Lego

This is a list of posts tagged with Lego.

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: 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: 2008 games

BraidI am mixing up my order a little bit this year. In the past I have done music, movies and then games. This year I am doing a reverse order. Games are first because I am more or less done with games to play from last year. I am still catching up on movies but expect to have that up by weekend, err… end.  Since no one cares about the music one, it can go last. (If you are at all interested in last year’s lists you can find them under the best of tag, but here is last year’s games post.)

Of course, that’s not to say that the game had to come out in 2008 to make the list. I simply had to consume it in 2008. (Although, games from last year still on my list for this year are Tomb Raider Underworld and maybe Fallout 3.)

Last year I ranked 10 games and then did a li... Continue reading »

Two two nine nine nine

Thus stands my Gamerscore. A not so nice and round number no thanks to a couple Xbox Live Arcade games that give out weird number achievements like 4, 6 and 7, etc. Can we keep to 5 as the smallest and go in increments from there please?

Gamerscore on 09.05.08

Currently enjoying Lego Batman. Those that say it is not much of a leap from Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones are very mistaken. I found a lot of innovation and change in this game. The puzzles are super easy, it starts at a 10+ age rating, but they are definitely different. The one knock is no Xbox Live co-op, especially with a co-op achievement in the mix. That means I am going to have to work two controllers at once to get it.

It appears I will have no trouble getting to my 24k goal for the end of the year. You know, unless both Xboxes RROD on me.

Ill communication

I just listened to Ill Communication on my way home from work tonight. I left at 9.00p. I realized that it would be a great title for a blog post, so…

I was at work for the second night in a row until 9p, so that’s ill. I have gone just over a month without posting, so that’s ill. If I went a calendar month without a post, that would be ill… therefore, here’s your fluff piece to put a stop to that.

Seriously though, I intimated in the last real post that I’d fill in blanks later, so I guess this is it. I think that blogging during the summer can be a bit tough when you don’t have some regular topic to shout about. I definitely have never had that, so it is here and there. Well, weekends are straight out because the last thing I want is to be in front of a keyboard on a weekend. Weeknights have also been straight out because I have been getting home late most nights and since those are due to work, I have had enough of the keyboard for a day. When not, I want to spend it on the couch in front of the 360 for a game or catch up on su... Continue reading »

Lego vault

This link made my day and I found it quite by accident on the del.icio.us homepage this afternoon. I was grabbing the del.icio.us Firefox extension at work and happened upon it. (I’m an Engadget guy, not a Gizmodo guy.)

Anyway, the story is cool, but the really cool and happy part is the Lego set that set off the author. I think that was my second Lego set ever and the one I thought of as soon as I started reading the article. To my surprise as I continued to scroll down, there it was. What are the odds? The first one I had is also featured in the gallery.

Blocks from those sets are still in my possession. They make up a small bit of the helicopter I still have… the last original Lego creation of mine before I retired. I dontated all the leftover blocks, a crapload of them, to a friend’s little brother my freshman year of college.

Year in consumables: 2007 games

Crackdown boxTime to finish this series off for 2007. The first two parts were music and movies. Also, I just read my 2006 games post and damned if I wasn’t entertained by it. Maybe you should read it (again?)… for added incentive, I make fun of Mookie a little bit.

Speaking of which, I heard via Ed that his 360 finally red-ringed him. (Did we have a pool somewhere about this?) Well, I’m actually sorry to hear that. I thought it was going to beat the odds, but it might have finally succumbed... Continue reading »

A toy story

I have been a little behind on posting a link to this, but I was happy to do a “5 Questions with…” over on Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation.

That’s because I was helping him sell out by putting up ads within that snappy-ish blog I helped him build. It’s now an “ish” because it has been compromised by ads. I kid of course, but when you get over there, click some to make the guy some extra bones for his wedding.

It was fun to both build the site and do the interview, although it took a long time to answer. Brought back some good memories (outside of the petty theft). 🙂

Update: I should have added that Ed has his own “5 Questions with…” over on PGPoA too. He has now done a write up of his own on The Ed Zone which incorporates some thoughts on the topic and site as well as the text of the interview.

Fourteen K

Well, I had to do some marathon gaming over my vacation, but I just got over my goal of 14k for the end of the year. Of course, trying to do so while playing Mass Effect will cause you to spend a lot of time getting points, but at least it is fun. I had to bust out Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga today to get 80 points to put me over the edge.

Gamerscore on 12.31.07

Anyway, both Ed and I busted over the 14k mark for the year, which was about an 11k (or so) increase for the year — probably really 10 months — and that is pretty awesome. Actually, I did it in less than that given I was sans 360 for about two more months due to being red ringed.

So, Ed’s goal is 20k by the end of 2008, which is very doable given what we did this year. I’m setting mine at 24k, which is a bit more aggressive, but then, I don’t have a Wii (or a life for that matter) to take away any time from gaming.

Red ringed

Well, it finally got me. I am now a victim of the so-called Red Ring of Death.

Of course, this has already happened to both Ed and Jason, so it is not exactly new, just new to me. Kind of funny that it would happen just after I posted about going over 10k with my gamerscore and so did my Xbox. Of course, one wonders how it continues to post blog entries.

Perhaps it is when I can get it to run for a about a minute before it freezes. You see, after getting the ring, it hasn’t happened again, but it will freeze almost exactly a minute after booting up. I have tried the suggestions on support page for both issues with no joy. I am going to have to finally contact Microsoft about this as my hopes that... Continue reading »