miffy495

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by miffy495

  1. Recently completed video games

    Given how much of a fan of Fusion I was, the second the reveal trailer for Other M contained the words "Any objections, Lady?" I knew what was up. The knowledge of the history between Samus and Adam definitely did soften my opinion on elements of Other M, I think. Where lots of people unfamiliar with Adam just saw Samus encountering a man and immediately giving up her independence, setting back the character etc etc, I saw no problem with it as in my mind Adam was already established as the one person that Samus would ever actually listen to in a situation like that. As it was Adam, it didn't bother me. So where a lot of people were offended by Other M, I really loved it as a game, and the plot was enough to interest me (though I will admit to horrible voice acting and some pretty dumb twists). So yeah, I think that replaying Fusion may change your opinion a bit on Other M, but maybe not on Fusion? As for SA-X, I'm kind of in the middle. It scared the crap out of me every time it showed up on my first play through, but in the end I found myself wondering why I only saw it a few times. That said, the tension in the sections where it is stalking you is phenomenal. I gotta replay that game.
  2. Movie/TV recommendations

    Why? If you're good at it, you may as well share your talents with the world.
  3. Scan/Photograph your Interesting Stuff for me!

    I'll take some photos around the workplace tonight. There's some awesome mural stuff there.
  4. Recently completed video games

    I've finished two whole games over the past couple of weeks! Despite all the homework and work work, I've found time to play the last couple of hours of both Saint's Row the Third and Driver San Fransisco! In fairness, I was already most of the way done both of these games before school started, but I have managed to find the free time to finish them over the past five weeks, so that's pretty rad. Saint's Row: Yeah, it's fucking sweet. Everyone should play this game if you're interested in crazy things. It lulls a bit in the middle, but the start and end are both so unbelievably strong, the humour is consistent throughout, and the writing is never bad. Bought the DLC season pass because I want to stay in this world and keep doing awesome things. Played it on PC, and it looks and plays great with the exception of a framerate glitch which required updating my graphics card to get past. Can't recommend it enough. Driver San Fransisco: Also a pretty good game, but definitely has its flaws. I never really got the feeling that it lulled, actually. The story, despite (or maybe because of) being played straight, somehow works. The Thumbs crew's prediction that the end of the game was What I wasn't expecting was that the game would keep throwing new mechanics at you until the penultimate mission, in which you gain the ability . Always awesome. Problem is, the game itself is less fun than it deserves to be. The controls are the main issue, feeling way more loose than they should. Feels like you can't take a basic corner without drifting in a 360 first. Kinda rough. Still, that I kept at it all the way to the end credits (currently running on my laptop as I type this) says enough about it. It's a sweet game, maybe not full price sweet, but next time it goes on sale, go for it.
  5. V The Elder Scrolls

    I've always been a fan of "they" until someone self-identifies. It actually came up when I was editing my thesis. My supervisor mentioned it as something that made sense to him as well but I would need to be prepared to defend as a stylistic decision (technically grammatically incorrect, I suppose) from some people. Weird that that would be a point of contention.
  6. Thumbpals

    I still have that Christmas card. Awesome stuff.
  7. Soul Calibur V

    BlazBlu Continuum Shift?
  8. Books, books, books...

    Say what? I think you just made my day...
  9. New people: Read this, say hi.

    Oh man, video games? Do we still play those? I haven't really had much time to look at them for the past month. Talking about things though, that I'm down for.
  10. Life

    Dude, post and bring us all up a bit! With everyone worrying about stuff right now, happy thoughts from a young thumb may help us out. Subbes, I just wrote a whole bunch about being the partner of someone with severe chronic depression but thought better of putting it on a public forum. I'll just say that, if the bad thoughts have been going on as long as you imply, I've spent a lot of time on the "supportive partner" side of the equation that your partner is on and understand a negative reaction from your him. The main gist of the whole thing was to emphasize that the frustration is born of worry which is in turn born of love. I'm sure you understand that already, but just in case. I hope you guys work it out sooner rather than later.
  11. Thumbpals

    I'd go for it. Sounds kinda fun.
  12. Life

    Sorry to hear everyone else is having kind of a bum week too. My boss didn't end up saying a word to me all weekend. Fucking coward. I'm still employed for the moment then. I'm really not sure how I feel about that now. All of this has made me realize that a two sentence email from this man has the potential to make me sick to my stomach with worry for two and a half days. I really need to get out. A coworker said that "that is what he wants. You're only giving him satisfaction," which caused me to have a bit of a think. I realized that if I let the fact that it's what he wants stop me from doing something I need to do, I'm being just as petty if not more so than he is. As such, it's not stopping me. He lost two major long-term (more than 3 years of reliable and regular rentals) clients this week due to his own incompetence too, so that'll definitely give me some fodder for my letter of resignation. The place is going to shit so fast it's almost funny. Subbes, sorry to hear of tension between you and the hubby. Hope it works out for the best, whatever that may be. And Nach, I'm not surprised that it's sinking in late, but don't let that change the reasonable thinking that you had on the situation when it first happened too much. You were right there, even though it's feeling less so now that it's hitting you more. Hold onto what you can of that. Sometimes the cold rationality we have in a shock situation is us at our wisest, so keep it in mind despite how hard that may be. Good luck to both of you.
  13. General Video Game Deals Thread

    Irate, your reply.
  14. Plug your shit

    So one of my classes wants me to have a portfolio to show off at the end of the semester. Something I'd been thinking about doing for a while was keeping a blog of my experiences student teaching and my thoughts about the theories and curricula that we look at as part of the program. I figured it would be a cool thing to be able to include in said portfolio, so I've started it. If you're strange enough that any of that sounded interesting to you, I'm keeping it at http://misterworthington.blogspot.com/ and have updated it twice now. Hopefully I will continue to update it rather than let it languish on the internet. One thing: if you comment on it, please watch your language. This is something I hope to use to get a job at an elementary school, so ideally it shouldn't include words that you wouldn't say at one. I'm being quite careful about it myself and will be trying to rein the language in a bit, and would appreciate it from commenters as well.
  15. Life

    Technically, although he has never said anything about it until recently, the fact that I have finished homework assignments while on the job is grounds enough. It's weird, because in the past I've actively been encouraged to do so as long as all the WORK work is done, but he is within his rights to let me go for it. EDIT: Just was told that he wants to have a talk with me "in person". I've got a gut feeling that this may be it. Shit. Wish I'd had a chance to get another job first so I could tell him to get fucked myself rather than give him the satisfaction of letting me go.
  16. DOTA 2

    Oh man, I suddenly wish I was in DotA 2, despite the fact that I've never played a Lords Management (is that the right name for this genre?) before in my life.
  17. Life

    I'm pretty sure he'll be happy when I leave. I'm one of two people here who still stand up to him on his boneheaded decisions and he's starting to get really petty about it. That's part of what the last straw on Sunday was. I'm reasonably confident that if I hint to him or his (unpaid, constantly around spying on the staff) nephew that I'm thinking of leaving he'll just fire me outright to deny me the chance to make a smooth transition.
  18. It's extra clever because he started lurking before the podcast even existed. Truly, a master of the long con.
  19. Life

    Man, I'm finding it really hard to apply other places. I've just sat with my mouse cursor hovering over the "send" button on an email to a place a friend referred me to with my resume attached. I know I should send it. I know I need to get out. I just have such a huge emotional attachment to the theatre. It kills me that it has to go down like this. Sorry to keep coming into this thread and whining, it's just a convenient outlet for me, but it does feel good to at least express this crap. Just... Damnit.
  20. Prince Of Persia

    As my signature has alluded to for a while, I've been playing through Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the first time ever over the last couple of weeks. I beat it about 15 minutes ago, (Easiest boss fight in the history of ever) and am looking for more. I know that the official Thumb company line of Warrior Within is that it sucks, but the general sentiment I'm getting from the rest of the internet is either "YEAH!!!! NOW YOU CAN DECAPITATE SHIT!!!" (probably not going to be in agreement with that one) or "Well, the 'X-treming' of the series is horrible, but the game is still solid and a lot of fun." I've never really heard all that much about the Two Thrones either, but if that one's worth it then I'd want to play WW first just so I'm not totally confused. Thus, I put it to the Thumb community: Is WW at least worth the $15-$20 I could get it for now, or should I just be happy that SoT kicked so much ass and move on to something else? And what of The Two Thrones? Thanks. For now, I'm off to watch the Colbert Report!
  21. Life

    I'll wait until I'm sure I'm gone. Unfortunately there are very few outright horrible dickbag moments, just a LOT of small horrible things that have been snowballing since day one.
  22. Life

    Yeah, I was incredibly happy there until about 8 months ago, but here we are. As I said though, I'm pretty much guaranteed a classroom in about a year and a half, so I just have to keep on living until then and stuff gets better. I've made some great friends at the theatre, and started there because at the time it was run by two already great friends, so I've had a good 3 year run. Sorry to hear about all your stuff, but glad you're taking it well. Lady issues can indeed be shit, but it's good that she was straight with you about all of it. Good luck meeting your deadline!
  23. Life

    Not with the way 35mm is going, unfortunately. I've managed to make myself an expert in a dying medium. On the plus side, I'm 14 months away from my teaching degree, and being a guy who wants to work with young kids, will practically be guaranteed a job on graduation. I can work shitty retail jobs for a year in service of that. I just can't deal with this dickbag anymore. Have to get hired somewhere else before I can tell this dude to shove it though. Hopefully the fact that I have an honours degree and seven years of management experience can at least get me something.
  24. Life

    So my boss just crossed the line and I'm off to look for a different job. Balls. 8 months from best job in the world to absolutely unbearable. Good work, new guy.
  25. Goty.cx 2011

    What's yours? It's been kind of a hell of a year. We opened early with Portal 2, Duke Nukem Forever exists now, which may at least be worth of some recognition, three of the big current-gen trilogies wrapped up (Gears, Uncharted, Resistance), Minecraft actually went gold, the new Zelda arrived, and we had some huge indie hitters as well (Bastion, Dungeons of Dredmor, etc). Oh yeah, something called "Sky rim" happened too. There's no way anyone could have played all of these. Top of my "to buy" list, for example, is currently Saint's Row the Third, Skyrim, and The Witcher 2, which I gather all could be contenders for the goty but don't get to compete for mine. I also have Skyward Sword sitting on top of my Wii but as yet unstarted. In fact, this year I've been much more into the things that have gone on sale and the indies than anything else. My list will reflect that, and is just the games that stuck with me. I'm going with one Goty and 3 honourable mentions. Everyone, throw yours up as well and debate as you wish! MIFFY'S GOTY: Cargo! The Quest For Gravity This game is unrelentingly strange, but also feels like it's kind of important in a weird way. I posted the above screenshot just after finishing it in the "recently completed video games" thread, and still love it. Gameplay-wise, it's an evolution of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (my Goty of 2008), in that you are given a task and then need to construct a vehicle in order to accomplish it. It also feels like a meta-commentary on gaming, which is what keeps me thinking about it long after finishing it. As an appreciator of worldplay, I love the title. Your explicit goal in the game is to restore gravity, the physical force, to the world. Everything has floated up into the sky and you need to bring it back. Meanwhile, you're in a world that has been destroyed by a race of beings who pursue fun at the expense of any kind of meaning or importance and are given the objective of bringing them all back down to Earth. Really, what you do throughout the game is get away from the FUN at all costs attitude of the buddies and restore a sense of gravity to the world. The gameplay is a bit janky, but really cool. Getting the buddies their FUN (which you then need to spend to bring things back to Earth) is actually pretty entertaining. The races and weird helicopter missions are great. Things control a little weird, but it's nothing you can't adjust to. There's not really a lot I can say that isn't a spoiler, but for the $20 it's going for on Steam, I highly recommend it. It won't take you very long to blast through it, and it's a delightfully surreal experience that I think it's important for those who care about games with messages and don't mind a bit of jank to have. This game is not the best mechanically, graphically, or whatever, but it has stuck with me since I finished it, which I can't say for very many games (last one I recall that had this effect on me was Cryostasis) and gave me a feeling that I haven't had since Katamari Damacy. For that, I think it's worth my goty.cx nod. Honourable Mentions: Portal 2, Jamestown, Super Mario 3D Land EDIT: Time sensitive thing! Jamestown, one of my honourable mentions and a fantastic old-school 2D shmup, is part of the Humble Bundle that went live today! Check it out!