2011: The Year of Video Games

I was perusing through my GameInformer magazine when my brain finally put some of the dates that I'd been looking at together. Some of the games you should be most excited about will be coming out in the next year! The next year is going to be one of the most exciting and (hopefully) fulfilling year in video games since the current-gen consoles first released! Why? Follow along after the break and I'll give you ten good reasons why 2011 will be bringing us some of the best video games -- ever!

Notebook: A Year in the City

I know I promised you more chapters of Diaries of a Loyalist Pilot in the Notebook, but there's really no controlling where my pen takes me. Besides, there hasn't really been much of an interest in it, has there? I'm only kidding. I will continue that sci-fic escapade at a later date, but for now, I present to you something totally different.

A Year in the City is a simple romantic short story. It's boy-meets-girl, and it's sweet and heartwarming. Perfect for the season, I say. But it's more than that too. I guess, in a way, it's an ode to the future, to my own future, and a way for me to tell you my hopes and dreams in literary form. Please enjoy, and tell me what you think!

Yes, this is a screen cap from Zombieland. I picked it because I pictured Emma Stone playing the role of Jules. And yes, it was pure coincidence that I named my character Jules and she played Jules in Superbad. Pure coincidence. Nothing to it.

A Year in the City

By Blake Gabriel

To tell you the truth, I never knew what I was doing when I lived in the big city. It was always sort of a “day-by-day” thing. Wake up. Work. Relax. Do some more work, maybe clean up around the apartment. Go to sleep. Then, rinse and repeat. There never was a plan. I know my folks would kill me if they had ever heard that.

Notebook: Diaries of a Loyalist Pilot, Chapter 1

May I present Diaries of a Loyalist Pilot. It's a series of sci-fi short stories about a starfighter pilot serving in the Confederacy of Earth Navy during the 2174 civil war. I'm not really sure how many chapters there will be, but this will hopefully be the first of many. I hope you enjoy.

Diaries of a Loyalist Pilot

Chapter 1

I doubt anybody can really tell you how the civil war started. People will talk about the why, the who, the where, and the what, but no one can tell you how. Sharon, my co-pilot, said it's the inherent slowness of interstellar communications. It's like we're back to pre-industrial Earth, when the only way people could communicate was by horse courier. You can't send messages faster than light, so when you're some stick-up-his-ass admiral trying to coordinate his forces on one end of Confederate space with some other admiral back in the Sol system, well, things got complicated quick.

Re-Prioritizing My Life

It's another late night at college during finals week. I won't kid you; I'm not actually studying. I think I've just developed acute insomnia. It's been one of those nights where you end up thinking about the deep stuff - you know: life, the future, where you'll end up. And I thought, "Wow, I should really write down my top goals in life that way I don't forget them."

Okay, maybe not so cookie-cutter as that, but my train of thought was following that line. What do I want to be remembered for? What do I want to spend my life doing? Who do I want to be?

Don't worry. This isn't going to be one of those posts where I give you advice on what to do with your life. Pssshh... You think I care? No, that's a joke. I'm just kidding. But seriously. Yeah, I'm writing this strictly for my own benefit. Somehow, putting this organized, prioritized list on the World Wide Web will get the attention of the the "fate fairies" who'll magically bestow all of my wishes. Don't look at me like that. It is my blog after all. I can say crazy things if I want.

There's a Soldier in All of Us

That's the tagline for Call of Duty: Black Ops' ad campaign, accompanying a pretty epic commercial featuring, among many others, Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel. It seems Activision wants to market its FPS based on our inner desire to be a badass.

My only beef is that Black Ops is only one of many FPS games that have flooded the market. Inherently, they're all pretty similar. It doesn't matter if you're playing Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, or even Halo: Reach. The premise is the same - you have a gun, go kill some people, and do badass things.

What I really want, however, is an FPS with a persistent, online world. I want to be able to play with potentially millions of players at a time. I want character customization and progression. I want to feel like a soldier, kicking ass and taking names. That's right, I want an MMOFPS.

Character Study: V

In the wake of November 5th, I thought it prudent to, as he says so himself, discuss the "character of this dramatis persona." To many he is the symbol of heroic sacrifice for freedom from tyranny and oppression. He is also branded a terrorist, a dangerous anarchist. But as Evey says, "what of the man?" Who is the person behind the mask?

D&D 4E: Last Prophecy

I spent approximately two hours working on this video yesterday. It really has no purpose, no goal in mind. In a way, I was experimenting with the new Windows Movie Maker (which is still a pain in the butt and next-to-useless) and playing with the works of one of my favorite concept artists, Kekai Kotaki, and the opening theme from one of my favorite games, Suikoden III. 

The video is a trailer for a Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition campaign that I'm going to host during winter break, pretty much the whole of the month of December. It's called Last Prophecy, and forgive me if the the trailer is a bit generic. But I enjoyed working on it, for the most part (damn you, Movie Maker, damn you) and I hope you will enjoy watching it.