Check out the Pod cast from Code and DSmooth then go to the front cover to read the latest interview with International Game Developers Association.

J-Cat asked in her blog earlier today whether she was "hardcore". As in Hardcore Gamer.

The question has resonated with some folks because of E3. There has been a great deal of discussion about how the Big Three seemed to be concentrating on the Casual Gamer. There was even some outrage from Nintendo fanboys that Nintendo is not serving the Nintendo Hardcore Gamers. The snob in me sees the term Nintendo Hardcore Gamer as an oxymoron. This flash of self-awareness is probably contributing to my writing this blog. Am I looking down my nose at certain gamers?

J-Cat's question and supporting information got me thinking about how we really quantify our 1337ness.

Does the use of 1337-speak qualify you? Only as a poser.

Does possessing an almost god-like skill at a single game or genre qualify you? Only for some sort of compulsive or addictive disorder.

Is it spending 8-12 hours each day playing video games? No. That just means you're unemployed.

So what qualifies you as "hardcore"?

To begin with, I am now preaching to the choir. If you are reading this blog you are a member of 2o2p. I don't use this forum to connect with friends and family. The very fact that you are a member of a video game-centric website qualifies you as hardcore. And this isn't some general purpose video game site. This is a niche site. +1 on your hardcore status.

What about the other poor folks out there? Are they hardcore?

Let's try this easy checklist:

• Would you rather play videogames than watch TV?
• Do you belong to a clan?
• Have you ever marked a game's release date on you calendar?
• Have you ever pre-ordered a game?
• Have you ever purchased the special/limited/collector's edition of a game?
• Have you ever tried to explain a really cool part of a game to a non-gamer?
• Did they think you were crazy?

Like a number of gamers I play a lot of different games. (I updated my game list to the right to illustrate what I've played.) I play enough FPS to beat most of the people I know personnaly but still get my head handed to me on LIVE. My recent return to Gears after a year or so has shown me how poor I really am. It also reminded me of how much fun the game is. I've played Oblivion and Mass Effect so much my 360 says "not again!" every time I load one of those disks. I've spent more on RockBand DLC than actual CDs in the past year.

But that's kind of the point. The games are fun! They are more fun than work. They are more fun than channel-surfing. They are more fun than getting a boil lanced.

It's not about your gamerscore or ranking (although to everyone with less GS than me: PWNED!!!).

Being hardcore is a love of the games and the people that play them.

Drew up this pic of Batman today. 

Here is a closer shot:

I think his left arm (our right) is a bit on the short side.  Ah well...

On another note, I received a replacement disc drive for my laptop, so I can re-install my tablet software and get back to doodling in PS.

Thanks for lookin' and have a great weekend everyone!

Well the league is offically full, we have all 36 players and 9 GM's. This will be good times for sure. Again i cant thank everyone enough for signing up for this.

the kick off is this Tuesday 7/29/08 with the FFA, im currently finishing the Major Spreadsheet, this spreadsheet will detail everthing in the league.stats, player points, team points and much much more. there is a vote now in the halo forum if people want to see the stats spreadsheet or just the GM's. Personally i dont think its a big deal, but i will leave it up to the vote.

as for this weekend i dont have much planned, i need to mail back mass effect as it was so so for me. Other then that i just need to wash my cars and clean my house for the wife. We are going out to the bar with friends tonight, Augies of course. so that should be fun.

Guitar Hero 3 came out with the virtuoso pack, that has steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Buckethead all are great to play. On Hard they are insane, in a good way though. i scored 309,000 on medium on buckethead but on Hard i only got 330,000 so i need a little work on it. Hard for bucket head has 1800 notes lol im scared to see what expert looks like or how many notes it has lol. ill be messing with that this weekend.

www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php

Tron 2 FTW!!!!

For those who do not wish to click the link:

"There was a big surprise revealed today at the end of Walt Disney Pictures' movie presentation at San Diego Comic-Con: the debut of the trailer for "Tron 2." [via IGN]

The trailer begins with a cityscape shot that leads into a multiplane, cyber-reality gaming level. A bearded man in a blue and black battlesuit runs into frame, hiding momentarily from his foe: a black-and-green clad biker whose face is obscured behind a biker helmet. The bearded man and his opponent become engaged in a Light Cycle chase through the various stages of the course.

Just when the bearded man thinks he has evaded his foe, the black-and-green cyclist bolts out in front of him. The bearded man screams as he crashes through his foe's Light Cycle trail, smashing into a virtual wall of colored light. His Cycle destroyed, the bearded man lies broken and beaten as his opponent approaches him.

The trailer then cuts to the real world where we see an older Kevin Flynn -- yes, once again played by Jeff Bridges! -- rising to his feet inside of a virtual reality computer room and holding a device in his hand. Bearded and with his longish silvery hair slicked back, Flynn is far more menacing and cold than he ever seemed in the 1982 original.

Cut back to inside the game world where the victorious Light Cyclist's helmet visor flickers open to reveal Flynn's face. His defeated opponent whimpers, "But it's only a game," to which Flynn cryptically replies, "Not anymore." The trailer then cuts to the sequel's logo: TR2N.

The crowd was told that no more footage from the film would be seen publicly until next year, closer to the film's release."

END OF LINE

JR

    Well it was a great day in Costco land yesterday.

    After a month of not having my Mexico Coca-Cola they finally got It back in stock

    It is made with sugar and not high fructose corn sugar.

    It makes a huge difference in taste the sugar Coke is crisper and well damnit I just prefer it.

    You can sometimes find the Kosher Coke and Pepsi around Passover that is made with sugar and not corn sryup.

    Do yourself a favor and find it will take you back to your youth when we were not deluged with the uber sweet corn syrup.

This weeks episode of 2old2type Radio has been posted. After some complaints last week about the background music being too soft, I upped it a bit this week, but it's a little higher than I'd like... Next week I'll split the difference... Please Digg the podcast, rate it in iTunes, tell your friends, etc.

You can find the link here:

http://www.2old2play.com/News/2old2type_Ep_41__It__39_s_Deadly_Alright

Derek

I think this is real, but it is on the cusp of being real or fake...It it is real...god damn that is cool.

After reading BigOne’s blog, I too am reminded of my youth and how strict my parents were, well, they weren’t exactly strict, but they had the music that they listened to, the radio was always on specific stations….basically, no druggy music, no profanities, and none of that “Satan stuff”. So I grew up listening to Billy Joel, the Monkeys, Paul Simon, the Eagles, numerous musicals, and Neil Diamond. I was even named after Neil Diamond, (no screwball, my first name is not Diamond).