Getting back into Guild Wars again.
Well, as pointless as it is, one of my favorite things to do in the game is “farming”. For the Guild Wars uninitiated; Farming is basically killing the same enemies over and over in order to get the money and items that “drop” when you kill them.
What makes it somewhat pointless in this game is that most things are cheap, and the best items aren’t all that rare. Anything particularly valuable in this game is only because it has a different, or rare appearance, even while it may have the exact same statistics as a more common item. Blah blah.
But recently I’ve gotten the skills together to farm a new area, and I have to say it’s the most effective farming I’ve done in a long time! I didn’t make the video below, but it shows where and what goes on. Sorry if the music sucks. I don’t have speakers at work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEIDoJvfT3k]
A look back: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Well it has been quite some time since my last re-review. Yet somehow the gap is somewhat appropriate considering the drought of good games leading up to this title. Infact to get to the next truly memorable game you have to go all the way back to Top Gear Rally, or GoldenEye 007 both released over a year earlier! Doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you’re young, have lots of free time, and have played all your games to death it feels like years!
All that time leaves little else to do but anticipate the next big thing, which in this case was the first ever 3-D Zelda game. By now the internet was picking up steam and the hype machine was in full force. N64.com had recently become the new IGN64.com, predecessor to IGN.com as it is today. There was no shortage of information, screen shots, first hand impressions… you name it. And the word was this could possibly be the greatest game yet made, perhaps even ever to be made. Depending on who you ask, it has still yet to be surpassed.
To sum things up, if you own a Nintendo 64 you must own Zelda. It’s that simple. And if you don’t own the system, Zelda is reason enough to make your purchase — right now.
-Matt Casamassina (IGN64.com)
Limited edition gold cartridge.
So here I am. I’m desperate for a really great game. I’m hyped. And I’m broke! Unfortunately I didn’t have the cash to throw down and reserve a copy and get the gold cartridge by the deadline. But I saved and saved, and played my hand. I showed up at Wal-Mart at 6:00 AM on release day to see if I could weasel in and get an extra gold cartridge. My first attempt was thwarted. They informed me I could by a regular copy, but the gold ones were folks that pre-ordered. (I KNEW THAT!) I asked what I had to do to get my hands on one. The guy at the counter looked around and said in a more discrete tone, “We’re going to hold all the pre-orders for two weeks… After that they go on the shelf. If you come in first thing two weeks from today, and if there’s any left… you can buy one.” I gave him a nod of understanding and with a great amount of restraint, walked out of the store without the game.
Two weeks later, I’m up at 4:30 AM. Get around and ready for the 30 minute trip to Dodge City to hopefully claim my game. No matter what I’m leaving the store with Ocarina of Time, gold or otherwise. I could only hope it was with the collector’s edition that I had put my self through an additional two weeks of torture for. So I arrive around 5:30 AM just incase there was a line… Yeah right. I was possibly the ONLY customer in the store. Night shift was still cleaning up empty stock boxes, so I milled around looking at the electronics section waiting for anybody to show up who might have a clue what was going on. Right around 6:00 somebody walked up to one of the registers and they were carrying a cardboard box about 2/3 full of N64 games. Quickly I approach them and ask if those are the Zelda games getting ready to go on the shelf. “Yes they are.” Moments later the cash is exchanged and I’m heading out of the store with a plastic bag, a shiny gold box and a big grin on my face. It is mine!
I remember getting back in the car and actually SHOUTING for joy! Super geeky I know, but it’s one of those moments you look forward to for so long that when it finally gets there, you feel like you’ve just been dreaming about it the whole time, but now all of a sudden it’s real. You can hold it in your hands as if it were conjured from your thoughts and pulled into reality. Re-thinking this experience really reminds me of why I was so into gaming then, and why the N64 holds such a nostalgic appeal for me. In those days there was nothing better than “release day” of the game you’ve been looking forward to for so long.
Wow, over 700 words and I still haven’t said anything about actually playing the game!
Eleven years later I’m picking the game up again. Although this time it’s in a somewhat different fashion than the previous games I’ve gone back and played. I chose to play from the Ocarina of Time/Master Quest Gamecube Disc. The advantage being I was able to get progressive scan for sharper graphics. But I also had to use a Gamecube controller, which takes some getting used to compared to the N64 controller for this game. So I cheated a little bit, but all in all, the experience was almost as fantastic as it was the first time around!
It has been so long since I played this game. Partly because you have to have a decent chunk of time to devote to it to actually get anything accomplished. For this reason I probably haven’t played the game in almost 8 years. I have forgotten so much about this game, the little nuances, puzzles and side stories were all waiting to be re-discovered. This ends up making this one of the most powerful revisits yet and by and large the reason it has taken so long to write this installment. Once I picked Ocarina of Time up, I haven’t been able to put it down!
Other than some dated graphics (which have aged surprisingly well) this game could easily pass even today as a true example of great gameplay. It’d didn’t hit me right away, as much of the beginning of the game is still quite familiar… but as I progressed past the first hour or so, the whole game really started to open up for me as I found my self back in 1998 all over again, wondering where to go next, and how to beat the current boss.
And oh the boss battles! I remember the sheer sense of scale that you felt when that door locked behind you and you were faced with some terrifying bohemouth that you appeared to have no hope of beating. Taking down a giant flame breathing lizard when you’re only 4ft. tall makes the victory that much more sweet. I was constantly surprised how often these bosses and dungeons had me at my wit’s end wondering how the heck I beat it. I mean, I KNOW I can do it! I DID it once already! Curse my memory for not being able to pull the solution from the depths of my brain. But even more… relish the ambiguity as it gives me the opportunity to relive the rush of putting the pieces together for the first time. If only I could be so lucky as to not remember any of my games!
Screwed.
As I played through the game, the story didn’t seem as significant as I remember. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good story, but it’s not the glue that holds the game together. Rarely is there a cinema sequence that lasts longer than a minute. But the scenes that are there are powerful and succinct. Rather than deluge you with information and plot lines (a la Final Fantasy) they primarily serve to point you towards your next destination but also often evoke feelings of duty, courage, and help provide a purpose to powering through what can be some very frustrating quests.
The heart of this game, as it is with all Zelda games is the gameplay, getting new tools and thinking up ingenious ways of using them to accomplish your task. This is adventure in its purest form. For instance you find yourself in a room with a locked door… one torch is lit, one is not. You’ve been here before, and what you did was pull out a branch and light it on fire using it to carry the flame to the unlit torch which in turn would unlock the door. Of course that was when you were a kid… BEFORE you traveled through time. Now you don’t have any timber so what do you do? After a few seconds of hard thought you step to the side, pull out your bow and arrow and fire through the flame to the unlit torch and as your arrow strikes, the second torch comes to life… the door unlocks, and you press ahead to see what challenge could possibly await you on the other side. Little moments like these bring a smile to your face, and they happen literally ALL THE TIME in this game.
If that all isn’t enough, the game just completely immerses you in the environment. Wonder what’s over that hill, or behind that building? Well guess what, you can go find out. You might need a horse or a hookshot, but odds are if you can see it, you can get close enough to really check it out. Come to find out there can be whole worlds hidden behind places you’ve walked past dozens of times. While sometimes sparse by today’s standards, the world still feels very much alive. Not just in the sense that there’s people living in towns and villages, but that the landscape changes over time. And with the time travel feature, things you do in the past are reflected in the future… sometimes you find out what you did after you supposedly already did it and realize you’d better go back and do it! Whoa! Mind blown!
Ocarina of Time also has one of my all time favorite video game moments of all time. After you’ve beaten all the temples, awakened every sage and you’re finally ready to battle the great Gannondorf, you arrive at his castle. You fight your way through one final mini dungeon climaxed by a long winding stair case. At the base you faintly hear an organ playing. As you ascend the music grows louder and louder, more maddening with each and every step… Well just watch. (Skip to about 1:45 — Spoilers obviously)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI1CFx1oric]
Just a fantastic game from start to finish. I always enjoyed it, but I think I appreciate it even more after the second time through. This game just flat delivers where 95% of other games don’t. Titles like this are why I’m a Nintendo fan. You don’t need a fancy sound system or TV to enjoy this game. Just some free time and the love of adventure. It may not be a perfect game, but it’s about as good as any game will ever get. And that earns it a 10/10 in my book.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuGTSVReLEI]
02.25.09Mini Gwen
She follows me wherever I go!
Well I’ve been stock piling gold in Guild Wars for a few months now and finally got enough to buy one. But apparently I had enough a long time ago, as the mini Gwens are going for about half what I thought the were!
There’s really no point to the mini pets other than to show them off. Some are more rare than others and this one happens to be one of the harder to find ones. It has appeal to me, because it harkens back to the early days of Guild Wars when I first started playing. You meet Gwen in the first area and she follows you around oblivious to all the enemies attacking you. Somewhat comical.
So now I need to figure out what the heck I’m going to do next in this game!
02.24.09Haven’t posted lately…
So I decided it’s about time to post about SOMETHING!
Honestly, there’s really not much to report on. Things are plugging along as usual, and to be honest that’s how I like it. No news is good news right?
I built a little directional Wi-Fi antenna that was posted on Lifehacker.com For some paper and tin foil that I already had laying around the house the return on investment is well worth it. We ditched our old router for this one a while back and it made a big improvement. But we’d still lose the connection once in a while. But since I added this, I’m getting 95% – 100% signal strength to our server in the living room! Not bad!
I’m plugging along on my next N64 re-review. I don’t really want to say what game I’m working on, but to at least half the folks that read my blog here, probably know. I will say that so far after all these years, the game has been compelling enough for me to want to beat it again before posting about it. A true testament to how great the game is.
I remember being a kid and loving and living for winter. All the snow, it was so pretty and so fun. But I’ll be honest, I’m ready for spring. And this has been quite the mild winter even! I’m excited to get out and work on the cars. We’re looking to repaint Andrea’s car next month, and I need to get my front end rebuilt on mine. I am looking forward to getting some flowers planted out front. And maybe even some grass to grow in the back yard! But I’m trying to stay realistic here!
I think Andrea and I have found ourselves a nice church that we both like. An interesting story… The first day we went apparently they had a “guest pastor”. All well and good, except the guy ended up SCREAMING at the congregation for the whole sermon. Truly one of those “fire and brimstone” preachers. It was an…. intersting experience. For example, part of his sermon included talking about a young guy he wittnessed to and later that week got in a car crash with (and I quote) “brains all over the car” and he sure hoped that boy had taken Jesus as his savior. Now don’t get me wrong. I agree with him in message…. but that’s a little more graphic than I go for on my Sunday mornings. The regular preacher seems like a real nice guy. He’s a little charasmatic at times too, but he seems a lot more sincere about it. Make it more tolerable I suppose. For now we’re going to keep attending, and someday soon we might chat with them about membership.
I do know it’s nice to be going again though. I was really involved in church back when I was in school in Ingalls. But I think I got in over my head. I was leading the youth group there, and even preaching sermons when the pastor was gone one Sundays. Shoot I was only 16 or 17 at the time. And it seemed like the church always kept asking me to do more and more. To be honest my memory is kinda vague as to how it happened, but over a short time, I just sort of got frustrated, burned out, and fell away. Getting back into it has been harder than I ever imagined. But now that we’re going, it’s so much easier! I don’t know about Andrea, but it’s a refreshing feeling.
That’s about it.
02.10.09Built for gaming.
Well I had a decent amount of lumber leftover from the workbench. (I bought 10ft. 2×4’s instead of 8ft. ones) So I’ve been thinking what I was going to do with the extras. We’ve had our old TV sitting down in the basement since we moved in, and I enjoyed my old N64 setup for the few short weeks I had it set up at the old house. I decided I would like to get it going here, but didn’t want to rob one of the nice glass top end tables from the living room if I didn’t have to.
I didn’t have any build plans for this, but it might look familiar. I used much the same idea as the workbench. Just smaller demensions. I think it turned out well. And like the workbench, this thing is solid and HEAVY. Guess I’m used to particle board furniture. Ha ha!
02.2.09Time capsule
For those that follow my Twitter, you heard that I bought a “new in the box” N64 controller off of eBay last week. When it comes to eBay, I’m always skeptical by default. But at the price of $27 I figured it was worth a shot. I only have two good working controllers for my N64, and even if this was isn’t BRAND new, I’ll just be happy if it has a nice tight analog stick. So after work today there’s a package waiting for me. I tear it open ready for some disappointment.
So far so good.
The box wasn’t in pristine shape, but I’m not too worried about that. I used to save all my boxes for all that stuff but eventually I decided to throw them away. The controller looks good so far, but someone could have easily repackaged a used controller in a box. But the nice crisp warranty card is a good sign that this might actually be the real deal.
I'm calling it new. Or at least good as new!
After removing the plastic and a thorough inspection, I don’t see any signs of this old thing ever being used. There’s no real proof that it isn’t used, but as far as I’m concerned it’s better than 95% of the controllers that are still out there. I tested it out and it works perfectly. And now much to Andrea’s chagrin, I repackaged it in the box and it’s sitting next to my computer. To stay “new” as long as possible. Ha ha!
01.24.09I didn’t know it’d been that long!
Well I was playing Animal Crossing in the Wii yesterday. And I found myself thinking, “You know, the music on the original Animal Crossing was so much better.”
Out of curiosity I fired it up. There was a town on the memory card that Andrea and I had created back in the day called Raleigh. Of course it was FULL of weeds! I wasn’t sure how long it’d been since I’d played the game, so I started talking to the citizens. They’d be sure to inform me. First animal I came across wasa kangaroo named Mathilda. “Whoa, a blast from my past,” she said. “I haven’t seen you for 38 months!” Wow. I knew it’d been a long time, but it sure didn’t seem like 3 years!
Then I run into Groucho who’d lived in my original town of Hilldale from the very first day I played the game. Apparently he moved to Raleigh and he complained that he hadn’t seen me for 52 months! I felt a little guilty to tell you the truth.
01.13.09Laments of a City Folk Denizen
Well lately my gaming focus has slowly shifted from the PC to the Wii. Now I’ve been playing as much Animal Crossing as a person can really play in any healthy manner. Andrea complains about my dedication from time to time (even though she’s the one that bought the game for me)!
So I’ve gotten enough bells saved up that I can really start getting involved in the good ol’ stalk market. I have a horde of turnips laying around my house, just hoping for a good price now! Unfortunately since I got the Nookington’s remodel, Nook’s hours are now 9AM – 9PM. This wouldn’t really be a problem if I hadn’t recently discovered that turnip prices change twice a day. One AM price and one PM price. Well since I have to be to work by 9 AM and I don’t get lunch until after noon, I never get to see the AM price! I could be missing out on some prime profit making opportunities!
The good news is, that eventually Nook gives you the choice between a better selection of items (Nookington’s) or better hours (Nook n Go). While I do enjoy the better chance of finding furniture that goes with my place, I think I’m going to go back to the Nook’s that’s open 20 hrs. a day. At least until I make more bells than a person could know what to do with!
A tragic dilemma, I know. I suppose it’s times like this I’m thankful I’m blessed enough to complain about stuff like this! Ha ha!
01.5.09Animal Crossing and the internet
Well I figured I’d share a few of the pictures I’ve taken in the new Animal Crossing: City Folk.
Me and my house decked out for Christmas.
Snowman melting.
Biebs and I decided to test out the Wi-Fi connection last night. I headed over to his town and met some new animals. One of them even sent me a present already. It’s much better than the DS connection, because all the animals don’t just retreat to their houses. The towns are very much alive when you visit. I cleaned out half of Nook’s Cranny, and Biebs and I got together for a photo op.
Left: Matt - Right: Biebs
"Online interactions are not rated by the ESRB."
For the record, we were comparing fish we caught! And one last picture of the “Northern Lights” I snapped last night.
Northern Lights
A bit of a confession…
Against my better judgement over the weekend I decided to log into my old Second life character. For those that are unfamiliar with the software, you can think of it in simple terms as The Sims except with access to all of the unwholesomeness the internet has to offer. If you want a house and any money to spend in the “game” you have to pay a monthly subscription (which I don’t).
In more specific terms, Second Life could be a graphical representation of the internet. Instead of having a website, you can buy a patch of land. On that land you can create anything you want. Maybe you just want it to be your own personal space. Or you can even make a business where you make real money. And of course just as porn abounds on the internet itself, so it does in Second Life as well. Fortunately these sections of the map are clearly labeled “Mature”. That said there’s still plenty of “PG” areas where mature content is not aloud.
Honestly the concept really intrigues me. And the reason I use the phrase “against my better judgement” is because of the reputation the game recieves for attracting the most socially inept people in exsistance. Can’t make real friends? Your real job suck? Don’t do something about it…just play Second Life! …just an example of why I have reservations.
The part that fascinates me is the content creation part. While admittedly there is a learning curve, Second Life offers a playground of sorts to try out 3-D modeling, texture art, scripting, and the like. If you can imagine it, with enough skill you can probably build it in Second Life. You also retain the rights to anything you make. Which means you own it, and if you want, you can sell it. Whether anyone WANTS it is another matter.
So as of yet, I haven’t decided whether to pursue my fascination any further.