I have a sincere desire to make up for the last month and a half which went quietly into that dark night with some updates. Direct your attention over to Reviews, for there is a new... er, review there. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, to be more precise. For those of you counting at home, that's RPG review number 49, putting me a mere one review away from achieving "Platinum" status. Although the luster has faded somewhat from the coveted mineral - due to some of the RPGamer staff members usurping my position with their own 50 reviews - I nevertheless will press on. It'll be tough though, considering the only games I have available are Okage: Shadow King, Kingdom Hearts, and Shadow Hearts. The truly dedicated among you will remember that I have been trying to finish these titles since April with little success.

And the irony inherit between those three titles, I could fill volumes about.

WTF?

Matrix: Revolutions was easily the weakest piece of cinema I have ever witnessed. Remember that kick-ass trailer which gave the impression that the world of film-making would just collapse under the unbearable brilliance that would be the third Matrix movie? Yeah, it's complete bullshit. The Wachowski Brothers obviously failed to comprehend that a movie is only as good as its script, not its budget for CG effects. This oversight is made all the more infuriating when one realizes that they had actually started the series out on the right track - producing cinema which raised the bar for all special effects/action choreography while also presenting interesting pseudo-philosophy and creating an entirely new setting rich with promise. Reloaded expanded upon all three areas, but suffered from poor scripting (the rave scene being the biggest offender). Revolutions, the supposed climax and epitome of all things Matrix, was nothing more than a glorified CG showcase wrapped in flaccid Hollywood clich� with outrageously bad pacing.

I am, of course, not even going to mention how many plot holes and otherwise completely unexplained events occurred over the course of this trilogy. That horse is entirely too dead to even contemplate beating once again.

It also irks me how the last 3/4 of Revolutions basically stole everything from X the anime.

Three days ago the high temperature in Springfield was 79°. Today, it was 34°. You'd think I'd get used to this bizarre Ohio weather after living here for more than seven years, but it really does surprise me each time.

In related shenanigans, brighten your day with the news that a German man was arrested for teaching his dog the Nazi salute.

For those among us that do not know the significance of finding such indexes, suffice it to say that savvy web surfers being able to download the entire contents of your website without actually having to navigate said website is disadvantageous - to you, of course. And since I am not technically file-sharing - the Wittenberg university firewall is pretty adept at preventing students from actually utilizing the T1 lines we pay for after all - I feel absolutely no guilt in not only taking these files but also a significant portion of some random site's bandwidth.

So I must ask, which is the lesser of two evils? Having access to Kazaa (and by extension, being able to reliably use AIM, play internet videogames such as Counter Strike, and so on) or simply using legitimate search engines for your own downloading purposes while completely escaping from any sort of legal accountability (after all, the RIAA cannot police internet traffic in general)?

It's just too bad most sites simply implode after you download 1 GB worth of files in less than 12 hours.

In the meantime, you may have saw the new magazine spread for FF12. For the moment, I will refuse to comment any more than creating the following comparison. I mean, that says just about as much as can be said at this point. After Novemeber 19th, all bets are off.

Considering how easy and enlightening these sort of side-by-side comparisons have been in the past, I might be inclined to do some more.

Anyway, the site revisions I have been toying around with for the past couple of days involved finally being able to construct rounded tables. Such tables were going to be used to encapsulate these little news stories, the features, and some of the reviews. Unfortunately, the code involved in completing the rounded tables was truly horrendous, a vile miscarriage of HTML coding which would cause those dedicated to simplicity in website design to tear their eyes out in stark horror. Plus, while they look fantastic in theory, many things look fantastic in theory - such as dancing albino unicorns dressed in Dockers. The reality of both leaves much to be desired.

I do happen have good news all around. First, take a few minutes to explore the latest new feature, Canvassing the Net Volume 1: MP3s. In spite of what is implied in the title, future volumes are most likely not forthcoming so you will simply have to enjoy the puissance that stems from getting free music files. That's right, I said puissance - just look it up you uncouth philistines. Yes, Dictionary.com is indeed your friend.

Other old/new business involves the removal of the Matrix: Reloaded partial script feature, seeing as how not only has the movie in question been released on DVD but its sequel is playing in a theatre near you. Additional projects in the works involve more delusions of grandeur concerning my artistic abilities in both HTML and Sketch form. A Links page needs to be fashioned at some point as well as well as that Bio I said I would finish five months ago. A revision/editing of the Evangelion feature can be expected as soon as I watch the series again. More reviews, more content, and so on and so forth. I believe that about covers all the bases.

Expect another one of these updates in the next few days as I begin collecting my thoughts on the potential debacle/ascendancy of the Final Fantasy series in its twelfth iteration. There's a lot of new information to sift through, and not all of it is good. Time will ultimately tell, I suppose.

The Good

• Yasumi Matsuno (FFT, FFTA) is handling the plot.
• Hitoshi Sakimoto (FFT, Vagrant Story) is composing the music, with Nobuo Uematsu only doing the theme.
• Characters less detailed, but better animated.
• 3D control of the camera.
• Voice acting returns.
• Use of airships and chocobos in a more war-torn setting.
• Japanese release date of April 1.

• Reusing the setting of Ivalice (FFT) along with "Arcadia" (Skies of Arcadia) and Valentia (Vagrant Story).
• Reusing the concept of battlefield "Judges" (FFTA).
• Reusing the Bangaa and Viera races for no particular reason (FFTA).
• Vaan is a thief who dreams of being a sky pirate (directly lifted out of Skies of Arcadia).

• Vaan, the male (?) lead is apparently a hermaphodite.
• Ashe, the female lead is apparently a princess whore.