Tunnel Fun

I know I have a scroll of raise dead somewhere in my bag of holding, but I'll be damned if I can find it. Well, good thing I have it memorized. I am back with more sarcastic and gushing video game rambles, hopefully for good this time. I am here today to talk about the dangers of what I like to call "GH:III Tunnel Vision".

I love the feel of a cold guitar shaped controller as it warms up in my hand. The click of the strum button, coupled with wailing on the whammy is oddly satisfying. What is not satisfying is the frustration of tunnel vision.

Let's say you are playing "Story Of My Life" and you've achieved the coveted 100%. You know you are damn good at that song, and you are fairly sure you could play it with your eyes closed (no peeking). So you are playing with your evil twin...I mean best friend, and suddenly yours eyes give out. It's sort of like a magic eye picture in reverse. You can see the notes coming, and suddenly all you can see are repeating notes, like a flickering picture. You blink, and the illusion is shattered, and you think to yourself "huh, that was weird, self". Unfortunately, once the picture has been seen, it can't be unseen.

Moments later it happens again, everything is running together and you miss your first note. Of course you bellow out an expletive and feel beads of sweat spring forth on your brow, but you shake your head and keep going, sweet hope still burning in your chest, ready to ruin your life with it's evil, bitter lies. Now all you can see are notes flashing at the bottom of the screen, and you hear the evil twang as you strum off beat, frantically trying to re-adjust your eyes, so you can't see how every line looks the same!

"Perhaps if I focus on the bottom line, where I hit the notes!" You think desperately. It works for a moment, and you can see the whole neck of the guitar again, but that magic eye illusion creeps back up on you after a verse, and the twanging resumes. It seems nothing can stop it.
Seriously, though...has anyone else had this problem? I was kicking ass at this game before, and now I am pulling my hair out. Maybe I just need a good nights sleep...

I'll get you next time C., NEXT TIME!

Silent Shenanigans

Silent Hill Sprites by ~Lostprincessofoz on deviantART
Just a little Silent Hill artwork to please the masses. Or me, whichever.

Speaking of Silent Hill, I am getting so tired of waiting for the new PSP game. I've just played the old ones to death. It's a pattern, I get a new SH game, beat it, beat it again, repeat until all endings are seen, then play all the SH games... in order. Including the one I just beat. Shut up! They give me real life skills, like the ability to run away from huge sword-like knives and the uncanny knack of finding a map of the area I'm in. As I was saying, I don't want to wait one more month to get my creepy refill. So here is a teaserific trailer of Silent Hill: Origins for other SH fans, or even anyone who has never played these Konami gems.

Click here for more videos, and some *SPOILERS*. Careful what you click on, if, like me, you don't want to ruin it for yourself. Silent Hill: Origins videos on YouTube

Now, moving on to Silent Hill 5. According to a gent in this video "SH2 is everyone's favorite game". Is this true? It's my least favorite. I still love it, but there are a lot of things I would fix in it, and they are basing the new game around it. That explains the graphics. I hope those were test animations. The video worries me in many ways. Silent Hill has never been about the fighting. Certainly, it's fun kicking ass (see previous post), but Silent Hill is about the fear, the unknown, and sickness in the head. Chain attacks? Zelda fighting style?? Oh my heart twists at these words. I think, even scarier than Eileen's giant, wiggy-eyed head in SH4, is how you can just hear these new developers straining to keep the word "dude" from their vocabulary as they're being interviewed. Be afraid...
*I'll probably still buy it the day it comes out though...I told you it was about sickness in the head.*

"Remember me, and your true self as well, also that which you must become. The one who will lead us to Paradise with blood stained hands!"

God Of War II: The Slippery Slope

I never was much for a series. Give me a good, solid, well written book (Beauty by Robin McKinley, or Moon Dreams by Brad Strickland). It is not so much a matter of focus or attention span, but rather the dragging out of a story that could be told in one book. An avid bibliophile, I've read and loved my share of series' certainly(HP, Terry Pratchett, Francesca Lia Block), but in the end I'd rather curl up with one Kurt Vonnegut book than fifteen Robert Jordan books.

In the world of games, however, I sing a different tune. Give me your Silent Hills, your Ratchet and Clanks, your Fatal Frames. On this note, I beat God of War II yesterday. Like the first it looked delicious...like a sweet apple picked fresh from the tree...covered in blood and on the back of a Titan in the process of stomping Gods. I'll admit it, I'm not ashamed: what I like best about this game is the violence.

Picture the scene: Emmi comes home after a long day spent shooting a little independent movie with her fiance, Josh, and good friend, Steve. She, though a long shot from Kratos' peak physical condition, has been sliding Bond-like under low-hung tree branches, kneeling behind trees for many hours at a time (okay, maybe 5 minutes, but my knees are still saying it was at least 3 days), and running about shooting at aforementioned fiance. Tired, shaky, hungry, she flings herself onto the couch after returning home, and with just a simple press of a button wreaks havoc on wave upon wave of harpies, undead, and minotaurs. Any girl who tells you she does not secretly dream of impaling a minotaur on his maul is lying. We have a mean streak.

The story is interesting and makes you love the anti-hero Kratos, despite him being a monster of a man with little in the way of redeeming qualities, and no regret for the horrible things he's done (well, one regret, but I'll leave that for you to discover). The music is orchestral, and carries the game nicely, although it can get a little repetitive.

I love plowing through teaming undead and watching them BURST into flares of red, yellow & blue light. After a long day, its not the fae-like orbs that make me croon "Ooooh, pretty!", but the spurts of blood. How satisfying.


Emmi