Wasteland 2

I've been playing Wasteland 2 on the Xbox lately.  I loved the original, although I've never gotten into the whole Fallout series.  They left a lot of the quirks in the game, and I was panicked when my surgeon was dying and I didn't have a backup surgeon available (fortunately, I had skill points I hadn't spent).  And the part where I have to find rad suits to get from point A to point B gave me flashbacks.

Here's Kyle.  I feel bad that I haven't flushed out his biography.  Contrary to that pistol in his hand, he's usually running around with a shotgun and a machine gun he hasn't trained up in yet.  He's not great in a long range fight, but he's been instrumental in taking out several wounded enemies who get close in.  And he's got some good "kiss ass" skills modified by both a trinket and a perk.  I missed his chance to kiss ass a little tattle tale who saw me bust open some doors because I was a point short.  That won't happen again.

"I know my shotgun is big, but you seem so dangerous you don't need a gun.  You could probably take me on without one..."

Minecraft

For Eryn.  Mean Mr. Mustard will recognize that my image manipulation skills suck.  But in my defense, I'm playing around with GIMP to see how it works.  I suspect I'll get better after practice.  Next time I can put a pick in her hand.

We got the XBox 360 downloadable copy of Minecraft.  It's strange that something that feels so retro can be so much fun.  Particularly as it involves using a pick to mine blocks for hours.  Eryn is amused that I have a tall building on one side of a strait with a sculpture on top giving the opposite bank the middle finger.  And on the opposite bank are the beginnings of what looks to be the Washington Monument, and a pier jutting out into the strait giving the finger back to the building on the opposite side.

I made it as far as the Nether, but for the life of me I can't figure out why I'd want to hang out in what seems to be a dismal hell populated by fireball throwing giant jellyfish and zombie pigmen, rather than mosey around the "surface" building fun structures.  The game did force me to realize that I have my Xbox plugged into a non-HDTV (HDMI) connection, because I can't play split screen with Eryn, which would obviously be more fun.  I might own one (if not, they're about $8.00), but if so, it's in the garage and I'm not allowed to go after it until I can put weight on my left leg (7 days!).

Kinnect

Eryn has been playing with the Kinnect at Best Buy for the last month and asked if it was something we could get.  I made her the offer that if she paid for the Kinnect (which I valued at $120 before really paying attention), I'd buy her an Xbox for her birthday.  It gets rid of a little of her "surplus" money and gives her a stake in the gamebox so she feels like it's something she really owns, not just something we bought her.  I remember co-purchasing our Atari system with  my brother and paying for my own tennis racket - both objects had a vetting process before you were allowed to touch them.  Eryn's a bit more free with her objects d'art than Drew or I were, however, and she's already had Cookie Queen's children, her friend Morgan, and both neighbor children over to give the Kinnect a test drive.  We picked it up early so she has a chance to get good at the Kinnect games before her birthday slumber party.

It may have been the crash course in Kinnectosity that led to her inability to fall asleep last night.  She got so much exercise jumping in Kinnect Adventures and dancing, that her legs hurt.  And she had a complete breakdown about 1:00 a.m. until Pooteewheet got up and moved her to the basement bed.  Both of them were supposed to go to Capital Grill for breakfast with me this morning, but I just left them asleep and went myself to meet Ming and Logan at 7:30.  I was surprised Eryn got as far as she did on the bicycle today.  We biked all the way over to Gamestop so I could buy two adult games (with a side trip to share a burrito at Chipotle).  All that Kinnect jumping s*** is hard on me.  I picked up a copy of Fallout 3, which Pooteewheet is happily playing.  And I picked up a copy of Oblivion, which I'm going to play.  I played the last Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, before Eryn was born.  I liked the controls for the PC better, as it was easier to use a mouse hand and a keyboard hand to control direction.  The Xbox control isn't as intuitive.  But I figure it's one of those things you get used to over time.

So we should be good for entertainment at my house for a good long time even if no new games show up for Eryn's birthday.