PixlBit

The controls were perfect. It was all about timing and anticipating what the opponent would do.

I think I've heard the second one gets a little goofy, or over-the-top in a bad way... I just read the wiki on it and it says that Condemned 2 improved on the mechanics of the first game but the story wasn't as tight and the feeling of tension was lessened by an overdose of blood and guts. So it seems like the first one wins for overall atmosphere and creepiness.

I considered playing it on the hardest difficulty after I beat it. I think I did an hour or two that way, but I'd really spent myself beating that final boss. What a battle that was.

I own Condemned 2 now, but I need to find time to play it.

Oh man, I forgot about Geist and the The Darkness. I played both of those. I played a little bit of Indigo Prophecy and I own Eternal Darkness, but stil haven't played it. That's a good list.

The speed runner on the podcast mentioned how there are people who commit at lot of time to studying a game like Wind Waker. He called them Nintendo scientists. Ha! I'm going to watch and learn, but I won't be one to discover new tricks unless it happens by accident (like most do). I don't have the time either.

Speaking of speed runs. The Nintendo Voice Chat podcast at IGN this week (http://ignwii.ign.libsynpro.com/nintendo-voice-chat-our-zelda-wind-waker-hd-special?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ignfeeds%2Fpodcasts%2Fwii+%28A+LibSyn+podcast%3A+Nintendo+Voice+Chat%29) was all about speed running Zelda: Wind Waker. I think speed runs are really cool and I'm going to start watching them for games I've played. It's another way to get more out of a game. Play it, complete it 100%, speed run it. That's my mantra for gaming from now on.

I'm so behind in all the Metroid games. I've only played several hours of Metroid Prime even though I now own most of the games. Need... more... time.

I don't know why, but that game sticks in my memory. The rain, the atmosphere, the desperate struggle to find what happened to your fellow ODSTs. Everything has gone FUBAR and you're in an enemy occupied city. It has a more realistic, intimate feel to it. The first Halo Graphic Novel had some stories along this line taking the perspective of the citizens experiencing the alien invasion. I think it's a missed opportunity in the Halo universe. Bungie could've done a spin-off series of smaller games from the perspective of the average soldier or citizens. I'd love to see some of that and get away from the super soldier stuff from time to time. 

     I know people, mostly older people who grew up on that new thing television, that watch it all the time. They even go to sleep in front of the TV. No one thinks that's abnormal or calls them TOOBERS or something; although, maybe they did in the fifties or sixites when TV was still pretty new. Gaming has only hit the mainstream in a big way this last generation. It was a fad in the eighties, then a thing kids did in the nineties, then a thing you did after school with your high school/college buddies, and now it's something you live with. It's everwhere, in everything. Pretty soon, no one will even notice that you game, it will be assumed and the term GAMER will become a thing of memory.

   This reminds me of something I heard once about technology, how it starts as a novelty, then something a niche audience uses, then it becomes unbiquitous and no one notices it anymore. It's taken for granted and assumed in every situation. I think this might be happening with video gaming; although, I still feel a little bit the outsider for being into it so much.