October 02, 2005
Back in Action
It's been ages since I spent any quality time in front of my television. For most of the last eight months, I've been ridiculously busy, to the point that I literally haven't had time for anything besides work, sleep, and whatever handheld gaming I could sneak inbetween (on the train, in the bathroom, etc.). But now, I'm finally caught up, and for the first time in almost a year, I've got time to sift through my bookshelf in search of new media to consume. Here's what I've been up to the past few days:
Halo 2
Believe it or not, I never finished the single-player campaign in Halo 2 last year when it came out. I got a few levels in, got sidetracked by the multiplayer mode, and then never went back...until now. Why now? Not sure -- I've been in a Halo mood for whatever reason, so I'm runnin' with it. Hopefully this time I'll follow through to the end. I've still got other games everyone else in the world has already played to deal with, like Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, and both Metroid Primes. Yikes.
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is probably my favorite TV show of all-time, and yet I've only ever watched through season 2. It's tough staying caught up with American TV when you live in Japan! In any case, I decided to start over from the very first ep so I could watch it with my girlfriend, who's never seen it before. We're almost done with the first season, and we're both loving it. Having grown up in an Italian-American family only about 30 minutes from where the show takes place, it makes me a bit homesick whenever I watch it...not to mention hungry. I've had Italian food for dinner three days in a row now, thanks to that show. :)
Dragon Quest II: Akuryou no Kamigami
Just because I've got time for TV doesn't mean I've given up on handheld gaming. Right now I'm hooked on two games: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which hasn't left my Game Boy Micro since I put it in over a week ago "just to check it out real quick" (oops), and the game you see above -- the recently-released cell phone version of Dragon Quest II: Akuryou no Kamigami. I've already expressed my love for all things Dragon Quest several times here, so it should come as no surprise that I'm playing through DQII again. I finished the cell phone version of DQI last summer, and now that II is out, I'm blazing my way through that one as well. It's a wonderful conversion, actually -- the visuals are better than any previous release of DQII thus far (including the Super Famicom version), and it plays really well considering it's on a phone. I'd better finish it before the US version of Dragon Quest VIII arrives, lest I get sidetracked once again...
Anyway, that's all for now -- hopefully I'll be back with more soon. In the meantime, tell me -- what have you all been playing lately?
Posted by john tv at October 2, 2005 11:56 PM