VegettoEX Dot Com

Author: vegettoex

  • Problem Solved: Photoshop Crashes

    So I randomly started having an issue on my work computer this week where Adobe Photoshop CS3 would crash each and every time, without fail, when I tried to open or create more than one image at time.

    Needless to say, this is slightly frustrating when you live inside these types of programs and need to… oh, I dunno… actually get some work done.

    First thing I did was go through the painful process of uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop. I had done a few things recently to the system, so I figured this might just be the best option. Set it to go, went for a long walk, came back, rebooted… same problem.

    I really should have done my research ahead of time, because this is a known issue with an easy workaround.

    Wait, what…? Photoshop crashing with more than one image open is due to printer availability…?! You’ve GOT to be kidding.

    Maybe there was some work being done around the office that I didn’t know about, and whatever my default printer happened to be was moved or disconnected. Not having printed anything for days, I can’t say I noticed. Sure enough, when I switched the default printer over to something else,  ta~dah! Suddenly able to have more than one image open at a time, again.

    Seriously, Adobe? We pay how much for this? Argh. If I could figure out how to do simple things in GIMP, I might actually consider using it.

  • Town Names In RPGs

    I figured it out! I know what my biggest problem with RPGs is; despite wanting to love them so much and continue picking them up time and time again, I have so many issues!

    Town names!

    I have a hard enough time remembering all of the character names (something I’ve always had a problem with in TV shows, movies, and even around the office!). When you toss magic attacks, items, and enemies on top of all that, and then ask me to remember where all the towns are so I can backtrack to them? I’ve got issues.

    Today Final Fantasy VI asked me to fly back to Narshe. OK, no problem. I recognize that town name. I don’t really remember what it looked like, but I know I’ve been there a few times and it’s important to the story. I should be able to find it no problem. Then I realized I had absolutely no idea where it was or what it looked like. I hopped onto Google Image Search on the iPhone, looked at a world map, and still flew around for about fifteen minutes completely unable to find the stupid town. Finally I just landed in the general area of what all the maps said, and I finally walked into a mountain and put it all together again in my head (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve played the game).

    So what was the real problem? Since I’ve already recognized that I have a difficult time in life remembering names (it takes me FOREVER), I can only assume that it’s a huge factor here. Final Fantasy VI probably makes it even worse by throwing so many characters and towns at you without ever slowing down. I’m trying to think back to other RPGs I’ve played in the past to find some parallels, but I’m drawing a blank. I initially thought that Final Fantasy VII did it perfectly by baby-feeding you with one town at first (Midgar), but even then, there were all of the separate areas within in (Sector 7 slums, Aerith’s house, Shinra Headquarters, etc.). Zelda II had a wonderfully small amount of towns that I could probably recite in order, but that is such a different type of game and from so much longer ago.

    What do you all think? Do you have the same problem in games? Are the terrible world maps also to blame (seriously, these GBA games’ maps are impossible to see)? Is it the outlandish names of these towns, that almost always seem to be neither English nor Japanese in origin? At least those two languages I’m familiar with…

  • Video Game Club: “Final Fantasy VI” Thoughts #2

    I just got a chance to play another ~45 minutes or so in Final Fantasy VI, and wanted to give everyone an update on my thoughts. Judging from the comments when I last talked about the game, a lot of you are interested in (and currently are!) playing along with the game, too, and want to discuss what’s going on. Awesome!

    So here are the ground rules when we here on vgconvos talk about a game we are playing and want to hear feedback from you all while still going into spoilers (which I guess we’ll just call “Video Game Club”). Note that these rules are subject to change, and probably will change as we figure out what the heck we’re doing.

    (1) All in-depth talk / spoilers will be put behind a “read more” cut.
    (2) The age of the game is irrelevant; we will respect spoilers in all games.
    (3) Before the cut, we will describe the general area of where we are in the game, and where appropriate, the current play-time.
    (4) You can’t hold us responsible for ruining games for you!

    With that out of the way… I’m about 11 hours into Final Fantasy VI. If the town of “Vector” and a research facility don’t sound familiar to you yet, do not…

    (more…)

  • “Secret of Mana” on Virtual Console

    Just because a new podcast episode came out yesterday, it doesn’t mean that I can’t keep writing blog entries! I’m still here for another couple days!

    We heard about it hitting the Japanese Virtual Console last month, so we knew it was on its way. That doesn’t change the fact that a SquaresoftEnix game coming out at a budget price via digital distribution rather than a $40 Nintendo DS remake is a strange thing in today’s world.

    Seiken Densetsu 2, or Secret of Mana, hit the North American Virtual Console yesterday. I know Jeff will be all over it once he clears out some blocks on his Wii (I’ve got five, he’s got zero!), and Andrew I’m not sure about (probably? but he’s got his SNES hooked up and owns the cartridge…).

    If you’ll remember back to our first podcast episode, Andrew and Jeff totally loved the game (as well as Secret of Evermore), but I had actually never played it. I surprised them on the show by having played a good few hours into the game before talking about our mutual top ten games. Some of my complaints were the at-times clumsy hit detection on enemies, your companions getting stuck behind things, and… well, I don’t remember much about what I said. I did recognize the wonderful music and the ingenuity of the “ring system” for the menus.

    So what about me? Should I be picking it up on Virtual Console? If I do, I’ll probably wait a few months while I work through my backlog of RPGs on the system (Super Mario RPG, Ys Book I & II, Shining Force II). Does it really deserve another chance, though? What do you all think?

  • Conversation 004: What’s Going On Right Now & An Old Discussion About Video Game Magazines and Import Game Coverage

    It’s that time of the month, again! We’re pretty much on-schedule, and here to hit you back with another podcast episode.

    Since I’m getting married next week, and therefore all parties involved are pretty busy right now and will be out of town (Hell, Jeff’s down in Virginia as I type this for AnimeUSA), we had to decide what we were actually going to do for a podcast episode this month. Would we just do a cheap cop-out episode? Would we record anything? You can’t do nothing for an episode, and you can’t do a clip-show after only three episodes!

    What we decided to do was have a split show. The first part is going to be as-per-the-norm, with the regular intros and talking about what we’re playing right now (along with any fun stories to be shared). We also wanted to address some of the feedback we’ve been getting (thanks for all the blog comments and e-mails, everyone!), so we hit up one e-mail and gave some suggestions based on their questions.

    The “conversation” for this episode, however, is actually a topic portion of my main show, Daizenshuu EX, from nearly two years ago (January 2007). In it, we all talked about old video game magazines (specifically EGM from the early-to-mid-1990s) and their coverage of import video games. There was (obviously) a huge DragonBall slant to the discussion, but it’s actually general enough that it makes a lot of sense over here in the vgconvos style. I think you’ll all find it incredibly interesting! The only downside is that I guess this was recorded before I got the new mixer and mics, so the sound quality is quite a bit different than you may be used to. I re-balanced it, though, so it should be slightly better than it was two years ago.

    You may also want to check out the page I set up back when we first recorded the episode which showcases a whole crap-ton of scans from those magazines. There’s stuff in there ranging from the very first issue of Nintendo Power (July/August 1988) up through stuff in 1997.

    So there you have it! Next time you hear from me on the show I’ll be a married Mike… which isn’t all that different from how it is around here right now, except that it’ll be legal on a piece of paper! Sweet! Hopefully Jeff and Andrew can keep things going with some regular blog entries over the next couple weeks. Catch you later, everyone!

  • Six Weeks Pokemon Free

    I can’t believe that it’s been six weeks since I popped Final Fantasy VI into Slot 2 of my Nintendo DS, effectively putting an end to my current playing of Pokemon. Since then, I have loaded up not a single Pokemon game for GBA, DS, WiiWare… anything.

    It’s been perfectly wonderful.

    To briefly recap, I played about halfway through Yellow back on the GB(C) when it first came out in 1999. Got pretty bored and dropped it soon there-after. I felt the bug coming when Generation IV (Diamond & Pearl) were on the horizon, and decided to give it all another go having skipped two generations. I picked up FireRed (GBA) and Pearl (DS) the day Generation IV was launched in the US, and proceeded to put something like 90 hours into GBA and around the same into DS (I honestly don’t remember the exact numbers; it was approaching 100 for both, I think…?). Once I “beat” Pearl (that is, defeated the Elite Four), I captured all of the standard, non-event legendaries and various specials, and then pretty much let it go.

    Many months later, I randomly picked it up again. I don’t know why or how, but I did. Perhaps it was around the time that the special event critters were being passed out at Toys R Us…? I finally started messing around with things like trading on the GTS (and with a couple friends), going underground, breeding… all things I barely dabbled with on the initial playthrough. It was like a whole new world of end-game content was available to me, despite it being there the whole time. I really enjoyed it all. My Pokemon Ranch added a little bit of fuel to the fire, giving me even more of a reason to try completing my PokeDex and transfer specifically-bred (and traded) critters for the sole purpose of putting them on the ranch and seeing what they do.

    It was like I was a kid again, dedicating all of my gaming time to the same, singular game (even playing FireRed or Ranch was essentially playing Pearl, since they all led to that destination). The only “problem” with this was that I was ignoring all of the other games I had been accumulating and dropping. Sure, I would hit up the new multiplayer games when friends were around (Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, various other fighting games including the standard Capcom staples, etc.)… but no progress was being made in any single-player games. I just wasn’t getting any other experience. It was really bothering me, but at the same time, I told myself I was having fun and that’s all that really mattered in the end.

    While I still stand by that justification, I have to say how wonderful it is to be playing some other games again. I’m somewhere around ten hours into Final Fantasy VI, and while I’m still waiting for that huge emotional impact to hit me, it’s fun to be playing none-the-less. That’s really all I’ve been able to put time into right now (with the upcoming wedding, and all) since I’m able to play it on-the-go (mostly during lunch at work), but I’m psyched to come home after the honeymoon and know I have so many other games (both new experiences and re-playings) waiting for my time…

    WipEout HD (barely started), Super Mario RPG (re-play; in-progress), Ys Book 1 & II (not started), Shining Force II (re-play; not started), Soul Calibur IV (in-progress), DBZ: Burst Limit (in-progress), The World Ends With You (not started), Space Invaders Extreme (not started), Bioshock (not started)… Hell, I might even go back and play some more of Super Mario Galaxy, which I was having a ton of fun with but just suddenly dropped (classic Mike gaming).

  • “LittleBigPlanet” Beta

    Managed to get myself a beta key for LittleBigPlanet the other day thanks to the USA Today giveaway (which required nothing more than sending an e-mail). I’m only just now getting around to downloading it, and it’s only good through the weekend… so I don’t have a whole lot of time with it!

    I’ve already recorded something extra to stitch into the games-we’re-playing little mini-segment of episode four of the podcast, so maybe I’ll have a second stitch going in before I put up the episode in the next couple days!

    Anyone else have it? Wanna play together? Add “VegettoEX” on PSN and drop me a line.

    (Also downloaded Portal: Prelude, but it would help if I would go finish the original damn version of the game first. Only have, like, three levels left. Which takes about two minutes. Argh.)

  • Thank goodness I can disconnect!

    So I had finished editing some stuff and wanted to burn it off to CD-R for transferring around. Don’t have Nero installed on this computer, and turns out I don’t really have anything installed over here for advanced burning.

    OK, no problem. I’ll just go grab CDBurnerXP, since I don’t need anything all that special.

    Whoops, don’t have the latest .NET Framework stuffage installed. OK, let’s go do that. Go ahead and download that first, and start getting it installed. It gets ready to finish up and presents me with the following:

    PHEW. That’s a huge relief! I can finally disconnect from the Internet! I’ve been waiting for this day for years!

  • Top 10 Couch Songs In “Rock Band”

    While this is a Top 10 list, it’s not part of a regular episode, so I won’t toss it over with the rest of the more formal Top 10 lists. This is instead intended to just be a fun little thing to put out there, and to coax Jeff and Andrew into making their own lists, as well.

    In case you haven’t heard, we play the crap out of Rock Band. Constantly. It was like a part of me was dead on the inside when I had to send my 360 back for repairs and thus could not play Rock Band. One of the things we love about the game (series) is how amazing Harmonix has arranged the playable songs. There’s literally something for everyone. No matter what type of music you like (or think you like), there are a couple songs that you are dying to play on every single instrument.

    I figured the three of us could take a couple minutes to jot down a Top 10 list, but in a different way from what we’ve done before. My list is going to be the Top 10 Emo Couch Songs In Rock Band. Admittedly, some of these are going to cross genres a little bit, but they’re all relatively part of the same scene (or evolutions over time). Both games are fair for this list, as well as all downloadable content.

    10: AFI – “Girl’s Not Grey” (music video on YouTube)
    What I like about the inclusion of this song is the style. It’s more aggressive than the majority of others in the same genre, but the vocals are of a different range, as well. It’s far from my favorite AFI album (that would probably be The Art Of Drowning), but it’s a logical and fun inclusion.

    09: Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle” (music video on YouTube)
    It was a pretty huge song, so it makes sense that it would eventually be whored out to all of the current-generation music games (it’ll also be popping up in Guitar Hero: World Tour and On Tour Decades). Every little bit of the song is fun to play; that brief pause after “It just…” totally makes you feel like a rock star.

    08: Against Me! – “Stop!” (music video on YouTube)
    It was literally just released as DLC this week, but it’s an awesome inclusion. It’s got a slightly funky drum beat to it, all of the parts are fun to play, and it’s a great song. I’m not even really sure what else to say about it. Don’t stop and take some time to think… just download it! Ugh, that was terrible.

    07: 30 Seconds To Mars – “Attack” (music video on YouTube)
    I don’t even particularly like this band, which is what really impressed me about the song. I threw it on a mix CD of songs from the game, and happened to really like what I heard. I absolutely loathed “The Kill”, and was shocked to find myself enjoying this one. I keep trying and trying to be able to do all of the singing and screaming parts of this song, but it’s just totally out of my range. I can’t do it. Grrrrr. Thankfully, it’s ridiculously fun on guitar and such, so it works out in the end.

    06: All-American Rejects – “Move Along” (music video on YouTube)
    The fact that I got Jeff to even remotely listen to a couple of this band’s songs is a testament to their catchiness. Their first album is probably the superior one in terms of hooks, but this particular song is a perfect inclusion. The opening drums are super fun once you get the hang of the pattern, and the vocals are at a perfect range for nearly anyone to sing.

    05: Buzzcocks – “Ever Fallen In Love” (music video on YouTube)
    I’ll admit that I actually didn’t know of this particular song until I heard Thursday’s cover of it. Their version is delivered quite differently in the vocals, but it’s amazing that you can sing it either way and it still works out perfectly in terms of scoring. The drums are really fun to play on this song, but my favorite part is easily the final “… ever fallen in love wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiith” at the end.

    04: Paramore – “Crushcrushcrush” (music video on YouTube)
    While “Misery Business” would have been our first choice of a Paramore song (which Guitar Hero: World Tour is getting), having this show up as DLC one day certainly wasn’t a bad thing. The drum part of this song is one of the easiest expert-level songs, which can really make you feel like you’re making progress with learning how to play. The vocals are deceptively difficult to get a good score on, mostly because you simply don’t have a lot of time to breathe in between lines!

    03: Fall Out Boy – “Dead On Arrival” (music video on YouTube)
    Those that were present the first evening that we had Rock Band will painfully remember my squawking along with Pete’s vocals on this one. Sorry. Take This To Your Grave is somewhat of a scene classic with its clever lyrics, and while this song is much more straight-forward than the rest, it was a great pick from the album. Bring in the (and I hate to use the phrase again) deceptively difficult instrument patterns (especially on drums) and you’ve got a winner.

    02: Weezer – “El Scorcho” (music video on YouTube)
    I’m a sucker for gang vocals. Add to that the fact that it’s in a party game which essentially obligates people to shout along? Sold. From the oft-forgotten album Pinkerton, this one’s another “easy” song in all areas, but its lyrics are so ridiculous and fun that it doesn’t matter. Definitely one of my staple performances, and one that I can actually 100% on hard-level vocals.

    01: Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down” (music video on YouTube)
    When I heard that the game-titled tour was going to have a DLC pack in the future (and that Dashboard was a part of it), I was both excited and terrified. I was excited just to have some Dashboard music coming my way, but was terrified that it might be something much newer that I had no real attachment to. Reading that song title put a huge smile on my face, as does singing it every time. Chris always introduces the song as being about “the best day” he ever had, and I have absolutely no problem sharing in that with him every time we play the song.

    How about you guys ‘n gals? What are you favorite couch songs? Jeff and Andrew… what are your lists going to be? 😀

  • Define: “Couch”

    This is something I wrote elsewhere back in April 2008. I think it makes sense to re-post it here.

    Seriously, internet. You using the word “emo” is getting a little old.

    How about you pick another musical genre/descriptor at random and use it completely wrong for a few years? Maybe “Schlager“? Yeah, every time someone’s happy, we can say they’re “a schlager“. Maybe something even completely different and equally irrelevant, like “couch” (yes, the thing you sit on)?

    That’s it! I’ll start using the word “couch” in the same type of context. It’ll so be the next big thing. It’s equally catchy and memorable.

    I’m all for the evolution (modernization, even) of language… but could you at least put a little effort into it? Know what you’re talking about?

    No, that’s asking too much.

    SORRY FOR SUCH A COUCH POST. I’LL GO SLIT MY WRISTS AND BE REALLY COUCH. I’M SUCH A COUCH.