I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while now, but it hasn’t really happened yet. Today is that day. One of the questions about the show I get most is about how we set the whole thing … Continue reading At the Buzzer: Behind the Scenes
This is the Loewe Invisio. And you can see right through it. I don’t just mean that literally. I mean, look at that picture. Of course you can see through it. I mean metaphorically, where this TV’s attempts to be … Continue reading Transparent TV: The Wave of the Future?
I always told myself I wasn’t going to turn into an old man who sat on the porch and tilted his rocking chair back and forth, popping his dentures in and out of place while discussing the finer points of … Continue reading Diablo III: A Lesson in Ownership
I tried to come up with something fantastic this week. I did. But I’ve been sick since Thursday thanks to my body breaking down from stress, so I guess the creative spark was…lacking.
Instead, we’re going back to that quick-hit bullet gimmick that America loves! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Continue reading “Number Five With a Bullet”
I’ve been running this website for more than a year now, and it’s been a learning process. WordPress helps with that process by automating a lot of the nuances of the site, and by masking my limited knowledge of html. Still, it’s been a trial and error thing.
One of the areas where we’ve been trying to improve is search engine optimization. Getting more hits and more eyeballs on the site certainly can’t hurt, and while we plug the show and blog posts relentlessly through Facebook and word of mouth, sometimes the best boost is getting someone random to check out the site and maybe listen to an episode.
We set a bunch of records for most views in a day, week, and month in April, with today being the final day of tracking in a month where we had more than 2,300 hits, a number that crushed the site’s first 4-5 months of existence. That’s a good trend. Jason’s post about the Legend of Korra led the charge, as Google seemed to love that article.
So it got me thinking: What does Google like? They’ve recently made looking that information up easier with Google Trends and Google Insights, both of which pull back the curtain on what really clicks with web users. They run information back to 2004, and I decided to take a look at the 10 most searched keywords on Google in the United states since those stats were tracked. The top 10 isn’t exactly full of surprises, but a couple items are not quite what you’d expect.
Shaun and I were down in Phoenix over the weekend and some of the usual hijinks ensued. We played golf in the scorching heat (seriously, why in the hell is it 105 degrees in mid-April?), and have the videos to prove it. As always, you can subscribe to our Youtube channel to get the latest updates on when things like this are put up.
We also were part of a farewell party for our news girl, Molly. No, she’s not leaving the show (despite all the content she’s made us lose). She’s going overseas for a year to help teach kids English through song and dance. Supposedly everyone was going to be swimming at this party, but Shaun and I were tricked and ended up being the only ones. I also set a modern-day record for most giant Hebrew National hot dogs eaten before swimming.
Finally, we went to the Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert on Saturday night. Definitely worth the money. Even though the balcony seats weren’t spectacular, they still provided a perfectly good view of the proceedings. One of the neat touches was a monitor by the conductor’s stand that allowed the conductor to sync the timing of the orchestra with videos that were playing on a giant screen in the background. It allowed the sound and video to work together to tell something like a small story and really added to the experience.
Anyway, busy weekend, and I’m sure we’ll talk more about it on this week’s show. In the meantime, here are those golf videos.
Lost Odyssey was one of those games that kinda flew under the radar. Even though it was released at a time when the 360 and PS3 were still relatively new and lacking in the RPG department, I’m not sure it got the attention it deserved.
LO was a solid, if unspectacular, game. It featured an engaging turn-based battle system with timed attacks to help keep the player engaged. The skill learning techniques were fun, but it also limited your party — when your immortal members could learn so many skills and your mortal folks were stuck with just two or three from equipment, it wasn’t a tough choice picking who to bring along. The story was decent, but where the game really excelled was in its side storytelling: a series of vignettes called “A Thousand Years of Dreams” that chronicled Kaim’s heartbreaking immortal existence.
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was the driving force behind Lost Odyssey, and in putting together the soundtrack for the game, he brought along a familiar face: Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu, of course, was the mastermind behind every Final Fantasy OST through X, 
and he’s contributed a handful of other tracks to the series since then. More importantly, Uematsu is one of the best composers in video game history, and arguably the most recognizable.
Uematsu’s music in LO represented something of a change of pace. Limited by the technology of 8- and 16-bit video game systems, his earlier productions were much more based on melodies and ambiance, milking every last note he could out of bleeps and bloops. Fast forward 20 years, and Uematsu found himself with a full orchestra and advanced synthesizers to work with. The result is a strange hybrid of symphonic and progressive rock tracks with some piano and techno thrown in for good measure.
All of that added up to a 56-track, two-disc compilation featuring what might be Uematsu’s best work, even if it didn’t get the attention or accolades that many soundtracks from Final Fantasy did (and don’t worry, this feature will get to those eventually).
As usual with MtME, let’s take a look at five of my favorite tracks with commentary on each. Continue reading “Music to My Ears: Lost Odyssey”
I often hear people tell me stories about the dreams they had last night. Most of the time the stories are filled with vivid memories and details about specific parts of the dreams and even their thematic meanings.
I’m not one of those people. I’m lucky if I even dream in the first place, let alone remember any of it. I suppose it’s kind of a trade-off: I have a great memory when I’m awake, being able to recall song lyrics, random trivia and specific moments with great detail.
Shaun, on the other hand, can give you a play-by-play on what happened in his sleep last night (and even occasionally wakes up during a good dream to jot down ideas for his writing) — but his brain can’t tell him where he put his keys two seconds ago. Or what time he was supposed to be somewhere. Or what his name is.
Sometimes it feels like I’m missing out. I mean, sure, it’s nice to miss out on nightmares and night terrors and the like. Let me tell you about the few things I do recall. Continue reading “Dreams, Nightmares, and Psychic Powers”
NOTE: This is a review of a game in progress. Chris and Co. have put in around 35 hours into the game, which means they’re probably at the halfway point or so. Still, if major media outlets can review the game without finishing it, then so can we!
I’ve made no secret of my love of the Tales series on this site in the past. So you might think that this review is going to be a five-star endeavor, full of glowing praise and endless superlatives about the quintessential RPG of our generation.
You would be wrong.
That’s not to say that it’s Graces’ fault. The game suffers from many of the same problems that other Tales games have: a sometimes too-wordy story, typical anime tropes, lackluster music. But like many other offerings in the series, the battle system comes through in a big way.
In fact, I’ll go a little further: Tales of Graces features the best battle system of any RPG ever made.
How’s that for an opening argument? Continue reading “Review: Tales of Graces f”
NOTE: “Music to My Ears” is a recurring installment based on Chris’s (not so) secret obsession: the music of video games. His Tales of Graces review will be up next week.
In my review for Street Fighter x Tekken, I mentioned how Street Fighter II was one of the big introductions to the world of video game music for me. Ryu’s stage music in particular was one of the driving forces in doing things like getting homework done. And since computers were not a mainstream thing when I was 8 (not to mention mp3 players, iTunes and YouTube), the only way to listen to it was to toss in the cartridge, head to the Sound Test menu and let it rip.
Those foundations laid the groundwork for other tunes that I loved as a kid, like the Castle theme from Super Mario World or Mute City from F-Zero. But the next big landmark was in high school, when I finally got to play what some would call the best RPG of all-time. Continue reading “Music to My Ears: Chrono Trigger”
Gray Areas 