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Well, it's officially the morning after, 4 hours past the closing of the Extra Life Marathon for most. Unfortunately for Jenn and I, the end came at 3:10 am. That was when we collectively hit our breaking point and couldn't continue. We tried our best to make it the entire 24 hours, but 19 hours of continuous gaming, even fueled by coffee, chili, ice cappucino's and the visitation of our friends wasn't enough to stave off the physical and mental exhaustion.

That being said, the Extra Life Charity raised 1.1 MILLION dollars at the point that Jenn and I had to call it quits, and donations may still straggle in over the next couple weeks. We are incredibly proud to have taken part of a charity that made such a huge impact into the lives of sick kids across the continent.

I want to give a sincere thank you to everyone of you that donated to us this year. I look at the list of donors and see a diverse mix of people. Some of you are gamers, some of you aren't. Some of you are close personal friends, some are coworkers, and some are aquaintances I've never met in person. One thing you al share is a generosity and a humanity. The passion to care enough to help Extra Life reach that 1.1 million dollars and help these kids.

Thank you.

Jenn and I will spend the rest of the day catching up on our 24 hours of gaming, making sure that we live up, at least in part, to our promise to all of you. It's the least we can do to show our appreciation for your pledges and donations.

Oh yeah

I forgot to mention the game I'll be playing. Golden Axe, the remake for XBox 360, not the port of the excellent arcade game.

Extra Life Marathon (2:30 edition)

Well, it's 2:30. Jenn's still playing Red Dead Redemption and I JUST FINISHED inFamous 2!! Pretty sweet accomplishment for me. I've also lost the ability to type with any sort of accuracy. Andre is still here, but we'll probably lose him soon. We're fast approaching the dreaded point of no return and I'm not looking forward to crossing that threshold.

Off to play more games!

The midnight hour! (I lost track of how many hours)

Well, midnight came and went and Jenn and I are still limping along. Pretty much all of our friends have left with the exception of Andrew W. who is accustomed to staying up all night. He's watching me play inFamous 2, encouraging me to finish it. Jenn is in the bedroom playing Red Dead.

We're struggling to keep going, but the knowledge of all of the people who donated is keeping us rocking out. We'll definitely make it until 4, which is 20 hours, and we'll play it by ear from there on. The updates will be infrequent from here on. All games and no sleep make david a something something....

Extra Life Marathon Hour 14 (Almost!)

Jo T and Rachelle K showed up, as did Chris D. Sheldon had to leave, but we're still having a blast with Burnout Crash. Delerium is starting to set in and I'm questioning my ability to go for the 24 hrs.

Now, def Jam Rapstar.

Extra Life Marathoun HOUR 12!!!

Wel, we made it to the halfway point and we're starting to really run down. Fortunately we had some more friends show up, and these ones are specifically here to play some games with us!

We've got Sheldon P., Deanna B, and Aaron B, all generous donators to the Extra Life cause! I quickly wrapped up my mission on inFamous 2 and we immediately bought Burnout: Crash for XBLA and we are having a blast! Great pass the controller party game while everyone eats some chili, then maybe a little Rock Band or Def Jam Rapstar!!!

Here's a quick word from Jenn:

"I really ran out of steam around 4pm and was ready for a nap, but I pushed through and I'm glad I did. Having some of our awesome friends join us has been great for an energy boost, and they showed up just in time to prevent gaming from starting to feel like a chore. Extra special thanks to Sheldon for the surprise ice capps! He wasn't kidding when he promised to back us up!"

Extra Life Marathon Hour 11

So we've put down 10 hours, and we're half way to the eleventh hour! We had a drop in guest with an eleventh hour donation (ha!) with another last minute donation from Sheldon Polowick as well. All told our Amazing Team of Awesome has raised just over $800 dollars!!.

Big thanks to all our donators!!

I'm almost finished inFamous 2 and we're getting burnt out. Fortunately the crew should be rolling by shortly to help us stay up. I Don't know if they'l be staying too late, but hopefully they can re-energize us.

We might crash out after midnight, but we'll be doing our best!! Hopefully I'll have some diversity to update on the next update.

Oh, Jenn had to quit Red Dead when our drop in guest came by, so she was playing Angry Birds on her iPhone while playing the host.

Extra Life Marathon Hour 10!

We're on hour 10! Jenn is still playing Red Dead Redemption and I Just got back from the park. It was a challenge trying to give my focus to both the kids and my games, but I made it happen!

While I was at the park I was playing Fighting Fantasy for the PSP which is a digital recreation of the old choose your own adventure books. Kinda felt like cheating, but it's very much a digital game so it still counts! Then I switched up to Patchwork Heroes, also for the PSP, and then we came home.

I want to take a minute to give a huge thanks to my mom and dad for cooking up some chili which is singlehandedly keeping us fueled for the marathon, and my dear and loving mom picked up me up a copy of Super Punchout for the Wii, which I'm gonna check out in the next little bit.

For now however, I am still playing inFamous 2 and I'm getting very close to finishing. It's an amazing game, and I'm glad for the opportunity to finish it finally.

Hour nine, feeling fine!

Hour 9!! That means we're 1/3 of the way there and so far still going strong. The kids came home so I snuck into the bathroom for a bit and had a bath while playing Tiny Heroes on my iPhone. Jenn is keeping her streak on Red Dead Redemption.

After the bath I jumped back on a little more inFamous for a bit while the kids read and cleaned there rooms. Then they watched me finish up a few missions of inFamous 2, and we came to the park.

I'm at the park now letting the kids have some outdoors fun while I play "Fighting Fantasy" on my psp. Don't worry, I kept playing carcassone on the iPad while we walked.

Some friends are coming over tonight so hopefully they'll help me hit my second wind.

Extra Life Marathon Hour 7

Well, we hit a major milestone! We made it 6 hours into the 24 hrs. A fourth of the way done, and only 18 more to go.

Nothing much interesting to update. I played more gunstringer and Jenn went to the bank while playing on her iphone. Then I went back to inFamous 2. Having a blast! Some people might come by later and we`ll turn it into a party!

Extra Life Marathon hour 4

Ha! I got so caught up in Infamous 2 I forgot to make an hour 3 update. Not much to update so far. Going on hour 4 and feeling strong. I took a few minutes of a break to make a $50 donation to Jenn. She`s every bit the gamer I am, but these endurance sessions are harder for her, so she deserves it!

She`s taking a brief break to have a shower, while I warm up some chili and try to finish up a few more missions of Infamous 2, then we`re gonna jump on the iPad and play some board games while we eat lunch and watch a television show. Then back into the console games to play some Gunstringer! I`ll update again after we`ve eaten!

Extra Life Marathon Hour 2!

Still going strong! Jenn and I made breakfast in between loading screens and the occasional pause. Fried eggs for me, toaster waffles for her. It`s all a prelude to our chili fest again of course. She`s still playing Red Dead Redemption, wrangling horses and racing wagons and I`m stil trying to save the fictional city of New Marais from iminent destruction. I`ve unlocked some cool new powers, and even though I`m dying a lot (infamous is a cheap game for deaths) I`m stil having a lot of fun!

One hour down and we`re still feeling strong. I think we might be able to commit to the entire 24 hours! (Not a legally binding statement)

Aaaaand we're off!

The gaming marathon starts now (more or less) and we're off and runing. Jenn's making a pot of coffee, and I'm getting my but firmly planted in the couch.

I'm back to inFamous 2, as stated yesterday, hopefully I'll get through a chunk of it before I need a break and want to move on to something else. Unlike Jenn, I'm not as monogomous with games so I need to change it up frequently.

She's mad at Uncharted from yesterday (David P -1, Nathan Drake - 0) and so she'll be jumping on Red Dead Redemption. I offered to play something co op with her but she's mad at me. Something about poking her in the ribs while singing ACDC first thing in the morning.

Pre Gaming Session Hour 3

Jenn and I played a bit of the Gunstringer on Xbox Kinect. The shooting controls are quite fun, but the movement is aggravating as shit. It's also not a long game, but since it's a rental, that's actually a good thing. Jenn decided to skip her bath, so we're gonna head on over the bed and watch a bit of Madmen while playing something on the DS's or PSP's. 3 hours in the bank, if we need it. We'll be back on teh video games tomorrow morning at 8:00 am SHARP, tearing it up all day and as much of the night as we can.


Come join us!

Pre gaming Sesion Hour 2

Jenn played Uncharted for an hour until she got frustrated. It is a tough game, but she's still liking it. She's hoping to have it finished tomorrow and move onto something else!

I played inFamous 2, and thanks to me and Cole Mcgrath, New Marais is a little bit safer. I Spent almost the entire hour doing side missions, but I did get one story mission accomplished. I'll be jumping back on first thing tomorrow at 8:00 am and trying to burn through as much of the game as I can.

Now, as bit of a wind down to the night we're gonna play a bit of co-op gunstringer, then Jenns gonna have a bath and play angry birds, and I'm going to jump on either the PSP or the DS and play something in bed.

Pre-Gaming Session Hour 1

We started off slow, deciding to play some carcassonne via iphone while we had supper and watched an episode of breaking bad. Jenn kicked my ass the first game, and we got about halfway through the second game before we finished the episode of Breaking Bad, and supper. Now we're moving on to some singleplayer games in seperate rooms. I'm gonna jump back into inFamous 2, and Jenn is gonna play some Uncharted. She has a major crush on Nathan Drake, I just like hitting stuff with electricity.


Since the marathon starts at 8:00 am tomorrow morning and it doesn't seem like anyone is coming over for gaming tonight, we'll probably turn in around 11:00 so we can get enough sleep for tomorrow. I'll update over the next two hours, and pick it back up tomorrow!

Crunch time!

So the official www.extra-life.org start time for the marathon is 8:00 Am Saturday Morning, but as I've stated previously, Jenn and I have concerns about our ability to play games for 24 hours straight. The physical effects aside, we have children to consider as well, so it may just not be feasible. What we've decided to do is have an open house for 48 hours for any of our gamer friends (hardcore and casual alike) to pop over and join us.

Turning it into an ongoing party should make it both easier, and funner for us, and also help raise a bit more awareness for the charity! Hopefully some people will be able to make it and liven us up.

Tentative Playlist

So after some internal back and forth about whether or not I should buy a new game for the marathon, or try to finish a backlog, I've decided on the backlog. 24 hours is a long time, so it seems like a good opportunity to wrap up some games off my "pile of shame". Games that I started and loved but then eventually forgot about.

Using a random chooser I've narrowed my first two selections down to the following.

• inFamous 2, an open world super hero game in which you play Cole McGrath, an electrically charged bike messenger turned would-be hero.


• Splinter Cell: Conviction, the latest in the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell games, a stealth shooter in which you play Sam Fisher, international super spy (or something).

Both games are really great, so it's looking like it'll be fun! Also, one for each of my two primary consoles (PS3 and XBOX 360), so that's a nice split.