As you can see in the photo above, next to my BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sister and framed photo of Niero in front of MTV Studios, there is one incredibly hip looking silver flask. With the Dtoid head engraved on it, in fact. Yeah, it's a pretty epic item, and probably one of the coolest things I've ever been given in my years of working with Dtoid. Let me back up a bit, though...



Hamza is one of my closest friends and has been for years now, and I can honestly say that without this guy there's a lot of things I might not have made it through. So you can imagine, when he tells me he's hanging out with a girl, well, I want to like her, but you know, he's like my little brother. So it's cool, unless she breaks his heart, at which point I might have to kill her. What kind of girl would be amazing enough to deserve Hamza and his arm hair?



Then, I met her. Maya is cooler than cool, you can tell right off the bat that she's not much like the average girl. She doesn't take shit. She says what she means. Best of all, she's real. I was happy to meet her in person and be able to tell she was this awesome, but then, she did something that took it to the next level. She came to the room and she presented Niero and I, Rey, Nick and Dale all with little paper bags. When we opened them, we found these engraved flasks inside. Also, each bag had a handwritten note on it. I'm not going to share what was written on mine, but it rocked my world, I'll tell you that. Let me show you my new reactions to this gift.

First I was like:


And then I was like:


All silly aside though, this year's PAX really made me reflect what an incredible adventure its been these past three years working for Destructoid. You guys really are something else, and now every time I look across the office and see this flask I have a concrete reminder of that. Well, other than the countless frames photos of Niero and I with hundreds of community members, that is...

Anyway, to all of you I met this year and all of you I hope to meet in the years to come ... you're awesome. :)

That just about sums it up.

So Conrad and I have been talking about Galactrix ( I wanted to review it with him but have too much on my hands right now, so had to pass), and he told me today that he intended to write this article about how he felt about the game. Which, in fact, was negative. I bought it for PC and haven't been able to spend much time with it, but after reading the article he wrote today about it, I decided to go and give it a solid hour of playtime and think about what he said while interacting with it.

I came away feeling sad. Kind of like that dog trapped in the sock you see up there.

My complaints aren't quite the same as is, but I came away feeling two things for sure: that having to do a puzzle to open every single leapgate tires out the concept and leaves it feeling like a pain in the ass, and that there' snot enough actual fighting against living opponents (such as ships) as I want there to be.

I've waited for this game for so long, and after playing the demo I was so sure I was going to relish every moment of it the way I did with the original. I'm not quite turned off enough to stop playing for good, but I do know that when I stopped playing tonight, it was because I had gotten so sick of hacking leapgates I didn't want to go on anymore.

Why, D3? Why isn't this the sequel it should be? :(

You guys all know that I have been really excited about Fragile, and some of you have shared my enthusiasm with your comments and questions. Thanks to a recent post from flamesofchaos, we found out that Xseed said the sales of Retro Game Challenge would decide whether or not Fragile would make it to US shores.

Now, this is basically a repost, and I'm not saying anything different from what flames said, but what I am asking is that if you are interested in Retro Game Challenge, Fragile or both, please buy this game if you can afford to. I have been known to not download some DS titles myself from time to time, but this one I went to the store and bought because I'm really hoping to be able to play Fragile in English.

Thanks for listening to this hopeful rant. Now back to your regularly scheduled Hamzazah festivities!

Since I started to see these blogs pop up, I knew I wanted to do one too but had a crazy week last week and still hadn't had the time yet. This weekend, I saw Hamza's wrap up post and when I saw all the incredible entries, I knew I had to get off my ass and make it happen. So here you go -- sorry it's late. :)

1. I grew up in New Orleans and lived there until I was 29 years old. I can't describe what it is about being from the South, but I can tell you that everything about the city and the things that happened to me while I lived there make up who I am and what I'm about in a really major way. No matter where I move, I always find myself wishing I was back home, and I know eventually I'll return there no matter what.

2. I seriously considered careers in both musical theatre and psychology and performed in quite a few college productions of musicals and plays. I still find myself sometimes thinking that I should have done what it took to make a career for myself as a singer (or that I could still do something about it, even if its only a small project like joining a band).

3. My writing was once published in a little literary zine called Jubal when I was 18. It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me and I remember thinking I wanted to pursue a career in writing at that time more than anything else in the world.

4. The first person I was romantically involved with after moving to Los Angeles just happened to be Mark Hamill's son (I didn't find this out until after the fact). I remember thinking that my nerd cred had shot up to catastrophic levels after the fact.

5. I love books more than I love games and I have a huge collection which I always want on display in my house. I feel comforted by rooms of books and have always wanted one of those dark wood-paneled studies crammed with books that you see in movies. I also collect rare/first edition printings of my favorite books.

6. Speaking of books, the tattoo on my back is from a book called A Season in Hell, written by a French author named Arthur Rimbaud. I still love the book to this day.

7. I've been to nearly a hundred concerts and I really love seeing live music. Some of the most memorable ones were at really tiny venues such as Sigur Ros at the New Orleans House of Blues, but I also recall seeing Massive Attack at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl as another major favorite. I'm knocking one of my most wanted concerts off my to do list this year when I go to Grand Rapids to see the Final Fantasy concert (and meeting Nobuo Uematsu in person!)

8. I'm terrified of flight turbulence thanks to a flight coming home from Cancun when the plane dropped 15 feet in the air due to bad weather. Lights went out, people hit the ceiling, babies started to scream and I thought I was going to die. I really hope I am able to overcome this fear because you look pretty retarded being scared shitless when you're hitting minor turbulence.

9. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I lost both the home I grew up in and the apartment I was currently living in to the storm. I would have never imagined I would ever say this, but in the end I don't regret that something like that happened to me in life. It forced me to become a stronger person and provided a great point of comparison when it came to how I reacted to other hardships. Nothing really seemed so bad after surviving something like that, and I feel lucky that my family and I survived safely.

10. I almost accepted a job at Kotaku in 2007, but decided in the end that I was a better fit at Dtoid. I'm really glad I did too: Destructoid is the greatest thing to ever happen to me and has permanently transformed my life.

OH HELL YES!

I just ordered mine, I am super excited. I figured you other Atlus addicts might want in as well, so click here if you want to get yours in too before they run out.

YAYYYYYY