There and Back Again

So last week I was gone all week because Linda and I took the kids and her in-laws to Disney World for the week. Now that I'm back, I'm getting on a plane this afternoon to LA so that I can cover E3 for GameShark.com.

At the time that I booked my E3 stuff, I was all excited and stuff but now I'm just tired. Tired, tired, tired. A vacation with two young children will do that to you. All in all, the trip went well, although Linda and I went on far fewer rides than I thought we would. As it turns out, any ride that's enclosed and has a hint of darkness and the possibility of peril sends my daughter into uncontrollable fits of terror.

Bummer.

My son wasn't scared of things, but then again, he didn't want to go on much, so it's hard to tell. Prior to the trip, Linda and I discussed pushing him a bit on this trip to have him do stuff he wasn't 100% comfortable with, but after seeing how his sister was, and having to deal with it, pushing the boy just didn't seem worth it. So, as a result, Linda's parents spent a lot of time with Abby, taking her on the Small World ride something like a dozen times while Linda and I took Ben on rides he wanted to go on. The kids had a good time, but that type of set up doesn't make it easy for mom and dad to go on anything. Luckily on the one night we took to hit the parks, when we went out it had just stopped raining, so we hightailed it to Hollywood Studios and got on Tower of Terror with basically no waiting. Seeing how that was the one ride we both wanted to make sure we got on, the trip was a success.

Everyone had a good time, including Linda's parents. They had always wanted to do Disney with the kids, so I'm glad they got a chance to do it. A vacation with young kids is just do damn tiring though. They went pretty much non-stop every day from the minute they woke up around 6 AM to the minute they went to bed around 7:30. Keeping them up later did nothing for the wake-up time. Let me tell you, when you're parenting a 6 and a 4 year old for close to 14 hours straight, with the only time for a break when you take a shower or use the bathroom, it makes for a very tiring day. In the end though, everyone had a good time, I just wish there was more time for me to catch up on sleep before I head to LA and share a room with two complete strangers. And no I don't mean hookers. Besides, I've known your mom for a while now. Zing!

Yeah, so E3. Well, I've always been very candid and up front about the fact that this whole games writing thing is just a side gig for me. Nothing about that has changed, so E3 should be interesting in that it's a big networking event and I could give a shit about networking. Oh sure, it will be nice to have PR contacts so that I can contact them directly for review copies and I have certainly enjoyed my continued relationship with THQ (Red Faction copy FTW!) but at the same time, I'm not all that interested in networking. I am interested in being professional and earning my money though, so I'll do the meet and greet thing and be sure to turn my critical eye on everything placed in front of me.

Oddly enough, in spite of my disdain for Guitar Hero, I am really looking forward to DJ Hero. I have to say that the Scratch: The Ultimate DJ controller looks more usable, but the fact that Jay-Z and Eminem will be providing music for DJ Hero, and the fact that the game supports other plastic instruments makes DJ Hero a slightly more attractive option right now. I'm not up on upcoming games, so I don't have a lot I'm really looking forward to seeing, but I need to get my hands on these DJ controllers. They both look like way too much fun.

Oh, and the PSP Go? Yeah, no thanks. There aren't enough games to support the PSP I have, so I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a third Sony portable. Plus, splitting the market between UMD and downloadable doesn't sound like a very smart thing to do. Unless a downloadable game half of, or less than half that of a physical copy, I'll always choose a physical copy.

In other, totally unrelated news, the new Transformer movie toys dropped and so far I'm pretty impressed. I bought a metric ton of them but haven't had a chance to play with most of them, but the ones that I have messed around with are pretty damn cool. Ransack is my favorite as he's a skeletal Decepticon that transforms into a biplane. A biplane! It makes absolutely no sense, which is why it's so awesome. That and for such a spindly robot he makes a very solid plane with a hella cool transformation. If I get a chance I'll resurrect my lightbox project and take proper pictures, but it won't be for a while.

It's funny. I was so thrilled to be hunting again that the finding and the purchasing of the items was what got me most excited. Opening them and playing with them was less of a thrill. Not sure what that says about me. Any way, now that a DVD cabinet for the basement is on the way, the old movie toys will come from work to home with the new movie toys going to work. The Animated and Universe line continue to share top billing in the Man Lounge, they just need proper shelving to be displayed in the manner they are accustomed to. Yet another project to undertake.

So, that's it, for now. I'll be back soon with tales of E3. Speaking of which, they just announced Crackdown 2. So, yeah, show's over folks. Nothing can beat that.