Games and Guns, no Gazongas

This month, I'm storing up games for the winter. I just picked up Wild Arms 3. . . it may be a few years old, but I got it for $9 and I love everything about it. Great graphics, great story, etc, etc. . . all those things an RPG should be. I fall very squarely into the old school RPG camp, and Wild Arms 3 is a high-quality old school RPG. I might even finish it before Wild Arms: Alter Code F comes out next month, but I doubt it. . . I was planning on buying Radiata Stories, I have heard very good things about it. . . but I guess I will wait until it comes down in price.

I just got Burnout Revenge (a.k.a. Burnout 4) last night. First impressions? They should sell psychotropic drugs with the game to help you cope with the speed. It really is that fast -- the experience is totally immersive, and you can't blink or breathe or loose focus for a second, or you are toast. Dunno if I like the idea of not wrecking when you rear-end traffic. . . dodging cars becomes an art form in Burnout 3. I also liked Burnout 3's world map interface more than the 'Level / Location / Event' setup in 4. Also, some of the tweaks to the Crash mode seem tacked on, for no other reason than to be doing something different. They made it so anyone who has a good golf swing in Hot Shots Golf can get a burning start in Crash mode (happy, Chris and Joe??), and the whole thing feels more chaotic, but not in a good way. . . sorta in a more disorganized way. Then again, I've only done two crash locations. The graphics are as impressive as before, and the track layouts are a huge step up. . . They make me think of courses in SSX, the way you have to be on the alert for a possible side-route or shortcut at a moment's notice. The jumps in the middle of the tracks are definitely a nice touch. The first time you hit a big ramp and see the ground fall away, time definitely slows for a moment. I am most impressed with the sound in the new game. The ambient noises are much more pronounced this time. . . you can hear machinery when you drive past it, and you get the whoosh noise when you are near walls, and all of it is done with stereo subtlety that is fantastic. I was unconsciously aware of where I was on a track by what it sounded like. I have some big problems with the Crash Camera. . . it is much, much sloppier in the races. Most times, you don't get control to do Aftertouch for a second or two, and sometimes the camera bounces around so much that it makes it impossible to do an Aftertouch, and even just looks horrible. Maybe there's a way to adjust the camera. Anyway. . . the changes definitely make Burnout 4 a different experience than Burnout 3; instead of being the same game with a few touch-ups, the whole feel is different. Burnout 4 is less of a sequel and more of a new driving experience. It's hard to believe that one developer could do so much with a single genre, especially one that has been beaten so thoroughly to death in the past couple of years.

Next week I am buying Steel Lancer Arena International -- SLAI for snort. It's a mech combat game, think Mechwarrior here. But you get to build your mech from the ground up, using money from arena wins to buy better parts. The last game like this I really liked was Carnage Heart for the PS, a game that I and roughly 15 other people ever heard of. In Carnage Heart, you not only built your mech, but then you had to program it. Battles were a hands-off affair -- you set your mech loose against the enemy, and watched your AI program function (. . . dammit, why is it walking in a circle and shooting at rocks???. . .). Great game, and easily the deepest strategy game ever. SLAI is just taking the programming out of it, and letting you get behind the controls of your mech. This means that I will never, ever go online to play this game, as I have no desire to get beaten by twitchy 14-year olds that are better than me at every game published in the history of time. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

I was able to take my rifle out to the range last weekend. Specifically, my .45-70 rifle with aperture sights. I am making great improvements and discoveries with that rifle, every time I go out with it. This past trip, I discovered that I should cut back my handloads by 1.5 grains, and to forget what the experts say about trigger pull. . . the whole creeeeping squeeze doesn't work for me. I don't jerk the trigger, but I have a short, sudden pull that works for me better that the three second squeeze. I hope to get out to the range several more times before the weather shuts me down for the season.

Avast, thar be conventions on the horizon! Only a month away in October is OnnaFest, which should be great fun, despite it being in New Jersey (oh my fukkin LAIG!!). After that in November is the Mecca of anime conventions -- Anime USA! This year I am running a Mah Jongg workshop, saturday from 10am to 1pm. I hope I get a good turnout -- I'm sure it will be fun for everyone who shows up. And AUSA is just generally the best con there is.

Whew! Big update. Big thanks to Chris for the copy of Ong Bok! I shall watch little Thai dude elbow skull in your honor. And congratulations to Joe for getting a sofa for his apartment. It will look kinda funny in the kitchen, but it's still an improvement. (see that's a joke about how the only clean section of floor in his place is the kitchen. . . sorry, not that funny really. . . ) Maybe I'll be able to post new pictures before the end of the year. . . I sent out my camera to be repaired, but I haven't heard anything back yet. I am already looking at other cameras to buy if they can't fix that one. . .

Oh, and Puffy AmiYumi rock extremely hard.

Later, y'all.