Burke's Joystick

[Wow, it has been a long, long time since I blogged!  Truth is, I finally hit the tipping point when it comes to gaming.  As I've detailed here , I've just become sick of the shenanigans that currently enfold gaming - both the hobby and the industry.  If it isn't disreputable game developers and publishers shoveling high priced garbage our way, it is an equally disreputable gaming press that is conspiring to help devs and pubs shovel garbage our way, but with their added touch of college-level Marxism and militant feminism.  I'm sorry, but things have become too toxic and juvenile for me to put up with that for long.  So, I've taken a big step back from gaming and have instead begun focusing on other hobbies, some new, some old.   Now, that doesn't mean I will never touch a game again.  No, I always have an eye out for a glimmer of hope.  Gaming has been in tough straits before but has managed to recover.  I suspect history will repeat, but just not

"Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." – Lawrence Person It has often been observed that Christ did not associate with the rich and powerful, but rather with the downtrodden, the rejected, the disreputable.  This is no small thing to consider, especially in a world where the glitterati continue to dominate popular culture.  Oh sure, the have-nots are often feted, sometimes even by the glittering class itself, but only ever so briefly.   Very quickly they are ushered off the stage, usually when the celebri tire of the spectacle, and are promptly forgotten until the next round of self-hating guilt bubbles to the surface of the rich and powerful's collective psyche.  Alas, such is the way of the world. Be that as it

If you are expecting a comprehensive overview of Neon Genesis Evangelion , I am sorry to say that you are not going to find that in this post.  Truth is, I have only watched the first five episodes of this piece of anime, and then only because Adult Swim was showing  Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth a few days ago.  From what I could tell, this was a movie cobbled together from various episodes of the series.  Sadly, I had no idea what the heck was going on, but I was intrigued by the many religious themes that kept popping up during the movie, such as the logo for NERV, mankind's defense from the "angel" onslaught: Anime with religious sensibilities and mechs?  Sign me up!  So I decided to start at the beginning of the series.   Like I said above, I've only made it past the first five episodes, so I cannot reach any conclusions yet.  However, while the jury might still be out on this series, I can say that episode 4 has already captured my