So I've been working a lot and...well, working a lot and it's hard for me to find motivation to write. It's not that I don't want to write this, I just give so much of myself to school and regular work, there's just not much left. Ugh. I don't remember what free time really feels like, because whenever I cut myself some slack there's always a bunch of shit that needs to be done. I spent my last weekend just working to catch up and I've already fallen behind again. Somehow.
Yeah, it's a jump going from easy regular classes to college level classes. It's a jump from having too much free time to working almost every hour of the day. Granted, I could quit my job at any time - but I've got too much pride to do that. Every time I consider it, I hear my boss saying "Most people can't handle a job and school at the same time", I feel that self-esteem that I've gotten from working slipping away, and I see my goals, sometimes only a finger's breath away, sometimes miles and miles away, rising up into the sky, so very far away. So...I'll manage somehow.
But it's rough, of course. Trying to have a life at the same time makes things even harder. When I'm not hanging out with my friends, I'm working.
...I wish I had more time to play video games. Sly Cooper is a really short game, but I've only gotten halfway through it. I've had it since Scribblenauts came out. I've got Sly Cooper 1-3, Shadow of the Collosus, and Lost Kingdoms to play, but there's just no time. I do have to sleep sometime.
Oh and fuck Scribblenauts it got kinda boring after the first 5 minutes just so you know. And the adventure levels suck.
Seems like if I give myself any time off, I get screwed. Yesterday, I did a henna tattoo, which looks pretty cool, and I played a little bit of Sly Cooper. Today, I'm trying to get a paper done and a journal and I gotta work tomorrow. Shit shit shit. But of course, I'd have that paper done if it weren't for my shitty skills at finding literary critism. Rrrgh.
But anyways, I picked up Three Days Grace's new album today. I put it in as I was driving and rolled down all the windows so it was freezing. No other human being would've had all of their windows down because it was cold, so I could put it on pretty high and not give a shit.
Who said it was just games that could be cathartic, anyhow?
But yeah anyways when I get a second and a sliver of motivation, I'll tell you all how cool Sly Cooper is.
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.
September 29, 2009
September 22, 2009
J'ai une rhume. *cough cough puke*
So yay, I've had a nasty cold and have felt like shit the past few days. But perhaps due to that I've had time to do a streak of gaming, so I'm going to write up a couple of articles now and post 'em up over the next few days. I am such a liar. Seriously. What the hell was I thinking when I wrote that?
Yeah man, this sucks, I've been sick the past few days and I have this horrible headache right now and man it huuurts. And I keep coughing up phlegmy shit and having to spit it out in class, it's a pain. Oh yeah, I have some stuff to write.
In 1985, Minnesota Educational Computing Company decided it wanted to make a game to help educate people on the trials of heading West, during Manifest Destiny and shit. So those folks at that company clonked their heads together and busted out their 2-bit graphics and rolled out the sensation that thrilled everyone in the two generations behind mine, Oregon Trail. Evidently this was a top-of-the-line game at the time...Because that's the only way I could imagine this shit actually being fun. Or that it's so bad it's good, which is actually my preferred theory.
So I ended up playing this game due to a long, complicated series of events. Really, it takes quite a bit for me to subject myself to this sort of thing. Let's see. You start off at this screen:
It's wonderful, isn't it? Oh, this takes me back to the days when I was lingering in nonexistance, or perhaps the year I spent in my mother's womb. So we begin by selecting what we want to do. Oh, and you can play this game here, if you're feeling masochistic or perhaps planning a torture session. Anyways, I recommend starting by pressing "4" and then "Return" as this game refers to it, to turn the sound off. It's the most obnoxious 2-bit music I've ever heard - usually it's adorable and...well, good, but this is just like a really loud cat. Cute at first, but then awful and obnoxious for the remainder of its life.
So you can start out as a banker, carpenter, or farmer:
D'aww. Look at this adorable family. We've got our oxen, the caravan, a little baby of questionable gender inside, and then a happy family with the gun-toting iron-fisted husband while the wife winces away with her two elder children. Damn, I could argue this game is totally an analogy for republicans and democrats. Anyways, let's name our little family...
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.
Yeah man, this sucks, I've been sick the past few days and I have this horrible headache right now and man it huuurts. And I keep coughing up phlegmy shit and having to spit it out in class, it's a pain. Oh yeah, I have some stuff to write.
In 1985, Minnesota Educational Computing Company decided it wanted to make a game to help educate people on the trials of heading West, during Manifest Destiny and shit. So those folks at that company clonked their heads together and busted out their 2-bit graphics and rolled out the sensation that thrilled everyone in the two generations behind mine, Oregon Trail. Evidently this was a top-of-the-line game at the time...Because that's the only way I could imagine this shit actually being fun. Or that it's so bad it's good, which is actually my preferred theory.
So I ended up playing this game due to a long, complicated series of events. Really, it takes quite a bit for me to subject myself to this sort of thing. Let's see. You start off at this screen:
So you can start out as a banker, carpenter, or farmer:
Of course, only pussies start out as anything other than a farmer because if you start out as a carpenter, or heaven forbid, a banker ((*snort*)), you DON'T GET FULL POINTS AT THE END. So. We start out as a farmer.
Ah, damn, I almost made it without naming one of them "Fagballs". Oh well. Unfortuantely, from that point on it really doesn't matter what you named them because the only time you'll care what you named them is when they get sick and then die shortly after. Anyways, here we being our journe-
Oh come on. Stop giving me options. Okay, so I'm not entirely sure exactly which month is the best to start in. I usually start in May. So now we're ready to start our journ--
God damn it. Alright, since the game seems so FUCKING INSISTANT on delaying your progress into the expanding world, we have to go to Matt's shop.
But don't just blindly listen to Matt! He's out to see you faiiil. He says he can supply you with everything you'l need - and indeed, he can. Oxen, clothes, Food, Ammunition, and spare parts - he's got it all. But don't be fooled because he can sell you everything - you only get so much money. Also, if you have to buy food, you lose. You might buy food if you were a banker...but if you were a banker you've already lost. No no no, how you get food in this game is by hunting buffalo! Man up, what are you doing traveling the wide open plains and not shootin' shit? So. The shooting minigame...
Okay, check out this shit. A novice and anyone who doesn't have nine fingers on one hand will be using the arrow key setup. Who the HELL could use that RIDICULOUS setup below it? "Experts"? And wasn't this made in a time where being an alien WASN'T socially acceptable? ((barrumph bumph pssssh)) Anyways, the hunting game looks like this...
The white thing there is you. Lovely graphics, aren't they? I feel like an alien come to earth in a weird suit when I play this minigame. So ideally, you want to shoot a mass of pixels that resemble a buffalo.
Something like that. So, it looks like I could hit it, right? Well...I will only say this once:
GOD FUCKING FORBID YOU BE ONE COCK TWISTING PIXEL OFF.
Demonstrated:
"Oh yeah this'll hit easy."
"...FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK"
The buffalo then turns and moves offscreen before you can get the controls to turn you left, move down, then turn right again. Repeat until you X out of this shitty shitty game.
Sigh. I have one last thing I have to post though. The reason I was doing this was for part of a challenge to beat the score of 7941. Well, after much time spend on this shit...
TO THE ISSUANT OF THE CHALLENGE: I expect you to work on that thing I told you to by NEXT WEEK, dammit.
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.
September 15, 2009
Quick dribble on Scribblenauts
So, for those of you that DON'T know, today was the release of Scribblenauts, which I picked up at midnight (this morning) so I could play it after school at this ridiculously long math competition I went to. I'm not sure why I go to the damn things anymore because I pretty much just suck and blow at it and I do enough of that at Burger King. But anyways, the game!
It's fun trying to come up with stuff to imput into the opening screen. The opening screen gives you a taste of the rest of the game by letting you input items and having them appear onscreen. That alone is enough to keep you occupied for a little bit, but eventually you want to get to the actual game, right?
Well, they put you through a tutorial, which is pretty much useless because everyone's figured out how to do everything they'll need to in the game by this point. It's a little redundant but soon you're into the first couple of levels!
Maybe my vocabulary of nouns is just limited, but I feel like some of the restrictions they put on the game hurts it in some way. It IS supposed to be a puzzle game, but why the hell can't I just summon a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" to kill everything? For example, one of the missions you have to keep ants from getting to a sandwich without hurting them because then you'll piss off the hippy off to your right.
...I'm sorry, what was that? So I don't PISS OFF A HIPPY? Some of the things they limit you in are ridiculous. Why can't I wake up a kid by having a siren poke him a few times? Chef wants a hot meal? FLAMETHROWER TO THE FA--oh, you really meant food. It really kills the buzz of being able to summon GOD on everyone that happens to get on your bad side.
Oh, did I mention? God is a little kinda Roman-esque guy with long white hair and a kinda short beard. But he's pretty cool because I like to summon him on whatever needs to die in the stage and he never dies. He's GOD right? Although sometimes I use the Grim Reaper for the same purpose.
In addition, there's a par for how many items you used in the stage and a timer on how fast. How many "Ollars" you earn is determined by those two things and a vague "Style" rating. But I can't help but feel the par restricts you too. Hell, you're ALREADY restricted by only being able to have so many items on the screen at once! Why the hell are you throwing a par in there too? Trying to make things more challenging? Well, it's not like every stage can be solved by summoning a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" (sadly). I'm still trying to figure out how to make myself intangible.
But I'm still having fun with it, despite all of that. There are a lot of times where I wished my problems could have been solved by simply summoning a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" (such as the level where you had to steal a Starite without harming the cops involved). However, the use of some objects being able to be tied to others is interesting, and it's great you can summon a hell of a lot of stuff. Now if only most of it were actually useful.
If you're wondering what [noun] does, go get the game and look it up yourself. Jeez, what do I look like, your own personal reference guide?
...
...
...
Yeah, there's nothing else to see here.
...
...
...
No really, there's nothing else h-- Oh fine.
So when I went to Gamestop this morning to get my reserved copy of Scribblenauts, it came with this rooster hat that looks just fantastic - it's the same one that the main character, Maxwell, has. So, one of the guys working the store, being the dork he was, wanted to get a picture with a buncha people wearing the hats and holding the games. So, he got us all together in the picture and, well...
Really, that's all.
...
Alright it's a puzzle solving game but dammit I want to summon more GIANT ENEMY CRABS.
Please refrain from slandering my good name on my blog. I can do that perfectly well myself.
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.
It's fun trying to come up with stuff to imput into the opening screen. The opening screen gives you a taste of the rest of the game by letting you input items and having them appear onscreen. That alone is enough to keep you occupied for a little bit, but eventually you want to get to the actual game, right?
Well, they put you through a tutorial, which is pretty much useless because everyone's figured out how to do everything they'll need to in the game by this point. It's a little redundant but soon you're into the first couple of levels!
Maybe my vocabulary of nouns is just limited, but I feel like some of the restrictions they put on the game hurts it in some way. It IS supposed to be a puzzle game, but why the hell can't I just summon a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" to kill everything? For example, one of the missions you have to keep ants from getting to a sandwich without hurting them because then you'll piss off the hippy off to your right.
...I'm sorry, what was that? So I don't PISS OFF A HIPPY? Some of the things they limit you in are ridiculous. Why can't I wake up a kid by having a siren poke him a few times? Chef wants a hot meal? FLAMETHROWER TO THE FA--oh, you really meant food. It really kills the buzz of being able to summon GOD on everyone that happens to get on your bad side.
Oh, did I mention? God is a little kinda Roman-esque guy with long white hair and a kinda short beard. But he's pretty cool because I like to summon him on whatever needs to die in the stage and he never dies. He's GOD right? Although sometimes I use the Grim Reaper for the same purpose.
In addition, there's a par for how many items you used in the stage and a timer on how fast. How many "Ollars" you earn is determined by those two things and a vague "Style" rating. But I can't help but feel the par restricts you too. Hell, you're ALREADY restricted by only being able to have so many items on the screen at once! Why the hell are you throwing a par in there too? Trying to make things more challenging? Well, it's not like every stage can be solved by summoning a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" (sadly). I'm still trying to figure out how to make myself intangible.
But I'm still having fun with it, despite all of that. There are a lot of times where I wished my problems could have been solved by simply summoning a "GIANT ENEMY CRAB" (such as the level where you had to steal a Starite without harming the cops involved). However, the use of some objects being able to be tied to others is interesting, and it's great you can summon a hell of a lot of stuff. Now if only most of it were actually useful.
If you're wondering what [noun] does, go get the game and look it up yourself. Jeez, what do I look like, your own personal reference guide?
...
...
...
Yeah, there's nothing else to see here.
...
...
...
No really, there's nothing else h-- Oh fine.
So when I went to Gamestop this morning to get my reserved copy of Scribblenauts, it came with this rooster hat that looks just fantastic - it's the same one that the main character, Maxwell, has. So, one of the guys working the store, being the dork he was, wanted to get a picture with a buncha people wearing the hats and holding the games. So, he got us all together in the picture and, well...
The bloke that came up with the idea is in the center, I'm off to the right for those of you that care. We all look like dorks and the guy on the right didn't want to cooperate but we got him to anyways SO HA. And apparently, this is getting sent in to the Gamestop website, even though I doubt it'll be posted on it or anything.
Really, that's all.
...
Alright it's a puzzle solving game but dammit I want to summon more GIANT ENEMY CRABS.
Please refrain from slandering my good name on my blog. I can do that perfectly well myself.
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.
September 13, 2009
Trauma Center 2: Try and sew this one up.
Here's my review of Trauma Center : Under the Knife 2. It's hella long because I took a 10 star review of it and tore the fuck out of it. Hence, the title.
The link to the 10 star review: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/review/R126657.html
My review: [Warning: Spoilers for TC:2. But it doesn't matter because not that many people have played TC 1 and TC:2 isn't worth your time ANYWAYS.
In Response to “Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson are back to save the world from GUILT once and for all!”
Fellow gamer, I see you have quite a fondness for the second Trauma Center game to come out on the DS. And because of that, I feel that you were too quick to lavish praise onto a game that certainly did not deserve it. So, I feel compelled to write this in response to your review and write point out some things you missed in your haste.
The first game of this series was a very different game, I agree. In fact, it’s almost as if this game is completely unrelated to the other one. The character quirks in the first game that endeared the characters to me are completely lost or forced in this game. The change in the art style didn’t help, either. The new art style came from the re-release of the first game that came out on the Wii, and I’m sure the art style would have seemed fine to anyone that played that version first. However, I, as I am sure many others did, played the original on the DS first, and the new art style only made the forced dialogue and strange characterization even more jarring.
Of course, this game is first a surgery simulation game and a story second. It would have been nice if the game had adhered to that for the first half of its duration; the story seemed like a badly written fan-fiction, with the operations as more of an aside. The formula was something along these lines: There would be some dramatic tension between Derek and Angie, followed by someone from the operation development department coming over to remind the game it’s not a fan fiction, and a hastily thrown in operation that breaks the pace. Luckily, it seems to remember it’s an operation game in the second half of the game, and acts like it. However, it still left a bad taste in my mouth.
On a positive note, the idea of interactively performing surgery is still around. In the last game, the latter half of it was almost exclusively operations on the 7 strains of GUILT. They improve on that in this game by varying the operations as you go along. At the same time, however, it deteriorates the experience because it eliminates a feeling of progression. You go from operating on four patients in a row with the new GUILT in this game (called PGS – post-GUILT syndrome) to operating on someone with burns. Of course, there is a point in the game where this is explained very nicely and almost required. At that point, it works very well in the story. However, for the rest of the game, it doesn’t work nearly as well, especially towards the end. The variety is nice but forced, with a feeling of “Hey, since you’re playing a surgeon, we’re going to just throw in some operations while you read the story!”. The feeling of progression through the game is also sacrificed for this.
It may seem like I’m making it impossible to be happy with the game for the developers, since I didn’t really like the focus on GUILT in the first game or the spastic altering between PGS and regular operations. And I don’t want to point out a flaw without a solution, and fortunately, that solution is very simple. Lessen the variety that the second game offers, but still keep it. More importantly, however, give the players a reason to care about the regular operations they’re doing. Instead of having nameless soldiers get burned, have a main character or two get burned. Hell, save a dog that you’ve grown attached to get shot, like in Trauma Center: New Blood. That was a fantastic idea for an operation. In fact, they could have done that for more of the PGS operations too; there was a perfectly good family you could have been trying to save from it, which would have been a great addition. I’m not saying get rid of that variety; just don’t make it obvious you’re just shoving random operations in there.
There was a lot of difference between this game and the last one, but not a lot of difference between this game and the entire series. This is shown easily by the fact I knew how to do almost all of the operations before I actually did them, because I had played all the previous games. I would gladly give credit to Atlus for its ingenuity of these operations if it had been the first time they’d used them, but many were ideas simply taken and rehashed in this game. In addition, it just adds to the feeling that some of the operations were merely asides to keep the title of “surgery game” and not “fan fiction”.
You may be able to excuse my likening of the game to a fan fiction by saying it focuses more on character development, ambitions, and behavior. But the more you try to praise the story, the more the initial flaws I’ve pointed out become obvious. If the story focuses on character development, ambitions, and behaviors, why is it that the characters in this story seem so much different than from the last game? Well, as an aside, the main characters are fairly accurate, given what happens through the story. But it was always the supporting cast that made the game for me, and they’re the ones that have been replaced by shells of their former selves. I don’t know a Sidney that doesn’t have his unwillingness to lose a fight unmentioned; I don’t know a Tyler that calls himself a demon; I don’t know a Cybil that isn’t a hardass and I don’t know a Nurse Fulton who completely baby’s the main character.
And if this game takes place three years after the original, I think I must ask the question on everyone’s mind: What are the chances that Derek and Angie really haven’t gotten together? The pairing was heavily hinted at in the end of the first game, and I honestly had no doubt in my mind. Atlus had told a very successful story in the first game, and then they decided they wanted more money off of it – after a remake – so they messed with the ending of the first game and released a badly written sequel.
Finally, Atlus didn’t even have the balls to put a decent picture of the two together at the end. Yeah, they were standing next to each other, but hells, they were standing together at the end of the first game too, and I think they were holding hands in that picture. This game is guilty of one of the flaws numerous games have: Not giving a definitive ending to all of the plot points brought up during the game. Okay, in the end it says that Derek would be a great surgeon forever and whatnot, “with his loved one at his side the entire way”. But that is so vague. “Loved one” could refer to a sibling, for crying out loud. It’s clear Atlus was too scared to put anything resembling an absolute finality in the ending.
Atlus continued its trend of rehashing old things with the appearance of old GUILT with some new tricks. The tricks spice things up a bit—well, okay, they’re really the same GUILT with another step added in defeating them—no, they’re actually just poor attempts at making the GUILT more difficult to defeat. Really, the previous GUILT stays at its previous difficulty, with the only nuisance being the fact the nurse is walking you through operations that anyone whose played the game before knows how to do. As for the new GUILT, I found some of their tactics merely annoying – such as the one that zooms across the screen at ridiculous speeds, requiring you to slather gel on is before you can cut it – to downright ridiculous.
Finally, Atlus’ insistence on being unoriginal comes to a climax when their last operation is just all of the previous GUILT operations thrown together with an annoying-as-all-hell piece thrown in between. This was probably meant to make the ending seem more epic, as you beat all of the GUILT at once. Due to the frustration from that bit in between, to the fact all of the GUILT seemed substantially harder in this incarnation than individually, and the fact that Atlus had already rehashed so much in this game makes the attempt fall flat on its face.
When you mention that there are new tools in the game, it is very nearly a complete lie. The combination of the magnification tool and zoom tool is hardly new. In the first game the same basic thing was accomplished by separating when the two needed to be used. And I can’t help but question whether the change from zooming in and out to panning across the organ is an upgrade—frequently, I found myself using precious time to search the organ for anything else I needed to find rather that just being able to zoom out and see. The massaging of the heart, the defibrillator, and the penlight aren’t new either – all of these appeared in the Wii versions of the game. The air compressor falls into the category of gimmicks, because you use it for one strain of GUILT and that’s it. Finally, I don’t even know why you mentioned the culturing of a patient’s skin as something new because it’s not new and you even pointed that out yourself.
The game play is so similar I’m not sure I can agree that it’s been improved. The sutures do register somewhat more often, but it’s a marginal improvement. As for the tools being more precise, I simply chalked that up to my hardware upgrade from the DS to the DSi, which doesn’t require any calibration. As for getting an “S” rank on every operation, I felt that almost all of the operations from the first game were very possible without the Healing Touch. There were some in the Second Game, however, that felt so gauntlet-like I couldn’t pass them without using the Healing Touch. Perhaps that was the cost of being able to use the Healing Touch without a penalty. But that may have been due to the fact I didn’t replay them very much. Although that one operation that forced you to use the Healing Touch really ticked me off because if it hadn’t been so unfairly stacked I could have done it without the Healing Touch. Damn storyline.
I thought the first Trauma Center was hard, but not impossible, save for the seven operations at the end that were meant to be. It was on a good and mostly consistent difficulty – or, rather, it had a consistent difficulty curve. In the second Trauma Center, the difficulty is very randomly curved, with a few easy operations punctuated by a much harder one. Again, there is one point in the game where this is validated, but it’s present in more than just that one point.
As for failing operations, it was much more common for me to fail because I ran out of time than the patient actually dying. The last operation is a superb example of this. Due to my attempts to keep the patient alive, the ten minute time limit simply flew by. And in the operations with multiple patients, if you got a certain amount of them, back up would usually arrive and it would be okay if you ran out of time, making it, ironically, easier than some of the multiple-patient procedures.
Graphics have never mattered much to me, but since you brought them up I will as well. They’re great and I think that the operation graphics, while not having changed much, have been subtly improved. As for the character graphics, as mentioned above, the change in this game is jarring because of the writing, but that’s mostly a matter of opinion.
As for the music, again, it’s a matter of opinion. I preferred the music of the first game. One thing that is not a matter for contention, however, is that the music, and the game in general give a large feel of trying to be epic; it falls flat on its face. And I can’t help but wonder who agreed with you that the last song is epic, because I’m sure that anyone who’s heard the last song from Trauma Center: Second Opinion would disagree. Not only that, but the music for the last boss didn’t really fit in my opinion. It was too abstract, I think, for the seriousness of the game and a surgery.
Trauma Center 2 wasn’t a bad game, but definitely lacks the things that made the first great. Of course, it couldn’t be exactly the same – else wise, it would be the same game. But it lacks the charm of the old characters, the seriousness of the story, and the feeling of accomplishment that you got from finishing all of the operations. Overall, it has the feeling that Atlus just ported the operations from other games onto this one, threw a crappy story together, and sold it for more money, because Trauma Center 2 didn’t need to be made. It was a good story and told in full by the end of it.
TL;DR version: TC:2 sucks and didn't need to be made qq.
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.
The link to the 10 star review: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/review/R126657.html
My review: [Warning: Spoilers for TC:2. But it doesn't matter because not that many people have played TC 1 and TC:2 isn't worth your time ANYWAYS.
In Response to “Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson are back to save the world from GUILT once and for all!”
Fellow gamer, I see you have quite a fondness for the second Trauma Center game to come out on the DS. And because of that, I feel that you were too quick to lavish praise onto a game that certainly did not deserve it. So, I feel compelled to write this in response to your review and write point out some things you missed in your haste.
The first game of this series was a very different game, I agree. In fact, it’s almost as if this game is completely unrelated to the other one. The character quirks in the first game that endeared the characters to me are completely lost or forced in this game. The change in the art style didn’t help, either. The new art style came from the re-release of the first game that came out on the Wii, and I’m sure the art style would have seemed fine to anyone that played that version first. However, I, as I am sure many others did, played the original on the DS first, and the new art style only made the forced dialogue and strange characterization even more jarring.
Of course, this game is first a surgery simulation game and a story second. It would have been nice if the game had adhered to that for the first half of its duration; the story seemed like a badly written fan-fiction, with the operations as more of an aside. The formula was something along these lines: There would be some dramatic tension between Derek and Angie, followed by someone from the operation development department coming over to remind the game it’s not a fan fiction, and a hastily thrown in operation that breaks the pace. Luckily, it seems to remember it’s an operation game in the second half of the game, and acts like it. However, it still left a bad taste in my mouth.
On a positive note, the idea of interactively performing surgery is still around. In the last game, the latter half of it was almost exclusively operations on the 7 strains of GUILT. They improve on that in this game by varying the operations as you go along. At the same time, however, it deteriorates the experience because it eliminates a feeling of progression. You go from operating on four patients in a row with the new GUILT in this game (called PGS – post-GUILT syndrome) to operating on someone with burns. Of course, there is a point in the game where this is explained very nicely and almost required. At that point, it works very well in the story. However, for the rest of the game, it doesn’t work nearly as well, especially towards the end. The variety is nice but forced, with a feeling of “Hey, since you’re playing a surgeon, we’re going to just throw in some operations while you read the story!”. The feeling of progression through the game is also sacrificed for this.
It may seem like I’m making it impossible to be happy with the game for the developers, since I didn’t really like the focus on GUILT in the first game or the spastic altering between PGS and regular operations. And I don’t want to point out a flaw without a solution, and fortunately, that solution is very simple. Lessen the variety that the second game offers, but still keep it. More importantly, however, give the players a reason to care about the regular operations they’re doing. Instead of having nameless soldiers get burned, have a main character or two get burned. Hell, save a dog that you’ve grown attached to get shot, like in Trauma Center: New Blood. That was a fantastic idea for an operation. In fact, they could have done that for more of the PGS operations too; there was a perfectly good family you could have been trying to save from it, which would have been a great addition. I’m not saying get rid of that variety; just don’t make it obvious you’re just shoving random operations in there.
There was a lot of difference between this game and the last one, but not a lot of difference between this game and the entire series. This is shown easily by the fact I knew how to do almost all of the operations before I actually did them, because I had played all the previous games. I would gladly give credit to Atlus for its ingenuity of these operations if it had been the first time they’d used them, but many were ideas simply taken and rehashed in this game. In addition, it just adds to the feeling that some of the operations were merely asides to keep the title of “surgery game” and not “fan fiction”.
You may be able to excuse my likening of the game to a fan fiction by saying it focuses more on character development, ambitions, and behavior. But the more you try to praise the story, the more the initial flaws I’ve pointed out become obvious. If the story focuses on character development, ambitions, and behaviors, why is it that the characters in this story seem so much different than from the last game? Well, as an aside, the main characters are fairly accurate, given what happens through the story. But it was always the supporting cast that made the game for me, and they’re the ones that have been replaced by shells of their former selves. I don’t know a Sidney that doesn’t have his unwillingness to lose a fight unmentioned; I don’t know a Tyler that calls himself a demon; I don’t know a Cybil that isn’t a hardass and I don’t know a Nurse Fulton who completely baby’s the main character.
And if this game takes place three years after the original, I think I must ask the question on everyone’s mind: What are the chances that Derek and Angie really haven’t gotten together? The pairing was heavily hinted at in the end of the first game, and I honestly had no doubt in my mind. Atlus had told a very successful story in the first game, and then they decided they wanted more money off of it – after a remake – so they messed with the ending of the first game and released a badly written sequel.
Finally, Atlus didn’t even have the balls to put a decent picture of the two together at the end. Yeah, they were standing next to each other, but hells, they were standing together at the end of the first game too, and I think they were holding hands in that picture. This game is guilty of one of the flaws numerous games have: Not giving a definitive ending to all of the plot points brought up during the game. Okay, in the end it says that Derek would be a great surgeon forever and whatnot, “with his loved one at his side the entire way”. But that is so vague. “Loved one” could refer to a sibling, for crying out loud. It’s clear Atlus was too scared to put anything resembling an absolute finality in the ending.
Atlus continued its trend of rehashing old things with the appearance of old GUILT with some new tricks. The tricks spice things up a bit—well, okay, they’re really the same GUILT with another step added in defeating them—no, they’re actually just poor attempts at making the GUILT more difficult to defeat. Really, the previous GUILT stays at its previous difficulty, with the only nuisance being the fact the nurse is walking you through operations that anyone whose played the game before knows how to do. As for the new GUILT, I found some of their tactics merely annoying – such as the one that zooms across the screen at ridiculous speeds, requiring you to slather gel on is before you can cut it – to downright ridiculous.
Finally, Atlus’ insistence on being unoriginal comes to a climax when their last operation is just all of the previous GUILT operations thrown together with an annoying-as-all-hell piece thrown in between. This was probably meant to make the ending seem more epic, as you beat all of the GUILT at once. Due to the frustration from that bit in between, to the fact all of the GUILT seemed substantially harder in this incarnation than individually, and the fact that Atlus had already rehashed so much in this game makes the attempt fall flat on its face.
When you mention that there are new tools in the game, it is very nearly a complete lie. The combination of the magnification tool and zoom tool is hardly new. In the first game the same basic thing was accomplished by separating when the two needed to be used. And I can’t help but question whether the change from zooming in and out to panning across the organ is an upgrade—frequently, I found myself using precious time to search the organ for anything else I needed to find rather that just being able to zoom out and see. The massaging of the heart, the defibrillator, and the penlight aren’t new either – all of these appeared in the Wii versions of the game. The air compressor falls into the category of gimmicks, because you use it for one strain of GUILT and that’s it. Finally, I don’t even know why you mentioned the culturing of a patient’s skin as something new because it’s not new and you even pointed that out yourself.
The game play is so similar I’m not sure I can agree that it’s been improved. The sutures do register somewhat more often, but it’s a marginal improvement. As for the tools being more precise, I simply chalked that up to my hardware upgrade from the DS to the DSi, which doesn’t require any calibration. As for getting an “S” rank on every operation, I felt that almost all of the operations from the first game were very possible without the Healing Touch. There were some in the Second Game, however, that felt so gauntlet-like I couldn’t pass them without using the Healing Touch. Perhaps that was the cost of being able to use the Healing Touch without a penalty. But that may have been due to the fact I didn’t replay them very much. Although that one operation that forced you to use the Healing Touch really ticked me off because if it hadn’t been so unfairly stacked I could have done it without the Healing Touch. Damn storyline.
I thought the first Trauma Center was hard, but not impossible, save for the seven operations at the end that were meant to be. It was on a good and mostly consistent difficulty – or, rather, it had a consistent difficulty curve. In the second Trauma Center, the difficulty is very randomly curved, with a few easy operations punctuated by a much harder one. Again, there is one point in the game where this is validated, but it’s present in more than just that one point.
As for failing operations, it was much more common for me to fail because I ran out of time than the patient actually dying. The last operation is a superb example of this. Due to my attempts to keep the patient alive, the ten minute time limit simply flew by. And in the operations with multiple patients, if you got a certain amount of them, back up would usually arrive and it would be okay if you ran out of time, making it, ironically, easier than some of the multiple-patient procedures.
Graphics have never mattered much to me, but since you brought them up I will as well. They’re great and I think that the operation graphics, while not having changed much, have been subtly improved. As for the character graphics, as mentioned above, the change in this game is jarring because of the writing, but that’s mostly a matter of opinion.
As for the music, again, it’s a matter of opinion. I preferred the music of the first game. One thing that is not a matter for contention, however, is that the music, and the game in general give a large feel of trying to be epic; it falls flat on its face. And I can’t help but wonder who agreed with you that the last song is epic, because I’m sure that anyone who’s heard the last song from Trauma Center: Second Opinion would disagree. Not only that, but the music for the last boss didn’t really fit in my opinion. It was too abstract, I think, for the seriousness of the game and a surgery.
Trauma Center 2 wasn’t a bad game, but definitely lacks the things that made the first great. Of course, it couldn’t be exactly the same – else wise, it would be the same game. But it lacks the charm of the old characters, the seriousness of the story, and the feeling of accomplishment that you got from finishing all of the operations. Overall, it has the feeling that Atlus just ported the operations from other games onto this one, threw a crappy story together, and sold it for more money, because Trauma Center 2 didn’t need to be made. It was a good story and told in full by the end of it.
TL;DR version: TC:2 sucks and didn't need to be made qq.
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.
September 12, 2009
Movies vs. Video Games
So I went to see 9 on it's debut. This might make me sound like a fan of movies, or someone who was excited about the movie. No, I'd first heard of it about 10 hours beforehand. I went with a group of friends of mine. But you have to be quiet during a movie, pretty much, so I didn't talk to them for the majority of time I was there. And well, while we were watching the movie...
...well, I was pretty friggin' bored. I'd brought my DS with me, and a new game that I'd barely cracked open, and man I wish I'd have been playing that instead. Okay, it might have been the fact that 9 was pretty predictable or at least didn't throw any surprise plot twists. But what really broke it for me, I suppose, was the fact I couldn't get into the movie. The entire time I was painfully aware I was watching a movie. You may say, "Yes, Chrys, you were in a movie theatre, you were sitting in a chair, you had a large coke, and you are most definitely not a foot tall. Stop stating the obvious."
...
Well my friends, let me tell you a little something about "immersion", and the reason why I don't particularly enjoy movies. I don't know about movies, but possibly the most important thing about a game is whether the game immerses you in itself. If you're playing a game and you're aware that you're just a big fat nerd sitting in a chair clutching a controller or tapping away at a keyboard, you're not playing a very good game. Isn't that why games are popular - as an escape from reality? Isn't that why people develop alternate personas? Like why furries are popular among people who aren't happy with their life. Although I could be wrong on that. ((It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a lot of people who hated their jobs were furries or something like that.))
So I don't get why movies are so popular. Or liked. I can't lose myself in a movie. Now, not all movies have this problem, I think. Comedies don't need immersion because they're funny. Pornos don't need immesion because...well...I don't really need to say that, do I? But action movies. Who likes watching car explosions? I want to CAUSE them! I don't like watching action, I like participating. AND YES, YOU MAY CONSTRUE THAT HOWEVER YOU WANT.
Yeah, I think that games take what movies and even sometimes books do and does it better. I like playing a mystery novel much more than reading it, even if it does get frustrating at times. I like playing a movie more than watching a movie - ever heard of Xenosaga? Best movie I've ever played. Seriously, I don't think I pressed X more than once.
And noooo, I am NOT stealing jokes AT ALL
But yes, movies are just lacking, in my opinion. So if anyone ever asks me why I don't particularly care for movies, I can just pull up this post and never have to explain myself again.
...Not that I really bothered in the first place. Oh well.
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.
...well, I was pretty friggin' bored. I'd brought my DS with me, and a new game that I'd barely cracked open, and man I wish I'd have been playing that instead. Okay, it might have been the fact that 9 was pretty predictable or at least didn't throw any surprise plot twists. But what really broke it for me, I suppose, was the fact I couldn't get into the movie. The entire time I was painfully aware I was watching a movie. You may say, "Yes, Chrys, you were in a movie theatre, you were sitting in a chair, you had a large coke, and you are most definitely not a foot tall. Stop stating the obvious."
...
Well my friends, let me tell you a little something about "immersion", and the reason why I don't particularly enjoy movies. I don't know about movies, but possibly the most important thing about a game is whether the game immerses you in itself. If you're playing a game and you're aware that you're just a big fat nerd sitting in a chair clutching a controller or tapping away at a keyboard, you're not playing a very good game. Isn't that why games are popular - as an escape from reality? Isn't that why people develop alternate personas? Like why furries are popular among people who aren't happy with their life. Although I could be wrong on that. ((It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a lot of people who hated their jobs were furries or something like that.))
So I don't get why movies are so popular. Or liked. I can't lose myself in a movie. Now, not all movies have this problem, I think. Comedies don't need immersion because they're funny. Pornos don't need immesion because...well...I don't really need to say that, do I? But action movies. Who likes watching car explosions? I want to CAUSE them! I don't like watching action, I like participating. AND YES, YOU MAY CONSTRUE THAT HOWEVER YOU WANT.
Yeah, I think that games take what movies and even sometimes books do and does it better. I like playing a mystery novel much more than reading it, even if it does get frustrating at times. I like playing a movie more than watching a movie - ever heard of Xenosaga? Best movie I've ever played. Seriously, I don't think I pressed X more than once.
And noooo, I am NOT stealing jokes AT ALL
But yes, movies are just lacking, in my opinion. So if anyone ever asks me why I don't particularly care for movies, I can just pull up this post and never have to explain myself again.
...Not that I really bothered in the first place. Oh well.
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.
September 10, 2009
Back from the dead/mass of work load.
*gasp*
So! I've finally managed to break the surface from drowning in my school work and lack of sleep to find time to play a game! However, I'm going to leave that post for another day because I want to talk about a particular article that I found on the Escapist a few days ago, and thought was pretty interesting.
The first two paragraphs of the article deals with the outside world/media's commonly negative attention on video games. This almost goes without stating, but for those of you that live under a rock, the media likes to point out how video games make serial killers of us.
*hides the dead baby with the other dead babies*
So apparently the media was worried some time ago (this article was written last month) about this game called Virtual Jihadi. It's apparently just a graphics hack of a game called Quest for Saddam. Basically, Quest for Saddam was...well, a game where you work your way through Al-Qaeda soldiers up to Saddam and kill him. Virtual Jihadi takes it and spins all of us Americans on our heads by making so we work our way through American soldiers and up to killing Bush.
It was made before Obama was president, but I'm sure that had he been in it, they would've called him racist too.
Anyways, the idea of killing American soldiers hits a hell of a lot closer to home for many of us than the idea of killing Iraqis, but that idea is exactly what the graphics hack is aiming to do; to get us to think about the type of strange ease we take towards killing foreigners in a game, but when those foreigners are suddenly not so foreign, one practically does a double-take: "Wait, what?"
I really liked the article because, before now, I didn't really think of games as a way to make a point. So, for the rest of this post, I am going to list off mainstream games and what point I think they're trying to make!
Metroid: A deep and thoughtful perspective on the feminist movement, where the Space Pirates represent the chauvanistic male's reluctance to recognize women, Samus represents the small but persistant force of women trying to gain recognition in a man's world, Dark Samus represents the even smaller amount of women that believe every woman's rightful place is barefoot in the kitchen. This climaxes at the end of Metroid Prime 3, where Samus finally defeats the true force that was holding back the women's movement.
Legend of Zelda/Mario/Halo/Final Fantasy/maybe the new Megamans/Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Pokemon: Proving that a load of fan wank will always sell, provided you had a good fan base to begin with.
I didn't realize thatI could make up so much about Metroid that it was so deep and thoughtful. Also, I can track hits on my blog now, so yay!
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.
So! I've finally managed to break the surface from drowning in my school work and lack of sleep to find time to play a game! However, I'm going to leave that post for another day because I want to talk about a particular article that I found on the Escapist a few days ago, and thought was pretty interesting.
The first two paragraphs of the article deals with the outside world/media's commonly negative attention on video games. This almost goes without stating, but for those of you that live under a rock, the media likes to point out how video games make serial killers of us.
*hides the dead baby with the other dead babies*
So apparently the media was worried some time ago (this article was written last month) about this game called Virtual Jihadi. It's apparently just a graphics hack of a game called Quest for Saddam. Basically, Quest for Saddam was...well, a game where you work your way through Al-Qaeda soldiers up to Saddam and kill him. Virtual Jihadi takes it and spins all of us Americans on our heads by making so we work our way through American soldiers and up to killing Bush.
It was made before Obama was president, but I'm sure that had he been in it, they would've called him racist too.
Anyways, the idea of killing American soldiers hits a hell of a lot closer to home for many of us than the idea of killing Iraqis, but that idea is exactly what the graphics hack is aiming to do; to get us to think about the type of strange ease we take towards killing foreigners in a game, but when those foreigners are suddenly not so foreign, one practically does a double-take: "Wait, what?"
I really liked the article because, before now, I didn't really think of games as a way to make a point. So, for the rest of this post, I am going to list off mainstream games and what point I think they're trying to make!
Metroid: A deep and thoughtful perspective on the feminist movement, where the Space Pirates represent the chauvanistic male's reluctance to recognize women, Samus represents the small but persistant force of women trying to gain recognition in a man's world, Dark Samus represents the even smaller amount of women that believe every woman's rightful place is barefoot in the kitchen. This climaxes at the end of Metroid Prime 3, where Samus finally defeats the true force that was holding back the women's movement.
Legend of Zelda/Mario/Halo/Final Fantasy/maybe the new Megamans/Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Pokemon: Proving that a load of fan wank will always sell, provided you had a good fan base to begin with.
I didn't realize that
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.
September 7, 2009
I'm totally updating regularly.
I don't have anything to talk about.
I mean, I was hoping I could get Gametap working, but since it sucks, I can't poke fun at the shitty games they have in their free section. (Except Psychonauts, of course) So yeah, I really have nothing to talk about. I mean, I suppose I could have throw together another shitty update about Paper Mario, since I booted that up again recently, but honestly the entire thing is starting to become a little bit of a grind fest. It's at least punctuated by little bits of funny, but in the end it's falling into the same problem every Mario game I've ever played has: You have to go collect "x" amount of Stars to rescue Princess Peach.
And really, it gets boring for me about halfway through since I don't like collecting stuff. Especially when that's the entire point of the game.
Anyways, I went back and got all of the little spelling errors in my previous posts. I think I'll try to get Gametap to work again tomorrow and do a post that's worth something.
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.
I mean, I was hoping I could get Gametap working, but since it sucks, I can't poke fun at the shitty games they have in their free section. (Except Psychonauts, of course) So yeah, I really have nothing to talk about. I mean, I suppose I could have throw together another shitty update about Paper Mario, since I booted that up again recently, but honestly the entire thing is starting to become a little bit of a grind fest. It's at least punctuated by little bits of funny, but in the end it's falling into the same problem every Mario game I've ever played has: You have to go collect "x" amount of Stars to rescue Princess Peach.
And really, it gets boring for me about halfway through since I don't like collecting stuff. Especially when that's the entire point of the game.
Anyways, I went back and got all of the little spelling errors in my previous posts. I think I'll try to get Gametap to work again tomorrow and do a post that's worth something.
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.
September 4, 2009
Ow.
Oh man. So isn't this epic? I played the last song on EBA, and while failing it SO HARD, I pulled my shoulder (goddamned heavy books), made my arm sore (oh god), and my thumb. That's how hard the song was.
On the other hand, when I finally did beat it, I got a B. Yay!
Anyways, a game so epic that I would physically injure myself for (I pulled my shoulder about halfway through my attempts, and it was pretty painful, and I KEPT PLAYING) must be worth playing. So you should go get it. It's like 10 bucks used, seriously.
Alright, that's enough out of me about praising EBA.
~`~
Hey, all of you that're reading this. Yes, you. Do you guys just not want to give me any feedback here? Because none of you cunts are commenting. I mean, maybe this blog is shit, and none of you are telling me that. Really now. Are you going to just let me continue on in my fantasy dream world until I get hit by the harsh reality that whatever I'm spewing out every couple of days SUCKS?
Okay, okay, I'm done whining.
~`~
So I have a couple of things from work to talk about, basically. I haven't had much time for gaming (well, okay, I've just been playing EBA, but I've spewed enough about that, haven't I?), but there was some really odd stuff today.
Well, maybe not odd, but I thought they were funny.
Okay, so, first of all, there's a new guy at work. As some of you may or may not recall, I'm working at Burger King. Fast food industry, you know? And it's weird, because I knew he was a gamer. Subconsciously. I didn't really realize that until he asked me exactly how I knew he liked playing games. I dunno, I guess I just have that sense of people? It could be any number of things. Like the fact he was wearing thick-framed glasses. Or maybe the kind of messy blonde hair. Or maybe the fact that practically the way he walked spewed "HAY LOOK I'M A GEEK".
Not to stereotype or anything.
Anyways, since my ESP knew this, I shot him a link to my blog, and I really only have one thing to say to him.
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?! RUN AWAY WHILE YOU CAAAAN!
Yup, I don't think he'll listen either.
So how many of you clicked on that link and got put back here, anyways?
~`~
Alright, so, this is something that I find funny but probably SHOULDN'T...I was taking an order from a group of three. One of them was a little girl, maybe 10 years old. The other was a wheelchair bound woman with her eyes protruding in odd directions. The last was a woman who was wheeling the woman in the wheelchair. So, okay, the woman in the wheelchair talks to me, and I'm baffled as to why she's ordering and not the one pushing the wheelchair. But I roll with it. Then she asks the woman behind her something and I realize it's because she's the only one who speaks English.
I'm not trying to make fun of her or anything. It seems like she was actually fairly intelligent, just her nerves were messed up and her body didn't work right. But seriously, she was the one who spoke English. Not the woman pushing her around. That's just...really funny to me. I mean seriously. The handicapped person speaks more language than you?
But yeah, maybe that's only funny to me.
Well, okay, so the woman carting her around knew SOME English, but the wheelchair-bound woman still did most of the ordering.
~`~
Do you know if they have a kid's room in your Burger King? Maybe even at a McDonalds or something? Whatever, there are these kids rooms in some of them, and I imagine those other restaurants have this exact problem.
Yesterday, I was called into work because we had two people being incompetently retarded and the place was getting filthy. Let me tell you: that was some of the easier two hours of work I have EVER done. ALL I had to do was clean. It was awesome. I didn't have to talk to anybody. I didn't have to keep glancing over my shoulder to see if people were wandering in and fucking up my cleaning schedule. All I had to do was clean stuff and appeal to that slightly OCD nature that helps me perfect details in art and such.
Evidently, we were also way overstaffed, and it's at this point I have to say that my boss was pretty much a douchebag. Because we had been so overstaffed yesterday, we were understaffed today.
IT WAS A FUCKING FRIDAY WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SHFIEWOLGNWORUEG
Sometime during my hectic night tonight, a couple of kids told me they had a spill that needed to be cleaned. I nodded and threw that little bit of info somewhere I'd find it when people stopped ordering shit so I could go clean. Some amount of time later, maybe an hour, this old lady* comes up to me and tells me there's a spill in there and assumes that nobody told me. Of course I don't bother to correct her, what, I don't feel like looking stupid. So I run to the back of the restaurant and ask my boss if he can cover the lobby for me while I go clean because people won't stop ordering shit and he's just dicking around in his office. He tells me to wait a minute.
*Not this old lady. Hilarious result from goodle images of "old lady", though. Anyways, there's this lady that comes in and always seems to complain about something when she does, but returns anyways. I suspect it's to find something to complain about. I think every restaurant has one of her.
Half an hour later, he emerges from the office, and I'm pissed because apparently a minute = half an hour, and I STILL hadn't gotten a chance to go clean this mythical "spill". But whatever, it's slowed down and now I have enough people at the lobby that I can go clean it.
Okay, whenever you tell someone about a spill, make sure it's a spill. When I went in there, there was no spill, it was like someone fucking CARPET BOMBED the place with Coke. You'd think a spill would cover a couple feet of floor, right? No, this one covered probably about a yard or two, and hit multiple tables. I really think someone did this on purpose.
Oh, and just let me point out, THIS HAS FUCKING BEEN SITTING THERE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF. If not more. So it's all mostly just sticky ground.
Rrgh, I hate working weekends.
Really, on a weekend, do NOT schedule one person to cover the lobby. Because that's THE ONLY FUCKING PERSON THAT FUCKING CLEANS ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING PLACE WHNGIWOPLGNRWLRG. Yes, there are others, but they have to do thinks like make meals or work drive-through (*shudder*).
Sigh. Maybe I should just stop performing well at my job. Maybe I should just dick around like everybody else seems to.
/masochisticperfectionism
~`~
Shortly before I went to clean up after the mass bombings of the kid's room, a coworker of mine called out my name. I had the thought to myself of "Fuck, I hope she doesn't help me to make ice cream, because I already have enough shit to do." And I replied "Whut?" In my kind of retarded voice. Or so I thought. Like the peasants from Warcraft III, how they say "Wot?" and kind of sound stupid, except with a u instead of an o. Apparently, I sounded very menacing when I did this, because she was like "Whoah" and immediately said nevermind. I'm not sure why, but I kind of shrugged and went to go mop. But it kind of made me chuckle too because people don't normally have that reaction to me.
A little while later, I had to take an order, and the guy that was going to order took a look at me then scampered off. Hilarious. Apparently, when I'm stressed, I'm really scary.
~`~
Well, that's it for tonight. I'm tired and my entire shoulder-frame-thing hurts. Damned books. I seem to be kind of lengthy when I write anyways, and you all probably get bored about halfway through on your hyper-up sugar rushes.
But anyways. TELL ME HOW MUCH I SUCK I DO IT ALL THE TIME AT BURGER KING ANYWAYS.
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.
On the other hand, when I finally did beat it, I got a B. Yay!
Anyways, a game so epic that I would physically injure myself for (I pulled my shoulder about halfway through my attempts, and it was pretty painful, and I KEPT PLAYING) must be worth playing. So you should go get it. It's like 10 bucks used, seriously.
Alright, that's enough out of me about praising EBA.
~`~
Hey, all of you that're reading this. Yes, you. Do you guys just not want to give me any feedback here? Because none of you cunts are commenting. I mean, maybe this blog is shit, and none of you are telling me that. Really now. Are you going to just let me continue on in my fantasy dream world until I get hit by the harsh reality that whatever I'm spewing out every couple of days SUCKS?
Okay, okay, I'm done whining.
~`~
So I have a couple of things from work to talk about, basically. I haven't had much time for gaming (well, okay, I've just been playing EBA, but I've spewed enough about that, haven't I?), but there was some really odd stuff today.
Well, maybe not odd, but I thought they were funny.
Okay, so, first of all, there's a new guy at work. As some of you may or may not recall, I'm working at Burger King. Fast food industry, you know? And it's weird, because I knew he was a gamer. Subconsciously. I didn't really realize that until he asked me exactly how I knew he liked playing games. I dunno, I guess I just have that sense of people? It could be any number of things. Like the fact he was wearing thick-framed glasses. Or maybe the kind of messy blonde hair. Or maybe the fact that practically the way he walked spewed "HAY LOOK I'M A GEEK".
Not to stereotype or anything.
Anyways, since my ESP knew this, I shot him a link to my blog, and I really only have one thing to say to him.
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?! RUN AWAY WHILE YOU CAAAAN!
Yup, I don't think he'll listen either.
So how many of you clicked on that link and got put back here, anyways?
~`~
Alright, so, this is something that I find funny but probably SHOULDN'T...I was taking an order from a group of three. One of them was a little girl, maybe 10 years old. The other was a wheelchair bound woman with her eyes protruding in odd directions. The last was a woman who was wheeling the woman in the wheelchair. So, okay, the woman in the wheelchair talks to me, and I'm baffled as to why she's ordering and not the one pushing the wheelchair. But I roll with it. Then she asks the woman behind her something and I realize it's because she's the only one who speaks English.
I'm not trying to make fun of her or anything. It seems like she was actually fairly intelligent, just her nerves were messed up and her body didn't work right. But seriously, she was the one who spoke English. Not the woman pushing her around. That's just...really funny to me. I mean seriously. The handicapped person speaks more language than you?
But yeah, maybe that's only funny to me.
Well, okay, so the woman carting her around knew SOME English, but the wheelchair-bound woman still did most of the ordering.
~`~
Do you know if they have a kid's room in your Burger King? Maybe even at a McDonalds or something? Whatever, there are these kids rooms in some of them, and I imagine those other restaurants have this exact problem.
Yesterday, I was called into work because we had two people being incompetently retarded and the place was getting filthy. Let me tell you: that was some of the easier two hours of work I have EVER done. ALL I had to do was clean. It was awesome. I didn't have to talk to anybody. I didn't have to keep glancing over my shoulder to see if people were wandering in and fucking up my cleaning schedule. All I had to do was clean stuff and appeal to that slightly OCD nature that helps me perfect details in art and such.
Evidently, we were also way overstaffed, and it's at this point I have to say that my boss was pretty much a douchebag. Because we had been so overstaffed yesterday, we were understaffed today.
IT WAS A FUCKING FRIDAY WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SHFIEWOLGNWORUEG
Sometime during my hectic night tonight, a couple of kids told me they had a spill that needed to be cleaned. I nodded and threw that little bit of info somewhere I'd find it when people stopped ordering shit so I could go clean. Some amount of time later, maybe an hour, this old lady* comes up to me and tells me there's a spill in there and assumes that nobody told me. Of course I don't bother to correct her, what, I don't feel like looking stupid. So I run to the back of the restaurant and ask my boss if he can cover the lobby for me while I go clean because people won't stop ordering shit and he's just dicking around in his office. He tells me to wait a minute.
*Not this old lady. Hilarious result from goodle images of "old lady", though. Anyways, there's this lady that comes in and always seems to complain about something when she does, but returns anyways. I suspect it's to find something to complain about. I think every restaurant has one of her.Half an hour later, he emerges from the office, and I'm pissed because apparently a minute = half an hour, and I STILL hadn't gotten a chance to go clean this mythical "spill". But whatever, it's slowed down and now I have enough people at the lobby that I can go clean it.
Okay, whenever you tell someone about a spill, make sure it's a spill. When I went in there, there was no spill, it was like someone fucking CARPET BOMBED the place with Coke. You'd think a spill would cover a couple feet of floor, right? No, this one covered probably about a yard or two, and hit multiple tables. I really think someone did this on purpose.
Oh, and just let me point out, THIS HAS FUCKING BEEN SITTING THERE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF. If not more. So it's all mostly just sticky ground.
Rrgh, I hate working weekends.
Really, on a weekend, do NOT schedule one person to cover the lobby. Because that's THE ONLY FUCKING PERSON THAT FUCKING CLEANS ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING PLACE WHNGIWOPLGNRWLRG. Yes, there are others, but they have to do thinks like make meals or work drive-through (*shudder*).
Sigh. Maybe I should just stop performing well at my job. Maybe I should just dick around like everybody else seems to.
/masochisticperfectionism
~`~
Shortly before I went to clean up after the mass bombings of the kid's room, a coworker of mine called out my name. I had the thought to myself of "Fuck, I hope she doesn't help me to make ice cream, because I already have enough shit to do." And I replied "Whut?" In my kind of retarded voice. Or so I thought. Like the peasants from Warcraft III, how they say "Wot?" and kind of sound stupid, except with a u instead of an o. Apparently, I sounded very menacing when I did this, because she was like "Whoah" and immediately said nevermind. I'm not sure why, but I kind of shrugged and went to go mop. But it kind of made me chuckle too because people don't normally have that reaction to me.
A little while later, I had to take an order, and the guy that was going to order took a look at me then scampered off. Hilarious. Apparently, when I'm stressed, I'm really scary.
~`~
Well, that's it for tonight. I'm tired and my entire shoulder-frame-thing hurts. Damned books. I seem to be kind of lengthy when I write anyways, and you all probably get bored about halfway through on your hyper-up sugar rushes.
But anyways. TELL ME HOW MUCH I SUCK I DO IT ALL THE TIME AT BURGER KING ANYWAYS.
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.
September 2, 2009
Not talking about games...
We live in a material world. Are you a material girl?
Well, not specifically about games, anyhow. More about things in general because I need to type stuff out, I guess.
So today, I bid adieu to my first pair of cargo pants. I got 'em like a year or two ago, and I love them very much. But today, my umbrella ripped the belt-loop right off of 'em...
Guess I'mma have to be more careful.
So, I'm gonna upload some pictures onto here soon, one for an avatar and one that's going to remain a secret but is very cool and hopefully I'll be able to award that to a game here soon. And I guess I've been kind of dropping hints about new things lately, but haven't really owned up to any of them.
...
Oh well.
So. Catharsis. I use that word in my head a lot. Playing video games is very cathartic for me because I don't need to think about life. Just hit the buttons on time or figure out the puzzle. It's nice. I really don't get why people denounce video games so much, although it's probably along the same lines as drinking or drugs if overdone (people dying in MMORPGs anyone?). But of course, we should be happy when people die due to playing too many video games.
It's called thinning out the gene pool, folks. I don't want that sort of addiction swimming around in my gene pool, thanks.
It's also cathartic at the end of a long work day to clean out the gutters that line the drink station at my workplace. Those things get overfilled with ice and random shit. Guess how you clean it? Well, you take a cup and pour lots of hot water down it. Yup. Pretty complicated, right? Well, seeing all of the ice melt and the shit slide down to the end and watching the steam rise above it all is very relieving to see.
...
Working sucks. The only reason I work is because I'm working towards a goal I probably won't reach. Well, and because having money is nice, and buying things is nice, but really, I could probably go without working for a while. It really sucks. And I wonder how people who really hate their jobs do it for years and years without putting a bullet in their head.
As for a career, like I said, I think I've settled on one. I've said that before, but this time I think I'm sure. I've wanted to be a lot of things: surgeon, anesthesiologist, lawyer, epidemiologist. But then I wondered about them, and why I had wanted to be one. With the exception of the last profession, I had pretty much been inspired by video games. Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright, up there.
It's also weirdly how I've picked up a lot of my sarcastic traits. I can list off a lot of characters I've emulated...erm..let's see. There was Kratos/Regal, way back when, in the days I played Tales of Symphonia. Maybe a bit of Genis or Raine too. I really loved all of the characters from Symphonia, actually.
And then we go into Tales of the Abyss, with the sarcastic fountain known as Jade. I think he was the only character I took a real liking to, aside from Guy. This is said because I can't even remember the main character's name at the moment. Oh, Luke. That's what his name was. Took me about five minutes.
Jin from Xenosaga (the latter games) was pretty cool too, although his none-too-subtle cry of "Attacking!" when attacking an opponent still never ceases to embarrass me. *facepalm*
Cybil from Trauma Center is an amazing character in my opinion. So cool and so badass. She's an anesthesiologist who's nicknamed "The Iron Vixen".
I don't think there's a Phoenix Wright character you really CAN dislike (aside from the villains). Phoenix, himself, is an awesome guy. Edgeworth is an emo bastard but it's nice to see how he changes through the series. Gumshoe. Do I need to say more? Maya's a very cool sidekick to have along, although she suffers from a bad case of Damsel in Distress. Mia's also very nice to have when you need her, but it confuses me with all the spare time she appears to have in her spoilerific condition (not really but honestly if it's a spoiler go play Phoenix Wright now).
There are a lot of characters I admire, and I have this nagging sensation at the back of my head that that's weird. I mean seriously who uses video game characters as role models? But all of those characters listed above, I don't idolize nearly as much as my own character Chrysocollus, from whom my screenname is taken. She's incredibly smart and talented, strong enough to survive when her mind gets shattered, beautiful, and reckless enough to still have fun. She's amazing and it seems like she can honestly do anything she puts her mind to (which I suppose she can because she only exists IN my mind...) short of raising the dead. Oh and I know she sounds like a Mary Sue right now, but when/if you see her in my novel that I will hopefully write in November, I...well, I guess I can't make promises, but I don't THINK she'll be one.
But I have to say, the EBA guys are pretty effin' good dancers. Although it probably hurts when I miss a note and they get sent flying back.
cathartic
Oh yeah I guess I got sidetracked and forgot to mention that I want to develop video games for a living. Seriously, didn't you all already know that anyways?
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.
Well, not specifically about games, anyhow. More about things in general because I need to type stuff out, I guess.
So today, I bid adieu to my first pair of cargo pants. I got 'em like a year or two ago, and I love them very much. But today, my umbrella ripped the belt-loop right off of 'em...
Guess I'mma have to be more careful.
So, I'm gonna upload some pictures onto here soon, one for an avatar and one that's going to remain a secret but is very cool and hopefully I'll be able to award that to a game here soon. And I guess I've been kind of dropping hints about new things lately, but haven't really owned up to any of them.
...
Oh well.
So. Catharsis. I use that word in my head a lot. Playing video games is very cathartic for me because I don't need to think about life. Just hit the buttons on time or figure out the puzzle. It's nice. I really don't get why people denounce video games so much, although it's probably along the same lines as drinking or drugs if overdone (people dying in MMORPGs anyone?). But of course, we should be happy when people die due to playing too many video games.
It's called thinning out the gene pool, folks. I don't want that sort of addiction swimming around in my gene pool, thanks.
It's also cathartic at the end of a long work day to clean out the gutters that line the drink station at my workplace. Those things get overfilled with ice and random shit. Guess how you clean it? Well, you take a cup and pour lots of hot water down it. Yup. Pretty complicated, right? Well, seeing all of the ice melt and the shit slide down to the end and watching the steam rise above it all is very relieving to see.
...
Working sucks. The only reason I work is because I'm working towards a goal I probably won't reach. Well, and because having money is nice, and buying things is nice, but really, I could probably go without working for a while. It really sucks. And I wonder how people who really hate their jobs do it for years and years without putting a bullet in their head.
As for a career, like I said, I think I've settled on one. I've said that before, but this time I think I'm sure. I've wanted to be a lot of things: surgeon, anesthesiologist, lawyer, epidemiologist. But then I wondered about them, and why I had wanted to be one. With the exception of the last profession, I had pretty much been inspired by video games. Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright, up there.
It's also weirdly how I've picked up a lot of my sarcastic traits. I can list off a lot of characters I've emulated...erm..let's see. There was Kratos/Regal, way back when, in the days I played Tales of Symphonia. Maybe a bit of Genis or Raine too. I really loved all of the characters from Symphonia, actually.
And then we go into Tales of the Abyss, with the sarcastic fountain known as Jade. I think he was the only character I took a real liking to, aside from Guy. This is said because I can't even remember the main character's name at the moment. Oh, Luke. That's what his name was. Took me about five minutes.
Jin from Xenosaga (the latter games) was pretty cool too, although his none-too-subtle cry of "Attacking!" when attacking an opponent still never ceases to embarrass me. *facepalm*
Cybil from Trauma Center is an amazing character in my opinion. So cool and so badass. She's an anesthesiologist who's nicknamed "The Iron Vixen".
I don't think there's a Phoenix Wright character you really CAN dislike (aside from the villains). Phoenix, himself, is an awesome guy. Edgeworth is an emo bastard but it's nice to see how he changes through the series. Gumshoe. Do I need to say more? Maya's a very cool sidekick to have along, although she suffers from a bad case of Damsel in Distress. Mia's also very nice to have when you need her, but it confuses me with all the spare time she appears to have in her spoilerific condition (not really but honestly if it's a spoiler go play Phoenix Wright now).
There are a lot of characters I admire, and I have this nagging sensation at the back of my head that that's weird. I mean seriously who uses video game characters as role models? But all of those characters listed above, I don't idolize nearly as much as my own character Chrysocollus, from whom my screenname is taken. She's incredibly smart and talented, strong enough to survive when her mind gets shattered, beautiful, and reckless enough to still have fun. She's amazing and it seems like she can honestly do anything she puts her mind to (which I suppose she can because she only exists IN my mind...) short of raising the dead. Oh and I know she sounds like a Mary Sue right now, but when/if you see her in my novel that I will hopefully write in November, I...well, I guess I can't make promises, but I don't THINK she'll be one.
But I have to say, the EBA guys are pretty effin' good dancers. Although it probably hurts when I miss a note and they get sent flying back.
cathartic
Oh yeah I guess I got sidetracked and forgot to mention that I want to develop video games for a living. Seriously, didn't you all already know that anyways?
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.
September 1, 2009
Someone shoot me.
Oh man. Okay. So I went to go hang with a friend of mine today. And we went out to eat, which was nice and filling. Then we stopped by Gamestop, and I told them how much I wanted to work there. Of course, not because Burger King sucks. Because I want to work a game place. Yeah. *cough* Anyways, while we were there, my friend shoved a game into my hands called "Elite Beat Agents", and he told me I needed to play it. I frowned and looked at it oddly.
"It's a music game."
"Is that one of the games I have to play?" ((See my list.))
Well, I got it on the condition he'd play with me ((and all of you thinking to call me a hypocrite here can go die)). So we did. And then I had to go home, and I picked it up and played it at home. Now, lemme tell you, I'm horrible at rhythm games. Really, really suck at them. It's bad to watch and I just failed horribly the first few times I played (sorry! ^^;)
But now, I still suck, but I'm having a LOT of fun playing this shit. You play the game as the Elite Beat Agents (surprise) and you interfere in various people's troubles. For instance, the first level (I think?) is a babysitter has the guy of her dreams (football star lawls) over and she wants to ask him to go steady when she gets a buncha kids dumped on her. Then they ruin everything and the football player threatens to leave if the kids don't. The babysitter then screams for help in the following way:
"HEEEEAAAAAALP!!!"
I think that's actually how it's spelled, or close. Anyways, then the Elite Beat Agents are sent in to help the babysitter and they get the kids all to sleep and the babysitter and the football player have a happy ending. OR SO THEY DO IF YOU DO WELL. The outcome of the person's situation depends on whether you do well in the song or not. So if you cock it up, they get screwed. Don't feel any pressure now, DO YA?!
Anyways...I must confess, I have fallen in love with the simplicity and insane fun of the game. And there's a stage where these two celebrity divas get stranded on an island and use their looks (and breasts) to charm the animals into being their servants. It's ridiculous.
It's set to the song "Material Girl" and it's one of the most fun songs ever. Say what you will about it, if you picked it up and played it, you would be saying the same thing even though the little story events are ridiculous, because the really insane timing you need to get it right is a lot of fun and...and...
Oh fuck it. I'm going to go play it again.
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.
"It's a music game."
"Is that one of the games I have to play?" ((See my list.))
Well, I got it on the condition he'd play with me ((and all of you thinking to call me a hypocrite here can go die)). So we did. And then I had to go home, and I picked it up and played it at home. Now, lemme tell you, I'm horrible at rhythm games. Really, really suck at them. It's bad to watch and I just failed horribly the first few times I played (sorry! ^^;)
But now, I still suck, but I'm having a LOT of fun playing this shit. You play the game as the Elite Beat Agents (surprise) and you interfere in various people's troubles. For instance, the first level (I think?) is a babysitter has the guy of her dreams (football star lawls) over and she wants to ask him to go steady when she gets a buncha kids dumped on her. Then they ruin everything and the football player threatens to leave if the kids don't. The babysitter then screams for help in the following way:
"HEEEEAAAAAALP!!!"
I think that's actually how it's spelled, or close. Anyways, then the Elite Beat Agents are sent in to help the babysitter and they get the kids all to sleep and the babysitter and the football player have a happy ending. OR SO THEY DO IF YOU DO WELL. The outcome of the person's situation depends on whether you do well in the song or not. So if you cock it up, they get screwed. Don't feel any pressure now, DO YA?!
Anyways...I must confess, I have fallen in love with the simplicity and insane fun of the game. And there's a stage where these two celebrity divas get stranded on an island and use their looks (and breasts) to charm the animals into being their servants. It's ridiculous.
It's set to the song "Material Girl" and it's one of the most fun songs ever. Say what you will about it, if you picked it up and played it, you would be saying the same thing even though the little story events are ridiculous, because the really insane timing you need to get it right is a lot of fun and...and...
Oh fuck it. I'm going to go play it again.
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.
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