Minor forum rant. Classic foreign n00b mistake, misconstruing advice for criticism and responding with misguided hostility. Boy I love these idiots, especially when everyone one the forum joins in. This guy got roasted so bad across two boards he got banned trying to keep up his dribble of barely comprehensible vitriolic replies.

I don't have problems with people who talk in barely comprehensible English - but to make no effort at understanding what others are trying to say and instead choosing the easy way out by repeating your opinion in a more belligerent tone is the moron's way.

You don't have to be a fluent speaker in any language to be polite. Civic-mindedness is universal. Therefore when you get blasted by everyone, clearly something is wrong with your approach. Get your head out of your ass before crying how unfair everyone is being, when you are the one who provoked the whole thing and in fact fanned the flames when others tactfully tried to steer away from conflict.

"Grandslasher", if you're reading this - though I strongly doubt it - congratulations for proving how limited your mental capacity actually is. A real shining example to your countrymen on how NOT to project themselves.

By the way: English ain't my native tongue either. Hard work matters, you lazy bastards. There are no shortcuts in life.

Wonder if any of you young 'uns recognise that song. We met up with the Megami All Stars on Saturday afternoon setting up for the evening's session. Trucidation managed to scare up a vocalist from somewhere, heh, but boy do the locals have atrocious diction :p Apparently the kid was loaned from a rock band. The local rock scene is kinda kuyup - they're like permanently stuck in that horrible 80s cheesy rock ballad mode. No wonder all the others are either R&B, rappers, or freaks.

There were more people than the usual stoner crowd at the studio when we arrived - no surprise really considering that they were doing a near-perfect Corazon Espinado (vocals notwithstanding), on top of god knows what else they'd been playing before. Hell, if you were blindfolded you'd think it was Santana not Lemur playing.

As agreed, we opened with Kami-sama no Okuri mono, better get the multi-vocal songs out of the way first eh? Easy piano warm up for me, too. Next was a faster song, Tamaki Nami's Believe (there are way too many songs with this title). Bit of fidling with the synths there.

The storm outside visible through the windows was a perfect setting for Hideyuki Fukasawa's A Way to Nowhere, which we gladly obliged with. Itami's set sounded a little raw though, or maybe it was just the new sticks. Me, I just love the synth work in this number. Wenn wir marschieren... after which was a cleaner sounding piece, Emmy Lou Rides. I always insist on taking lead on that one, it's just so fun to play.

Did a bunch of other songs, but I was only really interested in the post-break lineup. Abandoned Castle done with only the indirect floor lights is really intense. Can't get enough of that track, we must've looped 5 times. Followed up with Anthrax's Pipeline to ease the mood, which was kind of an oxymoron if you think about it (I mean, Anthrax...? heh).

Playing necros' XMas Evil Demonic Elves remix was probably a tactical mistake since it made for an akward transition to Akumajyo Dracula's Wicked Child. Worth it just to watch Shinju on the violin though ;p Closed with an extra long chorus version of Honoo no Sogekimono (Mars Flame Sniper). Izumi doing 'sexy' at her best, bar none.

Not much gaming lately. Still working on my FFT illustrated walkthrough. Right now poached a bunch of dragons already but still haven't gotten that stupid Mindflare.

- Ce.

Here's to the untimely demise of Steve Irwin, better known as the Australian Crocodile Hunter Guy.

Stingray stab to the heart? Man, that's just so random. Cynic that I am, I liked watching his shows, he was always so enthusiastic. Out of the (very) few TV shows that I watch, his stuff on Nat.Geo. (Astro, channel 52) was on my regular list. Best wishes to Terri, I hope she manages with their children and the wildlife sanctuary.

Edit: I saw the tribute programme. It was great.

- Ce.

Who else is pissed about Pluto's demotion? Setsuna-san, my condolences.

Then again, if you really thought about it, the Silver Millenium's inclusion of the ninth and tenth planets are a mystery, considering that classical astronomics only acknowledge 8 planets.

Oh well, nobody said fantasy had to adhere to popular scientific opinion. And I'm pretty sure others in the fanfic community don't give a hoot either.

All quiet on the gaming front. Been very busy with work lately. I wonder why I bother, it's not like I need the money :p Anyway, I started an illustrated Final Fantasy Tactics walkthrough, you can view it on the General Emulation boards:

http://www.generalemu.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=15

Btw Setsuna-san's profile says she liked music lessons the least. What's up with the outer Senshi trio then... pretty sure it's not just Michiru-san and Haruka-san (violin, piano). Can't recall which instrument she was supposedly wielding though.

Edit: wtf, thread seems borked by MySQL issues. Dammit.

- Ce.

GameSpot doesn't filter reviews, which leads to all sorts of posts from people who apparently possess room-temperature IQ.

Take this guy:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/titanquest/player_review.html?id=357248

Now, what's wrong with that?

If you can't install the demo / game (and thusly haven't even played it), then on what grounds are you writing your "review"?! Talk about stupid.

Titan Quest isn't a particularly bug-free specimen but then what recent game is? And at least, unlike some other releases which crashed for everyone, TQ actually did work for a large majority of people. Clearly this genius thinks he is so great that the other 190+ odd reviews from people who have actually played the game don't count. Hint: a review is about the game, not about how your piece of crap computer couldn't handle it.

Why am I slamming him? Nothing personal, I eat idiots like that for breakfast at my lectures, but this kind of blatant stupidity is annoying. Reviews are supposed to be about the game, nimrod - not technical problems.

He could've started a rant thread in the forum, posted a blog entry to complain about it, googled for the solution (let's not forget the multiple forums where the devs actually hang out at and respond regularly), etc. but nooo, it's too convenient to hit that "write a review" button. "Look Ma, my name in lights!".

Pfft.

Look at my own reviews for example. Sure I gripe about stuff too, but I give comparisons and reasons and examples - even if they aren't exactly spot-on or unbiased, but at least you get the point I'm driving at.

Edit: Heh, this morning I got a message from GameSpot saying 'thanks for using the moderation feature', and behold! That "review" got the axe :p It's still there but there's no more text to read.

Yes, I 'hey mod!'-ed it. Why not? Merely ranting accomplishes little to nothing. When complaining try to do something about it, who knows, somebody else might actually care too.

- Ce.

Heh, level 10, Phoenix Down.

Quiet lately? Busy with stuff, as well as getting into Titan Quest. Really getting into it. Been looking around at all the different skills. I still stand by my previous complaint that the majority of skills are definitely single-target oriented. I'm also getting more and more pissed with the hotkey style. I remapped A and D to previous and next skill, because using the mouse wheel isn't exactly 100%. A wasn't used previously, but for D I had to give up the drop item key. No big, you can still toss items outside of your character inventory area to drop them.

I'm getting this growing urge to replay Final Fantasy Tactics though, and hanging around the GameFAQs forums doesn't help. If there was ever a Final Fantasy game that deserved legions of fans, that was it. I mean, what have the others got? Pretty graphics. Tactic's gameplay never gets stale.

Rats. I had a fairly long post typed out, then it got broken because you can't do the ascii heart thingy without the html parser choking on it. Screw it. Anyway, basically the weekend was a blast, we had a party at Itami's, my brother finally bought me a ring, and there was a near-riot in the crush of the audience which caught us at a studio in PJ playing a couple of Wild Arms The 4th Detonator songs. I said that it was too small, but nooo, we had to go play there :P

So happy.

- Ce.

So I just nailed Titan Quest again by getting an official review up on GameFAQs, instead of all these unfiltered user "reviews" on GameSpot.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/review/R104392.html

Think I pretty much got it down pat. I'll still be playing TQ though, the novelty's yet to wear off, and secretly I'm still hoping that somebody  mods the skills, for the love of all that is Diablo :p

Time will tell. There are still quite a few more PS2 games I've yet to finish however, and my brother is getting antsy over neglecting Steambot Chronicles. I think he just wants to watch another kissy-face scene :p

- Ce.

All I can say is, it's about time. Didn't want to waste effort posting yet another player review since they aren't modded and therefore the TQ GameSpot player reviews are all full of crap. Won't post on GameFAQs either since this is mostly comparison vis-a-vis what Diablo 2 did.

What Titan Quest got right:

+ unlimited portals ('L') -- seriously, making players buy portal scrolls just to leg it to town adds no value to the game - realistic effects that are mere inconveniences and add nothing else should rightfully be done away with.

+ unlimited ammo / no durability -- it works for some, but again durability is mostly a matter of convenience - let's face it, if the item is in no danger of breaking within the next 5 minutes of usage and can be repaired at the drop of a hat, durability is a useless trait. It might be useful if NPCs charge too much for repairs and there are player-skill based repairs to compensate. Then again, skillpoints invested in a skill that does not help in combat are considered wasted.

+ no id -- same as town portal scrolls: about damn time, too. ID'ing always boiled down to stopping by the ID NPC before selling at the shop NPC anyway. Useless functionality, just added inconvenience.

+ carry bags -- instead of a D2-like stash, you got an expanded inventory. Technically this would boil down to the same thing (more storage), except for the fact that you bring your carry bags with you - thus eliminating the need for inconvenient town returns just to stash stuff.

+ summons -- now I personally haven't tried them, but most of what I've read agree that summons are strong. A nice change from D2 where summons were essentially useless past normal difficulty (think skeleton summon-based necro).

What Titan Quest changed:

+ socketables -- instead of hunting for socketed items, and ending up with the same thing every time you used a particular set of socketables, in TQ you could put them in most items (except for uber rare types, I don't recall the colour codes). One failing here though is that you can only use the same-type socketables, preventing players from mix-n-matching like in D2. This also means experiences players who know their items will discard low quality socketables and merely hoard a select few types, rendering the rest useless.

What Titan Quest got wrong:

+ crowd control skills -- where are they? My first character is a hunter (I haven't picked her second mastery yet even though she's like lv28 already), and worse, I'm only using one skill: the default-attack replacement (it's got 2 enhancements, that basically add pierce-through and blast radius). On rightclick I have that net-trap thingy, which I rarely use since it only works on one monster - most of the time I'm either chased by a mob which means slowing 1 monster down is useless, or I'm being chased by a boss which isn't affected by the net. I have used it on occasion against some toughies, and it was good then, but I fight those types of monsters like only 5% of the time. The net would be far more useful if it affected an area (like the spider monster's web attack). I haven't put any points in the aura-type skills either, believe it or not. True I've got a bunch of unused skillpoints, but I was thinking of saving that for the second mastery - of which I can't decide what to pick, since I don't want to dilute my focus on bow attacks, and most other masteries don't have good passive supports (the melee-type masteries have attack skills which, if I were to use them, would render useless all those points I invested in maxing my bow attack). True, the rogue mastery has a bleeding increase passive, but it's way up there. I don't feel like putting points in traps either. Also I've got a way low mana pool, which is why my build currently works since I rarely if ever use any other skill.

Where are the homing attacks, the multishot, the strafing quick-succession shots? D2 bowazons are definitely way more capable than TQ bow users.

I'm not commenting on the magic-skill masteries since I haven't used them, although from the skill descriptions and what people have said, they do have more area-effect skills.

+ hotkey & mouse buttons -- TQ screwed up big-time here. In D2 the hotkeys worked by changing your mousebutton'ed skills so you can quickly, say, poison a monster, freeze the crowd around it, throw lightning into the mix to weaken them, then finish them off with an area-effect spells. Not so in TQ. The hotkeys are cast when you hit them, which means an extra step clicking after that if the spell needs a target. This also means no quick skill swapping like in D2 - you'll learn to just spam your best left button/right button skills. The TQ arrangement restricts you to those two skills since changing them quickly isn't an option. Which means if you have support skills you will not put them on the mouse buttons, so you'll be doing a lot of hotkey pressing and extra clicking. This was a stupid decision.

Summary:

Titan Quest got so much right... and yet failed in the few critical areas that would've made this worthy of calling itself the next generation Diablo. I was actually thinking of playing D2 again before getting my hands on TQ - and after experiencing all the conveniences of TQ (especially item swapping between chars, i.e. muling, with the 3rd-party TQ Vault program), I don't think I can face playing D2 again soon, dammit, even though I know I'll have a hell of a fun time there since I really like D2's skills.

If they fixed TQ's skills and hotkey style, we would have a winner.

Edit: Got around to posting a player review for TQ (there are already 174 other reviews, ugh). It's more or less what's here, but there are a few points I forgot here, which I put there. Ok

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/titanquest/player_review.html?id=352166

Edit 2: Okay, I just realised you can combine partial relics to save space. How did I figure it out? I was rearranging stuff in TQVault when I decided to plop a relic'ed item onto the "split up" area to see how it worked, expecting to get the three separate relic pieces. Well it only spit out one piece. I thought, woah, is this valid - won't the game choke on it? Loaded character, hmm. Then only I realised what the little number on the lower side of the partial relics meant - they meant how many of 'em were already combined. Jeez! Talk about feeling stupid. Anyway, I probably got back an entire carry bag and a half saving space this way. Plus you get to see the complete relic bonus when you complete the set, no need to refer to a guide.

- Ce.

Well, yeah. I just finished watching Hinokio. Interesting. It was kinda sad during the last parts though, death always feels that way. And the expression on Jun's face as she fell from the top of that factory stack. The silence and her tears were nice touches. Reminds me of how I feel during the times I perch on the apartment roof during storms. Of course, I wouldn't choose to die like that. I mean, it's kind of messy, jumping. OD'ing by ingesting chemicals is the way to go.

Happy endings are okay. Too bad it's set in a middle-school frame, would've been interesting to give Hinokio & co. cameos. I mean, instead of <insert random classmate> you could use real actual characters. That's why it's taking me so long to write, btw. I kind of like paying attention to small details like that. Gets me sidetracked too much though.

Anyway, this blows. I want to rip something right now but tomorrow's still friday and I can't well play a song by myself. I mean, I can, but it doesn't sound the same without the others on the instruments. I guess this means Abandoned Castle again; haven't been practising my bass work much - I was catching up on the violin. It sucks having mostly only classics to practise to.

Hell of a storm out there tonight. Fits my mood perfectly. Fender precision, here I come.

Nobody told me level 9 was called Ikari Warrior :p Got to find that game again some day (crap... just occured to me... is there more than 1 of this game?). Which also reminds me of the Rambo game, didn't finish that either. I think I read a recent review which explained something that confused me for years. Apparently when you walk to the next screen on one side, then backtrack, you don't apparently return to the first room but end up elsewhere. No wonder I never got around to finishing it all those years ago.

Blew work today to play some more Titan Quest. Okay, so I did clock in and offload my work (wasn't any really) before bailing. About 5 more hours and reached the final area of the game (I think). Feels short, although I may just have been conditioned by Diablo's "acts" (don't recall if Dungeon Siege 2 (didn't play the first) used acts to divide areas, think it did too), whereas TQ's areas were more or less continuous. It was sorta okay, although unbeefed most skills don't really help - the aura-type for my Hunter especially seemed to have a ridiculous recharge time. Apparently though there's gear which reduces this, and from what I read there's better crap in the harder diffs which translates into better mods (like even more reduced recharge times).

They say some summon skills are broken (too strong) - it's possible to sleep and let your summons do all the work. Well screw me sideways, didn't seem like it - the skill trees aren't exactly arranged in a way to make it easy to see what works well with what. I've only got Hunting mastery btw, didn't pick up a second. Was gunning for the top-tier skills, and frankly they seem slightly disappointing, although I do admit I've only like got 1-2 points in most skills. What do you think, after all I've been squandering most of 'em in the actual mastery itself - 32 freakin' points for max, although you do get 3pts per. Think I'm lv17 now. Most of my points are in the Marksmanship tree, about 5 avg in the 3 skills there. Oh yeah, my other grouse is that it isn't specified which skills work with which or what weapons - sometimes it isn't obvious whether something should work with a bow or not.

Anyway... getting a bit technical. Long story short, I like TQ, but need a lot of info before venturing - just like RPGs, I kinda dislike wasting time on dead-end builds. TQ is pretty easy on normal diff for even crap builds if you're a good player like me. What? I am good. Part of being good includes doing your homework/research/reading-up and frickin' paying attention - I loathe those who whine "zomfg teh game is too hard" when they don't say what they've been doing (so you can help figure out whether they need a skill change / tactics / equip). This is also why I hate FPS games. You don't need any frickin' skill - your gear is already figured out for you, hell all you need to do is (1) hit a target, and (2) avoid getting hit. There's no skills, equipment, or other brain-using crap to figure out. These are also quite likely the type of people who complain other (non-FPS) games are too hard and get owned while playing them - most likely because they just rush out attempting to whack monsters - e.g. ooh, this skill sounds cool! without giving due consideration to mp consumption / regeneration rate, resistances, gear, etc. They get owned, and deservedly.

Meh, turned into a rant again. Guess I'm just feeling cranky. My brother's been working too hard lately, we haven't done it at all this week, and for me 3 days is just as bad as abstinence.