The Lamer Gamer

Actually getting up ass early and running 4 miles helps too.  Not sure how I pulled that off after the night of dodging firework debris and downing High Life and Coors Banquet Beer.  On that note, if you should ever have the opportunity to sit 30 feet away from where a series of firework mortars and such are being set off, it’s a good time.  Have bits of gunpowder smelling wrappers fall on you, some of which still enflamed, is a trip.   Use your best judgement as to whether the persons controlling said display are licensed and skilled enough to have you sitting so close.

Anyway, LHP is okay.  I’m just watching someone else play right now.  I was never really into the books or movies so it’s not as much of a draw for me as Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones were.  Still, the TT guys came up with some new mechanics like the set of spells your character can use.  Not a vast change from the last few incarnations.  I feel as though it’s just too easy for them to just pump out Lego remakes at this point, and frankly, they don’t feel altogether fresh.  Lego Rock Band in particular.

To recap.  4 miles run, good.  Hangover, bad.  Participatory fireworks, good.  LHP, so-so, so far anyway.

I’m kind of surprised to see a bunch of mediocre reviews of Alan Wake.  83 isn’t a bad score on Metacritic, but I find it hard to believe that people were really that dissapointed.  Claims like “There aren’t any memorable moments” were clearly made by people who dislike hair-metal, rock shows with pyrotechnics and zombies consumed by darkness or simply hadn’t actually played the game.

I’m speaking of course (spolier) about the showdown at farm when you face waves of the Taken while Barry works the light show.  The game had been up until that point been fairly serious, and this was a great break in the otherwise darkdarkdark atmosphere.  I had some much fun playing this part I restarted my checkpoint when it was cleared I’d nearly reached the next.

I can see some gripes about the nightmare difficulty not being all that nightmarish which also goes against how this was billed a bit as survival horror, it’s really not.  Also another pet peeve of mine, why do I have to unlock nightmare mode?  You’re wasting my time.  The enemies are rather unvaried.  But the story!  It’s good.  It has a solid novel quality twist near the end, I continually wanted to know more.  Visually it’s well done, but the facial animation sucks major ass. I’d already mentioned that the atmosphere was great, it’s scary and dark though not nearly as scary as Dead Space.  Speaking of which, Dead Space 2 coming up!

Finished up Mirror’s Edge this weekend, which felt rather challenging, though it might be that I suck that bad.  Mostly it was the Speed Runs that got on my nerves.  Very similar in feel to completing the campaigns in AvP on nightmare difficulty, where in either case, one little screw-up has you restarting the level.  I’m really impressed with Mirror’s Edge in a lot of ways, it’s innovative in terms of gameplay and controls + it’s a game that doesn’t center around guns.  Lord knows I’ve got enough FPS style games around.

Inspired by MI, I’ve run around 10 miles in the last week.  No, not really.  I did run 10 or so, but because I’m already registered for races that I’m going to get murdalized in if I don’t train up hard in the next week or so. 

I see that Supreme Commander 2 is out for 360, and while I was so dissapointed with the first one, I’m going to give it another shot.  so MI is heading back and we’re gonna see about renting SC again.  Maybe there’s a patch for the lockups…  Maybe…

Maybe the least fun portion of the game for me.  Speed Runs in Mirror’s Edge are unlike what I find in a lot of games, an actual achievement.  Your ability to hit every jump or trick on the course is so hit-or-miss that it can become crazy infuriating when you make it to the end of the course and then fall off a building or get shot only to then be short on time.

Finished a few of them in the last day or so, but then gave up, only to switch to Time Trials which are still as hit-or-miss, but generally so much shorter than the Speed Runs that it isn’t an issue for me.   Made it through a ton of them with 2 stars, a couple of 3 star runs.  Very fun.

Working my way through the story on hard.  This is yet another game that requires you to unlock the top difficulty with a playthrough on a lower difficulty.  That is rapidly climbing my pet peeve list.

In addition to running all over the place in Mirror’s Edge, I’ve managed to strap shoes on my feet and run around in real life too. Not sure how many miles I put on, but my calves hurt pretty bad…

Mirror’s Edge is kicking my ass.  I need some mad practice as the speed runs are kinda tough for me.  Finished Chapter 1 in 6:00.60, OUCH.  I’m sure I could have dicked around a little less and saved that .60 somewhere but whatever.   I’ll get it done.

Other good things this weekend.  Finished Both Halo 3: Annual and ODST: Deja Vu, so Only ODST: Endure left to go for Recon armor.  Also managed to score the free night vision specs from MW2 for the ole avatar. Of course everyone else has them too, but they’re still cool, and way oversized.  Also stole the same guy’s airdrop crate 3 times in the same match last night.  He must have been hating on my pretty bad.

Yeah, so I’m at least moving again. After last summer’s injuries and general winter laziness, I’m back to running. About 2 miles last night. Nothing big. Probably try for more this evening.

On that same note, Mirror’s Edge is very cool. I’m sure it’s a one-and-done for me, but it’s visually fun and it’s like a big puzzle game. Also, not firing a gun is nice once in a while.

Seriously, within minutes of starting Deadly Creatures I was involved in a battle of SciFi Channel proportions akin to Boa vs. Python or maybe Anaconda 3.  Despite the silliness of having my Tarantula engaged in mortal combat with a large snake, the rest of the game seem to play much more sanely with me beating up similarly sized bugs.

Deadly Creatures is an action oriented game with an odd twist.  Not that you’re a bug, it’s that you’re not specifically involved in the plot.  You hear the voices of Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper overhead and muffled, as you little creature runs around slaying and eating other creepy crawly critters.  The two human characters are apparently hunting gold, which you can see as part of the underground environment, but of course have no use for because you’re a bug.  It’s weird but really fun to keep playing along not specifically driving the plot, but hearing the characters talk about it nearby.

The gameplay has some simple yet fun combat along with some prompted finishing moves.  It is rather satisfying to stab other bugs as the scorpion.  Haven’t gotten to the end yet though, so can’t really speak to the plot being really great yet.