The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

They announced a new Kirby game.

I mean, I guess they did other stuff too, but damn, THEY ANNOUNCED A NEW KIRBY GAME.
I love Kirby. I am so excited about Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I want to buy four right now. The art style looks fantastic, and I completely trust them to create a Kirby game that’s easy, but fun as fuck. I cannot wait. But I have to. Damn.

But yeah, Nintendo basically knocked it out of the fucking park. They won E3, press-conference-wise. It was a non-stop showing of very strong announcement for the core gamer, as well as some games designed to “convert” casuals to core gaming which could really make it happen. It was good all around.

It was especially impressive to see a sort of return to 2D up on stage. It was probably due to the huge success of New Super Mario Brothers Wii, but between Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns, it’s clear Nintendo is pushing 2D in a huge way. What’s more, these games look pretty damn solid! As mentioned, Kirby looks fun, and DKC Returns looks like a challenging platformer. That’s totally neat.

As a fan of Mario Sports games, I’m kind of displeased with Mario Sports Mix. I mean, I’m sure it’ll be fun, and it certainly is designed to do what they claimed it would, which is convert casuals to more hardcore games. I just need, need a new, fleshed-out Mario Golf. I need it badly.

Also, does anyone actually want a new Goldeneye? That’s right, nobody does. Some people might think they do, but they’re wrong.

Anyway, the most important thing they announced was, of course, the 3DS, which looks AMAZING. That thing has some serious graphical power under the hood, and an analog nub that people are saying is much less shitty than the one on the PSP. What’s more, this is Nintendo, and they’re not going to launch this thing at a high price point. I am all over this, I really am. There is no doubt this is a day one purchase. Even without any real software to back it up yet (They showed a video of a Kid Icarus game, and there’s a bunch of tech demos on the show floor) I want this thing, and they have at least a year to get some games ready to roll for launch, so I’m sure they can make it happen.
Oh, and I guess it does 3D. I don’t care about that? But if it’s as unobtrusive as everyone says, sure, throw it on there. Why not?

Anyway, Nintendo put plenty of things on display to get excited about. But what about Sony? I guess you’ll just have to wait for more ramblings to find out! Dun dun dun!

Because there isn’t enough of them on the internet, here comes my impressions of the big three press conferences at E3.

In Chronological Order, of course. So let’s start with Microsoft.

Microsoft… did okay? Their presentation was very split. They were trying very hard to push Kinect seriously while not making a Nintendo sort of mistake and missing appealing to their core. However, none of it really connected together well. It was almost like two different conferences. Most of their “hardcore” gamer stuff was mostly sequels I knew about and didn’t interest me much. Black Ops? Halo: Reach? Gears 3? I will play these things, but they don’t get me excited. They are known quantities. MGS: Rising was interesting, but I’m also not a rabid MGS fangirl, so I couldn’t get too worked up from that. Was there anything else hardcore? I think that was it? Anything hardcore from Microsoft I’m going to be excited about just wasn’t shown off here.
To their credit, though, I think Kinect could be appealing to the right audience. Game after game that they showed, I went, “Man, my mom would probably really get a kick out of that,” which is what they were trying for. For me, I was especially interested in Dance Central. I trust Harmonix with everything music-related, and I think that game could be obscenely fun. If it’ll be worth the cost of Kinect, though, I have no idea, seeing as they didn’t even announce a price. What the hell? That sort of thing doesn’t bode well for it being affordable enough to have a chance to take off. The problem is that people get the Wii, and people like my parents feel like they “get” the Xbox, and that it isn’t for them. Sometimes I prove them wrong with trivia games, but that’s basically it. The people who bought the Wii probably won’t care about Kinect. It’s going to be a horrible battle to make that work. Not as much of a battle as Sony, but a battle nonetheless.

Then, at the end, there was an Oprah pulled. “Everyone in the room gets a new, redesigned Xbox!” Well, whoop-de-fuck. That was kind of stupid, because everyone at home, including me, just went “What the hell? How is this supposed to get me excited?” Still, at the same time, I realized why they did it hours later when the internet was flooded with unboxings and hands-on impressions of the new system. There was a reason for it. It was just kind of silly. The redesign looks nice, and thank god, they finally built wifi in, but it’s nothing that someone would replace their current system for, unless they simply really, really, really, really, really hate drive noise, and installing games just isn’t enough for them.

In any case, I have no worries about Microsoft. I think they’re still going to continue to win the “hardcore” vote. They simply have the best controller, and the best multiplayer, and even though I don’t give a shit about Black Ops map packs, having those exclusively for awhile is going to net them tons of money and support. They’re doing fine, and I will continue to use their system over the Playstation 3, mostly because of Nerdpoints, but also because that’s where all my friends are. And that will be back.

Stay tuned for more of me boring you with old news about E3 the next two days! Maybe even three, if I think of stuff not press conference related to say! Won’t you be thrilled?

Cara asked me, due to a casual mention in a video I was showing her, “What’s a furry?”

I didn’t really have a good answer.

I mean, I don’t know, I asked Brer and he’s like, “Eh, I just like the art and porn and such,” and that’s a perfectly fine explanation. But that doesn’t really do it for me. That doesn’t sum up what it is. At the same time, it’s not like I’m an otherkin or anything. It’s not a completely spiritual sort of thing that I find in being a furry either. It’s kind of something in the middle.

Basically, I’ve spent years not looking in the mirror and attempting to come to terms with who I am versus “who I am.” The whole time I’ve been doing this, though, I’ve been a furry, and I’ve been online doing these things. When I was online, when I was “poetfox,” I was me. No holdups, no anything. I could just be myself. As such, I find myself thinking of myself in those terms often. I read a story once about how your soul associates and resonates with a “true name,” the name you answer to the most, and that it doesn’t have to be your given name. I think my soul would probably resonate with poetfox more than any other name. I really do.

So that’s part of what furry is to me. It’s putting up a level of abstraction to remove inhibitions and let you be yourself, no matter how weird that person is. The other part is a culture of acceptance. Furries have their inter-group arguments, just like any group, but on a whole, the furry fandom is obscenely inclusive. You can say you’re into really weird shit, and people won’t bat an eye, probably because they’re into weirder shit, and that’s wonderful. Whatever you want is there, and some assholes may judge you, but fuck those guys, you’re cool. You could, say, enjoy playing a CCG about controlling a harem fucking each other. Hell, you could MAKE such a game and succeed enough to make an expansion. And it’s cool. It’s all cool. It’s crazy, it’s awesome. It’s cool.

It’s that culture, real or imagined on my part, and that connection that makes me a furry, unashamedly. Granted, I’m not going to force it on you or rub it in your face, but it’s something I am. It’s part of the description of me. I guess that’s what it is to me. Like any mostly undefined group of people, though, I’m sure it means any number of other things to other people. But that’s what I wanted to attempt to explain to Cara.

And I didn’t, of course. I ended up pointing to my current background and saying, “Oh, that’s a furry.” Which, you know, isn’t completely off, I guess.

It’s just… complicated! Apparently.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is out, and people were saying it was really great! I was like, “Man, I’d like to play a good Metal Gear game again…” and then I realized I had MGS4 just sitting on my shelf, and I had only played the first chapter. Then I played through it and beat it. I’d just like to thank Peace Walker for getting me to beat Guns of the Patriots. Thanks!

Then I’d like to punch Kojima for being so stupid.

Seriously, the ridiculous horribleness of this plot cannot be overstated. Kojima decided that literally every single little stupid thing should be relevant in a really stupid way. Every single character from MGS3 is somehow relevant to this world-wide conspiracy bullshit… it’s just lame.
Here are two minor spoiler examples. The DARPA chief from the original game is SIGINT… just because he had to be involved somehow. Not for any reason reason. Also, Johnny, the guy who exists JUST FOR POOP JOKES gets a ton of time devoted to giving him a happy ending. FOR NO REASON.

What the fuck, Kojima?
Every time a cutscene started, I was overwhelemed by how stupid it was. I mean, MGS has always been a bit over-dramatic, but rarely has it been this in-your-face with stupidity. It beats a player savagely over the head with it for hours on end. Ugh.

When the game actually lets you play, though, it’s really damn fun.

I think my playthrough benefited from having watched that MGS3 LP. It basically showed me how much fun fucking around and not trying to play the game the “right way” with all the sneaking and stuff could be. As such, I actually used guns and killed dudes, and it was a ton of fun running around with the huge arsenal I had, playing with enemies, and being a very old murder machine. With the polygonal head of MGS1 Snake on.

Similarly, the boss fights were a ton of fun, and really well designed. They all took a certain amount of strategy to beat, which was nice. (Granted, since I was playing on easy, I could Kamakaze and dodge some of that strategy if I got annoyed, which was nice as well.) MGS has always done boss fights well, and MGS4 was no exception.

It’s just a shame the game didn’t focus more on the gameplay. I hear that’s what Peace Walker does, and if it can deliver this kind of gameplay without quite as much bullshit, I will be so there. MGS4 doesn’t dethrone MGS3 in any way, but it is pretty solid, if you are willing to skip cutscenes, or go get a snack, or even better, play through with someone else’s save that already has all the guns. Savor each moment of awesome gameplay. It’ll be good, I promise.
Just prepare for Kojima bullshit. Maybe this was his goodbye to such convoluted, unrealistic madness. That’d be cool.

The free version of Eversion has been sitting on my desktop for months. Everyone was telling me I needed to play it, but I continued not to. Probably not out of spite. Probably.
Then it showed up on Steam, and I was making a Steam purchase, and I’m like, eh, okay. So basically, I spent $5 on a game that used to be free that I hadn’t played. I assumed this would get me to play it, and it did. I plugged in my Fight Pad and played through it right then.

So how was it?

First off, I do have to say that I feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth, if I’m just trying to go for value. Yes, I like supporting indie devs, so I’m not mad or anything, but if you were thinking of actually buying the game, I’d wait until the inevitable 1 or 2 dollar Steam sale. At that price, it’s great value, and totally worth it.

Now that I got that negative out of the way, I just want to say that you should play it. The paid version adds some better graphics, achievements, and a few more secrets, if you’re into such things, but the free version would be just fine too. Just give it a try. It’s fun.

The game is based off of a “twist,” and if you’re heard anything about the twist, you know it’s coming. It doesn’t make it any less cool, though. It’s done in a very intelligent way and it does work as advertised, even if you have a good idea that it’s coming. It’s got solid platforming, and a nice style to it. It’s a fun little romp, and if you take the time to collect all the gems and beat the secret last level, it’ll take you a little bit. I think it took me like 3 hours to completely beat the game, but keep in mind that I TOTALLY SUCK at platformers in every way, so your mileage may vary.

It does seem a little split in focus, though. It’s like it can’t decide whether it’s a puzzle platformer, or just a platformer. I suppose it’s a little of both, but it’s actually kind of off-putting to me to have such hard platforming in a puzzle platformer, because the puzzle part means once I figure out what to do, I want to be able to execute it without difficulty, which isn’t always the case in Eversion. Still, I’m probably just a wuss, and I’m sure there are much, much, much harder indie games out there. Just my personal opinion. My personal “sucks at platformers” opinion.

I don’t know what else there is to say about Eversion, so I’m going to stop saying things about Eversion. It’s not perfect, but it’s a fun little indie game, and I like fun little indie games. So there.

I am so good at fucking up rules.

When I played my first game of Thunderstone, I read it as “Go to the Village, Go to the Dungeon, AND Rest every turn.” It’s really “Or.” That’s kind of a big deal.

Still, though, Thunderstone is as advertised, and I was pretty pleased with it.
How was it advertised?
Basically, as Dominion, but with a more clear theme and monster fighting. That’s basically how it works out, too. You’re building up a deck which you shuffle a lot, and you’re killing monsters to earn victory points, which go in your deck and clog it a bit, but you need it to win.

Still, I can see why people really dig Thunderstone over Dominion. It has a much cooler theme, and does seem more well-thought out. However, there are some issues, at least from a first playthrough. As expected, the cards aren’t very easy to read. There are a lot of symbols that aren’t very clear that you have to figure out, which is unfortunate. It’s not Race for the Galaxy bad, but it isn’t great, either. Dominion is much easier to pick up.
The “light” mechanic seems a bit weird, too. Basically, you have three depths of monster you can fight at any time, and there is a light penalty to attack them, which you have to get rid of with light sources. There’s no markers for this light penalty, which seemed to make it hard for people to grasp that it was there. Some sort of play mat to put the monsters on would probably make that clearer. It also just seems weird that it’s there at all. It’s like they were really desperate to make another type of card to buy.
Finally, people claim that the low number of heroes, which everyone needs, that is in every game is a problem. I haven’t played enough to say, but I can definitely say that there was a big shortage of them. I can see people getting annoyed at that. Such shortages aren’t much of a problem in Dominion, because once three piles run out, the game is over. However, in Thunderstone, if nobody is attacking monsters, many piles can run out and the game can still continue for awhile. It makes the shortages a little harder. I feel like this is a feature, and not a bug, but it’s weird.

The biggest problem with Thunderstone, though, is the box. What the fuck were these people thinking? They’ve obviously played Dominion. Why isn’t the box built like that? There’s no good way to sort the huge number of decks in the game in that box, and that is just annoying as fuck. It’s going to make setting up games last much longer than it should, and they should be ashamed for fucking up such an easy, obvious thing.

Still, I had a good time, and I want to play more. Additionally, unlike some claims I’ve read, I don’t think that Dominion is obsolete because of this game. Dominion is “pure,” it is the essence of an idea, and that’s always fun to get back to. It’s easier to pick up and play, and there’s plenty of strategy. Thunderstone, though, has a theme, and more deep mechanics. It’s pulling from the well of Dominion to a different purpose. That’s cool. But it’s a very different beast from Dominion. I think they’ll catch different groups, but I can enjoy both, certainly. Both are fun, but Dominion is lighter, with more variety in what happens, and Thunderstone is more involved and detailed. That’s totally cool.

Anyway, those are my thoughts after a game. We’ll see what I think after I’ve run through all the different cards and stuff after a few more playthroughs.

The Road is a fine film.

This is mostly due to it being based on a fine book, but it was also put together with love. I see that, back then, I was very doubtful that the movie would be any good. I think I was both right and wrong. The Road is a good viewing, but it does lose a bit of something that makes the book so good.

That basic lost feeling is that of desolation, despair, and constantly running time. You get the feeling of how long it takes to get anywhere, and how horrible and pointless it all is in the book much, much more than you do in the movie. Little montages between key scenes just don’t display that quite as much as the long descriptions in the book, and it’s that feeling that really helps to add to the hopeless atmosphere of the book.

The other thing, and one we talked about a lot while watching it, is how Hollywood loves to put in a major female character, even in a story without one. They really do play up the man’s wife in the movie, much more than in the book. However, none of it really felt out of place. He is described as having flashbacks while dreaming all the time. It makes sense to play those out in the movie a bit more in movie form. They worked. They didn’t detract.

Other than these changes, though, it was really accurate to the book, and it made for a good film. All the actors did acting, and did it well. The boy was played by a really good child actor who pulled the difficult role off well. It hit all the major beats of the book, and was very true to them. It was also depressing as fuck, just like the book. Basically, it was exactly how you’d want such a book adaptation to be. Anyone could “get” it, and it was true for fans.

That makes for a boring review, I guess, but it was true. That’s how I felt about it. It was a really great adaptation. It didn’t make me jump up and down for joy, but I appreciated that it was put together well. That’s all I could ask for, and I’m glad I checked it out. If you liked the idea of the book, but don’t like all those words and lack of quotation marks, then you’re good to go on watching this. Go right ahead. I don’t mind at all.

It’s not easy being a Bard/Rogue with a bow.

For one, sometimes a bunch of lizardpeople attack the town when you’re just trying to get a fucking drink, and you have to shoot them up with arrows. That’s something.

For another, you could be teamed up with a band of misfits who decided to name their adventuring company Balls, LLC.

Yeah, I played DnD again.

I was under the impression we were going to be a big more serious, so I tried to create a character and play it as such. However, Essner made a character who was just named his name, which was really kind of silly, and Spaeth was playing a Shardmind who couldn’t decide if he was British or not. Kenny was silly, but was actually roleplaying, I thought, so awesome. He even had a little voice for his Gnome.

Jonathan did a wonderful job as always. He’s a solid DM. The game itself moved a little slow, though. We were in a single combat for something like 2 hours. Granted, it was supposed to be a huge setpiece, with people of the town being attacked around us, but that long in one fight can grate sometimes, especially with Essner. I didn’t really mind too much. I really enjoyed my Bard Arrow powers. None of them hit hard, (Almost all of them did 1W+CHA) but most of them had really great buffs on them. I especially enjoyed Rewrite the Future, where I’d roll an extra D20 and could assign it to someone’s roll before my next turn.

Everyone was very “Let’s just go kick some ass,” which my character had to keep complaining against. I didn’t see her as a reckless person who took risks for no reason. I spent a lot of my RP time arguing with people at the table. I’m sure that’s probably a good thing, but man, I kept “Inspiring Competence” so that they’d see how stupid their strategy was. I’m unsure it worked.

Still, it was a fun time. Hopefully we can get more done next session, though who knows when that will be. Hopefully soon! I can hope for things!

Some days I just don’t know what to write.

This is one of those days.

I mean, I have things to write. I watched The Road, so I could write my impressions of that, and I have IoTMs to review and all kinds of stuff I could be writing about. But I’ve been staring at the post screen for awhile now, and I can’t write about those things right now. I’m just kind of held back. So I’m writing this instead.

There are so many things I could be doing. Games I could be playing through. Let’s Plays I could be doing (Unless my mood changes a lot soon, I just don’t see it happening, which frustrates me. I hate that… but I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried and tried to force myself to do it, but I’m in such a horrible mood, and it’s not really a priority… bleh). So much I could be working on, but I’m not.

I am so tired of being depressed.

I’ve been in an awful mood for weeks now, and it’s, frankly, getting to be really fucking annoying. Mostly because I haven’t been able to hide it well. I’ve been doing things like writing “Symptoms of Depression” on my list of things I brought into work in the thief book, and not being able to answer people when they ask me how I am. I hate bothering people with my shit. If I could, I’d just handle everything without involving them at all.

But they are involved with my life, completely involved. That’s both a blessing and a curse. I’m glad people are worrying about me, but I also wish I was in a state where they wouldn’t have to. I want to be a positive force, not a stupid bitch.

So… yeah… I don’t think I have it in me to write a good post today (Not that I ever do that, really). This is the only time I have left to write this, so I felt I had to write something, but this is… not what I wanted to write. I wanted to write happy things.

I want to be happy.

I’m working on it, I suppose.

Come back tomorrow, I’ll try to have something better.

I bought a dog toy because I had to save it.

This was, of course, while I was out running around with Cara. We were in Best Buy, and I turn and I catch sight of a fox tail out of the corner of my eye, so I have to go see what it is. It turns out it’s a dog toy that is basically a plushie, only without stuffing, so the dog can really rip it up and not make a mess. The pictures on the packaging showed many dogs holding this poor fox in their mouths and looking so happy, while the fox looked so sad, defeated, and resigned to fate.

I couldn’t let him sit there and go through that. I had picked one up to look at him, and I seriously couldn’t put him back. Cara probably thought I was weird. I got in the way of a woman carrying a large box. It was kind of silly.

Honestly, I feel kind of silly. This really would make a great dog toy. I bet Molly would love something like this. But she’s not going to get this one. I’m going to keep him safe. She’s not going to touch him. He’s mine.

Brer mentioned that I’ve been worked up, which I have, and the fact that it’s a fox probably triggered something for me, which it did. Maybe I feel like I’m in the jaws of a happy, nice, but destructive animal, and I’ve given up. Maybe I wish someone would draw me out of this stuff, and keep me safe. I don’t know.

I don’t know.