wins the ketchup painting mini-game

(tags game, Xbox 360, gal game)

w1nnar!

w1nnar?

A Xbox 360 Holiday full of deals

(tags game, Xbox 360)

I spent the Xmas and New Years holidays playing the daily deals trickling off Xbox Live. It was called the Xbox Live Holiday Deal. I watched the daily unveiling through the Cheap Ass Gamer post. The Japan region had different deals from the US region, so I watched it through ホリデーカウントダウン.

I picked up all the free stuff. I also picked up Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Castle Crashers, Battlefield 1943. Only Castle Crashers held my attention longer than a day. Actually the first day I played it, I logged into a game and some high level total strangers helped boost me. I then played the game with some closer aquaintances and got a complete Achievement from it. That was fun.

Acutally the Deal of the Week was Shadow Complex, which I played to completion on Hardcore the first time. That was pretty fun but I don't feel like playing that game a third time through.

Finally I picked up A Kingdom for Keflings, which was the following Deal of the Week. I like this game a lot because of the building and resource collecting. I even purchased one of the DLC packs which is just two extra maps. I'm feeling the tinge of boredom with it now, but the first time I played it was a 5 hour straight session.

Xbox 360 don't fail me now.

Cannot squeeze one game in

(tags Xbox 360, Street Fighter)

Too much stuff to do before I go to sleep... I have the Street Fighter IV disc waiting to be started up but it's gonna need to wait. That one as well as the Tales of Vesperia.

More Heart: ToHeart2, and other game pickups

(tags ToHeart, game, PlayStation Portable, Wipeout, Xbox 360, XBLA, Kimi no Yuusha, Dual Screen, PlayStation 3)

Just wanna say that I'm starting ToHeart 2 now, PSP version. I'm kinda annoyed it has the same music (but remixed) from ToHeart 1. 40 minutes.

Also I finished ToHeart 1, completely. Every picture unlocked, music mode, massage mode (Hocchan giving massages! well at least verbally). I think the best part was the unlocking of the shooting game. The last hidden scenario was not very interesting at all. Probably 25 hours.

I picked up Wipeout Pulse (asia version!) at Sofmap Nipponbashi South, after waiting for A-Too to drop the game's price (playing chicken with a shop just doesn't work). I felt like it was impossible for the first level, then I passed it and now I'm just sailing. 2 hours.

I even tried to get into my DS. I still have Kimi no Yuusha stuck in there. The last extra boss is really hard though. I cannot beat him, so I give up. 55+ hours.

I want to start playing Final Fantasy Tactics A for DS that I picked up a couple of weeks back during that Play-Asia and Visa card sale. 0 hours.

Man, this is starting to be a potpourri post.

Yeah, I also got some Xbox games like Ace Combat 6 and Bionic Commando for under 2500 yen, each. Nice (but used). I was playing the latter and I really like it the swing thing. It feels like Crackdown and you know I love games like Crackdown. It's the open environment jump-to-collect-them-all feeling. 7 hours.

Did I mention I picked up my first PS3 game? Motor Storm for like 1000 yen. I also saw the Atelier no Rorona limited edition (with laser etched crystal "objet") dropping in used priced down to 7500 yen, but that's still steep. The well-regarded Demon's Souls (US English edition) almost made it into my virtual shopping cart but well, I don't have a PS3 yet.

Um what else. I am not playing any PC games. Still waiting for StarCraft II to come out then I will make my last ever game PC. Oh I bought a ton of DRM free PC games from GoG's first anniversary sale including Duke Nukem 3d, but get this, I have not downloaded the bulk of them yet. WTF. I am still hoping they pick up Sinistar: Unleashed.

Uh, I am still scoping the Xbox Live Deal of the Week, and I recently bought yet another clear-3-colors game and the Sudoku clone. Hey, only 400 XBL points, each. You say the next deal is a cartoony golf game? 400 points? I'm there dood.

Not really my hardware: Xbox 360 Update locks out non-licensed memory devices

(tags hardware, Xbox 360, DRM)

Software lockouts seem to be a theme lately. There's the Apple and the Palm Pre synchronization battle, the Apple Store (also Zune, Android) approval nightmares. The latest one hits home: the November 2008 Xbox 360 Update will render my Datel Max Memory expansion cards useless, according to the official insider blog, Major Nelson. (Thanks Kotaku, Joystiq)

I used the first card of 8GB for all the DLC I bought including XBLA games and expansions. I used the second card of 8GB for Xbox official videos that are no longer available like the Prince of Persia (2008) video where the rock beast enemy thumps the wall in time with music beat change. I think it was an E3 exclusive release, but revised afterward.

I was mad at first, but I'm not really that angry anymore. So what if my game saves disappear? I let go of my saves from my Apple IIgs games, Mac games, and I sure don't have my Doom, PS1, PS2 saves backed up anyway. I haven't really accomplished anything worthwhile, except maybe my high scores. No 1cc replay data anywhere. Perhaps this is the feeling of not being able to take it with me. I bet the only things that will be saved in the next 10 years will be my YouTube videos about Bangai-O Spirits and this blog. Oh wait, I haven't backed this blog up recently. Uh oh.

Check Bayonetta out

(tags game, Bayonetta, Xbox 360)

I don't check out many demos on Xbox 360 because they are mainly disappointing. The recently released demo for Bayonetta is one true exception. I'm not talking about how the main character is woman (which is how I like my avatars anyway). And I'm not talking about how over-sexualized she is. Who stands like this?!

Yes I will check, thank you.

I like how this game reminds me of the fun I had with Devil May Cry 4. It's slick, 60 frames per second, timing dependent button pressing reaction gaming with plenty of action and reaction. The tutorial shows the combo list directly, encouraging me to try it out. The loading screen also shows this combo list tutorial, which is a step forward. The evade system rewards me with the bullet-time slow down. I like using this in my offline Unreal Tournament III sparring practice, because it makes me feel super human.

Other than that, it feels like a DMC. It's the same old same old. Enemies are strange, there are gory death effects, invisible walls impede my exploration, weird floating and glowing things to collect, completion ranks. The combo system and weapons systems are different, but I'm still mashing the X, Y and B buttons. Oh wait I like that part. Will they ever fix the polygon collisions? Also the leaves on the trees are faked using the old Doom like sprite rotating trick. I didn't notice it until my second walk through, though, so its no biggy.

Wanna get this when it comes out.

It's missing something: Halo 3 ODST

(tags game, Halo ODST, Xbox 360)

Halo 3 ODST. As one of the few rare games that have I pre-ordered, bought, and played on the first day of release, you would think I can be called one of those Halo fanboiz. I disagree. My fascination with the products is the single player FPS mode. Although it's not the arcade-style FPS that I like with Unreal Tournament, it's forgiving casual entertainment with headshot satisfaction.

I think the sticker on the plastic wrapped game case starts this new product experience on the wrong foot. The sticker reads, "Halo: each [sic] multiplayer beta access". Microsoft Japan has trouble with their "R"s. Hahahaah. lololololol

Okay, I said the requisite joke. You can headshot me now. \(>_<)/

There are more comments I want to make on this but I want to commit ritual dark-map hikikomori with the Rookie before the end of this weekend so I will follow up in a later post. I am sad though, the weather outside is glorious and sunny.

Wanting Raystorm HD

(tags game, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, RayStorm, shmup)

Raystorm. I feel all nostalgic about this shmup because I used to play in the Japanese arcades back during my exchange program. Now it's in HD and on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Wanting.

Well, I could buy it for the PSP but I really don't want to buy Sony points.

I could also play my PS1 version. It's around here somewhere. I'm pretty sure I don't have the PC version.

Bubble Bobble Neo!

(tags game, Xbox 360, Bubble Bobble)

I bought Bubble Bobble Neo only after an online friend did, just so I can beat him over the head with a better score. It was 800 XBLP (== 1000 JPY) which is kinda pricey. It's the Xbox Live Arcade version which is currently JP region only. The Wii also has it. I should have just busted out the NES ROM and played that until the desire waned.

I barely remember playing this game years ago. Like back on the NES console, using a real cartridge. I loved last boss stage. Lighting bolts to kill off the boss? Kewl. There are subtleties to the game play that I did not pick up back when I first played it. I still don't use the backside popping thing for full effect. It requires very precise joystick control. Ugh these characters are so slow to control.

So yeah I beat his score, but evidently it's because he used a Continue. On my first day with the game, I made it to level 42 with Continues until boredom set in (how many continues are you gonna give me? endless?). Then I tried setting my high score, no Continues and I could only achieve level 14. Too sad.

I'm disappointed in the lack of online multiplayer. I guess I need to get my local Xbox fiends to invite me over for some Vs.

Dream C Club sold out in the Osaka and Kobe

(tags game, gal-ge, sexy, Xbox 360, Dream C Club, ECsite)

By Sunday afternoon, all the stores I visited in the Osaka and Kobe areas (7) were sold out of Dream C Club (ドリームクラブ). Either the shipment was small, or there was a real demand for this gal-ge cabaret sim. The Famitsu 4 reviewer rating wasn't so high though, at 24 out of 40.

No I don't want to buy it, yet.

Update: Senaka Otaroad blog confirms it in ドリームクラブ完売店が続出 「思った以上に売れまくった」.

Two clear: Gears of War 2, ToHeart 2 and 1 Hoshina scenario

(tags game, Xbox 360, Gears of War, ToHeart, PlayStation Portable, gal-ge)

Woops I wrote this about two weeks ago:

I finally saw the localized version of Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 on the store shelves recently. Before that, I picked up the Chinese/English version of GoW2 for a nice used price of 2000 yen (yes A-Too rocks). I plodded through Normal difficultly with probably less than 30 continues. Yeh, 30 continues. Still, I couldn't believe how fast the single player went by. Then again I played it for one day straight plus this is a sequel. I like how there is now a partial indicator for Achievements. The "Seriously 2.0" Achievement requires killing 100,000 enemies. Going through the normal campaign was about 1000 enemies, and I completed it in a day, so it will take about 100 or more days. Without that partial indicator I would not even consider it. Of course, I rejected it.

And I picked up ToHeart 2 for the PlayStation Portable. I didn't pre-order, so I missed the special first edition. I got the regular edition after bugging the store clerk and holding up the purchase line. It includes ToHeart 1 (finally ported to the PSP) because it was the "W pack". Only after realizing the difference between the SKUs, I came to accept that I didn't need 2 small figurines and a bigger box. Well they weren't cute enough. I was satisfied with getting at least the Gamers tokuten: telephone card, paper fan, and PSP sticker set.

Yes! ToHeart 1! I put that in my PSP and smoked it. I put the ToHeart2 away. I cleared the iincho or 保科智子 Tomoko Hoshina scenario immediately because she's one of my favorite tsundere characters. And Aya Hisakawa is always alright with me. Even though this is the PSP version, it's full voice. Visuals are switchable from original 4:3 ratio and PSP 16:9 pan-and-scan mode. Both look passable. Unfortunately I was feeling nostalgia remorse for some reason. I didn't remember this scenario being so short, just 5 hours from the start. Plus I forgot that the scenario climaxed in bed, literally. (No sex scene of course CERO C but first kiss?!?). I was expecting a less vigorous ending, lol. It's that feeling of reading one's favorite book again and feeling the diminishing returns.

There is no force skip for unread sections, but thankfully I found the fast skip. Also Multi's seiyuu Yui Horie is as recognizable as ever. If I get back to this game, I will probably want to finish the other scenarios in this order: Multi, Remi, Kotone, Shiho, Akari, Kurusugawa-senpai, etc. Running this visual novel game on the PSP-2000 was pretty fast.

Now that I think about it, this is my fourth copy of the game. PS1, PS2, Windows (all ages), and now PSP. Geez.

I put Hatsune Miku Project Diva back in the PSP though because I want to finish that.

New Xbox Firmware update means smaller HDD installs

(tags Xbox 360, game)

I'm still living the Xbox 360 life with the old 20GB HDD, so I always feel the HDD install game pinch. The recent Xbox 360 Dashboard update promises slimmer HDD install game sizes. I have yet to find any listing on the new sizes, so I decided to try my own stuff. Let's see:

Death Smiles: 2.0 GB

Shikigami no Shiro 3: 1.4 GB

Otomedius G: 3.3 GB

Raiden IV: 0.377 GB

Dodonpachi Daijouou Black Label Extra: 2.3 GB

Unreal Tournament 3: 5.6GB (according to the quick check, not actual install size)

as reported by the Memory menu.

Too bad I can't copy these game images to my Datel MAX memory Adaptor. Sad.

Datel MAX Memory Adaptor for Xbox 360: Finally I can backup

(tags Xbox 360, hardware)

For some reason, my backwater Sofmap (Kobe) had copies of the Datel's Xbox 360 MAX Memory Adaptor (Xbox360用 MAXメモリ アダプタ). This device allows me to use MicroSD cards (the smallest Secure Digital variation) instead of pricy Xbox 360 memory for backup, and also backup that memory card to my PC! I love things that enable capabilities like backup. But then again let's calculate this:

Xbox 360 Hard Disk 120 GB: 15750 yen (130 yen per GB, MSRP (==定価))

MicroSD card 8GB: 1980 yen (240 yen per GB, discount price)

Wow, the Xbox 360 official hard disk is the cheaper option! Unbelievable! Still I'm not going to stop buying MicroSD cards. I can use them in other ways as well.

I just installed the new Xbox 360 system update (2009-08) with the reduced HDD install size feature, but of course, Microsoft doesn't allow "Installed Xbox 360 Game" items to be moved or copied, especially to memory adaptors like these. It's not a size assumption. It seems to be policy.

I bought this memory adaptor just because it was novel and new. Unfortunately it's like 4750 yen, so this is really not cost effective. Still, I cannot over look the backup capability. My Sofmap no longer has any more stock of this adaptor, so it must be selling like hotcakes. Finally, I saw that the US version of this adaptor includes some internal memory like 2 GB or 4 GB and a PC USB adaptor. Huh. Ripped off! :-(

Ikaruga for 400 Microsoft Xbox Live Points

(tags Xbox 360, Ikaruga, sale)

Ikaruga for 400 Microsoft Xbox Live Points. (1, 2) Only for Xbox Live Gold members.

I wonder what kind of non-owner would buy this game now. Really. Come on, if you have liked shmups you would have gotten this opinion-polarizing game by now. I just read the blog comments for the game worship, seriously.

I think I can I think I can... Ikaruga

(tags game, Xbox 360, Ikaruga, shmup)

I'm just playing Ikaruga just to see if I still have patience. Any patience whatsoever. Or stick control. I can pass Stage 1 most of the time. It's those times where I try to be Chain Acolyte that kill me.

So I was surprised I was able to beat Stage 2, finally, on one credit, normal settings. Well after 5 hours of Ikaruga on Xbox. Half the time I was just trying to make sure I didn't die. Chains? Forget it, at least in the later half. Also I got the A rank at the same time, w00t. Epic scrub w00t.

On the Gamecube, I think I was able to beat Stage 3. But that was years ago. This time I'm just trying to go analog controller and of course no continuing and no practice rounds.

Kinda happy, right now. Well, kinda sad actually. But let's think positive. Positivity Ikaruga Blog!

The price of cross compatibility

(tags game, hardware, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

I really want to play my Xbox 360 with a decent D-pad controller. Here's something that looks nice, reported by Engadget, called the Cross Fire Adapter for Xbox 360. I don't regularly buy stuff from overseas, so the shipping rates are always a bummer for me.

Eeek.

Feeling a little JRPG

(tags Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, Trusty Bell, Xbox 360, RPG)

Acutally I haven't been playing much of Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata). It's not that it's not fun, only that I rather not sit in front of my computer/Xbox 360 monitors. And, I have been playing some DS, just a little bit. I finally opened Rhythm Tengoku Gold, and it was kinda novel but I only finished the first two sets. I rather press buttons than flick the variable friction screen. Also I tried out Nanostray in English which I bought for 1800 yen a couple of weeks back, and I find it hard to get into. It's as if danmaku never existed.

Speaking of which, Zun's Shanghai Alice "Touhou" CDs are slowly disappearing from the shelves at Tora no Ana. I need to pick some of the soundtrack only releases. Lucky me I have all the games. At Melon Books they bundled the whole stack of Zun audio CDs and games and the total came out to 23500 yen. Nice.

So yes, Chrono Trigger. I decided to FAQ it. Well I did beat the game and got two endings. I was just wondering if I should go do the New Game+ or just continue levelling up? Right now I'm just levelling up doing the cheapest method possible that doesn't take much brain power. It requires the berserker rings, so that the AI takes over.

I read the GameFaqs forum, and there are some pretty hardcore acronyms there: LLG (Low Level Game) In other words, play the game intentionally at a low experience level for extra challenge. Ugh? Naw, I'm just going to have fun my normal way, complete all the items, endings and let the game go.

Actually it's funny, there was an guest essay in Weekly Famitsu this week by some pro-wrestler writing about Chrono Trigger. He didn't say much at all, just that CT was one of his favorites and he played it back in the day and now he's reliving it on the DS, just before jumping into the ring. I wonder why the editors chose to run that essay now, since the game came out four months ago.

Finally, (this is just thoughts scrambled) I did a rare combing through the DS used softs for the Final Fantasy JRPGs. On the DS, I found III and IV. There were no GBA stuffs. Actually I wanna try my hand at Final Fantasy VI (3US) again. That stupid software glitch back in the day killed my save data and my FF fandom. Then again maybe I should just pick up Pokemon Platnum somewhere, since I still haven't experienced it.

I should just get back to Trusty Bell. Really, it's cheaper that way.

Musings on Geometry Wars 2 Deadline

(tags Geometry Wars, game, Xbox 360)

In order to understand my own performance, I started recording my scores vs how many geoms I collect, in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 Deadline (GWRE2). Here's a graph of geoms (x-axis) vs score (y-axis in millions), in nice black background. (Generated using OO.org Calc 3.x)

This is a collection of 133 games (5hr) over a period of two days, with no pruning (quitting mid-game). Unfortunately I didn't record the geom count on my current personal best score... :-( Higher is better. Since my geom count is increasing at a linear rate, I expect my score to be exponentially increasing, and it sure looks like it.

The points on the far right are probably the rare occasions that I don't die even once. Although I do recall dying at least once on my current personal best score of 32 million. There has to be some trick to boost my score that involves Gravity Wells. Actually, I've become more cognizant of Gravity Wells spawning in. I hear their sound and I think it's a gift from God, at least the Score God. Huh.

Also my fear of moving around the whole arena, instead of sticking to the area down at the bottom, in the latter half of the game has diminished. I credit this as well for my improved scores. Basically I either run along the walls looking for the Gravity Well, and approach it with caution. At the last possible second I activate it and destroy it, hopefully wiping out the posse giving me a hard chase. I try to approach it at a tangent with my direction of fire swiping it sideways. This should land me lots of geoms and score, because at that point my firepower alone cannot overcome the chasers. I also head towards the middle and bottom as fast as possible after the encounter, since things are probably still chasing me.

I am dancing more with the Spinners (purple homing enemies), which gives me a breather. Shmup dodging skills have seem to improved somewhere. The Weavers (green fancy dodgers) seem to be a managable group now, because I seem to be able to read their movements now. Those Gates are a risky proposition as always, but they also seem to be key to unlocking high scores.

In the beginning, of course I try to grab as many geoms as possible, but I have noticed that aiming for the Rockets yields better cost/performance, because they drop high concentration Geoms (+5?) and they have predictable movement. I notice the first Gravity Well then appears at T-2:3x. I bet that directly correlates to my Geom capture count, grab 80 then the first one appears. I then notice that around T-2:00 my score should be passing the 1 million mark. Around T-1:00 the score should be around 10 million. I try to limit my movement to the middle third, near the bottom wall, since I should be vacuuming up more and more Geoms and not just trying to shoot down stuff.

I really do hate those Snakes, though. They block my score-accumulating shots. Ugh. Sometimes when I die, I try to stick to the wall to kill the closest spawning enemy with my shield. If it is a Rocket, I quickly move away and kill it for the Geoms, but anything else, especially a Snake, is dangerous.

My reflexes as of late feel like they're on the fast side (like a biorhythm). I think its because of all the Rubik's Cubing I'm doing, 30 minutes a day every day. But more on that later. For now, more GWRE2. Can't stop. :-]

Tradeoff

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

I can either play Geometry Wars 2 or I can go out and get this month's Gamers point card. I chose to stay inside. Luckily I made progress with Deadline:

(extracted 2009-03-21T05:34Z)

Improved: Deadline 32,205,140 @ Rank 717
Improved: Waves 10,800,885 @ Rank 935

Live version again:

Actually I surpassed my high score of 25.7 million about two times in the three hour gaming session. Surprising. The improved score on Waves was from a session back in February or January, but I forgot where I put the score picture so I didn't report it.

I came to my senses and set out for Gamers at 1920. Unfortunately, since the Point card release day was a weekend (a holiday weekend at that), it sold out even on the same day. Drat.

I returned home and promptly bought it (Buy-It-Now) through an auction. Why am I even collecting these points if I don't use it?

I wanna watch Spider-Man 2

(tags game, UMD, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Dual Screen)

Just another random "I got more content" post.

I decided to skip getting Hitsuji-kun nara Kiss shite ageru (羊くんならキスしてあげる) the PC turned PSP game which has an outrageous price of 7000 yen plus. The main draw for me was the illustrator Naoto Tenhiro's work. As always, the drawings are cute and kawaii. I'm hoping to get the telephone cards through the auction.

I went out today to Yodobashi Camera. I was in the mood to get the MadCatz Xbox 360 controller, but of course they don't have it. The alternative was the Hori one, but it only comes in Blue. I decided to get a small portable foldable game controller for the PC called the Buffalo BBT-GC01. I decided on that because I wanted a one-handed PC controller, like for viewing web pages and playing visual novels. Using the freeware JoyToKey for Windows, it should be a snap to remap Space, Enter, Page Up, Page Down, Control, etc. The D-Pad isn't so bad. I gave it a whirl on Parsec47 and it was very fun.

I then went down to A-Too Nipponbashi. No Xbox Mad Catz Street Fighter IV controller pads, not even the PS3 ones. So I looked around in the bins for things cheep and picked up Too Human and Alone in the Dark for the Xbox 360, each for about 1500 yen. I wanna play Too Human because I liked the demo, but balked at the price. Alone in the Dark was just a whim, I'm actually scared to play it. (Wussy!) I also picked up the PSP-UMD versions of Spider-Man 2 and 3 and Pirates of the Carribean (2003). There's no PSP firmware restriction on the movies, which is nice. I haven't watched these movies yet, but they were more desirable than the Aliens vs Predator laying alongside.

Last thing I want to mention is that I went to Sofmap Zaurus and the Treasure Box floor is a shadow of its former self. Still there was this one box where I picked up other PSP-UMD movie Hitch, Crazy Taxi for the PSP, Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360, and NanoStray for the DS. The prices were below my cutoff for purchasing, so...

I forgot to mention that I purchased a lot of telephone cards, but no pictures so it didn't happen.

Too much stuff to do.

Plans foiled again by blogging and the Internet

(tags game, book, Xbox 360, Trusty Bell, windows, English, failure)

I was going to relax by:

1. Playing some Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata) on my Xbox 360
2. Finish up Shukufuku no Canpanella on my PC
3. Read some English fiction book, The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

but, no, I had to blog and read up on my RSS feeds and auctions and the like.

BTW, Trusty Bell looks really beautiful. Vibrant colors and cell shading. I can't yet evaluate the game mechanics but at least it's not a menu fighter. And Aya Hirano (平野綾) as the main voice actress, ugh. Wait, no ugh, I need to just listen to her acting, not her.

I should have went... Street Fighter IV controller pad

(tags game, English, controller, Xbox 360)

First off, I got called on my misuse of English on a forum: "I should have went to the store...", which elicited a "I hope you're not teaching English (in Japan)". :-/ Ouch. I lack confidence in my Japanese, and now I just learned that my English is shot up in ways I haven't even noticed. It's like those people who don't know they are incompetent and grade themselves highly. I feel reluctant even to continue typing English right now. :-/ :-) haha, I turned off comments (I never had them anyway!) so... :-/

In any case, I should have gone to the Nipponbashi game import store with the quickness to pick up the Street Fighter IV third-party controller. It has the comforting D-pad (like a Sega Saturn controller) but the buttons are slightly different. I tried playing Shooting Love and Ikaruga and other shmup games recently and I am back to hating on the Xbox 360 standard controller again. Why can't Hori make a mainly D-pad based controller for the Xbox 360? They make enough joysticks already.

BTW, I got age "23" for my "shmup age" in Shooting Love. Is it sad that I feel good about this? :-)

Delays are welcome: Mirror's Edge DLC in February

(tags game, Xbox 360, DLC, Mirror's Edge, Final Fantasy)

Too many game blogs to read, and I keep on reading the same content over and over.

Anyway, Mirror's Edge DLC for the Xbox 360 is delayed to February. Yea. I did not clear many of the speed trial maps yet, despite my "OMG GOTY" exclaimation.

And Idolm@ster for the PSP is delayed till February, though I already knew about that.

Oh and yeah I saw the Final Fantasy XIII trailer. Animation looks great but the voice actresses sound a bit off. The guy's voice was pretty good. Gameplay? Menus again? Please. Is this coming in 2010 or 2009? Actually watching this video makes me want to play FF XII again.

Can you beat my score? Oh you did: Geometry Wars 2

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

Continuing the Geometry Wars 2 boom (whoa it's been like 4 months), I kept on trying out "Waves". And lookie I get a decent score, yea me. I really like this mode, no sissy bombs, no lives, just constant dying.

(extracted 2009-01-25T09:16Z)

Live version again:

The conservation of bullets is the golden rule here. And the wall is your friend. I want to get 10 million, but things move too fast at even 3 million.

Oh, and I recently allowed an invite into my friends list and this newcomer bested one of my GW2 scores after the invite. It was the King mode, a mode I never play. Don't worry, once my hand gets its feeling back I'll be on top of King... at least on my friends list. :-/

Why play Geometry Wars 2 for four hours?

(tags game, Xbox 360, Geometry Wars)

Why indeed, especially when those four hours are from 23:30 to 03:30... (>_<;)

I'm feeling the resurgence of Geometry Wars 2. This is what they call a "my boom" in Japanese. During the last week I bested my own score on Deadline, but still it is less than 26 million. I saved the GamerNetCard score card, but I'll post it later.

Then I found some new fun in the old game type Waves. Still my score is a meager 4 million. I cannot even get the song to loop at all, brr.

Since I'm re-feeling the GW2 love, I wondered if it was a port of this game to a different console, hopefully Windows. No such luck. :-/

Geometry Wars music

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

Yes I saw on Xbox 360 Fanboy that there was a Geometry Wars related free download, so I grabbed the Geometry Wars 2 music remix, called "46860 Choices". It starts off slow, and the remix doesn't really sound too different.

Oh yeah, I recently played some GeoWars2, but unfortunately I can't beat my own Deadline score. I did get close at 22 million, so the fight is still in me.

Swift and sure: Mirror's Edge

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

I bought Mirror's Edge from A-Too on Friday night, and beat the story mode on Normal on Saturday night. :-( I even got the No-Shot Fired Achievement, though I died a lot, of course. Swift, for sure.

I need to go back and find all the bags and try out the time trial part. I still can't get through a stage without dying, though. One thing that is amazing is that it feels like a movie when I do all the right moves and chain them together. The flow, live it.

Pink hair on the Xbox, again

(tags Xbox 360)

This post demostrates not only the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and interface, but my new avatar.

According to a recent find, you can select "anime" color hair like this lavender pink. It's nice.

Also, this post illustrate the bad part of the new Xbox 360 Dashboard: my background (and Sugar!) is obscured to the point where it's pointless to have a background. This is what the Xbox Dashboard looked like before 2008-11. EPIC FAIL.

Fun gaming (or maybe not)

(tags game, Unreal Tournament, Ketsui, Kumatan, Xbox 360, Dual Screen)

I am just having a blast playing the Unreal Tournament 3 on the Xbox 360. Sure I miss the keyboard and mouse controls, but the analog joystick controller is way fun all the same. I'm still an offline gamer playing bots in Team Deathmatch. I discovered the Kill Slow Time mutator, which slows time down Matrix style after you get a kill. I am surprised how fun it makes the game.

And I'm still playing Ketsui. Even on the bus, but I get mad at the bus driver for actually moving the bus while I'm trying to squeeze through a danmaku gap. The game says 7 hours in, and I've uncovered probably a little more than 70 panels out of 110. I still die readily on the Very Hard difficulty, but I suprise myself sometimes by going through a boss battle or two without a scratch. I guess I'm figuring out the boss patterns subliminally.

One guy at the new forum I'm frequenting, Gaijin Gamers, told me that Breakdown had the first person gimmick down way before Mirror's Edge, so I nabbed a copy of this Xbox 1 game. After half an hour I didn't feel much of pull towards this game. The environment feels so static and the gameplay feels a little too formulaic. Not very fun.

Kumatan still makes me smile. But I noticed I need to at least play this game two times a day to maintain my "totemo suki" love level.

Welcome to before Mirror's Edge

(tags game, Kumatanchi, Ketsui, Unreal Tournament, Tiger Woods, golf, Mirror's Edge, Dual Screen, Xbox 360)

Portable gaming and Xbox gaming, and even PC gaming. Can he stop?!?

Ketsui DS rewarded me for playing 5 recorded hours. All of the videos for the "Welcome to Special Round" second loop clear for the second ship have been uncovered, but I have at least 40 panels out of 110 to uncover. This game is winding down for me, but I still love the feel of trying to avoid all the bullets. It's just impossible for me.

I'm still playing Kumatanchi. About a week ago I thought I was done, but there was one more furniture set revealed called "Future" (未来). And the prices were from the future, fully inflated. :-/ This game is getting long in the tooth, but I love how Kumatan smiles. Plus I don't think I uncovered all of the drama bits. One good thing is that Sumomo is now inviting me to her place, ha ha. Words only.

Xbox 360 is getting some love. According to my records, I've picked up at least 5 games for it in the last month! The latest conquest is Unreal Tournament 3 for cheep. It was fun to play it on the controller actually at a Sofmap demo unit. Of course, I was only playing Team DM with Experienced bots in Deck 16. Sweet Deck 16.

And my trend to getting the Tiger Woods continues. I got the 2006 version, thinking I was done, but then the game I was playing was the 2009 version. I found the 2008 version and I bought that one cheep as well. 2008 is graphically improved, but it's so hard to improve my career stats. Argh!

And yes I did try the Mirror's Edge demo game. I want more! But, I was let down. You know that first part where you jump off the billboard onto the crane in demo movie mode? That was my first let down. Tell me that you have to actually do in game some time, instead of watching her do it automatically. That would be pretty wicked sick.

Gears of War, and 2

(tags game, Xbox 360, Gears of War)

The rumor that Gears of War 2 won't be released in Japan is annoying me. I am having so much fun with the first one's campaign. I beat the Hardcord difficulty. Now I gotta do Insane.

Back in yer hole: Kumatanchi, Gears of War, Raiden IV

(tags game, Xbox 360, FPS, Gears of War, shmup Raiden, Kumatanchi)

I have been gaming but not blogging about it. Now that my Information Processing test is over (but probably not done with, boo hoo), I've got a little bit of free time.

I'm on my third week of Kumatanchi, but I'm supposed to commemorate the second week because that's when the casual gamer's ending appears. Now it's just collecting some stuff and treating Kumatan with lots of Habanero candy, tee hee. It really plays like a Tamagochi, but with more depth. I like it. I want to send it-off with a picture blog post, sometime.

Oh yeah, I finished Gears of War on Casual difficulty, now I'm working on Hardcore. I though it was going to be really hard because I was stuck, but I figured it out. Reloading is pretty cool. That last boss really really makes me angry, but now I know for sure the movie skip button is X, hahaha.

Um, I credit-feeded my Raiden IV playing, so I unlocked a bunch of undeserved Xbox 360 Achievements. I write this down so I don't forget my gamer score is a bunch of fail.

If the game was as good as the trailer: Prince of Persia (2008)

(tags game, Xbox 360, video)

I downloaded some sample videos from the Tokyo Game Show 2008 via the Xbox Live Dashboard. By far the best one that I keep playing over and over again is Prince of Persia. A search for "prince of persia tgs 2008 video" turns up downloadable versions. This game will come out 2008-12-18 for the Japan region. There's not much about the gameplay, but I love the scrolling backgrounds and cinematic camera. Plus the song "Breathe me" which probably has nothing to do with the soundtrack, just sets a great atmosphere.

Perhaps this is like Ace Combat 6's trailer vs gameplay.

720p Hype: Mirror's Edge

(tags game, Mirror's Edge, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

I learned from the latest Famitsu's ad that Mirror's Edge will be arriving to Japanese shores on 2008-12-11, for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. I know the Xbox 360 version will be good and will be one I want to purchase, but I want to see this on the PlayStation 3 as well.

But, the US will be getting it on 2008-11-11. Ugh I can't wait.

Ah, the official Japanese site has been up for a week already.

And recently there was another Story Trailer video released. Kinda reminds me of the Animatrix. However the news post linked to downloadable high-definition video trailers, including a 1GB biggie that shows a whole lot more in-game footage. I got it from AOL's Big Download page.

I keep on watching and re-watching these trailers. Sweet. Except that I have some nits to pick. The solar panels are not facing the sun. They are angled for good jumping, I suppose. The ladders are unusable for normal people, only suitable for people who take flying leaps... No mirror image of your persona in a window.

I see the pre-ordering across the ocean comes with a designer carrier bag, for a total of USD 140.00. I would go for that. Of course I would use the bag. What is the sense of buying it without using it? What, it has a rendered woman's face on it? :-)

Region this: Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

(tags game, Xbox 1, Unreal Tournament, GTA, Xbox 360)

On a whim I bought Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. Oh that was last year.

On a whim I bought Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict today at Sofmap for 780 yens. Yes this is my second copy, and no I didn't forget about the first. It's just more convenient to get this one that digging through my cave. (!)

This software was marked as "overseas version" (duh), and I was under the impression that "overseas" Xbox 1 games are not playable on Xbox 360 JP. But I bet with my money and came away a winner. Yes I will accept the update to this game.

I played the single player campaign for about 45 minutes. The controls fit the Xbox 360 perfectly, but aiming is still like painting a Seurat with bricks. I like how the first levels bots sound just like those breathy heavy armor robots from UT2004. Graphics aren't too bad, but the screen is all letter-boxed, which skews the ratios.

Oh, and today I also bought Grand Theft Auto 4 for 4000 yen new. I might as well get this English version while there is still some stock sitting on the shelves and there is a lull in interest.

No fancying Phantasy Star Universe

(tags game, Xbox 360, RPG, Phantasy Star)

Phantasy Star Universe for the Xbox 360 is ugly and repetitive and slow. Well I did get it for about 980 yen so maybe that makes up for it. I'm only two hours into it, though. The songs are in English, oh so laughable. About the only thing that makes up for this is the zettai ryouiki, but I'm already grasping straws if it comes to that.

gimme sum'in teh shoot: PDZ and Uncharted

(tags game, Xbox 360, FPS, Perfect Dark Zero, PS3, Uncharted)

I only played the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo last weekend at a store's PS3 demo unit. It plays nice. I wanna shoot something.

And at the same shop I finally succumbed to buying Perfect Dark Zero. Only 1500 yens, used of course. I was in the mood for some FPS so that's what I'm playing right now. Hey the graphics look pretty good and the sound effects sound like something from Halo 3. I like the English voice cast, but the lines are pretty sucky. Cover takes too long to get into, though. Who thought of those little delays?

Give me something to buy: Xbox 360 DLC, iD super pack

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

I can't remember the last time Microsoft had a sale on DLC, but here's one lasting till the end of October. It's called Extended Play Download Days, and applies to Beautiful Katamari, Oblivion, Forza Motorsport 2, Lost Odyssey, and Mass Effect. Also Guitar Hero 3, but I mention it seperately because I don't have that game (yet?). There's nothing I really need, but I think I'll go for the Katamari stuff first. (Thanks Kotaku)

Soul Calibur 4 and (Japanese?) schoolgirl costumes. It's not yet done, Bandai-Namco, (hint hint Idolm@ster) but yer getting there.

Also, Steam discounted the "iD Super Pack" showcasing past seminal FPS titles including Quake and Doom. I blogged about this desireable last year, and now at this price I am reconsidering a purchase. At the very least, I recommended this to a friend who just bought a top-end video card.

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.

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

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

A million dollars? Two games at the same time

(tags game, Xbox 360, Dual Screen, Soul Calibur, Rhythm Tengoku)

I finally have the desire to buy new games. Is this progress or a setback? :-]

Today I'm going to pickup Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the DS and Soul Calibur 4 for the Xbox 360. Actually I'm still waffling over SC4, since over the last couple of days I have newly played Beautiful Katamari and Geometry Wars 1 and 2 (demos only). There goes my nights and the weekend.

Beautiful Katamari and considering DLC

(tags game, Xbox 360, Katamari)

I never did finish the Katamari second outing on the PS2, but here I am playing Beautiful Katamari for Xbox 360 because the game was cheep used. Um, I only played it for about 4 hours and I've completed the story mode once. Now I have to go back and mine the same levels for more fun and Achievement Points.

First off, though this is the JP version of the game, every single piece of overlay text is in English because of my locale setting. Of course the textures on the objects in the games are all in Japanese. Also the songs are Japanese, and they are the whimsical J-pop and anime genre I like so its not so bad. Graphically, I like it, though it feels only a marginal step up from the PS2 version. I like the art because its nice and vibrant, but have this feeling that the designers are conveying a totally new art design that I still can't get used to.

And now I'm considering getting the DLC for it. Obviously as a Achievement Point dilettante, I have to get the new levels. That's 250 AP there. I also want to get the gamer icons, but there doesn't seem to be an icon for the katamari itself. The accessories are waste of time and the Themes are still in that art design that I don't understand. In total, 5210 XBLP (JPY 7413), and considering the above, 4160 XBLP (JPY 5919). Namco Bandai, you are the master of overpriced DLC, but you support Xbox 360 nicely.

Just get another console: Xbox 360 hard drive game install

(tags game, Xbox 360)

One feature that piqued my interest for the coming Xbox 360 firmware update was the hard drive game install. This should make playing Idolm@ster faster.

However, I don't have any free space on my HDD to install even one game. Let's see, "20 GB HDD", comes with 13 GB free, but most of it is taken up by Idolm@ster purchased stuff (oh come on, just 1.5 GB, right?), demo movies I like, like that Halo 3 and Ace Combat 6 "Even after the darkest nights, morning always comes.", and sizable demo downloads. I am down to 3.7 GB.

That 120 GB HDD upgrade is still 2_0000 yen. Perhaps it would be better to get a new Xbox 360 console with 120 GB installed, in order stave off (or hopefully avoid) the inevitable RROD.

Fanboy Square-Enix, Hate

(tags game, Final Fantasy, failure, Xbox 360, Japan)

The big gaming news this week for me was Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360. What a coup! As a gamer who doesn't have a PlayStation 3 yet, I feel pretty happy about spending tens of hours leveling up on my Xbox (with Achievements mmmh).

Unfortunately, the current word is that only North America and Europe will be getting it. WTF. For Japan, FF XIII will be PS3 only. WTF WTF. If there's an Asian version (usually Chinese market), I'm going to buy it with the quickness. But probably this one game will be region locked hard. A friend of mine speculated it will be brought over as an "International Version". Sounds likely, but aren't those versions released 1 year later after the original installment?

This is why I hate... who to hate? Square Enix, who's hands are probably tied behind their back because of a Sony contract?? Well I want to hate on Sony, but SE is the one that has to deal with Sony, so its their fault as well. Who cares, the Xbox 360 version has probably just started development. I bet you it will be released late 2009.

As an aside, I have no idea how the game is supposed to play, but if there's no Gambit "programming" system, I'm not going to jump on it on opening day.

Let cruft go: XBLA cleaning start

(tags game, Xbox 360)

No I'm not talking about Microsoft's proposal to de-list Xbox 360 games. I'm talking about actually trying out the demos and delisting the ones I won't ever play again because they're not fun to me. So far, out of the 51 XBLA trials (some have been purchased/gifted... 5?), I got rid of 5. Not so efficient. Well I don't have a time limit.

I threw away Schizoid, though. Sure it's pretty. It does remind me of Ikaruga, just like that madman controlling two ships at one time ("doubleplay"), but there's no shooting or polarity changes. It's kinda like chipping away at a chalkboard with two erasers. Sure Schizoid is novel in its own way with its own game mechanic.

I was hoping to delist the trial games that are mistakenly listed in my Achievement list. It's annoying.

But the soul still burns: Soul Calibur 1 XBLA

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

Okay, I succumbed. I purchased Soul Calibur 1 for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade for 800 cred. I just wanna post this picture:

It just too much fun to play this game. 60 FPS, sparkly crisp graphics and movement, and now no loading times. Aya Hisakawa voice for "Xianghua" is still the greatest. 「正義は勝つ！なっんちゃって」 "Justice will prevail! Just kidding!" Perhaps the state of the art has improved but this still looks and feels good to me. Still there's that uncanny green glow to the polygons.

I checked my past blog posts on the Soul Calibur series. Oh my. "Jigoku e iku no wa, omae ga saki da!!" (2003-03-30) 5 years ago (!) I was play SC2 with a joystick on the GameCube. I don't even remember when I played SC1, though. I know I have a guide book on SC1 for the Dreamcast somewhere around here, where is it.

I've only seriously played with Xianghua on this port. I surprised myself by getting 37 wins in Survival mode, not that that's all great but still that gets me ranked on the global leaderboard (which is Xianghua only Survival which no one will look at). And I got 50 Break for doing Guard Repel/Parry practice (when you only need 15 for an Achievement), but I only only lucked out because Sophitia is totally predictable.

I guess I'm going to spend some time on this one because some of the Achievements are doable.

This makes me seriously consider Soul Calibur IV coming out this month. Moves that knock off clothes?!? Yeehaw! But seriously, the demo movies show the in-game play at what feels like 30 fps. Ugh?! I'm going wait for an interactive demo.

Update: (09:32AM) I played until 3 in the morning. Xiangha vs Sophitia, Practice mode with Freestyle "Vs CPU @ Medium stage 6 difficulty". Tricky but fun.

Xbox freebies keep me happy

(tags game, Xbox 360)

I just found out that the Top Spin 3 demo was available so I tried it out. Totally hard to get into, but it seems pretty meaty. I can't even pass the advanced training session. I really like the exhibition gallery where they show you the moves in detail. I can't wait to get this game, well actually I can. The Asia region comes out 2008-07-11, but I'll probably pick this up in 6 months.

And I was perusing the Dashboard for stuff to try out. Free (or has it always been?) DLC for Bullet Witch. Ace Combat 6's movie always gets me right there (I saw that Naussica version via Kotaku recently, I think). Call of Duty 4 video looks pretty killer. I finally watched one of the finished Devil May Cry 4 video. It makes me want to play it, ha.

I also looked at the recent JPRG demo videos from Namco and Square. They sure do make good videos. Also Dragonball Z: Burst Limit and Mobile Suits Gundam demo was out. I tried the latter but its a online only affair so I quit it.

Then I tried out Soul Calibur XBLA version. OMG, all that fighting goodness! I wanna buy it now! Mitsurugi FTW. My fingers just know what to press. I feel so guilty because I got other fighting games I need to finish, though. I'll have to let this one go for now.

Just a reminder to blog about gaming: Space Invaders Extreme, etc

(tags failure, game, Xbox 360, Dual Screen, Wii)

Just a reminder to myself:

Write about finding a pink paddle controller for playing Space Invaders Extreme, and explain how SIE rocks as soon as I get used to the paddle.

Write about Happy Dance Collection for the Wii and how I finally have a reason to buy it. Oh wait, I collected my third Wii game, Elebits, for el cheapo yesterday.

Write about my giving up on Monster Hunter 2nd when I couldn't complete a training mission.

Write about my Shin Sangoku Musou level up-ing with just the female character and giving that up when it doesn't unlock the other hidden female characters.

Nurburgring drive

(tags game, driving, Burnout, Xbox 360)
(originally written 2008-06-24 23:42)

Burnout Paradise was pretty fantastic with all the car action. Then again, I played most of the game with the camera on the bumper so I didn't care about how the car looked. So I started looking at racing games again. One integral part of my revival is that Nurburgring track, the 20 km course. I mentioned to a friend that the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue game has a video of the producer Kazunori Yamauchi riding a Nissan GT-R on the track competently. Nice.

I spotted the Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport 2 combo pack for 1680 yen used, so I nabbed it after a night's sleep. Wow. Stats galore. Paint your car ala PhotoShop layers. The visible racing line. No music during racing. Crispy crispy graphics. I spent about an hour on career mode. I got the perfect racing Achievements on my first try, har har. I hate playing this with an analog pad. I wonder if I could reuse my GT Force. I doubt it.

I then backed out into Arcade mode because I wanted to try out Nurburgring. In my initial crappy car, an asia "soap-shaped" one. Of course I turned down the realism and turned on the visible racing line. I would turn on the training wheels if they had it. So I didn't crash but I clocked about 11 minutes. Is that slow or fast or what? Obviously its slow, because I don't really know the track. I totally forgot my record on the GT4 on PS2, I should fire that up.
I also tried out the online racing spectator mode. It's pretty interesting with all the cars. I would like to loop this mode and just watch it.

So I was in Nipponbashi recently looking for figure stand parts when I spotted Joshin's front display for Toy Land. They were advertising a Nissan GT-R model kit. The 40 inch widescreen TV showed someone driving the Nurburgring in the Nissan GT-R, with the stopwatch clock in big numbers and various stats in the lower right hand Picture-in-Picture. I stood in front of the store blocking foot traffic watching this video. So it took the car about 7 minutes (close to 8?) to complete a circuit. Is that slow or fast or what? Obviously its fast. 150+ kmh average.
I also picked up some other racing games while in the area, Moto GP '06, Project Gotham Racing 3, Fatal Inertia. Again the price point was 1200 yen or less. I don't when I'll start these, yeah.

Stick worth as much as a console: Otomedius

(tags game, Xbox 360, Otomedius, shmup)

Okay, I still haven't played this Otomedius shmup game, but did find it at the dingy arcade that had the Time Crisis 3 I used to play. And now it will get a proper port to the Xbox 360 with touch pad-enabled joystick. But the Hori-made joystick will cost 27000 yen! I think I should try it in the arcade first before I even consider getting another joystick. (Thanks Game Life).

We don't go there anymore, except for achievements: Half-Life 2

(tags game, Half-Life 2, Xbox 360)
(originally written 2008-06-24 22:41)

Dread is what I feel whenever I go to "Ravenholm", Half-Life 2's night-time level. I don't like the dark tunnels.

Oh did I mention I finally finished Half-Life 2? Geez, what a disappointing ending. Then again, I didn't finish Half-Life, so this is "fool me once".

So I started HL2: Episode 1. And already I dread the early stage. "Shine your light on that thing." Aaah! WTF is my trusty, unlimited ammo crobar?! Well I'm not exactly piss-my-pants scared, but I rather play something else. Perhaps I need to change my perspective and force myself to think that it's interesting. Discover a range of emotions.

Still I'm in it to complete the achievements. I think.

Levelling up shin-sangoku musou 5

(tags game, Xbox 360)

I am totally surprised at how much I want to keep playing this Shin Sangoku Musou 5 for the Xbox 360. (I believe this is called Dynasty Warriors). I've been watching for this game to come down in price, and in a fluke sale pricing bin I got a copy for 2280 yen. I played it till 2 am last night, and I couldn't stop thinking about playing it during work. Uh. So before I lose myself to this game tonight, uh yeah, here's a blog post.

Need for Achieve: NFS Most Wanted, Portal

(tags Xbox 360, Portal, FPS, driving)

Alright, I am totally addicted to the little Xbox 360 Achievement Points. I can break 5000, all I need to do is buy more games... ;-)

I said I started Need for Speed: Most Wanted which I am kinda digging and kinda not. Mostly I hate the graphics because it feels so autumn dingy. I like Autumn the season. I love Autumn in Japan, it's so pretty. But this game feels like a half-assed port from a PS2 game, ugh. At least it looks smooth. Maybe it's 60 FPS instead of 30.

I then popped in The Orange Box last night and finished Portal, for the first time on console. Yes I have the PC version, but I haven't bother trying the user generated maps. I still can't find all the cameras, and I did a "game FAQ" lookup but luckily I came to my senses and averted my eyes. I can find the last four, I can do it. Make these Achievement Points stand for something solid. (Does that sense of integrity explain the 30,000 foot drop Achievement?)

My Burnout Paradise

(tags game, Xbox 360, racing, Burnout)

This has been the best video gaming I've had in a while. 51 hours of pure driving mayhem. According to the stats, I averaged 76 MPH.

I got 100% at the 45 hour mark, but the offline Xbox 360 Achievements were left. 100% Power Parking wasn't so hard. I finally cleared the Million Dollar Stunt Run and the 20x Boost Chain, w00t. Both took a number of tries.

Stunt run is fun, well, at least when you land the jumps and the points are awarded. But the latter achievement was aggravating. Except that on the run that I got the award, I hit the zone and set the 37 Burnouts. I tried a number of things like the Oncoming on I-88 and taking my foot off the accelerator and tapping the brake but I finally settled on boosting starting from the Naval Port going towards Lone Stallion Ranch. It helped that I had the worst boosting car as well. putt putt puttering through Paradise City.

Other things of note: I can't remember where I got my 457 yards of drift, but perhaps it was at the basketball courts spinning my wheels. I want to know where I got my longest non-cheating drift, but that record is long past.

I don't really feel like playing multi-player online.

So after I was done I was checking the forums and Gamefaqs to see if I could some more cars through inputting sponsor codes. I have the Asia version and there wasn't anything published, so no new cars for me. I read upon on other peoples stunts and I was surprised by the 60+ stunt multipliers, the tens of millions Showtimes, 6x barrel rolls. Amazing.

Finally, I read a comment where another game with free roam like Burnout Paradise was Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I bought that game for 1000 yen new, so I tried out that game today and it feels like a PS2 port. So slow. What is this, 30 fps? Is it fair I'm comparing a 2005 game to a 2008 game? The drama scenes are laughable. I keep wanting to change the language to English, because lip-sync or lack thereof makes it so laughable. I should play this after playing something slow and different.

Oh well, I wish it wasn't over. I even free roamed the city just taking in the sights again. I am definately going to try out BP again when they update it for motorcycles.

So much for life goals: Ikaruga on XBLA

(tags game, shmup, Xbox 360, Ikaruga, failure)

Ikaruga on XBLA. Life is still the same as it was before, that is to say I still suck and I still don't play it. What am I aiming at? My Xbox Dashboard is still Ikaruga-themed, though. And I still scope the Ikaruga goods. I got a Ikaruga poster in the last couple of months which is the black on grey design that is the cover of the Gamecube US release. Too bad its just the Dreamcast version and not the Arcade (Naomi!) version. One online auction of the latter recently closed at around 8000 yen, whoa.

I've been sitting on these browser tabs for long enough:

Kotaku reported back in 2008-04-16 that "Top Rated Ikaruga Player [claims] 'XBLA Version is Horrible'". Well horrible for those experts with discerning senses but for dillantantes like me, I would never know the difference. The details are at Kingoro58k's blog, but the highlights are the list of changes, the EASY-C4-BOSS2 differences between DC and XBLA, the C3part1 homing bomb differences, and a clarification on "this is Ikaruga LOL".

And finally related to this shmuppin' on Xbox 360 is the news that Hori is coming out with a Real Arcade Pro . EX (joystick) for the Xbox 360. I don't use my DoA one for anything, so I won't buy this one. One Xbox friend will though, so I can at least scope it out. Perhaps he'll use it on his Windows machines, using these unofficial Xbox 360 controller drivers by Morii.

i can haz boost?

(tags game, Burnout, Xbox 360, failure)

I completed the Burnout Paradise at 100%, after finishing the boring Showtime, but its still not over yet. I know that there is one more thing that will give me the completely complete 101%. So I've been knocking on the known Achivements. One of them is to get a 20x boost run. 20x FSCKIN boost run. I can barely get 6x. I'm sorely tempted to look for the cheatin' knowledge but there are a couple of things I can try and some roads to master before I hit a Internet Search Engine.

Some gaming: Burnout Paradise and DJ Max Portable 2

(tags game, Xbox 360, Burnout, Playstation Portable, music, Dual Screen)

This is a summary of the last week or two of my gaming hobbies.

I felt like I finished up with Stranglehold, since I mopped up most of the easy and intermediate difficulty Xbox Achievement Points. "Hard" and "Hard-boiled" difficulty remain untouchable, as well as the 50 point killing spree Achievement. So I will toss the game back on the rack for now. Still I wish that other FPS games had the cover and time-slow system that Stranglehold uses.

I went back to Burnout Paradise. I finally completed all the events yesterday, earning my "Elite License". Of course I only seem to be in it now for the easy Achievement points. Now I all I have to do is get 100% completion, which means setting record scores on all the roads in both Showtime and Time Trial modes. Showtime was fun but now its just tedious work. I surpassed 10 million (dollars worth of damage) on one run, just to see how far I could go. Usually you need about 700,000. I wish though I finished Showtime first. And I wished that I drove around the city in Time Trial mode instead of plain mode. That would have made my clear faster ... maybe.

Today I went to the grand re-opening of the Gamers Nanba, now called Ani-Bro Gamers. It was only recent news to me that Animate (or the parent company of Animate) and Broccoli (owner of Gamers) became the same company. I will write more about today, later, if ever. Anyway, my bud asked me if there were any interesting PSP games recently and I named Echochrome. I also dug through my stash and DJ Max Portable 2 came up. I intend to lend it to him if he's interested, but I played it for a day waiting for the opening of Ani-Bro Gamers. I got a max combo (no miss) on my favorite stage Seoleim again. That felt good. Then I remembered that I am playing it on 4p ("easy mode" four buttons) with easy difficulty. Increasing the buttons is just insane, so I tried normal difficulty. I get cut off with "You need more practice!" a heck of a lot more. Stop interrupting the song I am attempting!!?!? How am I supposed to practice! Normal has some interesting new songs (to me). I wish the developers of this game made a casual mode for the music neophyte.

Finally, since I was in Nipponbashi, I checked out some stuff. On the gaming front, I was going to buy the PlayStation Simple 2000 Series The Taxi 2 since it was only 840 yen used, but I thought about Vice City and how I need to Taxi that one. Also I was going to get some DS games, like Super Mario 64 DS, since the price dropped at one store to 2480 yen and I figure I like easy collection-ing type games. However, thoughts of the imminent completion of Burnout Paradise and the Bioshock I haven't opened, stopped me again.

You'd think my willpower is strengthening, but I bought Valve's The Orange Box for Xbox 360 (Asia version) at A-Too. It was only 2480 yen. I suppose I was seeing easy Achievement points again. Portal! I do have Half-Life 2 on my PC (link to me playing with the physics engine back in 2005), but I got it free with my video card, so no problems there. Plus this soft has HL2: Episode 1 and 2, which I doubt my Project Sugar PC can handle. Well it couldn't handle HL2 or Portal deftly, either. I really like how my Xbox 360 is making me ignore PC games and the PC gaming upgrade treadmill. Thank you Xbox.