Socially Psychic

There comes a time for all of us when we get swallowed by darkness and despair. But it's also up to us when we decide to stop being emo and drag ourselves out of it.

I didn't think I was going to be able to write anything tonight for this blog. I suspect I have very few readers and I'm not sure I'll be able to be funny anyways. But hell, this is MY blog, and damned if I don't love writing it and the...6 or so posts I've actually made. ((By the way, if you're reading this, and you want me to know you are, COMMENT! I can't see the hits I get from blogspot, sadly.))

Anyways, today's post is going to cover quite a few games!

Psychonauts! Holy hell man, this game is amazing! I mean, you can set random critters on fire! I think you might be able to set people on fire too, lemme check.

...

Okay, well, the dicks won't let me burn them, but I can hit them with the psychoblast thingy so that's almost as good.

Anyways, it's kinda hard to pin-point exactly what's good about the game without just saying "ALL OF IT" or without parroting Yahtzee. So...where to start?

...

Well, the game isn't PERFECT. The controls are okay, and I imagine it works a little better with the Playstation 2 or Xbox controllers (Ha, those big clunky Xbox things smoother? HA!) than on the computer. The locking system pretty much only works when you're about 5 feet from a monster, which pretty much eliminates the point, always seems to lock on to the target that you don't want it to, and the game pretty much forces you to use it if you want any chance at all of dodging those damn boils a certain boss throws at you.

Roight, aside from that, the game is really fucking great. I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun playing a game...((Well, S4 league on good days, when people aren't ruining the game for me.))

((Random Interjection: I got sidetracked while posting this and was reading a thread aBOUT WHY -- ABOUT WHY -- damn caps lock key -- about why the Wii was great. It was a challenge to make as many positive statements about the Wii as you could without lying to yourself. Now, one of these stood out to me. "It's a great system to be social with." I couldn't help but think to myself, "If I'm playing video games, you dickhead, I don't WANT to be social."

And then I got to thinking about it. Since when was gaming a social event? 90% of the time I'm playing my games on my own. Sure you have Pokemon, but people only did that to collect all the Pokemon, or to one-up other people at the game. And since I never cared about the former, and the latter is just an ego stroke, this does not exactly strike me as SOCIAL. Now we have a bunch of shit like Rock Band and -- and fucking KARAOKE! Now it seems like it's almost unusual for someone to lock themselves in a room with a game and refuse to come out for several days save for the basic necessities.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'll go play a round or two with some friends. But nobody really holds a candle to me in Brawl and wants to play for more than a few rounds, 'cause that shit DOES get boring, and...I'm sure you all are fan of Mario Cart or some shit but Mario really never did it for me. I've tried. Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, that one Mario Kart on the DS, and now Paper Mario. I really just can't get into them. I honestly hope one day I'll be telling everyone how much I love Paper Mario, but right now I can't summon the will to touch it.

Right, back on topic. There isn't really anyone that wants to play a goddamn surgery game with me either, because those games are FUCKING HARD. Besides, it's only appeals to a subdivision of a subdivision: People who like video games who like surgery/science. Who the hell else wants to play that? A game that requires specific interests and requires effort?

But really, it doesn't BOTHER me. I'm totally down with locking myself in a room to emerge a day later smelling funny to play a game. Or at least a good game. No, I just wonder when the transition happened. I wonder when games became a social activity. There's always arcades. Those were social, right? Couple'a guys could go and hit 'em up and hang out together and play games, right?

...I can't see it. I'm pretty sure that's the reason they died out.

((Interjection of the interjection: Bill O'Reilly just called a cat that could play the piano a patriot. I don't know why but this made me laugh. Like he was trying to claim such a cat could only come from America or perhaps to claim it in some form of republicanism. Hee hee.))

So why are video games now considered a social experience? I think I know where the Wii went wrong. Nintendo thinks a system that appeals to the whole family is a good idea, makes system. System sells like crack to a room full of addicts. Profit! But then the Wii kinda dies out because there's none of the "Isolate self from public" games on there. Well...maybe a handful. But that's not enough to keep us in our rooms for very long.))

Back to Psychonauts! Shit, where was I? *scrolls up* Oh yes, the FUN. Because playing it is actually fun, unlike watching a bunch of possibly drunk people going up and strumming guitars or singing badly to karaoke! Oh, you say it COULD be fun, Chrys, if you did it and didn't just watch! Well, maybe so, but I've never been too much a fan of making a fool of myself.

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Well, not on a video game anyhow.

Psychonauts takes a traditional fantasy of running away to join the circus by making the main character a runaway FROM the circus. He joins this camp meant to train psychological soldiers (Psychonauts hahaha) and manages to fit himself in by using a few cleverly placed Jedi mind-tricks and making an impassioned speech about being under represented due to his powers. It's a little cliche, but what really makes the game are the characters, I think.

You have the crazy leader of the camp, a military type drill sergeant who is overtaken by aforementioned impassioned speech. There's a kid there with foil on his head not to keep away aliens but to stop him from murdering everyone else there. Strangely enough, he's a total wimp. I can imagine just walking around with the foil on my head. "Don't fuck with me or else I'll blow your brains out." *gets picked on* *removes foil hat and kills the idiots who ignore me* *is consequently feared and named the new ruler of the school/state/country/world* Some Russian kid who likes to wrestle with bears. That's just cool. Some snobby chick that are just...snobby. I don't particularly like them but rather what they add; the typical kids that hang out in their cliques and shun everyone else. There's a bully with huge hair and a lackey. Some secret agents with questionable motives.

When you go into the adventure and fighting parts of the games, inside people's minds, you find emotional baggage lying around. Secrets that people keep locked up. Censors to keep them sane. The shape of their mind is based on their past and their perspectives. The sergeant's mind is a battleground riddled with figments of the imagination, things like enemy soldiers, spiked poles, crazy things like demons...

Whoever's mind you're in, it really does feel like you're in THEIR MIND. Since you see all of these things it just fleshes them out and makes these lines and series' of 1s and 0s...real.

Finally, I must reiterate, the game is fun. It's immersive. It just sucks you in and you look at the clock and wonder where the time's gone, then worry because you want to keep playing and want MORE TIME to keep playing. I can't exactly say why but damn it's amazing, that little thing that certain games can do and others can't.

So go buy it. And please comment. I even made it so you can comment anonymously!

Want to tell this author what you think, but you don't want anyone else to see it? Think she's full of it and need to set her straight? Want to worship the ground she walks on? Well, good luck with that last one, but you can email Chrys at catharticgamer@yahoo.com and at least tell her what you think.