miffy495

I have kind of a similar question. I just beat ACIII finally so that I could play ACIV, but I don't want to jump right into it lest I burn out on the whole endeavor during the game that I was actually trying to work my way to. I need a palate cleanser. What is a good, low-commitment game I can use as a break between ACs?

Goddamnit why do I have to work all the time. The 17th can't come soon enough!

I got every shard in inFamous 1, 2, and that Blood thing that they did for Halloween DLC. This game will make me buy a PS4. I can't wait.

If you want to look like you're on the cutting edge, become a teacher. I made a thing where I could drop comments on student conduct into a google survey template by using my phone in class. It felt like the thing to do, because often you forget what you wanted to say before you get to write it down. Now I just text it to myself and it shows up on a google drive spreadsheet. The rest of the school thinks I'm a fucking wizzard.

Thank you and good night.

Megatextures.

Half created just because I had that title in my head, I figure that at least a few of you must have joined me in picking up Monaco on the cheap on the latest Steam sale. I have yet to play it, but understand from internet folks that it's a game that is much better played in co-op. I figure a thread is probably in order so that we can get a few games going together. Would anyone be interested in partying up for some Monaco?

I beat Assassin's Creed: The Bad One. ...I know, I know. I was recently gifted ACIV, and at 80% complete ACIII I couldn't justify moving on to Black Flag without beating III first. Y'know what? It got a lot better towards the end. The game's biggest flaw is that Haytham is WAY more interesting than Connor, so all the times that you see Haytham you're just reminded "Fuck, I used to BE that guy..." I had vowed to not get into collect-a-thon stuff, but then I did. The funny thing is, I started collecting things right when the story kicked into melodrama. This means that in my story, Connor responds to having to kill his childhood best friend by dropping everything and running around the frontier collecting bits of eagle. "To atone for my sins, I must collect enough eagle to bury my friend feathers. It is the only way." Also, I couldn't stop thinking of that scene in Futurama where the car salesman is trying to sell Amy a stupidly expensive car by talking about how many eagles were killed to make different parts of it. "That's a lot of eagle..." Finally, this game had one of my favourite unintentionally funny things in games for quite some time. When you get near a chest, you hit B to pick the lock on it. When in stealth, B is the button for whistling to attract a guard. Chests are usually guarded by several people, and the quickest way through this is wanton murder. I would kill a bunch of dudes and then hit B to open the chest. Half the time, however, the game wouldn't recognize the chest because I was still in encounter mode, which meant that my Connor would frequently look out over like seven dead bodies he's just created, put a hand on his hip, let out a long low whistle, and then get back to what he was doing. I laughed every time.

I just had a package arrive. All compliments to Tegan for the amazing painting. This is how it looks on my wall.

Man, it's still so weird for me how much I've grown up with this forum. When I joined up, I was in high school and had just heard about it from Mixnmojo. I was barely a teenager. I had never had a job nor a girlfriend. When I look back, I have like 4 friends that I have known as long as some of the people on this forum. That dry spell, when the site wasn't updating and the podcast hadn't started yet, was terrifying to me. I was always worried I'd try to log in one day and it would all be gone. Who would ever have guessed that a web site would become such a constant in my life. Well done, Thumbs. You really have built something beautiful here.

I got back into playing guitar because of those games. I had forgotten how much fun making music was, having given it up back when I was in high school so that I would have time to actually get all the things that I needed to done. Rock Band made me start strumming along on my acoustic again, just because it reminded me how much fun it was. Then Rocksmith happened and I started getting into techniques and actually nuance rather than just a few chords and strumming along to songs I like. Two years in to getting back into it now. I'm still not back at the level I was when I was 15 (I played a LOT back then) because of the ten year break, but man. This is so much fun. I'm teaching my girlfriend things on her bass, and just earlier this week was considering a new instrument purchase because I'm actually getting this serious about things again and one I want is on sale. Thanks, rhythm games, for making me back into an (very, very) amateur musician!

I played a bunch of this at a buddy's house after work tonight. When we had a 7 and a half minute match with crazy upsets and throws on both sides, we called it quits. Amazing.

So after finishing Portal 2 and feeling awesome about all things Valve and single-player, I decided that a journey back through their library was due. I have now reinstalled Half Life Source, HL2, and both episodes and intend to replay the whole thing as completely as I can. As I said in the Portal 2 thread, the feeling when you start up a Valve game is pretty much unlike any other, and I wanted to experience it again real bad. I got 6 chapters in to Half Life the first today, and have to say that in my memory, that took way longer than 2 hours. I remember being hunched over in Jr High school, terrified of every Vortigaunt around every corner and taking things unbelievably slowly. The meat locker in the "Office Complex" chapter alone stands out in my memory as an arduous experience. Looking around for vents to crawl through and peering around corners to see headcrabs before they could see me took me forever. According to Steam's play counter, getting up to the surface only took me 110 minutes today. (And that was after having to play through the first bit of "Unforseen Consequences" twice after I fell down an elevator shaft, had the game start over at the tram ride again, and thought to myself "Right. 1998. Manual saves. Stupid, Pete. Real stupid." Thank god for chapter select.) What the hell, memory? Either my brain has tricked me into thinking Half Life was a way longer game than it was, or I was fucking terrible at games when I was 13. Also, remember what it's like to move around in a first person game in 1998? I feel like I'm skating the entire time. It took some getting used to, but I'm back into the swing now. That and the dodgy jumping puzzles really date the game, but that's about all that feels really anachronistic, even compared to a lot of games of today. Anyway, I may keep replying to this thread with thoughts, but I honestly find that sort of thing to be kind of obnoxious. The main reason I'm starting this thread is to see if I can get a community thing going. I'm much more likely to actually see this through if I have others doing it with me, so who wants to have a nostalgic "A bunch of us are replaying these games together" type thread? Anyone else in?

I worked at a music store in 2008-9 with a guy who was SUPER into Ratatat. He liked to play it in the store quite a bit, and I always really liked it, but for whatever reason never picked up an album myself. I should rectify this.

Happy birthday, dude!

So after a week it has become clear that the class I have taken over for the next six months is that class. The one where all the other teachers in the school look at you with unconcealed pity in their eyes when you walk past them in the hall. I got the crazy ones, you guys. On the other hand, it's quickly becoming clear to me that, for all their behavioural issues, this is a freaking BRIGHT class of seven-year-olds. What this means is, if I can calm them the hell down for long enough to learn something, they will absolutely rock whatever I am trying to teach them. These kids are super smart, and the literacy program at this school is great, so they can write as well or better than the kids two grades above them that I was working with for the last four months. Very cool. Over the past three days, I have been noticing an improvement in their behaviour, so that's rad. If the class and I can find a state of equilibrium where I can get them going on something and we can work together on the distraction level, this could be an amazing six months. If we can't figure each other out, it could be absolute torture. Fingers crossed!

You can, but convincing one to stay still for 6 - 8 hours is difficult.

My WiiU is my most recently used system! I used it like a month ago. It will be the next thing I use as well, and I will accept then (assuming I was one of the chosen few).

That is the best response you could have given. I love how committed you are to this bit. I would have lost patience forever ago. Hats off to you, sir.

Have a link to "The panelists" or "The committee" for your credits. You need a good, objective sounding name for them.

Man, that guy sucked, whoever he was.

"Shake hands with a SlashCo!" Anyway, I got that job. I am now a third grade teacher through June. Teaching jobs are supposed to be brutally difficult to get, but they seem to have a tendency to fall into my lap. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Still, over the next six months I now have a contract that promises me substantially more money than an entire year at my last job would have given me, and it's also way more fun. On the downside, I will now be working Mondays and thus unable to take part in Grand Thumb Autos until March break.

I have been a substitute teacher for 6 hours. I have been on the "available" list for about 45 minutes, due to dealing with bureaucracy. I just got a call for a full-time job interview in a grade three class. Holy crap. If I get this job tomorrow, I will have gone my first full year of teaching only subbing for one day. This is crazy.

Boo! I'm not working today. Yay! I get to GTA!

Today is my first day on call as a substitute teacher since my last contract ended. If I get a call, I'm working. If I don't get a call, I'm in.