New photos at Flickr!
Lock your children away
Another day, another level
SO!
Skylar spends all day at home, and I spend most of the day at work or asleep. That's our routine. It, too, is growing old, and we're in desperate need of a change. Where are our friends? I don't see them. We're willing to put ANY of our Jonesboro peeps up with free room and board if they'll just make the effort. Give us a couple months, and we'll even buy your plane ticket. They're pretty cheap this time of year, but that always changes with the seasonal extremes, Summer and Winter. So get it while the gettin's gettin. And not gotten.
Skylar and I just saw The Number 23, and it's a good flick. Builds drama well. I suggest watching it. I also suggest liking it.
Thought of the day: When you begin referring to your class in the first-person collective, as in "we," "us," and "our," it's time to pad the walls.
Slashdot blog ads, cancellation imminent
To all my Arkansan peeps
And I really don't know why, but it's a nice jam. So just roll with it.
It's been a year bitches
This time's for real
DOWN WITH URBANIZATION IN GAMES!! ANIMALS WITH GUNS!!!
I've been thinking of getting back into this whole livejournal thing.
It would make some sort of sense. I've a few better things to do with my time, but, like most in the Jonesboroan LJ community, it's a tool of catharsis, a way to purge the stressful mind. And I'm working for RPGamer, which is more reason to do this since I'll be spending far more time at the computer than ever.
Let's take a poll: all in favor, say 'aye.' All opposed, get me a very expensive Christmas present, and we'll call it even.
YOU WILL READ. YOU WILL LIKE. YOU WILL SEND ME FLOWERS AND EMAIL EXPRESSING GREAT LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR MY WANG. GO THERE NOW, AND BE FREE!!
Golf?
A new online gaming trend seems to be a multiplayer game by the name of Golf?, which may or may not resemble the athletic pastime of the same name. Using first-person shooter controls, the player navigates an environment meant to represent a golf hole by means of a ...giant robot and shoots balls from cannons Or is it more giant robots? It's difficult to tell. All I know is it looks interesting, and Windows users should download it as soon as possible.
News courtesy of Golf?.
It's like the King of France up and died in my pants. Consider this at your leisure.
IGN has posted a report about the House of the Dead 4 location test, which occurred at the Sega Gigo arcade in Ikebukuro, along with a couple of images displaying the game's HD display and machine gun controller. Noticeable changes include high-definition compatibility, greater numbers of on-screen enemies and a new gameplay mechanic involving shaking of the gun. The controller is apparently motion sensitive and has generated opportunities for more creative gameplay situations that, according to the report, Sega has obviously taken advantage of. Such situations include enemies grabbing hold of the characters, requiring the player the "shake" them off.
News courtesy of Sega.
Ibara footage, Arcade-Extreme.com
The first decent footage of Ibara (to my knowledge) has finally made it to the Internet at Arcade-Extreme.com(Itallian language). It's a demonstration video played by a popular single-credit superbeing known as HOLLOW. The video is nothing short of fantastic, the footage showing giant explosions and Raizing-influenced chaos. It can be found in the forums in the 'Shmup Video' thread about halfway down the page. Users will have to register to access it. Most of the available videos are supsrplays, including one of Mushihimesama also performed by HOLLOW. The site also offers combo demonstrations from fighting games, as well as... other stuff.
Courtesy of Arcade-Extreme.com.
OpenID now supported by Livejournal
In a move that will probably make the entire Livejournal community happier than happier, Livejournal is now supporting OpenID, a non-centralized system that allows users to post comments at any site that supports it (non-Livejournal blogs, for example) in an authorized and personal manner without registration. This would make one's author line appear as "[X user] at [Y site]," e.g.: "steamyrobotlove at Livejournal," instead of "guest" simply by entering a name and your URL. Very handy, indeed; more details can be found on the official site.
Courtesy of Livejournal.
Penny Arcade comic, just because
Yeah, I laughed my ass off, too. I laughed so hard I probably laughed YOUR ass off, as well. It's okay, though; feel free to reattach your ass and resume laughing. If you don't get it, well, you don't, and I guess there's nothing I can do about that. What I CAN do is ask everyone who doesn't know about Penny Arcade to read it frequently, for it's the webcomic genius of our age. Witty; provocative; offensive--it's everything you could ask for, and probably a few things you didn't. Click the image to be directly re-directed. That's 50% MORE direction than the leading livejournal.
Courtesy of Penny Arcade.
Happy Ready Go!, an internet music movement
Something interesting is occurring in the Japanese music market. Posters from the 2ch message boards, a highly popular message board where users have complete anonymity, have banded together to push sales for the next Mahou Sensei Negima release, an album featuring several pop songs from voice actors of the Japanese anime of the same name. The recent Mahou Sensei Negima album recently reached the number-3 position on The Oricon chart, the Japanese equivalent of the Billboard Top 40, yet was mysteriously missing from the countdown upon its weekly televised reading. This angered several a 2ch poster, and they're encouraging everyone near and far to purchase the next album. Their actions have been so influential as to cause the manufacturer of the album to drop the price to 700 yen (approx. US$7)--this from a country that slaps an initial price of 3000 yen on any newly-released pop album. This is a MAJOR movement in the Japanese music industry and will hopefully set a precedent that influences record companies to more reasonably price their albums in the future.
News found at Insert Credit.
New Cowboy Bebop game, Bandai
You wanted an update? YOU GOT IT: a new Cowboy Bebop game from Bandai is in the pipeline, and it looks to sport the once-trendy cel-shaded look a few years too late. Little else is known about it, as yours truly can barely read a lick of Japanese. From screenshots, it appears to be a third-person action game, equal parts shooting and hand-to-hand combat with all of the main characters making an appearance. Will keep a lazy eye on this one.
News found at Majoria's News.
More DDR in classrooms
To fill space: Wired has an article about public schools in the Redlands, California school district placing Playstations equipped with DDR in their classrooms. With the obesity rate of children from low-income California families up to 14.1 percent, the schools are hoping to encourage weight loss in Californian youths with (here it comes) "exertainment." Again, I ask: Where was this when I was in school?!
News found at Wired.com.
Ibara, new shooter from Cave
This is a few months too late (like JANUARY late), but I thought I'd mention it: Cave is developing a new shoot'em up by the name of Ibara for the Japanese arcade market. It seems to draw tremendous influence from Raizing's Battle Garegga/Battle Bakraid games, obvious from the bomb counter and huge mechanized, prop-driven enemies. Check out the screenshots at the main page. All shoot'em up fans should be seething at the oral cavity for this one; I'll keep you posted.
News found at Cave's AM Visual page.
Final Fantasy: Advent Children release date, character list revealed
A short update: Gpara.com has published the release date and character list (found here) for the upcoming Square Enix movie production Final Fantasy: Advent Children. As far as what was gathered from a Google translation, the movie will be sold for Japanese and American markets simultaneously on September 14th. All of the major players make an appearance, along with a few new faces. Clicking the images reveals character and voice actor information.
News found at Majoria's News.
Inuyasha: Ougi Ranbu for PS2
New images of Bandai's latest game based on the Inuyasha franchise, Inuyasha: Ougi Ranbu (Inuyasha: Feudal Combat), have surfaced. From the looks of screenshots, it appears to be a freeform fighter in the vein of Power Stone. The game is slated for PS2 by June 16, 2005 for Japanese shores and August for American. This news is strictly for the fanatical Inuyasha fans who may read this blog. I know you're out there.
News and screenshot taken from the-magicbox.com.
Play-Asia: big inventory clearance
There's a huge Summer clearance sale going on at Play-Asia.com, with big markdowns spanning multiple items and platforms. Among the hundreds of items are great deals like $50 SwanCrystals and a $150 limited edition IIDX 9th Style, which includes the Visual Emotions II DVD and the V-Rare soundtrack, among other goodies. Products are limited, and they're going fast.
News taken from insertcredit.com.
Tamagotchi, cellphone bound
More news from Bandai: the company is set to release a version of Tamagotchi, the mid-90s fad which fell off the bandwagon long ago, for the cellphone market. This latest incarnation of the digital pet sports new features exclusive to the cellphone version, such as tougher resilience against hardships incurred from negligent keepers. Compatible phones and supporting carriers are as of yet unknown.
News taken from 1up.com.
Cave, location test of Mushihime-sama-based puzzler
Another of Cave's brilliant line of games that will never see the light of day in America, Mushihime-sama no Pazuru Ge-mu (Puzzle Game of the Insect Princess, tentative title) is a new puzzler from Cave which was on location test in Akihabara Hey for 15 days beginning May 12th. The game is based on Cave's own popular shoot'em up Mushihime-sama. Very old news but interesting that Cave would produce a puzzle game after a long and successful line of gorgeous shooters the likes of EspRa.De. and Guwange.
News taken from Cave's AMVisual page. Original image taken from the game's main page.
PSP gets the pr0n treatment
In a refreshingly tacky move to support the PSP's flaccid movie market, Sony has allowed aptly-titled company Glay'z to produce a line of adult films for the PSP on UMD video. Five videos will be available next July for the Japanese market. The current product line can be found here (not worksafe).
News taken from insertcredit.com.
This is the new format I'll try to keep updating at least every other day. Drop me a line to tell me what you think or just to say that I botched something about the format. Tell me what you'd like to see. I tend to lean towards the obscure Japanese market side of the gaming industry, so if you want leet Halo 3 screenshots or whatnot, let me know.
The short-story side of the blog isn't gone, just on hiatus. When it comes to me, I'll post this and a short story or a chapter of something. I'd like to get into gaming journalism, so for now, this and short stories will share the primary focus.
Metroid Prime has been consuming all of my at-home free time lately, and I’m not exactly a worse person for it. Playing Prime has afforded me time to stay at home, which has given me time to answer phone calls, phone calls regarding future employment opportunities that soon turned into current employment opportunities that will soon turn into paychecks. And a paycheck is something I’ve missed over the last two months, my mark of accomplishment, proof that my week wasn’t wasted and that my time wasn’t siphoned into an endless void at the tail end space. Time bleeds together when you have more leisure time than you deserve, and a job is something that helps me remember what day it is, something that helps me remember that time exists.Metroid Prime saved my concept of time and possibly my life. Don’t let anyone tell you that video games aren’t the entertaining heroes of today’s generation.
So I’m playing Metroid Prime, and I’m at a particular point in the game, the same as any other point in the game, really, since all points in all games lead to some other point in all other games, if not a point somewhere else*. I found the ice beam not too long ago, and I now find myself in a scary, uncharted section of the Phazon Mines, an area of the game that blinked into existence on the map about fifteen minutes before I found the next bastion of hope, the next save point. So I saved it, and continued onward, onward into death and utter gamer disgrace as I reigned victorious over the next hulking mini-boss-like character and subsequently died by the hands of one of the more common enemies.
I don’t use scary in any light sense of the word; I mean I’m scared. The generalized map screen consists of conjoined hexagons to form an abstract shape that represents the whole of each unique section of the game world. Pressing the A button at this screen above any of the hexagonal sections will give you a magnified topographical map of that sector of that particular section of the world. Before finding the Phazon Mines, the game world as I knew it consisted of four distinct, fairly large areas. It would take me about 10 to 15 minutes to travel from one location to the next, across several rooms, if I were having a difficult time finding my way around, which happens more than I’d like to admit. However, I will, should you ask me.
Now the Phazon Mines have appeared. Although it occupies a comparatively small area of the map screen, wedged between the Tallon Overworld and the Magmoor Caverns, its presence is a thing of teeth-rattling intimidation. I can only imagine what awaits me at the end of this gauntlet-like zone of this trial-by-fire game.
It makes me wonder how a human being could possibly be petrified by a video game. There’s a reset button, after all, not to mention a continue option. Death is a non-issue, something that bears no consequence, save for having to continue from an earlier point, something of only the mildest of annoyance when the entirety of one’s life is concerned. To fear one’s virtual death should mean to risk embarrassment from one’s peers.
So why am I afraid? Maybe I don’t care what my peers think, although I doubt that's the case. Maybe I should just discuss this further with anyone willing to ask. Next time you see me, let’s discuss this topic, fear as it’s found in video games. I bet some interesting conclusions are afoot.
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*: I'm always compelled to throw in a bit of BS in anything I write. It makes things more interesting.
Or probably just their aesthetic claim to fame, the image map at the top of all their pages. Theirs is actually just the banner image with individual image-links underneath, but I'm lazy, so I used an image map. It turned out well, I think, even if it's uninspired and utter hack-ish garbage. Which it isn't, because I'm the man.
If there's something to be said for it, a comment that doesn't mention the slight discrepencies between our mutual layouts, it's that it's an efficient layout if nothing else. You have the site name, a pretty picture, the functional part, and the 'meat' part--that's all you need.
And that's all you get.
The calendar's pretty fewked, though, but who wants former-post accessibility anyway?
Prettier livejournal layouts can be found scattered about elsewhere, and by scattered, I mean like finding your mom at a Star Trek convention: she makes a pretty Klingon, but you feel kind of dirty after seeing her. Using Livejournal's random search feature when attempting to find these layouts works as well as finding Jenna Jameson porn in Elmo's World. And overusage of uncreative metaphors in your writing can lead to fewer readers and the development of bad habits.
At any rate, I've updated my layout, and although no one looks at anyone else's layout without being told to, it makes me feel more comfortable, makes updating feel more rewarding. I feel like Bill Cosby after he was cloned into Sports Dad Bill Cosby, not Homemaker Bill Cosby, with an apron and duster.
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