Haiku of the Day: Admitting Failure

Admitting Failure

No inspiration
No motivation to write
Better luck next time!

——

Unfortunately I must deem this year’s ‘Haiku of the Day’ experiment a failure. Somehow I just didn’t have the same drive as last year to actually complete the 30 days. I suppose this is the risk that you take when you take on a creative project like this. Oh well, there’s always next year…

The 8 Stages of VR 18 (Metal Gear Rising)

First Attempt
You may not even realize that this is a “one-hit KO” challenge at first. You take out the first wave easily by baiting the Gekko’s bum-rush and countering, the same technique you’ve been using the majority of the game. It’s not until you get killed by the Mastiff’s drop kick that you realize what you are in for.
“One-hit KO? This is going to be tough.”

Stage 1: Denial
After a couple hours of failed attempts, you start to blame the mission for being too difficult and unfair.
“The stupid camera keeps getting me killed!”

Stage 2: More Denial
By this point you’ve mastered perfect parrying the Mastiffs only to subject yourself to the horror of wave 3.
“That laser attack is so unfair!”

Stage 3: Anger
You’re seeing red. Your gameplay is starting to suffer due to your lack of focus. You start to spout expletives in a vain attempt to vent your frustration. Sadly for many, the game disc itself does not survive this stage.
“[EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]!!!”

Stage 4: Bargaining
You start to realize that success in this mission is highly dependant on the actions of the enemy AI. You beg the game for mercy.
“If only the enemy AI would just do what I want it to do!”

Stage 5: Acceptance
After hours and hours of failed attempts, you finally accept your defeat. Your eyes are getting heavy, your reflexes are slowed and your drive has been all but squashed.
“Forget this, it’s not worth it.”

Stage 6: Research
You start to watch YouTube videos and read forum threads about the mission, hoping to discover some kind of tactic or exploit to make the mission more manageable.
“This guy on YouTube makes it look so easy…”

Stage 7: Revengeance!
You’ve gotten a good night’s sleep and return to the game with a clear head and renewed motivation. You’re parrying and dodging like a pro, Raiden on the screen looks like poetry in motion. You embarrass the Mastiffs and trick the Fenrir into killing his own entourage. You obliterate the Grad using the tactial Sai stun lock trick you saw on YouTube.
“Holy crap, I actually did it!!”

Stage 8: All That Heavenly Glory
You are elated now. You triumphantly proclaim “I beat VR mission 18!!!” on your Facebook status. No one knows what you’re talking about.
“I wonder what VR 19 is like?”

Twisted Metal game review

When I think of vehicular combat, I think of Twisted Metal. The original Twisted Metal for PS1 is a game that I would play religiously, so I was very happy to see this series finally have a presence on PS3. Is the new Twisted Metal as fun, addictive and ground breaking as the original back in the day?

This new game takes everything you like about Twisted Metal and upgrades it. The graphics look great, the driving and handling are smooth and the online modes are a blast to play. However, fans of the series will notice right that many of their favorite characters and vehicles are missing. Instead, there are only 3 actual drivers that drive all the different cars. Aside from that there is a good variety of vehicles to choose from. You might want a vehicle that is slower but has strong armor, or you might choose a sports car with weak armor and employ hit and run tactics. Your personal preference and play style will dictate what cars you are able to be successful with. There’s even a helicopter!

The single player story in this game is kind of short, especially when you consider that there is only one storyline instead of the multiple storylines and endings that past games had. Instead, you are treated to one story that covers the events of 3 participants in the Twisted Metal tournament. The cut scenes are live action and are very well done – I wish more games would do this! As part of the story mode you will engage in several very fun boss encounters, and if you are truly hardcore you can attempt to beat the story line on Hard or Twisted mode for a very formidable challenge.

The single player is fun and all, but in all honesty you will probably beat the game 2 or 3 times before you get sick of story mode. This is a game that was designed for multiplayer local and online play, and that’s probably where you’ll spend the majority of your time. There are lots of different game types, including death match, hunted, last man standing and a ‘capture the flag’ type game called nuke. The lobby screens are pretty well designed and the game has some fun features for online play including clan and party support. Playing this game online is a freakin’ blast but not without it’s networking issues. In my time playing online I have had some problems getting into lobbies, mid-game disconnections and freezing. The game has already been patched twice and online stability was improved greatly by the second patch, so I’m sure that the developers will have a lot of these networking issues solved soon enough. The good news is that the game is so fun to play that it’s easy to forgive a hiccup or two with the network.

There’s a lot to like about the new Twisted Metal. Battles are fast-paced, look great from a graphical perspective and are full of destruction. There are also some nice details that really round out the package, such as being able to design custom skins for your vehicles (via the Twisted Metal web site) and custom soundtrack support! I think this is definitely worth a purchase. It’s one of those games that has a simple premise, but when you start getting into it you are treated to a game that is deceptively complex and rich with strategy and tactics. Oh, and Sweet Tooth can morph into a robot and fly!

Who will enjoy this game?

• Fans of classic Twisted Metal games
• People with an appetite for destruction
• People who enjoy playing online but would like a break from FPS/TPS shooters
• Social gamers

Helpful Vista tweak

Are you using Windows Vista? Are you noticing that your hard drive space is slowly being eaten away and you have no idea why? Check out this helpful tweak that will limit how much disk space Vista can use for it’s System Restore feature. Worked wonders for me.

http://www.liveslick.com/2007/09/03/is-vista-eating-up-your-hard-drive-space/