Video games and Eric

I went to Microplay in P.A. today to buy a PS2 game. Working there was my old friend Eric, who I hadn't seen in at least two years. Probably more. We B.S.'d for a while, and then I said "Eric, I need you to sell me a game. But I don't know which game I want".

He said, "You want this one. You like RPGs, right? Of course you do. This game takes 120 hours, plus. I'm at, like, 100 hours, and it's like, when is this fucking game gonna end?"

I bought Dragon Quest 8.

I didn't realize it at the point of sale, but I'd actually played the first Dragon Quest game for the Nintendo in the late 1980s. And you know how some things just don't change? Like in Final Fantasy, even though we've gone from this




to this












there are some things set in stone, like the fundamentals of the combat system, or the names of most of the spells, or the names and properties of pretty much all the potions.

The first thing I did in Dragon Quest 8 was kill some Hershey's Kiss-shaped slimes. That brought back some memories.

So far I like DQ 8. It's very pick-up-and-playable, at least for a big RPG nrrd like me. I don't know whether or not I'll put in the 100+ hours needed to finish it, since I don't think I'll find it challenging, so I'll probably get bored. It's not real complicated, but I find it very intuitive, which is important to me, because if I'm playing a new game, and I push a button, and it doesn't do what I want it to do, I stop playing. If it takes me more than 5 minutes to figure out what I'm doing, then forget it. I'll go play Rogue.

I gotta go. "Robot Chicken" is on.

T.

ps watch "Robot Chicken". and "Bromwell High".