Matt Damon just became my favorite actor. I try to not to put my own personal beliefs (at least as far as religion and politics) here and try to keep it to my fandoms, but really, he makes a lot of great points there.
Beat Vesperia... ending left a little to be desired but the game overall was still one of the best RPGs I've ever played and probably the best in the TALES series, thus far.
Speaking of videogames... I picked up a cool little fighting game that probably went under a lot of people's radars called BATTLE FANTASIA. It was created by the same people who made the Guilty Gear series of fighting games, so I expected the game to be full of style. Little did I know how much style it would have. It plays almost like if you mixed Street Fighter with an RPG game. Heck, even the fighters' health bars are listed as HP (hit points). One thing about the game is that it uses 3D models for the fighters over top of a 2D plane/background. This is somewhat similar to what the upcoming Street Fighter IV game coming out soon will use. All I can say is I was a little skeptical of a 3D over 2D fighting game, but if SFIV is anything like this, that should be a great game as well.
There's even a great story mode (yes, an actual story in a fighting game) in Battle Fantasia... something that I hope all future fighting games steal copy. It just adds a whole new angle to the game. It's kind of similar to the story mode in Guilty Gear XX, only much better. You even get *INSERT CHARACTER NAME* ACQUIRED *INSERT ITEM* just like an RPG. That had me smiling, needless to say. The characters are also very original and have great designs, even the mandatory Cat-Girl anime character.
I've only played it for a little more than an hour so far, but I will definitely be putting in quite a few more hours. Worth picking up if you're into fighting games.
Capcom released MEGA MAN 9 to the Wii's virtual console this week, it being the first direct sequel to the original NES series in ages. It even features the classic pixelated graphics and midi style music of the old games. Although it's available on the Wii for download now, I'm holding out until Oct. 1st for the XBox Arcade version. I like my stuff in as high HD as possible, that's all.
Speaking of my Wii, I can't honestly tell you the last time I even played with it. I remember long before I ever bought mine that I said that the Wii would be a niche system that would be big at first but falter with a lack of truely good games and not just party games. Looks like I was (unfortunately) right. I mean, if it wasn't for the Tales Of Symphonia sequel due out later this year and the SONIC & The Black Knight game due out in 2009, not to mention the Virtual Console downloadable games, I'd probably sell my Wii in a heartbeat. Pretty much any good games that are coming out will also be coming out for the 360 and I'll take the 360 version of a game over the Wii version almost every time. I guess I just never really got into the whole "Wii-motion" thing.
| UPDATE : 9/14/2008 : The ROCK never ends... |
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Like (no doubt) countless others, I picked up ROCK BAND 2 tonight. It's amazing with how just a few slight improvements, the could improve on a game (ROCK BAND 1) that I consider virtually perfect. It's funny, they could have just stuck with ROCK BAND 1 and just released new songs via DLC for the rest of time, and I would have been happy. But with all the little improvements they made, I certainly am glad they made a sequel. Kind of makes me wonder what GUITAR HERO : WORLD TOUR has in store for us. By the way, there's no greater thrill than playing EYE OF THE TIGER on ROCK BAND 2, even if it is one of the easier songs.
Even though I said I was nearing the end of TALES OF VESPERIA, the truth is I've spent most of the weekend unlocking most of the titles, costumes and accessories for the characters in the game, which is one of my favorite aspects of the TALES series. I probably could have beaten the game already, but in the process of unlocking stuff, I got a better understanding of the battle system including how to properly perform "fatal strikes" among other things. I'll probably beat the game today at some point, but now that I have ROCK BAND 2, who knows how long that will get pushed back. I think there's a part of me that even though I want to see the ending, I kind of don't want it to be over either. VESPERIA is easily my favorite in the series (even more so than SYMPHONIA, which I absolutely loved) and it's just been fun to play (which I've stated countless times before). Here's hoping the ending doesn't disappoint.
I got the dubious task of taking care of my sister's dog, Damon, for the weekend, something that didn't initially sit well with my new cat. Let's just say it was a hiss-fest for most of the first night. But wouldn't you know when I woke up the next morning, there they both were lying on my bed not too far from one another. They get along much better after a day or so, but they still occassionally get into a mess. Damon seems more interested in Polly then vice-versa, but Polly is starting to like the idea of another animal around... I think.
In closing...
E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!!
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| UPDATE : 9/7/2008 : End of the journey... for now... |
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Well, the Eagles won in convincing fashion on Sunday and I have to say for the first time in nearly a decade, the Eagles have a very decent special teams unit, which has been their achilles heel for a very long time. And how good did their rookies look? Two great plays by Demps on special teams, and Jackson making amazing catch after amazing catch. And how about that return by Jackson that almost turned into a touchdown? What a game. Next week is the always great Eagles/Cowboys game, but it feels a little too early for them to play. I always liked it when they met around week 5 or 6 after they both got a few games under their belts. I'm pumped for it, nonetheless.
I'm closing in on the ending on Vesperia, and as I said before, the game has quickly become an all-time favorite. Everything about it is incredible. The look, the sound, the humor and the story are all great. The game's visuals are probably only surpassed by ETERNAL SONATA as the 360's prettiest game, but someone may be able to make an argument that Vesperia is even better looking.
And Yuri Lowell has become my hero. The guy is full of all kinds of cool. It's so nice to have a main character in an anime/videogame that's not some whiney, angsty teenager who is more annoying than anything else. Now, I'm not saying the previous Tales hereos were like that fully, but pretty darn close.
Even though I'm almost done with the game and looking forward to seeing the ending, you can bet I'm going to be playing through it again in the near future. The game is just a load of fun.
To close things out... super awesome.
| UPDATE : 9/7/2008 : ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?! |
| Oh yeah, today is opening day for the Philadelphia Eagles against the St. Louis Rams. It feels so great to have football season back and this year looks like it could be a very good one for the Eagles. Add in how well the Phillies are doing and it's a good time to be a Philadelphia sports fan. E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!!
Tales Of Vesperia is very quickly become one of my all-time favorite games, possibly even more than Symphonia. It's funny, I used to detest RPG games, and if you asked me five to ten years ago what my all-time favorite videogames were, chances are none of them would have been RPG (except SNATCHER if you refer to that as an RPG). But now, if I were to make a TOP 10 list, chances are at least half of them would be RPG. I can thank BANDAI NAMCO for that, for they have created some of the best RPG games in history such as the TALES series as well as ETERNAL SONATA. Their RPGs are great because they stand a bit outside the norm of RPG games (Final Fantasy) in their mechanics and they are just so much fun to play and be a part of. It may take anywhere from thirty to sixty hours to beat these games (on just one playthrough), but I have no complaints about spending that time on them because the games are just that good.
E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!!
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Welcome to my website, JustinAaron.com. I'm Justin, and this is basically my little corner on the net for all my websites and projects. Hope you'll stick around for a while, because I've got quite a lot coming in the near future (hopefully). Whether it's videogames, music, anime, sports or anything else that interests me, you better believe I'll be covering it here or on one of my sites.
