I apparently lost an LJ post when I shut my computer down (an upshot of using a dashboard widget to do my LJ posting) so I'll need to redo it.. shortened.

Company by Max Barry -
Despte my love for Barry's previous novels, I don't really have much to recommend here. He's strayed from his usual method of doing an anecdote-free impression of Neal Stephenson to, instead, have a novel that has a bunch of amusing anecdotes and a neat concept, but a very poor plot.

To sum it up, the big reveal happens a third of the way in. It's all downhill from there. The climax was a piffle in comparison.

So I'll have to make sure to avoid that in my own writing.

Guitar Hero III -
The Good: It's still Guitar Hero, so it's got the strong core that made the first 2.5 games great.

The Bad: Nearly everything new is pretty weak. The art took a turn for the worse, the new modes are unfun, and the characters don't have the standout personality they had before. The lack of co-op quickplay or the ability to play the co-op only songs in quickplay anywhere is a huge waste and makes the game feel much smaller than it should.

The Ugly: The game shows that it wasn't made by Harmonix. Nearly all the changes are gamer oriented, not music-fun oriented. The song list isn't as inspired as previous versions, and they're more technical than before.

Overall: It survives on the Guitar Hero merits, but I can't help but think that Harmonix delivered a completely phoned-in effort (80's Edition) that ultimately is more enjoyable than Neversoft's foray. Waiting on Rock Band and hopign that Guitar Hero IV is a step back towards the positive.

Portal -
Phenomenal. Seriously.

I can't stand FPSes and I loved it. It's enjoyable, well-scripted, funny, creepy, and addictive. I'm both gladdened and saddened that it's so short.

I had a thought for a sequel that's multi-player co-operative puzzle solving, which would be all kinds of win. Go to it, Valve.

And drop the fucking price. It's brilliant, but $20 is too much. (The rest of the Orange Box can blow me.)

Phase-
I'm trying to remember the last time I bought a game. It's been a very long time, and given the price point, it's money well spent.

The game bears a fair bit of similarity to Frequency and Amplitude, although a bit simplified (it's just one track.) For what it is, there's a lot of fun to be had.

This isn't to say it's perfect. The iPod control scheme isn't great and caused some aches in my arm after a while, but that's a limitation of the hardware. Also, the track generation doesn't always quite mesh with the song, but it's usually close enough to get the point across.

$5 for a game with a soundtrack as big as my iTunes library is very awesome.


Amtrak-
Well, the train was two hours late picking me up. It only got further delayed from there. All told, I ended up about six hours late.

It wasn't all bad, given the room and relatively comfort compared to other methods of travel, but the speed leaves quite a bit to be desired.

I kinda doubt this is indicative of rail-travel in general, but is just a facet of how bad long-distance rail is in the US. Pity. It's conceptually awesome.


And with that thought I need to take a shower and crash. Need to drive up to Seattle to get my climbing shoes from my brother tomorrow. Er. Today.