Welcome Back

Thanks.

Every so often, I tool around with the idea of restarting The Next Level. At it's peak, it was 10 of the most fun months I had. Playing new games and sharing my thoughts on them with anyone would would wander my way. I had some help from my good friends, but for the most part it was really just a way for me to push my favorite pastime to new heights.

Over the past 5 years I've tried to rekindle the flame, but never to the success of the initial run. I've grown tired of attempting to write full-fledged reviews and previews for the sake of the Next Level. Like any idea that was good in it's time, it wouldn't be the same I could do it again.

5 years ago I could rent games for 2.50 at Schnucks. They didn't cost as much as they do now. There are only 3 places I could rent games now. Schnucks video department went under. Blockbuster's prices are insane, and require me to register a credit card. I can't remember the last new game that Dave's received. Even my new favorite venue, Hollywood Video, where I have been using free rentals to get new games, have gone belly up. To get my old standard of 4 games a month, that would require a $200 plus investment. That's just not worth it. I've spent that muchin a month on video games before, but even then I didn't play all of the games in a responsible time to have reviews for them.

So instead, I'm going to do things differently. I'm not going to wait until I'm fully done with a game to start talking about it. Right now, I'm 40+ hours into Final Fantasy 13. I'm not really sure how much I have left, but I'm thinking it's 2-5 hours more. By now, I could have written up at least 3 blogs about this game. In fact, I'm going to write one right after I'm done with this post.

That's how it's going to be. Writing a traditional review is too cumbersome. Being the perfectionist that I am, it takes me far too long to write a good review. For something that I do in my spare time, it takes way to long without any sort of pay off. Most of the time, I'm not even sure that anybody is reading. (That's why I love comments, even simple ones like "good post") If I just do blog posts dedicated to what I'm thinking, you'll get a more direct route to my opinions on the game. I don't have to hold myself to some grammatical standard while writing. It just becomes a stream of conscience onto the internet.

To help me get into it, I'm going to retry my "blog a day" idea. Not with the same rigidity, it's just more of a recommended dose. Much like the last time, the idea is just to get my writing again. Much like the last time, we'll just see how it goes.

Wish me luck, and enjoy the upcoming rants.