I'm hot blooded, pity me
So I picked up some sort of stomach something last night. I'll spare you the in depth details, but I had a very hard time falling asleep or even staying in bed for most of last night. An upside of that is I watched Rachel sleep for awhile. It was beautiful and very calming. I can understand Edward Cullen's motive if I can't agree with the method. I also had a strange chain of thought about Rorschach reading Twilight. Hurm. I blame that on the fever which topped out at 101.6 degrees F. Considering how my normal temperature is in the low to mid 97's (my mother and I always feel cold to other people. I'd make another Twilight reference, but I'd be over quota.) that's pretty damn hot.
My wise and patient girlfriend talked me into not going to work today so technically I have a five day weekend. Seeing how I spent a good part of the morning and the afternoon shivering and miserable, its more like 4 and a half.
A few weeks back I finally finished Final Fantasy III for the DS. I really loved the 3D graphics and the job system. Due to the horrible defense bonuses that shields give, pretty much every character, including the mages, winds up dual wielding from very early on which is very strange in a FF game. The DS version does update a few things in the game--there's an effort to give the various characters different personalities, one of the originally all male heroes becomes a female--at the end of the day it is still a Nintendo game from the old school time period for all the good and bad. There isn't really a recognizable plot to the game until about a quarter of the way in, so it can feel like one is just wandering randomly talking to Vikings and elves, hoping to trigger the right scene. You can't hard save in a dungeon and if you die, which happens a good deal, you only get a set amount of revival items and you don't get access to a life spell until about three-quarters of the way in. Better hope you can get yourself back to a village that happens to have a revival spring (which not all do). Can you say, "Nintendo Hard?" I thought you could. III is a fun game, if you don't mind level grinding.
Lately, I've been playing Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. I expected it to be a Tactics style game; I was very surprised. When I first started playing I tweeted something to the effect that the battle system was like the love child of the gambit system from XII and the weapons triangle from Fire Emblem. That is not a slight on RW--I love the gambit system and the weapons triangle--and I stick by it. Turns out RW is in a genre that's like a cousin to the Tactics games. TV Tropes calls it Real Time Strategy. Cliff's Notes version: everyone on my side can move and attack whenever they want and via versa. It makes for some interesting strategies on both sides. Yes, the enemies use strategies! Some enemies Zerg rush you, some flank, some split your forces in half, etc. I am having a blast and find myself playing all of the levels not just because I want 100% completion, not just to level, but rather because I'm truly loving every moment of it.
One more thing: I was a bit nervous when they announced 358/2 for the DS because I was worried that the graphics, especially the cut scenes which look so amazing of the PS2 would look bad. Yeah, it turns like the DS handles cut scenes just fine. Check out the opening to RW:
I love the way they use the two screens to switch between points of view and interesting features and the way the two screens can make one big screen. The III opening does similar things, just not in this YouTube clip. Still, it needs to be seen.
How gorgeous is that? It's one of the rare video game openings I watch on a regular basis before actually starting the game.
My wise and patient girlfriend talked me into not going to work today so technically I have a five day weekend. Seeing how I spent a good part of the morning and the afternoon shivering and miserable, its more like 4 and a half.
A few weeks back I finally finished Final Fantasy III for the DS. I really loved the 3D graphics and the job system. Due to the horrible defense bonuses that shields give, pretty much every character, including the mages, winds up dual wielding from very early on which is very strange in a FF game. The DS version does update a few things in the game--there's an effort to give the various characters different personalities, one of the originally all male heroes becomes a female--at the end of the day it is still a Nintendo game from the old school time period for all the good and bad. There isn't really a recognizable plot to the game until about a quarter of the way in, so it can feel like one is just wandering randomly talking to Vikings and elves, hoping to trigger the right scene. You can't hard save in a dungeon and if you die, which happens a good deal, you only get a set amount of revival items and you don't get access to a life spell until about three-quarters of the way in. Better hope you can get yourself back to a village that happens to have a revival spring (which not all do). Can you say, "Nintendo Hard?" I thought you could. III is a fun game, if you don't mind level grinding.
Lately, I've been playing Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. I expected it to be a Tactics style game; I was very surprised. When I first started playing I tweeted something to the effect that the battle system was like the love child of the gambit system from XII and the weapons triangle from Fire Emblem. That is not a slight on RW--I love the gambit system and the weapons triangle--and I stick by it. Turns out RW is in a genre that's like a cousin to the Tactics games. TV Tropes calls it Real Time Strategy. Cliff's Notes version: everyone on my side can move and attack whenever they want and via versa. It makes for some interesting strategies on both sides. Yes, the enemies use strategies! Some enemies Zerg rush you, some flank, some split your forces in half, etc. I am having a blast and find myself playing all of the levels not just because I want 100% completion, not just to level, but rather because I'm truly loving every moment of it.
One more thing: I was a bit nervous when they announced 358/2 for the DS because I was worried that the graphics, especially the cut scenes which look so amazing of the PS2 would look bad. Yeah, it turns like the DS handles cut scenes just fine. Check out the opening to RW:
Click to viewI love the way they use the two screens to switch between points of view and interesting features and the way the two screens can make one big screen. The III opening does similar things, just not in this YouTube clip. Still, it needs to be seen.
How gorgeous is that? It's one of the rare video game openings I watch on a regular basis before actually starting the game.