What I Played Today: August 8

Rift, Catherine

Guess who is level 50! My avatar in that video game that I've been playing for months. It tends to happen. I leveled up while deep undercover in a prison to try and take down the big boss there. It was going well, I did some stereotypical jail things. Selling cigarettes, shiving dudes, taking out rival gang members. So, after I do all this and get an appointment with the big boss, proving to him that I'm capable of going toe-to-toe with some low-level malnourished thugs, he gives me a knife and tells me to get the blood of the most powerful person of the faction, someone who is literally impossible to kill. Now, since I'm a double-agent, I just kind of walk away for a few minutes, whistle for a bit, and then come back and I'm all, "Yeah, I totally got past all of her bodyguards and stabbed her to death, then managed to walk back here, all before lunchtime." He stupidly say, "Yep, that sounds about right," and lets me bust up their machine and foil all his plans. It was a bit of a stupid plot point. Worse, it could have been made less stupid if they said, "Go get me the blood of the warden," the person I was working for. That would have been a believable target.

But whatever! Now I can do level 50 stuff. Like all those quests that I've been seeing hanging over people's heads in Meridian, taunting me. Apparently one of them requires seeing alternate futures, that sounds fun.

Also played a little Catherine, because I haven't really given it much thought and I feel bad about it. I got through the second floor and got to the main concept, mainly that Vincent kinda sorta accidentally cheats on his girlfriend (the other Catherine was very convincing), but he is exceptionally hung up on it, and now he's worried that he's going to get himself killed in his dreams. I figured out that one place I got stuck and the rest has been smooth sailing, although the boss levels are still really hard despite being on the easiest difficulty. But I'm kinda digging it, the tone works for me, and I like the real world stuff a lot. It could use a lot less repetitive sounds though. That damn bell constantly ringing.