From bad to worse

Well it's just about official. MD3 has the worst Pokémon selection of any game ever. Worse than RBY, which had the excuse of only 151 even existing at the time. The tally here is allegedly 144, plus a few legendaries that can't even be recruited to begin with.

Seems like the logic that went into this game was this.

Chunsoft, why have you forsaken me?

Serebii says this on MD3:

The accuracy on this game leaves something to be desired.

Example; Munna

Munna has Hypnosis. It ALWAYS hits. Even though you have items that can awaken you, you can't access them if asleep, allowing them to chain kill you 

Great. There goes any balance the game might've had. All this after they put a lot of effort into balancing MD2.

Also, unlike what the pre-release screenshots implied, you can only evolve in the post-game. Again. So the one excuse they might've had for giving us only five starters doesn't even work. You know what? I think I might pass on this game.

Early MD3 info

- Only 138 Pokémon in the main story? Don't they ever learn? They seem to be mostly gen 5 Pokémon, but Croagunk, Bagon and Wooper are also in there among others.

- Pokémon not in your group level up along with those that are. Full mechanics are currently unknown. Do they gain full experience? Only up to a certain ceiling? Or a percentage? Who knows? Either way, this is really neat, as long as the game is balanced around that.

- One mission per visit to a dungeon... well, this sucks. The rewards better be good.

Edit, November 23, 7:41 AM EST:

- Money is capped at 9999, huh? Guess they really want you to spend... but seriously, FOUR DIGITS?

- Like in MD2, seems like there are quite a few dungeons with only you and your partner. There are even some dungeons where you're completely alone. Ouch.

New Dream World expansion up!

According to Serebii's preliminary roster, we now have access to every non-starter, non-legendary DW ability, to the exceptions of Chandelure and Volcarona. No idea why they think Swarm Volcarona is so awesome (Flame Body is arguably better), but anyone who still thinks, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that Nintendo and Gamefreak don't keep tabs on competitive play has been handily contradicted. They know Shadow Tag Chandelure has the potential to screw everything up in an instant, even the most hardcore skeptics have to admit it.

Still missing their DW abilities: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Heatran, Serperior, Emboar, Samurott, Chandelure and Volcarona.

Officer 728, the porno: Rule 34, no exceptions.

A major news story in the last few months in Quebec has been the fall of a female cop in Montreal, best known as "officer 728", though her real name is out there, I just can't remember what it was. She was involved in several violent arrests (complete with camera footage), and her behavior (as well as general appearance) just screamed "roid rage". Just Google her, you'll see what I mean. Yeah, these are the people who are supposed to protect us. I feel soooo safe right now. (To be fair, most cops these days are way too soft and let way too much stuff fly, but that's not the point.)

Anyway, the reason why I'm talking about this is because I heard on the radio that someone was trying to make a porno out of the whole story. (Presumably not with the actual officer 728, though she might need the pay check nowadays.) And my first reaction was a big fat WHAT THE FUCK, HUMAN RACE. Seems like any news story featuring a woman has to end up being remade in a porno. Especially if BDSM seems like a potentially exploitable theme. (No, I'm not planning on watching the final product if the project comes to fruition, I don't need the extra nightmare fuel.) (I really need to stop with the parentheses.)

Your tax dollars at work, Quebecers.

Unfortunately, there are more effective ways to throw them away than this, even if it's much flashier. The story: a curve on route 251 in Cookshire-Eaton, Quebec was deemed unsafe, and redone in the fashion you're seeing right now. With the utility pole smack in the middle. And it was BUILT TO COMPLETION that way. No one thought of calling their superior and saying, dude, we're about to build a road that goes right through a utility pole. Maybe this is why they're taking a decade to rebuild part of a road that was swallowed by an abandoned asbestos mine - any less and the damn thing would end up climbing the mine dumps.

RSE remakes' final nail in the coffin

Well, none of us thought they were going to happen this generation (at least I really hope so), but still, if you weren't convinced by the generalized mad rush to end gen 5 ASAP, as well as Junichi Masuda strongly implying not a single man-hour had been invested into such a project late last year, today's announcement will crush any hope you had.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ruby and Sapphire's Japanese release, various retailers are going to be distributing Kyogre (for White 2 owners) and Groudon (for Black 2 owners). I mean, just think about it. If they were planning on making these remakes, why the hell would they distribute Kyogre and Groudon to begin with? Yes, the answer is as obvious as it sounds. They're. Not. Happening. At least not for the next, say, two years and a half at best.

Woohoo! I'm famous!

Take a good look at this GIF, which made the front page of Memebase. Look familiar?

The best part, though, may be the fact that both the flyer and the surfer were the exact same Ducklett.

So, how 'bout that mass exodus?

Yeah.

I can seriously imagine some of these people really looking for a country to move to, only to find out that even with Obama (who's not the most impressive liberal by anyone's standards but America's) at the helm, they really DO live in the last bastion where people who missed the jump to the 20th century can make a career as politicians. (So that's what they mean by "land of opportunity".) How about we ship Quebec's provincial government south of the border? That should scare the entire digestive tract out of them - they're so far to the left it makes even me sick to my stomach. If they thought Obama of all people was a socialist, they're going to see what being treated as living, breathing ATMs is REALLY like.

I could've died today.

So a building blew up today in Sherbrooke, with such force the detonation was heard throughout the entire city. 17 people are injured, and some of them are between life and death and taken by helicopter to Montreal.

The kicker, however, is that I went there for a job interview earlier this year. Back then I was very disappointed when I wasn't selected, but now... well, I could've died. And in the best case scenario, I'd be jobless. Holy crap am I glad my path took me elsewhere now.

Update: Two people died. No surprise there. When you're anywhere near ground zero of 15000 litres of acetone exploding, you're screwed.

You know, there are other sports than hockey.

Seems like our sport channels are getting desperate because of the NHL lock-out, where no end is in sight. RDS (the French Canadian counterpart of ESPN and TSN) has resorted to re-airing old hockey games, including some from the 1987 Canada Cup. And tonight they're re-airing game 7 of the Montreal vs. Boston playoff series from 2008.

Really?

You know, if you really want to show hockey, there ARE other leagues out there. Major junior hockey is still going on, as well as the AHL. Or better yet, how about showing other sports for a change? Even if I find oval circuits lame, there's NASCAR tonight... aren't there football games (CFL or NFL, doesn't matter) you could be airing as well? Nope, old hockey games. Because hockey. Hockey hockey hockey HOCKEY.

Doug Walker: Bad career move or freak accident?

I would really, really like to think it's the latter, but unfortunately it's not looking good... Look closely at the scores.

0.11 stars worse than the Bart's Nightmare clusterfuck even Retsupurae made fun of. The video Doug ended up APOLOGIZING FOR. Ouch ouch OUCH.

Yeah, one can say his Nostalgia Critic gig took a bit of time to really take off, but to be perfectly honest with you even the very early NC episodes were a lot better than this IMO. Considering how unimpressed I was with the anniversary specials as a whole, I'm starting to think the guy's a one-trick pony. A genius at that one trick, sure, but beyond that...

YouTube fails yet again.

So I just attempted to upload my latest video, and a pop-up window appeared because YouTube decided it wanted me to start using my real name on the grounds my username was "hard to read". HARD TO READ. Do they give that excuse to everyone? What if your username is "John Smith"? Is that hard to read too according to those bumbling buffoon baboons?

Of course, I turned the offer down... I couldn't go all the way through with it, though, because even the system that's supposed to let you choose whether to make the transition or not isn't working properly. It's a wonder how no other video-hosting site comes close to YouTube, considering how it's been run into the ground in the last few years.