Well, I really don't know how to feel about this. I mean, certainly, in my heart, I know that Vampire: the Masquerade was the only RPG to be released on the PC in over a year, and by all means it was no slouch whatsoever. It was indeed awesome, and it did indeed let you do many things many ways. However, it was buggy, and there were enough points in the game that required you to be so weapon savvy, that it really left you feeling that by taking the sneaky way around instead of killing everyone, you were just being a nice guy.

In fact, all their games feel sort of half made. Lots of good things, but enough bad things that it solidly balances out. Interesting, that. So I guess the best way to sum up my feelings for that is to say that I'm half sad that they're probably going to close.

Which is half better than I feel about how close Interplay is to the brink, considering that there is nothing left of the Interplay I once knew aside from a name that evokes fond memories. Fond memories are perilous, and keeping them means not playing any of the new games from them, which is an interesting dilemma. I hope they at least stop ruining things I love and just start making things that are totally bad on their own merits.

As it happens, I am looking forward to this. Realism is an important thing to me. Enemies spawning and shooting me in the back from rooms that I have just cleared out are not fun, neither are unlimited respawning enemies when you have a limited supply of health and ammo available, and neither are enemies who are a perfect shot every time. Some of you may have guessed that I'm reffering to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and perhaps agree with me. Here's hoping that Brothers in Arms does all the things that MoH didnt do out of fear of an M rating, and being a good game, and then some.

Speaking of the big double-double-you-too, I'm playing Silent Storm, a science fiction turn based strategy game that takes place during WWII. Gameplay-wise, it's the spiritual successor of the combat in X-COM: UFO Defense. All the improvements are fun, and the game is challenging, the characters are interesting and the gameplay is superb. If you enjoy X-COM at all, then this game is for you. Trust me, it's an underdog that necessitates playing. I'm not going to tell you anything about it, as I believe that whoever plays it will take their own deep joy in uncovering all the facets of the gameplay, and the detail in the environment.

Before that though, I downloaded and replayed through all of Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters. Truly an amazing game by any standard, despite it's age, it is a superb play. If you haven't you should definitely give it a try, and please don't be put off by the initial controls of the main ship. It's not old gameplay, it's because the ship is just a skeleton with only a few thrusters and turning jets, so it moves like a lumberjack on vikadin. It's ported code and it runs excellently on modern computers, though if you've never played before, you might want to look up the intro and ending sequences somewhere so that youre not lost when the game begins, and so that you know what happens when the game ends. Heck, just go and experience everything Star Control. Even Star Control I is a wicked game. Star Control 3 is really just good, not particularly exceptional, but after you love Star Control, you love it anyway.

Chris wrote me a letter, I want to say finally, but I can imagine it's been really really busy for him, and it has only been six weeks. We've been missing him, and it's cool to hear from him, I'm going to write him back ASAP, cause man, it sounds like he needs something to read, badly. Maybe I'll finish my novel and send it to him. That will kill him with boredom, most likely, but it will be something to read. He's missed a lot of things, like my new recipe for shrimp, and potatoes, and the experiments with deep frying, lots of stuff he would have really enjoyed to be here for. Plus, it sounds like he's going through candy withdrawl. No candy or sweet cake food stuffs for him. Gotta get him in peak physical condition. I'm surprised how low the physical reqs are for the PT test he's going to take, 31 pushups, 45 sit ups, and 2 miles in under 17 minutes. I can easily do the first two and I'm in pretty poor shape, and the second I could do if I pushed myself. I didnt have any problem doing a mile in 8 minutes in middle school, and I was not in better shape then.

Should be no problem at all for Chris, he's in awesome shape, maybe not the best he could be, but he's in very good shape.

Tonight I'm going to be spending time with my mom, tomorrow I'll be spending time with my dad, and between it all before the end of the weekend I'm going to read four acts of Hamlet and try out a new Mexican restaurant. I'm sure other stuff will happen, but I'll talk about that on monday.