Break To The City

I needed a break today. Yesterday, I made a disaster out of trying to change my own brakes. Three hours after I started I only had two caliper bolts out, and I ruined one of them. When my dad came home from lunch, he was kind enough to take some time off work to help me fix my car, and run me to the parts store for some new $20 bolts (for FOUR!.) But after this eventful day, I needed something fun to do on my other day off.

Sam and I talked about going to GameWorks up at Circle Center Mall a few days ago, so we decided today was as good as time as any to go. I was kind of worried, since I’m a little tight on cash this week after spending $150 on brakes and tools. But, I got some cash, put some gas in my car, picked up Sam, and we headed up there.

I haven’t been to GameWorks in a few years; in fact, the last time I went was with my aunt on my 18th birthday. I had fun there before, and thought it would be cool to go back up there, and hit the arcades like I used to do when I was a kid.

Well it turns out, that they have an ulimited play special, where for $20 you can play as many games as you want for 2 hours, and hand you a special card. Which isn’t bad, considering most of the games there cost $1.50-$3 a play. Hell, we raced in an Indy 500 simulator three times, that would have cost us $9 for about 5 minutes of play time. So, I think we got our fair value out of those cards.

The first game we played, was a game called Ranger Mission, which was a pretty damn cool shooter. I instantly got hooked, and ended up being pretty good at it. It’ amazing how ‘into the zone’ you can get on these games, and basically end up going on a virtual killing frezy. Anyhow, Sam and I ended up beating the game after a good 15 or 20 minutes—it’s a shame these shooters aren’t any longer than that. It was good for awhile though.

The real fun though was with racing games. There’s always something appealing about going head-to-head with a friend, and seeing how comes out on top with racing games. Against Sam though, I probably only managed a 50% win ratio. Still, the more reaslistic racing games were pretty damn cool. In real life, I’m shitty with a stick shift, but in games, I can shift like a pro. Now, if only I could manage that in real life, without stripping a clutch plate and killing the car….