Thoughts of a Flying Sheep

Chistmas Part I

So, we went to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. I made lasagna, which is a rare treat. I'm not allowed to make lasagna at home because, well, there's no such thing as a "small lasagna", and we end up having leftovers all week.

Ironically, we ended up taking about half of the lasagna home, so we've still got enough leftovers for a week.

Sly Cooper 2

Anyways, one of my gifts was Sly Cooper 2. I got the original for Christmas two years ago, and was pleased that the opening sequence of Sly Cooper 2 starts, "Two years ago, Sly Cooper defeated Clockwerk...". It's cool when game time =eal time (at least in my life).

It's a shame that it's taken me so long to get back into the Sly Cooper games. I think that there's something wrong with way they select portions of the game as demos. I played a demo of Sly 2 that was included in one of the Ratchet and Clank games (which is brilliant cross-selling). In the demo, I had to follow someone around without being caught. After a few feeble tries of the demo, I gave up in disgust, convinced that the success of the first Sly Cooper must have been a fluke.

Now, having played the game - including the same mission that was used as a demo, I think it's great. I'm remembering now the fun that I had with the original. Each mini-mission is slightly challenging (I expect them to get tougher as I go), and there's plenty of other things to do (like pick-pocketting, finding all the clue bottles, exploring, etc.). It's not completely free-range (like Grand Theft Auto), and not completely linear (like Jak 2 and 3), and playing as three different characters in a multitude of game types means a lot of variety.

Spice of life

Different stuff in small amounts is sort of a theme in these post-Christmas days. I spend a little time, maybe an hour or so, playing Sly 2, then I work on a game design for about an hour, then watch a few episodes of Twilight Zone or Simpsons (more Christmas loot), and then start the cycle over again. It's nice, but I worry that I'm being too superficial and I shouldn't indulge my short attention span so much. Eh, I'm not really worried.

So, if this is Christmas part 1, when's Christmas part 2? Whenever my wife's parents arrive to kick off another round of present opening. Possibly tonight.

How do you open presents?

They open presents differently than my family does. In my family, everyone gets a gift (or a stream of gifts) and opens them simultaniously, competing for attention. This is similar to the way we do everything - we talk all at once, and we're not all that good at listening. It's surprising how well we communicate with each other, really.

My wife's family, on the other hand, opens presents one at a time. Each present opener has the full attention of everyone in the family. Additionally, someone should (although we've failed at the this the last few years) keep track of who got what from whom, as most of the gift-givers aren't present, and thank you cards (or phone calls) are difficult if you can't remember who gave you what.

I like both approaches to gift opening. Frantically opening presents is exciting and boisterous and celebratory, while leisurely opening presents is enjoyable and stretches out the fun (open presents for a while, stop for a snack, open more presents, stop for a nap, then finish opening presents).

posted by FlyingSheep @ 10:58 AM