Hello everybody!

As the title implies, I am back from my wonderful vacation in New York! We were actually staying in New Jersey but spent quite a bit of time in New York City. I wish we would have been there longer...there is so much to do there! I really really liked it. I hope to end up there someday, I might even look into going to school there in about two years (2008 ). We walked by the New York Institute of Technology...so I might look into that - who knows!
Anyway - NYC reminded me so much of Santiago, Chile (my hometown) that I think that is why I loved it so much. I like the crowdedness, all there is to do, and the nightlife. We were in Time Square at about midnight and it was still packed and it looked like daylight out it was so bright! Awesome!! We were going to tour the NBC studios but they were sold out - which is weird - so we went to the NBC Studios gift shop instead. I almost bought a little figure of Dwight from The Office but didn't have enough cash. :( We went and saw the Statue of Liberty (went inside, even) and that was really fun. I went to the Nintendo World Store but was kind of disappointed. :( I guess I was expecting too much? It was big - don't get me wrong, but it was quite empty and there were way too many Pokemon things. I did end up getting a Yoshi plushie though...he's so cute! :D
We went to a lot of restaurants (got my discount at various Starbucks...) and did a lot of shopping. All in all, it was a great mini-vacation! I LOVE New York City! :D

In other news....I played quite a bit of Final Fantasy VI advance while traveling (we drove to NYC, so it was about an 11+ hr. drive). I had forgotten how awesome that game was. I mean, I knew it rocked, but replaying it made me love it even more. It might be my favourite game of all time now - rather than Ocarina of Time. For those of you who know the game, I just got past Thamasa and I'm in that cave where you fight Ultros with Relm.

Hmm....I don't know if there's anything else of interest to write about! The weather is really warm and gas is at an all-time high. :( ~ $3.70 a gallon on average, I think. And I'm at a 1/4 tank! Hahahahahaha.

Oh! The concert in Chicago was really fun! We stood on the floor pretty close to the front...so we saw Thomas pretty up close. Keane was great! They sounded just like they do on the CDs, so that was awesome!

Alrighty, I am sorry if I bored you with too long of a blog. :P I hope everyone is doing great!!! :D

Fellow SEE friends...I leave you with a sneak-peek of what is going to be the 3rd edition (I guess) of the SEE Expresso Comic Strip! More like a mini-comic rather than a strip...it's getting a bit lengthy. :oops: See it here! I hope you enjoy it (remember, it's not finished), and I apologize for my lame humour! :oops: :lol:

Hello everyone! :D

Well, as the title implies, I will be going out of town starting tomorrow. So if I don't post, comment, etc. it's because I am away and will most likely not have any internet access!

Tomorrow I am going to Chicago to see Keane in concert!!! I am super psyched because I really like these guys and I am very much looking forward to hearing them live. I hope it's a good show!

And then Friday-Monday I will be in New York!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never been to New York City before so this will be awesome! I am not completely sure as to what we will be doing but I do know two things:
1. We're going to see the Statue of Liberty and
2. I'm going to go to the Nintendo World Store!!!
Yay! I will definitely take advantage of the situation and get lots of fun things!

And so I leave you with this wonderful (hahaha) picture of The Returners! (Well, some of 'em...)

Alright! I think that is it for now, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!! :D

...Yours Truly: :P

1. Was born and raised in Chile!!

2. Works at Starbucks! Yum...

3. Loves music - perhaps too much?

4. Has a facebook :oops: :P

5. Loves Final Fantasy!! :D

6. Will most likely be a beach bum this summer 8)

7. Is easily humoured

8. Loves to draw! :D

9. Loves Cowboy Bebop and FLCL

10. Was the only girl she could think of that wasn't boy crazy, loved videogames, anime and computers up until 9th grade 8)

11. Never hung out with girls because of previously mentioned thing of interest :lol:

12. Is a cat lover, but loves dogs too

13. Loves Electronica

14. Needs to travel Europe and Asia

15. Is very easily distracted :?

16. Is 19, 5'2", and 115 lbs :P

17. Loves videogame soundtracks

18. Is majoring in Architecture!

19. Is easily frightened

20. Can be quite gullible

Oh and uh, thank you lancelot200 for the idea :D :P

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? Today is a day to celebrate - as of about a half hour ago - I AM DONE WITH FINALS!!!!! Which means I am done with my first year of college. I couldn't be happier. It's going to be so nice to be able to get home from work and not have to worry about stupid homework or studying!! :D

Speaking of work - in my last blog I mentioned getting interviewed by Starbucks - well, I got hired! I am very happy about this! My first day is next week Monday. I am a little nervous but I think I will be OK. I really hope I will enjoy this new job and get along with everyone that I will work with. That is the #1 thing I will miss about my old job (which by the way, my last day is Sunday), all the people I met - they are all so cool! I am definitely still going to visit and say 'hi'.

I've been doing a lot of drawing and photoshopping lately. If you want to see what I've come up with, visit my deviant ! (shameless plug... :P) If not, that's OK too! :)

Gaming news! I beat Chocobo Tales the other day, the last boss was kind of...odd. I was expecting a card battle not some weird pinball-like "mini game" (if you could even call it that). I got Chrono Trigger in the mail the other day, but I don't think I will start it until I beat FFXII (yeah, I still haven't beaten it). After that, I will probably continue FFV. There are too many games that I start and never finish. Maybe someday I will list them, but most likely not. :P

Manga Update! - Death Note is AMAZING!!!!!! Holy cow - I can't even begin to describe how much I love this manga. After I read the first volume, I just couldn't believe what had happened...so the next day, I bought the second one. Heeheehee...I am glad they are cheap otherwise I'd be broke! I finished the second one and it was just as good. I get payed this Friday so I am sure I will buy the third one then...:P
xxxHolic was good, but not nearly as good as Death Note. I think I will hold off buying more xxxHolic and  just continue with Death Note.

Oh, also - I've reached the dreaded Level 20!! Noooooo...

Alright, everybody, I am out - I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

~queen

This totally made my day too. :)

I've had a really good day today! It all started with the nice weather we're finally having! No more snow!! It's so nice to be able to drive with the windows down and have the windows open in the house. There's such a nice breeze out there.

This morning I got a phone call from Starbucks because they wanted to interview me today! I went to the interview about two hours ago and it went really well! I'm not going to have my hopes up or anything - just in case - but it was a really good interview. While I waited to go to Starbucks I stopped at Barnes and Noble and bought two Mangas. I haven't bought Mangas in a really long time so I was excited to get some new ones! I got the second volume of xxxHolic, and the first volume of Death Note (recommended by the wonderful people from SEE :)). I can't wait to start reading them...

I also bought Chrono Trigger (SNES) off of eBay! I can't wait to get it in the mail and start playing it!!! I had it for the PS1 but I'm not sure what happened to it. Which is fine because I'd rather have it for the SNES anyways. 

I think I'm going to finish the day off with either some Chocobo Tales, Final Fantasy XII, or some Photoshopping. I drew some really awesome pictures and they're begging to become lineart! :P

Oh, and also - last night I saw Grindhouse for the second time! :D One of my friends hadn't seen it yet so I took the chance to go again! I caught all these little things that I hadn't noticed the first time I watched it - it was fun!

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Regarding my III-part editorial - thanks for all the comments guys! I love to hear everyone's opinions on such subjects. I'm almost done with part II so look out for it soon!!!

-queen

Seeing all these news surface regarding exclusivity really gets me thinking about how this gen will play out. And so I am writing a 3 part opinion piece about what I think about all this.

Part I - Sony Losing Exclusivity to Microsoft

Not too long ago news hit the gaming world that Devil May Cry 4, following the trend of other games, will no longer be a PS3 exclusive . Could Sony's other big guns, Metal Gear Solid 4 or Final Fantasy XIII, be next ? So what exactly is the meaning behind all of this? PS3's heavy hitters are slowly trickling to its big rival the 360, and Sony is left looking like a fool - a big expensive fool. This gen is looking to be the most costly, not just for gamers themselves, but for developers as well. Like [Sony Computer Entertainment France president] Georges Fornay said in the Gamespot interview, the reason for the multi-platform craze is so that developers can actually make some sort of profit. Everyone knows the PS3 is a pain to develop for. Even IBM admits to this and held a workshop to help programmers out. But it's also very expensive to develop for. Sometimes I wonder if Sony was so worked up about having the most advanced console out there that they forgot about the prices. Gamers choked when Sony announced the hefty price tag. Did they really think people would look past it and eat it up just 'cause it was the holiday season? Especially when there were two cheaper options? But I also wonder if it's just a rocky start for Sony and once the ins and outs of the cell processor are learned, better games will be made and regardless of them being on the 360 or not, they will sell more on the PS3 on account that the games might look better. It's really all up in the air right now. This could be the beginning of the end for Sony or just a shaky start to a third consecutive victory. After all, it is the Sony brand and I doubt that they will go down very easily.

And with this I end the first part to my three part opinion piece. Look out for Part II, "The Importance of First Party Titles and the Appeal of Console features".

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Now onto just gaming news in general...

Duke Nukem Forever (don't laugh) is still in development. After 10 years 3D Realms says DNF is finally on the right track. And it's going multi-platform (no surprise there, really. Everything seems to be multi-platform now.)

And continuing notion from my last blog - Jack Thompson countersues!!!

~queen

I am so glad to hear that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has gone gold and after about six years in development will be released only a few weeks from now! I am anticipating this game very much - after getting my new PC I haven't really picked up too many games for it besides Oblivion, Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 episode 1, and yes, The Sims 2 (I'm a Sims addict). So in a few weeks it looks like I'll be getting a new addition to my little library of PC games, and it couldn't be a better one. And if this game disappoints well...then, I've got until August and Bioshock comes out so I think I'll be ok.

Anyway, I just read that the DS is getting a headset. Sounds awesome, but I hope they do something really cool with it. I know Pokemon is going to be using the voice chat functionality (along with the headset) but I don't see how that could be very exciting. If only it would have come out when Hunters launched...it seems that game would have had a better use for it. But maybe that's just me.

Oh, and uh, here's a good one: Take-Two is suing Jack Thompson! (No, you read that right).

Yay Spring Break is here! And I couldn't be happier since we basically just had a blizzard yesterday (again). I am so glad to be leaving the plentiful amounts of snow up here, and going down south to sunny skies and warmer weather.
I'll be gone for a few days in Nashville visiting my dad, and don't expect me to be on GS at all - he's got the ever-prehistoric dial-up.

Oh, and if you enjoy good games, and you haven't seen the new trailer for Bioshock, do yourself a favor, and watch it NOW! (I'm so psyched for this game...)

Later,
~queen

We all know them, have watched them, and love to hate them. Yet they still exist, and they keep coming out with more and more of them. Why is this? Why is it that studios feel the need to make a movie based on a videogame? It's not going to work! It never has, and it never will. Do they think, "Oh, I know, let's make a movie based on [insert videogame of choice]. The other movies based on a game bombed, but ours will be good."
If you're wondering why I chose to rant about a sort of random subject, I just found out that there's going to be another Resident Evil movie. Alright, the first two sucked, so they're going to make another one? I know that (some) videogame-based movies are money makers and every gamer out there gets suckered into going to the movies and watching them, but if hollywood's going to make them anyway, can't they at least put some effort and make a high quality movie? It baffles me.

In other news, I'm getting really tempted to buy a Wii. I didn't pick one up on launch day 'cause none of the games really interested me. But 2007 is looking up to be a great year for the Wii. The high point (for me) has to be Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I've been wanting to play this game ever since it's been announced and it's probably going to come out this fall (and if it doesn't, I'll cry). It's getting hard to fight down the temptation but sometime late this spring or summer is going to be the right time for me to get up bright and early, line up, and purchase the ever-elusive Wii. At least I'll still have my trusty DS to keep me occupied (not to mention my loveable PC).

*On a sidenote: Why does Gamespot have to abolish my formatting? If I want to indent, let me indent dammit! Is that too much to ask? :P

~queen_valentine

...is coming to the PC! It's inevitable.

    Yet again, my reasoning behind not getting an Xbox 360 (it's a downgraded PC) is supported once again (no, I'm not a hater, just not a fan). But that's just my opinion, and I am sure that if any xbox fanboy read what I just wrote they would gasp and scream bloody murder. But you know what? I don't care. There aren't that many exclusives for the xbox 360, and the ones that are, I could care less for, or end up being ported to the PC, which will end up being the better version anyway. For example, Unreal Tournament 3 (I know it's not out yet) will be headed to the PC, Xbox360, and the PS3. Where would I rather play it on? The PC. Why? Mouse + Keyboard controls, better graphics, and I can play online for free.

    But that's just my viewpoint on the 360. How about you guys?