Magic: The Addiction

Many years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a small collectible card game called Magic: The Gathering. I still remember his response when I asked him what it was.
"It's liquid crack, for gamers"

Like the rest of my friends, I fell for Magic hook, line, and sinker. Whatever we used to do as a group was suddenly and radically altered to fit in as much MtG as humanly possible. This trend continued until a friend went out and purhased an entire distribution box of booster packs. It was at that moment that i realized a few things, 1: I could no longer compete with my friend in this game, he got cards out of that box that were utterly ridiculous, the second thing I realized was that the object of the game is actually to purchase more cards. In a rare -oh, SO rare- moment of self control, I completely stopped playing on that day.

Flash forward a few weeks ago and I've downloaded the demo for Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers based on some positive buzz coming out of Gamers with Jobs, recommendations by friends with questionable tastes, and my own odd curiosity about a game that I stopped playing years ago.

It turns out that when you remove the massive cost of entry involved with getting a deck, the constant required investment to keep up with the latest cards, and the hours of investment needed to min/max your deck, Magic: The Gathering is actually still a fantastic game.

The Comeback

So, it turns out that intense stress is creative kryptonite, things are starting to calm down a bit, so i hope to be writing again sometime real soon...

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

Via the Examiner:

PS3 owners and Sega fans have been waiting patiently for a Yakuza 3 announcement. With the game currently available in Japan, many gamers hoped Sony would announce a release date or a worldwide release of the title during E3. Sadly, that didn’t come to fruition. However, Sony is giving us all a small piece of advice. That advice is to tell Sega.

Jeff Rubenstein of Sony was asked a question concerning Yakuza 3 being localized. He gave a brief reply: “Talk to SEGA! I’d love the opportunity to play Yakuza 3 in English.”

If you want to see Yakuza 3 get localized in America or Europe you best bet is to email Sega and let them know. Here’s the link to the official Sega site. So email them and let your voice be heard. If that isn’t enough, you could always start a petition.

Unfortunately, there's always a chance that this might happen:

Sega will take it as confirmation that they should go ahead with a samurai-themed Sonic game.

Red Faction? Why yes, I think I will

I've been debating picking up either Prototype or Red Faction Guerilla, but then I read a few comments on Red Faction, first from Bill Harris:

Is there any way, any conceivable way, that Volition could have jammed more awesome into this game? It's like they filled the game with awesome, then pressurized the game and added more awesome until it became supersaturated.

and then Rebel FM's Arthur Gies:

Just when i thought red faction had shown me all of its awesome, it gave me a jetpack.

With reccomendations like these, you don't need to ask which one I bought.

You're Doing It Wrong

So, what was once thought to be a group religious protesters at E3 rallying against EA's upcoming "Dante's Inferno" have ended up being something slightly different...

The protesters railing against EA for the game Dante's Inferno were part of a marketing scheme, reports the Associated Press. A viral marketing agency hired by EA reportedly organized the stunt, and hired about 20 people to picket the game. After it was picked up by the blogs, several began to question whether the protest was legitimate based on an amateurish Web site and anonymous domain registration. EA spokesperson Holly Rockwood confirmed it today.
We would question the wisdom of marketing that associates your company with either religious extremists or the Antichrist, but maybe that's why we don't work in advertising.

Oh EA, don't ever change

The Old Republic Cinematic Trailer Blows Minds.

Bioware showed off a cinematic trailer for The Old Republic at the EA conference. This is the first time I've been excited about Star Wars without feeling the sequel taint in years

Trailer link here