NinjaRat

Like many others I am not happy with the most recent changes to Lj's terms of service. I understand that these changes are necessary for compliance with Russian law. That's not the same thing as liking these changes. I'm migrating everything to Dreamwidth (ninjarat.dreamwidth.org). With that finished I expect to be signing off from Lj for good.

So long, yada, yada.

Hey, seawasp,
If you haven't seen this yet:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1300298569/project-phoenix-japans-indie-rpg-feat-aaa-talent

For some inexplicable reason -- inexplicable by the Motorola Store rep I just spoke with, the phone I ordered last Friday is still being held. No idea why. They don't know why. It just is. Moto --.

With a little luck it will finally be released to shipping today. But not likely. Probably not according to the rep. Moto --.

But they're upgrading the shipping to overnight. Bad: if it ships Friday, tomorrow, then I won't see it until Monday. Good: they're eating the shipping. Moto +.

Saw Grindhouse last night.

Machete (trailer): Robert Rodriguez does "Death Wish" series.
Planet Terror is worth the price of admission, IMO.
Werewolf Women of the SS (trailer): I want to see this movie made because, you know, you get *exactly* what you expect.
Don't (trailer): hysterically funny.
Thanksgiving (trailer): Eli Roth's parody of the Halloween movies.
Death Proof: the first half is a good time to take a potty break but don't miss the second half. It has a fantastic car chase and you get to see Kurt Russel [rot13: pel yvxr n onol]. :)

I just noticed that the Mail.app Inbox on my Mac has 1138 messages in it.

It's double-redundant official now: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Google Translation) is coming for Wii. I just hope that we get a US version.

I like pancakes and waffles. Problem is that making them usually requires some form of self-rising flour. Self-rising flour is flour mixed with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). The soda reacts with water when heat is applied (baking) and makes air bubbles in the batter. The result is a light, fluffy texture -- and 150-300mg of sodium in each pancake. *sigh*

I got a George Foreman G5 grille last week, the one with the five plates including the waffle iron plates. This prompted an experiment: cut "complete" (just add water) pancake mix with potato flakes. I've tried a couple of different variations and this one came out best (at least better than the others):

1/3 cup "complete" pancake mix
1/3 cup potato flakes
1 large egg
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp canola oil

Mix all those together in a bowl and let sit for a few minutes while the grille pre-heats. Pour the batter onto the grille, half on each side, and close the grille. Cook for ~5 minutes. Makes 2 large waffles.

... Nintendo licensed Queen's "We Will Rock You" for commercials?

Thousand Arms (PSX): The only Red Company game that I know of that's been English/US localized. Red Company makes (or made; I don't know the status of the company right now) hybrid strategy/dating sim and RPG/dating sim games, "Sakura Wars" probably being the most well-known. Thousand Arms is of the RPG/dating type games and... it isn't that good. It doesn't stink? But it has problems. Most notable being that the game freezes during summon sequences, which is especially frustrating in the middle of boss fights, *especially* the last boss of the game. I had this problem on two different emulators, POPS and pSX. The combat system is of the "neat idea, poor implementation" sort. And the dating sim aspects, while amusing and fun, are largely irrelevant since you only need two or three of the roughly 80 spells that dating get you.

Lost Planet (X360): Phantasy Star Online meets Shadow of the Colossus. That is Lost Planet in a nutshell.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Yep, I went back to it to give it a try. The 1.03 patch helps a lot, as does Even's AI override pack. But, the game is still so unfinished. Like the two other Neverwinter Nine classes, Agent and Magus, that were never finished. Same with the Cavalier and a couple of others. The definitions exist in the game but the code to make them work does not -- nor do horses for the Cavalier. And the silly little frustrating thing is that towards the end of Chapter II you get a keep to manage -- and then the game turns into Suikoden as you start scavenging for people to staff the place. Which brings me to...

Suikoden (PSX): I've hit my old PSX library starting around Christmas 2006. A clever hacker called Dark_AleX (aka DAX) figured out how to load the 3.0X environment with a 1.50 boot loader -- which means that the POPS PlayStation emulator can be used for just about all existing PSX games. So, I've gone back to moderately old school (seriously old school will be when I get the Master System and Genesis emulators going for Phantasy Star :). Lunar was first for me, then Thousand Arms, and now Suikoden.

Suikoden is loosely based on the Chinese novel "Shui Hu Zhuan" or "Outlaws of the Marsh". The meat of the game is recruiting the "108 Stars of Destiny", corresponding to the 108 outlaws of "Shui Hu Zhuan", finding them, recruiting them, and fighting battles with them. Despite being fairly linear it is still a fun game and one of my all-time favorite RPGs.

Sid Meier's Pirates! (PSP): It was 20 bucks (some stores have it at $30 but it is supposed to be $20). I'm not sure if it counts as a remake of Pirates! Gold for PC or Sid's Pirates! for Xbox. Doesn't matter. It's just a fun game. I mean, who wouldn't have fun playing a pirate on the Spanish Main circa 1670? Ships to capture, treasure to unearth, lost cities to loot, beautiful governors' daughters to seduce. Yo-ho-ho! :)

I finished Dead Rising this evening. By "finish" I mean that I got the "A" ending and completed Overtime Mode to get the true ending. For all that it is a silly, campy, over the top zombie movie turned into a game, it actually has some pretty good game play. What I think is notable is that if Frank (the main character) dies, you can restart with all of his experience levels. That means you start with more health, more inventory slots, and more skills each time you play the game even if you don't finish. In other words, the game automatically becomes easier the more you play. That's cool.

If you are playing Dead Rising and finding it difficult, or you've given up in disgust because it is too hard, try doing the Zombie Genocider achievement. Killing 53,594 zombies in one play through gets you a lot of PP (experience) and thus quite a few levels, and it unlocks the Real Mega Buster -- that's Mega Man's right arm canon. The bad: you can only carry one Real Mega Buster; the shots are slow so quick-moving targets at long ranges can avoid the shots. The good: it respawns in the Security Room if you don't have one in inventory; it has 300 shots; it kills psychopaths (bosses) with just a few hits.