KofC Get to Know 'Em: Maestro

How are you?
I am fairly buzzed from drinking this afternoon.

You just got back from the cross-country team trip to Colorado, what was the sweetest part of the trip?
The sweetest part was tying for 1st in our annual mini golf tournament. [Ed. Another KofC member representing the clan in activities other than vids, way to go!]

Second part of previous question: the seniors decided to not do senior night this year for what can only be a lame reason, since you're a senior next year please verify you're going to do senior night and bar-hop your way across Estes Park.
As has been discussed among us already, there is definitely going to be a senior regardless of what anybody says. [Ed. Thank God.]

Rock Band or GH?
I must say that I do like the way that GH distinguishes its different notes while playing, but Rock Band definitely beats it out right now. However, when the new GH comes out it might win this battle, the drum set looks sweet. [Ed. I hate how RB distinguishes notes on guitar/drum, but the singing looks pretty cool.]

You just turned 21, how does it feel to be of age, and what were you doing the minute that you turned 21?
Turning 21 is one of the top 2 best feelings of a person's life, but sadly when I turned 21 I was sleeping at midnight, and then running in the morning. However I did purchase beer, drink beer by playing quarters, and then proceed to carry my beer across campus to show off my age.

Everyone has a drinking habit......SB, Big Guy, and Eternal piss the bed, Dammer falls out of bed and randomly explodes in anger, Warthog swallows his own puke, Pablito talks in German and then sleeps like a petrified tree for 14 hours straight, Adeclipse blacks out and can't be held responsible for what he does, Daymonster pukes on people's vehicles (Ed. No 'monster I'm not mad, I just have only drank with you 3 times in my life and this is what popped into my head)......Maestro what's your habit?

I will say that I tend to go for the ladies. I really loosen up and come on to the ladies to a point where I probably scare them away, but hey I'm drunk so what can I do?

Follow-up: Will you ever get a girlfriend so that DanaWillEatU has someone to talk to when we come home to visit?
I am working on it. I realized that this year is the year to really go after it, and since a lot of the freshman girls are fairly hot I can't go wrong. [Ed. That's gotta be a lie, Luther girls are not hot.] Besides, once I get drunk I can at least get some bad decisions out of them, and on a sidenote, Rose Bear is still younger to SB than freshman are to me so I'm still good.

Daymonster doesn't like Smash Bros., I think that it's fun. Does Daymonster need to look past the button smashing and allow himself to have some fun? What are your embellishments/beefs about Smash Bros.?
I will say that smash bros is great, I thouroughly enjoy playing it, but I actually haven't played too much of it for a very long while. I will say that the only cool part about smash bros is the new characters. Aside from that, the new levels are sub par, and the game play is no different then melee, so what's the point of playing brawl over melee?

What's the longest distance “Buckack!!” you've ever done and was Unky Warthog the recipient?
First off, Unky Warthog was always the recipient, and he most likely always will be, but since Cody (God Dammit) is coming back for a ridiculous almost 2 years there will be some his way. [Ed. That's so sick.] The longest distance was from Brandt to Jensen (Unky had a Trombone lesson so feel free to laugh at that). 

There is one (and only one) game you can pick to play for the rest of your life, what game do you choose?
Wow, that's a tough question, but since you must realize that I have not been addicted to Halo or any of those other games due to lack of an Xbox system, I will say that I could play Zelda Ocarina of Time for the rest of my life and be happy with it. The advances that were made when that game was released, and the enjoyment of almost every part of that game is priceless. 

You recently ran 17 miles as part of your cross-country training, what is your weekly maximum for this season and do you think you could take Josey in a 30 mile race?
My weekly maximum is 80 miles, and I could easily take Josey in a 30 mile race. I say this because I could get through the first 20 miles at around 7 minute pace, and then after that I would have a decent lead on Josey so I would just have to gut out the last 10 miles. [Ed. Race-off with Josey in-between lawyer stuff?]

If you could pick one video game character to live like, who would it be and why?
I would be Link from the Zelda series. He gets every chick to want to marry him, and he pwns at teleportation by song and killing random enemies.

If you could watch in real life one video game cut-scene, what would it be and why?
It would be the cut scene when Greil from Fire Emblem Path of Radience fights the Black Knight. I have seen a lot of cut scenes, and this is so far my favorite.

Name one moment in video games that has touched you emotionally.
The moment in Baten Kaitos when Kalas your main character betrays you after 45 hours of intense gameplay. [Ed. Agreed!]

There is only one food you can eat for the rest of your life, what is it and would you consider eating it with syrup on top?
The answer is steak and yes I would consider putting syrup on top. [Ed. New recipe? ]It would probably make it even more delicious.

Chunky or creamy peanut butter?
Chunky is the way to go. I find it is like gambling because you never know if you are going to get that rotten peanut or not.

What's the best beer you've ever had? And by best don't limit yourself to taste alone, take into account any extraneous situations you may have been in.
Up to this point the best beer I have had was by brand a Keystone Light, but it came out of the very first Das Boot on the night that it arrived and changed many members of the KofC forever.

100% on Through the Fire and Flames

Video Game Tattoos and New Halo Map

IMPORTANT: At 5pm CST, I will be migrating the website to kofcclan.blogspot.com. Update your bookmarks, homepage, business cards and anything else that has the old information on it.

There is a kind of a lot of news today so try to stay with me.

Video Game Tattoo:
Yesterday's post about the guy with the Halo Legendary tattoo got me thinking. What if he had received a tattoo with the images of his other favorite games. Would they be as cool if it were some other video game character instead of the Elite head and crossed swords?


While this tattoo isn't as cool as these ones, I did get a chance to talk to the man that got legendary tat and he agreed to answer some of my questions. He told me that he first considered getting a couple different games tattooed on his back and sometimes regrets his final decision. He was always a big fan of Pong so he considered the iconic Pong paddle and square ball.


He decided that a large vertical black line might not be recognizable as a video game character and could show through his white shirts. Thus making it look like he was always wearing a jersey numbered, 1.

He also considered his favorite game of all time. It's a rather new game but the programming is top notch, he has been playing it pretty much non-stop since the midnight release party.


That's right, he is a HUGE Dr. Daisy Pet Vet fan.

New Halo Map: Avalanche
They released the details and images of the second new map in the Legendary Map Pack. It will be released on April 15th (tax day! yay!) for 800 MS points. This is the same prices as the Heroic pack but let's hope it's better.

Like I predicted the second map, which was named Cottonball is now named Avalanche and is a remake of Sidewinder. They say it's more of a tribute to Sidewinder and not so much a remake and I think it's neither. It has a similar curved shape but that seems to be where the greatness that comes from the Halo 1 map ends. They have gotten rid of the tunnel system that connected the two bases, and there are no portals nor ladders.


According to Bungie they want to focus the fighting out into the open with vehicles. I never really used vehicles in Sidewinder, well, except for using the turret in the hog to slip through the gate where the overshield and cloak was. I really don't want to be forced to do anything in a map, that seems to take a way the creativity that Halo 1 was known for.

Anyway check out Bungie's write up of the new map and let me know what you guys think. I think Josey knows what I am talking about when I say I am not getting my hopes up.

OMGGH4DS:
Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS was revealed today. Check out the link. There is a peripheral for the DS, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Dammer gets 50 bucks:
Dammer you did buy the HDDVD player for the Xbox didn't you? Did you get it at Best Buy or Circuit City? Well if you did, and if any other Knight did, you can get a $50 dollar giftcard from the retail stores if you can prove you bought it before the Microsoft called the format "dead".

COD4 Update for PS3 (No one cares? Oh okay.)
The COD4 update just came out for the PS3 version of the game, so I can finally see the improvements you guys have been playing with for a while.

New GH, COD from Activision Blizzard

As many of you already know, a couple months ago there was a pretty large merger in the video game industry. Activision (makers of GH, COD, THPS) and Vivendi (makers of WoW, Starcraft, F.E.A.R) joined forces to make the new and largest game company in the world, Activision Blizzard.


Like most mergers the company released a fact sheet [PDF] detailing the strengths of both companies and plans for the future. In this fact sheet they reveal that Guitar Hero IV is being developed as is a new Tony Hawk Pro Skater (which by the way, has sucked the last couple games) and most importantly Call of Duty 5.

While I don't think this comes as a surprise that COD and GH are having another edition released as the current editions are still setting records, it is fun to try to think of possible ways they will update the series. Will COD5 be like COD4 and have it be modern warfare? Will it go back to WWII? Somewhere between like Vietnam or Korea? Or will it keep blazing a head in a Ghost Recon future kind of way? My Opinion? It will either go back to WWII or it will stay Modern. I wouldn't mind seeing like a 2030 future type game but I don't think that's COD's style.

I'll be home around 5:30 today. I need to clean my apartment as my family is coming this weekend and it looks like SB/Josey's apartment. Should I clean before LOST or should I play video games? I'll let the KofC decide.

Rock Band Updates Galore

My enthusiasm for Rock Band has died a little bit in the last few weeks, probably due to the holidays and class starting up again. But in the last week or so, some very exciting news has come out. Let me share it with you.

It's good to see that the people at Harmonix have lived up to their promise of new songs being released every week. This honestly will keep this game going for a long time. But I was thinking: the average downloadable song goes somewhere between $0.99 and $2.99. Which isn't a terrible deal, until you start thinking about how the original disc had almost 60 songs on it (45 of the songs were ones you had heard of) that would put the original disc at about $120 of song prices alone. Obviously this is not the case, the game goes for the standard $59.99 without the peripherals. So would it be a better deal for us to wait until the next version of Rock Band with 60 more songs for 60 bucks or should we keep buying a few songs every week at a higher price. (Obviously, RB has said they won't be coming out with a new disc for a while, so it's a moot point, but I was wondering is this new way of getting songs better or worse?)

Anyways back to the fun stuff.

Like I said each week RB releases some new tracks. Sometimes you know exactly what song they are selling just by the title, other times it's not so obvious. Next time before you buy check out the Official Xbox Magazine online where they review each song right when it goes up on Live. Here is the review from the latest batch. [Update: Here are the three songs that come out tomorrow... Yay! Monkees!]

OXM doesn't just review the tracks, they also give you three free ones not available anywhere else in their latest issue. It's supposed to hit newsstands tomorrow, but I got mine on Friday night, not sure how. The three songs are Sprøde by Freezepop Rock Rebellion by Bang Shake by Count Zero. You may not know these songs but I instantly recognized Freezepop from my days of playing the grandfather of all rhythm games, Frequency. In fact Sprøde is a song from Amplitude, Frequency's sequel.

As we discussed in a previous post, the favorite instrument for some KofCer's is the drums. And while the drum set that accompanies RB is leaps and bounds above what previous peripherals were like, it's not quite as sweet as this.

This is a prototype of Ion Audio's new Rock Band drum set complete with beefier drums and some cymbals that was displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. There is no release date for this set nor is there an approximate price. And while this set is pretty awesome, I am not sure if it will fit in my studio apartment. Source: Engaget Spanish.

In the meantime if you want a more realistic drum set and have an old real drum set lying around do what this guy did and turn it into a Rock Band set.

If playing the drums isn't your thing and you would like to make your guitar playing a little more realistic pick up this device from SoundTech to attach to your guitar. Here's how it works: The Windows XP and Mac compatible peripheral measures the notes being played on the guitar. After Ediface detects the real notes, it turns the sound into MIDI. With the above device, it then switches in any other alternative instrumentation much like a synthesizer. For RB/GH support, program in corresponding colors for notes — the first five frets of the top string, for example. [Source: Kotaku]

If playing the real guitar and real drums wasn't enough to make you feel like a real rocker, pick up this sweet add-on in June. GameStop's website accidentally put up the image of the Official Rock Band Stage Kit. The kit will include an interactive light and smoke stage show. I can't see how it could get much better than that... well, maybe this.

That's about it for this Monday morning.

One last non-Rock Band related video:
OMG, this is so sweet. Even though you don't go through a shark tank, this seems way better than any of the water slides at Atlantis. (Note: This could also be considered old news but I found it to be worthy of sharing, in case someone hasn't seen it yet.)

Tuesdays with The Daymonster

Well, I am beginning to worry that most of my posts these days have been random thoughts by me instead of the hard hitting well written news-worthy stories that you have come to expect.

Nothing makes me more mad when I get to work and don't have a good idea of what to talk about (other than the fact that I am at work). So, in honor of that I am going to make the longest random notes and thoughts post yet in hopes that it will soon rid me of this terrible writer's block once and for all. Ready? Go.

Last night I was pretty tired but I threw this wallpaper together. It is of me and Tilla but I figured it was good to have a fairly generic one until we each get our own.

- The last game we played on Valhalla, I went back and watched the film and saw three sweet kills. I assume this would be boring unless you were there so I will explain it quickly. The first one was right at the bargaining, I grabbed the missile pod and hit the man cannon, as I launched toward the center I fired at their base and I got a kill. I thought that was sweet but when I watched the film, I hit the other guy with the missile pod in midair in the face going off the man cannon.


- The second and third kill was a double kill that featured two somewhat random long range lucky grenades. One frag that made the 'hog do a barrel roll and the second plasma that stuck the bottom of the 'hog during its flip killing all on board. Believe me it was cool.

- One thing I have noticed is that every single woman who works in an office has one thing on her desk. A bottle of lotion. I think it's hand lotion but I have not investigated further. I urge you to go to a co-workers desk (SB, Josey, Unky's, take my word for it) and check out their desk. You will undoubtedly find a Jergen's, or a Vaseline labeled squirt bottle. What is it about women's hands that get so dry.

- Last night the Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 20-13. Even though the hometown Vikings won the game it was a brutal game to watch. But last night while I was at a bar, the Vikings came to a 4th in 1 in the 4th quarter up by 7. It was about at midfield and the Vikes decided to punt. I am not sure if you guys know my stance on punting. I am almost entirely against it. I have read some articles about it and with very limited research here is a short summary. With Devin Hester returning the kick the Vikings take an intentional delay of game to get moved back 5 yds. This time Chicago sends everyone in an attempt to block the kick and Hester gets stuffed inside the 15 yd line. It worked out this time, but I think 9/10 times you should go for it on 4th down when at half field or beyond.


- Speaking of Devin Hester. I hate him. I think he is overrated. Not overrated as a returner, but as an offensive player. Yes he is fast but he cannot catch worth shit.

- Super Crazy Guitar Man Deluxe 2 is a pretty fun game that is like a weird cheap version of Guitar Hero for Flash but it's surprisingly fun and difficult.

- 52% of all Xbox 360 owners own Halo 3. So why does everyone hate it?

- Pablito Neals love is coming into the country this week and this means we will not be playing with him for a while. At first I was very sad because it will suck to lose a good teammate during the importance of this holiday season. But then I realized it is better than the alternative of him going off to some far off land to be with her for good.

- Why did back in the day when you would take a video tape from a camcorder did it still have all that info on it. Like how much battery was left. I don't know why you would need to know that when putting the video in the VHS player. Did they not have the technology to keep that off the tape?

- Can anyone explain what MLG is really. I mean I know they have a pro circuit and stuff but. They chose their own game types and there are MLG gamers and they play over XBL. I'm just confused.

- Anyone know how the custom power up works? Where can you set the attributes. I know one MLG game type on The Pit has one that's a 3x over shield.

- Anyways, I apologize for the poor writing, and half-thought out ideas but I just want to get something out there to get some comments going.

Halo Madness

"It's called... 'TRASH TALK'"

"Ugly racial slurs, anti-Semitic rhetoric, homophobic chat and sexual innuendo... and guess who's listening? YOUR CHILDREN!!!!"

It's like a 21st century Reefer Madness, well maybe not that ridiculous, but pretty ridiculous none the less. It's your classic over-the-top sensational tabloid style reporting we have come to know and love, not just from Fox news but a majority of the TV news networks. Do you know where else there are swear words, homophobic and racial slurs? The playground, the school bus, TV, movies etc.

The report switches wildly between accusations of racism and warnings of credit card theft, before attempting to terrify parents by suggesting children could be abducted by sex offenders should they play on Xbox Live.

Now that I think of it, we should get some credit card numbers tonight.

Kof C Picture of the DayUnky and friend riding the 'goose together

Downloadable Content Alert!
The Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix by Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori is available for FREE on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's actually a pretty fun song to play.

That's all I can think of for today, someone email me some questions for Unky Eternal.

Harmonica Hero

I can't tell if these people are making fun of the Musical/Rhythm game genre or Harmonicas. Either way it's lame because I would totally play this game.

Also, who is next in line for the Knights of Cydonia - Get to Know 'Em? I am in dire need of some entertainment.

Here is our little brother organization: The Michigan Columbian Squires. On their front page these fine, future Knights of Columbus can be seen protesting abortion outside the local IHOP.

Red Ring of Death Strikes Again

As some of you may know, my XBOX went MIA as of two days ago. 3 red lights have killed the poor thing. Unfortunately neither Gamestop, Target, nor Walmart carried the Core 360 and a quick fix. I am forced to go with a 4 week hiatus and send it in for repairs/replacement. In the meantime however I will play at Tilla's if possible and I plan on purchasing a new TV this coming weekend. On a related topic I am here at home this weekend and plan on celebrating the end of my initial job training Friday night/Saturday if anyone wants to partake. Yesterday/Today at work I made a SAWEET LineRider (8 hours of paid work spent on frivolous activities mind you) that I hope to upload sometime tomorrow if I can find where it is saved, I will give instructions obviously. Until then keep making 10 year olds cry after you hump their corpse.

If you get bored feel free to imagine these guys on the next Guitar Hero (cause they are). Be sure to hit the 3:00 mark.