Two plus two is ten

I've got just a few days left at work, which is pretty fucking awesome, although I never realized how exhausting it could be to train a replacement. I trained new file clerks at the law firm when I was bumped up to project assistant, but there was something fundamentally different about that whole experience: namely, that I would be around if Newbie had questions or needed help with anything. My current Newbie, on the other hand, will be completely on her own once I leave. I'll probably check my OHSU email once a day to make sure I'm not missing anything related to school, but that will be the extent of it. I'm not going to be an asshole about it -- I'll set up an out-of-office notice to let people know what's going on and I'll manually forward anything that needs forwarding -- but I'm not going to be involved.

So...yeah. Poor Newbie's getting all of six days to feel comfortable on her own in a job I've had for almost three years. I'm so sorry, Newbie. I'm so very sorry.

(Not sorry enough to stay, of course, but still)

I've been playing a lot of L.A. Noire lately and it's incredibly fun, although it hasn't quite captured my VERY SOUL the way Bully, Red Dead Redemption, or the Portal games have. I think it's mostly because I can't connect with Cole Phelps they way I connected with Jimmy Hopkins or John Marston. With those two, I knew what they were about from the get-go; Cole is much harder to read. I started off liking him, sure, and I wanted to know more about his past and why he was so ambitious, but I haven't become invested in him the way I felt invested in the other two. I mean. For fuck's sake, the ending of RDR reduced me to a blotchy, sobbing wreck ( because of spoilers, obviously, ) and I don't care about Cole the same way. He's too closed off. There are things he says and does that I'm at a loss to explain, and it makes it incredibly hard to empathize with him sometimes. This narrative distance is intriguing sometimes -- I'm a fan of the slow reveal and it's making for an interesting gameplay experience, but I'm finding that I care more about the cases than the overarching story or the characters involved. I want to be invested in my protagonist. It's a little frustrating that I'm getting close to the end of the game and yet I still don't have a good feel for why Cole does some of the things he does. The reveal of ( MAJOR STORY SPOILERS! )

The gameplay itself is phenomenal, though, and I'm having so much fun playing through the cases. I've seen a few reviews complain about how linear the game is, but I'm fresh off Portal 2 and so L.A. Noire's forward momentum is both comforting and exhilarating. I usually sink ridiculous amounts of time in sandbox/free roam modes when it comes to games like these, because I like to explore and collect things, but damn if solving cases isn't so enjoyable that I keep putting off my usually obsessive roaming. I love procedurals. LOVE THEM. And I love feeling like a Real Live Detective as I wander around gathering evidence and interviewing people. It's the same general process each time, but there are enough surprises and upsets along the way that solving crimes end up being a rewarding and often tense experience. ( Some story spoilers ahead for the Homicide cases )

Anyway. It's entirely possible I'll beat the main storyline tonight, and then I'll probably shift over to free roam mode so I can get my collecting on. Awwww yeeeeeeee.

Since my LJ's been kind of a giant downer-fest lately (reasonably so, I think, but still), I'm going to talk about stuff that's not even remotely connected to Ivan's cancer or my job or my stupid class that just ended, because all of those things make me sad and/or cranky, and I'm tired of feeling sad and cranky all the time.

There's some good stuff on the horizon, at least? Nate's potentially closing on the house this Friday, which is something we're both kind of desperate for at this point. We've got our fingers crossed that everything will finally work out, and then we can paint and re-floor and ~*move*~ and everything will be SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS AND AWESOMENESS THE END.

Also, ferrets. And possibly chickens. We're pretty keen on the idea of keeping chickens.

I've spent the last week playing the hell out of Red Dead Redemption, and sweet tapdancing christ, that there is an amazing game. AMAZING. It feels more like an interactive movie than a game to me, and it didn't take very long at all for me to get deeply invested in John Marston and his story. As with most Rockstar productions, you can make him a complete and utter bastard in the sandbox portions of the game, but I preferred to play him as a good guy and to my pleasant surprise the game allowed me to do so just about every step of the way. ( WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BEHIND THE CUT, ESPECIALLY FOR THE END OF THE GAME. )

I actually have a lot more I want to say about the ending, but I think I'll save it for a different post. This one got way bigger than I intended, and I feel a pressing need to watch Deadwood for a bit.