One of the best games of 2011 that I didn’t get to play til 2012

I picked up Gears of War 2 for my birthday last April. By then most people weren’t playing it as much, so I just ran through the campaign on my own. I never touched the Horde mode or any other online mode. But I felt like it was something that would be a lot of fun online. So for Christmas Gears of War 3 was on the top of my list, and Santa ended up delivering. However, I didn’t really start playing til this week after figuring out how to hook up the PX21 to the 360. Now that I started playing Gears 3 online, I’m pretty much hooked.

I met up with four other guys from Co-Optimus last night and they walked me through my first Beast Mode. I really, REALLY had a blast. If you’re not familiar with the game or mode, it’s basically a survival mode with a twist…YOU’RE THE BAD GUYS! You and up to four friends can team up playing as the Locust. You earn cash for beating up the good guy soldiers and heroes (like Marcus and Cole) and use that cash to purchase respawns of different Locust units, ranging from the usual grunts with guns to gigantic centipedes and beserkers. I’ve grown quite addicted to the Tickers, which are pretty much running suicide bombers. You use these little beauties to run up to enemy troops and with the tap of a button you explode, taking anyone nearby with you. Unfortunately there is a slight delay as you ignite, and it’s easy for enemy troops to evade the explosion. With some more practice I think I’ll get better at guesstimating their reactions and plan my explosions so they are more devastating.

Nothing’s more satisfying than blowing yourself away for the good of the collective

Then today I checked out Horde mode in a random public match. It’s the opposite of Beast mode, where you play as the good ol’ Gears and survive waves of Locust. Unlike Beast mode you use your cash to purchase fortifications and ammo, though if you’re playing with a bunch of tools who don’t like to revive you when you’re down (like I was today), you may be spending big money for a respawn. I had fun running around at the start of each wave placing barbed wire and decoys to help slow down the incoming swarms of enemies. The biggest problem I had, like I already mentioned, was playing with three other guys who 1. didn’t use headsets, and 2. didn’t worry about reviving their partners, despite the fact that I saved their asses plenty of times. I look forward to playing more Horde with the some of the guys from Co-Optimus over the weekend.

Both Beast and Horde mode have been successful in dragging me away from the PS3 for awhile, and just when I was getting into Dungeon Defenders and Payday. I guess getting to blow the crap out of “Cole Train” is simply more satisfying than robbing a bank, and that’s something I never thought I’d say.

]]> http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/20/hooked-on-gears-of-war-3/feed/ 4 http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/11/psn-review-trine-2/ http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/11/psn-review-trine-2/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:20:06 +0000 Rob http://www.bigbadbob113.com/?p=6073 PSN Review: Trine 2

Post from: BigBadBobs Wild World of Stuff

When I first picked up the PS3 and was in need of a headset, I went with the Official PS3 Bluetooth (since for some bizarre reason Sony refuses to box even the lowest quality headset with consoles like Microsoft does) At the time it was bundled with some SOCOM game, and I immediately traded in the game once I had the Bluetooth in my possession. I’ve been using it for almost three years, and it got the job done. However, over the past year I have begun to find it uncomfortable in my ear. With Christmas over, I decided to use up some cash and treat myself (and my ears) to a new headset. Enter the Turtle Beach PX21 Headset!

Here are the things I like about it:

• It’s versatile: It works with my PS3, 360 and PC (and a Mac if I was silly enough to blow my money on such an overpriced piece of junk)
• It’s comfortable: The official PS3 Bluetooth was extremely uncomfortable when I had to jam the bud into my ear hole. The PX21 is a nice comfy set of headphones that fit nicely over my entire head and are made of a much softer material. And while the headset is wired, the wire is long enough (16 feet) where it’s not an issue at all.
• It pumps in the in-game audio: A good chunk of my gaming time occurs at night while Shell sleeps soundly beside me on the couch. With that being said, I’m a generally good husband by having the TV volume only at one or two notches, which is barely audible. This is no longer an issue as I can plug the PX21 into the TV and have the volume shoot straight into my headphones. Not only can I now listen to the game as loud as I want, I can hear things I never did before, be it footsteps or zombie groans.
• It offers superior voice chat quality: I was blown away by how clear my friends from Co-Optimus sounded through the headset when we played Trine 2. Not only did I hear them better than ever, but they heard me much clearer than they used to. I was shocked by the difference in chat quality, and the voice chat experience that the PX21 delivers makes for a much funner co-op session.
• It’s easy to use: All the different buttons and options are controller right from a black box that is attached to the wire of the headset. From there you can easily rotate dials to increase/decrease game volume, chat volume, and the bass, as well as simply flick a button to mute the headset. Having the controls on this box where you can see it versus on the actual headset is a feature that prefer.
• It’s relatively affordable: As far as nifty headsets go, this one is somewhere near the bottom of the price range, but high in the quality department. I paid $64 for it on Amazon, and have seen them go for $80 in retail stores. Seeing how there are some on the market that cost well over $100, this is a great model to choose for the cheapskate gamer. Of course there are cheaper headsets out there, but they will be superbly inferior compared to the PX21, not only in sound quality but also in comfort.

I love the folks over at Co-optimus. Not only have I met a ton of online friends through the site, but they also have pretty frequent contests. For the approximately three years that I have been a regular on the site I have won an Xbox 360 console, a copy of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and now, as of today, I am the extremely proud owner of a brand-spanking new copy of Lord of the Rings: War in the North for the 360. And it’s not just any ol’ copy…IT’S THE FREAKIN’ COLLECTOR’S EDITION!!! I was anxiously sitting by the door all day waiting for the UPS dude to deliver my precious…

I felt I had to open this package LOTR-style so I pulled out my sword letter opener and got to work.

Upon opening the top portion of the box I discovered some secret swag in the form of co-optimus stickers! I’ll put them on Shell’s recipe binder to help decorate it and support co-op!

I then got to work pulling the game box out of the cardboard box. Low and behold, here is the front and back of the Collector’s Edition box:

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• War in the North game
• Quiver/ satchel case
• Cloth map
• Art book

Everything in the box is contained within the quiver. That’s right, this Collector’s Edition comes equipped with an actual quiver. It’s of such high quality and large enough to function if you ever wanted to take it to the archery range (though I wouldn’t risk taking this baby out of the house.) Upon taking it out it looks like this, complete with two arrow feathers sticking out:

The first thing I did was take the arrows out of the quiver. The arrows function as two poles for a cloth map. And I’m talking an actual, high-quality cloth map… not the “cloth” map that Amazon indicated was a pre-order bonus for Skyrim (spoiler: it wasn’t cloth at all…just a sandpapery-feeling sheet of paper.) The map is a full representation of all of Middle-earth, not just “the North” where the game takes place.

While the quiver is far too large to properly display in our apartment, I was able to find a suitable location for the map:

Attached to the quiver is a case made of similar material.

Inside the case is the game itself…

And an art book! The book contains concept art of the game’s characters, monsters and environments. It’s definitely a pretty neat thing to have.

So that is the contents of the War in the North Collector’s Edition. This is the first Collector’s Edition for a video game I’ve ever owned, mostly because times are hard and the cost of a Collector’s Edition game can be the same as two or more regular games. Of all the games out there that I could have a Collector’s Edition for, this one probably tops the list. The map and art book are great swag for a LOTR nut like me and I really appreciate the quality put into the pieces.

I’d like to thank the folks at co-optimus again for hooking me up with this swag. Keep up the great co-op coverage!!!

On November 17, 2006, the PS3 was released here in the United States. I wanted one pretty badly back then but the price at the time was astronomical. I had went from the PS1 to the PS2, and I was intent on going for the PS3 once the price was right. And on November 8, 2008, the price was indeed right. I had $400 saved up and Wal-Mart had a promotion where if you bought the PS3 (which was $399.99 at the time) you got a $100 gift card. So I went to Wally World early that morning, waited on a line for over two hours, and eventually snagged my PS3. I’ve now had the PS3 for three years and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it as a system. It introduced me to so many new features like online play, trophies, wireless controllers, affordable downloadable games and voice chat that I hadn’t experienced with the PS2 (no, I never played PC games).

Before the PS3, I only had a small handful of friends that I knew that played video games, and it was always a local co-op affair. With the PS3 I was able to play with people from anywhere and I made some new online friends. In my quest for finding co-op partners I happened across C0-Optimus which is a site dedicated to co-op games and meeting fellow co-op gamers. Now I never have a shortage of gaming buddies to hit up when I jump online for a co-op game.

Of course, the biggest part of the PS3 are the games. I will now regale you with tales of some of my favorite ones:

• Sacred 2: Probably one of the best times I’ve had playing co-op. Sacred 2 is a hack-and-slash/ dungeon crawler RPG that allowed up to four players to play online together. The graphics weren’t exactly the best, the online play was glitchy at times, and the text was too damn small to be legible on a standard-def TV, but the game was still a blast. Not only did I play it for over a year in one big co-op campaign, but it was also one of the first game that I received a Platinum trophy in.
• BioShock: I played the demo for BioShock soon after getting the system, and I was blown away. The story, the environment, the characters and enemies…everything about BioShock made me long to play it, and I received it a month later for Christmas! I enjoyed it so much that I had it featured on my wedding cake!
• The Elder Scrolls: One of the games I picked up when I bought the PS3 was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I had never played any other game in the series or seen anything about it, but I had always heard about how awesome Oblivion was. And it was a truly epic game. I played Oblivion for three years on-and-off, depending on if I had anything else around I felt like playing. It took me about seven or eight characters and close to three years to finally complete the game, as I always got side-tracked with the side missions and exploring. And now I’ve had Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for about a week and it’s everything that Oblivion was and then some. These are definitely some of the best RPGs I’ve ever had the experience to play.
• Resistance 2: I purchased Resistance 2 about a week after buying Resistance: Fall of Man because I instantly fell in love with the story and setting of the series (an alien/mutant attack on the world in the 1950s). While I was initially disappointed with how Resistance 2′s campaign was lame compared to Fall of Man, I was hooked on the online co-op features. You could join up with up to seven buds and take on a variety of different missions while leveling up one of three classes. I logged a ton of hours into this game with the guys over at Co-Optimus and it was a heck of a lot of fun each time. I was so sad to see they took this co-op mode out of Resistance 3.
• Dead Island: This game was a last-minute purchase but I am glad I made it. I had originally pre-ordered Resistance 3, but then I realized that without the co-op mode from Resistance 2 I wouldn’t play it as much. Dead Island was set to release around the same time, and based on the four-player co-op campaign that’s drop-in/drop-out, it just screamed of replayability. So far it’s been a lot of fun as I’ve been playing through various campaigns with some of my Co-Optimus buddies. Nothing says a good time like slashing and smashing hordes of zombies on a resort island.
• Uncharted and inFAMOUS: Both of these games are PlayStation exclusives that offer great single player campaigns, and it’s impossible for me to say which franchise I like better. Uncharted follows the Indiana Jones-esque Nathan Drake as he goes treasure hunting around the world. The story and cinematics are stunning and the gameplay is quite addictive with a blend of third-person-shooting, platforming and solving puzzles. inFAMOUS is about Cole McGrath who suddenly receives lightning super powers, and it’s up to you to decide how to use them as you explore the sandbox cities. Both games offer great stories with excellent gameplay.
• Castle Crashers: A game dedicated to the beat ‘em ups of old, Castle Crashers is a crisp looking button masher that successfully pays homage to a genre that had been dying up to that point. I had initially purchased it on the 360 but I also picked it up on the PS3 when it came available. You know you’ve got a great game on your hands when you pay to have it on multiple consoles.

Anyone who truly knows that my favorite genre of game is not FPS or wrestling or even RPGs…it’s the good ol’ genre of hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers! Nothing is better than sitting down, choosing a class, and then spending fifty or more hours grinding that character by killing endless streams of monsters over and over again while searching for more xp and loot. The PS2 had quite a few excellent games in this genre, but the PS3 has been relatively lacking…the best being Sacred 2. Then along came Dungeon Hunter: Alliance; a PSN-exclusive that really scratched my itch for a genre that has been severely under-represented in this generation of home consoles.

There is a basic story in the game. You play as a dead king who is resurrected by a fairy, who needs your help to stop your wife (the queen) from resurrecting a dark fairy who will destroy the world. There are three classes to choose from; warrior, rogue, and mage. As with most dungeon crawlers, each class depends on different stats (ex- warrior uses strength, rogue uses dexterity) and combat skills to take on the forces of evil. There are twelve acts, each one made up of a couple of different dungeons/maps that offer their own enemy type. While the lack of class choice is a tad disappointing (I compare most hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers to Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms), it works just fine for a $9 PSN title (the PS+ price, of course.)

The controls of the game are very basic and simple. The X button is your melee attack, and you can have weapons assigned to two different weapon sets (pressing R2 swaps between them). For example, my thief has weapon set 1 as dual-wielding daggers and weapon set 2 is a bow. L2 is used to summon some magical fairy assistance, and L1 can be used to quickly quaff a potion, which fully replenishes both your health and magic. Then you can assign your combat skills to the other three face buttons. Sadly, that is the maximum number of active skills you can have assigned at once, which is a huge disappointment seeing how each character has at least ten active skills available to learn. Luckily there is a vendor who will reset all your skill and attribute points (for a price) so if you later decide you no longer want to use one of the skills you learned earlier, you can have those points reassigned to another skill. Another disappointment is the lack of camera control, as you rotate the screen or zoom in/out.

The limited controls are not the only criticism this game deserves. The auto-targeting is not spot on, and you will usually have to make one wild attack before your character will directly target the nearest enemy. Ditto goes for attacking barrels to uncover loot…for whatever reason the character has a problem hitting a barrel even when standing directly in front of it and hitting it. Luckily, once you get that initial attack off the character will stay on target, so there is no need to worry about having this problem when facing a horde of oncoming foes. The online play is also not the greatest around, but I will cover that later on.

Let’s spend some time with the classes. The first class I checked out was the rogue, and I’ve been enjoying it. The rogue relies on dexterity and speed, so dual wield and archery come naturally to him. He also has some awesome skills, including a remote-detonated land mine, an arrow volley (fires up to seven arrows at once in a wide arc), and the ability to find extra gold and magical items. Despite his lack of all-out strength, his speed and ability to use the bow definitely make him a force to be reckoned with, whether he’s flying solo or questing in a group.

I also spent a little time with the warrior, and was surprised to find that he is not only a melee fighter but also a major support class. Spending attributes on strength and endurance turn the warrior into your typical tank, allowing him to plow into the front lines and just hack away. He also has some devastating active combat skills that do extra damage when used. The big surprise came when I saw some of his other skills, including one that increases the xp gained for the entire party and another one that increases the health, attack and defense of all players. The warrior does indeed seem to be an awesome addition to an online party, and I can really see the benefits of having two warriors in a four-player game.

I just checked out the mage for the sake of the review, just to see what he could do. I typically don’t like mage classes, and only use them when playing with friends online who prefer to be non-mages as well, since the mage class is typically weak when playing solo. This was most definitely the case, as I died several times within the first two acts. This is due to two reasons. First off, the mage is weaker than other characters, since his armor and weapon (staff) are not as powerful. Another downside to the mage is that for whatever reason, he actually carries LESS potions than the other two classes. Both the soldier and rogue class have a passive skill that increases the max potions they can carry by +3 for each level that skill is upgraded. The mage has a different passive skill called alchemy, and it only gives him +2 potions per level. Does that make any sense? Shouldn’t a mage with a skill called ALCHEMY be able to carry at least the same number of, if not more, potions than the other classes?

Anyway, the mage had a decent selection of offensive and support magic. He has the typical fire, ice, and lightning attacks, but some do other things as well. First thing to note is that many of the mage’s active skills can become more powerful by holding down the button the spell is mapped to. For example, he has a sweet ice beam spell that damages and slows down enemies, and by holding the button down you can spin him around 360degrees and hit all the enemies on the screen with it. As for support magic, he has spells that heal the entire party and also replenish the magic for the entire party, which is a great buff to have going in a co-op game. Of course, the big problem is that you can only have three spells mapped to the controller at one time, so it’s difficult to be a mage that is both offensive and support…you pretty much have to choose between the two, which is based on what you decide to map. As for me, when I bring my mage online (once PSN is restored) I’ll probably be more support, so I’ll have the health spell and magic spell mapped, along with the ice beam. I think that is a good combination of spells to help your team stay alive and let them do most of the damage.

As I have been hinting at, one of the other great features of the game is the ability to play with up to three other players either online or locally. Of course, it would help if the PSN was up and running so I could actually play the game online, but sadly I purchased the game the day before PSN went offline, so I haven’t been able to get an online game going yet. Judging from what the folks over at co-optimus say this is what is to be expected from the game’s online features:

• Game appears to be lag-free online and the voice chat quality is superb.
• There is an issue joining a game. When you accept an invite, apparently you need to spam the x button because the game gives you very limited time to accept an invitation, select a character, and join a game. Hopefully this will be fixed with an update eventually.
• There is also an issue with an online save overwriting the save data of an offline save, so if you use the same character both online and off, you may lose progress.

So there appear to be a few minor bugs with the online, but nothing that truly breaks the game. I think that with a well-produced patch they can fix these few problems and make the online experience a whole lot better. Just a reminder, the above thoughts on the online play is what I have heard from a group of people that I play with online, so I do respect their opinions. This is not what I am saying I experienced from my own personal experiences. I will probably update this post and also make a separate post with my own opinions of the online experience once PSN is back in action.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is the closest game to Champions of Norrath on the PS3 today. It may lack depth and visual graphics, but the gameplay is a solid A++ in the category of hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. There is some limited class customization as you can choose to be more of an offensive or support character, and there are a ton of different gear to find and choose from. For the approximately $10 it costs PS+ users, it is probably going to prove to be one of the best PSN games out there as far as value goes. The fact that you get a hack-and-slash RPG that maxes classes out at level 75 for only $10 means you will be spending hours and hours and hours on the game, just as I plan to.

Once PSN is back, if you want to ever jump in for a couple of hours of questing, hit me up on PSN…BigBadBob113.

If anyone knows my gaming habits, they know I’m a sucker for the hack-and-slash/dungeon-crawler/RPG genre. Ever since getting the PS3 I’ve been itching for something that equaled the awesomeness of Champions of Norrath and Baldurs Gate on the PS2, but that has been a challenge. The closest game was Sacred 2, which is incredibly under-rated in my opinion, but I do acknowledge the limitations it had. There were a few other games that tried to squeeze into the genre, but just didn’t cut the mustard (Untold Legends didn’t have online voice chat and was otherwise mediocre, and the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series just didn’t have as much replay value as I would have liked.)

Then I started hearing about Dungeon Hunter: Alliance; a PSN-exclusive that enables up to four players to raid some dungeons. Being a PSN title, I was initially skeptical for the replay value, particularly in the number of maps and the max level. After reading co-optimus’ review on the game, my worries were tossed aside as there are over twelve levels and the character level cap is set to 75. So I jumped on the PSN and put my birthday money to good use, and had some time to check the game out.

A full-on review will definitely be up-coming, but I just wanted to give you the basics. You choose from three characters: a warrior, rouge, or mage. The X button is your main attack, and since this is a dungeon crawler, it’s a button masher for sure! Each character also has a ton of skills that you can use points to unlock or upgrade…I’d say there were at least thirty (I’m not exactly sure because I didn’t count exactly.) I played as a rogue, so I’ll use him as an example. Some skills were passive, such as running faster and being able to carry more potions (the default maximum is ten.) Then there are combat skills which can be assigned to a face button. My favorite so far was a “remote mine”, which is a rune that you throw on the floor, and then push the button again to detonate it. There were also some two-handed special attacks (like a dash and an area attack), the ability to turn invisible (and thus score a critical hit on your next attack) and also some special arrow/dart attacks.

The game seems to be in every way a great dungeon crawler…different classes (each with many unique skills), large maps to explore, tons of goblins and other enemies to kill, lots of loot to collect, and the ability to play with up to three other friends. I haven’t checked out the co-op yet, but hope to soon, especially since many of my friends seem to have purchased the game as well. Like I said, I’ll have a full review eventually, but for right now I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a hack-and-slash/dungeon-crawling nut like me, you will not be disappointed.

When I first picked up Dead Nation on PSN, I never dreamed I would get the Platinum trophy, titled “Romero Would Be Proud.” There were some really challenging trophies to get; one involving having to complete the game on Morbid difficulty, and the other being to collect 100% of the loot in every level. Playing solo, I knew I would never have achieved these trophies. Thanks to a buddy over at co-optimus, we spent the past three weeks or so busting through the game after I got off work each day. In the end, we were rewarded for our hours of time and dedication to the game with a shiny new Platinum trophy.

To start off, we had to unlock Morbid difficulty by playing through on Grim. It wasn’t too challenging, but it still took a few days as we encountered problems here and there. After that was complete, we moved on to Morbid difficulty. This was where the real challenge began, and some of the levels required not only many, many deaths to get to the end, but also many hours. Some levels took over two hours to complete. In fact, the final level (suitably named “Highway to Hell”) took us over three and a half hours to complete, as the final section of the level was swarming with countless zombies. Once we completed that, we just had to complete one level on the hardest difficulty (Undead) to claim that trophy, and then we moved on to two of the final trophies.

One of these require you to obtain all the loot in all the levels. What make’s this tricky is that loot is well-hidden. Sometimes it’s in a dark corner that you can’t see. Sometimes chests are right there in the open, but nearing or opening them spring a trap and you are over-run by a horde of the undead. But the most challenging are the cars. Many cars in the game have loot in their trunk, so you just have to walk over to a car and give it a smack to grab the gold. Unfortunately, cars can also be exploded, so a stray bullet from your gun can explode a car, making that car’s loot inaccessible, and thus making it impossible to grab all the loot. Using some walkthroughs on ps3trophies.org, we carefully made our way through each stage on Braindead difficulty, which is the easiest one.

As we worked our way through this loot gathering adventure, we were also able to snag the Genocidiary trophy, which is awarded for killing 53,596 zombies across all your playthroughs. I received the Genocidiary trophy early on our Braindead runthrough, but my friend still needed some kills. He spent a night going solo and racking up some kills. In the end, upon grabbing all the loot we both received the precious Platinum trophy.

Dead Nation really is a fun game. I played through two and a half campaigns solo and three campaigns in co-op, and I’d be willing to go through again. From the simple controls to the tough zombie hordes, everything in this game screams of awesomeness. This was definitely one of my more challenging Platinums, and I’m proud to say that I earned this one.

All’s been quiet on the Twitter/Facebook/Google Buzz front as I stopped linking my blog to these formats. I never stopped blogging, but I sure have been getting less traffic coming here. So I guess I’ll publicly explain the story now.

A few months ago, I received a comment to a Google Buzz, which was picked up from Twitter, which was picked up from my blog. Basically, an ex-employer saw this blog via Google Buzz and then wanted to offer me a job. He somehow found Shell’s phone number and called her in an attempt to find me. He then left me a comment after calling my wife. She was a bit weirded out by this, as was I. First off, if he noticed my blog via Google Buzz, that means he knows my e-mail account, so he could have easily shot me an e-mail to make his offer (which I wouldn’t have taken regardless, since it was a crummy, boring job.) Secondly, since I did work there I would think he would have my phone number more readily available than Shells. Thirdly, who the heck comments on a Google Buzz with a job offer?!

All in all, the whole situation was a bit creepy, and it felt like I was being stalked. After this incident I made my Facebook account private (something, for whatever reason, I didn’t do with my Twitter account) and I removed the links between my blog and Twitter and Google Buzz. So for the past few months, I’ve been blogging away and whatnot, though most people didn’t know about it. About two months ago one of my co-optimus buddies was wondering where I’ve been, and I told him the gyst of the tale. Then today, he asked after me again, and he also gave me the idea of just making my Twitter account private. When I read that, I couldn’t believe that I had done that with Facebook and not Twitter! So I went to Twitter, made it a private account, and then reactivated the WP to Twitter plugin on my blog. So I’m back in the game!

For those who haven’t been checking in on my over the past few months due to this situation, here’s a basic rundown of what’s been going on:

• I am now working at a retailer doing early morning stocking. I usually work from 4am-11am, though I usually get stuck there later…sometimes until 12! With this schedule, I wake up each morning at 2:45, which makes me go to bed my 9:00pm. The bad thing is that I can no longer game at nights, but I do get my gaming on during the day, so at least I can still enjoy that.
• Schools in North Carolina have begun posting positions for the Fall school year, and I’ve been applying to them. From what I’ve heard the interview process will generally begin between June-July, so hopefully we’ll be moving on down there by August. We’ve been looking in the areas in and outside Raleigh and Charlotte.
• On the gaming front, WWE All Stars has been sucking up quite a bit of my time, and I’m pretty darn close to snagging the Plats. When I’m not playing All Stars I’m playing through Dead Nation with another co-optimus buddy. We are currently on our second playthrough, and all we’ll need to do is go through one more on the easy difficulty to collect some stuff we missed on our other two playthroughs…then we’ll be in Platinum Paradise!

There’s some other stuff going on here and there, but if you want more details, look through my blogal archives and get yourself caught up!