Using the excuse that I now work from home I finally cracked and bought Pilgrimage for the Gamecube. Yes, now I can get some exercise and go to Buddhist heaven whilst marching up and down in my living room.
Pilgrimage is designed for the old and infirm, poor and disabled who can't manage to make the ?3000 trip by foot round 88 Buddhist temples whilst wearing a pointy hat, a spiritual pilgrimage that some believe puts you up a notch for when you depart this dear earth.
So I got it Saturday morning at 9.30am, my hands shaking as I opened the box. The pedometer was in there but then I quickly sussed I'd bought the cheaper version - the one without the walking mat controller. Screw it, I thought the pedometer will do, and went back to bed to sleep off more of the hangover.
Back up and still nauseous, I thought it's time to purge my soul and get on with the pilgrimage. I couldn't find a suitable hat and I couldn't get the pedometer to work. It has a large watch battery in it and a two inch lead that fits into the 4th controller port. It just wouldn't come on so I've plugged the normal controller in and am now mainly exercising two fingers as I "walk" with the shoulder buttons.
So first off, after putting my birthdate, height, weight and possible waist size in, I'm off walking round my first temple. Each screen is a picture that you steadily zoom into as you "walk" which then breaks into another photograph. I had a look at a pond in the temple with some fish in it, I did about 5 minutes of Buddhist chanting, I had a breakthrough when I managed to light a candle and about the time I managed to ring a big bell I started to look past its completely impenetrable language barrier and get into the really deep Japanese-ness of it. And then I just went round in circles picking option after option, trying to narrow down the choices. Ahh, number 3 out of 4 takes me back to 5 minutes of chanting, number 2 makes me head back to where I came in, aah different characters, ohh I've met two little girls, what do they want? I did this for about an hour and couldn't fill the other two candle slots I had or the slots that look like they've got prayers in them. Eventualy I chose one option and a new screen of text came up, the only word I recognised was OFF. It wouldn't let me do anything else other then turn the console off.
Now I can't even get it to load my last game. So I'm back in the same place playing russian roulette with the onscreen options again.
My mate says I should lick the battery in the pedometer to see if it works. Maybe I'll post some pics when he gives me my camera back.
It's all very nice, y'know, but I wish I knew Japanese!!
Pilgrimage is designed for the old and infirm, poor and disabled who can't manage to make the ?3000 trip by foot round 88 Buddhist temples whilst wearing a pointy hat, a spiritual pilgrimage that some believe puts you up a notch for when you depart this dear earth.
So I got it Saturday morning at 9.30am, my hands shaking as I opened the box. The pedometer was in there but then I quickly sussed I'd bought the cheaper version - the one without the walking mat controller. Screw it, I thought the pedometer will do, and went back to bed to sleep off more of the hangover.
Back up and still nauseous, I thought it's time to purge my soul and get on with the pilgrimage. I couldn't find a suitable hat and I couldn't get the pedometer to work. It has a large watch battery in it and a two inch lead that fits into the 4th controller port. It just wouldn't come on so I've plugged the normal controller in and am now mainly exercising two fingers as I "walk" with the shoulder buttons.
So first off, after putting my birthdate, height, weight and possible waist size in, I'm off walking round my first temple. Each screen is a picture that you steadily zoom into as you "walk" which then breaks into another photograph. I had a look at a pond in the temple with some fish in it, I did about 5 minutes of Buddhist chanting, I had a breakthrough when I managed to light a candle and about the time I managed to ring a big bell I started to look past its completely impenetrable language barrier and get into the really deep Japanese-ness of it. And then I just went round in circles picking option after option, trying to narrow down the choices. Ahh, number 3 out of 4 takes me back to 5 minutes of chanting, number 2 makes me head back to where I came in, aah different characters, ohh I've met two little girls, what do they want? I did this for about an hour and couldn't fill the other two candle slots I had or the slots that look like they've got prayers in them. Eventualy I chose one option and a new screen of text came up, the only word I recognised was OFF. It wouldn't let me do anything else other then turn the console off.
Now I can't even get it to load my last game. So I'm back in the same place playing russian roulette with the onscreen options again.
My mate says I should lick the battery in the pedometer to see if it works. Maybe I'll post some pics when he gives me my camera back.
It's all very nice, y'know, but I wish I knew Japanese!!
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