Tautology of the Skeptical Sinner

I don’t do Bleeding edge Technology. I always like to wait until things have been out for a while before forking over my hard earned dosh (Thats “bucks” in English slang, gentle American readers)

But after playing around with GH3 I decided I was ready to add it to the many wastes of time I currently have.

Love it. Feel like a nerd for playing it, but it’s allll good.

The timing has absolutely nothing to do with the GH3 contest we’re having at work to benefit the Susan Komer Breast Cancer fund… nope… none at all…

Anyway, no more time to post, I have two more days to practice my shredding!

Rock on Baby!

Greetings to all you fine friendly folks. Hope you had a good 4th of July, it was a Friday, so hopefully any non-Americans enjoyed it too.

Been busy playing Space Empires V - busy is the wrong word, wasting time in an enjoyable fashion is much more appropriate. If you’ll recall, I already shared my disdain for Masters of Orion 3 - SE V is definitely the spiritual successor.

Its a 4 X game which means you Xplore, Xterminate and X-ray peoples baggage at the airport - not sure what the fourth X is for, but its a turn based strategy with Galactic conquest as the setting, and a mighty fine way of spending time it is too!

They have a demo of the game, it’s free, so if that sounds like your idea of a good time, check it out. I love the game. And 15 bucks will give you the full version downloaded and ready to play.

I’ve found some interesting stuff over the last few days, and if I’m not too busy conquering the galaxy I’ll share it soon

Pokerstars.

Ahhh, love that site… always something going on. And more bad playing than the eye can see.

US Players can still sign up there and make easy deposits in the form of an E-check from your bank. Minimum deposit is only $25.00 and there are tons of tournaments and table games where the buy in is only a dollar. So if you’re sick of playing “free chip” poker, stop on by. Or at least, check out THEIR Free Chip poker games, where you can… oh I don’t know… WIN A SEAT IN THE WSOP for nothing!!! Ahem… seriously.

Since the government cracked down on online gambling, there’s been a huge market that is untapped. As we all know, as soon as you ban something, it doesn’t go away, it just goes underground.

Efforts are being made to fight the legislation, but in the meantime, a creative mind has come up with a different approach.

Enter Centsports.

Now, the government define online gambling as anything that offers prize, chance and consideration. Which is why Centsports is just going to give you money to gamble with. That’s right. They’re going to let you gamble with their money. That way, you’re not risking anything, therefore… not gambling.

Now, they’re only giving you 10 cents at a time, but you can wager that on any line currently offered in Vegas. Once you’ve accumulated $20 you can cash out. Of course, there are lots of restrictions, but even so, if you want to have a little flutter, while it’s not going to let you retire, this is a painless way to get some excitement.

The site of course has advertisers, they have to pay for it somehow, but… if you’ll give it a shot, I think you’ll find the site to be a lot of fun. Stop by and check it out!

An advanced, unauthorized review of their new thriller: Alone in the Dark, has apparently created a wonderful PR experience for Atari. One site broke the pre-release review publication with a “negative review” (5 out of 10 - that’s not negative, thats “meh”) in dutch.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53249

How DARE journalists warn the public in advance that a much hyped product that has a zero return policy is in fact a steaming pile of fecal matter and thereby interfere with a corporations bottom line. God forbid the game publisher should actually wait and release a game that’s original and worth playing.

Pre launch, this game was generating a lot of excitement:
http://buttonbasher.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/alone-in-the-dark/

The good news is that with all of this publicity, gamers will hopefully be put off purchasing the title and rightly so. The hilarity is that this one little Dutch site, that’s IN dutch, would probably not have impacted sales nearly as much if Atari had just quietly black-balled them. That’s right, boys and girls, classic Corporate strategy at work: Greedy AND Dumb.

 A while back, I was writing freelance for a gaming magazine. I panned a game called Master of Orion 3 in a review I wrote, mainly because out of the box it was a pile of steaming fecal matter. I awarded it a magnanimous 18%, which the editor upgraded to a 30 something, because he didn’t want to upset the publishers. But to his credit, he published the review intact.

So… Dutch Computer Games Reviewing Website no one had heard of before all this. Crack open a bud light, we salute you. You may have a funny accent, but when it comes to fighting the good fight against corporate sell outs, you tell it like it is.

Oh, and an advisory to any Game Publisher who plans on sending me an advance review copy, if it sucks, I’ll break your embargo to tell the 3 people who visit my site regularly world… and sue you for wasting my time.

And it will be in English, mother-f^@#*rs, not dutch. How’d you like THEM apples?

Skep

A friend of mine from work has just gotten into World of Warcraft, initially it was for his son, but now most of the family are playing. One account. Can you see where I’m going with this?

Anyway, I wanted to send him that Penny Arcade strip where the girlfriend is covered in stars, and the guy is “I thought you said we’d play together, what level are you now anyway” and she replies, “my level cannot be expressed in numbers” - can’t find the damn thing anywhere, if someone knows, would they share the link?

Thanks

Skep