Where do I begin? Well, for the last two months I have been in Las Vegas, opening a new restaurant. For those who don't know, I am in management with Hawaiian Tropic Zone, a rather high tech restaurant featuring cuisine by celebrity chef David Burke served by beautiful Hawaiian Tropic ladies. In a nutshell, my job entailed me basically writing the book on the restaurant, i.e.: all of the training materials for each position, as well as assisting with the hiring, and heading up the training of the front-of-the-house staff. I put in a lot of long hours on this project, so I had very little time to enjoy Vegas. (Honestly, I prefer New York, and I am glad to be home.) It was a rewarding experience altogether, and I made some new friends in the process. Although the hours were long (averaging 12 hours a day/6 days a week) I did manage to get out every once in a while, and the geek in me came through. Yes, good people, I went to the Star Trek Experience! (Yes I did hit the casinos and shows - you can't spit without hitting one of those!) I was like a kid at Christmas. They had two cool simulations: The Borg Invasion and The Klingon Encounter. I was impressed. Actually, I was grinning from ear to ear during them!
Knowing that I was in for some long hard hours of work, I did pack with me my therapy: video games. I took my 360, DS, and PSP with me. Now, you would think that with all the glam and glitz of Vegas their internet services would be up to par. I beg to differ. All throughout Vegas, businesses, hotels, and residences had internet providers that frequently went down. As well, while evryone had high-speed, which wasn't that fast at all, their broadband was too narrow to be called broad. The first hotel I stayed at (The Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino) charges $12 a day for internet access! The other hotel I was in had free high speed, but it was just a step up from dial-up. Bottom line: my 360 functionality was severely compromised. Forget about playing Halo 3 where you need to have an open NAT. I really couldn't enjoy any online game that needed broadband or high speed. Then, because the bandwidth wasn't broad enough, I couldn't access many half the XBox live features: videos, movies, etc. This really pissed me off. I realize that evolving technology in games and systems makes more demands on ISPs and their technology, but this is also making a lot of features inaccessable to part of the country, and even the world. It made me appreciate what I have taken for granted in New York.
I did get some quality time in with my 360. I finished the Shivering Isles expansion for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I have to say that was probably the best expansion I have ever played on a game. I also downloaded the latest from the Live Arcade: Mutant Storm Empire and Battlestar Galactica. I have been a huge fan of Mutant Storm since it came out on the original Xbox Live Arcade. This one is pure joy.
Now, while I was away several titles came out that I have been looking forward to, and I picked them up yesterday, first thing. My first day back in NYC: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Mass Effect, and Call of Duty 4. I played the COD4 beta on 360, but I got this version for my new console purchase - my brand new PS3. Yes, folks, I finally did it. Well, let me rephrase that - I could finally afford it! OMG! COD4 looks brilliant on it. I can't wait for more titles to come out that would show off what the PS3 can do!
That's all for now. Gonna catch up on some gaming. See you online!