21st August, 2008 (9:44 am)
The Day With the First Awesome Fail of my Life (7)
I got a D! Woohoo!
I’ve never had anything less than a C in my life before, but considering I taught myself Hiragana and Katakana a week before my exam, I actually think that pretty much rocks.
I’m going to ignore the fact that the exams broke the mould this year and were incredibly hard - enough that even the scary monosyllabic teenagers struggled - and that the overall grade threshold very probably slipped this year. Ssssh. Let’s not think of that.
Comments: (7)
20th August, 2008 (9:31 pm)
The Day Before the Result (3)
Come 6am tomorrow I’ll be put out of my misery. Pending an omginternetz fuck up - which I am kind of anticipating, actually - my GCSE Japanese result will be published in all its glory on the Edexcel website.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I’m really not doing one of those irritating fake psych-outs. I really did suck ass. That said, it’ll be good to get that E or F officially in order to then consider my options (or lack thereof!) from here on in.
I’d end on saying wish me luck, but I think we both know that luck has very little to do with this now. So I’ll settle for a wish me not to fail. How have your results gone this year? C’mon - crow to me - you know you want to. :p
Comments: (3)
18th August, 2008 (9:31 pm)
The Day I Possibly Went Crazy (9)
There’s something within me, something buried down deep beneath the cynicism and sarcasm, that
secretly covets Singstar.
I know. I’m ashamed of me too.
Comments: (9)
18th August, 2008 (9:53 am)
The Day I Was Back. No, REALLY (7)
Apologies for being MIA? Promises that I won’t do it again? Lather, rinse, repeat the last fifty-nine billion times I’ve said this and then move on.
In my defense, I came back to the UK with a chest infection that I carried around with me in excess of a week, and I’ve been trying to occupy my son during my stint of the childcare over the summer holidays. That said, I AM now back, and will updated accordingly over the next few days. Scouts Honour.
The reason I can be so certain of this pledge? We’re fucking skint and I cannot afford to leave the house until payday on Friday. Heh.
Comments: (7)
8th August, 2008 (1:34 pm)
The Day With Dead Space (8)
So. Dead Space.
When this opportunity first came about, I posted over at SHHF, asking for questions, suggestions, ideas etc. on what to ask when I got there. The response I got to my plea? ‘Varied’ barely covers it. EA isn’t typically a studio survival horror fans have much time for, so scraping past the barely-contained hostility (”What the hell is EA doing, touching survival horror?” “Why the fuck are they interested in SHHF anyway?”) I did discover a reluctant interest in the new title. As a collective the Silent Hill Community can be a humourless, hyper-sensitive and hyper-critical bunch who often slate the games they love never mind the ones they loathe (no offense, guys - I love you and I’m one of you, but you know it’s true), but it was clear that many fans have been following the development of the game from when it first hit our consciousness. And whilst others had only possessed a mild interest to date, they were prepared to hear more nonetheless. Enter Vixx.
I had two things in the front of my mind when I accepted the invitation to head off to the EA studio in Redwood City, CA: 1) it’s going to suck if I’m the only female there and 2) I’m not going to say it’s good if it turns out to be crap, even if they are flying me out. I can’t be bought cheaply (well, I can, but not when it comes to gaming) and if I’m going to say that it rocks, it’s really going to have to rock - completely, utterly and equivocally. This meant that I spent much of the flight over in a blind, sweaty panic, wondering how the hell I could phrase OMG THIS GAME SUCKS DONKEY BALLS politely enough not to sever my newly-formed links with EA forever.
I needn’t have worried. Dead Space rocked. (And I was one of two females in the thirty-two strong crowd. Awesome.)
It was hard to know what to expect initially. DS had been touted to me as a Silent-Hill-Meets-Event-Horizon extravaganza, and while that sounded cool enough . . . well, I think I’m the only person on the planet who was bored stupid of Event Horizon. You know I’m a horror girl - I’m all about the jumps and the bumps and the gore. Sc-Fi’s okay but it’s never been my genre of choice, so it was hard for me to imagine being as scared shitless running through a shiny, clean futuristic environment as I am stomping through a dark, abandoned hospital or creepy-ass school. Silent Hill works because it twists every day normality, so how can a game set 500 years in the future possibly engage me in the same way?
It does. It does because whilst the environment is new, what you’re fighting isn’t (check this amazing trailer to find out more). Much like the enemies of SH2, the fact that you’re fighting creatures that, despite their deformities, are of human origin is a truly horrific twist - and there’s something so sad, so pitiful about that. I was drenched in dismay right up until I had my torso sliced in half by one of the necromorphs - funnily enough, I’m now no longer so humanitarian about it all. :p I tell you though, it has been some time since I died THAT MUCH and THAT OFTEN in a game. The enemies are bloody FAST and it doesn’t take much before you’re nothing but a pile of chopped meat.
A full write up, including details of my interview with the development team (they’re all big fans of Silent Hill, and are clean and open about the fact that if they want to make the most frightening game to date, they know that it’s Silent Hill they need to top) and my gameplay experience will be posted on SHHF shortly - along with the TRULY nerdy stuff that I tried to suppress here - but suffice to say, it was badass. The lack of HUD didn’t bother me - survival horror is all about being immersed into the gameplay anyways - but the fact you can’t pause the action when you’re in your inventory or map (i.e. no respite from getting your ass kicked) is pure revolution, as is the holographic ammo display when you arm a gun (essential: ammo is SCARCE) and your protagonist, Issac Clark’s, life metre, which runs up his spine. There are no cut scenes or movies - that’s right, all the screenshots you’ve seen to date are in-game - so NOTHING takes you out of the game and the player retains control of the character for 99% of the time. Strategic dismemberment means that you not only need to shoot sparingly but also accurately, and learn as much as you can about the enemies in order to dispatch them quickly and effectively. There’s no point holding the gun up and firing randomly; if you don’t shoot smartly, taking out limbs and tentacles strategically, you’re going to do nothing but to piss off some of these bad boys . . . and you really don’t want that.
My final tip? Stamp on every motherfucking body you see, alien or not. Trust nothing and no-one, as anyone of them could be infected and bite you on the ass the moment you turn your back. Literally.
Comments: (8)
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