Parents who really shouldn't be - A Rant

About a month ago, I was on the train, when a guy and his son got on. The kid was something like 4 years old - not particularly old, or... sentient. Basically, not old enough to know - all blame for the following story is laid at the feet of the useless father involved.

The kid begins running amok on the train. The train wasn't particularly full, but I was sitting on the steps that lead up into the carriage proper, to allow people who need the neutral seats more to be able to use them. People such as parents who are taking care of their kids, or old people, or whoever.

The child starts banging on the glass door of the train. Running in circles. Banging on the thick glass separating the edge of the long bench from the area where people who couldn't get a seat stand (and hold onto the bars so they don't fall - something which is important when we take into account the fact that these are CityRail trains...).

This, I can deal with. Whatever. I had my headphones on, and wasn't hearing the child anyway. What annoys me though, is that his father just sat there, watching him. But whatever, its not my place to do his job for him - he's the parent right?

But then it got worse.

The child started pressing the emergency button. This is a big red button (that everyone wants to press, but its not a good idea to) which connects each carriage to the driver. Pressing the button gives the driver a warning, and connects him to a speaker on the carriage the alert came from, so that he can find out what the problem is. It's designed to be used in emergencies. For example, if someone gets deathly ill on the train, like has a heart attack or something.

This kid was pressing the button repeatedly. His father continued to watch and simply do nothing. This is the point where I take off my headphones, since I knew this wasn't going to end well - and since I was the closest one to the speaker (and noone else seemed to have noticed this) it was going to end up my mess... because some dude can't be bothered parenting his child. Then the driver answered.

"Is there a problem are are you just mucking around?"

I reply, telling him (quite loudly) that there was a child in the carriage running around, and he was the one who pushed the button. No, there wasn't a problem. No, he wasn't my child. His parent is sitting on the bench, watching and listening during this entire exchange. When he noticed that both I and the driver were getting annoyed at this, he eventually calls the kid over to him.

You'd think that would be the end of it wouldn't you?

Of course not! The kid starts running around like a headless chicken again, banging on things and generally being obnoxious. Again, doing kid things. It doesn't really surprise me. But then, again, the child returns to the big red button, while the father watched him, still not moving from his seat. At this point, the kid had been rampaging for about 30 minutes worth of travel, and the guy had not moved from his seat once.

The kid tries to push the button again. This time, I intervene by grabbing the kids hand. Well, we can't have him messing with the emergency button can we? When the father sees this, he calls the kid back over again, this time holding him for the rest of the trip, and sending me an angry glare.

I can't remember what he looked like, but it was probably like this

What is wrong with people? Why is it that he can't be bothered to take care of, or God forbid discipline his own kid?

Can I chlorinate the gene pool now?

Game Rant - Darksiders

Today, I moved offices. I would write about that, but I haven't yet had time to collect my thoughts about the new office and such just yet, so I shall save that one for tomorrow.

Instead, I'll be making the first of (probably) many rants about videogames - starting with one I finished about a month or two ago - Darksiders.

I realise it's quite late (after the release of the game anyways), but meh. I bought it when it was around $50, and then played it a few months after due to trying to catch up on my (admittedly ridiculously huge) backlog.

Most people liken it to God of War. Apparently if you like God of War, you'll like Darksiders. I don't mind a bit of God of War. Admittedly it can get a little tiresome (particularly if you make the same mistake I did, and play all 3 games in a row), but its a generally enjoyable series, if you can deal with the fact that no matter how they try to sugar coat, Kratos is an evil, psychotic bastard and you are out to destroy the world under a vague pretext of revenge.

I didn't enjoy Darksiders.

Oh sure, it was fun for the first few minutes. Before I got into my first battle, and learned that the battle system consisted of "Mash square. Mash square some more. Mash square a lot. Eventually, things will die. Don't touch any other button, they won't attack. Quick, mash square!"

After a while, you gain the ability to use secondary weapons. The battle system then becomes "Mash square. Mash triangle a few times to try your new weapon. Oh, your new weapon sucks? Mash square! Mash square a lot! Quick, hold triangle to charge up a useless attack, purely because you can't continue until you use this weapon to destroy the thing that's in your way! Now slam square a few times so you don't die!"

I thought I was being a bit unfair to it. What was I missing? So I continued the game. Besides, I have a backlog to complete, and Darksiders was on it.

So, I was tasked with killing four super powerful demons and bringing their hearts to the demon Samael in return for passage to some huge tower, which I needed to get to in order to gain vengeance against somebody for starting the final war between Heaven and Hell too soon, which got the main dude War (as in, the Horseman of the freakin' Apocalypse War) into trouble from some seemingly all-powerful Council.

Confused yet? I sure as hell was. I also didn't care.

And wasn't Samael the demon responsible for ALL the crazy stuff going on in Silent Hill? Somehow, helping him get more powerful seems like a bad idea...

*WARNING - Spoilers ahead - read the following at your own risk*

So I returned these hearts to him. He then tells me that the tower was never locked, that the four guardians were never actually preventing me from just walking over to the tower and opening the door. 75% of the game is arbitrary, boring questing for no reason other than somebody thought it was a good idea.

This angered me.

Eventually, I finished the game, to an ending which, apart from being ridiculously unsatisfying, reeked of "there's a sequel coming!". A sequel which I hope never poisons any of my consoles.

Also, the God of War comparison is grossly inaccurate. Sure, it has brutality, and square is an attack button, but thats where the similarities end. IMO, the game is closer to a Legend of Zelda game than anything. Though it replaces the typically semi-interesting plot with this Heaven and Hell stuff, and the hero with something overly intricate, and no personality apart from generic rage.

Sure, he's supposed to be War, but surely he can be at least more than a paper cutout personality? No? Okay, fine, be like that.

I rarely trash the story of an action game. They're not the point of an action game. Hell, look at the Devil May Cry series (conveniently ignoring the nonexistent DMC2), Bayonetta, Painkiller, Serious Sam etc. Ridiculous stories, which are utterly disposable, but fun gameplay.

It's a shame that Darksiders couldn't deliver on the "fun" part.

As for my backlog, it keeps increasing quicker than I can decrease it. Resubscribing to WoW for Cataclysm was probably a really, really bad idea.