Well, funwithrage mentioned a zombie survival flash game called The Last Stand, so I had to go play it. Its actually pretty easy, as these kinds of games go. Just as a word of advice, do nothing but search for guns until you're out of the pistol range. I finished it with using the Uzi and the chainsaw pretty much exclusively once I found them (I did upgrade all the way to the AK, but just found the Uzi had superior stopping power).

All in all, a fun little game.

Tags: sdl

I've been spending most of my time playing the hell out of Burning Crusade, the latest World of Warcraft expansion. My main character, Night Elf Warrrior named Valeren, is currently halfway through level 66 (out of 70), so I'm in the upper curve of players, which makes it easier to do all the quests when they aren't camped to hell. Its really good to advance my main character who I really enjoy playing - it had gotten to the point where she was decked out in BWL / AQ40 gear and the guild had hit an all-time low in raiding so she had stagnated for a while. BUT NO MORE!

One thing that's frustrating for us Warriors is the sheer amount of Paladin plate that you get from quest rewards. Casters, its not so noticable - all the cloth will have +spell damage, and you only have to watch for +healing or specific stats. Sure some casters need more +crit, but... its not like any one piece of +damage gear is useless. As opposed to that plate with +healing and mp/5. It doesn't help that it seems like all I get in instances are Paladin, Shaman, Hunter, and +healing drops. Its freakin' ridiculous. For example, I've killed the first boss of Mana Tombs 4 times - first drop was the Druid Idol, then the freakin' paladin gloves THREE DAMN TIMES. Stupid bastard has the first shield that's a clear upgrade and I want to get rid of my damn bug shield (Ancient Qiraji Bulwark). I think I've only replaced like 4 items since my stuff won't freakin' drop.

In any case, the Outlands just LOOK cool as hell. Hellfire Penninsula gets kinda old, as its just mostly red rock, and Zangarmarsh takes a lot of time to get through, but the Forest is very nifty and the Netherstorm is just awesome with all the floating islands. I'm a big fan of the new instance design too; shorter instances with fewer bosses makes it easy to run an entire instance in about 30-45 minutes if you know what you're doing. Good turn around time especially when the bosses don't drop YOUR FREAKIN LOOT (I'm a bit bitter at all the pally loot since I don't group with a lot of paladins).

In non-WoW news, I'm still watching Bleach. Up to episode 46, I think. Its starting to go a bit Dragonball on me ("OMG his powerlevel is too high! I MUST TRAIN NOW! HAHAHA, ITS OVER 9000!"), but I think that's just a momentary thing. I'm even more amused at how Exalted its getting. Not only do they wield Diaklaives, the anime banners are getting involved.

Now for a link (from Fark), how to solve a Rubik's Cube. I haven't studied it all, but it'd be a fun little skill.

As a final note, if I ever started a WoW guild, there's a very real possiblity I'd name it < GO GO GODZILLA >.

Tags: sdl, wow
Current Music: kidneythieves - Zerospace

Thanks rcat78 and ferret_kitty for their music suggestions. Indeed, one can never go wrong with Queen.

Right now, I'm going through a big electronic music kick, particularly house and trance music. Got a bunch of random songs from Curse Gaming's WoW videos (Fura always has good electronic music in his vids) which lead to this DJ Tiesto album I'm currently enjoying. I love this music when I'm just grinding in WoW, which I'll be doing a lot of in a couple of days. EXPANSION BABY!

Except the store I reserved my copy from isn't doing the midnight opening! Damn bastards.

Today's SDL comes from VG Cats.

ADVENTURE TIME!

... WHAT... THE... FUCK... was pretty much my entire response. Yeah.

Tags: sdl
Current Music: DJ Tiesto - Forever Today

I think this one stands on its own.

OH DEAR LORD, BEES!

Tags: sdl
Current Music: Mike Doughty - I Hear the Bells

Latest reason why Exalted and the Internet is cool: So, by now, most people who read this journal know what Exalted is. It recently came out with 2nd Edition. Probably the best known (read: one of the only ones...) webcomic set in the Exalted universe is the Freedom Stone. The artist, named Rai, was doing her little comic when it attracted the attention of artist Melissa Uran. Now, Melissa Uran just happens to be a regular contributer to White Wolf, doing illustrations for Kindred of the East, Changeling... and Exalted. So Melissa does some fan art for Rai since she likes the comic and the two become internet friends.

Then along comes the updated Dragonblooded book for 2nd Ed. and Ms. Uran does a good chunk of the art in the book. And there, on page 95, is Reed from "the Freedom Stone" (link goes to a copy of the picture in Ms. Uran's Deviant Art account). Hehehe, gotta imagine its pretty cool to see one of your characters appear in an official book.

As for your SDL, go read the Freedom Stone. It helps if you know Exalted, but its cute none-the-less. Unfortunately, its been on hiatus for a while... I hope it starts up again.

Tags: exalted, rpg, sdl
Current Music: The Prodigy - Funky Shit

Had a Guitar Hero radio morning today. Heard Helmet's "Unsung" followed by Bad Religion's "Infected" about 20 minutes later. Freaks me out a little bit when I hear those songs on the radio (it was the 89X Time Warp Lunch)...

So I finished watching .hack//Roots yesterday. Its not quite a sequal to .hack//SIGN since they are set about 8 years apart or so and none of the characters carry over. In fact, they are even playing different games with different rules and classes. In any case, it still takes place in an MMORPG. Personally, I think I liked Roots better than SIGN due to a couple of factors. First, the main protagonist in SIGN, Tsukasa, is a whiney git, a la Shinji from Eva. I'm never a fan of the whiney git protagonist. Haseo, the main character of Roots, is much less whiney and even goes berzerk crazy for a good portion of the series. Berzerk Anger > Meloncholic Angst. Secondly, the translation was much better and didn't leave me scratching my head and running to a wiki to find out what the hell just happened after every episode.

Unfortunately, Roots directly segues into the first PS2 game, .hack//GU: Rebirth. I'm tempted to get it, but it never got really great reviews so I'm hesitent.

So, instead, I bought God of War. Oh, man, talk about an awesome game! I think the best part about this game is how it EARNS that "M" rating. Blood is everywhere, copious boobies, and you actually have to sacrifice an Athenian soldier (burning him alive as he screams) to open a door. Intense. Top notch action game too, though I've died WAY more times in that damn underwater part (with the narrowing blades and spikes) than to any monsters. Monsters tend to be the easy part for me; its the damn timed puzzles that kill me. Oh well, its a totally freakin' sweet game and can be bought for like 20 bucks since its a PS2 Greatest Hits, so anyone who doesn't have it should pick it up.

I've got another 2 posts lined up; a comprehensive WoW Warrior post with multiple videos and a post about Alternate Reality Games and ilovebees in particular. For now, just to tide ya over, here's your SDL. You know those cute little Gaia Online avatars you see popping up occassionally? Here's a site that can create them. Warning, the site sometimes takes a long time to load an item.

Tags: anime, sdl, video games

So I hope everyone had a good holiday! I dunno about everyone else, but I ended up with a lot of iTunes gift cards. Funky.

Side question: Okay, so writing new stories with other author's characters is fan fiction. What if you only use the setting, but use original characters? Like writing a Warcraft story or Exalted... does that count as fanfic?

Anyway, SDL TIME!

BUT FIRST, an update on a previous SDL. Yu-Gi-Oh: Abridged - Episode 15 was recently released. Prolly the low point of the series. HOWEVER... there was also a special release: Yu-Gi-Oh: A Christmas Carol, a spoof using the Abridged style characters and "A Christmas Carol". Plus it stars Kiba, so I enjoyed it. Top lines include "Screw the yules, I have money!" and "Oh, don't be like that, Binky Boy. I'm your friend. Come over here and let me cut you... I mean HUG you! Hugging is what I meant."

YOU SHOULD WATCH THE SERIES DAMN IT.

Okay, now for an actual link.

Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006

This is one messed-up animation with a Metal Slug style and lots of gore and messed up special attacks... I think you just gotta watch it and read the summary to the right of the video.

Tags: anime, sdl, youtube
Current Music: BINKY BOY!

So by now most people have probably seen You're the Man Now Dog. Some have probably seen the spin off site YTMND.com, which allows users to create their own versions of the site. Just need a picture, sound and text. A fun site to mess around in, complete with user fads, really sweet music compliations (which I'll feature at a later date), and even a previous war with Ebaumsworld.

In any case, here's one of my favorite YTMNDs: A better version of 'Signs'.

PS: Is it too ironic to listen to the .hack//SIGN soundtrack while playing World of Warcraft? I can't decide.

Tags: sdl, ytmnd
Current Music: Daft Punk - Robot Rock

Alrighty, time for the Semi-Daily Link as you're scrolling through your Friends list. Today's link deals with Exalted.

What's that you say? You've never heard of Exalted? Well, if you're a table top RPG fan and a White Wolf fan in particular, and you've never heard of Exalted, I'd call your geek credentials right there. But here's a quick run down: Mix 3 parts Ninja Scroll with 1 part each of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Legend of the Five Rings, the Odessey, Final Fantasy 7, and Dungeons and Dragons. The main PCs are the Solar Exalted, reborn demigods whose essence was imprisoned thousands of years ago by their upstart underlings the Terrestrial Exalted. Now the Solars are back to find the Realm has branded them Anathema and the world's gone to crap. Being demigods, the PCs have phenomenal cosmic powers (ONE Solar Exalted lead a coalition of Northern Barbarians to destroy 4 full Legions, out of 30 total, from the Realm), insane dice pools, and overall badassiry. Couple that with rules about doing crazy stuff to recharge your power (called stunts), and a Storyteller rule of "There is no such thing as too over the top", and you've got a game that revels in its overpoweredness. Of course, until your little Solar meets his Abyssal counterpart...

In any case, one of Exalted's fun little quirks is the names. Sure, you've got rather simple names like Panther, Dace, and Swan (who probably got beat up a lot, which might be why he's a martial artist now), but you've also got The Lover Clad in the Rainment of Tears, Harmonious Jade, Sad Ivory, and Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers. So yeah, they get pretty ridiculous.

Enter the Exalted Name Generator. Put in the categories like "Colour" "Metal or Stone" "Positive Emotion" and generate your own crazy names!

Tags: exalted, sdl
Current Music: The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy, Hey Girl

Okay, I've been sitting on this link for a while, and all I ask is that you watch it before judging me. :)

Yu-Gi-Oh: the Abridged Series (Episode 1).

Essentially, it condences a Yu-Gi-Oh episode into 4 minutes, replaces all the voices and makes fun of the whole thing. Its actually REALLY funny. It probably helps to know some stuff about Yu-Gi-Oh in the first place, but there's lots of generic anime or pop culture jokes as well. The voices get clearer around Episode 4 or so, and there's 14 total at the time of this posting. Here's another link to all the episodes. Its also important to know that only episodes done by LittleKuriboh are ligit; the series is actually pretty famous on YouTube so watch out for imitators.

Personal Highlight: Kaiba in general is probably my favorite, but the line "Screw the rules, I HAVE GREEN HAIR!" is tops.

Tags: anime, sdl, youtube

So I've been thinking about making this linking idea a permanent daily or semi-daily thing. I know I spend too much time trawling the dark corners of the internet, so why not keep putting my finds here? Give me a reason to keep posting. 'Course we'll have to see how long it lasts once I run out of easy stuff...

But here it is, your Semi-Daily Link!

Phoenix Wrong, PW Rides Again, Phoenix Wrong 3, PW: Last Stand

Favorite bits and their volumes are High Voltage (1), Godzilla (2), Bill and Ted (2), Lewis Black and Coffee (3), and Monty Python (4).

Tags: newgrounds, sdl
Current Music: Electric Six - DANGER! High Voltage