Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

My obsession for USB powered gadgets you can plug into your Xbox 360 is clearly established by this point in time. To me, it just doesn’t get much better than plugging in a little glowing porcupine and enjoying the vibrant changing colors while you are respawning from your buddy sniping your face off. Talk about relaxing!

While some of the gadgets like disco balls and lava lamps are all in good fun, it is time to get down to business. Serious business. The release of Halo 3 is quickly approaching. The countdown is currently at 24 days and some change. When some of you acquire this game, it means a few things : limited meals, infrequent bathroom breaks, restricted outside communication, and sometimes no showers (*holds nose). These particular gadgets are meant for the people those things refer to, especially if I live within visiting distance of you. Here are three cool USB powered fragrance burners you can plug into your Xbox 360 that will help mask some of that body odor you will have from playing Halo 3 for several days straight without a break. Your friends and family will thank you.

Illuminated USB Fragrance Oil Burner

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[The Cavegirls at the Girls and Games Panel]

[The Destructoid Dude]

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My gamertag is “bs angel”. The real story of how it was born is incredibly boring. The extent of boring is that you would want to bring your blanket, pillow, and stuffed animal because you would be asleep in no time. Instead of forcing a nap on you, I am going to share what various people think the “bs” stands for. Some are quite funny. Some are very me. All of them are entertaining.

One of my favorites nicknames that actually needs a little bit of background happened at home during an exchange with my husband. I had just finished DDR’ing for an hour and came upstairs. I was a dripping pile of sweat. He took one look at me and said, “Looks like I need to start calling you boob sweat angel”. Let’s all stop and visualize for a moment. Delicious.

On to the list. In the parenthesis I will give credit to the person who coined that particular nickname. While I love each and every one of them, I have bolded my favorites (either because they are appropriate or because they just make me giggle). Enjoy!

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Rock Band, a highly buzzed game set for release in November, had a very strong presence at PAX this year. Not only did they have an enormous booth dedicated to that game but you could find a smaller section hidden in the Xbox area that allowed you to play only one instrument with your favorite rock star buddy. On Friday there were drums set up there. On Saturday and Sunday they had the guitar/bass rocking out.

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At the main booth they had a stage area and then also two smaller stations off to the side. Who the heck wants to play at the smaller stations though? True rock stars tear it up on stage and give the performance of a lifetime. True rock stars also wait in a line that curves around the entire booth that had an even longer wait time. I unfortunately wasn’t a true rock star. I did not have the patience to battle the stage line so instead I played mini rock star at the small station in the Xbox area. Avid found a picture of me on a random album that captured me awaiting my turn to jam. In this picture in the same album I am intently studying the screen in an attempt to figure out the little details of the game so I was prepared for my turn. Oh yes, this was serious business.

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One of the things I most love about Etsy is that you know the quantities they make are limited (and some are one of a kind) so you can rest assured that everybody and their dog is not going to have the same thing you do. While there may be another soul somewhere in the world that has the same shirt, it certainly is nowhere near mass produced so you can feel somewhat original. I am always scouring around for gamer gear that is not necessarily categorized as gamer gear, and these are my latest finds. Here are four t-shirts that would be perfect for the FPS obsessed girl.

THE GUN LOVER T-SHIRT, collage of guns

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One of the panels I was most interested in attending at this year’s PAX was Girls and Games, the Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry. Unfortunately it ended up being one of the panels I was most disappointed in as well. As it was described in their schedule of events :

According to the ESA, more than 43% of video gamers are female, making women the single largest untapped market segment in the gaming industry. Look at the milestones crossed and the hurdles to come as developers and publishers reach out to this previously overlooked demographic. Are current strategies effective? What does this mean for the game industry as a whole?

Speakers: Jane Pinckard (CMP/GDC), Morgan Romine (Ubisoft), Theresa Pudenz (Flying Lab Software)

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Before I even get to the content of this panel, I would like to share with you a little about the “theatre” it was held in. Theatre B was actually the corner of a large gathering room. It was at the top of a busy set of escalators. It was right next to a set of bathrooms so it received heavy traffic from that. Right across the walk area to the bathrooms were the registration tables, again ensuring heavy traffic. In the next corner of the room was a DDR machine blaring music. So this Theatre B was in the middle of all of those things. There were not three partition walls to help with the sound problems. There were not two partition walls to help with the sound problems. There was not one partition wall to help with the sound problems. It was simply in the corner of the room with the panel set up and then enough seating for maybe 50-75 people. Needless to say, there were at least twice as many people standing up to attend this panel than sitting down. Unfortunately the audio only carried well throughout the seated area with the level of noise around the “theatre” so anybody standing up struggled to hear, assuming they could hear any of it.

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