High altitude, low sportsmanship

Had some lads by to play some Halo 2. Played Oddball. Liked Oddball. Frustrated the hell out of my compatriots with the following strategy: when you're about to die with the ball, jump off a cliff. He who chases you must then go all the way back to the ball's spawn point. I suggest throwing the ball back towards them as you fall to your doom, just to mess with 'em. If ever there was justification for building a "give the finger" command in to a game, this is it. Imagine the joy of taking the ball into the bottomless chasm, leaving your enemy staring down at the bird.

Why, Santa?

As has been the tradition for many a long year, I received no games for Christmas. I did recieve a Madcats Xbox controller and a two-pack of wireless PS2 controllers, which were much appreciated. I spent the bulk of the Best Buy gift cert my brother got me on RotK like the trusting idiot I am.

Over the river

Still working my way through Tiger Woods. Eagling all the par fives in the game turned out to be quite the challenge, but the recent discovery of the "mulligans on" setting made it a LOT easier.



Also, after receiving a fierce whooping from a first-time player the other night, I have discovered that the cranking up the Luck stat makes the impossible plausible. You heard it here first.

Daddy's going to kill Ralphie.

In the post-coffee, pre-extended-family-arrival lull, is it inappropriate to pull out the Xbox? Between prepping din-din, brushing off the car, and watching A Christmas Story repeatedly, the fam is relatively occupied. I fear, though, that they are not occupied enough not to take serious umbrage to me continuing my battle against the Covenant. I can hear the whispers now: "I can't believe Alex is playing videogames. Why isn't he sitting in here with us, waiting in bored silence for something to happen?"

= negative cred

Been hitting the links pretty hard for the last few days. On the last hole of an already supremely dominant game (14 under par, suckers), I was all the way on the other side of the heavily slanted green. I measured it out best I could and putted, prepared to putt again. But no. The ball made a beautiful curve and dropped quietly into the hole. Just then, I was distracted by music and women, and missed my chance to save the replay. As screen after screen of accolades for broken records came up, all I could do was bemoan the loss of what is sure to be my career's greatest shot.

Eagle? Dormie? No idea.

The latest addition to the cheap-assed gamer's collection is EA's Tiger Woods 2003. Having never played any other golf games, unless you count some denomination of Golden Tee, a four-hole free demo I downloaded for my PDA, or an old math game for the C64, I can't really tell you if there is/are more/better courses/players/equipment, and having never played real-world golf I can't make any comparison to actual experience, but I can tell you it's grand fun. The Samurai Jack mini-cutscenes that play when you hit a long drive are worth it in and of themselves.

I'll keep seeking.

From the Dissendium forums:



"You're likely to need at least 32mb of Video RAM in order to play Quidditch 3D."



Dang it!

Beaters of the world, unite!

Looks like I might be a step closer to playing a worthwhile Quidditch game. Dissendium.com, a Harry Potter fansite, is in the midst of developing a 3d quidditch game for free download, and promises it will be available "sooner than you think". This strikes me as the ideal situation -- a free game conceived and implemented by serious HP geeks with no concern for marketability. The way I bludge on you will be unorthodox.