Is it just me, or does it seem as if almost everyone is an absolute fucking dumbass these days? Do you often find it impossible to get even the most simplest of tasks accomplished due to everyone acting all blas?, apathetic, pissy, or just plain retarded? Does it appear that everyone you encounter acts as if like their life is a total living hell, and the only thing they can do at this point is to drag everyone down with them? Basically, why in the hell does no seem to give a shit about anything anymore? Almost everyone acts entitled, yet totally not responsible?
Whether it be the dumb waitress at the restaurant who can’t get your order straight, nor cares, and who later drops a dirty fork on you and doesn’t even act the least bit apologetic (Monday night for me), or the asshole at the insurance company who is of absolutely no help other than to remind you that a large portion of your paycheck goes to nothing, who puts you on-hold for five minutes at a time, every 20 seconds, only because he can, or to take time out to finger his own asshole (yesterday afternoon), or the piece of token booth guy who’s totally oblivious to all the shit that’s going on, and could give a God damn about anything (the most recent instance for myself being last night, more on that in just a moment). Everything’s totally falling apart, leaving everyone feeling angry and helpless, and all many can do is pass the venom forward.
I guess the extreme temperatures as of late aren’t helping. It?s actually okay today, but for the past two days, especially yesterday, have been hell. I live across a power plant in Brooklyn, and just went I got home, a fire had broken out at the facilities. All my downstairs neighbor and I could do was just want the smoke rise, with about 30+ firemen rushing to the scene. We were both looking at it and going “Oh shit, there goes the electricity.” And then I spent the next hour trying to get ahold of MK who was still in the city and Brooklyn bound to warn her of the possibility that my place might loose juice later in the evening. Naturally, I couldn’t get ahold of her when I absolutely had to (cell phones always flake out when you need them the most… like I said, it seems like nothing works properly these days), but thankfully the power stayed on, though despite it pumping out the max degree of cold air all night, all either of us could do is just talk cold showers, lie on the bed, and try to fall asleep while still sweating. Plus I was also happy that the missing cat returned; when Jimmy, my roommate’s boyfriend, went to the house earlier in the evening, to see if those guys had repaired the damage that was done (which they didn’t, of course… once again, no one gives a shit), he called to ask two things: 1) had I noticed one of the cats was missing, and 2) why were there a ton of flies in the downstairs lobby. We both thought the same exact thing, but thankfully the fat fluffy fuck showed up just as Jimmy was heading out and about to call Steph (he hadn’t died from eating scraps of latex which was one of my possible theories behind his disappearance). Not sure how he escaped, nor do I care.
Anyway, New Yorkers are cranky to begin with, but when they’ve been boiling in a subway station, or worse, a subway car with broken AC, fucking forget about it. Yesterday’s heat index was so crazy that a coworker claimed that his train got delayed because the third rail buckled due to the humidity. But yeah, the subway attendant… it was shortly before 9, and I had just dismissed class, and was on the R platform, waiting for the next Brooklyn bound train. Then an announcement comes on the intercom stating that due to a fire in Queens (fucking Queens, always the source of train problems) virtually all trains were either not running or re-routed, meaning extreme service slow-downs. All the yellow lines, the N, R, Q, and W trains, were shut down (I had been there for about ten minutes prior to this, and the whole time a N train was just sitting there, frozen on the express track) and running on the E train, the 7 was out of commission, either the D or F train was not running, but they were on the 4 and 5 lines… or something like all that. Thing is, no one can make out jack shit through the crappy intercoms. So I went to talk to the token booth guy, and to do so you actually have to leave the platform. I asked him where I could catch the R train (the announcement said the F line first, then 4 or 5) but he was replied…
token booth guy: “The R trains are running.”
me: “Where?”
token booth guy: “Here.”
me: “But there was an announcement stating that there’s no R service on the R lines and that its running on the F or 4 or 5 lines. I couldn’t hear the message, that’s why I’m asking.”
token booth guy: “What message?”
me: “…. There was just an announcement on the intercom stating that there’s been service changes.”
token booth guy: “There are no service changes at this time.” (at this point, the guy was getting clearly annoyed because he just wanted to go back to reading the paper)
me: “Listen. There was this announcement… it just played throughout the station… saying that there’s no service on this line. Didn’t you hear it?!”
token booth guy: “Hey, no you listen! The trains are running! One was just here!”
me: “If things are running, then why is that train right there in the middle of the station just sitting there?!?!”
token booth guy: no response
me: “…. Whatever. Okay, can you let me back in?”
token booth guy: “No.”
me: “Why not?!”
token booth guy: “I did not see you come through the turnstile.”
me: “WHAT? MAN, YOU ARE JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER PIECES OF FUCKING SHIT WHO WORKS FOR THE SUBWAY AREN’T YOUN’T?! YOU JUST FUCKING SHIT ON YOUR GODDAMN ASS ALL FUCKING DAY COLLECTING YOUR UNION WAGES AND COULDN’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS HUH?!?! YOU GOD DAMN PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT…”
Obviously, I had fucking lost it, and I was screaming at the guy through the tiny box in his window. And at the point he started calling the cops, and I knew I had to get the fuck out. So yeah, all subway workers: worthless pieces of shit, every god damn one of them.
So I went topside, and even though I couldn’t really afford it, I knew I had to cab it. And wouldn’t you know, there was absolutely none available. But after a while, I got lucky and scored one. The cabbie had told me that the trains had been fucked up for two hours, since 7, and that all the bridges and tunnels were totally clogged up. Thankfully, this cabbie was a fucking human being who treats others with respect and takes pride in his job. So we had a nice lengthy conversation on how ridiculous and pathetic most people are (he should know… he fucking sees enough people of all different kinds, and every single day). I even ended up giving him a nice five dollar tip for being so cool (see, I’m not always a cheap-ass mr. no penny).
MK was already home when I got there, and aside from being relieved that she didn’t get caught up in the bullshit transit system, I was happy to see that my Play-Asia order had arrived (I figured it lost in the bullshit Brooklyn mail system… again, people who don’t give a shit). Can’t play Zombie vs. Ambulance just yet (I’ll get my system modded when I finally get around to buying KOF XI), but I was able to try out Kuru Kururin Paradise (since its GBA), and it is indeed super awesome (folks at NeoGAF have been building up for ages). And since both DSs were pulled out and in use (MK got to finally test out the Lite), I had the bright idea of doing a PictoChat session since I had never done that before. There’s this saying that no matter who it is, or how hard you try, every first time chat session is going to have at least one person drawing a penis, and I resisted the urge to fall into this trap, but MK couldn’t, and once she did the first one, it became a penis drawing party for sure.
And as for last night’s class, once again, only two students showed up. But it was two different students from the week prior, so that was okay. I basically went over the previous week’s topic, but in a different way (based up on their responses, of course). Highlight of the night? Explaining what the term “non-game” meant.
As for the gaming world at large (mostly videos)…
- So yet another reason why I figured might be a good reason to get a PSP is because of Every Extend Extra, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s overall of the freeware title Every Extend. The official site just went live, with movies and wallpapers and the such. And here’s both the Japanese and Euro covers (I personally like the Euro version better)…
But was originally something that felt like a return to somewhat Rez-esque territory is not looking so hot. Most folks who played the demo have had numerous complaints, and I gotta admit that the vids have been less than impressive. I must also admit that I’ve never played the original (since I don’t have a PC, I can’t try out every cool freeware game that comes my way), so maybe I’m missing, but it just doesn’t look all together exciting. And this from a guy that thought Trance Mission in Rez is one of the most beautiful things ever.
Anyway, check it out for yourself: stage 1, stage 2, and stage 3.
- Speaking of the Miz, you also have Lumines 2 coming out soon. The list of artists who’s music will be appearing in the game was recently released, and… it totally sucks. Actually, there are a few decent names, like Ken Ishii, Mondo Grosso (nice to see them back), Fatboy Slim (nice to see a song of his finally make it… a track of his was originally going to be in Rez), The Go! Team (that could be interesting) New Order (that should be really promising, actually), and Chemical Brothers (the song is going to be Star Guitar… and that’s plain fucking rad). But then you have Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliot, and… get this… Hoobastank.
Apparently each region is getting their own version, tailored its tastes. Which means in Japan, it’ll be getting the clearly superior version. But also, instead of a skin for each song (a nice, graphical representation for each song that’s in the background for each song), there’s just going to be the music video for the accompanying tune. Hence why I have a beef with the Beck track, which is Black Tambourine. Its a great song and all (actually, its perhaps my fave from the latest album), but something like E-Pro is so much more appropriate, not just song-wise, but the video is practically Rez-like already. Okay, more Vib Ribbon-like, but still…
- I know I keep going back to it, but remember the awesome ending to SEGAGAGA, which turns into a shooter where you blast old Sega systems? Well I totally forgot this, but while perusing the archives, I actually posted about a cell phone version of that part a while ago.
- The web browser for the DS is coming out very soon. For those curious as to how its exactly going to work (such as myself), here’s a demonstration
- Anyone who knows me or reads this site knows that I could really care less about first person shooters. Aside from them giving me horrible motion sickness, I find 98% of them horribly boring. So I gotta admit, this demo of Portal really impressed me.
- Don’t like the Xbox 360′s controller? Well, why not play your favorite 360 games (it’s still Geometry Wars, right?) with the best controller ever: the Sega Saturn pad. And here’s how.
- Time for some stuff courtesy of the Gaming Age Forums. First up, check out this absolutely awesome stroll through memory lane by taking a look back at early builds of games. Anyone who grew up with game magazines in the early 90s are sure to see something that got them all excited as a kid, especially since that was around the time in which the notion of 3D gaming was starting to take shape in everyone’s mind.
Though when I last checked, no one has been able to pass along pics from the very first screenshots that were shown of Mega Man X (it featured X in a city, but everthing was all white and the sky was clear blue with some clouds… I think it was the opening level, which got replaced with a nighttime setting). And also, I rather liked the cel-shaded look of House of the Dead 3.
- Speaking of, check out this super insane deluxe cab for House of the Dead 4. Here’s the GAF thread from which I originally found out about it, with info that’s been translated.
- Here’s something else that’s sorta old, but is news to me this week: if you play Mega Man ZX (which EVERYONE has been raving about in Japan) with Mega Man Zero 3 and 4 plugged in, you get to play their bosses. Awesome stuff. And once again, there’s the NeoGAF thread from which the news comes from.
- Fans of Robotic Alchemic Drive might want to take a look at this: screens from Super Remote Mecha MG, which is sorta like R.A.D. for the DS.
- Want more proof that video game companies don’t seem to give a rat’s ass about us American consumers? In this country, if you register your games with Nintendo, you get… nothing really. But in Japan, you can get cool stuff via their Club Nintendo program. One such thing is Hanafuda cards (a card game that’s been super popular for ages in Japan and Korea… my mom used to play it a lot back in the old country… and before they got into making video games, producing the cards was one of Nintendo’s main things, and they actually still make them to this day), and folks with enough points, which one gets from registering enough games, can cash them in for a special set featuring Nintendo characters. Here’s some pics courtesy (which originated here)…
- Check out this chimp playing Ms. Pac Man. The game appears to be running at its default, slow (a.k.a. easy) speed. Weaksauce.
- And here’s a somewhat cheesy vid made by hardcore Super Smash Bros (so what do you expect). If features Giga Bowser, as well as other elements from the game which can only be accessed with the debug menu, which is opened via a cheat device, like a Game Shark or something. I’m a fan of the game, so I find it neat (and the vid does have some nice touches, like how adult Link disappears when young Link is squashed).
- Time for another cheesy Nintendo fan vid (gee, those two things together? I wonder why…). This one is a compilation made from assorted commercials starring Mario, but it happens to features some rare footage from some Super Mario Bros 3 commercial or anime that’s never been shown here in the States. Plus it features those Toadstool girls from the Japanese Mario vs. Donkey Kong commercial, and they’re pretty hot.
- Remember those pics from the upcoming Animal Crossing anime I posted before? Here’s the teaser trailer. Still looks “eh” to me.
- Here’s a pair of vids (here’s number 1 and number 2) of some dude playing Time Crisis 4 John Woo style (two guns at once). Given that each player has their own screen and foot-pedals… its rather impressive.
- Time for a superplay vid: check out some guy beating Link’s Awakening in just four minutes and twenty two seconds with some pause glitch. Crazy…
- And finally, check out the internet’s newest star: some angry nerd that reviews old NES games. I came across his video reviews from NeoGAF about a week or so ago, and ever since then, they’ve steadily become and more and more visible elsewhere. It’s hard to describe what makes them so entertaining… what he says, his general tone, the logic… anyway, check out what he has to say about Castlevania 2, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Karate Kid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, TMNT, and Back to the Future.
The Simon’s Quest one is easily my favorite (he totally makes me glad that I didn’t play it back in the day). The TMNT one is also really good, with some lines that are just golden (except near the end when he tried to ham it up a bit too much, which is also a problem with some of the other ones). And someone at Insert Credit pointed out an interview the guy recently did.
Though what might just be the absolute funniest part is how some are legitimately upset by what he has to say (as evidenced why I passed them along at the IC yesterday). And granted, idiots just ranting and raving into some web came is hardly original (especially with YouTube around and all), plus nerd humor is 99% of the time uber gay, but everyone once in a while comes someone who just does it right. If he can keep the hamming to a minimum, he just may be my new hero.
- Finally, also from Insert Credit, comes Gamma Bros. Neat game with a stellar soundtrack by the ever excellent Mark Denardo (who does a helluva live show).
… And that’s it for now, as well as for a while now. I’m taking a break from surfing the web and scoping out game news for the next couple of days to concentrate on my book (I’m even on vacation from work during then). I plan on unplugging the internet at home and shutting off email as to not get distracted. Though with the San Diego Comic Con coming up (which is where many of my friends will be, which means even less of a distraction for me over the coming days), I may be tempted to at least check in for a bit, to hear breaking news regarding the Transformers live-action flick; like everyone else, I’ve seen the pic of the new Optimus Prime truck, and am dying to see and hear more. As for the different style, I’m irked, but it could be much worse. At least it?s just a plain-jane truck, and not a Hummer-limo or something else ridiculous or retarded. And I actually think Bumblebee being a Camaro is a smart choice; hey, if he’s still going to be the main human character’s best friend, and if its still a young guy, then it simply makes sense for the vehicle to be something that appeals to a young dude (at least its not all “extreme” and shit). But again, with Soundwave being a helicopter, I know it will never be perfect (sorry, but I ain’t ever going over that). And as bad as things might turn out, I’m still gonna be there for the midnight screening.
