Yay! I beat Vagrant Story today. *happy dance*

End boss is a pain in the arse... took me an hour and a half to beat him, but beat him I did, and while I did look on Gamefaqs last week, the only thing it told me was that there was a way to avoid the insta-death strike that he gives during the end battle. Other than that, I didn't use a hint book or anything at all. Woo. I feel so clean!

It's my little Army brother Grant's birthday today. Happy Birthday Grant! Even though you can't see this... oh well.

He's 22 now. Yikes. Scary to think that my littlest bro is now 22...

It's sad. I now have my Uber PC and so I'm going through my collection of PC games and just turfing whatever I haven't finished yet onto the drive. No wonder I've got so many on the go!

X-Files was pretty sub-par tonight... or more to the point, it was closer to what X-Files has been the last 2 seasons than the rather stellar last few episodes. Oh well. 3 weeks left.

Add another game to the list of what I'm playing at the moment. I spent the day playing Tachyon: The Fringe on my PC. It's a pretty nice space-combat sim from a few years ago and it has the voice talents of none other than Bruce Campbell, which make it oh so fun to play!

It's been pretty entertaining so far. It's like a mix between Privateer and the Freespace games. Lots of quick missions with some pretty intense dogfighting and lots of pretty explosions. And you are effectively a mercenary, so you can pick and choose what side you want to play on as you choose your missions and it's rather open-ended that way.

Nice story so far too. I wasn't expecting the plot twist that happened right near the beginning of the game. I didn't like having to go from a rather nice ship to a flying lunchpail either...

Hmm... why does it not surprise me that, oh, ALL of the cast of Jason X were Canadian AND most of them seemed to have starred in Mutant X or Tracker, two of the worst of the worst of those crappy sci-fi shows that are on Space all the time.

Just thought I'd mention that... and now I'm really going to bed... bleh.

Ooo!
May 28: Harry Potter on DVD.
August 6: Lord of the Rings on DVD

I need to go to bed earlier. I've been lucky to get to bed before 4am most of this week. Curse those 3-11pm shifts.

I did end up looking at the Vagrant Story walkthrough on Gamefaqs, but it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know (like, oh, DON'T LET THE END BOSS DO HIS ONE-HIT KILL). So I don't really feel very guilty about it. I was busy today at my brother-in-law's graduation and dinner and then spent a bit of the night playing Asheron's Call, but I'm sure I'll beat VS tomorrow sometime.

Hee hee... just watched Jason X. Sooooo cheesy it hurts. It was entertaining and had some neat bits. If you can rent it when it comes out, do so if you are in the mood for a cheesy slasher flick. Or just download it off Kazaa like I did. But don't bother spending $10+ to see it at the theatre.

Hmm... Gamefaqs seems to be running REALLY slow... I can't seem to get the hints I need for VS, so maybe I WILL be able to beat it sans help.

Well... I finally broke down and had to have a look on Gamefaqs.com for tip on how to finish off the end boss of Vagrant Story. When you spend a good half hour or so pounding on the guy, he goes down not once but twice and comes back for more and hits you with a special attack that kills you with ONE HIT... well, I'm glad to have trundled my way through 99% of the game without any hints, but I need some help here :)

This news out of the states is kind of scary... especially when you break it down like the Lawyer of Doom does.

I love the list of games that were reviewed by the judge. Esp. "The Resident of Evil Creek"

I need to find that classic...

Vagrant Story is coming along smashingly. I am SO loving that game. I spent 5 hours at work yesterday just reading reviews of it and I haven't seen one bad one. It just may be the first game in a LONG time, of the RPG/adventure type, that I will be able to beat without looking at a single hint site or strategy guide. There are some real brainteasers, esp. with the crate puzzles, but they're all just hard enough to stump you for a while but if you go back and look at them again, you'll soon see how to do the puzzle.

I just wish I knew what this Evolve or Die thing that popped up on my screen once or twice meant. I will find out once I beat the game and can look at FAQ's without feeling really guilty.

Did you hear that Gamespot's moving to a subscription based model now too? Sigh. I hate that. I like a bunch of the Gamespot columns and news blurbs, but not enough to pay... though I'd be sort of tempted to. It and Gamespy pretty much serve all my gaming needs.

I just don't like how they're only letting you have free access to new content for 7 days after its posting. After that, yous gots ta pay.

This is an exerpt from Gamespot's site describing the new Gamespot Complete. You do get a month of free access to the whole shebang from early May till June 1. If it's worth it, I might concider signing up for a year as it's only $19.95 that way instead of $5/month.
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(What can I get for free?)

1. The last seven days' worth of content. This includes all story types (previews, news, reviews, and so on), except for downloads and video streams.

2. The last seven screenshots for each game, as well as every page in the screenshot index.

3. One movie (streaming version) per game.

4. GameSpot Live's 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week streaming video service.

5. All cheats, hints, codes, and FAQ pages for every game, as well as real-time pricing information.

6. Reader reviews and score submissions (excluding text-review submissions). GameSpot Complete:
(So, what the heck am I paying for?)

1. Unlimited access to all our content--that's everything you've ever wanted to know about more than 5,000 games, whenever you want to see it.

2. Unlimited access to all our downloadable demos and patches. We have thousands of files, and new ones are added daily.

3. Unlimited access to downloadable and streaming video. We have the world's largest and most comprehensive game video library--more than 80,000 files and growing.

4. Absolutely no annoying advertisements--say goodbye to banners, interstitials, eye-blasters, and pop-ups.

5. Reader reviews, score submissions, and text-review submissions.

6. Top priority for any support questions or concerns you might have.

Beat Takeshi! He is so cool. You have to see Brother to understand just how cool this guy is. He can just sit there and not say anything and ooze more cool than 80 penguins in a garbage compactor.

I'm currently working my way through the excellent Vagrant Story by Squaresoft from a couple years back. While I tried to beat it a year ago or so, I was promptly thrashed and sent running with my tail between my legs. NOT an easy game, that. I've come back and decided to play intelligently and am absolutely loving the game now. My brain can handle the insane weapon attribute and customization system and I also learned that there's this handy little quick menu when you press the L2 button, which I didn't know about before. I don't know how I played as much of the game as I did the first time not knowing about that little feature.

Anyway, I thought I'd point you towards this review as an example of Alliteration Overdose. It's an entertaining read, but ye gods, tone down the drama buddy :)

An example of their scintillating prose is as follows:
"In case you did not follow all that, Vagrant Story is the Denise Richards of video games."

Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. I mean, I think Denise Richards is quite nice to look at, but she's never struck me as overly intelligent. And Vagrant Story is very nice to look at too, but it's so deep, plot and gameplay-wise... *shrug*

Must... leave... work... must... play... more... Vagrant Story...

Oh, I spent about a half hour on VS today and thought I'd cleared out a room. I left my little guy alone to recoup his health and went to get ready for work. When I returned, I see "Game Over" on the screen... AH! I must have either missed an enemy OR been poisoned. Sigh. It's only a half hour to make up, but it's an annoying half-hour of play since most of my weapons are useless against the enemies I'm fighting at that spot.

I can't help it. There are just too many good Xbox stories in the news...
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Seamus Blackley Quits Microsoft - hardcore_pawn
Reuters has a news brief out this morning stating that the Daddy of the Xbox, Seamus Blackley, has left Microsoft to pursue another venture.

"He has left Microsoft to pursue other opportunities," said James Bernard, an Xbox spokesman at Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news). "We value his contributions."

The news comes just days after Microsoft said it would miss its fiscal year-end sales target for the Xbox by as much as 40 percent, a shortfall it blamed on weak sales. Those weak sales led to deep price cut in Europe and Australia last week.

Blackley's spokeswoman said he would not be ready to discuss details of the new venture for another two weeks at least, and she gave no indication as to what type of business the new company will pursue."

Want to see what our new townhouse looks like? Rather non-descript from the outside, but it looks nice inside.

They just killed off the Lone Gunmen on X-Files! AG! But they did a good job of it. Ah well. Only 4 eps left of the series. I guess they had to tie up all the loose ends. I still think it's a shame that the Lone Gunmen show didn't take off.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before, but you should check out MC Frontalot.

He's got some pretty funny songs. It's rap, but not the bad rap... it's actually somewhat musical. And geeky :)

Ok. The marketing department at Microsoft is going too far. I saw this in the sky outside my house when I got home from work and had to take a picture (I added the text).

Saw The Scorpion King today.

It's a decent B movie. The fights aren't bad and there are some neat things. Don't go expecting ANY references to either Mummy movie or any really cool special effects. It wasn't a bad waste of 2 hours though. Just don't pay for it (one of my work perks :)

Nipplecats...

That's all I can say... Brain hurting.

This is kind of interesting. I remember reading some stuff a little while ago about the PS3 chipset and how it won't be ready until 2005. Just thought I'd post some more info for ye game hungry news types.
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Sony's Kutaragi Talks About CELL - Musashi
By now you all probably have heard about the Sony/Toshiba/IBM project code-named 'CELL' which will be the heart of the PS3. In a recent interview with Nikkei Electronics Online, Ken Kutaragi (the 'father' of Sony's PlayStation) discussed the technology behind 'CELL' and how Sony plans on using the technology.

"SCE, IBM and Toshiba announced joint development of the next-generation microprocessor, CELL, in March 2001. At that time, we made it clear that SOI process of 0.1 micron and after will be used. There are two major changes between the announcement made this time and the previous one. Firstly, we have expanded the scope of cutting-edge process development to 0.05 micron. Secondly, Sony, our parent company, has joined the alliance. Sony's goal is to develop chips with an overwhelmingly high functionality using the world's number one process. By employing such chips, Sony will continue to introduce high functionality appliances into the market, which no others will be able to follow. In the future, Sony's appliance, be it a TV or a VCR, will use chips that resemble a huge 'media processor.'"

Oh... I forgot to mention, but we've put an offer on a townhouse in Acton, Ontario (it's worth the drive) and it was accepted, so now we just have to wait for all the bank rigamarole to get done and over with... we'll be moving either June or August... not sure which though.

Just thought I'd mention that. It's kept me a little busy lately.

That, and playing Vagrant Story again. Man, that's a good game.

I took this verbatim from my Gamespy Mailing today... couldn't help but smile...

Dreamcast Outsells Xbox In Japan - digitaltaco
Late last week, Gamers.com posted a very interesting report concerning Xbox sales in Japan. While Microsoft's new console is selling rather swimmingly in the States, it seems that Japanese gamers aren't taking to the new console quite as well. In the first week of April, a measly 2,179 units were sold in Japan. To put this into perspective, 80,734 PlayStation 2's and 15,068 GameCube's were sold in that same week. But what is really staggering, is that even the now defunct (but lovable as hell) Sega Dreamcast was able to outsell the Xbox during that week. That's right... 3,427 happy customers walked home with Sega's console during that same week. I guess when you look at it that way it's pretty sad.

Microsoft has their work cut out for them in Japan It seems that right now, there are few games on the console that appeal to gamers in that territory. But kudos to Sega for continually selling units in Japan. Some people apparently still know what an awesome console the Dreamcast is. And that's a pretty wonderful thing.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Check out the list from IGN of the games that will be shown at the upcoming E3.

Looks neat. I'm looking forward to Summoner 2 and the fact they're doing a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon game looks interesting.

Well, I had a nice weekend. Spent most of Saturday either watching movies or playing Dungeon Siege. Whee!

Sunday mostly involved going out to Acton (look on a map) to look for a house. We're going back tonight to check one that's in our price range.

And X-Files was good last night too. What's with them finally putting out quality eps now that the series is almost done?

I had a blast tonight with my church's youth group. I supplied the games and systems, they supplied the hyper kids and the digital projector on which to play Virtua Fighter 4, ATV Offroad Fury, etc. Whee!

If anyone is interested in getting me this or anything else from the Asheron's Call store, I'd be cool with that.

Go download this RIGHT NOW! It's an amazing jazzy remix of the Super Mario Bros. 2 theme. Which is one of the best pieces of videogame music in my opinion. Ever.

Worked a crazy shift. Went in yesterday at 3pm, just got home at 6:30am today. One of the guys went to the hospital and I got to sit with him all night.. ah well.

At least I'll have LOTS of time off and mucho respect at work :)

Check out this little site and the trailer for the game Gungrave. Looks pretty spiffy.

I just hope that music isn't in the game... yeesh.

Ok. I got a new computer the other day and I've just finally got it all up and running. Yay!

Got a P4 1.6GHz system with a 60 gig hard-drive and all sorts of other things. A lot is a carry-over from my old system, but still :)

sigh. I've had a great day off. Spent 4 hours in here this afternoon at a staff meeting and then came in tonight with 20 minutes notice to do a night-awake... whee!

And I hate Dial-Up. Sheesh, it's slow!!

Ok. Just finished watching my tape of tonight's X-Files. Sigh. This is why I liked the show. It was off-kilter, probably had a lot of the 'mythology' fan-boys up in arms because of the lack of, oh, aliens or something and it was shot in a very quirky manner that always emphasized the whole numerology aspect of the plot.

< rant >
If the last 2 years had more episodes like this and less mythology episodes, I'm sure the show would be regarded as a much better show. They fell back on some pretty lame writing and kept beating the Mulder stick for longer than anyone cared these past two years.

Oh well. They're finally putting the show to rest. It's sad. There are some shows that end before they're even given a chance (Harsh Realm, The Lone Gunmen) and then there's the X-Files, which while better than most shows out there, has had a very noticable decline over the past 2 years to the point where someone like myself, who used to watch the shows religiously, can barely muster up the patience and enthusiasm to sit through an episode. I mean, I'll watch it, but if I have anything else I'd rather do, I MIGHT tape it... if not, I'll just miss it and not really feel like I'm missing anything.

< /rant >

	Yuoo ere-a zee Svedeesh Cheff! Yuoo ere-a a guud cuuk, thuoogh yuoo cun't speek Ingleesh fery vell. Bork Bork Bork!
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

Remind me to try this when I play Dungeon Siege with Brynne & Taka :)

oh my god. Dungeon Siege is probably one of the nicest looking games I've ever played, and look at the system I'm running it on!

And I want to have this picture be my background, but the sheer absurdity of Donald Duck, Tarzan and a Final Fantasy reject together in one screenshot precludes my replacing it with a cat in a glass...

This is my background on my desktop.

I was talking to the new girl at work today and she was telling me how her husband stays up watching sports. I told her I spend all night playing videogames. she just laughed and said, "Aren't you too old for videogames?"

I just used my superpowers to melt her.

Then I restarted the conversation and didn't mention videogames. I think I got 30 XP for that!

Hee hee... I'm not THAT bad :)

Man... it's just a Kingdom Hearts-a-thon here at NINL... Gamespot just posted a nice preview and video preview of the game today. Woo! I just love the theme song and the concept, once I wrapped my head around it and esp. after seeing a few trailers and the Japanese commercials, really has me excited. Hell, it's got Nightmare Before Christmas stuff in it. I'm just happy for that ;)

Why is it that I can remember the 30-man code from Contra which I haven't played in, oh, 15 years or so, but I could never remember anything when it was time for a Calculus class at university?

Oh man... I wish I could still get this shirt. Sigh. Saddest thing is that the GIA is going under (or already went under, actually). But they'll be back. I liked the GIA. Probably the best reviews on the web, though I didn't ever go to their site for anything else. Oh well. Gamespy does a good job for me :)

OH MY.

While the original Japanese commercial were nice, go to the official Kingdom Hearts website NOW and have a look at the trailer. Mmm...

I cannot wait for this game. I'm actually more excited about it than Final Fantasy XI, and if you know me, that's saying something.

I got a little further in Devil May Cry today. Yeah, it's been out since October, but it's not an easy game... that, and I haven't really tried playing it seriously until this past weekend. I am near the end though, so I might be able to beat it later this week if I keep working on it.

Go here and download the 4 versions of Hikaru and listen to it till your ears bleed. This means you Kavik!

I so can't wait until Kingdom Hearts is released over here. It's out in Japan and they get to listen to Hikaru as the title track of the game! Grr...

I need one of these for my wife!

If you haven't checked it out before, go read Strongbad's E-Mail. It's great fun. The whole Homestar Runner site is pretty goofy.