The Strip! It Lies!
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
O-harro!
It’s been some odd thirteen years since I actually curled, but the memories that survived with me until this point were mostly fond. Though falling that many times on the ice may have messed me up a bit… Despite the falling, the shouting, the subtly numbing cold, and the fact people actually expect you to expertly navigate on ice using nothing more than a synthetic slipper and a shoe/boot the game is kind of enjoyable when you get down and used to it. So I assure you if I was offered to play again, I would. With stern warnings that I would suck pretty bad at the game.
But yes, it does look goofy. Even the pros on TV, whom are all familiar with gliding about on the ice sheets only manage to spare themselves very little of their dignity. Even above all of that, it’s still a far better sport than baseball. Just ignore the great curling steroid scandal… we’re doing our best to make sure no media covers it, ever! The great guild of stone-and-broom won’t allow disgrace to enter the sport.
… Anyway.
To add more and comment on Geekbot’s RPG list, seeing Squaresoft’s Vagrant Story on his list gives me pleasant fuzzies. Having finished it over ten times, the game has a special place close to my heart. I both loved the story and the combat system. It had some pretty good replay value and the story, dialogue, and game’s flow were excellent. Tells you just enough but doesn’t feel like it railroads you. I wish they made games like that nowadays, but I could just be off my block since I haven’t followed very many RPGs since Star Ocean, Till the End of Time… which I probably blasted a good 200 hours away on trying to get everything.
Though it’s not in the RPG genre, those looking for a good story and dialogue: I would also recommend playing Ace Combat (especially Shattered Skies, Unsung War, Fires of Liberation). You play the role of a named pilot each time with a sort of Gordon Freeman ’see it all as first person, deal with it in third person’ refusal to have your character actually speak, but the stories are awesome. If I’m an RPG and turn-based strategy gamer at heart and those games fell into my top loves, I figure at least someone else out there would appreciate them in the same way.
…whoever that applies to out there, this post is for you.
