Not dead! (yet)

Disappeared for a while because I was visiting a friend. (I went outside my house, shocker!)

Just a quick update to say I'm not dead, thankfully.  I wish a few specific Greyhound Bus drivers were for completely missing the bus stop I was at not once, but twice and ruining my nice trip home. And according to other people that were at the stop, this isn't the first time it happened at the stop either. Apparently drivers just have a tendency to skip the stop. I only arrived home about 3 hours later than expected, but only because of my friend who was visiting bringing me to a main greyhound station where I could actually GET a bus headed home. Long story short, some bus drivers need to go die in a fire, Greyhound is getting an angry letter, and I am likely to never even consider Greyhound again. (Unless it's a short distance between two major cities with no transfers.)

But anyway, regularish updates will come again soon.

After much trials and annoyance...

LEVEL 85 ALMACE, YAAAAAAY *Flails arms around like a crazy person*  And I actually got it last night, but I've been busy. Thank you all who helped get this far. I<3 you all.

*Drops it* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo!!

So of course I had to Zorro the crap out of some stuff! Never knew that the icon for aftermath changed depending on the level. Not much but it gets bigger and brighter, and I inadvertently took perfect zoro steps while taking SS of them.

Step 1: Slash something ugly.

Step 2: Slash the same ugly thing again.

Step 3: Slash the same ugly thing again and make shinies.

Also I have no idea why it kept saying the WS in echo and putting out random numbers... at first my shit was glitching and the WS just wouldn't go off. It made me sad. Anyone have idea what the heck is wrong with this? I haven't heard of this happening before...

Now for Apademak Horns... oh boy!

FFXI Security tokens should dispense Asprins

You know, like one of these old things?

Ok, maybe not the Wario one. Creepy.

Why? The 4 1/2 hour emergency maintenance on FFXI was extended another 3 hours. The extension isn't what is so frustrating, it's nothing new for SE. I just wish that they'd just preempt their screw-ups and scratch the whole day off for maintenance. All these stupid extensions and spaghetti code crap makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Maybe I could find a helmet in the garage so I don't hurt myself. Sure I might look stupid, but who cares.

But you know what's really stupid? Not wearing a helmet one when you ACTUALLY really need one. Earlier this month, during a protest against helmet laws in upstate New York, one of the motorcyclists crashed and died. And not one of those racing crashes where a helmet wouldn't have saved you from the burning wreckage. The man's motorcycle spun out of control and he toppled over the handlebars of his bike.

Police say Contos would have likely survived if he was wearing a helmet.

But at least the man died supporting what he believed in. R.I.P. Phillip Contos.

While I find this terrible and deliciously ironic at the same time while thinking "He had it comin'", I still respect his decision to not wear one. Even though I think him and the other people in this protest are idiots for not wearing motorcycle helmets, I agree with their message. You should wear helmets but if someone wants to be a flaming idiot while riding, let him! (Assuming it's only going to put themselves in danger.) Let nature do its worse.

Obviously helmets aren't going to save you from everything under the sun. But hey, It's cooler to be alive then dead, right?

Picture Summary of FFXI's July 12 Update

Well, pictures with commentary, so sue me.


First they fixed old things.

Summary of "Resolved Issues"

The second check mark was spurred by the final note on the list,  "The issue wherein using magic directly after resisting a status ailment caused the word "Resist!" to display at the beginning of the magic casting message." This had been there so long, I thought it was weird, but intended. Unless I'm reading this wrong.

Changed things to make more sense.

Self Explanatory for White and Black Mages of Abyssea.

Including a new Key Item category JUST for Abyssea. Finally. Also includes changes to various JA, specifically the distances on Collaborator and Accomplice. Now you don't have to be IN the mage zone to steal their hate! IT FINALLY MAKES SENSE.

Added new things. (For better or worse...)

Should erase the LS if it's Welfare though

A command that lets you yell through all the areas of Jeuno. Yay. And other stuff. Like another Sam JA. How long is their JA list now?

And finally broke some more things.

Don't hate on my poorly doodled ghostie.

And that's why an emergency maintenance happened. I will not feel sorry if people who abused this to kill a bunch of Havana or other undead NMs manage to get banned.

Oh, and here's the actual version update notes: July 11th Update.
And some DAT mining which includes a very...interestingly colored Flan: Wild Dragon Chase

Babies are tiring

Fact. Even when they're not yours. Though they ARE surely 100 times cuter when they're not yours, so it's alright. But since babies aren't video games, unless you're playing The Sims or something, let's get back to business.

Yesterday's Steam daily deals were kind of meh. Didn't have any of the games and there wasn't anything all that special that I can remember over today. Oh, there was Mass Effect that I've heard awesome things about, but once again can't really do a review on a game I don't have, so yeah. Though today's sale was much better.

There are quite a few games on here that I don't have but, once again if I could pull money out of thin air. I'd probably be playing Sam & Max, another point and click adventure game with lots of comedy. Maybe Neverwinter Nights 2, kinda like D&D which I've always wanted to try out but not brave enough to express it outside the internet. Might consider Duke Nukem because, well, it's Duke Nukem, and Terraria just because some of my friends are and tell me I should. Read: Duke Nukem and Terraria so I can be part of the cool kids club.

Only game I have that's on the sale today is Portal 2, which I've already done a review on here. But to recap: It's a fun game, you should totally buy it while it's half off. Single player and Co-op mode are both amazing. And it has an achievement ticket for today. I haven't done it yet due to energy sucking baby, but here's a video of someone else showing how to get the Talent Show achievement:

Audio Surf on sale again! (Also how to get the Sunburn Achivement)

Well, not again during this sale, but Audio Surf is constantly going on sale is what I'm getting at. I personally think it's because it's a fun game but I could never bring myself to spend ten bucks on it, but anything less than $2? Sure thing. But anyway, first things first, quick summary of the game, followed by how to get the achievement for the summer sale.

So if you're just interested in the achievement and not the basics of the game, just scroll down to the big bold text.

I'm so good at matching colors.

Left 4 Dead fun!

Today Left 4 Dead 1&2 are on sale for 75% off. If you take a quick look at the game, you can automatically tell it's another zombie shooter game. But that doesn't make it any less fun! The games have very similar controls, I WONDER WHY? I digress.

So what's the basic game all about? In both games you play through different maps as a group of 4 survivors. For the most part, you fight through typical boring old zombies that just run at you and fling their arms at you, inflicting piddly amounts of damage. (Though not so piddly when you have a hoarde of them on you.) But among these, there's what we call special infected. And they are special indeed. Each has their own unique.... skill I guess you could say. Skills that make you want to rage hard at times. But that's where the fun comes in of course. Some puke on you, some latch onto you so you can't do anything while others.... just rip your damn face off. You have to make your way through these zombies through buildings, farmland, and such to get from one safe room to the next, finally ending in the "finale" where you fight off large hoardes of zombies while waiting for some sort of rescue.

Each safe room has some silly graffiti to lighten the mood.

But how do you fight 'em off?! Certainly not with your bare hands, right? Especially not the ones that puke on you, ugh. In both games you get to choose from a variety of guns for your primary weapons. In the original game, you only had pistols, which magically have unlimited ammo, as your secondary weapon. Next is a choice of molotov or pipe bomb, both of which are found lying around, all ready to use for just such an occasion! Lucky you! After that you get your standard med kit to heal up wounds. Who knew being thrown into a brick wall, breaking all the bones in your body, could be cured by simply wrapping some medical tape around an arm and leg. This crap is magical. And last but not least, you get to be a pill junkie, finding pills lying around can temporarily boost your health to let you run faster. Left 4 Dead 2 is pretty much the same, but adds a few more options to each of these slots.

Quick, get her some pills, the safe room is right here!

If your health gets depleted, it's not immediately game over, which is a pretty neat concept, but instead one of your teammates can help you back up on your feet. You'll have a lot of temporary health and should use a med kit, but at least you're not dead yet right? If you don't use a med kit and go down again...hey you're still not dead, but when you get picked up again, your screen will be black and white which makes it harder for me to see things personally, and WILL be killed next time your health reaches 0. Three strikes, YOU'RE OUT. But if you're not too close to the end, your friends can help you out of the closet and you'll be back, good as new.

Careful, Elis! I'm Black (and white)!

This game is great for multi-player, able to support up to 8 players in each game. But wait, didn't I say there's only 4 survivors? You know those terrible infected that you hate so much? You get to play as them! And not the boring kind either, you get to puke and attack your friends on the opposite team! Though I highly recommend even amounts of players, at least in the first game.

Despite being a mostly point and shoot zombie game, there's quite a bit of witty dialouge and the game does a great job of giving each character in the game their own personality and humor. As Zoey, a young college girl says to the old Vietnam veteran, "Hey Bill, it's your favorite! Stairs!" Each will have their own lines that they say at different choke points and events in the game, such as alerting a hoard or calling for rescue, which adds quite a bit of humor to the game. And of course, fans make their own humor, for 1 and 2 respectively.

And just found this one today:

And that was longer than expected! Hope it was helpful though?

Monkey Island Mayhem!

The sale today just reminds me of yet another game that I need to finish playing through. This game being The Secret of Monkey Island 1&2: Special Edition. It's a pretty fun and silly point and click adventure game. The original game came out in the 1990s, but the special edition here includes re-mastered music, full voice acting, and a new contemporary art style. But if you're one of those that loved the original game and want to stick to it, you still have the ability to switch between the two styles at your whim. And what I love most is the hint system they've added to help through puzzles; over-thinking in puzzle games gets me every time.

Basically, you play as Guybrush Threepwood...

And you have the stupidest beard, I've ever seen!

...and you're on a quest to become a pirate! Along the way you solve puzzles, battle other pirates (with wit), and save the beautiful governor, Elaine Marley, from the evil clutches of the ghost pirate LeChuck.

There's not much I can really say at this point, not because I haven't played the game, but because in my opinion it's one of those games you just need to play. The game play is similar to other point and click adventure games. You have walk commands and talk commands. You can pick up a variety of items and combine them to solve puzzles. Pretty much the same type of actions and interactions as other point and clicks, with a few little twists.

 So it's a pretty good deal, the game and it's sequel in two different styles in a bundle for only $7.49!

Decent sales today, but nothing TOO amazing

Alright, so I'll make this quick since it's been a lazy 4th of July and such.

On today's list the only game that I have is Fallout: New Vegas. Once again, this is an action role-playing game. While it's pretty fun, I haven't played it all that much personally. I have difficulty with games that are kind of open ended because I'm super indecisive, but if you're one of those people who like their video games that leave a lot of choices up to you, then this would surely be a fun game for you.

I also remember playing the R.U.S.E. BETA. Now I don't know how much was changed from the beta, but the game was pretty interesting and fun playing online with friends. It might be worth a shot if you're a fan of real-time based strategy games.

Assassin's Creed and other goodies!

This is going to be another short post, but mostly because I've only personally played one game on the deals list today. This game being Assassin's Creed, which I don't even have installed on my computer.

Ok, that first comment might have sounded like a negative comment but wasn't meant to be. Ok I lied, it was. But I'm only speaking for the first one when I say this. As the title suggests, you play as the assassin, where you can climb on, or interact, with almost everything in the game. You can also kill pretty much everyone in the game as well. This alone makes the game pretty fun and really really interesting, Especially since there's a number of different ways that you can assassinate people and jump/climb around things.But the problem is that the missions and such in the game get extremely repetitive, spy on someone, assassinate another, get old very quick despite the neat gameplay. In the end, I found myself doing what I used to do in Grand Theft Auto, which was stop following the mission/story line and just go around pointlessly murdering people for the hell of it. Unlike Grand Theft Auto though, the graphics were pretty damn amazing.

Screenshot of the second game, taken from steam. I told you I didn't have the game!

Personally, I'd only recommend this first game as a rental. On the other hand, I've heard amazing reviews from friends and other sources about the other two games in the series: Assasin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and would probably be purchasing these if I had the money to do so. And, if you buy the Assassin's Creed bundle, you basically get the first game free, so I'd definitely suggest that if you're interested in the good two ones.

Other games I've heard good things about but can't really speak first hand about that are worth checking out and on sale today are Torchlight and the Dragon Age franchise.

Steam redeemed itself after yesterdays lame sales with today's deals!

This post will be relatively shorter; it's 4th of July Weekend and as such, my brother, his crazy wife, and adorable 1 1/2 year old visited. There was a bit of drama, but surprisingly not from the source I expected it from. Since this isn't my livejournal so I won't derail with this story, but basically keep this in mind and please understand that the reviews may be more lackluster than past/future commentary. But all the same, please do check them out, as Steam has some amazing games on sale today which are normally cheap, and now ludicrously cheap.

Also forgive lack of photos, usually I take screenshots of the games I've played the day of the blog post, but this won't be happening before the sale is over. Sorry for this, but there's still plenty of screenshots displayed on Steam where you would be buying it from anyway. One of which will be displayed for each game in the post.

Summer Sale Day 2 is Lackluster...

Nothing too impressive here today. At the very least nothing that I've played enough to comment on.

I'm not a Call of Duty fan and the discount isn't as deep as some of the other deals. If I actually wanted that, I'd be a little disappointed. And there's also all the Classic Grand Theft Auto games, but I was never a fan of those for more than a few hours of pointless hooker killing.

The only thing I'd point out, and possibly buy if I actually had money, and a PC I was sure that could handle it would be Devil May Cry 4. I've heard good things about it, both game play and good humor/storyline. (Which, if you haven't realized by now, I really like in my games.) And if it's even remotely similar to the first one in terms of battles, with equally awesome battle music, it's sure to be amazing. Like I can still remember jamming out and beating the living hell out of overgrown spiders and things.

I don't judge games by their graphics but this looks pretty awesome

But hey, just because I'm not thrilled by some of these deals doesn't mean there's something for you, so check it out!

And if for some reason you wanted Borderlands or Recettear, they're still 50% off even after their daily sale, and other games from yesterday still have good discounts. I have a feeling this will apply to any other games, so don't regret not buying something too much when it comes near the end of the sale and you want to go back and buy some games!