Extra Life: playerFIVE playBYplay

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Extra Life: Updates and Thank You!

It’s finally here! In just a couple of minutes I will begin my all day coverage of my 24-hour gaming marathon for Extra Life. I’m so excited to be a part of this event, and I’m really happy that so many people were able to participate. We’re really doing something special today for children suffering with cancer all around the world - and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who has been devoted to this cause.

Over the next 24 hours I will partake in a grueling gaming session with friends, co-workers, and other Extra Life participants from all around the world. I’m excited to reunite with some old friends, as well as hopefully make some new ones! It is going to be a day to remember for sure.

I will be updating this post regularly, along with my Facebook/Twitter statuses throughout the day to keep you updated as to where I am and what I’m doing. I was going to set a schedule, but I decided that chances are if I do that I won’t stick to it anyway, so I’m just going to wing it and we’ll see how that goes! I’ll be posting pictures, audio, video, and ramblings throughout the next 24 hours, and I’m sure they will get less and less coherent as time goes on. Should be fun to see how things end up!

Anyone who is interested in playing alongside me today, please contact me on Xbox Live: EyeQueue, on Steam with the same username, or on AIM as JUSTINplayerFIVE. I’ll be checking messages regularly, and we’ll be sure to meet up!

Before I begin, there’s a big list of people I want to thank. If I leave anyone out, yell at me and I’ll add you (and I apologize in advance!).

I’d like to start by thanking the kind folks over at SarcasticGamer.com, particularly Lesley. You are all fighting for a noble cause, and I am honored to fight alongside you! Doc, thank you so much for your kind words and for making this all possible. Lesley, thank you for putting up with my constant e-mails and questions, and getting back to me on everything so fast! It’s because of you guys that I got involved, and I can’t thank you enough!

I’d like to thank Best Buy for allowing me to donate $1,000 to the Texas Children’s Hospital on their behalf for this event. I couldn’t think of a better company to work for - you guys do so much for your employees and great charities like this, and I’m extremely proud to be a part of such a great company.

I’d like to thank my fellow Geek Squad agents for your support on this event - especially Bob Sawyer. Bob, thank you for participating and helping Team playerFIVE towards it’s goal. I can’t wait to play alongside you today!

My family and friends… I don’t even know where to begin. Everyone has been extremely supportive of my involvement in this event, even if they can’t donate or participate. Thank you all so much. I’d like to send out a special thanks to my mom, little brother, and grandmother for all donating to the cause. You guys are great, and I couldn’t ask for a better family!

The guys at Razer - Min, Heath, and Travis. Your support of me, my website, and this event has all been huge. I don’t know how you guys find the time to do what you do, but you’re amazing. Min, thank you for responding to all my Facebook harassment and being so prompt about everything. I will be proudly doing my PC gaming today with Razer equipment, and I’m excited to really break it in! You guys are great.

My three friends, former hosts of Epileptic Gaming - Rance Costa, Marcus Graham, and Robert Summa - thank you so much for doing what you’ve done to help get the community involved. You guys are great, and I know the show will be back someday!

I’d like to give a very, very special thanks to Lauren “L337Lauren” Berggren. Lauren, even though we don’t know each other all that well, I still know I can count on you - and that’s a great feeling. Your support for this event has been huge, and I can’t thank you enough for all of your help. You are an amazing person, and I feel extremely lucky to know you and have you play alongside me today! The money you were able to raise in such a short time was astounding, and my only regret is that I didn’t ask you to get involved even sooner! Thank you so much, and I can’t wait to play some TF2 with you later today! <3

Finally, thank you to the over 1500 gamers who are paticipating today! Whether you donated, raised money, or are just plain sticking it out for the cause - thank you. You guys are all fantastic, and you’re playing today for a great cause. Cancer has affected us all in one way or another, and our shared love of videogames has helped to bring us together. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can online today!

Thank you all very much, and keep coming back to the site for the playerFIVE playBYplay (posted below) which I will be updating on a semi-regular basis all day!

<3.

Justin “EyeQueue” Meader

Extra Life Quick Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that a full schedule of my Extra Life event activities will be up early tomorrow morning, so check then! The festivities start at 9am EST for me, and I couldn’t be more excited. I want to thank everyone for your support thus far, and I think tomorrow is going to be a great success! For anyone who would like to participate alongside me, please hit me up on XBL or Steam as “EyeQueue”. Again, I will be posting a full schedule tomorrow, as well as other ways to contact me, a live web stream of all events and more! See you all in the AM!

NO MORE HEROES! Okay, okay, fine… one more heroes… BUT JUST THIS ONCE!

Seriously? A sequel to this game? Apparently Suda 51 is a glutton for punishment, because No More Heroes 2 is in development for the Wii. This should just be released on the 360 or PS3, a console it might actually sell on. Hero’s the video courtesy of Gametrailers.com: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41032.html

Extra Life: Play games. Heal Kids.

Join sarcasticgamer.com and playerFIVE.com in one of the most important videogame events of our time. Help us raise money for children suffering from cancer by doing something you love: playing videogames.

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Proof that WoW players are newbs

I’ve always been a proponent of the theory that a lot of people who play WoW were the same Battle.NET kiddies everyone hated during the Warcraft III glory days. Case in point:

http://technology.todaysbigthing.com/2008/10/07

Mega Man is the kind of hard that breaks controllers

Mega Man 9 is hard. I know, I know - you’ve already heard that. I don’t normally like to just echo the rest of the games press, but I feel like its necessary to point out this time that the majority is correct… for once. It it is the kind of hard that breaks controllers. It is the kind of hard that makes you want to toss your console out a 3rd story window. It is the kind of hard that I absolutely love.

Sadly, Batman is not a boss in Mega Man 9... but he should be.

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Nintendo is like an abusive husband.

What did Nintendo say to the girl with two black eyes? Nothing - it already told her twice!

That’s how I feel every morning when I wake up and stare at my Nintendo Wii, blue LED softly glowing in the morning light. Nintendo failed to make the jump to a disc based format back in 1996 with the launch of the Nintendo 64, and hence lost most of their third party support, including that of Squaresoft. Sony went on to release Final Fantasy VII and many other smash hits on the Playstation, and became well on their way to console dominance. Meanwhile, I was stuck with an inferior system, a small library of good games, and a desire to get punched in the face - again.

That’s why in 2001, I purchased a Gamecube - another commercial flop with a library full of kids games in an age of mature competition from the Playstation 2 and Xbox. Instead of fixing the problem, Nintendo simply developed a drinking problem and a bad attitude. I was determined to stick it out with however, in hopes that they would eventually change.

But another five years passed, the wounds healed, and the bruises faded. Along came the Wii - a shiny new toy with an innovative idea. Don’t get me wrong, I was quick to fall in love again. I finally thought things had changed, innovation had won out, and Nintendo would finally prove me right. And the Virtual Console… oh the VC! Nintendo and I could relive all of our favorite moments together again, and yearn for the good ol’ days. We could invite our old friends Mario and Link back out to play, and who knows - maybe even Ness would show up?

Sadly, Ness never came. Sure, Mario and Link showed up, but instead of bringing back memories, all they did was make me long for the old Nintendo all that much more. They brought along a groupful of mediocre games, that even if I wanted to download and play I wouldn’t be able to, simply because the Wii can’t hold them all. Now that the novelty has worn off, and the first party titles have blown their load, I’m left with a shiny white box with a glowing blue light, and two black eyes.

Site hosting switch

Hey, just wanted to let everyone know that I’m in the middle of switching webhosts, and in the process ran into some problems transfering the domain and SQL database over. I think everything is pretty much fixed now, but please give me some time (and feel free to e-mail/IM me!) to work out the kinks!

Thanks,

Justin

Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball: How not to simulate dodgeball

In a game of Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball there is always one clear loser: the player. I downloaded this game thinking “Hey, I love ninjas and pirates - the two together must combine into some kind of superfun vortex!” I was very wrong.

I jumped into my first game leaving all the options on defaults. I was very confused when the game started. First, there was no line separating the court. Then I noticed that when I got hit I had a life meter instead of just being out. I understand the life meter is there to make the matches longer, but the free roaming combat seemed like a bad idea. So, I started playing with the buttons to see what does what.

The first surprising thing was that I can hit my opponents with my sword and stun them. Even worse, I can deflect a dodge ball with my sword. Disregarding the the fact that a dodge ball does damage to my opponent but my cutlass or katana only stuns them, the fact that I can deflect an inflated dodge ball with an object designed to hack off limbs seems absurd.

Once I got over the shock of the game’s complete lack of sword to rubber physics, I decided to check out the traditional dodge ball mode. I thought “Okay, maybe this will be dodge ball like I remember playing - or rather watching from the sidelines after I got out in the first 3 seconds. I began to get excited once I saw boundary in the middle of the court. Unfortunately, there was no penalty for going over the line, and the game plays the same way: no catching balls to get teammates back in, and no one hit and you’re out!

Then there is the predictability of the character models. Surprise, surprise - there is a Jack Sparrow lookalike pirate, and a cyborg ninja. One of the ninja models is a samurai… This defies all logic. The only similarities between a samurai and a ninja are the fact that they were Asian, that’s it.

The final mode is “enhanced” dodge ball. This mode gives you a limited amount of time to run onto the opponents side of the court to either melee or retrieve a ball, and you can use special powers that are unique to each character. Every match I played I easily won. I guess multiplayer could be fun but at this point but I didn’t want to subject myself to any more of this game. It makes me sad for ninjas and pirates everywhere… but most of all, for the sport of dodge ball.