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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Chuck's LiveJournal:

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    Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
    10:36 am
    7th Saga
     Ah, The 7th Saga.

    Yes, I realize this is a 16-year-old SNES game renowned for its unforgivable difficulty, not for its plot. But I’m a special kind of obsessive. Also, I recently found a patch that reduces the difficulty back to that of the Japanese original, which makes at least the early parts of the game much more playable. (This first boss in the US version pwns you and makes you go back for an item that lets you insta-kill him unless you grind to level 9-10. In this version, I straight-up beat him at level 4.) Anyway, on that note, I’ll be ranting at length about what I’d want to do with the remake of this game that’ll never be made. (It’s like writing fanfiction. Shut up.)

    ( Plot spoilers and revisions, if that matters to you. )
    Monday, July 13th, 2009
    10:33 am
    Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
    1:52 pm
    For ease of dissemination
     I got into NYU-Stern Business school. That's three for three (NYU, Fordham, Rutgers). Now I just have to decide which one I'm going to.
    Monday, June 22nd, 2009
    12:15 pm
    Hmm. Yum?
     I've just been alerted to the existance of Bacon Vodka. My first thought, of course, was, "Dude!" My second thought was "...but what would you do with it?"

    I mean, you could drink it straight, but bacon-flavor or not, it's still vodka. I don't drink fruit-flavored vodkas straight, because no matter how delicious the fruit is, they still taste like vodka (that is, they taste like burning). The first recipe suggested on that site is usnig it in a bloody mary, which would be great except for the fact that bloody marys are vile.

    The steak marinade is an interesting idea, and I'd be interested to see what effect using vodka instead of vinegar has on a steak. But that also isn't worthy of buying an extra bottle of vodka for--just add a couple crumbled slices of bacon (or some bacon salt) to the marinade.

    So that leaves the chocolate-and-bacon drinks. Which may be a valid idea. After all, chocolate-covered bacon and bacon-chip cookies work nicely. But am I really curious enough to find a way to mail-order the stuff from the northwest?
    Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
    3:07 pm
    Game manuals and maps
     As I may have noted before, my parents refused to buy me a NES when I was growing up. I saved my allowance and birthday money and bought an SNES myself, then bought a used NES and a bunch of games from Funcoland sometime during high school. The NES games I bought used didn’t typically come with manuals, but the controls were usually straightforward and I had a subscription to Nintendo Power, so it usually wasn’t a big deal. Similarly, when I discovered emulators in college (which lead to a bit of gorging on games I’d only read about as a kid, and discovering that many of them weren’t nearly as fun as I’d imagined), I was able to find fan sites and FAQs that filled in anything I wasn’t able to figure out myself.

    ( But what if I couldn't? )
    Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
    12:42 pm
    Magical Starsign
     I recently finished playing Magical Starsign, a quirky DS rpg made by Brownie Brown, the development team also responsible for Sword of Mana, one of my all-time favorite games. It stars a group of young wizards who leave magic school to look for their missing teacher, and end up accidentally become legendary heroes along the way.

    ( Disclaimers, commentary, a few spoilers )
    Monday, June 8th, 2009
    1:28 pm
    Friday, May 29th, 2009
    12:23 pm
    Retro Duo
     My parents got me a Retro Duo for my birthday. (Given that I've been rambling about it since I first saw one at I-Con, this shouldn't be surprising.) Overall, I'm happy with it. My NES games work fine with any blowing (though the sound and color emulation is slightly off, it's nothing that would affect game play) and SNES games seen to work fine as well. The controllers are a lighter version of the SNES controller, but I can also use my actual SNES controllers. I haven't tested the multi-tap yet, but the box claims it will work.

    My one gripe is that Game Genies apparently do not. I tested both last night, neither worked (though admittedly, my SNES Game Genie hasn't been the happiest of campers on the actual SNES, either). It's not a huge deal--if I want to use an invincibility cheat to zoom through a game in half an hour, I can always do it via emulator on my PC--but it means my days of two-player TMNT: Turtles in Time or Contra III are effectively over. Infinite lives were what made those playable in a short-term setting.

    I suspect this will lead me to selling my NES and various peripherals on eBay or the like (unless someone I know wants it). The Super Nintendo isn't getting sold, even though it may get moved down into the cabinet. There are too many memories wrapped up in that (it was actually the first console I owned; I bought the NES used years later) to let it go.
    Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
    1:06 pm
    The Dissonance of Shadow Hearts
     In an effort to get my brain working today (I've been running reports and organizing proxy votes rather mindlessly all morning) I'm going to attempt to make some comments about Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

    It's the third game in the series, but it's less a sequel and more another story in the same universe, according to various sources. I certainly haven't had any problems following the plot. The setup is fairly simple: In an alternate-history 1920s America, Johnny Garland loses his family in an accident, starts a detective agency, and gets drawn into secret world of demon-summoning magic in pursuit of the mysterious Killer and Lady.

    ( How is that dissonant? )
    Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
    12:37 pm
    Business cards
     I just discovered the next trend in business cards: http://www.meatcards.com/

    Okay, we can't use old ones as notecards on gaming night, but they'd still be useful as snack food...
    Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
    2:39 pm
    Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
     Before playing this, I don’t think I realized you could have a “Plot, What Plot?” RPG.

    ( What I thought of FFTA2. No spoilers. )

    I also played a bit of Phantom Brave and Ephemeral Fantasia last month, but I think I want to go back to them before I ramble. And I've started Shadow Hearts: From the New World, which has me saying the MST3K Mantra from the bizarre bits thrown about, but appears to have caught my interest nonetheless.
    Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
    12:59 pm
    Drakengard 2 review
     So, I just finished playing through Drakengard 2. I commented on Drakengard a ways back, but I was mostly commenting on the difficulty level and gameplay. And I’ll give the designers credit: The gameplay in Drakengard 2 has some improvements: A somewhat-useful combo system, an item inventory, more enemy variety, much more interesting boss fights, tweaks on the dragon controls, and a retry-but-keep-your-experience option. The character-switching is a bit problematic, but overall, the gaming experience is stronger.

    ( And then he starts complaining. No significant spoilers. )
    11:32 am
    Animated Movie Meme
     Man, I have a bunch of things I want to post about, but there has been much to do. This should be fairly quick...

    ( Giant list safely contained behind cut )
    Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
    9:46 am
    My father, he blogs
     http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/

    For anyone who might be interested.
    Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
    11:40 am
    The World Ends With You
     I know gravity ain't an excuse
    I just want to make things a little more smooth

    In the world of “translation vs. localization” there are a lot of ways to go, and often a balancing act between keeping the original intent of the work and making it accessible to the new audience. The team for this game did an excellent job of localizing a game about Japanese pop culture, by turning it into a game aimed directly at the American Japanophile.

    ( Some spoilers for the main plot )
    Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
    1:57 pm
    Watchmen review
     I saw Watchmen on Saturday, but a sore throat limited my ranting. Not so, here.

    ( Includes lots of spoilers and pretty much assumes you’ve seen the movie. )

    And yes, I’ll totally rent the Director’s Cut when it comes out.
    Friday, February 13th, 2009
    10:37 am
    An interesting idea
     D20 rules, mostly the D&D 3.5 set, cut down and simplified until the fit in a pamphlet: http://www.microlite20.net/

    The idea is apparently to keep it cmpatible with most D20 adventures/supplements, but make the rules easy. It cuts down character creation to three stats, four skills, four classes, and "equipment packs". Mages and clerics can cast any spell off of their (shortened) lists spontaneously, but it costs them HP to do so. There are no feats, there are very few class features, there are no prestige classes.

    Seems interesting for the quick-and-dirty, but I'm not sure how it'd work for a campaign: There isn't really much variety for dungeon crawling, and the rules are still rather D&D focused for a "storyteller" game. (I also haven't run the numbers, so I don't know how well relative power levels scale.)
    Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
    5:17 pm
    Well past when anyone would have cared
     I realize I'm way late to the party and most people probably came up with this years ago; also, I'm not entirely sure what prompted it.

    ( How I think Heroes Season 1 should have ended. Keeping in mind that I haven't seen seasons 2 and 3 and only know the broad strokes of what happens. And barely care. )
    Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
    12:05 pm
    Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
    1:18 pm
    Woo!
     I can haz new prezident?

    He said pretty much everything I wanted to hear.

    He's a damned good speaker.

    Now he needs to follow it up.

    Hope-flavored sprinkles for everybody.
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