Free comics!?!? No way! Check out the video below to find out more.

Here are a few places participating in Free Comic Book Day in the Orlando, FL area:

A COMIC SHOP
114 S. Semoran Blvd.
Suite #6
Winter Park, FL, 32792
(407) 332-9636

SCI-FI CITY
6006 E. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL, 32807
(407) 282-2292

COLISEUM OF COMICS FASHION SQUARE MALL
3201 E. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL, 32803
(407) 228-1210

COLISEUM OF COMICS AT MILLENIA
4672 Millenia Plaza Way
Orlando, FL, 32839
(407) 363-7676

MIKES COMICS AND COLLECTIBLES
8110 S Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL, 32809
(407) 854-6222

PALLADIN TECH & GAME
12001 Avalon Lake Dr
Suite D
Orlando, FL, 32828
(407) 249-1001

Visit Free Comic Book Day to find a location near you.

Random bit of semi-gaming related news, I now apparently have a dog. How is this related to gaming at all? Well awesome Player Characters get dogs as companions of course. Oh, also I’ve taken to calling him Dogmeat since he responds to that really well oddly enough. Geeky stuff aside..

Well did I ever mention I have this habit of stretching the truth a bit? No? Well here’s proof. More geeky stuff, this time in the form of a video. A fan of the game Portal decided to nab one of the inflatable turrets from ThinkGeek then jump out of a plane with it. How does this end well? Short answer, it ends with a turret lost somewhere in the Arizona desert.

So recently I have discovered an old passion of mine. Something that is very familiar and I have fond childhood memories of. One of the very first things I used to seek out in the mall on every trip by the arcade. Pinball.

My story with pinball starts simple. Fascinating with the blinking lights and quarters to burn. I was hooked the very first time I played, and have always gone back to the game over the years. So my recent purchase of Pinball FX2 for the Arcade makes quite a bit of sense. Four tables to enjoy myself on, others that I will purchase later on down the road (read: not poor).

Playing through the tables, I noticed a trend amongst my friends list on Live. Not many of my friends actually play that game it seems. A shame, because a good game of pinball is easy to squeeze in before work. Peggle as well, but let’s not delve into that today.

I am curious how many of the AMMIH readers have even a slight passion for the game. Better yet, a good story to tell. I’m sure someone has a story better than mine which involves drunken people shouting in my ear while attempting to beat the latest high score. While you ponder on your own history with pinball, here’s a video that should explain a seemingly random choice in titles.

“Halo 4″ for XBox 360 is coming November 6th, and Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter have been cast to play ridiculously key roles in the latest installment of this epic video game saga. (YouTube Description)

Watch it cause you love Halo. Watch it cause you love Conan. Watch it cause you love us! Ok, maybe you don’t have to love us… just like us… a little. Our wedding photo (taken by RF Photography) was included in the skit below! We’re so excited! It’s crazy. And yes I’m totally going to ignore that Conan said “that’s sad.” cause we’re too happy! Whoo-hoo!

So the one piece of news that I have been a bit overly excited about is the announcement that Skyrim is receiving a patch that adds in Kinect support. Why is that awesome to me? Because I step forth to admit to screaming “Fus Ro Dah, you son of..” at my television in vain far too many times with it doing nothing more than making me feel a little better. That all changes the week of the 23rd.

So not only can you yell the Dragon Shouts at your TV to lay down some vocal ass kicking, you can also hotkey weapons and search the map for specific places. Both handy, but arguably the most useful feature out of the soon-to-be voice enabled Skyrim is the ability to do quick saves and quick loads without a menu. The press release for this patch stated that over two hundred voice commands will be included giving us an interesting and completely optional tool for our adventures in the cold homeland of the Nords.

Thank you Bethesda for releasing something like this around my birthday this month. I know what shall be part of my celebration this year. Check the video below and see why the uninitiated will be avoiding some of us for awhile after overhearing much more shouting at a video game.

I intended to post info about Mass Effect 3′s Resurgence pack today but I saw this video and thought it just HAD to be shown.

9 year old Caine Monroy, built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store. Caine’s first Fun Pass customer helps organize the best day of his life.

I have to admit, it made me laugh and cry at the same time. The video explains everything. Watch it!

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Now there’s some ingenuity for ya! Imagine what this kid could do with a formal education in engineering? What do you say we make that possible? Donations to raise money for Caine’s college fund are currently being accepted on CainesArcade.com

Source: BoingBoing

Movin’ on up!

Hmmm… where to begin? Where to begin? Well… I was recently promoted at work from Lab Specialist to Associate Course Director. Besides getting a sweet pay bump I was also given a desk. I have a phone, with my own extension! I’ll soon have a name plate, and business cards! What once felt like the beginning of the end of a relationship, now feels like love rekindled. I work closely with a team full of energetic, fun, and incredibly genuine people. Did I mention they gave me a desk? I did. Well good. Let’s talk about said desk, cause that’s what this post is really about anyway.

My New Desk

Working in Gray

What could be more exciting to an artist than a blank canvas? Oh the possibilities! Getting a desk was one of the things I was most looking forward to, which is incredibly ironic because I have NO IDEA what to do with it. I come to work everyday and stare at my desk before I sit down and then again before I leave. I make rounds around the office to see what others have done. I try and take note of the cool and geeky ways people have represented themselves. I admire the photos, the calendars, posters, and drawings. Then I walk back to my lonely lifeless desk.

Decorate My Desk

“You have a phone, a monitor, shelves, a file cabinet, a chair….what could you possibly be missing?” Personality! That’s what it’s missing! With that being said, I’m opening it up to you, dear internet. What kind of things should I have at my desk? It would obviously have to be suitable for work but I’m taking submissions and suggestions!

Just to set some ground rules, here’s what kind of stuff I’m looking for:

• Hilarious photo memes worthy of representation
• Amazing Photoshop creations
• Awesome illustrations
• Photos: I’m willing to accept photos of people but ONLY if they are accompanied with an awesome story. i.e. “This is a picture of the time I climbed Mount Everest.” OR “This is a picture from our World of Warcraft wedding.” The better the story behind the shot the more likely I’ll pick it. This is partially for my own entertainment but mostly so I can explain why I have pictures of random people at my desk.
• Game industry swag from conferences, conventions or companies.

How To Submit

If your submission is a link, please feel free to leave it in the comments below. If you’d like to send swag (or unlinkable shiz) email me at SickNdehed@AMatchMadeInHalo.com for a ‘mail to’ address. I’ll be picking as much stuff as I can fill my desk with and will provide photo updates via twitter.

Can’t wait to see how much better you guys are at decorating my desk.

Updates

So I've made a little bit of progress but it's still looking pretty bland.

So I’ve been following the buzz about Mass Effect 3′s ending despite my better judgement. I have not personally played the game due to various other things taking up my time right now. From what I have seen through videos and watching a friend go to town on it, the game seems really enjoyable. As with any AAA title, there is always a setback that fans will nitpick about. Fair warning to those not wanting to hear about the ending even in vague detail, here’s a spoiler alert.

ME3′s supposed setback is the ending. Not really a new thing for gamers to be upset about. Plenty of games have piss poor endings that simply do not do the characters justice or tie up some loose ends when there is no sequel in sight. As someone who likes to dabble in writing, I appreciate a good story and a well rounded conclusion to said story.

Mass Effect as a trilogy has been very focused on two things from what I observe. Shepard being a total badass, and flying around space picking up other total badass aliens. Now with that in mind, it makes sense that each game has you put a bit of emotional investment into your crew to flesh out their story and make them feel more like friends rather than cannon fodder.

Now, the ending to the final chapter in the game had one major problem for me. I could live with how the choices were set up, that didn’t bother me. The epilogue with the old man talking to the child was touching, and gives a perspective that maybe the entire trilogy was just that, a history lesson to a small boy watching the stars. The problem with all the endings of the game is simple: what happened to the team? From what I’ve seen, we get no closure other than a brief scene of the Normandy crash landed on a planet and Joker.

With Bioware’s announcement of a DLC pack to be released that will “expand” upon the ending, I am hopeful that they mean we will have some sort of closure on what happened to the crew of the Normandy. I’d be happy with the DLC and Mass Effect 3′s ending as a whole if that bit of the story is given to us and no longer left to fan speculation. Overall though, the game looks enjoyable and I can’t wait to finish off my Shepard from ME2 and get him imported to the third game.

“Stabilize then pop your chutes! We’re going in hard!”

-”Don’t tell my mother.”

OK nobody invited you to the Fun Bus… and look, you done mixed up quotes… It’s not even supposed to be about quotes! jeez…Let’s just get to the point…

Nathan Fillion’s 41st Birthday just passed and he tweeted one wish, and it was for a $1. Yes, one dollar. He asked his adoring fans and friends to contribute one dollar to My Charity Water – an organization dedicated to helping nearly 1 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water to get it. Watch the vid for an explanation…

Below we see what he has raised so far…

Majority of those who contributed helped out more than what he’d asked; we did. Now, from what I can see, in five days time he has already met his goal… But, I have a new goal for you. There are 86 days left. Let’s make it count and double it, heck, TRIPLE IT! Nathan isn’t asking us to do this for him. This is for those who are in this crisis. If you are unable to help monetarily, just help by spreading the word. Help us help Nathan give the gift of life.

Every once in awhile, I remember the expansive collection of games I have built up over the years and decide to try out one of the older ones. Recently I dusted off my old N64 and had a blast going through Star Fox 64. I still think Peppy is a senile old man and Falco is a grade A douche. After my adventures were done and Andross once again had his ass handed to him on a silver platter, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye hiding down in the bottom of the box. My old copy of GoldenEye.

Now for anyone who has ever played this game will understand why I nearly wept at its discovery. The hours I spent on this game with friends are very numerous. It reminded me of simpler times, but it also brought something else to my attention. Games these days lack proper cheat codes. There is no Big Head mode in Mass Effect, no flying cars in L.A. Noire, and even the Konami Code has seen a decrease in its appearance.

Now I know one possible reason is that modern games have achievements and the like so using cheat codes would be cheating to get those virtual marks of accomplishment. Why not just disable achievements for that play session then if codes are used? Then we can have our flying car paintball wars and leave your precious achievements alone.

Cheat codes are a missed part of gaming history in my book. I found that they were more useful for making the game much more entertaining than actually helping me cheat the game somehow.