Invalid characterset or character set not supported Recent Stuff 10: Toothpaste





Recent Stuff 10: Toothpaste
September 01, 2015

-GAMES-

Just Cause 1 & 2: With both Mad Max and Just Cause 3 out within months from one another, I figured now would be an appropriate time to play Just Cause 1 & 2 for the first time. Yup, never played them. When it comes to video game sequels and franchises, I'm the kind of guy that likes to compare, and while I likely won't play Mad Max right away, I just don't feel comfortable jumping into Just Cause 3 without some firsthand knowledge.

The original plan was to play Just Cause 1 just a tiny bit, then go full in on the second game. However, that all changed when I played around two hours of the first game. For some reason, even though it wasn't clicking with me, I just wanted to keep playing to see how it all turns out. And, well, the rest can be read in the review. I spent a week on the game, might as well write one for it, right?

I've yet to play Just Cause 2 beyond the opening mission, and I probably won't pick it up again until mid/late September. Maybe. The only reason I tried it out was to make sure it was functioning well, because when my used copy arrived in the mail, the disc was scratched to hell, despite the online seller saying it hardly had any. Worried, I thought I could at least try to install the game, but it always stopped at 40% with an error message popping up. Frustrated and feeling I had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to do a trick I never tried before: clean the disc with toothpaste.

Rubbed the paste on in straight lines with a stack of toilet paper, let it sit for 20-some minutes, washed it off, dried the disc, plopped it back in the machine, installed....... and it went all the way to 100%. Never thought it would actually work. Edit: the method I did was to only use standard paste, as gel or or other types won't do any good. Also, pretty please don't get upset if you actually try to use this trick, based on my success with it, and it doesn't work for you and/or it damages your system. I simply took a risk.

Chicken Run: I thought it would be cute to do a Metal Gear-related review on the day MGSV:TPP comes out (Sept. 1st), and after some thinking, I went for Chicken Run. Plus, it would also double as a Dreamcast review, an annual, personal tradition I try to keep up every September. Picking this game was a horrible mistake.

The game arrived on the 26th, which gave me a few nights to mess with it and write a review, but after the third night, I REALLY started having regrets. However, it was way too late to start anything else up in time, which made it more frustrating when I realized a PS4 digital game called Volume was released a week before. Apparently, it's also heavily inspired by the older Metal Gear Solid titles. Argh, missed opportunity! Not wanting to feel defeated, I went ahead with the Chicken Run review, and you can see the finished product here.

Not much else played since my last blog entry. I did a little bit of Zombie Army Trilogy again on the 31st to nab an online-related trophy, just in case it would be hard to get later on. Afterwards, did a brief session of Ground Zeroes to get reacquainted with the controls so it won't feel like I'll stumble through The Phantom Pain's opening parts. Hopefully... Not to mention, I'm trying really, really hard to avoid spoilers for the game, which is SURPRISINGLY hard. I go into comment sections for unrelated YouTube videos, and people are just flatout talking about MGSV. This is gonna be rough for the next few days.

Oh, by the way, there was a literal last second update done to Ground Zeroes, at least for the PS4, that placed an additional option on the menu screen. It's a transfer option that loads your saved data to PSN, so you can transfer it over to TPP.

-MOVIES-

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation: FINALLY got to see it two weeks ago. It's a fun spy movie with all types of stuff going on. Though, after thinking about the movie afterwards, it did feel kinda like it was repeating the plot of Ghost Protocol, albeit with different results. I still think Ghost Protocol is the better experience, but I'll have to rewatch it to be sure. Still, Rogue Nation, for being the fifth in a movie franchise, is impressive.

SPOILERS(??) (also, nothing else after this)

I don't really consider this a spoiler, but that's there just in case. I'm really surprised no one who has watched the movie brought up a very specific piece of dialogue uttered towards the end of the film. When I first heard it, I was stunned, and the woman a few rows in front of me couldn't stop giggling, too. Basically, there are these people in a room, and when one tries to leave, another guy tries to get him to stay, and makes a compelling argument. Which makes it all the more astonishing that he ends his speech with, and I'm paraphrasing, "Sir, Ethan Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny!"

I... I mean, did Tom Cruise write that line himself? Is he going to turn into a superhero and save the whole world in the next film? Whew.

That's it. See ya.

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Suskie Suskie - September 02, 2015 (02:52 AM)
Apparently people in the UK were getting mailed their copies of MGSV early due to some holiday or something, and it seemed like a third of the people on my Twitter feed had already dumped a couple dozen hours into the game before it launched. Thankfully, I follow cool people so none of them have spoiled anything. I hope that keeps up because I really don't want to rush MGSV.

I actually think Rogue Nation is the best movie in the series -- best cast, best pacing. A big problem that I had with Ghost Protocol was that it kind of ran out of steam after the Dubai sequence. This one didn't do that.
JoeTheDestroyer JoeTheDestroyer - September 02, 2015 (03:47 AM)
I have yet to see the Mission: Impossible series, and I've wanted to. I've always heard the first movie was the least good, and I haven't exactly relished the thought of devoting time to it. Granted, it's probably not bad, but still...
joseph_valencia joseph_valencia - September 02, 2015 (03:56 AM)
That's weird. People generally hate the second movie rather than the first one. As far as I know, the most vocal hate for the first film comes from fans of the TV series, due to a certain infamous plot twist. I personally love the original. The scene where Tom Cruise is dangling on wires is a classic. Danny Elfman's score is easily one of the best he's ever written, too.
dementedhut dementedhut - September 02, 2015 (04:45 AM)
Yeah, I'm trying to take my time with MGSV, too. I think I've spent five hours with it so far, and most of that time was wandering around the map or taking my sweet time sneaking into guarded places in side missions.

As for Mission: Impossible 1, for some reason, I can't remember most parts of it. I always remember the action set-pieces, but if you were to ask me the plot, I couldn't help ya there. Maybe I should do a marathon of the series for a refresher. And yeah, Mission: Impossible 2 is undoubtedly the hardest to sit through for me. John Woo directed the film, and it seems like he tried waaaayyyyy too hard to make the movie "hip and cool."
honestgamer honestgamer - September 02, 2015 (08:44 AM)
I would be way too scared to try the toothpaste trick. I would just find another copy of the game that needed it, I think!
sashanan sashanan - September 03, 2015 (01:05 AM)
I have only dared attempt the toothpaste trick on games where everything else had failed, and I had nothing left to lose. The time or two that I got to this point, they were beyond the help of toothpaste also. I never got them to work at that point.

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