I saw the Dallas Mavericks play the Chicago Bulls this past Saturday, and it was amazing! Dallas started a little weak in the first half, but still kept within a couple points. The last period was a real nail-biter – it was so very close a match-up. The Mavs tied it up in the last few seconds with a three-pointer and snatched victory in overtime!

At work on Friday, my supervisor gave me two tickets to the game for apparently being awesome at my job. The company I work for regularly gives out tickets to sporting events and other comps to those they deem worthy. I was originally going to go with Ame, but she suggested that I go on a man-date with one of my friends. I ended up going with Chad, a friend of mine with college that I still see occasionally. Neither of us are huge sports or basketball fans, but the spectacle was worth the (free) price of admission!

The other awesome part of the night is The Dallas Mavericks is one of my two favorite teams, and my other favored team is The Chicago Bulls, so it made the game that much more special than if the Dallas were playing someone I didn’t care about like Memphis. Bleh. It’s funny though – the reason I like the Bulls is not directly because Michael Jordan is the best player on this goddamn Earth (I know he doesn’t play anymore, pedants), but because when NBA Jam was popular, the Bulls were the best team and were summarily banned from being chosen unless both players chose them.

It’s my goal in life to see at least one game of top-tier professional athleticism from each sport. I can cross the NBA off my list, but I want to go back for more! I’ve got the NFL and NHL to see yet; I imagine they’ll be quite exciting because I like watching even high school football, and Professional Hockey League is a blast too. I’m… unimpressed with Major League Baseball, and I’ve seen that a few times, so I can say I’ve tried it a bit; it’s just so boring.

I look forward to my next major sports event though, it should be a ridiculous amount of fun.

Pitiful ballplayers of Earth, I am Ethan “Bubblegum” Tate, commander of the Harlem Globetrotters. [The crowd gasps.] For generations, your puny planet has lived in peace with the Globetrotter Homeworld. But now, for no reason, we challenge you to defend your honour on the basketball court. [The crowd murmurs.] Will no one meet our challenge? Have none of you pathetic Earthlings game?

An excellent example of the form, Braid is a 2-D Puzzle Platformer.  The object of the game is to collect puzzle pieces hidden behind traps and puzzles and assemble them on a board. Once each board for each level is complete, the last sequence is unlocked which ties everything together. The whole game except for the last sequence can be traversed in about 20 minutes, but that’s pointless. The real fun of the game is figuring out how to get those puzzle pieces.

I won’t spoil anything for you, but each world has its own unique twist on how time behaves or can be manipulated, and operating within those restrictions and liberties is key to progressing through the game.

The underlying story is also engaging on a level rarely seen in games these days or any day for that matter. Again, I won’t spoil anything for you, but the end ties it up pretty well, and re-reading some sections again sheds light on holes in others. It is very, very good.

A great thing about Braid, that has nothing to do with the game itself really, is it has rekindled my wanting work on my own games. Sure I’ve sort of been working on general designs, but knowing that an independent game can make it gives me renewed vigor! I love it.

(Aside from not posting for more than a month…)

I’m gonna be posting a bit more regularly from now on; a daily schedule of something to talk about or show you something out there on the Internet that sparked my interest. This is all part of The Great New Plan^TM which I’ll likely roughly outline here in a few days. Without further rambling, let’s get to the real post, eh?

Games Season has already this year and I’m sad. I should be ecstatic, but I only, just today, realized that it had already begun. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was released on August 27 and it was one of the games I specifically bought my Wii for – and I missed it. I shouldn’t feel too bad though, my eyes have been glued on the Super Smash Bros.: Brawl prize since… well, let’s just say I’ve got the daily update tracked in my RSS feed so I don’t miss anything. Continuing with Nintendo stuff, I’ve yet to complete The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Paper Mario – both of which are very entertaining. Super Mario Galaxy’s release is fast approaching too.

My 360 is seeing some use lately too. I’ve enjoyed the demos for Stranglehold and especially Bioshock. I remember playing System Shock 2 briefly, but not having the time to play it. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I know this is heresy, but I got bored with the overly complicated tutorial which tried to explain everything too quickly before stripping all of those cool abilities away for the actual game. I’ll be looking to get those games as soon as I am able. Mass Effect is coming, and from what I’ve seen, looks to redefine the genre or make a new one entirely.

I consider Live Arcade as an entirely separate animal. Pac-Man C.E. is a magnificent game. I love going for the hi-score, especially on the global rankings they have there. I’m a bit competitive, so there’s tons of replay there. There are tons of other games that I’ve yet to purchase the full games of too like Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. Those two were introduced to me by an old co-worker, Rich. I never played them before the Live incarnations, but they play pretty old-school, so I’m pretty confident in their ‘one-to-one’ness.

Moving on to Sony… I’ll be getting Guitar Hero III for PS2. This is a certainty. Look at the Song List! I will say that, on average, GH2 song list was better than GH1’s, but GH1 had better individual songs than GH2. That’s why I say that GH1 is more fun, but because of control tweaks GH2 is a better game. There are some games coming for the PS3 that make me cringe, though. I cringe because I won’t be playing them any time soon. Hitting the top of that list is Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. I am a dirty whore for that style of gameplay and it pains me that I won’t be partaking in it sooner.

There are plenty of others out there that I’m sure I’ve missed. I need to make a wish list and prioritize them in order of ‘gotta-have-it’ness. Until next time, kiddies.