TheForgetfulBrain

Woman, professor of, uh, playwriting.

I still remember one of my favorite professors, who I'd had three previous courses from, flying into a rage one day about how the next war won't be over oil or land, it will be over water, and that, basically, everything was quickly spinning down the shitter. That was a depressing class, that day.

GMT - 8:00 This is the same as PST, for you Merkins, apparently.

Just gave Darksiders for PC a spin. It's great! I'd been looking forward to getting the PC version once it hit a sale (since a lot of the negative reviews cited graphical issues on the console) and I'm enjoying it. Looks gorgeous and it's a lot of fun, even it is a pretty obvious 'port' (what with the limited visual configuration options and pre-mapped controls - good thing I've got my PS3 controller working on my PC).

You've never heard of the awkward turtle? For shame.

No kidding. For a minute I thought this was WWYTB. Awkward Turtles!

My eternal dilemma. I loooooved Morrowind and sunk about 300+ hours into that the summer before college, but I own Oblivion on PC and 360, and it's just been too daunting for me to ever really get anywhere. Same with Fallout 3. I remember I used to wish every game was an open world type, but now my attention span has gotten so short, I can never complete games like that. It's a bit frustrating.

Oh wow. Those are really great. Tons of crazy bugs in your album. Where do you live that has such variety?

If you don't already own it, I reaaaaally hope you bought the King's Bounty pack when it was on sale. The exploration in that game is super excellent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI I always loved this song/video. Went to Disney World on these tickets I won from High School grad night (some five, six years ago), and in the 'Adult Disney' area (where all the clubs and booze were) they kept playing this video on this huge display of like twenty video screens. It was an odd highlight of the trip.

Ohh, gotcha. My brain, you know, low retention rate.

I've got the Orange Box on Xbox (harr), and then the GOTY edition of HL2, which has HL1, etc, so there's really no point for me to pick up the HL games, even though I don't have some of them on Steam.

Haa. This brings back memories of being twelve or so and going with my dad to his various shooting events. Shot some sort of automatic weapon once and it nearly knocked me over.

Uhm... I'm just gonna be lame and admit I'm an unlock whore. Not achievements, but doing something that unlocks the next thing in the game. Bigger, stronger, better seems to a gaming fetish for me.

Today's got nothing for me. The Ego Draconis Knight pack looks interesting, but not for $20. Even though they already did a 'best of' sale, I'm guessing tomorrow will be more reruns? I guess the only thing things that didn't go on a daily sale I wanted were Stalker's Clear Sky and Puzzle Quest 2, but I'll probably nab PQ2 for the non-daily $7 sale price tomorrow anyway.

Do it! Just make sure you have the Complete mod. It's worth it just to walk around and stare at the weather patterns, wildlife and decrepit buildings. Also, save constantly - the game seems to only autosave very rarely, usually when zoning between maps (which can be hours apart).

I've never tried pirating console games (a tiny bit of SNES etc emulation back in the day excluded), seemed to complicated. PC games, about ten years ago or so I tried getting a few games my mom wouldn't let me buy (because they were 'M'), like American McGee's Alice, but that was back in the day of dial-up, and the games usually came without cut scenes. I'll tell you, beating Alice and receiving no cutscene and having no way to know how the game ended SUCKED. These days, I've downloaded a few games, but have ended up buying most of them. Honestly, when you've got Steam selling games for super cheap on their sales, I'd rather buy them off Steam than worry about torrents or viruses etc.

Regarding appetizers, I've been a rabid fan of 'crab puffs' since I was a kid - little fried things that look like oversized fortune cookies with a bubbly skin, and have this cream cheese filling that supposed contains some crab - it's often served with sweet and sour sauce, but is taaaasty regardless. Usually, I go for any Chinese beef dish that has been deep fried - I'm not a big meat lover, but when it comes to Chinese food and meat, all my reservations go out the window. There's just something about how tender the meat gets, and the sauces... Urhh. Seriously, if physically possible, I would take TAY out to this Chinese place on my dime (all three of them). It's that good.

You just reminded me - while I was listening to it, I realized he kind of sounds like Strongbad. Everyone should listen to this song. Just gave me some serious chills. Argh, so good. Yay classical music! Another one to add to my playlist! Wow. That's eerily similar to what I've heard from Ludovico Einaudi's works or Yann Tiersen's piece here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWrxs2RDNRU&feature=related See? Eerily similar. Really now, if you haven't listened to Amelie's Waltz by now, I'm gonna come there and slap you for being so in the dark to this wonderful song. Ohh, you're right. It's got a very similar tempo/rise-and-fall/melody/I-don't-know-musical-terms. Gorgeous! And no... I've seen Amelie a few times, but it looks like I need some slapping. And this soundtrack!

I had a similar experience. The girl had to stand on the curb. It was awkward.

Haha, nothing too frightening. Cherry Pork, Beef Chow Mein and Dry Fried Beef. The sauces they put on these things are ree-diculous.

I bought Shadow of Chernobyl on the last Xmas sale for something crazy like $2.50, installed it, found the 'Stalker Complete' mod, loaded that, played the game for about ten minutes, got killed trying to storm the bandit camp a few times in a row and gave up. It wasn't until last month, when someone on Kotaku in an Off-Topic post (the one that had the clip for the Stalker TV series) mentioned that the games were based off a film and novel. Curiosity piqued, I decided to rent the movie (filmed at the end of the 70's, and directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy). I was told his movies were very slow, so to be prepared -and they weren't wrong. Nearly three hours and devoid of any action (except for a moment in the opening) and focusing almost entirely on three people the entire film, it is indeed a strange one. Honestly, I fell asleep at one point. Yet, at the same time... it's one of those movies that keeps tugging at the back of my mind. The more I think about it, the more I love it. And so, in that state, I finally get a chance to play the game again, weeks later. And oh man. That gun fight I couldn't get past, before? You can have the NPCs help you, but I stubbornly continued to refuse and storm the camp on my own. I replayed that part, where all you have is a pistol against some fifteen men (and you can die in a few shots), maybe more than thirty times before I got past it. And it was honestly the most satisfying gunfight in a game in the past few years. I felt like I was in the middle of a Western or something - it was that intense and entertaining. Past that, the atmosphere of the game is stunning, and beyond immersive. Now, mind you, my experience is all with the incredible Stalker Complete Mod. If you're going to play this game, you need to go here and install this - it makes the game what it should have been, and that is a masterpiece. If you have the first game, grab it here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009 The team has one for Clear Sky, is working on an updated version for Chernobyl and also working on one for Pripyat. Also, if you don't have the games and didn't buy the first and third bundle for $5 today in the Steam sale, WHYNOT. I highly recommend, if you wake up in time from your New Year's hangovers, grabbing this pack RIGHT now, then watching the film, installing the mod and playing the game. Because - really. It is an experience. Annnd... Stalker discussion commence!

FINALLY finished frickin Dante's Inferno. Can send it back to GameFly now. Gah, I hated that game. Good cutscene CG though, and boobs are always appreciated. Was kind of surprised they showed Dante's penis in the last cutscene - you've got to applaud that.