Happy New Year everyone. Man, I can't believe it's almost 2003. yeep.

Maybe by then Blogger will start UPDATING AGAIN!

Grr.

I'm really starting to hate Fox. They come out with some of the most original programming on TV, then toss it away when it doesn't meet some magic milestone. They did it with The Lone Gunmen, Harsh Realm and Millennium (granted, they let it die a slow death compared to the other shows). Now they've cancelled Firefly, one of the best new sci-fi shows on TV at the moment.

But for some reason they've kept FASTLANE of all things. Firefly had wit and a very original universe and a great cast. Fastlane has fast cars. Sigh.

I don't know why I keep watching Fox shows. At least John Doe hasn't been cancelled yet. It's just sad to see such interesting series die after not even a full season while others like X-Files went on for a good two years after it should have been put to sleep. Grumble grumble.

Oh well. That's one more hour of my week free now, I guess.

Case in point: J. Gregory Keyes' amazing Age of Unreason series. It's 4 books long and while I did try reading another book after finishing Newton's Cannon, I ended up putting it down, plowing through A Calculus of Angels and then starting Empire of Unreason this morning and getting a good hundred pages into it so far.

Normally when I read books, I tend to break up a series by reading one book, then a book from a totally different author/series/genre, then coming back to the next book in the series after I've had at least a one book break.

This keeps me from burning out on one particular author or style.

HOWEVER, there are exceptions to this rule.

Woo. New Xbox works just fine. Hatred of Microsoft... diminishing... somewhat...

This is an interesting thing about J. Gregory Keyes' Age Of Unreason series by the author himself and why he wrote the series.

And Blogger is acting up. I wanted to just plop that hyperlink into the post below, but it was only giving me the option of deleting the post or doing nothing. So I just stuck this post in instead!

Well, I ended up returning my Xbox, getting my money back and going to EB and buying a new one and a 1-year ESA like I should have in the first place. sigh.

Hopefully I won't have the wonkiness that I had with my refurb.

grr. I have to take my Xbox back. That'll learn me to buy a refurbished one.

I'm just going to pay the extra $50 and get a brand new one. It's wierd. The games play just fine, but the video playback for cutscenes or promo videos keeps chopping.

Nice little system though. Not worth getting if it's your only system, but if you're sick like me and have every system ever created, it's nice.

I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft and the fact that I might have to lug my brand new (refurbished) console back to the store not even a day after I got it isn't instilling much excitement in me.

The games are working just fine. It's the cutscenes and plain video playback that's all screwy. I thought maybe it was just one game, but both games I got yesterday have had the same problems. Sigh.

I must say that JSRF and Splinter Cell both rock though... I just wish I didn't have the wierd video playback problems.

Well, I got an Xbox. Picked up the last refurbished one at Future Shop today. Only $250, instead of $300. And I got JSRF and Sega GT with it, and I used my EB gift cards to get Splinter Cell. Woo!

Now to chop the credit card into tiny little pieces :)

Wow. I guess the game sucks, but check out this intro movie. Now, keep in mind that it is entirely computer generated. The whole thing. Pretty spiffy.

I'm back.

Barring my crazy sickness, it was a very nice holiday.

I saw Two Towers again while in Sarnia (it's even better when you're in the second row from the front, in a theatre without stadium seating... grr... ) and got to visit a bunch of friends.

And I actually did some Boxing Day shopping. Picked up UT2K3 for $29 ($50 off) at Future Shop today, and also got Goldmember and Episode 2 on DVD. Not too shabby.

And I finally got my ski boots. Mmmm... skiing...

Oh, I saw Star Trek: Nemesis today. It was decent. No First Contact, and there were a lot of things I would have done differently if only to add a little more mayhem and overall coolness to the flick, but it was one of the better Trek movies, that is true.

Ug. Rather than tell you all the fun details of my evening, I figure I'll put up a comic from a great site called Ctrl-Alt-Delete Online.

The sad thing is that I would have no problem doing this.

And MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

I'm going to be going home to Sarnia to visit my family and in-laws tomorrow (Sunday) and won't be back here in Acton until Thursday.

Please don't break into my house.

Either the death flu, poison or a really bad pepperette bought from an Esso station in Schomburg has brought the mighty Spigot to his knees.

Sigh. I hope I'm feeling better tomorrow.

Only through the wonders of the internet can you find out that the person who did the voice of Theodore Chipmunk also was in porn.

Oh, I don't know who wrote that One Ring thing down below. I just got it in an e-mail :) Doh. Way to plagiarize, Spig....

I love Real Life Comics...

I picked up Cubivore yesterday while I was shopping. Man, it's one WIERD game. And I love it.

Do Not Try This At Home
*** if you try this for real, you may damage your microwave or disk ***

Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, paid me a visit. As we were talking I mentioned that I had recently installed Windows XP on my PC. I told him how happy I was with this operating system and showed him the Windows XP CD. To my surprise he threw it into my microwave oven and turned it on. Instantly I got very upset, because the CD had become precious to me, but he said: "Do not worry, it is unharmed."

After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said: "Take a close look at it."

To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and it seemed to be heavier than before. At first I could not see anything, but on the inner edge of the central hole I saw an inscription, an inscription finer than anything I had ever seen before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth:

12413AEB2ED4FA5E6F7D78E78BEDE820945092OF923A40EElOE5 IOCC98D444AA08EI324 "I cannot understand the fiery letters," I said in a timid voice.

"No but I can," he said. "The letters are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall not utter here. But in common English this is what it says:

"'One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them, One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.' "It is only two lines from a verse long known in System-lore:

"'Three OS's from corporate-kings in their towers of glass, Seven from valley-lords where orchards used to grow, Nine from dotcoms doomed to die, One from the Dark Lord Gates on his dark throne In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie. One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them, One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.'"

Remind me not to schedule a major movie release, a major job interview and a Christmas party for the same day ever again. I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night and I just got home from the party. Man, I'm pooped.

The interview went well. It was probably the least painful interview I've had to do. It helps that one of the interviewers was the guy who sent me to Winnipeg :) Did I get the job? Well, I guess I'll find out tomorrow, but now I've got the experience of doing the interview under my belt.

And stupid Visa. They upped my limit $1200... Just in time for Christmas. It is nice in a way, since I was able to finish my Christmas shopping today instead of trying to squeeze it in tomorrow, and I was also able to spend a bit more than I'd planned in order to get Julie the nice Christmas gift I'd envisioned rather than just something I could afford.

Now I'm not allowed to use it until after Christmas and I've seen how many (if any) EB gift cards I get. I am leaning heavily towards picking up an Xbox though. I can get the bundle that's out now and Splinter Cell and Mech Assault and pretty much not bother buying any other games for it for a while, but also be able to have it. We'll see how Christmas goes though.

And Julie got me the Back to the Future Trilogy on DVD. Woot! It's the only present I know for sure that I'm getting.

Just got home from Two Towers.

Amazing. It was everything I'd hoped for, and more. The Ents were great, Gollum was amazing, and the battles were just dandy.

I'm just mad I have to wait a year for Return of the King. Granted, I hope they put an extended edition of this on DVD as well. If they do as good a job on it as they did on the extended Fellowship... man!

Gollum was so good though. Lucas needs to take some lessons in how to do a digital character properly from Peter Jackson.

And no, it wasn't 100% faithful to the book, but it did everything it needed to do and not totally lose the audience, and the battles were so good they made up for any shortfall in the story.

I've always liked the second book though, mainly because it's the most driven of the 3 books in the series. There is a lot happening and not much downtime at all. Fellowship is good as far as establishing the world, but man, it's slow. And Return of the King kind of peters out once the main battles are done. In fact, I still haven't read the last part of it. But I will.

Well, i need to sleep before my interview. zzz

Two Towers tonight! Woo! (well, technically tomorrow morning)

I am going to see it at the midnight show because I have an interview in Kitchener on Wednesday afternoon and I don't know when I'd be able to catch Two Towers before Christmas except for the midnight show.

I can't wait though. Man, it looks good.

Well, AC2 has been causing me some lag problems over the last couple days. It was pretty much unplayable over the weekend and even this morning I was looking for the receipt to take it back.

I reinstalled it this evening after work and it was running a lot better after that. I was actually able to play it for the last 3 hours or so. When it's actually playable, it's a lot of fun.

I do almost wish that I could just play it offline and not deal with the lag though. It's just so jam-packed with lore and stuff.

AC2 good.

Lag bad.

Drudges die funny.

Must sleep...

The lag in AC2 seems to have sorted itself out a bit. I was getting mostly smooth play today. Dumping Kazaa and all of its crappy adware helped too.

Had the Christmas party at work today. Lots of fun with all the parents and the guys and the food... mmm... shrimp...

You know you're from Ontario when:

1. "Vacation" means going to Barrie for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

5. You use a down comforter in the summer.

6. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a blizzard, ...without flinching

7. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.

8. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

9. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled.

10. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

Neal Stephenson is god. Or at least some kind of minor deity.

If you haven't read it before, check out In The Beginning Was The Command Line. It's free and it's a great essay on all of the different computer operating systems.

AC2 is quite spiffy. I played it for most of the day today and really enjoyed it.

Well, that is to say, I really enjoyed it when I wasn't standing around waiting for the lag to clear up. I'm not sure why, but the lag was crippling. I've tried all sorts of things and it still won't play smoothly except in very short spurts.

I wouldn't mind so much if everyone had the bad lag, but here I am, GeForce 4, Pentium 4 1.6GHz machine with a DSL connection and lagging my butt off, and my brother Dave is sitting there with his P3 800MHz system, Geforce 2 and a 56K dial-up line and running smooth as silk. And he's got the same features turned on as I do! AH!

Tomorrow's patch day, so hopefully whatever is causing that problem will clear up. And I do know that sometimes my lines act up, so it could just be a temporary thing.

I am just leery that I might have to take the game back. I will do that too if it is still too laggy to play come next Monday. I don't want to, but I'm just now getting back into the MMORPG stuff and if they're going to charge me almost $20/month to play, it better run well.

Well, I finally cracked and picked up Asheron's Call 2. Eeek.

I think it was the $25 gift card I got for my present at the gift exchange at work, coupled with the $10 in front yard money I found today that tipped me over the edge.

(ah, front yard money... the best kind of money)

And I finally got rid of that evil evil movie, Ghosts of Mars... worst DVD ever.

Ok. This week's Strongbad E-mail hits a little too close to home :)

Except for the eggs.

Why?

WHY WHY OH WHY do people mislabel their files on Kazaa?

I mean, do they elicit some strange pleasure whenever someone downloads Signs when they thought they were downloading Bowling for Columbine? It's not like they just accidentally mixed up a letter there. And I liked Signs, but I've already downloaded it enough to choke a camel. And it's not like bandwidth is cheap anymore. Sure, I just d/led 700megs worth of video, but they also had to upload it to me.

Grr...

I just want to watch this documentary about gun violence. It's not like I'll ever get to see it in the one theatre in the GTA that might be showing it. Sigh.

I was thinking that the Final Fantasy games are like an old sweater or pair of slippers. You can just slip into them and feel so comfortable wherever you go with them. That's what I enjoy so much about that game series. Sure, there are usually things you could complain about with them if you really wanted to, but for me I don't even notice it.

Either that, or I'm just too geeky to know better :)

Found a new webcomic, CTRL+ALT+DEL. Not too shabby. I like the comic the link links to.

There are some pretty funny AC2 comics as well.

Saw the two-hour premiere to a cool show, Odyssey 5. I rather enjoyed it and think that yes, it could be a worthy successor to the X-Files. The fact that from the outset there is a definite goal and there is more of a focus on a team rather than just one or two people is nice. The production values seem a little higher than your average conspiracy tv show and as it stands, there are so many unknowns that I'm interested in exactly where the story is going.

And there's nanotech. Woo!

This is pretty funny. WWJD?

It's not what you think.

Woot! Just finished Metroid Prime. Yay for me!

Well, I'm back. Winnipeg was cold. Man, was it cold...

Got some nice new books and a new-found appreciation for Ontario. Winnipeg is like Fredericton, only bigger and more boring.

I did beat Metroid Fusion while on my trip and got back into Golden Sun. Thank god for the Gameboy Advance. My flight home went by in a flash, and not because the plane was on fire...

Yeesh. It's -27C in Winnipeg with the windchill.

Gasp. Cold? In Winnipeg? In the winter? Nah...

Looks like I AM going to Winnipeg. If I do, I won't be back till friday. Oh well. I have my GBA and a good book to keep me occupied.

Well, I might be going to Winnipeg tomorrow. I have the plane tickets (well, they've been paid for) and the plans are all made, but I might not be going as the guy I'm supposed to take to Winnipeg has run off again.

Sigh. Go figure. An all-expense-paid trip to Winnipeg, in DECEMBER, and I might miss out.

Sob.

Go to this site and turn up the volume :)

Looks like blogger is having a bit of trouble publishing info too. Oh well. It'll be back up and running soon. I hope.

Found this on a site called newmoanyeah. I thought it was a pretty good way of summing up what it's like to be Canadian.

"In a recent interview, Kiefer Sutherland was asked about being Canadian. Kief said he never really knew what it meant to be Canadian until one day he bumped into a parking meter and apologised to it. Doesn't that just say it all?"

Here's a great little piece detailing why the Xbox sucks. I'm prone to agree. That said, I still wouldn't mind one, especially since one of the, oh, 4 games worth having for it comes with the system now (cough Jet Set Radio Future cough), thereby saving me $$!

Not that I'll be getting a Box for quite some time though. I thought that Steel Battalion would get me excited, but while I would like to at least play it, I'm not as enthused as I was before (esp. concidering it's so expensive and hasn't been getting the greatest of reviews).

Saw Treasure Planet tonight. Sweet movie. It's everything Titan A.E. should have been.

It could have been better, but I think that since it was a family movie, it did the best it could with the constraints on it.

Absolutely amazing animation. Very Spelljammerish feel to the whole movie (age of sail meets space travel).

This is interesting news.

"Two of the biggest Japanese game publishers will join forces early next year.

Enix and Square have revealed plans for a merger that will take effect next April. The merger will exchange Square shares for Enix shares, so Enix will be the dominant corporation when the deal is complete."

I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Granted, I love both companies, so as long as the resulting company takes the best of both rather than the worst of both, it should be good.

I'm such a geek. I just ordered a Penny Arcade skin for my GBA.

I finally watched my UHF DVD yesterday.. watched it w/ the commentary... oh man, it was funny. Al would call people up and talk about the movie and they'd put him on hold to get another call... he was reading the horrible reviews UHF got when the movie came out... way too funny.

Just when you thought you saw everything there was to see on Ebay, someone is selling an Air Guitar.

Yeah... at least the shipping will be cheap...

And Metroid Prime AND Fusion rule.

I've hit this wierd spot now where there aren't any games I'm really super pumped about on the horizon for quite some time (Zelda is probably the only one, and it's not slated until at least February or so now) and I don't even really want to go into EB. It's not a usual feeling for me.

Not that there aren't any games that I want to get, but I've got all the ones that I felt I MUST have, so the others can wait.

AH!

I sure wouldn't mind getting the Best Of Lucasarts CD for Christmas...

Oh man, Metroid Prime is SO good. I pity those who have no Cube.

Hee hee.

It's really nice. Looks beautiful, plays super smoothly (though I keep hitting the Morph-Ball button when I mean to hit the Missile one) and I think it was made especially for me, as there are tonnes of things to examine in each room you enter. I just shoot whatever nasties are there, then spend 5 minutes scanning everything and reading all the lore and research.

Lots of fun.

Well, I got my Metroids today. Prime & Fusion arrived and I got them.

I played about 30 minutes of Fusion already. It's great. Pretty much a classic Metroid game, a la Super Metroid. Lots of little changes though, but I like it. Samus seems to be a lot faster too this time.

I haven't tried Prime, but if it's half as good as everyone is saying it is, mmm...

Oh my, this is a very funny video poking fun at Star Wars nerds.

Well, I think our fridge is officially dead.

How much did it snow?

There wasn't any snow yesterday afternoon. This was taken a few minutes ago... That's how much it snowed.

Holy cow, it sure snowed a lot last night.

Grr... I sat down to work on No One Lives Forever 2, which I hadn't played in a while, and the sound just wasn't there. It probably had something to do with my playing around with the audio codecs earlier in the week, but suffice it to say, I had to reinstall NOLF2 to get the sound to work.

No biggie. I've got my saves backed up... But when I tried to load up an old game, nada, zilch, zero. Sigh. Looks like I'll have to start all over again. Good thing I'm on a game hiatus now. I'll try to plow through a bunch of my games I already have and see how that goes.

I did spend a good chunk of the night playing Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault instead. Great WW2 game. Esp. what with my watching Band Of Brothers the last 10 weeks.

Yessir, I need one of these.

Oh yeah...

This is from Gamespot:
Let's get right to the point: Metroid Prime is the best GameCube game to date. It's one of the best games on any platform this year, and, for good measure, it's also the best game yet in Nintendo's highly acclaimed Metroid series.

Gamespy must be on crack. It usually has the best and most thought-out reviews of all the game sites, but it only gave Ratchet & Clank a 78% when it has been getting consistent 85-90% scores on other sites. Wierd.

I personally really like R&C. It's been a fun diversion from Suikoden 3 and GTA:Vice City. Sadly, I'm back at Suikoden 3 again. Not that it's a bad thing, but I really SHOULD be playing Vice City! Oh well.

I have all my games paid off from now until Christmas and won't be buying anything fun until after the new year. Sob. Let's see how long this lasts :)

Yay! My Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Rings Special Edition DVD arrived today. I'm really impressed. I got it in the mail the same day it was available in stores. Not too shabby, Amazon.ca. Take that Chapters"We like to process your order a year late".com

This article is pretty good. I remember being in almost the same boat a few years ago before I got back into console gaming. Everything I played was either a PC strategy game, PC FPS or a PC adventure game. Thankfully I now have a bunch of different things to play now!

This is a screenshot from Metroid Prime. The cool thing is that the face you see is Samus' (your character) face reflected off the inside of the helmet visor due to a particularily big explosion. It's cool touches like that that have me really looking forward to this game (about a week away!)

Oh, and I spent a bit more time playing with an Xbox and I hate the controller even more... Who ever thought that was a good controller?

Ratchet & Clank is very fun.

I'm not sure if it's really easy, or just seems like it though. But it is just dripping style.

But not as much as Sly Cooper... at least not yet.

Had a lot of fun helping to run the Youth Group videogame night this evening. We had the projector running with the Gamecube and played Super Monkeyball for the WHOLE NIGHT... then the kids went home and we played some Soccer Slam... so fun.

And I realized that you need a TV or projection screen that's about 6 feet wide by 5 feet high to truly enjoy split-screen gaming.

First really nasty kind of snow hit today. I was driving home and taking the backroads, which was fine till I got close to home and realized I was now driving INSIDE the cloud that was dropping the white stuff. Then I started sliding backwards at a stop sign. That's when I chickened out and took the well-travelled roads home :)

Probably the #1 best thing about Vice City. Especially when you take one off a roof.

Just finished watching the first season of Sopranos... not bad... watched about 10 hours in one sitting, then the last 3 tonight. I'll probably take a day or two off before I tackle Season 2 :)

And jumper cables...

I need one of those little 'Ring For Service' bells... just in case...

I've spent the last 8 hours or so watching the first season of Sopranos. Yeah, it's taken me a bit of time, but I finally borrowed the second season from my brother and so I rented the first season.

All I can say is WOW.

Great show... and ok... Dave was telling me that the first season of Sopranos wasn't that good, esp. when compared to second season..

If this is bad, I can't wait for second season... I'm just finished ep. 8 of first season and it's friggin amazing! I wish there was more bad TV like this.

Next in the signs that the apocalypse is just around the corner, my wife, Julie, was playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and actually laughing and having what seemed to be... fun!

EEEK!

She also liked just listening to the music. Though for someone who doesn't like violent videogames, she seemed to enjoy running over people with that truck she hijacked...

Yes... that is a duck in armour... and yes, it's in Suikoden 3, not Vice City :)

I've also been busy with Suikoden 3 for the last day or so. I was hoping to take a bit longer to finally pop the disc into the PS2 because I was really busy working on Suikoden 2... but then it started locking up and I couldn't progress further, so I finally gave in and put Suikoden 3 in the machine. And I have to say I'm impressed. Especially when I see references or characters from Suikoden 2 popping up... Suikoden 3 is definately a game which has Cel-Shading down right. Beautiful graphics.

I am kind of annoyed I couldn't finish Suikoden 2 though. But I'd been having problems with the FMV for the whole time I was playing the game on my PS2. Maybe I need to find a PSX to try it in to see if I can proceed past that crash-o-matic video. Oh well. I was about 2/3rds through it and really enjoying it. If Suikoden 3 stacks up, esp. in the castle department, I'll be very happy.

Anyway, I'm off work for the weekend and have been jonesing for Vice City all day, so I'm off to play it! Hopefully I'll update this before next Thursday :)

Only 2 more weeks till Metroids Prime and Fusion! Woo!

Well, let's see... Vice City is excellent, as you can see by the stellar reviews it's getting. It also seems to be selling quite well.

I think I'm definately enjoying it more than GTA3. It just seems more... finished, well-rounded... I don't know... but while GTA3 was one of the best games of last year, Vice City has taken everything that was good from GTA3 and added even more greatness to the package. Heck, I was having a blast just driving around a crappy little moped delivering pizzas. Any game that can have me going from mad-dog killer gangster dude to mild-mannered Pizza Delivery Boy within the space of 5 minutes and still be fun is a good one :)

And the music and talk show radio stations are amazing. I think Rockstar did a great job of really capturing the 80's. The fact that I grew up during the 80's also helps as I get a lot of the ol' nostalgia going when I am driving around listening to 80's pop and running over pedestrians... just like I remember :)

hmm... haven't updated for a couple days.

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.

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of our church, Churchill Meadows Christian Church. I get to do the A/V portion of the service. Which is something I do every other week anyway, but it's nice that I was able to do it on this big day :)

Gah. Two days of no plans and time off and what do I do? I play Animal Crossing all day. Which would be fine if I didn't have a bunch of games that actually had a beginning and end to work on. Sigh. But it's just so bloody addictive!

Ah Starfox. Great game. I think this Penny Arcade strip sums it up.

hee hee... I did the "What Dictator Am I?" test and I'm Saddam Hussein. Better watch out.

You managed to piss off western countries by killing innocent people to get you're hands on oil fields that don't belong to you! That's THEIR job, so a task force was sent to kick you up the backside. They succeeded, but you managed to make them look stupid when it was reviled that the American armed forces had somehow shot down four times as many missiles then you actually owned, and the UK was selling you guns and weapon parts while at war to use against them! So "daddy's little boy" is after you now. Considering what happened the last time, I bet you're SO scared! What tin-pot dictator are you? Take the "What Dictator am I?" test at PoisonedMinds.com

Also, on a more sombre note, my little brother Grant, aka Sapper Wager in the Canadian Armed Forces, had a death of one of his fellow Sappers occur this week while on a training mission. You hear about these kinds of things, but this hits close to home. I don't really know what else to say. Just don't forget that the people in the army aren't only in danger when they're on a mission. Kind of makes me glad I've only got to deal with annoyances rather than live ammo and explosives on a daily basis. (virtual = good. real=bad)

I hope my Animal Crossing friends still like me.

I'm back from the cottage. Good times were had by all, although drownings were narrowly avoided by only one.

Got Starfox too. Woo! Now I can't get anything till I've finished it, Mafia and Kingdom Hearts.

Also, if you go to Australia, you can meet the guy who does Mario's voice :)

Blizzard's StarCraft: Ghost Announced
Blizzard announces StarCraft: Ghost for consoles at the Tokyo Game Show.
Thursday September 19, 2002 | hardcore_pawn


StarCraft: Ghost is official
Blizzard has unveiled its new project - StarCraft: Ghost - today at the Tokyo Game Show 2002 which is currently underway at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, Japan. After much speculation from the gaming community, Blizzard officially answered the question on everyone's minds by issuing this press release which says the game is coming to multiple console platforms in late 2003.


"MAKUHARI, Japan � September 20, 2002 � During a press conference today at the Tokyo Game Show, Blizzard Entertainment�, a studio of the games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, unveiled StarCraft: Ghost�, a tactical-action console game set in Blizzard�s epic StarCraft� universe. StarCraft: Ghost is currently under development and is scheduled for a worldwide release on multiple console systems. The game will be co-published by Capcom and Blizzard Entertainment in Japan; further announcements regarding platform/country specifics will be announced in the months to come.

In StarCraft: Ghost, players take the role of Nova, a lethal Ghost operative skillfully trained in the arts of espionage and tactical combat. Twenty years of ruthless physical conditioning and techno-psychological instruction have made Nova a being of terrifying potential. With the help of a determined group of allies, players follow a series of story-driven missions, engaging in a deadly mix of planetary battles and dangerous solo operations. To complete their mission objectives, players must execute intelligent tactical decisions while mastering an advanced arsenal of sophisticated weaponry.

�We�re very excited about returning to the StarCraft series,� stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder. �Our roots are based in console gaming, and we look forward to developing this universe for the next-generation console systems.�

Key features in StarCraft: Ghost include:


Revolutionary new style of gameplay featuring enhanced physical and psionic abilities
Hostile Environment Suit designed to magnify strength, agility, and speed
Over-the-top special effects offer stunning visuals and unparalleled tactical realism
Immersive 3D environments showcase rich textures and highly stylized character models
Unique Calldown abilities allow players to target large-scale attacks from the ground
A deeply evolving storyline set in Blizzard�s gritty sci-fi StarCraft universe

As the story unravels, players find themselves traversing uncharted terrain and battling adversaries never before seen by followers of the series. Bold 3D graphics give players a new, in-depth perspective on familiar planets and former battlefields from the legendary universe. A dynamic 3rd-person camera view displays dramatic lighting, startling detail, and a blend of realistic and fantastical design. Co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Nihilistic Software, Inc.�, StarCraft: Ghost is scheduled for release in late 2003.

Since its debut in 1998, the #1-selling StarCraft series* has won industry acclaim and has shattered sales records worldwide with over six million copies shipped. Blizzard continued the series with the critically acclaimed StarCraft: Brood War�, which won multiple Expansion Pack of the Year awards and is still considered by many critics to be one of the best add-on products to date."

Oh no.

24:Season One is out on DVD. Normally I'd be ecstatic, but while I'm very happy it's out, I'm sad because I won't have enough to get it for a few weeks :(

Oh well.

Oh man, Kingdom Hearts is SO good.

I just wish I could get out of work tomorrow to play it and Animal Crossing all day :)

Oh well.

Yay!

Got Kingdom Hearts.

Off to play I go!

Animal Crossing.

Very good game.

But beware the Gangsta-talking chicken.

More later.

"Farscape TV program is cancelled

I'm hoping that the cancellation of the SciFi channel's program, Farscape, is newsworthy enough to get UF behind it. Any day now, the sets are going to be permanently destroyed (if not already... I'm not certain), and no series finale is scheduled. Filming will simply end without a resolution. "

NOOOOO!

(got that from Userfriendly.org)

Kingdom Hearts is out in what, a day, maybe less (the guys at EB said it would definately be in by Thursday, even though it is slated for release tomorrow). Of course, I'm in that kind of limbo where there is a game I really want (KH) out soon, but it's not far enough away for me to justify starting another game up in the meantime. Hmm... I guess Mafia will keep me occupied for the next day or so :)

I picked up an application to work at EB today. I pretty much just would do some part time work during the day before work at the group home, but it's mainly just to get enough to supplement my gaming habit. I mean, I'm at the store more than most of the employees, and I sure know more than they do, so why not get paid for the expertise? :)

That, and just doing the 'Go to the group home, come home, play games, sleep, play more games, go to group home' cycle has begun to just make me crave doing something else, and retail is fun, in a non-brain-injuring sort of way.

I finished Shenmue 2 today. Now I have to wait for the Xbox version to be released, do well and then maybe, JUST MAYBE, Yu Suzuki will decide that he wants to finish the series (I seriously think that it shouldn't go much further than 3 separate games, even though Shenmue 2 was really Shenmue 2-6 or something to that effect all in one package).

Great game though.

Grand Theft Sunshine. You know you want it.

Man, Mafia is SUCH a good game. I have been totally sucked into it. It's not as brain-liquifyingly hard as some reviews might make it out to be, and I actually enjoy the driving parts as they help to further immerse you into the game world since you don't just miraculously appear wherever the mission is.

It's like Grand Theft Auto 3 but with a VERY strong storyline (it keeps getting better and better) and AMAZING missions. For example. I just did a mission where I first had to go to this hotel/brothel and a) kill the manager (which isn't simple given the fact he's sitting in a restaurant surrounded by goons) then b) kill a prostitute who'd been squealing to the cops about my operation and then c) steal some documents and blow up the office of the manager (whom I'd just killed in the hotel restaurant moments earlier)...

And that's just the first part of the mission. I then had to flee across the rooftops from the cops and then finally wrap everything up in a huge shootout in a church in the midst of a funeral (for a guy I'd killed in an earlier mission, at that!)

That's just ONE mission... there are about 20 of them I've heard, along with the freeride and freeride extreme where you just drive around and goof off in the city.

I spent the weekend w/ James(Taka) putting my DVD player through its paces. Nicest thing about a 5-disc DVD player is that you can watch movies all day and not have to get up once you get them all loaded into the machine :)

Let's see... we watched Blade 2, Reservoir Dogs, The Legend of Zhu, The Five Deadly Venoms, Ninja Resurrection, Tampopo and Who Am I? . I think that's it. My brain hurts now.

Well, it looks like it's official. Microsoft has bought out Rare. Sigh. Granted, this may mean there will be more than 4 worthwhile titles on the Xbox, but it is still kind of sad to see a company like Rare abandon Nintendo.

Mafia is a good game. Have I mentioned that yet?

Well, I just finished Onimusha 2. Pretty nice game. Same great samurai sword-swingin' action as the first one, but this time it was much longer (12 hours rather than the measly 4-5 hours the first one took to complete) and I found the multiple settings a welcome change to the lone castle of the first one.

Now Capcom just needs to hurry up and finish Onimusha 3! (Yes, there is a third one. The trailer is unlocked when you finish this one).

Check out that screenshot. It's from this new Mafia game... man, it's gorgeous.

That's ingame by the way.

Beware of dentists.

I went into the dentist today to get a filling checked out. The next thing I know, I'm walking out of there having just experienced the wonder and joy that is a ROOT CANAL.

Sigh.

I should have just done it myself... or at least had this list to help me pass the time.

At least I get the next two days off to recouperate. I did have to go interview people right after the procedure, which was a barrel of fun, I tell you. Ah well. My DVD player arrives tomorrow. Woo!

This is an interesting interview with Dr. Henry Jenkins, the professor of comparative media at MIT. He is effectively a video game prof. Man, I'm jealous.

Congrats to Darren & Lisa Chevalier (man, that looks odd)... About time you two finally tied the knot!

PlayStation 3 not a console?

While Sony basks in the success of its PlayStation 2, expectations are rising that its successor will be out by 2005, in an entirely different form.

Sony remains tight-lipped about the timing of its next-generation product's debut, but it is dropping some hints about the PlayStation 3's likely shape--or more accurately, lack of shape.
"We're not thinking about hardware," said Kenichi Fukunaga, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment. "The ideal solution would be having an operating system installed in various home appliances that could run game programs."

Fueling expectations of a 2005 target date is a chip project between Sony, IBM, and Toshiba, Japan's largest chipmaker and coproducer of the PS2's complex microprocessor. The four-year project, code-named Cell and set for completion in spring 2005, aims to create a powerful processor for home electronics with ultrafast Internet connections that could, for example, transmit high-resolution moving pictures.

"It's possible PlayStation 3 would come out in 2005, since that's when Sony's Cell project will yield something," said Kazuharu Miura, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. He added that, by 2005, Japan's broadband infrastructure for high-speed Internet service will be largely complete, and Sony will likely have a clearer idea of what kind of online games people want to play.

Sony said it had not decided how to integrate the Cell processor into its next game console, but the general idea is to use the chip in Internet servers and home electronics to divide computing tasks among networked machines.

This would give the devices as much processing power as a supercomputer, such as IBM's Deep Blue machine that defeated Gary Kasparov at chess, and enable them to handle everything from games to video recording to downloading data from the Internet.

"We've started with boxes--making boxes to do specific things. But if you have a chip this powerful, you can add functions to any box. It's reverse thinking," Fukunaga said.

Got the Before and After shots of our garden!

Front Yard: Before (top) and After (bottom)

Back Yard: Before (top) and After (bottom)

This is, like, interesting. A, like, etymology of the word, "like", as it is, like, used in modern English.

I'll have some pictures of our house up shortly. Got some nice before and after shots of the back garden.

While my wife thinks this is a great idea, the new law in Greece that outright bans ANY videogame or electronic game (this means Solitaire in Windows or whatever happens to be on your mobile phone) has got to be one of the stupidest laws ever.

I mean, sure, if they want to ban M-Rated games, that's fine. But to do a complete crackdown is just stupid.

People will actually have to talk, read and go outside... that's just NOT RIGHT!

Well, yesterday I made my first (and hopefully only) purchase from The Home Shopping Channel.

Got an LG (Zenith) 5-Disc DVD/CD/MP3 player for only $195 Canadian! Woo!

The scariest part was that Julie (my wife for those who don't know) actually went along with it, almost to the point of encouraging me. Something just isn't right about that.

The Animatrix

Nuff said.

My car can hold 20 bags of manure and 7 bags of Triple-mix before the undercarriage starts to scrape on the ground. Found that out today.

Finally finished watching Noir today. Amazing anime. Especially the music. Best. Music. Ever.

On the game front, Mario is absolutely amazing. I was kind of indifferent when I first started playing, but 2 days later I found myself turning on the Cube to just 'get one Shine before work."

Sigh. I'm hooked.

Onimusha 2 is also really good, but completely different from Mario :)

Got Mario Sunshine and Onimusha 2 today... woo! And the free Mario super soaker and a Sega Sports T-Shirt (which I got mainly because I whined about not getting anything free with Onimusha 2 so they gave me the shirt to shut me up :)

Now I don't know which to play first! AH!

Also picked up the Monsternomicon for the Iron Kingdoms setting (mmm... steampunk and gothic monster designs...mmm...) and a nice big Terry Pratchett Discworld art book of sorts... "The Last Hero" to be exact.

Good day for games AND books (and free swag) if I do say so myself...

Was at my bro-in-law's wedding this past weekend, hence the lack of updates... the lack of sleep continued straight through pretty much to Saturday, and then I was sick as a dog Sunday/Monday and a bit today, but I was at least able to get to work and NOT GET A SPEEDING TICKET (unlike on Sunday, when I went in for a couple hours then was driving home, half-coherent, and then pulled over... at least the cop saw I was in rough shape and only gave me a minor ticket rather than the nasty one I could have received).

I also picked up Sega Soccer Slam while in Kitchener at the wedding and a nice little Spice controller for the Cube while I was at it. SSS is a very fun and crazy soccer game that was obviously thought up by crazy crack smoking Japanese programmers when they ran out of ideas for games that didn't involve placing monkeys in plastic balls.

For all of you who want to see what my brother Dave (aka Jugi Monkeyhair) looks like, here he is on a good day...

Ok. I really need to go to bed. I only had 3-4 hours of sleep last night, and tonight is my brother-in-law's bacherlor party, so I'd best be getting some shut-eye.

If you're here and looking for something to do now that you've read about my game stuff for the last few days, go watch all the Ninjai episodes.

Gooooo Hyperlinks

I also picked up Red Faction for the PC. I really enjoyed it on the PS2, but traded my copy in way back when and finally found it used for the PC. I love getting used games... nothing like 4 games for just over $100 :)

I'm also really looking forward to the game adaptation of The Thing. But I think I'll wait till I've at least played Mario Sunshine and Onimusha 2 a bit before I pick it up!

Speaking of which, they're both out on the same day next week. Joy!

And Kingdom Hearts will be out on September 17th! WOOOOOT!

I got a Virtual Boy for $3 yesterday... woo! Now I can have eye-splitting headaches in the comfort of my own home, and have them be of the self-inflicted kind!

I picked up Mark of Kri for the PS2 yesterday. Excellent game. It's definately going to be one of my favourite sleeper hits of the year. I can say it ranks up there with Rez and Ico in the sheer artistic beauty category. And the stealth... oh man! I was kind of leery, since most of the reviews painted the stealth in a negative light, but I absolutely love it. Nothing beats sneaking up on a guy, yanking him around the corner and smashing his head into a wall repeatedly...

Hmm... And I'm in social work...

Get Moonbase Commander!

Woot!

Finished Xenogears just now. Took approximately 64 hours to finish... but concidering I was 65 hours into it the first time I played it (and then had the memory card erased) that means it took me a whopping 129 hours to beat the game from the first time I started it to now. And it also took me, hmm... about 3 1/2 years too :P

It's very satisfying to have that game done and over with. It was one of the few games in my collection that I hadn't finished that I really wanted to, and now I have!

Grr... just got a spam that had my e-mail address as the from addy. That means that I can't stick them on the blocked sender list as I'm just blocking myself :P

STILL working on Xenogears. I was hoping to have it finished this past week, but circumstances *cough* AC2 Beta *cough* prevented me. But NOW I WILL FINISH IT!

Sigh.

Ok. There is a conspiracy. Every time I buy a video card, within 6 months the company that makes it must go out of business. I bought a 3DFX Voodoo 5 a few years ago, bam! It's out of business 6 months later.

I just got the news today that Visiontek, the company that made my Geforce 4, has gone bankrupt too. Sigh. At least it's not as bad as with the Voodoo 5. Nvidia, the company that makes the actual graphics chip, is still in business... it's just annoying at this moment. Hopefully this won't be a death-knell for Nvidia and they'll be able to get another of the card makers to step in and fill the void.

It is sad though... I picked Visiontek specifically because I wanted to avoid what happened w/ the Voodoo 5... Visiontek is (was?) the number 1 manufacturer of the Geforce series... sigh...

Oh well. NEXT TIME I will pick a company nobody heard of and a vid card that is not compatible with anything... that'll learn 'em!

Ah! Strong Bad has gone on vacation! At least he'll be sending postcards for at least the next week :)

Speaking of vacations, it was raining today on my drive home and I think I must have killed about 80 toads and frogs that picked that fateful time to hop across the road as I was driving along. Hop Hop Squish... Hop Hop Squish...

This site is just messed up. It's more messed up because it's true, and also because the health care system in the States has led to something like this. And people up here want a true two-tier health care system...

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I finished Eternal Darkness on Sunday night, then started working steadily on Xenogears... until today, when I was actually able to get in and play the absolutely amazing Asheron's Call 2 beta. And I can't say any more about AC2 since I agreed to a Non-Disclosure Agreement to get into the beta...

But man, when it comes out, I'm not buying or playing any other game for a month!

I've been really busy playing Eternal Darkness on the Gamecube. Excellent game. Very Lovecraftian and I've only been stuck once or twice (and kicked myself afterwards).

Only 2 more weeks or so till Mario Sunshine! Woo!

i beat the internet
the end guy is hard

Check out this guy's Mechwarrior Treehouse.

That's dedication... or maybe he should just be committed.

I love Eternal Darkness and Super Smash Bros.:Melee. Both excellent excellent games that I played WAY to much of this weekend, even after all the visiting was done.

And the Wavebird (the Gamecube wireless controller) is unbelievable. It uses some kind of radio frequency, so I can go outside and it still works :)

Got me a Gamecube, 7 games (well, Mario Sunshine will be out end of August, but it's paid for) and 1 angry wife.

Good times.... good times...

Well, it looks like people ARE NOT smoking crack. There will be a 4 DVD Collector's Edition of Fellowship Of The Ring but it won't be out until November.

I guess that means I'm holding off till then :)

Neat little news blurb.
--------
Gamers Enter the Flow State - Dutch
According to a study by BBC World's ClickOnline, computer gamers experience an increased level of alpha brainwave activity, a phenomenon usually only associated with a state of complete rest (such as during meditation). This brain wave activity is known as the Flow State. It's common knowledge however, in scientific and sporting circles at any rate, that sports people performing at the very peak of their abilities can experience an increased level of alpha brainwave activity. Recent research has suggested that it could be possible for a person immersed in a computer game to achieve the same level of meditative concentration. Thus ClickOnline teamed up with Brunel University in London to test out the theory with the help of their Sport Psychology Research Unit.

Two test subjects, a top Virtua Fighter player and an international athlete javelin throwing, were asked to engage in their specialist area for a set period of time. It was an artificial environment for both participants, who are much more familiar with the pressures of group competition rather than individual performance in front of a TV camera. After this a self-report analysis questionnaire known as Flow State scale version II -- an established method of scientific analysis, aimed to assess nine specific factors associated with Flow State -- was administered to both men.

The findings of the study support the aforementioned theory -- the Virtual Fighter player scored an average of 17 (and we're looking for an average of 16 or above to attain Flow State), whereas the javelin thrower scored 17.44, so they both experienced Flow to some extent. Obviously there is more research to be done to validate the findings, but if initial indications are correct, there could suddenly be a lot more interest in computer gaming both as a science and as a sport.

Oh, I finished Neverwinter Nights on Saturday. I now just cannot focus on any of my PC games. I tossed in several today and none of them held my interest for more than 30 seconds it seemed. Granted, it might just be the effect of the 21-hour shift, but I think I'm a little burnt out on the PC games at the moment (my PS2 has remained almost untouched since early June) and so I think I'm going to go back and lounge on the couch and play some PS2 :)

The imminent purchase of one or possibly two new consoles is also not helping me stay focused. Part of me thinks I should wait, but the other part can't really figure out why that would be a good idea... I have the money... May as well just go get the stupid systems and be done with it!

Well, my credit card is paid off. That means I can get it back from Julie and then go get a Gamecube & Xbox! Woo!

For some reason Julie isn't too hot on that idea though. I'm not sure why. I figure that I'm going to get them both anyway, so I may as well just go and get them at once and be done with it.

Ah well. We'll see what happens. I have to go to the dentist on Wednesday and after that I'm hitting the mall. What will I come back with? I don't know....

Oh, i did a 21 hour shift today. Went in at midnight, got off around 9pm. Stupid people and their stupid not showing up for shifts and my stupidity at sticking around all day. At least I have Tuesday and Thursday-Sunday off :)

Another great quote from Gamespot.

"...whenever I'm faced with some new gadget or program, I find myself intrigued and challenged to figure it out. I attribute this to my gaming habit (can it even be called a habit anymore?) more than anything else. Games constantly challenge me to think differently and to find ways around innumerable different challenges. No other form of entertainment does this as well as games do.

Our most widespread and accepted platform for entertainment is television, which is a passive experience through and through. Viewers sit still and absorb a steady flow of images and sound over which they have only the most basic of control. Considering the intellectual level that most popular TV shows are on, how are video games any less mature?

With games, you have much more control, as you are essentially projected into the experience by having an actual avatar that you use to navigate a game. Maybe some people are just too used to the idea of letting their television do all the work. "

Woo!!
---
ICO team's new project?

The development team behind the stylized PS2 game is at work on a new game.

According to reports out of Japan, the development team responsible for creating ICO is currently working on a new project, but it's not yet known whether it will be a sequel or an original game. ICO was widely praised for its stylized look and its structure, which was centered on guiding a young girl through a variety of environmental puzzles. We'll have more as it becomes available.

By Staff, GameSpot VG [POSTED: 07/24/02]

This is from the news blurb of today's Penny Arcade... sigh... I agree totally. Between Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set Radio Future and the slew of cool mech games, I'll probably be getting one of these things soon too. However, I will probably get a Gamecube first as it's cheaper and has Mario and Zelda coming relatively soon.
----
I must have your Panzer Dragoon Orta and so I must have an X-Box. So thanks to you, in September I will walk into EBX and purchase one of those vile machines and a copy of Panzer Dragoon. The taste of bile will fill my mouth as I sign the receipt. It will take every ounce of self control I have not to wretch as I remove it from its box. It will sit next to my other consoles like a giant black monolith, a constant reminder of your betrayal and our failed union. Then I'll play your Panzer Dragoon, and it will be great. All will be forgiven. Once again I'll be eternally grateful that there is a Sega and that I am lucky enough to play your games, no matter what system they are on.

Check out my little test and see how you do?

Do YOU know Brock?

Ok. Syberia is now finished... Now to get back to Neverwinter Nights.

Syberia was quite good. Solid story, great visuals (although a little too dark for the most part, and no gamma correction available) and excellent voice-overs. The only real problem with the game is that it is over and there still a lot of loose ends hanging out there. I've read on the official forum that the sequel is out sometime in 2003 and I can't wait. Hopefully they'll cut down on the walking back and forth bits and tighten up the puzzles. Otherwise, I highly recommend the game if you like adventure games (and not the crap-ass Dreamcatcher slide-show 'adventures' ).

I still liked The Longest Journey more... but Syberia has the room for a sequel. Which is always nice.

This is neat.
---

MIPS64, The PS3 Processor? - Talon
MIPS Technology, a provider of processor architectures and cores, announced today that it licensed its MIPS64 architecture to Sony Computer Entertainment. SCEI, who�s long since used the MIPS technology in PlayStation (and was also used in PlayStation 2 with two MIPS-based processors), now has the rights to use MIPS 64.

"SCEI is a world leader in the computer entertainment market and has long recognized the value of the MIPS architecture. We are proud to be at the core of development of SCEI's outstanding products, helping to enable a rich and rewarding user experience," said Kevin Meyer, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies.
Could this turn out to be part of the PlayStation 3 processor? Stay tuned for more.

I beat Warcraft 3... I beat Warcraft 3...

Now I can get to work finishing up Syberia (adventure games are always good because they tend to be relatively short... 8-10 hours max) and then I can go back to NWN... great... another addictive game.

And I blame Warcraft 3, Tactics Ogre (on the Gameboy Advance) and Syberia for the lack of updates recently (and work)...

It's been a LONG week, but thankfully there have been many good games on tap.

Ye flippin' gods, Warcraft 3 is evil. I was up till 5am or so last night playing it. Spent from about 10pm till 5am working on the last half of the Orc campaign and the first 5 missions of the Night Elf campaign. And then I spent another 2 hours or so today working on mission 6 of the Night Elves. I think I might be almost done though. I got slaughtered on mission 7, but I think it's the last one, so it's not that bad. Hard, but not as bad as the final Protoss mission in Starcraft at least... yeesh. That thing was impossible even with cheats!

I just wish I could stay up all night and play again like last night... I'd do it tomorrow after work, but I have to be back at work at 9am... granted, this is DAY TRIP WEEK!

That means I get paid to: Go to the beach, go mini-putting, go to Niagara Falls, go to the African Lion Safari...

Unfortunately, it also means I have to go to work for 9-5, but that's not a bad thing per se... just means I can't stay up till all hours for the week.

Found a new webcartoon today. It's pretty decent. I liked this comic about Neverwinter Nights... sadly, I know people like that guy.

Mmm... even MORE Skygunner...



I beat Skygunner today too. Beat it as Femme. Now to work through the other 2 characters and try to get top score... ah!

Mmm... Skygunner...

Had a VERY long last couple days. Moved a pool table from Sarnia to Acton and had to knock out a wall in my basement in order to get it down there... but now I have a pool table. Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya...

Thankfully I'll have the next 2-3 days to pretty much just veg out while my wife is in Sarnia herself over the weekend... Warcraft 3, Skygunner and Neverwinter Nights. Yup. That's my weekend... oh, and I'll probably read a bit of Sum of All Fears too.

Warcraft 3 = yummy.

Got the Collector's Edition yesterday. Nothing like a game that has a felt-lined box... mmm...

Oh, and if you go to see fireworks, don't sit too close.

We thought we would be fine but since the slight breeze was blowing our direction, we were covered in ashes and smoke for most of the festivities... still was a nice fireworks display for a small town. I like Acton :)

Oh boy... I'm all moved in (go homeownership!) and have most of my books unpacked. And you thought I had a lot of videogames...

Getting the pool table tomorrow. Yeehaw!

And Bell was nice enough to send me a new DSL modem so I could go online... and I checked, and I won't be billed for the 800 Gigs I must have downloaded last month :)

Can I get one of these in my stocking for Christmas?

Got the house today.

Went out and cleaned it up mostly tonight.

Moving everything tomorrow and getting out of this stupid apartment!

Yay!

Must sleep now.

Oh, got Airblade & Parappa 2 for $50 total. Airblade was only $15 used at EB! Finally a used game price worth spending money for. Airblade is a very sweet looking game and has a pretty nifty Tony Hawk Light feel to it.

But I can't play it much for the next few days as I'll be in transition. Oh well. Wish us luck!

Toodles.

Man, I need to sleep. I'm not making any sense in this post.

Oh, I'm glad I didn't get Stuntman the other day. It's gotten middling reviews at best. It looks kind of fun, but not $90 worth of fun. I did see some pretty sweet deals on SNES games (Earthbound for $30! Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES for $20!)... sadly I couldn't bring myself to buy them because I've been denying myself the priviledge of buying anything now until Warcraft 3 (and the move) are over and out... Sigh... I've conditioned myself too well! But it's good. If I did break down and get either of those, I'd have then run upstairs, bought Syberia (which looks amazing) and who knows what else!

Oh well.

Well, I'm now officially off work until July 8th. I move this weekend (yay) and Warcraft 3 is out next week. Sadly, I've seen my collector's edition already... stood within 2 feet of it... but I can't touch it and bring it home because BLIZZARD isn't letting me do that until next week! Grr...

But that's ok. I can get more NWN in between packing sessions! Man, that game is great.

Well, I'm off to play some more NWN before watching Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (sigh, I'm a sucker for bad movies :)

.hack Volume 1 set for October release

Bandai has announced that its PlayStation 2 software, .hack Volume 1, has shipped 120,000 copies in its first four days of release. The first of four chapters was released last week. Each chapter includes the game software and an animated feature on DVD. According to the press release, the company has also announced plans to release .hack Volume 1 for the PlayStation 2 in October in North America. The game was recently shown at E3 in Los Angeles.

By Staff, GameSpot VG [POSTED: 06/26/02]

This is good because I've been watching the anime that is based on the game and it's pretty sweet. Think of a sort of typical Final Fantasy style console RPG but rather than the usual fantasy setting, it takes place inside a fantasy MMORPG that has gone haywire. It's looking pretty sweet.

Stuntman for the PS2 is out. It looks rather interesting, but I might just wait till I see a copy used or wait for my brother to get it. Syberia for the PC is also out (and only $40) so that might be a sooner purchase than Stuntman, which I only have cursory knowledge of.

I was also walking by Microplay today and saw XENOSAGA running on their PS2 demo unit. I almost died. I ran in and was about to plunk down the money for the game but then was informed that it was just a demo DVD of the game. Sigh. It looks amazing though. And since it won't likely be out until March 2003, I can probably beat Xenogears by then.

I am really tempted to just go out and pick up a Gamecube w/ Eternal Darkness and also an Xbox w/ Jet Set Radio Future. Sigh. But not yet. Maybe late in the summer.

I've heard that Eternal Darkness really screws around with your mind. If your sanity meter drops too low, it might even start acting like the controller is broken or put up screens saying "Disc Read Error. Please reset your system now."... but if you do that you just lose all your data... that's evil, if you ask me :)

Anyway, I'm off. Gotta get back to work... donated blood and man, it just wouldn't stop gushing... went through about 3-4 pads of gauze before they finally got the blood to stop. Which is odd. Usually I don't spill a drop after they take the needle out... must have hit a gusher today!

Hmm... This is an interesting tidbit.

According to my local EB manager, Warcraft 3 has a "street date" of July 3. Blizzard is being VERY strict about it and will not allow retailers to sell their copies of Warcraft 3 before that time, even though EB is getting in copies of the Collector's Edition tomorrow! That's a week in advance. This is kind of annoying since most of the time retailers have to wait until after the game was due out to receive their copies of a given game. This time the stores will have them up to a week in advance but can't sell any of them.

The interesting tidbit is that IF a store does jump the gun and start selling their copies early, they can either a) face fines and possibly lose their job or b) cause Blizzard to throw up their hands and scrap the release date and let the stores with copies in now sell now.

I've been somewhat recruited by EB to watch the various stores in the area to see if they'll jump the gun, since they would like to give me (and others) their copies of the Collector's Edition, but they don't want to get spanked and/or fired. Part of me would LOVE to get my hands on Warcraft 3 tomorrow, but I'm also aware of the fact that I'm moving in 4 days and have to pack and also play the snot out of Neverwinter Nights before I pack up my system...

So I don't actually mind waiting until next week.

Ah well.

Yeep! I didn't realize I hadn't updated in a while.

I blame Neverwinter Nights. Man, that game is addictive. Think of Baldur's Gate RPG goodness wrapped up in a very pretty 3D package and then throw in the ability to make your own dungeons/cities/adventures with a relatively simple (though potentially deep and complex) editor... man... good times.

I am loving the singleplayer campaign. I was worried when I saw there were only 4 chapters, but since I've been working on chapter 1 for the last 2-3 days and am only half done it, I guess I can't complain. I've also been working on my own little module and getting more comfortable with the DM client and the Toolset features. It's great!

Well, I'm off to donate blood now. Toodles!

Kingdom Hearts Movie? - Prophet
Spong.com reports that Disney's Japanese arm has announced that a film based on Kingdom Hearts is in the works. The film will follow the storyline of the Squaresoft game currently under development and will feature all the characters, settings and plot lines featured in the game. In case you didn't know, Kingdom Hearts is an interesting role-playing game being developed by Squaresoft for the PlayStation2 that features a Disney/Square crossover storyline (and interaction between characters from both universes). No word on where this film will be released besides Japan, but it should be complete by next year, according to the report.

I hope they actually do make the film and that it will be available somehow over here.

Oh, today I was driving behind a Delorean! Woo! It had a great license plate too.

OUTFTME (out of time for those of you who suck at Bumper Stumpers)

Check out my character in Neverwinter Nights. Good ol' Morgan Flametamer.

Quarter to Three is back! Quarter to Three is back!

One of the best news sites, if only because the guys who run it are so funny and well-written. Check out the new Shoot Club article.

Oh, and Neverwinter Nights is out on Wednesday... I'm starting to feel a cold coming on for Thursday...

Oh, I'm getting The Warcraft 3 Collector's Edition in a few weeks. Woot woot! Should be in right after I get my computer set up in our new house. Less than 2 weeks to moving day! Yeehaw!

So help me if Bell thinks I'm paying for my extra gigs this month. I asked the lady on the tech line no less than 3 times if I had till July 4th before the bitcap came into effect on my line, and she said that was the date it would come into effect.

Part of me hopes that all is well and I just get my normal bill at the end of the month. Part of me almost hopes that they'll charge me for my extra bandwidth this month and then I can go on a rampage, phone-style, with the people in the billing department.

I have no problem sticking to my bitcap limit. In fact, I was planning on being a good boy this month. But if I have a grace period to download unlimited gigs, you'd better believe I'm going to abuse the hell out of it before they slam the lid shut. 5 Gigs my left butt cheek.

I wouldn't be so ticked at them if it were a reasonable amount per gig over 5 Gigs... but $8/gig? You've got to be kidding me! I could handle $2-3, even $4/gig, but $8/gig over 5GB when you're already paying $45/month for the service is sounding a little extreme.

Oh well. Enough of my railing against the system. I'm off to bed.

Had a great day today at work. Spent most of it barbequeing huge slabs of yummy beef at one of the guys' sister's place. Mmm...

Unfortunately, had elated bubble burst somewhat by a) watching the dillweed in the car in front of me run over a cat on the way home and not try to swerve, slow down or otherwise avoid it... b) having to swerve myself to avoid further crushing said cat as it came flying at my car... and c) having to listen to the people on the radio have a phone-in contest, the prize of which was a month's supply of bagels, and the answer to the question being SHAOLIN SOCCER, which I'd finally received on DVD from Hong Kong and had just watched the night before with the guys at work. Sigh... but then I came home and proceeded to download more anime, so it's all good.

This was another pretty funny comic off that D+Pad site. I can relate to these comics WAY too closely even though I have never worked in an EB or game retail store before... granted, I almost LIVE in them, but I haven't actually been paid to be there...

Hee hee... Found a cool new site (well, it's actually been around for a bit) called D+Pad... it's actually run by some EB employees in the Toronto area. It's pretty funny, and sort of has the Penny Arcade feel but from the retail side rather than the gamer side (well, a bit of both actually).

I particularily liked this one.

Ok. Take a look at the Map picture below. See those little blacked-in spots? That's what I've explored in Morrowind so far. THAT'S IT! Yeesh. This game is just huge.

Scary thing is that it's really only one island of one province of the entire continent that the gameworld entails... the previous 2 Elder Scrolls games let you wander around the huge continent, but the scale was a little different too... If they gave me the whole continent to explore, I'd never do anything but wander around Tamriel...