So many games, so little time.
Metroid Prime: I am about ten or eleven hours into Metroid and it continues to be great, in spite of some issues with the way it controls. The visuals are especially nice. It's not like I've never seen an ice level before, or some ancient ruins or whatever. I mean, I can't even count the number of times I've had to dodge vents that spit out fire in a video game. But somehow these staples feel fresh in Metroid. I don't know what special blend of herbs and spices the guys at Retro used to breathe life into these stock environments but I'm guessing there was at least eleven.
MechAssault: This game has a grip on my mind. When I'm not playing it I'm thinking about it. Playing it on Live is like raw, undiluted fun. Like if fun was some kind of mineral that you could pull up from deep inside the earth. The controls are simple. Three or four buttons is all you need. Anyone can pick it up and immediately start maneuvering their mech around like a pro. But the game is also incredibly deep. From your choice of mech to your use of the terrain this game oozes strategy. A lot of you will no doubt be picking up your Xbox live starter kits today. Do yourselves a favor and pick up MechAssault along with it.
Shinobi: I got it but I really have not had a chance to play it much. All I know right now is that it's got style to spare and it's hard as fuck.
Resident Evil 0: This one time I was playing MechAssault and I was like up on this hill and I was totally laying into this other guy with my PPCs and he was all like "FUCK!" and I was all like "WOO!"...It was pretty cool.
So I've been looking at these Tablet PCs lately. When I make a comic strip right now it starts off as a pencil drawing that gets scanned into Photoshop. Then I use my Wacom tablet to tighten it up and color it and stuff. So anyway, I am looking at these Tablet PC's and wondering if I couldn't use it sort of like digital paper. I mean, could I throw Photoshop on there and just draw right into it? Or could I stick a copy of Painter on it, head down to the lake and paint right into it like some kind of goddamned future canvas? I went down to Comp USA last weekend when they got them in and checked out the Toshiba model they had. It had a larger screen than the others and felt a little bit more robust, which I liked. The only art program they had on them of course was Paint and that really isn't a very good test. Microsoft is marketing these things to business people who take a lot of notes or something. To me it seems like an obvious fit for artists though, and so I wonder why they aren't targeting us as well. Do they just not see that as a possibility? Will it just not work for this purpose? I am hesitant to drop that kind of cash (credit) on one without knowing for sure that it will do what I want. What I need is a way to put Photoshop on one of them and give it a test drive. Comp USA obviously won't let me do that so I turn to you guys. According to our server statistics, about a hundred thousand people are gonna read this little post of mine today. I know that at least one of you must be in a position to help me out on this. Even if you just happen work at MS and you have one in your office. I live close, I can stop by and mess around with it while you work. I am like a little mouse, you won't even know I'm there.
- Gabe out
