The lights are on
Be prepared to be scared in Renegade Kid's third DS outing, Dementium II. Sore spots from the first Dementium, namely a severe lack of save points, respawning enemies and some very repetitious environments, have been fixed and allow you to focus on the task at hand: surviving your time in and around the Bright Dawn Treatment Center.
There's really not much to say here. I'm sick, sick, SICK of the use of auto-tune in modern music. I don't want to live in a world where everybody can sing with the aid of some computer program, or whatever the hell it is. If you can sing, sing. If you can't, then don't. Hell, I'd rather listen to some so-so vocals than something that's been "enhanced" with auto-tune. And the real insult is when you're watching a music video and someone is acting all intense and focused like they're really singing a song. Maybe it would be ok if just one person used it, you know? Like T-Pain. He should be the only one using it. He could be like "that auto-tune guy."
I finally get my Portal issue today, and it's the one I wanted with the blue portal on the cover! But for whatever reason, someone made the decision to remind me that my subscription is about to expire by putting a huge sticker right on the f***ing front cover! I tried to peel it off and guess what? If I do I ruin the cover, but at the same time the cover is ruined anyway with the lame-ass sticker there. I know you guys worked hard on the redesign and are proud of your awesome new wraparound covers. Couldn't you at least use some kind of easily removable sticker for this, or better yet remind me through e-mail or something? Sorry, but the sticker is LAME!!!!
You know who I'm talking about, and he isn't the guy who races or performs professionally. Every town has one. Look, he's going past right now. His under-to-un-employed ass is riding up to the gas station to buy a pack of Newports with change he stole from the giant glass jug in his mom's bedroom. Everything about him has seen better days, from his torn and tattered winter jacket with the insulation poking through the wear spots, to the filthy black and yellow flannel shirt he always wears underneath it, a shirt too long to be worn under anything unless tucked in, but never is and hangs down like a skirt. The bike was really something special when he was 15, but years of use and lack of maintenance are blatantly apparent. The bald tires are worn super smooth, and on sunny days reflect more light than any black rubber substance has a right to. The hand grips have long since been poked through by the handlebars, revealing the dirt clod filled holes on either end. He finally walks into the gas station and puts his change on the counter, and the cashier knows he'll wait around as she counts it, just to make sure it's all there. He leaves the gas station, "packs" his pack of cigarettes, takes one out and lights it up. He heads back home, back to the house he's been living in all of his 32 years. He knows full well who he is. He's the grown-ass man on the BMX bike.
Like a lot of gamers, I'm tired of the RPG premise of teenagers saving the world. I was thinking about it one day, and wondering what I'd do differently. I totally wanted to scrap both the teens and the world saving, and here's a taste of what I came up with.
So yesterday I'm ordering from a Burger King drive-through. I got an Italian Chicken sandwich and a medium onion rings. I pay at the first window, then move ahead to the second window to get my food. The guy hands me my bag and asks me if I want any onion ring sauce. I was like "What?", and he repeated, "Did you want any onion ring sauce?"
The other day a friend of mine told me over the phone that he was going to have to spend a little more time familiarizing himself with his new employer's handbook, saying that he had merely perused it thus far. I've always believed that to peruse means to look something over thoroughly. He insisted I was wrong and vice/versa, so I busted out my dictionary then and there, and here's what I found (from the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition):
Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the first BioShock. I've been through it 4 times, and I consider it probably the greatest game ever made. Once I heard there was going to be a return trip to Rapture, I was both excited and a little wary. I knew immediately that a sequel to BioShock could never have the same impact as the first. There can only be one first time in Rapture, and no developer could possibly bring back that feeling of awe and wonder. Beyond that realization, I figured if the developers could do everything else right the game had a shot at being great, but almost certainly not the classic the first was. Having completed BioShock 2, I'm pleased to say the developers did almost everything right, and even made substantial improvements in many areas.
The only reason I'm writing this blog is because of the serious lack of discussion of this awesome game in the official thread. It seems that users tend to ignore official threads in favor of user blogs, so here I am. I also think that there might be a bit of hesitation among some to play BioShock 2, so I'll just say this: