Ammunition > Heroics

Sorry about the delay.
Quite a few random things to talk about... What first?

Well, I finished a first draft of that post-turned-pretty-much-a-whole-essay I've been talking about. It's something like 2400 words, and I did most of it in one day...
I worry that after I post it I'm going to get gobs of nasty comments from people who misinterpreted it, and from people who think I'm just about the geekiest person on the face of the earth.
But I think I'm prepared to deal with that, particularly responses that fall into the latter category. Seeing as... I am.

Meanwhile.
This week was GDC (Game Developers' Conference). I've really wanted to go ever since... Well, probably just last year, but whatever.
However, there are two major problems with that:
1) I technically have no reason to go, since I've never, umm, done anything serious. It is, after all, the game developers' conference. However, regardless of what I've been able to finish, I think I might benefit from seeing what other people are doing (which is kinda the whole point). I think a lot of "random nobodies" come for the independent games summit (which is unsurprisingly 90% of why the event interests me) and whatnot... And anyway, I plan to have !°μ1.53 finished by July or something, and that should be pretty big. But anyway, the biggest reason is actually:
2) It costs a ridiculous amount of money to go, especially if you want access to everything. I have no idea how some of those indie developers who make free games (as a random example, Cactus) can manage to put the money aside to attend. It's just crazy.

...Anyway, it sounds like lots of interesting stuff happened at the independent games summit, and then there was a pretty big Nintendo announcement (mentioned in the brief post right before this one). I don't think anybody really expected they'd announce anything big; I certainly didn't. Apparently Iwata, during the talk he gave, spoke about Miyamoto's approach to designing games, which one would think most of us are familiar with already. He also talked about some other dumb stuff I don't remember (I could probably find a video of the actual talk somewhere on YouTube or something, but I haven't looked yet). Anyhow, he mentioned some dumb games that honestly nobody cares about, and then he announced a new Zelda game. For DS. It sounds great.
It looks like a direct follow-up to Phantom Hourglass; this time you travel around by train (yes, train). The fact that it seems to be a direct sequel is pretty cool, since we get to see what happens with all that flood business (it looks like they've discovered a rather large new continent) and how it ties in to other Zelda games (although I previously suspected that Phantom Hourglass was chronilogically the last game in the series). Also, that's the first time they've ever done three games that tie into each other directly, as far as I can think of right now. There have been a few other pairs of games (such as Four Swords and the Minish Cap), but never a chain of three that I can think of. I dunno, the continuity in the series is totally bonkers; it's not really a point worth dwelling on, since all of the games are pretty self-contained. Anyhow, I really like the stlye/setting/characters/etc. of The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, so that sounds great to me. It also looks like they're reusing resources, but that's actually a smart move. Phantom Hourglass looked great; there's no sense in starting something over from scratch that might not be as good. The whole engine seems the same, but PH played great, too, so again, that was a good decision, I think. It gives them more time and energy to spend on more important stuff, such as making the game awesome.
Also, it's worth noting that they basically did the same with the Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, and all of those were spectacular (as is normal for the series, of course).
It looks like there are some interesting new gameplay elements, too; they've already shown a new item (though one that seems to operate similarly to stuff we've seen in the past, I guess) and more buddy control stuff (like in WW and PH). This time Link controls what appears to be a Phantom (big armored things from PH), and moving around in conjunction with it to team up against enemies and solve puzzles. Looks pretty cool; hopefully it will be used more often than just in one dungeon or something... although if it was something that was used constantly, that might get a little bothersome.
Negative feelings toward the game mostly come from dumb people who didn't like WW or PH and criticized the lightheardedness and cartoon style. I don't get these people. Did they start the series with Ocarina of Time or something? I mean, OoT was amazing, but it was in some ways a step in the wrong direction for the series. They took that even further with Twilight Princess (which got a lot more serious), and at first it looked really interesting to me, but in the end I decided it wasn't really a good idea. The Zelda games have always had this great level of charm and character. There are plenty of games with serious tones out there; Zelda doesn't need to be one of them. If they branch out into two different styles, that's fine, as long as the "sillier" games don't die.
I mean, honestly, people. Look at Link. How can you take anybody wearing a hat like that seriously?

...Well, enough of that. That went on for far too long.
Let's talk about how I need a book to read.
I need a book to read.
Or perhaps more specifically, a series of books. That way I can have something to keep coming back to for a while.
I feel like I've read all the really excellent stuff already. And my siblings have a strange habit of reading everything I ever pick up. It kind of takes the enjoyment out of it. But maybe I'm just odd...

Me: *has stack of books*
Sibling: Ooh, watchagot there?
Me: ARGH! Begone, libraphage! *panics and runs*
Sibling: *shrugs*

This may be related to my general dislike of things that enjoy gross levels of popularity, but that can be discussed at a later time.
At any rate, does anyone have any recommendations?
Firstly, you should know that I'm counting comic books, which I love. I like them to have really dynamic artwork that stands out of the page well... unique style is good. But obviously the story is very important too.
But I like regular books as well. I like things in pretty much any genre. I think I generally prefer fiction, particularly right now, but I don't really have any specific things I want other than that. I should note though that I do not mean I will read anything... I'm pretty picky about my books. What I like is pretty simple:
1. It can't have been done a million times already. Originality is very important to me.
2. It can't be boring, or dull. I like it when books are fast-paced (but not necessarily crazy like an action movie or something).
...And most books fail to fit those requirements. Of the ones that do, though, I still only enjoy a relatively small number. I just have to like it. I like some stuff and not other stuff... it's not really anything complicated. I like a great variety of things, so I can't tell you what specifically makes me like some books and not others. Because there isn't anything. =P

I have picked up a few cool things lately. I might talk about them later, but not right now.
I think I'm done.


:::Source expected
:::28.03.09
:::STOP