Like every other Goddamn person bristling out from the Earth, we have our own theories about the events transpiring on Lost. I think he really might be on to something!

I've been trying to figure out exactly where I stand on Tribes: Vengeance, and those of you playing along at home are probably having the same problem with my oratories thus far.

You have my initial comments, which are positive. I voice some misgivings about the omissions to the formula. Then, about a week later, I discuss the public demo briefly, in largely glowing terms but with a brief suggestion that I am still unhappy with the incisions made to the core gameplay. Those emotions percolated for a while, growing richer and darker, culminating in my purchase of the game in direct conflict with my actual desires.

Since then, I've found myself playing the game until nearly four o'clock in the morning. It seems clear to me now that this was the game people thought of as Tribes, and that the game I played with my friends was something we had sort of "made up," utilizing the command menu to create team waypoints and dedicating a member to mastering the field remotely. The features we prized most are actually corollary to what's going on here. And, since the old group reviles the new Tribes almost to the man, those social features we ginned up aren't really necessary for me anymore.

As a matter apart from "altering traditional Tribes gameplay," something that could be mulled over, grim-faced, forever, Irrational has imagined how things look and sound in Tribes to the extent that these things dragged me into the multiplayer. You can look at the jet boots on the Imperial light and see not just their stated function, but how they would be stored when not in use and locked away. That's not something I had ever pictured, and who knows why they would have engineered it to that degree but they have done so. They took something as fanciful as flying suits and made them into real things. The sound, too, deserves accolades upon praise upon abject prostration for its ability to do the same thing - not just odd audible stimuli, caricatures of the future, but the way this world would sound. Stand by a deployable station when the lid is closed, producing a new item to get a chance to see what I mean. You can hear it grinding and cutting, fabricating. It could have hummed and we would have gotten the message. Instead, everything sounds as though someone visited the era with a microphone.

I suppose I could probably ask somebody over there why they removed what they did, instead of simply applying the devious personas I've created for them. I'll do that today.

In today's Child's Play news news, my friend Steve over at HardOCP/Hypothermia is holding another raffle for an excellent piece of hardware, and all of the proceeds go to Child's Play. All you do to enter is just hit up this page for the info, and then donate five dollars for each chance to win. He made the machine I'm typing on right now, and it is powerful like a wild animal. I can vouch for the man's work.

Also, my friend Jon over at Goats is pitching in, too - in case you actually needed encouragement to buy a shirt with a piratical monkey torso grafted to a robotic walker frame. Between now and Christmas, anything sold from their store fetches a dollar towards Child's Play.

(CW)TB out.

like i always wanted