I encountered Sif (Dark Souls) this past weekend. I died 10 seconds later. I know how to put down the mutt, I just need more practice.

(Yeah I know: A rather pointless excuse of a blog. Much like this lazy catastophe I call a companion)

:P

I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving with a turkey this year. Instead my uncle and me replaced it with fish. At first I thought it would be weird considering it was cooked alongside the stuffing but it turned out that wasn't the case. It actually tasted like turkey, and it was tasty. This is actually the first time we moved away from the tradition of celebrating the holiday by eating Mr. Gobbles and despite this, the get-togethers remained the same (even if it was the two of us as mentioned on my previous post).

Anyway I'd like to thank the following:

Family (even though my relatives are scattered around a wide radius, I'm proud they're a part of my life.)

Friends (both near and far and of course those I've met online). Ghosts (I've been drawing one of them for a while now!)

The little things in life (coffee, college, gaming, art, comics, local businesses here in town, etc. etc. etc.)

Happiness (especially humoring people which I tend to do a lot)

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Earlier tonight I watched Quantum of Solace, the only Daniel Craig Bond film I've yet to see until now. People weren't kidding about how bad this Bond film was. The poor editing reminded me much of the action scenes from Batman Begins. I had a very difficult time figuring out the plot. There were a few nostalgic references seen in previous Bond films that failed the moment I noticed them. I can go on and on about QoS but overall I just didn't enjoy the movie from beginning to end.

Unfortunately it didn't beat out Die Another Day as my least favorite in the Bond franchise and that's saying a lot. At least GoldenEye still remains my favorite Bond film of all time. Speaking of which, having to watch the GoldenEye Reloaded TV Ad every time a commercial break commenced isn't enough to convince me in buying Activision's reimagining of the N64 c1assic. (I nickname it Call of Duty: GoldenEye due to the gameplay similarities I spotted between the two.)

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Until then, gobble gobble!

6h05tly

http://danjstine.deviantart.com/art/Thanksgaming-Ghost-270249441

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I haven't done an "actual" GameSpot blog in a while. Actual, I mean without including a WordPress link for once. Besides, I decided to write this post here than there (hold a sec, I noticed a little error on the mushroom bowl. Urgh...) ok where was I? Guess I forgot :P

Thanksgiving is going to be a little different for me. Apparently my mother and my younger sisters moved away back in September so they won't be able to make it this Thursday (but hopefully around Christmas next month). My sister has plans and will be celebrating Thanksgiving with a "friend" and his relatives. So it's just me and my uncle that will celebrate given that our other relatives have their own plans or something. Not that I don't mind since I'm not the best when it comes with a large group of people, but it does feel empty in a way or two. But enough about me, let's talk about... something?

Originally I thought I came up with the term "thanksgaming" but fortunately that wasn't the case. According to an article I read on 1up shortly before I started sketching the above artwork, it basically has a lot to do with the holiday's theme but including games in the mix. I don't know if we did such a thing around this time but I do know that we did so during Christmas in the form of Rock Band ala Xbox 360 (I think I mentioned something about this back then...).

It's kind of odd that only two people in the household have plans and since my uncle isn't a gamer per se, he did do a few vocal sessions on Rock Band back then (Billy Idol's White Wedding being one of his favorites to sing). But since I gave away my Xbox to a cousin earlier this year and given my lost of interest in the music genre, apparently my PS3 console is only used with family when we rent a DVD/BluRay movie. Well, at least I give credit where credit is due since my PS3 is the only BluRay player in our house to begin with.

Regardless of the above, I'm not too worried about it. Thanksgiving between uncle and nephew is good enough for me :)

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UPDATE TIME!

I resumed my playthrough for Panzer Dragoon Orta during Xbox's 10th Anniversary. After months since my last play it took me a bit to understand the "simplistic" controls again. I reached as far as Chapter 9 and already aware this is a short game, I am eager to scratch this out of my backlog list soon (hopefully). But I do intend to play the original Panzer Dragoon once I get to it.

I finally bought a brand new eShop game for once! Well, a 3D port I suppose. It took me over a day to beat Kirby's Adventure and managed to get a 78% completion after the playthrough was finished. I savored every moment. Took the time to try out most/all of the enemies' abilities and all that. Anyway I intend to get to 100% when I get the chance and until then this is the third Kirby game I beaten (Kirby's Dream Land and Epic Yarn being the first two, in that order).

I'm still waiting for Skyward Sword to be shipped. Moving on...

Because I couldn't resist, I bought Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection at the local Kmart earlier tonight. I'm contemplating whether to play this now or after the semester is done. Then again I'm holding off on Dark Souls and Skyward Sword until then. I don't know, I'm so confused here. *sigh*

Lastly, I'll be taking a photography course next semester. Hopefully what little I learned from Pokemon Snap and Beyond Good & Evil will pay off :D

With that, update is over. :P

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Until next time, See Ya!

6h05tly

My iPhone 4S arrived this past weekend. I disabled Siri because as much as I liked Computer from Star Trek: TNG, I was never interested in using it on the go. My home screen's wallpaper is a pic of our cat. The 8MP camera is amazing (and a lot better than the 3MP ala my then-iPhone 3GS). I can finally play Infinity Blade without any worries of slowdown. And I love the crisp display, almost like there's no pixelation at all.

Despite wrapping up the remaining weeks I have left for the fall term, I had a few moments to play some of my game library. The tower area in Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare) doesn't take itself lightly. It's a timed-specific mission and I've yet to reach the top. I'm slightly improving so it'll take me a bit to beat this part of the game.

I played a little bit of Dark Souls recently, but only so I could soul-farm in the Darkroot area. It took me a while to get the method right, however I won't be dependent on this area so I'll level up whatever stats I need before resuming more on my current progress.

Shortly after my iPhone 4S was activated, I purchased Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (it was on sale for $1) and after playing the first two areas, I much prefer playing the PSN version (in which I should get back to playing, one of these days).

Last night I played a little bit of Ocarina of Time (original, not Master Quest) via OoT 3D and I'm currently in the process of completing it 100% much like I did when I played the N64 original. I mainly collected Skulltulas (which I'm now at the halfway mark) and a few heart pieces while as Child Link.

Despite my concerns regarding the 3DS, I'm willing to give it another shot. Given that I mentioned that Skyward Sword will be my last game purchase for the year, Super Mario 3D Land might break that oath. Then again I really don't need to buy it this holiday (unless if I see any deals for it on Black Friday or something), but in the end I might just wait until early next year to purchase it. Speaking of which...

http://danjstine.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/comic-project-ghost-in-2012-perhaps/

I think I mentioned this comic-related project earlier on a previous blog or two this year. I'm going to at least try to get started on it early next year. I hope. *sigh*

:P

This is a multiplatform post regarding The Legend of Zelda. The GS post is basically commentary on some of the GS posts I made relating to the series. I also included the links although you'll have to copy/paste them due to my recent issues making URL coding on the site's blog editor. I consider this post to be an afterthought of my past archives on Zelda.

The WordPress post, which can be seen on my blogsite (link at very end of post), is a retrospective on the Zelda games I played in chronological order. Much like my other blog posts over the years, both are text-heavy. And with that, my afterthoughts on my previous GS Zelda blogs:

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The 6h05t's Discussions: The Next Zelda Predictions

http://www.gamespot.com/users/6h05tly/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25509012

Summary: My predictions of the next Wii Zelda title. (Posted on August 18, 2008)

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Longer Dungeons: According to what I've read, Skyward Sword's dungeons are a bit… different. My guess is that my save/warp points part kinda compliments this. Sort of. I don't know...

Non-Linear Sidequests: What the heck was I thinking when I thought of this?!

Challenging Boss Fights: Check.

Innovative Puzzles: With SS using WiiMotionPlus that's another Check.

An Enormous Hyrule: If you count Wind Waker in the Sky then I suppose that leads to Check #3.

Voice Acting (Except Link) & Orchestrated Music: I'm an idiot to add voice acting on here but the orchestrated music part was a surprise. Half a Check.

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6h05tly in Dream Land: New Zelda?!!

http://www.gamespot.com/users/6h05tly/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25715901

Summary: A Zelda Wii dream I had at the time. (Posted on August 14, 2009)

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This was around the time I had really weird video game-like dreams. This Zelda dream however was something I didn't expect. This was a few months after Nintendo showed off the first artwork for Skyward Sword at E3. I hardly have these sorts of dreams anymore, however after having this particular dream I had this dream later on about one of my stories but in the lines of a reboot. That was weird and since then I've been drawing some designs that complimented that specific dream. I still need to watch the rest of Inception, now that I think about it :P

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The Greatest Game Ever Made

http://www.gamespot.com/users/6h05tly/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25814927

Summary: After years of debate between SMB3 and OoT, I concluded that OoT is my favorite game ever. (Posted on April 12, 2010)

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To keep it short and sweet: It was lengthy. It was lengthy. It was (you get the picture). Basically it took me this long to actually come with a final decision between the two shortly before I made this post. It was a watershed moment in my part since I should've made such a decision a very long time ago. Zelda definitely changed my life more than its capabilities of a gaming experience. I added more about my thoughts about OoT on tonight's WordPress post. In the end it's still a game I still continue to talk and praise about to this very day.

Oh, and this was also the first time I overkilled the length of my blog posts (so never mind the 'short and sweet' part on this particular segment).

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The Plumber: A Memoir by 6h05tly

http://www.gamespot.com/users/6h05tly/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25828327

Summary: Nothing to do with Zelda but it highly influenced tonight's WordPress post. (Posted on May 24, 2010)

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Much like how this Mario reflection blog played out, I spent the first half of the week listing all the Zelda games I played in my lifetime. The Mario blog was easy since I added the games in the order of their respected release, however with Zelda I wanted to reverse that and put them in the order of first-played to recently played. This was very difficult to do since not only did I had to list the games by release but also had to remember the exact years I bought/played them. Thankfully my photographic memory was mostly accurate with the timelines and began improvising each of them using 1-2 brief paragraphs (despite being a lengthy read). Overall, I hope everyone who's able to read my WP post will understand how much I appreciate the series much like I continue to do so with the Mario franchise.

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The Seven Sages, The Seven Teachings

http://www.gamespot.com/users/6h05tly/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25884797

Summary: A little project I did where I merged the sages from Ocarina of Time with the Seven Grandfather Teachings based on my Ojibwe heritage. Feedback was very well received. (Posted on November 16, 2010)

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This was one of the best written posts I made in my years on GameSpot. My passion of both properties was something I never expected in ever doing, and yet they both complimented one another very well after I published it. Most blogs I wrote didn't have much thought except to keep my readers informed on the happenings of yours truly, but it's blogs like this containing creativity and effort are the ones I tend to enjoy the most. I try to come up with various ideas to make my blogs interesting instead of dull, and regardless of length either (which is something I still need to work on). But other than that, and despite a number of grammatical errors, I really enjoyed the thought process during its conception.

You can read it if you're interested.

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Blogsite Post

http://danjstine.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/zelda-my-trip-to-the-past/

6h05tly

http://danjstine.deviantart.com/#/d4fh6ek

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I preordered The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword about a week ago. I didn't bother getting the gold remote bundle given that I couldn't motivate myself to spend $150-something on Amazon.com. (I'm unsure if the bundle is still at that price range at this very minute. No matter. I already have a WiiMotion Plus attachement anyway.)

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I managed to beat James Bond 007 (Game Boy) this past weekend. I spent the past 10-something years on an in-and-out routine on the last stage. I realized it was a lot easier than I expected it'd be. And it took me 10 years to figure it out too. Ugh.

(I posted a blog about the above Game Boy title but due to broken HTML errors and constant failed attempts to fix them, I had to delete that particular post. If anyone is interested, I wrote a review several years ago. Dig around my Reviews page to find it.)

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I'm currenty working on a new blog which I'm hoping to post by the end of the week. It will be Zelda-related since Skyward Sword is just weeks away from its release date. The blog of course will be posted on my WordPress site though I'll discuss some things about the series exclusively on my GS profile.

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Until next time, LISTEN!!!

6h05tly

I played the Co-Op mode a few times, but only when I helped a few of my PSN friends earn their respected trophies. That's isn't to say it's a bad thing for me given that "cooperation" played a big part during those sessions.

However, I never had the chance to exprience this mode in full. I tried to but it was pretty difficult setting an arrangement up both online and offline back then. Because of my lack of success I had to put co-op on hold, and eventually indefinitely.

I recently reavaluated my then-unanimous decision.

I'm not too worried about earning a Platinum anytime soon since I can worry about that when I decide to do so (I've already earned all of the single-player trophies and some of the co-op trophies on my last rendezvous). However I'll be giving it another shot, perhaps via splitscreen if I can find anyone in the household who is interested: either my sister or our pets (I doubt the dog and cat will even consider).

I'm not going to re-embark on this afterthought-related mode until my semester comes to a close. That way I'll have 3 weeks of free time before my last college semester begins come January.

That's pretty much I wanted to say for tonight's post.

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Also (and unrelated to Portal 2), I preordered The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I decided to order the standard release since $150-70 for the Gold Remote bundle on Amazon is just too much. As much as I wanted to, I'm okay with my WiiMotionPlus investment ala several months ago. :P

I wrote this late last night.

http://danjstine.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/pennies-nintendos-losses/

(Stupid broken links.)

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UPDATE: I had to unfortunately cancel the below Roulette Gaming thing I was planning on doing this past weekend. Realized it would be a bad idea considering my academic routine. Then again my efforts to bring back the Roulette-related blogs didn't work out as I planned. I don't have the links but if you want to see those particular blogs (or for those who want to revisit them), search around the August-December 2010 timeline of my blog archives here. There should be two (Sonic and Donkey Kong Country).

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[OCT 28]

Now with that out of the way, an update regarding my Gaming Roulette weekend thingamagig (see previous blog post). In other words, I'll mention the end results here since I don't want to bother posting another WP blog to avoid confusion.

This was the Roulette box I made. Well, tweaked via Wii Wheel box. Anyone get the joke? :P

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Now unto the first five picks:

I'M SO SORRY NEON :cry:

Ugh, this was not what I had in mind. It sucks to be honest. My predicted five I really wanted to pick out of the list were Panzer Dragoon Orta, Perfect Dark, 3D Dot Game Heroes, DKCR, and Donkey Kong '94 (which made it to the above choices, but still...)

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Now to pick the three out of five via another roulette...

So much for DK '94 but it is what it is :P

As mentioned, I'll be playing these three only at night this weekend but you can keep up with my progress on the chosen three via my Backloggery account:

http://www.backloggery.com/6h05tly

(Once again, ugh...)

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In other news, I purchased Game Dev Story via iPhone this afternoon. After playing it most of the afternoon, I am in awe by its everything. And with that, I highly recommend it to anyone owning an Apple iOS or Android device. So far it's an 8.5 out of 10 :)

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Okay, I'm done typing for now. See Ya!

6h05tly

Blog

I also updated my blogsite's banner, if anyone didn't notice yet.

The original self-portrait can be seen here.

:P

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UPDATED: If you're having trouble accessing the above links, copy/paste the below URLs:

https://danjstine.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/gaming-backlog-roulette-oct-11/

http://danjstine.deviantart.com/#/d4dydk8

I told you I would be in touch ;)

Blog

Until next time, See Ya!

6h05tly