Crackie's Disclaimer: Despite that I mention and drop hints for several games in this, I do not have spoilers for any. Furthermore, I do not want spoilers for any because I have not finished them. Thank you.

Decisions. That's what a lot of the games I've seen recently have. Whether it is to kill off a particular character because they don't fit your particular storyline, to hop in a warp pipe/use a warp whistle/summon a warp demon (yeah, I think I just made that one up) to get past a few annoying areas, or to stop advancing the plot to try to beef up your characters, most games today have these choices.

And then on top of these choices, there are more choices. Do I take the red pill or the blue pill? Do I smack this person around for information or do I coax it out of them? Do I use the POW to kill all the baddies here or to knock the coin loose a few frames away? These decisions, although some not so game-restrained, impact everything we do in games today.

And on top of that, there are these choices we have now outside of game worlds. Do I want to breed more Eevee or do I want to drive the Slantnose? Do I wanna tap out some rhythms or do I wanna pop a Boomer? Do I have the patience to complete another trail or... What other games am I playing again?

These decisions impact us both in and out of video games causing spiraling torment. We're damned if we do turn on the console or damned if we don't because we can't figure out what game to play. We get so wrapped up within some of these stories that we don't realize that we're leaving things unfinished. When we realize we're coming to a close with a game that absorbed so many hours, we hesitate and find another game to fulfill our time. Soon, we are wrapped up in another world and the previous game remains unfinished with it's bounty of choices somewhat concluded.



Heavy Rain is obviously one of those games that makes you go "Oh my god oh my god! What do I do what do I do?!" while you flap your arms wildly like a Stewie when he shouts Yahtzee. The choices in this game bring decisions to a whole new level and I swear up and down I wanted to slap some kids in the beginning. With every two steps you get a new decision which can alter your gameplay.

Just between my boyfriend and I, we recently stopped at the same exact area in the storyline but at this point it was two completely different stories. Granted the stories try to intertwine main plot points but I'm sure there's a point where it will completely go "And now it's a different ending. So different, that you should just go back and play your save because it's nothing like his."

But then because you just saw one outcome you think, "Hey, maybe instead of playing for a different outcome on this game, let me go play something else entirely!" Soon you find yourself curled up in a corner with a DSLite in your hands and shaking a PokeWalker on your ankle 'cause you want more watts... You're level grinding Pokemon and breeding twenty Eevees.



But I digress, it will come a time again when you find those games you still haven't finished and attempt to work on their long awaited endings just because a sequel is coming out/a friend of yours wants to spoil the ending so bad/you got back into your game rotation and want to finish it because you're a completionist. Then, will these games with their open-ended decisions will absorb you into their clutches and make you choose just what you are going to do with your life....your game life I mean.

You'll find yourself pinned to the ground with the decisions tearing at your brains. You'll find yourself choosing between a sniper rifle and a shotgun in a team match. You'll find yourself debating which class to choose for the bonuses. You'll find yourself wondering why you are submitting to this insanity again.

And then, when it all clears, you'll be lost in the game again and able to forget what decisions you are actually neglecting by playing so many games in the first place.

Look how happy they are at this age. Now I know it's been said over and over and over again, but I think that this is the only topic that I'm fully capable of bringing a full statement. Link could possibly be the biggest pimp or male prostitute in Hyrule without even trying. He has women throwing themselves at him no matter in which game he is.

In the Legend of Zelda, Link didn't have many women to woo. In fact, Zelda was perhaps the only woman--other than the old medicine woman--who you had much interaction with throughout the game. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Adventure gave him plenty of women to woo and behave inappropriately with, all considering that his sword was of an awfully odd length and held at an awkward height and several flash games used these sprites to recolor and use it as male genitalia.

All in all, some of the bigger women in Link's life were from the 3D era: Malon, Ruto, Saria, and Nabooru from Ocarina of Time; Tetra from Wind Waker; Midna and Zelda from Twilight Princess. These are the women on which I want to focus. Granted Zelda should be mentioned at least in Ocarina of Time... I still want to believe that Link and Zelda were related in that game. Moving on....

Link acquires a far too high number of women in these later games because he is, like I said somewhat of a prostitute. At the ripe young age of 10, he has little girls' fathers asking if he would marry their daughters. He has humanoids of other species wanting to marry and/or be with him forever. He has childhood friends telling secrets of their fantasies of him to little boys. He has common thieves profess that he would be with them if he was just a little older. He has a descendant of royalty who fell into the wrong profession at a young age treat him like her playground boyfriend. And then he also has a being from another dimension fall for him through a series of events which leads to two princesses wanting the young ward.

Does Link ever outright say no to any of these occurrences? Well, he doesn't say much of anything but he doesn't run off screaming either. It makes you sit down and wonder just what Link is doing in between all of his adventures. Is he taking into courtship outside of his battles? I'm sure all that fighting gets boring sometimes and a guy just wants to sit down and rest. I mean, does Link just run straight through his adventures like we see it or does he sleep and have nightmares and then forces someone else to help him through it? And why does he have such a strong lefty grip? Who knows, but those biceps in Ocarina of Time didn't just appear after seven years in the Temple of Time....

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't be whining about it. It is a great game, I do have to say. Unfortunately I'm not all that into FPSs. I'm also not really bored of playing it. I'm actually bored of watching my boyfriend play it into the wee hours of the morning. He's currently waiting for the new map packs to come out and he's whining to his friends about positions on Domination.

It's fun to watch him play for the most part but all in all I'm just not into it. The war game video games just don't appeal to me. Halo was fun for a while, but in reality I just have more fun leveling a character and advancing a storyline. Granted, I'm not stopping him from enjoying himself, but I also cannot justify playing for two minutes at a time until someone snipes me from across a level.

FPSs have always been a sore spot for me, but I can get into them every so often. I prefer to snipe since I'm not really a great shot when it comes to close range firefights. I thoroughly enjoyed Borderlands, which you couldn't say was the most FPS-like game. But... yeah, can't get into MW2, or much of any other CoD game. I guess I just don't have the patience for FPSs. Oh look... A nuke. At least that match is over, haha.....