http://www.hawksley.net/mp3/

The music is just beautiful. Enough said.

I would be a krueller ruler. I would hand out free donuts to fatten society, feed said people to cannibals, and blame it all on McDonalds.

Oh, there would also be world peace and all that crap.

In conclusion:

disporak: Raiden scarred me in the end of Metal Gear Solid 2...
Alakaiser: Yes.
disporak: Oh, and, YOU'RE A MALE!
Alakaiser: Roofle
disporak: Sadly that same thing happens to a Raiden look-alike in MGS3.
Alakaiser: Owned.
Alakaiser: TRHBO
disporak: Maybe he should go to a barber.
Alakaiser: Maybe.
disporak: Or, like...go through puberty.
Alakaiser: Ownage.

Q: Do you hate RPGs, or are simply too old-school for the newer ones?

A: I like RPGs, but most of the newer stuff hasn't caught my attention. I am into the older ones more, though..

Q: What's your beef with the modern RPG? Other than becoming more refined graphically, it honestly hasn't changed much.

A: That's it: they haven't changed much. I like newer battle systems or at least well thought out ones. That's why I am anticipating Paper Mario 2 and Final Fantasy XII.

Q: You get new stories, new combat systems, change isn't always required for a genre. That's why you return to them. The innovative ones differentiate themselves, and because the loved methods of the genre, make themselves stand out.

A: The problem I see is that there isn't enough of the well founded and ingenious combat systems around. Every game has its perks (ATB, TB, Action, etc) but none have created something new or done something old well. Chrono Cross sets a good example for this. (New combat system that worked WELL)
Story is something else. With games becoming more graphically focused, I think developers have a harder time saving disk space and time for a grand story. Release dates are another factor. Pluss, much of what I have seen in modern RPGs is less plot twists and more predictable events with the stereotypical cute girl in need of rescue and daring hero saving the world, planet, city, whatever. But I suppose some games change this. I applaud FFX-2 for the fact that it put the player in another character's shoes.

Q: But those are the stereotypes that have been with the genre for a long time. I think, developers decide that they are going for a character drama, so they put out the standard "save the world" plot, and then focus on the characters development. Which isn't bad, but they give up on somewhat original plotlines in the process.

A: I know, but RPGs like FFVI, EarthBound, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears break those character roles.I don't want to see a boring character develop instead of a brilliant story. Both should be combined, not one sacrificed. Besides, isn't the story what shapes the characters?

Q: Save the world is a good way to bring out everything in a character, but it is overdone. There's either some world threatening monster, evil empire, or a shortage of some critical factor in the world's life.

A: Even Tales of Symphonia, while having a pretty generic plot, was saved by gameplay. So a game can use a save the world plot and recover with other aspects, in my opinion. But the quality could be doubled with a good story.

Q: What about interesting elements to the save the world plot, though?

A: Yeah, interesting inbetweeers help the plot, but it's almost always the same in the end. Then, save the world can be produced in an intriguing manner, such as Metal Gear Solid.

__________________________

Major cookies if you can guess who the person asking the questions is. (It was altered a bit, but just for sake of comprehension.)

I have an eleven year old sister who is autistic which hinders her in many ways. Autism is the result of a neurological disorder that affects how the brain functions. My sister cannot speak, only notifying my family of her needs through screams, jarbled syllables, and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) and also lacks fine co-ordination skills making many everyday tasks a burden. It's very hard for me to watch my younger sibling grow up with so many troubles in her life, and the pokes I hear people mutter hurt me. It's a sad fact, but many people in the world cannot comprehend differences between themselves and others. It's why "retard" is a funny insult to most teens and even adults whisper to friends how silly or noisy a stranger is acting, instead of just asking. When I hear a person in a public area make a stupid remark about my sister, it irks me. To make it blunt, these people should just shut the heck up; keep their comments to themselves. When you have no valid reasoning, don't say anything.

Just the past week, I was riding the school bus home and someone was making fun of the Special Education class my school supports. Having a sister afflicted with autism, I had to tell the person their comments weren't justified. I did and was given the old "retard" comeback. Sighing, I left them to their idiotic assumptions. Another time, at a restaurant, my sister was being exceptionally noisy. The people around us stared and whispered to one another while my parents did all they could to calm my sister. Maybe if you don't know a person with a mental disease you wouldn't understand these situations.

And then there are the excellent people who know how to handle a person like my sister well. A while ago at a local playground, my younger sibling was climbing around and stopped at the top of a slide. I little girl and her mother came over and the girl wanted to go down the slide. She climbed up but my sister would not budge from blocking the slide. I went up to help her out, and when I got back down, the lady there kindly asked what was with my sister. Of course, I answered and she then accepted my sister. She accepted something new to her. That is what more people in this world need to do.

This same sort of acceptance should be held for video games. So many times have I seen a game put down because of the console it is on. I have witnessed people bashing a game based on it's score on an internet site, without reading the text review or actually playing the game. The mockery of unknown things goes on and on, never stopping because there will always be people that don't care enough to inform themselves. Just like a person, a game should not be judged by its outwards appearance. A man should look inside, see what the substance is like, not define a game by its developer or graphics.

Such ignorance is pitiful. I have talked to many gamers about oddball games that they probably know nothing about. My opinions will sometimes be castrated by remarks such as "that game has lame graphics" or "why would I want to play games on a purple console?". This unwillingness to accept other things is the racism of our past time.

If anything, I hope this entry helps a few people recognize differences and accept other cultures, religions, people, and even games.

Charles and Steve, two ordinary young chaps in a decidedly twisted world. The two boys grew up in 1970 in the same town, attended the same schoolhouse, dated the same girl, but totally missed each other in reality. The two boys grew up, loving and loathing, but never hearing a whisper of one another. Then came the glorious Raining Pies Festival of 1992, the day children and adults danced in the streets, stripping their clothes and letting the filling of pie cover their erogenous zones. Charles and Steve attended this festival, for once locking sights. But as a half uncovered woman ran by, they both turned lusting attention towards her. As the pie festival drew to a close, the putting on of clothes began with much despise (such freedom comes from dessert covered nudity, ya know?). Charles and Steve trudged home to their small suburbanite trailers beached in West Virginia.

Cut to 100 kilometers above West Virginia, a Korean jet flies by carrying the payload of a large vat of chocolate vanilla sauce. Suddenly, an inferior Nerf gun toting Canadian cardboard plane. Darting the Korean ship in the windshield, it makes off in a straight vertical route, crashing into a local residence in Ottawa. The Nerf darts block the Korean’s view. Temporary air turbulence tips the chocolate vanilla pot over onto a small trailer beach located in Virginia’s hick of a brother.

Simultaneously looking up, Charles and Steve wondered at the spectacle before them. Thousands of tones of chocolate vanilla above their heads. All they could think about was how good the sauce would taste on a banana. Charles, being the more sensible one, quickly dashed inside and retrieved the ripe yellow fruits. They were labeled "For use at Banana Slumber Party only", but that couldn’t stop Charles.

The chocolate vanilla concoction hit the earth, blasting various trailer residents left and right, but strangely not up and down. Charles and Steve were exceptions. For some wacky occurrence of the earth’s frequent gravitational shifts, both flew up until banging against the invisible world border found in most restrictive places.

Falling back quickly for lack of wingcaps, a conversation sparked between the two.

Charles: So...

Steve: ...

Charles: Oh, for God’s sake, don’t act like a RPG character.

Steve: Then don’t act like a whiny protagonist, eh.

Charles: Meh. So how ‘bout that explosion?

Steve: Pretty darn tasty. Hey, you got bananas, mate!

Charles: Yup, they’re mine. No bananas for you. When we fall into the predictably vast pit of chocolate vanilla, the feast is for me. :3

Steve: I hate you.

Charles: Great. I like pie.

Steve: OMG me to. Wait...I remember you. You were at the last pie festival, with the naked chick.

Charles: Yah, what fun, eh, Steve?

Steve: Way to kill that overly used jab at funniness.

Charles: Sh’up.

Steve: Wow, look at that tonne of chocolate vanilla we’re about to hit.

Charles: Tonne?

*SCHLOMP*

Only trained professionals should attempt to use these.

Agh!
Gah!
Bah!
Grrr!
Gar!
Arrr!
Yarr!
Blargh!
Argh!
Ick!
Ack!
Oi!
Aff!
Aiee!
Oof!
Eeek!
Ahh!
Bleh!
Meh!
Blah!
Pah!
Rawr!
Aww!
Pfft!
Psst!

That is all. :3

As the holiday season nears, many games are being released. Too many for me and, I'm sure, others. But I'm not writing to focus on the mass release aspect, I want to talk about my own problem. The problem of over-buying.

When I first got my Playstation 2 in 2003, I was ecstatic to play newer games that couldn't be had on the Nintendo 64. I purchased three games and nearly completed two of them (Dark Cloud didn't hold my interest). Soon after, I bought a Gamecube with three games: Zelda: The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time Master Quest Bonus disk, and Super Smash Brothers: Melee. After getting these newer games, my Playstation 2 sat on the shelf neglected while I almost completed Wind Waker and played the heck out of Smash Brothers. I ignored the Bonus disk as I had beated Ocarina of Time many times. Out of these 6 games, I only completed one.

And my addiction to buying games keeps going on. After I re-bought a Super Nintendo, I just had to buy all the old games for it that I loved. Then came the NES; same thing happened. I kept buying, buying, buying, without ever finishing a game. It's caused my backlog to become enormous, and I hate myself for letting this happen. I've tried to cut down on my purchases, but I really don't seem to be slowing down...

*Links may not actually be for everyone.


http://www.eeggs.com/- An interesting archive of thousands of easter eggs found in games, applications, and even operatin systems.

http://www.flyingomelette.com/oddindex.html- An entertaining website about all the weird things found in games.

http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/story.shtml- The stories of each Final Fantasy game for east reference. (Massive spoilers)

http://www.play.vg/- Free online versions of many classic arcade games.

http://www.desktopgaming.com/- Large desktop backgrounds of areas and maps from various games.

http://www.dosgames.com/- Download free versions of many old DOS games.

http://www.ganonstower.com/- One of the best sites for information on the Zelda series.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/- Another great Zelda web site.

http://www.hmfarm.com/- Lots of information on the Harvest Moon series.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/- Many classic PC games free for download.

http://halo.bungie.org/- A great Halo fansite.

http://pixeltutorial.cjb.net/- An excellent tutorial for making 2D sprites.

http://www.angelfire.com/creep/bigrigs/bigrigs11.swf- What is there to say?

http://www.angelfire.com/hero/ultimatebattle/- A really cool compilation of many video game characters in a huge battle. Props to AlbedoSnake for this.

http://fobby.net/m2eb/index.shtml- A comparing and contrasting of Mother 2 and EarthBound.

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html- RPG cliches. What a long list. =P

http://www.nesfiles.com/- A good site obout the NES, despite its disgusting layout.

http://tsgk.captainn.net/- A good archive of video game sprites.

http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php- More sprites.

http://www.metalgearonline.org/- A grand Metal Gear fansite.

http://www.therealbobroberts.com/- A cool site all about arcade equipment.

http://www.ocremix.org/- Video game music remixed. One of my favorite websites. =)

http://colba.net/~pixelboy/smetroid/- How Super Metroid could be ported to GBA.

http://www.sidetalkin.com/- It's sidetalkin'!

http://www.tribalwar.com/- A great Tribes series site.

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/warthog_launch/- Just a fun little game.

http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/- Crazy quotes from just about every game you could think of.

http://www.dchomebrew.org/- Homebrew games for Dreamcast.

http://www.toastyfrog.com/- Odd yet good. =)

http://www.vidgame.net/- A great archive on all things video game related.

http://planetquake.com/sda/- Just try to beat their times.

http://www.igs.net/~tril/if/best/- A superb list of some of the best text based adventures.

http://www.gamingfm.com/- Video game music radio.

http://w3ace.com/image/tid/11- How to fix an NES. Just in case there is a pop quiz...or something.

http://mili.phpwebhosting.com/~e3news/match_videos.html- Videos of fighting game pros. Credit goes to Pat for posting this.

http://zso.krahs-emag.com/beta/betaz64.html- Very interesting read about the development of Ocarina of Time. Thanks to Minda Cubed for the link.


Sadly there aren't links for everyone at my home.I have yet to experience the awesomeness that is Zelda: Four Swords Adventures with more than my self. I hate Nintendo for their mindset that everyone has 3 friends with GBAs and link cables.

Relationship. Ooh, hot! =O

My first experience with Halo was shortly after it and the Xbox were released. I was visiting my friend, incredibly excited about this "new system" he kept balabbering about. Lo and behold it was the Xbox contraption that I didn't really care about due to my entrapment with Nintendo 64. Given this, as soon as Halo was booted up, I was shocked by the graphics. I had never seen any 3D game so detailed before. Being a stingy selfish fellow, my buddy selected a one player campaign on Sparkplug 67 (or whatever the heck it's called). At the time I was a First Person Shooter newcomer (all I had played was GoldenEye), so the gameplay was new to me. I watched as my friend blasted through hordes of aliens. Needless to say, I walked away impressed.

My friends was always a hog, so I sadly never had the chance to play Halo until my uncle purchased an Xbox with Halo and some other games. I visited him one day, and the two of us spent hours playing the co-op mode, which was surprisingly fun. But after beating many levels on legendary in co-op, I became bored. I still had not experienced the multiplayer, though. Before and after this bore, I tried many other First Person Shooters and realized how little Halo did. It borrowed from so many games that I just enjoyed more. I feel out of the ring. (pardon the pun)

Just a week ago, I had the chance to play 3 player Slayer with some friends. It was great. I then realized how Halo, while not bringing anything new to the table, did so many things right that it was fun.

My perspective has totally changed since that match, so now, I'm going to buy an Xbox with Live so I will be able to play Halo 2 among other games online and off.

But wait, there's more!

Because of my interest being sparked, I decided to read up on Halo 2. Here are some things I'm looking foward to.

-The Xbox Live "party" feature: As you may or may not now, Halo 2 has a Live interface that acts almost like a Halo LAN party. Players can invite friends or foes into their party, which causes all to act as one when joining matches. I feel this will make setting up a game with friends will be much easier and involve less confusion.

-Destructible environments: I love games that have this aspect. Being able to distort a map in many ways brings more strategy and challenge to a game, which is a good thing.

-Destructible vehicles: No longer will players drive circles around your base in a Warthog. Just a few shots, and you can disable a part of a vehicle making it harder to handle or even explode. I think this will bring in a whole new gameplay element when paired with

-Vehicle hijacking: A cool feature that hasn't been done much before. It will only add more depth to the multiplayer. =)

All in all, I believe Halo 2 will be a great sequel to Halo. Despite the lack of innovation, the game will still be good old fun. =)

Well, it's been two weeks and I am finally taking the time to type up a new journal. Yay?

So far highschool has been cool. Much better than I expected after hearing Alakaiser's stories of gang violence, drugs, and suicide. ; ) My classes, while almost all honors, are quite easy and I am having no trouble so far. Homework comes less than it did in my eighth grade year, which gives me hope that I will be able to visit the forums and have social time more often.

So far my favorite class is English which fuels my desire to write better. The class is currently tackling short stories (usually my favorite time of the year, fiction is my thing).

I came to highschool knowing only five people but have now made some new friends in these two weeks. =)

Enough about boring ol' school. A spiritual sequel to ICO has been announced. I just have to say: HECK YES! The announcement inspired me to conquer a puzzle in ICO. What a gorgeous game. =) Check out GameSpot's Wanda and the Collosus Gamespace for some screens and information.

I've finally buckled up; I'm buying an Xbox soon. I've decided to sell my surfboard (I never get to use it =( ) to get some money for the system and such. As of now, my buying list includes Xbox with Halo, Xbox Live with Mechassault and 12 month subscription, Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, and a Linksys wireless XBL adaptor. I can get it all for ~250 US dollars. =)

Oh, I also got hooked up with a gmail account and it totally rocks. Feel free to write me at mwdietz@gmail.com (I wuv you, Jobano. XP)