WRITE UP / 06.30.09

In my vacation, I've found plenty of opportunities to play some games, especially offline.  What I haven't found is a lot of time to write about them.  In an effort to correct all of that, I think I'll start a new feature here on PLAY READ WRITE, obviously entitled "WRITE UP."  WRITE UP is a gaming diary of sorts, influenced heavily by Stephen Totilo's style of journaling his gaming activities on a day to day basis.  This started at the MTV Multiplayer blog, but is now continued at Totilo at Play.  I don't know if this will become a daily thing here at PLAY READ WRITE, evolving into a supplemental sort of entry to FURTHER READING and whatever else I may write day to day, but for now, it'll fill in the blanks while I'm traveling.

In the past few days, I've played around on the Wii, and I've played plenty of Nintendo DS.  Its been a while since I had the handheld in my regular rotation, but I'm remembering why portable gaming got me into video games in the first place.  First of all, its always there, I've taken it around with me in my pocket just about everywhere I've been, which means its accessible to me in the car, or waiting for Jenna to get out of her Optometrist appointment.  Plus, I've also been playing around with Brain Age (1 and 2), and I'm hoping to use it on a slightly regular basis (an unscientific study of sorts).

What was really fun, was playing on my Nintendo DS with Jenna's two neices.  They had their copy of Mario Kart DS loaded up and we did single-card multiplayer.  It was a lot of fun, particularly because the benefits were two-fold.  I got to play video games, and the girls were kept relatively quiet throughout the entire experience.  I didn't mind letting them win either (back before I sold Mario Kart DS, I played an unhealthy amount of it, so its my preferred Mario Kart, but its also the one I absolutely dominate on).

In addition to that, I played about an hour of Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike: Source yesterday, which was sort of a vacation on its own.  I'm so happy that I have those two games on my laptop because they're sort of the go-to games for when I just want to enjoy my time.  I played a round of dedicated Demoman on Badwater, and another round as Heavy on Goldrush.  I can't help but say that both rounds I was a credit to the team.

I'm off now, and I can't help but wonder what I'll be able to make time to play next.