Now that I've delved into a series of mazelike dungeons in Tales of Destiny's latter half, I'm starting to sour on it a bit. It's important for me to maintain motivation at this stage because otherwise my frustration might prevent me from ever finishing it. The battle system is still entertaining and that's what's carrying me through. I'd also like to someday play Tales of Eternia, but not now. There'll be time for that once I've cleared out more of my backlog.
I've also just purchased a really expensive video card, so assuming I don't starve due to extreme poverty over the next two weeks, I'll have a whole new world of games opened up to me, including some that I haven't played for some time. These include such games as Amnesia, Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, StarCraft 2, and hey, maybe I'll even revisit Rift. I'm curious what the game looks like on maximum settings and I wouldn't mind getting to max level either. I would go ahead and count that as a finished game if I did that.
I'm also getting two free games with the video card purchase, none of which I'm particularly interested in. Still, maybe I'll be more satisfied than I imagined I might be with my purchases and I'll have some more to talk about there. Despite all this, the video card isn't going to be here until Wednesday at the very earliest--which is unfortunate, because that's my first day back at work after a 3-day weekend. Nothing I can do about it, but it's certainly disappointing. At the same time though, it theoretically gives me more than enough time to finish Tales of Destiny. Depending on when that happens, I'll have to make a decision on what direction I want to take next.
I'll only have Front Mission 3 left in my backlog as far as PlayStation games go, but I'd also really like to play Front Mission 2, for which a fan translation exists. I feel like playing that would significantly reduce the likelihood that I almost complete Front Mission 3 because I have historically gotten burned out when attempting to play games from a series in sequential order like that--and I think this would be especially true for a series like Front Mission where the games tend to run so long. After all, I originally attempted to play Tales of Destiny after finishing Phantasia and that absolutely did not work out.
Still, ignoring FM2 and just moving on to the next game in the series is similarly worrisome to me. I guess I might just have to settle with playing Front Mission 2 for now and trying to figure it out from there. With that video card coming in, it feels unlikely I'll maintain the same level of patience with these retro games when I have so many more options opened up to me, including much easier PS2 emulation.
I just need to concentrate on finishing Tales of Destiny for now. I really just want to get this one out of the way.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Spirit Animal (Day 331)
Tales of Destiny is very much like any other game in the Tales series. It is generally lighthearted and features a real time combat battle system that very often devolves into button mashing. At the same time, these battles systems are frequently very fun and carry what would otherwise be aggressively mediocre games. That is not to say that I have disliked every Tales game I've played. In fact, I quite enjoyed Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Phantasia, especially the PlayStation remake that I played last year. Phantasia and Symphonia featured casts of shallow but likable characters not unlike the Lunar games.
Tales of the Abyss is an example of a game in the series that has a profoundly unlikable protagonist whose predictable redemption halfway through the game does little to flesh him out as a character. It also had an extremely convoluted and often boring plot featuring long stretches of asinine dialogue read out by a laundry list of voice actors who sound profoundly bored. Johnny Yong Bosch showed up once again as he so often does in JRPGs and anime to voice the character Guy, whose personality and backstory were likely as nondescript as his name--although admittedly I don't remember much about it.
Aside from those issues, Tales of the Abyss featured a very unsatisfying story arc that consisted mostly of moving from one unexciting town to another--and another, and another. I think JRPGs from the last ten years or so tend to noticeably suffer from being padded to artificially lengthen the gameplay. Abyss featured a great deal of pointless and boring travel. Not even the game's reasonably engaging battle system could redeem the game for me, but I still managed to finish it. On the surface it was a very similar game to Tales of Symphonia. It featured an almost identical battle system and graphics engine and such traditional Tales elements such as skits and titles. Symphonia wasn't a perfect game either, but I found it infinitely more enjoyable than Abyss.
Tales of Destiny is of course much more similar to Tales of Phantasia. However, it is a noticeable step back from Phantasia's PlayStation rerelease, which included advancements like cooking and basic combo attacks. In newer Tales games, it is possible to chain 3-4 basic sword slashes together in combat before then chaining into a special attack (called Arte in many games). In Destiny, it is generally only possible to slash once time before being forced to pause for a moment. This was very difficult for me to adjust to when I first started playing the game but considering how fluidly you can chain these attacks into special skills it doesn't really bother me that much.
The verdict is still out on Tales of Destiny's characters. Stahn Aileron is not as aggressively unlikable as Luke fon Fabre from Abyss, but it's hard for me to form that much of an opinion on him at all. This kind of characterization is somewhat similar to Cless from the first game, whose personality was relatively nondescript. Leon is your typical brash asshole character, but I find that the other characters I've recruited so far don't adhere too closely to established tropes. A powerful female warrior named Mary is introduced pretty early. As you play further into the game, the backstory that it reveals about her is surprisingly interesting.
Tales of the Abyss is an example of a game in the series that has a profoundly unlikable protagonist whose predictable redemption halfway through the game does little to flesh him out as a character. It also had an extremely convoluted and often boring plot featuring long stretches of asinine dialogue read out by a laundry list of voice actors who sound profoundly bored. Johnny Yong Bosch showed up once again as he so often does in JRPGs and anime to voice the character Guy, whose personality and backstory were likely as nondescript as his name--although admittedly I don't remember much about it.
Aside from those issues, Tales of the Abyss featured a very unsatisfying story arc that consisted mostly of moving from one unexciting town to another--and another, and another. I think JRPGs from the last ten years or so tend to noticeably suffer from being padded to artificially lengthen the gameplay. Abyss featured a great deal of pointless and boring travel. Not even the game's reasonably engaging battle system could redeem the game for me, but I still managed to finish it. On the surface it was a very similar game to Tales of Symphonia. It featured an almost identical battle system and graphics engine and such traditional Tales elements such as skits and titles. Symphonia wasn't a perfect game either, but I found it infinitely more enjoyable than Abyss.
Tales of Destiny is of course much more similar to Tales of Phantasia. However, it is a noticeable step back from Phantasia's PlayStation rerelease, which included advancements like cooking and basic combo attacks. In newer Tales games, it is possible to chain 3-4 basic sword slashes together in combat before then chaining into a special attack (called Arte in many games). In Destiny, it is generally only possible to slash once time before being forced to pause for a moment. This was very difficult for me to adjust to when I first started playing the game but considering how fluidly you can chain these attacks into special skills it doesn't really bother me that much.
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| The Sorcerer's Ring invariably makes an appearance in every Tales title |
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| Some of the dialogue is questionable |
One thing I do like about Tales of Destiny compared to its predecessor is the ability to customize my party to my personal tastes. I had no real complains about the choices available to me in Phantasia because I liked Cless, Mint, Klarth, and Arche pretty well--but it would have been nice if I'd had more choices for party members other than Chester, who was admittedly pretty strong. In Destiny, you have a few more choices. I haven't recruited every character in the game so far and I don't even know how many characters the game has, but so far I have Stahn, Mary, Rutee, Philia, Leon, Garr, and Karyl. I'm not sure if it's even possible to have more characters than this at one time, but it's nice to have a choice.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Baker Street Muse (Day 330)
I finally finished Vagrant Story last night. I say "finally" but it actually only took me a few days after resuming to get through it. What that doesn't account for is all the times I've started it over the years and gave up out of frustration. This tells you a lot about the game, in fact. I can think of at least two separate times where I progressed through the game all the way to the Snowfly Forest and then promptly decided the game wasn't for me. I think that might still be true, but that doesn't mean I don't respect a lot of aspects of the game.
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| Bosses frequently cast debuffs on you |
As I have discussed previously on this blog, Vagrant Story has a very complex battle system. If you don't understand it completely, combat will often be unsatisfying and tedious. When you have a firm understanding of how it works, it becomes very simple. This dynamic reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics, a game that is considered very difficult for new players but almost trivially easy for veterans. I think the same is probably true for Vagrant Story, but rarely is the combat what I'd call satisfying regardless. What is satisfying is the strategy that goes into preparing for combat.
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| This spell made life a lot easier for me |
Forging weapons and outfitting them with various elemental gems so that you might exploit enemies' weaknesses is fun. Stopping to analyze every enemy to determine these weaknesses is not, however. The Analyze spell also only infrequently works on bosses, so determining their weaknesses essentially amounts to guesswork. This kind of thing isn't a big issue in a game like Persona because after you try about three different elements of spells, you'll know what your enemy is immune or weak to. In Vagrant Story it's more complicated, because not only do elements factor into the equation, but you also have to worry about the enemy's affinity for blunt, piercing, and edged weapons, as well as your own weapon's affinities for beasts, humans, phantoms, etc. This makes guessing a boss's weakness quite the ordeal.
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| Good point, I guess |
Once you do figure out that weakness, it feels like you've solved some kind of puzzle. You can outfit your weapon with gems of that element and cast a spell to boost the weapon's elemental affinity. Cast Herakles to raise your strength and Leadbones to decrease your opponent's agility and you'll likely kill the boss in four to five hits. When weaknesses are properly exploited, the game actually becomes quite easy, although still not exactly what I'd call satisfying.
I feel like Vagrant Story's combat system shows an insane amount of promise--and don't get me wrong, I do still like it in some ways--but its execution is lacking severely in a lot of ways. I grew to enjoy it more when I came to understand it better. When I was first getting used to the system, I concentrated pretty heavily on trying to chain together as many attacks as possible. I assumed this was the best way to take out tougher enemies, but I feel now that I was wrong. Long combo chains will build up a lot of Risk, which increases the damage you take and lowers your accuracy. Shorter combos seem to be much more efficient. Break Arts are also very useful because they don't build Risk and generally have good range--at the expense of costing a small amount of HP.
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| The final confrontation |
I think I can still safely call Vagrant Story a good game--but it's a frustrating one. Because of my ignorance, I often faced incredibly difficult fights with the most mundane of opponents. If you're stuck with only weapons that your opponents resist, you'll find that you deal little to no damage and must spend a considerable amount of time chipping through their HP totals. In the final dungeon, each boss ended up being a complete joke however, because I had the tools to exploit all of their weaknesses. Even though I relied exclusively on an edged weapon for the entirety of that dungeon, it ended up not mattering because I could boost my elemental affinities to such ridiculous heights.
If I played Vagrant Story again, I'd most likely have a much smoother experience. I might do that one day, especially if it gets an enhanced remake. I'm not holding my breath on that one, though.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
La Princesse Perdue (Day 329)
I am stressed out today for a variety of reasons, but now that I have time to sit down and watch the LCS, I'm starting to relax. My problems haven't disappeared, but I'm more easily able to put them into perspective. Today was disheartening to me because I approached it with a very positive attitude. I went to work in a good mood and was determine to do my best at my job. I ended up with a couple of activations and renewals for my trouble, but they were very difficult and complicated cases and I required a lot of help from my manager and co-workers--the latter of which were perfectly willing to help me.
When I went to take my lunch break, my card was declined at Walmart when I tried to purchase a bottle of water and a chicken wrap. I was puzzled by this because I'd checked my bank account just the night before and I'd had 37 dollars in there--not a great amount to have lying in your bank account by any means, but enough to live on for the next few days. I figured I'd be fine until I get paid on Friday, but as it turns out I had a check for $75 scheduled to go through that I'd forgotten about. It went through and I was charged a $35 overdraft fee. I wasn't able to get my food and now I was in debt to my bank.
This sort of set the tone for the rest of the day. My next customers were tremendously difficult to deal with not because of their attitudes, but because they presented me with a series of tasks I wasn't at all familiar with. I asked my manager how best to proceed and she let me know what forms I needed to fill out. I followed her directions to the letter, but I kept coming up with new problems--and when I needed her most, she'd left the building to go to the bank. I was left in the unenviable position of attempting to assure my customers things were progressing while I was essentially sitting there waiting for her to return to resolve the issue.
I don't care to go into the specifics because I'm tired of even thinking about it at this point, but suffice to say that it was a frustrating problem. I'm lucky that I only ended up leaving work 20 minutes late. I was stressed out because of my overdraft but also because I'm far from confident in the stability of my job. If I don't meet my numbers for this month (as far as selling goes) then I'll likely be let go. This is really distressing to me, because it feels like it's constantly being held over my head. It doesn't strike me as a very potent motivational tool.
If I lose this job, I'll have to go back to the job hunt and there is little else I despise more than that. I'd also be in pretty dire financial straits while unemployed. I've more or less resigned myself to working at a factory if I do end up without anywhere else to go. I know I'm not exactly cut out for that kind of work, but it might be time for me to bite the bullet and work wherever I can to make as much money as I can. I have debts to pay off and peace of mind to acquire. Once that's accomplished I can concentrate on getting a job that's more tolerable.
When I went to take my lunch break, my card was declined at Walmart when I tried to purchase a bottle of water and a chicken wrap. I was puzzled by this because I'd checked my bank account just the night before and I'd had 37 dollars in there--not a great amount to have lying in your bank account by any means, but enough to live on for the next few days. I figured I'd be fine until I get paid on Friday, but as it turns out I had a check for $75 scheduled to go through that I'd forgotten about. It went through and I was charged a $35 overdraft fee. I wasn't able to get my food and now I was in debt to my bank.
This sort of set the tone for the rest of the day. My next customers were tremendously difficult to deal with not because of their attitudes, but because they presented me with a series of tasks I wasn't at all familiar with. I asked my manager how best to proceed and she let me know what forms I needed to fill out. I followed her directions to the letter, but I kept coming up with new problems--and when I needed her most, she'd left the building to go to the bank. I was left in the unenviable position of attempting to assure my customers things were progressing while I was essentially sitting there waiting for her to return to resolve the issue.
I don't care to go into the specifics because I'm tired of even thinking about it at this point, but suffice to say that it was a frustrating problem. I'm lucky that I only ended up leaving work 20 minutes late. I was stressed out because of my overdraft but also because I'm far from confident in the stability of my job. If I don't meet my numbers for this month (as far as selling goes) then I'll likely be let go. This is really distressing to me, because it feels like it's constantly being held over my head. It doesn't strike me as a very potent motivational tool.
If I lose this job, I'll have to go back to the job hunt and there is little else I despise more than that. I'd also be in pretty dire financial straits while unemployed. I've more or less resigned myself to working at a factory if I do end up without anywhere else to go. I know I'm not exactly cut out for that kind of work, but it might be time for me to bite the bullet and work wherever I can to make as much money as I can. I have debts to pay off and peace of mind to acquire. Once that's accomplished I can concentrate on getting a job that's more tolerable.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Land of Sherry Wine and Spanish Horses (Day 328)
After I'm done with the two games I'm currently playing, I'd really like to move on to something more relaxing. Of course, my selection is somewhat limited since I'm trying to restrict myself to only games that are in my backlog. Granted, there's about 30 of them so surely I can find something easy and relaxing to play. I enjoy New Mystery of the Emblem a lot but it is quite difficult and micro intensive. Vagrant Story is frustrating in different ways that I have discussed at length on this blog already. However, both of these games absolutely will be finished, most likely on my three-day weekend coming up on the 6th. After that though, I wonder what I could work on?
My original goal was to move on to the other PlayStation games still left to be finished and I might still do that. The only two remaining after Vagrant Story are Tales of Destiny and Front Mission 3. I don't recall Tales of Destiny being very challenging, but it is very grindy and time consuming. The series also tends to throw in a lot of mazelike dungeons and puzzles as well as a lot of pretty tedious dialogue. I'm sure I'll get to it, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for either. Front Mission 3 is reasonably difficult and requires a not inconsiderable amount of strategy--as well as a large amount of planning before missions. One of the main things I like about the series is the level of customization it gives you on your mechs. Finding just the right parts to upgrade your units is generally pretty rewarding, but it also takes a lot of preparation.
As I look through these games left unfinished, I'm running into a lot of similar themes. There's generally a pretty notable reason why I left off on them in the first place. Most of these games were frustrating enough in some way to cause me to lose interest. I couldn't accurately describe a single one of the games remaining as "easy." Vandal Hearts was definitely not a challenging game, but it's out of the way now. I still have plenty of time to think about this, but after a quick look at the selection, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story seems like it be a decent choice to tackle next. Despite the surprising difficulty of Superstar Saga, I don't recall the third game in the series being quite as difficult--and I'm not altogether sure why I stopped playing it in the first place. I'm sure I'll figure that one out pretty quickly.
If I were to be perfectly honest with myself, I'd admit there are other games not on my list that I'd still like to finish--but to satisfy some obsessive tendency of mine I've chosen to tackle all of the games on this list first before attempting anything else. Whether or not I stick to this plan is certainly up in the air, but at the very least it gives me plenty to play for a long time and it forces me not to waste money on new games. The only exception I might make to this rule is if I have the opportunity to play a game with a friend, like I was doing a lot earlier this year. I wouldn't have played through Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 if not for that. I'm planning on ordering a video card when I get paid on Friday. A friend of mine graciously gifted me a copy of Borderlands 2 on Steam so I'll definitely be investing some time into that once the card arrives.
Anyway--as much as it pains me to add another game to this unfinished list, it helps considerably that I feel pretty confident I'll finish it if I have someone to play co-op with. Also, once I have that card, I'll have a great excuse to finish up Torchlight II, which I haven't really played since my last card died. PS2 emulation will also be a lot more feasible, so I can pick up on games like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, and (in the distant future) Front Mission 5.
My original goal was to move on to the other PlayStation games still left to be finished and I might still do that. The only two remaining after Vagrant Story are Tales of Destiny and Front Mission 3. I don't recall Tales of Destiny being very challenging, but it is very grindy and time consuming. The series also tends to throw in a lot of mazelike dungeons and puzzles as well as a lot of pretty tedious dialogue. I'm sure I'll get to it, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for either. Front Mission 3 is reasonably difficult and requires a not inconsiderable amount of strategy--as well as a large amount of planning before missions. One of the main things I like about the series is the level of customization it gives you on your mechs. Finding just the right parts to upgrade your units is generally pretty rewarding, but it also takes a lot of preparation.
As I look through these games left unfinished, I'm running into a lot of similar themes. There's generally a pretty notable reason why I left off on them in the first place. Most of these games were frustrating enough in some way to cause me to lose interest. I couldn't accurately describe a single one of the games remaining as "easy." Vandal Hearts was definitely not a challenging game, but it's out of the way now. I still have plenty of time to think about this, but after a quick look at the selection, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story seems like it be a decent choice to tackle next. Despite the surprising difficulty of Superstar Saga, I don't recall the third game in the series being quite as difficult--and I'm not altogether sure why I stopped playing it in the first place. I'm sure I'll figure that one out pretty quickly.
If I were to be perfectly honest with myself, I'd admit there are other games not on my list that I'd still like to finish--but to satisfy some obsessive tendency of mine I've chosen to tackle all of the games on this list first before attempting anything else. Whether or not I stick to this plan is certainly up in the air, but at the very least it gives me plenty to play for a long time and it forces me not to waste money on new games. The only exception I might make to this rule is if I have the opportunity to play a game with a friend, like I was doing a lot earlier this year. I wouldn't have played through Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 if not for that. I'm planning on ordering a video card when I get paid on Friday. A friend of mine graciously gifted me a copy of Borderlands 2 on Steam so I'll definitely be investing some time into that once the card arrives.
Anyway--as much as it pains me to add another game to this unfinished list, it helps considerably that I feel pretty confident I'll finish it if I have someone to play co-op with. Also, once I have that card, I'll have a great excuse to finish up Torchlight II, which I haven't really played since my last card died. PS2 emulation will also be a lot more feasible, so I can pick up on games like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, and (in the distant future) Front Mission 5.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Humanity is False (Day 327)
I am currently dividing my time between Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem (I'm referring to it by the English name from now on. . .) and Vagrant Story. For the past few months I've been trying to maintain a pretty strict "one game at a time" policy to encourage clearing out more of my backlog, but man, Vagrant Story can be so tedious sometimes! If I hadn't already made so much progress on it, I doubt I'd be considering it a priority even now. Of course, that's not the only thing that keeps me playing. It actually has a fantastic script and great music--even if I'm not as absorbed in the story as I might otherwise be if I were enjoying the game more.
I've put about 15 hours into Vagrant Story and I still don't feel powerful. In RPGs, I feel it's pretty important to feel like you're gradually amassing more and more power until weaker enemies can be destroyed easily. I regularly come across frail-looking skeletons who somehow take 0 damage from spears and giant war hammers just because of some arbitrary affinity system. I think the system looks really good on paper and I can't really find much fault with it in theory. However, in practice it's exceedingly tedious. The interface could definitely use some work--and despite the pseudo turn-based combat being central to the gameplay, I almost wonder if the game would have been a lot more fun if it had been more of an action RPG.
In order to be consistently successful against most opponents you come across, it's important to have a good variety of weapons tailored to specific situations. However, analyzing enemies is a slow and tedious process and even when done often doesn't guarantee that you'll have the weapon you need to exploit those weaknesses. Even if you do have an air-elemental blunt weapon, it might turn out that that weapon is lower quality than your current weapon and thus infers no particular superiority over your current options--meaning that no matter what weapon you choose to use, you'll be dealing out 2-3 damage per hit while racking up ridiculous amounts of Risk, a bizarre statistic that decreases your accuracy and increases the damage you take from enemies. It decays very slowly on its own or you can reduce it by using certain items.
Vagrant Story's combat system is a hodge-podge of interesting mechanics that don't end up working very well when combined together. Throw in a clunky interface and the necessity to switch weapons frequently by navigating through slow-loading menus and you end up with what is a supremely frustrating experience. It's doubly irritating because the game shows so much promise. If a few different design decisions had been made in the interest of usability, the game would be absolutely fantastic. If ever a game needed an enhanced remake, it is Vagrant Story.
I still intend to finish it. I've put 15 hours into the game and have built up a not inconsiderable amount of momentum. I'm not looking forward to the endgame grind and the toil required to forge weapons suitable for the final areas of the game, but perhaps once I've conquered those final areas I'll gain a new appreciation for the game. Maybe I won't--but regardless of whatever the flaws present in Vagrant Story, I think it's a game that is worth my time all the same.
I've put about 15 hours into Vagrant Story and I still don't feel powerful. In RPGs, I feel it's pretty important to feel like you're gradually amassing more and more power until weaker enemies can be destroyed easily. I regularly come across frail-looking skeletons who somehow take 0 damage from spears and giant war hammers just because of some arbitrary affinity system. I think the system looks really good on paper and I can't really find much fault with it in theory. However, in practice it's exceedingly tedious. The interface could definitely use some work--and despite the pseudo turn-based combat being central to the gameplay, I almost wonder if the game would have been a lot more fun if it had been more of an action RPG.
In order to be consistently successful against most opponents you come across, it's important to have a good variety of weapons tailored to specific situations. However, analyzing enemies is a slow and tedious process and even when done often doesn't guarantee that you'll have the weapon you need to exploit those weaknesses. Even if you do have an air-elemental blunt weapon, it might turn out that that weapon is lower quality than your current weapon and thus infers no particular superiority over your current options--meaning that no matter what weapon you choose to use, you'll be dealing out 2-3 damage per hit while racking up ridiculous amounts of Risk, a bizarre statistic that decreases your accuracy and increases the damage you take from enemies. It decays very slowly on its own or you can reduce it by using certain items.
Vagrant Story's combat system is a hodge-podge of interesting mechanics that don't end up working very well when combined together. Throw in a clunky interface and the necessity to switch weapons frequently by navigating through slow-loading menus and you end up with what is a supremely frustrating experience. It's doubly irritating because the game shows so much promise. If a few different design decisions had been made in the interest of usability, the game would be absolutely fantastic. If ever a game needed an enhanced remake, it is Vagrant Story.
I still intend to finish it. I've put 15 hours into the game and have built up a not inconsiderable amount of momentum. I'm not looking forward to the endgame grind and the toil required to forge weapons suitable for the final areas of the game, but perhaps once I've conquered those final areas I'll gain a new appreciation for the game. Maybe I won't--but regardless of whatever the flaws present in Vagrant Story, I think it's a game that is worth my time all the same.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Minstrel in the Gallery (Day 326)
I am typing this from an Asus touch screen laptop my mother let me have. She bought it some time ago thinking she would use it all the time but ended up having no particular use for it. As many gadgets and devices I have to access the internet, I could never seriously turn down having one more, so I decided I'd accept her offer to take it off her hands. It does remind me how much I hate laptop keyboards, though. It makes me appreciate my desktop's mechanical keyboard all the more.
I'm a little wary of Windows 8, but it appears functional enough so far. I was able to pretty easily change the primary account on the computer and sync up my Microsoft and Google accounts. There is this interconnectedness in technology these days that I really enjoy. The fact that I can just pick up my smartphone and instantly have access to dozens of contacts just because I linked it to my Facebook account is really cool. There is of course the argument that these features violate your privacy somewhat, but I guess I've just never been overly concerned about that kind of thing. I've always been the kind of person that shares everything about myself on the internet. It's one of the few places I can really be me. I mean, I guess it's the only place.
I'll probably be writing blog entries on this thing a lot more than the desktop. I am doing so now while catching up on today's LCS matches. It feels easier and more natural to do so on this laptop instead of typing on my alternate monitor which is placed pretty far away. Its primary use has recently been for Netflix while I use my main monitor (a 46" Sony LED TV) for a game. I think I'll start using this laptop for Netflix sometimes when I would rather just lie in bed. I always had the option to do this with my phone, but this laptop's screen is quite a bit bigger--and I don't have to hold it.
Come to think of it, I should check to see if this laptop's USB port can charge my new phone. My old hilariously broken laptop will charge it, but only very slowly. The USB port on my car stereo won't charge it at all. The only two ways I've found that charge it appropriately are of course the wall outlet adapter and the USB port on my desktop. I imagine it must have something to do with the more powerful power supply.
I'm a little wary of Windows 8, but it appears functional enough so far. I was able to pretty easily change the primary account on the computer and sync up my Microsoft and Google accounts. There is this interconnectedness in technology these days that I really enjoy. The fact that I can just pick up my smartphone and instantly have access to dozens of contacts just because I linked it to my Facebook account is really cool. There is of course the argument that these features violate your privacy somewhat, but I guess I've just never been overly concerned about that kind of thing. I've always been the kind of person that shares everything about myself on the internet. It's one of the few places I can really be me. I mean, I guess it's the only place.
I'll probably be writing blog entries on this thing a lot more than the desktop. I am doing so now while catching up on today's LCS matches. It feels easier and more natural to do so on this laptop instead of typing on my alternate monitor which is placed pretty far away. Its primary use has recently been for Netflix while I use my main monitor (a 46" Sony LED TV) for a game. I think I'll start using this laptop for Netflix sometimes when I would rather just lie in bed. I always had the option to do this with my phone, but this laptop's screen is quite a bit bigger--and I don't have to hold it.
Come to think of it, I should check to see if this laptop's USB port can charge my new phone. My old hilariously broken laptop will charge it, but only very slowly. The USB port on my car stereo won't charge it at all. The only two ways I've found that charge it appropriately are of course the wall outlet adapter and the USB port on my desktop. I imagine it must have something to do with the more powerful power supply.
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