Friends

me "i feel so much better"
meggan "you look really sick!"

frank gibeau, president, EA games label

we chunked it up into separate stories, but here's the full thing, if you missed it. covers spore, EA's quality initiative, and EALA primarily.

i guess by posting this and saying "what the fuck" i am playing into the hands of the point of the campaign but still. WTF.

peter is playing infinite undiscovery.

[16:26] peter: I just got to the point where I can run around some on my own.
[16:28] peter: ...And I just found a giant invisible barrier.
[16:28] peter: Like, across a giant swath of field that it looks like I should be able to move up.
[16:29] me: haha
[16:29] me: yayaaaaay
[16:29] me: i have found a couple in TOV, and more of those like "fakey but extant" type barriers, like a bunch of boxes or whatever
[16:29] me: but nothing SUPER egregious
[16:31] peter: This is, like, a giant beautiful field.
[16:31] peter: That you just can't enter.
[16:31] peter: And there is no barrier at all.
[16:31] peter: Like, visible.
[16:31] me: haha
[16:31] peter: Except, like a slight incline.
[16:31] me: sigh
[16:31] me: weak... knees.
[16:31] peter: That you can normally go up.
[16:31] me: what can you do
[16:31] me: japan
[16:31] me: i remember when i first got to japan
[16:31] me: and i realized that in japan
[16:31] me: people really do not walk over like
[16:32] me: 2 foot tall fences
[16:32] me: i was like "oh."
[16:36] peter: Haha.
[16:36] peter: RPGs explained!

i actually think that talking about sarah palin is probably a distraction that should be abandoned shortly. i don't know. but i'm having a hell of a fun time reading andrew sullivan these days, i'll give her that.

also: fucking republicans and fucking taxes. mccain plan to benefit the rich hugely, of course. meanwhile, obama wants to fuck them.

i want an RPG to spit out a progress report in some sort of web-format, like an image, or HTML that can be pasted in, that i can post on my blog, so i can talk about it as i play it. somebody get on that with their next game.

ben folds five is reuniting to play one show -- and they're going to play the entirety of the unauthorized biography of reinhold messner at that. but it's on 9/18 in fucking north carolina (to be fair, that's where they're from.) thanks for the advance notice. sigh.

it seems like everything's trying to make me think of the late '90s lately. or maybe i'm just being incredibly selective in my interpretation of events.

so i am pretty well recovered right now.

i have a nasty, nasty cough, am blowing my nose all the time, and the acoustics of my hearing are slightly fucked up, but generally, i'm doing much better. road to recovery, for sure.

and before you ask -- yes, it does taste delicious: orange, pineapple, lemon, kiwi, mango, passionfruit!

this whole sickness escapade has morphed my sleep schedule into something more nocturnal. sigh.

at least i'm enjoying vesperia. 6.5 hrs or so thus far.

omfg omfg omfg omfg omfg

actually yuck, it uses like an 8-point font in this window.

THAT IS HOW YOU KNOW IT IS A NEW BROWSER TECHNOLOGYYYYYYYYYY

hi

Current Location: CHROME
Current Mood: CHROME
Current Music: CHROME CHROME CHROME

vesperia is instantly charming and fun. i never got that into abyss -- the story pissed me off (and the loading pissed me off even more). this seems to have skirted the pacing issues pretty adeptly and i'm already getting back into the swing of things. tales may not have the best core stories but the characters are a great deal of fun, particularly in their interactions, which is what makes the skits so enjoyable. you gotta have the right mindset, though.

and the soundtrack appears not to suck thus far, which is pretty much a new development for the series. i've never understood why sakuraba does his worst work for tales, but it seems that way, by far, typically.

way back when bandai entertainment first released zeta gundam in the US (2004) they did so in a box set that came with the whole series and some toys. i've been storing these toys for 4 years but i am tired of it. i never wanted them, but there was no other way to buy the set. does anybody out there want 9 sealed z-gundam figurines? basically they look like blind-box toys in the way they're packaged, so i'd imagine they're that quality, something in the 300-500 yen range. up for grabs if you pay shipping.

LMK!

taken from gamesradar's review of infinite undiscovery:

Fans and journalists alike have pegged Infinite Undiscovery as an attempt by the stagnating JRPG genre to jumpstart itself with new ideas and make a grand entrance onto the next-gen stage. Well, we appreciate the gesture, but Infinite Undiscovery really only goes halfway.

Despite a few glimpses of greatness, all the novel gameplay ideas fall flat, the visuals aren’t always as pretty as the screenshots would have you believe, and above all else, there’s the feeling that you’re playing just another JRPG. Infinite Undiscovery’s not a bad game, but it’s got a laundry list of problems that make it nowhere near the sea change we were hoping it would be.

emphasis mine, of course.

i can appreciate that there is a call for a genre to evolve and improve, because every genre should evolve and improve.

but for so long reviewers lazily wander into the genre with a mindset, and try a game, and then write this kind of stuff. turns out, they don't like these games, but they hope they're going to be fooled into liking them like they were that one time, ten years ago, probably by FFVII. turns out, infinite undiscovery isn't going to fool you: it is what it is.

it's a useless review because it's not going to offer any insight for people who are genuinely interested in the game, since the dude writing it doesn't understand what makes the genre good (because he doesn't actually like it.) it's really the only genre you can get away with this so consistently. which i'm sure indicates just how much people don't care about it anymore, but doesn't make it any less tedious to encounter on a regular basis.

ah, you say. but what if he's a talented reviewer? can't he fairly evaluate the game on its own merits and offer a reasoned analysis? snerk.

i like JRPGs. i like how they play. i've always enjoyed playing them. yes, i like the bits that you play. with the menus, and hitting the button, to make things happen, using menus. aka the gameplay. i like it. and understand it.

in other words:

i need to get sarah palin off of my blog, so i need to post.

well the problem is not a great deal has happened. i made it through superbad, which was pretty good, and then today watched hot fuzz, which made me realize that the best idea for a movie would be "seth rogen and nick frost are gay." get this: it's a movie starring seth rogen and nick frost. but they're gay.

...i'd go watch it.

tonight is the first night i was hungry since this whole ordeal started, which i suppose is a good sign. i made pasta and it tastses like it has ketchup on it, which makes me wonder if it's my taste buds or trader joe's letting me down. i'm not that congested...

i think it's time for more comedy. but i'm still alive. fancy that.

i have a really limited attention span. i'm trying to watch superbad and i just paused it for the third time to go do something else. hrm.

not happening. i have the flu. been ordered to stay in bed. -_-

just got off the phone with united -- cancelled my ticket.

i felt weird towards the end of work and i came home and collapsed. i definitely have a fever.

this is not good. PAX flight tomorrow. i hope it's temporary. -_-

we'll see how work goes. sigh.