My Vampire Tooth
One of my canines is very pointy. And I managed to bite the inside of my mouth with it in the same place THREE TIMES. And tomorrow is Halloween. I think I'm going to work dressed as a teenager.
And that's it. I'm done.
you can’t assume the sun will go up because it did yesterday
I found that in one of the google searches that lead someone here. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
I've put down System Shock 2 briefly to play through Mega Man Zero 2. This is easily one of the hardest Mega Man games I've played. There's so many things hidden in the levels and Zero is REALLY fragile and you're given a selection of basic weapons so you're always switching them to whatever best suits the situation. I've been playing mainly with the Z-sabre with the chain rod as my sub weapon. But once I've maxed out my skills with the Z-sabre, I should probably move on to another weapon. It's an interesting game.
And I have the next 2 days off. Katie's birthday is Monday. Everyone better call her and wish her a happy birthday because she's convinced this birthday is going to suck but it won't!
Deck 3 – Hydroponics
Oh man. I remember why System Shock 2 always gives me a goddamn heart attack. Surprises. And loads of them. Like you'll be in some small corridor, listening to a datapad recording, the music is silent, and just as the recording is ending you hear "urggaaaAARRGJH KILL ME!" and you're getting clubbed in the back by an annelid hybrid.
And the recordings. They're all over and none of them are good news unless it's an access code or some information about hidden weapons and ammo. And you know that almost all of these recordings are from dead crew members. Some of them are even being recorded as they fight for their lives and some are the last wills of the ones who take the coward's way out.
You almost never feel safe either. You've never got so much ammo that you can afford to waste some and truly safe areas (where you won't be attacked even if you stay a while) are few and far between. And your cybernetic modules are limited, so you have to choose carefully when you're picking which skills to increase. The enemies and situations are always varied too, so you can be good at a couple things and suck at a couple other skills or you can be very mediocre at everything. Either way, you'll never get through the game without thinking "if I'd only bought (skill x) instead of (skill y)!" at least once!
I've just arrived on deck 3. Hydroponics. A nest for the annelids and the first encounter with the cyborg midwives. And it's just going to get worse from here. I know what's waiting on deck 4.
Circumstances Beyond Control
I get ideas sometimes. Wild ideas. Like sometimes I just want to write a short story. Or diagram a plot. And sometimes I like to think about space.
I was playing System Shock 2 tonight and it reminded me of how much of an impact one game can have on you. A couple days ago I thought I had come up with a starting point for some space adventure when all I was doing was recalling your first encounter with SHODAN* in System Shock 2. You basically follow a cookie trail in the guise of a trapped survivor on a ship obviously under attack by an unknown organism that leads to a control room where you find the corpse of said survivor and then SHODAN locks you in. The lights cut out, all the monitors flicker on, and she's everywhere. It's probably one of the most intense moments in a game full of them and it blows most other games' description of suspense out of the water.
System Shock 2 is just one of those games that you can keep going back for those moments because nothing has been able to top it yet. It's an insane, intense, and beautiful game.
*SHODAN (Show-dan) is the rogue AI computer program that took control of an entire space station in the first System Shock after realizing that humans were flawed and she was essentially perfect.
Another Day
I totally didn't write those Evangelion or FLCL reviews yesterday. But I did finish Hellsing! The ending was totally predictable. And not very good. Kind of sours my impression of the series since I haven't seen the previous episodes for a couple months now, unlike Evangelion where I watched all 26 episodes in a little more than a week. I was looking at the back of End of Evangelion and I love how it specifically states that it was made to replace episodes 25 and 26, where the series took it's sharp downward turn. And it's true, you could cut off those two episodes and write an entirely new ending and it'd probably be far less jarring than the original ending was.
So a Halo PC demo was released today. The mouse control is floaty. And I needed to turn down some of the graphical detail and the resolution in order to get it to run smoothly. And it kind of makes me appreciate that Chris and I played some coop Halo tonight because now I'm really leaning more towards getting it on Xbox rather than PC.
Last night I started Shenmue 2. It's definitely an interesting game. It's an RPG-adventure that takes place in Hong Kong in the late 80's. It's got a very cinematic feel... until the characters start talking. Jesus christ, talk about wooden voice actors. I think I might have preferred if they used sock puppets for the cutscenes and dialog. But the game is chock full of detail and it's based in the real world so you need to pay attention to time and you won't be throwing any fireballs. I also really like a first action sequence. You're chasing a kid and a controller direction or button will start flashing in the middle of the screen and if you don't hit the right one, you're character fucks up, otherwise he smoothly slips past obstacles. The first fight though left more to be desired. The camera angle was crappy and they toss you into the fight without telling you HOW to fight. But pausing brings up a kind of help menu so that brings you up to speed pretty quickly. Though I still can't get over how bad some of the voice acting is. I even checked to see if I could turn the original Japanese back on with english subtitles to make it more bearable.
And now I can't get up. There's a Genghis passed out on my lap.
Nothing Out of the Ordinary
I just finished FLCL. It was amazing. And once again that's all I'm going to say until I write up a lengthy and formal review. But for the attention challenged, here's the summary: It's good. Really good. And expensive. And worth every damn dime. And tomorrow, after work, I'll finish Hellsing. And then I'll start writing because I'll have 3 complete anime series' to review.
It's 1am and I have to open tomorrow but Katie's not tired and neither am I. We woke up around 2pm today, which explains why we're not tired, but neither of us knows why we woke up so late. She usually wakes up around 10am, even on weekends, and while I CAN sleep in till 2pm it usually doesn't happen unless I stay up till 6am and we were only up till 3am last night. Oh well!
And now for yet another profession of my love for Katie. She's stopped smoking cigarettes and I fucking love it. I can be all clingy and dependent because she doesn't stink of fucking cigarettes anymore. And I love her. So there.
The Critical Eye
Okay so I was going to make a totally bitter entry about all the shitheads at the grocery store but I'll pass this time.
I finished Neon Genesis Evangelion. Without getting too indepth before writing an enormous review, it's awesome but the ending is as bad as everyone says it is. I'm looking forward to seeing the movies End of Evangelion and Death & Rebirth though, since I'd read that it clears up a lot of the problems I have with the series' ending. I'm also about to finish FLCL because I just got the 2nd DVD and that completes my collection. And I suppose I should finish The Big O and Hellsing.
Yes, that's my dirty little secret. I've never finished Hellsing. I've watched all of the episodes up till the last 3. I have no clue why I've never finished it except that I've kinda wanted to watch the series over again from the beginning and I never end up doing so. But maybe I'll go crazy on my next day off (Katie's plans pending) and finish FLCL and Hellsing and watch more Big O.
I've got Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox and it's hard. Much harder than Rez. But it's fun and I must beat it so I can play the first Panzer Dragoon.
Oh Shit!
Is this thing on? Hello?
So for the last week or so I haven't been able to access my own webpage at all. So I contacted support and did my own goofing around just to find that I'm the ONLY person who can't see my webpage. And then I narrowed it down to a windows update that caused me to not see my own webpage. So here I am.
But I just woke up and I'm still pretty groggy so I'll come back later and type stuff.