I'm sure this has been found before by the internet Matlocks, but I was up late tonight watching GSN for some reason and Dog Eat Dog came on. None other than Destructoid's Chad Concelmo was one of the contestants. He got out second because he couldnt correctly identify a woman out of a line of trannies.

I know this is a short blog and will be frowned upon, but I found it relevant to Destructoid's interests.

I just witnessed one of the greatest games in sports history (may be a slight exaggeration). Turkey and Croatia just finished playing their Quarterfinal match for Euro 2008, one would clinch their first semifinal appearance in the tournament ever.

**IF YOU TAPED THIS GAME DO NOT PROCEED, GO WATCH IT NOW-YOU WILL NEED A CHANGE OF PANTS!**


VS.



I didn't have a lot riding on the game, I didn't particularly care who won because I knew Germany would beat the winner in the next game. However I watched anyway...all 130 minutes of it.
With Turkey and Croatia trading near goals (Croatia came within inches with one attempt) during the regulation time they went into extra time with a 0-0 tie. The Turks seemed to be giving up at the end of the second half.
With the start of extra time, though, they went straight on the offensive, getting in more than 5 shots in the first 15 minute extra time period. The second period slowed down considerably, with both sides preparing for penalty kicks. However in 119 Croatia scored when the Turks' goalie came out and conceded a header. The game was over. However in two previous games the Turks had come back from a deficit to win the game, the latest being against Czech Republic to clinch their Quarterfinal spot. They did it again, with seconds left on the clock the Turks' goalie kicks a last ditch free kick up to the top, a player receives it and takes a WILD shot and puts it right in the upper corner of the net.

After that the Turks dominated, only needing 3 shots to win in penalty kicks. I literally almost ran around my house when both goals were scored, truly and amazing game. I swear the Turks have black magic on their side to come back and win 3 games in a row. If you missed this game I feel sorry for you, it was one hell of a ride.

I want to preface this by saying that I love the gaming community as a whole...or rather the idea of the gaming community. I have no problems with who I am, but rather I feel that the world does.

I have caught myself recently not completely confessing what it is I do with my free time to people that ask. I dance around the point, but never come out and completely say straight up, "I'm a gamer." I would qualify myself as a gamer as most of my free time is tied up with gaming websites, gaming communities or just playing games. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't do one of these things. But I seem to feel this is something that is to be looked down upon. I see the stigma the community gets in main stream and it makes me cringe.

Best example I can think of recently was when I was visiting the Engineering College at UK. The adviser asked what I did in my free time, I stumbled. I lead with "talking to people I know". This seems like a normal thing to do at that age, and its not a complete fabrication. I then finally went to "computers and playing games". It took me a good 15 seconds of stammering to decide to spit that out. This is an Engineering College, where people are known as nerds and not the most social people, why was I afraid to admit that I was a gamer at heart? I would have to say my main fear is that I will be painted as the people I see at my local game store. These people are one track minded, respond in awkward sentences and phrases, and have a laugh that makes me cringe. I'm not saying these people are bad people, or are dumb, but I feel that's how people perceive the "gamer".

I feel ashamed to be ashamed to be a gamer. But then I think back to many avid gamers I've known and they are all the stereotype. So is the general view of a gamer warranted or is it completely off? Should I stick it out and try to change people's perception of a gamer? How do I fight the urge to stay a closet hardcore gamer?

So I've finally caved and decided to enter this contest, no matter how much I despise seeing blogs with this title.

Be prepared for major fail.



This picture is slightly old as the computer on the left is no longer there. My "rig", if that is what you want to call it, is on the right, that pretty white laptop. This bad boy can barely handle emulation, and runs WoW, on the lowest settings, at a maximum of 10 FPS. I got the computer as a gift while I was heavy into WoW. The person that purchased the computer for me confessed that they simply looked at the minimum requirements to run World of Warcraft and bought slightly above them. This has caused some issues.

Other than the fact that the computer is a Mac, here is a rundown of the reasons I can't play games on this thing:

1.2 GHz G4 Processor
1.25 GB RAM (Only upgraded part of the computer)
ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card

That should be enough. I love to computer dearly, it can do basic functions and I will more than likely keep it if I ever get a PC; but damn do I want to play FPS on the PC.

The episode, titled "Duty Calls", has been released for download through torrent!

http://www.purepwnage.com/downloadepisodes.html

Just click on the link under Episode 16 and fire up your favorite torrent program.

I watched it and all I can say is that it is epic. Spoilers are uncool, so I won't discuss it here.

Now get to downloading!

Yes, I know that most people will say this belongs in the forums, but the forums suck.

I started playing HL2 on the Orange Box on my 360 about 3 weeks ago. I've played it on and off and it looked beautiful to start. When I got to Sandtraps I stopped and saved, then came back later. When I came back the ground was simply just patches of color with no texture. This also translated to blood splatters simply being squares of red and fires squares of color. This has continued into the "Entanglement" chapter and now my Crossbow is multicolored.

Does anyone know what the problem is?