miffy495

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by miffy495

  1. Making the Game Your Own

    I was playing Serious Sam 3 co-op with my stepdad during my vacation, and we started treating it like big game hunting. Any time we felled a powerful enemy in a particularly compromising position, one of us would pose over it and the other would take a screenshot for "the trophy wall." Took an already pretty sweet game and added some more fun to it. I'd post one, but apparently Steam is having issues with my screenshots right now and everything I've ever taken is a broken image link. Dang.
  2. Mass Effect 3

    I've played through both as Lady default and Man default. Lady is superior.
  3. Movie/TV recommendations

    That's similar to how I felt when my step-dad and step-granddad (if that's a thing) decided we should go to it as a "guy's day" when I was visiting the family. The story was garbage, a lot of the things in it were stupid ( ) but the supporting cast and sheer bombast of the thing made it enjoyable. It's not great, but if you want to forget the world for a while and look at cool things, you could do much worse. Also saw Hugo and Rise of the Planet of the Apes while I was there. Hugo was fucking great, if a little heavy on the name-drops. Well, maybe not even. Perhaps that's just my inner film geek going "Well obviously if I've already seen all the movies that they're pulling clips from they're just scratching surface level things. Show me something NEW!" but in reality I'm a pretentious dickbag. It could easily be either one of those things. Either way, it was a really charming and sweet movie, and if you're a fan of silent film it pays wonderful homage to it. First thing I've ever seen in 3D, too. In a "normal" movie, I can see the pop-up book effect that 3D seems to give to actual human actors becoming really distracting, but as Hugo actually had the tone of a pop-up style book in it's story and atmosphere, it actually felt appropriate and enhanced the movie for me. Make of that what you will. As for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I only have one sentence: Much better than it had any right to be.
  4. Happy Birthday!

    Tanu! Happy birthday, sir!
  5. Dead Space

    So, given all the amazing press this game has been getting and the fact that it was staring me in the face for an 8 hour shift today, I picked up Dead Space for the PS3 as I was leaving work today. Stupid working in a games store making me spend money... Anyway; After playing the first (of, I believe, 12) chapter, some initial thoughts: - This game really, really[/b] wants to be RE4: IN SPACE! but unfortunately, the creepy alien things they have coming at you all the time simply aren't as quietly unsettling as the Ganados. Those of you who played RE4 will probably remember the fight fairly early on in the game with the high-priest guy in the barn, where hook things sprout from his shoulders and he swings from the rafters beating the crap out of you. This was a pretty frightening sequence, as the sudden shift from fighting slow-moving villagers to fighting this giant spooky-lookin thing was quite shocking. Now imagine that every enemy in the game was a weaker version of this monster. The shock kinda goes away when you're constantly being jumped by them. - So far, not so much on the creeping dread factor. While generally spooky, the scares that come are more of the "HOLY CRAP SHOOT IT SHOOT IT!" variety than the disquiet that comes from a well crafted psychological scare. Again, I'm only 1/12th into the game, so this could change as I get deeper in, but the initial mood seems to be more of a creepy action game than horror. - Again, may just be a symptom of chapter 1, but I actually have more ammo than I know what to do with. I expected to be constantly watching my ammo tick away as I grow more desperate. Even in the early going of RE4, I was constantly hovering around the 10 bullets left mark in what seemed perfectly balanced. Right now, my cup runneth over. - The camera is a tad dodgy. While completely serviceable, it is always zoomed in a little more than I'd like with the character taking up almost a third of the screen. I'd definitely like to see more of the impressively detailed environments and less of my own back. Now, all of these are negatives, but contrary to this I am quite enjoying the game. Most of the negatives come from my going in expecting survival horror when it actually delivers action. Don't make the same mistake, and it's really quite a good game. Imagine if Doom 3 were made a third person game and then substantially better. Then make it so that all you face are imps who can't throw fireballs but blow apart real pretty. It's a very nice game, but I don't know if it's something I'd recommend to everyone. I'm not regretting my purchase, but it's not blowing me away either. I'm certainly going to keep on playing, and here's hoping the terror really takes hold later on in the game.
  6. The Dancing Thumb (aka: music recommendations)

    Shit yes, Sharon Jones is fantastic. Her live shows are amazing.
  7. FAO Thompson

    I won't be home at my regular computer to change things around for about another week yet, so Christmas it stays.
  8. General Video Game Deals Thread

    Just bought Assassin's Creed Revelations for 25% off. Kinda sucks that the first thing I do before buying it is google "Revelations PC DRM" but the search came out to be about what the DRM on Driver is, so I can live with that. Excited to finally check the game out.
  9. General Video Game Deals Thread

    I had 7 coal before I got anything, now I have some coupons for things I don't care about. Whoo.
  10. General Video Game Deals Thread

    Man, started trying to get the achievement in AAAAAAAAAA For the Awesome. That one is super hard. Probably won't end up with it.
  11. Star Wars The Old Republic

    Wait, Taris is in the game? The planet that got razed to the ground from orbit at the end of the first chapter of KoTOR 1? When does this take place?
  12. General Video Game Deals Thread

    You can actually win full games from this thing? I've only got 6 lumps of coal so far. I thought the prizes would be hats and stuff like that. Neat!
  13. Life

    Well crap. That really nice laptop (Asus G53SW) that I got in October seems to have a bad LCD panel on it. I noticed a small red line in the upper left corner of the screen last night, which has now become a vertical line going the entire length of my screen. Found my receipt and called up Memory Express (province-specific computer shop chain that I purchased it from) and they told me that since I'm under manufacturer warranty rather than having spent the $200 on their in-store one, they'd probably have to send it back to Asus. I'll need to make sure I can save my HDD before it gets sent off, and will likely be without my laptop for the first week of the year. Whoo! In the meantime, when playing a level of Renegade Ops this morning, I didn't find it TOO big of an issue, so I'll still be taking it to my folks' place in BC next week when I go to visit and doing my down-time gaming on it anyway. Can't stop the Saint's Row!
  14. Movie/TV recommendations

    Have you seen Blue Valentine? It's a really good movie about a relationship disintegrating due to no particular reason aside from getting married too young and growing into different people. It's really refreshing, as Hollywood normally portrays relationships ending because of some specific event rather than people being people. No one is at fault here, both characters are really well done, and Ryan Gosling is fucking great as the husband. Some good emotional moments there too, not just little bits leaking out now and then. It's what sold me on Ryan Gosling. I'd recommend checking it out if you want to be impressed with him.
  15. Renegade Ops

    Nothing like a new Steam christmas achievement to get me to boot up RO again and remember how much I like this game. The Coldstrike DLC also seems pretty rad. I shot down Santa! How cool is that! I don't recall paying $5 for the DLC, but Steam says I own it so maybe it gave it to me as a preorder bonus or something? Either way, it's pretty good. There are far worse reasons to hop back into this game.
  16. Nintendo 3DS

    Man, just gotta say after spending some time with it, Pushmo is the SHIT. That game is really good, and everybody should check it out.
  17. General Video Game Deals Thread

    Yeah, me too. I keep a list of things that I'll buy on the last day if not otherwise discounted, and then cross them off as they are. It's always served me well in the past. Seriously considering Rage for $15 today. What's the scoop?
  18. General Video Game Deals Thread

    Dude, $5 for Mass Effect 2 is one of the better decisions you could make. Pull the trigger on that one.
  19. Life

    Santa is tricky because they'll have a class full of cohorts who will likely be all about the Santa stuff, so you don't want them spoiling things for their friends. I was raised by an atheist father and undecided mother and still got presents from Santa. I think if it's approached in the right way, it can be a pretty wonderful thing for a kid to have. I would be much more likely to leave Jesus out of the holidays as opposed to Santa. As far as I'm concerned, Santa can come to any kid, Christian or not, and Christmas will be recognized as a really good time to watch cheesy TV specials (you will need to pry my "Muppet Christmas Carol" DVD from my stiff, dead fingers) and get together with family, that's about it. How I'm going to handle Santa in the future has been on my mind a bit lately as in not-too-much time, I'll be teaching a class somewhere in the age range of 4 - 12 years old and need to tread lightly around the subject. With my own kids, I respect my mom for the answer she gave when I was 10 and went up to her and asked if Santa was real: "You really want to know?" That told me all it needed to, and I appreciated that she played along to the point where I flat-out asked her. I will likely do the same with my own kids in the future.
  20. Happy Birthday!

    I... I don't even... What?
  21. Happy Birthday!

    Yeah, but the levels are currently still in the early 20's, and that's not a whole lot to get excited over. Happy birthday to you as well, sir!
  22. Fuck Steve, grats Steve 3.

    Chris and Jake are in SF, along with Famous Vanaman. Steve is in Portland. Nick, I believe, remains out East. Sorry to all involved if it is creepy that we know all this about you.
  23. Fuck Steve, grats Steve 3.

    Me too man. Given the option of actually playing a thing or curling up in my bed and watching a Giant Bomb Quick Look on my laptop, I'll usually do the latter. I need to actually play things more.
  24. Life

    I am now a motorist.
  25. Life

    On the subject of "growing the hell up", I'm three minutes away from leaving the house to finally take my road test after having only my learner's permit for over 7 years. I'll be 24 on Monday, and still don't have my damn driver's license due to scaring myself away from driving by crashing my mum's car when I was 16. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll have remedied that. Kinda freaked out, but dammit I really can't deal with 2 hours of transit every morning to get to my student teaching position next term. I did that in October and the sleep deprivation nearly killed me. That extra hour I'd get from driving in will make a huge difference.