McWilliams’ World

For Christmas, my folks gave us money that my wife and I will split. Immediately my first thought, “What’s the next cool 360 game coming out that I can get?” I thought a bit; Lost Planet, Crackdown, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero 2, Halo 3 (too far away), Fable 2 (unknown release time), etc…

I was tempted to jump on the Lost Planet wagon but after playing the abysmal multiplayer demo, I wasn’t about to spend $60 on it. I’ll probably pick that up once it’s close to $20 or get it off YourFree360Games.com.

I’m not sure about Crackdown. I’m very interested in Mass Effect, and Halo 3 and Fable 2 are automatic in my opinion but they’re too far off.

Guitar Hero 2! Yes…I will hold on to my cash and wait 2-3 months to get Guitar Hero 2. Now I just need a release date so I can slap my cash down. It’s a game that the whole family can play. If they make the first Guitar Hero tracks available on Xbox Live Marketplace (at a reasonable price), I’ll snag those too – ’cause I’m sure Tracy will love playing I Love Rock-n-Roll over and over on easy-mode and the kids will like playing Iron Man.

I personally can’t wait. Give me a release date!

I played Xbox just about every day…don’t believe me? Check my Xbox’s blog! Didn’t I say I was going to?!

I didn’t play much of Oblivion. I did, however, fall in love with Viva Pinata. I kid you not, I played that game for almost 12hr straight one day. I literally could not put it down. It’s a very simple, yet deep game with tons of experimentation. Too much fun. The kids get a kick out of it, even my 5yr old daughter loves it (I have to help). They get all excited when a new pinata comes and visits and then stays in their garden.

I dug Dead Rising back out and managed to press further on from where I was. I was stuck on the part where you have to gather 5 bombs set to explode in the maintenance tunnels under the mall that are stuffed full of zombies. Once you disable one bomb, Carlito (the bad guy in the game) comes after you in his truck, and runs you over, chucks little bombs at you and generally gets on your nerves. I was at my wits end (it’s not a long road to begin with) so I got some tips and after that didn’t work, I had to improvise and managed to get past it. Dead Rising really becomes fun after you obtain level 16+. I think I started over about 2 times (each time you start over you stay at the level you previously obtained). It’s much more enjoyable now.

Beyond my Xbox fest, we had our usual family tour; visiting Tracy’s side of the family on Christmas Eve and then open presents in the morning and then head up to my Sister’s place to meet up with my side of the family. The kids got some really nice things and I’m fairly pleased with how we didn’t go overboard with their presents.

Overall it was a nice Christmas. I completely ate way to much but it was so dang good I couldn’t help myself!

We then spent New Years Eve over at a friend’s house with some other friends of ours and had a good time. Stayed up way too late, and again, ate too much. And Monday was too short to recover from all that vacation. But Tracy made her famous chicken noodle soup and, oh-my-god!, was it good. I must have had 4 bowls. I just had some for lunch. MM-mmm-good! Dang! I want some now!

Vacation starts tomorrow (12/15/06) and runs through January 1. Whooo hoo!

What the heck am I going to do with myself? I better make a list.

• Play Xbox
• Finalize my Christmas shopping
• Play Xbox
• Watch TV (if I’m not playing Xbox)
• Start working out again – maybe – but I should – we’ll see
• Play Xbox
• Open a few gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
• Play Xbox

Well, you get the gist.

I really want to do some Gears of War co-op to get some of those co-op achievements. I’d like to advance a bit in Oblivion. Maybe get a bit farther in Dead Rising and Call of Duty 3 (maybe even join in a multi-player match).

We’ll see. I’ll have loads of time on my hands (well, about 6hrs every weekday).

I’m getting the boys Lego Star Wars II and Viva Piñata, so I’m looking forward to seeing those games – especially Viva. I’m sure Tracy will like that one (she’s been bugging me about the new Sypro game – I’ll wait for the bargain-bin).

The only reason I’d own a PS2

I’d consider getting a PS2 just for Guitar Hero, but knowing that it’s coming out for the 360 next year, I’ll wait. I’ve played it a few times at Wal-Mart (Parker and I even stopped in there and played a few rounds together), and it’s so fun. Let’s hope that on the 360 they do some on-line co-op play, or something like that. It’d be a blast. Can’t wait.

Maybe I’ll start giving plasma again to fuel my gaming addiction…

Okay, I knew about this for a while now but seeing this article just jogged my memory.

One thing I’d love to see in Graw 2 would be live actors in the cross com. I immediately thought that playing through the first GRAW. Most of the cross com updates (news, intel, etc) is all scripted, why not have live actors? It’d only bring another level of realism to the game.

I’d also like to see more destructible environments. Nothing I hate more than splattering gun fire at windows and nothing happens. Come on! I want stuff to explode!

Thoughts?

From what I hear from my wife, it sounds as if I’ll have my 4 nephews tonight and Saturday, which only means 1 thing; Xbox and pizza (okay two things).

It’s been a while since we’ve had them over for an Xbox-fest. We almost had them over monthly for a while. Overall, it’s a great time (providing someone doesn’t get ticked-off too fast and feels excluded) and I sure hope we can get some quality Halo or Halo 2 time in. I really miss playing with them.

I just hope everything works out. I’m up for some Xboxing.

Update:
Looks like Parker (my 8 year old and 2nd child) is not going to partake – He’s usually real eager to play but first to be frustrated and leave a game. So it looks like 2 on 3 for the weekend.

Post-post Update:
What a weekend. We had quite the battles – once I got system link running >:(. We played this one team match (late the next day) to 250, and it was back and forth the whole time but having 3 on 2 it wasn’t all that fair.

I have to say this, those kids are dynamo aimers. I can’t remember how many times I was shot in the head from nowhere. I was amazed how fast they were able to see where I was so fast. The thing is, 3 of them were playing on a 20″ screen while my oldest nephew and I played on my 42″ widescreen. We were spanked many times. But we had fun.

Well, after several attempts I was able to get into the Halo 3 Beta sign-up last night. The site was literally dead for a few hours. I think I got through around 11pm or so. We’ll see if I’m accepted.

I also signed up for the ShadowRun Beta. I remember watching the trailer on Xbox Live, but haven’t seen much in the way of in-game play. I’m interested in checking it out but not sure if it’s a game that’s on my radar yet.

I also tried the Lost Planet multi-player demo and although the game looks great, I was almost instantly turned off by the multi-player aspect of it. Your character runs so slowly, the controls are wonky at best and I just couldn’t get into it. At one point I was getting shot and knocked down only to get shot and knocked down again as my opponent just waited for me to get back up to finish me off. If I don’t get “the vibe” in the first couple minutes of play…I’m out. I guess I’ll keep the game on my radar but I won’t come for the multi-player.  

Don’t feel like creating a bunch of little posts about nothing, so I’ll bunch some thoughts together here.

The Christmas Chain

It was a tradition when I was kid. When December 1st rolled around my little sister and I would make a “Christmas chain” to count down the days to Christmas. I always was so excited for Christmas and this helped ramp up the excitement. So now I’m passing this tradition on to my kids.

We used three sheets of construction paper (red, green, yellow) and made a 25-link chain and picked who will take off the first chain. Oh the excitement.

Leery of playing Gears on-line

I hate to say this but man, I dread playing Gears of War on-line now. I’ve only played a few matches but everyone’s so dang good and move so fast that I barely see any action and if I do, I croak right away. Not to mention team mates that continually blab-off like morons. I just want to have some fun. Do some smart team play. I’m not there to rush around and get the sniper rifle or the best weapon. So I’ve avoided playing. I’m not saying it’s not a fun game – ’cause it is – it’s the human element that kills it a bit.

Snow on December 1st

Well, this is fitting. First day of December and it’s snowing. We’re only expected to get an inch or two (much less than our neighbors to the south), but it’s a nice kick off to December.

New DVD player on the way

An unexpected purchase while trolling my deal feeds, I scoped out a Philips Upconverting DVD Player for about $50 after 10% coupon and free shipping. It’ll upscale my DVD’s to HD resolutions (720p or 1080i) over HDMI (which will reduce my cables a bit).

It sold out a few hours after I spotted the deal. I couldn’t jump on it at the time since I was in a training session, but the next day was back in stock, so I jumped on it. So we’ll see how cool it is once I get it hooked up.

Vacation started this last Friday. I managed to play some Gears of War and some Gears multi-player. It takes a bit to get used to. I started off with some 2 on 2 matches which I did fairly well and managed to curb-stomp a few of my opponents. But the next time I jumped into a match, I might as well laid down and let them squish me. I was completely ineffective and died more often than not. It was still fun but getting popped so often starts to wear you down. The guys I’ve played with are very good players and pretty nice guys. It’s all about teamwork and if the communication isn’t that great…you’ll soon be chum.

The game is gorgeous and I dare say there aren’t many games that come close to looking a nice as Gears – on any console. The cover system gets in the way a bit when your trying to get the hell away from some big bad grubs or some tense moments, but for the most part, everything is great.

Beyond that, I managed to play through 2 or 3 stages, unlocked a few achievements, and now I’m trying to defeat Raam on the train. Not sure what the trick is here (don’t tell me if you know – I know where to look if I need help) but man-o-man, I can’t figure it out. So I’m taking a short break and playing some Oblivion. I have to be careful, ’cause I could loose hours upon hours wandering around, pillaging caves and discovering cool new stuff.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!