Over the course of 9 hours in the past two days, I have managed to eliminate the most bizarre computer problem I've ever encountered. To explain this problem, I'm going to have to lay out my general physical computer layout. My typical, working computer has two harddrives: 1 - Holds Windows, unimportant programs 2 - Holds data, most programs Last night I hooked up an old harddrive (call that harddrive 3) from a friend in place of my data HDD, so the layout was: 1 - Holds Windows 3 - Old drive with Windows This started up, but HDD 3 was assigned C:\ and HDD 1 was assigned D:\. Because of this, I couldn't format HDD 3. Anyway, I went back to the old setup of HDD1 and HDD2. Here's the problem: The computer gets stuck at the blue Windows XP screen right before the logon screen. Disconnecting all except the HDD1 doesn't change things. Here are the real problems: -Safe mode fails also -BIOS settings to Failsafe Defaults does nothing -Restoring last working settings does nothing Where it gets crazy is that reconnecting the HDD3 with Windows, but still booting from HDD1 works. The registry runs from HDD1, as do all services. Windows is indeed running from the HDD1 which will not boot, but requires HDD3. I tried another drive (HDD4) with Windows XP Home (as opposed to Windows XP Media Center on the other two) and tried to boot from that and it failed. However, booting HDD1 WITH HDD4 works. Going into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and opening Disc Management, HDD1 is listed as Healthy (System), HDD4 as Healthy (Paging). I can't change HDD4 because it's paging, so I disable that under Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Performance -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory (Change) and change the drive letter assignment to E: and restart. System gets stuck on the blue screen. I hook up HDD3 in place of HDD4, along with HDD1 and swap the drive letter to E: and try to assign HDD1 to C:. Doesn't work because it is the System drive. Into the Registry we go: -HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --SYSTEM ---MountedDevices Rename the entry for \DosDevices\D: to \DosDevices\C: Restart under original set-up . . . Solved. I have a feeling I'm one of only 12 people who would have fixed that. Gotta say: You suck Microsoft. Gah.

Everyone loves weird and wacky news, so welcome to your bloggeriffic aggregator! Here are your Top 5 Wacky News Stories for the Week of October 15, 2007 5) Town in grip of undies shortage NEW ZEALAND -- A year ago, the only clothing shop in town which sold women's knickers stopped stocking these essential items... 4) Great news! They're stealing our books! FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The Frankfurt Book Fair has an indicator to help publishers gauge public interest in the new offerings presented at the annual exhibition -- the unofficial "most stolen book" index. 3) Family beaten as YouTube party descends into chaos LONDON (Reuters) - A teenager was airlifted to hospital and his father had his nose broken when gatecrashers went on the rampage at a 16th birthday party after details were posted on YouTube, police and media reports said Friday. 2) Drunken priest punches cop, jailed MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican priest briefly ended up behind bars after punching a policemen who caught him driving drunkenly through the streets of the northern city of Monterrey. 1) Pepsi, Coke Rivalry Becomes Physical INDIANA, Pa. (AP) -- The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said...

...could not be less interesting. Hence, I am writing this blog post instead of working on it. Yes, those are stick figures, and yes, that is part of the course.

I've been playing Zelda games for a REALLY long time, and there are some constants that are always there, particularly in longstanding items. For example, you've always had the boomerang, and you've always had torches (omit Zelda 2). Anyway, Phantom Hourglass decides to make itself entirely unintuitive for those with familiarity by screwing with these constants. Another example, now suddenly you don't need a stick to transfer a flame from one torch to another, apparently your boomerang with catch on fire when you throw it across a torch and transfer it, apparently leaving the boomerang perfectly fine, unlike sticks which in The Wind Waker (the DIRECT PREQUEL to this game) the stick will burn up. Another is that the boomerang can also pick up some items that you couldn't before, for example, a key. It's pretty maddening to try and solve a puzzle, that is extremely similar to ones you've done a hundred times in the game series and have them change the function of an item with no actual reason for it other than they felt like it. How about giving me something other than an elemental dungeon, or make the first item something other than the boomerang, instead of "mixing things up" by making things confusing.

This deals with late in Suikoden V, so I'll enclose the post in a spoiler tag: [spoiler] I'm virtually at the end of Suikoden V, which concludes with a trek through an ice dungeon. You split up into 3 groups and navigate through, flipping switches to clear the paths for each other. The game has random encounters, so you have to deal with those along the way. You have to fight a boss battle with each group. Done and done, without incident, although it doesn't really make it clear that the battle is a boss battle as it occurs as a random encounter. I thought I would have to take a couple tries with a group or two, since it lets you restart the battle if you lose, but I managed to win all first-time. No save point through all of this. So after that, you choose a new single group to move on. One of the last remaining enemies, Dolph, is blocking your way to the final battle, and you have to do a duel with him. One of the characters, Lyon, says she wants to take care of him, so I agreed and you take control of her instead. In a duel, you choose Special, Attack or Guard in a Rock/Paper/Scissors style combat, and you choose based on the taunts of your opponent (agressive or docile). Well, Dolph basically gives no clues. He'll say the same thing nearly word for word and chooses two different actions. So I lost that battle and you (the Prince) step in to take him on. In the story Lyon has a longtime feud with Dolph and I wanted to see that scene instead. Also, Lyon naturally appeared injured and I could definitely use one of my strongest characters for the final battle. I threw the fight with the Prince to start the scene over--except it just gives a Game Over screen and sends you back to the title screen. Every other battle in the game give you the choice to Continue, except this one after an hour of crap to get there with no save points. *Checking some sites, there are random instances in the game where it will just end if you either choose the wrong sequence of answers or lose certain fights. Worse, though, is that you apparently only get the "good" ending if you recruit every possible person, which is stupid because you can't possibly support them all. [/spoiler]

You can remain pretentious, nitpicking yet hypocritical, inaccurate, absurd and incompetent, but now GameSpot, you clearly have no heart at all: "The Bad: Presentation is so cute it might make you violent" And if Dewy's Adventure is that hard on them, a few episodes of Azumanga Daioh would illicit cardiac arrest GameSpot.com - A Decade of Puppy Kicking :evil:

Owning both a Wii and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass entitles me to free Nintendo goods: Register your copy of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass at Nintendo.com then go here to do a short survey to get a free "Feather Pen Stylus" (Please allow 4-6 weeks to receive) And if own a Wii, enter the serial number here to receive your very ugly but free Wii Remote Jacket(s). The best things in life are free!...except Zelda, then it costs $40.

This is a generic blog post about random things, because, well, I can do that. It's a blog, and that's what I do with a blog. Have I said blog enough yet? The first thing is that I've located the origin of my affection for 2D platformers, and its name is Adventure Island. I downloaded Adventure Island from the virtual console, having formerly had Adventure Island 2. While the Adventure Island I have found to be clearly inferior in literally every way, there is something there about which I had entirely forgotten and why I enjoy the games so much: The fruit. In Adventure Island, you control Master Higgins, who is in constant need of replenishing his energy with fruit. This forces the player to hurry through the level hastily or risk dying of lack of fruity goodness. This has since been the way I've played every platformer, and if I don't have that option, I invariably find the experience less enjoyable (this is why I do not find Sonic fast). They aren't the best games, the most original or most polished, but Adventure Island has infected me with the foundation of enjoyment in platformers.

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The second thing is the nature of a game. I am playing Suikoden V, and have a problem. In two days I had played the same 9 hours worth that it took me over a week to play in God of War. What's wrong with that, you say? We've all had long gaming sessions. But this is hardly a game at all. Just as games such as Brain Age fail to fall within a paradigm of gaming denomination, Suikoden V does the same by pushing the game so far focused of the story that the game portions themselves take an obvious backseat. I am about 16 hours it still feels as though I'm in a tutorial, yet it is highly enjoyable in that the focus, which happens to be the story and characters, is done very well and the gameplay while simplistic generally avoids tedium or frustration. So the question then becomes, is this a good game? Story often does play a role in the evaluation of a videogame, but where does that end? Is it the enjoyment of a game or the quality of its gameplay that is ultimately what is important? The game slowly ramps up, so if I end up writing a review for it, it will probably have shifted enough to make a conventional review, but I can say to this point that the gameplay is mediocre, yet I've enjoyed it nearly as much as anything I've played this year, just as I've greatly enjoyed many movies. What's particularly interesting though, is that the cinematics are frequent but relatively short, and these repeated portions that are often simply walking from place to place manage to pace the "game" well enough to feel unlike a movie, yet entirely storydriven. Given my playing of games across all genres, I haven't played any one genre that extensively, so maybe this is just what modern JRPGs are, but I'd call Suikoden V an adventure game first.

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Lastly, anyone see the Daily Show Interview from Hell? If not, give it a look.

What the hell is that? UPDATE: Post here if you're as disgusted as you should be.

I think we're looking at 8.0. So far only Nintendogs is a AAA DS title that uses the touch screen (to any significance). The Good: Great style, Weapon control with stylus is unique, Solid dungeon design The Bad: Touch screen controls a little hit or miss, visuals get a little blocky, too easy and/or short. I guess I'm putting my money where my mouth is when it comes to the predictable nature of GameSpot's reviews of late. All I know is that mine's preordered from Amazon. Other predictions?