Russellmania.com

SvR 2011 - just 2 more days

10.24.2010

For a good 3 months I've been waiting for this week. Tuesday marks the 12th release in the Smackdown video game series, Smackdown Vs Raw 2011. There are some features in this one that I'm really looking forward to, mainly the exhibition mode sounds like it may be a loose career mode in which rivalries, titles, and character interactions are maintained. I hope so. I'll find out Tuesday.

The last SvR game really gave me my moneys worth. For $60 I actually played it off and on for a year. Matt and I would play for a little while most Mondays nights before watching a Tivo-delayed Raw. I played through all the story modes, exhibition modes, just damn near everything in the game except running through all the moves in the practice arena. For the past couple of months I've been having fun with the create-a-wrestler mode, at first making some of the old guys like Bret & Owen Hart, Sting, Road Warriors, and a handful of others that I could track down the stats for online. Then I just started messing around with the settings making completely new guys that I ended up enjoying (although one guy was oddly close to the Masked Superstar).

I'm really hoping to get the same amount of fun out of this next game. More actually, but I'll settle for enjoying as much as the last.

As of 6:40 PM Monday night, Amazon tracking has not shown my anticipated game as being shipped, although they do show that it should be arriving on 10/26. If there is not a parcel on my stoop when I arrive home from work in less than 24 hours, (1) Amazon's going to get an earful of all-caps email from me, and (2) the video game store in Athens will find themselves selling me a copy of SvR2011.

Got home from watching Raw with Matt and checked the tracking. Ok, left Louisville tonight - that means it should reach Decatur in the wee hours of 3:00AM or so, then get on the delivery truck at 6:00AM. UPS guy usually makes it to my house around 3:30 or so. Looks like everything is going according to the original plan. I like the original plan.

When I got home today there was a small package from Amazon containing my much awaited on game. All is good :)

Permalink video games wrestling

I have a gaming closet.

10.17.2010

I enjoy getting things organized. I do. Not just for the sake of doing it - I tend to try to organize things in a useful way, or I at least like to believe it's useful. That's what led me to my latest organizational task. I've got lots of gaming ~~crap~~ stuff. Lots. I like collecting games, mainly because I like reading rules and seeing how somebody can make up a world (or city, or battle) with rules that both make sense and are hopefully balanced. Over the past few years I've started getting into miniatures-based games, and with those types of games come lots of little components to keep track of. I've stored various parts of all the games here and there throughout the house, but it was getting hard to find something once I started looking for it. Enter my mad organizational skillz.

Now in my closet I have roughly 35 shoebox sized nicely labeled containers of playing pieces for:

Heroscape
Axis & Allies Miniatures (stored by faction)
Axis & Allies War at Sea
Star Wars Miniatures (stored by faction)
Star Wars Starship Battles (stored by faction)
ActionClix - Halo
HeroClix
Battletech/MechClix
Battlefield Evolution (I think I was the only person that ever heard of this one)

Yes, that's a lot of ~~crap~~ stuff. I didn't even know I had ¼ of it. Now that it's divvied up I not only know I have it, but it's easier and faster to get to a specific piece for playing. Theoretically.

I still need to work on making sure I have all the rulesets - Wizards didn't renew their Star Wars License this year, so they're no longer hosting a copy of the rules on their website. I didn't see a copy of the War at Sea rules, so I'll have to make sure to download a copy (I'm pretty sure that should be up on the Wizards site).

Permalink boardgames renovation/remodelling

....Is.... Cooking

10.14.2010

I've been on a Rock (ok, "Dwayne") kick lately. Part of it this is due to his non-Disney action movie, Faster, coming out at Thanksgiving. The 2 previews I've seen look really good, so I'm a little pumped although it's still a month and a half away from opening up.

I've also bee surfing YouTube, perusing old promos and realizing just how good, how charismatic, the man was. He's been out of the wrestling spotlight for a while, but I can still catch Jerry off guard once in a while.

     Russ:Jer, where would you like to go for lunch today?
     Jer:I don't know how about
     Russ:IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU WANT TO GO TO LUNCH!

After that we both giggle.

So now to celebrate my Rock ramblings, I share with you an oft forgotten Wyclef Jean video from 2000.

Permalink wrestling

It's 5 hours earlier in Hawaii

10.13.2010

Dear Dr Blondie,

Happy non-belated birthday!

Hope your Hawaiian vacation is still going well.

It looks like I'm so cheap a blog post may count as your birthday present :)

Permalink random

This Year...

10.11.2010

This has turned into the year I don't really feel like doing anything. I started the year with all kinds of goals, both for fun and professionally, but I haven't done squat to not just achieve any of those goals, but to move anywhere in the right direction of achieving them.

I could say I need to look over my goals again and make sure they're achievable, but I knew they were within my grasp when I first set my goals. I've just lacked the fortitude to stick with the game plan, and in most cases that game plan never got off the ground.

So I'm a little frustrated with myself on various levels. It sounds like it's time to cut back and have have 1 goal. 1 thing to focus on. I just have to decide what that 1 thing is, followed promptly by getting off my lazy butt.