Tony Hawk's Underground

I bought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 back in the day. Spent many hours playing that. When I bought a PS2, the first games I bought were THPS3 (and then THPS4 when it came out). Also many fun hours with those games. Recently, I got myself the PC port of Tony Hawk's Underground. My spider sense should have gone off when I read on wikipedia that the port was a "budget release" and only released in Australia. Port sucked.

[IMG]http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/ww240/eztr/TonyHawksUnderground.jpg[/IMG]

First thing I noticed, browsing through the in-game menus, the sound effects would routinely disappear. Not sure if it was the game's problem or my computers - better to blame the game in these situations.

One of the bew features of THUG was the ability to upload a photo and then use it as a custom skater's face. I dug out a high school photo of myself, scanned it and popped it in. Pretty cool feature, though it probably would have looked better if I didn't have that gawky, exaggerated smile on my face. As a result, my custom skater was constantly smiling.

Unlike the Pro Skater series, the main part of the game no longer sees you completing different levels with your skater of choice. Here, you go through a story mode with a custom skater, starting as a local unsigned skater and working your way up. Sounds good. Only problem is that because the other pro skaters are no longer the main object, their graphics have been downgraded. Quite visibly as well.

Some notes from skating around in the first level:
- More sound problems. Various sound effects would drop out, then return later on.
- The new ability to get off your board and walk around doesn't feel comfortable. There's no sense of control. A lot of guesswork is needed to get from point A to point B (particularly when jumping to climb ledges, roofs, etc).
- The rejig of the controls was quite a jarring learning experience (mainly with the shoulder buttons).
- Gameplay motion felt fast. Add the fact that I found it hard to see much, and it felt quite chaotic.

The in-game missions are similar to objectives of previous games. Collect this, get this amount of points, hit this combo, etc. Stats could be raised by achieving certain goals. Getting new trick slots involved visiting a pro skater who would also offer a challenge. As with THPS4, you'd have freedom to select from whichever mission most tickled your fancy.

Easy going really. In no time, I was on the third or fourth level. Which was annoying, because I was wanting a challenge. I was wanting to fall in love with the maps. Instead, I was getting nothing. Rewards weren't rewarding, the story was ultra lacklustre (unaided by dull voice work and dialogue).

I gave up and uninstalled the game. No hesitation.

Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time

I often use Google's image search to look for a cover of an album. For Cornershop's When I Was Born for the 7th Time though, I couldn't find a large cover of the UK version, with appropriate colouring. So I scanned my own copy:

Click me for better performance in bed!!!

I'm curious to see whether this will eventually pop up in the images search results in the future.

Shining Force

What a confusing series of video games. There are all these different series (with different styles of gameplay) under the umbrella name of Shining Force, so I'm trying to get my head around what I've missed out on. Well, I know I've missed out on quite a bit. I'd been going by FantasyAnime's Shining Force information, and seeing that there was only four games listed, I thought that those were the only ones with English translations (either official or fan translated). Seeing that one Japan-released-only game had been translated by fans, I'd thought there be more out there.

But no, those four are the on FantasyAnime are the only old games in English available. I've only finished two of those four, and have visited a third briefly.

Mother, brother and I visited family in the US back in the day. An aunt bought us a Sega Game Gear console, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya, and this tetris like game. Man, that Game Gear sure was thirsty. Six AA batteries gave you a pittance of game time. It really pains me to think of all the batteries that I went through.

The Sword of Hajya was the first RPG I played, and was rather fun to boot. The 'cinematic' action sequences were probably the drawcard of the game. Characters would be depicted as cutesy manga-like characters in portraits and on the map, but when it came to battling, they'd suddenly be depicted realistically. 'tis an interesting idiosyncracy - kinda like the US cover shown above (you wouldn't expect to be dealing with manga characters in the game based on that cover).

Ah, that's more like it! The odd assortment of characters was entertaining. Humans, centaurs, dwarves, bird-men, and other anthromorphs all made for an interesting looking army. Ah, yes, that was another feature - you'd build an army as you beat levels and gathered new allies. Also, just as it was getting visually boring, you'd have the opportunity to promote your characters, so that they'd receive a new title, something like 'Knight' to 'Paladin'. This would coincide with a new look for the character. New and better weapons could also be discovered or bought.

The game had its share of oddities though. The colouring of characters would be counter-intuitive - say on the map, a character would have brown armour, but in their battle sequence, their armour would be green. Next up, our main protagonist is named Deanna. That takes the epicness out of everything.

I've just remembered something that plagued me back in the day. Certain characters would have a spell called 'egress', where you could retreat from a battle. The whole point of the spell was to allow characters to be able to level up, since you kept any experience points earnt. I didn't know back when I was a youngling. Thus, I'd go through a game without levelling up, eventually getting stuck on a certain map, when the difficulty level of the map would overcome my undeveloped characters. Every time I reached that point, I'd restart the entire game. More dead batteries =(

Recently, I discovered Game Gear emulators and ROMs, and so, I wiped my slate clean of that particular unfinished game. Hurrah!

Seeing that there were was another Shining Force game on the Game Gear, I decided to give it a go.

Final Conflict I didn't enjoy as much as The Sword of Hajya. Besides the lack of nostalgia driving me on, the characters seemed dull and the gameplay was very much the same. By dull characters, I mean another silent main protagonist but with blonde hair this time. Blonde! While Deanna had a bad name, at least he had pitch black hair to make a difference. Ian (not a bad name, but not one suitable for a game hero) is just plain stereotypical (tbh, I don't know of many main RPG characters with blonde hair... just my intuition writing here).

The fact that I didn't complete the Shining Force: The Legend of Great Intention ROM on the Sega Genesis probably didn't help. A few characters (or many, I'm not sure) from that game feature here (I've a feeling that there's quite a bit of character sharing in this series*). No nostalgia points for me. Mmyes, despite the Genesis games appearing to have slightly better graphics and more extensive gameplay (town exploration in particular), I just fancied the more simple graphics and gameplay of the Game Gear games.

Returning to Final Conflict now, it was pretty much more of the same. One small difference actually was that there more difficult levels, there'd be stronger enemies and tighter spaces to work through. Required more egress action.

I don't plan to explore the other games in the series. My experience with Final Conflict suggested to me that the fun experienced with The Sword of Hajya was feeding off nostalgia, and my anger regarding the Game Gear consuming so many batteries.

*The Sword of Hajya, called Shining Force Gaiden II in Japan, is actually a sequel. Unfortunately, there's no English translation of Shining Force Gaiden.

Pictures are all sourced from Shining Force Central.

Unobservant

• Holy crap, Sean Malone (Cynic, Gordian Knot) has a blog. I'm surprised it isn't inundated with fans (*cough* fanboys/girls). Heck, if I were a fan, his blog would be my homepage. Instead, I'm in objective awe, rather than subjective awe, haha.
• Masterchef Australia is iffy. It isn't beautiful, compelling reality television. The judges haven't had much experience on the screen and it shows. But... it is a relief from what viewers are probably accustomed to. That is, wild, exaggerated, predictable, eye-catching drama.
  
• Swine flu. Everything has its purpose. Humans aren't sacred.

Update

Been a while since I last posted. Too lazy to gather pictures, so here's a lazy rundown.

Flims
Les Diaboliques (1954) - Enjoyable French suspense/thriller.

Masque of the Red Death (1964) - Not so enjoyable adaptation based on Poe's short story. Vincent Price was too ridiculous for me. Wasn't particularly scary or pretty. Could have used pointless nudity.

Misuc
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - Pretty cool. Wish the vocals were mixed down slightly. Lots of nice melodies.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced - Prior to just recently, my conception of Hendrix's music was just of crazy guitar wankery. Not the case. Lots of great songs here.

General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - Nice. No fart noises from Patton here, good job all around. Wacky, but never stupid.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus - Again, I had a preconceived notion about reggae music. Again, my mind has been opened to its variety and capabilities.

Trivium - Ascendancy - Mmm... besides "Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr", album isn't doing much for me. Don't like Heafy's vocals either... there's no bite to it (besides in the song mentioned above, of course).

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk - Hmm... quite different to In the Nightside Eclipse. Nothing here has had any impact on me.

Madvillain - Madvillainy - MF DOOM bores me. He doesn't rap, he talks. Madlib's beats don't strike me as being particularly special either. Cynic in me says: "underground cred, DOOM wears a mask, hipster music".

Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth - I dig the aesthetic. I don't dig the 'everything sounds the same' ethic. I could make my own drone music. If I labelled it as a Sunn O))) product and threw it out there, people would eat it up.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine - Not a big fan of trip-hop. More than listenable though.

Bolt Thrower - War Master - You don't get fans of Death on Bolt Thrower's last.fm shoutbox trying to advertise Death. You do get fans of Bolt Thrower on Death's last.fm shoutbox trying to spread the word. Sounded like what I'd think generic death metal would sound like.

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell - Some nice stuff here, but overall, I don't favour the overall sound of the group's hip-hop.

Not Watching the Watchmen

Disclaimer 1: Title is a play on the phrase "Who Watches the Watchmen?". I am not calling the comic or film The Watchmen

Disclaimer 2: I'm feeling quite lazy, so I'm just going to throw out the key points and I'll trust you to piece it all together.

- So I haven't seen Watchmen. Monitored any updates while it was in production. The more I began to see of it, the less interested I became in it.
- If Alan Moore doesn't like it, then I don't like it either (haha).
- I do agree with what Moore has said. Reading Watchmen, I experience orgasms at moments throughout. It's spectacular, and the experience itself is one that I cherish.
- I don't want to watch the film and have that joy bastardised.
- Just seeing Matthew Goode as Ozymandias turned me off. Ozymandias is a wide jawed, perfect man. Goode looks like a geek. I want the character to remain the same way he has been on the page.
- Now that the movie has been released, some of the reviews have shared the same themes when it comes to negative criticism, particularly with Snyder's style. That is also strong fuel in my bid to stay away.
- I don't get the chance to be an elitist very often, so I'm embracing my stance here.
- lol at the 'fanboys/girls' who support the film. Ooh yeah, there's that elitism coming through.
- Other gripes from what I've seen/heard about the film: Nite Owl's souped up look, Silk Spectre II being a non-factor, the violence and sex being too graphic, the Comedian having a moustache in the Minutemen photo, the existence of a soundtrack, having to go through its marketing, artistic licence.
- The film is ending its run at the cinemas. Will I watch it when it comes out on DVD? Maybe... I definitely won't go hunting for it. Should it all fall in my lap (or other part of my body), I might consider it further.
- I could either watch it to confirm my dislike of it or watch it and ruin my entire Watchmen experience. Both could happen I guess.
- Well worth the dosh I forked out.

Utterly jizztastic. I can't express what goes through my head when I'm reading this... just recall the experience of having something incredibly delicious in your mouth and savouring it, and you'll have something similar to what I experience with Watchmen, usually when I'm visually a single frame.
- Rorschach scaling a building wall to the Comedian's apartment. In the film, his grappling gun seemingly launches him into the apartment, so that he is able to land on his feet on the window sill. In the comic, he climbs all the way up and into the building. No fancy crap.
- You can tell I'm not much of an elitist. Not enough self belief/brain washing.

BMFV RAGE!!!

The Welsh metalcore band, Bullet For My Valentine, hosted Australian music video show Rage last night. Had first heard their music from playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Song was Hand of Blood, pretty neat track. In my metalcore phase a few weeks back, decided to have a listen to their Hand of Blood EP and that too made for nice listening.

I believe it was Matt Tuck and Michael Thomas that hosted the show. Their playlist is as follows:

Metallica - Fade to Black (live)
Metallica - Master of Puppets (live)
Metallica - Whiplash (live)
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart
Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere (live)
Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Megadeth - Holy Wars
Still Remains - Stay Captive
Gojira - To Sirius
Trivium - Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
Lamb of God - Redneck
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
Mastodon - Divinations
Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy
Chimaira - Down Again
Five Finger Death Punch - The Bleeding
Tool - Stinkfist
Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
Slipknot - Duality
Bring Me the Horizon - Chelsea Smile
Corrosion of Conformity - Clean My Wounds
Meshuggah - Bleed
Karnivool - Themata
Fear Factory - Replica
Children of Bodom - In Your Face
Killswitch Engage - Rose of Sharyn
Stone Sour - 30/30 150
Testament - More Than Meets the Eye
AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Jailbreak
Michael Jackson - Dirty Diana
Judas Priest - Breaking the Law
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll
Davey Brothers - Heart Go Faster

As usual, their stint ended with their own music videos, and some Avenged Sevenfold:

Bullet for my Valentine - Waking the Demon
Bullet for my Valentine - Hand Of Blood
Bullet for my Valentine - 4 Words (To Choke Upon)
Bullet for my Valentine - Scream Aim Fire
Bullet for my Valentine - Hearts Burst Into Fire
Avenged Sevenfold - Unholy Confessions
Avenged Sevenfold - Seize the Day
Avenged Sevenfold - Afterlife

To see the additional random rock/metal songs that followed, visit here.

My thoughts (as opposed to yours):
- Rather solid rock and metal playlist (omg, I consider metalcore to be metal). Perhaps a bit boring and generic, but hey, they were all great tunes. I actually gave up after Karnivool and went to sleep (how untrve of me... kinda regret it actually).
- I should get myself more Metallica albums, only ever heard the popular tracks really. Only albums I've listened to whole are Kill 'em All and St. Anger. Excuse me one second while I vomit.
- Was cool to see Newstead singing on "Whiplash".
- I really don't like the old heavy metal hair look of long hair with short front.
- "Jesus Christ Pose" has such a cool music video... "Stinkfist" as well. You probably already knew that. I've also realised that Chris Cornell sounds a lot like Brian Johnson. Screeching vocals ftw.
- "Holy Wars". Long hair, no shirt, really tight jeans. Winning combination.
- I really enjoyed Trivium's "Pull Harder On The Strings of your Martyr". Might have to investigate further (though the first time I heard them, I didn't like their music at all).
- The BFMV lads were nice, genuine fellows. In introducing the Jimmy Eat World track, Tuck commented that as long as a song has great melodies and a sweet chorus, all was good. I think the same thing, therefore I am Matt Tuck.

Originally posted here