Fallout: New Vegas launch party, game magazines, a baby

So first off, Bethesda has the best fucking stamps. When they sent me a holiday card last December, the stamp had a picture of Vault Boy wearing a Santa Claus hat. Here's the stamp that was on the invite for the upcoming launch party for Fallout: New Vegas:



Love it. If I had stamps like these, I'd mail shit all day long. Here's the actual invite for the event, which takes place in Las Vegas in a few weeks. Vampire Weekend will be playing, and that would be totally exciting if I thought the band's music was as awesome as its name.





I won't be going, and there's a few reasons for that, most importantly that it's in Las Vegas. I live in Baltimore. Ironically, Bethesda's offices are about an hour away from my house. But a party in Washington D.C. wouldn't make the same kind of sense that it did for Fallout 3, I suppose. I'm sure it'll be fun. Someone who's going, please be sure to take pictures.



For some reason, two copies of the latest Nintendo Power arrived in the mail today. Not sure why, because I'm pretty sure I only subscribed to it once. Bundled with this issue is a big poster -- one side features Mario, the other side of the map of level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros., as if I needed that. Seriously, I grew up knowing the stages of that game better than the own streets in my neighborhood.

You should know that I'm an old man; I turned 32 in November. With that in mind, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this poster. When I was a kid and the arrival of the latest Nintendo Power was cause for feigning sickness to stay home from school to read it, these posters would have found a place on my bedroom wall. But what will I do today? Well, I'll see if my son wants them... did I mention that I'm old?





Also got the latest issues of Official PlayStation Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine. Their covers are Twisted Metal and Fable 3, respectively. OXM even came with a demo disc... it has a demo for Mafia II on it. Hey, remember when these discs were the ONLY place to get console demos? I realize that there are plenty of folks who don't have Internet access or Xbox Live accounts, but I do wish these discs were a bit more compelling. Not that I think the disc is even necessary; even though I'm a position where I have either played or know about 90% of what's run in these magazines, I still like kicking back with a good print rag from time to time. It's more sanitary than dragging my laptop into the bathroom.



Oh, and here's a picture of my daughter, who I'm at home with alone today. She's cute. See, I tricked you into looking at a picture of my kid. Sucker.