Arivall’s and Departures

Ever felt by yourself, even while surrounded by a group of 30+ people? How about the whole world going 60 MPH, while you’re stuck at 5? Yep, that’s me.

And that’s our emo segment of today’s blog.

I’m dead tired. Was up until 4am last night writing for school for the yearbook. Obviously, I wasn’t working too hard and decided to go discover some music.

First, I found some band called The Maine, not really all that amazing, but they did do a cover of Akon’s I Wanna Love You, some of the lyrics were out of place. But it’s MUCH better than the original, even if it is a giant practical joke on me.

After them, I found another band called Every Avenue. At first, they weren’t too great, but after listening to them throughout the day — they’re pretty damn good. Definitely worth a listen, if you’re into the same kind of music as me. You know, the awesome kind.

The anticipation of tonight’s Lost, which I’ll watch online tomorrow because I’m HD-spoiled and we don’t get ABC-HD. Speaking of which, do you know how hard it is to avoid Lost spoilers for 24 hours!? Really, really, really, really, really hard. That’s a lot of really’s.

Whoa, I veered off course there. The point I was trying to make was how dumb it was getting and how amazingly quick the writers can pull me back in. Just a note for non-Lost junkies you may wanna skip a few paragraphs and see if I’ve finished blabbing.

That asian ghostbuster annoys me. Why does he need a damn heavy-duty Black and Decker vaccume to talk to the dead? And how do they parachute out of a helicopter, especially at such a low altitude? And countless other fuck ups that could’ve been solved with common sense (Charlie’s death) that I don’t have the time or stomach for right now.

And the part that annoys me the most is when they air episodes like “The Economist“, it pulls me right back in. I’m not gonna go into too many details for fear of spoilers, but it was a damn intelligent twist, one that I figured out almost immediately, I was just wrong about the most important part of the twist — the manipulator. Looking back, it’s a little obvious.

And through this episode we’re given one more member of the Oceanix Six. You know who it is if you watched it, and I have two solid guesses at who the two that make it off are, I’m thinking Sawyer and Locke, or Sun and Jin. Not based on anything but my less than cognitive reasoning.

It’s been a long day and I think I’m gonna kill it here, there’s a couch that looks like it’ll perfectly contour to my body and I think I’ve earned myself a nap.

Yes, really. No game stuff today, even though yesterday Microsoft dropped a few bombs. I’d yap on, but I’d rather sleep.

I’m forseeing a shorter than usual blog this time.

GDC week is kicking my ass. Over at Ripten, it’s me and a few other people. Dylan’s kicking ass with the news, Geslani would be helpful if he’d do anything besides call me ‘newb’ and try to keep his sister as far away from me as possible. And I’m doing my best to get around as much bullshit (i.e. school) as possible so that I can make time to write.

And while I’m busy busting my ass to get some content up on the site, Zungre reviews a pepto-like energy drink, Dan spills his GDCness all over us (so jealous), and Chad photographs Podolsky with his alcohol face and what very well could be Angelina Jolie at some ‘Zeemote’ party.

Glad to see they’re having working hard.

Well, it looks like HD-DVD is officially dead; those Toshiba guys pulled out and Blu-Ray ‘wins’. I had my money on Blu-Ray the entire time (I swear!) and it was mostly just because of the name, that and because of PS3 support.

I’m just waiting for all my content to go the way of Steam; digital distribution kicks total ass.

I think I have a cold, I’m a little sniffly. Good thing I have 1UP Yours and GFW Radio alllll week long. The ones that came out last night were uhhhhh-mazing, 1UP Yours had Lorne Lanning and Amy Hennig.

Following 1UP Yours, I turned on the first of the week’s GFW Radio that alongside the regular crew, minus a Ryan Scott and Sean Molloy,  Although, Robert Ashley was there. So I guess it’s kinda like a regular GFW, but not at all! Special guests for the first of the GFW’s was Warren Spector and Paul Wedgewood.

What ensued were two different sets of conversations about the our industry. 1UPY focused mostly on the narrative/writing process that goes into games. While, GFW keyed in on Warren’s and Paul’s  thoughts as long-time developers. Both, were great. You should absolutely have a listen, whether or not you can make the time.

Can’t really remember who’s gonna be on tomorrow, but I don’t think I’ll be too upset about the whoever show up.

Speaking of podcasts, former GameSpotter’s, Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis decided to start a “podcast” called the Arrow Pointing Down, not really sure what they mean by the name. The sound quality is shit, or as some like to call it; Skype. Thanks guys, I appreciate the effort, but until it’s not a Skype conversation about Gatorade, I’m not good with you calling this a podcast.

Oh and as a tease for some upcoming content, I came up with a totally unoriginal idea for the little self-assigned project of documenting typical moments of a typical day in my life through pictures and words. I probably shouldn’t have called that a tease because it’s not gonna be anything special, just something I wanted to do.

And since you’re not paying for this, I have no qualms about giving you an abrupt ending that has no smooth transition or any connection to the previous words you just read.

Good day.

Argh, I just reminded myself how kick ass it’d be to have a British or Austrailian accent.

Hmm, this was longer than I expected.

I’m so superficial.

Okay, bye.

 UPDATE: Project done.

I’ve been gone for a while — not that you care or anything, but there are pretty good reasons for it. In the words of the ever-lyrical T.I. “Big shit poppin’.

First of all, I got a new phone. An AT&T Tilt, this thing lets me do a metric-fuck ton of other things that a phone shouldn’t be able nor allowed to do. Like creating a Word document and sending it out in the middle of my English III class. I Don’t have internet access unless I there’s WiFi, but even so, it’s a damn nice phone. I’m pretty comfortable to type on, and amazingly small for the utility it provides.

Secondly, I got a “new” 360 yesterday from Microsoft, as my slightly post-launch 360 finally gave in to the dreaded three flashing lights, I hardly knew ye.

But there is good news, after two weeks of staring at Burnout: Paradise and DMC4, Microsoft joined forces with Fed-Ex to home deliver a replacement so that I may resume my home console experience.

While my 360 was gone, my PC was getting a ton more attention than it’s used to. Played through Half-Life 2: Episode Two again, still one of my favorite games of all time, so amazing. And a toooon of World of Warcraft, it’s stupid the amount of time I’ve logged in WoW through the past three months, I’m almost afraid to type in ‘”played”.

Now, back to console land. First thing I did was shove in Devil May motherfucking Cry 4, this is how Capcom is getting their groove back (along with a little thing called Resident Evil 5). Keep in mind that I’m a Devil May Cry virgin. In most games cutscenes tend to not do it for me in most games, usually they just take me out of the experience, but what I’ve seen out of DMC4 so far is pure brilliance — the graphical fidelity, camera angles, transitions, voices, music, and over-
the-top stylish action all come together to create a cohesive success that I would easily reccomend to anyone.

The game itslef reminds me that it’s been far too long since I’ve played a fast paced third person action game. As long as it keeps it’s smooth 60 FPS, the fights are pretty intense and in conjunction with the pacing makes it a damn good game, so far. I don’t wanna in essensce review the thing because I’m not very far and it’s possible that it’ll all fall apart - ahem, Crysis. But I will say that Nero is a fucking great character, he’s a complete badass abd he’s made me chuckle a few times already. I think I may like hime more than Dante.

Shit-fuck. Now I want Devil May Cry, cursing makes it feel better.

And most importantly, Ripten.com, the place that’s giving me a chance to have my words looked at, praised, criticised, and read. (i.e. not here) The founder, Chady Lakkis is one determined guy. He started Ripten about nine months ago, I’ve joined the team and have been contributing on a near-daily basis since.

At first, I wasn’t so keen on the idea of news reporting — I was sure that game reviewing was gonna be my thing, but I gotta say, I don’t think I’d be against being a news editor for a gaming publication.

I’m veering of course again, I need sleep. Math class is soon, should be able to get some there.

Back to Ripten, we recently had a redesign and it looks damn sexy, if I do say so myself. We’ve also added a forum, everything’s shaping up well and We’re doing great. some interesting things are going on right now, especially with GDC coming up. I won’t be going (damnit!) but we will be covering it.

Now, I may be a little biased, but Ripten has a lot of potential and a ton of promise. This is something I’m proud to be a part of. Huge shouts go out to the Ripten team. And special shout to Chad who has put me in a position where I am published and viewed and viewed internationally. I owe it to you, man.

That about covers it, for now. I’ll see about writing on a more regular basis, but I don’t wanna promise anything to all one of you. Not sure if I’ll have time and false hope=not good. If you really love me and want to support me, then head on over to Ripten.com

/plug