I don't really fit in this world.
That is, I don't enjoy being here. I hate the obsession with appearance and oneupmanship and conformity. It is physically paining to put up with perceived injustice around me every day.
Let me give you an example. While riding the bus home yesterday I was surrounded by people having their own conversations, and it was pretty full so I had to sit next to someone else. Being an introvert by nature, being around so many people at once makes me feel uncomfortable and indeed, unnecessary. My hearing also isn't particularly good; since youth I've had problems which stopped me from learning how to ride a bike, and I had grommets in my ears for some time. Anyway, it is a struggle to hear even someone next to me, as the other voices disorient me.
I also hate repetition. Irrational though it is, I feel personally slighted when I have to say something twice or more - am I not interesting enough to listen to? Combined with my small ego, it makes me second-guess myself and I often end up holding my own counsel instead of trying to say what I think. So I don't like asking others to repeat themselves either, despite knowing they probably don't suffer from the same neuroses as I.
I've never been diagnosed with any kind of mental problem, but then again I haven't exactly been diagnosed a lot for anything. When I was 15 I had enormous problems with migraines that remain unexplained. The usual candidate would be stress (with school) but I honestly never felt much pressure because I'm quite strong with academics. I did get bullied (intelligent, pale, freckled, red hair, loquacious) but it really wasn't too bad.
This post hasn't actually born much relation to how I wanted it to come out. I guess that kind of thing is symptomatic of ADHD but I am loathe to claim it for many reasons.
I'll continue this topic later.
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
The continuation
Only a few Steam Sale games left:
- Europa Universalis IV with Conquest of Paradise - again, Paradox strategy games
- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition - makes me feel a little sad to also have the originals on GOG, but this will be more convenient for showing Emily
- Shadowrun Returns because it seems like a faithful successor
Just to make sure I will never, ever finish my Backloggery I also bought a few games at CeX again:
- Darksiders - looks fun, if not groundbreaking
- Gauntlet: Dark Legacy - one of those cult classics
- Warriors Orochi 2 - finally got mailed to me
Also, free stuff:
- Magrunner: Dark Pulse was free for a while on GOG
- Saints Row: The Third was one of the Xbox Live free games, and I certainly enjoyed Saints Row II
- Charlie Murder is another free one
- as is Gotham City Impostors
Post containing actual content to come soonish.
Steam Summer Sale
I have a lot of things to write about, so let's get the boring list out of the way. THANKS STEAM
- Rajas of India and Sons of Abraham for Crusader Kings II - as slow and sometimes empty as these games are, I still love playing them
- Avernum: Escape from the Pit and Nethergate: Resurrection and Avadon 2: The Corruption because they were the only modern Spiderweb Software games I didn't already own
- The Stanley Parable because I have only heard good things about it
- Age of Empires II HD and Age of Empires III Complete - I never got into this game series but again it gets a lot of praise
- Risk of Rain - Emily likes the look of it and we can play co-op!
- Rogue Legacy - wanted this since it came out
- Sword of the Stars: The Pit with The Pilgrim because roguelike
And I ran out of tag space. See you in a moment.
Sunday, 11 May 2014
And Another Thing...
GOG WHY ARE YOUR SALES SO GOOD
- Avernum, Avernum 2, Avernum 3, Avernum 4, Avernum 5, Avernum 6, Blades of Avernum because Spiderweb Software are practically my idols. I must finish Geneforge. MUST.
- DROD 1 + 2 + 3, heard a lot of good things about this series. Also that it is really hard.
- To the Moon because I like crying at games.
In case you're wondering why this is a separate post - Blogger wouldn't let me put all the Labels in one post, hah.
No Restraint Whatsoever
So this week's Humble Bundle is too good. This also combined with our latest CeX outing to produce a formidable list of new games.
- Dynasty Warriors 7 and Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce to feed Emily's growing Musou obsession.
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen because I've heard it's good and also because it contains the original game, seems like a deal to me.
- Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge, Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant and Wizardry 8, because I love dungeon crawlers and I hate myself.
- The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour because they were part of the bundle, but also because Emily might not quite remember all of the solutions like I do.
- Harvester ahahaha
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream because Harlan Ellison.
- System Shock 2 is excellent but I've never actually played it before! More Looking Glass Games, hell yeah.
- Dust: An Elysian Tail, this half-month's free Xbox Live title.
Aside from this ridiculous slew, I have also been playing games. First I'll talk a little more about Nier. The game just keeps getting weirder! I thoroughly enjoyed the Forest of Myth section. I also kind of liked Facade but I wish the message hadn't been so obvious and heavy-handed. Just got past a major plot point and the game just gets more intriguing. Also now I can use spears, so I can dodgeroll-spearthrust repeatedly to move really fast, speedrunning woooo
You saw Dynasty Warriors 7 up there but I've actually had it for a while and I've played a lot of it. 30 hours, even! I've beaten all 4 campaigns and I've taken a decent bite out of the Conquest mode. It's a lot of fun as usual, the stories of the Three Kingdoms are told well (and also spoiling me for the rest of the book, which I'm still reading, lol spoilers for historical events). Not sure how much I like the "pause time to wait for the beginning of the Musou animation" thing, but I do like how they hang in midair waiting for you to wreck them.
Also finally started playing Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Seems okay, though it also looks like it's aiming very carefully at the 'tried and tested JRPG' target, which makes me a little sad. Hope it picks up, plot has been not-quite-eyeroll-worthy so far.
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Smörgåsgaming
Before I get into the meat of the post, I'll just mention that I picked up Deadlight because it's one of those free Games with Gold. I don't know anything about it.
I spoke a little about Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry last time, and since then I've beaten it. In fact, I've completed it, having rescued hundreds of slaves and achieved all the achievements. I certainly enjoyed the whole thing, though there was one particular mission that I must have spent about an hour and a half on, just to get the 100% sync criteria, because it failed to register the first time. At least it wasn't totally broken like the King Washington DLC. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed the part on the sinking ship, it was very well orchestrated.
I'll also talk a little more about Nier. I gave up on doing the annoying side-quests and just rushed headlong into the plot, and it is making me enjoy the game more. I still don't understand the point of Kainé's clothing, and I hope there is one, because otherwise it's just a ridiculously lampshaded design choice. Game is fun, plot is interesting, keep it coming.
Been doing a little bit of speedrunning lately. Unfortunately due to events outside of my control I'm not going to be attending Crystals for Life this year. However, I still hope to join in during the bonus stream portion and do the two games I was meant to. To that end, I've been doing some more attempts at Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The start is tricky; I need to get a Blaster in my initial dumping-of-money-in-a-pond and the chances of that happening aren't too bad (50%) but the need for a decent farming point in the first dungeon is paramount and the chance of that happening is difficult to measure but from experience minute. I did manage to actually get a run to the end but it was slower than my current PB (45:17) so not much to report really. The five Create scrolls I bought for the last fight didn't work at all... a quick perusal at my disassembly of the game's code did not reveal a reason why: either being a Cleric or having an Intelligence above 90 should guarantee the spell's success. Blah!
Second speedrunning game is Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires! Emily has much enjoyed slapping thousands of Chinamen to death so I suggested we try running through the game quickly and this happened. Now, those are only first attempts and could benefit from a bunch more planning (and not losing battles) but it has still been fun and I look forward to improving them. Unfortunately it's rather annoying to stream/record right now because I don't really want to use composite video; the in-game map is blurry enough on HDMI. Maybe someday, but for now they are 'records' without videos behind them.
Final game to mention is El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. I knew virtually nothing about this game other than "it is weird" when I bought it for cheap. Now I've beaten the damn thing and I still know almost nothing about it, other than it is beautiful and definitely worth whatever I paid. The combat (modelled on Devil May Cry) is fun, though a little difficult to specify exactly what move you want. The visuals are spectacular; I had more than a few moments where I thought I was playing Klonoa again, especially during the sideways platforming sections. It's an excellent game, truly different, yet does not seem to have much exposure. I would very much like to speedrun at least individual levels of the game.
I spoke a little about Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry last time, and since then I've beaten it. In fact, I've completed it, having rescued hundreds of slaves and achieved all the achievements. I certainly enjoyed the whole thing, though there was one particular mission that I must have spent about an hour and a half on, just to get the 100% sync criteria, because it failed to register the first time. At least it wasn't totally broken like the King Washington DLC. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed the part on the sinking ship, it was very well orchestrated.
I'll also talk a little more about Nier. I gave up on doing the annoying side-quests and just rushed headlong into the plot, and it is making me enjoy the game more. I still don't understand the point of Kainé's clothing, and I hope there is one, because otherwise it's just a ridiculously lampshaded design choice. Game is fun, plot is interesting, keep it coming.
Been doing a little bit of speedrunning lately. Unfortunately due to events outside of my control I'm not going to be attending Crystals for Life this year. However, I still hope to join in during the bonus stream portion and do the two games I was meant to. To that end, I've been doing some more attempts at Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The start is tricky; I need to get a Blaster in my initial dumping-of-money-in-a-pond and the chances of that happening aren't too bad (50%) but the need for a decent farming point in the first dungeon is paramount and the chance of that happening is difficult to measure but from experience minute. I did manage to actually get a run to the end but it was slower than my current PB (45:17) so not much to report really. The five Create scrolls I bought for the last fight didn't work at all... a quick perusal at my disassembly of the game's code did not reveal a reason why: either being a Cleric or having an Intelligence above 90 should guarantee the spell's success. Blah!
Second speedrunning game is Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires! Emily has much enjoyed slapping thousands of Chinamen to death so I suggested we try running through the game quickly and this happened. Now, those are only first attempts and could benefit from a bunch more planning (and not losing battles) but it has still been fun and I look forward to improving them. Unfortunately it's rather annoying to stream/record right now because I don't really want to use composite video; the in-game map is blurry enough on HDMI. Maybe someday, but for now they are 'records' without videos behind them.
Final game to mention is El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. I knew virtually nothing about this game other than "it is weird" when I bought it for cheap. Now I've beaten the damn thing and I still know almost nothing about it, other than it is beautiful and definitely worth whatever I paid. The combat (modelled on Devil May Cry) is fun, though a little difficult to specify exactly what move you want. The visuals are spectacular; I had more than a few moments where I thought I was playing Klonoa again, especially during the sideways platforming sections. It's an excellent game, truly different, yet does not seem to have much exposure. I would very much like to speedrun at least individual levels of the game.
Friday, 11 April 2014
Cing Visual Novels Review: Glass Rose
Glass Rose is a point-and-click adventure/mystery game for the PlayStation 2, released in 2003. It was developed by Cing, and I desperately wanted to play it as soon as I learned of its existence.
You play Takashi Kagetani, a reporter investigating a series of unexplained murders that happened over seventy years ago. As you and your girlfriend, Emi Katagiri, visit the mansion where the murders took place, you are suddenly whisked into two separate time continuums--you, to a three-day span during the murders, and Emi to an unexplained time. You then proceed to investigate and interview everyone residing in the mansion, fitting in quite well as you apparently look identical to someone named Kazuya Nanase, the son of the first murder victim.
You play Takashi Kagetani, a reporter investigating a series of unexplained murders that happened over seventy years ago. As you and your girlfriend, Emi Katagiri, visit the mansion where the murders took place, you are suddenly whisked into two separate time continuums--you, to a three-day span during the murders, and Emi to an unexplained time. You then proceed to investigate and interview everyone residing in the mansion, fitting in quite well as you apparently look identical to someone named Kazuya Nanase, the son of the first murder victim.
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