Hey all. I just wanted to point out that I've setup a new personal domain and with it, a new blog.
It's something I've been thinking of doing for a while and after fiddling with it for a few weeks in private, I think I'm finally ready to start letting folks in. Vox has been good to me, but the idea of a gated community doesn't quite appeal to me anymore, especially with where I'm taking things in the next year. Thanks!
Truly, this shall be the best of both worlds.
Seeing as how Jericho was released day-and-date on GameTap today, I can't seem to get away from it. Even as I type, the pulsating orifices and fly vomit that make up the chapter select screen ooze over the monitor behind me. Make no mistake about it, Jericho is a gross game, but it's also pretty damn sweet. Our fearless leader described it as "Ghost Recon in Hell." Fair enough, really. I haven't played much of it myself, but it's on my to-do list for the week.
A list that actually consisted of one title: The Orange Box. After tearing my way through Portal on day one, I've made it my personal mission to force my way through the Half-Life 2 series. I use the term "force" because I honestly couldn't stand it. To me, Half-Life 2 was about 8 hours of horridly paced "meh," highlighted by a few, brief glimpses of brilliance. That said, I was glad to have polished it off for a third and probably final time.
Half-Life 2: Episode One, on the other hand: wow. The first 10 minutes of it were easily more entertaining than the entirety of Half-Life 2. It makes me want some sort of roller coaster based off the series in the style of Disneyland's Indiana Jones. I'm not sure how I'll take to Valve's inability to tell a story for a second time around, but I hear its worth it for Episode Two.
Monday's aren't that hard. At least, not until you go to Chili's for lunch and land yourself smackdab in a food coma.
Shelby and I swung by our local Toys R' Us this weekend to take a late advantage of their buy two games, get one free event. We had a good idea of what we were looking for but our hopes were low. It was the last day of the sale, after all.
I quickly found one of the games I was looking for: Project Gotham Racing 4. Shelby was on the hunt for Eternal Sonata, but as it turns out that store "never even got a single copy" according to the game jockey behind the counter. Instead, she settled for Drawn to Life for the DS. This left us to our free game.
The problem should be obvious. Seeing as how she had to settle for her choice, pickings were definitely slim. We already own most of the great, recent titles and we weren't in the market for a fourth (!) copy of Halo 3. I contemplated getting the (shoddy) port of PaRappa the Rapper for PSP, but thought better of it. Defeated, we got hopped in line and decided to just pass on a free game.
At the counter, however, the game jockey wasn't about to let that happen. "You have to get something" she pleaded. "Anything to take advantage of it. That's why you're here!"
Utterly frazzled, my eyes darted about the glass window behind her. Blue Dragon ... too easy! Final Fantasy Tactics ... too hard! Time slows as the eyes of the shopkeep cast judgement upon my hesitation. Shelby tugs on jacket, wondering why we're not eating ice cream already. Somewhere, a baby cries.
"NINETY NINE NIGHTS!" I blurt out.
Stunned, I black out and come to at home. A mint flavored ice cream shake frosting my hand. I initially thought that I had given the Gooch a sale for his Dynasty Warriors rip-off, but it was not to be.
Drawn to Life was more expensive.
As you guys know, I was a staff writer for a very prominent gaming blog for a while. As such, I spent just as much time in Photoshop as I did my word processor and like most folks in my position, I just couldn't seem to keep Peter Moore out of the equation. I knew he read our site and so I always looked forward to meeting him, but I always seemed to miss my opportunity.
EA held an event in San Francisco tonight, focusing on their sports line-up so naturally, Peter was there. My boss ushers me up to him and says, "I'd like to introduce you to someone. This here is Jared-"
"Hey Jared!" shouts Peter, "Great to meet you!"
He takes my hand and completely obliterates it in his own. My eyes widen and with each crack of cartilege, I realize that I am shaking a hand that has shook the world.
"Holy ****!" I yelp, "That's one strong-ass shake!"
"That's how you've got to do it," he tells me. Again, he grabs my hand and proceeds to grind up what's left of my bones into paste. "You've got to have a strong grip! That way the men will respect you and the women will love you for it."
He winks.
"Well, the women, not so much, but you've got to impress the guys."
I tell him about what I've done with his digital face and he fondly recalls the time when I made a Valentine's Day card out of his infamous tattoo and thanks me for the hard work. And my Mom said I'd never get anywhere with these video games.
I replaced a few of the links around here and played around with the wording elsewhere. Don't look for my name in the by-line of a Joystiq story anytime soon as I've left the world of blogging and moved on to a more interesting venture. As of today, I am the new community coordinator for GameTap. It sounds like a community management position, but it's actually much more complicated than that. Needless to say, things are about to get very interesting around here.
More so than how I spent my weekend: playing Halo 3. I'm now a Grade 1 Sergeant and Lukems owes me not one, but two steak dinners. My file share is filled with awesomeness for you to queue up, including a grenade stick that could only be described as epic.
Get hype time never seems to end.
My press copy of Halo 3 arrived today and seeing as how reviews are under embargo, I'll refrain from giving my opinion on it. Instead, allow me to show you what Shelby and I were up to this week in preparation to finish the fight.
Other than that, I'll be back later in the day to link to the official impressions over on Joystiq.
