“HEY GUYS, YOU ALL SUCK AND I’M NUMBER ONE BITCHES” is something one will often hear while playing Halo 3. For instance, my friend and I were playing capture the flag, we’re losing because we’re up against 4 generals in a party and some random guy. So this person on our team had a real trouble keeping his temper in check, and was quick to burst out in “OH MY GOD GUYS, JESUS YOU ALL SUCK, HOW CAN PEOPLE BE SO NEW TO THIS GAME?!”. Let me say that I’m by no means an easily angered person, so I waited until the game ended, then my friend and I commenced the impersonations. I’d like to also say, this fine gentleman we were playing with was the worst on our team, so irony was there too.

Video games are a source of entertainment, not a job, and definitely not serious business. Despite what gaming enthusiasts what you to think, gaming exists for the sole reason of entertainment, and why people take games so seriously is beyond me, unless you enjoy popping a nerve vessel every time something doesn’t go your way. You’d think that it’d be only younger people doing this, sadly that isn’t true. I’ve also noticed when people act like this they tend to do worse within a game, sometimes a few points down, sometimes to the where they’re killing their own team, and I wish I was joking.

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If there was still doubt in our minds that Free Radical was in a bad way, then this update should really seal the deal: the developer behind Timesplitters is now officially up for sale. Company rights, administration, everything, and we assume it also includes the Timesplitters IP.

Of course, all is not lost, even if the Free Radical name (and everything associated with it) is being put up for sale. Free Radical founder Steve Ellis and a few key members have set up shop as a new studio, named Pumpkin Beach, and we’re hoping that the esteemed Dr. Doak is among those who joined up with him. We only hope that they’ve learned their lesson – Haze was something we all looked forward to, and we hope that they would not repeat the same mistake again.

You know what I miss more than anything else?  Ash trays attached to arcade cabinets.  You never see that anymore.  Ebeneezer’s had several:  Pac Man, Galaga, Space Invaders;  they all had ash trays attached.  I was reminded of this when I went into a cabinet store in Manassas recently, where there was a stand-up Gradius cabinet for sale.  On the front were four screw-holes where an ash tray had once sat, proudly holding the butts of many-a-cigarette.  There were still ugly black stains where someone hadn’t finished putting out their smoke.

Nowadays, arcades are clean almost to a fault.  The carpets are pristine and vacuumed, the screens are wiped down several times a day, and there’s a ‘no food or drink sign’ visible at every turn.  For some reason, this frustrates me to no end.

Obviously, food, drink and cigarettes can damage the cabinets; it only makes sense to be cautious.  On top of that, not everyone smokes, so keeping the air clean is only polite, but in banning these things, something seems to have been lost, and I can’t quite place my finger on it.

We still have noise, flashing lights, fat dudes with sweaty pits (even more so since the advent of DDR), but we don’t have snack counters to chill at, the lights don’t reflect off the smoke, and that particular stink I find so comforting is missing. (continue reading…)