The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I am so fucking sick.
Ugh.
Agh.

I don’t think it’s a flu or anything, it’s just one mean motherfucker (I learned in class last night that, yes, motherfucker is one word, keep that in mind) of a head cold that is taking advantage of the fact that I haven’t really got a good night’s sleep since school started.

So I’m kind of knocked on my ass right now, and trying not to fall behind. I had to call in to the press today and not work in order to nap for three hours… I hope I don’t get too behind. At some point I have to do some homework. Write another paper. I need to do that.
I also need to try Crash Course and play RE5 on the PC with Brer. And beat Mario and Luigi. And stuff.

Ugh, I feel awful.

My students have completed their first paper, and are well on their way to the second. I’ve also graded my first paper, and been observed in class. How did I do?

Good!
Apparently!

On the grading scale, it doesn’t look like I used many C’s or D’s. I had a couple awful papers that ended up as F’s, and a handful of really good papers that got A’s. and then most of the class ended up in the high to low B range. I’m pretty okay with that. It does indicate that perhaps I had a lot of “freebie if you did the work” points in there, since those who got the really low grades were the ones who did not get those. I’m trying to be fairly nice with having those points about, seeing as this is an entry-level course. Seems like the right thing to do.

As far as being observed, that too went very well! My class didn’t, uh, do the assignment at all that day, so I’d probably put the class in the middle of the road as far as how successful the class was. We did get some discussion going, and that was good. I also got points for being very prepared and having a great sort of “classroom persona” and being able to ad-lib useful stuff from student feedback, which is awesome to hear.
(The best thing, though, was that there was no mention of my dress whatsoever. Take that, Mom! I win! Completely vindicated!)

So yeah, I guess I’m doing as well as I think I’m doing? Probably? It’s all going pretty well in my class. Of course, there are already things that I’m probably going to change or fix next semester. But it’s good to know I already have the hang of this stuff. Very good to know.

Are we sick of Tomes yet? No? Cause, you know, this month’s IoTM (with the review barely in in time!) is the Tome of Sugar Shummoning. This is a tome that lets you summon 3 Sugar Sheets a day, which you can then change into a wide variety of equipment. These last for approximately 30 combats, then break into Sugar Shards, which are healing items.

Frankly, I think this is much more effective than the other tome I have, the Sticker Tome. In this run, I have used Sugar equipment a ton. It is amazingly useful in Hardcore, especially in Hardcore Oxy, where a day’s worth of summons can keep you in equipment for all of your day’s turns. The Sugar Shorts stat boost is nothing to sneeze at, and until you build your Legendary Epic Weapon or whatever, a Sugar Shotgun, Sugar Shank, or even Sugar Shillelagh for Seal Clubbers are all viable options. Finally, if you have Torso Awaregness, the extra substats from the Sugar Shirt are almost reason enough to have the tome right there, if you’re a serious ascender.

I compare this to the Sticker Tome, and the stickers just come up short. Sure, there are plenty of very strong enchantments on the stickers, but having to be stuck with the Sticker Sword really just kind of nullifies them for me. The main reasons you’d want to use it would be for things like substat and +item boosts, and both those things just don’t seem worth it if you’re having a lot of trouble killing monsters, which is going to happen if you get the sword early, at 10 power, to use these enchantments. I’m sure that more skilled players use the stickers all the damn time, but I have trouble getting myself to use them if I don’t have Double-Fisted Skull Smashing, so I can still equip another weapon, and even then I rarely think to use it. It just goes by the wayside.
For whatever reason, this temporary equipment clicks with me in a way that makes it feel slightly less consumable, and that makes me take advantage of it. That’s neat stuff. Well, it is to me.

So yeah, it’s another tome. But it’s a very good tome. It comes recommended. Plus, let’s face it, if you’re speed ascending in Hardcore, you need the Sugar Shirt anyway, so you’ve already got the tome. But, you know, at least you can feel confident that I agree with your purchase. Everyone cares what I think, right? That’s why I write on the internet. So people can care about what I think.
Right?

Your game runs in an operating system called MICROSOFT WINDOWS.

Therefore, your game should run in a window.

Your game is meant as a form of entertainment. Therefore, I should be free to consume your game content ANY WAY I DAMN WELL PLEASE. If this means I want to watch twitter while I play, and have your game in a window so I can, then you need to fucking deal with that and make it happen, instead of gimping your game and making it so it only runs full screen, in the wrong resolution, so I can’t even fucking play it.

Ubisoft, stop making PC games. Just stop it. Stop making PC games until you are serious about this bullshit.
Just stop making PC games.
Stop it.

Why do I even buy PC games anymore? Bleh. It is literally throwing my money away. THROWN AWAY. Because only little indie companies actually give a shit about programming their games in a way that works, apparently.

So, Red Faction: Guerrilla may be one of the best games of the year, hands down.

I mention often that, when I play open world games, Crackdown has spoiled me. It’s “missions seamlessly in the world” without having to pull up an instance and the intense, enjoyable level of power you have as you play make it a joy to play, and I just hadn’t seen another game that gave me that sense.
Until now, of course.

There are instanced “major” missions in Red Faction. There are two reasons why this doesn’t bother me. One is that the majority of the missions, called “Guerrilla Actions,” are seamless, just like in Crackdown. You walk up to a building, and you hear over your headset “Oh shit, the EDF are coming, you have to defend this point!” and then you defend it. Or you jump in a car, and Mason goes “Oh, this has one of those special transponders Sam was wanting” and then you instantly are in a race mission to get the vehicle back to base. You also have compounds of enemy forces that need destroying that are just out in the overworld that you can tackle any way you want.
Even when you get into the instanced missions, they do them right. They are significantly varied from what you’re doing in the normal missions. They follow a stronger narrative than the rest of the game, and while you could really care less about the narrative, it at least gives a purpose to them being instanced. And they’re fun. A lot of the instanced missions in games like say, Bully, just weren’t fun to me at all. So that certainly helps.

Red Faction really nails the power thing, too. I can only speak to the game on Casual, but on Casual, you are a walking badass. A one-man wrecking crew. Every time you slam your sledgehammer into a building and whole walls fall down, it feels CRAZY good. You have a playground of different weapons at your disposal, just like in Crackdown, and you can do a lot of different things with them. The Nanorifle is an obvious favorite, able to eat through walls and melt people, but just about all the weapons are fun as hell in their own way. You can blow up buildings any way you want! And the game is all the better for it.

On top of the fun single player, the game has plenty of value. The online multiplayer is extremely solid. Damage Control, the mode that was in the demo, is an awesome variation of the “control point” mechanic that plays into the game’s strengths of destroying shit very well. Siege and Destruction play up these strengths similarly. Siege is a mission-objective based mode where you take turns attacking and defending, trying to protect or destroy a base and turn it to rubble. In Destruction, there is one “VIP” on the team, the Destructor. He gets points for his team by destroying buildings. The rest of the team tries to kill the other team’s Destructor, or protect theirs, or rebuild buildings so that your Destructor has more to demolish. They’re both completely awesome, playing into the game’s destructive strengths to feel very fresh and new. The game also has a level up reward system stolen from CoD4, and is all the better for it.

The real multiplayer highlight, and the reason that I bought this game from Gamefly instead of just renting it, is Wrecking Crew, a hotseat offline multiplayer. You’re given a playground, and weapons, and have to destroy everything. Then you pass the controller to the next player, and they try to beat your score. It is so much fun, especially since you can see what strategies the people who went before you used, and try to improve on them, or just throw them out if they don’t work. So much trash talk has occurred around this mode, and my friends, or at least Essner, were getting so into it, I couldn’t help but keep the game to keep access to it.

So yeah, everyone should play Red Faction: Guerrilla. It just came out on PC, if you’re that kind of person. There are so few flaws in the game, it’s hard not to recommend it. It is an open world game done right, and I loved every minute of it.

So last night, we once again had a Beatles: Rock Band session. After the discovery that my USB headset worked as a mic in the game, we then had the ability, between it and my mic stand, to have three part vocals, no matter how many people were playing instruments. So we took advantage of that fact, and Essner, Spaeth, and I sang. Boy, did we sang.

We were nailing Triple Fabs. We were. Not on every song of course. The brown notes on some songs are just really hard to get without really practicing them, because they’re less intuitive. But man, when we hit those Triple Fabs, with me on Lead, and Essner and Spaeth playing Guitar and Bass… when we hit that… holy shit.

As we ended, and they walked out the door, I said “Nailing those Triple Fabs is probably my best gaming moment of the year.” And I meant it. At the very least, it’s clearly the best music game moment of the year. By far.

Beatles: Rock Band fucking rules.

So here’s how my Wednesday went.

I got up early, and went to school to prepare. I was getting everything all semi-perfect, since Dr. Phegley was observing my class. It all went as well as could be expected, I think, but nonetheless, it was pretty stressful. I don’t know. It’s hard not to feel that way when you’re being evaluated. But I just did my normal thing. That’s the best way to actually get something out of it, right?

So it started out with some stress. Then I worked at the press, huzzah, and then I went home, because I deserved a break, and I was going to have it that evening. I got some Chinese with Spaeth and Jonathan, where I got a fortune telling me to be frugal. Which is funny for the In Bed game, I suppose. Then I headed home. However, I was too tired, due to all the waking up early, so I had to pretty well immediately fall into bed.

A few hours later, I got back up and started playing Mario and Luigi. I buy some fancy gamer mice during the Woot off just because I can. I get the call for dinner, so I save, and close my DS… and then this happens.

Fuck.

I’m not going without a DS, so I immediately call up Essner and Spaeth to give me a hand purchasing a DSi with their Wal-Mart powers. I head to the bank to pick up some cash, and while I’m driving there, my car is making some really weird noises.

Fuck.

I go back to the house, and yes, apparently my brakes are fucked up. So I get to get those repaired. Fucking awesome.

When it rains, it fucking pours, you know?

All of this has left me pretty completely drained. I stayed up later than I should have because I was all moody. I still feel pretty shitty. And I’m complaining about it on my blog.
So there. I suppose.

I keep waking up earlier and earlier.

This is kind of distressing, as I’m probably not getting enough sleep as it is. Scratch that, I know I’m not getting enough sleep. So its probably a bad thing that my get up time is slowly creeping farther and farther into the morning. When I went to the office, the sun used to be out. Not so much anymore.

The bad thing is, I keep taking advantage of it. I keep going to the office and working, trying to get things done. This is good, in that I’m getting stuff done. Exciting! However, it’s bad, because it’s programming my internal clock to go ahead and keep waking me up earlier and earlier.

Today I got up at 5 AM. The day before it was 5:30. Soon, I’ll be getting up before I actually go to bed. That’ll be exciting, surely.

I don’t know. At some point I’ll just kind of collapse and sleep, I’m sure. Catch up. But man, it’s so weird being up so early. There is so much fucking time in a day you just don’t know about, you know? Or at least you don’t know about when your day starts at noon. So strange to get home, having done all my work for the day, and in the past, I wouldn’t even have been awake by that time.

I don’t know. I think I’m taking to this morning person stuff kind of well, but I don’t know.
Dunno.
Don’t know.
Yeah.

No, seriously.

I mean, it’s no secret that I enjoy my fruit-flavored candies. Because I do enjoy them. Very much so. It’s also no secret that I enjoy things that are sour, as well as things that are citrus-y. I mean, you’re reading a post by someone who used to eat lemonade mix as a snack. Just pour some into a cup and eat it. That’s the kind of person I am.

Mike and Ike Lemonade Stand Mix is the BEST CANDY. Oh my god.

Mike and Ike already has a sour variant. They’re called Zours, and they are passable, but not great. The Lemonade ones are everything those should have been. They are so good. Each has a sour kick that walks the line perfectly between making you pucker and being too weak. The various flavors are all citrus-y, but not same-y. Each flavor is distinct. They are so good.

Every time I go to Walgreens, as is a post-Fazoli’s requirement, I have to buy multiple boxes of these things, and I eat them all way too quickly. I am eating a box of them right now, and even though there are countless other things I should be writing about, all I can manage to write on this blog is a poor explanation of how great they are.

I just ate another one. So. Fucking. Good.

So there is a fighting game out there called Battle Fantasia. At some point, I got it into my head that it was very button-masher friendly. I also got it into my head that it has a bunny wizard. Therefore, it seemed like something I should rent from Gamefly, so I put it in my Queue, like so many other games. Then Gamefly sent it to me, and I played it!

I sent it back the next day.

Battle Fantasia has some good ideas, and is competent in some respects. The visuals are pretty great, actually. The 3D characters look very much like 2D ones. They have a lot of expression and life that way. I could see you mistaking a screenshot as all hand-drawn for a few moments, at least. The characters all have a lot of variety in their designs, which is cool.
The game itself is trying to be a hybrid of RPGs and Fighters. Your characters have HP, and you can see exactly how much HP each attack you pull off does, because the damage numbers come out of your enemy, just like in a jRPG. As you land strings of hits without being interrupted, you “Level up.” If you’re interrupted, then you’re going to “Level down.” Everyone’s attacks do different things and have different powers at different levels, which is a cool balancing mechanism, in theory, especially since most projectile attacks require your characters to be at least level 2, which means you have to get in there and be aggressive for at least a few hits before you can really hang back and turtle.

However, that is also really lame. I was playing Watson, the bunny wizard, and I couldn’t really cast any spells until I got in and did some serious Melee damage. That’s not how wizards work! It felt unsatisfying. It also felt much less like I had any control over what I could do, since so much of the Level Up mechanic involves your opponent and variables around him. Some battles, I’d have no trouble keeping Level 3 the whole fight, and then next round I could never level up for more than 5 seconds. Granted, if I had had some higher level strategy, I’m sure I could have countered the assaults that were keeping me down. But as a new player, the mechanic was just keeping me away from trying things and figuring out what they did. Kind of a downer.
The game itself, as well, was much less button-mashy than I was hoping. Maybe I was hoping for the wrong thing, but it seemed really hard to make anything cool happen without really knowing the combos. I never felt like I was even beginning to get effective with ANYTHING during my few hours of play. I didn’t feel like any progress was being made. Maybe I’m just awful, but at least in, say, SFIV, I can start to realize what I’m doing wrong after fiddling around for awhile. I just never really got the mechanics.

The game has a story mode which is, you know, endless dialog scenes followed by a battle. Nothing to write home about. The arcade mode was what made me send it back, though. The last boss requires a gimmick to complete, using moves I didn’t even know existed. Without this gimmick, you literally cannot damage him. After several failures, I eventually looked up how to hit him, and beat him. But it felt like such bullshit, that I wasn’t really willing to put up with the game anymore.

So yeah, I can’t really recommend the game. Go try BlazBlue instead, or just get Street Fighter IV if you need a fighter. I think it was trying to fill a niche that needed filling, at the time, and maybe if there wasn’t all these other top-quality fighters on the 360, I would have been nicer to it. But yeah, Battle Fantasia is not really worth your time.