Busy Busy Busy

Hello friends and neighbors. Here's a keepalive with a mini-rant. I just got back from a family reunion. And just before that reunion I had to watch the first two Alien movies back to back because Game Informer came out with a cover story on Gearbox doing an Aliens FPS. I'm a little sad to hear that it's entirely marine focused. I thought the Predator was actually the most fun to play in Aliens vs. Predator 2 for PC. But this is Gearbox. I loved their Half-Life add-ons. I'm sure I'll love this game to. I am worried that they've bit off more than they can chew, though.

Aliens
Borderlands
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
Samba De Amigo port to Wii

It seems like a bit much for what I thought of as a pretty small studio. Here's hoping.

Also, even though I was traveling, I got a little gaming in. I started playing Superstar Saga for Gameboy Advance. So far, it's developing nicely, although I'm still firmly in the introductory phases. I'll probably bittorrent it and play it on PC, though, as I hate the itty bitty screen on the DS.

I also got my hands on Ratchet & Clank Future (for PS3) during a stopover in a mall and was pretty unimpressed. Sure, the graphics were great, but the gameplay was much slower and easier than I remember R&C being. The R&C games were never about the difficulty, but they had a crispness I wasn't feeling in the PS3 sequel.

Devil May Cry 4 is about the difficulty, and it's out. Those of you who know me know that I love Devil May Cry to an extent that is illegal in many states. I bought DMC 3 brand new at retail (which I almost never do) and didn't regret it one bit. The fact that a new one is out and I'm not playing it means all is not well with the universe. Watch the news for unexplainable phenomena.

I'm not eager to spend $400+ for a 360, accessories, and game when I'm still feeling shaky about the reliability of the system. My understanding is that red rings are down, but the combined risk of red rings and disk eating are keeping me away. And the $450 it would cost to pick up a PS3 is just ridiculous. Nope. In theory, there'll be a PC port of the game, but I wouldn't play DMC on a computer any more than I'd play The Orange Box on a console.

Speaking of lackluster console ports, I figured out I had to stop using my 2nd CPU to get good old King Kong to run on the PC. Since it has no HUD, I'm thinking of taking it over to my friend's house to play on his plasma TV. Unfortunately, my nicer graphics card has made the game uglier instead of prettier, so I probably won't bother. But at least (after considerable searching and experimenting) it runs. Rainbow Six Vegas (like King Kong, an Ubisoft PC port) still crashes. After downgrading to older video card drivers, I've got it so it only locks up my PC instead of the flicker of a blue screen of death before rebooting it used to cause. It's a strange world where Clive Barker's Jericho is better than Rainbow Six Vegas. And that world is the PC.

In other PC news, I need to pick up a new VGA cable for my flatscreen. I've been playing on my old CRT since I got my new PC. And while the 85hz refresh rate is keen, I don't really have space for it on my desk, so I'm playing games in the dining area, which is hardly ideal. Also the glare on CRTs is terrible for dark games. I also need to pick up a new headset. I have a USB one that works, but I'm thinking of doing a "Let's Play" (a thread where you play through a game and show people what was so great about it) for the PA boards. Italax's Deus Ex Let's Play has inspired me. The problem is that my capture program can't get the sound it needs when I'm using my USB headset. And of course I could get back to that DooM speedmapping exercise any year now...