Squidpunch.com

Well home life has been pretty busy lately - my son starts preschool next week, and my daughter is officially crawling (and trying her best to walk like the rest of us).  Now with 2 kids on the move, and playing outside and such I haven’t been gaming, or keeping up with the news anywhere near as much as I have in the past - hopefully I will get into the groove again soon.  Along the same lines of my son going to school (and the extra expense of paying for said school) is part of the reason I haven’t went out and bought any of the newly release games that are oh so tempting.  I still have gamefly, but lately getting the newer releases hasn’t been as easy as it was in the past.

Finally, another reason you might not see me on xbox live might very well be the evil machine better known as the Wii.  Yes as some of you may know I purchased one when my xbox was out for repair, and I have made a very small amount of progress in the Zelda game that I purchased with it.  But thanks to gamefly I have been thoroughly enjoying……

Even though Ymiris will disagree, and say how much of a fool I am, I have really enjoyed the game thus far - I just finished the 3rd chapter last night - so I am nearing the halfway point of the game.

Recently I got Command and Conquer 3 from gamefly as well - so I have been giving that a bit of play time, since I wanted to keep the free copy we gave away on 3fs so badly.  I also picked up track and field from the xbox live arcade - which is a guaranteed way to get a gaming related blister injury.

I am not going to PAX, but wish I was if for nothing else but to meet some gaming related contacts I have worked with or communicate with like http://www.unscripted360.com, the XBLRadio Crew, and of course tipped back a few beers with Feelz Good.

Well everyone I finally hit 100 friends.  If you used to be on my friends list, and I removed you just send me another request and I will re-add you.  I tried to only remove gamertags which I dont know at all, or dont even remember playing a game with ever…..most anyone that knows me from 360friendspot, friends I regular play with, and various contacts in the industry and other sites should still be there.  But lets be honest out of the 100 of you, I probably talk to less than 5 on a regular basis anyway.

Whether you’re feeling competitive this summer or just want to take a break and unwind, you can do both this week with the latest additions to Xbox LIVE Arcade: “Hexic 2” and “Ecco the Dolphin.” Both games will be available to download this Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Building upon the addictive gameplay of its predecessor, “Hexic HD,” the highly anticipated sequel “Hexic 2” (Carbonated Games) offers new special pieces, challenges, additional formations and an innovative head-to-head battle mode!

• For more details on “Hexic 2”, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/hexic2xboxlivearcade 

Gamers can also travel through time this Wednesday with “Ecco the Dolphin” (SEGA), a fun, whimsical update of the classic undersea exploration game featuring an online leaderboard that tracks “Best Time,” and includes enhanced graphics and sound.

• For more details on “Ecco the Dolphin”, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/eccothedolphinxboxlivearcade

Be prepared to be jealous - it looks like Bungie and Microsoft have once again let their staff get there hands on a special build of the game you are all dying to play…Halo 3.

Based on some images floating around from a post on GamingTalkHQ and some interesting data picked up by The Live Eye, it looks like this is a test or beta build of the halo campaign, or at least a portion of it.  I assume its not the full released product because the release date is still about a month and a half away and the game doesnt show up in your official xbox.com gamercards.

Well last night I actually got a bit of gaming in for a change.  I booted up The Darkness one last time before it had to go back to Blockbuster today, and unfortunately I still haven’t completed the story - I am going to have to buy or rent it again soon.  The only complaint I have with the game is often the checkpoints seem a bit far between each other, for the second time in the story I am at a point where I travel quite a while and kill quite a few enemies but die and have to redo it over again.  I am 95% sure I am dying right before the checkpoint, but rekilling the same 20 or so enemies gets a bit tedius.

I finally got to play Carcassonne - well I played it back in May on the Gamerscore Blog Tour, but this is the first time I got to play the game on my own console due to my repair and lower play time lately.  The best part was I was able to play the tutorial, and actually get a better understanding of how the game works, in fact I only played the tutorial and a few 1 player games (which I lost).

Then I gave Spyglass board games a try.  Thanks to Deaconblade 360 I won a free copy of the full game.  Just to give the game a trial run I played 1 Player mode only.  Played a game of checkers (won), played a game of Reversi (won), played 2 games of chess (loss), and played 3 games of Mancala (lost).  I love chess, but clearly I am not very good at it.  Mancala - well I still dont even understand how this game works.  I read the rules and still it confuses me, maybe one of you readers know how the hell it works.

Finally I booted up Forza Motorsport 2, and played a few races and boosted one of my cars up with some parts.  My buddy Th3 Strange gifted me a pretty sweet custom car promoting The Live Eye and 360friendspot.  He had previously shown me pictures I will have to find them again and post them - or take new ones myself.

I briefly played a Price of Persia: Rival Sword (Wii).  Mostly just played the begining part that teaches you the controls and how to save etc.  It was relatively interesting so I am probably going to play through that a bit more.

Head on over and check the 100th Episode of XBLRadio - Great Job Guys!

http://xblradio.com/blogcast/?p=590

I just realized how long it was since I made an actual blog post here, for the very few of you that even bother to check my blog these days

I have been mostly busy with the family, spending time outside while the kids play, going to water parks, the normal father things I guess you could say and during the day I have been pretty busy at work.  I also haven’t been staying up for my late night gaming as much anymore, perhaps I am getting old, not sure.  I also picked up a Wii recently (Friend code: 2057 7482 7233 6739), though I have played that less than the xbox.

At times I spend some time on my DS on lunch breaks.  I have been working on finishing Pokemon Pearl - but honestly its getting rather boring.  They have a few other titles for the DS (old and new) that I want to get my hands on - specifically Sim City, and from what I remember reading a while back there is a Zelda gaming coming for the DS…..I am such a sucker for Zelda - its probably 75% of the reason I bought a Wii.

Seems like since my 360 went out for repair I started falling behind on posting news, gaming, or just random blogging in general.  We haven’t had much changes to the 360friendspot or theliveeye websites that I haven’t posted about (as far as I remember), I guess I just dont have alot of ‘gaming’ related things going on.

I have the darkness on rental, and just as I said from the Gamerscore Blog road tour, it’s amazing.  If I had not spent the money on the Wii, and Zelda I would definately have bought it by now.  Speaking of buying, there are so many good titles coming out soon and I am not sure how many of them I will get to buy - my son starts preschool soon, which means another somewhat large monthly payment is currently coming out of my income. (i hope gamefly loves me and sends me all the new releases without much trouble). 

I think that will do for the “random post because I havent posted in ages post”