From the outside looking in...

I spoke about the closing of Ensemble Studios in a previous blog entry. I find myself reading a fair number of gaming blogs, particularly those belonging to developers I admire. Following ES' dev blog was cemented into my weekly surfing routine. It also served to keep me in the loop about the closing of the studio. I had caught Head Developer Bruce Shelley's last post before the studio was dissolved, but didn't have time for anything other than a quick glance. Opening the page last week for a more thorough read...I see that Microsoft has deleted the blog. Granted, I wasn't expecting anything new, they are closed after all, but I sure wasn't expecting it to be removed so quickly. From the outside looking in, I can see no other significant changes to the site. Everything else about the site is pretty much as it was. I can only guess that MS is trying to mitigate the bad pub they got for shutting down ES. Classy.

Speaking of Age of Empires 3, I've pushed forward in the single player campaign and only have a few missions remaining in Act II. The backlog push is now more of a creeping affair, but it moves inexorably forward nevertheless. Having failed to get F.E.A.R. to work on Vista, I installed the game on XP. I never got to play the expansions Extraction Point or Perseus Mandate. With F.E.A.R. 2 having just been released, there's no better time than the present to get those expansions under my belt. I'm having some issues getting the settings tweaked just the way I want them: the game is bit jerky right now. Here's hoping the patch will help smooth it out.

To switch gears a bit: I'm in the mood to create something. I've fallen back into the routine of regularly visiting mapping sites and I find myself being inspired again. Let's see how long it lasts this time.

Van out.