I’m roughly 50% in GTA 4 now, and showing signs of slowing down.  This is by far the furthest I have ever gotten in the GTA series in terms of story, and I do plan to eventually finish every mission available to me.  I think I am finally ready to start playing it online in a halfway serious manner now that there isn’t much left in terms of spoilers.

Rock Band is still at weekly staple for me.  I did finally finish Green Grass and High Tides, although it was in the practice mode so it doesn’t count to anyone but me, seeing as there’s really no way I am ever going to get any further than around 85% through the song.  I’m able to play many songs on Expert on the drums now, although the kick drumming really kills me as my body just isn’t wired for my feet and arms to be on a different beat from each other, so I know there’s a ceiling I will hit there. 

This weekend Christine and I are going to a wedding, which we’re baking the cake for.  That should be an interesting experience as I have never really baked anything before.  Hopefully I am relegated to measuring stuff out and handing it over.

I think our next SecuraBit show (and last with all of us in the same room) will be next Wednesday evening.  We’re going to try to make certain that our audio is all on the same level this time around.

I won’t spoil anything, so I will talk about some of the technical merits of the game so far.

At 42% in, I can say the story is simply amazing.  I feel like I am sitting in front of a highly interactive movie, and the script is stellar.  The choices you are allowed to make and the way those choices can impact the way the game flows have me torn at times, yet are probably one of the most amazing parts of the game.

The only major gripe I have so far is that there’s a constant feel of annoyance from your ‘friends’ in the game.  They always want to hang out at the worst times, and what kills me is that I can’t just take 2 hours and cruise around the city without losing some like/respect points from a friend or two simply because (and I really love the way the latest zero punctuation put this) I have to pick their ass up, pretend to enjoy whatever we’re doing (for the 999th time) and then take their ass home.  There’s only so much enjoyment I can derive from playing Darts with Little Jacob, mabye if they let me throw darts at his face.

I purchased Worms on the Xbox Live Arcade the other week, and have gotten a great deal of enjoyment out of it.  So far the roommate and I are about even for wins/losses, but I think my skills aren’t as good as they used to be.  The first time I ever played a worms game was back in the Win95 days so you’d think I’d be a god at it, but it’s been awhile and I’m rusty :).  Christine seems to do better against me, though I’ll always blame the map haha.

I’m humming right along in GTA 4, but also taking my time to enjoy the game fully.  The missions are always very engaging and the storyline is simply awesome.  I do have a gripe with the shooting system though, the camera can make you disoriented if you have multiple enemies around you and have to keep moving the camera as you dispatch them.  I’ve only tried the “friends” multiplayer option so far, but I think I will delve into the full multiplayer tonight and post thoughts about that.

I’ll have some pictures up of the new garden soon, so you can all see the disaster recovery job my girlfriend and I did on it.  She’s the green thumb and did the majority of the work.

I preordered my copy yesterday at the local gamestop.  If I feel like staying up late I’ll go grab it at midnight tonight and maybe snap some pictures of the melee.  If you want to play with us let me know, we’re going to form up a group on Xbox Live.  Hopefully the multiplayer features I have heard about are worth the money.

I’ve started a wiki at wiki.securabit.com.  I’m looking for people who want to help make this thing special.  The idea behind it is a security oriented reference wiki for everything hands on in our industry.  Tutorials and HOWTO guides for everything from secure programming to configuring your routers or whatever securely, etc.  I want to keep the focus pretty narrow so that it’s a technical, factual reference, that isn’t very long winded.  Short and to the point is the goal here.   If you’re interested in helping out please let us know.

I started playing around with Tabula Rasa yesterday.  I think it’ll keep me occupied for a couple months while I wait for some more good Xbox 360 releases.  It’s definitely a good bit of fun, but not something I can get addicted to.

I introduced my girlfriend to Neverwinter Nights a few days ago, and she’s addicted.  It’s a lot of fun to go back and play a game like that with someone sitting next to you, hunting monsters and finding loot and arguing over who should lead.  Do any of you play?  I would love to set up a game with a few friends every now and then and play through some module.

Last night I had some complications with my tonsillectomy recovery and had to go back into the ER for surgery.  We got home about an hour ago and I am doing fine now.  I will be off work a little while longer, and hopefully the recovery goes off without any other hitches.