The "Currently Playing..." Topic

2010-02-07 08:14:07 am

Got to Las Vegas yesterday and was so tired that I passed out around 7PM. Consequently, I awoke at 230AM to find that my DS isn't charging!!! I don't know if it's the charger or the DS itself, and I won't know until I try to use another charger on it. I don't know anyone else who has a DS, hopefully I won't have to actually buy a new charger in order to test it.

Anyways, I'm glad I brought my emus and gamepad. I hooked myself up on my friend's laptop and played vanilla SM and acheived a 1:08 100%, which is very rare w/o save states. I found myself pulling off just about every trick with ease, which leads me to suspect that there may be some kind of lag on my home PC. That would be odd, the system is less than 6 months old so it shouldn't be slow at all. I'm using the same config on the laptop, same filters, etc. Perhaps my reflexes were just extra keen this morning.

Time to play Legacy.

Prime Hunter

2010-02-07 10:43:41 am

The most my original DS does is lose it's charge a bit faster than it used to. (around 6 to 6 and a half hours now, which is technically on the low end of the spectrum given to us for the DS Phat's battery life I believe.) Other than that it works fine, and I've had it for a good four years now I think.

No idea what would be causing your DS to not charge at all. Depending on how many times you've charged it, its battery should simply be like mine and have a shorter lifespan, right? I'm certainly no expert on this, but it sounds like it's either the charger itself like you believe it might be, or it could be that specific outlet or something. Have you tried charging it anywhere else?

Opium

2010-02-07 10:50:18 am

I have tried charging it from multiple outlets. The light which indicates that it's charging does not even come on. I have it plugged in right now to see if it is indeed charging, but the indicating LED simply isn't working. If the red light turns green when I turn the DS on then I will know that it is indeed charging, despite the light not working.
I don't play that much on my DS. I estimate that I have charged it a total of 15 times, if that. I really hope that the problem is the charger, because the DS itself is the gold zelda DS that came out with Phantom Hourglass and I really don't want to send it off to be fixed. I have been wrapping up the charger cord a little bit tight when I put it away, maybe I messed up the wire somehow.

PS-Just got Legacy 1:31 100% - schweet!

Prime Hunter

2010-02-07 06:06:15 pm

Yeah, it's definitely not an issue with the battery if you've only charged it that many times.

It would seem odd that the DS itself is the cause of the problem given that you don't use it as much, and Nintendo's track record with their hardware is usually pretty solid. (Granted, I had to send in my first Wii because it wouldn't play any discs after the first time we put in Wii Sports for an hour or so, so it's not unheard of to have faulty hardware so early into the product's lifetime.) I'd like to think that it is the charger itself as well, but I'm guessing you don't have a spare/extra back home to test that theory with like I do, so it's hard to say if it is the charger or the DS itself otherwise.

If your test doesn't work and the DS isn't charging, there's not much you could do as far as I understand besides either getting another charger or sending it in to be repaired. I just did a quick check of Nintendo's support pages regarding this problem and those are the only options they have other than testing a different outlet/charger with the DS if I read everything right. At least the charger itself is only 10 dollars to replace if that's what it comes down to though, so it could be worse.

Yeah, it's definitely not an issue with the battery if you've only charged it that many times.

It would seem odd that the DS itself is the cause of the problem given that you don't use it as much, and Nintendo's track record with their hardware is usually pretty solid. (Granted, I had to send in my first Wii because it wouldn't play any discs after the first time we put in Wii Sports for an hour or so, so it's not unheard of to have faulty hardware so early into the product's lifetime.) I'd like to think that it is the charger itself as well, but I'm guessing you don't have a spare/extra back home to test that theory with like I do, so it's hard to say if it is the charger or the DS itself otherwise.

If your test doesn't work and the DS isn't charging, there's not much you could do as far as I understand besides either getting another charger or sending it in to be repaired. I just did a quick check of Nintendo's support pages regarding this problem and those are the only options they have other than testing a different outlet/charger with the DS if I read everything right. At least the charger itself is only 10 dollars to replace if that's what it comes down to though, so it could be worse.

Da Dood

2010-02-07 08:04:17 pm

Dood Trigger™

Almost done with my Ninja Gaiden Sigma 100% Hard run, Chapter 17.

Nothing huge to report, except the boring, boring, boring Fiend Challenge at Zarkhan Stadium. 80 Ogres? Yuck! At least the prize was a Spirit of the Devils and not some consumable. Still, yuck.

I have close to 10 million Karma, and I've been sweeping most areas I go back to, but didn't bother with the Monastery underground. As far as major ranked battles go, I got them all so far.

Oh, and I think I got an extra Life of the Gods. When I was exploring for timed fights, I found both chests at the Monastery Annex closed, and one of them had a Life of the Gods. I'm absolutely sure I got it before, because I'm following a huge checklist and being pretty strict about it. Glitch?

arkarian

2010-02-07 09:08:36 pm

red chamber dream

finished pop: the two thrones far more quickly than i would have expected - go two nights. i feel way less out of touch now that i've finished the pop trilogy ... have just got pop 2008 to play before the forgotten sands is here.

i liked this one a lot. definitely a huge improvement over warrior within, though i liked that one ok too. glad to see the strict linearity back, as well as the faster combat (quick kills ftw) and movement. sort of neat to see the combat evolve over the series: tsot used it as a key to continue (kill all enemies to advance), ww separated it by making it much deeper, then tt finally married the two by basing the platforming around getting an edge over the enemies. great stuff.

was also really surprised by how much i enjoyed the new platforming elements (stabbing wall plates, standing on bars, etc). seems like ww introduced barely anything like that - sliding down curtains is the only thing i can think of.
also really liked the dark prince. for some reason he seems to get a lot of flak, but i loved how the whip expanded platforming further. ok, fighting with him was repetitive and easy, but it was supposed to be that way, and never ceased to be fun. a nice break from the regular prince's more involved combat.

my only big complaint is the relative lack of traps. it makes sense story-wise (why would there be traps all over the halls of the prince's hometown?), but of course that's not a good reason. i really missed ww's saturation of traps.

the other complaint i have is the same one i had with ww: no fountains or pools of water to drink from to restore health. iirc this was a big part of the sands of time - there were places besides save fountains to restore your health. i guess it makes the games easier, but it's a nice touch i missed in the later games.

finished pop: the two thrones far more quickly than i would have expected - go two nights. i feel way less out of touch now that i've finished the pop trilogy ... have just got pop 2008 to play before the forgotten sands is here.

i liked this one a lot. definitely a huge improvement over warrior within, though i liked that one ok too. glad to see the strict linearity back, as well as the faster combat (quick kills ftw) and movement. sort of neat to see the combat evolve over the series: tsot used it as a key to continue (kill all enemies to advance), ww separated it by making it much deeper, then tt finally married the two by basing the platforming around getting an edge over the enemies. great stuff.

was also really surprised by how much i enjoyed the new platforming elements (stabbing wall plates, standing on bars, etc). seems like ww introduced barely anything like that - sliding down curtains is the only thing i can think of.
also really liked the dark prince. for some reason he seems to get a lot of flak, but i loved how the whip expanded platforming further. ok, fighting with him was repetitive and easy, but it was supposed to be that way, and never ceased to be fun. a nice break from the regular prince's more involved combat.

my only big complaint is the relative lack of traps. it makes sense story-wise (why would there be traps all over the halls of the prince's hometown?), but of course that's not a good reason. i really missed ww's saturation of traps.

the other complaint i have is the same one i had with ww: no fountains or pools of water to drink from to restore health. iirc this was a big part of the sands of time - there were places besides save fountains to restore your health. i guess it makes the games easier, but it's a nice touch i missed in the later games.

Poision Envy

2010-02-08 01:39:07 am

Club 27 Goals

I randomly decided to play Bioshock since Bioshock 2 is coming out soon. I had a friend over, got 5 minutes into the game and it crashed, and I haven't started it up again. Going to play it a ton this week though.

I was also playing my friends PS3 today, and they have MW2. I never got a chance to play it online, and after playing it online now I really want to get it. I played through the single player and I didn't care for it very much. I liked the story, but I didn't think it would be worth 60$ for (what I thought) Modern warfare 1 with new maps. After playing MW2, the online feels way different, and I really like it.

arkarian

2010-02-08 02:19:11 am

red chamber dream

bioshock ftw. definitely looking forward to getting 2 this week. been anticipating that shit for several months now, considering its original release date was last november. i don't usually get excited about games but bioshock is sort of special to me.

Quietus

2010-02-08 05:56:44 am

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

Mine will hopefully arrive today. I might add that it's already gone up by £2 since I ordered it, and it's not even out yet!

Prime Hunter

2010-02-08 11:39:23 am

Right, that comes out today I think. I'm not as excited as I could be for this, partially because our 360 has been on the fritz for a few weeks and we haven't been able to play anything on it since then. I'll definitely rent Bioshock 2 once we can play it, but may delay actually buying it for a while like a lot of other good games that have come out in the last six months+. (Still need to get around to buying M&L 3 one of these days.)

I do know that HeartGold is the next game on my radar that's going to be an instant buy when it comes out though.

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2010-02-08 11:55:02 am

2010-02-08 11:54:35 am

The DS charger fiasco is over. I went to WalMart and asked for a DS charger. The bitch gave me a DSi charger. I apologized and told her that I should have specified DS Lite. She insists that the chargers are all the same. Cunt.
Anyways, they were out of the DS Lite chargers. I found a universal charger that charges DSi, DS Lite, and PSP from either a wall outlet, a car, or a USB port. The thing cost $20 so I vowed to murder people if it didn't work. It worked though! Yay! The only thing that sucks about it is that if I have to play it while it's charging then I have a whole bunch of extra crap hanging off of it, but oh well.

nate

2010-02-08 12:09:02 pm

lol, i love people telling you things that you know are wrong.

JUST LOVE IT.

ryu

2010-02-08 01:27:26 pm

Luigi is a fucking ninja.

I just played some Brawl with a friend and we had a match in which he threw an Electrode against me (Luigi) while I was put into slow motion. I pressed R to dodge and accidentally ... caught the soon-to-explode Electrode. Yet at the same time it seemed I was still in the dodge-catch invincibility and didn't die when it exploded right into my face.

Of course I forgot to save the replay. Would have put it on youtube otherwise. : /

Also Walmart sue seems to be a place for "professional" customer service. :p

Opium

2010-02-08 01:36:40 pm

Quote from ryu:

Also Walmart sue seems to be a place for "professional" customer service. :p

True that. I wasn't really pissed, though. You get what you pay for. I went to walmart not deluded about the fact that the low prices means that I'm probably not going to get good service. I hate it when people chew out low-paid employees. If they're really that pissed, they need to chew out the rich people who made the decision to hire the cheapest labor they could find. Oh wait....it seems you can't get to those rich people, they're busy eating bon-bons on the deck of their newest yacht. They have placed another low-paid person with a tie called a 'manager' to get chewed out in their stead. Yell at that guy. He cares. Rolling Eyes

I'll say it again. The piece of wisdom for the day is:

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

American consumers who want it all but don't want to pay for it just don't understand this at all.

nate

2010-02-08 01:42:20 pm

i think they do realize that though. they just like yelling at people.

arkarian

2010-02-08 01:49:33 pm

red chamber dream

but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.

Opium

2010-02-08 01:56:41 pm

Quote from arkarian:

but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.

But she's not paid well, so it makes perfect sense that she doesn't do her job well. She doesn't get paid enough to make the effort to learn everything she can about the huge range of products in the store, and she certainly doesn't get paid enough to give a shit. If she was an exceptionally bright person who was generally knowledgeable about many things and had the thinking skills to know when she DOESN'T know something, then she wouldn't be working there to begin with. Someone like you or I would actually go through a thought process when the customer said 'I think that the chargers are different between a DS Lite and a DSi'. We would pause and listen, question what we thought we knew, and look at the packaging for information. She did not, because she was basically a moron. Morons are the ones who end up with those jobs. (granted, Im talking about adults here. kids who get retail jobs arent morons, they're just working on that scale temporarily) When I go into walmart, I accept that one of the trade-offs for getting those low prices is that the hired help consists of morons.

[quote="arkarian"]but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.[/quote]

But she's not paid well, so it makes perfect sense that she doesn't do her job well.  She doesn't get paid enough to make the effort to learn everything she can about the huge range of products in the store, and she certainly doesn't get paid enough to give a shit.  If she was an exceptionally bright person who was generally knowledgeable about many things and had the thinking skills to know when she DOESN'T know something, then she wouldn't be working there to begin with.  Someone like you or I would actually go through a thought process when the customer said 'I think that the chargers are different between a DS Lite and a DSi'.  We would pause and listen, question what we thought we knew, and look at the packaging for information.  She did not, because she was basically a moron.  Morons are the ones who end up with those jobs.  (granted, Im talking about adults here. kids who get retail jobs arent morons, they're just working on that scale temporarily)  When I go into walmart, I accept that one of the trade-offs for getting those low prices is that the hired help consists of morons.

nate

2010-02-08 01:56:50 pm

i'm not sure walmart corporate culture is built on excellence. at least not the customer-facing part of it. clearly they're doing something right with inventory at least.

arkarian

Edit history:

arkarian: 2010-02-08 02:10:17 pm

2010-02-08 02:09:40 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from Opium:

Quote from arkarian:

but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.

But she's not paid well, so it makes perfect sense that she doesn't do her job well.

er ... no, it doesn't? if you don't like how much you're paid at an unskilled job, quit and get a job that requires skills. being lazy at your job just because "they don't pay you enough" is no excuse. if you're not going to do a job properly you have no business doing that job at all.
that said, i believe walmart does pay a fairly decent starting wage (1 - 2 dollars above minimum wage). it's a hell of a lot better than what you'd get paid in fast food at least.

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2010-02-08 03:03:32 pm

Opium: 2010-02-08 03:02:23 pm

2010-02-08 03:01:02 pm

Quote from arkarian:

Quote from Opium:

Quote from arkarian:

but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.

But she's not paid well, so it makes perfect sense that she doesn't do her job well.

er ... no, it doesn't? if you don't like how much you're paid at an unskilled job, quit and get a job that requires skills.

It's not that simple though. Frankly, she doesn't HAVE the skills or she wouldn't be in that job in the first place. Working full time at WalMart doesn't pay what is considered to be a 'living wage'. All of the stress and problems that come with living in poverty is all the bullshit that that woman needs, it's not realistic to think that she's going to voluntarily take on more bullshit in the form of caring about my DS charger. It IS realistic to envision her living in a shitty apartment complex where crime is rampant, that she can't afford the medicine/health care she needs, that her diet is terrible because she doesn't have the time, money, or knowledge to eat right, that she is exhausted because she spends 3 hours on the bus each day on top of her scheduled working hours, that her kids are out of control and failing school because she doesn't have the time or intelligence to get involved with their schooling, and all of her kids are from deadbeat dads who haven't paid a dime in child support, not to mention the fact that the school is shambles because her neighborhood is poor, that at any given time she has a toothache because she can't afford a dentist and is so exhausted that she often goes to sleep without brushing, that she is constantly bombarded by calls from collection agencies threatening her with legal action if she doesnt suddenly cough up the money she owes some rich fucker somewhere, etc etc etc. I personally feel like I would have to be an arrogant asshole to assume even for one second that she should give a flying fuck about whether or not my DS is charged when you consider all that other crap. I feel SORRY for her.

EDIT: lol btw, I'm 'Currently Playing' metroid Fusion on my now-charging DS.

[quote="arkarian"][quote="Opium"][quote="arkarian"]but the lady giving the charger advice is paid to know what she's talking about when it comes to chargers. so it absolutely is her fault for being so ignorant.[/quote]

But she's not paid well, so it makes perfect sense that she doesn't do her job well.[/quote]
er ... no, it doesn't? if you don't like how much you're paid at an unskilled job, quit and get [u]a job that requires skills.[/u] [/quote]

It's not that simple though.  Frankly, she doesn't HAVE the skills or she wouldn't be in that job in the first place.  Working full time at WalMart doesn't pay what is considered to be a 'living wage'.  All of the stress and problems that come with living in poverty is all the bullshit that that woman needs, it's not realistic to think that she's going to voluntarily take on more bullshit in the form of caring about my DS charger.  It IS realistic to envision her living in a shitty apartment complex where crime is rampant, that she can't afford the medicine/health care she needs, that her diet is terrible because she doesn't have the time, money, or knowledge to eat right, that she is exhausted because she spends 3 hours on the bus each day on top of her scheduled working hours, that her kids are out of control and failing school because she doesn't have the time or intelligence to get involved with their schooling, and all of her kids are from deadbeat dads who haven't paid a dime in child support, not to mention the fact that the school is shambles because her neighborhood is poor, that at any given time she has a toothache because she can't afford a dentist and is so exhausted that she often goes to sleep without brushing, that she is constantly bombarded by calls from collection agencies threatening her with legal action if she doesnt suddenly cough up the money she owes some rich fucker somewhere, etc etc etc.   I personally feel like I would have to be an arrogant asshole to assume even for one second that she should give a flying fuck about whether or not my DS is charged when you consider all that other crap.  I feel SORRY for her.

EDIT:  lol btw, I'm 'Currently Playing' metroid Fusion on my now-charging DS.

TheGreenManalishi

2010-02-08 03:16:28 pm

Someone very generous gave me Resi 4 today, which I will get stuck right into next week.

Opium

2010-02-08 03:23:03 pm

Quote from TheGreenManalishi:

Someone very generous gave me Resi 4 today, which I will get stuck right into next week.

Wii or Gamecube? Have you ever played it before?

TheGreenManalishi

2010-02-08 03:26:01 pm

I spent a whole day playing the PS2 version with a friend once, and I've been given the GC version.

ryu

2010-02-08 03:27:24 pm

Give it back and buy the Wii version.

TheGreenManalishi

2010-02-08 03:31:04 pm

Fuck no, I have no desire to play with motion controls, nor do I give a shit about any extra content. As long as I can play it on my GameCube with a GameCube controller, I'm happy.