Little Breaks and New Addictions

[jdotmi]

Currently taking a little sanity break from World of Warcraft and City of Heroes/Villains. The CoX sanity break will end when I8 hits live. The WoW sanity break will probably last a couple weeks. I'll probably log in every few days to use my salt shaker, but that's about it. I need to not be up until midnight during the week for a while. At least until I'm not stressing out over work.

This past weekend (actually, until tomorrow) was Employee Appreciation for Borders folks. Unfortunately, one book I was going to pick up is actually not in stock at any location near me (the new World of Darkness core book), so didn't manage to get it.

I did, however, get the first and third collection of Superman/Batman, which includes the single funniest panel with Power Girl EVAR when she can't figure out how they expect her to distract... oh.... The first book also has the only comics I've ever read with Cir-El in them, as I wasn't actually following comics when she existed. Of course, now she never existed, so it's (not quite) all moot anyway and I'm wondering exactly how they reconciled that with everything else that happened in that time frame since, ya know, it's not like she was in some minor side event or something. They were raiding the freakin' White House!

I also got the collection of Infinite Crisis, which actually has some changes from the original printing. Not just corrections, mind you, but actual page changes. Like, there's this big spread at the end of the last issue that I don't remember from the original (which I may just have to go dig out and look at to make sure I'm not delusional) that includes basically every character who has been in 52, including those who didn't yet exist. And I'm still mad that they killed off my favorite character, but we'll see what happens by the end of 52 as far as that goes.

I also picked up issue 10 of Supergirl, which is getting REALLY good. I need to see if I can find copies of #6, 7, and 8 so that I'll be all caught up with it since I already bought the collection of 0 through 5. I think 11 should be out by now or very soon. I missed the entire Kandor arc, and coming into it with only seeing the end of it with PG pissed and apparently not talking to SG after their blow-up on Liberty Isle makes me wonder what else I missed. I do like how Boomer and Cassie are being used. And I love love love Cassie's reaction to Kara's attempt at a secret identity, and Kara's babbling about it while Cassie fights the bad guy and clearly not having an easy time of it and finally just saying "Did high-school make you retarded?" Cracked me up! Plus we got to see more of Kara's life on Krypton. Ya know what? I'm not sure how Kara or Zor-El managed to not wind up tossed in the Phantom Zone, but still. I continually get the impression that life on Krypton was totally out of Kara's control and her father was just psychotic, but there's still the possibility that those memories are just residue from Darkseid's brainwashing. I doubt it, though, because her costume distinctly changed at the end of Supergirl #5 to a combination of Evil Kara's and Good Kara's costumes, which makes me think that she does indeed have her full memories, she has just chosen to be the Good Kara (but, thankfully, not the hopelessly naive Kara). Granted the artists since then can't decide from one panel to the next which skirt she is actually wearing, but still. I went through the entirety of 0 through 5 and she NEVER had the yellow trim on her skirt until after she had Diana lasso the two of them together (evil Kara had silver trim on her skirt), and then it was on every panel of her in the rest of that comic. Seems deliberate to me. My only complaint with the new SG book is she looks way to freakin' old to be 16 years old.

This past weekend also saw a quick trip to Best Buy, which nearly resulted in $300 worth of purchases, but we talked ourselves down to a more sane number. So, now, I have me some Final Fantasy XII to stare at slack-jawed for months on end as I try to unlock absolutely everything for everyone. So far (less than 10 hours in), it is a LOT of fun. It's also significantly challenging. Boss fights can be tough in a way they haven't been in a FF game for a good long time. I'm sure that by the end of the game they'll be much much easier simply due to the escalation of the player's power level, but still. I'm actually stuck on a side-quest target who has kicked my ass three times because I haven't figured out how to use Quickenings effectively yet. I'm going to try to unlock a quickening panel for everyone in the party before I try him again, especially now that I know what I'll need to actually do to beat it.

Anyrate, I've been writing this in lulls in work for like two hours now. Stopping and focusing now. :-p

Comments

[aular.livejournal.com]

Who're you trying to beat?

I'm about 15 hours in, but I've spent a good chunk of that just grinding LPs. I'm obsessed with getting everyone every skill 0.o

The quickening thing seems to be a "mash R2" fest. You press it over and over again, and the more times you press it the more Mist (whatever the hell that is) you toss at the monster. At least, I was able to knock like 1600 pts off a boss with one quickening mashing my R2 button ;)

I love the system. I keep fussing with my Gambits, though. I want one character who will:

* Try and Steal and item, and keep doing so until it's stolen.
* Then attack.

I don't have a ton of gambit, though, so it's not quite working. I'd a "Foe: Has an Item!" gambit.

[raphbearish.livejournal.com]

Heh, sadly, there's no such thing. At least you can make a Foe: <10% - Poach gambit, but your characters will never be smart enough to change actions after the 20th time they've felt empty pockets.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

The guide recommends a FOE: HP 100% = Steal gambit, but that'd just be chaotic running around until everything got hit. I manually steal. Much faster. :-p

[aular.livejournal.com]

Damn!

I've been doing:
Foe: >70% HP - Steal
Foe: Party Leader's Target - Attack

But they still spend time just grabbing empty purses.

I don't like Foe > 70% because they'll start bothering mobs in their range that I haven't targetted or engaged yet.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's why I just manually have my party leader do it. It's just simpler that way.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Wonder if there's a Party Leader's Target HP = X gambit in there anywhere... I doubt it...

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

I'm doing the hunt in the mines in the flying city after doing the entire RUN AWAY thing from the bounty hunters. Basically, I blew my quickening too early and that didn't work out so well for me.

I've thought of doing a Foe HP = 100%/steal gambit, but then the character would hop around like mad stealing. So, I have Vaan steal continuously to start fights and let the backup guys do the damage until he gets something. Sometimes, I start a fight with everyone stealing just in case, then have everyone go all out on attack after. And I've got Balthier set with a FOE HP = Critical/Poach gambit in his top slot right now. ^_^

[aular.livejournal.com]

The Nidhogg was a pain. I cycled through every party member (6 total), and all but two died before he did.

Hm. Is Poach worth it?

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Yes. Your kill chain goes up, you're guaranteed Loot from it, and you can still wind up with a bag/coin drop anyway. Of course, keeping the thing from dying while trying to poach can be a pain unless you set everyone to that Gambit.

[raphbearish.livejournal.com]

I dunno... a boss that you can run away from and it takes several HOURS to kill because it has FIFTY MILLION HP...

Maybe that boss fight is worth some kind of challenge. I do like the whole "chance" of multiple hits in an attack. That kind of thing hasn't come up since Nintendo's Final Fantasy era.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not to that fight yet. :-p Sounds a lot like WoW bosses. ;) several hours to defeat and all that. ;) At least it doesn't reset if you run away!

[nuadha-prime.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, They didn't even attempt to reconcile Cir-El with the established history. :( I liked her and wished they didn't brush her out of existence.

I haven't picked up the newest issue of Supergirl. I enjoyed the Kandor arc quite a bit but have decided to stop collecting the title because I need to cut back. I'm going to give you a call probably tomorrow to plan when we'll get together for Smallville. I'll bring the Supergirl issues you missed when I do.

Which character was your favorite in 52? Booster? If so, I'm with you. I was a big fan of both Booster and Beetle in the Keith Giffen JLI days and they've both been killed recently. Didio made a joke about it in his little column in a recent issue saying "[I] promise not to kill off any more Giffen's Leaguers. This week." Ha, ha, asshole.

Have you picked up any of the Buffy Graphic Novels? I've bought a few since the series end to get my Slayer-fix. They're pretty good. You'd be welcome to borrow the ones I have, if you'd like.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Cir-El really wasn't around for very long, now that I look at her history, which is kinda a bummer. I liked her, especially her interaction with Superboy in the book I read.

Speaking of, he was the character I was referring to being killed off (in IC, not 52). Hence me also saying I'm going to wait and see what they do (with Supernova). Judging by the SG book, though, we won't have a resolution on that one that's going to make me happy. :-p I haven't actually read much of 52 except for when I've picked it up in the stores. I was quite annoyed with what they did to Booster, because it didn't make any sense to me (his behavior, that is), and Skeets is just boggling my mind right now.

I haven't picked up any of the newer Buffy books, but I have a handful of the older ones.

[hylandr.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you mean Superboy. Well, given that the first OYL issue of Teen Titans has Robin still trying to reclone him I'm thinking Supernova is a red herring. And the big page with everyone's pics was in IC at the end. It's where they first showed the new Batwoman and Starman and such. I want to know who the new Starman is! I can't wait for the new Justice Society series tho I'm not too fond of a couple changes they've made in characters.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit torn on the new JSA title... It's going to really depend on the artwork, because I almost picked up the final JSA issue from it's current run, but one look at the artwork in it (particularly of PG and Stargirl) made me run screaming in terror. It was this great big "oh god, they look like they're made out of play-doh!" moment.

And, yeah, I'm pretty sure Supernova is a red herring, to a point... He's clearly part of the Superman family (Supes did use Nova as a name for a while), but I don't think he's Conner. Or if he is, he doesn't remember being Conner.

[hylandr.livejournal.com]

I've always been a JSA fan and they show Hawkman on the cover so that's a good sign. I wanna know who the new Starman is. I really hope they don't use IC as a means to just wipe everything that was discussed about the future Starman being the (white) Starboy from the future's adult self. Tho I loved the way he looked as an adult in the original Legion continuity with a maskless version of this Starman's costume and the beard. Don't like Damage's new costume. Too much like Atom Smasher. And Jesse Quick as Liberty Belle? UGH! Hopefully the rest will be good.

[lilacmoon5.livejournal.com]

The Walden Books in Woodland Mall had a large (ok just larger than I have seen at a Borders) RPG book selection. Most of the top shelf was WoD and then the rest of the case was DnD 3rd ed.

-L

I looked and touched, but I didn't buy.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well it was for Ryan, not me, but still. The sections out here have started to dwindle a bit.