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 Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 2:45 am
Another passed test, another trip to the game store. Stepping out of the shop with her latest 'prize' clutched in one hand, Erin paused to glance at the arcade next door. She had a while yet before she needed to be home...but she was supposed to stay out of trouble. Almost as soon as this thought entered her mind, she shook her head. What trouble could she get into in an arcade, of all places? Laughing under her breath, she ducked into the arcade, digging in her pockets for some quarters.
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:38 pm
Alexander clenched the bright plastic blue gun in both hands, his stance rigid as he locked eyes with the screen before him. It was just him and it -- a shapeless shadow, a blur on the screen that moved back and forth as it slowly drew near. He could feel his sweat trace lines down his forehead -- the gun was already covered in it.
"Aaaagh! Why do cut scenes have to be so long?!" He exclaimed, releasing the gun with one hand to swipe across his jeans, then repeating the motion with the other. "It's bad enough that I've gotten this far on my last life, but does this thing have to take three minutes going on and on about something or other that the importer cut out?! Geez! I'm an impatient teenager! Who let the cutscene in?!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:13 pm
Frowning, Erin sidled closer to the boy who'd just burst into protests at his game. ...Cutscenes? This guy thought there was something wrong with those? "But...cutscenes are good," she burst out herself, unable to resist comment. "They add meat to the bones of the story, give you something to work with...a reason why you're playing the game."
... ... ... Right, that wasn't really proper. "Uh...sorry for interrupting." At least she had the grace to look properly embarrassed by her interjection.
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:49 pm
"Not when the rest have been cut out!" Alex replied, removing one hand to wave at the screen where the boss was... still drifting from side to side, taunting the player in a language that consisted of an over-use of echo effects, bass, and whispers. "This is the first time I've gotten this far and reached him, and see that blinking symbol? Means I can't shoot, but I don't know when it'll finally disappear so I can finally pop a cap into this dude and get on with the game, y'know? This game is a put quarter in, grab the gun, and shoot away 'til the screen's cleared. Then it's the next. Rinse and repeat and then suddenly BAM! We're onto four minutes of gibberish."
He sighed, then shrugged. "No worries, there's nothing else going o- AHA!" He held the gun up, poised and ready to shoot.
"...Ah, nope. False alarm. Stupid thing. What sort of backstory would a shooter have, anyway?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:00 pm
"I guess." He had a point, if the boss was just...taunting with no real pre-story. "You never played Fallout 3? Lots of story there. Post-Apocalypse, people hole up in underground shelters, you have to go shoot mutants and bad guys." Scrunching up her face slightly, Erin added, "I played it because Bethesda made it...and I really liked Oblivion. Fallout...was alright, I guess. You'd probably like it more." At least, she assumed so. The guy was playing a shooter, right? Fallout was like a RPG-shooter...thing. With mutants. Guys liked that kind of thing.
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:12 pm
"Nah, not yet," Alex replied, reaching out with the plastic gun to tap one of the buttons on the machine. Skip? Nope. "My computer doesn't like high-end games like that, so I'm waiting to get it. It looks and sounds interesting, though! How was Oblivion? I used to play Morrowind all the time until I drained it dry of side-quests and the fan-made mods stopped coming out, or at least stopped becoming interesting. Some of those were thrown together badly, too! I've had to go in and try to copy'n'paste bits from other mods to get some to work."
He wrinkled his nose, then tried to shoot the boss again. Nope, nothing. "I take it you're into sci-fi/fantasy stuff? Ever hear of Assassin's Creed? It's medieval." And bloody. Oops.
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:57 am
"I...haven't finished it yet," Erin admitted, glancing at the arcade machine. "There's so many sidequests, I haven't even come close to doing them all. And you can mod anything, even add areas--I tried one that added an island-bound horse stable in the lake around the Imperial City." As much as she liked cutscenes (usually), she was becoming a little alarmed by how long this one was lasting. Who thought it was a good idea to put one that long in an arcade game? "I am. Assassin's Creed wasn't what I expected, but it was good."
She'd barely managed to beat it, but he didn't have to know that. Insane difficulty curves could be hell!
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:47 pm
Alex leaned forward and slapped one of the buttons on the arcade machine, before leaning back again. "Tch! Man, looks like my awesomeness bro- AH!" He raised his gun as the screen flickered, then resumed the back and forth swaying. "Critting n00b boss of epic fail," he muttered darkly.
"Oh yeah? Considering how the last game's ending was, I'll bet Oblivion's is nothing special. I got bored of 'wind to the point that I turned on godmode and breezed through the last of the quests and the first expansion. The last dungeon in the x-pac was a letdown -- sure it looked spiffy with all the gears and steampunk look, but it was so empty. Felt good to find the spoiler at the end, at least."
He paused, shrugged, then nodded and fired a few more bullets at the boss. Click! Click! Click! Nothing. "Maaan this is dull. Shooting him does nothing, unless I'm supposed to shoot something else on this screen, if there is anything."
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