March 24, 2006
Games and RL

So, due to a minor mess, I don't have Nocturne yet. I do, however, have my b-day present from my little brother, which is the PS2 version of Psychonauts. And it is utter wonderful platforming crack-goodness. Now, as the majority of of people reading this are probably going '...Huh?', a brief summary - you play as this kid named Rasputin (Raz for short), who's at a summer camp for psychic kids (actually, he runs away from home - which is a circus - to go there), and someone is stealing the brains of his fellow campers. All the levels take place inside the minds of other characters, and reflect on what type of person they are - the mind of the possibly schizophrenic (think 'A Beautiful Mind' and the newspaper clippings on the wall) conspiracy theorist is a suburban neighborhood that twists back on itself, with black helicopters flying around and satellite dishes, and suspicious men in trenchcoats doing jobs and saying things like 'I am on the road crew. This is my stop sign' and 'I am trimming the hedges. My landscaping adds property value to the whole neighborhood.'

The artstyle is wonderfully wacky to match, and you do things like pick up figments of the imagination to level up, and sort emotional baggage to unlock little slide shows (emotional baggage looks so happy when you tag it). Typically, my favorite character so far is Agent Nein - the one in the suit and dark sunglasses. It helps that he has some great lines: "Is this where you give me a lecture and I learn another lesson." "No. Here's your merit badge, let us never speak of this again." I'll have to transcribe the 'A Victory For Good Taste' video clip, it's great.

On the real-life front, I have been totally exhausted for the last couple weeks, and I don't know why. It's really starting to get me down though, because I don't have energy to get anything done, and I'm grumpy and unhappy all the time. Ugh. I need it to be spring already, and I need to have Sephiroth done and have this year be finished.