Just watched the first episode of the new season of 24. Looks like we'll be in for another wild ride. I loved the fact that it was commercial-free. Man, between that, Band Of Brothers and Sopranos I'm about THIS close to asking for digital TV of some sort... but we get free cable (more or less) so I can't really complain about paying for crappy programs on basic cable. Oh well.

I was just going through my wish list today for games and I decided I'd post it here. This is more or less the definitive list of what I'm looking forward to over the next 6 months or so. And no, I don't have them all on pre-order :) I just like having a list I can check stuff off of.

What Brock Will Be Saving Up For:

Gamecube Games

Zelda (GC)
Metroid Prime (GC)

GBA Games

Metroid Fusion (GBA)

PS2 Games

Robot Alchemic Drive (PS2)
.Hack (PS2)
Star Ocean 3 (PS2)
XenoSaga (PS2)
Unlimited SaGa (PS2)
Frequency 2 (PS2)
Dynasty Tactics (PS2)
Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (PS2)
Summoner 2 (PS2)
The Lost (PS2)
The Thing (PS2)
The Getaway (PS2)
The Way Of The Samurai (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Shinobi (PS2)
ZOE 2 (PS2)
Anubis (PS2)
The Two Towers (PS2)

PC Games

Divine Divinity (PC)
Asheron's Call 2 (PC)
Thief 3 (PC)
Deus Ex 2 (PC)
Republic: The Revolution (PC)
Gothic 2 (PC)
AquaNox: Revelation (PC)

X-Box

X-Box System
Steel Battalions w/ controller (XBOX)
Halo (XBOX)
Fable (XBOX)
Jet Set Radio Future (XBOX)
Mech Assault(XBOX)
Panzer Dragoon Orta (XBOX)
Hunter: The Reckoning (XBOX)
Psychonauts (XBOX)
Buffy (XBOX)

I love hearing mainstream media yip about violent games. Especially when they keep talking about how the latest school shooting was because of Doom. Yeah, I'd be killing people too if the only game my crappy computer ran was Doom. (No offence Doug :)

Vice City is sooooo good. I had to do a mission where I flew this little remote control helicopter around dropping bombs off in a construction site. It was great... I can't wait till I get the real chopper. And watching the construction workers and guards either run off the side of the building chasing the chopper or get sliced up with the blades was good fun too.

Did I mention the chainsaw? And the fact that blood spatters hit the screen and ooze down it a bit before fading away? Good fun for all involved ;)

Kill the pop-ups! KILL THEM ALL!

I got 238 before they overwhelmed me.

Vice City is pretty nice so far.

I've discovered 3 simple steps to fun:

1. Get on a moped.
2. Putt down the street and get a good bit of speed going.
3. Hop off the moped and let it fly at a crowd of bystanders!

Good times... good times...

Well, I got Vice City today. Yep, a day early.

Only 3 more days till Vice City (well, Tuesday...)

Well, I traded in Wild Arms 3 the other day and got Tony Hawk 4. Then I saw Suikoden 3 and vowed to wait until sometime in the far future to get it as I was going to work through Suikoden 2 first and then play Vice City and all that jazz.

Well, today is obviously the far future. I ended up getting Suikoden 3 in Wal-Mart of all places... stupid impluse buying... well, that and the guy took it out of the case and told me to take it up to the check-out to see how much it would cost... gee... do you think I'll end up buying it then? Sigh.

I am going to see how long I can hold out and leave it in its packaging though. Now I have it, so that's done and I will have the opportunity to play it. However, I do want to finish Suikoden 2 first and so I'm going to leave 3 wrapped in its packaging until I've finished Suikoden 2.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself!

Sigh.

hmm.

I think I'm going to trade in Wild Arms 3.

I was just loving it last night until I got to this puzzle I just couldn't get past. Then I tried it again this morning and the stuff that wasn't doing anything last night started to work. SO... I played for an hour or so, but now I'm just bored of it. That, and I got to ANOTHER puzzle I"m stuck at.

I will probably see if I can find it used at some point in the future when I am jonesing for a console RPG. But I'm just bored of it right now. 12-13 hours of doing the same thing over and over again. And I could use the exchange credit to either pay off Metroid or most of The Two Towers or some other game...

If Counter-Strike players tried to stage an armed revolt, they'd be too busy trying to talk l33t vocally though.
They wouldn't know how to pronounce all the numbers :)

'u g0 0\/3r th3r3'
'\/\/h4t?'

I was trying to sell my program manager on videogames as a tool to help the moronic staff at the other home develop better problem solving skills.
All I do all day when I'm gaming is really just figuring out one problem, being rewarded with a little bit of story or movie or cool battle, and then moving on to the next problem.
Heck, even the battles teach you tactics or item management, etc.

Grr.

I want to find the guy who wrote this and beat him.

Wait a minute... Marc Saltzman... he's a good gamer news guy.. what's he doing writing this tripe!? Grr...

Ok. This guy has some wierd sites. First you have a bunch of viking kittens, then you have a bunch of jazzy chain smoking kittens who really creep me out. There's something definately wrong with the singing cat. It just looks... wrong.

I've been busy with Wild Arms 3 the last couple days. It's getting quite good. Granted, it's probably more for your hard-core, old-school RPG fan more than anything. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it is quite good and has a lot of originality as well as some good features from games such as Skies of Arcadia. I just got a sandship so it's gotten a lot less linear. There are also some REALLY good and brain-scratchingly hard puzzle dungeons to work on if you're bored of smacking demons.

The story's not bad either. It's nothing terribly original, but the mix of Wild West, fantasy (spells and demons) and sci-fi (terraforming and space ships) is pulled off quite well and nothing really sticks out as being too wacky. The graphics are really growing on me too.

Got a horse in Wild Arms 3. Woo! Now I'm a rootin' tootin' cowboy who can lob spells at my freakishly deformed enemies.

The battles on horse are pretty neat. And the game is so far doing a neat job of showing how it's such a bleak and barren world that the characters are living in that good and evil are not clear cut. It's nothing profound, mind you, but it's not like a lot of games where there's you, the good guys, and then everyone else, the bad guys. Heck, I've even had one of the bad guys logically define why, as a result of my character's actions, *I* should be the bad guy.

Not to beat on a dead horse, but MAN, I really want this game.

I finally saw the end of Unforgiven today. One more thing I can tick off my 'To Do Before I Die' list.

Why is that such a big deal? 10 years ago I was out at the movies with my future wife and a few friends. They all went to see "Columbus: 1492". I and a friend went to watch Unforgiven instead. I was sitting there, minding my own business and enjoying the movie when I was pulled out by my friends right before the big shoot-out at the end. The movie went on to win all sorts of awards and I had never gotten around to watching the end of it until today. I finally saw the whole stinkin' movie in one sitting. Ending was ok, but not worth a decade of wondering exactly how it ended :P

I was flipping through the channels today at work and twice stopped on the Country Music Television network... and I'm not a country fan. Why? They've found the way to get geeks to listen to country music. Put giant mecha in their music videos. Sigh. I can't stop watching the new Shania Twain video :(

VERY cool video. But who woulda thunk that country and mecha would go together?

This is an interesting and informative preview of the first direct sequel of a Final Fantasy game: Final Fantasy X-2.

Well, I spent a good few hours tonight playing Wild Arms 3. I've finally started getting at the meat of the game system and it's pretty neat. Looks like it'll be a relatively deep RPG with lots of customization and character improvement... and I love the setting. Wild West meets Final Fantasy. The Cel Shading is pretty snazzy too.

Beware the power of Paint Shop Pro and a little robot.

Well, you might have noticed a little Paypal button up top there. I decided that I may as well just see if I can get anyone to donate some money to me to help me save the endangered pixel. Well, actually, to help me just get more money. If anyone DOES donate, hmm... I'll send you a special e-mail thanking you :)

Can't hurt, can it?

Finished Sly Cooper today. It's very short, but man, is it ever good. One of the best games I've played in a long time. And I still have a lot of extra stuff I can go through and do so it's not totally done. Unlike Starfox, which was nice the first time through but I wouldn't bother replaying it.

Wild Arms 3 is next on the docket, ladies & gents.

PS. Anyone want to contribute towards my Steel Battalions fund? I have 4 cents in it so far... only about $600 to go.

I had some nice Maguro sushi for lunch today. Mmm... tuna... stopped in at the Japanese place on the way to my staff meeting.

2 pieces of Maguro sushi: $8.59

Grossing out all of your colleagues by eating raw fish during the staff meeting: Priceless.

Hmm.. The Wild Arms 3 site is pretty neat. It has a little minigame where you can sort of wander around the world and find all sorts of info out about the game. I do really like WA3 from what I've played of it. It's sort of your traditional RPG, but with guns and a very Wild West feel to it. And the cel shading rocks.

And they've finally released details on the North American release of .hack. Woo! This is definately a game I have my eyes on.

Looks like they've finally chosen a title for the Cube version of Zelda. Unfortunately, it's in Japanese and they haven't been able to pin it down to exactly what it is... only that it seems to involve wind.

Ok. Sly Cooper is one of the best games I've played in a LONG time and I'm only 4% finished it. Granted, it's of the sneaker/Thief-ish genre, which automatically bumps it up to the top of my list of games anyway.

Traded in a few games today and got Sly Cooper free and Wild Arms 3 cheap. Not too shabby. Now to lock up any and all means of spending money until Vice City comes out :)

Well, I just beat Starfox Adventures. Only took me about 20 hours, if that (I didn't check the save time before I took it out)... I'm trading it in though. Really cool end boss, esp. if you've played Starfox 64 :)

Only problem with the game is that it was rather easy and straightforward, which was good as far as plowing through it rather quickly went, but there is ZERO replayability unless i kept it for a few years and then played it again. Ah well. I did like it a lot and it really shows what the cube is capable of, visually.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Canucks out there. Ha! We get turkey earlier than the States :)

Not to be outdone, Nintendo's got a nifty bundle coming out too.

Hmm... With this kind of bundle, and a $299 price tag, I just might end up picking up an Xbox before too long. And hopefully the normal systems sans games will be even cheaper. Then my videogame dominance will be complete (though I'd still need to get Steel Battalions).

Now, while this does affect the GBA, it really highlights a few things that are wrong with having console games that are 'good enough for Windows'.

Namely, that's not good enough for console gamers. Consoles aren't supposed to crash. Especially not after the opening cinematic.

Ok. I may play a lot of games, but I'm not THIS bad.

Well, I finished Kingdom Hearts today. I'm not sure if I got the special extra movie thingy or not when I finished it because I didn't have all of the things supposedly required to get it, but I did see a little thing after the credits that strongly led me to believe a Kingdom Hearts 2 is coming... which is what I've heard as what the featurette is about. Maybe I can find it on the net.

But I don't know... I am kind of miffed, as one of the things I need to get the 'special movie' was supposed to be given to me when I finished a level and I never did get it... sigh.

Great game though... excellent ending too. Squaresoft should give lessons to people on how to end a game properly.

Excellent end boss... only had about 7 different parts/stages/transformations to it as opposed to the usual 13 as required by the Big Book Of Squaresoft End Bosses.

But it was good... not too hard, not too easy, and it took a lot of near deaths before I overcame adversity and prevailed!

Go to the Strong Bad E-mail from this week and download the song...

"The System Is Down... down down down..."

hee hee.

I just got back from seeing The Tuxedo. It was great... there was just me and... me in the theatre. Had the whole place to myself :)

Movie was ok. Not the best Jackie Chan, but not the worst. Can't go wrong for $4.25 esp. when Julie's paying :)

This story about Canadian to American being added to Babelfish is pretty funny.

However, I am really busy working on wrapping up Kingdom Hearts. I probably have a day or two left of it if I can actually just sit down and play it. I'm getting there though.

Very good, no matter what Gabe over at Penny Arcade has to say about it.

No One Lives Forever 2 is great. I'm planning on spending good amount of time in the near future playing it some more. I loved finding the intelligence documents in the Russian base stating that 'there is a 19 cigarrette per day quota. No more no less. If you do not meet the quota, you will be shot. If you exceed the quota, you will be shot.'... there was a similar one about having a 9 cups of coffee/day quota too. All sorts of punishments for diluting the coffee w/ water or pouring it into the nearest plant too :)

Sorry about the lack of updates.

Worked all weekend and then spent the last two days caring for one of the guys at work who had all (yes, ALL) of his teeth taken out and dentures put in. Poor guy.

Picked up No One Lives Forever 2. I only played a wee bit, but man, it's a sweet game. From the reviews I've read, it's at least as good, if not better, than the first NOLF. Which is saying a lot concidering just how drop dead fun the original was. It also seems to have a much stronger stealth element, which can only earn it bonus points in my book since my favourite FPS is Thief, which relied solely on sneaking...

Got a pretty sweet Kingdom Hearts poster today too :)

I found this on www.aspectus.com, who found it on www.inktank.com, who found it on USENET...

-----

A furious light saber duel is under way. DARTH VADER is backing LUKE SKYWALKER toward the end of the gantry. A quick move by Vader, chops off Luke's hand! It goes spinning off into the ventilation shaft. Luke backs away. He looks round, but realizes there's nowhere to go but straight down.

DARTH VADER: "Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father."

LUKE: "He told me enough! He told me you killed him!"

DARTH VADER: "No! I am your father!"

LUKE: "No, it's not true! It's impossible."

DARTH VADER: "Search your feelings; you know it to be true."

LUKE: "NO!"

DARTH VADER: "Yes, it is true and you know what else? You know that brass droid of yours?"

LUKE: "Threepio?"

DARTH VADER: "Yes, Threepio, I built him when I was seven years old."

LUKE: "No."

DARTH VADER: "Seven years old? And what have you done? Look at yourself, no hand, no job, and couldn't even levitate your own ship out of the swamp."

LUKE: "I worked hard on that moisture farm."

DARTH VADER: "What? Hauling buckets? I spent my childhood as a slave then *real* Jedi training, not 'a few days in the swamp with Yoda'."

LUKE: "I destroyed your precious Death Star!"

DARTH VADER: "When you were 20! When I was 10, I single-handedly destroyed a Trade Federation Droid Control ship!"

LUKE: "Well, it's not my fault."

DARTH VADER: "Oh, here we go. 'Poor me, my father never gave me what I wanted for my birthday, boo hoo, my daddy's the Dark Lord of the Sith.. waahhh wahhh!'"

LUKE: "Shut up."

DARTH VADER: "You're a slacker! By the time I was your age, I had exterminated the Jedi knights!"

LUKE: "I used to race my T-16 through Beggar's Canyon!"

DARTH VADER: "Oh, for the love of the Emperor � 10 years old, winner of the Boonta Eve Open. Only human to ever fly a Pod Racer, right here baby!"

Luke looks down the shaft. Takes a step toward it.

DARTH VADER: "I was wrong. You're not my kid. I don't know whose you are, but you sure ain't mine."

Luke takes a step off the platform, hesitates, then plunges down the shaft.

Darth Vader looks after him.

DARTH VADER: "And get a haircut!"

I'm back from my cottage trip.

Go figure though... I was up at the top of this mountain at a lookout and there are just two vehicles in the parking lot, our rental and this guy in a camper truck.

Of all the acreage of parking lot that the guy had to back up in, he had to choose the back end of our rental car as his final destination... sigh.

No biggie (on my end at least) as we had the rental insurance and it was just a broken tail-light and a little dent anyway. But sheesh.