games

just because I'be been breaking down aisles and myself the past 3 weeks doesn't mean I've been without games. I got priorities to attend to.

Picked up Kingdom Hearts 2 and played quite a bit of that, but I managed to corrupt my save file in a rush to get out of the house, so now I'm starting over in standard mode. Proud is a fine challenge, but after going through what was probably 1/3rd of the game, I say fuck that. The story is a great continuation of the previous title. Sora and his crew have been in cold sleep for about 2 years and need to find out wtf is going on. A new set of enemies called Nobodies are planning something, but nobody knows what, and the Heartless are still causing some trouble too. Combat is mostly the same, but with a few additions. Reaction commands make for some spectacular turn-arounds in battle, and the new Forms allow for some truly brutal beat-downs. Forms need to be leveled individually in order to unlock handy abilities like the High Jump. There is one two things that really bother me though... the character animations are completely over-emphasised and looks super-fake, even in what is undoubtedly motion-capture. This can only be excused by the fact that there's more worlds available and they couldn't nit-pick the animation with so many scenes. Second, the faces of most Disney characters, like Ariel or Belle, just look wrong.

I also picked up some discount software, Scrapland, where you wander around a robotic civilization in combat ships and investigate murders involving the tampering of a restoration matrix thingy that is supposed to undo the death of any robot in the city. It's pretty nifty.

what's going on, eh

so, for about the last 3 weeks I've been helping the nearby Michaels remodel. It was the first Canadian location to get this remodel, as it is an American store chain. Whole aisles torn down and replaced in a new arrangement for the first 2 weeks, and final touches on the third. a crew of ~18 people working 10-12 hour nights, 5 days a week. It was a relly great experience. I haven't lost weight, since I was eating a lot of fried food at denny's, but I presume I've gained at least some muscle. The store manager's gonna call me sometime with details on a part-time job.

I've been playing this a lot. It's great; interaction with noobs is minimal, skill training is time-based and can be done while logged off, and the whole thing just looks beautiful... lovely starscapes, numerous spaceships, pretty explosions... but for me, nothing beats the sight of an asteroid belt full of valuable ore. I'm still a newbie skill-wise, but I can still rake in the ore in medium-security systems. Once I can hop in a mining barge, I can really do some damage in those big corp-run mining ops.

still need a job though X_x there should be more people hiring this month...

i have the best parents ever

while i was at work, they went into my room and picked up all the crap and cleaned the floor. they said it was part christmas present and part disease prevention. mom saw how much i'd been working (read: how much i'd been whining after work) and knew i'd never get it done by christmas. now everything is on my desk and cabinets and stuff, but at least the floor's clean! it's traversable without risk of dust monkey attack.

oh yeah, CoV came out. it's all right, but it's by no means great. i certainly enjoy playing as a mastermind. that's where your villain uses npc henchmen to do the dirty work. but there's really not much diversity in that game beyond killing thugs, just like in CoH. the supergroup base system isn't particularly accessible to the casual gamer unless they join a supergroup with at least a few hardcore players. also, it doesn't seem to make much sense that you can't collect as many items for base improvements unless you turn on supergroup mode. you should be able to collect crap constantly, and that way you can hold onto it until you find a decent supergroup and make a decent joining donation. at least the CoH/CoV subscription is combined at the same price as stand-alone.

it's been a while again. time to post.

so i got fired from the security job. the situation surrounding that is partly understandable and partly stupid. one of my shifts involved escourting a painter through newly occupied condos to do touch-ups. this particular shift i was only doing because whoever was supposed to do it couldn't and i was begged to do it the night before, and i didn't get much sleep because of that. in any case, at one point, in a lapse of judgement, i laid back on a bedin one of these units for a few minutes. then, one of the construction company's workers comes in to check on the painter's progress and obviously saw me on the bed. at the time, they didn't say anything to me, so i din't think much of it. that was about 3 MONTHS ago. around early december, they call me and say that they're doing layoffs and this incident has put me fairly low on their keep list. I had no idea that there was a problem in the first place, and 3 months is a pretty long time to sit on a complaint without telling the guard involved.

anyway, i wouldn't have wanted to work for them much longer anyway. they suck. i would like to know when i'm working AT LEAST 24 hours in advance.

So i'm working at Zellers for the rest of december. they said they don't normally hire in december, but stuff happened and they needed people. I had experience at Radio Shack (now called "the Source", how cheesy is that?) and it's just for december anyway.

I had cancelled a bunch of subscriptions to mmorpgs and stuff when i got fired, because i was also a bit late on a few credit card payments and i had about $60 left in the bank after that, but that was before my last payment from my previous employer.

i think i'll call them "that damn security company" from now on. i can't believe they're still in business.

Inside of gaming:

why the fuck isn't CoV out yet? fucking bastards

I have uncertain feelings about Anarchy Online. the game system is crap, but such is the case with any game i've played that actually focuses on role-playing. i think funcom made The Longest Journey too. graphics were crap, but the story was great.

I can't find my MxO discs, but who the fuck cares.

World of Warcraft is all there is for my friend Xeldan. Finally got into the guild he's in: The Mighty Oxen.

Outside of gaming:

I'm seriously considering this program. I'm also considering aiming for a career as a teacher. also also, I've been trying to help my friend Chad sing again, but a) he gets quite busy and b) he sucks, but that's ok. his rhymes are hot though.

and work still sucks.

City of Villains

City of Villains pre-order! so excited. but it's a tad expensive, and the monthly cost hasn't been solidified. it's a game on its own, but there are supposed to be benefits to owning this and City of Heroes, but there's still wonder about how big they'll be. the game is also supposed to have better graphic goodness that isn't in CoH yet, but they'll probably get around to that. that is what i have gleaned from GameSpy.com