Rui CarmoAs years go by, I find myself less and less interested in fancy gifts and valuing the simple things.
I mean, it’s not as if I couldn’t go through my Wishlist and tick a couple of items off. I know I can afford a spanking new MacBook, and finally get a decent, lightweight laptop with a backlit keyboard. Or I could splurge on a big monitor. Or maybe do something crazy and order myself something like the Rovio.
But given the current state of affairs, it simply wouldn’t fit my lifestyle. Between my family (with whom I elected to stay home today) and work (which is, as usual, something I’d rather keep separate), I would have very little time to enjoy any of them, and the investment would hardly be sensible considering that I have a bunch of perfectly good (if slightly dated) computers and have, of late, been living and writing out of my iPhone and that Eee that I got a few months back1.
Plus they say that good things come to those who wait, and I’m a professional waiter of sorts2.
Then again, sometimes you just can’t wait. A week ago, anticipating my birthday, I got myself a copy of “Little Big Planet”:Game:B0019CGTXK and although I have had few and short occasions to fool around with it, I can confirm that it goes against the tide of stupid and unoriginal “PS3”:Wikipedia:PS3 games that I found so lacking in comparison with the Wii experience3.
“Little Big Planet”:Game:B0019CGTXK isn’t perfect, but it is thoroughly enjoyable and easy to get into (even for a casual gamer like myself, who will probably never have time or stamina for creating new levels from scratch).
There is already a lot of controversy regarding banishment of custom levels based on copyrighted designs (and others not so obviously so, which is plain silly), but on the whole, I find the game to be a more than adequate antidote to my previous (pre)conception that the “PS3”:Wikipedia:PS3 could never be as fun as the Wii.
It’s certainly a less social experience, but I’ve barely started doing online play.
In case we meet, I’ll be the sackboy in a suit and glasses with an obvious nickname and a silly grin on his face (or the occasional grimace when I’ve had another Dilbert day at work).
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1 More on that later, by the way. It’s not a qualified success, but it is definitely something I’m developing very strong opinions about. And it involves my dissing Linux, so the “zealots”:Wikipedia:Zealotry can start sharpening their tongues.
2 This is an in-joke, but the gist of it is that I’ve watched a lot of things come and go in the industry, and besides being an internal consultant of sorts, I’m one of the few that’s still around.
3 I’ve also downloaded the “Mirror’s Edge”:Game:B001GIOGDC demo, but find it marred by a somewhat flaky control scheme and uncertain hold points for some things (like pipes). Then again, nothing will ever be as fluid for me as bunny-hopping through q3dm6 while railing the bejeesus out of the opposition, so it’s probably me.