#INGAME - Alice: Madness Returns - Stupid Colossal Ruin

I actually had a video to accompany this post but I was too smart in cleaning up my phone and thus, the video is gone. In it though, you can see me trying to defeat this ugly tar-like monstrosity and it's little spawnlings. I've been playing that stage non-stop to the point where it gave me a tension headache. I won't deny that several swear words that would otherwise have my mother whack me on the head were let loose as well.

Never had much problem on other levels and usually I'm able to beat the crap out of this bitch. BUT for some reason, I can't. Even dodging and fleeing and shrinking and everything else. This stupid black blob manages to pwn me and laugh in my face.

I don't like it. Not one bit. I hate it. And I will soon pulverise the undead shit out of it. If that were possible. Actually, I don't even know if it is an undead. It just looks like a black blob of tar and poop.

Argh. I take some comfort that I am no alone in this and that numerous searches on Google for "how to defeat the colossal piece of ruin shit in Alice" has led me to several unfortunate gamers who too have difficulty in getting past this... idiot. I'm so flustered and exasperated that I can't even come up with something vile to describe this... piece of crap.

So at least I've gone back to gaming and I've gone past a couple of levels. I liked the Japanese/Chinese-centric level although the side-scrolling bit gave me a headache for some time. Went to Queenland and it was ok. Gigantic spinning wasps... not so funny and nice. Then again, when are wasps ever that nice. Stuck at the Dollhouse where I am stuck at that godforsaken stage to defeat that piece of crap. And I can't even avoid it. I even tried it on Easy mode (that was just how desperate I was to get over it).

To no avail.

Oh well. Waiting for a couple of hours before my cold dies down (hopefully) and I can muster up some courage and promises not to over-swear and get on with the program.

If anyone has got really helpful and valuable tips on getting past this ugly and pain in the ass-ish monstrosity, please do. Please help. Or I may have to shelve A:MR for Farcry 3.

On hindsight, that might not be such a bad thing.

#MOVIEBREAKDOWN - The Conjuring

My my... what big eyes you have...

The caption clearly has nothing related to the movie.

It's the seventh month, also known as the Hungry Ghost month here in Singapore and you're just asking for it when you decide last minute to catch a horror movie. One that's based on a true story rather than an idea hatched from a half-baked has-been director.

There's been much chatter about this movie. I don't really watch horror flicks, I prefer my cheesy action drama comedy to it anytime. But I was intrigued by trailer and well, sometimes you just have this itch to scare yourself shitless from time to time.

What makes horror movies so... horrifying is mostly the sound and special effects. When you strip it away you'll just see things... moving around or getting thrown about. I had to tell myself that but I guess the reason why it can be so creepy because the concept of demonic activity and possession and the like isn't an unfamiliar one.

The Conjuring is probably successful because it combines the whole true story plus exaggerated re-enactment (oh wait... that goes for most other successful horror flicks). It's the usual slow build-up to a dramatic finish and at least, there was a happy ending. The boyfriend was telling me that everyone dies. Which isn't true. Thankfully.

Maybe it's age and the lack of sensitivity and overall skepticism towards such things. I didn't really find myself worrying or thinking so much about it on the way back home or when I was snuggled under the covers of my comforter. From time to time my mind will try and pull a prank and make me imagine that someone's looking at me from the mirror when I'm washing my face. But yeah... that's just an overly fertile imagination.

#QUICKIE - Left4Dead2

Here's a quickie (hence the post tag). 

Been playing Left 4 Dead a fair bit these few days. Sucks when I have to cut a game short with friends because of work. Most of the time, am only capable of squeezing in some play in the day. Today I played 3 campaigns, all on advance. I know it's my ego but even when I die at one level, I'm too stubborn to change the difficulty to Normal or Easy. 

There's just no thrill you know?

My only let peeve is the AI (when you gotta take a break) ends up doing really stupid things when you're zipping off to the loo. Like ditching the katana for pistols (what the hell bro!?) and just standing there getting zombie punched in the face. 

Also, I know my friendly fire wouldn't be so bad if the AI didn't keep running into my line of fire every frackin' time. I know there's a YouTube clip somewhere about pet peeves in L4D. Echoes my exact sentiment. 

Still contemplating if I should get PayDay. The people I know who have it can only play at night and that's when I usually gotta work. Sigh. 

And yes, I'm still putting a couple of other games on hold. Main reason why I had to fire the ol zombie game up is because it grants me the most stress relieving satisfaction of killing and bashing the crap out of things when I normally can't to the people I have to work with. 

Alas, first world problems. 

#GAMERTHOUGHT - Last of Us and why it still lingers in my mind

A friend recently completed Last of Us.

And the journey with Joel and Ellie comes to an end. The plot's easily the strongest point and yes, as Yin pointed out you really grow to feel for the characters towards the final chapters. Indeed, the living are far scarier than the dead.

The reason why I've always felt Last of Us was just... different as a zombie post-apocalyptic war game is because the plot and the characters mirrored so much of real life. Even without a post-apocalyptic war setting, you can find similar character subsets in our society.

It's not a happy feel good game, sorry for the spoiler. True, there are times where you punch your fists in the air in victory for overcoming a Clicker or one of the Hunters, that rush of adrenaline when you successfully sneak stealthily past heavily defended or infested areas with minimal casualty and ammo loss. But peel away the fun factor of the game and you find something that can either be more troubling or a subtle reminder to reality.

I'm reminded of a quote whereby man's greatest enemy is himself.

We'd like to think and believe in times of crisis and hardship, that if we were fighting for our survival, that we would band together. Yet that isn't the case. Stumbling across High School of the Dead (Japanese anime about a group of high schoolers trying to survive a zombie apocalypse) further drove the fact. We band together to form small communities, the bigger it is, the higher the risk of conflict and enmity. For some reason, humans are just programmed to want to fight against one another, to cause friction. Even if it's something small and trivial.

While the Clickers, Runners and Bloaters are the primary enemies in the game, the surviving humans pose a great threat too. They are far more intelligent, equipped with weaponry and force you to stop and think because they are the same specie as you and yet, you have to kill them in order to survive.

I've written how it can be a bleak game and if you're not prepared for it, may find yourself feeling depressed once the game ends and credits roll. But I doubt the developers, Naughty Dog, meant for that. Perhaps they wanted us to think of why this survival, this course of action, is a necessity. You sacrifice innocents for a cure but what if that one chance turns out to be a fluke. Denying a life, a chance to live. Would a small scrape in progress be able to end the disease, the plague?

Hope can keep people alive, but it can also lead them to desperate and sometimes insane measures.

Ellie and Joel don't really come off as likeable characters at first. Found one too stoic and bristling and the other plain annoying (as expected for a human her age). But then you are forced to put yourself in their shoes and experience the anxiety, fear, tension and even trauma of some of the scenarios and situations you're put in. We're lucky we respawn when we die, but imagine in a real-world setting, could this possibly train us and help guide us in making better instinctive decisions as opposed to panicking or acting impulsively?

I'm still holding on to my CD.

#ANIME - Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin (Part 1)

It started out more as trying to find something cheesy and shoujo-ish to watch on one of the random anime streaming sites. Have been so out of touch with most things anime that I didn't know what was good and what wasn't anymore. The last anime I watched had something to do with soccer. I think it was called Knight of the Area. Not too sure if it's finished already and wasn't really in the mood for that. I don't recall how I ended up clicking on this or if it was something that was recommended for me when I clicked on random.

The first episode had me hooked. The combination of horror, intrigue, terror and a vague familiarity to some of the themes and concepts were probably what had me in all the way to the sinker.

The graphics aren't pretty or typical of the anime I watch. It is after all shonen, meaning that it caters more to the boys. There's not so much lovey romantic notions, sometimes the girls are outrageously heavy on the top and the boys are rarely so. There's a lot of fighting and... well fighting and maybe the occasional hot almost-pornographic-female in the show.

I'll try not to spoiler it much. This show is dark. It's generally dark, the themes that is. I've been so used to the idea of population decimation caused by zombie/viral outbreaks in the real world that I forget something that might be a little less complicated and straightforward would provide equal enough terror. And that was basically what this anime did. The enemies are not something that is unseen. In fact, it can be seen a LOT. The devastation that they wreak is immense. Vast. And the impact of it emotionally, well let's just say that even for an anime, it can make the viewer feel that at times the point of humanity and existence is weak.

Oh wow. I just finished episode 9 and I am MINDBLOWN!

Love.

UAG hasn't been around for very long although I toyed the idea with a gaming blog for quite awhile. I'm not a very risky daring person, me likey conservative much, and it was actually the boyfriend who prodded and poked me into being a bit more open and extroverted. So this post is dedicated to him.

Dear boyfriend/best friend/partner in crime,

Thank you for being there and giving me the tough love and push I needed sometimes. Thank you for loving and accepting me as I am, flaws and imperfections and all. I'm not the smartest (I can be bimbo, blur and slow) and not always the sharpest and that can drive you nuts. But I know you keep your cool and try your best to be patient with me when I'm in one of my moments/moods. Thank you for the sound advice and foresight, for filling in the blanks and for helping me win Sit 'n' Go tournaments on my iPad :)

Thank you for the almost-three years that we've been together and for sticking around even when things got crazy mad tough.

We both know words are just words, verbal or in black and white. So I hope with the many hugs and sayangs that I'll be giving you from now till forever, you'll see it's part of me showing how much I love you, care for you, appreciate you and treasure you :)

xoxo
Your occasionally blur-sotong gamer girlfriend