My Xbox is Going to Kill Me

So, back to what I was discussing last week before I got rudely interrupted by work (I kid, I kid, I love my job), Xbox!

The achievement system is a lot of fun. Playing games just for the sake of playing games is always fun, but I have an obsession with collecting things. There are quite a few games that I haven't finished simply because I couldn't continue until I did all of the side quests and found all of the collectibles. Xbox Achievements just add to that obsession 'cause now I have a bunch of extra things to do in each game I play. Plus, as I mentioned before, you can compare achievements with friends. Each achievement is worth so many points and those points all add together to make your gamer score.

So, up until recently I only had two friends on Xbox Live, so I really didn't have a lot of people to compete with and it just wasn't that big a deal. Plus I hardly played any games on the Xbox 360 so it just wasn't on my mind. But then I started playing Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and I got hooked. The Xbox became the main focus of my video game energies, and if you know me, I have a lot of video game energies. And I also started searching out which of my friends were on Xbox Live too. I've managed to increase my friend count to eleven. And while I've managed to beat several of their scores, I still haven't beaten (the amazing) Andrea's, and now I have a couple of my cousins who are at least five times my score. It's crazy!

So now not only am I spending far too much time on video games, I've got a clearer focus on getting all of the achievements in each game I play. Both Lego Harry Potter games have been beaten to completion, however games like Fable II and X-Men: Destiny still give me quite a challenge. The Assassin's Creed games have been added to my collection so I have another big challenge ahead of me, not to mention the fact that I haven't even started Fable III or Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. And I want to get my hands on Skyrim! Everyone seems to be playing that one and I'm beginning to feel like I'm being left out.

Anyway, basically what I am getting at is that I am very competitive, and a giant nerd, so Xbox Live is probably going to kill me. But at least it's fun!

If you're on Xbox Live, check me out: truenoblehero! (someone took thenoblehero... grrrr)

I am a terrible blogger...

Apparently I just lost interest in my blog for a good six months! That is awful. Luckily I really don't say anything important so I'm sure the world survived, but still... bad Craig.

So what's had me so busy that I couldn't unload my geekery unto the world? I wish I could say something exciting, like I won a trip around the world, or I was busy fighting crime with newfound superpowers, but unfortunately, it's nothing quite so exciting. Basically I've just been working a lot, playing a lot of video games, reading lots of comic books, and other boring stuff that I find really fun.

The biggest culprit would probably be my Xbox 360. I've somehow become completely enthralled by the thing. Mostly with the different Lego games (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Indiana Jones and the like) which are a lot of fun. It's also brought out my competitive side quite a bit. I have an obsession with getting Achievements and building up my gamer score. It's a little bit ridiculous.

And wow, speaking of work taking over my life, I just got a call to come in early. So I'll cut this short and make a (hopefully not empty) promise to come back soon and say what else I had planned on saying!

SDCC 2011 Day One

So! At long last, I am posting my Comic-Con blog! I'll try to remember all of the awesome stuff that went on, but no guarantees!

First of all, I'd like to say that Andrea and I definitely underestimated how busy it would be at the convention. It was a constant problem throughout our adventures, and we'll be sure to plan for the crowds in the future. On Thursday when we arrived was the first and possibly largest miscalculation on timing that we had. We got up and ready and took the shuttle to the convention centre at around 8:30am thinking we'd be early enough to get in line for our badges and be on our way in by the time it all opened. Turns out, there were already several thousand people in line, and we had quite the wait ahead of us.

The line was crazy, it wrapped almost the entire way around the convention centre and then doubled back down the waterfront walkway a significant distance. I don't remember exactly how long it took us to get through the line, but I'm thinking it was probably a couple hours at least. The one fun thing about waiting in line was the constant stream of people heading past us toward the end of the line, many of which were dressed in awesome geeky t-shirts or a wide variety of costumes.

Once we made through the seemingly endless line, we got into the building and followed the crowd to the badge pick-up area which was part of a massive tent-like room upstairs in the convention centre. We made it through the crazy mass of people, got our badges, and got our first bunch of free stuff: a giant comic-con bag, two books, and a lanyard to hang our badges on. We, unfortunately, got the Vampire Diaries comic-con bags, but as we made it through a couple of girls asked if they could trade us for our bags. Theirs featured Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, so Andrea and I were all too eager to trade. Win-win!

The place was set up so the badge pick-up and autograph signing, as well as a large sitting area were all in this massive tent-like room which was on the upper floor and more-or less smack-dab in the middle of the convention centre. On either side of this room were all of the halls in which the different panels would be held. Almost the entire bottom floor of the enormous building was the exhibit hall where there were probably thousands of booths dedicated to everything from comic book stores, comic studios, web comics, graphic novels, to movie studios, television studios, toy companies, video game companies, and a whole artists alley. The other part of the lower level housed Hall H, the largest of the halls used for the biggest and most exciting panels.

We really had no idea where to start, so we explored the exhibit hall. It was crazy how many people were there. It was hard to wade through the crowds to see everything. We saw the Marvel booth, but there were so many people that we couldn't really stop and see it. We also saw a replica of the TARDIS sitting at a random booth, got our picture taken with Pikachu, saw some awesome Lego statues, spotted some random celebrities at the Fox booth, and just when we were about to leave the hall to check out some panels, accidentally found Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild, and got posters signed by the six of them. They were all really cool. I loved Felicia Day's comment about the posters, she pointed out that her character had big boobs and said "that's all the artist" as she covered her chest.

We had made an attempt to check out one of the panels earlier in the day but soon realized that we'd miscalculated the lines to get in once again, so we made sure we were extra early to get into the Marvel's Next Big Thing panel. There was a Batman panel before it that we ended up making it into, but I really wasn't overly impressed by it. I'm not a DC comics fan. The only part I actually enjoyed was the sexy Scottish accent from Grant Morrison.

The Marvel: Next Big Thing panel was a lot more interesting. Alex Alonso, CB Cebulski, Greg Pak, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, Daniel Way, Steve Wacker, and David Gabriel were all on stage with moderator Arune Singh. They talked up a lot of what Marvel's got coming our way over the next while, some of which excites me, some of which doesn't. There was talk about the Hulk, and an upcoming Villains for Hire book, and stuff with the FF which all was interesting but they're not really my favourite Marvel titles. What WAS exciting was all the talk about what's coming in the Ultimate line of books, which as prompted me to decide to start collecting all four titles spinning out of Ultimate Fallout. Tlhere are also some new Avengers origin stories coming down the line, and some change-ups happening with Avengers Academy which have me thinking I might just have to start picking that one up again. There wasn't much else to offer, but they did give away a free Hulk comic book which is kinda cool (except I don't really like the hulk...).

After the panel we explored the exhibit hall for a while longer and I got to see Jeph Jacques! My favourite web comic creator! Except there was a giant line. And there was a huge crowd around the Rooster Teeth booth (which Andrea really wanted to see) so we gave up and headed to Hall H to check out another panel that seemed interesting. On our journeys through the convention centre Andrea kept seeing celebrities that I somehow managed to miss. While waiting for the Marvel panel earlier she spotted Jon Heder, but I missed him. I did see the guy who played Pedro, though. And then while wlking through the Exhibit Hall she spotted Bruce Campbell, but I totally missed him. We walked RIGHT BY him.

Te end of our day was spent in Hall H watching a panel featuring a couple of famous directors, John Favreau and Guillermo Del Toro. The one big thing I got out of it? Guillermo swears like a sailor. And there was some awesome exclusive footage from Cowboys & Aliens. It was pretty interesting, although probably moreso to Andrea than to me.

After the panel was over, the convention was closed for the day so we headed back to the hotel to relax after a crazy day. It's actually crazy how tired we were that night. Comic-Con is tiring!


Disclaimer: I am a terrible photographer so please excuse the awful quality and/or content of the included photos.

SDCC: The Journey

So, I bring this update to you LIVE from the Seattle Airport! The always amazing Andrea and I have spent all of today using various methods of transport to get us to San Diego Comic-Con 2011! Our feet, a skytrain, a shuttle bus, and an airplane have all gotten us this far, and soon we will be boarding another plane that will take us the final leg of the way.

I can't tell you how excited I am right now! In only a few more hours we'll make it to San Diego, and tomorrow the main event begins! It's funny how nervous I've been too. Going through customs at the border for whatever reason had me feeling uneasy, but I was just being silly. The people were really nice and we were on our way really quick. And I was a little nervous in the Bellingham Airport too, but the people were really nice and even asked us questions about our comic fandom, and mentioned there were a lot of Comic-Con goers passing through!

Anyways, this is already longer than I meant it to be, I just wanted to make a quick post about Comic-Con, and that is done, so off I go to get ready for the last leg of the trip there!

WE'RE the survivors of Oceanic flight 815!

Here we come to the second post in my Lost marathon series. I finished season two a few days ago, and I've been itching to start season 3, but I decided that I have to have this post done before I continue, so here we go!

One of the interesting things about Lost is the timeframe of the show. The entire first season took place in 44 days. The second season takes place in 33. This means there really wasn't a lot of downtime on the island. There's always something going on. It also makes things harder for filming and production. It's very hard to make sure people look the same through an entire year of filming. The most difficult example of this would be Walt, and I think that's why he disappears from the show. Kids grow like weeds and go through so many changes that it would be hard to insist that only a few months have gone by after several years of filming.

This season started off immediately after last season ended. We find Jack and Locke at the hatch, the survivors still terrified about the impending invasion by the others, and the rafties adrift in the ocean, struggling to stay afloat on the wreckage.

The hatch turns out to be just as strange and mysterious as we all anticipated, if not more so. A combination of ordinary (bunker fitted with all the amenities the 70s had to offer) and the strange (a button that has to be pressed every 108 minutes, using the ever mysterious numbers), the Swan station of the Dharma Initiative (as we now know it) provides quite a bit of mystery, and we're also introduced to a couple of other stations throughout the season.

New characters also show up. Desmond Hume is introduced as a madman living in the hatch until the Losties break in and take over. Also of note is the fact that Jack has met him before off the island. The survivors from the tail section of the plane (that were hinted at in season 1 right before Boone plunges to his death) also show up, although by the time they make it to the other side of the island, there are only 4 of them left. And finally there's Henry Gale. He seems like he's just a little creep, but we eventually learn that he is a much bigger creep than we thought. And at the end of the season we get a hint that he's much more than what we originally thought.

I enjoyed the various reunions featured in this season. There's the Losties and the tailies. Jin and Sun (again, my favorite couple), Rose and Bernard (who are just too cute a couple too), Hurley and Libby (although the former doesn't remember, and the latter we're never really sure on), the rafties and the Losties, Michael and Walt, Jack and Desmond, Jack and Ana-Lucia, and Shannon and Boone (sad face).

I'm still somewhat amazed at how poorly received Ana-Lucia was as a character. She was hated by the fans of the show, and I just don't get it. She was one of my favorite characters of the whole run of the show! Most fans were happy to see her killed off, but I was pretty sad to see her go. I was also really sad to see Libby get killed off with SO many unanswered questions about her character, but they needed a death that would have impact, and since no one liked Ana-Lucia, she had to go too.

This season was also the first time we get a good look at the "Others." at first it seems like they are just savages living on the island, but as the season goes on you find out all isn't as it seems. A flashback of Claire's shows Ethan and several more of the "Others" in doctors' garb, and there are fake beards and costume materials found in the same location later on, so there's something up with their appearances. "Henry" clearly knows more than he lets on, and Goodwyn is way too good at infiltrating the tail section survivors. And in the final episode, there are more hints to the fact that the "Others" have a lot more going on than just huts and teepees.

Overall, I really quite enjoyed this season. There's so much going on, new interesting characters, new locales, new mysteries, and just a few answers to make it feel like I'm learning a little more about what's going on (even if it's just false hope). The character growth and interactions are interesting and exciting, and the cast does such a great job at making these characters feel like people I need to know. And with that, I bring part two to an end. Part three, coming soon!

Why yes, I AM a nerd, thanks!

I am a huge comic books fan.

You're totally shocked, right? Hah, yeah right. There's no surprise there. I'm a huge nerd! Anyway, I love comic books. To be specific, Marvel comics. I have over a thousand, probably around 1200 by now actually, boxed up or spread around my apartment. Which would be fine if I lived alone. Sorry Darcy! (no I'm not.) In the 7-8 years I've been collecting comics, my "pull list" has grown pretty much out of control. Originally I started with only a couple of titles (Exiles and New Mutants), but since then I've expanded to 12-15 titles every month, not to mention special one-shots and limited series. It's crazy.

But what I wanted to talk about, 'cause I really have no one around to listen to me drone on about comics (locally), is a couple that I'm really excited about right now. First up:

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man

The Ultimate Marvel line of comics was launched as a separate continuity from regular Marvel comics to make it easier for new readers to enjoy comics without having to be bogged down by decades of backstory. My favourite title in the Ultimate line is Spider-Man. It's a version of Peter Parker very similar to the original, but still back in high school, not all grown up like the Spider-Man we all know and love.

This title has actually come to an end with the Death of Spider-Man story that recently came out. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed by this. Not only is it one of my favourite comic books, but the title of that final story should be a pretty obvious clue. They killed Spider-Man. Peter Parker is dead.

They did such an amazing job with the story, it was really epic how it all happened, and I really advise you to go read it if you haven't already because even though I'm sad, I can't help but be at awe of the story. It was so tragic, but in the end, Peter Parker dies a real hero (not that there was any denying it before anyway).

The title is relaunching in a few months with a new man behind the mask, and I'm actually really interested to see what's going to happen. The new costume design is really interesting, but there really hasn't been any info revealed about the new Spider-Man. The only info I've heard is of what his motivation is; that Peter's death is to him what Uncle Ben's death was to Peter. Very intriguing... Also of note is that Ultimate Comics: X-Men is finally getting a new start after the dust settles here, and it looks like Johnny Storm, Bobby Drake, and Kitty Pride will all be featured there, so that's pretty awesome.

The second title I'm excited about right now hasn't actually come out yet, but I just read the "Prelude" miniseries today so it's got me pretty much on the edge of my seat wondering what's going on:

X-Men: Schism

The next big X-Men event. X-Men: Schism is a limited series starting in a couple weeks. What I know so far is that there is something bad coming. It's a threat beyond anything the X-Men have ever faced. And in dealing with this threat, Cyclops and Wolverine come to a conflict of opinions that can't be resolved, and the X-Men are all forced to choose a side, dividing the X-Men "forever" (gotta throw the forever in there for dramatic effect).

Part of what has me excited about this event is to see what the heck it is that will cause the split of the X-Men. They are a family, and now a nation, united against all threats to the mutant race. But what could cause them all to turn on each other? It's gotta be something big! And I haven't been disappointed by an X-event yet!

The other part is that it means we'll have separate teams again! I liked the good old days where each book had it's own set of X-Men, with the occasional crossover and/or cameo. The last few years have had the same core characters appearing in every. single. book. I didn't mind when it was Wolverine appearing in every comics 'cause he's awesome, but I'm getting really tired of seeing Emma Frost, Colossus, Kitty Pride, Wolverine, and Cyclops in ALL of the X-Men books, leaving so many characters out in comic book limbo. I'd love to see a unique set of characters in each of the X-books.

After Schism comes to an end, Uncanny X-Men will relaunch with a new #1 issue, and that is where you will find Cyclops and those who choose his side. Those that take the other side will appear in Wolverine and the X-Men. So that is at least two teams that will be totally different. X-Men: Legacy will hopefully continue to focus on it's own team as well. That leaves X-Men and Astonishing X-Men to establish where they will fall after the Schism, plus titles like New Mutants, Uncanny X-Force and X-Factor that could see some shake-ups as well. Oh, and Generation Hope. But I don't really care about that one. At all.

Woo! So that's just SOME of what's going on in comics right now that's got me excited! If I continued, this post would never end, so I'll leave it here, but expect follow-ups to this, 'cause you know, I'm a comic book nerd, so what else am I gonna blog about? Leave a comment below if you've got anything to say about these comic events! I'd like to hear what you've got to say! (and good on you if you actually made it through this whole post!)

More Evidence That I'm a Nerd

So, I had planned on typing up this great big E3 review blog (and I had actually typed most of it), but I decided that there was far too much useless stuff that I just didn't care about in it, so this is E3 blog attempt number 2! Every year I get super psyched for the Electronics Entertainment Expo (or E3, for short). It's where all of the big gaming companies get together with the press and show off all the new stuff they're working on. It's all very exciting for a nerd like me. This year I was actually a little bit disappointed with a lack of actual release dates for games, but I was pleased with what they showed off.

Now, the main events of E3 are the "Big Three" press conferences, those three being Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. There are a few other "big" press conferences, but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch them 'cause they seemed pretty darn boring. But even two of the "big three" were pretty boring to me.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with their press conference, showing off all that's new with the Xbox 360. Which really wasn't exciting to me at all. I actually quit watching partway through. What I did get out of it was that they are really trying to push the Kinect (which I don't want) and they have a lot of sequels and remakes of games I don't care about (war games, shooters, and more Halo...). Tomb Raider actually looks alright, but I don't think I'll play it. Fable: The Journey seems like a step backward for the series, I like free play, I don't want a game-on-rails. The new Xbox Experience (dashboard) looks pretty cool though, and TV through the Xbox would be cool (but Telus already does that here).

Sony held their press conference on everything Playstation later that evening and this one I got to watch live 'cause it was after work. Once again, I wasn't overly impressed. There was a lot of similar stuff to the way the Microsoft show went. Sequels of games I don't care about (war games, shooters) and a real push to get with the 3D gaming experience (I don't like 3D). They did release a cool 3D monitor bundle, and talked about the new feature that eliminates split screens using 3D glasses technology, but I'm still not buying it. They also talked about the NGP, now dubbed the Playstation Vita, or PSV as I'm gonna call it. Looks like a pretty nice piece of hardware, but it seems like they are just trying to cram as much into it as possible to make it seem cooler than the 3DS. I may buy it, especially since it's only gonna cost $250, but so far there aren't any games that interest me coming for it.

Nintendo was the star of E3 once again this year (as far as I'm concerned anyway). They opened up the show with a special look at the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. They did some fun little musical stuff, and talked about the Zelda games they've got coming out this year. Link's Awakening being released on the 3DS Virtual Console that day, the N64 classic Ocarina of Time 3D coming to the 3DS on June 19th (which is this coming weekend! I pre-ordered mine, did you?), GBA classic Four Swords coming to the DSiWare shop for free this September, and Skyward Sword for the Wii on it's way this holiday season. There was some more stuff to do with that but it wasn't important enough to remember.

After that, they showed off a string of 3DS games on their way: Mario Kart (which appears to have a few new gameplay elements added to it, air and underwater racing sections), Star Fox (boooooring), Super Mario Bros. 3D (which looks AWESOME! Can't wait to get my hands on that. Tanooki suit!!), Kid Icarus: Uprising (looks cool, but is really old news since it's reveal last year and STILL no release date), and Luigi's Mansion 2 (So cool! I don't even know why! I had no interest at all in the first one but I want this one so bad!). They also talked about a few 3rd party games but they were all dumb so I won't mention them.

Afterwards, they announced the Nintendo Wii U! It looks pretty exciting, but as time goes on, I lose enthusiasm, so I really should have blogged about it sooner. It's basically an HD Wii, for the most part, even using the Wii controllers and such, BUT it's got one big difference. The main controller for the system is basically a tablet computer fused with a motion sensing controller, with buttons. Minus the CPU. It can be used as a second screen for all kinds of different things, plus some games even allow you to switch gameplay from the TV over to the controller so someone else can use the TV for something else. See how it doesn't sound all that exciting? But it IS! I SWEAR! Watch the videos! Maybe I'll make another post entirely devoted to the Wii U later. Good plan, I think.

Anyway, that was pretty much it for the Nintendo conference, the rest was them talking about the Wii U and different developers weighing in and pretty much from there it was just boring crap. Elsewhere at E3 Nintendo also announced a few other games. A new DS Kirby game that looks a little lame. A new Wii Kirby game that looks AWESOME. And... uh... I don't remember what else. There was nothing new about Paper Mario, which made me sad. There was a new trailer for it, but that was it. Square Enix was pretty weak on their presence at E3 with an absence of ALL of the games I'd been looking forward to see from them. They DID however have some good stuff on FFXIII-2 which looks like it will be good. Now just to finish the first one... Natsume brought their new Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games which look very nice (I like the farming games...). There was also some new stuff on X-Men: Destiny which I want very very badly, and a new Spider-Man game which looks like it will be good, but I doubt I'll play it.

And I think that is pretty much it. I really had to rush through all that 'cause there was a lot of stuff announced. I'll probably do future blog posts dedicated specifically to certain game/system announcements once I absorb more info, and you can expect a review of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D sometime in the near(?) future 'cause I went down and pre-ordered it today. I'll probably be there right when they open to pick it up on Sunday too. To be fair, they open at noon, and I'll just be leaving my weekly family coffee thing right about then, so it's not like I'm a rabid fan or anything. Anyway, until next time...