Kendrick Kerwin Chua
2024-12-02 00:00:17 UTC
I really shouldn't joke about flooding in the UK. We get enough of that
in the States and at just as great a scale. And if you own a business
that's been underwater it's hard to care about climate change when
you're staring down business loans you can't make good on and employees
you can't pay.
Play:
--=--
Silent Hill Homecoming (PS3) - I'm done. It's not a bad game by any
stretch, but the checkpoints and saves are spaced too far apart. There's
one point in the game where you can have three enemies gang up on you in
a dead end, and since the game withholds ammunition and combat items to
encourage you to run away from hard fights, this part of the game felt
both not fun and unfair. I read the spoilers and I'm confident that
there's a very nice narrative in here, but it's wrapped around a game
that's pretty opaque and otherwise unfulfilling. I may come back to this
at some point and play in old-man-with-no-spare-time difficulty, but for
now I'm turning away.
Transformers Devastation (360) - My kid is now making his way through
the whole game a third time, and playing as different characters. It's
interesting to see him use the same combat strategies and get different
results, and very slowly the light comes on over his head about how to
head off frustration and seek success in a different way. It makes me
wonder if the majority of gamers learn those same lessons about
resilience and persistence, or if they're just looking for cheap
satisfaction with no effort.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection (PS5) - It is stupid that I
remember all the controls and all the character movesets. My go-to team
in MvC2 is Ryu, Rogue, and Sakura, and I was able to drop right back in
where I left off on the Dreamcast 20 years ago. It is idiotic that I
still remember how to do the shinkuu-hadouken or any other special
finishing move. The original Marvel Super Heroes is sort of new to me
(even though I'm pretty sure I own the Saturn disc) and I'm sort of not
on board for how stately and reverent it seems to be in terms of
depicting a comic book hero conflict. Thankfully the JPN-region version
of X-men vs. Street Fighter is here so we can experience Norimaru in all
his nerdy, messenger-bag-carrying glory.
Want:
--=--
A bunch of stuff - So it is extraordinarily unlikely that Amazon will
agree to my condition for any new orders, that they print on all their
shipping containers in large letters 'Jeff Bezos is a spineless coward
who doesn't deserve to own a newspaper and no number of successful
rocket launches will ever allow him to regrow his hair' so I'm seeking
out alternative video game sources. I am kind of shocked that I never
made a habit of ordering from Video Games Plus in Canada, where the
exchange rate favours me and also has the benefit of sidestepping any
new tariffs that might impede direct commerce between the US and any
Asian nation. Fifteen new games are wending their way through the system
towards me. Well, Shenmue 1+2 for Xbox One isn't new, but for $8 it
seemed impolite not to have a copy.
Bin:
-==-
Nothing game-related.
-KKC, who meant to repair a TV this weekend too.
in the States and at just as great a scale. And if you own a business
that's been underwater it's hard to care about climate change when
you're staring down business loans you can't make good on and employees
you can't pay.
Play:
--=--
Silent Hill Homecoming (PS3) - I'm done. It's not a bad game by any
stretch, but the checkpoints and saves are spaced too far apart. There's
one point in the game where you can have three enemies gang up on you in
a dead end, and since the game withholds ammunition and combat items to
encourage you to run away from hard fights, this part of the game felt
both not fun and unfair. I read the spoilers and I'm confident that
there's a very nice narrative in here, but it's wrapped around a game
that's pretty opaque and otherwise unfulfilling. I may come back to this
at some point and play in old-man-with-no-spare-time difficulty, but for
now I'm turning away.
Transformers Devastation (360) - My kid is now making his way through
the whole game a third time, and playing as different characters. It's
interesting to see him use the same combat strategies and get different
results, and very slowly the light comes on over his head about how to
head off frustration and seek success in a different way. It makes me
wonder if the majority of gamers learn those same lessons about
resilience and persistence, or if they're just looking for cheap
satisfaction with no effort.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection (PS5) - It is stupid that I
remember all the controls and all the character movesets. My go-to team
in MvC2 is Ryu, Rogue, and Sakura, and I was able to drop right back in
where I left off on the Dreamcast 20 years ago. It is idiotic that I
still remember how to do the shinkuu-hadouken or any other special
finishing move. The original Marvel Super Heroes is sort of new to me
(even though I'm pretty sure I own the Saturn disc) and I'm sort of not
on board for how stately and reverent it seems to be in terms of
depicting a comic book hero conflict. Thankfully the JPN-region version
of X-men vs. Street Fighter is here so we can experience Norimaru in all
his nerdy, messenger-bag-carrying glory.
Want:
--=--
A bunch of stuff - So it is extraordinarily unlikely that Amazon will
agree to my condition for any new orders, that they print on all their
shipping containers in large letters 'Jeff Bezos is a spineless coward
who doesn't deserve to own a newspaper and no number of successful
rocket launches will ever allow him to regrow his hair' so I'm seeking
out alternative video game sources. I am kind of shocked that I never
made a habit of ordering from Video Games Plus in Canada, where the
exchange rate favours me and also has the benefit of sidestepping any
new tariffs that might impede direct commerce between the US and any
Asian nation. Fifteen new games are wending their way through the system
towards me. Well, Shenmue 1+2 for Xbox One isn't new, but for $8 it
seemed impolite not to have a copy.
Bin:
-==-
Nothing game-related.
-KKC, who meant to repair a TV this weekend too.