If there is one game that I’m very excited about it’s this one!!!  I’ve followed this series since its creation, back in 1987 on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  It was a fabulous game back then and the series is finally getting better after attempting the 3D route and failing miserably.  I will admit the PlayStation 3D titles were pretty darn good, but the Nintendo 64 versions were just outright hideous.  After watching the latest trailer from E3 and seeing some of the game play, this game looks gorgeous and appears to have some unoriginal but tried and true game play.  It takes it’s main fighting style from a game that did it right, God of War.  In fact, there are a bunch of games out that use the same fighting style because it works so well.  Not only does it use God of War style fighting, but it also draws from other noticeable games.  One game in particular I have fallen in love with for it’s visuals as well as story and game play is Shadow of the Colossus.   The protagonist in this Castlevania game climbs up a giant so in some areas it looks to play the same as SotC.  You know the old saying, “Imitation is a form of flattery,” well this looks like it’s going to do a damn fine job of it!

What’s more, since Castlevania is made by Konami (in my opinion one of the greatest gaming developers/producers in video game history), and Hideo Kojima one of the greatest game developers who works for Konami, he has his studio working with the Castlevania developers.  This should turn out to be the one of the best of its series yet.  I can’t wait until it releases!   It’s still unknown what the release date is, however it’s projected in the fall of 2010, so very soon!

Last night we went to a sushi restaurant called Ebisu which had a really good sushi dish called ‘Dynamite’ sushi.  It was located in the strip mall about 3 minutes away from Rick’s house.  I ended up getting 2 glasses of the house Merlot, which was fantastic, but for $10 a glass it was a bit pricey.  I could justify it though since I rarely ever go out to eat, and especially have alcohol that’s that expensive.  Afterward, we went to Rick’s neighbor’s house and sat outside with them and talked for a few hours.   Everyone’s house in this area is gorgeous, and I find it so hard to believe they’re so inexpensive.  Phoenix was hit hard by the housing crisis.  So $400K houses are now going for $150 on foreclosure, or they’re going for $175K for short sale.  I’m seriously considering buying a house in the Anthem, Phoenix area.  One of the great things about it is the houses are in an association, so everything looks beautiful and the area is just a wonderful place to raise a family.  All the schools are within walking distance of all the houses, and the same goes with the parks.  The shopping arcade is very close.  You could easily ride your bicycle everywhere you needed to go.  It could easily be the place I would like to retire.  The only downside is the heat of the day, but everywhere you go is air conditioned, so it wouldn’t be even close to horrible.

With the association dues, you get to use all the facilities at no additional cost.  There’s a fitness center with a great pool for adults and for kids.  The fitness center has everything you would need to work out.  The people are very health-centric in the community, so it motivates you to get/stay in shape as well.  I was really impressed with what I saw.

Not too far away, all of maybe 15 minutes there was the major lake that feeds all of southern Arizona and it was huge.  Tons of boats were out today and we went down to the pier and ate lunch on the floating gift shop/bar/restaurant named Dillard’s.  The food was wonderful and at a great cost too!

I had a great time catching up with Rick and I’m really looking forward to paying him a visit again when the family finally comes out on June 30^th.

Thanks Rick for being such a great host!

For those of you who don’t know what WoW is, it’s a game from Blizzard, and it’s full name is World of Warcraft.  I recently started playing it again, for the first time.  When it first came out about 5 years ago I played it for a few months, made it to level 30 and then quit since I was starting college up.  It’s been about 4.5 years since I last played it and I started an account about a month and a half ago.  I’ve since leveled up to 70 and I’ve decided to give it a rest for a week or so.  I could go up to level 80, but the only way I can do that is to buy the expansion for the game, Wrath of the Lich King.  However, I’ve already spent $50 for the original content, plus the Burning Crusade expansion, and I’ve spent another $45 for a 3 month subscription.  That comes out to almost $100 to play this game.  In order for me to continue on I would need to spend another $40 to get the WotLK expansion, which puts me up to $140 just to play one game. OH, and in the next 5-10 months Blizzard will be releasing yet another expansion called Cataclysm.  This will end up likely being another $40, so in the end I’ll end up spending about $180 for the whole game, plus a reoccuring cost of $15/month for the ability to play the game.

Now I will admit it’s worth the first $100, but after that it’s quickly losing its appeal.  I believe part of that reason is because I’m not into games like I used to be.  There’s more to life, especially at 31 years of age.  Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the content, the social aspect of being in a guild, or just being able to play in game with a few of my friends.  But it’s quickly loosing its appeal as better games are coming out.  Plus I really enjoy playing more console games than computer games.  I’m sure there will be other game that I will play, like Allods or Guild Wars 2, since these are either free games, or you purchase the game but they’re free to play.  It also doesn’t help that only a couple friends play WoW and most of my other friends have moved on from the game.

I don’t know, I’m at a cross roads right now.  I love to play games, but there’s so much more to do with my life.  I’ve been away from school now for almost 5 months, I think it’s time to get back on that wagon and ride it out until the end.  Time will tell what will happen.

I’m so looking forward to seeing my old buddies from the Navy.  It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve last seen them.  It should be some good times.

WTF?

I hope to publish some of my activities here on my site so I can keep my family updated with what’s going on out there.  It should be a lot of fun.  I plan on taking a lot of compromising pictures of everyone else.  It’s only good pictures of me… or so I hope.  I just hope my bum back decides to cooperate with me.  I’m not looking forward to the plane trips due to the crap my backs giving me.  I gonna ask for an emergency seat and hope for the best.

Here’s a pick of the not ghey friend that’s soon to be wedded (he’s the one on the right in the pretty flowery dress):

Not only do I get to see my buddies from the Navy, I’m also going to be visiting my Aunt and one of my best friends from days of old.  Chris you better be ready to rock when I get out there!  I’m just sayin’.

My wife and I and kids are planning a trip into Chicago tomorrow after work to stay the night in a Super 8.  I don’t want to have to wake up at ass-crack thirty to drive into Chicago to be at the terminal 2 hours early.   Thankfully the Super 8 has a shuttle to the airport so my wife doesn’t have to get confused with all the odd traffic at the airport.

If any of you guys are reading my site, from San Diego, please let me know of some good places to go to get souvenirs so I can send some home.  Note to self, get some for Wife, Kids, Mom, Dad, Anna, Kirk, John, Tony, Jason P, oh and self too!

See you soon San D!

You can get the gadget here.

This is very handy if you listen to Pandora all the time, but it does have the added nuisance of prompting you every hour if you’re “Still Listening”.  If you have either Windows Vista or 7 this is a definate toy to have.