Protect The Kids!
The dust has settled. After months of debate it seems the 'kids and videogames' issue is finally beaten to death. A good moment to properly express my own thoughts on the matter, without my voice getting lost in the echoes of those who scream the loudest.
For some people it is hard to accept the simple fact that kids should not be playing games that are not intended for them. Let me first say that I'm an avid supporter of all the proposed bills so far. Kids should keep their hands from games that are not made specifically for their age group and those selling it to them need to be punished. Go Hillary. Of course we're still needing a scapegoat for the mess that is the retail industry. Some blame the videogames industry for their aggressive marketing, some blame the retailers, some blame the kids themselves. Nobody blamed ourselves, though.
I'm not one of those semi new-age kids who's claiming that there is no future and society's a heap of bull's excrement. But the way were are acting, or more importantly even, reacting, shows that there's clearly something wrong. It's not lack of education, lack of proper upbringing or lack of respect that makes the whole issue seem to have gone so out of hand. It's a lack of trust.
We collectively mistrust the government. We're dead sure that we're being hit by terrorists again so we don't trust that guy in the metro with the beard. To capitalize on this mistrust we've got guns in our homes, becasue we don't trust the people walking in front of our houses in the middle of the night. Protecting property from all that is outside. Cars rigged with alarms capable of airtightening Fort Knox are nothing new....
A couple of days back I was browising a few news magazines at the international bookstore at the station where I saw the followong headline: "Is my son a KILLER? 10 Questions about videogames that need to be answered!" I wish I could remember the name of the magazine, maybe some of you guys know it. In any case, it featured moms who were absolutely positive that a videogame could warp their children's minds in such a way that they'd become cold blooded killers who will ruthlessly massacre their classmates. Just like the good old radio play 'War of the Worlds' in days long gone by they expect media to have such a big impact that it will cause mass hysteria in the heads of their kids.
Kids becoming killers? I think that article is a real killer, the only warped thing in me after a life-long exposure to videogames is my sense of humor and I found that article hilarious....And sad at the same time. These moms do not trust their kids. On top of that they find out the hard way that they barely know their own kids, but they're not even aware of the fact while the whole world is watching. How many of you would've realized this? How well do you know your children, should you have them?
These American moms, after 10 years of upbringing, do not know their kids. They brought their kids to kindergarten, soccer practice, knitting clubs and whatever else you can think of, they've celebrated birthdays with their children and they have loved them, but they cannot trust them. They honestly believe that games like Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto will turn them into killers.
The cause of this? I'm stepping into the blame game and I'm blaming materialism.
Materialism? Yep. It may sound far-fetched, but these moms (and there are a lot of those, just try to think up how many people think Jack Thompson has a bunch of valid points) might not love their kids in the way kids need to be loved. Oh, the kids are getting enough love, but they are getting love in the way a lot of people love their '67 Mustang. They treat their kids like an object.
If I want my '67 Mustang to be blue I'm painting it blue. It's my property and nobody is touching it. I want to have it blue, not red. I read in a magazine that red paint causes the bodywork to rust. Rust will eventually make my baby fall apart.
Videogames are rust. That's what America and parts of the rest of the world today believe. They will make your kids fall apart, or, in other wordings, they will make your children into humans you did not want them to be. Not cold blooded killers, contrary to popular belief, but into people who like videogames and want to spend time with them. But we are treating the kids like '67 Mustangs and want them to be blue. Red paint will cause the bodywork to rust, remember? So we have them play soccer, we have them do knitting, but we won't let them play videogames. They are not making my kids into what I want them to be, and on top of that they are dangerous. FOX said so. And FOX knows my children better than I do.
Mystikvm Blog
The Past I Never Had
by Mystikvm on Comments
ATB
I like JRPG's. I like them very much, even. However, I did not play them before I got my hands on a PlayStation. The person who introduced me to them was such a dork even, and loathed so much by my friends that Pauline was hesitant to check out Final Fantasy because Ronald (that's his name) liked the series. If he liked it it couldn't possibly be any fun.
Dorks aside, I fell in love with the genre as soon as I played my first JRPG, and I have played many since then. I have often wondered if it is the 3D glamour (sometimes with 2D backgrounds) of today that made me love them, or the story.
With my back shattered to pieces I wasn't able to move around a lot for the past 2 or 3 days. I had imagined it would be much worse than it turned out to be so I had sent Pauline out to pick up Final Fantasy IV Advance for me. It would be the first RPG with a noteworthy storyline but 2D graphics that I'd play. Thankfully I'm liking it a lot.
The first thing that struck me is the complexity of the story, especially when you project it on the year in which the game came out. I can imagine that for that time something like this must have been quite the engrossing experience. By today's standards the change of events is sometimes laughable though. In two minutes (and two sentences) people turn from friend to foe or the other way around, and the most cliche (well, back then they were not cliche I guess) excuses are used to justify certain choices the developers made.
The game's nothing without battle, of course. It uses ATB, which I think is the best system the series has ever witnessed. The combat is fast-paced, a little more tactical and a lot less predictable this way. It's too bad the game has a lot of random battles. Some more balance would have been nice.
Speaking of balance, the game misses quite a few hard-hitters. Most of the characers you're travelling with (in the first part of the game at least) are mages of some sort. While I respect mages, they're quite useless in this game. They run out of Magic Points before you're more than 20 steps into the dungeon and Ethers are hard to find. I haven't been able to buy them in stores, for example. I'm totally reliant on what I'm finding inside the dungeon, making the whole experience a little more frustrating.
All in all this is a good, albeit late introduction to what RPGs on the SNES must have been like. It also tells me why I love Final Fantasy IX so much. I never knew the stories of those two games were so similar until I played this one.
I like JRPG's. I like them very much, even. However, I did not play them before I got my hands on a PlayStation. The person who introduced me to them was such a dork even, and loathed so much by my friends that Pauline was hesitant to check out Final Fantasy because Ronald (that's his name) liked the series. If he liked it it couldn't possibly be any fun.
Dorks aside, I fell in love with the genre as soon as I played my first JRPG, and I have played many since then. I have often wondered if it is the 3D glamour (sometimes with 2D backgrounds) of today that made me love them, or the story.
With my back shattered to pieces I wasn't able to move around a lot for the past 2 or 3 days. I had imagined it would be much worse than it turned out to be so I had sent Pauline out to pick up Final Fantasy IV Advance for me. It would be the first RPG with a noteworthy storyline but 2D graphics that I'd play. Thankfully I'm liking it a lot.
The first thing that struck me is the complexity of the story, especially when you project it on the year in which the game came out. I can imagine that for that time something like this must have been quite the engrossing experience. By today's standards the change of events is sometimes laughable though. In two minutes (and two sentences) people turn from friend to foe or the other way around, and the most cliche (well, back then they were not cliche I guess) excuses are used to justify certain choices the developers made.
The game's nothing without battle, of course. It uses ATB, which I think is the best system the series has ever witnessed. The combat is fast-paced, a little more tactical and a lot less predictable this way. It's too bad the game has a lot of random battles. Some more balance would have been nice.
Speaking of balance, the game misses quite a few hard-hitters. Most of the characers you're travelling with (in the first part of the game at least) are mages of some sort. While I respect mages, they're quite useless in this game. They run out of Magic Points before you're more than 20 steps into the dungeon and Ethers are hard to find. I haven't been able to buy them in stores, for example. I'm totally reliant on what I'm finding inside the dungeon, making the whole experience a little more frustrating.
All in all this is a good, albeit late introduction to what RPGs on the SNES must have been like. It also tells me why I love Final Fantasy IX so much. I never knew the stories of those two games were so similar until I played this one.
Burnt Plastic
by Mystikvm on Comments
That, And A Burning Back
Yesterday was quite the day. I didn't leave the house once, except for a little bit of grocery shopping, but a lot happened. Let's start at the beginning.
Yesterday morning Pauline was talking to our good friend 'German' over MSN. He told us that the guy who moved to Canada, Steven, is about to get married. In three months he's up for the marital vows and such. Seeing how he is a very, very, very good friend of ours we're happy and sad at the same time. A good friend getting married is quite the big thing, as you might know, but he's getting married in Canada (and therefore becoming Canadian) and most of us are students so we might not make it.
His girlfriend, Ashley, is quite well situated. In other words, mullah is sheer limitless in her family and her aunt comes off as a freelance filanthropist at times. Steven said she might drop a buck or 200 on some tickets so at least some of us can attend.
I'm not very sure whether I should go or not. I spent countless days and nights at his old place in his cramped room amidst the total mayhem he has created there over the years. We were best friends for a very long time. His friendship and advice mean the world to me. Still, the ones who decide to go have to chip in for a few hundred. I could manage if I put aside a lot of money in the coming months, but it would mean saying goodbye all the planned expenses in the coming months. Not only something as trivial as a new game console, but also new contact lenses and a slew of new clothing will have to be put on the backburner. Marriage or no, that seems like a big sacrifice to make for a few days of Canada goodness. On top of that, I've never been in a plane before. I'm quite hesitant to hop on, to be honest...
But well, we will see. Maybe Ashley's aunt suddenly becomes more generous than she already is. But I'm not hoping too hard, to avoid disappointment. I'll just focus on supporting him and his marriage from this side of the pond for now.
That was shock #1. A more literal shock came that afternoon. I was playing some Prince of Persia: T2T and I was stuck on a rather frustrating combat sequence. After going out for a while to do shopping and taking a break from gaming I decided I had to progress, I had been so close before. While trying something strange happened. Suddenly my back started to hurt like someone was sticking knives in it. I tried standing up, sitting down again but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I laid down on the bed and that seemed to work, thankfully.
The funny thing is that I did nothing when this came up all of a sudden. I just sat on the couch. OK, I'm quite the skinny person and I'm rather tall so my back's just asking for trouble, but I had never experienced such a severe pain in my back before. I hope this is not some kind of regular occurence...
But yeah, I was still crippled, figuratively speaking. After sleeping for a bit things slowly started to move again, and now this morning my back only hurts when I'm bending over. At least I can properly stand again.
Yesterday night I was in no such condition. I still had a hard time standing up and sitting in normal sitting positions, so Pauline and I decided to stay home and not go to the pub. We invited 'German' over and he unintentionally caused shock #3.
As we were talking the phone went. It was Frank, after hearing about my back he wanted to come over to check on me. Saying he did demand some coffee he hung up. I wasn't in a totally devastated condition so I stumbled to the kitchen to make some coffee. We don't have a coffee making machine, we still make coffee the old-fahsioned way, with a kettle.
However, the German had been grocery shopping and he had put everything in our fridge for the time being and left the plastic bag he was carrying it in (we get plastic bags at supermarkets here, not paper ones) on the furnace. The furnace I was about to put the kettle on. I did notice the plastic bag but figured it was too far away from the fire to be potentially harmful. Wrong, I tell you. I was dead wrong. I put the kettle on the fire and left the kitchen. A few seconds later in the living room we noticed a burning smell. Pauline went to the kitchen and discovered a complete burning ravage. She quickly put out the fire, in a few seconds the plastic bag had completey burned and lied all molten over the furnace. I knew plastic could melt, but I had never figured it would vanish in a few seconds.
This morning we've been cleaning up the mess. Apart from a few burnt spots there's so serious damage. Thank God. I screwed up majorly....
As a last note I want to say that I got Pauline to pick up Final Fantasy IV Advance for me, as I'll spend most of today and tomorrow lying down as well, I think. Impressions will follow after I've spent some more time with the game, hopefully uninterrupted by marriage plans, breaking backs and burning kitchens.
Yesterday was quite the day. I didn't leave the house once, except for a little bit of grocery shopping, but a lot happened. Let's start at the beginning.
Yesterday morning Pauline was talking to our good friend 'German' over MSN. He told us that the guy who moved to Canada, Steven, is about to get married. In three months he's up for the marital vows and such. Seeing how he is a very, very, very good friend of ours we're happy and sad at the same time. A good friend getting married is quite the big thing, as you might know, but he's getting married in Canada (and therefore becoming Canadian) and most of us are students so we might not make it.
His girlfriend, Ashley, is quite well situated. In other words, mullah is sheer limitless in her family and her aunt comes off as a freelance filanthropist at times. Steven said she might drop a buck or 200 on some tickets so at least some of us can attend.
I'm not very sure whether I should go or not. I spent countless days and nights at his old place in his cramped room amidst the total mayhem he has created there over the years. We were best friends for a very long time. His friendship and advice mean the world to me. Still, the ones who decide to go have to chip in for a few hundred. I could manage if I put aside a lot of money in the coming months, but it would mean saying goodbye all the planned expenses in the coming months. Not only something as trivial as a new game console, but also new contact lenses and a slew of new clothing will have to be put on the backburner. Marriage or no, that seems like a big sacrifice to make for a few days of Canada goodness. On top of that, I've never been in a plane before. I'm quite hesitant to hop on, to be honest...
But well, we will see. Maybe Ashley's aunt suddenly becomes more generous than she already is. But I'm not hoping too hard, to avoid disappointment. I'll just focus on supporting him and his marriage from this side of the pond for now.
That was shock #1. A more literal shock came that afternoon. I was playing some Prince of Persia: T2T and I was stuck on a rather frustrating combat sequence. After going out for a while to do shopping and taking a break from gaming I decided I had to progress, I had been so close before. While trying something strange happened. Suddenly my back started to hurt like someone was sticking knives in it. I tried standing up, sitting down again but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I laid down on the bed and that seemed to work, thankfully.
The funny thing is that I did nothing when this came up all of a sudden. I just sat on the couch. OK, I'm quite the skinny person and I'm rather tall so my back's just asking for trouble, but I had never experienced such a severe pain in my back before. I hope this is not some kind of regular occurence...
But yeah, I was still crippled, figuratively speaking. After sleeping for a bit things slowly started to move again, and now this morning my back only hurts when I'm bending over. At least I can properly stand again.
Yesterday night I was in no such condition. I still had a hard time standing up and sitting in normal sitting positions, so Pauline and I decided to stay home and not go to the pub. We invited 'German' over and he unintentionally caused shock #3.
As we were talking the phone went. It was Frank, after hearing about my back he wanted to come over to check on me. Saying he did demand some coffee he hung up. I wasn't in a totally devastated condition so I stumbled to the kitchen to make some coffee. We don't have a coffee making machine, we still make coffee the old-fahsioned way, with a kettle.
However, the German had been grocery shopping and he had put everything in our fridge for the time being and left the plastic bag he was carrying it in (we get plastic bags at supermarkets here, not paper ones) on the furnace. The furnace I was about to put the kettle on. I did notice the plastic bag but figured it was too far away from the fire to be potentially harmful. Wrong, I tell you. I was dead wrong. I put the kettle on the fire and left the kitchen. A few seconds later in the living room we noticed a burning smell. Pauline went to the kitchen and discovered a complete burning ravage. She quickly put out the fire, in a few seconds the plastic bag had completey burned and lied all molten over the furnace. I knew plastic could melt, but I had never figured it would vanish in a few seconds.
This morning we've been cleaning up the mess. Apart from a few burnt spots there's so serious damage. Thank God. I screwed up majorly....
As a last note I want to say that I got Pauline to pick up Final Fantasy IV Advance for me, as I'll spend most of today and tomorrow lying down as well, I think. Impressions will follow after I've spent some more time with the game, hopefully uninterrupted by marriage plans, breaking backs and burning kitchens.
Package
by Mystikvm on Comments
*pa pling*
Like Mario collects another coin, today I found a package in the mail, containing my copy of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones that I had won a few weeks ago. This on itself isn't very special, if it weren't for the fact that I apparently got a promotional copy (I guess this is the one reviewers are getting as well). It's not tucked away in the familiar DVD-case, but in a slim jewel case instead. I don't know what to think of this. It feels rather exclusive to be getting this one, as I'm figuring these copies are hard to find. On the other hand this is the only game I have in such a case, so where the hell am I going to shelve it? Damn inconvenient sizes.
That was not all that was in the package. I also got a beautiful Prince of Persia: T2T deck of playing cards. That's right, and all the cards have a nice background image. They look really luxureous. I don't play cards much, but it's nice to have these just in case someone comes over and wants to play cards....Not that that ever happened...
Well, I shot a picture of some of the cards for you to see. As GS has disabled images I'll just give you a link instead.
OK, so what about the game? Well, it's familiar ground so far. I'm a few hours in and I've been going through the game at lightspeed. You see, there's little the guys behind the series can surprise me with after palying through the first two installments. I know exactly what's expected of me, and if it weren't for a few new moves and a new environment to play in this would probably bore the hell out of me. Funnily enough right now I'm enjoying it and completely devouring the game. They ditched a lot of the combat or made it a lot easier with the new Speed Kill feature and reinvented the wheel by having the prince do a lot of platforming, just what I liked so much about the first game.
There's still some frantic combat, though, when you're playing as the Dark Prince. They had to insert some kind of baditude so they gave the prince and alternate form, the Dark Prince. The scenes in which you play as your Dark counterpart remind me of the scenes with the Dahaka in Warrior Within a lot. You just have to race through the sequence or else your health has completely run out and you'll die. Just as in Warrior Within when you were being chased by the Dahaka you have to play these sequences a few times before you finally get the hang of things.
This game is rock-solid and not so bug-laden as the previous game. I doubt it'll give me more satisfaction than The Sands of Time did, but it's looking very promising so far.
Like Mario collects another coin, today I found a package in the mail, containing my copy of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones that I had won a few weeks ago. This on itself isn't very special, if it weren't for the fact that I apparently got a promotional copy (I guess this is the one reviewers are getting as well). It's not tucked away in the familiar DVD-case, but in a slim jewel case instead. I don't know what to think of this. It feels rather exclusive to be getting this one, as I'm figuring these copies are hard to find. On the other hand this is the only game I have in such a case, so where the hell am I going to shelve it? Damn inconvenient sizes.
That was not all that was in the package. I also got a beautiful Prince of Persia: T2T deck of playing cards. That's right, and all the cards have a nice background image. They look really luxureous. I don't play cards much, but it's nice to have these just in case someone comes over and wants to play cards....Not that that ever happened...
Well, I shot a picture of some of the cards for you to see. As GS has disabled images I'll just give you a link instead.
OK, so what about the game? Well, it's familiar ground so far. I'm a few hours in and I've been going through the game at lightspeed. You see, there's little the guys behind the series can surprise me with after palying through the first two installments. I know exactly what's expected of me, and if it weren't for a few new moves and a new environment to play in this would probably bore the hell out of me. Funnily enough right now I'm enjoying it and completely devouring the game. They ditched a lot of the combat or made it a lot easier with the new Speed Kill feature and reinvented the wheel by having the prince do a lot of platforming, just what I liked so much about the first game.
There's still some frantic combat, though, when you're playing as the Dark Prince. They had to insert some kind of baditude so they gave the prince and alternate form, the Dark Prince. The scenes in which you play as your Dark counterpart remind me of the scenes with the Dahaka in Warrior Within a lot. You just have to race through the sequence or else your health has completely run out and you'll die. Just as in Warrior Within when you were being chased by the Dahaka you have to play these sequences a few times before you finally get the hang of things.
This game is rock-solid and not so bug-laden as the previous game. I doubt it'll give me more satisfaction than The Sands of Time did, but it's looking very promising so far.
Data Is Corrupt
by Mystikvm on Comments
You'd wonder what it is with my updates. Well, the truth is that I have little to talk about. Starting last week I'll be cutting down on updates, hopefully increasing quality this way. I've neglected quality, or so I feel.
'Incident'
I have a love/hate relationship with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. I'm liking the game for its quirky style, fun characters and absurd sense of humor, I'm hating it for its flawed gameplay. Surely it is deep and all different things you can do connect well together, but getting there is a major pain in the behind. Whoever thought up concepts like: 'the one to deliver the finishing blow is the one to level up' needs his head removed. This way they promoted an SRPG to a freaking chess game. If there's one thing I like about SRPG's, it's that you can play them on auto-pilot. Disgaea didn't have that option, so a lot of thinking was required.
This was the third time I would give the game another go, and it's always fun at first, then after a few days it becomes boring again and I put it aside for a month or 3. At this rate I'll have played, seen and experienced everything in the game in the year 2525....If man is still alive, that is. In any case, I had poured in quite a few additional hours until yesterday. Pauline and I were about to go to a pub with some friends to enjoy some live music, so I wrapped up a battle, saved and asked Pauline to turn the PS2 off for me, since she was sitting right next to it.
You know these messages. Do not turn your console off while playing! I've always wondered who in his right mind would do that. Well, I did yesterday. Correction, Pauline did. I told her to turn it off while saving, and she complied immediately. The thought of giving her the full blame for this debacle crossed my mind at least twice, but there was no way I could shove it onto her plate. I now apologize for thinking this way.
At first I did not realize I had Pauline turn off the console while it was still saving. After a minute or so I thought: 'Wait a minute....'. I turn on the console, boot up the game, choose 'Continue' and find out that 'Data is corrupt'.
Ouch. That's 30 hours of gameplay down the drain. Of course, to save space on the memory card (I have shelves full of PS2 games, but only one memory card) I had only made one save game....And now that came flying right back to me, and into my face.
I doubt I'll ever play Disgaea again. I had a love/hate relationship with the game from the beginning, and now there's little chance I'll be sitting through 30 hours of gameplay again, with lots of frustrating moments to pick up where I had left off before the 'incident' happened.
'Incident'. I think I'll refer to this as the 'incident' in the future.
'Incident'
I have a love/hate relationship with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. I'm liking the game for its quirky style, fun characters and absurd sense of humor, I'm hating it for its flawed gameplay. Surely it is deep and all different things you can do connect well together, but getting there is a major pain in the behind. Whoever thought up concepts like: 'the one to deliver the finishing blow is the one to level up' needs his head removed. This way they promoted an SRPG to a freaking chess game. If there's one thing I like about SRPG's, it's that you can play them on auto-pilot. Disgaea didn't have that option, so a lot of thinking was required.
This was the third time I would give the game another go, and it's always fun at first, then after a few days it becomes boring again and I put it aside for a month or 3. At this rate I'll have played, seen and experienced everything in the game in the year 2525....If man is still alive, that is. In any case, I had poured in quite a few additional hours until yesterday. Pauline and I were about to go to a pub with some friends to enjoy some live music, so I wrapped up a battle, saved and asked Pauline to turn the PS2 off for me, since she was sitting right next to it.
You know these messages. Do not turn your console off while playing! I've always wondered who in his right mind would do that. Well, I did yesterday. Correction, Pauline did. I told her to turn it off while saving, and she complied immediately. The thought of giving her the full blame for this debacle crossed my mind at least twice, but there was no way I could shove it onto her plate. I now apologize for thinking this way.
At first I did not realize I had Pauline turn off the console while it was still saving. After a minute or so I thought: 'Wait a minute....'. I turn on the console, boot up the game, choose 'Continue' and find out that 'Data is corrupt'.
Ouch. That's 30 hours of gameplay down the drain. Of course, to save space on the memory card (I have shelves full of PS2 games, but only one memory card) I had only made one save game....And now that came flying right back to me, and into my face.
I doubt I'll ever play Disgaea again. I had a love/hate relationship with the game from the beginning, and now there's little chance I'll be sitting through 30 hours of gameplay again, with lots of frustrating moments to pick up where I had left off before the 'incident' happened.
'Incident'. I think I'll refer to this as the 'incident' in the future.
2005 plus 1
by Mystikvm on Comments
Have A Good One
For you guys 2006 is still a few hours away, for me it is already here. I just got home after spending the evening and the turn of the year with friends, now I'm longing for bed. You all know I'm not really a nightcrawler or party animal.
Anyways, I have little to say but to wish you all a good and healthy 2006. Have a good one and be safe. Oh yeah, I took this picture at 12:15 am, at the riverside a few miles from here. We spent the night at a friend's place who happens to live a block away from there. It may be a bit grainy, but you have to forgive me.
Here's to a fruitful 2006!
For you guys 2006 is still a few hours away, for me it is already here. I just got home after spending the evening and the turn of the year with friends, now I'm longing for bed. You all know I'm not really a nightcrawler or party animal.
Anyways, I have little to say but to wish you all a good and healthy 2006. Have a good one and be safe. Oh yeah, I took this picture at 12:15 am, at the riverside a few miles from here. We spent the night at a friend's place who happens to live a block away from there. It may be a bit grainy, but you have to forgive me.
Here's to a fruitful 2006!
Friendly Fire
by Mystikvm on Comments
Friendly Fire 1
I wanted Final Fantasy IV Advance ever since I heard it was in stores, but I decided to take it easy with buying games this month in order to save up a little bit extra for the future Xbox 360. However, due to the fact that we've been exceptionally cheap on electricity this year we get a 150 Euro 'discount' on our next payment for the rent. So I had a little extra cash to spend and that's why Pauline and I went to the gamestore. I swear that just before Christmas they had about 5 or 6 copies of FFIV sitting on the shelf, but today they were all gone. It was the only shop that had them too, seeing how they were US imports. Quite desillusioned I decided to go with Advance Wars DS, another game I had been eyeing for quite some time.
I'm a few missions in right now and so far it's been fun, but maybe a little boring. I'm used to these kinds of strategy games, but there doesn't seem to be more to the units than that what's there in the beginning. In other strategy-like games like SRPG's your units gain new abilities so there's new stuff to look forward to. But it's too early to draw such conclusions, I'll see.
The missions are diverse and fun, so far. It'll surely keep me busy for a while and it doesn't hold back on challenge too. One little mistake and you're toast. It's not that you'll definately lose, but losing one key unit makes it hard to win. I like that. As a fan of things that have strategy involved I don't want to walk the beaten path but I want to be tested a little. So far I'm getting what I want.
It's too bad that I'm not yet spotting the addictiveness people have been talking about. I had expected a game that would make me rout the missions one by one in a few sittings due to its addictiveness factor, but I didn't have a hard time putting my DS aside to do something else for a few hours. Well, as long as it is enjoyable I'll be fine. Also as long as this game doesn't throw insanely hard missions at me that are impossible to beat unless you try 30 times I have confidence that I'll be finishing this one.
Friendly Fire 2
There's some other good news on the financial front, possibly. Now that I'm sharing an apartment with Pauline I'm officially her 'fiscal partner', which means that we count as one household. As a student I have no income, at least not one that requires me to pay tax (yes, I pay 0% tax). It seems that all citizens of this country who do not have an income over which tax needs to be payed get 150 Euros a month. I'll be digging into this a little deeper as this would be a very welcome addition to my monthly budget.
I wanted Final Fantasy IV Advance ever since I heard it was in stores, but I decided to take it easy with buying games this month in order to save up a little bit extra for the future Xbox 360. However, due to the fact that we've been exceptionally cheap on electricity this year we get a 150 Euro 'discount' on our next payment for the rent. So I had a little extra cash to spend and that's why Pauline and I went to the gamestore. I swear that just before Christmas they had about 5 or 6 copies of FFIV sitting on the shelf, but today they were all gone. It was the only shop that had them too, seeing how they were US imports. Quite desillusioned I decided to go with Advance Wars DS, another game I had been eyeing for quite some time.
I'm a few missions in right now and so far it's been fun, but maybe a little boring. I'm used to these kinds of strategy games, but there doesn't seem to be more to the units than that what's there in the beginning. In other strategy-like games like SRPG's your units gain new abilities so there's new stuff to look forward to. But it's too early to draw such conclusions, I'll see.
The missions are diverse and fun, so far. It'll surely keep me busy for a while and it doesn't hold back on challenge too. One little mistake and you're toast. It's not that you'll definately lose, but losing one key unit makes it hard to win. I like that. As a fan of things that have strategy involved I don't want to walk the beaten path but I want to be tested a little. So far I'm getting what I want.
It's too bad that I'm not yet spotting the addictiveness people have been talking about. I had expected a game that would make me rout the missions one by one in a few sittings due to its addictiveness factor, but I didn't have a hard time putting my DS aside to do something else for a few hours. Well, as long as it is enjoyable I'll be fine. Also as long as this game doesn't throw insanely hard missions at me that are impossible to beat unless you try 30 times I have confidence that I'll be finishing this one.
Friendly Fire 2
There's some other good news on the financial front, possibly. Now that I'm sharing an apartment with Pauline I'm officially her 'fiscal partner', which means that we count as one household. As a student I have no income, at least not one that requires me to pay tax (yes, I pay 0% tax). It seems that all citizens of this country who do not have an income over which tax needs to be payed get 150 Euros a month. I'll be digging into this a little deeper as this would be a very welcome addition to my monthly budget.
Profiting
by Mystikvm on Comments
Family Love
The Christmas spirit is all about getting together with friends and family. While I think $500 worth of presents for every person in that family is way too much and sometimes even sickening the spirit remains true and honest. For most people it is all about the get together. Presents are a nice part of the deal.
My parents are divorced. My mom remarried and I've lived happily with her and my stepfather up until I left the house. We never did much with presents fro Christmas, partly due to financial strains, partly due to culture. As I said previously, it is considered 'not done' to shower people with loads of presents worth hundreds of dollars for this occassion only. So I've always received small and useful presents. However, whenever I met family on these occassions whom I didn't see much throughout the rest of the year I expected more of them than just something 'smaal and useful'.
It's funny, you kind of expect these people to buy your loyalty. I was never truly satisfied with a $10 present from aunts and uncles I rarely met, while I was on cloud #9 when my parents bought me something worth more than $10 for Christmas. Not that they never did, but I thought it was overdone. I have the same feelings when I'm seeing my dad after my mom got divorced. I expect him to dish out a couple of bucks. Not because I loathe him or want to make him bleed, but because I see him less than I used to when my parents were still together.
Now the divorce never had any bad effects on me. Some people make a divorce come off as the worst thing that can ever happen to a kid, but in my case that wasn't true at all. My dad was a real work-a-holic so I never saw him much in the first place. After the divorcement things didn't really change on that front. Also the fact that he's always been moaning about the money he had to give my mom for taking care of us never really made me change my opinion about him. Surely it is because money doesn't mean much to kids.
Well, I've grown up, I'm living on my own now and I happen to live three or four blocks away from my father's place. I'll be going there Wednesday to have some coffee and talk a bit about how my life's going now. It doesn't feel like I'm going to visit my dad, it never felt like that. To me he's a person who's always been nice to me. More like a distant relative or vague acquaintance. This status also means that I expect him to....yep...be more generous.
I feel ashamed for thinking like this. But next Wednesday I hope he gives me something, hopefully money that I can deposit into my savings account. To think like this about your own dad is a little shameful. However, I cannot really help it. It's the distance he kept from me that made me think like this. What's most important I guess is that I go there to see how he's doing, and not to cash in. That would only be a nice extra.
I hope someone can relate, otherwise I really feel like I'm treating family like piggy banks.
The Christmas spirit is all about getting together with friends and family. While I think $500 worth of presents for every person in that family is way too much and sometimes even sickening the spirit remains true and honest. For most people it is all about the get together. Presents are a nice part of the deal.
My parents are divorced. My mom remarried and I've lived happily with her and my stepfather up until I left the house. We never did much with presents fro Christmas, partly due to financial strains, partly due to culture. As I said previously, it is considered 'not done' to shower people with loads of presents worth hundreds of dollars for this occassion only. So I've always received small and useful presents. However, whenever I met family on these occassions whom I didn't see much throughout the rest of the year I expected more of them than just something 'smaal and useful'.
It's funny, you kind of expect these people to buy your loyalty. I was never truly satisfied with a $10 present from aunts and uncles I rarely met, while I was on cloud #9 when my parents bought me something worth more than $10 for Christmas. Not that they never did, but I thought it was overdone. I have the same feelings when I'm seeing my dad after my mom got divorced. I expect him to dish out a couple of bucks. Not because I loathe him or want to make him bleed, but because I see him less than I used to when my parents were still together.
Now the divorce never had any bad effects on me. Some people make a divorce come off as the worst thing that can ever happen to a kid, but in my case that wasn't true at all. My dad was a real work-a-holic so I never saw him much in the first place. After the divorcement things didn't really change on that front. Also the fact that he's always been moaning about the money he had to give my mom for taking care of us never really made me change my opinion about him. Surely it is because money doesn't mean much to kids.
Well, I've grown up, I'm living on my own now and I happen to live three or four blocks away from my father's place. I'll be going there Wednesday to have some coffee and talk a bit about how my life's going now. It doesn't feel like I'm going to visit my dad, it never felt like that. To me he's a person who's always been nice to me. More like a distant relative or vague acquaintance. This status also means that I expect him to....yep...be more generous.
I feel ashamed for thinking like this. But next Wednesday I hope he gives me something, hopefully money that I can deposit into my savings account. To think like this about your own dad is a little shameful. However, I cannot really help it. It's the distance he kept from me that made me think like this. What's most important I guess is that I go there to see how he's doing, and not to cash in. That would only be a nice extra.
I hope someone can relate, otherwise I really feel like I'm treating family like piggy banks.
Flash Forward
by Mystikvm on Comments
Most Anticipated Games
While most people won't even be thinking of 2006, with the Christmas presents and dinner yet to come I'm already taking a few steps into next year. There's a lot to look forward to, I'll be picking my favorites here. I sure hope they deliver in the end.
Black
This image speaks a thousand words...or bullets. In any case, I've never had a big interest in first person shooters. Most of them feel generic. I shoot up baddies and 30 minutes later I still find myself engaged in the same activity. There's progress, but it is hard to notice. I do play them from time to time, but not because the games themselves are so thrilling and outstanding, but they are a great way to vent and shake off some aggression.
Black however feels different. There's something quite cool about this display of gun fetishism. You get to shoot up things. Not just shooting up, but demolish it completely. Also the game's not about giving you a hard time shooting. No, instead it is encouraging you to use as many bullets as you can and completely destroy everything. I want this game. This is how I want to go about playing FPS. I want a lifetime's supply of bullets and a few guns and shoot my way from A to B. I cannot imagine this game being bad.
Final Fantasy XII
I'm always anticipating any Final Fantasy game. The series is easily one of my favorites, and while I'm preaching the choir here I can't really help it. The games are really that good. FFXII has piqued my interest ever since I saw the first images. For some reason it felt a little like my favorite installment of the series so far, Final Fantasy IX. More medieval fantasy, quite different locales and characters that look a lot like the characters in that game.
No more turn-based battles, no more shattering screens or swooshes, no more random encounters, no more victory themes. To some it sounds like butchering the Messiah the minute he returns on Earth, but to me it sounds like a fresh new start. And with such a reputation as a series they cannot afford to screw it up. I'm sure they won't.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Hands down my most anticipated game of all time. Having poured so many hours into Morrowind I can simply not wait to play this game. It's quite frankly the only reason for me to get an Xbox 360 and I'm happy they delayed it as I not yet have accumulated enough money to get one. I perish the thought of having to miss out on this game for a few months. I'm sure this game will suck me in just like Morrowind did. There's a few hundred hours of gameplay awaiting me, and my fingers are already itching to grab that controller and check it out.
Lost Odyssey
As we all might know, Xbox 360 isn't too big on JRPG's. From the few that are being developed for the console this one interests me most. I wonder if the producer of Final Fantasy can do his trick with other concepts just as well. Unfortunately there are not many images of this game yet, at least GS is featuring none, but the art style of this game is significantly more my style than the other game of the same studio, Blue Dragon. In any case, I hope it hits store shelves next year, I'm really curious to see what they made of it.
There are a few more games that I don't want to miss out on next year, like the not yet released in Europe Dragon Quest VIII, Shadow of the Colussus and We Love Katamari. And of course the ongoing hype for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has made me curious about that game too. You bet I'll be playing that over the next summer. There's a lot to look forward to next year. I'm eagerly awaiting the moment 2005's candle will be blown out for good.
There's not much else I can say but to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I sure hope you'll get to enjoy a few good moments with friends and/or family. In case you're getting presents too, well, have fun with those.
While most people won't even be thinking of 2006, with the Christmas presents and dinner yet to come I'm already taking a few steps into next year. There's a lot to look forward to, I'll be picking my favorites here. I sure hope they deliver in the end.
Black
This image speaks a thousand words...or bullets. In any case, I've never had a big interest in first person shooters. Most of them feel generic. I shoot up baddies and 30 minutes later I still find myself engaged in the same activity. There's progress, but it is hard to notice. I do play them from time to time, but not because the games themselves are so thrilling and outstanding, but they are a great way to vent and shake off some aggression.Black however feels different. There's something quite cool about this display of gun fetishism. You get to shoot up things. Not just shooting up, but demolish it completely. Also the game's not about giving you a hard time shooting. No, instead it is encouraging you to use as many bullets as you can and completely destroy everything. I want this game. This is how I want to go about playing FPS. I want a lifetime's supply of bullets and a few guns and shoot my way from A to B. I cannot imagine this game being bad.
Final Fantasy XII
I'm always anticipating any Final Fantasy game. The series is easily one of my favorites, and while I'm preaching the choir here I can't really help it. The games are really that good. FFXII has piqued my interest ever since I saw the first images. For some reason it felt a little like my favorite installment of the series so far, Final Fantasy IX. More medieval fantasy, quite different locales and characters that look a lot like the characters in that game.No more turn-based battles, no more shattering screens or swooshes, no more random encounters, no more victory themes. To some it sounds like butchering the Messiah the minute he returns on Earth, but to me it sounds like a fresh new start. And with such a reputation as a series they cannot afford to screw it up. I'm sure they won't.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Hands down my most anticipated game of all time. Having poured so many hours into Morrowind I can simply not wait to play this game. It's quite frankly the only reason for me to get an Xbox 360 and I'm happy they delayed it as I not yet have accumulated enough money to get one. I perish the thought of having to miss out on this game for a few months. I'm sure this game will suck me in just like Morrowind did. There's a few hundred hours of gameplay awaiting me, and my fingers are already itching to grab that controller and check it out.Lost Odyssey
As we all might know, Xbox 360 isn't too big on JRPG's. From the few that are being developed for the console this one interests me most. I wonder if the producer of Final Fantasy can do his trick with other concepts just as well. Unfortunately there are not many images of this game yet, at least GS is featuring none, but the art style of this game is significantly more my style than the other game of the same studio, Blue Dragon. In any case, I hope it hits store shelves next year, I'm really curious to see what they made of it.
There are a few more games that I don't want to miss out on next year, like the not yet released in Europe Dragon Quest VIII, Shadow of the Colussus and We Love Katamari. And of course the ongoing hype for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has made me curious about that game too. You bet I'll be playing that over the next summer. There's a lot to look forward to next year. I'm eagerly awaiting the moment 2005's candle will be blown out for good.
There's not much else I can say but to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I sure hope you'll get to enjoy a few good moments with friends and/or family. In case you're getting presents too, well, have fun with those.
Kaboom! I Win
by Mystikvm on Comments
Mercenaries
The game was severely discounted at my favorite gaming store. After hearing such raving stories about the game I decided it was time to give it a try. The thought of a GTA-like sandbox in wartime period seemed to good to be true.
So far the game is delivering on all fronts. It's got some good characters with a whole lot of attitude to play with, some funny contractors and well thouhgt-out missions, even though it seems the balance is somewhat hard to find in those. A lot of missions are ridiculously easy while others are almost impossible to complete. Just like Grand Theft Auto this game is also good for some frustrating moments that make you wish you could eat your controller. Believe me, I tried.
Apart from being stuck on such a hard mission right now I'm having tons of explosive fun with this game. It takes a cheeky approach at war, making the whole world look like some kind of shooting gallery. And that is what I'm doing, raking up enough cash to start a war of my own. God bless supply drops and surgical strikes.
Luck Is My Middle Name
I always enter the weekly contest on a Dutch gaming website, they often have nice prizes. This time they had a few copies of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones to give away, along with a bunch of goodies. Needless to say, I won. This was the third time I won something on that website in less than 4 months. I'm starting to think that I was born lucky. I've won more prizes in the past and the only time when my dad won something in the lottery is when I filled out the form (you get to do that yourself here, choosing your own numbers).
However, I don't want to jinx it. I won't be entering loads of contests, knowing that I will be forfeiting my luck that way. I'll just wait until I feel the moment is right and then I'll enter the lottery or huge sweepstakes. I'm betting I'll win. Betting also has some luck involved...Ah, it all comes full circle.
The game was severely discounted at my favorite gaming store. After hearing such raving stories about the game I decided it was time to give it a try. The thought of a GTA-like sandbox in wartime period seemed to good to be true.
So far the game is delivering on all fronts. It's got some good characters with a whole lot of attitude to play with, some funny contractors and well thouhgt-out missions, even though it seems the balance is somewhat hard to find in those. A lot of missions are ridiculously easy while others are almost impossible to complete. Just like Grand Theft Auto this game is also good for some frustrating moments that make you wish you could eat your controller. Believe me, I tried.
Apart from being stuck on such a hard mission right now I'm having tons of explosive fun with this game. It takes a cheeky approach at war, making the whole world look like some kind of shooting gallery. And that is what I'm doing, raking up enough cash to start a war of my own. God bless supply drops and surgical strikes.
Luck Is My Middle Name
I always enter the weekly contest on a Dutch gaming website, they often have nice prizes. This time they had a few copies of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones to give away, along with a bunch of goodies. Needless to say, I won. This was the third time I won something on that website in less than 4 months. I'm starting to think that I was born lucky. I've won more prizes in the past and the only time when my dad won something in the lottery is when I filled out the form (you get to do that yourself here, choosing your own numbers).
However, I don't want to jinx it. I won't be entering loads of contests, knowing that I will be forfeiting my luck that way. I'll just wait until I feel the moment is right and then I'll enter the lottery or huge sweepstakes. I'm betting I'll win. Betting also has some luck involved...Ah, it all comes full circle.
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