Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
I finally beat GoldenEye 007 for the Wii. I will tell you what-- "Protect Natalya" is super frustratingly difficult, not least of all because you aren't exactly sure what your objectives are. I finally went online for tips-- not a walkthrough, but rather advice. Mostly I found people saying that it was by far the most confounding part of the game, but I watched someone run through in a video, & that showed me that mostly what Natalya was saying was nonsense-- I thought maybe the GoldenEye was attacking when consoles would explode or...I don't know what! People said some rather uncharitable things about shooting her to shut her up-- I honestly don't want to blame them. I hate the "damsel" trope, but I don't mind the "rescue & protect" game-- see also my well known scientific opinion that ICO is the best game ever made-- but you have to do it well. This was too "boy's club," if you know what I mean. Still, the game is fantastic, a lot of fun, though it suffers from not having Famke Janssen & Alan Cumming in it-- substituting Daniel Craig for Pierce Brosnan is sort of six of one, half dozen of the other. I understand that the maze of licenses & rights between films, video games & franchises must be impossible, but Cumming's Boris & Janssen's Onatop were memorable-- plus, Alan Cumming told amusing anecdotes about the original N64 game when we saw him, bragging about having a video game character made out of him.
Otherwise, awash in holiday cheer. Too much holiday cheer, where cheer = drinking + alienation x judgment & self = darkseid. Oh, it isn't so bad, I just wanted to inject a little antilife into the proceedings. Work party last Thursday, then wine & dinner with Marie & Thomas, then a relaxing Saturday at least-- played video games, watched some episodes of Batman: The Brave & the Bold where I was impressed by Michael-Leon Wooley's performance as Darkseid, went to the gym for a nice hour & a half, then home to Jenny & so much mint. Our carbon monoxide detector went off because there was more peppermint in the air than there was oxygen! That is my story, anyway. Sunday was Carla's birthday, & we went to Scottadito & had a very nice time. Cindy & Kevin met up with us & Carla & Kenneth & we had a brunch with infinite mimosas-- & if you know Carla & Cindy, they are the queens of making sure that "bottomless" mimosas are taken advantage of to the hilt. Cindy actually skipped the orange juice & just had them pouring champagne & putting a little absinthe in. It was pretty hilarious, & I had the tagliatelle-- I'd been flip-flopping (I almost said "waffling" but didn't want to be confusing) between that & the eggs florentine. The tagliatelle was the right choice; very good. After that I wrapped up & went to go play Oubliette, which was a lot of fun-- seeing everyone after so long. Then...well, today was another work party, & theoretically there is another work party tomorrow as well. Yikes, zoinks, awooga.