Return

My return to music has been released. A free EP simply called, "Return". Like I said it's free, so download it, enjoy it, post comments.
Peace
Love
Destruction

~Connor

Syndicate At A Glance

Syndicate is an old DOS game by Bullfrog. It's an action RTS where you went deep into what I'll call "soldier development" where you can choose your soldiers' weapons and augmentations. This game was actually pretty controversial back in the day for the game's drug use. Now because this is the game at a glance, I don't get far enough into the game to explain, but here it goes...
The game opens with a bleep and some militaristic synth percussion followed by some… not so good synth that starts with a random set arpeggio and then some organ that sounds like it belongs in Castlevania and then it moves to like 8 different things, like… is this the same song?
The visuals in this intro are pretty good. Just some animated cinematics of what's going on in a city. Cut to Some guy getting a metal leg implant. Cut back to the opening visuals and I wondered if the opening cinematic was on loop and I was expected to skip it. It literally repeats the same three scenes in the opening, but then it cuts to a red haired guy with dark shades and a trenchcoat. He pulls out a pistol with laser sights. He aims his pistol at the player and then the title pops up.
When that is over a green laser outlines the screen and the main menu shows up. Nothing special here. No music. Your options are to configure your company, begin the mission, load or save the game, restart the game, or quit to DOS. Let's start with Begin Mission.
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I bet that right now you're going, "but Connor you have to configure your company!!!!" well when you press begin mission you are given this Command and Conquer-esque map of the world. You click on the designated territory and you are given a mission briefing and THEN you can configure your company.
The briefing gives your your mission type (i.e. Assassination, Persuade, etc) and then does the whole briefing thing. To the right of that are three sets of numbers and a box with flashing lights, which I have no idea what those mean. It couldn't be a map of the mission, and if it is, that lacks a lot of detail.
You find out the first set of numbers (starts at 30000) is your money you can use to enhance your soldiers. You can enhance them through implants, weapons, and I guess research? I don't really know what research does.
So you equip your team and begin your mission. The first mission begins with your team just outside a small base. When you select a unit or their weapon they say, "selected" in this very robotic voice. Now when you begin each mission remember to select your team's weapons because for some reason they aren't already equipped.
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why? Why would you not have your teammates weapon already equipped? If you didn't read this you wouldn't know about the weapons not being equipped until the enemy is shooting at you and your soldier just wants to walk up to them and hug them or something. The music is very simple and uninspired, but it works. I wouldn't download the soundtrack, it's too empty. So you finish the mission by doing whatever task you are given and you are given a cinematic of people in a city cheering and rejoicing while a hover car flies by. One thing you'll notice pretty fast about these missions is that constant boop that will get faster or slower. That would be your radar, and yes it is very annoying. I'd like to tune it out, BUT IT'S LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE GAME!
Another thing that pisses me off is the AI, when you are on the persuade missions the AI you persuade cannot follow you for shit. They always get hung up on a fucking wall or something and then when you go back for them they seem way to interested in that fucking wall! Look, if you persuade someone you should be able to control them. The second level is a persuasion mission, so guess how fucked you are in that one!?!?!?! I lost that mission about 4 times, thrice from shooting and once because the AI is retarded, yes, I'm making that a cause. The only upside to the second mission is the police who when they spot you shout, "Police, put your weapons down!" It's also fun when your whole squad has a shotgun and you do one click on on the enemy and he goes flying. Oh, there's another thing I forgot to mention. This game is set up like an RTS, so naturally you'd think left click works all the magic, but no, right click does all the shooting and left click moves. Or if you're on a mac, two finger click does the shooting and one finger click does the moving. What is cool about this is that you can shoot wherever and whenever. So you could shoot the ground, or a building, or a set of stairs, or whatever.
So that's Syndicate at a glance. Was it as good as I was hoping for it to be? Fuck no. I thought this game would make me completely forget about Command & Conquer, but it made me wish I was playing that instead. Maybe I'll post a full review when I manage to get passed the idiotic AI... yeah... maybe.

Duke Nukem 3D Review

(At long last, I decided to screw the video portion of this review so.... here it is.)

Remember Duke Nukem 3D? Of course you do, but in case you don't you probably just know it as the predecessor to gaming's biggest punchline Duke Nukem Forever or Duke Nukem Never, or Duke Nukem Forever in Development, the jokes go on, but back in the day Duke Nukem 3D was on every system, it was on DOS, MAC, Windows, Genesis, Game Boy Color, Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and now it's on the iPhone and Xbox Live Arcade. With that many releases you know the game was and still is a big deal.



Now it's not necessarily 3D like the other big shooter to come out that year, Quake. There were 3D environments, but the characters and props were all in 2D, so I guess you could say it was 2.5D like earlier shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. This is my first review of an old game so I wouldn't really know what to tell you about the graphics aside from the fact that, yes they're dated, but they still look good to me, but then again, I don't really care about a game's graphics.


So when you start the game you are greeted by the awesome theme song called "Grab Bag" and some gameplay footage. When you go start the game you can actually pick any one of the three episodes to start on, which is pretty cool, but this kind of backfires on you whenever you finish an episode. Once you finish an episode you get a picture with some text giving you some plot advancement and then it takes you right back to the main menu, so when you start a new episode you start it with a blank slate. Why can't I continue from LA Meltdown to Lunar Apocolypse? Aren't you supposed to go through the whole game?


There is one issue I have and that's the lighting in this game. Most of the time the lights are either strobing or nonexistent. Some of the levels in the second episode are pretty much just that where you'll be in a room with strobing lights and then when you get out of the strobe room you can't see a damn thing. I checked the manual to see if there was a headlamp or something and their isn't. So, I just dealt with it. It was always a relief to walk into a room and see a light switch so I could flip it and actually see things. The poor lighting really affected me in the second level of LA Meltdown where I'd go into a hallway that had literally no lighting, but the enemies can see me so suddenly I'm getting shot and I don't know where from so I had to shoot randomly until I heard the enemy die and what sucks is that you have to go through this hall twice and on the second travel a Pig Cop spawns so you get ambushed in the dark.


The AI is pretty typical, when they see you they're ruthless, but when they don't they just kind of wander around and make growls or in the case of the assault commando they say "suck it down" in this ring modulated Barry White voice and believe me that gets really annoying until Duke says it at one point. That's probably one of the best parts of Duke Nukem 3D is every word that comes out of Duke's mouth. When I started the game I would smile at everything he would say, but the effect would sort of die later in the game after about the thousandth time you heard Duke say "Cool" or "Groovy". They capitalized on Duke's amazing quotes by adding a feature to taunt your opponents by pressing alt and then f1 through f10. By doing this you can hear some pretty good taunts. My favorite being, "You're an inspiration for birth control!"


Another important sound aspect is the music. Aside from the great theme song that plays at the menu screen the music didn't really leave an impression on me and as I got closer to the end of the game I totally forgot that there was even music playing until I paused the game to go to the bathroom.


So I talked about all of the bad things, but what is it about this game that makes it so awesome aside from Duke's amazing quotes? The action, it's almost non-stop unless you are stuck at a certain point looking for that key. Not only can you give money to the strippers, but if you shoot them money comes exploding out of them. When you go into the bathrooms it's always funny to open a stall door and catch an alien dropping a deuce. I had one incident on Lunar Apocolypse where on the floor of one occupied stall was a porn magazine. The game also created some great scenes of intensity, again on Lunar Apocolypse you are in an examination room and suddenly a ton of the slime enemies start coming out of the walls making me leg it. The whole Lunar Apocolypse episode sort of reminds me of the movie Aliens where the base on LV-426 has been taken over by the aliens and they have their hive filled with eggs, this gave me moments of dreading any advancement in the level, but in a good way. The enemy design is great and actually inspired me a little with my game ideas and come on, a pig cop? that's just hilarious and his vest even says LARD. I smell bacon for real. The end of episode cinematics are great too. At the beginning of a boss battle Duke says, "I'm gonna rip of your head and shit down your neck," and just hearing that is awesome, but what's even better is in the ending cinematic Duke literally does that. After another boss battle he kicks the boss' eye through a field goal announcing, "it's good!"


So Duke Nukem 3D, overall it's a kick ass game, something I feel like I could pick up and play again and again, sure it had lighting issues and the fact that you can't continue to the next episode with all your weapons and items is a bummer, and yes the music isn't really memorable aside from the theme song, but everything else makes up for it. If you haven't played this game yet I highly recommend you do, I mean come on, it's practically on every console!

Fashion Part Deux

So I've been getting my fashion on, checking out some blogs and sites and I stumbled into Buckle. Now I've seen Buckle at the malls, but I've never been in one. So when I was in there site I saw that like Urban Outfitters they sold Bed Stu shoes and I've always wanted a pair. Not only were their Bed Stu's cheap, but they were exclusive to their store. Pretty cool. So I ordered a pair of slip ons in a size 13 along with a hat. This morning I received them in the mail and since my Adidas are a size 14 I already had my doubts, but I still fit my dress shoes that are a size 12 and there's a ton of room in my combat boots that are size 14, so I figured it might actually work. My feet fit in perfectly and they are the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever owned ever. Every step is like walking on a cloud, I know that sounds cliche, but it's true! The slip ons are brown and have a... I want to say suede-leather exterior. Money well spent. They were $79, if I remember correctly. The hat was $4 and it's pretty nice, it's like a knitted marine ranger's cap... and brown. Pretty comfortable as well. Yeah, what I realized quickly is most of Buckle's clothes are either Black or Brown and they all look post-apocalyptic to some degree, which is awesome. I did see a sweatshirt there that I have to get and yes, it is brown and post-apocalyptic, but it's just so awesome... and it is a bit expensive, so I may wait to get it when it's discounted like my hat was. Yeah, the hat was originally $18 and was discounted to $4, but then again, I wear XL shirts because of my height so... I may want to get it at some point soon.
I did get a copy of GQ style and Fashion Music Style... and everything IS FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!! But it doesn't get more expensive than Alexander McQueen (R.I.P.)

Test Drive 3 - Quick Review

SO I figured I have enough DOS action games, let's try a couple racing games. So I picked Test Drive 3 and Deathtrack. I haven't really gotten too into Deathtrack yet, so we'll see how that one goes. As for Test Drive 3, I don't really care for it. The sound fx and music are both REALLY annoying and the fps is really low which makes it hard to control the vehicle. I guess OLD racing games are not for me, but we'll see what happens when I play Deathtrack some more. I will have a video review of Duke Nukem 3D soon as a part of a video series I am going to start called Classic Game Reviews. Not an imaginative title, I know, but it's the best I can come up with. Got any better ideas, post them in the comment section.

Filming and Nothing Else

So I haven't done anything aside from work and make a movie with my friend. It's a parody of the game Deadly Premonition and the end result is better than I would've thought:
CLICK ME!

Into the Frying Pan

So I had this issue with Heretic 2 where the game kept crashing after I finished a level, so I had to cheat passed it and respawn all my items and now I'm back on track, so I'll finish up that game soon hopefully. I just got Martian Gothic in the mail the other day and so far it's rather creepy and you definitely have to THINK to play the game. So I'll get down to playing more of that... eventually... Heretic 2 caught my attention.
I have been using my Jupiter-8 vst more now and now I do actually love the thing to death. At first it was a love-hate (more hate) thing, but now I'm finding more good things about it so yay.
I did watch some E3, like two days. The two things that really pleased me were Rage and Metal Gear Rising. MGR is one reason for me to get a 360 and yes I'm well aware that it is a multiplatform game, but it ain't comin out for the mac so yea. Diablo 3 is the only other new game I'm excited about and it IS coming out for the mac, so that'll be cool to get when that comes out.
I just found out that Urban Outfitters carries Bed:Stu boots in their stores so I'm going to have to venture to the UO near me and see if they have any, otherwise maybe they can order some... I hope.
So after my mind exploded because of my game idea, I've started to regain my sanity bit by bit and what I'd really like to do is create a low polygon 3d game as an homage to all the 3d 90s games that I love so much like the Jedi Knight series, that's just counting Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith, as well as Heretic 2 and maybe some others my mind is too focused on what I'm typing right now.
SAN FRANSISCO IN A COUPLE WEEKS!

My Mind Is Imploding

So I decided to work more on the concepts for my game and suddenly I got an ambitious thought, that ambitious thought led to me looking at other indie games which led to an overload of my mind in wanting to do a billion different things so as of right now my mind is kaput. I need to figure out what I really want to do and then start doing concepts for that and then figure everything out from there. I just hope this all clears up after some sleep.

Two Updates That Anger Me...

So yesterday my friend told me about the Mortal Kombat trailer. I wasn't expecting much except for the movie to take place in the MK universe and there was going to be a tournament blah blah blah. What I got was a steaming pile of skunk vomit. Let's go through this:
-Jax and Sonya aren't cops, they are Special Forces. STRIKER is a cop.
-Reptile is not a human with a skin condition, he's a lizard from Outworld.
-Baraka is not a human, he's a Tarkatan, also from Outworld, he was born with the swords in his arms and grotesque appearance.
-I hope to God they address the issue that Scorpion (Hanzo Hisashi) is already dead and that's why he has a feud with Sub-Zero, yes Sub-Zero killed him.
-Johnny Cage is dead at the beginning of the movie, that's just lame.
I bet with Rayden he'll be some guy that gained the power to use electricity so he calls himself Rayden... NO, Rayden IS the thunder god. Like Baraka he's born that way. Now... with all my nerd rage out, I will say that it does look good and it's interesting to see Scorpion as the main character as opposed to Liu Kang. So I may see it and try to leave my MK nerdiness outside the theatre.
Next up there's Rock Band 3, I hate Rock Band and Guitar Hero style games, so when I find out that Rock Band 3 is going to have synthesizer I was pissed. I hate that synthesizer has to be a part of this bullshit. Now people will probably ask me to play some stupid song that was on Rock Band 3 and for that I'll punch them in the face. Thank you Harmonix for now making me hate even more. I thought I was going to have a nice happy summer, but no, you turned this summer into shit.
I can never be happy.

Fashion

So browsing the internet I finally found some reasonably priced boots, I am very happy. They are Bed:Stu's, straight out of Brooklyn. Durable with a vintage appearance. I'm also looking to get some new pants, practically every pair I have has a hole in the left knee. I did find some new ones so, that's cool, just need to figure out my new size, 34/34 is too short on me... waist is good. I'll be venturing over to Goodwill some time soon to see if I can find a trench coat of some type, then (if I find one) it'll be over to target to find needle and thread to sew my fox hide onto the collar of that bad boy. I also gotta get a few shirts, but that's pretty much it.

RPG Gaming Madness Nonsense

Hooray, Blogger is working!
Anyways, so, I've been chasing after that dungeon crawler, action, adventure game idea again. Got some sprites and tiles, and I got some ideas written down. And with Outer Limits (now registered) I have some musical ideas going through my head. To help aid me in my quest for a good game I downloaded Avernum, then deleted it because it was so boring, and Eschalon Book 2 which is supposedly good, so we'll see how that works. I'm also getting back into Heretic 2 for some aid. I finally beat the first boss, huzzah, yeah, I was pretty stupid.
I also started playing Warhammer Online with my friend and we're going to try Skype for gameplay convo since typing is not always best >:l
I just ordered Martian Gothic and Bushido Blade for PSX, a new backpack, and Kraftwerk 1+2. My Novation synth will be sold soon... tomorrow to be exact, and with that money I will be getting a new MIDI controller because the NANOKey is very flimsy and has gone shit on me before (this is my second one), so I want to get something more stable and just all around better. I'll also be taking it to college with me.
See you next update.

Outer Limits Review

So, I just bought Outer Limits by Native Instruments and Zero G and for the one hour that I was messing with it, I am bum over noggin for this thing. Every sound is so haunting that it delights me. I could create dozens and dozens of horror soundtracks with this. I've run into one issue though and that is with registration, it said my key was invalid so I have to get that dealt with. So for those of you that don't know what Outer Limits is (I'm guessing all of you) it is a virtual instrument full of dark ambience sounds that is just down right awesome. I don't think I've ever been happier with a purchase to be honest. With this I could definitely make the next greatest horror game soundtrack. I don't see this being used with movies or TV shows like I do with games. Maybe it's just that video games influence my music, but whatever, I definitely want to start doing some video game soundtracks now! Heck, maybe I'll actually make a video game, psh, yeah, and David Lynch will make a movie that won't have weirdness in it. For a virtual instrument the price is pretty cheap, I got this at Sam Ash for $160, that's $40 cheaper than MSRP. The patches seem to be very pressure sensitive, unless my MIDI controller is just very flimsy (I have a KORG NanoKey). I realize that most of this review is very fractured because I keep breaking to rave about this thing, but it's true, it is the coolest virtual instrument you can buy... if you're into dark ambience or something like that. While going through the patches I realized how each patch is so unique. I feel like the people that made this slaved over making these patches, even the patches under the group Minimalist seem that way. Oh yeah, groups, there are many different patch groups that come with this software. The patch groups are all labeled by what they sound like, I guess, I mean, some of these patches are just so different that I couldn't even put them in a specific category or group. I don't know what else to say about this other than excited gibberish, so I'll close by saying if you are into dark ambience or are looking for something different than your typical virtual instrument get this.

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Wow, my first review in like forever, and for a virtual instrument no less, and it sucks... well... deal with it.

I Should Get Back To This, Yeah?

So I realize that I've left all of you, now let's be honest, I bet two or three people read this blog, and I decided that with summer here I should probably return with a vengence... so I will. I'll try to make at least one post a week, ok?
Right now I've been playing Warhammer Online and I've been getting into it. I don't think I'll actually buy a subscription though because once I get to college I'll probably stop playing and play some other game(s) because I just won't have the time for an MMO. Aside from WO I will get Martian Gothic, Bushido Blade, and Crime Killer for PS1 just for some old time fun. I love old games.
Other than that I got a job, graduation is thursday, and I go to San Francisco at the end of June so.... not much to talk about. Hopefully you guys stand by my side.

ACEN

ACEN was amazing, I bought a Dante (DMC 3) costume, a two bladed sword, Parasite Eve, and an Aural Vampire CD and Shirt. AV signed the CD, but I couldn't get both signed. Listening to the CD right now and it's awesome, the concert was awesome. I documented the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9_N5R4Obx4
The video is kind of short, so I might compile a part 2 and upload it later. I saw That Guy With The Glasses (aka Nostolgia Critic) there, I got a signed picture along with a photo of my friends and I with him. Spike (creator of Templar Arizona) did a portrait of myself, which makes me look devastatingly handsome.

A Comparison

So I decided to return to make this wee comparison.
I was at a comic book store in St. Louis this weekend and I saw a lot of Sandman stuff and I decided to get Sandman: Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano. Now right now you're all thinking holy shit, Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano (THE ARTIST FOR FF!!!), two wicked sick dudes making one comic, and yes I agree with you, it is the shit. What I am going to do is compare the normal Sandman we're used to and the Yoshitaka Amano Sandman and I'll keep it brief.
The original Sandman looks a lot creepier - more menacing, like someone you would not want to cross. His black cloak fades into red skulls, which is kinda creepy too. You don't see his eyes except for the dotted pupils, which, again, make him creepier. WHen he's wearing street clothes he's simply black and white.
The Yoshitaka Amano Sandman looks... well... beautiful, like something out of traditional Japanese art. His usually wild thick hair, looks rather thin. His black-red skull cloak is purple. He honestly reminds me of someone out of Dynasty Warriors, not in a bad way.
Now I know there are two different art styles here, but it's just something I wanted to note/compare.
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I don't really know what the point of this was, but... there you go. Maybe I'll post more stuff before the ACEN blog.

The Burps/Why None?

I don't know if I posted that I have a twitter, but... I do. Here's the URL: https://twitter.com/connor_eck so if you happened to be on the net and want to read my little burps of what-not then follow me if you have a twitter and if not... well.... get a job then. Oh and now that I have a flip cam I may post my burps on here for little interesting updates or whatevers.

I noticed a lot of people, including myself, have not updated in forever, I wonder why that is... hm.

Back from Florida

SO I was in FLorida and that was fun and I am home which is even better aside from the fact that my skin is peeling because I got sunburned to shit. Anyways I made a couple patches for my synth and another song is in the works... actually two songs are in the works, but that first one is just kind of sitting there collecting dust on my hard drive.
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Man I have no idea what to talk about... my Florida trip I guess.... I caught a massive Grouper (3 feet and 30 pounds), sat on the beach for a few hours reading and cooking... I dunno, that's pretty much it, nothing eventful really. I was surprised by the amount of porn shops in Florida though... well... within the St. Pete's Beach area there were two shops and one strip club, I was rather surprised considering in my area we HAD one and now it's turned into a cash for gold place. Started reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, so far it's just what I expected, messed up and funny.
I did download Cave Story for mac, played a little bit of it and stopped because I had to go to the beach, BUT I am wondering if this game will turn out to be the jewel covered golden game from the treasure vaults of Xerxes or just a piece of crap which would fortify my position on everything mainstream sucks.
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Well I'm spent on words.

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor

Everybody's Updating For the Weekend

So two of my songs got put onto my high school's CD, "Euphonics of Hydroponics" and "Der Blau Haus Auf Das Land" now go listen to those. One is on the album Final Phoenix and the other is on Black Blizzard. In case you forgot my last.fm page here it is:
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

Spring break is here and I realized that I need some old games to play. I got stuck in Heretic 2 and being a nomadic gamer just kind of stopped. I'll probably pick up Star Wars Dark Forces for the 1000th time and play that again because I love that game so much. I could try playing Crusader again, but..... yeah maybe I'll pick that one up... who knows...

Started messing around with the Jupiter-8 virtual synth and I love some of the sounds contained in this thing. I can make an old school sci-fi soundtrack no problem and if I make a scifi game or movie I will do so.

Tomorrow my friend Andrew and I work on our music project known as Suzy LaRue and the Roothless Ooze. We are planning to have a concert for this project too. We will film it too. Can't wait for all this to happen!

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor~

Recieve and you Shall Live

Got a new work schedule, I work Mondays and Wednesdays now! Hooray! I also got my Sandman shirt and a haircut! Hooray more clothing! I completed two song yesterday as well and uploaded them to the new album on my last.fm page:

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

So I got below average on the math PSAE and so they want me to take this online test and course that'll take like two hours, but when I tried to do this my username and password didn't work... what the hell? SO tomorrow morning I'm going to talk to someone in the math department at the resource center (I refuse to call it learning center) about it and see if they can explain it.

Parents are Crazy (caution, heavy swearing)

So some parents at my high school want to shut down GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) and they are going to protest the day of silence by keeping their kids home. Seriously, you parents are (excuse my language here, this'll get brutal) fucking retarded. I don't really know what to say other than that. Why do they care so much about the GSA to shut it down, who gives a fuck whether there is a club supporting gays or not, there's nothing wrong with gays, they are just different and they can't help it and shutting down organizations, sending them to "straight camps", etc. isn't going to help the situation because being gay is an issue with the brain where the person is receiving different signals than a straight person, so seriously, shut the fuck up and get the sand out of your fucking vagina because being hateful towards those that are different won't help your case or theirs. Who gives a fuck if they're going to hell because the bible says so, well you know what, the bible also says to not cut your hair, but what the fuck do you do? CUT YOUR FUCKING HAIR!!!! Sometimes I wonder if I'm the last sane person on this planet.

Wow, Nostolgia

Two things on this topic. I started watching Nostolgia Critic the other day, I must say, he's great. The first one I watched was Battlefield Earth, what I loved about it was how he pointed out that almost every shot was on an angle and when he made some jokes like, "If only our planet wasn't slanted we could shoot straight!" I laughed pretty hard. Then he had Spoony dress up and imitate John Travolta's character which was hilarious. I watched a ton of them when I got off work Friday. I'd recommend him to film fans who want to watch reviews on bad movies.

On the same topic of Nostolgia, my friend John and I played Vigilante 8 today. This brought me back to when I first played it... wow... I was so young back then.... *sigh*. Anyways, the game has a great soundtrack: disco, heavy metal, and trance. Some of the AI is ridiculous like, why the hell can Bee's Wax use his special like 20 times, but I can only use it 5 times? Why are there limited amounts of wrenches? Sure it creates a challenge, but there are some levels that only place like three and then that's it. The last level (the fourth because for each character campaign there are four levels) is always a bitch, like every game, but the difficulty curve ramps way the hell up for that level. I cannot beat the last level at all, but I had no problem with the first three. To sum up Vigilante 8, it's fun for the nostolgia factor, but doesn't really have a lasting impact. With super short campaigns and an extreme increase in difficulty at the last level there's not much to come back to. Sure you have multiplayer (one on one and coop), but it wouldn't really last in the end. I guess I'll have to compare this to the old Twisted Metal games too to see if I have the came feeling on those.

So, staying on games, I'm still playing Heretic 2, haven't gotten very far in it, though it kicks ass. I got Diablo 2 to work on Sheepshaver (A Mac OS emulator), but it lags... oh the lag. I tried to do bootcamp, but was unsuccessful with the Windows XP that I have, so I'll go out and buy a different Windows OS.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to make a game now. It will be a dungeon crawler using low bit sprites. I am going to use Diablo 2 as a guide to my game creation. I'm going to definitely start making this thing in summer so that I have some time to play Diablo 2 and get a story going in my mind.

Oh and before I forget, I am eating solids now with no troubles. I am very happy about that. Still taking my pills though and I have 6 weeks with a syringe and the perscription mouth wash.

Update, the Next Day

So, I woke up this morning, didn't drool any blood, so that was good. Started the morning with vanilla ice cream for breakfast, then took my butt load of pills then took a shower which was a bad idea because I started feeling the vicodin kick in while taking a shower, so I pretty much had to put on my clothes in my chair. Had assistance walking down stairs, then watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, Home Movies, and loads of Saturday Night Live before getting used to the vicodin effect. Also watched That 70s Show and King of Queens and now one of the Peter Cushing Frankenstein movies is on, so I have to watch that being a Star Wars fan and knowing that Peter Cushing is totally bad ass. Tomorrow I think I'll start with scrambled eggs. That's all for now, not a big day.

An Update

So I took a nap. When I woke up there was blood on my pillow and my jaw hurt like hell. So I went to tell my mom to give me pills. By the time I walked down stairs I felt like I was going to vomit so my mom gave me a bucket in case I vomited. She then told me she'd come back in a few minutes to check on me before giving me pills. I ended up falling asleep again while holding the bucket. I woke up when my mom came back and I was feeling better and only a section of my jaw was numb so I was able to pop whatever two pills I was taking. Then I laid down on the couch and turned on the Simpsons. I was also given a couple cups of ice chips to help my surgery spots, then I was given some jello for my stomach, and now I'm on my third glass of Gatorade... and I also gotta pee....

My Big Day

SO I had my wisdom teeth removed today. When they asked me to come back I followed them into this all white room with the surgical chair in the middle. My first thought was, man this room looks like it's from the Matrix. They hooked up everything to me and then stuck the needle in me so they could inject me with the first anesthetic. After they did this I got a surge of heaviness that flew through my extremities. I got a little tired as well. After that they injected me with the second anesthetic and the next thing I remember was me waking up and for a second I thought I was singing "White Wedding" by Billy Idol. The doctors said I wasn't, but I could've sworn I was. I'm really tired right now so some of this may not make sense to you or myself later. Right now my jaw is totally numb. I ate a little bit of ice cream. I tried to take a couple pills, but I couldn't even hold water in my mouth. I'll update you on the situation later.

I'm receiving stuff

So I ordered a load of stuff on Amazon and I got some of it in the mail:

Heretic 2, Nail by Foetus, and Driver

I'm listening to Nail by Foetus right now and I think this is one amazing industrial album, they are now becoming my favorite industrial band, slowly, but I think they are. I installed Heretic 2 and played through the tutorial section and I have a feeling that this game will be great. Driver on the other hand, I have to get an emulator for because it doesn't operate on OS X, which is pants on head retarted. All I have left to receive is the MonsterGecko pistol mouse, ZPC (which I'll probably have to emulate as well), Diablo 2, and Conquers Your Love by Praga Khan.

Craziness!

So I was in Sam Ash lookin for a new synthesizer and I'm busy playing "Circling Overland" by Front 242 and "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode and I see this old guy and his daughter walk in and the guy plays a little bit of synth and then walks away, I later found out that the guy was the drummer for Anthrax. I played Depeche Mode and Front 242 in front of the drummer from Anthrax. I found this out because one of the Sam Ash employees told me.

...

The guy bought a Korg NanoKey... I use one as well... I feel special!

So I ended up buying a Roland SH-201, once again it was the floor model, I just need to get the sound working with USB connection. Ableton recognizes that the synth is being played and sound waves will appear, but no sound comes out so I gotta fix that. Worst comes to worst I buy a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter and use my male/male stereo cord with that.

Goin Live Soon

So I decided to create a Ustream show called "Clean Up On Aisle 216" I'll post when I have a definite day for the first episode, but until then here's the page:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/saibot216

SO let's see...

I'm putting a restriction on comments now because I'm getting too much god damn spam. Why is it all posted here? I don't generate that kind of traffic!

I really need to start getting games for my mac... I'm so bored here. I'm gonna get Driver, ZPC (because it kicks that much ass), an RPG, and maybe something else... we'll see... I have to save the rest of that money for a couple CDs.

Picking an RPG is tough because the choices are so limited and I was looking for something different, but I guess I'll have to settle for either Icewind Dale or Diablo 2 (because Baldur's Gate costs a shit load). I thought Heretic 2 was an RPG but I can see that I'm wrong, I may get that just as an extra game. See I'd get Icewind Dale because that's more action focused and supposedly really good, but I'd get Diablo 2 to play with my friend John who has it (normally I hate multiplayer altogether) and because I remember watching people play it a lot back in the day and it looked pretty cool. So we'll see what happens when it comes time to buy.

I'm still rattling the idea of making a game in my head. I really want to do it and if I actually go through with this I should definitely get started the second school ends, maybe a wee bit earlier. Then I'd definitely have to set deadlines for certain things and maybe get friends to help me with this (even though I occasionally hate working with others).

...

I dunno, we'll see what happens.

Congradulations it's a Mac

So I got my new computer and it's a 15" macbook pro so... yay. Spending the rest of today uploading music that did not transfer to the external hard drive because my computer kept shutting down. Then I gotta install Microsoft Office for Mac and then I gotta go to work tomorrow AT FUCK MOTHERING 8AM WHAT THE PISS!!!! I FUCKING HATE THIS!!!!!!

Hopefully!!!

So I have enough money for a new synth and I was thinking I should get a microkorg, but then I checked Craig's List and found an Access Virus A in prime condition for $500!!!!!! Holy butt funk!!! I just have to wait one more pay day, cash the check, and then I'll buy it. Payday comes the 1st of February so... I AM VERY EXCITED!!!!

Yes... YES... YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!

I know that's an M Bison line, but guess what? THE TEKKEN TRAILER JUST WENT ONLINE LIKE TWO DAYS AGO!!!!!!!!
http://theflickcast.com/2010/01/15/first-trailer-for-tekken-goes-online/
It looks like it might break the trend of awful video game movies! I mean look at the costumes, they actually LOOK like the characters, Yoshimitsu looks like he does in Tekken 5, Eddy Gordo has the dreadlocks and weird... outfit, Jin Kazama has the pants and hair. I cannot wait for this movie to come out, I am seeing it the DAY it opens!!!!!

I should never ever get hopeful

So I was at the dentist and they're like, Oh I see you got a wisdom tooth coming in. Has it been bothering you? (NO) Oh ok, well then we won't have to remove it unless it starts bothering you. (Oh, cool.)
-Then the head dentist walks in-
His wisdom teeth are gonna have to be pulled.

And in my head I'm going, what the fuck? You just said I wasn't going to have to get them pulled, fuck you for saying such things that could get my hopes up. I got my hopes up and thought I wouldn't have to go through another tooth removal, but no you crushed my hopes and fuck you for doing that.

...UGH!
...
Got my computer repaired AGAIN. It's working alright now. Also working a hell of a lot this week.... NO BREAK AT ALL I HATE THIS! I did get paid though so.... that's cool. You know what that means? I have enough money to buy my MicroKORG now! Yay!

Coming Soon....

Coming Soon.... as in tomorrow... FINALS!!!! Holy bat fuck batman, this is going to suck, I hate finals.
However I did get Switch Remix by Schaft; Gay, Black, and Married by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Tommy Tallarico Greatest Hits 1, The Best of Space, and Armored Trooper VOTOMS stage 1, so I got enough to keep me busy.
...
No, of course I'm spending the rest of today studying, who do you think I am?