Nalabox Loves: The Cat Lady

Some may note a while back I was seeking a horror 'experience' whether that is a movie or game. Horror as a form of entertainment that makes a lasting impression. Something that makes you forget that you are playing a game. Something that you realise truly disturbed you months after playing it when trying to convince a friend to play it. It wasn't until that time I fully appreciated everything about the story of Susan Ashworth.

*CAUTION* Contains spoilers and topics that some may find uncomfortable

We meet Susan at a dark point of her life. We are carried along the turbulent ocean of emotions that a single human being faces when seeking their own oblivion. We accompany Susan through each harrowing chapter of her story and her road to recovery.

Are you Ready? /Pic Creds

The crux of good story telling is the ability to instil a lasting emotional response in the audience. The topics raised in this game are difficult to portray in any medium such as Suicide, Self-harm, Depression, Psychosis and even Death. As unsettling as this may sound, everything about Susan's experience is wonderfully articulated right down to the level designs, music and as well as the dialogue. Those types of feelings are often only felt by a single person and for them to be so well presented in a game no less, I find remarkable. Again, I didn't realise how well it had conveyed those experiences until I was talking about the game months after playing.

The Cat Lady is named as such as Susan has been given 9 lives by an other-worldly character and she falls into different scenarios where she has to collect what is owed. There is an all-round "wrongness" feeling to this game as you progress through each chapter, it's designed to make you feel uneasy and as helpless as Susan does. I often felt like I was journeying though each stage of Psychosis or each level was a representation of the darker side of human emotions. It’s dark in the sense of black and white stills and jittered animation, like marionettes on strings. Simplistic art style and yet bright splashes of colour used to draw the eye from the horrors that lurk just outside your vision.

Alan is that you? Pic Creds: ME!

There is a section of the game where you are trapped in a house and you have to escape without the occupants making sausages out of you. Susan finds a telephone and tries to ring for rescue. The person on the other end is supposed to be a police responder I think? Susan tries her best to explain her very real and very life threatening predicament. Now, previously in game Susan was in a secured unit and made her escape from there using someone else's information, so when the police person looks up Susan's info their attitude towards her changes. Oh you were recently signed into psychiatric care, are you sure you're not making this up? Several things wrong with this: You're clearly not phoning them from inside the unit, that shit would show on their display, so shouldn't alarm bells be ringing that a vulnerable person is on the loose? Most obviously is the way people with mental health issues are treated by others, whether they be in the "protecting" services or not. This whole scene was made to make you feel as helpless as Susan. This resonated with me deeply. 

There are other sections of the game where I could get through them no problem but I think it counts on its audience to at least have some emotional connection to the theme its presenting. This game became oddly personal, which made it more uncomfortable to play, but I enjoyed playing it. 

I keep mentioning the "experience" aspect as there wasn't much gameplay. It's tagged as Story-Rich Adventure Horror on Steam. I'd loosely call it a game as it's more of an exploratory piece of art. It will introduce game play elements for one section then never use them again or show you content that you can't do anything with but you know is linked to the story. Oh man that wedding dress...I knew it was down there for a reason *shivers*. Typical point and click adventure you have to gather items in order to scare your neighbour because reasons. We break into the basement which is tense on its own and the colour palette in this area is grey and dark, everything is eerie, apart from a manikin wearing a pristine Wedding dress. Everything about it is screaming “don’t touch totes a jump scare” but nothing. Later in the story, there is a cut-scene that takes you back to that dank little room and completely changes the atmosphere as a chilling secret is revealed. That aggravated me somewhat as you could tell there was something else back there but access DENIED.

You touch it, I'll wait right here..-Mitzi /Pic Creds: ME!

But some elements of this game go beyond just disturbing you but downright mess you up!

The whole dialogue between the Wife and Susan when we visit a strange dream world creeped me the fuck out. The use of sound distortion to make your skin crawl is very well done in this chapter. It’s like they experimented with different psychological techniques to induce a fear response in each chapter. This was one of the more successful ones; I had to stop playing to a few days before I could progress in the story. Eeeeerrrrkflibble!   

Nope. NOPE. NOOOPE! /Pic Creds: ME!

I could harp on about this game all day.

I would recommend fellow Horror connoisseurs to play this game but be warned it goes there, where other games fear to tread. I admire the game makers more for that I think.

P.S I searched the net for a few pictures to add above and discovered who the characters related to the Wedding Dress scene were, let's just say they didn't have a happy ending...turns out they're actually from a game called Downfall, which is the story prequel to the Cat Lady! They are re-making it for a 2015 release so I'm super excited for that!

P.P.S omg this game is also amazing!  I find it very peculiar that the scenes that resonated with me the most in The Cat Lady are actually snippets/references from Downfall when I hadn't even known of its existence. Now that is some creepy shit!

Nalabox Dislikes: Alan Wake

But I enjoyed his nightmares.  

There are already a few reviews of this game on the internet so I won’t really be adding any new sauce to this well grilled game. Excellent story largely let down by gameplay.

Want to know what I shouted the most while playing this game?

“Alan man just fucking *…*”
*shoot
*dodge
*run
*JUMP
*ANYTHING!!!!
*HURNGHH!

Created by Me with imgflip.com

I felt compelled to compare Alan with my interpretation of the Lara-split syndrome (totally a thing I just made up) apart from where as wor lovely Gameplay Lara is the bidness it seems Alan Wake suffers from the reverse…. Cutscene Alan is at least slightly clued up about his situation but Gameplay Alan is just… lifeless. He’s a monotonous drone that compelled me to think he deserved his fate to be honest. Also there was no mention in the games features that Gameplay Alan would be vulnerable to the Daniel-from Amnesia-style freaking out and dodging TOWARDS the thing that scared him. GAME. UGH.  Alas, Cutscene Alan, I wanted him to reach the end, find his love and escape the evil that consumed him. 

A True Bro.
Pic Cred: Alan Wake Faceybook Page

Barry.


Barry was mint. I felt there wasn’t enough about him in the first game and I’m glad you got a chance for some closure in American Nightmare, for him and some of the other characters. In fact, the only character I wasn’t very interested in was Alan himself. He was a bit of a dick to everyone around him, even more so in American Nightmare: making all those choices to affect the lives of those people and not really giving it a second thought whether they would continue to exist or not. Emma Sloan for example. He fails to save her more than once and she’s forced to remember a horrific tragedy over and over again. We only come into that reality after he’s already faced Mr Scratch so how many times has it really been? Mr Scratch has already caused trouble for some period of time to have affected reality to the point it made it possible for Alan to break through in the first place.

Emma Sloan. This is how I felt when seeing Alan too hun
Pic Cred

I get these games were meant to make you feel his desperation, the loneliness, being self-alienated and possibly what it’s like to know the truth of something but no one believes you. They think you’re crazy.  It attempted that anyway. I’d played “The Cat Lady” shortly before the Alan Wake games and I think that raised the bar for me in regards to the emotional depth of a character and feeling what they feel. Damn that was a good game. You know I didn’t realise how much it had disturbed me until a few weeks ago when I was telling a friend to play it. *Shivers* [I will replay it and share what I mean with you in the near future]

I tell ye what though, Gameplay Alan and Cutscene Lara deserve each other. Stick ‘em in a boat and ship them off to Diver’s Isle and fecking leave them there to jump over the logs that are capable of inflicting mysterious psychological damage and they can sit there and cry about it.   

Gurges

­I get Gurges. 

Game urges. 

I get inclination to play games that I've played and completed before. Nothing really remarkable about that right? 

However, I've noticed that I want to play the same games around the same time I did the year before. Recently, it's been Mass Effect 3. But you know you can't just play 3, you have to go through them all to get to 3. 

Thanks to a little social media app thingy it tells me I had the same desire to indulge myself with Femshep the same time the year before and the year before that. Is there anything to this? Does anyone else go through the desire to play games the same time of year? I wonder if it's because we invested so much time in a new game when it was fresh and glorious our brains remember "hey you felt really good this time last year, thanks to that new gaming experience, maybe you should play it again so we get that same rush again". 

Shuggah! /Pic Creds

I’m not a Scientist nor am I very technical so forgive me for any mistakes I may make in these next few sections. Most of this was not common knowledge to me before I started writing.

I decided to look in to why this may be the case and wondered if it’s something to do with how your body responds to stimuli from its environment, like in Seasonal Affective Disorder, and how your brain records that experience. There is such a phrase as ‘Body Chemistry Memory’ or 'Cellular Memory' which is somewhat on the Skepticism list and I feel it doesn't quite capture what I am trying to define/answer. Chemical reactions don’t “remember” how to react, they just respond depending upon the factors involved. When those same conditions are met each time the response would be the same right?

 In psychology we are taught that through experience we develop schema, a kind of framework in which we use each time we encounter that situation. (Enter a Library= must be silent. Wait for green man to cross the road otherwise you’ll die etc). That is what is stored in our brain, so, now bare with me here, when our bodies react to our environment they would produce a physiological and psychological response simultaneously that the brain retains, yes? So when those conditions occur again our brain recalls that information and gives the same response “oh hey the last time this happened we responded like this so that means we have to respond in the same way” now it does this regardless whether we responded to the experience in a positive or negative way. I’d imagine similar to SAD when the body is overwhelmed by certain environmental conditions that it doesn't produce the appropriate response. 

How does this relate to games? Haad on man, I’m getting there!

KA-ME-HA-ME-CONTRA! /Pic Creds

Countless studies have been conducted on the effects of video games on behaviour but I only found a few actually relating to brain chemistry. Mostly, researchers have focused upon negative stimuli presented by games, i.e violence and how that affects the person afterwards. In one study, that has been cited in various places, but the original source from a Japanese news website eludes me, monitored the Beta waves of folks who don’t play videogames (they exist!) and people who play them an awful lot (like me and you). Beta waves indicate frontal lobe activity which is responsible for emotions and creativity. Seems us gamers have zero beta waves and no signs of our brains in a resting mode while we are playing games and this doesn't change or revert to a “normal” level after the game is switched off. The original researcher suggested this is the reason people who play videogames for long periods of time are prone to personality and anti-social behaviour. Another writer talking about this study mentioned the possibility that the brain perceives the games as real hence the behavioural changes and the brain not being in a “rested” mode so playing games to relax is simply not the case where our brains are concerned! The latter I agree with, however the original study, and many others like it, didn't measure the participants’ predisposition to anti-social behaviour or anxiety or even to violent behaviour. They would have had to monitor those who never played videogames and ask them to gradually increase the hours of game time and record brainwaves to really say if it was the game that contributed to the behavioural changes.

SCIENCE! /Pic Creds

Most videogame research is based around the effects of violence and mature content in games and how that possibly contributes to a person being violent themselves. We all know by now that ALL media exposes us to these same things every day. Videogames are blamed for desensitising people to the violence of war and criminal acts but we are seeing more and more of these images being broadcast by the news and in some cases glorified by other media. They used to block out images of dead children and bloody missing limbs you know. They don’t now. That shit sells. It’s constantly happening around the world and we are shown these images all the time it’s almost becoming the norm.

I did find a gem of an article (while finding the above pictures so it's the same link) about the BENEFITS of gaming to help treat psychological disorders as our brains are “trained” to grow bigger during play. Best quote:-


“These brain regions are involved in functions such as spatial navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills of the hands. Increasingly, the level of connectivity between brain areas is being linked to higher intelligence and consciousness.”- Christopher Bergland 2013

You guys and read more here and the source is here (journal link) if you have access to the journal. I don’t so I’m a little disappointed I can’t read the full thing.

What I can’t seem to find is anything relating to videogames and Happy emotional responses. I suppose because that subject is not in vogue and parents and officials want something to blame for anti-social and pathological teenagers.

Clicky for Snippet on one such study/ Pic Creds same source.

If our brains perceive the game as a real experience and increases fear, anxiety and paranoia when playing violent/war/horror/shooters that continues to last after the game has been switched off then surely it would mean that games that make you feel happy/elated/inspired/successful should also continue to last after the game is switched off?

Why would the brain, if it perceives the game as a real experience, want to experience it again? Especially since most games are a creator driven narrative that the player can’t change the outcome. Even the desire to play those violent war/shooter games constantly, why would the brain want to experience what is essentially a traumatic experience?

Apart from when this happened. Sorry Moira/ Pic Creds: Me!

Where does the desire to play the game again possibly come from? A basic response to seasonal associations? Not necessarily to do with the seasons in the weather sense, but our psychological associations to a period of time in our lives. Again, studies showing the negatives and connections to Seasonal Disorders (Winter and Suicide for example clicky) but not much on positive seasonal associations. Maybe because it’s not much of a social phenomenon to warrant investigation?

Buy ALL THE THINGS!!! /Pic Creds

Steam Summer Sales, Big Summer releases, Publisher and Dev conventions, Big Christmas releases, highly anticipated titles, teaser Downloadable Content, Half-Life 3?! To us gamers, these are positive seasonal associations. That rush of excitement to play a new release after waiting so long (I’m looking at you Mass Effect 3), that level of elation continues as you play the game which doesn't dissipate after you switch it off. Your brain takes that experience, if we assume it perceived the game as real, and produces a physiological and psychological response. Remember that from earlier? I said that a while back… So even though the game came out a few years ago my body and brain retain that experience and want to repeat it.        

The answer to this, I think, it is because our brains are addicted to their own juices.

Jooocie/ Gif creds

This concept is not new in relation to videogames. The prime framework of gaming addiction theory is the role of endorphin's in gamers. I know too well the consequences of that fine line of enjoyment leading to consumption. When getting to that next level is the briefest euphoria and it all but consumes you like quicksand and you’ll spend money and time to keep your head up just to feel that rush again, but it gets fainter and fainter each time. Until it consumes your life or even takes your life, in extreme cases.

I often liken it to a hollow orgasm. Your 4^th never quite feels like your first, huh? Even for guys I’d imagine it feels similar. That’s the only metaphor I can think of to describe what it’s like, well for me anyway. 

I've tried to find research that wasn't related to the after effects or negativity that surrounds this topic but it seems not many have picked up on this fact that the target groups in these studies are addicted to the chemical produced by the brain as a result of playing instead they focus/blame the game itself. As I said earlier it’s still “in vogue” to use videogames as the scapegoat to explain away behavioural problems in young people. 

It seems fellow gamers and bloggers know what I’m talking about all too well as they have quoted the same guy (clicky) but the academics who study us just don’t want to broach the subject, or maybe they've tried to and their work has been “held back” by the publishers? Or I just can’t find it?

Idunnolol /Pic Creds

I have explored some answers to my questions but I’m still not fulfilled.

I guess some things I've found can explain why I play games repeatedly but not the same game especially where I cannot change the outcome of the narrative or explain why I feel the urge to play it around the same time of year?

I have discovered that it’s not only Endorphin we’re addicted to but a few of its friends too:-

The Happy Chemicals join your party!

Dopamine, the guy who makes you want that next level, the Warrior,

Serotonin, the guy who makes the imagined real and the real imagined, the Mage,

Oxytocin, the guy who makes you emotionally invested, Priest,

And lest we forget;

Endorphin, the guy who makes you euphoric and numb, the Bard.

end. /Pic Creds

Nalabox In Complicated Relationship with: Tomb Raider (2013)

Bet y'all thought I'd say I hate it right? Well, I do.

And I sort of don't.

Me and Lara have had such a turbulent partnership from the outset even before I started to truly play the game. She was to be my first YouTube video upload! But it was not meant to be. My PC, the program I was using and my internet connection was against us from the start. But first impressions aren't always to be taken as they are. You must always give people the benefit of the doubt. I'm nice like that. I played the intro of this game repeatedly for 2 weeks until I got it to work. I was already sick of that damn beach, but I wasn't going to let it stop gaining any positive experience of the game, that was just outside factors preventing us from being together.

One of my many distractions. Val @ 3months Old.

I've never played a Tomb Raider game before and thought this would be a good place to start chronologically. Sense made?  

You all saw my moments of joy and rapid escalation into rage at certain points. We all know this game is broken, those gods damn quick-time-only-work-within-certain-pixels-events were a joke. That creepy way she would appear on puppet strings would pull me out of the immersion that we were experiencing that island together. Was that the intention of the game makers? To make us feel like, we are not only witnessing the transformation into the Lara that you all know and love, but that we are experiencing it alongside with her or we are her? I have no idea. Oh boy did I experience that place. It was a very emotionally involving game but not for the game play but the bloody frustration just getting past those glitchy-as-fuck-events. Again, that's not the game really is it? that's the design of the thing messing with me, yes it's a factor as part of any review but it still didn't deter me from playing the game. You guys know I've uninstalled games quicker for a lot less shit happening. It also wasn't realistic for a Survival game either as discussed in a previous blog post clicky here clicky. Yet I still wanted to play it.

I love Lara but I can't stand Lara.

There is a duality to this game. There are in fact two Lara Croft's.

Gameplay Lara and Cut-scene Lara.

If you focus on only one of them you in fact are playing a completely different game. You are presented with a completely different character. It all starts after Cut-scene Lara kills that nameless shouty man. That rapey man. That's the moment when Lara's whole psychology separates to a one where she takes that experience and internalises it and a one where she takes that experience and intensifies it. 

Gameplay Lara is competent and adaptive to her environment. She, or maybe it was me driving the character, is capable of smart survival.The only thing that holds her back is the progress of skills that get unlocked during the game, which I found to be too late to when you would actually need them. Melee weapon. First thing any character in any game is capable of wielding. She had the climbing pick attached to her leg the entire game but couldn't use it to defend herself, she could only dodge but not actually puncture anyone with it or climb certain walls until after certain events that Cut-Scene Lara had to overcome. But she was seemingly perfectly proficient in such skills BEFORE Cut-scene Lara had to learn it. This Lara's character development has been the most engaging and the most complete, in my own honest opinion, that would lead to the persona of the previous games' Lara Croft.

Cut-scene Lara is the portrayal of Lara that upset a lot of people, not only the fans of the previous games but also those who get upset about the portrayal of women in videogames. This Lara is a frilly dress short of the princess in the castle but she's no longer the physically unrealistic woman. I cannot compare this Lara to either of those things as I don't have experience with the previous games and I only learned of the feminist outrage after I played the game for a few hours. We were told this would be a different Lara and that they made her more gritty and believable but this Lara, again in my honest opinion, hasn't developed enough, well she has. but not anywhere near the persona of the Lara Croft's that came before her. She's the alternative reality Lara, who didn't really save herself in the end, I feel like *I* was the one to save her. Our experience of that island was not a shared one, but a one in which I had to drag her skinny little ass up that damn mountain so Gameplay Lara could take care of bidness. 

I did feel like Cut-scene Lara was the person and Gameplay Lara was the split personality. You'd think it would be the other way around apart from as you get near the end of the game some aspects of Gameplay Lara have finally been accepted by Cut-scene Lara and that's when we see actual character development on her part. You can't repress parts of yourself that only causes internal conflict so once she became self aware, competent and we finally had enough XP to buy the skills we should have had hours ago, that Gameplay Lara was clearly capable of, she was no longer a burden for me to trudge along with just to finish the game but the strong independent stereotype-shoving woman they promised us!

Or did she just become the "man" and saved her own Princess? As pointed out here

We've all had a game like that. You go past caring and blank out the glitches and the plot holes and the impossible gameplay just to finish the damn thing and never play it again.

Well I did finish it. I actually finished it months after I was still bringing out videos for it. My PC messed up and I had to play through it AGAIN to catch up to where the videos left off (I lost my footage). Slightly cheaty of me, but that rage and frustration for the River sequence and Mountain village buildings falling down was all real. Extra real because I knew I had to do it again, and again because I'd have to do them again if I wanted to bring out more vids. After my last vid "Glasgae Kiss" an update meant I lost that particular save for some reason and I nearly lost my reason. So I finished the game proper, off camera as it were. It's kinda killed my desire to post videos. Hence the hiatus. You can't enjoy doing the YouTube thing if you don't enjoy the game you're playing. I couldn't face that damn beach again.

I don't know what really to say about those views who say She's a worse portrayal of women in videogames, than her predecessors, because it's a pretty dire situation she's in and yes the element of the princess was there but who could say they would have done any better if put in that same situation? Did she turn into a man as most of the strong male characters were killed off or were bad guys? I don't think saying that is accurate really. She didn't "become the man of the story" as each Gender is capable of expressing characteristics of masculinity and femininity, you don't just switch from one to the other but rather maintain a balance. (society likes to tell you otherwise but that's a whole different debate). In some situations it's more applicable to assume one of those roles in order to respond to it. Maybe the game makers intention was to present a Lara that could balance these aspects but forced us to watch her struggle to get to that point. We all experience every emotion. Regardless of what sex you are. 

Lara, in the end, was just a human being that had a lot of bad shit happen to her and she had to respond to it or die. 

I don't think I would have made it past that first guy in the cave on that damn beach.

Dem chunes!

Heyo!

Been a long ass time so let's get our jig on!

I really enjoy the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack probably more than I should. So much emotional investment in that game and they upset a lot of people but the music from that game is AMAZING! I can't listen to End Once and For All without bubbling up and urging the imaginary Normandy SR-2 to make it past that shock wave! I personally think it's the Best Music Score for a Game (so far) ever! 

Despite my bias I asked some fellow Gamers what they thought was the Best Musical Score for a Game and they gave me a list:

Quake 2
Streets of Rage 2
Kingdom Hearts
Halo
Quake
All Final Fantasy Final Boss Themes (not really a soundtrack but included all the same)
Megaman X

*So Far Streets of Rage 2 is Winning!*** 

It's got Heart and Soul and some Serious Jams man! 
I'm going to listen to them all and compile a top 5. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment or send me a message!

Check oot the Faceybook

Nalabox Loathes?: Haunted Memories

It's a horror game. I have high expectations when it comes to horror movies and games.

I want to be given an experience. A thrilling psychological, rock me to my core, re-evaluate my soul, experience. A little over the top perhaps, but I've watched so many movies long and short that have held no joy in finding that experience. Jump scares are okay but used too much and in obvious places gets a thumbs down from me. It just becomes almost comical. 

I heard about this Slender guy....

I watched vids of people of this now infamous figure blackening our screens and scaring the bejeebus out of them. I even saw those "notes" around my home town on Halloween. I gotta get in on this. 

Years later, Haunted Memories comes out. I get it. I pragmatically decide not to try it on Paranormal mode for my first funthrough. Need to look awesome when I record this/

First impressions: Looks pretty. More annoying than scary.

On account of after the intro played it was obvious I was going to encounter our anti-hero but not soon as I take two steps. My character froze and died. Reload. Managed to get past the gate this time He freaked out at a breeze and "died" from the game spinning him around straight into the slender figure. Hmm.

After a few more tries we progressed in the "story" without major incident. Then it updated.

Couldn't load me previous game. No biggie.

Wouldn't even load up the intro. Audio was there though.

Re-Verify? Nope. Reinstall? Nope.

NEXT!

Daily Snippet: Hello Ladies!

I just learned that #tombraidertuesday is totally a thing and I had no idea. So me and a whole bunch of other people on the Interwebbles decided Tuesday must be Tomb Raider day! HUZZAH! 

I know I missed it this week so to make up I'll share this Speed Run of Tomb Raider by Cirno_TV on Twitch

Clicky http://www.twitch.tv/cirno_tv/c/3364860 Clicky

(This vid is 2 hours long, let it load in a bit then you can skip to the parts you want to see/stuck on etc)

Daily Snippet: Abbrev.

I give in and up!

I'm playing PN2 for the BL2 UL but only the TF2 UL works so now I'm having to DL TF2. Only to get volunteered for some MVM...what have I gotten myself in to?

Meanwhile check out the latest Funthrough episodes:

Clicky Nalabox Youtube Channel Clicky

Daily Snippet: Chargin' mah Tank!

So every night since Boxing Day a small group of friends and I have been staying up very late to save the world from Zombies...

I, like many many people now have Left 4 Dead 2 in my Steam Library. It's rather good! Jeebus it's scary and fun and induces so much panic-rage in me I fear that *when* the Zombie infestation happens T'll try my best to be a good Zombie because I'll most likely not last as a survivor!

Nalabox in Complicated Relationship with: Skyrim

So in my first part of reviewing Skyrim I unashamedly told you all to ignore the glitches and holes and that weird sense of "loss" from the main story because overall the game was bloody beautiful and I hadn't finished it.

I got the game back and decided to stick to the main story and not go spelunking for loot, trolls or skeleton keys...oooh...

Two hours later...

Pic: guiadoskyrim.webrok.com

I stubbornly stuck to the main story and had it finished in considerably less time than I thought I would. So If I hadn't taken my time to explore, fall into traps or got married, my Brother would have had it back in one weekend. Kind disappointing to realize this as I could have missed out on all that content that I fell in love with, would have been a completely different blog entry. Makes you consider taking your time on other things you very well could be missing out on.

I didn't pick a side in the Civil War as I didn't want my gameplay to be restricted plus neither side really elicited a strong enough emotional response to WANT to join their cause.

                           Seems the Jarl of Whiterun has been eliciting a different kind of response...

www.nexusmods.com

The game did that weird thing where you fight the final boss guy but not really. To be honest it should have ended right there on top of the Throat of the World where you started your journey of the Voice, maybe included more rifty time travel?  Instead you don't quite defeat him so you've got to go out and be a stronger Saiyan or catch all your Pokemons and chase after him in the afterlife, the usual stuff. 

Thing is, you to go Sovngarde. THE most spectacular world environment and magnificent work of art and splendor. And the Hall of Valor. Walking amongst Skyrim's Mighty Heroes who have fallen in glorious battle! Which the final final battle is unfortunately nothing like that. Not even song worthy. Not even an audience with Shor worthy. As soon as the story moves on the whole place shuts itself up and offers you limited dialogue with any fellows that have made the journey before you. They said it was impossible! Bringing an end to The End but I did it and they shut their doors in my face. I'm swept up and dumped on my arse on the Mountain and only the Dragons know the Truth.

I started out loving this game and it has made me laugh, cry, steal, weep and kill for it. I have poured myself into it and it just pooped me out and didn't flush...

www.nexusmods.com

Next Time: A little Festive Jeer!

Bloggerable Death

I spend a good portion of my time on the internet. Connected to close personal networks that filter and share various snippets of what’s happening “out there”. Events that have happened and happening and happen contain so much information flooding our senses I wonder how much of it we truly retain? I bring this up because I enjoy reading blogs, fresh delicious information I can consume on the go! Yet I forgot that having a blog means I have to create the content. I have so many words stored up from social sharing and news and listening that it didn't occur to me to filter it back to the “out there” where it first came from.

(Pic from: http://www.dansadlier.com/2011/05/information-vs-communication/ )

Even an instant creative idea takes times to burst forth out from your brain and out of your mouth or on paper. I spent some time looking at other people’s blogs and found that it seems to no longer have that gusto it once had. Take Blogger, what I’m using now, as an example. I enjoy hitting that “next blog” button to see what other voices have to say out there and I find about 12 out of 20 have been abandoned. Some in favour of different blog mediums like WordPress or fully fledged websites but mostly just abandoned. The rest I found are spiritually focused located in the States or Family blogs or just posting-stuff-from-the-internet blogs ( In Portuguese! ).

I looked into other blog mediums to see what they offered in this age of microblogging of Twitter and Facebook and whatever else. Let’s be honest if there is a third or even sixth they wouldn’t have as much integration in our lives. Tough competition where creativity is the epitome of instant gratification sent forth into the world before you have time to read it back to yourself and realise what you just posted was the most funniest/stupidest/racist/philosophical/incriminating thing you ever said. TheNextWeb already had this idea a few months ago it seems and done all my work for me in this nifty pros and cons list:

From TheNextWeb

Welcome back! Quick rundown if you didn’t bother to read all of that we have the likes of WordPress, Tumblr, Posatch.io, Google+, SquareSpace and even Facebook Notes are getting in on the action. The only thing I didn’t like about many of these is that I would have to join up just to discover new voices. I can’t be arsed to do that. Apart from Posatch.io, I couldn’t see what kind of layouts and level of customisation I could be getting over the one I’m currently using. Someone design me a blog roulette type randomizer so I don’t have to sign up to all these websites!

I don’t think blogging is dying as such it’s just there are so many of us out there and soo much content to get through. It’s mostly likely people who read your blogs are bloggers themselves and those who hungry for that instant hit, probably don’t bother reading your blogs. Those that use both microblogging and blogging blogging will possibly keep up with both? Busy peoples!

I resorted to my old past time “Next Blog” clicky and I shall leave you with some gems:

http://countrywithoutborders.blogspot.co.uk – The musings of an artsy Jewish woman

http://aliceingalaxyland.blogspot.co.uk – Astrology and Weird

http://notdadadventures.blogspot.co.uk –Scottish Pirate turned Parental Role Model?

Next Time: I finally finished SKYRIM! But is it still in the NalaLoves box?

Spooky Sunday!

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence. Life Happened.

I'm trying out a new game today called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's a survival puzzle horror game which I don't know much about besides watching videos of other poor souls trying to play it. My favourite rather entertaining video is of this guy:

even finding this again and watching it makes me laugh sooo HARD!

I watched this and thought "Hey I could totally play that game and not freak out, jeebus that guy is a pansy" so many years later I have a fully working pc and bam! Amnesia was purchased. Let's see how well I do huh?

Today I dub thee Spooky Sunday!

Clicky Amnesia Part One: Meet Daniel Clicky. 

Funthrough! Tomb Raider Part 3

Short post in comparison to the last one....

Today's Camping Adventures with Lara... Lots of panicking and a change of underwear! WARNING: I do skreech a lot in this episode! 

Clicky Tomb Raider Part 3 Clicky

I snorted a few times watching the footage back in a few places. My reactions to stuff for the first time are hilarious. I'm picking up a few of Lara's bad habits too.

I also feel like there's a bit too many cut scenes, am I watching a movie or playing a game?

Funthrough! Tomb Raider Part Two!

Ha! Today I panic and argue with Lara in the Coastal Forest! 

Like I would have a clue really? About survival after a shipwreck or even being left on my own in the woods for a night. I should take some pointers from Ingo since he's had some training on the matter so I decided to Interview him:

Me: Okay so Ms Croft and I have washed up ashore on an island off the coast of Japan somewhere so that should give you a clue as to the environment, humidity etc. She's scruffy, wet, cold, been clocked in the head, tied up, fell about 50ft and landed on a bone shard which dug into her side, she's bleeding and exhausted. Me? I'm like her imaginary friend... So what should we do?

Ingo: Prioritise. I think even the most hardcore military trained survival nutcase would be more than a little shaken up by the experience and clarity of thought is a lifesaver. Concussion is in itself dangerous, but combined with the abdominal trauma just staying conscious would be a near superhuman feat. One, stop the bleeding. Ideally there I wouldn't be pulling a shard of anything back out of my torso. Looking at where it is, could be kidney, liver, punctured large intestine. Anything. Jamming my hands over the entry wound around the shard and whimpering to myself would probably be my main plan for the next half hour at least. I could assume from that half hour that I hadn't bled to death, and provided I hadn't also slipped into a coma from the head trauma it would be time to extract myself out of the hole I was in. Fans of 'Rambo' will reflect on the wince-inducing self surgery Stallone performs on screen, and while the reality would probably involve allot more swearing and crying, you really would have to make do with something similar.
      Controlling infection would also come to mind, and given the dire circumstances I think I would be trying to heat up some of the scrap metal that seems to be everywhere and cortorise AROUND the shard for the time being, probably while screaming and soiling myself. Then? stagger upwards hoping I'd done enough to continue living for the next hour or so, and distract myself by keeping a check on my breathing, internal bleeding being something that would make itself known now, best case being abdominal swelling and painful bruising, worst case either a punctured bowel leading to a septic wound and death, or bleeding into my upper abdomen/chest cavity and compressing my lungs. All happy thoughts. Assuming Lara is very lucky (and seriously mentally and physically tough) she could look forward to a very slow painful ascent through the caves. Out of the cave and on a tropical/temperate island, I would probably be both elated and worried. Tropical islands make for less harsh survival territory, providing water-shelter-heat-food needs (in that order) relatively easily. However, there's always something else, and in this case the humid climate would make it very very hard for me to keep my wound clean. I would stagger towards the beach and keep my eyes open for where water sources empties into the sea, this sort of outfall being ideal to find drinking water. Salty seawater would be great to irrigate and clean my injuries too, (winces) sore though. At this point, due to the concussion, it would be a real battle to stay awake. I'm inclined to say I would put a cold wet rag on my head wound, out of optimism that it would control the swelling, and pass out in the recovery position, hoping for the best.         

Me: One of the other characters told her to move towards his location but she hasn't got a clue where she is let alone how to navigate to him. Is this sound advice? What should people do in this situation?

Ingo: Madness. You're already in a bad way, adding 'lost and away from your little base camp' is suicidal. I remember a story about a pilot who was shot down, and by staying in the same quarter mile hiding from enemy patrols, an SAR (search and rescue) team was able to find him within a couple of days. If he'd wandered off he would probably have been impossible to find, and died of exposure before anything else. Unless you have a couple of landmarks that can be seen from miles away, you can use triangulation. for example, Lara is on the coast, so there's a reference point, and she can see a clifftop with a big broken tree on it that she estimates is four football fields away, and in the other direction she can see a trashed plane or something, and that's five football fields away, so marking those points and noting how far from her they are she could direct the other party to her (coastlines are pretty permanent so they would have a hard time walking past her location and out to sea) using this method to head inland... I'd be wary. we're still injured pretty badly. 

Me: Supplies are nil and Lara wants to go Deer hunting. How should you go about doing this?

Ingo: Seriously? eat some fruit if there's any you can identify as safe, drink any water you can make potable, make a sharp stick and go get some fish. I have no idea how you could just up and make an accurate bow capable of delivering enough poundage to kill a deer. If venison was my one and only option? I'd make snares, a lot of snares. While eating fish. probably use a lot of cabling from the wrecks as cordage. Even then though, snares are hard to use with any reliability  you have to put out a large number to get a little return. Dressing (butchering) a deer is tough too, if i was injured already it would be very difficult. I'd have to kill the deer, bleed it (black pudding anyone?), slit it open, scoop out the guts like I was Han Solo so it didn't spoil the meat, then have to move the carcass to where my camp was. Definately a daunting task if you're not 100%

Me: Lara finds a bow, and in the game takes a small bit of venison, leaving most of the carcass behind. 

Ingo: In that case yes, Deer can be on the menu, cover yourself in mud and moss to hide your people scent and go stalking. This would still be physically demanding and I would be worried about having enough water and energy to go on. As for taking a small amount of meat and moving on? no, no way, an a-frame litter could be made out of dead fall and lashed together with intestine. A carcass is definitely too good a thing to waste any of, and preserving the meat can be a simple as cutting it into small strips and using your a frame to hang it over a fire. Tasty jerky. Boiling seawater down to get the salt would be a good way to go too. As always though, if you can't find or make potable water don't eat, your body uses up a lot of water digesting food and its always better to err on the side of being hydrated over being fed in the short term.       

Ingo raises some very interesting points about hydration, the dangers of concussion and Lara being in need of serious medical attention. In short, she should be dead. Survival immersion can become tedious and desperate and then you remember it's just a game but is accuracy about this type of stuff important? Considering Video Games are blamed for violent crimes and anti-social behaviour can you claim to be realistic when it is riddled with bad advice?

So I decided to look it up and see what other helpful tips you should remember if you ever find yourself stranded. I found this list from gcaptain.com:

1. Shelter yourself. Exposure can kill faster than thirst or hunger.

2. Do not drink urine. Or sea water. Or bird blood

3. Do not eat jellyfish. Or fish that have spikes. Or fish that have parrot like beaks. OR that puff up like balloons.

4. Turtles are an easy catch and make for excellent meals. Their blood is a good, nutritious, salt-free drink; their flesh is tasty and filling; their fat has many uses; and the castaway will find turtle eggs a real treat. Mind the beak and the claws.

5. If a castaway is injured, beware of well-meaning but ill-founded medical treatment. Ignorance is the worst doctor, while rest and sleep are the best nurses.

6. Put your feet up at least 5 minutes every hour

7. Do not go swimming. It wastes energy. Besides, a survival craft may drift faster than you can swim. Not to mention the danger of sea life. If you are hot, wet your clothes instead.

8. As long as no excessive water is lost through perspiration, the body can survive up to 14 days without water. If you are thirsty, suck a button.

9. Beware of far-off clouds that look like mountains. Look for green. Ultimately, a foot is the only good judge of land.

10. Don’t let your morale flag. Be daunted but not defeated. Remember: the spirit, above all else, counts. If you have the will to live, you will. Good luck

Now the site says they're from the novel Life of Pi by Yan Martel some seem to be very sensible but others don't feel that legit to me. I agree with ignorance not being the best medical practice since you all know how much I favoured Dr Ignorance but I'm sure as hell you shouldn't just go to sleep if your really badly injured and if you're by yourself too! Treat your wounds first and try to prevent infection. Also do not fall asleep if you have a concussion! With that in mind, number 5 is a perfect example of well meaning but ill-founded medical advice. This is just an example from another fictional source so again I ask the question if you're going to publish content on survival shouldn't you make sure it's accurate?

Following that Ingo suggested use your common sense, Prioritise and try not to panic!

Also check out this guy, he knows his shit! Ranger Rick

                           Clicky Funthrough! Tomb Raider part 2 Clicky