26 Apr. 05

I finally beat Half Life 2 last night, and I have no idea what in the world the ending was supposed to mean. I guess I'll just have to wait a few more years to find out. The ending was a little disappointing, but I didn't thing that was due to the convoluted ending. I think that wouldn't have been so bad if the game ended with a huge, kick-ass boss battle. However, the end of the game was mostly exposition, which generally left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Tomorrow is the annual Midway Dinner here at the Academy, where veterans of the Battle of Midway are gathered here for a dinner in their honor. Last year, I had the great fortune of winning the Midway Essay Contest, which is open to all 2/C midshipmen enrolled in strategy and tactics classes. Thanks to that, I'm allowed to escort a veteran to the parade tomorrow, as opposed to actually marching in it. I might try to get some pictures of the ceremony posted tomorrow, if I can convince Mike to let me borrow his camera.

Two Week Lappy Update: Still works fine.

19 Apr. 05

I have less than two weeks of school to go, and then a week of finals. There is a lot to do in this limited time, so updates might go by the wayside. For example, I have to be mostly moved out of my room by 09 May. However, after that I will have a little time, so updates might follow. No promises though, since Gwen and I leave for a cruise on 12 May!

05 Apr. 05

Today, as I was cycling through my usual surfing routine, I ran across an article on PlanetGameCube that really ticked me off. It is a sort of staff round-table where they get pretty critical of Nintendo and its business practices. To be honest, this article is pretty much the straw that breaks the camel's back with me for this site. I've been visiting it for years, but ever since the founder left last year, I think things have gone down hill. Instead of thoughtful reviews, previews, and editorials, the site mostly just copies and pastes official press releases, often listing them with smarmy or cheesy subtitles. And in general, there seems to have been an attitude shift amongst the staff of the site that is fairly antagonistic towards Nintendo, with this editorial being only the latest example. I guess that PlanetGameCube wants to be a serious gaming media player, and for some time the trend has been that in order to be taken seriously in the gaming media, you have to trash Nintendo.

As for the substance of the article, I can find a few points that are pretty silly, such as the argument that Nintendo has marginalized the older gaming segment (which I don't think is true when you look at the release history for the GameCube), but the bottom line is I don't find their basic thesis to be true. They argue that the GameCube is running out of games, but I am so behind right now that I don't know when I'll get caught up with all the games I want to play on the system. This is one of the problems with having a dedicated gaming media, in my opinion; when your job is to play games, your views are going to likely be very different than those that have a job that interferes with their gaming schedule. I could go on, but then I would be tempted to put this in the Rants section!

Anyway, I will try to get another update together for later this week, so stay tuned.