No Business Naming Things

Challengers, the 2007 album from The New Pornographers has finally made its way to eMusic.  It’s really quite lovely, but a lot more melancholy than I was expecting.  It doesn’t feel similar to their other albums at all.  The title track in particular comes across as being extremely sad.  Neko’s vocals on this track are particularly wonderful although I may be biased - I think she could sing the phone book and make it sound wonderful.

Well Tracey, the furry addition to our family arrived this evening.  The handover went smoother than either of us could have dreamed of.  She’s been affectionate with us, she’s eaten, she’s used her box, and she’s even greeted our boys with the barest hint of hissing.  She spent an hour snuggled up between us and we even managed to eek some purrs out of her.

I’m already liking her a lot.  She looks a LOT like my old girl Pinky.  I hadn’t realized it before - my interactions with Tracey up until this point have been infrequent and from a distance.  She’s has the same pretty-faced eternal kitten look that Pinky had, only with shorter hair.  I actually teared up while sitting with her - the feeling was so familiar.

I’m skirting a thin line.  I really don’t want to feel like I’m replacing Abby.  She left us so recently… but at the same time, Tracey is a really sweet girl and I can’t help but be drawn to her.

… while waiting for people to join conference calls.  In this case, I wonder: “what material things am I longing for.”

I would like a proper home office.  This office would have a nice, solid, ergonomic desk with plenty of storage (above and below).  It would have a quality corded speakerphone, filing system, room for not only my laptop but an external keyboard/mouse/monitor as well.  It would also have very nice chairs.  One would be a traditional office chair, while the other would be a comfortable sitting chair with a side table.  It would be a neat room, an orderly room, with artwork that makes me happy

The universe, oh it conspires.  We have a new addition arriving at our family doorstep today - Tracey.  Tracey is an elderly calico kitty without a tail.  I’m not sure how her and the boys will get along, but hopefully it wont be too much stress on any of us.  From what I understand she’s a very sweet girl, if only a bit neurotic.

The neurosis alone gets her a free pass into our house. 

The title says it all. I’ve hit several bugs up until this point but none of them have been a game ender until now. I cannot complete a main-story quest. I’ve been hit by this bug, which seems rather common by the number of Google hits it gets.

I’m torn.  I want to keep playing, but I also don’t want to invest a bunch of time into a saved game that will never be fixed.  I’m not sure what to do here.  Blech.

Voting Yes on Proposition 8? Yah, this is what I have to say about that.

(Thanks Offbeat Bride!)

I’m enjoying it more and more.  In fact,  I’m enjoying it considerably more than Oblivion for two reasons from the top of my head.  One, the radio.  I love how the DJ on Galaxy radio keeps talking about the stuff I’ve been doing.  I really appreciate that, particularly how he talks about the side quests.  They’re much more memorable now because of it.  Second, the tension.  In Oblivon I would wade through the game like I was invincible except for those times I wanted to enjoy stealth (which were numerous, I admit).   However, with Fallout, I feel I HAVE to be stealthy or I’m going to get my ass handed to me.  I’m playing the game very cautiously, moving from cover to cover, always sneaking.  When I enter a room I immediately panic that there could be something behind the door.  I jump at everything.  I accidentally killed a friendly target because I was afraid he got the drop on me.  Incidentally, that friendly target was carrying some awesome loot.  I should try and forget that… I’m trying to be good, honest.

I had my ass handed to my by a Super Mutant Behemoth right outside of the Galaxy Radio headquarters.  That guy scared the crap out of me.  A rocket to the face, two grenades, and a shotgun to the head and I still didn’t bring him down.  In the end he crushed me with what I think was a lamp post.  Sigh.

Okay, I’ve managed to get about 3 hours into the game and I think it’s exactly what I expected it to be.  It is Oblivion with guns and a very cool new combat system.

If I got exactly what I wanted, why am I a little disappointed?  I think it partially comes down to unjustifiably rosy memories of Oblivion.  Oblivion was a game that kept my interests far longer than most, but it was deeply flawed.  The characters were indistinguishable, due largely to repetitive and campy voice acting.  This led to the game feeling bland at best and confusing at worst.  Adding to this was the problem of character animations and models.  Perhaps for their time they were good, but they look incredibly dated by todays standards, and the movement (facial and body) and AI were often SO BAD that they destroyed whatever sense of immersion the environments managed to create. Also, item management was a chore particularly for someone like me who has some degree of obsessive compulsiveness.   When you can pick up (and sell) just about anything I can’t help but pick up everything.  This usually means that half the time my Oblivion character has an inventory full of silver cutlery.

The characters in Fallout, despite having unique voice actors (as far as I can tell) still seem to be bland and indistinguishable.  Thinking back on it as I write this, the only one I can remember is the Sheriff of Megaton and I think I only remember him for his fine hat.  Character models/animation/AI still seem like a relic of 2006 and they’re still incredibly distracting.  Itemitis is still a problem for me, although silver forks and goblets have been replaced with empty cola bottles.  For instance I spent a good 30 minutes exploring the Super Mart near Megaton and all I ended up finding were some cans of food.

All the same, I put about 100 hours into Oblivion and I enjoyed it a great deal.  Despite my complaints about Fallout I still look forward to playing it some more.  The sense of freedom more than compensates for its shortcomings.

On the topic of the collectors edition, I’m really quite happy with it.  The extra stuff they give you for $20 seems like a really good deal.  I look froward to using the lunch box, the bobble head is cute, and the art book is very nice.

The game has not ceased to entertain us.  It’s consumed our evenings since purchase to the point where our PVR is getting close to capacity.

Last night after Lexy went to sleep I sat down with a goal of putting the skeleton of a level I wanted to make together.  Previously I had gone into the “Create” mode only to see that it was there - no real effort was made.  Well, after an hour and a half of hacking last night… I still basically have nothing.  I have some better idea of what it is I need to do but executing them with those tools is pretty painful.  The carving in particular is quite difficult… I find it hard to imagine that they put this game together with those tools.

My copy of Fallout 3 still hasn’t shipped from Amazon.  The new delivery estimate is the end of November. What’s up with Amazon lately?  Virtually everything I order is inevitably delayed.  I can’t remember the last item I ordered that was delivered on time.  I called the local EB and they have 7 copies of the collectors edition that I wanted so I just canceled the order.  I’ll go fetch it the old fashioned way, by hand.

I skipped out at lunch yesterday to fetch my copy from EB Games.  Staying at work was incredibly difficult, but made easier due to the fact that we had a PS3 in the basement which I sampled the game on.   After work both Lexy and I raced home to play it and did so until we managed to pry it from our hands so that we might go to sleep.  I write this now under great duress - the time I spend typing here means time I’m not playing Little Big Planet.

It’s not perfect.  In fact, as a platformer, it suffers from some pretty serious flaws (jumping distance, skittishness, difficult Z axis maneuvering for starters).  Despite these flaws it’s an absolute blast to play. It’s gorgeous - better looking than any other console game I can think of - and fresh.  So very fresh.   Guh.  I want to gush.  But if I do, that’ll take too much time away from LBP.

I feel like I should also mention World of Goo.  We picked this up over the weekend and it really is an excellent game.  I should say more about it… but I can’t.  The timing is so wrong.  I’ll need to revisit it in a month or so.  Maybe.