I like the idea of travelling the globe but it always struck me as something that takes the place you’re in for granted. A few years ago, my friend Kelvin and I came up with the idea of microtravel: picking an area of the place you live and seeing it. Apparently, that idea was already named, to an extent, but “urban exploration” isn’t quite what I’m aiming for here, because it only desribes a bit of the idea.

Microtravel, in essence, is taking some time to see a part of the area you live in as if you were an explorer. By ignoring the little part of your brain that tries to pull you down the streets you normally walk to get home, you can make yourself enter some pretty weird areas and see great things. Taking it a step further, it’s often a lot of fun to take your main arterial public transit route (be it subway, tram, or bus) to an entirely irrelevant stop off at which you’ve never gotten and start walking. While it’s not always interesting or englightening, you’ll often find inspiring little crannies in the sides of walls. Cameras are recommended, though I tend not to bring one (my distaste for taking my own photos is another topic entirely).

What’s weird is how few people I’ve spoken to have ever even considered this, given the games that we play (you knew I’d work it in at some point, didn’t you?). Even the most open-world games give us only a city, or maybe its outlying areas, or maybe even a couple of other cities (I’m thinking of San Andreas at the moment as the largest one that comes to mind). However, these games encourage you to work in and explore what amounts to a relatively small amount of space (small is relative to, say, everything between Montreal and Mumbai, for example). There are always rewards for finding little places in the environment, too; perhaps there’s an agility orb in this previously unexplored cove, or a radioactive pigeon to shoot.

For many, the reward only comes from finding those scattered prizes (and the corresponding achievements/trophies that they lead to). But, for others, including myself, the reward isn’t the prize; it’s the exploring itself. I jsut don’t get why this itch doesn’t extend to the real world for many: if you don’t need to find an easter egg to enjoy it, why not do it where your field of vision is 360º and there’s no polygon count? Maybe Ottawa and Montreal are okay places to do this because you can be pretty confident that you’re not going to get shot, which isn’t necessarily true of every city in the world, but I’ve found this a pretty rewarding activity.

I’m not saying you should break into sewers like in that previously mentioned urban exploration wiki entry. In fact, the wohle UE thing strieks me as pretty needlessly “extreme.” But, there’s nothing wrong with taking a day to explore a neighborhood you haven’t checked out due to its lack of buzzworthy restaurants or its distance from your comfort area. In fact, it’s Brilliam-recommended!

Hi, Internet!

It’s been a while, I know. Just letting you know I’m alive and that, while I haven’t had anything particularly good to say since December, I’m still around. Here’s some of the stuff that’s been keeping me busy:

1. Every Game Ever

I have restarted the Every Game Ever blog with multiple writers. Now, instead of just me writing about seven SNES games a week (exhausting), I write about one a week and four others do the same. Oh, and I edit their work, too (also exhausting). For those unaware, it’s an exhaustive (ha) blog attempting to “review” (to comic effect) every SNES game ever.

2. My Sucky Job

My job has been in crisis mode for the past while, and they recently turned it up to 11 with a “we’re probably going to lay you off unless the impossible happens” demand. I’ve been spending a lot of time learning about employment insurance, and budgeting whether or not I’ll be able to subsist on what amounts to very little money per month. I think I can do it, which is a relief, but now it looks like they might not even layme off, which is confusing. They still haven’t given me written two weeks’, so that’s… I can’t decide if it’s good or bad. I’d love an excuse to not work here anymore…

3. “A Fistful Of Tokens” Podcast

I’ve also been editting the first episode of a podcast that was worked on by myself, Scott, Angus, and Travis (who has no web presence… in 2009. And he’s an English Master’s graduate. Someone please tell him the face of writing today so he can catch up with the world). It exists now in its editted form. All I need to do is sort out the hosting and the RSS and all of the stuff I can’t be bothered to sort out. The show exists as a sort of videogame-related version of the BBC5 panel show Fighting Talk, where questions of the industry are asked and the pundits get points for witty, insightful or downright hilarious responses. There’s also a lot of noise in the recording, particularly on my end, so I’m going to try to find a solution to that too.

4. Books!

I’ve also got an unread book pile that is menacing over me from my shelf. I am convinced that, despite my attempts to tame it of late, it will consume me. I’m curently reading Lawrence Lessig’s Remix, which is a thoughtful look into the success of “hybrid economies” on the Internet (which, boiled down to the barest terms, is a commercial site that fosters a sharing community among its members, like craigslist) as well as the music/film/television/etc industry’s backwards-facing stance on copyright (for a hilarious dose of irony, check out Lessig’s blog right now: he has a CC license on a segment he shot with Stephen Colbert, and asked his readers to “remix” the segment: the segment was taken down due to a “copyright violation,” claimed by Viacom. THAT is too funny). I’m also reading Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid On Earth which is a fantastic book. A fantastic book with pictures. I don’t want to call it a graphic novel because I think the author himself, Chris Ware, recoils from the term (or so the little cartoon on the back of the book would imply), and rightly so; I’ve never seen a graphic novel deliver this level of richness of character, bleakness of setting, or realness of conversational flow. I’ve also got about six books on my “borrowed books that I feel guilty about not having read yet” pile, and another six on my “books I bought but haven’t read because there are still books in the other pile” pile.

5. Procrastinating on playing games to play… other games!

Gamewise, my attempts to sit down with Far Cry 2 and Dead Space and Fallout 3 (all of which I intend to actually let soak in at some point; they’re still borign to me, but I’ve barely otuched them. I need to immerse) have been stymied by the release of Crayon Physics Deluxe (post upcoming, surely), Steam’s $4.99 sale of the entire X-Com catalogue (now, sadly, back to $14.99 but still a great deal — post ALSO upcoming, surely), and the release of the 9.2.0 patch of Football Manager 2009 which actually makes the game playable (if you’re going to flame me on playing an excel-sheet-game, stay tuned because SURPRISE! POST INCOMING!).

6. Making a game!

Cikro is also “hard at work” (that term is subjective, right?) on its first videogame. The tentative title is Malmö. Brush up on your Swedish, because due to a coworker of mine who speaks the language, parts of the game will be presented in the tongue of ABBA and Mats Sundin.

7. Secret blog!

There’s also another somewhat comedic blog that I’ve started and will be contributing to in the near future but I’m keeping that one under my hat. The only hint I’ll give is that it’s related to both breasts and eggs. But not chickens. Well, not really.

8. Cover band?

I’m signed up to be the lead singer in a cover band next month. I don’t know if that’s happening, but if it is, I don’t ANY of the songs I’m supposed to cover. Hmm.

9. The Wire & True Blood

I’m also staring at The Wire (the TV series), trying to will myself to watch it. I’m on season 2, and it’s VERRRRY difficult, but I can’t watch the (apparently amazing) seasons 3-5 without enduring 2. I watched True Blood, though, which was schlocky (not s1ocki, unfortunately) and fun enough.

10. P&P RPGs

Been playing D&D at my buddy Angus’s (different Angus than above — yes, I know and hang out with TWO Anguses). He might run Vampire The Masquerade. I am conflicted because I think vampires are dumb, but I think acting like an ass with your friends is the best thing ever.

11. Catching up on blogs superior to my own

I’m trying to catch up on the past year of all of the blogs listed here. This might take a while.

I didn’t intend for this to be such a long piece; really, I just wanted to round up everything I’m doing at the moment. Apparently I’m doing A LOT.

Dear EGM Staff and 1UP staff:

I’ve been laid off before. It sucks. In fact, I wasn’t even laid off: I had my “contract terminated” along with 90% of my peers, which is like getting laid off but without severance, employment insurance, or two weeks notice. Games testing is a bitch, right?

But this isn’t about me, this is about you.

Don’t think about this as a disaster, but think of it as a way to do what you want to do, your way, without the bumbling useless fools at Ziff Davis breathing down your neck. CGW was one of the best publications around, and somehow they couldn’t keep it together. Then they file for Chapter 11. Then they fail to hang onto Jeff Green and Shawn Elliott. Then, finally, they sell the whole kit and caboodle to… Hearst? Seriously? Could they really not make it worth it to keep 1UP? Were they really not bringing in enough dough?

I call zombie bullshit.

It’s ridiculous that those podcasts, probably some of the most listened to within the gamer community (who, shockingly, have money, as evidenced by the fact that they buy VIDEO GAMES ALL THE TIME), couldn’t monetize. It’s ridiculous that an online zine that blazed trails for reviews, previews, interviews, and all sorts of other -views couldn’t capitalize on what was very likely a large readership.

I mean, the print thing makes sense, sort of. I don’t know the numbers, but it makes sense that print is dying. I still buy magazines, but only ones that double as artifacts; ones whose content is worth owning, like an item. I had a subscription to Wallpaper* (the asterisk is in the title, don’t look for a footnote) for a year, and still enjoy picking up newsstand copies of the British music mag Wire, because each is a bible unto itself (the former for design and fashion architecture, the latter for, well, music). And, unlike a bible, they’re timely. But, also, they’re timeless. EGM, while a great mag, didn’t have the same sense of tangible wealth, and, as such, was doomed as information got more free.

So let’s look at these online things again: the written stuff, and the podcasts, and the 1UP Show.

The 1UP Show is was, in my opinion, the best informational videogame video serial available. Better than anything on networks or cable or anything. Period. It was also probably peanuts to produce, comparatively; did an episode of t1S cost even a third as much to produce as Attack of the Show, or X-Play? I highly doubt it. Two guys work full-time hours, and a few talking heads, and maybe a person or two locking down interviews and video of games could probably cost you under five figures a week. Let’s make up an arbitrary number and put it at $8,000 an episode. Stop me if I’m crazy, but that seems reasonable.

Given the show’s pedigree, and number of viewers, and potential for growth, it’s not unreasonable to think that you could’ve made it premium on iTunes and charged $0.99 an episode. Despite the insane number of complaints from freeloading whiners, you could’ve easily managed to sell this product to 8081 people a month by simply riding on word of mouth alone. No marketing, nothing; an assistant PR rep fresh out of school with a GAF account and half a brain could’ve gotten this to the right people. Now, I also don’t know how much money Apple keeps from these sales, but even if it were half, or three quarters, surely you’d be able to sell to thirty thousand people a month. Offset it with ads, if you must; the 1UP Show had virtually no ads in it, despite being a PERFECT place to sell such space; there’s no limit on how long the file can be, and there’s no law saying that you must have a maximum of 8 minutes of ads per episode. The highest bidder would surely pay you a couple hundred bucks here or there for thirty seconds to hock their free-to-play MMO bullshit.

The podcasts, as well, couldn’t cost much to put together. Aside from the space in which to record, and the equipment with which to do so, I’m sure these costs might be covered by a monthly $1.99 subscription to all ‘casts. I mean, really; how many hours a week would you have to pay the hosts? Eight hours per person per week?

Hell, while we’re at it, go two-tier on the website. 1UP with 1UP Premium, for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. The basic site has all of your favourite writers and your reviews and your previews, while your longform editorials and breaking news and podcasts are on the higher, paid echelon. If you can’t move TWO DOLLAR subscriptions, you need to get a PR/marketing guy who likes his job. That’s all there is to it.

But, hell, hope’s not lost! You’ve lost the 1UP name. But, you haven’t lost your own names. You’re in San Francisco, right? The geek’s American Dream. The Land of Opportunity. Surely, if you guys make some noise, you’ll find an investor. Steal the audio equipment from Ziff Davis; they don’t need it anymore. Use one of your own cameras. Get this stuff going, already. Use that severance pay and work overtime, on your own time, to turn pink-slip lemons into green-paper lemonade. Do what Ziff Davis couldn’t: make something great, that people will pay for, and keep doing what you are doing without the fear of the man selling you to the father of a Stockholm Syndrome casualty.

Here they are: the ten games of 2008 that really tickled my fancy. It’s hard to say they’re a cut above, considering how deep this year’s releases were, but, if anything, this year proved for me that it’s the year of the downloadable title (I bought two of these games on Steam, and three on Xbox Live Arcade). It’s a scary future, because I find the lending and borrowing of games really important to me as someone who likes sharing and discussing the medium (more on that another day, I suppose), but it’s hard to complain when the games are of such high quality (and, in the case of four, are so cheap. The other was expensive, but so many of my friends had already bought it that the lending thing was irrelevant).

10. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)

I haven’t played very far into it so far, but everything I’ve seen, I’ve loved. It’s not the pacing, because it’s slow; it’s not the combat, because it’s pretty basic so far; it’s not the voice acting, because it’s deplorable. Honestly, I think the reason I love this game (and, incidentally, 3) is the graphic design and the ease of use. I think one of the greatest secrets of a good RPG is a menu system that continues to be a joy to use, and P4 nailed it. Furthermore, the high school sim is intriguing, the whodunit is intriguing, and the art is stunning. Now, can this be the last great PS2 game, so I can stop having to plug it back in every few months for the next unbelievably good release?

9. Burnout Paradise (360)

I don’t really buy car games. Unless you count GTA IV, this is the only car game I’ve bought this generation (I got Forza with my 360, so that doesn’t count). In fact, it took me a really, really long time to pick it up; it wasn’t until I went into a Future Shop and saw it for $20 or $30 (I bought it at the same time that I bought the hilariously excellent Earth Defense Force 2017). What I didn’t expect was to get one of those games that you can just throw in when you just want to mess around. It’s like the Skate of cars. I don’t care about the driving around to start missions, despite the fact that it’s just the kind of thing I usually hate, because driving feels good in this game. More games need to steal this idea: make an engine that is SO GOOD, that nothing can feel like a chore. Go figure, right? Add to that the most progressive, laudable DLC releases in the history of DLC (free stuff, so you don’t resell your copy) and you’ve got a game that nobody should be without.

8. Braid (XBLA)

In spite of there being a lot about this game I didn’t like, I still loved a lot about it. I hate laundry-listing games, but the mechanics and the pacing and the art are all utterly top-notch. I LOVE Hellman’s art style. What I didn’t like was everything else about the presentation; the story, the text dumps, and even the setting left me a little flat. Still, no platforming game has been this incredibly well put-together. Blow might be a bit of a dick, but he knows how to think up insane puzzles, and that’s awesome. I hope his next game doesn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth like this one did, because he’s clearly an incredibly talented director.

7. Rez HD (XBLA)

Yeah, it’s a re-release, but two points: firstly, I never got to play the DC/PS2 releases due to scarcity, and secondly, HD is (probably) how the game was meant to be played. Bad demo alert, though, the first level is very simplistic and not so exciting. It’s not until you get into the later levels that you realize how thrilling this game is. By the fifth level, Fear, I am so enrapt that I forget I’m a sack of meat on a chair staring at a glowing picture frame. I forget everything, really. I just listen to some dorky rave song and react to pictures and grin like an idiot. If you doubted this game’s quality, check it out anyway. It costs little and doesn’t take long. But turn the lights off and sit close to the screen. You won’t find better immersion for a while.

6. Audiosurf (PC)

Yep, two music games, and nary a Guitar or Rock in their names. I can’t remember where I read it (apologies if you said it), but someone said of Audiosurf “If you hate this game, you probably don’t like good music.” Pretentious, and probably a bit inaccurate, but there’s a seed of truth there: if you don’t like Audiosurf, you’re playing it wrong. I’ve listened to new records using this, and it makes it even easier for me to absorb them on first listen because I am so intently focussed on little idiosyncrasies. Of course, it doesn’t really work for, like, a Bon Iver record as much as it does a Zazen Boys release, but I digress. This game is simple, but as endlessly playable as your music library. I reckon I’ll be messing around with this title until they make a new one.

5. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS)

This only came out in December (in English), and only in Europe (North America is, inexplicably, still waiting on it) so I was hesitant to include it. But, I wanted to, because it’s great. It is a Fire Emblem game, to be sure, but unlike some of the most recent entries, it’s really thoughtfully laid out and interesting. It forces you to lose a member early, meaning you are less likely to freak out about the inevitable casualties you face. Class changes are more flexible than in previous iterations, meaning that no character is as irreplaceable as before. The battles, while difficult, are not hair-pullingly maddening meat grinders. Each is a well-thought out set piece, unlike the decidedly mediocre Gamecube and (especially) Wii installments. While it might not stand quite up to the GBA games (I haven’t gotten far enough yet to judge) it is a great handheld turn-based strategy. And, since that genre is like catnip to me, I can’t help but adore this game.

4. Left 4 Dead (PC)

As I mentioned before, this game was instrumental to my friends’ ability to keep in touch once everyone moved across this giant, freezing country. Now, I’ll be honest: this is a game best experienced in groups of four or eight. Once you throw strangers into the mix, it’s less fun. But, when you play with a crew that you’ve been gaming with ages, and you know each other’s weird gaming idiosyncracies, and you’re forced to take care of each other while a sadistic AI attempts to bleed you out over the course of a dozen incredibly thoughtful set pieces, you end up realizing how awesome those gaming relationships can really be. My favourite gaming moment of the year was probably when Andy was charging ahead, and Angus was trying to be super-careful and thoughtful, and Travis was accidentally shooting everyone in the back, and I wasn’t paying any attention and a smoker choked me to death. Even though we hadn’t really displayed those tendenceies in this game yet, it was so us. And it was great. Add to that some of the most thoughtful social satire in zombie-related media since Dawn of the Dead (”I miss the Internet,” the how-many-zombies-I-killed pissing contests, Zoey calling zombie bullshit) and you’ve got a game that was really worth the long wait.

3. Space Invaders Extreme (PSP)

Space Invaders Extreme, like Pac-Man Championship Edition last year, took an old game, flipped it on its ass, and made a new, more modern, incredibly exciting game. Aside from speeding the game up and turning it into a veritable laser light show of a game, they do a lot of little nice things that remind you that you’re not playing as game designed to eat your quarters. If you fail a level (there are five, with branching levels of difficulty), you can start it over. If you turn the game off, you can come back to that level later. Or, you can start over from level 1, but it never forces you to– it makes it your own choice. But, the point is, it’s thrilling. It’s nimble and colorful and, while there are only five “bosses” (yes, there are bosses) in the game, each feels like an inventive use of the game’s mechanics. The inclusion of little, commercial-break-sized bits (where it breaks away from the main game and sticks you in a mini-game) gives it a pacing where you never get so used to the speed that it becomes boring. Every time it drops you in, you’re thrilled.

2. The World Ends With You (DS)

This title is, for lack of a better term, transcendental. It transcends its publisher, Square Enix, by existing as a bold counterpoint to their inaccessible, tradition-laden, committee-made lineup of sure-sale RPGs. It transcends any sort of “action” or “RPG” or “action RPG” genre definition by doing both things better than ny of their permutations. It even transcends what could have been a disasterously stupid setting (”extreme”-looking teens trapped in an “extreme” version of a metropolis’s shopping district) by handling it, with as much grace as can be expected from a handheld videogame, maturely. I found myself playing it all of the time, for a while. I was enthralled, in spite of the developer and the setting and the genre and whatever else stood in the way of fun. And, if that’s not proof of something awesome, then I need to take a class on what’s fun because YOU GOT ME.

1. N+ (XBLA)

There’s a lot to be said for a game that just feels right. N+, more than any game I can remember in the recent past, feels right. Its physics are neither floaty, nor overly frictional and oppressive; the game is as airy and precise as a monofilament whip. And, as such, is as difficult to master. There’s also a lot to be said of a game that comes in bite-sized but satisfying chunks; the freedom to play for as much or as little as I want has always been a major sticking point for me (RPGs with “save points” instead of allowing saving anywhere, a prime example of the OPPOSITE effect). Minimalist but clean graphics are, in my opinion, both a lovely use of HD technology and a striking contrast to it. I can’t think of a single thing this game does wrong, with the possible exception of too few leaderboards. I’d love to see the current “score” leaderboards complemented by pure time-trial leaderboards, but that’s a nitpicky detail for a game that feels so right.

Well, that was exhausting. I better take a little break, since I’ve only got a year left to make my 00’s best-of lists! Start early, Internet!