It felt like the right time for what has regressed to my quarterly updates on The Few. Everytime I think of our kindly little site, a sudden rush of nostalgia overtakes me. Our glory days (and apex, we just didn’t know it yet) of Gears of War 1 are long gone. We are now a group of 30 somethings with other priorities in life. I love gaming, but I love my family time more. Between that and a demanding work schedule, I feel safe in saying that we’ve all been keeping pretty busy. Sure gaming may not be priority one, but I still see you guys online from time to time…DarKharma, we gotta get you a mic!

So what have I been up too on the gaming front? Glad you asked! I jumped into the Fall/Christmas season head first. Gears of War 3 was a great journey, but didn’t seem to have the staying power for anyone in my immediate circle of gaming. The general (and unstated) consensus seemed to be that we were all fanatical over our return to the fray with Marcus and Dom for all of 1.5 months…then that game fell apart for us. I still enjoy a little Horde, and Beast mode can be a blast, but damn if I don’t get my ass kicked every time I try to play online. My skills are gone, and have been replaced by a peace that surpasses all understanding; I’ve accepted by mediocrity and have instead embraced online gaming as nothing more than an opportunity to talk with friends and enjoy myself regardless of the states. Have I found Nirvana? Nah…I’ve just come to grips with my limitations.

I also bough into Skyrim, but have had a hell of a time getting into that game. Maybe the Elder Scrolls has lost its luster with me? Maybe I’ve grown tired of never ending dialogue. Either way I haven’t been able to fall in love with it yet, but maybe like a boring blind date, after a few drinks things will finally warm up.

My hidden gem of the season so far has been Halo CE: 10th Anniversary Edition. OH MY GOD I LOVED RELIVING THAT GAME! So many memories from what is a decade ago now (sigh). The Master Chief and I fell in love again, and I enjoyed every step of my playthrough. The updated graphics (Reach Engine FTW!) were awesome, and being able to flip back to the old school graphics by hitting select was too cool. I can’t wait to get some coop going, hopefully someone from The Few can eventually help me with that.

That’s about all I’ve got from the gaming front. I could bore you all with work and life, but I think I’ll just leave with this. I’m not sure what The Few is anymore, but after talking things over with you guys we’ll keep it going. Is it a zombie at this point? Maybe, but it’s a zombie with a fresh set of lipstick…whatever that means.

Merry Christmas ya’ll! May Santa bring you lots of games and goodies. See ya on Live!

I think it’s safe to say that Bethesda has yet another blockbuster on it’s hands. I’ve been in love with the Elder Scrolls since Daggerfall. Each iteration has added its own flair, brought some focus to an open world model and improved on it’s ability to be enjoyed by casual and hardcore gamers alike. Granted, it hasn’t perfected this model as Oblivion was daunting for some of the most season gamers, the blessing (and curse) of free choice leaves very distinct experiences for each gamer. It’s a personal taste; some like a fine Merlot while others will drink Natty Ice til the day they die. I personally enjoy chugging both down at the same time while going off on some helpless soul in a shirtless, obscenity driven tirade (welcome to my weekends in downtown Austin). AI kid, I kid!

With Friday’s launch quickly approaching I find myself looking forward to entering yet another visually stunning world. I can only hope that this visual detail doesn’t come at the sacrifice of loading times and overall experience. Only time will tell…

Join me my gaming brethren as we collectively hold our breaths. Hell or high water, Skyrim will be in my 360 ready to rock my face off…enjoy the journey guys.

What a week! First off, sorry for being so absent over the past weeks. Life has been great, and we’ve been moving at Mach 1 in the Pre household. I know I’ve been adding little to no content to The Few, and for that I’m sorry. Thanks for the dedicated “few” (pun intended) who have kept some fresh content coming in…Atlas I’m looking at you!

So let me begin by saying this; I love my job. One of the perks of working @ my company is we get to attend a conference of our choosing every year. This is awesome! So not only do we get to choose our professional development path, but we also get to help blend what we are passionate about into this. Sheer genius in my opinion, and it goes a long way in helping the team feel like they are vested both in the company and in our own future. My conference of choice this year was “UX Week 2011″ in beautiful San Francisco. (More Linkage)

UX Week is hosted by Adaptive Path, and they are an industry leader in user centered design which is obviously correlate to a users experience (UX). What does this have to do with you? As gamers we love good, intuitive design. In fact one of the biggest factors in a successful title is the interface and how well it functions for the target demographic. User Centered design is a sort of affirmation for what savvy software developers have always tried to promote but may not always be able to be deliver for any number of different reasons. Networking with folks that are joining the fight in bridging the gap between what is delivered and what is needed is something that I’ve really gotten into. My fellow attendee’s and peers are from all the big names; Facebook, Google, Twitter, the list goes on and on. In the end we are all trying to understand our user better and how to deliver software to them that they actually want, love and use.

I was able to hear from some of the top technologists in the world. These are the folks featured in documentaries and TED Talks if you follow that crowd (TED). These are the forward thinkers that bring a refinement to software that is on a whole other plane of existence when compared to the “Status Quo.” I won’t give a dissertation on what I took away, but I will sum it up with I am beyond inspired and cannot wait to employ some of the techniques I learned.

I just wanted to share what has been a positive experience with you guys. It’s a little off topic, but in the end gamers are some of the most finicky users out there. They demand a high quality product and will settle for nothing less…well, for the most part…only God knows why people actually play some of the games out there.

Just picked up a new iPad for myself. After giving some considerable thought to what I needed out of a portable computer, the tablet format was the silver bullet. The price is good @ $499 and it does 90% of what I needed out of a laptop. The battery life and solid engineering that goes into this device more than makes up for that 10% capability gap. With the apps that are available now, and the camera for Skype’ing (when that app drops later this summer for iPad) I’ll be set.

The other thing I really needed was a viable solution for reading books, and the Kindle app on this device is fantastic. If you don’t mind the backlight which is inherent with these displays, it’s the solution for you! It doesn’t bother me in the least, and since there are so many different display configurations you can run in Kindle, it’s very easy to find a comfortable lighting level for your reading style. If you absolutely have to have that paper look, then a dedicated Kindle would probably be for you.

Any of you guys taking the plunge to tablets? The droid based tablets are pretty solid too, they just aren’t as pretty as the iPad IMO. lol

YUMMY!

-Pre

Saturday was a great day…took the wife out to dinner and a movie, spent some time with the family and even had the chance to put a couple hours into gaming. I decided to start the downloads for my two free games Sony gave us all for the “Our bad we got hacked” pandemonium of a few weeks ago. Infamous and Dead Nation were my choices there, and at 7 GB’s each the download was going to take a little while. So while I was waiting on those to finish I decided to check out what was new on Steam for PC.

I fired up Steam and began looking at my favorite PC genre’s; RPG and Strategy. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of Left 4 Dead 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops, but was looking to return to my roots. The mainstays like Civilization and Oblivion were there, but I wanted to check out what was new and fresh. This lead to me feeling a little overwhelmed.

There seemed to be a ridiculous level of games available and I was lost in a sea of titles. Having been out of touch with PC gaming for years, I was like a ship without a rudder trying to make my way through the noise to the little gems…it quickly became apparent that I need all of your help.

What titles are you digging at the present on PC?

What titles are you anxiously awaiting?

And last but not least should I buy Civilization 4, Civilization 5…or both for that matter?

Thanks guys!