Best of show for E3? Here are the nominees of the official E3 awards.
- Bioshock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC, Xbox 360)
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision for PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
- Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Mass Effect (Bioware/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
- Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
As much as I would love my beloved Fallout 3 to win Best of Show, I believe the winner will be Rock Band. Harmonix has taken gaming to a different stratosphere; its almost unfair how awesome their stuff is. Plus with the insider might that is MTV/Viacom, their music list is going to totally rock, so to speak. They've already announced two whole albums to be released. Crazy!
Anyhoo, we'll find out results tomorrow.
E3 Critics Awards prediction
Is August here yet?
The summer draught is almost over for gamers. NCAA Football -- which I'm enjoying thoroughly -- was just the beginning. August is Madden month but the games I'm most waiting for are the RPGs. For August and early Sept, I'm looking forward to Two Worlds, Bioshock, Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata. My RPG cup runneth over. I'm a big fan of Japanese style RPGs; Eternal Sonata looks especially interesting.
It is a killer year for games with Halo 3, GTA4, Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty 4. And these are just the games I must play. Not to mention the other various games I'd like to play that are coming out. No idea where I'm going to find the time to play it all.
On a quiet night
I admit it. I got bored with Twitter and stopped, um, twittering. But I came across a friend's weblog and saw his twitter and figured why not. I'm still not quite sure the point of it, though if I texted with my cellphone more, I could see the fun in it.
Slow evening. We watched a couple episodes of The Wire while eating dinner. Meg is reading a book and I'm messing with our computers. I'm consolidating all our music onto the desktop - its scattered now across my laptop, the desktop and an external hard drive. I decided the desktop would be the best central location for both of us to update our playlists and ipods.
A year and counting
So the wedding is a year from today - July 26, 2008. Megen is meeting me for lunch to celebrate - we're having dim sum.
The wedding party is set. The venue is set. Our hotels will most likely be in Old Town Alexandria. And we're looking at St Lucia for the honeymoon.
Megen has been trying to get a call back from the Naval Yard so we can get a look at the place in detail. Hopefully they'll get back to us. I think she's going to sick her Dad on them next. She has a thick three ring binder that's color coded full of stuff.
Adela gets married a few weeks after we do. In fact, we'll probably just have gotten back from our honeymoon when we attend her wedding.
Catching up on reading
Finished a lot of books while on vacation. Monster Island and Monster Nation are fantastic books, fast paced zombie action = awesome. The March and The Plot Against America were also really good. The March reminded me a bit of Killer Angels, another Civil War book that I love.
I picked up Mass Effect: Revelations after seeing the new Mass Effect videos from E3. Its okay so far. I'm about a third of the way through. It suffers from an affliction I like to call Lore Bomb. Rather than tell the story, there are pages explaining the culture or setting or history in a very matter of fact way. RPG games do this all the time -- you get a quest and then the NPC proceeds to vomit out all kinds of history and lore to you to make sure you understand the significance of why you need to go kill 5 woozles (I'm looking at you, Morrowind). Still, the world and characters are interesting enough. Lots of David Brin going on.
My Lincoln book -- Team of Rivals --that was left behind because it was too heavy to take on vacation -- started reading that last night. Only read the first chapter but I'm digging it.
I finished Next by Michael Crichton last night. It wasn't very good, very disappointing. It was about genetic research and read like a series of short stories cobbled together with not much of a point other than giving Crichton a chance to espouse his political views on genetic research. He does that a lot in his books and I usually enjoy it, but the total lack of interesting plot in this book - blah. I got bored. I found his afterword where he explained his views in detail MUCH more interesting.
I've made a dent into the pile of books I have. Still, lots more to go.
Harry Potter, done
Finished Harry Potter 7 this afternoon. It was a great ending, and I'm glad its over. I felt the story was running out of steam with book 6. The ending needed to happen soon and it was an awesome ending.
I love this SNL skit about Harry Potter.
Potter
Why can't a 33 year old man put on a wizard's hat and robe to participate in a Grand Hallows Ball, drink butter beer, wave his wand around to all the little kids (Catholic priests excluded, of course), and just enjoy a stroll down Diagon Alley with his fellow wizards and assorted muggles (ie, Megen who has never read the books)? How can this be wrong when it feels so right?
My copy arrives tomorrow via Amazon. I am on a self imposed exile from the Internet until I've finished the book to avoid spoilers.
Redfin is now in DC (and Baltimore)
Finally. Redfin now has DC area listings. Redfin lets you shop for homes without a real estate agent, many of whom are fairly useless anyway:) Redfin is directly hooked up to the precious MLS listings that real estate agents all have access to. I've been doing lots of searches, as we're looking to buy a bigger place next year.
I'm curious how up to date the listing are. Seeing a lot of ridiculous low prices -- single family homes in the mid $300s -- that had been purchased in the last 2 years for over $500K. They have a notice that says "third party approval" - I'm thinking they are foreclosures. Mostly searching in the Reston, Herndon and Sterling area. Based on the Washington Post annual real estate guide, those counties had the largest drop in housing value last year (in addition to Fairfax, but we don't want to live there). I'm thinking we'll get the best bang for the buck there. I want us to get a bigger place but not spend so much that we don't have anywhere to appreciate up to.
Here's one house I found that made Megen's eyes light up.
The Wire, season two
We started watching the second season of The Wire last night. The first season just blew me away, it was so awesome.
About me page updated
I rewrote my About Me page. Mostly because I was bored with it. I added a short bio for fun.
Getting into the game industry
I'm often asked how to break into the industry. One of my co-workers has a great story for how he got in - I just posted his Q&A at the Bethesda Blog. Brian was a modder for Morrowind, the game I worked from 2002. He created this mod that added brand new features to Morrowind, things the editor we released to the public couldn't do. It was a no brainer to offer him a job.
Now Playing: July
NCAA Football 2008
Just got it today. Really impressed with the new interface, the new super sim feature, and the saved video/photo stuff. New animations and controls feel great. I will be playing this for the next 12 months until 2009 comes out.
Catan
Still playing it. Still loving it. Deep fun game with lots of depth and brilliant interface design.
Carcassonne
Great game. Wish the implementation was as slick as Catan, but still loads of fun.
Morrowind Game of the Year
Backward compatible at last. I popped this in and played tourist, revisiting my old stomping grounds in Sadrith Mora, Balmora and Ald-ruhn. The game still holds up fairly well, I think.
And that's about it. A bit of a dry spell but it should be coming to an end next month, I hope. Though NCAA Football is plenty for me:)
Olney, MD ranked 17 in Best places to live
Money Magazine ranked Olney, MD as #17 in their top 100 best places to live list. I went to high school in Olney, lived there for several years and I loved it. A great place to grow up and raise a family, I think.
Finding the nearest bathroom
In need of a bathroom? MizPee to the rescue. This website tracks the nearest public bathrooms to you. Can use your cell phone browser and ranks by cleanliness, handicap accessibility and baby changing stations.
I was reading this site to Megen and for some reason, I can't say the word cleanliness. Yeah, weird. I just can't say it. It comes out all jumbled. This happens to me occasionally. Usually with the word physician.
Armless woman sues McDonalds
A woman with no arms is suing McDonalds because they wouldn't serve her and found her disgusting, and after she complained, they offered her a $10 gift certificate.
I think I just pitched my first Oprah book club book.
Transformers
Giant robots battling. That's what I wanted to see and that's about all that was worth watching. Michael Bay movies are the equivalent of Hallmark commercials - nice to look at and very shallow. I usually keep my expectations low with blockbusters like this, but I really had to suspend a lot of disbelief for Transformers. Fun movie to watch, but boy, this is about as thin and shallow as a summer blockbuster gets.
Nate's developer profile
Check out Nate's developer Q&A on the Bethesda Blog. I love how his cube is all geeky. His parents will be so proud, hehe. Look how far he has come.
E3
I wrote some thoughts on E3 at the Bethesda Blog. Check it out.
Going to a trade show as a developer is like going to summer camp. You have a schedule of activities throughout the day, do whatever the camp counselor tells you (ie, whoever is in charge of Marketing and PR), and at night, you party until you drop. No responsibilities really. No bills to pay at night, no kids to tuck into bed, no pets to take out on walks. While its extremely tiring, its pretty fun. Its a lot of small talking, loud talking (ie, demoing) and schmoozing - it isn't for everybody, that's for sure.
Mykonos
We stayed in a villa on Mykonos island with Meg's sister, Ellen, and a couple of her friends. Staying in Mykonos is like walking around a J Crew catalog, the buildings are all painted white and blue. We spent our days lounging by the pool, a day at the beach, and took a ferry to visit Delos, an interesting island with a fascinating history.
The locals drive insane. I rented a car to get us around. Lots of good bars and restaurants. The sunsets were gorgeous.
I uploaded more pictures.
Back home
Arrived home last night. I'll be sorting through my pictures and uploading the rest. We had a fantastic time in Greece. It was time for me to come back -- for the past 2 nights, I dream about nothing but work. Hmmm.
Megen:
We always know your uncle has been to our house because there is whole milk and heavy cream in the fridge.
How NOT to travel to Mykonos, Greece
The plan was simple. Drive to Philly, see Adela, leave for Athens via a layover in Munich. Take a ferry from Athens to Mykonos.
We left Thursday night out of Philadelphia. Why Philly?
The original flight we booked out of DC via Travelocity was never booked by Travelocity. We did not find this out until several weeks afterwards when we called, asking why we hadn't received our paper tickets yet. Turns out the some airline agreement expired and they couldn't book our ticket - and they were certain they sent us an email about it. Ahem. If that were so, what did they think Megen was calling about? To say Hi?
Due to the Travelocity debacle, the reasonably priced flights out of DC were booked up. Megen found a flight out of Philly, for cheaper than our original fare actually, and since we were leaving Thursday night, a 2 hour drive to Philadelphia was no big deal.
We left DC Thursday afternoon and got to the Philadelphia airport around 5 PM - 3 hours before out 8 PM-ish flight out. Only when we get there, our flight has been delayed until 11 PM. Ruh-roh. We have a connection in Munich to Athens with what was a safe, but now not so safe 2-hour layover. After waiting about an hour in line, we check our luggage, and take a train into the city to kill time. Oh, this is important - when we check our bag, the airline person books us on a separate backup flight that leaves later, in case we miss the one we're supposed to be on.
Adela and Josh meet us for dinner and we also check out where they live in the city, very cool. It was fun seeing them. Josh was all suited up as he's interning at a law firm for the summer. Adela lent me a book, The Sushi Economy, and Megen the first season of Bones, which we've been watching on our vacation before bed. They drive us back to airport around 10 PM.
Our plane doesn't actually leave the ground until well past midnight. The entire flight, the plane is freezing cold. Freezing. We both sleep like crap because we are too busy shivering our asses off. We aren't going to make our connection; we're going to shoot for the backup flight.
Munich. Great airport. Free coffee everywhere. Clean. Good beer. Lots of free newspapers in a language I can't read.
As we land, the flight attendant assures us that anyone who has missed their connection is fully booked on another flight to Athens, not to worry. Just go to the Lufthansa service desk and you'll be taken care of.
The first service desk we find tells us to go to another one. We go to the 2nd service desk where we proceed to wait another hour. As we walk up to speak to someone, our backup flight leaves and takes off. Lufthansa offers us the following option - stay in Munich and leave tomorrow morning at 10 for Athe--wait, that flight is now full, she says. Here is another possibility: Athens via layover in Budapest - we would arrive in Athens at 3 AM, then wait for a 5 AM flight to Mykonos.
Oh, speaking of Athens, the ferry we booked in advance? We missed it while in Munich, waiting for our flight to Budapest. I believe I was drinking a tasty german beer at the time.
Ahh, Budapest. Our flight left Munich - of course - late. We landed in Budapest in the dead of night, rode a bus over to the terminal, ran to the security line where a single, bored woman held up her hand and said wait. And we waited. And waited until another security person - presumably one trained to read the xray machine - let us go through. We had 5 minutes until the flight's scheduled take off, and we ran with our bags down an empty terminal. I notice a long line of people standing around our gate so we slow to a walk. For once, the insane lateness works to our advantage. We make the connection and land in Athens a little before 3 AM.
Well, we landed okay. But our checked luggage did not. Athens assures us the luggage will be in Mykonos later in the day. Fortunately, Megen packed our carry on with a spare set of clothes. She does the packing for us because she is smart like that.
Athens to Mykonos takes an hour tops. We land, grab a cab, and arrive at the villa around 7 AM in the morning. And we sleep until 4 PM in the afternoon.
Our luggage? Wasn't at the airport when we stop by around 7 PM. It doesn't arrive until the next day. Why not have them deliver it to the villa? Well, in Mykonos, there are no addresses. Yep, no addresses.
Worth it? Hell yes. We've had a great, relaxing, fun time in Greece. Well worth it.
We leave tomorrow morning from Athens direct back to Philly. We hope.
PS I'd like to give a big F-U to US Airways for delaying their flight from Philly to Munich by over 3 hours to add 2 more A/C units (or fix 2 of them, not sure exactly what the problem was) on the plane so that our entire itinerary was fubar'd and so we could freeze on the ride over the Atlantic.
The Sushi Economy, great read but not when you are hungry
The Sushi Economy
Don't read this book if you are a sushi lover and if you haven't eaten yet. I borrowed this book from Adela when we stopped in Philly on the way to Greece (her boss gave her the book as a present) . I finished it in about 3 days. Much of the time, my stomach rumbled as I read the descriptions of how sushi dishes evolved, and the descriptions of the cuts of tuna and other fish. I'm craving it now just writing about it. A fantastic book that delves into the history of how sushi stared out and how it has changed into a global phenom. Great stories and well researched, I thought. If you are a fan of sushi or just a foodie in general, this is a must read. Highly recommended.
Cool reception desk
The hotel we're staying at in Athens has these retrofited cars as their front desk. Thought that was pretty cool.
Bethesda's new blog
This is old news (but I've been -- and still am -- on vacation) -- I wanted to write about it. It being the new Bethesda weblog that launched. Basically, this means much of the work-related stuff I've been writing here is going to be there. In other words, if you come here to read about Elder Scrolls or Fallout, visit the Bethesda blog for my writings about it; I won't be writing as much about work here anymore.
More pics for your viewing pleasure
I uploaded more pictures up, though this isn't all of them. Can view them at here or via the slideshow.
Wish you were here
Having a great time in Greece. Arrived in Athens today, so thought I'd log on and catch up on the internet stuffs.
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