Jeffrey Vanneste’s Personal Blog

Remember a while back when I said I got to play against Major Nelson and some Engadget people in Gears of War?  Well they finally posted about it over on Engaget.  The awesome thing is they posted the scores.  You may recognize me at the top of the lists.

Rankings
Most points

1. 1206 – Over1
2. 1147 – Neologism82
3. 1095 – Ryan Block
4. 806 – Joseph
5. 773 – Major Nelson

Top kills

1. 43 – Over1
2. 37 – Tied: Neologism82 / Ryan Block
3. 28 – Major Nelson
4. 22 – Paul Miller
5. 20 – Joseph

Top downs

1. 30 – Joseph
2. 27 – Over1
3. 23 – Neologism82
4. 13 – Conrad Quilty-Harper
5. 11 – Tied: Major Nelson / Ryan Block

Top revives

1. 7 – Joseph
2. 6 – Ryan
3. 5 – Paul
4. 4 – Neologism82
5. 3 – Tied: Major Nelson / Chris Grant

I guess I didn’t have time to revive anyone since I was too busy curb stomping.

My brother and I drove back to North Battleford on Friday evening. We got a chance to play our yearly Kaiser game against my parents. Sadly this year we lost 2 games out of 3. Saturday Renny and I had an attempt at some last minute xmas shopping but failed as we couldn’t find what we were looking for (pot of gold cherry chocolates). In the evening our entire family (minus Rachel) headed over to Sean and Dustin’s parents place for some awesome prime rib.  After supper Sean and I snuck downstairs to avoid dishes and battle out in some Wii games (wii sports, monkey ball).  I told him after we played that all the games that I won were good games and the ones that I lost in were the stupid ones.  I felt it was accurate.

Eventually our parents came downstairs and we took this opportunity to have them battle it out in Wii Sports.  They did 2 on 2 tennis, boxing and a round of bowling.  Some of the pictures were just priceless.

Sunday Rachel arrived in the afternoon before we stuffed our faces full of shrimp scampi and sweet and sour meatballs (weird combination I know) and then played a whole bunch of old board games we played when we were kids (Mille Bornes, Tile Rummy, Uno, Hearts, etc).  I won at hearts and Rachel figured I would brag about it for a few days.  She was right.  I was awesome.
Today is the big day where I once again tried to sleep in but ended upstairs by 9:30.  We are having over a total of 12 people so now everyone is cleaning up and preparing food.  I snuck downstairs to write this important blog post.  Tomorrow Rach and I head back to Saskatoon and have our Christmas with her parents.  What’s the plural of Christmas?  Christmases?

I found this awesome forum post that has all the games coming out for PC in 2007. There looks to be some really cool ones coming out.

Strategy Games
Spore (by the guy who made The Sims and Sim City) will be worth a try but in the end I don’t find myself playing it all that much. I don’t think I’m much up on the whole “strategy” game genre.

Roleplaying Games
Hellgate: London looks pretty slick. I have no idea what it’s about. I would wager a hell gate, in London. Dragon Age (by Bioware) has to be good. All of their games kick ass. Sacred 2 might be worth a gander though it will be low on my list. The first one was nothing special. Titan Quest sequel. Well Dev and I played through the first one. It was OK but it sure the hell was not Diablo. There are a bunch of MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) but I avoid these at all costs. I imagine I would be sucked into them very easily.

Adventure
I dunno about these anymore. I liked Condemned on 360 but really there is no replay value to these types of games. I think the key to these is to wait for someone else to find the good ones and then play them after that. I don’t want to sink 40 hours into a stupid game.

Puzzle
I have no room for puzzle games on PC. This category is completly taken up by Xbox Live Arcade titles. Marble Blast, Geometry Wars, Lumines…

Action
Wooo, Crysis. No way my PC will run it but it looks cool. I guess the key is that the graphics look cool but the game could be really bad. I’ll still give it a try. Project Offset. I’m pretty excited for this one. The videos look amazing. I doubt it will be half as cool as the videos though. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Well it has Quake in the title. Sold. And Far Cry 2. I wasn’t a big fan of the first one so I dunno if I’ll bother the sequel.

Simulation/Sports
I’ll be honest. I don’t care about these at all.

The post also has some multi-platform games listed. Bioshock looks nice. If my PC can’t run it I’ll pick it up for 360. Assassin’s Creed is the game I’m most excited for. Assassins, check. Ubisoft, check. Kristen Bell, check. Best game ever, check. I’ll be playing this one on 360 though. It just doesn’t seem right to play on PC. We also have Unreal Tournament 2007 coming. As long as they don’t mess it up like Quake 4 did for Quake 3 I’ll be happy. Command and Conquer 3 just cause it was fun to nuke people in the 1st and 2nd version. Portal will be amazing. I shouldn’t even have to talk about it. Have you not seen the videos? Why has this not come out yet? Not to mention it will be bundled with Half Life 2: Episode 2. Whatever the cost I will pay it.

Before checking out this thread I had almost convinced myself that I didn’t need a PC for games anymore. I just can’t imagine not being able to play Portal, HL2: ep2, UT2007 and a couple other titles.

I hate UPS.  Ever since the time I had a package delivered to Hugo House and the package never showed up.  I called UPS and they told me that I lived in an apartment and they didn’t have the apartment number.  Well, being that it was a freakin’ house I didn’t understand what the issue was.  When they finally tried to deliver the package they left it behind a tree in the front yard.  It was until the next day that the purolator guy saw the box and asked us what it was doing there.

I ordered an xbox for my parents on ebay.  The guy shipped it to me via UPS.  It arrived on Friday when Rachel was home.  UPS did not ring the door bell.  When Rachel went out at lunch there was a box sitting outside on the step.  Like seriously, what is wrong with these guys?  Whenever I order stuff if there is any alternative to UPS I will choose it from now on.  UPS just sucks.

Sean has been looking for a Nintendo Wii since they come out but hasn’t been able to get one.  The poor guy has games for the Wii, extra controllers, and the HD kit, but no Wii.  I tried to find one in Montreal with no luck.  Well last night Walmart had a lottery for the 8 Wii’s they got in.  If you won the lottery you were eligible to buy a Wii.  As luck would have it we actually won the lottery.

I told Sean that we got him a Wii but the price was that we wanted to open it so we could give it a try.  I took a bunch of pictures but I guess I should have used more flash and a SLR would have helped too.  Rachel, Michelle and I went through each of the games in Wii Sports (bowling, boxing, tennis, golf, and baseball).  The girls started off playing on the couch.

But it didn’t take long before they got into things.  Rachel is up to bat here..

And here is Michelle after she pitched a ball.

So far it’s been a pretty big hit.  It would be nice to get a 2nd “wiimote” so we don’t have to pass just one around all the time.  Back to the Wii for me.  Maybe the girls will let me play.