So Many Sequels, Too Little Money

Ah, tis the season for all the sequels. Just in time for the holiday season. I've decided to hold off on BloodRayne 2 until she drops in price. I'll probably ask for the new Prince of Persia game for Christmas. I can't wait for Halo 2, so that's been pre-ordered and my life is planned around the release date of November 9th.

Well, to add to my joy of all these sequels that I'm excited about, Half-Life 2 is shipping on November 15th. I have 2 problems with buying it, first, I'll still be obsessed with Halo 2 and second. It's only being released for the PC.

I've sorta abandoned playing PC games. I find it's too "touchy": I always have to fiddle with settings and drivers and incompatible files type of stuff. However, with Doom 3 being delayed for the Xbox and the long awaited Half-Life 2 I'm sorry that I don't have a powerful enough machine to play games on any longer. I am guessing that eventually Doom 3 will fix it's problems with the Xbox version and just like the first Half-Life, it will make it over the consoles too (I actually played it on the PS2).

October 12

Today BloodRayne 2 is being released. I'm very very tempted to get it. I really enjoyed the first one, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to pay $50 for the sequal.

Actually, there are very few games that I'm not willing to wait until the price drops (or I can pick up used). Halo 2 is definitely worth it (it took over 2 years for a price drop on the first one anyway). LOK: Defiance was well worth it for me, as it's probably still the my favorite game to date.

I actually discovered the first BloodRayne as a demo on the Official Xbox, The Magazine demo disk and thought it was a lot of fun. The last issue of OXM had a demo for the sequel, but I've had no luck getting the disk to work (keeping getting a fatal error message while it's trying to load). That's 2 disks that I've had problems with. They've started using a new company to create the disks, and they've been buggy ever since. (I couldn't play the Silent Hill 4 demo either... the camera would just circle around the room. I couldn't select anything or do anything). If it's not corrected, I'll be cancelling my subscription, as the only reason I get the magazine is for the demo disk.

So what to do? Wait or splurge and and get a game to obsess about while I should be doing other things??? (and Halo 2 is less than a month away)

The End of The Suffering

Finished The Suffering (first time thru) and ended up with "the good" ending: I thought I may get the Monster ending. That'll be next. What a fun game. Not the scariest game I've played (that would be Fatal Frame: and I never finished it... scary is not having a weapon other than a stupid camera!).

I also have a complete review of Youself!Fitness over on my Fitness Blog. It's not working out for me.

Anyway, countdown to Halo 2... only one more month to go. I hope it doesn't disappoint. While I wait, I'll go thru The Suffering again and try for the other 2 endings.

Suffering

Oh ya, I'm suffering. The Yourself!Fitness is definitely a challenge. I'm working harder than I have been (and hopefully I can break this plateau).

I'm also playing The Suffering. Yum. Gratiously violent, straight forward game play, even some puzzles (hmmm... was that a box puzzle? Where's Raziel??). I admit I'm playing it on "easy" and it's not just a clever rating: it's been fairly easy. I'll probably play it thru more than once to get the different endings and upgrade the difficulty. Right now I just want to see the story unfold without too much dying.

I love it when a game sucks you in that you say to yourself, I'll just play until the next checkpoint, then 4 checkpoints later, you finally put the controller down to go make dinner.

So I'm working on a bunch of goals this month: finish up 3 knitting projects, lose 5 lbs this month and finish up The Suffering. Clear my schedule for November 9th...

Get Fit With Xbox

Yep, that's right! Now you can use your Xbox to help workout! I picked up Yourself!Fitness last night at EBGames and gave it a whirl.

It's not a game. Yes, you get to unlock enviroments and music as you accomplish workouts, but the other goal is getting in better shape. Basically, its a computer program/interactive DVD.

I popped it in, did the fitness evaluation and got suggestions as to what I should target (not surprisingly, it was "weight loss" ). It then sets up a weekly workout routine that combines aerobic dance, weight training, yoga and other forms of exercise. You get to decide what/when and for how long you work out. You tell it what equipment you have available (like heart monitor, stabilty ball, hand weights, step bench) and the workouts are geared to use the equipment you have (and it can be changed as you add things).

Each move has a tutorial if you aren't familar with the move. After each section, Maya (your trainer) will ask you how you feel and will adjust the workouts to your level. So far I'm really excited about having a specific workout (I sorta do what I feel like doing...). The only problem I had today was that I only burned a little over 100 calories on the 30 minute workout. So I added some additional cardio by riding the stationary bike (today was a "strength training day" on my schedule, so we'll see what happens on my "cardio day").

I only have 2 complaints so far: I can't use my downloaded music in it (I don't think enough games utilize this feature for the Xbox) and there's no customization for the personal trainer. I want to use Kain. Think how cool it would be with his white ponytail flopping as you hear Simon Templeton encouraging you in that sarcasitic drawl of his. Sigh. I would be motivated to work out, that's for sure!

I'll have more stuff about my progress on my Fitness Blog, but since it's an Xbox DVD, I thought it was worth mentioning here.

I did, however finally pick up The Suffering. I haven't tried it yet, but I did try the demo, and it seems like it's going to be my kind of game. Oh, I also got my deposit down for Halo 2... don't think I'll go at midnight to pick it up, but I'll be there first thing in the morning on the 9th of November (Matt may have to "work from home" that day too).