This past Saturday, Jason, Rusty, jja, and myself joined forces against an unholy scourge to save a beleaguered bunch of traitorous villagers. It might sound like we joined the armed services but instead we gathered at White Cap Comics for a game of Dungeons and Dragons. I love playing all types of games and I’m up for trying anything so I figured I would meet up and try a game of D&D.

wow

It’s hard to write about something that I don’t fully understand. There seems to be over five “rule books” and even the veterans in the middle a game need to refer to the documentation. The basics are simple and being able to quickstart with a premade character was nice. Since I was a little late to the game I was provided “Kalen” the “Male Half-Elf Ardent” as my avatar. All my abilities and skills were set for me and my miniature had a very long sword even though my game day card said I had a “Defensive Halberd”

I was actually kinda shocked how quickly I was able to pick up the game. At the start I enjoyed the background of the game and the narrative. The DM told us that our group has awoken in a hole not knowing how we got there. Clearly everybody took this to be we had a hard night of drinking and some jerkoff threw us into a cave to die. Quickly we got into battle and with some help I had a few epic turns. Anybody playing in an understanding group with patience I could see any willing player being able to sit down and pick up the game as quickly like I did. Clearly the DM was using the game to challenge the people in our group who has played before but I was honestly nervous about going there playing like an idiot and everybody hating me.

To put things simple D&D is just pure insanity. The game we played took over six hours and that felt really long. We played in a group of six players and it could take awhile for a players next turn to come around. Some turns could be over in 5 seconds with a bad roll. Of course this comes from somebody who only knows the bare basics of the game so take what I say with a grain of salt.

After finding out what the game is all about I do find it interesting. The community seems to be very passionate about the game. The place we went there were young people, old people, men, women, nerdy looking guys, and non-nerdy looking guys. After playing Xbox Live for a bit and in almost all public games getting grief from the lowest common denominator of humanity the welcoming environment was comforting. The DM was helpful and answered all questions without making me feel like a dillhole.

Will I play again? Of course if it came up I would absolutely sit at the table again. At this point I don’t think I’ll actively set out to find a game or a group to play with but next time I get to the GRPL I’m going to check to see if they have the rule book so I can educate myself before my next game. After I get my tax returns I’m going to buy a miniature and some dice because they are cheap and I thought they were kinda cool.

JJA wrote a post (here, here) about our game and worth checking out for photos of the game location.

“Ok, I’m going to use my Demoralizing Strike on the main guy using two powerpoints. 27 vs ac?”

“Thats a hit”

Oh brother…

A month ago I posted about registering for the 2010 Spectrum Heath Irish Jig. This past Saturday was the race. Thankfully I was able to finish and ran my best 5K since high school.

The weather was crap. 30′s and snowy and I’m sure that effected the turnout to a degree but still there was a lot of people. Really I didn’t prepare for this run at all. I did maybe three workouts since writing about it last month. Overall I’m pretty happy with my time. There were a few parts on the track I got stuck behind a few slow people but that didn’t hurt my time overall. At the gun I was all the way in the back where I should have moved up forward to the start. Next races will be the Town Crier Race in Saugatuck April 10th and the 5/3 Riverbank Run May 8th.

After the race I ate two pieces of cake. That is all.

Today for the first time since I believe October I attempted some sort of athletic activity. After having a busy winter and holiday season consisting of driving, loafing, family, friends, work, and video games today felt like the right time to get back out there and at least attempt to be healthy. Somebody told me if you are able to run a mile straight without stopping you are not out of shape and I guess I fit that bill. It was rough but I was able to get though some resemblance of a workout today.

Today i decided to register for the 2010 Spectrum Health Irish Jig. The race is on Saturday, March 20th 2010. Mens race starts at 9am, and the woman’s race starts at 9:35am. Back in 2005 I ran this race after not even coming close to training for it (as a 32:00 time proves) and after failing to do any races in 2009 I wanted to make sure to do at least one this year. The Irish Jig is only a 5k so I should be able to finish without a problem. Here is the .PDF with all the information that I was unable to find posted publicly online but is making the rounds at work. Here is the link to register.

At this time I’m planning on just walking down to the starting line but if anybody wants to run together or meet up personally I think that would be really cool.

After finishing the extent of what I’m going to play of Crackdown the game as a whole plays a lot like what I would imagine being on Crack is like.

According to Wikipedia the primary psychological effects of cocaine include euphoria, supreme confidence, increased energy, and a craving for more cocaine.

Look at this explosion.

The game plays much like how I wish Grand Theft Auto games would ‘play’ more like.  In Crackdown you are a super hero police officer who’s only task is to level up, collect orbs, jump around, kill people and take a bite out of crime. You don’t go on dates, you don’t play pool, you don’t have to try to make Little Jacob ‘like’ you so he can sell you guns. In Crackdown you just obliterate waves of evil enemies, take their guns, then scale a 100 story building to jump roof top to rooftop.

I played much of this game coop and sadly I was not the “host” of those games. In return that means any progress made on killing the Generals and Kingpins was lost. My level progress was saved and after reaching level 3 agility co-op going back and killing all the Generals and Kingpins took an afternoon.

Most of my frustration came from almost instant spikes of difficulty and some confusion on mission objectives. Playing co-op I was always trying to play catch up with my partner and in doing so I wasn’t able to fully access my situaion thus I would end up dying quite a bit.  I would need to “Regenerate” at a location many times far away from the objective. An option to spawn in the general area of your co-op partner would have helped.

After a shipping Snafu I ended up getting Crackdown for free but many places have it between $10-$15 dollars. After defeating all the Generals thus ‘beating’ the game and completing a few choice Achievements I got 380g on one play though. I got 380′ish Agility Orbs and 100′ish Hidden Orbs. The package is a good deal. There are a series of weapons I didn’t even bother to try. I never completed any of the rooftop missions or the driving missions and a series of Achievements I didn’t even try to get.

If living in the mundane of GTA4 makes you sluggish take some illegal drugs and play Crackdown. Using jja’s undecium rating sytem I would give Crackdown a 2.

Recently Google thought it was a good idea to migrate social tools directly to users email with a new feature called Google Buzz.

Go beyond status messages

Share updates, photos, videos, and more.
Start conversations about the things you find interesting.

This is absolutely the LAST feature I would want tied to my personal email. Clearly I’m not a “status update” kind of guy. Nobody cares what I’m doing anyway.

I opted out. I made sure I was sharing nothing then on the bottom of your gmail there is a link “turn off buzz”. It took so much work to migrate towards one personal email account years ago. I came close to switching today after Buzz. It bugged me in one day I could have something “social” being tied to my “personal” email. Sadly I believe I can’t “stop” anybody from following me. I fully understand that many google services are tied to your google profile but still this one is a pill I didn’t want to swallow.

I would say this is required reading for anybody using Buzz.

There is already a lot of insanity on the web it’s impossible to catch up, keep track of everything and be apart of every conversation. Right now I’m swimming in Google Reader items as I have been for months.

1000+

I’m drowning in web projects I can’t even find the time to start or even clean up abandoned ideas. Google Buzz is just another hopeless distraction I can’t be apart of.

Really I would love to know how everybody deals with this problem I can’t imagine I’m the only one. Honestly it frustrates me and could use any tips, rules, or methods anybody employs.

Update: Looks like things are getting better at least I can block people I don’t want following me. Time to go back and make sure to block everybody.

Update 2: I love this story. Well it’s serious in nature but still it’s the truth. Seriously Buzz is just a nightmare. Buzz assumes that everybody lives these glorious lives where ones entire social circle  integrated and loves one another.

Update 3: Yeah just hitting the “turn off buzz” icon is not enough. Quote from Google Help documents…

Disabling Buzz

If Buzz isn’t for you, you can turn it off it by clicking the turn off buzz link at the bottom of your Gmail (it’s near the basic HTML link). Please note that this will only remove the Buzz label from your Gmail account.

To completely stop using Google Buzz, you also need to block all followers and delete your Google profile (which will delete all of your posts and connected sites) before clicking the turn off buzz link.

Abysmal…

Update 4: New York Times puts everything together here. Hopefully more people read this and hopefully massive changes are done to Buzz. A single click “opt out” would be nice. Also I’m unsure if “blocking all followers” means I lose everybody on Google Reader? I might need to get a hotmail account.

Never have I been an overly opinionated person. More times then not I’ll seek out the opinions of others on many decisions and hold that key. I’m also not a person that will push my opinions on someone and more likely then not have a hard time recommending almost anything to anybody. Something I don’t take lightly is recommending either a game, book, movie, restaurant or even a website if I truly don’t believe a person will enjoy it.

I have these thoughts because recently I’ve been playing a game called “Lost Odyssey“.

I don’t think I know a single person I could possibly recommend this game to.

I beat it and put at least 50+ hours into it.

The game is a plays like a traditional JRPG with all the pros and cons that come along with it’s given genre. Bulleted list time.

• The FMV’s are in beautiful 720p HD.
• The incessant loading screens are borderline unbearable.
• The main storyline, the idea of immortality, is truly interesting till the end.
• Inconsistent boss checkpoints standard/ save point system blows.
• Voice acting is above standard.
• For average RPG players grinding will occur to be able to complete the game.
• A Thousand Years of Dreams sequences are a strong mechanic and have interesting, emotional stories.
• Battle pace is very slow.
• For Turn Based Combat there are some interesting twists Final Fantasy old schoolers will appreciate.
• I hate having children (Cooke/Mack) in my Party (See Palom and Porom).
• As expected the soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu is fantastic.
• Having to watch the entire ending sequence plus credits to unlock the final achievement sucks.

This could go on for ages.

I originally got into this game in a  lonely mans hunger of a more traditional RPG experience after playing Mass Effect 1 last April. Only recently have I gotten back into the game after originally losing interest and recently working hard on finishing previously purchased games rather then continually buying new ones.

A few weeks ago I actually attempted to battle the final boss. This includes fighting two bosses  that during many unexpected scripted elements  on top of requiring a large amount of time to work though my first attempt ended when the final form does “Stone” on my entire party and I die. This is very late into the fight and I lost at least over an hour of time including watching cut scenes. One skill I didn’t equip my team was a block to Stone and I lose unable to fight anymore. This is 3am in the morning and I was utterly demoralized. I felt I deserved to win I put in more then enough time into this game and I screwed up one thing and I had to try again. My brain hurt I was furious. And I wanted my 125g.

Yesterday I plotted a plan to tackle Gongora one more time.

Leveled my characters, went to the auction house, learned new skills and equipped the right ones.

Though this frustration I understood why JRPG’s  still attracts me. Even though the combat isn’t as exhilarating as so called “Modern Combat” these games never attempt to give the fake gamey feeling of ‘balance’.  Lost Odyssey absolutely requires you to understand the game mechanics to excel. It’s not trial and error, it’s not the game cheating you. At times things are hard for a reason and mostly it’s your own damn fault.

There has been discussion on the internet (recommended – nobody is going to listen/read ect Part 1 Part 2) of why the popularity of JPRG’s has diminished. Honestly I feel the same way to a degree mostly saddled by my memories of previous titles I’ve enjoyed a lot more then recent offerings. Also I don’t know a single person I would even come close to recommended a JRPG to anymore where as in High School I had a series of friends that shared a similar zest for this type of entertainment. Tastes change I see mostly around time constraints and that is understandable.

It’s sad to a degree. Recently I’ve been playing in small doses for over six months Final Fantasy XII and it’s very well put together. Action oriented and built for smaller one hour dose play times. I would love to see people play it and be able to discuss it but knowing so many people turned off after Final Fantasy X I don’t blame them.

Thankfully nobody was around last night when I beat the game. Seriously I did a David Draiman fist pump and overall my mood is lightened.

Come home from work today actually thinking about how furious I was that another Netflix movie has gone “missing”. It’s been three disks I’ve had to report in the last few months. Today I come home to a crap load of mail containing…

Gifto’s from great people and the thoughts are much appreciated. After being so frustrated on my drive home oddly enough it was the mail that brought me back to planet earth. GG’s all around…