Good Day People of the Internet,
    You may or may not have been wondering where I've been for the last little while; and no matter what your choice of options I'm going to tell you.

    First and foremost, school. I just started back in September in a rather intensive program and actually haven't been able to play much of anything let alone watch anything (Other than Agents of SHIELD). Things are starting to even out more here at school so I should be able to get back on my game, in a less scheduled format, soon.
   
    The second thing, Do A Barrel Roll 4 Kids. This one is a project of passion and I've been putting together a website and preparing for the event that will be taking place in my abode November 2nd. Don't know what Do A Barrel Roll 4 Kids is? Allow me to fix that. On November 2nd, Barrel Roll News and Friends will be taking part in a 24 hour game marathon to raise money for our local Children's Hospital, The Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation. But we won't just be playing any games, we'll be playing some of the worst modern games ever made, as voted by me and Tony. The whole thing starts at 8AM MDT and of course goes into the next day. We're raising money through the Extra Life campaign, but we've really turned this thing into our own beast. Tune in and enjoy on November 2nd and if you want more information in the meantime go to www.barrelroll4kids.org. On a slight side note we're also doing a pregame show of sorts on Halloween, the Amnesia Halloween Spooktacular! On October 31st, Tony, Graham and I will hunker down and play through as much of Amnesia: The Dark Descent as we can make it through before we die of heart-attacks or fear. Join us on the same site listed above to watch the fun while handing out candy to all the good little trick-or-treaters.

    Thirdly, I run a paper, one that has undergone quite a few changes in the last month and it's been a busy, but fun, road. Things are starting to level off in this endeavor as well so it should leave more time for extracurricular activities, you know, like games. If you'd like to check out the paper that I work at check out this site, www.theboltnews.com.

    Those three things on top of regular work and of course life (see the important people in my life) are the reason I haven't been around, but I soon plan to make my triumphant return to game reviews and other assorted stuff that you will hopefully interest you all.

    See you all soon!

    Take a moment and check your Twitter history, is it full of insightful tips on gardening or full of #FirstWorldProblems and complaints about human existence. Much like our Twitter feeds our minds can be racked with bad feelings and pessimism, which is only natural, we are human after all. But now something is here to brighten up your week, it's Happy Happy Fun Time Twitter Day on Twitter, or so proclaim @James_LRR. Most of my friends know I'm a huge Loading Ready Run fan and thus I follow most of the cast on Twitter. I saw James' post this morning around midnight and thought it was a spectacular idea; make Twitter a positive place for at least one day.

So I posted about the fact that I was watching Star Wars Episode 6 and drawing and then I went to bed. Upon waking up this morning I got onto Twitter as is my usually routine (gotta find fodder for my comic somewhere right?) and remembered Happy Happy Fun Time Twitter Day. So I thought about my week and something positive I could say about it and in all honesty this made me look at my week in a completely different light. Too often are we bogged down by other people's negativity that we don't notice ourselves being drawn in and falling into a funk. Following the hashtag #HHFTTD will reveal to you a plethora of awesome positivity that is sure to brighten your day and hopefully help you see the world in a slightly brighter way. So I plan on making Happy Happy Fun Time Twitter Day a more regular thing by thinking about my posts and at least trying to add a positive spin to my complaints if I'm going to make them, and let's face it I still will complain (again, human). But by trying to make the internet a more positive place I think that we can make our minds a more positive place as well and thus making our lives better. I hope you will join me by making your Twitter/Facebook/Google+/MySpace/Etc. a more positive place to be and thereby making your mind a more positive place. So thank you James for making my day, and my Twitter feed, just a little bit brighter.

    So according to The Escapist, EA has sent out a survey asking players of Sim City what they'd like to see in an expansion. That's right folks EA is planning on releasing an expansion for this game that most have thought to be left dead and floating down a river that's always online, you know, so the water doesn't cheat. Well there is a long list of things to be added to the game, but the survey obviously means that not everything on the list will make it in. The crushing part here, and the reason I'm writing this, is that most of the things on the list are fixes for the current game; things in my opinion that should have been there in the first place.

    First thing that everyone probably noticed on this survey was "Classic Mode" which is described as, "In offline or online mode, play a single fully functioning city using cheats and unlocks that allow you to create your perfect city". Did you find the special word in that sentence? In case you missed it it was 'offline', that's right folks it looks like EA and Maxis have realized that not everyone has an online connection all the time, like while traveling, and are releasing offline mode in the yet to be announced expansion.
Sounds good right? Not quite.

    Don't get me wrong, this latest societal craze has led to some cool stuff, but it's time for it to be over. Zombie movies/shows/games have all seem to have lost that edge that used to make them special and I have no doubt that it's from overexposure and people trying to be 'different' with the genre. Again I'm not saying it hasn't had some great impacts, The Walking Dead from Telltale was amazing, but then there's the myriad of bad zombie games that follow, including the other licensed Walking Dead game, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. And it's not just games, in 2012 there were over twenty five zombie flix made and you can bet that not all of them were stellar hits.

    But why am I complaining? Why not just let things slide? I know I don't have to watch the movies or play the games, and most of the time I don't. But what it does do it take time away from other projects that could be way more fun to play or watch. For instance I was having a conversation the other day with my compatriot Graham and we started talking about good pirate games that have come out recently. Sid Meier's Pirates was the most recent game that could both think of that excited us. This led to the talk about how Assassin's Creed IV is essentially going to be a pirate game, and it's just Ubisoft's way off selling more titles of a pirate game they wanted to make. So why make Assassin's Creed into a pirate game instead of making a new IP that is in and of itself a pirate game? Because it wouldn't sell. At least that's the way the world works these days, or the way people think it works at least. If it's not the latest fad for themed stuff then it ain't going to sell, so unless your pirates

are zombies the game is a no go. Unless of course you couple the pirate theme with a known IP that sells and you win. But what about other pirate games. I for one am skipping out on the next AC game, but that's for another blog post, and would like a couple of other choices when it came to pirate games.

    It's time for zombies to take a break, maybe have a well earned nap. The sad thing is that the only way that the zombie stuff will die down is if we over-popularize something else that I'll be sick of way before it's over. The supernatural well is starting to run dry so I'm guessing we're going back to dinosaurs, which won't be all that bad, at first. I appreciate that the world has become more accepting about geek culture, but they really like to hold on to things as opposed to diversifying like the geek culture that I grew up with. So with that I say bring on the next fad, because this one is ready to rest in piece.

    Hmmm, how to start. I guess I was really expecting more from this year and yet at the same time I'm not completely disappointed with certain aspects of this years showings. Before really taking off with this article I would like to point out that when it comes to ""winning" this year's E3 I'm only counting Sony and Microsoft in the fight; that isn't to say Nintendo failed. Nintendo did the smartest move for them, escape the would-be bloodbath that is the "showing off of new consoles" battle and just showed people games that they want to see, thus saving them time, face and lots of money. I'd also like to point out that if publishers are going to show up and hold conferences then they are also up for win/loss judgement. so without further ado I give you my thoughts on this years E3.

Microsoft started the show already down a peg by announcing their plans to stop the used game market from taking advantage of them. Then they have a pretty boring show with not a lot to prove why I should put up with their new, not quite, DRM standards. Sure the new Metal Gear game looked good, but then again it's not exclusive to the Xbox One, despite the quick slip up by Major Nelson. Killer Instinct was a cool reveal, but it's not enough to sell a system, at least to me. One of the coolest things I saw that intrigued me was Max and the Curse of Brotherhood, a game that looks like Pixar meets Limbo with it's own ingenuity. The bonus to that game? It's coming out for the Xbox 360! Another game that caught my interest was Sunset Overdrive but there wasn't enough known about the game to really make me NEED a new console.

Hello everyone!
As you might be able to tell our site has undergone some changes and this new front page is just the beginning. Our site is now blocked into different pages and this page will only have so many announcements and headlines on it that will lead you to other pages on the site. So you can still look here every day for new content and you'll be able to find it, but the other pages will now be done to be slightly more organized and pretty with this page remaining relatively free of clutter.
With that being said we'll also have announcements here from us with our pretty pictures next to them so you know who is talking to you now; this is one thing that I'm super excited about as I love to rely information to the people of the interwebs.
I'll also be setting up some personal pages and that will also work as blogs for our personal opinions that are going on in the world of gaming, entertainment, movies, or just weird news. This is something I'll be taking advantage of more than anyone else at this point in time, but hopefully it will begin to grow.