Rendclaw

HCTP was a good step forward, though there needs to be more improvement, that's for sure. Of course, I say this as I am about to continue playing my Bret Hart CAW...

My opinion is that Brock was given too much too soon and didn;t pay his dues so that he could appreciate the position he was groomed for. If I was being paid what some on the rosters are, I would be doing this 300 days out of the year. I was listening to BTR last night and Vito called him a pussy, and I have to agree. That being said, this is indicative of such a schedule. If the top guy who is working against the upper echelon of talent (matches with Hardcore notwithstanding) is getting burned out at age 26 (twenty-freaking-six??!?!), what does it say for that type of schedule? Not only that, I heard that he was tapping Sable. Go figure.... As for Taker, he is almost always going to go over until he retires. Deal with it.

Mine is about a year old now and it still works just fine. Then again I never dropped it. And I KNEW that Gates and Co. were going to fuck this up somehow. A system that in some ways was better than the PS2, I just knew they would screw this up in some fashion. I love my PS2, even though I would love a GC and an XBox just for certain games.

It is a pity that it won't, that was a great sequel...

Huggy, what else?

You're right, and maybe I should ramp the game down, since I had it up there just for the XP factor. Though I am making a Bret Hart CAW, and I am going to have to go through all of that again....

Sorry Sakura-chan, but War Gods just is *not* cool, MK ties or no. Anyway, is it me, or do the original Williams Arcade Classics on the PS1 play better than the Arcade Treasures? I was expecting more extras than what they what they put on there, but just for the retro factor this is good for me, though there are some games that do not play well in the translation, such as Spy Hunter. Its a perfect port, but the controller does not work well with that game. Then again, I thought the same thing when I got it in emulation. Arch-Rivals would be perfect for a Volume 2, Narc isn't a bad choice, and I would love to have MKs I and II, though there should be quite a few extras, just for those two games, considering the history.

I don't have a problem with that, even though a lot of us have moved on to other games... right now I've come back to it just to take a break from playing too much BGDA2. I find it a little bit amusing that when you have had the big title from one season and going into another one, the game throws you into storyline after storyline to try and get it from you. This led me to wrestle HHH about 20-30 times, until my constant defeats of him finally lowered his superstar points to where they threw Big Show and Brock after me. Those are hard matches because my Low-KI CAW is a cruiserweight, and of course you can't lift someone as big as Brock, never mind Big Show, which you can get around of course by using smackdowns and turnbuckle moves. But thats okay, I had to develop a fast-break style of offense where you use a LOT of running moves and quick top rope moves to wear the opponent down (which is the best way to win matches on Smackdown level anyway, since about 60-70% of your grapple moves will be reversed. Thoughts and opinions, anyone?

I played Street Fighter 2010 back when I worked at a NES store int he local mall, and yes it really, REALLY sucked.

Baseball Stars. I still play it to this day. Or I would if I could get the damn controller I bought to work right.

That's pretty damn cool... now I might have to pick that up... *reminisces playing the arcade game*

Stern has been going downhill for a long time... I have tapes of his show from back in the mid 80s and early 90s and the show was a LOT funnier. He re-signed for the money they were offering him and that's it, don't believe the hype. He has been coasting ever since Jackie left the show, and he is going to continue to do so, because he has nothing left to prove anymore. Good for John, even though there were times that I (a Stern fan since 1985) couldn;t stand him, whether what was going on was a bit or not.

Even though I fully expected something like that to happen tonight, it still makes me sad that no one who is over and/or highly respected by the fans (and not just us smarks) will never get a clean shot at running with the title. That is the bottom line.

It would be good to see Bret, actually. In some ways, that would a nod toward those who helped make the E what it is, while at the same time, closing the book and moving towards the future. What kind of future that is (bleak, I can tell you now), is another topic for another time. EDIT: DA, who watching at home is going to care about the damn crowd? The majority of the matches nowadays have canned heat, so what difference does it really make? As long as those involved in the matches bring their A+ game, or as close to it as their talent allows, and there are *good* matches, I could care less if everyone in those seats fell asleep. The ME matches are going to be relatively quiet anyway, if what I heard is true about WM20 being 5.5 hours in duration. People are going to wrung out like a dishrag by the end of it all.

I'm liking this so far, keep it going!

That's weird. The *first* Suikoden?? Suikoden II I could understand a little better, though not much... Suikoden is what, four years old? five?

I think the best toy store was Child World, although the one I worked at was a dump run by assholes... I found an AD&D module worth 18 on the shelf for 4 bucks... I remember at one point myself and two friends were working there, and it was a lot of fun... though one manager's attitude led to us quitting in sequence.. then again I was 17 at the time and I was a lazy ass bitch... KB had this coming for years. Their stores were cramped with merchandise on the floor way back during my mall-rat days. Shopping there during Christmas season was an exercise in contortion. That and their overpricing were definite signs that Chapter 11 was on the horizon.. It was an idea that was good back in oh, 1982, but a horrible idea in 2004.

I'm into getting the retro arcade games for PS2, the latest of which is Namco Museum. I'm enjoying the hell out of playing Pole Position II, which I have to say is easier to control than my emu ROM, and trying to remember my old dot-gobbling patterns on Pac-Man. But all of that takes a back seat to BGDA2, now. Speaking of PS1 RPG that cost too much, I keep seeing Valkyrie Profile on EBay going for AT LEAST $60.

Okay, my shipment was late due to bad weather... It arrived yesterday, and my life has not been the same since. In a way its a good thing that I am between jobs right now, or I would probably lose it because of this game. Gods, where to start?? Well, just watching my roommates play it was fun in its own right, but only when I played it myself did I only begin to understand the scope of this game. Major props to Black Isle for taking a great game in BG1 and making it better by an order of magnitude. While the story itself is still pretty linear, you can do side quests, some of which are extremely important to increasing your character's power. The action starts right at the beginning and only lets up long enough for you to go back to town to get more healing potions, and then you;re right back in it. The combat is faster and you have more choices as far as feats, spells and weapons. As I said before, the monsters can block your attacks now, which forces you to develop tactics against their defense. The best part about the game is the incorporation of "hot slots", and the ability to switch between different weapons on the fly. You can put feats or spells that you can put into slots that correspond to when you hold down L1 and press circle, triangle, X, or square. This is a MAJOR advantage when used correctly. I am playing the drow monk right now (and let me tell you, if it was just her in this game, I would be happy; she kicks THAT much ass, when used correctly), and you can create combos with her standard attacks, followed up by any of her damaging feats, such as the gorgeous-looking Sweep Attack, which is a jumping hook kick that hits all of the enemies in front of her, or the Crushing Blow, which does extra damage and more likely than not results in a critical hit. Another wonderful addition is the ability to equip your characters with a one-handed, two-handed and a missile weapon, which can be switched by tapping right on the controller pad. In the case of my monk, she has her bare hands (believe me, her martial arts inflict staggering amounts of damage at the higher levels), a flaming burst staff, and a poisoned throwing knife. Speaking of missile weapons, another thing that Black Isle did was get rid of the need to carry around ammunition, such as arrows, crossow bolts, or knives. This saves the need for the play to plan around carrying tons of ammo if the best weapon he has so far is the bow, or crossbow. One of the biggest frustrations about BG1 was when you are in the final dungeon, where the most powerful weapons in the game could be found or you were in dire need of potions, and all you would find are arrows. While it tends to tip the balance towards the players, I'm glad to see that part of the game gone. Another thing that is staggering about this game is item creation. Throughout the game you will find or have the opportunity to purchase gems and runestones. These stones can be merged with armor and weapons of quality to produce wonderful items, and the combinations of effects you can create can make your jaw drop. The down side to this? Its HELLA expensive. I'm running through the game on Easy level, and I am having trouble with making items that I want. I created my monk's flaming burst staff, only a +1 weapon, and that ran me a good 25,000 gold pieces. I suspect that as you play in the harder levels of the game, you will get more gold, but of course, the monsters are tougher. The designs of the areas such as the dungeons, are detailed, beautiful, and sometimes downright creepy to behold. There is a dungeon where I was fighting kuo-toa that STILL gives me shivers. Again, I am an admitted Baldur's Gate slappy, but I think that while the first game was good bordering on great, this one is much, much better. Now then, back to playing.

Okay, my copy arrives tomorrow, but my roommates went ahead and bought a copy for themselves, and I have been watching them play. So, I thought I would give a little primer as to what I have seen. The monsters are tougher: I like this. In the first game, monsters would make a beeline to you and seek to just beat you to death. This time, the monsters move faster, and they can *block* attacks, just like the players can. That requires a little more strategy and planning. The AI seems to be ramped up quite a bit, and thats good. More cooperative play: in a two-player game, there is a pool of money that the players both donate to. This eliminates player greed, and enforces more planning in the purchasing of armor, weapons and equipment. More playable characters: they learned a lesson for the first game, in that three selectable characters and one hidden character was simply not enough, even though the replay value was pretty damn high for that game (I'm still playing it just to hone my playing skills and to collect the best magic weapons I can find). This time out they started with five (a dwarven thief, a moon elf necromancer, a drow monk, a human barbarian, and a human cleric), and an as of yet a undetermined number of hidden characters (I am thinking three, and my theory would be the original three from the first game, since they are mentioned heavily in the storyline, and the game itself starts with them being captured and tortured, but I may be wrong about this, and time will tell soon enough). This increases the replay value exponentially from the first game. More will follow when my copy arrives tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Actually, I had Stacy Keibler come up to me just before my match at WrestleMania and tell me to "be careful" and that she was "always by my side" or something to that effect. I also had her in my stable, though, so I don't know which one was the cause of her talking to me. It was pretty cool, though. They should show a little bit of accomplishment to the wrestler for getting through that storyline, as the manager vs. wrestler match can be hella hard, depending on the opponent.... maybe if they gave an option for the manager to come down to ringside, or even an addendum to the wrestler's splash screen. One of my favorite things I discovered about SYM, was that if your wrestler possessed the Cruiserweight, Tag, IC and WC titles at once, they called you a Grand Slam Champion. Little things like that make a game worth playing over and over again.

In the next game, all submission holds should get the meter treatment, but maybe vary degrees of damage inflicted with them depends on the "strength" of that hold, coupled with the damage previously inflicted on the body part the submission hold is attacking, modfied by the attackers and victim's Submission rating... Kevin Nash has a NASTY submission hold that turned one arm orange while it turned the other yellow. Ouch.

Death is a relative term with comics in general. Marvel is not the only company that is guilty of that, not by a long shot. I don't mind resurrections as long as they make some kind of sense. I liked what they did way back when with Madeline Pryor.

Aside from the usual problems, downloading from IRC servers is a lot more reliable. I would say about 60% of the stuff I have on CD (music, movies, porn, games) I got from IRC servers... DALNet was the best before their servers went flooey. Doing XDCC is pretty good, most of the people that serve has fast servers, its just that everyone and their mother want the things that you want. Its just a matter of being patient.

I'm just glad Return of the King got its due.