Dragons O Plenty

I've had some time to sink my teeth into Blue Dragon and I have a few observations about it. First off let me say its great, if you are in the market for that classic style J-RPG this is your game. While the first Xbox had 0 turn based RPG's it looks like this round the 360 has hit critical mass in being the market for RPGs, pretty much all the devs are saying PS3 suck our balls.

The game feels like Chrono Trigger. The play style, the music, the overall atmosphere. Considering Hironobu Sakaguchi was co-founder of Square, and had his hand in Chrono Trigger it's easy to see why. While the story isn't as powerful as the ol CT it's solid. The Dragon/combat system is solid, the customizability of your characters via skill sets is impressive. Since Hironobu has left Square and is now developing for the 360, it's likely that future Final Fantasy games simply won't have the same flair they used too (not that the past few have either, though he had less and less to do with them as well). The game feels like classic square because at it's soul it is. Character Design is by the guy that did Chrono and Dragon ball, it almost feels like playing some 3d anime. Combat is nice, you can see your enemies before you attack ala Chrono. If you sneak up behind them you can perform a back dash attack and get the jump on them. The game touts 50 hours of gameplay, and likley more than that if you want to nab all the achievements. Thats ROI on your gaming buck for sheer entertainment value.

The music, while new, again has that midiretropop feel like classic square. Again the music was done by the original music composer of the classic Final Fantasy games. For all intents and purposes this game is Squaresoft reborn.

There is some sort of obsession with poop. First frackin monster you fight is a frackin Poo Monster, and they come in droves after that. Literally a swirling pile of purple poop. There are even achievements dedicated to defeating these pooply mobs. While not the oddest creatures I've seen in a RPG it's still perplexing to say the least. Some sort of subliminal poop is bad message I don't know?

The boss battles feature some un-named 80s big hair style rock. Absolutely does not fit with the game. I don't know if Hironobu Sakaguchi was smoking crack and watching Fast Times or what but defiantly is some of the strangest music I've seen in an RPG.

And that's the rest of the story.

Nova Nova City

EV Nova, the board card sci-fi game came. Now I need people to play it with, one guy at work actually knows what Escape Velocity is so maybe I can sucker him in. Apparently in a fit of sickened internet rage I ordered the booster packs with it. Hoping tommorow after saturday cleaning to hammer a few hours of Blue Dragon.

Is anyone else as excited about Battlestar Galactica Razor as I am, the little clips of previews that have been on Sci-fi send a chill up my spine. I think next week they are starting some 2 minute clip things of the first Cylon War.

Cats have been xtra cute lately, check out the latest shots of them over at our Flickr Page. Nemo is looking handsome as ever.

I'm talkin marty mcsupa fly

I see there is a new TNG Complete series set out now for a discounted price with all new bonus features. That's gotta grind all those folks that dropped $120+ on each season when they first came out. That's the way of the media company's, and the commercial world I suppose. I'd like to see them sell the new features on a disk for those who already own the items. Lotta them would probably be willing to pay 10-20 bucks for them. The new set is a sliver over 300 bones at amazon, I'd like to see it at 250 or less to interest me though. At that price I'd consider it, being a TNG fan. I've been considering picking up DS9 at some point since it's dropped below 300 for the whole shebang so I'm hoping now they will release a DS9 complete set. DS9 is probably some of the best TV ever, full of drama and action. I can watch that shit every night. Something I'd actually get my money's worth out of owning.

I see now there is also a Stargate SG-1 complete series set which seems to be more reasonably priced at around 230 bones, and that's for 10 seasons vs. 7 in the trek set. Defiantly a lotta entertainment in that bundle. After Deep Space Nine, Stargate is probably third best TV after Battlestar Galactica. Speaking of BSG, Razer is coming up. A two hour tv movie to bring us into the 4th season, well actually it's set in a separate time period but will flesh out some of the Pegasus story. Battlestar Galactica Season 1 is releasing on HD-DVD this December and I'll be first in line to pick one of those up, and by line I mean pre-ordered on Amazon since they tend to have the best prices and free super awesome shipping. But man, BSG in HD is drool worthy. Rumor is if Razer does well, they are going to green light a 2 hour pilot movie for Caprica, a prequel show to Battlestar.

Is anyone else stoked about the Orange Box like I am, I have Half-Life 1 for PS2, and rented 2 for the Xbox but never finished it. For 55 bones get updated Half-Life 2, and episodes 1 and 2, and Portal, and Team Fortress 2. That's a hell of a lot of entertainment for very few bones. 1UP says the new 360 version is the definitive version of Half-Life 2, looks fantastic, plays smooth as butta on the muffin. Again, I know you suckers like playin FPS games all cramped up on your desks but I'll take it on the big screen any day kickin back on the comfie couch. Tuned well, console FPS games are just as accurate as with the carpal tunnel inducing Keyboard and Mouse set up and a hell of a lot more fun. Sorry kids, that's how it rollskatcity.

T-minus under a month for trip to Universal Studioskatcity.

I caught the death, damn kids comin from all over the world to Grinnell, prolly brought back SARS again from cuba or something. Since I'm in almost every building during the week, I get exposed to all the fanwuboulous germs theys spreadin around.

Go Mike Gravel.

More than Meets the Eye

Some of you may remember the hawt Michael Bay movie from this summer, Transformers. It's coming out on HD-DVD, and that's a movie that is meant to be watched in HD. It's a movie I might watch a few times so I pre-ordered it from amazon. I see Transformers 2 is slated for 2009, crank thems sequels out quickins. I suspect the second won't have the same "bang" as the first.

Send me 10 more hours in the day, I need to play Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata yet and they's is both biggins long games.

Escape Velocity Nova

Picked up the EV Nova Card game. See how it is. If I like it mebby I'll grab some of the xpacs. I've been watching it for a couple years now. I'm sure it was a niche seller, since the game was pretty much a niche game. Figured better grab it before this piece of gaming is gone for good. Check out the Computer Games by Ambrosia Software too. They are top notch.

LameStop City

Well Gamestop is running a Tiered promo right now, just of it is trade in 5 or more games and get 30% bonus credit. Stacks with EDGE for another 10%. I normally throw most my games up on Goozex but I had quite a few games that had dozens of copies available on Goozex without many requests so I figured was a good time to unload. Anyway, went to the local un-lame Gamestop (still freaks me out every time I go in). The nice, knowledgeable manager lady/girl/woman was there we talked Wii for a bit. Oh man I unloaded the Spongebob game for Wii, that game was shit, looked like a PS1 game. Odd since the cube games were decent. Developers have been thinking oh the Wii is a free pass to make shit, well guess what suckers, it isn't. Make a good game it will sell, Metroid, Resident Evil, Elebits, etc...

Shit right, back to the story. I unloaded a few games with 40% bonus credit and netted about 100 bucks in credit. Pre-ordered Mario Galaxy (i know I normally don't pre order at lame stop but I had the credit) and still had 45 bones or so in credit left. Mebby will come in handy when Mass Effect or Ace Combat comes out. Phuck, too many really awesome games in such a short period of tyme.

On my list of games to play, well the first ones that come to mind anyway. There's a stack of 30 or 40 on the shelf yet.......

Blue Dragon (have)
Eternal Sonata (have)
Metroid Prime 3 (getting)
Mass Effect (getting) - Also need to read the book which I have.
Lost Odyssey (getting)
Ace Combat 6 (getting)
Galactic Civilizations II (have)
Command and Conquer 3 Mac (have)
Avernum 2-4 and Geneforge 2-4 (have)

Intense Flavor

Beat BioShock tonight, Phuck Fontaine is kinda hard. I had to go back a bit and nab some more money for First Aid's, actually once I was stocked on those he was easy pickins. Couple security bot plasmids and a few propane tank things to the face made short work of him. Apparently since I was harvesting Lil Sisters for ADAM I got the "bad" ending, I won't spoil the surprise for those who haven't beaten it yet but I'll say this, it's one hell of a twist. Gunna trade it in for Mario Galaxy I suppose.