Motocross Madness

Tonight started out with several really fun rounds of good ole' MCM. We played Desert Heat and Dirt Devil. Desert Heat lived up to its name, as things got heated fighting for the holeshot. Brock pulled ahead, earning the honor while Tyler and I mixed it up a little, causing us to miss the mark of clearing the whole jump. Finding ourselves at the base of the other side of the gap, we both remounted our bikes and got back to the racin', in a mad dash to catch up with Brock.

I was able to make a pass on (not at) Brock in the tight curves that ensue after a sharp 90 degree turn after the long jump Tyler and I mixed it up at. They wisened up to it quickly and were on my tail the entire rest of the race. Good race to all.

Next up was Dirt Devil, one of Jeff's personal favorites... a track the beats the crap out of you and has you coming back crying for more. With terribly tight runways and hairpin turns, it's amazing one can stay on their bike long enough to say they're able to really ride it.

Needless to say bikes and bodies were flying everywhere from the mayhem, resulting from overshot or undershot jumps and laying too heavy on the throttle while approaching the crazy curves.

Dirt Devil is just that, a totally technical track that will drag you to hell in a body bag if you're not careful. It requires a lot of braking and quick reflexes. Pay close attention or you'll find yourself flinging up over a ridge, or face flat into the side of the ravines. Although the track doesn't appear to allow full-throttle action, judging from some of the lap times, it looks to have been pulled off in the past, if not extremely close.

Age of Empires II: Conquerors Expansion - Download the Replay (2.17MB) - Click the Images

We capped off with the night with an incredibly cool game of Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. And before I go into it, I have to give it some serious pluggage. This gets the "Kudos" game award for it's emergency save feature. If someone disconnects mid-game, it auto-saves, and allows the host to have everyone reconnect. It then sends the saved copy of the game to each player and lets everyone resume from where the game was interrupted.

This came in handy for us mid-game when the battles started to really get heated. Unfortunately, because we had to emergency save... the replay only goes as far as when the emergency save took place.. What you will realize, is that Dan and his brother Joe and conveniently set each other to neutral stance and left me on enemy... to fend for myself against the two of them.

Luckily, before the massive fighting began, I was able to score 2500 points more than them.. helping me to feel a little more confident in going up against them... knowing I'd be the middle of the triangle and probably eventually have to fight them both at the same time.

This theory was quickly proven true when, in the midst of my big campaign against Joe, Dan comes marching into the middle of my base. Well, I held them both off, not without devastating damage done to my base. Well, I wasn't going to let him get away with it, so I went in and crippled Joe as best I could in an attempt to keep him off my back while I attempted to deal with Dan.

Joe's defenses were awfully well done, and extremely difficult to punch through. He built a totally tight base with all buildings very close together. Dan, on the other hand, had almost as many gold relics as I did and was thus enabled to train armies equal to or better than my own. And so our battles ensued. I went for his dock.. and after several waves of volleys back and forth, each of us sending troops after the other.. I finally knocked the dock out.

Of course, then, Dan proceeded to start knocking me out. By this time I'd been whittled down enough by the both of them, that I just couldn't hold out any longer. It was a sweet victory for Dan, and an incredibly fun game all around for everyone involved.

If you're interested, download the replay. The replay options inside Age II are pretty cool.. as you can pick which player you want to watch, and see their economy grow, etc. It also saves the messages typed during the game, which I thought was awesome!

Motocross Madness

The Madness is back, and turning into quite the FNG craze! Tonight was an interesting night. We started our MCM evening with some Rocky Mountain Tag, with Dave, Tyler and myself. We played until Brock and Jarin were ready to join. Tyler got stuck in the depths of the big pits, while Dave ran away with the spoon. I tried to tail Dave often, but didn't manage to do a very good job of it. I was it for a little while, and Tyler had a couple shots, but I think we can safely say Dave was the "Tag King" for the little bit that we played.

Afterward, we played "Dirt Devil", and I really wish I could've snapped a shot of the fight for the holeshot, because bikes were flying every which direction. When I finally made my way out of the madding crowd, it seemed to rain motorcycles all around me. It was quite a sight to see, and I'm sorry we didn't catch a screenshot for you.

We proceeded to do stunts after that, and ended up on "Widowmaker" after a short ride on "Last Ride". Then we got fixated on taking screenshots, and the game of the night turned into being the "Try to hit Jeff while he's frozen in the air trying to take a screenshot and take a screenshot yourself" game.

We amused ourselves for around an hour trying to get a good shot of everyone colliding into others in the air. As soon as we get the "freeze-frame" registry entry utility distributed to the MCM'ers, you'll be guaranteed some better shots (much like unto the one when I'm running over Jarin.) I'll have to post that one again.

Age of Mythology - (no screenshots ... this time)

Well, Dave and I started a game of Age of Mythology, but didn't have time to finish it. We're playing King of the Hill mode, with a nice juicy Plenty Vault in the middle of the map we're trying to fight for control over.

Who will win? It's too early to tell, but stay tuned, for we will finish this next week (hopefully!) at the LAN party!