It seems that every other day an ASTRO employee’s heart breaks over yet another video game delay. First, it was BioShock 2 that sent me reeling and crying like a baby. All those love letters to 2K Games went unanswered, further delaying my opportunity to blow #$%* up as a Big Daddy.
Then Sam Fisher went on indefinite hiatus putting Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction on delay until 2010. Our Producer, Josh, took the news especially hard–not everyone can handle that kind of distance. He’s dealing with it the best he can, puttering about the office in his Night Vision Goggles with incomprehensible mutters about ‘polish, smolish’. But we know he’s hurting bad on the inside.
Mass Effect 2‘s launch day was going to be something special for our military-minded Noah. When you spend enough time on the battlefield to gain the coveted 60th level, you get close–maybe too close. He had everything planned for the reunion: roses, champagne, fancy dinner, you name it. Noah just couldn’t handle the uncertainty: “the end of 2009” or, “early 2010.” Lately he’s been talking about this Scribblenauts game an awful lot, but that ain’t gonna get his ring back.
Walter, our Customer Relations Manager, seems to have the best approach: “Yeah, I don’t give a crap. You can quote me on that.” While being an avid gamer, his laid back attitude towards game releases keeps him out of harm’s way. We had to believe him until we spotted him during his lunch hour blowing a heartbreaking tune into his iPhone Ocarina, Googling fruitlessly for a Battlefield 3 launch date.
In all seriousness, we’re definitely looking forward to a lot of great games coming out soon, and we know that the extra time is sometimes needed to make good games great. STALKER, Team Fortress 2, and Duke Nukem Forever all come out eventually–er, well… two out of three ain’t bad.