Wish this was a joke? Unfortunately, it's true.

http://www.rfc1149.net/blog/2006/12/30/reading-a-dvd-with-vlc-or-mplayer-is-now-illegal-in-france/

Remember, this isn't just about one country (they're part of the EU so theoretically ALL the member states may fall into line), this is about companies telling YOU what you are allowed to do with something YOU paid for with YOUR money. Think about it: you buy a dvd, and your favourite media player just happens to be VLC (because, if you had half a brain you'd know it's not a DRM'ed piece of sht and is actually useful for playing more than locked, monopolistic proprietary formats?) - you pop the dvd into your computer and start vlc, blam! You're staring at a three-figure fine. WTF?

What part of that could even remotely be construed as illegal, or done with intent to commit something illegal? You BOUGHT the frigging dvd, and you're just trying to WATCH it. You didn't copy it, you didn't rip or unencode it, and you sure as hell didn't share it ("sharing" is the nebulous bogeyman for all these insane laws, apparently). So what's up? What the fck is going on?

Just more proof that companies are raping us for all they can get, and that politicians are morons who will pass any law as long as they get a cut.

You guys are probably aware of the quake in Taiwan, but just in case you've been living under a rock, here's the gist of it:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/27/apworld/20061227133451&sec=apworld

Basically, (for at least 3 weeks? hearsay) 'net access is utter bollocks outside of each country affected. I tried. Local sites work fine. Once you step out, though (webmail, IMs, google, forums, hell- anything), packet loss 100%, timeouts up the wazoo. I'm only here because the congestion on the alternate routes apparently eases up occasionally (translation: you get lucky). I'll probably not be posting anything else here for quite some time.

Not that I care if anyone cares, but I have... jobs... here and there and in case you're a project leader wondering where I am, here's your answer. Not much of one, but hey, I can't even open gmail so how the hell am I going to know about, let alone respond to, any mail I get.

It's close to new year's anyway, there are things that need to be done around the house. I got my security cam net running finally, w00p. Now I can monitor the area around my apartment 24/7 lol. Might put up a screenshot someday if I feel like it. Not that security is bad here (it's a gated apartment community), but anything extra is always good. We sprung for the solar garden lights a couple years back, and it was great - the perimeter is lit year-round at zero cost. Even the naysayers now are happy with it - there aren't ANY dark, hidden approaches to the place. Sure, you could probably scale the trees over from the residential housing side where we don't have lights, but that's a sheer 2-storey drop to the mini-valley garden - and there are lights down there as well. Not to mention the residential area itself is pretty well lit, and a lot of the houses there have dogs.

Plus, you don't need lights smack bang in front of your windows, which usually merely serve to dazzle the occupants and act as beacons for intruders. Think about it: what good is a light under your window doing? At best you get a couple meters' illumination - the far reaches of your garden are still dark and shadowy. On the other hand, intruders from far away get to see your place in sharp definition. However, a brightly-lit perimeter means that we the occupants see everything right up to the edge nice and clear, while we ourselves aren't blinded by it (plus it's not easy to sleep if there's a light right outside).

Oh well. See you guys in a couple' weeks. Unless I feel like making an attempt at posting here despite the awful lag.

So, it's the end of the year again.

As you may have noticed, I was playing Tachyon: The Fringe for a while, but I had to axe it. Apparently the troubles it was having with the movies and cutscenes was caused by the bink player. It was a DirectX 6 game (A.D. 2000, practically half a decade and three generations of hardware away) after all, I guess you can't expect everything old to work flawlessly on today's machines. Kind of a shame, since it was interesting - although I must say that I was disappointed.

First and foremost, the flying engine. This is a big reason why we play space sims, after all. It was too arcade-y. Easy, slick controls, yes, but you don't really get that feeling of scale, space, and distance. Things are like, just out there somewhere, until wham, they're in the immediate vicinity. Unlike, say, even Privateer of yore, which was well and truly 2D, or Freelancer, which did a pretty good job of simulating the handling of a ship. I don't mention sim games that try to actually be realistic - I gave Starshatter a try, for example, but the ludicrous landing-detection in the tutorial itself put me off for good - because I really just want to have fun. It's not that I don't like a challenge, hell, the exact opposite, but past experience has shown me that most of the time, developers' idea of challenge means tedium (ugh). Which was why I really had high hopes for Starshatter, bleh. I mean, with it published by one of my favourite indie publishers (Matrix Games, the same guys that publish my all-time favourite Titans of Steel, which has been and still remains on my "currently playing" list), it was practically a guarantee to get on my must-buy list.

Then the nature of the game. For one, you don't save. It auto-saves your "profile" whenever you quit, and when you play again later the game continues from where you left off. Obviously this means if you want to change an earlier decision you're fcked. There's no reload feature either, if you don't like how a mission is turning out just press ESC to get back to the hangar, pre-flight. Easy, yes, but not convenient if there is a buttload of pre-mission chatter. Which is another annoyance - I don't mind voices, in fact I actually agree with the reviews saying that the main dude has a great in-character voice, but there aren't any freaking subtitles, so if you're deaf or are a foreigner (catching accents can be tough; I speak multiple languages, I ought to know), you're out of luck. I'm used to subtitles and actually prefer having them - I'm a speed reader (I can finish a typical paperback in an afternoon), and I prefer reading over tv / movies. I don't like to just jam ESC and skip cutscenes, having subtitles helps in this regard by allowing me to follow the story without having to wait for the slow-ass dialogue in most games.

Oh yeah, the so-called mission branching and the go-it-by-yourself schtick. Well, there ain't. I mean, sure, there's a sort-of plot decision somewhere which leads you down one of two possible story arcs, but flying isn't optional - you CAN'T simply launch and fly around where you like. You MUST take a mission to be able to fly, and don't kid yourself, you have to take all the missions available as they come, to advance in the story, so out goes the "freedom" part. Not only that, sure you can fly around during the mission and ignore the objectives, but you CAN'T freakin' LAND at a different base. Yep, you got that right. Basically you're on a leash, and a pretty short one at that.

So apart from the flying around and surviving fights, there's nothing more to it than following the story and doing as you're told. This isn't a space sim; it's a freaking point-and-click adventure. The crap flying made it easy for me to ditch the game when it bombed out yet again with another bink player error (it doesn't say as much, but you figure it out for yourself when the log mentions it, plus it always happens at a cutscene). Kind of a shame, too, since I was kinda getting into the story - the dialogue isn't lame nor totally campy, it was actually nice to listen to the protagonist's banter. But that couldn't save the game, and the crashes were simply the last straw.

Grr... I need a space trading sim a la Privateer / Freelancer, and I need a fix soon. I also recently got hooked on the free Flash-based online game AdventureQuest, and the best part is that it gets rid of the "MMO" aspect; other players are merely numbers on the server, you don't meet with them at all. lol.

See, in general people are stupid and annoying. Forced to don some sort of personality and with traceability / accountability, for example as regulars on a forum, they're not so bad (plus you can easily ignore / ban trolls). But as faceless and mostly anonymous entities in a game, most revert to n00b behaviour ("items plz! heal plz! zomg halp!"). I've played plenty of MMOs and MUDs, I've seen it all. The last thing a successful free MMO needs is, god help us, another free-for-all pvp model.

But this isn't the time to talk about socially-inept dwellers-of-parental-units'-basements, so we'll leave it at that. You know what this weekend is, right? The weekend before christmas, of course :p   Got a gig lined up at this place up north (no, not Penang, stop messaging me plz mr u-kno-who, kthxdie). Su ain't following (besides I don't think it'd be fair on her anyway, you know newlyweds), and our MAS friends aren't available, I guess we'll be tossing coins for deciding who gets bass. My Ashe costume matches the domino mask, but I'll be wearing the cape as well - an abbreviated, Celine Jules-style cape, because it don't crimp my style (and shoulders are sexy). Oh, and I traded her hotpants for something more practical (read: suggestive), a knee-length white laced skirt.

Here's to a great weekend, and to next year! Resolutionists need not apply. No, I didn't recap what was great about this year, or my hopes for the next, or crap like that. Why should I, this is my blog... not yours.

After several dozen hours more I think it's safe to say I've seen most of what Hoshigami has to offer. Sadly, it turns out to be another of those "overlevel = win" type of strategy RPGs.

First, attacking. Physically, you only have one kind of attack. Ever. Since there are no classes / job types, you just attack according to what weapon you wield (i.e. melee range, 1 tile distance for mace-types and spear-types, and ranged for boomerang and bow). There are no fancy "wave fist" or "earth slash" or "throw sword" or what-have-you, in FFT's style. You hit the enemy, that's it. The level difference is noticeable; anything 3 or more levels below you, you can laugh off. Anything 3 or more levels above you is going to hurt real bad, and you better arrange your party well because dying is permanent..

Then magic ("Coinfeigms", or CFs). Two varieties, damage and status. Damage is pretty straightforward, the diety-strength/weaknesses do have an effect, albeit a minuscule one, small enough to not matter compared to level differences (e.g. even if that enemy is strong to fire, if you're 5 levels above him, your magic will still pretty much toast him regardless). Statuses are a nice attempt, but there are very few. Blind isn't as nearly helpful as it could be, since the penalty seems small (and again, is affected by level differences). The others aren't so bad, but they aren't that hot either. Given that each character may only carry a limited number of Coins (governed by which deity is currently being worshipped), you'd not really want to waste a slot on a status CF when you could bring a strong, area-of-effect (AoE) damage CF instead.

In FFT, a lot of the status effects were useful since you got them early on, they had a reasonable chance of being cast, and they do a nice job of slowing the enemy considerably (e.g. Silence on a black mage), so they were viable for use compared to just piling on the damage - damage is okay but since random battle enemies tend to follow your levels, it would take several regular physical attacks to kill someone, so in the meantime it would really be helpful to disable that unit.

In Hoshigami, status effects are just a diversion. Even the god-granted skills that caused them had a measly chance of activating (10%, 20%... wtf). It was if the game itself was telling you, "don't bother, just kill them". And by killing, either through the boring, unvarying regular physical attacks, or through overpowered CFs.

Early on, strategy is pretty much reduced to how far to move and what to do (attack, use a CF, or just wait) in order not to screw up the next action order (e.g. in case a strong enemy moves before you can block it from reaching your weak mage-types). When you're overleveled (which is often, if you bother with the Tower of Trials like a good level-grinder should to get good stuff early), most story battles are laughably easy. My archer was killing 3 people a turn - each attack = kill. No doubt if attacks used less RAP ("Ready for Action Points"), she would get more attacks = more dead enemies per turn.

Having only reached the start of chapter 2 yet having clocked over 50+ hours in the Tower of Trials, and having read through the skill lists to make sure there are no later surprises, I can pretty much tell you that this is how the game goes. Just beef your party up at the Tower of Trials as you go along, and the story battles will be piss-easy. Even my mage-type ring users were 1-hit punching enemies to death. Wtf. That's not even considering if I decide to use CFs when the enemies bunch up for me like they do at the start of most fights (overleveled character + AoE CF = enemies don't stand a chance).

The engraving aspect of CFs to improve them was a nice idea, but it's kind of superfluous to have so many, and isn't very well explained in the game. Thankfully someone uploaded a CF FAQ - excruciatingly detailed though, and may scare newbies away with the sheer amount of information in it ("wtf do I really need to know all this?!"). Imagine trying to figure out that information by yourself. Not laughing now, are we? It's not all logical either, seal X does not always cause effect Y. That's why you need that guide. Someone who just dives into games will likely not see the potential of the latter seal combinations and just coast through the game with basic CFs - not a problem either, really, since by simply being overleveled you will crush all opposition anyway. So much for balance.

I'm going to review the game when I finish it, but frankly it's not going to score well. There's very little actual strategy in it when you take out the minor tricks like Attack Sessions - which is just a fancy way of saying "combo", while simultaneously being a lousy way to implement a "stealing" mechanism (wtf couldn't they just make stealing a regular action, at least THAT would give a reason not to nuke enemies so fast). If you got special, map-based bonuses for doing ASes it wouldn't be so bad, but basically what you get for doing an AS is a random item from the guy you sessioned. That's it, no mystery. Considering the pain you go through to position your party to pull off a 6xAS (doing small chains will not likely result in an item gain), you'd think the rewards would be better. Exp for everyone in the chain, for example (small consolation, but still).

Hoshigami looks decent, the story is somewhat interesting (but be warned I've got a fairly high tolerance for bullsht considering that I also enjoy reading fanfiction), but the actual gameplay itself just doesn't cut it. The engraving system is underexplained (not to mention how tedious it is to get good seals), the deity system was an interesting spin, but the slow pace of getting dev points (good luck maxing 16 devotion levels on more than 1 god without spending an inordinate amount of time in the Towers of Trials) as well as the relatively crap skills you get (e.g. Sonova level 10 skill = physical damage -20%, big whoop, just level 2,3 times above the enemy and they'll do crap damage anyway) makes it all feel like a chore rather than achieving something.

Don't send me union invites unless it's specific... not one of those "hey, I'll ask everyone on my friends list" things. There are only a few people I know really well, and they aren't here on GameSpot, so it's extremely unlikely I'll respond to some random out-of-the-blue invite, not to mention it's annoying to me although I know sometimes people just toss off these things thinking that you're doing us a favour. You're not.

Don't you vet people? Do you just want any Tom, Dick, or Harry to join your unions? I don't know you, and you don't know me, do us both a favour and send those invites elsewhere. Hell, the unions on my profile are those I actually bothered to look up and sign on for voluntarily (not invited to), and yet I haven't visited them in ages. I don't like that, and it's very likely I'll drop out of them. If I do that to unions I thought I liked, imagine what happens to those I get persuaded to join. I'll probably visit once to be polite, then forget about it, end of story.

Too many groups of whatever type have fillers and hangers-on; I'm not like that. Besides, I simply haven't got the time. The hour or so I get online is wasted following up posts on specific game boards and mail and the remainder on this so-called blog. Go look for someone who's actually expressed an interest, or who you feel would contribute. I certainly don't think I appear like someone who'd be an active member in any union, in fact I mostly just complain about stuff (even then, nobody's making you read this).

And my band is way more important than some random internet strangers.

What an interesting title for a game. Hoshigami, that is. I just started playing, and am building up my party on the Tower of Trials, a generic dungeon of sorts seemingly not tied-in with the plot (I like level grinding).

Reading the user reviews was illuminating. I always start with the bad reviews, get the worst over with, see the flaws before fanboi-type reviews gloss them over, that kind of thing. The main complaints were that it was slow (mostly because it's hard), and that you had to click a confirmation for practically everything. I wasn't too worried about the bashing of the graphics and sound (if you hate rpgs then why review them?). Then I read the reviews giving it good marks. Hmm. Many of them blasted the poor reviews for overlooking the navigation option toggle, and explained that people complaining about the pace were obviously used to being babied with easy games.

A couple of battles into the game and I have to say I agree. So many games handhold you and provide invisible crutches in the form of some sort of advantage. Hoshigami, from the start, throws your party against superior numbers of superior enemies. And there's no pansy-assed "cure unconsciousness" or "raise dead" gimmick - if someone falls in battle, they stay dead. Talk about pressure!

Final Fantasy Tactics is what it resembles (although in looks you might think of Vandal Hearts 2 with a less muddy palette. Still, with FFT you can fairly rapidly unlock the other jobs (classes) and, despite not having access to a lot of necessary equipment to make them useful, you still get a lot of killer, game-breaking abilities - like the Calculator class's Math Skill. Yes, I say game breaking. Don't take my word for it, just think on these two words: calculate frog. When a unit is inflicted with the Frog status, they literally turn into a frog - greatly decreased strength and mobility, and unable to access ANY of their skills. A frogged unit, then, is basically screwed. And Math Skill can hit any location on the battlefield, it has no range limit.

Sure it can hit your teammates as well, but with a bit of careful calculation you can avoid (most of) them, or even sacrifice one or two in order to get all of the enemy. Battles can literally be won in a single round. Or, let's forget the overpowered Math Skill and concentrate on single-target abilities. Chicken? Sleep? Paralyse? Power Break? All available as soon as you get enough jp to unlock them upon reaching the job they're in. Even the thief can charm enemies (Steal Heart), not to mention rob enemies of everything they're wielding. Everything. They can strip units naked, even of the weapons they're using. With patience, you can swallow several turns' worth of damage while you inflict these statuses on enemies, and usually after 4-5 turns they're rendered helpless, only able to hit you with their fists for puny single-digit damage. How's that for broken?

Still, the AI in FFT is undeniably smart. See, unlike stupid FPS games where the enemies won't even dodge into side corridors instead of charging blindly into your bullets or be able to steal health powerups instead of ignoring them, the AI in FFT is so smart that it'll heal teammates, actually use status effects instead of relying on plain damage, and pick on the weak links in your party.

Back to Hoshigami - you don't get easy access to the higher skills like in FFT. It'll be a long while before you start seeing the good stuff, and I suppose this is the root of the complaints. Bah - along comes a game that doesn't turn tail the moment your party so much as looks at the enemy the wrong way, and people complain.

Looks like I'm gonna enjoy Hoshigami for quite a while :)

Finally finished Alisa's story in Front Mission 3. Man, that was some roller coaster ride there. Technically, it is shorter and somewhat easier than Emma's story. Fortunately, it ends happily, with only one loose end - more like a setup for sequels than anything though. I don't recall exactly, but I don't think FM4 had anything to do with this game, so I guess that particular bit of information will have to remain speculation.

It really got going towards the end. Especially when the team raced to Ocean City in pursuit of Lukav and MIDAS. At that point I'd ceased to be entertained by the battles - in fact I blew through all of them using Body Smash, resulting in 2 or 3 turn wins. It was worth it, though. The ending!

I'm gonna go cry some more :cry:

- Ce.

Gearing up for the weekend is always a new challenge. Plus December is when we decide which signature outfits to wear for the year end gig. I have to admit I feel more comfortable as Princess Ashe compared to Yuna or Selphie, although the elbow guards sometimes get in the way when switching instruments. Our vocalist and lead, Izumi, is going as Vesta (from Empire of the Angel). Very elegant costume, white and black robes with gold thread, and the tiara frames her delicate features nicely. Itami wanted to go as a female samurai generic from Disgaea - cute! - but those sleeves get in the way, so she opted for the Super Sailor Mars look. I'm not sure what Shinju's decided on, so today's meet is going to be a surprise.

We're going to kick off today's session with the Evil Demonic Elves remix of the christmas tune. That one always cracks me up. Alright, gotta run - it's almost 9am now.

- Ce.

You know like when you're watching a horror movie, and the clueless heroine goes downstairs alone despite all the funny happenings? "NO! Don't open that door!", that kind of thing, yeah?

So I'm in the middle of Alisa's story in Front Mission 3, right, and the team had already just reunited the sisters after the Ravnui embassy debacle. Back in Shanghai, at night Emma gets this email from Lukav and decides for some reason that it's a good idea to go along with him.

For chrissake, why?! What the hell could that maniac have over her? The original MIDAS is destroyed, the team already got away with both sisters, who supposedly are the only ones to have the know-how, and the movers behind the conspiracy - presumeably the (now very dead) Chairman and Bal - are out of the picture. Okay, there's still the Lukav-Japan connection as shown in Emma's scenario but how does that involve Emma here? Lukav doesn't have any leverage I can see that's been explained - and back when I was doing Emma's story things play out quite differently (basically, she was with Kazuki i.e. the team all the time).

It's driving me nuts. I've taken 2,607 screenshots, and that's only the key scenes in the story alone. Nothing explains her apparent sudden change of heart. Damn, I've got to take a break, I've been playing this non-stop these past few evenings. But I'm too distracted to play anything else... I gotta find out what happens! Argh.

Too bad in the battle cutscenes you only see the characters in their wanzer jumpsuits. From the slight glimpses in the character portraits they look like they're wearing some interesting stuff. Emma's supposed to be wearing some kind of USN jacket? I'd like something like that.

I could rant about this all day, but to spare you the agony I'll simply link you to the forum on R-Force:

http://r-force.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=16

http://r-force.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=14

Long story short, publishers / devs / any other tool out there DO NOT have the right to piss around in the guts of my system - if you want to push advertisements on me as automatic updates, that's fine within the context of "dynamic" advertising. You morons DO NOT have permission to pull information from my system to "customise" or "target" your freaking advertisements. I bought your f***ing game, but you didn't pay to collect info from me. If the game was free but ad-supported then maybe there would be room for negotiation. As it stands, no dice.

Stay out of my computers.