June 21, 2007 by Hawk.

245+ hours into Final Fantasy XII and it’s done, over, finished. I must say I was a little disappointed in the last battles. I could have just walked away from the controller and let the gambits run the fight. Yet, all in all I couldn’t be happier. It was an amazing game. Beautifully designed, well laid out. I got my money’s worth out of it, that’s for sure! I’m just a little sad that it’s finally ended. I waited over a week to fight the final fights just because I didn’t want it to be over and now, {sniff} it is.

Hawk (Moving on to the next RPG)

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June 18, 2007 by Hawk.

Yes, it’s only Monday but I have serious doubts anyone’s going to be able to out dumbass this guy…

Jonathan Lafever is accused of stealing several snakes (5) from a shed in the back yard of a licensed snake breeder. He was found by employees at a local WalMart in an aisle bleeding from multiple snake bite wounds. Among the snakes this dumbass stole were two Rock Rattlesnakes, which are the ones that bit the moron. He had to be airlifted to a hospital because the nearest one didn’t have any antivenin. He hasn’t been arrested yet. I guess the police are waiting to see if he survives. Dumbass!

Full story can be found here:
http://www.local6.com/news/13520513/detail.html
Or Here:
http://www.wftv.com/news/13521634/detail.html 

Hawk (Smart enough to know if it rattles, don’t steal it!)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 2 Comments »

June 18, 2007 by Hawk.

We enjoy having you visit our fine state. Well, to be honest, you could just send your wallets, we’d be fine with that too. But for the love of God, when you visit our beaches and see those signs that say things like “WARNING: RIP CURRENTS” and “DANGER” pay attention to them. We don’t put them up because they’re quaint. We don’t put them there so you can pose your kids for a photo next to them. They’re there because THEY MEAN IT!

This past weekend alone in Brevard and Volusia counties some ONE THOUSAND people needed to be pulled out of the ocean and one, sadly, will never return to Florida. Being rescued from a rip current isn’t a damned tourist attraction, people! I feel sorry for the lifeguards, they’ve got to be worn completely out.

Here’s an idea… If you’re a poor swimming and you plan on ignoring the warning signs our tax dollars pay for, do everyone a favor and swim at the beaches that don’t HAVE lifeguards. Swim at your own damn risk. We’ll ship your carcass home for you.

Hawk (who swims in a pool)

Posted in Rant and Rave | 5 Comments »

June 16, 2007 by Hawk.

Heh, the tracking info shows the package was delivered at 5:40 AM. Just slightly inaccurate, no? The mailman/woman/person hasn’t gotten to my house earlier than noon, ever and usually isn’t here until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Ah well, they’re here. Guess I wasted the time I spent writing a nasty-gram to WalMart.

Tried a few of the demos on the JamPack disc. SLOW loading thing that it is. A couple look interesting and there’s a GTA demo so I can check out J.I.’s recommendation. I managed to fly into a mountain, twice, in the Air Combat demo and the ATV demo is amusing in that it won’t let you go off course and do head on collisions with your opponents.

Hot Shot’s Golf: Fore looks promising. Pretty easy to control in the mini-golf game. Gotta mess with the configuration and give it some time. I could use a break from FFXII (240+ hours so far into that!).

Haven’t tried the Dragon Quest. I’m going to leave that until I finish Final Fantasy.

Off to the games!

Hawk

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June 16, 2007 by Hawk.

Fuck off!

You have got to be kidding me. You’re trying to claim property that was sunk some 400 years ago? In nearly 400 years did YOU guys go looking for the treasure? No, you waited for someone else to put forth the effort and now you’re trying to sue to get it ‘back’? Let’s just say the statute of limitations has run out on this one. It’s not yours. Not after four centuries in the ocean. Now sit back down have a siesta and shut the hell up about it.

Hawk

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June 15, 2007 by Hawk.

UPS Mail Innovations, a system by which UPS picks up a package, moves it and then dumps it into the USPS delivery system… 

What a freaking joke. I ordered three PS2 games from WalMart on the 9th. All were in stock and ready to go. The package(s?) shipped on 12th. Three days is a bit long to get an order out the door but acceptable I guess. It then took 24 hours for my package(s?) to go from the WalMart distribution center in Paulsboro, New Jersey to the UPS Mail Innovations center in Atlanta, Georgia, it arrived there on the 13th. It’s now the 15th and the package JUST LEFT the UPS Mail Innovations center in the hands of the United States Postal Service. Almost three FULL DAYS to leave the facility! If I had known they used such a bullshit shipping method I would have opted to spend the extra cash for direct delivery without all this crap. I’m rather annoyed.

Hawk

Posted in Rant and Rave | 1 Comment »

June 14, 2007 by Hawk.

I’m sad today.

Don Herbert, better known to millions as Mr. Wizard, died Tuesday (the 12th of June) after a long battle with multiple myeloma (bone cancer). I remember seeing the re-run B&W shows from the 50’s and 60’s and even as an adult I watched, when I could, his later show during the 1980’s on Nickelodeon. He was 89 years old. I’ll miss ya, Mr. Wizard!

Hawk

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June 12, 2007 by Hawk.

I’ve listened to a lot of music over the decades and I’ve decided; Stevie Ray Vaughn doing ‘Lovestruck Baby’ off the 1983 album Texas Flood, is perhaps the best bit of guitar playing I have ever heard. Absolutely flawless.

Hawk

Posted in Rant and Rave | 5 Comments »

June 11, 2007 by Hawk.

Well, I got my PlayStation 2 a little over a month ago and thanks to the Coke Rewards program I’ve been able to get some free game rentals at BlockBuster Video. This is a good thing since at $7.99 a rental I wouldn’t have rented any…I also picked up a few games when I got the system and recently ordered a couple more from Walmart.

The games I’ve rented:

Super Monkey Ball Adventure - Wow, boring. Rented this mostly for the mini-games to see if I could get my mom into gaming a little. The majority of mini-games were two minute “try it and see what’s next” type games. One, a cannon vs castles game was amusing but the AI as in all too many games is far too good for the novice player.

Thrillville - Yeah, umm, SIM type games should be left to the PC with more keys to choose from and control things. I couldn’t even get through the tutorial for this before I gave up on the main game. The mini-games were for the most part completely unplayable though the mini-golf game gave us several hours of amusement. Not worth the price to play one cut down game in the party games selections.

We Love Katamari - I know, I know, everyone told me this was a fantabulous game series and it would be easy for someone with my hand problems to play. I think they were all smoking crack. The game play while amusing wasn’t anything that made me stand up and shout “I MUST have this game!” it was rough on my hands. You frequently get stuck in corners where the camera can’t show you what the hell you’re doing. The menu system… how do I express my contempt… this would insult the intelligence of a 6 year old. You either have to sit through the annoying ’sound per letter’ dialog or constantly hit the X key to fast forward through the insultingly insipid conversations. “I don’t want this game, ever again!”

Test Drive: Unlimited - which is a limited cut down version of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Like too many car games it feels like the developers have never seen let alone driven a real sports car. The cars which all drive and sound alike handle like greased pigs on ice. Except, of course, for the cars controlled by the AI. Those cars a driven as if they’re on rails and seem to have super speed bursts as one that was WAY the hell behind me was able to catch and pass me at the last second even though it was supposed to be the same car I was driving. The physics are a joke. You can’t drive up some hills my grandma could have walked up. There’s no damage taken no matter what you do. A head-on collision at 150 MPH is the same as tapping a tree at 5. Cars you hit BOUNCE out of your way. At $37 this game is garbage. It might be decent if you wait for it to hit the $10 bargain bin, maybe.

The games I have bought -

Final Fantasy XII - Oh, my god. How much content can they cram into a DVD?! It’s been a long time since I played an RPG (think Sega Saturn days) and this is just blowing my mind. The game is flat out gorgeous. I’ve put over 220 hours into the game and still have a ways to go. Some, like the fishing game are beyond my hand skills and the real time combat system is a little rough in big battles. Speaking of the real time combat, NO more random encounters. One thing I always hated about RPGs was the ‘doo dee dee doo!’ sound of some monster you didn’t see now attacking you. While some monsters still do spawn out of the ground or drop from the ceiling you fight them where you are in the game, no more battle screen switch over! There’s more side quests you can stop and enjoy than you can shake a bundle of sticks at. I absolutely love this game and I don’t want it to end! The camera angles can be a bit annoying especially when fighting a huge (and I mean, screen filling, gigantic, huge) monster where you mostly get to see wall or a giant foot. It still doesn’t detract enough from the game to make you quit playing. If you’ve got the time for an RPG, get this game!

Gottleib’s Pinball Collection - This is fun! It’s no Earth shaking game but it’s got a bunch of tables to play and each recreates a classic pinball table from the 50’s to the 80’s (90’s?). Graphics are well done. Game play reasonably represents real pinball tables. Tilting is all too easy to do just like in the real thing. Best of all my mom not only can play this and enjoys playing it but she can also, on a couple of the tables, kick my ass. Go mom!

Some ‘World Championship Poker’ game - I can’t remember which of the many WCP games this is. I mistakenly thought it was multi-player but that’s only for online gaming. It’s ok as poker games go but nothing to write home about. The locations are dark, dingy and kind of boring. The game play includes some ‘bluff meter’ thing that I need to look up in the manual one of these days. The AI plays reasonably well and will even toss a decent hand if you play a strong enough betting game. Character/avatar creation is minimalistic. Most options (earrings, etc) aren’t even visible when playing. Thankfully I got this in the $10 bargain bin, I certainly wouldn’t pay more for it.

Games I’ve just ordered:

Hot Shots Golf Fore - This got decent reviews and I’m hoping that even if the main game is too hard the new-for-this-version miniature golf courses will be something my mom can get into. 

Dragon Quest VIII - Another Square-Enix RPG, cell shaded this time. It looks interesting and got great reviews. Hell, you really can’t go wrong with Square.

JamPack Vol. 11 - Just a demo disc of PS2 games. Can’t go wrong getting 10 playable game demos for $4.

Games I’m going to order, soon:

World Championship Cards - Yeah, another WC game. I’m getting this for two reasons. Firstly because I’ve got a little over $8 left on a Sears gift card and secondly because it’s got CRIBBAGE! I used to love the cribbage game over at the MSN Gaming Zone but those bastards at Microshaft took the multi-player games away from us. I can’t take cribbage in person, I always mess up the point count but get a computer to count for me and I can play for hours on end.

Hawk

Update - The games I ordered appear to have shipped already. YAY!

Posted in Rant and Rave | 3 Comments »

June 7, 2007 by Hawk.

The Sago Palm in out front yard is flowering. Something it only does every few years so this is pretty rare. Here’s a shot from the last time it bloomed in 2003.

Click here for larger version.

Click here for larger version.