Amazingly enough I found two more games I’d love to have. First, Lord of the Rings Conquest which is a hack’n’slash game it looks like but looks awesome , Left 4 Dead is a zombie game which I had originally thought might be okay but after playing the demo, I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Last if I didn’t metion it before, Halo Wars . An RTS in the halo universe, what more do you need?

So it’s be a long time since I’ve posted last, however it’s been a crazy past few months. Starting a new job, having some car issues, and just trying to get into a rhythm not to mention the whole crazy writing a novel in a month thing started again a few days ago. Not to mention, there has been more awesome video games that have come out in the past few months then I’ll probably ever have time to play. But just for sanity’s sake, here is a quick rundown of all of the games I’m hoping to play.

RTS:
End War -
This game not only looks like a lot of fun, it’s an RTS in which you use voice commands to control your units. While it didn’t get a perfect score for gameplay, this is truly an RTS designed from the ground up to be played on console. Not only could the idea of voice control for units be revolutionary, but it would just be a lot of fun . I’ve been a sucker for RTS’s ever since Warcraft, and this makes me want to jump back into them again. Review Score: 8.0 from IGN

Civ Revolution -
While I’ve never played a Civilazaiton game, this one I have to say seems pretty awesome. Not only does it bring the gameplay from civ to the console, but from what I’ve heard it’s a lot of fun. From the reviews I read if you’ve played the other civ games that this may seem a bit watered down, but that it’s still a great experience. Review Score: 8.8 from IGN

Age Of Booty -
An XBLA game which means it doesn’t cost you nearly as much as the ones listed above. However it looks like an awesome fun game for the price you pay. FOr those who love strategy games, you really can’t go wrong here . Review Score: 7.8 from IGN

Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II -
This is an older game from 2006, but I’ve still not had the opportunity to play it and it looks awesome. How can you really go wrong with Lord of the Rings in an RTS? Review Score: 8.2 from IGN

Shooter Genre:
Gears of War 2 -
Personally I didn’t really like GoW as I felt the level of difficulty was a bit to hard, and had a control system that wasn’t very satisfying. When it worked it was good, but the times it didn’t, it made me want to throw my controller at the wall. The story seemed interesting, although wasn’t near as heavy as what I wanted (where is my FPS with a story as engaging as an RPG!?!), but it was good in it’s own right. However, it sounds like they may have fixed some of the control issues and I may try to give this a second shot as it’s gotten such great reviews. Also the horde mode where you have to fight off waves of guys seems very interesting and like it could be a lot of fun. Review Score: 9.5 from IGN

Battlefield Bad Company -
This game looks awesome, I just haven’t gotten around to buying/playing it yet. I still haven’t gotten tired of playing Halo 3 so starting a new FPS just seems like I shouldn’t…but it still looks so good .

Call Of Duty 5: World At War -
Do I really need to justify this one? COD4 engine, put in WWII scenario. At the worst this looks like it will be COD4, and at best Tetryiarch may have improved on COD4. No matter what I’ll probably end up getting this game at some point, but I’m going to try to resist for as long as I can.

Portal: Still Alive -
If you haven’t played portal yet, go buy it now. Stop reading, just go buy it. Portal is the most amazing game I played this past year and I bought the Orange Box (Halflife 2, hl2 ch1, hl2 ch2, team fortress and portal) and it is still the game I remeber the most from this year. Honestly I think it was better then Halo 3 and for all of you who know me, you know how much I love halo 3 . Review Score 9.2 from IGN

RPG:
Fallout 3 -
I never played the first fallout games but this one has been touted as a stand alone game that’s just amazing. Created by the same studio that does the Oblivion games, I’ve heard nothing but great things and this game seems like it would be awesome even for those who like the FPS genre as there is a lot of shooting elements in it. But if you interested check out the review 9.6 from IGN.

Fable 2 -
I played the first Fable for a few hours and generally enjoy the experience, but I was never motivated to finish it. However Fable 2 looks awesome and I’ve been resisting the temptation to pick up Fable 1 and Fable 2 (especially since you can buy Fable 1 off of XBL and download it straight to your 360). 8.8 from IGN.

Music Games:
Guitar Hero World Tour -
While not as good as Rock Band II, this game seems good in it’s own right, and has a pretty cool drum setup (if your isn’t one of those ones that fail). I almost feel now like I have to have all the music/rhythm games and that is not a good habit to get into . 7.9 from IGN.

Other Fun Games:
Viva Pinata 2 -
The first Viva Pinata was both fun and addicting, and I still haven’t picked up the second one as I know I’d just be back to rasing pinatas again .

The worst part is I still have to finish all of the Orange Box (basically all of Halflife 2), Rock Band 2, Viva Pinata, Wii Fit, Smashbrothers, Boom Blox, and there is this little game called Halo 3 that I like to play from time to time . And there are still a whole bunch of past titles I’d like to play (like Eternal Sonata) and there is a lot of good games coming out in the future (like Halo Wars) so now I just need to convince my wife that I can buy all of these and then convince the world to add more hours to each day

So I’m not one to post much of the music I like here, as that would be waaaaaaaaay to much , however some of the guys I know who started a band a couple years before I met them have released their new album and it’s amazing . The band is called The Classic Crime, and even though I probably would buy the album to support them, but the amazing thing is that now I’m a fan . Although I do have to say it is a bit weird to listen to their album and to think “Hey, I’ve played music with some of these guys…” so check out their latest Album The Silver Cord and any of their other albums are amazing too!

So I know, your all thinking “didn’t you just get a new job 9 months ago?” and you would be correct however I was offered a job at Microsoft earlier this week and I have decided to take it. And actually I’m really excited, I’ll be working on one piece of software you all know and love, Windows . So you may ask why? Well I decided to bring back my handy chart I used before

Test Associate I
Test Assoicate II (What I was last Auguest)
Test Associate III
Software Test Engineer I (Where I have been for the last 9 months)
STE II
STE III
SDET I
SDET II
SDET III
Full Time SDET That is Not Contract (What I will be

So I’ll have a full time position at MS and I’ll even be trained in a few programming languages which will be awesome, so I’m really looking forward to it. I am a bit sad as I do love my company, but the same learning experience just wasn’t there so it was time to move on. Now hopefully I won’t be changing jobs again soon…

It’s real, don’t question it

via videosift.com

So my wife and I went and bought two new cars today, two Ford Foci! (that would be a Focus and another Focus) which are really cool and after looking at all the compact cars that are out there we settled on these. So you may see us driving around in sweet new rides! Look for pictures coming soon

Check out the new post on elephantgamestudio.com and be watching for more to come

So I’m working on a little side project with one of my friends, Rob Bokone, or I guess I should say we’re experimenting with Halo a bit so be looking for some new stuff on ElephantGameStudio.com. Also, I posted some links to my Halo 3 screens, I finally got them all organized and in one place so be sure to check the link for the post I made on ElephantGameStudio.com…and I think I’ll say that one more time…

ElephantGameStudio.com

So today I went to alberstons and I had something happen that I never thought would happen…I got Rick Rolled…

For those of you who don’t know what being rickrolled is. It’s basically being mislead to a website where you will hear a song that will take a while to get out of your head . So for example…

Hey all, I can’t believe it but there is going to be a Halo 4! You have to check out all of the details here!

So this has become the thing to do on the internet lately I guess, but I never expected it from my grocery store…

So I go to pick up dinner after work at Albertsons, and they even have a sign out front for a great deal on their premade dinner packages. Lately they’ll have a stand up front with different items (like salad, bread an entree, etc) and all you have to do is grab it and go which since Wednesday is my night to make dinner, I thought “Hey this will be awesomely fast!’ So I go in the store, but when I get in there is no stand like normal…which is a little weird, but I figure hey, I’m sure it’s just somewhere else so I’ll take a look around. I wander around the store, grabbing a few other things that I need and I stop to ask one of the guys stocking the shelves where I can find this great dinner special, and he just looks at me with this kind of hopeless look in his eyes and says “make…the music…stop…” and that’s when I heard it. Growing in the background…”I’m never going to give you up, I’m never going to let you down…” I wanted to scream. That’s when I knew there was no sale, and suddenly the lights lowered and the music video began playing throughout the store. I ran for the exit, but I couldn’t make it in time as there was just a large version of Rick Astley dancing on the doors…and there was no escape. After a few minutes, they let us go, dazed we wandered out of the store…not knowing what to do as if something had been taken from each of us. None of us ever expected our grocery store would Rick Roll us…

So, there may be a little exaggeration in this, but I actually did go to albertsons, and they do make premade dinners and in my mind the store did Rick Roll me since as I was grabbing for the BBQ sauce, I heard that music just playing over the speakers…and it haunts me still.

So don’t forget! Click here!

I’m never gonna give you up…never gonna let you down

So I just took the same online political test I took over a year ago (you can see my posts for the month of sept 2006 for my last results) and funily enouhg I have moved from being more centered to being more left leaning…whatever that means . I guess I may have to vote for a democratic candidate now

Your Score: Neo-Liberal

You scored 46% Personal Liberty and 33% Economic Liberty!

A neo-liberal believes in moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They believe in a social safety net or welfare state and try to balance personal liberty with safety or security. Some neo-liberals believe in more foreign intervention or war then most other leftists. Others are more like Centrist Democrats. More authoritarian-leaning Neo-liberals (such as personal 40/economic 30) are the result of a “fusion” between “old left” and “new right” tendencies.