PixlBit

Today was a game and grub day. Had burgers and dogs and meatballs in mashed potatoes while playing a lot of Borderlands The Presequel, Sacred 3, and Earth Defense Force 2025. 

I just saw today that Overlord: Fellowship of Evil is coming out late September for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. I am so psyched! It does look a bit more like Diablo this time, but how can I resist the funny writing of Rhianna Pratchet, script writer for the other Overlord games and the recent Tomb Raider reimagining. I'm preordering this tomorrow even though I still don't have a current gen console. I think I might finally get a Xbox One for this though. 

Looking at the list of games I played back then, it looks like I was getting my roudy on with the N64. Game Boy Color came out, but I was not into handheld gaming at the time. I think my PC must've busted because I didn't get on Heretic 2 or Half-Life that year, not to mention Grim Fandango. Co-op gaming was still my jam and I found it in a few titles on this list. So here it is.

Who cares what was popular or what historic events happened in music in 1998. This is what I listened to. It ain't much or even all that interesting, but I really didn't have any strong feelings about the music in '98. About the most interesting thing to me looking back is this was the year Queens of the Stone Age debuted. I liked them then, but didn't follow them. Now I'd like to take a closer listen. Anyway, this is the stuff I listened to and remember well.

Yes I got that last achievement in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. What wonders a night of sleep can do. I got right back in there in the morning and bounced my way to victory. Turns out, the trick is bouncing, just like the title of the achievement "Let's Bounce" suggests. I thought getting thrown so high in the air was a problem because it's hard to hit a moving car on the way down, but if you get on a highway, there are lots of cars there moving at a steady rate, so you can figure it out after a few tries. My friend Mark still hasn't gotten it, but using the techniques that worked for me, he should have it no time. 

I finished up all but one achievement in Saint's Row: Gat Out of Hell today. The one remaining is "Let's Bounce" - In Torment Fraud, hit 5 vehicles in a row without touching the ground. Torment Fraud has you become one of the zombie-like souls that make up most of the inhabitants of this Hell. You're object is to throw yourself into traffic and cause as much damage to yourself as possible, the idea being that the more suffering you endure, the less time you will have to spend in Hell. Thus you are, in effect, defrauding Hell of the time they sentenced you to. So you waddle your way into traffic and throw yourself at the cars, and if you do it right, the impact throws you into the air and then you can somewhat control your flight and try to hit more cars, bouncing your way across the map. Well, this is easier said than done. I found the best location to do this challenge (the place with the most traffic) and tried over and over to get to 5, and so did my friend Mark. Both of us got to 4 many times but just couldn't get that last one. 

I definitely saw a lot of movies in the theater in '97. I think I was going to the theater once a week on Friday's. It's always interesting to see a movie near it's release. The theater is packed and you get to hear the reaction of the crowd. It's pretty neat. Lately I've been seeing movies in mostly empty theaters late on a Sunday, and it's just not the same. Anyway the list is kinda long so I thought I'd just list my top ten. 

Didn't read much in '97 except for an article on which a book was written by Dave Barry. The book was Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs. It was really funny. It called attention to famous song lyrics and commented on how nonsensical they were or what bad grammar they exhibited. Funny as it was, it kind of missed the point about music and lyrics. Often lyrics are chosen for their sound and how they fit well into a song. Sometimes they just don't make sense. Mostly people listen to music for the feeling it gives them - an irrational thing which doesn't often account for exact meaning or proper English. Still, it's funny to read song lyrics out of context. 

Here's what I played back then, really getting into the N64:

Here is a list of the music that I listened to back in '97.