New YouTube layout shoved down our throats on March 7

That's right, if you enjoy the current layout, take a good, long look at it, because in one more week it'll be gone. As promised, I will wait until the very last second and let YouTube switch over on its own. I'd like to remind everyone that this is NOT my choice, and in fact if I did have a choice I would still have the layout we used to have back when I first started LPing.

I would also like to point out that I woke up two or three times to YouTube changing the layout on its own without asking me, so I had to restore the old one manually each time. Just great.

New poll up!

Today's question: which of these anticipated Dream World abilities would you most like to see? I have a good feeling as to what's going to win by an overwhelming margin, and I considered just excluding it, but meh, I want an accurate picture.

BW2 to get international release in fall 2012

That's right, the wait won't be nearly as long as it usually is! It all makes sense now, this is why the big reveal was made internationally. I figured as much, which means either they've been sitting on the completed Japanese version for a while, which would make no sense whatsoever considering the hardware situation, or more likely, the localization job really isn't that big. This is definitely a big blow to those hoping that the game is a sequel, though if it IS then I'm going to be impressed at the localization teams for doing the job so fast.

More details on Kyushu bullet train event

A few days ago, Serebii reported that an Extremespeed Pikachu was going to be distributed to commemorate the launch of a new bullet train in the Japanese region of Kyushu. Today, he came back on the subject, since that's not all there is to this giveaway. On top of that, three different distributions will take place, and in each one you'll get one of three Pokémon. Out of the nine Pokémon distributed, three are currently known: Sceptile, Milotic and Metagross. It's still unknown whether they'll have their DW abilities or not, but as far as the three I just mentioned go it's not a big deal, since they already have their DW abilities, and only Sceptile's is of any interest. New moves then? It's a more likely scenario, though it's also quite possible that they have nothing that makes them different. Which would be sad.

One thing we DO know about the remaining six Pokémon, though, is that they will all be generation 3 Pokémon as well. Oblivious ignoramuses will immediately read into it as SIGN OF REMAKES, but the reality is much more simple (that's even before factoring in Saturday's tacit confirmation that there'll be no remakes this gen), and it's due to the fact that Kyushu is the region Hoenn was based on.

But wait, that's not all! Yet another giveaway, set to take place after the three I mentioned above, will distribute Kyogre and Groudon! Once again, it's unknown whether they'll have any special moves (though we can agree that Kyogre does NOT need any!), but between the Pikachu, Kyogre and Groudon, you can only get one out of the three. That's right, should you choose to get the Pikachu, you're not getting Kyogre and Groudon. Why? I don't get this at all.

DISHWASHERS!!!

Now that I have your attention, it's time for a change of pace from the repeated (and possibly repetitive) BW2 posts!

Remember this one fanfic I advertised a few times in my LPs, combining two things that I usually don't hold in very high regard, namely fanfiction in general and Pokémon Colosseum? Well, it has been completed, and you can now read it in its full glory and completed-ness here. It's been a long ride, as the wait for each chapter quickly became akin to waiting for new material from ProtonJon. But just like Jon, Bobandbill managed to make it worth the wait every single time. Massive props to a guy who perpetually makes me wonder how the likes of Stephenie Meyer can make a living by writing.

The plot thickens...

A few hours after calling BW2 a deluxe version, Serebii gave a completely contradicting statement on his new BW2 page. This is likely caused by him not having a clue as to where they're going with this, despite his inside connections (that, incidentally, don't always tell him everything). Is it a twin deluxe version? A full-fledged sequel? Or another possibility, a twisted hybrid of the two, where the game's practically the same but with a different story?

Either way, I'm sort of biting my lip right now, because after all the fuss I made about waiting for the deluxe version, the possibility that I'm going to have to end up LPing both games is real. I suppose I'll have to wait to see just how different the same games are before deciding - and on that note, no, even if it's confirmed to be a sequel tomorrow, I'm still waiting until the Japanese release to see what remains the same and what's different.

So, what about those Pokémon LPs?

It's a question I've been asked a few times after today's reveal, and I guess I should go public with my intentions now. Of course, this largely depends on version exclusives and whether this is a sequel or a deluxe version, but should my prediction come to pass and it's a deluxe version with the same version exclusives as before, White 2 will be my game of choice, unless I have a good reason not to use Lilligant or there's a substantial gap in power between Kyurem's forms. I'm giving myself a litte leeway on that since we don't even know how they work, but that's how things currently stand.

But what if it's a sequel? Well then... that's a great question. BW2 WILL be LPed at some point, but if it's the same game as the first one, only with a different story, I still might not LP BW1. I guess it all depends on how much actually changes, so once again nothing's absolutely set in stone.

Two alternate forms for Kyurem, Meloetta revealed, twin deluxe versions!

According to a cinema listing, two new forms for Kyurem have been revealed, one based on fire and one on electricity. This falls in line with the two signature moves it doesn't have yet, Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare.

In addition, Meloetta is allegedly set to have a part in a small movie tying in to movie 15, so that's two new event Pokémon in the same year. This has huge implications on generation's 5 pacing, as the fact that there were four new event Pokémon were the only solid reason why gen 5 would last the usual four years. The fact that we'd get a two-for-one deal this year strongly suggests that gen 5 will only last three years, as suggested by the DS' rapid decline and the blazing pace of the anime (the group being at Mistralton a year and a half in). This means Gray will be coming out this year, immediately followed by gen 6 as soon as next year. So it seems that the last chance for those still hoping against all hope for a gen 3 remake soon has been utterly crushed, if this is true.

The situation is probably going to evolve rapidly, I'll update this post when it does.

Update: This just in, the poster is legit! This is the big announcement on Pokémon Smash. Those expecting Gray will have to wait a little longer, but the Kyurem forms are a dead giveaway that it's going to happen just as planned.

Update 2: "A little longer" amounts to fifteen minutes, as it turns out. And we have a real shocker on our hands, as we don't get a single deluxe version, but rather two, dubbed Black 2 and White 2. We also get a closer look at Kyurem's new forms, and they look like it's merging with Reshiram and Zekrom. Can't wait to see where they go from there. By the way, those two games are for the DS, as expected. Told you it took too much in the way of resources to redo everything from the ground up on the 3DS.

Update 3: Two more things. The names of the Kyurem forms will be revealed next week, and the US site has already been updated with them and the existence of BW2. Does this mean we'll get a faster localization than we usually do? One can only hope...

Update 4: BW2 is confirmed to come out in Japan... in June! I'm surprised because it's so close, but at the same time they really want to send this out the door ASAP, before the DS starts becoming a collector's item. This also means we're likely to see the international release before the end of the year.

Update 5: I think this needs to be addressed... a lot of people seem to think this is a direct sequel instead of a deluxe version. I don't know how they could draw that conclusion, other than the title, but the odds of that are almost nil. You know why it's on the DS, right? It's because they needed to copypaste vast amounts of data from BW1 (almost the entire game in fact), and you can't do that from a DS game to a 3DS one. If this were a brand new game, releasing it on the DS at this point would be senseless, over a full year after the introduction of a 3DS that gained lots of steam in the last few months. With that in mind, let's have a moment of silence for those unaware, unwashed masses who WILL buy it at release expecting a sequel, pop it in their DS or 3DS and drop an F-nuke.

Update 6: Kyurem form names revealed! Black Kyurem and White Kyurem. Not much effort went into these, huh? I would've much prefered Yin Kyurem and Yang Kyurem, but oh well.

Masuda announces Extremespeed Pikachu event

And guess what? It's probably going to be Japan-only, as it's related to the launch of a bullet train. Oh well, that's what Pokémon Online is for. This is actually big, BIG news for Pikachu and Raichu, since their speed leaves to be desired. Especially Pikachu, who WILL die to anything faster and has one of the highest attack scores in the game. The hilarious thing is that Pikachu has so many event moves, and time after time they pick the most worthless ones... I guess they were bound to run out of crappy moves at some point.

By the way, this isn't Masuda's big announcement... that will be taken care of later today.

Incoming Gray announcement? (Again?)

Junichi Masuda is at it again with cryptic hints at future projects! When asked when the next main series game (obviously Gray) would be announced, he answered by suggesting that we watch Pokémon Smash next Sunday (that'd be Saturday night for us in the Americas). Is this time going to be the right one? We all remember the last time we thought this was it... and the time before... and the time before... and the time before... But the question was about main series games, so this may be it! Not to mention, Keldeo was just revealed, so the usual timing for an announcement has been reached.

So now would be a good time to ask: what would you like to see in Gray? Personally the most important thing I want is an Unova Dex expansion. Let's face it, 150 just isn't enough. Also, gym leader rematches, I can't stress that enough! Move tutors would be great, and I'm expecting that we're going to get some of them. Expand the Battle Subway to include other styles of battle, like the Battle Frontier in Emerald and Platinum, maybe? I would also like the other six Plasma sages to have more of a role than just arrive, say a few lines and leave, maybe be fought in battle too. As a slight extra, I'd be interested in another DW gen 5 Pokémon or two, like Musharna and Darmanitan in B/W.

Edit: And the Vs. Seeker... how'd I forget about that?

Evasion Clause saga: sign of victory?

As it turns out, the Smogon forum thread I mentioned and linked to a few days ago didn't last long. It was closed very quickly because the debate was... well, let's just say aggressive. But that's the nature of luck in Pokémon in general... it's incredibly polarizing, and subject to heated exchanges. As a result of all that, it seems like Evasion Clause won't be extended further, and while this isn't giving us Brightpowder back, a win is a win.

One place where there seems to be a widespread consensus, though, is right here. Almost a hundred people voted in my little in-house poll, and the results are very one-sided, as out of 94 voters, a whopping 68 want to not only avoid any further extensions, but also bring back Brightpowder on top of that. An additional 12, while supporting the Brightpowder ban, also don't want Sand Veil and Snow Cloak to go. 10 people would like to see them go, but only in combination with their respective weathers, and the last four want these abilities gone entirely, making the likes of Sandslash and Cacturne completely unusable. I would really like to hear their reasoning, especially since as far as I can recall not a single soul on Smogon supports that measure. Can't tell if trolling... oh well, that's the price of anonimity.

Either way, one of the thread's listed cons of unbanning Brightpowder is the backpedaling on a massive supermajority vote, but I'm not sure that proportion would hold today, as I see the ban as a gesture of panic meant as a last ditch effort to keep Garchomp in OU. So, here's a supermajority vote that goes the other way. Hint hint.

Banjo-Kazooie finale marathon!

Expect the remainder of the game to come either tomorrow or on Tuesday. I will also take the opportunity to bring up some projects I have in the short term!

Edit, February 20: Done and done. Don't expect any LP videos for a while though, I have to work on the project I mentioned at the end.

Diablo fansite DDoSes itself over beta key promotion

I've heard of hackers DDoSing other sites before, but never before have I ever heard of a site doing the deed itself. However, from what it seems it happened earlier today, as Blizzard distributed beta keys to various fansites so that they may give them away to their visitors. Most of them opened up a variety of contests, ranging from Facebook to Twitter to trivia contests and everything in between. However, the Diablo 3 Database (D3DB for short) decided to do things a little differently, and currently offers a chance to win one of 450 keys to any registered user who visits any page at all on their site. Do you see where I'm going with this? Not only do you improve your chances of winning by spamming F5 all day, but they're ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING that practice! The obvious objective is to increase apparent traffic to their website, and thus ad money. But it hilariously backfired when the site went down earlier today. It's come back up since then, but the absurdity of such a move was so good I had to share it. How could those monkeys NOT have figured out that they just might overload their servers that way? Karma, guys. Don't mess with it.

And you thought the Virtual Boy was bad...

If you want to see the worst piece of crap gaming peripheral ever made, I suggest you check out this video by James Rolfe and Mike Matei. It's not a formal AVGN episode or anything, but it still drives the point home: to quote James himself, "this makes the Virtual Boy look like God". How was garbage like this ever allowed on store shelves?

Evasion Clause under scrutiny once again

As I mentioned a little while back, we hadn't heard a thing about banning anything from Smogon in a while. This ended today, as they're looking to potentially alter the Evasion Clause further. Last year, in the midst of a Garchomp-induced panic, they banned Brightpowder and Lax Incense, which accomplished nothing since not only was Garchomp was still banned the following round, but later on it was also statistically proven that Leftovers was better at fishing for Sand Veil misses than adding Brightpowder on top of it.

However, even after that evasion still remained in some capacity, with Sand Veil and Snow Cloak. And for the sake of consistency, the case was re-opened today, as it's an aberration to some that these abilities are still allowed while Brightpowder is gone. This is something I fully agree with, as Brightpowder should never have been banned in the first place. Unfortunately, far more concerning is the fact that the option of getting rid of Sand Veil and Snow Cloak is now available, either through a full ban or a combo ban with their respective weathers. The former is completely unacceptable, as it would act as a full ban on the likes of Sandslash and Cacturne by proxy, and so is the latter, as I believe complex bans should only be used in extreme emergencies, such as the Swift Swim fiasco early last year. Sand Veil and Snow Cloak are NOT emergencies, they're NOT broken, period. Garchomp was, it's now gone, it's as simple as that.

The underlying issue is the eternal skill vs. luck debate. Luck will always be part of the game, whether we like it or not, and trying to get rid of that much of it will eventually transform the metagame into an unappealing Franken-monster. Evasion isn't the only source of hax, it's just the flashiest, which is why no one ever examined full paralysis, flinching and so on. You know how too much plastic surgery may make a woman less appealing than how she started out as? The same thing applies here, and we could be going down that spiral of BS pretty soon if further bans take place.

Fortunately, in the ongoing forum thread it seems there really isn't a whole lot of support for a combo ban, and absolutely none for full bans, so we're unlikely to see any major changes come out of it - as long as we hold our ground and make it clear that we won't take that kind of garbage.

You know what? Let's have a little in-house poll to see what you guys think. It's on the right side of the blog.

Edit: Something that needs to be said, major props to the admins for actually opening up the discussion despite having an opinion on the matter that doesn't look like it could rally the majority of people. Of course, I might take that back if they go forward with the combo ban anyway... but for now they're doing the right thing.

Smogon's newest CAP: brilliance or madness?

I admit that I'm not too interested in Smogon's Create-A-Pokémon projects, for the simple reason that we don't ever end up seeing their outcomes in real battles, but their newest creation, Necturna, throws a novel idea out there, one that I'm sure very few of us ever thought of: how about a Pokémon that gets Sketch as an egg move? This is substantially different from Smeargle, in that you only get to use Sketch once, as you can't use the move relearner to get it back once you use it. That means you have to pick three moves in the Pokémon's regular movepool, then one wild card that can be any move except Chatter. I would have to say I love this idea - of course, on the condition that the Pokémon is balanced in consequence. Let's see what Necturna is made of:

Base stats: 64 HP, 120 Atk, 100 Def, 85 SA, 120 SD, 81 Spe
Like most of Smogon's CAPs, the BST exceeds the traditional 540 cap on non-legendaries/pseudo-legendaries (Arcanine and Volcarona being exceptions thanks to their special status). Nonetheless, you can see the defensive focus here, despite the somewhat low HP. That massive attack... well, it has quite a few attractive STABbed options, such as Shadow Sneak, Shadow Claw, Horn Leech, Power Whip and Leaf Blade, but beyond that, there's Stone Edge, and... Thunder Fang? Return? Payback?

Abilities: Forewarn as regular, Telepathy as DW. PASS.

Level-up moves: Thunder Fang, Poison Fang, Super Fang, Leer, Vine Whip, Ominous Wind, Shadow Sneak, Toxic Spikes, Will-O-Wisp, Hex, Horn Leech, Pain Split, Shadow Ball, Power Whip

Egg moves: Curse, Giga Drain, Gravity, Future Sight, Ingrain, Leaf Blade, Leaf Storm, Natural Gift, Nightmare, Sketch

TMs: Calm Mind, Toxic, Hidden Power, Sunny Day, Hyper Beam, Protect, Telekinesis, Frustration, Solarbeam, Return, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Double Team, Torment, Facade, Rest, Attract, Thief, Round, Energy Ball, Will-O-Wisp, Shadow Claw, Payback, Giga Impact, Flash, Stone Edge, Psych Up, Dream Eater, Grass Knot, Swagger, Substitute, Cut

And with that... what would be your wildcard move of choice? Would you go with something that's always great like Spore, or something more gimmicky that would benefit from the surprise factor?

More Guinness World Records facepalms!

Remember that time when they ranked Ash Ketchum as one of the top 50 video game characters, when he appeared in a glorious total of ONE GAME (Pokémon Puzzle League of all things)? Well, they're at it again, with this incredibly lousy list of the best endings ever. Entry #28 has the potential to be by far the scariest, as it could either mean the 1991 industry revolution, or the 2006 cataclysm. And considering the original didn't have that memorable of an ending to begin with, especially when compared to its direct sequels... better not think about it. Especially since there's nothing more insulting than playing through a game so terribad it should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention, getting to the end and being told, hey, you know the events that took place during this game? They never happened! So you suffered through hours and hours of bad gameplay and loading screens, and you didn't accomplish a damn thing.

Speaking of Sonic, remember that one time when a horribly written and designed character (even by Sonic standards) that spawned an entire genre of terrible fanmade characters died, and we were supposed to pretend to give a shit, and we did for no other reason than because we'd never see that lame-ass character again, and they backpedaled on and retconned it as soon as THE VERY NEXT GAME? Yeah, it's on there too.

On the flip side, it's a miracle any Pokémon game made after 2001 gets acknowledged on any top XX list decided by a poll, which just goes to show how much progress Black and White represented over the rest of the series, as well as just how despicable Ghetsis is as a character. Doesn't redeem a list that definitely looks like it was picked by a crowd that wasn't at all hesitating to flood it with unimpressive M-rating games despite not being old enough to play T-rated ones.

Keldeo officially revealed today

It's a tradition now, every February or March a new event Pokémon set to appear in that year's movie is revealed (I use that term loosely since it's always datamined at the very beginning of the generation anyway). This year it's Keldeo who's up at bat, and quite frankly after all this time I'm still not sold on this design. After all, nothing says d'Artagnan like a My Little Pony reject. It definitely got the short end of the stick, after seeing its three counterparts perfectly replicate the essence of the characters they were modeled after.

Fortunately, its battle prowess is likely to compensate for this shortcoming, as many expect it to be a massive threat, possibly enough to be a suspect, maybe even banned to ubers. However, such an extreme scenario is unlikely, if only because of the timing of Keldeo's release, which if the usual timing is preserved should be followed by Gray in a matter of months. Nonetheless, expectations are high; despite it being one of the very rare Water-types that doesn't get Ice Beam, giving it a shallow movepool on par with pre-Platinum Shaymin-L, it still has just the right tools to get the job done, especially the exact same stat spread as Terrakion, only with the attack stats reversed. Being a fast Water-type, it also thrives a lot in rain. Great, just what we needed, another weather-abusing powerhouse. Secret Sword only sweetens the deal, as it makes Keldeo into the only pure special attacker with an answer to Chansey and Blissey, as well as most specially defensive Pokémon in general. This is an impressive combination that carried Keldeo to #17 last month on the Dream World ladder - ahead of even Serperior.

This is a lot of hype to live up to. Will it succeed?

Kyurem alternate form confirmed?

According to Pokébeach, placeholder data for a Kyurem alternate form has been found in the coding for Black and White. I don't really know what to make of this, because Pokébeach has been known to post less credible news from time to time (remember Minotauros among others?), but if this is true... be honest, is anyone really surprised? We all knew from the moment we saw the subpar stats on this thing, as well as its "incomplete", asymetrical design, that it would get the Giratina treatment, so it's barely a shocker.

While it's astounding that such a story would only come now, almost a year and a half after the games' Japanese release, the thing that puts this news story over the top is the alleged fact that Rotom, Giratina and Shaymin had similar placeholder data in Diamond and Pearl. And this is why I find myself having trouble believing this whole story - these games are over five years old, and we're only now figuring this out?

So, what's your take on this? Is this the real deal, or an elaborate ploy to give Pokébeach more hits? And why haven't we seen a single word about that on the other major sites? (Unbelievably, not even our buddy Giancarlo said a single word about it, usually he's all over that stuff.)

Also stay tuned for the expected Nobunaga and Keldeo news in the coming days. Man, that's a lot all at once...

You know your game is too hard when...

...there's a gamebreaking glitch that can be observed on any given playthrough of the game, and it wasn't ever fixed because of lack of testing.

GameFAQs' daily top 10 lists are usually a complete joke, but sometimes you learn something interesting from them. For instance, did you know that in a two-player Battletoads game, it's impossible for the second player to even move in stage 11 (Clinger-Winger), and thus he has to lose all his lives for the game to progress? (He can rejoin in the next stage if he has a continue left, for the record.) This proves that Battletoads is SO HARD, especially with two players, that they never bothered completing the game once in co-op just to see if it was playable. And they probably said, meh, if we can't do it, no one ever will. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving them an excuse, they should've tested that, but still, it's Battletoads. If any game can get even the most dedicated playtester to ragequit, that would be it.

Electro Ball Mewtwo event now up!

Just a little reminder that you can download it through Mystery Gift, as it went up a day early. Sure, Electro Ball isn't such a good move, but hey, free stuff is always nice, right?

HULK ANGRY! HULK SMASH!

Remember when I said the Witch Doctor was the class I was looking forward to the least in Diablo 3 (which doesn't mean much, as they all have a lot of appeal in their own ways)? The Barbarian comes a close second, and once again it's caused by resource woes, as it's the only class that can lose resource by sitting there doing nothing. I love exploring around in these games, so it's a common occurrence for me to be out of combat for a little while. And whereas the other classes benefit from being out of combat, the Barbarian suffers. I could complain about this being an annoyance, but Blizzard has always intended the Barbarian to be a character that loves and needs to be in the fray, and in that they succeeded. Besides, they were kind enough to give us a passive that cancels out natural Fury degeneration, and gives us slight regeneration as an added bonus. It comes at level 30, though, so you're expected to cope with that degeneration through the entirety of Normal difficulty.

Netherlands-only Reshiram/Zekrom event... wait, what?

Yeah, I was shocked too when I read it on Serebii. Remember that Mist Reshiram / Haze Zekrom movie 14 giveaway in Japan? Well, the first thing we hear about that event outside of Japan is that it's going to happen in the Netherlands only, at least for the time being. Now, I don't have anything against the Netherlands (is anyone here even from there to begin with?), but it's just so... random. There HAS to be something similar in North America and the rest of Europe... right?

By the way, the way this giveaway works, for anyone interested, is that you get the opposite mascot from the version you have, so White owners get Reshiram and Black owners get Abraham Lincoln... I mean Zekrom.

Global warming, a myth? Seriously?

So I was talking with my mother about the weather, and it dawned on me that winters are much less harsh than they used to be when I was a kid, and my parents tell me it was still warmer then than when they were kids. Summers aren't that different, to be fair, but it's impossible to deny that winters are getting warmer and warmer every year. So far this winter, I can't recall a day where the temperature was below -10 Celsius (that'd be 14 Fahrenheit for the Americans among you), whereas not so long ago we'd be blessed with a lucky break whenever we had a day in the single digit negatives. It's February 9, and neither my parents nor I plugged our cars to keep the engine warm even once thus far, but even just a few years ago it was part of our daily routine.

And after that, conservative politicians and oil lobbies finance botched studies to tell us there's nothing to worry about, we can keep on burning that petroleum without consequence. As I said, it's not apparent all year round, and as such it might not be apparent everywhere for that matter, but I feel my intelligence is genuinely insulted whenever anyone suggests global warming is a myth. If you lived where I live, you'd know that's a lie.

When Diablo meets Memebase + more beta impressions

Admit it, you totally read this as Derpina. I know I did.

Today I made a full runthrough of the beta with a Demon Hunter, and got started on the Barbarian, the final class I had yet to try. More info after the jump.

Banjo-Tooie LP: a logistic nightmare?

Recently I suggested that Banjo-Tooie could be the subject of a future LP, and I'm wondering how that would go... it'd be hard to make it work, considering that since the worlds are so much larger than in the first game there'd be a lot of running around and, yes, getting lost. To give you an idea, I'm replaying it right now, and I got my first Jiggy in Terrydactyland about an hour into it... then again, I obtained almost everything that's NOT a Jiggy at this point. So if I were to make such an LP, there would be a lot, and I mean a LOT of cuts in it, and it'd still be rather long to boot. And as you know, I'm rather reluctant to make cuts, and tend to use this ability conservatively.

So my question of the day is, how do you like cuts to be handled in LPs? Used sparingly? Not at all? Or on the opposite, show only the important stuff?

Do people really think this way?

Someone suggested that I should do a Skyrim LP (you know, that game there are already seven million LPs of on YouTube), and when I expressed my exasperation at how common that request was, and the fact that I didn't give a rat's ass about Skyrim, he answered that I was expected to like it because it's an RPG like Pokémon. Really? People like games just because they're a certain genre now? I'm expected to like Sonic 2006 because I grew up mostly with platformers? Same goes for series, there's no game that looks as much like OoT as Majora's Mask does, and you all know my opinion on THAT.

I'm really hoping no one actually decides which games they like based on those criteria... then again, that would explain the neverending CoD sequels and other best-selling rehashes.

The Witch Doctor is up at (fire) bat!

Of all the classes in Diablo 3, the Witch Doctor was the one I was looking forward to the least, for the simple reason that while all other classes have skills that were either free to cast, or outright generated resource, the Witch Doctor doesn't. Every skill either costs mana, has a cooldown, or both. Furthermore, from level 6 on, mana regenerates slower than Arcane Power relative to the total amount you have (since your maximum mana increases by 50 every level), while the cost of your skills keeps climbing up and up and up. (For reference purposes, a level 60 Witch Doctor without any +mana or mana +regen gear would need 1 minute 44 seconds to fully replenish his mana from zero.) Fortunately, the Witch Doctor's niche is damage over time, whether through poison spells, pets or others. So if there's any class that can afford to stand there doing nothing for a few seconds, it's the Witch Doctor. (I guess you could also use a crossbow for those non-life-and-death situations, though I wonder how viable that option would be in Hell and Inferno.)

Seen in my Emerald LP comment sections

"why is there a charmeco there thats a sinnoh pokemon :o"

CHARMECO? You mean you can't spell it properly even when it's in front of you, and it's not exactly a tough name to begin with? And Chimecho being a Sinnoh Pokémon? Seriously? Yes, I know it's much more common in Sinnoh, but that doesn't make it a Sinnoh Pokémon. Just like Meditite. Though to be fair, Meditite is in the pool of Pokémon that appears through Sinnoh Sound in HGSS, not Hoenn Sound...

*talking about why Hoenn is the best region* "that's your opinion and I respect that but the elite 4 n Hoenn was way easier 2 beat!"

Stupid kids and them wanting every game to be easy mode. Leave 'em alone with an NES, a copy of Battletoads and a rope, they'll be hung to the ceiling within five minutes.

"i just noticed that castform so use it for god sake!!!"

HOLY CRAP, this is the incredibly rare breed of idiot who thinks Castform isn't bottom rung! *readies Master Ball*

Curse you, Chuggaaconroy. Curse you and your dark church that infests everything you come into contact with, even unwillingly. Curse your legions of asshats who want NCS gone from the Runaway Guys because he died 35 times and got 11 game overs trying to unlock Jigglypuff.

Happy Birthday Scotty!

While America is getting ready for the Super Bowl, the province of Quebec is celebrating something entirely different today: the first anniversary of Scott Gomez's last goal. Indeed, the Montreal Canadiens' forward hasn't found the net since February 5 of last year, and while this is nothing special on its own, what makes this especially interesting is the fact that he's one of the highest paid players in the NHL, at eight millions per year. This is the same paycheck Steven Stamkos, who's heading towards a third consecutive season of 45 goals or more (at age 22, no less), cashes in every year. Sad. Even moreso when you realize his coaches have given him every opportunity, benching Erik Cole (the team's best player this year) in power plays and shootouts in favor of the Alaskano-Mexican-whatever. And the fans are tired of the neverending suckage, as at yesterday's game against Washington, they sarcastically applauded every time the 11 so much as touched the puck. And since today is the anniversary of his last goal, everyone's expecting things to go into overdrive, as sites dedicated to Gomez' unlucky streak are popping up everywhere.

For example, this site keeps track of the time passed since his last goal, how much he's been paid since then, as well as a video of his last goal:

http://didgomezscore.com/

This one's gotten quite a bit of attention from the media, and makes suggestions to the people who are going to attend this afternoon's game against Winnipeg:

http://www.celebrations-gomez.com/en/

Then we have this gem of a song, that I favorited on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUumD9pd2Hc&fmt=18

Oh, and I guess I should mention two locations of sports bar chain Le Skratch, who offer everyone present a free shot whenever Gomez scores. Needless to say, they have yet to spend a single penny over this promotion. As for RDS (the French Canadian counterpart to ESPN and TSN), they're holding a contest to see who can predict when Gomez will score his next goal. Yep, a contest, and there are actual prizes to be won too.

Mean-spirited? I don't think so, and even if it were, it's slightly insulting to see him cash on his yearly eight millions when us regular Joes bust our asses off every day and likely won't make that in our whole lifetimes. Besides, it's a really drab season for Canadiens fans (which I am not, as a reminder), and after hitting last place in the Eastern Conference yesterday, it's understandable that they'll want to have their fun in other ways.

More beta impressions

I got a little more alone time with the Diablo 3 beta today, and I took the opportunity to finish my Wizard run and play through it again with the Monk.

Diablo 3 first impressions

After a massive wave of 100000 invites was sent out, I was STILL out of luck and couldn't get into the beta... but my brother managed to get in, and he kindly let me try it out. He was rather busy tonight, so he couldn't play anyway, and the upside is that I stashed some of the stuff that I found for him to use.

Thoughts on my play session after the jump since I have a lot of them, which also gives me the opportunity to try that function out.

Grab your free Arceus now!

February has come, and with it the promised download of the winner of the Befriend a Pokémon contest! Head over to the Global Link site's Promotions area, enter the password ARCEUSVOTE (in all caps as usual), and make sure to thank Arceus for the fact that we're not downloading a piddly Damp Mudkip! (Of course, getting an Imposter Ditto would've been way better, but at least we get a rare, powerful legendary out of the deal, so it's not a total loss.)