Back home sweet home and I realize: I missed Valve’s Chri, erm, “Holiday” sale. Sigh. Maybe next year.
In any case, I’ve started playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS and I am once again entranced by how awesome this game is and flash back to when I played it on the N64.
Dang, that’s a good game.
So… what are you playing?
Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
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on From The Wall Street Journal: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in ChargeHave you spent much time in blue cities? Growing up near Detroit, I can say the Dems talk a great ga…
on Youngsters Make Merry at Evanston Country Club Christmas PartyHester Walrath (1898-1971) went on to attend Northwestern University, marry a businessman, and have…
on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024So the "CR" of 1500 pages, given to members 24 hours before the vote, and which did all kinds of thi…
on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024Do you not understand the irony of speaking positively about banning political parties in the same b…
on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024I suppose we could blame the townspeople for not showing up the umpteenth time the shepherd boy crie… on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024A small backlash? If the election were held today they would be the 2nd biggest party in the Bundest…
on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024I have no idea why pointing out that Na.zis were elected legitimately is relevant to this discussion… on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024No, I'm pointing out that you find 'Trump is Hitler' more absurd than 'These people are Na.zis', so…
on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024The local paper referenced this work, partially paid for by the feds, this morning. Some of the phas… on Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024And I will, again, point you that you are the first to mention Hitler, You sure about that? Maybe re…
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Diablo II. It’s been a while.
I recently saw an anime called Sword Art Online, which featured an if-you-die-in-here-you-die-for-real video game. It reminded me that in all my many many hours of playing Diablo, I never tried it on Hardcore setting (character has only one life). I still don’t have the guts to play Hardcore, but I’m trying to keep a new character alive for as long as I can. It’s different, trying to play without a net. Colors seem brighter, food seems foodier, and I’m playing with a lot more focus.Report
Path of Exile’s hardcore is good for that, if a hardcore character dies, they can still be played but they permanently lose their “Hardcore” status.
In pact, Path of Exile is a good game for anyone looking to recapture the Diablo II experience.Report
I finished The Walking Dead: 400 Days. Here is a brief, spoiler-free review (as requested).
Since it is a self-contained episode, meant to bridge the gap between seasons, it is a bit different than the other episodes. Each chapter focuses on a different character, and you only play them for a short period of time. Each chapter also takes place at a different point in time between Day 1 and Day 400 of the zombie outbreak. There are some connecting threads between the chapters, regarding other characters you interact with. It is also possible for an NPC from a chapter to appear as a walker in a later chapter.
The chapters were even more “on-the-rails” than the Season 1 episodes. There was not much by way of puzzles, only interactions and dialogue, with one or two critical decisions to be made. Also, since you get little time with the characters, there is less potential for emotional attachment to them.
Supposedly, the decisions made in 400 Days will be reflected in Season 2.
I got the game as part of a Season 1 package, and I was not disappointed to play it. I would not recommend its purchase as a standalone, but if you have played Season 1 and plan to play Season 2, it is probably worth getting as well.
Now that I am done with TWD, I am going to move on to either Pappa & Yo or To The Moon, which I have gotten from recent Humble Bundles. I will also get back to playing some DDO, which I have not touched in nearly a month. I might also make an effort to get back into Guild Wars 2, which I have not played for nearly a year.Report
The Stanley Parable? So far this weekend has been spent doing the opposite of what the narrator has been saying.
And this has included falling asleep at the computer desk and having the phone ring me awake and having Maribou say “I don’t remember why I was supposed to call you” and me saying “Cream Cheese?” and her saying “OH YEAH!” and then me pressing the “U” button like I had been prompted.
Anyway, next time I play (next weekend?), I’ll play like something akin to what I am being prompted.Report
Yeah, I was thinking of reviewing the Stanley Parable.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/10/28Report
Batman: Arkham Asylum. I was a Marvel kid growing up, so I only have a passing familiarity with the DC universe. The game is fun, but I can’t help but question Batman’s no-kill rule. It obviously makes sense from a comic book point of view, since it would be hard to write for if you kept killing the best villains. It also makes sense against normal humans, who can face the criminal justice system. But in a world populated by supervillains, it doesn’t strike me as the most moral position.
There doesn’t exist adequate containment for supervillains, so capturing them, in essence, is just delaying their inevitable return to crime. Batman has the capability of permanently ending the escape->murder spree->recapture cycle, but instead perpetuates it. How many innocent lives could Batman have saved by killing villains who would eventually escape?Report
If they’re supervillains, they wouldn’t stay dead. You’ve heard of the Red Skull, right?Report
The only people that tend to stay dead in comics are those that are required for backstory, like Uncle Ben and Bruce Wayne’s parents.Report
@hoosegow-flask – story idea:
The Waynes: Hey, we’re back! It was all a big misunderstanding!
Batman: I have wasted my life.Report
Having Bruce Wayne’s parents come back would be … interesting.Report
Better yet, they reveal that they faked their own deaths so they could ascend to the hidden string-pulling crime overlords of Gotham, and it’s really them that the Batman has been fighting all this time. Go Darth Vader with that mess.Report
Glyph,
yeah, that has possibilities.
Betcha you could do better than Lucas!Report
Naw, they’re vigilante extremists who drove their son crazy with grief and gave him a fortune in a long-term plan to turn him into a soulless machine of vengeance.Report
“Son, faking our own violent murders and psychologically traumatizing you for life might seem extreme, but we don’t want you to grow up to be a spoiled, entitled brat, like a Hilton or something, God forbid. Also, we’re cutting your allowance.”Report
The Waynes were Kryptonians with some weird mutation that turned off their superpowers, They couldn’t live with the shame. (Recessive, of course, so Brux El, I mean Bruce, got it too.)Report
That reminds me a bit of Speeding Bullets wherein a baby-carrying pod from the planet Krypton landed by Wayne Manor.Report
Y’all should put down your comics and read The Manchurian Candidate. There’s some paranoid fantasies for realskis. (The movie’s great too, one of those classics that no one would even think about remaking.)Report
No one would re-make Manchurian Candidate who’s not crazy…crazy like a fox, that is! That one bought me my beloved Bugatti!
Of course, within a month I’d wrapped it around a telephone pole and fled on foot, there would have been no easy way to explain why I was clad only in peanut butter and Nutella!Report
That’s more a problem with the writing than with Batman’s code. As you indicate, writers love to bring back the villains who are interesting, both visually and in motivation. That makes the revolving-door prison system a necessity. And if I recall correctly, the villains aren’t super-bad, the prison system is.
Batman’s code makes sense anywhere but Gotham City as imagined by the writers.Report
Is Bruce Wayne related to Bruce Banner?Report