Often the term "Crashed and Burned" is used when it comes to relationships gone south. And recently I was informed that "relationships, much like planes, are hard to land without a few bumps." Then it all clicked for me.
I can say with a straight face, that not a single relationship of mine can be described as having ended well. As a flyer, my planes have been stocked with no breaks, no wheels, and extra gas. I also have had a unfortunate tendency to aim at the ground. The ensuing explosions have been different, much like snowflakes, but explosions none the less. All that being said, it is not to say that I now dislike on flying planes.
Flying, on occasion, is fun. I think we can all agree to that. If you haven't been up for a plane ride in a while. A nice flight with a good in-flight movie can hit the spot. It can be just the trip to get away from it all. But sometimes what starts off as a nice flight can quickly become a never ending trip from hell. That fat guy right behind you keeps kicking your seat, the baby 13 rows down's shrieking still reaches back to rattle your ear drums, and that weird old lady who is bundled up just a little too much in your periph's is just acting strangely enough to irk the shit out of you.
This flight has been in the air just a little too long. You can't parachute out (this is a commercial airliner for god's sake, you can't just leave all your personal emotional baggage on the plane) and the bad weather over your destination isn't helping your trip. The plane can land with a few bumps, or it can crash and burn, but either way, after you get off the tarmac you're gonna wish the beginning of the flight had lasted forever. But alas, it was not to be.
We all know not all flights are like this. I've had shitty hour long flights, and excellent 6 hour flights, but we all know when that flight from hell comes along it's best to just get down as fast and as smooth as possible. Sometimes it's just easier to go hang gliding for a bit. Maybe even just hopping on a fast ski lift will fill your thrill of exhilaration. But even the worst flights aren't gonna keep some people from hanging around the terminal waiting to hop the next plane. Anybody know if this one's got a good in-flight movie?
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
My Kid's Life: As I've Planned It
He'll be born. Then the training will begin. He'll become enrolled in a school of espionage, where he'll learn to trust no one. Then he'll work his way through the ranks of spy-hood until eventually I intervene and bring him back into the normal world. I'll either do that, or I'll plant subliminal knowledge of how to be a spy during his dreams. We'll see where my finances are at that point in my life.
Either way, from there on in, my kid will be the kid that you want to be your best friend. Break your arm skateboarding? He knows how to set a quick cast. In trouble with the Mob? He'll fix it. Need a quick getaway? He'll be the Wheelman. This kid is going to be F%$KING Awesome. With a capital A. Seriously. I'm designing this kid to be The Man. Your Bro. Your BFF. Your Best Man. I mean, can any self-respecting dude out there say to anyone, "No, I wouldn't want someone who could save my ass in any situation to be my best friend." Correct answer: No. And if you said otherwise, your Man Card has been revoked, and should be sent in to your nearest Man Center of Manliness.
This notion has come upon me from my years of adolescences wasted thinking to myself: "Man, I wish I could just ninja over there and up that wall." Or: "I gotta get out of here now! If only I could blend into the shadows and disappear into the night." See that's why I might be leaning towards the subliminal spy thing. That way my kid'll grow up thinking all that, then one birthday I'll be like, "Hey son, Happy Birthday. Super Molasses Laffy Taffy Ping Pong SKIDOOSH!" Of course he'll just think to himself, "Oh Shit. It happened. Dad finally flipped. Where's my bat? Do I even have a bat?" And I'll see that look on his face and chuckle, and so will he... UNTIL HE SEES A THROWING STAR FLYING TOWARDS HIM!! He'll do a Morgan (for reference, watch Chuck) and then when he looks up to see what happened to the throwing star, he'll see that he holds it precisely in between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He'll be astonished. More so after he hears how he is secretly a spy, and how I have activated his secret spy powers with my lengthy key phrase. (Fear not. I shall use a far more intricate phrase that shall be coded for my voice and his ears that will only work on the right occasion.) But then if I have crafted his character correctly, HE WILL FLIP OUT WITH AWESOMENESS. He might actually do a flip with his newfound ninja/spy training. I'll leave that up to chance.
From there on out, that kid is going to be a boss. Using his newfound powers for awesomeness and baddassity. And who knows, maybe he'll save the world or something. That'd be the cherry on top. He'll go on to do very prestigious acts, save important people, and all around just being a huge producer of good karma in the world. (I'll get a little credit, as he's on my tab.) But I will also get mad props for being maniacal enough to teach him how to be so Boss. I can only imagine that my wife'll have some doing in raising him, thusly absorbing some of the good karma, and credit. But I'll come to that when I come to it.
I am trying to describe to you what this kid will be like, but in truth, words will not be able to describe him. Unless they find a new word for him. And just like that it comes to me. I'll create a name for him and that name will become the only word that can describe him. People will be like "There goes _____ he is so _____." I can only imagine that after his popularity sky rockets due to his ever-lengthening list of good-deed-ery, the amount of parents that will name their children after him will number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
Now, you will notice that I have left his name blank. That is because not only have I not decided on his name yet, but should I have already decided on his name, and told you all now, his name would be stolen, not un-similar to that of Seven Costanza. The history books will hold our name in High Esteem. Until the Cyborgs enslave Humanity in the late 21st Century. Then our bloodline shall go underground, forming the First Human Resistance. I would go on, but I fear of becoming too Nostradamus-like in my predictions.
Well, at least that's what I have planned out. We'll just have to see what happens tomorrow. Because tomorrow could change everything.
P.S. References in Tonight's Blog were sponsored by: Kung Fu Panda, Chuck, Seinfeld, and Futurama.
Either way, from there on in, my kid will be the kid that you want to be your best friend. Break your arm skateboarding? He knows how to set a quick cast. In trouble with the Mob? He'll fix it. Need a quick getaway? He'll be the Wheelman. This kid is going to be F%$KING Awesome. With a capital A. Seriously. I'm designing this kid to be The Man. Your Bro. Your BFF. Your Best Man. I mean, can any self-respecting dude out there say to anyone, "No, I wouldn't want someone who could save my ass in any situation to be my best friend." Correct answer: No. And if you said otherwise, your Man Card has been revoked, and should be sent in to your nearest Man Center of Manliness.
This notion has come upon me from my years of adolescences wasted thinking to myself: "Man, I wish I could just ninja over there and up that wall." Or: "I gotta get out of here now! If only I could blend into the shadows and disappear into the night." See that's why I might be leaning towards the subliminal spy thing. That way my kid'll grow up thinking all that, then one birthday I'll be like, "Hey son, Happy Birthday. Super Molasses Laffy Taffy Ping Pong SKIDOOSH!" Of course he'll just think to himself, "Oh Shit. It happened. Dad finally flipped. Where's my bat? Do I even have a bat?" And I'll see that look on his face and chuckle, and so will he... UNTIL HE SEES A THROWING STAR FLYING TOWARDS HIM!! He'll do a Morgan (for reference, watch Chuck) and then when he looks up to see what happened to the throwing star, he'll see that he holds it precisely in between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He'll be astonished. More so after he hears how he is secretly a spy, and how I have activated his secret spy powers with my lengthy key phrase. (Fear not. I shall use a far more intricate phrase that shall be coded for my voice and his ears that will only work on the right occasion.) But then if I have crafted his character correctly, HE WILL FLIP OUT WITH AWESOMENESS. He might actually do a flip with his newfound ninja/spy training. I'll leave that up to chance.
From there on out, that kid is going to be a boss. Using his newfound powers for awesomeness and baddassity. And who knows, maybe he'll save the world or something. That'd be the cherry on top. He'll go on to do very prestigious acts, save important people, and all around just being a huge producer of good karma in the world. (I'll get a little credit, as he's on my tab.) But I will also get mad props for being maniacal enough to teach him how to be so Boss. I can only imagine that my wife'll have some doing in raising him, thusly absorbing some of the good karma, and credit. But I'll come to that when I come to it.
I am trying to describe to you what this kid will be like, but in truth, words will not be able to describe him. Unless they find a new word for him. And just like that it comes to me. I'll create a name for him and that name will become the only word that can describe him. People will be like "There goes _____ he is so _____." I can only imagine that after his popularity sky rockets due to his ever-lengthening list of good-deed-ery, the amount of parents that will name their children after him will number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
Now, you will notice that I have left his name blank. That is because not only have I not decided on his name yet, but should I have already decided on his name, and told you all now, his name would be stolen, not un-similar to that of Seven Costanza. The history books will hold our name in High Esteem. Until the Cyborgs enslave Humanity in the late 21st Century. Then our bloodline shall go underground, forming the First Human Resistance. I would go on, but I fear of becoming too Nostradamus-like in my predictions.
Well, at least that's what I have planned out. We'll just have to see what happens tomorrow. Because tomorrow could change everything.
P.S. References in Tonight's Blog were sponsored by: Kung Fu Panda, Chuck, Seinfeld, and Futurama.
Dear Blog,
Oh bloggity blog blog. How I missed thee. But alas I have nothing to fill you with. WOE IS ME! My adventures as of late have, I regret to inform you been too awesome. Oh, it is possible, and I have achieved it. So I can only tell you that as of late I have been doing a lot of room cleaning, book reading, and a sprinkling of ball playing. Fear not! Soon I will be able to fill you with tales of adventure, filled with pirating, ninjaing, and all sorts of other adventuring. Wait patiently my blog. And you shall be rewarded.
Yours truly,
Sir James Isaac Redding III
P.S. That's not really my name. <3
Yours truly,
Sir James Isaac Redding III
P.S. That's not really my name. <3
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Yet Another Brief Interlude
I've come to a crossroads.
On the one hand, I went to E3, it was an amazing experience, and I feel as if I should bequeath my knowledge of the event onto thee, the masses.
On the other hand, I made this blog so I could just blog about funny stories, life and dumb stuff to keep me entertained.
Right now, I can't do both. I'm trying to get E3 out of the way, while maintaining some sort of quality, but resisting the urge to just wordvomit onto the page in my sort of manor that hopefully the two of you who read this have come to know and love. So I'm writing this in an effort to overcome the writers block that is the monumental affair that was E3. So I'll write more. Just later. kthnxbye
On the one hand, I went to E3, it was an amazing experience, and I feel as if I should bequeath my knowledge of the event onto thee, the masses.
On the other hand, I made this blog so I could just blog about funny stories, life and dumb stuff to keep me entertained.
Right now, I can't do both. I'm trying to get E3 out of the way, while maintaining some sort of quality, but resisting the urge to just wordvomit onto the page in my sort of manor that hopefully the two of you who read this have come to know and love. So I'm writing this in an effort to overcome the writers block that is the monumental affair that was E3. So I'll write more. Just later. kthnxbye
Friday, June 5, 2009
Teh Haloz
Alright. Business time. At last we left off our valiant hero was just finishing the second hour of E3. It was at this point that I got my ass over to the Microsoft Theatre as it was called, for a special presentation on Halo 3: ODST. Now for those of you that aren't exactly "in the loop" Halo 3 is huge, just hitting 1 billion games of multiplayer in March 2009. And it came out in September 2007. People still play it. Just getting my own 360 in the Fall, I went out and bought it for something around 50 bucks. Almost full retail price a year after it's release? That's when you know you've got a winner.
Anywho, Halo 3: ODST is a prequel of sorts to Halo 3. In it you take the roll of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) and after a botched drop, your character has to go seek out the fates of his Squad Mates. During the presentation, we saw the opening movie featuring the likeness and voice of actor Nathan Fillion, who I love because of his roles in the TV show Firefly and the movie based on it Serenity. It was an awesome set up, which led us into a small preview of the games opening minutes. There were noticible changes, like the HUD (Heads Up Display) set up, and the way you see the world, as you can now change into night-vision, which allows you to scope out Friends and Foes from far away. We were told about the new Health system, which involves Stamina and Health itself. When taking damage, it initially hurts your Stamina, and after that's depleted, it moves on to your health. If you stop getting hurt, your Stamina will replenish, however your Health will not. The only way to do that is with health terminals located throughout the city of New Mombasa, the setting of the game.
After a short walk through, elaborating on the differences between playing as an ODST as opposed to the Spartan Master Chief, we switched over to the new multiplayer mode Firefight. If you've ever played Gears of War 2, it's pretty much Halo meets Horde. For the Gears impaired, your group of ODSTs will be squaring off against wave after wave of Covenant enemies. There are key differences however. In Firefight your squad uses a pool of lives, and for each new set of enemies another of Halo's infamous skulls will be turned on, like the Tough Luck skull that allows your enemies to dodge grenades and other attacks better, or the Catch skull which makes them throw more grenades. The presentation ended shortly after this.
At this point I'm skipping the rest of the convention (don't worry, I'll go back to it) and going to skip to my playthough of Firefight. That's right. At the very end of the convention I hopped in line to play and was one of the last groups to get to play. The three older guys and myself sat down in some nice comfy chairs, and got ready for battle. Bysides a few stylistic changes, it was clear the same Halo 3 engine was underneath the matchmaking system. Then we got right into the action. It was the same Halo feel, but the new silenced SMG felt a lot different than the SMG that Halo players are used to. The Pistol is more like the one that players remember from Halo: CE where it had a lot more kick to it than in Halo 2 and 3. Play was a lot different, as when you used to practically be able to walk up to grunts and melee them in the face, you had to pick 'em off from afar as you're not the tank you used to be. One thing did remain unchanged though: The sheer fun of Halo. Picking off Grunts and sticking a Brute with a plasma grenade were just as fun, if not more so in this new style of play. We made it through the first set, and were cut off shortly after the second set began, but let me tell you; I really miss being able to walk up and jack a Covenant Wraith. Those things SUCK when you're only packing a needler and an SMG and are taking pot shots at you from the distance. None the less, playing the game was incredibly fun, and I can only imagine it getting even more fun when I'm playing with three of my friends when it comes out this Septemeber.
Next time, MORE SHANANAGINS AT E3! HOORAY!!!
Anywho, Halo 3: ODST is a prequel of sorts to Halo 3. In it you take the roll of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) and after a botched drop, your character has to go seek out the fates of his Squad Mates. During the presentation, we saw the opening movie featuring the likeness and voice of actor Nathan Fillion, who I love because of his roles in the TV show Firefly and the movie based on it Serenity. It was an awesome set up, which led us into a small preview of the games opening minutes. There were noticible changes, like the HUD (Heads Up Display) set up, and the way you see the world, as you can now change into night-vision, which allows you to scope out Friends and Foes from far away. We were told about the new Health system, which involves Stamina and Health itself. When taking damage, it initially hurts your Stamina, and after that's depleted, it moves on to your health. If you stop getting hurt, your Stamina will replenish, however your Health will not. The only way to do that is with health terminals located throughout the city of New Mombasa, the setting of the game.
After a short walk through, elaborating on the differences between playing as an ODST as opposed to the Spartan Master Chief, we switched over to the new multiplayer mode Firefight. If you've ever played Gears of War 2, it's pretty much Halo meets Horde. For the Gears impaired, your group of ODSTs will be squaring off against wave after wave of Covenant enemies. There are key differences however. In Firefight your squad uses a pool of lives, and for each new set of enemies another of Halo's infamous skulls will be turned on, like the Tough Luck skull that allows your enemies to dodge grenades and other attacks better, or the Catch skull which makes them throw more grenades. The presentation ended shortly after this.
At this point I'm skipping the rest of the convention (don't worry, I'll go back to it) and going to skip to my playthough of Firefight. That's right. At the very end of the convention I hopped in line to play and was one of the last groups to get to play. The three older guys and myself sat down in some nice comfy chairs, and got ready for battle. Bysides a few stylistic changes, it was clear the same Halo 3 engine was underneath the matchmaking system. Then we got right into the action. It was the same Halo feel, but the new silenced SMG felt a lot different than the SMG that Halo players are used to. The Pistol is more like the one that players remember from Halo: CE where it had a lot more kick to it than in Halo 2 and 3. Play was a lot different, as when you used to practically be able to walk up to grunts and melee them in the face, you had to pick 'em off from afar as you're not the tank you used to be. One thing did remain unchanged though: The sheer fun of Halo. Picking off Grunts and sticking a Brute with a plasma grenade were just as fun, if not more so in this new style of play. We made it through the first set, and were cut off shortly after the second set began, but let me tell you; I really miss being able to walk up and jack a Covenant Wraith. Those things SUCK when you're only packing a needler and an SMG and are taking pot shots at you from the distance. None the less, playing the game was incredibly fun, and I can only imagine it getting even more fun when I'm playing with three of my friends when it comes out this Septemeber.
Next time, MORE SHANANAGINS AT E3! HOORAY!!!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
DETOUR: THIS WAY
Okay, so I know I’m supposed to be giving you the 411 on what happened with Halo. But I’m not. Cause I have forever and ever to tell you and dwell on all that. But this story is only going to be so amusing to me for tonight so I’m going to tell you now.
I finished with E3, made my way back to the hotel, got my bag, watched the end of the Red Sox game, and then hopped in my shuttle when it got there. It took about an hour to get to the Airport, including picking up everyone. In this case, everyone included: Our Mexican driver, a Chinese teen riding shotgun, two Japanese girls in the first row, an African-American twenty-something behind them, a blonde girl who was chattering away on her phone in some sort of Slavic language I wanna say, and myself, the Caucasian teen. Boy I bet we were a sight. Anyway, I was the last drop off, and I checked in, yada yada. Annoying as usual. (Taking off and putting on Converse All-Stars is a bitch.)
First thing I did when I got in the terminal was to go look for food. I saw a news stand with snacks (too hungry), a Cinnabon (just no.), an old school diner set up (maybe) and then finally a sports bar (bingo). Just to make sure I doubled back so I didn’t miss anything. On my way back to the sports bar, I checked the price for a cheese burger at the diner out of curiosity. $8.69. Wowzers. I got back to the bar, and I asked if they had food. They did. I looked at the menu, and a burger was $10.49. This better be a good fricken burger. I sat down and ordered, because I figured sitting alone watching TV at the sports bar was better than sitting alone staring at an empty seat at the diner. That extra cash’d hopefully get me a better burger. Got my drink, watched the end of the USA vs. Costa Rica World Cup Qualifying match (we lost 3-1) and eagerly awaited this delicious burger. So I did what any hungry person’d do and scoped out the door where my burger would be coming from. And then I kept on scoping. And then suddenly my burger appeared behind me. My waitress had walked over to the diner, and then gotten my burger there and brought it back to me. Now bear in mind, this diner was not more than a 30 second walk from the bar. Almost 2 extra dollars for my burger, just because I was 50 feet further, and I didn’t order the burger myself. If I’d have known I was just going to get food from the diner, I would have, let’s say it together now…that’s right, “gotten food from the diner”. It was dumb, and a rip off. But I’ve made my peace with it, but I thought that I might pass this knowledge onto ye, as ye might be in a similar situation, getting food at a sports bar next to a diner at a plane terminal at 9PM at LAX. Well, maybe not so similar. But just in case, yaknow?
Next time. E3. Promise.
P.S. Anybody else ever notice those weird old asian ladies who wear scarfs and gloves and bring boxes of tissues on to planes? I just thought about it and they're always somewhere....
I finished with E3, made my way back to the hotel, got my bag, watched the end of the Red Sox game, and then hopped in my shuttle when it got there. It took about an hour to get to the Airport, including picking up everyone. In this case, everyone included: Our Mexican driver, a Chinese teen riding shotgun, two Japanese girls in the first row, an African-American twenty-something behind them, a blonde girl who was chattering away on her phone in some sort of Slavic language I wanna say, and myself, the Caucasian teen. Boy I bet we were a sight. Anyway, I was the last drop off, and I checked in, yada yada. Annoying as usual. (Taking off and putting on Converse All-Stars is a bitch.)
First thing I did when I got in the terminal was to go look for food. I saw a news stand with snacks (too hungry), a Cinnabon (just no.), an old school diner set up (maybe) and then finally a sports bar (bingo). Just to make sure I doubled back so I didn’t miss anything. On my way back to the sports bar, I checked the price for a cheese burger at the diner out of curiosity. $8.69. Wowzers. I got back to the bar, and I asked if they had food. They did. I looked at the menu, and a burger was $10.49. This better be a good fricken burger. I sat down and ordered, because I figured sitting alone watching TV at the sports bar was better than sitting alone staring at an empty seat at the diner. That extra cash’d hopefully get me a better burger. Got my drink, watched the end of the USA vs. Costa Rica World Cup Qualifying match (we lost 3-1) and eagerly awaited this delicious burger. So I did what any hungry person’d do and scoped out the door where my burger would be coming from. And then I kept on scoping. And then suddenly my burger appeared behind me. My waitress had walked over to the diner, and then gotten my burger there and brought it back to me. Now bear in mind, this diner was not more than a 30 second walk from the bar. Almost 2 extra dollars for my burger, just because I was 50 feet further, and I didn’t order the burger myself. If I’d have known I was just going to get food from the diner, I would have, let’s say it together now…that’s right, “gotten food from the diner”. It was dumb, and a rip off. But I’ve made my peace with it, but I thought that I might pass this knowledge onto ye, as ye might be in a similar situation, getting food at a sports bar next to a diner at a plane terminal at 9PM at LAX. Well, maybe not so similar. But just in case, yaknow?
Next time. E3. Promise.
P.S. Anybody else ever notice those weird old asian ladies who wear scarfs and gloves and bring boxes of tissues on to planes? I just thought about it and they're always somewhere....
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wowzers!
Well, I was as giddy as a school girl when I got there, and I left as happy as a clam. How one transfigures from school girl to clam is beyond me but lo and behold; it happened. So before I get into the grimy deets, I’m just going to toss out a list of all the Swag I got.
- A bag with some Japanese key chains, and two DS lite/ DSi covers
- A Frisbee from Wii Sports Resort
- A DJ Hero T-Shirt
- A Tetris 25 Years Baby-doll T-Shirt (haha I know right)
- A sweet flashlight pen
- A little game controller key chain
- Two iPod covers
- And A lot of magazines and flyers and stuff.
Good times right? Ok so I’ll give you the play by play that you’ve been so eagerly awaiting.
We ended up getting to the convention center about 10:30, giving my Dad and myself an hour and a half till show time. We got our badges, or rather our badge holders, and then proceeded to amble about for a while. Outside was a huge pile of junk promoting Rabbids Go Home. It was…. Interesting. Looking back inside there were huge posters EVERYWHERE. It was awesome. Then with an hour and change left, my Dad and I went in search of food. We ended up walking out to LA Live, and looking for restaurants there. We walked by the
BOOM SHOWTIME. Everyone BUSTED down the doors, and straight ahead was the EA booth. It had PS3 and 360 copies of all its games. I played a little Madden 10, and then watched a little bit of Brutal Legend. Both looked amazing. From there I popped out and was right in the Microsoft section. There was a theater for presentations (tell you about those later) and a section cordoned off for exclusive hands-on Halo ODST Firefight game play. I wanted to get in there so bad, but I figured I’d go look at everything and come back if I had time. Unfortunately I didn’t L.
From there I played Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Then I sat and watched all of Square Enix’s trailers on their HUGE screen, and oogled their pricy collection of collectables. After that I shot over to Warner Bros. Interactive, and stared at their Batmobile for a little bit. MMmmmm…Yeah. I got a look at some people playing Lego Rock Band, and my first look at Batman: Arkham Asylam. Lego Rock Band looked well… Like Rock Band, with Lego Characters. Not much to elaborate on there. Batman looked like what I’d seen before in trailers and game play videos but once again I felt like I had to see everything before I stopped to smell the flowers.
After that we went over to look at the Alienware booth. It was almost 1PM now, and when we were out and about earlier a strange lady in a black suit had informed us “Alienware Booth. 1PM.” With this deluge of information, of course we figured that would be the place to be. We got there and it was a lot smaller than the other exhibits we’d been to so far. Pretty much just a small tent, with an area in the back with some desktops set up. My Dad asked what the upcoming announcement was going to be about. Something about a brand spankin’ new desktop they were coming out with. I knew I wouldn’t get all the tech specs then, so we decided to read the Reader’s Digest version when we got back. Turns out it’s a wicked tricked out computer (duh) that costs about $5600. Don’t get me wrong, I love computers. But I really don’t game on computers much, sooo…. That’s really my opinion on that.
From there we browsed around some more. Picked up some swag at the Gelaskins booth, saw some Ninja Turtles, and a giant robot from Alien(?). But then my first big surprise came. While meandering around the outer rim of the Microsoft exhibit, I found some hidden demos of Batman, Brutal Legend, and then…What?...No…It couldn’t possibly… LEFT 4 DEAD 2. Valve just came out with L4D this past year, and now I’m seeing a sequel? I didn’t even know one was in the works! Anyway, I went over and took a look at it, and ended up getting to take ‘er for a spin. It played almost exactly like the original, but with a few additions. I’m not positive, but it felt like the pistol was a little stronger, and the graphics definitely got an upgrade. I also noticed the addition of a few new Special Zombies, one called the “Charger” which I didn’t quite get a good look at, and the addition of Melee weapons. Stacking on top of my primary weapon (meaning if you shoot you lose the melee weapon) I picked up a fireman’s axe as I played. It was good for hitting the occasional zombie, but wasn’t as efficient as a nice spray from the shotty. A Valve representative ended up sitting on my shoulder and we talked as I played. He told me the Melee weapons were more for Special Zombies, as they did a lot of damage. Sadly though, I finished and got the boot. (I’m gonna go back tomorrow! :D) However I did manage to glean a Nov. 19th release date. BOO YAH.
I think I’ll leave it there for this blog post. It’s already as mammoth as I can make it right now. At that was only noon to 2. At 2PM I opened a whole ‘nother can of worms. Stay tuned.
Now Leaving: Disneyland
(I wrote this this morning. Just never got a chance to put it up. Enjoy!)
I’m going to keep this one nice and short as to conserve batter power for E3 later. (tee-hee! I’m so excited! Hahah) Disneyland was fan-fricken-tastic. As I mentioned last time my Dad and I used RideMax to give us a head start on everybody, and I’ll tell you how it worked. Or how it kindof worked.
As it didn’t account for us going to both Disneyland and California Adventure, we scheduled Disneyland from 8-10, California Adventure from 10-3, and then Disneyland again from 3-11. We followed the RideMax as much as we could, and we were on schedule for about the first half of the first leg of our trip. But we finished half an hour early, which was good because it gave us time to poke around before California Adventure opened, and to get Splash Mountain in there. (It was a splashing good time! :D) So then we popped over to California Adventure, followed the RideMax there for the first few, before we noticed it was having us head over to the other side of the park to get FastPass tickets. Just being my Dad and I, this is where we bucked the system. We just worked our way across the park, attraction by attraction, doing what we wanted, and only referring to the RideMax in order to remember what rides we said we wanted to do the night before. By the time we got back to Disney, we’d done way more than expected. We had about 7 hours to waste, and only 5 or 6 rides to do. I’m not complaining though, because it was good to have a lot of time to choose what to do.
All in all, RideMax was helpful at the beginning of our day, and the tips that it gave us on certain attractions, like the Haunted Mansion, where when you enter a certain room at the beginning you should look for where the secret door is in the wall, so after the presentation, you’re right there and can just bolt to the front of the line. Oh and taking the single riders line for the Toy Story Mania ride at California Adventure. That got my Dad and I into the ride in under 10 minutes when the line length was 40 minutes. Clutch.
It’s not all RideMax’s fault that we got so far ahead of it though. Yesterday was an overcast day, at about 62 degrees, so a lot of the people who’d have gotten out of bed and gotten to the park nice and early with the sun happened to stay in bed. My Dad and I didn’t even wait in line for more than 10 minutes till about… 4PM? Yeah. That’s when the sun came out.
Overall, I’d say give it a shot. It’s 15 bucks for a 90 day subscription to RideMax, which unfortunately is the lowest you can get it for. But that being said if you go on a day where it actually will be crowded, it’s probably gonna cut your wait time in half. And when a slice of pizza and a medium orange Fanta costs $9.50, spending that extra $5.50 so you could get out in time for a cheap dinner outside the park might just be worth it. And it’s got a money back guarantee so if you decide it’s not to your liking just refund it.
So much for the short post right? Catch you tonight with my Day 1 E3 Wrap-Up. Follow my tweets for all my in show updates! Catch you later brohas!
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