this machine is obsolete

well, christmas has come and gone, and overall it was a good holiday. nice seeing all the family, and jess' too. i also got some good presents, including kotor 2 and band of brothers. there were also some very big downsides, such as getting my car stuck for over an hour in a huge snow pile, and having the digital camera i bought jess not work right. oh well, my car is unstuck now and it looks like i'm getting things worked out with returning the camera.

last, but certainly not least, congratulations to tim and elly, who got engaged on christmas eve. now we can all stop harassing tim about it... which is too bad, in a way. oh well, i'm sure we'll find something else to make fun of him for.

i am the voice inside your head

after this little bit of blasphemy, i may never visit gamerfeed again. of course, any half-life 2 vs. halo 2 comparison is bound to stir up controversy. however, picking the crappy game as the winner is just plain stupid. the biggest joke is saying that halo 2 has better enemies. are there even any new bad guys besides the brutes and those annoying green insect guys? did they even play half-life 2? they should be very pleased that they've now endeared themselves to all the cool high school halo fanboys. filthy heathens.

grab a scale and guess the weight of all the pain i've given with my name

here's a cool article on the history of star wars video games. i've always been a pretty big fan of star wars games, even ones that were less than stellar like Rebellion, Force Commander, and Rebel Assault 2. of course, then there have always been the golden gems like Kotor, Jedi Knight, and TIE Fighter. anyways, it's a good article.


also, get ready for The 2004 Davie Awards, coming soon.

the king called up his jet fighters

apparently EA Games' Madden franchise couldn't beat the competition from ESPN NFL games, and the fact that ESPN was just as good as Madden, and cost $20 instead of $50. so instead of defeating their competition by putting out a better quality game, EA decided to turn into THE MAN, by monopolizing NFL-based football games. there's a good lesson for all you business majors: don't turn out a better product, just prevent your rivals from giving you any competition. then you can turn out all the crap you want, and people wanting to play a game of that type will have no choice.

it's funny how everything you swore would never change is different now

it's articles like this that get my hopes up way too high about the bengals. now i'm all pumped about our chances to upset new england. honestly though, i think we can definately do it, i just think it's going to come down to two things: 1. Defense. we've got to stop dillion and stop the passing game. if we're not playing from far behind, it will makes things much less stressful for palmer and the offense. 2. Protect Palmer. the pats are good against the run but missing their top 2 cornerbacks. the bengals showed last week what they can do against even a top rated defense. however, new england is 3rd in the nfl in sacks. as long as we protect palmer and give him time to make the throws, we should pass all over them. this becomes even more important if #1 fails, and we're playing from behind, like last week. i'm so pumped now. WHO DEY!

mother do you think they'll drop the bomb

needless to say, the bengals 27-26 victory over the ravens sunday was a monumental victory. marvin lewis rightfully compared it to exorcising a demon. it was a must win game, and and the offense stepped to the challenge in a big way. as dan hoard of fox 19 sports said, you do not come back from a 17 point deficit in the 4th quarter against baltimore. you do not score 24 4th quarter points against the ravens.

once again this week, i think despite how good the patriots are, this game may come down to yet another last minute drive by the bengals. the question is, will it be marred by mistakes like it was against the jets, titans, and both steelers games, or have we finally learned enough to repeat last week's comeback? as good as the patriots are, the bengals have been repeatedly showing up for the hard teams the past two seasons (kansas city; then denver, most of the second steelers game, and against baltimore last week), so i think they will again. hopefully the defense will get the extra motivation to stop the run by facing corey dillion. i'm sure he'll be motivated to run all over us,

it's going to be tough, and i'm trying not to get my hopes up. the pats defense is probably better than baltimore's (even without ty law), and their offense definately is. it's also no easy feat to win at gillete stadium, especially in december. regardless, there's no reason why the bengals can't at least finish this season by breaking even.

you got a bullet in your head

so in response to criticism of counter-strike: source being the only multiplayer option for half-life 2, valve released an update for the game, the main feature being the inclusion of half-life 2: deathmatch. naturally the main draw for the deathmatch is the combination of hl2's physics simulation and the ability to use the physics and the gravity gun to turn any object into a weapon. so i gave it a try today, and i had a blast. you start with three weapons, the gravity gun, the pistol, and the smg. you don't really have enough ammo for the smg to do too much damage, and although there are other weapons scattered along the map, most people still end up using the gravity gun. in fact, i wish there was an option to make the grav gun the only weapon available. i only saw two maps so far (there may be one more, but i'm sure both valve and the gaming community will crank out more in no time), and they're both littered with debris just waiting to be turned into a weapon. the most fun i had is when there is a mass of people all hurling objects back and forth at each other, trying to avoid being flattened by flying furniture. today i had the groundbreaking experience of fragging someone with a desk, a chair, a toilet, a radiator, a barrel, you name it. literally even the kitchen sink became a lethal missle. it was a multiplayer experience that unlike any i'd ever had before. the possibilities for expanding on a concept with such obvious potential and depth are endless. it's just one more reason to fall obesessively in love with this game.