A pretty serious title eh?

Before I get into it, I've got to again point out 64D has gone down again, becoming a regular event, but it's also kind of a relief.

And, you may have noticed (if you're a freak) that I re-uploaded all the images in this blog to my photobucket account, just because on some of the older entries some of the imageshack-hosted images were no longer up, and it just made the page messy and hard to understand.

So yeah, won't have that problem in the future, and it took ages to re-upload + edit every entry.

So, surgery eh?

Yeah, for the last year or so, I've been getting this swelling pain in the outer sides of my calves after about 20 minutes of walking.

I figured I had bad circulation, because my legs go to sleep pretty easily, and it seemed plausible that the swelling pain was because my blood pressure was building up.

Still, I went to see the doctor, and she reckons I have "chronic compartment syndrome." (wikipedia is your friend)

It basically means that the muscles in my lower legs aren't sufficiently separated, and they sorta swell into each other when they get exercised.

And the most likely solution if that turns out to be the case is surgery, which to be honest.. I'm not really hung up on, if I need surgery, then cool.

Cocopuffs hasn't been online in a while, he's dealing with some personal stuff right now, so it's understandable, it just means that we haven't (well, he might have) done any work on Twinsen.

Hmmm, the other night I finally finished Twilight Princess on the Wii, and what can I say?…

meh

First, let me go through why I was never really excited for TP.

Ocarina of Time successfully brought the Zelda franchise into 3D, and it was wise for Nintendo to use Link to the Past as the blueprint for OOT, it's a solid design, and it felt fresh thanks to the extra dimension.

Long story short, just about everyone considers it to be the best game ever.

Then Nintendo made Majora's Mask, which a lot of people were rather put off by, it had a pretty abstract presentation and idea, and a lot of people just skipped the game.

But they really missed out, MM is probably the best example of just how robust and versatile that "Zelda blueprint" is.

Long story short, few people played this one and said they wanted a game "more like OOT"

Then Nintendo made the Wind Waker, which again, a lot of people were put off by, but this time by the art style- something I didn't even consider until reading previews etc on the internet.

I don't think many people let the art style stop them from buying the game, but I've seen a lot of people that say it stopped them from enjoying the game.. what can I say, thoughts regarding art style comes down to opinions, but opinions can be incredibly ignorant/close minded, and Wind Waker gets treated to some of the most ignorant and close minded opinions ever.

Long story short, although the game wasn't as bizarre as Majora's Mask, it still showed how versatile the blueprint was, but people still wanted a game "more like OOT"

Who are these people?

They're the ones that love to call themselves "critics" or "true fans" etc.

The ones that don't see that they'll never be pleased and just want to get everyone else to join their whiny crusade.

So then Nintendo unveiled Twilight Princess, you can find videos where these "critics" and "true fans" are screaming like groupies- they're so happy.

It looks like everything they've been whining for, an art style that looks to be an evolution of OOT's, Link is a teenager, the horse is back, water is gone, no 3 day cycle, no abstract story etc.

And when they finally got the game, they couldn't seem to figure out why the game disappointed them.

I mean, it had tons of dungeons, a massive world, lots of new weapons and characters, and some of their favourite things returned.. what was the problem?

The problem was that everything was thrown together with the intention of being fan service, and fan service sucks.

The stuff those fans where whining for, I really didn't want, and of course I wouldn't enjoy it.

Why would I enjoy another OOT?

I guess I could enjoy another OOT if they did it right, as in, balanced, but still felt fresh.

And that's exactly what TP isn't.

It's definitely not fresh, and it's way out of balance.

Everything was under-utilized, they even made the boomerang (outside of a few compulsory puzzles) completely worthless.

The twilight realm could have been better utilized for dimension crossing puzzles like in LTTP or Metroid Prime 2, where you had to think creatively.. they just didn't even attempt it in TP, they assumed the very inclusion of an alternative dimension would please those fans.

The game would have greatly benefited from the inclusion of a magic meter, that way I wouldn't feel like I should use my lantern as little as possible, because I didn't want to waste a potential fairy in order to carry a backup supply of oil, the armor could have been powered by magic (powered by rupees, what the hell were they thinking?) the sword could have had some more moves like the awesome crazy spin from Wind Waker, the Spinner could have been powered by magic so it was fast and could be a legitimate means of transportation.

I think it's pretty clear that I could keep going, because I think just about everything in TP (short of character design) needs improving, and that's the thing.

Nintendo seemed to think that just including so much crap would please people, but everything is so un-polished and leaves so much potential un-tapped that it's hard to enjoy.

How can I enjoy something when I'm only thinking of how good it should have been?

At this point, I'd have noticed that this entry is quite the wall of text, except this is the second time I've written this.

Yeah, I was just about finished earlier today, but I accidentally closed the window…

So, how 'bout some music news?

Well, I'm only really into rap, and the biggest news is probably that Kanye West and 50 cent's new albums debut on the same day. (sept 11)

50 cent, being the neanderthal that he is, took this as some sort of challenge, and boasted that if Kanye somehow managed to outsell his album, he'd retire as a solo artist.

Before you commit yourself to buying Kanye's album just for the sake of perhaps having a hand in ending 50 cent's solo career, I should tell you that he retracted that challenge after he was warned Kanye West would probably outsell him.

And Kanye deserves to.

At the very least, to even those that hate rap should see Kanye as the lesser of two evils.

He receives a lot of slack for his "george bush doesn't care about black people" thing, but where is 50 cent's slack for "george bush is an incredible gangsta", "Nas is too smart to succeed"?

Those two statements alone should push you to hate the man if you don't already.

Is he trying to glorify George Bush's position/power by calling him a gangsta, or glorify himself by putting him and the president in the same category? I don't know, both are stupid as hell.

Then the next comment has got to be one of the stupidest sentences ever spoken by man.

Again, even if you don't like rap or Nas, just understand that Nas isn't exactly a commercial "success"

And I wouldn't really equate it to his intelligence, but to his integrity.

Nas is smart, smarter than 50 cent easily, but if 50 cent knows stupid shitty music sells, then of course Nas is well aware of that. It's just he doesn't want to sell his soul to be the next toy in your happy meal.

Back to 50 and Kanye, I'm not gonna bother listening to 50 cents album, already heard it's exactly the same as his last album;

Candy Shop = Amusement Park

Half the CD = Straight to the Bank, I get Money

Piggy Bank = Fully Loaded Clip

One trick pony.

Kanye's album is pretty good though, it still sorta suffers from his style, some amazing beats go to waste on verses that revolve around one syllable, and others go to waste on recycled lyrics.

But still, it's classes better than 50 cent, and even his stupidest song "Drunk and Hot Girls" features Mos Def which redeems the whole thing basically.

And maybe have a listen to one of Lupe Fiasco's songs off his upcoming album "The Cool"I really like this song, not often you'll find a song that's an observation of the industry and features references to nerdy stuff like klingons and super Mario.

Back to Nas, he's set to perform for a concert at Virginia Tech.

You can just imagine the spin foxnews has put on this, but I'll save you the headache and just watch this:

BYAAH!