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Thursday, September 2, 2004 10:38:31p: *
Two-thirds of the Pop'n Music setup arrived. I am pretty much totally addicted now. I just feel bad that I'm going to get so good with the Dual Shock and then have to switch to the arcade-style. Ah well.
Pics of the new and improved setup are forthcoming. It's a real thrill to see the white PS2 sitting atop the black one.
And if you don't hear from me much this weekend, it's probably because I was invited to a LAN.Friday, September 3, 2004 7:00:09p: *
Hi, folks. I was a little tired last night, so I kind of didn't write nearly as much as I wanted to. Note that I also did not play nearly as much Pop'n as I really really wanted to. Responsibilities call, of course, so expect a new AMV of the Month this weekend and the removal of the "Pop'n Song Of the Day" feature which attracted absolutely NO attention. That was really more of an experiment anyway, one which turned out a little better than I thought it would. Anyway, much has happened in the world of gaming since I last went over the state of the industry, so let's start off with a little news.
First, LucasArts continues to desperately gasp money out of its Star Wars game division with the upcoming release of LEGO Star Wars for PS2 and XBox. I'm... uncertain, really. It sounds like it's going to bomb terribly. But it might not. Despite it being easy, it seems to have garnered a little bit of praise from GameSpy-- but then again I trust them about as far as I can throw Fargo, so there you go.
Speaking of Lego-like stuff, the Pop'n Music 10CS Limited Edition will include a soundtrack disc, a calendar, a special collector's box, and (here it comes) Kubrick figurines of Mimi and Nyami. (Mimi being the bunny-girl on the cover and Nyami being the cat-girl.) I'm thinking about it... Really I am... I have until November 18 to get a pre-order in, if I want it, so I'll probably be OK. Though, all things considered, I'm not entirely sure I want to go overboard spending money just yet... You know, now I have to pay attention to the Japanese release schedule, too. Oh darn, what a sacrifice... ^_^
I've made mention of the death of Acclaim already, and so far I'm still riding the high off that. Once again, and for all posterity, I do feel for the developers, coders, and testers who lost their jobs in the fold-- especially since they were probably not given too much warning. However, let it be known that if anyone ever comes up to me and introduces themselves as having once been a manager or marketing man at Acclaim they will earn themselves three swift kicks in the balls-- one for f[oul]ing up Mortal Kombat, one for tarnishing the Simpsons license irrevocably, and one for f[oul]ing up Headhunter. You have been warned. YOU HAD THREE GOD DAMNED LICENSES TO PRINT MONEY AND YOU STILL MANAGED TO TURN THEM INTO TOTAL WASTES! WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD WAS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!
Ahem. I feel better and sleep very soundly now that I know that one of those marketeers will, within a month, be homeless and selling spare body parts (with any luck, his own-- but hey, it's already a given that the marketers were amoral asshats, so you never know) for crack. I don't normally rejoice in other people's suffering; but for Christ's sake these people deserved it, on the basis of Turok alone. But... well, enough of this. Moving on now.
I'm starting to get impatient for the US release of Wild ARMs: Alter Code F. Agetec has been pushing it back for quite a while now, and since November 19th is listed as the current release date, I'm wondering if it might not be more efficient just to say "screw it" and import the PS2 the Best version. Granted, I won't understand any of it, but hey, it's Wild ARMs! Still, I will probably be content to wait; I have to take a look at some of the reviews, of course, as Agetec isn't exactly known for their stellar localization jobs.
Ooooooh... Bomberman Battles...
Ah, sorry. Got a little distracted there. Let's see, what else happens soon... Ah! Tokyo Game Show. Right, that's the end of the month. Star Ocean: Till The End of Time is out, making the title a curious contradiction. NHL 2K5 is also out, making me drool so much it's not even funny... There're really only three sports I even acknowledge the existence of (hockey, football, and baseball), and of those I really only get excited about hockey. Football I can watch and follow to a certain extent, and baseball's also kind of interesting; but for the most part I love hockey (even though I can't play worth crap).
Unix fortune just randomly spat this out at me: "And now, the Bing Crosby show, brought to you by the makers of Ex-Lax. ... a brief pause, and then Bing!" And it made me laugh uncontrollably for whatever reason.
I had a little crisis of confidence this afternoon, and strangely enough calling my mom helped that out a lot. It's weird; it was prompted, more than anything, by overhearing a fat, mildly stupid postal worker bitching in the Burger King about how if he ever caught his stepson with an earring, he wouldn't even say anything before he would "rip the sucker right out of there". It wasn't really something that hit me as being especially close to my experiences, until the next sentence stank its way across the restaurant: "He needs to be taken out back a couple times... I know I'm just the stepfather, but he's thirty-two." Quite frankly I almost threw up right there. People like that, who continue to dominate their childrens' lives so far into adulthood, they literally sicken me. The only thing I can think of that's worse is having parents who don't care-- though it would be a definition of irony to hear someone drunkenly bragging about how much they don't care about their kids. Parenting isn't a science, no matter how much Dr. Spock's books would lead you to believe. It's an art, and one that has to be practiced very carefully so you don't hit either of those extremes.
OK, I lied. The whole "calling Mom at lunch" thing wasn't prompted by the Disgruntled Employee Of The Month up there, but also by hearing a lot of the people around me complaining about their parents. It makes me feel very lucky that I did grow up in what could be considered a relatively "normal" household, with parents who cared but gave me enough freedom. Truth be told, technically the way I was raised is now considered "abnormal". And I think it's that paradigm shift which scared me to that point. Having your perspective pulled out from under you can be a very disconcerting thing. But I'll be completely honest with you here-- it's also a very liberating experience.
This is going to sound really weird coming from me (well, for those of you joining my little adventure already in progress, anyway; those of you who've been there since day one probably can guess what's coming next), but I recently read Hardcore Zen, by Brad Warner, former member of punk band Zero Defex and now a teacher of Zen who has received dharma transmission-- but that's mostly B.S. to make him sound official. It's not exactly my style to recommend "religious" books of any sort, but this one goes light on the mysticism and heavy on the "how does this apply to real life?" philosophy. Warner takes a very no-nonsense, subtle approach to imparting the precepts and ideas behind Zen philosophy, which means that even just one reading will change the way you think about certain events in your life-- assuming, of course, you're willing to analyze those events in your life in the first place. The point of all this is that the book catalyzed the thought processes that led to the whole crisis of confidence thing this afternoon.
One of Warner's big-ticket points is the denial of a concept of self. To an extent, I do and I do not believe in that. I can't accept that there is not something somewhere, if not here and now, that can be positively identified as me. (Note that I said me and not "me". Everyone has something they identify as "me", but there is only one me. Argh, this is why I didn't study English; it's so imprecise where the slightest imprecision causes problems.) I do, however, acknowledge that some part of me exists throughout "the entire universe", and that some part of "the entire universe" exists within the thing identified as me. If it were not so, then why would the fat bastard's blithering on about his stepson get to me as much as it did? Why would I be reacting as if I were his stepson, looking for reassurance and the affirmation that my path was valid? It would be totally irrational. I would be unable to understand my reaction if I denied that there was a connection between me and the rest of the world. To borrow a phrase, "No matter where you go, everyone is always connected." Anyway, that's all I wanted to say about that. Just some thoughts I had.
Went on a Pop'n blitz here before I posted this, so I'm really happy right now. Actually, I think I'll just get back to that, so...Tuesday, September 7, 2004 6:35:46p: *
Hi, folks. This morning, driving in to work, I had one of the most humiliating experiences of my entire life. I was stuck behind a school bus for the greater part of my trip. But what's worse, it was the short bus. Kids waving out the back, banging their hands on the glass; one really confused kid was picking his nose and smiling beatifically. You can't laugh at that, really, no matter how amusing it strikes you. I believe you go straight to hell if you do that-- God, time, fate, or whatever picks you up right then and there, says "Go to Hell, go directly to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect 0", and into the lake of fire you go. So there I was, behind a bus full of... special children, trying very hard not to laugh as they continued to rap their knuckles on the bus in an attempt to break my stone face.
So naturally, that would be the one time Hot Limit seems really, uncontrollably funny to me. "We drink Ritalin" indeed. I broke the first time "burning cellphone!" was said.
This wouldn't be as ironic if Mac Hall's comic for today/yesterday wasn't what it was. As it stands I'm seriously considering getting that album (Black Eyed Peas, whichever album that song is on) on iTunes, but that might have to wait.
Tonight I'm considering making a few changes to the links pages, specifically removing Okashina Okashi and RPG World. The thrill is gone from those two, sadly. I always feel bad dropping comic links from my site, especially because I have a couple of the lesser-known "underdogs" on my list; but when it has to be done, it has to be done. Well, I suppose I could hold off on RPGW-- Ian says it's going to be back next week, so I'll wait 'till the hiatus is over before reserving judgement. However, I'm not going to pick up the strip's Year 1 book because I flipped through it in the bookstore (where Mike and Aaron work, yay!) and found it to be mostly whining and very little commentary. In the case of OO, I kind of don't like the direction the new writer's taking it. It's not sour grapes-- I didn't submit to be the new writer because I knew I don't have the kind of in-depth anime knowledge they were looking for. But trying to resolve all the plots at once is a recipe for disaster.
Toying with the notion of adding a somewhat Sonic-based comic to the page, called Exterminatus Now. Yeah, it has that whole "wow, we very narrowly avoided ripping off the title" thing going, and it's a Sonic-based comic (I love your art, Rina, but the best thing you ever did was abandon Artail), so that's two strikes right there. But it works, somehow, primarily because it doesn't take too much from the source material (just enough to identify it as Sonic-based, aside from the art style), but also because it's funny as hell. It is very, very difficult to take an existing universe and write well within it. Trust me, I know (and Pez knows as well). But when it is done well, when it's the one in a million story that brings something more to the canon of the chosen universe, then it's a true diamond, something that becomes the benchmark for that series.
Or, y'know, I could just go with the old chestnut "it's my links page; if you don't like it, shut yer trap". But I like to think I'm above that sort of thing. So there. Pbpbpbpbpbpbth.
Game news! Rumors persist that Half-Life 2 will be good to go for mid-November. Not like I care, seeing how as I have no money now, but I thought some of you might care to have a look-see. Also, rumors further abound that the Xbox2's controller will be a ham-fisted rip-off of the Dual Shock 2. Wow, who woulda guessed that one?
We're lookin' at an M rating for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, a game that would have otherwise gone totally unnoticed in the US. Since it has been proven by the ESRB to contain (and this is pretty much a direct quote from their report on the game) "OMG TEH DEVAL", however, not to mention dearheart Gail Salamanca's assertion that "RPGs have grown up", I think it's safe to assume that this will sell double the number of expected copies. Which is to say, twelve. I'm not ripping on the game, which I have no interest in *yet*; more along the lines of gently reminding Ms. Salamanca and Atlus about the dustups regarding Xenogears and Xenosaga. I think we're well beyond "grown up". SMT, however, is still in that rebellious D&D phase, it appears.
Our favorite megacorp, Square-Enix, has a few trickses up its sleeves for the Tokyo Game Show. For instance, watch them pull Final Fantasy XII out of a hat! What? They're not going to? Shock! Well, surely they'll be able to saw Dragon Quest VIII in half... uh, yeah, let's not even follow through on that one; that's just plain disturbing, even for me. The point is, two of the company's flagship titles aren't even scheduled to appear at TGS. I am, however, intrigued about Radiata Stories and Kingdom Hearts 2/Chain of Memories. We'll see; they've been known to keep a few aces in the hole, and to be honest it's refreshing to see them hyping a new project (Radiata) over sequels.
GTA: San Andreas. 90's soundtrack. I'm scared, but I'll probably be more willing to put up for the soundtrack instead of the game. GTA has never really hit the spot (so to speak) for me, so I'll be skipping this installment as well. But if the tunes are worth owning...
I knew there was a reason I bought this Japanese PS2. Itadaki Street Special, to be released this winter, is a board game similar to Monopoly that's been played on Japanese consoles for quite some time. The thing of it is, this installment features characters from Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior/Quest. You just know, with the following this one's going to have, there's going to be a fan-translation soon and when that happens, I will pick it up. We'll see, however-- SE's been quite generous to US gamers, so we might just see a States release. Pfffffft, yeah, I didn't think I could say that with a straight face either.
This is going to make Jonny very happy. The European release of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (for GBA) is slated for November 12. The American release is scheduled for January 10. Does not compute. GameSpot speculates that it's a ploy to boost sales of the DS in the US, but I'm not so sure... especially when you consider that the DS will be compatible with GBA games. Hm. Anyway, doesn't matter so much to me given that I won't have any way to play it at all until the DS is released.
You people have no idea how close I came to buying, renting, or even touching "The Guy Game" just to find out how bad it could possibly be. Given that it's a cross between Girls Gone Wild: Aggro Drunken Ho's and Liar's Club (and holy poo am I really old enough to remember that old game show?), it's probably pretty bad. I don't suppose I should be shocked that the game received an M rating ("OMG TEH BOOBIES"), but I am surprised that GameSpot gave the title a 7.5. Trivia-based titles fare exceptionally poorly because quite frankly there're only so many questions that can be asked. I think that's why I quickly lost interest in You Don't Know Jack after first year. Sure, it was cool, but after I blew through all the questions in a month, there wasn't anything left. Maybe it'd be worth it to get drunk some night and see if I can still answer everything perfectly. Actually, skip that; it would imply that I'd have to get drunk first, something which I don't think I'll be doing.
Y'know, despite my better judgement I'm really wondering if Nintendo has made any progress on an Animal Crossing 2, what with all the buzz about AC on the DS. I was so psyched for the first game, 'till I exhausted most of what was going to be done in the game after the first two months. (No, I didn't cheat.) The game got to a point where it was more like a chore than a game; I suppose sometimes an MMO can feel like that, but AC didn't even have the advantage of being online. If there was anything I would seriously ask Nintendo to consider (and believe me, I know someone in the industry is watching this), I'd like them to make every day have something unique and interesting, instead of having normal days just being time to fill in between holidays. You have to keep players interested in the game on a day-to-day basis. I would probably re-vamp the game unlock system; say, an arcade which changes its games on a daily basis. If you want to play DK, come in on Monday. Ooh, how about this-- game rentals. Pay a few dozen bells, get to play Zelda for three days, then have to return it in-game. That would be more interesting than just having players make a nest of stuff in the center of town. Also, you need to make the town and citizenry a lot more interactive. I described AC as "cute'n furry Sims" back in the day, and I stand by that depiction. It just has a little ways to go before it gets me to join in again.
Oh, PS, the N-Gage still sucks, Nokia. Monday, September 13, 2004 7:16:24a: *
Hey, folks. A full news report is coming tonight; in the meantime, I want to give a shout to the folks currently being hit by the Unholy Trinity of hurricanes (that is, Charlie, Frances, and Ivan). Especially our crew down there, Kat and Andrew. We're hoping for the best for you, and to the families of the victims, our thoughts are with you as well.
If you have the means, dear readers, I suggest you make donations to the Red Cross. Monday, September 13, 2004 10:48:27p: *
One of these days, seriously, I'll learn to read the news before promising you folks that I'll have something witty or insightful to say about it. This morning I culled all the usual sources, and came up with only a very half-hearted paragraph about the new Wild ARMs game, which is no longer Another Code F but rather The 4th Detonation. I also took Agetec to task for not releasing SOMETHING, ANYTHING which might proffer hope to the legion of ARMs-dealers such as myself, but since when is bitching about a game company's tactics really worthy of a post by itself?
(looks down at Infinium/Nokia jab) ....oh. Well, that's special 'cause it's Infinium.
Anyway. About the only other things of note on the gaming front, really, are the impending releases of Sly 2, X-Men Legends, and FFXI: Chains of Promathia. In terms of web-type people, I hope I'm not the last person to offer wishes of joy in celebration of the birth of one Gabriel Krahulik, son of the great Gabe himself. I also offer my condolences to Ewen Cluney, whose Neko Machi has attracted enough trolls and asswipes to force his hand into closing his forums.
Yeah, boring night. I had to shell out to Delta Sonic to try to get the Gustaff's carpets cleaned and dried after the flood from last week... and even then the car still smells funny inside. I don't know why, it just has this really nasty off-putting scent. I hope it doesn't follow me in to work in the morning.
This has been the weekend of mystery for me. I've found three or four old 3.5" disks and I have no idea what's on them. So, firing up the ol' big iron to check them out. Later, folks.Thursday, September 16, 2004 9:35:55a: *
OK. Here's the sitch, ladies and gents: I just got off the phone with Andrew, who reports that things are starting to calm down in Florida a little bit. Despite the fact that another hospital down there was completely trashed, he and Kat are safe and secure. As soon as indicators show the all-clear, the two will be returning to their home. I'm glad that everything has turned out, if not all right, then not entirely unlike all right. We all wish them the best here, and we're looking forward to hearing from them again soon.
Once again, folks, I urge you, if you have the means, to donate to the Red Cross. They need it now more than ever. Sunday, September 19, 2004 8:26:23a: *
Hey, folks. Some news, if anyone's interested.
First off, I made the decision to end my City of Heroes run within hours of hearing that the free expansion had been released. Despite the fact that it's one of the most amazingly user-friendly MMOs out there, it has all the depth of... well, I don't really want to get cliched here, but let's just say Lake Erie has nothing to worry about. CoH has COMBAT! ...and more combat, and combat directed by missions! but it's still combat, and that's pretty much it. Granted, you don't exactly see Spiderman sitting down in the middle of Central Park making arrows or crafting leather armor, but some kind of crafting/item distribution system would have been helpful-- basically, tune the drops so that Defenders get more health, Blasters get more accuracy, et al., thus forcing even more player interaction. Alas, poor Asplodaman, we hardly knew ye, but you tired of facing down Fifth Column and Circle of Thorns-- OK, so you got tired of being smacked down by them.
That said, I'm following hero Oksah's story with excited interest.
Ahem. Let's get on to some news-type news. I mentioned this in the forums, and sort of left it at that, but in the Japanese packaging for the FFXI expansion (Chains of Promathia-- and yeah, I'm going to talk about this in a few minutes too) is a flyer for Square-Enix's upcoming original IP MMO, Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion. Quick note, that sounds an awful lot like the ROD OF DOMINATION, but let's not go there. Anyway, the general consensus seems to be that the game resembles either the old Seiken Densetsu series or the aborted True fantasy Live Online, which seems to imply that the game will be more action-oriented than FFXI. (Astute readers will note that I was indeed looking forward to TFLO, but hey.) I've been thinking, though, about how S-E could handle this. I would say that getting Tri-Ace on board for this would ensure a rabid and devoted userbase, but I also note that, quite frankly, doing Tri-Ace's signature "havoc on half the screen" battle system would be next to impossible on a laggy internet connection. Ultimately this is a "meh." until we get more info.
Speaking of "meh.", Chains of Promathia. Yeah, I'm excited... sort of. Yeah, I'm thrilled and titillated by the new menu system... on some deep inner non-showing-off level. Yeah, I'm thinking of getting the expansion Tuesday afternoon... UNLESS I decide instead to go with a plan I've been thinking about for a while now. Y'see, one of the biggest problems I've had with FFXI is the amount of work involved in me playing versus the satisfaction level I get from it. When Mike came over to play Risk Wednesday night he made mention that, while most of my other laptop stats were impressive, my version of FFXI using the gimpy 3DAnalyzer was quite literally the worst he'd ever seen in terms of graphical quality. I've been thinkin' about this, and yeah, the slowdown and slideshow framerate DO matter to me. So I've been harboring thoughts of purchasing the PS2 version. YES, I know, it's a 0 investment on something I technically already have, and yes, I know I probably should just quit while I'm ahead, cancel the subscription, and walk away from my addiction. But you know... I don't wanna. I'm level 19 (just like I have been for the past six months) and I want to keep going. Either way, I'll make my decision by Tuesday. The Tuesday decision, actually, has more to do with whether or not I want to get a DVD burner or new hard drive instead.
Not much else going on now. I think I'll play a little more Pop'n and then get back into Vana'diel more fully.Monday, September 20, 2004 9:03:55p: *
Hi folks. Checkin' the news, I have a few things to comment on. So let's get to it; first I've got impressions from Gamespy's "Fall Preview" for PS2.
Lookin' at stuff for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, I'm beginning to think that Kojima really is going to pull the same stunt he did last time. I mean, come on, we all hated Raiden, right, but he was necessary for the storyline. Here it makes even less sense to be Snake-- I mean come on, we're at least 30 years before the first Metal Gear. Still, every shot produced so far has our good buddy Dave sloggin' through the jungle and chewin' on reptiles. Anyone else notice a pattern here?
The Urbz still looks retarded. Taiko Drum Master looks awesome, but I have my hands full with Pop'n and FFXI right now. I wasn't much of a fan of Jak & Daxter at the time (and never actually played the second game) but it's sort of grown on me; with the trilogy wrapping up soon I might be compelled to pick up the 3-pack if and when it comes out.
X-Men Legends... yeah. I've always had a fond spot in my heart for the Xavier Institute graduates, and watched X-Men Evolution with a renewed interest-- the new origins and mythologies are a big draw, especially with the re-imaginings that the Ultimate series have brought-- so you can imagine that I'd be intrigued by the concepts behind Legends. An RPG? Starring the Ultimate versions of the X-crew? Sign me up, bub! Couple notes, looking at Gamespot's coverage of the 'Cube version-- since when did Emma Frost not go by White Queen, and couldn't they have picked a couple better choices than Magma and Jubilee? I mean, come on, Psylocke needs to be in on this, and I think Banshee would have been a cool choice as well. Still, what is done is done, and seeing how as the game's in stores tomorrow, I can't complain. I'll wait for a few more reviews, but it's on the list.
Romancing Saga is getting a re-release in Japan. The series, which became Final Fantasy Legend over here (until it was released as the abysmal Saga Frontier), has never attracted too much attention, but with a PS2 version on the way I'm thinking it's high time we got ourselves some Romancing. One way or another I'll likely be picking it up for review; just because I can't understand it doesn't mean I won't be able to play through it. After all, Pop'n has a surprisingly large portion of its text in English; while it might not be representative of the whole of Japanese games I'm sure I'll be able to pick up enough as time goes by.
Let's talk about X, baby. (Man, that gag never gets old.) Mega Man X: Command Mission looks and sounds like it's going to play similarly to Final Fantasy X, hopefully without the irritating forced laughter and spotty voice acting. Capcom's been very generous to Rockman fans of all ilks by providing PS2 and 'Cube versions of X:CM and the afore-blasted Mega Man Anniversary Collection; let's hope they get this one right. This means user-configurable controls, Capcom! I know you're listening! I know it! You and your mind-control lasers!
One shot of lithium later, we return to the news. The other day I was wandering through Best Buy and I spotted a knockoff called "PS2 Karaoke Party", which is basically nothing more than "Hey! The PS2 can read these crappy karaoke DVDs that nobody buys, and it has a USB port we can use to suck power from for these crappy karaoke headsets that nobody buys. Bundle 'em up and ship it!". As if that weren't enough, Eidos has decided that they want to get in on the newest fad and are producing "Get On Da Mic" for all three consoles, meaning that pasty white boys like me can try to sound cool fumbling the lines to "Gin and Juice". Yeah, you can probably tell that I don't like rap and that I think this is the stupidest f#$@ing idea EVAR; that's not going to stop millions of idiots from buying it, and ensuring that what should be a one-shot bomb will instead be a long-standing legacy of pain. That said, if it includes "Regulators", one of exactly six rap songs I like, I'll probably give it a try.
I can't remember if I said anything about Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, so let's talk about Vincent's quest. Out of respect I'm not going to make the obvious joke, but there it is. I'm wondering how S-E is planning on handling something like this; they could take it to the extreme that they had implied X-2 was going to, making it a wholly action-oriented game, but I somehow doubt they'd have Vincent tearin' it up Dante-style. Or would they? I mean, he's got the gun, he's got the claw-thing, he's got the bad-ass-ness... Hey, I'm likin' this. All we need to do now is give him a scantily-clad undead goth-type chix0r to alternately drool over and beat up, set him in a great big castle, and have him killing the same goddamn zombies over and over and over again....
Uh, right. Getting back into things, the Star Wars Trilogy DVDs come out tomorrow, or tonight, depending on which pedant you ask. Despite some of the glaring cuts and alterations being made, fans of the series are lining up even now to get their copies. I know our very own Slipgate will most likely NOT be among them, and for that matter it's a hard sell to me, too. Not for any changes Lucas wanted to make-- hey, it's his movie, and if he says it's not done it's not done-- but for the fact that it's still not a complete set. See, I'm looking into the Babylon 5 discs because the series has run its course and I can actually get all of it. I'm also thinking about the Lord of the Rings discs, having resisted the urge to pick up the discs piecemeal, because there's a spiffy collector's box available and stuff always looks nicer in a collector's box. BUT. With Star Wars, you have the original trilogy, and then you have the new one (I was going to call it craptacular but, let's be honest here, it's not as bad as it could have been). Which conveniently isn't finished yet. So NOW, you have the option of buying this DVD set and then the Super Duper Ultra Mega Final 6-movie DVD set some two years from now. Let me put this into persepctive. I didn't buy the Star Wars sets back when they first came on VHS. I didn't buy the Special Edition VHS. I haven't bought any of the new trilogy DVDs. And I probably won't buy this set-- probably. The first two non-purchases were due to a lack of funds. The last two were due to a desire not to be screwed out of something cool.
Oh yeah, check this out:
Advent Children: AC Beyond Crisis: BC Dirge of Cerberus: DC
Weird, no? I wonder what CC is.
...sorry, I'm still hung up on Vincent and Miho going at it. Go ahead without me, I'll catch up.
...so that's how her ribbons stay in her hair. Wow. And that move with the claw thingy look like it hurts. She seems to really enjoy it, though.Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:03:44p: *
OK, just a few quick notes. I managed to catch the premiere of CSI: New York last night, and DAYUMN. Good stuff. I'm thinking that Gary Sinise could easily carry the show. I also watched the first half of Shaolin Soccer... the only words I can say so far is that it's basically Chinese people trying to do a Mel Brooks-style movie, with kung fu. Y'know, that sounds like it would be really wrong but somehow it has been one of the greatest martial arts movies I've seen in a while (the propagan-tastic advertisement for communist-dictatorship movie Hero included-- pretty fight scenes but the moral heavy-handedness was so thick not even Lu Bu could chop through it). Full report later.
Oh, and yeah. DVD burning for data is love. DVD mastering for video is PAIN, especially the menus. Now I know why these things are done on render-farms.
Pop'n controller today. That's not a hope, it's a statement of fact even if I have to hunt down the mailman with a super soaker filled with creamy nougat... nougat of HOT FLAMING DEATH. Friday, September 24, 2004 6:21:56a: *
So yeah, the controller didn't come. Worse than that, it appears that I'm sick now. And, natch, since I a) have stuff to take care of today at work and b) don't know the procedure to call in sick anyway, I'll be slogging through. Anyway, more info as it becomes available.
Kathy and Andrew-- glad to know you're OK.
Jonny-- you sent me a link to something before my computer totally died... what was that?Friday, September 24, 2004 2:51:07p: *
All right, there's no real delicate way to put this, so here it is.
I'm out of a job. AGAIN.
No, I did not get fired. My position was sent to India. And while my bosses did everything in their powers to keep me within the company, it just wasn't going to happen. I'm not mad, I'm not going off on a mental vendetta like I did with AdHellphia, I'm just kind of numb right now.
What's going to happen to the site? Well, since the meh. site just went live, and it's paid for, I might resort to using that as a temporary dumpspace-- BUT, that's six months down the road. TFO.net will still be here until April '05 at the very least.
And as for me? I have a few leads through the contracting company as to whether or not I can possibly stay in Erie. I would like to do that, really, but we'll see. I might also wind up in or around Pittsburgh or into Ohio, depending on where a position opens up. But for now I am in Erie and I am still in good financial shape, as I am not hesitating to get unemployment benefits. Beyond that...
The only other real concern I have is the position I took recently at Netjak, as a guest reviewer. For the time being it looks like I'm going to be sticking to vintage games, assuming things stay crappy. But they won't, because I'm pretty sure this is the worst it's going to get.
In the meantime, I'm going to forget my troubles in true geek fashion this weekend-- anime and video games 'till I drop. Later, folks.Sunday, September 26, 2004 9:18:01p: *
Yeah, I kinda dropped off the face of the web after the Pop'n controller arrived yesterday afternoon, and Chains of Promathia came into my posession shortly thereafter courtesy a bud. Couple that with all the catching up I have to do on the media I picked up before the upheaval, and I've been a busy little boy. Anyway, tomorrow I'll have a full and detailed report, not only on the Kagura, not only on FFXI, not only on Shaolin Soccer, but on Babylon 5 Season 2 as well. Hopefully later this week I'll have some impressions on RahXephon, too, as Lightside Alex has been hounding me to watch that for a while now.
At a time like this I find a part of myself wondering what Evil Alex is doing right now. I firmly intend to beat the everliving shit out of that part of myself right now. 'Scuse me.