In the grand tradition of making lists of things, I finally found a website that let's me keep track of all the books I've read over the years. So now I've got LibraryThing for books, TheBackloggery for games, and My Anime List for anime. Of the three, MAL is definitely the best, as it keeps track of far more stats than the other three, has more information about each entry, and has a greater integration of community.
Back in high school I used to read books all the time, but after high school I stopped [mainly since I read during my free time at school] and I could of got into a habit of not really reading that much. I think I can probably count on two hands the number of books I've completely since high school [5 years ago]. So, yeah, I'm trying to break out of that and get back in reading books again [especially since I have aspirations of writing books of my own and need fresh works to keep me from falling into stagnation].
What I've read:
-Most of David Eddings books
-Lots of Terry Brooks books
-Lots of Terry Pratchet books
-Wheel of Time
-Part of a Game of Thrones [might finish sometime later]
-Lots of Arthur C. Clarke
-Some H.P. Lovecraft
-Some R.A. Salvatore
-Part of Neuromance and Snow Crash [will finish someday, hopefully]
-Some Anne McCaffrey
-The Earthsea series
-First two books of the Obernewtyn series
What I'm about to start reading:
-Gardens of the Moon
-Hardwired
-The Land Leviathan
-Elantris
-Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
He just released a book you see, "Decision Points". Here's a quote from an interview on NBC about it.
Quote: LAUER: Not everybody thought you should go to war, though. There were dissenters.
BUSH: Of course there were.
LAUER: You know, there were questions at the Pentagon. Colin Powell had questions. Brent Scowcroft, your father’s former National Security Advisor, and dear friend, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, I’m paraphrasing here, saying, “It’s not a good idea to go to war in Iraq.” So there were dissenting voices.
BUSH: I was a dissenting voice. I didn’t want to use force. I mean force is the last option for a President. And I think it’s clear in the book that I gave diplomacy every chance to work. And I will also tell you the world’s better off without somehow in power. And so are 25 million Iraqis.[...]
LAUER: You would still go to war in Iraq?
BUSH: I– first of all, didn’t have that luxury. You just don’t have the luxury when you’re President. That’s a very hypothetical question. I will say definitely the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power, as are 25 million people who now have a chance to live in freedom.
Uh, what, do you think we're idiots, or that everyone has forgotten 2002-03 or something? Good luck with that, but I think even this country isn't quite stupid enough to believe such ridiculous statements.
He also was evidently sad to heard that Iraq had no WMDs, though he didn't show it at the time one bit (somewhat the opposite, I think). More revisionist history?
Atomic Runner, also known as Chelnov, is a very good Data East game from 1992. This Genesis version is a remake of a four or five year older arcade game, much improved versus the arcade original. The game plays like a run & gun game, except it's auto-scrolling, which makes it feel unique. There are a variety of weapons and powerups to collect, lots of enemies to kill, jumps to make, some short alternate routes, challenging bosses, and more. The game is a memorizer for sure, and the main challenge is in learning what to do at each moment. Enemies will appear in exactly the same places each time, though many will then fire at where you are, so the game isn't 100% identical every time. There aren't many levels, but it's really good while it lasts.
This game has good graphics, great art design, and great music, and the gameplay is great as well, and the unique auto-scrolling run & gun design is great. That makes it play somewhat differently from just about anything else. The weapons are varied and are all pretty cool, the game is well balanced and well designed, there's a good variety of enemies and obstacles... yes, I really liked this game.
You die in one hit. There's no shield. When you die, you get sent back to the last checkpoint. Fortunately the game has many checkpoints, so you don't usually lose much progress. Game over also just sends you back to the last checkpoint, though there are limited continues; you can set how many, from 3 to 15, in the options menu. There are also difficulty settings and various control options. I recommend, and use, control option C-1, where A fires left, B jumps, and C fires right. The default controls have C switching direction and A firing, but the game is easier and works better with this Forgotten Worlds/Sidearms control style.
The designers even gave players a break. Instead of sticking with the merciless difficulty that it could have, after you've died at a single checkpoint four or five times or so in a row, the first powerup you see after that checkpoint will change from whatever it is into a full-power one, so that you can try it with full weapon power. This is incredibly helpful and makes a massive difference in reducing frustration, particularly at the harder bosses. Otherwise, after you die once often bosses would become incredibly hard, having to pick away at them with weak weapons... instead, just die a few more times and you'll have full power for the fight. This game is quite challenging as it is, it's great that the designers gave players a little break like this.
There's really only one major negative: It's short. Hard, but short. There aren't many levels, only seven or so, and once you start to learn them you can get through them fairly quickly. The main part of the challenge is simply in learning things, so once you've done that it's mostly just about trying to do it faster... it's so much fun while it lasts, though, that I don't mind.
The final boss' last two forms (it has three) were definitely tricky, and held me up for a few weeks -- I got to the final boss a week or two ago, but got frustrated at dying there repeatedly (you have limited continues and no saving), and I quit for a while. Well, I picked the game up again today, and beat it on my first try! Okay, I used a bunch of continues, but I didn't run out and have to start over, I beat the game first. Pretty awesome, I thought I'd gotten a terrible start but as I went along I got better and remembered the game more and more... I really like this game, I'd never heard about it but it's pretty cool.
Other than length, the only other possible negative really is that the graphics are a little small (very nice looking and your character is really well animated, but small), and that the backgrounds in a few levels are so gaudy and impressive that sometimes I can lose track of the enemies and bullets. This is particularly true in the gold and jade Chinese-ish level. It looks amazing, but sometimes the enemies can be hard to see... or maybe it's just that the backgrounds are so awesome looking that they distract me. :) Either way, it's something you get used to.
Overall, very good game. I like this one a lot. Atomic Runner (aka Chelnov) is not well known, but it should be. Try it, you might like it. Anyone who likes run & gun games or shmups should definitely give this a play.
The Walking Dead has all this an more, I'm happy to say. Plus, it's really, really good judging from episode one, not that I'm too surprised with Frank Darabont handling it.
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