So last Tuesday, right before E3, my boss flagged me on IM to say he really needed to talk as soon as possible. As this was 8:30 a.m., I knew this couldn’t be good news. Which it wasn’t. Action Trip, the site that has employed me for over three years, will close down at the end of the month. At the end of June, I’ll be out of a steady-paying job. At the end of June, I’ll be yet another unemployed video game reporter and reviewer scouring for the precious few paid gigs that still exist.

Kind of a huge plunge downward from announcing I was the new Editor-in-Chief just two weeks before, huh?

At least I can take solace in knowing that the decision to close the site had nothing to do with my leadership. I hadn’t been there long enough to kill anything yet, and I actually had huge plans for how to move forward. I had brought in a couple of other writers, I had a plan for weekly and monthly columns, and I had an eSports writer ready to join the team in just a month after he returned from a photography tour. We were going to go places or go down in flames trying. Turns out we were just going to go down in flames.

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably noticed I went to E3 anyway. My boss told me to go on ahead and go, act like nothing is wrong, and do my best to network. The whole trip was already paid for, so why not head out to LA, play some video games, and talk to as many people about work as possible?

The trip was okay. It would have been 100% better if my head was in a happier place, but it really wasn’t. I was so happy to see my friends, yet I couldn’t help think that this may be the last time I’m in this hall, talking to these PR people, and hanging out with other fellow reviewers I only talk to via Twitter and Skype. Plus I had this crushing feeling of, why am I even here? Is there a point to me meeting with any of these PR reps? Taking up their time? Who else could better utilize this moment than I, as someone else has a place to definitely write for. As much fun as E3 was, I remained sad most of the time.

One question I’m getting a lot is, “what are you going to do?” Well, I don’t have a complete answer for that yet. I’ve been freelancing for PlayStation Lifestyle for the last few months, and the directors over there have said they want me to continue freelancing for them. There’s also a possibility that I’ll have Game Revolution work as well, where I used to write until I was transferred to Action Trip. But as I told my family, I’m keeping my fingers crossed any hopes in check. This is one unstable industry all around, from press to PR to developers to publishers.

I still want to write and review games, but I’m coming to grips to the fact that most likely, it won’t be all I’ll ever be able to do again. It will be a part-time gig, full of uncertainty month-to-month like virtually every other writer in the industry.

Thank God I’ve made that plan for yoga psychotherapy, yes? Although, I won’t complete that certification for several more months, so in the meantime, I’m going to look into getting a flat 200-hour yoga teacher training certification so I can perhaps offer private sessions as a business. One day, yoga will be my business, so why not get a jump start on it sooner than planned?

And of course, I’ll still write about games. I can’t NOT write about games. I love games too much, I love writing too much, I love the people in this industry too much, and I’ve just started to get good at it.

If it’s not too much trouble, please keep your fingers crossed for me as I see what freelancing I can drum up and still pay my bills and still be around for the kids. This is going to be one long and strange summer.

The post That Time I Was Editor-in-Chief for Two Weeks… appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Years ago when I first crept on the scene over at Kombo (may it rest in peace), you kind of had to be snarky in order to stand out in the sea of bazillions of gaming websites. Now it seems everyone has the snark talk. Everyone is ready to cut someone else to quick. Everyone is ready to mean in a review for no reason other than to be mean. Everyone wants to be negative because somehow it’s gotten to be cool to hate.

Well, I’m done being a part of that culture. I don’t want to hate. I want to continue having fun doing what I do and writing about it. I don’t want to hate anything just to hate it or because it’s so hot right now. I’m even done beating down other people with what I honestly and truly don’t like.

My news reporting needs to be just that: reporting the news. No one cares what I think about the topic. I don’t need to be mean about anything within the news story. I’m here to report on the facts as they are presented, and all of my personal commentary needs to stay in editorials.

I’m also going to keep negativity out of editorials as much as I can, unless I’m writing about something that seriously offends me. At the same time, can’t I do that without being mean or snarky? Not everything needs my charming sarcastic bitch personality.

If I get accused of loving everything, then so be it. I want to keep being happy and positive, and snark is no way to do it. I can be critical without being harsh. I can be objective without sarcasm. I am that fucking ball of sunshine, dammit.

The post I’m Done Writing Snark appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Or in my case, it just happens to be the time that businesses reevaluate their services and financial plans.

I have been writing news for Game Revolution since December 2011, and while it was never the highest paying writing gig in the world, it was always steady, and I had a blast doing it. My role was slowly narrowed down since about late 2012, but I was brought over to Action Trip, another gaming site the overseeing company owned, to help make up the difference. Near the end of last year, I was promoted to writing more for AT, which led to writing my very first paid video game review.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a meeting with my boss over both sites, and due to a reallocation of the budget, I was let go from GR. Before I could get too upset, he followed up with a huge promotion at AT. I’m now the Lead Writer at AT, complete with flat rate pay each month to write news every day, write features every month, and write game reviews as they become available.

HOLY CRAP, I’M OFFICIALLY PAID TO WRITE ABOUT VIDEO GAMES.

When I first joined Kombo back in 2005 to edit articles for that site, I never once thought this would become a steady, paying job, one that I could actually rely on as somewhat of a career. I couldn’t ask for a better start for 2014.

As for my other steady job at Content Solutions, I have zero plans to leave that one, or to even abandon my SEO side business. One thing that freelancing has taught me is that you should never put all of your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to the ever-tumultuous world of video games. My boss may absolutely love me now, but all it takes is a problem with traffic or the owning company to change directions for the site for everything to change on a dime.

Right now, I have everything fairly steady for the first time since I left the world of paralegals. I’m making sure I don’t take on too many projects on either end of the spectrum at one time, and I’m kind of living by the law of the to-do list. I’m also learning the power of saying “no.” I should have learned how to say that years ago.

To kind of celebrate these changes, I gave the blog a new look. I did the same with SGR earlier, and it just feels refreshing to give things a new paint job every now and then. Better here than asking Shawn to repaint the walls in our house.

The post Fresh Starts in 2014 appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Yet again, Pete Davison made this announcement best on his site with a comic.

The post Announcing The Big Pixels appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Hands-On

Final Fantasy XIV Hands-On

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Hands-On

Arc Rise Fantasia Hands-On

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Preview

The 3rd Birthday Preview

Dungeon Siege III Preview

TERA Online Needs to Come to Consoles

Oh and while I was away, Gaming Angels was kind enough to publish my book reviews for Bewitched and Betrayed and Dracula is a Racist.

The post A Collection of my E3 Writing appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Movement Toward Mainstream Digital Distribution

The post Latest Feature at Kombo appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

I hope to be able to post more links to my work in the near future. Soon this site will be nothing but a giant portfolio of links to my writing. To me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The post My First Book Review on GamingAngels! appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

From my review:

Again at first glance, the story seems like it’s the typical random-hero-must-save-the-world plot, but players will soon find out how atypical it is. Instead of an angsty teenager taking the lead role, the main character is a middle-aged father. He’s not out to save the world from a crazy idealist, an evil mastermind, or hideous monsters, but from a deadly virus, one that has infected his seven-year-old daughter, Yonah. Nier (the main character who the player can rename) and his daughter live in the year 3349, a post-apocalyptic future. Everything has gone to waste, and the remaining humans of the world have had to start from scratch and live off the land. Ignore the fact that in 1300 years, surely they would have technologically advanced. It’s actually a huge spoiler to explain why they are still living in the Middle Ages. Yonah has been inflicted with the fatal Black Scrawl disease, and Nier will do anything to ease her pain and find a cure. When she runs off to find a flower that supposedly grants wishes, Nier meets a talking, floating book named Grimoire Weiss who says he thinks he can help Nier save his daughter. Weiss helps Nier learn magic to defeat monstrous Shades attacking the world as well as learn Words to apply to his weapons and magic to boost their stats. With Weiss and other companions, Nier links the disease to the Shades roaming the land and their master, the Shadowlord. When you learn the truth behind the Black Scrawl, more about Nier’s friends’ backgrounds, and what happened to the human race 1300 years ago, and it will blow your mind. Upon consecutive run-throughs to see all four endings, the mind blowing just continues with additional cut scenes and backstories of the characters AND the bosses.

I liked the game so much that I bought my very first DLC and I played through the second half three times to get all four endings. I can definitely see myself playing it again in the future so I can play the new episode I downloaded. But I have other things on my plate as well, so that will have to temporarily wait.

In the meantime, if you are so inclined, please check out my NIER review.

The post NIER review appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

My review went up on Friday, and it’s longer than I thought it would be for a game that only took me five minutes to explore every option. Sometimes I amaze myself how I can write numerous words about something so small.

My review for Nier should be significantly longer, but it shouldn’t as long as my Final Fantasy XIII review. It’s a simple hack-and-slash game, so the battle system won’t take me nearly as long to explain why it’s so awesome. You either like hacking things to bits or you don’t. But if you get easily offended by violence or obscene language, avoid this game at all costs. It has quite a bit of both, and as such, I don’t think about playing it until Gabe goes to bed.

Other than playing with my Xbox way too much and reading sappy vampire novels, I don’t have much to tell these days. Between that and my main job and planning Gabe’s second birthday party, things have been fairly quiet and boring. And honestly, that’s not altogether a bad thing. I personally hate drama outside of fiction, so the peace of this month has been very welcome compared to last month.

I finished Eclipse last night, so I’ll get my review up in the next day or so. But for now I’m going to enjoy the rest of my kid free afternoon with ice cream and reading Breaking Dawn. I have a huge feeling that I’m going to hate how this series ends.

The post Sneezies PSP Mini Review appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.

Why Final Fantasy VII Should Never be Remade

I have two more editorial ideas in the works, not to mention I’m reviewing a game this month, so expect more self-promotions.

But that’s not all I’m going to be writing. I made a promise to myself that when Gabe turned 2, I’d get serious about writing that novel that has been churning in my head for the last few years. Gabe turns 2 at the end of this month, so it’s time to make good on doing what I’ve always wanted to do. Christi said she is still willing to proofread, and I know she’ll be what I need: merciless. I’m already in the process of going through my notes and rewriting/retweaking my plans. I have a feeling that it will be nothing of my original plans, and that’s awesome.

Now the real question is if I can make myself not read as much so I don’t get too influenced by others.

The post More of my writing appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.