ben is on the inter.net

I just had 3 deaths and some other stuff spoiled for me from Harry Potter 7.

Seriously, don’t even go to wikipedia or search message forums to look up Pokemon facts.

STAY THE HELL AWAY.

So, according to Kotaku, and now an official press release, you’re my boss now. The pleasure’s all mine!

You’ve been the most frank and honest videogame businessman in this tight-lipped industry for more than one generation of hardware. 8 or 9 years ago, I read an interview where you sounded knowledgeable and honestly excited to get Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II for the Dreamcast. It stuck with me, because in this interview I saw the words of a man who knew what his company needed and was infinitely pleased that they were getting it. Of course, this was back when, were I in my current position, we’d have been bitter enemies, at least as far as fake internet rivalries go.

Seriously, you bring a lot of street cred to the table. I’m glad we got you!

Now let’s make some GREAT games.

EA has some serious power behind it, as I’m sure you’re aware. We’re this giant ball of potential energy placed awkwardly at the top of a giant hill. On one side of the hill there is great success! At the other side, there is success, but people hate you for it.

Please push us in the correct direction.

Seriously,

Ben Burbank
Software Engineer
EA Sports

P.S. I’m also writing a private letter.

Save the date, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

July 21st. Saturday. Harry Potter 7 drops and then THIS.

God I hope Jack won’t have to work.

I’m telling you, this will be the most important Saturday of all our lives.

Outrun 2 Is Backwards Compatible, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

I’ve said many times that OutRun 2 is one of the most pure, most authentic games ever made. It does not lie or cheat you. It sets the bar for sequels. It takes you on a beautiful journey through parts unknown.

And now it works on the Xbox 360! The even better news is that my Logitech 360 racing wheel is ALSO backwards compatible (this is apparently not true of the official Microsoft wheel), and this allows me to further immerse myself in a magical sound shower.

OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast is also supported now, but I don’t own an Xbox version of that yet (currently only have that game for PS2 and PSP).

Couple this with the demos for Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata that have gone through my Live hole, and my 360 will not rest this weekend. By the way, Eternal Sonata feels like a next-gen sequel to Tales of Symphonia, which makes me pretty happy! And Blue Dragon feels like… well… they could have gotten the framerate up. Other than that both of those strangers in a strange land will be welcome in my now shortened 360 library.

Flight: Volume Four!!!!!!, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

Hey, it’s Flight 4! Picked it up at uberbot, yay. Oh yeah, iPhone says hi.

New phone (again), originally uploaded by skelethulu.

Game sale’s paying off. Typing on this thing is still pretty slow, but the experience as a whole is amazing.

I’M IN A GANG, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

Just got back from Dixie Stampede. I have never yelled so much in my entire life? John Taylor cheated at the end and the South won because of it. Juls Birthday: best birthday ever.

John and Juls made shirts.

A few more pictures here.

CANDY SHOP FROM MY CHILDHOOD, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

I went to the mall today to buy a pretzel after seeing that one episode of the Office, you know, the pretzel one. We looked around for like 20 minutes only to discover that the pretzel stand is currently moving to a different spot in the mall and is currently closed. Bummer!

Then I noticed that this one candy shop had closed down, seemingly for good. When I was very young, my dad took me to this mall and he bought me the Very First Ninja Turtles comic book (not the Archie one, the original indie one) (I lost it later on) (which sucks because it’s worth good money). When walking back to SEARS (where we always parked), we passed by this one candy shop, pictured here (imagine it with lights and candy). I wanted Jelly Beans, and my dad told me that I could not have Jelly Beans, because he had already bought me a comic book. Now I’ll never get those Jelly Beans.

FOR SALE, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

I’m packing up most of my games and shipping them off, one at a time, on ebay. My current spreadsheet lists over 1,000 games that I’ll be selling off in the coming month(s?). It’s sad but it’s really time for me to stop hording stuff, especially if I’ll never play it again. It’s actually a lot of damn work to get rid of them! But I can pretend this is my one last playtime.

Don’t worry, I’m keeping Radiant Silvergun.

I PLAY MY PSP AGAIN, originally uploaded by skelethulu.

No matter what you do, putting any amount of content creation control into the player’s hands can ruin your game, and I love it.