Author: Frederick Badlissi

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 11.24.03

    Oh, what a long year it as been. With that in mind, I could start to ramble on about how 2003 was such a kick-ass year for gamers everywhere. You know- talk about something NEW and FRESH. And along those lines, there are a requisite number of things to talk about. Topics like SNK Playmore…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 11.10.03

    2 days. 2 more sweet, antagonizing and anxious days. Within these two days there will be schoolwork. Precisely one drill of Arabic to rummage through; possibly alongside some a new text. That, alongside a 5 page midterm which will account for 25% of my final grade whose material for composition had until recently slept snugly…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 11.03.03

    Geoffrey, you’ve let me down. You and your whimsically long neck have let me down. Your image as a retail God, while once omnipotent in your grace, has now has almost brought me to the brink of insanity. Your temple has forsaken my wallet as well as any remnant of sane thought, as this previous…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 10.27.03

    ‘Patience is a virtue,’ they say. Granted, I can’t really recall who initially brought that phrase to life, but I’m almost sure that they had a really hard time putting that wise doctrine into practice. The more I toss it back and forth in my head, the more I wonder of the circumstances behind its…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 10.20.03

    “What will I be like, when I get old?” -The Descendents Well, I’ve got to be honest with all of ya- I never really thought I had to wrestle with this question. The prospect of thinking of myself as genuinely ‘older’ than an entire functioning segment of society is something I find extremely alarming. Almost…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 10.13.03

    Ahh, the Holiday Season. And the buying frenzy that accompanies it. Two secular elements of the season that will be coming soon. Yep- aside from attending gatherings at your extended relatives house in which you feign interest with a passion, or basking in the copious amounts of free food with equal said passion, there’s always…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 10.06.03

    OK. Starting off this column, I’d like you, the reader, to recall the last time you went out and bought yourself a game. Just, if you will, remember the motions: you, running into your local video game specialty store or mass merchant for that new title you’ve been salivating over your keyboard for as long…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience Mailbag 09.29.03

    Teaser: 8 months since the last mailbag! 2 per year ain’t bad! Greetings, all, and welcome to The Gamer’s Conscience Mailbag, where minds gather round to discuss pertinent aspects in issues in gaming with a half-wit attempt at keeping a straight face! OK! so these ‘issues’ aren’t that pertinent. At all. But on keeping the…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 09.22.03

    Friends, this past Tuesday, I achieved a milestone. No, an era has passed. Yeah- that’s it. The focal point of this accomplishment was the purchase of a sound, reprinted Playstation RPG. “RPG, Fred? Isn’t that against your religious devotion to anything Street Fighter, or “gasp- old-school Mortal Kombat?” Quite so, Capt Obvious. Just as Cat…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 09.15.03

    First off, you’re going to have to forgive me for doing something I usually refrain from doing at all. You’ve no doubt read what I’m about to type in other forums of discussion, on countless message boards, over a friendly game of Halo (yes, Cory, it does exist!). Or in my case, the NES version…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 09.08.03

    As I sit here and type this column on this mildly hot Sunday evening, I can’t help but somewhat reminisce about earlier times in my short yet sweet gaming life. Perhaps not any specific time, or even an interval of time, but simply an earlier time when the very practice of gaming was innocent and…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 09.01.03

    1991. AD. You might be asking yourself why I started off this column so obnoxiously by alluding to only a solitary year. That’s OK. Damned OK, actually. Let this year simmer in your head a bit. If you were like me during that year, you spent much of your time in local arcades or like-stocked…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 08.25.03

    You know, one could tell you otherwise, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the summer is a great time for discoveries. Discoveries of any sort. Take for instance the following: young undergrad at a UC school decides to take a summer school class that is 8 weeks long, meets from 9AM to 1PM Monday…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 06.30.03

    $1,850.00. One thousand, eight hundred and fifty dollars. Here, let me type that fragment again: One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Dollars. Now, if you’re like me, there are probably hundreds of ways that this money can be spent. I could purchase fleet of used 1989 Hatchback Geo Metros, and live my own personal thug…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 05.14.03

    Woah ho ho! Yes! After well over two months in the abyss you have come to know and love called “real life,” I’m back in the saddle again. The UC’s finals system kept me in check, along with my 22nd birthday this past March, and Pelican’s in-house Gestapo interrogating me about me talking smack about…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 02.17.03

    Before jumping into this edition of the Conscience, the basic premise of this entry was going to basically be a long and ill-detailed rant about having to slave through midterms here within the non-Berkeley University of California undergrad system, and it’s relation to drawing me away from gaming. Who better than one self-appointed game know-it-all,…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.27.03

    This I’ll proclaim right now: it takes a lot to piss me off. Take for instance this message board thread at the Neo-Geo.com boards. Because I fail to check a random price guide stating the supposed value of a Metal Slug AES Cart (that’s “Advanced Entertainment System,” for the non-elitists like you and me), I…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.20.03

    Ladies and Gentlemen (that just might be sarcasm on that first noun), after a whopping weeks absence, I’ve come back from the academic abyss I call “school” to answer the transmissions laid down by you fine people, the 411 Games reader! After opening the floodgates to your rants and opinions, I’ve waded and navigated through…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.13.03

    Conflicted. Now there’s a word you won’t read or hear frequently, especially in the gaming world. When it comes to judgment on a particular game, it’s usually pretty damned clear-cut: it either rocks your world harder than Bad Religion’s The Process of Belief (as of time of writing, an unattainable feat), or it sucks ass,…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 12.30.02

    Sweet Buddha. You know, there are only certain events during a gamer’s tenure that he can look back on and with a serious feeling of elation and awe. I can remember playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time and being blown away at how damned fun it was to jump on turtles and angry…