fractured reality

So I just “finished” GTA:SA in that I finished the storyline, so hopefully it will stop consuming so much of my gaming time. As with every game in the series since GTA2, SanAndreas was unapologetically violent and addictive. The sandbox quality of the game and the continued variety of locales and vehicles could keep one busy for weeks and weeks.

My only complaint is that the game is unbelievably unstable on my machine. During transitions to cutscenes, the game had a 10% chance to lock up entirely, which was incredibly frustrating if the cutscene was at the END of a mission, but before a save point. Argh.

I also picked up BrainAge for the DS, and it is pretty amusing, if you like brain exercises and Sudoku. I will keep up with it simply for the novelty of it.

Onward!
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I know yesterday was easter and all, so I won’t pretend to be utterly mystified by the weird dream I had last night: we needed to borrow a quarter from Jesus, and so we had my brother ask him for it, since he had recently died during a soccer match and been ressurected as a zombie.

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So I’ve so far advanced through the first 3 playlists on the Hard difficulty setting, and goddamn, am I barely squeezing through some of them. I mean, I usually (and by usually I mean maybe exactly 51% of the time) end with the rock meter in the green, thanks to appropriate use of star power, but damn, I almost always only score a 3.

Still heartily addicted to tetris, as well. I’m averaging ~6600 rating right now, up from 6400 two weeks ago, so I’m still technically getting better, but I’ve definitely plateaued.

And yes, I’m still enjoying my 60 shaman, a bunch of old players have returned from missions abroad and have joined us to do runs through all the 5 and 10 man content, so that’s been entertaining. I meanwhile cancelled my DDO account. Just not enough time and the frustration level of the game doesn’t balance with its entertaining aspects well enough.

And, just to keep things sufficiently busy, I finally got around to ordering a copy of San Andreas for the PC. Hot damn.

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So.
The other day, I caved and went to buy a copy of Guitar Hero, We <3 Katamari, and a Playstation2 on which to play said games. Since I was buying them from a Gamestop, I figured I’d pick up a used PS2.
Bad idea. You don’t know WHO was playing that thing before you, or whether they had children or any number of other household rodentia.
So the console didn’t work 100% properly. I drove back up I-71 to trade it in for a brand spankin’ new console.
Return home and got the dreaded “The Disc Could Not Be Read” error on both my discs. Shit. Either the motor or laser or some such didn’t work. At all.
Fuck.
Call the store, drive BACK up I-71 to the gamestop and demonstrate the problem. Cashier gets yet Another new console out and takes it out of the box and confirms that it works right there at the store.
Woo!
I played Guitar Hero for a good long while and realized that this was the first gimmicky game I’d enjoyed in a long long long time (if you don’t count the Trauma Surgeon game for DS). It was also the game that finally broke my resolve against buying a Playstation2, and as such I immediately browsed to one of my Recommendation forums to rave about its virtues.
It was then that it occurred to me that said forum was a breeding ground of people who actually spend their free time playing Real guitars, their houses full of amps, keyboards and so forth. My words failed me and I closed the browser and went back to playing.

It was that night at 12:11 a.m. that our upstairs neighbor’s front door got kicked in, in what can only be assumed to be a theft attempt. The offender kicked the lock in the door, but failed to take into account that a 4′x2′ section of the door was old leaded glass, which promptly shatter with the door, making a HUGE amount of noise. The person fled immediately and the police were there almost instantly as the neighor had called 911 as soon as the first kick came. We were up until 2:00 or so talking to cops, sweeping up glass and waiting for the maintenance guy to show up and patch the door for the night. Bleh.

Craziness.

Um, so yes! The short version is: play Guitar hero, I know it’s expensive for a single title but it is really a wonderful game, especially if you have roommates or frequent visitors. Also, please stop kicking in doors. If you *have* to break into someone’s house in the middle of the night, make sure they’re not home and try to be a little more subtle.

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This weekend I visited Rainey and fell in love with Guitar Hero. This game may finalyl be the one that breaks my resolve Not to own a PSX2. The unfortunate side of this adventure is that it reminded my brain of the existence of “Coyboys From Hell” by Pantera. There in my skull it is firmly planted until I can manage to blow it out with drugs, other music, or a bullet.

Augh!

It’s been slow, down below.
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