I woke up this morning and went down to breakfast.  The potatoes had already been fried and the question of “who wants eggs?” was floating around.  I passed, got some potatoes and orange juice, and quickly went on my way.  I turned on my computer, not knowing what I intended to do, so I started by downloading the newest version of FireFox that has been accosting me for the past two days.

I then had the sudden urge to play Dungeon Siege–a game that I have never made it through and typically uninstalled from my computer after a weekend jaunt with it.  I immediately began looking for it in the typical places; a box here full of old games, a draw their.  Through my searches, I found games like Black and White, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Rollercoaster Tycoon and several others.  I felt my heart reach out to them, longing to play them once again, because here’s the deal.  Recently, and I mean in the past four or five years, I haven’t found a game that is really worth playing.  Sure I have invested several hundred hours into Counter Strike Source, but that doesn’t have the plot line that Black and White had.  When you are done with CS:S, you can just walk away feeling satisfied for the moment.  In some games you itch until you can build the next city, destroy the next wizard or achieve the next level.

I have found nothing in recent years that has held my attention as long as some of the older games.  Maybe this is because games are becoming more sophisticated, but less at the same time.  Instead of the user having to be smart, games like Guild Wars guide you through it with a group of people.  The combined intelligence greatly overpowers the game’s simple track of play.  Games like CS:S you point, click, and shoot.  Sure you have to work on a team, but there really is no challenge to the game play.  Atleast in B&W and NWN you had puzzles, challenges, AI that was intelligent, replay value because their were multiple different paths that you could take.  It was a lot better.

So I beg the video game producers to come out with a game that you didn’t just slap together, something that isn’t a rip off of a former title like the first release of NWN2.  Something that we don’t have to pay for monthly like WoW.  Basically make Guild Wars with NWN interface, gameplay, and leveling styles, or better yet; give NWN a really nice face lift and better multiplayer server capabilities.  Bring back my old friends or create new ones.  Here’s hoping that Lineage 3 doesn’t suck and that I will finally be over some of the better games by 2011 to be suckered in.  Hell, I might even pay to play.

This Memorial Day weekend is something that I will hold in my memory for a long time.  I am coming away from it inspired, excited, confused and terrified.

Friday

• Class in the morning.
• To the store to get meat for Sunday’s dinner.
• Home hanging out with my sister watching Juno.
• Mow the lawn.
• Mom and Dad get home and Mom insists that we all watch Randy’ Pausch’s lecture.
• Text Cory and get invited to watch a movie.
• Fall asleep during 23 and wake up, Mike drives me home.

Saturday

• Wake up around 9.
• Told to go get bagels
• Come home and have breakfast.
• Work on compiling pictures for the most of the morning.
• Work on my car’s wheel alignment with my father to little avail.
• Cut watermelon.
• Waited for someone to call after dinner.
• Resigned myself to playing Counter Strike Source and had a blast.

Sunday

• Church, were always late.
• Tell myself that I need to draw today but didn’t get around to it.
• Make plans to go to the movies with Abbie, Becky, Cory and Mike.
• The family shows up around 5:30 for Memorial Day BBQ.
• Skateboard with my cousin.
• Eat some food and pick up my grandmother.
• Skate some more.
• Eat more food.
• Watch skating videos.
• Say goodbye to family and went to movie, Garrett shows up.
• Decide that we are going to hang out after the movie.
• Go to my house and Abbie, Cory, Mike, Garrett and I go for a walk.
• Ding Dong Ditch.
• Decide to road trip.
• Maple Donuts 3 dozen / $5.
• Giant to get some milk.
• Bet is made that Abbie can’t drink a gallon of milk in an hour.
• Donuts in the dark at Springettsbury  Park around midnight.
• Abbie doesn’t make it.
• Abbie pukes.
• Almost decide to go to the seven gates of hell.
• Back to my house.
• Didn’t want to attend my sisters sleep over.
• All my friends leave except for Mike.
• We go on a 6 mile walk and talk at one am.
• Crash at three am.

Monday

• Wake up to my mother saying “You need to let some air into this room.” before she throws my window open and pulls up the blinds at 9 am.  I got less that six hours of sleep.
• Join the party downstairs.
• Show off my compiled pictures for two hours.
• Draw for two hours.
• Mow the lawn.
• Skateboard.
• Find Abbie’s earring.
• Get harassed about getting a job.  If you have a job for me let me know.
• Shower.
• Call around to see whats up.
• Abbie comes to collect her earring.
• Skateboard.
• Sister runs away.
• TV.
• Sister comes back.
• This post.

Phenomenal weekend.  Yeah.

Tonight will be quite entertaining for sure.  My friend Eric Abruzzese, BurningLAN’s founder, director, admin, and just crazy guy, is hosting a LAN party.  There will be gaming on Xbox, PC, Wii, SNES, and maybe some other platforms.  We will be playing Unreal Tournament 2004, Halo 3, Gears of War, Counter Strike: Source, and a ton of other games.  So if your in the area, come check it out.  Details can be found at http://burninglanyork.com/, as well as future events.  Yes there will be food.

Above: Eric Abruzzese being the crazy guy he is.

Below: A computer harness for all your gear.

Above: Pretty nice server setup.