Gaming Update: Donkey Kong Country Returns is Bullshit and More

I just want to quit....

I beat Donkey Kong Country Returns a while back but I went back to do these secret dungeons that unlock a final secret level. The secret dungeons were pretty cool, even if sometimes unnecessarily hard. There were high concept levels, which was nice. The final secret level, however, was bullshit.

It was just a stupid gimmick level where are the platforms were various fruits. The platforming was hard, but in the lame, erratic movements, kind of way. And the reward for doing all of this? Mirror Mode. The levels are reversed and you don't get Diddy Kong, items, and only 1 health. Like I'm going to play an even more bullshit version of a game I already thought was hard in an incredibly lame way.

Screw that.

I'm about 270 pages into REAMDE and it seems like it's reaching towards a conclusion. This is weird for me because it's an almost 1,100 page book. Then I realized that it's broken into separate parts and I'm still on the first part. This makes me feel better, as it makes me feel better about my reading pace.

In other news, I'm probably going to start playing WoW again. I don't plan on doing the endgame stuff, at least not right away. The changes for Mists of Pandaria really excite me. Also, buying a year's subscription gets me Diablo III for free, so that's pretty damn cool. I'm going to level a Tauren paladin.

My Gamefly sale games came in, so I'm looking forward to playing Naughty Bear, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, and (possibly) Metroid: Other M. Where I shall find the time I have no idea.

Potpourri

My supervisor has a somewhat lax time policy. Because of it I work an extra 30 to 40 minutes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thus gets me out an extra 2 to 2.5 hours early on Friday. It's really nice.

I played the demo for Eufloria on the PSN. It was pretty fun. It's a stylistically distinct RTS-esque game not unlike Mushroom Wars. I'll probably be buying it. I'm also thinking of getting a Playstation+ subscription. I buy enough off of there for it to pay for itself.

I've started reading Reamde. I'm only about 50 pages in at this point but it's really grabbed me. It starts at a family reunion in present time. The main character is of the baby boomer generation. It really captures that weird feeling I always had at large family gatherings when I was growing up because of the large generational differences. The grandparents are very traditional and low tech. The baby boomers grew up in that traditional way but have embraced the technology of today. The children didn't grow up on the farm and know nothing of the traditional ways but have greatly embraced technology which causes this disconnect, lack of understanding and resentment between the generations. It really resonated with me.

I've started bringing headphones to work. If I'm doing something thought intensive I listen to music. If it's not thought intensive I listen to podcasts. I currently listen to the Nitpixels podcast for gaming, the Weekly Weinersmith for science/geekdom, and the Savage Lovecast for all that provides. I always find the Savage Lovecast to be interesting.

Also, The Magicians is going to be made into a television show. So, I might talk about that if/when details come out. ANYWHO. Bye.