I almost missed this game. I had heard about it, it sounded interesting. I believe I saw a quick look with Brad at the controls and thought I should check the game out. However, everybody everywhere was comparing the game to the Legend of Zelda.  "This is the dark Zelda game you've been asking for" or "it's an homage to the Zelda games" and things like that. All the Zelda talk cooled me on this game and I decided to forget about it. However, I got a good deal on some games through Amazon recently and ended up picking this up along with a few other little gems.  So glad I did. 
 
You may be asking yourself (assuming anyone other than me will ever read this) "self, why would comparing a game favorably to Zelda make him decide NOT to play this game?" and you would be right to ask that. It's hard to find someone who doesn't like the Zelda games. Well, here is one of those people. I certainly appreciate what they have accomplished and in theory I love what those games offer. The exploration, the epic quest, hell even some great music and much more. Yet every time I have ever tried to play any of those games I take an immediate dislike to them. I honestly couldn't tell you why.  
 
This goes back to when The Legend of Zelda, contained within its coveted gold cartridge was new and shiny and in my friends hand. I was 6 and had never seen anything like it. He invited me over, held up the glorious cartridge and in the most serious tone his 5 year old vocal cords could muster asked "wanna go on an adventure with me?" I sat with him as he played. We discussed paths to take, tactics to use, meanings and hidden truths found within the game. After some time and the newness had worn off I borrowed the game and took it home. I got ready to play the game for myself but it wasn't the same. I recreated the circumstances by having my friend come over and be my copilot like I had been for him. Still, I just wasn't into it. I would play for 5 minutes and get bored. However, when I handed the controller over to him we could play for what seemed like days at a time, getting lost in the magic of the game. 
 
Over the years I have tried... and tried... and tried over and over again to play each Zelda game and each time I play for maybe 5 minutes and get bored. These games sit on my shelf glaring at me, a totem of what I have perceived as my failure as a gamer. I sometimes feel ashamed that I couldn't love those games, at least not firsthand. I have learned that these are games I greatly enjoy being present for but have no desire to actually play myself. So, when everybody compares Darksiders to those Zelda games I knew I wanted no part of it. I was done inflicting the pain of wanting to like something only to discover I couldn't. 
 
Something whispered in my ear to give this game a chance. It sounded a lot like Brad come to think of it. Now I'm only about 15 minutes into this game but already I'm deeply infatuated with it. Maybe even starting to love it. That's 10 minutes longer than I've ever gotten in the Zelda games, I'm just hoping that the feeling lasts. 
 
*Edit* 
Oh, and also after hearing The Watcher only say one line (about getting under my skin or something like that) I instantly pegged him as Mark Hamill so that's cool.

I've been playing video games pretty much since I was born (1981 for what it's worth).  From Atari on through the current consoles. I've either had or had access to basically all the gaming platforms over the years and I don't see my interest in games waining, just shifting maybe.  I used to play games for the challenge of them, the "F you Castlequest! I lost your map but I still just beat you!" thing but now I'm more interested in the story.  A bunch of games I've played boil down to little more than movies that I have mild interaction with.  In some cases I indeed probably would just purchase the video of a game, say if they put out Alan Wake as a CG film or something. 
 
I found myself missing the joy I used to get from simple games that somehow gripped me deeply.  Pac-man or Tetris come to mind.  Anymore I don't know that I have that joy left in me.  Those things I once cherished are relegated to something I do when I've run out of all other entertainment and that is a shame.  I tried to go back and relive my childhood and it sort of turned out like Game Room, a total disaster and a sad mess.  

Growing up I was reading Stephen King stuff when other kids were still messing around with Dr. Seuss (no disrespect to Theodor Geisel, he was pretty awesome).  I would simply read anything I got my hands on and my mom read Kings stuff so I read it too. 
 
I've read maybe 80-90% of his books but I have very little memory of any details.  I'm like that about a lot of things.  My memory for some things can be nearly eidetic while other things I'm like a partial amnesiac.  His Dark Tower series however, I have a pretty good grasp on because I've read each book more times than I can count and listened to the audio books repeatedly.  They are by no means the greatest books every written but something about them just really grabbed me. 
 
Anyhow, I borrow books from a guy at work.  He reintroduced me to Steve Alten (Meg was a book I picked up at an airport on my wait to Alaska and finished by the time we got there) and I may have helped him consider King worth reading with my talk about the Dark Tower.  So now he is trying to read through his works.  We've been discussing the best method to approach them all.  Read the books in publishing order, so start with Carrie, then Salems Lot and Dead Zone up through Under the Dome?  Or read books connected to the Dark Tower so that when he goes into those he has an understanding of some of the things going on around those characters?  I may have solved that problem.  Rather than him going out and buying all these books I dug through my old boxes of books and dug out all the King books I still have (a bunch are still at my moms and others I've worn out or loaned out never to be seen again).  I've got about 25 of Kings books here, many of which are first printings of the paperbacks and even a few first edition hardcovers.  Seems my mom was really hooked on King that she bought a lot of these on day one. 
  
I figure I'll take this box into work, store them at my desk and load them out to him.  I assume he would rather read these freely than figure out an order and then go buy them all.  Now the only trouble is figuring out what order to read the books I have.  I think he should read Thinner (because he just finished the other Bachman Books) and then perhaps Different Seasons because of how great it is.  I mean Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (or Stand By Me as the movie was called) were great though partially because it was so long ago when I read it and partially because there has been no movie I don't remember The Breathing Method. 
 
So, this long rambling thing comes to an end.  What have I said that matters?  Nothing.  If you bothered to read this, I'm sorry it wasn't that interesting.  I just felt like typing something and didn't have any ideas for anything else. 
 
Oh this has nothing to do with anything. . . while Hudson Hawk boils down to a mans quest to get a cappuccino, Zombieland is a quest for a man to get a Twinkie.  Very nice.

I was a fan of the Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind and was skeptical but interested in this TV adaptation of it.  Early on the show made it pretty clear that it was not going to follow the books but rather tell it's own story.   That's alright but core elements of some of the characters have been changed or ripped out so now it is just a fantasy show with little to do with the source material. 
  
They might be able to adapt the various plot lines from the books into the show with some tweaks but it seems they are only dipping into those books.  I wonder how long this show will be able to go on?     

I'm about to sit down to watch a DVD double pack that a friend gave me.  Cloak & Dagger and The Wizard.  I've seen The Wizard fairly recently and I still love it.  "The power glove.  It's so bad" is still one of my favorite lines in any movie ever.  Sure this movie may not be much more than a commercial for Super Mario but really what movie aimed towards the youth market isn't a commercial for something? 
 
Anyhow, I'm fairly sure I'm going to realize I was a little bit retarded as a child (who am I kidding, I'm sure in a few years I'll realize I was a little bit retarded at the time I was writing this) because I remember Cloak & Dagger being pretty awesome.  Just looking at the DVD case I'm certain it isn't. 
 
Maybe I'll just put these back on the shelf and go watch Tron, there's a film that held up well.  Okay, maybe not but man those light cycles were and still are pretty damned cool.  Seriously, who doesn't want a light cycle?

What ridiculous lengths am I willing to go for seemingly meaningless level gains in this game. . . er, website?  I don't know yet.  I have just started to head down a path I vowed I never would.  Twitter account?  Check.  Facebook account?  Check.  Pointless blog that nobody will ever read?  Apparently check. 
 
I guess it just goes to show how deep the need to 'level up' is rooted in me that I'm willing to throw my hatred toward social networking sites out the window.  MUST. . . GET. . . EXPERIENCE! 
 
What about you oh unlikely reader?  Does this quest system make you feel the need to do dirty things?