The PD Chronicles

Quite honestly, I hate getting excited about a game.  The reason for this is because I do have a rather vivid and creative imagination, despite what might be apparent when talking to me, and therefore it makes it nearly impossible for my expectations for any game to be fully realized.  I don't blame game developers for this nonsense.  It's just the way things are.

For example, my expectations for Krater can be summed up basically as such: "A top-down, co-op Fallout ARPG."  That's hardly the case.

So when I read about all these games that are coming out in the near future from now until that dreaded holiday season, I find my inner-voice yelling at me, telling me to stop getting so damned excited.  I hate that voice.  Logic and reason are sometimes a pain in my ass, despite how much I rely on them.

How about I give you a few examples of some games that are coming out soon, and we'll see how things pan out in a couple of months.

The one largest in my mind's e…

I don't like leaving a considerable amount of time in between my posts here.  Anything more than a week, I feel, is unacceptable.  That's been happening more often for a number of reasons, though.  The biggest is simply that the amount of time I have for such things is at an all time low.  Work has been a consistent and irritating thing lately, and demanding more and more of my already precious time.  There's nothing for it.  We're talking first world problems here.  What do you do when the alternative is unemployment and financial troubles?  You grin and bear it, of course.  This is me grinning.

The other and admittedly more minor reason for the sparseness of my posts here is simply the fact that I don't have much to say these days.  There are plenty of things I -could- talk about, of course.  But I've got a major case of CBA.

One of the things I've noticed is that more and more, it seems like my ideas, my opinions, whatever you want to call them, seem to …

An ongoing discussion that I've had with both myself and John is the topic of modifications to games.  Basically, I'd been at a loss for reasons to explain why I don't like mods.  It's a very odd opinion to have, because the ability to modify a game is a pretty central and important part of PC gaming.  It's probably the second most defining trait of the platform, and the second most important thing that makes PC gaming superior to console gaming.  (The first, naturally, is the ability to use the most state-of-the-art technology for far superior graphics and performance.)

I believe I have finally nailed down my distaste for mods.  And it happened today as I was reading an article about Day Z.

In a nutshell, the BIGGEST problem I have with mods when they change a game so completely that it becomes a totally different game.  And it's not that actual evolution that bothers me, but the problems that come with it.  Day Z is a perfect example, and as such, it's nec…

Sometimes, all you can do is chuckle and move on with your day.  I haven't had the best of days, but I'm sitting here with a smile on my face regardless.  It really wasn't all that bad until I got a meeting invite at work for 4:30 PM.  This irritated me because, well, that's when I -leave- the office for the day.  My day is over at 4:30 PM.

The meeting was really short, but the consequences of it kept me at the office for another hour and a half.  The fact that I had to do work wasn't was irritated me, though, it was the question of why it had taken until the end of the day to give me this work.  And the answer of course is simple:  Everyone's in a fucking rush to get the software release out on time.  It amazes me, because QA isn't even my job.  Funny that.

Things went from bad to worse when I got home.  I walk through the door and my mother is crying excessively.  Apparently there was a bird in the house, which apparently is bad luck, which apparently mea…

I had an incredibly horrific dream the other night.  My teeth were falling out.  And sadly, it wasn't just a case of them falling out.  Naturally, my brain had to go into the most visceral amount of detail that it possibly could.  The first tooth to go was my top left canine.  I reached up, wiggled it, and pulled it right out.  Blood began to gush.  The opposite top canine was next, but it broke off.  I distinctly remember digging the rest of it out with a fingernail.  I then remember pulling my cheek out a bit, and being able to see right down to my jawbone.  

Needless to say, I was quite happy to wake up.

First and foremost, I apologize for that title.  Depending on what kind of person you are, it was either a lame parody of a classic Christmas song or a very bad penis joke.

I spent a little bit of time outside this afternoon, and while I was out there I decided to take a few pictures of the current state of the garden.  It was a bit funny, too, because today is a partly cloudy day.  I was running around trying to snap pictures every time the sun would peek out from the clouds, so that the lighting would be correct.  
In any case, I took these pictures more for my own benefit because I enjoy looking back and seeing just how far things have come from the time I planted everything up to when things are in full bloom.  But I figured there's no harm in sharing the images.  Hopefully if I remember to do so, I'll take more shots in the summer when things should be at their height.  (Again, stop with the penis jokes.)

This first image is an interesting little flower that I found while p…

The original Max Payne came out in 2001, and it was something special.  I remember getting the game in the store.  A hard copy of it, of course.  It came in a DVD case, and it was one of the first games that I'd ever seen ship that way.  It was poetic justice, I think, given how much the game made you feel like you were playing a movie.  That was 11 years ago.

The reason why I knew this game was special was because of how often I replayed it.  Obviously I didn't play it for as many hours as, say, Fallout or Skyrim.  But then, it's not that type of game, now is it?  Fallout and Skyrim are designed to give you a HUGE, STAGGERING amount of content.  I've only started from the beginning in Skyrim twice.  For Fallout, I've started a new character maybe three times.  I've played through all of the original Max Payne at least a dozen times.  For a game that is exactly the same every time you play it, that is really saying something.  I've probably only replayed on…