Ack. It's late. At least I'm not doing this in the morning... well, I shouldn't say that. Of recent I've had very low powers of self-persuasion in order to get this up during the night, instead of slacking it off until the day. Oh well, we'll see.

So anyhow, I started school this week. It's killin' me already. 18 units, 3 days a week (plus Tuesday physics lab), and then of course, work. Biggest annoying thing is that I'm taking English (ugh, I hate English..) .. so that's a big 'outside of class' type of commitment. So horridly enough, I've got Heather, schoolwork, sleep, and my Asheron's Call habit all competing for the same small little pool of free time minutes. Who's winning? I'll sure tell you that English needs a good couple solid wins, but the odds aren't stacked that way. That sucks. Oh well. Anyhow, my other classes are Math, yes, again this semester.. another programming class, English (booo), Public address (learn how to make a fool out of yourself speak in front of groups of people.. what, no keyboard?), and Physics (electricity and magnetism.. it's not surprisng that they abbreviate to S&M. Oh wait, they don't.

Well they should, damnit.

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What should I do???

Brad:
Short and sweet.. if I knew the answer to this question, I wouldn't have the same problem. My best suggestion is to just learn to accept the situation for how it is, and just move on. If money's so tight that you can't justify (possibly to the wife or whatnot) the buying of yet another video game.. well, chances are she's right. In that case. But she's wrong about your feet stinking. No. Really.

Hello!

I'm writing in about something that came up in yesterday's column, namely the Xenogears Episode V thing. On a Japanese site that claimed to have gotten its info from the Perfect Works book (which I can't verify since I'm not one of the lucky few who owns one), Ep. V was explained as a reference to the five ages found in the game. If I'm translating the stuff correctly, the first is the Interstellar War Age, second is the Age of Beginnings, third is the Zeboim Culture, fourth is the Solaris War, and fifth, of course, is Xenogears itself. On a side note about another Xenogears mystery, Seibzehn's name does have signifigance. According to yet another Japanese site, the fact that it means seventeen in German is a reference to an old show about a robot named "One-seven." Apparently one or two of Maria's lines are from the show as well (maybe that explains her odd "Sally forth, Seibzehn!"). Anyway, hope that helps clear things up!

Terri, AKA Ashton no Miko

Brad:
I'll go with that, (Episode V explanation.) .. as for the German, seibzehn actually means '17' or 'seventeen'. Achtzehn, out of odd coincidence, means 18 in german. I'm thinking inside jokes in the Square offices, personally.

Have you played the game, Grandia? I think it's definately a gem that has been overlooked. For example, it boasts better music than Xenogears, and the graphics are stunning. The storyline grasps you right from the first hour of gameplay, and it keeps your attention. I'm currently playing it in huge chunks. (EG: 10 hours a day.) Why does nobody ever talk of this great game? You never see anyone post about it! It's all drowned out by Xenogears propaganda, which Google always seems to post. I admit, Xenogears was great. But, Grandia is a breath of fresh air for those who are familiar with square games. Fun from the beginning, a remarkably fun battle system (gotta love repeatedly hacking at enemies with an axe), beautiful music, and a remarkably simple, but gripping plot. What else can you ask for? It runs for around $40 dollars new, so what is there to lose on it? It offers up to 80 hours of play, and then you TOO can yell at all of your friends, and tell them to BUY THIS GAME!

-Sadres, the overlooked poster.

Brad:
I've heard nothing but good about Grandia, that's for sure. I started the game, but had other things going on. It's definitely the first thing I get back into once I start playing on the PSX again. (Asheron's Call being what I'm doing now, and precluding quite a bit of all the other gaming that I want to do ;])

hey, what's up? yesterday, right after I made all the best weapons for my guys on so2, (damn right!) I went to the field of power. now, at the very beginning of the cave you have to kill some yetis before they flip this switch that caves in the entrance, or some crazy smack like that. I wasn't really paying attention at the time, and the things hit the switch before I could kill them and they caved in the entrance. the only reason that I didn't just reset and start at the beginning of the field was because I figured that they wouldn't just trap me in the cave and that there was another way out. so I finished the cave and saved it over my file that was outside the field (stupid me!, stupid me!) and tried to get back out. so I went all the way back down only to find out that, indeed the entrance was blocked and I was therefore screwed. now, I REALLY need to know if there is any other way to get out of that field. my only previous save was still only near the end of the 2nd disk, and of course, no eternal sphere. so if you do know of any way, just post this or email me back, or whatever you gotta do. see ya

Brad:
Yeah, there are other ways out. I thought you had to let the guys hit all the switches, and so they did hit them all. I think you'll be okay, they can't completely block off the entrance, see, because once you get to the end of the cave, you get some doo-hickey thing, and then you have to get yourself out of the cave. Keep fighting forward. :)

In a question thursday someone ask about a FF3 clip of Locke, etc. the pic he was referring to was a pic from an old NINTENDO POWER magazine. I think the pic was in issue 78, page 51. Is that enough info or what?

C-ya,
X-Death

Brad:
Yeah, about 20 people wrote in with this answer, but this person actually gave the page number from Nintendo Power (with issue) for it. For those wondering, this was from a 3D presentation that Square did showing how advanced their 3D modeling was, etc, etc. Rumors flew that THAT was in fact, FF7, but of course, that wasn't true. There is a link to this under the FF6 section on RPGamer. Check it out here.

First off, I'd just like to say that I like you better than Goog. It's not that you're cooler or anything, it's just that he scares me. If he doesn't like you email he gets all snarky on you and cuts you down all to hell. It freaks me out. Anyway, I've got some questions. Not really for you, but for the gamers who read this. I'm going to buy either "Asheron's Call" or "EverQuest" but I don't know which one. I need advice on which to buy. I know you (Brad) haven't played EverQuest but the folks reading this might. You've always been good to me in the past about posting my emails so I hope you do it again. Oh, and give me all sort of stats about both games. I like that sort of thing. Thanx,

Chris

Brad:
I like me better than Goog too, but that's more of a personal preference, because well, I think I'm cool. Goog does a good job, and hell, I picked him personally, so don't be harshin' my main man, yo.

On to your question. Yes, I play Asheron's Call. (Email me if you want to smack stuff around together, I'm on Harvestgrain), and I've never played EverQuest. I think AC is cool, but there are a TON of EQ vs AC sites out there. For some reason they all seem to be maintained by EQ loving people, or at least, the ones I've seen are. I don't know why EQ people are so defensive about it, or maybe that's just my perception. It just seems to be this huge one-way hate thing going from EQ players to AC. I don't hear that many AC people going on and on and on about how much EQ sucks. Then again, that could just be because EQ doesn't suck. :) I'd suggest doing a web lookup on both games, and I'm pretty sure you'll see some large comparisons. Also, check out Asheron's Call reviews on some of the PC gaming sites, and lots of them will compare it to EQ.