March 26, 2008

Rapid Fire Ramblings: Zak and Wiki, Classes, Dunwich Horror, FFCCRoF, Yesterday, El-ahrairah, Zak Gramarye

So Zero Punctuation just reviewed Zack and Wiki, and it makes me sad. Because he gives it a good review. And the game was pretty good. But thanks to the Wii controls that supposedly make it neat, I can’t play it, because it requires too big of a commitment. Now, this is going to sound lame, and it probably is, but I want to enjoy my games from this computer chair if at all possible. I very much enjoy having access to the internet constantly while playing, able to casually play for a few minutes, respond to a few messages, and then play some more. Because Zak and Wiki makes me point at the screen to move Zak around, I can’t play this game from this chair. If I could move him around with the Nunchuk, I could play from here, still point at the screen for the occasional puzzle, and be much, much happier. As I type this, though, I realize I just assumed you couldn’t. Yahtzee has a nunchuk drawn in most of the pictures of him playing, so maybe I can… testing… Yep, I’m right. You can’t. So if that changed, maybe I would love it. It would also be an awesome game to play, say, curled up on the couch with a significant other, talking out the puzzles together. It even lets you use additional Wiimotes as pointers to help out this sort of thing. But it just doesn’t fit into my current sort of gaming lifestyle at the moment, unfortunately.

So I got back on the horse today and have gotten to all my classes thus far and gotten all my homework done. I’m doing great! I have to format a paper for MLA when I get home from my poetry class tonight, but otherwise I’ve got all the high-stress stuff done for the week… I’ll probably try to write that other paper tomorrow, though, or at least some of it. A starting point.

So here’s the plan for Friday. At 8:!5 pm, when Jonathan gets home from work, we shall be fighting the elder gods in a game of Arkham Horror, now with Dunwich Horror expansion. I’m not clear on whether we shall be playing a very Dunwich game, in which we only use the new adventure cards for this first time to see the new stuff, or if we’ll go ahead and mix them all in, but it’s going to be quite an exciting time. Show up early and get in some Rock Band or Smash Brothers Brawl, if you’d like! All are invited until I feel like there is going to be more than 8 people. Then you can fuck off and not come. But it should be a good time. After the game, though, I shall have to quickly retire because I got a stupid writing aptitude test in the morning, which will suck. Whee!

So Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates may have the worst story ever in a video game. And I say this having followed the exploits of Ethan Waber in Phantasy Star Universe. At least you could laugh at the horrible, horrible voice acting in that. This story is just so kiddy, and the main character such an idiot… I just hate him. This game is a dungeon-crawling game in the vein of PSO or Diablo 2. This sort of shit shouldn’t be stopping me from running through dungeons, killing monsters, and getting new patterns and supplies to make phat loot. It’s so frustrating. The bit of multiplayer I’ve played so far, though, is exactly what I wanted. Totally awesome. Jonathan still claims he’s going to buy it, so then me and Spaeth will have another person to adventure with.

I also just want to say, on the record, that yesterday, March 25 of 2008, was a really, really damn good day. I don’t know, everything just went right. I got everything I need to get done done, and then some. I had fun. I spent time with my friends. I had a REAL awesome time with Brer… it was a damn good day. I wish I had more days like that.

Wikipedia, source of all human knowledge, tells me that everyone hates Tales From Watership Down. Apparently I am supposed to be “poorly receiving it” because I “want a true sequel.” Well, fuck that. I mean, I’d like a real sequel, but at the same time, the book is really self-contained, and a sequel could very easily muck it up. It is just so good how it is. Now, I could see how someone would get pissed if they just looked at the front cover and started reading. I mean, my copy says, on the front in a fairly large font “The long-awaited sequel to the beloved classic!” That’s completely not what this book is, and I can see if someone actually believed that about it, they would be mad. But I, you know, looked inside, read the preface, saw what the book was before I bought it. (for cheap, I might add, although it was also in that teeny tiny paperback format that I hate so much, so I guess it was a tradeoff) I saw what it was, said to myself “More tales of El-ahrairah? I’m all over it.” and walked up to the counter to buy it. The book has some problems, thus far. Adams has tried to make these stories seem more… connected by having them start with the characters talking about this or that, and then asking for a story, and the character telling the story, like in the main book. I really don’t think it needs that. Then again, I suppose it barely detracts, either. It just seems like a sort of desperate attempt to make legit what is already legit, in my opinion. Apparently the last third of the book is actual stories of things that happen to the Watership Down warren after the novel ends, so that might be bad, I dunno, but for the time being, it’s an enjoyable sort of… side experience to enhance the novel and make me continue to wish I could play Bunnies and Burrows with someone. But definitely not a sequel. Oh no.

Finally, these comics are hilarious, but completely stuffed with Apollo Justice spoilers. Just wanted to link them so I don’t forget about them.

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