In fifth grade we had two teachers and one of them would routinely be (finger quotes) sick, because her (finger quotes) medicine sometimes had (finger quotes) side effects. That's sort of what is going on while I am out this weekend.
See gang, I am on vacation, having spent much of the week on a beer tour of Northern California. So in my place we've brought in Dave Oshry, former Managing Editor and current Consigliere of RipTen. I'm not making that title up; that is his title there. Dave has quite a lesson plan drawn up for your enjoyment today and tomorrow. Please give him your full attention and all of the respect you show me. I said show him some respect, goddammit!
Why Dave? Well, I met him at Comic-Con down in San Diego, and we bonded over Kinect Sports Season 2 in a total bro-gamer way. (Actually, we go back further than that.) I also know RipTen founder Chad Lakkis and quite enjoy what RipTen does.
Dave, 27, is a native New Yorker who now lives in San Diego. He came to games writing by accident. "I'm a commercial real estate developer who decided one day that it would be fun to write about video games. Chad brought me on to write for RipTen back in 2009 and now it's part of what I do every day of my life." That's funny, because I'm a games writer who thinks it'd be fun to do commercial real estate development. Can I get a guest gig at that one weekend?
Dave is probably best known for writing stream-of-consciousness gonzo reviews and previews of games, such as this notorious hands-on with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You can see more of his stuff over here, or follow him on Twitter.
"I'm an old school PC gamer that still plays DooM [Editor's Note: Yes, he really did spell it that way] and Rise of the Triad more than I play Battlefield 3," writes Dave. He's also an active member of The Elder Scrolls' modding community. "I was also an extremely dedicated end-game World of Warcraft raider for five years," he adds. "I'm not proud of it."
For weekend regulars, don't worry, some of our standing features—including the 'Shop Contest roundup and challenge—are prewritten and will publish at their usual times. In fact, at 10 a.m. we'll crank out The Moneysaver, courtesy of Dealzon and Deals4Downloads, as always.
Meanwhile, thank you for reading, thank you for being nice to Dave, and thank you for allowing me this weekend to get (finger quotes) some rest.