Life of Randy: Now With More Failure

I’m currently very far behind on my attempt for this years NaNoWriMo. Initially, I set out to just wing it, sit down day one and start, see where the story would bring me. Unfortunately, this plan was the absolute worst thing I could do. By going into this in such a way, my story refuses to come together beyond an initial premise:

A Man wakes up and sets out to destroy the world.

This premise coupled with one of the bleakest openings I’ve written (or read) has resulted in zero progress. The premise could result in an interesting tale if handled properly, but I don’t think I’m up to this story this time round. As it is now, I’m abandoning this story and tabling it for another day.

This does not mean I have given up on NaNoWriMo, this just means that this years attempt will not be completed before the deadline of 30 November 2011. I will going back to the drawing board, and over the next few days will be planning out another story from scratch. When Saturday afternoon/evening arrives, I plan to begin the writing process once more. For now, I will rest, and tomorrow I’ll look over some old story ideas to see if anything is promising.

This will be yet another one of my failures recently, but I’m hoping it is one that I will learn from.

Smells Like Failure

The first day isn’t even done, and I’m already regretting participating in this years NaNoWriMo. I am so unprepared for this undertaking and I don’t like where its taking me. I’ve written barely 400 words and oh lord is it bleak. My story begins with a man waking up, realising he’s miserable, and deciding to set off on a journey to end the world.

BLEAK.

I don’t know if I’m just being hateful, or what. My Protagonist just told a bunch of birds that he’s going to sing the song that ends the world. I don’t know where this story is going, or what. I already know I’m not going to finish it. It has to be a false start.

Once again, BLEAK.

I’m going to stick with it for now, but I’ll probably call this a wash before the month is through. Maybe it’ll help me work through things, or something. Ugh.

Dammit! I Thought The Flu Shot Was Supposed To Prevent The Flu!

I have failed myself. Yesterday, because I got sick, I was unable to post anything. I could always post something and have the system date it as yesterday, but there would be no point. I would know that I didn’t make it. I had almost successfully posted at least once a day for the last month. My Combo has been broken. Poor poor Randy.

Continuing on with my failures, this months Video Game Challenge has been a complete wash. I did not complete Eternal Darkness, nor did I get to play any other horror or Halloween themed games. Additionally, today I won’t be able to play through Costume Quest like planned since I’m too sick to actually play. All I want to do is puke. Be happy I was able to post at least this notice.

What I may do is postpone announcing November’s challenge until Monday November 7, and spend the rest of the week trying to finish out Eternal Darkness. Do a little overtime if you will. Also I haven’t figured out what I want to play for November, I have a handful of games I want to finish, but I don’t know where to begin.

On to something more positive, one thing I did do successfully this month is play through Sonic Colours in preparation for the release of Sonic Generations. It took me roughly 5 hours (or less) to beat it and it was done over three sittings. Easy to beat, hard to master. I liked it and couldn’t recommend it more.

The Problem With Having No Life

I’ve been having trouble finding what to write everyday simply because I have nothing to do, and nothing new to say. I’m broke, not going to school, and don’t have a social life, and not particularly interesting overall. This is a problem when you attempt to keep a daily blog. As I’ve nothing new to do, this has more or less become some sort of half-assed journal. I didn’t really think that would happen, but I guess it was inevitable.

On the brighter side of things, I’ll be starting a new part time job soon, I’m just waiting for the details to be confirmed. I’ll be working around 28 hours or less a week. Better than nothing, and it gets me out of the house which is a good thing.

Today, I spent the entire afternoon cleaning my house, something I’ve been unable to do for several weeks now, as I’ve had to wait for my back to make a full recovery. It was nice to do, mindless but nice. Apparently I let my house go a bit, so it was nice to air it out, wash some floors, deodorise some furniture and whatnot. I’m still not done, but I’ll finish it off over the next few days.

Update on my monthly video game challenge. I’m considering it a failure, I’ve just had not motivation to complete Eternal Darkness. It just never hooked me like I thought it would. I’ll still attempt to play it out by the 31st but don’t hold your breath. I still plan on playing through Costume Quest on Monday but if I do, it’ll be for me and nobody else. I’ll be starting the challenge afresh come November.

ETERNAL DARKNESS: "Is This Really Happening?!" (Minor Spoilers)

So, I just played Eternal Darkness again for roughly 50 minutes or so. I think I’m finally at the point in the game where shit just got real. The combat is still clunky, but with a better weapon things are much easier. In the third chapter, you play a squire (?) to Charlemagne who receives a message meant for his king, and becomes infected by its curse. The chapter teaches you the basics of the magick systems in the game, which requires the player to collect runes and assemble them in such a way to produce a spell. As the chapter progresses, the cursed character is slowly rotting away, becoming a zombie. This is also the first time I’ve felt how Sanity effects the actual game. As my character’s sanity was lost the camera went slight askew, and there were parts of the game you would play through just to discover you imagined it and had to redo it again. Once this starts happening, the tension rises. While I wasn’t frightened in the slightest, I can see how this mechanic can lead to some possible terrifying situations.

More Impressions of Eternal Darkness

I’ve not made much progress in Eternal Darkness since Tuesday, but the game has me intrigued. While I’m disliking the combat, the story is slowly getting its hooks into me. If you’ve not played the game before, the story begins with one Alexandra Roivas returning to her grandfather’s house after his mysterious and violent death. By exploring his house, she slowly discovers that things are not what they appear to be.

In the game, once Alexandra finds the Tome of Eternal Darkness, we are treated to a series of gameplay vignettes, featuring different characters who are associated with the overall story arc. I’m only roughly 1 1/2 hours into the game, and so far I’ve played through the back story of Pious Augustus, a roman soldier who seems to have set the games events in motion, and a Ellia, a dancer whose curiousity leads her to explore a mysterious and foreboding temple.

Each story introduces the player to different gameplay elements. In Pious Augustus’ segment, we learn about the combat system. I’ve already made it clear that at this point in time the combat plain annoys me. Ellia’s segment introduces us to the games trademarked “Sanity” system. Every time you see a monster, you start to lose sanity. As you lose your grasp of your mind, the game starts to mess with you, changing the visuals, telling you your controller is unplugged when it isn’t and others. The only way to regain your sanity is be killing each monster you come across.

Tomorrow I plan to sit down and play through more and I’ll keep you posted on my experiences.

First Impressions: Eternal Darkness

Yesterday, I was able to sink around an hour and a half into Eternal Darkness. In that time I died three times, all due to the game’s clunky combat system. At this point in the game combat consists of pressing A and swinging aimlessly. You can not block or dodge enemy attacks, you can only swing your weapon. The combat does have the appearance of complexity, as you are able to lock-on to an enemy and select parts of the body to attack. In the segment I played I was able to cut off a skeleton’s arms, and head, which resulted in it failing to the game, at which point the game prompted me to press B to administer a “Finishing Blow”. Cool in concept, but hampered by the controls at this point. I’m hoping that the combat evolves more the longer I play, but I don’t see that happening.

Gameplay reminds me of a point-and-click adventure game, with you controlling the player character instead of controlling a cursor. As you explore your environment, you can examine certain items, bringing up in many cases well written walls of text that describe said item. So far, all the text in the game is well written, quickly establishing the tone of the game. The game’s graphics are also decent for a GameCube game released almost 10 years ago.

Other than the combat, my only other issue is that its not really that scary of a horror game. Going in, I had read and been told that it is a genuinely frightening game, but so far its solicited zero response from me.

Life of Randy: Back Pain & Videogames

So I’m feeling much better, its been 5 days since I first hurt my back. Today I’ll be flying solo, no OTC medications to help. The pain in my back has lessened greatly, all that remains is stiffness throughout my back, limited mobility, and the occasional twinge of pain in my left side. I’m glad that it seems to be healing at a good pace, but I can not wait until I’m able to move about more. I really want to return to the gym again.

On the gaming side of things, I’ll be posting my initial impressions of Eternal Darkness later today, as I was able to bare sitting in my gaming area for a long period of time yesterday. Hooray for me. That should be up by 3 today, I just want to put in a little more time before I write anything on it. My time with Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Videogame has been an enjoyable one, but I think I will take a step back and take a break from it. Yesterday, I discovered that I’ve been effected by a glitch in the game which prevents the unlocking of a specific achievement. In order to resolve this issue, I’ll need to delete and redownload the game, and play from scratch across all four initially unlocked characters. For me a single playthrough of the game cab take between 45minutes to 90 minutes, and after the amount I’ve played it this weekend, I’m not up to it again. Still a great game though, all things considered.

And lastly, I hope you enjoyed that random photo of my dog yesterday. I was lazy and didn’t feel like writing anything yesterday. I also like that photo. Anyways. I’ll be back in a bit with impressions of Eternal Darkness.

Just Write, Dammit

Time and time again I have seen it written that in order to become a good writer, you need to just write. I know I’m not a prolific writer, I know that everything that I write isn’t pure gold. Even though I know this, I am just unable to sit down and write for any length of time.

Today while going through my newsfeeds on Google Reader (Yes, I’m one of those people), I came across an article titled, “A Sure-Fire Approach to Improving Your Writing (and Getting Over Writer’s Block)”. Once again, it said the same thing I already know…just fucking write. The articles author, Seth Godin suggests the following:

If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing. If you're concerned with quality, of course, then not writing is not a problem, because zero is perfect and without defects. Shipping nothing is safe.

And guess what? That’s what I need to do. So starting tomorrow, I’ll be writing something, anything, just so that I can work on my writing skills. And it won’t be good, I know that, but it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be good.

So my plan for this month is to complete my video game challenge of the month starting with Eternal Darkness. On that note, there will be a slight delay to my initial impressions, due to a personal issue. I hurt my back and its uncomfortable to sit in front of a computer or play a game for long periods of time. My initial impressions of Eternal Darkness will be up by Tuesday barring any issues.

I’ll be posting something short tomorrow. TTFN!

October’s Video Game Challenge: A Challenger Approaches!

For my inaugural challenge, I have decided to not only focus on a single game, but also on a theme. Seeing as its October, what could be a better topic than Horror and Halloween.

Without further ado, let me introduce to you our first challenger:

• Title: Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
• Developer: Silicon Knights
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Original Release Date: 23 June 2002
• Genre: Horror

Starting 1 October 2011, I will play Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem for the GameCube for the first time. I will be posting my initial impressions sometime this weekend, and will follow up with a status report every Tuesday and Thursday showcasing my progress in and my thoughts on the game.

In addition to this, if I should beat the game prior to the 31st, I will follow up with other horror/Halloween centric games, and try to complete as many as possible before my 31 October 2011 deadline. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, on that date I will attempt to play the entirety of Costume Quest (XBLA) in one sitting. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to record this playthrough since I don’t have the proper equipment, but I will post throughout the day, and somehow provide some other content.

I know I’m looking forward to this, and I hope you are too. Tune in soon for more!

An Introduction to Randy’s Monthly Video Game Challenge

Next week I will once again take on the Randy’s Video Game Challenge. Below is an excerpt from my original post on The Slacker Chronicles dated Tuesday, July 14, 2009 to explain the particulars:

Every month I have chosen to focus on one game and play until completion. This doesn’t mean that I have to 100% it, this just means I have to beat the game from beginning to end. By undertaking to challenge myself each month, I agree to complete at least ONE GAME per month. The motivation behind this challenge is to clear out the backlog of games I've accumulated over the years.

My criteria for selecting the games are as follows:

1. I need to have easy access to the game in question. What I mean by this, is that I have to either own the game, know someone who will lend me the game, or in the case of older retro titles, have access to a working emulator.
   
2. The game has to be one I’m interested in. This means I will not force myself to play something like Superman 64, or E.T. the Extraterrestrial: The Video Game.
   
3. The game needs to be beatable within one month. There are exceptions to this rule such as for last gen or current generation RPGs which may take upwards of 60+ hours to beat or whole series of games.
   

Something I wish to add is that I will not exclusively play one game a month. I still intend on playing other games for fun, but overall my focus will be on completing this challenge.

Tune into the next time for more from the exciting world of Randy, where I will reveal my choice for October’s Video Game Challenge.