Individual Entry
Driller DiSsed
Since I last wrote something, I've been playing Halo 2 and Super Mario 64 DS (yes, I got a DS on launch. First launch-system ever!), working on a never-ending freelance project, and trudging through what seems like an adjustment period for my body. I think the new bachelor life has caught up to it, and it has fought back by hitting me in the gut. A couple of times.
It's not that I'm eating bad, I'm just eating inconsistently. For the most part, I'm consuming more fruits and vegetables and juices and water than I did back home. For the most part. Now, there are also those occasions where I come home from work, put on Halo 2, eat a cold left-over pizza from the previous night, down a beer, and just sit for the rest of the evening. The clichéd bachelor life!
Having spent a lot of that clichéd time with Halo 2, I do have to say that my impressions of the matchmaking service have warmed considerably. It works well, and it keeps a lot of the games surprisingly competitive. Blow-outs, while they still happen, are far more rare than I've seen in other such games. So yes, it's good. I had a far longer write-up about this, but it's in limbo now and I don't feel like resuscitating it.
There is one point that I want to regurgitate, though, for the benefit of DS owners or those planning on getting a DS. One of the "launch window" titles that I most wanted was Namco's Mr. Driller. Today I have heard word that the US version is missing a full play-mode and single-cart link play. A week into a new system's launch, and Japanese publishers are already bastardizing their North American releases. W.T.F.
And I can't figure out why. Wouldn't the task of removing features from a game take longer and cost more than, you know, just leaving them as is? The mind reels.
December 02, 2004. Gaming.