As some of you know, my PS2 has been temperamental for the last while, randomly deciding it doesn't feel like playing certain games and so forth.

I grasp that the rational response to this is probably not: to put up with it until it becomes intolerable and then smash it, but too late now. 

(For the record: I smashed it because it pissed me off and was evidently not working anyway; it having been a present from the ex way back in the day is incidental, and if someone else had gotten it for me that would not have saved it from the Jinx-smashy of the current scenario.)

Seeing as how the most recent round of not-working seemed to begin right after some other random bullshit with my system - the TV/VCR/everything randomly turning itself on and off due to the shitty plugins in my apartment - I think I'd best address that before I worry too much about getting another system.  That said though, I'm curious which of the following two options I should go for:

1. Buy another PS2
   Pro: I have lots of PS2 and PS1 games that I still want to play
   Con: Z has a PS2 anyway and given the long-term prospects there it seems kinda pointless to end up with two between us
   


2. Buy a Wii
   Pro: More exercise games and more party games, excuse to buy a different version of Phantom Brave that has extra episodes and only costs $20
   Con: Can't play all the PS games, costs more than PS2 (but not way more if it's a refurbished unit), will probably inspire the urge to re-buy Rock Band but I still won't be able to download new tracks

I should point out that playing Phantom Brave and/or Disgaea is my absolute #1 priority here; if I can't do that, I don't even care about having the systems right now.  In fact, were it not for having $400 of saved grocery gift cards that I'm using this month, I wouldn't have the money and would just have to wait a few months before I could do anything about this anyway. 

Any thoughts?  I have a strange feeling I know what hindmost is going to recommend... 

Something kind of funny about the Hydra posters:

Mortal Kombat + Gears of War + Marvel villain organization = pure awesome

Go geekery!

You'd think this would be obvious, but I only just caught on to it, so here's a public service announcement to others:

Let's say you watched the Mortal Kombat clip I posted in my previous entry.

And that, curious and/or nostalgic for your rebellious violent-video-game-dominated youth, you go on to browse the web for more about Mortal Kombat in general, and Scorpion in particular. 

Say you then hear of something called "Cooking with Scorpion" and think it sounds mighty entertaining.  And you're bored, sitting here eating dinner, so you think hey why not, I wouldn't mind seeing that.

So you go to YouTube to go look for it.

Do not be surprised if searching for "Cooking with Scorpion" on YouTube causes you to find things that are not necessarily ideal to see while eating dinner.

Just saying.

If you want to see an evil ninja being domestic, rather than actual scorpions being put in a pot, click here.

Damn, almost a week already since the previous entry? Oh well - in the meantime I've both made some good progress on my thesis and had an excellent weekend of friend-visiting, Stampeding and enjoying Zyclobonzaron's company.

Anyway though, I did still want to address a few subjects that came up re: my previous post about video games:

I'm very curious what the video gamers in the audience think of the views expressed in this particular comic here.

My immediate knee-jerk reaction to this was extremely negative.  Especially re: the third panel from the bottom.  I thought it smacked of "boo fucking hoo, it ruins my fragile sense of identity when other people actually like what I like." 

I also see a distinct parallel to back in the 90's when goths were whining about Mansonites "ruining the scene."  i.e.:

Bad side: stupid kids who think Skinny Puppy isn't goth/industrial because they haven't heard of it, but Finger Eleven is goth/industrial because they like it.  (Even when I used to really like Manson myself, I always hated those people who arbitrarily pick some music genre as their personal synonym for 'good' and then misapply it all over the place.  I'm personally of the opinion - and was even years ago - that you'd have to be fucking deaf to not be able to hear that Manson is not the same genre as Bauhaus.)

Good side: When those kids get a bit older, they will probably either lose interest in the whole thing and thus not matter anyway, or their curiosity will lead them to check out other dark music, which is good for those artists - uh, not unlike what it seems to me actually did happen?  (Maybe it's my imagination, but personally I think the scene is better now than a few years back, or at the bare minimum, I think whatever damage Manson did to public perception of 'goth' was undone by the rise of emo.)

Thus, for both dark music and video games, I find it interesting how people will interpret the popularization of their interests as a threat to some imagined realm of purity and integrity rather than be happy that a community is growing over time and thus demonstrating that it has lasting power.  It's my personal opinion on this front that anyone who is sitting in a corner being all grumpy because their 50 year old parents play Wii more than they do simply has a bad attitude about the whole thing. 

Now, that said, I do think there is an important difference between video games and dark music that makes complaints re: the former somewhat more understandable.  That being, it seems to me that the pool of resources is more limited for video games.  i.e. the making of shitty games would directly take resources away from the making of good games, in a way that the popularization of a music scene doesn't necessarily or so directly take resources away from the more obscure artists.

This then made me wonder what would happen if we had the equivalent of cafepress or createspace that would enable individuals and small groups to self-publish their own console games for various existing systems, + such practices being encouraged rather than marginalized as 'gray market' or whatever.  One wonders if it might turn out not unlike the case with music: lots of crap, sure, but maybe a few creative gems that wouldn't have seen the light of day if games were only made by big, already-known companies?

My one other thought on this subject is that I've seen some incredibly innovative gameplay in the last few years, so I'm wondering whether complaints about the dumbing down of games really amount to "there is innovation but not in the genres I'm actually interested in."  The hating on Rock Band and Wii in this comic specifically confuses me on this point.  I mean, did some classic game's sequel come out recently that really sucked?  If so, what is it, what genre, what series?  What is this comic author so angry about? 

And how about you - do you think games are getting too easy, how impressed or not have you been with recent games, etc.?  Really curious to know what others besides me think regarding these themes.

So far for DS I've bought two games. 

FF Tactics A2 I bought because it was on sale for almost half price, but since I already have two PS games and 1 DS game on the go, I probably won't play it for awhile.

The DS game I am playing, i.e. the first one I bought, is called My World, My Way.  It's about a spoiled princess who falls in love with an adventurer, but when he turns her down for being too prissy she decides to become an adventurer herself to impress him. 

Probably the most amusing feature of this game is that there is a statistic called "pout points" that the player can use to change aspects of the game.  For example, there is the "I hate being poor" pout, the "these monsters suck" pout, the "I want more experience points" pout, and my favorite, the "gimme more items" pout.  One has a limited number of pout points, however, and must therefore pout strategically.

This game is clearly aimed at an age level below mine, but I don't care because it's hilarious.  Especially when the princess actually goes around saying to monsters that she wants experience points, only to have the one goblin boss have some big existential fit about whether giving experience points to heroes is the sole purpose of his sad, meaningless life.

Here are other DS games I'm planning on buying, which I'll post about here so I can get the shopping list sticky note off my desk:

• Avalon Code
  I'd read about it before Zee mentioned it in a comment on my previous entry.  It's an RPG that sounds like it has a decent amount of customization in it.


• Dragon Quest IV
  I already said I was going to get this one because it was my favorite game on the old Nintendo.


• Dragon Quest V
  This one has monster breeding and a multi-generational family of heroes.


• Rune Factory 1 and/or 2
  Main character's life apparently consists of: farming sim by day, dungeon crawler by night.  It's a fantasy version of Harvest Moon.


• Monster Lab
  Another one aimed at players younger than me, but as if I'm going to say no to a game in which there are like 600 some parts to build custom monsters from.


• Magician's Quest
  Not sure about this one yet as it's too new to find reviews on last I checked, but it sounds like a fantasy version of Animal Crossing, which has some appeal to me as a time-killer.

Since I used the phrase 'fantasy version of' twice just now, I suppose this raises the question of why that is important to me. 

My unintentionally anti-geek sounding response is, if I wanted real life I'd go outside and interact with real people. 

I love how my curiousity leads me to find something like this when I haven't even had time to buy normal games for my Nintendo DS Lite yet:

NDS Games 'n' Music

Questions for gamers in the audience:

1. Do you own or have you tried the device in question?
2. Is it any good?  Easy to use?  What positive or negative experiences have you had doing such things on your DS as:
• Watching videos
• Playing mp3s
• Emulating NES, SNES, etc.
3. Can I buy the device in question anywhere in Calgary at a physical store, or is online ordering the only way to go with such items?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Due to participating in various special offers, I have accumulated over 100,000 Shoppers Optimum points in the last year or so.

75,000 points - the highest reward level - is worth $150 in store credit.

So I thought to myself, I could stock up on a bunch of boring stuff I need anyway...

... or - as I discovered in the electronics section of the Sunridge Shoppers Drug Mart - I could have a Nintendo DS Lite without having to pay a cent for it.

So, having opted for the latter, the next step is buying games.  I'm already pretty set on getting Dragon Quest IV at some point, as it was my favorite game on the old NES system and I figure I'd enjoy an updated version of it.  Beyond that though, if anyone has any recommendations in the RPG or tactics categories, please send them my way. 

I'm especially interested in RPG or tactics games that have any of the following features:

• A complex system of combining or transforming random materials into weapons / spells / etc.  e.g. alchemy, blacksmithing, complex item-making skill sets typical of Star Ocean or Mana games


• Monster training/breeding divorced from a Pokemon setting


• Unlockable character classes and diversity of character skills

Or alternatively, engaging puzzle games might be a good investment also.  Something to kill time in the doctor's office without having to look for a save point when one's name is called, for instance.

So yeah, suggestions welcome. 

By which I mean: suggestions welcome that do not involve Disgaea DS, since as far as I know it's the same as the PS2 one and the last damn thing I need is the capability to have that game with me at all times when I already spent 400 hours on it over the course of the last 18 months or so.

I finished Disgaea.

Not massively surprising: The standard ending is crappy in terms of being cheap on the graphics and such. Also didn't solve certain mysteries in the game.

I may zip through the 'new game +' just to try to get the 'good' ending, in the hopes of one or both of those elements being improved upon.

Any ending I have to level my characters up into the thousands for I'm thinking I don't care about right now though, what with all the other games I have that I haven't even played yet.

I just got back from school awhile ago, having received the pleasant surprise that the class I'm TAing for is smaller than I'd expected, and in a better room too - spaced out with big tables instead of one of those 'sea-of-faces-packed-in-like-sardines' -type rooms.

That's not what this post is about though. Instead, something or other I read on LJ today reminded me that I was going to make a post about the game I'm playing, Disgaea.

I love this game and suspect I'll be playing it for a long time to come. The central character is a demon, Laharl, who after the death of his father, the Overlord of the Netherworld, is out to establish his claim to the throne vs. hordes of other power-hungry demons. The amusing thing is that since he appears to be 12-13 years old if he were human, he has a pretty junior-high-ish conception of "I am a demon, therefore whilst crushing my rivals I must make a big show of being a total badass and laughing diabolically and etc." I am all about playing games in which the main character is villain material.

A few things I especially like about this game: