WELCOME to the personal home page/blog of Matthew La France. Please enjoy your stay.

5/29/2008

Some translation project news to report. I've heard from David Michel that he should have a chance to look at the game crashing bug in WtPC soon. Here's hoping that it's something that can be easily fixed. Also I've been contacted by another David (not Shadoff, an entirely different David) about inserting the script for Magic Knights Rayearth! I'm hoping that this goes well since the script is small and I think it will be a fairly easy project.

I saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I don't really know what to say. I'd heard horrible things about it. My expectations were lowered to a point that I was ready for something very bad. But after watching it I think that it was really just Indiana Jones.

There was a certain suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the movie, almost an unreasonable amount, but other than that it didn't offend me greatly. I'd heard a lot of criticism of the humor in the movie. I don't really understand why. Indiana Jones humor is nothing more complicated than, "Snakes...why'd it have to be snakes?". That's about all there is to it, and this movie delivered plenty of Jones style dry humor and action slapstick. When you can stop for a moment and be more worried about the protagonist's testicles than his life it's usually funny.

The guy from Transformers played his part as the 1950's greaser well enough, and the homages to the previous movies didn't feel out of place or forced. The plot was relatively simple and action based, but I liked the smart archaeologist putting together the riddle elements basically copied from Indiana Jones to begin with, recently featured in movies like National Treasure, Tomb Raider, and the Da Vinci Code. This isn't my favorite movie by any means, but in comparison to Raiders of The Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade, I think this movie holds it's own and is readily enjoyable by today's standards.
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5/23/2008

I wanted to let everyone know, Rob Browning, a gentleman with the distinction of having been the first person to complete Maison Ikkoku using the translation patch created by myself and David Shadoff, recently added a FAQ for Maison Ikkoku: Photograph Memories to GameFAQs. It is a good read if you want to check it out, although it can spoil the game for you so please refrain if you are interested in trying to finish the game on your own!
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5/19/2008

I haven't blogged in a while so I know there are some things I wanted to blog about that have fallen by the wayside. The big thing I guess is that I'm trying to make my PSX Anime List a better, more interesting site. I've been adding some features, listings, and screenshots to it, and I'm looking for folks to help reviewing, blogging, and coding for it.

I've been keeping up somewhat with the animes I mentioned in the previous post. So far Kamen no Maid Guy is rising solidly to the top, though Kurenai is still very good, two different kinds of show really. I really recommend Kamen no Maid Guy to anyone who enjoys goofy, anime humor. One of the "comic perspectives" chosen for the maid-dude (I can't think of his name) is his lack of consideration for the feelings, esp. the feminine feelings of the women he is serving or even just being around. This is surprisingly funny and versatile and has been used to good effect so far. To-love-ru is proving to be fluff, while Kanokon is pushing the limits enough to still be pretty funny and interesting. Macross is still great.

I've been playing a lot of FFXII and both liking and disliking it. The general gameplay is fantastic. I like the license system, I like the gambit system, I like the hunt system though it's sometimes frustrating that you can take hunts so far beyond your level and it's sometimes hard to tell if you can handle a certain level hunt or not, it really seems to vary.

I don't like the puzzles, at all. They suck. I think it has to do with the fact that they are exploration/trial-error based, and I keep trying to solve them logic-based. I either end up over-thinking them or just getting frustrated by the lack of information and the time it takes to figure out wtf you need to do. I'm mostly just reading faqs now for anything puzzle related which irks me, but is a necessity born of lack of time to screw around with it.

The story is complex and almost interesting, but seems to disintegrate into hero cliches and generally mediocrity somewhere in the middle. I grew to like the obvious Star Wars references, but those seem to have run out for now leaving nothing much of interest during the cut scenes. I realized that in order for this FF to rise to the level of FFVII or FFX it needed to illicit some type of emotional response, but unfortunately I've yet to see the characters become especially personally invested in the story, nor have I been invited to care about them in particular. So basically we're left with fun gameplay, and a real-life Playboy bunny with a sexy behind. I'm enjoying it, but there's not a lot going on upstairs unfortunately.
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