Does This Make Me a Nerd?

Spore Creature Creator

2008-08-08T14:11:00.009-05:00

This was supposed to be a summer of some intense gaming and fun, however...I got a labor intensive job instead. Oh well, at least I should have college funding for the remainder of the year. Anyways, at the end of July I was looking for the Game of the Year edition of Oblivion (because I thought it included all the official plug-ins), yet couldn't find it anywhere convenient. I found the Spore Creature Creator instead. It was released in preparation for a large-scale MMORPG called Spore, which is about controlling freaky critters to take over planets...or something like that. I couldn't care less about the game (because MMORPGs are getting to be a major turn-off for me), but the Creature Creator is a whole load of fun.

I've always been a little partial towards games that allow me to have serious character customization (which is why Oblivion is +3|-| 4\/\/350|\/|3), so I felt especially drawn towards the SCC. I must say that it kept me seriously amused for a good 2 days and only costs $10. I made several little critters that made me laugh when I think of them romping around on some guy's planet when the game comes out. Check out my critters! Left to Right: Shawa, Kuchi, and Barudo

Rainbow Six: Vegas

2008-06-22T20:41:00.003-05:00

Again with the more recent FPS games, this Rainbow 6 is the newest game that I've gotten. I've never actually played a Rainbow Six game before this, but Vegas is probably the most realistic game I've ever played...to the point that it's annoying. It's about the Rainbow 6 team, a group of elite special ops, trying to stop a terrorist attack on Las Vegas, Nevada. You have pretty much whatever standard military weapons you could want at your disposal to fight several hundred terrorists with 2 teammates. The numbers are really the only unrealistic thing about the game. Other than that, it's as realistic as a game can get. If you get shot more than once, you're going to die. Headshots are instant kills. This applies to your enemies...and you. Your teammates are probably the most durable creatures in the entire game. While I enjoy the fact that enemies go down very easily, it's extremely frustrating to have to replay certain parts of the game countless times until you realize that there is a second door that is used to get a good sniper setup going. Even this wouldn't be so bad...except that there is no quicksave function. This means that every time you die, you will start back at the last checkpoint (usually every 10-15 minutes apart). When you die halfway through every shootout...the time used adds up.

The weapons are very accurate, no matter which ones you use. Obviously sniper rifles are going to be the most so, but you can take out enemies at medium range with all the weapons, with the shotguns being the only possible exception there. My only complaint about the weapons is the similarity between them all. Submachine guns, Assault Rifles, and Light machine guns are all practically the same. The best choice for pistol is almost always the desert eagle: it's always an instant kill. I found that my best equipment combination was C4/Frag, Desert Eagle, Shield, and either a sniper rifle or Scar-H. Depending on the situation, I might swap the shield for a light machine gun, but I found that the shield was the only way to survive in several instances. As much as I love using my teammates as decoys, they don't last long enough for me to snipe everyone from a higher angle before I have 5 guys shooting at me. Cover is also a must. If you are out in the open for any longer than 1 second...you will die. Even if you think the coast is clear, send out your lackeys to go ahead first.

Overall, definitely fun and challenging, but it got really repetitive...follow these steps:
1. Snake Cam the area- always send your team to grenade the most populated door while you find the higher ground to snipe from.
2. Always have a gun with a scope on it- you'll need to hit someone that is in a turret without getting too close. The one time you don't have it is the one time you'll need it most.
3. Find cover for you and your teammates. You won't survive without cover, and your teammates can't do squat without you in the room helping. Keep yourself safe yet within eyesight of your team.
4. Paranoia is only bad in real life- this is a game, you'll have people being WAY too ready for your arrival. You can be the sneakiest player in the world, but you'll still get noticed after the first or second enemy goes down.
5. Read your reason of Game Over- I was surprised when I saw after the 4th time of "dying" that I wasn't being killed...my objective was failed or my teammate had been fragged. Check that stuff, even though the screen is the same, your cause is right above the Reload from last Checkpoint option.

It really becomes second nature after about the 5th room or area, and it never really gets any harder, so it really got a sort the DOOM feel to it: "Enter room, clear room, find door, repeat" except there wasn't the problem of poor lighting or demonic images everywhere...just nightvision opportunities and Axe: Body Spray ads.

Rating: B

Bioshock

2008-06-04T21:55:00.002-05:00

I've been playing several of the newer First Person Shooters lately, so I guess it would be proper if I actually gave my stance towards one of the ones I played. Bioshock was last weekend's adventure, and I have some mixed feelings about it. The story is about a man who is fighting his way through an underwater city created by scientists who shunned all authority. That means that morality and restrictions were nonexistent when research was going on. This all takes place in 1960, so it's a bit odd having advanced technology all around you, but I suppose all those morals and government restrictions were the only thing holding back our inventing genetic enhancements and robotics after WWII.

You get mostly your standard arsenal of weapons: pistol, machine gun, grenade launcher, etc...but you also get a crossbow and chemical thrower, so there is originality in the weapons. Also, each weapon has 3 types of ammunition (generally an antipersonnel round, anti-machine round, and the normal rounds). Where Bioshock sets itself apart from most other FPS is the Plasmids. These are genetic mutations for humans that give them superhuman abilities such as throwing lightning, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, and summoning swarms of bees. Since I'm a bit slow to change, I found myself using the Plasmids only for the puzzle attributes of the game. Sure, I set a guy or two on fire every now and then, but I really just used the guns for any real fighting. Speaking of fighting, I hope you have a very nice computer to run this game on. I was annoyed when I had to turn the visuals on medium settings because the lag from 5 enemies in the room with me stopped me from aiming well. Bah! The enemies are the most mobile of any standard foes I've ever faced in a FPS before, so aiming isn't easy anyways. The graphics really aren't the high point of this game (although it is pretty looking), so it really isn't much of a sacrifice.

The best part of the entire game is the "Little Sisters" and the "Big Daddies." The Little Sisters are young girls who go around with giant hypodermic needles and suck out everyone's life force when they die. To protect the girls, giant genetic monsters in diving suits walk around with either large drills or rivet guns for weapons. What makes these the best part of the game is the interaction between the two. The Little Sisters call their escorts "Mr. Bubbles." I'm not sure if it's the diving suits or what...but seeing a giant creature that can tear me up instantly referred to as "Mr. Bubbles" by a little girl made me laugh every time I heard it. Also, when you defeat the Big Daddy that guards the girl, you have a choice to make...you get to either save the little girl, or suck the life out of her. Whether you kill or save all the little girls determines which ending sequence you acquire. If you value playing more, suck the gals clean. However, if you want to take the higher path and see a different 30 second ending movie, keep them alive. I was surprised when I decided to save them all, but I guess the "Mr. Bubbles" thing kept me more amused than seeing a lifeless little girl tossed away like a banana peel.

However, the game did have its faults. Unfortunately, the farther along the game progresses, the worse the combat gets. The creators could never keep a balance between the storyline and the game play, so you get all the good game play in the first half and the deep story in the second half. Your enemies respawn when you exit the rooms, yet your ammo does not. Because of this fact, I found that it's actually better to just run through all the rooms. The enemies you fight only get slightly more challenging as the game goes on, and the upgrades to your weapons keep them at about the same effectiveness because of the improved enemies. There is only one real boss fight in the entire game (the others were just normal enemies with slightly more health and were just annoying-not difficult). I found that the Big Daddies were actually more of a challenge than any of those boss fights. The final boss was rather pointless: just use Incinerate 3 on him over and over (Roy Mustang vs. Lust anyone?). I actually felt a considerable amount of similarity to Dementium: The Ward towards the second half of the game with the avoiding enemies while running, little creepy girls, pointless final boss, infinite enemy respawn with no ammo, the worthless and disappointing ending movie, and the single weekend it takes to beat it (seeing some patterns?). If you liked Dementium, then this will probably be your favorite game ever. If you didn't...it's still a good game. It just loses its novelty halfway through. I guess 2007 really didn't have that many good game releases in the FPS category, because this won all kinds of amazing awards from several different gaming magazines and tech companies. Personally...I think it was really fun, but I wouldn't really like to play through it again for a while. (Rainbow 6: Vegas review coming next).

Rating: B

F.E.A.R. Revisited

2008-05-15T09:55:00.004-05:00

I went back and played through F.E.A.R. again with a few tricks in mind. These can probably apply to any recent First-Person-Shooter for PC (or console with a quicksave feature). My first goal was to clear the game on the highest difficulty. My next goal was to never die (ain't that everyone's?). I decided to use the "save early, save often" strategy that my dad has been relaying to me ever since I started playing DOOM at age 4. However, I took it to the next level: if I took any kind of significant damage, I'd reload from my last save. This turned a game that should be completed in 5 hours or so into a week long project. I must say, the sense of accomplishment was much higher than usual...but I must have replayed certain scenes (especially with the ghosts and fire) several times before I cleared them unscathed. Next, I wanted to collect all the health and reflex boosters that I could find. This is simply a matter of wall-hugging to find any secret areas or vents. Next are a few tricks that only apply to F.E.A.R.:

1. Never run over a gun for its ammo. Take your gun and throw it away first (b key for PC), then pick up the new gun. Then you run over and pick up the gun you just threw away. This will give you a full gun plus 2 clips for most weapons plus all the ammo you previously had. For example, when you run over a Penetrator, you'll get 25 shots. If you use my method, you'll get 75. Big difference.
2. Always stay under cover unless you are using your slo-mo. On the hardest difficulty, they don't miss.
3. Saving right before you throw a grenade is quite useful. Also, shooting a grenade midair will detonate it (this is for enemy grenades when they leave their hands)
4. My optimal weapon set was 1. Penetrator 2. Repeating Cannon 3. Particle Weapon. As long as you use the weapon-toss ammo trick (working on a name for that), you'll never run out of ammo. Pistols or Assault Rifle are good substitutes for Penetrator (I just like seeing bodies pinned against walls).
5. There are maybe 3 instances in the game where melee is actually useful in combat (it's fun on the lowest difficulty, but we're in the big-leagues now). If they get that close to you, you'll need to reload from your save.

Don't worry about any of these if you are playing Extraction point...they throw ammo, armor, and health at you like you are a trigger-happy hemophiliac. Hope some of these tips helped.

Travian

2008-05-13T16:51:00.003-05:00

While on the band trip, I was introduced to a simple web browser game called Travian. While it's not the most action packed or graphically amazing game, it is fun and strategic...somewhat. You create your little village among thousands of other villages (all bigger than yours when you start). All those other villages are controlled by other players who are probably going to "farm" you, or use their army to steal your resources. Your only hope of defense is the week or so that you get as a novice protection period. After that, you're fair game to anyone who just sees you as an extension to their own resources.

The game has three parts in theory:
Beginning, where you create your village and start your game
Midgame, where you grow your city and start to branch off into other villages
Endgame, where you try and work with alliance members to try and defeat all other alliances and win the server with your "good word, how much free time do you have???" skills

Pros: It doesn't take that much time out of your day to play and it's not very hard. There are the most reasonable internet gamers on Travian that you will ever meet in your life. You can usually just ask someone to stop attacking you and they will. This completely caught me off guard (mercy on the internet...who would have thought?).

Cons: You will want to check your village (even if it takes 8 hours to build something) every second of your life. It doesn't matter that you didn't have enough resources to buy what you're saving for and won't for another 10 hours, you'll still look every 5 minutes.

My advice to all those who want to start playing, find yourself a nice alliance towards the end of your novice protection. You'll instantly have friends, protection, and mentors. Also, just look at the game a maximum of 4 times a day (morning, afternoon and before you go to bed are prime times). I promise that it truly isn't worth expecting an attack every 10 minutes. There are worse things than loosing 5 hours of inactively gained resources.

I'm on US server 4 for now, I might start with US server 2 when it restarts though.
Link to the United States servers

Rating: B

Joke

2008-05-04T19:37:00.002-05:00

So...I have this calendar that tells me a joke every morning. I thought I'd share one that made me laugh today.

An elderly potato farmer lived alone after his only son was sent to prison for a bank robbery. The money from the robbery was never recovered. The farmer wanted to dig his potato garden, but he was too feeble to till the soil. He decides to write a letter to his son about his predicament. Soon, he received this reply: "Whatever you do, Dad, don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the money!" At 4 A.M. the next morning a dozen policemen came and dug up the entire garden looking for the stolen money, but to no avail. Confused, the old man wrote his son telling him what happened and asking him what to do next. His son replied, "Now plant your potatoes in your newly dug garden, Dad. That's all the help I can give you from here."

The Band Returneth

2008-04-07T09:58:00.004-05:00

Ah, what a refreshing 4 days of bus rides, theme parks, rain, more bus rides, and wet-socks. I can safely say that my senior year's band trip will be memorable. Although...going on 2 hours of bus-sleep...I don't remember much of it right now...or much of my personal information, but that's all right. Being on the "Loading Crew," I had certain perquisites:

I got to get off the bus 3 minutes before everyone else.
I got to return any...favors given to me in the form of how I treated or where I placed certain people's bags.
I got to sit underneath the bus for half an hour in chilly weather waiting for late folk to drag their bags to me.
I got the pleasure of deciding which individuals got to dig for their bags in the sea of luggage spread across the parking lot.

Anyways, Bucsh Gardens was probably the best because of the lack of lines...except that it rained for 3 hours until we finally decided to leave a bit early. Islands of Adventure had excellent scenery and roller coasters, but the lines were 45-60 minutes long...not so great for riding multiple times (although I rode Dueling Dragons 3 times). Universal Studios became quite the wet experience; however, I would recommend "The Mummy" to anyone who thinks that Studios is only a park for shows and gift shops. My new pastime for theme parks is to find the camera that takes your picture at the most frightening points in a roller coaster, and pose for the picture. It's quite humorous to see the picture when you get off the ride and you see your friends all with terror-stricken faces...and there's you pushing your nose up and sticking your tongue out.

Also included in the stereotypical bus ride (which this was) were the movies shown. Ah, it was Disney out the wazoo. Although, I had been wanting to see "Meet the Robinsons," so it wasn't all bad. The performance on CityWalk in Universal was quite interesting; I had forgotten my music back at school...but I could recall most of it from memory, so it turned out all right (except for the one kid who forgot his mouthpiece and couldn't play). All in all, I'd say it was a complete success. The most picturesque moment was after everyone got onto the bus from Bucsh Gardens. A bunch of freezing, soaked, sugar-filled teenagers on a bus is quite the scene...it made for a miserable time trying to sleep though...public seating is not meant for people over 6ft tall. Oh well, it's good to be back, and I hope y'all had fun without me.

Band Trippin'

2008-04-02T05:01:00.005-06:00

Ah, it's that time of year again. The Band members all gather their belongings, sardine themselves into a large box with wheels, and begin the adventure known only as....BAND TRIP 2008!!!
We'll be going to Orlando (yes...again) and Tampa, Florida for Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Busch Gardens. Heeeyaw! It should be quite fun at all the parks. Oh, and we'll be playing at the CityWalk in Universal Studios. We have to play somewhere to make it a band trip...and not just a field trip with only band folk allowed...(which is what it actually is). Have fun to those of you who are left behind. We'll be back Monday afternoon.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

2008-03-17T19:57:00.003-06:00

I've been waiting for this bloody game since the Wii came out. I actually bought it while on vacation and ignored the amazing weather in Orlando, Florida just to play it when I wasn't going to theme parks, reading, or sleeping. The game is quite similar to SSBM for the Gamecube, so I'll skip the whole gameplay analysis. Just think of it as a 4-player-platform-fighting-game...with all Nintendo (and one Sega) characters. I enjoy most of the new characters, and the Final Smashes are a terrific addition to the game (yet extremely unbalanced). All in all, I'd say it's the best game for Wii to date...sad thing is that it will stay that way. Super Smash Bros. has always had a bad habit of making all other multiplayer games pointless (with exception of co-op multiplayer).

It seems that I was the first in my little group of friends to acquire all the characters, and it's much easier than in the previous games to do so. You only have to play through the "Subspace Emissary" once and then sweep up the 3 or 4 characters that weren't included in that. Piece of cake. The online play is certainly a welcome feature...except that when you are fighting other people, you can only play 4-player timed matches. I don't have any friends registered online, so I don't know if you can actually change the rules with friends because you sure can't with strangers.

My favorite new character would be Ike, with Wolf coming in second. I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan, so I was disappointed when I saw that Roy was no longer in the game, but I couldn't care less now. Ike is the new powerhouse of the game joining Ganondorf and Bowser. Marth, however, remains my favorite character, even if he does suck in anything but 1vs1 matches. In the first SSB, I was Fox, but I was just too clumsy with him in Melee, so I switched to Marth. However, with the slower, but more powerful Wolf, I was happy to be able to play with the same style as when I first started playing the game. A lot of folks don't know how to get Wolf because he isn't an active member in the Subspace Emissary. Just beat boss mode with Fox, and you'll unlock him (provided you can beat him), or go hunting for him in adventure mode.

I hope to see (and smear) many new faces in the horribly laggy online battles. Good luck to all who got the game, or go to friends' houses to play.

Rating: A+

Spring Break.

2008-03-07T16:07:00.003-06:00

Wouldn't you know it! It's snowing outside decently for the first time in years, and I have to go to Florida where it's 80F outside. It's kind of bitter sweet...Universal Studios > 2 inches of snow, I guess. Maybe I'll get a chance to get my Internets on once I'm there, but who knows...? I'll let y'all know how Islands of Adventure is. See y'all next Sunday.

Music Update...again

2008-02-28T22:51:00.003-06:00

Oh my goodness gracious, it's been like...forever since I've posted. I blame Guitar Hero 3, college music auditions, and my general indolence. Guess I'll give you a little look into my last couple of iTunes purchases: Brimful of Asha by Cornershop, Time is Running Out by Muse, Bidibodi Bidibu by Bubbles, Hard to Explain by The Strokes, Granite, and Fasten Your Seatbelt by Pendulum. I know I'm weird, you ain't gotta tell me. Each one of these songs is pretty different from the other.

While the original Brimful of Asha is by Cornershop, I bought the Norman Cook remix by Fatboy Slim, so it's got that repetitive near-techno feel to it. Muse is what most people would call an "Emo" band...I'm not gunna lie, I get that vibe at times too. However, Knights of Cydonia got me interested in them, so the song I bought was in their iTunes top 5 popular list. It's a good song -Times is Running Out that is- but I just like the middle really... the first 40 seconds makes me want to skip the song, although the rest is fine. iTunes recommended most of the other ones to me, and I can't complain. Ever since reading Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, I've become paranoid of all salesmen and marketing attempts, but iTunes has been making some great recommendations lately. The Strokes were introduced to me by a friend...Hard to Explain has a really odd video. Helicopter on GH3 is pretty good, and a very fair representation of them as a whole.

I don't think anyone really cares that we're playing a boring arrangement of William Tell Overture in band class, but this is a music update...so yeah. Also, we are all required to participate in "Solo and Ensemble" in our area. I really do hate playing solos...I'm a low brass man, leave me in my little box of on/offbeat thumps. My fellow baritone player will be attempting something absurdly hard. Good luck, mate...lemme know when you can move your fingers again. I ain't got a clue what I'll be doin'...probably something lame out of a method book, but at least I'll be able to play it.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

2008-02-06T16:34:00.000-06:00

Ever played those shooter games at the arcade? They're all over the place, so go slap a quarter in an Area 51 game lying around abandoned in some movie theatre. I've been playin' these kind of arcade games since I could hold the plastic pistols, so it ain't that hard to learn. Umbrella Chronicles is that same kind of rail-shooter. Rail-shooters are first-person-shooters in which you don't have to move your character. You just point and shoot the baddies as you trail along. Sound easy? If you have the reflexes and aim to do it, sure.

Now, I've been playing this game using the Zapper (a plastic gun-shaped carrier for the Wiimote and Nun chuck) for a "more interactive experience." I had to take the nun chuck out of the Zapper so I could shake it like a dog more easily. This Resident Evil takes the random button mashing sessions of RE:4 to a new extreme: you must actually push the correct buttons only. This is where those cat-like reflexes come in handy, because you've got about 2 seconds to push only the correct buttons several times in rapid-succession, or you will take heavy damage or even an instant death. The manual doesn't expound upon how exactly to press these buttons, so I'll tell you right now, rapidly hit the button it commands; don't just push it once.

The storyline isn't anything new, because it's all a big report by Wesker about all the plots of the previous games. It's like a giant playable flashback. It's pretty fun, and it sheds some light on some confusing plot details, so I don't have to go and play all those previous games (RE:4 was my first). The game's release was supposed to calm the Wii owners down who got all bent out of shape when RE:5 was not announced available for the Wii (I'm included there). The game was also delayed due to some controversy about shooting Africans in Africa...No one got pissed at shooting Spaniards in Spain in RE:4, but I guess no one cares about them.

Rating: B

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series

2008-01-24T17:09:00.000-06:00

After nearly four months of waiting, a new Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Series has surfaced. For those of you who haven't a clue what it is that I'm talking about, I'll take you back to three years ago. A lowly YouTube user named LittleKuriboh creates a little 5 minute spoof of the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! He takes an episode, splices it all up into a shortened flowing comedy, and does all the voices himself. It was probably the funniest and most easily quoted thing I watched all sophomore year. While I had watched quite a bit of the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! cartoon and read the manga that took place before the anime, it isn't required that you really know anything about it to enjoy the Abridged Series. Most of the references are quite nerd-based, so don't expect to get all the jokes unless you are a hardcore Nintendo and YTMND fan. While these videos were removed from YouTube because of supposed "usage violations," LittleKuriboh has them all posted on the Abridged Series' website.

These episodes used to come out weekly, but he rarely keeps on track. I was beginning to think that he would stop making episodes after his fiancee became ill (he proposed on YouTube actually) so it's been quite a while since his last video. I'm glad he hasn't forgotten about his loyal fans. Now, if only some of my manga that haven't come out in 4 months would be released...

Game Reviews

2008-01-23T17:45:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine told me about a game reviewer who works for The Escapist magazine. His name is Yahtzee and he delivers his reviews and impressions of recent games at lightning fast British/Australian speeds. His program is called Zero Punctuation and always manages to make me laugh. Every Wednesday, like today, he comes out with a new review with a video to go along with it. It's rather profane, but if you don't mind that, I'd say it's hilarious. Because I'm not exactly "in the loop" I haven't a clue what new games are coming out unless I've been waiting for the game for months. Therefore, I stay a bit informed on what the game companies are doing while delaying Super Smash Bros. Brawl....again. His latest is a review on "The Witcher," so by all means, check it out.

For making fun of older games, I would recommend another reviewer named "PlayItBogart" up on the YouTube. He covers those terrible games from the late 80s and early 90s on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Once again, he is a little vulgar, but it's not quite as often as Yahtzee.

While it may be a conflict of interest to direct you to other peoples' reviews, I don't get paid, and they make me laugh, so by all means.

Cinquain

2008-01-17T16:59:00.000-06:00

I can't stand it. I just had too much fun thinking of what to write for my cinquain for English class. A cinquain is a strict, word-limiting poem describing a noun. The first line is the item, the second line is two adjectives describing it, the third line is three gerunds or present participles (-ing words) that describe the item's actions, the forth is a short four word phrase pertaining to the item, and the fifth line is one alternate word for the item that sums it up. Here's mine.

Wii
Interactive Childish
Annoying Gaming Flailing
Do a Barrel Roll
Nintendo

****Update**** 1/18/08
My teacher seemed quite a bit disappointed with my poem. Her response was "...Okay...and I really liked the Wii." I think she misunderstood my position. I love the Wii. I'd choose it over the Xbox 360 any day of the week, even Tuesday. What I was getting at was just the fact that you don't normally see anyone over 30 flailing his or her arms like a lunatic, and then calling that having a good time. I dunno, maybe it only seems immature to me. I don't have a problem doing it, but I'm pretty sure most of the adult world would see it as "childish" like I said. I think my teacher sees the words "childish" and "annoying" as much worse than they actually are. I'm just sayin'...maybe less arm flailing and more sword slashing would be nice, eh Nintendo?
*****Fin****

For my English teacher, if you have found this online through some sort of plagiarism checker, I will identify this as mine. Just ask me.

Diablo

2008-01-14T19:30:00.000-06:00

I know I'm about a decade too late to talk about this 1998 Blizzard game, but I got to playing it again a few days ago, so here we go. I played the game as a kid when it came out, so I have almost as much reverence for it as I do for Dungeon Keeper (the bestest game ev4r). There are several games that I played as a kid that I never really beat without cheating because of my pathetic attention span. Diablo would be one of those. But now, since I'm much more mature and ....what was I talking about?

So, the game is about an adventurer that just gets back from some trip. It's a good thing he/she has returned too, because there are evil critters roamin' free across the church at the edge of town. It's a darned shame too, because the entire town feels that you should go do something about it. Apparently, a group of the townspeople have already tried, but didn't hardly make it past level 2 of the Labyrinth under the church. It's a good thing you are seen as completely capable of doing what half the town (including the weapons smith) couldn't do entirely by yourself. Hey, why not?

You find out through a series of inconspicuously placed tomes (which are lit up like the Eiffel Tower on New Year's in dark tunnels and caves) that the cause of all these critters breaking loose in the church and its labyrinth is some disgruntled employee from hell getting into a fight about rent with his two brothers. I guess the church seemed like a good place to chill for a bit. While this demon fled from his brothers, who got trapped in some soul stones by some other warriors...that didn't care enough to go get this demon, Diablo decided to possess the King's son and restore himself to his former glory in Hell. Another darned shame, because you are questing to post an eviction notice on his door. Way to ruin a guy's day, eh?

So anyways, the game play is pretty straight forward, you get to pick one of three classes at the beginning. I like to think of the different classes as difficulty levels instead of types of characters. The rogue is the easiest to be: just a matter of pointing and clicking the enemies. She's an archer, so you are rarely in any danger from anything. The medium character is the warrior: he's a big guy who thinks that getting up in a monster's face will scare them into not attacking. He can take a beating though, which is good because beating are all over the place. Finally, the sorcerer is your standard magic user in any game: squishy. Being the mage-haters that Blizzard is, he's terrible. Health and armor are completely unnecessary when you can't even survive long enough to cast one of your spells. I usually pick the warrior, because magic and I rarely get along...unless it involves some kind of immolation spell.

I enjoy playing the game, but the storage system is a little lame. There's no rotating items, and your strength has nothing to do with your storage amount. Ultimately, throwing down useful items in town is the best space saver. Just come back to town (via portal) whenever you have a full inventory of magical items that need to be identified by the town elder...who knows everything. Money is scarce in the beginning of the game, but towards the end you have to actually work hard to spend it all. The best part of the game is certainly the ending, however. While I won't spoil how it ends (Diablo 2 does that just fine), I will tell you that this is the first and best example of a game that has a special feature and reward for beating it: you restart the game with all your current stats and equipment. While you might think it is completely lame to have to play the entire game all the way through again, I think it's the funniest thing to run through a level with hordes of skeletons and demons throwing themselves upon you and missing or doing no damage with each hit. You give early bosses a funny look and they practically explode. Because of this game's early exposure to me, I refer to all games that take the retroactive-stat-restart as having "Diablo Syndrome." Thank you, Diablo, for your contribution to my identification of good replay values.

Rating: B

The Wikipedia Game

2008-01-13T22:18:00.001-06:00

While it may seem that all I do is play video games and watch anime, I would like to inform you that I also do many other more active things such as breathing, eating, and sleeping. However, my sleeping has been rather lousy as of late, and that takes up a lot of my time, so I decided to Wiki (the action of using wikipedia.org to inform one's self of an area, event, or item with little effort) some methods of falling asleep more quickly. Whenever I use Wikipedia, I can rarely just look at one article. This recognition of my low attention span has now become "The Wikipedia Game."

Step 1: Become curious about something. That's right, you can't start unless you have something you want to know about. Even if it's something that you've looked up already, there are different paths to take this time around. I guarantee it.

Step 2: Satisfy that curiosity with a single, direct article from Wikipedia. It's not hard to get your answers from the great Wiki, so place your faith upon its digital pages, and you will be rewarded with a wealth of knowledge (if you can't find your answer, it doesn't matter. Even if your attention span is better than mine, you'll probably get sidetracked with something way more interesting than the answer to your question anyways).

Step 3: Click on the most interesting link to another Wikipedia article on the site. Whether you choose to finish the current article you're on or not, you need to continue the chain. I would advise sticking slightly to topic at first, but as you get better at the game, click on some entirely unrelated links. *Warning* Do not leave the sanctity of Wikipedia by clicking on the "External Links" section. It's a nasty world out there on the Internets, and I wouldn't want any one of my beloved (four) readers getting viruses that stop them from reading my amazing posts.

Step 4: Get bored. All good things must come to an end. Whether it's your mom calling for dinner, or you are just too tired to continue on, eventually you will stop this easter egg hunt for knowledge. This is where the fun begins (for those of you who just don't like learning).

Step 5: Climb your chain. With me, it's usually 10-15 articles I go through before finishing up. Write down the last one and work your way back to the Wikipedia homepage, writing down all the articles you read along the way.

Step 6: Bask in some glory. Stare at that piece of paper and think about all you learned and read today. Doesn't that just make you feel like someone who is smarter than you are? The best part about it is: you are that smarter person now!

So, as an example, my Wikipedia Game score sheet looks like this: Sleep - Sleep Apnea - Dream - Lucid Dream - Near Death Experience - Out of body experience - meditation - Bahá'í Faith - Monasticism - Christian Monasticism - Heremetic Life - Recluse - Hikikomori - Dysthymia

As you can see, this is quite a list and kept me occupied a good 2 hours. Less expensive and more informative than a video game, yet it's usually only information that won't even show up on Jeopardy. I wouldn't advise this game for parties, but it's fun to try and do the same thing with conversations with people, and it shows them that's you're listening. Go on, give it a whirl!

Music Update

2008-01-08T19:18:00.000-06:00

Lately, I've been doing very little except school and video games. Thank Christmas for that. One of the more time consuming games I received would be Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. It's been on the "Games I'm Currently Playing" list for a bit (I keep that fairly updated), yet I haven't reviewed it. The reason for that is that I can't really give it rating. The review would be nearly identical to my DDR review...except with more fingers, and less jittering of the feets. Like all skill-based games, the only real way to beat it is to complete every song perfectly, or to just put down the controller (it doesn't make you a quitter, it makes you sane).

However, the game has gotten me in touch with many rock classics, both older and recent. One of the newest songs I purchased on ye ol' iTunes is "Knights of Cydonia" because it is my favorite song to play (I'm only starting Hard, so don't go telling me that it's impossible on Expert). I have a tradition of buying music on iTunes: as soon as it's done downloading, I turn my speakers up to 11 and hit the deck. Can you blame me? Anyways, the song I bought today that triggered this post is "A Night on Bald Mountain." Brilliant piece of work, and it's played by everyone and their grandmother on Halloween. I just like the bombastic parts because I am a low brass player myself. I find that in all the techno, metal, alternative, jazz, and classical music I buy (country and rap can bite me), I enjoy blasting the classical the most. There's just something exhilarating about listening to "Mars" loud enough to bother the neighbors (your neighbors). I love every second of the hearing I lose later in life from this too. Anyways, just thought I'd share with you a fun pastime of mine.

Playing trumpet parts on a euphonium now, I don't get the loud, long, eruption of violence from my horn that I've grown to love. However, technically, my sound is getting more precise, and my high range has never been better. I do miss blasting notes though, and that's the main reason I bought "A Night on Bald Mountain."

F.E.A.R.

2008-01-07T20:06:00.000-06:00

Ever been scared of a little girl? No? Apparently you've never played little game called First Encounter Assault Recon (or met my sister). My purchase of F.E.A.R. was a response to my playing Dementium (I reviewed it earlier). It was pretty much the same game with a more confusing, yet less pointless, story. It had more action, less locked doors, and was actually pretty terrifying.

Your name is "F.E.A.R. Point Man" in all the mission descriptions, so there's no need to get personally attached to your character: you never see his face anyway. Here's the storyline: there's a crazy psychic that can control hundreds of clone soldiers, and he's gotten loose. Your mission is to go fetch him. I'm not going to spoil anything, so you don't have to worry about that. While trying to capture him, you learn many secrets about the corporation that had the mysterious "Project Origin" commissioned. You also get the heck frightened out of you by a little creepy girl that enjoys projecting ghoulish images and nightmares into your head. This becomes one of the more annoying points, but I'll get to that in the gameplay.

F.E.A.R. runs like a standard FPS in that you get guns and you shoot people. The arsenal provided at the beginning is pretty boring: a pistol and a sub-machine gun. You can hold up to three weapons or two pistols and two other weapons. The other weapons would be your standard for most games: shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and some non-conventional weapons like an auto-cannon, a nail driver, and the particle weapon. There are also a few types of grenades such as frags, motion activated, and remote detonation. The key feature that separates this game from all the other PC FPS games out there is the SloMo feature. The game explains the SloMo as your having amazing reflexes, and they ain't kidding. The world moves 1/5 speed and you move twice as fast. This means you can run out into the middle of a squad of soldiers, take aim with your dual pistols, and shoot and kick people to your heart's content without heavy fear of people completely destroying you. However, sometimes you will enter points in the game where you can't activate your Reflex Mode. These are the nightmare sequences that the little girl, Alma, sends you in order to thwart your efforts. They generally involve disturbing images of gore or frightening flashbacks. Nothing to worry about though...but it does suck to get startled when you weren't expecting one. The music definitely is what scared me the most. When you don't know when your flashlight is going to go out (leaving me alone in my room with the lights off and creepy music blaring into my headphones) and the music goes minor on you, be prepared to fight off some freaky ghost things.

For a game with such great battle mechanics, I really hated the physics engine sometimes. When I'd drop some poor fool, his body would keep making the collapsing noise every time he twitched on the ground due to some kind of tension. It's really hard to get scared at all the blood and creepy images flashing about when there's a dead guy doing the milkshake dance at you. All in all, it's a fantastic game with excellent graphics, decent story, excellent gun fights, and truly terrifying, Kafkaesque (that's my favorite word) sequences. There are a few expansion packs...they aren't really worth it, but it you feel like I just didn't want to comment on them...go get them. Project Origin is the upcoming sequel; I can't wait.

Rating: B+

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

2008-01-02T11:52:00.000-06:00

Well. The polls are closed, and we had a 33% increase in voter turnout (thank you, mystery 4th person). That means this blog is slowly growing into something slightly less puny than before. Yay. Berserker was a clear W1NN4R here and we can all see why. Who doesn't love a guy who charges into battle with nothing but an axe, a bad attitude, and a 15% bonus to critical hits? Ranger and Warrior were a close second. The sword and bow combo of a horsed ranger is quite something to behold, but the size of the axe-toting, bow-blitzing warrior is nothing to sneeze at. Well that's all for that poll. Good to know that the reading population is enlarged (or some one just voted again from a different computer...). The next poll should be interesting.

So, a little while back, I got through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. It's an excellent addition to the Fire Emblem family, but the real reason I finished it was my wanting improved stats in the sequel, Radiant Dawn. I received Radiant Dawn for Christmas and haven't played it yet. I'm waiting for a Zapper so I can beat Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles first. That way, I'll only have Guitar Hero 3 and DDR: Hottest Party to get in my way.

Path of Radiance was quite a bit different from the previous Fire Emblem games (other than being on the TV screen instead of a Gameboy) in that it had time in a base that you could use to assign skills, award bonus experience, talk to people, and listen to support conversations - which are based on chapters spent together, not turns adjacent to each other as usual. I found the improved graphics refreshing...for about the first 10 battles, then it just became annoying until I got to see everyone's critical hits. I didn't mind the Laguz characters that you fought, but I never used any of the ones that I got myself. I just can't get attached to a tiger-thing like I do with the beorcs, except for Reyson of course. My favorite character throughout the whole thing is tight between Keiran and Nephenee. They both always did exactly what I wanted them to, which was usually standing in a crowd of enemies alone and clearing the area (or at least getting damaged and letting Wrath and Resolve take effect). That's saying something, considering I usually hate Paladins in the FE series. The Halberdier a fun addition to the classes, but far underpowered compared to the bonuses that Berserkers, Snipers, and Swordsmasters get with their single weapon mastery. All in all, if you like Advanced Wars or the other Fire Emblem games, you'll be satisfied with this one.

Rating: B

Dementium: The Ward

2007-12-30T22:12:00.000-06:00

Another gift I received for Christmas was Dementium, a FPS/mystery game for the Nintendo DS. Brain Age ² was the other DS game I got, so I decided to get Dementium over with to get on with my Sudoku and Brain Aging skills. I was impressed with the N64 -like graphics, and the sound effects and music were great. It turned out to be rather addicting and kinda fun. However, the entire game was a little repetitive, and it just became a chore to get all the way through it...rather than a fulfilling, joyous experience.

You start out with a nifty cut scene of being thrust in a wheelchair down a hall with all kinds of disturbing images like zombies, giant critters, and creepy little girls. You awaken in your room, with the lights off, and it's dark and stormy outside. You find a legal pad on the floor with "Why did you do it?" written on it, and there is a newspaper with a story of a man killing his wife outside the room. Lovely. You find that your name is listed as "John Doe" on the outside of your room and there is a woman's room (empty) next door with "Jane Doe" on the room. Sounds like you killed your wife, and they put you in the hospital for psychotherapy, but the game is young and there is much to discover. Very quickly, you get your most useful weapon: the flashlight (queue the Zelda item-acquiring music)! Now, this does no damage to any enemy, but you can only see about 4 feet in front of you without it. However, you can only use the flashlight if you aren't holding a weapon. Apparently, you only have one working hand. You then get the first real weapon: the nightstick! You can beat those zombies pretty good with this bad boy, but you almost always take damage (which is shown and heard through your heart rate) before you can kill one. Good thing this is a hospital, and there is medicine in just about every supply closet throughout the game.

You eventually get a 9mm, a shotgun, a revolver, and the electric bone saw, as you progress through the game (don't worry about me spoiling it for you, I played it so you don't have to). There are maps spread about all the floors and wings of the hospital and you'll need them all, or you'll be wandering in circles for hours, and the monsters respawn...your ammo and medicine don't. The game's favorite thing to say? "It is locked." I'd say about 80% of all doors say that when you try to open them. And there ain't a way to open a locked door; you gotta go around. You go through the 16 chapters of the game across 9 floors of the east and west wings of the facility. When you die...you go back to the beginning of the chapter. When you die at the end of a chapter frequently, that feature gets very frustrating. I found that going through the chapter to learn which direction to go, dying somewhere around the end, screaming and pulverizing your DS, then running through the chapter without fighting anything (except the bosses), is the best method of playing. The bosses are as follows: An abomination ripoff from WarCraft III (fat pink thing with a cleaver for a hand), a Gatling gunner in a wheelchair, possessed walls that spit out worms, and the final boss is a guy in a black trenchcoat/wetsuit with magic white gloves.

Here's the real spoilers: you didn't really kill your wife, leaving a creepy girl running about the hospital laughing and crying at you as the evidence in the entire game leads you to believe, you weren't even doing anything throughout this game. You beat the final boss, a cut scene pops up (they look pretty good actually), and you wake up in a nice, clean, lighted ward room. Your unmaimed wife and pretty little daughter await you right outside the door. Yay! It was all a dream. Then it fades out and it turns out that the Black Trenchwetcoatsuit man is operating on you with a large cleaver and saying that the first stage is a success. The following credits are actually the best part of the game. All the jobs that they listed the people doing were hilarious. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

As much as I love beating, shooting, and sawing zombies, worms, acid-spitting-thingies, floating heads, and guys in wheelchairs, this was definitely not the best game ever. The puzzles were annoying, and running away was more effective than killing anything. I'm just glad it was short enough to hold my interest long enough to beat it. Well, with all the getting lost, dying, and cursing the skies involved, it took 2 days or 15 hours to beat. Although, the actual successful playing time was about 4 hours. But who's counting?

Rating: C+

Dance Dance Revolution

2007-12-27T11:34:00.000-06:00

So, one of my Christmas presents was DDR: Hottest Party for the Wii. Normally, I don't enjoy exerting any form of physical effort (with exception of the fingers) for video games, but the Wii in general forces you to move at least your arms to some extent. So, I figured that moving your feet would be just one level above that.

Now, for those of you who don't know what DDR is, it's a giant cross pad with up, down, left, and right: just like any ol' D-pad on a controller. However, your fingers don't do anything but sit on your hands for this game. You push the buttons with your feet. There's usually a heavily beat oriented song playing and arrows moving up through some clear arrows at the top that signal where and when to stomp. Go to an arcade and you'll see what I mean.

Anyways, a friend of mine was playing the game for PS2, and it looked mind-boggling the way his feet were all over that board. Therefore, I decided that it would be cool if I could at least do something like that...only maybe to a lesser degree. Finally a DDR (other than that Gamecube Mario version, seriously...no one likes Mario, Nintendo) came out for the Wii. Although, being the Wii and all with the fancy controllers and such, there are hand movements as well as the footwork. This just makes it more complex. I'm not very good at it as of now, but I'm getting better. Hopefully, I'll keep interest (this game has to beat Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn to do so) long enough to get good at it. It's certainly good exercise.

So, DDR: Hottest Party probably isn't the best one of the bunch, but it's fun and certainly has the DDR feel to it, although the arcade version looks like the controller pad isn't lame. It's not a game that you just play through, beat, and be done with it. It's as hard or as easy as you want it to be, so you can take it at your own pace. I can't say it's an entirely serious game, and it might be a bit girly; but don't let that stop you from getting it if you're bored and have lots of open space and privacy in front of a TV.

Rating: B

Manga on Hiatus

2007-12-19T11:13:00.000-06:00

So...I was in the bookstore again (I seem to be in there a lot) and was hoping for some suitable gifts for friends. I found some good stuff. Mission accomplished, post over, right? Of course not. Being the manga-lover that I am, and hoping that at least one of the graphic novels I buy has been placed somewhere on the shelves, I took a peek through the "Manga/Anime" section (someone should tell the manager that there is a difference between the two). For the third month in a row: nothing. Now, most of them come out bimonthly, and they weren't put up two months ago, or last month, and now not this month. What's wrong with this picture? So I do a little research (I typed it in wikipedia). My results were annoying.

Turns out that the bookstore is just really lousy at putting anything up when they are supposed to. This used to be great because they would put things up weeks before they were due out. But now, they've either stopped ordering new stuff or have mountains of manga in the back (I drool at that thought). Knowing that this place doesn't have the largest storage space, I'm pretty sure they don't have that much in the small closet they keep overstock in. Anyways, a few manga in particular have caught my attention in the past weeks: Ragnarök by Myung-Jin Lee and Beet the Vandel Buster by Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada.

I haven't seen a new Ragnarök in years. It just occurred to me that maybe something is wrong with the writer. Feeling almost concerned (for the wellbeing of my reading pleasure, not for the artist) I looked it up. "Status: Hiatus." Eh? I whipped out my dictionary and was quickly disappointed. Hiatus means that the writer has taken a break and probably has no intention of finishing. But....I like that manga....(sniff) why would they take it away? Turns out, Ms. Lee is helpin' the wonderful folks at Gravity make the Ragnarök Online games...wouldn't you know that I played it. Worldwide, it's actually got more players than World of Warcraft. So, I guess I can't get too angry about that; I'm sure it pays better.

Beet the Vandel Buster was one of the first manga I got because I read the preview in Shonen Jump's magazine (the first one I bought because of previews was Bleach actually). That means that I've been collecting the graphic novels since they came out. It's also one of the two manga that I've started buying from the beginning and haven't given up waiting and read them online (Claymore is the other). I kinda got annoyed when it was set to come out one month and never showed up. Six months later, it finally appeared; however, the "Next Issue" was set for six months later. Ouch. So, every six months I bought a new one. Until finally, four months after the previous one, a new one came out. There's no "Next Issue" section in it. "Status: Hiatus."

Tales from Oblivion

2007-12-13T17:12:00.000-06:00

So...I recently looked at the instruction manual (it was the first time I've done so) for Oblivion. I found a drag command. This means you can move stuff without picking it up and keeping it in your inventory. Several immobile environmental elements are also movable now also. So...the wheels in my head started turning. After I got done admiring the light bulb that came on, I quickly grabbed my axe and introduced it to the town guard. Now...after you commit any kind of felony, the closest guard will run at you like a madman and tell you that you've broken the law. You have three options:

Go to Jail. (Viciousness of the crime is your time)
Resist Arrest. (When you feel the need to tell the guards that they need to be felt more than heard)
Pay Gold. (You pansy, take it like a man)

Looking in my wallet, I noticed that it has just enough in it to clear my assault fines. So, being the reasonable individual that I am, and realizing that my clumsy axe swings must be reprimanded, I quickly responded "Resist Arrest" and didn't miss his head this time. Every citizen in town decided it was in their best interest to stop me...can't disagree with them there. All the guards swarmed like starving wolves to a steak dinner, but I was feelin' lucky. 30 minutes, 15 guards, 10 citizens, and 3 broken weapons later (is it bad that you kill a guard just to get his sword?) the massacre was over. My restoration magics certainly got a workout afterwards. Feeling the need to repair my items, I realized I'd killed the weapons/armor dealer in my fit. Ah well, shouldn't stop what I had planned.

Seeing that I had plenty of materials now, I slowly took a sturdy looking guard and placed him in the middle of town. I followed suit with 3 others until I had a good base. I never had Linkin' Logs as a child...perhaps that's for the best. I proceeded with several layers of of my corpse tower until it was a decent height and then got into position. I decided to make this character very aggressively built, so he has good weapon skills and destruction magics. I selected a wide splash damage fireball and took aim. I tell you, bodies went EVERYWHERE. I can only imagine what was going through the neighbors' minds. Now, there are some pretty good videos on YouTube of other people's similar activities, but it is so much more fun to do it yourself. Anyways, for my entertainment, my bounty was raised to 40,250 moneys. Ouch. You don't wanna know what my infamity was.

Moral of the story: video games aren't killing children's creativity...just giving it a convenient outlet. Now, I've got to get back to gathering money and sneaking around town to pay off my crimes, sigh...

TES IV: Oblivion

2007-12-10T16:30:00.001-06:00

Alright, I've been a little bad on what games I've been playing lately. I was craving some boring repetitive fighting and trading, so I've been playing Freelancer for the past month. Solid RPG in space kinda deal with flying a ship around till you're bored of it (when you stop playing, then you truly beat the game). Then I rented Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii...because I hadn't played the Wii since I participated in the "Check Mii Out Channel." Solid game, but it's very short, and I beat it in the time I had it rented, so it's not really worth buying.

Wishing to play something like Freelancer again, with all the freedom to choose whether you want to be good, evil, indifferent, or just plain weird, I thought about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I haven't played the game in months, so it's lost the boredom factor that it had after I had completed every quest on 3 different characters (maybe I should buy the official plug-ins). To get you acquainted with the kind of game it is...try to imagine yourself in medieval times. What's the first thing you would do? Odds and a half are...you can do it in the game. If you wanna use magic to send everyone in town into a mad frenzy, there's a spell for that. Wanna bash some skeleton heads? There's a war hammer with your name on it! Want to become a vampire and suck the blood of innocents? Not a problem! Have the erge to stack the corpses of the town guards in a nice pile in front of your mansion? Go for it! Want to become the god king of your own reality? It's actually in the expansion pack, Shivering Isles (I ain't jokin'). Want to string the bodies of live sacrifices to you in the windows of your sanctuary of murder? There's a Vizine for that!

You have near absolute freedom in the game and can kill just about anyone no matter now powerful or influential they are (with exception of main quest characters). Just be prepared to reap the fruits of your actions. You can also go through just about the entire game without killing anyone at all, if you're more of a sneaky sort. And if you don't want to even pick up a single weapon in the game, don't: there's magic that makes people run in fright of you. You can just go treasure hunting if you don't want to raid bandit camps and undead forts. I have never played a computer game quite like this before, and so far it hasn't been duplicated too well either. The only downfall: it's single player. This would be the greatest game ever created (until TES V anyways) if there was some kind of multi-player. Even over a LAN system (MMORPG would be just too crowded and annoying) would be great. Ah, well, maybe next time. If you want some RPG ownage, hook yourself up with this game. It's also out for Xbox 360 and PS3 with purchasable plug-ins that add quests, items, and locations (of course not for Wii), so this increases the availability and reduced the need to nice computers to run them.

Rating: A+

Nintendo Poll

2007-12-03T19:22:00.001-06:00

Well, the results are in for my "Which Nintendo character is coolest?" poll are in. There was an amazing 3-way-tie between Fox, Samus, and Link (ever notice he doesn't ever have a last name?). When will Nintendo figure out that no one really likes Mario as much as their heroes that do something other than jump on bad guys' heads? So with an amazing turn out, and the running being within 1 vote to determine the winners, I'm proud to announce that this did little more than tell me that only 2 other people view my blog. Disheartening? Eh, not really. Just waiting for some one to tell all their friends that aren't my friends about it....aaaany minute now....this could take a while.

However, thumbs up to the Nintendo characters that don't suck! I look forward to making them duke it out when Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out...in February. By the way, new poll is up.

Rurouni Kenshin

2007-11-28T20:39:00.000-06:00

Here's one of the few manga series that I started buying from start to finish. Death Note is the only other one that's up to snuff, but it only has 12 volumes, so it's not as impressive. At a whopping 28 volumes, Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin has great length and a great story all the way. Taking place in the early Meiji period after a revolution for equality, the story is about a wandering swordsman who fights for those within his sight who are too weak to fight for themselves. Doesn't sound incredibly original, and I suppose it's not, but it is good. Himura Kenshin has vowed never to kill again because of the grief from the lives he had to take during the revolution. However, when enemies constantly threaten him and his friends, promising not to kill can be a real drag.

The story is rather straight forward and easy to understand. There's no heavy symbolism, clever plot twists, or much left to the imagination. The simplicity is part of the charm though: it's funny when it needs to be, it's deep when it needs to be, and it's all action...y when there's nothing left to be. The thing I love most about this is the vast assortment of characters. My personal favorite manga/anime character of all time is Saito Hajime, even though most people see him as a bad guy. I can see why, but I can't change what I like and such, so that's the way it is. Then again...Yukishiro Enishi is also up there on my top 5, so I seem to have a thing for the crazies...

Anyways, the anime that goes along with this story is decent enough, it almost follows the manga, but it's more for younger people than the manga. I seem to recall an episode where Kenshin fights a man while using a parasol in a circus. While I am in full support of turning good manga into good anime, that seems like a step backward. They also skipped an entire story arc probably for the sake of the violence. Unfortunately, it's also the arc where it explains most of Kenshin's past, so there are a few OVAs and Movies that cover the arc loosely. Also, the manga is being re-released (would it be a waste to get them all again?) with new covers in Kanzenban form. I don't know what kind of features are going to be in them, so I can't miss what I've never seen...guess I might skip out on that one.

Rating: A+

Games to Anime

2007-11-21T15:38:00.000-06:00

Ah, nothing like a 2 day school week. Gives me a little extra time to do the fun things in life...like go to the orthodontist. Still, wasn't too bad and it's 3 days that I'm not in school, so I can't complain. There's not a terrible amount to do...got some Christmas shopping out of the way, so that worked out nicely. Haven't really been playing any new games or reading any new manga. Tales of Symphonia OVA recently had episode 3 released, if anyone knows anything about that.

Taking games and turning them into an anime sounds like a bad idea. I'll agree with that. Anyone who has played through the game will simply go, "that's not how that happened!" and people that haven't played the games don't care enough to watch them. Pokemon for example: Ash gets himself a Pikachu in the first episode. You would think that 10 seasons later when he sends Pikachu in for a fight, it would give the opponent a look and it would explode. That's because the lovely leveling system that practically defines the game doesn't exist in the show. It makes the gamers wonder why they can't command their pokemon to use more than 4 moves and why Magikarp battles aren't more exciting. Luckly, there aren't many examples of these game-to-anime types, so we gamers aren't too terribly plagued by bad show representations.

The Tales of Symphonia and Phantasia OVAs are fun to watch, but you already know what's going to happen, because you played through the game. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't be watching the show, now would ya? If the OVAs were released before the game, it would be a different matter, and probably even effective advertising. As long as it ain't a crappy anime rip-off of Street Fighter (like most anime end up becoming), then it'll be fun playing out what you saw in the show.

Gaming Update

2007-11-17T09:06:00.001-06:00

Alright, I went a week without posting and barely got on my computer. That's because I was beating Professional Mode on RE4, sorry. I'd say it was worth it, because the P.R.L. 412 is AMAZING. All RE4 connoisseurs should definitely get this puppy. There's something fun about taking down Krauser in one hit, and the final boss in two. But...beating Pro mode was definitely a huge frustration. They don't give you a tactical vest, and wouldn't you know it....two hits from just about anything will kill you. When you have no ammo or recovery items, and you just hit the final fight with Krauser...well let's just say the "end of chapter" review for that one was 34 deaths (just use the knife and get him into a corner, works wonders).

Anyways, I'm moving back to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, until I beat that too. Radiant Dawn is supposed to come out for the Wii, and I don't want to start out with lousy default-stat characters, so I'm working my way through that. I might do a review on that soon too. Christmas time will be full of new games, so I can't wait!

Berserk

2007-11-17T08:44:00.000-06:00

No, no, I'm not angry. It's the name of a manga. Berserk by Kentaro Miura is probably the bloodiest manga I've ever seen in my days. There's about every form of violence you can imagine. But when you have your stereotypical cold-blooded killer that carries a 7-foot, 200 lbs sword that slays innocents and demons alike, usually you have some kind of hero take him down and ramble about "justice" and how one shouldn't just go killing willy-nilly. Well...the murderer happens to be the main character in this manga. His name is Gutts, and he's not a happy camper. But hey, when you and all your friends were sacrificed by your best friend in the attempt to gain godlike powers and you're the only one who survived sane, you'd be a bit grumpy too.

The plot of the story is above average, but the battles are what really make Berserk incredible (go figure). There aren't many battles not involving giant robots or martial arts masters that tickle my fancy so well, but this manga definitely has the best fights ever. When you have one guy take on 100 or so soldiers by himself, that's a battle! And they make it almost believable: that one guy could actually take them all down, it's just a matter of will. Later in the series, he starts losing himself to rage, and gets armor that just encourages that. It really can be frightening at times because of the scale of his...destruction. When you see small children and women just get slaughtered because they were taken over by evil spirits, it's a bit much, but I'd say if you are as heartless and insensitive as me, it's an excellent story.

An anime was made over the first story arc, but it leaves out all the comic relief characters, so...it's a bit of a battle-fest with poor story. All in all, it's decent though. It managed to keep the violence and destruction, so that's all I like it for anyways.

Rating: B-

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

2007-11-11T18:06:00.000-06:00

Well, it may be the forth in the list of Resident Evil games, but it's the first one I've really played, and I like it. Not to mention, it's probably the best game for the Nintendo Wii. I got it several months ago and unlocked everything I could think of: Chicago Typewriter, Infinite Launcher, Handcannon, and I beat all the side games. I was feelin' pretty good, but kind of sad that I no longer had anything to unlock. So I put it away after I got Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. That game lasted one weekend, so...not very satisfying, but it was fun while it lasted.

Anyways, a friend of mine and I were talking about the game, and he asked me if I got the laser gun. I was a little surprised and had to say no. He told me that beating Professional mode would get it for me, and come to think of it...I had completely forgotten to beat that. So I'm back on it and boy is it tough stuff. The regular game the first way through was rather challenging, but professional mode is downright hard. So I'm workin' my way through that right now in my Chicago-style clothing, and Ashley's in her coat of armor so all is well in the world. I'll let you know how the laser gun is, if it does in fact give it to me for beating this.

Anyways, about the game: It's a third-person-shooter kinda like Zelda, except with more gore, guns, and ghoulies. It's quite a bit different -I've heard- from the other RE games, and I was a bit disappointed at the commercials when I saw them a few years ago. However, the lack of zombies, Umbrella Corporation, and the STARs don't take away from this game at all. The "interactive" cut scenes can be a bit annoying especially when you aren't expecting to have to swing the controller while you're just talkin' with some one, but that's what makes it exciting. The game really has more action than the creepiness that all the other REs have, but it's still a terrific game. The game for the Wii is a bit different in that you can unlock everything that the PS2 and Gamecube versions had. It's also nice to be able to incorporate some Wiimote handling into the combat system, although it gets very tiring during the long sprinting cut scenes. Aiming is definitely on the plus side from the other systems, since you can just point at the TV instead of using that hard to control laser pointer that seemed to be on all your weapons (even Krauser's bow in Mercenaries). This game is pretty good the first time through, definitely challenging, and it is really fun in the next rounds through, because you get to keep all your stuff, Diablo-style. So it's certainly an excellent game for the Wii, and it'll probably stay my favorite until Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out.

Rating: A+

School Stupidity

2007-11-08T17:02:00.000-06:00

Well, seems an interesting event has taken place at my school. Generally, I am too far out of the loop to hear about things in school, but this one kind of hit home since it took place in the fine arts hallway. A girl got caught smoking in the girls' room. Unfortunately for her, there was a girl that was allergic to secondhand smoke that went directly afterwards. When the school checked the contents of this young lady's purse, they found vast assortments of pills, razor blades, condoms, and finally the cigarettes. I go to a Christian school, so this is grounds for immediate contacting of parents, suspension, and high threat of expulsion. To make matters worse, she tried to blame a guy that was dating another girl she didn't like. Of course, the school checked his car as well, and found cigarettes and several hunting knives. He was suspended also.

I like to think that incidents like this don't happen all too often, but the things I hear when I'm forced to sit with people other than my friends lead me to think otherwise. I'm glad idiots like these do get caught, and I wish more of the non-fine arts students would be checked more often. Maybe all the football players who get drunk on the weekends or the cheerleaders who participate in promiscuous activities could get looked into every now and then. If the teachers would just hang around to listen to what I hear...Anyway, just thought I'd reveal a bit about the nature of the darker corners in my school.

Trumpet vs. Baritone/Euphonium

2007-11-07T21:16:00.000-06:00

Alright...so now I'm pretty much completely trumpet for concert season after I was trumpeting all marching season...although I am a baritone player for the most part. I figure it would be appropriate for me to compare and contract the two now that I have decent experience with both.

Trumpet is definitely the more difficult instrument by far. The range is generally 2-3 octaves within a song. Mid-range is the comfort zone, maybe bordering on high. Low range is good for warming up, but very difficult to sound nice in it. High range will be where most mid-grade and greater pieces will leave you. Runs from mid to high range are common, and expect sessions of vigorous playing followed by long bouts of rests within the same piece. Trumpets' tuning is fairly simple: the higher you go, the further you need to bend the pitch down. If you are standing in the high range the entire song, tune flat. Difficult tonguing articulation and grace notes are common as well. On the plus side, you never have to really play very loud to be heard; the piercing pitch is the cause for that. This is certainly the superior instrument if you are looking for more challenging parts in music. Trumpet is definitely a sprinters instrument: you get to play really loud, high, and fast, and then you break for a while.

Baritone is quite opposite mostly. Slow, cumbersome, bass parts plague the songs that most bands play. However, some songs (usually written low brass player composers) contain boisterous melodies in the middle of songs just for the baritones and trombones. But mainly, half notes on slow songs, and polka bass parts on marches. Playing the euphonium is quite easy. Playing the euphonium right is a completely different story, unfortunately. Beginners have the tendency to sound somewhat pinched (constipated, if you will) with their playing. The corners are the only firm part necessary for decent sound, I've found. The rest tends to set into place by itself; just don't try and cram your whole face into the mouth piece. Range in songs generally contains one octave, and you're rarely escaping the lower midrange. In solos and other pieces written especially for baritone, however, be prepared for a completely different world. Short runs with extreme low or high long tones ending them is common in these pieces, and octave jumps and slurs are constantly thrown in for no real reason. Those are the types of songs that trombone players write, because they want to do all sorts of things, but can't with their lack of convenient buttons. Pitch is somewhat of a problem with the horn itself, but the large mouthpiece makes bending pitches quite easy.

So, if deciding which instrument to start on...I'd say go trumpet because it isn't very difficult in beginner band, and you won't be terribly bored. Also, you will advance quickly. If you are being tossed into a new instrument for marching band however, baritone is an easily played instrument with simple parts. The size is the most difficult part of marching though. While both trumpet and baritone require decent shoulder and arm muscle, baritone is the heaviest of the brass that doesn't use the shoulders for support (sousaphones, contras, etc). That means your arms will get tired if you are parading for more than 20 minutes or so, so be prepared for that. Trumpet has the issue of being extremely light...which makes forceful horn moves easily overdone. Especially coming from baritone to trumpet, my first "horns down" tossed by mouth piece several yards, and I hit myself in the chest with the bell.

Anyways, depending on what stage of learning you are, and what exactly you want to do, trumpet or baritone can generally suit your desires. They are also great transition instruments, so picking these up may not be your final choice.

BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBoBo

2007-11-04T19:23:00.000-06:00

Okay, so far you have seen nothing but good anime/manga that I have talked about. Welcome to bashing #1. My target tonight will be BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBoBo. This is quite possibly the worst show I've ever seen. This show makes "Hannah Montana" seem like an Oscar-winning television program. I had the misfortune of encountering this manga in the Shonen Jump magazine a year or two back, and the preview wasn't too bad. Not good enough to go out and buy, but it wasn't too bad. There was a recognizable plot and, while the fight scenes were kind of strange, it didn't seem all that annoying. However, when I saw the anime come on Cartoon Network last year...ugh. I watched the 1st and 2nd episode (I was hoping that only the 1st one was bad because 1st impressions can be decieving). Needless to say, I never went out of my way to watch it again, and I avoid it when it does come on. It was terrible. There wasn't really a story to be told, the characters are too random and annoying to get to know, and the situations were about as random as the characters. The best description would be Excel Saga except without the funny...or the girls. Just the randomness and the stupid, at least the animation isn't awful. Luckily that was the last I ever saw of it....but wait!

2 or 3 months ago I was reading my Shonen Jump magazine, and what do I see? They said that they would be replacing almost all their solid manga that had been in the magazine for years. I figured: well, that can't be too bad, there's been some good stuff coming out of the previews lately. Maybe it'll be some of those. Note quite. Turns out BoBoBo worked his afro-headed self back in there. Bah, so now it's not funny, not entertaining, and it takes up space that something good could have been using. Someone at Shonen Jump must have be on some new meds...

Rating: F

Neon Genesis Evangelion

2007-11-04T19:02:00.000-06:00

Well, went by the mall today and bought me some manga. Neon Genesis Evangelion (not that Angel Days soap opera crap) volumes 9 and 10 happened to be there together, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity. I've noticed that when I start buying a series that has been out for a while, they always seem to have the ones before and after what I need...but never the one I'm missing. But fate smiled upon me today and the next two I needed were on the shelf. Oh, happy day.

Anyways, Eva is about 14-year-old Shinji who gets called in by his distant father to pilot a giant robot to battle these giant critters that are attackin' the city. Sounds like a giant robot battle anime/manga, but that isn't really what it's about. It's about the psychological journeys of Shinji and his fellow pilots, the melancholy Rei and superiority-complexed Asuka. They're all actually pretty messed up in the head, although you can't really tell until towards the end. The giant robots vs. the "Angels" that are attacking the city is really just to keep the seriousness of what's at stake in perspective while you learn way more about these kids than you ever wanted to know. But overall I think it's probably one of the best series I've ever watched/read. The final episodes are somewhat of a bad acid trip, but the movies and manga make the last two episodes make sense. It's a bit difficult to grasp watching the last two by themselves. I know it left me confused. Also, they are redoing many of the episodes in movie form currently, so I can't wait for those to come out in English. The anime at least is definitely worth checking out, if you like that then maybe check out the other stuff. It's got a really strong fan base, so apparently I'm not crazy for enjoying it.

Rating: B+

Senior Year

2007-11-03T15:44:00.000-06:00

Ah, 3 years of high school down, 1 to go. Just finished 1st quarter a week or two ago, so time is flying by. Hopefully I find a college to accept me. The counselor says that I should have sent all my college applications by now. Oops.

Anyways, there's not too much left to do scholastically now that marching band is over. I'll probably work on some reading now that research papers are finished too(*gasp* a teenager reading for fun?!?!?). Hopefully I can keep my grades up, so I can continue to cruise through the school year. Things tend to go faster when you aren't worried about grades. The sooner the better: I'm not exactly thrilled with the direction my school is heading. 14 years in the same school and you start to notice things' changing. Ah well, I'll be well on my way by the time it all falls apart.

I'm certainly glad I picked what classes I did. Psychology gives me time to sleep or do homework for AP Government/Politics, which is next. Senior English finishes up my morning classes which really just requires some paying attention to ace. I have a study hall next with the band director, so I can sleep in there and then get to lunch early. After lunch, AP Statistics confuses the heck out of me, followed by Honors Defense of the Faith. Gotta love Christian schools. I enjoy my DotF class because it doesn't require a huge amount of work, but it still doesn't require that I must sit with idiots, like my standard classes. Finally, I finish up the day with my daily dosage of band. We'll start concert band Monday, so I haven't a clue how different it will be this year. Can't wait until the end of the year, but I think I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

A Standard School Day

2007-10-31T19:30:00.000-06:00

So...I have a school story. This'll make up for missing yesterday's post. Ok, so I'm walking through the commons room on my way to the band room this morning. I notice a girl sitting all by herself (queue the "awwww"). That doesn't make her a loner at my school... just an idiot trying to hide the fact that she's on her phone. Anyways, I hear some of her side of the conversation..apparently, fleeing to the fine arts hall is good for privacy. Now, it's Halloween today. But my school, being supposedly Christian and all, doesn't recognize that officially as a holiday, so no costumes allowed (sounds reasonable enough). However, that doesn't stop people from wearing some cute little cat headbands and orange and black finger nail polish. Anyways, (I'm gettin' off topic a lot) so this is what I hear:
"Ohmigaw, I found this headband in my closet, so, like, I wore it today"...
"Like, no, we can't wear that...like just uniforms today"...
"Like, I painted my nails, how do you like them?"...
"Oh! Right! I forgot"...
"Okay, bye"...*she flips the phone closed*

Now...I know it's a bit early (if you call 7:00 AM early). And daddy's little princess might not have gotten her espresso frappuccino latte with ginger hand-picked by slave workers in a Columbian countryside. But to forget that people can't actually see you on a phone...that's just...how can you...why would...aye...I'm surprised she remembers to breathe on a regular basis...she's probably got a tutor paid for that.

Bleach

2007-10-31T19:01:00.000-06:00

I just caught myself up on the Bleach manga. I used to check the websites daily to see when new chapters were released, but I got a bit lax over the summer. I checked few nights ago and found I had several waiting for me to read. Great fun. They recently stopped releasing new episodes on Adult Swim, not that I really watched the anime in English so much, so I can't really talk to many of my friends about things that have happened recently. I'm not a jerk that reveals spoilers against people's wills...mostly. I heard they left off where Ichigo gets his bankai in a killer battle scene. That's unfortunate. I would recommend watching the subbed episodes which go much farther, however some people just don't like the whole "reading what they are hearing" deal. I would also recommend reading the manga which goes even farther than the episodes...but no one wants to put any effort into reading. Am I so strange for enjoying hearing the gibberish with a translation?

Anyways, it's an excellent manga/anime with epic fights, nifty weapons, humorous...humor, but not a one of the main characters uses an axe...wah. Ah well, it's still terrific and it's quite popular, so it's probably all over the YouTube. And because of its popularity, there are several good AMVs floating about. I look forward to more chapters being released in the future.

Rating: A

Band Update

2007-10-29T20:32:00.000-06:00

So I'm in a high school band of 17 wind players and 5 or 6 percussion. I currently play trumpet for marching, yet I'm usually a euphonium/baritone player. At the end of last school year, I offered my services of adaptability and said that I wouldn't mind switching to trumpet from baritone...but just for marching balance purposes (there would have only been one trumpet, so I thought it would be nice to take one for the team). I hadn't played trumpet for 5 years, but I wasn't about to let something as trivial as the passage of time, lack of experience, or the possession of a fading middle school treble clef knowledge stop me. Oops...within around 2 days of playing, I was able to play the entire first-chair part of our marching show for next year. I knew that the other trumpet player would be getting his braces off soon, so his sound and volume would improve as well. So I figured the switch wouldn't be so bad, and it was just for marching season, right?

Wrong. I just got told today that I am expected and "needed" to stay on trumpet for concert season. Now, I enjoy marching and all that, but concert season is what I look forward to in band all year long. And I was expecting to play my beloved Bartholomew (yes...I name my instruments) and getting to play my loud, low, repetitive, rhythmic parts of concert band. Allow me to put this in terms that are more easily related to the general audience: Imagine happily sitting on a couch and watching some TV. Your wife is in the chair adjacent to you, and she is shivering. Now, you're a nice guy, so you walk over, turn up the thermostat, and get her a blanket. Problem solved. A sacrifice was made, a long-term solution was applied for when you aren't there, and a short-term solution was applied because you were there that time. Now I'm being asked to stand there away from the TV, ready to cover the band with a blanket even though the heat is on. Meh...hope this doesn't interfere with the baritone auditions that I've have to do.

On the bright side, trumpet parts are always more exciting, and the band director is talking of taking us seniors for more challenging things while he works with the underclassmen.

Research Paper

2007-10-26T16:40:00.000-05:00

Sigh...it's finally Friday. Took long enough to get here.

So I'm in school and I got the final piece of my research paper graded before the final turn-in Monday. I was told I need 3 more sources, and one of those must be an interview. I'm trying to figure that one out. The other two I can just get off the internet, so I ain't too worried. Other than that, I just need to double the length of my paper. Sounds like a joyous time I've got ahead of me. A girl in my class told me that her paper is on an 150 line poem...I got friggin' Ivanhoe. It's a 400 page novel! In my school's library (which is all we had access to on "research days"), there was only one author who wrote two or three of the critical essays that I'm using as sources...and my teacher wants more "variety" to my quotes. I also have to double the length of my paper without turning it into a book report (which is what half my class has done). The glories of the internet: I should have this done with two or three hours of work; as opposed to the week I spent reading books filled with critical essays of 19th century European literature that only had snippets of anything Ivanhoe related. My compliments to Paul de Gategno. He's helped me by writing relevant materials about nothing except Ivanhoe...but my teacher won't let me use his book as my only source.

The awful timings of the step-by-step due dates were terrific also. I'm so glad that our school library is open all the time...oh wait, it's bloody not. By the time I get out of band in the afternoon, that library is more closed than a buffet to a fat guy. So I had to make due with the limited notes I had...which weren't enough. Ah well, at least it's over. But wait, it's not! My teacher just handed us a sheet on an "Oral Report" based on our findings of our primary source (that would be Ivanhoe for me), so I get to stand in front of my class and tell them all what Ivanhoe has done for me (queue the lightning and solar eclipse). Luckily, I'm pretty good at the whole -summarizing incredibly long and detailed things into 3-4 minutes of nonsense with no preparation while shaking because of my hatred for public speaking- thing.

So...wish me luck, I'll be having fun I'm sure. Peace Out!
Grade: TBA

Death Note

2007-10-25T19:04:00.000-05:00

Mmmmbuddy, Death Note has come to Adult Swim on Saturday nights. It's a pretty complex little mystery anime, and it's not so much action-packed, yet it is extremely well written and intelligent. I own all the manga in English and watch the anime in Japanese as it was coming out. I'm pretty stoked that it is now in English on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. It's replacing new episodes of Bleach...which ran out of English dubbed episodes apparently, ah well.
Anyways, Death Note is a mystery anime for the most part- like I said. It's about an extremely smart high schooler who finds a notebook with the power to kill anyone that he has seen the face of and whose name he has written down. He decides to use this newfound power to cleanse the world of evil and become the deity of his new world. Unfortunately, the police are after him and even the genius detective, L, has developed interest in taking down this unknown invisible serial killer. I highly recommend checkin' it out. The animation and music is terrific, and while there aren't any fight scenes, it's definitely got terrific intellectual duels between two conflicting sides of justice.
Rating: A

Take Off!

2007-10-25T18:37:00.000-05:00

Hallllllrighty! Guess I'll start this puppy off by introducing my loser self. I'm just a southern guy in the band in my school. I'll be talkin' about everything from anime to video games to school, and I might even talk about myself every now and then (the humanity!!!). Wish me luck and leave me a comment if you deem this blog worthy.