Required Reading: Chrono Trigger

EatMyBomb, a blog I found through Technorati, has a great article up about the SNES RPG, Chrono Trigger. It is one of my all time favorite games!

Link to the article.

From the article;

"The most ingenious part of the game is the combat system. Chrono Trigger uses an Active Time Battle system. It’s a great combination of Turn Based and Real Time combat giving you both detail and fast paced excitement. Each combatant has a time bar that must fill before they can carry out an action. Higher levels and speed upgrades allow your time bar to fill faster, while magics like Haste and Slow can temporarily change its pace. The combat keeps you on your toes. If you spend too much time deciding what to do, your enemy’s time bar will fill and they’ll get another attack. Once your time bar is full you can attack, use items, or use tech which can be magic or special moves. There are also combo moves called double techs and triple techs which two or three characters can use together. You acquire these combos when certain characters spend enough time together in combat. This adds extra replayability to the game if you want to acquire all of the combos between all the players. The tech animations are exciting to watch, but never slow the action down like they do in some of the Final Fantasy games."

Update: 10 Nov, 2006 - Edited post and applied labels.
Update: 7 Jul, 2008 - Edited label.

TotalBF2.com discussion thread

TotalBF2.com thread on my 1.03 commentary post. Enjoy!

Update: 6 Nov, 2006 - Updated post and applied labels.

Battlefield 2 Patch 1.3

So what is so good about this patch? Well it fixes a lot of things... and by fix I mean changes that were needed! First and foremost the requirements for each rank have been reduced SIGNIFICANTLY! I logged in and after a few kills I was awarded three new ranks.

This allowed me to finally unlock some more weapons instead of the pansy medic weapon I had already unlocked. I can't tell you how insanely unbalanced the ranks were... it would of taken me years of gaming to get the rank that I have with the 1.03 patch. A very good change indeed!

Next you won't be running anyone over by just touching them with vehicles anymore. You actually have to hit them full force! This is great considering how ultimately lame it had been to get killed anytime a vehicle so much as grazed you.

Commanders no longer get teamkills for artillery strikes. Good for pick up games, but probably will be abused in organized matches. It still kills your own team, but no punishment.

Many improvements to the in-game server browser. Still pissed off that the server browser was released in such a crappy condition. Also the patch broke the Xfire and other server programs ability to launch into a server. There is a fix... here.

Various other changes in the patch also and the addition of a new map, Wake Island. It is a remake of the BF1942 classic map and is the first map I ever played any BF game on :) Sadly the new version seems to be getting mixed reviews. I have yet to play it much.

Overall I am happy with the patch, but still have some requests for *changes* to make the game even better.

1. Vehicle vs Infantry kills should only give the driver/shooter one point for the kill. I am sick and tired of matches where the gold/silver are just tank/aircraft whores.

2. Sniper rifles still feel horribly inaccurate 50% of the time and still are extremely weak. A shot to the chest or head area should = death.

3. Increase accuracy of support machine guns. Bullets should drop off at a shorter distance to prevent long range sniping.

4. Tanks should be easier to destroy... fewer AT rockets required.

5. Map balance... give infantry more damn places to hide so we stop getting raped by the vehicle whores.

Rank 6!

Finally hit rank 6 in WoW tonight. Tanglefoot is now a Stone Guard. My new goal is Rank 7, but I doubt Arathi Basin will still be going strong in a few weeks. Without Arathi Basin I will have literally no access to a decent, quick, and fun battleground :( We will see what happens!

Movie Review: A History of Violence

What a movie! I am fully aware that a lot of critics have a joking response to this movie. IMHO, this movie is full of comedy that sticks oddly in your throat. It is uncomfortable in the way that it makes you want to watch it. It drags you in and throws you around.

In essence the story is of a small town man, Tom Stalls (Viggo Mortensen), who when faced by a pair of murderous robbers in his coffee shop performs in a way that lends the viewer to believe there is something else behind this man. To tell you more would be to ruin the movie.

Some people will not understand the ending... the purpose... or why it ends where it ends. Honestly, I don't see why it ended where it did. The story felt cut off... at a point where I was really drawn into the movies core. That core is Tom's family and how it dealt with the situation at hand.

Like Stephen Kings masterpiece, The Shining, it is about the degradation of the family under extraordinary circumstances that interests me. The movie version of The Shining failed to deliver on the family aspect, but the book does not fail.

In a strange way I caught myself thinking back to The Shining and how A History of Violence sort of completed the family aspect. How do families respond when their entire world is flipped upside down? Sadly A History of Violence will leave you sitting on that thought, but it goes a long ways to answer some of it with graphic scenes all around.

The violence is graphic, in a way where that makes you feel for the characters and what is happening. Eerily, it compels you to watch. This movie has actors that filled the parts they were cast in. Not one stands out from another. All are believable.

A History of Violence is an outstanding movie for those that care to watch it. If you want cheap thrills then I am sorry... Stealth has already flopped a month ago.