tentativeness..

what's up community, long long time. As usual, much business has kept me from appearing in here. As I build some lights, I'll take a couple moments to contribute, then.

  Very busy for me lately, work-wise. As usual I can't get into the specifics in this rather public area, but a lot of ups and downs for me professionally, lately. Things are pretty quiet with our studio publicly, but I'll say this much - we're very busy on all fronts. I checked out the "other game" (Aliens) a little -- well, from a distance -- and it's still got my eye.. very interesting.

  SO, what's up in gaming for me... well, I guess I have a lot to say. I will write on it later, but here's a quick rundown - I got my hands on Mario Galaxy, which everyone lOOooOOooOOoves, I admit it's fun (though I get tired of that stuff!). I downloaded Sega/Bizarre's demo for "The Club" shooter the other night, anxious to go home and give it a spin. Also I hear the demo for Devil May Cry 4 is supposed to be out as well. Last night the office picked up a copy of No More Heroes, a title I have been looking very forward to.. I might pick it up! As expected, it's got some nice style. There's some things I would love to change about it - I hope it does well, they need to make more games in that vein. Give me more Godhand!

  Mostly I have been playing an abundance of Pacman:Championship Edition on Xbox Live. This game is completely addicting! I was a Pacman freak when I was a little kid, but that was ohh.. so many years ago (like, more than twenty!) I enjoyed a resurgence with a serious Ms. Pacman kick shortly after moving to Los Angeles, my girlfriend at the time and I would often go to the local watering hole and sit down in front of the cocktail machine and just live in front of it for a couple of hours. So when I heard of this new version I was quite skeptical, as many were. Even playing the demo, I didn't really get "the point." For whatever reason, I took the plunge and dropped my ten bucks for the full version, and yeah, NOW I see the point! It's so amazing to me how they could take such a tired, old theme and completely reinvigorate it like this, the same old game feels so fresh and new. I would love to see more old titles mined in such a way for fresh gameplay. It kind of supports my general gaming philosophy, which I have trumpted for awhile - there's lots of wonderful gameplay conventions, already established, which have been sitting around completely ignored for too long - while the general gaming scene continues to get further cluttered with countless me-too rehashes with upgraded graphics. B A H ! ! !

  Anyway, yah. The game is fun. I keep looking on Live to see what else will come down the pipe in my new favorite delivery method for burst gaming - so far, too much of it seems littered with blatant Geometry Wars ripoffs (yeah the game is good but come on, do we really need eight thousand of them?) I am hoping to see more 2D-style shooters. Omega Five was an interesting Forgotten Worlds style title (though it did not feel too fun, still I appreciate the principle). Rez HD, of course, is being prepped for release (though I doubt I need it, as I have the quite-capable DC version already - and no HD system to need to punch it through). Interested in Capcom's upcoming Commando 3, and of course Bionic Commando (we'll talk on that one later!)