The World of Insufficient Light
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Chuck's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | | 10:32 am |
Shadow Hearts
The original Shadow Hearts definitely has a more connected story than From the New World, being more linear and sticking to the "dark horror" mood throughout. It's significantly less effective as a game, though, having made compromises on the wrong things. ( This review includes plot spoilers, in order to discuss the characters and major plot events. )All in all, I give them a lot of credit for a good plot and sticking well to their chosen genre, but the gameplay is B- at best and the whole thing feels like it needs editing to clean it up. I'll probably pick up a copy of Shadow Hearts: Covenant (the second game in the series) at some point, if I can get it cheaply, but I won't bother looking for Koudelka (arguably a prequel, the first game by this designer). | | Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | | 1:38 pm |
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
When they said this was the hardest of the Metroidvanias? They weren’t kidding. I beat Asia of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow without any assistance. I played Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance on emulators, so I used some save states here and there to save some time. For Portrait of Ruin, I only needed my Action Replay to beat the Whip’s Memory and the Death-Dracula fight. This game? I barely made it to the third boss before the frustration got to me. ( Order of Frustratsia ) | | Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 | | 12:37 pm |
| | 12:09 pm |
Dragon Warrior 3 Remix
Having classes doesn’t mean I’ve had to give up video games completely, just that I’ve needed to be rather judicious with my game-playing time. After trying the NES version and the GBC version of Dragon Warrior 3, and giving up on both less than halfway through out of frustration, I finally got all the way through the game, playing the new fan translation of the SNES Remix version of the game. ( Details and commentary on beating DQ/DW games )I find it amusing that the Dragon Quest series has taken up so much of my gaming time the last year or two, after being mostly off the radar since my childhood. | | Friday, October 9th, 2009 | | 1:47 pm |
| | Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 | | 12:56 pm |
On the topic of eggplant lasagna
I made an eggplant lasanga on Monday night. The first thing to note is that I did the Williams-Sonoma recipe, and they are, by nature, not designed to be quick and easy. It's an annoying amount of work, even more than a normal lasagna. You need to salt and drain the eggplant, then roast all the veggies and pre-cook the noodles (it only bakes for 20 minutes and is relatively dry, so you can't use no-boil noodles), then assemble the thing, then bake it again. And it's a very problematic to cut when it's still hot, as I learned when I covered our breakfast nook with a spatula-full of it. It's tasty, but not really worth this amount of work. I think my next attempt will incorporate some of my "faux-moussaka" experiment--microwave the salted eggplant to dry it faster (thank you, Cook's Illustrated), broil the eggplant in large rounds (instead of roasting in small dice) and use an actual sauce instead of diced tomatoes, which should allow me to use no-boil noodles. The one thing I'll definitely be keeping, though, is the cheese: 11 oz of goat cheese to 1 cup of ricotta and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Delightfully creamy and tangy. Also, a whole lasanga is food for 8 people; or feeds two people for a week. You'd think I'd remember this by now. | | Monday, September 28th, 2009 | | 1:46 pm |
Indian food
I probably shouldn't be posting food reviews on Yom Kippur, but given that fasting tends to lead to me getting belligerent, trying to eat people's heads, and then passing out, I think it's safe to assumed I'd be eating today regardless of my religous leanings. I really like palak paneer, an Indian spinach-and-cheese dish. Recently, I bought a couple of different packaged varieties, figuring that it would make a nice lunch if it was any good. While the ready-to-eat Kitchens of India Palak Paneer was the best of the lot, it still wasn't that great, probably on par with the worst I've had at a restaurant. I think the next step is trying homemade, especially since I already have all of the necessary spices. The recipes I'm finding suggest substituting firm tofu or large-curd cottage cheese, which is probably workable, but I'm crazy enough to ask: Anyone know a good place to buy paneer cheese? | | Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | | 10:28 am |
| | Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | | 2:08 pm |
Amusing discoveries
Apparently, Paizo has recently published Pathfinder, effectively D&D 3.75E. The conversation documents were available for free, and they detailed most of the changes from 3.5--mostly increasing the power level of the core classes; standardizing races; simplifying some skills and combat manuvers; and overhauling protection, instant kill/disable, and polymorph spells. It looks like they also put some effort into balancing very low/moderately high-level play with the "golden levels" of 3.5, though I can't tell how well that works without playtesting. They also say that 3.5 material, particularly monsters, are compatible with Pathfinder. I would suspect that a Pathfinder Fighter and a Tomb of Battle character could stand side-by-side, at least power-wise, without any major conversions, but you'd need to basically toss out the CR system in favor of Pathfinder's new XP system, because both of those classes totally out-do the 3.5 core Fighter, and can easily handle bigger threats. I give them a lot of credit for catering to the "4E sucks!" portion of the market. Now, if I wrote a rulebook for the AD&D "2.75E" rules I'm using now... Edit: There's a Pathfinder SRD, which allows me to look at the spellcasting changes in more detail. I like what they've done with the polymorph subschool quite a lot. | | Monday, September 14th, 2009 | | 3:07 pm |
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
I recently played The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, a Final Fantasy X clone that used only intellectual property that appears in the movies and is interspersed with film clips as semi-optional cutscenes. It has an interesting setup for an RPG: There aren't any inns or towns, but leveling up restores full HP/MP and most monsters drop items and equipment. The only way to get new skills is to use the ones you have, so you want to try to blow all of your MP before you go up a level. I suspect the key to this game is not trying to compare it to the works of Tolkien and just enjoying it as an AU fic of the movie. ( System details, but I don't spoil any plot 'twists' ) | | 2:14 pm |
| | Monday, August 31st, 2009 | | 9:50 am |
| | 7:46 am |
| | Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | | 10:06 am |
| | Monday, August 10th, 2009 | | 11:21 am |
Fighting Fantasy
A few years ago, my mother got a bunch of Fighting Fantasy books (RPG-style "Choose Your Own Adventure" books by Steve Jackson!) from one of her publishing contacts, and gave them to me. This weekend, I decided to actually play the first one, which involves roaming through a dungeon labyrinth and fighting monsters. It has a lot of jump-locations (400, most of them not full pages), and has you keeping a character sheet and inventory as you go through it. Also, I went through it for an hour and didn't find any endings, instant-kill or otherwise. It's amusing, though the combat quickly gets tedious and having an inventory isn't very useful if the book doesn't actually let you use it. This all reminded me of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I remember getting from my elementary school library many years ago. The one I remember most vividly was #97 Through the Black Hole by Edward Packard--partially because I don't think I ever found the "true" path through it. After getting caught in the event horizon a bunch of times and otherwise being distracted by various tangential plotlines, I started skipping around in the book and found the section where you emerged through a white hole, and then the possibilities for getting back (or dying horribly). I also remember one that began with an elevator that stops at a floor that doesn't exist, but unfortunately the rest of the details are lost in the haze of memory. The door opens, someone hands you something and/or says something to you, then you have the option of pressing "Door Open" "Door Close" or the floor number button, and the story continues from there. I don't suppose anyone has any idea what book that was? | | Friday, August 7th, 2009 | | 1:02 pm |
On Subway
We've managed to work though most of the leftovers, and I didn't have time to go grocery shopping yesterday, so I got a Subway sandwich for lunch. I only eat at Subway (which is across the street from my building) once every few months, and I am remarkably consistent when I do go: Turkey footlong on italian bread, lettuce, tomato, onions, little bit of oil, lots of vinegar. Because my going to Subway is an excuse to eat fresh bread soaked in red wine vinegar. The turkey and oil are there so that I get a little fat and protein and actually feel full for several hours after eating. The veggies are there for texture. But really, I probably could be happy with a loaf of fresh bread and vinegar to dip it in. Which may be part of why I don't usually frequent delis--I don't want a sandwich with eight pounds of corned beef on it, or a seared panini with roasted peppers and imported provolone. They're nice every once and a while, but in general, my tastes are remarkably plebeian. And I'd been eating it for years before I realized that it was probably the healthiest form of fast food that exists. | | Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 | | 3:31 pm |
People way more insane than I am
Jethrien found this site and sennt it to me: http://www.fancyfastfood.com/Apparently they take fast food entrees and disassemble them, rebuilding the individual components in haute cuisine. They're definitely very pretty, though there's a major problem I'm seeing (besides these requiring you to be, y'know, insane to make): They'll taste like pre-chewed fast food. | | Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | | 5:11 pm |
| | 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 |
|
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
chuckro's journal