Josh - 5:21 EST

I got my class ring today! They had a ceremony for it. Not like it was anything special, since it was essentially like shooting fish in a barrel. And by fish, I mean "students," by shooting I mean "coercing into paying more money later," and by barrel, I mean "auditorium." It honestly felt like a one-hour sales pitch.

"Now that you can remember your time here every time you look at your ring, why not give back to the school when you become an Alumni?"

Not only that, but they kept saying congratulations, which seemed odd to me. But then I realized that I had just dropped several hundred dollars on a piece of jewelry, so that might have had something to do with the grins on their faces.

We then had one of the football players come in and give us a motivational speech, and let me tell you...there's a reason he's a football player and not a nuclear physicist. I think he said "I don't know what it is, but Penn State is special," and "The people are what makes Penn State so special," about 300 times each. I nearly went mad.

Don't forget, JuMeSyn is cohosting with me tomorrow, so send some mail for him to answer! If you do send it in, please send it fairly early so that he has time to answer and send them back to me to post! Today's column will be a little shorter than usual so I can save some mail up. Thanks!

A side note: I was ONE away from getting a Wii today. Not that I stood in line or anything. I just kinda showed up at Target at 8:30AM and saw them give the last one away. Sigh. Yeah, right, like I'm going to freeze my arse off. HA! :P

Hi Ouro!

The store I work at took a slightly different approach for the PS3/Wii launches. Instead of lining people up for days on end, they just handed out raffle tickets to everyone present about 30 minutes before we opened, then just drew out 'winners' for the right to purchase a system. Management's reasoning was that it gave everyone there that wanted one a fair chance. Which I guess works well enough for anyone that wants a shot at one without braving the elements outside for a long period of time, or paying someone else to do so. Except I didn't like the fact that people who seriously wanted one of these systems and would do just about anything to guarantee themselves a new console had no means to do so, since in the end it didn't matter how long you waited if your ticket wasn't drawn. Plus it's a good chance to meet new people with similar interests (since otherwise they're at home playing games hehe). Not that it makes any difference any more, but what do you think: thumbs up or down on the lottery? Any ideas on what would make console-launch day better in the future? (And no logical answers like "Have more systems available" or "Wait 6 months for problems/bugs to get worked out and game libraries to develop"

Where would I live in an RPG? Hmm...Kingdom of Zeal comes to mind. I just thought everything about it was beautiful, especially the music and the overworld map. Plus there's no chance of getting devoured by a monster if you want to walk around outside your town! Of course, there's that whole relying completely on evil power aspect, but you can't have your cake and eat it too, can you? It's actually a tough question...many RPGS are in worlds full of strife, conflict, and war; most of them would probably be pretty scary places to be!

Thanks for reading my letter, and keep up the good work!
Jeremy

I'd live in Greenhill in Jowstone City States. I love the Suikoden II setting. It's my favorite of any RPG. I really liked that there were several towns you could skip over altogether (Forest, Kobold, Highway, and Sajah come to mind). It gave the world an interesting living/breathing quality. I really miss the detailed towns of old RPGs. The norm now seems to be to have no buildings you can enter and randomly pointless people to talk to. I miss the good ol' days of saving the world, while breaking, entering, and robbing the citizenry blind.

For that matter, I really like the Elder Scrolls setting. I haven't played Oblivion yet (it's on the long, long list), but Morrowind is extremely immersive. Balmora is a favorite city in that. I love the rain...and back alleys

Vicissitude

Ey, whattaya tink we came here fur, duwee?

Uno: Yes, I am playing the untranslated Saturn version of Grandia. And rather well, in spite of your efforts at obstruction. Understand my thinking here - when I bought two Super Famicom Fire Emblem titles a few months ago, the seller also had the Saturn Grandia for sale. I got it for $11, with nil shipping cost because he was already sending me something. If I bought the PS version, not only would I have to buy a PS (more likely PS2), but I'd have to get the game itself, which usually goes for around $50. I was prepared to not understand things if I could save myself a nice chunk of change. So your admonitions to play the Engish version have no effect.

Dos: This is a one-time thing, though. Grandia is a special case. You won't find me buying the Japanese versions of any other games if they have English versions. For games WITHOUT English versions, on the other hand...

Tres: As my GBA-SP is for all intents and purposes unusable, and as I have not yet the available fundage to either buy another or upgrade to DS, I will not be playing anything that has been released in about 5 years. The most recent game on another system I'm able to buy will be Sakura Wars 4 on Dreamcast, released in mid-2002.

Quatro: I thought you were above self-gratification references. As you are NOT, I know to direct no serious questions regarding Sakura Wars to you ever again. Only snide ones in keeping with the views you clearly display regarding the series.

Cinco: This is somewhat random, but you may have a clue... I sent my digital camera in for repairs earlier this year, and it came back with a problem - though the camera recognizes its connection to my computer, the computer does not reciprocate. I bought a new USB cable - no dice. Same problem. It's not a problem with the USB ports, they all work. And the camera was recognized quite well before the repair was done. Do I have to get it repaired again?

Seis: I want to see a protagonist in an RPG wielding as his/her primary weapon, bombs. Grenades might count as bombs, but I want to fight as a bomber - planting weapons in advance of enemies and destroying them from afar! Is this never going to happen given the current geopolitical climate?

Siete: A few more remixes for you (and if you never got the final two from last week going, try them again. I thought they were worth hearing). An FFIV http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00354/ a Secret of Mana http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00661/ and a Seiken Densetsu 3 http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01019/ . We'll give Chrono Trigger remixes a break this time, but there are a LOT of them - more remixes than tracks in the game score.

Ocho: I have a 13-inch TV. I've had it for 5 years, and my laptop screen is actually a bit bigger than my TV. Doesn't really bother me. I had to use a black & white TV to play Master System and 2600 games way back when, and I still measure my TV by that standard. I wouldn't buy an HDTV unless it was under $50 - and I had nothing else I wanted to buy more that day.

Aglabablooglapwha! (If you can better transliterate that dunked guy in Hellcats, let me hear it!)
JuMeSyn

Luca Phase:
Luca Blight charges up!

DAMAGE Phase:
Draconn falls to Tile 35!
JDX resists a spell!

Movement Phase:
Bainick moves to Tile 8.
Leaper moves to Tile 37.
BLG moves to Tile 26.
Arros Raikou moves to Tile 5.
Draconn moves to Tile 38.
Alan Tse moves to Tile 21.
Slashlen moves to Tile 38.
JuMeSyn moves to Tile 28.
PureLunatic moves to Tile 33.
William.T moves to Tile 29.
Arpijy moves to Tile 35.
Vicissitude moves to Tile 26.
JDX moves to Tile 41.
Aurelius moves to Tile 36.
Tabor moves to Tile 41.

Wow, did we really already have 60 questions?!?

Answer to #L31: B. A dark paladin wielding his sword
The other ones were FFVII, FFVI, FFIX, FFV, and FFXII. FFIV did not have Cecil on its logo, it had Kain, who was a Dragoon.

#L32.
When FFV was first brought to PSX, they translated Faris's real name as something moronic. What was it most akin to?

A. A type of mouse
B. An herb
C. A common primate
D. The first name of one of the New England Patriots
E. A large bone in the human body
F. A tasty dip

Another Sunday come and gone. Luckily, it was devoid of any work, and there's no PT for me to wake up to tomorrow morning. Yay!

The questions still stand - Do you have any experiences with the new systems, and if you could, where would you live in an RPG? Failing that, just send us some mail so JuMeSyn can have a good time as cohost! See you tomorrow!

***Josh looks sexy with his ring on.