New Crap Bought For Free

With $120 in credit at Electronics Boutique positively burning a hole in ye old slacks, I simply had to buy something. In some cases, I'm a very patient fellow - in others, like purchases (or "products nearly already paid for", in the case of credit), I want something now, now, now. Mail order is the devil, and no price is too high for next day air shipping.

Either way, I bought Dragon Ball Z: Budokai today, along with a new PS2 controller (oh so green!). I've never watched DBZ before, but I'm a fan of fighting games (although, a specific kind - it can't be insanely hectic like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, nor can it be super technical like Virtua Fighter 4, both of which I own). Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is borderline perfect (although it suffers for suck-ass fatalities, of which each character only has one [ONE?!], but almost makes up for it with its 600+ secrets in the Krypt). With that digression out of the way, DBZ looked fun enough, with a healthy dose of advancement (skills, which are almost as good as secrets).

As for the new controller, it's a replacement for an old, severely beaten upon PS1 controller. I remember the first time I spiked that into the floor out of pure rage (I think due to dying at a crucial point in Dark Cloud, of which the cel-shaded sequel soon arrives) - one of the analog sticks was popping out of its socket. As the pain of what I'd done set in, it was slowly overpowered by victory as I rudely snapped things back into place. I thought things were perfect, until I played a game with vibration feedback.

Ever played Steel Talons? It's an old helicopter arcade sim, one of the first I encountered that had what we now call "force feedback" (Atari, at the time, called it "Rump-Thump"). The "force feedback" was, in words I won't forget uttering, "like a baseball bat being shoved up your ass". It literally felt like some little garden gnome was underneath your seat and, with a big metal pipe, hitting the ceiling in an attempt to dissuade your ass from ever sitting there again. It was memorable. I played a few more times, for the glee, than Steel Talons never stole my change again. That's what this controller now feels like whenever vibration kicks in - it clucks like a chicken and feels like ass. I'm glad I don't have that many physical friends - they'd never want to two player.

Hey look, I posted on a Saturday. How quaint.