Dreams Into Nightmares

Today marks the official release of Lost Planet for the Japanese Xbox 360. So as expected, when I arrived home from work this evening and opened my mailbox, nestled deep in its corner, I discovered a courier's slip notifying me that my copy had arrived while I was away. Sometimes Japan offers you little conveniences to life: One of those being the ability to call delivery drivers on their cell phones until 9pm so they can bring your games back to you on the same day they were meant to arrive. Please be sure to note the "sometimes" in the last sentence.


I promptly made the call and then started my transformation from salaryman, back to entertainment maven. I finished dinner and began to shed the suit that has slowly begun grafting itself to my body when the doorbell rang. It had come.

Lost Planet was here but I wasn't excited. I was worried, stressed even. Why would a gamer stress over a hotly anticipated holiday title that he already had in his hands? The answer can be seen below.

You don't see it, do you? To most gamers, the photo featured above is a dream: The sold-out Wii with a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess, An Xbox 360 with copies of the rapidly selling Blue Dragon, the just released, Lost Planet, and the killer ap, Gears of War. So what's the problem? That's hours of fun just waiting to be had. And therein lies the problem; it's waiting to be had.

What happens when you take a guy who loves entertainment, place him in a Japanese company that focuses on semiconductor technology (a completely unrelated and foreign field) and where overtime is required but not paid? The answer is simple: You get one stressed out gamer.

I have only just begun to dive into Zelda. I have solely scratched the surface of Lost Planet. Gears of War and Akumajo: Gallery of Labyrinth have been put on indefinite hiatus. And Blue Dragon needs to be played again before I forget the control scheme. All of these great games and no time to play them. Having all of them arrive within a 3 weeks period complicates matters as well. It is truly a gamer's nightmare.

Luckily, work holidays begin on Friday evening, giving me a week and a half to get reacquainted with my games. While other game sites are on break, expect updates here. Christmas will provide the time necessary to get back into the field where I belong.

Happy Holidays!

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