Sai's Asylum

Critical Crap

MangaPunkSai — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:32:29 +0000

There still appears to be something within the site that keeps alerting my own virus protection software. I’m doing the best I can to figure out this mystery short of scrapping and rebuilding the entire site. My uh, my attempts against it have somehow destroyed my Google ads. Stay tuned!

Alone in the Dark

MangaPunkSai — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:50:59 +0000

Call me crazy but I was mildly excited about this game as I figured it would be a decent romp to tide me over until the release of Fable 2. I also I got ten bucks off of it for reserving it which in retrospect should have probably been my first warning sign. Another problem I have was apparently being the only person among my friends, coworkers and associates who remembers the original Alone in the Dark from 1992, where you were just a dude in a haunted mansion, and I was somehow unaware they made like 5 or 6 more games which involved more guns and less housing. So needless to say I thought I was in for a badass next-gen haunted house survival game. Even when I found out that was untrue, I figured it would still be fun. This is what I get for being optimistic.

What’s so hard to understand is how Alone in the Dark got so much right and yet it manages to all go so horribly wrong. All of its various infuriating game mechanics would actually sound good on paper, however the design team should have realized they weren’t working out when put into application and, I dunno, maybe tried something else?

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100 Draw, Fifth Three

MangaPunkSai — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:02:20 +0000

Finally built up another three for the 100 Drawing Challenge. I think I’m getting pretty comfortable with the tablet now! As always you can see the rest here under the Sketchbook gallery.

Alot of oranges and browns this time around, somehow I always end up drawing fall-like stuff in the summer.

Malicious Redirect

MangaPunkSai — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:59:14 +0000

Visitors to the site may have noticed some… weirdness over the last month. Like it redirecting to some search engine looking thing in Russian or something. Yeah, whatever that was, it came in on a comment. I didn’t even click the link and it managed to hijack the site somehow, not every time it loaded, but often enough. I deleted the comment and blocked everything associated with it, changed a few things in my code and I think I may have fixed the issue, but I’m still going to be checking through my directories and my database to make sure it’s gone for good.

Anyone who visited the site and got the strange redirect really should clear out their browser cache and run a spyware check with your virus protection program of choice, just to be on the safe side. Sorry for the trouble.

Nights into PS2

MangaPunkSai — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:52:27 +0000

If my excitement leading up to the Wii sequel flop, it’s own fanart section in my gallery, and the Parody into Dreams section’s very existence didn’t clue you into the fact I’m somewhat of a rabid Nights into Dreams fangirl well… I don’t know what the hell could. Now, I never import games. Mainly because I can’t read Japanese and America gets games well before all the PAL regions anyway. However, when I first heard the original NiGHTS into Dreams was being remade on the Playstation 2 (which probably should have just been done in the first place instead of Sega USA, fresh off their landmark title Shadow the Hedgehog, deciding to strain out NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams like a bad kidney stone on the Wii) I was excited to say the least.

Then it turned out it was going to be Japanland-only. Bastards.

But I would not be deterred from a fresh, re-rendered version of my favorite childhood game where I could actually see what was going on and the baddies and goodies in the various levels weren’t scrambled 2D sprites. I got myself a shiny import, I got myself a Swap Magic, I spent two days trying to find the right screwdriver with which to mutilate my 7 year old Playstation 2, and in the end was out more money than I’d like to admit just to facilitate my shameless fangirlism. But damnit it was worth it!

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100 Draw, Fourth Three

MangaPunkSai — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:53:01 +0000

And so it goes, we have more. One is in kind of stark contrast to the others. All this sketching is making me want to do some finished art too, so I’ll have to work on them back and forth. As always see the rest in the 100 Drawing Challenge gallery, which is a sub-section of the Sketchbook gallery.

100 Draw, Third… Three.

MangaPunkSai — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:56:12 +0000

Three more for the collection. What? That only makes 9? Oh man, I have a ways to go. You can see the rest in this sub section of the Sketchbook gallery.

Elfen Lied

MangaPunkSai — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:38:29 +0000

I had heard alot of praise for Elfen Lied and I think it caused me to imagine all sorts of things about it without ever having actually seen it. Like imagining it was good, for example. I was on a forum one night and someone was complaining about a particular scene in the show with a link to Youtube. I was more taken aback by the juxtaposition of a cutesy, colorful, boringly mainstreamed, low-budget moe animation style with something that looked like it was supposed to be serious, dramatic and bloody than I was by the scene itself. To me it looked like it was pandering to guro fans, and the series didn’t serve to erase this opinion as I watched it out of sheer curiosity. I’ve seen about 10 of the 13 episodes and skipped around the last three for this article but I don’t think I intend to finish watching it. Warning: there will be spoilers because the plot is just too ridiculous for me not to rant about. Oh yeah and there’s going to be graphic images of mutilation so, uh, be aware of that too. (more…)

Xbox Live Bans Teh Ghey

MangaPunkSai — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:52:12 +0000

It just makes me want to set up a new Live account called ImHereImQueer. I don’t exactly know how to feel about this, Microsoft has apparently taken to banning gamertags on Xbox Live with the word "gay" in them, including a dude who supposedly used his last name "Gaywood" in his. Yes that’s right, the service known for being stuffed to the gills with 13 year olds calling each other "faggot" fifteen times in any given match of teh Haloz finds a little gay in your gamertag offensive. Or rather, the "greater Xbox community" finds it offensive according to one supervisor.

Which leads me to question: are they trying to protect gay people from being made fun of by homophobic Xbox Live gamers, or are they trying to protect homophobic Xbox Live gamers from having to knowingly interact with someone who identifies themselves as gay? This insofar is pretty unclear, but many gay gaming sites (yes they do exist) are a tad concerned about this.

Where it may come as a surprise to some people out there that gay people are gamers… and tax payers, and home owners, and generally walk the streets among the general populous, you can rest assured there are gays on Live. (more…)

100 Draw, Second Three

MangaPunkSai — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:08:33 +0000

Three more drawings for the 100 Drawing Challenge. I’m pretty much just going to keep revealing them in 3’s til I have all 100. Haha… what have I gotten myself into. You can see the rest at the gallery set aside for them.