Rock Band Return Battle Update: I kept the Twitter feed abreast of the updates to this, but the bottom line is that they’re sending the drums out (at the time of this post, they’re still not listed as “out” yet…) and they’re sending me a copy of MySims (Wii) as a kiss-and-make-up gift. I’m still upset, but for the moment I’m willing to let this slide. I’m just wondering when “two-day express” suddenly meant “two weeks before you even see it possibly maybe could have shipped”.
Last night was another productive writing session; I hit about 2800 words and actually finished that ‘half’ a plot point I mentioned yesterday. So, yeah. Still a long way to go, and I still think I’m targeting on the order of 120-150K words. I’m likely to break 80K without really trying tonight; but, to be completely honest, even if I take the night off from writing, I’ll be happy with an almost 80K month. Particularly given that I set out with the nominal goal of only having a 50K word one.
I had a poison-pen rant in progress yesterday during lunch, in addition to my other coding duties. It was lost when the power randomly went out. I consider that to have been for the best, really.
Tomorrow, I’m likely to make an excuse as to why I’ve not yet written my usual, thoughtful, insightful holiday-season post yet and also issue an empty promise that I’ll have it up soon. If I instead blither on about writing, then, consider this equivalent to it. December’s going to be a month of reflection as it stands, so we’re gonna be thinking about endings soon anyway. Later, folks.
EDIT: I had a lot of reasons to like XSeed Games before this– prime among them that they were very nice to me when I asked for some additional information for the Brave Story review– but to wake up this morning and learn that Wild ARMs XF is being brought over to the US, well… let me put it this way. I like strategy RPGs, and I adore the Wild ARMs series. It’s all I can do to remind myself that it’s still 5:30a and that my cries of joy on high might not be appreciated.
So. The first thing of interest, really, is that I took some time last night to go back into “hardcore writer” mode, and managed to pull a 2,000 word night. This was in addition to managing to get the outline written for this final stretch of the story. ( Writing drivel behind this cut. » )
Anyway. I’m also on a little bit of an anime reclamation binge, collecting a couple of series boxes for later consumption once I’ve got the draft in the can. We’re honestly maybe a week or two away from that point– barring a huge rush of productivity– so don’t expect me to be able to comment on that too publicly just yet. The big series so far are Ai Yori Aoshi and Fullmetal Alchemist. I realize I’m late to the party on both of these, but in my defense I’m a cheap bastard and I waited until the lower-priced boxes came out. I’ve also got my eye on the Evangelion Platinum metal box set; apparently that claims “full extras”, so I’ll have to see if it’s as advertised. Perhaps if it is, I’ll look into the Nadia box as well. Incidentally: The Reclamation List stands at 53% reclaimed or set to “will not reclaim” (62/117; 39 reclaimed, 24 disapproved). Most of what’s left are older PS1 games and the better movies. Then, of course, there are the Holy Grails that I lost… but those, I think, are going to take a long time to reclaim.
The Rock Band Replacement saga continues! Last night I finally got the tracking number situation straightened out, and discovered the most magical, wonderful thing about how the UPS tracking system works. Here it is: it doesn’t. ( Gaming drivel behind this one. » )
So, that’s about it. There’s likely to be more writing news as things progress… I’m hoping that I can at least break 80K before the end of the month. We’ll see. Catch you cats tomorrow morning.
Though the last week’s relative lack of linguankery may have fooled you, I am indeed still alive and still capable of typing out the words that makes the peoples smile. I just really, really needed to do some gaming. Three cleared games in four days is a record for me, even if two of those were just the formailty of finishing up stuff I’d had hanging over me for a while (Ontamarama and Portal). I know I counted Portal as being only four days, but that’s because that’s the amount of time that the game was in my hands; I’d rented it initially, and it arrived via Gamefly over the break. Oh, and for some reason it didn’t auto-save after destroying GLaDOS, so I get to go through that again– not that I’m complaining; that was probably one of the better final boss battles I’ve played in years. I actually felt kind of bad throwing Curiosity into the incinerator. Anyway. We’re likely to have one or two more notices here before the end of the year, but we shall see. I’m getting back into Touch Detective now, which is good– I really missed that style of quirky humor.
Incidentally, after a full week of begging, I finally managed to wrangle a tracking number out of EA for the Rock Band replacement drums. I’ll likely have to pick them up in the evening at the UPS hub. As has been stated before, I hate UPS.
As for writing: Yeah, I’ve kind of slacked off on that. I was planning on continuing with Blueberries last night, but after finishing Portal, I noticed it was late. More than that, I’d completely lost the cadence of the story. I’m thinking that November might not be the best time to do any kind of heavy noveling… but then again, all I really need is a good 3,000-word run to get me back into the story. This Friday there’s a final rush at one of the bookstores in Monroeville, and I’m thinking I might be convinced to go for it. I think I’m going to spend some of tonight writing; right now this evening is wide open, and there’s little to dissuade me from doing just that.
I’ll so be there. For personal reasons, mostly, but I will be there.
There’s more to detail, folks, but for right now let’s let that slide for later. I’ll make sure that I have something up on time tomorrow morning. I promise. Really.
At 8:36pm, I destroyed GLaDOS, the final boss of Portal (from the Orange Box) on the Xbox 360. This is the seventeenth game cleared in 2007. The next game that is closest to completion is Touch Detective 2 1/2 (DS), followed by Brave Story: New Traveler (PSP) and Phoenix Wright: Justice For All (DS). Final clear time was 3:01 over four days.
Sorry, folks– busy day today, and I’ve made enough progress in Portal so far this evening that I’m going to try to finish it tonight. Level 18 was brutal. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have yet another Game Clear notice up soon, and I can get back to writing. We’ll see. Catch you folks tomorrow.
All right, folks, I’m back safe in Pittsburgh, and I have a few things I want to do before I get back into the whole gaming/writing thing that I usually do here. Prime among these, actually, is eating. I kinda need to do that, as I didn’t do it during the drive home. So, yeah. I might also do some sleeping. I know, that’s a luxury, but we’ll see. Anyway, the weekend was a blast, and I had fun (and, as you can see, cleared two games, though I do feel a little bad about Ontamarama– until I remember that it’s damn near impossible, so then I feel better, Oh yeah, Orange Box arrived via Gamefly over the weekend, too, so I’ll be finishing Portal soon, then moving on to other titles). Still no word on the Rock Band drums– I’ve got to put a call in to the warranty place again tomorrow afternoon.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must consume the pleasantly-arranged collection of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and other trace elements on which I habitually feed. Mmmmmm… molecular goodness. Ciao.
At 7:29pm, I cleared the final song on the default difficulty level in Ontamarama on DS. This is the sixteenth game cleared in 2007. The next game that is closest to completion is Portal (360), followed by Touch Detective 2 1/2 (DS) and Phoenix Wright: Justice For All (DS). Game was cleared in seven days; remarks in comments section on difficulty.
At 5:50pm, I achieved a silver medal on the final stage of Link’s Crossbow Training on the Wii. This is the fifteenth game cleared in 2007. The next game that is closest to completion is Ontamarama (DS), followed by Portal (360) and Touch Detective 2 1/2 (DS). Game was cleared in 4 days.
