Last night, we saw the new Sylvester Stallone movie, The Expendables. With a cast like Sly, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Steve Austin and cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, you'd figure the movie ought to be half decent. While it was not exactly bad, the movie didn't live up to the potential of the cast. Of course, you don't have to expect any interesting plot development, but the story didn't gel well, apart from some decent one-liners. If only the rest of the movie were as action-packed as the last 20 minutes, that could have saved it ....

Since I am still banned from playing CrimeCraft, I vowed to take the free time to switch my gaming rig into the new case. Now's the time!

It was surprisingly quiet yesterday. Maybe everybody is on vacation or getting ready for GamesCom next week.

We started watching Covert Affairs, and while it's nothing super, it's better than we expected. Since it's On Demand, we don't need to DVR it and it's free, so we figure we may as well watch it while we can.

The drama in CrimeCraft continues, as I've had to tell a bunch of people why two of their biggest players were banned for shady reasons. So far, the response has been heartening. Most people are baffled, claiming Vogster is overreacting. A response from the VP of Vogster stated that we violated "the spirit of the game/tournament." I'd say that in a game about gangs, crafting drugs, killing rival gangs, and robbery, we actually raised the bar on that spirit.

Wedding Anniversary

Drinking Wine = Kryptonite

Sleep

We did most of our errands yesterday so that we can have the day all to ourselves. No specific plans beyond going out for breakfast and cooking dinner, so we'll see what we can come up with to entertain ourselves.

Something is afoot in the world of CrimeCraft. GMs have been abusing their power by kicking people out of the game "as a joke," and over the past year, some of their best players have gotten banned, and now it's my turn.

If you've been following me for the past year, you'll notice that I've been a staunch supporter of the game, but this is the second time I have been banned (the first time was cleared up the next day, so I didn't mention it) for what I considered to be BS reasons.

So far, several rival gangs have expressed similar frustrations, and a campaign to support my return is being staged, but if it's unsuccessful, adios CC (and with it, several of my high-level premium players who are equally fed up). Viva La Revolución!

Weekend again, and this one has special meaning since we are celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary! No super special plans, apart from a nice dinner, probably a movie and lots of smooching!

No hiking or concerts this weekend, so it should be nice and relaxing. Maybe i'll even get around to doing my long-overdue case and HD PVR projects.

Last night we watched some Burn Notice, and I also just received the first issue of the Kane & Lynch comic book.

No concerts this weekend, so if we're good, we'll probably get some time to catch up on a variety of things. Then again, we might just end up doing nothing at all. Got to love weekends!

Last night we watched Psych and Leap Year, a romantic comedy that was better than expected. Tonight we'll probably watch Legion and Fanboys, while a trip to the theater might result in finally catching Salt. Lots of movie goodness going on around here.

Of course, there will also be plenty of CrimeCraft, StarCraft II and some APB, which I've been neglecting lately.

Runic Games announced Torchlight II! Excellent! While it's not yet the promised MMO version with the added co-op multiplayer, it is one step closer.

We haven't been doing much TV watching lately. We did, however, watch Hell's Kitchen last night, as we're trying to re-arrange our sleeping schedule a bit. We've been feeling the backlash in our aging bones for all those late nights over the past few years, so we'll see how that turns out.

No concerts this weekend, although later this month, we are going to go see Slash, famed Guns N' Roses guitarist.

I've been playing some StarCraft II co-op with a friend, and it's great fun. We've been decimating the competition. Now and then, I jump into the campaign to unlock more achievements or get missions done on a harder level, but so far, I am having a good time with it.

With the first footage from DiRT 3 released yesterday, I came across this promo clip featuring Ken Block, who's been signed by Codemasters as a technical consultant for the previous game. The video shows some serious jaw-dropping precision driving, so you have to check it out. It'll have you jump up and down in your seat as he performs tricks with pinpoint accuracy in his Subaru Impreza WRX.

As you may have noticed above, we went to a Plants vs. Zombies XBLA event last night, and both the event and game were a lot of fun. PopCap had a troupe of dancers dressed in sunflower outfits and others sporting huge zombie heads. Cue Michael Jackson's Thriller album, and fun was guaranteed.

We have a few more interviews to catch up on that we have accumulated from recent press events, so keep an eye out for DJ Hero 2, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Mafia II, Rock Band 3 and bunch of others.

We just got back from the Scorpions concert, and it was awesome. Good fun and good show! After 45 years, they are calling it quits. Since this was their farewell tour, they performed all their best songs like Blackout, Rock you Like a Hurricane, Big City Nights, Wind of Change, No One Like You, Dynamite and a slew of others. Oddly enough, they didn't sing Still Loving You. Wonder what the story is behind that one ...

Later today, we're going to a PopCap event and checking out something to do with Plants vs. Zombies. Nomz!

Our plans last night to see Salt went up in flames, as our friend canceled on us because she was under the weather. Since we're going to see the Scorpions tonight, our trip to the theater will have to be postponed until next weekend. Instead, we stayed home, ordered Chinese food, and watched Invictus (Clint Eastwood movie with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman).

In between CrimeCraft tournaments, which we have won for the past 3 weeks and counting, I have been playing a little bit of StarCraft II and must admit it has drawn me in. It's not the game itself but mainly the story and different characters. Good stuff ....

Our favorite days have arrived: the weekend!

We'll be running some errands today, maybe watch Angelina Jolie's new movie Salt, and a few other minor things during the day.

Yesterday, I finally managed to check out StarCraft II, but I'm only on the second mission, so it's a little bit early to give any kind of critique.

After playing APB for a few weeks as Criminals, we noticed that the Enforcer side is a bit overpowered with their stun gun, so we switched sides. Hopefully RTW addresses this issue ASAP, or else the entire community will switch and there won't be any missions to be had anymore.

This weekend we have another concert to attend, the Scorpions farewell tour. They are calling it quits, time for retirement, so it's one last hurrah.

We got to see Guitar Hero and DJ Hero 2 last night, but you'll have to wait a few more days to read the impressions. I can tell you that you'll be somewhat surprised.

My lofty goal of installing SC2 fell to the wayside, as I got distracted by Alien Swarm. The old-school, top-down view shooter had me salivating. I loved Frozenbyt's Shadowgrounds back in the day, and Alien Swarm didn't disappoint either. Lots of people online, good graphics, fun gameplay, lots of weapons and upgrades, and last but not least, it's free.

To whet our culinary taste buds, we watched Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef (not too interesting) and mixed it up with the latest episode of Burn Notice.

Aarrghh, my kryptonite struck again!

Our neighbor was kind enough to invite us over to dinner last night, and since the magic word "BBQ" was uttered, we were hooked right away and could not refuse. Of course, wine was served, which made me zonk out and not hear any of our three alarms.

Time for some coffee and then onward with the news (and some StarCraft II).

Wow, talk about a slow news day yesterday. I guess everybody is taking it easy after Comic-Con or something.

Last night, we watched some Hell's Kitchen (seems to be getting real steamy over there) and Entourage.

StarCraft II is out today. We got our copies yesterday but haven't had a chance to install it yet, which I shall do in a little bit. Really looking forward to it!

Wow, we sure did our share of walking this weekend. On Saturday, we did two miles, and yesterday, we went for a four-mile hike and then decided to walk to the concert hall for the Queensryche gig, another two miles. Bet we'll be feeling the result of the workout tomorrow. Achy legs!

Speaking of Queensryche, that was quite the odd concert. It was promoted as a cabaret, so while it was quite entertaining, it sure was different.

This week, we have a few more press junkets to attend (DJ Hero 2, Guitar Hero and Ubisoft Wii preview event), so we'll have plenty of goodies to show and tell you about.

Yesterday was quite a busy day, especially since we usually like to relax and try to do as little as possible. We had relatives show up at 2:30 AM asking to crash at our place, and then we took them out to breakfast in the morning. Then it was off to do some laundry, post office trip, groceries, off to meet a friend for dinner, and then our neighbor, who just had foot surgery (and was obviously going stir-crazy), wanted to see Inception, which we had planned to see next week with Adam. (Sorry, man.)

While we are not big DiCaprio fans, we did want to go see it because we like Christopher Nolan (known for Memento and the last few Batman movies). If you have not seen it yet, it has a rather Matrix-like vibe and was quite the mind bender, but it was definitely worth seeing. Good stuff!

Yesterday, Adam and I spent a nice day at 2K Games playing Mafia II. Quite a hassle to get there, though — delayed subway, traffic jam due to road construction, and to top it all off, one block away from the 2K offices we were held up by dozens of little kids pedaling their tricycles in circles while teachers blocked off the road. Good god ....

Later today, we have a busy schedule! CrimeCraft tournament, haircut, groceries, post office and meeting up with friends for dinner.

Later today, Adam and I will be taking a trip to 2K Games to get some hands-on time with Mafia II, so be sure to keep an eye out in the near future for our report and perhaps some interviews while we're there. We'll have some more Comic-Con coverage throughout the day, depending on traffic and whether they'll let me hop on the Wi-Fi at their offices.

We're going to the Queensrÿche concert on Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to it. Haven't seen them perform in two decades. The last time I saw them was in 1990, but the show was stopped due to a fatal stabbing in the audience. Hopefully we'll have better luck this time around ....