I picked up Dissidia (the Final Fantasy fighting game) a couple weeks back. Well, to call it a fighting game is a little deceptive; your characters level up, have variable HP instead of static health bars, learn new abilities, and get increasingly powerful equipment to use - really, it's more of just an RPG with the exploration element stripped out.
The combat system is akin to action RPGs, albeit always one-on-one. It took me a few hours of playing to actually get the hang of it, but it's pretty fun once you do. The unique aspect of the system is that in addition to HP, characters also have "Bravery". You have attacks that target either one or the other. If you attack bravery, the opponent loses some and it goes to you. If you attack HP, you do an amount of damage equal to your current bravery (plus any circumstantial modifiers), and then your bravery drops to 0 for a short while (then returns to your base value). If you drop your opponent's bravery below 0, you get a huge bonus to your own bravery. So, most of the fight typically ends up being attacking each other's bravery until you've got enough to do a good amount of damage to your opponent's HP. Usually, at least as my strategy goes, you want to get your bravery high enough to take your enemy out in one hit, so you don't leave yourself vulnerable at 0 bravery. Pretty hectic stuff.
I'd definitely like to try playing it against another person. Playing against the computer can be a bit schizophrenic. Sometimes it's just comically better than you. Now and then, for no justifiable reason, a minion character half your level and one hit from defeat will dodge, block, or reflect every single attack you do for four or five minutes straight (and you can get in an attack every couple seconds), all the while whittling you down despite your own expertly honed dodging and blocking skills, and inevitably win the battle. And other times, you wipe the floor with a boss character as if it just doesn't seem to care.
The game has a lot of interesting features. It's the first PSP title I've seen to give an option to install from the disc to your memory card. It has three choices; one for ~220MB, one for ~380MB, and one for ~540MB. I only had enough room to try out the smallest option, but there was a noticeable decrease in load times on the main screens when I did. One of the craziest extras is the ability to save any battle after its completion for a replay viewing. Now, on its own, this may sound pretty tame, but it gets more elaborate - you can edit the replays. You can position the camera freely around the 3D space in which the battle takes place, cut parts out, turn on/off the status overlays... What's more; you can then export these edited replays to an .avi file on your memory card.
I whipped up this clip in about ten minutes. FFVII is not my favorite, but it's everyone else's, so here's the final battle in Cloud's story, fought and edited all within the game, itself (...then converted to 10% its size for the web with the computer). A strange and convoluted, but unexpectedly entertaining addition to the package.
The game also looks to be running a pretty impressive length for a PSP title; I've only got through seven out of twenty-some characters, and I'm already clocked in at over 18 hours. And there are several other features I haven't even mentioned. All in all, a worthwhile pick-up for a fan of 'fighting games', Final Fantasy, or just anyone who actually has a PSP and is looking for something different with a lot to it.
My father came to visit from Nashville a couple weeks ago.
He was driving a Hummer. Here it is, dwarfing my house. I don't really know what else to say. That's my dad, for you.
While he was here, we (with my sister) went and saw a few movies. The Hangover was a pretty funny summer comedy. Inglorious Basterds was classic Tarantino insanity (think...Kill Bill meets Valkyrie). The one really worth mentioning, however, is District 9.
It's difficult to say exactly why I liked this movie so much, and maybe it's just a me thing. It's science fiction, action, social commentary, and character drama. The writer/director said he'd wanted to recreate the feel of "hardcore 80s sci-fi" like the Alien and Terminator films, and I think he did an excellent job of it. It was one of those rare movies that really drew me in and made me care about the characters and what was going to happen next.
You wouldn't know it from watching it, but the film's budget was only $30 million - about an eighth the cost of contemporary blockbusters. It didn't have any big-name actors, and had an independent-film uniqueness to it; it was also very violent and intense - all of this creating an unpredictability that made it all the more engrossing. It's also worth noting that the music was well done, and served nicely to enhance the mood as one would hope a score should.
I won't say much more about it, as not knowing what to expect is part of what makes it great, but even against strong competition like Watchmen and Star Trek, it's definitely got my pick for movie of the year.
Dylan beat me to it, but such are my thoughts.
The Mark III iPhod was released a couple days ago with an overwhelmingly negative initial reception, primarily because of it's lack of the one new feature everyone assumed, for good reason, was a for-sure thing - the iPhone 3GS camera.
It's a pity, too, because having been teetering on the verge of iPhone envy, after reading up on how good the camera quality was, I had actually become convinced to go and pick up an Apple product at launch. That gives me shudders! So I'm grateful, in a sense, for this small but potent reminder of why I'm just not a fan of the FailFruit's MO.
There have been a few theories posited about why the new iPhod doesn't include the one upgrade everyone expected and wanted (O.K., well, one of two - they at least put in the 3GS's chipset):
- The most aggravating one is that they didn't want it to hurt iPhone sales. This would be annoying (but very Apple) for a couple reasons. As nice as the camera would be, who would they really expect to buy the outlandishly priced and shoddy service contract just for it? Why force the consumer to buy something they don't want to get something they do? There's a term for that economic faux pas - help me out, Matt. It's an unfriendly business practice, and I'm tired of people accepting it as a justification. I don't really put much stock into this one, though.
- The stupidest one is the reason Steve Jobs himself gave - that they didn't feel the need to add new features like a camera, because it was more important to focus on gaming. Now, to his credit, I can't really believe he's that much of an idiot, as successful as he's been, so I find it much more likely that he's just full of shit for PR reasons (to cover up for the below reason). In addition, the notion that Apple didn't feel it was what the consumer wanted would imply that they have one of the worst market research departments in the world. And while Apple doesn't have a track record of catering to their consumers, come on - it's been plastered all over the internet.
- The reason that seems to make the most sense is that they weren't able to work it out, technologically speaking. There was far too much 'leaked' information and camera-hole cases pouring out for Apple to have not been planning it, not to mention an empty space in the device itself where the imager was supposed to have gone. I'm not sure how many people would have minded a couple extra milimeters on a device as thin as it is to give room for the 3GS's camera, but I'm sure Apple would be loathe to make something bigger. Still, I think this would be a case of better to delay an optimal product than ship out a lackluster attempt on time.
I'd still have even possibly considered the $200 Mark III if it were 16GB as was expected, and, you know...actually the new model instead of just leftover Mark IIs with the 3.1 firmware.
Aside from this whole debacle, though, Apple's demeanor in general just rubs me the wrong way. I remember 20 years ago, Apple products were made fun of for the crippled paperweights they were, but now they're what's cool, and I'm not sure where the paradigm shift happened. They're still very anti-consumer-freedom. They want you to use their products their way, and their way only. They don't have any interest in giving you what you want; they give you what they want you to want, which just happens to usually also be pretty cool. Such basic things that every other less-impressive device has - like any kind of flash expansion slot, a replaceable battery, common media format compatibilities, or basic file system access - they continue to neglect. They've gotten so popular, though, that they can afford to be assholes about it. People are going to keep buying their stuff, regardless, so they really don't have to put in a lot more effort. It's a terrible shame, because they do some things very well, and if they could just get the hell over themselves and make their products play nice with the rest of the world, they could create some really impressive gadgets, truly worthy of the hype they receive.
Tsk, tsk, Apple - you almost wooed the Fish.
<START>
Me: Have you yet stuffed your forgotten face!?
BREEN: What the fuck does that mean?
Me: It means things that are clear to know
BREEN: Feel free to ask a direct question
Me: That's for non-pandas, you quitter. Edibles and packing surprise
BREEN: Wtfbbq packing surprise?
Me: Supplies, if you must
BREEN: I'll head out shortly
Me: I...see...?
<END>
