put your car on cruise and lay back cause this is summertime

Time to catch up on some shows this summer. First, the Wire. I've read about the awesomeness that is the Wire, looking forward to watching this. Next, Entourage season 3. Love this show; Ari is a favorite character of mine. Lots of HBO series actually with Rome, Six Feet Under, Deadwood and Carnivale.

words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup

Across the Universe is one of my favorite Beatles songs. This is an awesome trailer that we saw before seeing Waitress this past weekend. Waitress was good, everybody go see it. Forget Pirates 3 - save that crap for DVD!

Anyhoo, Across the Universe is also the name of a movie directed by Julie Taymor, who created the Lion King musical for Disney (which I have not seen it, but will someday before I pass from this life...)

Wait for the last 30 seconds of the trailer -- its the best part. Seriously.



PS. Yes, I loved Moulin Rouge and I'm not ashamed to say it.

Microsoft Surface: Coooooool

Great news story about it at Seattle PI, too.

Only 1 more week to go until Fallout teaser

Crazy how fast time flies. Only one week left until the Fallout 3 teaser. I'm really excited about being able to show folks what we've been working on for the past few years. We've been running with the stealth drives on long enough, I think :)

New concept art is up today, too.

I found this speed run of the original Fallout. Not very representative of the game, but fun to see the original game in action anyway. They manage to "finish" the game in 9 minutes.

In the Navy...

We settled on where we're going to get married - the Naval Yard in DC. Locations in Annapolis and Old Town Alexandria were both high on our list, but we got down and dirty with the budget this weekend and the Naval Yard came out ahead in the grand scheme of things. Besides, I really love Old Town Alexandria and it is close enough to the Naval Yard that our hotels will be there. Not to mention, the rehearsal dinner.

I had some reservations about having it on a military complex with this huge warship as a backdrop, since I am not in the military. But it isn't a big deal considering Meg's dad was in the Navy as was my uncle Bill, and my uncle Ken was in the Army - and oh yeah, my best friend (and best man) Matt is actively serving right now.

Anyhoo, I took some pics of the Naval Yard. The gazebo has a VERY ugly bridge behind it, so we'll going to face the ceremony the other direction, and perhaps have the musicians in the gazebo.

Naval Yard - Wedding

The Kingdom trailer

Looking forward to seeing this. Directed by Peter Berg who directed Friday Night lights, the film, and created the tv show, too. Great cast, as well -- Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Ari from Entourage, Jason Bateman. I read somewhere they were calling this movie CSI Saudi Arabia... hehe.

Real Chinese Food...no really, REAL chinese food

My friend, Emil Pagliarulo, lead designer on Fallout 3 and current owner of the Cherry Bomb - the red Honda Civic hatchback that I had owned for so many years. This rant is based on a discussion we had at work, and was written as part of something else, but I found it too funny not to post.

So, Emil, rant away:

Okay, this goes out to my peeps from New England. See, I grew up in Boston (go Southie!), but haven’t been home in a few years. You know what the biggest bit of culture shock has been, living outside of New England? The Chinese food is… well, it’s not right.

Okay, you’ve got to understand… In New England, a Chinese food meal consists of three primary elements – pork fried rice, chicken fingers, and boneless spareribs. You could order something else, but why would you want to? Those are the “Big Three,” the Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt of your Chinese meal. Without them? Chaos.

Now, I don’t know the origin of the standardized New England Chinese food plate, but to my knowledge, it is simply not available anywhere else in the country. You can get pork fried rice, I’ll admit – but it’s not the same. You can get chicken fingers, too, but they’re completely different (horrible breaded chicken strips as opposed to delicious tempura fried chicken strips). And boneless spareribs? You’re dreaming.

So please, if you live in New England, appreciate what you’ve got. And if you own a Chinese food restaurant in the Montgomery County region of Maryland, could you please take a trip to Boston and find out how to make REAL Chinese food?

Excelsior!

He quoted Superman. Nice.

I walked by Todd's office to see if he wanted lunch.
Sushi?
I posted.
What?
I posted on the forums.
Wow. What did you post?

It was a great post, very much a state of the union address for our development team here at Bethesda. I must admit I don't visit our forums very often; I visit and skim once a week or so. The signal to noise ratio is just too much for me.

Here's excerpt of what Todd wrote that I particularly liked:

Obviously I can’t talk about the game itself yet, but I can give you a look into how I/we approached it. When we first got the license in 2004, I was pretty ecstatic, I pushed pretty hard for us to get it, because I really liked the first game and thought Fallout would be a great fit for us, it has all the big things I love about RPGs – player freedom, big world, go do what you want type of stuff. But once you have it – you obviously get to work on how to approach an icon like Fallout. And it’s much harder then you think, because it’s certainly a game that has grown in its legacy as time goes on, it’s hard to sift through what its “essence” or “soul” is, because it’s aged, and people often discuss it in nostalgic tones.

I obviously replayed the games, and Fallout 1 remains the truest inspiration for what we’re doing, but again, it can be hard to get at the “soul” of it, because of its aging. So I look to things like the first game’s manual. The fiction and tone of it. There is also a great, great section in the Fallout 1 hintbook, “One Woman’s Path through the Desert”, which is a journal of going through the game, as if it was real. In some ways, that section is a better look into the game then the game itself. I also read old-reviews, because they gave me a better understanding of how those games felt then. Again, removing the aging.

I obviously looked at all the PA movies – Boy and his Dog, Mad Max, Strangelove, etc. Though I find the actual PA movies end up fairly generic, and don’t capture what is special about the Fallout world, and that’s not the world that you end up with, but the world of 2077 that gets destroyed, and then built upon. I became far more interested in the “pre-war” world, then the “post-war” world.

I also looked a lot at my own reactions to other franchises that have had long gaps and were reborn/updated again in another era. Mostly movies, and such, The Lord of the Rings, Superman, Batman, etc, etc. Now, I’m a recovering comic book junkie, so I’ll probably be throwing around a lot of superhero references, and I hope they make sense. Speaking of which, I’d really like to sell a bunch of long-boxes from my basement if anyone wants them, you just can’t have my signed Frank Miller Dark Knight. Speaking of Dark Knight, Batman remains my favorite (one day I’m gonna rock the house with an open-ended gotham city Batman game, mark my words). The recent Batman and Superman movies, or even their earlier counterparts are pretty good examples of classic iconic franchises that were reborn again. I love…love…Batman Begins. Chris Nolan is a @#$*!^& genius. See the Prestige if you haven’t. Now, I have problems as a huge Batman fan with it, but the pure “soul” of Batman beats in the heart of that movie, and Nolan’s current “I believe in Harvey Dent” tease from The Dark Knight is further proof of his genius.

I also love the first Superman movie, and I think I draw many parallels from Bryan Singer doing Superman Returns, which tries to follow Superman 1 and 2 and ignore 3 and 4, to our own situation. Reg Richard Donner’s Superman, one of my mantras, and it’s a word he used for making that movie, is “verisimilitude”. Look it up if you don’t know what it means. Donner made a sign of it and put it up (maybe I’ll do the same). I want to bring that to Fallout, I want to make it real again, and come alive like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it. Treat it with respect, and don’t cheese it up.

I wish I could give you real, true, insight into what we put into our games, and this is not me just trying to sell you, or smooth you over, because I’m Ok, really, if you don’t love what we do. We’re fans, we’re passionate about what we do. We go on a crusade to make the best game we can. We make the game we would run to the store and buy, we argue, we debate, we scream, we stay up all night, we clap and cheer the highs and curse the lows. One day we’ll find a way to make you a fly on the wall in one of our design meetings – they’re pretty damn inspiring. And I wish you knew all the faces of the 80 people busting ass to make this game great. The secret superstars you don’t know of like Istvan Pely, Mike Lipari, and Scott Franke. I could go on and on.

I’m often asked about the fans and our forums, and I think you all want to know if your opinions are heard or it you’re shouting into a black hole. And I can assure you that we have these forums so we can hear from you. And yes, we read most of it. It’s like a car crash you just have to watch sometimes, lots of violence and parts exploding, but there is something awesome in its power. Your opinions do matter, and we want them. We are influenced by what gets said about us on these forums, in the press, the letters we get and so forth. Speaking of letters, we do get a lot, and the letters are different then the forum posts. One of the popular letters we get is from someone who’s had a life-changing experience, or gone through a bad time, and had to write us to tell us how much Morrowind/Oblivion meant to them. That it became a real world to them, that they got to escape and play a stronger/different person then they are in real life, and it helped them. You have to pretty jaded to not have that affect you. And that’s why you come to these forums and that’s why people outside of RPGs and/or Fallout may think you are crazy. Because they are not just games, they are worlds, and for the time you play them they are as real as anything you have experienced in life, they become part of you and you care. That’s why you and I are both here.

To say we care about Fallout would be an epic understatement. We are excited/humbled to be the ones to bring it back. I know we don’t have all the right answers, or the one’s you would make when it comes to how it should be or look. We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout’s “soul”, but those decisions are ours, not yours. I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you.

I think I know what it feels like to adopt kids now, because we adopted Fallout and for the last 3 years we have been doing our best to care for it, and now I love it like it had been our child forever; and soon, very soon, we can show him to the world again. I think he’s got something to say, and I think it’s important.

You may not agree, you may be too cynical to look at it objectively anymore, but I’m going to guess that you’re reading this forum because Fallout really does matter, and it does mean something far more to you then just “a game.” So for my final superhero reference, I leave you with this quote from Christopher Reeve; insert Fallout:

"I've seen first hand how Superman actually transforms people's lives. I have seen children dying of brain tumors who wanted as their last request to be able to talk to me, and have gone to their graves with a peace brought on by knowing that their belief in this kind of character is intact. I've seen that Superman really matters. They're connecting with something very basic: the ability to overcome obstacles, the ability to persevere, the ability to understand difficulty and to turn your back on it.”

Rising cost of gas is a good thing

Gas prices are rising, averaging over $3.20 per gallon. The expensive stuff is breaking the $4 barrier. And I say it's about time. Automakers now have an incentive to make fuel efficient cars. Hybrids are growing in popularity - demand will only get higher. More expensive gas makes up for the extra cost with buying a hybrid. When gas costs less, it takes you longer to make up the extra cost of the hybrid. In the long run, the longer we keep developing hybrid tech, it will also get cheaper to produce, and the cost of a hybrid car will ultimately go down, as well. (well, hopefully).

This would apply to any alternative fuel vehicles. I'm especially interested in Honda's hydrogen car. Unfortunately, it will be lease only (grrr, I hate leases. But that's for another day...)

Automakers (I'm looking primarily at you, American automakers) aren't innovating enough. Honda and Toyota are making the best cars on the market today, and they keep pushing technology with hybrid, electric and alternative fuel vehicles.

What did GM do? They killed the EV1, claiming no one wanted it. I remember writing about the EV1 back in my Car Book days. I thought it was the first step to new technology for the auto industry, new innovations. NOT.

Top 10 shows for 2006-2007 season (and biggest disappointment)

With the season winding down...

1. Heroes - the one I love and hate all at the same time. I love it because its awesome. I hate it because it drags so slo-o-owly.

2. Friday Night Lights - I love this show. Great writing, acting, characters, production values. It is shocking that something this good is on tv. This show had me in tears just about every episode. I was so sure it would get canceled. You must watch Friday Night Lights -- they are all available online.

3. The Office - as a HUGE fan of the british version, I was dubious but I'm a believer now.

4. Scrubs - still my favorite comedy, never fails to make me happy

5. House - still great.

6. How I Met Your Mother - very under-rated show. There are moments when it is as good as Seinfeld was. Very good show.

7. Feasting on Asphalt. From Alton Brown, of the awesome Good Eats. I hope they make more.

8. Grey's Anatomy. Soap opera at its finest.

9. Ugly Betty - this show is all over the map but the characters and writing is so good.

10. Any Dateline with Chris Hansen


Biggest Disappointment:
24. Youch. They totally screwed the pooch this season. Its pretty clear they finished the show 4-5 episodes early and had to put together a weak storyline about Jack's father and the Chinese. Like his father could ONLY get to his grandson via some convoluted plot with the Chinese, as opposed to just wait until the next day and just take him from their home.

BWINO

BTW, did you see the Bionic Woman tease at the end of Heroes? It was good but the longer version is really good. I'm a big fan of the new Battlestar Galatica; David Eick, who exec produced BG, is exec producing the new Bionic Woman. I wonder how long it takes for a BWINO (Bionic Woman in name only) protest to start.

Here's the intro to the original show. Ahh, the memories.

Heroes: So I Married an Awesome

I did not see it coming at all last night, didn't see it, not even close. And when it happened, it was so obvious that Nathan was the reason why Claire had to be saved, and why it had to be Peter who saved her. Heroes is such an amazing show.

Last night's finale was so riveting that even Megen stopped what she was doing to watch. (She usually gets on the laptop to multi-task when my geeky shows come on).

Currently Playing - May edition

Halo 3 Beta, Xbox 360
Just started playing this over the past weekend. Lots of fun, especially when playing with folks on the team. I wish more games had a party match option for multiplayer.

Final Fantasy III, Nintendo DS
Also just got this recently, too. Surprised how good it looks. Enjoying it so far. I'm also looking forward to Revenant Wings DS and the other Square games coming. The DS Lite is slowly becoming my gaming platform of choice - its just great being able to pick it up anywhere.

Puzzle Quest, Nintendo DS
Another DS surprise. I play a battle or two every night before going to bed.

Guitar Hero II, Xbox 360
I've finished Easy and Medium. I'm working on Hard but I've pretty much hit the ceiling on my skill. I did unlock the songs I like to play in Hard so I mostly play for fun now. My favorite song to play is Dead, My Chemical Romance. I'm hoping they release Ziggy Stardust as a download.

Catan, Xbox 360
I never played the board game before but I now understand why its so popular. This is a great game, and the implementation for Xbox Live is spot on. I'm working on my online ranking on this. My record is 1-1 so far.

Jade Empire, Xbox 360
I've been replaying this, this time on my Xbox 360 and 42"Plasma. The characters are just so good in this. I hope they are making another one.

Phoenix Wright, Nintendo DS
A great game. I'm on the last case now. The humor, characters and gameplay are all awesome. Looking forward to playing the rest of the series, glad they are making more.

Starcraft 2

As you can see in video below, Blizzard's cinematics alone are worth the price of the game.

The screenshots don't do the game justice, you must watch the actual gameplay videos. Starcraft 2 looks fantastic. Starcraft is the RTS that ruined me for all other RTS games. I played so much of it that my back starts to cramp just thinking about it. You know that cramp. The 3 AM holy shit I've been at my PC for 10 hours straight pain.

I was really hoping they would announce World of Starcraft instead. I mean, I get it. Seriously, I do -- its the leap between Madden 1997 and Madden 2007. I get it. Its cool. Seriously.

Starcraft is a big sport in Korea. You don't come out and change the entire game when its a professional sport. Its obvious since they announced it there and they didn't do the GameInformer cover story/teaser trailer PR kick off of GTA 4 and Call of Duty 4 (btw, COD4 looks awesome, can't wait to play this.) -- there's a great video that I'll have to find of the crowd in Korea just going NUTS over the announcement.

What if you could actually be in the seige tanks, flip to some marines to get your line of sights in place, then switch back and hear the metallic whine and the pounding of the ground as your tank locks in place to fire. A dash of Ground Control, a bit of Battlezone, a pinch of Risk, and lots and lots of Starcraft. I always wondered how awesome it would be to actually be in the seige tanks, or to sneak your ghost around and drop a nuke on an unsuspecting base. I need to see if I can sample the seige tank sounds on my cellphone.

I wonder what happened to Starcraft: Ghost? Probably gone the way of Warcraft Adventures. BTW, the Starcraft statue is frakin' awesome.

Tonight: Hiro and Master Chief

Tonight is all about the Heroes finale and the Halo 3 beta.

Transformers...

Are you paying attention, Michael Bay?

Awesome kung fu

the Princess

Gen is coming to visit for the weekend. Evidently, its a long weekend holiday in Canada. She'll be the first guest in the new and improved guest room -- now with a king size bed. Fun.

We can rebuild him...err, her

This is the official teaser from NBC, with more awesome.

So long and thanks for all the guilty pleasure...

Last night was the final Gilmore Girls. As much as I railed against the show this season, it was my one guilty pleasure. I am not ashamed to admit that I did consider Lauren Graham my TV wife for these past seven years.

Time to find a new guilty pleasure show...

Bionic Woman teasers rock the frak'in house

So that's where Starbuck went...This is my most anticipated new show of fall season.

the A Team camping

This video is hilarious -- Martie and Mike go camping. One of the other dads put this video together. The best part is the very end with Mike yelling at Martie.

Fallout 3 website updated

Craig Mullins. Good stuff. Only 21 days left until the teaser. Boy, time flies.

I've heard that Mullins lives in Hawaii and spends his days painting and surfing. Awesome.

Blame Emil, or How I learned to love the blog

It was because my friend and colleague, Emil, wasn't going to E3, and I wanted to give him updates on how the Oblivion demo -- it was the big unveiling of the game to the general public -- was going. That's why I started this weblog.

Two years ago today, my first entry was on the day before I was to leave for LA (strangely enough, its about work and my neglect of my yard -- some things never change...):

I thought I'd start this up to document my trip to E3 this year, mostly as a moblog. Supposedly I can email pictures to this so we'll see.

Unfortunately, it rained today, so my poor lawn will have to wait until I get back next weekend before it gets the attention it deserves. My roommate will not be happy.

Todd Howard called me today and said the Oblivion trailer was going to be shown at Microsoft's press event on Monday night. Peter Moore is going to introduce it. He's a grand high muckety muck at Microsoft - I believe he's the senior VP there. He used run Sega.

I stopped by the office today. Steve Green is pulling his hair out trying to output the Oblivion trailer in high quality divx. We tried putting the trailer on a DVD, but it looked like crap.

It was pleasant going to the office, knowing I was only stopping by to get my E3 plane tickets, badges, shirts and stuff. Even though I'm in on Monday, I didn't want to take any chances.

Anyhoo, read through my entries about E3 2005. The moblog experiment failed miserably - the photos from my horrible camera phone look like near death experiences. It was a pretty crazy show. Some thoughts about E3 2005, looking back:

• Todd Howard ran through the demo several times a day during the show -- it ran like a champ without crashing all week long.
  
• Ask Tim Lamb, Oblivion's QA Lead (now an associate producer). He played it non stop for a week leading up to the demo to make sure it was good to go. No seriously. He did. We have the footage to prove it (from the documentary, ugh).
  
• Except for the last showing on the last day of the show - the final daedra at the end of the demo decided to skip out on the final showing - clearly his contract didn't cover that last appearance.
  
• The power went out the morning of the first day. So we had no air conditioning in our suite. It was like an oven, especially during a showing where 20+ people would cram into this space. The machines we were using to demo were over-heating like crazy - again, a miracle the demo never crashed.
• Todd had a bottle of water and honey with him for his voice. I recall he tried to speak as little as possible.
• Quote from the show: We gave away 1,000 t shirts in the first hour yesterday. We only have 4,000.
• Gavin and I did a lot of interviews while Todd ran the demo. We spent our time walking all over the floor. We also had a camera crew following us around for a "making of" documentary. At one point, I literally had 3 microphones on me -- one for an interview I just finished, one for an interview I was about to do, and one for Thinkfilm, the folks doing our documentary. Nothing like having strangers lifting your shirt up to stick wires and gadgets all over you.
  
• (Speaking of the documentary -- never forget, never again -- there's a great story concerning Todd being interviewed and me going to the bathroom with my mic still on....)
  
• Anyhoo, what I remember most about that E3 was that it felt like we were all at summer camp. It was hard work, but it's also crazy fun. After getting back from the show, there is a bit of a let down getting back to your normal day to day life.
  

greece and virtual assistants

Our tickets are booked. We're headed to Mykonos next month for a week of mediterranean fun, plus a couple days in Athens. I'll try to resist the urge to walk around Greece kicking people and screaming about Sparta.

I was sneezing and stuffy all weekend, can't seem to shake this cold.

I started reading The 4-hour Work Week. Entertaining book that is seems a bit far fetched, but the chapters on time management are pretty good. My favorite part so far is how he outsources his life to virtual assistants in India. Perhaps I should get a virtual assistant. Hmmm.

UPDATE: Megen says, a virtual assistant in India can't mow the yard for me...

Mario: Game Over

This has been making the rounds around the intraweb, thought I'd contribute to the mass group think.

Ashley's top five favorite Liam Neeson films

In honor of Liam Neeson being in the game, I'd like to list my top five favorite Liam Neeson flicks. Seriously, something we should all do to celebrate. Here's his page on IMDB for your convenience -- or should I say, for your consideration. (Incidentally, yours truly resident producer has his own IMDB page, though it is a tad old).

1. Untitled Lincoln biopic. Okay, so I haven't actually seen this film. Steven Spielberg. Tony Kushner (wrote Angels in America and Munich). Neeson. Still in preproduction, but the ingredients all look right to me. I currently have Doris Kearns Goodwin's (screenplay is based on her Lincoln biography) Team of Rivals, the Political Genius of Agraham Lincoln, that I'm saving up to read on my summer vacation in Greece.

2. Darkman - Sam Raimi rules.

3. Love Actually - I have a girl's name. I like girl's flicks.

4. Schindler's List - Spielberg is one of my favorite directors (probably 2nd to Ang Lee -- my Taiwan homie).

5. Gangs of New York - I think this film is under-rated. It is really, really amazing, and Daniel Day-Lewis' sideburns still give me nightmares to this very day.

Anyhoo, check out the Fallout teaser site update, and the Liam Neeson press release for the avid press release readers out there.

Heroes: She's having an Awesome

Heroes was back to its own slow, plodding self last night, like a single issue of a comic - it just goes flying by with little actual plot progression. It makes me happy that they are teaming up and interacting with each other -- ie, "forming the Xmen" as I like to call it. Seriously, if you aren't watching this show -- and they are all available online -- what is wrong with you? I think you are smart to wait. Yes. Wait for the entire season to be complete and watch it all in a row. Like I like to read comics - I wait until its completed a run of issues and compiled into a trade paperback. When Heroes comes out on DVD, it will fly off shelves.

Ash's Good Eats

I added a link under my links -- Ash's Good Eats -- using this awesome new My Maps feature for google maps. Here are some favorite places to eat that I've listed so far:

Chick Fil A
The GREATEST chicken sandwiches in the world. The waffles fries are fantastic, too, especially when dipped into bbq sauce.

Momo Taro
One of my favorite sushi places. Its right by the office, I always order the salmon teriyaki business lunch.

Tako Grill
Expensive but one of the best places for sushi in Bethesda.

Five Guys
Greasy burgers and fries. The epitome of American comfort food.

Curt Shilling's official blog

Just found this recently -- Curt Shilling's official weblog, 38 Pitches.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I do enjoy a game at the ballpark now and then. Pretty interesting reading Shilling's thoughts about each game, its just an interesting perspective to me. It links to his game development company, as well. Not much there about what they are working on.

Shivering Isles Technical Support FAQ

Just about every week or so, I get emails about issues with Oblivion or Shivering Isles. We have posted threads on our forums - I thought I'd doing some cutting and pasting for your convenience.

PC Specific Issues

Direct2Drive and Shivering Isles
If you install a Retail copy of Shivering Isles over Direct2Drive Oblivion, the game will require a retail Oblivion disk to run. To remedy this situation you will need to get the "Oblivion Shivering Isles CD Compatibility Fix" from Direct2Drive. It is available at http://www.direct2drive.com/patches/. Direct2Drive also sells the North American release of Shivering Isles, which is compatible with both the Retail and Direct2Drive versions of the game.

Content will not enable, or multiple assets are missing
We are aware that some people are having compatibility issues with third party, or user created mods and Shivering Isles. Please note that we cannot officially support any user-made mods for Oblivion, however we do want people to be able to enjoy their games. Here are some troubleshooting steps that seem to be fairly effective in eliminating some of the most common issues.

If you have been playing with mods installed please try these steps to eliminate any problems caused by the mods.

• Backup all save files located in /My Documents/My Games/Oblivion/Saves/ to a separate folder.
• Backup, or have some method ready for reinstallation of any third party or user created mods that you have.
• Uninstall Oblivion
• Delete any folders left behind such as C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion, and My Documents\My Games\Oblivion
• Reboot your computer
• Reinstall Oblivion (there is no need to install patch 1.1 or 1.2 at this point)
• Install Shivering Isles
• Install the Shivering Isles 1.2.0416 Patch from here
• Copy your old saves into /My Documents/My Games/Oblivion/Saves/
• Load Oblivion
• Load an old save file and ensure that the save file load properly.
• Wait 24 to 48 hours in-game then fast travel to a location near the Niben Bay, just east of Bravil. You should get a quest notification, or at least be able to see the island when looking due east from the Bravil Stables.

If you have had success with the steps above, it may be a good idea to install any third party or user created mods that you have, one at a time, or in small groups, checking to make sure that you have not lost functionality between each install.

Missing Dialogue or "I Have No Greeting"
The portal between the Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles is used to set a number of variables within the game. Using third party mods, or console commands, that bypass this portal or move you between the two realms instantly will likely lead to missing dialogue, along with a host of other unforeseen issues.

Vista Compatibility
It should be noted that Oblivion and the Shivering Isles expansion are not officially supported on Windows Vista. Most attempts to run Oblivion and Shivering Isles on Vista are problem free. However, some users have reported that they have had success solving an issue in which the Shivering Isles content is not enabling correctly in game by attempting the following:

• Fresh Installation of Oblivion and Shivering Isles
• Running Oblivion in Windows XP SP2 Compatibility Mode
• Running Oblivion as Administrator
• Disabling Visual Themes and Desktop Composition

For more information, the original thread can be found here.

Xbox 360 Issues

Content doesn't enable, or assets are missing
Some users are having issues with the Shivering Isles content enabling properly. Please note that Shivering Isles requires the latest Oblivion Title Update from Xbox Live, as mentioned above. If you are experiencing an issue with a hang on the "Loading Extra Content" message for 360 or the content isn't enabling, it is likely because you do not have the 1.2.1 update. You can verify that you have the latest Title Update with the following steps:

• At the Main Menu, press Start, and select Options
• Select Video
• Observe the bottom left corner of the Video Options screen, if it says Version 1.2.1, you have the latest Oblivion Title Update, otherwise you do not.

If you do not have the latest Title Update, you must sign on to Xbox Live and download it before playing Shivering Isles. If you have the latest Title Update and you are still having issues, you might be having problems with Xbox Live... see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911198/en-us

If you have the latest Title Update and it still isn't working, there are a few things you can try to fix the problem yourself:

You can verify whether or not the content has enabled by taking any character and Fast Travelling to the Bay Roan Stables just outside of Bravil, and swimming almost straight eastward across the Niben Bay... if the content has enabled properly, you should see an island with a large doorway somewhere near the center of the Bay (just above the 'L' in Bravil, on the world map).

You may have a dirty disc... you can try to clean it with the steps mentioned here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816785/en-us depending on the scope of your problem.

It may help to redownload the latest Oblivion Title Update from Xbox Live -- if you are not receiving a prompt to download a Title Update when you start Oblivion and are logged on to Live, try the following:

• At the Main Menu, press Start, and select Options
• Select Video
• Observe the bottom left corner of the Video Options pane, if it says Version 1.1, 1.2 or nothing at all, you do not have the latest update and may need to troubleshoot your Xbox Live connection
• If it says Version 1.2.1, or you know your Live connection is working from the step above, you may want to clear existing game updates (please note the steps below will remove ALL game updates currently on your system, and that if you have downloaded any auto-updates for any other games, they will need to be downloaded again when you play them)
• Go to the Xbox Dashboard, select the System blade, and select Memory
• Highlight the Hard Drive symbol, and press the Y Button
• Press the following buttons in order... X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X, X
• A notification dialogue will ask for confirmation that you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 Storage Devices, select Yes
• After the maintenance is completed, restart Oblivion while connected to Xbox Live and you should be prompted to download an automatic game update... accept this update
• Verify at this point that the game should be working properly, if the update download succeded

It may also help to redownload the Shivering Isles content from Xbox Live. You can do this by doing the following:

• Go to your Xbox Dashboard, select the System blade, and select Memory
• Select the Hard Drive, or wherever Shivering Isles is stored
• Select Games
• Select Oblivion
• Select "Shivering Isles, Downloaded Content"
• Select "Delete"
• And finally redownload Shivering Isles as you did initially

You can also attempt to clear the Xbox's game cache by holding the 'A' button as the game boots. Press and hold 'A' as soon as you turn the console on.

General Issues

Character has trouble sitting
If your character is having trouble sitting to speak with specific NPCs which require it, and you have played Knights of the Nine, try sitting and waiting for a few moments (10-15 seconds) and speaking with the NPC after the camera view shifts. It will appear as if your character is still standing but this may resolve the issue. The same delay will likely occur when you try to 'get up' again.

Oblivion 360 Troubleshooting Issues

This is old news but useful info to know. If you are experiencing technical and performance issues playing Oblivion on 360, try clearing your cache first.

Oblivion uses the Xbox 360 hard drive extensively to cache (copy and reuse) game data. This is done to optimize all loading the game does. It has been found in rare cases on some Xbox 360s that the cached data can get overly fragmented. This exhibits itself by the game taking a long time to load anything from menus, dialogue, sounds, objects, levels, and more.

To solve this problem, reset your Xbox, and hold down the A button as the game is booting up. If any button is held while Oblivion is loading, it will clear its hard drive cache, and create a new one. Once you see the “Bethesda Softworks” logo video, the game is already loaded, and the cache should have been cleared.

Note, this does not effect your game in any way other than loading. You will not lose any saved data.

Exercising my green thumb

The trimmer died today. I have a feeling I broke it. I ran out of trimmer line, bought more, opening it up and replaced the line. It ran for a good 10 minutes, then died. Dead. Much like the last person to check in code on a Friday, I am to blame for the state of brokeness.

I mowed the back yard. I sawed off a bit of the bottom of the door to the backyard fence to make it easier to open. (Not enough though as it is still pretty tough to get open.) I planted a bush and was going to mulch but it started to rain. The front yard and the trim will have to wait until tomorrow when it stops raining.

Me love widgets long time

Goodwidgets lets you make slideshows of various styles. Very cool stuff. I made one with some Fallout picks that I like. Working on one for the cats now for Megen.

Spiderman 3

Following up to Spiderman and Spiderman 2, my expectations for Spiderman 3 were pretty high. It was good, it doesn't quite hit the high points of the last two films. I enjoyed it very much.

1. The bad guys were boring. Making Sandman be the one who actually killed Ben Parker (accidentally) felt like a lame 24 plot point, and he just wasn't a very interesting character. Venom, who should've scared the crap out of us, ultimately wasn't that evil or, um, well, interesting. As for Goblin, well, his story was okay. In general, boring, boring, boring.

The only interesting bad guy was Parker himself, that is, the Parker invested with the black stuff. I loved that part.

2. NYC. One of my favorite scenes from the first movie is the ending, when the people of NYC start pelting the Goblin from above to give Spidey the break he needs to save the day. Intentional or not, it was a touching tribute to a great city that -- at the time the first movie came out in 2002 -- was healing from an horrendous trauma just 8 months before. The second movie continued NYC-Spidey love affair scenes, with Spidey crowd surfing through the train after saving their lives. These scenes always felt very genuine to me, its not often a hero and the city he protects have moments like these.

The third movie didn't have this scene. The keys to the city scene was more about Mary Jane. And the finale where everyone cheers him on as he arrives to the scene -- complete with the required Spidey with American Flag in background shot -- felt more like it was shoved in there at the last minute.

Anyhoo, it was a good movie. If you liked the first two, its worth seeing.

The Openings to Fallout, the missing chapter

So I had posted the openings to the first 3 Fallout games. I have to admit, the completist in me is annoyed that I didn't list the last Fallout game, Brotherhood of Steel. This is all I could find - this marketing trailer. I suppose it will have to do. -- though, after watching it, I think I threw up in my mouth.

David Jaffe, give them hell

(BTW, this is NOT a pic of David Jaffe.)

This made me giggle. David Jaffe, the guy who made God of War, goes absolutely bat shit crazy on his weblog. I love reading his weblog because his frank attitude comes through in his writing so much. I guess it caught up with him as he was defending his game, Calling All Cars. That's a fine line there - once you start defending your own work and going point by point in the reviews like he does -- its a deep, deep hole that is very hard to get out of.

Dude, the work has to stand for itself - let the warts and beauty marks all hang out. If the kids like it, they like it. If they don't, well, nothing you say is going to change their minds. Nothing George Lucas can say is going to make me stop hating Episode One.

Anyhoo, when Jaffe completely loses it, man, good stuff there. Give 'em hell, David!

My favorite part, Jaffe writes (the website he is referring to is Gamespot):

TO THE LAME ASS WEBSITE THAT SHALL GO UNNAMED- Fuck you, guys. Go fuck yourselves. What other developer makes a fucking change to a game when a review (IGN's in this case) has a good, valid point and is willing to open the fucking code up at the risk of more bugs to make the game better? Amazing.But hey, you guys are great, you guys rock. I hope Kotaku fucking puts your ass out of business, wanna be fucktards. And if you were actual journalists you would have read the motherfucking quote I posted on NEOGAF where I said because of the two bugs we needed to fix (not because I was afraid of the bargin bin) we had a window of opp. to fix the magnet problem. Assholes...total fucking assholes.

Mothers and daughters. They speak so fast, but they speak so true.

Hey, there's an update on the official Fallout 3 website. The wait is over.

Well, sort of. I mean, you're always going to be waiting for something. Waiting is the fun part -- that is, the anticipation of waiting. I mean, I've been waiting for years -- YEARS -- for Gilmore Girls to have Luke and Lorelai get together. When they finally did, it was awesome, but then they had to ruin it by bringing in Luke's lost long daughter, aka Rory Season Two, and the whole thing went to hell. Seriously, what's the point? Then they have Lorelai go back to Christopher and its just so stupid because he was such an ass before, and we all know that it's just going to end in tears, and SHOCKER, it ends in tears, and then we have to wait for them to break up again. And now I have to watch a whole hour of just stupid crap just to get my 2 minutes of Luke and Lor do the whole flirty talking so they can work their way back together, its just such a waste of time, because they already did their awesome flirty we're-getting-together-finally scenes and they were WAY better the first time around. God, I hate that show. I hate it so much that I downgraded it on my DVR from a top 5 show down to mid teens. Yeah, I know, can you believe it? I sometimes even wait until the next day to watch it.

Anyhoo, check it, yo.