Well, what a surprise that was. Sonic Riders is really a great game! I know, a review is a bit early, and no, not everything was beaten, but all the story modes, Grand Prix, and other areas were beaten, and many of the tracks were unlocked, including the characters, but not everything. After seeing the first review for the game have no thought process to it, I had to write one myself.

8.5/10 Sonic Riders is fast, furious, and one of the most rewarding games that Sonic has ever been in.

Goodie, now that that's done, I oughtta get moving, since my grandfather's wake is tonight. See ya guys.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Well, like I said last blog post, which seemed like ages ago, I've been working on my RPG Maker projects, and in doing so, I decided to start rummaging through my old RPG's, and play them over, or actually bother to finish them, to try to get more experience on exactly what an RPG can be. 

One of the easiest choices was Grandia II, of course, although I may have played through it a dozen times, it's still enjoyable. I also picked up "Evolution" for Dreamcast, since I never actually totally finished it, and the characters are interesting, even if the dungeons are not.  Of course, I also picked up and played a few classic SNES RPG's, but, again, I've played through most of the Square, Namco, or Enix rpg's for that system in the past.

One of the surprises though, was when I convinced my little brother to try Tales of Symphonia over Sonic Gems Collection. I, in particular, didn't care for Tales of Phantasia, due to it's relatively clunky controls in the battle system, causing way too many "Game Over" screens, so, I didn't know if Tales of Symphonia was going to be all that good.  I'm glad that I was wrong.  Sure, I didn't get to play it much, as my little brother played it more then I did, since it was his money, and his game, but the characters, story, and battle system are all quite fun to play through and read, although not quite up to Grandia terms, but still excellent nontheless.  Again, the Gamecube isn't mine, so I guess I'll just have to play it every now and then when I go down to see my parents.

On another note, Sonic Riders will be at Gamestop today.  From the looks of it, I'll have it before the sun dawns on the horizon, although I still am a little troubled by the fact that I don't know what it's like. Although, even if it is a bad Sonic game, it didn't stop me from having Sonic Shuffle, Shadow, or Sonic Jam for Game.com, did it?

Oh, and of course, just after I get Sonic Riders, I'll have to go home, as my Grandfather Victor died on Monday.  I only wish I got to know him better before it got too late.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Well, I went back home for my birthday last weekend, and when I was there, I decided to pick up all my old RPG Maker projects, ranging from 2001-2005, and many of them were still unfinished, and I thought, "Bah, I'll upload them 'as-is.'" But, I started working on them again after I finally got RPG Maker XP, 2003, and 2000 on my computer, and I am having a blast. I've forgotten how good it felt to make a story in a role-playing game, and see how it looked when it was running, and how rewarding the feeling was.

Now, I'm totally dedicated to my newest project that started in September, the game "Initiation Date." I'll put up a link on my blog area to site these projects are hosted on. RPG Maker forever!

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Well, Alex Navarro finally put up the rest of the winners, including me, on the forums. In all, a whopping 20 of my banners got onto their respective gamespace pages, a whole lot more then I expected, especially knowing I made banners for 27 games. =)

Well, Here's the list:

Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis, Game Gear, Master System),
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis, Game Gear, Master System),
Sonic Spinball (Genesis),
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis),
Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis),
Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (Game Gear),
Sonic Drift 2 (Game Gear),
Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn, PC, Genesis), 
Sonic R (Saturn, PC),
Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast),
Sonic Battle (GBA)
Shining Force II (Genesis),
Shining Force III (Saturn),
Dragon Force (Saturn),
NIGHTS Into Dreams... (Saturn),
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn),
Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn),  
Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast, PC),
Shenmue (Dreamcast),
Evolution (Dreamcast)

I don't feel like gloating, since it's not my style, but, I am definetly happy about this, especially since it's my Birthday. Not too shabby for a present, aye? A nice little emblem. M'eh, it'll work.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Yello. Yeah, it's been a few days since my last blog post, it's just one of those days where I am motivated to do, well, nothing.  My site has had barely any work done for it's next update, and my school work has suffered too. Oh well. The Feeling will pass, I guess. 

Anyways, while finally writing a new review, Sonic 3D Blast, I opened a new tab to see Gamespot's 1996 review of it, since I wanted to see the ratings they gave it. When I did that, my banner I submitted on the 2nd for Sonic 3D Blast, (which I half-assed, really) was suddenly up there!  Now, this banner is far from great, so I had to see what other banners of mine went through.  I thought I only would have a few get through these stingy judges.  It seems as though about 80% of my 27 banners went through, almost totally covering all of the Sonic games.  Wow.  I can't wait to actually see the full results on the message board later tonight or tomorrow, so I can see exactly how many of mine DID get through submission!  Gamespot made my day!

Oh, and of course, I added a new review for Sonic 3D Blast.
Sonic 3D Blast (SAT) : 7.7/10 Although 3D Blast has it's flaws, it still turns out to be an enjoyable Sonic title that any Sonic fan should try.

There you go.  Hang loose, guys.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Well, well, another Super Bowl has come and gone. What did I think of it? Besides the boring domination of the Steelers, (no, I wasn't rooting for either team) there was times that got interesting, some records set (such as the 78 yard rush in the first half), and the Rolling Stones bored the crowds and watching audience yet again with their tiring music that you've heard 400 times before, making one of the most boring half-time shows in recent history. The commercials, however, were much more entertaining then last year, with good commercials coming from ameriquest (I think it was them, not sure, it was the don't judge too quickly commercials), godaddy.com, and careerbuilding.com that made exceptionally entertaining commercials. Budweiser was disappointing this year, however, but still better then the exceptionally boring Escalade commercial, and the new Motorola cell phone commercial. Overall, the game, which ended 21-10, Steelers, was much more boring then the 39th one. I'm not going to bother giving you descriptions, because if you're interested in sports, you'll be hearing about it for the next 2 weeks. Commercials: 8.5/10 Half Time Show: 5/10 The Announcing job: 7/10 (for John Madden, it was good.) Show after Super Bowl: 9.5/10 (First episode of Grey's Anatomy I've seen. It was excellent, to say the least.) The Game overall: 6.75/10 Super Bowl XL Rating overall: 7.25/10 I found myself getting more tired by the minute. Well, that's all. Good night. ~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Well, well, another Super Bowl has come and gone. What did I think of it? Besides the boring domination of the Steelers, (no, I wasn't rooting for either team) there was times that got interesting, some records set (such as the 78 yard rush in the first half), and the Rolling Stones bored the crowds and watching audience yet again with their tiring music that you've heard 400 times before, making one of the most boring half-time shows in recent history. The commercials, however, were much more entertaining then last year, with good commercials coming from ameriquest (I think it was them, not sure, it was the don't judge too quickly commercials), godaddy.com, and careerbuilding.com that made exceptionally entertaining commercials. Budweiser was disappointing this year, however, but still better then the exceptionally boring Escalade commercial, and the new Motorola cell phone commercial. Overall, the game, which ended 21-10, Steelers, was much more boring then the 39th one. I'm not going to bother giving you descriptions, because if you're interested in sports, you'll be hearing about it for the next 2 weeks.
Commercials: 8.5/10
Half Time Show: 5/10
The Announcing job: 7/10 (for John Madden, it was good.)
Show after Super Bowl: 9.5/10 (First episode of Grey's Anatomy I've seen. It was excellent, to say the least.)
The Game overall: 6.75/10
Super Bowl XL Rating overall: 7.25/10
I found myself getting more tired by the minute.

And of course, the TMT Status Update #4.
Well, my game index is redesigned WAY ahead of schedule, and I still managed to add 6 new trailers to the video clips section. What now? Time to fill up the open spaces in my "Gamespaces" on my game index. I need guides, cheats, general info, and a TON more screenshots. Fun. The radio is still on schedule, and nothing else entirely interesting happened since the 3rd status update, so, there you go.

I'll probably write up a Sonic R review tomorrow, until then, have a good night.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Ugh. I moved into the suburbs of the Twin Cities back in August, and I have not seen such wreckless, careless, stupid drivers in my life, especially since winter has come around.  I, myself, despise winter, especially when driving through it.  Lately, the temperature has been incredibly mild, until last night, when it rained, and a wind chill in the negatives made my car in the apartment parking lot turn into a virtual icicle on wheels.  I spent 15 minutes scraping off my car at 7 am. Joy.  And of course, when I finally got on the road, it didn't get much better.  The roads were also, of course, incredibly icey to a point where you can't turn at 10 mph without feeling your wheels slip, yet, I still managed to see these idiots on the road driving at 65 mph in 45 mph zones, while on a cell phone on a very curvy road with a minivan.  Yeah, let's see how well your 4 star safety rating goes when you're rolling in the ditch after hitting some black ice.  Idiots.

Anyways, after that, I wrote a few more reviews, of course, finally getting past my 30 review mark.  To celebrate that, my 30th review was easily the longest one I've ever written, and it's for Rez, one of the hardest games you could possibly review.  I also made a review for the Xbox game, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which isn't as special.

Rez (DC, PS2): 9.1/10; "Rez's relatively simple gameplay belies a much more immersive world of sight and sound like nothing ever seen before."

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (GC, XBOX, PS2): 6.8/10; "I had high hopes for this title, but in the end, it's gameplay just falls flat."

Yep, that should be all for today. Enjoy!

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net
 

Sorry for another blog post so quick, but I wanted to put this up now, for topic discussion. Please, check my other post for the other, more "important" stuff.

http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3147663 Posted on February 1st, 2006.

Hoo, boy. 1Up mustv'e gotten desperate for news, so they start putting up speculation saying the true reason for the highly anticipated movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children's delay is because the biggest fans have been illegally downloading it off the net, and says there might be a good enough reason for it.  They are pretty much saying that if it's anyone's fault it isn't out yet, it's the fan's. Not Sony's. What kind of bull is that? Is it a new trend for bad business decisions? You can't send it out on time, so blame it on the fans? Hah! Again, this is all 1Up trying to find news on an obviously slow news day, and it's quite pathetic at that. -_-;

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net

Hello everyone. I've been very busy on Gamespot today, ranging from my new avatar to making 33 banners for games for Gamespot pages.

Yeah, that's right. I made a whole 33 banners for Gamespot, all in one post, but since you don't want to visit that topic, I guess I'll just post them here...

Nah, that would make this blog WAY too long. It would look bad on my profile, and I'm all for good designs, so if you want a look-see, go here: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=23896567&msg_id=265674604&page=39 Hopefully it won't jump a few pages again like it did earlier in the day. That's 25 games covered. ONE of them WILL go past those overly critical gamespot guys or I will be busting some heads later next week.

*ahem* I also have my first NES reviews! I decided that if I wanted to have that "old school" emblem, I might as well earn it.

Duck Tales (NES) :  8.2/10 "Duck Tales is another example of great results when you combine Capcom with a big TV or movie franchise."

Guerrilla War (NES) :  9.1/10 "One of SNK's unknown masterpieces."

Well, Enjoy, and leave comments on the banners, please, since it's disallowed on the topic.

~ Dalton Zeal http://www.tailmanteam.net