Reality Out of Sync

Finished off my first run through of Heavy Rain officially yesterday. That was pretty fantastic. This game has all the elements of a pretty decent movie if one were so inclined to film it. I’m a big fan of Madison Paige in this game. A strong and sexy character, if not sometimes a little overzealous. Maybe that was my playing of her though. I think I may have put too much of my own decision making under the given circumstances to the characters. A lot less caution, more “fear is temporary, the goal is more important and we must reach it no matter the cost”. I’m going to put much more thought into how I view each of the character’s personalities so that the story plays out differently. I enjoyed the ending I got though, which is really the goal of all games right, to enjoy the ending?

I had been looking forward to this game for such a long time that I was almost prepared for a colossal let down, as has happened in the past; however, I was totally surprised. The entire game is freakin’ awesome. I hope QuanticDream puts out a lot more on this franchise through DLC, or creates a few more games in a similar vein.

I think I need to see a doctor. I’ve got this whole motion sickness thing that’s been going on for like two weeks now. Sometimes it’s okay, but most of the time I feel pretty unwell when I track items with my eyes or if I move a little too quickly from one direction to the other. It’s really freakin’ unpleasant. I’m sure it’s something stupid.

I was chastised about my penchant for Asian chicks. In fact, I was told not too long ago that my penchant for Asian chicks was a bad thing. Holy crap whiskey-tango-foxtrot?? Certain phrases were used such as: school boy looking, formless, flat as a board.

Really?

Hmmm...less cloth, more on your hands.

I had carrot juice for breakfast. Fantastic!

I’m a game addict. I buy video games because my heart is an emotional black hole that requires constant sensation. Just to avoid feeling dead inside all the time. So I turn to video games, it’s my way of dealing with the bottomless pit of despair. To help quell this constant emptiness I purchased two games, Heavy Rain and Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno is basically God of War with a  penchant for the bizarre. It takes you straight into Hell and tries to disturb you more with each moment that you’re there. The further you progress the more one encounters grotesque obstacles to their path. It’s visually beautiful and oh so disturbing at the same time. This is probably why I enjoy it so much! How far will it go? I don’t know — and here’s why!

Heavy Rain was released yesterday. Heavy Rain has been on my radar for a long time and I’d pretty much decided that if the demo was even sort of decent, I was going to get the game and play the hell out of it. Turns out the demo was fucking amazing. I haven’t actually slept since I purchased the game. Partly because I was up all damn day playing it, and also because I had to work in the evening. Now, I’m soon to get off work and guess what I’m going to do? Yep, go play more Heavy Rain. The best way to describe it? Watching a movie you take part in. Not just simple select a dialogue and then watch it play out, but take action within the context of the movie playing out on the screen. It’s fuckin’ fantastic. I’ve played it non-stop save for this whole work thing. I need to figure out how to accomplish PS3 Heavy Rain action at work. =-/ Hrm.

Let’s see what happens when I get home! Will I sleep? Will I play Heavy Rain? How far will I go for the game I love?

Okay so it's not exactly Real World Bunny - It's Game Bunny? Excellent?

So, while I was performing maintenance I chose a theme called Star Ocean. I’m also going out to buy Star Ocean for the PS3 today. Star Ocean is just a fantastic series, and I’m pumped about getting it today. I had actually thought it was to be released on the 15th – FAIL!! It’s been out since the flippin’ 9th, I’m sad on the inside. =-(

I learned an interesting bit of information today, something I think I read before but didn’t commit memory, because it sounded familiar. Japan does Valentine’s Day correctly, yet another reason Japan rocks harder than just about every other country in the world. What the fuck happened in my country that valentine’s day got all screwed up and became such a freakin’ pain? Which brings up another point, when did it become kosher to put yourself in debt to finance an engagement (we haven’t even gotten to the wedding part) after you’ve already spent more than your fair share of money for some chick you want to marry? If you count up all the dates, gifts and other such things, you’re way in debt already. Now you spend some lump sum to prove that you want to marry the chick (if marriage is in your belief system/social construct). How exactly does that make sense? Ah well, it’s a lose lose situation. If this gets brought up, I’m a chauvinist, or just an unloving son of a bitch. Glee?

It’s now my weekend, and I am getting out of work now. My week has been suckish, and I’m pretty tired of stupid mistakes (mine or someone else’s misinformation [by mistake or whatever]) becoming a crucifix upon which I get nailed. I don’t mind my mistakes coming back to me and me being spoken to about them. I think it’s a little out of sorts that without any formal training other than trial by fire, that I’m expected to know everything and make flawless decisions. Everyone is busy, it’s not like we have days where we get just one ticket every 4 hours and we can take the huge amounts of free time we have to search docs and be totally self-sufficient. Eh, ionno. I’d prefer I be told I made a mistake and how to better resolve the issue than get spoken to like a child, written up, and then sent off with no more information than I had when the entire situation erupted in the first place. I’m sure that’ my bad though. I also find it cute that when I point out issues that are not my fault, but am blamed for, it’s perfectly fine to just ignore my input on the matter — also my bad, I’m sure. Whatever, it’s the weekend and I’m playing Star Ocean. Fantastic!

Ph34r teh Cute 1's??

I’m sure some of you (probably not if you don’t ever play PC games) have read and found this particular article interesting. Basically, it speaks to the decline of PC games due to piracy. The article also points out that it’s notable to see none of the online subscription based games on the list, such as Pixel Crack err World of Warcraft on the list.

The PC gaming sector, at lest for single player games has apparently been in trouble for some time and the companies have blamed this on piracy. I don’t think that’s entirely true, and I don’t think it’s really accurate to say that piracy is solely to blame or even the majority contributor to PC gaming decline.

The games that have come out of many of the studios since I was a child have been a serious pain to deal with. Also, there is the hardware requirements. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I tend to not buy games my system isn’t going to play well, and that means after a few months of gaming the next new game requires me to purchase another 150+ USD video card. I don’t want to have to buy more hardware to play a new game every few months. I think many people who enter the PC gaming market soon discover that they don’t want to be on that treadmill either, and so seek out calmer waters. Those calmer waters are called consoles.

Consoles are simple and tend to hang around for a long time. I know I’ve had my PS2 for more than 6 years. I believe I got mine back in 2001 or something like that. There was and still is a steady stream of games and they were/are pretty fun. Hardware changes every year or few months? Nope. The PS2 just works. I now have a PS3 and the games are simply beautiful. Not a lot of RPGs for my liking, but that is changing and I’m excited about being able to get some real good gaming done without the hassle I run into with PC gaming. In particular, Windows. Most games only run on Mac and Windows. I don’t run either of those things, so I’m forced to do some emulation (and my PC is fast enough and loaded with enough memory that it’s not a problem) just to play any PC game of which I happen to be a fan. If the game is too new, then I need another video card. I don’t want another video card, that means no more buying PC games. Tough luck for the PC gaming studios.

If the trouble I happen to run into is DRM (and I’ve had this problem on a couple of occasions) such as the game refusing to run the next day when I get ready to play after installing it. Or, such as having the game tell me I’m not allowed to play because I don’t have an Internet Connection (let’s say DSL is down or I am on a laptop on a plane) then what exactly am I supposed to do then? It means I just wasted 60 bucks on a game that I can’t play whenever or where ever I want. If I’m traveling and I can’t play because my CD/DVD is stashed in my luggage, no joy for me. Well that sucks. It means I need to recoup my loss. It means going to get the No CD crack or some other tool to play the game I bought with money I worked hard to get.

Now, since I’ve already bought the game, I’ve contributed to the studio who made the game; however, I’m going to tell my friend what I had to go through in order to play it. That friend is going to tell someone else. Eventually this happens with everyone that purchases the game and this really unpleasant feeling gets shuffled around and it eventually makes it to the ‘Net. Now the gaming studio has to fix it, but usually they don’t. Instead they whine that because of pirates, this is the sort of thing that has to be done. So what do people do who feel like they are going to be wasting their time and money? They pirate it. They ask their friends for a copy and the crack, they go to sites that have them available (or tell you where you can find the available files) and then obtain them. If the studios would treat their customer base a little better and maybe make some really good games (have you seen the crap that’s been put out in the last 5 or so years?) piracy wouldn’t necessarily be such a huge issue. Note: Piracy != Lost Sales.

I personally am a fan of piracy, because it funds terrorism. No really, someone said that. M.I.A. has an album called Piracy Funds Terrorism. I pirated her cd _and_ bought it. I’m a good member of society that way