Epic Default Productions

UPDATE!! Congrats to drobro! He won our Big Fucking Wrench contest!

Welcome to stream HQ for our participation in Extra Life! This is a 24 hour gaming marathon to benefit pediatric cancer research at the Texas Children’s Hospital, a world class facility that not only is a leader in pediatric cancer research, but strives to provide top notch service to families with sick children at little to no cost.

For the last few months, we have been asking, pleasing, and down right yelling at you to donate. Now is the time to do our half of the deal. But! This doesn’t mean that you still can’t donate. Go here to give your money to a great cause, then sit back, relax, and enjoy us screwing up our sleep schedules for the next 24 hours. It’s okay, because, well, it’s for the kids!

It all kicks off at 10 AM CDT. We have Leetbix joining us, and you can chat with us as we are all playing live on the site.

(continue reading…)

that we haven’t died of swine flu. Seriously, we haven’t.

I mean, I haven’t, anyway.

Okay, everyone might be dead of swine flu.

(Image by one Bruce Eagle of Northern Star Art; I think he might mean “flew.”)

In this new weekly article, I review a game every week, using a scale I deem appropriate for the game. This week, I review Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and the Damned.

(-full.uncensored.male.nudity.-)

So, I was watching the latest Heroes episode because I hate myself, and I came across this gem. I just had to cut it out and put it on YouTube:

Care to guess what Ando’s power is?

Tell me how my ideas are stupid and I should feel bad in the comments!

http://www.thisismymilwaukee.com

I’m uStreaming calling the numbers found with this site. Apparently it’s an ARG

Intro

Streaming live video by Ustream

Recorded Calls

Free Webcam Chat at Ustream

Apparently, I found out some new info. The Fabrizzios…or something like that

Here it is folks! The long awaited second episode of Fanboys, now in episodic form! Today, Jonny gains strange powers while trying to get his 360 to play GTAIV. Tune in next Thursday for part 2

The prospect is seemingly simple; sit on your ass and play some games, unless of course you are talking Wii games or Sing Star which involve the frantic waving of arms and bobbing around while yelling somewhere near the note in question. That would be getting ahead of ourselves though. Where the challenge truly lies is the task of doing so for 24 hours. Now I know some that might consider this inviting. Others… well lazy at best. I originally considered it something that would have a potential of fun exponentially bordering partying with Hunter S Thompson and Johnny Depp for a weekend. Lots of fun at the time with some great stories but damn am I going to feel like shit for the next couple days afterwards on the come down. At a base level though, the thought of indulging one’s self in a multitude of gaming: computer, video, board, etc. It would send shivers down the spine of any true gamer.  What I’m left with… well, it was an experience to say the least.

Well I guess the best way to describe this whole shindig is to start from the beginning. After a hearty breakfast of Chick-fil-a and the setup of three televisions and five gaming systems, we were set. Some might consider this borderline technologic insanity while I would place it more along the lines of holding ourselves back a bit. We of course started with the standard Wii Sports. Bowling to be specific.  Nothing like an hour or so of yelling at digital pins to fall the fuck down to start a gaming fest. It’s setting the mood really. Then it went on to jumping back and forth between Mega Man 9 and the original Super Mario Bros. One might consider it blasphemy to be playing Mega Man 9 on the Xbox and Mario Bros on a macbook but I say that if the game presents itself, I’ll still play it. At the very least it presents me with something to make sarcastic comments about rather then going “Hulk Smash!” on the nearest squishy item in view while having long cursing combos spewing from my mouth because of constant fatalities on the aforementioned games. I decided to also fit in some DOTA to the mix just to add some flavor. Rampaging around as an undead and creating hoard after hoard of zombies is always a great way to relax the mind, body, and spirit to a point of inner peace and tranquility.

Of course then I’m still left with 20 hours of gaming so I decided to eventually say fuck you to inner peace in order to join my fellow gaming comrades in huddling around the warm glow of the 52” tv to get our Halo on. At this point I deem it necessary to point out the brilliance of two things: ustream and Xbox online. Jon had a brilliant idea to setup a ustream account to, well, stream online this gaming orgy. Having viewers adding conversations and commentary brought a whole other level of fun and a great way of adding further trash talking to an already messy vortex of testosterone and caffeine. Also, while I’m usually adamant in my hatred for Xbox online, I was infused with a reminder of a means in which it can be used for good. Utilizing Xbox online to play with fellow PAX IRCers was a brilliant concept in it’s ability to utilize a maximum of gamer population potential without diluting it with idiot fucks whose verbosity only stretches the bounds of creativity in cursing and who’s emotional maturity is somewhere near that of a 7 year old child. Playing online with a number of friends brought us multiple other Halo spin off games to try out and an end result of hours of gaming fun.

After this though, some relaxation was needed and a yearning to play a classic game had been tugging at my heart all day. Particularly with the presence of a NES and SNES, the urge to drop in a cartridge, possibly after blowing into it profusely for an undisclosed amount of time, and fire up the roots of my childhood could not be ignored. I eventually settled on something I knew I could pleasure myself for hours on: Super Mario World for the SNES. Indulging myself in the run around world with feather after fireball after Yoshi egg after haunting ghost nearly brought tears to my eyes. It was a wonderful experience to say the least. It’s at times like those that I truly do realize my roots and how far gaming truly has come… or fallen, depending on the person you talk to.

As evening settled in and a yearning for grub commenced, we eventually progressed to wholesome and maturing games like Grand Theft Auto. Okay, so not maturing exactly but amusing none-the-less. I also was able to fit in a rousing and hate-filled game of Scrabble. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game of Scrabble with so much disdain being poured into every word. Stealing away triple word bonuses from people usually tend to lead to anger and frustration though. Afterwards I got my karaoke on through some Sing Star. Nothing like singing Time After Time to totally annoy the crap out of other people in the same household and across the web.

Eventually there were four of us reaching the tired time of 5 in the morning and with none of us capable of making a simple decision as to what game to play, we decided to leave it up to our insomnia-driven viewers to choose a game for us. After a multitude of terrible suggestions, we settled on Boom Blox and Castle Crashers to finish things out. On a side note, Boom Blox totally fucks physics up the ass and leaves it to cry in an alleyway bleeding and shivering with a vain hope to find peace at some point in the future. But we made it through tons of screaming and laughing. Fun times indeed. I also got to try out Castle Crashers, which is a cornucopia of humor and classic style gaming at it’s finest.

We slumped across the finish line in horrible gaming glory. We were packed with caffeine and in dire need of sleep but we were happy and felt like we accomplished something pretty darn good. Maybe it was because of being a part of the $100K+ contribution towards the Texas Children’s Hospital. Maybe it was because of actually completing 24 hours of gaming in it’s many forms. Maybe it was because we were horribly delusional and that was the only emotion we were capable of. But we were content with what we had done.

Hells yeah bitches!

The video this time…is a rare occaision where Jonny beats Anthony at Wii Bowling

What a whirlwind! I just got done taking a brief nap (I’m trying not to screw up my sleep schedule), and I thought I’d throw up a quick list of games I played:

• King’s Bounty: The Legend (PC)
  
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (PC)
  
• Exalted (PnP)
  
• Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (DS)
• Halo 3 (360)
• Hinterland (PC)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

I played GTA4 with the Epic Default crew for countless hours (felt like at least 6) and I only wish I’d recorded it so I could cut out the highlights for you. Example: My friend Randomguy’s favorite tactic was to run past you, dropping grenades. I can’t count the number of times I gunned him down only to get blown up outta nowhere. Seriously, he plays GTA4 like most people play Bomberman. I’m sure Jonny will put up a summary later. Right, Jonny? *nudge*

Admin note: I don’t usually do these, but I’ve been nudged, so I must retaliate. I will not post up a summary, simply because Anthony wanted to do so for his article. It should be up tomorrow. I will however throw up all the recordings I made off of the live stream, so in case you missed it, you’ll be able to see.

I’ll put one up per post, starting with our little intro into the madness

This week, Epic Default Productions takes you back to a simpler time, and shows you how to survive the CCST, the annual convoy to the Penny Arcade Expo.

Big thanks to Moe, and everyone on the trip for allowing us to do this. We’ll be shooting one of the episodes of Fanboys on it as well.

On the premier episode of Fanboys, Jonny becomes an assassin, Anthony questions their friendship, Iron Man and Jenga for the Wii are reviewed at epic length, Mario Kart for the Wii is more compact, and we ask Olivia Munn the eternal question of…Really?

If you go to fanboys.blip.tv…you can actually subscribe to the video feed in itunes