Review: Final Fantasy V Advance

Every so often I'll update my Backloggery with links to the reviews I've written about the games on my list, and sometimes I'll reread my own work if I can't recall why I ended up rating a game the way I did. Such was the case with Final Fantasy V Advance, which held a measly rating of 2/5 stars on my Backloggery instead of the somewhat higher 6/10 I'd given it on GameFAQs.

In case you've never had the chance to read it, or in case you're looking for a nostalgia kick, here below is a link to my review from back in 2008, when I still wrote overwhelmingly in-depth reviews (and had enough time to finish writing them in less than a week!). It's surprisingly thoughtful, surprisingly funny, and surprisingly easy to read despite its length; hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did discovering it again:

Review: Final Fantasy V Advance

Friday Catch Up

Tonight's my late night at the office, so I won't be home until sometime tomorrow morning. Even so, I've (heroically) managed to get something up here on the blog this afternoon--and with time to spare before our posting deadline!

(That is, of course, if Blogger actually sets it live for the time I've scheduled...grumble grumble)

And, sure, I'm gonna cheat a little bit by embedding a YouTube video, but it's Friday and who wants to read a long, rambling post about who-knows-what when you can watch a WWE Superstar hunt for ghosts instead?

With that incredible transition, I present "Santino's Foreign Exchange," episode 14, the first episode of the YouTube show that I helped plot. I think it came out pretty well, and I think there are a couple of pretty funny spots.

If you're totally unfamiliar with WWE and the Santino character, that's okay--you should be able to catch on pretty quickly. Anyway, check it out, enjoy, and if you're so inclined, watch it 10,000 times or so.

: )

The Avengers Have Arrived!

After surviving a Dragon Age and petitioning to be a Trekkie, my brother-in-law has returned to address a topic that has been shockingly absent from this blog so far.
 

IT IS HERE!!!

The movie I have been waiting on for 5 years now. The AVENGERS HAVE ARRIVED…and I could not have been more pleased!

If you recall an earlier post I explained the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a Horizontal Universe that includes The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 1 & 2, Captain America, and Thor. These movies have not only done a successful job at creating wonderful stories on their own, but they have been building up to the moment at hand!

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse (all wonderful TV shows), was the brilliant mind behind the direction of The Avengers. Joss Whedon not only did this movie justice, but no movie has ever catered to its fan base better than this one! There is currently no better movie in existence!

How many people have ever gone to a movie and clapped aloud, almost every 10 minutes? The theater erupted in a sea of colliding hands and a roar of laughter almost constantly throughout the movie. Movies have always been an enjoyable time for me, but this movie will be remembered as one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

This may seem like a very weighted statement, fueled with the euphoria of just seeing a wonderful movie, but hear me out. The superheroes featured in this movie are as follows: Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, and The Black Widow. Whedon did a wonderful job of showing Iron Man fans exactly what they were expecting to see from Iron Man. In addition, he did a wonderful job of showing Hulk fans exactly what they wanted to see from the Hulk. This was the case for every hero shown. Even more so, no one hero was featured above the rest.

Now, many of you remember how this all started. A teaser was placed at the end of every movie, leading into the next movie. Marvel has done such a wonderful job of building up the anticipation for this movie that at the end, one was left satisfied. It was if the era was over and it could not have been better. But wait…stay to the end…

It is unbelievable that although it all seemed to be building to this, more is yet to come! Iron Man 3, Captain America 2 and Thor 2 are already in production and the Avengers 2 was announced. Not sure my body could physically handle the geek-spasm I had in the theater!

All in all, go see The Avengers. I recommend seeing the other 5 MCU movies first, but do yourself a favor and enjoy one of the best movies of all time!

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 19

Hey, look at that—I’m actually writing this post the day before it’s due to go live on the blog! That...somehow doesn’t seem right. It’ll be fun to see what ends up getting in the way of the post this week, but until that happens, let’s keep a good thing rolling and dive right in.

And instead of going right to today’s new comics—though there are a number of very good ones this week—I want to take a moment to write about bookstores. (I know, I know. You’re asking, what’s a bookstore?) And, by “a moment” I probably mean “a lot more than a moment” as my ire was raised this past Sunday and I’d like to talk about it here.

Okay, so. Back to the question above—what’s a bookstore?

Apparently, the answer to that is: A place with very few books, all arranged haphazardly, and with very little in-store promotion, and with a bathroom that’s downright disgraceful.

Now, since the bookstore I’m talking about specifically here is a Barnes & Noble, and there are hardworking employees at this Barnes & Noble dealing with inane corporate policies that have led to such a sad state of affairs, I will not mention where this particular store is.

You know, because of the awe-inspiring power of this blog.

I even hesitate to bring it up at all, since I hate bashing one of the few remaining stores in my remote area, but my visit Sunday was so depressing that I feel it’s important to bring up as part of a larger problem.

For a mainstream store, I’ve always felt that Barnes & Noble does a pretty good job of carrying some lesser-known authors. That, apparently, is no longer the case. And, sure, I realize that this particular store was not one of their superstores, so the selection is, understandably, less than one of the larger stores.

Even so, there needs to be a better balance of big, honking mainstream titles and smaller ones. People don’t go to the bookstore anymore in hopes of scoring the latest big release—they simply pre-order at Amazon and get the thing at a ridiculous discount.

Barnes & Noble—and Borders before them—has no hope to ever compete with Amazon’s pricing.

And while they can’t compete with Amazon’s selection either, what the brick and mortars need to do is start carrying some lesser know, genre books. I don’t say this simply because I’m a dork and I want more books that I like in the store; I say this because the type of person wandering around a Barnes & Noble on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon is likely to be very similar to me and will likely spend just more time in the graphic novel and science fiction/fantasy section than he will in the new release section.

I know what the new releases are. People like me know what the new releases are. If I’m in the store looking for them, I’ll have picked them up first before wandering around aimlessly through the genre sections.

While I might buy a new release, it’s in that genre section that I’ll do the most damage, as wandering around the stacks makes me want to buy books. And if there’s one or two or three books I’ve not before heard of that look interesting to me just sitting there, chances are I’ll buy them all.

That, of course, would be the ideal bookstore experience.

What more usually happens, however, is that I come to—duh—buy a book. After an hour-plus of looking and coming up with nada, I get annoyed and try to find anything to pick up—even a magazine that I’ll likely just flip through once when I get home then recycle.

Going into a bookstore with the intent of buying multiple items and walking out both frustrated and empty-handed is a problem.

Going into a bookstore with the intent of buying multiple items and walking out both frustrated and empty-handed and having had to use a dirty restroom somewhere in the middle of searching for books I’d never find is even more of a problem.

Coming from publishing, this type of stuff just really annoys me. It's hard enough to sell books in this market. Barnes & Noble needs to do better, plain and simple.

 Oh, and also? Go read the new Batman issue today. It’s good. I promise.