LittleBig Addiction

Right So.

A buddy of mine landed himself two Beta tickets to the Beta test of LittleBig Planet. He was kind enough to pass one over to me (as I'm the only other person he knows who owns a PS3) and I grabbed that key and ran. It took quite a while to download the game client on my pitifully slow 801.g network at home but it was well worth the wait.

Ok: Annoyances.
1. Making me play through a tutorial on the most intuitive of functions and devices drives me mad. One can only hope that there's a way disable this "helpful feature" in the Retail version.
2. uh....

Yeah, that's it for what annoys me about LBP.

My SackBoy avatar is orange and is currently sporting the Douglas Fairbanks look. He's awesome. If he could wink, he'd be my wife's favorite video game character of all time. Seriously; when he smiled and flashed the peace symbol at her, she wanted to snatch him out of the TV set and hug him.

And yes, I am fulfilling my Beta Test obligation of making a level. I won't tell you what I'm building nor will I say what set I'm basing it in. But I hope it turns out awesome.

First impressions on this game are: it looks like it will live up to the hype.

The Economy is Falling! The Economy is Falling!

For the past 6 years, the American economy has been struggling. Everyday people have been scraping to make ends meet for years. Gasoline prices are so high that they're impacting the cost of EVERYTHING that has to be shipped or moved.

And the President of the United States and our Congress has done NOTHING.

But oh, the INSTANT big business starts to feel the pinch, President Bushy DEMANDS: "Congress must act!"

Fuck you, W. Bush.

I also particularly enjoy how Bushy Dubya now claims that "painful and lasting" economic damage will be done if Congress doesn't act. This coming from the man who wrecked our economy with his reckless spending and gobbled up our budget surplus with his unjustified, unwarranted, and unprovoked war on Iraq.

And Congress is no better. They're so busy pointing fingers at each other that they can't even figure out what they're doing.

But, as much as I am loathe to admit it, I have to agree with the majority of the Republicans who voted down the bailout. (and yet, the Dems still get blamed...) It's wrong. It is NOT the way to go. Yes, the market will tumble and struggle. But ya know what? It will recover. It always does.

Warren Buffet, God of Finance, thinks that the $700 million bailout plan is a joke. If the Gov't is going to buyout assets, they should do it at current market prices. Plus, the American people should see the dividends of this bailout when they finally pay off.

Oh, and when people like Bushy yipe that the money that the stock market lost yesterday because the bailout didn't happen DWARFS the cost of the bailout itself... it makes me want to punch someone.
Cuz, guess what? The market already, in less than 24 hours, recovered nearly HALF of what it lost! NEARLY HALF OF IT IS BACK!

Would the bailout have magically paid for half of itself in 24 hours?

Seriously, what *are* my long-term goals?

I'm in the video games industry.

I currently hold one of the coolest jobs in the industry: looking at every single game that The Company (yes, I'm back at The Company) makes for Nintendo consoles. I get to look at games for week or so; not tied to ONE game for MONTHS like QA. So, short term, I'm set.

But what are my long term goals? Where do I see myself in 4 or 5 years? What do I want to do?

Most folks in the games industry start out thinking that they want to be Games Producers. But I've already been an Associate Producer. Heck, I've already been a Producer. I've been interviewed by GameBorder, OnRPG, 1UP, and IGN.

Do I want to do that again?

Maybe a Development Director? Or Technical Director? Product Management? Program Management? Maybe head up a QC/QA deparement?

...sigh.

I just don't know.

House M.D. boring / Fringe rules.

I NEVER thought I'd type this, but the season opener for House M.D. was a bit on the dull side. And by "a bit" I mean "really quite" and by "dull" I mean "completely boring."

I'd like to thank the show's writers for reminding us that the characters of Chase and Cameron still exist... but seriously; how contrived were their appearances? Their roles were neither vital nor pivotal. And in light of Wilson's *real* reason for leaving, Cameron was completely unnecessary.
Not that I want them to be written off the show... quite the contrary. I'd be very happy if it somehow wound up that the new three left and old team came back. But for the time being, could their presence had relevance please? Thanks.

And gee: rectal bleeding & leprosy... already seen it a dozen times & already been done. *SNORE*

But Fringe, on the other hand: completely entertaining. The series opener last week had me chomping at the bit for more. But this week had me concerned: did FOX try to pull the same stunt on Fringe that they pulled on Firefly? I know I'm not the only person who noticed that, after the teaser opener, the next 10 minutes were a recap of the previous show... complete with reintroductions of all the characters and a reminder that Dr. Bishop has his old lab back.
This is the same stunt FOX pulled on Firefly: "Oh we don't want this introductory episode that explains who everyone is and what the situation is! We want viewers to feel like they're already in the thick of the action!!"
Which is bullshit because viewers don't feel like they're in the thick of it, they feel lost. So at least we got to see the pilot episode as the series opener.

Anywho, second episode of Fringe and Agent Dunham is still clueless, but "can do!"; Peter is still a smart-ass pain in the neck; and Dr. Bishop is still completely left of center. And best of all, I'm still completely entertained by the action + drama + black comedy. Gads, but I love the little comedic spurs in the show... especially the ones in completely inappropriate situations.

Yes... FOX, of all networks, has three shows I loves: House, Bones, and Fringe. But Fringe may quickly overtake the other two for my affections.

The King is Dead. How Long Will the King Live?

So, as you might have heard, Gaute Godager quit Funcom because he was unsatisfied with Age of Conan.

Yeah... the guy responsible for the production, direction, and design of Age of Conan was so unhappy with how Funcom was running it that he bailed.

This raises the question:
How long will Age of Conan really last now?

I wasn't in the Beta for AoC, but I did join up about a day after retail launch. I played the game for two months and quickly got bored of it. Even after joining in with a group of about 10 other players, the game STILL got boring.

I learned after Final Fantasy Online that I should NOT hang around in MMORPGs for months and months just to make sure that I'm not missing something. And to be really honest, I should have canceled AoC during the first month and not paid for an additional month.

What I'm saying by all this is that I completely agree with Godager's sentiments on the game: it's dissatisfying. So, AoC is being run so poorly that Funcom isn't just losing players, they're losing staff.

Yeah... I can't say that I think AoC will last more than a year.

Of phones and men.

So... "the dude" bailed from EA not too long ago and has started up a new company with the idea that Apple's iPhone could be the device to bridge the gap between handheld gaming systems and mobile phones.

Personally, I'm all about portable gaming. I have my game on my mobile phone (yes... MY GAME!) and I love it. But the Blackberry is NOT the Nintendo DS... and I loves my NDS with a passion that rivals Ferris' love for the Ferrari. But as you might recall, some other mobile phone manufacturers have tried (and failed miserably) at bridging this gap. The difference here being: a third-party developer is making this bet, not the hardware manufacturer.

And while I completely agree with El Guapo that the iPhone is ready and able to run any uber-fun game that you could program for it, I'd like to sit down and chat about the decision to support ONLY the iPhone. It's a niche within a niche, and while it does have a following... what are the number of consumers on that device who play games? And how many of those folks will buy games for their iPhone with some degree of regularity?

So, NY... when do you want to grab a sammich and talk? I'm all ears, buddy!

Oh, and by the way... I've got a jar of dirt.

I'm back, and I'm mad as hell...

ok ok... I'm not really that mad.

But yet again, Steve Jobs has opened his mouth in front of a group of people and didn't say:

"Here's what you've all been asking for: The Mac MiniTower!"

I am not the only person on the planet who has been screaming for the past 5 years that we need a headless Mac to fill the canyonesc gap between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.

Yes, Apple, we, the consuming public, are foaming at the mouths in anguish while we wait for you to catch a gorram clue. Why do you think that silly Psystar company is making PCs that run Mac OS? They're filling a need that you refuse to acknowledge.

How difficult is it to scale down the Mac Pro? Seriously. How tough is it to make a scaled back motherboard? And how outrageously difficult could it be to make a smaller case? Let's just half the Mac Pro and call it a day:
- Instead of two sockets that hold 4 RAM sticks, how about just one? Or, two that hold two sticks?
- Instead of two quad-core processors, we're fine with one.
- Instead of 4 hard disk drive bays, two will be great.
- Instead of two optical drive bays, one is sufficient.
- And instead of endless PCIe slots, we'll take two or three.

I know I'd be ECSTATIC if Apple offered something slightly larger than a Shuttle that offered a 3.0GHz Quad Core Intel, geForce 8800, two 500GB HDDs, one DL SuperDrive, and up to 16MB RAM. Hell, I'll even pay the Apple premium for it! A comparable PC would me around $1000. I'd pay $1,500 or even $1,700 for a machine like that, made by Apple, running MAC OSX.

But instead of something ground breaking like that... Steve Jobs comes out and says, "Lookee, you saps! ANOTHER new iPod! No no... it doesn't look at ALL like the old iPod Mini with a larger screen! No! It's NEW. You must buy it!"

I have two words for Steve Jobs:

Fuck.
You.

Oh, for fuck sake.

I'm going to take a moment to catch up...

1. The N came back! The J-Church has been relegated back to second-class status, and the N has returned to serving King Street and CalTrain... just as God intended.

2. Ecsema fucking sucks. Just saying.

3. Ooooh, Barracuda! It's all mine! I've already attended to a number of items in my checklist.

4. Words I hear at work, in order of frequency: Fuck, shit, suck, revenue, hole, track, ass, assets.

5. Words I say at work: I quit.

6.

And now you're all caught up!