New Guild

So, wasn't hard to pick a new guild using basic process of elimination. First off, I wanted a guild that came from Prexus. That limited it considerably right there. Then I needed one that raided on nights that didn't interfere with the many real life obligations I have taken on recently. That basically brought it down to one choice right there. Would've gone to guild with the most friends as my next filter for eliminating choices had it gotten that far but the choice seemed pretty apparent right off. Loyal Rebellion.

So, my first night with them was their first win on the final Underfoot raid event, "The First Creation". Plus we did some HoT stuff and I got 2 progression keys (I assume that's what they were, clickies gave me achievement thingies /shrug lol) and I got a ring that was rotting. Pretty nice first night.

Tons of people in the guild I know. I knew I had a lot of friends there but it turns out there's more than I even realized. I do miss my good friends I leave behind in last guild but we will of course continue to be friends, just a bit sad. However, life goes on, and I refuse to think or dwell upon that stuff. Just staying focused on where I am now and what to do next.

As far as where I am now and what's next. Well, since the server merger I've been the lowest on the rankings I've ever been in 11 years. I see potential for hope now that I can make it back into the top 10 druids on the server. That's motivating. And we have the expansion coming. At first I thought this is a crappy time to be applying to a new guild, with the expansion coming. But now that I think about it, that's not a bad thing at all. All the time I spend leveling up those 5 new levels with my new guildies will allow them to know me better and hopefully increase my chances of them actually keeping me around.

And that's of course the one worry. I like them, but do they like, want or even need me? They have several druids. And not just any druids, they have at least 4 of the top 10 druids including number 1. I feel kinda like what use am I? But, I know them, most of them. I mentored Snavenor when he app'd to at least one if not two different guilds in the past. I was guilded with Lynienu and Edina in my last guild. Gillette from the years of us being in the top 10 of Prexus and all those expansions where everyone rushed to be max level and we were both in the first 5 more than once. So, I mean, I feel like I belong, for what that's worth.

Also, it's a different atmosphere being in a Prexus guild. I know that sounds weird but I've noticed it since the server merge, especially when grouping and leveling up with HoT. Rathe people are weird. I mean, they look at things differently, play differently, different terminology and strategy and everything. I never felt like I clicked with Rathe people. It's like they say stuff and I'm like what the heck are they even talking about. Then I crack some joke and no one gets it or laughs. I never had that happen in Prexus guilds or groups. So, I feel a strange sense of being relaxed with these people. I hope the feeling is mutual.

Not sure what else to say. Have only raided a couple times with them so far. Been a blast though. Getting to raid the Plane of Fear again with a Prexus guild is pretty nostalgic and badass! Even if it's an alternate version of fear and an instanced event and so forth, it's still so weird to be there with a raid force again. Couldn't make it tonight due to real life stuff going on but I can easily do the 60% requirement even in my most busy month of the year.

All I can do now is hope everything works out and they decide to keep me around for some reason. I mean I don't think they "need" me so much but at the same time I don't see how keeping me there would be any harm to anything. And far as I know everyone seems to like me. But then, I've been known to think people have liked me before and found out otherwise, the hard way... I have a good feeling about it though, so just gonna hope for the best.

Guildless Again... "The Grey Hawke Cowardly Ninja Boot"

So, I got ninja booted without a word from my last EverQuest guild. Here's how it went from my side. No clue what went on in their heads before this childish and cowardly act.

Sunday I saw a message on facebook. These are usually good things so I was like oh cool and went to check it out. It was from a guildie. He was basically bitching at me for saying I didn't like the guild. That's what it boils down to.

After digging around through the friends I do still have in guild I discovered how this started. A few days earlier, in a private group, I told a long time friend that when the next expansion comes out we'll be 2.5 years and 10 level behind if we're raiding Underfoot still. That's a fact. Doesn't take a genius to know this. And I wasn't particularly meaning the guild. I was meaning everyone and anyone that is raiding Underfoot still will be that far behind. Again, a fact. I then commented that it really doesn't make a difference to me because I haven't won any loot in the over a year I've been in guild anyhow. Again, a fact. And a fact that everyone knows as I've mentioned it before on the guild forum and that started all kinds of ruckus. Somehow, that got out to someone somewhere. That person then misinterpreted that to somehow mean I hate the guild. Which I "DID NOT" at THAT point.

So, back to the facebook message. Somehow by the time this misinterpreted nonsense, which was all basic truth and fact that everyone already knows, got from person to person it got all twisted. The facebook message I got goes on to say something that I publicly said I didn't like the guild and was bitching about loot, which I was not, and it was NOT a public post to begin with. Then I was told I didn't care about the guild beating Audience. Which I find particularly amusing since I have NFC what that even is. I don't think I've ever done that event and don't have the first clue what the heck. I certainly never said I didn't care that the guild beat something I've never even heard of. Let alone I never knew we beat it since I never knew we did it. Anyway, I was confused at this point as to what the heck was going on.

Since I was already on facebook my first instinct was to go to the guild's facebook group page. Which I found I was no longer a member of... At this point I could see where this was going. Childish people are so predictable. So I went to the guild's website to the forums where I found, guess what? I had no access. So, the final check, like I didn't already know. I logged into game and found myself unguilded standing in the guild lobby.

Now, this is the part that really, REALLY pisses me off. It's not the previous issues. Not the loot. Not the progression. Not even them misunderstanding what I said in the first place. BUT, the fact that they booted me and NEVER once did a single officer or guild leader say a word to me. Not even a, "we don't like you anymore bye." NOTHING. I'm VERY easy to get in touch with btw. I had NO in game messages, no emails, no pm's on the guild forum, no im's, no facebook messages, NOTHING. I'm like seriously? I contacted some friends in the guild and no one had heard a word. That is THE single most cowardly, childish thing I have ever witnessed in my 11 years of playing MMORPG's.

I've led several guilds and raids. Was a guild leader of the biggest Imperial raiding guild on my SWG server for awhile. I led guilds in EQ1 briefly and extensively in EQ2 amongst other games. I would never think to boot someone without even sending them a message or something. I mean at the least I'd send an in game message bitching them out! But NOTHING? What kind of chicken shit stuff is that?!?

So at this point I'm not really mad, just sad that they are such poor excuses for people. I still have friends there and I hate to leave them behind. But I have friends in every guild on the server, GOOD friends. I already have offers to the four top raiding guilds that aren't the one I just left. Two of them aren't even recruiting druids and they still want me. I want to stick with one of the two guilds that started back on Prexus, screw Rathe guilds. And even though I have the most friends in CTV; Loyal Rebellion seems to best fit my raiding times and schedule.

As for Grey Hawke... Karma is a bitch, it'll come bite them in the ass, I don't need to even worry or do anything. They should change their name from Grey Hawke to Yellow Chicken after that cowardly, childish nonsense they pulled. But whatever, life goes on, they'll get theirs. There were several people that clearly never liked me being there anyhow, so they win. Grats. Have a good life.

Funny thing, I'm not that upset. I mean I'm Sicilian and Gemini. I should be shit kicking, screaming mad and I'm not. I'm just like whatever, another thing I gotta deal with now. When Stasis quit raiding I was devastated, never did get over that. When it happened again with Fates Unbroken I felt like my emotions towards the game died totally at that point. This time, I'm just blank, like I really don't care. /shrug Probably the best thing that could've happened! lol

3DS Ambassador Program Goes Live!

Huge updates for the 3DS today. In the 3DS eShop you can now view the first installment of the Nintendo 3DS Show for previews of upcoming games, info about the 25th anniversary of Zelda and more.

Today also marks the official launch of the 3DS Ambassador Program. For those of us that bought a 3DS during it's first month of release for $250 there's an assortment of new stuff.

First off is the Ambassador Program Certificate. This is basically a 3+ minute video explaining how to turn on spotpass updates for the Ambassador Program. It features a certificate in 3D on the top screen and scrolling instructions in English, Spanish, French and Italian on the bottom screen.

Second, and by far more interesting, the first 10 of the 20 free games "ambassadors" are entitled to download. This list includes 10 classic original 8bit NES games from the mid '80s through the early '90s. The games are:

Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
Metroid
Yoshi
Donkey Kong Jr.
Ice Climber
Wrecking Crew
Balloon Fight
NES Open Tournament Golf

I can't for the love of me figure out why they included that golf game. The rest are pretty much what I expected. As I thought, the original Kid Icarus was not included. I can only imagine that they plan to release that when the new 3DS Kid Icarus Uprising is released. And I honestly don't remember that Yoshi game. It's kind of like Dr. Mario or Tetris. I had always thought Yoshi's first appearance was the SNES Super Mario World. I owned, played and beat 8 of the 10 games in the 1980s so it's kinda fun to go back to them. I was surprised to see I still remember where every level in Zelda is. Still remember what trees to burn, what rocks to push, what walls to blow up, all the enemies weaknesses and where to find and buy everything, just like it was yesterday. Hard to believe it's been 25 years.

One frustrating part that really annoys me is that unlike ALL previously released 3DS virtual console games, both Gameboy and Gameboy Color; these NES VC games do not allow for creating restore points. There's no real time save feature. I mean to save Zelda you have to pause the game, then hold L + R and then hit Y to switch to player 2 controller, then push Up + A to bring up the save screen, then L + R and hit Y again to switch to player 1 controller than Y to select save, then Start. Fairly annoying! Metroid you still have to write down the 24 digit password and when you restart you lose all your extra energy and have to go kill things for 20 minutes before you can really do anything. And Super Mario Bros. still sports no save feature at all! Don't know why they chose to omit the restore point feature from NES titles. Hopefully enough people will complain and they can always patch it in easy enough later via wifi. One of the things that makes the 3DS great, the ability for them to patch and fix stupid stuff they do later on after the fact.

With spotpass enabled on the 3DS Ambassador Program Certificate I will automatically get a notification update when any of the 10 remaining free games become available. According to Nintendo, 10 Gameboy Advance games will be given to "ambassadors" between now and the end of the year.

There was also an announcement that they are going to put Zelda Four Swords in the eShop at some point for free download to everyone as part of the 25 Years of Zelda celebration. I'm guessing since we got Link's Awakening DX for free when Ocarina of Time 3D came out they will probably coordinate the Four Swords download with the release of Skyward Sword on the Wii.

One last note, latest video added to the 3DS Nintendo Video application called "The Art of FLIGHT" is amazing! It's all about snowboarding in extreme places where no human has ever gone before. And I'm no fan of snowboarding but this is AMAZING to see in 3D. Beautiful mountains and stuff. And, for the first time, they seem to have managed to have a few shots where the 3D does in fact POP OUT at you! Like in the movies there are a few shots where the objects, in this case snow and parts of a helicopter, actually extend forward towards you beyond the screen. I was led to believe it could not do that. And all the games I have seen, own, or played, all the videos, and everything else to date has all been "inside" the 3D screen like through a window. This represents the first thing I've seen that does this and actually pops out like you could touch it!

Well, that's about it for now. Haven't had a whole lot of time for games lately but today was a pretty big update.

3DS System Update v.2, E3, & More!

FINALLY the big system update happened. After being delayed at least twice, the system update to patch in the web browser, estore, and other various improvements finally happened. Scheduled for June 6th, I spent most of the morning trying to get the update to update and got nothing. Around 11am I stumbled onto a site that specified it was scheduled for the evening of June 6th. Around 9pm EST still no update. Finally at about 3am EST on the 7th the update started. Was much faster than I expected.

So, what does this update bring? Well first off the web browser. Which SUX! I had hoped it would be more like the old DS browser cart made by Opera with some improvements but it's quite a bit worse. Minimal control over browsing. Bookmarks limited to 64 unsortable bookmarks that can't even be put into folders and are just arranged in the order you make them. NO flash capability at all! I didn't expect to be able to play flash games like FarmVille but I thought it would at least be able to handle flash video like on YouTube, but it can't! Even my phone can do more. What a disappointment, I hope they add a flash player plugin cause it's useless without flash. Furthermore, I went to several sites, from my own to facebook, Bank of America, ebay, Amazon, my EQ guild's forum, and on EVERY website I went to it said, "error loading part of the page". And to top it all off it's blurry unless you zoom in. The punchline is that it's supposed to be an enhanced browser capable of displaying 3D video and content, but NO FLASH?!? What 3D content are they talking about that doesn't include 3D flash video?!? Seriously, W T F! Waited two months for this browser to view 3D web stuff and it's total utter crap!

Ok, moving on. The next big thing the update brought was the estore. Now this is great! If you want to spend money. But the cost aside it's really nice. Very easy to navigate. The entire store, menus, everything is all in 3D. At the launch of the store it included all 370+ DSiWare titles previously available only on the Nintendo DSi & DSiXL. It also has 2 freebies, one is only free till next month but will become purchasable after that, and that's 3D Classics Excitebike. The original 8bit Nintendo classic now in 3D, it's pretty cool if you own and loved the original like me. The other freebie is a Pokemon Pokedex 3D which since I'm not a fan I don't really know or care about. Also, exclusively on the 3DS there is a virtual console section which to start only had 3 original Gameboy games, Super Mario Land, Alleyway, and Radar Mission (the first 2 I already own the originals of an loved them). As of the evening of the 7th, as announced at E3, the Gameboy Color classic, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX has been added as the first of the Gameboy Color series for the virtual console as well as 3D video trailers of 10 of the games announced at E3. One bad point to the downloads from the eshop is that only the 3DS stuff goes to the SD card. All the DSiWare old games and software go to the system memory, which is VERY small. After half a dozen downloads my system memory is almost full already. Luckily I won't be buying much more DSiWare stuff after the few I got. All the virtual console, 3D classic games, 3D videos, and other downloadables designed specifically for the 3DS seem to all go on the SD card.

Another rather useful thing they patched in is the Spotpass feature that I don't think anyone knew wasn't working until now. This feature which was supposed to be included with the 3DS at launch allows the system to connect to the internet automatically as you pass through wifi hotspots so that it can get the latest news, updates, and software free from Nintendo. This won't be very useful though until the Nintendo wifi hotspot plans actually begin to unfold. Supposedly, Nintendo has worked out a deal with AT&T, Best Buy, and someone else (forget the name because it was a store of business we do not have in Miami and I am unfamiliar with), and possibly others, to provide free wifi to owners of the 3DS. Supposedly, as long as you own a 3DS you are supposed to be able to at the very least connect to Nintendo's estore and services and game wifi channel game features for free at any existing AT&T hotspot as well as all Best Buy and other related stores. I do not know if that will include full web browsing through the piece of crap browser or just online gameplay and such.

Probably the most useful thing that was patched was a pretty basic simple function that one would've thought they would have included at lauch... the ability to sort your home screen menu icons. Can now finally drag and drop the icons for games and software around however you like instead of being forced to have everything in order of when it was installed.

As for the upcoming games announced at E3 and the 3D trailers on the 3DS it's a long list. They don't have trailers for all the games announced, mostly just the big title ones everyone wants. The list of games with trailers includes, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Super Mario, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion 2, StarFox 64 3D, Welcome to Animal Crossing, Resident Evil: Revelations, & probably the most amazing looking of them all Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. I personally will be getting all of these titles except for Animal Crossing. They're coming out spread out from next week through New Year's so it's not like they're all gonna hit the shelves at once. All are original games with new stories except for Zelda, StarFox and Metal Gear which are revised 3D versions of classics. Kid Icarus features a 3 on 3 team pvp online feature which looks awesome. It also uses the Altered Reality cards to do battles by making the fights appear to happen in 3D in the real world. StarFox will feature both the classic controls as well as being able to control the flight of your ship by moving the entire 3DS around, which seems contrary to the 3DS instructions that say to view the 3D properly hold it level and still at 14 inches... So that should be interesting to see how that works out. Metal Gear features some exciting additions to the original game since this version can now make use of the touch screen, motion sensor, gyro sensor, inner and outer cameras, analog pad, mic, and other features. For example, you can take a picture of a pink flower and your camo gear will turn pink. The new Mario Kart features some crazy new stuff like being able to hang glide with your kart and being able to drive around under water. Those are just the main things that caught my attention when watching the 3D trailers in 3D on the 3DS where you get a real feel for what the game will be like to play.

More info about the games announced at E3 can be found here: http://e3.nintendo.com/

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (3DS) - Story Mode Completed!

Another game down. Just in time for the slew of new games coming to the 3DS in June of which I can maybe get two. "Story mode" beaten 11:04pm EST, all 4 movies, all levels. Now to go back and do it all again in "free play" mode to unlock everything else. Overall, fun game. Not as good as LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS). Still pretty fun. The music gets annoying fairly quickly. Lots of cool characters to unlock. Interesting animals you can control on various levels. And some fun underwater sections. If you're a fan of either the LEGO games or the Pirates movie franchise then it's worth playing, especially if you are a fan of both.

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (3DS) on Raptr

3DS Update Delayed Further!

Man, this is frustrating. Got my 3DS back in April I think? Like 5 days after release. Anyway, was sad when I got it and found out that the web browser, estore, and most of the online featues and various other things were not even there yet. After the first wifi update in April it was announced that with the next major update the web browser and estore and other featues will be added. That update was said to be scheduled for "late May". Well here's the latest:

Nintendo of Europe has announced that the latest system update for the hand-held Nintendo 3DS™ system will be available in Europe starting June 7. By downloading the free update via a broadband Internet connection, Nintendo 3DS users can enjoy a number of new features and enhancements including an Internet browser and access to the Nintendo eShop, where users can browse and purchase downloadable content.

- Nintendo UK press release

Apparently the long awaited May Nintendo 3DS firmware update has been delayed until June 7th in the United Kingdom and June 6th in the United States.

The Nintendo 3DS firmware update will include the Nintendo 3DS eShop and also the Nintendo 3DS web browser. Nintendo haven’t stated precisely why the firmware update has been delayed, but it’s good to finally get a set date.

source: mynintendonews.com

Still no news when the Netflix wifi steaming, the 3D video application, and the 3D retail movies and videos and other stuff will be added. Also it's been announced that when the update launches the estore will sell everything that was already available for the DSi via wifi such as Gameboy Classic, Gameboy Color, Sega Game Gear and Turbo Grafx 16 games. Eventually Gameboy Advaned is said to be added as well as the possiblity of eventually being able to download Classic Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games all of which can be handled now with the updated technology of the 3DS where as the previous DS versions could not handle them very well if at all. Also, for a limited time the Classic NES game Excitebike will be available for free in the estore. I believe it's one of the new 3D updated games. They are releasing some classic NES games already, but these have all been remade specifically for the 3DS with 3D effects.

Whether this or any future updates will include such basic functions as an organizer, address book, notebook (not the current stupid note feature), calculator, ability to view or create text files, etc. still remains to be seen.

SOE Is Down! Where's The Loot?!?

Today's bizarre events seem blog worthy. The day for me started by friending a few people I have not seen or heard from in over 15 years. That was followed by tons of news of Osama Bin Laden's death. But here in the gaming world something way bigger happened. SOE shut down!

I first noticed, as many did, when logging in for our guild raid in EverQuest. When the launchpad popped up it did not have the update bar or news or links or play button. It did not even have an "X" to close it. What it did have was this message in the middle of a black screen inside the launchpad:

"We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday)."

My first thought was of course that this was a bug or some glitch in my launchpad or something. After a minute or so it hit me what they were saying and that something had to be going on beyond my control.

My next immediate though was jump on facebook and post to my EQ friends if anyone knew what happened. Then I leaped over to our guild forum and found a thread going on with some sketchy info but more than what I had at that point. Apparently many people's credit card info had been stolen when someone hacked SOE. And supposedly everything Sony was down. I was like hmmm, that seems extreme. So I began to investigate for myself.

After running a few launchers and trying to login I confirmed that yes, all the SOE MMO's and online games were in deed offline. This includes for the PC; EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, DC Universe Online, Planetside, Vanguard Saga of Heroes, Free Realms, The Clone Wars web based game, Legends of Norrath, Star Wars Galaxies Online Card Game, and at least 3 others I can think of but not remember the name right now. And with SOE still offline finding out would be more trouble than it's worth. Beyond that I discovered all their web services are down as well. Including EverQuestPlayers, EQ2Players, the SOE support sites, all linked forum sigs, all phone lines and support centers, everything. Apparently the entire PlayStation Network is down as well including all related online console games and websites.

To the normal person this doesn't seem like much I suppose. To the gaming world, specifically those playing MMO's / MMORPG's (massively multiplayer online role playing games) this is a first. Literally millions of people unable to access their accounts and in some cases over a decade of work online, in games, with friends. I myself have over six years of actual play time. As in the hours of actual playtime added together for all my characters across all the affected SOE games. That's over 2,200 days of playing, 52,500+ hours online. And that's a rough and conservative estimate, it's likely much more.

So, yeah, I'm a bit worried of what may happen. After what I've read I expect it will all be fixed in a few days. However, initially not knowing what was going on is enough to send an OCD gamer into a nervous breakdown!

For more info on the other things that have been going in my life outside of the gaming world (yes there is apparently such a think, who knew?) just hop on over to the other blog located here:

MOONWOLF (Krysta's Real Life Blog)

Portal 2 Tomrrow! (Or When UPS Gets Here...)

Tomorrows the big day. Good thing I checked my preorder with EBgames/Gamestop because it managed to get randomly canceled for no apparent reason. So, I preordered it again and bumped the shipping up from ghetto value to the next best thing so now I should at least get it this week. Would've preferred to buy it on Steam but I wanted the exclusive Gamestop multiplayer skins. It's a Valve game so it will still run from the Steam client anyway, and in fact requires Steam to even play online or update anything.

Kinda glad I won't get it tomorrow since we have to put my mom's dog to sleep after 15 years. So, I need a few days anyhow before trying to play anything.

COMPLETED: LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS)

Game completed in story mode. Most freeplay stuff unlocked. Just have to do the last 3 missions in freeplay to finish unlocking what remains. That's my first 3DS game beaten.

Game was pretty fun. Nothing overwhelmingly challenging. Usual humor that comes with the LEGO style movie & tv show based games. LOTS of unlockable characters. Pretty much every Clone Wars character from the first couple seasons and most of the major classic characters. Has a few that unlock with play coins. Play coins are earned by accumulating steps. For each 100 steps you walk between midnight and midnight (steps don't carry over into the next day) you get 1 coin. It doesn't count right either. It counts maybe 1 step for every 5 or so actual steps. Pretty weird. But with the coins you can unlock Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Akbar, Boba Fett, Darth Vader (battle damaged), and a couple others.

Has some fun mini games, vulture shootout, saberball, astromech volleyball, snowball fight. Also has wifi streetpass mode that helps you accumulate play coins by passing other people with this game.

The 3D is amazing, it looks like you have little LEGO people running around inside the screen like you're looking through a window into a small 3D world. There are a few scenes, mostly the things close up to the screen during cutscenes, where it is out of focus and blurry. Replayed them thinking it was my eyes or I was tired but they are in fact out of focus. Not enough to be significant enough to even be annoying but it was just something I noticed.

You can make 2 customizable characters from parts of various characters that you unlock. However, sadly, you can NOT use all the parts from all the characters you unlock nor can you use many of them for the starting base character. Specifically there are no female sith usable in character customization. And there are no bounty hunters with jetpacks that are usable. The big letdowns were not being able to use parts or base style of Asajj Ventress or Cad Bane. Customizable characters serve no real purpose anyway though. My advice would be just select Ventress as your main character cause she seems way overpowered and extremely fast, plus as a sith she can activate any sith or jedi panel.

Unlike previous LEGO Star Wars games all the characters you unlock do not show up in your main hub (what was the cantina in previous versions). It instead picks about 2 to 3 characters per room randomly from all the ones you have unlocked. Loads up new set of characters each time you play or reenter the hub from a mission or mini game. It does choose these characters from both the ones you unlock in the shop and the ones that unlock through beating levels in story mode.

There's 83 characters unlockable at the shop. 112 total playable characters. And 2 slots for customized characters. These characters are divided into various types needed to activate different objects in the game. There is Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunter, Separatist, Astromech Droid, Light Gunner, Heavy Gunner, and Shorty. Most of the main characters are combinations of at least 2 of these types. For example Yoda is both a Jedi and Shorty. Count Dooku is both a Sith and a Separatist. In order to collect all the mini kits and red bricks in free play mode you will need to have one each of the main types in order to reach various areas. Once you've unlocked at least one Sith and one bounty hunter and one astromech droid, etc. it will automatically make your group have 1 of each type needed regardless of who you pick as your main. Therefore I sugged picking the strongest character you can for you main because when you zone or change acts in a level it will start you off with the main character you choose and often times you'll be under attack at the start. One point to note is that a Sith can open anything a Jedi can but not the other way around. The main classes are used as follows. Jedi can move or affect anything with a green glow. Sith can move or affect anything with a red glow. Both Jedi and Sith can activate the jump panels. Only a separatist can activate the separatist control panel. Likewise only a bounty hunter can activate a bounty hunter terminal and only an astromech droid can activate a droid panel. Bounty hunters are also needed to blow up special areas with thermal detonators that nothing else will damage. Various characters have jet packs. To activate a jet pack though you need to double jump. An astromech is the only one that can hover straight across without changing their z-axis making them capable of getting where others can't. Only a shorty can fit into a small wall doow passage (they look like pet doors). A light gunner is needed to sharp shoot both switches and certain mobs or structure's weaknesses. Light gunners also can swing across areas or pull things with their grapple lines. A heavy gunner is needed to both blow things up and to shoot through anything redish orange and armored.

Also at the shop you can unlock such powers ups as fast build, auto collect, funny jump, unlimited missles, vehicle weapon powerup, 2x score, 4x score, 6x score, 8x score, 10x score and those are stackable (you can have them all active at once). Couple others as well.

Controls, like most of the 3DS games from what I can tell, have switched away from using the touch screen so much for main movement and such. Touch screen is almost unused in this game except to cut through doors and objects with your saber. All other controls have moved to the new analog pad and the buttons.

When you finally beat the game the ending credits go on for nearly 20 minutes and include programmers, skywalker sound, lucasfilm ltd., lucasarts, bmi music, and just an unreal amount of other people. Seemingly endless list.

Overall a good game, a tad easy, but both fun and funny. Worth the money. Good eye candy and music. I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Next up is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D...

Complete list of playable characters and vehicles in LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS)
Obi-Wan Anakin Chancellor Palpatine Hondo Ohnaka Clone Trooper Battle Droid Count Dooku Senate Commando Asajj Ventress Mace Windu LEP Servant Droid Commander Cody Clone Pilot Nute Gunray Ahsoka Super Battle Droid Senate Commando Capt. Captain Rex	General Grievous Jango Fett Senate Guard Poggle The Lesser Battle Droid Pilot Barriss Offee Turk Falso Yoda Padme Cato Parasitti Cham Syndulla Chi Cho Faro Argyus Jaybo Hood Galactic Marine Bossk Mar Tuuk Numa	Chewbacca Aayla Secura C-3PO Riyo Chuchi Wullf Yularen MagnaGuard Genosian Jetpack Droid Onaconda Farr IG-86 Jar Jar Commando Droid Gonk Droid Nahdar Vebb Kit Fisto Clone Trooper (Heavy) R2-D2 TX-20	Lok Durd Dr. Nuvo Vindi Wag Too Bolla Ropal Anakin (Snow) Thi-Sen Peppi Bow Clone Snowtrooper Gregar Typho Shahan Alama Jar Jar (Bombad) A4-D Stealth Trooper Clone Commander (Phase II) Weequay Pirate Senator Organa Genosian Zombie Clone Trooper Boil
Clone Trooper Boil (No Helmet) Clone Trooper Waxer Clone Trooper Waxer (No Helmet) Advanced Recon Force Trooper Clone Gunner Wat Tambor Cad Bane Aurra Sing Obi-Wan (Snow) Plo Koon R3-S6 Clone Grunt Light Robonino Luminara Unduli Senator Philo Kashyyyk Clone Trooper Darth Maul Darth Sidious	Darth Vader Ewok Gha Nachkt Han Solo Jawa Ki-Adi-Mundi King Katuunko Lando Calrissian Princess Leia (Slave) Luke Skywalker Old Ben Kenobi Stormtrooper Tusken Raider TIE Fighter Pilot Clone Trooper Jetpack Tub Grand Moff Tarkin Admiral Ackbar	Boba Fett Vader's Apprentice Darth Vader (Battle Damage) Savage Opress Customizable Character 1 Customizable Character 2	Y-Wing LAAT Ahsoka's Starfighter Anakin's Starfighter Mini Snowspeeder Mini Imperial Shuttle Mini Republic Attack Cruiser Mini ARC-170 Starfighter Mini V-19 Torrent Mini Star Destroyer Mini Sith Infiltrator Mini Anakin's Jedi Starfighter Mini TIE Fighter Mini TIE Interceptor Mini X-Wing Mini Slave 1 Mini Millennium Falcon Darth Vader's TIE Fighter

Status of EverQuest for Me Right Now

This game is really getting on my last nerves again.

I try to not let it bother me. I know it's just a game. And after 11+ years I know it's not worth getting upset over. But, my emotions keep getting the best of me. Have been fighting my own emotions to not just blow up most of the night.

First off, from the SOE side there's this god awful 12th anniversary quest. I need ONE item. Most of the people that aren't done need the same item. It's beyond rare. Instead of making the anniversary a fun and enjoyable thing that we remember for years as a good time, they've made it a horrific nightmare that we will still remember for years to come but for all the wrong reasons.

Then there's my guild. These are the slowest gd people I have ever seen on the face of the planet. Nothing, ever, from school to work to clubs to family and friends, nothing I've ever been a part of, no other guild, and nothing I've ever seen is as slow as these people. I understand there's stuff that needs to be done but this is beyond ridiculous. They add an on time bonus and it didn't help. All it did was allow for people like me that show up on time to be paid for waiting hours for everyone else. It's just unreal. By the time we finally start to fight my buffs have already faded and been redone, my patience is gone, and I'm lucky if I'm still awake at all.

And the loot. /sigh I've always said, loot is pointless, it comes and it goes. Everything we get now will be replaced eventually at some point no matter how great it seems when we get it. It's not worth worrying about. BUT, there's a limit. This is messed up. 6.5 months I've been with the guild and I have not won a single thing I've gone in on. Have not won anything at all. SIX AND A HALF MONTHS! Most sane people would've left a guild with a loot policy like this after 3 months or less. I refuse to leave at this point because of my friends in guild. And I've tried to make it better. Or at least I thought I was trying to make it better. Month or so back I posted in our guild's forum rant section my feelings. Damn near started WWIII up in there. Ended up having to bail from my own post. A good 85% of the people didn't even comprehend the points I was making. And those that did have no say or pull in anything so they're just as screwed as the rest of us. Just so unfair in so many ways. They do it by total current dkp only apparently despite the things I've been told by officers. They have said that last loot is taken into consideration at some point. BULLSHIT. Have been told a few things that are untrue like that. Fact is, it's a typical rich get richer while the poor get not a god damn thing ever. I've seen a few people get multiple loots at minimal upgrades over and over while others get nothing ever. For example, someone may get 13 loots in the time I've been in guild, 11 of which I went in on. Some of those were 500+ mana hp upgrades for me and 10 mana hp upgrades for these people and they've won stuff like every week and yet they win over people that show up all the time, do everything they can, etc. and who need the upgrades more and have never won anything like me. It's not an "I didn't win" thing. It's a "several people are just flat out getting screwed 100% of the time" kinda thing. I looked today at the dkp site for those that have 0 dkp spent (like me who has never gotten anything). Sorting those I noticed the top 3 people that got nothing after many, many months and discovered 2 of them left the guild in the last couple days. The third is me... I mean what gives? Is it that those that make the rules are the ones winning the stuff or is it that the ones who make and support these rules are blind to what's goin on or is it that they just don't care since they're getting what they want. I don't know but it sucks for the little people which is what I've become. Not feeling very much wanted at this point. Can't help but wonder if they'd even notice or care if I didn't show up. Issue is me, I'm stubborn, too much so. Enough that I'll stay and be miserable in hopes of a change that will never come versus what I should've done 4 months ago and left to somewhere that gives a damn.

Then there's Underfoot. I've hated this expansion since day one. Was sick and in hospital when it came out so missed the initial flagging. Was still raiding one or two expansions back when I returned after a couple months. By then no one was doing flagging. Had been led to believe that group progression was not needed for raids as long as I had the raid progression stuff done by looting raid flag items and so forth. Since then I've discovered at least 2 missions that this is not true for. One I had to only do one easy mission for a keystone, no biggie. The other one I can banner into but not actually zone into normally. To do so I'd need like 20 something missions that no one in their right mind is doing now. And I can only foresee more problems when we get to the last couple raids. And there's not shit I can or am willing to do about it at this point. So this just nags at me when we raid. Just never sure what's going to happen as far as if I'll be able to even get into the next raid we do. And I still hate this expansion anyhow.

Finally, as if soe and guild issues weren't enough, my game is crashing like insanely. Most of which is c++ errors due to memory leaks and then the game freezes. This is entirely soe's fault and not a whole hell of a lot I can do from my end. And now tonight I have yet another issue. Not sure why but got booted 3x due to no internet connection. Modem showed connected to internet and pc and working properly. But pc suddenly said no internet access and EQ, Xfire, and Raptr all got cut off. Had to reboot modem and pc each time. No clue why this is happening or what started it.

Not sure how much more of all this I can take. Pisses me off after 11+ years this is my main thing I do in my life. Can't work since 2001 from being disabled. Have like 4 friends these days so not a whole lot else to do. This is the one thing I have that's a scheduled, responsibility. The one thing that still causes me to have at least some sort of weekly schedule. So what the heck am I supposed to do? Can't leave, can't quit, that's not even an option. But have lost all patience with everything in this game right now.

3DS Cons (Cause That's What People Most Care About)

So, it's been over a week, almost 2 weeks I think that I've had my 3DS. I've written a few blog posts about first impressions, good and bad and so forth. This time I thought I'd just list all the cons to the 3DS. I may do a pros list later, but most of that stuff is either covered in other posts or can be found easy enough on the 3DS website in features. Few little things not mentioned are not that important really either. The cons however is what most people would likely be curious about. What parts about it suck after having used it for awhile. Not that anyone actually reads this blog but me lmao. I'm pretty sure I'm writing this like the rest of my posts for no reason at all. But none the less, here it is...

3DS THE CONS
Not in any order, just as they pop into my head.

The new placement of the onboard stylus is crappy. Yes, I can see why they did this but I don't like it. The stylus now stores from the top next to the game cart. If you're left handed this is probably a welcome change. If you're me (right handed) then this is annoying. I mean granted, you can still get it in and out fairly easy. But compared to the DS Lite which was stored on the right, directly below where you hand already was from holding it, this new position sucks. The old way you could grab it much faster if a game suddenly called for you to have one and you weren't expecting it or something.

There's no microphone jack. Not a lot I can do to elaborate on this one. It's not there. I believe the 3DS has the capability to have wireless devices maybe accessories added via it's wifi or other means (I hear it has infrared receiver and maybe an rf receiver but that might be forum rumors). Currently there is no way to attach an external microphone. Which means you're stuck with the built in one.

The battery dies FAST. From a full charge, with brightness at 4 out of 5, sound at max but with a 3DS game so not as loud as an old DS game, wireless link enabled, playing LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 3D the battery went to critical level in 3 hours. THREE HOURS! By comparison my DS Lite has been known to go 10 to 14 hours on one charge. This is a HUGE difference. And seeing as how there are no USB chargers available for it yet and the car chargers never arrived in the U.S. due to the disasters in Japan, this is an issue. And even if I had more chargers this is still an issue. Not one that I can do anything about though. I have hopes that like the DS and Gameboy systems of the past, some third party Japanese companies will make some add on more power battery packs that you can click onto the back or replace default with or something, anything. Maybe a solar panel? Seriously, with a battery this week they should've made the entire back part of the top panel, around the 3D cameras, a solar panel to charge itself... Why don't they ever hire people like me... /sigh

The cameras, both the 2 outside 3D cameras and the 1 inside 2D camera SUCK. Ok, before I go any further, lemme say it's still cool to see pics of your family or pets in 3D. BUT, it's like 0.3 megapixels. It reminds me of watching TV as a child in the 70's. With the giant outdoor antenna that one person would turn while the other was inside shouting better or worse lol. You have the dots. Big pixels from low resolution. In English that means you can see the dots. With all this technology it has why in the world does it not have at least a 10 megapixel lens? At least on the 2D camera. You can use up to 32gig memory cards so what would be the problem with having a camera that doesn't suck? I don't get why this is so 15 years ago in resolution. And the screens are both so high res and clear, completely confuses me.

No hole for a lanyard. Why have all electronics stopped adding the little lanyard hole? Did the pinpoint size hole really take up that much space or something? I liked having a lanyard for decoration and to help prevent accidentally dropping it.

Charing cradle is retarded. It serves no purpose whatsoever. All it does is go between the a/c adapter and the 3DS. You can plug the same cord directly into the 3DS. I don't get the point of this thing at all. I guess this is less of a con and more of a wtf.

Oh, this is a big one, but one what will be fixed soon. Most of the software that is or was supposed to be built in is not there yet. All of this is supposed to be added with the update at the end of May via wifi. But, in the meantime it doesn't even have a web browser yet. And the entire old wifi channel site is gone so I'm not sure what they're planning here. The 3DS online store is also not up yet. Have a crapload of points or coins or whatever they're called in my club nintendo account from registering all my old nintendo systems and handhelds and games. Just waiting to spend them to download old gameboy games. I hope when they say that they mean the original ones too and not the GBA ones. Not that I wouldn't like those too. But, I would love to play Super Mario Land 3 and stuff. I never got to play the 3rd one lol.

No rumble pak. Again, like the microphone, one "could" probably be added via wireless somehow and then clipped on or some such thing. But currently there is no support for rumble pak options in any games that actually had it which wasn't a whole lot but yes I did have one lol.

The new built in gyro and motions sensors are NOT compatible with old DS games that used the motion pak inserted into the slot 2 GBA slot that also no longer exists (but was removed last version with the DSi not with the 3DS).

It's wifi seems to have a very limited range. Not sure what else to add there.

You can't customize the menu other than to change it from one line to two lines. Can't rearrange icons or change colors or fonts or add wallpapers or anything you would expect to be able to do. This I am pretty sure will be changed in the future. I have not read anything verifying that it will be but it seems highly likely that they will add basic wallpaper and color customization like everything else from pc's to phones to individual programs.

You can only view pictures on the 3DS that are taken with the 3DS. You can not copy pics from your pc or elsewhere and view them on the 3DS system. Nor does it seem possible to copy the pics you have on your 3DS to anywhere else. This is just stupid. Why, why the heck would they not add this? It plays music you add to your SDHC card, why not view pictures and texts for that matter?

No organizer, calendar, text program, address book, nothing you'd expect to have with a handheld device. AGAIN! This annoyed me 3 versions ago with the DS Lite and they still don't have it?!? Are they hoping companies will make game paks to do this? Cause I'm not going to carry around a game pak just for that. Or maybe it will be downloadable software? Or maybe, just maybe, though I'm doubting it, but maybe it will be in this big May update I keep reading about that no one really knows what will be happening.

The Select, Start, and Home buttons are VERY hard to press correctly. They are flat and smooth and you have to press them in a very small section of the button to work and no tactile guide like a bump or raised key to guide you to the right spot to press. The old systems keys buttons for these were far superior. And as a side note, they moved the power button from the outside to the inside of the DS exactly where the Star and Select keys use to be. So if you had an old DS for a long time, like me, then expect to be accidentally shutting your system down and losing your game data when you are actually trying to pause or in fact save your game data, kinda ironic.

With the top and bottom screens being different sizes I noticed something. When you close your DS if there's any dirt or oil from your hands on the touch screen, specifically the left and right raised edges of the touch screen, then it will leave a line on the top screen after you close the 3DS. Since the left and right edges of the bottom screen are closer together than that of the top screen they now touch the viewable area of the top screen when the 3DS is shut and hence leave a mark. Of course with screen protectors and a cleaning cloth this is not the end of the world, but you will have two lines to clean from time to time.

The built in pedometer does not count steps right no matter if you carry it on your back in a bag, in a shirt pocket, pants pocket, wouldn't matter if you stuck it in your shoe. I walk 100 steps it says I walked 10. I walk 40 it says I walked 6. There's no rhyme or reason to what it's counting.

The D-pad is hard to use now. I love the analog pad, and use it for mostly everything. However, in some older DS games you either move too fast through a menu or can't change direction fast enough using the analog compared to the D-pad. In these cases, you use the D-pad obviously. Problem is, that it's lower, quite a bit so. When you hold the 3DS the placement of the new D-pad is so far down and not lined up with the buttons on the right anymore making it hard to actually use it and hold the 3DS right. Keep finding myself tilting the whole thing right about 15 degrees and then tilting my head to compensate lol. Also, it seems either smaller or flatter. It just feels much harder to press and use than my old DS lite.

The high gloss shiny design while being very pretty gets fingerprinted up super easily. Find myself cleaning it with the cloth several times a day.

Last thing I can think of is the fact that you have to hold it a certain way to see the 3D effect properly. Granted, the way you hold it normally is pretty much the right way. Just need to keep it a certain distance and such. When done correctly the effect is very, very clear and truly, truly amazing, truly, truly, truly amazing.

That's all I can think of at this time. If I think of something else later I may stick it in this post but doubt it. Like I said before, not as if anyone but me reads this shit so basically I'm talking to myself like the crazy person that I am.

I would like to add as one last note, that despite there being this many cons, there's at least 3 to 4 times as many pros. Overall this is the best handheld gaming system ever and a great device with amazing features.

The History of Mario Mario and Friends...

So, I decided to take a break from the 3DS topic and from the EverQuest Anniversary and from playing LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 3DS so that I could reflect on my telling of how the Mario history goes. Yeah, it was pretty much a random thought out of nowhere.

Our story begins in a magical land and distant time long ago known as "The 80's"! And it begins not with the Mario family of plumbers but with an escaped monkey. Yes, Donkey Kong.

Story goes something like this...

Donkey Kong escapes from somewhere or otherwise shows up outside of DK Country presumably in a city, likely New York. He kidnaps a young Italian woman from Jersey named Daisy. Mario Mario (yes his first and last name are the same) decides for whatever reason to go save Daisy from Donkey Kong. Why he thinks he can do this, being a fat plumber with zero combat skills, still remains unknown. After hurdling some barrels and avoiding a few fires he makes his way to the top of a construction site where Donkey Kong has Daisy imprisoned and miraculously manages to somehow save her from a giant ape that could crush his head with one hand...

The next thing we know, after having saved Daisy, Mario somehow imprisoned Donkey Kong in a cage. Unknown to him at that time, Donkey Kong had a son. Showing up just in time to save his dad from that dastardly plumber, enter Donkey Kong Jr. a.k.a. Diddy Kong. So, another idiotic battle ensues, this time it's the monkey's son that's the hero saving his dad from the evil Mario!

At this point all seems well. Donkey Kong has apparently returned home to Donkey Kong Country with his son Diddy Kong after making a brief stop in Mario's greenhouse for god knows what reason. At which time Mario chased him away with nothing more than bug spray as far as we know. Daisy was free. And so Mario Mario went back to work as a plumber with his brother Luigi Mario.

But!!! Our story does not end there! Oh no, for no sooner does he go back to work on the pipes when all sorts of otherworldly creatures starting emerging from them! What's this? Turtles and ice creatures coming from the pipes? Oh noes! Not thinking that this could be a bad idea, Mario and his brother Luigi take a closer look and upon entering the pipes find themselves transported to another world known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Soon after their arrival they somehow discover that the princess of this kingdom, Princess Peach Toadstool, has been taken captive by Bowser, the king of the Koopa. I guess he must have figured what the heck, he saved Daisy from a giant ape how hard can this be? Little did he know...

To make this next part short, let's just say that time and time again Mario thwarted Bowser's plans, defeated his minions and lackeys and "thought" he saved the princess. But alas, our princess is in another castle... Those few times he actually did save her she only ended up getting caught again and then the entire madness started anew. Heck at one point it got so bad that Mario had this awful dream where he found himself together with Luigi, Peach, and Toad lost in yet another world with even stranger things than the Mushroom Kingdom! As for Peach, what can you say? Maybe she was just asking for it, like she wanted the attention. Maybe she just has really, really bad luck. Or it could be that her guards are little mushroom people...

For decades the story goes on pretty much unchanged. Peach gets caught, Mario saves her with help from Luigi, Yoshi, Toad and others who don't seem to ever really get anything out of the deal. Several others have joined the fight on both sides. For the baddies there have been such head cases as Wario and Waluigi amongst others.

At some point we start to find out a bit more though. We discover that Bowser may have known that Mario and Luigi would become a thorn in his side and that he's even tried to stop them in the past. As babies they were kidnapped by agents of Bowser that were capable of time travel! But, apparently Yoshis live a long time. Because it was Yoshi that saved baby Mario and Luigi. Well, was actually several Yoshis. There would appear to be an entire race of various colored Yoshis actually. With the Yoshi known as... Yoshi... being the green one. Oh come on... seriously? It's not bad enough that Mario's last name is Mario you're gonna tell me that Yoshi is a Yoshi?!? Makes me just want to smash my head into a brick! *bleep bleep bleep bleep sound* *mushroom rises from brick*

On the plus side, while Mario was off doing other stuff... Olympics with Sonic, Mario Parties, various other games he was playing and just blowing off the whole hero thing all together so he could play tennis and race karts; Princess Peach Toadstool FINALLY got sick of being the victim! And she ended up being the hero for once on her own mission of, well, mission of craziness really. I mean she had a talking umbrella that helped her fly and when she had mood swings... well look out cause they were not pretty!

At this point in time Mario has saved the princess several dozen times and been caught himself a few times. He's been saved by Yoshi, saved Luigi, saved by Peach, saved Peach. And somehow still found time to have parties, play just about every sport known to man, best a few crazed apes, and yes, maybe even fix someone's plumbing along the way.

What's next? Who knows. But it will likely be in 3D! And this time it will be real 3D! Not that hey this is 3D but it's actually 2D kinda 3D that we got with Mario 64 on the N64 when they said, hey, it's 3D. But, no, not really 3D, it's 2D that's 3D... But, we all still loved it when we heard, "eeeeets meeeeeee ... Maaaaaarioo!"

3DS Thoughts After Week One

I love it.

Now, some more specifics. Tried to find and connect to a free public wifi hotspot at several locations and failed at all of them. Managed to get wifi hooked up at home though and it works great. The first update though only fixes wifi connectivity (which may be why I was having problems). The web browser, 3ds store, and entire nintendo wifi channel / club nintendo site and everything else related to the 3ds internet functions are still a no go. The big patch as they're calling it is due at the end of May. Scary part is I read some forums that say that patch will brick anyone's 3DS that's tried to use any form of flashcart... I tried, but it didn't work so I hope this doesn't apply to me. And I don't really believe the hype anyhow. I doubt they'd brick the 3DS's of their best customers knowing full well the amount of crap they'd have to contend with afterwards. I do expect that they will continue to make patches on a regular basis that will disable flashcarts and prevent them from being used on your 3DS. Which I then fully expect the flash cart companies to come up with a workaround lol. Hence, I'm putting off buyting that DSTWO card until later this summer. I want to see how this all plays out first. I know it works now, but... May need to wait for a future 3DS version that's designed to bypass all the stuff that will be added via wifi until then.

Here's something funny. This first patch, it said it is just to fix wifi connectivity AND to give us a free video. So now I have this free 3D video of a fairly crappy song with a bunch of dogs doing tricks and stuff to the music... in 3D. And here's the kicker, at the end of the video it says, "This video will be deleted with the next update" lmao. So wow, gee thanks for the free pointless thing you're gonna take right back...

One concern I had was the fact that the top screen is quite a bit larger and now in widescreen. Several of the old DS games had images lined up from the bottom screen to the top that required them to be that way for game play. For example, club games whatever that thing is called required you to slide or "toss" darts from the bottom screen to the dartboard on the top screen. Super Princess Peach also had some things like that if I recall, or was that Yoshi's Island DS... Anyway, I was glad to discover that it takes old DS games and makes the image the same size as the bottom screen so that it retains it's original layout even on the larger screen.

There's no rumble pak. I've mentioned that before but it's still a bit of a letdown since it has everything else imaginable.

The camera's megapixels are ass. It's like .32 megapixel. yes POINT. As in less than 1! Which would matter more if you could actually copy the pics in 2D at least to anywhere other than the DS but the DS can only display pics taken with it's own cameras and can't export it's pics to anywhere. So, that's kinda bogus for the camera function. However, it is still cool to have 3D pics and to put pics of people into games and such. Just keep your regular picture taking for normal purposes on your cel or digital camera.

Spotpass / Streetpass. I have yet to figure out what the difference is. One gives me a green light one a blue light when you receive things depending on which it is. Since I've still as of yet received NOTHING via either of these methods I wouldn't know. This is just a matter of not enough people having a 3DS or DSi and me not being in the right places to pick up other people. At some point I hope I pass at least one person for this to work at some point in my life.

The speakers are LOUD for old DS games yet not loud enough on my one 3DS game. Not sure if all 3DS games are gonna be like that or what the deal is with that. As for the old games, just have to turn the volume to half for any of them or else it's so loud it's distorted, not a big deal to turn down the volume, just an observation.

There's nowhere to attach a lanyard. I had a nice Nintendo logo lanyard made by Nintendo that was a limited edition thing and it was great on my DSlite but there's nowhere to put it on my 3DS. Had this same issue with my new cel. Why are all the electronics companies removing the lanyard hole? I like to have that so I don't drop it when my hand twitches from arthritis. And seriously, like why remove it? It's not like that little hole took up so much space. I can see plenty of spots they could've added one.

With all the graphics, increased volume surround sound, 3D, wifi, etc. it drains the battery pretty quick. And the car chargers have yet to make it to the U.S. Apparently there's been some issue with them getting out of Japan due to the disasters. I'm reading now though that the DSi and DSiXL adapters are in fact compatible with the 3DS. So, I may look into that.

The charging cradle is retarded and 100% unnecessary. Just thought I'd reiterate that.

The analog control is way, way nicer than the old d-pad, direction pad thing. Only thing is that the direction pad you can change from left to right or forward to backward faster by hitting the opposite side of the plus controller than you can by sliding the analog to the other side. But it rules for driving and moving in a 3D environment. Even though with old games it doesn't do full analog it just does the 4 main axis and the 4 diagonal ones, it is still far superior for controlling steering in games such as Mario Kart. Shame I have already beat all the levels and everything years ago and there's not enough people online globally anymore to get a race going. Going to be awesome when the new 3DS version of Mario Kart comes out.

And that brings me to the last point. 3DS rules, BUT, there's a LONG way to go. Most of it's internal software won't be added till the end of May via wifi and all the big titles people most want like Mario Kart 3D, Kid Icarus Uprising, Zelda Ocarina of Time in 3D and of course the Metal Gear, Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania and other classic titles that will all be getting the 3D makeover at some point this year. Plus when they add the Netflix ability to steam and download movies to your 3DS in 2D and then start selling the actual 3D movies that will be a huge plus. Right now it's like the system has great potential, just lacking in "stuff".

3DS - Day 1 Hands-On First Impression

So, I finally managed to get my 3DS today. Seems like I've been waiting forever even though it wasn't really that long of a wait. Decided since it's the same price everywhere to just go to the closest store, which was one of the last remaining Toys "R" Us anywhere near me. After waiting in line for nearly 15 minutes behind one person I finally managed to get to the counter. After some conversation with the salesman I discovered I was purchasing the last 3DS Cosmo Black though there were still plenty of the Aqua Blue ones left. He said they got 100 of each in on the 27th and that's all that was left. Car chargers sold out on the first day and they had only 2 or 3 games left and minimal accessories. I was actually surprised. I didn't expect something that expensive to sell out that fast. And this particular store rarely has any cars in the parking lot so I was even more surprised they sold that many.

Anyhow, getting past that I ended up with the 3DS Cosmo Black and LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars in 3D.

Opening the box you first discover a massive amount of paperwork and an instruction manual that makes most novels look like a free pamphlet. Below that is the A/C power cord, charging cradle, and the 3DS unit itself.

As for the charging cradle, what is the point of this thing? You plug the A/C adapter in the wall then in the cradle then sit the 3DS in the cradle. Why? You can just plug the A/C adapter straight into the 3DS without this thing. I don't see what purpose this serves at all.

Powering it up you get a nice intro and it talks you through setting up language, time, region, name, connection, colors, layout, etc. It then makes a whole huge production out of holding it just right and getting ready for the 3D to turn on, big count down and all that, I was like geez get to it already. But, I have to say, when it first comes on you're just like whoa, holy crap. I was really not ready for it to look THAT cool. Granted, you have to hold it a certain way or else you lose the 3D effect or it looks like it shifts, but, held correctly, the effect is AMAZING.

After I got over the initial holy crap that's cool part I started going through the tabs. It's set up much more like a windows or smartphone than any previous DS's. Has several built in things including, of course, the really cool 3D camera that was also surprisingly cool. Several games built in and so forth. However, a LOT of the software is initially unavailable. Several things say they will be available at a later date through a wifi update. I went to several locations trying to get connected to a wifi network and after a couple hours of driving around finally gave up. All the ones that were listed on the nintendo site near me were non-existent and the ones I do know exist I couldn't seem to connect to. I'm planning to get a wifi router next month if not sooner anyhow to resolve this situation, they're cheap. In the meantime I will try to update it on Sunday at my dad's house since he has WinXP still I can use my old Nintendo WFC USB connector according to everything I've read in my settings.

Moving along, the features are numerous, far too many to get into. Highlights would include the streetpass, camera, music player, etc. All of which can be learned about elsewhere.

Few things I discovered worth mentioning are first there's no rumble pak. And since the last 3 DS versions have removed the GBA slot there is no way of adding one at this time. There is the capability in the future to add things that connect either with infrared or wifi so they may make an accessory at some point. Second thing of note is that old DS games that used motion paks for controls or game features can NOT use the built in 3DS gyro sensors in place of that, yet. This also may be patched via wifi at some point, will have to see. But games like Tony Hawk's Motion won't even start up.

Another thing worth mentioning is that like it was expected and talked about in forums, flashcarts like SuperCard DSone and others do not work. It just says error and makes you turn the 3DS off. So, currently there is no way to play downloaded or hacked versions of games. Again, I expect that to change.

Physical aspects, it's nearly the exact same size as the DS Lite. In fact you can't even see a difference in size when compared to each other. However, there are slight shape changes and of course everything has been moved around, all buttons and sliders and mic and headphone jack. The game carts have a small little protrusion near the top to prevent them from being placed into a previous DS version, however old DS games of course fit in the 3DS. This of course means that the 3DS games will not fit in any of my really cool cases. My small travel case has a rubber interior which I already checked out I can mod that myself to hold 3DS games pretty easily. The other cases however are a no go. Also, the size of the plug for the A/C adapter is compatible with the DSi or DSiXL but NOT the DSlite so I have to find a new car charger somewhere. Furthermore, the headphone / mic jack setup is not compatible with the DSlite in anyway. There is in fact NO mic jack input. The headphone jack is simply a standard 3.5mm jack like mostly everything, but the mic is internal with no way to connect an external mic or headset, making my earphones and stereo headset also not compatible.

Overall it will take me probably the rest of this year to be able to find and acquire decent accessories to be as hooked up with the 3DS as I was or rather am with my old DSlite.

Not much else I can say, there's no way to demonstrate the awesomeness of the 3D effect here. Go out and see one for yourself it's damn impressive!

3DS Release...

Well, first off I find it strange that it was released on a Sunday. However, everything, everywhere from Nintendo to IGN to Gamespot to Gamestop all say March 27, 2011. All consoles and games slated for release say available on all online stores. However, haven't seen or heard anything about it other than that. Far as I can tell no one I know rushed out and bought it. And they call themselves gamers! I wanted to, and had it preordered, but realized financially it made more sense to cancel preorder then order it on the 1st and probably get it by the 4th. So another week for me.

Few noteworthy things. A lot of the games that are or were released at time of launch seem to not be available online. For example, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Ward 3DS says not available online but "may be available in store." Few others as well. I'm wondering if they didn't get shipped out of Japan in time due to the disasters.

Strangest thing I've heard about 3DS from the unboxing and hands-on reviews by various game sites and fans online would be the pedometer. It has a built in pedometer than counts how many steps you've taken, uploads it to your club nintendo profile via wi-fi and awards you with points that you can then use to buy downloadable gameboy games or in-game items for 3DS games. That struck me as fairly odd.

Not much else to say for now. Can't get mine soon enough! Very excited. My Nintendo page on my site is up and running, but very, very limited info, subpages, etc. Just wanted to get the page fixed up and working for the release. Currently the only subpage is for The World Ends With You. Mostly because I like the music and I just finished teaching myself how to make, adjust, and add a flash music player to my webpages. Etrian Odyssey will "probably" be next, plus a new game listing page with rankings, the old one is obsolete and impossible to update the way I wrote it years ago. I have learned much since then.

For now, I wait with anticipation for April, to get my 3DS and for PORTAL 2! Finally! We get to think with portals again! And... cake??? Will there be cake??? There's cake when we win right??? I heard there's cake! Rumor has it that it's delicious and moist...

The 25 "Must Have" DS Game List

So, the Nintendo 3DS is coming out in 20 more days. And from everything I've read, flash cards like my supercard dsone will not work in it due to the constant live wireless updating system it has. What does this mean? Well, for me it means 500+ DS games I have downloaded and played will not be playable on my new 3DS when I get it. While this is not the end of the world since I can play them fine on my old DS, it sucks because I want to be able to carry all my games with me and won't be able to since I'm obviously only going to carry the 3DS with me anywhere once I have it.

With all that in mind I thought to myself, some of these games are epic, I mean greatest games ever, can't live without. While others are just ok, or in many cases suck lol. So, I've been putting together a list of the DS games that are really "must have' amazing, greatest games ever, can't live without.

After searching online, amazon, ebay, overstock, and half a dozen other sites I've discovered a few things. First off, DS games don't stay up for sale for very long at regular retailers. The inventory at most of your electronics dealers like say gamestop/ebgames, or best buy changes way faster than I thought it did. Hence, most of these games that are from 2007-2009 even early 2010 are already long gone from the normal retail stores. Many are still available from collectors, small online and offline gaming stores and of course ebay and amazon. However, a small few, the really best of the best ones are INSANELY high priced. For example, and this is a huge one, Etrian Odyssey. The best DS game of all time, and apparently I'm not the only one that thinks so. Used ones go for $40+, new ones are if you're lucky $80 but most are more like $100-$120 just for that one game! Etrian Odyssey II is not much better going for about $60 already. Even on ebay and amazon it's that much, worse elsewhere. I did manage to nab Etrian Odyssey III though for like $30 still as it's currently selling in normal stores still. But wow, some of these prices caught me off guard big time.

My newest plan is just to keep an eye out for all of them regularly on auction sites and hope for the best for most of them. However, at some point I will give in and buy the first two Etrian Odyssey games regardless of price because they really are THAT good.

Well, here's the list. I tried to keep it in order with the most important at number 1 but some are really hard to decide or choose between so I don't hold too strongly to this particular order.

1. Etrian Odyssey (1, 2, & 3)
2. The World Ends with You
3. Mario Kart
4. Luminous Arc (1 & 2)
5. Desktop Tower Defense
6. Moon
7. Chibi-Robo Park Patrol
8. Hotel Dusk - Room 215
9. Retro Game Challenge
10. Picross & Picross 3D
11. TrackMania DS
12. Super Princess Peach
13. LEGO Star Wars (The Complete Saga & Clone Wars)
14. Big Bang Mini
15. Exit DS
16. Space Invaders Extreme (1 & 2)
17. Yoshi's Island DS
18. Advance Wars - Days of Ruin
19. Dementium the Ward (1 & 2)
20. NEW Super Mario Bros.
21. Brain Buster Puzzle Pack
22. Geometry Wars - Galaxies
23. Transformers Animated
24. Custom Robo Arena
25. Club House Games

Also, all (too many to mention) the Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, and the Transformers games should really be considered as classics just because they're always great. There's just soooo many. There's like 20+ Mega Man games for the DS and about 8 FF, think there's 9 or 11 Transformers games now, maybe a dozen or more Mario depending which ones you count cause he shows up everywhere lol.

Luckily I already had a couple of those games in actual real game card format not downloaded roms. Hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up a couple of the others.

Xbox Live / GFWL Gamercard Sig in Spanish

Before someone asks, yes, the link from my gamercard sig (the 4th down at the top of my main game page) goes to a Spanish page. Gamercard.net/livecard.net which has been the main source for gamertag forum sigs for years shutdown and after many hours of searching I have found lusogamer.com to be the best and nicest sigs out there, despite being a Spanish site. Also, they use your avatar pic that you take from the xbox live site not the live version of your avatar. Which is a good thing. Because the live version of your avatar will not show up properly if you have exclusive or limited edition items equipped. I don't know why but microsoft won't let you share or link directly to your avatar if it has special items from the marketplace. So, the avatar pics you take are the only way to get a proper version of your avatar displayed in a dynamic forum sig. Anyhow, I'm rambling again. Just wanted to say, yes the page is in Spanish lol.

DC Universe Online

Well, I suppose it's way past due I post something about DCUO here. Have had the game just over 2 weeks? Seems like forever, that must be wrong lol. Technically beat the game in a week, which should just never happen in an MMO. But, let's not be mistaken, the game is fun. Very fun to play, fun to control, just loads of fun. However, it's easy, super easy (no pun intended). All the quests are basically the same. Several quest lines, different mobs, different locations, but basically the same design. Lots to do once you hit max level (which is only 30). Majority of the game doesn't even unlock until you hit max level. All in all it's a good game.

Here's the breakdown:

Let's start with the controls. It does NOT play like an MMO. So much so that there are times I forget I'm even playing an MMO. It's 110% like a third person platform game. Controls are just like TRON: Evolution, Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes, The Force Unleashed, Batman Arkham Asylum, and all the others. And just like them and most games these days it runs on the great Unreal game engine. Game is fully gamepad compatible. It seems to prefer you to use an xbox controller for windows. It by default mapped my analog sticks sideways and other strange things. However my gamepad has it's own fully customizable layout so the problem was easily fixed. I can control my toon in every aspect from fighting to movement to quests to grabbing items or using powers and skills all from just the control pad. Only using keyboard and mouse for in game chat and sorting through inventory, quest journals, assigning skill points, map and other actual MMO type functions. It's odd in that way, that it plays and controls like a third person platform, combat especially where you lock onto a target and have to perform combo moves like a fighting game. However, character development, questing, grouping, etc. all very much MMO style.

Graphics, great and simple at the same time. They've managed to make very highly detailed textures on very simple block frames. For example, you could be in a bar and see in the back of the bar a million super detailed bottles. But upon closer examination you'd come to realize it's super detailed pictures of bottles on a flat cardboard like cutout. The effect of this is highly detailed objects that are flat and blocky. Hence it looks great and runs smoothly and quickly cause it's not a lot that actually needs to be loaded into memory. It's a good idea and gives the game a unique and nice appearance that really does make it feel like the DC Universe.

Quests, this part is lacking still. They are releasing new content like chapters every few weeks or month or something so this shouldn't be a persisting problem just a problem for now till more stuff is rolled out. But, the quests are repetitive and all follow a basic pattern. You get a quest to start the quest line, basically sends you into the area where the story will unfold, say Otisburg, or Midtown Metropolis or Crime Alley. There's the main quest line that updates to new quest automatically when completing current quest. Each quest has it's own city block or two that it takes place in and each one has 1 to 3 side quests you pick up in that area once you get there. These quests usually consist of kill x amount of soandso, retrieve x amount of whatever, carry x amount of specific objects to designated location, and beat some mobs down till they become clickable for some reason then click them. After going through 2 or 3 areas like that with the side quests you get instance one. First instance is usually easy, contains a few "shiny" collectibles and usually a treasure chest or "sparkly box". Then there will be another one or two outdoor missions. Then the final instance where you assist classic DC heroes or villains against other classic heroes or villains, also usually has the last 1 to 3 shiny green collectibles that finish the set as well as possibly some hidden shiny blue ones. A treasure chest / sparkly box. Named boss fight. Get a comic book cut scene ending called a headline for finishing the story. And get feats for beating the final instance, not getting ko'd during it, not using consumables during the instance and finishing the one special task for that instance. Then it's just rinse and repeat the same thing for all the other stories.

Other stuff. Throughout the brief leveling process and again when you hit 30 various other quests or tasks or missions unlock. There's Legends PvP at level 6 which is what most games refer to as a monster mission. However the mission itself once in there is just an arena type battle 2 vs 2, 4 vs 4, capture the flag, kill all, etc. You get marks you can then spend to unlock other playable characters. Heroes get Robin at level 6 to play for free and villains get Harley Quinn. Huntress costs 10 as do Robin and Harley so that villains can buy Robin and heroes can buy Harley. Then there's higher up unlockables, Nightwing, Joker, Bane. Currently it's way unbalanced and I have yet to see anyone be able to beat Bane in PvP. Then there are Alert zones, Arena Zones, Invasions, Duos, etc. These basically amount to 2 player, group and raid missions. Some are just open combat PvP areas.

Costumes are cool. They have a unique style function. Where once you loot something and equip it you acquire the style for your appearance tab. That way you can wear any chest item for any stats but you have the option to make it look like any item for which you've collected the style. Once collected you can sell or destroy the original item and the style will always be there still in a drop down list to select on appearance tab. Very cool idea really. Wish there was a way to hotkey preset looks though. So I could hit a certain key and it would switch several slots at once to preset options. Hoping they add something like that down the road.

You get 12 character slots from what I know. Which is good because there's currently 3 hero mentors (Superman for meta humans, Wonder Woman for magic users, and Batman for tech) and 3 villain mentors (Lex Luthor for meta humans, Circe for magic, and The Joker for tech). And they're adding more.

As a hero at 30 you become a member of the JLA. I wish they had an option though for joining the other groups in game like the Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Corps, or the Titans (formerly known as the Teen Titans or New Teen Titans). Of course I would've chosen JLA anyhow for my main but would have liked the option for my alts.

Guilds are called Leagues for heroes and Legions for villains. /shrug just thought I'd throw that out there.

Overall it's a great game. Leaping across the rooftops of Gotham, not as Batman but as a hero or villain of your own creation, or soaring high above Metropolis, it's pretty awesome. Definitely worth getting this game to play if you even slightly like super heroes. Also the fact that it's so easy makes it a nice stress free relaxing casual game too that doesn't require tons of time unless you want too.

Website Updates

Have been working hard the last couple days to finally get my site updated with current info and new games as well as making it look better and work better.

Managed to come up with a new slightly different layout for the individual game pages and have been updating them one by one.

All links now go to a reroute page so that I can update them quicker and easier as the game companies change website addresses and such over time.

Made the main menus and links at the top of page and on the side connecting other game pages all the same. Menu no longer changes from page to page. Many other fixes to make the site more consistent from page to page.

Checked some compatibility issues and everything should now be working in the top 5 major pc web browsers as well as most mobile browsers.

Split into into more pages again instead of having one massive page that takes forever to load. Enhanced loading speeds on mobile browsers.

Killed sound on all subpages to make it generally less annoying.

Verified that all visible live active links actually go where they're supposed to now.

Updated game list and character stats to be closer to accurate.

Smoothed out the look on some of the buttons and banners to make them prettier.

More fixes to come.

Report any issues with viewing the site or any broken links to my email via the easy to find links on all pages.

Nintendo 3DS

Man I need this thing bad. Have been looking around the last week or two at DS's to see if I should either pay the $80 to have my mic and touch screen fixed (touch screen not accurate even after calibration it shoots off sometimes like you moved the stylus when you didn't and the mic just flat out ceased to work.) Or, buy the DSi or DSi XL which have many nice features but I have always thought they were just not as big an upgrade as they could've been. Or buy another DS Lite off ebay or something. Then out of the blue I started getting emails from ebGames/GameStop Amazon, Nintendo of America all about pre-order Nintendo 3DS. I was like huh? Hadn't even heard about it. My first thought was the "3". I was all like hmmm it's not the 3rd DS. There was the original fat DS that everyone hated, then the DS Lite, then DSi and DSi XL. I'm like this is 4th or 5th depending on how you look at it.

Well, I read up about it already. WOW. First off, it plays games in 3D. Not Nintendo 64 type of 3D but actual jump out of the screen looking into a window type 3D. WITHOUT GLASSES! I wasn't even aware such technology existed! You can adjust the depth of the 3D too from 2D to very 3D just by moving a slider up and down. All the 3D games can be played in 2D. So at this point I was already like wow, I want this thing. Then I read on...

Unlike my DS Lite it has the motion sensor pack, extra ram pack, web browser all built in. It also has 3 cameras. Yes THREE. One faces inward at you while you play to take your own pic. The other 2 are stereoscopic lenses on the outside. Yes, it takes 3D PICTURES! DUDE! Like O M G. The DSi I was always like bleh cameras I have a better digital camera if I need. Same with my cel phone, cause they didn't offer me any advantage over my higher resolution much better actual camera. But, 3D! Now THAT's something I don't have! A camera that takes AND displays pictures in 3D! At this point I was more than sold I was giddy with anticipation lol.

Further more, it has a new analog controller on the left above the classic control pad for full 3D control! And it still has a built in mic, built in stereo speakers that can, and I never figured out how this works, simulate surround sound with 2 speakers. It plays all the old DS games plus the new 3DS games obviously. It has a larger top screen than previous DS's with a much brighter clearer and higher resolution screen. It also has the SD card slot that the DSi offered but was not in my DS Lite. And of course WiFi. And it now has a "home" button that will pause your game and take you to the main home screen like a small laptop where you can access software, apps, web browser, music, movies, online shop to download classic old Nintendo games from previous systems, all that organizer stuff, clock, calendar, address book, to do list, date book, yatta yatta. It has the Wii feature called Mii where you make avatars of yourself from pics of yourself that you take with the DS. The new stylus that comes with it is larger than the previous DS styluses, and has a metal shaft that expands with plastic tip on the end (that sounds so ... yeah nvm lol.) It also has this new charging base not like the old AC adapters. It's a charging station you just plot the DS on it and it can stay on in sleep mode indefinitely now.

New standby features are involved to explain. There's normal off and on. Then there's street pass mode which is like even in sleep mode as long as it's on whenever you pass someone else with an NDS it gets their gamer info and sends yours then you can see there Mii toon and play against them and challenge their scores later. It's weird. Then there's some other mode I also didn't quite understand. Cool stuff.

And there's something called AR Games which at least one of them is built into the system. It stands for Altered Reality Game I think. I didn't quite understand this either. The description basically says you get AR cards that are real life physical cards not something on the DS. You place them around you like on a table or whatever and then point the camera at them and the DS scans them and generates game levels based on the real world or something. It was a weird description. They made it sound like you used the real world as the game level and then the toons you play pop out of the DS on the card or something in 3D. I don't know, that makes no sense to me but it sounds cool!

Not sure what else to say about it. I'm super hyped now I want it badly. I'm going to not get the dress and socks and stuff I was gonna buy next month and I'm not gonna get some of the games I wanted and I'm gonna cancel 2 or 3 game accounts for a few months and whatever else it takes to be able to afford this. It's expensive as hell. More than most home consoles now. $250. And of course will need new screen protectors and case. Everything else I have from my DS Lite though is fully compatible so that's a plus. Headset, emergency charger and all extra stuff I bought. Free shipping most places so that makes up for screen protectors and shit. Big issue will be that my SuperCard DSONE Flash Cart will almost certainly not work. I know the DS one was not compatible with DS Lite and the one I have for DS Lite not compatible with DSi so I figure there's no way this will be compatible. But, they always make a new one within a month or two. That'll be another $50ish though. Luckily I have like 500 downloaded .nds game files so I have basically every good game ever made for DS from release in 2005ish through early 2010. And game saves should be compatible.

Well, it comes out March 27th so I have awhile. I'm going to be freaking out by then!