04/19/2012

“Games will never know how much we love them.” – Kurt Bieg

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

A quick update!

Yesterday (which was, as of this writing, a little less than an hour ago) was my birthday! I am officially level 35. Holy crap.

Thanks to EVERYONE for all the super kind birthday texts, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts! I truly appreciate every single one! Have been going through a somewhat rough patch (for reasons that are neither here no there), so they really did brighten up my day : )

Along with all the well wishes, some super rad pics, vids, and animated gifs were part of the package. Though my favorite my have to be this image, courtesy of Mike Nowak?

Well, did I do anything special for my birthday? Not really. Other than dinner with some close pals (which included corn dogs, always a favorite), was business as usual: fulfilled my freelance obligations for the day (okay, maybe a little less than usual), took care of some COMICS VS GAMES business, and played some games.

Finally gave Gundam Extreme Versus a spin (it came highly recommended by Ollie, and has not disappointed thus far), along with the PC version of Sword & Sworcery (which I didn’t get the chance to address during my big PAX East rundown for MSNBC, but was eventually able to bring up), and collected a few more cubes in Fez. In case you haven’t heard, it’s well worth the wait!

Oh, and I came super close to, since it was my birthday and all, buying a plane ticket to Japan. No joke. Why? Because I want to see the Katsuhiro Otomo exhibition in the worst way possible?

More pics can be seen here. BTW, if anyone reading this is in Japan and able to get me some of the take homes from the show, please email me.

Anyhow, back to PAX: I also finally got the chance to snap pics of my haul, including my two new game related tees at the moment, both by Fangamer of course! First we have the Gaming Loop?

And second, Polyplay?

I love how both were basically the result of Jon, FG’s design chief, just screwing around. Insane! And here’s one from a few days ago, but which I forgot to pass along until now; it’s Tiny of Tiny Cartridge fame!

? Which is part of the Tiny Cart Sticker Pack! Sure pretties up a Acekard 2i, that’s for damn sure! And here’s all at once, is the rest of my loot from Boston?

Thanks again to Kari Fry for the awesome caricature! And lastly, remember my “pathos” filled Katamari cosplay pic from last time? Well, it’s a big hit!

After being featured on both GamOvr and Kotaku, plus being featured on Tumblr, it has since made the rounds at 4chan and Reddit, who all gave it their stamp of approval?

Also had Kurt Bieg (who makes awesome iOS games, and you should buy them all, this very second) ask for a high res copy, to be used as a computer desktop. Which is where the quote above comes from. Wise words!

Oh, one more thing, and mostly because I keep forgetting to pass it along (till now), which I’m confident some out there will dig it: remember how awesome video game commercials were in the 90s? I sure as hell do.

FYI, the list is meant to be read backwards, since it’s chronological, but my editor over at Heavy had different ideas. Still works though! Mostly.

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