A visit to GameStop

[amethyst73]

So, Huz is out of town at a conference (which is full of people he doesn't know mostly doing work that doesn't have all that much to do with his stuff).  I'm at home, a little lonely, generally exhausted from work which is including driving to Berkeley the next few days to process the last clones from the Ig project.  I got my first ever professional massage last night (it was wonderful, must do again sometime), but then failed to sleep well.  So I'm tired and cranky.  Failed to nap when I got home.  Decided to cheer myself up by going to GameStop and seeing what they had in their Used bin.

My first purchase was Hotel Dusk for the DS.  Used at $10 (and less than that with membership), this is not money.  I have 'only' one more case left in the Miles Edgeworth game, and I vaguely remembered this getting pretty decent reviews - it's an old-school point-and-click (sigh) mystery murder adventure.  (Really, folks, you can do adventure-style games in other story genres!)  However, after seeing the intro movie and playing a tiny bit of the game, I'm utterly charmed by its art style, and the writing is fun and good.  So it should make a decent semi-casual thing to play when I want a 'just before bed' turn on the DS.

My second purchase... well.  I'd really been looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles before it was released back in December to some unfortunate reviews.  I've now seen/played about 45 minutes of the thing.  I only have one crystal power, so there isn't a lot of chance for misreading of Wii gestures so far.  But, jeez, Squaresoft!  Four years in development and you couldn't add a real auto-camera, instead forcing people to use the D-pad to move the camera, even while the protagonist is moving?  You couldn't add a map???  And the player is still at least partially limited by save points????!!???  Come on, get with the current console generation!

I will continue playing it for at least a bit, but it may be destined for the return bin.

Comments

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

::HUGS:: If you want company and are unexhausted feel free to come visit.

As a note regarding the massage, one key that they sometimes forget to mention is to drink a lot (2-3 big glasses) of water fairly soon post-massage, or the sleep problems are not uncommon due to the tension trying to creep its way back into your muscles rather than getting washed out, more or less.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Drank bunches after massage on the strong advice of the friend I went with; I think it was mostly the weirdness of No Huz. Slept some better last night. Might take you up on the offer of company this evening (I actually considered calling you last night and seeing if I could come over!)

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I think your strategy was a great one! Yay for used bin diving at Gamestop.

I will keep an eye out for Hotel Dusk. Are there other DS titles you would recommend? I don't know if I want to go in the direction of the lawyer games, but I'm going to run out of pokemans eventually. And Planet Puzzle League is my go-to game for situations where I'm stressed and need a very effective distraction (I take it to blood draws), but I'd love other distracting casual puzzles.

I begin to think I need some flavor of DS Mahjong, as well. I assume some exist, but they may all be Japanese rules.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

I've mostly been using "the lawyer games" for that. I believe that Picross is supposed to be in the "good, engaging, casual" category as well. I also hear good things about the Professor Layton series, though you have to like brain teaser puzzles.

nezumiko has some sort of mahjong game, but I'm pretty sure it's a Japanese import. I'll ask her about it.

games

[(Anonymous)]

Those are some good choices. I am a big fan of video games (http://gamefriends.com)