Where the Story Ends.

If you've been a reader of Fake It Like Bacon in the past you were probably well aware that I wasn't very good about keeping it up to date. Could you blame me? I had a pretty push and pull relationship when it came to gaming, losing interest in it for a few months, playing sporadically when the latest update to my favorite indie game came about, and then putting it away again in favor of reading or crocheting.

I’m here to tell you that effective July 2013 (when Google Reader gets laid to rest) I will be shutting down this blog. Why do it now? Well, for starters, I haven’t been on top of this blog for quite some time, and then there’s the fact that I recently ended my 8 year courtship with tsudoku, whose hobbies were the main reason I started this blog. With our relationship coming to an end there's simply no reason to continue FILB (that and I'll no longer have the Xbox, or a TV for that matter). 

Let me tell you that making the decision to shut down the blog was much easier than coming to the conclusion and acceptance that the relationship had reached the end of its beautiful course. It was a journey that I like to imagine was full of long and windy rivers, pink magnolia trees that were always in bloom, and little piglets running up and down alongside the rivers trying to keep up with our boat as we drifted past. 

We were given the option to continue the story as Elites or as n00bz. Most of the FPS games he played IRL were always on the hardest settings unless I was playing co-op with him, and only then he would then set the game to an easier, friendlier mode. The same could be said about how we navigated the relationship too, I guess. We reached a lot of milestones together and unlocked a lot of doors, but at some point we sandboxed. I can’t give too much more away without hurting the integrity of the story, but let’s just say that there’s more to life than just replaying your favorite game.

How are we doing now? Well, it’s weird but we’re coming to terms with what’s going on. Most importantly though, is the fact that we’ll both be OK. Before we started dating we were fortunate enough to have built a solid 10 year friendship, which to this day still blows me away. This isn’t to say it’s going to be easy from here on out; in fact, we have no idea what we’re doing.

We’re just trying our best to be there for each other. The hardest part was telling our immediate families and friends (a lot of our friends still aren't aware of the breakup and if you’re one of them and you’re reading this, we’re really sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. Give one of us a call or shoot us an email and maybe we can talk about it over a meal or coffee).

It’s been a really long story and I apologize for giving you such an unsatisfying ending. But why look at it as just a crummy ending to what a lot of our friends (as did we) took as a love story? Here is how I am trying to look at it:

Our boat has finally reached a dock leading into a city. He helps me out of the boat after I hand him his health pack and supplies. We walk toward the city but there is a fork in the road before we reach the gate.  The road to the left leads away from the city and into the woods to a destination unknown while the road to the right is winding but clearly leads into the city itself. We look at each other one last time before letting go and decide that if our roads were to cross again in the future (romantically or otherwise), it would happen on these two specific paths.

Thank you for your readership, for subscribing, and for stumbling upon this blog because of that one gun post I wrote up oh so many years ago. I can’t believe that got so many visits from like, Norway or wherever.

I’ll still be around on the web. Who knows, maybe I’ll start up a Tumblr account or WordPress blog. But if you are so inclined you may find and follow me on Instagram. 

Oh, and for the curious because I know this will come up – will I be deleting photos of tsudoku from my Instagram account? The answer is no. How can anyone expect me to erase and forget 8 beautiful years? This isn't Montauk, and we all know how that story ends. 

See you on the road...

Vicki (Tuff Ryd3rz) 

WonderCon 2012: Day 2 recap

I'm sorry it took me over a week to get Day 2's recap up everyone (or anyone?); I caught my first cold of the year thanks to WonderCon...it's what happens when you shake so many hands. But without further ado, here is the recap along with the link to Day 2's Flickr album.

Enjoy!

WonderCon 2012: Day 1 recap

Well, I'm back from my 3 day whirlwind adventure from WonderCon and we have a lot to talk about. First of all, this was our first con since 2007 when Anime Expo changed venues from the Anaheim Convention Center to the Long Beach Convention Center, so we were pretty excited to get back into the con scene. Hopefully, we'll get to experience WonderCon once again next year (or some time in the future) when it returns to its rightful home in San Francisco. 

But let's get to the juicy stuff. I'm going to give you a play-by-play of what we did all three days, with the bulk of the events happening on Day 2. Each day will have its own separate post. If you are so inclined, you can also check out my Flickr photostream starting with Day 1 right here. 

WonderCon 2012

This is it! For the next three days I will be joined by tsudoku, our dearest buddy Vinh, @ohdrahcir, and possibly a few other friends for 3 fun-filled geek-out days at WonderCon! I'm super excited!

In case you didn't already know, WonderCon is kinda like the sister convention to Comic-Con in San Diego. Normally it's held in San Francisco, but this year the convention center in SF is undergoing some renovations, so the organizers at WonderCon have kindly graced the citizens of Orange County with their presence by holding it at the Anaheim Convention Center for one year only.

Tickets are super cheap ($25 at the door for one day only or $40 for all 3 days if purchased online, $50 at the door) and the panels are pretty amazing. There'll be quite a few celebrities, which I don't really care too much about (unless it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt—who will be there to promote his new film Looper—asking me to please, please, please make out with him), a few exclusive movie screenings and short Q&As with cast members, producers and directors (g'day Sir Ridley Scott), vendors (cha-ching, merchandise!), and plenty of cosplaying.

Ready Player One book review

Image courtesy of Goodreads.com

Here's a short review sans spoilers that I just posted on my Goodreads account about Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One. If you are a lover of books, 80's pop culture, good books, video games, and just books in general, I suggest you do yourself a favor and get your hands on this one right away.

One of my biggest fears...

...is that no matter how many times I edit, revise, re-edit and re-revise, I'll always pass up the most obvious typo ever, like this lovely Resident Evil: Revelations bit:

image courtesy of Yahoo's Plugged In blog. See above link for
the full article

Oh my gosh that's totally something I've done before too! It's embarrassing...and how I've hung my head in shame :(

January 18th – SOPA/PIPA hearing at the House Judiciary Committee

There's a reason why I haven't been blogging as regularly as I should be (shame on me!), but I can tell you it has nothing to do with what I want to talk about today.  

If you know how to use Google, let alone turn on a computer, then you're probably aware that there is a bill that's quickly making its way toward Congress and if it gets passed, then it'll eventually make its way toward President Obama's desk and he'll probably sign it in to law (forgive me if I'm missing a few steps; it's been over 10 years since American Civics class). That bill is called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/Protect IP Act (PIPA).

SOPA/PIPA is a huge deal and if you don't already know about it, Wiki it before it gets blocked.

"Blocked? That's ridiculous…there's no such thing as censorship here in America; we have the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech) to protect us from that! Ha!"

…if SOPA/PIPA passes, then that is what will happen. And it won't just happen to Wikipedia, but to every single media outlet, blog (gulp), and any random site that happens to have shared content or criticism of any kind, negative or not. Any sites that meet these criteria will automatically be pulled or blocked, whether or not the accusation that the content on that website was indeed taken without permission from the author/creator, or if it just happened to rub someone the wrong way.

2K Games Blacklists Eurogamer - A Call to Action

You may recall yesterday's small rant about The Redner Group openly threatening any game review sites that would dare give the highly anticipated game, Duke Nukem Forever, a bad review by blacklisting them from receiving any future games. Well, in a turn of events, I just read this morning that not only has 2K Games (the company behind Duke Nukem Forever and BioShock) dropped their business relationship with The Redner Group, they've also blacklisted Eurogamer.net. According to @tombramwell of Eurogamer:

 "I feel sorry for @TheRednerGroup today. We are blacklisted by @2KGames and it seems to be standard practice."

Are you for real?

What has happened to our beloved industry? In a day and age when we're trying to eliminate bullying in our schools, workplace, and homes, are you telling me we're gonna let these guys get away with this? Listen up, kids: what 2K Games is pulling is not right, not fair, and puts gamers and writers out there like you and me in danger. 

2K Games has yet to release an official statement over the real reason why Eurogamer was blacklisted. Regardless, we as a community CANNOT LET 2K GAMES GET AWAY WITH THIS. I'm not telling you to boycott 2K Games; all I'm asking is that you open up a valid, NON-PROFANITY LACED discussion on their forums, blogs, reddit, Twitter, anywhere really, and let them know that what they're doing is WRONG and a disservice to the gaming community. If it weren't for us and for our reviews, 2K Games and every gaming company—big, small, start-up, indie—wouldn't exist.

Read Eurogamer.net's detailed review for Duke Nukem Forever here.

Child of Eden - Duke Nukem PR Scandal - Shoes!

CHILD OF EDEN

Guess what game was released yesterday?! If you guessed Ubisoft's Child of Eden, you won a prize: you get to read my review on the game - wee!!

Oh man, lemme tell you, Child of Eden is one pretty-ful game. You've probably heard me call it Rez 2 (or not), and if you've yet to play Rez at all, don't worry - you can still download it from XBLA. Here are my thoughts for COE so far:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, April 13, 2011

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, April 13, 2011, a set on Flickr.

This is the third and final set from our NY series - promise. The Met has got to be the loudest museum I've ever been to, which kind of annoyed me as I treat my museum experiences like how anyone else would behave when in a house of worship. Oh well, what can you expect from a museum that's also a tourist trap?

Our favorite exhibit was the Medieval/Weapons Collection - be sure to take a close look at the helmets and the armor!