Fuzzy Lobster

I can see that. I think that X was that way too, maybe to a lesser degree. I know a lot of people who had never played an RPG in their lives really got into it, mostly due to how gorgeous it was, which was the same deal with VII, just on the previous console generation. Plus, all that armor? Bah. Too heavy. I bought my brother a magnet made of those colored circles that you melt together to make shapes that looked like Rydia at a convention. The lady who made them was pleasantly surprised that I knew what it was. I think I may be old.

Actually, if there's one thing about the leveling/combat system in traditional JRPGs that I could really do without, it's the whole grinding, random encounters thing of the older games... I get very weary of random encounters. It does seem to be going the way of the dodo in some recent games (except Lost Odyssey), I guess. Personally, I think that JRPGs might benefit from the ability to select a difficulty level at the beginning and then do away with a lot of the petty fights. I'm not sure if other people who've played a lot of this style of game have had this experience, but I basically never die ever. Once you're used to the ability uses and menu systems, you can pretty much fight in your sleep, even on boss battles, since the system is more or less the same in every game, inside of the FF series or out. That could well be part of the super-rote, unoriginality of this game style that people often mention. Of course, changing the battle system to a more directed, action-style and doing away with random encounters might make it.. a western RPG. Well, damn it, I want that then, but more foofy and fantasy-y with big spells and abilities. I adored Chrono Trigger. It's well worth a play for the fun story, but the combat system is as traditional as it gets.

Heh.. Maybe. I got impatient with watching it halfway through and closed it..

But also, that is completely hilarious. A very competitive candidate for my "bad movie nights". You know, "mature" epic? "Mature"? Maybe that's what they mean. Right?

But.. I've just been so hurt before.. The scars... the scars don't fade... *single tear* That may be a fair generalization, actually. Well, or you could be a huge fanboy.. that's the other option. I didn't dislike it, I just don't quite understand the cosplay inspiring adoration... Oh yeah, and 4 is really great. I meant to say 4 and not 5, since I can't remember if I've played 5 at all... oops... heh.

I loves me some Final Fantasy as well. I loved 6, I liked 4 and 9 quite a bit and I really enjoyed X. A lot. I wasn't a huge fan of 8. I thought it was a bit boring. I can't actually remember at all whether I finished it. Also, while it may totally undercut my legitimacy, I wasn't that into VII (I'm aware of the potential sacrilege and whatnot, but sometimes Cloud's emotional problems got to be a bit much for me. ). I also had a tough time getting into 12. I liked it at first, but I hit a wall where I got kinda burned out on it and have yet to go back to it... it's been a couple years now, I think... uh oh.. Thank you for phrasing this much more concisely than I would have been able to. I feel like they go a little overboard on the flapping cape, slow-motion, super-drama pretty frequently. It becomes very silly, very quickly... edit: oops.. I mixed up 4 and 5.. heh.

I don't know if this is at all part of what you don't like about it, but personally I really can't get into the bubbly 3D character design. I'm not sure exactly why it bugs me, I think I just like the Mario peoples a lot better when they look more 2Dish or at least aren't super exaggerated.. I loved the way Yoshi's island looked, in general, and I like the way the characters look in paper Mario a lot as well. From what I've seen of it, I'm sort of a fan of the character design in Bowser's inside story too, although I haven't played it.

Yay! This sounds great. I agree, however, I wish online co-op was an option. Hooray for my housemate as a default multi-player chum. Willing or otherwise.

I've only played the first one, but I really enjoyed it. I've been a bit iffy on trying the sequels. Maybe I'll reconsider.

So, I actually watched Batman Begins this weekend (I'd never seen it before.. late to the party, as usual) and for the first 20 minutes of the movie, The recitation of this card kept repeating over and over again in the back of my head.... It added a very interesting dimension to the film.. and the card, I suppose.. Dr. Jackstraw?

I pulled out of a driveway and accidentally tapped a lady's rear right fender leaving a small dent. (I was going 5 mph at absolute most.) I did the same thing you did, openly admitted fault and felt pretty badly about it. The woman flew into hysterics, started flinging creative obscenities at me and threatening to sue... for a 3 inch wide dent that didn't so much as scratch the paint. (She kept repeating over and over how "significant" the damage looked, reminding me that you never know what kind of internal damage has been done to the frame... ) I have no idea what she ended up reporting, since I was on my dad's insurance at the time, but that woman was clearly all set to take me to task about it. It's wise to choose carefully when deciding who to run into, I find.

To be followed my the survival-horror re-imagining of solitaire, no doubt. I'm really not sure how to imagine this game, buuut, it's pretty funny anyway.

This is a personal mini-rant, but there was a weird ad along the freeway for some kind of energy drink that advertised to Cal fans. It broke my brain a little bit. it said, with no punctuation whatsoever: the power to fuel your go bears It drove me crazy, and I somehow couldn't put information in my brain together correctly to make sense of it. I spent some time trying to figure out what a go-bear was. Unrelated to everything. Sorry...

Fortunately, my housemate is pretty adept at computer building, so he's kindly offered to give me some help. It will be nice to not be a clueless idiot about how these magical game-producing boxes function in the future. He'll either turn it into one of those super nifty-looking, water-cooled, super-machines or an empty 386.. heh.

Wagh.. I've been needing to buy a new computer for months. My old .. (as in 8 years) old system kicked the bucket a few months ago. My housemate is a true hero and has been letting me use his in the interim, but I've really got to get moving on replacing my old one. If only I had half a clue what I was doing...

I read it that way as well .... Also, like everyone else has already said a million times, that episode banner art is really excellent. Did KJ make that one also? If so, Mr. Cosmo-Mitt really is unreasonably fabulous. EDIT: I am a shining example of athleticism with my maximum of 2.5m on that wretched QWOP game..... Thanks for drawing it to our attention....

If you haven't been up here before, you'll be amazed at the difference in culture between northern and southern California.

I get stuck with this problem ALL the time. I'll start a long RPG, play like a machine for a few weeks.. maybe.. then drop it for a while. Invariably, when I get back to it, I can't remember where I was or what I was doing, even if I do remember how to play. This happened to me to some degree with Mass Effect, so it may be the same deal with Dragon Age as well. I'm still getting it. Also, I've heard it's difficult to make a character that doesn't look completely bizarre. Is this correct? It can't POSSIBLY be as bad as the character creation for Oblivion, right?

What kind of cheap, crappy job have you got? ... won't even give you a pen. :clap::clap: Your outlook on this is really impressive! Best of luck to you!! I hope that your dedication really pays off. I think that you may need it in the super-competitive atmosphere of the entertainment industry. Of course, I have no actual idea how the atmosphere of the entertainment industry really is. Also, if you succeed, I think that this should be a movie script... directly. Verbatim. I particularly enjoy this part: "I must write down this differently am it gone, gone as a disturbed macaque which a mooring rope has hijacked bananas of the market and now the jungle shoots in."

Ooh.. I just bought a new TV. I can't wait for it to be delivered so's I can try my hand at being a disadvantaged dwarf.

I could at least recommend some fun places to go if you're unfamiliar with the area.

Oh.. That's the worst! As one after another of your devices kicks the bucket.. I knew it was all downhill for me when I had to pull out the old disc-man as a last resort when my color game boy gave up the ghost. Of course, I'd already used up all my monies on batteries 26 hours earlier that trip.

Heh, You have my deepest sympathy. I got stuck at that airport for 36 hours a few years ago as a result of flight cancellations etc. I was one or several of those persons sleeping here and there. I must say, after 48 total hours of traveling, that floor is much more comfortable than I would have thought. I hope you got home in less than 36 hours.

Yay! Happy birthday!! Halloween is the best day for a birthday ever! :woohoo:

My housemate bought torchlight a couple of days ago and I was also really impressed by the music in that game. I've played a bit of it and watched him play quite a bit more. It's pretty excellent. I'll have to try it with the BGM turned down as those guys suggested, just for kicks. I've *ahem* never played a Diablo game so I'm not really sure how similar the gameplay is, but I've had a lot of fun with this one so far. Also, my dog in torchlight looks exactly like the cute wolves I was riddled with guilt for killing during my maybe five or six hours of WOW. It's like they're haunting me.