Yeah yeah, it's been a long, long time. Wow, since May? Well, I guess I should explain, and make this one look like my other blog posts...

Well, yeah, as my half-arsed prologue to my blog proclaims it's been quite a few months since my last blog post. If you haven't noticed, that means I really just stopped caring. I mean, yeah, it was productive, and fun at times, but time constraints, the mass amount of games I've gotten since May, and yeah, work to pay for all of those games made it so that this is just not worth it.

Among that, several things kept me away from Gamespot as well. First was the .5 increment system, which I still dislike, but have gotten over it, and while I didn't like Jeff G., seeing him go was controversal enough for me to understand Gamespot was corrupt, but this is all old news.

Of course, I still came back every single time I got a new game, and added it to my collection, as I needed a list that kept track of every single game I got, and honestly, I think that is all I'll ever use this for. The few people on my friends list who actually are tracking me might possibly read this, but eh, it's been so long, I wouldn't be surprised if I ever got any comments on never seeing a blog ever again.

So, that's it. There might be a slight chance I'll update this blog, but with this post that I'm looking at each and everytime I come on my gamespot profile, and the long stretches of time that I wait inbetween each blog, no one will miss it.

Uhm wow, that sounds quite melodramatic/emo. =P Not quite my intention. But yep, if anyone still wants to contact me, I have all the 7th generation consoles, (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, and DS) so that would be the best way to talk to me, I seriously want more PSN friends anyways, since I only got the PS3 recently. ^^ Comments of course will always be open, so yeah, I'll check this everytime I get a game.

And so yep, for myself though: 575 games in collection as of this writing. Not to gloat, but I LOVE stats. xP Well, enough farewells, I guess. See you around on Live or PSN! ^_^

Retro revival week? Huh, whatever, I still don't know where it originated, but if it was on the forums, that's probably why I never heard about it. Whatever, people playing retro games is always a good thing, right?

One of the first rivalries in the history of video games has arisen yet again within me. No, it's not as extreme as say, Sonic and Mario were, or the more recent Samus and Master Chief battles, but it's still worth mention, as I need to have a decent introduction to my blog. What I'm talking about is Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star.

Yeah, it's true it wasn't a varocious fight between the 2 franchises, mainly due to Final Fantasy's presence being a lot bigger then Phantasy Star, if not just for the fact that the first games were in a generation that was dominated by the NES, but nontheless, it still does have an uncanny rivalry. For your Final Fantasy I, you had, well, Phantasy Star... uh, I. For Final Fantasy IV, there was Phantasy Star II, (sure, III would be more appropriate for the time of release, but c'mon... Phantasy Star III stunk) and of course, Final Fantasy VI had Phantasy Star IV.

Now, jump a good decade or 2 to my predicament. I need a good MMO for Xbox 360. There isn't any. So I have to stick with whatever's available, and lo and behold, Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy are budding heads yet again.

My question is, which game should I get? Phantasy Star Universe, or Final Fantasy XI? 2 Playstation 2 games conveniently on the Xbox 360, both being old rivals, and both requiring a (ridiculous) $9.99/month fee to play.

I could say the advantages of each game, but that would be a little long, aye? Let's just say that PSU has better graphics, costs $29.99 on retail (without monthly fee), has a single player mode with easy achievement points, and I'm familiar with Phantasy Star Online, and know what it's like. Final Fantasy XI is one of the few Final Fantasy games I've never played, costs $19.99 new, has no single player mode, is actually a real MMORPG, as PSU only allows 6 players at a time on a quest, has no achievement points, but It's completely new, and I would like something... different. I'm not a big MMORPG fan, with PSO being the only one I've ever tried, so, what's your opinion?

Seems there's a retro revival week. Well, I've never heard about it outside of other blog posts, but I'll play along. I don't need to make a list, or something sentimental about "the good ol' days" of the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, as I play "old" games every week, if not every day as I like to jump a lot from game to game in my collection.

Instead, I'll show you what is perhaps the most legendary character of all time. The Dopefish .

Fear Him. If you have no idea what the Dopefish is, or where he's from, I pity you.

Yeah, a new layout for my blog seemed to be in order. I didn't like the old look, as it just felt, well, old. I needed something easier to use, for the most part, so here it is! What, it's not too special? Well, I'm sorry if I'm not a perfect artist with this stuff, it took me a whole 10 minutes to make the images, so quiet you. :P

Hm. 2 blog posts in less then a month, that hasn't happened in a while now, has it? :P Yeah, I know, I've not been paying full attention to my blog in the latest months, again, due to writers block... or not. It's just an easy excuse. :D

Anywho, I've been playing one series of games so often lately, it's (almost) the only thing on my mind lately. Granted, I bought Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis in the past week (the latter just today), but my brother plays those. Me? I play Tales of... games on just about any system I can get ahold of. Tales of Eternia (or Destiny II in US) for PSX on either PC or PSP, as I don't have the real thing... yet, Tales of the Abyss again for the PS2, Tales of Legendia I bought just about 3 weeks ago for PS2, Tales of Symphonia for the Cube was beaten for the 4th time, Tales of Destiny has had some play time, Tales of the Tempest is being played again for the Nintendo DS, and that's about it.

That's a whole, say, 200 hours or so of gameplay in just Tales RPG series as of late. Yeah, I could get other games, and I have, but I just don't feel like playing them. :P What was the point of me telling you this? Does it matter? It's a game site, right? Good, that's what I thought.

I know, I've already talked about games, but I need to talk to you about the games I just bought in the past, oh, 2 weeks. Of course, I haven't passed these, so I'll give you what I think of the games so far.

Obtained: April 14th, 2007

First is, well, you know, Tales of Legendia, as I've already mentioned it earlier. So far, it feels like a step back in the series, as I've heard already. The 3D battles in the previous Tales of Symphonia was turned back into a 2D sidescrolling button mashing feature, but without the intensity of Tales of Eternia. Other then the disappointing battles, the game is better then I expected overall. The graphics are better then Abyss, the world map in particular looks great in comparison despite being released 6 months earlier, and the characters are fun and lively as well, living up to the Tales name, so I can't possibly hate it.

Obtained: April 20th, 2007

In my never-ending, on-going quest to get just about every good game obtainable for all the systems I own, I decided to finally get Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on my last paycheck along with a 2 gig memory card for my Sony PSP. The memory card was a whopping $69.99, but at least this was a more reasonable $17.99. I wasn't exactly going to be hit with many surprises, as I played it already, and it was just as fun as I remembered it. Easy to pick up and play, and very... uh... Mario-esque, almost to a fault. Glad I finally got it, though, even if I got it for my little brother, not me. :P

Obtained: April 25th, 2007

$44.99 at Gamestop, used. Yeah, rediculous, I know, but dagnabit, I needed it. I loved Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64, and the price didn't go down at all since release. I got a quick refund for Gunstar Heroes and Comix Zone when they didn't come from Ebay, and it was enough for me to go ahead and finally get this game. Outside of the price, I don't know much else. I've been writing this blog instead. :P

Well, there's my new blog layout. Why I never bothered with "recent games" before just doesn't make sense to me, as I like to keep track of when I get my games, but oh well, it's here now, and it makes this blog post extra long. :P

Blog posts after this in this layout won't be near this long, as I won't have so many games to post about, unless I get a review up, or something. Comment, please, I want to know if you like this layout, or if it's just too darn long for your tastes. :P Thanks. :)

I am Alive. What? I've been gone? Not really. I've been going to Gamespot everyday, really, but had no real reason to post a blog update, or just no urge to do so in the last 4-6 or so months. What have I done since then? Gaming, gaming, and more gaming.

And so, I prove today that I am indeed alive, and well be actually *gasp!* making a blog post. The only way that you can say I'm not who I say I am is if you believe there is some sort of an imposter trying to make you believe he's me, and that would be rediculous. No one would want to impersonate me, for many reasons I will not explain here.

Anyways, I really like the improvements Gamespot made since my last blog post! For one, my blog post is actually working! No more damn bugs when trying to post a blog post on Mozilla Firefox, even though I had to input the bar to seperate topics using HTML instead of a simple button on top, but that's no big deal. It was nearly broken before anyways. Oh, and most noticable, 80x80 images. Well, gee, I wonder what took Gamespot so long to figure out what was wrong with the old 40x40 (or was it 30?) images. The small images themselves weren't painfully obvious enough I guess; it's almost as obvious a flaw as Sony's PR moves lately. Almost.

Anyways, if you still remember, I had Kingdom Hearts theme before. Well, that was a very short fad, to be honest. When I finally decided to get rid of it, I decided to aim the theme at a system, instead of a game, as that will not get old anytime soon. Speaking of which, I've got a few systems since the last post.

In December (15th, to be exact), I picked up a Sony PSP for $180 (used) when I noticed getting a Wii was a near-impossibilty, and the little matter of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops helped in the decision. I've gotten 9 games for that system since (the Nintendo DS is up to 16, with the import Tales of the Tempest being the most recent) and 3 UMD Movies (ugh...). My opinion on the PSP? It sure is pretty, and having a hacked firmware installed really makes it worth the $180 (version 3.03OE-A, btw), but the games for it just aren't... "portable" enough. It seriously needs more "pick up and play" games like the DS. Not like that'll help it overall, as the DS is destroying it in sales.

And, of course, I got the Xbox 360 on February 23rd with Call of Duty 2, Perfect Dark Zero, and Burnout Revenge when I noticed my 20" HDTV wasn't being used to it's full advantage with the Xbox and PS2 on component, and Gamecube on S-Video. Thank the heavens for Tax refunds. :P

My 360 collection, including Arcade titles, already has expanded to 12 games so far. And due to me getting so many games in a short time, I noticed that I've hit 490 games in my collection when I bought Halo 1 for Xbox on Wednesday. Yeah, I've collected about 90 games since April of last year. Anyone who says that is more then enough just doesn't understand what it's like to own games, and lots of them. But, the people who read this post understand, right? Of course you do. :P

Speaking of which, what games am I planning on getting to the 500 mark? Well, with Oblivion lasting absolutely forever (considering I didn't like Morrowind, I am extremely surprised on how much Oblivion kicks serious ass), it might not be for another month or so, but it doesn't hurt to make up a quick list, right? What with Gamespot's nice addition of making an easy list, why not? So, here we (or at least I) go! (Numbered from 1-10, 1 being most recent, 10 being latest.)

1. Star Trek: Legacy (Xbox 360) Probably sometime in the next week.
2. Kameo: Elements of Power (Xbox 360) Next Paycheck (next friday)
3. After Burner: Black Falcon (Sony PSP) Next Paycheck.
4. Dead Rising (Xbox 360) This and on are TBD.
5. MLB 2K7 (Xbox 360)
6. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (Xbox)
7. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS)
8. Tales of Legendia (Sony PS2)
9. Tales of Eternia (Sony PSP; Europe import)
10. Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (Nintendo DS)

While the first 3 are probably in order, the rest of them are more-or-less, jumbled. It will probably be one of those 7 to be number 500, you and I'll just have to wait and see.

Recent Games Obtained in last week: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360, March 23rd, 2007) Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, March 28th, 2007)

... yes, I JUST got Halo for Xbox. Pick on me all you want. :P

~Dalton Zeal

Well, this news is a good day late now, but I needed to come up with something with a little bit more punch then what other people have been posting in their blogs about this idiotic name-change.  And after I thought about it, this is just another chapter in some horrible, or dumb ideas for the next-gen systems.  There won't be a review or TMT update today, unless I get around to making the review.

Well, seems that Nintendo has now joined the other next-gen consoles in an effort to make all the new consoles all equally stupid in either design, name choices, or in one case, logo design.  The Revolution was a perfect name, and was the only system I was seriously thinking of getting.  But, like I said, Nintendo joined the effort, not just started it.

What am I talking about?  Well, let's start from the top.  Remember when Xbox 360 was announced, and rumors were going on just about everywhere on speculative names for the new console?  Something around the lines of Xenon, or even Xbox 2?  Xbox 360 was pitched by some people, to be sure, after finding evidence about it, and soon after were found out to be right. 

Now, why would you come up with a 3 digit number that is primarily referring to something in skateboarding?  Were the brilliant heads at Microsoft thinking they could find some way to make their next-gen console look cool by trying to get poser punks to believe it was endorsed by Tony Hawk, or Bam?  Was the idea of a much enhanced Xbox Live and incredible graphics not good enough?  Look Microsoft, most of the people who bought your 360 at release already had an Xbox, and knew what to expect.  The name 360 to me feels like some effortless way to get newcomers to buy it, and it doesn't work. 

Come to think of it, what will the next consoles be named? Xbox 540?  Then 720?  By the time you finally get up to the number 900 that Tony Hawk made famous, most people would more then likely attribute the system to an Atari 7800 then a, by then, very old skateboarder.  Oh, and have you guys ever thought of the fact that if the Xbox is going "360" degrees, you're not changing directions at all?  Not the best thought when people are going out to buy their next big console.

But hey, at least Playstation has it right!  They actually decided to again stay with their Playstation name, as they promised until at least the 9th one from the 2000 PS2 pre-release commercial.  But... hey... well, I don't mind the silver look to it, as it's a nice inbetween from white on the PSX and black on PS2... but, well, take a look at the logo.

Yeah, it isn't terrible looking, but at first glance, doesn't it look like this familiar logo design?

... Great.  Now, not only do we have a system that sounds like it has marketing designers that are fans of Tony Hawk, but we also have Spiderman fans among us as well.

Actually, they're not just Spiderman fans... someone at hardware design must have thought of something along the lines of "hey, if the Spiderman logo is next-gen... something else from comics must work too!"  And thus, we introduce you to the new Silver Bat-erang Controller!  It's almost as fun to play with as it is to throw it like a boomerang!  Never break a controller again when you have the urge to chuck your controller out the window, as, to your painful dismay, it will always come back!  It even makes a sound when it feels as though there's too much wind coming at it!  "Jumping gillickers Batman!  You gave the controller a toss that proves that a 360 degree spin CAN be cool!"

I can see where that could come in handy, but it really doesn't help me believe that the Playstation 3 is a true revolutionary, next generation console. 

And then there's our favorite console, the Revolution.  Wait, what?  Wii aren't calling it that now?  It's called the Wii now?  Dammit!  No TurbografX 16 or Genesis games can save Nintendo now...

Now, seriously, this has got to be the dumbest name EVER created for a console.  That's right.  It even beats out the fugly duckly Bandai "Wonderswan" name.  Granted, the... *cough* "Wii" has original things going for it like... controlling with a controller that looks like a TV remote!  Wait, CDI did that... It's backwards compatible!  Oh wait, that's been done too!  Oh yes!  It uses a REAL medium for new games!  Like, DVD!  Wait, what's Blu-ray?

To try to explain their idiotic decision to change their name, they came up with a touching speech that tries to play with the word Wii and We as many times as humanly possible before someone finally cries foul.

"While the code-name 'Revolution' expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games...and each other."

Since when did Revolution turn out to be a question?  The name fit perfectly for the console name, not for some hunky dorey "direction" to something that questions as many people as Sega did when they announced the name "Dreamcast" over "Naomi" a good 8 years ago? And of course, to anger us further, they decided to put more word play in their press release.

"So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything."

I seriously hope some Nintendo employee in Japan is thinking the same thing "Wii" are about them.  "What the hell are "wii" doing?"  Yes indeed.  But, hey, as long as we see a next-gen Duck Hunt on your... "Wii," all will be forgiven.

~ Dalton Zeal

Look at that. Why is it that I seem to be posting only once a week? I mean, yeesh, I'm not TRYING to post once a week. Seems odd that only once a week I come up with something worth talking about for a blog article. I couldn't decide whether or not to make the blog article more Lara orientated, or more "OMG!! I GOT 400 GAMES! I PWN YOU ALL!" orientated. Hmm.... Well, hot Lara... or brag-oh-fun...
I know! We mix the two! What could go wrong, outside of the title? =P

Well, here I am, at the 400 game landmark. Actually, I surpassed it already, with Tomb Raider: Legend, my most recent game, being number 402. While my 400th game, MLB 2K6 really wasn't what I was hoping it would be, as I didn't buy it myself (but it's part of MY Xbox collection), I guess it does kind of symbolize my drive for gaming, or collecting more games. While a certain game may suit my needs, more or less depending on how good it is, it never is enough to hold me over for a long time, as I always want more.

The 400th game I really wanted was Comix Zone, a Genesis game released in 1995 that I've been wanting for quite some time now, but the only option I have for getting the game is getting it on Ebay, so it slipped by the radar this time. After MLB 2K6, I got Splinter Cell for Xbox for a measly $3 (my 40th Xbox game, btw), and Tomb Raider: Legend just... 2 days ago (my 50th PC game =P). Now, for the heck of it, I'm going to list the consoles I have, and how many games I have for each one, to give you perspective on what my collection looks like. Yeah, I know you're too lazy to click on a tab. =P (according to Gamespot's database.)

Dreamcast: (Acquired 12/24/2001) 71 games. Avg. Score: 7.7
Neo Geo Pocket Color: (Acquired... 2002?) 1 game. Avg Score: 8.3
Nintendo 64: (Acquired June, 2005) 21 games. Avg Score: 8.3
PC: (Acquired sometime last century) 50 games. Avg Score: 8.5
Playstation: (Acquired 2003) 17 games. Avg Score: 8.7
Saturn: (Acquired 2/13/2001) 77 games. Avg Score: 7.0
Gamecube: (Acquired 12/24/2005) 12 games. Avg Score: 8.5
Game Boy Advance: (Acquired 2001) 18 games. Avg. Score: 8.5
Xbox: (Acquired 12/17/2004) 40 games. Avg. Score: 7.8
NES: (Never Acquired, Grandmother has it) 16 games. 
SNES: (Never Acquired, played plenty) 19 games.  
Genesis: (Acquired 2/13/1998 ) 31 games.
Master System: (Acquired late 1999) 9 games.
Game Gear: (Acquired 2/13/1999) 13 games.
Arcade Games: (You kidding? I passed these games.) 2 games.
Sega 32X: (Emulator only. Getting one soon) 1 game.
N-Gage: (Acquired June, 2005) 4 games. Avg Score: 7.4

Yeah, I had to add all those review scores up by myself. That was fun. But hey, everyone likes statistics, right?

Anyways, what about Lara Croft now?
Well, as you can see, I changed my avatar to a Lara one. Does that mean I might change my whole profile look to something more hot and sexy (Lara Croft, you dopes), or is it just there because I've been playing Tomb Raider: Legend?
Well, I have been playing a lot of Tomb Raider: Legend, and all I can say is, "buy it." It is one heck of a game, even if it's shorter then Conker. Considering I've hated the other Tomb Raiders beforehand, this game is a breath of fresh air. I've never cared for the movies, (Angelina Jolie just DOES NOT fit the part of Lara Croft, dammit!) and the games, dating back to the first were drab and boring. It does prove a point though. Make a game with Prince of Persia-esque gameplay, and it's destined to be good, as long as you avoid the damn auto-defense activation puzzle in Sands of Time... boy that was bad.  Hope the almost certain sequel gets a tad bit more difficult, as it will certainly be a blast to play.

What do you know?! An article, AND a review about the game in thesame blog post! Well, there IS this thing going on about "win 1000 Best Buy dollars for a review" thing going on for the Tomb Raider: Legend game, so I decided it would be best to make the review now. Too bad I forgot to put "Gamespot and Airforce rule!" all over them, as that would almost assure victory. =P
Tomb Raider: Legend (PC): (8.4/10) Lara Croft finally returns to her former glory in a game that's fun; but ends a bit too quickly.

Oh... uhm, Tailman Team. Right. Well, It's been slow. I think I might move to Sonic Strike's server soon, at least until things at Sonic United are fixed, whenever that will be. I haven't really been thinking of Tailman Team a whole lot lately, as it's the end of the semester, and I'm up to my neck in school work. When the semester comes to a close, I'll have plenty of time to worry about everything Tailman Team.

~Dalton Zeal