In preparation for the late October release of Fable II, I started playing Fable (on the original Xbox). I have gotten about 5 hours into it and am having fun. It really is amazing how far games have come in just the last few years. While the control of games isn’t noticeably different from Xbox to 360, the 360’s graphics capabilities and the addition of the dashboard, the friends system, etc. makes playing games on the 360 a much richer experience (the graphical difference can be astonishing). If I don’t get too sidetracked, I hope to finish Fable before I play Fable II.

Speaking of getting sidetraked, I picked up for the 360. If you are looking for a bug-free, super polished game, Mercs 2 is probably not for you. But if you want to have a lot of fun and blow up everything you see, Mercs 2 is a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor. I’m having a lot of fun with it and I’ve yet to play the coop, which I hear is a blast.

We started watching again. My sister was a huge fan of the show and on her recommendation we watched it start to finish several years ago. We decided it was worth watching again. We are about 2/3 through season one and are enjoying it. The special effects definitely show their age, but the characters are their same lovable selves that we remember.

We attempted two more geocaches. The first one went very well (with one minor incident of stepping is something not so nice…) but the 2nd one was a bust. If I had bothered to read the comments about the 2nd one before we ventured out, I would have picked a different geocache to hunt for - oh well. Having a one in three success rate is a drag, but we’re having a good time exploring new areas and plan to keep geocaching.

(I started this entry a week ago and forgot to finish it… finishing before I move on to new stuff).

For the missus’ birthday, we decided to go on a road trip. We started the weekend early on Thursday with a drive to the Clark’s Summit area (near Scranton, PA) which we designated as “home base”. We had dinner at a the Gourmet Family Restaurant, a cute little diner. Food was good, but it is odd to have a restaurant with a smoking section - caught us off guard. On Friday morning, we drove to Syracuse to spend the day at the New York State Fair - our State Fair pictures can be found on Flickr. The fair was much like last year, but we had a good time. At the end of the day we drove back to Clark’s Summit. On Saturday, we drove to Tuxedo, NY to spend the day at the New York Renaissance Faire. We visited the Ren Faire last year with our friends Sean and Janne. It wasn’t quite the same without them, but we still had a good time - Ren Faire pictures can be found on Flickr.

On the way home, we attempted our first Geocache. Sadly, we were not able to find it.

I stared playing  Fable nearly four years ago but didn’t get very far into the game before (??) I either got bored, got another game, or… who knows. In preparation for Fable II I played Fable II Pub Games (free because I pre-ordered Fable II) and had some fun with it — I unlocked all the special items and got all of the achievements, but, to really get ready for Fable II, I dusted off Fable for the original Xbox and started a new game. As best as I can tell, I got about as far tonight in Fable as I did four years ago when I played it. I have some degree of intention of finishing Fable before I play Fable II next month. We’ll see how it goes.

The real question in my mind is how Fable II will compare to Fallout 3, another RPG coming just a week after Fable II. Fallout 3 is made by the same folks who made Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, which I really enoyed.

I’ve had my iPhone for a bit over a month. For the first couple weeks the 3G connectivity was great. I switched markets from the New Mexico market to the New York market so I could put my phone and the missus’ phone on a “family plan”. Since I did this, my 3G connectivity has been somewhat less performant. Sometimes it works great, sometimes (especially lately) the Internet has been kind of spotty. Pages take a long time to load if they load at all.

I waited a while to see if it would clear itself up, but the last week or two it seems to have gotten worse. I decided it was likely that the problems more or less started when I changed markets (got a new SIM card), so today after work I stopped by the Lexington AT&T store near Grand Central Station. I talked to a customer support women whose name starts with “H” and explained my situation, stating the problem started since changing markets and getting a new SIM and she largely just blew me off. She said “our 3G network is fine” and “the problem is your phone, you have to call Apple.” The only thing she asked in the way of troubleshooting was if I had updated to the latest firmware, which told her I had. She otherwise had no interest in helping me troubleshoot my problem in any way. Initially I walked out, but then I went back a few seconds later. I asked if she really understood that the problem started after getting a new SIM card, that previously my phone behaved perfectly. Very reluctantly she offered to switch my my SIM card. She got a new SIM but practically insisted that I use my own SIM ejection tool and that I do the SIM replacement myself - as if swapping the SIM card was a major inconvenience for her. After I changed the SIM and checked the 3G networking, it seemed to work much better. I told her “it seems to work much better now” her only response was a somewhat snotty “The number is 800-My-iPhone, call Apple when you have the problem again” (or something along those lines). I hope she was just having a bad day and isn’t always so rude to her customers. This seemed odd as my few experiences with AT&T employees have always been positive, I previously felt they were helpful and customer oriented.

I started scuba diving a bit over six years ago and have been diving nearly 100 times, but sadly since we moved to the northeast I don’t dive as much as I would like. The water visibility and temperature up here isn’t as friendly, but I still dive on vacations and such when I get the chance. Two years ago on a cruise the missus tried a couple “discover scuba” dives and and (mostly) enjoyed it. We are preparing for another cruise this December, so I asked her if she would like to get certified so we could dive together in Roatan and Belize which should be great diving. Although she is still just a touch apprehensive about the whole process (which is understandable), she is excited to learn. We got her the requisite “personal gear” last night; the same gear that every scuba student needs when taking a scuba class (mask, snorkel, fins, boots). Her class should be starting her class in early September. Her certification dives should be in early October at nearby Dutch Springs. I look forward to tagging along and diving Dutch Springs. Maybe after she receives her certification, if she isn’t too tired, we can dive Dutch Springs together. I dove Dutch Springs once shortly after we moved here, but haven’t been back.

After she completes her certification, I am trying to figure out a little more diving we can do together to keep her skills fresh before the cruise, but with the cold months I am not sure what I will find in the way of options. Odlly, it leaves me missing Albuquerque where we could easily jaunt over to Blue Hole for some refresher diving where the water was cold, but consistent (60 degress all year); it can be snowing outside but the water temperature stays the same.

Our niece just finished up a summer internship near us and came down to visit us before returning to school in Chicago. We took her down to Isla Staten for a friend’s (surprise) birthday party. A good time was had by all (as far as I can tell). It was nice to catch up with folks we haven’t seen in a year or so and it was fun to spend time with our niece. The missus took her to the airport before any self respecting rooster wakes up, but the missus is nice that way.

On Sunday we had a late breakfast with a friend (not the pretentious “brunch” … no champagne or lox involved). Afterward, the missus and I went to see Pineapple Express. I generally enjoy stuff with Seth Rogen and Pineapple Express was no different. While I though Superbad was a bit hit or miss, Pineapple had lots of genuine laugh out loud moments. The movie is aimed squarely at the stoner crowd who will probably think it is just about the funniest movie since Half Baked, I personally think Half Baked was a better movie, but Pineapple was a lot of fun. Very silly, very slap-sticky, very push the edge of tastey, but funny. If you saw the previews and wanted to see it: go. If the previews looked stupid to you: stay home. If Seth’s interview on the Daily Show offends you, stay home. The missus laughed really hard, but her final verdict was “pretty stupid movie” (but there were points where she was laughing herself to tears).

After the movie, the missus and I watched the first disc of the late 90’s TV show Freaks and Geeks, which (completely coincidentally) starred many of the same people as Pineapple Express. Our son recommended this show to us months ago, undoubtedly because of Seth Rogen’s involvement. We’ve now seen the first three episodes and are really enjoying the show. We’ll likely watch the rest of it (yay Netflix).

I played a couple games of Ticket to Ride online and got beaten both times. A lot of winning is about the destination cards you randomly draw, because I played both games well in my opinion.

This week the XBLA game is Braid. Braid is, on its surface, a platform-puzzler … but it is so much more than that. While games like Prince of Persia (the 2000’s console versions, not the late 80’s game) dabble in the ability to control time, in Briad controlling time is an integral, essential part of the game. The ability to “rewind” is unlimited, back to the entrance door of each level. This, combined with some objects which are not effected by your control of time, makes for mind bending puzzles. It starts out slowly, introducing you to every element of gameplay from movement to jumping, then weaves in the control of time. Even if you are new to platformers, with a bit of eye-hand coordination and a lot of thought you should be able able to enjoy Braid.

If you just play through the first level (the “demo”) you will get a taste for what the game offers, but when you venture into later levels you will find stuff that really hurts to think about. Not since last year’s Portal have I found a game that really pushed me to think outside the box. Like with Portal, if you aren’t willing to stretch your imagination, you will never get through the game. Fortunately, the game is designed to be incredibly forgiving: try something: fail, rewind, try something else: fail rewind, try something else: success!

If you just look at screen captures, you will think the game looks simplistic. It is a 2D, mostly move left to right, climb ladders, etc. But , in fact, the game’s water-color-esque look with vivid colors and almost psychedelic animated backgrounds are beyond words. Georgeous. The game has some very amusing chacaters and enemies (the killer bunney-cat things are awesome) and the limited writing great.

While it is a touch on the pricy side for XBLA games at 1200 points and reportedly Braid somewhat short, the amount of brainpower and joy at solving the puzzles that will go into completing the game should be well worth the cost. Braid is a finely crafted experience. You will certainly get more entertainment from Briad than a trip to a mediocro movie, and the price is about the same. Downright cheap if the movie is on a date and you buy popcorn. You could easily play Braid with an onlooker helping you solve the crazy puzzles.

Our nephew Steve visited us last night. I introduced him to Ticket to Ride, which I talked about yesterday. We played a couple games and had a good time. I rarely wish I had a third 360 controller, but the game supports up to four in local players and it would have been fun to get the missus in on the game. One of these days I’ll take the plunge and play it online, but I always seem to end up with whiny 13 year old or people who drop out the moment they start loosing or the person with the terrible internet connection who drops out half way through the game. Anyway, this continues to be a fun game. It is a touch unfortunate that nothing is hidden from the other players (destination cards, train cards) when you play local multiplayer, but with everyone playing from a single TV it would be impossible to hide stuff — so I am glad they just bit the bullet and enabled local multiplayer. You can still have a fun, friendly game with no secret information.

We had a mostly lazy weekend. We got caught up on the new season of Psych, we watched several episodes of Boston Legal (season 4), we got caught up with the show Fear Itself, the missus did some knitting and sewing of baby blankets, and I picked up the XBLA game Ticket to Ride.

We’ve been watching Psych since it first started. We still enjoy it, but it has gotten progressively sillier and more Scooby-Do-esque - I am always waiting for the bad guy to say “and I would’ve have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids,” but we keep watching it because it has good characters and is generally well written.

I won’t say anything more about Boston Legal. You know we love it.

Fear Itself is NBC’s attempt to make a weekly “horror” show. It’s a bit Outer Limits. It consists of stand-alone episodes, no recurring characters - each week is its own short story. At this point, though, comparing it to Outer Limits is being a bit generous - it is not terribly well crafted, acted, etc. The show really should be right down my alley, but I think they need to get better writers, or ?? Something. I’ll probably stick with it for the rest of the season as it does seem to be getting better, but I can’t imagine it will make it to a second season if it doesn’t improve. In its favor, the premise of the episode New Year’s Day was a really interesting new twist on the zombie story.

Finally, the missus and I played several games of Facebook’s Wordscraper (an online Scrabble clone) and XBLA’s Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride is an Xbox 360 version of the board game of the same name. It is strategy board game where you buy train routes between cities across the United States. We had a good time with it, although we haven’t mastered the strategy elements of the game, yet. If you have an Xbox 360, it is worth trying the demo, otherwise it would undoubtedly be fun to play the board game. It is similar to games like The Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne, but I think it is somewhat simpler. The real benefits to playing games like these on the 360 is that the scoring (which can be tedious) is done automatically and the rules are enforced by the game making the games easier to play.

I loved Diablo and Diablo II. I loved Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege Legends of Aranna, I enjoyed Dungeon Siege II. I even spent some time re-playing Dungeon Siege over the last week or so. Space Siege, by the makers of Dungeon Siege, should be a game that is right up my alley. One minor problem, though, it is a PC / Windows game and most of what I have been playing are Xbox360 games. No problem, I’ve been running PC games since ye olde 256KB 8088 running DOS on an 8mhz CPU. I have a dual core AMD 4200+ machine with an nVidia 7600GS video card. While nobody would mistake my computer for a hardcore gaming system, based on the game specs, my system should plenty fast enough to handle this game.

Last night when I saw that the Space Siege demo was available (a whopping 900MB) I immediately starting it downloading. Thankfully, the download went really quickly. I got the game installed and immediately I noticed the mouse was incredibly laggy and the menus was slow. I fired up the game and overall it played “ok”, but the mouse laggy-ness made the game somewhat difficult to play. A quick Google search showed that others are having this same problem. I tried lowering the video settings and resolution, restarting the game, installing updated video drivers, etc. and nothing really improves performance. While the mouse is less laggy if I run the game in a window, the game is harder to play that way. I am sure this is a minor bug, but they won’t get an of my money until the mouse / performance problems are ironed out.

But, aside from the mouse and performance problems, I think the game showed some definite promise. While I miss the “inventory” screen and I miss having an overlay map (via the Tab key), the 20 or so minutes of the demo was fun and the gameplay relatively intuitive. The graphics were nice, the sound was good. If they can solve the problems and make the game perform well, I can imagine playing this game. While the gameplay is completely different, the concept of making a “less human” cybernetic hero feels a bit like Too Human.

Ultimately, these problems are the reason I switched from playing PC games to playing console games. I have a firm believe that one should be able to get a game disc, pop it in, and the game should “just work”. PC games always seem to have these little “gotchas” that keep the game from working correctly - they always require a lot of fiddling to work correctly. Since Space Siege will probably be a Windows-only game, I hope they solve these problems