Hi. I'm new here: I used to play game solely for fun; now I analyze narrative methods in video gaming. =P Not much to say yet, but...

Sega of America would win my heart and soul if they ever bothered to make Panzer Dragoon Saga available for download over Xbox Live because when a game with an extremely limited print run sells on eBay for nearly $200, making it downloadable for $25 might be a good idea.

Dragon Force and Dragon Force II would also be nice, but one thing at a time, yes?

Actually, I should start tracking down an email address.

One day I'll get around to emptying my head with everything from Monday onward, but not just yet.

For now, consider:
Ron Paul ruled out running on a Third Party Ticket, so lets keep the revolution going!!

Bob Barr in Newsweek Magazine http://www. newsweek. com/id/136847




Bob Barr introducing Ron Paul:

You know, I make it a point not to destroy my feet with spiky high-heeled shoes, so it's kind of odd that I apparently have no problem destroying them by walking around the entire damn town in flip-flops.

(They didn't even hurt until I got home. Stupid appendages.)

(ETA: I can honestly say I've never had blisters in those exact spots before. >_O)

Just my opinion:

April 2008

Dear Sony,

We here at Rockstar pride ourselves in making games that shock, more than making games that work. Our coders suck. Most recently we encountered a problem during testing with the soon to be released Grand Theft Auto IV.

You see, we can make the game work (most of the time) on most Playstation 3 skus. However as soon as we make modifications, so that it works on the first dev kit you sent us back in mid 2006, (that would be the launch edition PS3), the game won't operate properly on any other machine. We have been scratching all the dandruff from our scalps to figure this out, but simply have no clue how to resolve this. It would be too expensive, not to mention logistically impossible, to make and distribute a special edition of GTA IV just for that particular model PS3.

Again, our coders suck and time is running out. Release is slated in the next couple weeks and another delay will send the anxiously waiting consumer into a frenzy. Clearly our most devoted customers have been influenced by the violence in our videogames. We fear for our lives and no one on our staff is willing to announce such a delay, even while wearing full body armour.

For our safety, we have decided to go ahead with release of the game as previously scheduled on 29-April 2008, without full compatibility for the launch model 60GB PS3 manufactured between October and November of 2006.

In the meantime, please shut up about this problem until we break the guiness world record. If you start getting calls within the first week of release, we ask that you deny deny deny. Here at Rockstar support we won't even bother acknowledging that there is a problem. Together we can invent a twelve step program which will send customers on a wild goose chase in an attempt to fix the problem themselves while we stall for time.

Within a few weeks, once we have buried the sales of games such as Halo, maybe you can say..err...take the blame for this, and just start replacing those PS3 units that have been affected by our inept developing skills. Your astute customers will question your response to the problem, denouncing the fact that this is a hardware issue, especially when they note that all other games work flawlessly on their systems. If faced with such questions we again ask that your customer service staff deny deny deny. Offer them free shipping or a box or something. Use the word "goodwill" if you have to.

We thank you for your help in this matter. Enclosed is a blank cheque, the dollar amount to be entered when you have tallied the number of Playstations you have had to replace due to our incompetence.

Again, your help is appreciated. Don't feel bad, the makers of XBox360 at Microsoft accepted a similar bribe 3 months ago.

Sincerely in your debt
Rockstar Games
TakeTwo Entertainment

PS. Not a word of this to EA, as we are still trying to bilk them into a billion dollar purchase price for our company.

Apparently there is some sort of ems week or something. Either way, Kare 11 got wind of the incident at the Dojang this weekend and did a story on it. Follow the link and you can hear my 911 call (I sound weird on the phone).

EDIT: For those of you who don't read Gaea's LJ, check out this video. A 12 minute rant about Bush's "sacrifice" in solidarity with the families of soldiers who are dying in Iraq... He's giving up golf.

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Beyond Good & Evil sequel?

So far, not officially in development, but any news is good news at this point as far as I'm concerned.

yes phil sent me this.

This is far from anything I've had in mind of late, anything I've thought to put down in words but have yet to do so.
This is me reminiscing on being old, lamenting the younger generation and their digitized "twenty seconds is too long to wait" mentality.
This is me stealing from Wil Wheaton again, because he makes a good point.

crying hey man this is babylon

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/291179006/crying-hey-man.html

I came to Soul Coughing at almost the same time I came to Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Underworld, and jazz that went beyond Kind of Blue.

See, this is why the loss of Tower Records is going to seriously hurt a generation of young artists, because it was in a Tower Records that I found all of these things. Sure, it's great to have the convenience of buying and instantly downloading records and stuff, but the damn kids today who will grow up without ever setting foot in a record store or talking to a hardcore music geek who works there just don't know what they're missing.

And they're missing a lot.

It was one of the most inspiring and eye-opening times of my life, and whenever I listen to Ruby Vroom (which I'm doing right now) I'm reminded of that time. I can feel it in my brain and in my bones. I remember staying out all night with my friend Dave just because we could, not really doing anything more than listening to music and being "artists" -- whatever that meant.

We had no real responsibility other than getting home alive, and it was when I really started writing. I filled up tons of thick spiral-bound notebooks with my efforts to figure out who and why I was. When I read them now, they just make me sad.

It was a great time. I miss it sometimes. Okay, I miss it often.

I miss it right now.

And for over 4 years I was one of those geeks. Still am one, just not as accessible to the wandering masses, nor paid for it.
You won't learn anything in the chop-shop department store music sections. You'll wander blindly on the internet. You won't get a new generation of hardcore music geeks if you don't have a place for them to learn from the current ones. It's not the same thing as just hanging out downtown with all the local bands to show you "indy" you are. It's really not. You kill the market and you kill the music. This is when music-as-commodity is finally triumphant.

Art is about discovery, not consumerism.

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... If that phone call I missed a few minutes ago was someone calling about a job, I swear I am going to break something.

Okay, forget that, I'm still in the running for both jobs and there's good news financially as well.

I think I just got emotional whiplash.

Taken from G4tv.com:

"The 18 people out there who played Beyond Good & Evil are going to be happy: A sequel is coming, and we sincerely hope that this go-round of the awesome cartoony RPG gets the appreciate and dollars the first game was so sadly denied.

Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel told French magazine JeuxVideo the project has been underway for around a year now, with 10-12 staff working on pre-production duties."


Source!


Is anyone else excited about this?!

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Just a quick question... maybe :O

I was wondering... I know there is a MGS4 Bundle for the PS3 coming out soon - and I was just wondering if there was any idea if this would be coming to the UK... possibly? Are we loved enough to get this bundle? XD

I've been trying to decide whether or not to get myself a PS3 lately (I have an Xbox360 already, so it's not an easy decision to make really...) - but if we're getting the MGS4 bundle (with the 80Gb and some form of backward compatability) I'd definitely get myself one of those.

Any ideas? ^^'

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I bought the game where you shoot yourself in the head in order to get special powers. I look forward to playing it then reenacting my favorite scenes for my friends and family.

Platinum Games have just signed some paperwork with SEGA, and have unveiled 3 of the 4 games they've been workign on. The most interesting of these is definately 'Madworld',

Check this out!

Platinum Games are the studio that the mega-talented 'Clover' became. Hopefully these new games won't be unceremoniously ignored by gamers like 'Okami' and 'God Hand' did.

Stu xxx

I got this from Gamespy.com

It's official: the heroic earthworm named Jim is squirming his way back into the limelight. Atari has revealed that it will be developing a collection of Earthworm Jim games for both handhelds and next-generation games for the next five years. For those of you too young to remember, Earthworm Jim was a popular side-scrolling action game developed by Shiny Entertainment. At its peak the series had its own Saturday morning cartoon show and a line-up of action figures.

So far, we know that the one of the new games will be in 3D, and many of the classic Earthworm Jim characters will be making a comeback, including Peter Puppy, Princecess-What's-Her-Name, and Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. Chances are the characters will undergo a slight makeover as well. Annoyingly, the official announcement is very sparce with details. No specific consoles are named and no release date is given. Looks like Jim's fans may be in for a long wait.

Edit-- I gotta find more about this. I remember when I had a sega...along with "The Punisher", "Earthworm Jim" was one of my favorites. I would love to see Jim make a comeback and hit next-gen consoles.

Hi ladies and gents! I recently signed up for Lord of the Rings Online over its Anniversary Weekend, and I was wondering if anyone on this community played? My main is Vaethilrian, a level 14 Elf Champion on the Landroval server. If you see me around feel free to say hi!

Also, does anyone know of any good casual RP-type Kinships?

Also, I'm suprised that this story hasn't been linked to yet - apparently Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in pre-production for over a year now! But it hasn't been greenlighted by the parent company yet : ( But I loved Beyond Good and Evil and I would love to see a sequel. Jade is a great female game character.

Anybody else going?