Straight from the horse's mouth

 Talisman For XBLA, PSN & PC Factsheet

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Release Date: Winter 2007
Genre: Action RPG
Platform: Xbox LIVE® Arcade, PLAYSTATION®Network, PC
Rating: RP (Rating Pending)
Developer: Big Rooster
Price: TBD
Game Description:
Based on Games Workshop's classic board game, Talisman is the quintessential fantasy hybrid board/role-playing game for up to four players, either online or offline. The game takes place in a fantasy realm and is based very closely on the board game through a 3D representation of the map with animated movements and in-game events. Characters are fully animated as they walk about the board, attack other creatures, cast beautiful effect-laden spells and use objects to enhance their actions. Talisman will be rolling its way onto Xbox LIVE® Arcade, PLAYSTATION®Network and PC this winter. The highly anticipated 4th Edition of the board game is due for release from Games Workshop's Black Industries imprint in October 2007.
Features:

• Electronic board game with 3D characters and environments
• 1 - 4 players offline and online multiplayer
• Dynamic camera angles adjust to each active player
• Up to 25 characters from the Talisman franchise
• Unique features for each character including strength and magical abilities
• Voice chat options
• Downloadable game expansions including character updates, adventure card updates and alternate endings

Talisman for the Xbox 360

Talisman was an old board game from Games Workshop. It was kind of a board game, and kind of a role playing game. A board game in the fact that there was a board, some dice to be rolled to see how many spaces on the board you moved, and game pieces. But it was a role playing game also in the fact that your game piece represented a character that had abilities, equipment, and even magic. These abilities increased and decreased over time depending how many battles you won or lost. It was a really fun game and me and a few friends literally spent an entire summer playing it when we were back in middle school. They announced awhile back that a company would be developing an Xbox Live version of the second edition of the game (Which was easily the best edition!) Up till now all I had was a "Fall of 2007" type of release date. Well, I have been checking around maybe once or twice a week to make see if any more updates about the game or it's release date. Well today I struck proverbial gold on the matter!!! Here are some more links about the game (stolen right from the Wikipedia page!):

1. ^ Talisman Expansion at BoardGameGeek
2. ^ Talisman The Adventure at BoardGameGeek
3. ^ Talisman Dungeon at BoardGameGeek
4. ^ Talisman Timescape at BoardGameGeek
5. ^ Talisman City at BoardGameGeek
6. ^ Talisman Dragons at BoardGameGeek
7. ^ Talisman 4th Edition Press Release. www.blackindustries.com. Black Industries. Retrieved on 2007-01-08.
8. ^ Games Day & Golden Demon 2007 event announcement, with announcement of pre-release sales of the 4th Edition of Talisman
9. ^ Talisman, 4th Edition at BoardGameGeek
10. ^ Talisman for the Sinclair Spectrum information from TalismanIsland.com
11. ^ IGN: Capcom Wields Talisman. IGN (2007-04-13).

My Home Theatre

My plan to have the perfect (in my eyes anyway) home theatre system

Today I have decided I will reveal my plan to move from a 32" regular TV to an HD digital projector with quality surround sound and an entire room dedicated to movies and video games. I have a vision of sitting in a small re-creation of an actual movie theatre. Right now my current vision is of a converted garage or full basement with three rows of four seats from an actual theatre with drink holders in the arm rests and each row of seats about six inches higher than the row in front of them so as to be recreate real stadium seating. The walls are painted a dark color and are soundproofed so we can have the surround sound turned WAY up. Enough of my fantasies for now though, lets look at some real life hardware that i'm seriously considering:

THE PROJECTOR: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080

THE HD-DVD PLAYER: Xbox 360 Elite with accompanying HD-DVD Drive

THE SOUND SYSTEM: Still as of yet undecided, but I think i'm gonna go with something from Panasonic or JVC

     Well, that is the basic foundation of my home theatre system. I think it's a pretty solid foundation. But, this foundation is gonna run about $5000.00 or so to put together so it's also gonna take some time. The projector is the 1st priority followed by the Xbox and HD-DVD Drive as I already have a Sony 5.1 surround sound system.

     As for why I chose those specific components, I have what I think are pretty good reasons:

• The projector has the best ratings in it's class/price range
• The Xbox allows video games AND HD-DVD playback so it's dual purpose
• The sound system will rival that of GOD

     Now, let's get back to a very important aspect of this whole deal. How the hell is a schlubb who makes $13.75/hr going to afford all of this? Well, let's use bullets again, that was cool:

• My wife just graduated from nursing school
• MyCokeRewards - i've been submitting points for a Xbox360
• TransformYourSummer - i've been submitting points for a sound system
• $1,500.00 Dell Credit limit (That will hopefully be raised when I ask!)
• A possible $5,000 bank loan (This is just an idea I haven't ran past the wife yet)

     Two of those are pipe dreams (The soda contests), the first one is just a joke, the loan is most likely also a pipe dream. So the credit limit from Dell is the only thing that is a realistic possibility for me right now. I got that initially so I could buy a nicer widescreen LCD monitor for my computer. Now that I have paid that off though I am going to ask for a credit increase. I don't think they will double it, but i'll take as much as they can give me. Realistically speaking I honestly think i'll have to take a lot of time and build good credit with Dell. The Xbox is more within reach than the projector OR the surround sound system to someone who works a day job and currently supports a family and pays all the bills. That burden will be lightened significantly though as soon as my wife takes up regular work at the local hospital's ER as an RN though.

So that's the plan for now. Once I begin getting regular feedback from all of you who read this changes and revisions will likely be made. I certainly look forward to getting things going on all of this. I feel like it gives me a meaningful (well, meaningful to me anyway) purpose to work towards.

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HD the way it's meant to be!

After I watched LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring on my brother in law's digital projector setup I have abandoned the idea of TV's to view movies on. They simply can't reproduce the experience of an HD projector. I have decided that after I pay off my current balance on my DELL credit account, I will ask for a credit increase so that I might be able to purchase this. Digital projectors are the way to go for movie buffs such as myself. The sheer size of the viewable area is mind blowing. Sure a 60" HDTV is fine and all, but this projector can shoot a picture up on the wall that is 25 FEET! Coupled with a high quality surround sound system it's actually BETTER than a movie theatre. Unless you experience it for yourself (and if I have anything to say about it, you will!) you simply can't understand how awesome it really is. Hopefully this will be something I can accomplish in the next year or so.

Good movie news!

This is very good news for fans of the LOTR movies.

So much for "Hardcore gamers"

Wow. Of the 10 million 360 owners out there, 7 million are not aware of the HD graphic potential of the machine. Seems that the remaining 3 million are what people refer to as the "hardcore" gamers. Seems the rest are soccer moms and kids who bought the machine simply to tell their friends "Hey, look what I have!" Pretty much the same goes for the PS3, only the percentages are a bit higher. Only 50% of PS3 users aware of its Blu-ray player and HD potential. But that's because the number of PS3's is so much smaller than the 360's. Either way, a startling number of "HD gamers" don't know about -- or don't care about -- HD. But what IS made blatantly clear by it's exclusion from this article...EVERYONE knows why they purchase a Wii. Nintendo owns Microsoft and Sony..AGAIN!!!

Heavenly Sword

Out of curiosity I downloaded and watched a demo of Heavenly Sword for the PS3. It was captured from someone actually playing the game on their PS3. Graphically it looked great. The sound effects and the music were cool as well. Story-wise it's another "Bad guy invades fantasy kingdom and takes over. Princess/Prince type character must save their kingdom and avenge their dead parent(s)." Been done before certainly more than once. That's a cookie-cutter type game plot though. Their are TONS of those out there that I have enjoyed. The play style was also very much "been done before". It plays like most early to mid 90's type brawler games such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight. Again, that's fine, I have played and liked a good many of those types of games as well.

I guess what i'm getting at here is that I feel that I have already played and beaten this game a billion times before. It has a VERY strong 'been there, done that' feel to it. This is why Sony is gonna continue to suffer with the PS3. Their developers aren't doing anything new or innovative at all. And the dev's they do have that are wanting to do new stuff are leaving for other platforms. Everything on the PS3 is (thus far) simply a rehash of older games with super-duper graphics. That's fine for a few games out of the mix, but when that comprises the whole of your game catalogue I don't think you will sustain a following of anything other than fanboys. No one wants that.

Webcam!

Well, I bought a decent web cam. It's a Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000. It's the middle model of three. The top model was I think $80. A bit much for a web cam I thought so I settled for the $50 cam. It's pretty cool. It can track the movement of your face to keep you centered in the frame automatically. It has auto and manual focusing. It can add visual effects on the fly. It has a built in microphone and finally it has 640x480 video resolution at 30fps. All in all this is by far the BEST cam I have EVER owned. Now mind you I have only had three total including this one, but it by far outshines the other two $20 POS's I had in the past.

Fixing computers and stuff

I like installing hardware so much more than configuring software. I am QUITE proficient at both mind you, but software can be so finicky and seemingly not want to run for no apparent reason. But hardware is easy. If it doesn't work you take it back or send it back. There is no diagnosing issues with hardware (assuming you installed everything correctly) because if a transistor or resistor or whatever is broke on a card/board no one can fix that except the manufacturer. And most times they don't fix it, they toss it and just send you a new one. The common person simply does not have the means to fix broken hardware. With software on the other hand this is not that case. Unfortunately for me software can in almost every case be MADE to work. And I can't simply leave something not working when I fix someone's computer. I have to make sure EVERYTHING is running smoothly and operates as quick as it can with no bugs or weird stuff going on. And I hate that. I wish I could simply say "Sorry, it just doesn't work." But no, if there is a way to make it work, I will make it work. <sigh>

Viva Pinata for the DS?

Well, it seems Rare will continue to develop for the DS. Since being bought out by Microsoft a few years ago they have put out a few GBA games and Diddy Kong Racing for the DS. Now they are bringing the Viva Pinata game to the DS. I have never played Viva Pinata myself, but from what I have read and seen, it looked like a truly unique game. It was well received by a lot of people. Not surprising since before Microsoft bought out Rare, they were primarily a Nintendo developer. So we should expect good things here.

But the most interesting aspect of this whole deal is that even though Rare is owned by Microsoft (For those of you who live in caves, Microsoft put out the xBox360, a competing console with the Nintendo Wii) they are allowed to continue to develop for other platforms. Odd indeed. Microsoft is not known for playing nicely with competitors. Perhaps they have an ace up their sleeve? Probably not, again Microsoft isn't known for it's obfuscation abilities.

The 10th Dimension

This is one of the coolest web sites I have ever come across. If you start to listen to the explanation of the dimensions, please, sit through the whole thing. It really is pretty cool. I think I may have posted this once before long ago.

Prominent PC dev takes a cue from Nintendo

Peter Molyneux says that he hates complicated, button-masher type games and things need to be simpler.

Quote:

“I hate that we spend millions of dollars designing our games and only 1 percent of people finish them. If they don’t finish the game, it’s like leaving the movie halfway through, so it’s a rubbish movie to some extent, and that responsibility is on our shoulders. We often make casual gamers feel dumb, stupid and intimidated. We want to make those people feel as good as hardcore gamers."

Looks as though some from the PC development community are seeing Nintendo's impact on simplified gaming and how many people it can attract.

Oh yeah, how good does a 'hard-core' gamer feel?

Source

Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons movie...tonight at the Silverdale 4...midnight.

DOLBY 5.1 Surround is good!

Well, I finally bothered to hook my Wii up to the surround sound system I have. And I also brought out my sub woofer as well. I had the sub woofer packed away in a closet because my wife thinks it looks 'tacky'. Well, I showed her good! I played Resident Evil 4 at a high volume WITH the sub going. Man I miss that kind of sound quality. I'm gonna leave it hooked up that way and i'm gonna leave the sub out as well. Wifey is just gonna have to deal with it. She doesn't have any care for high quality surround sound. Sometimes I wonder how long this marriage can last. LOL!! I wanna FEEL it in my chest when I fight the lake monster and the giant dude in RE4 again!

Fun with the news!!

Real news story: Click me!!

Fake news story: Click me!!

Once again I have Live Writer up and running...

Let's see how long I can keep it this time...lol

Seemingly random WIll Farrell clip

Goddamn, I laughed my ass off at this.  This just goes to show that when left to himself, he's still a VERY funny guy. He doesn't need hollywood writers. The man is pure comic genious in my opinion.

ATTENTION DESKTOP GENERALS!!

Ok, I have been playing this silly flash game for about a week now. It's pretty cool. Basically you have to set up different types of guns in a given area in such a pattern that can not block outright, but impede these things called 'creeps' that are trying to get to one side of said area to the other. The different types of guns can be upgraded to do more damage. But to upgrade you need gold. And to get gold you have to kill the creeps. Try it out. It's fun. I'm interested to see what patterns people come up with so that I may steal thier ideas and incorporate them into my own strategies! Mwahahahahaha!!!

Most impressive...

Ok, last tuesday I ordered up a new monitor from Dell. I don't usually like to support Dell in any way, but dammit that have good monitors. And I wanted a good monitor. I placed an order for a 20" widescreen monitor. As tuesday turned into wednesday I watched the progress of my order as I am apt to do whenever I order something online. I got the order confirmation email from Dell. Early wednesday morning I got the email from Dell that said they were processing the order. And later that day I got the email from Dell that said they had shipped it. Included in this email was the UPS tracking information which I immediatly check on to make sure everything looks good and to get the arrival date to make sure Dell sent my order 2nd day delivery like they were supposed to. The UPS site hadn't updated though so no tracking info was available yet.

     Wednesday eventually (as time would have it) turned into Thursday and the tracking info from UPS site finally updated and told me my monitor was on it's way from Portland, OR. Sweet deal. So I go to Dell website to pine over my soon-to-arrive package and I notice something. Something bad. I ORDERED THE WRONG GODDAMN MONITOR!!!! There were two similar models of the monitor I wanted. One was a widescreen and one was a fullscreen. I had accidentally ordered the fullscreen monitor! Damn the luck!!

     So today (Friday) I sat around the house wanting to kick myself and debated whether or not to just refuse delivery and have it sent back to Dell and get it exchanged for the widescreen monitor that I wanted. So the UPS guy shows up about 3:30pm or so and hands me two boxes. One was the monitor, the other was a smaller box which contained the dual-layer DVD-R's I had ordered the previous sunday. Out of curiosity I opened up the monitor box to see what it looked like. I dug the styrofoam things out that secure the monitor in the box. I dug out all the thin styrofoam sheets that they wrap the cords in. Then i take a look at the monitor. HOLY SHIT!!! I ordered the fullscreen monitor by mistake, and they sent me the widescreen monitor...by mistake. So the next time anyone tells you two wrongs don't make a right, you tell them to shut the fuck up and send them to this post!! Two mistakes, and I still got what I wanted. Most impressive...

WoW no more!

It just didn't fit my play style. I like to group with people and and hang out, not solo. I went solo for probably 90% of my 46 levels. And in the beginning it was ok, but towards the end, it just sucked. I couldn't accomplish anything as a warrior as I didn't have a pet to tank for me like a Warlock or a Hunter. I wasn't interested in starting a new character. I tried that. I started a Warlock and made it to about 12th level before losing interest in that. I tried playing a Paladin, both Human and Blood Elf. Neither made it past lv 7. Everyone in my guild seemed interested in their own things. Which is ok for them, but it sucks for grouping.

Everyone moves at a different pace. I was moving right along, but then I lost my computer for about a week and when I finally got to play again everyone was about five or so levels ahead of me. That's when I noticed I just wasn't having fun in the game anymore. So, rather than pay $14.99/month so I can log in for 10 minutes a day and wonder to myself why I am even playing this game anymore if I'm not having fun with it, I just canceled my account today.

Windows Live Writer

Just got it installed again under Vista Ultimate x64. Seems to be working nicely for all three blogs of mine.

Google Blogger

Livejournal

Live Spaces

Still doesn't seem to support MySpace. But then again I guess Microsoft isn't big on supporting it's main competitor, eh?