Television Evolved
By Luke | December 4, 2007
Right now I am happily enjoying, besides video games, my new form of tv. How can you evolve the already perfected tv? You do it by adding in a YouTube feature (video on demand).
[blockquote]The service is a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp. Providence Equity Partners has also made a USD$100 million equity investment and holds a 10% stake in the company.
The service is expected to offer full-length episodes of NBC and FOX television programs, selected movies while also accepting user-submitted videos in direct competition with YouTube.[/blockquote]
It is in beta testing and the only way in is through invitation from the site or by user. I would highly suggest signing up. Hulu has loads of quality shows and movies. The quality is great in its normal formatting. When put in full screen the quality all depends on the show. I watched Ghost Hunters in full screen and it was all pixelated. I watched Life in full screen and it is crisp. Those two shows… you got to see one episode and then you’ll be hooked!
During your video there are advertisements that can range from a few seconds to 30 seconds. I would say that this is way better than tv or even tivo/dvr.
You definitely need to try this out!
Hulu website
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Blog Banter: Old School, Middle School, New School
By Luke | December 1, 2007
Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about video games. We enjoy getting together once a month to write about the same subject. You will be amazed at the different viewpoints so many people can have on the same exact topic. If you are interested in participating, contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!
I could start off by talking about how I found my love of cooking by playing Burgertime on the Atari 2600, my astonishment when the princess wasn’t in level 7-4 in Super Mario Bros, or my reckless driving days in Super Mario Kart. No, that would be too ordinary for myself and well… average just doesn’t coincide with me.
My first memory starts off on the early morning of December 25, 1994. I stayed up making sure that Santa brought what I really wanted. Long story short there is no Santa, it was just my mom! After finding out this terrible news I fell back to sleep. When I awoke I found the prized Donkey Kong Country in my stocking. Ripping that box to shreds and tossing Mario Paint to the side I played till my little heart couldn’t take it.
The real memory is after beating it a thousand times I could pick specific songs from my mom’s cd collection (60’s through early 90’s) and play a song that would go along perfect with each level. If I did everything right I could beat the level just when the song ended. My favorite was the final boss battle (King K. Rool). I played a Bryan Adams song for the first part. The song ended around the time when the credits were done playing which brought out the second time you had to fight him. The next song on the cd was low and mysterious just like the astonishment when finding out you had to beat him again. This is where my appreciation for the music scores began. When timing the music just right you just get that warm fuzzy feeling inside (cheesy!).
I am going to change things up and stop around 1998. A couple blocks from my house at the time was a bowling alley. At said bowling alley was an arcade. Said arcade had a machine. Said machine was the addicting arcade version of Gauntlet Legends. I swear to this day that I will have the arcade cabinet version in my house someday.
After playing it for awhile the first time I got a few friends together to try it out. They each loved it just as much as I did. I played as the wizard while the others fought between the warrior, valkyrie, and archer. We all met up on Tuesdays to play till no one had quarters. The bond we created together was amazing. We pooled together all the money we could come across during the week so that we could all play together. Plus each other had a set realm to read up on during the week. That way one of us knew where the rune stones were, how to beat the boss, and all the other extras found throughout the level. The teamwork we possessed was just incredible. It taught me a lot about working with others to get the job done.
Now we come to the end with my newest memory. In Halo 3 the creators, Bungie, decided to add a little bit more replay value. They added a meta-game that would calculate your kill and give you points upon difficulty and skill. Static and I were helping our friend Saint run through the first mission to get the 15,000 point achievement for it. It was probably one or two in the morning when the insane antics happened.
We let Saint run ahead while we helped out when needed. To pass the time I had ran upstairs to reheat some breakfast sausage. When I came back Static was just standing there. He was surfing the internet. This was just not okay with me. What did I do? I killed him. Then again, again, again, and again. You get the point. After awhile he started to retaliate back. This is where the fun started. When killing the other we would scream at the other like, “Oh yeah! I bet you loved the feel of that plasma!!” It went back and forth for awhile.
In the end I had looked away to eat one of the sausages which caused me to get assassinated from behind. He comically stated, “You’re a big man now huh!! Huh!!! Yeah, come get some big man!” I was laughing so hard that I started to almost choke on the food. Not being able to clearly tell them what was going on on my side, all they heard was, “… choking… sausage…” Yes, it was late and we had perverted minds. When I was able to calm down Saint chimed in with a, “What are you guys doing back there!!?!?”
Thanks to the co-op feature I wouldn’t have had such great relationships with these two guys. We hang out in RL when we can but it is usually at night on Xbox Live when we truly have fun.
Video games have made an impact throughout my life. Whether it is taking notice of the small things, learning the importance of teamwork, or just building a better friendship. I love video games and I hope to be a part of them for the coming generations.
Other Blog Banter Articles :
Boffman22’s Memorable Gaming Moments (Boom Stick Brigade)
I love you Intellivision! (Boom Stick Brigade)
Just how much fun LAN can be! (Cat’s Blog)
Memoirs of a Young Gamer (Gaming with Baby)
Memorable Gaming Moments (Hawty McBloggy)
To Memory Lane and Back (Play Your Station)
Hit the Reset Button (Thoughts and Rants)
Memorable Gaming Moments (Zath Games Tech)
Becoming an Ace and Dealing With Minsc (Delayed Responsibility)
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Find A New GamerPic
By Luke | November 6, 2007
Thanks to the great folks over at MyGamerCard.net you can now search their huge (and I mean huge!) database of gamerpics. Their service is called The GamerPic Scout and I love it! I have always been hesitant when searching for a new gamerpic since you cannot see them before hand. Why would you spend some 100-200 points for pictures that you dont even know what they look like?
You have a few options when searching:
The first is by the title which has to contain every single game, movie, what have you.
The second is keyword. Say you are a big fan of water. Just type in ‘water’ and hit enter. It will then show you every gamerpic that has been tagged with the word water.
The final option is by gamertag. Type in the person’s gamertag that you want to check out. When you find the person it wont exactly tell you that you found the person but just bring up the gamerpic they are using, where it ranks in the category, ranks overall, and how many others are using it.
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Good News, Bad News
By Luke | November 6, 2007
The good news is I just picked my copy of Call of Duty 4 up. I am beyond excited to play this. After the beta ended I devoured any news I found on CoD4.
The bad news is I have mounds of homework from my procrastination. So this means little to very little of play. I mean i’ll get that deep down itch to play which in the end will overcome my will power.
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Picture Time
By Luke | November 6, 2007
I got this idea from Hawty McBloggy’s latest post.
Probably just a lucky shot here 
This is what happens when you steal my laser!
I wont lie. I was brutally murdered right after that stick.
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Favorite Comic Gets Gamerpics
By Luke | October 31, 2007
One of my favorite, favorite, favorite webcomics is the amazing Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD). I remember the exact day I got introduced to it, January 14th, 2006. After reading it for the first time I spent an entire day devoted to reading every single one. Being the “collector” that I am I went back again and saved every single one up to the latest one.
What I am really excited about is Tim Buckley, the mind behind CAD, finally got some gamerpics up for your XBox gamer profile. You get 20, even though the description says 11, awesome pictures for 200 points. They will also be releasing the first season of CAD animated series for 250 points an episode. Those will be underneath “Blind Ferret Entertainment”, the producers of the animated series.
Plus he has some amazing t-shirts coming out soon (look below this!). The current CAD store is here.
The story behind the Church of Gaming are these comics…
2007-06-20 - The hats
2007-06-22 - Shook loose
2007-06-23 - The Church of Gaming
2007-06-25 - Congregate
2007-06-27 - And so it is written
2007-06-29 - Secret meeting
2007-06-30 - Let us play
2007-07-02 - En force
2007-07-04 - That’s what we heard
2007-07-06 - Speechless
2007-07-07 - The daily double
2007-07-09 - Exodus
2007-07-11 - That damned changeup
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Another Umm Moment
By Luke | October 27, 2007
I love my TV and then I love my video games. Combining the two usually comes up with a horrible game. This is why I got upset when I heard that they are taking one of the few reality TV shows I enjoy, Hell’s Kitchen, and turning it into a bombardment of every platform video game.
Now this next mistake is either the writer of the article I read or it is the real messed-up deal. In this quote it sounds like they are making a video game out of Food Network’s hit Iron Chef.
Well like the episodes of Hell’s Kitchen where contestants have to turn one food item into as many dishes as possible (say squid quesadillas followed by squid kabobs with squid sorbet for desert)…
I guess in the end I will be trying it out. Hell’s Kitchen introduced me to Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC which lead me to finding a true joy for cooking.
Via - Next Generation
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Paper Mario Better Back Off
By Luke | October 26, 2007
After all the recycling that is done someone has noticed that paper was too good for that fate. They also noticed that $130 was too much paper bills for the legendary version of Halo 3. So if you also missed out on the legendary version then here ya go!
Build your very own legendary version out of paper. It is a mini version so you could actually take this with you all over town to show off. Display with pride where ever paper is excepted! Links and photos below.
Via Paper Art Gadets
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Ummm…
By Luke | October 22, 2007
And you thought that Microsoft’s marketing department was going overboard with Halo 3.
[Update]: At Heelysgamer.com they have a wide variety of colors. Some actually don’t look that bad.
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My Prayers Go Out To Matthew Cherry
By Luke | October 22, 2007
A 21-year-old Gamestop manager died yesterday as his store was getting robbed. He died from suffocation after his face was covered with duct tape. I am extremely saddened by this as it is so wrong. My prayers go out to Cherry’s family, friends, and the Gamestop employees.
MARIETTA, Ga. — Police in Marietta are investigating a robbery at a video game store that left the manager dead.
Authorities believe 21-year-old Matthew Cherry died from suffocation after his face was covered with duct tape during the robbery. The incident happened shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday night.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what (Cherry) went through or what his co-worker and co-worker’s father went through sitting there watching this go on,” said police spokesman Mark Bishop.
Another store employee and his father were tied up during the robbery but were not hurt.
Bishop says the suspect left with video game consoles, video games and DVDs after spending about a hour and a half in the store.
Police also believe the suspect stole the victim’s car. The car is described as a red, two-door 2004 Honda Civic LX with Georgia license plate 2010 ASW.
A $10,000 reward has been posted in the case.
Via Kotaku & WSB Atlanta
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