Of Mice and Men

The plan this weekend was to play a bunch of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, hopefully get a good deal closer to the finish mark. You know what they say, though, best laid plans and all that. It isn't that bad, not really. I did get a good handful of rounds of Gears in, and aside from the pummeling that I took, it was fun for a few minutes. I could really only stand to get raped for about an hour, but it worked out well, because a ninth player was interested right when I was ready to bail. I didn't check in later to see if the host transition went well, but I imagine the rest of the guys figured it out. After Gears got to be too much for my frail ego, I loaded up skate., with the notion that I could send it back to GameFly on Saturday, while Burnout Paradise was still listed as High availability. The strangest thing happened: I was really enjoying playing skate.! A big part was that I was doing better, and I was getting a better feel for the waypoint system they have set up, so you can basically teleport to where you want to go. Before too long, I was manual-ing down hills, flipping into and out of manuals, grinding rails, and "owning" locations. Worked out really well, because Burnout went back to Medium availability on Monday, so I think I'll hold onto skate. for another week.

Saturday I wound up basically not gaming at all. I got a few turns of Civ in, and showed off my mad Mario skillz to the kids (up to 54 Stars!), but aside from that it was watching movies with the wife and trying to get some chores done around the house. Really thrilling.

Sunday was supposed to be Rock Band day. The Foo Fighters would be on from 3-4pm and the Harmonix developers from 7-10pm. Allison had claimed me after 10, so I knew I better get my time's worth while I could. Of course, we were out grocery shopping from 3-4 and I had to help get the little monkeys into bed until nearly 9. Finally I get down to the Xbox, and start up Rock Band. I figure I may as well try getting some Score Duels going on Drums, and I wound up losing every round. Most of them were pretty close, at least. Then I saw Keith was playing, and decided that playing with someone I like is better than maybe winning some Achievement or some free swag. I invited him to some duels, I was even doing Medium, just like him. I lost to him, 3 songs in a row, but I eventually beat him in "Dani California". It was great, I started out ahead, and had a solid lead at one point, then we get to a break in the drums, and he and I both look at the scores at the same time. Then we both notice that we are dead even. I figure he probably has won again, since he is sitting with a 3x multiplier, and I only have a 2x multiplier. I, of course, miss the first note after the break. I still managed to pull off a win, even though I had 83% notes hit and he had 84%. The benefits of Overdrive to save the day. After that we did a bit of jamming, me on Guitar, him sticking with Drums. So much fun, no Metroid, but fun.