Desert Bus for Hope 8

If you're not familiar with Desert Bus for Hope, I should probably explain what Desert Bus even is before going any farther.  Looking back, I've talked a bit about Desert Bus for Hope since we started back in 2012, but not a whole lot about the game.  

Desert Bus was a mini-game created as a satire of video game violence accused of being perceived as too realistic for audiences, especially younger audience who apparently cannot tell the difference between 1995 CD games and real life.  Thus comedian magicians Penn and Teller created the concept for Desert Bus which would travel the six hours between Tuscon, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada in real time.  However, the overall game, Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors was never released because the publisher went out of business before the game could be published.

There is a Desert Bus port available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store with all proceeds form the sale of the game going to Desert Bus for Hope and in turn, the Child's Play charity.  Which brings us back to Desert Bus for Hope 8, which starts today, November 14th at 10am Pacific and will run for (at least) 86+ hours.  It all depends on how much money is brought in during the "drive."

Confession Time:  I've personally never donated to Desert Bus for Hope.  The years that I have been able to donate money, I have done it directly through the Child's Play website where I can either specify a specific hospital that I want to donate to, browse an Amazon gift registry to donate a specific item for a hospital, or just give the charity money.  Don't worry though, I'm not going to try and guilt trip anyone into donating money to any cause, I'm just letting people know about an option if they already were looking to donate.

I'll be tuning in a few times a day during the (at least) three and-a-half days the bus will be driving back and forth from Tuscon to Las Vegas, if anything just to watch the exhaustion in the eyes of the people from LoadingReadyRun.  Oh those Canadians.  They're beautiful people.

How does this game NOT look fun!?

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

They Make Me Feel So Good

P.S.  And Folks, this starts in 8 minutes!

All The Things Here Have Been Happening

So the Playstation 4 dropped um, some few days back.  I don't really know because I wasn't one of the umteen thousands that did pre-order one.  I also didn't pre-order an Xbox One either.  I don't think I've ever pre-ordered a system, ever.  I'm the guy who waits until a system is (typically) under $100 before I will buy it, although that didn't hold true when I bought the DS and 3DS; although I did have $125 worth of gift cards and such when I bought the 3DS.  Maybe I prefer to wait and see what kind of library a system is going to have before buying the operating system.  That being said, I will have nothing to add to news about the Playstation IV.

Desert Bus for Hope is on again and the people at LoadingReadyRun will be playing towards their goal of 139 consecutive hours.  Presently they're at 71 hours, so they still have two days 16 hours-ish left.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it a bunch of Canadians playing a game where you drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada (409 miles) at a max (only) speed of 45mph.  It's basically a hit-a-thon of sorts with all the proceeds going to Child's Play, a charity that is better described on their own site.

Earlier today I just finished watching everything that was on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition blu-ray.  Conklederp and I have been going through the two new Appendices discs (titled Appendices VII & VIII to coincide with the Appendix discs from the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings movies) and I finished the commentary this afternoon before heading off for work; you know, when I should have been writing this.  I come from the camp that liked what Peter Jackson and company did in The Hobbit.  I went in not expecting a play-by-play of the book as it is "based" off of J.R.R. Tolkien's work.  I personally don't mind that the movies are expanding on the events in The Hobbit that were referred to elsewhere (The Lord of the Rings and included appendices).  I also understand that while some things work in a book, such as Gandalf disappearing when the Dwarves are captured by the Goblins, when the audience would find it hard to believe, knowing what we already know about Gandalf and instead have him stalling the Elves in Rivendel and catching up with them later.  I could write a lot more about this film version of The Hobbit, but that became a post all of it's own and I rambled while trying to state that I enjoyed the movie, which I have already said.  Lastly though, I will say that in the 13 minutes of additional content added to the movie, are two songs, one by the Dwarves while in Rivendel and the other by the Great Goblin.  Basically, pretty much every question I had regarding decisions that deviated from The Hobbit book were answered in either the commentary (sadly of which there was only one, that being with Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens although they do do a great job, I would have liked there to have been more commentaries) or the nine hours of behind the scenes documentaries.  Basically, I'm very happy with the extended cut and the special features.

In other gaming related news, I'm heading back to Infinite Space after a bit of a frustrated hiatus at not being able to defeat a particular series of enemies culminating in a boss fight.  I'm going to need a bigger ship. . . and bigger guns. . . and bigger shields.  I also figured out a way around dwindling stats in Morrowind and the tactic there is called BUY ALL THE POTIONS!!!  I've also put Dead Island on hold for a bit, but that's really just Morrowind's fault and I will get back to Torchlight II, you know, when I'm no longer trying to save the world. . . again.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Nothing More To See

It's Child's Play Charity Season!!

Like so many things, I found out about the Child's Play charity sometime in the winter of 2007 after I became aware of Penny Arcade.  Yes, I came to Penny Arcade pretty late, although I recall being directed to their a few years prior although I had forgotten about it until Chreekat left for Seattle to be an [Enforcer] for PAX07.

So Child's Play.  It's not that Child's Play, but it does involve children.  Child's Play is a charity started and run by the people at Penny Arcade.  Their description of their own organization is a lot better than one that I could come up with so we'll just go with theirs, "Child's Play seeks to improve the lives of children in hospitals around the world through the kindness and generosity of the video game industry and the power of play."   I've brought them up before in previous posts regarding the Humble Indie Bundles

Every "holiday season" (November 1st - December 31st?) they have their annual fundraiser and through the amazing generosity of people, manage to raise upwards of 2 million plus dollars in actual money and games/gaming products.  There are literally dozens of ways to donate.  

• There's the straight through Pay Pal method where your donation goes to the organization to be distributed later.
• There's the purchase a specific gift for a specific hospital from Amazon.com.  You're able to view that hospital's wish list and purchase directly from that.
• There's the Mario Marathon, where these people play 10 games in the Super Mario Bros. franchise.  They play non stop, 24 hours a day until they've finished the preset challenges such as "Super Mario Bros. 2 100% run through" and "Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beat with 75 Stars."
• There's Desert Bus for Hope.  Desert Bus is best described here.  What they do and how they help Child's Play is best described here.

Back in 2008, there was an event in San Francisco called Funde Razor that was a Rock Band oriented event with raffle where the proceeds went to Child's Play.  There are a lot of events like this that go on every holiday season that support Child's Play.

Anyway, it's only 5 days in, and they already have $300,000 up on their counter.  It's amazing to watch the amount grow as the year slowly/quickly ends and it's all to bring some happiness into some kids' lives, who could really use it.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

As Could We All.