Tonight marks the first night of our Ballroom Dancing class. We are definitely a married couple, but I'm actually looking forward to it. My wife's a fun gal, and any excuse to engage with her is one I'll take.
With any luck, this will lead to a fun night, in which we dance, have some dinner, and then totally have lots of sex. That would be ideal. Of course, it depends on what our 3-year old allows to happen, but I have a good feeling about all this.
Podcasting
The post-E3 Untitled Podcast is getting recorded either tomorrow evening or Sunday during the day. I'm still waiting to hear back from Tony on what works best for him, but we'll see. We both have some pretty strong opinions, and I'm really stoked to get behind the mic for this one. We're gonna do four categories: 'What Ya Loved,' 'What Could Go Either Way,' 'What Needs Work,' and 'What Wasn't There.' We'll be talking about games, services, and hardware, so anything is open game.
Saturday
My street is having its first annual block party, and I'm really looking forward to getting loaded with my neighbors, and finding out what the deal is with the people that own and live in 'the Lot that Time Forgot,' as it's astonishing to see such a terrible homeowner in my neck of the woods, but I'm thankful for them, since people are gawking at their dilapidated shit instead of mine.
I also like the concept of having a tight neighborhood that can band together and stand against things that are bad, like Wal-Mart and drunk drivers.
Sunday
'Get shit done Day,' as it's become for me, tends to start with an explosion of hard labor in the yard during the AM hours, followed by a shower and relaxation, and probably some gaming.
Next Week
Next week is my last week before classes resume, and while my time off hasn't been nearly as productive as I'd like, it's sure been relaxing and soul-mending. I let the world make me its bitch over the last 10 or so months, and I let people drag me down to their level, and I'm done with that shit. It's funny that lessons we learned so long ago need to be reinforced every so often. I really let myself slip, as a person, and let baby shit like school interfere become an issue for me, which I can promise you was endlessly humiliating.
So, I'm eager to get back in the saddle and make these classes my bitch. What's nice, too, is that I've worked out a good schedule for myself for this summer, and I'll have a nice balance between work, creative work, and play.
Also, next Sunday (6/14, in case you're a moron and don't understand what 'next Sunday' means) is the return of True Blood, the best show I've seen since Battlestar Galactica or Firefly. If you haven't watched it up to this point, a) you're a sad individual and b) it's out on Blu-Ray (and DVD for you cavemen.)
Either way, it's an amazing show, and I hope you're watching it, too.
On Writing
Been working on old shit so much lately that I'm now dying to break out and work on something new. Thinking about writing my first 'real world' book, with no fantastical elements. Yeah, I know, I think that shit tends to be pretty boring, too, but I wanna take a stab at making it interesting. I've always kicked around this idea about a guy who's beating it one night and finds his girlfriend in pictures on a hardcore site, and the subsequent journey he undertakes. We'll see. If it's not my main series, I tend to be pretty flighty with my projects.
Peace Out
That's probably enough for now.
Quick question, for the podcast: who won the Press Conference Battle? Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony? Why do you think so?
Have a great weekend, and I'll post the podcast link this weekend!
-Blaine
On sale now!
Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts
20090604
Some E3 Commentary
So, yeah, I've been a bit blog-shy this week.
Part of it has been that I spent Monday overloading my brain with press-conferences, and then Tuesday was a total clusterfuck. First, I was working my real job while streaming the Nintendo conference, then my stream collapsed in on itself during the Sony conference while I was still working, then when I was off-work, I lost power.
Summer storms in St. Louis are nothing to fuck with. We'll get hit for an hour with end-of-the-world weather, and in the past, it's left the city without power for weeks. We're right at that point where the Gulf Stream hits those northern bursts, and every summer, we get nailed at least once.
I remember, back in 2006, after that monster storm, spending my birthday trying to save my restaurant's food from going bad by loading up a U-Haul with all my food and running it to a buddy's store that had just gotten power back.
Anyway, Tuesday, my family and I, assuming it would be a few days 'til power was restored, holed up at my parents' house, which, despite being a rather castle-like structure with any amenity one could crave, is so remote that it has satellite internet, and is not the kind of place from which one would desire to download video.
Wednesday, I found that Ameren had actually restored our power overnight, and we moved back in. I was pleased to note that all of our trees actually stayed up this time, with minimal branch loss (we once had part of a tree fall on a neighbor's house, and the branch loss is usually so bad that we fill our entire front lawn with branch debris for pickup by the city), and no visible damage to the house.
One last thing about the summer storms here.
It's interesting to see my neighborhood during our 10-20 power outages a year, as that's when a lot of us seem to finally come out of our houses and share a laugh or give each other a hand. My super-cool neighbor, who's close to my age and has a wife and son, as well, and I went down to the playground a few doors over, and cleared some of the debris off the playground so that access wasn't restricted. We took our boys down, talked some E3, then got into a fascinating discussion about gaming shows in general, as he works for a company that helps game developers in the late stages of products or demos. He works on physics engines, and actually has some serious development cred. I haven't asked his permission, so I'm not gonna reveal his identity here, or what he's worked on, but suffice to say that some of the projects he's worked on have left me jaw-dropped. Basically, he's one of the guys who gets called in when a project needs to meet a deadline and isn't going to, whether it be a game or a conference demo.
So, yeah, it was an amazingly enlightening discussion about the game industry, and how much goes into just showing off a game that isn't out yet.
Anyway, having neighbors that pitch in and help is awesome.
That E3 Thing
So, I just wanted to talk a little about the motion-control outbreak that's happened.
I'll start with the Wii, since that happened several years ago.
I love the motion-control possibilities of the Wii, but have yet to see them implemented in a truly meaningful way. I don't understand why the Wii Motion Plus is a $20 fix instead of something that shipped as part of the final controller. I know that the fact that it's a GameCube with motion control was an effort to keep price down, but the games look like ass now. Since it's not totally relevant, I wont bring up the abomination that are Friend Codes.
Now fast forward to this year's E3.
Microsoft, after a really solid showing at their press conference, closed with Project Natal.
What's interesting about Project Natal is that it's basically stereoscopic cameras doing mo-cap on YOU, instead of a controller. That opens up a lot of possibilities.
Fighting games, provided you can clear out enough space in your gaming area, are the first thing that come to mind. Shift to a first-person perspective, get your reflexes ready, and you've got the makings of a bad-ass bare-knuckled brawler.
If you can scan in weapons, a first-person Soul Calibur could be awesome, assuming you can leap 20 feet into the air.
The Sony 'wand' thing is pretty neat too, and I really dug the sword-and-shield bit. For some reason, I actually feel a little better about having to hold something, since I worry about things like triggers and minute inputs.
That being said, I'm going to go back to my original concerns about the Wii, since they still hold true for the MS and Sony implementations.
There's no resistance when hitting a ball or an enemy, and you can't truly move infinitely in a 3D space.
What that means is that if I'm locked in combat with an opponent, and they score a blow, I'm not knocked off guard, or if they block a blow, my forward movement doesn't stop. It's still a fairly empty experience.
Also, if I'm playing Doom 4 on my console of choice (the one with acceptable visual capabilities, not the Wii), I'm having to use a stick to move my character, instead of capturing that intense need to creep through the halls. Yeah, I can still make him creep with the stick, but how much more intense is it to capture that movement yourself (if you've ever played Paintball, you know what I mean. I won't dishonor our troops by comparing their life or death experiences to a game of Doom), and pop around that corner to catch an enemy unawares?
I know I'm throwing a fit that we don't have the holodeck yet, and I understand that this a natural step in that direction, especially if they can combine this with 3D tech, but I'm just pointing out why I'm a bit skeptical.
I am very curious to try out both PS360 setups, and really what it comes down to is SOFTWARE. If the software is there, then so am I.
E3 Games
If you've followed my Twitter, then you have pretty good idea of what games have me stoked.
It seems like we're gonna choke on a glut of games again this fall, as I'm slated to snag NCAA Football 10 and Madden NFL 10 this summer, followed by Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age: Origins, Modern Warfare 2, BioShock 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Heavy Rain, and Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. Those fall games are all in less than a 2-month span. That's crazy.
That's not even touching the stuff that's not out 'til next year. If all the Q1 2010 games actually release in Q1 2010, we're gonna see a busy January-March, which could be kinda weird.
Oh, and I want/need Final Fantasy VII on my PSP NOW! Ooh, and the original Medal of Honor is available for $6? Man, they're really starting to make some headway with the PSP downloadable market. If I can get portable versions of every PS1 Final Fantasy released thus far, I'd be thrilled. Between my DS Lite and the PSP, I'd have FF1-9 portably. Really, I'd love a portable version of FFVIII, one of the only Final Fantasy games I've never finished.
Okay, enough blabbing. What's got you all hot and bothered @ E3? I'll be back to my regular blogging schedule tomorrow. Also, we're recording the second E3 2009 Untitled Podcast either Saturday or Sunday.
So, yeah, like I was asking, what are you happy about from E3? Did you listen to our PRE3 Untitled Podcast: Special Edition episode? What'd you think of it?
Cool. I'll be back tomorrow. Peace out.
-Blaine
Part of it has been that I spent Monday overloading my brain with press-conferences, and then Tuesday was a total clusterfuck. First, I was working my real job while streaming the Nintendo conference, then my stream collapsed in on itself during the Sony conference while I was still working, then when I was off-work, I lost power.
Summer storms in St. Louis are nothing to fuck with. We'll get hit for an hour with end-of-the-world weather, and in the past, it's left the city without power for weeks. We're right at that point where the Gulf Stream hits those northern bursts, and every summer, we get nailed at least once.
I remember, back in 2006, after that monster storm, spending my birthday trying to save my restaurant's food from going bad by loading up a U-Haul with all my food and running it to a buddy's store that had just gotten power back.
Anyway, Tuesday, my family and I, assuming it would be a few days 'til power was restored, holed up at my parents' house, which, despite being a rather castle-like structure with any amenity one could crave, is so remote that it has satellite internet, and is not the kind of place from which one would desire to download video.
Wednesday, I found that Ameren had actually restored our power overnight, and we moved back in. I was pleased to note that all of our trees actually stayed up this time, with minimal branch loss (we once had part of a tree fall on a neighbor's house, and the branch loss is usually so bad that we fill our entire front lawn with branch debris for pickup by the city), and no visible damage to the house.
One last thing about the summer storms here.
It's interesting to see my neighborhood during our 10-20 power outages a year, as that's when a lot of us seem to finally come out of our houses and share a laugh or give each other a hand. My super-cool neighbor, who's close to my age and has a wife and son, as well, and I went down to the playground a few doors over, and cleared some of the debris off the playground so that access wasn't restricted. We took our boys down, talked some E3, then got into a fascinating discussion about gaming shows in general, as he works for a company that helps game developers in the late stages of products or demos. He works on physics engines, and actually has some serious development cred. I haven't asked his permission, so I'm not gonna reveal his identity here, or what he's worked on, but suffice to say that some of the projects he's worked on have left me jaw-dropped. Basically, he's one of the guys who gets called in when a project needs to meet a deadline and isn't going to, whether it be a game or a conference demo.
So, yeah, it was an amazingly enlightening discussion about the game industry, and how much goes into just showing off a game that isn't out yet.
Anyway, having neighbors that pitch in and help is awesome.
That E3 Thing
So, I just wanted to talk a little about the motion-control outbreak that's happened.
I'll start with the Wii, since that happened several years ago.
I love the motion-control possibilities of the Wii, but have yet to see them implemented in a truly meaningful way. I don't understand why the Wii Motion Plus is a $20 fix instead of something that shipped as part of the final controller. I know that the fact that it's a GameCube with motion control was an effort to keep price down, but the games look like ass now. Since it's not totally relevant, I wont bring up the abomination that are Friend Codes.
Now fast forward to this year's E3.
Microsoft, after a really solid showing at their press conference, closed with Project Natal.
What's interesting about Project Natal is that it's basically stereoscopic cameras doing mo-cap on YOU, instead of a controller. That opens up a lot of possibilities.
Fighting games, provided you can clear out enough space in your gaming area, are the first thing that come to mind. Shift to a first-person perspective, get your reflexes ready, and you've got the makings of a bad-ass bare-knuckled brawler.
If you can scan in weapons, a first-person Soul Calibur could be awesome, assuming you can leap 20 feet into the air.
The Sony 'wand' thing is pretty neat too, and I really dug the sword-and-shield bit. For some reason, I actually feel a little better about having to hold something, since I worry about things like triggers and minute inputs.
That being said, I'm going to go back to my original concerns about the Wii, since they still hold true for the MS and Sony implementations.
There's no resistance when hitting a ball or an enemy, and you can't truly move infinitely in a 3D space.
What that means is that if I'm locked in combat with an opponent, and they score a blow, I'm not knocked off guard, or if they block a blow, my forward movement doesn't stop. It's still a fairly empty experience.
Also, if I'm playing Doom 4 on my console of choice (the one with acceptable visual capabilities, not the Wii), I'm having to use a stick to move my character, instead of capturing that intense need to creep through the halls. Yeah, I can still make him creep with the stick, but how much more intense is it to capture that movement yourself (if you've ever played Paintball, you know what I mean. I won't dishonor our troops by comparing their life or death experiences to a game of Doom), and pop around that corner to catch an enemy unawares?
I know I'm throwing a fit that we don't have the holodeck yet, and I understand that this a natural step in that direction, especially if they can combine this with 3D tech, but I'm just pointing out why I'm a bit skeptical.
I am very curious to try out both PS360 setups, and really what it comes down to is SOFTWARE. If the software is there, then so am I.
E3 Games
If you've followed my Twitter, then you have pretty good idea of what games have me stoked.
It seems like we're gonna choke on a glut of games again this fall, as I'm slated to snag NCAA Football 10 and Madden NFL 10 this summer, followed by Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age: Origins, Modern Warfare 2, BioShock 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Heavy Rain, and Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. Those fall games are all in less than a 2-month span. That's crazy.
That's not even touching the stuff that's not out 'til next year. If all the Q1 2010 games actually release in Q1 2010, we're gonna see a busy January-March, which could be kinda weird.
Oh, and I want/need Final Fantasy VII on my PSP NOW! Ooh, and the original Medal of Honor is available for $6? Man, they're really starting to make some headway with the PSP downloadable market. If I can get portable versions of every PS1 Final Fantasy released thus far, I'd be thrilled. Between my DS Lite and the PSP, I'd have FF1-9 portably. Really, I'd love a portable version of FFVIII, one of the only Final Fantasy games I've never finished.
Okay, enough blabbing. What's got you all hot and bothered @ E3? I'll be back to my regular blogging schedule tomorrow. Also, we're recording the second E3 2009 Untitled Podcast either Saturday or Sunday.
So, yeah, like I was asking, what are you happy about from E3? Did you listen to our PRE3 Untitled Podcast: Special Edition episode? What'd you think of it?
Cool. I'll be back tomorrow. Peace out.
-Blaine
20090531
One of Two (concerning E3)
Here is the first Untitled Podcast concerning E3 2009. We are doing another episode next weekend to wrap up and review E3, then we're disappearing again until Gotham needs us.
In this episode, we preview each of the platform-holders, as well as the most-hyped third-party games, and just generally talk shit for a little less than three hours.
We also discuss, at length, the possibility of turning my living room into Tony's personal storage area.
I'll be putting up a deeper post later, but I first need to go mow my grass before my shit-headed old-timer fuckfaced neighbor tries to set my house on fire.
-Blaine
In this episode, we preview each of the platform-holders, as well as the most-hyped third-party games, and just generally talk shit for a little less than three hours.
We also discuss, at length, the possibility of turning my living room into Tony's personal storage area.
I'll be putting up a deeper post later, but I first need to go mow my grass before my shit-headed old-timer fuckfaced neighbor tries to set my house on fire.
-Blaine
20090528
The return of Untitled Podcast and E3!
First, please watch this.
I love that kinda shit. Now, to set the tone for E3, lemme continue an annual tradition. Please watch this next.
I love that even more.
Now, onto business.
UNTITLED PODCAST: E3 EDITION
Three or four of you were utterly heartbroken when we put Untitled Podcast on indefinite hiatus. I've already talked that point to death, so I won't waste your time with any more rambling on how weird my life is.
Anyway, it had occurred to me more than once over the last couple weeks that we should sit down for 2 episodes and do 'pre' and 'post' E3 shows. I approached Tony about it yesterday, and after a few long conversations, we agreed on some details and hashed out a rough schedule.
The 'PRE3' show is set to record tomorrow night, and the 'post-E3' show will record next weekend.
For the 'PRE3' episode, we'll do a quick 'what's new?' segment, then jump right into talking shit about various games and vaporware and hardware and whatever the hell we feel like talking about. And, yeah, it'll be around 2-3 hours.
Right now, I'm thinking we'll go Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and 'third party,' in that order, with each company being divided into games/hardware that we know will be there and rumored games/hardware that will be there. For the confirmed stuff, I think we'll just kinda throw out every game we or you care about, and then we'll sift through that, and comment on the stuff we wanna comment on.
For the second part, we'll each make some predictions, and then make fun of stupid annual rumors (M$'s mythical motion-controller.)
We'll bring our usual shit-talking cynicism, as well as genuine enthusiasm about the good games.
Of course, the most exciting stuff is always the surprise announcements (when they're both exciting and surprising, that is.) I'm kinda curious about this year, as I keep being told that Sony is gonna melt the brains of anyone that cares about games with some announcement that's even more staggering than the launch price of PlayStation 3. Right. We'll see.
I'd considered skipping Nintendo's press conference altogether this year, but my eyes need some exercise, and watching Iwata-san jerk himself off onto the faces of the screaming throng in the 'games press' corp is always interesting. And, against my advice, they're trotting out Cammie Dunaway again, so we get to hear about what middle-aged soccer moms like to do with vibrating phalluses for the second year in a row.
I, also, never miss a chance to watch Reggie Fils-Aime talk. I love that guy. He's the best thing about modern Nintendo, and M$/Sony need to have their talking heads watch how this guy does his thing, 'cause he's the best in terms of all the console execs that do E3 presentations. Once Peter Moore went to EA Sports, the mantle went to Reggie.
Oh no. I just realized I'm probably gonna have to sit through Jack Tretton (Sony) and Don Mattrick (M$) again. Boooring. Well, their presentations should, at least, be better than last year's. I have no idea why, but that's my belief. Sony should just have David Jaffe do theirs and M$ should just publicly execute all those douchebags with the 'cheater' mark on their gamercards. That would make for an exciting show.
I'm also looking forward to all of gametrailers.com's horrible off-screen shaky video of the games that, until I saw horrible off-screen shaky video of them, I was excited about. Oh, and I love the interviews with PR people having to scream so loud over the noise that they go hoarse in the course of the interview.
Actually, I'll be using a few sources to figure out where to focus my attention, aside from having some idea of what developers can be counted on to show a solid product. I'll be watching the aforementioned gametrailers.com, 1up.com, g4tv.com, and giantbomb.com to see what's what each day.
Anyway, so yeah, before we record tomorrow night, drop me a line here if you have anything in particular you wanna hear about, or anything you wanna comment on in advance about E3 in general or a particular game/company/whatever.
Infamous
I snagged Infamous yesterday, and it rocks. It's similar, mechanically, to Crackdown, but has Force powers and story, two big plusses.
I've played it quite a bit the last two days (Infamous and podcast prep are pretty much why I didn't post yesterday), and I really, really like it. It's sort of like a 'summer blockbuster' kinda game. It has a story, though it's not the deepest, it's VERY heavy on the action, it's got some amazingly thrilling moments, and big explosions. It's one of those games that, with its sandbox nature, you're able to make your own amazingly thrilling moments.
My only gripe so far is that while it's very forgiving in terms of death and allowing you to keep XP and all that, you die way too often. Maybe it's the way I play, but I've gotten very conservative in my approach to most shootouts (of course, I have lightning bolts instead of a gun), to minimize the the number of times that I make the jog that I know I'll have to make in order to get back to where I need to wipe out 20 dudes and three truck-mounted machine guns.
Also, there is nothing like kicking an annoying machine gunner in the crotch so hard that he goes flying off the top of the 20-story building you're fighting on top of.
Overall, though, this game kinda replaces Crackdown for me, at least until Crackdown 2 comes out (assuming it's better than the first.) I'll also be keeping an eye on APB (from the Crackdown devs) this E3, as well.
Lemme know what ya wanna hear about Friday night!
-Blaine
I love that kinda shit. Now, to set the tone for E3, lemme continue an annual tradition. Please watch this next.
I love that even more.
Now, onto business.
UNTITLED PODCAST: E3 EDITION
Three or four of you were utterly heartbroken when we put Untitled Podcast on indefinite hiatus. I've already talked that point to death, so I won't waste your time with any more rambling on how weird my life is.
Anyway, it had occurred to me more than once over the last couple weeks that we should sit down for 2 episodes and do 'pre' and 'post' E3 shows. I approached Tony about it yesterday, and after a few long conversations, we agreed on some details and hashed out a rough schedule.
The 'PRE3' show is set to record tomorrow night, and the 'post-E3' show will record next weekend.
For the 'PRE3' episode, we'll do a quick 'what's new?' segment, then jump right into talking shit about various games and vaporware and hardware and whatever the hell we feel like talking about. And, yeah, it'll be around 2-3 hours.
Right now, I'm thinking we'll go Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and 'third party,' in that order, with each company being divided into games/hardware that we know will be there and rumored games/hardware that will be there. For the confirmed stuff, I think we'll just kinda throw out every game we or you care about, and then we'll sift through that, and comment on the stuff we wanna comment on.
For the second part, we'll each make some predictions, and then make fun of stupid annual rumors (M$'s mythical motion-controller.)
We'll bring our usual shit-talking cynicism, as well as genuine enthusiasm about the good games.
Of course, the most exciting stuff is always the surprise announcements (when they're both exciting and surprising, that is.) I'm kinda curious about this year, as I keep being told that Sony is gonna melt the brains of anyone that cares about games with some announcement that's even more staggering than the launch price of PlayStation 3. Right. We'll see.
I'd considered skipping Nintendo's press conference altogether this year, but my eyes need some exercise, and watching Iwata-san jerk himself off onto the faces of the screaming throng in the 'games press' corp is always interesting. And, against my advice, they're trotting out Cammie Dunaway again, so we get to hear about what middle-aged soccer moms like to do with vibrating phalluses for the second year in a row.
I, also, never miss a chance to watch Reggie Fils-Aime talk. I love that guy. He's the best thing about modern Nintendo, and M$/Sony need to have their talking heads watch how this guy does his thing, 'cause he's the best in terms of all the console execs that do E3 presentations. Once Peter Moore went to EA Sports, the mantle went to Reggie.
Oh no. I just realized I'm probably gonna have to sit through Jack Tretton (Sony) and Don Mattrick (M$) again. Boooring. Well, their presentations should, at least, be better than last year's. I have no idea why, but that's my belief. Sony should just have David Jaffe do theirs and M$ should just publicly execute all those douchebags with the 'cheater' mark on their gamercards. That would make for an exciting show.
I'm also looking forward to all of gametrailers.com's horrible off-screen shaky video of the games that, until I saw horrible off-screen shaky video of them, I was excited about. Oh, and I love the interviews with PR people having to scream so loud over the noise that they go hoarse in the course of the interview.
Actually, I'll be using a few sources to figure out where to focus my attention, aside from having some idea of what developers can be counted on to show a solid product. I'll be watching the aforementioned gametrailers.com, 1up.com, g4tv.com, and giantbomb.com to see what's what each day.
Anyway, so yeah, before we record tomorrow night, drop me a line here if you have anything in particular you wanna hear about, or anything you wanna comment on in advance about E3 in general or a particular game/company/whatever.
Infamous
I snagged Infamous yesterday, and it rocks. It's similar, mechanically, to Crackdown, but has Force powers and story, two big plusses.
I've played it quite a bit the last two days (Infamous and podcast prep are pretty much why I didn't post yesterday), and I really, really like it. It's sort of like a 'summer blockbuster' kinda game. It has a story, though it's not the deepest, it's VERY heavy on the action, it's got some amazingly thrilling moments, and big explosions. It's one of those games that, with its sandbox nature, you're able to make your own amazingly thrilling moments.
My only gripe so far is that while it's very forgiving in terms of death and allowing you to keep XP and all that, you die way too often. Maybe it's the way I play, but I've gotten very conservative in my approach to most shootouts (of course, I have lightning bolts instead of a gun), to minimize the the number of times that I make the jog that I know I'll have to make in order to get back to where I need to wipe out 20 dudes and three truck-mounted machine guns.
Also, there is nothing like kicking an annoying machine gunner in the crotch so hard that he goes flying off the top of the 20-story building you're fighting on top of.
Overall, though, this game kinda replaces Crackdown for me, at least until Crackdown 2 comes out (assuming it's better than the first.) I'll also be keeping an eye on APB (from the Crackdown devs) this E3, as well.
Lemme know what ya wanna hear about Friday night!
-Blaine
20090505
Bah.
Got some difficult things outta the way, as far as ending the semester goes, and it's only Tuesday, so I'm pretty pleased. I don't have a lotta time today, so here's some rapid fire stuff for ya:
- went to the Cardinals game last night, and Rick Ankiel had an incredibly scary moment. He was running for a flyball in left-center and then crashed head-first into the wall. At that moment, his entire body went "rag-doll" and he collapsed to the ground, motionless. As they were carrying him off in a stretcher, he did manage to give a thumbs-up. He's going to be fine, but it scared the shit outta me. He and I are about the same age, and watching him overcome the things he's overcome has always been inspirational to me. I really want to see him come out okay and kick some serious ass the rest of his career. Also, that last link is to Bryan Burwell's column about the incident, and I suggest reading it. He's been my favorite sportswriter for a while, and this is another great example of why.
- played some Quake Live at work today. I had been meaning to do this for a while, but I'm fairly conditioned to work while I'm at work, and play while I'm not. I rarely cross the two, but I really needed to blow off some steam, so I went ahead and fired that bad boy up. After I finished all my initial work, I played for about a half hour, and had a great time. My work machine is a piece of shit, and while it ran a little choppy, it still ran. The other browser-based shooter game that's in beta that I'm on (and cannot discuss) did not run, but I also haven't really looked at why yet. Anyway, Quake Live is great fun, it's in open beta, so hop in and have fun!
- it's my wife's birthday today! She's only 27, and I'm now hearing her bitch about her age for the first time. Kinda interesting. I've been doing it since I was 16 or so, and I'm 30 now, so I actually have an excuse to bitch. She was remarking to me that she's "not jailbait anymore, and that sucks." I'm sure I said something crude in reply, but I don't remember. Either way, it's her birthday, and we'll be celebrating it tonight, which I'm looking forward to. I got her the new Sookie book and True Blood on Blu-Ray.
- I have kind of a quiet day tomorrow, but we'll be going out with my folks tomorrow night for dinner (for the Lady's b-day.) I have a mega-giant Statistics exam on Thursday, followed by some mid-day beta testing, followed by a little day-job work, then I'm hanging out with my son while my wife works, then John and I are going out for his birthday, and seeing the new Star Trek @ 11PM on DLP. RAWK. Friday, I work a bit, then this weekend is devoted to studying for finals, and blowing off steam through either sex or gaming.
- After 5/13, I'm done with finals, and then it's time to focus on day-job work and personal project work. I think I'm going to first turn my attention to pushing the 10-year old first novel out the door, so that I can focus on something new this summer. There's also the question of what kind of relationship E3 and I are going to have at the beginning of June. We'll see. I'm doing some coursework over the summer, though that only lasts 8 weeks or so. I'd really like to do a mod for Quake Wars this summer, or maybe Neverwinter Nights, but we'll see. I keep saying I'm gonna teach myself Python, and this summer is a great chance to do exactly that. Again, we'll see.
So, I'm getting ready to head out for the day. How's everyone else's week going? Any crazy plans for the summer?
Also, thanks for the linkage, Laurance! Go check out his blog, everyone! Much more quality shit than you'll find here!
-Blaine
- went to the Cardinals game last night, and Rick Ankiel had an incredibly scary moment. He was running for a flyball in left-center and then crashed head-first into the wall. At that moment, his entire body went "rag-doll" and he collapsed to the ground, motionless. As they were carrying him off in a stretcher, he did manage to give a thumbs-up. He's going to be fine, but it scared the shit outta me. He and I are about the same age, and watching him overcome the things he's overcome has always been inspirational to me. I really want to see him come out okay and kick some serious ass the rest of his career. Also, that last link is to Bryan Burwell's column about the incident, and I suggest reading it. He's been my favorite sportswriter for a while, and this is another great example of why.
- played some Quake Live at work today. I had been meaning to do this for a while, but I'm fairly conditioned to work while I'm at work, and play while I'm not. I rarely cross the two, but I really needed to blow off some steam, so I went ahead and fired that bad boy up. After I finished all my initial work, I played for about a half hour, and had a great time. My work machine is a piece of shit, and while it ran a little choppy, it still ran. The other browser-based shooter game that's in beta that I'm on (and cannot discuss) did not run, but I also haven't really looked at why yet. Anyway, Quake Live is great fun, it's in open beta, so hop in and have fun!
- it's my wife's birthday today! She's only 27, and I'm now hearing her bitch about her age for the first time. Kinda interesting. I've been doing it since I was 16 or so, and I'm 30 now, so I actually have an excuse to bitch. She was remarking to me that she's "not jailbait anymore, and that sucks." I'm sure I said something crude in reply, but I don't remember. Either way, it's her birthday, and we'll be celebrating it tonight, which I'm looking forward to. I got her the new Sookie book and True Blood on Blu-Ray.
- I have kind of a quiet day tomorrow, but we'll be going out with my folks tomorrow night for dinner (for the Lady's b-day.) I have a mega-giant Statistics exam on Thursday, followed by some mid-day beta testing, followed by a little day-job work, then I'm hanging out with my son while my wife works, then John and I are going out for his birthday, and seeing the new Star Trek @ 11PM on DLP. RAWK. Friday, I work a bit, then this weekend is devoted to studying for finals, and blowing off steam through either sex or gaming.
- After 5/13, I'm done with finals, and then it's time to focus on day-job work and personal project work. I think I'm going to first turn my attention to pushing the 10-year old first novel out the door, so that I can focus on something new this summer. There's also the question of what kind of relationship E3 and I are going to have at the beginning of June. We'll see. I'm doing some coursework over the summer, though that only lasts 8 weeks or so. I'd really like to do a mod for Quake Wars this summer, or maybe Neverwinter Nights, but we'll see. I keep saying I'm gonna teach myself Python, and this summer is a great chance to do exactly that. Again, we'll see.
So, I'm getting ready to head out for the day. How's everyone else's week going? Any crazy plans for the summer?
Also, thanks for the linkage, Laurance! Go check out his blog, everyone! Much more quality shit than you'll find here!
-Blaine
20090428
Because I Feel Like It: E3 Predictions & Thoughts
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