About Some Things Ending

Last week, I suggested that I might not be able to get a full 100% score for item collection in Metroid: Other M. I should have had more faith in the game's designers. The area that was blocked off in the main routes is the area you escape through once the absolute final boss is defeated.

I defeated the final, final boss - Super Missiles are the key - trotted off to the lift, got stuck, Power Bombed my way out, dropped down...

...rolled into the vent shaft wrapped around the lift shaft to pick up that final missile tank...

...Got into the control booth in the operations room, shared an intimate moment between Samus and Adam's Helmet (steady on! No double-entendre intended!), then escaped the Bottle Ship in about 3 minutes.

I absolutely loved Metroid: Other M. While certain parts were utterly frustrating until I learned the key technique for defeating certain creatures, the story was engaging and the format of the game was clever, and managed to never put me off entirely, no matter how annoying certain parts got.

As for Samus, her characterisation was anything but weak. Showing her to be a realistic character, with fears, a traumatic past and emotional attachments (confused as they were - was Adam just a father figure?) brought her to life in a way that the old NES/SNES games, and even the Prime trilogy, never could.

Now if only Konami would make a Castlevania game in a similar style, rather than going all-out 3D...

And then, The Fades.

Troubled as I was by the plot holes (for example, Fades cannot touch, or be touched by, the living, and yet Jon was somehow able to become something more than a ghost when his former wife's blood dripped onto him/into his mouth?) they never harmed my enjoyment of the show, because the whole rose far above the sum of its parts. I should have been hokey, but it wasn't. Some of the performances seemed stiff or weak or wooden, and yet the characters stood up well, and were believable. At the centre of the story was the brilliantly geeky friendship between Mac and Paul - closer siblings than Paul and his biological sister.

One point (of many) that I found particularly vague in the final episode was about Sarah's brief return to husband Mark. It was hinted that she had an affair with Neil and, yes, she returned to her husband as a flesh-hungry Reborn... but how did they go from spending the night together, to Mark running off with Vicky, who he barely knows? I half expected to see her mopping up some black saliva just before they drove off...

We still don't know much about The Angelics (except that they possibly don't quite live up to their title), or what the deal is with Paul's resurrection and his wings, but the end of episode six was suitably ominous, and seems to indicate more to come in the future... I, for one, will be watching.

Unexpectedly Weird

Perhaps it's not surprising that, given nearly a full week of work in an actual office, my subconscious thoughts return to my old job, particularly given that we are edging ever closer to the one year anniversary of my redundancy in December.

The length, depth and detail of the dream were surprising, however. Normally, I find dreams swim from subject to subject, setting to setting, blurring into each other like switching TV channels with a fader switch. Not so, this time.

It was almost like being back in the office (though the layout was different, so not exactly the same office) on a press day that was also another 'final farewell' to me and my former boss. We'd been called back (again) to pull their fat out of a particularly fervid fire, but there was a large presentation screen in one area of the office, upon which was scrolling (amongst other things) the text of my last farewell message to the company.

The order of events is a bit messy in my head right now – it was a dream, after all – but things that happened included:

• Me adding a final note of absolute finality to my farewell message (telling those who remained that I wouldn't miss “you fuckers”) which drew a few gasps but mainly laughs.
• Me telling everyone what a useless, lazy tosser one of the Editorial Designers was while he was sitting only a few feet away, and well within earshot. Yes, it was deliberate.
• A long and detailed argument about 'how to be an effective boss' between my former boss and the woman who was in charge of the company when we departed, which started when the latter offered some nebulous words of encouragement at the sight of the former sagging against a cupboard because of some new disaster wrought by the salespeople.

This last point was where it got incredibly complicated. My former boss responded along the lines of “don't you dare 'come on' me... one of the reasons I'm back here again is because you're virtually never in the fucking office.”
“I've got a lot of important meetings to go to,” was the other's cheerily insincere retort.

My former boss argued with great erudition that it was hardly setting a good example for the new staff that the person in overall charge of all their publications was never around, and the other simply prevaricated.

It was just so real, I tell you...

Creepy

Every so often, when travelling around this fair city of London, you'll happen upon something so outstandingly creepy that you think you've stumbled into some bizarre 'reality' TV thing, or that someone is playing a very elaborate practical joke on the whole world.

For example, picture a man in his 30s. He has shoulder-length, curly ginger hair, a well-groomed moustache and a sliver of a beard gracing his chin. His fashion sense hovers dangerously close to Doctor Who. He's legally blind, and carries a white stick, but seems to rarely need it ('legally blind' is far from being truly blind). He wears a monocular on a cord around his neck.

Place this man on a crowded train - standing, quite deliberately, and declining any seat offered up by other passengers - then imagine him repeatedly singing the same couple of lines and the chorus of a certain song by The Beatles ('Hey Bulldog', if you want the specifics).

Observe as, whenever a blonde appears in his field of vision, the monocular is raised to one eye, so he can check her out properly.

Really?

Did I really see that today?

I'm sorry, but I did.

And I cannot unsee it.

And just to make it worse, when one (female) passenger offered him a seat before taking it herself, he then leaned over to ask her to do 'one small thing' for him: confirm which station the train was currently in. He named the station, you understand, she merely said "yes".

Creepy? I think so.

I mean, let's face it, there are sighted people who cannot tell what station they're in... One would expect a blind person to be counting them off from memory. It's a function. It helps them live as normal a life as they can hope for.

He didn't lift the monocular for her, though. She was a brunette.

In other news, another short term, holiday-cover job came to a close today - same place as last time - and was actually heaps of fun. There really isn't enough work involved in the first three days to warrant the attention of a full-timer. Were it not for some minimal design work, some troubleshooting and the necessity to exercise my inner fascist by badgering a problem client for a sign-off, I'd have been quite thoroughly bored.

Today, I had to chase in advertisements for next week's issue, and could have called that done by about 10.30-11am. Of course, some of the copy arrived, so I was able to check and process it. There were other tasks that popped up unexpectedly during the day, best described as 'miscellaneous', and it was interesting to note that people expected me to know how to do certain 'Thursday' tasks, despite the fact that I'd only worked there once before, and never on a Thursday.

Then again, it tends to be the case that people assume I know how to do everything because I do what I do know so well.

Ah, the tribulations of being awesome.

Further to the previous entry, about Metroid: Other M... it turns out I may not be able to get a 100% rating, because I've missed a missile tank in the main sector. It's somewhere in the lift shaft that gets you to the main, inter-sector lift shaft... a room that is basically semi-circular in plan view, and the missile tank appears to be behind the lift shaft, an area which is inaccessible. So it's either above or below, and I see no way of accessing either... Troublesome...

OK, I cheated...

...and looked up the very end of New Game Plus in Metroid: Other M. The 'something irreplaceable' is Adam Malkovich's helmet, left behind in all the action.

I'm very glad I did look it up because, as well as revealing how to get some of the trickier items, it showed me a quicker way of defeating the 'Power Bomb Doors' (which aren't doors!), and what awaits me if I actually intend to go for 100% completion.

Already, I have 100% in two of the five game areas, and an astonishingly low 33% in the last area to open up in the main game, so I've got an awful lot of catching up to do.

Actually getting to the very end may not be entirely necessary, so I'm not going to rush it. Just defeating the Metroid Queen and MB opens up Gallery Mode and Theatre Mode, the latter offering all the pre-rendered movie sequences in proper DVD scene menu style - you can 'Play All' and see 'Metroid: Other M, The Movie' (cleverly filling in the bits between movies with snippets of recorded gameplay), or dip in and choose the specific scenes (of which there are many). Clearly, completing the Plus game completes the movie with the after-credits extras, and each Power Bomb Door defeated seems to open up more artwork in Gallery Mode (or perhaps that's just filled out by increasing your percentage in area).

Still, much fun... I'm not really looking forward to 'the gauntlet' that serves as a run-up to the Plus game's final (for reals this time!) boss, or the timed escape (one of my most loathed gameplay features), but I think I should be able to do it...

Probably not this coming week, of course, but hopefully sometime soon.

New Game Plus

And so we have another momentous occasion this weekend. No, nothing to do with having a week's work in an office next week. Nothing to do with real life at all, in fact.

Today, I completed Metroid: Other M.

And, when I say 'completed', I mean the first run. Once the credits have rolled through, you're launched straight back into 'New Game Plus', in which you return to the Bottle Ship with all the weapons you gained during the first run, including the Power Bombs (received unannounced during the battle with the Metroid Queen) for a whole new - probably shorter - mission.

The battle with the game's (sorta) final boss is probably the most annoying of the lot and, frankly, I found most of the boss battles annoying as there's no real hint system, and the method for taking each one down is unique to that creature. Sure, there's much usage of Charge Shots for each one, but the use of bombs, missiles or super missles is never really explained beforehand and, for players like me, that means an awful lot of death and frustration, followed by a quick look at a walkthrough or a Let's Play to explain the correct method.

And, even then, my technique sucks. The Metroid Queen shoots out first one Metroid, then two, then three... and, unless you take out each wave quickly, you end up surrounded by six of the little bastards, each of whom can suddenly divebomb you and sap huge amounts of health before you can transform into Morph Ball mode and bomb them into letting you go.

But, still, the end of the first run is suitably epic (read: a long movie sequence), with a little bit of player-controlled action (read: an annoying first-person targetting sequence with no clear goal) in the middle.

I know there was a lot of controversy about Samus' first speaking role in a Metroid game, but I'm one of the supporters. There was a video, made by a fan, explaining how Other M does not, in fact, ruin the character of Samus because she was never 'stoic', she just didn't have any dialogue. While I would opine that the voice acting could have been... how I can put this?.. a little less narcoleptic, the character they created for Samus was very human and believable. The punk kid who felt like she had something to prove because she was the only girl in her team, and aliens killed her parents, grows to become a lone bounty-hunter after a disagreement with her CO/father figure. Meeting up with him on this mission again reminds her of everything they shared - good and bad. It's OK for this 'all-powerful space hero' to show some self-doubt, let alone outright fear in the face of the creature who killed her family... who wouldn't?

The title always puzzled me and, thankfully, it's explained very well at the end, but skip this paragraph if you're spoiler-averse: The game's intro presents a new perspective on the climactic battle between Samus and Mother Brain from one of the SNES Metroid games, and 'MB' becomes something of a recurring motif thereafter. The person in charge of the research on the Bottle Ship is Madeline Bergman, she creates and artificial intelligence to mimmic Mother Brain's telepathic control of the Metroids. This AI is called 'MB', and is eventually installed into an android, which takes the name 'Melissa Bergman'... hence becoming the 'other M' Bergman.

The final movie, before the credits rolled, almost made me shed a tear or two, with Samus giving a deliberately uncharacteristic thumbs-up "in case Adam was watching", followed by the appearance of a silhouette of her traditional thumbs-down, courtesy of former team-mate Anthony, made me think - just for a moment - that Adam Malkovich had somehow survived.

Then again, when 'New Game Plus' begins, Samus informs us that she's headed back to the Bottle Ship to rescue "something that can't be replaced"... And until I complete New Game Plus, I won't know what that is unless I watch a Let's Play of that...

So, anyway... that means I've now completed:

Another Code: R

Western Heroes (debatable - I still think it just crashed)

Muramasa: Demon Blade (Kisuke's story #1)

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (first run, Lost Love ending)

Metroid: Other M (first run)

Which is pretty respectable... and also suggests that games have become easier over the years... I know the first two are actually aimed at kids (hell, the first even comes across like a reading course), and I played Muramasa in 'easy mode' (if there truly is such a thing in that game) but, bar one particularly challenging part, the Wii Silent Hill game is fairly easy to complete, though getting 100% would be tricky, and Other M, as previously mentioned, has some exceptionally tricky bosses which suddenly become quite easy when you know how to defeat them. Not completely easy... but easy enough...

If I remember correctly, all of those games except Western Heroes have a 'New Game Plus'... Muramasa has a completely different story, and Shattered Memories has 3 different 'standard' endings, but completing the game once unlocks the 'UFO' ending. It's always nice when there's a reason to return to a game, rather than just shelve it or trade it in.

In other news, I'm becoming typically terrified about my week of temping... even though I've worked there once before. I know it'll be fine once I get there, but I'm becoming a bundle of nerves in the lead-up.

Possibly a symptom of this was the nightmare I had last night, which played out like a Halloween sequel. Police were investigating a murder (or murders) and determined that the culprit was none other than Michael Myers... but they hadn't reckoned on the fact that he was living in the building they were using as the headquarters for their investigation... so, in typical fashion, the police officers were systematically (and brutally) murdered themselves. Don't remember too many other details... but it woke me up at around 6.30... though I had little trouble getting back to sleep afterward.

Rootless Endeavour

Not too long ago, I woke up with a terrible toothache and, paying a visit to my dentist, learned that I would need a root canal operation.

The first stage of that operation was supposed to be today, and I had intended to attempt to dissuade the dentist from going through with it. After all, if I lose the nerve in that tooth, I'll never know if anything else has gone wrong until it's too late.

Pretty much her first question, before I'd even sat down, was about the results of the antibiotic she'd prescribed last time. When I told her the pain cleared up within a couple of days, and hadn't returned since, she decided against the root canal operation almost immediately. The X-ray had been "inconclusive" and, upon reflection, the fact that the problem tooth is flanked by other teeth which, while also fractured, were not experiencing any pain, suggested that there was no need for anything as drastic as a root canal.

Phew.

So, instead, I had a mold taken of my lower jaw, and will be fitted for a mouth guard next time. These apparently wear down over time (and can end up being basically eaten, she reckoned), so I get to keep the mold of my teeth so that replacements can be made when each guard wears out.

On another note, my 'Thought for the Day': What kind of world are we living in when Imperial Leather is a cheaper brand than Radox?

A Utility Bill That, For Once, Isn't Terrifying

I'm not sure what's behind it all, but the last few utility bills I've had - both Gas and Electric, but mostly the bloody Gas - have been positively cryogenic in their spine-chilling, bloody-freezing horror. I've had to call my supplier to confirm the numbers because surely they couldn't be adding up correctly?

But they were... and, of course, the rises in cost of energy supply - again, mostly the bloody Gas - have been pretty darned steep over the last couple of years.

So, when I received an emailed reminder from my supplier, that they needed up-to-date readings from me, lest my next bill be the most-dreaded 'Estimate', I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by a tidal wave of pure joy.

Thankfully, after the last couple of scares (one of which, I must confess, was down to a bill that came through based on Estimates, because the readings I had supplied had somehow become lost in the system and, although the support person I spoke to was able to find them, I supplied new readings that day) I have been keeping record of my readings on my calendar, so I can more easily refer back to the previous each time I take down the new.

And, what a surprise...

My Electricity reading, since the last bill, has ticked on only 760 units, despite my heavy computer usage, frequent usage of the Wii and television while the computer is also on, and occasional instances of the TV being left on (in Standby Mode) overnight. I suspect that, even if my supplied had not elected to increase my Direct Debit 'contribution', I'd still be in credit there.

The Gas reading, though, was amazing. Now, granted, I've been very scrupulous since the last bill and the massive increase in my DD payment (not quite double what I signed up to a few years ago). When it's been 'a bit chilly' at home (and, just as often, it's fairly warm outside), I've been putting on a jumper rather than turning on the heating. Summer, such as it was, remained reasonably warm even on the cloudy/rainy days and, even now, in the chill winds of October, it's not cold enough to warrant the use of the central heating.

So... when I did my sums and realised that, in almost half a year, I've used only 67 units of gas, I was over the moon. Considering how much use I've been getting out of the hob recently (occasionally more than was strictly necessary due to my inexperience), and that doing the washing up also requires hot water from the boiler, I was surprised to find I've been using only a little more than a third of a unit per day, on average.

I had been worried that, given the timing of my 6-monthly bills (April/October), there would never be a time when I'd receive a 'light' bill because I'd be coming out of winter from one, and gearing up for winter in the other. It doesn't help that I feel cold if the temperature falls below 22C (I kid thee not!), but reaching for warmer clothes rather than cranking up the heating really has made a difference... and now I'm tempted to see how far I can stretch that system.

Looking back on the days when I lived with my folks, it's easy to laugh at how naive (stupid?) I was. Whenever I saw my mother wandering about the house in a jumper and a cardigan, I asked her why she didn't just put the heating up if she was cold.

Now I have to pay the bill myself, it's all rather obvious.

Deja Vu Whilst Shopping

And it wasn't even my deja vu.

There I was, restocking my freezer in Iceland and then, as I started bagging stuff up at the checkout, the girl at the counter said "Oh my God... Deja vu... That's so scary."

So, naturally, I asked her to elaborate.

It was brought about by my red carrier bag, a particular box in amongst my shopping, and a particular arrangement of people nearby.

I can't quite see how that was scary, but I've had my fair share of deja vu experiences, and they're pretty unsettling.

Woke up very late today - almost lunchtime - so, by the time I'd showered and got ready to do the shopping, I was already looking at a late lunch. It was well after two before I finally had some food, thanks to the restocking trip, and I didn't even get everything I intended to get.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow...

Not Fading

So, another series of Doctor Who draws to a close, and the Time Lord's inevitable death is inevitably avoided. I must confess that, despite the circulation of rumours about the next series, I was beginning to harbour doubts. Perhaps it had been cancelled because of all those cries of "it's too complicated!" Perhaps Mr Moffat had decided to go out on a high, safe in the knowledge that even the worst episode under his control was better than the best RTD ever oversaw (even ignoring the fact that the best episodes under RTD's control had been written by Moffat).

But no.

He'd been playing us all along. Misdirection is one of his favourite tools. When a 'clone' Doctor was created and later destroyed in one two-part story, and the Doctor hinted that his 'ganger might yet be 'reconstituted', it seemed logical to extrapolate that the Doctor killed on the shores of Lake Silencio was the fake one... but that was just Moffat setting us up for a complete sucker punch of a finale.

It seems amazing to me that the story of River Song, a character introduced way back when David Tennant's Doctor was shouting and generally being an arrogant twat, was a thread woven deeply and subtly into the very fabric of this new Doctor. Some parts of her story - as presented in this series - could have used some fleshing out, but I suspect she's not done yet, even if we have seen her beginnings and her very final end. The long running question was whether she had been married to the Doctor (as was strongly hinted by her first appearance) or whether she was (very loosely) imprisoned for killing the Doctor. While it seems that the answer is "both", there's still some mileage in explaining the specifics of their relationship.

But, brilliant as all that is, there's obviously far more to come because, while we've learned more about The Silence, their story is far from over... we've heard dark hints about a question that must not be asked, and it's even been explicitly stated that just such a question is going to be asked. We even know what that question - hidden in plain sight - actually is, thanks to the last few moments of this series' final episode: "Doctor who?"

Quite a long wait for the next series, maybe... but there's always the Christmas Special...

Meanwhile, we have reached the halfway mark in BBC3's new 6-part supernatural thriller, The Fades, and it's still very impressive and enjoyable. Admittedly part of its charm is the geeky interplay between the protagonist, Paul, and his best friend, Mac. There are perhaps some alarming plot holes (at least, things which have not been explained yet), but I actually find myself thinking "so what?" because it's such a brilliant piece of television, not least because it's on the BBC.

It also speaks volumes for the writing of the show that, when it decided to show two of its characters, Paul and Jay - a member of his sister's high school clique - having sex, it wasn't the typical, distasteful, gratuitous grind-a-thon that has become de rigeur in contemporary television (I'm looking at you, Torchwood, Camelot, and almost anything by Starz, among other US companies). It was a sweet, tender and, above all, honest presentation of an awkward first-time experience. It didn't go on any longer than necessary, and showed far more character than the sweaty close-ups and demonstrations of coital gurning favoured by other shows.

Even the subsequent conversation between Paul and Mac about 'the deed' was more genuine in its heartfelt awkwardness than is typical for television.

It's almost unheard of for me to be left reeling and speechless by a mere TV show, but the end of episode three accomplished just that: with the protagonist in critical condition in hospital and a 'ghost' emerging - in living human form - from a fleshy cocoon, I just haven't a clue where the story is going to go from here.

That's a new feeling...

...And I like it.