I  purchased tickets to see Nickelback, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin and Sick Puppies in Spokane this May. That, to me, is a pretty solid lineup.

It’ll be my second time seeing Nickelback, Shinedown, and Breaking Benjamin. I’ve seen Sick Puppies three times.

I bring this up for 3 reasons.

Number 1. Every one of these bands puts on a great show.  Nickelback and Shinedown have a great veteran vibe and know how to work up a crowd. We caught Nickelback last year in Spokane and Shinedown on their own tour at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle. ((On a side note, there is NO better way to watch a show in a medium sized venue then the SoDo)). Nickelback had Breaking Benjamin (as well as Papa Roach and Three Days Grace) on tour. The Shinedown show included Sick Puppies (along with Adelita’s Way and Cavo). The first Sick Puppies show we caught was on the 3 Doors Down tour (with Staind and Hinder).

So, I’m really happy to be going to see these bands again.

Secondly. I went ahead and opted for VIP tickets this time. Partly because the show is around the time of our wedding anniversary so the little extras, early entry, and the better seats sounded like  a good anniversary type gift for my wife.

But also, and this is number 3, because the lady (Live Nation employee) that I spoke to on the phone about tickets seemed to be completely lost with regards to me buying something from her.

I’m aware of the ticket purchasing issues with Ticketmaster. I’ve heard the stories about unfair fees, jacked up ticket prices, and whatnot. But I’ll say this for Ticketmaster. When I’ve wanted to purchase at ticket, and I’ve purchased alot of tickets, they seem to completely understand the concept of giving me a ticket to a given seat in exchange for my money. Not so, it seems with this Live Nation employee that I ran into. In the course of a 15 minute phone call, I was put on hold no less then 4 times so that the person at the other end of my phone call could check with another person. First that there was a Spokane show. Then that there were tickets available for the show. Then that there were still VIP tickets available that weren’t special pre-sale tickets. Lastly over which of the 3 types of VIP tickets were available.

Finally, I put her on hold (hung up) and puchased the tickets over the internet. It was actually cheaper. I can assume that there is some sort of extra fee for the “privledge” of speaking to a live person on the phone.

If this is an example of Ticketmaster’s competition. I think they’re safe.

Ticket buying drama aside, I have high hopes that I’ll enjoy the show. It being part of an Anniversay gift, I’m planning to spend the night at the Davenport and do the whole limo to the show and back deal.

Don’t tell the wife.

-dr

Without a doubt, 2009 has been a good year in games and music.

Not to miss out on a bandwagon, here are my top 5 games that came out this year. I’ll note how I played them.

5) Plants VS Zombies (PC)

4) Left 4 Dead 2 (PC and 360)

3) Borderlands (360)

2) Assasin’s Creed 2 (360)

1) Dragon Age: Origins (360 – so far)

To be fair, there were alot of games that I didn’t get to this year that might have made the list if I had. Modern Warfare 2 and Batman: Arkam Asylum come to mind immediately. However, I didn’t play them, so I can’t rate them.

I’m not going to rate music as I can’t. I love the hell out of every song I bought this year.

Sonar 8.5 dropped this year though. HUGE improvements. ’nuff said.

Here’s hoping that 2010 is just as feature rich.

After all, it’s only 2 years from 2012 and according to Hollywood. And I guess the Mayans, that year is going out with a bang.

I think I’m pretty close to finishing Assassin’s Creed 2 for the Xbox 360.

However, Dragon’s Age: Origins showed up in a little Netflix bundle of goodness this last week. And I immediately put about 10 hours into it.

I’m sure you can see the dilemma.

Should I stop playing the very excellent DA:O so that I can complete the also excellent Assassin’s Creed 2? FYI, I started to abreviate Assassin’s Creed 2 into AC2, but as an avid MMO gamer, that abreviation causes me to throw up just a little in my mouth. So I didn’t.

Had I taken Rage’s supposably sarcastic comment in the last post on this topic to heart, I could conceivably be playing both games at the same time, right now. But who does that?

I ment the Rage part.

Speaking of games, did anyone catch the news about Left for Dead 2? All eight survivors on a single compaign is nothign but gaming goodness defined.

Next week should be my last post for the year, so I’m hoping to do a list run down of my favorite entertainment goodness for the last year.

Have a Merry Christmas.

-Dr

The wife (of the aggro fame) and I gifted each other with IPhones for our birthdays this year. So, as is my style, I dipped both my feet into mobile gaming recently. Most people, I suppose, would have dipped in a foot, or a foot and ankle, but my motto is never to do something if it can instead be overdone.

As existing ITunes customers (I don’t recall the last physical bit of musical media that I purchased. Tool’s 10,000 Days, probably) it was pretty natural for us to pick the IPhone as our smart (read “gaming”) phone of choice. That and the folks over at the Gamers with Jobs podcast kept going on about the phone and the games. So I was compelled, you might say.

I tried out several of the demo games to get a feel for the platform. Demo in this context identified by the “Lite” suffix on the game title. “Lite” I should mention, already feels like the mobile gaming equivalent of the girl in an Amsterdam window. Sometimes it means that you’ll get what you see. Sometimes it means you will get something other then what you see. And occasionally, you won’t get a woman, or game, at all. Fair Warning.

Anyhow…

Moving on. I hit the favorites, I think. Lite versions of Mahjong, Bejeweled, Backbreaker (an interesting football running back sim, I think), Dungeon Runners (a fantasy RPG), and the oblig. driving game that appeared to be more of a Volkswagen ad than a game. The usual suspects.

So far, I have *purchased* Bejeweled 2, Dungeon Runner (which I’m hearing will not shut down on me in a few weeks), and Rock Band. (((NOTE: Dungeon HUNTER is the game that I purchased. Not shutting down. All is well with the world)))

No disappointments so far.

But I’m curious, as an apparently late adoptor to the platform, if I’ve missed any great games of note.

Any suggestions?

I want to play Dragon Age: Origins.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about the game.

However, I’m torn on whether I want to play the 360 version. The PC version. Or both.

I understand that there are differences. They key one being that the PC version has a broader feel to it. The tactical combat is more fluid.

Both versions, though, are apparently worth the price of admission.

Here’s MY problem. My PC will need either a major overhaul (I’m still working it with a single core Athlon64), or a replacement before the PC version will run. I”m actually surprised that Left4Dead 2 is running on it. Although I do crash about once a session.

So, I could be playing the 360 version by the holidays, or the PC version sometime after that when my parental consence will let me spend a bunch of money on myself.

Maybe I put the game on my wish list for Christmas and let fate take a hand. I’m sure I’d enjoy both platforms?

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I was able to put in quite a few hours of Lord of the Rings Online. Over the course of about 3 hours of playing, I got to observe what amounted to school yard shoving matches over that game’s OOC chat system. In 3 seperate zones. I’ve been in gaming long enough to know that what seems mature or childish in chat probably doesn’t have anything to do with real life age. I’ve known some pretty intelligent 15 year olds and I’ve known some pretty immuture 40 year olds.

While I was eventually able to restore the peace through the steady use of the game’s /ignore function, it got me thinking that there should be a better way.

I doubt that this is trailblazing thinking, but I think I’d be willing to play a couple of extra dollars for a server with more active GMs that could put the boot on that kind of crap. Call them, “Premium Servers” or, “Mature Servers” (although that might bring in a whole other kind of annoying), or what have you.

I think the MMO gaming crowd has matured to the point where some of us who have been at this since Genie released Multiplayer Battletech would be willing to cough up more money for a better gaming experiance. Or at least one that was moderated to eliminate the childish.

Eventually one game company is going to try it. I’ll be there to try it with them.

Unless the game blows.

Typically the September – December timeframe is a weak one for new gaming. Publishers seem to tend to hold off on thier game releases until right in the heat of the holiday season so these months leading into that tend to have fewer new game offerings.
Not so this year thanks to a timely anniversary sale over at Direct2Drive. As part of thier 5 year anniversary sale, D2D had 5 weeks of 5 dollar game sales.
So I picked up some games that I’d always been interested in, but never enough to spend 50 bucks on.
Saints Row 2 was a game that I played on the 360, but that type of game just plays better on a PC for me. So that had to be purchased.
Civilization IV is a classic. One that I’d always been interesed in playing. So that’s on the HDD, now.
World in Conflict, as a demo, was a central part of one of our WAN weekends from last year. So seeing that one show up on sale was a big win for me. In fact, it’s the first one that I fired up to play when I got the time.
Lately, I picked up Battlestations: Pacific based on the replay strength of the demo that I goofed around with a few months ago.
So, between those 4 games, and my current interest in Champions Online, the 2009 edition of the gaming doldrums have been successfully prevented, I think.
Best of luck to the rest of you out there.

I once made a joke during a podcast that my wife, Demise, was the death knell for any show that she grew to like. Once Demise put it on the DVR schedule, it’s days were numbered.

Now, though, I’m starting to think that comment cost me some karma and I’ve seen one after another of the shows that *I* enjoy disappear from my TV schedule.

Battlestar Galactica – Gone. (Although, to be honest, I feel pretty innocent about that one)

Reaper – Going. (Baring the success of it’s rabid fan base and thier SOS campaign)

Kings - Gone.

Life on Mars - Gone.

Trust Me – Gone.

The Unusuals – Gone.

Honestly, it’s getting to the point where I’m almost afraid to DVR a show. Eurika, Southland, Medium, Rescue Me, Mythbusters and others could disappear w/out a warning.

I suppose this stinks of ego. I hope it does. Some of my favorite actors might just have me to blame for their current joblessness.

Which brings me, I guess, to shows that I have recently started watching that I really like.

Defing Gravity is a pretty good futuristic space drama on ABC. Although I watch it on Hulu to avoid the whole DVR thing (in an attempt to remove myself from TV show death blame). It stars Ron Livingston who was amazing in the cult classic Office Space and stood out in the fantastic Band of Brothers. Well worth watching.

Warhouse 13 is a fantastic show about two Secret Service agents who are tasked with tracking down the various mystical, powerful objects around the world and bringing them back to store, where they can’t cause any (more) harm. Good acting, very funny plot lines, and being something of a history buff, I enjoy the historical referances that are sprinkled around each shows script. Can’t recommend it enough.

Three Sheets is a little half hour show that I came across after getting a little hooked on Hulu. Zane Lamprey is the host. The premise is that every episode, Zane visits some town or country and participates in whatever the local drinking customs are. It’s a pretty spiff way to get a feel for the various countrys or citys that the show is filmed in. Each show wrapps up with Zane attemping whatever the local hangover cure is. Honestly, the who thing sounds a bit weak in print, but give it a shot. The show is very entertaining.

I think that’s enough. Let’s test the waters with these 3 and see how they fair over the next year.

-dr

It’s been a pretty slow period here at wife-aggro.

I did purchase the new Sick Puppies CD , Tri-Polar, on I-Tunes. Pretty damn good. I’d recommend it to anyone. Master of the Universe, So What I Lied, In it for Life, and Rip Tide are all good listening on a hot summer afternoon around the BBQ.

I’d say it’s good stuff for a car ride as well, but I’m currently auto-less. I wrecked my A6, so I’m waiting on the insurance company to process the paperwork so that I can start the crapfest that is buying another car these days. I really liked having an all wheel drive car during the Washington winters, so I’ll probably look at getting another A6. Or maybe, in these high gas price times, an A4.

I’ve been doing some 1 min music pieces for the 1st Time Caller podcast these days. I’d love to say that I have to, as I married one of the hosts, but it’s actually been quite a bit of fun. I do the music, and mix the segments, music, and whatnot using my Cakewalk Sonar software. it’s good practice. And being under the gun to come up with something (or somethings) new each week has been good for me. Sandi does a review show about some of the better podcasts out there, so give it a listen. You might find something you like in there.

And I may finally do what I’ve been talking about and stretch one of those 1 minute pieces into a real song. I generally have a syncopation in my head when I’m doing the recording. I’m just really crappy about writing it down before I move on to something else.

On the gaming front. I’ve all but given up on MMO games. Between the been here / done that feelings I have about them, and the total reliance on other people to participate so that I can have fun, I may find myself a dedicated RTS or FPS gamer for a while. Or maybe the Xbox 360. Who knows.

Catch you next time.

I’ve picked up two newish releases this week.

It’s kind of funny, I started to type albums.. because I’m that old, and then rethought it. But what do you call an artist’s release when you just download their new stuff on I-Tunes?

Not Album, not CD. Wierd.

I’m sure someone has figured it out.

Anyhow. The new release by Green Day, “21st Century Breakdown” (new) and Theory of a Deadman, “Scars and Souvenirs” (less new) are pretty decent.

Green Day sounds a bit less punky then they did back in the, “Dookie” days. But everyone progresses. The Musicmanship that they show off on the new release is outstanding. The songs are good with a touch of the usual political ranting that they expressed so much on the last release, without being overtly heavy handed about it. All in all, a pretty good purchase.

I had bought the first 2 singles from Theory of a Deadman, “I Hate my Life” and “Bad Girlfriend” previously when they first started getting some airplay. It popped up as a Finish my Album offer on I Tunes (which is probably why I keep thinking of releases in that term) and since I enjoyed the first two songs, and had 11 bucks left on my account, I went ahead and picked up the rest of the songs.  Well worth it. I can see Theory of a Deadman being catagorized as a Nicklebackish band. But IMO, they’re a bit less douchy. (FYI – that was added in there just to see if my wife reads this. She’s a HUGE Nickleback fan. I’m a little less so, but we still buy all their releases and go see them when they tour near us.)

Anyhow. I’m pretty happy with my two purchases, so I figured I’d spend one of my very rare updates here typing about it.

Let me know what you think if you’d bought either, or both, of these.