SSX Blur

So I finally got SSX blur for the wii today. The game looks very slick, has upbeat music, and a decent tutorial. So far I've played it for a couple hours, doing the tutorial, doing normal races and half-pipe and everything is good.

Well, I guess I should dive right in to how the controls feel since this is the most disputed aspect about the game. They are phenomenal. I admit that it took me maybe 10 minutes into the tutorial to finally get the hang of it but once I did, it was a beautiful thing. Using the joystick as a slight turn and the tilt of the nunchuck as a larger turn (carving) is the most natural of things. All you really need to do to get good at these controls is to actually do the tutorial. Simple as that.

The uber tricks are uber awesome as well as uber easy as soon as you know what it wants you to do. You really just have to draw the shapes slowly at about a foot diameter. Making sure that the top of the wii remote and the nunchuck are facing up with respect to your shape is essential. Keeping this in mind, some ubertricks are more easily done on their side, which you can do by tilting the controllers to their sides.

I can't stress enough that you take your time with making the shapes. Use a full second to do an uber trick an you're good to go. In the half pipe I managed to do a dozen uber tricks in a row, showing just how easy it is to pull one off.

The easiest uber trick for me is the heart shape since it is uniform motion by both hands and a familiar enough shape that you can draw it without making mistakes. The double zig-zag is also easy, along with the single one (which I do on its side to reflect a half of the double zig-zag).

The courses are well thought out (although supposedly some are recycled from previous games, which I haven't played) and feel really good to carve down.

If you were sitting on the fence about getting this game because of the controls, wait no longer. Run out right now and get this game. Seriously, all it takes is half an hour to an hour to perfect the basic mechanics of the game.

The only negative point I can find so far is that there is the very rare occurrence of a drop in framerate momentarily. This only happened about 3 times during the two hours of play and only for about half a second each time.

9/10

This might really deserve an 8.5 but I gave it a 9 because it makes you feel so good about yourself with the groove-tastic music and "good Job!" positive comments even if you place last in a race. :P

300

Well, this movie turned out exactly like I knew it would. This includes the actual movie and events with regard to seeing the movie. I'm happy to say it turned out for the better.

Like reviewers had said, yes there wasn't much storyline, but this movie doesn't need any of that shit. It has beautiful scenery, with magnificent fight scenes. One interesting thing I saw about the movie was the nearly excessive amounts of nudity and sexuality, with it not quite seeming out of place either. This is a movie about ancient Greece remember, a time famous for such things. The oracles at Delphi were awesome, pretty much being drugged up, writhing, hot young women. That is actually a pretty close representation of what they actually were, at least the drugged up part.

Xerces was freakin' huge in this movie. He stood a good few feet over Leonidas, the Spartan king. Besides some liberties taken by the movie, since this is based on the Frank Miller graphic novel rather than the actual event, this movie was pretty true to the real story (Of course not including the second betrayal in the movie or some of the mutants Xerces used).

I can safely say that was a good $11.50 spent.

I am also glad that I had been wary of trying to see the movie with my usual "friends" as I later tried to, it seemed they again had not made room for me in the car. So, in going with Shaheer, Greg, Nigel, and Matt, I preemptively blocked being fucked over. Excellent indeed. In doing so, I am not pissed at them, rather I am pleased with myself for the foresight in knowing history would repeat itself and in doing so, prevent it.

Now, this does prove to be a strange spot now though. It seems I am officially not one of the main friends in the slightest. When it is one car, which it usually is nowadays, it is always going to be Joe(for obvious reasons), Breen, James, Andrew, and BJ. Oh well I suppose. Since it's Joe's car, he's good friends with Andrew, Breen is good friends with James, and BJ is...well I don't know how HE is always over me, perhaps because they all have BLK 3 spare together or because they have actual classes together... Meh. This Friday was a proof of concept of me being able to have fun and not rely on the most unreliable.

I do realize that it is a tough situation when there are only 5 seats in a car, but to some that would warrant at least trying to find a fix of some sort. To these people I guess not. I guess I just need to continue to find other people to do things with :/

Procrastination 2

It is the weekend and I have a few things to do. Not too bad so I think I'll be playing some videogames. Maybe even finish MM.


Due Tuesday:

-Ros & Guil Presentation
-UN reading
-Physics Group IV work


Due Wednesday:

-Biology Anatomy Quiz/Lab
-Chemistry M.C. Test
-Social Contemporary World Test


Due Friday:

-Physics Group IV Project


Due soon:

-English 9 charts (April 15)

Videogames

There are many good games on the horizon. The GDC has been happening lately and new videos of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii have been released. They are indeed awesome and I can't wait to play them later this year.

Lately, I have revisited Majora's Mask for the N64 and can safely say that it is pure awesome, although somewhat of a huge time suck. I've played maybe 25 hours already on this revisit and haven't accomplished to much. This is because of a design choice which makes the game both brilliant and annoying at the same time. The game world resets after 3 days in-game, or about 54 minutes (about double that with time-slow). That means that dungeons and quests and everything is reset.

This resetting is perfect for me because I get to explore and do things and dungeons over again without having to start a new file. For this same reason I occasionally feel very lost because I don't know what I need to do next or what I haven't ever done yet.

I managed to snag 3 bottles in MM, for a total of 4 overall out of 6. The other 2 are a pain in the ass to get (1 requires an hour and a half and the other to beat an entire temple before even starting).

I plan to beat all 4 of the temples again before I go to the final area and beat the game. I also want to get all the masks so I can have the fierce deity's mask. I have lots of work ahead of me but every minute of it will be fun, except for the water temple, which pisses me off in every single 3d zelda ever. At least it isn't as bad as the one in OoT.

I also plan to get SSX Blur very soon since it is already out and I really want to play it.

I WILL find time do all of this, somehow. :)

Back in Business

I decided to revert all of my old posts to drafts just so that I could have a clean fresh start here but not lose everything either.

Man. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As time progresses, everything seems to stand still, stagnant and immobile.

I've been sleep-deprived for the entirety of this week though so that may be what's talking right now.
I just REALLY REALLY feel like I've made no progress in anything at all, I've perhaps even taken a step backwards :(

Wednesday

Yesterday I was so busy that I didn't even have time to make a post. I actually temporarily abandoned my usual practice of not doing any work. I did math, a bio lab, chem lab, and even learned about Mao Tse Tung.

Tests

Frick. I just got home after taking my physics test and can safely say I got good and thoroughly raped. The test was 25 questions long, about half of which Dr. Zheng never talk to us about the concepts. This would mean that he would