November means Desert Bus!
Not much going on, still busy with school and stuff. Also been doing lots of other stuff this week. Saw Back to the Future in theaters on Monday where I got a free poster. Amazing how that movie remains entertaining and fun even after all these years, and it was a treat seeing it on the big screen. Two days later, I was in a theater again for Rifftrax Live, which was great of course. They did House on Haunted Hill, along with two utterly bizarre shorts (though not nearly as weird as the short they did on grass during Reefer Madness). Not doing anything much this weekend but school work. I’m actually entering into something of a lull this week and for most of November. I really only have one “big” project due throughout all of November, and I haved finished off most of my smaller projects for my other classes. I really should use this time to get some solid research done so I’m not scrambling at the end of the semester.
Finished Metroid: Other M a couple days after I wrote my last update. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s not up to the same standards as other Metroid games. They made many contrivances for the sake of the plot, but the plot just isn’t that good. It’s pretty much standard sci-fi anime fare with some Alien sprinkled on top. It also doesn't help that I dislike Samus's personality. Take this nugget, for example (Mild Spoiler ahoy!). Ridley shows up in this game...again. But right before you fight him, Samus has a nervous breakdown, and can't fire on him. WTF? Apparenlty, she's suffer PTSD, but I don't buy it at all. I mean, come on! it's Ridley. By this point in the series, Samus has killed him 4 times! Four times (Metroid, Prime, Prime 3, and Super Metroid, and once more in Fusion, but that hasn't happened yet)! If anyone should be shitting themselves, it should be Ridley. It also borrows heavily from other Metroid games, but forgetting to take the parts that made those games fun. Take scanning for example. In the Metroid Prime games, scanning wasn’t critical to progression for the most part. But when you needed to scan something, it was usually marked by a big graphic. In Other M, there are sections where you cannot progress until you’ve scanned the correct section, and it’s usaully not that obvious what they want you to scan. It’s like playing Where’s Waldo, except you don’t know what Waldo looks like. About the only interesting thing they did was with gravity effects in later levels, but they mostly feel ripped off of Mario Galaxy. Also, just like in Final Fantasy XIII, you can’t get and do everything before you fight the final boss. In fact, the end game sequence kind of took me a little by surprise, because I hadn’t gotten all of my standard equipment yet. After the credit sequence, you are allowed to go back and basically have free reign of the entire ship, plus and extra boss fight (Spoiler alert: you get to fight Phantoom from Super Metroid. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the plot though. Just kind of shows up, and fights you). There is also a unique twist on the final escape sequence. I guess Nintendo should be commended for trying something different at least, even if it didn't work. It really makes me appreciate the old games all the more, and it lowers the bar for future games. If anything, we can always say, "Well, at least it was better than Other M."
November should be interesting, but only one real event I’m looking forward too, and that is Desert Bus for Hope. (www.desertbus.org) I think I’ve blogged about it before, but I can’t expect anyone reading this to go back and check if I won’t do the same myself. Desert Bus is yet another video game marathon event to raise money for a charity, in this case Child’s Play (a charity which seeks to give games and toys to sick kids in the hospital. Who can’t get behind that?). But this one is a little different. They play a game called Desert Bus, which basically involves a player driving from Tuscon to Las Vegas on a road with no traffic that never turns. There are bus stops, but nobody ever gets on and nobody ever gets off. The bus can only go about 50mph, and if you go off the road your engine will overheat and you are towed back to your last stop in real time. The bus list to the left, so you have to periodically correct it. Once you make one run, you score a point and have the option to go back to score another point. That’s it. That’s the entire point of the game. It’s pretty much the most boring game ever. The guys and gals who are doing it, Loading Ready Run, are basically forced to play this game for donations. The more people donate, the longer they have to play. Of course, the amount to the next hour is determined in such a way that it will eventually stop after about a week, as it starts to get to tens of thousands of dollars to make it to the next hour. They used to drive in shifts, but this year they are trying something new, and the shifts are going to be 24 hours long instead of four hours. I don’t think it’s going to work out so well for them, but whatever. So basically, to keep their sanity and alleviate their boredom, they do skits, sing songs, do a little dance, and other stuff suggested from the live chat. The also auction off stuff that has been donated to them, and some of these auctions can get pretty crazy. Last year they got their point total up to 14 until someone crashed. It’s a strange, strange event, but I look forward to it every year since I discovered it two years ago. And every year, they raise more and more. Last year, they raised 140,000, twice as much as last year, and 7 times as much as there first year. This year, I expect they'll raise even more (300k wouldn't surprise me. It starts on November 19th at 6pm Pacific Standard time. (so 8pm central) It’ll probably go well into Thanksgiving. Don’t worry, they are Canadians, so they have already had their Thanksgiving. Check it out and donate!
Finished Metroid: Other M a couple days after I wrote my last update. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s not up to the same standards as other Metroid games. They made many contrivances for the sake of the plot, but the plot just isn’t that good. It’s pretty much standard sci-fi anime fare with some Alien sprinkled on top. It also doesn't help that I dislike Samus's personality. Take this nugget, for example (Mild Spoiler ahoy!). Ridley shows up in this game...again. But right before you fight him, Samus has a nervous breakdown, and can't fire on him. WTF? Apparenlty, she's suffer PTSD, but I don't buy it at all. I mean, come on! it's Ridley. By this point in the series, Samus has killed him 4 times! Four times (Metroid, Prime, Prime 3, and Super Metroid, and once more in Fusion, but that hasn't happened yet)! If anyone should be shitting themselves, it should be Ridley. It also borrows heavily from other Metroid games, but forgetting to take the parts that made those games fun. Take scanning for example. In the Metroid Prime games, scanning wasn’t critical to progression for the most part. But when you needed to scan something, it was usually marked by a big graphic. In Other M, there are sections where you cannot progress until you’ve scanned the correct section, and it’s usaully not that obvious what they want you to scan. It’s like playing Where’s Waldo, except you don’t know what Waldo looks like. About the only interesting thing they did was with gravity effects in later levels, but they mostly feel ripped off of Mario Galaxy. Also, just like in Final Fantasy XIII, you can’t get and do everything before you fight the final boss. In fact, the end game sequence kind of took me a little by surprise, because I hadn’t gotten all of my standard equipment yet. After the credit sequence, you are allowed to go back and basically have free reign of the entire ship, plus and extra boss fight (Spoiler alert: you get to fight Phantoom from Super Metroid. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the plot though. Just kind of shows up, and fights you). There is also a unique twist on the final escape sequence. I guess Nintendo should be commended for trying something different at least, even if it didn't work. It really makes me appreciate the old games all the more, and it lowers the bar for future games. If anything, we can always say, "Well, at least it was better than Other M."
November should be interesting, but only one real event I’m looking forward too, and that is Desert Bus for Hope. (www.desertbus.org) I think I’ve blogged about it before, but I can’t expect anyone reading this to go back and check if I won’t do the same myself. Desert Bus is yet another video game marathon event to raise money for a charity, in this case Child’s Play (a charity which seeks to give games and toys to sick kids in the hospital. Who can’t get behind that?). But this one is a little different. They play a game called Desert Bus, which basically involves a player driving from Tuscon to Las Vegas on a road with no traffic that never turns. There are bus stops, but nobody ever gets on and nobody ever gets off. The bus can only go about 50mph, and if you go off the road your engine will overheat and you are towed back to your last stop in real time. The bus list to the left, so you have to periodically correct it. Once you make one run, you score a point and have the option to go back to score another point. That’s it. That’s the entire point of the game. It’s pretty much the most boring game ever. The guys and gals who are doing it, Loading Ready Run, are basically forced to play this game for donations. The more people donate, the longer they have to play. Of course, the amount to the next hour is determined in such a way that it will eventually stop after about a week, as it starts to get to tens of thousands of dollars to make it to the next hour. They used to drive in shifts, but this year they are trying something new, and the shifts are going to be 24 hours long instead of four hours. I don’t think it’s going to work out so well for them, but whatever. So basically, to keep their sanity and alleviate their boredom, they do skits, sing songs, do a little dance, and other stuff suggested from the live chat. The also auction off stuff that has been donated to them, and some of these auctions can get pretty crazy. Last year they got their point total up to 14 until someone crashed. It’s a strange, strange event, but I look forward to it every year since I discovered it two years ago. And every year, they raise more and more. Last year, they raised 140,000, twice as much as last year, and 7 times as much as there first year. This year, I expect they'll raise even more (300k wouldn't surprise me. It starts on November 19th at 6pm Pacific Standard time. (so 8pm central) It’ll probably go well into Thanksgiving. Don’t worry, they are Canadians, so they have already had their Thanksgiving. Check it out and donate!