CuriousLucious

Well, today marks the first official “Free Day” for me.

It was surprisingly ordinary.

Working holiday in May I think.

Planning about to go into full swing!

*scared*/*excited*

Can you believe it?
3 days left!
IAMSOEXCITED!!1@MK!O@#>!?>@?>!@?>#

Driving at 12am on a wide straight road makes your mind wonder all different things.

Exhibit A: Could death actually be time travel?

Discuss

Dear Prospective Recruit,

Dear New Girl,

Congratulations on getting the new job! I write to you in the obscure chance that you may stumble upon my blog and perhaps get a glimpse into your future here. Here is almost my past – for your perusal.

No doubt, you are overjoyed at the fact that you have been accepted for this position at the interview, without the dread of waiting for that phone call. Again I congratulate you. Inadvertantly, you’ve also just witnessed the first example of your new boss’s decisiveness (stubbornness) and judgement. Only you will know if they are a good judge of character. I would like to believe they were when they hired me.

As an interior designer yourself, you may be excited at the prospect of working in such a beautifully designed space, surrounded by lush fabrics and contemporary accessories. Bathe yourself in this excitement, cherish every moment that has you hunting for sample cuttings and flipping through sample books – because it may be another two weeks before you do again. The majority of your time will be spent processing orders* which come throughout the day, and you may often find yourself out the back, with boxes, bubble wrap and tape dispensers scattered around you. Please be careful. The tape dispensers are new, they have a life of their own, and if you don’t concentrate, they will slice your fingers. At first it will look fine. Then you will get blood on the boxes, the invoices and all over your pretty clothes. So please, be careful.

*While you process orders, your boss may resume the “Hovering Stance”. This is when he looks over your shoulder to check if you’ve made any mistakes. It may make you nervous, which would lead to further mistakes, which would lead to further prolonged “Hovering” in the future. Take it slow and breathe. This technique will help you immensely throughout your stay.

This leads me to my next point – Pace yourself. Learn the art of procrastination and pretense. Alternatively you may try to finish everything in the first 3 hours of your day, and resume the “Hovering Stance” over your boss and continuously asking if there’s anything else you can do to earn your wages legitimately. I have never tried this before, so take advice at your own risk.

There are some things that may potentially drive you up the wall and wonder how your predecessors survived. Don’t feel too shattered. The few girls before me were only here a couple of years. Just try to tune out when they speak of the other ones that stayed for close to a decade. They were of course also the ones that came up with the obscure folder names – in which you will be hunting for obscurely named files. This is not my fault. But I’m sorry anyway.

You will do this all on your own. You may want to talk to yourself sometimes, or try to use brainwaves to make customers call you. You won’t be able to do either. Just make sure you are packed up and ready for the last challenge of the night by 5 – the backup drives which your boss will still call ‘tapes’ do not like static. Try not to touch the usb connector, or when you plug it in you will short the server and make it restart. Do not be scared when the screen goes black and beeps, just be aware that you will be there for another 10min while the computer restarts and gets ready for backing up. Don’t breathe that sigh of relief yet – once you get out the back door to the garage, make sure you count 5 steps or you will find yourself in hospital rather than home. The lights will automatically come on after the death trap.

The next 5 minutes if done correctly, will ensure your ticket to freedom. The parking spots must always be on the default level – ie. the boss’s.  You will have to lower it, back out, and raise it again. Make sure you keep your toes out of the way and your bags are zipped up. If you loose something down there, you will never see it again. The garage door will try to automatically shut, either keep your car out of the way, or hover your leg over the sensor at the bottom. After a few weeks, you may start to curse your boss for being selfish assholes or being at the bottom of the rung in the company hierarchy. Just remember, they are nice people and you need the money.

Good bye and Good luck.

I hope you like classical music.

Was in Coles yesterday buying some bits and bobs for dinner with A.

Anybody else notice an influx of males in the vicinity?

I’m assuming all the men are trying to impress their ladies in the kitchen, but seriously, why only valentines day?

I find it intriguing how these words have seamlessly integrated itself into everyday life.

The first time I touched this game was about 1.5 years ago at a friends house. I literally loaded it up, skipped the cut scenes and went straight to the game for 5 minutes. Needless to say, it was a pointless exercise.

So 2 evenings, 5 hours and 5 deaths later, I’m pretty sure I’m still somewhere near the beginning of this seemingly epic tale. How far I’ll go I don’t know, but that fact that I’m still considering playing after repeating 1 particular scene 3 times is quite a compliment when you consider my track record – I never finished any of the Castlevanias on DS even though I loved it (dying tends to put me off and I do that a lot).

My first impression as cutscene #1 unfolded was definately “cinematic”. The music, the colours, the camera work pulls you straight into the game just like a good film would, and I found myself wondering who the director was. But I have to say, the writing in this game is what I found truly impressive. From the minute details on signs to the terminal logs, every bit helps you discover the world a little and keeps you wanting more. Little snippets of humor are embedded into the whole game – loading screens, billboards, look around and you’ll find yourself quietly chuckling. The whole game has an awesome style – think retro war era mixed with laser guns and robots and you’ll get the idea.

At 5 hours, I probably could have progressed further through the main storyline, but the exploration is always what I love in a game. I spent at least half an hour in a supermarket looting and shooting, and much much more time hacking, stealing and lock picking. OH MY GOD – DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR BOBBY PINS – YOU NEED THEM TO PICK LOCKS!!! – did the game tell me this? I really don’t know, but if they didn’t – [insert anger].

Oh, and did I mention I convinced an evil Doctor not to annihilate an entire town just by using my uber flirting skillz? Dont’ judge me, I did it for the citizens.

In terms of controls, I’ve never been good at FPS style games (can never fine tune my movement to aim), and my first reaction was to panic when I saw that little crosshair in the middle of the screen. Luckily it’s more of an RPG, the way the shooting works (semi-realtime), and the ability to regen in the middle of battle is the only reason I haven’t given up. I have to admit I’ve forgotten buttons and accidentally shot a couple of people who I wasn’t suppose to and it resulted in me 1.escaping from a town, 2-dying. I’m pretty sure that’s my fault and not the game’s…

One thing I thought was a shame was the 3rd person view option, the view is clunky as it’s off centre and it felt like an add-on for fpv challenged people like myself – only it’s failed to help. It’s a real shame considering the character looks different according to what you equip – I found myself using 3pv during non-combat travel just so I could get a taste of the new gear I’d put on – it would be nice if shooting was easy with this option.

I’m still trying to figure out some of the abbreviations in the HUD, but I’m slowly adapting – like the weight system for your pack. Turns out, there’s really no point looting empty bottles and dinted cans – WHY do they let me pick that shit up then?? Try hoarding anyway, it’s hilarious when you unload them all at once and you leave a giant puddle of your crap in the middle of a room – hrm, I wonder if it’ll still be there later? Maybe I can retreive those bobby pins…

[To understand what Incomplete Reviews are - click here]

Distractivity is what you’re doing when you get distracted from what you should be doing. It’s generally what you want to do, often what you need to do, and arguably, what you’ll do best.
from Distractivity – John Goodman

Amen.

Source: SwissMiss

There’s too much writing, and not enough visuals on this blog.

This will change.

I plan on an entire overhaul.

People (guys) who know me, know that I never finish games. In fact, I didn’t even finish my games degree. I’d probably finished a handful of games in my lifetime, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. There’s so much shit out there, I just don’t have the time! Yes, I am probably a victim of the fast-food/everything generation. No I’m not exactly proud of it.

Even so, I’ve decided on a new review system – for people who just want a low-down, simple, first impressions type review of games. Most likely I’ll never see the end of these games, but hey, I’m still allowed to like/dislike the few hours I play! Thanks to my lovely A, I don’t have to purchase all this stuff as he buys enough games for the both of us.

Incomplete Review #1 – Bayonetta on Xbox 360

awesome concept art!

I’m a girl. I love female ass kicking bitches as the ‘heros’ of games. I don’t care if they have big tits, short shorts and inappropriate proportions – as long as they kick ass and arn’t portrayed as sexual objects (think DOA – vomit) I’m cool with it, and I’ll probably love it.

I’d really only heard about Bayonetta, and hadn’t really seen a picture of the much anticipated and highly rated game, so I wasn’t realy sure what to expect. I knew the main character was a chick, and the cover was dark with a woman in leather. That was it.

So when A said he’d ordered it online, I wasn’t too fussed or eagerly awaiting it. He brought it over this weekend for me to have a look at and I must say – it’s quite different to what I’ve played.

Art-style wise, awesome – dark, edgy and comic book style. Introduction was long but visually engaging with comic style cut scenes – some animated some not. Characters have decent voice-overs that arn’t overly Americanised  (I believe it’s a Jap game). Although, I have to say I was a little surprised and slightly disappointed at how corny some of the scenes/lines were – sometimes I felt like I was playing a x-rated noir version of Sailor Moon.

I’ve played about 2 hours of the game, and the story is suitably engaging, you’re sort of thrown into the deep end when it comes to the game universe but the short cut scenes keep you curious about the character you’re playing. I did notice the linearity of it – not much room for exploration, which is a pity because the environment is beautifully crafted.

Once you get over trying to make it a serious, hardcore game and take it for what it is – fun, hack/slashy, dark and sexy – I could probably get into this game for a few more hours to come!

Worth checking out – put it on easy mode and enjoy some button-mashing visual stimulation!