Backlog
Decided that it was a day for some retro fun. I picked up Final Fantasy III off eBay a while back. Weeks ago actually. I just today finally got around to beginning a file.
While I’d call myself a fan of the Final Fantasy series, my experience with this game is essentially zero. I’ve heard it’s awesome. And many people think it’s the best Final Fantasy game of them all, and some people even think it’s the best game ever made. Again, I can’t comment on any of these claims because until today, I’d never played it!
So far I’m about two hours in and I have to say I’m enjoying it thoroughly. Even in 2013 this game is compelling. I can see how in the early 90’s this game would have been epic. Not that it isn’t epic now, but it’s not really fair to compare this game’s presentation with something from today’s hardware with HD, surround sound, and fully orchestrated soundtracks.
It hasn’t been too difficult, but I have to confess, I really didn’t understand how to use save points AT ALL for a long time. I thought just walking over the save point activated it… nope not so much. A fact I only found out after I got my but kicked in the Vargas fight. It was pretty obvious to me I was supposed to use Sabin’s “Blitz” command, but I failed to notice any explanation on how to use it! I kept getting “Invalid Blitz Input”. I died… then found out all those save points I thought I saved at… didn’t. But after some brief frustration and going all the way back to the first arrival at Figaro Castle… I regrouped myself.
After an event like that, most games I put away and think, I’ll come back to it when I’m not so pissed (Metroid Prime). But this time, I was so thoroughly enjoying the game, that I really wanted to get back where I was, and see where it was going. It took me about 45 minutes to get back to the Vargas fight (ACTUALLY saving frequently along the way this time). And I made it a point to pay close attention to where it explains how to use that Blitz command. Only it DOESN’T! I can only assume in the instruction booklet it explains how to “Blitz”, because no where in the game did it even hint at what to do. And as far as I can tell, that’s the only way to win that fight. I had to seek the guidance of the internets to figure out what I was supposed to do there.
You know, there was a time when all you had was an instruction booklet and maybe a friend that had played the game before you to help when you got stuck like that. You might be able to go buy a magazine with some hints in it at the store, but that would require your mom taking you there, and you know darn well, Mom wasn’t going to take you to the store solely to buy a magazine for a video game you were stuck on. So you had to REMEMBER you wanted that magazine the next time you happened to be there. And even then, you were lucky if begging her to buy it worked. So thanks for the Internet, I guess.
I think for the rest of tonight, I’m going to play some Guild Wars 2 before it’s back to the weekly grind of work and my 1.5 hours of free time each night. Man, being a grown up is grueling sometimes. Remind me to write that blog about how I vowed to make gaming a priority for life back when I was 15.
Meanwhile in Tyria
This weekend I had the pleasure of playing more Guild Wars 2. Big thanks goes out to Biebs from joshbieber.com for helping me steamroll through a personal story quest I’ve been stuck on for months.
After that I spent some time exploring more of Lion’s Arch and the Gendarran Fields to the north.
Overlooking the thick of Lion’s Arch.
Lion’s Arch Centre. Asura transport gates on the right will take you to any corner of the world you could want to go.
The Ascalon Settlement in Kryta has certianly grown in the past 250 years.
Arrrg. Pirates. I spent a lot of time sneaking around their lair and hassling them. (a.k.a. killing them and stealing their booty)
Now this is a fortress. A Vigil stronghold in the middle of Kryta. The Vigil is a military group dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons. A far greater threat than stinky ol’ pirates. A threat I definitely am not ready to face.
Lots of epicness here.
By far my favorite part of this game is the exploration. I’m avoiding all the wikis, and walkthroughs, and guides. I’m just going down every new path with complete and utter ignorance to what lie ahead of me, and it is a fantastic experience! Seeing a big brick wall at the top of a hill, only to discover it is the amazing fortress you see above. I can’t get enough of this game!
03.1.13Mr. Rogers – “Garden of Your Mind”
Luke and I watch a lot of Mr. Rogers together, and Mr. Rogers often comes up at work when we’re talking about childhood things or wholesomeness. We were discussing how new songs are so catchy, but we try to avoid listening to the lyrics, because it can ruin the song for us.
I said, “Why don’t artists sing about wholesome things with catchy tunes?”
Then my co-worker showed me this:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/OFzXaFbxDcM]
02.27.13B.G. Willers Podcast – Melting Snow
The storm has finally moved on! I’ve been a bachelor for a few days so I cranked out a podcast.
Topics:
- Winter Storm Agatha
- Vectrex… again.
- Backlog of games grows
- Andrea got Guild Wars 2!
- EA Wants Games to Cost $69
- Podcast Music
- Mystery Song
DOWNLOAD HERE
Impending Doom
I’m ready for it. Bring it on. I have plenty of beer. I have Spam and bread. I have a wiener dog for company. I have 4 stacks of firewood. So even if we lose power for a few days, I can handle it.
At work we took it upon ourselves to dub this coming storm, “Winter Storm Agatha”. We’ve been using that term on the air on two radio stations and on the work Facebook pages. I’m curious to see if people just assume we know what we are talking about or not. Haha. I figure if the Weather Channel can unilaterally name a blizzard “Nemo” we can call this one Agatha.
One of two things will ultimately happen. One, I get out of work before it gets really nasty tomorrow, get home, and likely snowed in Thursday morning. Or two, things get too nasty to drive home after work Wednesday and I end up getting stuck at the radio station. I’d much rather be stuck at home than at work. But we’ll just have to see what happens. I really don’t want to get the Cutlass stuck anywhere, so I’m not going to take any travel chances. I’m just going to stock up on creature comforts and food on my way to work tomorrow and hope I don’t need any of them.
My gut always tells me they over exaggerate these storms. They seem pretty certain this will be a fairly significant event though. So we’ll see what actually materializes. Dad said it best when I was talking to him on the phone tonight, “They’ve narrowed it down. We are for sure going to get somewhere between 2 and 22 inches of snow.” Haha.
Hunker down. Agatha beckons!
Why I Hate People
So early this morning a ten ton space rock slammed into the atmosphere above Siberia. It streaked across the sky then exploded with the force of an atomic bomb miles above the surface. It was an amazing sight but also somewhat tragic as around 1,000 peopled were injured by shattered glass from the enormous shockwave it created tearing through the air. Now for thousands of people it has become difficult to heat their homes and businesses with no windows in weather that is well below freezing.
But taking away the spectacle and tragedy of the event I found myself appreciating one fact. For once, at long last, here’s an event that no one can point fingers on. This meteoroid had been circling the sun long before humans even walked on the earth. From the moment the universe was created, that ten ton rock was destined to crash down to earth today, whether there were humans here or not. So we can’t blame it on global warming, politicians, corporations or policies. There are certain forces in our continuum that are beyond our ability to control, and this was a shining (literally) example one of them. A tragedy of inescapable fate.
But even I underestimated human arrogance. It didn’t take long for political figures to call for more robust sky searching and a plans to seek and shoot these things out of the sky. Commentors on the stories cried of the injustices of cutting science and exploration program budgets that could have PREVENTED this! I find it hard to believe that some people think so highly of the human race. That we are only a few misplaced intentions away from solving any problem that stands in our path to Utopia. Doesn’t anyone ever reflect on our utter insignificance in the universe?
I think people just don’t fathom the scale involved here. The sky is a big place. The sky is measured in degrees, and the total area of the sky is about 40,000 square degrees. By comparison the moon is only about 0.5 degrees across, which gives an area of approximately 0.2 square degrees. So the moon takes up only 0.0005% of the sky. That’s one-twenty-thousandth of the sky! And you thought the moon was pretty big! And it is. It’s 2,150 miles wide and it’s 239,000 miles away. Let’s compare that to this meteor that is guestimated to be (generously) 60 feet wide. So the moon is 189,000 times larger than this meteor. Therefore if we would have discovered this meteor as it came within the orbit of the moon around earth, it would still only appear in 1/3.8×10^10 of the sky. That’s 1/38 billionth of the sky. In other words… it would have been remarkable to have seen this thing coming.
Now let’s talk about the speed. This thing entered the atmosphere at 19 miles PER SECOND. Let’s say IF you caught sight of this tiny little thing at the same distance of the moon’s orbit, you would have almost exactly 3.5 hours until impact. That’s 3.5 hours to detect it, calculate the trajectory, inform missle command, evaluate the probability of hitting a populated area, program the missile guidance, launch the missle and intercept the meteoriod. Does anything happen that fast at your job?
Let’s face it. Our lives here are insignificant and fragile. We can no more prevent our demise than we can take credit for our existence. That’s not a “God” thing, it’s just a sum of the forces at work in the universe. On most days we can blame each other for most of our problems… but today was not one of those days.
02.11.13B.G. Willers Podcast – Vectorized
Well, I bet you can guess what half of this podcast is about. I promise it’s not all Vectrex though!
DOWNLOAD HERE!
02.10.13Luke & Mommy Playing
Sorry. Now with video!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/xmC9hjdEtGo]
02.10.13Guild Wars Adventures with Matt & Andrea: Part 1
Sorry about the sound quality. I had trouble getting my headset working so I ended up using my cellphone which turns out didn’t work well at all. Andrea’s audio sounded great though.
More than anything this was just something fun we decided to do after listening to the Guild Wars Soundtrack the other day and getting all nostalgic. We decided to start brand new characters, just like it was day one all over again.
Here’s Part 1, I’ll make sure I get a new headset before I record part 2.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/dKQpuqptVgM]
02.9.13Unboxing the Vectrex
[youtube=http://youtu.be/pIrZzUjXTdE]