Hey there. Yes, here's my friend code again, for those that haven't added me:

1805-1869-1187

I'm actually better than I expected; my personal records have more 1st and 2nds than 3rds and 4ths :) If you send me a code, I'll add you inmediately :P See you online!

Simple as that; let's share Super Smash Bros. Friend Codes. I will be spending a lot of time online; hope to see you there! Post your code and I will add you ASAP:

My code is: 1805-1869-1187

Hey all. I just got back from the Los Angeles Super Smash Bros. Brawl tourney sponsored by Nintendo and Best Buy.

Bad news; I didn't make it. The line started to form at noon, and me and a bunch of friends got there at 12:40 and managed to snag the 258-263 spots, out of the 256 players allowed. Ten spots were saved for Alternates, of which I was #4, but only two of those entered the tourney.

I got to watch a ton of Brawl on a huge screen display though; the game looks amazing and a ton of fun, as trailers have shown us. I saw a bunch of epic matches, too; the crowd really kept things interesting, and some people were very skilled at the title. Pikachu and Yoshi seem heavily improved upon from Melee, whereas Peach was toned down a bit, and Ike looks like a very 'strong' character; strong in the sense of overall power, making him a great character to fight as. I'm not sure if I told you, but I'm a Link guy and will continue to be; I will, however, return to my SSB roots and master Pikachu once again and have his as my 2nd best character.

The tourney was divided into 1v1 battles at the Battlefield stage, with all items turned on, 4-minute battles. The game is FINISHED; I really don't understand why we can't go and buy a copy of it. Well, I know why; 'cause Nintendo hasn't shipped it :P But I wonder why they haven't shipped it. I hope it's a reasonable reason, though; supply, or server problems, but hopefully not just to make us suffer :(

Anywho, just my quick tourney impressions. Can't wait for this one; in three weeks I'll be at the local Wal-Mart awaiting a midnight launch, and then I'll be happy. Well, I'm always happy; let's say I'll be VERY happy :)
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sergioalb64

It's been a while, eh? Well, my 'What's your Favorite' blogs are back...sort of. Here's one:

What's your favorite clothing item / accessory? Mine, for example, is my 'Who Are You?' sweatshirt that I won at a Donkey Konga tournament (my first game tourney; I was quite nervous :P). It's snuggly, comfy, a very dark gray with the 'Who Are You?' logo on it (I can't find a picture of that logo; I guess the campaign wasn't so successful :))

What about YOU?

So, as you likely now, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is less than a month away, and although the anticipated title features online play, there is no record keeping whatsoever.

A bad design choise? Perhaps; personally I would've kept some form of rankings. Anywho, the point of this blog post; I'll be keeping my personal records! I'll have a small notepad and pen next to me whenever I play online Brawl (free-for-all or in teams), and I will honestly and accurately measure how many 4th's, 3rd's, 2nd's and 1st places I get, and I will post them here periodically. It's a neat thing to do and won't take much time; just a quick dash of ink on a certain section should do it, and then I'm off for more Brawlin' :)

Are you planning on doing something similar to keep your stats?

Well, as most of you know, I'm currently taking a Game Arts & Design program to enter the industry. At first I wanted to start my own game development company, and I still would love to, although this dream of mine is slowly starting to fade, with the great amount of complications, expenses and resources required. So I guess I'll be working for a company as a game designer or hopefully as creative director or sound designer.

...or, I could go into programming, which I'll be taking next quarter and is sparking my interest a lot. If I do love programming, however, I won't code up game engines. I'm thinking of something else; something crazy.

See, there are very few things in the world that make me mad, and one of them is piracy, especially game piracy. I've come to realize that it will always exist, unfortunately, but if I can do anything to slow it down a bit I would. I know it sounds crazy, but I would love to become an expert coder and hopefully be able to come up with a way to stop game piracy as much as possible.

I wouldn't really be working on the industry I love, at least not as full-time, but if I do enjoy programing and if I'm good at it, I do honestly believe I'll do my very best to decrease game piracy as much as I can. I'll let you know if I do indeed change my career path.

By the way, I am aware that there are 'good pirates' out there; people that use copies of games they actually own, and that's fine by me; it's those people that have 200+ pirated games and brag about them as if they owned the actual cartridges or discs, people that hurt the industry; those are the ones I'm going after, or will if I do find a passion for programming.

What do you think? Too much of a long shot or a farfetched dream? I actually sort of think so; it wouldn't be an easy task, and many hackers would do their best to crack my code, but I would love to succeed at this even if by a small degree.

Anywho, back to my now-29 days of Pain :)

Hi, everybody! Yes, I am alive as you can see; it's been quite a while, huh?

Just wanted to say that I'll be undergoing 30 Days of Pain. Well, not 'pain'; it certainly makes things sound interesting, but it won't be literally painful (hopefully). Starting Friday, Feb. 8, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii will be exactly 30 days away. I'm going to do my very best to go ahead of my assignments and hopefully finish my finals two wweeks before they are due; that way I'll have a ton of free time to spend Brawling by myself and with friends.

It'll be tough; four classes with four complex finals in the horizon, plus managing play time to include Professor Layton and Apollo Justice for DS, but I'll do it. You might not see me much during this time, and, well, you probably won't see me after either, with Brawl being out by then :) So have a good time, and if you're buying Brawl let me know so that we can exchange Friend Codes soon!
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sergioalb64

Hey y'all.

PVG is hosting an Advance Wars: Days of Ruin tournament. For anyone interested, you can sign up here:

http://portablevideogamer.com/2008/01/advance-wars-days-of-ruin-tournament-and-details/

I would join, but A) I don't have the game, and B) I stink at strategy games :P

The beloved site I write for, portablevideogamer.com, is celebrating its first anniversary! To 'par-tay' down, we are holding our first ever PVG Shoutcast, in which we hope to talk about handheld gaming news with our fellow readers. Make sure to join us in our shoutbox this Friday at 7 PM PST (10 PM EST) and come talk about DS / PSP news and games you like, and who knows, we could end up playing some DS Wi-Fi matches! See you there!

UPDATE: Win a free copy of Drawn to Life for DS here:
http://portablevideogamer.com/2008/01/draw-yourself-out-of-a-tight-spot-and-win-drawn-to-life/

As usual, I have a mini-review of this quarter's college courses I'm taking. Instead of the usual 3 all of last year, now I have 4, but now that Photoshop is over I will actually have moe free time :) By the way, this is a Game Arts & Design 3-year program.

1 - Environmental Modeling - Monday afternoon
My second Maya course,3D modeling of environments, buildings, and the like. Cool stuff, easy-going course.
Rating:4 / 5

2 - Storytelling - Tuesday evening
I thought this course was going to be about overall stories, but the professor is heavily leaned towards movies and screenplays, and I don't really like movies :(
Rating:3 / 5

3 - Level Design - Wednesday afternoon
More software; the Unreal Editor for level design. Cool, but heavily aimed at FPS games, which I haven't played much, since I'm terrible at 'em :) Very cool teacher though; used to work for Activision and lets us in on all kinds of industry tidbits.
Rating: 4 / 5

4 - Digital Compositing 1 - Friday morning
Even more software; Adobe AfterEffects. Cool program for animation and special effects, but this teacher is so...'limited'. He doesn't really know what he's teaching; looks like I'll be learning from books instead of a professional, just like in High School...
Rating: 3 / 5

So there it is; not the greatest of quarters, but Brawl is gonna make it all great :) And as you can see my schedule is insanely uneven; morning, afternoon, and evening courses all over the week :(

Have a good school / college year / semester / quarter, everybody!
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sergioalb64: self-proclaimed DS King