I am pretty frustrated right now. Mostly about work.

PROTIP: If you don’t want your life fucked up and fucked with don’t join the Military.

So I was going to do a nice little entry about GT4, but don’t have the drive (ha!) to write it up. Soon maybe. Instead you get my overly angry cross post:

~Well, Japan seems to be getting treated to the DS games that I want to play. This is only partially a news post, sorry.

Band Brothers (Jam with the Band) has been in the news again. It got 6 new songs for download if you just go to the right area… sure it is not wireless internet, but it is the kind of features the DS can have.

Not only that, but some of the more interesting games (Caduceus) that are comming out for the DS have no release information for the US. On top of all this there is the whole “you can hook up to wireless internet, but we don’t know how yet” thing.

After the disapointment that Wario Ware was, fuck you Nintendo. You need to get your shit together. Yea I heard that Japan got the better version of Mr. Driller, Drill Spirits. No you still do not have release times/dates for already released games from Japan. I am going to email Nintendo about this.

You are loseing me Nintendo.~

Last week I picked up Wario Ware Touched! while I was in Best Buy. I was not even aware that it was released. I did know it was coming out though, so I grabbed it. I finished story mode in one sitting.

By using a touch screen the game shows its hand easily.

This game is fantastic for the GBA. It has enough mini-games that you get for completing certain tasks such as high scores. These minigames will keep you returning to the game over and over for those few extra points. Skateboarding was my favorite. In Touched these mini games have been replaced with gimmicks. Not even good gimmicks, just gimicks. Let me run down a few off the top of my head.

-A camelion where it will change color to one of the 5 backgrounds you can pull up.
-A touch screen calculator.
-Wind chimes you have to blow into the microphone for.
-A metronome
-A parrot (this one is neat, I left it open for 30 min last night and it will turn on the microphone and record small phrases to mimic)

Now, so far I have only opened two things that I could call games. One is a 2P pong game that is extremely basic. Think DOA beach volley ball basic. The other is a juggling game where you tap the clowns hands when pins hit it and you will juggle it. I don’t really want to come back for either of these.

I have not looked yet, but I can only guess a few more games will show up for my tasks. I don’t really want to try to hard to get them either. I just don’t care about them. No Dr. Wario, no Sheriff, hell really no games.

The games have no depth. Now don’t read that wrong, I know that the other Wario Ware games had no depth, but each characters level had different ways to play all the games that were in it. Some had you use the Dpad, other the A button, some both. Touched shows you it is a one trick pony.

In Dr Crygor’s level all mini games involve you spinning thing… ALL his games. Part of the fun of Wario Ware was getting instructions like “Stop!” or “Sleep” and no having any idea what you were supposed to do. It could only involve a small amount of things to (hit or hold a direction or series of directions or hit or hold A). Part of it was that you did not always recognize what it was you were doing.

A cage and an alien are on your screen, previously you got the instructions “Trap.” So you try to move the alien with Dpad. Nothing. Ok … so you hit the A button and the cage closes, but the alien is not in it. You had no idea the cage closed. Aha, it was all figured out in under 3 seconds. Now you need to go through 20 other games before that comes up and you have to remember what to do.

Touched tells you from the start “All the following games involve you spinning.” Then knowing that, you get further instructions for each mini-game. Rescue:

This is from Crygor’s games. You already know what motion you have to do. So this just clarifies how similar most of the mini games are. This ruins the mystery that the game holds for your first play through. Almost all of the ones from Mike you have to blow into the microphone. Nothing is different except the graphics most of the time.

So this game plays a weak hand. So did the NGC version of the game, but for different reasons. While the game itself is fun it falls victim to the limits of the human body. When the game gets going too fast in stead of just hitting up and A rapidly you now have to aim a spin, or target a hit. The transition from Micro Mini Games to Touched is not successful. Nintendo, please stop.

This morning I got to work so tired that my head hurt. Some days I barely make the drive to work I am so tired. I cannot fall asleep well. I use to meditate to quite my thoughts everynight before bed, then I only did it when I could not fall asleep. It has turned into one of those things that now rotates into my thoughts keeping me awake longer.

So I spent most of the weekend and yesterday working on InDesign and Photoshop for The Gamers Quarter. Wes also jumped in a bit (constantly showing me up) but it just made me try harder to get an excellent look. I keep impressing myself more and more. It really gets my hopes up that people will like this, as I feel anyone who goes through and reads the whole thing (well most of it) will ultimately become a fan.

11 out of the 14 articles are making great headway. Most of them got re-done in one way or another yesterday where (aside from taking my car into the mechanics and getting a hair cut) I spent almost 15 hours at my PC doing it all. Admittedly 2 of the longest articles have not been touched. Those total out to about what is currently done.

I keep making this progress where I get better at things in InDesign and Photoshop. I remember things from when I use to use these programs, find ways for items to look cleaner, figure out how to make my own images, download awesome new fonts. I keep wanting to cycle back and fix up articles I did previously. So I started leaving everything in as raw a form as possible.

This publication will be huge. By huge I am meaning over 10MB. I really need to be careful of bandwith on this. Also the website has gotten over 1000 hits already this month if I am reading my stats page right.

I played 5 hours of RE4 last night. I don’t remember the last time I played a game until four in the morning.

While RE4 is an excellent game, I am a bit supprised at all the disscusion that has risen around it. While being strides in the right direction for the series, it does not do much else.

The camera is just what this game needed. Gone are the times of me tring to turn my avatar around corners in strange hard to see angles, or running from the enemy only to get turned around and in the heat of battle resulting in death. While technically they are still the same controls, they just don’t feel like it.

This game borrows many elements from other games, it even gets some of them wrong. It got the codec wrong. It did get the have a person follow you around and don’t let them die bit right. I swear, this game ripped music straight from Silent Hill for some merchant areas. Even my wife says so and she does not really notice game music.

I know that some comments came up when MGS3 came out that people thought the animals turned into rations so to not arouse the animal rights crowd. Wether those people belived their comments or not one thing did stick out to me. In the town in RE4 if you kill any farm animals they stay dead. Unlike crows (which have gernades in their asses) or snakes the farm animals do not disapear after a few seconds. Nor do they drop items. In fact, the cows sound down right miserable when getting killed. I could not do it again after first time I sliced up the harmless thing and just left it to perish.

It cannot help but be an excellent game. I really want to put my finger on why though, as I can point at more things it gets wrong than things it gets right. Oh well. But a game is all that it is. I feel bad for PS2 owners.

I spent a bit of time formatting for TGQ today and I think I got the hang of this now. I made up a template and have a good format for some images.

7 hours later I start up FFX again. I died once on the boss before Yunalesca, but that was just due to my whole team getting berserked really quick. Then I beat it. Then I got to Yunalesca. It took an hour but I beat her on my first try. Her last form was a pain in the ass. I ran through over 50 Holy Waters, then ran out… then just gave in and used Pheonix Downs when a member died. It took a long time of ticking away 1000 hit points at a time, but I got her…

I am going to go play RE4 now! YAY!

Well I guess that we have a community now.

I also got Castlevania Chronicles last night, yay.

I can’t think of a title. Perhaps later I will.

The site seems to be going well. We even got linked from another excellent site.

I put some time in FFX last night. I just finished watching the movie from the opening game when Tidus is telling his story. Then I saved. See I actually did go back and play through the mountain again and made it to that point with out dying.

I think that this game may have had something special.

I can’t say for sure. I stopped being a huge fan of FFanything a while ago, when I did not even have a PS2 yet. But this game has a feel to it like it is dated. I think it would have looked dated even when it came out, but I have been informed otherwise. I have made some comments previously so no need to make them again.

The story is decent when you take it at more than face value (the lines are cheesy and the acting is poor, but the world and the tragic nature of it all). The sphere grid, could have been better. I still have yet to find a level 3 sphere, but I have 2 level 4 spheres. But the main problem is that I don’t really have freedom in it.

Much like the world map of old, the sphere grid gives you the appearance of freedom. I liked the doing away of the world map, it seemed like a lie was finally admitted to. They really only give you one character to make any choices with, Kimiahri (the Ronso). I chose to take him down the path of wizard.

See, I am not too sure where the game wanted me to go with him, but I was really thinking about what I wanted him to do with his “life.” Would he be a pure fighter, he was one of the strongest on the team at that point. Or the battle mage? I saw the split coming up down the road and started thinking.

I went with battle mage because I am a nerd. So he followed in the steps of Lulu (who I think has some kind of breast problem, there is too much purple creeping up). I slowly saw his teammates pass him up in strength and speed. Soon he was left with just participating and practicing some spells occasionally. Now he has all level 2 spells (the Fira and all the other a spells).

He is neither too strong nor too weak anymore. I want Kimarhi to learn what he set out to which are the level 3 spells (the ga spells). Will Kimarhi develop enough in time to be a real asset to Yuna? I do know that the other characters have more dead nodes between activatable ones, where Kimarhi still gets new ups almost every move.

This is not what I set out to talk about.

I know that Yuna lives, see. I thought that I knew that Yuna lived from just the opening movie as most probably did (or possibly). I defiantly know because of X-2. When this came out I am sure that many people got to the exact point in the game that I am and went from “knowing” she would live to anticipation. Would she die at the end, sacrificing herself for Spira?

The game could do it and you would still not loose a character to play with. The game at this point no longer lets you feel comfortable with the future. The game no longer lets you feel comfortable with the past either. I wish I were not comfortable.

This makes me think the game may have had something special, when it still had secrets.

I think I found a title.

Well fucking hell. I spent over an hour of FFX last night just to result in death. What the hell. I got to the Mountain, defeated the Ronso brothers, saved, then proceeded to get lost. I did a hell of a lot of stuff in this time. At a point I got turned around after a battle and then ended up going back to the O’aka kid and realising that I just spent the last 20 min going the wrong way.

I became careless and tried to get to the end of the level quick. So I was not going in and changing my formations after battle, and I must have just had the wrong combo. I got ambushed, 2 out of 3 characters dead. Used pheonix down, 2 out of 3 characters alive. . . 3 out of 3 characters dead! FUCK!

Yea, oh well. I am determined to finish this game, but it is irritating when this happens.

~shapermc~

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Well if you read this you get a small heads up!

The Gamer’s Quarter is live. From the initial idea back in early October until now my staff and I have been working to put together the best gaming publication there is out there.

I know you have talked about it before; a magazine that is not like the others which are filled with bad reviews and number scores to rate a game. Read our mission statement, sign up for the forums or the mailing list, anticipate the first issue release.

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