Shitday

So yesterday was my birthday. Like most things in life, I care less and less about it each year.

I had been feeling like crap the past 5-6 days and so I went to the doctor in the morning for a walk in.

What has been bothering me was first just generaly feeling like ass, and then a day later it was my chest feeling like...well, I can't even really describe it. Just a strange pain that makes me incredibly uncomfortable no matter the position I'm in.

So I eventually decided to visit the good doctor and they did an ECG on me right there just to check my heart.

He came back eventually with an odd look on his face and said "I'm not too happy with this and I think you should go to the ER right away and have some more tests done" which isn't exactly what I wanted to hear, but whatever.

I did just that and anyone who's ever been to the ER knows what a debacle it often is.

Long story short they did another ECG which prompted them to ask if there had been any chance I'd done cocaine that day (which i guess, really, is just a question they have to ask when the heart is in question) but after waiting for the doctor there to explain the results he eventually said that there was nothing there truly out of whack.

Then a nurse (who was seriously crazy and hilarious) stuck an IV in me and took some blood, which I could feel dripping down my arm (she called it "juicy")

When I asked why I really needed an IV stuck in my arm she told me it was in case I wanted any morphine for a birthday present. I thought about asking for some.

Then I was sent for an X-ray and had to wait some more.

Everything apparently checked out fine and I was told I have no infections or serious problems like blod clots and that he thinks it's more that the chest muscles/area is inflammed for whatever reason and that's likely what is bothering me.

He explained it's probably much like when you get really sore when you have the flu...but I know what sore flu muscles feel like and this...feels different. Then again I can't say I've ever really had sore muscles in my chest, so it very well could be.

All I can say is that it seriously is not pleasant in the least and I am thankful that it seems to come and go instead of being with my constantly or else...I don't think I'd ever be able to sleep.

I got two extra nights off work because he wanted me to really take it easy and see how I feel in a few days, so I guess that's the one good part. It does seem to be bothering me less frequently today, so thank christ.

Other than that it was a good enough day I guess.

Oh, previously mentioned crazy nurse and another slightly less crazy one brought me some cake and sang to me as I sat there in one of those moronic hospital gowns, so it was kind of extra embarrasing. Nice.

Happy birthday indeed.

Most epic album ever?

Good LORD

If you have any nerd at all in you, or love for Mega Man, fucking buy this album. Hell, just buy it if you love awesome ROCK OPERA styled music.

Or be a useless faggot who doesn't support awesome and creative talent and steal it from the internet.

You know, your call.

Carry on.

Nothing to see here.

Mass Effect 2 thoughts + rant.

Since I don't have to work tonight (YAY, HOUR CUTS!) I am bored and still have Mass Effect 2 on the mind, I wrote a little thing that nobody will care about. There may be spoilers (general end of the game stuff) so if that bothers you then don't read.

I have to say, I don't think I've been so into a game for a long, long time

Much like the first game, what makes this so awesome is how many choices you have to make throughout the game, some of them small, some of them huge, and how the game changes (or seemingly doesn't...until later) is mind blowing. So many choices and variables that it's like life, and whatever you choose, the game must continue.

They even let you import your data from the first game (something I highly recommend), and the choices you made in THAT ONE change countless things in the sequel and that is one of the coolest things ever.

I am astounded at how great a job Bioware does with developing characters and actually making you care about them. It's quite unreal.

The final mission is fucking intense and you have to choose members of your team to do specific jobs/meet objectives and there's a chance they can die if you pick the wrong one and so on, so for the entire mission I was on edge hoping like hell everybody would survive, so I was killing dudes as fast as I could and trying to meet up with the other team members and so on and it was CRAZY how into it I was.

Eventually I finished and everyone made it through alive I was ECSTATIC. The whole thing is just epic feeling and I once again blow away by the level of polish that a game can possess.

It truly has been a long time since I've cared that much about fictional characters in a game.

If I had to find things to complain about it would be these:

Some of the RPG elements and extra exploring bits from the first game have been removed or changed significantly. At first this bothered me because I felt like it takes away a degree of customization and experimenting away from the player. Eventually though I got used to the new system and those thoughts left me. There's still part of me that misses it, but I guess the reality is that the whole game is far more streamlined having left those things out.

The second thing is related to the awesome character development I talked about.

Much like in the first game you are able to pursue a romantic encounter with one of your team members. (you get to bang someone)

Anyone who played the first game probably recalls the mainstream media attention the game got for including such an option.

Everyone jumped on it and tried to tear it to bits. My favourite quote has to be:

"Mass Effect can be customized to sodomize whatever, whomever, however, the game player wishes," and "with its ‘over the net’ capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away." - Kevin McCullough (some conservative douche)

Seriously. That's SO wrong that it is hilarious.

The game (and sequel) allows you to start relationship with someone in a scene near the end of the game, a scene that features no graphic nudity or sex. It's basically on par with what you'd see in any movie these days, but, hey, it's not even worth arguing with the media who have never understood games as a form of entertainment and storytelling.

The point I was on about is that the scenes in this game are more toned down than the first game. Now, it doesn't necessarily bother me just because I want to see tits (well, I do, but hear me out)

No, it bothers me because I can't help but think there was some pressure from someone somewhere to not be so “explicit”

A lot of people are blaming EA (publisher) for it, but I don't think there is any proof of that. People just like to hate EA (with good reason, admittedly)

For the record:

Banging Ashley in the first game (at least we get some NAKED)

Banging Miranda in the second game. (what a tease, how am I supposed to jerk off to this!?)

Obviously, I'm just being a goof, but I think you get the point.

What I don't understand is how games (in general, now) can feature swearing, heads getting hacked off, people getting shot and beat to death, but anything pushing into the sexual realm is so OFF LIMITS that the whole world stops spinning whenever some developer takes a bold step.

What is with our culture?

These scenes are about how serious the game is and how deep the storytelling and characters can be. Why are gamers still treated like kids when it comes to things like this? Why is it so off limits?

Basically, what I'm saying is:

Dear Bioware, show some tits next time. Man up. Set an example that you love boobs. Get that fully clothed shit out of my game!

Rant/goofy shit aside and back to reality that's also not much of a negative knock on the game, because its ultimately trivial as hell, but my questions and bewilderment in general still remain.

Overall, this game ranks as one of the best experiences I've had in a long time and probably ever.

I hope this series never dies.

Makes me want to give Dragon Age a try, but I'd probably just keep thinking "why can't this be set in space and have folding assault rifles and robots to blow up?"

So I'll wait.

Good and bad.

The Good

I've always adored film scores. The epicness and mood are often on a whole different level than most bands. I think this is why in my life I've gravitated toward instrumental/post rock/ambient stuff. It's as similar in feeling as you can get, I think.

Anyway, you know what is mindbogglingly good? The score for the road. It's sad and beautiful and aggressive and AWESOME.

Between this and the score for The Proposition, it's become apparent to me that Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are super-beings.

The Bad

So, this piece of shit had been freezing randomly for a few weeks, at work the other night it froze, I reset it and this time it didn't load up all the way, so i got pissed and just let the battery die on while it sat on a blank screen. I also tossed it, which caused the metal bit on the top to pop off (it was satisfying)

So I got home, found out how to put it in recovery mode, which deletes everything and reinstalls the firmware. It worked but got stuck on the "updating" screen. I removed it anyway and it seemed to work.

Then I started syncing all my stuff back on. It froze at 20% and gave me an error that the device was unresponsive.

So, obviously I'm thinking in the back of my head that it isn't a software issue and probably a dead hard drive, but to be sure I repeated the entire process mentioned above, probably 7-10 times. Sometimes it told me there wasn't enough space on it to install firmware, even though the recovery mode DELETES everything, which made it even more obvious that the hard drive was probably shot.

Anyway, fuck the Zune. It's now laying face down on my floor somewhere.

Why does it seem like all electronics not made by Nintendo are designed with a limited lifespan? Why can't things just work?

Oh, right. Money.

Games post.

My gaming habbits, as I've gotten older have changed, when I was younger I could sit in front of the TV for hours upon hours at a time and just play games all day.

These days, I still love games as much as I ever did, but I tend to play in real short bursts of like 20 minutes or so.

HOWEVER, I am writing this post to say that in the month of January, I've been gaming my mother fuckin head off.

It started with Darksiders, a game which I rented and didn't think I'd end up enjoying as much as I did. You play as War, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse and end up killing plenty of angels and demons on some badass epic quest.

It starts off feeling like every other flashy action game, but quickly becomes obvious that the developers borrowed so much from the Zelda games that it feels like a more badass Ocarina of time during its best moments. I was super impressed considering I hadn't expected much at all.

I think I played it like 6 hours straight one day, which is crazy.

I finished it just in time to purchase No More Heroes 2, a sequel to one of the best and most original games on the Wii, that none of you assholes played.

This game continues the story of Travis Touchdown, a loveable (to me) nerd, who longs to be the ultimate badass and uses his beam katana to fight various assassins so he can move up the rankings in order to be the undisputed number one.

Seriously.

This time you start back at rank 50, and it improves upon pretty much everything in the first game, introduces even more batshit insane boss characters and experiences and features enough partial nudity,over the top gore and swearing to satisfy even ME.

Truly one of the most crazy games I've ever played (as was the original) and worth looking at for that alone.

Suda51 is truly an artistic/insane genius and fuck anyone who says otherwise. Incredible game.

And when I finished THAT game, I moved on to Mass Effect 2, another sequel to one of my favourite games.

I am currently knee deep in this one and loving it even more than the first. Some of extra RPG bits have been stripped away, but the other improvements make up for it and it is seriously one of the most engaging games I have ever played. The character interactions are astounding.

God Bless Bioware.

And that, friends, is all I've been doing lately.

I feel like a kid again, and I fucking love it.

Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna get back to it.