Brawl, Job Searches, and Hearthstead

So I said I played Brawl yesterday.  Do I really have to explain to you how it's a good game?  It is.  Especially when played with friends.  Though it is pretty boring to play alone.  But I've got other games for that.

It's been a little over a week since I graduated, and I've had my time to recover.  Now I get to start ramping up my job search until something clicks.  I've never felt good about job searches, mostly because I'm a socially awkward penguin.  Pray for me.  I'll need it.

The other thing I need to do is get a good habit going of spending specific times writing, both so I can avoid having to punch myself in front of a camera and so I can have that time set aside to work on my various writing projects—one of which is on a deadline.

The world of Hearthstead was created by my cousin and me, and I have a passion for the telling of its stories.  The comic I'm working on, the novel I'm revising, and a number of other side projects are related to that universe, but I don't want to fully expose it to the world until it's ready.

Hopefully my audience can wait until then.

Shrug off.

Greek Mythology and Let's Plays

I've been watching this playthrough of Kid Icarus: Uprising. The game plays fast and loose with the Greek Mythology it's kind of almost based on. The Good Guys are an angel named Pit and the goddess of light, Palutena (which is a sort of portmanteau of Pallas Athena), and they face off against Medusa, Queen of the Underworld. Yeah, that's not really how the myths go.

In comparison, the God of War trilogy is canon.

I keep watching it, though, because the characters are well-written and well-acted for a 3Ds game. It's not like the pinnacle of drama, or of video game storytelling, but it's entertaining, especially since every stage is essentially a long skit (or miniature play) putting you into the world even as you play through. Oh, and every fourth wall is broken. All the time.

I won't lie, it's glorious.

It's called Kid Icarus because the handle character, Pit, is an angel who can't fly on his own. Palutena gives him the power of flight for five minutes at a time, but after that his wings burn off. But... Greek mythology didn't really have angels. I mean, there were daemons, but that was different. Pit's wearing a toga and a halo/golden laurel, and his iconic weapon is a bow—which actually tends to fire like an automatic rifle.

I haven't played it, but I can't afford a 3Ds or the game. I can afford to watch someone else play it, though, and that's enjoyable enough.

Is this a weird thing, watching Let's Plays? Does it defeat the purpose of gaming?

This is me, shrugging.

How Farmville is a good idea.

Have you played a Free-to-Play game lately? Maybe some Spiral Knights or a Facebook app by Zynga? Or any Facebook game, really. You may have noticed the energy meter, which slowly drains as you play the game.

Now, I realize what this mechanic exists for. The hope is that you'll pay to play the game more than this meter allows. But there's a side effect that comes with it. You see, I like to balance my gaming with time spent doing more productive things. Like blogging. When I run out of energy in Spiral Knights, it helps me to realize I have better things to be doing than playing a game at that moment, and I can drag myself away. As opposed to, for example, Skyrim, which has claimed near a hundred hours of life despite the fact I don't even own the game.

This perspective may be the equivalent of looking at the faintest rosy glint from a pile of polished dung, but I'm not nearly as opinionated about this sort of thing as some people.