to come into existence

fe awakening finally out in australia. aww yeah.

Wow, so I haven't posted here in a long time.

Um. Not much has changed. I played Alan Wake finally and really enjoyed it, even if Alan is kind of absolutely a massive dick. Will pick up the DLC when I am a bit more financially solid. Replaying DAII now on Nightmare mode after finally making a One True Warden save, so that's nice. Husband also just played DAII for the first time, so it's been a very Dragon Age-themed household for a few weeks. I thought for a brief time that I might manage to not romance Fenris, and was planning to hold out for Sebastian, but then I got distracted and flirted with Fen anyway. Sigh.

Watching husband begin Final Fantasy VII now. I hope he'll like it, because he was uncertain about DAII and then really enjoyed it so I don't want to break my streak.

As for reality, uh. Everything's just sort of milling along. I should go back to work soon but the future's so up in the air that I don't want to apply for work until I know what's going on... and I guess I'm enjoying not feeling like crap for the first time in like a year. I'm still trying to work out uni, anyway. I'm enrolled in a Masters of Social Work but I kind of hate the university, and there's a Bachelor of Laws/Theology course at another uni that I'm interested in. But there's something to be said for incumbency. idk.

Alex is going really well, though! She's smiling and starting to make babbling noises. It's really, really cute. :)

Husband and I are trying out playing various games that we've had sitting around forever and either haven't played at all or haven't played for years, to decide whether to keep or trade them. We're giving each game between fifteen minutes and half an hour. I played Dead Island (almost wrote Dad Island there), which is essentially a Very Serious Dead Rising but actually quite fun once you get used to the questionable accents; Prototype 1, which husband hates because he thinks Mercer is a twat but I quite liked because Mercer is a twat; Kingdom Hearts 358 1/2 Days which made me intensely fond of Axel in the 15 minutes I spent playing it where every other KH game failed to do so; Lux-Pain which was probably very nice except for the dull, confusing translation; and Lost Odyssey, which I am still a bit ambivalent towards but think I will probably enjoy once I give it a proper go. He played Sonic Generations and Star Ocean 4 (which he hated), and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and Uncharted 2 (which he liked).

Okay now that I'm done talking about that, everyone should go buy this because okay I understand like no-one on my flist reads comics but IF YOU DID you would really like Secret Six which is about a mismatched group of mercenary psycopaths going on misadventures with funny lines and homoerotic subtext (it has Bane in it, and he is similar to DKR!Bane in humour if not character, motivation and backstory. and honestly he's way better characterised in S6 than he is in friggin' Knightfall). And IF YOU DID read Secret Six you would really like it, and this is by the same creative team.

...

seriously if anyone ever thinks about trying out any comics do yourself a favour and read it. and then buy this too. k im done.

I haven't really gotten into playing games much in awhile, but yesterday I decided to jump back on the horse, so to speak. Husband and I started playing Heavy Rain last night... finished it today after being basically unable to put it down. Seriously, we played it until midnight, finally put it down to sleep, and then woke up first thing to play it again. And talked about it while going to sleep. And after it was finished sat talking about it for another hour. ( The ending we got, for any interested parties. )

I was really, really skeptical of the whole concept of interactive movie games. I repeatedly expressed incredulity that my husband could find Asura's Wrath at all interesting. I'm, to be frank, not very good at getting invested in media to begin with. I can get caught up in the emotion of a scene, but it rarely stays with me for long, and I have difficulty holding interest for very long at all. I find it very difficult to even follow TV shows because I can't focus on just watching the screen for a full hour. By extension, I doubted the ability of video games to inspire in me anything more than the same detached interest and admiration I feel while watching good movies or reading good books - the interactivity of the experience was a relevant factor in theory, but I couldn't imagine that translating into honest-to-god immersion. But now, finally, years after much of the rest of the world, I get it. And I want more.

We also have LA Noire, as of yet unplayed, but I want to wait a little while. Either it won't be anywhere near as good as Heavy Rain and the contrast will be unfair, or it'll be as good/better than Heavy Rain. Either way, I want it to last. So I'm back to playing Mafia II for a little while; I'm sure I'll finish it eventually. Husband is playing Mass Effect (now up to 3) with an ultra-Paragon Infiltrator m!Shep. He liased with Miranda in 2, but now apparently has designs on Ashley. I'm trying to steer him towards Cortez, but I don't seem to be selling it very well. Am curious to see the extended cut endings in an actual game as opposed to on YT, but all I can really muster now is a dull frustration.

Getting a chance to update is pretty hard. Not even because we're super busy, but I keep thinking of it only as I'm going to sleep or whatever. Thanks for everyone's well wishes :) Baby is just over two weeks old now. Her name's Alexandra, and she was born big and healthy. (Almost 4.2kg and 53cm, or in confusing-measurement terms, 9.2 pounds and 20.8 inches.) Labour was not too bad but it is not an experience I would recommend. Anasthesia is not nearly as reliable as I had been led to believe by others. We're settling in nicely now. Husband is on uni holidays and I can't go back to work yet, so we're spending most of our time nesting in the lounge. We have been marathoning The West Wing to the extent that leaving the theme music playing acts as a fairly reliable lullaby. Also playing a lot of Civilization, which is more or less what kept me sane in the hospital. (I did not so much sleep during my stay there as fall unconscious between turns.)

Honestly I think I'm becoming really really boring. Have a bit of random insomnia right now, but it's actually kinda nice being up alone; husband and baby sleeping in next room, so it's not like I'm missing anything. Fuck, I'm domestic.

Haven't played the ME3 extended cut yet, and will probably just yt the endings at some point. I don't have enough points on my multiplayer to get the good endings, and the reports about whether the multi prereqs have been changed are really contradictory, so I'm not getting my hopes up too high. I've been pretty disillusioned with the ending since I realised that 2/3 choices begin with the thesis "so Saren/TIM actually had a pretty good idea...". Also still bitter about Jacob and other mances getting so thoroughly shafted; didn't notice it on the first playthrough because I'd Liaramanced. I still like Liaramance best, but it sucks no-one else got what they wanted.

But hey, BioWare endings, never that good. One of my favourite things about finishing any BioWare game is watching husband rage over the ending even though he didn't play the game in question. I think he was more pissed about the ME3 ending than I was.

uhhh long entry is long so I'll just finish it with; watched him play Lollipop Chainsaw. Somewhat conflicted about it on a gender studies level, but it didn't look like that enjoyable a game, so I guess that's that. Gotta give Suda51 props for style, though. Next game I'm looking out for is Sleeping Dogs because idk I must have all sandbox crime games, even if it takes me forever to play them. (Still going on Mafia II ffs.)

Baby is officially three days late. Have been going a bit mad with impatience, but today had induction scheduled for next Friday. I'll be in hospital from next Thursday, but hopefully the whole business can be averted by the baby showing up herself. Kinda over all the excitement. This site about sums it up. Not that I blame people for being excited, it's just... draining. It's all anyone really talks to us about any more, even family and friends, I'm physically in pain almost all the time, and late pregnancy mood swings are fucking disconcerting on a level I've never experienced before. Seriously, this is not just "I am mopier than usual" or "dawwww cute baby", it's "I am euphoric/in a fugue for no reason whatsoever, and knowing this does not empower me to change it at all". It's disturbing and, I guess to a certain extent, an insight into difficulties other people face every day. At the risk of being Captain Obvious, it's amazing what one takes for granted.

Anyway. Been playing Dead Rising 2: Off The Record while husband plays DR2 classic. It's been an interesting comparison so far. I'd forgotten how many little improvements are in OTR, like freezing the screen to check the Scoops. I'm in a sad place right now where, aside from Lollipop Chainsaw, there really aren't any games I'm looking forward to for quite awhile. Resident Evil 6 is probably the next one; while I like watching Assassin's Creed, it's firmly husband's thing and not mine. (In the same way that Bioware games in general are my thing. I'm... not sure whether I got the raw end of that deal or not.)

That probably makes me look like some kind of zombie maniac, but it's more that releases I'm interested in are pretty thin on the ground. I'll pick up the new Devil May Cry game (which part isn't capitalised again?) because I'm a glutton for punishment, but I'll try and not get it at launch at least. Unless the demo is insanely good or something. This is not just because of the aesthetically-displeasing redesign, but also because DMC4 was a pretty huge disappointment, and I am really sick of picking up sequels at launch and hating them. Why hello there, FFXIII-2. Was it half an hour I played of you? Felt like longer, but... idk. Maybe I'm just a big grump.

Finished replay of Dragon Age: Origins. Kind of disappointed in it, tbh. ( Spoilers, obvs. ) Considering playing Awakenings even though it's essentially what's wrong with DA:O and DA2, but might either skip that and just play DA2 or play something else entirely. Baby is kicking way too much for me to concentrate on anything right now, omg.

( A whole lot of talk about babies. )

On a completely different and much sillier note, about six months ago I bought a new copy of Dead Rising to replace my old one, which suffered the "lent to friend I don't see any more" fate. Went to play it yesterday - turns out the copy is NTSC. I don't even know where I bought it, let alone have a receipt, and one of the three candidates has since closed down. So now I'm still down a copy of Dead Rising and I've got an NTSC version. Don't suppose anyone wants it? Don't even worry about paying postage, it's useless to me anyway.

Edit: There's also a copy of Disgaea 3 for PS3, same story.

Husband and I have been doing a Saints Row retrospective and it has made me very reflective and thoughtful. I had a long and involved dream last night about waking up back in time and fixing various past mistakes. Woke up feeling a lot better about some things that happened in the past than I have in a long time, so that's nice.

(Saints Row might sound like a weird thing to spark such sober self-reflection, but 2 is more or less the game we bonded over shortly after beginning to go out, and thus carries an improbably high emotional weight as it's always been 'our' thing. Also it's fucking awesome.)

Woke up feeling pretty good and energetic today. Am paranoid this means labour is imminent, as it is apparently preceded by a burst of energy. Which, for me, being able to wander around the house qualifies as. I guess it'll happen when it happens.

gastro during pregnancy is really, really unfair. haven't my internal organs been abused enough already?

just throwing that out there, universe.