Sunday, February 22, 2004

I've been playing Breath of Fire:Dragon Quarter some more and have grown somewhat reconciled to it, thanks to my little brother patiently sitting me down and explaining the controls to me. Gah. When did I become such an old fogey that I fail to grasp even the simplest of children's games? (It must've been about two years ago when I turned 30 and thus, officially hit what most 18-year-olds think of as Middle-Age. O Time. Cruel Time. Thou doest fly.*Sigh.*)

I have to admit, Breath of Fire:Dragon Quarter (or BoFDQ, as you young hipsters like to call it; you crazy kids and your acronyms and your nose rings and your hula hoops and your aaaaarrhhhhHHH!!) is a cool game. I'm still not crazy about the "having to die a gazillion times in order to finish it" thing. And I STILL think the game looks like that crazy Korean Cartoon Sequence from Animated Clerks (plus some 3-D effects and minus the bear and the car full of midgets.) But at least I can play the game now without throwing my shoes at the TV, (and if that's not progress, my friends, then what is?)

Friday, February 20, 2004

I'm feeling a little better today. It no longer feels as if my tonsils are being gouged out by a madman with a rusty crochet needle, and if current trends continue, I should be well on the road to recovery by the end of the week, (and if not, I should at least be feeling a lot better than I would have if I had run off to the doctor's like a panicky idiot and forked over half my car insurance payment for a series of expensive exams and tests which would have had no measurable effect on the outcome of my illness anyway.)

I'm spending most of my time hibernating, hoping that will speed the rate of my recovery. Occasionally, I've been borrowing and playing some of my brother's PS2 games, most notably, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter What the hell is up with this game? It's a fantasy RPG, but for some reason they place the game in a grim setting which looks a lot like a cross between Resident Evil and the basement of my old junior high school. Then they give it a battle system which makes the battle system in Vagrant Story look simple and intuitive by comparison, and then, they severely limit the number of items you can carry. They also don't give you any healing magic. Yay. Am I having any fun yet? (Oh, and did I mention? In order to successfully complete the game and experience it in full, one must repeatedly die and get sent back to the beginning. Come on. Who thought THAT was solid game design? Imagine if you were to board a subway, and you knew the only way you could get from your house to your job and vice versa was by undergoing repeated knifings, muggings, and side-trips to the hospital. Wouldn't you just call a fucking cab instead?)... I know. The fact that I'm bitching about these particular aspects of the game is probably a good sign that I'm not the kind of person it was designed for. And I have to admit, it's stylish and challenging, and, if were I ever able to get myself past the first level, I'd probably find it has an engaging storyline as well. I don't think it's necessarily a BAD game, and I don't think it should never have been made, I just don't think it should have been a Breath of Fire game. BoF games, while not really outstanding examples of the fantasy RPG genre, have always, up until this point, had the words "pleasant diversion" written all over them. And this game is anything but. Oh, and I don't like the artwork at all. All the characters have thick lines drawn around them, as if they were extras in an episode of animated Clerks. I half expected, while running through the dark murky corridors of this game's subterranean universe, to bump into Jay and Silent Bob at some point. Or into that car driving bear from the wacky "Korean animation" sequence. (Actually, I wish that HAD happened. I might've actually had some fun instead of spending countless hours gritting my teeth and mashing buttons in a futile attempt to move my character towards an enemy pounding my ass with long-range attacks and standing just outside my range of influence.)

Gaaah. There. I feel much better now that I've gotten THAT out. Back to my bed to hibernate for a few more hours. (Yes, seize the day, AA. Shine on, you big, fat, lazy diamond.)

Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 1:53 pm

Concerning my last blog entry: To the reader who wrote to me asking me if I were serious in my appreciation for "the soldiers who defend our freedom", or whether I was just being sarcastic; the answer is yes, I was being serious. My grandfather was a vet, I have several uncles who were involved in various mid-century wars and, of course, there's my pal Dust Traveller, who served in the theatre of Afghanistan. Damn right I appreciate what these people were doing. Hell, I'd have probably felt inclined to join the military myself if I weren't such a whiny, rubber-muscled, stress-prone little puss. (To the reader who wrote the e-mail, my in-box ate your message and I have no idea who you are. I'm not really even sure I actually received your e-mail. I could've just been dreaming that I had. It's possible, given the sick, stressed-out, stuperous state of mind I've been in lately.)

Speaking of which, my health (or lack of it) is causing me great concern lately. You see, I plan on moving across the country in a short while (I don't want to say anymore about the subject at present for fear I'll jinx the whole deal.) Anyway, I've developed a sore throat and a general feeling of malaise which I'm hoping will go away in a few days and not develop into some horrible malady which will wind up with me lying in a hospital room full of plastic tubing and with most of my major organs sitting in a freezer located somewhere in another building. I would like to go to the local health clinic and have a strept test performed, but if it's negative, it means I will have plunked down 150.00 for an office visit for essentially nothing. (I have insurance, but it has such a ridiculously high deductible that it's pretty much a non-factor here in terms of cost.) However, if I do NOTHING, and it turns into something serious, well, then I've got noone to blame but myself if that whole "hospital tubes and freezer organs" scenario I described above comes to pass. It's really not a fun choice here. (I fucking hate being poor and unemployed. Have I mentioned that already?) Oh well. I'll guess I'll just have to drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest and keep watching it.

I posted a couple more chapters of the Xenogears Thumbnail Theatre since the last update for those of you folks who came to this blog hoping to see an actual content update (and not just to hear me whine about my latest problems. Which, I'm assuming, is ALL of you.)