Apr 28, 2010

Dissidia: The asshole of light

Badass.

So you might be wondering, is this guy as badass as he looks? well yes, yes he is. He is as badass as you think, and a little more. He's also a huge asshole.

But you might also be wondering, who the hell is this guy? in which game did he appear? and those are fair questions since his original in-game counterpart looked nothing like him. If you played final fantasy 1, you might remember this little red guy . He was the fighter character in the original Final Fantasy, and he's supposedly that awesome looking warrior up there. Why do they look totally different, even in the colors used for the armor and hair? well the "Warrior of Light" that we get in dissidia is based on Yoshitaka Amano's original concept art for the fighter. Amano's art is awesome so although I liked the old look I'm ok with them using Amano's vision instead.

The Warrior of Light (WoL from now on) is the leader of the group of heroes in the game, which frankly surprised me since I was expecting they would use some of the lame but popular FF characters like Cloud or Squall. He surely looks heroic enough to be a leader, and acts all rigid and focused on the final goal as well. He also enjoys being an asshole at every chance he can get. He's got a "cut to the point" attitude, and seems to think that anything can be resolved by slashing someone's guts with that fancy sword of his.

In the story mode he is after his crystal, like all the other characters. First thing he does, he goes against Garland which is the main antagonist in his original game and in this story (which is something that applies to all the other characters) and kicks his ass. That's fair, since garland just asked for it. He then encounters Sephirot and quickly orders Firion to get the fuck out and leave the fighting to him.

Sephirot: Hey sup. So you know that fighting me is pointless because you won't get your crystal, remember I'm from FF7 lulz?
WoL: OMFG i dun care I just want to kick your ass.
*Sephirot gets his ass kicked*
WoL: K thnx bai.

Since this was the first time I watched the WoL acting like this I just shrugged it off, but then he encounters Ultimecia:

WoL: lulz I can see you there.
Ultimecia: o hai hey I'm just gonna spend 3 to 5 minutes blabbing about stuff the player won't understand and taunting you k?
WoL: OMG STFU let's fight.
*Ultimecia gets her ass kicked*
Ultimecia: lol you can't kill me I appeared in another game.
WoL: kk lets have more pointless taunting then.

You might think I'm exaggerating, but he actually ask her if she's finished talking, a literal STFU. That part was kinda funny tho. Next is an encounter with Cosmos, the goddess of light and the guide of the good guys in the game.

Cosmos: Be careful, lots of crazy bosses ahead
WoL: It's better if they are all in one place (so he can kill them all more quickly, I guessed)
Cosmos: Dude, chill, you're being WAY too jumpy with that sword.
WoL: blah blah blah, Ok now GTFO of my way i have more fighting to do.
Cosmos: ...

Believe it or not I hardly changed the original words there. After some more fighting he finds The Emperor

The Emperor: Hey man, let's just take it easy, you know? Fighting accomplishes nothing, you know that don't you
WoL: well, I have noticed, yeah.
The Emperor: So what do you say if we just chill and hang out?
WoL: lol hell no, let's fight instead.
The Emperor: dude you're so annoying...
*The Emperor gets his ass kicked*
The Emperor: kk you won, now I'm gonna go back there and respawn, asshole.
*Garland appears*
WoL: OMFG WTF? didn't I kill you? are you a zombie?
Garland: lol u noob. I told you we keep respawning, now get this through your head: IT'S POINTLESS TO FIGHT!, now I gtg bye. *disappears*
WoL: WAIT!!! let's fight!!!

So after beating almost every boss in the game his thirst for blood is not yet quenched, and somehow manages to find Garland again:

Garland: for christ's sake, not you again... what do you want now?
WoL: well, take a guess.
Garland: Ok let me explain it to you: YOU CAN'T KILL US! we just keep respawning in this world, even if you looted the crystal from me I'll just respawn again and we'll keep battling forever.
WoL:... oh sorry, you were saying something? I was busy thinking how I'm gonna kick your ass this time.
Garland: oh geez...
*Garland explains some more*
WoL: So let me get this straight, even if I beat you, we'll keep a cycle of infinite battles, forever?
Garland: Exactly!
WoL: k... OH I have an idea, to end this cycle of fighting all we have to do is FIGHT! get ready here I come!
Garland: *facepalm*
*Garland gets his ass kicked... again*
Garland: ouch, that hurts...
WoL: lol pwnt.
*Crystal appears*
WoL: ooo shiny!
Garland: I might look like I'm disintegrating but I'll brb later.

And so it ends. I don't know about you, but for me a hero is not someone who follows a "see bad guy, beat up bad guy. No questions asked" pattern. That's something The Punisher would do. Not to mention that some of these fights he could just have walked away and go on with his quest to find his crystal. Playing as him felt like driving a steamroller.

All in all, his story wasn't as enjoyable as some of the others. As I said in the first article, this game's story isn't very good, but some of the characters and villains shine from time to time, the WoL didn't shine because he was a good, real, believable character, but because he looks, acts and plays like a badass. I like playin as the WoL, but he has a big attitude and personality problem.

If you want another (more serious) take on the Warrior of Light, check out this post at the gaming vault.


Stick around for the next post about the second story which I'm gonna call Firion: Never get between a man and his roses.

Badass x1000



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Apr 26, 2010

Final Fantasy Dissidia

So I've been playing final fantasy dissidia lately, I was never interested on psp games but after seeing my brother play for a while (and my internet being down at the moment) I decided to give it a try, and I must say I'm pretty much blown away. This is the definition fanservice. It reminds me of castlevania judgement for wii, it's a mediocre game but omfg it oozes fanservice. But comparing dissidia to cv judgement is a disservice because this game just plain rocks. It's fun, it has a crapload of replay value, its easy to play but deep at the same time, and again, it just gives FF fans wet dreams.

Of course, the game isn't perfect. Well, it kinda is. As far as the gameplay, it's really addictive, it just works, and it's fun, so the game is perfect in that department as far as I'm concerned, but the story and particularly, the characterization of well-known FF heroes (and sometimes the villains) leaves a bad aftertaste. Sometimes a really, really bad one.

So stick around while I dissect each chapter as I play them. The game has 10 basic chapters for each final fantasy, and in each one you play as the protagonist of that game (in some cases... well that isn't very clear. I'm looking at you, Firion!). Of course I'm not doing this in a single post, so for now, I'll leave you with the 8-bit perfection that is the black mage sprite:
If you look closely you can see a tear coming out of his eye. He's gazing out into the distance, disappointed, and sad. He's a sad black mage because he's not in this game.

Next up: "The asshole of light"

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Mar 22, 2010

Interesting blog

It's been some time since I blogged something, but after I read this blog I decided I should post something about it.


The blog is about Kristina, a student from USA who is spending some time in my country doing a project. She's entertaining to read and offers a view on how a foreigner sees my country and culture. I have a lot of friends all around the world, from places like USA, england, france, australia, russia, among others, and I would love if some of them could come over here someday. I bet they would fall in love with this country just like this girl did.

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Feb 10, 2010

Help Overclocked Remix do the Sonic 4 soundtrack.

Overclocked remix's Darkesword:

So, it's started out as a harmless little comment on Twitter.

Then it got picked up by a gaming blog.

Now it's a full blown movement.


OverClocked ReMix wants to do the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 4.I've mentioned before that some artists from Overclocked Remix got in contact with Capcom and did the soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Now we're starting a movement to get some publicity out and reach to SEGA, for the soundtrack of the upcoming Sonic the hedgehog 4.I'm pretty excited about this because I have done several sonic remixes over the years. 3 of them got published at Overclocked Remix, and several others at the now defunct VGMix. Plus some others that I've done for fun or for competitions. One of the most well known: Lightspeed, a remix of the Twinkle Park theme, has been very popular and I've seen lots of videos on youtube using it, and even a feature video at screwattack, so you may understand my excitement about all this because I could end up (with some luck) doing a song for this.

Of course there are still bif IFs, because this could come to fruition IF Sega is interested in doing the same that capcom did and ask OCR to make the soundtrack. And then IF I get picked to do a song among all the other really talented artists at OCR. Still, it's a possibility and I would love to be a part of it.

So I'll keep my fingers crossed, in the mean time I'll keep spreading the word about this, and hope that we get yet another OCR-made sountrack for a mainstream game, regardless of my participation on it!.

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Feb 8, 2010

Retro Gaming... and everything.

I'm a retro gamer. I'm a rare breed of geek that shuns the so-called new generation of games and prefers to sit down and play the same old ass games he used to play almost 2 decades ago. And I gotta say, it's a fucking great time to be one!


Not that I don't like new games. I play them, often beat them and enjoy them, but I can't remember the last modern game I played that I had beaten more than once and still want to play now. I mean, I remember beating F.E.A.R. several times and loving it. And I was playing super mario galaxy again the other day trying to beat it for the second time. Hmm and crysis, I think I beat that one 2 or 3 times.

So what's the difference? just nostalgia? well I don't really know. Those last 3 games I mentioned don't have much in common. I think they're just fun as hell and while challenging, are based on simple concepts. I think that's what I like about old games, specially from the NES era. Sure there were a lot of shitty games but the good ones, the classics, are simple, fun, and hard as fuck.

There's also something that I miss from old games, specially PC games. It was the ambition and scope of the big classics. Take star control 2 for example, it's a game where you can explore the galaxy, visit different solar systems, actually drop down to the planets which are different from each other, meet alien races, build a fleet, and all of this in a galaxy filled with hundreds of solar systems. The last game that tried to do something similar was Spore, and it fell short, really short.

Then there's this other game I blogged about some time ago, Covert Action. I could talk for pages and pages about how complex, yet simple and addictive this old PC game is. Then you add other games like alpha centauri... and well, it's sad that all we get today is brown and drag, blood-filled, testosterone-packed action games, and that they're the most celebrated.

Ugh, I got way too sidetracked...

Back to topic, it's a good time to love retro games. The videogame companies are following the trend implanted by hollywood lately: "Let's take and old show or movie, reboot/sequel it, and milk it to hell and back". But unlike the shit that hollywood comes up with, videogame companies are doing it right for the most part. Let's take a few recent examples:

Megaman 9: AWESOME game, worthy of being a classic megaman, and probably right up there with megaman 2 and 3. Also: Megaman 10 is coming to kick some 8-bit ass again.

Bionic Commando Rearmed: Unlike it's 3d counterpart, this game reboots the original while making it awesome and fun and again, hard as fuck. It feels a bit different from the original but it feels right.

New Super Mario Bros(DS/Wii): Some people say this game could have been more, and I agree they got lazy with some stuff (2 toads for player 3 and 4..) but still its a great, classic but modern mario game. I loved it and got all the coins and all the shit you could get.

Contra Rebirth: Digital awesomeness. It screams "silly action movie parody from the 80's" which is what contra was in a sense. Great, classic contra gameplay.

Castlevania Rebirth: Loved it. The Metroidvania games for the handhelds are good, but I love some classic castlevania. Give me a whip and some undead and vampires and I'm set.

A boy and his blob: Haven't played this one yet but I hear good things about it.

And very soon, I will be able to play a new Blaster Master remake, along with Sonic 4, which is the classic 2D sonic-only we have been waiting for.

So far I've got my favorite classic NES games remade in its classic format: Clastlevania, bionic commando, contra, and now blaster master. If I get a new classic ninja gaiden game, It would be the icing on the cake.

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Feb 1, 2010

Tanking Woes

Incoming World of Warcraft rant. If you have never played WoW reading this post will be like reading Egyptian hieroglyphs

So I've been levelling up a Blood Elf Paladin (tank spec) lately. I've always been an alliance player but things have been slow on alliance side that with my best friends not playing much and I being on a guild that well... it's a long story but I'm not really excited for being there.

Anyways since Blizzard included the nifty Dungeon Finder Tool I decided I should give it a try and use this new character as an experiment: levelling a toon using exclusively the dungeon finder. No quests, no mob killing outside the instance, no exploration. Although I've accepted and completed some dungeon quests that other players have shared, and turned them in, I'm trying to limit myself to not get anything explored.

For the most part it has been helluva fun, and pretty good xp too. Also I'm relearning all the classic dungeons that I haven't run in quite some years. As a tank, i get instant queues, because there are practically no tanks in my battlegroup.

But with all this fun comes some other things that aren't quite as fun or nice. Being a tank means that you are the leader, and you have the hardest work of the group. Healers in classic dungeons aren't as stressed out as tanks because there's not much damage going around. With that said, my dungeon experience would be much more fun if other players:

  • Did not pull for me. Some of them see the tank's a paladin, and think: "Consecrate, yay, lets pull all the mobs in the instance to him, because you know, he can't!". Consecrate is a powerful aoe tank tool but it's not snap aggro, so most of the time when they pull mobs to me they just pass through the consecrate right to another dps, or worse, the healer, and then blame the tank because "he can't get aggro".
  • Did not tank for me. So most dps warriors I've been grouped with tend to charge the mobs ahead of me, not caring about pats roaming around, or healer OOM, or me tanking OTHER things. To top it off they are bottom of the damage recount all the fucking time! god i hate dps warriors so much right now, it hurts.
  • Did not tell me how to tank. At this point, I have a warrior tank, a DK tank, and a paladin tank. The DK tank I have used for most of WoTLK and I used the warrior during BC. I think I know how to do this, and most of my runs are pretty quick, with chain pulls and taking the right path through the somewhat confusing old classic dungeons. Still some players feel the need to tell me to "go fast" or "do this and that" before we even start the run. And guess what comes after that? yup, they pull for me.
  • Attacked the mobs the right way. I mean, ok you are new to the melee dps and don't know you should get behind the mobs. I can kinda let that pass for warriors and enh shamans, but rogues? you are a rogue and are right besides me, trying to stab the mob in the face, and getting him to parry like crazy and go all out on me? geez. I have encountered only 1 warrior dps that got behind the mob to deal dps in the hundreds of runs I must have done by now, and I even congratulated him for it.
  • Did not /afk + /follow. It's a pain in the ass when you find that you have been running the dungeon for 5 or 10 minutes with a dps who is afk and following someone and just riding off the xp. To say the truth by now I've ignored most of the assholes that do this, and blizzard was smart enough to make the people on your ignored list be also ignored from your random dungeon groups, but still you find another one every once in a while.
  • Did not constantly ask for Recount reports. Because doing 500 dps in a level 50 dungeon is serious business.
What puzzles me is how all of this disappears for the most part when you do Heroic level 80 dungeons. which makes me think that players do this things not because they're new to the game or trying to learn, but because they're just being assholes.

In the end the good things overcome the bad when it comes to the dungeon finder, but I just wished I didn't get one of these players every 2 runs.

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Jan 28, 2010

Ah... Fox News.

I have a lot of friends and know a lot of people outside of my country, mostly from online communities like OCRemix, and most of them coincide that Fox News sucks. Now I don't watch TV and only read local online newspapers and seldom check CNN and BBC for international news, but I happened to stumble on this particular article and.. wow. Mind = Blown.


The ignorance and incompetence, not to mention the lack of fact checking and familiarity with context of the topic is mind-blowing. Seriously? a merge of the dominican republic and haiti? how would that solve anything? Let's think about this for a second:

First, although the island was indeed, one whole country for some part of the 19th century, it was always divided by different cultures and origins. The part of the island that is now Haiti was conquered by the French, and overpopulated by African slaves, while the other part was conquered by the Spanish, whom had a bigger representation of their government, culture and people than what the French had in their side of the island. Also there were the original habitants of the island before the colonization, the "aborigenes" and also like in the French side but at a much smaller scale, there were African slaves in the Spanish side.

Over the years the difference in culture, form of government, religion, and language only grew stronger until it ended with what we have now, two completely different countries that happen to share the same island. Stating that they should be merged is like stating that Spain and Portugal should be merged, or that the USA and Mexico should be merged.

But even putting aside these facts, what good would this fusion do? we're already a poor country, not nearly as poor as haiti but still we're not even in the top 15 most developed of latin america, so attaching the poorest country to our economy would drive it to bankruptcy. Not to mention the problems of adapting the Haitian people to our laws, culture, etc. It's a logistics nightmare that a 3rd world country definitively can't achieve.

0ur country is sending truckloads of help, raising money, our government is hosting all the international meetings and doing everything they can to get help from other countries and international organizations for Haiti, our hospitals are already overloaded with people from Haiti that needed treatment after the disaster, what else can people want? we even were helping probably more than anyone else before this tragedy happened, because before this disaster Haiti wasn't in the headlines of CNN or Fox and all they had for support were their closest neighbors.

So yeah pretty dumb and ignorant article. I bet some nations would be happy if this were to happen as they can leave all the responsibility to us, but helping Haiti or any other overly poor nation isn't the duty of just their closest neighbors, its the duty of the entire world.

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