Category Archives: Random Randomness

Sims 2 Seasons

W000o0o0ho0ho000o0o00000! You know Seasons is the one EP I really wanted. Uni I wanted for the Hang Out interaction for my stories, NL for the cars (although it also seemed the funnest out of the ones my poor XP box could handle) and OFB for no other reason than that I wanted the Magisplay tray for my screenies, which is kind of ironic, since I only bought it recently, long after I retired from Sim storytelling. But Seasons was the one I really wanted.

So despite my super-slow processor, the amazingly great graphics card (compared to the CCLOCIC) means I can actually play it! So I bought a copy second-hand (didn't I say no more of my money is going to be used to pay SHERRIE DANDAN'S wages?). I eagerly opened the box, then thought: Oh wait, this is EA we're talking about. Checked the back of the disc and ZOMGNOWAIZ! "Sony DADC"! Gaaaaah!

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Hitomi Yaida — Over the Distance English Translation


As always, corrections are welcome. For more Japanese translations, please click here. マギー先生, おおきに！/Thank you, Maggie-sensei and Yukari-sama for help with the tricky bits! If there are any other mistakes, please leave a correction in the comments box below!

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際限なく続いて行く 紺碧な一つの波に乗って
想像は膨らんで行く 環境の変化を憎んでもはかない 		I feel as if I'm forever upon a wave of the deepest blue
And as my imagination soars, the hated changes around me become fleeting.

Sims Paysite Free Custom Content

Update: this page hasn't been updated in a long time, since I stopped bothering with paysite drama years ago. The links may become out of date any time. Click at your own risk. Also note I don't run any of these sites. If a link no longer works or has changed, try the Wayback Machine and comment below. Feel free to recommend other anti-paysite links.

Since I seem to be getting quite a lot of hits for this, here's where you can get paysite custom content for free (including peggy, rose, thesimsresource aka TSR, etc):

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Etrian Odyssey II

I didn't think any game could be as annoying as Etrian Odyssey (apart from May's Mysteries, which is THE absolute worst game I have ever played). Oh, how wrong I was. Etrian Odyssey was annoying, but at least it was beatable and fun.

I have actually given up on Etrian Odyssey II, at the last level of the 5th Stratum. Another thing, they killed the handsum paladin. You see, now I have actually grown very fond of the first game.

UK password is not even compatible with this, since none of the sequels have been released here 🙁 My guild is destined to be forever an unknown 🙁

They changed the skill sets in II. Immunise is gone for one thing, so has Relaxing, and the class names have changed for Samurai and Bard. Lame. The sprites at least have substantial legs now. Here's team 2:

protectorlandsknecht
bardgunnermedic Continue reading →

Archos 18b Vision Review

I had been searching ages for a cheap and cheerful MP3 player that also had video playback. I really only got this for podcasting Dr Karl, since I can't stay up that late anymore. Anyway, on to the review.

I was expecting great things from this after seeing all the positive reviews, but alas, I was to be disappointed.

Firstly, it has an annoying habit of cutting out the first second or two of each track. This is because whoever programmed the software likes fade-in. And no, there isn't an option to turn this off. The result of this is that the first words of the podcast are cut out. True, I'm not missing out on much, but there was really no reason for this function, and besides, it's annoying. You see, we are already getting off to a bad start.

Second problem: Continue reading →

Graphics Card!

Who'd have thunk it? My netbook, despite its slowness, does actually have a pretty good graphics card on board. ATI Radeon 6250 apparently. Whatever that means, it's utterly better than the CCLOCIC (crappy crap load of crap Intel chipset). I'm surprised by how smoothly TS2 is playing on here, even with the addition of another expansion pack.

Better still, anti-aliasing also seems to be enabled on here. Have a look (click for big):

Old PC vs new PC:
chipset-office

New PC:
chipset-kiyodesk

Eh, anyway, it looks a LOT better, and plays a lot more smoothly (when I say "play", I haven't actually put any Sims into it yet. I'm only using it for props.)

YaY for the Radeon chipset!

Securom’d — Again!

Gosh darn it! That blessed Securom! GAH!!!

Anyway, I did what I should have done years ago and bought my own copy of The Sims 2 base game so I could install all that shiz on my netbook instead of having to use the family PC, which always has someone staring over my shoulder while I'm trying to work. I was careful to not buy the double deluxe or whatever it's called and get a second-hand copy of the old bog standard DVD edition. Before installing I also checked online for any references to its having SuckyROM and checked the back of the disc for the Sony DADC, which was not present. Anyway, after buying OFB (again, second-hand: screw EA if they think I'm putting money into SHERRIE DANDAN'S pocket), I thought, EA sucks, let me double-check my registry just in case. And lo and behold, that old enemy of mine was now on my new netbook!

I was like, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They've got me again, nooooooooo!". Continue reading →

How Do You Feel About DRM?

In honour of my new-found infection (and also, cos the last poll bombed).

Now that the storm over Securom has long-since blown over, has your opinion of DRM on games changed?

How do you feel about aggressive copy-protection like SecuROM?

  • I continue to boycott all publishers that use aggressive DRM 40.63% (13 votes)
  • Yar har fiddle-de-dee, being a pirate is all right with me ♫ 34.38% (11 votes)
  • I still buy infected games, but run them on a no-CD to prevent infection 15.63% (5 votes)
  • Huh? I'm only here to read about Selene and Endymion 6.25% (2 votes)
  • I'm used to it; it doesn't really bother me 3.11% (1 votes)

Total Votes: 32

Bridge to the Logic Fail

I've been replaying the Phoenix Wright trilogy recently, but there are just so many things in there that bug me. It seems court-records.net beat me to most of them, but having just finished Bridge to the Turnabout, there is one massive logic fail, I wonder how no one noticed it?

I understand that for the sake of storyline, sometimes you have to have some degree of logic-fail, but this is just monumentally stupid! The following contains spoilers!

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Last Window — Promise Lyrics

This was inspired by the scene in Last Window, where Kyle's mother would look out the window while this song played. Kyle's losing of his father reminded me of Kiki's losing Callimachus, so I wrote some lyrics to match. I used this as an illustration in Dreamsong chapter 5, although the sentiment is more matched to a scene in chapter 4.

Artwork, character and lyrics © Silver Arrows 2013-2015. All rights reserved. If you wish to record the lyrics, that's fine, but NO COMMERCIAL USE and you must credit and link back. You may NOT use my artwork without permission. I'll probably say yes, but ask first. Thanks. Credit to generosa for the flower brush.
Music © Nintendo.

kikis promise
(Click image for full-view)

I've finally updated the image to match the lyrics. However, there just isn't enough space for the full version with the additional chorus. But the rest of it matches.

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Etrian Odyssey

GAH! This is such a frustrating game! I don't know how I would ever have been able to clock this without having to refer to the strategy guides. Another thing that's annoying me is that even though I have defeated the final boss Primeval (who is also utterly annoying), and completed all the quests and monster codex, the password still won't unlock. The password shows up under the Y menu (ie, load your game, press Y and then Select, and it'll show up). Um, except the password given to me is about one line longer than the space given in Etrian Odyssey II. So yeah, that was for nothing.

Anyway, after first resting and then retiring each character, because you cannot beat the game without a certain skill set (you go actually get a cool 9 skill points if you retire at level 70, rather than 3. I don't know about stat bonuses), here was my final team:

etrian-landsknechtetrian-protectoretrian-survivalistetrian-bardetrian-medic

Thanks to Nyleveia for the sprites.

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Asus 1225b EeePC Review

asus

The first thing you need to know about the 1225b is that it is slow. Really slow. This may be the fault of Windows 7, but don't believe its claim that:

The latest AMD Brazos dual core processor provides users an unprecedented experience of the all new Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). The APU combines a high performance CPU and discrete GPU giving users the best in multimedia enjoyment.

It's slow.

Okay, bloatware uninstalled, cleaned up with CCleaner. Here's some of the software I use and how the 1225b handles them.

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Last Window Animations BTS

Wow! I feel so much better about knowing I have to rely on the odd bit of cheating for my artwork, too. Unfortunately, I'm the only model I have, but so it goes. I so want one of those art console thingies they're using.

ETA: It's called a Wacom Cintiq and it costs over £800.

Wacom Cintiq added to wishlist