Bidder May Cry.

An auction that ended earlier this afternoon.

The most expensive soundtrack I've ever seen on eBay. And this was only one half of the set that was sold (the other including Devil May Cry 2's music.)

In your face, Hour of Darkness.

Last night, at long last, I defeated Disgaea. The ending fight was by no means easy, and more than half of my party of intrepid demon supporters lay dead, but I won, and that's what's important.

That, and the realization this morning that I had to do it again because, while the game allows you to do a Game+ feature to start the game again with all your levels and goods, some of my best items were on a character who wasn't carried over with me.

The fight did result in some hilarity, especially as Nikki looked at one of the special attacks of the final boss, and remarked, "Armageddon: Now in five delightful colors."

Devil May Cry soundtracks.

Having had the chance to listen to these at work on my iPod, I can now declare that these CDs are definitely a good purchase. The music is all there, faithfully reproduced and looping twice. The only downsides? No back insert (Capcom's going the cheaper route of clear backsides to CDs these days) and the track listing for the first game is utterly ridiculous. (The linked article only touches on the craziness, which also includes mixing and matching of Japanese and English seemingly at random, and weird prefixes of "EV" and "GM" on some tracks.) Nevertheless, a solid purchase, and if you can track down a copy now, I recommend it.

Argh and Argh again.

Just when you've secured the Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2 soundtracks and survived the "limited time" CD releases of the year, Megahouse (who put forth the "Famicom Game Sound Museum" mini-CD releases this year) goes and announces Game Sound Museum: Namcot Edition with music from bunches of Namco NES games, due to hit in December.

The only upsides to this is that it's not music from the arcades (or else I'd simply have to work out a way to get my hands on the Dragon Spirit CD), and most of these games aren't on the same level as the ones from the Famicom Museum (several of them I've never even heard of before.) Still, it seems to be the year for music compilation releases...

Still not enough?!

I reached the end of Disgaea last night. After a dramatic resolution, I was treated to the final climactic boss battle... And lost horribly. After 120 hours of working on my characters, going through item world levelling and grabbing cool items, the final boss (if this is even it) still chewed me up and spat me out. Back to item world...

Most Inappropriate Prize Ever?

Reading through the latest EGM, I checked the letters page. It's not usually my first stop, but I wanted to savor the reviews and the decent articles for later. But anyway, I digress.

The "Letter of the Month" always amuses me because it's usually one of the same topics over and over again, how parents shouldn't be blaming games for violence, how people who play online should be able to get along... This month it's about Women's Equality in gaming.

I have no problem with the subject, although it's a horse not only beaten to death but beaten beyond recognition. However, this month we had that little something extra. Take a look and check it out. Be sure and read the whole letter and then the snarky response.

Recognize the game this young lady was awarded for her winning letter? No? It's a game that EGM reviewed within the past month and gave scores of 1.5, 1.0 and 0.0 (out of 10) to. Still not there? Let me give you a hint.

For shame...

Amusing Mail.

I received some entertaining stuff by way of the postman recently. In amongst the flood of election mail we got yesterday a pamphlet from the "Defense of Marriage Coalition" (yeah, coalition of the unfulfilling.) As if the name itself didn't give it away, this is all about, yup, gay marriage. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just an informative pamphlet giving their views, but the layout is both akin to propaganda and insulting. The cover features two young tykes, maybe 10 or so, peering around a corner, next to the big words Children Do Better With a Mom and Dad. The inside is filled with such personable and friendly arguments like, "It's not a new concept" and "It's common sense," meaning that if you support the idea of gay marriage, you're not just immoral, you're stupid too. The inside sports an endorsement from Senator Gordon Smith, who among other things says that marriage is "about more than just consenting adults, it's about the natural rearing of children."

One person taking them to task on this is M. Dennis Moore, who I've never heard of, but read about taking out some space in one of the pamphlets to comment on Measure 36. Three separate mock "In Favor Of" segments purchased by the Special Righteousness Committee, care of M. Dennis Moore, attack the measure as being just plain stupid. But they do so by speaking in favor of it, in extreme measures, stating it doesn't go far enough, and that marriage should be banned to those who are gay, as well as sterile people, postmenopausal women, those intending to use birth control, and, as per the bible itself (specific scriptures cited), non-virgins and those of differing races.

These "In favor of" arguments were wonderfully amusing, a great idea, and ironically enough, are the first three listed in the book, meaning they might actually get read by people who will get a chance to reconsider. The same can't be said for the rest of the entries--there are 26 pages of pro and con arguments on Measure 36 alone, each page averaging 3 entries. Crazy stuff...

My own IPO? You think I'd be invited...

Just found this while doing a scan for incoming links to my webpage:

Buy Shares of Save Points now.

It's a stock market game--where you sell imaginary shares of... People's blogs. Somehow mine got added, as did Nikki's.

Ironically, my blog is worth more than hers because mine links to hers, and a link to her blog is worth $550.00 to my blog's worth, while her linking to mine is worth nothing to her, even though I have a high blog value... Wug?

The New CSI.

We got around to watching CSI: NY last night. My initial thoughts are "Eh." I really wanted to like this, especially since I think Gary Sinese is great. But there's just something missing, a big something, and the only thing I can put my finger on is the characters. Apart from Sinese's character, Mack Taylor, none of them seem to have any oomph to them. Granted, it's only the first episode, but nevertheless.

They did a good job of conveying the grittiness of New York ("You know what this needs? Some more blue filter," Nikki quipped) but it kind of gives the impression that people in New York aren't as happy as those in Las Vegas. What's up with that? We know that the people of NY are a happy, carefree bunch.

CSI: Miami wasn't as good as CSI, and if the series doesn't do some quick evolution, it looks like Miami will be better than NY (except for Caruso vs. Sinese.) Meanwhile, I think of the story ideas that have been put into Miami and will now be put into NY that could have been saved for CSI instead. Ah, well.

As a final note, the 9/11 references felt heavy-handed and out-of-place. I don't watch a CSI show to hear about reality, I watch it to hear about what people CAN do in reality...

Laharl's Trap

I recently returned to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Big mistake. I was drawn back in by the crazy storyline and indepth character building almost right away, and unlike most RPGs, the game's easy navigation allowed me to go right back to it instead of trying to remember what I should be doing--what's up with that?

I remembered how much I liked the soundtrack, and, having had a recent monetary winfall at my workplace, decided to look up buying it. Also a big mistake. Ippon Nichi seems to have this thing against actually releasing soundtracks for their games. Disgaea, as well as the sequels La Pucelle and Phantom Brave, have arranged soundtracks that were commercially released, but to get the OSTs, you had to buy the limited edition Japanese-release of the games. The closest thing I can find is the LE JP release of the third game in the series, for about $80--I'd rather not even think about what Disgaea under the same circumstances would run...