Zeusthecat

I prefer to be in denial about this. It helps me feel like I'm multi-tasking more than I really am when I have two computers, three screens, and a KVM switch. Luckily I'm the only one that knows that I suck at multi-tasking. *Scroll Lock, Scroll Lock*

So then they poop through "reverse osmosis"? ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!!!

When I post I really like to use parentheses (because they help me add random thoughts that I otherwise can't figure out how to put into my sentence in a logical way (or maybe just because I'm a little OCD (I'm not really OCD, I just like to use that term like everyone else (but my wife really does have OCD (which means the vacuum is always running and I can't hear (so I try to read lips)))))).

So how does digestion work in space when peristalsis has to do all of the work without any assistance from gravity (that's a hopefully intelligent way of asking how space poops work).

Whoa, didn't expect that! I ended up covering each of those areas anyways and just happened to get to the cat last so I guess it's cool that I had all of my bases covered.

I managed to make a few hours of progress in Fate of Atlantis over the weekend and things are going smoothly so far. Starting with the intro, this game pulled me in pretty quickly. I wasn't sure if I was going to like having voicework in an Indiana Jones game but as soon as I started clicking on things those doubts disappeared. I'm not too much of a discerning person when it comes to these types of things but I find the voice acting to be pretty good and I think Indiana Jones' voice sounds just right. I was also pleased at how quickly the story got started in this game. By the end of the intro I had fallen through a bunch of floors, found an old statue, and got in a fight with a Nazi. I would say this is probably the best intro to a LucasArts adventure game I've seen. After the intro, I found myself outside of a theater where Sophia was giving a presentation. I went around back and was greeted by a big security guard after trying to go through the door. I attempted to talk my way in but he wasn't having any of it so I decided to politely bid him farewell and look around a little bit more. I saw a ladder in that same area and some crates I could interact with so I tried pushing and pulling the crates until I made my way through and was able to climb up the ladder. Once inside and after watching a couple segments of Sophia's presentation, I was able to convince the stagehand to leave by giving him the newspaper I had obtained outside. With him gone, I was able to put the levers into the proper positions and press the button to ruin Sophia's presentation and trigger the next sequence of events. After talking to Sophia and seeing how Klaus Kerner had ransacked her room, we headed off to Iceland. This was a very brief segment where we simply talked to Heimdall and were instructed to go to The Azores and Tikal to seek out Costa and Sternhart. I decided to make The Azores my first destination and found that Costa wouldn't give me the information I needed until I gave him some kind of artifact. Once I hit that dead end I was off to Tikal. Once I arrived in Tikal, I was greeted with my first real puzzle solving segment. Getting through the jungle was pretty easy. I ended up using my whip on that jungle creature to get him to run through the exit where the snake dropped down and caused both of them to fall off the cliff, leaving the area open for me to pass through. I then "used" the tree to cross the gap at which point Sophia rejoined me on the other side. I saw a souvenir stand with a kerosene lamp nearby and when I tried to interact with it, Sternhart finally showed up. He wouldn't let me in the temple unless I knew the name of Plato's Lost Dialog and he wouldn't take the archaeology magazine as evidence that I was kind of a big deal so I made an incorrect guess and saw the parrot retort something as we finished talking. I immediately assumed this was some kind of a throwback to one of the Monkey Island 2 puzzles and talked to the parrot until I was able to get him to reveal the name of The Lost Dialog. From there I talked to Sternhart again and was granted access to the temple. After making my way into the temple and checking out the different items I could interact with, I became stuck for a brief period of time. Getting the kerosene lamp was no problem (just had to have Sophia distract Sternhart so I could run out and grab it) but after using the kerosene on the spiral design I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. My initial thought was that I would need to refill the kerosene lamp, use it in Iceland to thaw the ice around the eel figurine, and place the eel figurine into the spiral design. Of course, that ended up not being the solution and after fooling around for a little bit I realized I could "pick up" the design. From there, I quickly put the design into the animal head and pulled it to open the tomb. At this point, Sternhart took an artifact out of the tomb and took off through a secret passage. Luckily he had left behind the orichalcum bead which was just what I needed. With the bead in hand, I flew back to The Azores and attempted to give it to Costa. He rejected it so I figured I would head back to Iceland to see if I could give it to Heimdall or use it on the figurine frozen in ice. Once I arrived I found that Heimdall was frozen solid and the figurine was slightly exposed. I used the bead on the figurine which freed it from the ice and finally gave me the item I needed to get Costa to reveal the information on the location of the Lost Dialog. This brought me to the next puzzle solving segment in the college area where I started. As I explored the different rooms I had access to, I found an old jar of mayonnaise, a dirty rag, an arrowhead, a piece of gum, and a dusty key. I would have found the book much more quickly than I did but the game misdirected me a few times. First, it tricked me into using the old mayonnaise on the totem pole so I could move it and climb up into the next room. Then, it tricked me into using the arrowhead + dirty rag as a screwdriver on the fallen bookshelf. And finally, it tricked me into focusing on the dusty key I had obtained which opened an empty dusty chest. After some more dicking around I finally went back down to the room with the furnace and found that I could stick the gum to my shoes and climb up the chute. I clicked around a little bit in the next room before finding that I could pick up one of the cat figurines. I saw that it was made of wax and decided to try to melt it using the furnace. To my surprise, melting the cat figurine produced the Lost Dialog and the puzzle was solved! The next sequence of events brought me to Monte Carlo where I stopped playing. Hopefully I can get some more time in over the next few days but chances are I won't be able to do much until this weekend. Great game so far!

I started Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis So far I am really enjoying this game. The music and voicework are both great and the game is very engaging. I am very excited to see where this game is going to take me.

I had a crazy thought on the thought process behind this (or maybe it is obvious and I only think it is super obscure). Beaver Anus -> Chocolate covered squirrel -> Steve Carell -> LOUD NOISES. Anchorman is a really great movie, I am terrified at how horrible the bastard child sequel is going to be.

Damn, that is tragic. I should have known but I still had some naive hope that at least some of the more popular Live games from original Xbox were still supported.

Yeah, I have and played both versions and I thought they did a great job with the graphical update, especially with the fur. I remember not being the biggest fan of the Dracula and WWII sections but the rest of the game hit some pretty good notes. It stands out to me as my favorite parody game and I really liked all of the different fucked up stuff they did and places they went (The Matrix bit and the opera singing shit monster were my favorites). Obviously, this game was perfectly built to resonate with my sense of humor. I also put a couple hundred hours into the multiplayer since it was one of the earlier Xbox live games. It probably doesn't stand up too well but I have some very fond memories of the multiplayer in this game. I wonder if anyone still plays it.

Shit, I'm dumb. Thanks for pointing that out.

I'm gonna take a hard left turn here real quick. Not too long ago I was disgusted to find out that beaver anal gland secretions are used in artificial vanilla flavoring and other foods containing "natural flavors" in their ingredient list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum Soon, however, my disgust turned to curiosity as I started wondering how they go about obtaining these secretions. I have to imagine there must be the beaver equivalent of a dairy farm and it is probably someone's job to, um, extract this stuff. Or maybe they hook them up to some elaborate "milking" machine like they do with dairy cows. Taking it one step further, how the fuck did this practice start in the first place? Who is the first person that tasted a beaver's ass, ran and told all his/her friends, and convinced everyone to start putting it in food? I imagine this person would have been very persuasive. So I guess food with artificial vanilla flavoring or natural flavors isn't necessarily vegan as I originally thought. Feel free to resume your discussion on influential people.

Damn, I didn't know any of that, I would be happy if I was even 10% of what he was. There is something about that lecture that just makes any bad thing going on in my life seem conquerable and inconsequential.

I really liked seeing Conker's Bad Fur Day in that list. Was it the original N64 version or the Xbox remake?

I beat Loom. I liked it.

I think they can be accurate up to a certain point but are inherently limited beyond that. The facilitators of the test offer a general statement on each set of results that says it is very important to know yourself. Well, how do I know if I know myself or if I only think I know myself? I may think I'm personable and nice but others may think I'm a fuckface. If anything I think the results might be more accurate if you identified how you think other people view you, or just had a bunch of other people take the test for how they feel about you and conflated it with how you feel about yourself. I believe in democracy dammit!! If I think I'm nice and everyone else thinks I'm an asshole, then I'm an asshole!

I had to take a personality profile test for this DISC training we're doing at work and I just got the results today. It turns out I'm a douche as I suspected. But seriously, I am really skeptical of these types of things. I try to be honest when I'm identifying what does and doesn't describe me but so much of it is a coin toss as to which group of words I should pick. That and of course I think I have all these wonderful traits that I most likely don't really have. So yeah, douche confirmed.

I doubt I will finish that quickly. I will most likely not be able to play much during the weekdays now that I am back at work. It turns out having a 4 year old and an infant is a lot of work and requires going to bed much earlier than I used to, which means all that video game time I used to have in the evenings is much more restricted for the next few months at least. This run will probably take a few weeks for me and I'm sure you'd be able to quickly catch up to wherever I'm at when you get back. As far as the branching paths go, I will definitely go back and replay this game a couple times to try out all of the paths after I reach the end of my LucasArts backlog (I will probably be replaying a lot of these games with my daughter too so I should get some good mileage out of them). For this first run though it definitely sounds like the Team path is the way to go. And I'll keep in mind that there will be some sub-par puzzle design here and there and try not to let myself get too hung up on it if I get stuck on a crappy puzzle.

Thanks for the clarification on that sleeping spell Udvarnoky, that makes much more sense and I'm a little dumb. Also, that is an awesome cameo in MI1, thanks for pointing that out, I would have never remembered. So it looks like I am all set to play Fate of Atlantis and will probably start it on Friday. Thanks for the tips on the branching paths too, I think I will follow SecretAsianMan's recommendation and go with the teammate route when it comes time to make that decision. I agree that that sounds the most Indiana Jonesy.

Now I am really fucking excited because Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is the next game up. I have heard so many good things about this game from the podcast and from everyone here so I'm really looking forward to starting it. I also remember one or two other people (maybe SecretAsianMan if I remember correctly?) saying that they would play through this one again once I got to it so please let me know if that's the case. Assuming I'm the only first-timer on this game I'll probably start it asap without waiting for others since it will likely take me much longer solving things for the first time. I assume there are multiple versions of this game out there so which one do you guys recommend for a first playthrough? I have the version from the LucasArts Adventure Pack so that is the version I plan to play unless I hear otherwise, as with the previous games. Also, now that I am into the "golden era" of LucasArts adventure games I will be going to considerable lengths to solve these without any hints so please be super cautious about putting them into spoiler tags from here on out.

Um, I completed Loom. It ended up being a pretty easy game as far as the puzzle solving was concerned and I managed to finish it in about 4 1/2 hours. I started my third play session yesterday and it seemed like the game was just starting to kick into high gear and then it was over. As short as it was I did really enjoy everything about the game. From where I left off in my last post, I was trying to figure out how to get past the guys in the sickle room. After exploring a little bit more I noticed I could interact with the glass city spire containing the sickle and ended up trying my "turn invisible" spell which was successful. After that I was able to pass through and use the crystal ball to learn the "flame dragon" spell that I needed to cast to get past the shepherds blocking my path. Once I did that I got to the pasture and learned the "make sheep run away spell". I also saw that I could dye the sheep green. After making my way through the field I got to the hut where I learned the "heal" spell and also learned about the dragon that kept eating all the sheep. Once I went back into the field and saw all the sheep I turned them all green (this was my first thought as I don't think the "dye green" spell had come into play yet, plus it seemed like it would confuse the dragon based on the story the girl in the hut told me). After doing so, the dragon swooped down and carried me back to her(?) nest. Once the dragon finished talking to me I was stumped for a few minutes. I quickly found that I could turn the gold to straw but it didn't seem to do anything and there was nowhere else I could go. So I basically went through my spells and luckily casted what I thought was the "flame dragon" spell on the straw. As it turns out, that spell was really a "catch things on fire" spell and I was just an idiot. Once I did that the dragon flew off and I made my way through the caves, learning the "reflection" spell in the process. At the end of the path I found a twisted staircase with a broken bridge at the end. It being interactive and "twisted" made it pretty obvious that I needed to cast the "un-twist" spell to fix it. Once I did so I crossed the gap and made my way into the land of blacksmiths, which is where I stopped playing during my last session and where I picked up again yesterday. After talking to Rusty Nailbender at the entrance to the blacksmith area and watching him go back to sleep I went to the city where I was denied access by the asshole guard. There was nothing to interact with here and nowhere else to go but back to the previous area with Rusty and the tombstones so I headed back. At this point, there were a pretty limited number of interactive objects so I went to Rusty and cast a few spells on him before finding that the "reflection" spell was the solution to entering the city. Once I traded clothes with rusty I was able to enter the city and was told some guy was waiting for me. So I just walked forward until I found the guy and after he told me how pissed he was he locked me in a cell and took my staff. Once I fell asleep in the cell and the staff was thrown in the furnace, Hetchel-Duck then came and gave me my staff back. After I finally regained control of my original form (thanks to the dragon killing Rusty) I cast "open" on the door to get out and move on. Riveting stuff, I know. The next room ended up being pretty easy to get through. The only two things I could interact with were the Bishop/Foreman and the sword that was being sharpened. So I listened to them talk and then figured I needed to cast the opposite of the "sharpen" spell on the sword. However, it was too loud in the room so I needed to find a way to get the blacksmith to stop pounding the sword so I could cast the spell. I clicked on the Bishop/Foreman again and saw that their dialog with the blacksmith gave me the break in noise that I needed to cast the spell. After doing so I was captured and found myself locked in a cage. After a few exchanges I was out of my cage and got to see Cobb, the biggest idiot I've ever seen in a video game, essentially commit suicide by trying to peek under my hood. Now that I was free I went up to where the archbishop was and watched him also commit suicide (I saw that one coming from a mile away). After grabbing my staff, I went back to the jail cell and looked into the crystal ball a few times making note of the "swan" spell in the process and witnessing a cooked Hetchel-Duck. Then I went back out and up the stairs where that green dragon forced me into the portal. The rest of the game was a very straightforward trek. I went through each portal, healed the people or watched a dialog scene, then went back through and moved on to the next portal until I reached the starry swan pond. Then after the revelations from my swan mother, I went back and closed each portal before finally going past the starry swan pond and into the final portal that brought me back to Loom Island. The final exchange with the king dead guy was pretty simple and I just cast the opposite of whatever spell he cast until Hetchel-Duck was disintegrated. Then I used the "disintegration" spell to destroy the Loom and escape back to the, um, starry inter-dimensional place. Finally, I turned myself into a swan using the final "swan" spell and the game was over. So, as I mentioned, I did really enjoy this game but wish it was a bit longer and had more challenging puzzles. This was the first LucasArts game that I completed without any help whatsoever from the internet or anyone here but it didn't feel like too much of an accomplishment because it was pretty easy after figuring out the whole "cast spells backwards" thing. I am also very glad I played the original version because, as Udvarnoky stated, the artwork with the limited color palette was pretty impressive and I liked going through the experience without any spoken dialog. I assume there were originally plans to make a sequel(s) because it definitely ended on a cliffhanger and there seemed to be a lot of unexplored possibilities given the lore they created for this game. I will definitely play through this again at some point to experience the updated visuals and voicework but that will have to wait until later.

This perfectly describes my experience with Wind Waker. I loved the seafaring for all of the reasons you mentioned and it made every discovery feel much more meaningful.

I finally have an update to post on my Loom progress! So as I mentioned before, I am playing the original EGA version on the standard difficulty and already listened to the audio drama (thanks for linking that, definitely a good listen). Once I gained control of Bobbin (kind of a hilarious name in my opinion) I was immediately confused by the absence of the verb bar that I had grown so accustomed to.in all of the other games so far. I knew I needed to head to where the elders were but it wasn't immediately clear how I was supposed to interact with the world aside from clicking around to move from point A to point B. One thing I did immediately appreciate though was the window that pops up in the bottom-right corner showing interactive objects as you hover over them. In fact, I think that might be my favorite way interactive objects have been highlighted out of all of the games I have played so far. After exploring the island for a little bit, I made my way to the elders and listened in as they tried to dole out punishment to Hetchel. Apparently they failed and she became a cute little duck (I loved the closeup of that duck) in an egg instead and everyone else on the island turned into swans and flew away. I still don't fully understand if the Loom turned them into swans or if the elders were just retarded or if it was Hetchel's doing but at least I got a sweet magical staff out of that ordeal. Once I got the staff I finally started to understand how I was supposed to interact with objects in this game and quickly used my recently learned "open" spell on the egg to free Hetchel-Duck. After talking to her I learned that I would need to leave the island. With the staff obtained (and the book that I had picked up in Hetchel's hut), I went back through each area on the island to see what else I could do. As I was going around trying to "open" things I ended up learning a "dye object green" spell which I subsequently used on all of the tapestries and wool cloth that I could find on the island. I also "opened" a clam near the pier which prompted one of the seagulls to fly down and eat the meat inside. From there I went to the cemetery and, while on route, found that one out of the four trees with holes adjacent to the cemetery was missing an owl. When I entered the cemetery I saw the missing owl sitting on a tombstone and got him to fly into his hole after a rabbit ran out from the thorns that were nearby. Once that happened, I read the tombstone inscription which gave me a not-so-subtle hint to "open" the sky near that tree at the starting area. So I headed back to the tree and picked up the "see in the dark" spell from the owls on the way there. After "opening" the sky and watching the tree explode, I was finally able to get off the island by using the big tree branch as a boat. Unfortunately I didn't get far due to a waterspout that was in my way. I clicked on it and saw that there was a new spell to be learned (I assumed it was a "twist" spell) but I didn't have enough experience to use it and had to go back to the island to explore some more. Once I got back to the island, it didn't take too long to figure out that I needed to use the "see in the dark" spell in the darkened hut. After doing that I was able to learn the "turn straw into gold" spell from the wheel inside the hut and had finally gained enough experience to be able to cast the "twist" spell from the waterspout. As an aside, I'm not sure if it was necessary to open the clam, dye the wool, etc or if experience is merely gained through learning new spells but it was fun to see which ones worked in various places anyways. Now that I could access the new note, I hopped back on my branch and floated back to the waterspout. This is where my first cool moment happened with this game. When I tried using the "twist" spell, Bobbin commented that it was twisted up enough already and that I needed to find a way to un-twist it. I pondered this for a couple minutes and had an interesting thought cross through my head. I thought, "Maybe if I play the "twist" spell backwards the waterspout will un-twist itself." I was absolutely delighted when I saw that it actually worked and quickly realized I could get similar results if I did the same thing with other spells. That was definitely a cool eureka moment. Now that the way was clear I was finally able to move on and found myself on a new landmass that had a bunch of glassmakers and shepherds. I tried to take one path and was stopped by a group of invisible shepherds that insisted that I prove my wizaaaaaaaardly abilities. I tried all of my spells on them but did not have any success so I was forced to move on to the area with the glass city (and I made note of the "turn invisible" spell that those guys used). I didn't find much there beyond a diamond chalice thingy, some glass tombstones, and a room with a big sickle that I was promptly kicked out of. However, one scene did show a guy demanding a crystal ball that would enable him to see 8 hours into the future instead of the 4-6 hours that the existing crystal ball was capable of. I figured I needed to get to that crystal ball by going through the room with the sickle and that I would somehow need to use my "turn invisible" spell to get through. I made some more progress after this point but I am going to stop this post here as it is quite long enough already. I'll make another post a little later today or tomorrow with the rest of my progress. So far I am really liking this game. It is very unique and is charming as hell. That and the art direction is fantastic as was mentioned by others earlier.

Subbes, that sucks to have to go through that with your cat. I think it goes without saying that I'm a cat-person (part cat, part person) and the thought of losing Zeus is pretty unbearable. After over 10 years of him sleeping on my chest every night I can't imagine what that first night without him is going to feel like when the inevitable time comes. Best wishes and I hope they are able to save yours. Twig, sounds like all in all you getting laid off was for the best despite the fact that there are some shitty circumstances. Hopefully you can find a job where they actually appreciate and recognize people that are dedicated to and enjoy their jobs. Lacabra, damn I'm sorry and that really sucks. It's amazing how much relationships impact our lives and how tragic it can be when a significant relationship comes to an end. My wife and I almost called it quits about a year into our relationship because we were struggling with the whole long distance thing (we were still in high school at the time) and I remember feeling almost like someone close to me had died when I thought it was going to end. I cannot fathom how shitty that must feel when it's been five goddamn years. Hang in there! Tegan, I'm sorry and wish I could help but things are very tight with just my income and a mountain of student loans and medical bills (I fucking hate high deductible healthcare plans). Dibs, break into various parked cars along his cycling route and open those doors man! Relish in the paranoia you will have created every time he passes by a parked car. Elmuerte, hopefully the time you have wasted will make you further appreciate time that isn't wasted. Or you can get wasted and waste some time thinking about the time that was wasted. I believe in you. I feel like a douche.

I am finally starting Loom Per Udvarnoky's recommendation, I've listened to the audio drama and am playing the original EGA version. I saw that there are three difficulties and decided to go with the standard difficulty on this one. I assume this is a good level to go with?