A glimpse at the ghost of GameSpot's future?

Ridiculous! Unfathomable!

I've cancelled my Total Access subscription to GS.

We love you, Jeff!

Last night while playing Okami I discovered that if you press the x button while a "now loading" page is loading you can paw mark up the screen. I thought little of it. Then after literally at least an hour and a half, (I had to pause it to take a break occasionally), of battling the second spider you encounter in the game, (after you gain the ability to dig through tougher soil there is a place up hill from Ryoshima Coast with a hole in the ground which is this second spider's lair and a wearisome battle to win.), once I was finally victorious I was so pissy that when the load screen started I furiously hit the x button filling the screen with paw prints and low and behold I got a Demon Fang! I've tried to do it on every load screen since and I've gotten a fang about 5 or 6 other times so far.

When it was explained earlier in the game that if you finish off imps or monsters when they're basically dead with another power stroke or some other special move you'll get a demon fang, I forgot about it probably because I quit soon thereafter and it never mentioned it again when I came back to the game. So needless to say, I've been lacking in fangs and this other way of getting them may make it possible for me to finally get enough to trade something for them eventually, yeah!

I should complain about how much tedious running you have to do when battling the spider while waiting for a chance to stun it, (once you do the camera is often uncooperative so you can't draw the vines which are themselves difficult to write in whichever exacting way the game wants - it may look like the line extends fron the center of the open bud to the hook in a firm mildly wavy line but that doesn't mean you'll actually get a vine for your pretty brush stroke every time. I also noticed that when you try to place the brush in the very center of the flower the brush loses it's fluidity of movement and kind of skips around. I tried a couple different controllers, but it skips/hops across where you want to place the brush in the center regardless of whether you use a wireless controller or a standard wired Sony dual shock), frankly it's taken up too much of my life so far. The spiders, the second one especially, bug. Not because they're challenging, their battles are just too time consuming and tedious; I didn't feel satisfied when it was over, I felt like you do after finally getting out of heavy traffic, tired and bored.


Free Demon Fangs for all!

Season 3 of Deadwood is about to commence!
Huzzah!
Come one and all for the many imponderables Deadwood has to offer. You best beware if you're susceptible to falling **** struck or tend to shy from egregious abominations and disorder. Stay clear of the swine and watch your tongue as you pass for you'll be held accountable for your insults.

We knew it was going to happen because hbo said the Fisher family was coming "full circle" and the series began with the father's death, a perfect story arc. It's just really awful, one of the best dramas ever written, but wow. The show never failed to hit hard and I feel wiped out since the end of tonight's episode.
It made me weep. And smile.
Whew. At least it wasn't the very last episode. I'll really miss the Fisher's. (Glad I already own seasons 1&2 on dvd. I'll be getting the entire series eventually.)

If you've never given Six Feet Under a chance rent season 1 and go from there; seeing it all together may pull you in - I don't see how it couldn't.

While I've been illin I've watched the new XFiles dvd box set Abduction, and it's reminded me of a short lived online game that I never notice anyone ever mention at GS. I'm referring to the game Majestic. I started playing it - perhaps it was mid 2000 - when it was only available online as a download, later that fall it was available in stores. As soon as 9.11.2001 happened they shut down the game the same day and it stayed that way permanently.

The Majestic wasn't a really great game but it was pretty good expecially for it's innovations. The game play was unique in that it tried to interact with you as a regular person. You would play a character that was sort of like being Mulder and were involved in uncovering a goverment cover-up. The Majestic refers to the same MJ that are spoken of in the xfiles. In the game you would have to do online research sometimes at real sites, (HAARP, seti, nasa, mapquest, etc.), and sometimes sites the game had rigged. You would communicate with other real players that you could talk about the game/mystery as well as game characters that would give you information to set you onto your next mission via AIM. You could also get actual phone calls at home, (kinda cheesy but not too bad acting), with info that would set you off into another part of the mystery. The puzzles weren't too bad. You could more out of the game the more extra research you did on your own, but you could just follow the basic trail of info to progress through if you didn't have the time or interest to go deeper and the game would still be fun and interesting. It didn't seem to be getting much of an audience when I was playing it though, and then I never got to finish it! They decided that in the current political climate a game investigating the US government wasn't "kosher". The game covered everything from Areas 27 and 51 and x graymen to Psy-ops and nanotechnology, and Project Aquarius. That's what I remember from it anyway.

Did anyone else have any experience with this game?

I got the game Phantom Dust for a mere $20 and have been extremely pleased with my purchase.

The anime and strategy are what sold me on the game before I bought it. The cover is very underwhelming. I had overlooked it a number of times before but after seeing it on xplay (4/5) I bought it.

When I first started it up there was a lot of slow animation shots and a little bit of a story intro that was long enough to maybe keep people from giving it a chance. Then I got into the beginings of gameplay and it seemed a little simple; I was afraid I was going to be disappointed in the game. But once you've been introduced to all the elements of a battle (all skills) and are able to make your own lists of skills it is very rewarding, more challenging and most importantly acutally really fun!

There isn't really any free roaming and you can't interact with anything for the most part but before entering certain battles the story progresses nicely and the battles are where it's at, of course. But, I should point out that battles aren't static, you must constantly run, aid partners, dodge and defend yourself while locking on to opponents and throwing skills. On the field you start with 3 spheres (each sphere is a skill) you can only have 4 at a time at your disposal because you assign them to the 4 controller buttons (y,x,a,b). After you grab a sphere so you can have the skill to use, another sphere will take it's place over time; before you get to make your own lists of skills, the spheres you get are randomly aquirred in the earlier battles. You have to use the best skill at the best time, and time the grabbing of skills in order to get the next ones to appear when you need them. It doesn't seem as complicated as my description may seem once you're actually playing the game.

It is all about simply throwing skills so you don't get crazy Jade Empire action effects or anything but this game is truely fun.

If I unexpectedly tire of it quickly I will say so, but for now - check it out! $20!

- I forgot 'cause I don't have xbox live - but there are multiplay options too, including xbox live.

I 'm really excited about picking up Jade Empire tomorrow! All I'm doing tomorrow is playing that game :)