Twilight Princess

On August 29, 2007, for some reason I can't fathom, I stopped playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the GameCube after 46 hours logged while at the doorstep of Hyrule Castle preparing to get into the final level of the game. That date was the last saved date when Rock Girl decided she wanted to start her own game. She played for 55 hours or so before she and the Queen asked if I would look at my game and see if I could actually finish it since I hadn't touched it in over two years.

The only Twilight Princess I'd played since then was a short play of the Wii version of the game. I really have no idea why I never finished the game. I never even entered the castle. I completed the Twilight Temple, and then stopped. So, since they asked, I figured, "Why not?" I prepared myself for a bit of a steep learning curve since I knew there were a few special sword moves that were essential to playing the game and instrumental in completing several key battles.

So I started playing. After some digging through the menus and playing with the controls, I found the button strokes for the special moves, and I was on my way. I went into the final level with 0 potions, and since it had been so long, I had no idea where to find any, so I just went in as I was, with (I think) 16 hearts and three empty bottles.

The level was setup as a series of one on a dozen or more enemies which really served to get my Zelda chops back in a hurry. It was just like riding a bike. I dominated the lower levels of this temple, no matter how many enemies they threw at me. The mini-bosses (and there were several) were no match for my too-long-dormant skill and I wiped them out with hardly a heart lost in the process. The puzzles in the temple, while mildly clever, were mostly easily deciphered (with only a couple causing any sort of long thought). It was all a matter of figuring out what everything did and doing something with it. I even rocked the spinner climb up the stairs bit, which the Queen and Rock Girl got a kick out of. 

Now, LadyBug and Sassy Pants were there, but they only mildly enjoyed the hopping around as neither of them play the game. They did watch for a little while though, especially when I got to the end.

Reaching Ganondorf was really easy in the end. I walked in and the cinema sequence began before final battle part 1 began. Part 1 was easy enough and more about patience and timing than skill. Part 2 was a bit annoying, but once I got the hang of it (and a tip from the Queen (the only one I needed) who was looking at the strategy guide), that one was also defeated.

Then came Part 3. Oh, I hated Part 3. This part left be complaining to high heaven about this game. Nintendo does some really strange things sometimes. They create these battles that are difficult enough, but not so difficult or repetitive that you want to throw your controller at the screen (too many times). Part 3, however, was one of those one off Nintendo battles that was more irritating than it was difficult where the enemy had a tendency to get you over and over and over again if your timing was bad. Well, timing was only a part of it. Thinking about how I eventually got this section figured out, it was a combination of timing and placement of self as well as general persistence that won it. I think the persistence part was the most annoying of them all because it had to do with a horseback ride. Ganon's horse goes slightly faster than your horse (naturally), but you still have to catch up to him, so you have to whip the crap out your horse to get her to go faster...and then you run out of hits so you have to wait for it to charge back up, which sets you back a little bit...and then Ganon releases his undead horsemen to whack you (as if his own hits weren't enough). After I got him figured out, I knew the point of his undead entourage, but it was still annoying. The whole ordeal (which probably cost me more lives in a single battle than any battle in the entire game, primarily due to my lack of potions and the game's tendency to start you after a game over with only 3 hearts) made me compare it to Metroid Prime.

I love Metroid Prime. It's a great game. Fun to play. Awesome play controls on both the GameCube and then the Wii revision in Metroid Prime Trilogy. The maps are great. The bosses are challenging but fun to fight...until the end. And this is just Metroid Prime because I haven't played the other two games to their final bosses yet. Metroid Prime gives you a save point at the beginning of the final level, and then expects you to traverse this entire final level every time. This level is long and time consuming with its endless supply of Metroids constantly attacking you out of holes in the ground. Yeah, they have no end because the ground is reproducing them, so as soon as you finish one set (they're made in twos), you have about 30 seconds to move before another set is on you. And these Metroids are the classic freeze and kill variety. No, these are the ones where you have to use a specific beam-and-missile combination after freezing them, so not only do they both consume a lot of time, but they consume a lot of resources to get past them. Hence, after fighting a grueling battle through this level that takes probably 30 to 45 minutes, minimum, you get one point to recharge your missiles, fight a few more of these dreadful Metroids, and then face off against the big bad bass, Metroid Prime. The thing is huge, uses a gross amount of resources to defeat, and I have yet to do it because once it beats you, you have to start all over at the save point...yeah, another 30 to 45 minutes of an uphill battle fighting those danged Metroids again. Hence, when I was actively playing it, I tried once a day since that was all the Metroid I could handle, and then I finally stopped. I had gathered every item in the game, and still couldn't defeat the Prime boss, nor did I have the patience for that final level. But I digress...hugely.

Once I figured out the secret of that horse battle, it was on to Part 4, which was a classic one on one sword fight between Link and Ganon. I ended up using a single special move over and over again after scavenging all the hearts (and fairy) from the ring of skulls inside the battle wall. I really dislike these battle walls, since they swipe a quarter heart form you wehn you hit it, but the bad guys, of course, can do what they wish without damage.

Anyway, it only took a couple of times, and Ganon was down. It showed that I was, indeed, at the end of the game when I inexplicably stopped playing, and that even after almost 2 1/2 years, I was able to play the game just fine.

 I also found that the Wii's motion controls have spoiled me. Two years ago, I was not interested in the Wii version because it was identical to the GameCube version. Well, after having to aim with the control stick again, I wanted the Wii version so I could just point at the screen. Funny the way that these things change you.

So, I finished another game. Rock Girl got a kick out of watching it, though she was shocked at how much I had done in 46 hours and how she wasn't even close to the end after as much time as she had put into it. I assured her that I was able to do this due to this being my sixth Zelda game along with over 20 years of playing video games. But it was fun to play it again, and once I get through my Metroid Prime Trilogy (whether I defeat the big bad bosses or not), I might look into Twilight Princess again.

The Drama of Black Friday

I had completely forgotten about this until I looked at my archive of ideas here. I never talked about Black Friday. You see, there were some precious items to be had at Toys R Us at midnight on Black Friday, and as I didn't want to send the Queen out by herself, I went. I thought I'd go out there about an hour before midnight to see if there was a line.

Heh...

Yeah, there was a little bit of a line. The Toys R Us I went was the one at 71st and Memorial, if you're familiar with Tulsa. The line from the entrance stretched to the north from the front door across their entire parking lot, across their alley entrance, past five store fronts on the strip mall next door, turned the corner to go west past three small store fronts, one large one (Vintage Stock), and all the way to the door of the dollar theatre in that strip mall. I was amused, but there were some good deals, so I stood in line.

The line went well past me as well, but once it started moving, it went pretty quickly to get in. Some thugs cut in line behind me and then talked very loudly about how it wasn't right that they had to wait in line. I'm not racist, but they weren't of the Caucasian persuasion and acted their stereotype well. There were cops at the entrance holding back the crowd on the South side of the door who also didn't want to track down the end of the line going North. There were quite a few cops in the parking lot to control the crowd actually.

Once inside, it was wall-to-wall people. There was no line once inside. It was a mob. I fought my way around the store and got all but one item that I'd come in for. I was afraid my one big ticket item was gone when I found the row it belonged on and an empty shelf. Fortunately the checkout line was so long that I found a display of them.

As for the checkout line... Ok, so Toys R Us is a large department store, right? Department stores have a general "action alley" aisle that runs around the inside of the store with stuff on either side of it. This line went from the registers at the front of the store and snaked in and out of the individual aisles toward the outside of the store all the way down the south side of the store through the games and then the clothes, and then down the west side through the baby accessories and furniture, but when it got to the north side, it stopped snaking, though that's where I started with the line that went beyond me right back to the registers. They had this poor employee standing at the end of the line with a red balloon who kept moving back and back and back. Other employees were trying to keep the lines snaking through the aisles. It was a nightmarish situation. One employee who was trying to control the line said they never planned for that level of chaos.

You see, Toys R Us was the only store open at midnight, beating out everyone else. I saw on the news later that the other Toys R Us in town had a fight break out. People get cazy during the shopping season.

Anyway, I waited patiently in line for two hours to checkout, which went smoothly, and to her credit, the cashier still had a smile. I was impressed.

So in the end, I went to Toys R Us at 11pm. I got home at 4am just in time to wake up the Queen for her shopping time. However, I saved more money than I spent that night, which was significant. But I was very grateful to go to bed. If I find the pics from that night, I'll post them as well. I took some, but it's been a couple months and I forgot about this post.

Black Friday. I'm sure I'll be there again this year.

Black fri. Drama of xout line. Line 2 nxt dr theatre. Pics 2 post. Line out
4 hrs.

Band and Research

So it's been a little while since I posted. I know this because the Queen complained about it last night. She was telling me that "that geek and the queen site is totally dead." So I thought of something.

First, to follow up the prior band post, I did some checking into the company that purported the opportunity to play in front of people, and they apparently offer that to everyone who suggests having a band as long as they're willing to sell their own tickets. A band promises to sell X tickets to their fans, and they can play. I told him point blank that I really don't have any fans and I can't guarantee any tickets. I figured playing with other similar groups would help to introduce me, but also asked if there was an inhouse box office that sells tickets as well since I don't have a lot of personal interaction with some people who might go. He never emailed me back. Oh well.

I hear from The Mixer, though, that The Player is interested in starting back up with the piano-drum thing, which was fun while it lasted.

As to my other topic here, it's ore of something I hear around my office a lot. and by a lot, I mean A LOT. The way we work around here is we get problem requests from clients and create these service tickets so that any notes or anything can easily be passed around to whomever needs to work the problem. Word of warning: if you are the lucky recipient of this ticket, no one else will touch it. They won't help the client. They won't even guess as to the problem. And so help me, they will NOT contact you when this person decides to call the main support line to find out about. No, they'll pop a note on the ticket saying that so-n-so called in about it, and so-n-so was informed that the issue was still "being researched." Wait, so-n-so implies there's a name left. Those people don't leave names. They always write "client." Not "The client." Just "client."

So from the client side, what does being researched mean? Well, note that these same people become responsible for tickets as well, and we have a game around here called "the follow-up game." The follow-up game is where you create something called a follow-up related to the ticket with a date on which you are required to contact the client and let them know where you are on the ticket. What can potentially happen on the date when the game is played? The client gets an email stating the following. "Hello, I'm following up with you to let you know that this issue is still being researched."

As a client, this might seem all right. They're still working on my problem, so they haven't forgotten about me. What it really means? "Oh shoot, I completely forgot about this" or "I still don't want to deal with this" or my personal favorite "God, I hate doing follow-ups for that person who is out of the office today, so I'm going to send emails." If your email says it is "still being researched," that means nothing has been done, and you're lucky that the person even acknowledged the existence of the ticket at all.

The people who play this game do not work anything that isn't due today. They will take a call, create the ticket, create the follow-up, and then promptly forget about it until it's due, even if it's something easy or something they can legitimately hand off. I've received these tickets after two days when the person finally played the game on it, sent the "still being researched" email and then forwarded it to my queue. Gee, thanks for giving me someone who has been disacknowledged for two days.

I think it's good that there's a date associated with these, since some of these people let tickets languish for weeks before this started. However, they need to be encouraged a bit more to work these things every day and keep their personal queues clean instead of playing the follow-up game. It's just annoying.

And apologies to the Queen for more of a complaint post instead of something more interesting about life, but that's what I had on my mind as I read through ticket after ticket that said "this issue is still being researched" when I know they never bothered to even find out.