frak
Seriously? Again? What do they say about third times and charms and the like? Sigh.
The worst part was I was just downloading Perfect Dark, getting all excited to jump back into the early '00s of gaming, and everything froze. I wasn't even playing a game!
I have a plan, though. Involving buying a new bundle and getting this one fixed (thankfully it's still in red ring warranty) before selling both it and various things from the bundle and somehow ending up with a 250-gig Jasper for around a hundred bucks at the end. It's going to work! I think!
Heh, and at least I have plenty of PS3 games to play in the meantime. :P
omgpsp
One of the coolest Japanese PSP releases recently has been Hyakumanton no Bara Bara (roughly translated into "1 Million Tons of Falling Pieces") — it's a puzzle / action game where you cut up gigantic military aircraft before they reach your town, and I almost picked it up the full price import ($40!) thanks to a cool demo and lots of neat Eastern Mind coverage.
In fact, the only reason I held off was the fact Sony had shockingly announced it for release over here. Despite a slightly (very) crappy name change (Seriously? Patchwork Heroes? Gah. Makes me think of sewing rather than cutting through steel...) I figured it was worth waiting for — the only way we're going to get more cool games over here is to...well, buy them. The length of that wait, however, I wasn't looking forward to.
Then I read the announcement today. Needless to say, OMG.
Hot damn, it's out this Thursday for just ten bucks. TEN BUCKS!
Again, hot damn. Happy.
yay for gamestop?
Went there during lunch and traded in Heavy Rain, Bioshock 2, Darksiders and a handful of so-crappy-I-couldn't-sell-them-for-a-dollar-on-Amazon games. Which, shockingly, netted me a future copy of Red Dead Redemption totally paid off, a $20 PSN card, $5 towards Monster Hunter Tri (mainly for the demo disc) and another $60 on a gift card for future use.
So, as far as I can tell, I got back nearly same amount of money for these games as I put into them originally. Sans the crappy ones, that is.
Yay for Amazon's below-MSRP, no-tax prices and the +60% trade in promotion at GameStop with the Edge card.
Also, Pokemon in hand, Yakuza 3 and FFVIII just started, God of War III here tomorrow. Gah!
t-minus 500 or so hours
Yeah, reserved one this morning. The very second I awoke. No, not getting it delivered, going to make the trek to the store and pick it up all personal-like. It's more fun that way. You know, because you can make silent fun of all the sad geeks waiting in line.
From, um, the line.
broken me
I...um, "was given" a copy of this album a few weeks ago, and after an initially disappointing listen (wasn't the "slap to the face awesome" pairing I was expecting from The Shins' lead singer and Danger Mouse), it quickly grew into this crazy-addictive-album-of-my-life I had on non-stop replay. For, like, a week straight. Obsessive much?
So, when I saw it on Amazon's daily deal a few days ago, I quickly snatched it up. You know, supporting things I like and all. And now, gah. Back into the addiction.
Such great stuff...
wantnewissuenowplease
et tu, march?
Plus I'm really interested in Fragile, Just Cause 2 and Infinite Space as well — if the reviews are good, I'll likely be adding those to my Amazon cart in the near future.
Which is a major problem.
Here's the funny thing: it's not even about the hundreds of dollars these games will cost that's the issue (most were pre-ordered with birthday cash, and I'm selling enough old games to cover the new ones), but free time. I barely have enough these days to focus on a single game with Japanese and programming studying at home, and now all these fantastic distractions will be thrown into the mix.
I need to take a vacation just for gaming, it seems.
rain
Outside:
Inside:
Really, really loving Heavy Rain. Almost in ways that are
hard to describe. Yes, it has issues, but despite
its super slow opening, the story's slightly
pretentious nature and sometimes (very) crappy voice
acting, it's a work of art.
Actual art.
And, like all art, people will have strong options
towards it.
I love Heavy Rain because it's a high budget return to
Adventure Games, and one filled with adult content. And
I say this not because if its spattertings of sex and
nudity, but because of how it makes you feel.
It's strange experiencing actual emotions while playing
a game, or at least those beyond the norm.
There were several times where I truly felt pangs of
sadness when certain things happened, found myself
holding my breath in many of the action scenes and had
real remorse for a few of my choices. I actually cared
for these characters, and when the "big twist" played
out, I was shocked in a "movie-type" way (like, the
hairs on the back of my neck stood up). I'm also loving
the fact what I do really matters (normally games play
out in a certain way, no matter the choice), and how it
continues even when a character dies is wonderful. And
the music. Wow, the music.
It's also the first game I've played in a long time
that I had to force myself to stop playing, as to not
end it too soon. The last game I felt this way towards
was Snatcher (another "interactive cinema" title) back
in the day, and I forgot how much I missed this type of
experience.
In fact, the only real complaint I can give the game is
the way some of the character actions go against their
established motivations. It's very Shenmue in that regard, just replace
"I must find my father's killer! Oh! Kitty!" with "I
must find my son before it's too late! Oh! Hello
pretty lady, let's have sex and nap for a bit."
Then again, like many things in the game, the choice to
do that was my own. Heh, I guess I betrayed those
motivations, and I'm curious to see how it (like many
of my actions) plays out with different choices, which
is something I plan to do as soon as my first play
through is finished...
studying japanese? there's an app for that
#1
Since we're using the Genki 1 textbooks in class, this aptly titled Genki 1 app was an excellent find. It features
#2
I bought the iKana Touch app a while ago and quickly became bored with it, but now understand its magic. The ability to practice stroke order anywhere is awesome, and I'm nearly 100% with my hiragana already. Fantastic stuff.
#3
While KanaBalls isn't really a useful tool for learning hiragana and katakana, it's excellent for honing skills with its clean interface and deceptively simple "gameplay." The basic idea is you match the middle ball with one of the bouncing ones by touching them, which are in a different alphabet (romaji, katakana or hiragana), and you try to do this before the time runs out (correctly matching in a quick fashion adds a bit of time). The longer the game goes on, the more balls start bouncing around, and the harder it gets.
In terms of overall school progress, I've only been to three classes so far, but I'm absolutely loving it. The spattering of self-studying I've done here and there made for a great foundation, and — after a good 15 years of starts and stops — I have high hopes for actually learning the language one day. You know, for reals this time... :P
japanese 101
Goodbye Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, it was fun while it lasted.
plants vs zombies vs my iphone battery
Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone is
all sorts of awesome. I played the game quite a bit
on my PC, but it's a natural fit for portable fun on
a touch screen device. That said, it also kills
batteries. I play lots of iPhone games, but this is
the first one to drain my battery twice in one day.
Of course, I've got a feeling that's because of its
addictive nature, and not necessarily because it uses
more juice...
Also, hot damn at the $2.99 price.
letting the past go
When I was a kid, I collected toys and comics and games. These days I collect collectable toys, graphic novels and...well, games.
Lately, through, I've found the urge to hold onto my gaming past waning — perhaps thanks to my increasing age or just reality setting in. Will I ever open up and play that copy of Onimusha 3? Do I need to keep every game I've ever played? In the past the answer to these questions was always "yes," and I have hundreds (many hundreds) of games to prove it. These days that answer is starting to lean towards the "are you fucking kidding me?" side...
It started with getting rid of recent games I've beaten or just stopped playing. Amazon is a great place to buy stuff, but it's also a great place to sell the same. While I've never made a profit, getting back an average of half (or sometimes quite a bit more) of what I bought a game for makes it that much easier to buy new games. And it also keeps the shelves somewhat clean of items that would normally just collect dust.
Then a couple of weeks ago I began to put PSP games up for sale on Amazon. I have a good 40 of them, and now that I'm mainly rocking the PSPgo, they're just taking up space. Those sales went well, and I began to eye plastic boxes of the past in my closet.
This weekend I went a little nuts, took a solid look at my DS, PS2 and Xbox games, and started putting them in piles.
- Things I'd Keep - These have sentimental value of some sort, or I really, really plan on playing them one day
- Things I'd Sell - Looking up prices on Amazon was quite a shock. Everything in this pile are games I'm done with, but will fetch 8 bucks and up on the market (some as high as 40-60!)
- Things I'd Donate - Games that have almost zero value on Amazon, or are too damaged to sell. Wow, I kept a lot of crap (and cool but worthless) games...
The crap pile (note X-Squad)
The numbers were pleasing.
I'm keeping around 10-20% of what I looked through,
selling around 60 games, and giving away about the
same. Which means my collection just got around 120
games lighter, and I should have enough to cover a
majority of my future iPad with the sales...
Also, a cleaner closet.
I still have many hundreds of Japanese and PS1 games
I'll likely hold onto, and quite a few collectable ones
I'll never let go, but it is a strange feeling of
freedom knowing I could sell this stuff. A few years
ago I would have laughed at the idea, and now I
couldn't be happier.
Ah, getting older...
happy day
OMG, my day was just made.
The "This American Life" iPhone app (iTunes link) is simply amazing... It
has every show ready to stream (nearly 400 of them!)
plus tons of extras, and it starts to play instantly
over 3G. Instantly. Not sure if I've ever
made a better $2.99 purchase. :)
