Dude! dude-dude-dude-dude!!

Diablo III.


whoa.

In Memoriam

I started playing D&D in 1978. Yikes.


Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

More want

Brain control headset for gamers

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year.

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv.

"It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added.

Sign me up. :D

*squee*

A MMO based on Champions. I'm torn between delight and fear. Okay, and I don't have broadband...

Wish List

[little kid voice]
Dear Santa,
I wanna XBox 360... an' Mass Effect... an' thumbs so I can play it.
[little kid voice]

Say It Isn't So!

The Weekly World News is shutting down! No more Bat Boy... no more predictions of the end of the world... no more strange stories from South America... and to whom will Thrash sell his stories now? (obligatory Chill reference...)

Sadness...

*bleep*

Just poured hot coffee (the extra-acidic stuff from the very bottom of the pot) over the tip of my left thumb. Why did I sell off that DEX for more INT-based skills? (And why weren't my INT-based skills sufficient to prevent me from pouring coffee at a funny angle in the first place?)
:D

We won (mostly)!

With much grumbling about Microsoft and how this would be so much easier in Linux, my compatriot J got the wireless network running. Our main technical difficulty: The used router I got back in '05 really wants to be connected directly to broadband, and we're running dialup through one of the PCs. So we had to go static IP instead of DHCP, just to get things up and running.

And, for some reason, the NIC on the motherboard on the PC with the dialup doesn't even show up in the BIOS, so it's talking to the router wirelessly. I found an old 10/1o0 card in "the pile", and may whack it in there.

But, by the end of the night, all the PCs we had on were able to see each other, share the internet connection, and share the printer. Victory! And the multi-player in HoMM III (the whole point of the exercise) looks like it'll run happily over TCP/IP.

Gaming, sweet sweet gaming

Thinking back, my computer gaming career started with Diablo, in autumn 1999. Patrick introduced me to it, and over the course of the next few years I literally wore out the CD-ROM drive in my laptop playing it. I think I can find our printout of Jarulf's guide... I usually played a Rogue, Patrick a Warrior, and Edgar a Sorcerer. Both Edgar and I racked up a good number of ears from Patrick's Warrior, because he kept wandering into our lines of fire, the silly boy.

I almost wore out my anticipation gland waiting for Diablo II. I asked for it for my birthday, as it was close to the predicted release date, and actually received it six months later. (Darn software developers.) Played the snot out of DII and DII: Lord of Destruction, though we didn't get as much multi-player goodness out of that.

About the time I got tired of DII (Gasp! yes, it can happen) I found Dungeon Siege. (Oddly enough, I saw Patrick playing it... there may be a pattern developing here.) Hmmm, hacking and slashing (and spell casting and bow shooting). Plot? Whatevs. Tasty. :D Same goes for Dungeon Siege II. Now I just need the expansion pack. And the PSP game. (Not sure about the movie. Pluses: Jason Statham! Ron Perlman! Minuses: Burt Reynolds! Uwe "worst movie director since Ed Wood, and I think Ed might have been better" Boll!)

Then, in December 2002, came the big one... Neverwinter Nights. Though I'd only played 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons once, I fell in love with this game. Made a point of trying to play all the main classes, prestige classes, and interesting class combinations. Bought all the expansions. Started writing maybe 13 zillion mods. Got involved on the forums. Seriously thought about getting a job with BioWare in Edmonton. (I was tickled pink to be able to put "Started playing D&D in 1978" on a resume. And you said gaming was a waste of time, Dad! ;) )

Then we got an Xbox. So much BioWare goodness! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic! Played thru light side and dark side, tried all the character classes. (Haven't finished KoToR II yet -- ran out of thumbs.) Bought Jade Empire the second it came out and finished it almost as quickly. Gave Morrowind a shot, but it was almost *too* big. That and Fable await me when I return to gaming.

I shan't even mention the PSP. :D

Our latest project is to get the kiddo's PC set up and networked for family gaming. Dang, I've got to get well...