The Gut Reaction of Nintendo's E3 Direct Presentation...

I took some time today to watch the Nintendo Direct presentation that started at 9 and lasted...oh...45 minutes, tops.  Seemed like about 30 seconds, to be honest.  Honest reactions?  Glad you asked:

Pre-show thoughts:

Hope it's more Iwata that Reggie.  I'd even take Bill Trinen's vacant eyes over Reggie's moist lips, huge  flat face, and so, so calculated hand gestures.  Please!

Hope to see new Wii U Mario in the spirit of Galaxy, more Lint to the Past 2 coverage, footage of Smash Bros with one surprise character (that is NOT Bayonetta!), and an announcement that the Pikmin 3 release date was a joke and it's hitting stores tomorrow.

What's Reggie's terrible meme-based joke going to be this year?

Sure to see more Yoshi Yarn, Mario and Luigi Dream Team, and Game & Wario.

My big dream, though?  Some kind of video or news of some sort regarding the new Wii U Zelda game.  Fat chance...

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How did I do?  Well, I was wrong about ALMOST everything.  It was all Iwata.  We got new Mario, but not in the spirit of Galaxy.  There WAS Smash Bros video WITH two--TWO!--new character announcements.  There were no bad jokes from Reggie...nothing at all from him, really.  And all the things I was so sure of?  Didn't see ANY of it.

If you want to know, for real, what went through my head, here goes nothing:

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9:00 - The countdown ended.  Where's my video?  WTF?!  Hope I'm not missing anything...

9:02 - Hello?  Flashing elipses?  Where's Iwata-san?  Is it late?  Should I refresh?

9:03 - Refresh.  Search Kotaku for link...maybe I'm on the wrong page...Nope.  Links back to the page I am already on.  Hope I didn't lose my spot in the queue...

9:05 - WHERE IS MY IWATA?!  Check Twitter to see tweets about new 3D Mario game...and Pokemon something...I AM missing it!!  WTF?!

9:06 - Refresh again, confident I missed EVERYTHING!  THERE'S IWATA!  AND CHESPIN!  My starter!

9:07 - Video froze...fairy-type Pokemon?

9:08 - Buffering.  Switch to low quality.  Still shitty.  SO FRUSTRATING!!

9:10 - This.  Blows.  Oh...there we go.  October 12th for Pokemon X&Y.

Ah!  New Mario!  Peed my pants.  Guess I'll have to sit with peed pants for an hour.

Looks like new 3D Land...eh...what's that 3-star meter in the corner?  Angry Birds?

CAT MARIO?!  YES!!!!!!

Luigi.  PEACH!  TOOOAAAAD!!!!  Oh...wait...PEACH!!!  Hooray, she floats!  Finally.  Multiplayer.  Rob'll be SO BAD at this.  What system?

9:15 - CATS!!  Oh...Super Mario 3D World.  Makes sense, I guess.  I hate the awkward naming system they've adopted...

Not a fan of the clear pipes...they lose something...

CHARGIN' CHUCK!!

New goombas are UGLY!

Also...they added a score counter back.  Online leaderboards, perhaps?

9:16 - Mario Kart 8?!  DAISY!  "Yay Tom!"

9:18 - Computer reads mind when I think, "High quality would look so pretty, but I'm not sure I want to switch and lose my video feed stability...not that it't that stable now..." and the video switches to high quality by itself.  O_o

Fun.  I'm reminded that I hated the Wii one, but loved 7.  This looks more like 7.  It's no Double Dash, but it looks great!  Like...Galaxy Kart with the anti-gravity thing...

9:20 - Iwata can't quite get the hang of saying "multiplayer."  Mulletplayer.

The theme of this video should be "BUFFERING!"

9:21 - Wii Party U turns gamepad into tabletop arcade cabinet, sort of.  That's neat, but...eh.

9:22 - Video skips to Wii Fit U...hm...nap time.

9:23 - Art Academy Wii U?!  No?  Art Academy tools for Miiverse?!  This is awesome!  Well played, Nintendo!

Video skips past.  Damn.

9:24 - Iwata's tie knot is far too wide...is it a clip-on?

Wii U montage...pass...pass...pass...shoulder injury from Just Dance 3 leads me to pass on JD4...sour about Rayman Legends still...pass...superheroes...pass...pass...Spyro...pass...guns...pass...Sonic Galaxy...UGH.  Not a fan of Sonic.  At all--video skips, thankfully.  This is disorienting...

9:27 - eShop montage.  Lots of good things.  Scram Kitty?  SHOVEL KNIGHT!!  Um...penises?  Video skips...Ugh.

Wind Waker HD!  Hm...still not sure...but butterflies are in my stomach.  Drool.  Okay, I'm sold.  Day one for me.  Aryll crying out, "Brother!" still chokes me up...

9:30 - VIDEO SKIPS!  ARGH!!!  More HD Wind Waker...Video skips.  Tingle!  Wii U Tingle Tuner!  Nice!  Looking forward to sharing snapshots of WWHD on Miiverse!

Video skips.

Video dies.

9:31 - Video returns...Wonderful 101 looks awesome.  Iwata has trouble with "101."  Says, "One Whoa One."  Cute.

9:32 - New Game!  Donkey Kong on Wii U!  So pretty.  Want.  Vikings as enemies?  That's neat.  They're kind of an underutilized group of people in gaming.  DIXIE KONG!!!!  Donkey Kong Jungle Freeze.  That'll be my NaNoWriMo reward in November when it comes out.

9:35 - Bayonetta 2...nap time.  Why doesn't the video skip through this one?  Meh...was that thug kid supposed to be something?

Video skips.  Phew.

9:37 - Feet.  Monolithsoft.  Mechs?  I'm mot likely out.  Xenosomething?  A countdown clock?  Count me out for sure.  Majora's Mask taught me to avoid a game with a countdown clock...Xenosomething, I predict, will be a prequel to Xenogears.  Bets?  Looked pretty, but...eh.  Maybe not a prequel.  Sequel? Standalone?

9:40 - Last one?  SMASH...Crossing?  Ahhh!!!  Sooooo cute I have chills!

New art style?  Meh.  Oh...it changed...better!  Maybe the drawn style is on 3DS and the better one is on Wii U?  Bet that's it.

VIDEO FROZE!!!!  NO!!!  MISSING IT!!!!!

Final smash, maybe?  Can't tell because video is FUCKING FROZEN but the sound effects are neat...stupid video frozen on Mario's foot...2014.  Thanks, fuckers.

9:42 - New character!  Simon Belmont?!  No.  MEGAMAN?!  YES!!!!  Video frozen...NO!  DAMNIT!

9:43 - Crashed.  Saw a glimpse of what appeared to be Leaf Man's weapon?  Maybe?

Now it's offline entirely...

Off to Kotaku to watch trailers again without the skipping and buffering...fucking buffering...

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After seeing the things I missed:  Is the Animal Crossing character playable?

OH!  I missed that entire portion of the video when it froze.  Sweet!  He IS playable.  Wonder if the girl will be one of his palette swaps.  New favorite character.

The Smash video seems to hint at a new Subspace Emissary-type subgame.  Sweet!

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And that's pretty much it from me.  Can't wait til the Smash people start a drip-feed news site that I can stalk constantly for the next year and a half, because you KNOW 2014 means holiday for something like this.

Well...now we all just have to wait and see what happens.  EXCITING!

Out

Animal Crossing...Crossed Off!

Yesterday after work, I drove my little self down to GameStop and touched base with something I've been dreaming of having since it was announced--Animal Crossing:  New Leaf.

If you're unfamiliar with what this is...I don't want to oversell this...but...it's the most important thing to ever happen in the history of the Nintendo 3DS.  Maybe everything.  How can that be?  It's a real-time game where you move into a town full of animals and live your life.  As mayor.  You want to catch bugs and fish all day?  Fine.  You want to grow hybrid flowers?  Good luck!  You want to collect fossils and fine art, clothes and furniture, umbrellas and gems and all kinds of things?  You must be me.  

Seriously.  I'm such a whore for collecting things in video games.  It's a sickness.  Gotta catch 'em all.  

I moved into New Pork with my character, Trigg, who quickly was mistaken for being the mayor.  Two days in, I'm still settling into the TENT they gave me to live in while I wait for my house to be built.  Umm...a tent.  Some welcome!  

But I got one of my favorite neighbors in my town, as you can see:  SNAKE!  It's pretty awesome, considering the sheer number of animals that could have been there upon my arrival.  So...I'm obsessed.  Absolutely obsessed.  Call AA.  Or is it ACA?  Either way...I need a twelve-step program.

If you're keen on joining me, my friend code is up there.  Please share yours with me in the comments and let me know you've added me.  

Thanks, kids!  

Out

Getting to Know You...

I suppose, instead of just leaping back in to my day-to-day, I should tell you all a little about myself, so you don't have to go searching for it.

I'm currently 30, working at a bank as a teller, and engaged to my man of almost 7.5 years: Robb.  We have a 16lb. cat who is somewhere between 12 and 15.  We've been his boys for over three years now. We live in northern Illinois, where the summers are hot and the winters are cold, and he loves the cold and I love the hot.  So...there.

I wrote for my college newspaper while I was getting my Associates of Arts for journalism, and then I went on to get my Bachelor's of English.  That explains why I'm working at a bank.  Part-time.  Which might change soon.  Other than that, I write short fiction (very occasionally), I write a novel every year (I have completed seven; none are published), I've written four scripts, and I have been really into poetry as of late.  Since April 1st, I've written a poem every day.  Some good, some very bad.

In my free time, when I should be editing or something...I play video games.  I have a goal to complete one game each month from my backlog (or something).  I think I buy more than one a month, though...so I'm not really making progress toward finishing my backlog of games...but I'm having fun.  Also, I'm in love with music.  I'm easy to please, but there are certainly bands I loathe (Creed, Nickelback, Shania Twain...).  My favorites?  Ben Folds, Fitz & the Tantrums, Five Iron Frenzy, The Rolling Stones, and Andrew Bird, just to name a few.

I haven't decided what form this blog will take.  I've toyed with having a gaming blog.  I've played at having an online journal, of sorts.  And I've thought about publishing some of my writing here, but I decided against that for the most part, since publishing here sort of negates publishing for real somewhere else.

So...now you know me.  I'm kind of an open book, so if there's anything burning questions I've left unanswered, feel free to ask!

Out

Success! Or not...or maybe so!

This is what success look like!

Apparently the Google+ app can backup your photos, which allows for easy sharing on Blogger.  I finally figured that all out, and now you can see me on vacation in Florida.  This was the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, a tiny little bird sanctuary that houses a cockatoo that was on Ed Sullivan the same season as Elvis.  He's seventy-something.  This parrot is NOT that bird, obviously.  He's a jealously guarded old thing.

The main draw of the gardens is this:

Hm...apparently that success was short-lived.  Now all those glorious photos I had access to are missing.  What the fuck, Google?  What.  The.  Fuck.

Well...welcome to the frustration that occupies 90% of my waking life.  I'm so angry all the time...

Ugh.

I'm going to go before I punch something.

*****

They're back!  Okay...I don't know what's going on here, but...whatever.  Anyone else have an active distrust of all things technology-based?  I didn't used to...but frequent "upgrades" have left me wondering where the good stuff was moved to and if it still exists in a lot of places.

I am aware that I sound like a crusty old man.  I'm not.  But I'd be lying if I said that I saw "improvement" as just a sugar-coated way of saying "change" and sometimes even "changes that allow us to make more money without adding anything of use to you"...but...anywho...

That photo above is my man, hand-feeding a flamingo.  THAT is the main draw of the Sarasota Jungle Gardens.  There is a HUGE flock of them that just come stalking over when you get the feed out.  I had one tap me on the shoulder while I was standing.  They're THAT tall.  Kind of intimidating...but cool.

So...anywho...that was three weeks ago.  Welcome.

Out

The Big Deal...

See, the big deal about blogging for me has always been photos.  I love sharing the images I capture from day to day with the people who find their way here.  Unfortunately, after the OSX Lion update, I can no longer do that without 4 extra-tedious, extra-unneccesary, extra-user-unfriendly steps.  So I stopped.  I don't understand why I can't just upload a photo from iPhoto without having to save it as something else in another place than the iPhoto library.

For Apple, it makes no sense.  They're all about ease of use and common-sense interfaces.  This is absolutely NOT intuitive, and it's something no one seems to have a fix for.

So I'm trying really hard to find a way to be able to upload photos from my phone to Blogger.  After that, maybe I'll be back in force.

Until then, though...ugh.

Out

Don't Call It A Comeback...

I miss blogging.  I remember when every day was an adventure, and just throwing some photos and text together was all I looked forward to.  I couldn't wait to tell you all about my day, something I bought, or what some jerk said to me in passing that really stuck with me.

And then I stopped.  I felt like I couldn't be honest here anymore.  Things that I was saying were being misinterpreted in my personal life, and I was finding myself rethinking any story or image that was going up here.  Everything had to go through a filter of, "What am I going to have to say to make this one blow over?"  Not to mention, sometimes I had things up here that I had no idea could ever be a problem for anyone, and then I was blindsided with cold shoulders and attitude for something being read into a post that wasn't even there in the first place.

So I quit.  It was easier than putting up with the fallout.  And it wasn't really a conscious decision, honestly.  I just lost my passion for putting myself out there and not getting anything good in return.  For a few years I found a home on Tumblr at GamesWithBoys, but that's gone now, too.  Another case of not being able to post honestly anymore for fear of being policed.  So...I quit that.

I've been a Shyguy lately about everything that's going on in my life (not that there is much to talk about, which is another reason I stopped...after college there wasn't much excitement), and I'm going to be trying to change that.

I'm not sure what form this blog will take, or if it will take form at all, but I'm looking to start somewhere.  I need this kind of outlet in my life, for whatever reason.

Come along for the ride!

Out

I'm not dead...

I'm kicking around the idea of coming back here. You know, since everything goes to crap eventually...

Out