Winter has come early to our little corner of the northwest. (for a sense of scale, see the little butt end of my Civic sticking out from behind the tree). Thank goodness for games. What better way to warm oneself than by throwing a copy of Left Behind:Eternal Forces on the fire?

Ehhhhh…. Nubian!

Episode One is done.  I’ve got lots of pictures to post soon.  I hope Ryan hurries up and finishes so I can lay down some mad spoilers.  I’ll be like SPOIL…SPOIL…SPOIL…

Oh the pretty things you’ll see
It’s not December 22nd and yet an EMB Winter Games style run of gaming has been achieved. It all began some Unreal Tournament 3. Hit the jump to hear about the rest.
(Read on …)

As I sat down for my Thanksgiving pizza (a quarter century tradition in the Tritone vegetarian household) I couldn’t help but gape in slack-jawed wonder at the metaphorical groaning board of gaming goodness, a bounty of such richness: BIOSHOCK, MASS EFFECT, CALL OF DUTY, THE ORANGE BOX, ASSASSIN’S CREED, HALO 3, SIM CITY SOCIETIES*, QUAKE WARS, TABULA RASA, UT3, CRYSIS–all harvested in the last couple of MONTHS, for cryin’ out loud. Has there ever been a better spread of quality games? And, seriously, let’s give thanks for all the designers, programmers, artists, producers, writers, composers, sound editors**, and QA testers that create all these cool toys for us to play with.

*there you go, Brixtone. $5. ka-ching!
**ditto

Mmmm…. delicious turkey….

Barney posing in front of the Citadel at one of City 17’s new photo op points. Over the last few days, photo op signs have been popping up all around the city. This isn’t a good picture of Barney as he seems to have gotten something stuck up his ass.

(Read on …)

I’ve really gotten into the DS recently, and not just because I’ve been schlepping my ass across country every other week or so. Part of the reason I’m diggin’ it is because there are a lot of RPGs available and the games cost half of what you’d expect from any other console. The most recent hit has been Luminous Arc from Atlus and Marvelous Interactive.

It’s pretty standard Japanese RPG fare. The graphics and sound are pretty great, the characters are pretty interesting if a touch one-dimensional, and its got a good sense of humor. It’s a little bizarre at times though, both in its approach to male/female romance where it’s extra heavy on the double entendre and its use of a talking radish as a between-chapter moderator. The radish has its own story to tell, but frankly it makes no sense what so ever.

I also like the characters. Here are two:

Those Japanese are so wacky.

Turn that unstable, explodey Citadel into a positive!

• Place photo op markers around the city where tourists can get the best view of City 17’s very own Aurora Borealis.
• Create and sell postcards depicting the Citadel’s glow by day, by night, during the holidays, and giving false hope to a small baby in desperate need of a miracle cure.
• Allow local merchants to sell pieces of the building that have fallen off as well as miniature sculptures of the Citadel with orange and red LEDs on the top.
• Launch advertising campaign on billboards, trade publications, and those monitor thingy’s that are all over the city.

The wonder and spectacle of the Citadel will boost a positive, majestic image of City 17 while drawing attention away from the political struggles and desolation surrounding it. For further instructions, please refer to section 14J in your “Post Apocalypse Plan-o-gram”.

And those who’ve multiplayered with me can attest to that. In short, LOL!O!L!O!L!O!L!O and good night.