Twilight - The Movie

Have you guys heard about Twilight?  I probably wouldn't have heard about this movie if it weren't for my sister.  She was reading the books over the summer and told me to read it.   I'm not much of a reader, and I never did get around to reading them; however, I was interested when she told me that the story was about vampires.  Anyone else besides me like vampires?  But yeah, she warned me that it was a romance novel.  For me, I don't mind romance as long as it's a good story.  I like a good story (seriously, it's the RPG gamer in me 0.0).

Anyways, the beginning can be a bit slow when it introduces the characters and revealing the main story about "vampires".  There was only one action scene in the movie, and I won't say where so it won't spoil anything for anyone.  The story was interesting and keeps you on edge with the main actor's role of a vampire who goes crazy each time he's near the main actress's role of a teenage girl who left Arizona to live with her father.  What kept me on edge was the fact that anytime throughout the whole movie, the vampire (Edward) would feast upon the girl's (Isabella) blood.  The movie was pretty funny all the way through, and that's not entirely a bad thing.  It's also due partly because some scenes were cheesy, full of one-liners, and filmed really awkwardly.  There were a lot of marketing implications all over the movie too, but a lot of media is like that nowadays eh? (buy this 'cause this character eats it! buy that 'cause this character uses it!)  So to narrow it all down, it was a movie filmed poorly (looks low budget, almost feels like I was watching Gilmore Girls on WB) based off a good story from a written novel.  Why do I say this?  It's because Harry Potter was also a movie based off a novel, and Harry Potter was great.  The acting in Twilight was very awkward in a lot of scenes, and the way the silent parts were filmed and edited seemed almost rushed or even amature.  Despite all that, I think it's worth watching at least once as long as you don't mind romance stories.

Speaking of vampires, I finally bought myself a copy of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.  I'm probably gonna open it and play it right after I publish this post.  Other than that, I saw a LOT of good games that came out for all systems in the Gamestop store before I went to watch Twilight.  I'm most likely will buy Castlevania Judgement when I go back home to Elk Grove.  I think I already said that in my last post, but I'm pretty excited with all the new games that has been released.  My roommate started getting scared by the way I acted in the game store and how I was getting so excited.

So I'll see you guys later and feel free to leave a comment on what you thought about the Twilight Movie.

Castlevania Judgement

I should either be playing videogames or sleeping right now, because I haven't had a rest time in a long while since I've been working on projects and essays.  Anyways, I was at my Videogame Development Club yesturday with my RPG group planning out our second Island for the game.  I was pretty much done with what I had to do, so I was watching some trailers and looking at IGN when I came across some new videos for Castlevania Judgement while they were discussing the next step.  I saw a lot of interesting gameplay in its development, and then I saw the newest trailer for the US version of Castlevania Judgement.  The Japanese trailer is totally different after the beginning:

I never noticed how GODLY the song for the game was until I saw this trailer.  It was probably because the past trailers had a lot of background noise and they muffled the music.  But WOW, the game really got my attention with this trailer revealing 10 new characters not mentioned before.  Characters from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse up to current day Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia all mashed up into one fighting game.  A lot of negative feedback from those who tried the demos at conventions have been spread all over the internet, but I personally am expecting it to be a refreshing and intuitive game.   I remember hearing about it in July when I bought a copy of Nintendo Power to find out about the "new" Castlevania on the Wii.  I was going "nooooo, Koji Igarashi, what are you thinking?"  When I got home from Irvine during my orientation in July, I saw some trailers for the game, and  then I was more relieved when I saw that it was free roaming movement.  I didn't want a Soul Calibur rip off for a Castlevania game, so I had some hope for the game.  Then when I saw this latest trailer, I got so excited for all the characters (except I have to complain about how Takeshi Obata drew Shonoa like an ugly nun.  He blocked off all of Shanoa's beautiful hair!!! ; .;).  The only thing that'll make me love this game even more is more interesting modes, more characters, and good multiplayer concepts.  Came out today November 18, 2008 (well, it's Nov. 19 now since it's past 12) so go buy a copy today!!!

LOL, this just in.  Right before I was going to click Publish Post, I got some reviews from three sources.  Here are the scores:

Nintendo Power: 7/10

IGN: 7.5/10

1UP.com: D-

I'm not sure of Richard Li even played the game extensively or what.  A "D-"???  That's pretty harsh right there.  But yeah, a lot of other gamers on the board are complaining.  Most of them are complaining about Takeshi Obata's art ruining the game (which I find only true to Shanoa, he did a wonderful job for everyone else in my opinion) and of the mechanics of the game being horrible as a fighter.  Oh well, it's everyone's opinion.  As a Castlevania fan, I am most likely going to buy this game when I get back home to Elk Grove.  You guys can come over to try it and decided for yourself what you think during winter break.  ^_^

Accomplishments and Anticipation

The past 3 weeks have been a crazy ride of work, and it's not even over yet.  In taking a bit of time to unwind at the moment, I wanted to reflect on recent accomplishments and think about things to look forward to.

[Hagakure - Book]

I finally finished reading Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai!  I recieved it as a christmas present 2 years ago from my sister, and I thought it was strange since she knows I don't read too often.  Well, I started reading it earlier this year and stopped for the whole summer (I did not read at all this summer).  It was kinda hard to get into since it was supposed to be deep, intellectual anecdotes that follows the many philosophies of being a samurai and of how to act as a human being.  Some passages were actually inspiring, though it would be difficult to recall a specific one at the moment.

Throughout the last half of the book however, it was mainly about chopping heads off and performing seppuku (cutting one's stomache out at the death of one's master or as a consequence for one's foolishness).  So many stories of cutting a man down and blood flying everywhere and lopping heads off....it was funny and scary at the same time.  Did you guys know that you can stop the bleeding of a wound from drinking a mixture of horse feces and water?  LOL, yeah.....we have alternatives to stop the bleeding in our advanced technological age of medicine.  All in all it was a interesting book and I do not regret one bit in reading it.   Thanks to my sister for buying the book for me.  "It was about samurais and Japan, so I thought you'd like it." - Sam  (I did like it, very much.  Thank you).

[Draglade - DS Game]

It took me a while to get around beating this game, but I managed to find the time to finish it.  It's a mix of rhythm music with fighting genres into one game.  An activity or sport known as "Grapping" becomes the biggest thing in the world.  The player takes the role as one of 4 characters, and each one has their own ambition and story behind why they want to enter in the competition to become a Major grapper (kinda like going pro in a sport in real life).  Each character uses a "G-Con" (summons your weapon) to strike the opponent and create melodies out of the strikes.  This is called grapping, and you can customize the melody and the way it sounds so that you'll get the sound you want when you perform a combo.  The game can get quite challenging, and I've never played on wi-fi; however, I'm pretty sure there are some crazy pro players out there.  The concept is intuitive in that you can change the sound of your combo, combine different bullet sets to use in battle, and combine the attacks together to create some wicked moves.

Graphics are pretty nice.  They have duplicate npcs and monsters, but I'm not complaining.  The animation is pretty smooth, although the controls need a bit of getting used to.  The story mode I finished was Hibito's, the flame glade user.  He says a lot of corny fire puns like "Play with fire and you'll get burned" or "I'll heat things up".  There isn't actually any voice overs, and the dialogue is kinda weird because of the translations (I should get a job at Atlus as a translator [Atlus resides in Irvine, CA]).  The music is okay and distinguishable, though the most memorable tune would be the title theme (which I don't know the name of).  Story is very simple and predictable, but it was still fun to play along with it.  The boss battles get pretty intense, and I think that's what makes worth playing the game (besides making your own "beat").  Overall, I'd give this game about a 7.5/10 or so on the top of my head.  Oh yeah, there's co-op quest mode too, I haven't tried it yet, but that's a plus too!

[Visual Culture Project - Video]

I'm not complete yet, but got most of it done.  I just have to compose, mix, arrange the music and edit the film.  I've spent most of the past 3 weeks working on this, and since I think I'll like it, I'm probably gonna put it up on Facebook.

[Fallout 3 - PC Game]

I'm sorry to say that I haven't played (or possibly heard of) Fallout or Fallout 2.  But when I heard about Fallout 3, I still wasn't interested.....until I heard it was an RPG game.  I do love games of all genre, but after the explosion of games that came out when there was once 4 major consoles (now 3, sorry Sega) I started to become very careful on what game I choose to play that won't take up so much time so that I can play other ones.  Anyways, I heard nothing but great reviews about Fallout 3 (except that it's full of glitches).  The graphics are amazing with its crazy rendering of an entire city and vast land areas to travel to.  The quest system keeps the players coming back for more (I heard you could be busy an entire year just by playing the game).  And the concept is completely different from the once top down view and action/rpg mix.

Man, pretty violent....

[Left 4 Dead - PC Game (Steam)]

I used to hate zombie games a lot.  Especially when Resident Evil first came out, I asked "why do they make games that freak you out?"  Well,  I learned later that it was the same reason why they make horror films: "For the thrills and chills....I guess?"  Anyways, it gets your blood pumping and it got really exciting when they started making those zombie games action genres.  Left 4 Dead is a 4-player co-op Action Horror survival FPS game that pits you and 3 of your friends with a city filled with zombies everywhere.  It uses the steam system, so we can expect the controls and graphic rendering to be good.  It looks pretty crazy from what I've seen so far from this game.

I'm not going to say that it's an original concept with super intuitive gameplay and all (especially since past games on steam such as Counter-Strike, The Specialist, and Half-Life all had some sort of play vs. hordes of zombie mods implemented on the server's list), but I am very excited that there is a (supposedly) decent multiplayer co-op game coming out that my friends agreed on trying out.  A demo is available on the steam engine Nov. 11, so you'll know that I'll be trying it out this up coming weekend.

So that's it for now, I should go cook dinner, work on my Videogame development work for tommorrow, and continue my visual culture project by starting on the music!  (So tired....)

BlizzCon 2008 - Anaheim Convention Center

Oh man, what an experience.  I'm so glad I went and at the same time curse it 'cause now I want to buy Starcraft II and Diablo III (seriously guys, when was the last time you heard me buy a PC game?)  BlizzCon 2008 is an event held by Blizzard Entertainment (Known for the creation of Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo) that allows the fans to gather and try out the newest games, listen to the panel and ask questions, meet your WoW buddies in real life, get exclusive items and prizes, and buy a whole bunch of hardcore gaming products.  I'll make brief summaries of the highlights at BlizzCon so that you know why I had so much fun.

StarCraft II

Starcraft, I'd say, is one of the best PC games I've ever played throughout my gaming life thus far.  It has a intuitive gameplay that allows a steady flow of action and strategy.  And the one thing that got me super hooked onto the game in my early years of high school was the map making program it came along with it.  I used to stay up on nights working on a map that I'd play with Danny the following weekend.  It pretty much started my real progress in making videogames.

Anyways, the demo had a 20 min time limit, and during that time I remembered that I always sucked at Starcraft because the computer rushed up and destroyed several of my supply depots.  I started picking up the pace after a while and man, such beautiful graphics and much nostalgia while I was playing.  They used a lot of the same voice acting as well as the music, though that may change when the final game comes out.  The animation for each unit is much more detailed, so it looks like they move faster.  There are new units and implementations in the game, and so the bar on raising new strategies just went up.  I can't wait to start making maps again, and since I've gotten so much better in design and game concept, I'll be making better maps than I did before.

Diablo III

I gotta say, it's been a while since a good multi-player co-op game has been out for a while.  When I arrived at BlizzCon, the opening cermony revealed the "Wizard" class of Diablo III.  She kicks butt, seriously!  Possessing the skills of fire, ice, and lightning and wrecking havoc upon the legions of enemies that come your way is such a relaxing activity.  I played it with Jimmy and his two cousins the second time I got in line on a co-op campaign.  It might seem a bit like a button mashing game at some point, but strategy and communication will be required for harder enemies.  This is another game I'm considering of buying (if not, I'll just play LAN with my friends).

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

I wasn't super excited about this one since I'm not even currently playing WoW; however, I still went ahead and tried it.  I had noooooo idea what I was doing since I was running around getting killed by npcs and other testing players around me.  I died so many times that my weapon and armor broke and all I could do was punch things (which got me murdered by various beasts).  I managed to somehow kill one certain hunter who kept shooting me and running away when I was randomly pressing my hotkeys.  To make all you WoW players jealous, I was trying out the Death Knight as my character, bwahahaha.  Not much I can say except that he has some interesting effects on players when using certain skills.

Starcraft/Warcraft Tournament

I didn't get to watch the WoW tournaments (which I would have loved to see, WoW matches are pretty fun to watch), but I did get to watch the Starcraft and Warcraft III: Frozen Throne tourneys.  They were amazing matches with all the pros from around the world competing for the $25,000 prize.  All of them exposing the craziest techniques and blinding speed of gameplay that seemed beyond human comprehension.  The Starcraft match was very interesting in terms of how each player utilized each unit and used different strategies against different opponents.  In the end, the player who won the finals was as Zerg player, and he was in full control of the game the whole way (those crazy pro zerg players....).  What was cool was the interview they had with the winner, as many of the competitors came from Korea, they all needed translators to help them out.  The winner, "Savior", had a small speech at the end of his interview on thanking his english speaking fans by SPEAKING in english and ending it by saying "and I will come back next year to destroy my competitors".  It blew the crowd away.  The Warcraft III match was more exciting to me and I was a lot more into it, even though I never played the real Warcraft III game (only DotA).  The finalist were Lyn (21 yo Jun Park) from Korea vs. Lucifron (16 yo Pedro Moreno Duran).  I gotta say, it was a pretty close match and I saw some of the craziest skills put into motion by both players.  Lyn was fast and unresting while Lucifron was relaxed and careful in his decisions.  Lyn had lost to Lucifron during the semi-finals and brought Lyn to the lower bracket; however, he worked his way back into the finals and won after 5 straight games played with 1 loss in between.  It was an astounding match and to make it all the better, I got to take a picture with him and the commentator for the tournament:

Trenton: omg, I'm touching a gaming god~~~~~~~~~XD

Videogame Development Club

I decided to join the first meeting to see what the club was about.  I was under the impression that we would be going in there and playing some Rock Band 2 and having game developers come in and talk to us.  Oh man, such an awakening to me when the president of club went around in a circle (starting with me! o.0) asking for each person's name, e-mail, and "position".  I was shocked and started to wig out until I realized that were actually going to MAKE a game in that club.  These clubs are totally different from ones I've been in before from high school, this was serious and hard core.  I volunteered to do Animation, concept art, and Audio (such as sound effects and music).  By this point, I was thinking "what have I gotten myself into?"  Even more, my room mate joined me yesturday for the club and didn't know what we were doing, and he agreed to join!  LOL, but that's cool, we needed more people in that club.  There's only one girl in the club, so It's sad to see that not a lot of girls seem to interested in the Interactive Entertainment business.  Besides making a game, we'll be working with possibly mods using the Unreal Tournament engine, Marrow Wind, and even the Warcraft III map maker to mod games.  Other than that, we can LAN our games and "test them out" lol.  So after a while, I got really interested and realized the oppertunity I've been given.  I came to UCI hoping to be working with things relating to my future career, and here I am about to start!  (This is considering how boring my classes are too...).  Further more, there's a possibility that my club can sell our game commercially if it is completed.  That is awesome.

Anyways, diverting from making games, I checked up this morning on what games have the updates on them.  Appearently, Sonic Chronicles is out.  It's very different from its past games as it is a RPG game on the NDS instead of its traditional, fast-paced, 2d-platformer games.  I'll get around to playing that later in the future since I'm kinda busy with so many other things (such as other games I have yet to beat yet).

But more than anything, I got excited with the new trailer for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.  Michiru Yamane is yet again the mastermind for the soundtracks in the game, and the main theme is just awesome.

Hagakure Excerpts

Hagakure - The Book of the Samurai, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Translated by William Scott Wilson is kinda like a diary of philosophical advice on how to live as a samurai and as a human being.  It was written between 1659-1719, the life time of Tsunetomo-sensei.  I recieved this book from my sister on christmas.....of 2006.  Yeah, I'm not a very diligent reader, but I can once I get into it.  Anyways, Tsunetomo-Sensei was a Samurai and was near the end of the wars and the end of his master's rule.  He was going to perform Seppuku (honorable suicide by dis-embowling yourself with your katana), but was forbidden to do so by his time.  So he became a monk, and started to record ways in which one should act as a samurai and as a human being.  While reading though, somethings were inspiring; however, the things he says sometimes is absurd within or modern age.  So I thought I'd share some of the excerpts from the book with everyone and tell you what I was thinking:

Page 60- "Senility is when one goes about doing only that towards which he is most inclined.  One is able to suppress and hide this while his vigor is still strong, but when he weakens, the essential strong points of his nature appear and are a shame to him.  This manifest itself in several forms, but there is not a man who does not get senile by the time he reaches sixty.  And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he is already so."

   Trenton- I knew it!!! We're all crazy, we just don't know it yet!!!

Page 60 & 61- "According to a story at the Ryuutaiji, there was a master of the Book of Changes in the Kamigata area who said that even if a man is a priest, it is useless to give him rank while he is under the age of forty.  This is because he will make many mistakes.  Confuscius was not the only  man to become unperplexed after reaching the age of forty.  Upon reaching the age of forty, both wise and foolish have gone through an appropriate amount of experience and will no longer be perplexed."

   Trenton- I guess we should listen to our parents more often?  I don't know, I think even at the age of 40, I'm going to be still very perplex in life.....

Page 61- "When I was young, I kept a "Diary of Regret" and tried to record my mistakes day by day, but there was never a day when I didn't have twenty or thirty entries.  As there was no end to it, I gave up.  Even today, when I think about the day's affairs after going to bed, there is never a day when I do not make some blunder in speaking or in some activity.  Living without mistakes is truly impossible.  But this is something that people who live by cleverness have no inclination to think about."

   Trenton- If I did that, STARTING a "Diary of Regret" would have been the biggest regret.  We would truly become senile if we were to mark every mistake we've done each day and pay attention to our mishaps.  No matter how old or intelligent we may become, we are bound to have flaws within ourselves and in what we do.  If not, growth in body and mind wouldn't be possible.

Well, if you're interested, this books sells for about $20 or so since it was written AND translated (yeah, I hate expensive books too).  But you could probably find Hagakure for cheaper somewhere else.

In UC Irvine!

Well, it has been one heck of a week with moving and constant walking around the campus.  There are tons of events and clubs on school campus as well as many shopping centers outside of campus.  I'm pretty well adjusted to the enviornment; however, I'm started to dread school life as school has started for UC students.  I recieved my first assignments and just today found out which books I need for 2 of my classes.  Other than classes, I'm thinking of joining the Videogame Development club and help me network into the business as many current employers of the industry will drop by the club and tell us about the job and what can be done to get in.  Other than that, I'm also thinking of joining Tomo no Kai (Gathering of Friends) club which is kinda like my Japanese Culture Club back in High school.  The first meeting started out with the Jodaiko club's performance:

School life here is a lot different from what I'm used to.  I get more tired than I usually am because I walk a lot around campus.  There's lots of misc. reading I do as well since I was thinking of applying for internships and for a study abroad program.  I was also thinking of working at my community center as a computer consultant, but looking at the requirements and expectations made me bored and wonder if I should put any effort into applying for it (resume, applications, questions, references, all that junk just to help people with thier computer problems....).  So I'm hoping to find a nice internship where I can actually learn something.  I hope school will be fun because I'm putting a lot of time, effort and money into it.

On weekends so far, I don't do much, so anyone wants to play an online game or something, feel free to call or message me.

Excite, happy, nervous, buh?

I got new laptop, ipod touch, yamaha headphones, keyboard sustain pedal, a new phone (same number, don't worry), external hard drive, a wireless mouse, and a really cool mouse pad to start my new life in college....which doesn't really start until next week.

It was very tiring trying to find out how to get applications on my new ipod (which appearently I can't because of my firmware) and getting my laptop to dual boot was a nightware as I spent 2 entire days working on it. I say it was worth it because I learned a lot more about computers through my struggle. School is approaching and I'm kinda nervous about the difference in enviornment is going to be. Doing my own laundry is one of my concerns, and so will living with a room mate. I'm just hoping for the best and maybe become good friends with my room mates. I am a bit excited about the new classes I'm going to be taking as well as dreading the ones I'm gonna hate (Art History, ewwwhwhehwwww, but not this quarter).

But enough of school stuff, I learned some new things in the gaming world that excites me!

Phantasy Star Universe wasn't a big hit to the fans of Phantasy Star Online, but it was sure interesting to me.  I haven't gotten that far on PSU, but I've been hoping for a handheld version of the series for a while.  So to hear that there's one coming out on PSP (a system I do not have....) I got really excite yet sad since I don't have a PSP.  But then I heard there was one coming out for the DS:

It's going to be 4 player co-op, Action RPG, with Wi-Fi online capabilties of playing with other players.  You would use the touch screen to give directions or ask for orders to communicate with other players.

It's....It's so beautiful~~~~~~Unfortunately for me, it doesn't come out till December.....In JAPAN!!!  Which means I might have to wait till next summer or longer before it comes to America.  It should be brought over considering the success of PSO and eventually PSU because of the expansion pack.

I don't have to be too sad, since Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is coming out (supposedly) October 28 or so.  Castlevania being one of my favorite francises in the gaming world, I am definately buying that game when it comes out.

mmm, hot girl that kills tons of demons and vampires...okay, she's not incredibly hot, but I like how they have a female lead character (I guess Charlotte counts from the last installment).  This character looks very serious and dire compared to Charlotte though.  And from what I understand, you don't pick up weapons in the game, but glyphs.  Glyphs have abilities of summons, magic, and effect by conjuring it and using a bit of mp (magic power).  So a sword could emerge out of thin air by using a sword glyph.  This is only a guess, so I'm not sure if that's how it really looks.

Another Castlevania game coming out takes a bold turn and becomes a fighting game:

Castlevania Judgement gave me a real shock when I first heard about it on Nintendo Power magazine (while I was down in Irvine during July too if anyone remembers that post).  But I like fighting games, and I love Castlevania, so I'm hoping this game will be at least decent.  A lot of fans didn't like the 3D castlevania, so it's no surprise to see a whole bunch of whiners complaining about this game (btw, I liked the 3D castlevania games and am trying to beat Curse of Darkness).

Well, I'm going to be leaving soon and going to Irvine, and I'm going to really miss everyone here and the ones going to different colleges.  I wish all of you the best of luck this school year and will continue to blog in the future~

Feeling Lethargic.....

One of the things I didn't like about school was the daily routines that I got myself into of waking up, go to school, do homework, sleep, repeat.  When summer break began, everyday was an exciting day of seeing friends, playing videogames and trying new Online games, starting new projects, learning new songs on my instruments, and slowly work myself into shape by exercising.  Unfortunately, I've gotten myself into another routine after a while due to circumstances that could not be avoided.  My friends were a lot more busier than I thought this summer and so I didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked.  One has work, the other went on several family trips, a few went out of the country, and some were tied down with chores and preparations for school.  I've been going to the gym every other day this summer in order to become more physically active and stronger.  Along with needing to get my license before I leave to College, I've been driving everyday for about 1.5 hours.  Other than that, each day I would be checking my e-mail for school updates, checking for additional forms that may need to be complete for shcool, running errands or going out with my family.  So I wake up and eat breakfast and soon after lunch, go driving, go to the gym, take a shower, eat dinner, and then I get a bit of time to do something.  One instance is what I'm doing now, writing on my blog o.0.  But yeah, I don't like how I don't have that much free time to myself to even work on my projects anymore.  There's so many things uncompleted and unfulfilled at the moment and summer break is coming close to an end.  It's so sad that it's a bit......depressing.

[New Stuff]

During last week, my family did some shopping and I was able to get a few things myself.  Besides finally buying my Lenovo Thinkpad Laptop (which hasn't come in yet), the most notable item I recieved was an 8GB iPod Touch from my sister.  She bought a Mac Book Pro with the college offer of a free iPod Touch and decided to give it to me since she receieve a 8GB Nano on her birthday as well as presenting it to me as a replacement ipod since my old one runs out of battery in only a few hours of play time (I'm still keeping it though, unless someone wants to buy it from me? =D).  I went to Guitar Center looking for a electric guitar tuner and found one for a really good price but didn't get a discount, and so I did not buy it; however, I managed to find a really nice pair of Headphones for my new laptop I can use for my music (and gaming I suppose with the fact that it doesn't have a microphone on it) and a sustain pedal for my electric keyboard to use when I go to to college.  So I'm happy with my new stuff, though the iPod has been sucking a lot of my time away.

[Download Crazy]

Ever since I got my new iPod, I've been downloading games like crazy.  I did manage to find a few good games but still feel a bit unsatisfied.  It's probably due to some previews of certain games that I'd love to have but can't find a way to get them.  One such game would be Vay, a port of a Sega CD game from 1993.  It's an classic RPG game with animé type animations and pixelated sprites.  With the iPod having no buttons, it's hard to play any other type of genre besides puzzle games, but RPGs are possible.  You tap to move to an area, and you select commands to execute them.

The other game has yet to come out.  Pantafobia is also a RPG game with the claim of having gameplay length of 100+ hours.  That actually turns me off since I've been playing short games now since I don't have as much time to play long ones.  But the twist in the game that makes me so curious is that after you beat single player mode, you get to go online and play with your character there with other gamers.  I don't know how that works, but for an online game on a handheld like iPod touch?  It sounds pretty interesting.

I know I'm not leaving for school yet, but I already miss you guys.  I feel very tired from all the things I've been doing and still need to take care of before the move down to Irvine.  Hopefully Irvine will be fun.  ^_^

Final Fantasy XI - Crazy Boss Story

Yesterday, I was asked by my dad if I ever heard of "Pandemonium Warden".  I had no idea what that is or "who" it was.  I was actually thinking of a DotA character that looked like a Panda and would occasionally crack a joke about his brewing beer abilities or his self such as "I've got Pandamonium".  Appearently, it's a new boss monster on the Online game "Final Fantasy XI" that was added in the newest update patch.  I never played the game before, but I've played enough online games to know that some boss monsters may take a while to beat sometimes; however, my dad told me that the article he read off of Yahoo reported that a group of players tried taking on the Boss and spent 18 straight hours fighting it before they decided to stop.

The players that played for those 18 hours started getting sick and passing out.  I decided to do a bit of research on it and there really were articles about the infamous boss "Pandemonium Warden".  I apologize to those players that suffer, but I found it amusing that Square-Enix would even do such a thing as to place a boss monster like that in the game.  The quote I see appear all over the internet came from the guild leader of "Beyond the Limitation" and it was quoted:

"People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people’s lives…. None of us doubt that Pandemonium Warden can be killed. We just call into question exactly what the development team thinks is reasonable from human beings".

I guess they didn't go "Beyond" their "Limitations" but they were very persistant to fight for 18 straight hours.  Can you imagine?  Constant clicking and shouting over the mic to the guild members "we can do it, we can do it!"?  I love playing videogames, but not so much as to dedicate my life to it.  So the point of this article is for me to tell you (mainly my friends that play online games) what my father told me after he read that article "don't you ever do that".  I love epic battles, not epic fails.....

Online Games - Multiplayer Games List

One of the other reasons why I wanted to start this blog page was to be able to make a list of multiplayer games and online games I played so that my friends would be able to know which ones are similar to the ones they play.  In doing so, I can find games I could play with my friends.  Anyways, the list will be added onto the right hand side panel.  For today's blog, I will do some short reviews of the Online games that I particularly enjoy playing.  Perhaps it may inspire some of you to join me.  (lol, I've always wanted to do videogame reviews, I'll make it simple and judge on 5 factors: Story, Graphics, Sound, Controls, and Replay Value).

[Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst]

Phantasy Star Online started its series in 2000 on the Sega Dreamcast and been ported many times and evolved in many ways.  It is considered to be an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) as it was one of the many games on Dreamcast where you could connect to the internet and play with other people.  In terms of gameplay genre, I would put it into ARPG (Action Role Playing Game).  Unlike the original Phantasy Star games, the fighting is real time instead of turn-based random battles, making it a unique from most RPGs.  The game has only 3 classes but with different races each that affects their player growth and attributes.  There are the choices of Hunters, Rangers, and Forces (which is like typical RPGs with Close-Range, Far-Range, and Magic characters).  Though the main story is fairly short, there are many quests and activities to participate in.  The story is set on the planet of Ragol where thousands of citizens living there mysteriously disappeared.  Party up with 3 other players to form a group of 4 hired hunters searching for the reasons of the disappearance of the people and the answers to the planet.

Onto the review:  Complaints that the game has no storyline has been brought up many times when reviewing the game; however, the game does have a concept in where it is taken place and the situation that the characters are under.  Though the characters and interactions between them may not be very strong and deep, the plot is simple and straightforward.  Consider that this game is nearly 8 years old, so the graphics are obviously outdated with its blocky characters and flat layered environments.  It delivers an immense world of fantasy and wonder though in the way they present each area.  The music is memorable, though it can be bland after playing it so many times, and possibly annoying to some.  The combo system might seem confusing at first, but those that know the timing will know it without even thinking.  I've been playing this game for possibly over 5-6 years now and I'm still not exactly tired of it because of how many secrets it has in the game.  One of the biggest draws toward playing the game again is finding an interesting equipment to use in battle as there are literally dozens of weapons in the game.  I first saw the game on Dreamcast when a friend brought it over and showed me how many weapons there were.  A few years later, I got the game as a present for the Gamecube.  Now, I am playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (which is purely a online game with episodes 1, 2 and 4) on a private server due to Sega's decision to close down the official servers and concentrate on Phantasy Star Universe.

It is one of my favorite games of all time, even though I can't say I really have a favorite game.  It's really fun if you can find someone to play this game with, and it isn't as difficult to understand than most MMOs out there now.  I see that I have written a long review for this one, so I'll try my best to shorten the next few ones.

[Maple Story]

This simple sidescrolling MMO has captured the attention of millions of players around the world with its facilitated controls and concepts and cartoonish/animéish character designs.  I'm not sure why I'm sharing this game with everyone since this is one of the games that I know most everyone plays.  It's cute, fun, and very addictive (though I'm never addicted to games, it's true!  I'm obsessed with videogames, which means I have control over my actions toward it~).  The problem is that it takes forever to level up and that the game has built up a bad community with people hacking, harassing other players, and disrupting the game play of others.  The game reminds me of early action games where the players would have to continue moving right to finish the game.  The world is explorative, and so it is non-linear (which means you don't HAVE to go one way).

So far, the game has 4 main classes with their own sub-classes in each.  There is Warrior, Archer, Mage, and Rogue.  I have to admit that the tunes to the game is very catchy.  I guess I can understand why so many people play it when the game is so easy to understand (move, jump, attack).  Skills are slowly obtained; therefore, making it easy for players to know what each key they set to does.  In truth, I don't play the game that much anymore, but I did join a private server where the experience rate was at 300x which made it a lot easier to level and gave me the opportunity to travel to more difficult places.

With several million people around the world playing, it's no wonder the game is still around.

[Ragnarok Online]

Possibly my favorite online game so far.  It is completely non-linear with no story lines set for the players, no telling where to go or what you need to do, and thousands of things to do.  It follows the traditional point-click controls that Diablo and Lineage.  The characters and enviornments are flat layers on a 3D-enviornment and is also animéish in character designs.  Music compositions are among the best and perhaps the most enjoyable to listen to from the 3 games I've reviewed so far.  You start the game out as a novice and have the choice of becoming several different classes.  Within the game, there's questing, hunting, boss fighting, pvp, WoE (which is gvg "guild versus guild", dungeon exploring, class changing, chatting, trading, vendor selling, dueling, and many more.  Here's an example of WoE:

I haven't tried WoE, but it looks really exciting.  It's up to you what you want to do that day you log on.  You can create up to 9 characters, quite a bit since in Phantasy Star Online= 4 character slots, and Maple Story= 3 character slots.  I also play on a private server for Ragnarok Online mainly since I don't play consistantly and don't want to pay every month on the International server.

Well, if anyone intends to start any of these games, ask me which server I play on so I can give you a helping start.

Explaination of Danny's Comic

[Explaination to Danny's Comic]

For my 21st Birthday, my friend made a comic out of screenshots from the past games we've played throughout our lives.  He posted it on his livejournal page and stated that "there are quite a few inside jokes".  I would like to take the time and explain them to those that are interested.

[Page 1]

I actually don't want to explain the first 2 panels.....

[Contra - The Konami Code]

Not much is said other than that it's supposed to be funny because I (in the comic) was too late in giving the code.  But I think the inside joke of that was that for many years, (ever since I was 3-4 or something years old) I still remember the Konami code.  Other than that, I'm not sure since Contra III (The one in the comic) didn't have the Konami code.  We used it mainly for Contra 1.

[Tony Hawk's Pro Skating 2]

I'm not much of an explaination except that the "Ho" is Ken's last name, but Danny could have meant the other thing too.....

[Super Smash Bros.]

Probably the most notable memories we've had playing videogames in the past.  I remember very clearly how I went around always saying "I feel your pain" and Danny would like to say "Too bad so sad" (This is when we were about 10 or so).  Then one day, when I went over to Danny's to play some SSB, he started to say "Too bad so sad! I feel your pain~".  I said that was ingenious!  And the way we said it was in a certain way that can't be typed out, lol.  We would use that phrase after getting a kill on SSB or any game, and using it in general.  Pot Roast actually came from my sister who used Kirby a lot and would say "Mess with me and I'll turn you into Pot Roast".  It didn't mean anything, but it was funny.

[Page 2]

[007 Goldeneye]

For some reason, this event always stuck with us and always made us laugh when we think back to that day.  We were playing 007 Goldeneye on Nintendo 64 like we did every weekend during that time, and we were playing a mode called "Man with the Golden Gun".  The objective was that the player holding the golden gun (the strongest gun in the game) would have to kill everyone while the other players tried to take the gun away and do the same.  What's challenging about that mode is that the goldengun has a capacity for only one bullet, so if you miss, you're screwed!  When we were playing (It was either Danny, Vanna, Ken, Samantha, or me playing 4 players) Samantha had the golden gun and was waiting for us in a hall.  We were hoping that all 3 of us rushing toward her would make her miss and give us a chance to take the gun from her; however, we were killed one after the other, 3 in a row.  It was so rediculous that we remembered it up till this day.

[Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2]

Nothing much said other than that we spent countless hours playing on hard mode, trying to find the rare items in the game while I constantly jumped up and down going "redboxredboxredboxredboxredbox" only to end up with 20 of the same rare weapons (VARISTA!!!!! > ,<).  I've been playing that game forever, but still like it for some reason.

[Halo: Combat Evolved]

Ever since I watched this video:

I would teabag everyone in every fps game I played from then on (fps as in First-Person Shooter).  The cat looking comic came from VGcats if anyone remembers from an older post I put up in the past.

[Page 3]

[Brute Force]

Nothing to be said except that WE KEEP GETTING LOST IN THAT GAME!!! XP  It was a good co-op game though.

[Ragnarok Online]

We started playing last summer but didn't play throughout the whole school year.  We started again this summer and forgot how hard certain monsters were in the beginning.

[Page 4]

[Guild Wars: Factions]

When I first started using wireless high-speed internet, I had a bad Wi-Fi USB port.  So I would always lag and sometimes freeze there in place.  We tried using Ventrilo once and I was lagging so bad that I couldn't control some of my actions and I wasn't heard on vent.  Instead, I wasn't heard until 10 mins later or something like that (It was a one minute lag, not a 15 minute one).  I miss playing GW:Factions, I haven't even beat it yet.....

[DotA]

What I found humorous about this part of the comic was that the screenshots were taken the night before this comic was presented to me.  We were playing DotA on WTF mode which granted unlimited Mana and no cool downs.  In other words, players spammed their special abilities constantly, and I happened to chose one that summoned and another that shot the closest opponent.  The quote on the bottom left came from this video:

Thanks for the comic Danny.

First Comic Post and Handheld Games Preview

[Ragnarok: The World's not over Yet]

It's been a while since I've done a post since I'm trying to make my summer worthwhile with my music, drawing, videos, reading, exercising, and of course playing some videogames.  Anyways, I started a new comic series that I may or may not continue drawing considering how long it took just to do one page, and it isn't even up to par in terms of humor with my other original comic (to those that know of it).  There are only some of those who know I like drawing comics, and so to those that know about my older comics, the drawing on this one page might look a bit similar.  I hope to evolve out of that and become a bit more creative with my art.  Anyways, here it is:

I've been thinking of just doing Ragnarok references in my original comic, but was inspired to start its own series upon hearing my friend Danny's desire to write fanfiction stories of the experiences from the game "Ragnarok Online" on his blog page.  Danny has yet to write any yet considering that he is possibly busier than I am.  I am not completely content with my first page on this series, mainly because it took so long to do with drafting, character design, coloring, scanning and editing; however, I was at the very least able finish one page.  I was thinking on developing a strong storyline with this series, but that all depends if I continue creating it even after I transfer to my new college.  I really want to work on my art, but I also love working on my music, video and game creations (which I would like to do= last game made and finished was probably Junior year High school).  PS: A possibly better view of the comic can be seen within my new album on "Facebook".

[Ipod game - Song Summoner]

An incredibly intriguing game that came out recently for the Ipod called "Song Summoner" by the esteemed software industry "Square-Enix" (known for their Final Fantasy series) has me interested in buying a new Gen Ipod (160GB classic) so that I could play it.  [Note- I don't know every aspect of the game, so the description might be off] In "Song Summoner" you play the role of Ziggy who is confronted by an army of robots who wish to eradicate the human race and take all things musical away from them.  A man comes and teaches you the ways of using music as your weapon.  So what exactly is the weapon?  The music you have uploaded in your Ipod!!!  You choose whatever song you have and the game turns it into a playable character that will fight for you.  So what's the point in using the music on your Ipod?  Well, each time you listen to that particular song you chose to be a character on your Ipod, your character will get stronger each time:

The genre of the game is turn-based tactics (to those that know what it means), which means it's like a Role-Playing Chess game (to those that don't play videogames).  If I had the appropriate Ipod to play it on, I would not hesitate to buy this game (which I usually would when looking at Ipod and cellphone games).  It is available on iTunes for $5, so I think it's worthwhile.

[NDS - Final Fantasy IV]

Final Fantasy IV (known as Final Fantasy II in America when my dad bought it on Super Nintendo) was the first Final Fantasy game that I played (or watched my dad play, I used to always watch him play videogames).  So upon hearing Square-Enix's plan on remaking Final Fantasy III-VI on the DS in 3D got me excited.  Though I did not play Final Fantasy III that much (mainly because it did not come out in America on the NES) I thought of the remake on the DS to be interesting, especially with the incredible CG opening video to the game.

I'm not very far on it, so I don't know what to say about it.  Final Fantasy IV's CG opening on the other hand brought me to tears with it's dynamic CG opening and beautifully arranged music that brought back so many memories (I was about 5 or so when FF2, aka FF4 in Japan during that time, came out).

The obvious difference in the remake was the 3d view and rendering of all the characters and scenery.  Much of the game has been kept true to the original, so it feels very comfortable to veteran FF4 players.  But the aspect of the game that had me awestruck was the voiceovers.  The voice acting was surprisingly stupendous!  What's even stranger is that I think the english voice acting is even better than the Japanese voice acting.  I think what got me interested into Final Fantasy (besides my dad's influence on me) is the storylines (usually Hironobu Sakaguchi), the artworks (usually Yoshitaka Amano or Tetsuya Nomura), and especially the music (Nobuo Uematsu!).  The remake of Final Fantasy III was only average from the critics, but FF IV made up for it, scoring an average of 9-10 out of 10.  I don't know exactly what it is about Final Fantasy games that makes me love it so much, but I already knew I was a Final Fantasy fan when FFIV (remember, it was FFII in America during that time) came out.

hmm...I would do a review on it, but I just practically started.  It only came out 3 days ago (in America, it was out in Japan Nov. 2007).  But who cares, BUY IT!  BUY IT NOW!!!  (Though if you have an Ipod, I would suggest getting Song Summoner since it's more affordable.  FFIV DS=$40.  Song Summoner Ipod= $5).

Highlights of my SoCal Trip

[Witnessing history being made]

I am speaking none other than the epic match between Federer vs. Nadal at the Wimbleton.  Their match alone is a record breaking event as the match became the longest running Men's Wimbleton Final. (4hrs 48mins)  My family and I were in our Hotel room and had just woken up from our first night in Irvine, and turned on the TV to find that the Wimbleton Finals was being broadcasted at the time.  At first it was *meh* but then as the it became very close for Nadal to winning, we started cheering (he always had a weakness on grass court) and was hoping that he'd overcome his weakness.  The points were already 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, and the fourth set was very close to a win for Nadal until he lost the tie break.  So we stayed in the hotel room an extra few hours just watching who would win.  We kept screaming so much throughout the last set, especially my dad (omg it was making me so nervous).  It got to a tie break once again and the tension was so high that I felt like throwing up.  The push and pull kept going and did not stop with Nadal barely surviving Federer's lead and amazing serves; however, when Nadal finally got the lead, the moment finally came.  Nadal strikes the ball to the opposite ground Federer had positioned himself to.  In Federer's effort, he tried to strike back but finally ended the game with him hitting the net, announcing Rafael Nadal the new Wimbleton Champion after Federer's 5 time straight wins on the court.

The people who witnessed it live in action got what they paid for.

[The shopping]

(Castlevania Judgement)

Though I did not buy that much, I did get some interesting stuff.  One thing in particular was the going to Barnes and Nobles and finding that the latest Nintendo Power talked about the much rumored Wii Castlevania game now named "Castlevania Judgement".

I was bummed at first to hear it was a fighting game, but as I read the description more, I started to like the idea.  Castlevania characters in a fighting game intertwined with elements of the past Castlevania games.

(Fossil Glasses)

I found a pretty cool looking pair of sunglasses that was on sale and looked pretty good.  I would post a picture up, but I'm too lazy to do that at the moment.  Instead, let me share something else with everyone:

(Tetris Cube)

I saw this a Puzzle Zoo, a toy store full of puzzle games, board games, and misc. stuff.  I didn't buy anything that day (Day before we left Irvine) and so I went and got this interesting little boxy thing that resembles the pieces of the popular puzzle game Tetris.

Little did I know that this was evilness in a box.  9839 distinctive solutions to put all the pieces back into the box, and I had to cheat (Youtube) in order just to find one of them.  If you want something to kill time, this is definately one toy to do it (it was either this tetris cube or a Rubik's Cube).

(In conclusion)

We mainly went down to Irvine and LA for my orientation and for a school tour of UCLA.  Irvine was more close to a homely type of place with flat grounds and everything close by.  UCLA was more of an extravagant campus with an incredible scenery everywhere and a lively enviornment.  It was a pretty good trip.  (I missed my computer a lot through those 5 days).

VGcats - Scott Ramsoomair

Although I forgot to blog yesturday, I will definately make this one the best as a ending note to the comic topic blog for this week.

I came across VGcats (stands for Videogame Cats due to the many references to videogames the comic makes) one day when I was looking for "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" information and videos and accidently found that video.  I looked it up and realized it was a webcomic that referenced a certain game each strip.  As I began to read more and more of it, I laughed harder and read more until I caught up to where it is now (yes, a webcomic I'm actually up to date with).  The comic is based on moments, references, and insides jokes of those who know the videogames and pokes fun at it by making parodies, pointing out the irony, and simulates situations in those games if it were to happen.  You DON'T need to have played the videogames that each strip portrays, though in some of them it won't make any sense unless you have.  One strip in particular was one of the greatest ones of all and should make sense who's ever been grown up with "Pokémon".

If you don't get this comic strip, then you missed a large part of your childhood, unless you weren't allow to know about Pokémon throughout your life.....which would have been weird but meh~  The two most notable characters are Leo Leonardo (the gray cat) and Aeris (the pink cat).  They usually portray certain characters for each strip, but there are times where they are themselves and have a distinctive personality.  They are based off of the real life cats that "Scott" has and serves as a great influence in his work.  Lately, he's been working on other strips that are more concentrated on a certain series.

"Adventure Log" is based off the "Final Fantasy XI" Online game and his own experience in playing the game.  The artwork is very "Animé-ish" but also follows his own original style he started with VGcats.  This series so far is very typical "poke fun at MMORPG" type of jokes, and so is not incredibly funny to me.

Please do not feel discouraged of playing MMORPGs from this strip.  It actually DOES happen quite a lot where trying to find a "class" you actually like playing with will have you die quite a number of times, but that's the fun in discovery~

The one new series that Scott has started that IS immensely halarious is "Super Effective" which follows the original "Gameboy Pokémon" although some of them are very random or just plain humor.  The Pokémon games always starts the same way: You see a Pokémon professor, he studies Pokémon, and then he asks you what your gender is (in the later series).  But in the original game, there was only a boy you can use, so.....

And then something that people take advantage of is when being able to choose the name of their rival:

But I thought it was even more funny when (someone I know) named their friend/rival in Pokémon Diamond "JAT" (Jerk *** Tard).  LOL!!!  Over all, the VGcats series is probably my favorite webcomic to follow, since it only updates each monday and the artist gets busy/lazy sometimes so doesn't post up new ones.  Hope everyone enjoyed this week of webcomics.

Megatokyo - Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston

Megatokyo is by far one of the more popular webcomics out there, considering that it has been published and translated into several different languages.  Influenced by the Japanese animé/manga style, Megatokyo attracts animé lovers and gamers alike with their videogame references, incredible artwork and architectual designs for the background, and originality.  The webcomic uses a combination of the western style and Japanese style of 4 panel comic strips which reads in a "Z" fashion (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right).  The series starts with Piro and Largo wanting to get into E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo where they release news on the latest development of each gaming company's work) but failing to do so because they are not game developers themselves (I want to get into E3 as well...).The story truly starts when Piro drags Largo along to go to Japan for a short trip, but end up stuck there with no money to fly back to America.

Piro, who knows how to speak Japanese, ends up working at a bookstore (I believe, it's been a while since I've followed MT).  Largo, the more imaginative and crazy like friend, goes around trying to prevent an evil attack???  (Yeah, I'm not very far into the series since I actually read the first volume from borrowing it at the library).  At a certain point, the artist drops the 4 panel design to turn it more into a graphic novel that follows the format of a Japanese manga.  Humor, Action, and Fantasy are among the genres in the series as well as a bit of romance and drama.  I don't know what attracted me to this comic, but I'm guessing it's all those gaming references they put in there~

4h, 7h15 57r1p 15 5uch 4 c1551c~ |)u|\| u 7h1n& 50?

21st Birthday Party Synopsis

It's time to test my strength of memory and give a summary of what my party was like.

[June 21, 2008] I didn't sleep well the night before because it was pretty hot and I fell asleep around 2:30am.  About 2.5 hours later, I get a call from a "friend" at 6AM in the morning wishing me a Happy Birthday.....because he couldn't come to my party.  Disgruntled from being woken up so early, I tried to fall back asleep.  I eventually did, but constantly fell in and out of sleep between 8 and 10AM.  I finally woke up with a extremely hungry feeling as well as a headache.  Ate breakfast, took a headache medicine, and then waited for the first person to get to the party.  Ben got here first, at around 12:30 or so.  And we talked about the game we had the night before on DotA.....and how I died several million times (lol, not that much, but I know I suck).  I had everyone come AFTER they've eaten lunch; however, a few friends forgot to eat lunch and so joined me for some Subway (EAT FRESH!).  We finally got settled down and played some Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

At around 2:30PM or so, Ben, Ken, Julian, Stephen, and Jesse was there.  I was waiting for Danny and Vanna to get here so that I could play some Ultrastar with them (a karaoke game on the PC) so that I could show my "awesome" hi-pitched metal voice to "I believe in a thing called love" (LOL, I'M JUST KIDDING, I can not sing well as it is).  It was at least funny, and I ended up singing several Japanese songs like L'arc en Ciel's "Blurry Eyes" though I had to sing a octave lower since I can't reach Hyde's singing level. o.0  Too bad Nathan got to my party late, I would have made him sing a heavy metal song. XD  When Vincent (Leung, Vincent Tapang couldn't make it...) arrived, Jesse wanted to challenge him on Marvel vs. Capcom since Vincent was so invincible on that game.  That was played in my room, so in the game room, everyone else was starting up Mario Kart Wii.  While Stephen and Julian were constantly in first and 2nd place, Danny, Ken, Andy, and I kept ending up in last ('cause we kept falling to our deaths).  Be it on the wiimote or Gamecube controller, we always wound up falling off a cliff or running into cows (COWS!!!)  Playing Wii started to get a bit tiring as we only had Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, so a lot of us decided to go downstairs to play some X-Box.  Ken and Danny were playing DDR when I went down, but we quickly changed to a different game.  We were looking through some of the games Danny had brought with his X-Box.  We saw Brute Force in his collection, the game we beat together (Danny, Vanna, Ken, Samantha, and me) years ago.  For some reason, we kept failing the very first mission and kept dying.  How in the heck did we beat it? o.o

After losing several times, Jesse and Vincent joined us for Top Spin.  By this time, practically everyone was there including Remington.  Dinner started while I waited outside of the house for Varn and Kai to arrive.  After dinner, we decided to move away from the games since there was a duration of the day where everyone was doing their own thing (surfing internet, playing a one player game, playing Gameboy Advance, playing on their laptops.....).  So I got everyone together to play some Cranium.  There was so much yelling and screaming that I thought I was going to lose my voice (throat just hurt the next day, it didn't go away).  One of the greatest moments of Cranium was when Kai answered one of the questions "in mandarin" and got it correct right before time was up.  The party had ended while 5 of us started to prepare for our next part of the party: LAN night.  Danny, Ken, Stephen, Ben and I put our computers together to play the following games up until 5:30AM- Team Fortress 2, World in Conflict, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.  We actually woke up at 12PM and then played until 6PM before they left.  It was a good party, but there was actually a lot of people that couldn't come.  About 21 people didn't come, 15 people did, but among those 15 people were also relatives, friend's relatives, and family friends adding up to 36+ people at my party.  I might be arranging a get together this summer to hang out with those I didn't get to see this time.  Catch you later everyone~

Dominac Deegan:Oracle For Hire - Michael Terracciano

Possibly one of the most original and unique webcomic I've read in a while (there are probably hundreds of good ones out there that I don't know about).  Dominac Deegan is a seer who can see into the future.  His occupation is to be of service to the townspeople by seeing into their future for a small fee.  Unfortunately, many of his customers are nothing but dim-witted morons who seek answers to petty questions and discriminates against many of the main characters because of who/what they are.  Dominac meets a young girl who possess the power of magic when he travels to a nobleman's home to release himself from a curse of fish falling on his head:

The magic wielding Luna possesses a feature on her face that frightens people and/or causes them to jeer whenever she is present.  Dominac has a younger brother named Gregory who undergoes the practice of white magic (which is known for its holy powers to vanquish monsters and for its healing).  Gregory has a limp leg and goes through life being called a lame, handicap, or crippled.  The series itself starts out with short story, four-panel humor.  As it progresses, a storyline is unfolded and the readers find out that one of brothers of the main character is tied with the forbidden practices of Necromancy.  Dominac begins to have many visions of his brother killing and torturing innocents to furthur strengthen his powers.  And so, Dominac the seer, Gregory the white mage, and Luna the magic wielder sets off to stop the maddened Necromancer.  Um, there might be more to the story, but I'm at the 50% point.  15 Chapters have been created so far, I'm somewhere in chapter 8.

Thanks to Olivia for this interesting webcomic.

Questionable Content - Jeph Jacques

This week, I'll be sharing some of the webcomics that I've been following that might be of interest.  Since I like to draw comics, I read comics other artists have created to seek ideas and to be inspired (oh yeah, and also to have a good laugh since most ones I've read are humor comics).

Okay, I'll make this one short since I'm actually 1061 pages behind this one.  Questionable Content is about a typical, young, indie college student who finds himself living with a girl who claims she's not attracted to him (I haven't got that far yet, so yeah...) when her apartment burnt down.  References of college life, drinking, relationships, technology, indie music, and some random topics is the base factions that create the simple yet ingenious webcomic.  As you progress through the series, you can see the art style and development evolve.  Reading it is a very good time killer.  Example:

Thank you to Danny for sharing this awesome webcomic to me.

VI SITTER HÄR I VENTEN OCH SPELAR LITE DOTA

I'd like to rant a bit about a game I've come to realize about a year or two ago. Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a Warcraft III custom map campaign that supports up to 10 players in a RPG style gameplay that allows the control over a character/hero with leveling, item purchases, buffs and debuffs, and many other RPG-like characteristics. Currently, there are 90 characters to choose from, each with 4 skills that separates their characteristics from all the other heroes. Leveling the skills grants the player the power to deal extra damage, stun, freeze, slow, buff, debuff, grow, set traps, protect, grow stronger, and many other enhancement with his/her hero. The distinct categories that distinguish the type of character the heroes are strength, agility, and intelligence. It's difficult for this game to be considered boring if you're into it when there is a plethora of ways the game will turn up due to the thousands of combination of teams that could be made with all those characters:

From what I heard, World of Warcraft (WoW) was created from the ideas and gameplay of their previous projects of Warcraft, mainly Warcraft III. A friend of mines has gotten me interested in World of Warcraft by showing me some gameplay by jumping in a PvP (that huge map that fits 40 of each side [Alliance vs. Horde]). I gotta say that it's a lot more faster paced than I thought. So much action was going on that it almost seemed like an Action RPG game.

Anyways, back to DotA. There are many items in the game that also helps your character growth by raising from Hit Points to Damage and all aspects of a characters attributes.

The objective of the game is to have your team destroy the main tower of the opposing team. Simple objective, difficult to carry out. The opposing team naturally will be aiming for the same goal. Imagining that we're entering normal mode (there are many modes to the game such as shuffling players and randomizing what hero each player gets) everyone chooses their choice of a hero and prepares to fight against legions of the opposing teams little grunts they call "creeps". I don't know why they're called that, but sometimes if you get killed by them, that's what you feel like calling them. =/ Heroes gain level by killing creeps, neutral creeps hiding around the forest, and the opposing team's heroes. You also recieve gold in the same fashion. A lot of team work is involved where you corner other players, render them useless from attacking or running away and then finally killing them for experience and gold. I know this well because I'm usually the victim of such fate as that. - -; Nonetheless, I have come to really love the game and play it whenever I get the chance. Though I do not play consistantly as some of my other friends, I have become a little better (such as not dying and using myself as a lure to draw players to their doom). =D So if you see the away message of "Vi Sitter Har I Venten Och Spelar Lite DotA", It means: I'm sitting here on ventrilo (which I actually don't use for DotA but for "Top Spin 2") and playing DotA. It is actually a song by Swedish singer Jonas Erik Altberg who goes by the name "Basshunter" who had that song rated top 10 in the music charts of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway. My sister was actually the one who shared a video of the song to me when I went to play DotA for the 2nd time. It's so catchy!!! (Video gets weird at one point. They all go clubbing when he's singing about DotA). Well, if you play DotA, want to get into it, or have questions, ask/tell me so you can join me in our DotA games.

VI SITTER HÄR I VENTEN OCH SPELAR LITE DOTA

Bad Luck? Maybe just a little...

My day was okay today in the beginning.  Ate breakfast, surfed the internet, made lunch, filmed a little, vacuumed the whole house, and took a shower.  Everything was fine, and then I started to feel a painful sensation on my right ankle.  A little later, the exterior side of my right foot started to hurt.  Appearently I got a muscle cramp, and it's continuous because it's still hurting right now. - -;  Okay, so a bit of a cramp, hurts my right foot, no big deal.  Then my mom and dad came home and needed some help carrying in groceries.  When I was bringing in the stuff, the metal plating on the bottom of the door suddenly cut my middle toe and a piece of my skin was hanging out. o.0  It was bleeding a little, and it didn't hurt too much when I put hydrogen proxide on it; however, it continually hurts as I walk, or even now when I keep it still.  I haven't had much bad luck lately but I guess this is one of those days...so if you had a bad today, hopefully my story will make you happy about your day. > ,<>

Birth of Blogging

Yes, my very first blog ever. I generally don't like blogging mainly because I usually don't have internet and time during the school year, but it is summer vacation at the moment. It never occured to me, but some of my friends like to read my stuff sometimes. So the birth of this blog page has been dedicated to those friends of mine. And as many of my friends already know, I know quite a bit about videogames, like music so much that I've learned several instruments, and enjoy art, especially animation and comics/manga. This also gives my friends to leave comments and tell me what they've been up to without having to instant message me. And I apologize to some of my non-videogame friends when I start to rant about videogames a lot. I'm anxious to hear what you guys got to say (comment's open to all, but if I keep getting spam and weird messages, I'm turning it off). Till the next blog! ^_^