I'm addicted to Final Fantasy XII! :cry:

It's true. I was supposed to do devote myself this past week to get my coursework finished but FFXII has happily destroyed that dream. Now I've only completed half of what I was supposed to do that I could have easily done in a matter of a day or two. It's just that I love the combat so much and the story is entertaining.

Oh yeah, happy belated Halloween everybody. I spent my Halloween night hiding in a bush scaring anybody that was stupid enough to walk so close to a dark bush instead of the street light that was conveniently 5 meters away. I actually scared off 3 sacks of candy from a group of kids. Normally I don't support taking candy from children but they were already halfway up the road from where I was and I wasn't about to run half a mile to give up a sack filled with Snickers and Candy Corn. So I ended up pwning children AND getting free candy without having to leave my driveway. Yay me. :D

Oh yes, I also have my new Soul Calibur 4 review up if any of you would like to read it. It's my longest and most thorough review to date and I'm actually quite proud of myself. Once again, yay me. :D

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/soulcaliburiv/player_review.html?id=689794&tag=player-reviews;continue;1

Thanks to MissMorphine, (I KNEW that you were gonna tag me. :x) I apparently have to tell the whole world (and by 'world' I mean the 2 or 3 of you that actually read my some-what interesting blogs. :lol: ) 10 facts about myself. LET'S BEGIN!!!

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1) 7 is my favorite number. Ever. Why? It's the only number between 1 and 10 that has 2 syllables. :D

2) I have a red birth mark on my chest. Whenever someone sees me with my shirt off, they assume that I've been shot or just bleeding internally, and often call for help. :lol:

3) It's very well likely that I would not have lived past the age of 10. I was bitten by a dog, but that's not what almost killed me. It was the penicillin given to me that nearly got me.

4) In school, I'm seen as the 'tough' guy due to my muscular build, thus people find me intimidating. Same goes for people I walk past in public, too. It irritates me, to an extent. You know, those awkward moments when you know that someone's starting at you...

5) I don't see race, sexual preference or religion. If you're cool to me, I'm cool to you. We're all equal, right?

6) I don't care too much for school, despite my good grades. I mean, come on. It's work. No one wants to do it.

7) I've never had a relationship that's lasted more than 3 weeks. It just comes down to the fact that most Bermudian girls my age just don't know how to keep their legs crossed.

8 ) At one point in my life I always wondered what the world would be like without chicken.

9) I've never been to Burger King, Quiznos, Taco Bell, Red Lobster, or almost any other restaurant you'd find in America. Inorite?

10) I was raised as an Anglican Christian, but religion was never something that had a huge impact on my life. Yeah, I went to church, but I was just never swayed to believe everything that I was told.

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Well, that's just a little background information about me. Happy now Missy? :P

Now, I'm tagging 3 people. Get over it and tell me YOUR LIFE STORY. :D

*NeonNinja

*_Tobli_

*chasingmaynard

Sorry MissMorphine, I'll tell everyone 10 useless facts about me in my next blog. :D

But, right now, the idea of story in video games holding back what really could be accomplished in the actual gameplay elements, is something that's been a little heavy on my mind recently.

Do you guys remember a time when being really good in a game got you a pat on the back? Praise? I sure do. Back in the SNES days. (I'm too young to remember NES. :P)

But nowadays, when you're good at a game, the common 'gamer' would label you as a 'h4x0r', or 'no life loser' and 'U neds 2 gt laydzz nao!!!'

Believe it or not, this actually does have a link between stories in games, and the actual gameplay element. (Is gameplay one word or two words? :?)

I was going write a 10,000 word essay on the subject, but I found a video which sums up many of my thoughts in no less than 4 minutes. And, what I've been pondering has actually been labelled 'The n00b Effect'.

So, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7VAhzPcZ-s

Don't forget to come back here and tell me your thoughts on this. I'd really like to know.

Recently with the 'All Time Greatest Game Hero' contest, Link and Gordon Freeman went at it. I was watching these polls very carefully, because it could have gone either way. One was barely 100 votes over the other - Link. I go to sleep, wake up, go to school, come back, and to see that my beloved hero had been defeated by Gordon Freeman - A silent nerd with glasses and a crowbar.

:|

WHAT. THE. F@#%?

Seriously? FREEMAN? You've got to be kidding me. Compared to Link, Freeman isn't even in a fair match-up. Link has freakin' GODS and GODLY POWERS at his disposal. Freeman's got a gravity gun and crowbar. How scary. -.-

And to make matters worse, not only has Freeman beat Link, but he's beating Mario, too! The guy that took every person he was up against to the cleaners!

I honestly can't help but feel that people are only voting for Freeman because they were tired of Mario winning by a landslide. But then again - I never paid attention to Freeman until he got matched up with Link, so my judgement isn't exactly fair now is it? :P

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I'm in my senior year. By the time May comes around, I'd have already been on study leave and started my final GCSE exams. For those who don't know, GCSE is the two year course you take from years 10 - 11 (or in America, grades 9 - 10) and then you take your final exams, and those grades follow you for life. And as time is flying faster than ever before, those exams will come and go, very quickly. After that, I either stay home for IB, or go off to college.

And one thing I'm not ready for, is life.

Seriously. I'm not even aware of what I wanna do with life yet. But it's becoming increasingly obvious that I don't have much time to make up my mind - or at least, have that much time before I start getting frowned upon by those who actually DO know what they're interest is. It;s not laziness really, I just don't have a clue. :lol:

Thanks MissMorphine, for being awesome. I know that it might not have been much work for you, but thank you so much regardless. Photoshop isn't something I'm good at. :lol:

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NUUU! :cry:

My XBL account is suspended, and I can't even do anything about it! Microsoft simply WILL NOT accept ANY of my family's credit cards! There isn't nada a thing that's wrong with the information we're giving, MS simply CAN'T authorize our credit cards, yet everything else we use for online purchases are fine! And we can't even get pre-paid membership cards because they're not available in Bermuda. :cry:

And debit cards are out of the question, simply because after discussing it, my mother, father and I have agreed that the world is corrupt, and with a debit card, all of our money can be taken out in one fell swoop if we gave out it's info. And we're not prepared to risk it just because of one corrupt MS employee. (It's mainly paranoia here, because we recently had to get new credit cards for the family because our previous ones were breached.)

Well, as some things may have given away, I'm a Soul Calibur freak. And lately, I've wanted a banner to put that 'SHA-ZAM' on my page. But, I'm an editing noob, sad to say. :( And that banner up there - it isn't exactly something that I want to keep.

I know what you're thinking - "Bah! He's just a lazy bastard!" Well, yes. To some extent, I'm not making it because I can't be bothered to learn how to edit with good quality right now. I have school work which takes priority. :evil:

So, I'm making a request to anyone who is nice enough to make a banner for me! :D

Something that includes my favorite protagonist - Siegfried. And my username, Mad Vybz.

If someone actually IS nice enough to make one for me, I'll reward you.

With love. :)

Well, since NeonNinja insists that I make my very own squad of video game characters to battle the zombie apocalypse...What the hell, why not? :P

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Squad Leader: Auron (Final Fantasy X)

Auron is one of the most underestimated characters to date. He's an enigma that will never be fully understood, but the fact still remains that it is incredibly easy to take his word in consideration for what's best for the team. He's chalk-full of all that wisdom, courage, badassness and common sense that any good leader requires. Also, he's already dead! Zombies won't scare him. He's laughed at Death in the face. And he will pull through, because it's painfully obvious that Auron keeps his word when he gives it, 'cause he's cool like that.

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Technician: Otocon (Metal Gear Solid)

Do I really need to say more? Otocon is one of the most intelligent bastards you'll ever meet, and a real gear-head. Do you need to have a chopper repaired and pull you out in less than 10 minutes before the zombies snack on your face? Otocon will git 'er done, no problem. He could also whip up a few Metal Gears while he's at it. :P

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Scout: Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 1)

Name another person with a hi-tech exoskeleton containing multiple energy tanks to ensure survival. She can scan anything you see and record it's data into logs and lore, in less than 5 seconds. Name another person with X-Ray and Thermal Visors to observe your surroundings with 100% efficiency. She has a gun arm, with 3 different elements that can affect your surroundings, for better or for worse. Morphing ball, bombs, a double jump, and an anti-gravity suit all sum up to be the greatest choice for the position of a scout.

She also has boobies. :P

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Sniper: The End (MGS 3)

Ahh, yes. That creepy old fart with the loopy eye. Well, there's no denying it - he's one badass old fart. In normal conditions, he's virtually lifeless, but when it's time for him to do what he's best at, you'd better watch out. The man has an incredible sense of camouflage, and is of no doubt a master marksman. No, that's not why I chose him. I chose him because of this - you don't even have to feed him! Yup, he's photosynthetic, like a plant. He makes his own food. At night time, I'll just show him a stockpile of what every old person wants - apple sauce.

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Soldier: Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)

Yup, another old fart, but this guy is one tough cookie. He's managed to stay alive all these years while his super-powered devil son and grandson have been on the rage trying to kill him. Not to mention, he survived an explosion to the freakin' face! If he can survive super-powered devils AND giant explosions, zombies are child's play. He's also got a pet bear, and that combination is something I really don't wanna f*** with.

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Well, that's my kickass squad. If there ever were a zombie apocalypse, you really couldn't go wrong calling up these guys (and gal).

Hope you enjoyed my selection, and have a good night. I gots coursework to do.

I finally decided to actually play it. :lol:

Now, are they any tips or any good way to play it? I've seen files that are level 20 where I'm at, and I'm only level 5. So does this mean that monsters level up as you do, or is that just an eternity spent on grinding?

I was looking through my room for some old stuff that I may throw away or keep, and I found my old Gameboy Advance, and a colossal amount of dust. :lol:

When I found both my Gameboy and my old copy of Pokemon Sapphire, I started it up, and I realised something. I spent 190 hours playing it! :shock:

...Let's talk about the kind of the music I like! :D

I'm actually into producing beats. Yeah, I'm sort of a noob at it, but only after a week when I first started, I've produced Hip Hop beats better than any of my friends who have been doing it for years...So me thinks I got some talent. XD

I basically have no genre restrictions. If it sounds good, I like it. But I actually grew up listening to Reggae and Dancehall, because my brother was such a hardcore listener. Day in, day out. All you would ever hear in my house was Reggae and Dancehall... Memories. :)

ANYWAYS, since I am just a puny little 15-year-old boy, and happen to be black (shocking, right? :P), I'm automatically stereotyped to listening to nothing but Hip Hop. Yes, that statement would be true, if you said it maybe, 5 years ago, but that's not my case.

I'm beating around the bush, let's get into it. :)

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I LISTEN TO:

Hip Hop/Rap

R&B

Reggae/Dancehall

Rock

A little bit of Techno (well, I have like, 5 songs. :lol: )

Alternative (Meaning stuff like Rise Against, P.O.D., Paramore.)

Those are my main interests, but I'm open-minded and I'll listen to anything that sounds good. If someone else suggests me a song they like, I'd happily check it out to see if I like it. (*As a heads up, Death Metal is a major turn off for me. I tried to like it, but I'd always get a migraine. :lol: )

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Artists and bands that I'm particularly interested in (to name a few):

Asher Roth - Hip Hop/Rap

Eminem - Hip Hop/Rap

The Game - Hip Hop/Rap

Kanye West (Yes, I do like his music, APART from his album, 808s & Heartbreak. That album was icky. -.-) - Hip Hop/Rap

Kardinall Offishall - Reggae, Dancehall, Hip Hop

LUPE FIASCO - Favorite Rapper of ALL TIME. :D Hip Hop/Rap

Mavado - Dancehall

T.I. - Hip Hop/Rap

P.O.D. - Alternative Rock

Paramore - Alternative Rock

Foo Fighters - ???

METALLICA! 8)

Motley Crue - Rock

Daniel Tidwell - He's actually an up-and coming phenomenon. Search his name on YouTube. He does lots of cool video game theme music, and actually has an entire album dedicated to video game covers.

Linkin Park - ...Well, I like their older stuff. xD

Nirvana - I currently only have 2 of their songs: Smells Like Teen Spirit and Drain You. I'll get into them sooner or later.

Rise Against - Alternative Rock

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So, that's a little segment of what I like to listen to! :)

I actually spend quite a bit of my time listening to video game music myself, mainly stuff from Chrono Trigger, the FF series, some Tekken songs...They have such great soundtracks. :)

SO, if anyone actually reads this (:lol: ) Tell me what you think of my tastes. ;) And maybe you could introduce me to some new stuff. Who knows, I may become an addict. :lol: