Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 3:25

1,035 views

2

So, in case I provided the wrong impression with my previous Lumines upload, this is a series chronicling an off-the-cuff attempt at the Challenge Mode. The whole lot of this series (such as it is, anyway) extends to about forty minutes in duration... and I can't really say as I wanted to throw a chunk of video that large up onto the Tubes all at once, nor could I rightfully expect someone to want to actually WATCH such a thing all in one go.

I'm pretty sure that Lumines is some kind of mind-altering substance, because when you're playing, there's a slow-building, time-dilating, sight-and-sound-based euphoria that just kinda sucks you in. Or maybe it's a sign I'm not playing enough action games to keep me off the audiovisual drugs... remember kids, stay clean and follow those geeky disclaimers about not playing too long and stopping if you get headaches or your vision starts to make you see funny things. Don't be like me! ...or something. (Ooh, pretty colors. I can hear the lights!)

Also, I would rather like to believe that I've learned an important lesson from my Zombies Ate My Neighbors upload after some time of reflection and thinking about how I handled that one... just because you CAN make a video composite of several distinct experiences in sequence doesn't mean you necessarily SHOULD. Each stage of that game has a pretty unique flavor, and as such I'd probably have preferred to break them down and let them soak in individually.

The same is true of Lumines skins, because while the basic gameplay remains unchanged, the visual and aural feedback is totally gives off a particular vibe all its own. As such, I think it's worth showcasing them individually, even if there's otherwise no other "reason" that I should break them down like this. It also happens to make it that much simpler to pinpoint the particular segment you might want to revisit without having to fumble through and track across an individual "video" made up of several end-to-end sections.

I've also decided to leave in the little transitions with the indecipherably-warped voice introducing each skin as it enters, even though this means the one signalling the end of one video will be repeated once again at the start of the following video. I just find it too handy for identifying the incoming as well as signifying the end of the current. You might also consider it something of an idle challenge to try to make out what it's saying before you see the next one, but I wouldn't recommend straining yourself over it either way.

Now, as I mentioned before...I basically go into tunnel-vision when I'm playing a game like this. Score and even warnings of what pieces are to come beyond often escape my notice. So I feel no shame in pointing out that I have no idea what it is that makes a skin end and brings in the next one. I just enjoy them as they come and go as they please. As such, I feel it fitting to warn you that the videos will vary in length, but generally will wrap up in a shorter length of time than the first one, because it also included the menu sections.

A really weird thing about this game that I feel I must point out... it's a PSP game, and the PSP is a handheld with a standard screen size. That is, there's no widescreen or aspect ratio nonsense that should crop up to distort the visuals. And yet, it would seem that this game was designed with a 4:3 display in mind, and all the shapes will actually be stretched out of proportion on the device on which this game is intended to be played! This is a really big deal, because the game is almost entirely about a grid of squares and circles, not ovals and rectangles!

Then it all gets even more muddled, because the PSP external display cables creating a rather huge border of dead space (when playing a game, mind you... the system menu and other functions are completely fine filling the space provided), but then again it's a lot like the GameBoy Player and its borders, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on it... but this too causes another layer of distortion, taking the "not quite 16:9" PSP screen to display a 4:3 source image on a screen that's got lots of blank space inlaid... suffice to say that cropping and stretching becomes nontrivial, and as such I'll just be doing the best I can while trying to avoid doing stuff that will damage the quality unduly (YouTube involuntarily scaling it up to the size you see before you is technically already doing that already, but few people would really want to watch an actual 272-pixel-high version of it anyhow), leaving us with a "least-stretched" picture and "mostly-correct" aspect ratio...yay..!?

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Challenge Mode
Skin 02: Urbanization

In addition to vocal skins, there are more instrumental and sound effect heavy ones. The former are less common and seem to linger longer than the latter. I ran myself clear out of description room, so let's talk more gameplay next time, maybe?

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