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Saturday, May 1, 2004 7:44:00p: *
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to May. A lot of the news this month is going to revolve around games, so don't be too surprised if I don't talk about much else for the time being. At least until E3's over.
Shining Force news at Gameforms for Pez. I know he loves the Force... the question is, will it finally be enough temptation for him to go out and buy a GBA?
Also, Atlus announced that the REAL follow-up to Disgaea (which I never finished, sadly), Phantom Brave, will indeed be localized for Americans. I hesitate to use the phrase "spiritual successor" because, well, the game is about ghosts, and it would be corny to use that phrase.
I'm about six hours or so into Final Fantasy X-2, and to be honest while I haven't heard anything that would make me want to stuff Blitzballs in my ears, there're still a lot of groaners in the title. What's really bugging me, though, is the bipolar nature of the plot. One second Yuna is shakin' that thang (boy she makes me sing, whoa~ hot Yuna. dang-a-lang); and the next she's performing Aerobic Brooding over blondie-boy, thus disabusing me of the notion that only I can do that (Aerobic Brooding in general, not Aerobic Brooding over a guy, that's just CREEPY). Rikku's also suitably perky, and Paine remains... if I may be indulged for a moment...
OMFG PAINE IS TEH HOTTTT!!!111one!
...Ahem. Sorry, that just had to come out. Seriously, though, the character is really well-done and acted perfectly by Gwendoline Yeo. ...though occasionally the lines seem kind of flat and forced, but then again Paine isn't exactly as exuberant as the rest of the Gullwings. Which is good, because if she was the estrogen level would be WAY too much for me to handle.
Other than that, voice acting is dead-on as usual for a Square game. It's really weird to hear Superman's voice coming out of Mevyn Nooj... well, the second Superman, anyway (it's not Tim Daly, unfortunately). Looking forward, I'll probably be taking the Youth League path through the game, just 'cause I like Dona and Lucil's character models. Er, I mean, they're technically spectacular, and I certainly appreciate the detail being put into the really short shirts and lots of exposed... this is just becoming REALLY shallow, so I'll drop it now.
Oh yeah, and hearing Isaaru in Zanarkand... that was damn freaky. Hard to believe the voice actor who does both those voices-- erp, minor spoiler-- was also that damned whiny albino Raiden... ahem, getting ahead of myself.
Moving onward, Colton lent me The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, so I had a run at that this afternoon. I made it through the fire cavern and defeated the Master Gohma... but it was an ordeal, as the 3rd three-dimensional Zelda game hasn't corrected ANY of the problems that turned me off from the other two. Specifically, it's damn near impossible to figure out destinations sometimes, and the hookshot/grappling hook can't be easily used while moving. All of these are problems common to 3D adventures, however, so it's a minor flaw in what's otherwise an enjoyable game. Still, I really don't know if I'm going to bother finishing it.
I haven't had chance to play through any more of Boulder Dash EX, though I really want to. Maybe I'll spend a little more time tonight after finishing a few more quests in X2 and have another go at that one. I don't honestly know why I stopped, but I won't let it sit for long.
Speaking of neglect, I haven't logged into FFXI in a while. Been busy with other projects, like the d20 Modern campaign, but rest assured I'll be getting back into that just as soon as I finish X2. I needed a break from it anyway.
Oh yeah, let's touch on that for a moment, shall we? It was just about a year ago that I got the crazy idea into my head that I wanted to start up a role-playing community in Coudersport. THAT went nowhere fast. So I was all but ready to give up on playing when I moved back to Cuba, for however short a time... until the offers in Buffalo and here in Erie came up. Now, however, I'm back in my old grounds, and among the old crew-- so we'll be starting up the d20 Modern campaign. And I get to DM. After almost a year of planning, Seth is going down. (Pez, don't you DARE spoil the surprise... though to be honest I don't ever remember telling you the whole story anyway, did I?)
OK, so we're about done here, especially with the thunder going on outside. I'll be in touch soon, folks.
Finally, and this is the most serious I'll be tonight: Thank you, Dom, for being polite and responding to my request. It's nice to know there're still a few Wild ARMs fans out there. Have fun at E3.Monday, May 3, 2004 6:42:58a: *
Just a quick note-- since it hasn't been updated in over a month and a half, I have removed "Jackie's Fridge" from the Comics tab of the links page. Sorry to those fans of it out there, but if it don't update without a good reason not to, then it's off my list.
More later.Monday, May 3, 2004 8:20:56p: * Square Enix's E3 Lineup was announced today on RPGamer, and among the titles previewed was a new project for mobile phones, entitled "Beyond Crisis: Final Fantasy 7". Whether or not I'll ever get to play it remains doubtful because of two things: one, it may never make it out, let alone to the U.S., and two, Square-Enix's games aren't yet available on Sprint PCS.
...CABBIT SMASH!
Ahem. Moving on, tentative dates for Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and FFXI: Chains of Promathia were announced as well. Weird, there's a slight chain motif here. If the next armor available to my Mithra is "Bondage Gear Of The Chocobo +1" then I'm probably going to up and quit the game.
On an unrelated note, I %$^$#ing HATE chocobos now. This obscene outburst has been brought to you by the %!@$#%#!$#!@!!! chocobo hunting mini-game in FFX-2.
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time is also on track for a Summer '04 release. You have no idea how happy that makes me. I enjoy the idea of a new Star Ocean game, even if I haven't actually finished one for myself quite yet-- something about the sci-fi RPG really draws my interest. Oddly enough I still anticipate the imminent arrival of Phantasy Star 4 on the GBA; that's one I refuse to emulate on grounds that if I did, Pez would crucify me. Till then, however, we'll just have to see if Star Ocean engages me as much as Xenosaga did.
I feel the need to return to Vana'diel for the evening. So, until the morning light....Tuesday, May 4, 2004 6:53:32a: *
A couple things. I know I promised the AMV of the Month, and to date still haven't posted one. I should be able to fix that tonight or tomorrow morning... or actually, give me until lunchtime, I think I can swing an update then.
Now to the meat this morning... and I know it's strange seeing me update so quickly after the last one. College Roomies From Hell, which has been known to indulge in the occasional pop-culture fantasy every once in a while (I thought the Lord of the Rings hallucination was hilarious), seems to have set itself up for a Metal Gear Solid riff. Then again, I don't honestly know if Maritza's a gamer; she hasn't mentioned it much before, but I do know this: the character she's stranded in the water outside a massive, high-security facility is named Dave. Some see coincidence. I see providence.
Finally, if I catch anyone at Otakon wearing this shirt it will be all I can do to prevent myself from punching them in the face repeatedly. Though I must admit I like this shirt, which reminds me of those wonderful 42 months in which I actually was a DJ, and this hat, because... hey, I like hats. (Thanks to Real Life for the linkage. After you click my links, go to RL and click the ad there for them. Greg's cool, he deserves it.)
Payday! Glorious, blessed payday! I'll hit you guys back at lunch witht he AMV of the Month.Tuesday, May 4, 2004 7:32:39a: *
Ask and you shall recieve, I guess. In recompense for not having it up on time (and simply because they're both really short), I present to you the first in TheFurryOne.net's series of AMVs of the Month.
AMV Of The Month May 2004 Like I said, a double feature. Both are from Chobits, an excellent series; be it in manga form or anime, it's worth a look. The first is Sumomo And The Brain, edited by Ultimatetransfan. I'd heard lots about how hyperkinetic Sumomo (dammit, that's her name, not Plum; a plum is a fruit like an Apple... hmm...) was, and after reading the manga and seeing this video, I believe it. I wish I had a ringtone of her going ballistic over a phone call. THAT would get my attention.
The second is by Meredith Cantoni, and is entitled Has Anyone Seen My Underwear? I'll admit that my baser instincts caused me to download this, but I have to say it was worth it. It's not as perverted as you might think... well, all right, so it's not perverted, but it is exactly as immature as you think. C'mon, you can't sing about underwear and not get a few laughs out of it. According to "Meri", the song is by The Youth Ahead, and were I back in my DJ days I probably could have told you that myself; but they seem worth checking out as well.
Congratulations and thanks to both of the editors for this months' AMVs of the Month.
EDIT: You might want to download them first and watch them from your hard drive. My server is good, but streaming is a bit of a problem. For the technologically clueless, you can download the video by right-clicking on the link and selecting "Save Target As...".Friday, May 7, 2004 6:51:36a: *
I just want to go on record here and say that while I certainly applaud Mastiff Games' initiative in bringing over La Pucelle Tactics, their marketing department is staffed by abject idiots or total geniuses. The reason I say this is because the tagline being touted in all the ads shows the innocent-looking Prier with a thought balloon reading "Destruction gives me pleasure". As stated before, it is over-the-line disturbing or perfectly brilliant, depending on whether or not the fact that it got me to write about it counts for anything.
Oh yeah, and new Kingdom Hearts 2 info-- apparently we're going to be returning to Ancient Greece for a more in-depth trip, and we'll get to hang with Beast on his own turf (Hollow Bastion, despite what S-E implied by debuting Beast there, was actually Maleficent's castle). The info also has the first shot of Auron, who is looking surprisingly good for a dead guy. Apparently Disney is like the T-virus-- it revives deceased characters and animates their corpses. Hey, it worked for Aeris and Tidus. And Pez-- the enchanted objects make an appearance this time. RPGamer has the magazine scans; be our guest. (I am SO going to get shot for that...)
Next week is it, the Big Birthday Party. If you thought I was running off at the mouth about games before, you ain't seen NOTHIN' yet.Friday, May 7, 2004 4:15:32p: *
Continuing a discussion from a while ago on the forums, I have located Chiyo-chan pr0n.
Accidentally, you sickos.
Well, not so much pr0n as sort of a shojo-ai fanfic, and the author had the decency to age her to nineteen first. But yes, there is Chiyo-on-Sakaki action.
Don't look at me like that, I was looking for a picture of Nyamo from that time when she was plastered at the summer house.Monday, May 10, 2004 6:37:17a: *
Hey, folks. Sorry for being out of communications for a while, but things happened. Went back to Cuba, for one thing, and stopped in Houghton to attend my sister's graduation. The sibling-person is quite happy being almost out of school for the time being, and truthfully I don't blame her one bit.
Not much news to report just yet-- E3 hasn't opened, but everybody's got their shorts in a bunch about the Uematsu Dear Friends concert that I can't go to either. I so want to pull a Yukari... "I'm going to New Zealand!" Oh, how wonderful. "I'm going to E3." Oh, how wonderful. "Are you going anywhere, Furry One?" Why yes, I'm flying to Neptune! ...that's probably the best part about the Azumanga Daioh dub.
I want to rant about this for a while, now that I'm thinking about it. I have a serious problem with the dubbing that's been done to Azumanga Daioh by ADV. The voices just don't really seem to fit for me-- especially their insistence to use a Southern accent for any non-standard Japanese accent. Kansai, Osaka, Okinawa... why do dubbers insist that Antebellum fits all of these? Personally I always envisioned our dear Ayumu Kasuga as having a Pittsburgh accent-- or a New York one, as the translators for the manga saw fit to give her. Waaaaait, ADV TRANSLATED THE MANGA, TOO.... Hmm, people just aren't taking the time to coordinate between their departments anymore.
This link is probably the coolest usage of our dear bonkler I've seen in a long time. Go there.
Anyway, let's see... Not much else going on this morning. I've decided to give up on Noir, as the story just hasn't grabbed me to a point where I'd consider continuing it. I'll be selling the three volumes I do have later this afternoon. I'm also considering getting rid of Azu, but truth be told I know ADV will either try to redeem themselves or make the series worth my while with lots of extras (like Excel Saga-- notice how they jacked up the extra content once Jessica Calvello lost her voice?), so I'll probably wait 'till the "Nyamo Gets Plastered" episode, at the very earliest. (Monica Rial is an excellent actress. Needs to be said.)
EDIT: OK, posted now. Weird, Blogger wouldn't publish 'till I went in and saw the new design for some reason.Tuesday, May 11, 2004 4:41:38p: *
All right, then, so that didn't work so well.
Anyway... I'll just copy what I posted on the DDRErie forums. It has more impact as it was written mere moments after hearing the live press conference, courtesy Gamespot. More coherent thoughts to come later. I promise.
I'll be honest-- I came in about twenty minutes from the end, so I really only heard about the biggest surprises. Those being a few of the really neat features of the DS... The Nintendo DS (which will be getting a new name tomorrow) does have the confirmed touchscreen (stylus/finger) capability, and wireless connectivity. However, Nintendo kept us in the dark about two things-- first, the wireless isn't Bluetooth... it's standard Wi-fi (as in: built-in internet play if you have a wireless access point). And secondly, voice command will be possible on the machine.
Secondly, the DS (as said above) has a new Metroid game on the way (which was promised to be "non-stop" action), along with unknown offerings from Square-Enix. (Incidentally, S-E penned a deal to bring Everquest 2 to Asian territories. Yay, I guess.)
Next, Satoru Iwata (Nintendo's head honcho, the Final Boss) made a couple remarks about the next-generation Nintendo home console. He said (in English, so these are direct quotes) "Technology is not enough", and that "The definition of a new machine must be different". He promised a "revolution" in console gaming (citing Nintendo's habit of pioneering advances like the cross-pad and four controller ports) and teased the attendees with specifications, ultimately saying "I could give you the specs... but they really don't matter".
Finally, Shigeru Miyamoto himself walked out after a clash of swords, flashes of green, and horseshoes clopping... and said, "I'm not Link, but I do know him." He said that the new Zelda game (which will be on the Cube) will feature an adult Link-- "Link has grown up." He finished off by saying, "In order for Link to grow up, he cannot stand still. And neither can I. Thank you." And with that, the presentation ended.
For what it's worth, there were a ton of games announced for the PSP-- Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, and the like-- but little information is known about them. To be honest, if there was a new MGS game in the works, I'd be very willing to pick up a PSP... but we'll see.
Right now I'm counting the hours until I can pre-order a DS. ^_^
[end copying]
Since then I've picked up a few more tidbits of news. DDR Ultramix 2 will debut on the XBox sometime before '05, and includes a few very good song choices (A, DROP OUT most notable among them). But, well, it's XBox. Still no real news regarding the PS2's DDR Extreme, but we'll see... despite the fact that it's balls to the wall hard, I'd love to have Ready Steady Go on a PS2 version. ^_^
Square-Enix continues to leak info regarding their lineup-- they announced Samurai Musashi Legend this morning, and gave out a few more little bits regarding Advent Children and Before Crisis (HAH! I didn't call it "Beyond Crisis" this time!), FFXII, and Kingdom Hearts 2. New character for 12, actually, and screenshots here and there for KH2. I'm really looking forward to Before Crisis, though, even though SE still hasn't announced Sprint PCS support yet.
And Acclaim has a few games on their lineup. At this point they all suck goat wang until I hear otherwise. Just like every other Acclaim release. Ever.
More as it emerges. Just a few more hours left, folks, till the REAL show begins.Wednesday, May 12, 2004 10:40:42p: *
So, according to Gamespot, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children isn't a movie, but rather a game for the PSP.
Well, hell. Square obviously thinks that's going to be enough to get me to purchase a PSP. It's not.
We'll see how this turns out. Let's go over some more news really quickly:
Everyone's collectively moistening themselves over Zelda. I'm purposefully avoiding any information about it, not because I don't care, but because I don't want to spoil ANYTHING about this one. Again, I'm still going to wait and see, but this has a very high chance of being a pre-order priority.
One that I certainly will pre-order is Star Fox. In fact, it's already looking like a long wait 'till November, when the game is scheduled for release. If anything could possibly be a Halo-killer for the 'Cube, this would be it. Combat in the Arwing starfighter is emphasized, but you also have the option of the Landmaster tank or shoulder-mounted weaponry, as well-- meaning there's opportunity for plenty of fun to be had. Character models are crisp and attractive-- an understatement, to be sure. Many are already appreciative of the new uniforms for Fox and Krysta (since Star Fox Adventures, Krysta has apparently ditched the "tribal goddess" look-- thank god), and I am among them. Damn, Fox's armor looks cool... and seeing him go toe-to-toe with several large mechs... yep, this is gonna be a loooooooooooong summer...
OK, wait just a second here. Gamespy is reporting that Advent Children is going to be a movie on the Cube. Something's not right here....
All right, this is better. Straight from Square, Advent Children is a MOVIE. Not a Cube game, not a PSP game, a DVD movie. More than that, it appears Cloud and Tifa didn't get biz-zay-- he "walked away from the life of a hero to live in solitude"... Hm. Better than losing your soul to James Woods and practicing Aerobic Brooding in a coliseum, I guess.
Hm, it appears Fullmetal Alchemist was a manga by Square first. First I've heard of the House of HP getting into the manga business.
Anyway, time for bed, folks. E3 continues, and you can bet there'll be surprises tomorrow...Friday, May 14, 2004 1:45:55p: *
E3 news, yo. This link greatly frightens me. As a player who cut his first character sheet in the Rifts universe, I am wondering if Siembieda really knows that he's destroying his franchise. It's been speculated that the game would sell better if it were being released for the Atari 2600, and I can't for the life of me think of any reasons why not. The N-gage is a failed experiment and Nokia would be best to just give up.
Speaking of failures... well, after Infinium lied about hiring Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, they still had the big brass ones to show up at E3 with what looked like a working Phantom prototype. The phrase "Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain" immediately comes to mind. Real Life's crew is split down the middle about the machine, but I myself am not impressed in any way. Given the strong showings by all three (you hear that, Nokia? THREE.) major system producers, the Phantom will be left out in the cold when the next generation hits...
...and thankfully, that won't be for quite some time. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo were very, VERY smart this year in announcing only the tiniest of details for each of their new machines; Microsoft saying they're working on it, Sony saying they've got dev kits banged together, and Nintendo saying they're going to revolutionize the industry. I believe it-- all three of them. I know I say this every year, and every year it's more true than ever before: it is a good time to be a gamer, my friends.
The Nintendo DS has an opening price point of 9 and a release date of late November 2004. The price will probably change, but if I know Nintendo (and I think I do), when they say November, they mean November. Preordering will be, when money is acquired. Bank on it.
Let's take a look back for a second at some of the news I've already covered: Square announced that their Mobile Gaming Division now supports Sprint PCS Vision. You can practically see the happy oozing off of me. As for the FF7: Advent Children thing, it turns out the film will be released on PSP and DVD discs. One can only surmise that the PSP version will lack extra features.
Talkin' 'bout Zelda, there're two new adventures on the way-- the Cube version, scheduled for early 2005, and a GBA game entitled "The Minish Cap". I'm thrilled just to get a new traditional Zelda game, and having it on GBA/DS is an excellent move. Let's see how this works out.
Sadly, no new information about Star Fox, besides a tentative release date of September 04. I imagine that, given the state of completeness that the game was in at E3, this will be pushed forward as we get closer. Still, this is gonna be quite some wait 'till the game is released.
Konami announced EyeToy support for the new DDR Extreme-- a first for the series, as the Japanese version didn't have this mode. Isn't it great getting new stuff before the people who originated the series do? ^_^ Oh yeah, getting tracks from BT and Junior Senior are always good-- this might just make up for the glaring lack of Oakenfold in the PS2 version of MAX2.
And wrapping up the review, despite the fact that they're the spawn of Satan, I have to admit that Acclaim's 100 Bullets has an interesting premise. But then I remember that this is Acclaim we're dealing with, and that they're bound to f#@$ it up, so the feeling passes.
OK, moving on: Wild ARMs Alter Code F didn't get a whole lot of face time from the major press, but according to all the sites I've read, it looks to be still on track for a late-04 release; I'd put money on September or October. Despite flagging enthusiasm from the press and from Sony itself, I'm still thrilled to get the chance to return to Filgaia and take on the Metal Demons once more.
Gamespot says Atlus will bring it old-school on the 25th of May, when they release River City Ransom EX. I feel kind of mixed about this, as I never got the chance to play the game back in the NES days-- nor, come to think of it, have I ever played it during the times when emulation fever seized me. Still, given the chance, I might give it a spin-- after all, who can resist some good old-fashioned Engrish fighting?
Konami's pushing their Yu-Gi-Oh! property pretty heavily this year, but they're not forgetting the truest of the hardcore-- Suikoden IV and Gradius V were both shown. And then there's that Snake Eater thing-- but who really cares about that, there's Gradius! If it's not rip-your-spine-out-and-beat-you-with-it hard, it ain't Gradius. Bear this in mind, Konami.
Advent Rising got a few glimpses, but to be honest I'm starting to harbor doubts... We'll deal with them later. A new, dedicated gaming PC is definitely in my future at some point-- the laptop is good, and I've been happy getting my Vana'diel on with it-- but the biggest bottleneck is the one I can't upgrade. A desktop machine is the way fro me to go-- but in time...
Xenosaga Episode 2 didn't have too much we haven't already seen; however, Monolith folks have said that Episode I had "exceeded expectations", which really tells me that they're going to finish the series. Thank God. I don't think I could take another drop-off...
Finally, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has a solid date of August 24th for its US release. And there was much rejoicing.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot-- Cardcaptor Sakura Boxed Set 2 should be hitting stores either this week or next; this would be books 4-6 of the first manga series. Finally, I can see what happened between books 3 and 7... yes, I cheated and looked ahead, but fortunately CLAMP didn't spoil anything too much. I should have known, of course, that CLAMP would be good like that. Angels never let me down. ^_^
All right, now some site news. That is, if anyone's still reading this far down. Tomorrow, after very close to a year of preparation, the Seth Mythos begins. I'm only running the first two missions as a very basic primer to the world, and also to gauge how closely I can follow the original story vision; but I'll be not only running my first game ever, I'll be running close to 100% original material. I'm striving very hard not to make this a "fan-fiction" campaign, though I probably will wind up using the BESM sourcebook to do a couple missions for an unrelated game. But for the most part this is going to be a completely new story. Those of you familiar with the original version of the Seth tales-- the ones based on, you know-- know part of the story. Sunday evening I'll be giving a synopsis of the first encounters, and some time after that, a narrative version of the story-- Chapters One and Two, so to speak.
In any event, I don't believe I'll be updating again 'till then, so we'll call this my birthday announcement. On the 16th, I turn 24. Go me. Talk to you folks when the weekend... ends.Monday, May 17, 2004 7:18:50a: *
I'll be brief, since I'm running a bit late this morning. If you haven't checked out Sumomo and the Brain or Has Anyone Seen My Underwear?, now is the time-- the month is half over, and once June 1st hits I'll have a new AMV on display.
The first half of Saturday went really, really badly. The second half-- once we actually started playing the campaign-- went really, really well. The promised summary will be up at some point this week.
I have to get an eye appointment-- I've been meaning to do it since I got the job in Coudersport, but the fact that I've had to get ludicrously close to things has really irritated me of late, so it's off to Lenscrafters I go. Or maybe Wal-Mart-- depends on who has cheaper prices on the frames I want. Insurance is my friend.
And Windows just crashed for no reason. Oh yeah, happy birthday to me-- it was yesterday. Yay me!
...I'm trying to be low-key so I don't attract any embarassing attention at work. Sssssh.Tuesday, May 18, 2004 7:03:17p: * TFO.net Presents: Stolen Dune Truths
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans that the hands acquire speed. The speed becomes shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
I must drink beer; Beer is the mind-killer. Beer is the little drink that brings total obliteration. I will drink my beer. I will permit it to pass into me and through me. And when it has gone through me I will turn to see beer's path. Where the beer has gone there will be urine. Only my hangover will remain.
He who controls the blogs, controls the public opinion.Wednesday, May 19, 2004 10:15:41p: *
Cardcaptor Sakura, boxed set 2, should be in stores as you read this. Maybe not too many stores in Erie, as I gots mine and have already read it. It was well worth the wait.
.........
...Any further analysis will have to wait until I finish the second series tomorrow night. ^_^Saturday, May 22, 2004 1:09:44p: *
Welcome, Slashdotters! Please enjoy the site, if you so desire.
I think I'll weigh in on the whole John Woo-does-video game movies thing now, while I'm thinking about it. Despite the groupthink mentality on Slashdot, I actually enjoy John Woo's films. Certainly not on a constant basis, of course-- I skipped Windtalkers on my sister's recommendation-- but I did like MI:2 and Paycheck. Why? For the same reason I liked S.W.A.T. and Hellboy-- they were good "blow shit up" movies. You can read all the deep, intellectual stuff you want, you can go hardcore into analyzing deep-space theorems to the point where you're on a first-name basis with The Mighty Stephen Hawking, but you need time to shut down your brain every once in a while. That said, I'm still hoping Woo will wow with Metroid and Spy Hunter.
There has to be a balance-- a counterpoint. Metroid was a prototypical survival horror game-- you played Samus, and you were alone in a very hostile environment with little more than an underpowered weapon to see you through. I'd like to see the film show some of this tension... but also to show a little bit of the reasons behind the situation. Seems to me that the best way to do it would be to have the action scenes interspersed with the "briefing"... Samus knows what's going on, but the viewer does not-- not until near the end of the movie, when the briefing is over. But like I said, we'll see. We've got Hollywood's finest working on it, and Nintendo certainly has learned its lesson from the godawful Super Mario Bros. movie.
Anyway, off to the bowels of Erie for a little bit. Got a few errands to run, then the DDRErie Meet and Greet at 6-ish. See you there, if you stop by-- it's at Family First Sports Park. Later.Monday, May 24, 2004 10:00:55p: *
I'm in a confrontational mood tonight, so I'm going to piss some people off. You know how the n3t 31!t3 like to say that blogs (such as this one) will be the death of information on the net? I disagree. What will be the death of information on the net are the so-called "fanlisting" sites. Witness: I tried to do a search on Scrapped Princess this afternoon and found no real, concrete information beyond what I already knew from watching the fansub. I did, however, find that there are fanlistings for every character in the series who ever had a speaking part.
With a blog, you often get an opinion on a topic, so if it comes up in a search result-- which is what these people are really complaining about-- the odds are good that the page returned will have some useful information. So I say to the bloggers, continue! Write about all the stupid shit you can think of, because at some point someone may find your opinion useful! But if you're going to build a site, make sure there's a point to it. I just plain don't see the point of the fanlisting sites...
Anyway, I feel the need to re-watch Scrapped Princess, but I also have an overburning desire to read the end of Cardcaptor Sakura first. Problem is, I'm broke and will probably not have the opportunity to get the last three volumes 'till next week. Nobody spoil the ending for me, now. ^_^
Oh yeah, one last thing. My final fanfic is now pushing 50 single-spaced typed pages, and I'm only about halfway through. I had to make a conscious effort to stop adding subplots and start advancing the main plot. It's really slow-paced, but not to the point where it's tedious. I prefer "exquisitely detailed", myself. Anyway, good night, folks. By the end of the week I should have some good news regarding the new Dynamic Toy.Thursday, May 27, 2004 12:37:07p: * Something I Noticed:
The numbers that claim x00,000 health problems related to fast food aren't referring to obesity, heart disease, cardiovascualr damage, or anything like that.
Rather, they refer to the aneurysms that result in trying to explain "DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER, NO PICKLES, ONIONS, OR TOMATO" to your average fast-food worker.
This has been another installment of Something I Noticed.Friday, May 28, 2004 1:27:36p: *
All right, after a brief amount of downtime, the site should be back. Obviously, if you're reading this, it is. With this in mind, I'm still going to be looking for a new hosting company-- I'm getting very frustrated with the apathetic level of support I'm receiving. We'll see how things turn out.
For those of you who are not Pez, however, let me explain-- the Phantasy Star PS2 remakes (1, 2, and 4) are to be compiled into one disc and released in the US early in 2005. Considering Overworks (the folks at Sega .jp who were responsible for the original PS series) have dissociated themselves from their beloved franchise, this is as close as we're going to get to a real Phantasy Star game for quite some time. For the record, of course, if the game isn't canned before then it will be released over two years after the Game Boy Advance's buggy Phantasy Star Collection (which included PS3 instead of the far better 4; THQ and Digital Eclipse have promised a GBA port of PS4 for those two years now and have yet to deliver a single screenshot. I wouldn't hold my breath).
No other news. I should have an announcement for the Dynamic Toys section before the end of the month, and I'll also put up the new AMV of the month on Monday evening. (This month... THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! *ahem*) Busy busy busy! Later!Sunday, May 30, 2004 2:30:15p: * DEPTH is completed, and a link to it has been added to the Dynamic Toys section. Those of you who do not DDR might not find this to be a particularly useful or even interesting Dynamic Toy, but I think I am a little justified in calling this my first Masterwork Web Thingy. I liken what I'm going to do now to the Author's Notes I used to write for my fanfics (and will probably write when I decide to start doing real fiction), so here goes.
I started this tool late in April, or at least some of the seeds for it. I used a Perl script (the first Perl I'd ever written, actually) to extract the 800+ song titles, artists, and sets of information from the archives at DDRFreak.com . After converting these into SQL insert statements and trimming out duplicate lines, I dumped them into a database on my server. I learned quite a bit about the power of Perl and phpMyAdmin, both excellent tools for which I am greatly appreciative. They made the data entry process a lot smoother.
Next came actually figuring out how to format this raw data into something resembling a usable interface. I had seen how sites like Aaron In Japan and the like dealt with the score data, and hated both of their methods. I wanted to make sure the user had complete flexibility in how he or she entered their song scores, so they could choose either a simple letter grade down to a full-scale accounting of all their tallies at the end of the song. I drew up a few rudimentary layouts before settling on what you see there now. Go ahead, search for my record(s), I'll wait. (And if you can't guess what my username is, you certainly haven't been coming here long enough. ^_^)
Any experienced PHP guru will look at the code for TFO.net and immediately call me a talentless script kiddie with no sense for scalability or portability. I am aware of this and, barring a total rewrite of my site (I'm not willing to do that just yet; give me a couple months ^_^), I am making improvements. Part of what I dreaded about doing the DEPTH coding was that I wanted to do it Right, not Easily. This meant pulling variables from GET and POST headers, not taking shortcuts with my statements, and looking up how to do stuff that I had consistently been implementing wrong (like page redirects). I also put to use some really neat effects such as overloaded functions, proper (and damn tight, if you ask me) password handling, and I tried to stay away from global variables as much as possible (if something was important enough to be a global, it would have been either instantiated in one of my includes or it would have been made a cookie). Part of why I chose to pursue learning PHP as much as I did in college and afterwards was because I initially thought "hey look, this is a lot easier than following all those stupid rules"; having bent, broken, and in some cases turned over and spanked some of those rules, I now understand the importance of having and following them.
In any event, that's what I did this month. If I'm not too sick of PHP coding here in June, I'll try to make up a Toy for my own site. In the meantime, folks, I have some serious catching up to do in Vana'diel, so if you will excuse me, I bid you adieu to get my catgirl on. Mreow.