Sweet, sweet broadband.

I'm finally back among civilization, such as it is. I'm on cable, so who the hell knows what my bw is going to be at any given time, but one thing's for sure: it'll be a hojillion times better than dial-up. Not that I've any affection for the landlord of my pipe - Comcast. Hey, Comcast! Let me clue you in on something: you are NOT a content company. You're a utility. So kindly shuffle my packets back and forth, post haste, and otherwise stay the fuck out of my business. They're in a death-cage match with the phone companies, and they don't know it. The tragic thing is that I don't think the phone companies know it either. At least, neither of them act like they're in a death struggle. They act more like they're in a sissy slap fight. All I know is that the first one to run fiber to my door wins.

But enough about petty quarrels over who'll get to ferry porn on demand to America's boob tubes. Let's talk games. Ah, yes, games. That is essentially the purpose of this nihilistic little web site, is it not?

I've not played much recently. I've moved, undergone surgery, and experienced extreme social upheaval. None of that, however, prevented me from getting UT2004, which has done a fantastic job of reminding me why I play video games. And that's a reminder that I desperately needed. I've been sensing a resurgence of my chronic malaise regarding gaming, and it's taken all of my mental fortitude to not simply chuck half of the games I've been meaning to play into the garbage. When the dust settles, I may only throw out a quarter of them. And the rest should consider themselves lucky. They're on thin ice. My tolerance for under-cooked game designs slapped on buggy 3D engines, with asinine AI, burdensome UI, insultingly annoying "cinematic" cameras, and NO FUCKING CO-OP, is at a dangerously low level.