Allow me to brag a bit...

My son Zach recently took his PSAT and got his results back. He scored in the upper 99%. Needless to say we are thrilled with this. He took his ACT test on Saturday and we are hoping for similar results there. Way to go Zach!!!

Santa Claus came to town

Yesterday Barb threw a big open house party for family and friends. I say Barb threw it because I was hardly involved at all, and she deserves all of the credit for what turned out to be a wonderful evening. The younger kids (well, Laurel actually since John had no idea what was going on) were surprised by a visit from Santa Claus himself, also known as my Uncle Doug. He and his wife Missy do this every year for us and we always appreciate it so much. The party was a success, everyone was in good spirits and I have photographic evidence that Santa Claus exists.

Thanks to everyone that attended and of course to my lovely Barb.

5 years ago today...

...my soon-to-be wife and her two children, Zach and Jess, moved into my house here in St. Louis. Since then we have become one loving family. We have added two more kids, Laurel and John, so now I am a daddy four times over. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. This picture is from December 9th, 2003, when the kids arrived to their new home. I love you guys!

Cuddle bugs

I love this picture, my wife and my two youngest kids. John is fighting an ear infection and a nasty cold that has been hanging on for a long while. Poor guy hasn't felt right for quite some time. Laurel is Laurel, which means she is crazy but doing just fine. And of course Barb keeps us all together.

Fallout 3

Began this game last night and played it for a long while. Wholly crap, this game is immense. I am thinking it is going to dwarf Far Cry 2 in scope and that was a 70+ hour game for me. Honestly when I first started Fallout 3 and made it out of the vault, it was almost overwhelming. I hung in there and started to get a better handle on the game and so far it's very good. Combat is not as fun or satisfying as in Far Cry 2, but there's a big difference: FC2 is a 1st-person shooter and Fallout 3 is an RPG. Fallout 3 is much more concerned about how you build up your character. The VATS system in Fallout 3 works well; it lets you aim for specific body parts on a foe so you can approach combat in different ways. Sometimes it's better to go for a head shot, but other times you are better off aiming for one of the legs in order to cripple the enemy. You can also shoot the foe's weapon, though this renders it useless for you if you pick it up.

So far it's good stuff. I honestly don't know if I have the stamina to finish this game, especially so soon after FC2. But I am intrigued by the game and plan to keep playing.

Finished Far Cry 2

Ubisoft has a real winner on their hands with FC2. I got a ton of game play out of it, probably over 70 hours worth. That is a tremendous value. If I had to score the game, I'd probably do it like this:
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Story: 8.5
Gameplay: 9
Overall: 9

As I mentioned earlier it is definitely in my GOTY running. It's one of those rare games where the sum is greater than the parts. By that I mean there are a couple of things that little things that stick in your craw, but the game plays so well: the weapons are spot-on and even the vehicles are fun to drive. As a total package it is really hard to beat this game.

Next up will probably be Fallout 3, which may even take longer to beat than FC2. I do have Left 4 Dead sitting here unopened still. I'd love to be able to get some co-op going with Dave (he broke down and got the game), but our schedules rarely work out. Still, if we can get that going, I'll definitely interrupt my time with Fallout 3.

GOTY

My decision on Game Of The Year will be coming at around the end of the year, probably a little after. There are still a few games I have yet to play (Fallout 3 chief among them) and some supposedly great games I simply won't play for whatever reason (not my cup of tea, can't afford it, not enough time, etc). So I will be listing those games worthy of consideration that I didn't play as well. Right now there are 4 games being seriously considered: Fable 2, Far Cry 2, MLB '08: The Show and NHL '09. I still have Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead waiting to be played and I am expecting Little Big Planet to be a Christmas present since I have been a good boy. Hopefully I can put enough time in with those games to be able to get a complete read on them.

Last year's Game Of The Year for me was Bioshock. I still consider it one of the top 5 games I have ever played. And it had a lot of stiff competition, as 2007 was an unbelievably good year for gaming, especially in the fall and winter. 2008 is beginning to look a lot like that, with a lot of stellar games released late in the year. Look for updates for the games I play the rest of the year and a GOTY decision shortly after the beginning of 2009.