Stupid Hard Levels!

I so need a PS3, as if MGS4 wasn't enough of a reason.

So anyway...

Let's see.. a little update...

In the realm of car drama, the folks finally got around to fixing my sat radio. So it works now, finally. Awesome! However, in the process, they cracked the wood paneling (again). Also... in my sheer stupidity I had them add in an iPod adapter, only to find out the adapter doesn't work with an iPod Touch, thus rendering it basically useless. (I guess I can use my old iPod, but that's a little ghetto). Also.. they drilled a bigger hold in the back of my glove compartment to run the wiring so it just looks like pure ass. I'll have to pick up my own plastic stopper thingie to just make it look right.

All in all, typical shoddy workmanship. Why am I not surprised? There's really no one to blame but myself.

Totally sucks.


Age of Conan has been released.

I played it on beta and couldn't get much past level 10. Mainly because I was so bored out of my friggin' skull and I thought the character animations/look were absolutely terrible. Frankly, I'll keep my abstract lookin' WoW to not even uncanny-valley, just straight up ooooglay avatars.

Yeah, I realize the gameplay is supposed to be different then WoW. And it is. Sort of. But not really to some revolutionary extent that I'm, pardon the pun, "WoW-ed" by it. And for another monthly subscription fee?

Meh.

I'd rather just finish getting my Vindicator set and getting my drood up to MT Kara-spec.

~ddd

Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations

So I'm playing Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations for the Nintendo DS and I get to a part where I'm stuck.

Very stuck.

Stuck as in, for the past month or so, I haven't been able to get past a part in the trail. It's a comical part -- an old man on the stand and all you have to do is prove that his memory is full of holes, like swiss cheese. Should be trivial, yes?

No.

So I am loathe to do it, but I do it, and I do an FAQ on the game, for that level, and I read:

VICTOR KUDO'S SECOND TESTIMONY: ABOUT THE VICTIM
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
-He was another of those pesky young types, wearing a broken pair of
spectacles.

-He had a newspaper in his right hand, and the noisy brat kept rustling
its pages!

-The young man was listening to the wireless. I remember that well.

-Then the serving girl in question brought over the javaccino.

-The little fidget picked up the cup with his free hand and took a sip.

If he was holding the newspaper in his right hand, then his free hand
would be his left hand. Take a look at the Coffee Cup. The handle is
pointing out to the right: that means that he drank from the cup using
his right hand, not his left hand. Present the Coffee Cup against Kudo's
last statement, the one about the free hand. Kudo will start causing a
fuss and wants to testify, and Godot allows it. Kudo will now start
again.

WTF. The coffee cup? You can't imply what hand the person used to pick up the cup by the coffee cup itself. It makes no difference whatsoever.

HOWEVER, what does make LOGICAL sense is what I kept trying to present an objection with, which is the answer to the NEXT part of the trial:

VICTOR KUDO'S THIRD TESTIMONY: LEFT HAND OR RIGHT HAND
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
-The boy was wearing his earpiece on the same side as the green lens of
his specs.

-He kept fiddling with it all the time.

-He was fiddling with it just before he picked up the cup, too.

-And then he used the same hand to pick up the cup. His left hand!

Kudo's really insistent, isn't he? Time for him to crash and burn.
Present the prescription bag against Kudo's last statement, the one
about his left hand. Wasn't the victim deaf in that ear? Kudo goes
ballistic and starts singing the pidgeon song! Kudo wants to testify one
more time and, again, Godot allows it. Time to face the music.

Very good. He wouldn't be listening to the radio because he was deaf in the ear that the radio ear piece would've been in. Not by some half-baked "the coffee cup handle is on the right side so he picked it up by the right side" bull.

What fantastically terrible game design there. I'm really displeased with that. I must say, this has been the only time something so trite like that has happened so...

... it could be worse. I guess. It could be Assassin's Creed which has little to nothing to do with assassination so much as flamboyant sword play.

Rock Band

Just because it cracks me up every time I watch it...



Thanks Joystiq

Women working on Games

So I'm following the Multiplayer blog over at MTV, and they're doing this thing about interviewing women in games. Today is Elspeth Tory [Assassin's Creed].

I really resonated one of her replies to the question:

Multiplayer: You talk about how women should be become more visible. You’ve obviously become more visible by working on “Assassin’s Creed.” Do you feel like you should be a spokesperson for women developers and gamers?

Tory: Well, I don’t know, a spokesperson so much. You just get that feeling that sometimes when people have stereotypes that if you come along and reinforce it, it just makes things infinitely worse. So let’s say that a lot of guys think, “I don’t know if a woman can do that well.” Let’s say that’s what they thought initially. And then you come along and, [they realize] “Hey, you do it well.” So I think that I really felt that pressure to just make sure that every time, if anyone had a stereotype, that I broke it. And that’s something that I think it was important for me to do, just as a personal quest, to make sure that any other woman who came along, that that stereotype wouldn’t be there. At least the last woman they worked with was good at what they do, and they know that it wasn’t going to be an issue. I didn’t want anyone else to face potentially the same stereotype.

And it's very true -- don't read the forums.

Activision Blizzard

Oh man, I'm going to have to let my WoW subscription expire. I can't imagine what's going to happen to WoW now. I mean, sure, there's all this talk about how Blizzard ops won't change but... when a perp high enough on the totem pole gets an idea -- watch out!

Good thing I'm getting addicted to killing demons in Hellgate:London.

Games That Make You Cry

So, in the industry people are apparently trying to use, "games that make you cry" as a means of defining if video games can be considered an artform or not. Which always confuses me... as I've cried, plenty of times, because of video game stories.

Take Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Which I just passed last night on my flight out of D.C.

The last case ended with this sentimental moment of sisters reuniting, and some emotional statement of life, in general. That is, the past happens. Sometimes the past is really bad. But, really, you just have to forgive those things and people. This will then open you up to experiencing new joys.

Deep. Profound. Made me weep. (The dude sitting next to me, who couldn't stop trying to get in my pants, was probably weirded out. Not enough though because he'd always try to talk to me and ask me out on dates for when we're landed. FYI - I'm not a "pane talker". You Oregonians need to learn to just STFU!)

~~~

Although, maybe it's an American game developer problem. Japanese games, for some reason, have always moved me much more emotionally then American ones. Maybe I'm just old school. Maybe Japanese devs, "just get it". I dunno... . . .

PC + Mac Gaming

So, back in the day, I used to be a very active PC gamer. Running "Network Games" LAN parties and everything. I even have a legacy in regards to this. The thing is, there was this PC Game "rut" that happened. Say, at around 2000. 2001. _{Or maybe I just got a cushy government job and tried to cleanse myself of this gaming addiction, and well, we all know how well that worked out.} At around this time, the Mac came out with a *ix-based operating system. So what's any girl supposed to do, but switch OSes? In the end, if you can't "ls" at a command prompt, you aren't running an OS worth a damn anyway.

So I switched.

For about 6 years, I've been very happy with this. I even bought myself a sweet G5 to show how happy I was.

Thing is... now PC games are good again and they look to be on the upward swing.. that, and I miss all my virtual-friends there.. It's like we'll be talking and they'll be like, "Oh you haven't played this????" (weird stare)... so I feel guilty. Everyone else is doing it... . .

So I'm going intel chipset. Dual booting. I'm convinced of this. I can't abandon the Mac completely.. but for Hellgate: London I'd do just about anything. Except, well.. I'll leave that to your imagination.

The dilemma is thus:

Power Mac Desktops feature an antiquated design. I just can't justify buying the same looking machine. I just can't. There's something about, "Well, why don't you fly to Akihabara and buy the parts off the black market and build a new intel machine yourself? It'd probably be cheaper, more fun, and look about the same." And, really, that'd be pretty funny.

The new iMacs are sweet looking but I don't think they have a good enough video card. Nor do I know how easy it would be to upgrade said video card. Also, I plan on going back for my PhD in a year, or so, so having a reduced footprint machine is great for travel/home use. My G5 takes up 90% of the space in my trunk, I have no back seat, and my passenger seat is for my purse. So, it's a bit of a pain in my ass, y'know? I like the reduced footprint of the iMac.. but the inability to upgrade? G'ah....! :(

I know I'm going to wait for January (new systems released) but... to iMac or not to iMac, that is the question.

Anyone out there game with a dual-booted Mac have some ideas? Help!