WeekDAY gaming (9/3/12)- What are YOU still playing?

[jpublic]

Rev - haven't you been fighting with the PC release? Aren't you letting a stinky port color your impression?

Not that I totally disagree. I think FF7 is very good, but not half as amazing as people claim it to be.

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by Reverant

I have an announcement to make.

Final Fantasy 7 is a mediocre game.

That is all.

Took you almost 20 years to figure that out?

[jpublic]

So I have a story for y'all.

Today, I'm leaving the mall. I'm the first on the elevator, followed by a guy who was probably 10-15 years older than me. Following him is a fairly attractive young woman with a stroller and a bunch of shopping bags.

The guy does what I would if I had been closer to the door -holds it open for her. Then when it lets out in the parking garage, he again does what I would and lets her out to the pay station first.

As we're walking towards our vehicles, the woman is struggling with her bags and stroller. Do the guy asks if she needs help, and she firmly tells him no, and stops until he carries on to his car.

I stop, seeing her still struggling, and ask if she is sure that she doesn't need help.

"Oh sure, thank you!" She says, and then whispers to me as I'm helping her carry her stuff, "that guy was creeping me out."


After going to my car, I had to stop and go WTF. The guy didn't do anything (that I could see) that I wouldn't. I don't get how he was creepy.

My wife says it's a body language thing, but I'm still bothered by it.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by jpublic

So I have a story for y'all.

Today, I'm leaving the mall. I'm the first on the elevator, followed by a guy who was probably 10-15 years older than me. Following him is a fairly attractive young woman with a stroller and a bunch of shopping bags.

The guy does what I would if I had been closer to the door -holds it open for her. Then when it lets out in the parking garage, he again does what I would and lets her out to the pay station first.

As we're walking towards our vehicles, the woman is struggling with her bags and stroller. Do the guy asks if she needs help, and she firmly tells him no, and stops until he carries on to his car.

I stop, seeing her still struggling, and ask if she is sure that she doesn't need help.

"Oh sure, thank you!" She says, and then whispers to me as I'm helping her carry her stuff, "that guy was creeping me out."


After going to my car, I had to stop and go WTF. The guy didn't do anything (that I could see) that I wouldn't. I don't get how he was creepy.

My wife says it's a body language thing, but I'm still bothered by it.

It probably wasn't you and its most assuredly not always a body language thing.
Sometimes...people think really stupid stuff.
Or she had a sixth sense and he was an analrapist. 50/50 chance.

[evilgoodwin]

Do you know what is fucking unacceptable?

Unacceptable is when I leave my apartment, drop by the office and fucking tell them that I need my A/C repaired, spend the entire day away from the place and return home after a day and night of joy and fun to a FUCKING HOT APARTMENT BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T FIX SHIT. That is unacceptable. Even after I asked "They can get in there with me gone, right?" Even after I saw them submit the work order.

87 on the thermostat when I get home at 3:30 AM. Someone is going to fucking die.

[Purple Santa]

@JP: I'm going to go with what you wife said, the woman was seeing something in the guy's body language. It doesn't mean it was real. However, to assess where the woman was getting the "creepy" feeling from, a parking garage is very vulnerable place. I don't even like them. For a female, where feeling vulnerable can happen often (I mean physically, physical danger leading to violence) they do feel threats more than men do. The woman also had her kids with her. Her mindset also was one of protection for her children. For whatever reason, her fight or flight in her was triggered. Once it is, her thoughts and perspective of how she is perceiving the environment is going to change drastically.

What bothered you about her reaction to the guy?

[Gorvi]

Very little gaming for me last night. I played a little Castlevania Chronicles on the Vita, which was fun. Made it through the first three levels.

I also started up Metal Gear Solid 4 again. All this MGS info with the new game being announced really had me itching for some Metal Gear. So yeah, that game is still fantastic, and graphically very impressive four years later. I only made it about 45 minutes into the first act, but already I'm doing far better than I did the first time. I have no idea if I'm actually going to continue on to finish the game, but I'd really like to.

[rein]

Originally Posted by evilgoodwin

Do you know what is fucking unacceptable?

Unacceptable is when I leave my apartment, drop by the office and fucking tell them that I need my A/C repaired, spend the entire day away from the place and return home after a day and night of joy and fun to a FUCKING HOT APARTMENT BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T FIX SHIT. That is unacceptable. Even after I asked "They can get in there with me gone, right?" Even after I saw them submit the work order.

87 on the thermostat when I get home at 3:30 AM. Someone is going to fucking die.

I leave my thermostat set to 85F. I would have been pissed just based on the principle of them not fixing it but I would have survived. What do most normal people set the thermostat to in the summer?

[Reverant]

Originally Posted by jpublic

Rev - haven't you been fighting with the PC release? Aren't you letting a stinky port color your impression?

Not that I totally disagree. I think FF7 is very good, but not half as amazing as people claim it to be.

Originally Posted by Pale Ale

Took you almost 20 years to figure that out?

I was eleven or twelve when I first played through the original PSX release, and I thought it was one of the greatest things ever. In my subsequent replays over the years, I think I was riding the nostalgia wave.

Replaying the PC port has killed it for me. It's not the port itself; I finally got over all that and breezed through to near the end (sidenote: I haven't played in awhile partly because I suspect I've fallen prey to a bug that will erase my saves when I load it up again). It's the game itself.

The translation is terrible, but even the most coherent sentences aren't very good as conversation pieces or plot points. If I didn't know the story inside and out, I would be way confused. The story itself is still cool, but its presentation is bad.

The battle system. Getting rid of random encounters was one of the best things Square did in FFX12. They really do weigh the game down. Step step step ENCOUNTER step step step ENCOUNTER. And if you're the sort that still enjoys the RE system (I know many do), there's the problem of how boring the battles themselves are. They are slower than molasses. This is the big reason why I quit near the end- I got sick of sitting through battles with regular enemies. Killing freaks was easy. It was waiting for all the damn animations to finish that got me. Not only are the battles frequent and slow, but they're also repetitive. I do the same thing every fight. X down down X down X X wait X X X until the battle is done.

In short, stupid dialogue and slooooooow gameplay.

[frederec]

To those who may be interested, Capcom has confirmed that Ace Attorney 5 is indeed coming to the west. And it stars Phoenix Wright.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by rein

I tried... ...didn't work for me. I think it's called format the system files or something along those lines. Whatever it is, it resets everything back to default without deleting games. Unfortunately I still had the corrupted file and it still wouldn't let me delete it.

Really? That's very odd. As annoying as it was to deal with it on the PS3 at work, I got good at doing it since the game kept corrupting his data whenever he played but we could erase it if we did that trick.

Ah well. Glad to hear that it wasn't a total wash for you. Speaking of which, I still need to either try to get my PS3 fixed or replaced one of these days. Had a meeting at the bank yesterday to finalize the terms of our new mortgage and let's just say that I'm going to have to really rein in the comic/videogame/boardgame budget something fierce, at least for the next year. The upside is that I now have a great excuse to just play the games I already frickin' own.

Unlike other times I've tried to not buy games, this time I won't really have a choice! Sigh.

Originally Posted by frederec

To those who may be interested, Capcom has confirmed that Ace Attorney 5 is indeed coming to the west. And it stars Phoenix Wright.

Hooray! I can put away my torch and pitchfork and cancel my tickets to Capcom HQ.

YOu guys were right about the Zen Pinball 2 tables on the Vita. I grabbed the PvsZ one and Epic Quest and love them. I just wish that the whole store interface was a little less... cumbersome. I had it thinking it had to download ZP2 and some of the classic tables multiple times yesterday!

And dear god, how long is Labrys' story in P4: Arena? I knew it was almost all talky bits, but it's going on FOREVER.

[frederec]

Originally Posted by Spigot

YOu guys were right about the Zen Pinball 2 tables on the Vita. I grabbed the PvsZ one and Epic Quest and love them. I just wish that the whole store interface was a little less... cumbersome. I had it thinking it had to download ZP2 and some of the classic tables multiple times yesterday!

I did feel the importing process was a bit awkward. But once done, I'm incredibly pleased with how the whole Vita/PS3 thing is going. Honestly, this level of upgrade would have been worth real money to me, but it was free. And there's a new cool table available. Very awesome.

And dear god, how long is Labrys' story in P4: Arena? I knew it was almost all talky bits, but it's going on FOREVER.

The worst part is, I don't know if there's a single battle to break it up.

[jpublic]

@Purps

What bothered me about her reaction was her finding the guy creepy when he hadn't done anything I wouldn't - I make a point of trying to be courteous and pleasant to people in much the same was he was.

It concerns me that someone might find my behavior threatening when it's only intended in the most benevolent ways.

[frederec]

It's not what a person says or does, it's how they do it. There's a whole lot of subtlety in a person's delivery that sends off signals. Maybe you and this other person did the same thing, but you came across as nice, and he came across as creepy.

She may have been picking up on things that weren't there, or exaggerated signals that meant nothing, or she could have genuinely picked up on stuff that you missed.

Hell, my boss at my previous job creeped a lot of people out, and it was all in these subtle things in his demeanor, never anything he actually said or did. My wife said she never wanted to be in a room alone with him (and this was echoed by random students of mine). This doesn't mean he meant any harm (though he was one of the worst human beings I've ever known), but he still sent off these signals.

[EWolfmanD]

Originally Posted by frederec

To those who may be interested, Capcom has confirmed that Ace Attorney 5 is indeed coming to the west. And it stars Phoenix Wright.

Yay!

Playing Ghost Trick has put me in the mood to play the Ace Attorney games again. Maybe I should try to replay them all sometime before AA5 comes out.

I mentioned it was Phoenix Wright yesterday.

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by jpublic

@Purps

What bothered me about her reaction was her finding the guy creepy when he hadn't done anything I wouldn't - I make a point of trying to be courteous and pleasant to people in much the same was he was.

It concerns me that someone might find my behavior threatening when it's only intended in the most benevolent ways.

It's because he was a pox faced ghoul and you are a razor thin bishi with a touch of "ill"!

Originally Posted by frederec

Hell, my boss at my previous job creeped a lot of people out, and it was all in these subtle things in his demeanor, never anything he actually said or did. My wife said she never wanted to be in a room alone with him (and this was echoed by random students of mine). This doesn't mean he meant any harm (though he was one of the worst human beings I've ever known), but he still sent off these signals.

Sounds like was a Math Capo when he should have been Mafia Capo. Honest mistake from the outside really.

Originally Posted by Spigot

Hooray! I can put away my torch and pitchfork and cancel my tickets to Capcom HQ.

Man airplane boarding is really lax in Hatlandia.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by jpublic

@Purps

What bothered me about her reaction was her finding the guy creepy when he hadn't done anything I wouldn't - I make a point of trying to be courteous and pleasant to people in much the same was he was.

It concerns me that someone might find my behavior threatening when it's only intended in the most benevolent ways.

Exactly. In other circumstances her reaction might make sense. But in your original post it made it sound like you basically repeated the exact actions.
That kind of thing is just re-damn-diculas.
But then again you will see people defend unfair judgements all the time. Anywhere. Its pretty normal to see people defend that kind of thing. There will always be an excuse for that kind of behavior. And I hate defending unfair judgements.

[evilgoodwin]

Originally Posted by rein

I leave my thermostat set to 85F. I would have been pissed just based on the principle of them not fixing it but I would have survived. What do most normal people set the thermostat to in the summer?

Well, seeing as it's 84 outside right now, it is currently hotter INSIDE than outside. High today is 104, tomorrow it's 106. So I keep it at the mid-70s for my apartment while I'm here.

They fixed it just now. I'm less angry knowing that they tried yesterday and failed.

Still not happy, but I'll get over it. AIR!

[Karak]

Originally Posted by evilgoodwin

Well, seeing as it's 84 outside right now, it is currently hotter INSIDE than outside. High today is 104, tomorrow it's 106. So I keep it at the mid-70s for my apartment while I'm here.

They fixed it just now. I'm less angry knowing that they tried yesterday and failed.

Still not happy, but I'll get over it. AIR!

In my old apartment, third story. It would many times be hotter inside than out. I know where you are at man.

[Spigot]

Originally Posted by frederec

I did feel the importing process was a bit awkward. But once done, I'm incredibly pleased with how the whole Vita/PS3 thing is going. Honestly, this level of upgrade would have been worth real money to me, but it was free. And there's a new cool table available. Very awesome.

Oh, agreed. The fact that you can do it and that they even give you some of the Marvel tables as demos is really nice. It's just how the Vita (and PS3 and Sony in general) do their online stuff that bugs me still. It's vastly improved over the early PSP days, but far, FAR too much of the back-end gets thrust in the user's face, even now. Like a digital baboon butt.

The worst part is, I don't know if there's a single battle to break it up.

I've heard that. I don't mind, because the story is actually interesting (having done everyone else's story and seeing how all of the threads weave together) but when it's late and you're tired and the music starts to become hypnotic, it's very difficult to focus on walls of text coming at you.

Originally Posted by jpublic

@Purps

What bothered me about her reaction was her finding the guy creepy when he hadn't done anything I wouldn't - I make a point of trying to be courteous and pleasant to people in much the same was he was.

It concerns me that someone might find my behavior threatening when it's only intended in the most benevolent ways.

Welcome to the world we live in. Sigh.

I get scowls when I'm walking down the street and say hi to people as I pass by. And I live in a small, relatively friendly town. I just keep on truckin'. It's not my problem if other people are anti-social deviants or so conditioned to be suspicious that a simple hello makes them look away. I mean, I'm not THAT hideous to gaze upon!

But yeah. Esp. with women in situations like that, there are all sorts of factors that you're probably not aware of coming into play to creep her out. I've got a coworker who is perfectly friendly and everything but every single female that I know who has had to work with him visibly shudders after he leaves the room. He just gives off creepy vibes that gives the ladies the heebie-jeebies.