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My so-called gaming life
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Ernest
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June 25, 2011 - 11:08 pm
Member Since: July 2, 2009
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Okay recently Ben and I finished Portal 2.  Understand that Portal may be his favorite game ever.  Can't tell you how many times he and I ran through that thing.  The Portal Song was the 3d song he ever liked.  (A song called Sha-boom or something like that from Cars was his first, Can't Get No Satisfaction his second.  Yeah I see a leap there too.  Anyway.)

He wasn't so impressed with Portal 2.  We did play it twice.  He often saw solutions long before I did.  I think he didn't like it because that one computer was far too yappy and there was too much running around and not-portaling.  More than once he mentioned that Portal was short.  He wouldn't let us race too much through Portal (the original) because we always had to stop for him to examine the signs.  Though he did like the potato parts and the moon in Portal 2.  (Sorry for the spoilers.)  Plus the song at the end is decidedly unimpressive.

Anyway as he/we've already played Half Life 2 and it doesn't look like Black Mesa ever will come out, I sat him down just to let him see Half Life.  I'd told him it was the best computer game ever of course.  Didn't take him long before he totally got into it.  The train at the beginning probably sold him. He's outgrown Thomas and Chuggington (mainly due to familiarity), but he hasn't outgrown trains!

My daughter Jordan (16 months old born on Valentine's Day 2010) liked the part in Half Life where the big monster is bang bang bang bang banging in the missile silo.  She may have thought it was a kind of music. 

Half Life is tough to play on a modern pc.  Lots of sliding around b/c the machine runs too quickly and jump inexplicably is messed up.  Can't jump high enough to get over even low barriers.  Couldn't find anything online about how to mod that either.  Go figure–not much online for a 13 year old game.

Anyway at one point Ben said it was a great game.  So quality I guess does show even through severely dated graphics and even to a soon-to-be 5 year old. 

Now of course he wants to play Half Life 2 again.  We'll probably spend 20 minutes throwing the can at that guard.  HAHA I like that part too.  Especially these days (glower) when authority seems to have gone insane.

He didn't like Alice–which I'll talk about out in the TR blog about the game.

Not because it was scary really.  Remember this kid survived Metro 2033, Dead Space 2, and Singularity no problem.  Though not the creaky door in Amnesia.  He'll probably reach middle-age still remembering that door as the epitome of frightfulness.  

But long before then (say in the next couple of months) he'll probably also experience Doom 3.  Which will be interesting for me too to see after how well-done Dead Space 2 was (especially that part when we went BACK on the ship)!  What a great sequence that was.  Right up there with the train sequence in Uncharted 2 (which might be the single best gaming sequence in the history of computer games).

Oh yeah!  We played both Uncharted games and he was there for every minute.  Eagle eyes spotting stuff everywhere.

I love that kid.  One day last week when we were hanging out together he said, "Dad, this was my favorite day".

Only thing I remember about Doom 3 was you could run through the rooms, spawn all the monsters, then just turn around and fight them.  Every single room.  Took away a lot of the atmosphere.  Ha!  Almost a kind of joke.  Removing atmosphere in a game about a space ship.  Anyhow.

Stalker Ben's staying away from.  Not fast enough for him I think.  But oh boy I LOVE it!  It's how Fallout 3 should have been!  (Lots of posts elsewhere complaining about how many times it crashed on me.)  Not a crash ever in Stalker--and creepy as heck!

Okay that pretty much gets me up to date.  Oh yeah: Duke Nukem Forever.  No it is not disappointing because it couldn't live up to the original.  It's disappointing because its humor is so puerile and just…not funny.  I mean how many "stop playing with your balls" lines do we need to hear?  In my opinion it's just AWFUL.  The original was cute: cops as pigs, occasional references to excretory functions–but this was just….And whoever came up with the idea of eliminating saves should have been fired.

Anyway okay that's it for now.  Too busy being a dad and working to worry about much else.  I am losing my life every day and I am gaining it every day.  I study my children's faces so they will be the last things I remember in those final moments when the electricity goes out in my brain.  I wish we could live forever just so I could be with them.

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Steerpike
Subtropical Southeastern Michigan
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June 26, 2011 - 3:49 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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What a great post, Ernest. You talk about playing games with Ben and I always love reading about it. You really seem to have it figured out, how to share a passion of yours with your son.

Now, Jordan... a new daughter? Were we told about this? I don't remember being alerted to the presence of a new child. You usually run this stuff by us. Did you circumvent the usual approval process? Either way, I endorse this new daughter. Couldn't have been born to a nicer, more deserving fellow. 🙂

 

Ernest! There's a Kay and Spike STALKER thread that needs some re-invigorating over on Bollocks! My wisdom must be shared!

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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Ernest
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June 28, 2011 - 11:51 pm
Member Since: July 2, 2009
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SP you silly nimsky go look at my daughter on FB!  That's the whole point of that site!

Okay so last year, Valentine's Day, in the middle of the night we were racing on an almost-deserted Gowanus Expwy into the city.  As we entered the Battery Tunnel, which has 2 lanes separated by a barrier, my wife made a noise….I didn't realize that this kind of noise existed.  But there is a noise a woman makes that communicates that she is about to have a baby right that minute.  So she made the noise, and I zoomed up…right behind the only car we'd encountered on the whole drive toward NYU Medical Center.  Panicked, I made the biggest mistake you ever can make in NYC if you want another driver to do anything–I flashed my lights and beeped at him.  The fool SLOWED DOWN.

He's lucky I didn't crash into his rear.

Anyway, we made it to the hospital.  They took one look at my wife, put her on a bed, and she literally pushed only 3 times–and out popped our daughter!  A beautiful little thing.  Happy as a bug–until we put her down.  Just like Ben was.

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Steerpike
Subtropical Southeastern Michigan
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June 29, 2011 - 9:51 am
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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I never use Facebook!

 

[ten minutes later]

 

Okay, I've had a look at this daughter and she receives the official stamp of approval. What a doll. Belated congratulations to you!

Honestly, if I were racing to get my bride to the hospital and she emitted a sound like what you describe - the I am having a baby right now, not soon, now sound - I would probably go to pieces. I have a feeling I'd not be very useful in the delivery room, either.

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

Jakkar
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June 29, 2011 - 12:20 pm
Member Since: February 11, 2011
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Why can't I stop hearing the noises that bird-hat-creature makes in Labyrinth, worn by the wise old man.

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Ernest
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June 29, 2011 - 8:47 pm
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No no it is worse.  To call it a groan does not describe.  Men groan.  It was more like an earthen upheaval.  Like the soul rising out of her body.

Jakkar
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June 29, 2011 - 11:06 pm
Member Since: February 11, 2011
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I think I can imagine. I've had some degree of deeply uncomfortable experience with the female reproductive cycle. Beyond being born, I mean. Enough said! Well done for not crashing 🙂

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kaythomas
Somewhere in the frozen tundra
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July 9, 2011 - 9:25 pm
Member Since: April 16, 2009
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I have just been catching up with stuff and looked at this thread.

Earnest said............. >>Anyway, we made it to the hospital.  They took one look at my wife, put her on a bed, and she literally pushed only 3 times–and out popped our daughter!  A beautiful little thing.  Happy as a bug–until we put her down.  Just like Ben was.<<

Congratulations, Earnest, on your baby daughter Jordan.   She is a very fortunate little girl to have you as a father.

Kay 

Imagine life with no hypothetical situations. 

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geggis
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July 11, 2011 - 7:33 am
Member Since: September 26, 2009
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I'm with Steerpike here, I love reading your posts Ernest. You sound like a fantastic dad; you've got it sussed!

And for the record, I've not got passed the creaky door in Amnesia either.

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