I know I have not be around as of late but I do wish everyone here at GameSpot avery much belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday presents.

Please excuse, I return to my DSi.

I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360! I got a 360!

... and I got Legos to play with. ^_^

Hola!

I hope everyone is well.

I'm back for my irregular blurps.


Travian
(Premium account: Yes
There are various payment package sizes, starting at $2.50. Package gives X amount of gold that can be used to activate premium account, boost defense or resource rates, or trade with NPC traders on 1:1 ratio. The boosts usually last for a week.)

Well, Travian drew to a close and the server restarts. It has been an amusing experience. For the most part, it was a slow game for me. I had a few aggravations from another player. Other than that, I have spent most of my time just building up and rebuilding from attacks.

There's really no way to win the game without joining a huge, crushing alliance. I may play again later on and try my hand running an alliance.


Dark Pirates
(Premium account: Yes
There are several package sizes - starting at $9.99 for 3 months, $17.99 for six months. You get double the expedition points per day as well as engage in PVP quicker with a shorter wait, travel without delay. There are one-time packages will give X amount of Neutronium. Packages start at $10.99, $19.99, and $69.99.)

I stopped playing Dark Pirates a while back. It got repetitious after a while. There is not much asides from clicking your command and waiting for the allotted time to pass.

I'll probably revisit the game later to see if any new features have been added.


Gaia Online
(Premium account: No
Donation is accepted in form of monthly collectibles, $2.50 for every collectible. Collectible can be resold to the Marketplace for various amount of Gaia gold; depending on the items popularity and timing, it can be a lot or less.)

Gaia is a guilty pleasure. Like the majority of residents on Gaia, I enjoy dressing up my avatar. I spend most of time here buying and selling on the market to make my avi look pretty.

Asides from playing dress-up, Gaia has numerous forums and chat rooms to run around in. There are a few flash games that have their own reward exchange and an occasional contest for item design. From what little I know, there is an MMO in the works.

One recent feature I thought was cool was the addition chess playing ability in the chat rooms. Yes, you and your friends can dress your avi up as various chess pieces and play on a chess board found in on of the chat rooms. The only drawback is getting enough people serious enough to join in the fun.


Kingdom of Loathing
(Premium account: No
Donation is accepted. For every $10, player receives an item called Mr. Accessory, which can be traded for a rare item at Mr. Store or equipped as an attribute boosting accessory.)

I started playing KoL a few months back and just completed my first run of the game. It has been enjoyable so far. The game is a free browser-based, role playing game. The game is chock full of puns, play on words, and pop culture references, enough to bring on a chuckle here and there.

The main goal is to build yourself up so you can defeat the Naughty Sorceress who has imprismed the king. Before you can do that, there are a bunch of quests for the Town Council and Guild you must do. Once the Naughty Sorceress is beaten, you can ascend to heaven until the boredom of heaven drive you back down to the earthly realms.

If you don't feel like questing to save the king, there is PVP option that is available. You're limited to ten attacks per a day, which can be increased depending on item you or your clan have. There are mini-games you can play in PVP mode, i.e. pie eating contest, work ethnics, etc.

KoL is unique in that the game has a New Game+ feature that encourages you to play through it again multiple times. There various combinations of dietary paths, moon signs, and difficulty settings to play with. Each time you beat the game, you get to make one skill permanent and all your non-quest items are automatically moved to a storage facility, which depending on your new difficulty setting maybe limited.

5 Minutes to Kill (Yourself)
(Premium account: No
Flash game)

One of my favorites games from the [adult swim] site. I think anyone who sat through a pointless staff meeting or worked in a cubicle farm will get a kick out of this.

The goal is simple - you are cubicle worker who have to find a way in kill yourself in 5 minutes or suffer for eternity in meeting purgatory. Scattered through out the office building are various ways to hurt yourself until you die. You have a wide variety of ways to off yourself, from the good old fashion stabbing yourself with a pair of scissors to inducing a shark attack.

Next time…

Ikariam, Amateur Surgeon, La Pucelle Tactics

Hello again! Hope everyone is well. It's that time again where I drop in to see what is going on here.

The Good... Browser Games

For the last couple of months I've been amusing myself on a couple of browser games - Travian and Dark Pirates. At the moment both games rather low intensity games that you can play while you're browsing or doing other things in the vicinity. Most of the time you simply input a game command which take a some time complete and you wait for the command to finish.

With Dark Pirates, I'm still relatively new and still trying to get the hang of it. The game is relatively easy to understand, but it's finding help/FAQ page that takes a little searching for. The game does not have a FAQ/help section, but it does have a forum where if you browse long enough, you'll find the answer you need. If not, you can always post.

In the game you play as ship of space pirates, who must fight and raid to make a place for themselves in this universe. Like most game, you're given the lowliest craft to start with. In order to get a better craft, you need to either rob transport ships, complete mission which sometimes entails robbing other ship, raid each other or work long hours. There are other things you can do like create upgrades/modules for yourself, but when you're starting out it near impossible. There are alliances and PVPs, but I'm far too new to the game to get into this.

The game is far from perfect. There are minor little bugs in it that can be of annoyance. One thing is you're give a number of expedition points which is used to determine length of raid you can do (longer raid = bigger booty). Once you spent all your points, you're done for the day. I'm not sure what is the rate for replenishing these points or if it automatically resets at the end of the day or if you can increase the amount of points per a day. The second thingis theinability to choose the loot you want to take aboard. You automatically take in the first loot listed after a raid, which can be a mission item or just resource. In the beginning, your ship only has one cargo space so it's a hassle when you obtain the wrong loot and you have to waste time to travel to a headquarter where you can sell it as well as wasted expedition points.

Travian comes off as easier to get into. The graphics are rather low key and it's easier to navigate to find help. The forums seem more helpful. There are about 5 servers which one is running on three times the normal speed and one has been added recently. The game mechanics seems simple and easy to just dive into.

For the most part, you're building up a community and possibly expanding to the far reaches of the map. It's no SimCity by a long run, but it's far more time consuming. As your infrastructure increase in levels, the building time increases and more time twiddling your thumb.

Asides from building your community, you will be face with attacks. Most are raids on your precious resources, others are just bullies. If you manage your resources well enough, you can divert most of it and survive the brunt of the attack without losing much, at least until your attackers tires himself out and move on to another target. In the worse case scenario, you can always delete your account and start over.

... The Bad... Accidently Missed Plot Point

I goofed in my replay of Radiata Stories. In my attempt to complete my friendship list, I accidentally skipped over a plot point in the game which propelled me straight to the end game.

Boo friggin' hoo hoo...

I'm really upset with myself doing this, mostly because I didn't consult the strategy guide before plunging ahead. I like Radiata, but the beginning is rather slow and I have to recruit everyone again. The only bright side is that one of the items I need to recruit a friend carries over so I can recruit her early on.

C'est la vie

... and The Ugly... Ace Combat 6 TV commercial

Everytime they show AC6 commercial, it's the one that always hype the state-of-the-art graphics but tells nothing else about the game. The graphics looks great, but it doesn't tell much about the game other than it's a flight sim and it's on the 360.

If I'm going to buy the game, I need more than just pretty graphics to entice. Show something more, i.e. game play, cut scene.

I hope everyone is well and had a great summer. It's been a while since I last posted anything.

The Good... FF XII & Twilight Princess

Ty got me FF XII for my birthday this year. I have put in almost 100 hours into the game and have been enjoying it immensely. It feels like a MMO merged with FF Tactics. I really like the overall character designs. I like the fact that the characters' magic points replenishes over time and you don't to be conservative when it come to magic usage. The main storyline feels a little short. The majority of the time was spent on hunting marks or doing little sidequests.

Over the last month and a half or so, I have been spending quite some time home with my mother and youngest brother, Leon. As promised by my parents, Leon got Twilight Princess for the GameCube as a belated birthday present. Though he is somewhat compentent in gaming, there were many instances he gets stuck & have absolutely no clue how to go about it other than thinking up inane things to torture the chicken with. I end up helping him with the puzzles in the dungeons, which he always seemed amazed that I am able to figure out. Of course there are equal number of times when even I can't figure it out. But in all, these are nice little sibling bonding moments.

The Bad...

There's not much in terms of bad, maybe except our ancient TV is on its last gasp.

... and the Ugly... new Soul Calibur IV designs

So far most of the designs for the female characters (Sophitia, Cassandra, Taki, and especially Ivy)have been unappealing. It just feels... I guess, tacky is the word. Of the characters I seen, I like that the changes they made for Tira and I like the armor for the new character, Hilde. Of the male characters, I have only seen Sigfried, Mitsuguri, & Voldo. Sigfried and Mitsuguri looked nice, though I think Voldo looks stranger than his usual self. I can really say whether I like it or not.Ihope to see the other characters and hope aforementioned female characters have a betteralternative & unlockable costume.

Just when I thought I caught a break between the holidays, work, and artsy stuff, I start feeling the onset of a cold, leaving me a fuzzy airheady feel.

Uh...

Anyhoo, the few spare moments I had plowed through Kingdom Hearts II and Resident Evil 4 despite my desire to finish Okage first.

Kingdom Heart II was a nice improvement over the first. I like that the Gummi missions have been vastly improved upon as well some of the costume changes for some the stage (i.e. Steamboat Willie and Tron stage). I was hoping for a completely different costume for each stage. Maybe next time (if there is a next time). Some of the stages I could have done without (i.e. Little Mermaid & Pooh stage); I was hoping for a couple of worlds like the anthromorphic Robin Hood world to make an appearence. In all, it was worth the time I put in it and I enjoyed playing it.

Resident Evil 4 was daunting at first, especially the Pueblo. I died more times than I can count at the Pueblo in the very beginning and was worry that the game may be more than I can handle. However, once I passed the Pueblo, the game was easier to play. With my trusty boomstick and my safety blanket, I'm pretty close to finish. I can hardly wait to finish the game and start unlocking some nifty items (i.e. the infinite rocket launcher).

Over the weekend/Chinese New Year, I meet up with my cousins at my Aunt Doris's house. One of them was nice enough to bring their brand spanking Wii along with a couple games. We ended playing the Wii Sports and had a ball of time. By the end of the night, we all have accidently whacked each other (mostly arms and heads) at least once and broke one of the ceiling lights. All in good fun.

A belated Merry Christmas to all. 

This Christmas both Ty and I didn't spend as much as the previous years, which is good.  It means Ty has more money to spend on Second Life & City of Heroes and that we can replace the TV when it finally blows. 

His loot:

• The Complete Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and GitS: SAC 2nd Gig series
  
• 3 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtrack
  
• "An Orgy of Playboy's Eldon Dedini"
  

My loot:

• Resident Evil 4 - Played about a half an hour, I keep getting killed when I reached the Pueblo.  I keep panicking when I get overwhelmed. 
  
• Kingdom Hearts 2 - Spent all Christmas morning playing KH2, only to find out I just finished the prelude to the game.  I may put this aside until I finish with Okage.
  
• "Anatomy for the Artist"
  

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Recommended viewing:
- Thank You for Smoking - A really delightful satirical movie about a tobacco lobbyist

- The C.S.A. - A fake documentry on what if the Conferates won the Civil War. 

- Gankutsuou ~ The Count of Monte Cristo - An anime loosely based of Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.

Still brain dead and drooling from the work and other things.


Finally sat down and beaten Wild Arms 4. It's a decent game with a heavy mix things that I like and things that annoys me. At some point when my thoughts are collected, I type up a review.



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Contribute to The One Million Masterpiece.

 

The One Million Masterpiece is a two-fold project. First, it is an attempt to set a record for the largest online art collaboration. Second, it is also accepts donations which would be distribute to various charities.

It's free and you don't have to donate if you don't want to. You don't need to be artisticly skilled, just use the art program they have on the site and make a pretty picture.

The Good... Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
After 90+ hours in the last few weeks, I finally finished the main story of DQ VIII. There a few sidequest and bonus dungeon to finish, but all and all I am thoroughly satisfied with it. It really hit the spot within me that yearns for the RPGs of yore like the early Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, etc.


The Bad... City of Heroes - Lack of a Plan & Communication
Recently, I upgraded the home computer memory (from a paltry 256M to 1.2 G) and installed City of Heroes for Ty. From the few times I have played, the game is pretty friendly and cool. In general, we both have a good time with our little characters.

For all the good in the game, there are some really stupid stuff, mostly on the player end when impromptu teams of players form. Sometimes, you get a great team of players that knows how to roll. But more often than not, you get a hodge podge of players who do not listen to basic commands very well. These are the players who are healers with low hit points that charge right into the middle of the fray or simply charges off to the unknown and brings back a horde of enemies with them. The word "plan" confuses them.


The Ugly... Table-Top RPG
It's not ugly yet (unless you count the high cost of D&D books), but Ty and I were invited to a Rifts table-top RPG. There will be two other new players in the game with maybe two returning characters. Judging from the stories that the storyteller has told us, we can expect a lot of half-baked ideas, poor judgment, and self, petty, vindictive action to be taken.

Orignally I had this up on Gamespot's player review for the game, but some reason, the site keeps screwing up the format and making it into one huge paragraph. I just sick of editing, re-editing, and re-submitting to fix the problem. :?

I'll probably write up a much shorter version when I have the chance.

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Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter -- 8

Pro: A challenging battle system, multiple play-thru with new cinema scenes and unlockable areas

Con: Steep learning curve, infrequent save points, limited carrying capacity

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It has been years since I left played a Breath of Fire game. So after months of tantalizing me, I finally picked up the used copy of it from the local GameStop. I did not expect much from it except the standard turn base battle, save the world scenario, etc. etc. I was in for a surprise when I popped the game for a quick run. Dragon Quarter takes a slightly different approach to the series with some interesting and challenging results.

The world of Dragon Quarter is a sad and dreary place. A castrophe has occurred some time in the past and has forced people to live underground where the quality of life gets worse each day. On top of the worsening conditions, people are further subjugated by a caste system call D-Ratio. The system measures the potential of a person to bond with the dragons in the game (the highest one can be born into is 1/4, hence the subtitle). Aside from power, those with higher ratio lived in better conditions whereas those with extremely low ratio are treated as second class citizens or worse.

The story of Dragon Quarter revolves around the blue-haired Hero who despite his low ratio bonds with a dragon which saved his life in a subsequent terrorist attack while on assignment. Eventually, the Hero meets a sickly mute girl named Nina and a cat-girl terrorist member named Lin that was responsible for the attack. Though their relationships was rocky at first, the trio uncovers a deep conspiracy that has kept people under the current deteriorating conditions. Despite the impossibility of their goal, the trio decides to gamble it all and go through the upper levels to the outside world where the mythical sky is.

Like in the previous Breath of Fire games, dragons plays a significant role; however, unlike the previous games, the Hero is restricted to one form. The power of the dragon is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is really powerful and can defeat any boss in a few rounds. On the other hand, the same power is slowly killing the Hero. Use the power too much, the power will consume the Hero, ending the game.

To let you know how much life you have left, there is an on-screen counter (the D-Counter) slowly ticking away. If the counter ever reaches 100%, it's game over. Every step, every turn in battle, every time you use the dragon power, you add to the counter. Though it sound daunting, but if you don't go power crazy, you should have plenty of counter left for the end boss. Some of the tics towards the counter are so minute it hardly matters.

Gameplay-wise, Dragon Quarter turns out to be drasticly different and somewhat complex than previous Breath of Fire. One of the more notable system used is the “Positive Encounter and Tactics System” (or PETS for short). What the system allows is the players to lure an enemy into traps that can damage the enemy or inflict a negative effect and initiate the battle with player in advantage. If done correctly, you can take out a hard enemy or swarm of enemies with minimum damage take and possibly extra experience points.

In junction to the usual experience point system, Dragon Quarter has a very handy party experience pool. This pool of experience points can be used outside of battle to raise the level of characters in your party. This eliminates the need to level grind when a new character joins the party or if a level is too hard. Furthermore, this pool of experience is carried over in New Game +, allowing you to start off with a stronger character.

Like all games, Dragon Quarter is not without its flaws. One of the biggest flaw in the game is the save system. In order to save you must use a telecorder (public telephone-looking device) and a save token, much like Resident Evil and its typewriter/ink ribbon setup. Usually there is at least one save token that can be found somewhere in the level; however, telecorders are spread far par, usually at the end of the level and accompanied by a shop or two.

If by some unfortunate chance that you are with a save token and your party is wiped, all is not lost. Aside from reloading from you last save point, you have the option to Scenario Overlay: Restore/Restart (or SOL: Restore/Restart for short). With SOL: Restore/Restart, you can restart from your last save point or restart completely with your money, party experience, skills acquired, items equipped on person and items stored in lockers intact; however, items that are in your backpack and any levels gained will be lost. Fortunately, the game is not entirely heartless; every time you restart you will be given a few weak healing items and a save token.

Last Word... At first glance, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter seems like a very difficult game and may put off a few players. But the game get a lot easier once you learn how the system works (and how you can exploit it). It is a short game, but it rewards you each time you play through with new cinema scenes and more areas with harder enemies for you to explore and conquer. It has a definitely different feel to it and is a worthy challenge for all those who are looking for something different and a little challenge.

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