First, light news. UO may have been the greatest MMORPG of all time in terms of gameplay. The game was very deep and had so many things to do. Unlike other MMORPGs, where even if you're a crafter you still have to fight monsters to level up, in UO, if you're a crafter, you never have to fight (you can if you want though). There was just so many little things to do, which in our opinion, made it plenty of fun. When we get DSL we're surely going to set up a shard just for us and our friends to run around in.

Next, I thought it'd be interesting for me to write a short analysis on the current playoff situation. So here it goes:


Playoff Analysis

Well as I've already mentioned, the playoffs have already begun. Apparently they made the first round a best of 7 situation too, so to correct my first post, after the win today, Indiana needs to win three more times.

Indiana did fairly well against the Celtics in my opinion. They may not have fully contained Paul Pierce but they still played the game typically at the pace they wanted. Boston is a running team. They get a lot of points from fast breaks, which are created by their defense (unlike the Suns, who have no defense). Indiana is still better at defense though (including transition defense), and I think Indiana has the edge here. The playoff intensity is insane, and now that the series is evened up, you can tell the rest of the series will be interesting too.

About the Suns, sure they may have had the best record during the regular season, but one thing that I noticed about playoff intensity is that when people step up their plays, it's most noticeable on defense. I don't think Phoenix is just a good enough defensive team (or has any defensive depth) to make a difference. They do have individual defenders though, but their preferred offensive pace makes their defense lack. Hence, they score a lot and give up a lot of points as well, which is how they want to play. I'm not sure this formula will work all the time. Memphis, with whom they are matched in the first round, is capable of slowing the Suns down. Memphis will fight and fight hard.

About Houston and Dallas. Dallas is a better team (to me) now that Nash is gone, and Avery Johnson has done a good job with what he has. They have better defense and rebounding this year, without losing much of their offensive style. Houston is a little surprising really. My impression of the Rockets is that they're a little unstable, and it all relies on how well Yao and/or McGrady performs. They lead the series 2-0 right now, but I don't know how long it can last against the defense and transition offense of Dallas. I read an analysis that Shawn Bradley will be the X-factor in this series, and I think I agree. Bradley can definitely guard Yao Ming, having the height and the defensive skill for it.

And the last matchup I want to talk about is the Pistons and Sixers situation. The Pistons, who have been known over the last few years as a great defensive power with their zone D, can definitely shut Iverson's penetration down a bit. Iverson may have to resort to making more passes, which he does well anyway. But that means all his other teammates need to step up and not just rely on him to keep scoring for them, like they pretty much did all season. If the Sixers can't get the whole team hot both on offense and defense, the Pistons will definitely win this one. Like other analysts say, the Pistons have a playoff experience, and their defensive strategy is tried and tested in the playoffs, even against an offensive team like the Lakers last year (hence Detroit is the reigning champ).

So sleepy. I've been lacking sleep since Friday night I think. That isn't even counting the fatigue from going to and from CCF three days in a row, and on all three days playing at least seven games of Ez2Dancer per day. My legs are still aching, which is a step up from the throbbing yesterday.

In other news... Indiana lost its first game yesterday against Boston, who blew them out. Shocking. But I still have faith, and Indiana can still win this. Blow out or not, a loss is a loss. And you only need to win three times to advance, and I think Indiana can pull that off. Houston also beat Dallas (yay!). Nothing against Avery Johnson, who is a good coach, but I don't like Dallas really. I'm not really sure why. They do play better defense than last year, when Steve Nash was there, though, and that's always a good thing. Anyway Houston has McGrady and Yao Ming, who everybody likes.

Studio 23 began something funny. They're now showing Samurai X (るろうに剣心) in Filipino. Actually, if you compare Filipino dubbing to most other dubbing jobs (*coughanimaxcough*), the Filipino dubbing is superior, at least in terms of acting and voices and stuff (because they use actual girls for female characters *coughMANFORTEcough*). The only problem is that they translated into Filipino off of the Columbia dubbing, which had too many errors, including pronunciation/modification of names (Kenchi? Yoshi? Cori?), and mistakes in locations (mixing Tokyo and Kyoto up). So yes, the Filipino version still showcases these mistakes... They also seemed to have come up with some system so they get to show like 3 or 4 episodes in an hour, by squishing the episodes down and skipping the opening and ending sequences (I liked the OP/ED themes though...). I don't know the schedule but I caught a few episodes earlier on TV, around 3 PM. I don't normally watch commercial TV though.

Speaking of TV, we missed episode 4 of Samurai 7, which aired last Friday at 11 PM. There wasn't any replay of the episode at any time, which is sad. Oh well.

Finally, I really should start saving up. Apparently Guild Wars, which is to be released in the west this Thursday (and worldwide soon after), will cost US$49.99 (and the special edition, which comes with bonus items, is US$79.99). That's PhP2700 more or less. It's still within my buying range, but if I'm to have any hope of buying it at all, I need to observe thrift. That means no Ez2Dancer machine camping for a while (my legs and feet are happy for this news).

The Pacers' official website today has a tribute to #31. I always had great respect for Reggie since the 90's. I had more respect for him than Michael Jordan in fact, when it came to clutch plays. Because whenever I would watch an Indiana game, and Miller got the ball late in the game, he would always do something interesting to help his team. Reggie was insane. He would run around the court all night and it wouldn't look like he'd get tired. He would create fouls even from behind the three point line so he often got four-point-plays off. He got under your skin, and did things that just don't show up on a stat sheet. But that's not to say that his stat sheet wasn't impressive. Reggie is definitely going to the hall of fame, and is noted as one of the greatest shooting guards to ever play the game.

Now if only Indiana could win him a ring this year. It's unlikely, say the experts, with the Pacers struggling with their lineup now (Bender and Tinsley are injured, O'Neal just got back from an injury). But it's still possible. And being a defensive team like that...

In other news, Samurai 7 is a whole lot of fun to watch, just like I thought it would be. And it isn't dubbed (yay!). I've only seen two episodes and it's already quickly becoming one of my favorite anime of all time (I can't decide that yet until I finish it). One thing I like about Samurai 7 is how natural it all feels, despite the futuristic approach. The fight scenes are well done, and no long explanations during the fights, like some anime out there *coughGetBackerscough*. Angel Links isn't until next week or so.

I meant to post these last night but I didn't get around to doing it.

First off, I saw the news on Mikko's journal. My favorite MMORPG, Guild Wars, is about to be released (April 28, 2005) finally. Guild Wars has no monthly charge, but you have to own an original copy of the game to play, as the copies include a key with which to log in. Each key is only good for one account, and each account is only good for one character. So if you want more characters, you need to buy more copies of the game. I think it's a fair trade, considering there's no monthly charges. Considering how much I've spent on the weekly charges when I used to play pRO... Wow that was a lot. Anyway, knowing how much original CDs cost in the Philippines, we expect Guild Wars to be something like P2000, but if it's more than P4000 I'm not buying it. I think I'll have trouble enough getting only P2000 (a lot of begging, maybe having to work a bit).

Another MMORPG that we're looking forward to is Granado Espada. It looks very promising, and the screenshots so far are beautiful. It has a unique battle system too, featuring stances etc, for a customized combat experience. Not much is known yet though, because it's so early into the development. It's in a closed beta phase as of now, and it's only in Korean. They're clearly going to release this in English as well, though, so we'll keep watching the website.

Next, today is Tuesday! Animax is starting its new lineup of shows. Two shows in particular that I'm interested in are Angel Links and Samurai 7. They just look good, but I don't know anything much about either of them, by choice, so everything is news to me as I watch them. I just know they got some good reviews so I'm looking forward to them. I'm just hoping that since these are the late night shows (11 PM onwards), they didn't dub them and left them subtitled instead. They left shows like GTO and Dr. Dokkiri subtitled.

Finally, RPGamer.com came up with results for their long awaited awards for 2004. The award honors the best games for various platforms and in various categories for the year. I'll post a list of some of the games that won.

GBA
Final Fantasy 1 & 2: Dawn of Souls (both reader and staff choice)

PS2
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time (reader's choice)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (staff choice)

PC
Worlds of Warcraft (reader's choice)
City of Heroes (staff choice)

Best Graphics
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time (reader's choice)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (staff choice)

Best Storyline
Tales of Symphonia (reader's choice)
La Pucelle Tactics (staff choice)

Best Battles
Tales of Symphonia (reader's choice)
Phantom Brave (staff choice)

Best Soundtrack
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time (reader's choice)
Baten Kaitos: The Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (staff choice)

Best Gameplay
Tales of Symphonia (reader's choice)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (staff choice)

Biggest Letdown
Fable (both reader and staff choice)

Best Overall!
Tales of Symphonia (reader's choice)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (staff choice)

Interesting choices really. I should make my own awards for games. Hmm. o_o

Before everything, if you take a look to the left panel of my blog, I now have a tagboard. It isn't embedded into the blog and is in pop-up form because the embedded form doesn't show up properly on Mozilla, and I refuse to use MSIE. Anyway...

Today, after having come from CCF to worship God (beautiful service btw), I spent the rest of the day at the Megamall (as usual) with Abby, Jess and Cat. The three of them, I have quickly turned them into Ez2Dancer people, and they can't get enough of it.

Ez2Dancer is a Korean-made dance game similar to DDR. For each player, you have four sensors (upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right) and three foot panels (left, right and back). The idea is to activate the appropriate sensor or panel as the music steps call for.

The machine was already in the Megamall under the Worlds of Fun arcade, but they shipped it off to Cagayan for their new branch there, and it never came back. About 3 weeks ago though, the TimeOut arcade, acquired their own Ez2Dancer machine. Prior to that, I had to learn where other Ez2Dancer machines in Metro Manila were (there's one in Ever Gotesco Commonwealth and one in SM Southmall, according to my sources, but I haven't seen the one in Southmall).

People have said negative things about Ez2Dancer, like it's too easy. One fellow said that even 9-year-olds can pass some of the hard songs. As much as I'd like to defend my favorite dance game, this is very true. Compared to games that Konami makes, Ez2Dancer is easy. But they miss what the game focuses on, which is freestyling!

The game was definitely meant for freestyling. The positioning and size of the foot panels make for a very good design, which heavily supports spinning and other moves. The steps themselves also support/recommend spinning. This game takes a while to get used to, but after you get used to it, you're definitely expected to freestyle!

Ez2Dancer is for freestyling! There are some people that don't, and it looks so wrong. So wrong. It's understandable if you're a novice player, but if you've been playing long enough to know how the game works, especially if you've been playing for years like me, you must freestyle!

Let me explain. The average old-player-that-doesn't-freestyle plays this way: His knees are slightly bent and ready to jump on the next foot panel, his hands are right at the sensors and ready to jump at the next hand motion, and his eyes don't blink and stare directly at the screen. There's a guy who has this horrible routine for the song Say That U. The routine involves him making awkward hand gestures (a hadouken-type move, which shifts into a hand motion similar to Ultraman's move; right hand in a fist, right arm bent to the front so his fist is at eye level, and his left fist is under his right elbow), and slamming his left then his right foot on the foot panels with enough force to shatter it. All this done with his knees slightly bent and his eyes unblinking and staring right at the screen. This guy has been playing for longer than I have!

I should write a guide or FAQ on Ez2Dancer. Players like that, newbies and players in general need to be educated on the value of freestyling. I've seen some really extreme freestyle routines that leave even me in awe. Freestyling a hard song like ZtarwarZ, Theme of Ez2Dj or Dieoxin really takes the cake (I'm working on a routine for Dieoxin now!).

Lastly, Ez2Dancer should not be compared to DDR or other Konami/BeMaNi games, because they're simply in different leagues. But since people love comparing and badmouthing Ez2Dancer anyway, let's draw up a comparison. BeMaNi focuses on making difficult technical songs. Freestyling is at a minimum because of the nature of the steps. You gain applause by being able to pass/ace the difficult songs. In Ez2Dancer, technicality is at a minimum, to focus on freestyling. BeMaNi also features a "wide" array of songs. Yeah. Wide, but the songs are generic and sound alike anyway! They have a limited genre selection, the majority of the songs being techno, euro or dance. Most of the songs are not memorable at all (or you'd remember them for the wrong reasons. Case in point, Bag). In all my days of playing DDR I've only really really liked 3 songs (out of their hundreds), Healing Vision (Angelic Mix), So Deep (Perfect Sphere Remix), and era (Nostal Mix). The others are just so-so. But in Ez2Dancer, I ended up liking all the songs, and I would even slink into the Easy Mode to play the songs that are unavailable in the Hard Mode. Ez2Dancer has less songs than a game like DDR, sure, but the songs are very rich and varied. From hip hop to funk, from soul to fusion, from pop dance to rock, from Latin-style to techno. And in general, I think Korean games are better in this aspect than Japanese games as well.

Haha okay I'll end this post now, seeing how long it's gotten. I always told Abby that if I started a blog it'll probably be more like a ranting post.

This song (JOY by YUKI), if you have Animax, you may have seen it there already at least once. Yeah it's the song with the crazy dance with the men wearing black rubber suits. @_@

Anyway I'm strangely drawn to this song. I play it often. I guess the style and tune remind me so much of the 90's, which is the era I spent most of my life in so far. I have many fond memories that resurface as I listen to this song (especially via headphones).

Special mention is that YUKI was the lead singer for a band I had great respect for (in the 90's; they disbanded in 2001), Judy and Mary.

Here's something interesting that I didn't know about YUKI though (I didn't pay attention to her career after the 2001). She joined a band called Mean Machine for a while after Judy and Mary broke up in 2001. Mean Machine was an all-girl band, where apparently YUKI played drums, keyboard and tenor sax (?), as well as being a backup vocalist. And here I thought she was only a singer.

JOY was released as a single on Jan. 19, 2005, and in an album called joy on Feb. 23. For more information, visit Sony's Website.

Well this is the first post on my first blog ever, so let's keep it simple and welcoming.

First off, as you can see with my current layout, I'm a fan of the NBA. The playoffs are just around the corner, so let's support our favorite NBA teams.

NBA.com
(I don't know if I should even post that URL since it's so famous already. XD)

Personally I'm rooting for any of the three teams known for their heavy defense: Indiana, Detroit and San Antonio. There are other defensive teams in the playoff picture (Chicago comes to mind), but I rooted for Detroit last year and San Antonio has already won before, so it's Indiana's turn. Also, Reggie Miller (Indiana Pacers #31), who has been one of my favorite players of all time due to his cunning knowledge of basketball, is going to retire after this season. I'd like to see him win a championship even once.