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

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Friday, May 25th, 2012
8:07 pm	Heads-up Barbara Rogan, a talented writer and good friend of my mother, has started a blog to promote her latest book series. I am doing my part to make Google love her more. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
5:35 pm	Snuff by Terry Pratchett A novel of Discworld, continuing the trend of revisiting each of the character sets for a more-continuity-heavy-than-usual go-round. (See also Unseen Academicals, for this with the wizards; and I Shall Wear Midnight, for this with the witches.) The internet is unusually quiet about what he’ll write next—the speculation about a new Moist book or something troll-based both predate Snuff--but I suspect that if there is another Discworld book after this, it’ll be a Death/Susan book in the same vein. Honestly, I think since his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s Pterry has been trying to wrap everything up and give each of his characters a last nod and smile. ( Short ramblings ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 20th, 2012
10:53 am	New Music That Is Awesome: Heather Dale At the Steampunk World's Fair, there were a fair number of musicians (also bulesque dancers, bellydancers, and performers of other sorts), and I spotted that Heather Dale was playing. I'd never heard her music, but she's had a banner ad running at Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, and I thought it'd be worth checking her out. She is totally awesome. Celtic-inspired folk music with a heavy fantasy flavor. Imagine Loreena McKennitt if she was a sci-fi/fantasy/gaming geeky Canadian. The set she played included songs about Sedna, steampunk, fishermen, vengeful skeletons, Joan of Ark...and one about marriage. And that one made me a fan, everything else aside, because she gets it. Listen to "Choose". Do it now. I may start watching her site for other local concerts and try to organize an outing. (And I bought two of her CDs, if you want to borrow them.) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 11th, 2012
9:14 pm	From The Abyss The Abyss Gate is open! The Abyss Lord is awake! The Kingdom is in peril! Quick, [generic hero], you are our only hope! ( They won't be talking about this one in the nostalgia forums ten years from now. ) Overall: Fun for a little while, but totally forgettable. It’s an excuse to mash the attack button and collect skill and item icons that you’ll never click on. I probably paid $5 for it, and that was about right. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
5:54 pm	Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Before there was Final Fantasy Tactics, the creative minds behind Ogre Battle released a squad-based tactical rpg on an isometric grid with an incredibly involved plotline, including a branching story and highly customizable characters. Nations at war with a small band of unlikely heroes caught in the middle, destined to fight pretty much everyone! ( I bet that sounds familiar. ) Overall: I wanted to like it, I really did, but it was just too flawed to grab me. I only made it through 7 of the 50+ storyline missions before I decided I'd be better off playing Disgaea. Maybe the sequels and remakes are better? (Comment on this)
Monday, May 7th, 2012
6:32 pm	Shiren the Wanderer Shiren is a, um, wanderer looking for the legendary City of the Sun in this Mysterious Dungeon roguelike. The game was made by Chun Soft, the same people as Taloon's Great Adventure, with most of the same graphics and systems. And it was fan-translated by the good folks at Aeon Genesis, who did a professional-level job. ( Plot is irrelevent. Dungeon crawling is relevant. ) Overall: I was effectively playing this in "explorer mode" using cheats and save-states, which means it only took me a few hours to try most of the features and see most of the game. Playing it "right"--if roguelikes are your cup of tea--it could easily take months of collecting enough equipment and building enough knowledge of the game, along with a fair bit of luck, to reach the end. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
3:11 pm	It Cost a Dollah! Reviews I’m a sucker for a bargain. At I-Con this year, Play N Trade Games had a big shelf of $1 game discs. A dollah! How can you go wrong for less than a rental would cost? So I spent a whopping seven dollars on games, with the assumptions that none would really warrant being put on my official backlog list—if I played an hour of each one, I’d certainly gotten my money’s worth. ( Let's see how it turned out, eh? ) (Comment on this)
Friday, April 20th, 2012
4:52 pm	Fair Coin In the wake of a harrowing incident that lands his mother in the hospital, Ephraim finds a magic coin that can grant his wishes. But every granted wish seems to cause additional changes to the world around him, and not all of them good. The consequences of making wishes may be much bigger than Ephraim realizes… Disclosure: This is another book where I’m friends with the author. (ecmyers, in case you weren’t aware.) I may be biased. I’m also going to be picky because I can—the book is quite good and I like Myers’ style, but parts of it still irk me. ( Lots of spoilers. Actually, it pretty much assumes you also read the book. And you should read the book. ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
4:48 pm	The Complete Book of Eldritch Might Monte Cook wrote a three-part series of Books of Eldritch Might. This collects them into a single volume and updates some of the rules to 3.5 standards. Short form: It’s a D&D 3.5 arcane caster splatbook. ( Better than most. It has some fun ideas. ) Overall: This makes me wonder how feasible an all-wizard / all-arcane-caster D&D 3.5 party would be if you threw open the gates to this and a number of other splatbooks. You might be able to run that as a sandbox game, even… (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
4:47 pm	Everyone is John I was looking through my older posts, and on one, OblvnDrgn had recommended Everyone is John for a one-shot for our group. The premise is simple: John is totally insane, and you play the voices in John’s head, vying with each other for control. ( My review may be longer than the actual rules for the game. ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
6:32 pm	Earthdawn, Second Edition A powerful magical society had developed, but then the Horrors came. Fortunately, the people had warning, so they built underground shelters to hide until the magical levels receded and the Horrors were forced back to their home dimension. Now—and earlier than expected—the magic levels have fallen but leveled off, and most but not all of the Horrors are gone. The political landscape reforms itself as the world re-emerges. It’s a new dawn! Time to become a hero and form your own legend! ( I was unenthused by the legends available for formation. ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
6:28 pm	World of Darkness: Immortals The New World of Darkness take on mummies, along with other methods of achieving immortality, most of them rather horrifying. This was my most intriguing pick out of the $4 bin at I-Con, and it didn’t disappoint. ( It's full of ideas. ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
9:39 pm	Heroes of Mana What seems to be a simple scouting mission by a group of quirky Peddan soldiers quickly spirals into a world-spanning war and plot to use the legendary Mirror of Enisa to drain the power of Mana. Can this group of unlikely heroes and their monster-spawning ship stop it? ( Send out the rabites to gather fruit and stones! ) Overall: Cute, playable, not really my thing. If you like real-time strategy games in the Starcraft vein, you might enjoy it. Play Seikan Densetsu 3 first, if you can, to get the references. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 30th, 2012
8:06 am	All’s Well That Ends As You Like It It’s a board game-rpg hybrid that the first revision of moves more towards a board game (for the better, I think). It was amusing, but still needs some tweaking. We played V2.2, according to the website. ( Read more... ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 19th, 2012
4:58 pm	Reviews of Many Things Four things that have very little in common: Meat-by-mail from Omaha Steaks, the 80s cartoon Voltron, the 90s TV show Nowhere Man, and a book of Scott Adams' ramblings. ( There are a couple of spoilers, but nothing major, really. ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
10:22 pm	Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures Mama and Papa are taking you exploring! There’s a whole island full of crafts to do and treasures to find, not to mention fishing, bug-catching and cooking. But watch out: There are lots of wild animals, too. It’s okay, Mama will help you! ( Fantastic! Mama's impressed! ) Overall: A cute twist on the framing game for what is essentially the same set of minigames. The separate stages and actions elements make it a bit more goal-oriented than other Mama games, though they aren’t difficult by any means for any accomplished gamer. I’m glad they’re moving a little more “outside the box” on the games rather than making the exact same thing over and over, but this needs a little more refinement. Or in other words, if they make Camping Mama 2, I’ll buy it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 4th, 2012
5:23 pm	Wild ARMS: Alter Code F The planet of Filgaia never really recovered from the war against the demons 1,000 years ago. The Guardians are barely keeping the planets’ lifeforce together. Much technology was lost and only now being recovered and a lot of it—particularly the Ancient Relic Machines—is still viewed with great suspicion. The world is a wild-west-themed blend of medieval culture and pockets of high technology. A young wanderer named Rudy is about to be embroiled in a struggle against the returning demons that will reveal much about Filgaia, the Guardians, ARMs, and himself… ( Not all remakes are created equal. Or localized equally well. ) Overall: It’s not actually better than the original, which is surprising for a video game remake; I blame the localization for most of that. The system is interesting and the puzzles are often fun, but the translation feels half-assed and clunky and prevented me from actually getting into the story or really appreciating the characters. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 20th, 2012
9:57 pm	Metal Saga Civilization fell because of the Great Destruction, but humanity’s pulling through just fine. There’s lots of old tech out there just waiting to be found, and lots of outlaws that’ll fetch a big reward for the Hunter that brings ‘em in. Salvage a tank for yourself out of the old junk heap and get to it! ( Please wait, loading review... ) Overall: Meh. The game lacks a strong narrative thrust, any particularly noteworthy characterization, or anything standout in the system. It’s generic hunt-and-grind without anything special about it. And you probably lose ten minutes of every hour of play time to loading. Don’t bother. Also, note to game designers: If your playtesters like the idea of a fast-forward button for battles, then your battles (and/or the need to grind) are too frequent and too repetitive. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:14 am	NIER - Backstory and Plot Analysis Okay, fine, you asked for it. The story of NIER, as best I understand it. Note that a lot of this only appears on loading screens or supplemental materials; it seems like Cavia had hopeful plans for an interquel until they closed up shop. ( Spoilers like WHOA. ) (Comment on this)
11:11 am	NIER "Weiss, you dumbass! Start making sense, you rotten book, or you're gonna be sorry! Maybe I'll rip your pages out, one-by-one! Or maybe I'll put you in the goddamn furnace! How can someone with such a big, smart brain get hypnotized like a little bitch?! Huh!? Oh, Shadowlord! I love you, Shadowlord! Come over here and give Weiss a big sloppy kiss, Shadowlord! Now pull your head out of your goddamn ass and START FUCKING HELPING US!!" Nier will do anything to save his daughter Yonah from her mysterious illness. Kill monsters, make pacts with magical books, run random errands for the townsfolk, save the world…anything, really. ( Commentary on gameplay and minimal spoilers. ) Overall: This game is a trip, easily on par with the original Drakengard. I’m not going to spoil it. If you really want the details without playing the game, you can look up the Let’s Play. But I think you should play the game—if you don’t get into sidequests, it’s not terribly long; the system is intuitive and fun to play; and the plot and characterization are totally there. (Comment on this)