So, hmm, what should I talk about today? How about Planescape: Torment?
Planescape: Torment is, quite simply, the best computer RPG ever, hands down, no contest. I mean, it really just is that great. And, apparently, that's all I have to say about that. Or, wait, no, I mean, come on, a game where one of your characters is a disembodied floating skull that throws out the one-liners and wisecracks like they were going out of style, to such an extent that it's actually one of his special abilities? How can you not have played it already? How can you resist going out and acquiring a copy and a computer to play it on right now? Plus, you know, any game where you can get like a million(and no, I'm not exaggerating) XP just by taking the right conversation path is A-OK in my book. Well, plus you have to have the right stats. Which stats? Why, the two most-overlooked stats in traditional CRPGs, Intelligence and Wisdom, especially Wisdom. Yes, a game that rewards thinking, instead of just encouraging you to be bigger than everything else. Page after page after page of text to read, no character-creation mess to wade through(chunk everything into WIS, give yourself a good INT and CON, and try get at least average in everything else), subquests galore...Ah, it's almost perfect.
And the same team responsible for Torment is doing Knights of the Old Republic 2. I can't wait.
So, I finally subscribed to GameFly. It's pretty cool. Got my first couple of games, and have played one of them a little. For reasons which pass understanding, I decided to start with Hunter: The Reckoning, for the GameCube, and Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer, for the PS2. Next on the list, naturally, is Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward, this time for the Xbox. So, yeah, a series of three games, all on different systems. It's kind of funny, actually. And being who I am, I also set up my queue of games to keep coming in that order, GC, PS2, XBX.
Anyway, Hunter is all right. It's not the best game ever, and although it would probably be more fun played with a friend or three, it would have to be the right friend or three, and it's a decent game by yourself.
Except, of course, for the escort mission, early on. Why in god's name do game designers insist on putting in escort missions? And when they do, why do they insist on giving the escortee the worst goddamn AI in existence? I can't count the times I died because of the stupid little girl, either from her dying and losing me the mission, or from her just getting in the damn way and making it possible for the baddies to kill me. And why is it a little girl? I wouldn't risk my life to save a child I wasn't related to, and I have to say that I'd be hard pressed to do so for one I *am* related to. I hate children. If I'd been in actual control, while I probably wouldn't have actually capped her myself, I wouldn't have worried about whether or not she made it to the destination all right. And the designers decide to rub salt in your wounds, because the reason the little girl has to survive to the end of the level is that if she doesn't, the boss fight on the next level won't happen because she brings the damn thing in with her. So, great, I went through all that damn effort saddled with the little shit, and get fucked over for my trouble. Lovely. I almost quit right there.
On the other hand, the boss fight that the FAQs all say is the most difficult in the game and sure to cost you at least a few lives, I did without losing a single life and without using any weapon except the original basic one.
So, yeah, worth a rental.
Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I warned you this would happen. Mostly I haven't really felt like I had anything to say about any games recently, and my life really is pretty boring, so I haven't had anything to say about that, either. I mean, I'm only writing this now because I was sitting here going through all my regular web stuff that I look at every day, and I accidentally hit this bookmark, and I thought, "Well, okay, it's been a while since I wrote in this thing, I guess I'll do an entry."
So, golf. Golf is, well, not fun. Except goofy golf(miniature golf, if you must call it that). So believe me when I tell you that the best golf game ever is Dark Cloud 2. Now, I know you were expecting me to say Mario Golf or something like that, but please. I haven't even played those games; obviously they suck. Dark Cloud didn't really have much to it. It was okay, but really nothing to write home about(and, you know, I use that phrase all the time, and I have never written home about anything in my life. Heck, I rarely even call home, which is--shit, is it the second today? Wait, no, that's tomorrow. Remind me to call my dad tomorrow, it's his birthday. Where was I? Oh yeah--a source of great consternation to my parents. And it's not like I don't like talking to them or anything, it's just that I generally don't like talking on the phone at all. I'd like it better if I had one of those headset things; the lack of ability to do anything else while I'm on the phone(if you're one of those people who talks on their cell phone while they're driving, I hope you crash into a tree and die like the moron that you are. Unless you have one of those little headset things or a speaker phone, in which case, go on with your bad self) drives me nuts), but Dark Cloud 2 is fricking awesome.
And all of a sudden I lose what little desire I had in the first place to write this. Maybe I'll continue it later, because I really do like Dark Cloud 2 a lot.
Later...
Now, I don't actually own a copy of Dark Cloud 2. This is because I played it at a friend's place over the space of several months, and got almost to the end before I felt compelled to go do something else, and I never got back to it before I moved back to Alaska. And since I was almost to the end of it, I just could never see shelling out 30 bucks to play what little was left, and yet there was too much left for just a rental. I could probably find it for less than 30 bucks now, but there are so many games and I have so little money(which is facetious; I have plenty of money. As proof, I spent a hundred and fifty bucks on video games the last time I got paid) that I generally feel I'm better off buying something I've never played before than something that I know I love. Which is dumb, but that's me to a T.
I'm not sure what it was about Dark Cloud 2 that I loved. It's fairly tedious, and I have a low threshold for tedium usually. I think it's that there's just so much there for the collector in me, and it's so easy to seem to be making real forward progress in the various collections. Plus, the golf game kicked ass. The fishing game, not so much, but then, for the most part, I've never really liked fishing games. Also, leveling up Monica's monster forms is oddly difficult. Leveling up pretty much everything else in the game is pretty easy, and not terribly time-consuming, but leveling up Monica's monster forms just takes insane amounts of time. And while she's in monster form you don't get to see her in her cute little catgirl getup. I still feel kind of dirty for finding that getup extremely attractive, mostly because Monica is drawn to look like an early-developing 12-year-old and, while being a fairly average American male means the idea of sex with 16-year-olds is just as attractive as it was when I was 14-18, the idea of sex with 12-year-olds is quite simply repugnant.
In closing, I'd just like to say that I really, really hate being sick, especially being sick for a goddamn week. I've now missed an entire week's pay, and don't think I won't really miss it when payday rolls around. The people at work think I'm either lying or a wuss, but hey, I can barely get around my goddamn apartment. I'd go to a doctor if I had any insurance, but of course I don't have a real job so I don't have insurance. People say that the overall quality of medical care would go down if we socialized medicine in this country, and that may be true, but you know, the quality of my medical care would go way, way up, as in I'd have some, and I know a lot of people who are in the same situation. Plus, you know, fuck those insurance company bastards. If the cost of insurance for the doctors weren't so high, I could possibly afford to go to a doctor now and then, although if they dropped insurance premiums now, I'm sure most doctors would just pocket the difference, it having been proved that people will pay their outrageous rates. Okay, I'm done now.