Official Winner of Console Wars 2006

Of the next generation consoles we have a clear and solid winner. The best selling of the year is ..



the DS.

No really 20mil this year and it's not even new. I've checked six stores and no DS. Loads of PSPs, quite a few 360s 1 PS3 but never a DS or Wii. No really. I can't find a DS for the life of me. Merh.

Happy Tree Toys from Leap Frog

So I was in the store looking for a game and I saw in the toy isle this. I said to myself "Hahaha, they are selling Happy Tree Friends toys". But then I realized that they wern't that. Remeber Leap Frog? They make those electronic reading books that talk to your kids and teach them things so you don't have to sit down with them and read? They have a series of baby toys some of which look surprizingly like Happy Tree Friends. Rather funny.

Side note: I've visited 3 walmarts and a Target and all of the DS are sold out but there are gobs of PSPs left.

Merry Zombie Christmas

As you go about you Christmas duties.
Visiting family, eating food, putting up with your family.
Just remember one thing.
Don't get eaten by a zombie... Santa

--Merry Christmas

New Xbox 360 Backward Compatability List

Microsoft released a new backward compatibility update for Xbox 360 today. You can find the list of all the games supported with the latest update and the download so that you can burn it on cd/dvd to install it on your Xbox360 here

A list of new games added include:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Burnout 3: Takedown (support updated)
Conker: Live and Reloaded
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Destroy All Humans!
Dynasty Warriors 4
Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick
Ex Chaser (Japan only)
Family Guy
Far Cry: Instincts
Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy
I-Ninja
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
MotoGP
Muzzle Flash (Japan only)
MX Unleashed
Open Season
Pariah
Plus Plumb 2 (Japan only)
Psychonauts
Psyvariar 2 Extend Edition (Japan only)
Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Rapala Pro Fishing
Rent-A-Hero no. 1 (Japan only)
Scarface
Shark Tale
Shenmue II
Soul Calibur II (North America only)
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Tenerezza (Japan only)
The Incredibles
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Ultimate Spider-Man
Wakeboarding Unleashed: Featuring Sean Murray
Whacked!
Winback2: Project Poseidon
Xiaolin Showdown

Busy, Busy

It's time for finals at the end of the college semester. Amazing articles are coming...eventually...when we aren't bogged down. I received New X-Men Omnibus, with Grant Morris, yesterday. It weighs a lot, coming in at over 1000 pages and 41 issues. So far, so good. I read the arc 'E is for Extinction' and I am hooked. I've been playing Half-Life 2 for Xbox and Lumines (loom-i-ness) for my PSP on the go. Both are excellent games. If you haven't played Half-Life 2, pick it up already! It's out for Xbox, PC, and soon for the PS3 and Xbox 360. I recruited a writer for comics and such, Jake Campbell. Hopefully he appears on here soon.

Keep it cool, keep it safe!

Order a PS3

If you are interested in purchasing a PS3, you can order them through Gamestop, last I checked at 2:13pm CST. You have to choose bundles though, you can't just get the system. They ship on 1/05/07. Approximately 13,000 PS3s are on eBay at this time.

$994.28 Ps3 20GB Bundle
This Sony PlayStation 3 20GB Most Wanted bundle includes the following items:

• Sony PlayStation 3 20GB Game System
• PS3 Wireless SIXAXIS Controller
• Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
• Madden NFL 07
• Ridge Racer 7
• NBA 07
• Full Auto 2
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Resistance: Fall of Man Official Strategy Guide
• 1 Year Product Replacement Plan
• 12 Month Game Informer Subscription

$1,104.28 PS3 60GB Bundle
This Sony PlayStation 3 60GB Most Wanted bundle includes the following items:

• Sony PlayStation 3 60GB Game System
• PS3 Wireless SIXAXIS Controller
• Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
• Madden NFL 07
• Ridge Racer 7
• NBA 07
• Full Auto 2
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Resistance: Fall of Man Official Strategy Guide
• 1 Year Product Replacement Plan
• 12 Month Game Informer Subscription

The Nativity Story

The Nativity Story is claiming this on the official website: "The filmmakers are bringing an unprecedented level of commitment to ensure not only the authenticity of the Nativity story itself, but of the film's look as well."

As I viewed this film last week, I went in expecting nothing much, but since this was promised to the viewers, I must reveal the truth to the masses! This is a false claim. The Nativity Story is not true to the Biblical record in many places of the film. I am afraid many people will watch this movie and view all the events as truth. At least people will ask questions.

1) Near the beginning of the movie with Zachariah in the Temple, there is a Woman in the court beside the Holy Place.

2) Zacharias does not see the angel Gabriel but he does in the Biblical account.

3) Why is there a dove right before an angel appears all of the time?

4) Joseph says something about the Holy Spirit. Jews do not believe in the Holy Spirit. They believe in One, the Father, and that is all.

5) The magi do not visit Jesus on the night of his birth.

6) Mary pets and handles a lamb. This would not happen, handling sheep makes you unclean.

7) Three planets aligning for the Star they follow? What?

8) We don't know how many magi there were, but we know there were three gifts.

9) Mary and Joseph talk and meet together when Mary returns from Elizabeth. When engaged, they would not see each other as talked as such. Elizabeth would have interceded for Mary.

10) On the night of the birth of Jesus, an angel warns Joseph of Herod's plot and they flee to Egypt. In the Bible, Joseph and family stick around at least 8 days and Jesus is circumcised in the temple. Plus they were in Nazareth when Joseph was warned.

11) Where's the umbilical chord at Jesus' birth?

12) Elizabeth's song of praise is not in the story.

13) Mary's song of praise is not included.

14) In the movie, the census is a plot by Herod to get the Messiah to come to Bethlehem so he can kill him. Not so, read Luke 2.

15) When the angel appears to the shepherds, only one shows the entire time. In the Bible, many angels appear and sing a song.

16) The Nativity is basked in the light of the 'star' at Jesus' birth and everyone can see it. Why is this in the movie?

17) I'm sure there are more, help me out!

MeWithoutYou - Brother, Sister

MeWithoutYou is a unique band to say the least. They are in a world of it's own, bad and good. They will never find huge success and they are not seeking it either. Seen as a hippie band by some due to a van that runs on vegetable oil and other things, they won the won mtvU's "Left Field" award for most original artist. Frontman Aaron Weiss is immediately identifiable upon hearing his talking/shouting style of vocals. Their last album, Catch Us For the Foxes was a large jump in style and experimentation for the band and was produced by Brad Wood. Using the same producer in this outing, the experimentation continues and is a success for all express purposes. Weiss shouts less than previous albums and he spouts more poetry along with singing and background vocals. There are horns, an accordion, a harp, and other new instruments on this cd. Unmistakably, this is a MeWithOutYou album.

In my opinion, some things work, and some things fall flat. Some songs just aren't that good and others you'll want to listen to over and over again. They outshine the others so much I find myself not wanting to listen to those other songs too much. There are several tracks that are interludes that are a waste (orange spider, yellow spider, etc). The horns are amazing on 'C Minor' thanks to Anathallo's guest appearance, my favorite track on the disc. I found myself humming the tune the next day. 'A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains' and 'Nice and Blue Part Two' fill out my other favorite tracks. Coming in at 43:39, there are only really 10 songs.

Their second cd pulled me into the band and I enjoy some of the songs here, but I really can't say this is an amazing cd. It is average to say the least. If you are a huge fan, pick this up. If not, check out some of the songs here and give them a listen.

PS3 Pricey? By at least $100

So it has been noted, even by Sony that the PS3 is very pricey. And at $600 they are right. But I was reading about the NES on Wikipedia and I saw that the games for the classic system cost $30+ dollars. Which in today's money would cost well over $70. So I got to thinking is the PS3 and its $600 package really that much? If games back then cost that much in today's terms how much would consoles be in if you bought them today.

Console	Year	Price	Adjusted Price
Atari 2600	1977	$140	$454.30
Atari 5200	1982	$250	$507.16
NES	1985	$199	$353.16
Genesis	1089	$200	311.75
Snes	1991	$200	$282.23
PS1	1995	$299	$372.01
N64	1996	$199	$241.55
Dreamcast	1999	$299	$341.02
PS2	2000	$299	$332.05
Xbox	2001	$299	$324.27
GameCube	2001	$199	$215.82
Xbox 360	2005	$399	$399
Wii	2006	$249	$249
PS3	2006	$599	$599

Average $332.71
Lowest Gamecube $215.82
Highest PS3 $599


Sources:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/Atari_case_history.html
http://www.thedoteaters.com/p3_stage5.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/
Justin's Memory
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

So you see that while the PS3 is actually very expensive the Xbox 360 is actually right on pace with consoles such as the NES and Atari 2600. And the Wii is dirt cheap.

Now it should be noticed that many of the original packages came with games or movies or multiple controllers. This is how you had to buy it so we will not try to adjust because there is no way of removing the prices from all of these so I left them in. Also these are adjusted to 2005 prices and the 2006 consoles are a bit off.

A Friend

This is the story of a friend. A friend who bought a car. Now this friend decided that he would try and save as much money as possible on this car. So as many financially challenged people do he decided to find a cheap car. He determined that a $500 car, which is about as cheap as you can get one would suffice. So the first car company that he came across he bought his car from them for $500 with a free tank of gas. Now the interesting about his cheap little car is that it seems to have had some corners cut on it. First of all while the car is rather bulky it has a fairly weak engine. While the car manufacturer claimed that it was a 1.3 liter if you were to add up the cubic space of the three cylinders it comes out to about .98 liters. Now this isn't a big deal driving on flat land or down hills. Up hill, however, is annoyingly slow. Sometimes it just sits there engine full rev not moving forward or backward. You wonder if it will ever move again. Also the tires are rather thin and only last about a year before they need to be replaced. The tires actually seem to work very well as the car has only slid off the road once or twice. So after the year this friend bought another set of the same thin tires.

This is actually a strange thing since my friend rarely does any work on his car. He has the idea that his car should just work. Every time with no upkeep. He has never even changed the oil. The car started to have a clankey noise for a while. Rather than figuring it out, he thought it's just what the car does or at least he didn't know anything about it so he'd just let it go. Anyway his entire engine blew leaving him unable to work for 2 weeks while it was being fixed. Thankfully he paid $300 extra for the warranty.

Now you may think that he is a little silly for buying such a poor vehicle and then not take care of it, but it gets worse. He never locks his doors. Now this isn't a big deal since his car isn't worth stealing, but what he leaves in it is. Insurance papers, bank account numbers, family information, credit cards, pay pal accounts, and passwords for everything.

Ok, if you haven't figured it out now, I'm not really talking about cars. I'm actually talking about computers. The wired internet has been out on my laptop for about a week now. Its really more of an inconvenience since my roommates have computers that I can use portable apps on, and the other buildings have WiFi. What brought this e-mail on then? Jeremy's laptop. I will tell you honestly that all computer manufacturers have about equal problems with their laptops, but Dell is the one I love to gripe about the most. (I'll post all the things I've come across with Dells maybe later) Now Jeremy's laptop is a common abomination to electronics. The first of all is the meager hardware. I have said it for nearly 4 years now, 256 is not enough memory to run XP. Yet, cheap computers are put out constantly with 256. Now memory is not memory. It comes in a variety of speeds and sizes. 256 doesn't always come out to 256 for example this computer is said to have 248 MB of memory rather than 256. This comes down to multiple fuzzy definitions of memory. But you get the drift. A few brighter than normal pixels here and a smaller battery there and you have a $500 laptop. Right now I'm looking at the task bar icon for his anti-spyware. It shows that virus scanning is disabled. I was trying to watch some google videos earlier. I couldn't stand the constant pauses while the machine accessed the hard drive. The mouse usually double clicks rather than single clicks or doesn't click at all. Start up takes forever, but when the computer comes to a stand still you wonder if it would be faster just to kill the machine and start again.

So what does this have to do with you? Well

1. productivity. You probably don't think about how much time you waste on waiting for programs to load or restarts when your computer crashes. Miss clicks, letters poping up onto the screen seconds after you push the button. They will add up. If time is money, you are wasting it.

2. identity. If you are like me you probably reuse passwords. You also probably have a pay pal account or buy online. There is a misnomer about hackers they aren't misguided nerds who like to ruin people's lives by making them spend hours fixing their computers. They are thieves. If you don't take care of it they will get into your computer, keep track of everything you do. Passwords, SS numbers, Credit Cards, where you live, where your kids go to school. If you don't protect yourself, they can know all of this. And fixing the results of identity theft is very very very time consuming... as in months.

(ack! the hard drive just started thinking without me doing anything. I wonder what it is doing.)

So what can you do to keep yourself speedy and safe?

1. If you can help it do not buy a desktop from a company. If you are confident and knowledgeable build your own. It will be faster and cheaper. If you cannot do this yourself, have someone who has built other people's computers to build you one. Pay them between 5 and 10% over the cost of the parts. For best price and quality it should cost between $800 and $1,800 roughly. Though your tastes may vary.

2. For a laptop do not buy one for less than $1,000. But not for more than $2,000. Why? Because you want to buy something that is obsolete in a couple years not a couple years ago. In this case bring your favorite computer nerd to help you with your decision. We're here to help!

Side note on obsolete: The state of obsolete is not neccisarily a bad one unless you are set on being on the cutting edge. If that is true disregard the previous two points as you will spend several thousand dollars monthly. Obsolete does not mean useless. The definition I will offer for obsolete is: the state of being no longer wanted though in working order. Example VHS is obsolete. Though it works well, no one wants it because it cannot play quality film.

3. Use Anti-virus. This means keep it updated and scheduled to scan your computer regularly. Your computer probably came with a year's worth of anti-virus. This is good for about a year. Then you need to find a new option. I use a free version AVG which works very well. You may be tempted to just buy whatever came with your computer, but like the tires in my story there may be better options and cheaper packages out there.

4. Use Anti-spyware. Spyware is probably more dangerous than anti-virus in that it is very tricky. It often comes packaged with other software and can in itself look legitimate. I'm looking at you Aol Instant Messenger. I use Microsoft's anti spyware, but it in itself isn't that great. I'd try a different brand.

5. Use a fire wall. Now since SP2 XP does have a firewall, but I don't trust it. I prefer using a free version of Zone Alarm. Which is a software firewall. It is also good to use a hardware firewall such as one built into a router. This however, will cost a little and no one likes to pay more for technology.

6. Use your head. If people used their cars like they used their computers we'd all have to take the train. Take care of it. Think about what you need to protect it. Ask your local computer whisperer. We're here to help! Oh and don't use Internet explorer.

Covenant V Combine

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The second installment of "What would happen if they fought?" In this edition we have our favorite interstellar alien enemies duking it out. In this corner wearing a variety of colours from the games Halo:Combat Evolved and Halo2, and the upcoming game Halo3 we have the Covenant. And in this corner wearing a lot of grey from the games Halflife 2, Halflife2:Lost Coast, Halflife2: Episode One and the upcoming game Halflife2: Episode Two the Combine. If they were ever in the same universe as each other who would win?

First of all, it should be noted that this is not a question of who's FPS is better. You can discuss that anywhere. This is a question if the two were to run into each other who would win. They are both formidable enemies and have technology far superior to any other in their universe.

The Covenant

Now, lets discuss the Covenant. The Covenant is an amalgamation of several different alien races. There are the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Brutes, Hunters, Engineers, and Prophets. Did I miss any? Oh yeah Drones. Each of these different races are set in a caste system and have their own personality. As we understand there has become a civil war among the Covenant, suggesting that the covenant isn't very binding. Additionally certain races deal with the others differently. The Jackals tend to look down on the Grunts for instance and treat them cruelly, although they are in the same caste as them. The Hunters while they are not a single entity, but rather many held together by their armour, do not care for any other types as they will even kill allies that get in their way. The only contact to other Covenant they have is with the Elites who actually tamed them. Now we have weaponry. The Covenant use Forerunner technology in most everything they do. However, as they view the Forerunners as gods they do not fully understand it nor modify it to it's maximum potential as that would be heresy. Thus their weapons and technology, while superior to man's, are not nearly as powerful as they could be. Their plasma weaponry is deadlier than human, but barely. Their real power is in space where the forerunner technology is used to subdue the enemy. They tend to simply bombard a planet and superheat it so it turns to glass. They rarely attack on land. This is why the forces on Halo were capable of making such a stand. As in their hand weapons, the Covenant do not implement the forerunner technology as well as they could. So it is possible for their technology to be stolen and modified to become technologically superior to the Covenant ships. The Covenant are both well trained and very religious, which can make for a deadly combination. Some of the Covenant races use a type of armour that is able to regenerate. This gives them greater protection especially when deployed in smaller numbers. While grunts and jackals may run away, Elites, Brutes and Hunters never do. They stand their ground to the death, and are very obedient, even to the Brutes being ordered to commit genocide.

The Combine

While the Covenant are very religious the Combine are much more of a socialist dictatorship. Like the Covenant they too are made up of various races and species including humans. I suppose the best thing way to break them up into 3 groups. Advisers, Humanoids, and Synths. The Advisers can be compared to the Prophets, except that they are not leaders of a theocracy. They are the original Combine. Second are the Humanoids, these are humans which have undergone changes and now fight for the Combine (with the exception of Civil Patrol). These include Overwatch, Overwatch Elites, and Stalkers. As part of their training, these are modified either removing or adding to the person. For example Stalkers are hardly human anymore and Overwatch soldiers are extensively brain washed. So they do not able to rebel. The Synths are less common on earth, but exceptionally deadly. These include Striders, Dropships, Hunters, and Mortar Synths. Each of there are deployed more like tanks rather than soldiers (akin to the Hunters of Halo). The Combine are far more innovative in the creation of technology than the Covenant. Unlike the covenant they have quite a few weapons that do not have to be manned. These include Manhacks, Turrets, and Sentry guns. The combine weapons are more projectile than the humans though they do use energy weapons as well. They have far more mobile weapons than the Covenant as well. Though the Covenant's usually seem more substantial.

It is very hard to decide who would win in such a battle. As both have very different tactics. The Covenant bomb from afar where the Combine land and conquer. It is also interesting that the Covenant destroys where the Combine exploits. The Covenant have slip-space technology which lets them move ships quickly and the Combine have a prototype teleporter which is fairly useless as it takes a week to travel even short distances. The Covenant have much better defences as the Combine have normal armour instead of active armour. The Combine seems to run like an effective business where as the organization of the Covenant seems far less strict.

If the fighting was planet side:

I believe the infantry of the Combine would beat out the infantry of the Covenant. Their weapons and tactics are superior to the Covenant. The smaller craft of the Covenant as well would be no match for things like hunters or striders which are more maneuverable and have greater fire power. The Covenant have no infantry based rocket launchers, so if a hunter chopper ever found a group of Covenant without a Banshee or a Wraith it would be a slaughter. When it comes to larger weapons the Combine have nothing compared to the Covenant. However, many of these are slow and can be boarded or made moot by disabling its weapons. There is one more thing that gives this battle to the Combine. The Combine ware helmets. What does this have to do with anything? Simple head crabs. A Combine shelling of Covenant controlled regions would be devastating. Simply devastating. Where as even if the Covenant was able to harness the flood all the little spores could do would be to harmlessly explode on the Combine.

In space:

I'm not sure that the Combine have space capabilities. The only hint to that would be the escape pods for the Advisers. As far as I can tell the Combine move by portal storms. However, if this was so it would make attacking Earth difficult. Additionally it would be very difficult to drain earth's oceans by using portals. We discussed earlier how they had a prototype transporter. So we have to assume that the Combine have space capabilities. However I do think that their ships are not suitable for battle, but for transportation. Since the Covenant excel at space warfare I give this one to them.

Scenario:
The Covenant would begin to attack the planets and ships of the Combine. The Combine would probably land as much as possible on the Covenant planets and quickly take them over. The actions of the two would be very swift. If the Combine take over the Covenant planets it would force the Covenant to bombard their own planets. That's a poor tactic since it is very hard to live on glassy planets, but they just may not have any choice. The Combine is a machine, but if they do not have enough time to make up for their losses in space they may not be able to survive. Additionally, they may also adapt the Covenant they capture into Combine soldiers, even modifying the technology as they modified the human's.

Winner:
Combine 30%
Covenant 10%
Mutual Annihilation 60%

Yes, I think that the Combine would win in any ground battle. They would take over every inhabitable planet forcing the Covenant to render each planet useless. The Covenant would destroy the remaining Combine ships. However, there would be few suitable resources to be harvested and the Covenant would die of starvation or lack of air.

Zombie V Pirate

Ok. So here is the first battle royal. Winner wins looser dies. What would happen if x got into a fight with y. Who would win? So in this edition we have Zombies versus Pirate. Who would win?

Zombie

First of all there are so many different possibilities for zombies. There are the Voodoo zombies which are poisoned still alive people. Computers which perform tasks unattended ordered by a separate party. You have an anti-war song by that 90's Irish band. These are actually not real zombies. Everyone knows that a real life zombie is a virus driven, post dead, human zerg. Now one might just think that zombies are slow and stupid and loose limbs easily. This is very true of your run of the mill zombies. However, more recently there has been a rash outbreak of a new type of zombie. They have the ability to sprint and jump and are severely more dangerous. The biggest danger that zombies bring is their ability to rather than destroy individuals they tend to bite and release. The victim becomes a danger to those around him as he will soon become a zombie too. Thus the spread of said zombie virus can be very quick and aggressive. I should also be noted that all zombies can be killed by destroying the brain. Alternatively severing the head from the body will render the zombie harmless though for a short time it may still bite. Any severed limbs of a zombie will not come to life and attack you. That's just silly. Your best bet for surviving a zombie outbreak is to hold up in a strong ventilated bunker filled with rations and water. Because a zombie is dead its body will decay rapidly. Additionally zombies do not eat or drink, except for the living, so their bodies will shut down easily under two weeks. However, the virus will spread and even after 2 weeks of holding out there will certainly be zombies which still exist. I recommend having supplies for at least 6 months in ready and emerging after 3 months of hiding. This will give you 3 months to grow crops find survivors and get food. Now you may think that this is a bit extreme. Who actually has a zombie bunker? Silly? Well when the outbreak hits I'll be tucked nicely inside my cinder block house while your decaying corpse wanders the streets.

Pirates

Now Pirates are completely different. While zombies are dumb, pirates come in a variety of types. There are common pirates and famous pirates. Dread pirates and the the nice kind that very much like to kill you in the morning. While the job of a zombie is to kill everything; the job of a pirate is to steal gold, bury gold, and make a map to where you buried it. Pirates in a sense can be romantic, the sea, adventure, and girls in bars. They can also be nasty. Pirates usually come in one kind, plundering type; however, there have been sightings of puzzle pirates from time to time. For cool factor alone Pirates are hard core. I mean even people who sit at computers all day long stealing other people's games think of them selves as pirates. Pirates also talk a lot better than zombies who usually have a one word vocabulary if that. Your local pirate may be heard saying things such as: Yearhg, Ahoy Matey, Gone down to Davey Jone's locker, Shiver me timbers, Scallywag, Walk the plank, and finally Thar she blows!!. One note on pirates is that they do fall victim to the Stormtrooper effect. Where as Zombies are inverse to such a situation. How to survive a Pirate attack? Currently the only way to survive a pirate attack is if you are really good looking. In this case if you are a girl you will be taken captive then rescued by the man of your dreams. Alternatively if you are a man you will have the love of your life taken captive at which point you will kill the pirates and take their gold. Exception: Robin Williams.

Zombies always play on the other's home court, so this situation we will have the battle on the pirate's ship. Furthermore since my mom could kill a single zombie we will have a zombie outbreak on the ship and see if the most survivable pirate will survive. As always the captain is the one who dies last. For the scenario we will say that a pirate ship has just left from burying treasure and is headed out to find pillage some more. One of the pirates while burying the treasure was bit by a monkey and an hour on the sea is now a zombie.... who wins?

Since the pirates are very crowded together the zombie would immediately have opportunity to bite several pirates, before he is subdued. Clearly the pirates would not know what to do with a zombie and would probably make him walk... or shuffle the plank. However the damage would be done and several of the pirates would become zombies and the zombies would bite the more common pirates. However, the pirate officers would not be hurt by this initial outbreak. The mass of zombies would spread all over the ship breaking down any part of the wooden boat that got between them and spreading the virus. I would assume that one of the officers would survive this second attack either infested or un-infested to tell the captain. Now the thing about old pirates is that they have a strong knowledge of everything that goes on their ship. Unless the person hiding is good looking then they have no way of knowing where they are. Zombies are not good looking so he would know where each and every one was. However, he could not reload his musket fast enough to kill all the zombies. And his sword skills would not help in such tight areas. For the Captain to live, his only hope would be to first hold up in his cabin. Unfortunately there probably won't be enough food for him and the few officers with him, and eventually the zombies would get in. If he is to survive he has to lock himself in the galley, but that requires him step out of the cabin. His best bet is to have his officers rush out shooting their musket pistols and swinging their swords clearing a path for him. Then he needs to rush out using places the zombies cannot go such as masts, ropes, anything. Finally he has to get down the hatch and kill any zombies on the way to the galley. Then lock himself in. After a couple weeks he may the emerge.

The chances of the captain making it are nearly impossible. He drinks so much that he has to have water and food. So he has to make it to the galley. I suppose he could survive on the booze he has in his cabin, but that just might do him in faster. Additionally the ship is made of wood and eventually the zombies might make it in. The captain could jump out and swim, but we all know sharks' favorite food is pirates. And even if the captain survives the zombies, how will he make it back to land without a crew? He doesn't even know where he is.

Winner
Zombies 98% chance
Pirates 2% chance

In this we have explored a very realistic battle between zombies and pirates. If you think I have some information right or wrong be sure to comment. Especially if you think the pirates would win.

Two Out of Three Isn'tBad

So there is a creature pack that came out for the now closed Beta of Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC. You can check it out if you like. I believe you can get it for the full game too. They have zombie pirates in there, as seen on the left. Have the full game or played it? What do you think?

Word Association

So I came up with list and played Word Association with Mark. You read, or hear the word and you write or say the first thing you think of. I'll post Mark's answers later... or he can. Won't you play along in the comments?

Sony

Dell

Xbox

Nintendo

Spider-Man

Mario Tennis

Wii Sports

Kung Pow

Jesus

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Apple

IPod

MP3

Piracy

Opra

Linux

Zune

HDTV

Windows

Haircuts

Anime

Eye Surgery

Marriage

Internet

Coke vs Pepsi

Mountain Dew

Blogging

Slashdot

Digg

Xanga

Instant Messaging

Soldering

Caffine

Batman

LOTR

Raising the Shire

Babies

CPR

Insomnia

Glasses vs Contacts

Wal-Mart

NewEgg

Acer

IBM

D&D

Pokemon

V for Vendetta

Homepage

Love

Broken favored hand

Beastie Boys

Hair Metal

Bush

Liberals

Mario Kart

Debit Card

Scrabble

Portable Apps

Deviant Art

Digital Cameras

Power Rangers

Girlfriends

HomeStarRunner

Happy Tree Friends

G4

Albert Pujols

STL

FallOut Boy

Indie

Hardcore

Sufjan Stevens

Guitar Hero

Rez

Comics

X-Men

Matrix

Bible College

ATI

Nvidia

AMD

Intel

ESRB

BCS

Satan

List 5 Fastfood Chains

List 5 Video/PC games

List 5 Websites

List 5 Bands

List 5 TV Shows

Things I need to do: List some of my favorite websites and put them on the side bar, review The Nativity Story, get Mark to start a weekly cross-universe battle. Cheat Commandos vs G.I. Joe?Hello, where are the zombies? Play Dead Rising.

New Author.

Hey this is Mark. Justin and I were roommates for several years and now I'm breaking some of my comments on various topics less personal away from my personal blog. Right now Justin is giving me a word association quiz. I suppose he will put that up sooner or later. The end.

Some DVD Format and Console News

I found this article to be very interesting and informing about HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray HERE

Check this out: "Sales for PS3 and Wii games would no doubt have been higher if more of the consoles had made their way into gamers' hands. NPD shows 197,000 PS3 systems sold for the month, while the Wii managed to move 476,000 units. The Xbox 360 bested them both, though not by much, sporting sales of 511,000 for the month." Link

Sony's shipment for PS3s is crazy low! Did you know Sony is taking a $1.5B loss over including Blu-Ray in their system? Yikes.! It's in that article I referenced first. No wonder they changed up their higher ranks in the company. Can you say "you're fired!"?

Microsoft is saying they will meet their 10 Million units shipped world wide for Xbox 360 by the end of 2006. That's big numbers.

The Beginning

Welcome to Zombie-Ninja-Pirates! The Ill fated origin story.....One Friday night I got in a discussion with my friends about zombies, ninjas and pirates. We even went so far as to battle these character. "If a ninja fought a pirate in the 17th century on a pirate ship, who would win?" It got down right ridiculous, Tony the Tiger getting involved too. Some of this was inspired by glancing over a copy of Marvel Zombies at Barnes and Noble. When you get excited about this stuff or go into deep theoretical thought, you know you're a nerd. "Why not share my thoughts and reviews on what I enjoy?" Helped by a discussion on console wars (listed below), this blog was thus born.

I might as well start out this blog with websites I frequent often. Ready?

IGN Comics - Comic book news and reviews. Weekly reviews every Thursday.
Gamespot - Video game news and reviews.
Buzzgrinder - Indie / Underground music scene news.

So recently I got into a commentary back and forth with my friend Mark Lee about the new generation of consoles, you can read about that HERE in two of his posts and their comments. What do you think?

I ordered some Hardcover collections of comics. That's the way I collect them these days. I buy the trades. They were Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (a huge collection of Chris Claremont's early x-men work) and New X-Men Omnibus (Grant Morrison's entire run on New X-Men.)

I recently received the new MeWithOutYou cd in the mail, "Brother, Sister." After a few listens I'll post a review here.

STAY BUSY