By: Katherine Posted in:List. Posted On: 13/01/2010. Discuss:(1) ».
My dream line up for a concert:
Openers:
RASCAL FLATTS
FALL OUT BOY
Main acts:
SOUNDGARDEN
PEARL JAM
GREEN DAY
And if I could see any band that was dead now, it would have to be either The Ramones or The Beatles. The Ramones were one of the fathers of punk, and they were just amazing people and artists. And The Beatles, because who DOESN’T love The Beatles? Nirvana, and The Who were close seconds to these two.
ANYWAY, back to the point at hand now.
Rascal Flatts: They introduced me to music really. They were my favourite band for most of my young childhood, and I still love their songs and own 3 of their albums.
Fall Out Boy: I can blame a lot of my friends for that XD It started with one of my friends talking about one of their songs, and then this past summer i met someone who really loved them, and I got into them through her. And now they are my favourite non-punk band (they’re pop punk, not the same thing as punk). Not to mention: PETE WENTZ. Awesome bassist, and awesome performer. One of my idols. And Andy Hurley, who is a STRAIGHTEDGE! Which makes him awesome. And Patrick and Joe aren’t bad either.
Soundgarden: THEIR BASS = AMAZING.
That is all.
No, really. My dad, who introduced me to rock and roll, loves grunge music a la Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. He introduced me to Soundgarden, and I loved it from the second I heard Black Hole Sun’s bass line. And Rock Band helped me too. Their Superunknown album was amazing, and I think they’d really put on a good show. And I would love to see their bassist play. Awesome bassists are awesome.
Pearl Jam: EDDIE VEDDER: AMAZING VOCALIST.
Pearl Jam was also one of my big intros to the world of rock, and I loved it! Their songs have amazing bass lines and guitar riffs, and their drumming isn’t too shabby. And Eddie Vedder adds amazing vocals to every song. Although this show would be mostly their old stuff, because I like that better
The finale, the biggest and the best, GREEN DAY!: Well, Green Day is really the story of my life. They made me who I am today. I wouldn’t be a bass playing punk without Green Day. I heard Longview, said “I HAVE TO PLAY THAT.” And my bass playing was born. I heard Billie Joe Armstrong’s vocals, and immediately became hooked. Tre Cool’s drumming is unmistakable, he is the best rock drummer alive in my opinion. And Mike. Mike Dirnt is god of all bass players. He is amazing. If he hadn’t met Billie Joe when they were ten and formed Sweet Children, which later became Green Day, my life wouldn’t be how it is now. I wouldn’t be who I was. I wouldn’t have discovered what it’s like to be a punk, and discovered who I was and who I wanted to be. I would never have discovered myself. Every one of their songs means something special to me. Whether it’s Minority, which is what it’s like to be a punk in song form, or Jesus of Suburbia, which I plan on getting a tattoo based on, or Time of Your Life, which was the backing song to so many amazing moments in my life. Green Day made me who I am today, and if they weren’t at this concert it wouldn’t be a concert. Why did I save them until last? Because the adrenaline of knowing I would finally meet Mike, Billie Joe and Tre would keep me alive through the concerts before it, and seeing them would complete everything I wanted this concert to be.
Article written by myself: Net Neutrality and Open Source
I have received a few e-mails about this article from telcom trolls trying to get me to change my position on these topics because of this article. Since it went live on my website, I have gotten over 100 hits. I spent at least a week writing this article. It all stemmed from reading the ‘back of the package’ info for the song Flickr by Jonathan Coulton. That was a great article. It definitely should have raised the standard of the quality of the work LW showcases. I really wish that were true.
Article written by a LW blogger: Gaz’s Dwarf Fortress or Kieran’s articles
I went back through the whole year to find one. Of all of the articles for the year trying to find one that wasn’t written by myself that continued to entertain and was very well-written and presented, I found four. One was Dwarf Fortress written by Gaz. That one was very fun and really stuck out with me especially since it was later talked about on the TSG forums. The other three were all of Kieran’s articles. His writing was definitely some of the best we have seen. He is a great asset to the staff, and I hope he keeps writing for us when he has the chance.
New show on broadcast television: Community
Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, and Ken Jeong. Do I need to say more? To those of us have been to (or will soon return to) community college: yes, this show is 100% accurate. I am not joking for once in my life, community college is exactly like this show. The fact that they have actual comedians playing every type of student seen in the series just helps ease the pain. The fact that the show is teamed with the rest of NBC’s Thursday comedy lineup (called Must See TV when I was growning up) helps make a viewing block that cannot be messed with.
Returning show on broadcast television: 30 Rock
The show deserves it’s three Emmy’s. It is the best comedy on any network, especially when compared to the other crap other networks show. With Community, they bookend the NBC comedy lineup and are the best shows on most Thursdays. Alec Baldwin is the best actor on television these days across all genres. The show is unbelievably well written and produced. It will remain a top show until they all get bored and move on.
New show on cable television: Stargate: Universe
Stargate x Battlestar Galactica. The series really really is a cross between the two. They even have a Baltar character. I loved the other Stargate series. Battlestar Galactica was the best show in the sci-fi genre. I like that Stargate is using elements that made Galactica great. This is definitely a new direction for Stargate. I hope it works for them.
Returning show on cable television: Dirty Jobs or Deadliest Catch
Two great shows that do a great job of showcasing careers that nobody wants. Dirty Jobs has continued to bring unique and interesting jobs to light. The camel farmers, goose pluckers, and diaper cleaners were all among the jobs shown this year. So many great memories. So many ruined cameras. The drama on the Bering Sea is always interesting to watch. There is always so much on the line and death is always possible. The After the Catch special adds to the drama. We got to meet the captains’ wives this season, and I hope the trade of Jake for Jake is actually done. That would be great. I can’t wait for more episodes of both.
New (to me) anime series (that I will eventually finish): Toradora!
Hyakko is a very close second. I am moved by almost every episode for some reason. It usually has to do with Taiga doing something very touching. I guess I click with her. May be because I have a moe for smaller girls. I just sort of connect with the show as much with Hayate no Gotoku. Taiga is such a good, cute, and fun character. She shows a lot of Kugamiya Rie’s development. Very fun show. Hyakko is also another great show. Torako is such a fun character. The show is short and simple and very worth the time investment. A lot of great voice actresses make appearances too.
Movie: Star Trek
I love that movie. I have been a Trekkie for a long time. After the last few Next Generation era movies were hit or miss (as all pre-Abrams Treks were to date), I was wary of this movie. Then I saw Cloverfield and was convinced of Abrams’ skill in making a great movie. Star Trek Got so much right in reinventing Trek as well as keeping a lot of the cornier elements alive. The criticisms for the movie were all copy and paste from past Trek movies and the cast was well picked. Shatner was a moron for not taking the role that was eventually revealed in the scripts that came out. He would have been perfect. The movie was the best Trek since First Contact. (Like First Contact, it had a Star Wars cameo. R2-D2 appeared in place of the Falcon this time.) PS: The rating for the movie according to Rotten Tomatoes is 95% or almost four times the rating for New Moon.
New game for the Wii: NSMBW
In the land of crap, the gold bar is golden. With all of the crap and faux sequels that came out for the Wii this year, the top choice is obvious. There wasn’t much to get excited about for the Wii this year. At E3, this and Spirit Tracks were their only big games coming out in 2009. As you can read in my recent review of the game, this was a surprisingly well put together game. All of their next great games will be next year at the soonest (starting Jan 26th with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle), so Nintendo has to hold on to what little successes they have now.
New game for the 360: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed 2
I’m not a FPS fan, so ODST and L4D2 are out. Rhythm games are crap so Rock Band and Guitar Hero are out. Of the rest, Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed 2 were my favorite games on the console. Ghostbusters was a great game too, but these two were better. I love going around and stabbing people in this depressing holiday season. The story is a very good and deep one. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a great game overall. Batman is like being in a comic book. A comic starring the voice actors of the cartoon. But, this is not based on a comic book. It is one of the most awesome games ever. Some moron at Gamespy said it was stupid that there is no comic or movie tie-in for the game. That was what made the game better. Two great games. If it came down to is, Batman wins because no one can beat Batman.
New game for the DS: Pokemon Platinum
Take everything good about Diamond and Pearl and make them better. Fix a lot of the bad areas. Add many more Pokemon. Add new features. Add wifi events. Yummy, yummy wifi events. Free, rare Pokemon. Aside from those and many graphical enhancements, this is pretty much like Diamond and Pearl. Except for Spirit Tracks, there wasn’t too much to get very excited about in the DS area this year.
On the PSP and PS3:
I have only recently gotten these systems so I cannot properly give them a best new game yet. Next year, we all know they are going to be Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII.
Podcast: Penny Arcade/PvP/Wil Wheaton D&D Podcast Series 3
The only other contender in this realm was Memories of the Futurecast. I started listening to this podcast with episode 2 during PAX. I went back and listened to to the first two series to catch up. Every week as a wait until the next episode. Then came the last episode. That damn last episode. It is hard not to blame Binwin for what happened, but he doesn’t deserve all the blame or any hatred. It was an honest mistake of his. He was too wrapped in vengeance. Aeofel was being too good of a friend. They broke the cardinal rule and split the party. Mistakes were made. Recent tweets hint on the return of AQI. Series 4 should follow. That and Memories of the Futurecast Volume 2 are two podcasts to look forward to this coming year.
Song: Jonathan Coulton’s The Future Soon
Coulton ain’t new, and the song ain’t new. I just felt that this song best captured how my year has been. I’m a pathetic loser that has interests in science and technology with only glimpses at the idea of what love is. I also have the desire to make giant robots and use them mostly for good… eventually. Oregon and Iran get wiped off the map first then I go totally Iron Man with looser morals and more hatred for humanity. A nerd can dream. (If it proves my point any more that I could be the person in the song, I am currently on a Mac writing this in WordPress on Chrome with a Vocaloid theme and watching an open source Twitter program and listening to Code Monkey after The Future Soon. My Rei plushie is right next to me in case I need to hug someone that I want to hug.) [On a side note: it is almost 2010, shouldn't Ikari Gendo have cloned his wife by now? I'll give anything for one of those clones. If you have seen the show, you know who I am talking about.]
Book I actually read (out of the few I finished):
I am not sure I finished a book that qualifies for this. I’ve read mostly textbooks or graphic novels this year, as with any year. Some of the Japanese archaeology books were pretty cool. The books on physics are cool too since physics is only one step below mathematics which is less than or equal to God depending on your cardinality proofs. My textbook that I used to build neutron stars and white dwarfs was pretty cool too, but I read most of that last year. Oh! Wait! Reboot! Book I actually read (out of the few I finished): Physics of the Impossible
The pompous and arrogent Michio Kaku proves that most of the cool sci-fi tech can be made some point in the future and all in languages you philistines can understand. This is a very great read. Pick it up.
Graphic novel: Kenjiro Hata’s Hayate no Gotoku Graphic Novel #7
Nagi put Tama in a washing machine. I love Futurama. To quote Free Waterfall Sr from Futurama: ‘We have them trapped like a tiger in a washing machine.’ The GN also features the [holiday doesn't exist] episodes, the Negima! reference issue, and Nagi’s date where Hayate is hidden on every page. All of that is in addition to the usual pure brilliance in comic, anime, internet and video game references. Oh! And the student body officers episode too. That features the moments that class president Izumi (aka Karin to Karin fans) fell for Hayata-kun.
DVD/BluRay: Star Trek
Second place goes to the release of the new Evangelion movies in the US. Since I now have a BluRay player (I love my PS3) [I never said they were a bad console. I just said they were too expensive and had hardware issues.], I can watch BluRays. I don’t normally buy video media since Hayate no Gotoku and Code Geass are the only series out on DVD that I collect. Into the Wild Green Yonder was a great movie as well. I had been waiting for Rebuild of Evangelion since the first moment I have heard of it. You can tell I am serious about a series if I don’t ‘acquire’ it in advance. But, Star Trek had a great release. All of the extras, as well as the DVD and digital copies were a great addition. Sorry Eva. There is always next year when you should be giving me Evangelion 2.0 and 3.0… unless Toradora! or Hyakko is out in the US by then. If that is the case… Well, Tron Legacy would have a December 2010 or January 2011 BluRay at the soonest… Hmm. Then Lucas owes us Star Wars on BluRay… Well. Damn. A lot of good crap is coming to BluRay by 2011. I guess that is one side effect of Obama, getting the BluRay industry to say ‘Yes We Can! (make consumers buy the same thing again)’
Webcomic: Penny Arcade
Daisy Owl, Looking for Group, and How I Killed Your Master were the top contenders as well. There were a lot of great moments in a lot of great webcomics. The ones listed are barely a cap of the iceberg of comics with great moments (the big LOLbat reveal in PvP for one). I felt that once again Penny Arcade were the kings. Just scanning through the first two months, there are many awesome moments in just such a short time. Love them. Plus, Jim and Omin didn’t kill Aeofel. Sorry Scott.
Sporting event: Omegathon 09
MLG is a sport. Therefore, the decathlon of gaming is the top event. I only made it to two of the events: The Beatles: Rock Band and the finals of Skeeball. They were pretty freaking awesome. The Omegathon is the gaming competition attached to PAX. The game tests the gamers in several areas: console gaming, PC gaming, tabletop gaming, rhythm gaming, and all-around gaming. Gamers have to prove themselves across all areas, thus no casual gamers would survive. The tabletop game is usually a board game, Connect Four if memory serves. Mario Kart Wii broke down, so they had to do Double Dash instead. That should have been a harbinger of things to come. Skeeball took over a hour to get working just so that it could break down after every other game. How the frak did they find a real Skeeball game?! That was too awesome. The best part was when Mike and Jerry did battle and Gabe schooled Tycho. It was great. Rock Band was Rock Band. Absolutely nothing special. At all. Because if you’ve seen one rhythm game, you’ve seen them all.
Japan-related event: The life-sized Odaiba Gundam
I was tempted to troll through all of my wacky links I posted throughout the year, but then one thing stuck out in my mind: the 40-meter tall Gundam. It wasn’t just any Gundam. It was Gundam. The original. For lovers of classical anime, especially those of us who grew up on Voltron, seeing Gundam at life-sized was a dream come true. Now all they need to do is make it move then fly then arm it with a laser cannon and everything will be perfect.
Event: January 20th, 2009 at 1200 (noon)
I really hope non-politcos get that. If you don’t, that was the exact moment Barack Obama became the current US President. I couldn’t stop smiling for a week after that moment. The other great event of this year was my graduation from Cal Poly SLO with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. I was depressed by the end of that day, so it definitely wasn’t my favorite event. I also flipped while at PAX, but we’ll get to that later.
Convention: PAX
Going to PAX was the greatest thing that happened to me since my Japan trip. I’ve watched PA TV a few times already since It lets me relive stuff I went through those days. I miss it so much. I finally found a place where everyone from the top-down are exactly like me. I really cannot describe what it is like to have the feelings I felt while at PAX. If you are watching PA TV, skip to part 2 of the pilot. Skip to 4:50 when Freezepop is on stage. Look at the sea of lights. Those are DS Bigs, DS Lites, DSis, PSPs, cellphones, and even some crazy fucker with a MacBook Pro waving to the music like lighters in just the generation before mine. Those are my people.
New software: Chrome
Okay, so Chrome isn’t the newest software, having been released last year. Chrome has become my favorite browser. It is faster and a lot smoother than any of the other browsers out there. It was made for the internet. There aren’t many good themes out there yet. (I’m using the Vocaloid one since my next favorite is the Good Smile Company one, and they ain’t that great.) Extensions can be enabled, and I know there are a lot of good ones out there, but I haven’t really hunted for them. And if I can say this completely uncensored when I heard that Chrome was available on Mac on Dec 8th, I practically came. Anything not to use Safari and it’s horrible slowness anymore.
New web-based toy: Wolfram Alpha
This is what wikipedia would be like if it were written by geniuses instead of morons. The mass of useless facts and magic math solvers and data analysis and pure nerditude makes Alpha the funnest toy any geek would want to play with. A few minutes on Alpha can quickly turn into a Turing test or a battle of wits until you get discouraged that the entry for ‘Penny Arcade’ doesn’t mention Gabe or Tycho.
A month ago, you may recall it was my birthday. I proposed back then that the hardcore gaming community was more important than the casual gaming community. Also, I included a quiz that any good gamer could figure out. Given that most people got less than half of the answers, I figure you might need some help. Here is a clue: check out the bolded letters in the first few paragraphs. … ‘Easter eggs in the source’. Okay! To the source! As both stated in the quiz and in the source, there are no answers in the source. But there are hints. We’ll get to everything as they come.
First was this Penny Arcade comic. It makes fun of how gay is the game The Sims. Even a Mac user knows that that crap shouldn’t be on their not-gaming computers. Even casual games like Spore and Peggle and Harvest Moon have some gaming elements. The Sims is you creating avatars of things you like or hate and torturing the hell out of them. Yes, Yahtzee said that The Sims was better than Spore since you can be Batman, but that still doesn’t make up for lack of gaming elements.
Second is:
Art from the PA/PvP DnD Podcast. D&D is a key part of gaming’s roots. It is essentially the father of all gaming and a grandfather of video gaming in particular. I felt it important to include something that touched on those roots.
Third, another entry from PA. This strip is the origin of the phrase ‘money hats’. Just a bit of gaming history.
Fourth, more Penny Arcade. If you have ever played Final Fantasy X, your favorite part was when Tidus died at the end. [/Spoiler alert] If you played Final Fantasy X-2, the only part you hated more than Rikku was that Tidus comes back to life. [/Spoiler alert] Sadly, hating the male lead is the biggest problems of FF IX and FF X. I didn’t like Vaan in FF XII either, but he was better than Tidus and Zidane. There are achievements in Dissidia for defeating the different characters a number of times. I got the one for killing Tidus long before any other character. I think I got it with Sephiroth too. That game is really fun. Get it if you have a PSP. (Tidus is actually a pretty good character once you get his fighting style down.)
Fifth, yet more PA. This one is actually the first hint. You’ll see when we get to the end.
Sixth, finally no more PA! This is from 8-bit Theater, a sprite comic loosely based on Final Fantasy. This is one of my favorites for Fighter’s second line. Most of the chocobo story arc was great. From chocobo sex to the gratuitous violence. The strip does accurately follow the overall story of Final Fantasy well. The heroes just screw everything up their own way. There are also lots of references to other video games and nerd humor throughout the series. D&D and comics are the main references, but WoW started appearing the past couple years. It is a very good comic.
Next, this pic:
That goes with this shirt. You can almost feel the hint.
Then comes this pic:
Yet another that feels like a hint.
And another pic:
Just memes in Halo. Nothing special.
Next:
Falcon PAWNCH!
Last, we have a legitimate combo:
So, did any of the hints help? No? Did you try that GameFAQs link on the article? How about Wikipedia? Why not? Hell, Google would probably give you perfect answers to all but the first question. Since none of you got them, here are the answers. Included are reasoning behind the answers. Enjoy!
Have you ever played the Second Quest? Yes = 1 pt, Legend of Zelda
-This was the only one that had an opinion answer. You either beat the game and played the Second Quest or you entered your name as ‘Zelda’ and skipped to it. Sure, other games had a Second Quest and even New Game + features, but this was the first. Not to mention that Legend of Zelda was a classic epic. It was one of the deepest games of the time. The new battery save feature allowed you to stop and continue at a later time. 500 points on Virtual Console. Buy it.
How do you defeat the Ko-Dan? Death Blossom = 1 pt, Last Starfighter
-Early gamer cinema. Like another movie mentioned later, this movie was about how a gamer saved the universe by gaming. Nowadays, gaming cinema is about movie ports of games. They are usually crap. Also, movies like Gamer inaccurately portray gamers just as movies like Hackers or Live Free or Die Hard inaccurately depict real hackers, crackers, and computer geeks. We need someone to do an accurate movie version of Ender’s Game to get some great gamer cinema. I’m surprised no one has tried yet.
What is the password to Master Belch’s lair? = 2 pt, Earthbound/Mother 2
-If you have ever played a Mother game, you will attest their brilliance. Earthbound is my official greatest game of all time. The story. The characters. The gameplay. All brilliant. One of my favorite moments is when you need to say the password to enter the lair of one of your enemies, Master Belch. The password was not touching anything on the controller for a set amount of time. Press a button or the d-pad, and you had to start over. It was brilliant. Psycho Mantis would later repeat that magic by reading your saved files on your memory card in Metal Gear Solid and by activating the rumble feature on your controller. MGS was really good at metagaming as were the Mother games. When they hit the VC outside of Japan, they are must buys.
What was Gabe’s third wish? Unicorn insurance = 1 pt, Penny Arcade
-Gee. A question about Penny Arcade. Big surprise. Penny Arcade is the gaming comic. If you are a gamer, you read Penny Arcade. You even try to attend PAX or PAX East. They do a fair treatment of gaming and the game industry. How? Because they are gamers themselves. This joke was in reference to the idea of a Metroid movie somehow associated with John Woo.
At least he has some chicken. Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy! Jenkins! = 1 pt, WoW
When WoW premiered, Blizzard would have been happy if they got half as many players as the current #1 MMORPG, Everquest, which would have been about 1 million players. WoW was the #1 MMORPG by the end of the year, eclipsing Everquest’s numbers. WoW has become a cultural force of it’s own. Economists study it as a model of global economic interactions. Sociology and psychiatry use it as a tool for studying social interactions. The influence on culture is felt through WoW’s mass advertising campaigns as well is references in television shows and more nerdly media found on the internet. WoW even feels the influence back with a history of cultural references contained within the game. Also, it joins D&D and Dungeon Siege as the latest game with a vague storyline to get a feature movie made of it.
Where is the second Whistle? Fortress in World 1 = 1 pt, Super Mario 3
-Ahhhhhhhh. The greatest selling video of ever for the longest time. At least until Wii Sports. Super Mario 3 took Mario games in a great new direction and added a lot of elements that would become standard to the Mario formula. It was essential playing back in the day. The Whistles were the warp system for the game. getting the first two takes you to World 8 and Koopa’s doorstep. You only had to deal with the big man and the tough levels, but there were a number of really cool and colorful levels along the way if you didn’t have the 1337 skillz or the guts to skip ahead. I really love that New Super Mario Bros Wii brought back the Koopalings. They were great.
What does the accessory Ozzie’s Pants do? Trick question: Ozzie’s Pants is headgear. High stat increase and Confusion = 2 pt, Chrono Trigger
-Chrono Trigger is another classic of the 16-bit era. The SNES saw a ton of great RPGs: FF IV, FF V, FF VI, DQ IV, DQ V, Mother 2, Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, and many, many more. Once again, this game has to really be experienced to get the full gist. You should be able to pick up the PS1 or DS version for cheap. The encounter system was very good. The story was amazing, even by modern standards. The cast is great and lovable. And then there are the 12 endings. (13 in the DS version which sets up the events in Chrono Cross. Magus = Gil!?) Ozzie was one of the great minor boss characters. He teamed with Slash and Flea to give you trouble. If rock gods aren’t your thing, then the Japanese version named them after condiments. Also, Chrono Trigger was one of the few non-Ocarina of Time games to pull off the time travel mechanic really well. Both are of course must plays for hardcore gamers.
What game does Joshua lose? Tic-tac-toe = 1 pt, WarGames
-Before Matthew Broderick brought down Godzilla (retconned as Gojira by the Japanese), he hacked NORAD. He then started playing a video game designed to simulate nuclear war with the USSR. There were other games, but he liked the idea of nuking Las Vegas and Seattle more. Joshua was the name given to the NORAD supercomputer by it’s designer. In order to prevent nuclear war, they set the computer to play tic-tac-toe against itself. Being a computer, the games always ended in a draw. The computer extrapolated those results to the nuclear war game and realized the only way to win nuclear war was not to start one. If Matthew Broderick can figure it out, why the hell can’t Iran?
Who does Takuto marry? Whichever girl form Galaxy Angel you choose = 1 pt, Galaxy Angel 2
Bit of a trick question if you only checked the anime or graphic novels where he marries Milfeulle, Apricot’s older sister. In the original computer game, you picked which Angel Takuto marries, even Vanilla! That result would carry over to the sequel where you would see him with the other girls in some cutscenes. Personally, I would pick Milfie every time because it seem most canonical, plus she is the cutest.
Yellow, ______, Green, Blue, ______, White Red, Black = 1 pt, Chrono Cross
-A lot of people didn’t like Chrono Cross in relation to Chrono Trigger. I was one of them. The difficulty curve was f-ed up. There were too many characters and too few good parties. The story (even with the help from the DS Chrono Trigger) had too many holes and horrible moments. Worst of all, you had to remember that pattern to use the Chrono Cross properly to save Schala. If you are an JRPG junkie or just interested, pick it up. PS3 has PS1 compatibility so you can still play it.
Who is the ‘team-killing fucktard’? Church = 1 pt, RvB
-The Halo machinima. Originally believed to be Caboose, it was really proven to be Church thanks to some problems with time travel. RvB was such a great series. It proved what machinima could be and, like Penny Arcade, that gamers could make quality entertainment products that millions would love. Rooster Teeth even had a pretty big booth at PAX, plus their own panel on Grifball. Grifball was an one line gag at the start of the 4th season that got made into a mod for multiplayer. I was actually good at Grifball. All other aspects of FPS, I am horrible at, but Grifball was my time to shine. Halo might not be that great, but Grifball and RvB are fun.
Complete the following: Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start = 1 pt, Konami Code
-How the fuck would you not know this one? If you have to look up ‘Konami Code’ now, kill yourself and spare the world from your ignorance before you win a Darwin Award.
Ni hyaku ni? Sonansu! = 1 pt, Pokemon
-The question was in Nippongo so the answer had to be in Nippongo. Pokemon is a worldwide phenomenon. It is easily the best bridge for kids to move from casual to hardcore gaming. The ease of play and deeper elements. The games are really well made for what they are and even long-time gamers attend Pokemon tourneys with well-honed teams.
He is the leading man. Balthier = 1 pt, FF XII
-As mentioned above, Vaan sucked. Balthier, whom I nicknamed Baltar in a Galactica reference, was more suited to be the leading man. He said so himself, repeatedly. Final Fantasy XII was a really well made game. It was one of my favorite Final Fantasy games and the first since Final Fantasy VIII that I really liked. The Final Fantasy series along with the Dragon Quest series long defined the RPG genre until non-Japanese players started breaking into the genre. They still epitomize the JRPG genre, especially now that former rivals are united in one company.
S, Z, L, ☐, |, ⅃ = 1 pt, Tetris
-Those are the shapes of the blocks from the classic casual game. Tetris was a simple game and has remained such. It was even one of the few major games from Europe (having been made in the USSR) before Ubisoft. Being that is such an addictive game, it is one of the most popular games of all time, spawning many imitators and variations.
Name the source: ‘Your mom is a classy lady!’ Marcus Fenix = 2 pt, Gears of War 2
-While you may be tempted to cite the comic where this joke is from, the character that spoke it was what I was looking for. Gears is a Halo clone. Pure and simple. I like it more since it was easier to pick up and play.
Who is The Dude’s avatar? Clu = 1 pt, Tron
-Tron is the god of video game movies. This game predicted everything that would come of internet gaming nearly perfectly. The movie starred Jeff Bridges as Flynn and Bruce Boxleitner as Tron. The movie was about the battle against the evil Master Control Program and the freedom of the internet. You can see a basic overview of the current net neutrality argument played out in this 1982 movie. The classicness of this movie places it as the start line for gamer cinema alongside The Last Starfighter.
What tabletop does Wiseman play? Digimon TCG = 1 pt, .hack//
-The first season of the .hack// anime was Tron. Tsukasa was Flynn. Morganna was MCP. Later, the .hack// games brought in Kite as Tron. The anime and games were about players IRL and in the MMORPG The World. (The World was played by a sensory headset and a PS2 controller since there were no PS3s at the time and Japan was still Xbox-phobic.) Part of the character interaction was exchanging e-mails with your party. You got to know them better. You developed a relationship with BlackRose and Terajima Ryokou, as well as having Natsume develop feelings for you as well. There was the teacher in South Dakota that has his class watch Kurosawa films. Then there was Wiseman. I swear he was a kid IRL. At one point, he talked about what tabletops games you play. He plays the Digimon TCG. I fell over laughing because that was such a random reference. There were also references to Evangelion and Gundam at various points. The games were very good examples of great product integration as they followed directly from the shows. It is very rare that games associated with their anime/movie counterparts aren’t pure shit. Of course, that logic doesn’t apply to games like Arkham Asylum, which is not based on any more source material other than Batman is awesome, or Kingdom Hearts, which aren’t good games for other reasons.
Who is Travis’ niece? Jeanne = 1 pt, No More Heroes
-To date, this is the best game on the Wii. It will only be surpassed by No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Suda51 is a master of satire in his games. This game satirized… a lot of things. It was one of the few games I can think of that felt like playing a movie. The games even take perfect effect of all of the Wii’s elements better than any other game has to date. No More Heroes is one of the few hardcore games populating the system’s library. It’s only competition are Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, for the most part. The violence might be a bit off-putting for some, especially if you have to get your parents to buy the game since it is rated M and only gamers 17+ and those with parental permission should play it, but that is satire of movies like Kill Bill with their gratuitous amounts of violence. It actually gets pretty funny in certain boss battles. The game is also brilliant for the use of plot twists. Oh. Wait. That quiz question was a major plot twist/spoiler. Now you have to play the game to get it.
Gokou is on who’s computer? Konata’s = 1 pt, Lucky Star
-I was the first of all of the people I knew that noticed the Gokou figure on Konata’s tower. Everyone else was loling at the WoW reference while she was gaming, but I was scanning her room. Every time there was a shot of Konata’s room, it had about half an episode of Hayate no Gotoku’s worth of references. Lucky Star was a good show for nerd humor and nerd jokes. Hayate was far better at it though. Not even 13 episodes in and they did an entire episode as a giant Dragon Quest joke. Series like Lucky Star and Hayate no Gotoku are like gifts to the nerd community since they both satirize and compliment the community.
This famous gamer likes late nights. Jimmy Fallon = 1 pt, Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon
-Speaking of gifts to the nerd community, Jimmy Fallon is one of the many celebrity gamers out there. It is becoming less of a shame to be a gamer and celebrity these days. Gamer celebrities are people like Wil Wheaton, Bill Amend, Mike Krahulik or Adam Sessler, while celebrity gamers are people like Vin Diesel, Robin Williams, Steve Wozniak and Stephan Colbert. Even Conan has a Super Mario World backdrop when he does his monologue. We need more spokesmen for gamers with all of the bad press that gets generated against us.
What were the first video games played on? Oscilloscopes = 1 pt
-Nothing too special, just some simple tennis games that were later developed into Pong. Pong is usually credited as being the first video game. What is interesting about it, more than its roots, is that there can never be a port of the original game since it was entirely hardware-based. Since it was the first try, I think that is was great that they at least have good hardware. The software can follow. I believe the entire Playstation series or Gamecube are modern equivalents.
Meow : Nyan as Wark : Kweh! = 1 pt, Final Fantasy series
-Simple knowledge of your onomatopoeia. In the US Final Fantasy II, US Final Fantasy III (really Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI) and US Final Fantasy VII, the onomatopoeia for the chocobo were changed to ‘Wark’. This as restored back to ‘Kweh’ in future games and retranslations of the older games. Lots of early games had changes made to their localization due to idiotic American censorship or doubts that gamers would appreciate the depth of the Japanese version. Once we win the games as art debate, the censorship should leave.
Here lies Link. Elfheim = 1 pt, Final Fantasy
-This is the last Square-Enix reference. This was a joke in Final Fantasy. When you visit the elf village, there is a graveyard with a grave reading ‘Here Lies Link’. It was just a playful jab at their competitor. Link would actually appear in a Square-Enix game when he cameoed in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
All your base are belong to us. Respond: What you say? = 0 pt, Zero Wing
-As mentioned above, the localization of Japanese games were butchered. In this case, the localization didn’t properly restructure the translation. It was a classic example of Engrish so it quickly became a meme in the internet era.
What does Richard fight for? For pony! = 1 pt, Looking for Group
-LfG is another webcomic. It started early with hints of a D&D/WoW parody. Those elements are retained with the obvious race and class set up of the main characters. The comic makes good use of referencing nerd culture as well, bringing up other fantasy stories and games as well countless movies, games and books. There are also a lot of Star Wars references. One of their best moments is when an entire comic was a Rickroll. If you read the comic, Richard should be your favorite character since he is really funny.
Which classic character talks like this? (Hint: Futurama) Qbert = 1 pt
-Qbert was an old school puzzle game, back when puzzle games were for the hardcore gamers. He had an interesting habit of talking backwards. This was brought up in the Futurama episode Anthology of Interest II when Fry wished that what if life was more like a video game. Ambassador Kong of the planet Ninten Do 64 declared war on Earth after hitting President Nixon with a barrel. Although Fry was able to defeat the Invaders, possibly from Space, he shot where the last ship was and not where it was going to be causing Earth to lose the war. Our general Colin Pacman was also lost. Qbert was one of the conquering leaders demanding a million allowances of quarters, no slugs or tokens. Futurama being a sci-fi comedy parodied video games countless times in its short lifespan. Their entire third movie featured many D&D and LotR references. They even featured Sir Gary of Gygax, one of the gods of old, before he missed his last death throw and left us.
↓↘→+✌ Hadoken! = 1 pt, Street Fighter II
-One of the most famous moves from the most famous fighter. The Street Fighter series featured head-to-head combat at its finest. The characters were varied and well-balanced. Several of the fighters are faces for Capcom. The games themselves are famous as being button mashers, but there is a depth to the game if time is taken to master the controls, as in all fighters. The series actually literally defeated its rival King of Fighters series when SNK went under. The KoF series still lives as a property of another company.
Who is better at skeeball: Mike or Jerry? Mike = 1 pt, PAX 09
-Ahhhh. The Omegathon. So many awesome games and gamers. Good thing they didn’t go with Knife Eaters. (Given that they got H1N1 from the con, Knife Eaters might have been welcome.) The final game was skeeball. After the final battle, Mike and Jerry played against each other because that is what friends with a ‘working’, arcade-quality skeeball machine would do. Mike dominated Jerry. Loved it. Brought a great ending to a great con. (If you don’t get the ‘working’ joke, you had to be there.)
What shape is a dolphin? Cube = 1 pt, NGC
-’Expert on dolphins’. ‘Gleaming the cube.’ Enough of a hint? Nintendo always had great codenames for their consoles. Fortunately, they went with Gamecube over Dolphin. Unfortunately, they went with Wii over Revolution. Still, they are more creative than just numbering their systems like other companies.
Where is the princess? The Princess is in another castle = 1 pt, Super Mario Bros
-Super Mario Bros has become the definition of platformers. The characters of the Mario Bros were originally from the arcade game Mario Bros that had many of the elements later seen in Super Mario Bros. Mario, the main character, since he was player 1, from those games, has since become a worldwide icon. Since this game, the platforming genre has been more or less based on the groundwork Super Mario Bros developed. 500 points on the VC. Think about it.
What government employs Turkleton? Galactic Empire = 2 pt, my SSBB
-This was my favorite question in the quiz. It probably should have been worth more points. Of all of the potential readers of LW, Rox would most likely be the only one that would get this. Dyl is less likely, but he might also get it. Back when I was on another site, I ran a game based on SSBB. That game featured countless references to countless shows. It was even self-referencing at points. The character Colonel Johnson represented the Galactic Empire in Sephiroth’s army and helped supply the Dark Troopers therein. Sephiroth never really learned Col Johnson’s name, calling him Simmons first, in a RvB reference, then Turkleton, in a Scrubs reference. To Sephiroth, his name was Simmons Turkleton. A lot of the plot was very funny, and there were even some dramatic elements. The game took more resources than the players were willing to give it. It just had to die. On the plus side, many of the personalities developed in the game were translated to my FF/SE/RPG fanfic, namely Sephiroth and Reno. Give them a read. The entire SSBB script is posted, and some of the early parts of the FF fanfic is up as well.
One chapter of his story is ‘The Long Goodbye.’ Dixon Hill = 1 pt, Star Trek: The Next Generation
-Ah. The holodeck. The ultimate gaming tool. Almost everything done in the holodeck was a game of some sort. This makes them doubly awesome since holodecks are associated with Wil Wheaton, one of the kings of geekdom. The principals behind the holodeck have been the goal of all gaming companies. Virtual reality, motion controls, peripherals, all attempts to bring the holodeck into the house. To date, motion capture for in-game models have been the closest we have gotten to the technology. With Project Natal on the way, that will be the first time we get the motion capture in the living room. Current generation hardware will stay with us for longer than previous generations (this is due to powerful technology in the systems, basically everything is at it’s peak) so once Natal hits, it will be packaged with 360s. Nintendo and Sony will get hit hard once Natal gets big.
He is both Naked and Big. Naked Snake or Big Boss = 1 pt, MGS3
-Bet you were wondering when I would bring up Metal Gear Solid. Back on the MSX and NES, the Metal Gear games were some of the deepest games released at the time. They made developers look at action games in a new way. Hideo Kojima reintroduced the series with Metal Gear Solid. Solid gameplay, deep plot, and amazing characters, such as Solid Snake, made Metal Gear Solid a hit. The Metal Gear Solid story continued in MGS2, MGS3, and ‘ended’ in MGS4. (Several side stories are in development to continue the backstories found within the series.) Many of the characters are in some way associated with Solid Snake and Naked Snake/Big Boss. Well, any character with the name Snake since … well, it gets complicated with the cloning and arm transplants and cyborg ninjas and the supercomputers named after US Presidents. Awesome, awesome games. Picked up MGS4 with my PS3. Looking forward to the 2hr long cutscenes since Kojima wants to make movies.
What type of Pokemon is Gengar? Ghost and only Ghost = 1 pt, The Speed Gamers
-The Speed Gamers are a group of gamers that do speed runs of game series for charity. They have a goal of raising US$100k by the end of the Pokemon marathon starting today. During a past marathon, Britt, the group’s founder, made the (false) statement that Gengar was Ghost, only Ghost, and nothing but Ghost. Gengar has since morphed into the site‘s ‘mascot’. The Speed Gamers are another charity for gamers. Gamers love to help and groups such as The Speed Gamers are an outlet. Child’s Play is a more world-recognized gamer charity founded by Gabe and Tycho (Mike and Jerry) of Penny Arcade. It is a way for gamers to give back to the world they love, and it has been proven they love to give.
Who is a winner? A winner is you! = 1 pt, Pro Wrestling
-This is another poor localization job. The game is actually a pretty good one. It is definitely the archetype of all future console wrestling games.
Who picked Duncy Kong? Peter = 1 pt, Foxtrot
-Foxtrot was one of the first real modern nerd comics. It is a syndicated comic so it has to have mass appeal. The strip is written and drawn by Bill Amend. He is a gamer and a physicist. He thinks Penny Arcade is awesome and that the internet is going to kill newspapers. He is an older, skinnier, less bald version of me. And I told him that when I met him at PAX. Then I met him again after I met Wil Wheaton. Foxtrot is one of the smarter comics to be syndicated. Because of his science and nerd background, Bill works video game and science jokes into his comics all the time. One of my favorites was published in my last year before Cal Poly. It was a Christmas card created by Jason. It wrote out Merry X-mas using equations. We showed it to our math teacher and he didn’t get it. Another of my favorites is when Paige is complaining to her biology teacher about the bad formatting of their textbook. The punchline was: ‘Our biology book needs more intelligent design.’ If you think those last two words should have been capitalized, then you can kill yourself with those not knowing the Konami Code.
The original 0/1 w/ Flying Artifact Creature. Ornithopter = 1 pt, MtG
-Magic: The Gathering is the customizable card game that started the entire card gaming trend. You wouldn’t have Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade, or any of those other crap show/game bastardizations. Magic has remained fairly simple to play over the years and unlike the others, you can make a great deck with only a few rares. The game and other published by WotC were popular enough to allow them to buy the Star Wars license and even purchase Dungeons and Dragons. Magic keeps trying to innovate and tell a story.
What was the first Easter Egg? Credit for the game’s design = 1 pt, Adventure
-The grandfather of Legend of Zelda. Inventory, monsters, swords, questing, secrets. This game had everything that would define the adventure genre. As for the easter egg, that was borne out of a dispute between the programmer and the publisher. I guess this game also gave origin to all programmers wanting to start their own gaming company.
One of this game’s objectives is to ‘Bomb the Harbor.’ Shinpokomon = 1 pt, South Park
-South Park has always been on the cutting edge of social satire. Their teasing of Pokemon was no different than their destruction of scientology, creationists, and Rock Band. (WoW too!) Since I fell out of South Park, the only gaming reference I know that they made was chasing the dragon while playing Rock Band. I guess they got that right since you would have to be chasing the dragon to play that more than casually. The Shinpokomon episode was one of their best. Kenny died of seizures from the game (referencing the porygon episode of Pokemon). It made fun of the Japanese having small penises, which is just a stereotype. My favorite part was that Shinpokomon was filled with hidden messages to get kids to want to ‘bomb the harbor.’ Which harbor? Pearl of course! It was all a plot to attack Pearl Harbor again! South Park is brilliant.
You can’t ignore his girth. Gary Oak = 1 pt, Pokemon
-Watch out if he puts on his robe and wizard’s hat. This stems from this cyber session. It is pretty funny. Just another meme based on a video game.
By now, you’re wondering how the scoring worked since I said a minimum score of 75 would get you the title. Obviously, the points listed don’t come close to 75 but like a good video game, there was a hidden objective. Look again at the answers. Notice the game titles? Yep! They are a point each. 75/84 isn’t too much to ask.
Hope you liked another gaming article. Maybe next time you’ll do better at my totally asinine and arbitrary quiz. Maybe it will be about obscure Star Wars or Star Trek trivia. Catch ya around!
And as we normally do, closing with a gaming video:
So as a filler post covering every blogger, what will this be like? Well, if this submission representing DM and her awesomeness is any clue, then it will be like this:
To represent Stu, here is a movie review:
I recently went to the Toy Story double feature 3D event. Two words: FRAKKING AWESOME! I am not much of a fan of this 3D fad that is sweeping movies, but I do love the Toy Story movies. Fact: These are the only Disney Animated squeals to be released in theaters and still kick ass. This remastering was great. The intermission with Toy Story trivia and shorts were a great addition. I honestly felt like a kid again. If you missed you’re chance to catch this event, well, sucks to be you.
Continuing our parade through LW staffers, we reach this pic which convinced Helena to never want to visit America:
Filling in for Daniel, I will talk some sports:
So we have the Winer Olympics coming up somewhere in the middle of nowhere soon. The Winter Olympics don’t get the respect that the summer games do for obvious reasons: no Dream Team, no Michael Phelps, no heart warming story about the first male-male pair figure skating team, no plucky, but resourceful US hockey team that proves miracles can happen. None of that. So our sports for this week is a tribute to the winter games summed in one word: curl.
Moving to Katherine, we reach a speed bump. Stu is our movie/music/entertainment reviewer. I have gaming and general geekdom covered. Kieran seems to have our computing fields covered. (Click here for the tribute to Kieran) DM is our undisputed queen of NaNo. So we have all of her, unfounded and unproven, claims to geakdom covered. But we don’t have one thing she seems to do more than anything else covered: social networking. So here is a link to a conversation I predict may one day be in her future: (Honestly, I hope this doesn’t happen to anyone.)
Time for another video! This time, it is a submission representing Light:
This next section is for the ever productive Medli:
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So that is it for the entire blogging staff. I hope you enjoyed i…. What? One more? I thought I covered everyone. Whoever is last mustn’t be that popular or handsome or that undeniably awesome that I just had to forget him. Well, here is something I would throw together instead:
So, as an awesome geek among geeks, I naturally love D&D. I need a more uniform set of dice, but I do have enough dice to play. I’ve only played 4th Edition, since that was the edition that our party was playing. D&D is very fun. To those that are more gamers, like Dyl, think of it like a Final Fantasy game, only you have more of a personal connection to the characters because you are the main character! To those of you who have boners for Haruhi, like DM, think of it as you are Haruhi because your actions shape the world. To those of you with eggs in your soul, the egg of your heart, if you will, think of it as the ultimate Chara change because you get to be who you want to be! (Judging by my pet characters, I either want to be a big purple person like Dr Manhattan, except with pants, or I want to be a drunken, female assassin.) D&D is whatever you put into it. I encourage everyone to play at least once in their life. On that note, I am wanting to put on a game for LW. If you are interested in joining, send me a PM on our forums and I’ll get back to you. If not but you are interested in learning more, click here and enjoy!
As I would do, if I were the last blogger mentioned, I would end with a video so why not?
(I apologize in advance for the poor appearance of this article. Everything is coded exactly right for it to appear nice, but apparently the site doesn’t like nice-looking, properly-coded articles.)
So, as mentioned in the except, I am working on a new section of my site devoted to video games. My first effort is to rate/review my entire video game arsenal. Or at least the ones on hand as mentioned on my site. As you could clearly see, I have a daunting task ahead with just my current catalogue and classics in memory. So far, the only section that is completed is my overview of the Final Fantasy brand. This is all but two of the main series released to date and half a dozen of the spin-offs. So enjoy this free preview.
PS: Before anyone asks, it is Cloud X Aerith, not Aerith X Zack. Cloud and Aerith. Cloud and Aerith! Got it!
Final Fantasy, more than any series, has shaped my tastes in video games. I had wanted the first Final Fantasy since Nintendo Power did a game guide on it. I ended up with Dragon Warrior (originally Dragon Quest) instead. (Interesting note: Dragon Quest was made bt Enix who later bought Squaresoft, makers of Final Fantasy, and became Square Enix.) The first Final Fantasy game I played was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES. That game was really fun, but I wasn’t too good at it. Later, my brother got Final Fantasy III (originally Final Fantasy VI). That was a very fun game, and it got me fully into JRPGs. Final Fantasy VII is probably my third most played game (after Super Mario World and Chrono Trigger). Since then, I have played all of the main series and several of the spin-offs. The order I rank the main series of games goes:
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy II isn’t listed since I haven’t gotten to it yet. Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t come out until Spring 2010 (in the US). I have played Final Fantasy XI, but I doesn’t know how to rank it with the rest of the games. It is a good game in its own rights, but I am not much of a MMO person. Taking the spin-off games into account, the order gets a little more hectic:
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VI
Dissidia Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy XII
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2
Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy X-2
Mystic Quest isn’t on the list since I haven’t played it too much. I haven’t played nor will I get any of the Crystal Chronicles series. I might get After Years on Wiiware. I cannot play Before Crisis since that was a Japan-only cellphone game but so was After Years.
The reason for this order is detailed on the games’ individual pages. There are things I liked about all of the games. Check out each game’s page for the details on each.
This is just how I rate Final Fantasy as a whole. The series is one of the best in the world. It is probably my favorite series. Only Zelda comes close to series devotion but seeing how I am devoted to many other Square Enix series other than Final Fantasy, I know that is all thanks to Final Fantasy.
