The Gaming Den

Fuck, Evangelion 2.0.

Shinji must have learned something from Simon.

I've been reading these:

http://bofh.ch/

I've figured out why I like them, once the style settles down. It isn't like the BOFH just has victories fall in his lap. He works for it, by dint of Herculean effort and a lot of skill.

I'm a sucker for a good out-maneuvering.

TOZ wrote:Fuck, Evangelion 2.0.

Shinji must have learned something from Simon.

I didn't even know those had happened. Shit. That's what I get for living in Eastern Fucking Europe.

-Username17

I'm not feeling like Mari, the new Eva pilot, is really adding anything to the story. She feels like a Mary Sue fanfic character. Still, since this seems like an AU where Shinji channels Spiral Energy, I can accept her existance.

The Angels got a serious CG upgrade, and unlike the Star Wars 'special' editions, they really do improve the scenes they are in.

Asuka is less of a bitch. I approve.

Shinji is less whiny and actually has a reason for the whining he does. Then turns into a Determinator. Awesomeness ensues.

And Kaworu is still creepy.

His dad was still seriously creepy in the first one.

-Crissa

Just finished reading the last of the Codex Alera series: First Lord's Fury. The whole thing has rocked me throughout. Absolutely fucking awesome. From the raising of the walls, to the swimming underwater by leviathans, to the icebergs, to the fuck off huge ice sleds, to the exploding the city walls to the waking up a fucking mountain.

Butcher's often written about how much he loves the fantasy genre and I can't wait to read what he comes up with next.

I tried to watch the first few episodes of Evangelion, after hearing about how it was so "philosophical" and "symbolic" and shit but could not get past everyone's constant bitching and my total lack of caring for any of the characters or the plot. Does it ever get bearable, or is it more a habituation thing that lets people watch the show as a whole?

I just finished Michael Chabon's Summerland

Best monomyth rip in a couple decades, and I say that despite my superlatively contemptous loathing for baseball, which the books uses as its central metaphor

It's pretty rocking where the author has Joe Magarac shows up yet refrains from naming him.

Also pretty rocking how mythic names are transliterated into the way a kid the age of the hero would interpret them ("ragged rock:, "applelawn", etc)

But the rockingest part is that since in the places where the boundries between the worlds are thin heroes cross can over and have adventures in other worlds, the villain goes around ridding the multiverse of such places to prevent new heroes and stories from ever occuring.

Blicero wrote:I tried to watch the first few episodes of Evangelion, after hearing about how it was so "philosophical" and "symbolic" and shit but could not get past everyone's constant bitching and my total lack of caring for any of the characters or the plot. Does it ever get bearable, or is it more a habituation thing that lets people watch the show as a whole?

It gets good about a quarter of the way through, and then it just gets weird.

If you are one of the three people who actually take Eva like Anno wanted it to be (a general fuck you to super robot anime with broken, unlikable fleshbags masquerading as super robot archetypes), then watch the new movies instead.

All of that "philosophical" and "symbolic" shit is a lie propagated by stupid fans who think that all of the Christian references weren't just Anno using shit that sounded cool (like Gibson and the Cyberpunk movement's screaming weeabooism). You can watch End of Eva/Death and Rebirth to cut out the chaff if you hate yourself enough.

In other news, I've been watching Arakawa Under the Bridge and B Gata H Kei recently. The former is a SHAFT production about weirdos and awesome, and the other can be summed up with FUCK YES, YOU ARE THE WORST SLUT EVER.

Blicero wrote:I tried to watch the first few episodes of Evangelion, after hearing about how it was so "philosophical" and "symbolic" and shit but could not get past everyone's constant bitching and my total lack of caring for any of the characters or the plot. Does it ever get bearable, or is it more a habituation thing that lets people watch the show as a whole?

I wouldn't recommend watching Evangelion unless you've already viewed a number of other giant robot anime. A good deal of its initial dramatic impact comes from the fact that it's a very clever deconstruction of that particular anime genre. But the core of the story is about broken people coming to terms with their debilitating psychological issues. Most of the characters become more sympathetic as the story progresses, but if you're not interested in the series by Episode 3, Evangelion probably isn't your cup of tea.

Running the Burning Plague adventure for a new player, get to the point where she and the npc accompanying her fight the cliff fight. Between the barbarian meleeing his way through their crossbowmen, and her rogue sniping them from the ground, when it gets down to 2:1 odds, I have the kobold leader surrender.

She climbs up the ledge, surveys the dead, and immediately grabs him, shouting at him about the pointless deaths.

The adventure has the leader stricken by the disease himself, and worried about his son in the next room, and I have a tendency to play the underdog races to the hilt, making people examine the fact that the dominant races have forced the kobolds and goblins to the ends of their ropes. After this exchange, as she accepts his headdress as her rightful possession for defeating the kobold leader, she GIVES him the 1000g in gems she was just paid for a side quest of "check on my son," and a further side quest of "bring me his body" that she was given by a Noble that served as the adventure hook of getting her there.

I was floored, and had to give her roleplaying xp. That was a hell of a thing.

Mask_De_H wrote:In other news, I've been watching Arakawa Under the Bridge and B Gata H Kei recently. The former is a SHAFT production about weirdos and awesome, and the other can be summed up with FUCK YES, YOU ARE THE WORST SLUT EVER.

Try these other titles. Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou and Angel Beats! Pretty good series too.

Maxus wrote:I've been reading these:

http://bofh.ch/

I've figured out why I like them, once the style settles down. It isn't like the BOFH just has victories fall in his lap. He works for it, by dint of Herculean effort and a lot of skill.

I'm a sucker for a good out-maneuvering.

Oh man, the original BOFH is so fucking classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXP27vp ... re=related

Start at around 7:40.

A lioness ninja-flips over and overhead takedowns a Zebra.

PURE AWESOME.

AB didn't do it for me, but I'll check out Ichiban Nicklance.

Also, that lioness video is wonderment.

Man...don't mess with lioness. They flip out and take you down.

Prak_Anima wrote:Running the Burning Plague adventure for a new player, get to the point where she and the npc accompanying her fight the cliff fight. Between the barbarian meleeing his way through their crossbowmen, and her rogue sniping them from the ground, when it gets down to 2:1 odds, I have the kobold leader surrender.

She climbs up the ledge, surveys the dead, and immediately grabs him, shouting at him about the pointless deaths.

The adventure has the leader stricken by the disease himself, and worried about his son in the next room, and I have a tendency to play the underdog races to the hilt, making people examine the fact that the dominant races have forced the kobolds and goblins to the ends of their ropes. After this exchange, as she accepts his headdress as her rightful possession for defeating the kobold leader, she GIVES him the 1000g in gems she was just paid for a side quest of "check on my son," and a further side quest of "bring me his body" that she was given by a Noble that served as the adventure hook of getting her there.

I was floored, and had to give her roleplaying xp. That was a hell of a thing.

That explains the other thread. Cool. Stuff like that does make the game so much more fun.

Prak, are you running burning plague as a solo? How's that working out?

I'm thinking of running it for my wife and she wanted to know if it would work as a solo or if she would just have to play two different characters.

well, I ran it one on one, but threw in a DMPC to help out, especially since the player is completely new. It works out rather well, but, on the other hand, I also made the DMPC 3rd level, and a meatshield so her rogue could do it's thing.

But yeah, it was fine. Hell, between being ranged oriented, and having a meat shield, she took barely any damage, if at all.

Most fights are with kobolds, there are zombies in the penultimate encounter, and if you don't have some one to draw fire, the ledge encounter could be very difficult. The final encounter is with a level 5 cleric of Gruumsh with severely reduced hp. If she hasn't leveled by then, which honestly she should, at least once, that could be a tough fight, or it could be an easy fight. I mean, the guys got only 22hp. At the same time, there was a side quest added when I ran that netted her some extra XP, and the rp xp from giving the kobolds gold

I just got back from seeing Prince of Persia. Here's the rundown:

1) It's not really plot-heavy.

2) There's not as much acrobatic action as there should have been, but if you've played the games you'll see several shout-outs which call to mind some things.

3) I have to say, I like some of the acting. The king is played by a guy who can really do warmth. The scenes with him sketch in a lot about his character. Some other people, too. A few other characters are pretty good. Hell, a couple don't have many lines but you get a feel for them anyway.

4) I love one character who sends up the "small businessman who fights the guv'ment"

5) Not the best, or even THAT good a movie, but okay for light entertainment.

6) Did give me an idea for a game I have running.

So, I finally knuckled down and beat God of War 2

Then I started up a game on GoW1

And I just found something jaw-dropping.

Close to Cronos there's a pain-in-the-ass conveyor belt with the obligatory giant spiked wheel at one end. You have to push a block against the flow of the belt, while enemies attack you, and try to get the block to the opposite end from the wheel and use it to jump up to a ledge.

Today, I found out it's possible to break the wheels at the end, which stops the conveyor belt and makes the whole thing much easier.

You have to understand, I'm used to Zelda and other forms of the adventure genre. Being able to give the finger to ancient architects and engineers who'd put their blood and tears into making a giant death-trap was extremely liberating. I've spent my whole gaming career sucking it up and getting past weird-ass traps which exist for no real reason (especially if the place is supposed to be a temple, a place of worship, as in the usual name in Zelda...). Being able to say 'screw it' and break the damn thing...

My jaw dropped.

fucking...

fucking hell! I actually put up with that damn thing! I didn't know you could destroy it!

Prak_Anima wrote:fucking...

fucking hell! I actually put up with that damn thing! I didn't know you could destroy it!

I put up with it, too, on my first playthrough. I decided to go through on a higher difficulty and...lo and behold and voila.

This has been a good weekend for entertainment.

I saw Kung Fu Hustle today.

Love the movie.

I finally beat Killer 7 today. That was a seriously trippy game. It's one of the few games I've played that has clearly focused on story and such over actual gameplay that still manages to integrate the two (as compared to, say, Xenosaga, where the gameplay and the story are kept so far apart you'd think one had just admitted to having syphilis or something).

And there were so many great scenes in that game, but I'd probably have to pick either the part where you kill the Power Rangers or the Russian Roulette sequence as something that truly rocked me.