Hello to the spambots that quasi-read this.
Been tearing about in World of Tanks for the Xbox. Things are actually going well. Wargaming is going to finally release the Soviet tech tree, so soon All Patriots will be able to bury the Imperialists in an avalanche of steel, lead, and Heavy quotes.
No, I'm reading up on my Marx and shit, just getting excited about having EVEN MOAR TANX to tear about and wreck things with. Very excited.
In other news, a Wreckonomics post should be forthcoming within the week. This time will be a very tough nut to crack, SaGa Frontier 2 for the PS1. It's one of the hidden gems of the era, when Square wasn't covering everybody with belts.
I may as well talk some about that before the rant the post will require comes up. It's actually a very good game with a challenging combat system with lots of surprises. The graphics combine watercolor--but not cutesy--backgrounds with very distinct character sprites. There are some pitfalls in the artwork, including the classic invisible walls, but overall its very well done. The sprites are nice too, but the close-up version of one main character looks less like a badass and more like Ronald McDonald had one of Indiana Jones' many, many lovechildren.
The music is also very stunning; stunning enough that I hunted down the soundtrack years ago, and when a disc cracked (sob!) I hunted down a second copy. If you're actually reading this, go on youtube and search for Freiluftmuzik and Zauberkraft for a good taste of it. Oh yeah, the composer spent a good deal of time on Germany, so all the song titles are in German. That gives us a soundtrack done by a Japanese dude (Masashi Hamauzu) with German names gushed over by a redneck-ish American guy. Being provincial is for the weak!
The story is...well it's a SaGa game. It's linear and convoluted at the same time, with many, many viewpoint characters. You need to experience for yourself. Suffice to say somebody managed to take late medieval history and politics, Lord of the Rings, the Darksword Trilogy, and more and managed to make this bizarre, but tasty, plot smoothie; and it works!
I'll get into the combat mechanics later for the Wreckonomics post, since they are intimately related to the ecomonic challenges of the itinerant dungeon looter.
Just remember, Coward Killing Time on set for June 3rd. Come and let us give tanks!
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