Sam the Man's Gaming Blog

Somebody set up us the Googlebomb!

2005-09-14T15:04:00.000-04:00

Or maybe I posted it. I'd like to delete this blog, but I'd hate to damage the Googlebombing.

Decisions, decisions...

Googlebomb!

2005-01-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

The Epitome of True Evil.

Horrid Operating System.

Post a link to "http://www.microsoft.com/" with the containing text "The Epitome of True Evil."

Post a link to "http://www.microsoft.com/windows/" with the containing text "Horrid Operating System."

<a href=http://www.microsoft.com/>The Epitome of True Evil</a>. would do it.

2004-09-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a while, because I've been on vacation. I have gotten Metroid Fusion, a Metroid Prime 2 bonus disk, and an obscure game called Amazing Island. Amazing Island is a monster creation/button masher game. Not a great combination, but the monster creation part is good.

"$33: Cheap!"?

2004-08-25T13:47:00.001-04:00

I went to the 99¢ (and up) store yesterday and bought what was probably the most expensive item: a gaming console resembling a PSone, but with a SNES style disk slot. It played 8-bit games. It looked kinda shoddy, but I didn't think it would have false advertising. I played a couple of games in the store, and scrolled quickly through the list, but I didn't play each game, or even more than a few of them. On the box, it claims to have 76 games built in, but when you play a number of the games, you realize that some are just hacks of other games that begin in later levels or only let you access certain parts, and most are just plain duplicates. Currently, I estimate that there are only about 20 games built in, possibly less. After trying to return it to the store, I have contacted the Dept. of Consumer Affairs to see if they can keep other people from getting ripped off like this.
I also have a moral issue today: Should I get ads on this blog like the ones that were here before, supplied by Google and based on the blog's content? Please comment ASAP.

The Gravity Chamber Glitch...

2004-08-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

...is indeed common in Metroid Prime. If you shoot the ice covering the grapple point and then leave the room, the grapple point becomes nonfunctional. I must have shot the ice, fallen in the water, and left the room via an underwater door to get back to high ground, thereby permanantly losing that missle expansion. In the Midgar division, Final Fantasy characters have been sweeping the matches. Sephiroth seems to be the obvious choice in tomorrow's fight, but there is the little matter of Sly Cooper being able to cast Stop quickly without using MP (he doesn't have any MP).

Ahhhhrrrrrggggg!

2004-08-20T12:33:00.000-04:00

I beat Metroid Prime, but was unable to find that last missle expansion despite extensive research, 3D maps, a checklist of every missle expansion in the game, an Official Nintendo Strategy Guide(™) and internet access. I think it may be blocked off by a glitch in the Gravity Chamber's grapple point, but I'm not sure.

Unfinished business

2004-08-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

Since the last post: I unearthed my Spy Vs.Spy GBC game, (which lets you hear what the Spys' laughs sound like: "hehehehehe"), and completed it. I bought Metroid Prime (again) and am trying to complete it. I have decided to complete any game I buy as long as it doesn't suck (Sonic Heroes), or is not worth the time it takes to complete (Pokemon), because "that's the kind of guy I am this week" (Homer Simpson). I realized something about the Gamefaqs character battles: Megaman can't win because he can't hurt humans, right? I think the Master Chief may have a chance to win this year.

Tales of Symphonia

2004-08-11T12:34:00.000-04:00

I completed Tales of Symphonia a little while ago, although I missed most of the ending because I had the text speed set on instant display. It is a great RPG, if you don't mind walking all the way back out of most dungeons without being healed after beating the boss. If you are a GCN owner, you should consider buying this. I don't know if it can compete with FFVII, but it does have real time battles. And good graphics.

MediEvil 2 completed

2004-08-06T08:20:00.001-04:00

I finished MediEvil 2 with 100% items and got the "bad" ending. If you think that's ironic, you should see the ending.

Revenge of the Spammed

2004-08-03T15:03:00.000-04:00

This guy has done what we all want to do: Get back at those Nigerian Bank Account scammers. I, personally, have to spend about 20 minutes daily deleting just that particular variety of spam (not to mention the time it spends downloading). Oddly enough, it seems that some of these guys are at least as stupid as their intended victims...
In other news, a crazy lady on the A train "couldn't help but gloat" over the fact that everyone else will burn in hell with "maggots eating (our) flesh". Not her, though. She is going to "rise up" when she dies and go straight to heaven. No reason was given for why she was so sure about this, but she did laugh hysterically several times. Her parting shot was, "Goodbye to you and your maggots...mwahahahaha!" It's good to see that the mentally disturbed are still riding the subway. This particular one may be here for the RNC, later this month.

Gamefaqs.com Character battle prediction

2004-08-03T07:48:00.000-04:00

This prediction is based on the way I would vote, which is based on "Who would win in a fight". Note that being well-known does give you an advantage in a fight. Some weird semifinalists (Guybrush Threepwood, Ratchet) and an unexpected battle in the finals of new vs. old, X-Box graphics vs. lousy graphics, single player RPG vs. online play, etc.: Cloud Strife vs. the Master Chief. Seeing as, in FFVII, a hail of bullets from a main character has about the same power as one of Cloud's normal attacks, there are two factors: limited ammo and limit breaks. Cloud Strife manages to hold on to the World Champ title for a another year!

MediEvil II

2004-08-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

I bought MediEvil II yesterday, since the first game was so good. It seems to be more action-oriented, unlike the original, which was more puzzle-based. Today, August 1, marks the beginning of the Gamefaqs.com character battle, as well as a new WWWF Grudge Match (hopefully). The first Gamefaqs character battle is Link (former character battle champ) vs. CATS (of Zero Wing infamy). Poor CATS. Looks like all his vote are belong to Link.

The Badger Song Revisited

2004-07-24T19:42:00.000-04:00

I watched the badger song again, and it seems that I was remembering wrong how it goes (I thought it was "aah! a snake;ahh! a snake!", but it's actually something like "ahh! a snake,.a snake, a snake, oh no; a snake.") I played a very cool but not all that well-known video game called MediEvil, which involves a jawless, one-eyed skeleton rising from the grave to make up for having been a phony hero in life. The one problem with this game is that 100% completion is not much more difficult than just playing through the game normally. Like FFVII, the game's cinema sequences look really good in comparison to the gameplay graphics. If you can find this game in stores, get it! (I don't believe in paying for shipping when it costs almost as much as the thing being shipped.)

Good news and bad news

2004-07-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

As he said in a previous comment, Julian just installed Red Hat on my dead badg...uh, I mean laptop. See his comment for details. In other news, you know how they don't show any new shows on TV in the summer (at least in my experience)? The same seems to be true for video games, which seem to have nothing important being released between June and whenever Nintendo DS is released. I think it's sometime in late August, and is a helluva lot cheaper than the N-Gage (Well, maybe the same after all those rebates for N-Gage, but it's probably better).

Spiderman 2 again

2004-07-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

I completed the last chapter of Spiderman 2 ("The First Day of the Rest of Your Life"), in which the only mission is to get 50,000 points, last night. After completing the chapter requirements, you go to the really final chapter, "The Second Day of the Rest of Your Life", which can be considered the post-story-mode section of the game. This chapter has no required missions, but the final upgrade is unlocked, so what you do is just go around fighting crime (to get enough points to buy that upgrade) and getting the rest of the awards and secrets. Oh, and the game IS still fun at that point. This game may have started out as just another GTA imitator, but it has turned out to be a unique classic.

What is a Plog?

2004-07-13T13:25:00.001-04:00

Now, not only do I have a blog, I have a Plog! What, you ask, is a Plog? Well, I don't exactly understand it myself, but it's something like the personalized recommendationsthing, except with a different name so that it rhymes with "blog". Go figure.

Spiderman 2

2004-07-13T13:15:00.001-04:00

Shortly after seeing Spiderman 2, which is excellent, I got the game. All those terrible game reviews you have been reading are just wrong. The game is great fun to play, even after you finish the main story very quickly.

Installing Linux on the PC equivalent of a dead badger

2004-07-12T13:40:00.000-04:00

I got a book called "Linux for the Non-Geek" (as I consider myself a Non-Geek, but certainly not a Dummy), which contains CDs of Fedora Core. Unfortunately, my computer is an original CompUSA Amerinote with 64 MB of RAM, and a 4 GB hard disk. This is an ancient model of PC, and so no one knows what the maximum RAM is anyway, and it is not even sold anywhere. My Mac LC 520 has even less disk space and RAM, and the family IBook is off-limits, of course. Even if it is possible, it seems silly to spend a lot of money to upgrade a computer that can hardly run Minesweeper without crashing. In fact, a dead badger would be good in comparison. If anyone has one, please let me know.

About time...

2004-07-08T17:04:00.001-04:00

I beat Final Fantasy 7!
SPOILER WARNING!

Now I know anime characters are known for becoming powerful when they get angry, but when Cloud learned his ultimate limit break (special attack) without the normally required manual or lower-level limit breaks, then got enough power to use it on Sephiroth, I sort of found ot hard to believe. The attack animation, however, was so cool that I almost forgot the difficult to believe event. Then I remembered it, while writing this post.

END OF SPOILER
Anyway, you should get this game. It's the great video game epic.

And the Vice Presidential candidate is Geph...Uh, Edwards

2004-07-07T11:40:00.000-04:00

I got a copy of the NY Post "exclusive" revealing that Richard Gephardt is the Democratic Party's candidate for vice-prez. Too bad he isn't. I'll sell a copy on E-bay, and then I'll be rich! Rich, I tells ya! In gaming news, Spiderman two has gotten lousy reviews, and I am up to the final boss in FFVII. I also got a Bronze medal Grudgie award from The WWWF Grudge-match..

Living Environment regents

2004-06-18T19:54:00.000-04:00

The Living Environment Regents exam is seriously easy.

First real post

2004-06-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

This morning I played Super Smash Bros. Melee, because my PS2 is being borrowed, and so I can't play FFVII without hooking up my PS1. Mostly practiced as Roy, working on that forward-B combo. Still not great, but better than it was. Not much being released for the summer, except the probably over-hyped Spiderman 2, but in the fall, we will see a ton of sequels, such as Ratchet and Clank 3, Halo 2, new Pokemon games (with wireless link!) GTA: San Andreas, Paper Mario 2, etc. The list goes on... :-)
Should probably be studying for regents exam in 3 hours.

First post

2004-06-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

The focus of this blog is video games. Subjects may include upcoming game releases and what game I'm playing today.