Catfighting, circa 2325

First, a history lesson:

Way back, ages past, OSK and j_vert tried a new game out for size (no idea where I was at the time, but if you ask them, the response would probably be "somewhere lame"). They went for Metroid Prime, on ye olde gamecube. Turns out the in-game map isn't bad, but j_vert's internal mapping abilities left them mostly lost (sorry man, truth hurts).

After this failed attempt, OSK revisited the game with myself months later. We beat and bludgeoned our way through about 20-25% of the game before hitting a wall. We spent a good amount of time wandering around with no idea of where to go before giving up and moving on. And so metroid remained until just recently.

Now, I've been taking solo hits at it in my spare time. A few days ago, I finally passed the high water mark of the koopon-OSK team, and managed to steam ahead. The exploration and adventure elements have really been great so far, and the difficulty has been easy enough this time through that I've been able to use a pretty cavalier attitude towards health and saving. No longer. I finally reached a section that has a succession of actually difficult encounters, all with net loss of health and annoyingly effective enemies. So, today I've died 3 times without reaching a new save point. The hardcore gamer in me is thrilled- perfect chance to get some real gaming done. But the casual gamer in me is disappointed. It's been really nice, just kinda cruising through things, nothing so difficult as to really frustrate me (j_verts should appreciate this, considering how he does rts).

So yeah, I figured I'd let y'all know what's been happening on this, and I think I might keep this up, especially if the difficulty keeps increasing. Also if my theory about red energy balls is true (they were totally +50 in the beginning, not +20. I swear!).

And one last thing: anyone know what breaks benezidium? It's frakking EVERYWHERE. ugh.

It's Okay, it's okay, it's okay

Fuck blue coins. OSK is taking forever on them. Granted, they're really hard to find, and it isn't a negative reflection on his mario skills, but still. It's really frustrating. But really.

Otherwise, my 64 runs take basically 30 seconds, so I'm spending a lot of time zoned out and doing nothing. Not enough blogging though. Ah well.
jvert is trying a cosmic race again. It didn't go so well the first time, but he's doing much better and... wow... talk about fateful. He just got it while I wrote that sentence. I gotta mention what's happening in real time in this blog more often.

Subliminal Messages

Mario sunshine is clearly a secret mind-control device being used by those racist against everything blue. They are training us all to instinctively destroy anything blue, like birds and butterflies. But let it be known: I'm onto them.

In other news, in addition to invisible block technology, I could really use some of that launch star technology. Or the hover pack. But mostly, the warp pipes. Unless they don't make the sound, then I wouldn't want them.


Further evidence of the genocidal nature of sunshine:










I rest my case.

Triple Threat

Well, this blog is officially revived, if only for one sake: the simultaneous 120 star runs in galaxy, 64, and sunshine. That's right, myself, OSK, and j_vert are each doing all 120 stars of 64, sunshine, and galaxy, respectively. It is, needless to say, awesome.

However, since I'm running original, I've got a good deal more down time than the rest of them. So, I'll be spending some of that time (by which I mean most) writing random shit here.

So, we have roughly 20 stars each right now, which is a good chunk of the easy stuff in each game. 64-wise, I'm still plowing through the easy first levels, so no worries for speed there. Galaxy, I don't know as well concerning the time consumption curve (a really bad way to word that), so no idea when that'll ramp up. Probly not for a bit longer, but soon. Sunshine, OSK is done with bianco hills, and some of the plaza, but he's spent enough hours in his life on mario, so I've got no worries at all about his speed. Looks like vert has the most pressure... poor guy. He hasn't even finished galaxy yet. Time for a commitment, space cowboy.

Allright, gotta wrap this up: 19-21 are waiting for me. Oh wait, I have no concept of responsibility for quality control here. Guess I can just end it then. On a drawn out clichéd group of sentences involving self reference. Yeah.

Take this Bowser! ... *whif*

So I'm sick and feel like crap, and I don't have much time before a plague of boxes is visited upon myself, but this needs to be said.

I suck at the bowser level. Which one you ask? The first. It was painful to watch myself do it. I actually felt bad for the people watching me do it, because the secondhand embarrassment and shame must have been pretty hard to handle. Had they politely left until it was over, I would have understood.
Anyway, my psuedo-speed run is not completely ruined, nor has OSK overtaken me for good, provided that I pwn the later stuff. Wet-Dry world has me worried though... oh and everything on the floor above it. *sigh*

Back to the grindstone. God I should be training...

More to come later.

May the Force be with your Lightsaber.

So I recently returned to Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast after not touching it for god only knows how long. Knowing, or at least vaguely remembering parts of the puzzles definetly makes the whole game go by faster. Not actually "solving" them right now isn't all that dissapointing (mostly because I still feel smart because I had figured it out once... or had seen someone do it once... or something). Not getting really frustrated at the harder parts is definetly a plus too (thank god Tavion didn't take dozens of tries this time).

Anyway, having never played any other star wars based first person shooters (man based at least, so I'm ignoring rouge squadron) I must say, I love lightsabers. They did a really good job of giving the player control over how they attack, without making it rediculously complex. Now I'll be the first to admit that it can easily degenerate into button mashing, with varying degrees of effectiveness, but especially with a force speed going on (everyone else gets slowed down) you get the time to actually think for a split second between attacks and really aim them. Most satisfying against other lightsaber-weilding foes, but certainly fun against stormtroopers too.

One of the other good parts associated with the 'saber though is how, especially early on, you aren't a god with it. A good chunk of the enemies use thermal detenators or tenloss disrupters, neither of which you can block with the 'saber and can really mess you up. They aren't impossible to defeat: you just need cover and a couple good guns of your own. It's nice that they can give you the 'saber (awesomely fun to use) and yet still force you to use the variety of more conventional laser guns and energy crossbows. Also, later on, your force powers become strong enough to be able to deal with these weapons without too much cover (unless they ambush you and/or catch you by too much surprise). By the very end of the game, I virtually never use guns: the lightsaber is just too good on its own. It finishes a logical progression from gun slinger to true jedi. The strongest jedi (good and dark) are 99% invulnerable to any and all gunfire, which makes sense and forces you to actually be better with the saber to kill them.

Anyway, what I'm basically saying is lightsabers are awesome, well balanced, and... well... c'mon, its a laser sword, of course its frakking cool. So go learn the ways of the force, and paint yourself a couple dark jedi on your 'saber grip.

Speeches from the Balustrade

Video games are awesome. Unfortunatly, one needs time to enjoy them. That time is not now, with APs in less than 2 weeks.

But that time is soon.

Anyway, I'm hoping to maybe actually post occasionally again, but as we all know that promise is pretty hollow (I'm thinking hollow as a Dyson's sphere) don't expect anything 'till final exams and gaming marathons start. I was writing a review of paper mario, but it's gotten really long and dry and doesn't really flow/isn't really interesting at all, so it's probably going to get scrapped over time by being ignored. Oh well. By the way, I got a 97 on that paper about diddy kong and mario.

Until next time, fare well, waste time, punish your eyeballs, and tetris rocks (much like jesus).