I keep forgetting. so here’s a friendly reminder.
Dear Self,
EMBED. EMBED. EMBED. Old habits die hard. Think of the children. If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again. Good Guys Wear Black, Elvis needs Boats!
That is all.
Love ya,
g.
So, a couple of months back, I’m waiting for the subway and there’s a rather cranky young woman yelling into, or more precisely AT her cell phone. Given today’s general lack of public decorum, I’m figuring it’s one of those angry conversations with a not so friendly relative or soon to be ex-formerly significant whatever that’s not supposed to be heard (and yet gets to be heard by all within earshot). Snip, snip and chop, chop- there goes someone’s entire wardrobe in the street and on fire later tonight, blah, blah, blah… whatever. And IN the freakin’ CAR, too? Yeesh. In any event (and as usual), I sidestep away so I can get some peace and quiet and not have to listen to someone sounding as if they’re auditioning for a new Quentin Tarantino film, when I hear the sound of a phone hitting the platform along with a string of expletives. Well, that’s one relationship busted… and a phone to go with it, I think… Wrong again.
OK, this is either good sign or a sign that my career as a writer is OVER. I got invited to a garage opening. Seriously. I don’t even own or drive a car. Maybe the invite came from someone who saw me move a friend’s van a few times VERY carefully around the block when he was moving and an overeager traffic agent was lurking about? Eh, whatever. I won’t worry about this too much… hell, I may even show up for the free refreshments. I’ll get there by subway, of course…
OK, time for me to get into trouble for telling the truth. One of the worst things about gaming these days: publishers that keep going out of their way to whip developers into making games specifically to generate high professional review scores on the hugely flawed aggregate site, Metacritic. Of course, this plan is annoying for a few too many obvious reasons, but let’s add in the monkey wrench of high-profile reviewers who don’t bother to get to or even through some of the games they’re sent and that ticks me off even more. Especially when I put in a request for a game and get turned down because the PR folks handling it ran out of copies or don’t think I’m “big” enough to warrant a reviewable. Gee, thanks, but at least it will get played, I say. It may take me a while to post a review, as I prefer to finish a game before writing about it, but it”l get done.
OK, I’d be a LOT less annoyed if I was getting paid for what I do on a regular basis. But still, this stuff gets my brain boiling in my skull a bit more than it used to. Hell, I respect the medium and the people who work in it too much to be that jaded, so it would be nice to be able to contribute my two cents like any other site. OK, rant-less rant over. Back to reality for a bit…
Ouch. All this early rising and shining the past week plus has finally gotten to me, as my poor back went out after getting back from the airport. Must have been that extra bag I was lugging for a friend, but I’m not complaining one way or the other here. All that means for you fine folks is a slight delay in a few things I’d planned to post today while I recuperate. That, and I need to be nice and upright in order to go see Sniper Elite V2 tomorrow, so I’m taking the night off (whee – ouch). See you tomorrow (zzzzzz)
Heh. I figured I’d forgotten something important in that Phantasy Star III article, but thanks to The Sega Dude, I’m saved from my mistake. Yes, Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II were in fact remade for the Japanese PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500 collection. I’d been ignoring most of these, as I’d played some of the 2500 remakes (a few of which were bundled together and released in the US as Sega Classics Collection) and wasn’t too impressed with how many of the games were redone. Still, now I’ll have to track down those two Phantasy Star remakes at some point just to see how they turned out. Although from quickly scanning over a few articles over the past few minutes, losing the first-person view in PS1 for an overhead view is a kick to the shin for me (ouch!). But I never judge anything these days based on a first impression…
Two things: I forgot to note in the darn review that I swiped that Star Odyssey video from YouTuber Vysethedetermined2. Thanks for posting that footage, sir!
Also, in the PC version of Skyrim, someone (well, a whole lot of someones) has gone and found (through a bit of tinkering with the game code) the entire areas of Morrowind and Cyrodil hidden in the ridiculously huge world map. These two spots are from earlier games in The Elder Scrolls series and very well known to core fans, so speculation is indeed rampant as to what they’re for and why they’re in the code.
My take: Either future DLC (which would be fantastic), OR Bethsoft plans to use these areas as some sort of anniversary surprise for fans of the first four games in the series. No matter what their plans are, it’s definitely going to be a nice treat that extends the life span of this insanely long game even further…
Just a quick note to some folks out there in Internet-land who don’t quite seem to get it yet. Sometimes I write for other sites like this one. That’s the first column, there’s another to come. I’ve a couple of older columns here (such as this one.) And I still submit the occasional article to the Digital Press print ‘zine (I have a new column due around the end of November on the N-Gage as a gaming platform). I also draw a bit and take not so hot photographs. I think that’s it, but there’s much more out there.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 