Ramblings of a Crowe

WTF is that thing?

My god. The three time winner of "Ugliest Dog" certainly deserves his crown. Holy Christ! When I first saw his picture I felt the sudden urge to cross myself and go back to church.

I think I'll go play at Kitten War some more to make that dirty, undead, rotting feeling go away.

Ready? Set? BATTLE!

I got sucked into "Kitten Wars".

Splurge

It's late...or is it early? It's also friggen hotter than crap in my room. Maybe that has something to do with the insomnia I've been suffering from the past two weeks? I don't know, but I'm tired as hell every single damn day, however, when it comes time to go to bed, I can't sleep. When I do sleep, I get up every hour or so. Come 1 or 2 AM, I'm awake for good. WTF is up with that?

Whatever...

I'm going to buy an HD TV soon. Hopefully next week. I'm still mulling it over in my head, but that pretty much means I'll go through with my plans (regardless if it's a good idea or not). J and I went and looked at them on Sunday. I saw a few I liked, but the prices were staggering. I don't plan on getting a big one, 32 inches is my cut off, since space is limited here. I got approved for an $1800 credit limit, but my price range is a grand, no more that that.

I really have no reasoning behind this sudden interest in HD TVs. I just want one. I don't watch a lot of television, but I do play a lot of games and watch a ton of DVDs. Since I haven't bought myself anything really nice in a long time, I figure why the hell not?

September 25th

Baten Kaitos: Origins will be released at the end of September. For fans of the series, this is the end of a long, painful wait.

Origins is a prequel to the first game, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. It takes place 20 years before the story of Kalas and Xelha. The main character is an Empire goon named Sagi, who is asked to investigate some mysterious happenings. Later, he and his group are hired to kill the Emperor, but before they can carry out their job, the Emperor is killed by someone else.

Familiar faces will pop up in this game, though they will be 20 years younger (Kalas has not yet been born). Unlike the first game, you will only have three playable characters instead of six (bummer). Also, the battle system is a bit different. It still uses that oh so frustratingly fun card system, except that this time around all three characters use the same deck. I'm not sure how I feel about this...On one hand, it's a relief not to have to manage six decks, but on the other, it seems like it might be an even bigger pain in the ass to have three characters tied to one deck. I don't know, but I guess I'll find out.

The game setting appears to be a colorful and rich as the first--one of the biggest charms of Baten Kaitos. Beautiful backgrounds, beautiful character designs, the first game was breathtakingly imaginative and creative. And from what I understand, those of us who love side-quests won't be disappointed with this installment. Dozens of side quests are available to play--no doubt many of them sending you roaming all across the various settings searching for things to capture in those rare blank Magnus cards.

I'm really looking forward to this game. I made the mistake of owning the first one for almost a year before I sat down and played it. I thought a card based battled system would be kind of pokemonish and stupid--but I was very, very wrong. When I sat down to play it, I quickly realized that the game was more like poker than pokemon. Be quick, but be smart, and learn to work with the hand your dealt made for fun, but often times eye gouging game play. "What! No healing items? WTF is this?" was a common shout of anguish from my cave as I played. Cards are shuffled randomly. As you play cards, new cards appear until the deck is empty and the system reshuffles. It sucks when your facing a huge ass boss and no armor cards show up in your hand to block attacks. Of course, you can use weapon cards to take out the sting, but then when it comes your turn to attack...well, you get the picture.

Also, many cards change over time. Yes, they change. Healing items like milk eventually become cheese, which becomes yogurt, and so on until it rots. Rotting healing items are bad for you, but you can use them to maybe poison an enemy. Putting cards such as ice (which will melt quickly) next to perishable cards helps them stay fresh longer (no, I'm not kidding). Other cards might become minor weapons. Bamboo shoots eventually become primitive spears, which then become--fishing poles. I never figured out what the fishing poles were used for, except to throw at enemies. Moral of the story, manage your deck.

Anyway, Baten Kaitos was a brilliant game--a nice break from the standard RPGs out there. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a solid game play, amazing story, and beautiful graphics. Very solid RPG, IMO.

Here's to hoping that number 2 will be the same!

Tick, Tock....

Today I pre-ordered and paid for my copies of Baten Kaitos 2 and Tales of the Abyss.

Now the waiting begins....

Happy B-day J00kst3r!

I drew a fantastic picture for you. Complete with a bithday cake, mice running over the table carrying pieces of it away while you bash them with a gianormous mallet with a gleeful twinkle in your eye. Oh and there was a bomb under the table too, and lots of fire in the background.

Alas, my computer froze up just as I was adding the final touches that would bring the picture to life. So, I sadly must say all I can offer you is this picture of a half eaten cookie I got for my birthday back in June:

I hope you like it. It was yummy.

Best wishes to you! :P

Vincent Valentine

So today I finished "Dirge of Cerberus". Brief rundown on what I thought of it: superb story, killer cut scenes, so so in play graphics, excellent voice acting, less than stellar boss difficulty, complicated leveling system (gil vs experience).

The game is a ton of fun. Sure, it's not the best thing Square has ever done, but I don't regret buying this one at all. In fact, I plan on playing it again to see if I can find all the secret stuff (I got a lot of it, but missed some near the end). And I'm not even a fan of shooter games...

The story was excellent, as expected of Square. By far the highest point for this game. The cut scenes were on par with Advent Children (same voice actors too), with apperances from all of the gang. Music (by Gackt) was ok. I'm a fan of Gackt, but I really do hate his song, "Redemption". However, it was an alright fit near the ending I suppose (trying to be objective).

In play graphics were pretty standard. Vincent moves smoothly, the camera isn't too hard to operate, and the auto lock feature is a life saver for shooter n00bs like me. However, I really hated the level system. At the end of each mission, after your points were tallied and ranking given, you had the option to either take the experience points and level up, or exchange them for gil. It was really difficult to find a balance. I rarely had enough money to upgrade or buy health items. Near the end, I kept running out of bullets (until I finally got the Death Penalty).

The trade off is, I suppose, that this game isn't hard and can be beat at a low level (I managed to get to level 27 by miraculously scoring a S ranking in a mission--talk about a shock). The only boss (on Normal play) that will seriously kick your ass is Rosso, the rest fall easily. Which is kind of a downer too. I like hard bosses. Like the bosses in DMC--even on Easy the will own you if you aren't careful. Then again, DMC is about carnage and blowing shit up, DofC is about the story.

Over all, it's a good game (regardless of all the sniviling fanboys are doing right now) and worth the bucks. This is a first attempt for Square, and though they didn't nail it, I think they've created something entertaining and enjoyable. Worth the money, worth the time (about 20 hours to complete for me).

Next on my list: FF12, Tales of the Abyss, and Baten Kaitos 2

This sums up how I've felt this week in a nutshell. I was hoping vacation would wipe away all life's drama and I could start fresh upon my return.

Not so.

Drama. Drama llama. Llama drama. Christ, will it ever end?

First I'm left out of a family function. Yup, left at home. No one bothered to tell me we were supposed to meet up somewhere to visit with a relative who'd come to visit. They just left, not bothering to tell me where they were going or why. I wander out of my cave and think everyone has gone to visit the nieghbors or something. No big. I go back to my room to read my book and fall asleep. Upon their return, I'm met with "Where were you?" To put it lightly, I wasn't pleased. The next day, my grandma calls me to find out where I was at and ends up getting an earful about how my mind-reading powers just don't work as well while I'm sleeping. *sigh*

And of course, there's computer drama as well, seeing as mom's e-mail stopped working. I attempted to fix it for her, but after banging my head against the screen, I just installed Firefox for her to use. Begin Count Down: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BOOM! Not even two days later is the browser deleted by good ole dad. God forbid I sully the computer with software that actually works! Silly me, I'm just the family dumbass, so what do I know? Maybe if he actually spoke to me (what's it been pops? Over a year now?), he'd know why I set her up with Firefox in the first place. Whatever. Next time it breaks, I'm just going to tell her to call dad and have him fix the damn thing himself.

And life wouldn't be complete without work drama. I spent at least two hours writing emails to my boss about several subjects. One of which was to ponder the inability of adults to clean up after themselves. The second was an apology for an abrupt note regarding Satan's Wife, who I had the pleasure of talking to a few days ago. I most likely will get my ass chewed out on Monday, which sucks. However, I do stand by my opinion of this woman and the course of action I feel should be taken. That is not my decision to make (which I stated in my e-mail), but I'm hoping my opinion carries water. That and the fact I refuse to deal with that bitch faced cunt of a customer ever again. I hope she burns in a firey hell of doom.

I could write an entire rant about that woman, but I can already start to feel my blood pressure rise--so I should probably stop thinking about her.

That being said, I developed a migrane late today and my eye twitch has returned after a several month haitus. Not good.

Animals Hate Hollywood (and holidays)

When 101 Dalmatians came out, people swamped breeders and pet stores for puppies, not realizing Dalmatians are probably the dumbest, most irritating dogs on the planet (next to wiener dogs). The result, enough abandoned dogs to make a line of fur coats for a small boutique on Madison Avenue.

Every Easter, herds of people buy ducklings and bunnies, not realizing grown-up ducks are the ambassadors of Satan and bunnies are boring as hell. Doh! So they do what any reasonable person does, return them back into the loving arms of Mother Nature, from whence they came.

JAWS showed us the how vengeful great white sharks could be. Of course, humans can't have any creature on the planet be more stupidly vicious or mindlessly dumb than themselves, so the white sharks had to go.

Now it's snakes--on a plane. I'm sure the frequent flyer snakes of the world are trembling at the possible repercussions this movie has in store for them. The worst being an instigation of Herp Marshals on every flight. Think Steve Irwin hanging from the baggage carriers shouting, "Blimey! There's a beaut!" and hitting passengers in the head with a snake wrangler. Isn't flying bad enough as it is? Of course, I doubt things will be taken that far thanks to Homeland Security. I'm sure they'll ban all venomous snakes, spiders, and insects from carry on luggage. Shoot, water is banned, why not pit vipers?

Couldn't resist. Agito in a dress just cracks me up. It's even better when he uses his favorite word--fuck.

(Art by Oh! Great; I just played with the image a little.)

I've Returned!

So I got back from my trip at the Oregon coast. It was fun. I love the ocean, but I don't love the foggy, wet weather. Everything is damp and sand gets all over the place. Coming from a desert, you think I'd be used to sand...but at least our sand isn't wet. Ugh.

Anyway, I saw a lot of cool things. We visited Sea Lion Caves and the Aquarium. The Aquarium was by far the coolest. The caves were...well...fishy and stinky.

I caught some hermit crabs at low tide and tortured sea anemones. That was fun. Watched the seals paddle around outside our hotel window. Nice and relaxing for the most part. But I'm glad to be home. I was so tired last night I went to bed at like 8:30pm and woku up at 4am this morning. I keep forgetting today is Friday. *laughs*

Next week it's back to the grindstone. School starts in another month, and winter layoff is coming up soon. I keep wondering if they'll turn me loose again like they did back at the end of January. That would suck, but it was something I knew could happen when I decided to stay on. We'll see what happens. At least this time I think I'm better prepared for it (or so I'd like to think so).

A Brewing Storm

A thunderstorm is brewing outside. A magnificent thing. Lightening dances across the sky and thunder cracks through the clouds. Even the air smells electric, warm and dry. The night sky is completely black, save a few windows of moonlight that struggle to penetrate the blanket of thunderheads.

I can watch for hours. Mother Nature's wrath fascinates me to no end, maybe because as humans we can never hope to achieve what she does--regardless of our knowledge and sciences.

Very cool indeed.