18 November 2006

Oh, you're a king you say?

So it's been pretty well two months since I last posted. I figured tonight would be a good time to put up something new, since I won't be putting anything up again for a while. Tomorrow I will have my hands on the Wii, and my interest in putting anything up on here will significantly drop...at least until I finish Zelda.

These last few weeks working at a game store have been very...something. With the launches of both the PlayStation 3 and the Wii within three days of each other, prepping has been hectic, to say the least. Our store is one of the smaller ones in our district, and making space for the new systems was a hell of a feat. I mean, shit, it was nuts when we had the PSP and DS launches, and the back stock space required for those is relatively small. Two brand new consoles, one with few titles but a very daft shaped software case (PS3) and one with tons of launch games and full sized DVD-style cases (Wii), not to mention tons of other huge games coming out during the month, where the hell is it all supposed to go? Here's an example of what we have to deal with:

  • Final Fantasy XII
  • Final Fantasy III for the DS
  • Final Fantasy V for the GBA (man, come on.)
  • Gears of War for the 360
  • Tony Hawk's Project 8/Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for like every system possible
  • Call of Duty 3 for everything
  • Splinter Cell, Medieval II, Sonic, Yoshi's Island DS, and tons of other crap
That's not counting any launch titles like Resistance and Zelda, even. Shit.

Then there's the assholes that think they can waltz right the fuck in and pick up a system:
Ugly lady: Hi, yes, I'll take a PlayStation 3.
Me: I'm sorry, we're sold out of preorders, and won't have any extras for the launch day.
Lady: What? You didn't tell me about any preorders.
Me: Sorry, we didn't know about the preorders either, initially we weren't going to do any, and then...
Lady: and then you did, and you fucked me over. You ruined my Christmas. What do I tell my kids now? Fuck.
Me: I'm sure if you're willing to look hard enough, you may be able to find one before Christmas.
Lady: But I fucking want one now! I need your name, your employee number, and the phone number for your head office. I'll get a PS3, you watch.
Me: I'm not obliged to give you anything but our 1-800 number.
Lady: You give me a fucking internal number, and...you know what? I'll find it myself, and I'll get one.
Me: I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help today, good luck in finding a system.
Lady: ...*smarmy glare* Good bye. *snatches phone number, takes off*
So, good thing I left my name tag at home, I guess. Seriously, what the hell? The lady honestly said I ruined her Christmas. Who the hell says that? Lady, I didn't take your system away from your shitty children. God forbid you have to spend some time away from watching Desparate Housewives and actually take a shot at learning about your kids, instead of turning them into misbehaving, Spongebob-worshipping, loudmouthed little shits. But you know what? Maybe I did ruin your Christmas, and if you're going to act that way about it, then I'm proud. I am the goddamn governor's son.

My few qualms about the launches aside, it's pretty exciting to be in the industry right now. For a while there it felt like "man, why am I still even into gaming?", but now, as new launches will do, it feels revitalized.

As far as the PlayStation 3 goes, I'm not impressed with it at all - for the time being. Yeah, it's an amazingly powerful system, but where are all the good games for it? I don't care about Resistance. I don't care about Untold Legends. Everything else on the system that could be good I can get on my 360, so what's so great about it? There's been a ton of problems with the system (firing out discs, as though disgusted by them; entirely unplayable games (NBA 07); menu breakdowns, etc.), not to mention the general screw-up with the launch (our store got five units, and we were told to expect for ten preorders. Thanks, Sony.) The problems are great, in a sense. Every jackass scalper on eBay who's got a system to resell will either not get one yet (and by the time they do, potential buyers will have one already), or the systems they sell will have defects, and in turn, very pissed buyers. Then again, if you're dumb enough to buy a potentially broken system over the internet for more than twice what it goes for at retail, then you don't deserve any pity. Idiot.

I'll hopefully post what I think about the Wii in a few days, other than that it's awesome and it will hopefully bury the PS3. In all honesty, I want a PS3 at some point. Not now, but later, much later. I'm more than pleased with my 360 (Xbox Live is the shit), my DS, and at 9:00am tomorrow, my Wii.

Alright, enough about gaming, I think. There's not much new going on, really. We painted the bathroom, so that's nice, I guess. I saw the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie, which is slated for July. Not that I care about the movie, it's just that there's ads for things coming out after I get married. It really puts some solid ground under the fact that, yes, I'm getting married, and it's soon. Crazy, man.

It's been about a year since Elaine and I got engaged (the official date is the 25th), and the ensuing time has been surreal. Elaine's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I've had the best time of my life since I met her, she's my best friend, she's my motivation and my muse. I'm lucky to be with her and even luckier to be getting married to her.

That's about enough for now. Goodnight kids.