Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: talked about video games. Erich convinced me to pick up WoW?????? two months ago, and, while I’ve been more or less enjoying it, it definitely doesn’t feel like it has that “hold” potential where I won’t get bored with it soon.

An upcoming game that never really held my attention but is starting to now is Age of Conan. I like the unique classes and the potential that’s there, but I don’t know how I feel about not being able to craft until later in the game. The game looks a little bland in regards to everything appearing to be in a desert setting (kind of reminds me of Tabula Rasa in that sense). AoC does have the potential to really do well with its player-run cities, but those can be hit-or-miss. I’m still hopeful, though. If I pick it up, I’ll probably end up with the collector’s edition like I usually do- I’m a sucker for art books and in-game bonus items.

MMO’s aside, I have a slew of other games I’ve yet to finish: Doom 3, Final Fantasy III DS, Bioshock, Tony Hawk Project 8, Overlord, Dead Rising, Lego Star Wars II, and others I’m sure.

Ben Heck recently wrapped up his work on the first Playstaion 3 laptop (I’d link to his site but their new server seems to be down). This baby features a 17″ LCD screen, capable of 720p resolution with a HDMI-DVI connection; built-in keyboard and speakers; and weighs in at 16 pounds. I want one. (I wonder what kind of heat this behemoth will produce.)

Following the link above, Engadget will soon be auctioning off the one-on-a-kind model for charity. Ben Heck also created the Xbox 360 Laptop, and, something I just learned, a Wii Laptop! I’m always impressed by how clean and “natural” his creations come looking. He also has a book out titled Hacking Video Game Consoles that I’d like to pick up some day.

[video width="480" height="436"]http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=29964[/video]

Just.. wow. Some of the rag-doll animations looked too “rag doll-ish”, but it’s still unfinished and everything else is beautiful.

I turned 21 today!

My buddy recently introduced me to Travian, a free online strategy game in which you build up a village. Simple but fun. It’s cool because you can take a few minutes to do some stuff here and there without having to play for long periods of time. Check out my village.

Vanguard fans, the server merge is happening next week.

I sat down to write this post four hours ago. It did not get written four hours ago. Instead, I was distracted by the new version of Wordpress (v2.2). I went to download it, as I’m sure I’m overdue for an update; but before I installed it, I wanted to get it set up locally to test because I hate updating and having it end up broken. Turns out I haven’t copied this site to my local server yet, so I started doing that. Of course, that had to be problematic, so after a while of putsing around with my WAMP install, I downloaded the EVE-Online 14 day trial and became thoroughly distracted.

I have not played enough of EVE to make a solid review, but I plan to play it some more over the next week or two and really get a feel for the game. I still wish upon wishes that Guild Wars wasn’t so boring; I’ve tried time and again to get into it, but it just lacks any kind of pull (aside from a beautiful world). Star Wars Galaxies had such potential, but they killed that real quick. Asheron’s Call is dwindling away after 7 some years in the industry. I hear Vanguard is pretty good, and that LotRO is worthwhile, too. I actually watched the Grammys with someone who was (is?) working on LotRO; that was really cool. (Oblivion is still fun, but it lacks human interaction being a single player title.)

(My writing felt really forced tonight; I’m out of practice :/)