Spent most of last night awake and/or passed out in the most uncomfortable chair in the universe listening to one of my younger kids vomit every fifteen minutes or so.
Earlier in the evening I spent some time trying to get Star Wars: The Old Republic working -- kind of a nightmare to get it working properly. Have there always been so many damn steps in getting an MMO registered and ready to go? But after the first full wave, that was it. I tried to get some sleep. Got some, not much. It wasn't exactly how I saw 2011 ending. Hopefully this is no indication of how 2012 will turn out. If anything, I hope it's a metaphor for purging the old to make room for the new!
That's kind of inline with my resolution for 2012: Be positive!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Batman: Arkham City screenshots *spoilers*
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| Batman tracks down Joker. |
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| The hacking mechanic is quick and easy and perfectly suited to a controller. |
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| The option here is to gag/ungag Harley. It's a good gag either way. |
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| I so wanted this sequence to turn into the classic arcade game "Toobin'." |
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| The Mad Hatter fight is a great one-off. I particularly like the detail of the rotating gears and clockwork in the centre of the platform. Plus, Batman's floppy ears remind me of Bat-Mite. |
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| Batman with a bat. |
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| The trials... pretty cool look. |
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| All the women in Arkham City tend to look very similar. Firm buttocks, plunging neckline... |
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| The lighting effects are one of Arkham City's greatest assets. |
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| Poison Ivy in all her greenery. |
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| Catwoman weighs her options as she does her best to look like a cat. |
Making and Finding: Time
Finding time and making time are really two different things.
The former makes me think of finding a quarter on the pavement. "Oh hey, money!" I just happened upon it without any kind of effort. It was a "right place, right time" situation.
The latter is something far more active and involved. It means shuffling schedules around. Maybe it means putting off what I'd really like to do for a few days (or even months) so I can make time available for it at some point in the future.
It's this distinct split between finding and making time that always springs to mind, not to mention maturity level of the writer, when a gaming forum thread is started with something along the lines of "I'm having a kid in March -- will I still be able to play video games?"
Yes, you'll be able to play games but you'll finding the time rather than making time. It becomes a matter of priority though. Speaking from my own experience, sleep, kids, wife, food, time outside, paying bills, work, etc. all pretty much take priority over gaming, not to mention my ability to update The Armchair Empire with any regularity.
If there's any time to be found it's after everyone else has gone to bed. Then I come to a fork in the road: sleep or gaming. More and more the sleep option is getting play. With five kids in the house and a wife that actually likes to have me around, sleep always seems to be in short supply so for me to make a choice to stay up late truly takes an active decision.
Recently I received a (loaner) M18x from Alienware and since it landed on my desk I've been dying to just sit down and play some games. So, during the recent Christmas holidays I finally had the chance to really dive into it with StarCraft II, Batman: Arkaham City and a little Left 4 Dead 2. Just before sitting down I had a hot shower and poured myself a bottle of La Fin Du Monde. It felt really good to just sit down and play some games for few hours with some "found" time. Of course, my evening ended close to 2:00AM and I knew I would pay for it the next day since my house is full of early risers.
The odd thing was that in the morning I didn't feel cranky. No, that came a a couple days later when I'd had successive late nights, which wasn't due to anything game-related.
Anyway, kind of away from my original point. Yes, you'll still be able to play video games when you have kids. And when they get older you may actually be able to play games with them (not limited to the electroni kind), but the moment you have kids there's definitely less opportunity to make time, which is really just a function of getting older and being more responsible.
It makes those times when you find enough time to squeeze in a few hours of gaming all the more satisfying.
The former makes me think of finding a quarter on the pavement. "Oh hey, money!" I just happened upon it without any kind of effort. It was a "right place, right time" situation.The latter is something far more active and involved. It means shuffling schedules around. Maybe it means putting off what I'd really like to do for a few days (or even months) so I can make time available for it at some point in the future.
It's this distinct split between finding and making time that always springs to mind, not to mention maturity level of the writer, when a gaming forum thread is started with something along the lines of "I'm having a kid in March -- will I still be able to play video games?"
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| Triple fermented and 9% |
If there's any time to be found it's after everyone else has gone to bed. Then I come to a fork in the road: sleep or gaming. More and more the sleep option is getting play. With five kids in the house and a wife that actually likes to have me around, sleep always seems to be in short supply so for me to make a choice to stay up late truly takes an active decision.
Recently I received a (loaner) M18x from Alienware and since it landed on my desk I've been dying to just sit down and play some games. So, during the recent Christmas holidays I finally had the chance to really dive into it with StarCraft II, Batman: Arkaham City and a little Left 4 Dead 2. Just before sitting down I had a hot shower and poured myself a bottle of La Fin Du Monde. It felt really good to just sit down and play some games for few hours with some "found" time. Of course, my evening ended close to 2:00AM and I knew I would pay for it the next day since my house is full of early risers.
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| The kids shouldn't be awake to witness the horror of a zombie apocalypse |
Anyway, kind of away from my original point. Yes, you'll still be able to play video games when you have kids. And when they get older you may actually be able to play games with them (not limited to the electroni kind), but the moment you have kids there's definitely less opportunity to make time, which is really just a function of getting older and being more responsible.
It makes those times when you find enough time to squeeze in a few hours of gaming all the more satisfying.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Strangers in the Night
For the last few days I've been riding the Skytrain/bus with my 3DS since it affords plenty of time to play Mario Kart 7. (Review coming soon!) Just 'cause, I've left Streetpass turned on. I've never had much luck making connections with StreetPass to share Mii avatars, except at E3 where the place was swarming with StreetPass information, but you never know.
Somewhere in Vancouver -- because I'm pretty sure it's happening downtown -- there's a guy (presumably) I've shared StreetPass information with a few times.
So, this morning I spent time carefully observing everyone as I went from home to work to see if I could figure out who I might be tagging. There's never been obvious signs to go on, like someone playing a 3DS. That would make it easy.
I stare at people, paying special attention to the eyes. If they look tired -- gamers all look tired, except for Victor Lucas -- then I'll try to glance at their hands. I look for thumb calluses next, because any hardcore gamer will exhibit a certain level of hardened, leathery skin close to the tips of the thumbs (or at the heel of the wrist for PC gamers). Then I check the wardrobe for game-related items. And so far I've come up empty on leads. I have no idea who is passing close enough to me to exchange Mii data and it's kind of irking me.
It's probably just be some regular dude doing the commute the same as me. And maybe he's not even that hardcore. Though he is playing Super Mario 3D Land so he must be enthusiastic about Nintendo stuff at least.
It does make me wish there was an option to have notification pop up when I've tagged a Mii avatar. Something along the lines of Xbox Live and PSN and Steam which pop up notices for everything. "BLANK is now online." "Friends using this app." How difficult would it be to flash up a note about a new Mii arriving at the Mii Plaza via StreetPass? I don't know, but Nintendo should get on that immediately. I need to know who I keep bumping into.
Somewhere in Vancouver -- because I'm pretty sure it's happening downtown -- there's a guy (presumably) I've shared StreetPass information with a few times.So, this morning I spent time carefully observing everyone as I went from home to work to see if I could figure out who I might be tagging. There's never been obvious signs to go on, like someone playing a 3DS. That would make it easy.
I stare at people, paying special attention to the eyes. If they look tired -- gamers all look tired, except for Victor Lucas -- then I'll try to glance at their hands. I look for thumb calluses next, because any hardcore gamer will exhibit a certain level of hardened, leathery skin close to the tips of the thumbs (or at the heel of the wrist for PC gamers). Then I check the wardrobe for game-related items. And so far I've come up empty on leads. I have no idea who is passing close enough to me to exchange Mii data and it's kind of irking me.
It's probably just be some regular dude doing the commute the same as me. And maybe he's not even that hardcore. Though he is playing Super Mario 3D Land so he must be enthusiastic about Nintendo stuff at least.It does make me wish there was an option to have notification pop up when I've tagged a Mii avatar. Something along the lines of Xbox Live and PSN and Steam which pop up notices for everything. "BLANK is now online." "Friends using this app." How difficult would it be to flash up a note about a new Mii arriving at the Mii Plaza via StreetPass? I don't know, but Nintendo should get on that immediately. I need to know who I keep bumping into.
Monday, December 12, 2011
The Memory Box
Every once in a while I stumble on something from my past -- a person, a forgotten place, a random item -- that kicks open the gates of nostalgia for me.
The resulting tide has actually managed to knock me backwards in time -- maybe not physically but definitely created some kind of temporal wormhole in space-time that my mind tumbles through. There are a few moments of flash memories, images, smells, feelings, thoughts and then I blink, blink, blink like the worst kind of movie cliche to bring myself back to present day.
It has happened to me once or twice as it relates to gaming, especially when it comes to the Rueben sandwiches served at a Sony event in San Francisco (in 2003) and my experience with the recent re-release of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which induced a certain amount of post-traumatic stress), but mostly those strong memories stab back into existence when I'm suddenly confronted by a person, especially when they have a kid (or kids) in tow and I realize just how much time has slipped through my fingers. Since my oldest son turned 12, this seems to be happening more and more, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact I remember so much of my pre-teen years. Especially all the girls I had crushes on! Bumping into them now -- sometimes I don't even recognize them and even with an introduction it takes my brain a few seconds to process the name, blink, blink, blink -- is jarring and it actually takes me days to shake this weird lag between my life 20+ years ago and present day where I'm closing in on 35.
I'm not sure that I'd ever want to go back to those days if I was given the chance. I kind of like the fact most of those memories are in a tidy box that opens every once in a while to remind me how far I've come (along with everyone else).
The resulting tide has actually managed to knock me backwards in time -- maybe not physically but definitely created some kind of temporal wormhole in space-time that my mind tumbles through. There are a few moments of flash memories, images, smells, feelings, thoughts and then I blink, blink, blink like the worst kind of movie cliche to bring myself back to present day.
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| Rise to Honor looked pretty damn cool in 2003. |
I'm not sure that I'd ever want to go back to those days if I was given the chance. I kind of like the fact most of those memories are in a tidy box that opens every once in a while to remind me how far I've come (along with everyone else).
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
"What's in the box" Giveaway in full swing
We've been running the "What's in the box?" Giveaway for the last six days and so far there are t-shirts from LA Noire, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, and GoldenEye Reloaded, along with copies of Skyrim (360) and the Uncharted Dual Pack (PS3).
Today's addition marks the first "What the hell?" item to be added. (Not to worry, there will be more items like it!) I included the two pieces of paper regarding the agreement for the WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos beta for a couple of reasons.
First, I couldn't believe I had them. I'd clipped them into a binder with about 3" worth of old press releases. Why? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe for the contact information on the press releases? That's my guess. Somehow that seemed easier than writing out the information or entering it into a database, maybe.
Second, it marks almost a decade since WarCraft III launched. A game that spawned not only Defense of the Ancients (or DOTA as it's more commonly known), which in some sense was responsible for the likes of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, but was ultimately the precursor to the massively successful World of WarCraft. In that light, it's an interesting document to hold in my hands. By the very fact that it's a couple of pieces of paper rather than an online form, makes it significant. People stopped using paper for these kinds of things a long time ago so it's kind of cool to have a physical thing to hold and look at.
With the move to digital, ten years from now this kind of documentation will be unheard of and that actually scares me a little, even if it means less clutter in my basement.
Having something exist out there in the cloud doesn't make me feel very good. That feel of the page between my fingers makes it much more real. I have a feeling I won't get the same warmth of nostalgia when I click by the Terms of Service without a blink.
First, I couldn't believe I had them. I'd clipped them into a binder with about 3" worth of old press releases. Why? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe for the contact information on the press releases? That's my guess. Somehow that seemed easier than writing out the information or entering it into a database, maybe.
Second, it marks almost a decade since WarCraft III launched. A game that spawned not only Defense of the Ancients (or DOTA as it's more commonly known), which in some sense was responsible for the likes of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, but was ultimately the precursor to the massively successful World of WarCraft. In that light, it's an interesting document to hold in my hands. By the very fact that it's a couple of pieces of paper rather than an online form, makes it significant. People stopped using paper for these kinds of things a long time ago so it's kind of cool to have a physical thing to hold and look at.
With the move to digital, ten years from now this kind of documentation will be unheard of and that actually scares me a little, even if it means less clutter in my basement.
Having something exist out there in the cloud doesn't make me feel very good. That feel of the page between my fingers makes it much more real. I have a feeling I won't get the same warmth of nostalgia when I click by the Terms of Service without a blink.
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