Yes, you read that title correctly. Thanks to the amazing folks at MumboJumbo Games, we are featured on the cover of their latest PC game, Luxor 5th Passage. If you remember, I reviewed that game months ago but it was for the digital download version. As of this week, physical copies were released, so we’re on the cover of the ones that are currently being sold at Best Buy locations across the country.

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During this holiday season, stores and companies will have to deal with many exchanges, many returns, and many disgruntled consumers. When a company creates a product, there will always be problems or issues, and that is why customer service exists. I’ve had my fair share of horrible experiences over the years, but I’ve also had some positive ones that are worth noting.

Sadly the bad outweigh the good, and it makes me wonder why providing a positive experience is so difficult for some.

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It’s no secret that Nintendo loves fun, and with Art Academy for the Nintendo DS family of  handhelds, they’ve hit the nail on the head.

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Do you like action? Do you like guns? Do you like balding men with dirty mouths? Do you like the idea of having a friend experience all these things with you? Then hey, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has a treat for you!

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Looking for some great gaming deals but you don’t get the Sunday paper? No problem! Check out below for a summary of all the weekly ads. Read the full story

Back in March, I was fortunate enough to grab a code for the Blur multiplayer beta.  I tried it out, and enjoyed it immensely, but didn’t play more than a couple of days due to time restraints.  Eventually, Blur fell out of my thoughts, and it seemed long forgotten.  Forgotten, that is, until yesterday, when Lindsey found this gem.  With the opportunity to get a $59.99 game for the low, low price of $9.99, we immediately printed all the necessary coupons and headed to the nearest Best Buy to pick up our loot.

Unfortunately, that particular Best Buy location tend to fall on the more dickish side of the retail scale, and they refused to apply both coupons.  While using the manufacturer’s coupon alone would still have given us a $59.99 game for $19.99, an amazing deal itself, pure principle found us driving to the newer, cooler Best Buy with high hopes.  They were, in fact, cooler, and honored both coupons, making us the proud owners of our very own copy of Blur for the Xbox 360 for the criminally low price of $9.99 ($12.78-ish after tax).

I considered driving to the dickish Best Buy to show them the receipt (with a “BAM, BITCHES!” to emphasize our victory), but the burning desire to play had swept over us, and we would brook no distractions.  The game was unwrapped and inserted (heh, inserted) into our Xbox 360, and split-screen play began.

Blur has been described by many as Mario Kart with real cars.  While that is fairly accurate for the basic gameplay, it does not reflect the online system or the career mode system.  Blur’s basic racing gameplay involves the use of “Power-Ups,” in much the same way that Mario Kart does.  All tracks include power-ups at various locations, generally spread across the track in, again, the same way Mario Kart does.  There are eight power-ups in the game: Mine (deploys a static energy ball either forward or backwards that damages whoever hits it), Shunt (similar to the Red Shell in Mario Kart, it targets the vehicle in front of you and homes in on it, causing the car to flip if hit, or can be shot directly behind you with no homing ability), Nitro (a sudden, sustained burst of speed if fired normally, or a sudden airbrake followed by a short burst of speed if fired backwards), Repair (regenerates lost vehicle health), Barge (fires a 360-degree energy pulse with a short radius that bumps vehicles within the burst range), Shock (deploys three shock domes to the front of the pack which cause a slowdown to any vehicle that hits one), Bolt (provides three non-homing bolts of energy that nudge vehicles and cause slight slowdowns, very effective if multiple hits achieved), and Shield (provides a shield which blocks effects of all power-ups and vehicle collisions).  To advance to higher levels of difficulty, mastering the strategic use of these power-ups is necessary.  Even some offensive power-ups can be used defensively, if fired correctly, so knowing the full capabilities of each power-up is an absolute advantage in advanced play.

The career mode is broken into different bosses.  You must meet the demands of each boss in order to qualify for a one-on-one race.  These demands are not always met by simply playing through the lower levels of each boss stage, however.  Certain boss demands require additional skill during your races, asking you to do something beyond the minimum necessary to win the race.  This makes advancing through career mode more entertaining and interesting in the long run, as you have to do more than just go across the finish line first.  The added challenge is wonderful.  There are four race types in career mode: Race (standard start to finish race with up to 19 AI controlled vehicles), Destruction (Bolt power-ups and dummy AI cars in a race against the clock), Checkpoint (just you, Nitros, time bonuses, and a race to get through all the checkpoints before time runs out), and One on One (the quintessential boss battle, a one on one race against the boss).

Split-screen is the only mode where multiple people can play on the same console, for up to four players.  Online play only supports one player at a time, which is unfortunate, but the quality of the online multiplayer more than makes up for it.  Online multiplayer matches are generally smaller than career matches, which is, to me, a good thing.  As career difficulty increases, it becomes annoying navigating through 19 other cars.  In a 10 player online match, skill and strategy become more important.  I haven’t played very much online yet (I’m up to level 3 or 4 I believe), but from what I have played, it’s really fantastic.  Besides matchmaking, you can also create custom invitation games for you and your friends.

Basically, the vehicles (there is a great selection) handle great, the power-ups are balanced and fun, the career mode is challenging, split-screen is great for friends, and online multiplayer is fantastic.  Go.  Buy.  Blur.

-[insert VROOM VROOM! here]

Yesterday, while playing Animal Crossing, Chris and I decided to check out the Married Gamers (Chris and Kelly) live podcast on Ustream. It was really entertaining and we found ourselves laughing a lot. Towards the end of their podcast they mentioned that they were going to get some lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Chris was in the kitchen getting ready to make lunch so I asked him if he would want to go and meet up with them. He basically said, “sure, why the hell not?” We sent out a message on both of our Twitter accounts, even telling @MsClovisEskimo (Melyssa) that she better get her buns there too, letting our fellow local followers know that they were more than welcome to join in the festivities.

When we got to Chick-Fil-A, Chris and I saw Dane (the guy we stood in line with for the Maynard wine signing) and chatted with him for a bit. Totally didn’t know that he worked there. So once everybody got there we ordered our food and sat down. Since we are slaves to the Twitter machine, all of us couldn’t help but keep checking our accounts every 3-5 minutes. Some of us were getting people saying how they were never invited (yet we CLEARLY sent out about 5 messages), some criticized our location choice, and then it seemed as if there was a mini rivalry going on. Some other local tweeters were having an impromptu meet up at the Fashion Fair Mall and I joked that we should totally go there with leather jackets and pull off some West Side Story number. Obviously that got a laugh.

Taken by @MsClovisEskimo

We had a pretty amazing conversation during our stay at Chick-Fil-A (did you get my clever rhyme? lol) which resulted in much laughter. I swear it felt like everybody in there was probably staring at us.

Dane kept coming around and was giving us strange looks but we were having a great time. We talked about the Tweet Up, laughed about stupid things I did when I was younger like shaking my ass out of a car window during my high school years to “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot, video games, more nerdy stuff, and then we came up with a great idea for another Tweet Up but I will not give out the details because it’s far too amazing to share right now. I guess it serves you right for not coming to our uber cool party!

Taken by @MsClovisEskimo

One thing that was amazing was a guy in a royal blue soccer jersey. We aren’t sure if it was one for a team or his own, but the poor unfortunate man had the last name of “KAKA” on his back. Upon seeing this we all immediately chuckled like a bunch of school children, and then reached for our phones to take a picture. Oh, the age of technology!

Here is Exhibit A:

Chris took this wonderful picture. Since he sat down before we could get a great angle, Chris got up and asked for more water up at the front and on his way back took the shot. It was a wee bit obvious but I guess it was a good thing that he had his back turned towards him! After Chris put it up, I retweeted it, Chris and Kelly retweeted it, and then Melyssa retweeted it. Then a guy on my list retweeted my retweet of a tweet! Currently that one image has gotten more than 102 views! HOORAY FOR KAKA!

Another thing that made us laugh at was when Dane came around and asked what Twitter was. We weren’t laughing at him, I just want to clarify that. We were laughing at the fact that we probably made the site seem so overly interesting since we were talking about it and having a grand ol’ time. At one point we looked at our phones and noticed it was after 6 PM. We spent over 3 hours inside Chick-Fil-A and it was fantastic.

From there we went to Cali’s Frozen Custard which is in the old Java Jet right next to Chili’s off of Fresno and Herndon before we all went to Best Buy. Melyssa was following behind us and Chris neglected to let her know that his turn signal lights weren’t working (we have to fix the fuse). Since we also failed to get phone numbers and needed to ask which Best Buy everybody wanted to go to, we got on Twitter and asked it lol! The obvious choice was the one in River Park since it was the closest to our custard location. Chris and I were the first in line for the drive thru so once we got our tasty treats we waited for everybody else.

Back of our car taken by @MsClovisEskimo

We literally looked like a caravan, driving around in a line, and when we got to Best Buy we even parked near each other.

Right at the entrance of Best Buy they had this sign which I must say is pretty hardcore of them:

Taken by ME!!!

Inside Best Buy we were given a rare treat. Chris and I are looking at upgrading our equipment we use for our show on UStream so the webcam department was our first of many stops in the store. Some of the employees were there restocking the shelves when I caught a glimpse of something ridiculous. I was standing there with Melyssa when it walked on by and I gave her this look like “I totally hope you saw that too!” Of course she did and then the laughter started up again. We immediately let everybody else in our group of awesomeness know and then they too joined in with the giggles.

Taken by @MsClovisEskimo

We were laughing at this guy who was blonde, pretty pale, and rather lanky. That wasn’t the funny part. In both of his ears, which were pierced in the lobe, were HUGE crowns covered in little sparkly fake diamonds. These were the sort of things little girls would wear when playing dress up, and would hopefully be clip-ons. He looked so incredibly ridiculous and of course the first thing we all wanted to do was take a picture and put it up on TwitPic for everybody to see. Since he was walking by too quickly it became obvious that somebody would have to ask him if they could take a picture of him.

I’m the type of person who will pretty much go up to anybody and ask a stupid question (and yet I will die at the sight of Maynard lol) so I was the one who stepped into the battlefield. I took my engagement ring off and handed it to Chris, put my left hand into my pocket so that he couldn’t see the ring indentation on my finger, and started walking up to him. At first I tried to make it like I was just looking at my phone but I knew it wouldn’t work. Knowing that I would have to actually ask him to get a proper angle with no blur my conversation with him went like this (oh… in front of another co-worker too)

“Do you mind if I take your picture? I think you’re really pretty.”

After that he sort of gave me this odd look, which was understandable, and then I replied with this:

“In a manly kind of way.”

I wasn’t surprised when he gave me this reply:

“Yes, I mind.”

So I said OK and walked away only to then burst in laughter about 10 feet away from him. I told everybody what happened and then they too started to laugh their asses off. Since we all then started feeling a bit uncomfortable around the guy, who started to sneer at us a wee bit, we walked away from that department and go to look at the Wii games. Chris and Kelly were on the hunt for Mario Kart but Best Buy failed them and were sold out. From there we checked out some sound boards and mics.

After that we noticed that it was dinner time! Keeping our Twitter mojo going, we let everybody on our lists know that we were going to Red Robin for dinner and that people could join us. When walking out of Best Buy we cracked a joke at how we were walking around the store in a group of 2 guys and 3 girls, that we probably looked like a mob, and how we should get custom shirts with our Twitter names on them. (BTW… if ANYBODY does this before we do that will be totally uncool because it was our idea first! :p)

At Red Robin everybody and their mom was having a birthday, or so it seemed. Almost every 10 minutes a huge group of employees were coming around clapping and chanting some horrible song. Since we didn’t want to feel left out we decided that we were going to LIE and say that it was somebody’s birthday in our group. We then asked who would be having the next birthday and it was Kelly (@MrsLeftyBrown)!! Since everybody hates us and is jealous of our super cool fun group, nobody came and met up with us at Red Robin but we had tons of fun without them. I had an embarrassing picture taken of me with a giant piece of melted Swiss Cheese coming out of my mouth since it was still attached to my turkey burger.

Taken by @MsClovisEskimo

Taken by ME!!!

Taken by ME!!!

Taken by ME!!!

We laughed some more about random stuff, and then after we got our checks I whispered something to the waitress. I told her that it was Kellys birthday and about 5 minutes later she was totally embarrassed – oh and I totally got a picture of it too!

Exhibit B!!!! :

Taken by ME!!!

After that we disbanded and went back to our own houses, but since yesterday was my only day I could sell my red turnip in Animal Crossing and since my store was closed due to Tom Nook renovating it I had to go into Kellys town so there we met up again! I totally got 16,000 bells out of it so it was soooooo worth it!

Hopefully we have a little get together again soon because it was a blasty blast! Chris and I might, and I do stress the word MIGHT, be going to the Wondercon this upcoming weekend in San Francisco and we know that Chris (not my sweetie) and Kelly are already going. Maybe San Francisco debauchery is in order!!

- She Who Has The Last Word