DS games, Mabinogi, and other stuff.

The news is all over the place that Gary Gygax passed away at age 69. The father of D&D is gone... huh. The tributes I've seen thus far (including some clever webcomic ones) have been very touching.

R.I.P. Mr. Gygax.

Right now I'm downloading Mabinogi, since open beta just began today, but more about that in a bit.

On the video game topic, Jon surprised me today by coming home with DS games. Guess he got paid recently and he wanted to cheer me up. It was dampened a bit by the fact he went and delivered the immigration papers but he forgot to get me to sign the most important part (my letter). The agent said it didn't matter but... I still want her to have a signed copy. It's just important to me.

I can still rejoice, though, because Jon got Ace Attorney 4!! Whee! I've been wanting to play it, after seeing so much talk about it on LJ and from Lumi who is absolutely enamored by Klavier. Heehee. I really want to squee over Kristoph but I'd like to know better what he's all about, first. Still... megane. ;.; MY WEAKNESS! Mentor-y guys with glasses just hit me in the fangirl zone.

From what I've heard from Lumi, we're going to absolutely love playing through Ace Attorney 4. I'm happy, too, because Jon and I like to play these kind of games right before bed... it's like storytime for (young) adults! Whoever's doing the writing for those games is masterful at creating complex, multifaceted mysteries... and characters, for that matter. I am totally looking forward to finding out why Phoenix is now Hobo!Phoenix and who's going to be the "bad guy" of the game (Lumi said whoever it is is "worse than von Karma". I wonder if he/she's worse than Dahlia, though? *shudder* Dahlia is so... vile!)

Jon also came with DS games he got specifically for me. He even put them in a pretty purple box, it was really sweet. And he wrote me a card! It was like an early birthday present. I felt bad getting angry at him because of the signature thing after that. I just wished that he hadn't told me to stay home so he could deliver the papers himself. He was worried about me coming with him because the weather is really bad (much too cold to be walking around outside, crappy visibility and all) and I would have to go into crowded buses to get where he needed to go. I dislike standing on buses... it might have made me panic, and I appreciate he wanted to protect me from that (as he often wishes to do). But I still wish I'd come along, because then I would've been able to sign the letter right when Jon printed it.

I signed it now, though, so it'll just have to be delivered tomorrow. I just wanted it to be clear that I wrote that letter, since I didn't even come with Jon personally to give it. :(

The DS games Jon got me were Cooking Mama 2 and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Cooking Mama 2 is, welllll... a lot like the first! But with more features, like being able to customize the kitchen and Mama's look, and (of course) new and more complicated cooking mini-games. I like the Cooking Mama series as games I can just pick up whenever and poke at between waiting for appointments or downloads or the next RP post in the scene I'm playing. That sort of thing. The most striking aspect of Cooking Mama 2 so far for me is... ENGRISH! My god, the Engrish voice-overs are absolutely hilarious. I suppose they might get old after a while, but man, they crack me up so bad!

I only played a little of Advance Wars DS so far because I was sleeeepy and ended up napping through the afternoon. It's a turn-based strategy game, sci-fi ish with a post-apocalyptic world. Man, I love post-apoc... almost as much as I love dystopian settings. :D The game system seems pretty simple so far, but I've only played the tutorial battle, so, I can't say much on difficulty yet. I was amused by the pair the main character meets, though... an older commanding officer, Captain Brunnen (I think? Brennen, Brunnen, something like that :P) and his lieutenant, Lin. I was amusing myself thinking of Lin as some sort of younger, female Seventeen, and the captain as an older, male Archana. I am so easily amused. =_=

Now, back to Mabinogi. As I might've mentioned before, it's a "free" (with optional cash pay stuff) MMO by Nexon that I mentioned several weeks ago, billed as a "fantasy life" game. So the point -- apparently, anyway, I've only heard about it second hand -- is not just to kill things, do quests, and get experience to earn better equipment and bling. You actually can set up or join a community and just... live, without even lifting a weapon, if you want. You can train trade skills and start a business, hang around and chat, that sort of thing. I guess. It sounds pretty neat in concept, but I am more skeptical about how it'll actually function in practice.

I confess, I mostly want to download it to play with character creation, so I hope it really is as robust as I've heard it is. :D

The only other thing I can think of to write right now is that I finally! started exercising again today! Here's hoping that I can keep up with it... I've still got many, many pounds to go to reach my ideal weight. This spring and summer I'm going to take as much advantage as I can of the better weather to get into multiple kinds of exercise. I can't wait!