Wednesday, November 2, 2005

A little late there.

Comment Commentary

Tony- Not as awesome as

Shin- The animation for Chris's little snappy-dance segment was way too fluid and lifelike compared to the rest of the show. It made me uneasy.

Ken- Isn't he just some sort of science analyst for CNN now? I don't want to work for CNN. :/

--

So, Halloween. I originally planned on staying home and eating my bag of Jolly Ranchers, costumeless, but a couple changes were made to this plan.

I went to Friend A (number one, yo)'s house, but as they would not let me in without a costume, I devised this piece of art:

So, yeah. Then we "trick or treated," which basically means running around the neighborhood as they tried to get bad candy while I was perfectly satisfied with my bag of 'Ranchers.

It was fun, though I had a ton of homework after.

--

Also, today we were in Best Buy, where they have just received their 360 kiosk. My experience with the controller this time was much more positive- I think part of my problem at Walmart was the angle that it had to be held at combined with the inability to move the thing at all, because this was just connected by a tiny cord, and it was much better. My complaints about hitting all of the shoulder buttons remain, but to a lesser extent.

EDIT: Also, some guy in Best Buy started harrassing me about 360 information, and I did my best, but once a Best Buy employee came over and told him that "they use a new kind of disc or something that makes it look better" I felt that I was no longer necessary for giving the consumer all of the information he needs to make an informed purchase.
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Sunday, October 30, 2005

And even the dog..

Comment Commentary

Ken- Normally we just go up into the dingy, dirt-hills south of that, which is also fun when you get into the valleys, but normally it's just the same old dirt.

Solo- This one is, if you zoom in. At least, it's supposed to be. o_O

FUN ANCIENT HISTORY FACT YOU COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT: Roman aqueducts were completely enclosed, as opposed to modern ones, and people generally used public bathrooms. Rich people had their own private water and plumbing, but it wasn't considered necessary at the time.

--

I love that guy.

Also, I downloaded the "YTMND soundtrack" today, which was basically 80 songs that were commonly used in YTMND trends.

SUCH SONGS INCLUDE:

- "Take on Me" by A-Ha
- "The Emo Song" by some dudes
- "Rock Lobster" by The B-52s
- "What is Love?" by Haddaway

And many more.

I deleted most of them, but kept the ones that I like, including the full version of the medieval song..

So, yeah. I have nothing else to say, other than site whorage.
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Thursday, October 27, 2005

Firefox destroys my mO.

Comment Commentary

Tony- I kind of noticed how they just threw you into the middle of the story. Maybe if I saw it from the beginning I'd be more interested in the story.

Azure- I've noticed he'll do that whenever he's bored. Like today I was helping him type up an essay, and when I was thinking of something to put down, he just started holding down random keys.

But yeah, I don't know what he could have been expecting to find with twenty periods in there.

Ken- But on YTMND? YTMND?

--

I take back what I said about Cross Country's recent unchallengingness yesterday. Today we got to run alongside this aqueduct in its near-entirety, which was different, to say the least, and I enjoyed the view.

I was pretty tired to begin with today, though, so I came home strongly desiring a nap, but I've brushed it off. Now I'm getting very, very tired. Like, about-to-fall-asleep-on-the-keyboard tired.

EDIT: Well, not the entire thing. The actual thing goes on forever.. But if you look at the map, we started at the southernmost point, and kept going into where things turn unnaturally green.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Argh.

Comment Commentary

Solo- But they're so.. Rewarding.

DDG- I need two more before I can get that cool Mountain Dew bag that I couldn't care less about.

Shin- :(

--

So my Dragon Quest VIII demo came in today, and I only got to play it for a little bit, but overall I wasn't "blown away."

The cel-shading is very impressive, though the voice-acting was just average, and the gameplay was pretty much the standard RPG fare, from what I could tell.

Keep in mind I'm only basing this off of a little bit of playtime (For those of you who have played it, the second floor of the cave by the waterfall).

--

Tuesdays are always rushed for me, which easily makes it my least favorite day of the week.

Cross Country was just some easy downhill sprinting repeats. Nothing too special or difficult.. I'm sort of bothered by the fact that I haven't come home slumped over, panting, and demanding a four-hour nap lately. Maybe I'm just adjusted to the whole thing now, but I think the more likely reason is that I'm not pushing myself enough. Oh well.

Then my parents decided to eat out after that, which I think was sort of a poor decision since I had only two hours until my piano lesson, but it was all right. I got home in time to practice for ten minutes, then take a short nap on the piano.

The lesson itself, of course, was very bad. Very bad. Bad as in, she actually asked me if I practiced this week, it was so obvious.

Then I had a great deal of homework.

But it's okay now, since I gave up on the second half of the math and the Bio test tomorrow shouldn't be too demanding.

--

And finally, FUN WITH MY BROTHER, WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DELETE ADDRESS HISTORY!

YTMND, of all places. Jesus.
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Monday, October 24, 2005

Frustration!

Comment Commentary

Tony- I thought they were the non-chewy kind when I picked them up. Then I took a bite, and was miserable.

Ken- I was pretty underwhelmed by Advent Children. Probably great fanservice, but I never even played the game.

Mimmi- Well, that too.

--

Some bastard in Pittsburgh stole my Xbox.

--

Also, I attended a birthday-gaming-overnight thing on Saturday, which resulted in watching Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (Which I spent $10 on, and it's like his favorite movie ever), as well as Resident Eviling, a little bit of Haloing and a large dose of Katamariing.

Then we had a spontaneous "spin-in-circles-in-the-middle-of-the-street-without-falling-first" contest, and I came quite close to busting my head on the asphalt. I didn't quite realize I was falling until my face was right in front of the ground.

I'm stupid.
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Friday, October 21, 2005

So I touched a 360 controller today.

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- What you can't tell is that it's full of shit.

Alex- Most of these aren't like that though. In fact, they're pretty anti-Mormon Mormons.

Andy- Actually, no. Not really. Nothing happens at all, come to think of it. :/

Ken- Weren't you, back in the days of yore, part of some sort of religious minority that demanded converts or something?

--

There have been reports floating around recently about Walmarts getting Xbox 360 kiosks in, so today I went to my local Walmart to see if they had one in yet.

Our Walmart is the first Super Walmart in the state, which is some sort of achievement, apparently. We've had it for two months and today was the first time I have been in it. Something about it feels very unholy- everyone walks around very dismally, and the ceiling is lower than our old Walmart, so it's more claustrophobic. There's wood floors everywhere (instead of carpet), and even though everything else is shiny and new, the McDonalds managed to get nasty-looking already. Props to them on that.

Anyway, I went back into the games section, saw the pretty 360 sign, and saw the console and controller underneath it.

The controller's sort of a conflicting issue for me. On one hand, the thing is generally comfortable as hell to hold. The buttons feel more or less like the regular Xbox's, the control sticks were a little more "loose" than the originals (though not in a bad way), and that circular "360 button" at the top worked well enough.

But the shoulder buttons pose a bit of a problem, as I have been worrying about since I've seen the first controller images. For those of you who are used to the PS2's "access all four triggers at one time," I'm afraid you won't have much of that luxury on the 360. The two analog triggers and two "buttons" are rather far apart, so that you can't use your index and middle fingers to hit them all at once without feeling a sharp pain in your joints. I guess that's not a problem for some- most of the people I've seen playing PS2s only use their index fingers anyway- but it's an odd feeling for me.

The interface wasn't as orgasmic as everyone else was saying, as far as I could tell. The framerate was rather choppy, and when you tried to bring the popup dashboard feature in-game there was a bit of slowdown, or even lag. The colors were pretty though.

And then come the actual games. The only playable demos were Kameo: Elements of Power, Call of Duty 2 and King Kong. The one I spent most of my time on was Call of Duty, since it managed to grab my interest from the beginning.. Pretty standard WW2 FPS affair, I guess. The particle effects were crazy (smoke grenades for the win), but the character models left something to be desired. Very current-gen, and the whole "plastic look" made polygons very, very visible. There was a similar problem with Kameo, but that was mostly in the opening sequence and not actual gameplay.

But yeah, I didn't have the time to get a hold of Kameo or King Kong's controls, so I can't comment much on the actual gameplay, but I do know that Kameo had wonderful lighting and fur effects, while King Kong has transcended some of the plastic-ness of 360 games.. Though the T-Rex was very shiny, and the girl (whom you hold while fighting, apparently, though you can let her down) looked.. Pretty bad from what I saw. Its lack of quality reminded me of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, for some reason. I didn't get a chance to play the human part of the game.

There was also a very pretty Project Gotham Racing 3 video that showed mostly environments and the outside of cars (as well as the oh-so-impressive crowds). Nothing about the first-person camera mode, which is what I was mostly interested in.

Even with all of the stuff there, though, there was absolutely nothing about Perfect Dark Zero.

So, yeah, overall it was sort of "Meh." If there was an Elder Scrolls IV demo (I know the playtesting version took about an hour, but.. I want gameplay ;_;) or some sort of Gears of War or in-game PGR3 footage, I might have been more impressed. Not mind-blowing like I had been hoping, but this sort of sealed my "wait for price drop" mentality.

Though my friend's sister works at Walmart and could get me a 10% discount, which would bring the grand total of the console by itself to $360.

Cute.

--

Also, my friend bought a Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children bootleg at a local anime convention recently, and he let Ethan borrow it, so I was planning on watching that at his house after school.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a key to get in, so we just sat in his front yard for a while, and then went to someone else's house, where we planned on using their DVD player but ended up eating Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies instead.
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Thursday, October 20, 2005

Off!

Comment Commentary

Tony- Yeah, this program sort of gives off a "Paint Shop Pro"-ey feel.

Shin- Let's note that it was improvisational. :x

--

I know a lot of Mormons. I mean, I've met at least five this school year alone. It's not that I'm anti-Mormon- I just don't recall ever knowing one before the past two months.

Spare Ken, but.. You know.

>.o

--

I'm thinking about picking up Shadow of the Colossus sometime. I hear so many great things about ICO, and since this is from the same development team, I may as well give it a go.

I read that fighting the Colossi is epic in a way that reminds you of God of War, which is a good thing.

A very good thing.

--

It's been rather cold here for the past couple of days, as well as rainy. On Tuesday it was cold enough to drive me to the brink of emo (band tee under collared shirt under jacket).. But I was warm when everyone else wasn't, so they can just suck it.

It got warmer, though, and this saddens me. Gray and cold weather make me happy.

--

I'm overdue for a haircut, but as is my ongoing dilemma, it will probably look terrible once cut. Saturday is the day of reckoning, so prepare for some aggro entry.

EDIT: Also, I went out and picked up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book, not the movie. I kind of need to read it for school, but I'm hoping that won't get in the way of enjoying it.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Quag-tastic

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- Indeed, it will be.

Shin- Indeed, you will.

--

OH SNAP, THE VIDEO!

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Sunday, October 16, 2005

And I'm back down to 87.

Comment Commentary

Shinji- The thing is, most of the franchises that I've been dedicated to the past couple generations have been on Sony and Nintendo consoles. 360 has some nice-looking games for it, but I'm a big fan of my Japanese games, and unless Microsoft's whole reach-out-to-Japan thing works out, I'll be fairly screwed over in getting a 360 (Not that it would be a total loss- I'm sure there will be games coming out that I will want, just not anything I'm too crazy for). Then, PS3 will come around, taunting me with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Devil May Cry 4. Then I read an article saying that it will cost $17 million to make a single PS3 game (not including marketing and other "variables"), which probably scares the shit out of most developers. This is when they will jump ship to 360, leaving my PS3 game selection fairly limited (not to mention expensive).

So, it will probably be wise of me to sit on the whole thing for a while. Maybe Oblivion won't be $60 by then, and they'll have released the sexy black 360 or something.

Tony- How do you feel about Condemned? There seems to be some interesting hype forming around it.

--

There's not much to say right now. Ethan spent Friday night here, and we messed around with the video camera a lot. Thanks to a firewire cable and Pinnacle Studio Plus, we actually managed to edit into a semi-cohesive short film. I decided to submit to Google Video, and it is currently being "verified."

It was fun to make, though. It's sort of a sample of what jackasses we are, set to the tune of "Catch" by The Cure and "Only Time" by Enya.

The way the music synched up was actually really effective, I think. We did choose "Catch" because of its length, yes, but the end synchs up perfectly.

Also, we rode around the desert in our friend's dune buggy and tricked people into thinking we were in drastic wheelchair accidents.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

And we'll meet halfway.

Comment Commentary

Azure- It's not like anything that major happened. I've just been sitting here wasting time on message boards and gaming news sites. Absolutely nothing productive, I feel like a waste.

But I always feel more productive when I'm running, which I did today, so that's aiding the cause.

Shin- It's a utopia because Big Brother says so.

WE WERE ALWAYS AT WAR WITH EURASIA ZOMG.

Ken- Yes. *emo*

--

So, today, phys ed reminded me of seventh grade PE, which is most certainly not a good thing.

Basically, we had to play some team full of loud, stupid "punk" people, as well as some unpleasantly loud and racist.. "Urban" people. They'd spend most of their time mocking people on my team, rather than playing, and as is the case with these people that I have gotten so familiar with, they have no sense of sportsmanship and find it appropriate to make it to seventh down "just 'cause." They are either too incompetent to listen to rules, or just simply disregard them, because they were somehow under the impression they had maybe four points up on us. One guy spent about five minutes just repeatedly knocking the football out of this one kid's hands, the other just kept shouting and shouting the entire game, and one girl decided to shove the football down her shorts for about three minutes. This is the same girl who spends most of her time in PE shaking her ass right in my goddamn face, every day.

These people are the reasons that I'm so absolutely quiet. As usual, this worked out well for me. I didn't bother them, they didn't bother me.. Well, they didn't bother me directly. Not that they could tell from looking at me, but they switched me over to the Holden Caulfieldey angst-child that I am being right now.

On a lighter note, I ran three miles today, but in the beginning I thought we were just doing short-distance sprints, so I pretty much poured all my energy into the first quarter lap. Woohoo.

It really is a cool-looking piece of hardware, I'll say that much. I've decided that if I do get a 360 at launch (which is highly unlikely, as I don't have one reserved, and I'm not about to go to Best Buy at 4:30 in the morning to get one of their non-reserved ones. So, basically, my last hope are my 83 caps, and a Madden NFL 2K6 trade-in.

By the way, the game will be Elder Scrolls IV. End of story.
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