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Tuesday, November 1, 2005 8:39:00p: Techknowledgy*
NCIS tonight. It's all right but the fact of the matter is that Hollywood still has decided to insult gamers everywhere. They identified the machine right as the Nintendo DS, but the child playing with it must have been in an intense Pictochat session, judging by the sound effects.
I'm not slacking off, really.Monday, November 7, 2005 7:15:00a: *
Hey. I'm ahead of schedule on NaNo, but still I managed to not write anythign substantial this weekend So naturally rather than do some catch-up work this morning I've decided to report on some game news. Rock on.
Final Fantasy IV Advance hits the US on December 12th. Wow, that just slipped in under the radar, didn't it? Now, don't take this the wrong way, but the game's been confirmed as having had a full retranslation. Some lines of dialogue deviate from both the old script and the Chronicles script. Most notably, the Fiends' names now match up with their classical references. Which is cool, because seriously, every time I fought Milon Z I almost lost because I was laughing too hard. More than that, the game is based on the Hardtype version, which means no more dummied-out commands. So yeah, the twins will be useful for more than just their respective abilities and Comet. Edward (if he remains Edward) will still be a wuss, though.
Mother 3 was confirmed and it's been said that development is near complete. The teaser site shows only the game's logo, which is unusual-- the usual brushed-steel look of the "Mother" text has, in places, been replaced by rough wood branches. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on both to see if Nintendo releases more information abotu the game prior to release or if they announce a US localization.
Speaking of localizations... You certainly wouldn't know it just by glancing at the site of late, but I'm a huge Wild ARMs fan. I feel the need to restate this every time I have news about Wild ARMs Alter Code F because there's never any news about Alter Code F. Until now-- Agetec has finally confirmed the game for a November 15th release. The game has been in development hell for two years since the Japanese release. I'm not going to be too picky, but when it comes out it better be PERFECT. You have had two years to perfect this game and make it exactly what the fans have asked for-- you delayed it just to go back and re-mistranslate Jet back to Zed. The first sign of a misspelling or something that just plain doesn't work compared to the old game, I'll call you guys on it. Working Designs wasn't this slow. We're talking levels of expectation greater than or higher than how I felt about Lunar. And let me tell you-- Lunar delivered. This better deliver, too. Incidentally, Wild ARMs 4 is on track for a January release.
Finally, Guitar Hero. I picked this up as an early reward for hitting 10,000 words, and that's part of the reason I'm not at 20,000 words. It's pretty addicting, much like Frequency was-- Harmonix has basically made the game play like Frequency with two additional avenues for notes, and made it a bit more of a challenge to play as it requires more coordination than merely hitting a button. That said, real guitarists might be upset about its lack of realism, but then again real guitarists will probably not see the need to spend to shred on "Fat Lip" when they can use their existing axe to do it. I have to hand it to RedOctane, though-- the controller that comes packaged with the game, the Guitar Controller GS, is compatible with Konami's Guitar Freaks. I'll go into more detail in the Netjak review.
Later, folks. I hope to make time to keep the front page updated like this, but I can't make any guarantees.Friday, November 11, 2005 7:34:00a: Dood!*
Prinny stuffies are going to be available at the NIS online store this afternoon at 1p EST. They're supposedly a limited edition, so those of you interested in them (Kat) should be at the ready to snatch them up.
There's a bug in my blog system that doesn't handle November and presumably December dates gracefully. I'll check it out this weekend, probably after I hit 40,000 words in my NaNo. Yeah, you heard me. 40,000. It can be done. Massive caffeinated blitzkrieg for the almost-win.Monday, November 14, 2005 7:15:00a: *
A mere 32,000 words. My life is despair. Except for the part where it's only the 14th and I still have time to write those last 18,000. So, not so much despair.
Actually I consider my life to be pretty damn good of late, what with Alter Code F and Mario Kart Online coming out this week. Also, finding the Babylon 5 boxed sets for extra-cheap (aside from having to make three trips to get them.... rrrrgh, long, useless story) made this a very good weekend indeed. My only real desire, which I know I shouldn't have, is if the fifth season (the only one I didn't have last time) had been in the used pile. As it stands, back to where I was before is still quite the coup.
I want to talk, really quick, about the Sony thing. There's a lot of heated talk going around in regards to how the conglomerate's music division has been quietly inserting spyware into its customers' computers in yet another attempt to stem the bleeding in the music industry. Granted, I hadn't yet managed to stumble across this, as I think the last physical CD I've ever purchased on purpose was Hikaru Utada's "Exodus", and even then I only did that after making sure the giant anti-piracy label on the back of the case wasn't some legalese code for the smash hit bonus track "U Can't Rip This (Hardcore Screw Your Computer Remix)". Fact of the matter is, iTunes has fed my fix thus far and what iTunes doesn't have-- after a serious long time searching-- I can easily "find" elsewhere. Let me restate that: I am willing to buy music first at a price I consider fair before downloading it from a shady source. I'm all for the limits of copyrights to be reduced back to something reasonable-- fifteen years, maybe thirty for really profound stuff. The copyright laws are supposed to protect people from getting ripped off for making new stuff, not let them be creative once and then live off that for the rest of their lives. A three-minute one-hit-wonder is not a guaranteed meal ticket for fifty years, not for the artist, not for the producers, and not for anyone else. The music distribution system is failing because it's been stretched too far.
Now call me hypocritical but I refuse to download feature movies under any circumstances. The costs in developing a movie these days are exponentially greater than those for a CD, even if you factor in the marketing, hype, and buyouts to the ASPCA (in the case of an Ozzy CD). TV series, well, they're over the air and I have cable and a VCR. No foul there, I watch commercials when I do watch TV. Fansubs are a gray area too, but I play by the unofficial rules. But, well, maybe I bought in to the whole "when you steal a movie you put poor Jimmy the grip out of work, please think of Jimmy" campaign the MPAA ran. It raises a goo point, though-- with a CD you basically have a handful of musicians and technical engineers doing the majority of the work, and a majority of executives and middlemen pocketing a majority of the sale. A movie has probably just about an equal number of middlemen, but there are so many more people who are doing real and tangible work (set construction, acting, casting, scriptwriting, all sorts of other jobs-- just watch the end credits of a movie versus looking at the liner notes for a CD). So why is a CD more expensive than a movie ticket, if more people work on a movie? I won't download a movie, not when I have access to pay-per-view, on-demand, and other pay sources primarily for that reason, but also because quite frankly the six hours that my connection would be locked down during the file transfer or BT run is more valuable to me than the .50 to rent it or the to go up to Mayfield Heights and see it. (Let me say this, though-- I do think movie tickets are a little overpriced, especially in suburban or urban areas. I tend to do most of my movie watching on the weekends, Saturday afternoons, when the theater is less crowded and I can catch the flick for instead of .)
Am I advocating a boycott of all of Sony's products? No, doing that is both impossible and counterproductive. Sony is making enough money on their hardware that they sell every day that losing the music battle will be pretty much a blip on their radar. More than that, you can't honestly think that the Japanese developers of the PS3 had any knowledge or control over what the American music division decided to do to its customers, can you? It's just the music division which dropped the ball here. Boycott Sony CDs, yes, by all means, but the entire company can't learn its lesson if it's bankrupt.
What I guess I am saying, really, is that the music industry was a good idea for its time, but recording a track has become such a commonplace thing that the real money is made in live performances. A record label needs to understand its new role in the twenty-first century: not as the conduit through which the artist gains money, but as the conduit through which the public gains knowledge of and interest in the artist. A CD is no longer a product but an advertisement, it has ceased being something of itself and is now merely a hook to get people to go to live shows. And you know what? If more artists caught on to this and gave their albums away in advance of shows or at the shows, I can guarantee you that it would make that artist rich. The cost of the disc pressing would be far more than subsumed by the revenues of the show, if the artist (or more likely, the artist's manager) was smart.
I'm starting to get a feel for what it's going to take to get the book published, once it's done. I'm not a greedy person. If it's a better thing for me to give it away than to deal with the hassles of traditional publishing, then so be it. I'm a storyteller first and foremost, and a storyteller is worse than useless if nobody's listening to the tale. I'll keep you updated on if I actually do get in contact with an agent (since going direct to a publishing house seems like it would be a really, really dumb idea, at least until I know what I'm doing). I hold no delusions that anyone will even read the book-- I just know that someone out there might like it. We'll see.
First, before that, before any of that, I have to finish the damn thing. 18,000 words to go. I expect to hit 40K by Thursday, given my pace. I will, of course, keep you folks updated.Tuesday, November 15, 2005 9:38:00p: *
Sorry, kids, no writing done tonight. That's two in a row I've slacked off on, and you can bet there won't be a third. Even if by some miracle things the UPS guy shows up on time tomorrow at the store and delivers Wild ARMs, I won't even take it out of the plastic until I've written at least three thousand words. I guarantee it.
In other news, while Mario Kart DS's online play is-- and this is a direct quote-- a hoot, I just wish Nintendo had done a little bit better of a job of stress testing the damn WFC system. As it stands, two and a half hours of waiting to not get kicked off resulted in exactly 1 (one) matchup. Four races, which were split-- Dave49 won the first and last races, while I took the middle two. There was no lag and things zipped right along; it was as if Dave49 was sitting right next to me. I was quite impressed. But two hours' wait for a ten-minute experience? If I wanted that I'd have spent all summer at Cedar Point!
I can only comfort myself in the knowledge that this must be what the WoW players felt those painful first few months. Then I pray that it won't take months to sort out all this server baloney, because Animal Crossing DS is just around the corner and if I'm really good (read: I finish the novel) I'll be able to sink my life down that particular hole.
Tonight is a designated slack night. Thus, I shall slack by actually reading more of Web of Arachnos. It's pretty standard fare so far, but I'm hoping ity gets better (I'm roughly 30 pages in).Saturday, November 19, 2005 11:19:00p: *
Today was a trip, and no doubt. I'll go over the big thing, first-- I'm just a hair over 45,000 words in the NaNo and expect to hit the goal by Wednesday morning. I changed formats slightly in how I was writing it; rather than weave multiple stories through each other I decided that, for the sake of finishing the damn thing, I would just blat out an ending and be done with it. I can go back and piece together the plot later.
I also had to go cell phone shopping today, and managed to swing a pretty good deal on a new cameraphone. However, it is sort of a caveat emptor deal; I picked up the LG PM-325, a sweet-looking blue slide phone with a bright, readable display that's got a good viewpoint when "closed". It's also Bluetooth enabled, but missing the one key feature that Bluetooth would be really good for in regards to phones-- I'm talking, of course, about file transfer. No matter, I used this tool to transfer the files, since 3Gupyoursload is now a shady pay service. It has good sound quality and it's very compact-- plus, the web features run much, much faster on this one than my old Samsung phone.
It's also a camera phone. So yeah, pictures will be a new thing for me.
Wild ARMs... I've just about hit the three hour mark but haven't been playing much (finished the Excavation Site and then had to sleep on Thursday night, and I've been busy since then). Tomorrow morning will be a good chance for me to play some more, maybe even to actually start the main story. I have to say, though, the opening scene, and the new animated opening... wow. Powerful stuff. Made me proud to be a Dream Chaser. The localization is just plain excellent. Agetec has always been on my short list of bad publishers but they have proven themselves this far.
Thank you.Tuesday, November 29, 2005 7:32:00a: *
There's irony in my suggesting to Pez that he should start a journal, and then leaving my own front page unupdated for quite some time. Like a week.
Thanksgiving was good, of course, but there are so many tales to tell, most of which have already been told. So, no point rehashing what's already been said, let's get into the news.
I'm just shy of ten hours into Alter Code F, and I should have played more last night but completely lost motivation to do much of anything for whatever strange reason. I count yesterday as just a wasted night, and I am sure it won't happen again. Well, not anytime soon, anyway. As for WA, I'm still digging it. The storyline has stayed true to the original and I'm happy with the way that the changes were made. And, even though it's a sore spot that Zed's theme was changed to something less super awesome, I have to admit he's a far more interesting character now. We've got quite a ways to go, folks...
Microsoft is reportedly "aware" that their marketing ploy has caused havoc on the order of GTA-scale lawlessness of the Xbox 360 shortages. I wonder if they're also aware of the fact that the damn things don't work?
Speaking of things not working, Nintendo's not immune. A bug in a particular version of the latest Pokemon game can potentially wipe out saved data on GBA cartridges. Speaking as a guy who keeps FFTA in the GBA slot for those times when Mario Kart isn't my cup of tea, it would suck to lose that data just 'cause I wanted to play with my Pikachu. Still, they're owning up to it and offering replacements. That's good customer service right there.
The Revolution starts on May 9th of next year-- Big N has that day set aside for their official unveiling. A week later, on my birthday, I get to play it. Coincidence? You betcha, but I just like making up conspiracy theories.
That's all for now. I'll try to post again later this week-- something big is on the way. Make sure you keep this Friday night free.Wednesday, November 30, 2005 6:45:00a: *
A quick note this morning, folks: Firefox 1.5 is now available. Go ahead and click over there to get it. While I would recommend it solely on the basis of it being a better browser and all that, it also deserves props because it happens to fix an issue with my links page that heretofore I hadn't thought about fixing-- namely, the fact that prior to this, if you had your My TFO.net set up to open links in the main page, you would have to re-click the appropriate tab whenever you returned to the page via the back button. Not so with the new Firefox.
This, of course, assumes that anyone other than me uses or cares about the links page. Meh. Anyway, I intend to make up a new layout at some point in December as well. I'll probably be using CSS more for that layout. We'll see.