Conversations with my husband

So, recently my husband put a nightlight in the bathroom, with the explanation of “Well, this way we don’t have to turn the light on and be blinded when we get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.”

Which is all well and good. For him.

So today I told him that I still have to turn the light on because of the stupid mirror.

and he says “Well, to me, it’s scarier having the lights off.”

me: “Yeah, that’s creepy too, but see, here’s the difference. YOU pee standing up, facing the mirror. I have to sit, with my back to the mirror, and then I’m just waiting for something to come grab me in the semi-dark. Nope, light goes on.”

And then he laughed at me. But I don’t care. It’s creepy, and I’m not going to risk being grabbed from behind by the lady from The Grudge, or the girl from The Ring. No thank you.

Life is still full of suck

But sometimes games make it better.

I’m doing horrible at keeping this updated regularly. I’ve been trying to work on the final paper for my English class that ended. I got an extension because of the circumstances. I have until the end of the month, and while I’m really fascinated with my topic, I’m having a heck of a time actually writing it. It’s on video game literacy. As in, the special “literacies” which video game players have. It’s me trying to prove, through other people’s research, that video games are not just trash, that players learn valuable skills from playing video games.

With our reacquiring a PS3, I’ve been playing Costume Quest again. I bought the DLC, Grubbins on Ice. I finally finished everything, after about 4 days of play. I usually just play a couple hours at a time, so it takes me a while to finish. I really hope the team at Double Fine brings out more DLC for Costume Quest. The ending of Grubbins on Ice left it really open for another chapter, and it’s so much fun to try out different combinations of costumes and battle stamps.

I also got the chance to try to PaPo & Yo demo. I really enjoyed what little bit it lets you play, but I’ve read about some issues with bugginess in the game. I’ve played buggy games before (I’m looking at you Alice), so that doesn’t bother me too much. I’ll probably end up purchasing the full game at some point, I’m just not sure when.

Hunger Games comes out on DVD at Midnight, and we’ll probably be picking it up tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll finally be seeing the Dark Knight Rises this weekend as well.

Random post is random.

susurri noctis

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

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Might make some enemies on this one..

Alright, so it’s been like what? A month? Some crazy shit has went down that I’m not going to bore you with here. This blog is not for whining about my personal life, it’s for nerdy shit. So here goes with some nerdy ranting.

A couple days ago, Dan had mentioned that he was thinking about trying to trade the Xbox we had for a PS3. He really missed some of the indie games on it, as well as some of the other exclusives, and there was more coming out on the PS3 than the Xbox that he wanted to play. Next thing I know, we’re at Game Stop trading in all our games and our system to get a PS3.

So now we have our 320gb PS3 slim sitting next to our Sony Bravia TV, and all is right with world.  Or something. This is the…3rd time we’ve had a PS3, and have, over time, accumulated a good amount of downloaded content. So we spent a majority of the day yesterday installing all of that.  Today, Dan was browsing through the store, at some of the themes and dynamic themes you can download for the PS3.  There is one whole category devoted to “Babes”. Dan started laughing and looked through them. And the more he looked at, the more angry I got.

Let me stop here to say I am not some radical feminist. I am for women’s rights, and I am strongly against the objectification of women. Using women as sex objects helps no one, and it really bothers me that Sony has so many themes that do just that. Almost every single theme with a woman, had her in skimpy clothing, suggestive poses, and some of the dynamic themes were even of them exercising in their underwear. I am absolutely disgusted with Sony’s view of women. It’s degrading, it’s unrealistic, and is alienates female players.

I’m not so naive that I don’t realize that a lot of regular users of console systems are male. However, I probably know just as many, if not more, female gamers than male. And after reading about how females were treated at E3 and other gaming conventions, it makes me really sad. I’ve played games every since I was little. I had a handheld Donkey Kong arcade machine, as well as a Donkey Kong Jr one. I saved up for months to be able to buy my first Game Boy, and some of my favorite memories are of playing video games with my mom and step-dad.

Everyone makes fun of Nintendo, and their casual gaming, but you know what? Not once have I ever, ever felt like Nintendo objectify women in anyway. They welcome female gamers with open arms.

I only hope that one day, the rest of the gaming community will do the same.

Heroes of Ruin Demo Thoughts

So I got a chance to download and play the demo of this game yesterday. I had originally been excited about this game, as it was explained to me as being “Diablo for the DS”. After playing it, I can see why people are saying that.

It seems like it’s going to be a fun game. The controls are easy to pick up, and health and energy potions seem to be plentiful (at least in the demo). While I didn’t see if the online features work on the demo (I played solo), I did enjoy what little bit of story their was. The puzzle you encounter in the demo is just challenging enough to not be totally frustrating, at least for me, and the enemies are plentiful, but not overwhelming.

I played as a Vindicator, and have yet to try out the other class that is available on the demo. I did get frustrated, as I wasn’t finished exploring, accidentally walked into the boss area, and was blocked in, unable to leave. The battle was a bit of a challenge, as I was running a bit low on health potions from an earlier swarm.

As much fun as I had with the demo, I don’t think this will be a game I will pick up, or at the very least, I won’t pay full price for it. Why? Because in my opinion, if one of the big selling points of your game, is the ability to create and customize a character unique to you, you should have more than one female option. And the female option is a total trope. Female necromancer?  Really? I’m kind of disappointed in you Square-Enix. Especially considering that a good number of 3DS owners are female.

But if you aren’t like me, and that doesn’t bother you, give the demo a try. The concept is a good one, and the game will probably be great to play. I’m just disappointed in the (lack of) choices you can make.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

So the demo for KH: Dream Drop Distance hit the eshop this past week. Having had a chance to finally sit down a play it, plus a bit of time to reflect on it, here’s some of my thoughts.

First, I’ll say that I’m still super excited about this game coming out. I love the bight colors of the world(s), and even Traverse Town seems to be brighter some how. The first character interaction you have is with the main character from The World Ends With You. I had tried to play that game (TWEWY) in the past, and had never gotten into it, so I’m rather unfamiliar with most of the characters. I have to say that I do appreciate finally having a character who isn’t like “sure, strange person from another world who I’ve never seen before, please help me with my problems!” Kingdom Hearts wouldn’t be as fun if everyone was like that, but it was a refreshing change of pace, having some one say no. It was a more real interaction between two people who’ve never met, than any other part of any of the Kingdom Hearts games.

Now, on to game play. It took a bit to get used to the “FreeFlow” system, but once I figured out that you can pretty much “FreeFlow” everything, it made things a bit easier. The game is set up in a similar fashion to the previous KH games on the DS, as well as Birth By Sleep on the PSP. You use the circle pad to move, L and R control your camera, A is attack, B is jump, X for your special Skills, and L and Y allow you to “FreeFlow” and you scroll through your spells and special attacks with the D-pad. Combat is fairly intuitive, and has the same familiar feel of other games in the series. One of my favorite aspects, other than the “FreeFlow”, was being able to use your Dream Eater companions. As you attack, a pink meter fills. After it’s full, tap it on the bottom screen, and you and your Dream Eater do a dance like maneuver, with you pressing A, B, X, Y when the music note hits your target circle. I never did very well with it, but I look forward to more practice once the actual game comes out.

Over all, the demo is quite short, and left me wanting more. I can’t wait to play the full game, when it comes out July 31st.

Pokemon round 2

So, I had my Pokemon White Version, sitting in a little case, and I had left it on the table in the living room, not even thinking about the fact that my dog likes to chew things. It had been sitting there a couple of days, and then this morning, when I woke up, I found that the  case and game had been chewed on by my puppy. He dented it in a few places, including the conductors that the DS reads, as well as breaking some of the thin strips of plastic that go across the conductor on the back of the cart.

I told Dan that I was thinking of trying to put it in the DS anyway, to see if by some crazy chance it would still read. He told me to put it in his DS, instead of my 3DS, so if something happened, like it got stuck, or one of the plastic pieces broke off and got stuck, then his would be cheaper to replace. So I popped it in his DS, and turned on the power, and it recognized the game! So i loaded up my game, and the data was fine as well!

I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo, and now they have me as a fan for life. I know that a PSP game wouldn’t have survived that.

Kingdom Hearts

I’ve always had a lot of love for the Kingdom Hearts games, ever since I borrowed my friends PS2 to play the first one when I should have been taking my finals my first year of college. I ended up beating the game in about two days. I was completely drawn into the story, art, and characters. I’ve always been a fan of Disney, and really enjoyed the Final Fantasy games I had for my PSone. When my friend offered to let me play Kingdom Hearts, I couldn’t pass it up.

Fast forward a few years, to when Kingdom Hearts 2 came out. I was beyond thrilled. By then I had my own PS2 to play on, and even bought the collectors edition strategy guide. It was just as much fun as I remembered the first one being. I’d play for hours, and not even realize the time had passed. Kingdom Hearts 2 brought even more Disney and Square Enix characters into the KH world, along with the return of some old friends.

There’s been 4 “spin-off” games, all on handhelds, that I’ve gotten to play as well. While Chain of Memories, and 358/2 days were a struggle to play, despite my love of the story, Birth by Sleep and re:Coded are both amazing. I love Birth by Sleep, because you see a side of Kingdom Hearts that’s never been seen before. You meet characters before they were villains, and it added so much to the KH universe. It answered a lot of questions, but also created more. Re:coded I just started playing. I’ve already logged close to 5 hours in the game, once again neglecting my school work for game play (I’m sensing a pattern here…). It’s so much fun to play a different version of the first Kingdom Hearts, and remember what it was like that very first time.

My amazing, tolerant husband, who knows how much I love the games, has ordered me Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance for my birthday. I can’t wait to see this new side, to once again play as both Sora and Riku. I’m getting the Mark Mastery edition, and I can’t wait to see how Square Enix works with the Augmented Reality aspect of the 3DS. I’m also excited about the 3DS case, and the art cards.

I sincerely hope that KH: 3D is everything people want it to be, and will be another great installment of an already great series.

Pokemon

Dan and I were arguing over whether or not non-legendary pokemon didn’t evolve. He claimed there were some, but not many. I swore there was more than he thought. So I looked it up, via Bulbagarden.

I got half way through reading off the list, before he said “okay, fine, you proved your point.”

Being right is awesome!

Maplestory Fun

Conversation between myself, my husband, and Maplestory.

Me: Get off my screen you dick.

Dan: That isn’t very nice.

Me: Well, I’m down here killing grizzlies. Then he comes in, comes down to where I am, and starts killing my grizzles. So i started kill-shoting him. *pause* and now he’s changed channels. Because that’s how Mercedes roll.