So I announced my Developer for a Day finalists. It was exceptionally difficult for me to run this year. For some reason, there were a whole lot of entries, and the length of a lot of the entries was extensive.

In the end, a few of the ones I picked were actually somewhat shorter, because I really liked the idea or principle; in the end, a good idea is a good idea.

This year I just didn't have the time to prepare individual comments for each entry; however, I don't really know if that's going to be a huge disadvantage to finalists. Really, the quality of each entry is quite impressive, and I can only offer the most general of guidance.

The important thing is to convey your game well and in a concise manner. I'm of the opinion that I should know what your game is about just from the first couple pages. If you don't have that, you're not going to keep the readers' interest.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do this contest anymore. It's a huge drain on me, and it's very hard to have to not pick some great entries. That doesn't necessarily mean the contest is dead; but it's grown beyond the scope of one person. We'll see what next year holds, I guess.

Anyway, congrats to all the finalists.

I thought this picture might amuse you all. I had printed out all the DFAD submissions so I could read/review them even when I wasn't in front of a computer. This is how much stuff I've had to go over.

 

 

I spent a whole lot of time this weekend again trying to track down why some errors occur on GameSpot (and our other sites). After much cursing and nearly ripping out my hair, I think I actually finally learned the real problem that was causing some of this stuff.

JSD and I worked out a solution today, and it is live on GameSpot and FilmSpot (and either is, or should be soon on TV and MP3). I think this might actually fix the problems. Here's hoping!

One of the hardest working people at GameSpot is Game Guides Editor, Matt Rorie. Want to know how hard he works? He plays two games simultaneously! I caught him playing both Crackdown and Supreme Commander at the same time today.

 Matt Rorie, real man of genius.

 

 

So yesterday I moved into an office here. I'm sharing it with someone, but it's still a big step up from the cramped FilmSpot "War Room" that we had for almost half a year. Probably the coolest part is that now I can have my full setup going.

 

My primary workstation is the large monitor on the right; that's where I do my coding, surfing, etc. The monitor on the top left constantly shows the status of the GameSpot servers so I can make sure it's running smoothly. On the bottom left is where I keep track of email. It seems to be working out pretty nicely!

 

I found this in one of the bathrooms here today.

 

Sorry if it's unclear. It reads "Grout Turismo," "Grout Fighter 2," and "Grouts of War." 

This is a few days old, I happened to catch it on engadget - which goes into more detail about the 1.5 firmware upgrade for the PS3. Japanese gamers now can connect a mini payment system up to their console. Using this peripheral, they can use certain debit cards and cell phones to electronically transmit payment info right to their console.

My thoughts on this? I can just think of one word at the moment: disconcerting. But I'll withhold judgment for now.

So I stayed up late to finally finish Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii. I'm actually a little proud of myself for doing it. When it comes to games, I have the attention span of a.. wait, what was I talking about?

Zelda is, at least by my standards, a very very long game. I did serve to make it a little longer than necessary by going on a bunch of side quests (I managed to catch all the bugs, and I ended up with 18 hearts total, as examples.) But yes, I very much enjoyed just about all of it -- there were a few annoying moments in the game, but they were few and far between. I felt very satisfied at the end of this one.

I'll give you one minor spoiler to say... [spoiler] The boss fight at the end is epic. [/spoiler]

Now that Zelda is done, I'm getting back to some other games that need love, like Gears of War. Less with the cute, more with the brutal chainsaw action.

Oh, I've also gotten around to recording my Wii number; take note, and be my friend... or whatever it is you do with my Wii number. It is...

4222 8087 7197 3082

Do with that information what you will, dear readers. Till next time...

So Unreal Tournament 2007 has had a name change to Unreal Tournament III. Which is kind of strange, considering it'll actually be the fourth game in the UT series. (We've already had Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Unreal Tournament 2004.) I guess you could kind of lump the latter two together (even though I paid separately for each!)

Either way, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I think there may be some new video content for it being posted in the near future, which I'm looking forward to!

In other news, there was an apparent Duke Nukem Forever screenshot that has been leaked . The screen itself isn't that exciting, but at least it's evidence that 3D Realms is still actually developing this game. I remember being totally stoked about this game... then I advanced to my Junior year of High School. Seriously, though, I'd imagine that at some point this game will have to get released, and who knows, maybe it'll be good!

Lastly, in other news, it looks like the Community Team has added links to your FilmSpot profile on GameSpot, TV, and MP3. It's even easier now to head over there - and I totally recommend using the FilmSpot WYSIWYG editor for writing blog posts. I like it so much better.