welcome. everything I write here is something I felt to be important to some degree; game reviews, life updates/vents, and philosophical musings. I do my best to make my statements truthful. everyone is welcome to post comments, provided they are relevant.

8.24.2007

So, I've signed up for 2 part-time courses; Business Programming and Object-Oriented Programming. I have high hopes that my teachers will be helpful and have at leastdecipherable accents. However, I've already hit one snag, however small, during the registration process, and I thought I'd share the e-mail I sent to the IT monkeys.

After selecting some part time courses and signing in with my student number, I get the page for verifying personal details and such. I usually ignore the Title field, and I know many people dislike the requirement of this field in online forms of any kind. The problem with this is that when I submitted the form without selecting a "title", the following page instructs me to use my browser's Back button (I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.6), but after selecting a title and pressing submit I get a pop-up error saying "The form has already been submitted." I had to cancel the form and start over by selecting the courses I want to take.

This error was not a major inconvenience for me, as I'm only applying for 2 part-time courses. I felt that requiring a "title" was somewhat old-fashioned and unnecessary, though it doesn't offend me personally. In any case, either the error, the requirement, or the correcting procedure needs to be fixed. I feel that the whole thing is a bit retarded, and whoever is responsible should be smacked (lightly, but firmly).

Sincerely,

DocTabasco ^_^

8.09.2007

updates: MMOGs and acquisitions

okay, so I still don't have a nether drake. I still don't have raid gear either and that's not going to happen any time soon. I lost interest in the grind and lost hope in finding decent groups for the last few quests, and decided to try out CoV again. I got a new mastermind up to level 22, and lost interest in That, again; the invention system is an interesting addition, but acquiring decent recipes And their ingredients could only be practical for the Super Groups (guilds), and I don't have the time (read: attention span) for that. I "accidentally" paid for a month of EVE and decided to buy and train the Exhumer skill, leaving me with under 10m ISK. ...In short, the MMOG market has temporarily(?) lost my interest. and yes, I did hear about the new WoW expansion, and I will most likely get it.

3 new games: God of War, Lego Star Wars II, Overlord

God of War is a great action game with a good helping of adventure and a hint of RPG. I can see why everyone (that fits the target demographic) loves it; It's like Prince of Persia, but a lot more kick-ass. Lego Star Wars is, in case you forgot, a nifty little action game with a lot of collectibles and zany Lego figures trying to imitate Star Wars characters. not something to blow more than $30 on, and I didn't. Overlord is, to be honest, overpriced, but I enjoy it quite a lot and don't regret the acquisition. (just the price.) It is a bit buggy, but what's most disappointing so far is Rose's voice actor.

While reading the GameFAQs forum, I can upon a list of complaints, by Paragonius, with a series of rebuttals that I completely agree with, by Lord_Isladar:

1. NO MAP!!!
Please see this topic: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=932853&topic=37283620

2. No jumping.
There is absolutely no reason why the Overlord has to jump. The Overlord makes others jump for him.

3. Overlord is slow as ****.
Running is for villagers and minions. The Overlord strides at a deliberate pace so as to inspire maximum fear and reverence.

4. Overlord has no real fighting skills. (only one combo available per weapon)
There is no need for the Overlord to be a mixed martial arts master. The Overlord crushes all in three blows, maximum. When the Overlord deigns to sully his weapon with the blood of weaklings, that is. The Overlord leaves this grunt work to his minions.

5. Overlord has lame spells. (none better than the very first fire spell)
The Overlord is not some cheap magician. The Overlord is The Overlord. His minions do most of the killing. Leave the spells to Harry Potter and Gandalf.

7. Although the camera can be workable, for a long while, until you are good with it, it is absolute trash. Even when you are good with it, it still has very trashy moments.
I found the camera to be perfectly acceptable, although I will agree that it has some bad spots at times.

8. Although the minions are very workable once you learn the tricks, there are still many moments where they just don't do what you are trying to make them do. As if they are ignoring the buttons you are pressing.
That's because they are evil little buggers and must be kicked (and even sacrificed if necessary) on occasion to remind them who's the Overlord.

9. The item system is pointless. Very pointless. I can't say enough about how poorly designed the item system is.
To what items do you refer? The equipment, or the loot you pick up for the "Tower Master" achievement?

10. The effects of being good and evil are almost simply cosmetic in nature. Making a second playthrough very undesirable.
Actually, the villagers (in Spree, for example) react to you quite differently depending on how many times you've slaughtered them. Maybe you should've tried that second playthrough after all, eh?