Games that start with the letter "M"

So as you can see over on the right side of the page, I started playing Mass Effect again. I won't name names, but a certain someone I know started to play, and I couldn't resist loading up my uncompleted save. I'm going through the game this time as a Renegade, which is space-language for "jerk", having already completed it on Paragon, ("space-hippie"). At least this way once Mass Effect 2 comes out, I'll have a couple of different characters in the stable to choose from, as Bioware has stated that your ME1 exploits will have a bearing on the universe in the sequel. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can load up your "Shepard" and continue on in ME2.
I also just received MadWorld from Gamefly, and I've spent maybe an hour in the futuristic blood-sport-themed Wii game. Yep, it's a violent, vulgar beat-em-up on the most family-friendly console ever released, (if you're counting, the tally of hyphens is now seven). So far pretty enjoyable, but I've got to get my arm back in Wii-shape, which is to say, used to making sudden waggle motions. I was getting a bad case of Wii-Elbow, yesterday after about a half hour. Still, a game where you can slam a tire over someone, jam a street sign through their neck, and then impale them on a wall of spikes is worth a little ligament-tearing, (ten).

Shock & awe

So I finished inFamous and sent it back to Gamefly. I was going to write a review of it here, but Yahtzee actually did a much better job than I would have, and I agree with most of what he says. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, the protagonist's abilities were pretty unique and used in interesting ways, and the story had some decent writing. Not sure I would have bought it, but then, that's why I'm paying $15 a month to Gamefly. I realized looking at the games I have queued up for the rental service to send me, I have at least two more "open-world" games in there, namely Prototype and Red Faction: Guerilla. I'm a little nervous about getting those games next, after just finishing inFamous. I don't want to get burned out on the format of being able to run around and take missions all over the place. Plus I may miss inFamous' wire sliding once I'm running around on foot in Red Faction. I suppose I could hop in vehicles in that case, though. I don't know, I'm just afraid of judging a similar game against the one I just finished. Maybe I should move Punch-Out! to the top of the list and be done with it.

Up and inFamous

Well so far so good for the Gamefly account. I had inFamous up at the top of my queue, but it was telling me it had low availability, (probably on account of it being new), so I wasn't expecting to get that one for a while. I don't know if it was because I was a brand new account, but the next day inFamous was on its way to me, and only took one day in the mail. If the service level stays like this, I'll stick with using them for my game rentals for sure. Still enjoying inFamous, apart from a couple of frustrating missions, the game is extremely fun. They do tend to throw a lot of bad guys at you all at once, but you are pretty ridiculously over-powered, so there's usually a way to win.
I also finished The Lost & Damned downloadable content for GTA:4, speaking of throwing a lot of enemies at you. I didn't realize that I was literally one mission away from completing it when I stopped a while back. So I logged on and plowed through the final mission and that was it. Pretty good stuff, I'm looking forward to the next batch of DLC for the game.
Last weekend we went and saw Pixar's Up in theaters, and once again, it didn't disappoint. Jenny and I were trying to determine what it is about their movies that makes us love them so much, and honestly, awesome technical and graphics prowess notwithstanding, it's really the heart the movies have that engages you. There have been parts in several of Pixar's releases that genuinely affect us emotionally, and I think when a movie can do that, when it can make you have an emotional reaction, it has you. We also saw it in Disney Digial 3D, and while Jenny wasn't a huge fan, I thought the technology and perceived depth was pretty cool. Especially if you have kids, I would take them to see the 3D showing, although be warned that it's more expensive.
Anyway, that's my post for today, tons of other stuff going on that I don't have time to write about right now!

Yeah yeah, I know

I said I wouldn't let the blog drop off, but I haven't posted since the 5th, and this post will be ridiculously short (that's what she said). It's not that I don't have lots to say, I just haven't found the time to type anything I feel worthy of putting up here. For now here is an interesting discussion of Facebook in the workplace over at the Gamers with Jobs forums. More soon, I hope.

Final day

So today we see the final results of Round 2 of the Fat Bastards contest. I don't have high hopes that I lost any more from last week, in fact I'm pretty worried that I'm going to be up for the last weigh-in. I'm not sure what has been going on lately, but my eating has been worse than it should be, even though Jenny and I are now doing the Couch to 5K program. So the exercise is fine, I just need to get the eating under control and I'll be fine.
Lots of video game news, as the E3 blitz of information continues. I'd recommend checking out Giant Bomb for all the trailers and announcements, since I'm not really going to cover them much here. In personal gaming news, I just signed up for a Gamefly account yesterday. Time to see if it's worth the money to have rented games shipped to me instead of hoping they're in at Family Video. So far I've got mostly new games in my queue, which unfortunately affects my chances of getting them. I'll probably throw a couple of older titles I missed in there, just so I'm getting my $15 a month's worth. Anyway, just a short post this morning, as I'm running out of time. Better than no post at all, which has been the case most of this week.

Maybe tomorrow

No post today, as this week is trying to kill me at work. I swear, for as slow as we are, my stress level is through the roof.

Kettle corn and gravestones

So this weekend Jenny and I attended the "Reclaiming our Heritage" military encampment thingy over behind the VA, as we have the last two years. It's a pretty decent walk-around-and-look-at-stuff type of event, and of course we had to hit the "Cowboy Kettle Corn" stand that we first ran into at the Whitefish Bay Christmas Parade a couple of years ago. If you're ever at an event and you see a couple of crazy guys making popcorn in a huge kettle and ringing a dinner triangle, go buy a bag immediately, it's the best popcorn in the world.
This year we also took the lamplight tour of Woods National Cemetery, which was interesting. Basically some reenactors stand at certain stops along a tram-route and tell you stories about the people buried there. It was pretty somber, and a lot of the stories seemed specifically designed to bring out some tears. All-in-all, it was worth the money to cruise through the cemetery at 10:15 at night and listen to some people talk.
Speaking of dead people, we finally got around to seeing 28 Days Later this weekend. I found it was an enjoyable experience, and I certainly see how it has influenced other zombie media, (the fast "infected" in Left 4 Dead, even The Walking Dead seems to have cribbed from it a little). Either way, it was a good story, and touched on a few interesting situations related to a widespread pandemic. A little too much Cillian Murphy wang for my tastes, however.