Penelope

Nice write up. I've fallen out of touch with the JRPG scene recently (work tends to get it the way) good to see it still has it's fans though.

Makes me want to get around to finishing all the old classics I never quite made it through.

Yeah, I kind of have to join the bandwagon of disagreement here. Not sure if the very specific type of humor you are referring to here is really worth keeping holdover gameplay mechanics from twenty years ago. There are better ways of humorously breaking the 4th wall than to keep an outdated interface just for a few odd jokes.

It's not organic humor. It's the only option they had to deal with the confines of the game they had.

"What if the player tries to operate himself?"

"Uh, write a joke?"

That's not organic. It was used to glaze over the inherent problems and ridiculousness in the mechanics that we all forgave 20 years ago because hey, that's the best we could do back then. It was cute, but it wasn't a strong design achievement.

Used to bother me quite a bit, then in college I needed money to save up for a cross country road trip I was taking with my friend. Didn't have the kind of schedule where I could work a regular job on the week days so I started selling my plasma.

For those of you who don't know, these needles are BIG. Get blood drawn for a test? Ha. Nothing compared to the things they use at these places. But, I got paid money to sit in a chair and read Terry Pratchet books. The first couple of times were a bit difficult, but the cash in my hand made it worth it. Leaving it in your arm for around an hour was the weirdest part.

You get over it though. Now the tiny little things they use for injections or tests only cause one reaction: "You call that a needle? Ha!"

@Dagbiker said:

@c0kemusheen said:

@Dagbiker said:

Telling people to fuck off is not doing america any favors.

What the fuck did you expect me to say. So because I'm American it's perfectly acceptable to deny me service, would you say the same thing if I was German. I doubt it

Actually i wouldn't, if you where German, i would say

Telling people to fuck off is not doing Germany any favors.

This made my day.

Exactly. All c0ke did is prove him right. Next time, be the bigger person, be polite, step away, and maybe, just maybe, he might even re-evaluate his opinions on us Americans.

All you did was solidify his opinion. Points go to Dagbiker for pointing this out with more wit and brevity than I have.

I live abroad and have since I got out of high school (God, six years ago?). I imagine this has allowed me more insight into this topic than most probably have.

Simply put, for the most part, stereotypes about Americans are right.

We're generally boorish, selfish, obnoxious, know-it-alls who are too busy waving our foam #1 fingers and guns to realize what a charmed life we have and that the rest of the world rightfully resents us for being bullies. These are the general faults of our population. Don't worry, other populations have their own shared problems.

However, most people also realize that this is simply a general rule. Obviously not everyone fits into that mold and most sane everyday people know that. They give people they first meet the benefit of the doubt, but it's still a preconception that you have to prove you aren't.

I work against pre-conceived notions of my nationality every day over here in China. I'm polite. I'm quiet. I work hard. I go out of my way to be nice and helpful. My Chinese is goddamn awful so far, but I always say thank you, and apologize when trying to buy something or communicate with a Chinese person.

I am acutely aware of how my country is viewed. I realize that my every action is giving these people some small bit of data to store away in their heads as to how to view Americans.

Essentially, I fight the impression that people like c0ke give of Americans every day. You are a representative of your country. Knock it off. Be better than that.

Take the higher road next time. You're making my life more difficult than it needs to be.

For Gabriel Knight.

Always Gabriel Knight.

@PrivateIronTFU: Exactly. :)

Obama.

There are much worse things than having an intelligent, well-meaning, diplomatically skilled president, whose main flaw is being slightly ineffectual due mostly to the shitty confines of the way our political system works.

As for the worse things? Look anywhere else on the ballot come November (Exception: I like Ron Paul a lot actually. He's very smart and fair, but his economic principles would essentially break any anti-trust regulations we have).

He's not amazing, but he's done quite a bit that I do wholeheartedly endorse, and the stuff he hasn't been able to succeed on, I doubt anyone else could have gotten done either.

He reminds me of Jimmy Carter. That's a good thing.

@Dave_442: Yeah, everyone I've talked to said the original Sonic was all fun and games until they got to the Labyrinth zone.

Not entirely sure how I managed to get all of the emeralds. I think it was mostly because I wasn't trying and therefore was calm for all of it. When I was in the final special stage and finally realized that I already had all the others, I freaked out a little and had to calm down.

Almost crapped my pants when I finally got it.

So, the past two hours have been... unbelievable. I had all four of my wisdom teeth taken out earlier today and am currently on a LOT of pain medication. Seeing as how I already watched two movies, I decided to try my hand at the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Watching the positive reviews for Sonic Generations has gotten me on a bit of a Sonic binge, and I've been casually playing through the first two games quite a bit this week.

Yesterday for the first time, I managed to actually complete the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. I never had a Genesis when I was young, but my neighbors did. As was customary at the time, when we were at my house we played Mario, when we were at his house we played Sonic. Being young however, I can never remember us being able to get past the Labyrinth Zone. The game was, and remains very difficult. It's full of instant deaths, tricky jumps and required memorization. On top of that, it can be fairly hard to earn extra lives until you become familiar with where they are hidden, or how not to take a single hit throughout a level to break the hundred ring mark. While you are given two continues, it resets your score, and when those are gone- in true old school fashion you are sent all the way back to the title screen and told to try again. Brutal.

As an adult, defeating the game wasn't quite the monumental achievement it would have been as a child. I now have the patience, and problem solving skills to quickly get past obstacles that would repeatedly drive Sonic to his grave in my younger years. One thing, that has always seemed beyond the reach of my ability and reason in almost every Sonic game ever, has been the achievement of collecting all of the chaos emeralds and then beating the game.

This is especially true in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

For those unfamiliar with the game allow me to explain. Throughout the game there are 6 chaos emeralds hidden in 6 different special stages. To enter one of these hidden special stages the player must make it to the end either the first or second stage in a world with at least 50 rings. If you are hit once the player loses all of their rings. In later games there are a lot more rings in stages. In the original however, they are fairly limited and require effort in their collection. So not only must the player collect enough rings, they must not take damage in the later half of the level if they want to enter the secret special stage.

In the special stages, the player must make his way to the chaos emerald without touching any of the glowing "Goal" orbs that will warp a player out. Sonic is limited to ball form and the stages rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise at varying speeds depending on which other objects the player hits. These courses are also filled with rings, bumpers, and dissolving barriers and one-way walls. Sonic also controls differently, resembling a pinball with the ability to jump. A single slip or miscalculation on the players part can easily land sonic in the wrong spot ejecting him from the level sans-emerald.

The only way to get another shot at getting the emerald?

Start the game over from the beginning.

Want to get the best ending in Sonic? Play all of these 6 stages and their bonus hidden stages almost perfectly and consecutively without screwing up.

A tall order that I never had any intention of actually completing.

Today though... I was on FIRE. Maybe it was the Vicodin, maybe it was that my nerves are dulled by having 4 of my teeth ripped out earlier today, maybe it was the casual week long play sessions- I don't know what it was!

I was Zen.

I was perfect.

I avoided every trap! I cruised through every level, and I collected each and every Chaos emerald!

I defeated Eggman with 15 remaining lives and watched the credits role. What was I rewarded with for this astounding act of gaming perfection?

An angry image of Eggman at the end of the game instead of a smiling one.

...

Goddammit I love old games.

@Video_Game_King said:

Yea, Fire Emblem on the GBA is pretty awesome. It's not the best, though. Unfortunately, that one was never fully translated (although it's pretty close), so this is just as awesome. And as long as we're talking about awesome Fire Emblem stuff, Tear Ring Saga.

Not familiar with Tear Ring Saga, although now I wish I was.