I really hate when things don't work correctly. Given the choice between an inconsistent technology riddled with features, and one that works all the time, but does fewer things, I'll take the latter every single time. That said, Windows Vista is an example of 'does a ton of neat stuff, when it works'. Now, fortunately, Vista 'just worked' for me for about 6 months. I didn't have driver issues, I didn't crash, I really didn't have any problems at all...until last week. Long story short, let's just say I've reinstalled the operating system on my computer now, and everything appears to be mostly in order again.

The soccer team I coach has reached the state playoffs two years in a row now. Our first game is this Friday, and I'm a bit nervous. I know the girls can win this game, which is part of the reason I'm jittery, I suppose. If it looked like it was going to be a blowout, I could accept our fate, and go in just looking for respect. With a possibility to move on, though, the situation changes quite a bit...the pressure is on, so to speak.

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a box of Through the Dark Portal that I ordered last week. I am thinking of entering the WoW TCG Regional Qualifier this December up in Portland, and so going through my deck options when I find time.

That's not very often though - Team Fortress 2 is still awesome, and now that we are playing on custom maps, I shudder to think of the amount of time I'll spend on that game when the soccer season ends.

Oh, quick note: I've begun putting my stat sigs from the various games I play at the bottom of the page. If you are ever curious who I am in whatever game, there ya go.

Since I first saw the promotional video for Portal, I have been excited to play it. The fact that it is included in the Orange Box is awesome, because the word on the street is that it is incredibly short (I have not yet completed it, though I think I am pretty close). This review in particular puts the time to beat at roughly 2-3 hours. For a game without a multiplayer component, that's pretty wimpy. I purchased the Orange Box on the PC for many reasons, not the least of which is mod-ability. I look forward to playing hundreds of community-created Portal puzzles in the future, and hope the mod community gets started pretty quick.

As for Half Life 2, and the episodic content, I admit to never having beaten even the original Half Life. I enjoyed the game immensely, I just don't usually play through the storyline of PC shooters. In fact, the only one I think I ever actually beat was that of Elite Force. I am, of course, familiar with the plot and storyline of Half Life. I watched and witnessed the vast majority of that game's play while working in a game store with networked machines. There was one particular patron who beat the game in its entirety at the store. We got together and bought him a crowbar as a thank you for the many hours of computer time he purchased from us.

So now I'm faced with Half Life 2 and its episodic content. I really should get around to playing through it, but where do I find the time when Halo 3, TF2, Portal, WoW, and most importantly, a family all vie for my free time? Right now the answer is I don't.

I finally got around to completing Halo 3's campaign this weekend. There really is no comparison. Whereas Halo 2's campaign was disjointed and incoherent, Halo 3's is focussed and well-written.

The multi-player portion is equally enjoyable, though I find myself cringing at game-types involving flags, V.I.P's, hills, or whatever. Equally annoying are mono-weapon game-types like Rockets and Swords. Call me a purist, but I want to experience the game at it's finest - slayer deathmatch.

Ironically, this game-type bias does not extend into the realm of Team Fortress 2, another game which is nothing if not excellent. My class of choice is primarily the spy, though its nemesis, the Pyro, also brings me great joy. What blows me away about Team Fortress 2 is that this game costs functionally around $11.

My wife and I have been back in the MMO scene for a few months now, playing the original Everquest. Unfortunately, the old doldrums have hit me in EQ, as I struggle to justify paying any amount of money each month to the customer service nightmare that is Sony Online Entertainment. After wrestling with the "customer service" representatives at Sony via e-mail, live chat, and telephone, they still can not create the guild for which I submitted an application quite literally 8 weeks ago (24 hour turnaround? psshh). Because of these issues, and taking into account that we truly enjoy playing MMO's, and having one to fall back on for entertainment when the kids are all but knocked out or otherwise entertained, we cancelled our 4 EQ accounts, and reactivated our 2 World of Warcraft accounts.

I really do enjoy WoW, but I'm afraid my hyper-competitive nature tends to spoil it for me occasionally. It is impossible for me to attempt a task at which I have a 0% chance of being completely successful, and I define success in WoW as having fun while killing the biggest/baddest stuff around. Unfortunately, the meta game of WoW, as with all other MMO's I've attempted, is such that only those people with no limit to the time they can devote to the game will reach the top within any reasonable amount of time. We tried the uber-guild scenario once before, and discovered that because things like life, family, kids, diapers, food, etc., were more important than the game, we were not good raid members.

When it comes to choosing family over raiding, the decision is not difficult. It doesn't even really qualify as a decision. When given the choice between raiding and being a good parent, being a good parent is really the only option (and rightfully so). My question to MMO developers then, is this: Why does game design dictate that in order to reach the high-end game, extended (4+ hour) periods of concurrent gametime must be available. Is it not possible to create a game which rewards time, skill, and effort given either in one sitting or across several sessions? WoW is one of the best in this regard, as Blizzard's developers continue to implement solo and small group quests and instances with very good rewards, but the fact stands that the only way to reach the level attainable by those with 8 or more hours available at one time will remain out of reach of those who can not devote their lives to a videogame.

The day a quality MMO is released that changes this faulty status-quo, I will be an instant subscriber.