Just wanted to say a few words about a recent release on the Wii’s VC.

I was delighted to find a little game I used to play when I was about 12 or 13: Shining Force.

The game play, to be honest, is very misleading. At the beginning, the game seems very simple and linear. And, while it does remain pretty linear throughout, you may be just as happy to find that as your experience with the game increases, so does its complexity.

There are lots of things to keep track of when you’re in a battle. How much MP your Healers and Sorcerers have left, the positions and striking distance of your enemies, and much more.

To be honest I had completely forgotten it after the summer I first played it. That was probably due to the fact that we were playing it on my friends’ Sega Genesis. But oh well. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that could be truer in this case.

It’s only 800 points (8 bucks), so give it a whirl!

(Also, is it just me, or are the enemies really cocky despite their repeated losses?)

[i/o]

You may notice some things around here.

If you don’t…well…either you’re blind, and I apologize…you’ve never been here before, and in that case welcome…or…you’re some kind of moron who pays no attention to the look and/or feel of the sites he visits.

Anyway, whoever you all are, welcome! Welcome to the dazzlingly Photoshopped, dipped-in-Plexiglass look of the new BrokenJpg.com!

One of the things you may notice is the new header. I’ve decided to focus more on both the name and content of this site, instead of trying to make the user figure it out. I’d want anyone who happens upon this site to know immediately what I’m talking about. If you cannot derive that from the pixel font, the three icons, or the name and categories of my posts, then perhaps all hope is lost on you.

I’m not sure if I’m getting my inspiration from the new Joystiq, or other sites that I navigate to, or if I just felt it was time for an update. Yeah, from the old header you could tell it had something to do with computers..and maybe Apples…but other than that, if you got 5 seconds to tell what it was about, you’d probably come up with a blank.

So! That’s essentially the idea behind the look…but what about some of the new…erm…shall we call them…”links”?

I’ve just put up a few Google links and the like around in order to make my site a little more…automatic…in a sense. By no means do you have to click on ANY of them EVER. I’m not looking for thousands of good little drones to come and click my links, I’m just looking for readers. And this is a way to help keep this site self sufficient so I can continue growing the reader base.

“But Ian,” you may be asking, assuming you know my name, “You have barely any comments! How can you have a reader base at all?”

Ah, good question, sniveling bastard! I thought the same way myself until a few days ago, when I went through my page visitor and unique page view statistics, and it would appear as though I have, as of Thursday the 26th, over 3000 unique views this month. Where the hell do they all come from, why do they not leave comments, and is this good?

Answers: I have no idea; They must be readers, not talkers; and sure, why the hell not!

I honestly am not sure how I have so many (for me anyway) page views, but I’m more than happy to have them. It means my site is getting legs and eyeballs, so I couldn’t be any happier. Sure, Penny Arcade has more than a million hits a day/week (I forget), but they started just as humble as I. And they made their site self-sufficient the same way I am doing now: with advertising. I dunno how it’ll pan out, but we’ll see loyal-yet-silent readers…we will see.

[i/o]

“It’s never too early…for a salad.”

[i/o]

This one’s for you Mom.*

The rumbling has been low and ominous for quite some time. The postings of job openings, the tight-lipped attitude of upcoming projects, the admission of a group called “Team 3″.

It’s almost time for BlizzCon and it would seem rumors are just ripe for the plucking.

Apparently Blizzard has recently (and in the past) been looking for people to “assist the teams who made Diablo I & II in making a new and exciting game”. Not only that, but after their reveal of SCII *gag*, they have made it known that they are currently working on 3 projects. One of them of course being SCII, and even if the other is something WoW related, that still leaves the 40 people on Team 3. According to Frank Pearce of Blizzard, “Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I can’t give you any hints, but it’s totally awesome.”

Straight from the painfully quiet horse’s mouth: “totally awesome”.

Should they even be working on D3 though? Anyone who has sunk enough time (see: years) into the Diablo franchise knows the definitive answer. They still have a strong fan base, and they continue to sell copies of the Diablo II expansion: Lord of Destruction as well as have an extremely devoted, loyal, and vocal fanbase. Sites like Ladderhall, Diablo3.com, Diablo2.net, and even Blizzard’s own Diablo forums are teeming with members. Members who not only would drop to their knees and cry to a generous God, but still continue to flood the Battle.net servers everyday, whether it’s to play with friends, or just to show off their skills on the Hardcore Ladder.

Being originally released in 2000, that’s quite the “stick-to-it-iveness”. Even if you factor in that the expansion was released in 2001, that’s still at least over 6 years of loyal playing, collecting, questing, and slaying. Frankly, I think any company would have to be either blind or ignorant to both rob loyal fans of another game, but to also turn away from the assured profits of such a highly anticipated sequel. And I do mean highly. Just look through the forums over at Diablo3.com for a while and you’ll see what I mean.

Whether or not this will come up at BlizzCon remains to be seen, just thought I’d toss my 2 cents in.

*I know my Mother could care less about Diablo III news, I just wanted to give her some mad e-love. Today is her birthday, and I hope she gets everything she wants…and then some. Also, just because she doesn’t like D3 doesn’t mean she’s a crusty old fart, far from it! Take her on in Tetris or Dr. Mario and you’ll need to bring your lunch box…’cause she’ll be taking you to school.

[i/o]

Well, not really a fan so much as some web spider that trolls sites looking for anything Wii-related and posts them.

It took a recent post of mine, cut away the parts about me wanting an Xbox 360, and made it appear as though I had nothing but awesome things to say about the Wii. Fortunately they gave a post to the original link so it could all be put in context. Too bad to see that even robots are exercising creative methods of journalism…if it can so be called.

Here’s the link.

[i/o]