The Holiday Aftermath

Hey all,

Hope your Thanksgiving was a relaxing, filling time. I had a good time yesterday although my brother wasn’t there–he serves as a perfect gaming companion during family gatherings, and so his absence was felt as I tried to navigate people through Rock Band.

I’ll have to say that the game was not as big a hit as the Wii was with the older generation, which is understandable. One of the problems is that my parents gave away their big TV to my sibling this year, and so all gaming had to take place in the main living room instead of the basement. This arrangement breaks my cardinal rule of navigating a gaming lifestyle among non-gamers: always separate your gaming space and your entertaining space.

But Rock Band presents another problem, as it is meant to be played at high volume–high enough to mask out of tune vocals and the rhythmic clacking of the drums sticks on rubber/plastic. I was surprised my mother held on as long as she did before asking that we “take a break”.

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I’ve been a little obsessed with Black Friday shopping in the last few years. There’s something about waiting up through the night for a release of a new console or for a ridiculous promotion that appeals to me. I must have some disease.

Like a stereotypical male, Best Buy is my favorite shopping haunt, and I look there first when the big day comes. My Father mentioned that he’s looking for a new laptop computer for when he goes away on business, so I thought I’d take advantage of one of the two very good laptop deals happening.

My plan was to get to Best Buy at 2 a.m. and wait for the store to open. I ended up getting nervous and showing up a full hour earlier at 1, but absurdly enough, it was still too late. When I got there there was at least a hundred people in line already, some in tents along the side walk. When 3 a.m. came and the started handing out tickets, the last $400 laptop handed out to the person two spots in front of me. Lesson learned: if you want a computer, be prepared to be hardcore.

The only redeeming thing about my failed shopping trip was that I got to catch up on the 1up show and the 1up yours podcast on my wife’s iPod. I know that they’ve been around for a while, but I’m just catching up with the rest of the gaming public as to their various merits.

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Gabe Newell is one of my favorite icons of the video gaming world. You can always count on him for a tasty soundbite, and RPS’s exclusive interview was no exception. After talking about the hiring of the Portal team and Valve’s unique place in the community, he gave us this quote:

I expect we’ll go back in time and eventually pretty much every game that’s ever been available will be on [Steam] 24/7.

It’s an audacious, nearly impossible dream, and I love him for it. The potential of Steam is unreal, and the possibility of having a wealth of backlogged games from the last twenty years is enough to make any gamer salivate. God speed Mr. Newell.

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So, what have you been playing during the holidays? Did you do any family gaming, and do you have some game time planned for this weekend? I’m finishing up Assassin’s Creed, and then playing Rock Band, CoD4, Super Mario Galaxy, and Halo 3. Let me hear from you.

–WG