Masochisms... with Nihil: Punishment, More Punishment, and Podcasts

So it's been another week and I've played some video games. I played video games while high and I played video games while sober. I played them at night and during the day as well. I did some other shit, too.

But it's late and my eyes are starting to burn. I've run out of Arizona Green Tea. I'm losing the will to find relevant images to insert clever words into. I'd rather not have this mosquito flying around my head. And I need to pee but don't feel like getting up.

Let's fucking do this.



DAILY DAMAGES


I bought Super Meat Boy when it first came out on sale. I was feeling the love and appreciation errbody else was during the PAX hype, and coming off the endorphin high I got from Super G&G rape, I was ready to sate my retro pallet with another 2D platformer to kick my ass. And I was doing good till I hit my wall in The Rapture chapter. It's like the difficulty shot up a couple levels past what my reflexes could handle, and just no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't good enough. Over the past maybe three months, I've been slowly working my way through, beating a level here and here, throwing my fuckin hands up in triumph long enough for the next level attempt to smack them back down, and then give it a break. It was only until the other day while chatting with hacker alias "Kay-Nuhtaf", that I was inspired to pick it up again with gusto. It seems - and I mentioned this phenomenon to him - that simply with the passing of time, my reflexes and coordination have recovered from the trauma and become even more honed than before, as it has with similar games of yore.

Ladies and Boners, I am now two levels away from beating the Light World.


Now for a 3D platformer that's been kicking my ass as of late: Marble Blast Ultra.


a metaphor for life if there ever was one...

I have a particular affection for this game, but not in the most obvious sense. I bought and started playing it around the time I created my Destructoid account - during the energy-drink-induced fogginess that was late December of '09. Good times were had between playing it (among other games) and getting a feel for the peeps in the Forums. It was quite the journey but I managed to get through every fuckin level, though I don't think I got under par time for most of the expert courses, cus fuck that noise. A nice, long break from the game was had.

But now I've landed on a gamertag/account that seems permanent and I'm tryin to get my cheevos back. Suffice to say, I'm remembering a lot of pain that was endured last year, and I don't know if I have it in me anymore to spend as much time on it. We shall see....

Speaking of pain, I rocked that mosquito's world.


FAITAN NEWS


I stumbled upon a little thing called Marvel Versus Capcom 3 that I would have passed on purchasing for $60, if not for a Best Buy gift card.

Okay, so here's the thing: I've chronicled my fondness for the fighting genre in my Most Influential Games blogs, but my strengths in said genre have waned for reasons that I've been working on getting into another post that will explain why my strengths in several genres have waned. However, for Fighting in particular, when 3D movement and arenas hit the limelight, my abilities shifted to favor that field. And as I also recalled in my influential games blog, Virtua Fighter was my fucking series. When it came to the 360, the joy I had in making newbs and vets alike online squirm when I sat Shun on his dusty ass, waiting patiently for them to make their next wrong move, was im-fucking-measurable. I'm also hoping Bloody Roar makes a decent return someday.

That said, I've never forgotten the times and appreciation I've had with the 2D field; from SFII in the arcades to Garou on Dreamcast, and MvC3 is as good an installment as any to.... Okay, maybe not ANY. I'm sure there are a few titles I could list that purists would prefer over MvC3. Then again, MvC3 is kind of its own fucking beast. When MvC2 came to XBL last year, it was pretty much as hard to master as I remembered in high school. It was a cool, flashy game - sure - but you needed to have a lot of patience just to get "good" at it. And being that my faitan allegiances were elsewhere, I never felt the need to play it beyond bullshitting w/ other nubs.



MvC3 doesn't have that problem. It's very accessible and easy to pick up and go toe-to-toe with others in GRANDIOSE style. I've heard the argument noting that this is a bad thing; that there's hardly any skill needed now in winning, what with a few broken characters and X-Factor to ruin people's shit with. And I've heard the counter-argument noting that the game is playable as is; for every move that is "unblockable" or spammed, there is a way around it. And that's where the real deal comes in, separating the limpdicks from the lumberjacks. It's a fine line but when you see it, you'll shit bricks.



I feel like I've given MvC3 a fair shake. It's fun as fucking hell, no doubt about that, even when I'm gettin my ass pounded all royal-like. But I feel that's mostly due to my spirit of sportsmanship. The fighting genre has always been one I've admired for the skill it took to pull some of the amazing shit you see in these games (the legit ones, anyway), and it feels a million times better when you're the one doing it intentionally. So I can respect the game and the time the player put into mastering it, but especially in a game as stupid fucking hectic this one gets, I feel I'm out of my element.


All I know is Laura is a sexy bitch to main. Everyone else is up in the air with me.

AUDIBLE NEWS
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I can't even remember when I last mentioned it, but yeah, Podsumaki had some shit to say about Marvels. A bit dated but still worth a listen.

I've been trying to keep up with my podcasts lately, and I would just like to have a moment of silence for Tweet Me Harder. I unfortunately found out that it was a thing only earlier this year, and my time with it has been seriously short-lived. Going off last time mentioning Warcraft, this would have been a fucking ridiculously awesome addition to my background noise arsenal in grinding.

Electric Hydra as well. God Tier shit that podcast.

What else... uhhhh... lemme know what your favorite podcasts are so that I may check them out as well and not be bored when I'm closing at work. And I'm gonna go pass out.

Peace guys.