Cute games vs Sad state of Mind [Visuals]

Me choosing what game I want to play is, I admit, often very shallow. I want the graphics to give a certain feeling. Granted, I have played and enjoyed games as UO and AO, but generally I tend to not want to play anything that doesn't look nice, so Ill admit that visuals is very important to me.

After about 8 years as a gamer (advancing from Nintendo-kiddie, that is and not taking into consideration Backpacker and Flight Simulator...) and thinking back, I think I can safely say that the amount of cuteness I choose to go for in a game is relate able to how shit I feel in real life.
Usually when I'm down its because of my physical state. I try not to get affected but really, the longer the period of time where I'm in bad shape; the more bitter and down I get. I don't think I have to elaborate on that; its quite natural, no?

Simplified, my choices seem to follow this pattern:

Sad Panda: Cute games such as Rose, FlyFF, Bush Whacker.
Happy: Adventurous games, often RPG's, such as Fallout, BioShock, Borderlands.
Confident: Competitive games, Shooters and RTSs such as CoD , HoN, Demigod.

Heck, even CSI: Crime City can be labeled as Cute. Just look at this dead body:

CSI: Crime City

The cute games are often very periodical since when I snap out of it, I tend to get a sugary overdose just by looking at them. I'm never attracted to start playing these games when I'm up and generally happy. I'd even say I'm more bothered by them at that point.

I assume its not "just me" who's got it like this, because assuming a person is alone in doing anything is fucking stupid, but I wonder how many of those who choose the Cute Games (and who've passed age 15) over the more serious and challenging ones is doing it for the same reason - a quick Happy-fix far away from the reality of the harsh actual world.

BushWhacker

On thin Ice (Norway)

Looks ... hm.

Fallout: Nuka Break - Fan Film

Awesome!!



(Got this through Spill.no)

My pictures from our Disney Vacation

Realized I still hadn't posted any of my pictures from our vacation, not here or facebook except my profile page.

We went to Disneyworld for my birthday (Sep 1st) last year and stayed for 12 days. It was great! During all our time together this was the first time we actually had a proper vacation to ourselves, its always either been with family or in connection with Entropia. It was needed, especially after a very stressful year. It did wonders, and I would really love to go back either in 2011 or 2012. I know my family is heading there this summer, and I envy them sooo bad!

The new Harry Potter area of Universal Studios had just opened when we got there, and that's just one amazing area. In general Universal haven't been as good at creating any specific feeling when you walk through their themes, but they really made up for it with the Harry Potter area. Its got everything from butterbeer to the Hogwarts Express, silly shops and a friggin lifesize Hogwart. Walking around there really brings up that feeling, but Im still biased towards Frontierland in Magic Kingdom as the best there is.

So anyway here goes. Going to limit the pictures of course, Im sure you're not all too interested in seeing flamingos from 10 different angles, and tbh Im not very interested in posting them.

We travelled Gothenburg - Amsterdam - Atlanta -Orlando. While waiting in Amsterdam, we figured we'd geek it up a little.


Sparta, Athens, Rome... Sure we're on the right plane?


Jerry had 1 wish and 1 wish for our trip only: Visiting a Dunkin Donuts. Atlanta Airport took care of that.

Went down to Rainforest Cafè as soon as we got there. They then lost our reservation and we had to wait 1/2 hour to be seated.


But at least we got drinks in disco-cups!

We got the glasses to go. Inside the bottom there's like a little disco ball thing that lights up if you press the bottom. When we got home, one of these buttons got stuck. The glass wouldn't stop discoing until a week later when it ran out of batteries.

But it was a good drink!


Man vs. Lego-dragon in "Strike a pose".


"Glazed Holes", seriously!? WTF is wrong with you people?


Spent my birthday at Magic Kingdom with a big-ass button on my shirt saying I had birthday. I dont think Ive ever said "thank you" more often, those Disneyworld employees are well drilled in being friendly and forthcoming. Thats one of the things that makes me prefer Disney over the other parks; the people that work there really seem to be having a great time too.

Mary Poppins Chimney guy was really happy to see a birthday-girl.

I thought she was waving, but seeing this picture, I think she was screaming for help.



How IS a raven like a writing desk? The teacups are obligatory.
Also, big ass boob button.


Decided my Birthday dinner would be held at the best little italian resturant; Portobello. They do this great thing where they ovenbake a whole ginger with oliveoil and serve it with this gorgeous bread. Its too good for words.

Also, lovely drinks, and a lovely companion.



Funnily enough our server had her birthday too this fine evening. she was nice. Also she brought me birthday-cake on the house.

Our day at Universal was... rainy. I had to stop taking photos after this one, because of condensation on the lens. We fixed it with the hairdryer at the hotel later though.
In proper Florida spirit, the rain lasted until we were walking down the street with water reaching up half my leg.


Sea World:




*applause*

American Apperizer. Portions in the US are effin crazy. Several times we ordered appertizers and it looked like it could feed a family of four, not just ONE person as it was meant for.

Animal Kingdom. Mount Everest is cool!


Hogwarts! At Universal Studios Island of Adventure.


Ha Ha! We found a ride we couldn't take because we're too tall. And Jerry was wearing my "Judge me by my size, do you" t-shirt. It was golden.

Bitches be crazy

I think its funny how men often seem to assume that if the girl is a gamer chick then she's a all-round nice girl.
Like always, assumptions are stupid.

It's no secret that if you're a girl in games you tend to get a lot of attention. Even from social games with chats where the ratio seems 4-6 girls can still get a nice little man-harem going if they are up for it.
To put it bluntly, some of these girls (note: certainly not all of them!) feed of the attention they get from these harems, they're using you to feel good about themselves - and if another girl happens to even be in the vicinity (and thus getting a tiny widdle bit of attention, wanted or unwanted.) their bitch flare goes up and they'll start defending their pack in the way that girls tend to do.

Personally I've found it a bit amusing that these are the same girls that tend to whine about "never being the popular one in class". Well, good job paying it forward?

But I've seen it so many times its really starting to bore me. Its just immaturity, and they'll (hopefully) grow out of it or grow tired of it, and then they can probably be labeled "nice" girls.
But really, the moral is, stop making assumptions that girls in games are so much different just because their choice of hobby. It all boils down to sex and power anyway.

Tears of Joy!

CSI games, casual playing and...more casual gaming.

I admit that in spite of their flaws I tend to like playing the CSI games.
And by flaws I mean its evidently not created for players over the age of 13. I mean the whole game is really just hovering your mouse over the screen to make sure you get this icon that tells you there's evidence there.


I don't quite recall, but the first time I started playing the CSI games I think I was around 18 yrs old. That's ... 6 years ago now. I seem to recall them being harder. I seem to recall an option to turn off that damn feature where you'll see the mouse icon change when hovering over interact-able objects, and I sure as heck seem to recall you being able to try out all the different equipment on the evidence to have Grissom tell you you're an idiot to try to use plaster on a fingerprint and that doing so would lower your score.

Im not sure weather I remember it this way because I'm just a plain better gamer now then I was before (no doubt there) and can recognize the game design and miss a more "hardcore" mode on the CSI games, or if they really did shave the CSI games down so much that they've taken away the actual exploration in favor of making the game more "casual friendly". It seems more like interaction story-time for young CSI fans then a game.

I bought a CSI game a couple of days ago. Generally, I've liked playing them then I have a moment for myself. When I'm home alone, or, when the man is asleep. Then I can sit here in peace and shift through mud and used syringes, looking for evidence, nailing that bastard.
Last time I played a CSI game I still had that feeling it was perhaps too casual. But anyway...
I bought the newest CSI: Fatal Deception when I had such a moment alone, and fired it up. I felt slight disappoint that the game is basically a simplified 3D Find Waldo.

Maybe I've just outgrown it?

Either way, I fired it up and I got stuck at the first case! I was happy about this, I was hoping there was something I had missed, something I had overlooked. Something making me actually search and engage myself in the story. Some twist at the end. The blood of the suspect didn't match the hair I found, instead it matched the victim's! Were they really family, siblings maybe? Why hadn't he told us about this in the interview?

But no. After a lot of messing about, it just seemed like a bug. So I checked up on a walk-through, and the hair was supposed to match the suspects DNA. Bah. Now it's stuck at Case 1 and since the other cases doesn't unlock unless you finish case 1, I guess I need to wait for some fix.

However, when I shut down the game I got a little pop-up. I had been granted a 1 year free Elite membership on CSI: Crime City, a facebook game. Generally I'm not particularly fond of facebook games, not because I have anything against them -they just seem to be a waste of time. I've played a couple though, such as Texas Hold 'Em, Bejeweled and my favorite Word Challenge. Either way I was starved of entertainment so I figured why not. I got a elite pass and everything.

Turns out all Elite pass really does is give me a funky floor:

If you get a seizure from looking at this screenie, I cannot be held responsible.

And the possibility of buying stuff for Ubi-points (read: real money) in the shop. So, for buying the game for real money I get the privilege of buying exclusive stuff for more real money! YAY!

Either way I played it a little, and its moderately entertaining in a grid-search kind of way. What is funny about this story though is that the f2p facebook game have so far given me more entertainment value then the CSI game I originally bought.

Anyway... I just bought "Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle" on steam (was on sale) today so perhaps I can use my casual detecting skills there instead. I hope!

The awesome caricature of me gaming

The awesome caricature of me gaming that can be seen in the background, was drawn by the artist Glenn at Universal Studios in Orlando (Disneyworld!) during our trip there in September last year.

I suspect he used more time on it then they usually do, and he captured some details really well (like the colors of Jerry's eyes) and I really love how funny me and him look together... :)

Of course we tipped him well! I just love this pic! Not just is it well done but it reminds me of such a good time..

Rift me back!

Im currently playing the Rift beta and it seems I fell down into a rabbit hole...

I was out swimming, doing a mission, when suddenly I got fatigue loss. Since I hadn't seen any form of fatigue measurement before this sort of took me by surprise, I went up to the surface to breathe thinking that had anything to do with it by no. Fatigue went down even when breathing fine and just bobbing in the water without swimming, so I soon found myself dead.

And far, far away. Being a newcomer, I resurrected on spot. I figured I had been teleported to the nearest Defiant resurrection near the newcomer town (for level 6-10 newbs) since thats where I died but no such luck.

Let me show you on a map:



What the HELL?

On the way down to where I died I quickly realized that something was really wrong. I tried to stick to the road but level 14 creatures kept killing me. And there's a level 19 rift right by the ressurect. Yay.

Now you see on number 4 on the map now.. I tried to swim over the pass there as a ghost. Those dotted lines? Serverborders of course. Invisible wall. You should see the way I need to walk to attempt to actually get back to the newb city. There's no way for a level 9 Defiant to get around that path.

Pushing "Stuck" only sends me back to the ressurection on number 2.
So, now Im waiting for GM help to move me back to the newbie playground.

Edit: And Im out! Many thanks to GM Primarch who got me out of there and revived me. It took about 1 hr 20 mins from making the inquiry to getting help, which I assume is a alright time considering they have let the whole darn world betatest this weekend.

HoMM... No.. MM Heroes VI stuff.

So, Ubisoft and Black Hole Entertainment have released more Heroes VI stuff with their new website update. The website now looks pretty darn sweet, and the trailer is beautiful and the screenshots show a lush and pretty game environment.. and in spite of the fact that the game developers sounds like raving lunatics in the videos, -its promising. But there is a few things that worries me.

Both the Concept Art and the Creature pages looks a bit like Black Hole might have been a bit too faithful to their color schemes for the different races. Inferno's is of course Red and Black like always, but does all of the creatures have to look like they are made out of molten lava?
Take Tormentor and Juggernaut for example:


Luckily the trailer shows that the Juggernaut is going to be of rather substantial size, so hopefully there's not going to be a problem with selecting the wrong creature because they're too similar. And that can happen after several hours of playing, when your eyes is a little tired -trust me on that.

There is some other few graphical bits that annoys me a little, like the Crossbow's man undignifying bird-hat (sob, it was my favorite unit in V!) and that the hair of the Blazing Glory looks like wobbly 2D strings, and the griffin looks bland and boring. But I'm generally fond of Haven so that is probably my fandom-eyes looking, and I don't like being that person.

And then there's this:

Ignoring the outragous stats for now, I'm hoping that the reason why there is only three slots for spells is to save room, and that more slots will open once you've filled all three, not because that's the full amount of spells that can affect a stack.

Either way, I'm most definitely going to buy the game and Ill most likely enjoy it. If it'll become a new favorite over the other HoMM games though... that remains to be seen!