I love you guys, so I need to tubaticism. Its the only way.


Xbox Live Silver Account - I find it mighty messed up that I, a waning Xbox enthusiast that has downgraded to a silver account, cannot check out the demo for a game that may very well bring me back to very active 360 usage. This week, its Splinter Cell Conviction, but who knows what else I could want to play when it s available? If i were Ubisoft, I think I'd be a little pissed about that. Whatever.

Infinite Space - I picked it up this week, against all reasonable games budgeting and in the face of the Dragon Age Expansion. I'm not far in, but considering I'll eventually be able to assign a Head Chef, Server and Accountant to my plucky little Destroyer spaceship, I'm thinking I've made a wise purchase!

Seriously, if Infinite Space ends up being all that I think its telling me it is, Platinum games will have successfully "stolen" this idea I had a few years ago, which is frankly Grussing Amazing. I'll squawk more about it later.

Final Fantasy XIII - Dude. I'm really enjoying this game. Its like I'm a a Battle DJ, and I'm constantly switching tracks to put out the most effect beatdown. I'm also really enjoying the story most of the way through Chapter 7 now. I think these are all some of my favorite Final Fantasy characters in the whole series, and I would love to see them show in some cross over universe with some of my other favorites. I'd pay money to see Fang hangout with Auron and Cyan in a bar.



Heavy Rain- I've done finished this game many weeks ago, but its still rattling around in my head. Shelby especially. Hands down, one of my favorite video game characters in years. I'd like to write a super spoilery thing about the guy, once I manage a few more endings to see how they actually play out.

Mass Effect 2 - Can I tell you, I keep coming back to this game? Its all the third person shootery that I really need. Getting into content I havent' done yet on my first play has been a blast, and I still have one more thing I want to do in this game: The Fail Run. Make a completely ineffective Shepard Neutral, make all the dumb decisions, and get everyone killed, including Shepard. When ME3 rolls around, I'd like a chance to fix the mess that Shepard, a total paper hero (Kinda like Snow- ZING!), would have caused. Gotta say, its still my Game of the Year.

Player Agency- It took me years of hearing the term, kind of understanding it and Anthony Burch's UC Berkley talk for me to really get what the honorable Reverand's deal was with player agency as a thing. I feel like I get it now, and its something that really sticks out for me in the games I've played since listening to his talk. Not in a bad way, either!

Where I can really appreciate the power of excessive agency (HL2, FarCry 2), I really get into games that give me some half agency (Assassins Creed 2, Saints Row 2, the Sabotuer). As neat as full control is, the act of filling in the "Zach" alternate personality of a dude/lady that has to live in a world is actually alot of fun, despite the lack of narrative push that the disconnect creates. Assassin's Creed II and the Saboteur are two of my most enjoyed recent games that I usually have no desire to pick up and complete in a narrative driven fashion.



Wandering Pixel and 4 years of being around Destructoid - I've gotta say that a part of the reason I blog is for the chance to impress/ impress upon anyone that happens to read what I put out there. I'll admit it, I like the attention! I get a thrill from getting frontpaged and an even bigger thrill when someone tells me that I've told them something they didn't know. The most awesome thing I think I've ever done here is inform any number of people about Way of the Samurai 3 coming out who otherwise never would have heard about it. I'll probably never be a focused, credential wearing practitioner of JOURNALISM, but this is the next best thing and I love it.

So all that to get around to saying, without sounding TOO sappy, WanderingPixel, thanks a bunch of doing that thing with the thing. I appreciate it!