That Unfresh Feeling.

I am not "In the Industry", nor do I claim to be. For the purposes of this blog, "In the Industry" means that you or your company receive letters or invites or games from the publishers without asking for them (which barely qualifies Gamestop employees). So, for people who don't get these notices to go events or be part of panels, or receive preview or review codes of games to play on coveted debug kits, demos are the primary source of play time with games before they are released to the public. It does not quell our envy, it in fact makes us wish we could receive the honor more often; it does, however, give us a brief sense of empowerment that at least lets us feel that we are privy to something that others (either those who do not have the online access or those who don't have the hard disk space for such things) aren't. So when I see demos that I am interested in trying out, it makes me feel as if, however briefly, I'm somebody (and an undeserved sense of pride follows). This is far too long an introduction to a Red Faction: Guerilla demo.

Long story short, what I played of the game ran me through a small gambit of emotions: laughter, slight frustration, and embarrasment. Joy was also among these emotions, before I forget. Between smashing up various camps (both opposing and friendly sides) using both trucks and "walkers", killing things with weapons, and a turret sequence in which trucks turned into kites when hit (normally this would repremandable, but the lower gravity of Mars gives them an acceptable amount of wiggle room in this area), I did enjoy myself, though the trailers the demo was snuggled between and the slight awkwardness of the controls did dampen the mood some. Rolling with laughter as a truck flew over me after I hit it (which should theoretically push it backwards, but again Mars has a tendency to make weird things happen), I started thinking this amount of destructibilty, and the joy you get out of doing it, should be a standard set forth in all titles like this.

In other news, I have a large backlog to get through, and it's mostly old stuff, so I'll write about that bridge when I get there.