Off-Topic Fanpost For The Weekend
by BrianL on Nov 13, 2009 4:10 PM PST
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PrintSo we're going to borrow a page from sister-SBN blog Lookout Landing and try something new here at Field Gulls. This is your Off-Topic fanpost, where you can discuss topics that are outside of the scope of the Seahawks and football in general.
Normal commenting rules apply here in the OTFP. Keep in mind that this isn't designed to be something akin to Twitter or Facebook. This is a place where you can bring up interesting things to discuss and share, rather than informing us that you're eating a sandwich on your patio in the rain. Here's an example of what's cool and what's not:
Not cool:
Scruffy: I'm eating a sandwich!
Getting better:
Scruffy: I'm eating a sandwich! Who likes sandwiches?
Cool:
Scruffy: I just finished off a tasty turkey and provolone sandwich! Any suggestions on what other sandwiches I should look into next?
Try to keep Seahawks news out of the OTFP and give them a fanpost of their own. Other than that, have at it. Make sure your comments are appropriate and don't violate any of the commenting rules here at FG.
Sometimes I'll post a series of questions in the OTFP that you can answer if you'd like. Here are some questions!
- What video game consoles do you currently own?
- What's on your list of video games to purchase in 2010?
- Skiing or snowboarding?
- Book recommendations?
- Movie recommendations?
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I hate the Law of Sines
Yet I love mathematics. Learning the Law of Sines in an oblique triangle is slightly below learning Chinese.
You know what that’s too boring even for OT.
I bowled a 176 the other day in a bowling league.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
Anyone looking for a new television?
Spotted over at Gizmodo, an LG 47LH55 47" 240hz set for $999 with free shipping.
Nice refresh rate, good brightness, and good contrast.
Why does it say 1299.99 when I clicked the link?!?
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 13, 2009 4:45 PM PST up reply actions
Add to cart for the lower price.
I think the $999 is below the allowable advertised price from the manufacturer.
My preference for our first pick:
1. Suh
2. Berry
3. McCoy
4. Trade down (depends on our pick number though).
NT Terrence Cody
Draft Cody #1 and install him at NT.
Mebane/Bryant and LoJack/Redding rotate as DEs in a 3-4 defense.
Curry-Tatupu-Hawthorne-Tapp as our LBs.
365-pound NTs like Cody are rare. He is that rare type of player that a team needs in order to switch to a 3-4. Considering how ineffective our current 4-man line seems to be, I think the switch to 3-4 could be refreshing for our defense.
Also, our other talent seems to line up well as a 3-4 scheme.:
Tapp is talented but gets lost as a small DE. He might excel at pass rushing from OLB if he lost 10 pounds.
Tatupu and Hawthorne side-by-side could provide a lot of playmaking at ILB.
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
I'm not against a 365 lb NT even if we DON'T go 3-4.
Some of Ray Lewis/Baltimore’s best years they had two behemoths on the front line.
I’m a “Line Guy.” You win and lose the game on the line first, in my opinion.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 11:48 AM PST up reply actions
I'm hearing ya.
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
I see. I skipped the open (my bad).
I thought this was a misc. bin for whatever off-topic stuff. I missed the off-Seahawks topic part. :)
Today I officially give up on SA
http://www.seahawkaddicts.com/2009-articles/november/bloggers-block-mid-season-awards.html#comments
Babs is our worst defensive player? I know it’s subjective but this is bullcrap.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
That would definitely be a good reason to leave and never return
I’m curious who I would say in return though. Probably Terrill.
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 13, 2009 7:51 PM PST up reply actions
Well, is Cole still considered a starter?
I would have said there was a high chance of this being yes in weeks 1-3, but I’m not so sure now. He seems more than adequate.
good example of why field gulls is a step above other seahawks blogs
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
Does anyone else have a oven that is able to cook a entire pizza before it tells you its preheated?
abender20 hates freedom.
Frozen Solid.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 13, 2009 7:16 PM PST up reply actions
Great underappreciated video games:
Lufia 2. A great role playing game from a gameplay standpoint that was imported just as the SNES was dying.
I can't say I've heard of that one, and I've played all sorts of RPGs.
I’ll have to look into it.
Super Nintendo
lots of puzzles, and hard ones; not Zelda puzzles. Capsule monsters before Pokemon. Just a terrifically designed, long and challenging game that had terrible timing.
By "Zelda puzzles"
are you referring to a difficulty level bordering on the inane? Like “light one candle on level two THEn light two candles on level four to unlock the door on level ten”.
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 13, 2009 7:52 PM PST up reply actions
heh, not exactly
The puzzles in Lufia were fun and challenging but I never got stuck once doing them.
Zelda’s puzzles were mostly easy but I actually got stuck a lot in Zelda by the hardest ones. One of the reasons I hate Ocarina of Time is because I got stuck more times in that game than probably every other Zelda combined- I think it was about 20 times for a total of about 10 hours.
Its just like you said, the worst ones were the Zelda “puzzles” that were completely inane and made no logical sense (every puzzle in Lufia at least made sense). You get to a locked door and you would never think to push a block 7 rooms over 7 times. So after an hour of trying everything that makes sense, you leave the dungeon and check the whole fucking world just in case you missed something (which you didn’t). It was almost as bad as the infamous Simon’s Quest “puzzle” where you couldn’t advance in the game until you kneeled by a random wall for 20 seconds until a whirlwhind comes out of nowhere for no reason to whisk you away.
My brother and I ended up getting a walkthrough
and then after we spent the hour beating our head against the wall we’d read how to get around the puzzle. Then came swearing, because we couldn’t believe how retarded the solution was, or that we were supposed to figure that out.
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 14, 2009 10:39 AM PST up reply actions
Nerd explosion!
I discovered Lufia 2 back in 2003 after a friend recommended it. I own an SNES, but I played this game on emulator (which is just fine, emulators are awesome and I own a controller to USB adapter). I discovered this game about the same time that I was discovering fansubs and anime that ran longer than 90 minutes, which was appropriate since Lufia2 feels very much like an anime rpg.
Lufia 2 has the best boss music of all time, and that is saying a lot. I still get pumped listening to it.
Some other notables (click to listen):
FFMQ (mediocre game but great music)
FF4 (god this takes me back)
FF7
FF6
BoF2
and of course- Chrono Trigger (1 and 2)
Lufia 2 is not the most under-rated SNES RPG to me (that would be breath of fire 2), but I did find it to be an above average RPG by non-squaresoft standards. The game ripped off Zelda quite heavily but I’m not complaining, it added a fun puzzle element to the game and it worked.
The story was kind of fucked up. The game has an anime style character design and love story. The main character marries (yes marries) one of the more obscure female characters halfway through despite developing a different romance (much like how most anime romantic comedies develop love triangles and predictably switch late), and the game then resumes many years later after the main character has kids.
The game was unique for its zelda-rpg hybrid gameplay. I also remember it for a unique 100 level optional dungeon halfway that was very challenging REGARDLESS of your level (the challenge adjusted to the parties level). It was difficult to beat but you could beat it fairly early in the game and get awesome over-powered rewards. Every RPG allows you to get overpowered by the end, but few allow this in the games first half (FFVIII is another that jumps to mind. Don’t play it though its crap).
Good times. Good fucking times.
In my mind Final Fantasy VII is overrated, Final Fantasy VIII is extraordinarily underrated
but Final Fantasy VI was the best in the franchise.
I have to disagree about VII. Looking back, it looks that way, but look at the difference in VII and VI.
VII had 3d graphics, the start of the giant sword. The biggest badass villain, possibly ever in Sephiroth, a great soundtrack (though I happen to love all Squaresoft games’ music), fun stuff like car racing, and several movies made after it (which I think may contribute to your being overrated part).
VI/III is the best by far though. I’m not sure a game will ever top that, at least in terms of how good it was at the time it came out. The opera scene. Chocobo breeding. So many things that were right about that game.
“You angry me?”
“Wait he says, do I look like a waiter?”
I could care less about the graphics and game mechanics, I play these games for the story.
VII’s plot just didn’t do it for me. VI had by far the greatest story of the franchise.
I'm glad that you like 6 so much (I apologize in advance for the long posts)
I’ve beaten every single FF game (except 11 which was an MMO, obviously), most of them multiple times. Here is how I’d personally rank them:
1tie: FF7*
1tie: FF4**
1tie: FF6***
1tie: FF9****
5: FF10 (A very average feeling FF, but I had fun and logged a lot of hours).
6: FF5 (flawed and very hack and slash. Job system wasn’t perfected yet. Liked the environments and creativity though)
7: FF1 (not a great game, but a bit of a minor classic. Very good for its time)
8: FF8 (see below)
9: FF12 (not a bad game but I played it less than 10, 5, 1, and 8)
10: FF2 (nes) (original was unplayable the way only bad NES games could be. Remake was good though.)
11: FF3 (nes) (same as above.)
*Regarding 7: Its important to note that from ‘96 to ’98, it was kind of an awkward transition period. Most of the mega-hit franchises of the NES and SNES were trying to transition to 3D and failed. Some notable failures to the 3D jump: Castlevania, Mega-man, Mario (not a total failure, but the best Mario games were in 2d), Suikoden (Konami’s flagship RPG series), Breath of Fire (Capcom’s flagship RPG series), Street Fighter (although very recently the series has been revived), Mortal Kombat, etc.
7 was coming off a massive and beloved game in 6. It was ultra hyped, and sometimes hype can be your own worst enemy unless you live up to it. It was entering 3D polygons for the first time and some series couldn’t adapt to that.
7 was special because it immersed the gamer like no other game had by 1997. The music and atmosphere, the big 3d world map, it was just awesome. The characters were interesting and stylish. Sephiroth is generally considered the best video game villian of all time. The story had a few minor problems but was generally excellent. It also had bad words like shit in it. How cool is that? The mini games were excellent and people still use 7’s mini-games as a measuring stick to this day. The limit break system added almost an “arcade” feel to the battles.
I’m guessing most fans would say 6 is the best FF, but 7 was/is unquestionably the most lucrative game in the series. They are still making spin off products for that game all these years later. 6, though deserving, didn’t get crap.
4 was the first “great” game and was the first big step not just for FF but for the entire RPG genre. It had (in my opinion), the best story in the series and the best music. The characters were supremely likeable, and the game itself was simple and straightforward, but still very fun. Its kind of amazing to think that it came out in 1991 and was 2 months short of being an SNES “launch” title.
6 had a very good story, kind of invented the non-linear 2nd half that would appear in later RPGs like Chrono Trigger and FF7. It had outstanding graphics, good music, LOTS of characters (the most in the series) all with unique appearances and abilities, a fun villian, and some pretty stylish attacks/abilities. It also had what I still consider to be the very best/sharpest battle system in the series.
9 had great music, was very fun to play, and had a very good story. It was a needed return to what made FF great after Square’s failed experiment with 8. The emphasis on treasure hunting and stealing was a big plus in my book. I also liked how any of the 8 characters could be overpowered if you knew how to use them right.
Sorry if I'm talking about this too much, but its fun
I’ve noticed that there is kind of an echelon system in Final Fantasy fandom
Ultra casual FF fans: Love 8 and/or Love 10. Didn’t like 7 or liked it less than most. Few played 6. Almost none played and beat 4 (II US) or 1.
Casual FF fans: Love 7 and swear it is not just the best FF of all time, but the greatest video game of all time. 6 gets very good consideration too. Usually unfavorable of 8.
Hardcore FF fans: Tend to “respect” 7, but consistently say 6 is the best in the series. Have played and beaten most of the games which lends credibility to their opinions. Its fairly common that this group loathes FF8 and disrespects 10. Also its not uncommon for this group to cite ff1 for NES as the best.
I’m kind of unusual because I give props to 4 and 9 which are kind of the forgotten greats of the series. 6 and 7 were both masterpieces, and I don’t really care if anyone likes one more than the other. They are razor close to each other in my book.
That's a pretty broad brush you're painting with there.
I enjoyed 8 and I don’t consider myself an ultra-casual fan. I know plenty of Final Fantasy fans that enjoyed 8 as well as 7.
My experience has been the complete opposite
And just about every one of the hardcore gamers, the ones that run video blogs like Spoony Experiment, Angry Video Game Nerd and Nostalgia critic, hate FFVIII with an intense passion and are quite eager to articulate why (particularly spoony, hilarious stuff).
Yeah it is a broad brush, but seriously 99% of the time, when I ask people, I find that they are either a FF7 person or a FF8 person. For a while I thought I might have been the only person on earth to beat both games 3+ times.
Yeah, I'm not sure about those categories.
I didn’t like 8 all that much, but one of these days I’ll play through it again and might change my mind
It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?
by Wayward Llama on Nov 14, 2009 5:17 AM PST up reply actions
10-2 could have been a good game
A close miss. The battle system needed a slight tweek and the music was pretty bad. I actually didn’t mind the cheesy girly stuff, though I did wonder why a game with a mostly male audience would make such a ridiculously girly game.
I actually really liked X-2.
I’d give X and X2 both another playthrough if I didn’t have to drag out the PS2 to do so.
It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?
by Wayward Llama on Nov 14, 2009 5:14 AM PST up reply actions
Its funny because I've beat FF8 five times, more than any other FF.
It had very good replay value because of the card game, card mod, junction system, and encounter-none being available early. My last play through I beat Ultimecia at level 7 (which is the level you start at).
FFVIII has very good graphics for its time and ingeniously encorporated CGI into the gameplay. That scene where you run through a CGI batte at the “bad guys” garden in disk2 was maybe the greatest visual moment in any video game. The battle system was fast and clicked. The summons were amazing (although repetitive).
However, the game has horrible, glaring flaws.
The Characters were homogeneous and interchangable. Its not like 4, 6 or 9 where each character possessed a variety of unique and useful skills that could be used every action (instead of just limit breaks like 8 and 10). Unfortunately this was a trend that began with FF8 and continued in FF10 and FF12.
The Story was god fucking awful, even by video game standards. If you want to take the time, I refer you the spoony experiments detailed and hilarious game review of FFVIII. He goes on for hours about some of the unforgivable things that game did, and even though I’ve played 8 as much as I have, I had to admit he was completely right.
Drawing spells or mod’ing cards took forever and dramatically slowed the pace of the game. This is probably the most frequent criticism and is totally valid.
The game had annoying characters and some of the cheesiest dialogue I’ve ever seen. “Chicken Wuss,” or pretty much anything that came out of Zell or Selphie’s mouth.
The villian was weak, the characters were emo and had cheezy, unrealistic and strange development, the music was hit and miss. It had its great songs (like the battle themes and “eyes on me”) but it also had songs that made me want to kill myself (like the Balamb Garden (main one) theme).
I think that’s why I enjoyed the replays of this game so much more than my 1st one where I was focused on the ultra shitty story and horrible characters and dialogue. In replays, I just brushed through all that stuff and focused on “challenges” like maxing the base stats or beating the game at a low level.
I’ve always noticed that people that defend 8 usually flame 7, and also that they tend to be younger than me (most are early to mid 20s). I guess its because if you didn’t experience FF7 in 1997, you wouldn’t really get just how mind blowing that game was for its time. Going back and playing ff7 nowadays wouldn’t be the same.
Everyone says 6 is the best. But to me, the “best” FF is actually a 4 way tie between 4, 6, 7, and 9. If I had to put an order to it, I’d go 7, 4, 6, and 9 since 4 and 7 were the most groundbreaking and had the best music. 6 was fucking awesome and to this day has the best characters and battle system, but for reasons I can’t quite explain I’ve long felt it was slightly over-rated (I don’t know if you are old enough to remember the Chrono Trigger vs. FF6 debates, but I was about 15 at the time and in the CT camp). Its definitely one of the very best games of all time though.
I bought so many squaresoft games in the late 90s
That in the Fall of 2000 they actually sent me a survey in the mail to ask me how I felt about a Disney/Square co-op project. Disney had a pretty good track record with games in the 16 bit era and Super Mario RPG was a successful, fun game, so I wrote back to them and said it was a smart idea worth trying.
Then a couple years later Kingdom Hearts came out. I tried playing it, but never got into it. To this day its probably the only popular series Square has done that I couldn’t keep playing.
Well, I'm not sure how to rank them, since time-wasted playing doesn't necessarily equal great.
But Sid Meier’s colonization has to be number 1 for me. Not civilization, colonization.
Masters of Orion 2 has to be number 2. I loved being the Psilons, the humans, or a custom race, plus building your own ships?
Age of Kings is probably 3rd, but mostly for sentimental value reasons.
After that it’s pretty much that list of RPGs.
I played a lot of CT back in 2000, and Halo 2 back in 2004, but I can’t rank those games too high.
Age of Empires 2 and the expansion pack Age of Kings was great. I went to boarding school at the time, and we’d have dorm wars teams of 4 v. 4 or 2 v 2 v 2 v 2 and we’d be yelling at each other form our computer desks. Building op forts, protecting your trebuchets with your army, killing people’s trade lines. In the expansion pack one of my friends loved to be the Koreans and he’d put their war wagons in a box formation around a 4 some of catapults and it would just kill infantry troops. My brother would like to be the mongols and have a band of special Mongol troops constantly roaming to either find the treasure spots (market place can make a guy to pick it up and take it home for constant gold making), or to kill other people’s peasants chopping wood or mining gold outside of the forest.
Top 25 console, Top 10 PC
Console games and PC games go in different categories for me:
Console:
25- Sonic 2 (Genesis)
24- Super Mario World
23- Dragon Warrior 4 (NES) (3, 6 (SNES- Japan) also good)
22- Donkey Kong Country (2, 3, also good)
21- Lufia 2
20- Goldeneye (N64)
19- Mega Man IV (II, III also very good)
18- Super Mario Kart
17- Mega Man X (X2, X3 also very good)
16- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past (best game in mostly good series)
15- Super Metroid (Metroid (NES), Metroid Fusion (GBA) also very good)
14- Lunar 2
13- Ninja Gaiden (XBOX)
12- Devil May Cry (sequels couldn’t live up to classic original)
11- Metal Gear Solid III (haven’t played 4 yet, whole “MGS” series is very good)
10- Breath of Fire II
09- Suikoden II
08- Castlevania: SoTN (Castlevania 1, 3, and 4 were classics)
07- Resident Evil 4 (1, 2, and 3 were awesome as well)
06- Final Fantasy IX
05- Final Fantasy VI
04- Final Fantasy IV
03- Final Fantasy VII
02- Chrono Trigger
01- Final Fantasy Tactics
PC: Not exactly an inspiring list since I’ve missed a lot of classic games for PC, stuff like: Half Life, System Shock, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, Farcry, Call of Duty, Dragon Age/Baldur’s Gate, Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, etc, etc.
10- I want to be the guy!
09- Diablo II
08- Doom
07- Quake
06- ES3: Morrowind
05- Warcraft II
04- Warcraft III
03- ES4: Oblivion
02- Starcraft
01- World of Warcraft (over 6000 hours played when I quit, I had ten 80s)
Holy shit... 10 80's? I had 2, but oddly enough I didn't play that much (it's all relative I guess).
I loved Suikoden 2. I think you have to fight your dad and he kills your best friend in that one. Loved the one on one battles, the city battles, finding all 108 people, etc. Loved the repeating vampire thing in all the Suikodens. Love Lunar 2 I think as well. I’m pretty sure that’s the one I played on a cruise ship for 4 days straight and beat.
For whatever reason, I never liked Golden eye, and I never liked Super Mario world, Mario 64 or any of those types of games.
No, you fight your dad in Suikoden 1.
And if you are good, he doesn’t kill your best friend. You just have to be right in the duel almost every time (I’ve done it, it’s not too hard).
Also, I never understood all the hype about FF games (besides FFT). People love them, but I thought they were decent but not great. FFIX was decidedly mediocre for me. FFIV and FFVI got rather boring halfway through, but I also played them well after they had been released so I can’t really comment on them. But I felt 8 and on were very decent, and no better.
Final Fantasy started to lose its way after 7
They tried to change the series too much and it began to lose its magic. The older games are still classics, but its not the same playing FF6 for the first time in 2009 as it would have been in 1994.
I’m sorry that you didn’t like 9. Its almost 10 years old now. I got the game the week it came out and played it 72 hours in the first four days while attending a tough college and was conditioning as a member of the football team. Thats 18 hours a day. Needless to say, I nearly killed myself doing that with 5 am conditioning workouts. I loved that game. But to each his own.
I want Final Fantasy to go back to swords and sorcery.
It’s getting too sci fi these days.
It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?
by Wayward Llama on Nov 15, 2009 4:56 AM PST up reply actions
Actually I played FF VI
back around 2001, but the point still stands. I played FFIX within a few months of it coming out, beat it and liked it but…meh. It just felt like another RPG to me, nothing special about it. Like you said, to each their own.
Suikoden 1 was ok, but 2 blew it out of the water
I almost cried when his sister died. She was my favorite of the 108.
Then I found out later there is a secret ending where she doesn’t die, but still, that was almost as emotional as the Aeris scene in ff7.
2 was pretty awesome.
I loved them both, I think I liked 2 a bit more. Personally, I loved the fight with Luca (I think that was his name? The guy who commited mass genocide to feed his rune) in Suikoden 2. Even though that’s only around halfway through the game. And the characters are great, lots of personality to them, even though there’s 108 of them.
Luca Blight is one of the best villians of all time
Villager: “Spare me!”
Luca Blight: “…”
Luca Blight: “Ok, fine. Get on all fours and act like a pig and I’ll let you live.”
Villager: “What? Ok…” (does as told)
Villager: “Oink Oink”
Luca Blight: “DIE PIG!”
The Halflife series is simply amazing.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 15, 2009 10:20 AM PST up reply actions
I give you
FFFFRRRRAAAMING ARROWS
classic.
2/3 of the world is covered by water. The rest is covered by Marcus Trufant.
Great question.
1) Bond 007. Greatest multiplayer vs game ever.
2) KingsField/KingsField 2. In my mind, set the standard for an in-depth dungeon exploring first person perspective. (I don’t know what that’s called in gamespeak.)
3) Bill Walsh College Football 95? My college basketball team all had their All-Time Team from various schools and we’d have large double elim tourneys. (I was FSU ‘88 with Prime Time Deion Sanders.)
4) Baldur’s Gate. Yeah, I’m kinda a D&D type guy.
5) Oblivion. First large scale open world game I played. Admittedly the actors voices got annoying, but a great exploring, quest completing, and weapon/armor upgrading.
6) Civilization (first one.) Played that all the time in Australia as an exchange student.
7) Donkey Kong Country SNES
8) Dune. (Played that before Age of Empires, so I fell in love with it more than AoE.)
9) Mass Effect. Although new planets tended to be a tad repetitive, first game I played where I feel in love with the story and the moral dilemmas you are put in, basically being forced to chose who lives and dies from your party. Just a gorgeous game audio and visually in HD.
10) Rock Band— 4 people at one time, if you have a large song library through download the greatest “party game” ever, even the girls get way into it.
And of course, the gold standard:
Zelda (gold cartridge number 1)
and Super Mario Brothers.
Those 2 games don’t even need to be included in any top 10 list, they should inherently place above all others.
Other forgotten or lesser gems in the “old school” department (I know, I’m over 10, sue me!):
Atari – Pitfall, Adventure, Haunted House, Combat
Intellivision – Burgerville, Astrosmash, Night Stalker, Boxing, Advanced D&D
Nintendo – Jackal – tandem jeeps; great 2 player.
Castlevania
Metroid
In the arcade — Gauntlet, Crossbow, Return of the Jedi, Cyber Ball.
Also Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace— I couldn’t play those two (it just wasn’t efficient use of a limited quarter supply for me), but I used to watch others play them on the tv the Gold Mine put ABOVE the game so more people could view the action. It’s hard to believe, but it used to draw crowds to watch. During the Christmas season, there’d be 20 people watching one play a video game.
And by the way, that reminds me— I miss THEME Arcades. Like Gold Mine. It was darker and lit by lantern looking lights, wood beams and rock walls. How great was that, compared to “Tilt” and the ilk today, where it is all bright and neon with reflection off the screens so you can’t even hardly play due to inability to see, and all the games today seem to be based on winning tickets to get stupid crap you don’t need, or they are Street Fighter/Mortal Combat fighters, or guns attached to cables. There’s no originality anymore, it all went to consoles/pc.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 10:14 AM PST up reply actions
DUNE!!! FUCK YES!
I didn’t realize anybody but me loved that game!
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 14, 2009 10:17 AM PST up reply actions
You are not alone, my friend. :)
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 10:23 AM PST up reply actions
Crap, all this Chrono Trigger talk, and I forgot all about EARTHBOUND.
Now that was a fun game. Not FF VI or CT, but pretty fun nonetheless.
Great underappreciated video games:
Action:
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
Mega Man 3 and 4 (NES) (2 gets all the love)
TMNT II (NES) (forgotten classic)
Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, or 3 (NES) (forgotten classics)
Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Actraiser II (SNES)
Mega Man X 1, 2, and 3. (SNES) (never gets the love original Mega man series got)
Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) (appreciated in its day, but forgotten post Zelda: OoT)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (had surprisingly poor sales despite rave reviews)
Metroid 4 aka Metroid Fusion (GBA) (I’d list Super Metroid but I’m pretty sure that game is still considered sacrosanct.)
RPG’s
Dragon Warrior III (NES)
Dragon Warrior IV (NES)
Final Fantasy 4 (II US) (SNES)
Breath of Fire 2 (SNES) (great game in mediocre series)
Lufia 2 (SNES)
Chrono Trigger (SNES) (all time great game that is slowly being forgotten)
Lunar SSSC (PS1)
Lunar 2 (PS1)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) (my personal #1 game of all time)
Suikoden II (PS1) (all time great RPG, its too bad 3 was mediocre and everything after 3 was horrible)
Other (racing, sports, etc)
Madden ’93 (SNES) (19-0 as the ’92 rated Seahawks! I handed off to Chris Warren every single snap)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Bad News Baseball (NES)
I’m sure there are more but I’ve posted way too much on this.
KingsField was one I just loved...
One of my all time favorites.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 1:34 AM PST up reply actions
I loved both 1 and 2. Love dungeon/exploration games, and the world was just very real to me...
Also, although computer, I put a lot of hours on the Stygian Abyss back in the day…
I used to play for hours, then go to sleep and dream about both those ones.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 9:31 AM PST up reply actions
Needs more Lands of Lore and Shining Force.
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 14, 2009 10:17 AM PST up reply actions
Heh, I didn't even list Sega Games (other than technically Lunar)
But yeah there were a lot of gems on genesis.
I was a big fan of TMNTII. Nice work.
However, even more love for your mention of Chrono Trigger, which is definitely one of my top ten.
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 14, 2009 10:42 AM PST up reply actions
Suikoden II
good call. And I’m right there with you on FFT, awesome awesome game. But needs more Xenogears. Awesome game. I mean, it has giant robots, what more can you ask for?
I liked Xenogears but it is the only game I've ever played
where the demo disk was more fun than the actual game itself. The combos were really fun.
Suikoden II is probably the best game ever made that is the least known of.
I loved Suikoden 1 and 2.
3 and on got progressively worse and boring. So many things to do in the early ones though, the castles were always fun, leveling never felt too much like a grind, lots of small little goodies to find…
3 was a huge letdown
The best thing about the 1st two games, besides the story, was the super-fast combat system. I swear random battles took 4-5 times longer in 3 than they did in 2. It was ridiculous. Even though II is a top 10 all time game for me, I could only muster the willpower to endure 3 for about 6 or 7 hours.
Oh, and the story was very slow developing and the game overall was cripplingly boring. It didn’t shock me that Suikoden 4 and 5 were even bigger failures. I seriously wonder wtf happened. Konami is one of the best video game companies period and they were on a roll with that series. Its a damn shame.
Yea fights were crips and fast
and never fell into the bogging down that the FF series had. 3 had a problem with who the hell was going to be the main character, and it eventually let you choose but…come on. It never worked, and it felt very lame to me. Also, the story is pretty emo in my opinion. Or at least, the ultimate bad guy has some pretty emo reasons behind what he’s doing.
but will it stop people from polluting our water here on earth?
Maybe someone will notice that the only place water has been discovered besides earth is a place that sucks. Gray, dusty, and if you tried to play a game there, the ball would keep floating up off the damn tee.
The moon pretty much sucks.
So maybe we should get a little more excited about the water here on earth, stop polluting it, stop wasting it, stop burning fossil fuels transporting it all over the damn place in millions of little plastic fucking bottles. Maybe we could start valuing our limited clean water for a change?
Nah, probably not.
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
Provided we ever get back to the moon.
There seems to be a rather popular sentiment outside of NASA to blow off returning to the moon and either stay in LEO or gun straight for Mars or another target. The Augustine Commission didn’t exactly give the current NASA program of record glowing marks.
TMQ much?
I hate that I found this out at TMQ instead of The Atlantic or The Republic or some other actual magazine…
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 13, 2009 6:29 PM PST up reply actions
Nah, I read a lot of space-related news on my own time.
I’ve been following the Augustine report for a while now.
NASA doesn't care about the moon anymore
because they can make more money helping our military learn to kill people from lower earth orbits than they can from the moon.
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
Movies shot on the moon!
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 13, 2009 7:53 PM PST up reply actions
Can't talk - Modern Warfare 2.....
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 13, 2009 7:18 PM PST up reply actions
Can't talk - Huskies game on
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Nov 13, 2009 7:53 PM PST up reply actions
We need to get you in with us.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 14, 2009 9:25 AM PST up reply actions
Isn't that bad? Don't you want to be 1.5?
My cousin (who makes money in Halo tourneys— I hate Halo online but love the games with a buddy going through and completing by the way) had like a 3.5 to 1 kill/death ratio in World at War. His screen name was My Dogs Eat You and… well… they did.
I played with him and a bunch of his friends, the group was so good we basically never lost, I would get like 10 kills to 3 deaths and be last on the team. I also played with a guy named Polemos I think, who was one of the game writers on the RockBand series. He was the best I saw other than the cuz. He couldn’t believe someone was better than him, then I put them on a squad together and they were both mutually impressed with the other…
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 9:35 AM PST up reply actions
LOL.
Try playing hard core and sitting back long range. I found when I started playing hard core I got better because I stopped running into bullets and treated my game like my life for real. You get hit in hardcore, you are likely to die. Kind of like real life. So you protect yourself knowing your limitations, find little spots to hang out, and get (people hate this) AS MANY CHEAP KILLS AS POSSIBLE. And iirc the maps are off, so again it makes it more realistic.
I’m no god in the game, but I trended near 1.25- 1.75 or so in both Modern Warfare and World at War before I went offline. But I also played hardcore way more— I just like it better. I only went normal when in a large party, but then we mostly just bullied people, which gets old. The challenge then is how many straight did you win. I think I won like 35 straight at one point.
Interestingly, I absolutely SUCK at Halo online. The whole jumping thing, along with needing a full clip and more to kill someone 3/4 of the time are ridiculously dumb.
But, bottom line— having fun is the biggest part! :)
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 10:22 AM PST up reply actions
I'm starting to play smarter because of Hardcore.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 14, 2009 1:35 PM PST up reply actions
I fucking love that game.
Is anybody here going to pick up Left 4 Dead 2 on Tuesday?
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 13, 2009 8:21 PM PST up reply actions
I wish, I want to play that game so much
definitely a must-buy if I had a 360.
It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?
by Wayward Llama on Nov 14, 2009 5:18 AM PST up reply actions
Anyone play Team Fortress 2?
Yes, I know it’s rather old, but I recently picked up TF2 for the $2.49 deal just for the hell of it.
Man, now I know what I’m missing all this time.
by aerozeppelin on Nov 14, 2009 10:04 AM PST up reply actions
Rather Old?
That makes me sad….I still play it all the time :(
2/3 of the world is covered by water. The rest is covered by Marcus Trufant.
Agreed, I skiied from age 6 to 13, and snowboarded off and on since then, but skiing is way better.
Now I don’t do much of either since it’s too expensive, and I’m cheap and hate driving.
I live right off the Mt. Baker highway.
Right next where everyone parks and hitch hikes up to the mountain. So from my house its a 40min drive.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 14, 2009 9:26 AM PST up reply actions
I had a similar situation.
Skiied when I was small, snowboarded when it was “cool,” and got back into skiing. In my opinion, as I’ve experienced both… skiing >>>>> snowboarding.
Where are you located?
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 14, 2009 9:25 AM PST up reply actions
A reason to still be in Colorado...
Snowing here as I speak, I might add…
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 1:36 AM PST up reply actions
I'm 6'4" 225 lbs and 34 years old...
so skiing is just too hard on my knees.
I learned to ski first and while never a regular, went several times through youth and more in college. I didn’t snowboard until I was 28. I found snowboarding is easier on the knees, and more pleasant and enjoyable for me than skiing ever was, even when younger.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 11:51 AM PST up reply actions
cool. I need to try it.
"Football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental." - Doug Plank
No, but I very much want to next time I'm home.
I think my game is now on a level where I can enjoy a challenging course like that, without completely embarrassing myself.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 9:43 AM PST up reply actions
I'm going the 24th of this month.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to get owned but it will still be fun.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 14, 2009 1:37 PM PST up reply actions
Sweet!
Jealous I am!
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 14, 2009 2:07 PM PST up reply actions
Watching that and UFC 105
I got Pacquiao by TKO 7.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 11:53 AM PST up reply actions
Same here You know Pacquaio's trainer Freddie Roach
My uncle fought him He lost though : (
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 11:56 AM PST up reply actions
Arnel Arrozal?
Just guessing here.
That was Roach’s last win and it was hosted at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 11:59 AM PST up reply actions
Those are too many losses for his own good
I hope he’s not severely brain damaged.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:02 PM PST up reply actions
He was the WBC flyweight champion
It’s so funny if you look at him now you’d never think he was a flyweight
He’s pretty fat now
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:04 PM PST up reply actions
Not much of a puncher I see
http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=873&cat=boxer
Well when you’re out of a sport like that for 20+ years you are bound to let go.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:06 PM PST up reply actions
He was telling me how they messed up his record and he should be above .500
iono if its true but he’s got some pretty quick hands my other Uncle Miguel Arrozal was a boxer too he had a better record 27-12 My family tells me how he good have been great but he was stupid and fell for drugs and the ladies
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:09 PM PST up reply actions
It would be really hard to not have quick hands as a flyweight
Interesting you have boxing running in your family. I met Eddie Mustafa Muhammad (WBA Light Heavyweight Champion) since me and his daughter went to the same elementary school (but not the same class). Very nice guy and even said hi to my family between rounds on a ESPN Friday Night Fights card back in 2001.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:15 PM PST up reply actions
Video/computer games
The only console I have is a GameCube which I purchased during college for the sole purpose of playing Super Smash Brothers with my roommates. Last year I bought an old clamshell iBook on eBay so I can play some old computer games: Civilization II, StarCraft, Heroes of Might and Magic III and the glory that is Warcraft II. The only game I know I’m buying this year is StarCraft II.
Civ II YES YES YES
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 14, 2009 2:32 PM PST up reply actions
Freaking AWESOME game.
3 was a big letdown, and I haven’t tried 4 yet, but MY GOD did I love that game…the first was good but aside from nostalgia it’s totally inferior. The damage-based combat system alone made 2 so much better….
Civ 4 is pretty good.
They got rid of a lot of the ridiculous things in Civs 2 and 3, and totally revamped some things. Like corruption is gone. Far flung cities arn’t worthless anymore!
I always found it funny in Civ II that even if your government was Communism
if you started experiencing corruption in your far-flung cities, if you build them a temple and a cathedral they’d be happy.
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 16, 2009 8:12 AM PST up reply actions
Hey jeffery we can paint our twangers cant we
im dying right now this is hilarious
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:00 PM PST up reply actions
I've got a big red one!
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:03 PM PST up reply actions
Have you seen the one where with barney where the kid was brushing his teeth
That one was hilarious
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:05 PM PST up reply actions
No I haven't seen that.
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:05 PM PST up reply actions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FafVdGYrCsk
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:06 PM PST up reply actions
I wonder what the kid like now
Probably lives in San Francisco
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:14 PM PST up reply actions
"This one time, at band camp...."
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:16 PM PST up reply actions
I was banging away all last night with rob and roger
Yes and it broke my banging instrument
by somepnoy9189 on Nov 14, 2009 12:03 PM PST up reply actions
We're going to pluck away all day!
Fire Bruce DeHaven.
by SSreporters on Nov 14, 2009 12:10 PM PST up reply actions
NCAA 10 with Gus Johnson!!!!!!!!!!!!! comes out Tuesday.
Anyone else planning on getting it? I’m usually sort of “meh” on the sports games cause they are all the same, but with the ESPN/CBS graphics and Gus Johnson I think this one is worth getting.
SEA!
STOKELY! OH GOD! STOKELY! WOW!
Gus Johnson is awesome.
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 16, 2009 8:12 AM PST up reply actions
I hated that call.
abender20 hates freedom.
by Scruffy Lefty on Nov 17, 2009 11:29 AM PST up reply actions
Do you hate it
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 17, 2009 11:54 AM PST up reply actions
Going to make a sandwich right now.
Recipe:
Pork from a 10lb pork shoulder roast I bought at .99cents a lb.
(heat the meat for a minute in the microwave.)
Potato bread.
Mayo.
Ed McCaffery horseradish (a Denver brand, obviously.)
Good old fashioned french’s American mustard.
Green leaf lettuce
Tomato
Salt, Pepper, and a dash of apple vinegar.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 17, 2009 11:50 AM PST up reply actions
Good call on the vinegar.
I’m a big fan of drizzling a bit of balsamic over the top slice when I make a turkey or ham sammich. And potato bread for the win. My standard, though, is my spicy turkey wrap: cracked pepper turkey, pepper jack cheese, pickle, jalapeño, ranch dressing and Frank’s red hot sauce in a tortilla.
Dill pickle, or sweet?!?
I love the massive application of bread and butters on most sandwiches, preferably with a dill spear on the side for contrast.
Sounds incredibly tasty though.
There is a certain art to the sandwich, and not taking it seriously is a crime on the tastebuds.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 17, 2009 3:35 PM PST up reply actions
NICE. I can see that. I went BLT today...
3 pieces of lightly toasted potato bread, mayo on all inner parts…
Lettuce, then tomato on the ground floor. Add the middle tier, then add about 9 pieces of bacon on top of the middle-bread, then cap it off with the top piece.
Mmmmmmmmmm. The brilliance and efficiency of a triple-decker BLT cannot be overstated.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 18, 2009 12:47 PM PST up reply actions
I love that this turned in to a legitimate discussion.
The Yankees suck-a-doodle-doo!
by JamMasterJesus on Nov 18, 2009 3:45 PM PST up reply actions
Sandwiches are serious, tasty business.
My favorite sandwich:
Turkey
Ham
Cheddar
Provolone
Mayo
Lettuce
Tomato
Bacon
Sourdough bread
Simple, but goddamn delicious.
I will smash your face into a jelly.
by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 19, 2009 9:12 AM PST up reply actions
That's not simple!
There’s multiple meats involved, bacon (nice touch), multiple cheeses, and a specific type of bread.
My hat is off to you.
A sandwich like that however, is so close to being obscene, you might as well in the words of a cornfield in Iowa, “Go the distance.”
I might add some additional things. 1) cucumbers. Cucumber is waaay underrated on a sammich. 2) bread and butter pickle chips. 3) a dash of vinegar.
10:45. Just about time for a new sandwich today… mmmm…
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 19, 2009 9:47 AM PST up reply actions
Another great sandwich addition is Russian dressing.
The deli across the street from my dorm senior year had an incredible sandwich: turkey, roast beef, ham, lettuce, tomato, onion and Russian dressing. Great on a Kaiser roll, better as a footlong sub. I was severely bummed when I found out that they’d closed.
Book recommendations?
I’m always up for some ideas for a good book to read.
The last book I read was called Day by Day Armageddon, which is a great book. It’s written as a series of journal entries by a zombie apocalypse survivor. I love zombie movies, but to often it seems that they depend upon people acting very stupid at key points in order to drive the plot forward. I thought all the characters in the book acted in a realistic and smart manner, and it has me thinking about my own post-apocalypse/zombie infestation plans.
Next up, I’m going to start reading World War Z, which is supposed to be an even better zombie book. The author is Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks), who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead , which I also own (a great gift for anyone who has an irrational love/fear of anything zombie related). World War Z is slated to become a movie, the rights to the movie were purchased by Brad Pitts production company (and if Wikipedia is to be believed, they had to outbid Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company for the rights). So I’d really like to read it before it comes out.
Anyone else currently reading anything that they’d recommend to others?
by Mind of no mind on Nov 17, 2009 1:50 PM PST reply actions
The book I'm recommending to everyone right now.
Andrew Chaikin’s “A Man on the Moon.”
Listened to World War Z on audio book from Olympia to Denver.
Pretty entertaining overall.
I fell in love with the Stephanie Plum mysteries this last spring, went through most of the series in like a month. Janet Evanovich is the author, and they’re highly entertaining and at times laugh out loud funny.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Nov 17, 2009 3:38 PM PST up reply actions
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