Feb 21, 2012

Call me a copycat, but i wanna do something similar to Marcia Furman. From now on, I'm going to use this blog to post any artwork and sketches that i do. Since I'm at college and can am busy a lot of the time, I wan to do at least one post a week, but doing more as my schedule permits. I'm hoping that this will force me to practice my drawing a lot, and will also let me look back through all of my art and let me see how i've gotten better.



My friend Cayce from Malone in Ebony Pencil.

Squaresoft to Square Enix. Was it worth it?

In my opinion, square just hasn't been the same since the merge with Enix Corp. I dont think that they've put out a game since the merge that equated in quality with the games that came pre-merge. I remember playing FF10 (my first final fantasy game) and saying that it was the best game i had ever played. I loved the battle system, the music, the story, all the back stories of the characters and the history of Spira. I loved everything about it! so much that i have multiple gamesaves of 60+ hours (one over 110 hours). Then the merge came and, being so new to square games, i didn't know anything about it.
I recently played FF7 also! This game has been known as the crown jewel of the final fantasy series since it came out. The PS1 games are sought after by collectors like they were gold, and i can clearly see why. No, the graphics aren't that great. Heck, they SUCK by today's sandards, but back in the days of PS1, the cut scenes were revolutionary. A clear win for squaresoft, as this was there first 3D FF game. The characters are unforgettable, the story was gripping, twists around every corner and the embodiment of all things evil: Sephiroth himself. Sephiroth was, in my opinion, the greatest villain in the history of the world. To say why would be giving away more details than i would care to. If you've played this game, you know what i'm talking about. This is one of the few games that i would ever give 10 stars out of 10. It had everything that a good FF game should.

onto post-merge stuff.

I saw FF10-2 on the shelf and when i played it for the first time, i was less than impressed. The story was shallow, battle-system completely changed (reminiscent of FF7 im thinking which isnt a bad thing, but not good when used with the next point), job system incorporated (which im not a huge fan of to begin with), and the entire game is played in missions? wtc is this? This isn't final fantasy X.

I never really forgave that game.

A few years later, i saw FF12 on the discount rack at gamestop and thought i'd try it. I popped it in, and an hour or two into the game i was getting hooked. I thought the battle and level-up system in this game were unique. You get to program your characters to do what you want in certain situations? heck yes! (well, thats what i said at first)
After a few boss fights and several level ups, i realized that the game just wasn't really worth it. I never ran from a battle, used the gambit system to the best of my abilities and i still had to level grind after every boss. I got tired of level grinding and gave up on the game.
Looking back, i dont really understand The character's reasons for journeying. It seems that Vann (the main character) is just along for the ride and everyone else has their own motives. You'll have to forgive me if there's some explanation later in the story that i haven't gotten to yet.

btw, I never played FF11. never appealed to me to pay 15 dollars a month to play a game, but apparently Square Enix aced the online gaming aspect of the series? idk.

Finally FF13. They're finally starting to get their act together again. The visuals are stunning. The battle system is inventive and fast paced. The story is interesting. The level up system actually gives jobs necessity (GASP!). I didn't really care very much about how linear the game was(although it would have been nice to have some more freedom to explore). I rarely found myself grinding for experience points, so i didn't get bored. My only complaint thus far (i havn't finished it yet) is when you get to Pulse. It's as though they drop the story and its ALL exploration, incorporated with an indirect kind of mission system. The enemies are too string for the characters at this point, so almost every battle I got into, I died. It took a decent amount of strategy to win a few battles with the lesser monsters. Now, im getting stronger and can almost beat the lesser monsters consistently.
Sorry, Square. You can't simply make everything linear in the game and give us all the exploration all at once with NO lineage. Both aspects have to present through the whole game.

I think that FF13 was the closest thing in quality to the pre-merge games. Hopefully, square will get its feet on the ground again with FF15, since 14 is going to be another online game. They seem to be getting closer and closer, but just missing one little undefined detail.

Halo Reach -- The needle rifle: then and now

Just a quick post to reiterate my nerdiness 8D

So the needle rifle is being put into halo:reach as the covenant version of the BR, but did you know that bungie actually got the idea from a fan-made map back in the days of Halo 1?

Here is a picture that i took of it way back when.


Here is a picture of the rifle now:


The original rifle had two modes. The first was a burst mode that shot like the needler with the same rapid fire, homing needles we all know that explode when many impact the target. The second mode is a single shot that uses 2 or 3 needles in one concentrated super-needle. This shot, if you missed, bounced off of walls several times before dissipating, and was an instant kill if it hit the target.

The newer version of the needle rifle has only one mode which is fully automatic, although most players use it as a semi auto weapon. Its damage is almost the same as a the DMR or BR, but deals less damage than either when shot into flesh.

In addition to the needle rifle, bungie also got the idea of other things from fan-maps. one of which is the Halo 2 map "relic" which was copied from the Halo: CE fan-map "blood islands."

looking for final fantasies

Yea, thats right. i'm starting to collect the entire series. well, of the main line. Thats final fantasy 1 - 13 on playstation disks right now, and not and sides like chocobo tales crystal chronicles or tactics, although i may end up going for those too eventually.

as of right now i have 8, 10, 10-2, 11, 12 and 13. So if anyone has Origins(1 & 2), chronicles(4 and chrono trigger), Anthology(5 & 6), 7, or 9 and you're willing to sell please say something and maybe we can work something out. I prefer black box editions, but greatest hits work also.

obsessive stuff

----------OBSESSIONS----------
Ever since Cornerstone this year, I've been thinking about getting into unicycling. I'm not sure why it started there, but i think it would be a good new obsession to get into. Yoyos are kind of dying out a little and i need to find something to keep me occupied.

he way my obsessions work is I find an obsession to occupy my time and stick with it exclusively for a long time, usually a year or two. Then when i get bored with that one, i either find a new one or go back to an old one. Then when i come back to the obsession i got bored with later, I'm better than i ever was before and can do things i wasn't able to before.
I've seen this with both rubik's cubes and yoyo's so far. rubik's cubes are starting to make their way back, but not the whole way. It's weird because all of my obsessions before have been all about micro-motion (small movements with fingers or whatever) but this one is more about macro-motion (bigger, full-body movements). I've never had one that dealt with macro motion before so im interested to see how this will turn out.

I've asked Dave Krack (the local unicyclist) on facebook if i could borro one until i can buy my own, but who knows if he'll check his messages o not. So far he hasn't accepted my friend request, probly because wither he forgets or he doesn't know how :/

anyways, those are my thoughts lately

----------PARTAE!----------
My parents went away on monday for a few days and gave me permission to have a party. I decided to have a Halo party since we haven't had one in a while. There were two groups. It just happened that all the halo veterans were on one team and all those that never really played before were on another team. The second game we tried to even it out with 3 people on the veterans and 5 people on the n00b team. The inexperienced team still didn't have fun because they couldn't get a kill on the other team. *sigh* i wish bungie didn't take out the handicap option that they had in halo 2.
after that was a short amount of DDR which didnt really work ince the TV had a bit of lag with the PS2, and the rest was us wandering youtube.

What i learned: leave the video game parties to the pros.

I didn't really fight, but the law still won

yoyo club and drive in night yesterday. Toy story 3 was AWESOME. see it. Price of persia...it was pretty good, but i dont care if i see it again. just not my kind of movie :/

Going to and from the drive in i had to drive jared's girlfriend's house to pick her up and drop her off, and she lives deep into prospect, which is in the complete opposite direction from where i live from the church by a good 15 miles, then another while on the backroads.

While driving her back, I see lights in my back mirror, and i thought it was an ambulance since it was a fairly big car, but couldn't really see very well because of their headlights, so i pulled a little onto the berm (while still driving) to let them pass. they didn't pass. I tried it a few more times and nothing. Finally, they put on their siren. Ohhh crap, the police >.>
I pulled over and stopped, turned off the car and waited. I didn't know what to expect because i'd never been pulled over before...
police: "DRIVER OF THE WHITE VEHICLE, STEP OUT OF THE CAR WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
me: (WHAT!? what'd i do?)
I stepped out, hands in the air.
P:"NOW BACK UP SLOWLY TO US!"
when i got back far enough, the guy pushed me on the hood of their car, twisted my arm behind my back, shoved my head against the car, and pulled my belt up so high it gave me a wedgie.
He asked me a bunch of questions, once or twice using some colorful language. Then prceded to frisk me.
"Do you have and weapons on your person?"
"No," i answered in a loud, firm voice.
"Do you have and alcohol or any narcotics in the vehicle?"
"No," i answered again.
He pushed me again against the vehicle, "You better stop that attitude right now! You're already in a whole load of SH**."
I was only doing what i was taught to do in school...i didn't MEAN and attitude.
He eventually released me and took me to the front of the car and put my hands on the bar-thing while he went into his car and did something (im guessing talking on the radio?) and then he questioned Jared and Hope who were still in the back of my car.
He came to me told me i could stand up, and that our stories matched. Turns out i crossed the fog line on mount chestnut, and they started following me. Once i saw them and tried to let them pass by going over it again a few more times, they were convinced i was a DUI (i guess that makes sense...wish i would thought of that while i was driving >.>;). He let me off with a warning because he was convinced i wasn't drunk (didn't make me take a breathalyzer, though), and it was my first pull-over. he took down my info, and sent me off.

By the end (or actually from the first step out of the car) my heart was pounding out of my chest and twitching (yea, i twitch when i get really nervous. Especially in my right leg).
It wasn't until i was home and laying in bed that i realized that i probably has two guns pointed at me while i was backing up tot heir car, and i had a pocketknife in my pocket that i forgot about which would have looked bad, and i also forgot to mention the tylonol and ibuprofen that was in my glove compartment (im nto sure if those are considered narcotics, but i dont think it would have gotten me in trouble.)

all around, a good day, but a frightening night.

Just like that...

So, after trying for YEARS to get a job, I finally got one at the Salvation army about a week and a half ago, but i wasn't going to start until next week. My girlfriend was also hired there a few days before i was. We figured that we shouild probly tell them that we were dating just in case there were a problem. Turns out its against Their policy to hire two of the same family, or people that are dating.
I just got a call stating that I cannot be hired for this reason, so now im back to square one, in looking for a job for another few years to no avail. Just my luck.