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Gamer/tech setup for when you are ill or recuperating.

Raybies666Raybies666 Registered User regular
edited December 2008 in Games and Technology
Ever been stuck at home for a while? Possibly for weeks and either knew it was coming or were coincidentally prepared? Lets have a wee discussion about what got you through those times, be it a welcome distraction from a bad issue or helping with the crushing boredom.

What I'm going to do (which is by no means a rule) is spoiler why I was home for two months, and if you are doing it too, just say whether the reason is injury, illness, something sad or in my case, fucking disgusting. THen I'll go through the setup. I'm thinking about games mostly, but if you want to talk about movies, your home setup would be the focus. I can't think how books would fit, unless your auto page turning reading light 9000X really makes Dostoyevsky jump off the page.

Fucking disgusting reason I was home for two months, pilonidal abcess/sinus surgery. Seriously, don't ever GIS it, and you may not want to read this at all.
A pilonidal sinus is a little pinprick hole around your tailbone. Much like how a pore gets clogged with grease/whatever and you get some acne going, this thing gets clogged with ingrown hairs and the like, gets infected and starts swelling.

First time I got it, it swelled to the size of a walnut and made it hard to sit down. Now I don't know whether this is a rule, or if I was comparitively lucky, but anytime I get one, it's lower back only and does not encroach on my ass. It's pretty fucking sore, but popped after I got home from the doctor and leaked slowly, a little mixed blood and pus. Not too bad, once they burst, the pain goes immediately.

I've had a few surgeries for this, and this year I got an abcess the width of my back. Hurt so bad, I had to wlak at a near 90 degree angle if I had nothing to apply my weight to. After a few days (and the first time I ever had to be given a pain shot for it instead of just a load of pills), I felt a trickle.

My parents took me in for a few days, so I told my ma what was happening and said I'd take a shower. Once I was in the shower, i realise that there was a goddamn stream coming from my back. An odd feeling, imagine taping a coke bottle to your back upside down, and then opening it. I couldn't really feel it leaving my body, but then I saw it. Instead of the usual pink blood/pus mix, there was real red blood, then brown and grey blood, gushing.

Then I smelled it, and started screaming for my mam to open the window in that room. She walks in, retches, leaves, then comes back with a cloth over her nose and mouth. It then started clearing up over a few days.

THis was March, surgery was in May. On my goddamn birthday. "Happy Birthday, Ray! Here's a new scar to go with all your others that have absolutely no good stories to go with them!"

Basically, there are two surgery methods, and mine involved a slice down the lower back, then a little into the ass crack and pulling out a wedge of infected tissue. They it back together, stitch the skin down so you're not left with an air bubble, and suture a hard bandage onto your skin. This stitchs the top of your ass crack together to stop walking from aggravating the area, and the sutures go over the bandage and UNDER the entire surgery area.

Ouch.

So I have two months recovery time after my 4th back surgery, and I planned ahead as I always do. My Wii and my mates 360 are in the front room, I have a PS2 in my room. I ordered books and DVDs as usual, but couldn't think of games. I deleted my save files for Zelda TP and No more heroes, it had been a while since playing either so it seemed like a good time to start from scratch.

They are pretty good games, but I needed something new. So on the rabid recommendation of these boards, I ordered God Hand on PS2. If you don't know, God Hand is a third person brawler, if the camera in Final Fight was right behind your back, RE4 style. Sure, there's special moves and a great warped fun aesthetic, but the fight action itself is awesome.

Left stick moves, right stick side/back flips ot lets you duck and weave on the spot. Circle button does a special move on the person you are fighting if they are dizzy or on the ground. Square is your combo button, and the other two face buttons have heavier moves, and another move if you pull down on the stick at the same. So you have the dizzy move, the combo, and 5 other attacks.

You get access to more attacks either by beating certain enemies or buying them between levels. As you get more money in game, you have access to more moves, and can customise your moves list, changing your combo and heavy moves to include guard breakers (while you duck and weave, your enemies just block), evade high attack moves, and so on.

THe thing is, God Hand is hard. Adaptive difficulty follows your performance, and you can see what difficulty you are at all times. Higher difficulty, more money for defeating enemies, better moves. The bad guls are plenty and as the difficulty increases, instead of some cheap shit where they are take less or deal more damage, they just fight better.

I finally played it about three weeks into recuperation and it blew me away. See it's hard, but your have to learn how to play it, if you button mash even on the opening level, you'll get fucking hammered. There's a lot of tactics in how you customise your fighting style. I can eventually get my fighter to be a slick drunk kung fu guy, with the dodging and twisting, but if you want to be a kickboxer you can, if you want to be a kick fighter only, if you want to be a freestlye boxer, it's all there.

This game made the hours fly by, and saved me from the incredible boredom of being stuck at home for two months on the couch.

Here's a couple of vids, and lets hear what got you through whatever you had to get through:

VideoGaiden review

Gameplay footage, featuring the mighty Ball Buster

This appears to be by Hotlead Junkie, who some of you may remember to be a complete whore (in a good way) for Viewtiful Joe, but I haven't seen him post here for a while.
Special moves against a Boss

Beat me on Wii U: Raybies
Beat me on 360: Raybies666

I remember when I had time to be good at games.
Raybies666 on
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