12 Days and counting

Haven’t posted in 5 months…wow! The last time I posted on this thing was before the Halo 3 beta test, that’s been forever ago. Since then, I graduated with honors from Fairmont State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture. God has been doing great things in my life, I’ve been able to leave the Shack and land a job that I kind of in my field; designing kitchens for Fairmont Kitchen Center (Mountaineer Cabinet Company). Erinn has one more year left before graduating and then who knows what we’ll be doing. Right now we're wading our way through 6 seasons of Smallville, man, what an amazing show! I can't even seem to pull myself away from it at night to get any gaming in. Right now I'm half way through season 4, so the halfway mark has been breached, and I will soon have the desire to do things in the evenings besides crash on the couch and watch the TV.

Gaming-wise, I’m still getting in the occasional game of Halo 2. The Halo 3 Beta was amazing, making the wait for September 25th seem like forever, at the time anyways. Bioshock was breathtaking, better described as an experience than a game. I've ran through the game once, it took me around 17 hours. I want to eventually go through it again, as you can chose an entirely different path in the game than the one I chose the first time I went through it. I still play Rainbow Six occasionally. I finally traded in Gears of War to help pay off my Halo 3 pre-order; I still don't see what people like about Gears' multiplayer, the fact that I can't go with my friends into a matchmade game is simply ridiculous in this day and age (yes I'm sure it cut down on cheaters, but it came at the sacrifice of playing in tandem with my friends).

Lastly, I'll leave you with some things I had to say about Halo 2 that I posted on the XBL Radio Forums during a discussion about the game (discussion link):

All valid arguments thrill. As we all have our opinions, I always enjoy reading yours. Some Halo fanboys are rabid, even to the point of turning on the studio that produced their beloved, as we saw with the ridiculousness that occurred during the Multiplayer Beta. I may consider myself a fanboy, as I enjoy the Halo universe in it's entirety, but I am not blind and can see where many a gamer just may say "I don't get it!" (I can relate because that's how I feel about Gears of War Multiplayer). For me though, Halo 2 has been the most valuable video game purchase that I've ever made. It's provided me with some of the best times that I've experienced while playing a video game, including making lifetime friends that I would've otherwise never met. As I was transitioning to college, I moved from PS2 to the Xbox, and Halo was the first FPS that I'd ever really delved into. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed with the series and bought halo 2 when it came out. That game has took up most of my gaming time for the last two and a half years, and it was only after the Halo 3 beta that my time within the halo 2 realm dwindled. For me, Halo 2 provided a matchmaking experience that is just now starting to be incorporated into Xbox 360 games. I enjoy that matchmaking experience so much, that it instantly improves any game that it's employed in (bravo COD 4 beta). I have been looking forward to halo 3 since it's announcement, no, it's not because of the hype, it's because I genuinely enjoy the experience. Yes, there are a lot of trend surfers out there getting ready to ride the halo 3 wave, but there are also many gamers out there that are looking to be cool by bashing it. Regardless of how anyone feels reading this, I hope you have your "Halo," your game that provides you with such an enjoyable experience that it will keep you busy for years to come.

Teh Haloz

Mmmm, Halo 3 action will commence on May 16th, http://www.bungie.net. I can say I'm very excited for this. It's been a long time coming! I can't believe that I've been playing Halo for about three years now. While the Halo community has been around for a lont time, I was fortunate enough to start playing the game right before Halo 2 came out. Thanks to my wife, then girlfriend, for making the $50 purchase that got me started on the track to enjoying three years of Halo 2 and Xbox Live. It's brought me in transition from a big black box to a sleek white one. I have also accuired an HDTV since then, so I'm very excited to see Halo 3 in 720p goodness.

Haven't Posted in a while!

It's late, I'm tired, so why not make a post. What's been going on...let's see. sbgclan.com is undergoing some major re-construction from the creative mind that brings you the Winged Warriors website, Night Rider...or Pieter as we like to call him. The clan is growing ever closer to the fabled second division. I'm getting ready to graduate from college...so I'm trying to find a job.

Twas two days after Christmas...

Well, Christmas has come and gone for the year 2006. I want to first of all thank my lord and Savior Jesus Christ for coming down to this earth to save my soul. A lot of people just use Christmas as an excuse to get and give gifts without appreciating, let alone celebrating, our savior's birth.

Congrats goes out to our good friend Venom SBG and his new fiance on their engagement Christmas Eve. They've been dating for a very long time now, and the deal was sealed (well, more sealed) on december 24th.

What all cool stuff did I get for Christmas? Well, my wife got me Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, the Xbox Wireless Headset, the Xbox dual battery charger, Microsoft points, Grey's anatomy 1st season, and assorted other goodies. I also got some new specs, more microsoft points, and more candy. With some ca$h that I recieved, I bought the Xbox 360 Harmony remote from Logitech. I also got some cool tools from my wife's family, as well as enough subway gift cards to last me for a month. We've been out of town for most of this week, so I haven't gotten much time to play with my gadgets, but I'll let you all know how everything is panning out. I got the headset and gears of war early, and they've been fantastic! I also got Project Gotham 3 as a gift from Xbox for having to send my wirless controller in more than once to be fixed (some other stuff happend in that mix, but that was the jist). So I've got plenty to keep my busy before school starts back up in the middle of January.

The clan is doing awesome! We're at the 80 member mark and still climbing. Koch's revamped the site, and I waded through the forest that is MySQL and phpbb to get us forums hosted on our site. Check it out over at our website. We've got some cool clanmatches coming up, including a match against the wayward soldiers on Gears of War, as well as a match against the Winged Warriors on Halo 2. For more info, see the above site link.

back...

Wow, been a month since I last checked in. What's been going on? Let's see...SBG has been participating in Podtacular's Fall tournament with two teams, SBG Alpha and SBG Omega. Alpha and Omega both made it to the elemination round, making a good statement to the people there that we meant business. Alpha bowed out in the first round, while Omega is currently getting ready to play its second round match against Team Grunt Inc. Thanksgiving happened, and was very fun, lots of food, fun and family. Gears of War has been awesome! I played through the campaign on Hardcore with Namloco, and then on Insane with Teetocks, both were good times. I hope to get some more time to play the multiplayer soon. What else, ummm the SBG Community Podcast Episode 5 is up over at http://www.sbgclan.com, so go check that out if you haven't already. We're trying to get some good interviews for future podcasts, so stay tuned, we'll try to get them out more regularly now that school is winding down for myself and Redeemed. I still need to get WHATZUPWITHTAH and StokedRock on the show to talk about being appointed as staff members. Namloco also wants to do some reviews on some games he's been playing as of late, and Teetocks has expressed interest about coming back on the show as a guest host, so plenty of stuff to include in future episodes. I'm trying to get Xbox Dad on the show as well, so we'll see how that pans out.

wyoming out...

Pwned!

Hmm...I'm setting at work, updating books for our website, as well as checking forums and stuff. I see that things are happening that I guess were inevitable; people moving on and starting things for themselves. That's cool though, we're all friends and I want all you LAMBCLANners to know that I tried to make all you guys feel welcome in the community forums, yet also make a statement as to why some of us left the group. I'm sorry if I hurt any feelings, but like I said, I felt I did my best. However, I don't blame you all one bit for starting your own page...I know I would've! It's hard to organize stuff within a group when you feel like you're in someone else's territory. Right, so anyone interested, check out LAMBCLAN's new forums, and see what's happening with their group. Now for my take on this excitement! When I first heard that Gears wasn't going to allow you to take your friends into ranked matches with you, I wrote it off as a rental. After watching trailers and gameplay videos, as well as checking out the website, I'm excited for the single player, as well as the custom/unranked multiplayer modes. Co-Op also looks to be promising...every level in the game is co-op cabable, so that will make it even more fun. GRAW's co-op was awesome, but there are only a few levels...to play the entire game like that...wow. The richness of the gameplay, as well as the evident passion Epic has for their games resembles that of my favorite game studio, Bungie. I am hoping to get a 26" Sylvania HDTV by then, so that makes me even more excited! I hope it's everything it is making out to be. Here's hoping!

This is the other beauty that I'm excited about in the coming days. It comes out October 31, 2006, and I can't wait. The other books in the Halo novel series were awesome, especially the ones by Eric Nylund, the writer of this new piece. There are some exerpts from the book floating around...I even found the entire first chapter, but here's a nice summary from Barnes & Noble:

"The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left?While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section Three" devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though . . . and one more Spartan to get the job done.The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo, something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient Forerunner technology stirs, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant War.But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own . . . "

For you OXM subscribers, or was it GAME INFORMER? Anyway, one of them has a 7 page writeup on the book in this month's issue. That's all for now! Check out our website for updates, including our newsletter as well as membership updates. Give us a shout in our forum, and make sure to check out the SBG Community Podcast if you haven't already! (get it in iTunes here: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=191529045)

We're on the Radio!

SBG OMEGA/LAMBCLAN is on XBL Radio! There first episode after their one year anniversary features us in their Live on Live Roundtable. How exciting! The site is coming together, and the forums are as active as ever. Podtacular tourney is coming up, and I know we'll do good on there! It's a good time to be in our group! That's all for now....ohh, and the SBG Community Podcast Vol. 4: The Namloco/Koch Plate interview is up, so check that out on sbgclan.com!