There Be Dragons Here!

Just what has been occupying my time since Halloween, you may be asking? The severe lack of posts are not due to the usual lack of inspiration this time around.

Truth be told, I've been spending an ungodly amount of my time within a fantasy world where Dragons have returned, knights in shinning amour have given way to viking warriors and where ancient undead soldiers spend time lurking about in forgotten tombs and are just waiting for an ass-whoopin'.

If you've had your video game playing head in the sand for the last month you'd know I'm talking about the most ambitious, open world, role playing game to possibly ever grace counsel gaming systems.

On 11/11/11 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released to the masses. And you can bet you're sword wielding, potion poppin', amour wearing, sweet behinds that yours truly was in his local Gamestop at midnight to get his little paws all over this masterpiece.

Granted, I was probably the oldest geek in the place. No matter! I got my copy in a short period of time and tore back home to my apartment and popped that wonderful little disc into my '360 and sat in a state of mad anticipation!

The intro was very short and sweet and the next thing I knew I was being led into the story head first. Soon after I was working on the intricate character creation system. Then as soon as the introductory part of the story was over and the game let me decided what I wanted to do next, I found myself wandering the huge and beautiful landscapes.......

Once I actually looked at the clock and realized it was 5 AM I decided to take a short nap . I had wisely taken that Friday off from work and found myself up by 10 AM and back at the game. Since then I have taken advantage of the cold, gloomy and dark atmosphere that has seemed to curse the subsequent winter weekends and found a plethora of time to clock in at least 48 hours of the game. It being and open world, sandbox game, I found it very easy to do.

So what do I think of it?

One of the BEST GAMES I'VE EVER PLAYED!

Keep in mind, I'm an oldster. My first game system was a big red plastic box that you connected to your UHF atenea to play Pong. So I've been playing for a while and I can honestly say that this game has blown a few of my all times faves out of their places in the pantheon that is Zangz's All Time Favorite Video Games.

I have yet to reach the end of the main quest and story for the game, but have logged in more than enough hours to be able to give a decent review.

The main story revolves around you arriving in this Norse mythology influenced fantasy realm as a prisoner who was captured trying to illegally cross the border into the Northern most realm of the Elder Scrolls fantasy world know as Skyrim. You're cuffed and in a wagon with other prisoners being taken to your execution that is take part in a small town. As your head is being laid on the chopping block, all hell breaks loose as a dragon attacks and destroys the town. Once you escape the destruction the world is your oyster.

You can pursue the main story quest and find out why long extinct dragons have returned to the world and what major part you play in it. Or you can do whateverhellyouwantto! It's all your choice.

I found myself spending hours traveling the roads and reveling in the majesty and beauty of the Skyrim world before I took on any of either the main or side quests. There's almost too much to do and explore in this world.

There are hundreds of places to check out. Whether it be burial tombs, caves, ancient dwarven ruins, keeps, bandit forts, small townships and extravagant cities, there's hundreds of places to search, loads of people to interact with, take on dangers, loot treasure chests and look for cool-as-heck magical items. Almost each and every place you come upon, your jaw will drop at its beauty. The whole world is definitely seeped in fantastical artistry.

The game keeps you busy. I've been biding my time with the main quest, taking it in a little at a time so I don't blow through it too quickly. Luckily I've been keeping busy with the multitude of side quests that are provided for you in the game. Holy crap, there are a lot!! There are the main quest missions, then each city and township has its own set of quests for you, then there are the factions and political parties you can join who have a bunch of quests for you. AND THEN there are bunch of side and miscellaneous quest you can randomly come upon. It's mind blowing!!!!

You can take a gander at the gameplay right HERE!

They've also made the combat and magic systems much easier than any of the previous Elder Scrolls games. You don't have to be a hard core RPG geek to get the hang of how to manipulate and use your inventory.

In past Elder Scrolls games, I've played as a brute warrior with a penchant for hack'n'slash gameplay. This time around I've found it easy enough to play as a combo warrior / thief-esque / assassin type character without having to dick around too much with a complicated interface. You build up the stats from what you actually do in the game. You don't have to worry about wondering where to allocate a ton of skill points into. The game pretty much does it for you per how you like to play. Every time you level up you only have to worry about putting points into three (count 'em THREE) attributes and then only one point into a skill.

Do you want to be a bad-ass warrior? You can do that! Do you and to be sneaky thief? You can do that! Do you want to play as a powerful mage? You can do that! Do you want to play as all of the above? You can do that! Do you want to play as a little bit more of the above and a little bit less of the above? You can do that! They've really taken the whole sandbox gameplay ideal and applied it to RPG mechanics with little confusion for the player.

Here's a quick video on the gameplay mechanics of the game.

The world itself is an organic (over used annoying word alert!) living world where characters live their lives day to day despite your existence in it. Time moves on no mater what you do or don't do. Here's a time laps look at one of the cites in the game.

I could go on and on and on with what makes this game so frackin' awesome I'd be typing this post all night. Suffice it to say, this is one of the best gaming experiences I've had since Grand Theft Auto III came out or the time I first discovered Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. You may be asking yourself, "Does he think that there is anything is wrong with it?"

I've only run across a couple of things that slightly irk me.

First, I notice that once you discover and clear out a dungeon, cave, fort, whatever, that the enemies within don't regenerate if you revisit that same place later in the game. In Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion, a short time after you cleared a place you could go back in and still go after baddies while looting treasures. This doesn't seem to be the case in Skyrim. That could kill a little of the replay value that the Elder Scrolls games pride themselves for. I have to play through a lot more of the game to see if these dungeons are revisit-able, but right now it's looking like once you complete a dungeon, it's just an empty dungeon.

The net has been afire with a lot of criticisms of a lot of the major glitches that can plague the game. We all know that these Elder Scrolls games are so incredibly huge it is hard for developers, Bethesda, to catch all of the glitches before release time. In fact, in the past, some of these glitches are kind of amusing and endearing to a lot of us. This game, however, has a little too much of them and in some cases can make a quest incomplete. I came across such a quest where I was to collect three separate necklaces in three separate dungeons. I made the mistake of forgetting to grab the necklace off of the first dungeon boss in the first dungeon. When I returned much later on in the game to collect the necklace off the the carcass of the undead viking warrior, he was gone and the quest arrow telling me where the location of the necklace was pointing at the empty ground where the necklace should have been. So I couldn't complete the quest. Bummer!

Do these faults ruin the game? Hell no!!! The game is still a wonder to behold!

Lift up your cups or grog to the people at Bethesda Games who have created one of the top video gaming experiences that I have ever had the pleasure!!!!

For Xmas this year get you loved ones this game! They won't be disappointed..... unless they wer born without a soul.

Zangz.

Halloween Has Arrived....

"While most foolish others treated it like any other Monday, Erasmus Burke stayed at home this Halloween. The day prior he spent boarding up the doors and windows of his little house as best he could, locking himself inside, making sure there was no way anybody or anything could make their way inside either by accident or by force.

The outside world viewed Erasmus as an odd little man. A loner who lived on the corner of one of the oldest graveyards of the city. It was his job to maintain the grounds and prepare the graves for incoming.....residents.

In recent months, during his daily duties in the graveyard, odd things started to transpire. At first it started as a slight whisper coming from nowhere in particular. Erasmus would dismiss it as the wind through the trees or the rustling of leaves on the ground. But, as time went on, the disembodied voice grew to several voices. They also became more clearer. Their message was one of their return from the grave to seek vengeance on the living this coming Halloween.

Erasmus took these warnings to heart. Prior to sealing off his doors and windows he lit the Jack-O-Lanterns on his front porch. These were the only way a house could be marked as safe from the ghouls that would soon be floating about the living world. At least, that's what the dead had told Erasmus. He'd seen a thing or two during his long tenure at the graveyard that proved the fact that you should never turn your back on the dead. So he readied his home for the oncoming resurrection of the dead.

The final plank against the door was nailed shut an hour before midnight on October 30th. Erasmus then turned off all of the lights and

Erasmus dove under the covers with minutes to spare with his head underneath the safety of his blankets. Soon the clock on the wall chimed midnight. the witching hour had begun.

The wind that had lightly been blowing outside had suddenly stopped. An uneasy silence had crept across the graveyard and moved throughout the city. It lasted a minute or two. Then the bedlam started to begin.

It started with what sounded like a moan from far off in the distance. Then a wail. Then another moan. Then a shriek. Then a blood curdling howl. Then the sounds of the unliving wailed, moaned and shrieked in unison. The wind picked up again far stronger than before the silence.

Erasmus squeezed against the edge of the blanket holding it firm so that nothing could tear it off of him.

That's when the scratching noises started. Against the walls of his house there came tearing and scraping sounds that chilled his bones.

This bedlam and ruckus went on all through the night. It didn't go away once the morning came. He feared it would never end. Hour after hour the same scraping noised and strong winds kept on. The only difference was the horrid sounds of the undeads' moans and cries and wails that would change in pitch with each different being making their own sounds of terror.

After what felt like an eternity the sounds of terror started to become less frequent. The scraping had stopped, the wind had died down and then Erasmus heard his last moan off in the distance. Then a peaceful silence overcame the town.

A minute later his clock struck midnight marking November 1st. In a clod sweat, Erasmus pulled himself from the bed and stated to tear down the planks he put up across his door and windows. By the time he was done, the sun started to rise. He ran outside to check on the state of the graveyard and his home.

The first thing that had amazed him was that there were no tear marks on his house. In fact his Jack-O-Lanterns were still lit. The second thing that took Erasmus by surprise was that the graveyard was in excellent shape. No stoned or graves showed any signs of being disturbed. In fact the grounds seemed to be in a little bit better condition than he remembered them being in a long while.

The third an final thing that Erasmus noticed was a bit more disturbing. As he looked down the street he noticed that there were a few houses that seemed to have been torn up a bit with broken windows and tear marks against the houses. But, there ware only a few houses that seemed disturbed along the street. There were also a fair amount of houses that weren't messed with at all. The one difference that Erasmus noticed in the houses ware the ones that didn't have any damage were ones that had Jack-O-Lanterns out.

Erasmus smiled to himself knowing that he would be safe every Halloween since he knew he had a special alliance with those that he looked over. And they in return would look over him and all of the others that celebrated Halloween.

So if you haven't yet, make sure you light up those smiling, orange faces this evening and every Halloween from now on. Because you never know what may be lurking about tonight trying to judge who celebrates their holiday......... and who does not."

I'm not sure where the frack I was going with that, or where it came from for that matter. That's the kind of mess I make when I decide to "free write". It's certainly not Stephen King, but the holiday got the best of my creative juices. It's my way of saying to all of you.........

First Haunt of the Season Explored!

"I awoke this morning in a cold sweat, still clinging to my bed quilt. I cautiously pulled myself from the bed and peeked through the window blinds hoping that my memories from the last night would be redeemed by the morning sunlight. Instead my eyes were met with bleak, dark gray skies.

I tensed up as a sense of caution streaked through me as it did continuously last night during the chilling events that I bore witness to.

It is said that every Halloween season is the time when the worlds of the dead are closest to touching the living and that paranormal encounters are far more frequent. For the last several years, me and my cohorts have explored a few of these places that are wrought with odd happenings.

Currently staying at a nice home in the countryside that we are using as a safe haven, I take the time to reflect on last nights occurrences.

Last night our curiosity of the macabre got the best of us. With a week load of a bright moon haunting the nights' skies, we should have seen this as an omen of things to come.

Not far from our sanctuary there is an old abandoned high school with a strong paranormal reputation. We decided to investigate it last night. God save our souls........"

And this dark little narrative is just the segue I need for my review of.........

The Haunted High School - Located just a short hop, skip, jump and run for your life from the main freeway is a huge abandoned high school in Oconomowoc, WI that is now wonderfully utilized as a yearly Haunted Attraction. Boasting itself as the largest haunt in Wisconsin and the only haunt with a creepy High School theme within the midwest, myself, Roberto Del Amorte and his lovely wife Iris Von Beaverhousen decided to see if this haunt was worth its bragging rights.

We got to the haunt a little later in the evening and were met with a full parking lot and gymnasium full of people waiting to get in. We decided on the Fast Pass option that got us a better place in line since we didn't want to hassle with the 90 minute wait. Though they had old horror movies playing on the walls of the gym, we wanted to jump right in and get our scare on!

Upon entering the haunt itself we were ushered down a flight of stairs that led to the workout rooms. This first area set the stage for the high school nightmares that were to come. Part work out gym and part torture chamber we saw more than a few poor souls tied and strapped to the workout equipment. The one problem that I found in this area that didn't seem to effect the rest of the haunt was that it was way too darkly lit. You couldn't see the tableaus that were meticulously put together. Not sure if that was on purpose or if some electrical feed was not working. In any case, the rest of the haunt was lit good enough to be spooky dark, yet still visible enough to not be missed.

Through the rest of the haunt I noticed that the effects and scenery were utilizing the Old School method. Instead of investing in uber-expensive, detailed effects that can be purchased at haunt conventions or online for the price of your soul, organizers used what they had and home made effects to fill the scenery and effects. For example, before abandoning the high school, the school district left behind a bevy of desks and lockers that became part of the outline of the mazes. Who needs to create a school house effect when they had one built in already? Would have it been nice to see that "wow" factor of an effect that would blow our minds? Sure. Was it necessarily needed here? Nope.

Traversing through all aspects of high school that bring back bad memories were all present here. The rotting "food" of the cafeteria, the impossible math equations, detention hall, the horticultural classes and of course the finale of the school quad, where instead of being terrorized from the dumb jock bullies, here you had to watch out for the chain-saw wielding maniac.

I'm always leery when they use young scare-actors as the ghouls for a haunt. Past haunts we've witnessed them standing around in groups talking to each other rather than putting on the scare. This group did surprisingly well. Most of them were into full character having a great time making us wet our pants. We only came across the weaker ones in the cheap masks giving out a half hearted "Rawrrrr" only once or twice.

One of the big set pieces is the auditorium where a chorus of animatronic skeletons sing along to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as ghoulish dancers try and get patrons to dance along. This was pretty impressive, but I think I would have been more awestruck if they had been referencing the ORIGINAL Rocky Horror and not the one based off of the uberhyped and over praised Glee version. The huge banner that had the Glee logo over the stage didn't help. Give me a little Bostwick and Sarandon, rather than a Finn or Puck in my Rocky Horror. No, I'm not a huge fan of Glee if you could tell.

On the far better side of things, this haunt was pretty frackin' long! 35 minutes for an indoor haunt is pretty good. Most don't last more than 20 minutes, if that. Most people who pay what we paid for other haunts get through the place just as their getting into the mood. Every point I thought we were coming to the end, there was a huge new area to discover.

Was this the best haunt of all time?. Well, no. The organizers could learn a thing or two if they attended one of the big haunt conventions and invested in just a few professional scares. But, was this a darn good haunt? You bet!!! A few adjustments and this baby could go big time!

In the end, The Haunted High School is a darn hearty haunt that is a bit of a spooky adventure that is a darn good scare, but not quite up there with the pro haunts. Its main strengths are the length of the show and it's home grown charm while the dedication of its young scare-actors could easily rival other haunts that use teens. Overall, I was pretty impressed!

Hopefully there will be more spooky adventures to be had this season. My Good friend, Mr. Bones has shown an interest in attending a haunt with yours truly. Let's see if he's up to the challenge.

Zangz.

The Source of My Love for Halloween: Saturday Morning Programing!

A few weeks ago I found myself in a bit of a parking space jam. My apartment building is doing extensive work on the back parking lot where I park my car. So I've had to find an alternative parking method which has ended up being a night parking permit in an area that is a bit of a walk from my apartment.

In my neighborhood finding a parking spot is a luxury and I was able to find a little area that is right near a small park about one mile from my home. This has worked nicely for two reasons. One, it's in a small patch of higher class suburban neighborhood. Two, it has gotten me back to taking nice leisurely walks in the early mornings and evenings.

Many times my walks take place during the dark hours early in the morning or late at night. Many people may feel a bit uncomfortable taking walks during the dark hours. But, for me, it is quite the pleasure.

I enjoy the ghostly shadows of the trees of the park that shimmy and float about during windy weather. There's also a big, dark, gothic home that sits at the end of a dead end street that never seems to have any lights on or any movement going on inside or out. Who or what lives there, I wonder?

There's even a little patch of wooded area that I have to pass along on my daily jaunts. I always wonder what may be looking at me from inside the dark folliage. Is there a little chipmunk in a state of caution ready to high tail it up a tree if I move toward it? Or maybe it's a rabid raccoon that is ready pounce on my face if I move in it's general direction. Or, best yet, what if it is a reanimated corpse, freshly risen from the grave that would ramble on out, grabbing my head and taking a big chomp out of the front of it?

With these dark ideas running through my odd little mind, one may wonder, "Where did this guy's love of the macabre come from? What was the source for his love of all things spooky?"

I've been trying to trace back my love of all things spookarific for a while now and I have to tell you that it goes way back to my love of Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

Oddly, I was never really impressed with the Buggs Bunny, Looney Tunes type shows. I was more into the action, adventure and mystery influenced cartoons.

During the late 60's and early 70's there were a bunch of cartoons that centered around a group of teens and some form of mascot that would hunt ghosts and monsters.

There were a few rules that these shows all followed.

1) The group was always led by a good looking boy and good looking girl. The rest of the group were misfit looking goof balls that were the comedic relief.

2) The group always had some form of mascot character who was usually the main character and namesake of the show. It would usually be some sort of dog or animal. If it were a dog, it had to be able to talk.

3) The group would always drive around in some sort of 70's hot rod type vehicle such as a dune buggy or love van.

The grandaddy and first of the bunch was......

Scooby-Doo, Where are You? - Four teens, Freddy, Wilma, Daphne and Shaggy along with Shaggy's pet Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, go out of their way to discover the most creepy locations to hunt and find ghosts, ghouls and monsters that usually end up being some crook with an elaborate plan to either hide stolen money, steal money, or scheme someone out of money.

My earliest childhood memories revolve around getting up early on Saturday mornings and watching Scooby Doo. For whatever reason, I loved the hell out of that frackin' show as a kid.

Watch the intro to Scooby-Doo HERE!

After the success of Scooby-Doo, children's Saturday mornings were filled with teens and their wacky mascots solving mysteries. Here are a few of them that pretty much carbon copied Scooby-Doo's characters, plots, outlines, motifs and themes. Let's see which ones you all remember?

The Funky Phantom - Three teens and their bull dog who drive around in a dune-buggy join forces with the ghosts of a colonial gentleman and his pet cat. The group spend much of the episodes chasing other ghosts (who of course end up as crooks in costume). I loved this show as well. Watch the intro to the show HERE!

Goober and the Ghost Chasers - Talk about ripping off Scooby-Doo! This show even stole a lot of the images from the intro. This time it's a group of teens who have a dog that turns invisible when it's frightened. Check out the intro HERE!

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels - Same concept here, except the three female girls were obviously conceived from the popularity of TV's Charlie's Angels. Oddly, there's no talking dog mascot in this show. Instead the girls hang out with a prehistoric super hero. See the intro HERE!

Fangface - Here we have yet another group of teens who's "mascot" is one of their own. One of the kids in the group is a werewolf . So whenever trouble ensues, one of the kids shows him a picture of a full moon (if there isn't one in the sky already) and he turns into wolf form and saves the day. See intro HERE!

Clue Club - Another bunch of teens. Another dune buggy. This one was a little less spooky and focused more on a group of teens and their two talking dogs that went after less over the top and creepy villains. I do remember one or two episodes where the gang did go after spooks, but it wasn't the norm for this cartoon. See intro HERE!

If you thought my love of the macabre was spawned from only the cartoons on Saturday mornings, you'd be wrong. Children's programing did have its share of live action shows and this next one was one of my all time favorites!

The Ghost Busters - About eight years prior to Bill Murry and Dan Akroyd putting proton packs on their backs, it was two former actors from the TV show "F Troop" and their trained gorilla hunting down ghosts and ghouls with a "Ghost Dematerializer". Every episode was pretty much the exact same story. Ghost Busters go on a mission to hunt a ghost. Ghost Busters go to the same haunted castle from the previous episode. Hi-jinx ensue. They catch the ghost with their big spotlight looking machine. End of story. Take a look at the intro HERE!

Monster Squad - The Ghost Busters wasn't the only live action spookfest that would take place on Saturday mornings. There was also this little gem. On Monster Squad there was a bit of a twist. Instead of a group of teens hunting monsters, it was one teen, named Walt, who controlled the famous monsters The Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Walt would send them out on missions to take down criminals and other baddies. By day, the monsters would pose as wax figures in a museum. By night, they'd fight crime. Senator Fred "DON'T CALL ME GOPHER!!" Grandy played the roll of Walt. Let's take a little look-see right HERE!

Kids programming changed wildly when the 80's came. Cartoons were half hour commercials for an action figure line. There were no more spooks, no more haunted houses to search and no more dark grey backgrounds to get you into the mood. The bad guys were the same every episode. The days of teen mystery sleuths and their wacky pets and cohorts were dead.

I miss those chilly, fall Saturday mornings where a new crop of cartoons would issue in even more teen mystery shows that gave me my first taste of the macabre.

Zangz.

Season of Spooks Has Begun!

The morning autumnal chill that we have recently awoken to makes most want to stay within the warm, cuddly, safe embrace of their bed quilts and pillows. But, for others of us, we know that there is far more to it than that.

We know that true safety only comes once the sun rises. During these longer nights, we know that there are things that dwell within the darkened shadows, lurking, waiting, whispering and moaning. They come from netherworlds and forgotten dimensions.

For most people these mythical monstrosities are things of legends and campfire stories. But, for others of us that know better, they are the unspeakable horrors that feast off of the living's fears and flesh.

FOR THIS IS THE HALLOWEEN SEASON!!!

And right on into the season we go here on my Blog of Geekdom! I've finished my annual alterations on my blog so that they are more suitable for this wonderful, spooky season.

So lets get right into it, shall we?

What creepy activities have I jumped into to start the celebrating of the spook season? Well, I've been playing....

Red Dead Redemption: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE - This is neither a sequel or prequel to the old west, open world, shoot 'em up, Red Dead Redemption. This is more of a "What If" story that ponders the notion, "What if the old west suffered from a sudden outbreak of a zombie plague?"

Lead protagonist, John Marston finds his safe and sweet, rancher lifestyle torn to shreds as the nearby township of Blackwater is infested with the flesh-eating undead. This sets him on a open world journey throughout the old west to try and find a cure as well as survive.

The game features the same map and locations that the original Red Dead did, but most townships and ranches are zombie filled and burning to the ground. You have to guide Marston through the countryside and either avoid or kill off hordes of zombies while taking on a whole slew of missions. You'll be expected to cleanse graveyards, hunt sasquatch, capture the four horses of the apocalypse, clear towns of zombies as well as taking on the main story's quest missions.

The game play is pretty much the same with a slight survival horror twist. There are thousands of zombies in this game and ammunition is not as plentiful as it was in the last game. In fact, one of the only places you'll find it is off of the bodies of zombies that you have dispatched. Not all zombies carry ammo. Just the ones who have gun belts on them. Sometimes you get rewarded with ammo after completing a mini-mission, but there are no working stores to exchange items for money. So whatever ammo you get, consider yourself lucky. Sometimes you have to decide if it's going to be fight or flight when confronted with a brood of zombies on the road in front of you when you're low on ammo.

There's also a little more strategy involve when taking out oncoming zombies. In grand zombie folklore tradition, the only way you can completely kill a zombie is a good, solid head shot! This can be made a little easier when you use the "quick shot" feature which slows down the scene and lets you set well aimed shots. However this only lasts for so long and has to recharge after its use. This can be detrimental when more zombies are coming at you. You have to figure out if you want to run from them as you quick-shot meter builds back up or if you want to aim out the shots on your own, real time. You can also shoot them in the legs and lower extremities to slow them down and allow you to take better aim. Either way, there's a distinct possibility that you will become zombie chow.

Some of the frustrating control issues have not been fixed from the last game. You'll find yourself circling a dead zombie carcass over and over again until you find the right angle where the game lets you search the body for ammo. And of course there are times when you are running from zombies and you easily make the mistake to put your character into the crouch position rather than continue running which is always a ton of fun when you have a few zombies on your back.

Despite these control issues, the game is a ton of wicked, spooktacular fun! The creepy atmosphere, gallows humor and zombie hunting more than make up for the slight frustrations. The game is also priced pretty frackin' nicely for the amount of content that's there.

If you are a zombie fan and like tales of the old west as well as open world game play, this is a must buy!

I'll keep this introductory Halloween season post short. I have to start plotting on what poor souls I'm going to try and drag to a Haunted Attraction this year. I hope you all get to take on some fun autumn and Halloween activities this season!

Zangz.

"I'm a loner, Dottie."

- Pee Wee Herman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

In the wild world of video gaming, multiplayer and co-op seem to be the big main draw to bringing in common folk who wouldn't usually be into the video game scene. These functions have popularized the gaming industry by leaps and bounds as well as making it a lucrative competitor to the likes of Hollywood film studios. In many ways it has helped catapult the geek cultural renaissance we've been having over the last few years.

Being able to get online and shoot it up with a bunch of people from all over the world seems like it would be an entertainment draw for the likes of myself. But, to tell you the truth, online gaming with others takes away from many aspects of why I love video gaming to begin with.

For example.....

A. Gaming with a bunch of kids is, simply put, a colossal pain in the arse. Immaturity seems to run rampant throughout online gaming. Whether it be silly, vulgar insults or cheating during competitive game play, it kills the joy of pure competition.

B. Even if you're playing with people you know and trust who are on an equal maturity level as you are, there's always going to be that one person, THAT ONE PERSON, who has traversed the game level over and over and over again before you've gotten acquainted with it. He or she knows every nook and cranny and has found several wonderful spots to hide and snipe at you so every time you get killed by them and regenerate, BLAMMO!!!, head shot. You're dead again.

C. You tend to lose out on the wonderful experience of exploration and discovery. I lean toward huge, epic, open world games. I like to experience a game that really puts you in a virtual world where discovering new places is a major feature of the game. When you're forced to rely on other people in the game, you're pulled away from you own quest of discovery.

D. Having to rely on other players and when or if they want to play or even finding the time for everybody you want to play with at a given moment can be just as intricate as transposing a Frank Zappa song.

E. I'm a selfish bastage when I play. I want to do things on my own time. Do I want to take path "A" or path "B"? It should be up to me and nobody else. If I make a mistake or choose unwisely, I should be the only player who suffers the consequences.

So there you have it. I'm a loner gamer and have no problem with it. And as a loner gamer, I'm looking forward to the onslaught of cool as frack releases that will be popping onto game shelves within a years time.

1. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: 11-11-11 is the release date for this open world, fantasy and action filled lovefest. It's predecessors, Morrowind and Oblivion, have proven themselves to be some of the greatest games ever released. Here's how geeked out I am over the game. I plan to pre-order it within the next few weeks, go to the midnight release and take the day off. I've NEVER done anything like that for a video game, ever! For Skyrim, I'M DOIN' IT!!! You can view a preview of the gameplay as demonstrated by game lead, Todd Howard if you click HERE.

2. Saints Row, The Third: The first Saints Row game was criticized for being another open world, crime sim, GTA clone. And it pretty much was. But, where the GTA series has a good dose of frustrating "throw the controller at the TV screen" moments, Saints Row leaned more toward fun. They took that feeling even further in Saints Row 2. This upcoming installment will push the fun factor to the limit with crazy weaponry that includes a vehicle that sucks up pedestrians and shoots them out of a cannon, a satellite from which you can call in missile aerial strikes on rival gangs and a hand held...um...well...this weapon has me going "WTF?" I tried to find a preview to link to that wasn't as controversial or adult orientated as the game is. I couldn't. So, if you really, really want to see some game play, search it out on YouTube yourselves. But be sure not to do so at work or where children are present. If you work at a day care facility, you're really screwed.

3. Borderlands 2: More of the same shoot 'em up, loot 'em up gameplay as the first Borderlands? YES, PLEASE!! A good mix of RPG looting and character building while shooting up baddies with a massive amount of weaponry to choose from on a desolate Road Warrior-esque planet can't go wrong. Can it? Methinks not! To see a way too quick first trailer of the game, click HERE.

4. Mass Effect 3: THE greatest sci-fi RPG to grace the video game world since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Not only is it a great RPG, the story line is incredibly captivating. This will be the last of the trilogy where we will see if our Commander Shepard can save both the Earth and universe. See the trailer HERE.

5. Dead Island: Upon hearing about yet another zombie shoot them up, survival game, I thought it would be a dull version of Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead. Well, I just went over a number of reviews and all of them were pretty impressed with the game. It turns out to be a RPG / open world / survival horror hybrid taking place on an island resort that goes to hell in a hand basket when a zombie outbreak takes place there. Zombie killin' and RPG mechanics?Me likey!! To watch a blood and gore soaked preview, click HERE, but don't do it at work or with kids around. I guess if you work at a day care facility, you'd be really screwed.

6. RAGE: More post-apocalyptic action and adventure in id Software's predecessor to it's other first person shooter games, DOOM and Quake. These guys are the originators of FPS gameplay and god knows they've had quite a while to work on this puppy. How can this go wrong? No Duke Nukem Forever jokes, please. There's a look at a preview of the game HERE.

That's a good cache of games coming out soon. This is the first time in a while where my wish list has been more than one or two games. I'd better start on that Xmas list pretty soon. Some of these titles are coming out this fall, if they haven't already.

And speaking of fall, my favorite, creeptastic holiday is right around the corner. I have already seen at least one Halloween store opening its doors. I'm already watching YouTube videos of Haunted Attractions around the country. More on that in a latter post closer to the season.

I think I'll end my latest entry here. Until next time, stay vertical!!!

Zangz.

Geeks & Podcasts. Our legions grow!

We are the geeks of the world and we are growing and taking over the realms of New Media!

Within the last few years podcasting has grown in leaps and bounds. There are podcasts for every interest under the sun. Whether it be automotive, hobbies, pop culture, politics, or your mom, there is something for everyone. Go to iTunes and go to Podcasts and then do a search on whatever you fancy....BLAM! You'll find dozens of shows to choose from. It is the new wild west of New Media.

Obviously geek culture has more than just made its presence known in the podcasting world. The podcasts that cover the topics of the fantastical number in the thousands. Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, D&D, Video Games as well as Ghost Hunting are all strongly represented in the podcast realms. It's probably a small part of the reason I've been sorrily neglecting my blog this year.

As you know, I've gone and bought myself an iPhone and spend a little too much time on it than I should. The iPhone has been my introduction to iTunes and other media related programing. iTunes brought me the wonderful world of geek podcasts that occupy a good dose of my time.

There was a time that I had my own Podcast, Zangz's Pod of Geekdom. It was started back in the day when Podcasting was just starting to get really popular. If you get a chance to listen to the shows you'll see they are a wonderful documentation of the progression of a fledgling podcast.

We started out trying to use Skype that worked like pure crapolla on a dial up modem (Yep. I'm pretty low tech). Then we moved on by using telephones as microphones as the producer recorded remotely from his home fifty some odd miles away. We then found room in my producer's dad's office and I ended up recording in a broom closet there for sound buzzing issues. I was the idea guy who came up with most of the creative concepts of the shows and outlined them. Double-A-Man was the tech guru and producer who handled the engineering and all technical aspects of the show. As time went on the podcasts actually started to sound pretty darn professional. Especially when I'd get friends in round table discussions.

Sadly, logistics and problems with scheduling people and getting others involved proved to be the demise of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom. It would be great if one day we could resurrect The Pod of Geekdom, but we'd have a hell of a lot of competition.

There are a plethora of Podcasts that do Geekiness far better than I ever could. Here are a few that I follow regularly and urge you all to follow as well.

(Before you go downloading some of these, please realize that podcasts, thankfully, aren't censored. Free speech, baby! Might you have younglings in listening vicinity, you may want to use a headset. Many of these podcasts use adult language. You have been warned!)

Dovahkiin: An Elder Scrolls V Podcast - I nearly crapped myself with happiness when Todd Howard and his crew at Bethesda Games announced that the next Elder Scrolls open ended RPG video game, Skyrim, would be coming out on 11-11-11. Apparently I wasn't alone with the sudden case of happiness crapposity. These Elder Scrolls fans put together their own podcast that chronicles the progression of the coming video game. They also reveal any and all hints at what we might expect from the game. The faux background noises make it sound as though they are recording from one of the many pubs in the game world. Clever. They haven't updated in a few months and I'm hoping that is due to them being busy in the summer. With luck they'll be back in the fall with more info on what is to be one of the most epic games ever made.

Critical Hit: A Dungeons and Dragons Podcast - What's better than sitting down and playing a pencil and paper RPG with real, tangible polyhedral dice? How about listening to a bunch of guys playing one. The world famous RPG, Dungeons and Dragons, get the digitally live treatment as we get to hear D&D game sessions being played by a bunch of gamers. Sounds too geeky for you? Give it a try and lose yourself in their game world.

The Game Informer Show - Being a very choosey video game player, I have to have a good idea of what a game has to offer before I dump $60 on it. This is why I subscribe to Game Informer Magazine. It helps me navigate through what I might find fun or what I need to avoid. The magazine has its own podcast that features editors and writers from the mag putting their two cents on everything from reviews to previews of games as well as the state of the business side of the gaming industry.

The Geekbox Radio Podcast - Definitely one of my favorites of the bunch. This is usually a roundtable discussion on the past week's geeky happenings. Video games, genre TV shows and movies are bandied about between a round table of gamers and genre fans. I love the casualness of this one. It mirrors what me and my geek friends would talk about if we were all sitting around shootin' the dren.

SuperGeeks Podcast - If you can stomach the often cheesy opening skit's goofball humor, you'll be treated to wealth of comic book movie knowledge. All things Superhero-tastic on the big screen are discussed in this little gem of a show. It's quite obvious these guys have a mad love for comic book inspired movies and TV shows.

20 Sides of Nerd - This podcast reviews both video and role playing games as well as getting into a lot of reviews on up and coming technology.

The Nerdist Podcast - Rarely do I keep a podcast saved to my iPhone after I've listened to it once. I usually delete it and download the latest in the series. Not so, with The Nerdist. I currently have 14 episodes of the show saved to my phone. Even though I've listened to each one more than once, I find myself going back and listening to them again and again. Comedian Chris Hardwick (Singled Out, Web Soup, Attack of the Show) and his buddies take a improvisational comedy, roundtable approach and seamlessly mesh it with tons of nerd sensibility. Dare I say it, they almost make being a nerd or a geek hip.

Whether they have celebrity guests or are just chatting with eachother, I have found myself laughing out load with my earphones on. In fact I was mowing my mom's lawn the other day while listening to The Nerdist when I looked up and saw a passerby look at me like I was out of my mind. It was then I realized that I was laughing my ass off out loud. Then there are the guests! They get a whole cornucopia of interesting people that cover stand up comedians to genre celebrities. From Patton Oswalt to Neil Gaiman, from Matt Smith to Kevin Smith, from Craig Ferguson to Nathan Fillion. They all show up in one cast or the other. This is the podcast I highly recommend over all others!

There are a few more I've downloaded, but haven't checked out yet. I'll let you all know how they are once I have given them a listen.

So, there you have it. Start downloading these beauties onto whatever mobile media player you carry.

Until next time, stay verticle!

Zangz.

My new found respect for "The Sound of Music".

First, a few apologies.

1) Yep. This year is going to be a little anemic for posting here. I've been suffering from a bad bout of Brain Drain as well as a severe lack of imaginative inspiration.

2) This post is going to come off a little sappy, not a motif this blog usually dwells upon.

3) This post has little to do with any geekines.

4) I'm doing this from my smart phone while at a Starbucks and haven't figured out how to hyperlink text. So wiki or google terms and titles you don't get. The spellcheck is a little wonky also, and you all know my lack of spelling skills.

Now that that's all out of the way, I can tell you that something pretty frackin' cool happened to me a few weeks ago. I became "Uncle Zangz" when my sister gave birth to my niece, "Lil' G". And I'm pretty stoked about being a first time uncle. I get to hang out and enjoy the cuteness and as soon as the screaming or bodily functions that newborns spring out on us start to hit the fan, I can hand her off to Mom, Dad or Grandma. No fuss, no muss. A luxury most of us single uncles and aunts are blessed with.

Anyhow, I recently had a wonderful experience involving me new niece that put a bit of a lump in my throat.

Before I go on with the story I have to emphisise how I previosly had a strong dislike for the classic musical film "The Sound of Music". First off, I loathed how saccharine and silly it came off as being. I mean the movie starts out with a goofy singing nun flailing around out in the mountains of Austria wailing away about "The hills being alive with the sound of music...". I mean, c'mon!

Then there were the Von Trapp kids. These kids were so Goody Goody that the Brady kids could have beaten the living crap out of them. When they weren't whining about something, they were breaking into song every five minutes.

One of the main reasons I had a grudge against the film ist that when my sister was a kid and I was away from the house she decided to watch the movie on my Betamax machine. The tape got jammed in the heads tearing them to shreds leaving the piece of video history a useless hunk of junk. Not cool.

The film seemed th plague me ever since. I was forced to watch it everytime we went to visit my Grandpa in the nursing home since it would be playing on the big TV in the main room to placate the residedents who hardly new where they were half the time. Up until recently that movie reminded me of watching my Grandpa slowly slip away into dementia didn't help it's popularity with me in the least bit.

Yet for some reason my Mom and Sis would force me to watch it every Easter when it is played on the Family Channel annually. This past Easter was no exception. I was able to make a deal. If they were going to have that on, I should be able to tool around with my new smart phone without any complaints. Surprisingy they agreed.

So as I downloaded nerdy- geeky podcast after nerdy-geeky podcast I tolerated the Von Trapp's caterwauling in the background. Lil' G was in attendance gurgling and moving around as newborns do.

At one point my Mom was holding her and that's when it happened. The song "Edleweise" came on and my Mom started rocking Lil G and sang it to her. My Mom is no singer by any means, but something about this hit me like a rock in the chest.

The whole vision put a great big lump in my cold hearted Sound of Music hating heart and cleared all the animosity I had for the film away in one magic moment.

I hid the swell of emotion from the others in the room and sucked up any tears that may have been welling up. I realized that from this moment forward "The Sound of Music" would no longer represent broken Betamax machines or old folks homes. I would now bring emotions of family love and the birth of my niece and the sweetness of a Grandmother singing to her grandchild.

Now I can tolerate the film. I can probably even watch it without any nausea. Sometimes it truly is the little special moments in life that can make a difference.

Told you this was going to be sappy.

Until next time, Doe.... A deer... A female deer.......Beeeeeoootches.

Zangz.

New weapon of mass destruction!

I've added a new weapon to my arsenal of on line machinations of doom!
I've gone mobile. I now can control the Blog of Geekdom from my brand spakin' new smart phone. I am doing so now. Fear me, beeeoootches!!!!

More to come.

Zangz

Note to my Lack of Normal Sleep patterns: Tanks for the Oddball Dreams!

....and I do mean "Tanks".


This long, cold winter is truly sucking the life out of me. Well, it's both the weather and a huge workload pit that just gets deeper and deeper every day. It's great to be busy and employed in these trying times, but my mental and physical exhaustion is on overdrive. Pile on top of that the fact that my sleep patterns are pretty topsy-turvy.

Here's how a typical workday evening works for me....

I get home anytime between 6 PM to 8 PM. I hop on the computer and check email and do a little social networking to catch up on everybody.

I then grab something to eat and watch some TV anywhere around the 8 PM to 9 PM hours.

Usually by 9:30 PM I'm out cold on the sofa. I wake up anytime between 10 PM and 11:30 PM when I hustle my butt into bed and fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

I then wake up from some odd, crazy dream at around the 2:30 AM to 4:30 AM hours and from then on to about 5 AM I try and fight off stressful thoughts about work and other things going on in my life. I usually get one more good half hour of sleep before my alarm goes off at 5:30 AM to get into work before 7 AM. Not fun.

And speaking of odd and crazy dreams, I had a whopper of one just the other morning. It started off with me in the backyard of my childhood home. I was looking into the backyard of our elderly next door neighbor's house and noticed that someone had left a huge army tank back there. My neighbor's house had been abandoned since her death (in my dream anyways). Time seemed to pass for months and nobody from the army or special services or the CIA had come to either claim or pick up the tank.

So after a while I decided to see if I could operate it. I hopped my fence and climbed up to the hatch and found that I didn't need to climb into it to drive it since there was a control panel that stuck out from the side of it.

Of course there was a big red button on the panel and I just had to push it to see what would happen. The thing fired a shot with the most bizarre results you could imagine.

It made a beeping sound that got faster and faster when it finally fired out a canon ball that flew high into the air for a while before it plummeted to the earth and landed with a huge thud and rumble into the next yard. In the dream I could feel the vibration in my feet when the ball hit the earth. There was no explosion, just a lot of dirt and dust after the impact.

I looked around hoping that no one noticed. After a short time I realized that nobody came out of their homes to see what the hubbub was all about. So, what would any self respecting person who cared about his neighbors and safety of others do in a situation like this? Try another shot!

I pushed the red button again. And again a canon ball shot high into the air and landed with the exact same thud and rumble as it did before.

Now I was real paranoid that the CIA or the Feds would come and get arrest my ass and question me on why I had not reported the abandoned tank months ago when I first noticed it.

As my fear in the dream grew, I woke from the slumber only to continue to stress out. But, not due to the whole canon ball firing tank dream, but from what was going to be expected of me at work that day.

Well, what can you do? At least there are some activities that can get my mind off of things during the weekends.

Within the last six months my gaming group has ventured into The Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane. This tabletop RPG is based on the writings of pulp visionary Robert E. Howard who's best known for his creation of Conan the Barbarian. But, before he created the world famous Cimmerian barbarian warrior, Howard brought us the adventures of the 16th century puritan avenger who traveled the world hunting down evil doers and mythical abominations with musket and sword in hand. There's a European movie that is just itching for an American release based on the Character. See trailer HERE!

The game has proven to be a lot of fun and is well run by my game master, Mad Mario.

I'm also plowing through Fallout: New Vegas as you may have guessed if you read my last post.

Catching up on episodes of Entourage is quite relaxing, even if the shows creators seem to have great disdain for those of us bathed in the geek culture. Check out the episodes revolving around the Aquaman movie and the San Diego Comicon from the 2nd season and you'll get an idea.

Where's the geek lovin'? Pretty much everywhere else. A lot of Hollywood is very much aware of our presence and power and are catering to our likes as best they can.

Hell, even David E. Kelley is trying to reboot and resurrect a Wonder Woman TV series. I've seen a picture and I'm hoping he doesn't give the series the Alley McCraptastic treatment and truly makes Wonder Woman a kick-ass broad, not some whinny-assed, lovelorn dingbat (errr.. nothing against Mrs. Indiana Jones).

Cross your fingers folks.


I'm done ranting for this evening. Go get yourselves a cold one for the weekend.

Zangz.

Finally back....and now for something completely different!

"The road under my feet is cracked and torn beyond repair. The sand on either side of me is endless and has seeped it's way into every crevice of my leather armored clothing ever since I managed my way across what's left of the states to the far west.

I was a child when it all went to hell. The war that was waged was a quick one, but no one was a winner. It left what was once called the United States of America a vast wasteland of ruined buildings and twisted highways where we survivors try and make a life for ourselves.

Many find work as traders. Others find work as farmers. Sadly, others join gangs and wreck havoc as bandits. I've found my personal calling as a mercenary for hire.

Need me to hunt down a group of bandits who have done you wrong? I'll do it. Do you need someone to find a specific item that is in a cave full of wild, undead dogs? I can get that for you. Do you need me to relay a message to someone in another township? Consider it done. For the right amount of bottle cap currency, I can make it happen. But if you're going to ask me to inflict harm on the innocent, I'm more likely to put a bullet through your head. It's hard to have morals in this world, but I have my own code I live by.

I've been walking this highway for what seems like weeks heading out to the town of New Vegas to search for a guy who shot me in the head a while back. Luckily he wasn't the best shot and I survived. Too bad for him 'cause he has one hell of a comeuppance coming his way. But, that's a tale for another day.

Right now my main concern is how I'm going to deal with the family of radscorpions that are blocking my way down the road. Rumor has it that before the nuclear war, these things were tiny little creatures that were the size of your hand. Now they're the size of a friggin' horse. And there are five of them up ahead of me.

I was stung by one not too long ago and it took weeks to recover. Lots of puking, crapping, blindness and dizzy spells for about a months time. If I hadn't gotten to a small town doctor right after the attack, I would have been a goner.

I'm going to squat down and move silently around them. Perhaps I can take shelter behind that dilapidated gas station to the side of the highway if I can be quite enough.....

CRAP! They spotted me. These mother's are quicker than the ones I encountered on the east coast!

I pull out my sniper riffle that I aped off of the dead body of a militia man a few months ago. I take aim and make a direct hit into the head of the first radscorpion coming my way.

Sod! It did little damage to the thing! These guys are far worse than the east coast buggers, for sure! I take another well aimed shot.

The prick is still bearing down on me with his brood just behind him! Time for some evasive maneuvers! I get up from my crouch and start bolting down the roadway in the opposite direction. They're right on my tale. I pull out a frag grenade and whip it behind me.

KAPOW!

I look behind me and see that they're a bit stunned. I whip out my shot gun since I'm close enough and unload one into the head of the leader and finally his six beady eyes explode and he falls limp.

I then take out my machine gun and let the other bastards have a spray of lead lovin'. Another two go limp. But, as I have to reload, the last two take chase of me again. I turn tail and once again run the other way.

As I run I try and reload the weapon, but it is old and heavily used and has been modified one too many times. I toss it aside and whip out the shotgun again. I turn around while running backwards and try and take a few more shots.

Luckily these two radscorps aren't as big as the others I took out and one explodes into a few pieces leaving one left.

He's on me pretty quick, but his stinger missed my leg by inches, giving me enough time to plant the head of my shotgun to it's head and let loose.

KAPLAMMO!

Now there's radscorpion guts all over my leather armor. Crap.

I pull out my blade and gut out its poison gland. Those can sell quite well with certain traders. I walk back up the road and gut out the others' glands as well. I figure I have well over 70 bottle caps coming to me for these glands. Not too shabby. On top of that I find a fresh dead body that they must have been feeding off of before they took to me. This poor bastard had a few bottle caps, a shotgun that I can use to modify and repair my used one with and a cool as hell helmet that will give me some more protection. I may have "a code", but this is survival, baby. He doesn't need this crap anymore.

I head back up the road toward New Vegas. Luckily, there's no time frame to worry about. My prey seems to be enamored with one of the casinos in that rebuilt Sodom and Gomorrah. He isn't going anywhere.

I'll probably take on a few more jobs along the way before I reach my main goal. I'm wishfully hoping that there will be fewer encounters with the creatures that happen to exist in this wasteland. Outside of the radscorps, I've come across zombie like ghouls, warring fascist factions, mutants and all sorts of odd and deadly creature.

This world is full of nonstop surprises and I have a feeling I'm going to encounter every single one of them.

Crap."


Ok, so if you haven't guessed it by now, I've been playing a ton of Fallout: New Vegas and finally found myself inspired.

I understand that its been been almost two months since I've posted anything here. You have to understand that the dark cold winter mixed with a relentless work schedule has sucked any and all of the creative juices right out of me. I haven't been at all inspired to do anything imaginative.

So what's going on with me? Well, first and foremost I'm going to become an uncle come April! My sister, Dizzy Lizzy, done and got herself all preggered up. So I'll be geeking out with a wee little one who'll I'll further refer to as G-Love within the next few months. Cross your fingers and send good vibes my sister's way for a healthy, sweet little one.

What am I listening to right now? I'm always glad you asked? It would be what is, so far, my favorite album of the year.... Social Distortion's Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes.

A darn good, hard rockin' epic with a nice touch of bitter sweetness to make it that much special.

I hope to pop up here more often than I have recently.

Enjoy the weekend!

Zangz.