Oh boy….where do I start?

I Got an iPhone.

I Got Contacts.

I Got a Job.

I Got a Studio (in law).

I Got to move.

Just a friendly reminder. I’m still alive.

Tick tock. I’m sitting here waiting right now. My gut hurts and I’ll admit I’m pretty nervous. I want this so bad right now. But you shouldn’t be nervous. You really were made for this. You’ve grown up with it. Growing with you and teaching you. Don’t be nervous. You should be more confident, don’t be a jerk about it, but you are really ready for this. You’ll do great. You’ll do fine. Heck, you’ll even go up and get another go. This is your shot. There is no chance of blowing it. Why? Because you are ready for this. Just relax, take in the experience and enjoy the ride. You’ll be great Aaron. I trust in you.

But for some reason, every time you stop, it creeps up again. No problem. Just keep on writing. You know….it’s funny. Out of everything I’ve done in my life, I haven’t failed once. I always pull through, and even if it’s by the skin of my teeth, I get through it. I always worry about failing, and while that’s worked for me till now, maybe I should focus on succeeding. Keep my vision forward instead of looking two steps back while taking one step forward. I’ve been conservative. Admit it Aaron, you are better than you think you are. Not to sound like a jerk, but don’t humble yourself too much. You are taking advantage of yourself. You got what it takes, you’ll do fine. And what if you don’t? It’s funny because I can’t even think of that. I want this. I was made for this. I can do this. My gut still hurts. It’s not because I’m nervous. It’s because I have to use the restroom. Hurry the hell up and just do it. I got to use the restroom. I could risk it and go now, but what if it happens? Sometimes you got to sacrifice for the good stuff I guess. I just reread this and realized I sound like a bit of a lunatic. I’m not, just in case you are wondering. Go ahead and try writing down whatever you are thinking, I guarantee you it’ll come out something like this. Or more demented.

Thirty minutes since I’ve last done it. And nothing. It’s kind of nice though. Remember that feeling before a track meet, during the track meet, before the race, during the race? It’s funny because I would give anything for that feeling now, but at the time, I’d give anything for it to go away. Some people say butterflies. I felt more like my stomach was taking me for a ride. Speaking of track, I forgot what a starting block was called yesterday. How sad is that? I called it a brick. A starting brick. I’m getting old. I’m starting to name things whatever the hell I think they are. Good job Aaron. You’ve become senile.

I have myself locked away in a room right now waiting for this thing to happen. I hear the hallow sounds of voices coming from downstairs and the loudest damn fan I’ve heard on any laptop yet. It is really nice writing down whatever the hell you want. I should really do it more often but I’m always lazy. Why am I doing it now? It calms me down, keeps me from being the big n. It seems like a nice therapy of sorts. Maybe I should do it more often. Then again, I don’t need therapy or things to calm me down that often. Maybe it is because I’m always at home doing nothing. Go out more Aaron. You are. Don’t you remember all last week? Plus, all your shit is packed and ready to go. I keep on waiting to go, but it’s like something is blocking me. Just let me move already. Oh right, this thing is blocking you. Remember? Right. Like I said though, you’ll do fine. I almost put “We’ll do fine”. That would have been crazy ridiculous. You would have said we, and mean us, which meant I have two people in my head. The fact is, there is one, and I don’t understand why I keep on switching from my voice to another. Oh well. Deal with it. You are the ones reading this. I don’t have to pee anymore.

This is much more interesting to read in a blog isn’t it? Too bad you won’t see that many though. I don’t do this often. Again. Deal with it. But…you might not visit my blog then. Maybe I should deal with it. Meh, that requires work and work is something I’m saving for. LIKE WHEN THIS THING HAPPENS. It’s 45 minutes and it hasn’t happened yet. Wow, I just yelled, it looks pretty awkward in conjunction with the other text. Did I use that word correctly? I think so. I hope so. It seems like it right? Why am I asking you, you can’t answer, all you can do it read this blog. Who cares, its right in my book. But Aaron, english majors and everyone on gamefaqs cares. I don’t.

Tick tock.

]]> http://doublepalacios.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/tick-tock/feed/ 0 iamageneric http://doublepalacios.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/on-the-horizon/ http://doublepalacios.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/on-the-horizon/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:19:31 +0000 iamageneric http://doublepalacios.wordpress.com/?p=322 ]]>

So apparently I’m already behind schedule. Not only is it Tuesday but I didn’t even get to finish what I was supposed to write about last week. Maybe I shouldn’t bite off more than I can chew…..lesson learned. Anyhow, I think I’ll dedicate this week to videogames and soccer. Jump on in for more!

FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (Formally Winning Eleven) are the two big names in the soccer videogame realm. With FIFA 09 due out in October and PES 2009 still a ways out (march of 09?), there is still time to decide which game you want to plop your cash down for. While PES was usually the clear winner year to year, FIFA has recently made large strides to catch up with PES and FIFA 09 could potentially be the year they surpass it. Stay tuned this week for reasons why!

FIFA 09

PES 2009

Random note about the PES 2009 picture……Kaka(7), Pato(21) and Ronaldinho(10) are all on AC Milan! WOO!

Must…..have…..LittleBigPlanet……CLICK THE JUMP for cuteness.

Apparently if you preorder LittleBigPlanet, depending on the store, you can get this awesomeness:

Nariko from Heavenly Sword

Kratos from God of War

WANT <3

Forgive me because I am not a writer, a storyteller, or a poet. But I will try and convey this story as it actually happened….as I saw it happen. This is a story. A story of abandonment, of love, of rescue, of insurmountable pain and anguish. This is a story about a Mugg. A very Mighty Mugg. This is his story.

*SPOILERS for new Indy movie within text*

It was the 5th of August and I was going about my business. That’s when I stumbled across a distress signal in the Holy Trinity system (Planet TRU, Wal-Mart and Target are within this system). This was no different than any other day. I have answered these distress calls multiple times only to find nothing when I get there. This distress call was different though. There was a face I’ve never seen before.

Help Me.....

I decided I MUST help whatever was out there calling to me. I proceeded to jump into my starship (the 2004 Honda Accord model) in search of answers and justice. I eventually landed on Planet Wal-Mart and proceeded to look for the signal. I searched and searched until I found a tribe of species that resembled big green babies. There were many of them, totaling 6 by my count. They seemed to be an inferior race because all that came out of their mouths was HULK and SMASH. There was no way that these creatures could work a distress signal. I looked on. After a long hike from aisle 15 to aisle 16, I spotted a golden robot. He proceeded to communicate with me in a rather odd accent. He seemed very nervous and scared. He spoke of a evil man with a black hood. He then asked me to save him and take him home with me. I could not say no to the poor thing but before I could rescue him I had to ask about the distress signal. I asked about the signal but right when he opened his mouth, a spark of lightning came from the right of us. It was there that the poor robot met his demise for the bolt of lighting stuck him down with a might so great that his protective casing proceeded to bend and curl into a ball. There was no way I could take him home with me, he was gone. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man so evil, his skin looked as if he were one of the dead. He then set his menacing gaze upon me and begun to charge his lighting. It was exactly at that time that I was saved by a rather young man with blonde hair wielding a saber that lit up with blue light. Before engaging the evil enraged man, he yelled to me, “GO TO PLANET TARGET, there you shall find answers!”. I needed not be told twice as I ran towards my spaceship. I got into my ship and zipped away into the black morass of stars.

Confused, dazed, and without a signal to follow, I proceeded to Planet Target as the brave young man told me. Perhaps there I could find my answers. Target had one of the busier space stations in the galaxy and it took me quite awhile before I could dock. I finally docked and as soon as I stepped out of my ship, the harsh burning hot weather proceeded to eat away at my body. I decided to enter a building that resembled a row of shops. Hopeless on where to go, I decided to go to a bar labeled “Aisle 32″ for a drink.

Once there, I got to talking with a rather adventurous fellow in brown clothing. He told me all about his adventures on Planet Earth and how his trusty whip has saved his life more than once. “Earth?” I said, “I thought they didn’t know of the outside world yet, how did you end up here?” He proceeded to tell him about his latest adventure and how ALIENS SOMEHOW ENTERED THE FRIGGIN PICTURE AND HOW HIS NEW MOVIE SUCKED (oh…..sorry….let me get back to the story). The man then asked me what I was doing on Planet Target. I told him about the distress signal at Wal-Mart and my near death encounter. “Distress signal at Planet Wal-Mart you say? It’s your lucky day kid because I’ve heard rumors…..” The man told me about a poor Mugg. The Mugg was a part of the Stormtroopers family. They were rarest of the rare kind of Mugg. There have been rumors of their existence, but they were mere myths as far as I was concerned. The man continued talking about this particular Mugg. He said that while born out of the royal Stormtroopers family, this unfortunate Mugg came out with a birth defect. His face was scared which led to his eventual banishment. Alone in the world, he was soon put into slavery. It was at Planet Wal-Mart that he put out his distress signal before being traded off to someone in Planet Target. The man with the whip then told me where I could find the Mugg and bid me a farewell. I searched and searched with no luck. Perhaps the man with the whip lied? With my spirit broken, I decided that I would only try a little more. It was at that time, when it was truly the darkest before the dawn, that I spotted something. There was something buried underneath several boxes. I rummaged through until I found a truly spectacular site. It was the poor battered Stormtrooper! Apparently left for dead by his owner, he was calling for someone to help him. I quickly threw away all the boxes that were on top of him and grabbed the mugg and embraced him. “You need not worry anymore, I’m here to rescue you”

The little guy has some battle damage but I love him all the same

Settling into his new surroundings

In other news. I also bought Boba Fett!

Alternate Version of the Story:

I got the urge to buy some Mighty Muggs so I went to Wal-Mart. All I saw were Hulk, Luke Skywalker, and Emperor Palpatine Muggs. I drove over to Target and it was busy as hell. I looked around for Mighty Muggs but all I found were some Indiana Jones Muggs. Then I spotted Stormtrooper (JACKPOT!). I proceeded to jump around and giggle like a little school girl. End.

Too Human has had a pretty rocky road through its development cycle. Shown way back at E3 in 1999 as a Playstation (One) title, Too Human was an entirely different game. Courtesy of IGN & Gamespot, I was able to rummage up what the game was originally supposed to be about and what it looked like.

On the Playstation:

“Too Human, a new 3D RPG from Silicon Knights, will officially be unveiled at next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), but we’ve got the first word on some of the game’s details. Set in 2450AD, Too Human is a futuristic psychological thriller that has you contemplate the effects of genetics, prosthetics, and the struggle of humankind to deal with the symbiosis of man and machine. By letting the player cybernetically enhance his own strength and invulnerability, Too Human will provide a unique twist on the action/RPG genre. Silicon Knights is claiming that Too Human will feature more than 80 hours of gameplay, along with 60 minutes of cinematics; the game will span 4 CD-ROMs. Stay tuned to videogames.com next week for additional screens and details from the E3 show.”

-Gamespot

After awhile, the title jumped ship from the Playstation brand and was brought over to the Nintendo Gamecube. The reason being that Nintendo bought out Silicon Knights, the developers of Too Human. Eventually, creative difference problems arose between Nintendo and Silicon Knights. One and one became two and the companies split.

On the Gamecube

Silicon Knights eventually landed a deal with Microsoft which settled Too Human on the Xbox 360. After ALL these problems, the game itself was finally on its way to being finished. Of course, what kind of story would this be without more problems? The 360 version was initially being developed using the Unreal Engine 3. An early build of the game was eventually shown at E3 in 2006 and was critically TRASHED thanks to several problems.

On the Xbox 360

Blame was eventually put on the games engine which led Silicon Knights to sue Epic Games for not delivering on what was promised out of the Unreal Engine 3. Too Human eventually ditched the Unreal Engine and created their own. On top of all these problems, other internet ZOMG drama shits happened but I’m not even going to get into that. Through all the changes, the game evolved for the better. The game eventually became an Action\Dungeon Crawler RPG and introduced Nordic Mythology into the futuristic setting. So that brings us to today. THE GAME IS ALMOST OUT. As such, a demo was released.

Ok, obviously the history isn’t the reason I’m all excited about the game. Before I actually got to play the demo, I was excited for it because of the story and the nature of the game. First off, who doesn’t like Nordic mythology? (if you don’t then I hate you). Now apply Nordic mythology to a futuristic setting and poof! Random awesomeness. Not only do you get to play around and rework the telling of the Gods, but there is Ragnarök! I love destruction. Which brings me the nature of the game. You are a god with shit tons of power and you are supposed to destroy everything on screen. The more you destroy, the more goodies you get to destroy even MORE. Once again, I love destruction.

Demo Impressions

I’ve played the demo three times now. On the first go around, the game felt really awkward. Camera angles felt weird, animation looked a little stiff, action felt really shallow. Even with all these problems, the game itself was still really fun. My first play through was pretty rushed and I didn’t get to take in the experience as much as I wanted to. Something weird happened my second play through. All the problems that I logged on my first run magically weren’t complaints anymore. It wasn’t the game that changed, but the way I approached it. You see, I came into the game with a Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry mentality. Super fluid animation and action that is done by pressing traditional buttons. You see, the games control scheme is quite different from anything else I’ve played before. It’s a hybrid between an action game and an MMO. To attack, all you have to do is aim the joystick in a direction. From there, your guy will fly towards the enemy and commence a beat down. It really is a rather simple way to attack.

On my first run, I was literally just pressing: up, down, left, up, down….all kinds of random shit. That was the reason the combat felt a little shallow and the animation seemed to look awkward. Basically, I wasn’t playing the game correctly. On the second play through, I learned that you can literally hold down the joystick and rotate it causing more fluid combat. This took away most of my gripes about the animation. My third play through was where all the fun was at. I came to the conclusion that the combat was as easy as you wanted it to be and as deep as you wanted it to be. You could always hold down the joystick and send everything to kingdom come, or you can pull off intricate moves with different combinations of taps. Every game in general has something like this, but there is definitely something different about it in Too Human. Like I said earlier, it REALLY feels like a mix between MMO combat and an action game.

Plus +

- The music is EPIC. I know that everything now a days has epic music, but this is no run of the mill epic, it actually grabs some emotion out of you.

- The combat itself is fun as hell. It doesn’t punish you for being terrible at it, but if you learn the complexities of it, it really rewards you. The leveling up system further compliments this because it changes the whole nature of combat and makes you feel that much more powerful.

- LOOT. The loot system in the game is similar to the Diablo games. After killing enemies, loot flies out of their bodies in all directions. It really is an addictive system. Who doesn’t want to make their character look pimped out and powerful?

Minus -

- The camera works. That is all that really can be said of it. I know Silicon Knights is going for a cinematic feel throughout the game and sometimes I actually feel it working. But no matter how much you play, you always feel like something is a little off. You know something is wrong but you don’t know how they could fix it. It’s one of those things where you know that in the context of the game this was the best system that could be used.

- The animation still feels stiff at some points. The combat animation is great, but there are some awkward moments littered throughout. Granted these are small things, but it still annoys me to see the main character (Baldur) walking and his head being in some ungodly (bad pun….) weird position.

- The puzzle elements are introduced to you by going into another world (cyberspace I think its called?) You end up transporting to a different area and the sole reason of this whole area is to solve one lousy puzzle. Truthfully, it feels a little pointless (It fit within the context of the story…but really? It’s BORING). I’ll give the game the benefit of the doubt though and say that this was only a demo and the final game will probably have more intuitive uses (or puzzles).

Final Word:

If you were to take out the story, music, mythology, or anything else out of the game and just left me with the combat system and enemies to kill, I’d still have a blast. Everything else adds to an already addicting and satisfying experience.

Welcome to Obienomics class.

So a buddy of mine started his own blog. Check it out!

It’s got a cool retro theme and everything.

*Update: the man changed his blog. It’s got a different layout now. Looks good!*

Obienomics

Seriously…..it’s about damn time. Its no secret to most of you that I’ve always thought about buying a motorcycle. I got pretty darn close at the start of college until that whole “want” died out. Well folks, that want is officially back. News after the jump!

After many LONG years of the same ugly looking Kawasaki Ninja 250, they finally released an updated and more aesthetically pleasing bike (not to mention a heftier price tag). With the prices of gas now costing as much as a third world country, I’d figure I could save myself money and have some death induced fun in the process. I know some of you are calling me a pussy for looking at a 250 right now. Sue me. Anyhow, I’m seriously thinking about getting a motorcycle in the coming years.

Out with the old (Old and Busted)....

In with the new (New Hotness)!

Sooo….guess who came in today? More goodness inside.

SDCC 08 Previews Exclusive Peter Parker

What a mugg! Supposedly there were only about 3000 of these made (not really dinosaurs rare, but pretty rare in the grand scheme of things). Granted I was excited for it, he blew away any expectations I had. He really does look that much cooler in real life. It doesn’t show up on the picture, but Spider Man’s eye (on the box) has a cool shiny metallic foil to it. On all the new muggs I’ve noticed that the top of the box doesn’t have an opening anymore. It seems to be glued shut. Good call on Hasbro’s part because the boxes seem to be able to take more of a beating without looking scruffy.

I’d say my Marvel collection is shaping up rather nicely.