Monday, July 31, 2006

When at work without speakers

Sites such as these:

AnimeNfo Radio

Kawaii Radio

Don't really do me much good.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

This is not a double post

Though it will be the second post for the day. So if you're one of the few who tries to sort this madness, be aware that it's a double-time job.

So, thanks to the Florida trip not only does that CRV of mine need an oil change (Reccomended at 14K miles, and I was at 13999 when I got to work last Friday), but also I've (Would "but I've also" be a proper usage? It's not like I'm splitting infinitives, just correlating conjuctions... guess I need to buy a copy of Elements of Style for myself when my 22nd rolls around) logged a whopping 105 hours into Dual Strike, 206 medals out of the 300 cap. Started playing around with the combo dual strikes, rather than the most effective pairings (eg. less Sasha, less Eagle, less Jake, less Javier, my powerhouse 4, and more of the rest). Some of the ending quotes are kinda cute.

Used my abuse of FilePlanet to secure a copy of the Heroes of Might and Magic V demo. Beautiful game, absolutely stunning. I was not expecting nearly this level of artwork and although I hear the cutscenes and music are semi-lackluster it's totally compensated by the return to the HoMM 3 style with a few choice twists. HoMM IV was a total sinker of a game. The inclusion of active battle heroes plus the small build capacity of cities was a dampner, and unlike II, II PoL, and III, with their brutally hard campaigns, IV was cheese. Your hero / hero-pair, if you made it through the first few missions, could often carry your entire army though to the end on sheer power. The ability to combine heroes, allowing for the Holy Trinity of IV - a Battle Lord with full Grandmaster Tactics Skill lineup and full GM Leadership plus full Nobility for improved raw income, growth, and resources, an Ranger with GM Archery, GM Combat, GM Pathfinding (and GM Navagation as applicable) with enough Master/Grandmaster Skill in the focus school of the campaign to cast the top tier buff spells (Cat's Reflexes, Dragon's Strength, Guardian Angel) and debilitators to control truly threating grade 4 monsters (Cloud of Confusion, Beserker, Teleport), and a raw dual GM Spell Caster across the primary and one of the two neighboring skills to either bombard with spell damage or continue the buffing/control spells on rounds that your main hero is better off firing into combat. Just grab a few of the choice artifacts (Lifesteal or Polearm weapons, Amulet of Fear, some form of Magic Resistance if you don't get GM from Combat).

Anyways, that aside, HoMM V campaign is pretty brutal from what I've experienced and played and the game seemed pretty cool. Not certain I'm ready to toss the cash on the counter due to concerns about glitches and patches, as well as questions about the broadness of stand-alone scenarios, but unless I happen upon my copy of HoMM III, I'm going to be wanting one of the two to satiate a hunger for massive campaign Turn-Based Fantasy Strategy.

Valkerie Profile is getting rereleased on PSP, and if it includes a removal of the obstentatious and cumbersome timered World Map that the PSX version suffered of I think it'll be due incentive for me to get one, otherwise tracking down a PSX ver alongside Xenogears and Rhapsody will still be my agenda. Past that, the full Atelier Iris series is really starting to appeal to me as FFXII, Disgaea II, and V.Profile II only seem to get a bit further away every month. I'll probably pick up a few of AI to tide myself till the others get cheaper (who am I kidding, Disagea at least is unlikely to go down and definately worth the playtime).

Merely minutes past post and Omni was already taking issue with a few of my picks for the GameFAQs BSE battle. And in all likelyhood, as usual, he's probably right. Metroid > Pokemon and SSB > Warcraft.

The ending to Condemned: Criminal Origins really isn't much of one, and the game itself doesn't really make sense going back in context. However, it's still one hell of a creepy and difficult game, and the last areas of the last stage, brutally so.

Your mother is a terrorist

Obligatory World Cup reference, and yes I did watch the game, and yeah, I was rooting for France.

Not going to be talking about the RadioBlog link, which is a fundamentally impressive set of HTML meta-code, but that's mostly coming from the no-so technologically inclined person that I am, since it sorta stands for itself.

Debating with myself whether the lingerie ploy of the second phase of 10K Commotion or the drawings of the green-haired girl at the party in early Machall is more likely to actually succeed. I'm inclinded to believe the former has greater likelyhood, but I'm certainly no expert.

So, round 1 of the Best Series Ever is over at GameFAQs, and as usual I'm certainly not suprised, though not perfect in my predictions either.

Legend of Zelda > Civilization (98.15% predicted correctly; landslide, but Civ isn't a FAQ friendly game)
Megaman X > Suikoden (77.84; guess Suik had more followers than I'd have thought)
Pokemon > Star Ocean (83.74; Suik had more support than Star Ocean even, needs more stateside games)
Metroid > Kirby (89.22%; poor Kirby, I'd expected better for the pink puff)
Metal Gear > Soul Caliber (88.25; SC had no real chance)
Fire Emblem > Silent Hill (50.65; close call for those participating, don't have the numbers so I can't say how clear a victory the actual voting was)
Castlevania > Halo (31.49%; perhaps I've been overestimating Halo's popularity, with how badly it seems to lose in all interations of GameFAQ competitions)
Kingdom Hearts > Harvest Moon (90.3%; this wasn't really a competiton)
Super Mario Bros > Madden NFL (96.11%; nor was this one)
Warcraft > Grand Theft Auto (33.94%; A close call and a large upset for those participating)
Sonic the Hedgehog > Devil May Cry (77.06%; I still don't like Sonic)
Super Smash Bros > Dragon Quest (81.25%; No contest)
Final Fantasy > Diablo (97.25%; There wasn't a question)
Mega Man > Mario Kart (62.96%; Alas poor Kart, Mega Man is still a crappy series relative to X, Zero, Axl, and Bass/Treble)
Street Fighter > The Elder Scrolls (65.96%; I admit, Oblivion's leveling system is crap. And the proliferation of vs. Capcom games should've clued me in that SF still had a powerful stand)
Resident Evil > Shadow Hearts (96.21%; Doesn't change that fact that I still need a used copy of Shadow Hearts to play)

Down to a mere 3 people with a perfect 0, 474 with the perfect 16.

Picks for the next round:

LoZ > MMX
Pokemon > Metroid (Tough call actually, but I'll root for Pokemon)
Metal Gear > Fire Emblem (FE could've done so much better without such harsh opposition)
Castlevania ? Kingdom Hearts (Hard call. I think KH will edge this one out though personally I pick Castlevania for the win)
Warcraft > Super Mario Bros
Super Smash Bros > Sonic the Hedgehog (Brick, Brick, Brick)
Final Fantasy > Megaman
Resident Evil > Street Fighter

Friday, July 14, 2006

Monday, July 10, 2006

The GameFAQs Summer Contest and Dot dot dot...

...and I feel fine. Let it rain, rain, Ra~i~ain.

Really, I think that song is always a suitable response to anyone using the widely adopted Manga-styled '...'.

Month + 1 day of delay. Not really horrible given my track record, but I claim my weeks vacation to Florida to play a role in the timer-differential.

I'm starting to think that I'd really like a WordPress support for this, just because I'm finding Blogger's system to be a bit more trudging and sluggish, though a fair deal of that is probably that I access it only via less-than-stellar internets.

Anyways, I didn't actually submit for this one, but GameFAQS is doing a "Best Series Ever" Contest, and here's my guesses. It's already partially underway, but that's not factored into these, they're older than that and I'm not changing them if I was wrong already.

Bolded Title is my expected winner, Italics indicate the one I will/did vote for.

Hyrule Division:
Legend of Zelda vs Civilization - The first, and the first of several PC vs Console styled matchings. I like Civ. I've spent days and days playing the second, and his highly similar Alpha Centauri. The third was a total bust, absolutely worthless, and I haven't played #4 but I've heard good things. Meanwhile, Legend of Zelda has yet to ever let me down, except in making Twilight Princess so awesome but not being out yet. Oh, and the pain of doing the Water Temple in Ocarina - Master Quest, but that was a good kind of horrible agony. Also, it's not called the Hyrule Division for no reason.

Suikoden vs Mega Man X - Suikoden is interesting, it's got 5 games US now plus a Tactics, and all of them have the 108, all unique and special. But it's not a big ticket game francise, nor really all that good IMO (Played 1 and 3, own 4). Megaman X is my flavor of Megaman. The dash command really made the game. It was a breath of fresh life to the stagnating series and made for a really excellent platformer series (Voice-overs in later stage games aside).

Pokemon vs Star Ocean - I'm not saying Pokemon isn't great. But honestly it's just too much in too many directions. It was a great game originally, but the system breaks down at higher levels, and once they added breeding and all 100% more types it just became a really odd mash of an excellent tactical-strategy game with a kiddy facade. There's some great strategy and innovation there, but minus points for over-milking the system with half-assed things like Pokemon Snap and Hey you! Pikachu. Star Ocean, otoh, isn't really a well settled US Series yet, with little being in the spotlight past the success of the Third game. Fantastic battle system, less than stellar travelling options. Hours of enjoyment thanks to Battle Trophies, but not really too settled in the mind of the masses.

Metroid vs Kirby - Hard call but ultimately the overwhelming ability of Kirby to continue to have stellar games across Nintendo systems (with 2 recent excellent games on the GBA) compared against the nightmarish navigation and headaches of Metroid's latest games seals the deal for me. I do think the Varia Suit variant Samus hype could win the day but when the battle

Snake Divison:
Metal Gear vs Soul Calibur - Soul Calibur is nice and all, a solid weapons-based fighting game, perhaps the best of it's kinda. But Metal Gear sorta defined an entire genre, set the stage for Splinter Cell (argue all you like, I feel the two are the same game, just a different mood, cast, setting, and style). Snake Division belongs to Metal Gear, truth.

Fire Emblem vs Silent Hill - Eh. Silent Hill may have 4 games and a movie relative to Fire Emblem, but I think the Smash Brothers inclusion plus their multiple more-recent releases gives Fire Emblem the edge and the victory.

Castlevania vs Halo - Even though Master Chief himself has repeatedly been kicked around in the opening rounds of character contests, I think there's still enough generic Halo popularity, especially with bigger E3 news about Halo 3 than the total lack of anything on the forthcoming front for Castlevania except perhaps the occasional handheld game that tries to improve upon SotN and loses all it's focus and thus appeal in the process. There is always the odd chance that Halo fans just aren't GameFAQs people, and seeing how little FPS's need FAQs, I could see it happening. On a personal level, Halo is fun, Halo II legendary is asskickingly hard but the Musketeering (All for one, one for all) sorta ruins the co-op aspect, but Castlevania, especially and almost exclusively SotN, the new handheld Nintendo offerings aren't bad either, just reigns over anything Halo could hope for, especially with Halo 2's non-ending.

Kingdom Hearts vs Harvest Moon - Harvest Moon is cute and all, but it doesn'tstand a chance against KH, especially as people are still finishing up all the greatness that was KH2 (Since I know that A) Not everyone got it immediately and B) Not everyone marathoned it quite as much as I did).

Mushroom Division:
Super Mario Bros vs Madden NFL - I'm not actually a SMB fan, but I'm pretty much an anti-mainstream-sports game fan. Madden is the pinnacle of football games, but there are much better ways to get your gaming adrenaline flowing, EASports ftw and all, Mario is an icon. Madden is a voice, and some of us find him kinda pompus.

GTA vs Warcraft - Another Console versus PC pairing. Tell me all you want that GTA is a PC game, just like Halo it's a Console game first and foremost. GTA is popular, but Warcraft as a series is greater, even without factoring WoW into the equation.

Sonic the Hedgehog vs Devil May Cry - I'm not really a Sega fan, never have been, and definately never been a Sonic fan. Dante's done well in past competitions, especially since DMC3 didn't suck, but I'm not covinced that he can overcome the rabid fandom that Sonic fans have presented in the fast.

Super Smash Bros vs Dragon Quest - Dragon Quest might be an origin-level RPG and even had decent success with DQVIII (especially with the FFXII Demo attached), but I don't think it's going to stand any chance against the power of SSB, which I've witness rewrite the history of several previous character battle contests.

Ultima Division:
Final Fantasy vs Diablo - Diablo, fairly popular. Not a FAQ-friendly game as it got lots of it's own major fansites. Also, doesn't stand a chance against FF. I may've really enjoyed Diablo, but I think even most of my amusement was third party additions.

Mega Man vs Mario Kart - I don't really like the non-X Mega Mans, but I think they're popular, or at least enough of a running gimmick to beat out even the glory of Mario Kart DS's wireless competitions.

The Elder Scrolls vs Street Fighter - Morrowind/Obilivion will crush a series that hasn't had a new game see the light of day in ages. SF is nice and all, but it's old, and old means it's lost the support that other games have garnered in more recent eras.

Resident Evil vs Shadow Hearts - Shadow Hearts is a relatively newcomer, a bit niche, and nothing compared to a sweepingly massive series across consoles with several connected movies, some of which are even good. Shadow Hearts is good and all, and I'd love to get my hands on a copy, but RE wins.