Saturday, June 28, 2009--Billy Mays just died. It's like there's a death epidemic going on or something.
On this day:
In 2006: I beat Disgaea for the first time.
Also, it seems like there's a lot of On This Days for this month. I wonder why...
Friday, June 27, 2009--
On this day:
In 2005: I met The Man at Dixie's BBQ.
Thursday, June 25, 2009--Michael Jackson died today. I will always remember where I was when it happened.
I was sitting in my cube, and one of my co-workers walks in and says (in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice), "If you're wondering why we're seeing a surge in traffic and orders right now, it's because Michael Jackson just died. I'm not even joking." And everyone is just like, oh okay, and goes back to work.
Later, one of my co-workers decides to see what our most popular orders are. The top 10 items were something like Michael Jackson album, Michael Jackson album, Michael Jackson memorabilia, Michael Jackson album, The Bible, Michael Jackson album... (and down the rest of the list until the 50s or so was more Michael Jackson stuff).
You know what's even sadder than Michael Jackson dying? The fact that none of us would know or care or remember if it didn't affect business so dramatically.
RIP Farrah Fawcett
On this day:
In 2005: I buy my first pair of earphones.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009--Okay, G4TV has just
lost their credibility (assuming they ever had any to begin with).
Monday, June 22, 2009--
On this day:
In 2007: I win first place at a Magic the Gathering tournament for the first time ever!
It was a Time Spiral Block Constructed, and I brought Slivers. As the story goes, Andrew H beat me, Paul beat Andrew H, and I beat Paul. (And I defeated two other players, going 3-1.) And somehow, based on tiebreakers, I ended up with first place, which is especially surprising given that I won with a tier 2 sliver deck.
Somehow, that sliver deck ended up dominating the competition for the rest of the summer.
Saturday, June 20, 2009--
Journal of Bizarre Dreams, Vol. N+3
So last night, I dreamt that I met what was effectively an 8-year-old version of Lina Inverse.
Also, at some point in the dream, I was a secret agent of some sort, working with those twins from high school (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent--namely, me), and I had a spear that could change shape and size. It was essentially the Monkey King Bar, except a spear.
On this day:
In 2007: I build my first shiny new computer and name her "Aria".
In 2004: I beat Xenosaga... and I give it a bad review... because it sucks!
Friday, June 19, 2009--
On this day:
In 2004: I buy my first saber.
Not a lightsaber. A fencing saber. Although a lightsaber would have been cool, too.
Thursday, June 18, 2009--gas-watch: $2.95/gal
On this day:
In 2005: I beat MGS3.
Monday, June 17, 2009--
On this day:
In 2008: I beat MGS4.
If you look at the bloop entries from last year, you'll see that I picked up MGS4 on
June 12, 2008, and I beat it on
June 17, 2008. That's less than a week. But then again, MGS4 isn't a 60-hour RPG, so I guess that's not abnormal.
Monday, June 15, 2009--
On this day:
in 2005: I get my first paycheck ever.
Friday, June 12, 2009 - Addendum--I'd been hearing rumors that my friend Brian Baker, avid Magic player, Nintendo fan, Yo-Yo expert, and tournament organizer at Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall, had passed away. When I first heard, I wasn't sure if it was the same Brian. Then, I was convinced that it was a practical joke. (Something something stages of grief something something denial.) But today, I decided to visit Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall, because if he were still alive, that's where he would be, and if something had happened, that's where I'd be able to find out for sure.
The store was practically empty by Friday Night Magic standards, so the only thing I could conclude was that there would be no FNM tonight. And on the whiteboard that usually announces upcoming events, it read "In respect for our friend Brian Baker who has recently passed away, FNM has been cancelled tonight."
That's when the severity of the situation finally hit me, and all I could manage to say was, "So it really is true?" To which the clerk behind the desk responded, "Yep."
Later that night, I found this memorial website posted by his family: http://www.hourglassdesign.net/misc/brianbaker.html
RIP Brian Baker
Friday, June 12, 2009--
WTF? The European Commission should be publicly executed by waterboarding for this.
On this day:
In 2005: I beat Xenosaga 2... it sucked.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009--gas-watch: $2.85/gal
On this day:
In 2005: Feng Feng makes her first appearance on my bloop.
Monday, June 8, 2009--
On this day:
In 2004: I get all 300 missions in FFTA.
Huh, it only took me 5 days to get from "just beat the game" to "all 300 missions"?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009--
An Improper Review of The Sims 3
I know I said I wouldn't buy Sims 3 on opening week, but on impulse, I did so anyway.
I'm not gonna do a proper review of The Sims 3, nor am I going to give The Sims 3 a numerical score, because to do so would be unfair and misleading. The Sims series has practically been a genre of its own with pretty much nothing you could compare it to.
So I'm gonna do the next best thing: compare The Sims 3 to its predecessors.
The first thing I noticed was that the needs (Hunger, Energy, Social, etc) are now much easier to refill. In particular, the Hunger need completely fills from just a single meal, so you don't have to micromanage your meals to make sure your sim gets just enough to eat. The overall effect is that there's much less grind, so you can spend more of your time actually playing your sim rather than "oh noes! I need to use the restroom!"
The skills have been made more interesting. Before, the skills only had minor impact on the gameplay and required repetitive tasks (like reading a book) to level up. In the Sims 3, skills actually have gameplay relevance. You can now actually do something with your skills. For example, with cooking, you can now go learn new recipes and buy ingredients to make your dishes. With mechanical, you can now tinker with your items and install upgrades. Basically, the old skills are now bigger, better, more complex, and more than just a number that you're trying to increase so that your sim won't burn the house down when they make dinner. Also, new skills such as Gardening and Fishing add a new dimension to the game. I bet you could kinda almost play Harvest Moon using The Sims 3.
Personality has been overhauled. Instead of distributing points across various attributes (eg, Neatness, Outgoing, Active, etc) which had very little effect on gameplay, you now choose up to 5 traits for your sim, traits such as Good or Evil or Flirty or Good Cook or Ambitious or Workaholic. These traits actually affect your interactions with the world around you, and if you choose to play to your sim's traits, you can actually have dramatically different playthroughs with different sims. That and, the idea that you have a Flirty Evil Kleptomaniac sim gives them a lot more character than "5 points of Neatness, 7 points of Outgoing", etc.
Aspiration Points have become Lifetime Reward Points, and likewise, Aspiration Rewards have become Lifetime Rewards. The mechanic is mostly the same, except now there are only wants and no fears. The rewards themselves, however, are much improved. With only a few exceptions, the Aspiration Rewards in The Sims 2 were mostly useless. Many of the Lifetime Rewards in The Sims 3 are very useful. For example, there's one Lifetime Reward that allows you to never have to go to the bathroom ever again. (I dunno how that would actually work in real life.) Some of the Lifetime Rewards, though, are so useful that they are game-breaking, and some people don't like that. I don't mind, though. It gives me more freedom to play my sims how I want, and at the very least, give me a goal to strive for in a game that naturally lacks goals.
Of course, I won't be able to get away with writing a review of The Sims 3 without mentioning the changes that were heavily exposed in the marketing. To do so would be more improper than I intended.
One of the big changes is the open world. Sims can now seemlessly travel to any location in the neighborhood, and the game continues to play in any location where there's an active sim. In theory, this is a great new change, because back in Sims 2 when you left home to visit other neighborhood locations, it was very jarring to hit a loading screen and suddenly just be somewhere else. Not only that, but in the early Sims 2 expansions, when you came back from a trip to town, it would be as though no time had passed at all at home, even if you were away for hours. It's almost as if the rest of the world was in its own pocket dimension with its own passage of time.
In practice, though, most people I know who play The Sims are micro-managers, and it can get pretty hectic controlling sims in multiple map locations. Though if you're willing to let the Free Will AI kick in (I haven't verified if it's better in The Sims 3--it was still awful in The Sims 2), you could control one character walking down the street while the rest of your sim family takes care of itself at home. Let's just hope they don't burn the house down while you're gone.
The other big new feature is called "Story Progression". In The Sims 2, if you choose to play only one family, what ends up happening is that your family progresses through the years and generations, but it appears as though all the other families are immortal and unchanging. In The Sims 3, "Story Progression" heuristically simulates all other families as they age and have children, so now the world seems much more dynamic, and now you don't end up in weird situations where your childhood friend is still a child even while your sim is old and on his deathbed.
There are a few issues, though. The Story Progression is exceedinly simplistic. Non-active sims never seek out new jobs, remodel their house, or even buy new furniture. In early versions of The Sims 3, non-active sims never even dated or got married. Instead, babies seemed to spawn from nowhere. If all you care is that non-active sims age with you (to prevent the childhood friend still being a child scenario), then maybe Story Progression will be good enough for you. If, however, you want a truly dynamic world where other sims truly live their lives as your sims do, then you will be gravely disappointed.
Fortunately, you can still play The Sims 3 exactly the way you did in The Sims 2 by turning off Story Progression. Or you could even play it exactly the way you did in The Sims 1 by turning off aging altogether.
Or in theory you could. Early versions of The Sims 3 had known issues related to switching families. Sure, you could use multiple save files, but then your multiple families would never interact, and that takes half the fun out of the game.
Also, many fans have complained that The Sims 3 seems so stripped down compared to The Sims 2. Many other fans have responded saying that The Sims 2 had half a dozen expansion packs, so if you're comparing The Sims 2 with expansions to The Sims 3 base game, of course The Sims 2 will be a better game. The Sims 3 base game, however, has everything The Sims 2 base game had and then some.
Yet other fans have complained that there are a lot fewer items in The Sims 3 than in The Sims 2, even if you do an apples-to-apples base game comparison. And they are unfortunately right. That doesn't bother me, though. All I ever cared about were the cheap bed and the best bed, and everything in between was just filler. But if that bothers you, then wait until more expansions come out or wait until they make more stuff packs and just shell out more money for the extra stuff. Or buy DLC. Or download community-made items. Or just don't play The Sims 3 at all. I won't look down on you for it.
Despite all that, I still believe The Sims 3 is a definite improvement over The Sims 2, mainly for things that are not conceptually big but well executed, things like the revamped needs, skills, personality traits, and Lifetime Rewards. Sure, there are a few flaws, but it's still essentially the same addictive life simulator that previous The Sims games were. And those small but important changes just make it more fun.
Also,
On this day:
In 2004: I beat FFTA.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009--gas-watch: $2.75/gal
On this day:
In 2005: Chao C makes his first appearance on my bloop.