Happy Friday!

Thanksgiving is upon us, and then Christmas and New Year are only a hop, skip and jump away. How this year has flown by ... again.

This weekend, our resident PHP/linux/Ruby on Rails guru will be staying over, so slather the baby back ribs with BBQ sauce and heat up the oven! It's time to pig out!

Watched the latest episode of Sons Of Anarchy last night, and from the looks of it, there might be a showdown coming up soon. Loved the Call of Duty reference, which was very apropos, and damn, stepping on landmines is NOT good for your health!

We just got back from our Cirque du Soleil TOTEM outing, and while the first half was great, the second part was totally weak. They apparently brought out all the good stuff in the beginning because during intermission, they were offering tickets at 50% off in case you wanted some friends to see this awesome show — not knowing the rest basically sucked. This was the second time we've seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, and both times were not really impressive.

No time for gaming or DVR watching today, so that means we'll have to redouble our efforts tomorrow.

Holy moly, that was quite the list of games that shipped yesterday.

I'm going to try out the new Need for Speed one of these days. I love racing games, but I totally suck at them. Checked out a little bit of Saints Row: The Third on Xbox 360 and liked it enough for me to go get it on PC so I can truly appreciate the game.

In the meantime, we seem to be stuck in LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 at 99.9% completion. There's 1 gold brick out of 200 that we simply can't seem to find! Damn frustrating!

Later today, we're heading out a bit earlier than usual to see Cirque du Soleil TOTEM, so that should be a good time.

Not much going on at the moment. Playing some Fallen Earth, Stronghold Kingdom, APB, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, as well as trying to finish up LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7.

On Monday and Tuesday nights, our DVR is very busy recording a bunch of shows, so we quickly scratched The Walking Dead and Blue Bloods off the list. Both good episodes ...

Some VERY exciting news on the music front. The original members of Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler) have confirmed they’re heading back into the studio to record an album of new material with producer Rick Rubin.

When do the tickets go on sale!!?!?!?!

We failed yesterday and didn't manage to keep up the pressure. We watched a few episodes of Hawaii Five-0 but then got distracted by that damn four-eyed sorcerer. We nearly completed LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 to completion, but didn't make headway on the DVR. We watched three episodes, but four new shows recorded in the meantime. Shame on us!

This week will see the release of another batch of high-profile games, such as: Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Airline Tycoon 2, Saints Row: The Third, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom, Need for Speed: The Run, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Anno 2070, to name a few. Quite a diverse offering, so there should be something in there for everybody.

We did some serious watching yesterday and we plan to continue that streak today. We check out the latest episodes of Kitchen Nightmares, Bones, Psych, Fringe, Once Upon A Time, Castle, and apart from running some quick errands we got nothing better to do for the rest of the day.

To change the pace we did put some time into LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, as well as some more L.A. Noire (on PC, duh!).

After a false start yesterday, I finally got L.A. Noire to work on the PC. Quite a few people must have had the same issue, as Rockstar put up a note about it on their support page, and the fix resolved my issue. Having never played the console edition, I've been eager to check it out since the PC version was announced, and it's quite impressive. The facial animations are amazing to watch, and even body language plays a role in the game as an interrogation feature. The game has a very cinematic feel and is probably one of the least action-packed titles Rockstar has released (apart from Table Tennis, I guess), but the engaging puzzle-solving makes up for it.

To change up the gaming pace, I mixed in some Modern Warfare 3 (running through the Special Ops missions) and Battlefield 3, as well as watching shows on the DVR (down 15%).

Today is Veterans/Remembrance Day, so not sure if news will be slow. If you see any veterans today, be sure to stop them and thank them for their service. Thanks to the current troops as well. We're waiting for your safe return this holiday season!

However, after the three pitchers of sangria we just had, there's no telling how we'll feel in the morning ...

I really need to figure out why it is that each time we crack open a bottle of wine, it makes me sleepy beyond control. We had company last night, made dinner, and had some wine, and sure enough, snooze fest all around ... again!

As if Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and L.A. Noire weren't enough to keep gamers busy, tomorrow is the launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (check the link for our review).

I was looking forward to Rockstar's latest masterpiece (where's my Red Dead Redemption, damnit?!), so I let it download on Steam overnight (a whopping 12 GB) only to find that Norton detects the game's ypatcher.exe as a virus and automatically deletes it. This makes the game not start at all. Lovely!

I've been playing some Modern Warfare 3, and while it is fun, I can't shake the feeling that it's not that different from MW2. I've only played through the campaign so far, so maybe once I get through that, I'll be amazed by the multiplayer innovations. Maybe ...

What's going on? Celebrities are dropping like flies these days. CBS's 60 Minutes Andy Rooney died last week, boxing heavyweight champion Joe Frazier passed on Monday, and yesterday, rap icon Heavy D passed away at the age of 44. Heavy D's death came as quite a shock as he had just posted on his Twitter feed, "Smokin Joe Frazier, RIP."

Next weekend, we're going to an advance screening of The Muppets, for old times' sake and to see if Miss Piggy is as annoying as I remember. With cameos by Mila Kunis, Zach Galifianakis, Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black, Emily Blunt and appearances by Jason Segel and Amy Adams, it can't be all bad, right ? And Dave Grohl?! :)

Today is the big day! Modern Warfare 3 comes out! I finished up Battlefield 3 a little while ago, and while the single-player campaign was a bit on the short side, the multiplayer portion (both online and co-op) is great fun, so it'll be interesting to see the MW3 experience in comparison. I'm watching my timer on Steam count down. Only 7 more hours to go!

Last night, we watched the latest episode of The Walking Dead and Terra Nova, both interesting developments, but definitely not the best of episodes.

Our month-long war in Stronghold Kingdoms has come to an end, so for now, we're repairing castles, gathering resources, getting fresh troops and farming faith points until the next conflict.

Not sure if we're going to go see any movies this weekend, as nothing really appeals at the moment. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas sounds like fun, but I'm not sure I want to pay full price for it just yet, so we might wait a week or two. The same goes for  Tower Heist. However, J. Edgar and Immortals look interesting, but they aren't out yet. Oh well, DVR it is, I guess.

CBS's 60 Minutes Andy Rooney has died at the age of 92 from complications following minor surgery. Rooney was 60 Minutes' signature essayist since 1978 and made his final appearance on the weekly show only five weeks ago.

Wow, my internal clock is all messed up. I thought it was Saturday today. Talk about a rude awakening!

My fascination with Stronghold Kingdoms is wearing thin. After a month-long war with an opposing house, we're at a stalemate, with agreements are being broken and multi accounters ruining the fun. (Oddly enough, only the second or third account gets banned, not the main one, so whoever cheated can soldier on.) On top of that, several of our players don't seem to have the stomach to fight a prolonged war and are simply quitting the game. Can't blame them. Honestly, I'm thinking of doing the same because it simply sucks up too much time.

There's no denying that the holiday rush has kicked off, judging by the list of titles shipping to stores over the past couple of weeks. Lots of new games to check out, although there are equally as many "WTF?" titles in there. You know, those titles that make you think, "Who the hell came up with this game/idea?"

Adam got to see A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas last night, so keep an eye out for the review later this week.

Been making my way through the single-player portion of Battlefield 3, and while I enjoy it a lot, there also seems to be an equal amount of frustration. For starters, your squad AI seems to be either blind or use bent barrels. They miss enemies that are right in front of them, rendering them all but useless. The gameplay variety — tank battles, dogfighting, bombing runs — gives it a nice change of pace from the infantry-style battles.

Apart from meeting up with some friends for pub food and beers, we have no particular plans today, so errands and DVR watching it is!

Watched the newest episode of Sons Of Anarchy last night and must admit that there seems to be a lot more action going on than last season. Good stuff!

Back from the concert, and while my hearing isn't quite shot, it's definitely diminished. We ended up being a bit late due to traffic, but Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town" made it all worthwhile. Black Label Society was a bit of a jumbled mess, but Judas Priest was awesome. Two hours of highlights from the past 40 years. Jolly good show!

No specific plans for this weekend yet, no movies that are on our must-see list, so we'll probably catch up on some DVR and maybe play some Fallen Earth and Battlefield 3.

This week's Twitter giveaway is Bejeweled 3, so if you want a chance to get a redeem code, keep an eye on the WP Twitter feed.

Finally got around to playing some Battlefield 3. Graphically, it's quite impressive and runs smoothly. Jumped in a few multiplayer matches and got my ass handed to me right away, so obviously I have to run through the single-player to get familiar with the mechanics before I foolishly rush into online matches. The first impression is positive, although dealing with the web-based interface is a bit annoying.

Later on this afternoon, we're heading out to the Judas Priest concert, so anybody calling on Friday will have to speak up. I might be hearing-impaired for a day or so ... \m/

Tomorrow we get to duck out early because we need to head out to another concert. We usually don't do gigs during the week, but we made the Judas Priest farewell tour an exception to the rule. With opening acts Black Label Society and old-school rockers Thin Lizzy (once upon a time featuring my beloved Gary Moore), it starts earlier than usual, so we need to head out in the early evening. We even plan on making a pit stop on the way to have some BBQ.

Finally got my Battlefield 3 PC code, so I'll let that download overnight. Hope the servers will be a little more stable, so Tony can stop complaining about getting kicked all the time.

Until then, I'll be Breaking The Law, be on Painkillers, but always remember You've Got Another Thing Comin'.

Battlefield 3 is coming out today, so I guess it'll be a slow news day in many regions. As a PC gamer, I'm quite disappointed that I'm stuck with the Xbox 360 version, so hopefully some half-intelligent PR rep will pay attention to my request for a PC copy/redeem code (cough! ahem!).

In the meantime, I've been grinding through Fallen Earth and still enjoying it. Mainly slogging through PvE missions to rank up and increase my stats, but it's fun and a pretty huge world. I haven't even started to get into the crafting system yet ....

TV-wise, we're fighting a losing battle, we watch 2-3 episodes and by the time we're done, equally as many have been recorded. Over the past few days, we watched The Good Wife, NCIS, 2 Broke Girls, Fringe, Kitchen Nightmares, Blue Bloods, Terra Nova and Castle.

Paranormal Activity 3 was expected to do well, but it became the biggest horror opening of all time this weekend, grossing as much as all other movies in this weekend's top 10 combined. We've seen the first one and passed on the sequel, but from the sound of it, we'll have to catch up so we can check out the latest one. Quite surprising ...

Yesterday we went to Adam's place and watched Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. It was a good, over-the-top slasher, so it was rather gory, which of course made it funny at the same time. Adam's place has a mini theater in the complex, so reclining seats, Blu-ray, a big screen and surround sound made it extra fun!