KOTOR = Evil timesink

I hate KOTOR. Not because it's a bad game, in fact it's the exact opposite. It's a fantastic game. With the unfortunate side effect that everything else gets pushed back so I cam play some more. This was actually the first time I'd done some serious 'net surfing since I borrowed David's KOTOR copy. Here's my take on it in a post to RPG-Skies:

This game is fantastic! I borrowed my friend's copy
after he finished it, so I only started it last week, but it's already
eaten up a lot of my (non-work) time. Starships, lightsabers, force
powers, droids, wookies, twi'leks, Jedi, Sith, Hutts, Rodians, the
ability to choose between dark side or light side, watching your
character deflect dozens of blaster shots with his lightsaber...I'm
tempted to stop typing this email now and go play it...If I had actually
played it last year, I'd have named it as game of the year above.

In non-Star Wars news, I've had the old machine Cheese looked at, seems the mobo and the vidcard have been fried (again). Something's really wrong with that rig but I'm too lazy to change it, especially now that we have a second PC. In any case, it'll take another 2-3 weeks before PC Express can replace it.

I haven't found time to re-play FFX-2 and get whatever ending actually involved Tidus -- too much time spent on NWN and KOTOR. I still want to replay it, as there are a lot of things that I wasn't able to do, but we have more problems. Our PS2's disc read performance has gotten worse by the moment, we can hardly play on it anymore. I'm thinking on getting it checked up somewhere, if only so we can play some Japanese SVCChaos.

Speaking of SVChaos, my brothers and I were at the SM North the arcades last weekend, something we hadn't done in a while. I gave the old CVS2 game a go and promptly got whupped by my opponent, someone who seemed to have been playing this game for a long time. My Sagat did well enough, but Ryu and Blanka just plain choked. It's not just the stick anymore either -- I never noticed it before but I guess the speed of the game really is different from the console version, so I'm having a much harder time doing Just-Defend and wake-up DPs. I also gave the SVC Chaos machine a couple of runs, but I'm finding it hard to do supers on the thing. The arcade at SM Megamall already has SVC Chaos too...I'm seriously considering playing a couple of games there daily.

Of course, we were at the mall to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Fairly good movie, much better finale than the Matrix trilogy. Which is good, because the books deserved to be made into good movies. the huge battles at Minas Tirith were great, although the army ghosts Aragorn fought felt a bit like cheating to win. I seem to recall their journey into the mountain to be a lot longer in the book too, but I may be wrong. Um...I have nothing else to say.

Random Tidbits

* Seeing as how Cheese (the machine I bought in March) broke down for the umpteenth time, I finally decided to buy a second computer, and went out and bought a new machine (code-name: Barbecue) the day before Christmas. Spent less than I had expected, but the machine is pretty decent, except my video card is a measly 64Mb GeForce2. I'll probably post the specs later.
* Finished Final Fantasy X-2, at 67% story completion (Yeah I suck...) Maybe I'll post a review of it later.
* I wasted most of my vacation on NWN: Hordes of the Underdark. Not really wasted, as it's very entertaining. I'm a level 24 Ranger now!
* Still can't get Star Wars: KOTOR to work, even on this new machine. I guess I'll need an original copy. (I'll see if I can borrow David's :P)

2003 Year in Review

Roy's 2003 Year in Review

Best Thing About 2003:
* I got a job. It feels really good to actually have a decent amount of money coming in at a regular basis. :) Actually, I believe all good things in 2003 have stemmed from my having a job...more cash, new computer, better food, got to meet some nice people, able to buy more stuff, learned new skills, etc...

Worst Thing About 2003:
* I got a job. Gah...I want more free time. Not that I do anything important in my free time really, but it's nice to be able to goof off. :P
* The comp I got in March seemed to break down way too easily...I dunno maybe it was bad choice of parts on my end or something. In any case, I'm hesitant to shop at PC Express again. Ever.

What I Want to Happen in 2004:
* I want to learn more stuff. I want to learn a web scripting language and maintain a database-driven website. I'll probably try PHP/MySQL for this, although if I'm lucky I could get a JSP project at work.
* I want the price of DSL to go down.
* I want to be pleasantly surprised by the results of the 2004 elections.

Best Games of 2003:
* Neverwinter Nights: Both expansions
* Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - I've logged 114 hours on battle.net using my home account, and then there's the countless hours playing at David's place...
* Capcom vs SNK 2 - The Undying Favorite...too bad Alvin narrowly beat me out for 2003 House Champion :(
* Final Fantasy X-2 - I think it's a sign of my changing tastes that this is the only console RPG I was able to complete this past year. Console RPGs are nice, but I could be downloading stuff while playing NWN.
* Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Not as good as the original FFT, but good enough.
* (Note: I hear SW:KOTOR is pretty good, but I have yet to play it.)

Best Movies of 2003:
* Two Towers
* Pirates of the Carribean

My New Year Resolution:
* Nothing. I'm not making any more of those.