Dark Cricket, SQUEEEK

Okay okay, bad subject.  I've done a lot of catch up on games over the past few months.

I finished:

Star Wars Force Unleashed
LittleBigPlanet (though, still playing it to make levels)
Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus
Pokemon Diamond
Chocobo's Dungeon (Wii)

The somewhat unfinishable games:

Cooking Mama World Tour
Mario Super Sluggers


I am currently playing:

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Devil May Cry 1
The Simpsons Game

I currently need to play:

Final Fantasy 3 (DS)
Final Fantasy 4 (DS)
Final Fantasy 6 (GBA) - start all over since its been a year
Fallout 3
Final Fantasy 12 Revenant Wings
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia (thought I am considering just selling off these)
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
Valkyrie Profile Silmeria

Upcoming games to get and play:

Valkyrie Profile Convenant of the Plume
Chocobo and the Magic Book
Chocobo's Dungeon DS
Street Fighter 4


Looking at some of the list, I felt like I was playing games to get them out of the way and finish them.  On the other hand, none of them were really that good and memorable besides, well, poking fun of them.  We need a good game with a good story these days...

I am having some fun with LittleBigPlanet, making my own levels!  My joke is, this makes me realize I am not a level designer.  Why?  Because I don't seem to think of anything very innovative or new.  That, however, can be solved if I knew how to do all sorts of things to utilize its full potential!  Plus, I'm also lazy to make their contraptions that make something work far elsewhere in the level.  It's mostly limited to knowing how to do things.

I'm trying to think of an original platformer, maybe something Mario-esque style.  Though, I can't make platforms spin like they do in mario games, so it probably won't work well.  I'll think of something.

As a practice level, I made a Domo themed level.  It definitely wasn't the best, but it was focused more on story than gameplay.  Hence the realization that I am not a level designer.

Now, I am working on a Chocobo's Dungeon themed level, going down 3 different dungeons.

Next, I will probably work on my Castle Oblivion level.  That'll be broken into 2 parts.

Notice a trend?  I do love me some Square-Enix.  I consider them the best of the video game companies out there.  No matter how bad their games are becoming, I will still buy them (maybe not full price), but I will still buy and play them.

But, I do gotta try and make something more original for my own platformer.

I just read an article about how colors affect people's behavior, according to a study.

Blue sparks creativity while red improves attention to detail.

My favorite color is blue, so perhaps that is why I am a writer.  Well, though I haven't written much in a while, just brainstormed in my head, perhaps I need to stare at blue more often.  I can't say I have the most creative ideas, but I take my time with things, tweak previously made stuff and come out more original.  Everyone artists needs some sort of inspiration somewhere, right?

Red improves attention to detail, but the article's examples seemed more like "logical".  Like which toothpaste they wanted depending on the ad, one that fights tartar of whitening.

Maybe that's why the traffic light red means stop, then you look around and notice, on there's a Subway in that shopping center!  Of course, that's just because you're stopped not because you saw red.

Anywho, my favorite color is blue, I guess I've sparked creativity in my brain long before I was creative!  The hints of strange childhood brainwaves...I think I am almost ready to outline my story.  Then I'll send it away to some fellowship contests and hope to win!  I think it's a big story, one of my biggests that can possible lead to a series for myself.

Maybe one day I'll go into details on this, but...

LA drivers are just crazy drivers

and

OC drivers are just noobs.


They just really get on my nerves sometimes, really!

Sometimes, I wish I didn't feel so stupid.

Lately, my dreams have embodying my desires.

The first, I've been waiting for a game to come in the mail.  It's the game I tested, so I'm waiting for my free copy.  Since I moved before it was sent, I gave them my new address and I want to make sure that they wrote down  my address correct so that I know I can get more mail than just bills.  I don't know if that made sense.  It hasn't arrived yet.  But in my dream, it did!  I was all happy and relieved because I'm got mail besides bills!  Then I woke up and realized it was just a dream...sigh.

A few days later, well a few days ago now, I learned through facebook that one guy who had full time is leaving and moving away.  That means there will be a full time spot open, of course I want it.  So, naturally, I dreamed I got it.  Then I woke up and it wasn't true.

Now, last night, I dreamed I was full time again!  This time I realized how much better it was to be full time because it was faster to go out to lunch.  Like there was a secret exit that only us full timers can take and it goes out faster.  Of course, the city looked more like downtown New York, but that's why dreams are weird.

Siiigh.  My dreams are just playing with my desires.  Maybe it's telling me the future.  No...just playing with my desires.

EDIT:  Now I remember my other dream.  Right now, Gamestop has this deal where you can trade in 2 Wii games and get $30 off select games, one of them being the new Cooking Mama.  You can also trade in 2 DS games to get $20 off select DS games, one of them being the second Cooking Mama.  I want both.

I dreamed I went to a Gamestop and asked them about the deal and if they had Cooking Mama in stock.  Then I showed them a bunch of games that I reviewed and asked if these have enough trade in value because they need to be $3.01 or more and $2.01 or more respectively.  So the guy scans the games and the price shows up on the register.  All of them had enough trade in value!  I was glad to know I wouldn't have to worry about not being enough for any of my games.  Then I woke up and it was just a dream.

Sigh.

Sigh, I feel really stupid right now.  Really really stupid.

Yesterday these guys come to the door and they are selling magazine subscriptions.  These guys are around and they always try to sell these things.  And he was saying stuff like he gets points to go on a trip for each he sells.  But he was cheating the system by selling them, then having customers cancel them and he'll still get the points.

I really didn't know what was going on, or what I was thinking!  And then I ended up subscribing to magazines!  Siiiiigh.

I just cannot explain how stupid I feel right now.  It kinda makes me depressed.  I mean, I remember the school sending out these notices telling you avoid these guys...and here I am, being stupid.

Well I sent in the thing to cancel.  I'm supposed to get my check back, but I guess if they do cash it in, at least give me my magazines.  If they don't, then I don't know what to do.  I mean I feel unbelievably stupid.  This is probably one of the most stupidest things I've ever done.

I guess there isn't much to do now.  I mean it's only a check, they can't do like informercials and keep charging my account, it's not a credit card.  And I didn't give them a SSN so there's no identity theft.  I shouldn't worry about that stuff too much right?  Right?

I just feel stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!!!!!

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.  I better do some research on that thing then.

If they do cash my check and nothing more like, not keep charging my account somehow.  Then I'd take that as punishment for my stupidity.

This is how stupid I felt.  I stopped to get gas on the way home.  My normal stop.  I see that a new 76 is opened.  I go there, there's a line.  Then I try to go around to the other end because I see a spot open up.  But then a car turns in and takes it.  So, I just go out and turn around and go back.  Of course, it's still busy so I wait, then I see there is one open again on the other side.  I go around and.....I try backing into it when half way through, I realize....THE GAS THING IS ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE NOT THE PASSENGER SIDE!!!  So I just go forward and go back around and there is one open and I take it.

Why am I so stupid???

Circuit City is half gone, they had to file for Bankruptcy Protection.  Mervyn's is gone.  KB Toys is gone.  This and that company are gone.  And then company after company lays off a ton of people leaving a large % of American unemployed!  Unfortunately, I am not considered "unemployed" and cannot file for "unemployment" and receive welfare money because....I wasn't laid off.  I am unemployed, actually, just cannot make any benefit out of it.  But, that's another post.

As I watched TV, all these old infomercials keep coming on and I wondered why are they still on with our economy.  I mean they were made before the economy got to this recession and they are still running?!  How can a big box store file for bankruptcy that people buy tons of products from and these low life infomercials/companies are still in business?!

Then it hit me.  There are some of those infomercials that are honest or at least give you a product.  Others...well...

You might get something, you might not.  If you do, you find out the information they gave you was not at all helpful.  It didn't make you money through affiliated marketing, it didn't teach how to you use a computer because you had to "insert the disc in the computer", and it didn't STOP CHARGING YOUR CREDIT CARD!

These companies are still there because they scam you!  They take your information, well at least the phone number, and sell it to other companies and telemarketers so they can call you and bug you.  Some may not continue charging your credit card, which is good but then all these calls keep coming about this and that that you don't want!

Not that I know from experience, I read some stuff on this get-rich-quick scheme which was about affiliated marketing claiming people can make up to $100,000 in a week.  Except that infomercial NEVER SAID HOW YOU DO IT.  I watched it because it was so funny and wanted to see if it actually told you how to do it, or a glimpse, a hint, at least say its AFFILIATED MARKETING.  Of course, 30 minutes....not a word.  Then I looked it up online and read how people bought into it, stupid people, and found all sorts of problems.  No canceled subscriptions, telemarketers, selling information, and no helpful information.

In our economy, succeeding and failing winds down to money.  Some of us can succeed personally when we finally get something to do that makes us happy.  But then we get depressed when we realize we don't make money; failure.  If a company fails to pay up at the end of a quarter, it is in debt, if it is in debt too much, it's time to file for bankruptcy.  There is no "good conduct", there is nothing "humane" about a company, and there is no "pity" unless another company recognizes you and wants to merge.  If you don't make money, you fail.  THEREFORE, these infomercial companies, whatever they are called, succeed in business because they are successful in scamming customers!  They make money off people who call, and then they make more money when they sell your information to other companies who will sell it to other companies who will.....you get the picture.

It's really a pain to see the good companies go down the drain while the snobby ones stay alive.

It's always been kinda sad knowing that Uetmatsu left Square-Enix.  He did great work on the Final Fantasy games.

I found out that the game I picked to review was created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and his independent company, Mistwalker.  But I found out in a board so I decided to confirm it myself.  Of course, that meant going to Wikipedia instead of, you know, checking the credits in the manual.  I did check the manual mid-way through the Wikipedia source and found that Uematsu also did the music!  Hmmm....I saw a connection immediately.  Sakaguchi needed a composer for his new game Final Fantasy, he found Uematsu as only a part time worker at a music store.  Uematsu has been with Sakaguchi since the beginning of his career!

So upon my research on Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy was a big risk for Square and they basically dumped all their money on it.  If it had failed, Square would be a gonner.  It wasn't, as we know.  He went on to make more Final Fantasies, then he was promoted to Producer and Executive Producer, then Vice President, then....he became President of Square.  I think it was a US branch of Square though.

Then around 2004 I think he decided to step down and create Mistwalker.  Doing so also greatly lowered the budget of Square causing them to merge with their rival, Enix Corporation to become Square-Enix.

So when did Uematsu leave?  Well around the time Final Fantasy X-2 came out which is around 2004!  Or end of 2003...but that's about the same time.  Square-Enix hasn't really had a stable composer since then besides Yoko Shimomura for Kingdom Hearts.

It all just came together.  And here I thought Uematsu moved on to compose music for microsoft games. No!  He just went where Sakaguchi went, Mistwalker.  Good friends stick together I guess.

it happens in baseball a lot.  Sometimes when a manager does poorly, depending on the team, they fire them at the end of the season (or even mid season), or if their contract is ending, they just don't get signed back.  Yes, even managers have contracts just like baseball players.  Often at times if the manager is there a long time and there are players who've been there a long time or a few years with that manager, they tend to grow attached to him.

It's strange how it works too, lots of time when managers are let go, a lot of the players' contracts are just about over so they can opt for free agency.  If that manager was signed early on in the off season, guess where those players are going.  Most likely they will go with the manager to the other team as long as the team needs a player in a position they can play.  Sometimes, a player is a free agent a year a later than they join the team the previous manager left to.  I've seen that happen a lot in baseball.  Then after that team, they all seem to split in different directions.  So maybe they weren't so attached, but then again not all player signings are up to the manager.

Well...I just solved the reason Uematsu left, that's all. If I were him, I'd just continue working at Square-Enix composing for Final Fantasy, but get a contract that will allow me to work for other companies too, like Mistwalker.  But I guess he grew very attached to Sakaguchi.  Then again, I don't think Square would've allowed a contract like that because they're known to keep lips sealed and not want anything to leak.  They think very high of themselves.  I mean, what other projects has Tetsuya Nomura done besides any Square game?  See what I mean?

You know, lately, when I'm playing a game, I'm not paying attention the story as much.  I mean I have to restart my Final Fantasy 4 DS because I forgot what was going on, regardless of the fact that I played it on the PS1 and loved the game.  I'm just not paying attention or remember what I'm even doing.  I also have to restart Final Fantasy 6 even though I'm at the very end already.

Right now, I'm playing Force Unleashed.  The story for this one isn't all that great.  What really sucks is that the cutscenes are incredibly short, so then the dialogue feels really rushed.  "There's a jedi at this place, go there and kill him", "the emperor must not know you're alive, do this so he won't know."  Go here, go there!  That's about all the dialogue is.

I think the creators forgot that this game takes place between episode 3 and episode 4 which means that all those fancy stormtroopers they made for this game kinda....doesn't fit with Episode 4.  I mean they have a stormtrooper that can camaflouge itself and make it invisible...where were those in Episode 4?  And this super powered twice as big stormtrooper.  Of course, I can tell by their logic, "these were in part of the world that weren't in the movie."  You know, those kinds of stormtroopers would be pretty powerful, I don't see why those wouldn't be on the Death Star, but on a Star Destroyer instead.

It's not feeling like Star Wars much, really.  It's just feels like one of those fan fictions and the people making it probably just wanted to sumbit ideas for something cool for this story.  But they forgot they have to limit themselves to the stories that were already made!

I'm not too engaged in it as I thought I'd be.  But I haven't been too engaged in any RPG lately prompting me to start all over.  I'm not sure why I'm feeling like that.  Maybe I've got a lot on my mind, a lot of stress.

I'm moving soon, so I think I should be able to finally relax and enjoy my games to the fullest.  I hope I'm right about that.  I really want to enjoy games again.