I'm a survivor!!

...much thanks to my guildmate Sora though! I got my Survivor title on Guild Wars!



LMAO, sorry I had to xD

...And somehow I'm still alive

Nope I didn't draw this, it's from the Etrian Odyssey website, someday... *_*

Hey all,

Let me just say, wow, the first year of animation school has finally finished. I'm really caught off guard by that, and as cliché as it sounds, it feels like it was yesterday.

I know I've improved my drawing skills, I just hope it gets to the level I want over the summer.

In gaming news for me, I haven't been really playing anything lol, over the school year I have been occasionally picking up Etrian Odyssey for the DS in the past week however, I have been able to replay Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance again. It was so much easier and quicker this time around, I forgot how to recruit some of the characters and it resulted in many resets haha. I swear, games like these are like crack, I *have* to collect all the characters, just like Suikoden, or hell, Pokémon. Yeah, I said it.

I have leveled up nicely and am now playing Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for the Wii, haven't played too much of it because I have one more assignment looming over my head, so that's why I'm here! Muahaha...

I played a bit of Guild Wars too, and I can proudly say that I have the memory of a goldfish because I forgot all the hotkeys............................ fun times. It was super fun being slaughtered by all the little red dots on the map too, at least I didn't run into them and still knew what they were... *cough*Choops*cough*.

I bought a few games so maybe I'll be able to do quick reviews or *gasp* even a real review! I got Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii, Gunpey for the DS, Marvel vc Capcom for the PS, and RPG Maker for the PS, which I bought *again* since I didn't realize I had it already...

I have to mention later in another post, my trip to Japan! But the guilt from my homework is overwhelming me.

D'oh well, see ya soon kiddies!

Wow! Happy New Years everyone!

It's been a while huh? I've finally finished my first semester of Animation school and have had my first day yesterday (still feels like today since I didn't sleep yet). So far so good, I wish I did better (not that I did badly) but improvement is always something everyone strives for :)

I have been able to play some games over the holidays. I've played and finished Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for Gamecube, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for the Wii and Guild Wars: Eye of the North for PC.

As well as played a bit of Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3, Taiko Drum Master, Mario Party 8, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, WarioWare, WiiPlay, blah blah blah... the usual party games lol

I've also had a chance to watch some Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. The Mario isn't mine and I didn't really feel like playing it at that moment, but it looked amazing, the graphics, the gameplay, this is definitely on the summer list (if I get to do all the drawing things I've wanted to do!). I didn't play Resident Evil 4 because 1) I'm not very good with 3rd person controls on a console and 2) Ever since the first Silent Hill I've never liked playing survival/horror on my own (I'm sure playing it at midnight with 5.1 surround sound didn't help either lol). But, it was fun giving my friend advice as he slashed and shot through villagers, as well as keep him company, we were both pretty freaked lol

I'm pretty sure I've already talked about all the party games, so I'll skip over that...

I've bought Gears of War for PC, Black and White 2 and the Expansion, Age of Empires 3 and the Expansion and Tabula Rasa as well as bought some Game Boy games to be sent overseas for a friend. I bought Tabula Rasa because it was cheap, there was a sale at EB and I picked it up in the hopes to check it out later since there's a free month included. Gears, B&W and AOE were 40% off so that's pretty self-explanatory I think... luckily I convinced myself not to get the World of Warcraft battle chest for $20... I would have failed school for SURE.

Ok, so on to the games that I did play for a few days. I finally got through Guild Wars: EOTN, and the verdict was... it was alright. I had no urge to boot up my comp and log in like I did with Factions or Prophecies. The story wasn't the most engaging, but I did enjoy most of the missions. If you're thinking about getting it and aren't sure, I'd either get one of the other campaigns or wait for Guild Wars 2. I realize that this was the only expansion, but it didn't really keep my interest like I thought it would.

Fire Emblem for GC was one of the titles I kept looking at my shelf but put off playing because of god knows what. I finally played it and it was great. Same old Fire Emblem (with obvious graphics upgrades). I find the battle animations tedious and turned them off, doing that really speeds up the game (especially if you're like me and reset the system everytime one of your guys dies). I think there is definite replay value in this game, and I'll probably do that in the summer too.

The Fire Emblem for Wii was a delightful surprise! I didn't realize it was a direct sequel to the Gamecube version so when I popped in the disc sad that I'd never see Ike, Lucia, Nephanee, etc. again, there they were! And older and cooler looking too! :D Schweet! I liked the little tweeks in the game play, the option to add all the enemy attack areas together was awesome. However, I noticed a huge difference in difficulty with Normal mode in the Gamecube version and Normal mode in the Wii version... Wii version felt way more difficult, but maybe that's because all the guys you start off with get killed in 1-2 hits. Needless to say, I had to play it on easy to beat it as quickly as possible before my break ended. Oh, the controls on the Wiimote were awkward to get used to, especially after I played the GC version. But, it's a small learning curve.

I definitely want to do write ups on these games, but not sure with time constraints so I hope you guys don't mind casual banter like this. If you have specific questions, I can answer them in the comment section.

Cheers!

pic from IGN

Hey all!

FYI,I've been pretty busy with school and it is the primary reason why I haven't been blogging about games lately :(

BUT in gaming related news, I'm mostly playing Brain Age 2, the most I've been able to do is watch classmates play the Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament demos *drool*.

I want to play Portal badly but I'll have to wait until the holidays. That and I miss Guild Wars a lot.

Back for a bit!

Hey!

Long time no posts! As explained in the last post I am organizing everything for school, (paperwork, tuition, schedule, etc) catching up with a lot of friends I haven't seen or won't see for a while, cleaning up the house and packaging up stuff for donation and am generally still pretty busy, but it's exciting stuff! Two weeks left!

As for gaming related experiences I was able to play some Wii, mostly Mario Party 8, Wii Play and Wii Sports. I brought the Wii to two different parties and we all played MP8, so I'll have to share that experience in another post.

I wasn't able to play too much DS as I sent it with my brother to NYC to get it engraved at the Nintendo World Store, only to find that they have discontinued that service! BOO!!! But, in the meantime I found some neat software that helps the user learn to write and translate Japanese (you have to import it though) find out more from this handy dandy link to tofugu.com! Who says games can't be educational?

I've been playing a lot of Guild Wars, but not as frequently as I am waiting on the expansion. I've also got demos of Tabula Rasa (NCSoft) and Sword of the New World: Granado Espada (IMC Games) that I have to try out.

I also got a bunch of new Nintendo stuff from my friend who traveled all around Europe! When he asked me what I wanted I said "Nintendo stuff" and I actually got some, sweeeeeeet! :D

Oh yeah, and I'm re-reading the Doom series I'm also reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, his works are extremely helpful, easy to follow and very detailed (not to mention fully illustrated!)

Guild Wars: Eye of the North

This past Sunday I've been able to put a pre-order down for the new Guild Wars Expansion, Eye of the North. My friend was able to pickup my pre-order disk and I've just added the new key. What is in the pre-order you may ask?

Early access to the game (sneak peek weekend Aug 24-26)
Three Exclusive Weapons: The Glacial Blade, Hourglass Staff, and the Darksteel Longbow
A free 10 hour/14 day trial

Yeah, it's not a whole lot. At least with the Nightfall pre-order I got an extra character slot AND weapons. And what's with the free trial? Since this is an expansion I'd have to already own one of the other GW campaigns to play it. So, I suppose it's for my friends who haven't joined. Ah well, that doesn't mean I'm gonna be canceling my pre-order, I just wish I got a little more with it since the game is $44.99 CDN.

In other news, I have been let go at work, and am taking the opportunity to go to school full time for Animation. So, the updates may not be as frequent and there might be some ranting about school lol. So heads up.

Also, I've finally finished Eldest and am on the new Harry Potter book, and half way done. Which adds to my New Years Resolutions of reading at least ten books this year. I'm on number six. Wewt.

Second Life is for losers... :D RICH LOSERS!

So as per invitation by Acro here, I am letting those of you who haven't heard/seen/know about/smelled the MMORPG Second Life. I'll let you know about my life in there. Second Life is free to sign up for if you just want to explore the game, or for those of you who are more economically savvy, "land" can be purchased so that you can have your own shack/ house/ mansion/ store etc.

Whats the point?
Well, there really isn't one... not strategy wise anyways. There is no storyline to the game; the idea of the game is so that the bazillions of users out there are capable of creating their own world. Each world within the game is linked to one another, so the possibilities of creation are endless. ENDLESS! Your initial noobish body is what you begin modifying, and with the right advisor/ingame tutor, w.e, you can make yourself into the pixellated equivalent of Elisha Cuthbert for very little money.

An issue with Second Life is that if you have no money, you're going to be hard pressed to get what you want without any. A little known fact for those who are new to the game is that you can pick money off the money trees within the first 30 days you join the game. It's hard to find that information without anyone telling you though.

Why would I want to join?
Well there are three reasons I can think of off the bat.

1. You are lonely and want pixellated companionship.
2. You are extremely resourceful, talented in graphic programs, and want to earn a ridiculous amount of money.
3. You want to look like Britney Spears before she went crazy.

In all seriousness, Second Life can provide anyone with the opportunity to earn from $50 USD to $100000000 USD. Ansche Chung is a gamer most famous for earning her first million off the game. Yes, a real million dollars. How did she do it? She was innovative and decided to purchase land and rent it out to other users. Pixellated land earned her a million cash. Damnit.

Who is this weird person trying to tell me to join a stupid game?
Well spoken, my friend. I am Roguecrx, intermediate level gamer. That is the same username I use for every other game, and if you look it up in Gaia Online, Neopets, Second Life, Guild Wars, etc, you will find that I am rich. Very rich. I join most games to explore the economic capabilities available to their users, and once I get to "ridiculously rich" status, I usually find a new game to plunder. What Second Life offers that the other games cannot, is that possibility to be translated to First Life income. I am excited about the possibilities that Second Life has to offer, and I have met real friends through the game that I can honestly say I am glad to have met.

If you want to explore the game, sign up for an account at www.secondlife.com
I'm usually there to give a hand.

*edited by Acro

I'm not swallowing my own blood anymore.... sort of.... not really...

So, I had my wisdom teeth out this past Tuesday and I am still in a lot of pain. I had all four out and have not eaten properly since then. I've only recently worked my way onto baby food. I didn't know, but they made toddler food!!! It's unbelievable!! I have flavours like Spanish Chicken & Rice and Beef Stroganoff, when did they upgrade these? Geeeez...

Anyway, I thought I'd be playing more video games, but the only game I've been playing is "Try to not choke on your own blood". I know that's gross, but I feel I have to rant about it, someone must knowwwww!! Actually, in between my Tylenol 3's and cold compresses I've managed to work in Guild Wars time! I've managed to get Vabbian armour (Nightfall Armour) and dye it all black (with the help of my friend Roguecrx R of course) I've also managed to get 24/25 missions towards the Protector of Tyria title. Oh, yes, I'm super cool. O_o;;

So, I'm gonna put the GW aside for today and see if I can clean a bit and stuff. I hope to do more reviews and posts when I get better so stay tuned!

I'm playing WoW without even playing WoW

Apparently I'm getting quite the reputation from my friends as a hardcore gamer. I guess I can see where they can get those ideas because whenever they see me I am either wearing something game related, in possession of a game related item (magazine, DS, PSP, book etc) or am talking about games or when I'm going to play them. I guess that's "hardcore" for regular people?

It's gotten to the point where I just mentioned playing WoW with my friend that now they think that I'm some big WoW person. Just to clarify though, I have been having a falling out with my main MMORPG Guild Wars, and now I think that's carrying over to WoW (Haha, it sounds like a relationship). But yeah, it's like I'm getting the reputation for playing WoW and I'm not even touching it. I think my free trial DVD has actually expired yesterday.

In other news, my co-worker sent me an e-mail and this is what I found...

ZOMG, I want that for my wedding cake. Isn't that awesome? I don't know exactly where it's from although I see CollegeHumor, but I'm at work and can't open the site. So, if anyone knows or wants to post the real link in the comments that would be great! But for now I'm assuming it's from CollegeHumor.

She also sent me this wicked attachment for the Wiimote, for the Zelda game. Sweet!

I don't think I have enough room for all this stuff though, I have to do some spring purging lol, because it's not enough to just clean...

FFVI and Yggdra Union

Today was the release of Pokemon Pearl and Diamond, but surprisingly it didn't seem that busy to me today (I was working today). The only Pokemon game I own is Leaf Green, but I'm interested in trying out the new Pokemons (if I ever get time!) to see what they have to offer, maybe I'll get the Wii version instead.

This weekend was pretty busy, and a lot of gaming happened! I was able to get in another hour of Chocobo Tales. I'm getting the hang of the battling system, this is the first time I've battled with cards though (aside from Triple Triad in FF8).

I played a bit of WoW with Choops, I think I logged about 4 hours or something. I'm not really excited or addicted to the game yet. People were surprised to hear that since I was horribly addicted to GW. I think it's because I'm not as interested in GW anymore and therefore maybe not as interested in another MMORPG, even if it is WoW.

In other news, as you can see by the title, I have recently purchased Yggdra Union (recommendation from a co-worker) and Final Fantasy 6 (because it's my 2nd favorite FF and I enjoy rebuying games that I already own in different formats, thanks Squenix *sigh*). Both are RPG's (if you didn't know), and Yggdra Union is a card based one (so more practice, yay).

On another note Square-Enix re-released Final Fantasy: Advent Children in a collectors edition. Now, I'm not only re-buying my ff games, but also my ff dvds. Yeeessh, lol.

Super Paper Mario for Wii getting great reviews

Seems that Super Paper Mario is doing very well, both for the casual and hardcore gamers! Check out the story at Next Generation. I'm impressed, usually I hear a lot of complaining that games aren't "hardcore" enough... maybe they mean challenging? Or not for the casual gamers?

Anyway, I'm hoping to either get Super Paper Mario (depending on the replay/multiplayer value) or rent it. But I have to find time first, my friend Choops (who used to play a lot of Guild Wars with me) recently bought me the WoW 14-day trial DVD, so I'm going to try it out on Friday night and see if I can withstand the addiction. I have been avoiding that MMORPG for the longest time, I barely managed to dodge Everquest and Final Fantasy XI.

Games night... again!

We had another Games Night at my friends place this past Saturday, it was a lot of fun! We tried the Japanese version of Taiko Drum Master. It concentrates on mini-games more, I guess it's because of the party game aspect of it (it still has a music selection, but way more than the North American version of course). Who knew a drum would be so much fun? For anyone who likes music games, definitely try this out, if you can't play Japanese games then there's a North American release (the one that I have) just called Taiko Drum Master. You will want to grab an extra drum if you can as it's not as fun if you're playing on your own.

We also did the usual Karaoke Revolution/Wii games deal. We wanted to try SingStar next, but I have to go out and buy that. Apparently, there's an 80's version, but it was only released in Europe. Boo. Oh, and I tried out Karaoke Revolution: American Idol, it was alright, but the song selection is weaker than the other ones imo. It follows the format of the TV show American Idol, where the player can go through the audition stages up to the grand finale. The reviews by Simon, Randy and Paula (I don't know if it is Paula because she looked and sounded different) are only good if you put it on a difficulty higher than Easy, otherwise they're just praising you.

For the Wii, we mostly played Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and Wii sports because my friend came back from Virginia and hasn't tried the Wii yet!

I have also been playing a lot of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales for DS. It's a really fun game, it incorporates RPG elements with many mini games. It's like FF3 with minigames and lots of chocobos (duh). It has various Final Fantasy songs mixed into it, which is a nice touch. I still have to check out the card battling system, I tried it out briefly, it reminded me of Yu-Gi-Oh, because you summon monsters with cards. Good use of the top screen too! More on this later... (read: I will probably review this next).

My friend Choops is getting slowly addicted to World of Warcraft, which means that I'll never see her again on Guild Wars. I'm slowly getting less addicted to Guild Wars, the third installment was really dragging in the beginning, and I'm finding that I don't like soloing as much anymore, and I was never into PvP. So, I'm probably going to hold off on GW until I get Choops back or my other friend RogueCRX or even until Guild Wars 2 (which was announced recently in the PC Gamer mag... I also got my free Mini-pet too). I suppose this is good because then I can review more and play more games.