Hey. It's a new year. It's even a new decade. That's kinda cool. I don't really remember when it hit over to 1990 all that well, though probably better than a lot of people who read this. I do remember the '92 elections.. but other than that, '90 really didn't stand out in my mind very much at all. This New Year's didn't really do a whole lot either... I had a good time. Got a couple movies, watched 'em. Waited 'till midnight, and then crashed. Zonked out. I was tired. No real excitement, no drunken Oracle photos or anything, (heck, no drunken Oracle even)..

Anyhow, we've got a New Year here, and well, it's lots of fun. Or something.

I'd have a lot to say.. but I don't. Well, it's not really writer's block, as much as just saying, "Here."

Here.

Ever helpful,
--Impeesa--

Brad:
Ever helpful indeed! This is very cool. Not only will it hold all the neat playstation games, but it has a neat ad about how they put the iron in 2000 degree flames first! Heh! Heh! Fire is cool! .. er.. </pyro> .. sorry.

-Moo-Cow

Brad:
Moo-cow? .. That works. That just works. Anyhow, I've heard a couple tracks from this CD.. and I have to say that I definitely like it. If you've any sort of compulsion to buy this CD, do so. Because capitalism is good. Don't be stingy, or some socialist. GO BUY MUSIC.

-TetrisGod

Brad:
Violent games.. like TETRIS... but it's 3-D EXTREME Tetris, right? Anyhow, yes, we all see this as a possibility, but in reality, they're just going to ignore it. There won't be any "oops"es, because people hate being shown that they're stupid. And I saw that CNN thing, too. "Oh wah wah the poor people of Venezuela, they had some mud slides and don't feel happy anymore" .. aw gee. I'm sorry to be so uncaring... but it's like, "Uhhh..." .. this is why I don't watch TV, nor do I get into the whole newspaper thing.. if 15,000 people dying in some far off country had any real effect on my life, I'd hear about it, I don't need to sit in front of the TV or read the newspaper and have every sob story the world has ever had force fed to me. Blarg! (This Thor-ism brought to you by severe cynicism and holiday spirit, 3 1/2 oz of each, shaken, poured over ice, and served with a fresh lime slice).
Yeah, drinking is cool kids. When you're smart enough to know how much is enough and you don't end up puking everywhere. If you're not grown up enough for that, then stop pretending, and stop drinking.

I just got Final Fantasy Legends 2 and 3 for Game Boy. First off, I was surprised that my local Best Buy had them, since I haven't seen them in years, but when I was looking at the packaging and the manuals, I noticed something weird. Both of the games said Sunsoft all over them, and the only reference I could find to Square was in the small print on the back of the box for FFL3, and as a small blurb for the SquareSoft hint hotline in the FFL3 book. What happened here? Why is Sunsoft ursurping Square's titles? Thanks for any info, and happy new year!

-=Chris=-

Brad:
Actually, what really happened is that Sunsoft did publish these titles. It was done with permission, however, so there really isn't any copyright infringement. I mean, the guys at Square Japan do have problems with English at times, but if tomorrow, they're out shopping and see FFL2 and go, "HEY WAIT A SECOND...!" .. I'd be surprised.

Just one quick question, is the composer Nobuo Uematsu, a man or a women? There was a picture in the manual along with an interview and it just arranged some questions of mine, not that it really matters to me. I was just curious.

-Xenochick

Brad:
Many people asked for Xenochick's email address, or hand in marraige due to her recent statement of just how much she plays video games, but it looks like she's got eyes for Nobuo Uematsu.. HIMself. Unlike Google, Mr. Uematsu has a discernable gender. I think. Don't ask me to check, I was just in Japan not too long ago.

I know it's probably a bit of a pain and sometimes stops people from reading really good e-mails in the column (like Xenochick's little bit of weirdness today), but it really helps a lot of us that don't like spoilers and want to be able to play through a game without knowing what is going to happen later down the road.

Thanks,
Garrett

Brad:
Got a couple letters like this. I'm really sorry about that, guys. I totally missed it myself. Call it an .. er.. Y2k bug or something. I apologize for not marking it.. and well, I'll try harder. :o

-Mondo

Brad:
Yes, I know who Thor (the blarg guy) is... I talked with him a little while ago, and well, he's still not settled down into a place... you can read more of his adventures, or at least a bit of breif explanation about his life for the last 6 months at his homepage. Just as a note, I am not the 'brad' that is mentioned in any of those stories. I partake of a different nickname on IRC. Also, I don't know for sure if he'll be returning to the RPGamer Q&A post or not, but don't expect it to be really soon if ever. He may have other stuff on his plate by then. It's a part of life, moving on. It sucks, and hell, we all loved what he did, and yes, he does rock. But he did mention to me that he might want to do a little guest hosting on the side. SoOoOooo.. well, you never know when Brad might hook up a little Thor for ya. Stay tuned.

Here's a list of New Year's resolutions you should make:

I already have a couple.. well, not resolutions, per se, but well, I'm finally getting myself on some semblance of a budget, I think.

1) Stop posting FF8-related stuff without spoiler warnings. Now I know that Edea stabs Squall! (I don't know who Edea is, but that's another matter). Keep in mind, FF8 PC is coming out around the end of January, so a lot of people haven't played it yet.

Hey! I said I was sorry. :(

2) Don't fall prey to blind system loyalty. How can you possibly decide whether or not to buy a Dolphin before any real information has been released on it?

Well, with the latest bomb (for me, personally) of the N64, I'll tell you I'm not going out on a limb and buying a Dolphin. They had their chance. Sure. Zelda was fun. A couple other games are too. But not even 10, (in my opinion, remember!). I have like 40 PSX games. Sony's getting the people who make games that I like to make stuff for their platform. The DC's getting good stuff too. Give me Metroid 64, and we'll be talking a different story. Well, I already sold my N64, and I heartily encourage everyone who likes it to love it, and if it floats your boat, great. But I didn't find games that I personally liked for that console, and well, I sold it and bought a Palm Pilot. That's just how life is.

3) I like cheese.

Muenster is good.

4) See number 3.

Cheddar's not bad either, really. If you're in a pinch.

Oh, by the way, do you know about any cool upcoming Gameboy RPGs?

I heard Azure Dreams is headed towards the GB .. or maybe I'm wrong.. it's late, forgive. Also, check out the new Lufia game, which is rumored to be headed towards the GB, and also, not confirmed for US release, but there's always the chance that Star Ocean 1 might hit the Game Boy, though I don't know what kind of transition that'd make.

-Biff

[Brad's breif comments in []'s..]

Recently I was lucky enough to have a cold. A not too great of a cold. He wasn't too powerful, nor too weak. But he did keep me away from my crappy job at a grocery store for 2 days (while also keeping me away from my friends, suck). On the first day, I had the pleasure of contemplating just when the end of the millenium is.

Now, there are two ways of counting (basically). First lets look at the second.

When you start a stop watch, if you were able to watch (no pun intended (shouldn't there be an appreviation for "no pun intended!")) a stop watch in slow motion, you would notice that it starts with 00.00, then goes to 00.01, then 00.02 and so on. the measurement of a second begins at 00.00 and lasts until 01.00, understand? The measurement from 00.0000 to 00.01 is a measuremeant of 1/100th of a second. It starts at nothing, and ends at something else. I'll reiterate. It starts at NOTHING.

Now, when you count music you go something like this.

"one and two and three and four and" or perhaps "one E and A Two E and A" ect... In music you start at one, and then you two the "other half," so to speak, of the "beat."

But should we count milleniums like music or like seconds? I would say like seconds.

[This is where we go into what this person "wants" to hear, and not what is really the case...]

Say we go back to the year zero. The reason the year was zero is because there weren't any years that have gone by yet. But any time during the year 1 AD, you can say that one year has passed since you started measuring (12:00AM January 1st, 0 AD).

So at 1000AD you can say at anytime during the year that at least 1000 years have past.

But days of the year are counted differently than years or seconds. Days are counted like music beats. Meaning there is no ZERO day. You start with one, and then go to two, and on up to 30.

So at 2000AD you should be able to say, at any point during that year, that AT LEAST 2000 years have past.

Thus making the end of the millenium 11:59:59.99~ PM December 31st, 1999.

I realize that this may feel a bit confusing at first. I know that first the media told us the end of the millenium was at the end of this current (1999) year. Then the educated media and people who want to act all smarty (I myself was guilty of being in this group for quite some time) started to say that the end of the millenium wasn't until the end of next year (2000). But I believe now that you will agree with me that the millenium does in fact end this weekend. It ends tonight for me in fact. For you it may already be over. In that case, I apologize for not having enlightened you before the end of the millenium, because you probably were planning on having a special end-of-millenium celebration, but since the end didn't come for about a year from now, you probably postponed it. Now that you know the truth, you can't go and celebrate, because you would be celebrating a lie.

Sucks to be ignorant, I would know. (I AM an American, after all!)

[Hey, not all Americans are ignorant.. just ones that launch crap into space with frickin' British measurement systems, when even the British don't use it anymore.. but nooo.. we're Amerrrrican, we can't use Metric, because we're just pouty that we can't hold the meter-long bar in OUR country, because France has got it.. er.. heee okay, maybe Americans are kinda dumb ..]

Bladder2

Brad:
Yes, it'd be nice if we all started in year 0 to count, and that would make this the beginning of the next millenium, but unfortuneately, we're on the Gregorian calendar, and in the Gregorian calendar, there was no year 0... therefore we start at 1, and count forward from such. We're also missing a week in the year 1752, when England adopted the calendar, (if you've got a Unix/Linux shell, try cal 1752 and check it out for yourself..) Thanks to Kev for pointing out how cool that is.

-lewsteran

Brad:
Some of the skills require that you hit buttons at opportune times.. (like "Select" for taunting).. others work automatically.. (Motormouth would be really dumb if you had to hit buttons to activate it..)... so, sorry, he's only partially lying.