And I said we're moving to myspace - which we are on now - http://www.myspace.com/g33ksquared
but I also know that wenever there's something noteworthy to report, I should do it in as many places as possible.

Sometimes, working at Toys R Us does have its advantages. I can hold a TMX so I can buy it. I get 10% off almost everything, and, when we get a shipment of game systems, our manager puts a certain number on hold for the emplyees who have to work that day and so won't be standing on the line to buy it.

I am of course talking about the Wii.

I've made no attempt to hide how excited I am about the Wii. I think the concept of the system is awesome, and that it will be fun to play.

Now. I know about the PS3 fiasco. Sony sucks, end of story. My store was supposed ot get over 100 PS3s and we only got 75, which wasn't enough to cover the presales.

As for the Wiis we got over 200. 85 were presale, 45 were put on hold for employees. A woman warned a few of us that we might get shot if someone doesn't get their Wii.

Well, I got mine. It was a birthday present. With it came the Wii Sports Package, and I bout Twilight Princess - because A, it's a Legend of Zelda game and B I've been waiting for this game since it was announced that it was going to be made.

So, how is the Wii, you may ask.

Well, it's fun. It doesn't take up a lot of space, there are no cords to trip over, and it handles like a dream.

I was worried, I'll admit, that the interface would be hard to figure out and clunky. I had visions of myself tangled up in wires and just plain confused - but, no. I even anticipated this to be  a great system, and I'm not disappointed.

Clearly I can't tell you about the Wii without telling you about a game - I mean, it's a game console, how does it really work if you're not using it for what it's supposed to be used for?

So, let me tell you a little about Twilight Princess.

It's a Zelda game, so my standards are kind of high. This is no Link to the Past, but in the scheme of Zelda's, insofar as I've played, this title ranks beneath Ocarina of Time (which, in my scheme, is the 2nd best Zelda game). However, that's really not a very fair rating yet, because I haven't finished it - Nowhere near it in fact.

The graphics are beautiful, which is always nice to say since Nintendo has said they aren't competeing for graphics.
The gameplay is phenominal. That's the only word I cand escribe it as.
It's amazing how instinctual the contrls are in fact.
With one flick of your right hand you unseath your sword, and, flicking it more and more makes you attack - which is actually very beneficial for my style of gameplay which is to spazz out when a monster gets too hard.

With the left nunchuck thing u mie, which I call the left stick, you have your Z button positioned right under your index finger, which makes targeting a snap.

I mean, the most frustrating thing is camera angles - it's not that they're horrible. In fact, so far, they've been quit good, but there are times (as there are in every game) where you would have no problems shanking the cameraman if it were at all possible.

The puzzles are clever, the animation is fluid, and aiming, which I thought was going to be a bitch and a half, is so easy I wish the Wii was invented for Ocarina of Time. Because you aim with the Wiimote, the bullseye icon is where you move your hand, which makes gameplay that much more fun. Pixel perfect, my brother keeps saying.... whatever that means. All I know is that there's no long the "If I could only aim it a squinch to the right" mantra that I've had so many times before, since you're actually aiming it, it's not with the guide of a remote control that can only really move in 4 directions.

And Wii Sports?
All I'll say is that I only bowled a strike once in my life, and that was when I was 16, and my school had a Cosmic Bowling fundraiser, and I was exhausted from play rehearsals.
That, and playing Wii sports.

Really, I do highly recommend this system. It's easy to use, fun to play, and affordable. I'm not disappointed at all. And I know I was setting myself up for a huge downfall.

I'm currently working on transferring all the content of this live journal to a fantabulous myspace account (http://www.myspace.com/g33ksquared). I can't promise that that will be updated any more than this will, but the rationale behind the move was that all our real life friends are there so it's far easier to pimp out. Of course I'll make sure that content is cross posted between the two journals so you don't miss anything Jaez and cause you never know when a random person my stumble across this in a purely serendipisous way.

Anyway, that's what new here. Hopin' things are going good with you.


-Geek II

Actually.... wait.... this is a good game... my bad.

So, yesterday (yes, YESTERDAY... the game is this close to being beaten) I was tempted to turn in some "store credit" (aka, monies I had saved up for a few weeks from food ordering change that my parents know nothing about) at the EB in the mall and fgot Indigo Prophecy.
It was either going to be that or Star Wars Lego, which, I hear, is a solid platformer and I've alwayys enjoyed playing the demo of when they had it in the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square.
However, figuring that I usually use the XBox at all times, even though it is a family console, and that neither of my parents would want to play Star Wars Lego, and I remembered something vaguley XPlay related that said, in the back of my head "This Game Doesn't Suck" and seeing as it was only 20 bucks (well, SW Lego was too...) I opted for the Strategy/Survival Horror/Choose-your-own-Adventure game. I figure that at least maybe my dad will try and pick it up, which will make me feel good. Because he never plays the XBox.... and he should... if only because he bought a game for it about a year ago and never played it (Syberia 2... I don't blame him, wonky camera, frustrating dialouge, boring sequences... at least in the beginning, I never figured out how to get out of that town we trapped in, and I didn't much care)...
Ok, so... of course I go to try out my new game. And, let me just say that this game blew me away.

First, the bad points - the camera can be frustrating at times, the controls are a little wonky in some places, and for a game that was released in 2005, it looks like it should have been released at latest in 2003 - the polygons are pretty ug, which is kinds of annoying and can, at times, make you want to claw your eyes out (or, at least I do).

But considering all that can BE wrong in a pretty ambitious game like this, that's really small beans.

So, what I'd like to say is that  "You play Lucas, a man who killed a guy, but was possessed, so now you're trying to clear your name."
But, you don't only play Lucas, you also play Carla and Tyler, the two cops assigned to his case - Carla's the hot big-boobed competant cop who probably attended Harvard (well, actually, PROBABLY John Jay) and got a 4.0 GPA, and Tyler grew up in gangs until he decided to change his life nd become a cop. Yes. He's black. And pimp music is almost ALWAYS playings when he's going solo... which is actually kind of awesome - stereotypes like that always amuse me.
There's also one or two other characters you occaisonally control, but I ain't telling.

But that IS the basis of the story.

The controls. Like I said, in some places they are wonky - for eg, there's a part where you play Carla through 1st person PoV, and you have to control her walking AND breathing, and instinct says to use the right thumbstick to look and the left thumstick to move. Wrong - using the rght thumbstick will only serve to screw you over. And getting to controls is a hit or miss target - if you're not in exactly hte right area, the action icon won't appear, which, when you're also controlling her breathing, can get annoying, frustrating, and, if you suck at it as much as I did the first time I tried it, you end up quitting, and end the game.

The camera, too, can be frustrating at times, going into a perspective you just can't manuever yourself in. It does help cinematics, but, when you're not really sure where you should be going because the camer's just moved on you and you become disoriented, fuck cinematics. Good nws on this is that you can ALWAYS change the camera angle to a perspective you like, and these camera angles don't happen when perspective matters.

The voice acting is... par. It's not spectacular by any means, but it's not offensive. It's on the "pretty good" side of things, where you could definalty hear where it could be better, but also know that it could be a hell of a lot worse.

The actual action controls vary. When you can do something an icon appears on top of the screen (which isn't distracting as the game is in letterbox) as an ation to perform with your right thumbstick. Usually it's nothing bi, moving it to the right, left, up, down. Sometimes you have to turn it, go right and up and around. Usually these times are timed as well, so if you're shimmying up a pipe and you fail at it, you fall and have to get up again.
There's also an LR should button function, when the screen tells you to get ready, and the L-----R bar appears you press L and R alternatly to perform physical feats. It doesn't seem difficult, and, in theory, it's not, however, your fingers do get tired from doing that, as you usually have to do it really fast, and occaisonally 2 or 3 times in a row.

Another is the simon game - from time to time (actually, pretty frequently) two color wheels (for lack of a better description) will come up on screen, and flash colors. You, my fine feathered friend, have to then match the color to the thumbstick movement - so theres red, blue, green, and yellow, going from top and counter clockwise. If blue flashes on the right color wheel, you need to match that to the right movement of the right thumbstick before it flashes away. I mean, it's like Simon if you had to shadow Simon as he did beeped those colors out, instead of remembering what combination he did. It's actually not that bad, of you keep a cool head - most of the time these orbs come on screen when you have to do exactly that. Also some running away from space mites, or something. But, you know... that's no big.

This game is really good, and really creepy at times. I've never been a jumpy one, but there are scenes that just freaked me out - seeing a dead guys face in the mirror for example, and the background music helps add a lot to the creepy feel of the game. The game puts you in situations where it will prey on your paranoia... or at least mine.

Now, playing both sides of the story makes doing somethings (as the cops) difficult. One cop will question Lucas, and isn't it just confusing? Because you are that cop, but you're also Lucas, so, you're trying to lie to yourself, and also get answers from yourself. It's... weird. I, personally get very torn when things like that happen. Yes, I want to find the killer and put him behind bars for life, but I also want ot clear my name. So, when I'm a cop, do I aid myself as Lucas by overlooking clues? Or do I do my job? Do I f' up the composite sketch on purpose or do I try really hard to get it right?

But, there is no one outcome, there are so many different ways to play the game so maybe, one day I'll make that cokmposite skecth with a handlebar mustache. I love those things.

Before I forget, there's a mental health meter. Almost every action you take has an effect on your mental health - If your mental health gets too low and you're wrecked, it's game over. The character kills themselves, or quits, or goes to an insane asylum or whatever. So, you want to watch it carefully. Especally Lucas... he's usually insanely depressed, so, while you may want to look at the dead body of the only person in the whole wide world who believed you and could help you, and -30 mental health points, you may just want to flee from the scene.

This is, actually, a two player game - there are things that 1 person just may not notice, or doesn't pay attention to  - like Carla's breathing, having someone watch that meter while you're trying to solve an obscure puzzle is really helpful - otherwise she runs and cries and her mental health decreases. Not to mention that paying attention to the color wheels and such require a focus on those and not the scene going on - so the 2nd person gets the advantage of watching.

It's an interactive movie. And it's good and innovative, and, had I paid 60 bucks for it, I would have gotten my money's worth (even if it is a short addicting-like-crack game).


Indigo Prophecy is on multiple platforms - XBox, PC and PS2 so practically anyone can play this game, and it automatically immersive. Of course, if you just go right into the game you may be in a little over your head as you instantly have to go and start hiding evidence using the action icon. Believe me, easier said than done. Luckily, there's a tutorial mode where you learn the controls and functions in a simple "This is what you do here, try it" manner, so you're not in over your head.

This is definatly a must get, very few games nowadays are well written, clever, and totally immersive, with multiple endings.

For reals yo, at least try the demo on their official site to get a taste and see if you like it... which you invariably will.

-Geek II

I just checked out some Twilight Princess gameplay videos w/ the Wii.
Holy Shit. It's gonna' rock. I never knew that I could be so entertained by watching someone else fish on a video game.

Mostly I love 'em. It's like an interactive book. There's no learning curve really. Sure a few try to throw you for a spin, but, usually, they're not all that different from eachother.
Few RPGs, though, really stand up to the test of time - if only because the standard RPG is the same, and full of countless other cliches already made famous by the Final Fantasies, Dragon Warriors, and Chrono Trigger.

RPGs also take up a lot of time from a person's life. With any luck you've gotten into the story and can't wait to see what happens next. You've formed some kind of understanding/bond with the main character, and you need to make sure he (or she, usually he) comes out on top. Or else you're so confused, but intrigued, that you have to keep on playing because maybe the ending will peice it all together for you, which, it usually doesn't, but you've gathered all that information from playing the whole game that you must go back and play it from the beginning to fully undertsnad what's going on at least one more time, if not twice.

 The latter is the rarest RPG of all, because usually if things are confusing enough, you just give up  before the point of no return.

And, admit it, every RPG has one of these points - where you've already put $3,000 into a $5,000 pot and can't just fold. The point where you've spent just enough time on the game, which may be ridiculous enough to quit, but having already spent 20 hours on it, just can't quit.

I currently have 2 of those types of RPGs in my possession. Final Fantasy 8 and Chrono Cross.

Lucky for me, I beat 8 when I first got it, and, having already beaten it felt no remorse for just up and quitting on it when I restarted it last summer - because, by the middle of disc 2, it becomes all types of ridonculous.

Chrono Cross however.. I dunno. Maybe the ending will bestow some meaning on the game, but, I tell ya' one thing, if I were Serge, I would have just gone back to my home world and stayed there as soon as I could. In fact you're given the fake option to just live out the rest of your life quietly several times throught the game, only to have everyone scold you, and you're stuck fighting anyway.
I don't really feel anything for Serge or his friends - all I know is Glenn is awesome, as is Karsh. But I don't care enough about either of them to say that it makes the game worth it.
When the halfway point comes, and you finally stab Kid, I was pleased - I didn't like her at all. Why she talks with a Cocknney accent and says dumb ass things? I dunno.
Unfortuantely, I know that if I do beat the game (my disc somestimes doesn't load areas of dungeouns, and it's annoying to say the least) I will probably end up playing it again because of the different ending options - though, I may never get around to it - I have a New Game + for CT that I never get around to playing. I guess there's hope for me yet.

I dunno - I think it's a dangerous and wholly unfulfilling world for RPGers like me - there are a few good ones out there, piled in amongst the garbage - so you really have to look, or count on game reviewers to get it right. I mean, let's face it, even if an FPS is bad, you still some cathartic shooting out of it. Racers can suck, but they'll still be fun for a short while. If an RPG sucks, you're stuck with it, and advancing the story becomes a labour of love - especially when you can only deal with the game in short 30 minute intervals.

I think a lot of it has to do with "Look how pretty these graphics are" and to tell you the truth, fuck graphics. I mean, I'd take a FFIV or a King's Quest VI over realistic hair and boobie jiggle anyday.

I mean, even nowadays, looking at FFVII and Xenogears (two of my favorites), the graphics were awesome then, but came second to story.

*sigh* 

Unless these RPG makers can learn to shift their paradigm, think outside the box, then the RPG will die - I will always tout the KotOR series and BioWare, they do amazing things, but if people stop buying RPGs, they'll stop makin' 'em you know?

-Geek II


Oh, a PS - I do love Advent Children, but I find Kadaj's use of BLUE MATERIA to summon Bahamut... upsetting

 I like video games. I believe this is a given. However, try as I may, I'm not especially good at them. Oh sure, I play Soul Caliber 2 and 3, and I'm kicking ass as Kilik. But that takes effort, and constant training til my thumb gets callused from the button-pushing. Same thing with FPS. RPGs are given easy, there's not that much skill. No, the skill comes from games like Metal Gear, or Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia...when you have to learn what buttons do and strategy. Screw that, I say, even though most games are turning into that. 

 I tried PoP, got through half, then discarded. Tried MGS, after I got caught for like, the billionth time I was all like "F you game and F you Hideo Kojima."  Oh, BTW check this out:  Metal Gear Awesome. 

I get distracted easily, as well as very aggravated. I mean Wind Waker was a kids game, and I cursed like a sailor. Screaming about Octorocks throwing shit or something. My niece beat Psychonauts. Twice. She also unlocked everything in the game. I stopped after the milkman mission. Ironically I stopped after James bought me the game to play. Figures right? 

 To save my pride, I told her a story about video games about a decade ago. When I was her age, I didn't have 3D platformers or well rendered graphics. I had Super Mario 3, and that shit was excellent. Jumping on blocks and Koopas and a simple concept. You had a plumber that was trying to save Princess Peach even though she ruled over the Mushroom kingdom. Whatever, Japanese love naming characters after food.  Like King Cashew in Loddoss War or Garlic Jr. From DBZ. It's not cool when you dub it though...it's just not cool. 

 So my niece is an uber gamer, I've been doing it longer, but she's been indoctrinated at an early age in how to "pwn" her aunt.

...who am I kidding, I love posting links here that I think everyone should watch.
However, I will spare you the cake song.

http://chococosby.ytmnd.com/

Go there. Now.

And HERE

IMEEEEEEEDIATELY:
http://finalfantasy15.ytmnd.com/

Oh... and I suppose if you wanted to watch something to broaden your mind... go here and watch our government be dumb

You know what amazes me? Final Fantasy VII.
Not only because I still play that game about once every 2 or 3 years, but because it's actually still popular. Out of all the FF games, VII is the one with the biggest fandom, and SquEnix is still finding ways to milk it for all its worth.

Why just today I was going throguh a fan debate forum for the Aeris/Tifa/Cloud love triangle and ran across things cited as proof that I didn't even know existed - For instance, what the hell is Calling?

I mean, it took me a full 2 miutes to realize that DoC was Dawn of Cerberus, and that, not only had I missed any news about who it would star, but I totally missed it even being released.

It's interesting that 10 years later FFVII is still in gamers hearts as one of the best RPGs ever, and repeadtely go back to this one game.

VII isn't my favorite Final Fantasy - but it is the only one that warrants the very awesome sequel it was given. It is the only of the FF games (up until 9 at least) that left the player with a feeling of needing more.

Well, in any rate, regardless of all that - which is really a wake up call to go get on ign more and stop living in the days of Secret of Mana and Illusion of Gaia - I just wanted to say this:

Cloud Loves Aeris. All you Aeris haters can rot I say!

I mean, let's face it, I'm not going to go on a forum to state my opinion when I have a perfectly nice place to state my opinions and know that someone's going to read them.

As is obvious, Geek I is the GM of the game I'm going to be playing in. As that stands, anything further said on the subject after tonights inital game, will be presented by 2 people. The God-like GM Geek I, and the... imp-like? puny girly-man player, me.... Geek II...

So, to clarify, let me state now that Geek I is right. Her opinion on whatever happens. Is right. Always. She is infallible.

And I'm not only saying that because she could decide to have my character get stomped on by a giant foot, or eaten, or something.... but ALSO because she gives out XP as well.


Just want to add in some excitement about getting to table-top again. I had been LARPing for about 4 years with no table top  RPing except D&D, which can be cool in its own right, but was never really about Role Playing - at least not with the DMs I've had - the one who got dumped by his girlfriend of 7 years the day we were supposed to start, and the one who made a linear "plot arrow pointing here, go here" type game.  I'm not a big fan of the latter types, and the former... Well, the game could have been good if we had played more than 2 games - he ws a senior AND a commuter... they make the worst GMs.

So, that said, I'm glad to get back to the bestest GM I know, and glad to be in a small group of people that I like.. for a change.

It also makes me want to geek out a lot... geek off if you will... talking about how awesome my character is.. .though, technically qat this stage, it's how awesome my character has the potential to be. In potentia, my charcater is quite awesome. However, I'm fairly positive time will show that, like all things in my life that have potential, it just doesn't quite live up to the hype.

(I'm talking about you Final Fantasy 8!)

-Geek the 2nd