gatorade!

twenty-three

Sun, 18 May 2008 13:03:21 GMT

So, most of yesterday was spent being sick. I think it was what I had for lunch. The only thing left in the house was these frozen buffalo-style chicken snack things. I can't handle spicy foods, and about an hour after I ate I was about ready to die, my stomach hurt so bad. Woke up feeling better though, which is good as Tiff and her fiancee are supposed to come over and we're going to bbq. Most of my energy will be spent keeping my dad away from the grill (he turns everything into charcoal, I don't know how he does it). After I have to go to the library and try and find the book for my research paper.

Been playing on Sword of the New World again. Forgot how much fun it was, especially considering it's a hell of a lot less crowded with bots than it used to be. I've been spending most of my time in Torsche's mansion, trying to get the parts to make the Catherine doll so I can have her as a character, and her hips just won't drop. I might end up buying them on the market, but they're usually about 5-6 million. Really don't want to spend that much, so I hope they drop at some point before I move on.

Ugh, lots of RP stuff I need to do. Which will get done after my sojourn to the library. I should make a list, but I'm far too brain dead at the moment.

twenty two

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:13:29 GMT

Ugh, I had such a horrible migraine yesterday. I came home from school, took something, slept, got up and ate, then went back to sleep. Feeling better this morning, but good god, that's the worst migraine I've had in a long time.

New classes started up yesterday. Got three big projects due at the end of term:

-Design and build a game (level?) in XNA
-Put together my portfolio
-Write a 10 page research paper

I chose Nintendo to do my research paper over, because there's so much stuff on the company. My teacher was saying I'd have a hard time narrowing down what I was going to put in there, but he's never seen me write a paper. I was originally planning to be an English major, after all. I can turn out large papers in nothing flat (and have them be pretty good). My portfolio's going to be the hardest thing. I'm supposed to have three professional references, no relatives. I have no professional references. I'm going to have to dig through my Girl Scout contacts and see if I can use any of them. Laaaaaame.

Need to stop by the video store after school today, see if they have GTA IV out to rent. It comes out today (to buy) but video rental places are weird on releasing games. Blah. If there's some little kid there taking the last copy, I'm gonna beat him with the box and steal it.

twenty one

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:46:29 GMT

Updated updated to-do list:

Do Chuck's wiki for Converging
Finish apps for Converging
Post for Rushuna, Quistis, and Misa in DofF
Post for Liz, Charlie, and Aden in Sigillums

IT KEEPS GROWING SHORTER AND SHORTER. Now it's time for me to be off to school to work on Finals stuff. Stupid robot.

twenty

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:14:54 GMT

Updated to-do list

Poke Lauren about DofF stuff
Do Chuck's wiki for Converging
Finish apps for Converging
Post for Integra, Rushuna, Quistis, and possibly Tifa in DofF
Post for Charlie and Aden in Sigillums
Go through my wikis in Sigillums and update all the relationship sections
Update Orihime's wiki in Converging and add in her roomate

Iiii think I'm going to go take a nap. It's only five and I'm already dragging my ass behind me.

nineteen

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:22:15 GMT

Man, everything happens after I go to bed. If I hadn't gone to sleep so early I would have been half-delirious at school today, though, which I can't afford. Finals are next week, and I have to finish my player model, work out stories for both her and my original weapon for the presentations, finish animating Monkey Boy (thank GOD this computer can run Blender), and build and program the damn robot. WHOSE INSANE IDEA WAS IT TO HAVE TWO CLASSES AT THE SAME TIME?! Ugh. And I have so much RP stuff to do too. I should make a list. I think I will.

List:

Poke Lauren about DofF stuff
Do Chuck's wiki for Converging
Finish apps for Converging
Finish Liz's app for Sigillums
Post for Integra, Rushuna, Quistis, and possibly Tifa in DofF
Post for Castor in Condemnations
Post for Blake, Kari, Tranny, and Charlie in Sigillums
Go through my wikis in Sigillums and update all the relationship sections
Update Orihime's wiki in Converging and add in her roomate

THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE HOURS IN THE DAY

eighteen

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:15:17 GMT

Finally got my new computer. The only complaint I have is with Vista. It keeps doing weird things. I think it's possessed by the souls of dead Mac owners or something. Like, Opera keeps freezing up for about 15 to 30 seconds randomly. And it does it a lot. Whenever I'm away from the computer, it'll put itself into sleep mode. That's fine, that's what I set it to do. HOWEVER. It also takes itself OUT of sleep mode. (Sorry about the fake out, Tessa!) I don't know wtf it's doing.

Lately I've felt tired all the time. Like, you know how you feel right before you sleep? That's how I feel. I've had to push myself to do any work or talk to people because my brain just shuts itself off. I think I might be overworking myself or something. School's been putting a lot of stress on me lately. Hopefully, since I can run Blender on this computer, that'll decrease.

fdjaklfjas STOP FREEZING UP, OPERA! JESUS CHRIST!

Anyway.

I need to tweak my Charlie app for Sigillums and work on my apps and that Blender model for Converging this week. Maybe I'll sleep more on Wednesday, see if that helps any.

seventeen

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:50:32 GMT

Ugh. Seriously, people. It's an RP. Shit happens. Urgh, where'd thing thing I quoted at Lauren go...

"Characters will die; Weaponbirthers will explode. Neutrals, Angels, and Seals will bite the big one, as well as Kamui and Gemini (although usually later). This is a war. There will be casualties."

It's nothing to get seriously upset over. Yeah, I can see being shocked. It's a big deal, a lot of characters and barriers and whatnot is.... shit, just lost my train of thought (three hours of sleep ftw). Anyway, shit goes down. This is just more shit at one time. Besides the fact that it's the mods doing it. Uhhhhhhhhh, aren't they the heads of the game? Seems to me that if this is something they want to do, they will do it. I know people've complained about it being 'slow and boring' or something, and now that they try and do something you want to complain it's 'too much'? Make up your minds, seriously.

That all being said, I return to my original statement. It's an RP. If you're really, truly upset over it? Step away from your computer, go outside, flash a passing car, do jumping jacks, something. RP is not life. Yes, it's important, but it is not the be all end all. There are a lot of things in real life that are a lot more important, but everyone seems to be blinded to this when they get too focused on one thing.

This isn't an April Fool's Day joke or something. It's just me with too little sleep and too much annoyance over the drama RP shit has been causing the past few days. Honestly? Grow up. I'm tired of coming home to see wank. IT'S. NOT. THAT. IMPORTANT.

sixteen

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:59:40 GMT

Spent most of yesterday (and probably most of today) with Tiff, so I missed the start of the strike. I think it's kind of silly, but that's what makes us, as the human race, so great because we can all have different opinions. What's important to some might not be so important to others. So for those of you who are participating in the strike, I say good job for standing up for something you believe in. For the rest of us - WHERE'S THE POPCORN?

So I've been meaning to do this since I finished the game, I just hadn't gotten around to it.

It was really good. No, really. Despite all the problems with the gameplay and controls, it was still good. The plot was excellent, well thought out and researched (and I don't just mean spent three hours looking shit up in the Wiki, I mean researched). The characters were all good, especially the main ones (Altair, Desmond, and Lucy). The only problem with a character I had was the main villain, but it was mostly cause he was a long winded boring bastard. I didn't like that you couldn't skip cutscenes (it forces you to learn more about the plot, yes, but about the fourth time when you're talking to the assassin leader you start to want to rip his vocal cords out).

I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the games. I have my own theories on what's going to happen in the next one, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Also, EVERYONE SHOULD READ NEURO. It is an awesome manga and you're all missing out, fo' serious.

Kim! I might be gone most of the day today too, so if I don't email you guys today I will tomorrow.

I think... that is it.

fifteen

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:51:31 GMT

Dentist appointment today.

;___________;

fourteen

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:52:00 GMT

I just couldn't pass this up.

The rules
01. Compose a list of YOUR top ten sexiest famous men.
02. Collect one picture of each guy on your list.
03. Post them in your journal.
04. Tag five people to do the same.

#10 - Matsuyama Kenichi

#9 - Kamenashi Kazuya

#8 - Takeshi Kaneshiro

#7 - Tamaki Hiroshi

#6 - Jiro Wang

#5 - Oguri Shun

#3 - Ken & #4 - Hyde

#2 - Matsumoto Jun

#1 - Atsushi Sakurai

Everyone should do it.

thirteen

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:14:33 GMT

There are so many things I want to say. But for post lucky number thirteen, there is only one thing:

HOLY CRAP THERE IS SNOW EVERYWHERE! SCHOOL IS CANCELED! HELLZ YES!

twelve

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:05:38 GMT

Hooked up my new mouse yesterday. It's a wireless, pink, Hello Kitty mouse. It matches my Hello Kitty mousepad. Omg I'm a dork.

I seriously hate my ISP. Everytime someone calls I get kicked off the internet and stay off until the call is ended. Usually it isn't a problem, but my niece has picked up a habit of calling JUST as I'm about to get back on or do something on the internet. Like last night. Was watching Jericho, and she calls TEN MINUTES before the show ends. And stays on the phone for over an hour. I finally gave up and went to bed after watching Family Guy. But then the dog next door started barking. And kept barking. Until past 12. It's barking again this morning. If I disappear one day it's because I snapped and shot it and had to be carted off to the looney bin.

I have to finish up my textures for my Blender models this morning and go to school. Why am I going to school on my day off? Because they give us TOO MUCH WORK TO COMPLETE IN JUST TWO DAYS. And they expect it due by Monday. Why the hell did they even change the schedule if they were going to make us go four days a week anyway to complete all the work they give us? It just. It doesn't make any sense. If this wasn't the only school in town with any sort of gaming program, I would go somewhere else. It's absolutely ridiculous. And it would be different if it was homework. That implies we can complete it at home. But no. We have to use the programs they have on the machines at the school. Like the Lego Mindstorm NXT program used to code the programming for the robot. We have to create five different programs and make sure they work. Considering that most of our time has been spent on Blender, we haven't had a chance to work on our individual assignments for the robot. I finished coding four of the programs in the last hour of class yesterday, but I didn't get to test any of them. Two of the other three tested out one program apiece, because that's all they got done. The first guy didn't have it right the first time, so the teacher stood over there and made snide remarks about how if we knew the circumfrence and speed and blah blah blah of the robot we would know how many rotations to make it go. WELL IT'S NOT LIKE WE KNEW THIS. YOU NEVER TOLD US. THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME WORKING WITH THIS ROBOT, WE DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING. JESUS CHRIST. And normally I like this teacher, but he was just being pissy about that robot yesterday. I'm glad he's not going to be there today. His wife, the other teacher, will be. I guess I feel more comfortable working around her because she's another woman. She's also generally more approachable with questions. Anytime I ask him a question I feel like an idiot.

Good god, that was a long rant. I think I'm done for now. I might do that photobucket meme when I get back home. Time to go reply to stuff and finish up my textures.

Also! Don't forget to send in apps for the beta of WoE!

eleven

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:54:00 GMT

It isn't finished yet, but! War of Emperium is going into beta! Lauren and I want to give this a test run. Over the next week we will be finishing the wiki and the userinfo for the main comm, and accepting applications. Then on Saturday, March 1st, we will open for beta. This is not the official opening, that will be in May. Instead, through March and April, it will be a stripped down version. There won't be WoE or special events for at least the first month. The character limit will be three for the beta, instead of the five stated in the rules. We want to give people a chance to test this out on a limited basis, so they don't feel pressured to keep up with a lot of stuff. We want everyone to give us feedback and participate in polls, so that when we do officially open the game it will be the best game we can put out.

At the end of the beta, everyone will have the option of either keeping their characters, or 'resetting' or 'deleting' ones that they don't like. If you find that you don't like the job you picked for a particular character, then you can reset them and make them a different job. Or if you don't like them, period, you can delete them, which unlike killing them it completely wipes them out, as if they never existed. These two options will ONLY be available at the end of the beta. In regular gameplay, resetting and deleting will not be allowed. But this is supposed to be a trial run, to work out the bugs and kinks, and so it's not set in stone.

If you're interested, please, fill out the application and send it in. You can apply for characters all through the beta, up until the last two weeks, so if you don't get it in before Saturday it's fine. If you have any questions, you can ask either me or Lauren and we'll answer them as best we can.

ten

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:05:53 GMT

I gots tagged, yo.

List ten things that recently made you happy, then tag ten people to do the same.

1. My two best friends (one of whom is on my flist - you know who you are~). I love my friends more than anything, and even though I don't have many of them, that makes them all the more special.
2. My new friends! I've met some wonderful people since joining DofF.
3. Roleplay. Though it has its ups and downs, it's been my favorite way to express myself creatively for eleven years now.
4. My mom.
5. Sukiyaki Western Django. SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT.
6. My bff, Tiffany, choosing me as her maid of honor.
7. My new bookcase!
8. My new classes! Lego robot GO GO GO!
9. My new crush (non-celebrity, as I have one of those every other week). Yes, he has a girlfriend. Yes, it would never happen in a million years, but it's nice to feel like a teenager again.
10. Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper.

I tag... THE WORLD!

nine

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:12:47 GMT

This will probably be a little scattered, so bear with me.

FINALLY done with homework. Now I can go reply to that log. Toph is angry at me for making her wait so long. Shuttup, Toph, nobody likes you.

I've also been working on an RP with Lauren. You can check out the wiki here. It's, er, not quite finished (obviously), but the basics are up there. I'll post again on it when we actually get more stuff done.

Tiff wanted to go out and take pictures for her wedding invitations today (she called me yesterday saying this). We'll probably do it sometime this weekend. Why not today, you ask? Because the omg winter storm shit that will never fucking end swear to god went through here again. It started this morning and it's supposed to last until tomorrow afternoon.

Um um um. Think that's it for now.

eight

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:33:39 GMT

I've been meaning to make an actual post for days (and days and days) but uh, have a meme instead. (I swear I'l make a real post tomorrow.)

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

1. "So today's lesson is, you kill each other off till there's only one left. Nothing's against the rules."

2. "What are you? It's hard to call you a triad. It's even harder to call you a cop. What rank are you? Sergeant? Inspector? Joker? Should I salute you?"

3. "What are they? It's pretty goddamn obvious what they are. Lab coats, badges, THOSE PEOPLE USED TO WORK HERE!"

4. "A handful of people on a leaky boat are gonna save the world?"

5. "Fifty million dollars? Man, who do you think you kidnapped? Chelsea Clinton?"

6. "GTA, Motherfucker! Oh, yeah! Ten points."

7. "Then, on the fourth day, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed 'em together and made a raft."

8. "It's surrounded by guards and video monitors and little families from Iowa and little kids on their eighth grade field trips."

9. "For my will is as strong as yours, my kingdom as great... Damn. I can never remember that line."

10. "I knew your sister. She was a homicidal bitch."

11. ""Empire" had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All "Jedi" had was a bunch of Muppets."

12. "Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die?"

13. "Uncle Bill! I'm calling you right now from Australia and I'm having a great time! I'm talking to you while enjoying my great view. Wow! Working for the FSB is great. I have a sauna, swimming pool, and jacuzzi. Oh, wait a second. My koala bear just came out."

14. "Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is. Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?"

15. "I realized then that good guys never win. I want to be bad. I want to be the killer!"

seven

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:37:27 GMT

Woke up at a little after seven again this morning. Is it too much to ask to be able to sleep in late on my vacation? Urgh.

So, I got inspired by one of my RP characters and I started listening to opera again. I'm trying to learn Der Hölle Rache (the second aria the Queen of the Night sings in The Magic Flute). The German is absolutely killing me and causing me to lose my place in the score because I can't tell what the woman's singing half the time. It doesn't help any that I suck at sight reading.

Avatar crack for anyone who hasn't seen it.

six

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:32:06 GMT

So, it was sleeting and raining earlier, and now it's thundering (can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder~). We've got a winter storm warning. Joy of joys. My mom's staying home today it's so bad out there. And she never misses work unless she absolutely has to. Apparently the streets are all iced over, so I'm glad she's not going anywhere. Alot of the cable stations are messed up or out completely. I was going to watch Shanghai Noon, but TBS thwarted me. Damn you, TBS!

It sucks waking up this early. Why does everyone sleep in so late. ;_;

five

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:59:07 GMT

I got maybe three or four hours of sleep, as I spent most of last night tossing and turning and coughing. I usually take medicine, but Nyquil makes me really drowsy the next day and I have school. Although at this point, I'm probably going to fall asleep on my keyboard anyway.

Ugh. Thirty minutes before I have to go take a shower. Think I will play some more DOMO. For those of you who like MMORPGs, DOMO (Dream of Mirror Online) is very nice. You should check it out. Like totally.

I need more icons. Too much space to fill.

EDIT: So I get over to the school and have to slide my way across the parking lot to find out that school was canceled. Okay, cool. I wasn't feeling up to doing anything today anyway. I get home, and my mom says that two minutes after I left, they announced it with the rest of the school closings. GREAT. THANK YOU, NEWS STATION, FOR BEING SO PROMPT WITH THAT. (For those of you going 'wtf?', it's really icy here.)

four

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:59:04 GMT

I have been epic sick as of late, but I think I'm starting to get over it. Somewhat. I still sound like I'm coughing up a hairball.

So, uh, got my 'massive' project done. My head's fuzzy right now so I'll probably forget to take it to school tomorrow, but I have it done!

We started a computer and gaming club. I got appointed secretary. Bah, I say. Bah. But, we might get to go to competitions, so I'm totally stoked about that.

I never want to work on Unreal Tournament ever again. Ever. Ever. I don't care how cool UT 99999 Mega Edition X will be. Never. Again.

Also, welcome to all the new people. Mind your step and watch out for the tentacle monster.

three

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:25:08 GMT

The game idea for the proposal I have to do this week.

Odessa – f, main character, knight, 26
Tomas – m, main character, ranger, 22
Reign – m, main character, mage, 31
Penny – f, main character, healer, 14
Sheila Ann – f, main character, gunner, 19
Luck – m, main character, bard, 47
Barnaul – m, main character, thief, 29

Kingdom 1 is at war with kingdom 2 because kingdom 2 has discovered gunpowder and started making guns.

Odessa is a knight from kingdom 1 sent to infiltrate kingdom 2 to try and destroy their supply of gunpowder. She’s assigned a ranger, Tomas, to help her get there. Along the way they are waylaid by bandits, led by Penny. Penny hears what they are trying to do, and as a lot of her bandits are getting killed by guns, she decides to join the party. After reaching kingdom 2 they come across Reign, a deposed high magician of kingdom 2’s court. The reason why he was kicked out is unclear, but he wishes to take revenge so he too joins your party. You reach the capital, but someone knew you were coming and everyone is arrested and thrown into a jail that’s situated on an island off the coast of kingdom 2. In prison you meet Sheila Ann. She was once a loyal servant of kingdom 2, but she came across a secret that, if revealed, could end the war between the two countries. To exact her revenge she wishes to tell the king of kingdom 1 this secret, so joins your party. You escape from the island, but you’re stuck on how to get across to the mainland. After finally making your way down to the shore, you run into Luck and Barnaul, two highwaymen who agree to take you across to kingdom 2. In exchange, they wish to travel with you for a while, as they are highly wanted men in kingdom 2. You agree and they also join the party. You make your way back to kingdom 1 to report the little you know, Sheila Ann’s secret, and to escort Luck and Barnaul to safety. Along the way you are ambushed by troops from kingdom 2. You flee, and Luck stays behind to stall them and ends up getting killed. You make it to the capital of kingdom 1, however, and get an audience with the king. Sheila Ann reveals her secret – that the king of kingdom 2 is really the king’s long thought dead brother. He doesn’t know this, though, as his advisors have kept it a secret from him. The king sends you back to kingdom 2 to rescue his brother and destroy the gunpowder, with the promise that if Penny helps she’ll be given a royal pardon. Barnaul expresses his desire to stay with your party, as he wants to take revenge on those who killed Luck. As the troops from kingdom 2 is searching for you, you are sent to see an old inventor, who has made the world’s only airship, in order to borrow it to get across the border. When you reach there, the inventor recognizes Reign as the man who created gunpowder. The rest of the party turns on him for this, but Odessa believes in him and decides to give him a second chance. The group is forced to split up and go out and get the parts to fix up the airship, as it has sat in disrepair for many years. After they finish they reconvene at the inventor’s house. He fixes the airship and they’re on their way to kingdom 2. However, before they can leave they find out that kingdom 2 has sent a large battalion of troops towards the capital. You can either go save the king, or go fight with the troops. If you fight with the troops, the king dies and his son takes over, but a lot of the troops are saved. If you save the king, a lot of the troops die and the king’s son dies in the second attack that happens later. After either scenario, you’re on your way to kingdom 2 in the airship. You manage to reach the capital, but your airship gets blown out of the sky by a new weapon, the rocket. You party is split again and you must play through all three scenarios to get everyone to the capital. Once inside, you make your way to the castle, fighting through a bunch of troops, as well as the captain of the contingent who killed Luck. Upon reaching the castle, you find the king. Sheila Ann tells him that he’s really the brother of the other king, and just as soon as he’s ready to declare that the war is over, his head advisor kills him. You must then fight the zombified body of the king, and afterwards you have to fight the advisor, who is a powerful mage and Reign’s old teacher. Right before he dies he reveals that the true king was Reign, but he was afraid Reign would be hurt so he kidnapped the king when he was a baby and switched them out. Reign grew up as the advisor’s apprentice, and the king grew up in the wrong royal family. Reign immediately steps up to the throne and declares that the war is over.

A few months later, Reign is officially crowned as king. Odessa has been pardoned from her post as a knight of kingdom 1 and seems to be Reign’s new advisor. Penny is back with her group of bandits, who are now living the simple life and trying to rebuild kingdom 1. Tomas is with her, and he promises to marry her when she grows up. Sheila Ann’s endings can differ upon whether or not you saved the king. If you did, she is living with the inventor of the airship, having become his apprentice. If you didn’t, she is shown marrying the king’s son, who has been crowned king himself. Barnaul is shown at Luck’s grave. He has become a bard, like Luck was, and is traveling around spreading the story of the party’s adventure together.

Critiques would be lovely.

two

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:11:09 GMT

This time it's FFXII.

Name: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix

Basic Review

Graphics - Beautiful. Otherworldly. Gorgeous. Detailed. Jaw-droping. Drool worthy. Need I go on?

Playability - The controls are very easy to get used to, as is the battle system. SO. MUCH. STUFF. TO. DO. There are a TON of hunts to go on, not to mention rare game and side quests. It doubles the playing time from the main quest. And the hunts aren't a chore at all to do. Most are easy to get to, and if you follow them in the order given, you'll usually be the right level for it. Sidequests can be done at any time before the very very very end of the game.

Sound - Beautiful soundtrack, as expected of a Final Fantasy game. Goes back to more of the style from IX and some of X, getting away from the crap that was the soundtrack of X-2. The sound effects are very nice and just add to, rather than take away from.

Story - If I tried to do the whole plot to this game, I would drive myself nuts, so here's a rundown.

This kingdom forms an alliance with this other kingdom by marrying their kids off. The guy gets killed soon after and the king of the first kingdom decides to sign a peace treaty with the attacking kingdom cause he's a wimp. Only it's a set-up and Basch, main character 1, gets framed for the murder of the king from kingdom 1. It was really his twin brother Noah who did it, but as no one knew he had a twin, he was SOL. Basch is sentenced to death, your playable character, Reks, ends up dying, and life is bad for a few years. Then the real start of the game begins.

Vaan, an orphan and brother of Reks, likes to run around in vests a lot. The new ruler of kingdom 1 is coming in, Vayne Puffysleeves Floofyhair, and so Vaan wishes to go show him his awesome vest (and steal something, but whatever). Vaan has to do a bunch of useless shit that gets you used to the game and battle mechanics before, though, and you're introduced to his friend, Penelo, who is also an orphan and for some reason wears LEATHER in the freaking DESERT. I. Just. Why. WHY? Ahem. Vaan finally breaks into the palace and doesn't meet Vayne, but does find the sparkly jewel o' destruction. Someone else was also after the SJOD, two someones in fact. Not only that, but while you're trying to run away from them it seems someone planned a raid on the palace. Oh, wait, that's just the rebel army. For some reason, Vaan and the two thieves who were chasing after him, Fran, a viera with a wedgie, and Balthier, who is probably hiding something in his MC Hammer pants (his hair gel, most likely), end up in the sewer and decide they have to work together to get out of there. Why they didn't just knock Vaan out and take the SJOD, I'll never know. They end up running into the leader of the rebellion, Amalia or some crap fake name because it is OBVIOUSLY PRINCESS ASHE, and she joins you for a while. Except you all get captured anyway. Sucks for you. Amalia/Ashe is taken somewhere else to get a name change, while Vaan, Fran, and Balthier are thrown in prison. You escape, and find Basch on the way, who was in fact not dead but strung up for two years. Um, why? Did they keep him alive so his brother could go throw rocks at him on ocassion? Didn't they figure that if he ever got out he could cause all kinds of havoc? Sigh. Anyway, the four of you escape and head back to kingdom 1. Because the first place you want to go when you're a wanted criminal is the city where you got arrested. Basch wishes to go to the floating kingdom, and as you just now find out that Penelo has been kidnapped in an attempt to lure out Balthier (not the brightest bounty hunter in the world), you decide to go with him, cause that's where she's at. At the floating kingdom you run into a kid who dresses, looks, and speaks just like Vayne. He calls himself 'Lamont', because obviously royalty is crap at picking fake names. You get back Penelo, but hide in a corner while Penelo and 'Lamont' get stopped by his cortege. Cortage? Corsage? Er, anyway, Lamont turns out to be Laras Puffysleeves Floofyhair, brother to Vayne. I. AM. SHOCKED. Him and Penelo get whisked off to a honeymoon suite while you... stand there and watch. Right. You go visit the Mar Kwis (because they've never heard marquis pronounced in French before) and he sends you to the Imperial ship, where you meet Darth Vader. I mean Judge Ghis. Ashe and Penelo (and 'Lamont') are also on board, because they didn't have anywhere else to detain them...? You do battle with Darth Vader and then the ship blows up because of Vaan's SJOD. Good job, Vaan. Lamont decides you need to go to some mountain to get this old guy's persmission for Ashe to be princess again. It doesn't really make much sense, but as we're not doing anything else, might as well. Along the way you have to pass through the viera village, then go take a detour to rescue Fran's sister. You get to leave the village of the playboy bunnies after that and finally get to Mt. Burrontheass. You meet the old dude, who uses telepathy to talk cause he's too lazy to open his mouth. Damn, that's pretty lazy. You also meet your first Cid (because two Cids are better than one), who hits on Ashe and is pretty creepy. Er. Right. Anyway. No one wants war, and everyone wants Ashe to be queen, so the party goes off to find some sword. Like she doesn't have a perfectly good one at this point, unless you've been messing with the license board. You haven't, have you? Good. But we still have to go get it, cause it can cut the SJOD and there are no volcanos around to drop them in instead. You get the sword, but by the time you get back to Mt. Burritsfreezinguphere, the old dude is dead and you have to fight another Judge. Yay. Afterwards, you decide to go to Archades. Because the true ruler of kingdom 1 traipsing around in the capital city of the rival kingdom isn't strange. At all. You go visit Balthier's father, the second Cid, because we needed some daddy-issues in this game. It's also revealed that Balthier used to be a judge, but no one seems to care about that. Cid2 is obviously a nutjob, and takes off before you can kill him. Damn. You do meet the best side character in the game there, though. Reddas is awesome and cannot be made fun of, because his awesomeness would smite me before I could type the words. It all gets a little fuzzy after this, so bear with me. You travel to this place to find the source of the SJOD and instead encounter the Occuria, the real string-pullers of this little play. They've been messing with history, but you don't find this out until later, so shhh. They give you another sword and the location of the real source of SJOD. Yeah, thanks guys. Like you could have just done that before we went all the hell out here. Basch's brother, because he hasn't been in enough of this, stalks you all the way to where the real source is and gets in the way when Ashe decides to destroy it. We kick his butt, of course. Cid arrives and you have to fight him as well, but Reddas still ends up sacrificing himself to destroy the source. We will miss you, Reddas. Learning from Cid that there's a war about to take place, everyone hightails it back to kingdom 1, only to find Archadia already there and waiting for you. You go into Bahamut, because that's where Vayne's hiding and Vaan still wants to show him his vest. You fight Basch's twin YET AGAIN (but this is the last time, promise), then Vayne. After Vayne knocks 'Lamont' out for picking such a stupid fake name, you have to fight his uhhh... evolved form? Sephiroth on steroids? Kefka? Anyway, you have to fight it, and then escape Bahamut while it crashes to the ground. But wait! Balthier and Fran stay behind to make sure that it doesn't crash on the city. The game doesn't even give you a good 'what if they died' moment because it tells you right after that they're still alive. The epilogue takes place a year later in a letter from Penelo to 'Lamont', who is now emperor. Fortunately, he has Basch there to prevent him from naming anything, but Basch is dressed up as and has taken on the name of his dead brother, who died while you were escaping from Bahamut. Basch has issues. And he seemed so well adjusted before this. Anyway, Lamont is being the emperor, Basch is being is brother, Ashe is being crowned, Fran and Balthier are being skypirates, Penelo's being vaguely annoyed, and Vaan is still lamenting the fact that Vayne never got to see his vest. ZE END.

Enjoyment - Very enjoyable. I have wasted more hours of my life on this game than any other (besides possibly Ragnarok Online). It is awesome and win all wrapped up in a PS2 disc.

one

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:19:47 GMT

A game analysis of Resident Evil: Code Veronica X that I did for my game design class.

Name: Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (PS2)
Genre: Survival Horror
Publisher: Capcom
Eidos
Developer: Nex Entertainment
Sales: Couldn't find it
Input: D-pad/left stick - movement, L1 - change aim, R1 - aim, Triangle - map, Circle - cancel/run, Square/X - ok/attack, Start - status, Select - option

Basic Review

Graphics - In the middle, for the series. They're not as good as RE4, they're better than earlier games, and they're comparable to RE3. The charater models and environments are good, but some of the enemies can look blocky.

Playability - Unless you're a huge Claire and/or Chris fan, not much replayability here. It's fine for those times when you want to go back and play it through because you haven't in a while, but it definitely doesn't glue you to the chair and make you want to play it over and over again. The controls are mediocre as well. Movement is the standard fare for RE games, although it seems even worse than RE:DC. If you're not a complete master over the controls, Claire and Chris weave around like they're trying to defeat the zombies through interperative dance. One particular thing that comes to mind is trying to escape the Sweeper in the lab off the turntable as Chris. The doors go up automatically when you stand in front of them, but he kept running off to the side while I was trying to get him to go through, even though I was only pressing him in one direction. Right and left is also confusing at times, resulting in me mixing them up and having Claire run towards the gulp worm instead of away from it.

Sound - The sound is usual RE stuff. Good and horror-like, sets the tone for the game without being completely overbearing. It does seem a bit better than the other games, barring RE:DC-DS. The VAs are both the best and the worst in the series. Steve has the absolute worst VA ever. Yes, even worse than all the VAs from the original RE combined. He is that bad. However, there is also arguably the best VA in the series present - Rodrigo. It's a shame he doesn't have very many lines. Chris and Claire are okay, and Alfred is brilliantly maniacal and girly. It's a bit grating, but his VA had to pitch his voice high enough to give you the feeling that yes, Alfred very well could sound just like his sister. The female Alfred/Alexia VA is also okay.

Story - It's been three months since Raccoon City. Claire is out looking for her brother, Chris. She ends up at the Paris facility of Umbrella and gets captured and shipped off to Rockfort Island. There, the worst has happened - the T-virus has infected most of the people there. In fact, the only four who aren't infected are Rodrigo, Claire, Steve, and Alfred. Unfortunately, you're stuck with Steve for most of Claire's scenario (personally, I would have dumped him for Rodrigo. Or Alfred). You start out in the prison and you have to find some way to escape the island, while dodging zombies along the way. Claire wishes that her brother was here - hey, wait, let's just email Leon and tell him to contact Chris so he can come save you! Now why didn't you think about that before you went traipsing off to Paris to infiltrate Umbrella? The world may never know. Anyway, once your email to Leon is sent, you have second thoughts about it and start thinking "Leon's an idiot, he'll never contact Chris for me." or something to that effect, and you take off to continue your search for a way out of there. Instead of finding a safe place and holing up there until Chris comes for you. Whatever. So you go off and do all the dirty work to get the proofs to get into the airplane, while Steve does... something, like go stand in for Leonardo Dicaprio during action sequences in his latest movie. You also get to fight all the neat enemies, like Bandersnatches and a Tyrant. You also have a run in with Wesker. Wait, Wesker's alive? And he has glowing eyes now? AND CAN JUMP LIKE A TYRANT? Yes, yes, and yes. Claire gets smacked around by Wesker (she must be part superhuman herself, as she's not even injured after), but his real target is Chris. Fortunately for you, he gets called by someone and takes off instead of snapping your fragile neck. You and Steve finally get on the plane, though, forgetting all about poor Rodrigo, while the island is set to blow up (even though somehow both Rodrigo and Alfred survive the detonation? And not only that, but the island doesn't look all that bad, except for a few rooms in the military facility being on fire? They should have just stayed there, really). However, you have an unwanted passenger on your plane. So Steve, being the wimp he is, sends the girl back to check it out. Claire fights the Tyrant, again, and everything's okay. Except it's not, as Alfred's changed your course and has sent you down to Antarctica. I guess he wanted you to play with the penguins. So your plane crashes in Antarctica, and now you have to find yet another way out. You decide to head for this Australian base that's five miles or so away. You run through the facility there, again, and make your way up to this landing pad. There's a... bulldozer thing that's just beyond it. But before you can reach it, you have to fight - THE NOSFERATU (dun dun dun). Actually, I can't remember what the monster's name is. It's hinted that it's the Ashford family butler (he tried to quit, and apparantly Alfred didn't like that very much, so he gave him to the crazy doctor to be experimented on. Hazardous family to work for). Anyway, Steve got bitch slapped right over the side (not falling to his death, damnit) so you get to face another boss by yourself. Fortunately, you got that sniper rifle that Alfred dropped. Right? Right? Well, if you didn't, good luck hacking away at him with the knife. Sucker. (As a side note, how the hell did Alfred get to Antarctica that fast? Did he pull a plane out of his ass?) After you beat him, you pull Steve to safety (why? WHY?) and head for the bulldozer thingy. BUT! It seems that despite being severly wounded, Alfred has made his way into an underground chamber, where his sister is in cryostasis. He wakes her up and dies seconds after. Alexia, cranky at being woke up and pissed that her twin's dead, squishes your bulldozer, with you and Steve inside it.

Then we go to Chris. Who has just arrived on the island, and met up with Rodrigo. SEE? If you'd stayed with Rodrigo in the first place, you'd be alive, AND you'd be rescued by your brother, the person you'd been searching for! Steve must have infected Claire with his stupidness. Anyway, after Rodrigo gets eaten by the gulp worm (a moment of silence, please), you run around the same place that Claire had to run around the first part of the game. Yay. But now you have hunters and sweepers and Wesker after you besides just the normal zombies. Joy of joys. Chris finds out that Claire isn't there anymore and takes off for Antarctica, but not before Wesker tries to stop him. Wesker gets freaked out by Alexia (not even her in person, just her image on the screen. That should tell you how powerful she is) and lets Chris go, following him to the Antartica base. Chris and Claire are FINALLY REUNITED, but then Claire has to take off to find Steve (again, WHY?). She finds him, but he's a monster! No, really. It seems this is what happens when you get injected with the Veronica virus without letting yourself sit in stasis for ten years. Claire almost gets impaled by one of Alexia's tentacles, but Steve manages to save her, reverting to his human form after being impaled himself. He confesses his love for her, then dies. And fans everywhere rejoice (and pray that Capcom never, ever brings him back). Meanwhile, Chris and Wesker confront Alexia. Wesker gets beat and cries like a little girl, then takes off to let Chris deal with her. Chris beats her (guess an AK47 is superior to superhuman strength and speed. Guns win again!) and sets off the self-destruct sequence to release the locks to get Claire out of the prison cell she escaped to. Because with Umbrella, all their lock releases are tied in with the self-destruct button. Wonder what would happen if they had to take a prisoner out of the cell for questioning? They must have went through a lot of bases. Anyway, Chris fights Alexia again, and this time beats her for good. They encounter Wesker, Claire takes off to the plane, and Wesker beats up Chris. Even though Chris beat Alexia, against whom Wesker was powerless...? Guess Chris forget to get the submachine guns out of the storage box. There's an explosion, seperating the two. Wesker says he will satisfy is burning desire for revenge the next time they meet (instead of just jumping over there and giving Chris what-for) and takes off. Chris makes his way to the plane, and him and Claire fly off into the sunset, while Chris vows to bring down Umbrella. Ze end. (As a side note, it's ironic that although most of the survivors of Raccoon formed this organization to take Umbrella down with, it was the government forcing them into bankruptcy that took down the most powerful company in the world.)

Enjoyment - It's about as enjoyable as RE3. The paths are too linear and there's not much replay value in it, but it's good for one go-around. You do get to find out more about the history of Umbrella (through the Ashford family legacy), so that's a plus for those who are story oriented. All in all, I'd give it an ok. It's not great, but it's not bad either.