Well I’ve been following the E3 coverage on G4 Tech TV as much as I can because… well… I find it interesting!  Nice to know what new games and such are coming down the pipe.  So these are some of the things that caught my eye (mostly 360 and Wii based as I don’t own a PS3).

Metal Gear Solid: Rising, appears to feature Raiden as the main character not Solid Snake as previous games did.  Also it’s coming to 360 (and PS3).

All Points Bulliten (APB) is a Crime Based MMO,  it features highly customized characters (way more than I’ve seen in other MMOs from what the video showed), you can join / create gangs, and have up to 100 people in a given area at any time.  Become famous or infamous for the evil deeds you do.  Seems like a different take on an MMO.  Should draw the GTA crowd.

The Saboteur, is a stealth action game set in Nazi filled

Assassins’ Creed 2, set in a Renaissance Italy you play a man forced to become an assassin to survive.  Graphics look beautiful and in the trailer the main character has a flint lock gun attached to his forearm.  Pretty cool looking.

Avatar,a game being made with director James Cameron by Ubisoft based off his movie (to come out later this year), is slated to be the worlds first 3D video game.  A demo should be out next week and no trailer or footage was shown.  The game takes place on a planet called Pandora where a band of humans have travelled and end up at odds with the local race called the Na’vi that has their own language and culture.  It is unknown if you’ll need 3D glasses to play it or not.

Facebook and Twitter both coming to Xbox 360, along with On Demand ability to download games.  30 Titles will be available on launch and will be priced similar to their retail counter parts.  I’m still waiting for Netflix for Canadian users!  And new avatar content is on the way too!

The Old Republic is a new MMO to replace the failing horrid mess of Star Wars Galaxy.  Little real information, but the trailer was pretty bad ass.  I’m assuming it’s for PC.

Final Fantasy XIV for PS3 and PC is the next MMO in the series set for release in 2010, little else is known about it aside from the fact that Chocobos will be present!

Mass Effect 2, Crysis 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Crackdown 2, Halo 3 ODST, are all big name sequels that are slated and look pretty awesome.

New Super Mario Wii, will support four player co-op play, with you being able to play as various characters like Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess, etc…  Still a side scroller with hills, boxes, pipes, and bad guys.  But the four player co-op looked really fun.  Reminded me of playing Little Big Planet in Co-op mode.

Metroid: Other M, a new instalment in the Metroid series which could be a little more hardcore as it’s being made by Team Ninja, who made Ninja Gaiden, so the combat should be fast and furious.

More Wii Hardware in the form of, Wii Vitality sensor that will go over your thumb and track your pulse, giving a visual representation of your own emotion to your Mii.  Also, Wii MotionPlus (which was introduced last year), an add-on for the Wiimote that makes it more sensitive and accurate to motion.  It was demoed with Wii Sports: Resort, that has new games from sky diving, to archery, to table tennis.

So Microsoft seem to have continued to bring their A game this year, Nintendo did much better as they didn’t bring anything to the table last year, and Sony has promised 35 PS3 exclusive titles to launch over the next twelve months and more than 100 titles in total.  So we will see if they can finally get into the competition.

This past weekend Greg and Chris hosted the sequel to the murder mystery we played last year “Murder at the Four Deuces”. 

A lot of people got out to play in this one and reprise their characters as well as having a few new faces to add to the mix.  It was great fun!  Just enough LARP to remind me why I enjoyed playing but conversation afterwords reminded me of why we don’t bother anymore. 

The best thing as usual was seeing friends from out of town.  It was really fun to get Chris & Anita down for it, if only as an excuse to see them.  Hope peeps enjoy the pictures, as always please feel free to comment on any of them.  I like the feedback!

(For facebook users click either of the pictures to see the full album hosted on my website.)

Okay, I’ve got one of the albums up.  July 19th I went to check out the Buskers on the Boardwalk with a few friends. I think we got to see all the acts but 1 (two since we talked to Bojan during the Monsters of Schlock).  I had a really good time and got some decent shots with my new 80 - 200mm f2.8 L lens.  This was the first time I got to use it and was happy with the results.  Also realized how truly heavy it is (just under 3lbs, plus the weight of the camera).  The weight actually prompted me to buy a monopod the next week.  Hope you enjoy the shots.

BTW, I managed to remember the other shots I need to post.  It was my weekend in Wickham with Jess and Hil for Hil’s Nanny’s 75th B-day!  Good fun, still have to get half those pics off Hil’s laptop.

I’m sure if you have talked to me in the last week you have already heard this rant, but I’ll go through the steps for those that have not.

Last Friday Hil, Jess, and I went to see Iron Man.  I bought tickets online (which costs an extra $1, but is worth it to avoid the lines on opening night) we got to the theatre, bought our snacks, and headed into the theatre and got comfy.  6:40 came the lights went down and the sound started but that was the problem!  There was only sound!  No picture.  After 10 minutes of listening to trailers and getting annoyed someone came in to say they were having technical difficulties.  Things got turned off and the lights came back up.  10 minutes later they came in to tell us the digital projector was broken and a tech was on the way.  But they would be giving us free passes and a coupon for $3 off a combo.  Seeing as only one of us bought a combo, Hil and I had fries and ice cream type stuff like we usually do.  There was no option to go to the late show, simply if you can still get tickets to it feel free to try.  The whole theatre was pissed and thought what they offered as compensation was not enough.

 However, unlike most I returned home went online and complained!

Today the fruits of my b#$%^ing have paid off.  A real live human called me from Empire Theatres to apologize and get my mailing address.  They are sending out an additional 3 free passes (which is what I felt should have been done to begin with).

Morale of the story, if you don’t get what you paid for and feel ripped off.  Complain.  Big companies only give as little back as they can get away with when things like this happen, but usually give what is fair back if you complain about it.

Tonight we shall make the 2nd attempt to see the movie.  Should something happen with the projector this time… we shall probably loose our minds and go on some crazy monkey rampage!

Sunday afternoon I attended the Saint John Sead Dogs game, who hosted the PEI Rockets.  Barry had some free tickets and I picked up the extra for myself, Hilary, Jess, Dale , Matt, and Barry to go as part of my brothers (Dale) birthday weekend.

 This was the first Sea Dogs game I attended and wasn’t sure what to expect from a QMJHL (Quebec Major Junoir Hockey League) game needless to say we all had a very good time.  I took a lot of pictures from the upper bowl and have posted a few that I thought were worthy.

 The Sea Dogs did not disappoint us as they destroyed the Rockets 1o - 3, setting a franchise record for most goals in a single game.  The Dogs seem to be a well balanced team having had 8 different players score goals and an additional 3 players tally points.  This win brought the Dogs record to an impressive 19-7-2-1 putting them 3rd in the Eastern Division only 5 points back of 1st place.

I think I was most impressed with rookie goaltender Robert Mayer (Sea Dogs 1st round draft pick, 3rd overall) who stopped 24 of 27 shots.   Also Christopher DiDomenico had a great game scoring a goal and adding 3 assists to be +5 on the night.   This 18 year old who was Saint Johns 6th round pick 164th overall has very impressive numbers this season so far (25 Goals, 22 assists, 47 points,  +18) and should be a player to watch as his career continues.

Though this was my first Sea Dogs game it won’t be my last as I really enjoyed myself.  Going to try to get to more games as the season progressess and hopefully follow them into the playoffs!

Okay, so any sort of update is long since over due… but I’ll cover that in another post.  This is just to say that I’ve finally uploaded the pictures from my Halifax Trip in September.  My brother, Jess, Hil, and I all went down on the weekend of the 23rd.  Jess got me tickets for the Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadians pre-season game as a B-day gift.  A pretty damn cool gift if this B’s fan does say so.

We stayed at Jared and Vicki’s which was really fun.  I miss the both of them so much… and Sylas is growing so quick.  Pretty sure we are going to try to get down more often to visit when they have time off for us to come.  Hoping for sometime in November, maybe around Remembrance Day.

 Anywho, the weekend was great fun, very relaxing.  Some of the pictures taken are from my old 4MP Fujifilm cameara.  The website for the Halifax Metro Centre said no cameras, so I figured I’d try to smugle in that small one instead of my good Canon camera.  Sadly, everyone in the Metro Centre had cameras and I could have easily taken my good one in.  :o(  Oh well, I’ll know for next time.  Having finally looked at the pics I really want to go to a few Sea Dogs games here in Saint John to take some pictures with the good camera… I think I like sports photography so I’ll have to explore that more.

 Feel free to check out the pics, they are in the photography section under Trips.

Had tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco with Hilary, Jess, and Pitre on Saturday afternoon.  We got front row tickets the morning they went on sale a few months ago and I’ve been looking forward to it since.  I’ve seen a bit of Cirque on TV before and thought this would be fun to see, but the show went way beyond my expectations!  The feats of strength, agility, and balance were amazing!  The total control the performers have over their body is astonishing.  The beauty of the stage, costumes, music, and movements left me never knowing when to applaud as I simply wanted to applaud the entire show.  Also, I had no clue the show was a bit interactive.  Sitting in the front row center proved to be some extra fun.  When the performers first came out they walked along the front row shaking hands and such, then pulled the front row up by the arm to walk along with them.  (Hil having a ton of stuff on her lap and being super shy, stayed glued to her seat.)  We started to walk around the stage with them waving to the crowd when suddenly they ran back and stole our seats!  After getting yelled at by the “leader” of the group, they pulled tickets out of their pockets and held them up!  It was rather funny and soon we had our seats back.  Later in the act a mime type was playing with a pretend ball and threw it to a few people in the crowd.  Then the spotlight came down on me and he threw me the “ball”.  I caught it and he picked up a pretend bat as the standard baseball fare music began.  After a few test swings he nodded to me that he was ready and I threw the “ball” back to him.  However, he caught it in his mouth and many more laughs followed.

I would easily pay the big price to see the show again if it ever comes back.  Or if I find myself in Vegas at any time another show would definatly be on my list of things to see.  So if you ever have the chance to see it, don’t miss out!

It was a bit of a good but odd weekend.  Friday started off with having a few people over for Tacos and then we ended up watching 1408 (new movie based off one of Stephen King’s short story) but we only got 30 minutes into that before some jerk broke a window out of Jess’s car.  Sadly we did not catch the little jerk that cut our movie short.

Saturday we attempted to go for a walk at the Nature Park, but that too was cut short by Mosquitoes chowing down on poor Jess who seems to have developed an allergy to them biting her.  A quick trip to Shoppers seemed to fix her up well enough.  We hooked up with Barry and went to the Ale House to have a bite to eat and watch the Buskers.  Food at the Ale House took a painfully long amount of time and then wasn’t even that great (at least for Jess).  The Buskers were however entertaining and funny as always.

Sunday we took a drive to Kredels for some eats, then went to see Hairspray.  My advise to all you manly men that don’t want to see it is allow yourself to get drug to it, because it was really funny.  Nothing better than Christopher Walken and John Travolta (in drag) singing and dancing to a humorous love song.  The racial themes in it kept throwing me off.  At one point the black and white kids are on the dance floor but separated by a rope to keep them from dancing together.  I remember thinking “How silly”, then realizing that in the past that is the way it would have been.  I guess we have come a long way when it comes to tolerance and acceptance.  Then again, we still have a long way to go for other types of minorities.

Finally, the weekend ended with some good ol’ ball hockey.  This is the first week I played and felt pretty good after.  Must be getting used to it.  We also seem to have a growing audience which is kind of cool.  I’m also always happy that random passers by will stop and ask to play, then just jump in.  Every week it happens and it is always a good time.  Makes me feel good to meet good random people.

Went to see the new Harry Potter movie with some friends and my Mom yesterday.  Although I’ve never read any of the books I thought it was a pretty good movie.  They just keep getting darker which is nice.  The more power the bad guys get in a movie (or series) the darker things should get.  The effects were well done as always and the acting was pretty solid.

Perhaps after all the movies are out and I’ve seen them I’ll go back and read all the books.  Then it will have been too late to bitch about what they left out and such.