Josh - 9:49 EST

Well, there was some damage in THONG today...sheesh.

As for FFXII, I said I'd post some thoughts of mine, so here they are:

• I like the battle system. A lot. Every once in awhile I miss the whole 'full control' aspect of everything, but it really isn't necessary. The Gambits are fun to mess around with, and the upshot of the whole thing is that it makes the battles go by more quickly, without losing any challenge or anything.
• The License Board is pretty cool, too. While all of your characters are essentially just shells that can do anything they want, the License Board lets you specialize (or not specialize) your characters anyway you see fit! Add the Gambits to that mix, and you can create any type of character you want.
• The story is decent so far...reminds me a lot of FFT (surprise), without any of that silly, convoluted mess.
• Voice is acting is above average, although Vaan gets on my nerves, and for some reason, some of Penelo's VA sounds like the voice actor was reading her lines with the mic in her throat. And Fran sounds like Audrey Hepburn with a wad of cotton in her mouth.
• Graphics are gorgeous. 'Nuff said.
• All in all, this is one of the most enjoyable games I've played in recent times.

Here's something I might also ask Matt about: how are you structuring your FF12 character development? Here's my plan (and I know it goes along RPG stereotypes in terms of gender and looks - it's deliberately so, so I never forget who's who):

* Vaan is a "jack of all trades" - his equipment is limited to swords and heavy armor, but he's dabbling all magicks and a few technicks. I have no gambits for him (after all, with this plan, he needs all the LP he can save); he's my "always manual" character and usual leader.

Basche is my tank - weapons galore, heavy armor, and augments.

* Balthir is my support guy - long distance weapons, time magick, some technicks.

* Ashe is my white mage...

* ... and Fran my black mage.

* Penelo is my technick guru.

As you can see, I tried to arrange it so two of my characters don't need to consume MP, making them almost always good for Mist attacks, and for stuff like the accessory that halves elemental damage in exchange for permanent Silence.

What about you?

THONG
(Ack! Math? You're not Matt!)
26: A
L26: C

I dunno, I feel real free, up there in that high blue sky.

Well... if I stay on topic this feels a lot more formal, but perhaps I can do so.

First: Huey Lewis is great, and if I ever get to see him in concert I will seize the opportunity. And I hate 95% of new music now and in the past 10 years or so. 4.5% of it I find boring, leaving me with no incentive to listen to newer music. Wanna change my mind? Be my guest, but it's an uphill struggle.

Second: looks like I persuaded Roku to persuade people of Guardian Heroes' worth. Now I have to play through it again so as to better review it.

Third: I started playing a bit of Shadowrun today. Let me say: I have never lost so many fights in the first half hour as I have in this game. The combat system is Zelda-ish with the caveat that my character is hellaciously weak. Death just gets me revived in a hospital though, with some (not that much, really) money lost. There are 'shadowruns' I can accomplish via speaking to a guy in a sleazy bar, and these net me money. If I can avoid combat enough, I just might be able to upgrade my gun and/or armor. Combat, incidentally, earns me NOTHING. Which is fine when I suck so mightily at it.

Fourth: I wasn't happy to have FINISHED Sakura Wars 2, necessarily, so much as I was happy to have played through it. There are eight endings to obtain, and I can see myself getting all of them because I have a lot of fun. It is slightly odd that only Orihime has a pronounced accent when many other characters are non-Japanese; but Iris is still a kid - children don't develop accents if they learn a language when young, Maria is half Japanese and half Russian, Leni is German but apparently a product of some German program to create super fighting machines in the Great War (blame the Germans again...), and Kohran moved to Japan from China early in her life. And my save file allows me to get both Leni's and Sakura's endings without playing through the entire game again, so I'll be doing those shortly.

Fifth: depending upon the order you answer this in, you may or may not have done some searching on my behalf regarding Sakura Wars 2. I still need a comprehensive translation if you can find one, but if you can find some music from the game also, I will be most gruntled. MIDI doesn't really work for vocal material, either. I SHOULD be buying the albums off eBay or something, but they can be hard to find.

Sixth: thanks for the recommendation regarding Grandia. It's coming up in my play schedule...

Seventh: Do you REALLY want to hear me talk about FF, when the most recent installment I have played was IX, and that wasn't on my own system? I'll just ask this: if FFIV and VI don't need sequels, does VII?

Eighth and final: are all non-RPGs now banned from mention?

Mom... my nuts?
JuMeSyn

Hey I was just looking in yuo xbox 360 games section and i dont know if u guys only do released games but if u do previews you guys should check out a game calles Two Worlds its supposta be coming out for 360 and PC i dunno if u guys have already seen it or not but just lettin ya know thanx for readin -Dave

I'll keep this short and to the point....I like the battle system in FFXII just fine, the graphics are GREAT and the story is just missing. I've played the game now for around 50 hours or so (took time off from work to play it) and I loved stealing and leveling and exploring but I was getting tired of it for some reason as well. That's when it hit me that it just didn't have much story it it, and I don't mean that it's lacking a story it's just that the characters don't seem to interact much other then to say something unimportant and then your off to the next area. The only time you see them talking to someone other then a random NPC is before and after a boss fight or when entering a new area. They seem to have made it so you could use any character for any job but they also took the personalities out with it. Who knows, maybe it's just my imagination but I just don't care what's going on. I stopped playing it for a bit and went back to .Hack G/U...it's got characters I think I can care about it way. Sorry if this is too long.

Now I don't plan to get a PS3 in the near future, but if I did, there is a major factor that would play into it. I've read a lot of things saying it will play PS2 games, but nothing about playing old PSX games. Do any of you know whether it will play both PSX and PS2, or only PS2? Thanks.

Fear not, the PS3 will play PSX games as well! Now you can go ahead and toss your old PSOne without worry! Hooray!

Also Ouro what is the name of that song you and your friend were dancing to that yiou posted in one of the collumns?
Arros Raikou

Ah...that was "Everytime We Touch," by Cascada. I can understand that you'd want to emulate me, but please have caution. Dancing as well as I do takes skill, and you may hurt yourself. :)

I won’t have a letter for you today, but if you put up a column, it will be the first time in a long time that you manage to do it all three days. I believe in you! Mostly cuz you usually fail on Saturday.

You actually agreed with me on the male/female question? I’m not quite sure what I think of that. Usually people just call me a pervert. I’m not denying it, but it is nice to get an honest answer. Pervert.

Yeah? Oh yeah? Well tough! I posted on Saturday since I finally had time! Midterms, professors conspiring against me with homework frequency, and ROTC stuff...October just sucked, plain and simple.

I'm not a pervert! I'm an admirer...yeah, that's it. An admirer! >_>;

Luca Phase:
Luca Blight charges up!

DAMAGE Phase:
Slashlen falls to Tile 29.
Tabor falls to Tile 28.
PureLunatic falls to Tile 20.
JDX falls to Tile 41.
Draconn falls to Tile 31.
Arpijy falls to Tile 25.
Aurelius falls to Tile 30.
Leaper falls to Tile 25.

Movement Phase:
Leaper moves to Tile 26.
Slimey moves to Tile 26.
Draconn moves to Tile 37.
Slashlen moves to Tile 31.
PureLunatic moves to Tile 22.
JDX moves to Tile 43.
Aurelius moves to Tile 33.
Aylee moves to Tile 19.
Tabor moves to Tile 31.

Mweeheeheehee!

Answer to #L26: D. -1
This was a derivation of Euler's equation. The neat thing about this equation (e^i*pi + 1 = 0) is that it ties together the 5 fundamental mathematical constants: e, i, 1, 0, and pi. It's been said that this is the most famous equation in the history of mathematics.

#L27.
According to Saturos and Menardi, what two elements share a symbiotic relationship that will restore their Psynergy?

A. Fire and Water
B. Water and Wind
C. Earth and Wind
D. Fire and Earth
E. Wind and Fire
F. Water and Earth

Whew, I'm beat. Managed to get in a full weekend finally...that October was rough. Everything just kinda hit me at once, so hope you all weren't too distraught with my repeated absences! Also, don't forget about the side contest I posted yesterday! Just take a look at the first letter in yesterday's column! Have a good week with Matt, and I'll see you on Saturday!

***Josh will probably play games all night.