So I had a really stupid dream last night. Let's recap.
For some reason I wanted to carry around a cap gun with me (you know those fake guns that just fire smoke basically) while I was walking around, so I put it in my bag and went out. While I was out, there were a bunch of soldiers in fatigues putting down some kind of equipment; I got paranoid that they were bomb sniffing devices and started running to get away.
Suddenly I'm in a car with some kid I don't know and he's complaining that the music on the radio is all old boring stuff. I listen more intently and recognise one of the tracks as a generic 80s synthpop kinda thing. The scene shifts again to a live performance of a glam rock track, complete with spinning camera views and zooming in on tongues etc.
Shortly after that it becomes an documentary about the band that played that track. The voiceover says something about it being "the first song with stacked instruments" and cuts to an interview with the bassist (who is for some reason not actually holding a bass, but a normal guitar).
Guitarist: "So I was just going blang, blang, blang", motioning with highest two strings on guitar, bending them impossibly far away from the guitar with just his fingers.
Interviewer: "What was the inspiration behind the song?"
Guitarist: "I was a big, twenty, noisy wall of dick!"
...I think it's some kind of euphemism for being high?
Analyse that, Freud.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Resolution Update #3... oops
Read all the books I got for Christmas
Nope. I'm about 82% of the way through Les Misérables, but my tablet is being repaired so I can't even read that.
Finish FF X-2, XII, XIII for Emily
Nope. Haven't played any of them since last time.
Submit a speedrun to SDA which isn't Arcomage
Submitted Arcomage, it was accepted.
Go to Crystals for Life
Hey, I did this one! I'm also preparing for next year's one.
Get my Backloggery Unfinished percentage to below 65%
Hahaha no. 79.5%
In conclusion I'm not very good at this.
Nope. I'm about 82% of the way through Les Misérables, but my tablet is being repaired so I can't even read that.
Finish FF X-2, XII, XIII for Emily
Nope. Haven't played any of them since last time.
Submit a speedrun to SDA which isn't Arcomage
Submitted Arcomage, it was accepted.
Go to Crystals for Life
Hey, I did this one! I'm also preparing for next year's one.
Get my Backloggery Unfinished percentage to below 65%
Hahaha no. 79.5%
In conclusion I'm not very good at this.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Budgie Chronicles
I haven't talked much about our beautiful yellow budgie Bruce, so let's change that.
Bruce is actually female, but it takes a little time before it's obvious - the 'nose' changes colour to indicate it. She's usually quiet, but she isn't afraid to yell a lot when surprised by loud noises or whenever we leave her alone to go out. She's also capable of singing quite nicely, though it's not particularly common. Unfortunately, she's quite tricky to handle. Although very willing to come up to our faces and nibble on our noses, she's afraid of our hands and will back off from our fingers if we attempt to get her to step up to them, which is usually something budgies learn quickly.
However, today our persistence paid off; I reached into the cage to play with her, and guessed she was calm enough to try something a little exotic. I don't like grabbing her with my hand, but as she is so unwilling to step onto fingers it's the only way I've found to handle her. After letting her relax, I carried her out of the cage and stroked her for a minute or so while she looked around. Then I set her on my leg and waited to see what she would do.
She was still breathing very hard, so I was worried she'd start flying around at random as usual. To my surprise she walked about carefully, then started rubbing her head on me! Something startled her and she did fly briefly, landing on the floor and looking a little confused. After a little coaxing she walked right onto Emily's hand, which is something I've never seen her even close to doing before. She was happy to let Emily pet her wings and back! She even stepped from Emily's hand to mine, and ate from a fruit bar while still being held. We decided it was long enough for her to be out, and returned her to the cage; she hopped back by herself.
I'm looking forward to what she can learn to do next!
Oh, I've also played some games. I've warmed up a bit more to Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 after giving it some more play. The different Mobile Suits can play very differently, and despite how crappy the non-Ace suits are, they can still be pretty enjoyable, especially when you take out the ridiculous giant suits with them. I've beaten all the Official Modes so now the game is beaten. Mission Mode looks like it will take forever to max... I spent about 15 hours working on Milliardo before realising that he can't join Operation Meteor, so bringing all pilots to Friendship is actually impossible for him. I've started again with Domon, because his voice samples crack me up.
Dream team: Katejina, Domon, Yazan, Ghingham. Also maybe M'Quve because IT WAS PRICELESS!!
The yelling would never stop.
Bruce is actually female, but it takes a little time before it's obvious - the 'nose' changes colour to indicate it. She's usually quiet, but she isn't afraid to yell a lot when surprised by loud noises or whenever we leave her alone to go out. She's also capable of singing quite nicely, though it's not particularly common. Unfortunately, she's quite tricky to handle. Although very willing to come up to our faces and nibble on our noses, she's afraid of our hands and will back off from our fingers if we attempt to get her to step up to them, which is usually something budgies learn quickly.
However, today our persistence paid off; I reached into the cage to play with her, and guessed she was calm enough to try something a little exotic. I don't like grabbing her with my hand, but as she is so unwilling to step onto fingers it's the only way I've found to handle her. After letting her relax, I carried her out of the cage and stroked her for a minute or so while she looked around. Then I set her on my leg and waited to see what she would do.
She was still breathing very hard, so I was worried she'd start flying around at random as usual. To my surprise she walked about carefully, then started rubbing her head on me! Something startled her and she did fly briefly, landing on the floor and looking a little confused. After a little coaxing she walked right onto Emily's hand, which is something I've never seen her even close to doing before. She was happy to let Emily pet her wings and back! She even stepped from Emily's hand to mine, and ate from a fruit bar while still being held. We decided it was long enough for her to be out, and returned her to the cage; she hopped back by herself.
I'm looking forward to what she can learn to do next!
Oh, I've also played some games. I've warmed up a bit more to Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 after giving it some more play. The different Mobile Suits can play very differently, and despite how crappy the non-Ace suits are, they can still be pretty enjoyable, especially when you take out the ridiculous giant suits with them. I've beaten all the Official Modes so now the game is beaten. Mission Mode looks like it will take forever to max... I spent about 15 hours working on Milliardo before realising that he can't join Operation Meteor, so bringing all pilots to Friendship is actually impossible for him. I've started again with Domon, because his voice samples crack me up.
Dream team: Katejina, Domon, Yazan, Ghingham. Also maybe M'Quve because IT WAS PRICELESS!!
The yelling would never stop.
Sunday, 6 October 2013
Amalur, Pokémon Ranger, Geneforge
Been a little while, so here's a little update.
Yesterday I beat Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It some ways it was a disappointment; the game world is beautiful, but everything else feels hollow. The characters, while sometimes having well-written dialogue, are rather flat. The game's typical smattering of Elf, Dwarf, Human does not serve the setting at all, and I feel it was somewhat a waste of the creators' talents. The combat is fun, but becomes repetitive fast, because even on Normal difficulty the enemies take forever to die unless I get a couple of critical hits. It took longer to clear some standard groups of enemies than it did to beat the final bosses! Nevertheless, it was quite fun, and I might revisit it again with a different build (I played almost entirely Finesse) or difficulty level some time.
I didn't even mention that I'd started playing Pokémon Ranger almost immediately after finishing Diamond. I'm still not thrilled with the idea after giving it a few hours, though it's short enough that at least it won't be a major blight on my life or anything. Drawing rings around the Pokémon is haphazard; it's difficult to tell exactly how long the capture line will be and even the tiniest movement can ruin it. Some bosses seem unfairly difficult to capture and require furious stylus use to pull off. Minun's partner power trumps everything else, so anything non-boss is a pointless waste of time. I'm Ranger Level 8, so there isn't much of the main game to go, but I would like that Manaphy egg to give to Diamond!
Biff's adventures through Geneforge continue, and the world gets more and more interesting. I feel like if Big Huge Games had asked the Spiderweb Software guys to write the plot instead, they would have turned out a truly excellent game! I'm torn between carrying as many supplies as possible and selling big chunks of them so I can pick up new stuff. The combat is brutal; it's starting to get hard to keep creations alive (I'm playing a Guardian, which aren't that great at shaping) and they don't hit enemies too hard, though my own damage is ridiculous. I'm not regretting joining up with the Awakened at all; they seem to be the most reasonable of the lot, though I was disappointed that I couldn't ask Ellhrah to do something about Astrov, but I guess he wasn't in anywhere near as good a position to help as Rydell is.
Yesterday I beat Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It some ways it was a disappointment; the game world is beautiful, but everything else feels hollow. The characters, while sometimes having well-written dialogue, are rather flat. The game's typical smattering of Elf, Dwarf, Human does not serve the setting at all, and I feel it was somewhat a waste of the creators' talents. The combat is fun, but becomes repetitive fast, because even on Normal difficulty the enemies take forever to die unless I get a couple of critical hits. It took longer to clear some standard groups of enemies than it did to beat the final bosses! Nevertheless, it was quite fun, and I might revisit it again with a different build (I played almost entirely Finesse) or difficulty level some time.
I didn't even mention that I'd started playing Pokémon Ranger almost immediately after finishing Diamond. I'm still not thrilled with the idea after giving it a few hours, though it's short enough that at least it won't be a major blight on my life or anything. Drawing rings around the Pokémon is haphazard; it's difficult to tell exactly how long the capture line will be and even the tiniest movement can ruin it. Some bosses seem unfairly difficult to capture and require furious stylus use to pull off. Minun's partner power trumps everything else, so anything non-boss is a pointless waste of time. I'm Ranger Level 8, so there isn't much of the main game to go, but I would like that Manaphy egg to give to Diamond!
Biff's adventures through Geneforge continue, and the world gets more and more interesting. I feel like if Big Huge Games had asked the Spiderweb Software guys to write the plot instead, they would have turned out a truly excellent game! I'm torn between carrying as many supplies as possible and selling big chunks of them so I can pick up new stuff. The combat is brutal; it's starting to get hard to keep creations alive (I'm playing a Guardian, which aren't that great at shaping) and they don't hit enemies too hard, though my own damage is ridiculous. I'm not regretting joining up with the Awakened at all; they seem to be the most reasonable of the lot, though I was disappointed that I couldn't ask Ellhrah to do something about Astrov, but I guess he wasn't in anywhere near as good a position to help as Rydell is.
Saturday, 14 September 2013
Latest Pokémon Champion coming through
My excellent and not at all stupid team took on the entire Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion in Pokémon Diamond with few headaches. At first the sheer level difference was enough to throw me back out, but this game is quite lenient, only charging you the same amount you would have won when you lose, so I rammed into them a few times and lost, only to come back with more experience and Hyper Potions.
| Laszlo | LUXRAY | ♂ | Lv. 49 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Glen | GASTRODON | ♂ | Lv. 50 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Dirk | DRIFBLIM | ♂ | Lv. 51 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Evelyn | ESPEON | ♀ | Lv. 52 | OT/Mercury |
| Ted | TORTERRA | ♂ | Lv. 53 | OT/Lag.Com |
| Rachael | RAPIDASH☆ | ♀ | Lv. 43 | OT/Lag.Com |
Laszlo murdered any Flying types that were thrown at him with a nice Thunder Fang, but was also important for taking out rogue Psychic types with his Crunch. Glen used his sheer bulk to wear down a lot of enemies, with a nice Surf and Ice Beam to take out all-comers. Dirk used his extreme speed to take out a few trouble spots with Fly, while ably absorbing a few hits, then finally taking out an annoying Alakazam with his Aftermath. Evelyn's speed and power made short work of several Pokémon, having to rely only on Psybeam and Last Resort for her attacks. Ted was key, with his incredibly strong Earthquake and Wood Hammer. I had to revive him twice to take on the strong Water/Ground types. Rachael was a newcomer to the team, having replaced my questionably-useful Weavile. Though low level, she was able to destroy a particularly badly-engineered Lopunny with ease, and Fire Blast a Bronzong to death.
All deserve their places in the Hall of Fame.
What do I play next?
All deserve their places in the Hall of Fame.
What do I play next?
Monday, 9 September 2013
Thoughts on Crystals for Life 2014
Somehow last time I wrote I neglected to mention anything about Crystals for Life. I had an excellent time at the event this year and I want to go to next year's event too. To this end I have submitted two runs for consideration, and I'll talk a little about them both here.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is the greatest game ever made. The marriage of first-person dungeon crawling and a creative and engaging setting, with the reliance on the intelligence of the player to actually finish results in a beautiful game. I never tire of this classic. I started practising this for AGDQ2012 but it was not accepted into the final line-up, and there have also been some route changes since I learnt the game, so I have some work to do before it's ready. Hopefully, being a short and confusing RPG, it's a perfect fit into Crystals for Life.
Dark Cloud is very different. It's still a good game in its own right, but it is mainly remembered as a cult classic and as the prequel to a better game. Also, this run is perhaps 8 hours long with randomly generated dungeons and items to deal with. The route is almost finalised and I did a single-segment play-through on my stream not long ago. My personal best can obviously be vastly improved but I feel little impetus to practice it simply because the game is so random. Once I do another run through, any future time will be mostly affected by how nice the RNGod feels that day.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is the greatest game ever made. The marriage of first-person dungeon crawling and a creative and engaging setting, with the reliance on the intelligence of the player to actually finish results in a beautiful game. I never tire of this classic. I started practising this for AGDQ2012 but it was not accepted into the final line-up, and there have also been some route changes since I learnt the game, so I have some work to do before it's ready. Hopefully, being a short and confusing RPG, it's a perfect fit into Crystals for Life.
Dark Cloud is very different. It's still a good game in its own right, but it is mainly remembered as a cult classic and as the prequel to a better game. Also, this run is perhaps 8 hours long with randomly generated dungeons and items to deal with. The route is almost finalised and I did a single-segment play-through on my stream not long ago. My personal best can obviously be vastly improved but I feel little impetus to practice it simply because the game is so random. Once I do another run through, any future time will be mostly affected by how nice the RNGod feels that day.
Saturday, 7 September 2013
The In-laws
So Emily's parents and sister are back in England for general visiting and touristry. Might not have all that much time for gaming in the following days, so here's an update of where I am right now.
I finished Deadly Premonition a couple of days ago. I'd already seen a play through on YouTube before but doing it myself was satisfying, and my audience was appreciative. Also quite an infusion of Gamerscore, haha. It's an amazing game, but I wouldn't recommend it to many people simply because it is so strange and its design philosophy goes completely against mainstream AAA gaming sensibility.
Most of my time lately has been taken up with Pokémon Diamond. My team is Espeon, Weavile, Luxray, Gastrodon, Torterra and the immortal Drifblim. Just reached the Pokemon League yesterday, feeling pretty good about my chances.
Also started to play Geneforge, a western RPG by a company I admire for their willingness to sacrifice all else in the name of gameplay. It's interesting so far, and I hope to find time to continue soon.
The last few days have been spent putting up shelves and generally making our flat look nicer for when the in-laws want to visit. Might post some pictures soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)