Not real people.

During my quasi-productive outing this afternoon I picked up Assassin's Creed. HOMG. And let me just say that I don't add the "h" to my OMG very often.

This is one of the best video games I've ever played. It's like... the open-world of Grand Theft Auto combined with history (it takes place, erm, sort of... during the Crusades) combined with free running. In GTA you could always just wander around and hop on things, but the animation in this is smooth and you're actually climbing and hopping and grabbing and... well, the game calls it free running. So.

The producers of the game take pride in its historical accuracy. The locations in the game are distinctive models of the cities. All of Altaïr's targets are also historic leaders who died or disappeared in the year 1191 (though not necessarily assassinated).

Interactive history. I love it. I jsut spent the last hour running over the rooftops of Damascus. Now if only Eva Green would show up and make out with me, I'd be all set.

This is a large scale, rich, one player experience that isn't just wandering around shooting everything. Don't get me wrong, I love FPS games, but they seem more and more like a smallish one player adventure that exists mainly to ease you into online multiplayer (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty 4. I don't like online multiplayer, 'cause I don't have enough time to not suck. Or money.

Anyway. We'll see how the game pans out. Some of the reviewers say it gets repetitive. I felt that way about GTA, though, and I still enjoyed those games.

In the meantime, I'm off to run the rooftops of Jerusalem.

I have been holding off on buying the Orange Box because 1) I can't really justify money on video games right now and 2) I'm not too sure my computer could keep up. It ran Half-Life 2 fine, but I worry. It's lagging on simple games like Pizza Frenzy. Mostly the first reason, though, because we all know I'd buy more memory in an instant. Money again.

It's really hard, though, 'cause I waaaaaaaaaaant Portal. And Episodes 1 and 2 of HL. Want want want want gimme.

It's going on my Hanukkah list. That's only really 8 weeks away. I can make it.

Aaah. The office is empty except for me, until 4pm. I'm listening to dark/calm jazz and blues on Musicovery. It's amazing how much music helps. I'm thinking of turning off the fluorescents and turning on the soft lights that the slightly hippie-ish woman who uses the office in the evenings has put in here. You know, the lady with the butterfly.

And apparently I'm losing weight. This morning I thought I'd try buttoning a shirt that I haven't been able to fit into since last summer ('06), and to my surprise it buttoned fine. It's a little tighter on me than it was, but it buttoned. I don't feel like I'm losing weight, and I don't know what I've been doing to lose it, but who am I to complain?

I'm also Wii boxing an hour a day, which sounds stupid but is actually a pretty decent workout if you really get into it. Which I do. I've been pondering gaming a lot, and besides the new physical aspect of it (because I never got into DDR), I really enjoy it because I can shut my brain off. It lets me just be in the game and concerned with the game, and everything else just gets pushed away. It's great.

All right. If I can finish all my work in the next hour or two I can goof off for the rest of the day. Back to it then.

There's a sci-fi show in the pilot stage for NBC called Journeyman, about "a man who travels back in time to fix events, including those in his own life." I can't help but this this is somehow related to the Journeyman Project line of games which were some of the best, most beautiful games I ever played. When ever anyone says how much the adore Myst (which I do, no doubt) I always think of the Jourrneyman games, which I always like a bit better. Probably for the setting.

The website for the fan-based remake of the game mention "variour third-party projects using the license." I bet the NBC show is one of them. The story of Journeyman was pretty unique, but the story of a man that travels in time to fix problems in the past isn't. So I hope NBC gets a little more specific (and borrows heavily from the visuals and music of the games), 'cause otherwise I don't think it'll be that great.

In my opinion.

This, my friends, is why the electric guitar was invented. To play the theme song for a video game that didn't come out for fifty years.



Also, this guy has songs from Chrono Trigger (which has some of the best music in video game history), Secret of Mana, Super Mario Brothers 2, and Castelvania. And other games. He plays the bass and the guitar and is, quite possibly, my hero.

Definitely check out the Zelda "Gerudo Valley" and "Song of Storms" music. Even if you're not into games, they're really nice pieces.

Eff Sony, man. If you only make 100,000 consoles to sell on opening day in a country with 128 million people (even if only 10% of those were games, that's still a lot more than 100,000) of course it's going to sell out. What nice headlines for you. Eff Sony and their $500 console. I just haven't seen a single thing yet that makes me want a PS3 more than an Xbox 360 or a Wii (the two consoles I'm currently trying to decide between for next year, when I have some money and some reason to buy video games).

$500. Pfft.

Why oh why does anyone think an Aquaman TV show is going to work? I'd like to be proven wrong. But. Aquaman?

Also: Happy 20th Anniversary, Legen of Zelda. I've loved you since you were a gold-cartridge encased 8-bit game of top-scrolling maze mayhem. (The theme to the original game is still one of my favorite tunes to whistle. #10 on the list of 20 reasons to love Zelda is the music. And it's true.)

So, wow. And, really. Double wow, because it's also WoW. I don't play World of Warcraft, so I don't know much about what the guild setup is like, but some of the comments on Slashdot make me think that this is an inane policy bordering on ignorantly (as opposed to intentionally) homophobic.

And now we're talking about studying for the Bar and I'm mildly freaking out. But just mildly.

I probably should be cleaning my room. Although, really, there's not much left to do besides organizing and getting rid of the little things. This is the hardest part and, as such, I've decided to put it off until the daylight. I'm going to spend the next few hours playing Sims 2, because I'm going to be severely video game deprived this fall. No X-Box, no Game Cube, and my laptop is in the shop until God-only-knows. Kate is being kind enoguh to lend me her laptop 'til mine is fixed (because she rarely uses hers and I'm constantly attached to computers in general), but I don't know that it'll run Sims 2. It might.

Hung out with Joe this afternoon, which was nice. I haven't seen him in forever. We ran some errands, I went to go get a milkshake (wtf happened to all the Blisses in the area?), we watched some baseball and SVU. Just like old times.

I feel a little guilty that I may not get a chance to see my dad before I leave, but I don't know what to do. I don't have the car - or the time, really - to go down to Rhode Island to visit. He said he might come up here, which is... shocking, to say the least. If it actually happens, I might start to get worried that he's terminally ill. Not to get cynical, but I think he's been here once since I moved here. It'd be nice to see him, but... eh, internal conflict.

It's not like I'm leaving forever.

So, uh, what happened to Vampire: The Masquerade, and what the heck is Vampire: The Requiem? I mean, is it related even a little bit to V:tM? I'm almost tempted to buy the new book, just 'cause I love reading the WW gaming books.

That's all. Just procrastinating.