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Ah, what to say? The recent trip to Albuquerque was kind of nice, if tiring. I got to see GotGv2 again, which was good - though it did make me lament more the lack of similar family dynamics in most RPGs I've played over the years. Dinner was good, even if the Texas Land and Cattle that was a sort of tradition for my visits had recently gone out of business. Waffles the next day were good. Visiting a game/collectible store was fine. I slept very poor, though (and apparently snored). And dang but there were a lot of instances where I knew where I was going, but couldn't get there without several detours due to one-way and divided streets. I've been playing Prey some over the last week or so - it looked good enough. And I don't regret the purchase even if it's not as captivating as some games. It's fairly fun to play and explore and puzzle through things, but the central story is spread too thinly to grab me and pull me along. I'm still amused by the "Nerf" crossbow weapon that fires damageless foam darts, yet is still useful in some situations. I watched a playthrough of Alan Wake, which was quite interesting to me. The central gameplay of using light to burn away the darkness around enemies before damaging them is nothing revolutionary. The big questions of what's real or just in the character's mind, and whether he's insane or fighting true evil are not particularly new either, but they're done well. The thought of a character who's a writer that has sort of written his adventure is neat. Especially how he recognizes there are certain narrative conventions that must be honored. But really, it's the little touches that push the story over the edge. Little things like the short "Night Springs" episodes (Twilight Zone parodies that often parallel what's going on in the main game) really boost the atmosphere. Odin and Tor, the aging former rockers who are either insane or fought similar evil before are cool (and their music isn't bad). I'm not sure if I wish I had played it, but I'm glad I experienced the game, as "meta" as it gets at times. Suppose that's it for the moment...

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