Update

We've been busy down here in Cary building video games. Anyway, it's taken most of my time and been pretty time intensive with the ship schedule.

Oh yeah, we also bought a house... so that's taken tons of time. But at least that's out of the way and except for 2 mortgages... it's great! Seriously kids, don't do this - ever.

I finally got internet at my place... very speedy. I can't get VPN to run, so I'll need to bring in my notebook tomorrow and see if IT can get me set up. I've tried the limited tricks I know and I need to get into my computer or else I'm sitting at my desk watching an hourglass spin for tasks I could easily be sleeping through.

Okay, in my spare time I've been playing lots of the UT3 demo at work and logging good servers that we can give kudos or free keys to run server farms or something like that.

Played the Orange Box (who hasn't - right?). I played most (?) of Portal and got bored. Then I played HL2 and liked the first 10 minutes of it and got bored and frustrated in a certain spot I got stuck in on the PC.

If a chopper is gunning at me in a sewer Mr. Level Designer - AND YOU PUT BOXES IN THE WAY OF THE DOOR - I personally will come to your house, kidnap you, tie you up in a sewer with boxes in front of the only door out of the sewer (an all you have is a crowbar to bash them out of the way) and release you as I fly a gunship torwards you with guns blazing. See how many times you die before you make it - eh? My count is 3.

Anyway, I made it past that part and threw my work copy of Orange Box in a corner since it had misbehaved. I'll try to get back to it so other people can enjoy it.

The game I've really liked and am actually playing through is Overlord for the 360. This is actually a smart little game that was overlooked. It's fun. The puzzles are pretty good (Pikmin), but I'm really enjoying this gem.

It has it's flaws... it could use a mini-map and sometimes you think you can do a mission but you actually have no chance in hell accomplishing a mission until you do another one and get stronger. I guess I'm kind of stupid that way - I just keep banging my head against the part I get stuck on and finally figure it out after a half hour to look elsewhere. But, it hasn't been a negative experience.

Crysis Demo hmmm... Far Cry with aliens and a nicer suit? I wasn't that impressed with the demo. The sandbox aspects were great, but the linear wandering around in a nice looking forest didn't appeal to me. I just liked exploding the barrels with various things piled on them and seeing how far I could launch them into the ocean.

Oh, and how many of you (yes, I'm talking to the one person that reads this blog) shot the turtle when you got to shore? It's kind of a Rapture/Bioshock moment... "Did you shoot the turtle??? You did? How could you?" I'd definitely make it an achievement on the 360.

Current news

So we released the Unreal Tournament 3 demo. Now you know why a delay from my last update. I was pretty busy... but it's out and we're getting a great response. Check an FTP near you for the demo and get playing!

Also for the holiday season we have released Gears of War for the PC. Sweetness for all those PC people! An ideal holiday stocking stuffer. Again, keeping busy - but I had little to do with this great project.

Okay, now some personal news... in a week we'll be in the scary place where we own two homes. We bought one in North Carolina and of course we are trying to get rid of (sell) the one in Chicago. Even with a $35k price drop it's getting interest but it isn't moving. Thursday I get to close on the second home. Yikes!

I've given the word to Michelle to pull out of the house in Chicago and join me down here by the end of the year. I'd hate to hold that other home over the winter, but I guess we may have to.

We'll see I guess but in the meantime we are steeling ourselves for the eventual feeling of being "house poor". Sigh.... it seems we can't win even though we try like hell.