,409,852 and you’ll see that US gross and appeal is not the only thing driving the market. What does this all mean? Well, I just thought I would point it out for the next time you get concerned that your favorite movie underperforms at the US box office. You never know when the world just may agree with you.

Custom Game of the Week: As much as I have enjoyed going into BTB Slayer with some of my fellow 2o2p’ers over the past week, I still hope there are times we can enjoy some custom games (mainly because Team Rockets is getting pretty old pretty fast). Under Siege is a recent creation of mine and is a variant off of a BR Assault type game. No real fancy rules for this game except for the fact that the only weapon you start off with is a Battle Rifle and there are no weapons on the map except for grenades. That is correct, no snipers, no shotguns, no rockets, and no dual wield weapons. Vehicles are on the map and all you get is the Battle Rifle you start with. Sudden death is turned on (and it makes it really tense because you have to either break defense to get the bomb guy or let the game drag on) and all other regular settings apply. I have now played this on Headlong, Terminal, and Zanzibar and on all three maps, the game stays balanced if you work together as a unit. You can score on Terminal despite the defensive team having a Wraith if you use your vehicles properly. You can defend on Zanzibar because the Gauss Hog is vulnerable once it stops outside the gate or if it pulls into the defensive base. Headlong is even better because of the defensive base location and balance in starting vehicles. I really find this much more enjoyable than standard Assault because of a how a team can succeed if they work as a unit, as opposed to a single sniper being the hero and picking off folks as they get close to the base or the guy with the rockets being a dynamo and quickly eliminating the vehicles. Ask for it by name the next time I am in a party.

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The Bull Pen #19

This should be a less contentious issue of the Bull Pen, mainly because I have found much joy in Halo 2 since the last issue. The reason for such joy is the latest update to the matchmaking play list. Two major new lists have become instant favorites and offer me a great chance to one again feel comfortable going into matchmaking on my own or with my clan mates. The first list that I must mention is BTB Slayer, which is an unranked list that was split off from the original Big Team Battle. There are still some lag issues with the list because for some reason it enjoys playing 16 person rocket games on Ascension but for the most part, the games have been enjoyable. It is best to go into this list with a group of friends who you have played with before because it makes a world of difference, especially in a battle such as Gulch Wars. Many games of Pimp My Hog have prepared the OMM and some 2o2p brethren for Gulch Wars and it is this preparation that allows us to operate with fear, surprise, and a ruthless efficiency even if the opponent manages to keep all 8 of its members for the entire match. Parties of 8 no longer have to face off against each other if they want an unranked matchmaking experience.

The other list that gets me all a quivering is Team SWAT. Anyone who knows me knows that SWAT rules are something that I have learned to embrace. A good portion of my custom games are SWAT variants. Well, this new list is a blessing in disguise as I have found that even going solo can be a joy, depending on whether or not your team leaves you. It even includes some variants that I have created, but had not tried, such as Assault on Ivory Tower, and CTF on Ascension. I am happy that it is unranked as it tends to keep out some (but not all) of the riff raff that want to see big numbers next to their gamertag. I feel I have gotten good enough at SWAT that I could even be something of a teacher for those who wish to get better. By the way, it was not crazy of me to take grenades off a lot of my SWAT games as it gives you practice for the standard setting of the play list. Of course, one of my favorite games is probably too hardcore for the list: SWAT Potato.

Since I seem to be back on a lot in Halo 2 now, I was curious if I should offer my services to a ladder team. I say this because a complaint I heard joining one party the other evening was that some of the Halo 2 ladders have become frustrating because there are a lot of forfeits and people just do not get together. It was very interesting stuff.

I thought I would make this paragraph slightly shorter than the previous one since I seem to have a ‘law of diminishing returns’ thing working with this edition of the Bull Pen. Of course, that will end with the Custom Game of the Week section.

Custom Game of the Week: Just in time for 4th of July, I give you Star Spangled Banner. It is actually an idea cribbed off a fellow OMM’er (Gaius Caesar) but I gave it a better name than he did. Not much to describe the game except to say it is a standard CTF game with one little difference; the only weapons on the map are rockets. This game is pretty fun to play on Relic and I am sure Zanzibar would be a blast as well. In other custom news, the OMM Battle Royale had a non-OMM winner this week as wandering nomad BlueStarNF took the title after 11 hard fought rounds. I have been informed that this Battle Royale was taped and video footage could soon be available. The Royale does make for some exciting moments with tense action when it gets down to two players. I dream of a day when each clan runs their own Battle Royale and then the clan champions face off in a Super Battle Royale for 2o2p supremacy.

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The Bull Pen #18

After a two week hiatus from playing Halo 2, I jumped back into the swing of things last Friday during clan night in order to once again unleash another round of Battle Royale on the OMM. Over the course of the evening and the next evening, it was clear that time off does not help you one bit; the layoff even made me a bit more hostile than I normally am since I came back looking for an enjoyable evening (which for me usually involves being a solid team player and contributor with a positive KpD ratio) and had a couple of experiences that had me screaming obscenities into the headset. The reason for my anger was quite simple: I absolutely hate any type of vehicle focused game (i.e. Pimp My Hog) that either starts with sniper rifles or has them available on the map. The whole concept of the sniper rifle in such a match is absurd as it allows players to stay out of the action and still garner kills. In addition, it gives a team an additional way to dominate when having vehicle control should be quite enough. I do not mind being picked off trying to get into an empty vehicle by a Warthog that pops over a ridge (although that can be frustrating) but to get shot halfway across the map by a sniper rifle in a vehicle themed game is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I am putting my clan mates on notice from here on out; if you lead a party into a vehicle themed game (basically a Pimp My Hog or variant as opposed to an objective game such as CTF) and have sniper rifles available, then you can expect your teams to get uneven in a hurry.

By the way, lag has become a constant enemy as of late and is starting to irritate me as well. Is it too much to ask that a 16 person room be able to play a match with mostly good connections? I hate to see big parties broken up because of lag because it tends to fracture a group.

It has been a long time to wait but finally Deadwood has started its 3rd season on HBO. The show is a step above most normal television dramas as it requires you to do some heavy thinking to understand all the various plots and dialogues that occur over the course of a single episode. It has a unique style that is very captivating and rewards the viewer for paying attention. In fact, the first two episodes of the season had some very funny lines, especially if you have watched the previous two seasons. The salty language has been toned down a tad, or at least it seems that way, but that does not diminish from the show’s quality. If you have not watched Deadwood before, I would advise you to watch the season 1 DVD, four episodes at a time should be enough, as you will be hooked long before episode 4 rolls around. If you want to know why I am not on Halo 2 on Sundays at 9, you now have your answer.

Custom Game of the Week: Royale with Cheese is the team version of my OMM weekly event known as Battle Royale. The Royale itself is based off an infamous Japanese novel and movie about 9th grade students being stuck on an island and forced to kill one another until only one remains. Well, I have translated that into a weekly game during clan night that has gone rather well during its current 6 weeks of action. Royale with Cheese starts off by giving the players only one life to live and then they only get a single random weapon. There are no weapons on the map and motion sensor is turned off. Shields are turned on but vehicles are turned off. It is up to you and your teammates to work together with the weapons you start with in order to avoid being killed. The game is played as a best of 7 match with the first to win 4 rounds declared the winner. The round time limit is 3 minutes although it rarely goes that long as teams can be annihilated in a hurry depending on the starting weapons. Royale with Cheese is actually a lot of fun if the team balance is right and the weapons have a good mix to them. Give it a try with your next clan night and you are sure to have a good time (unless of course your clan members hate one life and random weapon games). I imagine the OMM is looking forward to another game of Royale with Cheese.

PLEASE READ THE BULL PEN #17 AS IT IS DEPRESSING TO SEE 0 COMMENTS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE BLOGS OUT THERE THAT GET TONS OF COMMENTS.

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The Bull Pen #17

Well, on Sunday the 11th, I returned from my first vacation in almost a 1 and ¾ years. The destination was the host site of the 1996 Olympics, Atlanta. I mainly chose the destination because of a new B&M roller coaster that was being built at Six Flags over Georgia. However, numerous other attractions, such as the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola appealed to both me and my wife as well. We drove down on Wednesday and drove back on Sunday, in both cases, arriving at our destination between 4:30 and 5:30. Six Flags over Georgia was where we spent Wednesday evening and most of Thursday (with a pool break thrown in during Thursday afternoon since our Wingate Inn was within walking distance) and it was quite an interesting park. The park is the hilliest amusement park I have ever been to and makes quite a habit of long queues that you must navigate even if nobody is in line. Goliath, the new star attraction, did live up to its billing and has secured a spot in my top 3 steel coasters, quite possibly tied for #2 with SF Great America’s Raging Bull. The airtime on the ride is incredible as virtually every hill has you out of your seat. Add in a solid setting for the ride at the front of the park and even some head chopper effects on the helix and you get a real winner for Six Flags over Georgia. The rest of the park had a mix of roller coasters that were just enough to keep us interested in the time we spent there. Goliath is a nice ride and coasters like Great American Scream Machine and Mindbender were also unique attractions but the park itself did not take over the title of favorite Six Flags from me (you still have the title Great America).

As for the rest of Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium was certainly all it was made out to be. Living in Cincinnati, we have the Newport Aquarium as an attraction that we can use as comparison. Well, the two aquariums are just different enough to recommend visiting both. Sure, the Georgia Aquarium is flashier and bigger but there are some exhibits and animals at Newport that were missed at Georgia. For instance, Newport has King and Gentoo Penguins in their own special exhibit; Newport also features a lot more shark varieties than Georgia as well as some special touches that would appeal to a river based resident. On the other hand, the GA takes advantage of its size to showcase Whale Sharks, Sea Otters, and Beluga Whales. The Whale Sharks and Beluga Whales are the two stars and the Ocean Explorer exhibit, which features the Whale Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, and a pretty sizable population of exotic fish, is the main attraction. GA also has dedicated a lot of space to touch exhibits so you can feel creatures such as sharks, rays, starfish, shrimp, and even anemones. The place did get pretty crowded after about 10 am so we were lucky that we managed to get through the Aquarium in 2 hours and still felt like we had given each exhibit its due course, thanks to arriving around 8:30 (they open at 8 am and have timed tickets for most guests – except that we had AAA tickets that allowed us to enter when we wanted to). It may very well be the priciest Aquarium in existence but I cannot imagine anyone visiting Atlanta and not taking a tour.

The other two attractions we visited while in Atlanta turned out to be semi-disappointments. We probably visited Atlanta a year too early as the World of Coca-Cola is scheduled to move to a new building next to the Aquarium in 2007. Once you visit the old museum, you can understand why the new one is being built as the place is mostly static displays and the gift shop, while featuring a lot of Coca-Cola merchandise, does not have a lot of merchandise that says both Coca-Cola and Atlanta on it. Zoo Atlanta, on the other hand, might be the most overpriced zoo out there. Yes, it does have the rare giant pandas and it also has a pretty amazing gorilla habitat but the rest of the zoo features your garden variety array of zoo animals in exhibits of varying quality. It also has a love affair with turtles as the zoo is filled with them. I am glad that I only paid half price to enter (being a member of the Cincinnati Zoo) as having to pay $18 per person (even though there was free parking) would have almost been construed as robbery. Whereas I was able to make favorable comparisons so that the Georgia Aquarium and Newport Aquariums could each be their own unique entity, I could not help but think of all that I enjoy about Cincinnati Zoo while traversing Zoo Atlanta. Such unique things I enjoy are: the Cat House, the World of Insects (Leaf-Cutter Ants), the various Gibbons, Manatee Springs, White Tigers, the River Otter and Mexican Wolf exhibit, etc. Anyways, the rest of the Atlanta trip can be summarized by stating that Tracey and I managed to use the MARTA trains with utmost efficiency and also took in the local Hard Rock Café (I have my wife hooked on their BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger). We also went and saw Pixar’s Cars at an AMC with a digital projector (awesome stuff).

Custom Game of the Week: I will try to keep it short but the birthday of the Old Men Mafia is coming up and we are going to have a celebration, Halo 2 style. I would like to play an updated version of my Fiesta Grande game, known as OMM Party Grande, but am kind of stumped as to what options should be added or modified from the original game type. I was thinking of making the game 30 minutes and adding a death point loss feature to the game to really throw things out of whack. However, there could be all kinds of suggestions and I think the input of the OMM would be much appreciated. Perhaps a round based version of Fiesta Grande with a limited number of lives per round. Anyways, this should be big fun and it may take multiple party leaders to host it all.

[4 Comments]

The Bull Pen #16

Well, vacation week is here for the Bull and that can only mean one thing: riding roller coasters. My vacation is not completely revolving around roller coasters but a new roller coaster is the reason for my destination. I am visiting the city of Atlanta from the 7th through the 11th and the new coaster Goliath at Six Flags over Georgia is the star attraction. Of course, I will not be spending all my time at the amusement park; on the contrary, my wife and I also plan on visiting the other new big attraction in Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium has already played host to over 2 million visitors since opening late last November (that my friends is some serious business in roughly half a year). The big attraction at the aquarium is the whale sharks; the only other place to see these sharks is in Asia, so that is quite the lure. Throw in a visit to the World of Coca-Cola and Zoo Atlanta (since we are members of the local Cincinnati Zoo [an awesome zoo if you have not been there]) and it is quite an action packed trip considering we will only be there for 3 full days. My Old Men Mafia mates have a trip report to look forward to. The bad news for them is that I will not be around on Friday to run Battle Royale run #6. Then again, they might like the break in the action.

On the subject of Halo 2, I have only played online once in the last 9 days and that was on Friday night the 2nd. The lack of fellow clan mates being on in Halo 2 has forced my willingness to plug in the modem into the XBOX to dwindle. Combine that with some exciting Stanley Cup playoff games, a dearth of new movies worth watching on HBO, and a little RPG called Jade Empire, and it is easy to see why I have been scarce. This week will obviously be no different with vacation so I may need to binge come the week of the 11th. That is fair warning for all you reading this blog so that you can get on because I will probably be itching to play all my favorite custom games. My skills could use the workout as I was a little off while playing last Friday. There is something to be said about playing every day and getting your timing down just right.

Custom Game of the Week: No one specific game gets the special treatment this week but instead I will go over some of my favorite games again and how they have played out. Nucking Futs is a game that has not been featured here but probably will next week as it has quickly become one of my most popular. It truly lived up to its name when 16 players were battling it out on Sanctuary. I try to get the point out that team multiplier is not on but it never ceases to amaze me how many people try to get into the hill at once, especially since it moves every 30 seconds. The recently profiled SWAT Potato has managed to find a home in one of Bungie’s playlists although I doubt they have the ball indicator turned off while uncontrolled or controlled by the opposing team. I would have played this during the most recent clan night but really was not in the mood for it. Fiesta Grande is one that I have not played in quite some time so I might have to sneak that one in there on the next clan night. I probably could have run Ghostbusters with the group I had Friday night but unfortunately did not. I do hope that folks will give this one a chance when they actually do play it because it does make for a visually interesting game. As for my other custom games, there is always a place for them on my list but I try to understand the group I am playing with and what they might particularly like. My list does have some deficiencies, especially for the crowd that likes shotguns and/or Snipers as the default or only weapons but I could bring a variant of Snot Bombs to a map well suited for that game type. Anyways, I always appreciate feedback on a game type of mine that you have either liked or do not like. The best compliment I can get on a custom game is that you want to play it again and you are willing to set it up on your own XBOX. In fact, you can even offer me suggestions for custom games that I should put on my XBOX and feature here.

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