Dragon Quest VIII Bunny Show
Originally uploaded by Shapermc.

Gentlemen, welcome to tonights event.

Mildly perverted humor in video games always makes me chuckle.

Well, I have missed just about everything online since last Wed. Sorry everyone. I have attempted to play a few games of Mario Kart DS and look for people, but it is not the most robust online options so it is mildly difficult. None the less I have played one friends match at random (read also: not found while on a chat program).

Things are about to go into full swing with the The Gamer’s Quarter here as of tonight. I needed to find a game that would be good to play for small periods of time while still being filling, so I am getting back into Lost in Blue (which is a fantastic game).

I am over stressed at work now as it is going to end up being crunch time through the 10th. Luckily that gives me 5 days of slowdown at work so I can take some time off for the magazine.

I still don’t know where I am going to be living come January. I am pretty stressed out about that. Living in (basically) an efficiency study apartment with my wife and two dogs is getting pretty hectic as well.

I feel like there is not enough time in the day right now. I really want to play DQ8 more, but don’t think I will get to for at least most of this month.

386606
926022

Friend code.

I don’t really like how streamlined the online process is for Mario Kart. I can never tell if any friends are online. I also let the system sit for about 30 or so min without catching anyone online. Oh well.

I am officially 23 hours into the game and somehow still loving it absolutely. I was at about 8 hours when I started playing on Saturday at 3pm.

I got pretty upset at myself at one point though. I was on the phone while fighting a boss and I was not paying close enough attention to Jessica and her health dropped pretty low. The only reason I noticed was because her face and stance changed. I attempted to heal her in time but failed. She will now be constantly 1020 experience points behind everyone else. I was scowling at the game for the next hour or so before I realized I was scowling. It was a pretty neat feeling realizing that I had let myself down… for a game.

And yes, I am really excited about fully exploring the monster arena.

I promise not to do daily updates of DQ8, but these are my first new impressions of the game.

After making the full day journey to Alexandria I was ready to go straight to the inn. Unfortunately I was interrupted by a pair of young boys named Bangerz and Mash. Plucky little brats they were, but their heart was in the right place. Upon getting up from a few hours rest I decided to see what was in the rest of the town. After a bit of looking around in the Manor I sent Munchie, my rat/hamster thing, through a mouse hole to investigate Jessica’s room.

All that talk aside I was delighted to be able to control Munchie the Punk Hamster. This game really is pure joy to play. I don’t know how but the level grinding in DW8 is no where near as bad as it is in the previous DQ games I have played (1, 2, 3 and 7). Perhaps I am just not far enough into the game yet. This really feels close to perfect. My complaints are minor but they are they and they break the 4th wall even harder than it being a RPG with random battles while holding a controller.

When you get to a spoken part of the game you are required to progress through the text boxes to advance the spoken words. I have tried to judge when to hit X by not reading and waiting for a pause in the voice, but when I do that I will look down and realize that I have skipped a sentence or two of spoken words. I just want an option to have natural spoken progression.

Other than that the game is beyond charming and wonderful in ways that goes beyond any other DQ game I have played. While playing you have a lot of time to think (as with any RPG) and I keep going back to thinking just how much progress was made with the series from 7 to 8. It is more than just 3D, it really feels like the true progression of the series from how it was even envisioned as DQ1. Zelda could have learned so much from DQ it is not even funny.

Well, I guess it is a little funny that Zelda has progressed in the approximately opposite direction that DQ went. Going from a wonderful expansive and well represented in size free roaming over world, to a stiff scripted out hand holding set of pieces Zelda has lost me over time. More and more I slip from what I use to love in the NES game, as I am less and less willing to play the new games for more than an hour or so. DQ started as many strictly set pieces with the representation of an over world that was not right with the scale of your imagination. It has progressed into a feeling of being able to go anywhere, explore everything experience. This is really the largest jump from DQ7 to 8. In fact I would have to guess that 7 is one of the most restrictive on exploration. Although I loved the first 3 hours of DQ7, and will forever love the game for it.

Well, I did end up playing about 3 hours of Dragon Quest 8 last night. All I did in that time was see a very breif intro movie and the replayed what I played last week in the demo. I was a bit disappointed, mainly that the intro was just not added to the demo and then you were allowed to save at the end. It seemed a little more difficult this time and took a little longer, but other than that it was just… repetitive.

Although I think this should say something about the game. I am not really a fan of RPGs so replaying 3 hours and not being more than mildly irritated is, well, pretty damn good. Now I just need my slime controller.

Soul Calibur 3 silliness.

Ok, I am not going to gush or anything but…

SONIC TEAM IS BACK.

I have declared the first 15 min of Sonic Rush the best thing to happen to Sonic since, well, the Genesis.

I might not start DQ8 tonight.

One of the nicest things just about ever happen to me last night. The entire staff of the magazine pooled together and purchased me a copy of Mario Kart DS. A wonderful group of people, most who I have never met, decided to purchase me a game that I had been looking forward to for a while. I was quite a bit taken back by it and unsure of how to really react to it. I appreciate more than most of them will ever know.

~
Sara leaves tonight. I have to drive her to the airport right when I get home from work. I will miss her until Thanksgiving.

~
Hopefully a quest will start tonight. A grand quest. A dragon quest.

So my wife is leaving for PA on wednesday evening. I will be alone with my one dog (Shadow has been delivered to my parents) until after Thanksgiving. I have been working long days again and on my days off. This will give me time to work on the magazine and layout and hopefully get an article written.

Dragon Quest 8 can’t come quick enough.

So I got to spend about 15 min with an eXsBox 360 last night at Best Buy. I played both King Kong and Kameo. I was neither impressed or excited with it.

I bet some of has to do with the fact that I was playing these games on a HDTV with hard pixel shaped edges on everything. The other fact had to do with that the main difference I noticed was MORE.

More people on screen, more particle effects, more rocks, more lighting effects.

I am now more solid on my stance that this could be the worst thing that has happen to games. I mean, thinking of the jump in graphics that Dragon Quest made from 7 to 8 and then the jump from Xbox to 360, I am not impressed at all.

Now, were Oblivion being released I would be excited, but that is because of the game itself.