I recently decided I wanted a new PC.  It started out with a random visit to the Apple Store when I bit into the pretty new iMac.  Man those are a work of art.  I’ve been excited for years to get into their photo editing, having iTunes that doesn’t crash and editing some videos.  I was pumped and brought it home.  It is a work of art, but I didn’t like it.  The machine is so pretty and the operating system is beautiful but I realized I didn’t like it.  Nothing wrong with it, I’m just used to Windows and didn’t see a reason to change.  So back it went.

I decided I was fine staying with my laptop.  It did what I needed.  Until JD and Weasel started playing Star Wars the Old Republic.  They played and I realized I wanted to play too.  OK back to the drawing board.  I wanted a nice laptop so I went to BestBuy and found the Asus G74SX-BBK which is a nice Republic of Gaming laptop.  Cost $1200 and she’s a beast for a laptop.  Core i7 with a terrabyte of memory, ran Star Wars beautifully but maxed around 60fps and saw instances of 37fps.  It had the Quad i7 and a GeForce Videocard but they were the mobile type so they’re just not as powerful.

I use my PC in the livingroom and a laptop really fits in well.  Unfortunately I started to feel dated already and I barely had the laptop.  I realized time would move on and there’s no upgrading.  So I started thinking about what I wanted to do.  Time to build a new rig.

I started by checking out this post on neogaf which gives you a good guide of parts.

Next it was just picking out components from that list and putting it together.  If you decide to do this let me say that if you get over the fear it’s not that hard.  I had my kids helping me some to try and get them to realize it’s not really hard.  Unfortunately I ran into some hurdles and went to YouTube too much so they got bored and wandered off.  YouTube + Forums are your friend if you want to build a machine.

Everything was purchased by Amazon only because I decided I wanted it here quickly and I missed the shipping time for Newegg.  Both had very similar costs, probably spent an extra $50 by using Amazon.

Case : HAF 922M ($90)

Picked the HAF because it is covered in holes to pass air through.  It also comes with some pretty beefy fans which give it tons of airflow.  Nice case, plenty of room to maneuver.

Motherboard : ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3   $200

I bought this motherboard because it has great reviews and Asus makes nice boards.  I built a machine 15 years ago with the best overclockers board.  The board gave me nothing but problems and they never fixed it right on bios updates and I was never fully happy with that machine.

Processor : Quad Core i5 2500 ($200)

I didn’t even look at AMD because I have some crazy idea I might turn this into a Hackintosh (not going to).  So I went with the i5.  It has great ability to overclock so it can power up close to an i7 for much less $.

Cooler :  Cooler Master Hyper 212 ($25)

This is a great cooler for the cost.  Best one I could find without moving up to water cooled which scared me some.  Read 500 great reviews on a water cooled unit but 1 guy said it leaked and fried everything.  Scared me enough to stick with the cheaper unit shown below.  The processor comes with a fan but if you’re going to overclock don’t skimp on cooler or thermal paste, these are the keys to your build.  It amazed me the size of this fan.

Graphics Card : GTX 570 (Factory Overclocked) $340

I went with this card because it had some good reviews.  There’s basically a few classes and I got middle of the road.  The new high end are close to $600 which is way more than I wanted to spend.  You could get a nice card for about $100 less.

RAM: Corsair 16 GB  $90

8 GB would have been fine for anyone.  I’ve read things that more than 8 doesn’t matter for most things.  8GB would have been $45 but I found a very good deal on RAM and got all 16.

Power Supply : Corsair 850  $185

Power Supplies have changed drastically since I last build a machine.  Chose 850 Watts to future proof myself if I ever buy 2 vid cards and run them together.

Monitor : Viewsonic VX2450WM ($188)

Everything has updated drivers and now the monitor looks great.  Have only been using it for a little bit but I like it so far.

Bought a cheap dvd drive ($25), a network card ($20), a Western Digital 2TB drive with 6gb/s SATA ($120).  Thought about an SSD drive to speed stuff up but they are ridiculously expensive.  Since I’ve been on laptops, I needed a mouse and keyboard.  Actually I needed 2 because my wireless ones wouldn’t connect to allow me to install Windows (no drivers before Windows installs).  So some added cost there.  Overall it was about $1600 which is more than I wanted to spend and much more than you need if you’re looking to play games.  But I’m happy.  Very happy with my new beast.

I’m not a computer genius so its not a very hard project.  Just need to dig in and plug away.  The hardest parts were putting the processor fan together and putting on the thermal paste.  Youtube and the Artic Silver website were great helps here.  All of the plugs were unfamiliar but they can only plug in one way and it’s pretty self evident.  I did make a mistake on some of the case controls but figured it out after the fan LEDs and power switch weren’t working.  Feels really nice to look over and realize I’m working on the machine I built.

Any questions?  Drop me a line on Twitter Tilt_101

In October I was able to get to New York Comic Con and experience it. If you’ve never been there, it’s a daunting experience. There’s just so much there including comics, Steampunk shops, LoTR, Video Games, Gamer Furniture, everything under the geek sun.

Accompanying me this year was my 8 year old and one thing that caught his eye and stayed with him was a silly little iOS game called Corpse Toss. He sat down and played it on the floor and was enthralled for 10 minutes. I eventually dragged him away with the promise that we would buy it when it came out.

The premise is simple, you are an undertaker and you like whacking corpses with shovels. The further the corpse goes, the more money you get. It’s a real simple mechanic too, reminiscient of kicking in football games. You have a moving bar dictating your height and another dictating your strength.

As you get money you can level up your character. The meters can go slower, the undertaker’s strength gets stronger, you can buy bombs and trampolines and buzz saws all of which increase the distance. There are also speciality corpses with different bonuses.

I enjoy the overall artistic theme of the program. It’s comically Halloween and fits very nice with this game.

This is a simple game but that’s where it shines. It’s easy enough to pick up for 5 minutes, good enough that my 8 year old played it for hours until everything was unlocked. It’s only a dollar and well worth the money. My boy says it’s one of the best iOS games he’s played.

It’s time once again for the New York Comic Con. Every year they have been improving this convention and I can’t wait to get there tonight! Check back here for coverage as I post my impressions.

Things I’m looking forward to right now include:
Locke and Key failed Fox pilot
Max Payne 3 and GTA3 (mobile edition) by Rockstar!
Mass Effect 3

Wish I could make it to the Podcast Beyond! live recording but it’s not going to fit into my schedule. I’m sure there’s thousands of other cool things I will report back on.

This weekend (June 17th – June 19th) the Philadelphia Convention Center will be blessed with our own little version of geek nirvana. Run on down this weekend to see a multitude of old stars. Currently on the guest list are Bruce Campbell, Adam Baldwin, Pam Grier, Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin), Goldberg, and many others.

Make sure to check out the artist alley where you can get some great independent art.

If you’re going, hit me up @Tilt_101

I grew up in the era of arcades. It seems foreign these days as arcades have died out during the past 20 years. Back then you could find a Donkey Kong or Pinball in most diners and bars. Later I remember going to a local pet store to play Dragon’s Lair or spending way too many Saturday nights at the Club House Diner playing Street Fighter and never buying any food. Arcade cabinets were everywhere in one’s and two’s but nirvana lived at the arcade.

Arcades were bars for kids. They were dark and often seedy. The Gold Train was within biking distance from my house and when I’d play hooky I’d ride my bike and play games until the truancy officer made spot checks. It was called The Gold Train because the old train car it was in was split in two. One side was filled with arcade machines, the other side was a “Buy-Sell-Trade” Gold business. 90% of that business came from kids robbing their parents gold and selling it for quarters to be used on the arcade side.

The Gold Train was the seediest of arcades, other arcades in the area ranged from borderline wholesome Chuck E Cheese places to dark smokey rooms filled with neon. Over time they all slowly died off. The home consoles quickly grew more powerful and soon the arcade experience was able to be had at home. People expected videogames to cost a quarter and ignored inflation. If a dollar coin became common it might have saved the arcades but unfortunately it never happened. Now we have online gaming which allows users to test their strength against counterparts from around the world.

Today’s children have no real arcade experience. Chuck E Cheese still abounds in my area and I love it for what it is, a kids arcade filled with bright lights and cheap games tailored more to giving me tickets than a fun video game experience. Dave and Busters exists as the adult version of Chuck E Cheese where I can drink and play games but its not the arcade I remember. Too corporate and the games aren’t as fun.

Luckily I have found High Scores Arcade in Burlington, NJ where I can relive a small portion of my childhood. Here is a dark area filled with about 25 cabinets, 3 pinball machines and a few multicades where you can play any of a dozen different tiles. The games range from a quarter to fifty cents and all the machines are in amazing shape. The sticks and buttons are tight and feel brand new. Tons of great games like Joust, Karate Champ, Star Wars, Paperboy, Burgertime, Jungle Hunt, Tron, Pac-Man (various varieties) and a ton of others.

Soon they’re going to be adding another multicade containing hundreds of games and a larger control scheme so they can play anything from Robotron (with 2 sticks) to Street Fighter or Marble Madness. They’re in the process of fabricating it now while they research the laws behind multicades. Most of the games included are abandoned-ware where they can be added freely. Some game manufacturers have retained the rights and they need to give permission before the ROMs can be added.

Their collection is impressive and it started with a single Donkey Kong cabinet. The owners saw King of Kong and decided to try his hand at the high score. Unfortunately he didn’t get far but him and his wife found a love for old arcade cabinets. Soon they had 10 and it was time to move. They debated upon which cabinets to get rid of and could never come to agreement. Finally they decided to move to Burlington where they found a 3 floor home perfect for their collection.

The first floor was opened up as an arcade and their collection has been slowly growing. They live on the second and third floors so they are able to keep their overhead low while doing something they love. The township originally feared the place would draw kids but in actuality most of their clientelle is comprised of middle-aged men.

If you find yourself in the Philadelphia area I urge you to check out High Scores Arcade. It’s only open Friday and Saturdays for now but will get some additional hours in the summer. My son (age 8 ) and I had a great time there. I was concerned he’d be bored since he’s used to more modern games but he had a blast. If you go, there’s a nice pizza shop across the street and an ice cream store down the block. Hopefully this is how I’ll be spending a few of my summer nights.

The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997. During these last 14 years it has become this generation’s Star Wars. 7 books, 8 movies, a theme park, countless spin offs, tribute bands and billions of dollars later have been made with no stopping in sight.

Sunday my son and I experienced the latest in this hype train as we travelled to the NYC Discovery Museum to see the Harry Potter Experience. The Discovery Museum takes one or two topics and makes a walkthrough exhibit. The two they’re covering right now are Pompeii and Harry Potter. While Pompeii looked interesting, we only had time to see Harry Potter.

The line was immense. We arrived around 2:30 and it was about 3:15 before we got to the exhibit. Just lots of waiting and queuing. They have a cool photo opportunity in front of a green screen and you can buy that photo later. Other than that, it’s just standing and waiting.

After you finally get into the exhibit you start in a room where a live actor picks a few kids and lets the Sorting Hat choose their house. Then you walk into another dark room with 9 TV screens. The screens are all showing video from the different Harry Potter movies and it visibly hits you how much these kids have grown since doing the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001.

After the video montage is complete you enter the main exhibit. It’s walk at your own pace and it didn’t feel cramped after you get out of the initial room. Tons of props from the various movies are here, usually broken up by character. They show off their wands and their outfits. If you do the audio tour (highly recommended) it’s similar to a dvd commentary track. You see why Dolores Umbridge has the clothing she has and why her wand looks like it does. A ton of detail is in every decision.

Later the tour travels through the Forbidden Forest with props from the actual movie. The tour explains why BuckBeak was all digital for the movie but a highly detailed model was created. It also travels through Hagrid’s Hut. Then you can feel a quidditch ball and try to through it through the hoops. Kids lined up there playing quidditch.

The Dark Arts section was very popular and here you can see the different costumes the Death Eaters wore and all of the wanted posters they had. The final section showed off various Harry Potter candies and the party outfits from the ball.

It’s an interesting exhibit that a Harry Potter fan will love. Without my son’s love for Harry Potter I don’t think I would have gone just to see props but with the audio commentary it was extremely good. I’m amazed at all of the thought and detail that went into every little item.

One downside : No Photos Allowed. They stated it was a copyright issue which I understand but it’s poor planning. These topics are always handled by lawyers and very little thought is usually put into it. It’d be nice if someone could have budged a little here. We’re not talking about state secrets, all of these articles are already in movies.

All in all, I highly recommend this for Harry Potter buffs. Casual fans need a reason to go wait in this line. And a warning : Wands are expensive and your kid will want a wand. He definitely will want a wand.

Until this weekend my iPad wasn’t getting as much love as I expected. It has some games on there that hold my attention for a few levels but rarely do I sit down and play something for hours on my iPad.

Battleheart changed that. I sat down and started playing the game and quickly got pulled in. It reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics with Castle Crasher graphics.

In the game you start with a Knight and a Cleric. You then go on to defeat skeletons, slime monsters, goblins and all sorts of characters you would expect to see in a fantasy setting.

The game is light on plot (so light I think it’s non-existant) but the gameplay is fun. Add in the fact that there is plenty of loot and alternate characters to level up makes the game addictive.

The one problem many iPad games have lies in the controls. Even great ideas for iPad games fall apart at the controls aspect. They force control sticks and buttons on the screen and that doesn’t work. Battleheart avoids that and installs an incredibly simple control system. Touch and drag. Special moves by touching on the individual character. It works perfectly.

It’s iPad only right now but an iPhone version is scheduled soon. For $2.99 you can’t get a better iPad game.

Video games are not art. With those words Roger Ebert created an internet controversy. He became a relevant figure again for a short period. Fan rage was sparked and arguments blazed across the web.

Those that support the position that video games are art get a bit of vindication next year. The Smithsonian is preparing “The Art of Video Games” for 2012. You can now vote on which games should be highlighted. On this site there are 240 games and you can vote on which 80 will be highlighted.

There are few games that bring back as fond a memory as “You Don’t Know Jack!”. Every week a new webisode would premier and my friends and I would gather around and play. Unfortunately new webisodes stopped coming and no word was heard for a long time. During the last E3, Cookie Masterson appeared on the Giant Bombcast and announced it was coming back. My heart sung and last week my loving wife listened well and picked up “You Don’t Know Jack!” for V-Day. Unfortunately I didn’t get to play it until the next day (pluses and minuses of Valentine’s Day).

“You Don’t Know Jack!” is a trivia game. It’s not Trivial Pursuit and it’s not Jeopardy, this is hilarity in trivia form. There are 2 rounds of trivia followed by a third lightening round. Each player is given a screw which you can use to screw others if you think they won’t know the answer. The questions are fun and the series is hosted by the amazing Cookie Masterson. He is snarky but not annoying. The questions are varied and make you laugh while you’re trying to answer.

I can’t recommend this game enough. I’d say it’s a 10/10 but that wouldn’t be doing it justice. PLEASE BUY THIS GAME! Both for your benefit and for mine, I want sequels.

One caveat : This game is best in a local play setting or with some friends on Live. I don’t recommend it for anyone planning to play with strangers. It is a great game to get your wife / girlfriend to get gaming with you.

Kinectimals…every review I’ve read said that this game was a piece of crap. And to be fair, for the people writing the reviews it probably is. I’m sitting here watching my 8 year old throw pizza at a blue tiger and I have no interest in playing it. But he does. He loves this game…I asked him his review of the game and he said it’s “A+++++”. So if you have young kids, give this one a buy. They’ll love it.

12 year old is interested in playing but not very interested. Recommended Age range : 5-10.

Pro Tip : Go here and you can get all the Burger King and other codes. No need to print it out, just put you phone / laptop / etc up to the Kinect and it will scan it fine.

We went to New York Comic Con this weekend. Looking back, I’ve been going to geeky conventions for 25 years back when it was Dr. Who & Comic Books at local hotels and my dad would take me down and be bored to tears while I got my geek on. Back then there were crowds but manageable crowds. Maybe a thousand people would show up to these old Dr. Who Conventions, NY Comic Con had over 100,000 people on Saturday. It was insane but in an awesome way.

We arrived around 11, the show started at 10. If you were picking up a pass, the line was enormous (thousands maybe). I had my pass so I was able to get in pretty quickly with the family.

The Javits Center is about 4 blocks long with many levels. They had the anime convention on the first floor and I never made it there. The Comic Con had two sections. The first section is the artist area. Here there are tons of artists just doing their thing. Some are podcasters advertising their shows, some are advertising their independant comic books but most are just people who draw. Some are semi-famous and have books out now, others do it because they love to do it and those are some of my favorites. I could spend days walking to each artist and checking their unique visions on characters. Not all are great, but when you find one that strikes you it’s amazing to keep seeing their stuff. There’s also some independently published comic strips in this section. Most of the stuff I saw was pretty underwhelming but there were a few that really caught my attention. Note that these are all published basically by a handful of people and don’t have the large budgets of any development team:

Billy the Monster Hunter
6 Year old Billy has the power to turn any of his toys into real objects. And he needs that power because aliens and monsters exist and are trying to take over the world. To be honest, I didn’t read this book but my 8 year old did and he fell in love with it. He absolutely devoured the first two books and can’t wait for more.

The Carrier : iPhone / iPad

This really intrigued me. There’s two versions, an iPad version which has the complete graphic novel ($0.99 right now) and the iPhone version. The iPad version is your standard graphic novel. The iPhone version which I’m working on right now is different. It breaks the novel up into a 10 day experience. You get the sections as they happen in the story’s timeline. So last night at 2AM I received a text message saying my next part of story is ready. I received an email telling me the weather in London (where the story took place that day). It’s interactive and it’s cool.

The Uniques

My son went to their table and was looking at something when they started talking to me. The couple that creates and produces it were extremely nice but their compilation was $45. After talking to them, they described it as a grown-up version of the Teen Titans. I looked at the book but couldn’t justify the $45 so I skipped it. After I got home I regretted not getting the book so I checked it out online, the first issue is free online so I added it to my iPad and was hooked. The issues are only $0.99 and amazing. The writing is top notch, as I read each issue I dread the fact that there’s only 9. The art is great too. I can’t sing the praises of this book enough. If you like comics, check it out. Don’t miss out on a great series just because it’s not in your local comic shop or published by a big name.

Then I went to the main area and that blew away the other area. The big name companies like Capcom, Marvel, DC, Sega, Lost Tapes (tv show), Turtle Beach, Aliens and others all had amazingly huge booths. Aliens had pods (cryo chambers) you could lay down in, close and watch previews of the upcoming Blu Ray release for the Aliens series. Lost Tapes had a scary jungle and it gave you a black light pen to go through and find a phone number to text to (you could win an iPad), the other stands were just enormous in nature and had tons of gaming going on. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 looks amazing and was playable everywhere.

Cosplay was in full effect. Some of the costumes were awesome because they were awesome (Isaac from Dead Space 2 and Steam Punk Ironman) and some were awesome because of hotness (Sue Storm).

I spent the entire time walking around seeing amazing toys and figures and books I’ve never seen before. My son played some of Marvel’s Super Hero Squad Infinity Gauntlet at the Turtle Beach stand (he loved it). I went up to the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Booth and missed out on some playing card swag by 2 people. Generally just general fun. I lost the wife because of the crowd and we were in the same row. Unfortunately the AT&T network crapped out once again and calls never went through and texts took 20+ minutes to be received so it took a while before we found each other again. Finish with some good BBQ at Dallas BBQ and then a quick stop in Times Square before heading home exhausted. The 50 pounds of books I carried did not help my exhaustion.

Nerf : To make worse or weaken, usually in the context of weakening something in order to balance out a game. As in : ‘Why the hell did Blizzard nerf Marines’ attack damage?’

Don’t Nerf Me Bro! I’m tired of games nerfing my characters instead of finding a way to make it work. Don’t take a shortcut in balancing games or telling a story by wimping my character. In Metroid it’s the fact that in every new game Samus forgets how to turn into a ball or use missiles (in the latest rendition, she’s not allowed to use these weapons until ordered).
In Mass Effect 2, they kill Shepherd and nerf him/her completely using that as an excuse to depower your character.

The one that really bothered me recently was Mafia 2…Spoilers after this point…

At the end of Mafia 2 you go after a Mafia boss that needs to be killed. You plow through a few dozen of his best men and have to defeat him. Your best friend Joe is there and looks like he’s about to betray you but then realizes that you guys are brothers and fights with you. At this point you and him have laid waste to this city killing hundreds. No odds have been too much for you and your Rambo like skills.

Fast forward 10 minutes. Joe goes off in car #2 to be killed while you get a free pass. Screw that. There’s 8 people between the two cars and your character just lets Joe go off to the executioner.

Boo to Mafia 2 for two reasons here :
1) Do not nerf my character. Don’t make me plow through hundreds of enemies and then wimp out because 4 guys tell me I have to let Joe get killed.
2) Be true to your character. Henry was fiercely loyal. Joe was a brother to him. He doesn’t just accept that Joe has to go off and get killed.

I’m not complaining. This is like DLC before the game comes out and it is absolutely great. Dead Rising is one of the really bright shining gems of the Xbox lineup. It had its quirks but it was amazing and helped start the deluge of zombie games we’ve seen since.

I’ve looked forward to Dead Rising 2 since I finished the first one, now we’re here 4 years later and it’s close. Once I heard Case Zero was up I had to get it and now I’m even more pumped for the finished game.

In Dead Rising 2 you play as motorcross superstar Chuck Greene. Your daughter has been infected and you need to do anything possible to keep her supplied with Zombrex which holds off the infection for 12 hours.

The feel of the game is very similar to Dead Rising. You walk around in an unending swarm of slow moving zombies. There are numerous psychopaths out there causing extra trouble for you. You need to save the innocents, collect money and kill zombies. All of those are pretty fun. Downside? Frank West, photo journalist (He’s covered wars you know!) is gone. Chuck Greene is cool but I loved Frank. Upside? Chuck doesn’t take photos, he combines items. Nails + Bat = Bat with nails in it. Bucket + Drills = Drill Bucket, throw that on a zombie’s head and watch the fun.

At the end of this, you get to carry your money, clothes and upto 5 levels into the main game.

Final word : Great game. It’s only $5 and gives you a real taste for what we’re going to be getting soon. If you enjoyed the first game or are curious about the second, this is a must have. More games should put out prequel demos. The only time I remember this happening before was in Fable 2 where you could play their pub games and it was horrible. Props to Capcom for figuring a way to make this work!

Gamerhusbands is a blog. As you may know, blogs print money. We frequently break our hundreds up into 20′s and fill our palaces with them so we can swim like Scrooge McDuck. The sarcasm is getting a little thick and in case you are a Philadelphia politician getting ready for a Gamerhusband windfall, let me stress that GHR is not based in Philadelphia and it doesn’t make money. In general, an enormous majority of blogs don’t make money. Blogs cost money. There are server fees, libsyn fees, software costs and other assorted costs. Blogs and podcasts are labors of love. In the case of Gamerhusbands and sites like us, we’re a creative outlet for individuals that didn’t exist before the advent of the internet and mp3 players.

Other sites out there are political. They’re individual forms of free speech which allow people to post news that otherwise wouldn’t get out. Twitter was essential in getting stories from the Iran elections to the rest of the world. In the last few US elections, sites like Factcheck.org are excellent sources for news and truth. These are voices that have arisen from these new mediums and they need to be nurtured.

Philadelphia has chosen to add a $300 Business Privilege Tax for blogs in the city limits. It doesn’t matter if your blog doesn’t make money, it’s now going to cost you another $300. If you’ve done the right thing and reported the $11 you made last year, Philly wants $300 from you. Thank you Philadelphia for remaining backwards. Thank you for remaining behind the times and letting bureaucracy overshadow sanity. Suggestion to you Philadelphia : There are many more Facebook and Twitter users in Philadelphia than bloggers. That’s a whole new market for your corruption. Thanks to the Philadelphia City Paper for writing an excellent article on this.

As gamers we’re used to vaporware. Duke Nuke ‘Em Forever has been coming out forever. The Phantom was a vaporware console that never saw the light of day. Now we have an improbable story that has turned into a real console.

A few years ago a handful of people on the GP32X.com Forums got together and decided to work on creating an open source handheld gaming system. They then realized that this endeavor would cost more money than they could afford so they sold pre-orders for these units. If I had heard of this back then, alarms would have rung loud about this being a scam. Fortunately I didn’t because these guys did it!

After several years they have created a handheld device that is a mixture of a PC and a console. It has a completely open source operating system. It’s a perfect emulator for old Atari, Commodore 64, old PC games, old arcade games, Nintendo and Playstation games. Most emulators will work on this device. It can be used to surf the web and even do some word processing.

They’ve sold out of their initial pre-order run and are taking orders for the next batch. It’s amazing to see a project like this make it all the way to production. Congratulations to the Open Pandora crew.

Sanctuary 4 Gamers has started a Site vs. Site Tournament. GamerHusbands signed up so if you’re interested in competing in the remainder of the match-ups respond back in the comments section.

Round 1 of the tournament is Modern Warfare 2. 6 on 6, best of 3 games. GHR’s first matchup was against The Gamers Garage. Team GHR consisted of Teetocks, Full Tilt 101, Dragon59, DrunkCase and Deadbeats. The Gamers Garage was headed by Crash.

GHR chose High Rise as the Round 1 arena. It was a close matchup until the very end when we pulled away and took it 7500 – 6500. It was much closer than it sounds and I was sweating the whole time. I would like to take full credit for dragging the team down. I am the anchor that almost sinks the GHR MW2 Team. DrunkCase lead GHR in this round with a great kill / death ratio.

Gamers Garage chose Sub Base as the Round 2 arena. GHR took a demanding lead and ended up winning this round handily. Final score was 7500 – 4500. Dragon59 had an amazing game and lead for most of it.

As we closed out the match, one of the Gamers Garage players was a douche complaining about our newb ways. Dual Shot-guns + Noob Tubes (I take full credit for being that Newb). But after she bounced from the room, the rest of the crew apologized for her douchiness and were very cool.

Thanks to team GHR for a great outing. Had a lot of fun and appreciate the effort and time everyone put in. Apologies to Adirrrtypoostick who was scheduled to be on the team. Unfortunately, Gamers Garage only had 5 and Poo was the last one to party up. If there’s future rounds he will definitely be involved.

Thanks to the Gamers Garage crew for a fun night. I checked out their podcast and enjoyed it. Give it a listen if you’re looking for something new.

Round 2 is scheduled to be Forza 3. If you’re part of the GHR community, are good at Forza and ready to represent GHR…use the comments section!

I’m not an IT guy, I’m a hack. Not a hacker either, just a hack. I hack at stuff until I get it to work. I can jailbreak iphones, mod systems, fix TVs, Tivos and computers. I liken myself to a monkey, I don’t invent any of this stuff but with a good guide I can piece stuff together. And if you give me 2 or 3 bad guides I can work it out too.

Recently I got a new router. When I got it, I had to make it work for Modern Warfare 2. I’m really not sure why this is such a hard thing these days, everything should plug and chug but it doesn’t. If you enter parties in Modern Warfare and keep getting booted (GHR_Superman) or if the Xbox Live Party keeps disbanding when you enter then you need to do the following. It’s not that hard and I’m going to explain it as simply as possible.

How can I tell if I need to do this?
In Modern Warfare 2 you can see your NAT Type:

• If it says Open, stop reading this and go play some MW2.  You will see this if you are direct connected to the internet (no router) or if your router is configured properly.
• If it says Moderate, you are behind a router and not all the ports that Xbox requires are open.  Keep reading.
• If it says Strict, you are behind a router and all the ports that Xbox requires are not open.  Keep reading.

Basically if you’re Moderate or Strict you’re going to have compatibility problems with other people who are moderate or strict.  The below chart explains when you’re going to have a problem.  Thanks to this site

How to I get to Open NAT?

Step 1: Give your Xbox a Static IP Address

This isn’t that hard but it takes some work and some persistence.  First thing I did was give my Xbox a static IP address.  You can choose either a dynamic IP address or a static IP address.  Dynamic is typically easy, basically it is telling the router to choose an IP address for your device.  So when the PS3 comes on it gives it an address (192.168.0.X).  Where X is usually 1, 2, 3, 4, etc…For this instant I chose something high 192.168.0.78

Rather than steal all the information or make my own screenshots I’m going to ask you to go here.  That site tells you how to set your IP.  The one change I’m going to suggest is the DNS server.  I just installed the free Google DNS server here.  Primary address is  8.8.8.8 and Secondary Address is 8.8.4.4

Step 2: Set up a DMZ

For a lot of routers they have an option for a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  If your router has that option, welcome to easy fix.  Now that your Xbox has a static IP, just put that static IP into the DMZ.

The above shows a screenshot from the router software I’m using.  Your software will be different but you’re looking for DMZ.  Then you will plug in your static IP address (192.168.0.78 using the above example).  If that’s done, check your NAT and you should be fine.  Go play Modern Warfare.

Step 3 :

So your router doesn’t have a DMZ.  Sucks.  But all is not lost.  You need to manually open ports.  It isn’t that hard but I admit I had difficulties when I was doing this step.

Xbox LIVE requires the following ports to be open:

• TCP 80
• UDP 88
• UDP 3074
• TCP 3074
• UDP 53
• TCP 53

How to open them is dependant upon your router.  This website might help you out.  They even offer a program that can do this all for you ($20).  Step 3 was obtained from this guide from Microsoft.

We all woke up a little worse for wear. Late night + beer = tired gamers. Add in Alfred / Scott / Sam’s commute and 30 hours of being awake, it took us some time to get moving. Once we got moving we started our Day 1 plan of going to Fenway Park (Home of the Red Sox) before PAX-East opened. Unfortunately we didn’t plan the trip there very well and after an hour of walking (including 20 minutes at Boston’s Boston Market) we arrived at Fenway…

First off we were late. Over an hour late from our original plan but we were there finally. JD went to the ticket booth and they told us we were out of luck. If we hurried and asked nice, the guide might let us walk through and then pay after. Well we hurried and we ended up blending with the original crowd and seeing the tour for free. Honestly we would have all paid but we didn’t want to get kicked. They had two tour guides, one does the tour and the other makes sure the back of the line doesn’t get lost.

This guide was amazing. Explained about the hawk that lives under the press box, the cardboard wolves to scare away the geese, explained that Fenway is home of the shortest home run route in baseball and the longest home run route in the American League. He told a story about the Citgo (See It Go) sign, told about a baseball that Babe Ruth hit onto a train which then made it’s way to New York (furthest home run ever). Many other great stories and told with amazing presentation. I really recommend seeing Fenway through their tours, this might have been the best part of PAX.

After we left there, McWild and I caught a cab while everybody else walked. We were the two dopes that wore t-shirts so we were freezing. Once at the convention center we got swallowed by a mass of people. Thousands of people were already streaming into line. We bought some PAX shirts / hoodies / scarves and waited with everyone else. This is the part where the AT&T network died. There were tons of iPhones and they crushed the network. Phone calls, text messages, tweets and emails just locked up. With the network dumping all the phones kept trying to push / pull data from all of these places and the batteries were draining extraordinarily quick.

While waiting, McWild bumped into a bunch of the SFX-360 group and the 2-old-2-play people and we walked in with them. A real great group of people that we saw many times this weekend.

I headed to see Wil Wheaton‘s keynote and was thoroughly impressed. Wil was in Stand By Me, Star Trek : TNG and recently worked on The Guild and Big Bang Theory. All of that is impressive but it’s not why he was chosen to do the keynote, he was chosen because Wil is an Uber Geek. I say that with love and admiration. He rolls with the big dogs, the big dogs being Hell Hounds and by rolls I mean saving throws. He’s still big into D&D, tabletop gaming and rocks out with the video games too. And he can give a great speech to a crowd of geeks. He pointed out that we’re all here celebrating a love of games. I could write paragraphs about his speech but that’s not the point of this article. I urge you to check out his video and if nothing else, take his final piece of advice “Don’t be a dick.”

After the keynote I bumped into the gang once more. Literally. I entered the show floor and bumped into Sam. That’s amazing considering the throng of people. At this point they’d been walking the floor for an hour and we got together and started seeing the few things they missed. PAX had tons of 3-D gaming, Tritton headsets, independent games, Intel, AMD, lots and lots of things but the important ones will be covered separately.

We finally get a minute to sit down and a woman comes up and gives everyone at our table an Intel Prize Card. As we entered, Intel gave us big blue buttons. If the prize patrol sees you they give you a card and you can win something. Now I’m happy, I won something. JD is across from me and shows that he has two tickets. Then the mocking begins. He is very proud that he has two tickets.

Next off we see Shank (looks awesome) while waiting for 2K and our 5:30 appointment to see Civilization V. Although we’re starving, we want to see Civ (and Mafia at 6:00) and not skip out on the appointment. Fortunately 2K ignored our appointment and started the presentation 5 minutes early and wouldn’t let us back. Off to dinner we go!

On the way to dinner we stop at the Intel Booth. JD is right in front of me and scans his two tickets. The first ticket is a shirt. The second ticket wins Napoleon Total War for the PC. Not bad, but nothing I want. Next I’m up and they scan my card. The scanner shouts “Processor”. The 5 other Intel people shout “Processor”. I shout “Mazeltov!” Then the whole crowd (100+ people waiting to scan their cards) start shouting “Processor!” I have no idea what I’ve won at this point. I start filling out paperwork and they explain that I won a $1000 processor. Now it’s my turn to find JD and start mocking.

After a late lunch we all head back to the rooms to chill for a bit before heading on the town. LeftBrown joined us and we headed toward Fenway for some food and drinks. Zabari and Vic Joe (Open Forum Radio) joined up and we had a blast. There’s a real open feeling at PAX meeting all the people you’ve known online for years. I had never met or spoken with Zabari or Vic Joe and we fell into a groove. Nothing cements people more than figuring out what kind of wine Jesus would have made for you. Zabari and I agreed that it’d be some real fancy smooth wine. Vic Joe just wanted some Mad Dog 20-20 and I can respect that.

Lots of drinking. Lots of idiotic but fun conversation. Then Day 1 officially ended with a cab ride and some sleep.

This was one of my most exciting games from PAX East. It’s a must-have. Joe Danger is a combination Trials HD, Excite Bike, and Little Big Planet. It’s brought to us by a small group of 4 friends that formed Hello Games. It’s been confirmed to have local multiplayer and over 60 levels. You’re a giant-headed Evel Kneivel twin riding this bright red motocycle. You have the option of racing your friends along a straight track with lots of hazards (ramps, shark tanks, trucks). As you perform tricks you build up speed boosts. The racing / trick portion looks extremely fun.

Besides the 60 built-in levels it also has a robust build system. It was easy to pick up the controller and start designing a level. I was able to drop in ramps and trucks and a shark tank with extreme ease. It also allows you to build the level step by step and test the track as you go. It makes it simple to prove the track is possible without waiting until the end of the level design.

It’s a bright and fun game. Graphics that will draw the kids in for hours. So far it’s only on PSN but there are rumors of a Live version coming.

The other car included me (Full Tilt 101), JDsBlackBox and SirJMcWild. We left Philly on Thursday around 10AM and got to Boston around 2:30PM. Our ride was much less eventful than the other crew. Straight there with a rest stop visit for lunch. Once we got there, JD & I unpacked and hooked up everything (Xbox, PS3, clothes, etc) into the closet they call a room. After an hour of that we went and saw SirJMcWild’s Palace. 3x’s the size of our closet so JD did what he does best, complain. We then had to move all of our stuff to the end of the hall where we enjoyed the biggest room yet. A corner room with a decent view of the river / applestore. The only time we checked the view was Saturday when we saw a mini-snowicane.

After the guys showed up we got together and started hanging out. I think everyone had some apprehension at this point. None of us had ever met in real life. We talk via email and Xbox Live. There was a high potential for awkwardness or the group just not getting along. Luckily these fears were unfounded, 2 minutes in and it was like we’ve known each other for years. The camaraderie level was extremely high. It’s a mixture of us all being good people and our personalities gelled extremely well.

First stop : PAX BOOTH! We needed to get our media passes before the line formed. I had a geek-out at the PAX Booth because Wil Wheaton was checking in at the same time. He was super obvious because he was rocking a Dr. Who scarf. No one else in my group had any idea who it was. Alfred kept telling me he loved Firefly, took me a while to realize he thought I meant Joss Whedon.

Next we made our way over to the Cactus Club for The Married Gamers dinner meetup. We were very late but it was cool meeting Lefty, Phneri and the others. Also met TAG Members Robbie Jo, Heroic_Superman and Phoenix for the first time. Check out their PAX Podcasts here. Also met Ooopy from Blue Skittle and a bunch of other cool people.

Back to the hotel for some Rockband, Lips and maybe a little alcohol. JD and I left for a bit and came back with PGR hanging with Alfred, Scott, Sam and McWild. We then made a drunken stumble over to another hotel to pick up JVB. After that we continued out journey back to the Cactus Club. Tons of new people including Ross from SFX-360, Chris Paladino formerly of the Xbox Community Team, Carlos Ferro (Dom in Gears of War + Tons of other game credits), some Microsoft people and lots of other great people. Some drinking and hanging equaled a good time.

Thus ends Day 0.

For the first time since the inception of Gamerhusbands, the gang has missed a week. Fortunately it was for a good cause. GHR_Maverick, GHR_Superman, Teetocks, Full Tilt 101 & JDsBlackBox all gathered in lovely (cold) Boston to enjoy PAX East. Great times were had but with the commutes, they were unable to get a podcast up this week.

Fear not! Late today / early tomorrow you can download The Married Gamers podcast starring Lefty Brown, GHR_Superman and Teetocks. I was just lurking but I’m sure you’ll recognize a few other guests from the PAXtastic broadcast.

Expect a bunch of PAX coverage coming up soon!

Probably the largest of these sites, IGN, had layoffs yesterday. 1-Up closed up last year, this year it seems like IGN is the first to take a hit. Condolences to any of the IGN Staff that was impacted. I’m especially sorry to see @Chris_Roper go. I loved him on Podcast Beyond!

I took a few steps down the proverbial slippery slope and started sliding further and further. The first step we made was Halo 3. His 11 year old brother played Halo and it seemed OK. Sure it has shooting but the shooting is against aliens. It feels less real than the Call of Duty series. You’re not shooting other humans, just some scary looking monsters. The next step was Call of Duty : World at War Nazi Zombie Mode. Again his older brother and cousin were playing and he wanted to join in. It’s just zombies, again not human so it’s not that bad…right?

Well since he’s playing Nazi Zombie mode, why not play some Modern Warfare 2? OK it crosses the previously established line of not killing other humans. But is that so bad? It’s just a video game, not real bloody and not much different than when i was a kid running around the neighborhood with toy guns. Now it’s his favorite game.

And if Nazi Zombie mode and Modern Warfare 2 are ok…why not Left 4 Dead? It’s just more zombies. Scarier zombies but if he isn’t scared, why not? Yeah I’m almost to the bottom of that slippery slope now but I’m comfortable with my choices. I looked at each of these steps and it was a logical progression. There’s no ill effects to my child. He handles these games well, enjoys them and is good at them.

The opposite story is my step-son who is 11. He followed pretty much the same path as my 7 year old but a few years earlier. The difference is that he’s a poor loser. It’s just his personality, he’s high strung when it comes to these games. He’s the kid who is a poor winner always rubbing it in and he’s the kid that’s the poor loser who cries and throws his controller. He’s a great kid, just has difficulty handling the frustration that these games can bring. Because of that he slowly lost all of these privileges. It was determined by his biological parents (my wife and her ex-husband) that these games are not appropriate for him and bring about undesirable actions on his part.

So now we have a 7 year old who is allowed to play Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 while the 11 year old can’t play either. It’s a tough situation to police. The question of whether it’s fair has come up many times and we handle it. While some rules are ‘house rules’ which are for everyone, other rules are ‘parent rules’. The 7 year old can watch Glee at his mom’s house, neither child can watch Glee at my house (sexual situations). The 11 year old can watch CSI, the 7 year old can’t (parent rule). Bedtime is at 10 on weekends (house rule).

I’ve thought this out and I know where my lines are drawn. There’s only two and the first is s-e-x. I’m a stereotypical American. Violence is acceptable in my book but I get uncomfortable with the sex talk in Ghostbusters if the kids are in the room. Clash of the Titans was a great show to watch with the kids, but I fast forwarded through the 5 second breast feeding scene. The same goes with my games. I’m comfortable with my son shooting my brains out but it concerns me that he can have sex in Sims 3.

The other line is online play. The worst thing I think someone can do is to let their kids play unmonitored online. You don’t know who their online friends are, they could be the 30 year old pedophile down the block. You don’t know what’s being said to them or what they’re saying. We’ve all been in rooms where the 12 year old is screaming obscenities or generally being a jerk. Don’t let your child be that child.

So if my 7 year old can play games that my 11 year old can’t, what’s the real deciding factor on when a kid can play a game? I think it falls directly onto the parent and their ability to make informed decisions. The key word is ‘informed’. A parent needs to know what a game is about and needs to determine if it’s OK for a child to play. They also need to know what their kids are doing. Correct them if they’re shouting obscenities, even if it’s just to nameless online people. Being a parent means being involved. Keep the online stuff out of their rooms. It’s easy to dump the kids and let them fend for themselves but it’s wrong.

I was always into small independent stores. I didn’t like Starbucks, I liked South Street Coffee. I didn’t like Borders, I liked Marlow Books. Those of you not in Philly don’t recognize two of those stores because they never grew into chains and the chains eventually killed them. The independents had atmosphere and personality that Borders and Starbucks fake. Over the years I’ve grown to enjoy Borders and Starbucks because that’s all that’s left. But it’s not what I want. I want something more personal and less corporate. I want to support the small business that appreciates it.

Now I have a crisis because Game Zombie opened up 5 minutes from my house. What’s Game Zombie? A cool little store that sells everything game related. They have Dreamcasts and Atari’s in stock. They get new releases on Day 1 but have a huge selection of old games. They do free polishing of scratched disks. They have a game club where kids come in and play after school. They also have a Wednesday night movie showing where people go and watch zombie flicks on their large TV. All in all it’s what I’ve always wanted in a game store. They’re local, personable and seem to have an appreciation for the customer.

But there’s one thing they don’t have, one thing I love, pre-order bonuses. Forget the gold lancer, I’ve never cared about the gold lancers of the world. But I do love Juggernaut in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I do love extra-outfits for Kratos and sackboy (it reminds me of playing with my Barbies growin…nevermind, TMI). I like the guns that you can only get during pre-order (Blackhole gun in Mass Effect 2 ROCKS). So much fun stuff just by putting down my $5 early. And it’s all so pretty and shiny.

And until now I’ve fallen into that trap. I go into Gamestop and I drop down my cash and a few weeks later I walk out with my added toy. But no longer. GameZombie has given me an independent option and I’m going to start taking it. As long as they continue to offer their great services I’m going to give up on all the corporate pre-order stuff and support my local game store.

PAX East is going to be the first major gaming convention on the East Coast and I am pumped for it. If you’re coming make sure to log into the forums and throw your name up on the GHR Meetup. Currently the following people are confirmed:  GHR_Maverick, Teetocks, GHR_Superman, Full Tilt 101, JDSBlackBox, VinceXombie, SirJMcWild, BulletHound. Between GHR and all the other communities, it should be a great turnout and lots of fun.

If you’re thinking about attending…HURRY!!! AND BUY YOUR TICKETS 60,000 attendees are expected and only 1000 tickets remain.

Note that the stuff below is a partial list of items that have been confirmed. Much more coming!

The following music acts have been confirmed from Joystig:

* Anamanaguchi
* Jonathan Coulton (I will be seeing his show)
* MC Frontalot
* Metroid Metal
* Paul and Storm
* Protomen
* The Video Game Orchestra

The following Exhibitors have been confirmed. The potential games are guesses based on the relative release dates. Thanks to Mentok1982 over at the PAX East Forum for the following information:

* 2K Games:
o Mafia II
o Spec Ops: The Line

* EA
o APB
o Battlefield: Bad Company 2
o Dante’s Inferno: Trials of St Lucia
o Skate 3
o Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
o Medal of Honor
o Crysis 2
o Dead Space 2

* Harmonix
o Green Day: Rock Band

* Microsoft
o Super Street Fighter IV
o Lost Planet 2
o Alan Wake
o Dead Rising 2
o Fable III
o Halo Reach
o Micorsoft Game Room
o Natal

* Nintendo
o WarioWare D.I.Y.
o Monster Hunter Tri
o Super Meat Boy
o Sin and Punishment 2
o Metroid: Other M
o Epic Mickey

* NVIDIA
o Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
o Dark Void
o Resident Evil 5
o Alan Wake
o Crysis 2

* Rockstar Games
o GTA IV: The Lost and Damned (PS3)
o GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (PS3)
o Red Dead Redemption
o Max Payne 3
o Agent

* Sega
o SONIC 4!?!
o Yakuza 3
o Iron Man 2
o Valkyria Chronicles 2
o After Burner Climax
o Alpha Protocol
o Resonance of Fate

* The Behemoth
o BattleBlock Theater

* Turbine
o Turbine Next-Gen MMO Project

* Twisted Pixel Games
o Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley

* Ubisoft
o Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4
o Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
o Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
o Tom Clancy’s HAWX

* Wizards of the Coast
o Unknown

PANELS (thanks to The Subterranean Engineer for this compiled info)

* Stephen Toulouse (Stepto), Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE tentatively Sunday 11:30am

* Major Nelson (Larry), Machete Betty (Mckenzie Eakin), Fourzerotwo (Robert Bowling) Friday

* Jason Scott of textfiles Friday 9:30pm Naga Theater

* Joystiq Podcast live Friday 9:30pm The Manticore Theater

* Bill Amend FOXTROT!!!

* Retronauts Saturday night

* GeekDad (Wired magazine) panel w/ Doug Cornelius

* oltyan of http://www.zeitgeistgames.com

* Chris Paladino of Promethium Marketing, Arne of Naughty Dog, Aram Jabbari of Atlus, Stephanie Schopp of Interactive Entertainment. PR Panel

* Game journalism panel w/ Kyle Orland of Crispy Gamer, Gus Mastrapa (Wired, Crispy Gamer, The Onion AV Club, Past, X-Play, Edge), Susan Arendt of The Escapist, Chris Grant of Joystiq (Editor in Chief), Lev Grossman of Techland and Time Magazine
Sunday 2:30 to 3:30

* Meghan Rodberg, Community Manager for Turbine

* Jeff Green (Greenspeak) and Shawn Elliot

* Game Scoop! Live Podcast

* Bleep Bloop panel

* Indies Will Shoot You In The Knees – Why We Don’t Play Fair — Everyone is talking about Indie games — titles like World of Goo, Braid, and aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity are making press and making money. But they’re fighting against games with $200 million dollar budgets and 100+ person dev teams. How do Indies compete? Three Boston-based Indie developers will check their water-guns at the door and tell you why and how Indie games are kicking more ass, taking more names, and chewing more bubblegum than their AAA rivals. You will hear from the Ichiro Lambe (IGF Finalist Dejobaan Games, Aaaaa!), Scott Macmillan (Macguffin Games, All Heroes Die) and ex-Bungie AI wizard Damián Isla, founder of the new indie Moonshot Games. The panel will be moderated by Eitan Glinert, founder of Fire Hose Games.

PARTIES

* PAX East BYOC LAN

* SFX360 Gamers Gone Wild PAX East Party

Capcom is releasing a movie on Xbox Live in Japan. Unfortunately current stats have only 12 Xboxes sold in Japan so the audience will be limited. I’m hoping it has a US release sometime in the near future!

Dark Horse Comics is releasing a 4 part story set between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. The first book is free today only from the iTunes App store.

Vote now to determine what exclusive outfit will come with a pre-order of Red Dead Redemption from Gamestop. You can see all three in action in this video.

Vote here!
The Savvy Merchant gives you all ammo and guns at half price.
The Deadly Assassin recharges your “Dead Eye” targeting twice as fast.
And the Expert Hunter gives you double the price for any hides you collect.

My wife recently got Facebook and saw all of her friends sending her invites to Mafia Wars and Farmville and Blood Wars and a ton of other games. She signed up and asked me to show her what it was. I happily explained everything and she said, “So you just hit this button over and over.” “Yeah, basically. Sometimes you hit that button too.” After my 7 year old and her made fun of me and I realized that I didn’t understand why I liked these games. I play them and I guess I enjoy it, but I don’t know why. There’s no skill. No story. There is a sense of accomplishment to completing some things and I guess that is enough because I still log in and hit that button. I’ve become George Jetson.

Farmville is my other secret shame. It’s on my iPhone and religiously I plant and hoe and plant and hoe and plant and hoe. So while I have to tell you that Farmville is one of my favorite iPhone games. I can’t tell you why. It’s free until you get suckered into buying all the additional content. I already purchased a medium sized farm for $1. And the ‘drag to plow’ for $1. And the ‘drag to seed’ for $1. And the ‘drag to plant’ for $1. And right now I am trying my best not to buy the large farm for another $1. This ‘free’ iPhone game is going to be my most expensive iPhone purchase at the end. And I love it, I just don’t know why.

No Mass Effect 2 spoilers in this:

Wrex, my Mass Effect 2 universe is a darker place without you in it. In ME1 I never did the Krogan armor quest and my Paragon level was never high enough to save you. I tried to save you over and over but you kept dying. I looked at old saves but I was sloppy and relied on auto-save too much.

So at every turn I remember having to kill you Wrex. I didn’t want to. I would have even let Saren cure the genophage because you really were that cool. The rest of my party were a bunch of stiffs (except the blue one that I got it on with). Wrex, you are my greatest gaming regret (#2 is not ‘breaking up the party’ in Arkham Asylum).