I'm so happy

So I boot up the old computron today and what do I see? The new E3 trailer for Fallout: New Vegas.
Here it is for anyone who wants to enjoy life.

Video Games | Fallout: New Vegas | E3 2010: Exclusive Gameplay Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

It looks magnificent and what excited me the most was the .50 caliber sniper rifle shown early on in the clip.
You see, I'm a sniper. I try to play every FPS I have that way. Early on in Fallout 3, I was a tank, just plowing through everything and everyone in my way. However, my instincts to sneak around and pick off unsuspecting prey with a rifle finally caught up with me and now I prowl around the wastes invisible and use my Reservists Rifle to lay waste to my victims without them even knowing. It feels like the hand of god, smoting them from a distance without them even having a care in the world. It's almost humane, they never know what's happening as their heads explode like melons.
Wow, that was a rant that could put me away if read into too deeply. Read that I am not a psycho (at least I don't think I am) and wouldn't do anything in a video game to a regular person.
What I'm trying to relate is that the experience of the Fallout universe is one that I love immensely, and having a game like New Vegas coming out within the year is something I am extremely excited about. It's like I'm a tween in line for a Justin Bieber concert, I'm that excited.
Now where's the nearest clock tower.

Finally playing real games!

So in between shifts of putting down a new floor in my home and my shifts at the paper, I was finally able to get in a good few hours of gaming this week.
And what did I play? Why, Fallout 3 of course.
I could have gone out and hocked a lot of money for Red Dead Redemption, but then I remember that I'm not a big fan of westerns. But post-apocalyptic scenarios? Yes, please!
After finally finishing the buggy mess that was Operation: Anchorage, I started my delving into Point Lookout.
And boy is it nice. But if you're a fan, you already know that and have known that for a long time.
But really, playing this week has really put me in the mood for E3, which I will be staring at all week.
Expect posts all next week about the goings-on at the Mecca of gaming.
Back to sleep, it's much-needed.

The evils of casual games

We've all been there, we've all seen the messages.
Someones farm needs fertilizer, someones fish needs feeding, someones mafia needs joining.
Blah, blah, blah.
These are the evils of casual games.
You see, there are two types of casual games. The first is the more well-known version which are Wii titles that people from ages 8-800 can play effectively and have fun when you get the entire family together for an evening of fun on Christmas Eve or the like.
The second is what I truly consider the casual game, and they are the bane of my existence.
Farmville, Fishville, Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, School of Magic, etc...
It's easy to blame Facebook and just get it over with, as all of the games I just described got their go on the social networking site. However, I blame the games more than the site as it is the games that have sucked in people like a drug dealer peddling free candy-flavored crack.
And the sad thing is I have been suckered in myself.
Last night I downloaded a game for my Android phone called World War. I thought it was going to be a cool game where I led soldiers like an RTS or maybe sent a guy though the trenches like an FPS.
However, after five minutes looking over the game I realized that I had, in fact, downloaded a mobile version of a Facebook game.
And instead of putting it down and going straight to the hospital for some antabuse or methadone, I instead continued to play the damn thing and started leveling up.
I am addicted, and I hate myself for it.
Before anyone tries to get me to again be their neighbor or join their family, hear this... I will never be a part of another of these games.
It's a fluke that I joined this game, and I don't want to be a part of any other game like this.
As it stands, I have no desire to attack anyone or do anything more than press about five buttons and level up. I don't care about joining coalitions or anything like that. I am a rogue nation, and I want to be left alone.
Anyway, enough about my secret shame, you can all go back to your farms and fish tanks, just leave me out of it.

Getting excited

Just finished reading an article that Valve will not showcase Portal 2 at E3 this year, instead opting for a "surprise."
If it's Left 4 Dead 3 I will be pissed.
Hey, I love Left 4 Dead, it's one of those games that my wife and I can lose hours in together slaughtering the hordes while preparing our minds and coordinations for the upcoming zombie apocalypse (oh it's happening).
It's just that I've had enough of that ride.
It's like that kid you take to Six Flags that wants to keep riding the same ride again and again, not caring that it takes over an hour from the moment you get in line until you get off the ride. They love watching the cartoons in between while you are stuck there holding the water, personal items and everything else on sore feet that scream for a bench and a bucket of ice water all the while wanting to ride the raging rapids just to cool down.
That's how I feel about the Left 4 Dead franchise. It was amazing, and I bought both games and all the DLC since, but after a while you want to get on another ride.
And with Valve, there are two great franchises that are worth riding again, those being Portal and Half-Life.
Sure, you could add Team Fortress to that mix, but my hatred for actual people can only be trumped by my hatred for screaming children over microphones who have nothing better to do than not do homework and instead play Halo (yeah I went there, god I hate Halo).
Portal and Half-Life both have soft spots in my heart. Portal was that great game that my wife and I spent a week just agonizing over, laughing at not only GLaDOS, but also our own failures.
Meanwhile, Half-Life is the first shooter that I really went into wanting to play, and in the end coming out loving shooters.
I'm being completely serious here. I hated shooters, and since Doom 2 I vowed to never play them. Not because Doom 2 sucked, I actually loved that game. I just didn't want to play them anymore.
I was a fan of RPGs, computer RTSs and 3rd-person shooters like GTA, and I was happy about that.
Then Gordon Freeman came along and changed my life.
Valve has this ability to create suspense in a constrained environment. It was like a rail shooter where I had the choice to go into that room on the right or not. Half-Life opened the door to me that a game can have the illusion of a sandbox while not being sandbox, can have the illusion of freedom while instead being quite rigid on where you have to go.
It was brilliant.
I was excited to hear that Valve was going to show off Portal 2 at E3, and it was a title that I was excited to see and purchase.
However, if this surprise is instead Half-Life 2: Episode 3, I think I will pee my pants with excitement.
Oh I went there, I will dawn a plaid skit and giggle like a girl if I see Gordon Freeman on a big screen at E3.
Valve has been treating him like the Beastie Boys treat albums, it takes forever to get anything new, but the end product is more than worth the wait.
But I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, I have done this before and just got another spoonfull of zombies for my troubles.

The summer is here

It's been months since this blog has seen an update, and while many would think that's a good thing I personally think my laziness is going to get me into a lot of trouble.
So here goes.
With the summer here and my 9-5 (or 4-midnight) job slowing down for the time being, it's time to start blowing the dust off my rigs and breaking out the games for a few months of joy.
Inject E3 in there and you have yourself a deal.
So over the next few days and weeks this blog will get a little life and maybe come off life support completely, which is a joy to me as a gamer and as a writer.
To tell the truth, there aren't many games that are lighting my lamp, but I'm sure something will come eventually. That's the beauty about this time of year, it's that time where game companies are starting to wind down their catalog and instead start their hype machines for that glorious week in Los Angeles.
So check back every once in a while, there might be something cool coming soon.