Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Writing: A couple things to mention on th’ fiction front.

First, I wrapped up my third short story, Visitation Schedule. A psychological horror tale about a father and son, I’m going to be hitting up my usual crew of feedback-givers for the skinny, after which I’ll start shopping it around. This one took me a little longer to write than the last one, but I think it’s a quicker read… funny how something that takes two or three weeks to write can be polished off by the audience in about ten minutes… sort of like how it takes 42 bags of oranges to make one half cup of orange juice.

This is the idea, generally

The other thing to mention is that I spent the majority of today cruising through short horror venues for Love Means Leaving Together. The common word in the industry these days is that horror doesn’t sell, and I guess there must be something to that since there seemed to be very few domestic buyers for scary shorts. Things are looking a little more robust overseas, though if anyone’s interested in my story I’m not sure what the Euro conversion is.

The hand-drawn art in the game has a nice style.

Games: Although I’ll be the first to admit that Success’ Operation Darkness (published by Atlus) gives a very bad first impression in the demo that’s available on Live, I’ve been pouring tons of time into it and I think it’s a fantastic title.

As you can tell by her breast size, she's eeeeeeeevil.

The camera is more skittish than a colt full of caffeine and the graphics are nothing to write home about, but the theme of supernatural warfare in World War II is handled excellently, the script and characters are very tight, and the voice work is excellent. Additionally, it takes advantage of action shots and certain simultaneous movements to give a more active, energetic feel to the turn-based combat than SRPGs usually have. I’m only about two-thirds of the way through the game, but so far it’s absolutely Recommended for those players who can look past appearances to what lies underneath.


Misc: I’ve met a number of people recently who are suffering from diabetes, and although I’m not overweight and I think I have pretty good eating habits compared to most people, I have to admit that hearing all these horror stories about spiking blood sugar levels and favorite foods that are now off-limits is making me completely paranoid. I love rice, bread and pasta, and now every time I eat some, I’m constantly thinking “is this one serving?”

Not what I want to be doing.

The thought of being limited to only one tiny scoop of rice on a plate is slightly terrifying, but the idea of giving myself insulin injections and having open sores on my feet or going blind is even worse. The wife is starting to get annoyed with my totally unsubstantiated fear of developing the disease, but all I can think about is how miserable my friends with diabetes seem to be...

Damn you, high-fructose corn syrup! You’re ruining my carbohydrate tolerance and making eating too hazardous to enjoy!