Longklaw.com

I have had a nice, relaxing Christmas Break. I spent more time in Jackson than I have in a long time. What did I get?

• Blue Dragon
• Blue Dragon strategy guide
• Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
• a bottle of cologne is coming (I think I asked for Prada for Men)

The Pearl Jam fan club Christmas single came in the mail today. We usually don’t get them until January or February, but the fan club people did say they were trying to get the singles out ealier this year. Once again, I won’t be able to listen to it right away because I don’t own a record player.

Tonight I’m finishing up my annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings with The Return of the King. I’m not in the mood to go out and party. This will be a lot of fun.

John and I played Super Mario Bros. 3 on the virtual console. This was the first Mario game that I actually beat. The cartoon based on this game was my favorite Mario game. Playing it reminded me just how good it was. Most levels went by pretty easily. Some levels were pretty hard. It seems like I remember reading somewhere that they used to make games harder to artificially inflate the length. Oh well. It was a lot of fun to play. We skipped come of the levels and it took us about 4 hours to beat it. Remember when you could beat games that quickly.

What a great game! It is so much fun! Last weekend we spent pretty much the entire weekend playing it. We beat it and now are going after those last few stars. I think we have two more to go. I’m amazed at how different the levels are from each other. I don’t know how they came up with some of that stuff. I can see why it’s the highest rated game of all time. The camera angles do cause problems sometimes and it may take a little getting used to playing sideways and upside down, but those are minor issues. It’s definitely worth the time. This is what we have been waiting to play on the Wii.

I got my second replacement copy of Halo 3 from Microsoft yesterday. The disc is looks excellent! No scratches! This weekend I’ll finally be playing Halo 3!

I’ve heard all the buzz about Guitar Hero, but I had never played it until tonight. I downloaded the demo from Xbox Live. Although I was using a regular controller and not a guitar to play, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. I’ve been missing out. Now I want to buy the full game when it comes out, which I think is on Sunday. Damn them and their marketing techniques!!!

Is it coincidence that I did my best on “Even Flow”? “Cherub Rock” is going to be in the full version. After seeing the Pumpkins this weekend, I’ll probably want the game even more. We’ll see if the urge dies down and I end up changing my mind.

I got my replacement copy of the Halo 3 Limited Edition. The Game Disc has a bunch of crap on the bottom. I hope that it’ll actually play and won’t freeze up on me. The Essentials Disc looks perfect. They did throw in a free month of Xbox Live Gold, which is good because my trial subscription ends in 2 days.

Update, 10/21
I tried the Game Disc and it’s unreadable. I’m sending it back in to Microsoft tomorrow. Maybe I’ll finally get to play Halo 3 in another week or two. I hope everyone else hasn’t moved on by then.

At first I was planning my Xbox 360 purchase around the release of Halo 3. Then I heard about a game called Eternal Sonata. It’s published by Namco Bandai, the same company that made Tales of the Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. I love those Tales games. Eternal Sonata was coming out a week before Halo 3, so it wasn’t a big deal to plan my purchase around its release instead of Halo 3’s and it was the first game that I played on the 360.

What a great game this is! The graphics are gorgeous. I need to upgrade my TV. The battle system is great. One thing that I think is neat is that the characters and locations are named after musicals terms. Examples are Beat, Viola, and Ritardando.

A lot of people say that the game is too easy. I agree that it is very easy. There are some boss fights and areas that will give you a challenge. I got a little tired of blocking moves every time an enemy attacked. My biggest complaint is the length. I guess I’ve gotten used to very long games. John and I finished (last week or over the weekend) it in about 45 hours and are already more that halfway through the second play through. There are a lot of things you can’t do until the second time through. Yes, I am becoming an achievement point whore.

This is a great game if for fans of RPGs. I hope I didn’t reach the peak on my first 360 game and it doesn’t just go downhill from here.

My copy Halo 3 Limited Edition came in the mail from Amazon yesterday. I had heard about problems with discs coming loose in the Limited Edition. As soon as I picked up the box I could hear the discs moving around. Both discs are messed up. At least Microsoft is replacing them for free. I haven’t even tried putting the game in the system. I’ll probably check to see if they’ll play. Hopefully in about 2 weeks I’ll be playing Halo for real.

I’ve been avoiding all the Halo 3 madness so far. Eternal Sonata has been keeping me busy, so I’m not in a hurry to get Halo 3. Something similar happened with Halo 2. Everquest II came out on the same day, so I didn’t play Halo 2 right away.

Yesterday, I went by GameStop at lunchtime to pick up my copy of the limited edition that I had reserved. The lady who I believe to be the manager was the person behind the register. She looked me up in the computer and started to pull out a copy of the regular edition off the shelves. Then she realized that I was supposed to be getting a limited edition and she began to search for it complaining, complaining that she didn’t know what they (her employees) had done with her games. She went to the back to look and even tried unsuccessfully to reach one of her employees on the phone. She laughed and said that she hoped it hadn’t been sold. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds and it seemed like she was waiting for me to say something about what I wanted to do. I was a little annoyed and I was waiting for her to tell me what she was going to do about the situation. She finally asked me if I could come back later when the employee she was trying to reach would be in.

I went back after I left work and I was told that they were sold out of limited edition copies. Apparently they hold games for 48 hours after it is released. As long as I’ve been reserving games at GameStop, I’ve never heard this. She offered to transfer the $10 I had put down toward a regular edition, but I asked for my money back. Now I am finished with GameStop for now. I ordered Halo 3 on Amazon.com last night.

I’m back on Xbox Live now. My wireless adapter came Friday, but before that I used my laptop to get connected. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I cancelled my previous account under my old name on the original Xbox that I couldn’t recover the name longklaw. I decided to use the name longklaw1 because I didn’t feel like coming up with something creative.