Watching all the announcements today from MS and EA alone reminded me that I have a full plate ahead of me of gaming this fall/winter on the 360, a full plate indeed. This also reminded me that I need to finish Mass Effect before it is too late.

I have Gamer ADD, and therefore never finished Mass, only got about halfway though it, give or take. I'm headed back into it now, as of tonight, and I was quickly reminded of the golden rule of the game. There is no such thing as a little Mass Effect before bed. None.

The reason being, a "little bit" of it, becomes a 8 hour session well past 4am. It doesnt help if you try to play early in the evening instead, to prevent the late nighter.. then you simply get sucked into a 16 hour session instead. Mass Effect should only be allowed in my console on a friday though mid afternoon on a sunday, I have determined. *sigh* I put it in at 8:30 "for a bit" and now it is 1am and the only reason I am headed to bed is because it has been such a long day I can hardly keep my eyes focused on the screen to write this.

In either case though, I do love the game and cant wait to finish it, so as to be ready for any future DLC they release for it, as well as to have a slighty more clean slate for Too Human, Fable 2, and the massive slew of other games I cant wait for beginning in roughly September and carrying me though the end of the year.

You know what... I think a quick Mako drop onto this one random planet before I call it a night wont hurt me.. just a quick survey and look for any collectibles.. cant take that long... I'll be alright.. then to bed.. I promise...

So tonight I downloaded Schizoid and Golf:Tee it up! from XBLA. Now normally I know what XBLA games I want to play long before the come out, or else I go and download something I played elsewhere, and go home and download it. Now I saw Schizoid last weekend, and it looked fun as hell, but never had time to play it. (Plus Asian Joe wouldn't put down the damn controller as he was busy power housing his ass though the Uberschizoid mode by himself.)

I have to say though, I am incredibly impressed by the two games. This wont be a review of sorts, that is best left to the professional writers. I am just thoroughly amazed by the fact that both games I was so eager to download as soon as I got home today, and that I am prepared to convert them both over to full game mode later tonight, or tomorrow. Schizoid is NOT my type of game, shoot em ups, and other action-puzzle games of its type are NOT my style of game. The fast paced twitch play does not go well with my psyche. However this game has totally gripped me without warning and wont let go. As to Golf, I am simply amazed that this is an arcade game. It looks, feels, and plays like part of the Hot Shots genre, which are fully entitled to their own rights as a full fledged retail game. I plan to play with the demo a bit more but the simple fact I can CONTROL the ball in flight to a small degree has me intrigued. For the first time two Arcade games have rolled out that are neither my style at all, and one being the very kind I avoid at all costs, and I'm in love with them. Schizoid above all else certainly earned the privilege of being the first ever XNA game to be converted to a retail arcade, props to the Dev team at Torpex Games, they earned it!

Yes that's right, I am doing a total 180 spin and canceling my plans to pick up a 3G iPhone Friday morning. Why? Well the reviews have been coming in today as the embargo was lifted, and they are not.. glowing.

No one contests the 3G is indeed faster, and there is tasty GPS. However that GPS is not entirely perfect, and 1/3rd of the time is no more accurate than the existing cell tower triangulation. Even when it is as accurate as it can get, its still not accurate enough for turn-by-turn directions due to its small antennae. (And my shiny new Accord Coupe already has GPS in it anyways). With the 3g, while it is indeed much faster, they are all saying the battery life, which on my current 1st gen I can get around 2-3.5 days of use without charging, with my mail checking every 30 minutes... is shortened down to one day at best, and with heavy use wont even make it though the end of work.

The only remaining advantages then are the App Store and the new 2.0 software, both of which I get for free for my existing phone Friday morning, and the fact its costing half as much. However with AT&T's increased pricing for data for the 3G phones, at the end of your two year contract you have paid out to AT&T TWICE what you saved on the cost of the phone.

So looks like I will be happily keeping mine, updating it first thing Friday morning, and call it a day. Or at least until a 3g 2.0 comes out with better battery life and a better GPS.

So it was time for our annual MML event, Million Man Lan 7. On a side note, we are slowly moving away from the MML naming convention of our summer events, and giving them the same name as our quarterly Lanwar events, which would have made this somewhere along the lines of Lanwar 43 or 44 I think. (Yes, we have put on THAT many lans!)

It was a blast as always, but far, far smaller this time. Having tied into the World Series of Video Games the last two years brought a big increase to our fame, but at the same time it means that when the WSVG died off last fall, it took a lot of our notoriety with it, and even our regulars forgot about us to some degree, assuming we went down with the ship. Not so, we have been around for 10 years, it will take a lot more to kill us off!

I spent most of the time on my 360, and not a computer, goofing off and burning through achievements, and also did a hell of a lot of socializing. The highlight was on Saturday afternoon when the Illustrious Unicorn Wrangler himself rolled into town with a posse and brought their special touch to the event. By special touch I mean... well, I am sure you get the idea.

Great times were had by all, even when I was busting my ass with the Guitar Hero 3 tourney, which was a Pain in the Ass but fun none the less. Also thanks to Dtoid to help sweetening the pot on the prizes we had for the winner!