So, yesterday I came home from work, and I played some Strider 2.

I haven't played any of that since the night I broke it off with my second fiancee. After last night I remember why. As opposed to the editors of Gamespot, I can never quite put my finger on what I don't like about a game.

I have precious little time to play games, because I use my disposable time commuting, doing chores, and spending time with a living, breathing attractive woman: my wife. So, playing games have become more of a distraction lately.

With a decline in my health right now, I think I may have more time. Speaking of which, i need to finish my work so I can go home and rest.

What's up with OZ?

Yeah, it is a new game trailer posted today. It has its own gamespace. . .but no details.

Looks cool, in that 3rd-person action, beat-em-up sort of way. Nice trailer.

Let's see. . .what would I like to pontificate about now?

Ah yes, the deteriorating RPG content problem. I remember when the worst thing about RPGs was the language. Occasionally your 8-bit avatar or his associates would cough up a "Damn" or a "Hell" in non-Sunday-School contexts. Now, we conservative connoisseurs of character classes have diminishing possibilities for our favorite genre.

Did I have a problem with Cloud's hair (FFVII)? No.

Was it offensive that i had to play a battle-card game in FFIX? Not really.

Was it a problem I had to play underwaterball with a bunch of guys in order to get Wakka's best Ball in FFX? Yes, but that was only due to my preference against sports games (much to my roommates' dismay).

What really bothers me is the degradation of great content in games these days. Yeah, it is pretty much on par with the decline of worthy cinema. The best-written movies are most often the ones with "that one scene" which discerning tastes tend to eschew.

So we see an increase in the best games having content that is objectionable to a conscientous conservative moral mooring.

Shadow Hearts boasts an impressive storyline, improved combat system, FFX-like gameplay and. . . the addition of homo-erotic porn peddling as a side quest scenario. This is abhorrent! In order for me to outfit my characters in the best defensive attire I have to trade offensive content in support of disturbed individuals' amoral behavior. Who was the red-diaper baby who came up with this? We could have done without this. I was all but ready to throw down my money to buy this game, but that all changed when I discovered that little detail.

http://penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-10-04&res=l

Too bad.

I'm not sure I am ready to discuss the human skin adornment going on in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
That game looks so good. . . so good, but the content is so bad. What a disappointment. I can handle cracks in the earth and demons coming out. . .yadda yadda. . .that is so fantastical that I can exercise my suspension of disbelief. But the idea of people skinning other peope and wearing their epidermis around as a garment. . .that is a little too dsturbed to be fantasy. Those are the type of people who use the human body like the Indians of the American plains used the buffalo.

Yeah, I've been waiting for Halo 2.

Yes, my last journal entry was bemoaning the fact that we have yet to get over violent games.

Anyhow, details on H2 have been so scant I was almost. . .almost beginning to wonder if I made the right decision in pre-ordering the collector's tin months ago when it first went on the market.

I needn't fear the days I will miss on X-Box live while amazon ships it to me. I have already lost all of my days on X-Box live. Y'see H2 represents my last video game purchase. Maybe not ever, but it will definitely be a long time, as I am getting married in two weeks. Getting married is something I have looked forward to long before I ever heard, or played, Halo. I believe this union will be of infinitely greater importance than what level I attain in Halo's online matching ladder.

Man, I am whipped. . . and I like it.

What is our fascination with violence?
Why do we choose to use our freedom of thought and action to entertain simulations of destruction?
True, games from the SIM series generally eschew destruction, but now other deprevations are becoming more and more mainstream.

Thank you Grand Theft Auto. . .

Thank you DOOM. . .

Now scenes of gore, violence and brutality can be everyday occurences. Too bad the freedoms available through GTA's vast environments has facilitated the acting out of agressions and salacious behaviors.

Such a shame that our society, nay, our "nature" cannot become excited and entertained by positive activities meant to engender stability, positivity, and community.