And now for the fun part..

"Deck the halls". "Jingle Bells". "Theres no chance in hell I'm kissing you, even under the mistletoe" I've pretty much heard them all, meaning that xmas is lacking in sufficient surprises. What is always a pleasent jump every year is the 26th, a.k.a. Boxing Day.

Last year was pretty disappointing when it came to Boxing Day sales for me. Just out of high school, unemployed, almost no holiday money, no online purchasing ability and not getting to shops until late in the afternoon. Oh sure I managed a single obscure PS2 rpg, but in the days of 'HD' and 'sixaxis' more was needed.

Now that the budget has opened up to cover almost all major platforms, the excitement bug is jumping around inside me. Or maybe its because everyone at work is complaining about how much they hate xmas that Boxing Day is the last holiday of 2008 that hasn't been hated on by the masses. But all these 'happy holidays' n 'merry hanukkah' aside, there is something that is sorta bugging looking at potential purchases this week. There is too much shit to buy and play released every yearly fourth quater!

In short, I will have to skip on most of the big AAA+ hype releases. And for once its not about cost factor, there just isn't enough time to get through them all. Now that I can finally get off my rear end and start reviewing again its asking too much of one man to deal with an entire holiday release schedule (and all the other stuff throughout the year that he's missed from not having a PS3)

I'll have to just play it out and see what ends up in my shopping bags on Friday, so til then

Cheers

Anybody Home?

I know what you are thinking. Yet another 'zomg home is broken!' rant to join the other eleventy billion out there, cause we just needed one more don't we < /sarcasm >

However, my experience with home today, while brief, was a lot less broken then others. So suffice to say, while I was quick to get into Home, I was quick to get out of it. I guess when you are an Australian on our internet, 3D virtal worlds aren't going to be embracing us with open arms so much as keeping us out of the Town Square while taking half an hour to download the area.

Before realizing that I would be stuck in my apartment for my visit to Home, the system itself seems quite simple, if a bit limited. While trying to create a virtual nobody to match my own likeness I realized something: The character creation tools made available barely surpass the Mii Channel in variety and you would have to be VERY drunk to mistake the virtual me for the real deal. Hopefully more freebie options are made available for character creation, since I don't want to pay real world money just to get my correct hair/eye colour (and one more thing Sony, why do all but 2 of the face options look like neanderthal men?)

As I'm too cheap for a headset and too lazy to find a USB keyboard I spent about 5 minutes running around my lightly furnished apartment (that I could only dream about matching in location and style) yelling to the room that I do not have a headset of keyboard. By the time I realized the men in the crazy mobile wern't coming to put me in a straight jacket and socially interact with me I proceeded to dance the robot and leave Home until the day when my internet connection can manage the task of getting me out of my apartment.

So in short, hopeful and potential. But even for a day 1 beta over 2 years in the making I feel a little disappointed. But at least I can sleep easy at night knowing that Senator Conroy is jumping for joy at the idea of Australia with an internet so broken he could spend his days in office swimming in piles of hate mail/death threats.

Cheers for now

By popular demand

So yea, at the request of the masses I have to write stuff here. Quite a bit has come n gone this last month so its about time I was given this little push in the general direction of the keyboard.

Now as I am still a student, reenrollment was the second biggest thing from the tafe side of news in recent weeks (the biggest being my recieving an award for my awesomeness) and looks like I'll be quite a bit busier next year then I ever was in 2008. Aside from the two core subjects I can look forward to doing practical placement in some building of professional writing peoples (no idea where yet), non-fiction writing project, myths and symbols and professional publishing. So yea, bit of a jump from the 4 subjects I blugged my way through this year.

The one that I'm generally paying most attention to for 09 is non-fiction writing, because as the good nerd I am I will be continuing the writing of the videya games in that class. Instead of a full book I've been given the ok to write a series of essays on a particular subject, so the plan is for a series of essays with each detailing the growth n elements of specific game genres. As it stands now I unsure which few will get the special class treatment so I'm open to requests, will report on more about this later in the holidays.

And to end the suspence on what is going on about getting a 360 or PS3 I shall bring it to a close here and now. First on the list will be the PS3 this upcoming week thanks to a surprisingly good deal from Harvey Norman (of all places!) for an 80GB console with LittleBigPlanet, collectors edition Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge and blu ray copy of Casino Royal. The 360 is still on hold until at least another $100 is wiped off the pro bundle prices. Yes the system is cheap enough now, but for something that is going to stay offline (thanks to no built in wifi) it doesn't deserve $400 price tag. That and the bundled games don't interest me, at least not compared to some of the other bundles going on around the world.

So there ya have it, you happy Jordan!

Cheers

P.S. In a vein attempt to look more professional there is a new contact email for the potential new clients. Email is nobodygaming@gmail.com (and dont worry others who know me, ill be using the ol email for personal use still)