I finished the first playthrough of Borderlands solo, and I do not have much to add to what I have said before, except that the ending was so random, pointless, and half-assed. Well I suppose one does not play Borderlands for the plot, but for shootin’ n’ lootin’, and the game offers a lot of that. I also thought the game was too easy, for at least the first playthrough. The second playthrough, which is the same as the first but simply with monsters at much higher levels, does not really entice me that much, nor does playing as a different class. I think coop would be worth another playthrough, if my friends and I can actually spare some time away from Left 4 Dead 2…

Five episodes in and I am still very much enjoying Kuuchuu Buranko. Every patient of Dr. Irabu so far has their psychological disorder resolved, and whatever social, psychological, physical symptoms caused by the illness are curious (sometimes humorous), and not particularly severe, and mostly mended by the end of each episode. The case studies presented so far are rather ideal. In real life, however, the landscape of abnormal psychology is much grimmer. Although I do not know the exact statistics, recalling from the psychology textbooks and academic articles I have read, a significant portion of those suffering from mental illness are never cured, or if incurable, whose treatment are partially or completely unresponsive. Of course, the cure or successful treatment rate is highly dependent on the nature of the disorder itself. And that is only considering the recorded incidents. Imagine those unreported cases who suffer from mental illness but for whatever reason, lack of money, shame, unawareness, etc…, do not ever seek professional help. Not only that, there are extremely debilitating psychological disorders, such as catatonic schizophrenia, or suicidal depression, that would essentially require the poor soul to be hospitalized in an asylum. What would lend verity and more depth to Kuuchuu Buranko is illustrating a few cases where the patient is afflicted with a severe psychological disorder, and/or despite Dr. Irabu’s best efforts, the patient takes a turn for the worse, perhaps even tragically so. The series could sustain its trend and continue with its rose colored perception of abnormal psychology where everyone has a happy end. If so, the show would be benign, but not believable, and it would miss an opportunity to make a serious but accurate statement(s) on field of abnormal psychology.

Left 4 Dead 2 is releasing a week from today. Suffice to say, there has been dissent voiced about the sequel to Left 4 Dead. Main points of contention raised in the gaming community includes the fact that there is a short time gap between Left 4 Dead 2 and its predecessor, and consequently following that logic, the content in Left 4 Dead 2 should have been provided free for the first game. Personally, as a fan of Valve, I too was a little irked that barely a year has passed since Left 4 Dead and its sequel. So were three of my best real life friends whom I play with. Eventually, all of us realized that the hours and hours of intense fun we had in Left 4 Dead more than exceeded its price tag, despite that it was released for no longer than a year. Except for one friend, who was still furious at Valve. But we bought the four pack and gave him the game for free, just so we can have a full team. That mollified his anger.
After playing through the demo, I can say I am genuinely excited for Left 4 Dead 2. Valve made many improvements based on the suggestions of the fans of the first game, changes that I also agree with. For example, in the original Left 4 Dead, there is the very common, if not universal, tactic of survivors bunching up on top of each other in a corner or closet camping while meleeing or shooting, and there was very little the infected can do. In Left 4 Dead 2, among the new special infected zombies, one of them is called the spitter, who spews out puddles of toxic goo that damages anyone who stands in them. This will directly deter such camping tactics. Also there is the complaint that there is not enough variety of guns to choose from. Well, now there are guitars, AK-47s, bile bombs, and so on, altogether over twenty or so weapons to kill zombies with. Left 4 Dead 2 is going to be more great zombie killing, survivor eating fun.

For the past couple of days I have spent most of my free time immersed in Gearbox’s Borderlands on the PC, which is a statement that reflects well for Borderlands. There is a lot that I like about this game. I like the eccentric characters and their caricatured designs. I like the funny little descriptions that sometimes accompany rare weapons. I like the tongue-in-cheek flavor that is imbued into the writing and the world. I love the Diablo series, and Borderlands really caters to those who enjoy watching their character grow more powerful and hunting for ever better items. Borderlands took those compulsive elements found in Diablo and packaged it into an FPS experience. The result? Fun and addicting.
Now, about some flaws of Borderlands. The enemy variety is lacking. At level thirteen I am still fighting the same kind of monsters as when I was level one. Sure, I may be fighting level twelve raiders now instead of level one bandits, but they are the same type of enemies with essentially the same nature of behaviour and attacks; they are just simply stronger versions. I do not like the checkpoint saving system, which is clearly a consequence of the game being simultaneously developed for the PC and consoles. However, Gearbox should have added the ability for players to save anywhere for the PC version. I found the dialogue sometimes tries too hard to be funny or exciting, when the situation really isn’t. Also there are a few bugs here and there, such as quest/description text not scrolling, and weapons detail text only being able to display four lines despite the fact that the weapon itself can have more modifiers than what is shown. The fix for that, by the way, is detailed and found here at the Borderlands forums.

“I’ve decided not to do it. (brief astonished silence) It’s not that I can’t do it. I just won’t.” That female coworker sure got told!
Well, the second episode was even better than the first. There is a big irony in Tatsuya Taguchi’s, the patient in this second episode, illness. The penis is a, if not the, defining characteristic of a man. Subsequently anything phallic, especially the erect penis, could be a symbol of or associated with masculinity. Tatsuya Taguchi suffers from a permanent erection, but instead of being dominant or strong-willed, he meekly bends over literally to hide his erection, and figuratively to the requests and misfortunes that befall on him. It is only when he loses his erection that he truly stands up (pun intended) like a real man, gaining the confidence and defiance to reject the unfairly demanding requests of his female coworker.
I also thought the picture of him and his wife that he holds so dearly, going into motion showing him standing up and moving away from her, was powerfully symbolic of him finally moving on with his life. That profound moment was greatly aided by the music.