3:05 PM
My Christmas vacation started off with a flat tire on Friday. That was fun.
Anyhoo Tammy got me a PSP, something I didn't even realize I wanted until I started to play Metal Gear: Acid. It's a great game regardless of what the mixed reviews would have you believe.
I loaded the 2.0 firmware on there against my better judgement so that I could play Prince of Persia, and it just so happens that the Fanjita loader was updated on Saturday to play homebrew on 2.0, so I'm all set for emulators and whatnot.
I had a chance to play around with my brother-in-law's Xbox 360 over the weekend and was pretty impressed, although the games didn't really grab me. I really like how you can power the console on and off from the controller, though. Looks like some progress is being made on the piracy front as well.
I came in to work today to tackle some stuff that had piled up, but starting tomorrow I'm off again until Tuesday. See you then!
11:55 AM
On Tuesday Monsters Inc. started its soft-opening previews over at DCA. The painfully crappy Superstar Limo was removed, the building gutted, and Monsters Inc has taken its place.
Initial reactions have been pretty good. If you want to ruin it for yourself, I'm told pictures and a ride-through video are here.
9:19 AM
I'm not really sure why, but I watch Saturday Night Live every week. As unfunny as most episodes seem to be, every now and then they'll throw in a sketch that's unexpectedly hilarious. It's those rare nuggets of comedy gold that keep me watching.
This weekend I was rewarded with the "Lazy Sunday" sketch.
9:26 AM
The Legend of Zelda was a great game, but its first sequel, The Adventure of Link, was a very different type of game and really wasn't what a lot of people were expecting.
The Legend of Zelda: Outlands for the NES is a proper sequel that continues the style of gameplay that made the original Zelda so popular. It's an unofficial fan-made sequel, but from everything I've been able to read about it, it's absolutely true to the spirit of the series and is a really high-quality ROM hack.
It turns out the author of Outlands has been hard at work on a sequel to the SNES Zelda as well. Zelda 3 Challenge: Quest for Calatia has been in development for the past three years. It's still a long way from completion, but it's fun to see people making brand new games out of dated but much-loved game engines.
11:55 AM
J Allard was the man in charge of the XBox 360 project. He was also its hip-and-edgy posterboy, the guy that Microsoft paraded about at every 360 press conference and product launch fiesta. He's moving on to other things now.
The point is he used to be a pretty normal looking guy before Microsoft's marketing team turned him into a disingenuous corporate shill.
While it might not sound very exciting at first glance, it's worth noting that 1600 of the pictures are in color. How many depression-era photographs have you seen in color? If you're like me, the answer is none!
I bought a four-pack of these things yesterday at Costco and was horrified when I brushed my teeth this morning. I like DayQuil, don't get me wrong - a shot of it doesn't taste all that bad when you've got a cold. However as a toothpaste it's revolting.
1:03 PM
At Tammy's company Christmas party last night (one of them) everybody got 512MB iPod Shuffles!
Tam's already got a regular iPod, so I get the Shuffle! Hooray! It's definitely tiny, and 512MB is seriously weak for any digital audio player, but hey - free is free!
1:55 PM
Tammy's been out of town on business this whole week, so I've been spending my evenings glued to the TV playing Dragon Quest VIII. It's not a stellar game or anything, but it is pretty fun and horribly addictive to boot.
Apparently this series is huge in Japan. You may remember it from its beginnings in the US as "Dragon Warrior" on the NES. According to 1up.com's feature, one in every twelve households in Japan owns a copy of DQ8. One in twelve! That's big!
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