Now You're Thinking with Portals, You Monster.

     So, at the end of yesterdays post I promised to try to and get out my first video blog. Unfortunately it looks like its not going to happen today. I didn't think it would be appropriate to drag my camera junk to work with me to shoot some video. Plus I wouldn't have enough time to edit all that stuff together to post the video by 3am like I usually do. My wife suggested I shoot the video on my phone, which I may do if my battery doesn't die. Cross your fingers. I promise to get one up tomorrow.

     In leu of a video of me, I thought it would be better to talk about some of the things I love. I love video games. My wife can attest to this. I wouldn't say I'm obsessed, but I do enjoy a good chunk of game time during the week. My wife says I get into them a little too much and I that I have a game face. I thought she was just kidding and blew her off. That was until we went on our honeymoon to Disney World.

Let me explain: If you have never been to Disney World and ridden Buzz Lightyear's Space Rangers ride/game thing, let me explain. You jump into a car and shoot lasers at the bad guys. Easy. At the end they give you a score and snap your photo. This is our photo at the end of the ride:

Game Faces

     Apparently Nicole closes her eyes and grit her teeth when she plays games, while I on the other hand am calmly blasting the crap out of cheesy alien toys. This is my 'game face'. Fine, I accept that. In case you're interested this is my son's game face:

That's my boy! I taught him all I know.

     I am one proud father, but I have to admit that all he's doing is holding the controller and looking at the ads on Xbox Live flip by. I have always loved playing games. It started out as a love for card games, then board games, then on to video games and other stuff. I even love pinball machines, but more on that in later posts. 

I'm not sure if I have a particular kind of video game I like but I tend to find myself liking a little of everything. Particularly I am madly in love with Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. 

Brotherhood of Steel Knight patrolling downtown D.C.

     I love Fallout 3 because of the story and setting in and around Washington D.C. My Dad has been traveling to the D.C. area for his job for almost 15 years and I often would visit the area as a kid. I thought the game developers did a great job at destroying the crap out of Washington. The outside wilderness was a little bleak and sparse but still fun.I was a fan of the original Fallout games and I was glad to see this game translated so well into the role playing/first person shooter game. Even the DLCs were pretty fun and they were a great extension to the story. Plus who doesn't love stomping around in metal power armor shooting your mini nuke launcher?

   
     The currency in this game is soda bottle caps, which is weird since you really don't see those around these days. In the game if you find bottle caps laying around you scoop them up without even thinking. At the time I was playing this game, I was working for my Dad cleaning up a coin-op car wash he owned. One day, I was sweeping up the trash off the lot when I caught myself bending over to pick up a few bottle caps. What was I doing?! This is just trash! I just couldn't stop myself from putting them in my pocket and thinking about what I could buy in Megaton with a handful of caps. I should be considered insane!

Bling Bling!

New California Republic Ranger looking over New Vegas

I've got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle. Jingle, Jangle!

     Fallout: New Vegas is another thing. I have been living in Arizona for most of my life, so I was very familiar with the Mojave desert area. I was a little disappointed that you couldn't explore more of the Arizona side of the Hoover Dam, but still the locations they chose were still familiar. There were some improvements in this latest Fallout game (smarter companions/better weapons), but there were also some serious problems as well. The game crashes often, sometimes enemies and entire locations will just appear out of nowhere and some of the item systems are seriously messed up. The thing that I love most about New Vegas are the amazing DLCs that the developers have released. I have loved them all and they have added a lot of fun backstory and depth to your character.

Another game that I am madly in love with is Portal and Portal 2. I would almost consider them a single gigantic experience because they're so flawlessly done. Portal 2 was released earlier this year and I would consider it one of my all time favorite games. Its challenging, funny, thought provoking, and my favorite part: Science-y! If you ever had the opportunity to know me as a young kid, I lived and breathed science. So Portal's inner workings behind Aperture Science was like scooping out my childhood imagination and slapping it on screen. So if you've never played Portal, you wouldn't understand why I laugh when I see cube with a heart on it, sitting on a large button.

Atlas & Peabody
(I always played Atlas, Nicole always played Peabody, I wonder why?)

Now you're thinking with portals.

     If you want to get a feel for what Portal is like, head over here to see some videos from Aperture Science and listen to some of the awesome soundtracks from the game.

     Thats is just some of the video games I love. I would love to get some comments from all you All Nighters. So if you have questions or comments, drop me a line! Thanks!

-The Everyday All Nighter