Trace’s Twenty-Four Hours of Horror 3: Nightmare Warriors STARTS: Friday, October 21st, 10:00 PM Eastern (7:00 PM Pacific) ENDS: Saturday, October 22nd, 10:00 PM Eastern STREAMING: At http://www.twitch.tv/pseg and Explosive Runs DONATING: Here or extralife.teampseg.com The Nightmares Never Die...For The Kids For the last two years, I've played 24 hours of scary games to raise money for Extra Li...
Trace’s Terror for Twenty-Four Terror-Inducing Thours Two STARTS: Friday, October 23rd, 9:00 PM Eastern ENDS: Saturday, October 24th, 9:00 PM Eastern (~if I survive~) STREAMING: At http://www.twitch.tv/pseg and Explosive Runs DONATING: Here or extralife.teampseg.com It’s Happening Again Last year, I played 24 hours of scary (and some not-so-scary) games to raise money for Extra Life. Outlast ,...
Finishing Forza One of these days, I plan to finish everything in all of the Forza Motorsport series, and write about my thoughts regarding the series’ evolution. Today, I’m firing Forza Motorsport 4 back up with the mission of completing the game’s event list once and for all. It’s interesting how a Drivatar can change your willingness to race. I’m not much of a fan of direct competitive AI in...
The first weekly edition of Giant Bomb Forza Race Night started up on November 5th, 2009, and since then, every Thursday has contained some combination of racing, wrecking, tag, and absurdity from Forza Motorsport 3, 4, 5, and Forza Horizon 2. Seriously. We haven't missed a week. It surprises me sometimes. This Thursday marks our 262nd running of Forza Race Night, and as always, we'll be rollin...
Some Background A few years ago, I attempted to play Forza Motorsport 4 for 24 hours straight. This was during Extra Life, as might be expected, but it wasn't actually for Extra Life in that I didn't have a donation page. Rather, this was some sort of self-imposed challenge that I wanted to try for the sake of pushing myself. The endeavour, looking back on it, was selfish, stupid, and it ended...
Giant Bomb. Season 3's here. With E3 2014 basically over, it's time to focus on what really matters in life: Driving the ever-loving hell out of some fun cars in an intense racing sim. OK, that's more my thing, but if it sounds like something you might be interested in and want to join fellow Giant Bomb community members in a bunch of races open to all levels of experience and skill, then we mi...
I have a request I'd like to ask of any or all the artistically gifted people on this site who might be willing to paint up a virtual car. Allow me to fill in the situation with a little background. For the last two weeks, I've been waking up at 6 AM on Saturdays to watch NASCAR races in iRacing. Ordinarily this is the sort of behavior best reserved for Formula 1 viewing, but I'm finding iRacin...
(This is just a blog post detailing season two's events. For details on how to join and a far more expansive league discussion, visit the Giant Bomb Racing League thread here .) The Giant Bomb Racing League's inaugural season in iRacing concluded at the end of 2013, and with consistent fields of 6-15 drivers, I'd call it a success. We now have over 75 members in the league, so the potential gro...
Day 159: October 30th, 2013 I certainly haven’t abandoned iRacing, but in a sense, I fell off the wagon for a while there. Between vacations I had already scheduled and devoting free time to the Giant Bomb Racing League, I let my first full-length official season in fall apart. It doesn’t even matter when I finished in the Skip Barber Race Series points, since I ran a fraction of the races I sh...
Day 97: August 29th, 2013 The only thing separating me from Seattle and PAX Prime is a short night of sleep and an early trip to the airport. My schedule’s been somewhat busy as of late, filled with trips and sequence breaks from the usual Monday to Friday work week. While it’s no excuse, and it certainly hasn't kept me away from iRacing entirely, it has forced me into some rather hasty, last-m...
Day 76: August 8th, 2013 Week 1 of the Skip Barber Race Series is complete, and it’s official: I’m not complete garbage with the Formula 2000. It didn't hurt that the first track was an ungodly familiar course in Summit Point, of course. It certainly helped me become familiar with the car, if nothing else. Here’s the video recap for those of you who’d rather watch a 30-minute recap than read ab...
Day 67: July 30th, 2013 Here we go. Sure, I’ve driven a Miata for a while now, but that was a simple four-week season with mostly inexperienced drivers. Now I’m in a series full of competitors who have proven they can survive a simple Miata and each other, driving a car that demands calm driving under pressure, and it’s a twelve-week season. By the time I’m finished with my first Skip Barber se...
Day 58: July 21st, 2013 Consider this the calm before the storm, if you will. I've taken a bit of a break from iRacing after feeling a bit of burnout handling the Miata. It’s not a tough car, but it’s not fun trying to squeak the seconds of time I need out of it. The Skip Barber Formula 2000’s rather fun to drive, but without friends to compete against like I have in Forza and other console rac...
Day 39: July 2nd, 2013 I thought I’d try something different for the video this time. It’s a little more spontaneous this time around. The audio’s a bit spotty in a few sections, likely because I was actually taxing my computer for once with all the packets and frames flying about. I’ll look into resolving that for future recordings. That was one race at Summit Point, and it had a lousy result....
Day 33: June 26th, 2013 It ends with a whimper. After some chaotic races at Laguna Seca, the 2013 Season 2B iRacing Mazda Cup is over. As always, here’s a video if you’d prefer watching that instead: Laguna Seca’s an interesting track, if only because it’s one of the few race tracks I’ve experienced repeatedly over several racing games. My time with Forza 4 helped out quite a bit in providing t...
Day 27: June 20th, 2013 My short rookie season is coming to an end. It’s time for some thought. Here’s a video recapping my time at Lime Rock for week 3 of the Mazda Cup: I won’t reiterate much this time around, other than to say I was a complete wimp. Blame the safety rating, I suppose. Don’t blame it too much, though. That safe driving did get me my first license upgrade. Prrrrrrromotion! 23...
Day 23: June 16th, 2013 Before every race, as I’m sitting on the grid, I start to panic. My heart feels like it’s attempting to push its way out of my chest, and my stomach churns like I’m cresting a never-ending hill. Standard signs of nervousness, I suppose, but it’s a bit much for online racing, where I’m usually fine. It’s all surrounding a recurring fear I have with iRacing : I could be th...
Day 15: June 8th, 2013 There comes a time where, despite all the racing games I’ve played and all the accomplishments I’ve managed in games like Forza Motorsport and F-Zero GX , I have to step back and admit that I’m just not good enough at racing. The lap times aren’t good enough. The finishes aren’t good enough. I can and should do better. Though the mumbling in the video above doesn’t tell t...
Day 12: June 5th, 2013 Last Sunday, I finally ran two races at Summit Point, capping off a furious few days of panicked practice. I shot a short video recapping the experience of my first race, naturally. This is also the first time I’ve really tinkered with my webcam and fancy usage of XSplit scenes, so I apologize if you wince at having to watch my dumb face ramble on about racing with silly...
Day 8: June 1st, 2013 It’s here. The wait seemed long, but after a week traveling across the country, my racing wheel arrived in three large boxes. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures. Here’s the pile FedEx brought to my house. That’s a wheel, pedals, and a shifter kit. Also pictured: An enthusiastic tubby cat. I purchased the Fanatec GT3 RS, so it comes with a stylish Porsche emblem and casi...
Day 6: May 30th, 2013 I didn't look at the calendar closely enough, apparently. I thought I’d have more time to become familiar with the cars and tracks before I needed to race. Now I know that I have to race this weekend, and I haven’t even received my wheel yet. This can only end horribly. Let me explain how the iRacing seasons work. Save for the absolute top tier series, each calendar year h...
Day 3: May 27th, 2013 My testing and training continues in iRacing , and I continue to be generally unsatisfied with my performance. I’ve finally become reasonably comfortable with the 360 controller, but pulling off consistent laps without incident is still largely impossible with twitchy steering. For now, the shoddy control is acceptable, and I’ve been working on learning the racing lines fo...
I suppose it was inevitable. My love for driving games is pretty obvious to anyone who watches my typical behavior on the site. I could rattle off a bunch of the telltale signs, but rather than indulge you in that self-absorbed wankery, it's easier to just say that I’m working on a second edition of a top 100 racing games list that I’ve easily played enough games to create, and let that represe...
Shame about 1UP, eh? Lot of cool personalities on that site over the years, even if I wasn't much of a frequent visitor. Still, I blogged a little on 1UP back in the day. Mainly, it was to talk about City of Heroes, since I was a proud member of Scott Sharkey's Circle of Jerks crew. Both of my blogs were, by my standards, terrible failures, especially an attempt to blog for sixty days straight...
That whole promise of writing more about video games? I've just been playing Borderlands 2. It's more fun on the PC for me, since mouse and keyboard are more intuitive controls given my experience in gaming. That doesn't exactly make for interesting blogs. Instead of rambling about control schemes, let's change it up and delve back into my favorite genre, shall we? In 2010, I posted a list of m...
Club Woes Giant Bomb's Forza Horizon car club is 200 members strong. It should easily be twice that. I guess this is my biggest frustration with this generation of consoles. I'm sure Microsoft and Sony didn't have as much information about the habits of online play five years ago as they do now, but with this site, I'm at a point where car clubs reach their 100-user capacity really damn quickly...
I just had kind of a head-shaking moment after finally getting around to buying all the games on Steam that were sitting on my wishlist, heavily discounted to a point where any further price drops would be insignificant. I think that's the "I already have everything from Steam so this sale means nothing to me" moment that others have been having over the last few sales, but I've been a poor col...
I never thought we'd last this long. On November 5th, 2009, I attended what was then the North American Forza Private Race Night, created by a user named Pakx to be more accommodating to our country than the week-old European Private Race Night (which is, unfortunately, long gone). We had a meager crowd, and eventually, I somehow became the guy in charge of the lobby. Three years later, there a...
When you finish a racing game, does the last race feel any more important than the first race? This is something I've been pondering over the last hour or so after finishing Forza Horizon. It's a great game, period -- let's not let that distract from the point at hand. However, the ending, like many racing games, felt extremely flat for me. Not to spoil it for anyone, but you beat the arrogant...
A few days ago, user Droop created a thread asking who the userbase would like to see on Giant Bomb's E3 Bombcasts . You spoke up. Secretly, I was listening. I also had Excel open. This only leads to problems. I went through the thread, tallying up all the names I could recognize, ignoring some abstract or unclear votes in the process. When I was done, I had a pretty clear picture of who the co...
Just Go Right. STILL. It appears that today will be Brad, Will, Ryan, and Patrick's final attempt to successfully complete the Lantern Run in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet . With that in mind, I thought it'd be best to look back at their attempts on the second day and analyze what went right and wrong. If you're interested in day one statistics, check those out here and here . As a reminder, h...
I think about strange, middling things, perhaps at too much length. For the heck of it, I figured I'd describe my recent thought process for one such thing here. At the very least, that should help establish a permanent record of my thoughts in the event I forget about this whole ordeal a few months down the road. Trials Evolution is coming out this Wednesday. I played it at PAX East alongside...
Welcome to the Community Gaming Outlook! As in previous weeks, if you have any comments, suggestions, or criticisms regarding the format, just let me know with a reply to this thread. I think this idea's just about ready for prime time, but I'd like to create a few header images to split up this wall of text first. I'll have those images ready for next week's outlook, hopefully! ARMA II's a new...
Welcome to the Community Gaming Outlook! This week's entry is being posted to the forums in the hopes it will elicit additional feedback and suggestions. If you have and comments or criticism, most especially on the formatting, please don't hesitate to let me know! There aren't any new events that I can find this week, but the PC Gaming Hub's efforts continue to pay off with plenty of offerings...
The following is a very rough draft of a recurring write-up I'm hoping to develop over the next few weeks. Giant Bomb has a lot of recurring game nights that could use a continuous amount of exposure to thrive. There's also a bunch of game night forum threads that aren't active anymore, which makes it confusing to figure out if the events are still alive and kicking, especially to users that do...
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of racing games. I know, I'm often typecast into this role of being the car guy or the hardcore racing weirdo, but it's not without merit. Give me a racing game with decent car physics and a reasonable amount of variety and I will play it in its entirety, usually for dozens of hours. In the last few years, I've spent at least one thousand hours playing various...
A venn diagram, by request. You may recall that I posted a few statistics last week on how Brad, Will, Patrick, and Ryan performed during their attempt to earn two achievements in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet's Lantern Run mode. Here's the link to that blog , if you're curious. I received a few requests for additional stats (and a venn diagram, which you can see above), and I was curious abou...
Just Go Right. As many of you are aware, on Friday, Brad attempted to complete a successful lantern run in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet with Patrick, Will, and Ryan. I thought I'd share some stats I quickly threw together from their eight attempts on that day. Just so we're all clear here (because I've never played ITSP, and I wasn't!), here's the terms for success: Reach the ninth "arena" in...
PsEG's Forza Motorsport 4 Preparation Guide Forza Motorsport 4 is going to be a monumental racing game. At the very least, it's going to be a sequel to Forza Motorsport 3 . While there's no harm in jumping straight into Forza's newest edition when it releases in October, there's a few actions you can take beforehand so that you're fully prepared and ready to unlock the full potential of Forza M...
Looking for Episode 12? You can grab it here , though subscribing to the RSS or iTunes would also work! We Are Race Night Episode 13: Looking for 7 We Are Race Night presents a poorly recorded hotel room recording discussing our time at PAX Prime 2011! Prepare for plenty of off-topic discussion as we banter about our Forza 4 disappointment, various other games at PAX, and even a special celebri...
We Are Race Night Episode 11: Back on Track After a lengthy hiatus, We Are Race Night returns! PsEG and Slowbird discuss a recent accident, continue to ramble about DiRT 3's shortcomings, reveal obvious Forza Motorsport 4 details, and discuss recent television premieres! ...wait, haven't we talked about some of this already? Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season two champion) Sl...
We Are Race Night Episode 10: Going the Wrong Way This week, PsEG, Slowbird, and Falcon discuss their experiences with a very American Forza Race Night, Forza Motorsport 2 tournaments, and yet more iRacing. We also tackle the Burnout Crash! controversy, if it even exists. Plus, emails! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season two champion) Slowbird (Lobster monster fighter, Giant B...
We Are Race Night Episode 9: We Are Lonely Night Only PsEG and Slowbird are present for this episode, and much discussion about the DiRT 3's new Monte Carlo DLC is had, including musings about DLC tracks in general. Slowbird's iRacing experiences are also talked about, and PsEG is competing in...Forza Motorsport 2? Really? Plus, your emails! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season...
Alongside my fellow Forza Race Night regulars, I've quietly started up a blog of sorts at weareracenight.com . We're going to mirror our weekly podcasts both here and there, and I plan on using the blog to write some racing and racing game-related pieces on a whim. This is such a write-up. It's short, unprofessional writing, typed as a thought dump of sorts while I worked my way through the new...
So it begins. Two community quests, running at the same time. Trenched and Hot Summer Jamz, working together and against one another for our goals and bonus XP. ...well, OK. In all honesty, I've noticed that the Trenched community quest may have been cut a little short so that it could disappear from the front page and be replaced with this new summer-themed quest. Its deadline was moved forwar...
We Are Race Night Episode 8 Pony Loving Drunks It's a strange, rambling episode of WARN, as Pax, Slowbird, and PsEG talk entirely too much about ponies, AI, and achievements in games. Again. Pax also talks about Transformers 3 at length (he's drunk), PsEG tries to talk about Giant Bomb GT season 3, and a few new Forza 4 points are discussed. Plus, emails! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant...
I'm not going to post anything fancy about the Trenched's quests stats, or give it a fancy theme or anything. I haven't bought it, and I'm not likely to. You want to know why? ...nothin'. It's a bit personal. ...well, OK, here's what happened during PAX East. The Trenched Truth: How One Innocent Man Lost All Hope in the Face of Hatred and Injustice DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED DURING P...
We Are Race Night Episode 7 Dry, Fake, and Slow It's a Slowbird-less We Are Race Night, as PsEG, Jugnutts, and Falcon discuss finishing Forza 3 and moving onto Forza 4 . PsEG also whines about achievements that are a grind, and Falcon wants to discuss his issues with modern-day Formula 1! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season two champion Falcon (Allegedly The Stig, has a dark s...
Some of you may have noticed an absence in my usual quest stats during the E3 community quest. This was normal. While I was aware of the actual deadline (end of June 12th) and the reward for success (1000 XP), once completions actually started rolling in, I completely forgot to create a thread on the matter while watching the live E3 Bombcast feeds. The next morning, I updated my data, and bega...
We Are Race Night Episode 6 Forza 4 Fervor Lots of juicy Forza Motorsport 4 details were revealed at E3, so PsEG, Pax, and Slowbird gather up to drool over the new revelations! We talk a little bit about E3 and Forza 3 , but otherwise, Forza 4's the star of this show. Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season two champion) Slowbird (Ford enthusiast, Giant Bomb GT season one champion...
We Are Race Night Episode 5 Race Night Rush Jugnutts and Slowbird join PsEG for a hectic podcast recorded an hour before Giant Bomb DiRT 3 Race Night in America . Within, we discuss pre-E3 thoughts on Forza Motorsport 4 , along with DiRT 3 's gameplay and career mode. We're panicking, everyone's rushing their thoughts -- sounds like status quo for We Are Race Night! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast edi...
We Are Race Night Episode 4 We are Food Night It's a packed weekend of racing, so PsEG, Keval, and Slowbird sit down to discuss Dirt 3 , the new revelations about Forza Motorsport 4 , the upcoming Indianapolis 500 , and Keval's experience with go-karting. Plus, we talk way too much about food! Featuring: PsEG (Podcast editor, Giant Bomb GT season two champion) Slowbird (Giant Bomb GT season one...
We Are Race Night Episode 3 No Sleep 'Til NASCAR This week, another regular joins the fray as the crew rambles on about NASCAR's stupid little issues, before delving into yet another discussion about the imminent release of Dirt 3. In between all of that, we discuss last week's Race Night antics, and schedule ourselves two new recurring race night events. It's racing talk without the organizati...
We Are Race Night Episode 2 This Was All a Dream This week on WARN, new regulars join us to talk about the end of Giant Bomb GT's second season, our various cars in real life, along with a little bit of Formula 1 and NASCAR chatter! It's a bunch of disjointed rambling as we stammer around some strange topics, and I couldn't be prouder. Plus, we talk more Forza 3, Dirt 3, and even delve into a d...
It was just another day in the sleepless city of lights. Rainy and foggy, as always. As I leaned back in my chair, sipping my glass of whiskey and pondering my next case, it reminded me a little of the corruption that plagued this city. Rain gets on everyone, and the fog only clouds the truth behind layers of grey. Before I had the chance to think up more awful symbolism to describe the city, t...
So Brink's a game! To be honest, I didn't know a thing about it until this week, when the reviews and quick looks started rolling out. Regardless, I've had this odd curiosity, this interest, this desire to try Brink out. You know why? It's that neat light blue box cover. Maybe it's slightly aqua blueish. Still, they use that color for all the box cover-esque promotion materials, and it's really...
A few months ago, while in the midst of Forza Race Night, a few of us joked about starting a podcast where we could have the same crazy conversations we typically have while playing Forza Motorsport 3. Last week, I decided we'd actually give this crazy idea a shot, and invited the Race Night regulars to join me. The conversation's not as crazy as our weekly racing affairs, but it's certainly an...
There are so many memes I could drop in here, but none of them feel right. There's only so many times I could say the cake's a lie or how I'm making a note of "huge success" (which I'm not just yet). Plus, I haven't played Portal 2 yet, and I'll be trying like crazy to dodge as many spoilers as possible until I get the chance to try it out. I'm not so sure I'll be successful dodging spoilers th...
I must admit, there's a part of me that wanted to put a bunch of 3D crap into this post. Maybe even make my graphs 3D through those red-blue glasses. Then I remembered how annoying a fad 3D can be. I also remembered how much my eyes hurt after using a Virtual Boy for a three-hour session of Mario Tennis or whatever that game was called. In short, I'm just going to post these stats real quickly...
Introduction "The truth is, Dave, when it comes down to it...I just don't like people." I merely intended it as a joke, a response to make Dave Snider laugh when he wondered aloud just why I wanted to become a moderator. Perhaps it isn't exactly what I said, but the gist of the joke is there. Now, as I sit here nursing a tremendous post-PAX sinus infection, coughing up phlegm that can only be d...
Hey everyone. Boy, things sure have changed a little since the last time we did one of these, haven't they? I'd love to be able to say I have the power to see forever in the Giant Bomb universe, but in reality, I just have a few more tools to help out around the site. I've also gained access to another quest set, and believe me when I say it requires legitimate effort to complete. I'm sure you...
Well, here we go again with more of the same. All these bionic arm grapple hook-shooting based action games are getting old by now. It's like they never bother to innovate! Sarcasm aside, I like Bionic Commando Rearmed, despite its frustrating difficulty, and I assume its mustache-encrusted sequel with be more of the same goodness. Even if it isn't, I'm sure the Simon Viklund tracks will make u...
OK, admission time. I haven't played Dead Space, nor do I have much interest in it, since I'm not much into games that scare the crap out of me. I also didn't think this community quest had an XP bonus attached to its success, so I was spending the last half-hour or so thinking up of things I could do as a reward of sorts if we succeeded. Turns out we'll get 1,000 bonus XP if the 3,500 threshol...
I don't have a PlayStation 3, unfortunately, so I can't experience the joy that LittleBigPlanet has undoubtedly brought to many a Sony console owner. I have to admit that the trailers with that song that sounds like yowling cats does a great job showing off LBP's creative versatility, though. It looks like a neat game! How about we bring some of that Play. Create. Share. Enjoy. Whatever love in...
Happy holidays, everyone! This latest song-about-Christmas-based quest set had a goal counter and promise of bonus XP appear on the front page, so it looks like we're dealing with a community quest here. I can fling about some actual stats based on our progress thus far, now that all the quests are unlocked and we've achieved success! Here's the final graph: 12 Days of Whiskey Final Progress Th...
Last week, I looked into statistics for all the community quests to date, and tried to draw some conclusions based on user quest addiction stats. I'm not sure I found that much information of value, but I did get a couple of massive Excel files to flaunt for my troubles. This week, I thought I'd update my workbooks and try to draw out another interesting statistic or two. As of my data pull las...
Q-U-E, S-T Stats, graphs and numbers glee! ...I wish I could get that bloody song out of my head. I'm admittedly not a big fan of Mickey Mouse and his club, which is why it's somewhat ironic that I even beat Coonce to become club member #1 on Giant Bomb. I'm a shameful person like that. It's a shameful thing, lobster head, etc. Anyways, let's put some of that shame on display, shall we? This is...
As many of you might might be aware, I post lots of questionable statistics for community quests during their duration. They're pretty basic and straight to the point, for the most part, and basically serve to answer if we're going to succeed or fail, and nothing more than that. I've always wondered if I could answer some more complicated questions with quest data. In that regard, I used this o...
I know what you're thinking. "Did he say 'Uh' five times or only four?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But being that this is Giant Bomb, the most charmingly garrulous website in the world, and would stab your head and neck right off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do you, duder? In all seriousness, I'm intere...
I guess at this point, a lot of antsy First-Person Shooter fans are prestiging for the fourth time now that they've had a full day to play War Games (not to be confused with the awesome double-ring cage match) with their buddies. I don't know. Burned out on that sort of FPS gameplay back in Counter-Strike beta 6. Neat ads with all the celebrities, though. I used to bunny hop around with the aut...
A community game night I help run has hit a milestone. I hope you won't mind if I ramble and reminisce a little. On November 5th, 2009, a couple of American car fanatics on Giant Bomb, inspired by their European brethren, started a private lobby in Forza Motorsport 3 . The turnout was mild but promising, and so began a weekly ritual of racing and generally screwing around with virtual cars we c...
Hooray for controller-less technology! I'll admit I want the Kinect. I just don't want it for $150. For me, that means sweepstakes and instant win contests up the wazoo for a while. I'm cheap like that. My thriftiness has nothing to do with the community quest, though. We've got this fancy new quest this week, with a lofty 4,000 completion goal we've had trouble hitting in the past. Even before...
Well, this week was a bit of a trainwreck of awesomeness. Status quo, one might say. Let's give out the... Happy Hour Three Stars for October 29th, 2010 Third Star Norm , for being the drunken Force master and taking a ping pong ball to mind-lifted heights never seen before. Second Star Sara , for sacrificing Rorie to the zombie horde after a terribly botched costume change which she got hilari...
Awooooooooo! Ahwooooooo! Awoooooooooooo! Hah hah hah! BOO! Hey, kids! Count PsEG here, and boy, have I got a spoooky story for you tonight. It's so scary, even...even Luchadeer's gonna have goosebumps! Ooooh, it's enough to make a ghost scream! You know, more than they already might. Ahwoooooo! It's the scariest story we've ever seen, I tell you! Forget approval from the Midnight Society, they'...
I guess some big game about the end of the world's out this week, huh? I've never gotten around to actually playing a Fallout game for more than thirty minutes, save for the multiplayer in Fallout Tactics. My loss? You bet! Here we are, though, digging up the past of this series for the chance at bonus XP. Let's see our percentages. Here's the final graph: Post Apocalyptic Vacation Final Progre...
Consider this a random blog of no importance or entertainment value whatsoever. You've been warned. Needless to say (thanks to the gold medal draped on my avatar), I'm a yearly subscriber, and I love watching the subscriber-only Happy Hour live. There's a certain site's chat room I hang out in, and generally I have a damn good time watching the controlled insanity unfold while making the occasi...
Ahh, the fond memories of close games, basketballs on fire, and shoving Isiah Thomas halfway across the court because the dude is friggin' tiny. Let me dust off the spreadsheets (yes, they're somehow dusty) and get some stats up for the latest community quest! Here's the final graph...MONSTER JAM!: He's On Fire Final Progress The yellow line at the top was the 3,000 completions we needed, the r...
Looks like we're back to challenging the community! The lovely games this set features make for a nice pair, I'd say. At the very least, they're a dent in the wallet. You don't care about my yammering, though, you come into this thread to care about silly amounts of stats. Here you are! Here's the final graph: The Odd Couple final progress The yellow line was our goal of 3,000 completions, the...
Hi, Giant Bomb. You mind if we have a little talk? I'll keep it to my little corner here, since the forums are kind of frightening and full of irrational vitriol and conspiracy theories at the moment. Are we cool to do that? Awesome. So let's discuss this whole Bombcast split. Sure has been a lot of heated talk about it, hasn't there? Not to mention Mike Tatum, Whiskey Media's resident...well,...
Here's another strange set that the staff have all but admitted doesn't make for a good community quest. Still, it has created the strangest surge of conversations I've seen in quite some time. As forced as the discussion might be, I've talked to a few decently cool dudes who I wouldn't have had a conversation with otherwise. Then there's the whole profile views situation, and people discoverin...
I'll be honest. I think this Welcome Wagon a good idea for a quest set, giving people a little motivation to be nice to newbies over time. Challenging the community to rush through it in a week? Not such a good idea, in my opinion. I'm not here for commentary, though; rather, I'm rolling up with a bunch of stats. Consider it a Stats Sedan, if you will! I've even added a new arbitrary number to...
Giant Bomb's first Sponsored-class quest is on, courtesy of Best Buy, and the community is facing a decent challenge for a simple quest set! Naturally, I'm doing my usual thing of tracking progress and stats. If you want to talk about the merits of sponsored quests, there's another thread for that . If you're looking for graphs and numbers, that's what this post is here for. Unfortunately, for...
Once again, I thought I'd provide some illustration and statistics for the latest Starcraft-oriented community quest. Will enough of the community figure out if this is Jimmy or not? As it turns out, yes. Here's the final graph of progress: Hell, It's About Time Final Progress The yellow bar at the top was our goal, the red line is the progress we needed to make to reach that goal in time, and...
With a new community quest challenge upon us, I figured I'd make good on my earlier promise and start providing statistics for the progress we're making. Will we, as a community, band together and fill Giant Bomb up with fresh trivia, or will we fail and let our trivia-loving brethren down? Hopefully I can help you see the bigger picture of The Big Quiz. Here's a graph of our now-final progress...
I love community challenges. Watching Giant Bomb users work together at rushing through quests...well, it's not so much teamwork as a bunch of quest addicts who want the extra XP, but I enjoy watching the completion meter increase regardless. When users complain that a challenge has no chance of success, however, I wince. Sometimes they're completely right, and we as a community come up short....
Well, now that we're out of press conferences, I'll have t-wait, Konami's doing a thing? Eh, let's forget about that. Please. Anyways, now that I can step back and pour over the slower trickle of game news emerging from E3, I think I can discuss my thoughts on certain titles more elaborately. Let's focus on the racing titles today, so that I can get them out of the way and move to other titles...
I have to sympathize a little with journalists for having to get a less-than-ideal amount of sleep. Only a little, though. They're witnessing enough interesting stuff firsthand that a week of no sleep should be more than worth the sacrifice. This is what coffee's for, anyways. I know I'm downing my fill, but that's more insomnia than anything. So, how about some more completely stupid bullet po...
I've had quite a few pointless thoughts cross my mind today and yesterday through all the E3 festivities, and I figure it's worth rambling about, rather than just letting them fester, wither, and die within my memory. Consider this a highly informal way of doing so. First off, I gotta point out that Adam Boyes , Chris Charla , and Mike Mika broadcasted a fabulous livestream of their trip to LA...
Allow me, if you will, to prattle on a bit about the quests feature. I'll do my best to avoid posting this on the forums, since that'd give users every right to hunt me down and quarter me in public. A Meager Rationale Yes, quests. I complete them with no clear reward other than the self-satisfaction of finishing something and increasing numbers. I was like this while playing City of Heroes, wh...
I always loved this box art as a kid. It's both cheesy and awesome. Looks like the Intellivision guys intentionally let something slip to their fans on Facebook a few hours ago. "Sshhh...not sure we're allowed to reveal this, but Night Stalker is scheduled to join Microsoft's Game Room Thursday, April 29." This all but confirms that Game Room releases are indeed (finally) going to start up agai...
I should start with the disclaimer that I'm not much of a social networking kind of guy. I like Twitter because I don't need to offer up much in the way of personal information, and I can follow the comments of friends and interesting people easily. Facebook doesn't serve much of a purpose for me; in fact, the only reason I have a Facebook account is because I accidentally completed the account...
Week 1 surprised me in that I'm actually making progress on my summer list, and not letting the Internet distract me from my Xbox 360. I'm satisfied so far! My completionist fury picks up where it left off, with... Project Gotham Racing 4 or The Boosting Session From Hell Last week I discussed my ability to use two controllers at once to nab an achievement while hurting the hell out of my hands...
Can't say I care at all about cell phone games. While I'll certainly accept that their quality in general is probably getting better, I really don't consider a cell phone a worthwhile gaming platform. If I want to play games on the go, I can always carry a Nintendo DS with me. I'm currently between cell phones, and can't say I'm suffering at all without one. When I get around to picking up anot...
Just over a week ago, I answered Giant Bomb's question of the "day" and talked about increasing my achievement scores in a bunch of Xbox 360 games I've neglected or otherwise haven't completed to my satisfaction. I feel it'd be appropriate to write about any progress I make on a weekly basis. It's important to clarify that I'm looking to improve my achievement percentage, rather than just my ga...
One constant in my life these days is college. Over the summer I'll continue attending a few business classes, since I'd quite like to avoid spending too many more years in school. There is no longer time for indecision on a future career in my life. That alone isn't a very interesting answer. It's intentionally vague, too! I should probably talk about something gaming-related. Provided college...
As I finally reach 1,000 points, I can't help but sigh in relief that I will now be able to unleash my finicky self on entries, fixing annoying errors with no delay. In all fairness, I'm somewhat surprised by just how often people half-ass article entries, writing a weak blurb and nothing more. I'm surprised my entry for guns has survived a week intact, considering I'm the polar opposite of a g...
Let me step aside from the commentary on the site and its issues, and instead talk about the lengths I go to for recalling information on old games. My memory of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CLOUDY MOUNTAIN Cartridge (I get a kick out of typing the whole name) is rather foggy, as I haven't played it since my childhood. The Intellivision dominated so much of my early youth, and my father and I wo...
I'm both surprised and grateful for the response to yesterday's "A concerned bomber" blog. I was expecting it to sit there unnoticed, like all the blogs I've written for other sites. Needless to say, it's nice to read all the good responses, and a definite plus for Giant Bomb. That said, yesterday's post didn't explore any possible solutions for the image issue, and some of the other problems c...
So Giant Bomb's been up for about three days now, and I think I've refined my initial opinion about the site a bit. The scope and depth of Giant Bomb still dazzles me. It's a thrill to try and find useful original info for older games, though it makes me wish I hadn't thrown out most of my game boxes a few years back -- they sure would be useful scans to fill in some graphical blanks on the sit...
So far, the site looks really nice. The layout is good, and all the remains is for people to add a huge amount of info for games. In cases like these, it's the company Giant Bomb keeps that will determine how it fares. I hope the site gets a lot of intelligent fans who care about decent writing, and leave any fanboy-ish anger at the door. Here's hoping that happens, and this site thrives. I'll...