The Hyur watches as his Hume brothers will die a painful death in the next few months

To quote a true veteran player on the FFXIAH.com forums, the new expansion/DLC is "the same old shit with this update, just more waste of time." So why are you still playing? I know why I am back to playing. I've bought the game twice and originally played at release and I don't have one level 75 character to show for it. Should I just quit while I'm behind and wait to crush it when FFXIV comes out? The money doesn't concern me. Assuming I end up going to Korea, I really do have it to burn.

There's no bonus for importing FFXI characters so why are you still trying? Maybe because your discount laptop can't begin to dream of running the FFXIV benchmark? I know my computer scored "Low." Which is exactly what I scored when the original FFXI benchmark came out. This time around, I don't feel bad because I know the Japanese still can't make optimized code to save their lives in the gaming industry.

I don't even know why I want a 75 anymore. It'll take me at least a month to hit 75. Probably another two weeks to hit the new cap of 80. I'll be taking a month break to get adjusted to life in Korea. That leaves me with about two weeks to enjoy my capped RDM. Two weeks to try my hand at a Dynamis, or Sky, or Sea (whatever those are) and you know go after all my merit points. You would be mistaken to think for a second that I'll be playing FFXI once FFXIV comes out. I'm not 14 anymore, I don't have that kind of time to waste. So should I quit already? I feel like I'm at that point. Maybe my friend Scot is just rubbing off on me.

They never did finish this one...

I picked up Alpha Protocol on Steam (a week before the massive summer sale, which makes me furious) much to the dismay of my friends and against the multitude of reviews bashing the game. I've been waiting for this game since Obsidian announced it forever ago. I was ready to see what they could do on their own without Bioware's legacy backing them up. In conclusion, Alpha Protocol was a pretty awesome ride.

Okay, so I lied, it wasn't awesome. It was actually mediocre in practice. However, the overall experience isn't a slow plodding treadmill of mediocrity. It's the logical conclusion from the two extremes. It's like Obisidian knew what they were good at (traditional CRPG sequels) and then they saw Mass Effect and decide "Oh noes, look what our big brother is doing, we can do that too!" In effect, they took their same buggy, unfinished approach and make something even more lackluster of an engine than the depressing experience that is Neverwinter Nights 2. Every single weapon except from assault rifles are depressing in their purest state. However, a lot reviews discredited pistols as useless when all the pistol abilities are disgusting good. Chain Shot and aiming criticals out of cover are almost broken good. I'm digressing from the overall experience though.

The first thing you need to do is play the game as a spy. The game likes to suggest at times, that you can be some sort of super Rambo agent. Don't do it. You will just be frustrated in the beginning and laughing at the foolishness by the end (in a, this makes no sense, sort of fashion). Alpha Protocol rewards stealth and takedowns almost religiously. Only one part of the game literally forced me to fight. When I say it forced me, I mean, I engaged by overpowered instant stealth power and my attackers still saw me and began to beat the living snot out of me. Shame on me for paying in to a broken system and never leveling my hand to hand skills. I wish I had recorded that fight, I barely survived and abused the poor a.i. Now that I think about it, I only survived the Taiwan boss fight due to abusable A.I. pathfinding while my broken stealth skill recharged. Man, I want to complain about the poor a.i. but there are times when I feel like they left it in the game because of how broken some of the fights can be if you're not specialized in killing things. Again, shame on me for maximizing stealth.

So I say play the game as a spy but I complain about the game severely punishing me for it. Well, outside of staged battles, most of the game is stupid easy (as I played on hard mode as the recruit class) if you invest in stealth. Being able to turn invisible at a moments notice is stupid good for stabbing multiple people in the face without so much as chime on the alarms. Man, Alpha Protocol is such a broken and horribly executed game that I can't believed I enjoyed it so much.

The game likes to make you pick locks and hack keypads. I didn't level the skill to make any of this easier. Honestly, they get stupid hard about halfway through without skill in sabotage. So hard, I couldn't actually pass them with the Xbox controller. I had to switch the controls to keyboard and mouse (you can't use both at the same time for some reason) and use the extra speed and precision from the mouse to key the job done. By the way, did I mention that the game is nearly unplayable with a keyboard and mouse? The mouse smoothing makes the stiff WASD movement horrendous. I found myself sitting out of cover and running the wrong way in to cameras and guards far too often for the super spy I like to play. Plug in a X360 controller and it's smooth sailing...of course until you need to crack a safe or bypass a door, which is pretty often actually...

All the reviews are true, the game has bad (often laughable) combat, depressingly poor a.i., and nearly last generation graphical presentation. So what is there to love? Well if you really like role-playing games, you're going to love Alpha Protocol's story. People say it's good but they're used to Mass Effects crap about killer robots from deep space that jump through a lot of hoops to destroy lifeforms instead of just firing a giant laser beam. Modern entertainment magazine don't even recognize greatness these days. Let's forgive them for ripping the Burn Notice style introduction, the character interactions and story depth truly shines in this game. In fact, it's been the best story experience since The Witcher. Scratch that, in many ways, it's more enjoyable than The Witcher. The shining points are the dossier and the relationship on characters. Actively finding intel on characters will affect available decisions and story options. Building relationships with them will also affect how the missions play out. For what the story lacks in depth and scope it makes up for in its dynamic nature. Honestly, Obsidian should just fire all their programmers and project managers since they can't code for crap and fail to release games in a timely fashion but give all the writers a nice Christmas bonus along with contracts to work for CD Projekt and add some dynamic nature to The Witcher 2 (which may be taken care of if the press info I'm reading is any indication; don't even begin to talk about the simple forks, that often break the quest mind you, from the first game count as dynamic storytelling). Or maybe, Obsidian should send them to BioWare and...wait nevermind BioWare is owned by EA and doomed to make trash for the rest of its existence (ME2 showed the signs of being a generic mainstream title, I can't imagine what horrors are in store for Dragon Age 2 or any new IP assuming EA lets them take a break from making ME15 over their lifetime).

Ugh, I'm burned out with hatred and frustration now. If you like story (which you know, is the reason people play RPGs) then Alpha Protocol is the game for you. If you want something to tide you over until ME3 drops this fall/winter, then pass over Alpha Protocol. In fact, you should probably run far away from anyone with a copy. If you look at it with mainstream shades, the game is a horrid piece of trash. But if you can ignore all that, then by all means -- enjoy the story of espionage and betrayal that leads to lasting homicidal friendships. Not nearly worth the fifty bones I dropped on it but definitely an easy purchase at $30 or less (did I mention how much I hate Steam and their sales at times?!).

NOTE: My reviews are highly subjective and never based on pure rational thought. Trust my opinion, it's often fueled by Haterade and to be taken with a heavy amount of salt.

I don't have a lot to expand upon. I got a lot to do and I really don't have the time to do it. I don't expect to be working for much longer, I really need to free up time to get everything taken care of. Maybe next time I post, I'll work up the energy to share my views on a variety of current events.

Until then, lets all wait for E3 and inevitably more information on Final Fantasy XIV.

I will not be attending Xanbats #3 this week. Oh well, my Ibuki needs a lot work anyway. I might just give up on the season. Missing two rounds and going 2 and out last week don't make my chances very good.

Tried practicing today, my PP ended up getting cut in half. On the bright side, my execution has improved again. SJC from target combo in to command dash is almost ready for battle. My next goal is to actually learn the overhead link and jab to strong link. Also on the docket, I need to incorporate command dash and backdash in to my play style. Definitely need less slide and no more jump in kunai. It's coming along though.

Still don't know for sure about Korea and I don't expect to for a month. That's okay though, right now I need to focus on this TEFL course. Which has been hard because there's so much I want to do. My mind has been filled with game designs and it sucks to put the dream on hold but I think I'm doing the right thing. If everything works out, I'll be in a much better place to develop titles and build a team.

Interesting posts are on the way, I'm going to kick it in to overdrive this week. In the meantime, what are you doing? Comment or e-mail me with the details or a link to your blog.

For starters, I needed some cash. I took up a job working for a pretty well known store franchise. I'm not going to say which one because, I may very well rant about it later and I'm not here to smear anyone's name when I vent on my personal blog (well sometimes, but not for this). Even so, a lot of people have jobs and still manage to blog. Unfortunately, my job calls me in anywhere between 10PM and 4AM and I usually work a 10+ hour shift. So, whatever daylight I have left gets spent on...

Getting things in place to go to Korea. I finally sent off my application packet for EPIK. I had my recruiter interview, EPIK interview, and preliminary offer already. Now they just need to review my paperwork and send me a real contract. Yeah, throw me in the category of the JET-rejects that decided to hop on the Korea boat. There's more to it but I don't mind be put in that box.

So, in preparation for going to Korea, my recruiter suggested I take a TEFL course through ITTT. Now, I really have no time as I have to drop 100 hours in one month in order to receive my certification on time. If that wasn't enough...

I was working on getting my first game prototype out. I say was because my computer's hard drive is pretty much dead at this point a long with all the project code I had so far. Fortunately, I suppose, I wasn't far a long so I didn't lose much but without a dedicated machine, I'm not about to tackle a one-man game development show right now.

Those are the major things going on with me. I'm still volunteering on the weekends and occasionally I'm helping my dad out. Whatever free time I do find right now gets dumped in to practicing Ibuki in Super Street Fighter 4. I should talk more about SSF4 later. For now, look for some more personal focused posts and wish my luck with my Korea placement. I'm hoping I haven't sent my documents too late.

The App Library is Lacking

It's kind of expected that there wouldn't be a lot of apps with the new operating system. It doesn't help that the N900 is the only Maemo device on the market and it's not exactly priced for mass consumption.  Consequently, there are really only a handful of apps sitting in the Ovi Store and you're best bet is to just add the Maemo Extras repository and run through the free database. Maemo Extras is littered with goodies like non-Jabber (AIM, Yahoo, etc.) support, an SSH server, widgets, and media utilities. However, I still don't have a solid game I want to play on my phone not that it really matters...

The Battery Sucks

To be fair, the battery is actually really good. It's just that between the wifi, fm transmitter, 3.5" 800x480 screen, and multi-tasking apps on a 600mhz processor, you tend to run out of power pretty fast. I can't imagine how bad it'd be if I had 3G running. You can easily expected a day with high-moderate/low-heavy usage. Don't expect much more than that though. I'm pretty sure I max out around 26 hours myself. Just for a feeler, I keep the Facebook widget running, an RSS widget, my e-mail synced every hour, the weather widget every 4 hours, and podcast checks once a day, and about 4 IM services connected. That's a lot of passive internet access and processing but easily understandable. During the day I rarely use the GPS but I often use the FM transmitter while I drive. When I used to keep the GPS on for location-based status updates (pretty much a constant GPS line open), I would need to recharge near the end of the day (thinking about 6-8 hours of life). So yeah, if you really push the potential of this device, the battery will easily die before the end of the day.

Interface Quirks

I'm not going to go over something someone has done much better: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=47126

In short, there are some little things that end up bugging you. In the end you get used to it but, I'm sure we'll see things go over smoothly when Maemo 6 rolls around in late 2010.

Hardware Limitations

The N900 is one of the most powerful devices you can snag right now. Unfortunately, without all the restrictions of iPhone and other proprietary locked down devices, you can actually notice slowdown. There seems to be a constant rvalry between my media player and surfing the web. Heaven forbid we add flash and blend the lines together. For some reason, embedded Flash playback performs horribly on the N900. It most-likely has to do with the high-quality video sites like Joystiq, Vimeo, and sometimes Youtube default to. Your best bet is always downloading the video first and playing back it back separately. If you start treating your computer like a modern slimmed down laptop (like I tend to do) then you're going to realize the limits of the 600mhz processor and 128kb of RAM.

Conclusion

The device is awesome. I really like it but with these issues, it's really not an everyman's phone. Tinkering with my phone and the possibility of developing on it makes the N900 a no-brainer pick-up. Anyone else, I'd suggest they stick with S60 or wait until next year to switch to Maemo. If you're still feeling adventerous after that, by all means, pick it up and enjoy the ability to make Skype calls whenever you want (yes it works beautifully over 2.5G).

Side Note: Opera 10.5b is some sort of hotness (get it with the custom Aero Glass skin).

Addendum: Opera went crazy on me for a second and I almost lost this post. It clearly doesn't like WordPress. Probably some non-standard CSS/JS/HTML in this complex monstrosity that is one of the best blogging engines around. However, WordPress had a copy of the draft so it's all good.

It's actually that simple. I'm not saying you didn't do your job, maybe you did your job excellently. The primary reason I've seen people kicked from a party was that they decided to talk instead of play. That includes arguing with the party leader and spamming the party with foolishness. This also includes, not playing your job how the party leader has told you to play it. Everyone respects your desire to play a ninja that maximizes damage with shurikens or adds some extra nuking ability by subbing /BLM; please exercise your freedom in another party because right now we need a ninja that will shadow tank because we don't have a paladin.

That said, I don't think people get dropped from parties nearly as much as they did before. In the early days, a party leader would look at your equipment and drop you for not having +1 gear or demand you grab some food and if you didn't you could go find another party. That said, if you get kicked from a PT these days, you were most-likely a dick, deserved it, and need to reconsider your approach next time. FFXI is a cooperative game in every way, when people stop working together nothing gets done.

I met a guy once that simply said: "that's the way I am." In that case, you should go buy World of Warcraft or wait for FFXIV to come out so you can have some soloing options. FFXI is probably not the game for you.

Playing FFXI is all about partying. In fact, for your first 30 levels, you would be hard pressed to level without partying. The corner-stone of every party is a leader. Unfortunately, most people either don't know how to be a good leader or choose not to. In fact, I knew a guy who always made amazing parties yet never wanted to be the leader. I'm going to go over a few key things you can do so that my friend never has to step up and fix your horrible party.

• Make decisions and be consistent about it

No one is always right, but consistency helps build confidence. Don't let an annoying party member make decisions and undermine your authority. People who feel they know what's best regardless of whether or not the current plan is working or not. Not to say you need to rule with an iron fist, in fact that usually calls for a mutiny. It's best to make firm decisions about the group's direction but remain open to everyone's input. Everyone needs to be on the same page but you can't possibly know everything or sometimes you forget something. One way to make sure the decisions you're making for the group are right is to..

• Be informed!

Use the internet to know how to tackle your chosen campsite, what sites are good for your level range and what party setups work for what situations. Good decisions often make rational sense. It's irrational leadership that gives those annoying wannabes a chance to nitpick and undermine you. However, a good leader is a good player so...

• Know your job

This is general advice for anyone playing. Know the standards of what people expect of you. For example: if your a ninja, have Utsusemi and be ready to shadow-tank. Now one of the benefits of making your own PT is that you can play however you want but make sure you know how to do your job in the PT and create a PT so that everyone can do their job effectively.

• Prepare for a shitstorm

Parties wipe, it's part of the game. Try to be ready for it. If you're in a Fields of Valor zone, have everyone get Reraise. There's a good chance people will leave the PT before it's over. Make sure the members know they should give notice and agree on how replacements will be handled. Regardless if they agree to find a rep, you should probably be looking for replacements yourself just in case.

• Be ready to offer Skillchain + Magic Burst combinations

This one is extremely optional, skillchains have greatly fallen out of style in FFXI since leveling is a lot easier. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to find out if your melees wouldn't mind SCing for some extra damage. Again, it's not really necessary, and most people aren't macro'd properly for skillchains anyway. Remember, as the party leader you should be doing everything to attempt to maximize the party's efficiency.

• Know when it's time to close shop

A lot of PT leaders don't know when to call it a day. Eventually whole party will level a couple times and the experience take a hit. At that time, you need to get a count of the members that are ready to move to a new camp and see about possible reforming. I usually don't stay at a camp if I'm on the upper end of the level limit (being level 28 of a level 26-28 camp) and will start arranging a new plan around the time that level is hit.

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The most important things to take out of this are to: be informed, make decisions confidently, and maximize the party's efficiency. The biggest problem that most PTs have are leaders that don't know the camp so they form bad party job combinations. The best PTs have little downtime (adequate healing and timely replacements coupled with effective damage-over-time). Usually when everyone is involved, no one talks too much which means no one has a chance to be annoyed with someone else's personality.

What are you ideas for being a good party leader?

I don't like making resolutions because they're so often broken. However, I have a few things I really need to do so I went ahead and made a few. I ended up with a lot of resolutions (well to me at least, usually it's like no more than three). I'm going to go ahead and post them here, and help fulfill my final resolution.

1. Produce six games
2. Learn the top 1000 kanji
3. Read my Japanese textbooks (JSL/JWL series and Genki I)
4. Achieve Navy PRT standard
5. Cook and bake more
6. Manage a post every week

The first resolution is pretty obvious for me. I've been delaying Project Silver for the longest time (which will hopefully have some announcable progress soon). So I decided to set a deadline but it and some other game ideas I've had. Ideally, I'd like to get around to more than 6 games but as it stands, I only have about two to three ideas (including this mysterious Project Silver) that I see being done solo. I have some recruiting and brainstorming to do once those ideas are completed.

Learning kanji and finishing my textbooks are a continuation of my plans to pass JLPT 1 and spend some time living in Japan. There are a number of reasons for this that I'm not really going to get in to. Needless to say, if I get in to JET, the ability to speak and read Japanese will come in handy.

I managed to get down to about 187 pounds last summer and now I'm back to being over 200. I want to get in shape just so I can manage to live past 47. Active military personnel seem to be in pretty good shape (at least my friend Terrell does) so their requirements seem to be a good place to start.

It's easier to eat healthy, women like it, I'll save money, and House is good at it. There are a lot of reasons to get good at cooking. Baking is just added on for the extra savings. I buy a lot of Druid Circles so I'm going to try my hand at making my own cookies and what not. I've also wanted to make some bread ever since I saw Yakitake. I'm pretty sexist and I honestly think baking is a woman's thing but I guess, I'm going to go ahead and violate my owns rules until I find a woman willing to make me some cookies. I'm sure it'll be almost as much fun as cooking...maybe....

Finally, managing to post every week has proven to be difficult. The real goal is 52 posts within the year but ideally, I'd prefer to make 1 post a week. We'll see how it goes. I don't know where I'm going to find time for all of this, especially if I find a job. I guess this is one of those times where I must exceed what I think I'm capable of to achieve greatness...or something like that...

I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul. / I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul. - Nelson Mandela (Invictus)