Well things have certainly changed in Boy Scouting since i donned shorts and a woggle. I remember the satisfaction of getting my washing up and way-finding badges. The knots badge always escaped me though, as I could never get that damned rabbit to run around the tree and get down the hole. How envious was I when I read reports that our North American scouting cousins, The Boy Scouts of America, are changing that by adding new gaming awards for Tiger, Cub, and Webelos Scouts. These awards will be given for specific video game-related tasks.

My mind immediately went into overdrive and I experienced a twinge of jealousy, as at first I thought I would be missing out on badges for dragon slaying, zombie survival and planning virtual airstrikes. But not so it seems. The awards will be less virtual and more related to real life skills associated with gaming. I can breath a sigh of relief that no one will be getting that elusive ‘best dressed mage’ badge before me.

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Ever since Lost debuted back in 2004, the networks have sprinkled their Fall seasons with any number of genre fair looking to bottle that same lightning. And, for the most part, none have come close to finding their Lost, X-Files or Twin Peaks. I think these shows that instantly capture the zeitgeist before paring down to a carefully cultivated cadre of fans who would follow the show down whatever dark rabbit hole it travels, are few and far between. It’s as if mankind hasn’t the mind strength to tackle these brain benders but once a decade.

So, knowing the end was coming and that the Fall schedule would likely be chock full of another round of also-rans (Threshold, V, FlashForward, Heroes, etc.), I had the sneaking suspicion that my last Lost post would be truly bittersweet. What the hell else was I going to write about, aside from my standard nonsensical ramblings about family and whatnot? Who wants to read that, anyway?

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I am sitting here wondering if the marketing department at Nintendo has resorted to the covert in order to corner the female gaming market.

Recently, the UK papers have been running with a story about a woman from Manchester who claims that her Wii has turned her into a sex addict. (I can just picture the new box art for Wii game packages.) In news which is sure to send Nintendo Wii sales through the roof, Amanda Flowers slipped on her Wii Fit training board, and suffered nerve damage. I won’t really comment on the fact that the balance board is about five centimeters above ground level, but the resultant nerve damage has caused what doctors refer to as “persistent sexual arousal.”

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Is it just me or are these weeks flying by with reckless abandon?

Seriously, with the three-hour series finale looming on May 23, we’re only four episodes away from “The End.” And it seems like it’s only just begun.

I think a lot of this might have to do with the scheduling. For the first few seasons, “Lost” ran on Wednesdays. It made for a nice Hump Day spell. You looked forward to it all week, and when the hour was up, the weekend didn’t seem that far away. Then they moved the show to Thursdays and the wait between episodes seemed interminable.

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So back in 2007 when Mass Effect came out, I played a few hours of it and returned it to the store that day. I hated the combat and the game was just too talky for me.

Fast-forward to Dragon Age. Before this game was released, I wasn’t into games that required a lot of character interaction. I played Dragon Age while home after having an appendectomy, so all the talking didn’t bother me because I had a lot of time to kill. As I played, I found that I loved talking; I’d spend hours just conversing with NPCs and filling in whatever story blanks I could.

When Mass Effect 2 came out, my newfound love of “talkies” got me interested. After reading that the combat system had been improved, I decided to dive in. I loved it, and have beaten it twice already.

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A lot to chew on this week. Let’s get Lost.

I mentioned last week that I had a sneaking suspicion Desmond was the “package” Widmore ordered, when he described it as a “who” and not a “what.” After all, Henry Ian Cusick has been listed prominently in the credits since the Season 6 opener, meaning the producers weren’t going to waste our intrepid time traveler on a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo conversation with Jack. So, it was just a matter of time before Dezzie popped up, and as soon as he arrived at the tail end of last week’s episode, I knew we were in for a satisfying hour. Desmond’s episodes are always in lock-step with Locke’s; they’re always heady with the mythological beats, and they always plumb the emotional depths that are so core to this tale.

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No fancy opening this week. We’re just gonna’ get Lost!

Well, that settles it. We’ve almost exhausted the sideways trips per character, with the exception of Hugo. In two weeks, we get an episode titled Everybody Loves Hugo at which point balance will be brought to the force and my guess is that the last 7 hours will be focused on the end game. Speaking of which, the title for the two-hour finale (airing on Sunday, May 23) has just been released. Fittingly, it’s called The End.

So, here we got a twofer, showing Jin and Sun in their LA adventure – an episode that once again served the needs of the story by moving chess pieces around while also sending us a bit backwards in the sideways tale to show us how Jin ended up on ice.

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It all started when I finished a ranked MLB 2K10 match. After each match you are given the option to give feedback of the player you just played. I preferred the player that I just played because he was a good player. Of course, the person I played against won. They scored four runs and I only scored one (I am very bad at batting). I then became curious. What was my Xbox 360 gamer rep? I checked it and saw something that surprised me. 88% of players preferred me and 22% did not. 100% of the 22% said I was unsporting. The sad thing is that it kind of mad me upset. What game did I play, and how did I play it to make someone take their time to say I was unsporting? Out of the many things I do on Xbox Live unsporting falls last on the list.

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Despite the fact that we’re ushering in a new age of purchasing and upgrading our game software, we haven’t been deterred from dropping bills on gaming’s relics. With digital media, everything old and dusty, is now new and digitally. But let’s set our blind nostalgia aside for a moment. Truth be told, some games, unlike wine, do not age particularly well.

That’s what I’m here for. I’m hoping to start a series of entries exploring the old “gems” that are available through PlayStation’s online service. PSN is my DeLorean, and I’ll be informing you what games are better off left in the past. These are not reviews per se, as we all read the reviews when these titles originally came out. It’s more of an analysis of how the game holds up compared to today’s standards. If you like this first entry, please share your thoughts and provide feedback on what else you’d like me to cover, and if you’d like me to try out any specific games.

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The alarm went off at 6:45 am today, and my body desperately tried to convince my mind that it was much too early and, please, could we have a couple more hours of sleep? I had had one too many Frangelicos on the rocks the night before at the 2K cocktail party, I was up until 2 am writing yesterday’s blog, and one of the clever youngsters rooming at my hotel thought it might be fun to pull the fire alarm around 10 pm, causing the local fire brigade to evacuate the hotel in 34-degree cold. My mind agreed with my body that a bit longer under the covers might be a good thing, but I couldn’t afford to miss the media-only hour available to me on the show floor at 9 am, so there I was, dragging my sorry butt into the shower to prepare for another long day at PAX East.

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My first day at PAX East 2010 started and ended with great things, sandwiched around an unfortunate crossing of signals, a mystery meeting room, some interesting new games for the Wii and the DS, an RPG sequel with some amazing production values, and a very creepy survival horror game. All of that, plus a vast sea of game-loving humanity taking up residence in the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

The day actually began for me 28 floors above the action in a hotel around the corner from the venue. Jamie Cheng, CEO of Vancouver-based Klei Entertainment, let me get some hands-on time with Shank, a side-scrolling action game that Cheng describes as “a cinematic brawler.” “We love the movies of Robert Rodriguez, and we also love games like Double Dragon,” Cheng explained, “and we felt that we could do something really special.” And from what I saw this morning, they’ve succeeded. Shank takes visual elements from movies such as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and the “Kill Bill” films of Quentin Tarantino, dresses them up in a comic-book graphical style, then tops it all off with a playable character who can carry four weapons at one time, including twin hand cannons and a chainsaw. One of the most interesting parts of the game is that, unlike many side-scrollers, you’re not always going from the left edge of the screen to the right. Shank makes use of both the horizontal and vertical axes, allowing the action to move in both directions. Toss in some blood-soaked finishing moves (there’s no gore toggle, so an “M” rating is almost assured) and you have a bloody good time. I am a bit worried that the game will lack replayability, but the demo that I played was ridiculously fun. Shank is being published by Electronic Arts and is scheduled for a summer release. I’ll have more about Shank at E3 in June.

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It’s official. We’ve hit the halfway mark of an 18-hour season. And I can’t think of a better way to crest the hill than with the long-awaited Richard Alpert back story, Ab Aeterno, which not only fleshed out everything there is to know about this ageless stranger but also stands as easily one of the two or three best hours of this show. It was that good, and if the finale can come close to matching the emotional and mythological crescendos hit here, then we are in for a real treat.

Before moving into the meat of the show, I wanted to touch on one of my usual off-topic tangents. I was reading late last week that all signs point to this being the final season of 24. There is some chatter that it may move to NBC but I think that’s an outside chance – an audible that will only be called when NBC clears pilot season and sees how their deck is stacked for next year. The conventional wisdom seems to point to the show making the jump to the big screen.

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This morning I saddled up the four-wheeled pony and hit the road to Boston for the very first PAX East gaming festival. This show has been happening in Seattle for years, and has been described as E3 for the fans instead of the media. Last year’s west-coast event was also notable for the swine flu outbreak that happened there; hopefully I won’t be seeing too many folks wearing surgical masks at this show.

For those who might not know, PAX stands for Penny Arcade Expo (yes, I know that Expo begins with an “E”; somehow I suspect that PAE East would’ve been tougher to market). The show gives the fans the opportunity to check out the hottest upcoming games, attend dozens of panel discussions on a myriad of subjects, and basically do what they can’t do at E3 because they can’t get in (or so we’re told). This show also includes console and PC game tournaments, a PC LAN setup and console room where you can sit down and play as long as you like for free, and a keynote address by the hero of TV geekdom, Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”). The lines will be long and strong for that one.

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Yes, I know a standard type opening from me, the Psychologist. We are presently conducting some research on Personality and RPG’s and all your lovely help would be most welcome. We are taking a quick snap shot on how (and indeed if!) your personality has any bearing on such things as your choice of game, character, race and class in RPGs. We are also interested in finding out if your main game character follows or detracts from your real life personality. So this is an opportunity to a) complete a psychometric personality test, b) make you think about how your personality impacts on your game play and c) add to our knowledge of gaming. We will of course relay the findings directly to the Adrenaline Vault. So if you have 10 minutes to spare from slaying baddies we would very much appreciate your input. Rest assured all of your answers are confidential and anonymous! Thank you!

Well, this was unusual. I’m a Sawyer fan. And I’ve made it abundantly clear in these posts that when you strip away all the mystery, mythology and smoke monsters, what truly compels us to follow Lost is the intricate character dynamics. We love some of these people, and loathe others. And we’re dying to see how their lives turn out and how the various threads pull together – especially over the last few weeks.

So it’s a complete shocker to me that I found a Sawyer episode completely boring. Now, each season, I always look forward (with tongue firmly in cheek) to the requisite Kate episode – knowing we’ll chase our sour with the sweet. But Sawyer eps usually deliver – mainly because I love the character and it’s always fun to see his latest con. And while this episode helped to lay the framework of his newest (and most dire con), I can’t help but feel that the sideways stuff did nothing to develop the off-island storyline. It felt like filler and a time killer and with only 10 episodes left, that feels like the wrong play. That being said – next week we dive into the Richard Alpert mythos so I’m chalking this up as a slight speed bump.

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