Sunday, January 25, 2004
Drapes, TV and ICO, oh my!
My apartment is pretty much complete now, methinks. I'm no longer in a giant echo box thanks to my "new" (relatively speaking) drapes, and I'm no longer tormented by having games I can't play, thanks to my new (actually new this time) TV and DVD player. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get a rather nice DVD machine for only 70 bucks at Costco. Seventy dollars... I can't even buy some DVDs for that cheap! True, it probably isn't the most feature-laden model on the market, but it does support Dolby, DTS, MP3 cds, Windows Media, and it even has progressive scan! Now I just need the home theater to go with it. Anyone wanna spot me a couple hundred bucks?
ICO & Mario
I've just started playing this one, and for all the 30-40 minutes I've done so far, it's really quite nice. Very unconventional presentation, seeing as how there's not really any music during the game (lots of exaggerated ambient sounds though), and you can't even talk to your sidekick. The puzzles are quite good so far, and the level design is quite superlative. The castle (what I've seen of it so far) is like what a real castle would be like, y'know, if it were the abandoned place that little kids with horns are sent to.
On the other hand, I think I'm nearing the end of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This is easily the second best console RPG I've ever played (the best being Chrono Trigger). Basically the 3rd Mario RPG, this one has both really strong RPG elements as well as some pretty slick partner puzzles and jumping stuff. The story is also quite entertaining, not to mention freaking hilarious. If you don't laugh the first time you fight Fawful, I think there might be something wrong with your humor gland.
Vanilla Tea & Ayreon
So I picked up a box of this Lipton French Vanilla tea, and it's very very odd. I don't think I'm going to recommend it, but it's not entirely without merit. It's like there's vanilla in there somewhere, but it's being masked by some other flavor that I don't recognize. In contrast, the Apple Cinnamon tea from Tetley's is quite tasty.
Ayreon, conversely isn't tea at all. He's a person. (Well, technically Ayreon is the name Arjen goes by when he does projects of a particular nature, but whatever). Kind of a one-man-band deal in that he plays a crapload of different instruments, but the Ayreon projects tend to be these huge collaborative projects that involve some of the best names in European metal and prog-rock. Very very cool stuff. I highly recommend the rock operas Into the Electric Castle and The Universal Migrator. The former is about a bunch of stereotypical sci-fi and historical characters that get transported by this alien intelligence to some place out in space and they have to find the Electric Castle, and the Universal Migrator is about this colonist on Mars that travels via a dream machine and goes back in time to the beginning of the universe. I highly recommend both, but it's definitely different music from what we hear over here. Best comparison I can think of is to Pink Floyd. I have copies of all his stuff if you want it, so lemme know.
Links & ... more links
Why can't people just get over this whole copywrite thing and just share? None of this silly lawsuit business.
If you've been following internet news lately, you've probably heard the Dean Scream. If I could draw a parallel with anything, it would be to Zim. This is probably the human equivalent of Dib or Gir going ballistic. I hear remixes are already in the works...
I must own an iPod Mini. 4 gigs of music in a player only slightly larger than the one I have already! ¶ 2:24 p.m.
My apartment is pretty much complete now, methinks. I'm no longer in a giant echo box thanks to my "new" (relatively speaking) drapes, and I'm no longer tormented by having games I can't play, thanks to my new (actually new this time) TV and DVD player. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get a rather nice DVD machine for only 70 bucks at Costco. Seventy dollars... I can't even buy some DVDs for that cheap! True, it probably isn't the most feature-laden model on the market, but it does support Dolby, DTS, MP3 cds, Windows Media, and it even has progressive scan! Now I just need the home theater to go with it. Anyone wanna spot me a couple hundred bucks?
ICO & Mario
I've just started playing this one, and for all the 30-40 minutes I've done so far, it's really quite nice. Very unconventional presentation, seeing as how there's not really any music during the game (lots of exaggerated ambient sounds though), and you can't even talk to your sidekick. The puzzles are quite good so far, and the level design is quite superlative. The castle (what I've seen of it so far) is like what a real castle would be like, y'know, if it were the abandoned place that little kids with horns are sent to.
On the other hand, I think I'm nearing the end of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This is easily the second best console RPG I've ever played (the best being Chrono Trigger). Basically the 3rd Mario RPG, this one has both really strong RPG elements as well as some pretty slick partner puzzles and jumping stuff. The story is also quite entertaining, not to mention freaking hilarious. If you don't laugh the first time you fight Fawful, I think there might be something wrong with your humor gland.
Vanilla Tea & Ayreon
So I picked up a box of this Lipton French Vanilla tea, and it's very very odd. I don't think I'm going to recommend it, but it's not entirely without merit. It's like there's vanilla in there somewhere, but it's being masked by some other flavor that I don't recognize. In contrast, the Apple Cinnamon tea from Tetley's is quite tasty.
Ayreon, conversely isn't tea at all. He's a person. (Well, technically Ayreon is the name Arjen goes by when he does projects of a particular nature, but whatever). Kind of a one-man-band deal in that he plays a crapload of different instruments, but the Ayreon projects tend to be these huge collaborative projects that involve some of the best names in European metal and prog-rock. Very very cool stuff. I highly recommend the rock operas Into the Electric Castle and The Universal Migrator. The former is about a bunch of stereotypical sci-fi and historical characters that get transported by this alien intelligence to some place out in space and they have to find the Electric Castle, and the Universal Migrator is about this colonist on Mars that travels via a dream machine and goes back in time to the beginning of the universe. I highly recommend both, but it's definitely different music from what we hear over here. Best comparison I can think of is to Pink Floyd. I have copies of all his stuff if you want it, so lemme know.
Links & ... more links
Why can't people just get over this whole copywrite thing and just share? None of this silly lawsuit business.
If you've been following internet news lately, you've probably heard the Dean Scream. If I could draw a parallel with anything, it would be to Zim. This is probably the human equivalent of Dib or Gir going ballistic. I hear remixes are already in the works...
I must own an iPod Mini. 4 gigs of music in a player only slightly larger than the one I have already! ¶ 2:24 p.m.
