It's Alive!!

It's official (mostly). As of the end of the long weekend, the new site is up and running. I am still missing a couple little graphical items, but those should be coming soon. So for the most part I am very happy with where everything is right now. 

This does mean however that THIS site is pretty much dead. I won't be taking it down (b/c most of my pics are anchored here) but this will be the last post that i make on it (barring any sort of issue with the official one). 

So from now on if you want to read anything that may be going on in my life, the babies life, or the lives of several of my friends that are posting with me, you need to go here.

Again, this is not the end, but a new beginning. 

The OFFICIAL WiFi Pirate site is up! 

http://wifi-pirate.com

Official Site Coming Soon

Well i finally bit the bullet and got a REAL .com. I am naturally working on setting things up the way I want them to look, so until then this is still the site to see. When the sheet falls, and the reveal is made you can go here for my true site. It will be a while, so bear with me until then. To anyone that cares send me some suggestions for the new site. It will be like the current one but with a more organized navigation. Sections will be broken up so they are easy to find. 

If you have help to offer (i am looking for help with graphics, resources, and of course and editor) feel free to leave me a comment or email me.

Thanks everyone. I hope this is what i expect it to be... Forward into the future!!

Goldeneye N64

All aboard for another trip in the "Way Back" machine. Going back now to the late 90's, when my friends and I didn't have a lot to worry about. Fresh outta high school, working crappy jobs just to have money to buy what ever we wanted, not to many worries to hold us down. 

Enter the Nintendo 64 and the game that would rule our nights for years, "Goldeneye 007". I am not sure that I or really anyone, can put a finger on what exactly it was about this game that made it such a time sink. One things for sure though, we all lost countless hours playing this game over and over and over again. 

The story of the game followed directly the story of the movie. It made a few twists and turns but always kept up with the movies plot. You, of course, play as Pierce Brosnon, as the one and only James Bond. Shooting your way through several different environments, using many an amusing gadget, and different powerful weapons. 

The story mode was fine and good, but it really took a back seat to the real draw for this game, the multi-player modes. Five different modes, Eleven different maps, and Thirty different characters to choose from. Countless different variations of the different modes lead to an almost endless list of ways to approach each and every map. My friends and I would play literally all night and never get tired of it. To this day I can still pick up the controller and almost always pinpoint where all the other opponents are strictly based on what they are seeing in their square of the screen. This game (and it's later successor Perfect Dark) was the biggest reason I had such a hard time giving up my N64 a few years ago. 

About a year ago there was a rumor that it might eventually make its way onto the Xbox Live Marketplace. That, sadly, will probably never ever happen due to a mountain of red tape that apparently Microsoft and Nintendo and who ever else is involved can't seem to climb. 

Until the day that they make it for some other system (possibly a download for the Wii Virtual Console) I will have only my memories to keep me company. I don't even care that the graphics haven't aged well AT ALL, I just love the game and everything that went along with it at the time. 

Another Dead Hero...

Well the big news of the day, and probably the week, is that the 1up Network is pretty much dead. 

As of yesterday UGO Entertainment took over EGM and it's sister site 1Up.com. If the story had ended there it probably would have been fine, however it sadly did not. UGO in corporate buy-out fashion, swung the mighty axe of Destruction +1. They put an end to one of, if not the best, gaming magazine left out there. As an avid reader of this magazine, almost since the beginning, I feel like i have come to really know most of the writers and editors there. Granted i have never met any of them, but if you read something from a group of people each month for years, you feel close to them. 

When Ziff decided to kill off the "Official Playstation Magazine" i felt almost the same way. Seeing as how most of the former writers there were absorbed into the EGM/1up scene it wasn't so bad. I still could catch up on projects that everyone was working on, where they were headed and what they wanted to do next. 

This, again, is not where the story ends. When UGO shut down EGM, they also sent most of their stars from the 1up network packing as well. Shane Bettenhausen, Ryan O'Donnell, Nick Suttner, Philip Kollar, James "Milkman" Mielke, Ryan Scott, Matt Chandronait, Jay Frechette, and Greg Ford. That is just a few of the 40 employees that were part of the lay offs. This is the truely sad part of everything. 

Again i have been reading, listening, and watching videos, podcast and articles from these guys for years now. It feels like you just lost touch with friends that you have had for years and now you may never know what they are up to next. 

Talent was one thing that the group had for certain. I defy you to watch any of the 1up show episodes and not find something informative, or funny in every single one. I guess that is why it is so hard to understand why UGO would cut most of it's star lineup. 

No more 1Up Yours, no more 1Up Show, no more 1Up FM... i don't understand it. I am not trying to be melodramatic here but it's really sad. I loved getting my news from those guys, finding out what was the next big thing, or the next flop. Seeing all the fun they were having making the 1Up Show made me want to be a better writer so that i could one day have a job like that. Seriously, i started this blog with the thought in the back of my head that one day i could be part of a group of people that produced informative well balanced shows like them. 

I can't imagine what Garnett, David Ellis, Jeremy, and the rest of the guys that are left, are going through. To have to go back to that empty office where they all had so much fun, spent so much time together. It must be torture. I guess if there is a bright side at least they still have jobs to go to. 

I can only hope that the members that have been separated can find some way of getting back in the game. Though it has changed a lot over the past several hours, i look forward to the future projects that they all work on. I hope they keep us (the gaming public) updated with everything they are doing, and where they plan to go next. 

So sorry to see it end this way 1Up. I know i am not the only out there that will miss the weekly updates from your podcasts and such. Good luck to everyone in whatever you do next. And to all those that are left at their desks, keep doing what you have been for years and you will still have loyal fans willing to give you candy, and even booze once in a while. 

End of the world, no. End of something great, positively.

It's A Boy!!

I didn't think it was possible, honestly. With all the women in my family i really didn't think it would happen. However i guess nature wasn't listening, b/c sure enough, we are having a boy. 

Everything went well during the ultra sound. Measurements are fine, development is fine, things are all where they should be and working according to how they should. As of right now my son weighs in at a hefty 11oz. and is only a day off the pace of the original due date. 

It has finally started to sink in that we are going to have a kid in the next few months. We started looking at things for the room, and clothes. Some things from family members have already started coming in.

As i told my wife since i am the only male in a family of about 10 female children, grand children, and great grand children, our SON will be spoiled rotten. My father seemed pretty chill about having a grandson but i could tell deep down he can't wait to take him on his first fishing trip. 

Names have been picked out, for years now, and our son will be Brandon Xavier. I can't wait to meet the little guy when he comes out... 

Congratulations!! It's A...

Friday we will hopefully be able to find out what we are having. I don't think either my wife or I really care what we are having, so long as it is healthy. So far in the few ultrasounds we have had the baby has not been very cooperative. Legs crossed, revealing nothing of what it may be. The appt we have Friday is apparently a 45min deal, so hopefully with that amount of time they will be able to say one way or another what's up.

Stay Tuned. If i find out actually what we are having i will post it asap. 

More MGS LBP info

So more information has come out on the MSG pack for LittleBigPlanet. The pack will hit the PSN on December 23rd (just in time for virtual stocking stuffing). The individual costumes will cost $2 or you can buy them as a pack for $6. Which includes the Snake, Meryl, Mantis, and Raiden costume. Raiden as announced before will not be sold as a stand alone, only in the pack.

The MGS level pack will also be $6 and includes a HUGE variety of items. First the Gurlukovich costume not available in the other costume pack. Also, 72 stickers, 12 materials, 10 decorations, 18 objects, and apparently more they don't mention. The biggest part (or maybe the smallest) is in this pack you will receive the "Paintinator", a small paint ball gun that your sack boy will carry around. It's the gun that is featured in the video above. 

Once again this whole package is looking better and better. Now that they have patched the game again (1.07) they added an ingame store to buy items from the PSN. They also added a more specific way to search for levels, in game. Very nice additions.