Price change for Xbox LIVE Gold subscription - Xbox Live's Major Nelson

Yesterday Major Nelson announced price increases for Xbox Live. One month of Gold is increasing from $7.99 to $9.99, and one year subscriptions are going from $49.99 to $59.99. These changes will be in effect starting on November 1, 2010.

Major Nelson said the following about the changes:

I think Xbox Live user rogXue, despite having a dumb name, said it best in his comment.

Let's take a look at the free features of Xbox Live. Demos for every game, achievements, friends list, messaging, voice chat, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Indie Games, avatars, downloadable content, a well organized market place, and an ugly interface filled with ads. If you pay, you can get party chat, video chat, online gaming, parties, Netflix streaming, Facebook, Twitter, and last.fm.

I've been a Gold member previously. The voice chatting is horrible. Why would I want to yell insults at children? That's all that's done there. I've never wanted to use party chat or video chat at all. In order to use those, I would need to find a large group of people who all want to play console versions of games most likely available on PC. Or maybe Gears of War. I've never seen that group. I've heard of them, but my friends are computer literate. Facebook, Twitter, and last.fm support is ridiculously stupid. I guess those are the features responsible for the price increase. Why would you ever want those features on a console anyways? I could almost see wanting last.fm until I remember that you can stream media to your consoles anyways (although it's easier on a PS3).

What's left? Netflix. Yes, that's very nice. But I can do it on the other consoles as well. Really they're asking for us to pay to play Xbox-exclusive titles online (because if they're not exclusive, we might as well play on a different service) and chat in large groups that don't exist. It seems like it'd be smarter simply to purchase titles I want to play online for the PS3. Usually the computer is better for playing online, but it's true that my computer is tied up with WoW almost all the time. But the PS3's service is free, so it beats the 360. And there are less ads. The online store is more troublesome on the PS3, but I'll take that for the reduced cost. Thanks Microsoft. Maybe making me shake my arms around to play games will make me happier with you.

Edit: Oh, and I should add that in order to play with my friends online, we all need Xbox Live subscriptions. Great deal. If a few people decide to come over one Friday night, I can just suggest that each of them pay $9.99 to Microsoft.

Ghosts'N Goblins: Gold Knights II | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, Action Games, Platformer

I enjoyed this one a lot.

Massive Mario collection will make your inner 5-year-old jealous | Joystiq

Auburn Bear Breaks Into Home For Dog Treats - cbs13.com

That bear is totally awesome.

I had a fun day at work today. I picked up my paycheck and worked at the cash regster most of the day. I did some stickering but mostly stayed up front with Jason and John. Jason talked to and helped me quite a bit. He's pretty cool.

Before work I listened to the Joystiq Podcast and had a turkey, chipotle, and cheese sandwich and pepsi. And after I got off work? Pizza pretzel and pepsi! I'm listening to the Joystiq Podcast too!

First Paycheck, originally uploaded by theuser.

Not a lot of money, but money!

LK 25 and Halion 25 Down, originally uploaded by theuser.

Saturday night a handful of CFC members, including gem and me, joined MOONSHINE in downing Arthas in Icecrown Citadel 25 and Halion in Ruby Sanctum 25! I wasn't expecting this progression for quite a while! Of course, there's always more to do. HM ICC 10 and 25 would be great, as would achievements for the drake. Ulduar clear and ToGC are also high on my list of things to do! I'm super happy I got Arthas down in 25 though. MOONSHINE has some great people, and I'm glad they brought us.

Top Gun 2 for iPhone | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, Action Games

God, how cute! "Hmm... maybe I could fit in this tube!"

I want a porcupine.

Pretty interesting music video. The sunglasses at 0:33 are cool, and the part from 0:41 to 0:46 caught me off guard twice.

Edit: This totally breaks the formatting of WebPageless, but as soon as it gets bumped to the next post it'll be fine. I'll just let it break things for now.

Today was my last day of training at Barnes & Noble. I worked at the Nook kiosk today. I like the idea of the Nook, but I think I'd rather have an all-in-one device like my iPhone honestly. I met Keith, a manager who was on vacation previously, so that was cool. I also met a number of other people. I spent a few hours with Luke, who works the Nook kiosk a lot it seems. Everyone's incredibly friendly at Barnes & Noble, so that's nice. I'm really glad I already knew some people there. I bought a children's book after work and spent some time talking with Paris.

I've listened to almost the entire catalog of Plumtree music now. The only recording of their first album that I could find was a rip of a cassette tape someone made. It was never released on CD or online. It's pretty interesting since they were so young. I'm enjoying the music. There's one album left that I haven't listened to yet. I also listened to The Young Vein's album that came out in June. Amazing that two of the members are former Panic! at the Disco members. The Young Veins sound so much different. I really like Panic, but I'm liking The Young Veins too.

Yes.

BLABBERMOUTH.NET - NIGHTWISH Members Launch THE MYÖTÄHÄPEÄ; Video Available

Some of the members of Nightwish are forming a new group, The Myötähäpeä, with other artists. I hope this doesn't mean a decline in Nightwish releases, but I doubt it because Nightwish is currently Finland's most successful band, and I get the feeling this is more of a side project. If you follow the link through to the source, there's a YouTube clip of them rehearsing.

Today was my cash wrap training at Barnes & Noble. They actually put the register into a training mode and allow new hires to go through various sample encounters. It's a pretty cool way to get people used to the system. Getting to try out the system is much better than jumping into it like Albertson's made people. After I finished training, I got to actually work the register for a while. Friday is Nook training, and then I start real shifts next week.

In the evening I went to dinner with gem. The waitress was very familiar, but I couldn't recall how I knew her. Then she brought it up as well, and she realized we had a mutual friend - Allison. She was Allison's friend Alice, who I'd met multiple times. It was pretty cool because we weren't super close to home or anything. It's not like we're close friends or anything, but it was cool to run into her and talk.

We also went to Larysa's house in San Juan Capistrano. It was incredibly dark in her neighborhood. A stupid rabbit tried to get itself killed by running out in front of us! Anyways, Larysa's cat was super friendly and loves to be pet, so we spent a long time petting him. He loves shoes, which was a little weird. He sniffed and licked our shoes that we left in front of the door. Then he rolled around on them, chewing on them at the same time. Weird, but cute! I realized that I lived very close to Larysa's house when I a newborn through four years old, so we found my old house. I didn't really remember any of it, but the hill in front seemed vaguely familiar (except much smaller in actuality).

Action packed day!

Wow. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was really amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It's almost strange how it so perfectly adapted gaming (not a particular game) to the movie screen. I definitely want to own this movie. You could even say that I'm in lesbians with it.

The soundtrack is pretty amazing too. I'm pretty terrible at trying to talk about music in any meaningful way, so I guess I won't try much. I will say that I was looking for new music recently. It's been hard for me to find anything new to listen to ever lately. The Scott Pilgrim soundtrack... well, it rocks! One of the best songs on it, Scott Pilgrim by Plumtree, was the song that inspired the creation of the original Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I looked into Plumtree and found that they're an indie rock, punk-pop formed in 1993 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They started playing in junior high! Anyways, I really liked their sound and have been listening to one of their albums, Predicts the Future, quite a bit now. Good stuff!

I am now a Bookseller at Barnes & Noble! Today was technically my second day of work, although I'm still doing training. I did straighten some books on a few shelves though! Yay! I really like the people I've met so far, and I keep seeing things that interest me. It's too bad there are so many good books. Also, I wish I didn't like their e-book reader so much. The food at the cafe is pretty tasty, and I get 50% off there. Yes, I think that's the biggest perk.

Sadly, I don't know how much I make yet!

OrbLive, iPhone Streaming Media App | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, iPhone

Here's my review of OrbLive, an app that lets you stream music, video, photos, and documents from your PC or Mac to your iPhone. While it claims to work over any type of connection, I found that it didn't work over EDGE. Still, 3G and Wi-Fi streaming is pretty nice!

I've been playing a few games recently. Besides World of Warcraft, I've been playing a few different Lynx games. I've also been playing some PSP games and a couple console games.

In WoW, I'm now 12/12 ICC 10, 7/12 ICC 10H, and 11/12 ICC 25. I've done RS 10 but still haven't finished 25. I also broke 6k gs yesterday!

As for Lynx games, I'm getting pretty far in Chip's Challenge. I think I'm about one-third of the way through the game. While I've definitely playe more of CC than any other Lynx games, I've also put some time into Gates of Zendocon and Todd's Adventures in Slime World.

I picked up The Club a bit ago for less than $10. It was the first game I purchased since last summer. I enjoyed the more arcade-y take on third-person shooters. I haven't played around in it much after beating it. I also tried to finish Mad World, but I'm pretty lazy, and the boss battles require a lot of shaking.

Okay, I'm fallng asleep. Good night.

Bowling Pin, originally uploaded by theuser.

After watching Scott Pilgrim for Antonio's birthday, I saw this bowling pin walking around the district. I assume it was advertising Lucky Strikes. I had the urge to knock him down!

Pretty Leaf Imprint, originally uploaded by theuser.

I saw this pretty leaf imprint on my way to work Friday.

Coloud Marvel Headphones | Hardware, Reviews, Headphones

Hyperkin Tough Non-Slip Dance Platform | Review | Game Boyz

This dance mat is much, much better than the one that came with my DDR game.

/v/ - The Vidya

selectbutton :: View topic - is this guy serious

I thought this was interesting.

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:23 am

Facebook | Dungeons & Dragons

Hollywood Hospital Review Quoted, originally uploaded by theuser.

My review of Hollywood Hospital was also quoted!

Ghosts Attack Review Quoteda, originally uploaded by theuser.

My review of Ghosts Attack was quoted in the App Store description!

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is an RPG set in the Sonic universe for DS. Created by RPG masters BioWare, Sonic Chronicles truly captures the feel of the Sonic material that came before it. It pulls from previous games, the Saturday morning cartoon show, and even the comic series. Sonic Chronicles contains menu driven combat with action elements and is filled with funny dialogue.

In Sonic Chronicles, you're able to travel through known zones as well as new locations. There are a variety of characters that you can control. I won't spoil the game here by listing the characters, but they're who you would initially expect with a few additions. Some characters are optional, but they're pretty hard to miss honestly. The dialogue is funny and smarter than other Sonic games. It's clear that BioWare has done their homework and pulled from the cartoon and comics.

As you run around the map, enemies will be visible patrolling as well. When you touch an enemy, you move to the combat mode. Combat is menu driven with options for attacking, using POW (special moves), using items, defending, and fleeing. POW moves use stylus inputs similar to the gameplay of Elite Beat Agents; to correctly execute the POW move you must tap circles and drag circles at the right time. Out of the eleven possible characters, you use four at a time. Characters have different roles both in and out of combat. Sonic Chronicles is one of the few games in which I liked using status-altering characters. Each character also has moves usable in the main overworld such as flying and smashing objects. Use of these abilities is sometimes required to move about the level. Other times, they're only needed if you want to collect everything that there is to find. Sometimes you'll have to change who's on your team to be able to proceed.

I absolutely fell in love with the graphics of the overworld. It's quite beautiful and has a hand-drawn look to it. The first zone, Green Hill Zone, is the perfect example; it's stunning! The music is decent but gets reused throughout the game. It would have been nice to have more variety. Cutscenes are shown through animated comics. This is an interested method of conveying the story that's cute and a bit different from what's normally seen. I really liked it.

As I said previously, the dialogue was well written and enjoyable. You're given dialogue choices, but they don't have much of an impact. The two optional characters are hard to miss. In fact, there's nothing too far out of the way. It's quite easy to find everything. There's nothing really wrong with this, but RPG fans who want to explore and find secrets are going to be disappointed. However, Sonic Chronicles seems to be made for younger audiences to be able to enjoy everything as well. The difficulty does spike in the second half of the game until you figure out which POW moves to be using and which support characters to use. (Hint: Use POW moves and support characters!) After this is figured out, the game's difficulty returns to normal. The story is very good. It adds a lot to the Sonic universe and fills in a fascinating and exciting puzzle piece.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a great game for Sonic fans. It does a wonderful job of shaping the Sonic world into an RPG and then adding to it. Although I don't like being able to miss things, it would have been nice if there was some more secret characters or items. I really liked where the lore went. I won't get into specifics, but as someone who really likes Sonic the Hedgehog, it was very interesting to see things explained even if some of the points were lifted from the comic series. Sadly, the ending seemed a little rushed to me. The story concluded well, but I would have liked some of the final scenes to be drawn out and more climatic and dramatic. The game ended while I was still feeling pumped for more! The major plot element is finished at the end of the game, but Sonic Chronicles leaves a few questions open. Hopefully a sequel comes out, because I'd love to play it! While Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood isn't for people who don't like RPGs or Sonic, Sonic fans who also enjoy RPGs will absolutely love the game!

(Also posted on GameFAQs.)

RollOut for iPhone | Review | Game Boyz

RollOut's a fantastic platformer/puzzle game. It's $0.99 and worth every penny.

CataGugl for iPhone | Review | Game Boyz

Another game review to which I forgot to link. CataGugl!

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 for iPhone | Review | Game Boyz

I think I forgot to link to this previously. I reviewed Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 for the iPhone.

Maps - Boing Boing

I found this interesting article, "maps," on boingboing. Written by Simon Parkin, it's a piece of New Games Journalism examining the author's relationship with Japanese RPGs over the course of his life.

Source: "The endroad of NGJ," by Takashi on SelectButton.

Co-Optimus - Valve Admits Mistake, Gives Two Free Copies of Left 4 Dead 2

Here's something interesting I read on Co-Optimus today. Valve banned 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 players for cheating when they weren't actually cheating. As an apology, Valve unbanned all 12,000 players and gave each play two copies of Left 4 Dead 2 (one to gift to a friend with Steam). That means Valve just gave out 24,000 copies of Left 4 Dead 2!

Fractured Soul looks pretty sweet to me!

Each screen of the DS shows a slightly different world. To succeed, you have to jump between the two screens. It's developed by End Game Studios and currently doesn't have a publisher.

These talking GlaDOS Curiosity Spheres probably want to kill you | Joystiq

Buy me these!

selectbutton :: View topic - Games You Played Today IV: Play Free or Die Hard

antitype of Select Button made an interesting observation on The Orange Box. Basically, he examines gender stereotypes in Team Fortress 2 (masculine) and Portal (feminine). I'll reproduce it here since forums have a tendency to fall off the Internet:

Recently someone found WebPageless while looking for a comparison between the Crimson Acolyte Cowl and the Crimson Acolyte Hood. This isn't the first time it's happened, so I decided to talk about the two of them a little.

First, Crimson Acolyte Cowl is the headpiece of the shadow set, and Crimson Acolyte Hood is the headpiece of the healing set. I'm just going to call these the DPS headpiece and healing headpiece respectively.

DPS headpiece
Gains over healing headpiece: 8 crit, 72 haste
(2) Set: The critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells is increased by 5%.
(4) Set: Reduces the channel duration by 0.51 sec and period by 0.17 sec on your Mind Flay spell.

Healing headpiece
Gains over DPS headpiece: 80 spirit, 1 spell power
(2) Set: Your Flash Heal has a 33% chance to cause the target to heal for 33% of the healed amount over 9 sec.
(4) Set: Increases the effect of Power Word: Shield by 5% and Circle of Healing by 10%.

Let's break this down by looking at the two headpieces from the perspective of each spec.

Shadow

Spirit is almost worthless for shadow. Spell power is king, and crit and haste are both next in line. Obviously the DPS headpiece has the better stats for shadow. In addition, the healing headpiece's set bonuses don't help shadow at all. The DPS headpiece's set bonuses are pretty nice. This is a no brainer. If you're shadow, take the DPS headpiece.

Holy

Let's take a look at the four stats that differentiate the two headpieces. For holy, spell power is the most important of the four with spirit close behind. Spirits provide both regen and a spell power boost. Crit and haste, while helpful, are less helpful. Looking purely at stats, the healing headpiece is slightly better. Take into consideration the fact that the DPS headpiece's set bonuses don't help holy at all while the healing headpiece's set bonuses are quite nice and this one is easy as well. If you're holy, take the healing headpiece.

Disc

Disc priests will probably have a harder time than holy priests or shadow priests picking their headpiece. I went through this when I first started collecting T10 as a disc priest myself. Spirit is pretty much worthless for discipline priests. Let's look at the remaining stats that differentiate the headpieces. What's better, 1 spell power or 8 crit and 72 haste? Clearly the crit and haste are much more valuable than 1 spellpower. Discipline is in the weird position of wanting the same gear caster DPS players want (except we don't want hit of course).

The problem is that the DPS headpiece's set bonuses don't help disc at all. How about the healing headpiece's set bonuses? Increasing the effect of Power Word: Shield is great. This spell is what makes disc what it is. You should be using it all the time. PW:S should always be on the tanks and anyone taking or about to take damage. For example, when someone gets the Mutated Infection during the Rotface battle, put a shield on them! Once you have enough mana to not worry about mana at all, you should be blanketing the raid in shields whenever you have the free global cooldown anyways. As for the Flash Heal bonus - I think it's a nice set bonus. In a lot of fights I hardly use it at all, but in a lot of fights I still do use it.

It's tempting to go for the throughput stats of the DPS set, but you really should be taking advantage of the healing set bonuses. Go for the healing headpiece. There's also another way to look at it. Let's assume you don't care about the healing set bonuses. Then why get the dps headpiece? If you're going to forget the healing set bonuses anyway, you should go for Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown (Heroic) from heroic Gunship 25. I realize you'll have to do a 25 mode heroic and that might not have been what you wanted to do, but (at least on my server) it's very easy for anyone to get into a PuG that can do heroic Gunship. This gives you a benefit of 30 int, 30 stamina, 114 spirit, 25 armor, 18 crit, and 47 spell power compared to the 8 crit and 72 haste you'd get from the DPS headpiece. It's even better than the Sanctified version of the DPS headpiece.

There are a lot of other headpieces that are better for disc than the DPS headpiece as well. Another is the Cowl of Malefic Repose (Heroic) from heroic Blood-Queen in 10-man. This is much harder to do than heroic Gunship 25, so let's forget it. Next up is Thaumaturge's Crackling Cowl (Heroic) from Deathbringer heroic 10. Next there's Corp'rethar Ceremonial Crown from regular Gunship 25. Lastly, Cowl of Malefic Repose from Blood-Queen 10 normal.

Some of those are pretty hard to get. Strangely enough, the very best one is the easiest to obtain. Even if you're just starting out, finding a PuG for 25 man shouldn't be hard, and most do heroic Gunship. You should go for the healing headpiece, but if you decide you don't care about the set bonuses (although you should), there are much better headpieces than the DPS headpiece.

Conclusion

So, what you do? Buy the T10 that's made for your spec! Do it! And don't sell the set bonuses short!

Why do you search for your own name so often?

Fists of Fu Beta / PC Games / Video Game News

Fists of Fu closed beta starts Friday, and sign-ups start tomorrow. It looks cute!

Recently I finished Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and The Club. I played through The Club on the easiest difficulty and haven't tried multiplayer at all yet, so I'd like to spend a little more time on that. When I'm done, there are a few games I'd like to finish up.

• MadWorld (Wii) - I'm near the end, so I think this will be the next game I play.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - I'm only in the third world, but I was really enjoying it.
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - I already finished the game, but I'd like to grab the hidden coins and finish the special zone.
• Demon's Souls (PS3) - There's a lot left here. I only finished the first level, but it's a cool game. It's just a bit heavy. I need to really sink time into it.
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) - While I beat the game, I haven't finished all the puzzles.
• Little Big Planet (PSP) - I'm in the third country. There's a lot left.
• Everyday Shooter (PSN) - I've played this quite a bit and only reached the fifth level this week. There are eight levels total. Am I just terrible?
• BlazBlue (PS3) - I've reached 100% with five of the characters. Still need to get through the rest!
• Contra 4 (DS) - I played through the easy difficulty, but it doesn't give you the last level in easy mode. For a while I couldn't play this game because you couldn't save regularly, and my DS kept crashing. It's better now, so I need to return to this in normal mode.

Then there's a few games that I haven't started at all yet but want to play soon.

• Metal Slug 6 (PSP)
• Metal Slug 7 (PSP)
• Guilty Gear XX ^ Core Plus (Wii)
• Holy Invasion of Privacy, Bad Man (PSP)
• Alien Swarm (PC)

Serenity: Float Out is the newest Serenity comic. It's a one-shot telling that attempts to tell a bit of the backstory of Wash. The story was written by comedian Patton Oswalt, and the art was done by Patric Reynolds. While it wasn't bad, it definitely wasn't up to par with the previous Serenity comics. Only fans who care about seeing everything should really bother with it.

In Float Out, three people are buying a new ship that they're naming after Wash. They struggle to find something to say about Wash during the floating-out ceremony and decide to reminisce about Wash instead. Each of the three tells a story about Wash. While I want to hear about Wash, I don't know these three other characters, and I don't care about them. We're never really told much about them. Each story is nothing more than telling us what we already know about Wash, such as the fact that he's a good pilot. To make it worse, each story is only a couple pages. Float Out would have been better as a mini-series, with each story being a separate issue. This would have allowed more characterization of both Wash and the story-teller. The only actual bit of forward-moving plot occurs on the very last page. I won't spoil it, but it's an interesting addition to the Firefly story.

The Serenity comics seem to be going downhill. I haven't read The Other Half yet; maybe that would change my opinion. The first mini-series did a great job of wrapping up the series. In fact, it bothers me that there are big Firefly fans that would watch Serenity without reading those three comics first. The second mini-series wasn't as good but still told an interesting story, even if it was a prequel that didn't truly add to the previously told story. Float Out wasn't much more than a nod to Wash. I want an overall story that leads somewhere. Prequels are fine, but a one-shot that doesn't offer a new look as a character is kind of boring. I am looking forward to The Shepherd's Tale, but (I assume that) it's going to give actual insight into Book. I'd also like to see the Firefly saga move forward rather than always looking backward. The last page of Float Out at least implies that they want to move forward, which makes me happy. Float Out definitely won't win anyone over to Firefly/Serenity, but fans who want the whole experience should read it. It's not bad, but it just doesn't add. Fans who don't mind missing a little can skip it without regret.

IDAPT i3 Universal Desktop Charger / Wireless Devices / Reviews

The IDAPT i3 uses interchangeable tips to charge up to three devices at once.

Co-Optimus - Kirby Super Star: Favorite Co-op Game of All Time

As my entry in Co-Optimus' contest, 1000 Co-Op Games Contest, I posted a blog entry on their site about Kirby Super Star, my favorite co-op game of all time. Feel free to check it out if you want to see what I have to say!

1942: First Strike Flies onto iPhone / iPhone/iPod / Reviews

I had a lot of fun with this scrolling shooter! Note that when Game-Boyz' server migration finishes, this link will be outdated until I can change it.

Kingslayer, originally uploaded by theuser.

The battle is finished! Mooglegem and I are now Kingslayers after defeating Arthas tonight! I also got Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love. Sunday - on to Ruby Sanctum!

I'll post links to all of my Game-Boyz E3 coverage in this post. It'll be in reverse chronological order. I'll specify what category the post was, the data and time, and a brief summary. Check back here to find links to anything I write.

7/15/ 16:53 - Bulkypix's New iPhone Games | Preview | Game Boyz

7/6 13:02 Preview - Vanquish, Third-Person Shooter for PS3 and 360 / Xbox 360 / Previews - Awesome new third-person shooter by Sega, Platinum Game, and Shinji Mikami

6/27 18:39 Preview - Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 / Nintendo Wii / Previews - Awesome!

6/27 11:42 Blog - Sonic Colors / / - Modern formula finally perfected

6/27 Preview - Pac-Man Battle Royale / Hardware / Previews - Awesome arcade cabinet

6/26 23:30 Preview - Disney's Epic Mickey for Wii / Nintendo Wii / Previews - One of the best games at E3

6/23 14:46 Preview - Capcom shows Street Fighter IV, 1942 First Strike, and Ghosts 'N Goblins: Gold Knights II for iPhone / iPhone/iPod / Previews - All cool games

6/22 Preview - Battlestar Galactica Online Preview / PC Games / Previews - Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica Online.

6/21 Preview - DC Universe Online / PS3 / Previews - Sony's new action-MMO set in the DC Universe.

6/20 Preview - Magic the Gathering - Tactics by SOE / PS3 / Previews - Online tactics game set in the Magic the Gathering universe!

6/20 02:58 Preview - Blacklight: Tango Down / Xbox 360 / Previews - Downloadable FPS for PSN, XBLA, and PC. A very good title!

6/19 17:52 Preview - Loong - The Power of the Dragon / PC Games / Previews - New fantasy, free-to-play MMORPG

6/19 02:32 Preview - Black Prophecy, Space Combat MMO / PC Games / Previews - gamigo's free-to-play space combat MMO, Black Prophecy

6/17 01:43 Preview - Hudson's Lost in Shadow / Nintendo Wii / Previews - Lost in Shadow is one of the best games I saw here.

6/17 01:28 Preview - Oops! Prank Party / Nintendo Wii / Previews - New party game / minigame collection for Wii.

6/17 00:54 Preview - Bomberman Live: Battlefest / Xbox 360 / Previews - A quick look at Hudson's new Bomberman game.

6/17 00:34 Preview - Hudson's Bonk: Brink of Extinction / Nintendo Wii / Previews - New version of the classic platformer, Bonk!

6/16 11:08 Editorial - D3's new games at E3 / Nintendo Wii / Video Game News - D3 showed off Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Puzzle Quest 2, Kidz Bop Dance Party, and Despicable Me The Game.

6/15 10:21 Blog - Excitement / / - Just a list of cool things that I've already missed at E3 but am excited about.

6/15 00:16 Blog - The end of day zero / / - The end of day zero

6/14 15:10 Blog - Checked-in! / / - Quick post after checking into the hotel.

6/13 23:54 Blog - E3, World of Warcraft / / - Made a rather long (at least compared to my previous ones) blog post at Game-Boyz discussing my excitement for E3 and World of Warcraft.

Today I saw Cheeseygirl looking in trade for people to join her in Magtheridon's Lair. I went, and it was pretty fun. People pulled before any explanation could be given, but enough people knew what they were doing to pull it off. I also met her new boyfriend who is one of the leaders of their guild now. He's an intelligent fellow it seems who knows how to play WoW. I enjoyed talking with him.

Ruby Sanctum failed tonight. Kaytral's raid was scheduled for 6:30. I asked about it at 6:45 or so, and Harley said she was still in ICC. I assumed Kaytral must have wanted to wait for her. At 7:30 she left, and at 7:45 I asked again. Harley seemed annoyed because she was tired and not feeling well. I don't really know what happened to everyone else. I guess without Harley no one wanted to raid. I'll have to look for a PuG tomorrow. It's really annoying when guild runs fail late in the week. No PuG is ever good at the end of the week.

I ran Magisters' Terrace for an attempt at the mount and Shadow Labyrinth for the achievement. Fun times! Next week Zen's leading another ICC 25 and said he'd put my trinket on reserve. He also put an Ulduar on the calendar. No idea if that'll happen! I'd love to start collecting shards though!

First, an update on guild progression. With so many people leaving, the core raiding group has really changed. Harley, Mekrob, and Darth are now part of the LK attempts usually. Obviously I already knew Harley, but I've gotten to know Darth and Mekrob, both cool dudes. We've had a lot of changes to the roster though. Hopefully we don't crumble more. We're still having a lot of trouble on the LK though. A few weeks ago we were always struggling in phase two and had only one good phase two. We've seen the transition to phase three once but died during it. This week we had trouble getting to phase two. It's supposed to be guild progression not regression! Unfortunately, I don't really know what's happening. I have noticed that things seems to go smoother when I call out things on Vent. It's kind of cool to be able to make an impact like that.

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