Overdue Maintenance

In attempting to update HEM1 to have a working ZOOM import/HUD, I was forced to create a new database as my old one was so large the update process would time out after about 45 minutes of trying. The database I was using previously was entitled "2009 SNE Chase", and actually contained my last few months of hands from 2008 as well. The new database was long overdue, simply for performance reasons.

I put in a fair number of ZOOM hands today as the regular games were excessively dead for the first couple hours of my play. The fish definitely play tighter and the regulars seems to be far more spaz prone than normal. In all the day went pretty well.

Even though I bought the game in 2011, I didn't get around to playing Catherine until recently. I finished it the other day and it was as advertised: a unique, very adult themed puzzle game. The game builds up a ton of suspense through the first 80% of its story, but I was really disappointed when the twist arrived. Without spoiling too much let me say that what bugged me was that despite the creators being best known for their work on the Persona series and other Shin Megami Tensei games (which are fantastic in their own right), Catherine's world and plot seemed to be something quite unique - until the twist hit. In terms of the style of the game and the puzzle gameplay, I can sum it up pretty well with just one quote from the game's protagonist, Vincent Brooks: "I'm going to climb the shit out of these fucking blocks!"



On a related note, I noticed that three of the games I've recently played had the same voice actress (Laura Bailey) doing one of their leading ladies: Serah in FFXIII-2, Cheria in Tales of Graces, and Catherine in (you guessed it) Catherine. While she does an admirable job, a little bit of variety would be nice. Looking back over her career credits, Laura has actually quite possibly contributed to half the RPGs I've played since 2005 or so which have contained voice acting. That's a lot of work. Her range isn't that bad, as while some characters sound pretty close to identical (Rise in Persona 4 and Catherine, for instance), I would have never guessed that Raspberyl of Disgaea 3 and Jaina Proudmoore in WoW were voiced by the same person.