Friday, April 29, 2011

Determined Game Playing

I've been playing Portal on my Playstation, at the expense of all other activity. The experience fits in very well with two characteristics I have. One, I tend to be far behind other people in discovering things. Two, I then become completely obsessed with them.

After a friend recommended the game to me, I bought it and then worked my way through it in a determined fashion, meanwhile thinking to myself 'This is the best game ever invented.' (I can become over-enthusiastic.)

So, I was some years behind millions of other gamers in playing Portal. But in a way this has turned out well because the second game has just been released. After finishing the first game I didn't have to wait any time for a new one, I just bought Portal 2 and kept on playing.

My obsession can also extend to merchandise. I've been wondering if I could justify buying myself a companion cube. I'd like one. They do look like they'd make good companions. And there are some t-shirts I'd like too. The Valve store only operates in America but they do do international shipping, so I could rush them an order.

On the related subject of video games made into films - which I also saw later than other people - I watched Prince of Persia but I was disappointed. There's something wrong with he film. Well, being based on a video game it's completely stupid, obviously, but that wasn't the real problem. I'm quite prepared to sit and watch a completely stupid film based on a video game, I'm not expecting the plot to be any good.

The problem was that in the original game, you get rid of your human opponents quickly and then move on to fighting the sand monsters, who are much more interesting. But this never happens in the film. I kept waiting for the sand monsters to appear but they never did.

Other films watched some time after their release - Kick Ass. I enjoyed this. It wasn't as violent as I feared. I'm not keen on gore or horror. However, though I thought it was a good film, I enjoyed the parts where the young girl with purple hair was fighting much better than all the other parts. So I kept thinking 'Where is the girl with purple hair? I want her to come back and start fighting again.' If they were to make another film featuring just her, fighting all the time, I'd like that.

And now, I could do my day's writing shift. Or I could get back to Portal 2. Well, there's only one winner in that competition.

8 comments:

  1. I haven't played Portal yet, but i want it. I too always discover things far later than other people.

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  2. So funny. Brings back my solid two years of Tomb Raidering. I'll email you tomorrow. My back messed up really badly. This post is unfortunately encouraging me embrace invalid-dom and become obsessed with video games again. xx

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  3. Sammi8:46 pm

    The cake is a lie!!!

    http://soundcloud.com/shakethedust/still-alive

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  4. As you say Sammi, the cake is a lie. You can't trust that GLADoS. But she does sing a good song.

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  5. Fiona, sorry you're not well. I've played a lot of Tomb Raider too, it's a big favourite. I wish there was a new Tomb Raider game.

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  6. Are you sure you don't want to visit America...specifically California? You have lots of fans here. You could go shopping in person (which is better than on-line) and there are lots of good music venues in Hollywood for cheap. In exchange for a signed books, I bet you could get all kinds of food and housing too.

    Portal sounds dangerous. I'll stick to Zuma Blitz as it has a built in time limit.

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  7. The whole 'girl with purple hair fighting all the time' thing sounds suspiciously like an XKCD comic I read once...

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