via Jess

I am going to create a character in City of Heroes and name it that RIGHT NOW and I don't care what Mr. Man has to say about it breaking immersion. He's such a name snob. But to be fair I'm a ye olde snobbe when it comes to fantasy faux medieval stuff, particularly when I have to speak olde English speake.

Cody sent me this. Think he's trying to tell me something? ;)

GameSpot has a pretty good featured section on buying gifts this year with options about platforms, target age groups, various levels of interest - which might need to be taken with a grain of salt or two. While I don't plan on buying Karaoke Revolution Vol 3 or Need for Speed Underground 2 for my folks they seem to think I would. It's supposed to be updated in real time as prices and ratings change though so hopefully it'll get better.

Also, if you care, a group led by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (who I'm guessing aren't talking about fiscal responsibility) have come up with a list of this years most offensive games. They also criticize the ESRB as being too vague in their ratings and stores not enforcing the ratings system universally.

I wonder what these people would find to complain about if the game companies actually agreed with them and stopped making sex and violence freely available to their twelve year olds?

And for the younger kids there's a website run by the Coalition for Quality Children's Media (who I'd like to note don't have a religious agenda or an arbitrary ratings system but encourage parents actively reviewing material with their kids instead of just relying on other people to tell them what is and isn't ok for their own children) that reviews cdroms and interactive dvds as well as audio and video for our little budding technophiles out there.

Guild Wars sucks, according to Mr Man. Despite being made by the guys who originally created Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. I think the quote was "It's just like Diablo II but not nearly as good and doesn't work as well."

If you want to find out for yourself there's a free playable preview for Gamespot members.

There's also a preview for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and the announced well over a year ago Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies. Which I don't plan to bother with.

If you're a Fileplanet member you're guaranteed a spot in the open stress test before the open beta for World of Warcraft. And the characters you create in the stress test will transfer to the open beta.

This is what did it. It was the proverbial straw that broke my admittedly weak camel's back. But it broke so, yes, I bought the Sims 2. I thought I could resist but it's too late now.

Since I still haven't installed Makin Magic I assumed it would take me at least a month to install Sims 2. But curiosity won out and I've been playing it all day. I've only just started messing around with build mode which is confusing as all hell. But my designer's mouth started watering when I found out I can now build four floors.

I made a Sims 2 version of us and had fun figuring out the new career path, desire list stuff. It's very complex with odd nuances. Even some unexpected career choices and changes. Here's a good example - one time when he came home from work CodySim brought home a friend - that looked eerily like Jocelyn's boyfriend with shorter hair. Really!

As far as gameplay is concerned I have to admit I'm very impressed. I do miss my usermade objects and Sim pets though.

In other gaming news I just got an offer from the maker of kung fu madness to beta test his new game, Drugrunners. I've been given codes for three other betatesters so let me know if you want to try this new game out.

I also have something like twelve gmail invites so just ask if you want one of those too.

There's a pretty good review of Sims 2 on Gamespot. I haven't really been very excited about it because I guess I have too much invested in the first one. I've been playing the original Sims game since its release in 1999 and have been collecting downloads of player-made objects since they first became available.

In fact, Cody was among the creators before Transmogrifier, when creating became much easier and it became possible to add animations. He created the original indoor grill from the stove and the 'pot of shrooms' from the cheap tv which you can still get at the sims resource just look for Syniq.

So I've spent five years - just slightly less time than the length of my marriage - downloading stuff for my game. I have just under ten gigabytes of downloads and I don't want to think about what I spent on memberships and donations to get my greedy hedgehog cursor on some of those files. There has been some incredible creativity out there and I'm pretty attatched to my objects.

Also, this sequel seems to be much more about actually playing the game. Oddly enough in all my years of playing the Sims and all its expansions I've logged very little actual playing time. My fun is the building and decorating. I don't usually care who owns the lot or what they do or look like - I just use cheat codes to make them rich enough to build really cool houses. The only interesting thing I've heard about this sequel is that there might be the ability to build a third floor now.

So I'm not really that enthusiastic about this release but I know a lot of Sims fans are. I never played the Sims Online either because, again, it was about actually playing. I do understand why people would get excited about the genetic thing. Reminds me of the fun with breeding in that old Creatures game. All the pre-release downloads that I've seen from user sites have pertained to skins and genetics so it could appeal to people who are really interested in that.

Video Game Gals take it off for Playboy

is a very funny game. A stick figures disco bandit fighting undead elbow macaroni with a mean pair of tongs. No, really. And it's free. check it out

Avast ye mateys I be playin Puzzle Pirates and watchin me two favorite silly Piratey movies. I should check out that Roman Polanski one sometime.

I go by the name "Angrylucie" in the midnight ocean so come say ahoy.

Either that or I'm at the gym or dog park. Or sleeping. Arrr!

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates

Kung Fu Madness!

All the fun of silly movie references and playing with other people online with no need to download. Come let me beat you up a little. I'm NoLNoodle.

Oh and look what one of my new buddies captured last night! Hee!

In personal news-

I bought a few bathing suits for the first time in fifteen years so I could swim at the gym I joined a few weeks ago. I wore one tonight at my friend's apartmenthouse pool. The water was very cold but I swam anyway. It was fun. Most of them are old-timey with little skirts and halter tops and are quite cute in an Esther Williams kinda way. I'm even thinking about getting one of these hilarious flowery swimcaps to complete the ensemble.

I also bought new underpants so at this very moment the word "Rockstar" is on my butt in pink with little rhinestones. I'm starting to get into this tacky underwear trend.

We now get local channels via satellite but only on the tivo receiver the others are way too old - like from 1997. So now I can actually watch current Ellen Degeneres shows! Although it seems to be on hiatus at the moment.

I have many episodes of Monk to watch on the tivo. Six Feet Under just isn't as fun without Aaron's overanalysis but at least the new guy is prompt.

I got my dad a gift certificate for itunes for father's day. With that and a few months of netflix from my sister he's mr cool online dad. Mom got another year's subscription to the online wsj and flowers. Aren't my geeky parents cute?

I've been playing poker on pogo a lot so come see me there - I'm nolnoodle1972. Also I have a few free guest passes to the ClubPogo service so let me know and I'll send you one.

Also I've been meaning to add my im account info to the page but keep forgetting so I'll try to remember to do that in a minute.

The birthday present poll is still up but I'm kind of thinking about a nicer 4+ megapixel digital camera now rather than an ipod.

I'm going to try to get to the Satellite Coffee Kerry Meetup since we came too late for Moveon.org's bake sale a few months back. Hopefully they have the same pet-friendly policies as their Flying Star franchises.

Non-personal news-

Republican National Convention outsourced fundraising calls to India

via this and this site

Interesting sites I've visited recently are tolerance.org, the Anti Defamation League, Harvard's really cool Project Implicit and Gear that gives. It's a long story what I was looking into there but if you've never been to these sites they are definitely worth a look.

I was watching an odd 1942 Cary Grant / Ginger Rogers movie called Once Upon a Honeymoon the other night and it was such a cool surprise to hear Rogers recite the original pledge of allegiance.