Dear so-called ‘hardcore’ gamers that think that cheat codes are for ‘pussies’: Fuck you. I love cheat codes. I heartily approve of cheat codes. All videogames need cheat codes. I look at it this way: If I pay $50 for a game, I want to be able to enjoy it as much as I can, in order to get the most for my dollar. That means unlocking every mission, getting every weapon, acquiring all outfits, rolling up every object, etc; or, at the very least, the ability to squeeze a lot of enjoyable replay out of it. Sometimes — not all the time, but sometimes — I require a little extra help to reach that goal of Game Satisfaction, and if that help comes in the form of a cheat code, then so be it.

At the time of this writing, I own thirty PS2 games, two PC games (American McGee’s Alice and No one lives forever), between ten and twelve PSX games, and my beloved copy of Tekki/Steel battalion. Concentrating on the PS2 games, out of thirty of those, I’ve finished about twenty-one. ‘Finished’, in my definition, means seeing the ending credits. Now, as all gamers know, just because you’ve seen the credits roll doesn’t mean that’s it for the game — that’s why I say ‘finished’, and not ‘completed’, as there may be items to obtain, or extra areas to clear or what have you, that I’ve not accomplished yet. My tally of completed PS2 games is about four. That’s not something I’m entirely proud of.
SoulCalibur 2, for instance, has a clock feature that enables you to see, in real-time, how many hours you’ve logged in on that game; mine reads somewhere around fifty hours, and I still have yet to unlock Lizardman, and I’m missing a bunch of art cards & weapons. GunGriffon Blaze, the second game I ever bought for my system back in 2001, remains two stages away from completion. And I still haven’t gotten all the feckin’ compasses in Disaster report, and I’ve finished the game three times. I’ve clocked hundreds of hours with these games, but despite that, Total Completion continues to elude me.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not as if I view these games as a chore to play, otherwise I’d have sold them a long time ago. I’ll still fire up my older games every now and again, and play them for hours on end. So why bother with cheat codes, you say? Well, just because I’m still playing these games doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve gotten any further on some of them — I’m content to play the opened/finished stages over and over again. But if I keep hitting a dead end where I can’t progress past this or that level, to me that means I’ve not gotten my full money’s worth. If I had the kind of free time where I could afford to spend six hours every day of the week attempting to take out Nine breaker, that’d be great, but I have other things I have to do. But I won’t feel fulfilled if I don’t see what else there is of the game past Nine breaker’s demise, or whatever.
Good example: I paid $150 for my copy of Tekki/Steel battalion. (yes, one hundred and fifty US dollars.) The game contains 23 missions total. I’ve finished five. Did I get my money’s worth there? I mean, I love playing the game, as it’s fun as hell, but I’d like to at least finish the initial 12 stages..

So, yeah! Cheat codes are the solution. And no, I don’t entertain any thoughts such as ‘if you use cheats, there’s no challenge’. Bullshit. BloodRayne 1 and 2 have built-in cheat codes, and even with them in use, they’re still difficult games. You can still very easily get killed in Way of the samurai even if you use the ‘Restore life’ cheat. And don’t even talk to me about Grand theft auto.
So I have absolutely no qualms about using cheat codes in difficult areas, and as far as those games that really don’t have any helpful codes to speak of, I’ll be investing in a GameShark sometime later this month. It’s not as if I’ll stop playing my collection once I have Everything, but having Everything will definitely increase the enjoyment of my games

No, no-one’s killed me; I just haven’t had anything worth writing about happen to me lately.
*thinking hard* Err.. I catsat for Monti, played Halo 2 from start to finish over at Mike’s (and I really have no desire to play it again), and my back gradually got better — it’s still a bit sore sometimes, but it’s a lot better than it was. O, and I picked up all of the Tekki/Steel battalion figures over at MediaPlay for $7 a pop. So there you go.

Right; well, the link to the second set of wallpapers was
right here, but now it merely isn’t. (3.47 MB)

A couple of years ago, my first ex-roommate Steve & I were sitting around in the livingroom of our townhouse, discussing something or other, and somehow the subject of Androids & Gynoids came up. (With me in the room? The devil you say!) ‘Wouldn’t it be ace if you could put your brain in the body of an Android?’ I remarked. ‘You wouldn’t have to worry about getting sick, or having to eat, or getting old, or at least a dozen other things!’ Steve, in a shining moment of hyper-lucidity, replied, ‘Yeah, but I’d rather put my brain in a Gynoid’s body. Think about it.’ OMIGOD YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES. I would probably never leave the house. *big pervy grin*

Yesterday my parents & I were ransacking the house for disposable items, as today is Bulk Garbage Day for our neighbourhood, and my father decided he wanted to finally get rid of the stove-converted-from-an-oil-barrel that had been sitting inactive in the basement for at least a decade. So, believing I had nothing better to do with my time, he handed me a bucket and a garden trowel, and told me to empty the ash from the stove into that, so we could haul it out. After using a larger implement, like, y’know, a fucking shovel, he decides that it’s light enough to haul it out. I had maybe left about two-thirds of the ash in there, as it was so sedentary over the years, that it had become compacted and dense. Nevertheless, out it was going. Everything was alright until we headed out the door, and that’s when I felt a rather sharp pain in my lower back. I don’t think either one of my parents had ever heard me curse to that extent, so it’s nice to know I could teach them something.
So last night, I went to bed at just before midnight, with a throbbing feeling in my back, and I called into work this morning, as Monday is our nine-hour day, and I wasn’t gonna put up with this shit while at work for nine hours. Yeah.
Now who do I grab by the lapels so I can get hooked up with a Gynoid body that resembles Alyson Hannigan? I DEMAND SATISFACTION!!

Right, back to bed wi’ me, I suppose

Okay, so in my mind, it’s Sunday. *shrugs*
So here’s the deal: I have here five .zip files containing 20 wallpapers each, covering typical Davecat subjects such as anime, videogames, tiny 60s cars, and other windows to my manias. (Don’t worry; there’s like only two RealDoll-related wallpapers — I save all of my Synthetiks pics for my screensaver. 😉 Most, if not all of them, are at 800×600, cos that’s what resolution I’m working with. Each .zip file will be up for a week, from Sunday to Saturday (except for this set, obviously), whereupon it’ll be replaced by the next file, and after five weeks, the files will disappear, never to be seen again by mortal man. Unless, of course, you’re immortal; in which case, well done.
CAVEAT: a couple of pics in there may be considered Not Safe for Work, but as I always say, it really depends on where you work! But be careful where you open those anyway..

Here’s where Set One used to be. (3.95 MB)

Enjoy!

That’s right; I’m finally up to 100 walls. I’ll start .zipping and posting probably this coming Sunday at the latest, but for now, I have to get to bed..

Ps.’No cities left’ by the Dears wipes me out nearly every time I listen to it.

Pps. I turned 32 last Sunday. Just so you know.

I ran across this in a textbook recently, and thought it was pretty spot-on:

Cell phone use has far exceeded practicality. For many, it’s even a bit of an addiction, a prop – like a cigarette or a beer bottle – that you can hold up to your mouth. And each person is meeting a different psychological need by clinging to it.

As I see it, the pack breaks down something like this: Some users can’t tolerate being alone and have to register on someone, somewhere, all of the time. That walk down [the street] can be pretty lonely without a loved one shouting sweet nothings in your ear.

Others are effiency freaks and can’t bear to lose 10 minutes standing in line at Starbucks. They have to conduct business while their milk is being steamed, or they will implode. The dividing line between work and home has already become permeable with the growth of telecommuting; cell phones contribute significantly to that boundary breakdown.

Then there are those who like to believe they are so very important to the people in their personal and professional lives that they must be in constant touch. “Puffed up” is one way to describe them; “insecure” is another.

– Matthew Gilbert, “All Talk, All The Time”

Also of note is a Shiny New Link to atsushi-san & MaRi-chan’s Blog, o’er in the sidebar under ‘Colleagues & co-conspirators’. Not only is atsushi-san a fellow lover of Synthetik femmes, but he also holds Joy division in high regard. Good taste on all fronts!
Unfortunately, seeing as that he’s from Japan, his Blog’s almost entirely in Japanese. Ah well. It’s got some interesting links every so often, though, so give it a look

Who amongst you readers (all three and a half of you) would like some nifty new wallpapers? Hm? I had the startling idea earlier today of uploading the wallpapers off my very own desktop, for the perusal and usage of all. Right now, I’m up to 91 walls (a nifty programme called WallSmart chooses one at random every 10 minutes); once I reach 100, I’ll .zip them and release them for download over the course of a couple of weeks. Sounds like fun? Sounds like fun.

And this is neat: sorryeverybody.com. Kind of an ad hoc apology to the world, on behalf of all of us thinking, upright mammals who didn’t vote for Dubya