Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
"I'm gonna rock your body till Canada Day!" (Robin Sparkles)
MNT Gaiden Bakabakashii 41 is now up.
Huzzah! I passed my OpenGL class!
I really thought I'd fail since I never got more than 50% in my assignments and midterms and my final project was quite mediocre compared to that of the other teams.
The D+ means I'll only get 1.33 credits out of 4 for this class... but it doesn't matter right now because I already have a job and the portfolio is what counts in my field anyways.
It was a close call though!
Of all the students who passed, I have the lowest score. The only other student who performed worse than myself failed the class, according to the list of grades.
I was that close of having to take that horrible class again.
This is a great day for me!
This means that I won't ever have to code again!
...unless I decide to study programming again, but that will be the day hell freezes over.
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MNT Gaiden Chapter 17
Click icon to read latest pages (p.23-31).
MNT Gaiden Bakabashii #40
Click to read the lastest short comic.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
"Candy is good in mouth." (Candy Hole)
Oookay, I'm done with my class.
I did what I could given my busy schedule.
In the end, I'd say that working fulltime while taking a 4 credits class (condensed for the summer term) didn't work out for me.
I didn't do that well in the midterms and while the assignments were supposed to help me bring my grades up, I never had enough time to do them well.
At least I won't have to worry about programming assignments, matrices and vectors for a while.
Alright, back to work now. I can concentrate on MNT Gaiden and other kinds of artworks for Otakuthon!
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
"Gee, shall I attempt further heights of ego inflation? " (Daria)
Time out for now, people.
I am going through hard times academically.
60% of my final mark for my summer class is at stake from now until the end of this week.
As I'm typing this, I'm in the process of an all-nighter to study for a test today... right after work. X__X
After this week, I'll be done with programming class until I die (unless I fail this class).
See you soon!
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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
"Cheer, cheer, cheer. Yell, yell, yell. Who cares who wins? We're all going to hell. " (Daria)
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 23 to 31 are now up.
Alright, another chunk uploaded for chapter 17.
At least 2 more chunks and we're done for this chapter. "At least", because I might want to add a few more things to make this chapter more complete.
I'm still waiting for the registration for the tables at Otakuthon to open up.
It's kind of strange though... I thought they'd be up for grabs a lot earlier than that.
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Monday, May 25th, 2009
"I see here that you took European History last year.[...]" "Oh, yeah. Napoleon, Waterworld, the A La Carta. " (Daria)
Things are going semi swimmingly for me right now!
You can expect another chunk of MNT Gaiden pages this week as soon as I recover from my recent brain cramming marathon (which wasn't of any use as I think I totally failed today's mid term).
In real life, however, I experienced the true horror of my Computer Graphics class: there is so much material to memorize and understand that the only way I could prepare for the mid term was to memorize the fricking assignment's solutions.
Of course, at the mid term, there were some questions about things that weren't even explained in class.
I had fun choosing answers randomly, I sure did! :P
I predict that I will land somewhere around 25% and 50% for this one - meaning that I'll have to put some extra effort in the assignments to actually pass this class.
While I'm at it, here's my review of "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood" on Nintendo DS.
Graphics (5/10): Something went terribly wrong here. When I saw the trailers, I thought it was a beta build of the game being previewed... to my surprise, it's pretty much the same thing in the final version, and it's not a good thing.
There was a reason I thought the previews were from a beta version: the presentation is so-so. While the effort Bioware put in the 2D backgrounds and the 3D models is commendable, the whole package is inconsistent and lacks polish.
My biggest gripes are the so-called cutscenes: the artwork in those cutscenes are butt-ugly compared to the rest of the artwork in the game... some kind of seamless experience, indeed.
Sound/music (3/10): Other than the opening "movie" which is nothing but a glorified version of a battle theme, the game's soundtrack is pretty mediocre. That's really too bad since the DS is capable of so much more... I blame the composers of the soundtrack.
The synth used for the music sounds like a NES and the compositions themselves are very much forgettable.
In other words, a huge letdown, especially since less stellar Sonic games in the past (Sonic 3D) managed to redeem themselves with a decent soundtrack.
As for the sound effects, nothing worth noting here. There are no voices (I refuse to call those battle grunts voices) and the ring SFX is pretty much the only thing done well. The rest either doesn't match the action it's associated with or sounds distorted (sound when a chest is opened).
Gameplay (7/10): This is where the game fares a little better. The battle system rips off Ouendan/EBA's gameplay with the circles you need to touch on the screen, but at least it makes the battles more interesting... until it's the 100th time you do the same move with a character, then things start getting boring.
The stats of the characters are western-style, meaning you'll have terms like "attack" and "damage" having different meanings. You also get to raise each character's stats as they level up. Pretty neat!
The game is fairly short. I think I finished it in roughly 15 hours.
Once you're done, there is little reason to restart the game with all your stats other than collecting all Chao or seeing what happens if you piss off Amy all the time.
Story (5/10): The characters of the Sonic universe are more developed than ever. However, I'm giving the story department a low grade because of the story itself.
First of all,
this game has managed to do something I dreaded a long time ago: it blurred the line between the SegaSonic universe and the Archie comics universe. Chilidogs? Swatbots? Hum....
It's not that I have something against the Archie Sonic universe, but I'd like to keep my official SegaSonic universe separate from that. It doesn't help that Bioware tries to present this game as part of the official SegaSonic canon.
As for the story... it's alright to a certain extent. Things do feel a bit epic at times, but there are many plot events so predictable AND boring that you will facepalm in disbelief.
Overall (5/10): When deciding whether or not you should buy this game, ask yourself the following questions.
-Are you a Sonic fan?
-Are you okay with people messing a bit with the SegaSonic universe?
-Will you play any Sonic game regardless of its contents?
If you answered yes to all these questions, go get Sonic Chronicles. It usually goes for a decent price at EBGames/Gamestop in the used section.
If you answered no to one of those questions, try to borrow the game from a friend. You might end up regretting spending your money and maybe your time as well (like me).
And... if you are just an RPG fan looking for a good RPG on DS, stay clear from this game. It's like a fruit that's not ripe enough to be picked yet... or the kind that's seems ripe, but is actually hosting a worm in it.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
"SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" (Scarface)
Casey and April's profiles are now up.
It took me a while, but now it's done.
I'm finally satisfied with April and Casey's looks for their profiles, so I got around adding them.
While working on their sections, I reviewed their background stories. Even though I read all the Mirage comics, there were still many facts that I didn't get right.
For example: why did Casey go on a road trip in City at War?
I thought it was to vent out his anger after April turned him down.
Actually, it was because he went out to look for her. I failed big time. :P
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Monday, May 11th, 2009
"Can I do something for you... or to you?" (Clover in Fallout 3)
It has started. Terrible coding sessions which will be done ad nauseam for the next 1.5 month for my OpenGL class.
I skipped both gym AND class (the teacher reads the slides) today to work on an assignment due for Wednesday... at midnight, a teammate sent me a email to let me know that the deadline's been pushed back.
I should feel relieved that I have more time to work on it, but I just feel upset that I had to change my routine for nothing.
Like I've said previously, I almost only play portable games so I can make good use of the two hours of commuting to work each day.
As a result of this, I've finished Sonic Chronicles at last. And no, I do not have a positive opinion on that game. I'll do a mini-review later on, but if one word could describe this game, it's amateurish.
It lacks polish and is huge letdown when compared to Bioware's other efforts or even to other portable Sonic games. And no, it being the first Sonic RPG does not excuse it from its many flaws in the presentation of the game.
I'm still working on inking the next pages for MNT Gaiden whenever I can find free time - in the meantime, here is a very random pic that Sakan and I did recently.
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