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something came yesterDay, Something special
Yesterday my brother got a package from Importmadness. It was the Nintendo DS (and Super Mario 64 DS) we've been waiting on.
It is everything I expected. Everything works fine and I have nothing bad to say about it at all. It's even fixed that headphone jack problem that annoyed gamers everywhere (with the GBAsp).
The pictures of Mario 64 DS don't do it justice. It actually looks BETTER than the N64 version. The pics tend to show PSone quality graphics, let me assure you that is not the case. The textures look a little crappy though.
It may be a port but I'm experiencing new things already. Just beat the 1st bowser, but to get to him I had to finish off a whole new boss.
The GBA playback is top notch. Since I never got an SP this is gold. The D-pad is nice and big as well. Strange seeing as how the Gamecube's pad's D-pad is so small.
Besides the DS my only comments go to Fanfiction.net. It's been down for a while so I haven't been able to update as fequently as I would like. But I do have a fic update for you below.
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Fanfic Progress: Chapter 2 of Chaos demons is up, as is Chapter 10 of Chaos Theory.
It happens at least twice a year
Here in the UK we have these regular charity drive things on TV. Around easter we have "Comic relief" and tonight we had "Children in Need". Tonight is also the night of my cousin's party. I had no idea CIN was on tonight until I turned to BBC1.
I used to love these things because they were, in general, funny. Although they did make fun of bush as I type this (which was pretty good), I haven't laughed much at all. The "Artists" they have to perform are laughable, in saying that music is shite these days anyway. The highlight has been Bryan Adams.
It's one more sign of TV seriously going downhill. They had the cast of Coronation street doing a crap musical version of Oliver twist. That had possible the most "celebrities" in it. It's a clear sign that our TV channels concentrate on the shitty soaps. Although strange that BBC are promoting an ITV soap.
ARGH! Kylie. Fuck! That's what's on now. I feel like ripping my ears out.
What's happened to TV. This is where they usually bring out their "A game" but it's so boring and crap.
You know our country is pretty fucked up when they have a charity drive this close to Christmas!
Ah good Travis. At least something half good will come from this.
Oh the subject of media charity drives we've recently had Band Aid 20 taking over everything. Band Aid, if you've been living under a rock for the last 3 decades, is a collection of "top" music "artists" singing the same song, "Do they know it's christmas?". They do this not only to further their own careers but to raise some money for charity. You buy the single, some of the money you used goes to charity. Better just to make an anonymous deposit.
I've managed to avoid this one completely. I hear ABOUT it but I haven't heard it yet, nor do I intend do. The lineup is awful, and for a cover it's not worth it.
It's not like I don't want to give to charity. It's just that I can't afford anything at the moment. Plus once you give to a charity they never stop bothering you for more, or to get you to try and make offers give some/more.
Different subject now, but still annoying. My folk went to the Party and left me here alone. "Great!" I thought, house free, Samba and Superstars on the big TV. After trying for a good 2 hours to get superstars working the camera seems LESS responsive downstairs. It's a bigger room with plenty of light but no, problems all over the place.
Samba rocks though but it takes forever to set up. Knowing me I won't have much time to play samba tomorrow when my folks make the trip home. Damn my lazy body.
Finally I can trade
Finally. After much searching I have the ability to trade between Leafgreen and Sapphire. Trade evo's a plenty despite my link cable acting crappy. Now if only NOE would put Pokemon Box on their Stars catalogue again (I have enough stars now) I would be happy.
Strange how I manage to beat the elite four and open up this ability to trade the same time SAMBA DE AMIGO comes.
Besides gaming though I did have something big today. I had my first job interview in ages. Turned out to be way more than what I expected, and I'd be jumping the the deep end from the word go if I go after it (he said he might shortlist me, but thinks I'll probably turn it down because of my doubt).
I suck at interviews. I have never had a successful one and I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my technique. All the work I have had has been given to me.
I'll close this post by saying how appauled I am at the racist chants made by the spectators at the England vs Spain friendly. Problem is we don't know if it was the spanish for certain but I expect it is. This is similar to an incident in the champions league when a ref was hit in the head with a lighter, splitting his head open. If we knew for certain it was from a fan of the losing side we could've punished that team.
It's the same here. It's most likely the Spainish were making the chants and so the country team should be punished. Points deducted in their qualifying table. I mean our yobs lost us any chance of hosting a world cup/euro cup any time soon. It's time the FA took some action.
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Fanfic progress: Chapter 9 of Chaos theory should be up soon. About 2/3rd of the way through chapter 2 of 7 Chaos demons.
The Good, the Bad, and the Pokemon
First off the good. Today it came! SAMBA DE AMIGO. £163 was a lot to pay but it's worth it. Practically sealed as well (only the outer box had been opened). Nothing compares to it for pure fun.
The bad. I spent some time playing Pokemon Leafgreen, I had an hour to waste and I was still a little tired from SDA. I had been stuck on the Elite four for ages. I couldn't bring myself to fight them. Instead I collected money and experience from 3 Bird trainers near Fuschia. Evolved all by my Dragonair (which I evolved much later) and decided to give the elite four another try (of course with 50 Full Restores and Revives).
Let me just say Snorlax at level 50 rocks. It can withstand a lot without dying even from the later of the 5. I got passed the Elite four and the champ and was excited about pokemon once more.
I thought that this finally meant I could trade with Sapphire.
I was wrong!
Goddammit you have to do this exploring the SEVII islands thing. You have to give Celio two gems. One's a Ruby and I'm guessing the other's a sapphire. I have plenty of trade evolutions to take care of and the original pokemons I have in sapphire to bring over.
I also want to start breeding pokemon. I want another Chansey and a Porygon but they just won't mate with Ditto. Neither will Hitmonchan, explain that! That's the only way you can get tyrogue and the gits aren't doing it.
Plus there are pokemon like Misdreavous and Sneasel, which according to CUBE are in the game on islands 5 and 4 respectively. These are harder to find than the "RARE POKEMON". God I hate tracking things like this down.
Also for some reason the Unknown dungeon is STILL blocked off, so no all powerful MEWTWO.
Oh well, I suppose that's the point. Keep searching, Keep exploring with no hints of where to go, no end in sight. Although it just seems they went out of their way to piss you off.
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Fanfic Progress: Did Chapter 8 for Chaos theory last night. Probably won't do more tonight due to having to get up early tomorrow for a job interview.
Fic update.
Nothing to express today. Man utd won, Hex finished (but I already posted about that). This is purely for the fic update. I uploaded chapter 7 of Chaos theory last night.
1 player vs Multiplayer
So it's been two days since I got Halo 2 and already I've completed it on the normal difficulty. It's far too short and even those that love Halo 2 are saying this about the 1 player. It leaves much to be desired yet still people don't care. Why? Because apparantly Halo 2 has a kick ass multiplayer. I don't doubt this at all, and I don't see it as a bad thing.
However it's another example of how recent games have tended to focus on the Multiplayer. The 1 player suffers and you soon realise you're going to have to get the expensive and awkward Live!, or have a lan party just to get your money's worth. Note not to get the most out of the game rather to enjoy the game the way the developers want you to.
Sorry but the majority of gamers play alone most of the time. Multiplayer does indeed happen frequently but not as much as you will play games by yourself. Now before you shout "Microsoft fanboy", the same can be said for Nintendo's Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, or even the almighty Phantasy star online (but then the clue is in the name).
If you're the type of person who will play multiplayer/online a lot then you will be in heaven with Halo 2. If not you will find it offers very little in single play and will feel quite cheated. So ignore my comments in my last post, it's all down to how you play your games.
As I've said Halo 2 isn't the only offender. In many cases novelty games fall into this category. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and any FPS with the words "Arena" or "Tournament" also are like this.
But wait is it possible to have a great one player and a great multiplayer? Why yes. Super Smash bros melee, Sonic 2, Goldeneye, Pokemon, Chu Chu rocket, Timesplitters 2, Half-life...
No wonder these are generally praised.
What the big fuss about Halo 2?
It's out. You probably have it. You're probably enjoying it. You may or may not be completely consumed by the hype. You may or may not be so blinded by it that you cannot see some obvious faults.
Firstly the vehicles. I don't see why they kept the awful FPS controls when they could've used normal racing controls. It's not easy to get into, in fact I don't remember the game ever telling you how to drive. Are the simply assuming all that play Halo 2 played Halo? Developers should never assume those who play their latest sequel played the games that preceeded it.
Also for some reason they've decided not to allow a bots option. Not everybody wants to use/can afford Live! Not everybody can set up a 16 player lan every night. You may only bee playing with a mate or a few friends. No bots mean you can't make the tally 16. And forget about practicing, you only have the campaign for that. Since the campaign has loads of differences from the multiplayer it shouldn't be considered practice. A quick skirmish is also out of the question. Bots have been available in Deathmatch FPS since Perfect Dark so there's no excuse for leaving them out.
Halo had these faults. They haven't been fixed. It's still great but I don't see what so special about it. It seems like a counter-strike for console gamers (yes I know CS came out too. I'm talking about the way some people go on about it). What I'm getting at is that many who play CS go on about it like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Essentially it created people like ROB (read on for a while). I see a whole new group of people like that for Halo appearing, especially at the Exterminatus now forums. Just look at how they've reacted to my comments about Halo 2. Completely OTT.
I love Halo 2. It's a great game. It's just not THAT great (read the topics at the EN forums to find out what I mean).
My Brother rocks, aka I have no life
It's been a pretty exciting day for me. Halo 2 came today, a tad overhyped and overrated in my opinion but still a class game. But the thing that overshadows all is that I finally have Samba De Amigo. Why does my brother rock? He's lending me the money for it. Yes I know £155 is a bit much for one game but how often do PAL samba de amigo's appear on Ebay? I've been dying for this game since I decided to become a Sonic team collector.
Now very little stands in my way. I need Xbox and PS2 versions of Puyo pop fever and Sonic Heroes, Sonic-N, Sonic pocket adventure (perhaps) and Knuckles Chaotix (perhaps) to complete my PAL collection. In fact here's the full list (all boxed with instructions):
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (missing cartridge though)
Sonic and Knuckles
Sonic CD
NiGHTS into Dreams
Burning Rangers
Sonic Jam
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure DX
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2 battle
Sonic 10th Anniversary pack
Phantasy star online
Phantasy star online Ver 2
Phantasy star online episodes I & II for both GCN and XBox
Phantasy star online episode 3: C.A.R.D revolution
Chu Chu Rocket for both Dreamcast and GBA
Billy Hatcher and the giant Egg
Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance 2
Sonic Advance 3
Sonic Pinball Party
Sonic Battle
Sonic Heroes (GCN)
Puyo pop fever (GCN)
Sega Superstars
I also have the soundtracks to Sonic Adventure 2 (Jap, vocal only) and Sonic Heroes (both Jap, Triple threat and Complete trinity).
So why did I say I have no life? Or can you guess already. Well when I told my mom about my auction win today she got on my case (like always). She asked why I don't go out (like everyone else might I add). She said "You're not having much of a life". There are three main reasons why I don't go out.
1. See my last post
2. All my friends are at uni or have stayed in the city they went to uni in.
3. I have no money. When my friends are back home (for holidays) I stick to cheaper stuff like pub quiz nights and Movies at the cinema (which I prefer far more than going out drinking).
It's strange being a gamer. Sometimes it's as if you're gay and you're coming out of the closet. They don't understand why you don't act like everybody else. My Parents (especially my mum) don't see why I spend some much money and time on games. It's a hobby, I take interest in it. I suspect that if I did come out of the closet and announce I'm gay (I'm not by the way. I was never confused) they'd be more open and understanding than they are about my gaming habits.
It's also strange that I have my cousins 21st birthday coming up (keep reading to see where I'm going with this). He lives in scotland, and of course my parents want to go up. They're having just as much difficulty paying the bills as I do. They say I may not be able to get many games on my list, maybe none at all (for christmas)! Yet they're willing to give me money to buy drinks at this party. Which would end up being £30, the price of a new game. Which do you think I'd prefer? One more game off my list or drinks at a family do? They are even worse than drinking with mates, at least then you have your mates to talk to. I would have to say loads of times how I got the worst degree I could get from my 3 years at uni and how I have no job prospects to all my family.
I'm staying home. Give me a chance to play Sega Superstars and Samba De Amigo on the big screen.
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Fanfic Progress: just uploaded new chapter. This post was very long so I won't be doing any more tonight.
Work! huh! yeah! What is it good for?
Being currently unemployed is a nightmare. I look at the list of games I want and it's bigger than it's ever been before. Why? cause unlike last year I didn't have my debt to pay for my games. I'm right at my limit and I can't afford much. I shouldn't have bought Halo 2 but then I am going for the limited edition version. I would've waited until Christmas otherwise.
But it's not just the money. To get Job Seekers allowance you have to apply for 4 jobs every fortnight. This wouldn't bother me if my hometown had an abundance of jobs. It doesn't. Since I arrived home from spain in september I must've applied to 15 jobs by now. How many replies have I had? about 3.
Doesn't it just make you angry when they don't tell you you haven't got the job? What's even more annoying is when they don't give you it but then still advertise it later.
Finding long term work is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Most of the jobs I have had were handed to me. It was so much easier in school. The most you had to worry about was homework. Nice big holidays and mid term breaks.
When you do find work you're in for as long as you can spare. Odd that even with the latest developments in technology you still work as hard. Why can't they just make the working day a hour or two shorter without docking pay? I hate to think how business had it 20 years ago without photocopiers and other machines that make getting a job done easier. We live in a stressful world in which you have very little time to relax and enjoy yourself.
Then you look at how you can enjoy yourself. TV? Pah! Look at my previous comments. Sport? Perhaps but after a hard day working your arse off don't you just want to take it easy? The pub? We sort of have a winner. If your idea of fun is standing in a smoke filled overcrowed shithole that plays cheesy music you're in heaven. The drink makes it easier to bare but the only way to entertain yourself is to chat to someone, and even then you have to shout to be heard.
The pub can be great, when there's not many people around and the music is good and not louder than your voice. When does this occur? When people are at work.
Thank fuck for games. But then you need money to buy games, you have to work your arse off to make money and enjoy them in the few hours you have to yourself that you don't sleep in.
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Fanfic Progress: Finished Chap 6 of 3SE5 Chaos Theory but fanfiction.net is down for some maintenence I think.
Sweet! It's coming...
Play have just sent me an E-mail saying my Limited edition of Halo 2 has been shipped. I'm british remember so this is EARLY!! It shouldn't even be out until Thursday.
On top of that the latest issue of GamesTM should be coming now. They have explained why it's been late. It's OK I just hate waiting.
On the subject of football, Man utd are going through their worst run... blah..blah...blah! This happens every year, and every year Man utd end up in the top three (well since the premiership started). There's still 2/3rd's of the season left and anything can happen. We get out of our goal rut and we'll fly up the table.
Besides this doesn't take into account or current CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FORM. Or Premiership form has been bad but so what, we did win 4-1 in our last champions league match.
Let's just see what happens in the future.
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Fanfic progress: sorry no updates. I spent too much time looking at Sonic-cult.
How could they make TV any worse?
So Tonight I go on the net early so I have enough time to watch "They think it's all over". For those who don't know "They think it's all over" is a sports quiz show where they spend lots of time making fun of topical sports events and people. It's extremely funny and the BBC recently decided to destroy comedy by moving it to a poor slot. From thursday 9:30pm to Monday 10:35pm. Tonight they decided to fuck us over even more by replacing this weeks episode (and perhaps the entire thing) with "Traffic cops".
STOP destroyed comedy you idiots.
Further more the new creepy show Hex is reaching it's final episode. It's 6th I think. 6 episodes is not a series! Even for a pilot this sucks. There's finally something top class that's british made and it's over in 6 episodes. Same thing happened to the almighty Auf Wiedersehen Pet and it sucked then too.
TV Series should be longer you idiots.
TV officially sucks more now than it ever has. My TV viewing has become Dragonball, Sonic X, Will and Grace and Chip and Dale rescue rangers. Yes I'm that desperate to see some quality stuff on TV I'm reliving my childhood. Prime time has become gametime for me. My night was fighting trainers and levelling up on Pokemon Leafgreen. Incredibly boring but it was at least something to do.
Sorry for not updating last night. My computer and my DSL modem don't get along all that well. Also for some reason I can't open files. It crashes (my dad says it opens after a long time but I'm not that patient). Instead I have to go through WORD to open my fics, and internet explorer to open my htm pages.
I'll close by saying I did a Head to Head review, Donkey Konga vs Sega Superstars.
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Fanfic progress: Might have 7 Chaos demons first chapter up tonight. I'm almost finished it as I type this. May even have Chaos theory chapter 5 up aswell (just put up chap 4).
Yes I'm a Groening Geek!
Last night was Bonfire night here in the UK. Big bonfires and the most overrated source of entertainment around, fireworks. I'm a gamer, I grew out of fireworks a long time ago. A Loud bang and an explosion of colour, big deal give me an On-rail shooter like Panzer dragoon orta.
The night was good though, why? two words, "The" and "Simpsons". Channel 4 chose this night to show their "new" series of The Simpsons plus some cool extras. As well as Sky One's actual new episode this made up probably the best night of TV ever. I must admit I feel like that nerd at the start of the episode, Futurama was a huge loss.
Futurama, the most brilliant comedy ever. I kid you not. It had all the comedy of the simpsons with the imagination of Sci-fi shows. Yet it get's cancelled (with Family guy) for reality crap. Stop watching these shows you stupid yanks and let real brilliant programs shine.
But back to simpsons night. The documentary was good but weird. It was very american even though the majority of the celebs interviewed were british. It was only really the actors and the makers that were american yet everything was about how America saw the simpsons. I'm pretty sure it was made by Channel 4 as well.
The quiz was good but could've done with more topical humour. The questions were real easy but then I am a Groening Geek.
Bring on Simpsons Season 5, I can't wait. Season 4 was brilliant and it'll be hard to top it.
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Fanfic Progress: Not done anything knew yet so I'll finish this post and start working on my two fics. I'll probably have chap 4 for 3SE5 done tonight and I may have the 1st chapter of Chaos Demons done.
This is getting harder
Updating this blog was easy at first but within a week I've ran out of ideas. Probably because my life is boring right now.
Time is running out for getting a job. Next week IT comes out, that's Halo 2 and I just ordered my copy from Play.com. But I really shouldn't be doing this. I have no money only debt I can re-use. I worked it out that my barclaycard will have £76 on it with the payment I made. Minus the £40 for the game that leaves £26 for this years xmas pressies. But I'll probably lose £20 of that on interest. living on JSA alone is tough when you consider what's coming out this month.
Exterminatus Now has new forums with a gaming section. YAY! I was only really interested in the EN section of TFS. Now there's a section that really interests me.
I also see a lot of the blogs on my list haven't been updated much. Perhaps people are having the same problem as me. Updating every night is hard when there's nothing outstanding happening in your life.
I don't know why there was no fanfiction update for last post. I did make one.
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fanfic progress: Did a prologue to new fic "The Seven Chaos Demons" and did chapter 2 of 3 Shadows Ep 5 "Chaos Theory". Tonight I should have much more done.
The world rocks after all
Oddly today was pretty good. No I'm not going to talk about the American Election because I'm british and Quite simply I don't give a shit. No matter who is elected Tony Blair will follow them that a loyal puppy dog. I guess it's the same over there as it is here. All candidates are idiots so why vote?
Ok back to the positive. Firstly I bought the latest Edge. For once I found it interesting and nice to look at. Usually it's bland and boring but this one had plenty of colour to stimulate the brain cells. Sega Superstars 7/10, I agree. Still a GamesTM Whore (in fact I should get the next issure tomorrow, I subscribe), but this Edge was pretty good.
Man utd won 4-1. The Match seemed a drag after the highly Charged Arsenal game but most are. I actually thought more about how Arsene Whinger managed to get Van Nistlerooy banned yet get off scot free. Both teams were as bad as each other, yet only Man Utd got penalised. Many seem to think that's right!
Penny-arcade's latest comic is brilliant. Instant save as a favourite.
Oh and please someone get me one of these...
The meaning of the word exclusive
If you follow gaming news no doubt you will have heard that Capcom have decided to port an exclusive game to the PS2, or will do. Resident evil 4 was supposed to be a GCN exclusive but after it's GCN they plan to do a PS2 version. Do they even know the meaning of the word exclusive?
They did the same thing to SEGA. Resident Evil: Code Veronica was a Dreamcast Exclusive, until they decided to release Code Veronica X on the PS2. The rest of their exclusive 5 have gone multi-format or died. Viewtiful Joe and I think Killer 7 all have PS2 versions coming out. (PN03 seems to be an exception for now).
This is bad news for Nintendo who pratically relied on this title to hopeuflly bring in new customers. Besides the new Zelda game I'm finding little on the GCN I want that's actually exclusive coming out next year. Their sales are low now and I don't see them rising. The Gamecube is going the way of the Dreamcast. Maybe not the Gamecube perhaps that'll be their Saturn but definately the revolution unless the realise good games are not what the public wants.
Let me rephrase that. The public wants big names, violence in general and need to be shown what a game will look like. Both SEGA and Nintendo need to know of a thing called Marketing. As far as their home consoles are concerned they can make as many great games as they want but not get the sales that in theory they deserve.
The Handheld market has always been strong for Nintendo and their marketing for the DS is sounding good. But they will be up against a Playstation soon. Will the Gameboy name hold out against the Playstation one? Only time will tell. However if Nintendo lose this war it's all over for them.
That would be a shame because Nintendo have produced numerous quality titles and great consoles. They far outweigh Sony and Microsoft in those departments (not SEGA though). The best is dying due to marketing above everything else.
Before you all lynch me I aint saying the PS2 and Xbox are bad. I own all three consoles and each has their own strengths. However in terms of Variety the GCN is way out in front IMO.
Only time will tell, but it aint looking good.
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Fanfic Progress: Started Chaos Theory last night, should have the first chapter done tonight.
I applaud ITV for once
Tonight ITV made a report of Violent Videogames, on "Tonight with Trevor McDonald". They could've went all biased like a certain British Newspaper *Cough* Daily Mail *Cough*, but they didn't. They addressed the issue perfectly.
Now every gamer has a view on this, which I won't bore you with here. The Arguement is so old. I'm merely saying Well Done ITV. The mentioned the fact that the same age certificate rules apply to games as they do to movies, they showed how easy it was for kids as young as 12 to get violent games, and they showed basically that parents don't monitor their content like they would movies.
ITV did not say it was the fault of the developers, although a couple of people said it was. Like the mother of the 14 year old that was murdered, although she said it pushed the killer over the edge when he had tendancies to begin with (completely different from what the Daily Mail said). One more person asked why a "game maker would put this violent content into the game". OK this isn't the same as calling them evil but then people make violent films and no-one questions why.
There is something I would like to say. I have the Grand theft auto double pack and Pokemon Leafgreen, I even have Puyo Pop fever (which I would consider the most childish mainstream game of our time). The content of a game does not make it better or worse, what matters is the gameplay. (You understand by Content I mean whether it's violent or not right). Grand theft auto happens to be one of the most free open aired games that has a main plot that you can choose to follow. Pokemon too is like this. On the surface they seem to be aimed at a certain demographic but dig deeper and you find out there's so much more the games offer. Just look at the Advanced Trainer guide at GameFAQ's Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire section to see what I mean.
Violent games are not necessarily better but I wouldn't want them to be banned entirely because of a few nutters. They have a place in today's world.
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Fanfic Progress: The Virus has convinced me that using Exterminatus now characters would be a bad idea. Not just because I'll have to deal with Lothar and Eastwood but because the Grim Darkness universe and the Exterminatus Now setting still needs to be properly explained. I can see why it would be a problem, but it doesn't matter. Without the EN crew I still have two fics, one for 3 Shadows and one for Sonic's time in the works. I will start "The 3 Shadows Episode 5 - Chaos Theory" shortly.
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