HOLY CRAP WE HAVE A HEADER!

Hey look!  Instead of just text saying "The Cranky Old Gamer" and a profile icon of Fallout's Brotherhood Of Steel, I actually have a real header with a cranky cartoon of me!  

Major thanks go to Josh Vilchis and his awesome designs!  Dude's never met me in person or even seen a picture of me, and yet he perfectly captured my "annoyed" look with that little cartoon. 

So seriously, if you need some design work done, shoot him an email and check him out!   Fantastic work, Josh.  Thank you so much!

OH, THIS IS GONNA BE STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR A WHILE...

Kinda glad I didn't rush out to buy Resident Evil 6.  Most of my friends who did were not thrilled.  Reviews ranged from "Meh" to "Well that sucked", to "Not a bad game, but there was absolutely no 'survival' or 'horror'."   The single most common complaint was the overabundance of QTEs, the herpes of the gaming world.   And apparently some other guys thought so too!

I apologize in advance for the earworm...

IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME, RETRO CITY RAMPAGE!

So finally, after months of mini-hype and delay,  VBlank Entertainment's send up of everything 1980s, Retro City Rampage, has been released.   If I recall correctly, it was supposed to come out in May, then pushed to June, then July, then just "TBA".   Almost out of nowhere, it was dropped onto the world on Oct 9th.

So how is it?  Does it live up to the hype?  Was it worth the wait?   Eh, kinda.

BORDERLANDS 2

Holy crap, I love this fucking game.

That could ALMOST be the whole review right there.  Almost.  

LATE TO THE PARTY - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL

Welcome, Stalkers, to the Zone.   An irradiated, desolate place filled with mutants, murderers, and militia, where death is invisible, and even the air can kill you.  Some come to the Zone to control it, some come to save it, while many others come to profit from it.  Some come to discover the truth behind the myths and legends.   Most never return.

Welcome to Chernobyl.

COMING BACK....AGAIN

I'm not dead.

This blog?  Not dead.

The North/South Geek Show podcast?  Not dead.

All just dormant due to chaos.  Ryan and I got everything going, and then shit hit the fan in both of our lives, and we both had to move and sort of re-situate our lives.  I'm now in a different city, with a different job in a different field.  It's been a hell of a readjustment.  The biggest downside in regards to this blog is that I haven't had a lot of time for gaming, but I'm trying to make time.  Mostly all I've been playing have been casual things like Minecraft (stupid 1.3.1 update, sucking me back in), along with some older titles like Darksiders and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow Of Chernobyl*.

But I promise you dear readers, we've merely put these projects on the back burner.  They're not dead.  Ryan and I have been talking about new ideas, new structures, new formats.  Life gets in the way sometimes, but we're bound and determined to make this thing work.

Thanks for stayin with us.


* - Seriously why the hell did I wait so long to play this game?  It's awesome!

DAWNGUARD

Released this past tuesday, I have spent the past five days deeply entrenched in Dawnguard, the first expansion pack for one of my favorite games, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.   I'm not quite finished with it yet, but I already have a lot to say.  (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!)

It's no secret that I am an enormous fan of the Elder Scrolls series.   I could go on about what a phenomenon Skyrim has become, but if you're a gamer, you already know.  You're sick of "Arrow to the knee" jokes, and have Fus Ro Dah burned into your geeky lexicon.  So if you're anything like me, you have been anxiously waiting to see what kind of amazing DLC Skyrim was going to get, especially after watching the string of incredible expansion packs we got for Bethesda's last huge open-world game, Fallout 3.  And then the trailer came out, and it probably gave you a giant gamer boner, like I got.  So now that I've had my hands on Dawnguard for a few days and spent about 20+ hours with it, does it live up to the hype?