Dear Santa,
First off, on behalf of the people of the world, thank you so much for your ongoing efforts to make this world a joyous place during the holiday season.
With the noble stuff out of the way, let me get greedy for a minute. Though I feel selfish, especially at this point in my life, I guess I’m still entitled to receive something from you as long as I’ve been a good boy this year, right? If so, can I give you a few gaming-related suggestions in no particular order?
At In Third Person, we mostly focus on the fun and games of life. Unfortunately, life for many doesn’t have much in the way of fun or games. Through a donation to Child’s Play Charity, you can help bring the fun and games back to a hospitalized child.
After hours of waiting patiently at our seats, the lights shut off at the Air Canada Centre. From the darkness, an instrumental interlude can be heard emanating from the stage. This alone is enough to send the crowd into a frenzy. I’ve been waiting my whole life for the moment to see Jay-Z and/or Kanye West live in concert, and here I was, seconds away from getting to see them both at the same time. As the lights come on, we see Kanye West and Jay-Z, facing each other from opposing platforms. As their platforms slowly rise, the beat to H.A.M. blares through the sound system. As the crowd cheers in approval, I mutter to myself, “Of all their songs they could have started with, they had to start with the one I hate the most.”
Would that statement be indicative of my feelings towards the rest of the show? Thankfully, no. I watched the throne, and it was a beautiful sight to see.
My curiousity to learn every nook and cranny of relating to the Street Fighter IV series of fighting games knows no bounds. I’ve written dozens of posts on the series in the past, and have started doing deeper dives into the nuts and bolts of the game. Most recently, I wrote about my recent experience of trying to master the art of ‘plinking’, a technique that helps players combo together moves with very tight timing windows. I’m still practicing this technique every time I play, and I’m slowly starting to see the dividends in using it.
Of late, I’ve also been experimenting with character selection. My most recent pet project has been Fei Long, whom I’ve been practicing with for the last few weeks. My analysis here isn’t meant to be expert analysis or a substitute for any number of guides available online, but to simply act as a place for me to discuss my experiences and feelings towards the character.
My girlfriend Steff and her sister are the best. Over the weekend, they surprised their boyfriends with tickets for them to see Watch the Throne live as early Christmas presents. As a huge fan of Jay-Z and Kanye West, I’m pumped to see them live for the first time. How I’m going to return the favour is beyond me.
For now though, I’ll just enjoy the concert, which is tonight. Anyone else going to tonight’s show, have tickets for a future show or went to a tour stop in the past? Any Jay-Z or Kanye fans here by any chance? Let’s discuss in the comments!
…that is the question.
I like to think to myself that I write this blog for me first. I turn to this blog whenever I have a gaming thought I think is worth writing down and I make it happen. It’s a very therapeutic process for me. However, I also love to look at my analytics to see what does well and what doesn’t. Posts about fightsticks? Money in the bank. Posts about sexy video game characters? They never go out of style. Video game reviews? The numbers aren’t pretty.
As I write this, I’m looking at my shelf of games. Three of those games include Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins. Two of those games I received as gifts, while the third I picked up for cheap. I’ve had these games for almost a year now, yet I haven’t played any of them. In fact, you could almost say I’m actively avoiding them. What gives?
Fighting games may have their roots in the arcade, but I almost never play fighting games on an arcade machine. In my part of the world, the arcade scene is very much dead. Within a 60km radius from downtown, I can think of only five actual arcades in existence. There are also movie theatres that have a handful of arcade games, but the vast majority of them don’t have fighting games.
With that said, I was caught off guard the other day when Steff and I went out to see The Ides of March. The movie theatre we went to had a Street Fighter IV machine and a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 machine. I was pretty excited to play both of these games as they were originally designed to be played, but disappointment set in rather quickly when I got my hands on the controls.
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In 2011, no video game trailer made more waves or garnered as much attention as the Dead Island announcement trailer. As far as video game trailers go, this haunting and beautiful piece is one of the best video game trailers ever made. Thanks to this trailer, the game built up a tremendous amount of pre-release buzz and ultimately sold really well.
Say what you will about the quality of the trailer, but the Dead Island announcement trailer captures a lot of what I hate about video game marketing and advertising. I’ll take this a step even further and say that due to the business practices behind the creation of most video game trailers and commercials, I actively avoid watching them.
There was a time in my early teens when I thought that being a gaming journalist would be the coolest job in the world. How could a job that requires you to play the latest and greatest video games before they come out not be the coolest job ever? During my younger years of reading the golden age of EGM and Gamepro, I had dreams of being the next Scary Larry or Sushi-X.
In my own way, I’m closer to living that dream than ever. In Third Person is my venue to share my gaming-related writing to the world, which now receives thousands of visits a month. As this site has grown, I’ve seen a number of job postings for writers at some of my favourite gaming websites and blogs. Do I have what it takes to make that jump into gaming journalism? Or more importantly, do I even want to make that jump into gaming journalism?
In Third Person 