Operation: Dwarven Booty Call

Dragon Age: Origins is out today, as many in the Gamer community are aware. The trolls and the kiddies are bashing it graphic wise, but other than that no other complaints have dripped through the pipes.

And it appears as though the game will be sporting a sort of romance feature in which your character can woo an npc or party member.
That said, I now have a new ambition--I want to get a Dwarf laid.

Saboten After

Saboten Con '09 was a fun two day adventure. And perhaps the most different layout-wise. It was held at a Hilton where the middle of the hotel was dominated by a massive cooridor with a bar in the middle. This area housed the Artist Alley which normally at most Cons I've been to, have been the smaller and underappreciated venues. This time around, it was the dominant venue. Normally, it's the vendor room that is massive, this time it was tucked away in one of the smaller conference rooms and only became aware of it's existance late Friday night.

One thing I try to do at a Con if I can, is try something new, because often there are many things happening simultaneously, and I have to decide...one or the other.
This con around, I attended a Character Auction. My first thought was that it was a costume auction for some high grade cosplay gettups. Sort of.
I wound up winning a "sort of date" with Nel from Bleach, which included a free dinner. Which meant I got to hang with a professional Cosplay Actress for a few hours while she acted in character, get fed, and hang out with other "in character" cosplayers. It was fun engaging these characters in conversations, talking specifically to the character than the person, and them responding in kind.

Of course, the big thing that made it all were the people. As always. The good rock and roll people. The Hotel Staff that I personally dealt with were down with what we were doing to their place of business, and knew the drill. Jo on the other hand got the assholes.

Also met up with my old school chum Tosh Delaney, keeping the spirit of Stump Comix alive and well with his own comic book publications. A great friend and a great artist.

Didn't spend a dime in the Vendor room. I toured those shelves for a title, any title I might want, and lo, I realized all I ever could want to read I can read online.
Though it's nice to support the publisher.

So here's to all of you, who attended Saboten Con '09, and may we all meet again at the next one.

Sarah Palin-signed XBOX going for a million

We have the Cheap Ass Gamer podcast to thank for bringing this to my attention--
Apparently, someone managed to get Sarah Palin to sign an XBOX 360. That's all good and well, however his next action was to put it on Ebay for 1.1 million dollars at starting bid. After hearing this, I did a little recon myself, and yes, with 4 days still to go, there is in fact a Sarah Palin Autographed 360 going for 1.1 million dollars. And as one might expect, there have been no takers.

I'm not entirely to sure what this guy was expecting to happen in a nation that's still in the swing of a recession-- some rich celebrity, politician, or CEO to throw down the money on this because it has Sarah Palins name on it? Regular photo's of the woman go on ebay for less than $300.

My theory~ he wanted to show off his new treasure in a way that guarantee's at least a couple thousand people will see it. Ebay gets a lot of traffic and does indeed have a decent flow of people searching for political relics, icons, and photographs. The 1.1 mil price tag is an assurance that no one in their right mind will buy it, and I'm sure there are people, political buffs and the like, out there who see this and are slavering with jealousy that this schmuck got Sarah Palin to sign a damn XBOX360 console.
Now if I'm write in my theory, imagine if someone actually bought it. I imagine the guy would be a little pissed his "hey look what I have" ploy failed, but how pissed can you be if you just netted an easy 1.1 million? You could buy a replacement 360 and the entire 360 library if you wanted and still have enough to live quite comfortably for a few years.

Of course, then again this guy is probably under the impression that her name on a mundane device actually warrants that kind of price. Which is really rather delusional and sad if you think about it. Well, all the same, best of luck to him on that.

Yup

So, Jade and Jo made business cards for the podcast. Decent ones at that.

My job has been recently leaving me either too annoyed or too apathetic towards humanity to give much thought to the project. I think it's time I start looking for employment elsewhere. It's only a matter of time before I blow up on some old fucktard with a chip on his shoulder.

To add a dash of Video Game to todays post, Brutal Legends is fun- however once a stage battle starts, it can be hard to discern just what the hell is going on. However, the way it plays, I can't help but feel that this is how I would have liked Overlord 2 to have played. I honestly think Jack Black does excellant work as a Voice Actor.

Two weeks to Saboten~

Dragon Age-- Gamer Boner Rising.

Dragon Age: Origins has officially become my latest Gamer Boner since Alpha Protocol got pushed back. Bioware has even released a Character Creator program for PC to give people a little flavor and to maybe plan out their characters ahead of time.
The Character Creator itself is nice, and quite standard-- I will so rock a Dwarf. Any opportunity I have to play a Dwarf, I take it.

-I've also been browsing the Bioware dev videos on Youtube, which have been out since February, and I only just learned of this game about a month ago. Essentially, what we are looking at here is what Two Worlds SHOULD have been, a mix of The Elder Scrolls and Diablo-- This is the promise being gleamed, and from what I've been looking at, I do not expect to be disappointed.
However, if what I'm reading is correct, I'm expecting a lot of griping over the difficulty from those who are attuned to being able to wade through the armies of hell single handedly without assistance. I say bring it on. Possible debilitating injuries that affect stats over long periods of time? Concussions? Broken arms? Shit, this is the level of complexity I crave!


---Holy Crap, I just glanced over at the TV, and witnessed a Commercial for the new Poke'mon spinnoff game...Explorers of Sky? Is that the best title they could come up with?

Fable 3- My 3 Recommendations

Fable 3 is already in the oven over at Lionshead and no doubt Peter and his gang are hard at work infusing Monty Python with dark and grim Sword and Sorcery yet again. However, since we can now expect Fable 2 to not be recieving anymore downloadable content packages, I have prepared three very important points I hope the boys at Lionshead have already considered naturally...

-Make Health Matter
I wasn't personally frilled with the no-risk method Fable 2 did health, "Lose all your health, and all you lose is the ungathered experience and you might get a scar". When you remove the risk of death and game over, you're also removing a significant portion of the RPG Challenge. Not to mention it nearly removed any need to carry health potions or other restorative items.

-With the crown comes some responsibility
In the revised version of the first Fable game, you could become the Mayor of Bowerstone. In Fable 2, you can earn the title of King or Mayor by accomplishing certain requirements, mostly through the acquisition of real estate, and could even get your hands on a crown and scepter in one of the DLC's. The problem? The term "In Name Only" comes to mind. When the main storyline was done and over with, you didn't have much to do but do random jobs completely below the station of a ruler ("Oy, King, pour me another beer for table 3!"), and purchase real estate. What's the point of being a King if you can't enforce your will upon your kingdom in some fashion? I, for one, am waiting to see just what they do with Fable 3 in regards to maintaining the well being of one's kingdom.

-Have a proper ending!
The ending of the first Fable game was a fair turn of events, and a decent end to an otherwise bittersweet tale. The Lost Chapters edition's ending left me with chills at the concept of the ultimate choice of either destroying or becoming the ultimate evil entity. However, I cannot be the only who sat on their couch at the end of Fable 2 and uttered a disparaging "What, that's it?". It felt like a huge tease! The words "To Be Continued" should have scrolled across the screen before the credits rolled. What's more, we were probably all convinced this meant that they'd be releasing a DLC expansion to even out the story...what do we get? Knothole Island and another DLC where we get teased even more with a preview of Fable 3~ And settles nothing.


With these three points, Fable 2 would have been the perfect RPG in my eyes. While I have all the faith that Peter Molyneux and company will deliver a product that will both fascinate me and tickle my role-playing bone to vast extremes, I'm hoping...just a little...that things are learned, and improvements are made for the better of the series.


--Doctor Scraps out.

Oh, Jack, you so crazy.

So...apparently Jack Thompson is suing Facebook, because Users are forming groups against him. Jack Thompson is becoming more and more like that eccentric old man you always hear about but never see.
Seriously...Facebook? Jack...Come on...A networking site? Don't you have actual lawyer work to do? Can't you just take clients like normal ambulance chasers? Would that be too much of a stretch for you, Jack?

Seriously, I would love to take ten minutes with this guy...in an honest face to face conversation, just so I can try and comprehend what's going on in that Donald Trump-Hair covered head of his...