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New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land To: Ash From: Crecente
I’m sure you noticed but our servers all crashed for several hours this morning. Not only could we not post, but people couldn’t read either. It sucked.
I was up till about 3 a.m. this morning playing Bioshock, my first dip into the world. I’ve been meaning to play it for a bit now but I was in Leipzig and then up to my eyeballs catching up and helping you plan a bit for the Tokyo Game Show.
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: A Very Important Question (About My Hair)
Dude, mullet? Why would you want business in the front, when you can party all the time? That’s all I’m saying.
So HP’s new Blackbird PC landed on my doorstep this afternoon, just hours before the embargo lifted. I was supposed to have received it weeks ago to, you know, get time to actually check it out before writing about it. But that didn’t happen for some reason. And to make matters worse, the thing won’t boot up, the hard drive appears to be bad. Personally, I don’t think that’s that big a deal, from my perspective. I know what sort of wonderful things are out there in the way of cards and memory and motherboards, so none of that is going to impress me. And that’s not what sets this thing apart, it’s the 30 kilogram-plus chassis. The thing is made of solid aluminium, no plastic at all. And I was able to take the whole thing apart in minutes. It’s the best tooless PC I’ve ever seen. But it’s also a really big, really heavy paperweight right now and the box it came in is HUGE. I’m going to call up HP tomorrow to get it sent back. I just don’t have the space for it.
What you missed: Fahey is at the Austin Game Developers Conference PSP2K hit today New iPods have a gaming built in Karraker Quits SCEA but not before he chats with us Fahey is invading Garriott’s home The Lair Curse, Worse than the Madden Curse? Blackbird Impressions
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Austin
Since January, I have been focused on one goal: My hair. Namely, growing it out. It’s gotten to the point where I have a rather nice rockstar mullet — close to something Ronnie Wood had in 1973. But! At the end of the day, it is still a mullet. This summer has been hot and sticky. Dealing with my ‘do has been a real drag. At home, I always have to put up my hair, and I’m getting somewhat tired of dealing with it. So. I ask you. Should I cut the mullet? That will kill it, you know.
What you missed last night Molyneux loves that LIVE Little kids and BioShock Microsoft’s English is so good Japan gets new DS Lite Firmware detailed
To: Ashcraft From: Crecente Re: Yes, I Actually Bought A PS3 Game. To Play.
I was going to fly out to Austin today to attend both the Austin Game Developers Conference and the launch party for Tabula Rasa, but something Halo-flavoured came up and I wasn’t able to make it. Michael Fahey was kind enough to step in to take my place. He is on the ground there now, I think, or should be soon. Fun town, I’m a bit jealous.
What you missed: Xbox 360 Chatpad In The House Halo Invades Madame Tussauds War Is Not A game Lair, the Lighter Microsoft Investigator Confirms Halo 3 Manual Xbox 360 Fall Update to Bring Parental Timer Mercenaries 2 Not Blowing Shit Up This Year Reviews Over Lunch
To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: TGS Kotaku Party?
Yup, I did it. Yesterday, I actually bought a game for my PS3. I had previously been using my console to watch movies and look at pictures. That’s it! The selection of PS3 games out in Japan is lacking at best. And with my Xbox 360 still in the shop, I didn’t really have much of a choice! Wonder if Microsoft’s reliability issues will come back to bite them in the arse when the PS3 has more stuff to play. I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas, which is good fun. Thing that I’m curious about: There’s all that extra space on Blu-ray, why not throw extra audio language tracks on the game? Rainbow Six Vegas was originally recorded in English and probably sounds better in English — the same’s true of Japanese games. Seems like it should be a normal feature for PS3 games!
What you missed last night Sony’s TGS PS3 list TGS booth plan Wii still winning New firmware
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Con-ed Out
In answer to your question: Yes, yes, good man, yes we should totally have a Tokyo Kotaku shindig! Our last get together in New York earlier this year was good fun, and it was a blast to meet readers, industry types and drunk hangers-on. Since we’ll be staying at a big fancy hotel in Shibuya, I imagine that we’ll want a bar near our hotel so we can stumble back drunk and pass out. Throwing up on the JR line is so embarrassing! That is ideal, but I’m not sure how realistic… I know a few places, but none in Shibuya that are big enough to handle a nerd gathering. So! Reader people who know Tokyo fairly well, feel free to chime in with possible place for us to get shitfaced at.
Also, the Night Crew has morphed into the Labor Day Crew, so posts will be going up all day. Enjoy your day off!
To: Ash From: Flynn Subject: All spliced up
So, I attended Dragon-Con this weekend here in Atlanta, clocking in my fourth conference in two months. With two more to go yet this year, I am feeling a little Con weary but I’m sure I’ll be able to get it together for the excitement of TGS. Everyone told me how amazing Comic Con was going to be for cosplay and I have to say that after having gone to both, Dragon-Con has it all over Comic Con in the costume department. I even managed to cobble together a Splicer costume for myself (Purely so I didn’t seem out of place, of course!) and got my picture taken in front of an appropriately watery backdrop.
Some things you might have missed this weekend:
• You can pre-order Halo 3 and get a Slurpee at the same time. • EA is offering the original Command & Conquer for free. • This guy makes me proud to be a gamer
I hope you have a great week as we over here in the US celebrate a holiday weekend and I actually get a rare full day off. I plan on gaming until my fingers curl into claws. Goodnight!
To: Bashcraft From: Crecente
After being away from home for nearly two weeks I am finally nestled safely back in my cocoon at home. Leipzig was a blast, though I mean that purely in a work-12-hours-a-day-and-never-see-the-light-outside-of-a-hall sort of way. Don’t get me wrong, I still had fun, but I just didn’t really see much of Germany besides the train rides between hotel and convention centre. I suspect TGS will be very much the same. It’s too bad, because I do enjoy checking out other countries.
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft
Like you, I sit in front of the computer for hours on end. Let’s say I get on the computer at 9am. By the time I finish blogging or w/e by 9 or 10pm, my eyes are a mess. Blurry vision and dry, dry eye balls. Do you experience this? Should I use eye drops? I think it might be because I wear contacts, and I probably should get glasses for when I’m blogging (to let the ol’ eyes breathe). I don’t really get headaches or whatnot, but man, my eyes get really really tired…
What you missed last night Kaz Says The Best Is Yet To Come SEGA game will wreck your relationship Luke has an Elite Giant Jeff Bell talks MGS and FF Blame Sonic
To: Crecente From: Ashcraft
It’s a vicious cycle of sorts. I’m working on a magazine article, and I’ve been dealing with one particular person at a particular company for over a month or so while I write this article. There’s a fairly standard format for business email writing in Japanese. Here’s what it looks like in English: Mr. PERSON’S LAST NAME
I am indebted. This is YOUR LAST name from COMPANY NAME.
And then you launch into whatever you are talking about. Pretty basic stuff. There are various ways of addressing people in Japanese and some are more polite than others. Often in writing, you’d use “sama” instead of “san.” So, if I was sending you and email, I’d write “Crecente-sama.” It’s more polite than “san.” Of course, one should never refer to oneself as “sama” or “san,” but rather by your last name only. Doing so is very arrogant. That is, unless you are an arrogant crazed anime character out to take over the world, then by all means refer to yourself as “sama” or “san.” (Oddly enough! Whenever Madonna is on Japanese TV, she refers to herself as “Madonna-san.” Nobody has the guts to tell her, I think.) Anyway! Once a general rapport is established, it might feel more comfortable to use the slightly less formal “san” in email writing — though not always!
