Game Day in Glenbrook!

Well, today I went up to Glenbrook to get together with a few mates from the SWL (online Blood Bowl league) for a few boardgames. We were at Clay's house (his Limekettles blog is linked on the right), and got in a few different games including Formula DE, a racing game, Fury of Dracula, a sort of detective game where one player controls dracula and the others have to hunt him down and Betrayal on the House on the Hill, which is a haunted house style game.

It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I was able to take part. It was also nice to meet Flo from the SWL, and Clay's family who I had heard alot about but not met until today.

I was supposed to be in blacktown playing in the toxic blood bowl league, but decided I'd rather try a few new games instead. I'm glad I did, because it wasn't until yesterday evening that I was told that my opponent couldn't make it, so it would have been very frustrating if I'd ended up not able to go to either event and instead got stuck at home!

What the...

Spy Kids 2 is on at the moment, I just can't reconcile the fact that the director of this piece of cartoony fluff is the same director of ultra-violent Sin City and Desperado...

Oh, and everyone reading this should march out right now and go try a Cookie Dough Kit Kat... so good! *drool*

An Unhealthy Obsession

A few weeks ago it was my birthday, and my wonderful fiancee got me a copy of Titan Quest to go with my shiny new computer. Fast forward two weeks, and we are now both knee-deep in an unhealthy obsession with the game, that sees us competing for computer time and generally being totally lame.

The game itself is essentially Diablo 2 but updated for modern computers. Complete with beautiful 3D graphics, physics included (when you kill a monster, rather than a scripted death animation it goes flying off based on how hard it was hit, including going over cliffs and rolling down hills etc). It also has this totally awesome loot system where the enemies actually drop the weapons and armour that they were using. If you kill a skeleton wearing a helmet, he drops that helmet, if he has a spear, he drops the spear, etc. Now that doesn't SEEM that big of a deal to a casual observer, but believe me in computer game terms that is lightyears ahead of previous products, where you could kill a small rat only for him to drop a full sized breast-plate or giant two handed warhammer.

Another big change is that rather than set classes, instead all characters start off identically and once they level up can choose from eight masteries, each of which include a host of skills. You can then choose a second mastery at level 8, which leads to a whole bunch of possible hybrid classes.

Anyway, right now it is more addictive than crack and Suzy and I are both totally consumed by it. I am already on to my second character, and she just started the third and final act of the game. Highly recommended to anyone with a love of Diablo and a beefed up computer!

Candy Technology #2

Well here we are again, with another delicious look at the very cutting edge of candy technology. For those who have only recently come into non-existance and therefore are eligible to view the blog that nobody reads, you can check out the first episode of Candy Technology to find out more about why I am posting about candy bars (Short story short, it's a review).

My usual beautiful assistant, Suzy, is currently on a detox kick, so instead today my review is presented by none other than Hercules, who is more like my Hairy assistant. Let us both introduce you to the Mars Bar XXX Triple Chocolate! One of these days I'll actually find a NEW product to review, rather than limited edition versions of decades old chocolate bars.

As you can see, it was quite a challenge getting Herky's attention for the review. To be honest with you all, I don't think he took this sacred duty particularly seriously, up until the moment he realised I had been waiving something edible under his nose trying to take a good photo and then suddenly he was my bestest friend again. Just so we are clear, I did not actually feed any chocolate to my dog (according to oreo adverts it's bad for them, which is funny considering oreo's don't actually contain any chocolate).

As you can see, it basically looks like a normal Mars Bar, but instead of the usual black wrapper it is gold (why gold on a "triple chocolate" bar?) with the classy XXX logo in one corner. Luckily they also put the words "triple chocolate" underneath, just in case someone accidentally bought it thinking it was some hard-core candy-porn.

Upon opening things up, we find... a Mars Bar. Dum dum duuuuuummm! In fact, I doubt I could pick it from a line up, which is appropriate considering that after having a bite I wasn't sure if I could have picked it from a normal Mars Bar in a taste test either.

Yes that's right, after taking a bite I thought perhaps I had accidentally gotten a normal Mars Bar in a XXX wrapper. In fact, after finishing it I'm still not sure I didn't end up with a normal bar. Don't get me wrong, the Mars Bar is THE chocolate bar as far as I am concerned, it is a classic and instantly recognisable. But when they promise me a chocolate bar with chocolate caramel and chocolate nougat, I expect something a little more... chocolatey. The inner bits didn't even seem browner than normal, or gold for that matter.

So, I guess Mars get 10 out of 10 in the area of "making a new package and putting limited edition on the side", but sadly only 1 out of 10 in the "convincing me its actually a new product" category. I'm pretty annoyed that I couldn't find something more interesting that another limited edition chocolate bar to review, and it didn't help that what I did end up trying out seemed to be exactly the same as the old bar that has been around for over 85 years (thanks Wikipedia!)

Richard's Ranking: 4 out of 10 (after all, even if I couldn't see why it was a "new" product, it's still a precious precious Mars Bar)
Herky's Reaction: Where's mine?

His cold, soulless gaze...

It has taken me several years, but I finally have scientific proof that it is indeed Kyle Sandiland who is the worst judge on Australian Idol, just pipping Marsha Hines on account of having no discernible soul. Mark Holden came a distant third, just being a wanker wasn't enough to put him in contention.

How did I come to this realisation you may ask? How did I finally put this long running debate to rest? Just look at his eyes man! HE IS DEAD ON THE INSIDE! He is like some kind of empty shell without personality or conscience. And above all no talent!



Creepy, isn't it?

We just want to eat your brains... we're not unreasonable!

Thanks to those fine fellows over at Penny Arcade, I've found a new musician who is definitely worth a listen to. His name is Jonathan Coulton and he has a host of amusing and interesting songs available on his website and via his iTunes podcast ("Thing a Week", where he posts new songs based on presumably weekly topics, like Pluto being reclassified or the Winter Olympics Curling finals).

Definitely worth a listen, I can recommend "Re: Your Brains", about an office worker turned zombie who is trying to convince his colleagues to stop hiding in that mall so they can eat his brains. "Tom Cruise Crazy", "Code Monkey" and "Till the Money Comes" were also highly recommended and I've only listened to a handful of them so far.

Check him out, RICHARD COMMANDS YOU!

Crikey!

Crocodile Hunter and all-round madman Steve Irwin was killed today when stabbed through the chest with a Sting-ray Barb. Rest in peace mate!

Tri-celebration

Well, yesterday's BBQ to celebrate our engagement/housewarming and my 28th birthday went very well. We had a pretty good turn out, about 30 people I'd say, and pretty much all the food and drink we got went. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I know Suzy and I had a lot of fun.

I also ended up plowing through an uncharacteristic amount of vodka during the night, and even though the last group of people headed off around 8pm I was absolutely shattered. Luckily there wasn't much mess the next morning, as Suzy and I greatfully collapsed into bed by about 9pm!

I had planned to post some pictures and stuff, but managed to forget to really take any, so I guess that plan was a bit of a bust!

Today we are off to Chatswood for some pottering around the shops, originally it was going to be Bondi Junction but that falls under the Too Hard category thanks to lack of decent parking arrangements.