Back from Argentina -- an update

Well, my wife and I made it back from Argentina safely. We had an amazing trip. The highlight was probably glacier watching and ice-trekking near El Calafate.

On a video game front, I finally entered 2005 on Christmas day and got an Xbox 360. After returning from the southern hemisphere, I started a Halo 3 co-op campaign with my brother. It's quite fun, though he seems to quadruple my score on every level. Maybe it's because the last console shooter I played was GoldenEye (yes, that means I haven't played Halo or Halo 2 -- yet).

I also picked up a copy of the The Orange Box. Again, I'm late to the game on this, but I have never played Half Life 2. Mainly I bought it because of Portal, though. I had read a lot about it and was really looking forward to playing it. Yes, Portal is a short game, but I think it's the perfect length for exploring the possibilities of a single game mechanic.

I played through the whole thing in one day (with some healthy Halo 3 time in the middle) and loved every minute of it. The best thing is that it got even more fun as I went along. The more I think about it, the more I think that makes Portal one of the best games I've ever played. Seriously. Most games hope to keep a pretty steady entertainment level. But this one just seemed to get better and better without introducing any new gameplay mechanics. It's a great concept with great level design and great writing. If SPUDZOOKA is half as fun, I'll be quite pleased with myself.

Speaking of SPUDZOOKA (sorry for the stream-of-consciousness post), it may be another week or so before I can resume regular work on it. I am traveling to the UK for work next week and will be gone for five days (busy month).

Anyway, I'm back, and I hope to get my posts back on some sort of normal schedule in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone who has kept coming back in my absence. I know it doesn't take long for a blog to peter out.

El fin del mundo

Greetings from Argentina! My wife and I arrived the day before in a city called Ushuaia. It is the world´s southern-most city and, for the benefit of tourists like us, contains countless signs and t-shirts declaring it to be el fin del mundo, the end of the world.

We've had internet access in all of our hotels so far, but we've had an all-day excursion almost every day. Upon arriving in Ushuaia, we were surprised to discover that there's a PC in our hotel room with free internet access.

It's currently 11:39 and not quite dark outside. Today we went riding in a 4x4 down to a remote lake where we had a traditional Argentine asado (basically a cookout). Then we went canoeing on another lake. It was great fun.

We have an early start tomorrow, so I can't write much (and all the keys on the keyboard are different). We're thinking about creating a web site to chronicle our trip, so I'll let you know if we end up doing that.

Seven days now until we fly home. It's been a great trip so far. I'll try to post more details later, if I can find time between touring, eating, and sleeping.

Christmas vacation

Wanted to do three things in my post today:

1. Wish everyone a merry Christmas. Mine has been great so far. Got to spend lots of quality time with my family and my wife's family, all of whom are wonderfully kind, generous people.
2. Let you all know that my wife an I are leaving tomorrow for an extended vacation in Argentina. I'll be returning in mid-January, so I may not be posting for a few weeks. If I have the opportunity, I will post a few accounts of my trip as we go along, so if you're interested, please keep an eye on the blog the next few weeks.
3. Update you on the status of SPUDZOOKA. It's coming along quite well, but I didn't get as far as I would have liked before the holiday/travel madness started. I'll publish a demo level when I return and am able to get a little more polish on it.

Once again, I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. It's been a good year, and I'll talk to you in a few weeks!