Two Gallants; Niko Niko's; Resident Evil; Packing
6/18
After their previous, disastrous show", Two Gallants were kind and upstanding enough to make it up to the scenesters of Houston by playing a free make-up show.
It maybe wasn't as good as their last one (well, the part of it they were allowed to complete), and it was certainly less exciting, but hey, what a great thing to do for your fans.
6/19
Band practice...
6/20
For the first time in months, there was a new Wii game worth buying. Sure, it was a re-release of a previous-generation game, but I had missed playing Resident Evil 4 the first time around, and the new Wii controls, which included point and shoot aiming, made for a compelling buy. I managed to (barely) swing by Best Buy to pick it up (I have to say, they've certainly gotten extra business from me thanks to handy in-store pickups and 90-days no interest on my Best Buy credit card) before joining Dan and Cindy at Niko Niko's for a $1.75 gyro in celebration of their many years in business. The line was out the door, and the wait was long, but that's not all that unusual for Niko Niko's. And the gyro tastes sweeter when you barely pay anything for it.
I started Resident Evil that night and would be fairly addicted to it over the next few weeks. For my non-gamer readers, the RE games generally involve zombies in some form or fashion, this volume in particular was, unlike its cinematic counterparts, critically acclaimed.
Certainly, firing it up for the first half hour or so, on the big screen with the surround sound and the lights out, it scared the crap out of me. It takes place in a Spanish village, and, as you make your way into it you discover that the villagers are a) homicidal; b) possessed or otherwise zombie-like; and c) surprisingly resilient to being shot, and you are armed only with a pistol. After taking out the initial one and having a crowd of villagers drawn to you, death seems inevitable until church bells ring and, suddenly, the villagers file away.
As you gain firepower, things get easier. Thankfully. The pacing manages to keep you on edge for attacks that aren't constant but do feel as if they could occur at any moment. And there are some amazing set pieces. Like when you find yourself barricaded in an old house, surrounded by zombies, and they start coming in through the windows, through the doors. And you try to hold them off, but they keep coming. So you have to flee upstairs. You knock the ladders away from the windows, you throw grenades down the stairs, but ammo is running low. I must have played that part of the game 5 times or so before I managed to outlast the things.
Did I mention I seem to have a fear of zombies? Something to do with claustrophobia, I think. So the game manages to be particularly effective, but also therapeutic. Sadly, there are some points at which the game feels too easy, and the emphasis on gunplay takes away from the horror elements. But for every level with such issues, there's another one where ammo is limited, and fuck, how am I going to make it out of this?
I'll confess I never actually finished it. I seem to have formed a habit of making it 95% of the way through a game and then getting bored. When you get too close to the end, the need to find out what's around the next corner goes away, and with it the drive to play the same damned sequence 5 or 10 times. I certainly don't have the patience I had back in the old NES days.
But overall, Resident Evil 4 is a great piece of work, and well worth playing. Even if you loathe the undead.
6/21
I helped out with the grad school night for the college summer students, as per usual, and pilfered some food to repurpose for dinner. After some ugliness with somebody who parked in my parking space (which usually results in only a strongly-worded note; as much as I hate people parking in my space, I hate more a) tow truck drivers and b) having my car vandalized), there was dinner and Sopranos.
6/22
After staying a bit late at work to wrap up a few things before going out of town, Cindy and I got some Tapatia for dinner, I snuck in some Resident Evil, and I managed to pack ahead of our unnecessarily early flight the next morninng.
After their previous, disastrous show", Two Gallants were kind and upstanding enough to make it up to the scenesters of Houston by playing a free make-up show.
It maybe wasn't as good as their last one (well, the part of it they were allowed to complete), and it was certainly less exciting, but hey, what a great thing to do for your fans.
6/19
Band practice...
6/20
For the first time in months, there was a new Wii game worth buying. Sure, it was a re-release of a previous-generation game, but I had missed playing Resident Evil 4 the first time around, and the new Wii controls, which included point and shoot aiming, made for a compelling buy. I managed to (barely) swing by Best Buy to pick it up (I have to say, they've certainly gotten extra business from me thanks to handy in-store pickups and 90-days no interest on my Best Buy credit card) before joining Dan and Cindy at Niko Niko's for a $1.75 gyro in celebration of their many years in business. The line was out the door, and the wait was long, but that's not all that unusual for Niko Niko's. And the gyro tastes sweeter when you barely pay anything for it.
I started Resident Evil that night and would be fairly addicted to it over the next few weeks. For my non-gamer readers, the RE games generally involve zombies in some form or fashion, this volume in particular was, unlike its cinematic counterparts, critically acclaimed.
Certainly, firing it up for the first half hour or so, on the big screen with the surround sound and the lights out, it scared the crap out of me. It takes place in a Spanish village, and, as you make your way into it you discover that the villagers are a) homicidal; b) possessed or otherwise zombie-like; and c) surprisingly resilient to being shot, and you are armed only with a pistol. After taking out the initial one and having a crowd of villagers drawn to you, death seems inevitable until church bells ring and, suddenly, the villagers file away.
As you gain firepower, things get easier. Thankfully. The pacing manages to keep you on edge for attacks that aren't constant but do feel as if they could occur at any moment. And there are some amazing set pieces. Like when you find yourself barricaded in an old house, surrounded by zombies, and they start coming in through the windows, through the doors. And you try to hold them off, but they keep coming. So you have to flee upstairs. You knock the ladders away from the windows, you throw grenades down the stairs, but ammo is running low. I must have played that part of the game 5 times or so before I managed to outlast the things.
Did I mention I seem to have a fear of zombies? Something to do with claustrophobia, I think. So the game manages to be particularly effective, but also therapeutic. Sadly, there are some points at which the game feels too easy, and the emphasis on gunplay takes away from the horror elements. But for every level with such issues, there's another one where ammo is limited, and fuck, how am I going to make it out of this?
I'll confess I never actually finished it. I seem to have formed a habit of making it 95% of the way through a game and then getting bored. When you get too close to the end, the need to find out what's around the next corner goes away, and with it the drive to play the same damned sequence 5 or 10 times. I certainly don't have the patience I had back in the old NES days.
But overall, Resident Evil 4 is a great piece of work, and well worth playing. Even if you loathe the undead.
6/21
I helped out with the grad school night for the college summer students, as per usual, and pilfered some food to repurpose for dinner. After some ugliness with somebody who parked in my parking space (which usually results in only a strongly-worded note; as much as I hate people parking in my space, I hate more a) tow truck drivers and b) having my car vandalized), there was dinner and Sopranos.
6/22
After staying a bit late at work to wrap up a few things before going out of town, Cindy and I got some Tapatia for dinner, I snuck in some Resident Evil, and I managed to pack ahead of our unnecessarily early flight the next morninng.
Labels: concerts, restaurants, TV, video games
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 1:49 AM
