Yesterday we saw The King's Speech, and we were pleasantly surprised at how good and entertaining it was. I had not done any reading up on it, so I assumed it had something to do with a medieval king making a noteworthy speech sometime in history. While the latter is true, it is set  in early 20th century Britain, right before the start of World War II.

Aside from doing some errands, I also played some Genesis A.D. and tried out Alliance of Valiant Arms, two free-to-play FPS titles. Both are quite decent, with AVA being the favorite, but for some reason, that game inexplicably makes my PC shut down after a few minutes of play. I've uninstalled, re-downloaded the install from a different source, and updated my video card drivers to no avail. Bummer ...

My CrimeCraft experience has once again come to a screeching halt. After being banned four times for questionable reasons — not for hacking/glitching, which is rampant in the community — I played under an old friend's account (he'd left the game last year). Earlier this week, the developers figured it out, and sure enough, the next day, I was banned for account sharing.

I can hear you say, "Man, give it up already. They obviously don't want you there." Vogster's MMOFPS isn't a stellar game, but I have many friends there, and it was the only reason I kept coming back. In a sign of solidarity, most of my pals have quit CrimeCraft, and we will move on to APB shortly.

Most MMOs expand their world, but after more than a year, Vogster decided to cut the lobby in half and split players across two servers. It's not because there were SO many players; both servers run on low population most of the time. There are daily "server maintenance" downtimes, which don't resolve anything since additional server reboots ensue, sometimes multiple times a day. There is constant server lag, and European players are mixed with North American users, causing lag during PvP. There is also HackShield's inability to detect any hackers.

A quick Google/YouTube search yields tools to help you cheat in the game. Several Web sites list the number of people who are using their third-party hacks and in which game, but very little disciplinary action is taken in CrimeCraft. Two Web sites reveal that about 80 people are currently hacking in CrimeCraft — about 10% of the game's population. If you call out somebody for hacking, though, the GMs will tell you to not say anything in public and ask you to file a customer service ticket. Then they'll hide behind a "privacy policy," so they can't follow up.

Yes, let's all stick our heads in the sand ....

Wonder what is all going on over at Activision. It's dropping various franchises and closing half a dozen development studios — several of which they acquired only a two years ago. The Guitar Hero titles losing their appeal should not have come as a surprise; I thought it would have happened sooner since they were milking the franchise and putting out titles like there was no tomorrow. There hasn't been a good Tony Hawk title in a while, either, and it's no wonder that the investment in the Ride skateboard peripheral is also being questioned. Now, on to milking the Call Of Duty franchise!

This weekend, we're going to go see The Social Network or The King's Speech, just to catch up on some Oscar-nominated movies, have dim sum with friends, run some errands, and, if all goes well, finish building my PC. I've done some preliminary tinkering when our inet service was down earlier this week, so I have a head start!

Not quite sure why, but I'm a little bit bored with my current batch of games. I haven't played Vindictus in a month or two because there is no PVP, and the promised guild features never materialized, Stronghold Kingdoms is getting on my nerves with the constant AI attacks and lack of parish member support, Dead Space II was fun for a few hours but I've put it aside for now, and Eve Online is so huge that I'm just logging in once a day to set skills.

The only title left for now is DC Universe Online, but the weird thing is that when you and a friend have different mentors, it is difficult to sync with friends to group up and do the same missions, resulting in one or the other having to do the missions twice.

Yesterday sucked, plain and simple.

Being without internet service (or phone, for that matter) for more than half of the day just wasn't any fun.

Lots of reading material has been showing up over the past few days, including comic books for Deus Ex and DC Universe Online, as well as a novel based on the Homefront game. Guess I'll have to do some catching up ...

The internet service has been down in the office for the past few hours, and while technicians have been at it for a while now, it seems that the service outage may last for a bit longer. Luckily, there are a few unsecured wi-fi connections in the area who have agreed to let us hop on ... well, if they only knew, that is!

Prior to the internet going down, I was going to keep it rather short, as one of my favorite guitar players passed away yesterday. Gary Moore, also known for having played with Thin Lizzy, died in his sleep yesterday while on vacation in Estepona, Spain. Influenced by artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, as well as Jimi Hendrix, Moore has been one of my favorite blues/rock guitarist (and he does lead vocals as well) ever since I heard Victims of the Future in 1984.

As predicted, we didn't get anything done this weekend, no cmputer assembling, no trip to the movie theatre, nothing but being lazy, taking naps, run a few errands and watch TV, such as Blue Bloods, The Cape, Bones, and Supernatural.

As you can tell, no football fans over here, so the Super Bowl was totally lost on us, but congrats to all the Green Bay Packers fans for their victory over the Steelers, EA's Madden NFL 2011 prediction fumbled and didn't get it right this time.

Not much else going on atm, maybe I should start making our GDC schedule, I shudder at the thought, and the fact that GDC means E3 is not far behind ...

Man, it was a lovely day yesterday. There was beautiful weather, sunny and warm, and today should be similar, so maybe we'll actually venture out.

Apart from going to breakfast with some friends, we have nothing on the program, so maybe we'll see a movie (The King's Speech or The Fighter), watch some DVR (yesterday we caught up on Human Target, Kitchen Nightmares,  and The Good Wife), or at last work on my second new PC.

So many choices, so little time ....

Last night was a load of fun. We celebrated a friend's birthday with dinner, a night on the town and drinks aplenty.

We didn't come home until the middle of the night, hence the late update, so apologies about that.

We'll see what we can scrounge up for some updates, but first, must get some much-needed coffee because the brain is still in sleep mode.

The weekend's almost here!

It's been a busy week, work-wise as well as gaming. DC Universe Online is still taking up a big chunk of my time, but I'm enjoying it greatly. Our faction in Stronghold Kingdoms is on the warpath, so lots is going on over there as well.

There's a reason why I never got into MMOs until about a year ago: I get sucked in too much. Single-player games are so much easier to drop, even the multiplayer-enabled ones.

This weekend, we have quite a few plans, starting with this evening's birthday bash for our neighbor, the usual errands, probably seeing The King's Speech, and I promised myself that I'd finally get around to putting together my new work PC. I'll be happy if I get half of it done ...

I decided to put on some tights and try out DC Universe Online, and it is quite a fun ride.

The character editor is a tad limited, though, as it's nowhere near as advanced as some other MMOs like Eve Online. It has a bunch of pre-made items you can mix and match and various body types. You can still make a unique character, mind you, but a high-end editor it is not.

For people not in the know, you cannot play as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or any of the other classic heroes. Otherwise, the world would be full of those iconic characters, but depending on whether you choose to be a hero or a villain, they serve as your mentor or enemy.

It was good to have a slightly busy day yesterday. It keeps the distractions at bay, and it's easier to focus on work when there is a steady stream of things to do.

I've gotten a few more hours into Dead Space 2 and still enjoying it a lot, although I'm ready for some new enemies and monsters. So far, they all seem similar, if not identical, to the foes from the original. I've also started downloading DC Universe Online, so I'll get some tights and see how much trouble I can get myself into.

Special mention has to go to Nexon for sending me a sweet-looking crystal skull filled with vodka to promote their Mabinogi Hamlet update — not so much for the alcohol part, but I'm a sucker for anything that has to do with skulls.

It was kind of a slow day yesterday, which gave me some time to check out Dead Space 2. While I'm only about 30-45 minutes into it, it already made me jump in my seat twice — not an easy feat. The preliminary impression is that the game's quite interesting, with some familiar mechanics and a few new additions, such as crawling in vents and walking around dazed & confused.

I also played some Stronghold Kingdoms as FireFly finally launched its Glory system, basically declaring all-out war among factions (guilds) in the game. The bottom line is that the winner is he who controls the most territory for the duration of the event. I've been amassing troops in my vassal parishes for the past few weeks and beefing up my own castle defenses, so I should be good to go ....

We managed to see The Mechanic yesterday, a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson movie, and as expected, it was pretty solid. It was action-packed with quite a few gruesome killings and a somewhat flimsy story, but let's be honest, you are not seeing a Jason Statham movie to discover the meaning of life.

While we were waiting for the movie to start, we saw a few upcoming movie clips, and now we are looking forward to The Eagle, Limitless (maybe when it comes on DVD), and of course Battle: Los Angeles. That trailer looks so epic that it gives me goosebumps each time I see it. For crying out loud, give us a new Transformers 3 teaser, will ya? I'm tired of seeing that same footage over and over again, especially since it shows absolutely nothing!

Well, let's get this show on the road ...

Yesterday was a bit of a letdown. We did our errands, groceries, and what was supposed to be a trip to the movie theater turned into an impromptu five-hour nap. Maybe we'll try to see The Mechanic later today again.

We watched some Chuck, House, played more Plants vs. Zombies on NDS, Magicka, Eve Online (setting skills), and Stronghold Kingdoms. We recorded the Australian Open men's finale last night but haven't gotten around to watching it yet, so we're steering clear of any news sites so we don't spoil the result.

In case you haven't been following the Australian Open, Kim Clijsters has won the Aussie Cup against Li Na from China (the first Chinese woman in a grand slam finale) and is now truly Aussie Kim (a nickname she got when she was dating Australian Lleyton Hewitt). It was a butt-clencher, but in the long run, Clijsters was the better player. Less classy was the Williams sisters' mom, blasting Clijsters over something that doesn't even make any sense.

No big plans for this weekend, but instead of going to see The Green Hornet we might switch that out for The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham. We watched some Kitchen Nightmarea, played some Plants vs. Zombies on the NDS, and a little bit of Magicka (my little wizard is sporting a huge M60 light machine gun, awesome!).

Sony finally took the wraps off the PSP2, or Next Generation Portable, whatever you want to call it. I haven't turned on my old PSP in forever, and when I did, it was to occasionally play Ghost'n Goblins or Killzone for a few minutes. The new iteration sounds promising, so let's hope it lives up to the expectations.

No big plans for this weekend, so everything will be nice and quiet around these parts. Maybe we'll catch up left or right, sleep, watch DVR/Netflix, and see The Green Hornet or Your Highness. You know, the usual. :)

It's been rather quiet concert-wise, but we are going to see Kevin Smith in a few weeks, as well as a musical, Rock Of Ages. That'll be my dose of cultural enlightenment for the rest of the year.

Woke up this morning with a massive headache. What's up with that? Did somebody use my head as a soccer ball while I was sleeping?

Kim Clijsters advanced once again and is now in the finale of the Australian Open. Way to go! On the men's side, it's getting a bit weird. Nadal is gone, and Federer is gone. Changing of the guard, it would seem.

I finally managed to check out Magicka, and while it has a few issues (bugs), the game is quite nice, fun and cute. I'm not quite sure why the voice-overs are in some weird language; it sure isn't English, so perhaps they are trying to be like The Sims and made up some gibberish.

Our night on the town is over.  Good food, plenty of drinks (Jameson, Guinness, margaritas), and lots of inappropriate stories and comments, always make for a fun evening.

Prior to heading out, we quickly watched our favorite tennis player Kim Clijsters advance to the next round in the Australian Open. One step closer to winning the entire thing!

We'll soon be kicking off a new contest, this time giving away a ton of beta codes for Punchers Impact's Crasher, a vehicular combat featuring MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas). If that sounds like it may be of interest, keep an eye out in the coming days.

A late start today, and a short day as we're meeting up with an out-of-town friend we haven't seen in months. He was supposed to arrive last night, but a delayed flight resulted in a missed connecting flight and a midnight arrival. Ouch ...

With Dead Space 2 and Magicka in stores now, I'll be checking out both titles on the PC. I've been looking forward to the latter for quite a while, as it's been delayed a few times.

Last night, we watched The Cape, Hawaii Five-0, Kitchen Nightmares and some Australian Open. Good times!