In years past, the wife and I would go all-out for the Superbowl; we’d set up a big spread (even if nobody was coming over), we’d get drunk, we’d feel like crap and then Monday morning we’d be hungover and gross. Not so, this year! The secret to not feeling like shit on the Monday after the Superbowl is to (a) not give a shit about the Superbowl, and (b) go to bed mid-way through the 3rd quarter. This gives you a much smaller window of opportunity to injure yourself with onion dip and/or scotch.
OK, let’s run this weekend down:
1. I am still itching to play XCOM 2, but I will have to wait until I either get a new PC, or a console version is released. I know I said this last week, but even when I got home on Friday I was still curious, and so I ran some benchmarking tools and found that my PC simply can’t run it; it’s not even a question of running it slowly, but rather my graphics card can’t even meet the minimum requirements. I’ve been debating whether or not to get a gaming PC for a long time now, or maybe just a Steam Machine. I’m still not sure if XCOM2 is the game that makes me pull the trigger, especially since I already know that I’ll never be good enough at it to finish it. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting it, anyway.
2. All things considered, I’ve barely touched anything gaming related over the last few days. The weekend was busy; toddler birthday party at a bounce-house in Brooklyn on Saturday, and then a trip up to Grammo’s house for her birthday yesterday. My son didn’t nap, even if he did a lot of running around. This is why we went to bed early. We did watch the first hour or so of Spectre, if only to experience the new surround sound system in its proper context – and, yeah, it sounds pretty great – but that was about it. Tomorrow, of course, is the release day for both Unravel and Firewatch; the reviews for Unravel have been fairly positive, but since I already bought it I might as well play it. (I showed it to my son yesterday for a few minutes; he loved making Yarny jump.) I’m very curious about Firewatch; can’t wait to get my hands on that one.
3. I finished Christopher Buckley’s The Relic Master on Saturday; the best way to describe it is “Umberto Eco-lite”. It’s an entertaining yarn about a relic hunter in the mid 1500s, sent to steal Jesus’ burial shroud, and features a whole bunch of famous people from the period; it’s clearly very well researched in terms of getting period detail correct, and yet is also pleasingly modern in its dialogue; ultimately, though, the book is somewhat forgettable. I am now in book purgatory until tomorrow.
Tomorrow night is the NY Game Awards, and it would figure that it’s going to be ridiculously amazing while I can’t be there. Wyclef Jean is presenting; Joshua Cohen (who wrote “Book of Numbers“, among others) is presenting; a whole slew of other fun people are going to be presenting. Ah well; ‘burb life strikes again. I’ll be checking it out on Twitch.
Tonight, though, I’m meeting with my old buddy / label guy to talk about the album, next steps, release date, etc. (I feel weird talking about this stuff here; but if not here, where?) I am optimistic that I can get this thing out the door by Spring.
Shouts From The Couch 