| Radiation's Terrible Web of Deceit, Lies, and Chocolate (because it works!) |
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| Hey guys, I'm not dead |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|10:54 am] |
Hey guys, I'm back from badass school. Sorry I've been gone for the past four years, I was practicing the fireball toss with my Airskates when suddenly it occurred to me that I'd probably been spending a little too much time in the sky. My watch had broken a little bit earlier, but I didn't really care because I have a good sense of time, you know?
Anyway, turns out that it's been four years.
Anyway, this entire time, my little baby brother has been updating crap about me liking some Tech Girl or something gross like that. Gross. Cooties. In reality I have been married to the sea this entire time, and I'm not even kidding. She's the only one turbulent to satisfy me, and in my passion I bought her a giant gold ring which is the size of 1/4 of the Earth and somehow I put it on her finger and it's amazing. Jesus I have so much money. Learning how to sneeze diamonds in 2nd grade really helped me out in the long run.
Anyway, to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed about what my little brother wrote every once in a while. (Jerk couldn't be bothered to keep an update schedule!) But it's okay. I understand that little whiny babies go through turbulent times and they pretend to ruin their brother's lives with diatribes so sappy they'll give you diatribe-diabetes. Holy Donkey Kong some of that stuff that he wrote was barely edible, it was so bad. I wonder how any of you managed to choke it down. I mean, really, Brandish? But whatever. Puberty's a dangerous thing. Good thing I never went through it, I went through super-puberty when I was 10 and got chest hair and muscles and have been buff ever since, and when I reach my late-fifties I'm going to go back and be a teenager for a few years and laugh at all the old saggy people but until then I don't have to worry about it. Sounds like good. I'm gonna go ride a meteorite.
Anyway, the really important thing is, guys, that I really never was lying about anything, and that everything depressing or contradictory was written by my little brother, and that everything absolutely awesome was written on the fly in the sky with golden smoke from my Airskates. My crack team of skywriter-watchers transcribed it all, letter by letter, poring over every character. Sometimes I even wrote in Chinese. Remember that picture of those fluffy puppies? I drew that.
I kept my promises, Turtle's honor. By the way, Jack's doing great. And I found out a way to look sexy when I brush my teeth, but I'm working on getting a patent for it. So I can't tell you what it is.
Anyway, here's the update you've all been waiting for:
My profession isn't knife anymore. I'm a wakizashi now.
Anyway, just wanted to tell you guys that. Here's to getting my watch fixed.
All Hail Shane. |
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| see you guys later |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|12:19 am] |
I'm gonna be at St. Paul's Advanced Studies Program for the next six weeks so I won't be here, not that I post anyway. Keep it real, guys.
Also I got a haircut.
I love all you guys. Keep it real. |
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| tomorrow |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|09:02 am] |
starting tomorrow I am going to MEET THE INTERNET and then come back on monday for school
next year I will be able to go the entire week if it's not during school (tip: have it in july)
THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT |
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| Halloween Hack |
[May. 18th, 2009|09:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | hoause | ] |
| [ | music |
| | megalovania | ] |
Why did I never post about this?
Anyway, this is my Halloween EarthBound Hack. I know you've all probably played it already, but I was looking through my old folders the other day and I realized it's one of the greatest things I've ever made, so check it out. scroll down for download!!!
the name of it is called radiation's earthbound hack: press the B button, idiot
hot screens
 
 
why and when
Every year Starmen.Net (the guys who made that hot fanbook) hold a Halloween-themed all-media contest for MOTHER series stuff with cool prizes, and I always enter a ROM hack. So pretty much I started drawing and thinking up ideas for a ROM hack during chemistry class which was SOOOO EASY at the beginning of the year and it was okay and I made it in a month or something?
I'd started reading auntie pixelante like the month prior and played Mighty Jill Off and was pretty intrigued by a lot of the themes she mentioned in game design (gameplay as a storytelling device, etc.) so that kind of stuff was swimming in my head and I made a weird-ass amazing game. Not to say it embodies all that stuff she talks about (and it does so kind of crappily at times), but it's like 10% inspired by that so I thought I'd mention it.
Plus there was the whole thing where I know that I'm a funny guy (at least to people in my circle of friends) so I wanted to prove that I have a whole 'nother emotional spectrum that I can instill in people.
what does this game have to offer you?
- rearranged palette swapped areas in ways you never would have imagined
- new music and hacked old tunes (some of it is good!)
- a nonsensical plot
- really bad jokes
- p. good pixel art (I'm no master)
- an enjoyable, cohesive experience and an RPG hack that follows NONE of the original game plot and, while it DOES go to some of the same locations (it's split 50/50) the old ones have been changed so much they're not the same at all
- definitively one of the best EB ROM hacks out there (HyperBound, HatQuest, and maybe JonBound are matters of tastes. they're all great!)
- hour(s) of fun (it took my little brother five hours and he never used speedup or anything)
what is WRONG with this game?
- the difficulty is absurd. you NEED to use "spy" later in the game, because hypnosis, paralysis, flash (I tried to avoid this) and even MAGNET are very useful. a certain unnamed enemy is the bane of everyone's existence until you use magnet/hypnosis on it. use savestates. I don't care. But I've played EB so many times (like, I go to an EB fansite) that if the difficulty isn't a punch in the crotch then I wouldn't even feel it. honestly it's a bit unfair in certain areas, which is my own fault and my own poor game design and I somehow screwed the game up enough that I can't go back and fix it actually!!! but you can beat the game WITHOUT savestates, and I don't CARE if you use them so it will work out okay.
- you'll figure out THIS one soon enough
- admittedly I am one of those people that plays a game like FATHOM and goes "that was great. but it would be cool if once in a while these poets or game designers just gave us some closure and told us what this meant. because I mean, I love interpretations and stuff because it's infinite beauty but it'd be cool to just... KNOW what was been going for???"
- so really the problem is that this game leaves you to your own devices! but I also provided a MAKING OF that ruins everything for you if you're so inclined after you beat the game. But it's all shallow stuff anyway, so using your imagination is better. actually this is kind of a cool/good thing???
DOWNLOAD LINK!!!!: http://forum.starmen.net/forum_attachments/0006/8566/halloweenfinal108.ips YOU MUST USE ZSNESW TO PLAY THIS HACK!!! DON'T ASK WHY JUST DO IT
APPLY TO A NORMAL 3MB EARTHBOUND (U) ROM!! I don't know the header specs but if you're getting exploded HP/PP boxes I'll just send you a ROM of it if you ask. it might be the lame censored version though. I don't even remember.
STRATEGY GUIDE IF YOU WANT IT (ruins stuff if you read ahead, duh)!!!: http://forum-files2.fobby.net/0006/9626/strategyguide.txt
THE MAKING OF!!! (read after you beat the lame) http://forum.starmen.net/forum_attachments/0006/9549/THEMAKINGOF.zip (note: contains a lot of me bitching about how much "work" I put into this hack so I would make the judges like me more. HA HA I AM SUCH A JERK.)
please remember to press the b button!!!
should I do a letsplay of this game in a while or wait for someone cool/hot to do it, I'd feel cheap doing an LP of my OWN GAME. What did you guys think of this, anyway? |
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| ㎭ ㎭dington AKA ㎭iation |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|05:24 pm] |
I want you all to know that my life has been pretty ㎭ now that I can write my own internet nickname in one character. You might say, "hey ㎭, I find that... ㎭."
Of course, if "㎭" shows up as ??? then I guess you can just start calling me ??? from now on, just so we have something to go by.
As for real life I've been really lazy and not getting anything accomplished besides doing well in school, being obnoxious in plays, etc. NOTHING SUPER-COOL. |
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| holy SHIT |
[Apr. 3rd, 2009|05:27 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I hate to post about Brandish all the time, but holy SHIT.
Brandish PSP has been out since the 19th.
In Japan, it's the 4th highest selling PSP RPG on Amazon and the Number 1 selling PSP Action-RPG. Period. This is even over the wildly popular Ys series. Not just over the past few months, over everything.
I haven't played it yet but apparently it has gotten fantastic reviews and I've watched some videos, but Brandish is always way more fun to play than it is to watch. I also downloaded the music and it's incredible. Best RPG soundtrack I've heard since Mother 3 in 2006.
From what I can tell, the game has been improved ridiculously, with pretty much every single complaint about the original game GONE and every sort of fleeting wish I've ever had about the game fulfilled. It's mind-boggling how well Falcom understands their fans.
But seriously, that popular!? It makes NO SENSE. With statistics like that, Atlus might actually translate it...
... That would mark the beginning of the Apocalypse.
Oh Jesus Lord Almighty, too bad this kind of thing would never happen for the MOTHER series, huh.
(Only bad thing I've heard is that there's no adjustable speed function, but with the PSP's specs that's kind of impossible.)
http://radiation.fobby.net/14.%20Opening.mp3
here's a music sample, it cuts out at the end but that's the opening theme
?????? |
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| my let's play |
[Feb. 27th, 2009|12:28 pm] |
Okay, so after a year and a half or so of on-and-off working on a screen shot Let's Play, I finally finished my one of EarthBound. People really like it and I loved making it, I think it's one of the best things I've ever made and DEFINITELY the longest things I've ever written. If you like EarthBound or Let's Plays or just funny/cool things made by me in general and you don't have ADD then you owe yourself to at least try reading it, I know it's not for everyone but ffffffffff, it's like 999 of my comic punchlines without any of the dumb drawings inbetween
read it here
it's so long that I don't expect everyone to read it, but as far as screenshot LPs I think it ranks up there with some of the best |
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| the post you've all been waiting for |
[Feb. 20th, 2009|03:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh | ] |
Okay, it's been a while.
Prologue
Pretty much I have been less and less friends with tech girl since I have made any really happy posts about her, until 2 months ago when I was at my lowest with her and she thought that I hated her because I told her I didn't want to go to the dance with her. Then during the dance I saw how cool she was, and I felt bad for being mean to her. She finally had some free time I let her borrow the new Scott Pilgrim (thanks ozwalled!) and we watched a few episodes of The Maxx together. (thanks ozwalled!) Okay after this we are back to really really good friends again and things are COOL.
STORY
Fast-forward to today. I am sort of starting to start liking her again, because she is really pretty/funny/nice so it's easy to fall into that sort of thingy again. The night before I called her on the phone and left her a musical message on her answering machine with my bad singing voice and my casio called "I can't sing for beans," it goes like this:
"I can't sing for beans"
"I can't sing for beans"
"I can't sing for beans..."
"... but I'd sing for you."
plus an a capella intro and stuff
pretty much it was so good that she called me up and told me "woah!!! toby you can siiiiiiiiing, you can siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing and stuff" and her sister called me a "musical adonis" and so that was good
So yeah we're cool, right?
Anyway, today during FREE MOD because this assembly we were supposed to jam at was cancelled I talk to her ALONE because I heard that she kissed some girl when she had a boyfriend which is slutty, but I would forgive her as long as she realizes it's retarded/makes a human effort to learn, because people make mistakes!!
fun fact: turned out the girl faceraeped her with her mouth while she was sleeping!! gross!!
anyway so I was like "it's okay emily," and then I embraced her and recited the love monologue from the bravest warriors which is AMAZING and I made her watch it also it goes like this:
"I love you! I love you, beth emily! I love the way you fight SPACE MONSTERS! I love the way your shoes squeak when you walk down the hall at school! You are so cool! I mean... it's like you're not even embarrassed by it! And I love the way you twirl your hair and look into my eyes and tell me everything's going to be okay!"
then I threw her high heels off and dipped her and kissed her on the cheek (dipping is that thing where you hold their shoulder from behind and their waist from behind and dip them down and stuff) and then she was totally blushing and I had no idea what to do for the next 30 seconds
it was cute!
cahpter 2: US HISTORY CLASS
mr. H my history teacher had some sweethearts from some lame kid that ordered them for valentine's day but he forgot to give them to him and I called dibs if it was friday and so it was and I got them!!
they said:
from: benjamin balesque
to: benjamin
what a loser!!!
I was like "they are heart shaped, I should share them with my friend nihco.... and also emily!"
Chapter 3: english class!
I forgot my coat in History class!
Chapter 4: return to us history
thanks mr. h!
chapter 5: revenge of the sith
anyway so pretty much after school we were all hanging out in the teacher's office, "all of us" being me, emily, my lab partner, a few random people (all girls) and I told nihco that I would give him some sweethearts so I went back and forth between rooms giving emily/tech girl all the stupid ones like "e-mail me" and some garbled text like "hungry nun" and giving nihco all the ones that were either completely illegible, poorly printed, or unreadable. I ate all the real ones, there weren't that many actually.
Anyway
anyway
anyway!!
So I got to the bottom of the sweethearts box, and there were a few more so I put one between my teeth (as a joke!) and I was like "hey emily do you want it??" and she was like
"yeah! Yeah, I'll actually do it!"
and I'm like
"what? uh... I can just take this out of my mouth and give it to you if you want it"
(giggling) "no, I'll do it!"
"I can just give it to you!"
(giggling uncontrollably as I look on) "I'll do it!"
"No, really, uh, I can take it out of my mouth!"
(giggling uncontrollably)
"..."
"Are you ready?"
"(thump thump)"
"Ready?"
keep in mind this is with like 4 people watching
"Yes?"
"....."
chapter 6: I kissed her, duh.
chapter 7: what I felt
what is this
it is dark, also squishy and warm
things are perfect and
"OH GOD WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING"
chapter 8: in reality
Apparently when I got half an inch away, instinct took over and I grabbed her, pulled her in, and kissed her for half a second before I realized what the hell I was doing, resulting in me yelling
"OH GOD WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING"
and then she fell on the ground!
spoiler: she wasn't mad, don't worry
So I was totally trying to save my ass, because it was sort of a conscious choice, but the kind of thing that almost happens automatically because someone you really like is half AN INCH away from your face, almost putting your lips together!!! dammit!
So I told her "oh my god sorry! I totally didn't do that on purpose!"
I mean, it was pretty awesome but
like, um
I don't
I didn't really
anyway, uhhhhhhhhh
twelve seconds later, I found a beat up, misprinted sweet heart that said "first kiss" on it and I gave it to her
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
epilogue
"It was weird! I didn't even get a boner or anything!"
epilogue part 2
- head spinniness for AN HOUR
- lips tingly for AN HOUR
- things were actually not very awkward at all, because it was an accident... kind of
- anyway she gave me a ride home and she was like "toby I can only love you platonically as a very close friend" and I'm like "emily goddammit I love you and I will do everything in my power to find some way to find the key to romantic love, until it becomes inconveniencing/depressing for me in any way or I find someone better, I don't have anything else to do anyway"
THE END
so now what
- okay, so I guess I will just be friends with her now, not like there's anything else I can do
- if there's anything I can do for her that might make her like me more I'll do it
- anything bad that comes of this is my own fault, and if that happens I will just ignore her/forget about this whole thing
- I will not worry about stuff
- I probably won't make her very many things anymore, which is good, if I get some creative ideas from her then by all means I should do them because they will help me improve as an artist/musician/comic-maker/etc., I won't expect anything back from them
- really low expectations
- no depression! no depression, if anything bad/sad happens it's not worth it, I should only do things that make me happy (possibly by consequently making her happy)
- if someone better comes along I can go after them (not likely, but worth mentioning)
THE END |
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| comic con |
[Feb. 8th, 2009|10:38 pm] |
comic con was awesome, amazing and also good things happened, like my friend getting dave gibbons to be interested in doing a page for his comic (or at least forcing him to lie about it incredibly convincingly at the very least), running into dave roman randomly and having him recognize me because I've seen him so many times there that we can have friendly conversation in a disturbingly casual way (actually he's really nice so it's not that weird)
also getting stuff signed by BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY! Also getting an I (SCOTT) NY shirt. Jesuse! I'll scan something eventually. I wrote a ton of stuff down, I neeeeeeeed to try to make it all into a comic because I wrote down all the funny/interesting parts and it works well in my head, I just hope it doesn't feel too much of a ripoff of other comics that I've read
here's to hoping he read the comic I gave him ;_; |
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| this is either |
[Feb. 6th, 2009|12:33 am] |
I think... I think this may have been the worst thing I've ever made.
13 pages long of some of the worst stuff mankind has ever seen. The drawings are awful and the plot is entirely incoherent. I find it hilarious because I made with sharpie practically with my eyes closed in two hours but I don't know if I want to make bryan lee o'malley cry. I don't... I don't know......
I...
I think I'll just give it to him, and then run away.
That's it, that's a good idea.
Unless he likes bad things.
ps - yes I know I misspelled his name.. it's part of the PLOT
pps - about angsty weird spiels: sometimes it makes me feel better to do them! it's a phase. it's a part of life. I'll get over it eventually, right now I'm just trying to have fun with it
ppps - I am better at drawing than this, although this comic only gets worse from the cover, random sharpie speeddrawing is not a good example of my skills
pppps - note that I have absolutely NO idea what bryan lee o'malley LOOKS like |
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| get it while it lasts |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|11:08 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  powerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Live A Live | ] |
Humanityyyyyyy, get it while it lasts...
Look at us. Insignificant ticks eating away at a pointless dust speck in the middle of a vast, black ocean. Life-draining parasites feeding off the skin of our miserable host, until she becomes nothing but a crumbling, burning grain of sand. We'll chew down through her skin to this planet's skull, suck its marrow out, build a few more cars, and then perish.
Our planet is doomed, or at least we're doomed. Technically speaking the planet could probably right itself within a few thousand years after our demise.
But who cares? Nothing matters. "Good" and "evil," "bad" and "good"... they're all just arbitrary ideals thought up by the hearts and minds of fools. All paths lead to emptiness and destruction. All paths lead to a dead earth and a cold, quiet universe. There's no immortality, there's no rhyme or reason to any of it. All of our thoughts, dreams, hopes... simply consequences of arbitrary of electromagnetic patterns caused by our brains. One thing is no more "interesting" than another - they're all just different bundles of atoms and light. Whether the world crashes and burns thanks to us or dies later... it makes no difference. It's all just rocks and emptiness.
Things don't matter. This is a fact. People say that there are big things that matter.
"Love" is a chemical reaction, ensuring the fact that we will reproduce. And look at "sex," look at all the drive and the impact that it has had on us. All the glamor, all the movies, all the money. All because it's so pleasurable to reproduce.
Everything in this universe wants to reproduce itself, to keep existing forever. Everything wants to attain immortality. And what's the point of this reproduction?
There is no point; we're nothing more than lucky glitches in the system. If we didn't reproduce, we simply wouldn't exist anymore. The only reason we exist now is a consequence of the fact that we evolved to.
People will say that they can find immortality with God, or that they're going to die and go to heaven. What heaven? When we die, we don't go anywhere. We lay in the ground, rot, and disappear, just like everybody else. There's no future for you after you've died.
You can say that you have a deep feeling of faith in the bottom of your heart, a harrowing belief that rouses the depths of your soul... but what does that prove? Chemical and electromagnetic reactions are trivial. Gods are just another invention of humanity to keep them feeling comfortable. It's nothing but useless trivia reinforced by reigning empires of past days, designed to keep them in power.
You can cite miracles, beauty, perfect design... but there is nothing to anything you can say besides luck and unprovable ancient stories from the past.
What's with the Past, anyway? Humans don't want to let it go. The older something is, the more valuable it becomes. Why? A hundred years is nothing. A thousand years is nothing. In ten-thousand year's time we'll all be dead, and it'll be nothing more than a fluttering blink of time's eye. Who cares if there aren't very many of them anymore? In a little bit, there won't be very much of anything.
Authentic Native American baskets, $14000. Amethyst pendant, $2000. Vaccination for a child in a third world country, $10.
Humanityyyyyyy, get it while it lasts...
Our future is no better. We can't support this level of technology and power indefinitely... the internet will collapse like a spider's web and we'll all be thrown into a new state of darkness. No more oil or gas to fuel our airplanes or cars with. The only people left with power will be the ones running on solar power, which is much too weak to rely on completely.
There won't even be any more balloons.
When you fill up a balloon, the helium inside of it has come from within the Earth's crust, trapped; it's not naturally part of our atmosphere. Helium is lighter than air - when it escapes from the balloon, it doesn't just disappate back into the air. It hovers all the way into outer space, away from Earth forever. It never comes back except in very small amounts, and we're just using all of it, just like we're using up all the plutonium and eradicating the variety of animals and plants through our self-centered destruction of the planet. The seas and skies will turn to acid and the earth will glow red-hot. At least we'll always have life at the bottom of the ocean and underground some places.
Bye.
But who cares, anyway? Balloons don't matter. Love doesn't matter. Earth doesn't matter. God doesn't matter. All those things that are "important," why is that? Because of some greedy, self-centered reason? Because you think that you're the center of all existence?
No, no... pull the curtain away and face the void. Despite what your heart and mind might plead to you, this is the truth. This is all there is. Nothing except a few crumbs waiting to be eaten up by the darkness, and that's it. Hold your head and scream. No one will hear you. No one will care. Quantum mechanics, electromagnetic patterns, chemical reactions... all you are is what you experience, and soon your memories, physical and emotional, will disintegrate into the stale wind...
So, now what?
Now what are you going to do?
You there, sitting in front of the computer screen, what are you going to do?
Laugh it off? Ignore it? Walk away?
Face it...
Face it...!
Face it, this is all we have. We just have one life, one planet. We have one chance to make love like animals, to feel emotions like love and hatred, to taste sweet fruit and bitter herbs, and to have faith with incredible depth... it'll last just a little while, and then after a certain, uninteresting point, we'll cease to exist.
We don't matter. The electricity that is our minds and the blood making our emotions are nothing special. But we... we have the power to make them important to us.
Yes, you, like everything else, are a pathetic lump of flesh created only to reproduce.... but you are blessed with consciousness and free will. Find a religion. Set goals for yourself. Be the best person you can be. Find love. Try your hardest. Explore. Learn. Most importantly, do what makes you happy, and if you don't know, find out.
We're hypocrites, we're idiots, we're humans. Our time here is so, so, so, so short. It's completely pointless. But for us it doesn't have to be. Let's make our little existence last as long as it can, and make it as good as it can get for everyone... come on! Stop ruining the planet! Be a good person! And when you do reproduce... try to make sure that the planet will last past your kids' generation, and past that, and past that! Don't be a dick, anyway. Sage advice, I promise.
Life here is so precious. It's also unbelievably short.
If you're alive, don't worry about things like being embarrassed. Just a little further and we're all gone, so who cares if you do something dumb? Stop wasting your time! Do what you want to do, and believe what you want to believe in...!
Yeah! We've got something really valuable on our hands. It's not very old, but it's probably worth a lot.
Humanity, get it while it lasts. |
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| oh crap meeme |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|11:56 am] |
The first five people who comment will get something made by me, sometime between now and December 31st, 2009. It could be barf, abstract art, a homemade EarthBound hack, a crappy Gamemaker game, a comic, a song, a crappy fanfic, or something else entirely. The only rule is that YOU have to repost this and make the same offer to your friends!
argh I hate memes and doing things but the stakes were TOO HIGH to not post this one, trust me
anyway if you post or not it's win/win for me, mwahahaha |
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| shit son journaldump |
[Jan. 15th, 2009|04:12 am] |
I need to post entries more. Here are important things, in no order of importance. All of them are awesome:
1. I'm still going to the New York Comic Con on February 6th-or-so with my buddah Stephan like I do every year, this year I am going to meet or at least catch a glimpse of:
- tycho and gabe
- dave roman (I have seen this guy like 3 times now, he's awesome, astronaut elementary + lifemeter comics + teen boat = the bests)
- scott ramsoomnairblairhair whatever, the guy who does vgcats which I don't like that much but he's a really nice guy so I'll make sure to say hi, I shook his hand last time (the rumors about him being late to cons and stuff are true btw, he DID do that but he cares about his fans and is cool when he's actually there, he's more just of a late-getter-there-guy)
- bryan lee o'malley like two days after scott pilgrim 5 is RELEASED, so I'll get it before anyone else probably gets it in the mail, maybe? I don't know. Meeting him will be awesome. So awesome. I need to do something.
So this is what I need to do for these guys because I need to give them something back:
- heartfelt letter to tycho and gabe, then comic of some sort lampooning their comic/videogames as a whole. (I greatly appreciate the stuff they do and tycho's newsposts are awesome and PAX and Child's Play are so amazing but I feel their comic has become very stale lately so I want to make them feel loved while still giving them that sentiment and not being a dick about it)
- comic for dave roman to make up for the comic he gave me for free because I'm such a fan
- maybe a piece of fanart for the vgcats dude made out of ketchup or something, that's a good idea, I'll get a ketchup bottle and cross out the P and put "M" so it'll be HEINZ KETCHUM and I'll draw the SUPER EFFECTIVE guy on it and attach a sticky note saying "ketchup is RED, get it!?!?"
- for bryan lee o'malley I need to make him a choose-your-own-adventure-comic or something awesome like that, I have no idea what I'm going to do but I'll just make it funny and random, I wanted to make a letter + a comic but I think if I combine them in an awesome way it'll be better
I have like three weeks to throw this altogether, I need to start soon, I'll do the others as a warmup because my comic making skills are rusty but you know how good I am when I get going
So what do you guys think of that? Any suggestions? I'm excited, I hope I actually do this instead of being a lazy asshole like I am often prone to do. Having midterms doesn't help but it only takes a few hours to make a legit-good few-page comic if I just use sharpies and draw everything really piss-poorly. I'll be sure to throw in some traced drawings of Calvin and Hobbes for no reason, too.
2. Holy shit there were some refrigerator magnets on a metal closet thing in my homeroom and I wrote down all the poems that were on it because I liked them, none written by me except the last one. I really like the whole idea of working with a limited amount of words and the horrible grammar/syntax created by it:
celebrate every thought
plant a garden with poetry
beneath the beautiful tree she would make hard love to me so watch her
speak
I promise
music
if life were green
night is
dawn
lightning
through all
clouds
could sound
like good
light
off cycle
from change
in seasons
rain let winter leave
flower ask how r you
it always bloom
hibernate between holiday weather
and then the one I made using the leftover words:
who
will
give
birth
by
being
up
on
my
thick
long
dark
animal
your
mother
Hell yes refrigerator magnets.
3. Uhhh I was going to the dance by myself but then Tech Girl asked me, I almost said no but I kind of didn't want to hurt her feelings so I was like "yeah, sure" and then made up some chivalrous crap. I could write it like a book or something, there's material there, I could go like "She blushed and I could hear her heart flutter. I heard something flutter in my own chest, too. It was my stomach. My innards were developing a sophisticated plan to void themselves of the putrid burrito I had eaten earlier. The strategy: Vomit now." Except that didn't happen. Now I have to find flowers and make macaroni art, 'cuz that's my thing and I don't want to be a crappy date, except I feel really apathetic towards stuff involving her in general, so bleh. I don't buy people stuff anyway. You know what, screw corsages. I'll find a huge snail, put some duct-tape on the bottom, paint it like a daisy, and it'll be just as good.
That's it. |
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| new years |
[Jan. 1st, 2009|03:55 pm] |
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happy new years my cat just died after seeing 2009 for a few hours |
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| breath of fire II |
[Dec. 27th, 2008|06:07 am] |
okay ebrent I will download monster world and stuff just for you, because it sounds fantastic
but seriously BoF II is the bee's knees, most of the stuff I said still applies but the very worst backtracking is just in the beginning
Seriously, the plot was awesome and if not for the horrible translation people would be crazy over it.
Also the battle system is one of the most challenging AND the most fair I have ever encountered. In the final dungeon (which is like 30 minutes long, or like 2 hours if you count all the cutscenes) I stocked myself FULL of healing items and AP-recovery items and I fought the next-to-the-last boss at full strength and just BARELY pulled by. Fighting for 10 minutes and using up almost ALL my items with all my party members dead except for one and dealing the last blow in the nick of time is an amazing feeling.
Then I had the last boss almost immediately after and I still had like 120 one-person healing items and managed to scrape by after a grueling but intense 35-minute-long battle to see if I could do it instead of teleporting out of the dungeon to buy supplies and re-combine my characters and having to come back down. It was ridiculous that I even managed to do it. Nowadays games don't even DARE to freak the users out with a half-hour last boss battle. It was really annoying near the end but jesus I got such an amazing sense of satisfaction out of it.
The thing about BoFII is that (unless you are highly overlevelled or have grinded a GREAT DEAL... I only ground for about 40 minutes total in the entire game, mostly on one island... not counting that stupid part where you only play as Sten, which took me a really long time) the game never gives you that sense of security that newer RPGs seem to have. There's no "kill-all" Ultima move, there's no "break damage limit," there're no "Megalixirs" (okay, maybe kind of but there are like 3 in the entire game), there's no easily-replenished cure magic. Eventually you DO get a move that deals 999 damage to all enemies, but most non-boss enemies only take a fraction of the normal damage from it, making it GOOD but not BROKEN. Even if the enemies in the dungeon only deal 1/4 of your life per battle, there's always that one that can deal 1/2 in one physical attack, or use the super-powerful Hail spell on you or something. There's no true sense of security in the game. I like a game that dares to do that.
Also wtf@nintendo, there was a horrible translation and the only word they changed in the entire game was "damn" said by the gold fly, they changed it to "darn"
despite the fact that at the end of the credits sequence it tells you "thank you very match for playing this game"
god damn you nintendo
ps - apparently members of the resistance troupe in the game have the following names:
Resistance:
Mickey M
Donald D
Goofy D
Max D
Peat H
Pooh X
Chip N
Gaston B
Yos Mak
Leader:
Tigger Lee
Lady Spy:
Clares P
disney characters...
... GASTON
I think this is an new favorite....
anyway I give this game an A+ despite all of its flaws, play it if you like tough RPGs with high encounter rates and bad translations like me, otherwise stay away |
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| things of... importance |
[Dec. 26th, 2008|01:08 am] |
BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT ON MY MIND I WILL DUMP IT ALL OUT IN A LONG SUMMARY/LIST HYBRID, UTILIZING A LOT OF CAPITAL LETTERS. THIS IS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE.
1. Merry Christmas, you guys. 'know that I don't post or comment a lot on here, and when I do it's mostly things completely irrelevant, but I actually read my friend page religiously and TAKE IN all the stuff you guys say, no skimming allowed. Anyway, I hope you had a good "one," one being either Christmas or Sun Festival or Yule or whatever else you guys are celebrating these days.
2. My life is going alright (in case you are wondering). Things are just milling about. I don't really hang out or spend time with people too often other than my good friends Nihco and Stephan. I get depressed, I laugh at dumb things, I try to smile a lot at everyone, and I act ultra-stylish even though I probably look like a dork to everyone else. I'm not especially trying to act like my life is a book anymore so I don't have that many interesting things to say, and I actually forgot, uh, some of the funny stuff that I swear I need to write down. So anyway things are normal, which is pretty good for me anyway.
3. Christmas itself was awesome, we all got each other stupid gifts. I found BIG MUTHA TRUCKERS for five dollars at GameStop and since I didn't want anything else I got it for my brother. I wrote this huge blurb about Brandish 5: Final Battle in the Godless World and about how we spent $235 on getting him an import copy but since it was taking a while to ship we got him the horrible American localization, which had most of the features taken out. Then I put that and the game (with a new box cover designed by me) inside a cardboard box with the contents of my underwear drawer as packing. We laughed our heads off watching him try to play it.
Also he got the first episode of Dino Riders on VHS, accompanied by a ridiculously well-animated "Take On Me"-esque pointless intro and about fourteen commercials from Tyco about racecars that can GO UPSIDE DOWN!
I got lots of tropical skittles, which I liked. Also I got a ridiculous amount of money.
Yeah also my little brother got a DVD of King Kong The Animated Series, a group of poorly-animated 1966 Japanese anime cartoons created for US audiences. Again, funny to watch.
um I also got a sherpa hat and some cheesecake, I have been eating/wearing both religiously
4. I will blurbify all the videogame related stuff:
- much like eviljim I sadly didn't have any game I was hyped for (besides brandish but that doesn't come out for like... 3 months) which is depressing so I didn't ask for anything but we did get some games but I don't like any of them very much
- I got Unlimited Saga, an RPG which I've only read bad reviews of and I played for 30 minutes; I found the game system unbearably confusing and then once I figured out what was going on I found it incredibly unenjoyable, tedious, and an unwelcome deviation from the standard formula. This is pretty much all of the throwaway alternate-game-system ideas that people have had jumbled up into one broken, saddening game. Blehhhhhhh. Thank God the price tag said "$4 used."
verdict: so far it's horrible and stupid with few redeeming qualities (music and graphics when the game ISN'T MOVING)
4.2 I got Metroid Prime 3, but I'm finding it really boring in comparison to the first two (only just got the lame PED armor). So many things wrong with this game it's ridiculous. The game is completely linear so far, it barely feels like Metroid. The only energy tanks I've found have been PUT IN FRONT OF ME. I'm shoveled from one area to the next nonstop. There's no choice, there's no exploration. Bleh.
Plus the game's controls, while good... too often it just seems like I'm just pointing at things and pressing "A" repeatedly. There's no strategy or thought involved with the combat at all, and the game always tells you what to do anyway. I'm playing on "Veteran" mode and I can just ignore enemy fire and mash A while locked on and pointing in the middle of the screen, and the HP I recover from killing enemies more than makes up for what I lose. Way too many objects exist solely for the purpose of making the player moving the Wii remote, too. The grapple glove-thing is the king of arbitrary movement, too. It feels like a relic from bygone days where just using the Wii controls is instantly fun. So far I'm not liking it very much, which is a shame because I figured it would at least be... kind of good.
plus the people who are on the ship are incredibly unengaging and stupid. Look, I don't care if you're going to have robot clones for people, but if you force me onto a ship instead of letting me do something interesting, make it worth it. they all look the same, they all say the same thing, they all have the same voice. They had a chance to develop the Metroid universe, to make some endearing characters, to paint a portrait of future life or interplanetary fear or hope... instead they waste it on eighteen balding TRON knockoffs that all say "oh I'm busy now, go away." (also the fact that you start on a ship and then OOP THE SHIP GETS ATTACKED, try something original for a goddamn change)
plus what's up with this drab grey, jeez. plus haven't the cheesy particle effects improved at all from the first two games?
verdict: so far it sucks a lot, surprisingly. even the meta ridley battle was a little iffy. if it gets like 900% better I might play more
4.3
-I got No More Heroes, and so far it looks awesomely badass and wicked cool but my Wiimote's accelerometer doesn't work except while the nunchuk is being unplugged (wtf) so I actually physically couldn't beat the tutorial. That's maybe the only thing I'm looking forward to.
-My little brother asked for and got WarioWare: Smooth Moves but again, accelerometer so we can't beat the first boss game. So far it's looking not that great anyway, I dunno.
In the same vein we also got WarioWare: Mega Party Game$ but it seems ridiculously shallow and my brothers don't like playing it that much so it seems like the multiplayer aspect is useless and hence the game is also useless because the 1P mode is paper-thin.
WarioWare: Twisted is the only other WarioWare game I've played (played it for 2 days at my cousin's) and I actually found it super addicting and enjoyable. The spinning thing was really intuitive and fun and there were oodles of little collectables and secrets and tons of other things to waste your time on, plus some actually fun 1P bonus modes, etc. I also love the WarioWare feel of grungy, stupid midi music and the amalgam of weird art styles. The games have a great sense of humor and I'd love them if they weren't so overpriced for a dump of repetitive minigames. Twisted is the only one that pulls this off, manages to be fun, and stays original and fresh because of the weird twisting thing going on there. (Haven't played Touched!)
4.4 Epilogue: Virtual Console Games:
- because everything sucked so much I bought some VC games I actually like and have had more fun with them than I have had with anything I've gotten for christmas:
- Ys Book I+II: if you transport yourself 20 years in the future to when this game came out, your mind will be blown and this will be the most awesome, epic game ever. Amazing music, sweet anime cutscenes, nice voice acting (for a CONSOLE GAME that came out TWENTY YEARS AGO!!), and the best credits sequence ever. The game does get VERY annoying because of the decades-old level design (overemphasis on grinding and possessing arbitrary items that I didn't know I had to have) but if you use a FAQ the entire game (mostly the first book and then only when you get stuck on the 2nd one) you'll enjoy it greatly and you won't scream in rage. For eight-or-so-bucks this is a lot better than anything else you're going to be spending a few days on, at least compared to what I got for Christmas. It's a piece of history anyway, so you owe it to yourself to try it.
- Breath of Fire II: Haven't played all the other VC RPG games, but as far as I know this one is THE longest and best game you're going to get out of the Wii right now for $8. Yes, the translation is horrible. (THE most horrible one you have EVER seen in a full-length RPG, guaranteed) Yes, the encounter rate is annoying and there is a slight grind at the beginning. Yes, the walking speed is slow. Yes, the game is a tad linear and a little bit boring at the start. Yes, there are WAY TOO MANY UNNECESSARY FETCH QUESTS. GOD DAMMIT. But despite these flaws, once it gets rolling, BoF II is fantastic. Here's why:
+ the battle graphics and enemy designs are SUPERB. It's almost worth it just to see the next boss and how it's going to wriggle and attack you. Ditto for the backgrounds.
+ despite the terrible translation (THNAK YOU) the plot is actually really good and although it might seem cliche now it was pretty damn original when it came out
+ critical hits feel awesome and it feels like your main character has a 50% chance of landing them, so overall it feels fun even when you're just mashing A
+ you get to develop your own town and invite random people to live in your houses. BoFII has a ridiculous amount of tacked-on customization that makes it really enjoyable.
+ again, despite the horrible translation and the lack of character-specific situations, I actually like the characters in my party based on their personalities, because at least two of them are legit funny. Yeah, this game is pretty funny. It has class. It's like a chinese person rapping in broken english.
+ once you get the whale like 1/3 through the game you get to go and fight enemies way above your level if you want to and power yourself up ridiculously, which is my favorite thing in games so I'm glad they let you do it
+ game manages to be challenging but not ridiculously so
+ you can power up your characters with elemental shamans to create badass-crazier transformed versions, like the frog prince gets a mohawk and a huge sword and the dog-archer turns into a huge iron death machine
okay now the bad things about the game:
- horrible translation, almost to the point where 1/4 of all NPCs talk in non-sequitors, and heck, some of the bosses do too "I'M GONNA SLAP YOU"
- high encounter rate (which is only 5% affected by the encounter-lowering items/spells)
- there is a slight grind in the beginning portion of the game and all the items cost too much. heck, the entire beginning part of the game is pretty annoying, you have to walk back and forth way too much. once you reach level 15 or level 14 with Jean you're pretty much homefree on the fun front though
- half if not more of the game is fetch quests, some of which lead to other fetch quests. it's infuriating but at least unlike breath of fire 4 the places you go to get the items you need are legit interesting so it's not too bad.
- at least 3 of the characters you get are utterly useless but you will be forced to use them at certain parts of the game due to their abilities. plus Bo is RIDICULOUSLY underleveled, almost to the point of making him not worth picking up again. fortunately this doesn't last THAT long, and at least Jean is one of the funniest characters in his own right
anyway, it's a tossup. if the second part seems like too much of a hassle for you, then more power to you. But I got it and I've been strangely addicted to it and it's been eating up days of my time because it's ridiculously long and pretty good. I just put it down for a bit when I get to the tedious parts and pick it up a day or two later.
4.5
the best thing about liking shitty games is that I can buy brandish 2 near-mint on ebay for $20. Playing all these crappy RPGs that make me backtrack so much has really made me appreciate games like Brandish (and Final Fantasy, to a lesser extent) that just cut the crap and throw you somewhere to fight some crap, solve some puzzles, and never make you come back, ever. The only time they ever make you come back to someplace in Brandish 2 you get teleported somewhere else anyway, and they do make you trudge back through some areas in Brandish 3 but that's because despite having one of the greatest game soundtracks ever that game had some really honestly retarded level design, period
here's to not having to backtrack, just make a cutscene showing me going there and back or give me a y/n option of my ghettoport or whatever |
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| more brandish crap |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|08:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  oddly excited | ] |
Because I am at least one-half of the entire North American fanbase and I have no where else to post my thoughts on this stuff, I'm putting it here. Feel free not to read, you guys have probably had enough updates about obscure video games to feed a third world country for a week provided crap was edible.
( Read more... )
So that's all I have to say, I'm sufficiently hyped now (trailer shows MUCH more good than the bad, which is negligible!). My desktop is Falcom's official wallpaper because I'm the only North American fanboy for this game. Hell yes. Screw Christmas, this is what I'm getting for St. Patrick's day. fffffffff
as long as the old woman is ugly as shit this game will come out okay |
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| HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|01:27 am] |
OH MY GOD
OH MY FUCKING GOD
NEW BRANDISH GAME
it's a remake of the first one as far as I can tell from the screenshots/music, but judging from the movies the maps/puzzles/bosses have new patterns to them!!! I'll have to read some reviews and buy someone's PSP for cheap BEFORE I buy this because
because
because oh my god I never thought this would happen
here I am being a nerd about a series whose latest entry was HORRIBLE and from 1998, and all of the sudden THIS pops up
Jesus Christ, it's good to be alive, hope I can import this or some crap like that. The remixed ending song from Brandish 1 sounds a-mazing! If nothing else I can always look forward to illegally downloading the soundtrack from somewhere.
so, plusses:
+ awesome, awesome remixed music
+ gameplay not nauseous and alienating at all, turning looks GOOD
+ maybe new areas and stuff? I know you can play as the girl
and minuses:
- character designs look like generic anime crap now, which is disappointing to say the least. brandish's character designs were always anime-y but these have these plastic-coated lame PSP feel to them, which is boring
- game is too dark making all the areas look too similar, I hope you can raise the brightness or something because it looks lame
- 3D makes many things look retarded
but brandish has never looked that great anyway, now it just looks dumb in its stylistic choices. if I close my eyes I guess it's the best game ever
[edit: lol forgive me for being overexcited, it's just that for the longest time I've been the fan of an obsolete, dead videogame series and now a new entry's coming out for the first time in 10 years, it's kind of like if Mother 3 was coming out and I was the only Mother fan in the entire world. it's so weird! I don't think I could have ever seen this coming.] |
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| brandish: turbografx edition |
[Nov. 18th, 2008|04:09 pm] |
I'm still a Brandish junkie. Okay, since I heard there was a PC-Engine (read: turbografx) version of Brandish with voice acting and animations, I decided to search it out and get it. Man, easier said than done! I don't know Japanese so it took me an hour just to find the ROM, and then I had to burn it to a CD and the computer kept thinking it was an audio CD so I was confused for an hour but when I booted it with MagicEngine it was fun. Whatever.
Anyway, totally not worth it. First the good, and then the bad.
Good
- The animations are fantastic. If you don't like using your imagination, I think it makes things 10 times better. I love using my imagination though so it's pretty much what I thought actually happened before boss fights and during the opening except better explained. Kind of makes the game feel a little too much like an anime in some parts though.
- There's voice acting. There are only like 25 times that there's voice acting ever, and the voices are okay. Pretty much better than Mega Man Legend's voice acting, but that's all I can really say about it.
Bad
- The graphics outside of the animations somehow manage to suck even worse than the SNES versions. The problem with the SNES is that everything was small. The problem with the PCEngine is that outside of animations the pixels grow four times the size and everything looks like a crappy DOS game. Muddy textures everywhere, jesus christ. It hurts my eyes to look at, and I didn't even care about the crappiness of the original game.
- The animations outside of battle suck. Everything is jerky. Really jerky. The outside of battle animations are not synched to actual attacks, or actual sound effects.
- That being said, combat blows greatly. I'd rather play the PC-98 version with a crappy mouse. The premise of Brandish's battle system is that you could attack enemies that were moving ONTO the square in front of you. Now you can't attack them until they reach that spot and start attacking you, making you trade a large amount of unnecessary blows. That's the entire battle system. It SUCKS.
- The new music tracks are redbook audio, which would seem like it would be a blessing, but it's more of a curse. Imagine all those shitty synth trumpets from a generic casio, put them in a room, and make them play the piano with their butt. That's what it sounds like. HQ instruments that sound horrible, with little variety.
- If the instruments weren't bad enough, all the songs sound like effing elevator music now. The point of Brandish is that you're escaping from a dungeon. It's supposed to be dark or mysterious. Everything sounds like elevator music made on a Casio. Also, all of the secondary riffs or other little parts that went under the main melodies to all the songs DON'T EXIST. They only made the main melody of each piece and then failed to add any of the little extra parts that made the songs, y'know, interesting instead of whole notes and stuff. (Of course, one or two songs are okay. Pretty much just King Berebus and the Dragon Statue's theme.)
- You can also only use two buttons to do anything, so it's a pain in the ass having to pause and rest, save, and use items and things like that. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's annoying.
Overall, this version of the game sucks with the exception of the animations, which aren't really worth playing the game for. If you've already played Brandish, here's a Radiation protip: Cheat and use the debug code. I didn't even have to clear the first floor before I realized that everything was going to be confusing and crappy.
PC-Engine Brandish Debug Code:
On the title screen, press I, II, up, down, I, II, right, left, and then press I, II, and RUN all at the same time!
Yeah, so, it's crap. If some Brandish fan like me is reading this and they really want to see the animations and stuff, just go download it somewhere (haha GOOD LUCK), use the debug code, and never think about the game again. THE END
ps - also, apparently japanese people usually like brandish 3 --> brandish --> brandish 2, whereas I'm the complete opposite. This is because the original Brandishes were all for the PC-98, an old crappy personal computer, on which the first Brandish looked really primitive and its music was only okay. Brandish 2 was also much, much longer on the PC-98 and partially took place outside (destroying the feeling of claustrophobia).
PC-98-wise, Brandish 3 is definitely the best of the bunch. Great(er) music, great graphics, cool ideas, better fights. But compared to the SNES versions, the PC-98 ones are clunky and awkward to play, not to mention wayyyyy too long. Brandish 2 SFC was actually smooth, fast, and fun to play, not to mention it cut off a large amount of the more boring maps and areas, something I'm actually thankful for. (It also had none of the stupid bugs the PC-98 version had) Games can be too long, and I think Brandish 3 is a testament to that.
The other reason I like Brandish 3 the least is because, like, you go to a glacier, a volcano, a mountain, a sanctuary, TWO GENERIC towns, a castle, a desert... and a goddamn JUNGLE. It's generic. Not to mention some of the parts of the game are just... really annoying. Mostly the jungle, the sanctuary, and the inside of someone's body. Effing cheetahs. Effing killer bees. Effing gorillas. Effing... spike balls and holes in a puzzle that send you down a floor, auto-saving your game. That's just cruel. The game is just cruel. Some of the level design is retarded. Plus... a jungle? What is this, Donkey Kong Country? Goddammit.
Also I have to play Brandish 4 next, but I heard it sucks. I dunno. But it's got redbook audio, so... crap. |
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| running |
[Nov. 1st, 2008|02:05 pm] |
I run everywhere. I am sick of people yelling at running people like there's something wrong with them. Since elementary school people have been saying "RUN, FORREST RUN!" at me to no end and it pisses me off. It doesn't matter who they are, they always have to do that to me, like I'm retarded or something.
So, today some 12-13 year old kids yelled that at me for the first time in like a few months. So instead of ignoring them like I've done every single time since I was born, I stopped, turned around and screamed FUCK YOU at the top of my lungs and then turned back around and kept running.
Someone had that coming for a long time.
I dunno if I should feel bad about that. |
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fwugradiation's journal
warts on the sides of my head