Back in the Game!

HEY EVERYONE!

your buddy, punk rock josh, here and i’m very glad to tell you that i’m back from a very loooooooooooooooooooooong hiatus!!!

long story short, i moved from my small apartment in Victoria and got myself a nice trailer home in McQueeney, TX (just outside of Seguin).

we STILL unfortunately have yet to get internet out there because ATT says that can’t provide. blah blah blah.

not only that, but my xbox 360 was out of commission for the longest time.

i don’t know what happened to it but it started to try reading games as though they were dvds. but then it played cds just fine.

i dunno.  but i’ve got a badass story!

so i work at hastings in new braunfels and last friday being “black” friday, we had MAJOR sales going on on lots of electronics and stuff.  the most popular being the $399 blu ray players on sale for $209 PLUS a $30 mail in rebate making it $179! HOLY CRAP!  so i called up the bean and asked if she would be interested.  she came to the store and decided to tell me “i’d rather help you pay for a new 360 than get a bluray player just yet”…

OK!

so we proceeded to get a new xbox360 arcade since i already had the harddrive!

now check this out, i had called gamestop a couple days earlier and found out that if i were to sell back my old xbox360, they would only give me $30 credit because it was defective.  what a jip…

so later that evening (black friday), i called gamestop back to see when they closed and let them know i was bringing in a defective 360.  the guy says “ok, i’m not sure if it’ll work or not but today only we’re running a trade-in promo where you’ll receive an extra $40 for your trade, but i dunno if it’ll work on defective systems”.  well we got there and i had em ring it all up and BOOYA! $80 store credit! which is what they would’ve given me for a WORKING 360! how badass is that?!

so, after standing around and browsing through games for awhile i decided to take advantage of the buy 2 get one free promo they also had going on!

so now, your’s truly is the proud owner of a new 360, and copies of Call of Duty 4, Bioshock and Army of Two!

i just went sifting through the BG reviews and it doesn’t look like Army of Two has been reviewed yet so i’ll more than likely take the honor of filling in that gap.  i’ve been playing bioshock a lot and man, a solid BG 4 is definately what this game deserves! if you don’t have bioshock yet, GET IT! it’s awesome!

stay tuned later this week for an Army of Two review!

your best pal,

punk rock josh

A League of their Pwn

Upon visiting thecgs.com, one is greeted with the forlorn message that the Championship Gaming Series business is closing down.

For those of you who might not be familiar with the CGS, they were the only truly structured gaming league in the industry, offering to gamers the opportunity to compete in the same manner as major sports athletes.  CGS held drafts for professional gaming athletes, regular season play, and a World Final Event.  They were the only “true” league in the gaming world and were, as they state on their site, an idea ahead of their time.

The games chosen by CGS as the basis of their competition were a mixture of skill, reflex, teamwork, and raw talent.  Each team was comprised of ten players, five of which would compete as a team in Counter Strike: Source.  Two members of the team would race on Forza Motorsport while a mixed pair (one male, one female) formed a Dead or Alive 4 team.  The final player would compete alone against his opponent in FIFA ‘08.

In 2007, CGS awarded their first place competitors, the Chicago Chimera, a purse totaling $500,000.  That made the Championship Gaming Series the most lucrative gaming event in the world.  But it wasn’t an easy path as anyone who watched the event unfold on G4 will tell you.  And unfortunately, with the announcement, it looks like we won’t see a champ crowned this year.

The forums and message boards at thecgs.com were filled with sad farewells and good natured kidding, mostly between the different teams, as the announcement was made on the front page.

CGS was headquartered in Los Angeles and was developed and finacially backed by DirecTV, British Sky Broadcasting, and Star TV.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

BusyGamer looks for Charity

This Sunday, November 16th, the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew will put their jet-setting lifestyles on hold to attend the Warriors Never Die benefit at the Riverside Multiplex in Victoria, Tx.

That’s right, for one whole day, we’re going to do something other than play and talk about games.  It’s for charity so we’re willing to make the sacrifice.  Fortunately, we may be able to have a few drinks in the process of doing some good.

The Warriors Never Die benefit is a memorial event for the late James Foreman and will be hosted by his close friend, Lance Hayes.  All of the proceeds from the event will be going to the Victoria Adopt-a-Pet.  Lance has truly done the memory of James proud by putting together a long list of musical talent that will be performing as the event goes from noon until 9pm.  Among the talent lined up will be BG’s very own Timothy Danger and his band, The Stout City Luchadores.  But the list doesn’t stop there…  The other performers will be AR-15, Chicken Fist, DJ Bigg Robb, Epic, Fenixx, Revolution Unleashed, and Slap Jesse.

Apart from the musical talent, there will be a considerable amount of items up for bid in silent auctions throughout the day.  I haven’t seen the final list but there will be pieces from local artists, band memorabilia, and much more.  Give till it hurts and then give some more!

The Reckon Crew will be on site to sell t-shirts for ten dollars apiece.  Half of the proceeds from the t-shirts will be going to the benefit so get a good lookin’ shirt that proclaims you’re a Busy Gamer and do some good at the same time.  It’s a win-win situation.  It’s only lose-lose if you make us hunt you down for your money…  And if you don’t have the cash for a shirt, drop a donation in our jar and get a free koozie.  They keep the beer cold and make you look damn cool.  I think they make you look like a movie star but I have to check the disclaimer.

Come see us this Sunday, make us proud by being a gamer and a generous soul and do a bit of donating to the cause.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

We were off to see the Wizard… World.

Some of you may have noted the distinct lack of… well, us over the weekend.  That’s because we were off in Arlington attending Wizard World Texas.  We gloried in the geekdom, basked in the nerdy, and had an all around great time.  I’ll give you a couple of seconds to stop being jealous.

For those of you who haven’t had the fortune of attending, Wizard World is one of the world’s largest Comic Conventions to make a stop in Texas.  And as an added bonus, Fear Fest threw in their lot with Wizard to make it an even larger event.  So we were able to entertain our inner geeks with comics and art and then scare the crap out of the little bastards with some horror fare.  Where I come from, we call that a “twofer”.

On hand for the Fear Fest portion was Danny Trejo and Corey Feldman.  I had hoped for a knock down, drag out fight between the two of them but alas, it was not to be… This time.  I considered telling Mr. Trejo that Mr. Feldman had called him a Mexi-CAN’T but I thought it might come back on me somehow and then I’d be beat up by both of them and then they’d go have milkshakes together.  It was the camaraderie over the frosty beverages I feared most, only in that I would not be invited.

We made it up to the show early on Friday and scheduled our interviews for Saturday, taking the rest of the day to play fan boys and make our way around the show, fawn over our faves, and make some new friends.  Through out this coming week, we’ll be posting up the interviews and reviews from Saturday and follow up with some friends we made at last year’s Wizard World.

And of course, the Reckon Crew couldn’t just be content with showing up, we had to bring the booze and the chaos to full bear when Friday night rolled around.  We hooked up with “Darth” Terry Parr and his lovely lady Amber Alert, who also happens to be one of our Gamettes.  Yes, that’s a shameless plug.  Pizza and beer were the order of the night and the Reckon Crew downed both in large quantities.

Saturday night was the “Heroes 4 Heroes” charity event with several of the attending artists lending their impressive talents to what was a very successful night for the charity… and there was, of course, more drinking on our part.

Sunday morning saw us packing up at five a.m. to make the trip back to our respective homes.  Weary, bleary eyed, and slightly hungover, we left Arlington in the wee hours, already plotting our heroic invasion of next year’s Wizard World.

Oh, yes… We will be back.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Christian Children’s Fund says “No wai!” to gamers

Seventeen thousand three hundred ninety eight dollars.  That’s $17,398 for those of you who hate reading the spelled out amount.  That’s a hefty chunk of change that I’m sure any charity organization would be happy to accept.  Just not the Christian Children’s Fund.  Evidently it’s not the dollar amount that turns them off but the source of the money that has them shaking their heads and shoving their hands in their pockets.

You might be confused at this point but these are the facts as we know them;  GenCon, you know, that little roleplaying convention that happens every year around this time…  Anyway, GenCon held a charity auction at their little soiree and managed to raise the aforementioned bank roll to donate to Gary Gygax’s favorite charity, you guessed it, the Christian Children’s Fund.  But the CCF flatly rejected the donation.

I am willing to bet that if Mr. Gygax had been alive and had sat down and written a check for 17K, the CCF would have cashed it and thanked the old wizard for his kind donation.  But whether it was the fact that a bunch of gamers donated the money, that it was GenCon who had performed the charity auction, or that it’s the Devil’s RPG that was at the heart of the convention, CCF declined the donation.  Maybe GenCon should have “laundered” the donation through Child’s Play, perhaps that would have softened the impact of the source of the cash.

I understand, and let me say this is only to a very certain point, why a christian organization might not want to affiliate itself with GenCon.  I can even understand a hesitancy to accept the money based on D&D paraphernalia sales.  But there were other items involved in the auction that weren’t based on Gygax’s game that should have made this extremely generous gesture by the gaming community completely palatable to any religious group.

In regards to the rejection, CCF has been quoted by sources as saying:

“Christian Children’s Fund made the decision to decline the gift from Gen Con, LLC as the request presented to us gave the appearance that CCF (the organization) was an endorser or supporter of a gaming convention, which CCF was not. As many non-profit organizations, CCF is selective in its endorsements or support in order to maintain the integrity of its name and logo. We cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts, or the game Dungeons and Dragons.”

Too late.  I already interpreted your actions and what your reasons might be.  And I can’t say that it presents a very flattering image of your organization.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

One year older, one year… wiser?

As some of you might know, we had our one year bash this past weekend and for those of you who couldn’t make it, damn, you missed out.  The booze flowed, the midgets wrestled, and yes, there was even break dancing.  And midget wrestler break dancing.  Like I said, if you weren’t there, you missed out.

The night started off with Crutchboy and I arriving just a bit late, perhaps even fashionably, to the party.  Having already set up the banner and the table, we arrived just in time for the first drink and to set out some of the swag we’d picked up just for the party.  Looking quite fashionable in our “birthday” suits, we opened the night with a couple more drinks when the legendary Timothy Danger showed up to greet us.  While Timothy had elected to dress a bit more casual, he completed the core of the Reckon Crew and that’s when the party really got started.

The crowd filtered in as the night went on with our good friends Jay and Holly and our newest friend Ashlee helping to man the swag table while the Reckon Crew mingled with the crowd… or wandered aimlessly after drinking a bit too much tequila.  I won’t name any names but that might have just been me doing the tequila thing.  Tiffany showed up to represent the lovely Gamettes and promptly put the horns on me.  I looked even more smashing sporting the horns but again, that could have just been the tequila.  Shortly after her arrival, one of the Micro Wrestling Federation pantomimed performing a lewd act on Tiffany.  I laughed.

Photographs were snapped, stories were told, and pool was played as the night wore on.  Punk Rock Josh made the trip from Sequin to attend the party as did his lady Brea, who showed up in the nick of time for the champagne toast with our newest shirts.  As I poured the champagne, I was pressed into service as the toast master by the rest of the Reckon Crew.  I raised my glass and being the wordsmith I am, I concocted a lovely toast right there on the spot.  Elegant in its presentation, flowing like music… Actually, I said, “Thanks for coming out, here’s to another year,” and promptly drained my glass of the bubbly.  Then we passed out some t-shirts to our guests and I think they made up for the toast, if only just.

The lovely Kari made sure the Reckon Crew made it to the after party which she graciously hosted at her new home.  More drinks were consumed as was a rather large quantity of pizza rolls as the night winded down.  Still in my suit, I leaned back in a reclining love seat with one thought bouncing through my alcohol drenched mind…

“I hope we have this much fun at our second birthday party.”

Here’s to another year and finding out the ”hard” way.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Microsoft blacks out China…

Ah, China.  They hosted the Olympics this year and won a ton of Gold Medals, they’ve got that big wall over there, and somewhere in their country, a General named Tso taught us to love eating chicken all over again.  And now, they add another cultural distinction to their already impressive list…  Microsoft is targeting their software pirates.

Software shennanigans and hijinks in China have long been a thorn in Microsoft’s side.  Lax copyright laws encourage reverse engineering and knock off products to propagate the Chinese market.  And why pay for the genuine articles when you can buy imitations for a fraction of the cost?  Well, Microsoft has decided to up the ante for the country’s 200 million computer users with the “Windows Genuine Advantage” program.  And it has a lot of Chinese users hopping mad.

The “Advantage” program is simple; systems running fake or illegally copied software eventually fail a validation test at which point, the offending user’s desktop turns black.  No icons, no start button, just… black.  And it’s already grabbing attention and offending the offenders.

Some users may not even realize the copy of Windows they’re running is fake but Microsoft isn’t in a forgiving mood.  Already defending the move on their website, Microsoft states that it is “part of Microsoft’s commitment to help protect its intellectual property and to help you avoid problems before they happen.”  Many Chinese feel differently.

The outcry from some users is leaning towards legal action.  Microsoft may find themselves up against the courts in China should the software giant’s attempt to “protect its intellectual property” be viewed by lawmakers as violating China’s Criminal Law.  If it’s proven that the “Advantage” program actually intrudes in the same fashion as malicious hacker software, the big “M” might be facing substantial fines.

Keep in mind that Bill Gates announced, along with his retirement, that he would be headed for China and has already began using the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to do things like help distribute the Hepatitis B vaccine and fund campaigns to cut down on tobacco use.  I’m not sure how popular this latest move will make him with the general population regardless of the charity work he has began.  Retired or not, Gates will always be associated with Microsoft and the “Advantage” program might just be too much for the average Tso to swallow.

While I agree that something should be done about the various copyright problems China suffers, I’m not sure attacking one of the world’s largest base of PC users may be the brightest idea.  But we’ll just have to see how this unfolds.  I just hope Bill’s wearing a “vest” on his visits…

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

I never learned to E-READ!!!

Ever since the introduction of the tablet PC, I’ve had this vague notion that I’d like to partake of my books and novels in an electronic format.  I already forego the newspaper in favor of reading daily events on the web so it seemed like a logical step.  But tablet PCs were just a bit too pricey to use for reading something on a gaming website (ahem!) or to get my fix of The Onion.  And then e-readers came into the picture.

Less expensive, lightweight (kinda), end eco-friendly, more companies are starting to take notice of the e-reader market.  It’s about time considering how often I find myself reading a story on my Blackberry, wishing there were something big enough to get more than a few sentences on the screen at a time but light and small enough to fit into my backpack without giving me back problems.

Hoping to do for books what the I-Pod did for music, companies like Amazon and Sony have already ventured into the market with the Kindle and Reader, respectively.  Unfortunately, while the two devices are impressive, they don’t include that one little feature that would warrant theirprice tags.  Wi-Fi.  How can you introduce a portable device made specifically for reading text documents and not include Wi-Fi?  Nonetheless, Sony’s Reader beckons to me with it’s touchscreen, zoom-able text, and built in LED lighting.  The $299.00 price tag and lack of network connectivity make it a bit hard to warrant such a toy in my collection of gadgets, however.

Granted, more devices from multiple companies are on the way.  At the Frankfurt Book Fare, several merchants were on hand with their latest and greatest forrays into the e-reader market.  And many of them boasted Wi-Fi.  Sorry, Sony, I might have to cheat on you if I can stand to fork over the cash for one of the new devices.

Book publishers are already simultaneously releasing both paper and digital versions of their books and many of them are digitizing their backlist.  How much longer before a bestseller manages to make it onto the list because of its e-book sales?  When it happens, will we be looking at the end of the printed page?  Already mediums such as comic books are making the move to the digital age.  Surely we can save a rain forest or two if more of us make the move to digital print.

It might be a ways off, that distant future, when I can finally feel alright about having a small library with me on my travels because that library is on a memory card.  But when it comes, I can only hope that someone remind me to blink…

Gritskrieg – End of Line

In a galaxy not so far away…

Maybe you’ve heard of J. J. Abrams.  He’s that guy who’s the executive producer on “Lost”.  Personally, I don’t watch it but I hear it’s pretty big on that whole television thing.  He also produced “Cloverfield” and is working as the executive producer on another show that looks like it could be big called “Fringe”.  The man has a busy schedule, especially with his new project on the way.

J. J. has decided to bring his talent to the Star Trek universe.  He’s admitted that he’s more of a Star Wars fan than a Trek fan but that might just be a good thing considering *when* the story is taking place.  It’s the original crew, if not the original cast, and it’s the beginning of their adventures.  A fanboy might take the movie in the wrong direction but someone who admits they like lightsabers more than phasers might be able to keep in on trek… err, track.

Then there’s the cast.  The only member of the original cast who will have a role in the upcoming movie will be Leonard Nimoy.  Nimoy will be playing the role of, unsurprisingly, the elder Mr. Spock while a cast of “yungin’s” will be portraying the roles of his shipmates as he takes a stroll down memory lane.  Zachary Quinto who plays Sylar on the show “Heroes” will be filling in as a young Spock.  Stand Quinto and Nimoy side by side and it’s a scary resemblence and Quinto is excellent in his role as Sylar so this was a solid choice.  Chris Pine, of whom I have seen very little except in the shoot ‘em up “Smokin’ Aces” will fill the role of a young Kirk.  I don’t have an opinion on this except that Pine looks very little like William Shatner.  We’ll see…

Some of the other choices are a bit odd but I have to admit I’m looking forward to at least one of them.  Simon Pegg will be playing Scotty…  If you don’t know who Simon Pegg is, pick up a copy of “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz” and you’ll see why I’m immensely amused by this choice.  Karl Urban, Eomer of “Lord of the Rings” and the less celebrated John Grimm of “Doom”, will be filling in as Dr. McCoy.  Another one I’m not sure about but he’s not a bad actor so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As a die hard sci-fi fan, I have to say I’m looking forward to seeing how well J.J. pulls this off.  If it fails miserably, I can sigh and chalk up another Bad Trek movie on the board.  If it succeeds… Well, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  Let’s just say I might have to dust off the old pointy ears if Abrams manages to do with Star Trek what he did with “Lost”.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Election Incrimination!

So as a nightly ritual of playing addictive quick games on the net, I stumbled upon a new one in Yahoo! games called “Election Incrimination”

In it, you pick a candidate… McCain or Obama, and you have to hide incriminating evidence in the white house before the reporters show up, the more levels you proceed to, the more ridiculous the stuff you have to hide (I played McCain and had to hide everything from Viagra pills to a walker, to a George Bush dartboard and even David Duke in a KKK outfit)

Not the classiest game, but worth a good 5 minutes of kill time

 

Timothy Danger

www.busygamer.com