I was a bit late jumping onto the Fable 2 bandwagon because of lack of funds among other things. Also, I was never truly impressed by the debut of the original Fable after it’s long awaited arrival. However, after playing the sequel for a few days I am becoming more and more impressed with Lionheads work of art.

Fable 2 is set in the lands of Albion. A beautiful and creative land with unique characteristics around every turn. The detail put into the landscape is truly remarkable. Everything is animated and stylized in this beautiful fantasy land. The trees sway, the birds chirp and the sun gleams off of the river water. I could spend hours just wandering the lands of Albion, but they make it impossible to do so because of so many fun temptations in the game.

I could go on an on about the characters built into Fable 2. While you may hear similar voices around town, and yes, some NPC models do look a bit similar to each other, the NPC AI is remarkable. Why, just the other day I was purchasing something to drink from the barkeep and from the corner of my eye I noticed another customer wander in, pull out a chair, sit down, pull the chair forward and have a drink. There were no flaws or quirks in his movement, it was almost as if he were really alive.

Aside from the enormous lands to explore, quests to follow, ladies (or men) to entice, enemies to fight, houses to buy, shops to own, clothing to dye, etc, etc etc… Fable 2 also offers much more! Custom games are offered at various game masters around the world. Hidden treasure lies within reach of your shovel and you pet dogs keen ability to sniff it out. Chickens wander the streets just waiting to be kicked! There really is too much to talk about in one review of this game, the fact of the matter is, you must play it for yourself. There are even screenshots up already for the first DLC waiting to be released.

I give this game 5 out of 5 stars. Two thumbs up and a big slap on the back.

The other day after driving 4 hours in a horrible blizzard, I came to the quick realization that I must have dropped my phone into the snow upon exiting my car. Needless to say the plow came by and.. well.. I needed a new phone.

I visited my local Verizon store and picked up my very own new Motorola Z6tv. I had recently been using the Chocolate for the past 2 years, and while I was never very fond of the touch screen and quirkiness of the phone, I really loved the slider style.

The Z6tv is a great slider phone. It has much more weight to it than the Chocolate, which makes holding this puppy in your hand feel really good. Its packed full of goodies, including a fully functional TV service if your willing to pay for it. I for one will never use the TV, because the thought of watching a 2×3″ screen for over 30 minutes gives me a headache. However.. the fact that its available is a nice thought.

There are a couple other features that really shine on this piece of hardware though. The 2 megapixel camera can function on both landscape and portrait mode. Meaning you can flip the phone on its side and it comes close to feeling like a real camera. The quick shutter makes this a great camera phone for any photo geek.

The Z6tv also has a fully functional music player. Taking advantage of the mini SD cards, you can pack this baby full of all your favorite tunes. Slap on a pair of 2mm headphones, or purchase the 3.5mm adapter and you’ve got yourself a personal MP3 player. Also, the external speaker on the phone gets surprisingly loud and clear so you can share your favorite songs with the entire room!

For anyone out there looking for a good phone with camera and music capability, and love the sleek slider style, the Motorola Z6tv is the phone for you.

It seems the only silver lining to the horrible ice storm we got along the east coast this year were the good photo ops. I posted a few on www.boardsanddecks.com but I wanted to share one of the more creative ones here on Samurart.

This was an old barn I saw while driving around but I photoshopped it heavily. The results are, well… see for yourself.

I know I haven’t posted anything in awhile but I want to change that. I have been busy with other things in my life, as well as Boards and Decks. So to start things off, I wanted to post an image of my daughter Kaylee from last December. Right now its raining and miserable out.. its good to look back at what December should be like.