Monday night I will be at the local Gamestop to pick up GTA IV. I’ll be arriving a little late from work, but Sean will be in line for me. We’ll then be heading to our houses, playing a little SP, then going right into multiplayer.

Also, my plan is to have a Bluecast done Wednesday morning. I’ve had people ask when the next one will be, so I know I need to pump one out ASAP. I’ll be off, and have had a whole night of GTA before hand, so we’ll have a lot to talk about. And we’ll have Jose talk some Mario Kart, seeing as neither Sean or I plan on getting it.

Episode 9 was recorded. It was recorded in a lodge high up in the mountains of Colorado. Sean and I were so relaxed and carefree that the show turned out terrible. It was bad. So, we won’t be releasing Episode 9 any time soon, but maybe in the future as a surprise. Until then, be prepared for Episode 10 on Monday.

So I sent EA back the guitar that they sent me. It was just so bad. The strum bar was a little sturdier, which I didn’t like because I prefer using a pick. Also, when my buddy Adam was using it for the while he was, he couldn’t activate the Star Power/Overddrive/whateva. He was convulsing and mimicking seizure victims just by trying to get the guitar to activate its…power-thing. But now my original guitar is working fine, and it’s great. The only thing now is the DLC is either hit or miss. And usually miss.

Episode 9 will (hopefully) be recorded this weekend in Colorado. I’ll be there for my days off from work, and I really have no other time to do it. Plus my bro will be there, and Jose’s in the UK selling merch. I think the show will be great though. Here’s the selling point: We’ll talk about porn stars. And to clarify, ‘female’ porn stars. I apologize to 12% of gamers out there.

Just so you all know, Bluecast Episode 8 will be this Thursday. So get ready. Now after the holidays…and I mean immediately after, not much really happens. And to add to that, my Rock Band Guitar and Drum Set bit the dust. Luckily EA’s on top of that. But the show this week will have a ton of content. Jose has been on top of that.

That’s what she said.

I was listening to the GFW podcast which I believe to be truly amazing, and they keep talking about how great HL Episode 2 is. HL2 and EP1 was such a dud that I didn’t bother with this one. Now, I know a lot of you are currently en route to my house with torches and pitchforks, but hear me out - the game does a lot great. But it gets a bit tedious. It sounds like Episode 2 fixes that. I’ll let you know.

Tuesday. Yes, it hasn’t been too consistent, but at least it’s been only a day later. I’m off that day so I can put more energy into the show.

The post below is a new feature for the site called ‘Game Talk’. Sean and I tend to have some pretty hilarious gaming-related chats over MSN, so I figure it would be fun to display a portion of that for your reading pleasure. It could be weekly, daily, or who knows.

I don’t really like how the sound turned out for my voice. For some reason the sound in Windows Movie Maker turns out better than recording from Audacity. I even had the mic a little further away from me, and closer to Sean.

Well, it’s all a learning process. Please be sure to leave feed back. Be critical.

Because of my real job, I don’t have time today to do the Episode 3 Bluecast. But don’t worry, I have plenty of time tomorrow, so we’ll have a good show for you. Until then, enjoy the irony that is Gamespot/Penny-Arcade. There is a connection there.

It’s all about the green. I’m not going to lie.

UPDATE: And this is priceless:
dtoidspot.jpg

It’s not Photoshop. D-Toid really did it.

UPDATE #2: An Evil Avatar user posted a reply he got back from Gabe of Penny-Arcade, after he asked him about their ads for Hellgate and Soul Calibur Legends.

Hellgate has a free demo. We tend to give games some slack if there is a demo you can go play for free. Readers can try it for no cost and decide if they like it or not for themselves.

SC is not a terrible game. We’re fans of SC and Legends isn’t bad
especially co op. I think it’s worth a rent at least if you like SC.

I think the important thing is that Tycho and I approve all ads. Sometimes we have too choose ads almost a year before a game comes out and we might only see a very rough build. Sometimes the game ships and it sucks. I think we have a pretty good track record though. The truth is we turn down more money in ad revenue than we take in.

That sounds good to me. If I got to the point with this site that I could choose the ads I want, and still make the money I want, then I would totally do it. Even in that case, I would still allow ads for those guilty-pleasure titles, like the Blade II game. If I was asked to put up ads for the Blade II game, I would certainly do it, because I’m a huge Blade fan. But the game is just terrible(and now BC on the 360!).

I’ve been meaning to get around to changing up the place. I like having a 3-column page so users can navigate easily without having to do much scrolling. So for now, here’s the new look. It may change slightly over the next week, but this is the gist of it. And if you’ve noticed, the header is cutoff. I’m still working on that one… For now I put up a temp header that is much smaller, but eventually I want to fill the whole thing. I also dig that little(or big) RSS image link I added to the right.

This is the new BlueGamer for now. By ‘for now’, I mean that I’m pretty sure this is what I’m going to stick with. I’m going to concentrate less on the look of the site, and more on the content. This set up will give me more options to deliver more content.

Something new has been added to Gamer Combine this morning. And that is a total Photobucket rip-off. Honestly, the engine is there for future implementation within the site, but for now Gamer Combine can be used primarily for uploading and hosting pictures just like Photobucket. Example:

Yeah. That was some badass all-female beach party in Italy. Wish I was there. Anyway, as you can see, the photo is also a link back to the site, which gives you more options on how to use the photo. Remember, this is not the main point of Gamer Combine, but the progress we have made with the galleries.

-Adam