New discoveries!

It's been a while since I've been able to randomly search the Internet the way I'm doing today. I'm enjoying it far too much and should probably go do something else a bit more productive for a while but for now, I am posting some of my new discoveries. Yay!

New discovery number 1!

Geek in Heels

Being a girl geek myself, I was most excited about finding this blog. I haven't gotten very far into it yet but of what I've seen, I like it. Plus it's always nice to find another girl who not only geeks out but does it in style. I have to say that it is one of my favorites right off the bat because it led me to my second discovery of the day! Woohoo!

New discovery #2

Not Tetris (Or as I like to call it Notris)

The old stiff blocks have been updated by shiny new (okay, graphically, they are the same) physic enhanced blocks. That's right, instead of being confined to tight lines and 90 degree turns, these babies will flop, bounce, and frustrate you to no end. Sound is a little buggy for me but you always have the lovely mute option.

New discovery número tres

Billy Bob 884 Papercrafts

This stuff is amazing and I can't get enough of it. I have been wanting to start on some paper crafts for awhile and this just motivates me to get it started so I can start doing stuff like this. I can't put into words how awesome I think this stuff is so instead I post pictures, I've heard they are supposed to be equivalent to words somehow.

Bonus Xbox 360 case mod.

Found this on instructables. It's actually a DIY for installing cold cathode lighting but the example pic had the extra bonus of the faithful companion cube. By the by my speed run record for Portal on the 360 is 30 min.

First Anti Twilight Post

I'm not going to get hot and heavy into this topic, ever. It's not worth my breath, I know I'm not changing the mind of any Twilight fans out there so these posts are going to be more an occasional funny thing I find on the Internet for my follow Twilight haters.

This article is one of the greatest, most disturbing and oddly enough entertaining examples of how crazy Twilight fangirls can get. It makes me proud not to be one of them.

I know this isn't exactly game centric, but Modern Warfare 2 is mentioned in the article. Points for that, right?

Gadget Sin

As I was on the hunt for Xbox 360 case mods I discovered my new favorite site, Gadget Sin. Now that I've had time to look around I present the five coolest things I found on Gadget Sin. No Q&A this time.

#5 - Yellow Submarine Tea Bag (makes me wish I drank tea more often)



#4 - Shark Fin Ice Cube Tray (cool ice cube trays are everywhere, but these are officially the coolest)


#3 - Steampunk Wizard of Oz Miniatures (as a long time collector of miniatures, I must say...WOW)


#2 - Halo Elite Costume (first time I've gotten to see pics of this thing. Amazing)


#1 - Hello Kitty Chainsaw (most epic chainsaw of all time)

Top Eight: Xbox 360 Case Mods

Okay, before we get into the list, let's do a quick Q&A. I, pretending to be you, will ask me, really being me, a few questions.

Q1: Why eight?

A1: Cause that's how many I found.

Q2: Did you use any Guidelines?

A2: Sorta, I didn't add the laptop mods because I had intended on posting only those that kept the integrity of the original case, but then I found a mod I really, really liked that looked nothing like a 360 so there went that plan. The laptop remain unlisted though, I still like them.

Q3: Is there any mods you like that aren't included in this list for some strange reason?

A3: Yes, in fact there are and you are very smart for thinking to ask me that. There are a ton of case mods out there and I liked far more than what I'm posting today but I had to call it quits at some point.

Q4: Could you provide some links to those at the end of the list?

A4: Why yes I can.

Q5: Is there a reason why you didn't go through those others you liked and pick out two more for this list so you could have a top ten like a normal person.

A5: Some I didn't feel fit my guidelines, some weren't over the top enough for me, some were too over the top for me and some were just too redundant, there are far too many Halo and Gears of War mods out there so instead of having a list riddled with them I just chose my favorite of each.

Q6: Do you do any case modding?

A6: No, I've toyed with the idea of painting my faceplate on my 360 but that's as far as I'll ever go with it I think. I don't have the skill, patience or know-how to really do a top rate case mod. Plus adding those extra layers of insulation can cause you console to overheat.

Q7: Will you be doing mods lists for other consoles as well?

A7: Yes, I've already begun looking around and picking out my favorites for many other consoles.

Q8: I'm actually out of questions, but I thought it would be neat to have as many questions as mods listed so.....um...What video game are you playing right now?

A8: You're right, that is kinda neat. I'm in the middle of Mass Effect right now and have Fallout 3 waiting on me after I'm done with that.


Okay, enough of that. Here's the list:



#8 - Joker Case Mod

Modder: Carl Butler

This is an almost there mod and makes a fine example of less is more. While having some great detail work the Joker head and the mismatching batman logo window at the top pushed it a bit too far for my tastes but there is enough good stuff here for it to have a place in the top eight.

Source

#7 - Half-Life 2 Case Mod

Modder: PinPoint

Okay, I'll be perfectly honest here, this might have not made the list had in not been for the fact that I am a huge Half-Life fangirl and will remain so until I am a wrinkled old lady. Love this mod and wish I had one. Plus orange is my favorite color.

Source











#6 - WWII Case Mod

Modder: Jwalestrom


This mod, as stated by the creator, looks “as if the beleaguered 360 just barely made it’s way out of a minefield.”It's easy to tell a lot of love went into this one and while it's not as flashy as some it still has a place in the top eight for me.

Source


#5 - Gears of War Case Mod

Modder: DFW Monkie

Being one of the biggest selling games on the 360 there was no doubt that there would be plenty of mods for GoW and while many are nice, this one is amazing. With an extraordinary amount of sculpting and detail work, it had no trouble making it into the top eight.

Source



# 4 - Transformers All Spark Case M......New Case Entirely

Modder: givintats

The one that broke the rules. I feel this is the "mod" that just doesn't get enough love. I've looked at many top (insert number here) lists for Xbox 360 case mods and this one wasn't included in a majority of them. Found through Google images, this one had to be in my top eight.

Source



#3 - Alligator Skin Case Mod

Modder: DFW Monkie

The second of Monkie's works. This is the one that inspired me to do this list in the first place and I still can't get over how awesome it is. I love it, love it, love it. Enough said.


Source




#2 - Halo Case Mod

Modder: Richard Taylor

There is just too many Halo mods to deal with, and I was so close to making this list without any of them until I found this one. Perhaps a bit over the top, I still gotta say that this is pretty incredible and I also have to say that I have been tempted to shoot my 360 in a similar fashion before. Stupid red ring.

Source

#1 - Steampunk Case Mod

Modder: Dopelgunder

This mod is just so over the top that I couldn't help but include it in the list and then it grew on me so much that it climbed all the way up to number 1. I love the detail and while steampunk hasn't always been my first choice, I have fallen in love with the look.

Source



Honorable mentions: those that didn't make the cut for whatever random reason I came up with at the time.

Tissue Mod
Car Mod
Blood Splattered Mod
Gears of War Mod
RockStar Mod
Halo Mod
Another Halo Mod
Hellboy Mod
Laptop Mod
Sonic Mod

Or pretty much any one from this collection.

Another fun one to look at is the Xbox 720 designed by Tai Chiem.

1000 Blank White Cards

Haven't yet played this game but it looks amazingly fun. My brother said be careful who you play with though. You'd be surprised how dirty some people's minds can get.

1000 Blank White Cards

osu!

This game is freaking awesome, and I'm not really sure why. This is a relatively new discovery for me and I find it to be easily as addictive as Guitar Hero (by the by if you are a fan of Guitar Hero, check out Frets on Fire. It's free! I'll post more on it later). osu! is a rhythm game you operate with a series on click, drag and spin motions on the mouse. There is a very impressive online community and a huge database of songs to download. Oddly addicting and the perfect game to give a fresh batch of carpal tunnel.

The PC version is completely free. A DS version called Elite Beat Agents if also available, though not nearly as good as on the PC due to limited track lists and needless cut scenes. A version for the Iphone is supposed to reach the Apple App store soon, more info here.

Link to osu!

Crafts!

I am falling in love with crafting as of late and have had particular focus on game crafting. As I make new and fantabulous creations, I will post them along with instructions. Unfortunately, the first couple I will be posting (coming soon!!!) are without any pictures other than the finished product but I will be better in the future and try to make the instructions as helpful as possible.

Alongside crafting, I also enjoy looking at other people's crafts. Some of my new favorite sites are:

http://www.spritestitch.com/

This was a site created solely to fill the video game crafting gap. According to the site there were “only video game blogs that posted about crafts and craft blogs that occasionally posted about video games. After seeing a need for a blog dedicated to all areas of video game crafting, Sprite Stitch was born.” There are a ton of posts on all different kinds of video game themed crafts, and while there was an indeed focus on cross-stitching before, now there are all different types of crafting styles.

http://www.geekcrafts.com/

This one isn't quite as focused on video games as Sprite Stitch, it in fact has a variety of geeky crafts. From video games, movies and TV. I love looking through it and they are always looking and adding new content and often seem to have theme weeks and other neat things to look into such as the top ten NES controller crafts.

http://www.instructables.com/

Instructables is a huge DIY site containing many, many, many crafts from simple paper crafts to large time consuming tech nightmare crafts. While not having focus on either video games or geeky stuff in general, there is no doubt that it is absolutely littered with great craft ideas from all walks of life. Also it is a site designed not only to show off great crafts but to show you how they are made. Love it!

As of now I do not have a website I go to for board game crafts specifically. I have seen some great crafts made in that style, in fact the sites above even contain some of them but I have yet to find a site that focuses of board games the same way Sprite Stitch focuses on video games. If you know of one please email me and I will be happy to post it.

One site I am happy to post is:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

While not themed towards crafts I felt the need to post it here anyways because of the shear joy I get from browsing it. There is a lot of fun info on games no one ever heard of as well as a bazaar section which offers many ways to obtain these games and you can also find many user submitted games that can to downloaded for free on the site such as Zombie Plague add ons (Original Zombie Plague game link: http://www.fortressfigures.com/zombieplague/ More to come on that later).

Here goes nothing

If there is one thing that I love, it is gaming. Whether it's of the board or video persausion, I just plain enjoy it. I enjoy the hunting for that hidden gem lost in all of the endless streams of samey action-shooters, and I enjoy the playing of the samey action-shooters where all I have to do is pickup the controller and you know exactly how to play. I enjoy getting a group of friends around and playing a game of Fluxx or Zombie Plague (if you are not aware of either of these game, I beg of you to look them up, also I'm likely to post more about them later in the life of this blog), I even enjoy the occasional RPG (the game genre, not the weapon.....though the weapon can be fun too).

So, as you can see, I like games, so I thought: Hey, why not make a blog about them. And since you are here reading this maybe I made the right choice. And if you are here reading this, please tell your friends and maybe follow and email me things to blog about and continue to read my blog and be my best friend forever............I should stop now.

More to come!