Yeah, I know. It’s been a long time. I’ve missed you guys! Well, not really.

…Wait, I didn’t mean it like that! I just mean that I haven’t written for a while. I still read all of you, which is why I don’t miss you. See? (Nice save there, Sou.)

At any rate… Well, I haven’t exactly really been busy. Most people have jobs, or have just started going back to school. I have neither of those things. Good, right? That means I can spend all my waking hours plaing vidyas, watching /a/, and listening to wicked awesome music! Right?

…right?

WRONG. I don’t know where all the time goes, (or went, rather) but I haven’t really had a lot of it. With the exception of the past week. I’ll get to that in a minute. I’ve been keeping relatively busy, I guess.

First off, Hot Like Wasabi! if you don’t know what it is, check out my previous post. You SHOULD know if you read this blog. Long story short, it’s a gaming/geek culture radio show that I broadcast every Saturday afternoon from 4-6pm (EST). Doing said radio show though got me Press passes to FanExpo a couple weeks ago. Got to interview and meet a bunch of celebrities like Crispin Freeman (squee!), Scott McNeil and Brad Swaile, Mary McDonnell, Emma Caulfield, James Kyson Lee, and Victor Lucas and Scott Jones from G4. And… Leonard fricking Nimoy! That was amazing. Brief, but incredible.

Another thing that’s been under my belt is another sort of RPG. I’m sure mostbof you have heard of D&D. Well, I have a game of that going that I’ve recently started, but that’s not what I’m getting at. There’s another company called White Wolf that makes games like Hunter the Reckoning and Vampire the Masquerade. (And to be completely honest, the Underworld movies pretty much ripped off the White Wold world.) But before they were /v/, they were tabletop. We, however, play a ‘live-action’ version of it each week. It’s loads of fun. See? I do things other than just vidya!

…Speaking of /v/, I’ve been playing the shit out of Dissidia: Final Fantasy. It’s actually pretty cool, and I’m having quite a lot of fun with it. I just :B: it the other day. Completed all the stories, (didn’t 100% each map, but still) got all characters to level 100. There’s so much various content though, like the Accomplishments. It’s gonna take me ages to :C: this one…

I’ve also (amusingly enough) been playing through Zelda II on my Wii. Why? Cause it’s all nostalgic and stuff. Even though it got a lot of flak for being different, it’s still a fun game. Quite challenging. Speaking of Zelda, I have to finish that :M: run of Majora’s Mask…

Marathons! I’ve actually got two on the go, and that’s probably a bad thing. It’ll hamper my completion of both of them. Heh. First of the two is Xenosaga. It’s been such a long time since I’ve played through it, and the recent meet with Crispin Freeman (who signed my copy!) made me wantto dig it out and do it all over again. I admit, I haven’t played much into it yet. I’m still on the Woglinde at the beginning of the game. I’ll get to it though!

The other is another fantastic trilogy: Metroid Prime. I picked up the new Wii edition of the trilogy just last week, and… Well, the new controls added to the old games is a great refresh. I’m really happy with it. I’m about halfway through Prime. I’m gonna set the goal of hopefully being finished with both Marathons by Christmas. Let’s see if that actually happens!

So, I’m going to bring this post to a close. I’m actually typing this from my iPhone using the WordPress app, and wanted to test it out. That, and I’m having a lazy/sick day and didn’t really want to get out of bed. In any case, my elbows, wrists, and thumbs are getting sore. See you next time! Oh, and listen to Hot Like Wasabi!

Ciao!

Well, I promised Mach that I’d make a post Wednesday night, and now it’s Friday evening… The second Friday the 13th that I mentioned in my previous post, actually. Ah well. I’m not superstitious or anything, it’s just fun to point out sometimes.

Originally on Wednesday, I was supposed to play some Gunbound with Dan and Chris from Board the Platforms, and that was going to be a part of the post, but… Well, I ended up having to leave home early, and it turns out they didn’t end up doing it anyway. It’s a great little game though. I haven’t played it in probably 2 years or so now. If you liked the Worms titles though, it has similar gameplay, the same idea: destroy your opponents using various weapons, angles, and such. Do check it out, if you haven’t already. You can also message me in-game at Yggdrasilly, of course.

Last week I sold a couple of games that I don’t play, and got about $160 for them. I was actually hoping to save it to pick up the Rock Band 2 kit for 360, because I’ll be moving into my own place soon, and I’ll actually have room for it. But then… I walked into Future Shop, which was a Bad Idea™. I ended up buying an XBL Messenger kit, the one that has the controller-keyboard, a 12 month XBL card, headset, and PGR4. I don’t see myself playing it much, but for the price of the package, it was well worth it. Separately they would’ve cost me a lot more.

Also ended up grabbing Soul Calibur 4 [Limited Edition]. I poured a ton of time into creating characters, such as Colette from Tales of Symphonia, Albel from Star Ocean 3, and Isaac and Felix from Golden Sun. I’ve probably filled up half of my 50 character slots already. XD

Aside from character creation though, I’ve poured about 10 hours into the game since I got it on the weekend. And to be honest, I haven’t really had any time to play it this week. Those 10 hours were over the first day or so, heh. I’ve been working my way up the Tower of Lost Souls, and it’s pretty tough. Maybe I just have to build my characters better. Also, damn you Floor 11! I spent a ton of time trying to get that one… When I finally got it, it was pure luck: my health bar was completely empty, and I had just reached the final opponent [Angol Fear] and as she ran at me and attacked, I moved and she fell off the edge.

I really, really should get back to writing my Hey! Listen! segments. I miss them. Seeing Rebel replaying some of the Zelda games has made me want to go back and play through Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask again. I might do that [maybe a Master Run!] in the near future, so stay tuned for progress on that. Until then though, I leave you with this. I want one. …Or 24, as is the case.

THIRTEEN. Good old lucky 13. Having just passed [a little over a week ago] a ‘Friday the 13th’, I figured this was fairly appropriate. Interestingly enough, there’s going to be another such Friday in March–that’s two in a row. Doesn’t happen often!

In any case, I’ve been pretty bored lately. Not really doing much… I actually had to spend the past weekend [Friday to Monday] at my new apartment [though I'm not moving until April 1st] because my roommate-to-be was away and she needed someone to watch her dog. So, I was without internet… It was actually more difficult than it sounds. :/

BUT, there was an upside to this! I brought along my 360 HDD because they have a 360… and Rock Band 2 [along with a bunch of other games], and I was tired of constantly starting over every time I went there. So now I have a band and characters and ACHIEVEMENTS for RB2. I have to say I’m having a lot of fun with it. It’ll probably be one of my next ‘big’ gaming purchases. We’ll see.

The reason I’m posting this entry though isn’t to rant about games… Well, not exactly. I’m aiming more to talk about upcoming games. …Again, not exactly. Not in the sense of NEW ones, anyway.

Wait, what?

Case in point? Well, there’s a few, actually. First off: Persona. No, not Persona 3 or Persona 4. The original Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. A remake is already due for the PSP in Japan in late April, but Atlus has announced today [technically yesterday, by the time this is getting posted] that it will be making its way to North American shores in late 2009. Not only that, but apparently, the new version features an updated interface, reworked music, new cut scenes, a more balanced difficulty level, and a “completely redone localization and content never before seen in North America”. Exciting!

Secondly, a VERY popular game that recently debuted on PS3: LittleBigPlanet. What about it? Well, probably old news, [as it leaked a while back,] but LBP will ALSO be making the move to PSP. It won’t be the same game, however. But of course, it will feature a lot of the same type of gameplay and experience, just… portable! Sounds good to me. Especially since I can’t afford a PS3.

Some other notables that will be ported to the PSP are… MotorStorm Arctic Edge, Rock Band Unplugged, as well as Madden NFL 10 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Of course, we also have Dissidia: Final Fantasy to look forward to this summer. Ubisoft also apparently plans on making a PSP-exclusive addition to Assassin’s Creed sometime later this year. Should be interesting to see how these flesh out–especially a portable Rock Band.

Busy busy busy! It’s been quite a week. Even though it’s only Tuesday. I think I’ve been going pretty much nonstop since LAST weekend. So it’s been quite a week-and-a-half, if you want to get technical. Big news! For me, anyway: I’ve been apartment hunting for a couple weeks now… and I think I’ve finally found a place. With a good friend of mine–her current roommate [who is also a friend of ours] has turned out to be kind of… unreliable, let’s say. Out of the five months they’ve been renting the place, he’s been either late with rent, or had to be hounded until he paid. Either way… they’re looking at getting him out of the apartment. I went and met with the landlady last night, and she likes me. So hopefully this all works out. Nothing against you, Steve, but I want you out so I can have a place to live. XD It’s looking like I could be moving by the end of the month, though. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway.

All this talk about Persona from various posters here… I mean, P3: FES and P4 have been all the rage. I’m kind of sad that I don’t have as much time to play them as I’d like. I’ve only barely touched P4, mostly because I decided I wanted to finish FES first. And well…

…Goddamnit I’m stupid. I took photos and everything, and it seems I deleted them before I uploaded them. They’re not where I left them, and the Recycle Bin is empty. Mach wanted to see my progress in FES, and since I can’t screenshot, I decided to use the camera instead. I think my current date is something like 6/20, and I’m PLVL 47. I even remember resizing the images to get them ready for this post, and… Yeah. I can’t believe I did that. I’ll take some new ones when I decide to get off my ass and fire up the PS2 again. :3

I also bought myself Fallout 3 a week or two ago. I searched EVERYWHERE for a copy of the regular edition for 360, but couldn’t find one. Some stores had the special edition available but I didn’t want to pay that much for the extras that I didn’t really care to have. Eventually I decided to check the nearby Blockbuster, and I had a stroke of luck. There was the collector’s edition, for only $39.99. I snatched it up like it was nobody’s business. MINE.

It’s a great game, too. I haven’t played much of it, mainly because I’ve been kind of busy, and because when I AM home, my brother has been glued to it. What I have played though… I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

That said, TV has been fairly exciting the past few weeks as well. All the good shows are coming back: Lost, House, Top Chef, Supernatural… Even Hell’s Kitchen came back this past weekend. My favourites though, Fringe and Battlestar Galactica, have been incredibly good. It’ll be sad to see BSG come to an end in a few more weeks, though. And apparently Heroes came back last night–I had no idea it was coming in for Volume 4 so soon. Either way, I’ll probably check it out, and hope it doesn’t keep tripping over its own plotholes.

Oh, wondering about the subject line? I knew I’d get to it eventually. Holy crap, Mach. Rant #45? I feel so inadequate. D:

Well, I saw the other posts made today [or were they last night? I'm not sure, I wasn't paying attention, really] and I had to follow suit. I love doing stuff like this, so I guess it’s all right. And I have to agree with Mach and Noi–writing a garbage ‘this-is-all-about-nothing-and-is-just-filler-to-push-down-the-images-I-need-to-post-so-they-don’t-get-squashed-up-here’ paragraph can be trying at times, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Right? Right.

That said, on to the photos!

…? [Am I far enough down yet? XD Hah.]

…ONE MORE LINE! PUUUUSH~

This is the setup where my computer is. With labels!

I’ve noticed today that I keep all my PSone games near my computer… I guess I don’t play them much anymore… At least not on the console itself. For some reason, I find it more satisfying to either rip the games and convert them for my PSP, or simply play them via emulator on my PC. Also note the 1-up mushroom given to me by Sass. :3 I’m also escpecially proud [is that the right word?] of my copy of FFIII… Box and inserts and all! Even the original map they packed in with it!

This is where my consoles are, in my room.

I was sitting on my bed when I took this picture. Again, pretty much everything is labeled for your viewing pleasure! Ignore the mess on my ‘table’. Yes, that’s the box from my TV. It slid perfectly under my bedframe, so I just decided to let it stick out a bit and put my stuff on it. I’d rather have a table lower than me in this case anyway–it would just get in the way while gaming if it were any higher.

Also note that Rebel is playing Rock Band instead of writing blog posts like a good boy. :3

The games!

Last but not least, the collection of games! I’m not sure this is all I have [I seem to be missing a few... I blame the brother] but it’s still a fair bit of them. My SNES collection actually isn’t in there. I don’t play the SNES often, but here and there, I like to switch it on and play some of the classics. ‘Lawl’ to the unopened PS2 controller–I just bought the ’slim’ system before Christmas because my original is on it’s last days [I'll miss you, PS2~] and I never used the controller because I have a nice wireless one. I love how everything [gaming, at least] is going wireless these days. It’s so much more convenient.

Persona 3 FES is going along well, if not a little slow. I guess I was grinding too much, cause now I have nothing to do. I’m on June 1st, and I’ve just been grinding away at my Social Links because there’s nothing left to do in Tartarus until Block 3 opens up. There’s not even any Elizabeth Requests opening up yet. Only a couple that I can’t do yet.

Castle Crashers, on the other hand, is great. I sat down with my brother last night, and we both started at level 1. We played through the entire game in one sitting! I played Orange Knight, and he played Red–we’re both level 26. Unlocked some characters and some cool weapons. Now I just have to get my Blue Knight through the last couple stages, and I’ll have completed it with him, too. Also, we tried starting Insane Mode. And they were right–it IS insane. We couldn’t even make it through the first real stage. Hah.

Also noticed today that there’s a new Castle Crashers King Pack available on XBL. Two new playable characters, and some new animal orbs for 160MSP. I’d buy it to check it out, but I only have 10MSP left. Guess it’ll have to wait.

In any case, I have to get some things done… *cough*KenjiwantstogotoHagakure*cough* …Later!

Well, it’s been a while. First off, I’d like to say ‘Happy holidays’ and ‘Happy New Year’. Hope everyone had a good time this holiday season. :3

That aside… I’m sure you’ve already heard/seen–we’ve got a new layout. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona [3 and 4] is the theme this time around. I’m definitely liking it. Probably because of all the work I’ve put into it today. XD I learned something new today: I ripped all the P3 images from the disc–that was a task and a half. I also made the little footer-images for everyone, and cleaned up the P4 avatars. I think I’ve had my fill of Photoshop for today, kthx.

On the gaming side of things… Well, I’ve FINALLY picked up playing Persona 3: FES. I’d started it before, but didn’t play very far into it. That, and my memory card disappeared, so I started over. I put about 14 hours into it over two days. Lots of GRINDAN there. I’m just excited to get through The Journey, so I can move on to The Answer, and then Persona 4. I have to say though, I’m really enjoying it. And I’ve heard that P4 is even better.

As Len said in his last post… P3 has a bit of  a thing. I’ve sorta raged over it a couple of times, actually. It’s mostly my fault though. I ended up going to Tartarus, and discovered that both Yukari and Junpei were tired, but my MC was ‘Great’, so I decided to brave it alone for a little while. I jumped to floor 14 and started Block 2, and got pretty far–usually to 20 or 21, and then died. No biggie, really. But after some trial and error [and lots of time] I made it to floor 24–the next boss floor. I warped back to the entrance, and grabbed the others [even though they were tired] and jumped back to 24 and started the fight… And realized I HADN’T SAVED. Not knowing much about the boss either, I ended up dying.

RAGE.

So with my knowledge… I had to start all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat. This time though, I fused a couple new Personae, and jumped back to the boss again… And in my haste, I FORGOT TO SAVE. AGAIN. I was doing okay though… Until my MC died. And game over?

MOAR RAGE. D:

WHAT ABOUT YUKARI AND JUNPEI? Oh well… Another try, and this time I did everything RIGHT. I managed to kill the boss, and then returned to rest. It’s kind of weird though, that you get game over when the rest of the party is still alive. :/

I’ve also been playing some random other things here and there… Got Beautiful Katamari for Christmas, because I never got to pick up the original title, but loved it. Katamari is ridiculous overall, but it’s still incredibly fun, and terribly amusing. Castle Crashers is another one that I’ve been toying with. Unlocked a few characters, and leveled my [blue] soldier to level 15. I think. I still don’t have any achievements on that one, though. If anyone wants to have a game on XBL with me, let me know! I’d love to try it out.

I started watching Bleach again yesterday. I’d been watching since the beginning, a few years back, but sometimes just… stopped. Then a couple months later I’d end up picking it up, and marathon-ing 15-20 episodes to get caught up. This time around, I have 22 to get caught up. I have ten left. I guess that’s another reason for the lack of sleep. I also read a bit about Gundam 00 and heard good things, so I downloaded the first season of that to check it out, but I haven’t started on that one yet. Too many things on the go, really.

In any case, my eyes are going pretty blurry. After all the work in front of the monitor today, and the lack of sleep, it’s getting kinda hard to see properly. So I’m off, and… well. Here’s to 2009–hope it’s better than that clusterfuck that was 2008.

Well, back home again. Spent a couple [three?] days in the hospital, two of which were spent in emerge. The whole hospital situation in this city is getting quite ridiculous–I don’t know how they can even THINK about closing two of the three we have. In any case, I’m glad that I only spent a short time there this time around. I hate spending time in hospitals, let alone during the Christmas season.

Anyway, got home last night. Get to spend the weekend at home, and then have to finish my Christmas shopping Monday [assuming my cheque doesn't come in tonight as it SHOULD], then it’s off to Bracebridge/Muskoka for a week or so for the holidays. My grandmother [the woman my grandfather was married to, so not related by blood, but we're still very close] has had a rough year–my grandfather passed away this summer, and her mother just passed away this past week… And her daughter [another part of the family that we're VERY close with, even though we're not [i]technically[/i] related] lives down there, so we’re spending Christmas with them this year instead of all going to the grandparent’s place on Manitoulin. It’s a bit of a longer drive, but I’ve not been there in years [and they got a new house, too] so it should be nice. We’re supposed to be renting a nice new car on Monday or Tuesday to make the drive down.

As for gaming… Well, not much news, sadly. I’m looking to pick up Persona 4, but I still haven’t finished P3: FES, so I’m kind of wary. I might just wait a bit–but I also don’t want to miss it completely and not be able to find it later on, you know?

I also decided to pick up Super Mario Galaxy when I got my HDTV. I know I’m a little late to the boat on that one, but it was fun. I rented it a few times, but didn’t own it. I found it for a pretty cheap price, too. $10 off compared to everywhere else wasn’t too bad. On the XBL front, I grabbed a couple games for the hell of it: Banjo-Kazooie and Castle Crashers. I’ve heard good things about Crashers, but haven’t played it yet. I really should do that. B-K is awesome, simply put. I’m about halfway through it, as far as I can remember, and looking at my friend-list leaderboards, I seem to be at the top of every level’s board.

Goes to show you how much I used to play this game. Either that, or how much I retain when it comes to gaming. Heh. Either way, I love it. If you haven’t bought it yet, go buy it. It’s worth the 1200 MSP. Gotta love those Jinjos.

I have to say though, that it feels NOTHING like the Christmas season… except for the snow that’s been falling like crazy.

[Update!] Not much to say, except for finally a new Backlog theme for me. Enjoy!

Welp, sorry for not being around much lately, but I figure I have a fair excuse. This is just going to be a quick post, as I’m still not feeling all that well.

I’ve spent both Saturday and Monday nights in the emergency department at the hospital, as I haven’t been able to eat or drink anything. They’re not really doing much for me, sadly. They just send me home. Apparently even though I’ve been throwing up a lot, I’m not dehydrated, and don’t really need to be in the hospital [like I usually do when this happens]. In any case, I haven’t eaten anything since last Friday, and have barely been able to drink anything. I’ve spent most of my time in bed. ):

So here I am now, mustering up a bit of energy to let you guys know what’s been going on–and that I hope to be back soon.

That’s right! I FINALLY picked up the HDTV I’ve been waiting over a year to buy. Finally got a decent pay cheque, and could afford one. Even with the Christmas shopping season upon us! I ended up buying a 32″ Samsung LCD panel. I didn’t get the 1080p one though, because it cost about $250 more. So I ended up getting the 720p one, which is ABSOLUTELY FINE WITH ME. It still looks beautiful. AND. Tales of Vesperia looks absolutely stunning. To say the least.

Now I’ll have way more motivation to play it. Anyway, I put it in my room, pretty much right next to my bed. Photos will follow! I’m planning on doing some bedroom cleaning tomorrow, so I’ll wait until after that to take pictures.

On the job front, I also got a job! Granted, I didn’t get on the campaign I wanted [which is HP tech support] but… I don’t start until January 12th, but still–that’ll give me a chance to find something else if I so choose… And I’ll try my damndest to do so. Why? Cause I’m working tech support for Time Warner. New York. So Len– Mach– I’m not sure if you use Time Warner for whatever, but if you ever end up calling tech support, you might end up talking to me. XD Wouldn’t that be fun! Starting pay is $12.50/hr. Nice! The good news about this too, is that I get Christmas off, so I can join the rest of my family down in the Muskokas.

Banjo-Kazooie comes out next week now, I think. They pushed it back, for whatever reason. I mean, come on! The game was ‘released’ as a pre-order bonus a few weeks ago [though I'm pissed that I didn't GET said bonus, even though I pre-ordered], so why can’t they just… LET IT OUT? Ah well. I’ll be picking that one up next Wednesday when it comes out.

Hmmm, music segment coming up soon? Well, I’ve got to come up with a name for it, but after that, expect some stuff from me, too!

[Update!] As promised, here’s a couple pictures~ Click for the full image. They’re big! Sorry for the darkness of the images; the flash basically ruined the pictures so I decided to go without.

Yuri + Sunglasses + True Knight. Hawt.

Group picture!