Unxmaal.com

Do you like to look at pretty pictures?
Here, you can find photographs of everything from the arctic (and antarctic) wastes, to massive tornadoes, in huge, high-res photographs. And the best part, it’s free!!

My Roommates might not enjoy my sick anime and video game habits, they might complain of my irritating j-pop music, or my unholy toy collection…but look at the bright side. At least I’m not this guy.

my Corn Pops cereal alerted me to the website, eetandern.com.

Here, I can save and spend a certain number of points, determined by secret codes printed inside boxes of cereal.
let’s see…. I earned 35 points for this box of cereal….
And a Game Boy costs 6400 points…then……
If I don’t get any more than 35 points per box….
I need to eat roughly 182 more boxes of cereal.
Which, at current average supermarket prices, totals over 730$.

“He say you Brade Runna”

Everyone who reads this blog regularly knows how diverse and eclectic the posts can get. Here’s some more esoteric BS.

      There once was a company that translated video games. They translated them into english, and it was good. Eventually, the games they translated became very popular. Not because the company did a good job translating, but because the games were made by excellent game producers in Japan. The translators began to get a big head, and even though their talent remained mediocre, they continued making more and more games, for an ever-growing market of people who looking increasingly towards authenticity and playability in their games. This company decided they were so good, in fact, that they could take excellent games, and change them however they saw fit, for the North American market. Unfortunately, they ended up ruining quite a few games with their amateurish voice-dubbing and wanton unneccesary modifications. They tried to cover up their ineptitude with cheap pack-in promotional goodies, and by completely ignoring the in-game dialogue, so that they could put their own ‘unique’ brand of humor to work, creating pop-references and silly jokes. This pleased the ignorant masses, but the real gamers were quickly becoming displeased with the quality of the games after being changed, as well as the fact that this company usually released their assigned games months, even years, after the dates they originally set. In fact, this became a running gag for them; that their total incompetence was a laughing matter, and that no one should expect them to get off their asses and do any work anytime soon.
      This company is called ‘Working Designs.’ They have heartlessly butchered such games as Silhouette Mirage, Lunar: The Silver Star, and Detonator Gauntlet .(renamed ‘Vanguard bandits’ in the USA, under pressure from Midway, makers of the game ‘Gauntlet.’)
      Anyone who knows me, knows I loathe Working Designs. And for the longest time, I wished there was a company like them, but unlike them. A happiness, to their disillusionment, an honesty to counter their lies, a good to counteract their evil.
      As it turns out, there is.
      It’s called Atlus-USA. The American face of the Japanese game company Atlus, they have faithfully ported over such games as Tail Concerto, Persona, Thousand Arms, and the entire Ogre Battle legacy. With competent translations where necessary, clever jokes where acceptable, and superb voice acting, they have become, to me, everything that Working Designs has not. While WD was capable of taking one of my favorite import games, Silhouette Mirage, and making it entirely unplayable, Atlus-USA brought over TailConcerto, and made me enjoy it more than my import copy. Atlus’ games are unique, different, and like Treasure, one of the few companies whose games I will buy without playing beforehand. I have faith that they’re that good.
      That being said, if you’re an RPG nut who ISN’T still exploring Legend of Mana, ISN’T sitting the corner, shivering in the fetal position waiting for Chrono Cross, and ISN’T suffering through playing the uber-yummy (yet unfathomably japanese) import of Final Fantasy IX, go get Rhapsody.
      Rhapsody is an RPG-Musical (A genre long denied its due spotlight) which means that while you’re exploring caverns, rescuing fair princes (Princes. Not princess.) and drooling over the gorgeous artwork, you’re also treated to the occasional song and dance. “What?” you say…”Why, my ears are still bleeding from playing Lunar!”…the difference here, kids, is that you get to choose if you want the songs sung in the surprisingly pleasant English, or in the ORIGINAL JAPANESE!…Eat that, Nall. On top of all that, the battles become an interactive, easy-to-understand tactics game. Are you out the door to buy it yet? No? It has scalable difficulty; Play it on easy, your little sister could do it. Play it on medium, it’s a little tough. Play it on hard, and you’re in for a real challenge! It also features a MASSIVE song and illustration gallery, as well as a free soundtrack CD. And as opposed to SOME COMPANIES, Atlus doesn’t feel the need to include extras in order to make up for shortcomings in their games…these are just the icing on the cake.

One of the things I think I’ll miss most about Flo-Town (all three of them) is my good buddy Jamie.
He’s a monkey. And after many hours of sleep deprivation, he gets on my PC and he writes stuff like this:

I have mint M&M’s.

and you don’t.