A family member's place on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore.

I don't see them very often, so it was nice to throw the ball and rough house in the pool & bay with the kids, their dads and the uncles -- we had five boys under the age of twelve on hand.  (For some odd reason, we simply don't make many girls in my extended and immediate families.  One per generation is the average and *shocker* they tend to be hardasses.)

I did get stung by a jellyfish, but drank the pain away and retired permanently to the pool after that.  All in all, not a bad day in Shangri-La.

Happy Labor Day.

Bring on football season.

Ha!  As if I've ever done a "real one".

The Facebook thing in comments is amusing.  I don't particularly like it, but I'm forty two, not twenty two; still in my prime, but I only have so much in the tank for trivial things and even my ample hate gland is running out of bile.

I'm delighted, though, by the adolescents who usually tear into each over the finer points of:  XBox/PS3/EA/female/WiiU/CoD/DLC/F2P/God/Fox News/AMD/Nintendo/each other/small mammal/Republican/Cliffy B.* suckery and general suckishness are now united under the banner of "Die Facebooker Die".

lol.

obvious troll is obvious.

U mad bro?

Cool story bro.

to bad your all loosers.

graphic is good.

...

rofl.

lol.

I've always said the only thing that could create peace in the middle east is an alien invasion.  It would give them something new to commonly hate.

*Actually, he is starting to suck in a George Lucas kind of way.  Too soon, Cliff.  You're not even fifty!  Too soon.

He done got himself banned.  I guess it was "board suicide" after the recent restructuring announcements.

I generally don't get into things like this, but I had a soft spot for the guy.  

I didn't chime in on his blogs much, but as a general rule, if I track you, I read your stuff.  He was/is hardcore into gaming and he participated regularly, which is all anyone can ask around these parts anymore.  He was enthusiastic and at times hot headed.  He was heavily modded and dodged the GS grim reaper longer than anyone I can think of and, to his eternal credit, he delivered a heart felt apology to other users he had once alienated.  It was a genuine mea culpa, complete with a request for forgiveness and, for some reason, the humble magnanimity of that act -- something very, very rare on the anonymous, telephone-toughguy internet -- stuck with me and I appreciated him for it.

So here's to him.

Another GS vestige bites the dust.

That Amish Mafia show is just so full of sh*t.

After reading his tweets over the last couple years and hearing of his outbursts at events with industry professionals AND NOW reading about the latest turn of events that have lead to his cut n' run from gaming, I have an assessment:

I am not trying to be funny.  I am no longer hating on the guy.

Straight up?  The dude has a diagnosable disorder (I'd start here -- go to "symptoms") and really shouldn't be attacked. 

That and people with undiagnosed disorders of which they may or may not be aware shouldn't have twitter accounts.

Jonny Blow, on the other hand, remains a self-important, whiny, asshat bore in my estimation and any public hatefest may continue forthwith.

That is all.

That extraterrestrial science fiction is one of the most wildly popular genres in the worlds of film, TV and interactive media, yet it is, in my informed, insightful and entirely correct opinion, the most under served?

And to clarify, I'm talking mainstream-budgeted quality -- not indie stuff -- in video games and it's lack of a presence, pretty much at all, in major motion pictures and television.

And further, Star Wars, Mass Effect and anything in the Alien universe will be summarily rejected if brought up in any debate (if there is one to be had... which there isn't), cuz I said so.

[Edit after a li'l discussion]  Also, I'd like to add that there is a reason Star Citizen is #1, all time, in crowd funding totals. It's an under served genre, folks.

I've been pretty bored with gaming lately.  As a matter of fact, I've thought of hanging it up for a long while until Metal Gear V comes out and then maybe Witcher 3 after that.  You know.  Pare down.  Cut bait.  Get real about my back log and say adios to a bunch of games either half done or untouched.  

But then along comes you-know-who, offering X-COM, Sniper Toast Warrior 2 and a long time unrequited itch: Call of the Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth for ash tray money and whatever I can find in last year's winter coat.

I mean, the stupid voters saved me $10 by picking Borderlands 2 over Dishonored yesterday, and I thanked God for their supremely bad taste and general internetish doltery because it saved me some cash I would have had no other choice but to spend.  Sometimes those mouth-breathing trogs work in your favor.  I was oddly relieved.

But I just know there'll be a flash sale for it in the next week and it'll probably only be fifty cents more than the last offered price!  

I feel like those guys in Das Boot.  You know, that submarine movie where they just sit in their own steamy fetor with pinhole leaks squirting all around, not making a peep and praying to an indifferent God that the complete Bioshock collection isn't offered for $19.99?  No, not the one with Jon Bon Jovi.  That was a different (and lusciously dreamy) movie entirely.

Not this one. ^

It's the one that you didn't see and don't even know or care about or even understand what a Das Boot reference is, because it was made, like, thirty years before your mom and dad probably even met!  Yeah.  That one.

This one. ^

That's EXACTLY what I feel like!

And now they've got Mars: War Logs at half price!  They know I have a lost puppy dog thing for clearly flawed games.  Especially action RPG's!  This one is "7's" across the board in every publication!  I need a new Alpha Protocol to not shut up about, and I just know this one is it!

And then there's Universe Sandbox for $2!  And Nazi Zombie Army for $6.  I can overlook a world of overused and hackneyed pop culture tropes for six bucks.

And Garry's Mod just for the PC street cred!  $4.99!  Even if I play it five minutes, $4.99.   FOUR NINETY NINE!! 

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Pretty much, if you buy a PS4 and Playstation Plus, you'll be set.

I'm sold on PS+ as a service.  Hats off to Sony.  Way to build value into early adoption.

It will suck when they start systematically removing features by late 2014.

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If you own a PC and that's how you get your kicks, get a better video card, because graphics are going to be better soon.

 A blog image.  People seem to like pictures in blogs.

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The DayZ stand alone video made me drill a hole between my eyes to let the boredom out.

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If a Witcher 3 pre-order required me to cut off a pinky at the Gamestop counter, I'd probably do it.

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That's about it.

I first heard of it about ninety hours ago, which is strange considering just how much time I waste scouring the soft, white underbelly of this hobby for out of the ordinary gems.  (BTW and on that note, you really should play NIER if you haven't already.)

I knew I had to have it once I discovered it.

For a budget title, a developer has to make decisions.  In this case, one gets plenty of clipping, wall-running AI, texture pop-in, object pop-in and all the roughly hewn graphics of an indie game shoehorned into decade-old cpu/gpu combination.  Whatever technical shortcomings this game may have -- and may you techno-weenies who eschew games on these merits, or lack thereof, be damned -- this one has it all going on under the hood, Bubba.  They wrote, programmed and paced the bejeezus out of this game and any non-technical fault one finds here falls squarely on the participant.  This title is a Ferrari in a '76 Lincoln's body.

These guys have talent.

This game is bloody brilliant.

Dismiss it at your own peril.

My brother sent me this.

Enjoy.