Microsoft's shorten long tail

(tags game, Microsoft, Xbox 360, criticism)

As a game archiving dilettante, I am annoyed that Microsoft is considering deleting the "cruft" from the XBLA. I can't be bother to find a (Joystiq?) forum post that highlights the many classic games that miss the Metacritic 65% or above cut, but Robotron 2084 was one of them. The mind boggles! I want to rant some more about it, but Kohler at GameLife summarizes my position neatly.

I have too many video games myself, but I really feel like can't part with them because there's no easy place around here where I can just rent them, unlike books and movies.

Falling for Rabi-en-rose all over again

(tags telephone card)

Recently I've been watching De Ji Kyarat Nyo (でジキャラットにょ) on DVD. I finally picked up volume 4 after giving up on ever getting the first-published version with omake trump cards. At least it was only 2100 yen, instead of list 6300 yen. Turns out one eopisode on that disc had Rabi-en-rose pure love episode (episode 27: 「ラビアン誕生の秘密」. Very super excellent.

Which reminds me about the Gamers point exchange telephone cards. This month's TC is a doozy. Rabi-en-rose midriff FTW. Haha. Blue eyes suits her well, but the original purple is much better. Last month's was cutesy Puchiko. Green eyes, WTF. WTF is up with the new eye colors. Okay, I already complained about that.

It seems that Gamers now has a proper picture page for all released point exchange TC. I don't have them all, but I do have all most of the De Ji Charat ones. Yes No! Arrh.

Jason Mraz meets Caramelldansen

(tags music, anime, purchase)

Okay, not quite but what if?!

Today I got the 600 yen single of that Caramelldansen song, repurposed for Japanese market as ウッーウッーウマウマ(゜∀゜) I haven't yet overloaded on this animeme, but I just might. If I send the postcard with the barcode on it, I can get a DVD. It's probably just a Youtube copy. According to the CD booklet history page, this uma uma + caramelldansen thing was born around Summer 2006 after someone thought to increase the speed of the song by 1.2 on the videos. (「BGMとしてCaramelldansenを1.2倍の速度で再生した動画が出現、これが「ウッーウッーウマウマ(゜∀゜)」がうまれた瞬間である」)

I didn't know about the new Jason Mraz album CD "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.", so it was oh damn gotta buy it (Tower Records!) when I saw it. He's going to be touring Japan during the summer. The closest stop is Osaka. The sticker showed a promotion to get free tickets. I thought I would get 6 tries because it showed "X 6" (times 6). Turns out the promotion is named "X6". Aww, just give me more tries.

I haven't yet ripped the Kotoko single for Kamen no Maid Gai or that "@Lantis Non Stop Dance Remix" vol.2 only because Gracenote CDDB doesn't have the track info. I hate typing it up myself.

critical, light damage

(tags anime, doujin, Sugar)

This weekend I was cleaning out my room, tossing Mai-Hime posters away (oh wait that was last weekend) and I came across this. These are half-B3 sized pop stand posters of Sugar from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar (ちっちゃな雪使いシュガー). Actually it's a doujin work that I got at the Comic Market five years ago. I don't remember buying the first one, but I do remember going back to the same booth later in the afternoon to buy one more. It was probably less that 1000 yen each. Too bad I can't recall the circle name so I can credit them (or find their digital works, argh).

Kawaii. The one on the left is the one I keep for show, while the other one is my "storage" copy which I unearthed after massive digging. I don't have a third copy for "worship" :-( .

So this is what five years of light damage will do. It wasn't direct sunlight either.

This reminds me, I have all this Comic Market stuff including my routes maps of the floor and catalogs. I should just toss the paper ones, they're as thick as a phone book and probably just as dusty and yellow. What am I going to do with a trail map of the Comic Market floors, marked with my target booths? Probably indulge in a 10 second fit of nostalgia before shaking my head in shame... or a writing a blog post.

In the future, we use the Xbox 360

(tags game, Xbox 360, Mirror's Edge)

I'm looking forward to two more games on the Xbox 360, but I don't think I'm even a hardcore game purchaser any more.

I first saw Mirror's Edge via Kotaku, and I am sold on this FPS concept. I looked at this video closely, and noticed that the target objects like pipes and planks turn color to indicate the path. I have to wonder what the control scheme is though. The Asian-chick protagonist is a (welcome but unneeded) plus, and at least it's not like that PC game where if you look down you see your own polygon boobs cleavage. Which game was that?

And I always wondered why the Xbox 360 didn't get those traditional menu-fighting gal-get games like the original Xbox (Angelic Concert, Cupid Bistro 1 and 2, Triangle Again, etc?) Of course there's Idolm@ster, but menu-fighting it ain't. Perhaps TimeLeap (タイムリープ) will fill the gap (thanks CannedDogs). Then again, games like these have poor story so I should just avoid it. This particular game on the PC seems to be rendered way less than 60 fps, though, so it might look terrible in comparison to Idolm@ster.

Get rid of dusty game boxes?

(tags game, Windows, Starcraft)

Since I am feeling like I will never play GTA Vice City ever again (wait, play the taxi game, then let go), I feel the need to get rid of the box it came in. Darn you Steam and your region tendancies. Then again, I have all the GTAs for the PC, in nice small DVD like sized boxes. Nice set.

Blizzard recently started its own digital download service (thanks Kotaku). I wish they started it earlier. It's not easy to obtain Starcraft in Japan. In the end I had to buy it during my trip in the States. Anyways, the online store's first release includes Warcraft III and StarCraft. I would buy Warcraft II if they had it. That was the only game on my old Mac laptop that fondly recall playing.

Anyways, they also allow registering your CD based serial key, and from then on you won't need to use your discs anymore. I have two keys since I got the game for USD 10 each. I'll try registering one to see if it's Steam-like.

Not a stranglehold on my time

(tags game, Stranglehold, Xbox 360)

Last week, I got a bit tired of slow motion crashing in Burnout Paradise so I ripped off the plastic on Stranglehold. It's been a while since I've played a FPS like game I think but it feels fun. Actually it feels pretty cool, arms akimbo, shooting from cover, slow mo', gun crazy. Chow Yun Fat as Tequila is totally bad-ass, too. I think I'm almost done with the campaign because the story seems to be climaxing.

Unfortunately I don't feel like finishing this game either. Too many non-gaming hobbies coming up or I must be getting really impatient or tired. Look at my blog posting frequency too.

Kyoko Endo in Osaka, rare?

(tags live, music, artist, Japanese, anime)

80時代のシンガーソングライター遠藤響子（旧芸名：遠藤京子）は、2003からライブ活動を復旧していた。ファンハウス時代のファンとして、私は行きたかったが、そのライブは東京と名古屋中心だった気がする。

それで、突然のメールで「こんにちは。遠藤響子です。」という、大阪ライブの知らせを受けた。今までのメールは「pure modeです。」だったから、これはアーティストが直接にファンを招いていると思っていた。嬉しかった。でも、水曜日夜のライブは神戸から行きづらいだよね。今回はパスしかないな。メールを返事すべきですかね？「応援したいが、ごめんなさい。」

ところで、遠藤響子は2008年6月に、岩男潤子、Les.R、東 真紀、emikoと一緒に「From Voice Vol. 5」というコンサートに参加する予定。参加者にちょっと驚いた。岩男潤子は有名なアニメ「カードキャプターさくら」の声優/歌手で知っていた。またemikoはアニメ「うた∽かた」の音楽関係で知っていた。しかし、遠藤響子のアニメに対して縁がないと思っていた。なぜだ。

Golden Week at the speed of Burnout

(tags game, anime, Burnout Paradise)

My holiday is almost over, and I have a bunch of thoughts to collect (but not fully document). Over the course of last week:

I watched a whole boatload of anime. I think I need to watch this junk at 1.5x or 2.0x speed, because it is junk. I wanted to blog about Rosario + Vampire. I also wanted to mention Kamen no Maid Guy (kukuku) and also my restart of De Ji Charat Nyo on DVD.

I played a whole lot of games. Vice City on PC is stuck and not fun. I finished the single player campaign of the XBLA game Undertow. I like that kind of territory game. Oh, before going into the holiday I bought some Wii titles such as the Milestone Shooting and the Simple series Shooting. No I don't have a Wii yet, but the price was ... palatable.

Then in the middle I took advantage of Golden Week price drops at Nipponbashi A-Too and got Burnout Paradise for 3000 yen, Stranglehold for 1600 yen, and Bioshock for 2000 yen, obviously used but all English capable versions. I've already put in 23 hours into Burnout Paradise, which is about 73% complete. I also read the BP Criterion blog fully. I am hyped about this game.

And I tried taking out my imported bicycle but unfortunately the thumb gear shifters are broken. You know, explore my Kobe "sandbox" because BP put me in the mood. I want to get rid of this bike though, because it doesn't feel safe.

Back to work, so go to sleep early.