www.polatrite.com

(Posted yesterday on my real blog, polatrite.com)

That is one long title. Today was the release day of Linkin Park’s brand new album, Minutes to Midnight. I uh, “purchased” the album using my Napster subscription (I’ve downloaded 20+ albums a month for the 3 months I’ve had my $15 subscription, I’m wondering where the record labels actually make a profit here?). Many of you know I’ve been a long-standing Linkin Park fan from their first record release as Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory. I was immediately enthralled with them, specifically the single In the End, which I played on repeat basically from when I heard it to when I bought the full album, and then it was just the album on repeat.

Meteora was then released a few years later, refining the bands sound and presenting it in what I feel was a more produced, professional, and unified album. I like both albums considerably, and even like the subsets of the albums, Live in Texas, Reanimation, various EPs and Underground discs, etc.

Now we’ve come to Minutes to Midnight, after what, 5 years of waiting? When I first heard the single “What I’ve Done” a few months ago, I immediately wished that the entire album would NOT sound like that. And actually, it doesn’t. To me, the single didn’t exemplify the hardcore nature I have come to expect from Linkin Park. Now, all the “true hardcore” fans who insist Linkin Park is baby material and sissycore, you need to get out now. Some of their sounds are definitely hard rock songs. And that’s the tone I’ve come to expect from the band.

But here’s where it gets messy. With MTM, the band wanted to reinvent their sound. I’m not sure why - maybe they have ADD. Either way, they can do whatever they want to do, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

And really, I don’t.

The tracks on the album seem wildly different (from each other), and none of them adequately capture the driving, structured hard rock of hits like Lying From You, Don’t Stay, and One Step Closer. It’s true, the band is considerably more raw - is this for the better? From the eyes of a seasoned Linkin Park fan - I really don’t think so. From the eyes of a person who hasn’t really gotten into Linkin Park - I can’t say for sure. The tracks are very diverse, that’s for sure. However, the hard rock bits seem sloppy, and the soft bits are just a completely different style. I had very high hopes for the album, but I really can’t dig it.

I’m going to continue to listen to the album, and maybe it will grow on me (I really don’t think so), and perhaps I’ll give a more in-depth analysis of the actual CD. We’ll see, but for now, I’m disappointed.

I just finished beating the Elite Four in the most ridiculously long, painful, aggravating, but ultimately satisfying match in my entire 9 year Pokemon history.

The team going in:
Jynx - Level 44
Dialga - Level 52
Luxray - Level 45
Infernape - Level 40
Roselia - Level 42
Staraptor - Level 45
(Underleveled on purpose. It's meant to challenge me, not just overlevel and go easy mode.)

Coming out:
Jynx - Level 48
Luxray - Level 53
Dialga - Level 52
Infernape - Level 45
Roselia - Level 46
Staraptor - Level 49

It was the most horrendous, awful Pokemon experience ever. Basically, every Pokemon I had was vulnerable to an attack on anything in the Champion's party, and everything died in one hit to just about everything anyways. Not to mention, I took 13 critical hits that actually killed my Pokemon, that doesn't count the other criticals that I didn't count. Meanwhile, I crit 4 times myself in the entire series of all 30 enemy Pokemon. In addition, I didn't have ANY stat-uppers on the team except Roselia, who could use growth + giga drain (guess you gotta not die in one hit for that strategy ;).

Also, that Dialga was used for two Pokemon in the entire series. He wasn't EVed and I didn't want to waste it. So basically, the Elite Four with five level 40-45's.

A winner is me.

P.S. I downloaded Chariots of Fire when I beat it.

Netbattle picture:

Ahh... a new Pokemon game. I've always enjoyed this game franchise. The games have a ton of replayability, and surprising depth - so surprising that I though they had surprising depth before I was surprised by finding out they had even more surprising depth beyond the surprise I had already experienced! It's... surprising.

Anyways, the combat system is actually very complex and lots of possibilities exist. It's a very good series. I never got into the cartoons or movies or anything - of course, I never got into ANY cartoons or movies, really.

So we're here today to talk about the new releases. The main advertised feature of the new releases is the 107 new Pokemon, bringing the total up to 493. However, for experienced Pokefans, that's certainly not the exciting change. They've redesigned the move system so that moves are distinctly separated between physical and "special" attacks, instead of being classified by their type. So moves like ice punch are finally a physical attack. In addition, the most exciting change in my opinion is the ability to battle and trade over WiFi - over the internet with anyone around the world. No regions, no limits, just all-out madness. Very cool.

I definitely don't care for one major change, though. This one is more subtle. It seems that GameFreaks have taken the liberty of adding a number of pauses and slowdowns to dialouge boxes and events, especially in battle. The text speed even on the highest setting is barely faster than my normal reading speed, and since I don't read the same text 20 times because I know exactly what it says - it gets annoying. It's as if they purposely just adding a half a second here, two seconds there, and so on, just to lengthen battles and slow things down.

This has been my bane for years. In fact, ever since Final Fantasy 7. FF7 marked a new leaf for Square, where they went from the snappy quick battles of the best, to big flashy cinemas for actions in each battle - that can't be skipped! I really don't want to see the same summon 92 times while I'm leveling up my party - just as I don't want to see Go! Chimchar!! at the beginning of every Pokemon battle and have to wait a good 4 seconds just for the Pokemon to land on the field. That's not counting the numerous smaller pauses in the middle. (intimidates trait, anyone?)

Does this drive anyone else nuts?