Five nine seven seven nine

Gamerscore on 01.01.14 Gamerscore on 01.01.14

The decline in gaming continued like a snowball turning into an avalanche. Or something like that. Can a snowball really become an avalanche? I say no. It could become the really big bottom of a snowman. What?

So, there are many reasons why there hasn’t been much gaming. Most good. One bad, and that is there are no games released during the middle of the year anymore. This is when I actually have time to play because there’s no television to watch. The push to release for the holidays, and shortly after due to delays, has now skewed the schedule further. Therefore my goal is to save/space out games so I have them to play during the warmer months. When I don’t want to be roasting on a beach or whatever. I’m Irish. I burn easy. Regardless of how well the sunblock may have been applied, you always miss a spot. What?

Math Time. Last year started with 57839 and... Continue reading »

Five seven eight three nine

Gamerscore on 1.1.13 Mistah Plow Gamerscore on 1.1.13

Well, another year bites the dust. Which is good because we all didn’t bite the dust. Take that Mayans! (Or at least those fools that believed they might be right.)

Anyway, that’s my score to start this year. Or end last year. Whatever.

The math indicates I increased by 6930 on the year and that is a negative delta from the previous year. A lot of that had to do with the few new games I played in 2012. More on that in a later post. (My avatar gives you a hint at which game I will choose as number one for the year.)

Meanwhile, Mister Plow continues to accelerate further away with an increase of 10462 but also with a negative delta.

Lastly, I am adding Mookie this year. I don’t... Continue reading »

A Day at Fenway

Left field corner

This past Thursday I took a day off from work–only my third one this year–and took in Fenway Park. It was to celebrate Liberty Mutual’s 100th Anniversary at Fenway during it’s 100th Anniversary. I no longer work for Liberty Mutual but my friend Jay had an extra invite and knew I would love to go. He was right.

Tangent about good skin health and you can see the photos on Flickr or in the slideshow after the break… Continue reading »

Five two zero five nine

Gamerscores on 05.08.12

I’d title it “Eighty K” or “Eight zero zero zero zero” but I hope to get there myself some day. Anyway, here’s what both are scores looked like yesterday. Not bad work for a little over four months of gaming. Congrats to Homer for getting his score back to a number evenly divisible by five and so very round. Wave to the crowd.

Year in consumables: 2011 games

Portal 2 cover artI love video games.

I hate video game publishers.

I guess that’s biting the hand that feeds you, but it is true. And, it is for a very simple reason. Their scheduling. The continued trend towards releasing new games in the Fall to capitalize on the pending holiday shopping season is killing me.

I get it. I understand that games cost a lot to develop, market and support. So they need to maximize their return on investment by releasing at the best time possible. But, I would argue it is the worst time possible. They are forced into competition with every other publisher and game doing the same exact thing. Thereby increasing the competition for people’s dollars. And games aren’t cheap these days, which has led to rising reliance on used game sales, which the publishers hate because they don’t get a piece of that. So then we get stuck with there attempts to curb that by adding on weak multiplayer experiences in games that should not have them. And... Continue reading »

Year in consumables: 2011 music

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.So, let’s dispense with the lame blogging to you and your future self theme for the 2011 posts. It was fun for one post and a little forced for another, so time to move on. Plus, it is just about another month later and I’m sure I have something better to use. Which is to say I do not have any ideas and do not want to keep up with trying to hold to a theme. Just going to do a dump of content.

I had a rough year with the music this past year. I went a very long amount of time at the start of the year not listening to anything new, at least in album format. Sure, the radio bombarded me with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes‘–I’m guessing that’s the spelling because I don’t care to look and find out–gawd awful single; in two versions. Yes, they must not have a single other good tune on their album. And I absolutely hated it the first time I heard it as much as the one thousandth. Of course, then there is the everlasti... Continue reading »

Year in consumables: 2010 games

Halo: Reach cover artAnd you, future OB1, went crazy as past OB1, writing lists on this day.

Unfortunately, there is no summer 2010 post to fall back on for a games post, so this is straight thoughtworks. Why couldn’t past, past OB1 have written a half year post on games instead of wasting his time on movies. That would have been more useful right now since past OB1 didn’t want to write about movies anymore. (Because they mostly all suck.)

Good thing your Xbox Live achievements will help guide you in making out this list, although you maybe played a PS3 game or two. Maybe. We’ll have to see, but doubtful it would make a ranking list. Continue reading »

Year in consumables: 2010 music

But, you are saying to yourself the year is 2012 when this was posted, so what the deuce? (Yes, you, that one person reading this… which is the same person that wrote it, but several years in the future reading it.) Well, to say you were lazy about writing anything for a long time would be an understatement. Good for you that you were bored doing laundry one day and decided to crank out a couple lists. Because you like lists. Lists make you feel better.

So, here is a list for 2010 and the one for 2011 will soon follow. So look for that in 2014. Or so.

Good thing you half wrote this list in the summer of 2010 or you’d really be starting from nowhere. Continue reading »

Five zero nine zero nine

So, this is my first post of the year and my first post in a year. It is just my annual tally of Gamerscores for my own nerd purposes. Example, tracking my inadequacy as it relates to Mistah Plow. This year also saw another change to the Xbox web site, which is a nice one, but the concept of gamer cards is pretty much gone now. So, I decided to use my iPhone to grab a couple screen caps using the Xbox Live app as a source. Too bad the format cannot be the same for your own vs. a friends, but they are close.

Gamerscore on 1.1.2012

So, I increased by 8455 over the year and Plow by 12438. I beat my delta from last year by 25 and Plow didn’t quite match his, but he also lost another Xbox to RRoD and has been playing more PS3 games for Avault, so understandable there.

Anyway, see you next year…

Four two four five four

So stands my Gamerscore to start 2011 (or end 2010). You’d think with the lack of activity around these parts, it was due to excessive gaming or even something better, but sadly that is not the case.

Gamerscore on 1.1.11

Anyway, an increase of 8430 over last year is better than the same delta from a year ago. Still, not quite back to at least 10k plus.

Gamerscore on 1.1.11

As for Mr. Plow, the opposite is true. His increase of 16240 is better than last year’s mark. Of course, he does review games for a web site, so that has something to do with it.

I remember a few years ago when I was actually ahead of him. Good times.

(By the way, I like the new Xbox.com site, but hate the look of gamer cards, which aren’t really cards anymore.... Continue reading »