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• 24Aug 08

  Alive

  This is one of those posts that I've been trying to write for weeks, one of these posts that I wonder if I should make at all because at the end of the day it straddles that line between personal and important and while the previous sentence doesn't make any sense right now I'm sure I hope over the next couple of paragraphs it'll all become a little clearer and I can finally get this down in writing.

  About four weeks ago sometime early Monday morning my parents woke me up. That in itself isn't so weird, but I remember not only being tired, but pretty irritated because they were being so pushy about it. My parents sat me and my younger brother down in the living room and gave me some of the most unbelievable news possible...

  My two best friends and their girlfriends had decided to go on a trip to Kings Island in Cincinnati for a weekend since they had enjoyed Lollapalooza so much last year and of course just on general principles. I hadn't thought anything of it really because I hadn't managed to get a job, and the prospect of spending $300+ for something like that just didn't seem financially smart, so I didn't. So they went, and I stayed in Nashville. Nothing about this situation is any different than any other trip or excursion with my friends other than the fact that I had decided not to come along. While returning to Nashville, around 8, somewhere in northern Kentucky, their car crossed the median and hit a oncoming tractor trailer, suffice it to say no one survived but the driver of the tractor trailer. We still don't know what happened, other than it wasn't drugs or alcohol, all I know was the end result. I lost four friends that night, that was the difference, and that morning it felt like I had lost two brothers. It's hard to convey the feelings I had for these people, but suffice it to say that we were about as close as unrelated people should be and still have lives of their own, if that makes any sense. I knew both them throughout middle school and high school and their girlfriends both graduated from the same school and while I didn't know them quite as well, this Summer was certainly changing that, as painful as that is. All of these people were in the prime of life with so much more to to do and live for that it makes my head spin if I think about it too long. This just isn't something that you think about or prepare for, I figured I would grow old with these people, that I'd be at their weddings, that they might be at mine, that I would graduate with my friend Ryan who was attending SCAD, etc, etc, etc. So many plans, so many things left undone and yet I was sitting in my living room left with this unnatural, unreal, truth, half expecting my parents to be playing some sort of horrible joke on me, but they obviously weren't. So, it's been a hard couple of weeks and one heck of a emotional roller coaster. I've been working thankfully, but it hasn't stopped me from feeling awful at times. I'm not sure where all my sadness and anger comes from, it's not like they were my son or daughter, but it's there and I know that I care about these people and I know they cared about me too.

  So, why am I writing about this now? What do I hope to gain from this post of mine...well, I'm not sure. I'm certainly not asking for anything but your thoughts. Because if theirs anything that I've learned through this is that everyone handles tragedies like this differently and talking about this is the best thing you can do.

  Thanks all.

  • Posted Aug 24, 2008 9:52 pm PT
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• 21Jul 08

  Anything But

  

  Wow, you'd think someone lit a fire under the collective ass of the GameSpot community and threw them to the wind. I mean, to be fair Giant Bomb has a rediculous amount of potential and in just one day their are already almost 9,000 registered users, but sheesh. I can't say I'm 'moving' to Giant Bomb, but certainly I'll be spending a good bit of time over in the near future and obviously if everybody is there then, well...

  Send me a friend request if you'd like.

  • Posted Jul 21, 2008 10:01 pm PT
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• 15Jul 08

  Nintendo Media Briefing

  

  So why is this post so much shorter than yesterdays Microsoft's summary you may ask? Well, Nintendo really did not have much to talk about, at least in comparison to Microsoft.... who really didn't have to much to show (games wise) either. Awesome.

  

  Really the biggest thing coming out of this conference was the major "paradigm shift" from core to non-gamers. As much as they talked about satisfying both they really ended up cementing the fact in this fans mind that Nintendo as a whole has started to move away from their core franchises/fans and started to cater much more heavily to all those people who buy hundreds of millions of Wii's and DS's worldwide, which obviously makes sense from a business perspective. Of course if your one of those people who actually enjoys Nintendos core games (the Zeldas, the Marios, the Metroids, etc) this media briefing was pretty underwhelming.

  

  Their was a brief glimmer of hope when Iwata referred to Nintendos R&D teams, that they will continue to make games for the hardcore audience, but their was nothing to show for it. If anything the closest thing they had to a announcement resembling something that you and I might want to play was Animal Crossing: City Folk and the new Motion Plus Wiimote add-on. It almost felt like a E3 06 scenario where Sony announces the Sixaxis out of nowhere and developers when asked if they will incorporate the new 'tilt' functionality of the Sixaxis respond with a resounding "Um, yeah, probably." Why announce something like the Motion Plus and and at the same time have nothing to show for it? I'm not saying they shouldn't of announced it at all because then they REALLY wouldn't of had anything to show. I'm not discounting Wii Music here, but again, from the perspective of someone who does not own a Wii nor has any interest in Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades or Pokemon Ranger this Media Briefing was mostly devoid of significant games announcements. Overall in my mind Nintendos showing was almost non-existent and really as with all the big three I'm much more interested to see if their will be any larger announcements outside the briefings or at other publishers briefings as that has been the trend thus far.

  Oh, and I'm sorry, but I think they could of toned down on the use of "paradigm shift", too many buzz words guys.

  [Photos taken from Joystiq/Engadget]

  • Posted Jul 15, 2008 11:25 am PT
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