So I got EO3, which just came out a few weeks ago. I loved the first game, which I got back in '07, but for some stupid reason never got EO2. I really, really should have, I love this series and definitely regret not playing the second one... I'll have to get it sometime, but its price is going nowhere but up.
Anyway, yeah, I was a little unsure if I wanted to get EO3 now, but when I saw a copy in a local store new, with the artbook (which was a preorder bonus from participating retailers bonus; evidently this local chain is a participating retailer. :)), I knew I had to get it.
It took all of two minutes into the game when I knew I'd made a good decision, and made me really wonder again why I ever didn't get the second game... I love the EO games, and now that I'm back into it I realized I'd been missing it. This one's classic EO, but with some new features as well. I'm still quite early in the game so I can't say too much, but I like some of the new stuff -- the sailing portion is cool, for instance. Evidently the stratums are longer this time, and there are only 25 floors, which is a little disappointing; EO1 had six stratums, each 5 floors long (30 total). The last was a bonus, postgame-content stratum, so it also had 25 main floors, but I haven't heard of a bonus stratum this time. They did add the sea part to add some stuff, but that's different, you don't play that like a dungeon. I like the sea part -- the movement range system, exploration of the oceans, etc. is quite fun -- but it's not a replacement for a bonus stratum, if indeed there isn't one. Well, we'll see, I know there is bonus postgame content for sure at least (read: really hard optional bosses). I know that either way the game will have a ridiculous amount of content, and that like the first one I'll probably never finish most of it, as too much of it requires a lot of grinding. I like the game as long as I can keep going, but in EO1 for instance the postgame part really was ridiculous grinding-wise if you didn't have exactly the right party (respecing your entire party/replacing party members with new people you now have to level up to max to exactly the party needed for the insanely difficult special bosses, specifically). EO2 was even worse, from what I've heard, if you wanted to optionally get above level 70 (the first game's max). EO3 sounds like it's sort of in between, getting to level 99 isn't quite as insane, but it still does require getting through the postgame bosses.
Anyway, the EO games are just so much fun. Party creation is great, with all-new classes and artwork this time to mix things up; EO2 brought back all the old classes with a few new additions, but this time it's all new. 12 classes total, 2 hidden. EO1 had 9 classes at the start, 2 more hidden; EO2 had 14 total, 3 new, but I'm not sure if they were hidden. There is also an alternate color sets for all the portraits this time, too, which is pretty cool, more options. You then explore the dungeon, map it out as you go, fight FOE bosses, farm resources, do quests, figure out the mystery of the dungeon (will it be another surprise somewhat bad ending like the first two games had? At this point though it wouldn't really be a surprise anymore would it...), and more. This time though as I've said you also can go to sea, so you travel the seas, explore, find islands, fish, and do other stuff. You can only travel as far as the food you purchased before setting off will let you go, so you have a movement range. It's an interesting system, putting a little realism into the sea exploration while also making it so that you can't just go anywhere right from the start. Each voyage costs money too, so you'd better make it in the dungeon, or use some voyages for fishing to make back the cash.
Overall, I'm very early in the game, but I'm definitely loving it so far. Anyone who likes EO should pick it up, preferably with the artbook if you can find a copy with it (Amazon's copies still come with the artbook for instance, I believe). The artbook has full-sized pages, so it's not some tiny little DS case sized thing. It is only 60 pages long so it definitely isn't comprehensive, and I do find it disappointing that there isn't more in it -- I'd love to have seen more of the prelim sketches of characters and their equipment, art for all of the stratums in EOs 1 and 2 and not just some of them, the EO2 art for the EO1 classes (while all 11 original classes returned in EO2, and their costumes are the same, they were redrawn in new poses for the second game. None of this art is in the book, only the art for the new classes.), and more, for a short-ish artbook it's pretty cool, and it was definitely worth getting.
Also, this is on the Japanese EO3 (SQ3) website. The US site doesn't have a version of it, unfortunately, but the US EO3 site is missing a bunch of good stuff from the Japanese SQ3 site, so that's not surprising. The game package itself is fantastic, but the EO3 website's not so good... this, MIA wallpapers, no comics... it's lame. Oh well.
Here's my starter party. It is sure to change as I progress through the game, you can't play an EO game with just one group of five characters. I've already created ten or eleven in fact, and I'm sure I will be switching sometimes.
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Gah, I'd had this problem a few weeks ago, but then it went away so I was hoping that it wouldn't come back... but now it's back, and it's as horribly, incredibly frustrating as ever.
Essentially, my new computer won't turn on sometimes. Oh, it powers on, all the fans and lights and such power up, the CD works if I press the button... but it doesn't get beyond that and boot, and the monitor stays in 'standby' mode, the yellow light, blinking, whatever (depending on monitor).
I think there's some kind of power or electric problem, that hopefully isn't so bad it can't be fixed, because sometimes a few weeks ago when it was last doing this I managed to get it working by plugging in and unplugging some speakers from the sound card, or plugging the speakers into other ports on the sound card. Also, the one time (then) that I tried running the system without the sound card in I think it booted. Or sometimes it just randomly starts this time, while the previous time it wouldn't. It makes no sense.
So, is it a power problem or something, or is my sound card (a Soundblaster X-Fi) going bad? The latter would be pretty annoying, the only other soundcards I've got are definitely inferior Soundblaster Live!s. :(
In case you're wondering I'm posting this from my older computer, which works as well as it has for many years now, but is frustrating because of its age and because of how often it crashes. I need my newer computer working more reliably.
I mean, the computer does turn on some of the time. This problem does not happen every time, obviously, as I've said such as how it went away for a few weeks, but now happened again). But I really need to figure out what is wrong here, just saying "oh well it'll fix itself/it's not too bad as long as I can eventually get it to start up somehow" isn't the best attitude, I think. :)
A lot of Whitest Kids U Know stuff is lame, but they have gems hidden in there. This is one of their funniest bits. You can tell the writing is good when you can do it simply and effectively (and hilariously). They only use 1 prop, and it's a household item.
Pretty awesome news, and unexpected... Konami made the best beat 'em ups, and this one never got any kind of a home port. Even The Simpsons had a DOS version, though they couldn't do console versions because of licensing, but X-Men had nothing, until now. It's awesome that that's changed. It is only 4 player on a single system (6 player online, drop in drop out), but you can't do better than four on a single system on the 360.
Gothic 3 was terrible, absolutely terrible. I tried to play it several times, but the combat is just so utter atrocious that it's horribleness bled into everything else and just made me hate the whole package.
On the other hand, I tried the demo for Gothic 4 today, which is done by a different company [the Gothic 3 developers went on to improve with last year's Risen], and they've done a very good job here. Combat is definitely improved, and even better than in Risen, it feels smoother and more intuitive and only slightly frustrating in some aspects. Writing is decent and doesn't feel too stilted or anything, although the voices are a bit hit and miss.
Overall, I like what I've seen so far and I'll definitely be picking this up after I finish New Vegas.
This is a model of my hand I made in 3D..
I think it's a pretty good first try considering I eyeballed it with out a reference photo (like I should of used)
