Birthday…

The world has orbited the Sun once more. It is my birthday. I am now 23. Yes, an achievement. Whoop.

So, please, leave your well-wishes and what not here so that I can ignore them all in one place. No facebook messages or texts. No emails or phone calls. There are only a few people I’ll forgive for such annoyances and you aren’t one of them – they don’t read this blog and I’m seeing them all tonight.

Right. Thats it. Piss off now.

Oh, and thanks to Hannah for the fried breakfast in bed this morning. I’m not sure which I prefer more – the poached eggs and beans on toast or the cool firesteel she got me. Either way, I’m full to the brim and looking forward to a weekend of going through my survival stuff and re-reading Ray Mears.

Out.

Spore Whore…

I did a five page, in-depth preview of Spore recently and it seems to have gone down kind of well. Major diggage, slashdottage and a link on Penny Arcade – even though Tycho didn’t read it.

Yeah, this post was pure boast. I struggle daily to try and keep my ego in check, to stave off the inevitable transformation in to Mankini Man, so I think I deserve this one celebration. W00t, etc.

And it’s a bloody good thing I never finished writing that nasty column about Penny Arcade, Digg and Slashdot…

Joe, out.

Pancake Days…

I’ve had two pancake days this year and they were both excellent. The first was ad ho, at ours, with Hannah, Bindi and Hiren. The second was planned, yesterday at ours with Hannah, Jo and Elliot. This was only the second time I met Elliot and it went further to proving the theory that men have a special bond unknown to women. While the girls made chit-chat and played Crimson Room, Elliot and I ranted at each other for ages about Marvel Civil War, Zombies, how to survive the imminent zombie apocalypse and computer games.

It was great and we agreed on everything. There was a moment, etc.

I did a review of Devil May Cry 4 recently which got some flak because I complained about parts which people think make the game great. I could say more on that and rant about what does and doesn’t equal good game design and how the big sites like GameSpot, IGN, 1-up etc are essentially the really guilty ones for using a 7-9 rating scal, giving in to fanboy pressure and not actually looking at the merits of the game, etc. But I think I’ve already said all I really should on the matter.

Still, it’s good to see that Eurogamer agrees with me and that Videogamer were able to phrase their points in a way that made me reconsider my arguments for a bit in a rather good review.

Ah well – no biggie. I think all games reviewers have fallen victim to their own fanboyism sometimes. You should see how often I find myself laying praise on Beyond Good and Evil or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time which, while certainly warranted, is perhaps a bit hyperbolic.

What was I talking about anyway? Oh yes. Pancake day. We tried banana, lime, nutmeg and chocolate pancakes. They were excellent. I suggest you partake at the next opportunity.

Out, Joe.