GameplayLoop

Aha, these flights have me going to Milwaukee. I originally was searching for direct flights to Madison. Do most people fly to Milwaukee and then travel via car to Madison? I'm a little bit worthless when it comes to airline travel. I fly very infrequently, and when I do, it's usually my place of work doing all of the ticket purchasing / price finding.

Can you link me? I did a Kayak search before posting, and just did another, and I'm not seeing $241. Thanks!

Man, I would love to, but I'm showing flights for me from Boston for the weekend would cost approximately $350-$400, and I just can't justify it. Bah.

[Kind of partial spoilers.] But seriously... this game, though... >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWuwLSFmATI

That's kind of the thing. I spent 10 years putting up theater shows which I think affected a lot of people. Thousands, at least. The shows I put up (or tried to) usually came with them some really important themes. Like issues with greed, love of family, or fears of parenting (which Bodom saw!), or political corruption, etc.. I've seen people laugh, and cry, and hug me for affecting them, and it's been wonderful. But it's F*CKING EXHAUSTING, lemme tell you. While I should have earned myself some downtime already, by the time I was starting to burn out on my ten year run, I realized I was burning out to nothing--because practicing the theater made me not any better off financially to actually enjoy my downtime. Lemme tell you, the idea of plunking myself on a couch and getting lost in Fallout 4 for a few months sounds like f*cking heaven to me right now. A mix-up between doing pull-ups, sit-ups, kettlebell, and playing videogames during the Winter sounds pretty damn nice.

I really appreciate that, Buck. The thing is, I don't give a f*ck about people enough to want to put up with their bullsh*t all the time. For instance, theater allowed me to educate and entertain people, at a partial distance, in a craft that I truly feel is the best experience a person can partake in, while at the same time, expanding my own horizons. But f*ck it's exhausting. Sales, building, rehearsals, schedules, publicity, etc., etc. Mounting every show is like its own political campaign. Public service straight-up is just a lot of 'giving' for the sake of the inspirational return. And I don't think I'm interested in just giving qualities of my life over to an endless succubus of a society. Not that society is lecherous in its heart, but it's just that you can never give enough for the needs of the many. My worklife reality, though, is that I work in the theater industry on the marketing side. A few giant venues, which in its heart, is still accomplishing the 'good' of what I enjoy out of theater, but just in a more commercial, less-intelligent appease-the-masses sort of way. My company is still 'technically' a nonprofit. We have an education program, a city-wide arts festival, and a lot of other nonprofit-type initiatives. I guess part of my interest to check out some games these days is because I actually really enjoy videogames. And in my 'down time,' I think I've earned embracing them again for a time. I used to shame myself away from them for the sake of needing to prioritize my life more appropriately, and in the past few years with this job and my growth in it, I feel I've done that. So while I'm without kids, I'm like, 'why not play some cool f*cking videogames?' Again, though, I really appreciate your sentiment.

Unrelated, but related... I recently decided that I'm not too old for videogames, which is something I've been at odds with myself about for the past five years; that I should be doing something more 'productive' with my existence. But everything I've loved doing that I considered to be 'productive' I no longer enjoy as much doing anymore, as well as no longer enjoy doing with the people who similarly enjoyed those things. I've decided to dip my toe back into the videogame waters with two games, specifically, one of which is going to force me to buy an Xbox One. I haven't owned a current gen console in 10 years. 1. Fallout 4 (which you'll be able to get for any current gen console/PC). In my reading about this game, I'm pretty damn excited about it. To me, it's what Half-Life 2 should have been a decade ago. 2. State of Decay Year One Edition (and the reason why I'm buying an Xbox One). I'm a zombie fanatic, going back to when I was in my early teens, and long before zombies became the phenomena that they are now. The developers of State of Decay have an exclusive contract with Microsoft, so the next version of this game will be an Xbox One exclusive, just like State of Decay. While State of Decay was a last gen game, the enhanced Year One edition features a few tweaks all-around. At its heart, it's exactly where I have always wanted to see zombie games evolve toward. Strategy, gun-play, and light RPG elements. Most zombie games are guns blazing shooters, but that has never interested me. I'm kind of shocked I'll be getting back into gaming with consoles and whatnot. But five years ago, I was beyond broke. Now with a steady job and some disposable income, I'm like, why the f*ck not? Now, on Metal Gear Solid--game looks totally solid. A developer for Fallout 4 has said he has played 400 hours worth of the game, and still hasn't seen everything, so I think as much as it would be fun to roll with Snake again (haven't played a MGS since 2), I think I'm going to start out small.

Or a Black & White oldies ROM?

Double Dragon II was/is still one of the best console co-op games ever.

Over/Under Sports Illustrated.com just used a product from the community of this website and didn't give the appropriate creators any credit? I'm taking $$$ at 100/1. Skip to the end of the article. http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/11/playbook-nfl-week-1-preview-schedule-matchups?page=2&devicetype=default

The ROM looks great. Fantastic work all involved.

I downloaded Madden Mobile. This year's iteration is just an "update" from last year's release. It's basically the exact same game with a tweaked UI. I hate EA with all of my soul.

Ha! I probably wouldn't be able to do it blindfolded, but I definitely could blaze through it pretty quickly.

The original NES LoZ is brilliant. And it's also cause for one of my greatest controversies growing up. I played it one day, the Nintendo crashed, and my elder brother lost all of his save data. I'm pretty sure this single event caused he and I to not be friendly to one another for around two years.

^ Good sh*t, Buck. I'm almost inspired to play through MM2 again because of all this talk, but honestly, I can basically do a complete play-through in my head at this point...

Mega Man 1 was a great game. Pretty hard, too, as games go. Mega Man 2 IS classic. I played that game so many times, I had the various 'progress codes' memorized.

So, so, so cool.

I'm liking this challenge, and may have to join in. I LOVE the keyboard limitation.

^ I have a legit boner.

Yup. Because you asked, I'm going to do it all for you. All of it. Total graphics overhaul; completely revised contemporary stats; I'm even going to draw a custom portrait of you dunking over LaBron for the splash page. All for you. Just because you asked so nicely.

Fallout 4 takes place in Boston, so basically everyone I know is going to buy this game solely for that reason.

This is insanity.

10 years ago or so I used to be neck deep in the WWE product, dating back to the early 90s. I used to write some guest editorial content for PWTorch. I've been checking in lately on the WWE product, and I have to say, it's gotten much better since the mid-2000s, so good for you for working in an era that has some momentum behind it. I spend a small share of time throwing game feedback to Mat Dickie and his indy titles these days. Anyhoo, glad to have you around, Stephen.