Only 180 seconds worth of bullets: Geometry Wars 2 Deadline

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, Geometry Wars)

Progress is progress, however miniscule. I passed 25 million in Geometry Wars 2 "Deadline", yea me. I think I died once, so there has to be some way to squeeze out some more points.

(extracted 2008-08-31T11:16Z)

Live version again:

Only 180 seconds worth of bullets, really. Don't waste them on the wall.

Devs hate/like Xbox 360: FFXIII, Death Smiles

(tags game, Xbox 360, Final Fantasy, shmup)

Okay, so I know Square Enix likes the Xbox 360 because it has some games on it, some of them even exclusive (for now). But how about that the recent Final Fantasy XIII in Japan (anti-)confirmation published in an interview with FFXII director Motomu Toriyama by Dengeki Playstation magazine: "Absolutely No Final Fantasy Xbox 360 For Japan (says director/writer Toriyama)" (日本でのXbox 360版「FF XIII」の発売は絶対ありません（鳥山氏）) (thanks Kotaku).

By golly it makes me irritated, but then again, I only bought FF XII when it was used and cheap. Anyways, why should a director say the game is not coming out for a system? This is bad PR for Square Enix, because this kills anticipation. However this is good from a business point of view for SE, to force those Japanese gamers on the fence to commit to purchasing the PlayStation 3 version which is presumably on schedule. I bet he is saying, "Do not be confused, loyal Japanese gamers. The first version of FF XIII available will not be delayed (because the 360 version is a not yet created port) so that our financials won't be impacted."

(promo screen from FF XIII, reported by Gamespot Japan 2008-08-04)

I suppose it means I won't be meeting this lovely creature puppet any time soon. There's always the screenshot gallery, ha ha.

On the other hand, arcade shmup developer Cave's game Death Smiles (デススマイルズ) is being ported to the Xbox 360. No other platform is mentioned for now. (Thanks Famitsu) This is nice, except I never played this game and I'm not that much of a Cave fanboy. Still gothic lolita (though it doesn't matter in-game) and purple enemy bullets grab me more that that touch-screen/pad gimmick that is Otomedius.

I can almost taste it: Geometry Wars 2 Deadline

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, Geometry Wars)

My actual performance is very random, but once again after probably a hundred games I updated my score in Geometry Wars 2 "Deadline". 24.6 million, back in the top 500 after quickly snubbing out after only 5 days.

(extracted 2008-08-29T18:27Z)

I can almost see 25 million, w00t. Live version again:

I started culling my bad games. If I die 1 time in the first minute (of three), I start over. If I die 2 times in the first two minutes, I start over.

I also figured out that the first black hole shows up based on my performance. If it appears within the first 25 seconds, I'm on track for a high score. If not, well I must be slow on the points or the geom collecting.

Oh yeah, I memorized the stage music too. The music subtlety changes every 30 seconds, but I still look at the clock.

I really need to rest my right hand though. Frequent breaks, there's a pause button on the controller, dummy.

I'm in yer browser, rubying (Furigana Injector)

(tags browser, Japanese, Firefox)

I only bumped into this today, but it seems useful for language learning. There is a Firefox extension that automatically adds the furigana readings (pronounciation) for kanji on a web page. It's called Furigana Injector. Here's a sample from picture-heavy, kanji poor Moeyo Akiba Blog, regarding the "Moekore Plus No. 3 Miku Hatsune" PVC figure sample preview for 2008-08 (my trans. from 「ボークス「モエコレPLUS No.3 初音ミク」PVCサンプルレビュー」).

In this sample, all of the conversions are correct. I did notice some incorrect conversions on some other pages, though.

The conversions are added on the fly, and you can manually add them through right-clicking. You can dial the non-conversion level to your level of competency. I have mine initially set to ignore the "980 most common" kanji. Yeah, manga and figure blogs aren't really good Japanese practice, I know. Perhaps this will help when slogging through Yahoo News or Wikipedia, ugh.

This extension works with the XHTML Ruby Support extension, which I've been using without much practical benefits.

I never did understand why furigana was also called ruby. I better read up on the ruby explanation at Wikipedia Japanese. Oh, the name comes from the 19th century England-created font. Okay.

Gal Game for Xbox Achievement Points, it is inevitable (Clannad)

(tags game, Xbox 360, gal-ge, Clannad, telephone card)

I often wondered why the Xbox 360 doesn't have as many gal-ge games as the Xbox 1. I mean come on, no Bistro Cupid sequel or followup for that strange metal-girl game? Hahah.

Today Clannad for the Xbox 360 came out. This is a visual novel game from famed software developer Key. The original PC game came out eons ago (whoa 2004!). There's also a PS2 and PSP version I think. I was going to buy this version because (1) it's easy Xbox Achievement Points for a read-em-up and (2) this lovely telephone card:

Flowers, kawaii.

However, my local Sofmap did not have this special telephone card for the walk-in purchase. Pre-orders got it though, and I had ample time to pre-order. Anyways, I jetted over to Gamers to check if there was a similar (but different design) telephone card offer but there was none. So I skipped buying the game today. I'm keeping an eye on the auctions right now, though. Perhaps stealing one of those auction's scans (as shown above) will diminish my TC-lust. I think its working. :-)

Here are two other exclusive designs, both from Kantou-based shops Media Land and Messe Sanoh respectively. I think only the latter allows mail ordering.

Thanks to those auctioners who aren't scrupulous enough to watermark their photos. :-)

I checked the opinions of two friends who played the game. On the PC version, one of them said it was long and I got the feeling that he wasn't very satisfied in comparison to the other Key games like Air and Kanon. The other played it on the console, but I forget which one, and he was also not very forthcoming with his evaluation. So is it junk? It's probably long convoluted junk. I didn't bother watching the 2008 tv anime adaptation, either. Hm.

edit: added those two other telephone card designs for throughness

Is that DS ejecting a cart in your pocket? Shiren

(tags game, RPG, Dual Screen, Shiren)

To tell you the truth, I haven't been playing Shiren since last Friday. On that day, I decided to chance an epic adventure through many floors I haven't seen. Unknown floors, unknown danger! And I got past them with luck and skill on my side, even while escorting a NPC. I think it was floor 16 or something, where I got to the third town. I felt really satisfied with Shiren, despite the constant fear of losing my progress while on my concentration-breaking commute.

Anyways, I had to put away the DS for a moment, so I closed the cover while the power was on and stuffed it in my bag. The next time I checked up on it, though, the cart was sticking out. Oh no! Yes, I lost my progress, because "this save game is corrupt so resetting your save to level 1". Argh! I don't carry epic swords any more, but to think that all that time levelling up gone made me... not turn on the DS for a week. Haahhaha. :-/

Castle Crashers, is it any good?

(tags game, Xbox 360, arcade, side scroll, beat-em-up)

I didn't really understand the hype for this "delayed" XBLA game, Castle Crashers. The hype did motivate me to make sure to download the demo, though. So I play through the demo once and yes it felt like Final Fight, with upgrade elements. Actually only the hint of upgrades, because the demo timed out on the boss encounter. Stick and run, stick and run, over and over again. At least this game isn't designed to bleed you of your quarters. Eventually I decided it's not worth the 1200 XBLP, for now.

It reminds me that I still want to get that XBLA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game only available in the US (well at least not in Japan).

Geometry Wars 2 keep on boasting

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, Geometry Wars)

I don't know why I hesitated buying Geometry Wars 2. This is definately a meaty game totally worth the 800 XBLA (1000 yen) I put into it. "Summer of Arcade"? Hah. "Summer of GW".

I again updated one of my personal high scores in Geometry Wars 2. w00t. Ranked globally under 500 in "Deadline" with 23+ million points, at least for a little while.

(extracted 2008-08-24T17:15Z)

Comparing my results to "Evolved", I suppose I lack concentration skills. I really can't seem to go the distance in the latter mode.

Live version again:

I am also totally digging "Sequence" mode. Learning how to play this mode is helping in the other modes. I find that I shoot down baddies faster now.

I bet if I play "Waves", my peripheral vision skills will level up. I hate those fast amber ships.

And lately I have been feeling that other video games don't or won't give me the same satisfaction as GW2. I was at a used game shop today, which reminded me of all the other games I have laying around in my room. But I don't want to play them because time-to-satisfaction isn't within 15 minutes. I wonder when I'll be at the point where Carrie Fisher wrote, "Instant gratification takes too long."

CM 74 goods: Tama-tan and others by illustrator Koge Donbo (Koge Koge House)

(tags goods, illustrator, Koge Donbo, CM74)

This is the second CM74 goods I actually care enough to buy. However I didn't have to canvass any shops to get these official doujin goods. I only had to read illustrator Koge Donbo's blog, "Do-Bo*JO" and buy the goods from her virtual shop only hours after she announced it. Only 2500 yen through bank transfer. No pain, no irritating scalping, all gain, too easy. Koge Donbo explains the goods herself.

This time around Koge-Donbo's goods include a doujinshi-sized tote bag (detailed picture). This is not cloth or paper, but laminated vinyl, I think, which is surprising. I always intend to use bags like these, so I already folded, spindled and mutilated it. (Which reminds me, I should do a blog post on the bishoujo-otaku-for-life bags I carry around as backup.) Unfortunately this one is inconvenient as a shoulder-tote bag because the strap is too short to thread my arm through.

The illustration itself is "Kazune Miku", which I suppose is the character Kazune from Kamichama Karin (2005 manga and TV series?) cross-dressing into Hatsune Miku clothes. Um. WTF.

The back side is something more palatable to my eyes. It's "Tama-tan"! I already got this figure (though I didn't blog post about it and I tried to buy-prevent it). According to that figure's accompanying doujinshi, she's a schoolgrader that transforms to this frilly girl in order to combat trolls on blogs. Huh. Anyways, Tama-tan has her own blog, called Tama-tan Blog, surprise surprise.

On a related note, another CM74 item is a vocal CD based on this original character, called "USB!!! -うさみみ すぅい～と ばに～がぁる-". The seiyuu for Tama-tan is Momoko Saito (斎藤桃子). I don't really know her. I just want the illustration, ha. (BTW this illustration has really good eyes. Koge Donbo's illustrations as of late have had some terrible eye drawings. Did she have a falling out with one of her assistants?) Unfortunately there's no info on how to purchase it, so it's a CM only thang. Ouch. Well I could always look at the official nico-nico douga video. Or get the backgrounds jpgs. Wow, 1600 by 1200 pixels. Rawr. Thank you Koge Donbo for giving this away.

Finally rounding out this goods set is a doujinshi, a clear file with the same illustration, and a flyer (chirashi). I haven't read this goods' doujinshi yet, but it looks like an original character, trademarked Koge Donbo kawaii with bunny ears and bunny dolls.

Speaking of which, Koge Donbo has a new manga work called Naki Shoujo no tame no Pavane (亡き少女の為のパヴァーヌ). I thought this work would have different character style, but one character, "Misaki Kanda", looks like a recycle from Pita-ten. Hahah, more bunny dolls hanging off headbands, please.

CM 74 goods: Tama-chan by illustrator Yuiko Tokumi (Hakkaya)

(tags illustrator, Yuiko Tokumi, goods, CM74)

It's that time of year again: Comic Market 74 (CM74) goods by proxy. Since CM74 ended on a Sunday (2008-08-17), I expected Kinki region otaku to resell their stuff this week or this weekend. I window-shopped my favorite stores in the Osaka and Kobe areas: K-books, Books Lashinbang, TC Paradise, Vanilla. Only the latter had the following circle Hakkaya (薄荷屋) / illustrator Yuiko Tokumi (篤見唯子) goods:

It's a big paper bag of Tama-chan from Bottle Fairy (瓶詰妖精), a paper fan with the same character, and a light novel cloth book cover of some unrelated illustration, for 1500 yen. I consider cheep because usually this kinda stuff starts at 3000 yen. The illustration reminds me of her old licensed gachapon-like swimsuit figurine series back in 2006 or 2007, but I didn't follow that one too well despite buying the convention-only telephone card. Is it "ソリッドシアター Pocket THEATER 薄荷屋 Collection みずぎくらす" ?

Anyways, I didn't do my homework though, because I don't know if this a complete set. Where's the doujinshi, for example? As far as this CM's goods set are concerned, I give it 4 5 out of 5 stars. The bag and paper fan illustration is kawaii win, but the cheepness of the light-novel cloth cover lowers the rating and I ignore the cloth cover.

It seems that Tokumi is changing the way she illustrates the eyes. Every illustrator refines their art with time, but I suppose I liked her older style. It seems to me that more and more bishoujo illustrators are coloring the eyes similarly to Tokumi's method (not that I think she originated this style), so perhaps she's trying to maintain her distinctiveness.

Gamers "2008 Summer trading card game supplies sales campaign"
Tokyo Trading Card Show 2008 exclusive telephone card (right)
illustrated by illustrator Yuiko Tokumi

It's been years since Bottle Fairy. I like how Tokumi visits Tama-chan and Bottle Fairy over and over again in her doujin activities, though I wonder if she's ever going to come with other stuff. I ignored that figurine series though, and that was something new and different. I'm not following her too closely actually, though I know she submits piece or two for those gal-ge based card games like Lycée.

Also she has that unobtainable telephone card from a Gamers trading card game supplies campaign (2008-08), as shown above. Ugh, want. I mean, look, Hakkaya bunny playing cards. Win. However it's "unobtainable" because I need 30 tickets to get it, but one ticket "costs" a card supply item, which starts at 400+ yen. Best to look at the auctions, starting next week, but let's save the picture for posterity and purchase-deterrance.

Hit me with your best demo: Guitar Hero III

(tags game, Xbox 360, music, Guitar Hero)

I played the "localized" version of Guitar Hero III at two seperate stores last weekend. It was my first time to try out the game and the controller, so I don't know the keys. The only beginning song that I wanted to play was Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", and I did that in Slowest playback mode. The volume was set higher than ambient so I felt a little self conscious.

I would like to buy it but I don't like or know most of the songs.

Yet another great "localization" by Microsoft. This game has no Japanese what so ever. Or maybe they set the locale to English on the demo station. Naw that doesn't make any sense.

Galaga fails, more GeomWars2

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, Galaga, Geometry Wars)

Um no, Galaga Legions on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade does not play like a shmup. It is heavy memorization-based, which I don't like in my gaming. Hm, and the demo seems to cut me off just when it gets exciting. No thanks.

My disappointment caused me to update one of my personal high scores in Geometry Wars 2. w00t. I am approaching the top 1000 in "Deadline".

(extracted 2008-08-21T16:13Z)

Live version again:

I want to get into the top 1000, and get 20 million.

It's a Monster House!

(tags game, RPG, Dual Screen, Shiren)

In Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, I recently playing through the same floor 8 over and over again. I found that the usual room corridor room layout was replaced with one huge room filled with baddies. This configuration is called a "Monster House" in game. I got away from one Monster House through luck, and the second time around, though I was totally surrounded by Spike Bombs, I got through one using some skill. Yay me. Then again it's only floor 8.

I am getting impatient because I don't know if I have enough progress (XP and/or items) to handle the next unknown floor. And the next unknown floor will definately kill me, since I play like I'm in Zelda and not a Rogue-alike. Pretty much when I die, I suspend exploration to re-level up my character, which is pretty much lost time.

I am reminded of the Slashdot thread "Have Modern Gamers Lost the Patience For Puzzles?" Perhaps my Final Fantasy gaming has caused me to first consider overpowering any game tactic with brute force. Then again I still like Sudoku (even though I am never going to play it again) and Rubik's Cube.

Unfortunately I keep on bouncing between floors 1 through 10. I only get the rank of "Baby Adventurer" so I must be missing out on a lot of the game. I need more gold to build better weapons, or I need more weapons so I can get rid of or get pass enemies, but this game doesn't drop enough stuff.

I am not looking at a Gamefaq, though. No matter how many times that thought comes to mind I am not going to give in. I will either quit the game or keep trying.

Soul Calibur pantsu

(tags game, Xbox 360, DLC, Soul Calibur)

Namco-Bandai brought out that Soul Calibur 4 Costume Pack 2 "Maid wear" last Wednesday for 200 points, at least for the Japan region. According to the foreign hubbub, these are the costumes availalbe in the limited edition version of the game (not released in Japan). I can't seem to find descriptions for these DLC packs, so I link to this guy who describes them. With NSFW pictures of pantsu, um. He claims that this new pack adds nothing extra in comparison to the regular maid costumes already in the game

DLC from Namco-Bandai is not done until there is Idolm@ster stuff available. We are waiting. Normal people are probably waiting for Darth Vader DLC.

Geometry Wars 2 boasting on the Internet

(tags game, Geometry Wars, Xbox 360, Xbox live)

Except for Pacifism mode, what is there to boast about?

(extracted 2008-08-17T01:15Z)

There's this non-Microsoft site called MyGamerCard.net that taps the APIs to produce a graphical scorecard for the Xbox 360 Arcade game Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. The live version of my GW2 scorecard is the following:

Great stuff for those like me who are obsessed with scores.

Thanks MyGamerCard.net and Xbox 360 Fanboy.

Three in a day: fight, shmup, tile rpg

(tags game, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Dual Screen, Soul Calibur, Geometry Wars, Shiren)

I started off the day realizing that I can't be moving forward in Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer without scraping the earlier levels for experience. Or at least that's the rationalization after losing my +8 sword of brilliance from a merely innocuous foray into the next area. To think that I hate games that lose more than 15 minutes of my progress, and here I am trying to play this game more. The DS needed battery charging so I let it sit out a day.

Geometry Wars 2 on the brain. Pacifism mode is the total bomb, worth the 800 XBLP alone. I have stick control, if only before my hand tremors set in. Yesterday, I scored my personal best, 140+ million. I really love "sticking a fork in it", which I describe the technique of "popping the dumbbell" when embedded in the blue diamond blob. This is totally risky play, of course. Geoms are the "crack" I can't stop picking up, and slipping through the gaps of incoming blue blobs is pure delight. The other modes are shoot shoot shoot which is nice, but my dissatisfaction with the tighter spray in comparison to GW1 irritates me. Then again in GW1, I always liked the tighter mode instead of the spray because the former was faster. Today, I have trouble breaking 70+ million so I let it slide after probably an hour of effort. Erratic performance.

And Soul Calibur 4. An online friend got all of the Achievement Points before me, which makes me irritated. Online is something I give up, but I can't figure out how he got through the Survival mode (I can only get to 5) and Mission mode (I can only get to 20). Or how he got all the goods. There must be some gold laundering scheme in the online, that's got to be it. In any case, I am continuing to unlock the swords and costumes in single player. At the same time I'm trying to set the Style level for each character to max. This is work, not fun. And I do it for the Achievement Points.

Nothing special: Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer

(tags game, Dual Screen, Shiren)

Another import game from the recent shipment was the Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for the Dual Screen. On my blogroll, Insert Credit IRC fellow and I POST ALL CAPS blog titles "Sub" posted a pwnage review of this game recently, and I decided to get the game in English. Just 45 minutes and I've already been killed 3 times, got 80% of my gold stolen, reset hard and fast. But this is intriguing. I'm not yet frustrated! I'm still one of those coddle gamers, though. Losing special items kinda hurts, but I let it go, because they are not special, right?

I am reminded of the recent in store display of Shiren across various consoles at a used game store. The Dreamcast version of Shiren was going for a pricey 6800 yens, while other versions were at a pretty low price, relatively. Plus, I learned just recently that the Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon games were also made by Chun Soft. I wonder if these are relatively easy Rogue-alikes?

Before I sleep, I'm going to try to make it to the next village. Again.

Soul Calibur cheaping

(tags game, Xbox 360, Soul Calibur, cheat)

After a while of playing Geometry Wars (I wish I knew how many hours), I'm back into playing Soul Calibur.

I see that there is another DLC character costume pack full of "maids" but at 200 XBLP instead of 100 like the first pack. I will get that soon. Probably I'll also get the 1200 XBLP soundtrack because I'm tired of hearing this music. Perhaps I should just use my own music via TVersity?!?

Actually I'm into mopping up the rest of the relatively easy Achievement Points. Since I'm now in my impatient mood, I turned to a Gamefaq to point me in the right direction.

SPOILERS in ROT-13 till the end of this post.

Vg fnlf gung vg jvyy gnxr 3 zvyyvba tbyq gb pbyyrpg rirelguvat. Zl orfg tbyq qvttvat engr, juvpu vf Fgbel zbqr Uneq qvssvphygl F enax, argf zr 24000 tbyq ng 15 zvahgrf. V unir nobhg 1.66 zvyyvba tbyq, fb V arrq 1.34 zvyyvba zber be nabgure 13 ubhef bs zvaq ahzovat cynl. Yrg'f qb vg.

Geometry Wars (1) Parting Shot

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, arena, Geometry Wars, Xbox Live)

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved for the Xbox 360 was fun. Though I'm tops on my Friends list (I need more Friends though), I'm ranked 25000+ for top score. My best is about 1.4 million, at the point when things are just getting started.

Don't get too greedy. Geometry Wars
(screen shot from Steam/Windows XP version)

I was ranting and raving about Echoes about a year ago, and GW has this same feel of blasting till I can't avoid no more. I get into that state where my mind wanders while my eyes and hands frantically try to retain control, like in Parsec 47. I love that feeling.

If there's one thing I hate, it is that once my game is over and I restart from the beginning, it takes time to get back into the tempo. I gasp my final breath, hit the A button to start again, but this climb to 10,000 to get a better shot, and 100,000 to get overwhelming enemies takes too long (in actuality it takes about 2 minutes). While I'm on hating... The enemies I hate: The pink homing ones that break into 3. The C shaped homing ones that have a forward shield. The worms. I hate the worms, make me all claustrophobic and crap. The others I don't really like. I just hate them less.

This is my "parting shot" because I already bought Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 yesterday. I found my favorite mode, "Pacifism". Though the game plays somewhat different because of the new enemies and the shot spray. So GW1 still has that good feel.

Actually I just received my import game shipment, which includes Geometry Wars Galaxies for the DS. Heh. I recently (re-) considered buying it on Steam for my PC, as well. Ha Ha.

too human demo (after)

(tags game, Xbox 360, demo)

The demo kicked me out as soon as it was over. Talk about unfriendly.

I felt like I was playing a World of Warcraft or Diablo. Actually I've never played those games for longer that 15 minutes, but it felt like that... guns are ineffective, so hack and slash in a remote hands off style. Click the mouse button faster! It doesn't feel anything like a Dynasty Warriors. Perhaps it's only because I mastered the right stick slashing only at the end of the demo. The way Baldur skated around while slashing made me think this game was totally easy. And I actually felt guilty when my support party was dying off, but my party was continually refreshed when going to the next room. Oh.

Cybernetic hacking formulated as a natural world? "We, the three witches" who are actually AIs or cybernetic faces of the same overgoddess? Hm.

Bleh? This game doesn't feel so fun.

Whoops I'm playing it again. I see that there is an equipment treadmill now, oh yeah give me my next Armor of 0.2% Level Raising. And hidden rooms full of timed baddies. Wow. WoW.

As far as the voice actors are concerned, they seem to have some mainstream headliners here, according to the official page. There are plenty of voice snippets here. I'm sitting at the startup screen listening to the announcer, who sounds really familiar. Baldur, our main tough guy, is voiced by top tier (voiceover) actor Rikiya Koyama (小山力也) who did the main character for the TV series 24 and also Neo in The Matrix. There's sexy voice Atsuko Tanaka (田中敦子) and Takako Honda (本田貴子), who both star in some anime and movies I know about.

And I do like how they put some emphasis on the facial expressions during the cut scenes. That soldier's gaze conveys hesitance and that receptionist type was probably thinking about a double cross.

I'll ask my Xbox friend who was looking forward to this game about his opinion of the demo. This one is not worth a buy just yet.

too human demo (before)

(tags game, Xbox 360)

I really dig my Xbox 360 now. Media streaming is working well now, but it was actually a server problem I didn't resolve. The XBLA games like Soul Calibur and Geometry Wars are totally easy to start and hard to put down. The regular games are a bit all over the map, though.

Recently I checked out the "Inside Xbox" video blog available from the Xbox 360 dashboard. Among the crazy advertisement posts, that crazy Famitsu editor / Xbox 360 fan "Jamzy" with nothing of import, and model gravure chicks trying to stay on gaming topic, there was an interview of Too Human's developer director Dyack. The game looks interesting in that Dynasty Warriors slash-em all genre. Dyack was quick to emphasize the efforts they put into the voice localization for Japan. I wonder if he was just talking about hiring good voice actors.

So here I am, with the Too Human demo downloaded. Let's see if this is Gauntlet for 2008.

Braid and no 1942 joint strike

(tags game, Xbox 360, platformer, shmup)

Two online mainstream reviewers gave the recent 1200 XBLP (over?) priced game Braid the "best game" hype, so I at least gave the trial demo a shot. I love the background graphics. The music is grand. The puzzles are intriguing to say the least (somewhat "blow your mind"). But I'll save this platformer for another day.

And while trawling the XBLA for something interesting, I discovered that the already released 1942: Joint Strike was not available in the Japan region. Oh bummer.

Serve up my Xbox video: TVersity

(tags video, Xbox 360, Windows, anime)

I've already tried out the Windows Media Player 11 method for streaming media from my Windows XP to my Xbox 360. It works, however I didn't like having WMP11 running in the background. So intrigued by the recent Lifehacker roundup post about doing more with the Xbox, I tried out TVersity.

Actually TVersity works somewhat like WMP11, where you have to add your media to TVersity's database and start the server. But TVersity works better for me because its easier to start and stop the server. Plus its more open in its functionality, however I have not tried stuff like the Internet Media and Media RSS feeds. I still do the old fashion method of auto-BitTorrenting off of RSS feeds, so all my media is on my HDD. At least I have a custom-made client-side filter proxy, made with FeedTools, for the RSS feeds so I don't download "Naruto".

One niggling thing though is that browsing on the Xbox 360 by "Folders" does not all show all the media. I think it's an Xbox 360 problem. The workaround is to tag the videos as they are added by folder import. It's kinda lame but it works. I need to figure out how to meta-tag the videos themselves. I know all about tagging MP3s but videos stupify me.

So I've been watching stuff through my Xbox 360. I almost finished Amatsuki (あまつき), some almost Boy's Life 18th century Japan anime that has seiyuu Romi Park (朴璐美) and Jun Fukuyama (福山潤). These are the same two seiyuu I was falling over back in Princess Princess. This time though, Park actually plays a woman, great. Fukuyama is at it again with his silky voice.

And now I'm running Kurenai (紅). This one is interesting because of Miyuki Sawashiro (沢城みゆき) "manning" the lead character, and Minami Kuribayashi (栗林みな実) singing the OP. There's also the whole loli aspect which I can't deny. The lead character, Kurenai, lives in the fifth room of some apartment, while his neighbor in the 6th room is pretty hot and worldly, while his other neighbor in the 4th room is very mysterious. This kinda setup reminds me of Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻), but only in reference. Also Ryoko Shintani (新谷良子), who I was crapping on for her dire Soul Calibur 4's "Xianghua" voice, is singing the ending theme (and also voices a character). I was surprised that I like her singing voice. Did she get better somehow? Because the last time I saw some of her old CDs in the bargain bins, meh factor 6.

Geometry Wars boxes me in

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, arena, Xbox Live, Geometry Wars)

After playing Geometry Wars 1 Trial over the last week, then playing the Geometry Wars 2 Trial "Deadline" only mode for the last couple of days, I finally bought GW1. I must admit it feels pretty crunky compared to GW2, but I must enjoy this classic. Ahem, I must enjoy this classic's Achievement Points as well, muhahah.

For the first 80 seconds, GW1 is a total bore, then the difficulty starts to pick up, to terrifying levels. Why is that.

I surprised myself by getting close to the top of my Friend's list in points on the first day of ownership. My aim is to get at least a million points.

In other GW news, I will purchase GW2 when September rolls around. And, I am interesting in importing GW: Galaxies for the DS. It's only 2600 yen now at Play-Asia. Order, done.

Soul Calibur IV at 30 hours

(tags game, Soul Calibur, Xbox 360)

I was pumped up to play Soul Calibur IV some days ago, but that feeling is totally gone now. The single player modes like Tower ("hidden" mission mode and survival) are totally pwn my scrawny (well ok +50 physique) characters even with 200% health and stuff. I can't even get past level 24 and dungeon 5 respectively. Does it hurt that I use the Mitsurugi fighting style twice? I've done Story mode to death and it really is a cheap way to get Gold, despite all the time input.

I think the drop in Achievement Points rate unlocking is a big factor in my sudden diminishing returns feeling. Lame, I know.

Anyways, the in-game clock says I'm around the 30 hour mark. Some of the lingering Honors (Xbox Achievements) seem doable if I keep on hacking on it. I recently got the "Distance will not Betray" Achievement which is "10000 meters in total movement distance in battle". 30 hours == 10000 meters. Strange and wacky. One other Achievement, the 450_000 points in Arcade Mode, seems too hard. I probably have to win all the fights up to stage 8 with no losses, because there is a doubling bonus that rewards consecutive wins. 1000, 2000, 4000, ... etc. The Stage 7 Apprentice is hard though.

As far as the rest of the character weapon unlocking, I have, on the women's side, only Ivy to complete. Then its on to the guys' wear. Then, weapons. I have yet to unlock the Apprentice, though.

Make money fast through player customization: Soul Calibur IV

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

The Soul Calibur IV in-game clock says that I've been at it for at least 18 hours, so I must like this game. Then again, I've been doing the same repetitive offline stuff, like unlocking clothes parts and weapons. I am not going to join online, if ever.

My main stay now is the Mitsurugi-style. I like entering into the Relic and Mist stances as much as possible, since they combo into other moves fast enough. Poor Xianghua is not as powerful for my tastes. I say -style because of course all my characters are the female version. Who wants to play as guys?

Actually I think the female clothing unlocking has something to do with the style level of each of the characters. So after finishing all of the story modes (but there's no Achievement or Honor for that, grr), I'm back again trying to level up each of the fighting styles associated with the women characters.

And yes, I've already seen the no-clothing version of each of the characters (they are not nekkid), and played with the Physique/Musculature knobs. +50/-10, rawr (always 99 years old, here).

But after all is said and done, I have two groups of custom characters, a style group because the clothing matches (ooh a joker clothing set, rawr), and a play group for stats and horrific fashion sense. The latter is important because when doing the Story mode over and over again, it is important to have 200% health. This in turn jacks up my Story mode score so that I can get S ranks, which then translates into more Gold. Which means I can get the clothes and weapons faster. Eh he. ;-)

I've already purchased all the weapons for Xianghua (of course), Seong Yun, Amy, and Talim (there's one more but I forgot who). I'm going to concentrate back on the clothes again, but I already unlocked the "350 items collected" Achievement/Honor.

I am looking forward to playing more of this tomorrow.

A tale of overpriced DLC, eternally retold

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

The first game I wanted to play from yesterday's buying spree is Soul Calibur 4.

I am a bit disappointed with it though. The static graphics look stunning, but when things move, it feels a bit sluggish. I keep questioning if this game is the 60fps or the 30fps. Well, when I mean 60fps, I mean does it feel like Soul Calibur 1? Of course in a fighting game like this, limbs move too fast to track, and swords gleam like midnight racing taillights. Plus my fetish with eyes makes me dissatisfied with Xianghua. She looks totally uncanny.

I also checked the voice actress. Ryoko Shintani. Ugh. Shintani is no substitute for Aya Hisakawa. Actually, at first, everything was in English again, but Xianghua's lines sounded so laughable that I switched it to Japanese, thus encountering Shintani. Besides, I like the voices in Japanese anyway. Mitsurugi's taunts carry weight, and more importantly, I can tell what moves are going to be executed.

Other things that seemed strange. There was an update for the game already. I got 5 Achievement Points just for boot up the game. I've been unlocking some strange Achievements, like "Numeric God: The last two numbers of total play time and remaining time in a victorious battle were the same." That was worth 20 points. Call it beginners luck.

I also get points for customizing an existing character and creating a new character. Yes I was busy mixing and matching clothing, and though I am hot for the zettai ryouiki, I've been covering up more skin than I expected. I found it disconcerting that knocking off my "Princess Dress" on Xianghua had her covorting with just her two-piece underwear, so now she goes out with chainmail undies. I thought I wasn't a prude.

I forgot how fighting games deprecate moves. Soul Calibur only reminds me that I can't use the moves from SC1 in SC4. Ugh.

Well I want to get back into it, so let me get to the point of this post. There is some DLC already. There are 17 tracks of music, 80 XBLP each or at a discount of 1200 XBLP for all. The other thing is some customize parts (pack 1) for 100 XBLP. Music as DLC, I did not anticipate. Is this good or bad in comparison to the DLC furor over Beautiful Katamari where at-cost new levels were about 400KB downloads?