On the Paper Trail: Masters of Doom

This is a sample taken from Coldguy's other project The Paper Trail where he review books on Video Games.

Howdy partners welcome back to the trail, in this stop we have ourselves a geek classic here. Masters of Doom tells the tale of John Carmack and John Romero, how they once started as lowly programmers trying to push the edge of technology and somehow changed the entire culture of gaming for better or worse.

This story is madly fascinating by being brutally honest about the Johns and their rise to power. Carmack is a self motivated nerd who just wants to hammer out the code to get the job done, Romero is an experimental jackass that takes no solace in anyone else's emotions. These people are in essences uncaring pompous pricks that are really good at computers, they do the things their way and everyone hates them because of it. However at the end of the day there is still a passion that you can not deny from them.

This book is blunt, in the same manner as the Johns and pulls no punches with foul language and tells it like it was. It includes great mini biops on various people you know (American McGee and the ID Mom were among my favorites) as well as incorporate the culture at the time as well. One fact that I found hilarious was that one day after the US government forced the ESRB to come into existence Doom was released to the public via shareware.

It also tells you that both together managed a rise and fall for the glory that was Doom and Quake I, and how they were apart made Ion Storm and Id crash from its mighty perch. The various business dealings would make you head tilt upon how Eidos managed to put up with all the nonsense that Romero was cooking, or how in the world no one thought Carmack was a terrible business owner and not just a hard worker.

This book is a time capsule about early computer gaming, the excitement of having two people and a bastion of friends pushing computer hardware to the absolute maximum and creating the games that they wanted to have created and making a boat load of money using unorthodox methods. The book does not sugar coat anything it simply tells it like it was and excepts you to be mature enough to think it is awesome or just question why Microsoft would allow a Giant Vaginal door to take place with the members of Gwar hitting people with dildos (yes that actually happened).

If you grew up in the 90s this will be a blast from the past that you will love to revisit, if you are wondering where trolling started it also tells you that as well, or if you wondered how two people with no business skills managed to finance an empire based around video game it talks about that as well. A must read if you are a gamer to find the zenith into FPS that is still tried and true to this day.

On the Paper Trail: Gamers...in the Library?!

Note: this was taken by Coldguy's side project On the Paper Trail which goes and reviews book based on video games. For more up to dates notes check out On the Paper Trail.

Howdy gamers, welcome to the first stop on the trail and in this installment we are going to talk about video games and libraries. Sure you may think that these two things would not go hand in hand with one another however recently studies have shown that this can be a power house mix to attract teenagers and children to the hallowed book hall.

So the goal of this book is simple: get more people to the library and have video games to be one of those "services" that are made available to the patrons. Eli Neiburger is both a librarian and a gamer and has seen his hobby become a major success in his district and has the plan to make it a success for your own.

Now as you might imagination the core of this book is not for "gamers" but rather librarians who may or may not know about video games. Therefore several parts of this book address things like which games you should look into, what consoles you may want to get, what cabling is required to set up an event and the logistics of the event to attract people into coming.

As a facilitator it does an amazing job into breaking down the various aspects of planning of the tournament season at your library, from convincing a person who does not think video games belong in the library to using your budget to get the most bang for your buck. It breaks things done into simple terms and tells even the non technologist how to pull an event like this off and keep the gamers coming in.

As a gamer the biggest takeaway from this is the tournament system they use to ensure that no one would be bored at the event. As well as how the rules need to be both structured enough to be understood and flexible enough to change on the fly in case an issue arises. This in combination with how to set up a room for a tourney comes into play if you were wanting to set up one at a convention, your basement, or in another public space. This is a great guide to ensure you get the maximum amount of fun from the experienced player to the novice.

All in all this book was made for librarians, as it was published by the ALA directly. Yes the American Library Association has published a book on how to create video game tournaments at your local library to encourage gamers to come. If that alone does not tell you that libraries are not cool I am not sure what will. If you are an adult that wants to run a tournament to attract people to come and keep coming back to your public venue this is right up your alley.

As for a gamer this is something you may want to skip since it deals with more of an open venue management rather then the nuts and bolts on setting up ways to get the clan structure set. Plus since it is an ALA book the price point of this one is $50. Which in my opinion is way too much for you to go and purchase this title, my best suggestion is to check this out at your local library (heck my library had it on its shelves for me to go and check out) take some notes and return when finished. You can check out the book on Amazon which provides you with a nice Kindle version for those reading on the electronic device.

Post Pax East Wrapup

So I came back from the Pax East and took a while to decompress everything and get my final thoughts on the event as a whole.  The reason it took me so long was...well there was a lot to take in.  As you might have imagined this was indeed the biggest convetion I have been to.  Many people that I talked with was either in the category of this was thier first convention ever or this was the first pax ever.  Now I have had my share of conventions I have been to before having the last one being Zenkaikon last week (yes folks that is an anime convention) and planning to attend some others on the horizon, but for now I am going to lay a big of ground work in my comparision to another convetnion.

There is a good chance that if you are reading this you are a fan of TGWTG.com, where you know the persona and other work from myself.  In this I am going to assume you have heard of a little convention known as MAGfest.  It is a hotel con around 3,000 people where PAX is a corporate con with an attendence of 69,500*, so to say that PAX is better then a hotel con is an understatement.  However I can compare aspects on what the convention did right and wrong to MAGfest and some of my issues are going to shock you.  So lets get to breaking down the event itself.

1) Main events

Yea, this is a landslide on this one.  The main events from the keynote speaker of Jane McGonical to the Q&A sessions, the make a strip panel, the G4 Q&A, the Omegathon, and anything featured by the site itself just utterly kicked the ass of smaller convetnions.  That is why people go to these conventions, I am in a minority when going to the convention for the simple fact that I was not a Penny Aracde fan, sure I knew of its existantance and seen a few comics in the past, but as a fan of the site I was luke warm.  Sure I could have attended these events and be the outsider in the room and probility had a few laughs at the jokes that took place, but all in all unless you are a fan of the site or part of the cummunity you can actually pass on the vast majority of these events except for the keynote and the omegathon.  Which leads me too...

2) Panels

Now I know what you are thinking: surely PAX has the better panel selection as all the bigwig people go there and present things right?  Well...yes and no.  The thing with panels is that I am of the hardcore people that will go to a convention JUST for the panels sometimes, I enjoy learning things about various shows or games that I do not know about.  So when you first look at the list of panels at PAX your first reaction is HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME!

Then you step back and take a closer look, if we were to elimate the panels that are community panels or as I like to call them "hey were famous and you acknowledge this, come and watch us dick around for an hour," also take away the company panel where the sole purpose is "we have shit to sell you, come and let us convince you to buy it," and what you have left is the panels that are to inform and educate you, the real crux of panels at conventions.

Frankly...they sucked.  I am serious the IGDA track is for people who were there wanting to get into the industry (and elimated from this discussion for reasons for another day) and generic topics ranging from what Minecraft tought us about gamers, how to be a geek parent, and how to be a better DM in games.  I attended a panel on how to become a writer in the gaming industry which boiled down to here are people in the industry ask us questions, sorry if I have to give you content in which you react to my questions instead of telling me stories which would be more insiteful then just user submitted questions then I am leaving.

MAGfest at least brings in professionals (MAG 9) and has a moderator who has an agenda to keep them on point on a discussion topic at hand.  This is how you do panels people, and unless you fall into the trap of seeing panels that lack the oompth and inspiration MAGfest has better panels.

3) Concerts

This...is a hard comparision.  MAGfest is known for concerts, that is what the M in MAGfest stands for, PAX is not, but they bring something else to the table, and that is venue.  The main event room in PAX can hold 15,000 people easily, MAGfest concert hall is a spec compared to this.  You could easily get in, rock out, and leave whenever you like.  MAGfest the room is packed an hour before concerts start and they rock out all night. 

Now as for the selection of bands were as followed: Protomen (also at MAGfest but awesome none the less), MC Frontalot (awesome, but many people who do not enjoy live MC work would be underwhelmed at what was done on stage), Metroid Metal (who are ok, but needed a smaller venue to feel the vibe, I will explain later), Video Game Orchestra (a student orchestra who games game music, I prefer the One Ups), Paul and Storm (if you seen them once, you know the stick), and finally Johnathan Colton (see Paul and Storm, only to a lesser degree).

Now the wildcard in this was...Jamspace.  Yes Jamspace was at PAX brought to you by the friends at MAGfest who had chiptune jam concerts, Brental Floss, Arm Cannon, Protomen, Metroid Metal who did a BETTER show in the small room, live jams with various band members, DJ Cutman, and Mega Rand.  The PA Forum was buzzed with the fact that many people missed these shows since they were not known since they were not in the schedule.  But if you had a smart phone device and knew how twitter worked people were posting about these "secret" concerts abound once they where known.  So in all honesty, music goes to MAGfest since they know that when a singer falls off the stage you simply do not hold him in the air...

4) Tourinments (not including the Omegathon)

Well this was underwhelming.  With the venue as big as PAX was (think 3 aircraft hangers stacked on top of one another), you would think they have a nice set up for tourniments that allow a crowd to come in and watch the competitors go at one another.  Nope is was the typical sign up on the sheet, sit in front of your console and go at the tourney.  Not that there was anything wrong with this but MAGfest does the same thing, hell most other gaming conventions do at least this, some actually have a bleacher stand and cut into various players as they compete with one another.  Sure the prizes were nicer to obtain but the presentation was...average.  I call this a draw.

5) Tabletop Gaming

Let me put it this way, MAGfest claims to have tabletop...they don't.  Sure they have about 5 games for you to play and a handful of tables to use, but the real sole purpose of PAX was the table top.  Think of an open football field, place table in said field, have the field overflowing with games going on.  That was the PAX table top experience in a nut shell.  People acutally move their games from table top to the satelliete food court to have a more quieter space for when they played their games.  So if you are in tabletop gaming there was no reason for you to leave that area of the convention.

6) Expo floor/Vendors

Well MAGfest has an assortment of vendors that you would find in anime conventions as well as gaming conventions.  PAX has been called a mini E3.  Well here is where I ruffle some feathers...it was ok.  Don't get me wrong if you wanted to get some exclusive gaming going on with upcoming titles it had that in spades.  However if you are a person that fancys yourself in this role you needed to go and wait in lines, long long lines.  Now I hate lines, why do I want to wait to play the 3DS for over an hour?  Sure I would be the first person in my group of friends to say I played it but not even two weeks later there are kiosks of the 3DS at my local best buy, and the best part of that was there was no line to use it.  The indie games were awesome, since the vast majority of people tended to skip that thus being no line.  If you didn't care about the AAA titles you could easily go up and down the aisles once, played games that looked interesting, and then never go back there.  Sure there was plenty of swag to be given away, most of which sucked in my opinion, but if you were the luckiest person at the convention (see FreyaMau) you are going to throw it all away after a week or two.  The vendors kicked ass selling things upwards of $500 on the floor, too rich for my blood.  However if you wanted to get some really high quality stuff this was the event for you.  PAX wins this category however your mileage may vary here depending on whether or not you want to play the game, or just wait until all the press do the dirty work for you.

7) PC and Modern Console gaming

Wow...this is a hard one.  If you are looking for quanity PAX has that in spades.  If you are looking for quality...that is another issue altogether.  How it works is that if you wanting to play a specific game you go and get a number, you then wait until your number is called.  Once called you turn in your ID (driver license most times) and tell them what game you want, if they have it they tell you where to go and get to play for about 15 minutes, once the time is up you return the game and get your ID back.  Well this is nice if you are looking to play a specific game, but if you are the person that is going to play smash bros, call of duty, or insert popular multiplater game here then MAGfest will have it out by default.  In all honestly the PC gaming is better at PAX where the modern console gaming is better at MAGfest.

8) Classic Console/Arcade Gaming

This may shock you...MAGfest wins this easily.  Not due to the fact that they have a better focus on classic consoles but more on the fact how it is presented at the convention.  PAX has it where you look on a list and if your game is on there you can go and play it, where at MAGfest it is more along the lines of find an open area if the game in there isn't what you want trade it for a game you are interested in and go at it.  However what actually does this over is the arcade.  MAGfest had about 50 machienes available to play with a variety of genres including pinball.  PAX had about 15 dating to the late 80s with no pinball.  I love funspot, I really do but when I go to a convention I want an actual arcade and not a please touch museam that happens to have arcade games.  So yea...MAGfest wins this handily.

9) Staff

The Enforcers are awesome, point blank.  I think their sole goal is to make sure everyone has a good time there, if there is a douchbag ruining fun, they get kicked out.  I have seen many people try to go against the rule, have an enforcer tell them to stop or have their badge pulled, and then comply with what they say.  MAGfest...not so much.  It is really not a fair comparision since one is stricky a volenteer convention and the other being a business run convention with volenteer help.  If you want to go to PAX and can not afford to go, ask to enforce.  You can easily be above most professional convention staff in that role even once...I am not kidding.

10) Vibe

This is hard, PAX you have a vibe where people want to make this the greatest 3 days of their lives, PAX provides the tools and it is yours to take.  MAGfest has a vibe of a party, were people are going to have a good time, play to win, and rock out as much as possible.  This is more of a personal preference issue then anything else.  I prefer the party atmosphere since I can find my way around a convention and never be borded for a moment unless you choose to be.  PAX you need to work to get that excitement, but once you do you are going to have a limitness amount of fun.  So I may prefer MAGfest but you are going to ultimately decide which one for you.

11)  Final Thoughts

Even though my comparision may be even there is no question I am going to find a way to go next year.  Hell I am going to see if I can plan to reserve the hotel room in the near future to ensure I have a prime location and not have to worry about commuting to various locations.  If you are a geek of any kind and are thinking about going, just go.  Even if you are not a fan of Penny Arcade like myself there is so much for you to do and see that you are going to have a wonderful time there.  PAX brings so much to the table you would need to be an absolute fool not to enjoy yourself there.

*69.500 number is actualy inflated due to turnstyle count, the event in my estimate is around 24,000 people however the west coast cons count different then other geek conventions to inflate numbers.  All in all there were a lot of people there, Otakon is still bigger.

An update of sorts plus streaming

Hello all, just wanted to give you all a quick update of sorts on what has been going on.  In addition to preparing for PAX I have been doing some hardcore research on some interesting editorials that I have been working, the first one should be squarely on the state of emulation and what gaming needs to do to ensure it can coexist with it.

However one of the biggest things I have been gripping about for a while now is the streaming business of gaming.  I have been experimenting possibilities of streaming games online which will allow me to go and make videos off of the interaction with people watching me succeed or fail in games.  I think I have a few items up my sleeve that could make it interesting.

However I have been encountering a mired of issues in steaming a constant game.  First being bandwidth, for those who do not know I have Comcast and they like to give you just enough upload before you could really do anything of major significance.  Sure webcams and voice is ok, but video on the desktop hell no.  In the current area that I am in the chance to pay for more uptime is not an option.

Next you have the issue of the operating system, Windows 7 and Vista change the way various devices communicate with one another, and if you are going to stream anything you need to be running windows XP.  That is fine, however in order to get it working properly is another issue all together.  Sure I could go and have my Windows 7 machine multi-boot to both OSes and switch back and forth between them, but that is going to require me to go and get a bunch of things that are going to cost me money in order to get it working properly.  I could just get another computer that has the OS installed on it, but again costing me money.

The software to stream is fickle as well, everyone likes to go and hover around 30 fps, which is fine if you are playing games on the gameboy, nes or even the genesis.  If you go any higher then that the vast majority of consoles border around 60fps and unless you like to watch some choppy game play.  Now there are ways I could go and pop it to 60 fps, which require me to deal with either Windows Encoder or Flash media encoder.  To describe the bane that program poses would require me to relive nightmares that I do not want to bring upon you.

I could also get one of those HD cards that can go and capture directly from the console.  That would work, however you need to make sure you have the right connections to go to the card (some only have s-video while others are HDMI or composite only).  Needless to say I have been giving myself a headache thinking this over and surprised that so many people take the time to go about doing this with minimum results.

So in short I got some things planned up my sleeve, streaming not so much.  Maybe down the line, but for right now I will just stick with writing.

Who's That Flying?! A PC Review

Hello one and all, after a long time away from the reviewers desk it is time for me to come and return back to the form that I call my bread and butter.  Today we are going to look at a game that was recently released on PC and PSN, Who's that Flying?!

The game at its core is a shoot em up, a genre that normally sends people in a like it or hate it range.  The people who enjoy it really enjoy the challenge of obtaining the highest possible score possible, trying to advance to the next stage, and becoming a master of dodging oncoming bullets.  People who are not fond of the genre point to those exact things and demand something more exciting to play thinking that the formula has reached its peak long ago.

Good news everyone, this game is going to change the shoot em up genre in a good way.  I am being serious.

So first let's talk about the story of the game, you are the defender of Earth and are being placed on trial for allowing doom beasts (black enemies with large teeth) to go and invade your planet.  The various stages of the game is the recounting of you telling the jury of the other defenders how you were styling and profiling as you defended the earth, always acting triumphant at the end.  This reverse story telling allows the game to get away with several game play tweaks that we will get into later, but what shines the most in these scenes is the comedy.

The dialog between you and the other defenders of their planets is a good banter between one another and the designs of each of them bode well and make you want to know more about them trying to uncover these unique defenders as they go and defend their planets.  It does not overstate its welcome, it simply gets to the point, adds a few jokes and gets you right into the action.

The more you play the more you want to get to know about each member

Now as for the action concern it is your typical shoot em up where your goal is to destroy everything on screen, however what WTF does is change the tactics for you killing the doom beasts from wrecking your town.  What this causes is the goal of each level going from surviving the hoards of enemies to holding the enemies from going behind you.  The less you allow to escape your wrath the higher the medal you will receive, which can be used to unlock trophies or magazine pages.

In addition for you not dieing and allowing many mistakes to take place it also adds power-ups which you obtain by killing enemies.  First you get a faster shot, then an energy beam, and finally you get a hyper beam which can literally take down all minor characters with one hit.  The dynamic of chaining the powers together to maximize the use per power is not only essential for a high score but can easily get you past the tricky areas of the game.  In addition to your shot you also can tear enemies apart if you get close to them and provide a small burst to other surrounding enemies or unleash a finishing move to a larger enemy after weakening them to create a medium sized explosion killing the enemies around them.

 Hyper beam on a boss doesn't take him out right away

So you might be asking yourself that this is all well and good but what makes this go from a standard shoot em up to something excellent?  The key is simple, chaining combos.  Part of the strategy of keeping the doom beats at bay is to go and create combos by beating the enemies to earn cheers.  The more the cheers come in the faster your power-ups will become available this will lead you to not randomly shoot enemies that come to you but to actually enable you to time when you enable the death of various enemies to maximize your score and prevent the stray beast from escaping your wrath.

Here is an example of this, first look at the picture above.  Now in this picture you noticed that the defender is about to unleash a hyper beam  to defeat the doom beast behind the two larger enemies.  However notice above the one large enemy you have a choice to use a finishing move on it. If you were to go and do that it would cause an explosion that will take out some of beats behind him.  If you are quick enough you can save your beam for the next wave of enemies who may or may not be clustered like that down the line.

The amount of choices being thrown at you to optimize your killing.  There is no one true method to ensure beating all of the doom beasts which allows the player a certain trial and error on top of their preferred style of beating a level, meaning the player can literally beat the game in their own manner.  The game play to achieve the ideal solution for each stage (defeat all the doom beast and let none escape you) brings an experience that is not memorizing patterns but stringing combinations together to react to each wave.

We have finally moved beyond the memorizing patterns and dodging bullets in the shoot em up genre and focus in on chaining various maneuvers to achieve the ultimate goal.  Overall it is a breath of fresh air that is needed in the genre.

The extras this game features is fantastic, it gives you an infinite enemy mode where the goal is to survive the longest without missing 50 doom beasts and a challenge mode.  These challenges range from a time attack boss rush, a no enemy shall pass run, high score challenges and a hyper speed run of a level.  In short even if you are not good at shoot em ups the challenges will allow you to go toe to toe with gamers savvy of the genre.

Are you up to the task to defeat every challenge?

This game cracks the traditional mode of the shooter and allows it to be accept to both hardcore fans and casual goers of the game and provides enough of story and comedy  to make you want to continue on.  This should be a slam dunk buy for anyone who wants a game that is going to challenge you and will make you want to go and do better to unlock the various bonuses.  So until next time, keep on gaming.

I'm off to PAX East and why you should see the Keynote Speaker

Greetings on and all for this is your pal Coldguy and I would like to announce that I am going to PAX East (barring major epic fail). I wanted to let you all know that and if you are going there and see me, come over and say hi. All I ask is that you are not a stalker, and you let me know who you are so I don't get creped at you coming over to me.

Now the one thing I am look at conventions more so then anything else is the panels. Majority of people think I am nuts when it comes to this, however you are in a collective think tank beaming with potential insight that is not only free but sometimes better then the actual event as well.

I know what some are you are thinking, "I need to get to the QnA panel of this person, or attend the zombie survivalist camp, or watch people play match game with anime characters!" For that I say WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!*

Conventions have panel tropes as much as anything else (see the Colossus yell, I'm on a boat, and free hugs), and knowing these things will help you decide which events you want to go to and which ones to skip. The key to get the maximum amount of fun with the smallest amount of time alloted is planning on what exactly you are doing and where you are going.

Now as of now the schedule has not been released for PAX East 2011, however rumblings of it show that it should be coming out soon. I highly suggest looking it over as soon as it comes out and research the people running the panel. If they have a good track record at other conventions (i.e. Rym and Scott from Geeknights) then those are going to be panels you want to go to.

However, one thing was released from the PAX camp and it is the keynote speaker, Jane McGonigal. When I heard this news I literally made a high pitch squee. Not only do I know she is going to do an awesome job as the keynote, but I got proof of it! Watch the video below in its entirety before continuing.

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Video on TED.com

Yes, she is going to be your keynote speaker. In an age where we consider gaming a modern version of a toys, it is amazing to know that there are people out there using the gaming mechanics to solve real life problems.

We hold in this new medium that we call gaming, with all of the FPS, RTS, platformers, puzzle games, and yes even casual gaming a limitless potential to turn what we consider fun and turn it into a benefit to society.

So when PAX released its Panel schedule, give it a look over and try to find some outside of your normal convention fair and allow yourself to explore gaming in a new direction.

*Trademark Nash 2010

Where I have been?

Hello everyone, if you are here from my gaming twitter account I want to go and thank you, if you are from my main twitter account that is awesome too, all in all I have been away and I think you guys waited long enough for an explanation.

Well for two months I went ahead and wrote for a good gaming site called Blistered Thumbs, the people there were very nice to talk to and a good spirited bunch.  I was brought on as a reviewer, which was my forte that I have been doing for numerous years, and was excited to add my input into this new venture.  However there was a catch, in addition to reviewing one game a week I had to write five news stories as stated in the policy set by the head of the site.

Now to be honest, I am not a news reporter, nor do I consider blogging a "profession" to report on news.  My review style is neutral and I interject opinions into them.  As a reporter I know that could not happen since your job is to go and report the news.  However I was up to the task to go out and try to do this and do the best that I can do.

At first it was a rough start, getting help from as many people as I can, hunting down stories that were not covered on the main gaming blogs and presenting them to the audience.  Several of these stories I try to have them relate to the average gamer as some where a complex subject, like Silverlight potential for a Zune/Xbox game, to things that are interesting, like an interview with someone defending video game from the naysayers.

Well it turns out I made many mistake, actually too many mistakes.  I had a long checklist of things to do and over the course of time I missed some of them and would get called out for them.  I also had to do my own graphic design, which I am no expert at either, and went ahead going through free programs making interesting images.  In total one news story across the wire would normally take me over 7 hours to finish from soup to nuts and on top of working full time job let's just say I do not have time to add a social life as well.

After about two months of work I was told I had to take a break until February, only to be told then that I was no longer needed for the site.  Although I investing much time and money into this venture as well as classes, tutors and additional resources to improve upon my weakness it was for naught.  Most people will go and rage at their former employer and curse them up and down saying it is unfair, because what is better for your track record on the Internet then raging about a past job right?

That was sarcasm kids.

So instead of giving up on the dream I am going to take a new approach.  Instead of working to the grind with a major site I will attempt to go and start over right here.  Will everything be perfect?  Most likely not, but I am going to focus on things that I do well in, and that is reviews.  Sure there may be a news story here and there I will add my thoughts on, but the key focus will be simply reviews.

Now the one thing I do have going for me is my reviews I tend to keep myself out of them as much as possible giving you an opinion that in essence I will not show in writing.  Yes folks, I review games like a critic would in a newspaper.  In the age of "reviewers" simply telling you their opinion on a game I consider various things like the intended audience, the genre of people in the audience, and then finally pointing out the things you may or may not like.

I don't like numbers, at all.  They defeat the purpose of actually reading a review, and as much as meta-critic tries to over expose this fact for gamers, the real meat of any review is the time the author takes in explaining each detail of the game and at the end letting the reader decide if they want the game or not.  People are too focused on numbers that everything else is moot.

So what can you expect from me here?  My honest thoughts about games, mainly on the PC, but also on other consoles as well.  I am what many people a "casual gamer" or what I like to call "a guy who likes to play games but doesn't have 40 hours of free time to spend to play a game."  I graduated college and work for a living in IT, picking the wrong avenue in computers, I spend so much time with making money that I want to do what I want to do and eventually attempt to go full time with this again.

So if you have manage to go and read all of this I want to go and thank you in advance, I hope to inform you, educate you, and share my thoughts with you to go and encourage a discussion with the masses.  You can read my semi-random thoughts on twitter at @therealcoldguy if you like otherwise subscribe to your favorite RSS reader and I hope I can add a smile to your day when I go and finish a review.

That is all for now, it is now time for me to go to work.