Zombies

So, the disadvantage to so many good games coming out in such a short period of time, is that I will be forced to leave some behind. Unfortunately, Left 4 Dead is going to be one of those casualties.

Normally, this would hold a special place in my heart, since it involves killing zombies. However, they are FAST zombies, so I won't cry too much.

We have another volleyball game tonight! These may be our most difficult opponents yet, since they are 9-0. The score is off a little bit, since they should have played 12 games by now, but they only have 9 listed. In any case, The BWE will play hard, and we'll see who comes out on top. My intimidating facial hair should also help.

Winter vs. Nuclear Wasteland

Winter in Canada isn't so bad, because you're usually prepared for it. Unfortunately, we were fairly unprepared for the 15cm of snow we got last night. I had to change out the mats in the car and find the snow brush in the middle of the storm last night, and I still haven't put the winter tires on because it's supposed to be 15C on Friday. That's too warm for snow tires.

Also, the garage hasn't been cleaned out yet, so I can't even park the car in there. I can't clean out the garage until we're done with Halloween, since we have a large witch in there that I will need to disassemble. Ah well. At least I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Once the garage is clean, then I will have time for Fallout! I found a funny developer diary here. In it, the developer describes how he decided to make up a character as he went through the game, rather than just playing the game. Each time he played through, his experience was completely different. For example, you can imagine that "Bob the Drunken Do-Gooder" would behave a bit differently than "Stanley the Emotionally Scarred Coward".

So many games, so little time!

For our Halloween recap, I'll direct you to my wife's blog. She has all the pictures. :)

This month is going to be hell on my wallet. Fable 2, Fallout 3, and Gears of War 2 are all releasing within a few weeks of each other. So, in order to soften the financial blow of buying 3 games so close together, I'm only going to have TWO pub lunches between now and January 1st. I've been making it a habit to go out once a week for lunch with work buddies, but I need to cut down on that. Cutting out 7 pub lunches pays for two games in full, so it sounds like a good tradeoff.

Bastards!

So yesterday, my work buddy S and I decide to go out for a pint at lunch yesterday, and we go to the Royal Oak on Hunt Club Road. I order the "special", which they tell you is a spicy chicken sandwich, but they mean is raw chicken. And I'm not talking about slightly pink in the middle. I mean, this is what chicken looks like in the meat section of a grocery store. I only noticed by the time I got to the centre of my sandwich, because it was breaded and spicy.

Needless to say, I was quite grossed out, and didn't feel well for the rest of the day. I had a great game of volleyball, though. My team is encouraging me to eat raw chicken more often. Don't bet on it, guys.

Lips

While the name sounds a little dumb, the game looks like one my wife would love. Lips is a karaoke game for the XBox 360, basically. It releases mid-November, and they promise downloadable content for it too. Rock Band is amazing, but if you really just want to sing (and are into pop music) then Lips looks like the game for you. Some of the included tracks:

- Beyoncé "Irreplaceable"

- Rihanna "Umbrella"

- The Jackson 5 "ABC"

- Leona Lewis "Bleeding Love"

I don't particularly like any of those songs. But honestly, after enough beer, I'd probably sing them anyway.

PC vs. XBox 360

I picked up Fable II today, and I will get to playing it as soon as my wife is done with the TV. In the meantime, I figured I would discuss a little bit about my personal opinion on the Xbox 360 vs. the PC as a gaming platform. Everyone has their own point of view about this, but this is mostly for the benefit of my friends that play videogames, but don't currently own a 360.

I work all day in front of a PC. So when I want to relax, I don't really want to be in front of a PC anymore. My desk chair isn't all that comfortable, and when I'm sitting in front of a keyboard, it just reminds me of more work. When I play on my 360, I'm on a comfy sofa. There is no email anywhere nearby, and it's a much more relaxed setting.

Also, things are EASIER on the 360 when compared to a PC. If I have a new game I want to play, I put it in the tray and go. I don't have to install the game, type a key, update my video drivers, reboot, or anything like that. I don't have to worry about DRM installing wierd crap on my machine, either. Again, it just feels a lot less like work.

There is also the whole Xbox Live aspect of it too. A Gold membership costs something like $60 a YEAR, which lets you play online against other people, tracks your game stats, etc. The money is very much worth it, because the online matchmaking service is very good, stable and fast. XBox Live also tracks in-game "Achievements", which is basically just for bragging rights, or gamers would want to absolutely, positively complete everything that there is to do in a single game. Some achievements are quite funny, such as this one in Fable II: 

"The Chicken Kicker: Kick a chicken a good distance, or see one getting kicked."

I guarantee you'll see that one on my gamercard as soon as possible.

Sandvich!

Yesterday, my wife made me a fantastic slow-cooker roast beef. I got the butcher to cut it fresh for me, then we cooked it 8 hours in the slow cooker. The sauce had root beer, ginger and BBQ sauce (among other things), and made the whole house smell good the whole day. When it came out, it was so tender I couldn't carve it, it just fell apart. It was so good, I brought some for lunch today, bought a fresh baguette, and made a fantastic sandwich out of it. If I had a camera at work, (and if people wouldn't have thought I was crazy), I would post a picture of it. It was that good. Seriously.

A buddy of mine has been talking about Fable 2 for a while now, and I think I might pick it up. I haven't bought a game in a while, and there is talk that Fable 2 might get some Game of the Year awards. It's an RPG that (supposedly) combines meaty combat with layers of rich chunky moral choices and tops it all with fresh crusty french bread co-op.

Yeah, the roast was that good.

Under pressure

As you may have already read on my wife's blog, The Billy Whitmore Experience is now 12-0. In our second game of three on Thurday, we were quite far behind. Like, 11-21 far behind, with the game ending at 25 points. We realized we were in trouble, and managed to really crank it up at the end, and brought it to 22-24, with ME serving next. I had been serving like crap all game, and now I couldn't make a single mistake, or the other team would win.

It was stressed out, nervous, pacing, and just generally trying to ignore the rest of the team who was either telling me "Don't screw up!" or "Relax!". Thanks guys. In any case, My three serves made it over the net, and the team didn't let anything by either, and we won the game 25-24. Yay us!

Also, congratulations to the wife for getting published in the Ottawa Citizen. She's a much more diligent blogger than I. :)

Back to "normal"

It's been a while since I posted last, so here's a brief summary:

- Thursday through Saturday, Jenn and I were in Kingston. We did a 3-hour boat tour of the 1000 Islands, ate at some very nice restaurants, and just relaxed in general.

- On Saturday, we went to the 3rd World Bazaar and picked up a wooden fish that I named Mr. Glubs.

- Sunday was a turkey dinner at my brother-in-law's house. She did a good job on the turkey, very well done for her first try!

- Monday was our turn to host the turkey dinner. It was honestly the best turkey that Jenn and I have ever done! Even my carving was better this time. :)

I'll think of something more interesting for my next post.

Sushi Surprise

A small Sushi restaurant recently opened up near the wife and I, so we decided to give it a try tonight. I've had sushi before, but my experince has been very limited. I've had the following:

- seaweed, rice and a little green thing

- seaweed, rice and a little pink thing

Now, I figure that makes me some kind of Sushi Connoisseur, right? I look at the menu to the new restaurant, and I deduce that I have probably had an Avocado Roll, and a Salmon Roll before. I did some research before coming, and I figure that a California Roll (avocado, cucumber, fake crab) sounds good too. So I order an Avocado Roll, a Spicy Salmon Roll, and a California Roll.

When I get it home, I can't recognize anything on the little tray except for the avocado one. Those were OK. The salmon one was some kind of crazy salmon salad instead of a little piece of fish, and the California Roll is made up mostly of flying fish eggs. SURPRISE! MOUTHFULL OF FISH EGGS! Needless to day, most of the dinner did NOT get eaten, and I'm now enjoying a turkey sandwich.

Billy is 6-0 so far!

We won our game last night, 3-0! The whole team played well, but I definitely need to work on my serves a bit. I think I had the MOST flubbed serves out of anyone there. Kind of embarassing, but I pulled my own weight by guarding the net pretty well, and doing a good number of bump-returns. My goals for the next game:

- Improve my serves

- Learn to bump-set instead of just bump-returning

Go Billy!

Pre-Game

I'm really excited about playing volleyball tonight. I mentioned it yesterday, but I'm saying it again now. I'm excited! I'm finishing up my work day by migrating some user data from a remote datacenter to this one. And reading volleyball rules. And checking volleyball standings. And looking at directions to the gym. And reminding myself not to dig. Shit, I forgot about that data!

I have compiled a list of the pros and cons of indoor volleyball for you, since I know you care:

Pros:

- Immune to weather effects

- No chasing the volleyball out of bounds (yay walls!)

- No chance of a stray ball landing in your court (one court in the gym)

- Changeroom/water fountain/bathrooms are readily available.

- Don't have to shake sand out of your underwear, ears, and leg hair

Cons:

- Diving and digging is dangerous (alliteration: always awesome!)

- No tanning opportunities

There you have it. The team we play tonight has a 1-2 record, but that doesn't indicate much after only playing one other team. We'll see how happy and enthusiastic I am after the game.

Billy Whitmore II: Billy Rides Again

That was the name I proposed for our volleyball team's second season. It was shot down in favour of keeping our standard "The Billy Whitmore Experience". The wife and I missed the first game last week (she was on a plane, I was on the ground waiting for the plane), but we're psyched for this game. I have to admit, I'm a little hooked on playing volleyball. To me, the ultimate moment comes when you can nail a block, spike or a dig. Bumps, volleys and serves are all well and good, but they're not cool. We'll see if I can make it though a game in a gym without injuring myself. I'm used to playing on sand, you see.