The Mighty Quynh

Anyone ever play Rez? I broke it out for a bit on my PS2 last weekend and goddamn is that game still as awesome and innovative as ever.

This week I am addicted to Fable II.

I know I’m behind but I’m glad to know my really old games have lots of replay value and for recently purchased games, I’m buying them for like $20 or $30 because they’re not “new.” But they’re totally new to me because I have been completely out of the loop the past year or so. Win-win!

I’m in my groove listening to a sweet track. There’s a great buildup going on, I’m bouncing in my seat, the anticipation mounting. The music pulses, swells and pulls back, each surge higher than the next. The layers amass, the volume soars. The culmination of all that buildup is about to hit: the sweet spot, the resolution, the part where the crowd, if there was one, would go absolutely berserk, the part where you lose yourself to the aural orgasm exploding through your ears and coursing through your body and compelling you to move your feet.

Right before that euphoric hit of harmonic perfection, someone will inevitably tap me on the shoulder and bring me back to Earth with some stinky work problem.

Happens every time.

Here is a Times article on the Video Games Live show. While I’m glad the author gave the concert some recognition and praise, frankly I’m tired of reading articles like this that suggest games are “finally” being taken seriously. Of course games have advanced significantly over the decades, and it’s cool to note the milestones, but 1) we don’t need to look backwards every time something game-related happens outside the strict gaming realm, and 2) I think they’ve been taken pretty seriously for years now.

Concerning #2, video games have big budgets, real actors, real scripts, and are scored with real music. Just look at Metal Gear Solid. The game’s from 1998 and it has tons of cinematic sequences and a proper soundtrack. It might not have been the norm back then, but 11 years later, that kind of stuff is pretty typical for a big action/FPS release like Halo, to say nothing of RPGs like Final Fantasy, which has been big on cinematic cut scenes and fancy music since forever.

Mario & Zelda Big Band Live, Nihon Seinenkan Hall, 14 Sept. 2003

My other gripe with the article is it fails to note that the Japanese have been doing these sorts of concerts and having popular artists make songs for games for ages already. I understand this is a US-centric article, but you can’t properly discuss video games without touching on Japanese contributions, and I think it’s worth at least a sentence or two to note that this isn’t exactly a groundbreaking concept. Not that VGL isn’t an amazing show with sparkling new ideas—after all, it’s not just Final Fantasy or Mario music, it’s that stuff and more, all packed into one thrilling, visually exciting show.

Geez, I feel like I just wrote a 6th grade critique essay for a freaking writing class.

Last night Rich and I attended Video Games Live, which is an amazing show if you’re into video games, soundtracks, and awesomeness. It was actually my second time going to this; the first time was a few years ago in Philly. They definitely improved on the show since then. Notably missing the first time I went was a number of Square games. Not so this time! Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger (finally!) made their appearance.

Now I’ve been inspired to get back into games again. I haven’t really paid attention to what’s out in probably a couple years now. Today I decided to go online and catch up on what’s come out the past year or so and maybe pick something up cheap and what should I find out? Chrono Trigger DS was released one year ago.

Go figure I go looking for “new”-ish games and all I want is a game from 14 years ago.

On a slightly related business note… I really want to believe in Activision Blizzard (ATVI) for the longterm. Starcraft II cannot possibly fail, and their Guitar Hero and Call of Duty series are really successful. But their P/E ratio is over 240 compared with 15-20ish for other companies in the sector. Overvalued at $12? I guess I am hinging everything on Starcraft II and Diablo III when WoW and Guitar Hero and such have already helped kicked major revenue ass in quarters past and brought them out of the red. I just wonder if it’s too late to get in now or if I should count on a boost from Christmas sales and the fail-proof games, SC2 and Diablo III. Earnings report November 5. I just like the company, really. To buy or not to buy. My heart says yes but my head says no.

To get us ready for the weekend, I present to you my favorite video from Tiësto’s Kaleidoscope tour. Didn’t care for the song much the first time I heard it, but the second night I came to realize the glory of this awesome video and then an appreciation for the song came after.

During this (tele)conference call, when Boston says to NJ office, “Don, we can’t hear you in Boston,” I’m thinking, “Don, I can’t hear you above the sound of the espresso machine, bean grinder, and barista smacking everything all over the place.”

And in case you were wondering, yeah, it is bloody awesome to be able to work from a cafe.

The other night I came home from work and found my 12-pack (probably down to half that now) of Coca-Cola halfway to the front door from where it had been nestled in a corner of junk. I don’t know how Roomba could have got it there (he should have bumped into it and turned around, and I’d think it’d be too heavy for him to push anyway), but it couldn’t have been anything else. If you don’t hear from me in a couple weeks, you can assume that Roomba developed its own mind and ripped me to shreds with its spinning brushes.

The Roomba I ordered arrived last week and I set it work immediately. I let it charge up and then had it run around my apartment doing its thing so I could watch. At one point it was surrounded on three sides and I watched it bump and turn around for a good five minutes before it got itself out. It had trouble getting back to the home base (wandered around in circles in a smaller area of my apartment between the bed and computer stuff) so I had to use the control thingy to manually guide it there myself. I moved the base under the TV stand so now it’s out of the way, and it actually finds the base more easily.

I like the beeps and bloops it makes. When it’s leaving the base to go clean it makes this sort of countdown noise. When it returns it makes this little triumphant sound. It’s kind of cute and I like to think of Roomba as a sort of pet (‘cuz, you know, my apartment is lonely and pathetic enough).

I’ve got it scheduled for every weekday at noon so it runs while I’m at work and I come home to a clean apartment. I was happy to see it hiding under the TV stand at its home base when I came home the first time, instead of stuck in a corner turning around in circles. So far I’ve been good about keeping the clutter off the floor so Roomba doesn’t get stuck, which is the second reason I got it — to force myself to maintain a modicum of neatness in my apartment. I haven’t cleaned out the dustbin yet, but I am curious to know how much junk it’s picking up.

I’ve had Roomba almost a week and I’m very happy with it so far. I have heard stories about them crapping out after a while or whatever, but I’m hoping my Roomba isn’t working as hard as those ones since it’s cleaning an apartment the size of a postage stamp. And, uh, hopefully I am good about cleaning and maintaining my Roomba. I was thinking of getting little plastic googly eyes to put on it.

I'm watching you.

So who gets stung on the face by a bee in the middle of a somewhat crowded bar in October while trying to enjoy a beer?

I do. I get stung on the face by a bee inside a bar in bloody October while I’m trying to enjoy a goddamn beer. A fracking bee out of bloody nowhere.