Since I had a small surplus of vacation time to spend before losing them at the end of this month (my one year anniversary working at SVA), I’ve just been laying low, mostly staying close to home, and getting some much needed rest (especially with so much on the horizon in the coming weeks). Didn’t do anything too exciting other than hang with a few friends, see some movies (which I’ve been meaning to talk about, but that’s for another time), and play some games (mostly old Saturn and Dreamcast titles… as hard as I try, and as good as I was with Radiant Silvergun, I totally suck at Ikaruga).
Perhaps the only “exciting” thing to report from the past few days was wondering when the pull was going to be plugged on this site. As mentioned before, this journal seems to enjoy a very healthy readership, which is still a total shock to myself; I had simply assumed I was just talking to myself, especially since my posts seem to generate zero comments, though that’s starting to change bit by bit (by the way, I hope the previous statement was not interrupted as a thinly veiled plea for comments, cuz it’s not… I fucking hate it when people pander themselves like that). So when I got notice from my web host that I had exceeded my allotted amount of traffic, I was afraid the site would go dead at any minute (and since it was the weekend, there was no way to contact anyone about it).
So with that in mind, I investigated some possible alternative outlets to utilize just in case. The most logical alternative was to use the blog function of my 1UP page, which I had only played around with on a minimal level beforehand. But the thing is… and I know I might a ton of shit for saying this publicly, but… the entire 1UP site is a complete mess. On the technical/performance side, it’s slow and buggy as hell; I have a more than competent computer and connection speed, as well as a variety of browsers, but to no avail. Even if it did work like it should, the overall look and feel of the main site is piss poor (I can’t believe Ziff Davis saw what IGN did with their recent make over and used that as something to work towards). It’s virtually impossible to find anything, from the stuff you expect, to cool things worth stumbling across; I know that there’s a ton of great writing going on, but unless you have the direct link to whichever writer, you’ll never know it. Maybe this is by design, to help foster the site’s goal to create a “gamers’ community” by encouraging world of mouth, but… whatever, I think I’ll stop here before I really incriminate myself.
Though I feel that I have to mention this: one thing which I thought was cool was the ability to upload a listing of one’s game collection, But it’s pretty retarded when you can only list titles that are in the databanks; I have Sparkster for the Genesis, but only the SNES version is listed. Plus I have tons of obscure PSone imports, and there’s no means to modify or add your own titles. Lame. So don’t expect any updates until they fix things, or I find myself very, very bored.
But I guess none of that matters anyways; after the weekend, I was finally to speak with my provider and the situation has been resolved. I know I’ve bitched a lot about 1and1‘s customer service in the past, but I will say this: their rates are simply phenomenal.
Also, thanks to my previous post, I am now a member of the Internet Archive’s staff (actually, just someone with admin privileges, but still…). Seems what I wrote impressed one particular visitor of this blog, who also happens to be the Archive’s administrator (and editor for one of the best places anywhere for gaming news, and easily the most underrated, Slashdot games). Soon I’ll be doing write ups on games which I find noteworthy, so keep any eye on the “Staff Picks” found on this page.
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As for happenings in the real world, I went to a party on Friday night where I learned of my friend Steve‘s course of political action. As some may know, Mayor Bloomberg wants to promote peaceful protests in the city for the upcoming Republican National Convention by offering Peaceful Political Activists Savings Cards, which is worth 10% discounts at select businesses. So Steve has invited anyone who wants to voice their distaste for the Bush regime by indulging in the very tasteful wings that are served at Applebee’s. Though if I do go, it will be for the pizza sticks.
On Sunday, I finally took the opportunity to walk around the neighborhood, which I had been dying to do since moving there in February. The upper west side of Manhattan really is that nice, with tons of great restaurants, places to shop, and… of course.. cute college girls everywhere (thank God for Columbia University). Also, it’s nice to stroll around the campus of where the Ghostbusters used to teach.
And of course, as I walked around the streets, I had to do so like an typical New Yorker: talking loudly on the cell phone the whole time. At least people were amused by some of the snippets they picked up, such as when I asked a former roommate some questions regarding his homosexual lifestyle…
“I still can’t understand why my question was so strange. Yeah, I know I’m straight, but I still want to know: does it really feel that good to get slam up the ass from behind?”
Well, I really dig my neighborhood. So much so that it almost makes dealing with my insanely disgusting roommates somewhat worthwhile. Though the past few days have been especially bad; I’m used to looking in the fridge and seeing eyeballs or paws floating in a jar, but Saturday night was the first time I ever saw teeth. And they almost looked like human teeth. Plus that Sunday afternoon, after the stroll, the smell of vinegar was so overpowering, I swear to God, my sinuses have been fucked up ever since. My roommates drink it like water, no joke: they fill 1/8 of a glass with water and the rest with pure vinegar. And they were drowning some vegetable with it as well. There’s something to be said about not having every single thing bit of food covered in sauce.
Anyway, on Monday, my last day off, I went to Coney Island yet again. This time I was by myself, which I know might sound pathetic, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do (though I did invite someone, but she was stuck at LAX waiting for the redeye the previous evening, and was therefore catching up on sleep that afternoon). It was just nice strolling around the park at my own pace, and during a day when it’s not so busy, if only to hear the futile attempts at getting a nonexistent crowd to shoot the freak. Also, being by myself meant I could enjoy games at the arcade without fear of boring any companions. I got a pretty decent score on Ms. Pac Man (a hair short of 120,000… hey I never said I was that good at the game), plus I spent almost an hour on OutRun 2.
On a coincidental note, as soon as I got home, there was a video posted on the Gaming Age Forum of the Xbox version, and I’m quite happy to report that the home version looks absolutely spot on, at least in motion. There was also plenty of talk this weekend regarding the inclusion of bonus tracks in the game, which are actually tracks from Daytona USA 2 and Scud Race. This has been long rumored, and supposedly have been finally confirmed, so of course, there was much joyous celebration throughout the land… that was until details started materializing, such as how the quality of the tracks don’t match up to their arcade counterparts. And instantly, there was much anger and confusion. Some are naturally puzzled as to why the Xbox is apparently unable to recreate environments from a pair of dated Model 3 based games. Maybe the Xbox is not that powerful afterall? Maybe fans of the arcade classics are blinded my nostalgia? Maybe Sega is just being lame again? Sorta like who they removed the glass dome for the 777 Speedway track in Daytona 2 for “looking too cartoony” and which sadly does not seem to make a re-appearance in the Xbox iteration.
At the same show from which the OutRun Xbox footage came from (some gaming event in Germany) was a new video for Metal Gear Solid 3. Once again, it’s an amazing vid which, besides looking gorgeous, brings up more and more questions and wild speculation. First off, despite Kojima’s assertion that there will be only one playable character in the game, there now seems to be two… or maybe it’s still one, I guess it depends on one’s point of view. Now it looks like you’ll be playing as modern day Snake in addition to Snake from the past, which is Big Boss, the person whom Snake was cloned from. This could be cool.
Also, it seems Big Boss’s real name is Jack, which of course, was Raiden’s real name. Plus there’s more details on the tall woman who always shown kicking Snake/Big Boss/Jack’s ass, and her names is…. get this… The Boss. And even La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo was uttered yet again Some people groaned once they heard this, but I think it’s pretty interesting, and makes total sense (and might actually clear up some of the nonsense from part 2).
I’d host the video, but then I’d really get raped on the bandwidth, so a streaming version from the Konami site will have to do. But as consolation, here’s a pic I also got from the GAF, which I find pretty damn awesome:
