February
Well, February is here and the blues are here with it. A wonderful long weekend is coming to a close, and I'm about to head back to school, a prospect which I don't relish.
As always, this is the time of the year when my "academic stamina" runs low, and I find it particularly difficult to put the normal amount of effort into preparing my stuff. I have already been, to a certain extent, "winging it," and it looks like I will be heading into the second half of my projects in no better state of preparedness.
I just feel tired when I think of work, and I wish that just before midnight on a Sunday evening I could think of something else.
Ah well. There are other delightful things to focus on, I suppose, if I can pry my thoughts away from responsibilities: I just beat Super Mario Galaxy, for instance (with Kari serving as wingman). Did you know that the maximum number of stars that you can acquire before beating the game is not 120, but 104? The rest are only "unlocked" once you've beaten Bowser in the final climax.
The game is, simply put, pristine. Not a single one of those stars was a chore to acquire; each was just challenging enough to entertain, and none of them involved inane or pointless collection. If Super Mario World was impressive and Super Mario 64 was revolutionary, then Super Mario Galaxy is perfectly distilled. If you had told me before playing it that the Mario formula could be further refined, I would have scoffed. I would have scoffed... incorrectly.
Also, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is hardcore. Metal, even. It certainly mixes up the formula. There are a lot of little tweaks (like the addition of a story, which is very, very much appreciated), but the one I think I adore the most is the hugely toned down CO powers and benefits. No more can one claim that Kanbei is broken, or that Rachel's CO power is grotesquely cheap. COs in Days of Ruin are all about style, and so the conflict is much more pure.
I like the ability to have your whole army be affected by your CO, don't get me wrong-- but I've always wanted an Advance Wars where the playing field was leveled, so to speak.
Also, the characters in this game are fantastic. The music is fantastic. I've only played one game over wifi, but I got to pwn a noob and it was fantastic.
One more curious change that I'm not sure whether or not I like-- they've eliminated the War Room, instead incorporating a large number of optional battles (called "trial maps") into the campaign. They're hard, but I've done a few and they're not impossible. They're not enormous, 80-day battles like the war room, either.
Anyway, I've rambled long enough. I hope some of my video-game playing friends read this. It would be like having real discourse about my major interest again.
As always, this is the time of the year when my "academic stamina" runs low, and I find it particularly difficult to put the normal amount of effort into preparing my stuff. I have already been, to a certain extent, "winging it," and it looks like I will be heading into the second half of my projects in no better state of preparedness.
I just feel tired when I think of work, and I wish that just before midnight on a Sunday evening I could think of something else.
Ah well. There are other delightful things to focus on, I suppose, if I can pry my thoughts away from responsibilities: I just beat Super Mario Galaxy, for instance (with Kari serving as wingman). Did you know that the maximum number of stars that you can acquire before beating the game is not 120, but 104? The rest are only "unlocked" once you've beaten Bowser in the final climax.
The game is, simply put, pristine. Not a single one of those stars was a chore to acquire; each was just challenging enough to entertain, and none of them involved inane or pointless collection. If Super Mario World was impressive and Super Mario 64 was revolutionary, then Super Mario Galaxy is perfectly distilled. If you had told me before playing it that the Mario formula could be further refined, I would have scoffed. I would have scoffed... incorrectly.
Also, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is hardcore. Metal, even. It certainly mixes up the formula. There are a lot of little tweaks (like the addition of a story, which is very, very much appreciated), but the one I think I adore the most is the hugely toned down CO powers and benefits. No more can one claim that Kanbei is broken, or that Rachel's CO power is grotesquely cheap. COs in Days of Ruin are all about style, and so the conflict is much more pure.
I like the ability to have your whole army be affected by your CO, don't get me wrong-- but I've always wanted an Advance Wars where the playing field was leveled, so to speak.
Also, the characters in this game are fantastic. The music is fantastic. I've only played one game over wifi, but I got to pwn a noob and it was fantastic.
One more curious change that I'm not sure whether or not I like-- they've eliminated the War Room, instead incorporating a large number of optional battles (called "trial maps") into the campaign. They're hard, but I've done a few and they're not impossible. They're not enormous, 80-day battles like the war room, either.
Anyway, I've rambled long enough. I hope some of my video-game playing friends read this. It would be like having real discourse about my major interest again.
posted by Nate at 11:11 PM
2 Comments:
I played through like, 8 stars in Mario Galaxy this weekend. I must say, I'm really quite terrible at it, even with the assistance of my wingman... However, I really do enjoy the game. It was fun, I didn't feel awful about dying all the time, and I think that's the longest I've ever spent playing any of the Mario games.
Yeah I know, I'm not a console gamer. Sorry :-p
Anyway, I may have to figure out how to spend much more time with Mario, as it is quite an excellent game.
It looks like it's shaping up to be. I have my first seminar tomorrow, yes, with Steve Neale, so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it. We had two screenings of It's A Wonderful Life and Groundhog Day already, so I think we'll have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.
Also, I heard Mario Galaxy was actually not that good of a game, but then again, this was from Ken, who has famously controversial tastes in everything.
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