Still More Ramenbox.

Anyone still interested in these? There's an awful lot.

Kung Fu Pork Bowl: I was honestly hoping that this would taste like the flavorful essence of kung fu pork: IE, like being kicked in the face by a pig. It did not. In fact, this is apparently not actual pork, but soy porklike bits. ... This is the first form of soymeat that has ever come remotely close to fooling me. A very, very strong pork/carrot/spring onion broth, thin and tender noodles... generally quite tasty. If I have one complaint, and I do, it's that this was rather oily. Still, it was quite delicious. Only -kind- of spicy, but this is the sort of thing I really -want- out of a non-spicy ramen.

Feeling nostalgic.

Watched the boyfriend play through Gabriel Knight 1: Sins of the Fathers for most of the day. Man, I'd forgotten how -great- that game is/was. I'm hoping GoodOldGames gets on the second game in a hurry, so I can nudge him through that too. (My copy has... issues... with modern PCs. I could futz with Dosbox and hammer on INI files, or I could pay them $5-10 to do it for me.)

Mostly, I'd forgotten how well that game puts together a reasonable, intelligent narrative along with puzzles that flow somewhat logically out of the game world. There's other games that do that, but I haven't played an adventure game in a long while that made me feel like... going into Detective Mode. Like, when I played Gabe Knight 2, which takes place largely in Germany, I had a German boyfriend at the time. I recall nudging him with screenshots and the occasional movie, to find out what the German text or dialogue was. Often it didn't matter what it was, it turned out. But it was THERE and AUTHENTIC and felt right. It made me want to know what it said, in case, just in case, some clue about motivation or mannerism could be gleaned from it. I translated half a newspaper on my own, because Gabriel didn't speak German and I was achingly curious.

That's what I want from an adventure game. I want to be made to feel curious again, to dig and scrape and scour for more detail and more life from the game world.

Nothing's done it in years, since... I think Myst IV was the last one that did. I guess I never DID quite beat GK3, but... uh, cat hair mustache. I don't have much hope for that one. Games in general have been feeling less... lively, somehow, for me lately. I want something to engage me, to come alive and feel bright and vibrant again. Am I just too jaded?

Even the recent Telltale games have been... I dunno. They're a lot of fun, they really are, but they're point and click cartoons. I don't have to think about them, all the goals are neatly spelled out and no one has any secrets to hide, motivations to ferret out. Maybe I should try Telltale's CSI stuff...