Funran to the Max!

Cleaning mood

So I'm updating just to update. Thought i'd do some sterotypical blogging for a few moments.

I spent most of the day cleaning my room and some of the house. I've been running errands all day. I went and got my car cleaned inside and out, and got my tags for my car. I wish someone told me about excise tax, cause it's fucking expensive. The lady asked me how much my car cost me, and I told her 4,150. Then she took a percentage out of that and charged me 150 dollars of excise tax.....on top of all the tag fees. I wish I knew that was coming cause I would have told them my car only cost me 1500.

I've also been working on my fish tanks, my smallest one has been stinking of ass as of late and it smells terrible. I changed out about half of water and cleaned the gravel. Now it looks (and smells) much better! Yay for hobbies!

Now it's off to run a few errands and get some dinner! Then I need to touch up on my research paper!

Wal-Mart!

Hey DUDESZ!

Just felt that it was about time to update. I hate when my webpage is blank.....and I also hate how the newest version of firefox fucks up my funran to the max banner. Fuck that.

I've spent almost all of this afternoon and evening writing my research paper over violence in video games! I got the length requirement done and now I've got one more day to spruce it up a bit and re read it and write my bib. Good times.

I went to Wal-Mart today and they had their cheepo DVD bin out, were talking 3.20 per DVD. So I went ahead and picked up any movie that I felt was worth spending 3 dollars on. Including Freddy Got Fingered, The Beach, and Airheads. Fucking worth every cent. Go Wal-Mart!!!

Night

Harry Potter and Espers

Harry Potter was pretty good, lots of stuff was different/changed/left out but what can you expect out of the longest of the 6 books? Go see it if you were not there tonight, although most people that I know and love were there tonight, thanks for coming guys! Hope everyone enjoyed it.

Now to what I really want to talk about. Final Fantasy XII. I checked Dragon Quest VIII out from work today and as soon as I got home from the movie (3am) I put in the Final Fantasy XII demo that comes with Dragon Quest. First off, it's way different. But safe to say, it's fucking fun. The battle system is different, completely. Let me try to explain.

Imagine KOTOR, you're running around with three guys, and each of you has your own unique skills, etc. You see an enemy and you make choices in real time, like FFXI. You can attack the enemy by pulling it, from a range. So my first choice is to use Balthier to shoot him with his gun, and proceed to the ass kicking. Each character can either be controlled one at a time, as the battle goes on by switching to them and making their choices for them. OR you can keep your characters on "gambit" mode where they make their own choices. Now while they are on gambit mode you still have the choice to switch to them and pick what ever attack/spell/summon you wish for them to do. I understand that it's impossible for me to explain the battle system in to much detail without playing it but I’ll continue to give more details.

It's very fast paced; you move your character like XI and control your camera like XI. You pick a spell/attack and the good ol' ATB system is active. You wait a good 10 seconds for your turn to reset, and each "move" has a casting time. In this respect it's the same Final Fantasy that we all know and love. The main difference is how fast paced it is. I've found myself constantly switching between each character, leaving gambit off, to pick their moves. But this isn’t always the way to go. I find it easy to pick a character I'd like to play for the battle, and leave the others on Gambit. If I choose that Ashe needs to cure everyone, then I'll take over. I really like how you run around though, all the enemies are out there, and you just run to them. Sometimes you have to fight lots of baddies at once, 2 or 3 might wander into the battle, kind of like drawing aggro.

I know that’s a lot to swallow for a game you haven’t played (minus you jayjay right?)

Here is my list of Pros and Cons that I've seen thus far.

Cons:

No victory music, because you just keep going when you kill a baddie. They drop their items and you get XP when you defeat them. (CORRECTION there is victory music, when you complete a mission! See below)

Mission based levels. It' seems that you get an objective from someone and you go to the place and "complete the quest". While you're in the dungeon or where ever, it feels just like your exploring any level in any final fantasy, but you do have a goal. I guess this is kind of taking from Tactics, and adding the mission driven fighting into this game. I won’t say this is a negative, but it is different. It's hard to tell how this will affect the game, and what I think of it. So far it's alright.

I'm sure there are more, but thats all I've got for now. I'm pretty happy with what I've played.

Pros:

New battle system keeps the series fresh and takes the game to a new level.

Battles are fast and fun, while keeping all the spells and character classes you're used to.

They have added the "chain" system into fights, XP is worth more if you can kill enemies fast.

You can move freely in battle, I'm going to assume that there are advantages by doing so, but it's hard to tell.

Green magic!!!! Shell, protect, etc. Mostly buffs it seems.

Espers, yes they are back as summons!!!! This made me very happy from the get go! You summon them and they fight along side you like FFXI.

Game looks great, square follows through by pushing an old system to it's limits.

Overall, very happy. The game is fun from the start, at least the mission I've played so far. The game looks good, and the music sounds great. Battles are fast paced and actually feels like your choices matter more than they do in the past.

Time to sleep.

Goblet of Awesome!

Hey guys, sorry that I'm so bad at keeping my site updated. I keep having ideas of stuff I'd like to rant about but my busy life stops me. Token is down right now looking for an apartment for him, Adam and Joe for late this year/early next year. Good times! Either way, I'm about to go to work then it's time for Harry Potter!!

I don't feel like posting mostly cause I'm in a hurry, I need to take a quick shower and then drive to work.

Mario Kart DS (online) is fucking awesome, Joe you need to pick it up and race with me and Token!!!!

Explorer RIP?

It's back baby! Nah not really but I did finaly get my CD-Player out of the green heep. Munkie and I traveled to the tow place and handed over the title of my car in trade for my CD-Player and all my personal stuff inside. (If you havent heard my car got towed because I'm dumb, and it would cost me 100's of dollars to get it out and the car is only worth 100. So we offered the title of my car as trade). Infact I've reallized that most people don't know anything about my life right now so I'll start over.

Car died
Car towed
Borrowed sisters car for a month
Bought a new car
Got cd player out of car and other shit.

So now you are caught up. Here is the picture tour of today.