The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I really need to get some shit done.

Classes start tomorrow, and I need to do some heavy duty teaching then. I still have a bunch of prep to do. I mean, I don’t doubt I’ll get it done. I’m not stupid or whatever, and while I hope I get more done than the barest of minimums, the barest of minimums, being prepared just for this week of classes, is not going to be hard to achieve, given what I’ve already gotten done. I’m not really worried about it.

But goodness, I feel lost.

I feel disconnected from what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. I feel like pointlessness to my actions, where what I’m doing doesn’t matter. Is it because I’m out of plans and am just in a holding pattern waiting for Brer to get here? Is it the pills? Is it because I’ve been on forced “vacation” for so long and haven’t been doing much I would consider constructive? Disconnected from friends? Swamp gas?

I’m not sure.

It’s kind of extra demoralizing though. I dunno. I assumed most of this shit would stop when I transitioned and, for the most part, it totally, totally has. But then I have days like this, where I feel so lost, even when I’m working on projects, alone, even when I’m talking to my boyfriends and friends, and floaty, even though I’m interacting with my family in physical space for dinner, and I just worry that I’m just kind of wired naturally to feel like shit. I fixed a lot of it by giving my brain the stuff it needs, but not all of it, you know?

I really don’t think that’s accurate. Everybody has off days, sadness, and things like that in their lives. This shit happens. It shouldn’t be happening 24/7, like it was before, but it does happen. That’s life. I think all this worry is really more like… I worry that I won’t snap out of it. Now that I’ve been more happy, and more stable, I do not, in the least, want to go back to how I felt before. Feeling that way, even for an afternoon, makes me scared that tomorrow, things won’t be better. I won’t cheer up, and I’ll go back to how things were. I’ll feel like I’m unable to get out of bed, and continue living. I freak out about that happening again. And that freaking out would, in the past, cause me to get even worse, and continue to spiral downward, again and again, into that black abyss or something less cliche.

I guess that is the difference, now that I say it. I’m not getting worse. Feeling like this is not making me sing songs about killing myself, or about how much of a disappointment I am, as I go about my daily stuff. I’m not falling down where I can’t get up. I don’t feel great, but I’m not doomed. That helps.

I’ll get some sleep. That’s probably a bit part of it. We’ll see how things go, and we’ll see how much I am overthinking what will probably just end up being my normal apprehension to change, namely changing to this new teaching schedule, which I’ve felt basically every year I’ve been in school before school started. We’ll see.

I just want to write about this for awhile, so I guess I will.

This whole being an insane fan is kind of new to me, and weird.

Awhile back, I realized that I didn’t just like MLP: Friendship is Magic, but that I was one of those crazy fans that sometimes gives people who like a thing a bad name. I am way, way too the fuck into this. It was just kind of surprising I didn’t realize this until I was looking around at all my pony toys while under my pony blanket, head against my pony pillow, while I was listening to pony fan music. You’d think me writing so much crap for Mafia would have clued me in. But, you know, I realized it, anyway. My theory is that I am trying to use this very good show as a means of achieving the girly childhood I never actually got to have, but that’s neither here nor there. Either way, I am totally into this shit.

I don’t mind, really. I’ve never seen any point in being embarrassed of things you like. That’s just wasted energy. This realization has not caused me to enjoy the pony shit any less. If anything, it made me worry less about what I do enjoy. I’ve stopped questioning it. Of course I like that silly fan thing. I’m a silly fan. Example: earlier tonight Lobst exposed me to this Friendship is Witchcraft thing. It was very slow-paced at first, and kind of deadpan, and I didn’t get it, but by the end of all the episodes I literally couldn’t stop laughing at it. It’s basically Ponies: The Abridged Series. It’s so good. I stuck with it until it clicked, and I finally found what it’s sense of humor was, because, fuck, I love this show, this was made for me, surely there’s something there for me, I’m a crazy fan. And there was. Whee!

Anyway, being hopelessly obsessed with something isn’t a bad thing if it’s not ruining your life. (I have nice work things going on and I’m not destroying my relationships, so I’m not worried about that!) I’ll be obsessive if I want to be. However, it’s a different thing to be an ANNOYING OBSESSIVE, and this is what I am now worrying about.

Going back to that show, I immediately wanted to link it to everyone, I was laughing so hard. I wanted to show them clips and a bunch of stupid stuff. I mean, I get to do that here, because if you’re reading my blog, you know the kind of bullshit I get into, so you brought it on yourself. But like, I just had this urge to force it on everyone because it gives me such joy and I want them to see what I love in it and feel that same joy. This, Molestia, so much shit that just isn’t going to be funny to people, I want to force on them. There’s something great here! I want them to see it!

But that’s the problem with these sorts of obsessions. You don’t see how deep into that stuff you have to be to understand what’s going on, because you’ve already basically drowned in it and grown a set of gills to live on the sea floor. I’m not saying people can’t understand why I find this stuff funny. I’m sure they can. But for it to click for them, for them not to just understand it on an intellectual level, but have to actually make them laugh, they need to have this general knowledge of the fandom, fanon, the show… so much stuff that the majority of people just aren’t going to have. Laughter is fun, but having to understand to get a joke? That’s work. That puts strain on things. That’s annoying. That’s exactly who I don’t want to be.

If I become that annoying person, please slap me. I worry I am. I find the back of my head trying to find excuses to bring ponies into conversations, and that’s frustrating. I do my best not to act on them, at least not around people who aren’t into it too.

But I mean, still, there’s some great stuff out there, you have to admit.

RAMBLINGS!?!

I was at work, and Clint goes “Hey, I know you like hours, so here’s a shift I was about to post, would you like it before anyone else sees it?” and I said, “Yes! Thank you very much!” and took it. The next day, I get a message on my phone. “That shift you picked up yesterday was already taken by someone, so you don’t need to come in.” Which was annoying, but whatever. More free time before the semester starts is never bad. Today, I go in to work, and someone is trying to give away the EXACT SAME SHIFT I WAS TOLD I COULDN’T HAVE. So I took it. But it all feels really stupid. So I thought I’d share it.

There’s a thread on Talking Time where you’re supposed to post everything that’s changed in your life since you started posting there, so I posted that. It was a lot of shit! In any case, there was talk about relationships in there, and cool dude upupdowndown was like “Awesome things are going well, but man, you poly people need to come equipped with diagrams or flowcharts or something to keep things clear.”
So I made an Org Chart of my relationships and posted it because, you know, humor.
At the same time, after I did it, I’m like “Well, that is accurate. I hope everyone on it likes the way it is.” I think so, but, you know, I do so love to worry. WORRY.

There’s this sign at work that says “Do these two things and save 300 bucks on your health insurance premiums for the year.” And I’m like “Well, I could clearly use 300 dollars for doing basically nothing.” But one of the things I would need to do is get a health screening or something from a doctor. I don’t really have a general health doctor, much less someone that understands my situation. So now I’m convinced I should do this thing, but I’m worried about how fucking awkward that encounter will be, and if whoever does this examination is going to understand what’s up with me. That’ll be an “adventure”!

And going from mild awkwardness and annoyance to something way worse, have you seen this shit? This sort of thing is why I don’t read the news. Dammit, that pissed me off all day. This guy gets to basically publicly threaten many people’s lives for no reason, and will probably get away with it. What’s worse, he is an ELECTED OFFICIAL. This guy is helping to run our country. Why the hell are people with such hate anywhere near running anything? Why do people hate like that for absolutely no reason? It just… bleh.

I’m going to head to bed now. Not all people are awful! For example, you are pretty awesome. Just saying. Goodnight.

It’s Friday the 13th! oooOOOOOoooh! And what better way to scare yourself than by reading about BAD GAME DESIGN DECISIONS! ooooOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!

Anyway, Tropico 3. I was playing along, quite enjoying my time with the game. I mean, it’s got a clever angle, and it’s pretty fun, although I knew it wouldn’t be fun that would last for me. Still, I was having an enjoyable few hours with it before I returned it to Gamefly.

I got to a mission where I was on an island that sucked at farming. So the game, after I get going, pops up a tooltip: why not build some fishing wharfs in order to make sure your people have enough food? A great idea! I didn’t know that was an option! A flat beach area is the only place you can really build one of those, but luckily, my island had a long beach off to the side of the dock the game started me with. I prepared to build some fishing wharfs there, and soon enough, they were completed. All I needed then was to hook up the wharfs with roads so the fish could be transported quickly and get everyone fed. I whip out my road-building tool and start putting a road there.

Only I can’t.

The game will not let you build roads with really sharp turns. The game will also not flatten terrain that it considers too intense, like, say, the little rocky mountain thing by the beach where the dock and wharfs are. It also doesn’t let roads intersect with buildings.

The initial placement of the docks was such that there was no way to build a road around them to the only place where you could build those wharfs. You’d either make the road clip into the area blocked off for the dock, so you couldn’t build it, or you’d hit the mountain, so you couldn’t build it, or the road would turn too sharply, so you couldn’t build it. You simply couldn’t get trucks to these wharfs. It was impossible to actually set up what the game’s tool tip told you to do. It took me like 20 minutes of trying desperately to move shit around to figure this out. I restarted the mission three times, figuring I must have placed SOMETHING in the wrong location. Nope. It’s just impossible.

Needless to say I quit that mission immediately and played another one. But thanks for that, Tropico 3! That was pretty frustrating.

What am I wanting to say again? I feel like I had a bunch of little stories… Oh yeah.

HEY GUYS I ATE A SALAD. But other than that, I bought salad dressing. For a long time, I wished I could find a dressing that tasted just like the Honey French they use on the Honey Bacon Club at Quiznos. It’s the sauce, more than anything else, that makes that sammich, and I wanted to be able to apply that to sandwiches I made at home, and thus never have to walk into a Quiznos again. Previous attempts to buy such dressings tasted terrible, and I kind of stopped trying. In any case, with this whole “salad” experiment, I ended up trying again and buying the Schnucks generic store brand California French dressing. It was PERFECT. Not only did it do just fine on the salad experiment, but I placed some on a sammich and it was everything I had ever wanted. Needless to say I will be buying this dressing for a long time to come. Blogs about groceries are fun, right? Maybe?

I got a weird package in the mail, and then I opened this package and it had a booster pack of Furoticon cards in it. I had completely forgotten about this thing: they were giving away free booster packs if you signed up for their new loyalty program (which in itself is insane that they have a loyalty program) so I’m like eh, why not? It wasn’t a real booster pack, perse. It was just a bunch of spare commons and uncommons from all the sets they had lying around, I guess, so they made these little packs and put them in leftover booster wrappers to maybe drum up more business. I can’t blame them, it was a good idea. I got some cards I didn’t have, and it made me look back at the website and remember how insane it is that this game exists and consider, for a brief insane moment, ordering more cards. It also reminded me that they still owe me a ridiculous novel with my fat pack I ordered from them a long time ago. They send me e-mails every so often promising me that it’s still coming. I’m not mad if I don’t get the dumb thing? But it’s going on a year. With everything else about this outfit being so professional, it’s just kind of surprising? But eh. The game has cards like this (SFW). And that’s a very common, very useful utility card. That’s like the Rampant Growth of Furoticon. Yeah.

I was at work, wearing a pony shirt because I am a small child. I am talking with my team, and a young girl in glasses, I want to say like 4th grade but I am a terrible judge of age, comes up to me and says, “I love your shirt.”
I blink, and go, “Wow, thank you!”
She goes, “I watch that show all the time!”
And I go, “Me too! It is an awesome show.”
Then I said goodbye and went back to work. But that simple little encounter just had me grinning. I dunno what it was about it. Maybe that little girls think I’m a cool lady. Or that, yeah, this show I like is a show that its intended audience ALSO likes, which is a good thing for the longevity of said show. Or maybe it’s because I hope the idea that I’m an adult and I like the show will do a little bit to help her feel comfortable enjoying whatever the hell she wants at any age. But I think it was just because if I was her age, I would have never had the guts to go up to some random adult and tell her how cool her shirt was. She wanted me to know I was wearing cool stuff enough to push past that. That girl was awesome, and I’m glad she said that to me. No matter what silly reasoning I want to create for it, that made my day, no joke. Kids are so awesome sometimes.

Also, the employment front is looking pretty good for me right now. They went out of their way to give me a fourth class to teach this semester, which will really help my finances and also be totally awesome. It’s a bit of a commute, but they are reimbursing me for travel, so that’s nice. Seriously, Three Rivers has been pretty completely awesome so far, and although tomorrow’s trip down there might get a little weird as I have to show all my paperwork, etc, I’m sure this next semester is going to rock. On top of all that, the sole employment opportunity at the University Press has opened, and I am so, SO applying for that. I am so qualified for this position it is INSANE, and I would love every second of doing that job. I am going to get in on that. We’ll see if Susan wants me for it or not, though. Either way, my employment future is looking fine, and that’s nice to know.

Alright, well, we’ll call that a blog. Meet me back here tomorrow. There might be more blog. Okay, will be more blog, let’s not lie. There will be.

2011 was a fantastic year. Sure, there were a lot of shitty parts of it, such as, say, my grandma being hospitalized and having to live in a nursing home for awhile. That sucked hardcore. I got my heart broken, but to be fair, that was my fault. I had to work a million swing shifts at Kohl’s, which was kind of terrible, but at least it was employment. The parents keep not supporting me in my transition, and that’s stressful, any my best friend told me something similar. So yeah, bad stuff, I suppose. But fuck, did I accomplish a lot. I mean, I’m me! Fucking finally! How many New Years in a row have I wished to accomplish that? I finally did it. And I’ve been me long enough that it really feels like my natural state which, when I realize it, just make me grin so damn hard. I got my masters with a 4.0! I wrote a fucking book! I got a short story published in a legit Lit Mag! I started having an adult teaching job! I bought a goddamn house and started living on my own! I visited my boyfriend, of like 7 years at this point, for the first time, met his family, and didn’t die from it! Not to mention, I helped put plans in motion to get him living in close physical proximity to me, finally! Yeah, when all is said and done, 2011 was a fucking fantastic year, and I am in such a better place now than I was at the beginning of it, it isn’t even funny.

In any case, it’s the time of year when you make resolutions, and decide what this year is going to be about, for better or worse. I have my resolution: Relax. For so long I’ve been stressed about needing to transition, needing to get out of school, needing to get to a point where I can get my life on track… and I’ve done it. I did that. I worked damn hard, and I did that. I deserve to have some fun. I deserve not to push myself crazy hard working on another thing and another thing and not be happy with what I’ve accomplished. I’m not saying that I shouldn’t accomplish things, goodness no, but I’m saying that, for once, I should put some focus on making sure I enjoy what I accomplish, and that I have enough time to breathe and, well, relax. Maybe it’s selfish to say, but I feel like I’ve earned a little relaxation, and I often self-flagellate myself out of actually taking it or enjoying it. This year, I’m going to try to take that time. Maybe I’ll take a vacation I plan myself for the first time in my life. Or maybe I’ll just enjoy actually having my wuff next to me on the couch for once when I get home from work. Either way, I’m going to relax, and enjoy my new-found happiness.

Here’s hoping 2012 is as awesome as 2011.

There are always games that are considered, but don’t make the prestigious (?) cut of being on my top ten list. Still, I like to point them out, as they’re still fine games. But before I do that, let’s talk about what games are glaring omissions from potentially being on any list. These are games I simply didn’t play this year. They might have had a shot, but it just didn’t happen.

Skyrim: I’m sure I’ll love it. I never got to it.
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland: I will clearly love the fuck out of this one, but again, haven’t cracked the plastic on it.
Stacking: Double Fine is pretty fantastic, and I’m sure this is funny and clever, but even though I own the thing (I bought it during a sale) I’ve never loaded it up.
Fortune Street: What a smart looking board game! But I haven’t spent near enough time with my friends recently to even think about playing something like that.
Professor Layton and the Last Specter: Got it for Christmas, haven’t tried it yet. It’s kind of a known quantity, but it’s good stuff, I’m sure.

Anyway, let’s get to those honorable mentions! These aren’t in any particular order.

Dark Souls
I thought that, much like Demons’ Souls, I would play this as just a curiosity and send it back to Gamefly, but this much-improved spiritual sequel really got it’s hooks into me. It’s probably still a bit more obtuse than it really needs to be. But there’s just something to the very skill-based combat and the way the world feels like a cohesive place you’re stumbling through that keeps me wanting to go back again and again, even as I die over and over and probably build my character wrong.

Neuroshima Hex
A port of a board game I didn’t know anything about, Neuroshima Hex hits the sweet spot between being complicated and being simple. Each of the armies plays very differently and gives you lots of options, and the Hex-based placement system makes turns go fast, but you never feel like a turn is unimportant. Sure, it’s a bit of a learning curve figuring out some of the icons and how the initiative system works, but once you’ve got a grip on that, you’ve got a damn good hotseat versus game that will only be improved once they get around to putting in online asynchronous multiplayer.

Ascension: Rise of the Godslayer
A card game port I didn’t know anything about, Ascension is a twist on the Dominion formula, but instead of picking a set of decks to play with every time, you have a static deck you cycle through with tons of options. In some ways, this makes the game even more strategic, because you always know what strategies are open to you from the get-go, but you can’t be sure the deck is going to deal out key cards to buy in time. Asynchronous multiplayer just adds to how awesome this game is. I guess there’s an expansion now that I haven’t tried? But the base game alone is worth the price of admission.

Virtua Tennis 4
If you had told me a sports game without “Mario” in the title would be anywhere near any best of list of mine, I would have told you that you were insane. However, I really considered booting Tiny Tower for Virtua Tennis 4 on my list for much longer than I probably should have. I just can’t believe how fond I think back on my time with that game. The honestly ridiculous board game campaign was just so much fun, and seemed created just for me, and the way you could make custom “super shots” that tailored to your playstyle was genius, even if they took a bit too long to unlock. If they kept that campaign in the next game and refined it more, I could see me buying Virtua Tennis 5, and me typing that feels weird, but it’s totally true.

Trenched
I guess it’s Iron Brigade now? But the name doesn’t matter. Double Fine made a game that has actual gameplay mechanics instead of just some stuff you do while you wait for more jokes, and that is awesome. The customization on your Trench is a lot of fun, letting you play just how you want to in a group, and when you get four people together online, this game is magic. It has some flaws: the lack of endless modes at launch was one, for example, and the boss battles didn’t completely work as well as the normal stages. But it is a blast. If you have friends you can play with, purchasing this game should be a no-brainer.

That’s it for gaming of 2011! I look forward to playing way too many games in 2012 as well. Off we go! To the future! And, you know, to Ragnarok.

Okay, let’s see… five more to go! Tomorrow I will address Honorable Mentions as well as Glaring Omissions of what I think could have had a shot at this list, but I never got to play. But that’s tomorrow. LIST GO.

5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Why didn’t anyone tell me being a total dick in video games was fun? Deus Ex lets you play in whatever manner you’d like, pretty well, so I just kind of did the sort of things I like to do in video games. It quickly became obvious to me that I was playing a total sociopath, manipulating people’s emotions and murdering anyone even vaguely in my way without a second thought. Once I had that into my head, and could wrap it into the fairly decent story of the game, my enjoyment level shot through the roof. The combat has some weird control issues sometimes, but is solid and fun, and the “Social Battles” are fantastic. Really, the only thing that doesn’t quite click in this game is the “Rejects from Metal Gear Solid” boss battles, but they don’t hinder the game in any way. This really is a game you must play, especially if you like a good western RPG.

4. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
New game from the Phoenix Wright guy? You know I was going to be there. However, Ghost Trick is just so, so much better than Phoenix Wright. I will always love Phoenix Wright’s cast of characters, and will keep playing games in the series, but let’s face it: the gameplay is kind of shit sometimes. Ghost Trick’s gameplay, on the other hand, is a joy. It’s clever, different, and fairly easy to understand. At the same time, there’s a whole new cast of characters with just as much lovable charm as Phoenix and his friends, and frankly jaw-dropping rotoscoped visuals and animations that give the game an impressive look. Hopefully they will port this to the iPad in America, where it would also be awesome, but it is totally worth the cost of a DS game. It’s great.

3. You Don’t Know Jack
Do you have friends? Then you should own You Don’t Know Jack. I have thanked my lucky stars that Jellyvision finally made another one of these things every day since it came out. It is fun for everyone, even those who actually don’t know a lot of trivia like my parents, and it is just flat-out hilarious. You don’t get better comedy writing than this in a video game. There is no better time with friends sitting on a couch, for serious. I could gush on and on about this game, and how stuff like the Wrong Answer of the Game is brilliant, or how thankful I am they included Big Button Controller support, but seriously, just fucking buy it. It’s dirt cheap, and worth every penny.

2. Saints Row: The Third
No one game should have all that power.
Seriously, this game is just near-perfect. The shooting is fun, the upgrades are insane and completely satisfying, the customization is above and beyond the call of duty, and the story! Fuck. All of the characters are shockingly real people in a world of utter ridiculousness, completing missions that never really fail to keep topping themselves time and again. The game is crude, but funny as fuck with it, and entertaining for every damn moment of it. I didn’t give a shit about the previous games in the series, but now I am going to buy the fourth game day one. It was incredibly, incredibly hard for me not to give this game the #1 slot. I was grinning the entire time I played the damn thing. So strap it on. You should really play Saints Row.

1. Portal 2
If you’re wondering why I went with Portal over Saints Row, it’s for the writing. Saints Row has some fantastic writing, don’t get me wrong, but Portal 2 tells a story, a good story, and has characters that grow over time while still being completely hilarious and entertaining the whole way. Seriously, it is impossible not to love Wheatley and Cave Johnson for being so funny, but they also have very strong character arcs, which is just impressive. The presentation is top notch. The gameplay is honed so much you can forget it is an engineered video game level, even when it is. You never get stuck, and you always seem to solve the puzzle at just the right time, and feel like a badass for doing it. On top of that, the co-op, which I still fucking need to finish sometime, is in some ways even better than the main storyline! It shows that Valve can really fucking make a single player video game. Make some more, Valve!

Tomorrow I’m going to go over a few Honorable Mentions that were considered, but didn’t make the cut. I’ll also address a few of the obvious missing pieces on this list. So, you know, see you then?

Hello. Let me tell you about the top 10 video games of the year. Well, half of them. Because there are three days left of the year and I guess I can break them up if I want to, and thus I am. So 10-6 Today, 5-1 Tomorrow, and then Honorable Mentions/Glaring Omissions on New Years Eve. Sound good? Hope so, because that’s what I’m doing. Let’s get to it.

10. Tiny Tower
In retrospect, in a lot of ways, it’s kind of embarrassing to have Tiny Tower on here. Also, a lot of people wouldn’t call it a game. But let’s just say it’s the game-like experience I played the most this year, by far. I certainly didn’t keep up with anything else for months and months. It is just a really well crafted version of… whatever you want to call the genre of games like that. If you got addicted to it, I wouldn’t blame you, and I just can’t imagine it not being on this list, given all the time I wasted with it. So here it is.

9. Shadows of the Damned
As I think we’ll find as I climb up this list, I am a sucker for good characters. Johnson and Garcia Fucking Hotspur are two of the best characters of this year. They’re constantly entertaining and ridiculous in completely believable ways. By far the best parts of this game are when the two characters are reading Children’s Storybooks from Hell to one another. The plot, the world, everything is, well, a Suda 51 game, so it’s a bit crazy, to be sure. However, unlike most Suda games, the gameplay is actually decent. It won’t change the world, but it is enjoyable, and that helps you be able to keep playing to get to more awesome character moments.

8. Bastion
Remember what I just said about two seconds ago about good characters? Rucks, the Stranger and Narrator of this game, is a fantastic character. Him talking to you, and all the fantastic music and everything in this game, just make it an outright joy to play, and a game you don’t want to end. Add to that incredibly smart in-game systems to tailor difficulty to exactly what you want and the fact that the fast-paced combat is just AWESOME, even for someone who normally hates doing things like blocking and dodging, and you have one of the best games of the year.

7. Dead Space 2
When Dead Space 2 first came out, I made the decision I was going to try to catch up with this series. The demo for the first game didn’t grab me, but I figured I had a Gamefly subscription, and I should try it. When I did, the first game immediately clicked with me, and I was starving, hungry for this one. What I got when I played it was a game that basically did everything way, way better than the first game, letting me slaughter and murder with fun weapons all over much cooler environments. I suppose there was a stronger story in this one too, but I really don’t think this is a game you play for the story. The action speaks loud enough alone. This is the best 3rd Person Shooter to come out this year. Take that, Gears 3.

6. L.A. Noire
I am so glad I listened to people when they told me that, no, this wasn’t another Rockstar blah GTA clone, but instead an Adventure game, with ridiculous production values. I took a chance on it, and what do you know? It was an Adventure game, with ridiculous production values! Features like making your partner drive you everywhere to skip the tedious moving around town was just genius, and while the Truth, Doubt, Lie system has a lot of flaws that people have pointed out to me, I enjoyed working my way through the cases and interrogating suspects. Most of the characters were fairly entertaining as well, although sometimes leaning a bit hard on stereotypes, and were entertaining to listen to. If you like Adventure games, noire, or just watching a good story play out, L.A. Noire is a game you should play.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more listing, because everyone loves lists! I have it on good authority.

I finally got a break from all the insanity of the holidays to play some more Dark Souls.
Dark Souls is a really great game.

I know, I mean, I completely know, I know that I will give up on it and not see it through to the end. But it’s just amazing to me that I can die via a curse that permanently halves my HP until I go to a specific spot to get healed by spending a valuable resource, a place I have absolutely no idea how to get to, and I still don’t want to give up on the game. I still want to keep going and see all it has to offer.

I mean, shit, the strategy in this game is so much fun. I’ve joined the Warriors of the Sun, so I can now throw Lightning, and I have tons of faith to power that shit. I can just slaughter people with it, and it makes running around so much fun, especially when I know I’ll get to a bonfire soon so I can just waste charges smoking random enemies.

I fought the Capra Demon today. Every time I’d fight him, he’d slam me the moment I entered the fight and basically kill me right there. I couldn’t get away from him fast enough. It took many deaths before I went “You know, maybe I should just equip lighter armor.” The moment I did that, I had little problem. I could roll right past him and his attack dogs. I ended up luring him up the stairs, jumping off so he’d following me, then running back up the stairs and sniping him with lightning before he could reach me again. Smoked him in 3 shots. This is a guy I had died to probably about 15 times before this happened, and the defeats were near-instant. It felt so damn good to kill that stupid rat demon! That is why this game is so awesome. I was completely screwed, but when I figured it out, it was a breeze. You feel smart, in the same way that say, Portal makes you feel smart for solving something in that “a ha!” moment. The difference is you also feel skillful, because the solutions take a lot more skill than your average Portal puzzle to pull off. Those mostly just take brains, you know?

Similarly, I ended up exploring the Depths, where I accidentally fell into this horrible sewer maze and wandered around for awhile. I had no idea how to get out, and I was seeing monsters like Basilisks (which is what eventually killed and cursed me) and a gigantic fucking rat about 2 stories tall. The level of intensity I felt during that sequence was just amazing. Sure, I could have cast my Homeward spell, and now that I think of it, I really, really should have! But no, I had to see what the game had in store for me down there. It turns out it was turning to stone and halving my HP permanently. Thanks, game! But at least I found a cool Poison Resist shield before that happened.

I’m sure if you’ve played this game, or been around other people who’ve played this game, these are all stories you’ve heard before. I’ve certainly heard them. But when they happen to me, and I’m not screaming in anger but instead just like “HOLY SHIT!” That says something to me, you know? It really does.