12 posts from November 2006

So I was listening to the Decemberists' album The Crane Wife because I've liked their stuff in the past and Harold added it to his 2006 list. The second song, The Island-Come & See..., has this chunk from ~6 minutes to ~9 minutes that sounds so similar to the boss fights in Final Fantasy VII. Okay, I'm pushing it a little but listen for yourself.

Firstly, the FFVII song, Still More Fighting. You'll start hearing the similar bits 20 seconds in and then through the rest of it.

Here's the Decemberists' song, start listening about halfway through, at six minutes. oh yeah, no timer on vox players :(

Dearest Voxies,

There's a new kitten in town and it's plastering my blog with more cuteness than you could ever imagine. But there's a catch: kitten needs a name.

Let's explain... Kitten is two years old but she's ultra-compact, weighing less than 5lbs and looking like a 6-month old kitten. She has absolutely no teeth (removed by the vet because of complications), she's allergic to herself and has a runny nose, she's super-loving and a big attention whore. And she has really smelly farts.

So here's the deal: we need to name her and we're going to let the vox community do it. Well, kinda. You get to suggest names and we'll pick the best one. That person will win the grand prize of one (1) $10 Amazon gift certificate. To aid you on your quest we're including a number of pictures of the kitten with everyday objects so you can understand her size and cuteability.

FOR THE WIN!

So... becca and I are on the lowest rungs of the geek ladder. Becca has always been there, I'm just joining for the day. We scoped out the targets last night and they were almost full so we went home and decided to get up early the next day to check out alternative sources. We found a full Circuit City (empty the night before) as well as a short line at the CompUSA (lamest store ever). After waiting in line there for 1.5 hours the manager let us know that THEY HAVE NO Wiis. Lame. We beat most people over to Costco (because becca drives CRAZY) and after 20 minutes they let us know that they had no Wiis. BUT SF COSTCO DID! So we did more crazy driving and the SF costco had "No Wiis until November the 20th" signs up. We waited around for a while but the manager insisted that they didn't get them yet. Wii Failed.

The large group of black limos pull up and ydnar says "the governor is probably stopping by for coffee." Lo and behold, the governor was actually stopping to get coffee. I don't know what he ordered.

What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.

Okay Vox, you're bringing it on, giving me questions I can't resist answering. I get it.

NUMBER THE 5th: Asheron's Call on the PC
I was dipping outside of my regular stomping grounds with this one (as an MMO) but it was a lot of fun. AC was the alternative to EverQuest when it first came out and although AC always had fewer subscribers, it was always more eloquent and impressive with what it created. I've tried a number of MMOs for a couple days or a week and even the ones a lot of people really enjoy feel like crap sometimes. This one really felt epic and even though I'll probably never play a classic MMO ever again, it was really fun to play with the real-life friends I actually knew. Something about the system of items and quests just made you feel like you had unlimited possibilities. I rerolled too many times to ever really compete with the serious gamers though.

NUMBER THE 4.5th: Diablo II on the PC
This game was the hottest hack-and-slash to ever exist. Not only did online play make me fiercely competitive for the ladder spots and best items but hanging out in the basement with 3 other friends powering towards the same goal is totally fun. Blizzard kept this one going for a while too with updates that had new items and skills. Mostly, this game was just really well made. Although I won't be able to play D3 like I used to play D2 (all night and with lots of caffeine), I can't wait for it to come out.

NUMBER THE 4th: Super Mario World on the SNES
Like SMB3 before it, awesome map-based platformer with so many hidden things that it took forever to really finish.  It was the first game I ever really owned on the first system I ever owned (everything before it involved me going over to my friends' houses). The only thing about this game that I dislike is unlike the real mario games before it, going from new game to end boss is boring - it's just a short route with some secret paths, no warp whistles or warp pipes or anything. Plus, it had yoshi. Who can deny the impact yoshi has had on all our lives now?

NUMBER THE 3rd: Final Fantasy VII on the PC
I never had a playstation so I had to wait to get this game when it came out for PC. But I heard good things from my ps-playing friends. And this game was good, EPIC even. Awful graphics. And LOOOOONG. But soooo much fun. Before that I had never played the FF series and now I'll be picking up FF3 for the DS this afternoon. Changed my rpg-loving life, man.

NUMBER THE 2nd: Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 (and subsequently, Perfect Dark 64)
Not really an FPS lover but Goldeneye had it all: the perfect FPS controller (other than a keyboard + mouse), awesome graphics (for the time), nifty AI, a good assortment of guns (all named fake names to avoid legal action, surely - I still think KF7 whenever I see an AK-47) and replayability. It doesn't take too long to beat the game on easy but there are time-based achievements on each level for easy, normal and hard. I added Perfect Dark 64 on the end there because it's basically the same game but with the ability to attach remote-detonated mines to characters. Boom.

NUMBER THE 1st: Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES
As much as I love the original SMB (and we don't speak about the second), this one really does it for me. Definite replayability and some seriously hard levels. I can't even find the words except for Best Game Evar.

Not as good as the real thing.