May 06, 2007
Singin' in the Rain
It rained like crazy today, but I'm not complaining. A fitting end to an otherwise excellent Golden Week -- fitting because it gave me time to finally settle down and relax a bit before getting back to work tomorrow. I went out and bought an 8GB iPod nano today to use when working out so I don't have to lug the iPod video around when I just want to listen to music. Sometimes I spoil myself, but whatever -- when you work as often as I do, you gotta splurge now and then. :)
(Apologies for the quality of the above pic; I didn't have my real camera on me today so I had to settle for a cell phone grab.)
This week is gonna be party central, thanks to the impending arrival of my good pals Christian and Shane for the 42nd time this year, not to mention other, less frequent visitors such as Chris K and Billy B. Apparently I also have a birthday to forget about in less than 24 hours (I'm looking to go in reverse this year if possible), so we'll see what that brings.
I haven't had a lot of time for gaming lately, but I did manage to *finally* pop in Oblivion last night. I've only played about 90 minutes so far, but so far it's been surprisingly compelling. I say 'surprisingly' because I honestly wasn't sure I would like it, what with it being the polar opposite of the kinds of RPGs I've traditionally enjoyed (Japanese ones). So far, so good, though. Love the atmosphere, love the music, digging the dungeon-crawling. I'll try to play some more tonight if I can.
May 01, 2007
Golden Week
Apologies for the long bit of silence (longest since I've relaunched this blog, actually). Life has just been too darn busy and exciting lately to keep up with posting. But I'm still trying!
Golden Week just kicked off in Japan today, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be here, not having to worry about E3 arrangements or demo deadlines or anything like that. I've got no interest in hitting the "new" E3 in July, so this'll be the first time in years I spent my entire summer in Japan. No visits to LA, no visits home...just good old Tokyo.
It's been three months since my last post, so let's see...besides work and my personal life (both of which have been going well, thanks for asking), I spent most of my free time on two things:
1. LOST
and
2. Crackdown (aka Riot Act)
My brother's been a big fan of LOST since its debut back in 2004, but I never got around to finally watching it until a couple of months ago. All I can say is...WOW. I'm sorry I waited! I gobbled up the first two seasons in like three weeks, and then I bought a Season Pass on iTunes for season 3, and it's been totally fantastic the whole way through. Easily the best television drama I've ever watched. There's only four episodes left this season, and the way things have been going, I can't imagine they're going to be anything but phenomenal. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend you drop everything and get to it ASAP. :)
As for Crackdown, it's definitely my favorite game so far this year. Yeah, there's a few things they could've done better, but on the whole it's just incredibly fun and rewarding. I must've spent at least 30 hours with it over the past couple of months, maxing out all of my abilities, collecting around 460 agility orbs, and racking up 650 achievement points. I think I'm about done with it now, but I'll probably pick it up again when the new downloadable content hits, assuming it's worth checking out.
Not much else to report on at the moment, but here's a quick rundown on my thoughts on next-gen so far (a report card, if you will):
Nintendo DS: A
Not a whole lot to say about the DS that hasn't already been said. It's got a killer library of games, the Wi-Fi stuff has been excellent so far (Panel de Pon DS is owning me right now), and I mean, Dragon Quest IX is coming later this year. Need I say more? :)
Xbox 360: B+
Xbox Live is the best thing to happen to games in years, IMO, and achievements are a godsend. If I've got to choose between a 360 game and a non-360 game from my backlog, nine times out of ten the 360 game gets the nod because in the end, love it or hate it, I'll have something to show for the time I spent with it (achievement points). The hardware is built like garbage (red ring FTL) and the damn thing sounds like a lawn mower, but I'm really, really enjoying it so far.
Wii: C+
Super Paper Mario doesn't interest me all that much, and apart from that, what else has there been to play since Zelda? I hate the fact that I find myself replacing Wiimote batteries every two weeks, too. I'm kinda bummed right now about Wii because I love the concept and I love what they've done for bringing new gamers into the fold, but really the only thing I enjoy playing on it is Wii Sports and Virtual Console. VC is great, but it would've been 100 times better if they enhanced the games somehow like on Xbox Live Arcade (online play, some kind of achievements, etc.). Oh well.
PlayStation 3: D-
Apart from some folding here and there, I've barely touched the thing since I bought it. And I can't really think of anything I'm super excited for in the future that's not also coming to Xbox 360. Can anyone sell me on this system?
PSP: F
Frankly, it's been crap. But the coming months look promising, with all the RPGs that are coming over (a few of which my company worked on, BTW: Jeanne d'Arc, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and Brave Story: New Traveler are all 8-4). I'd be stoked if Sony brought out an upgraded PSP that added a second analog stick and ditched the UMD format entirely, but we'll see, I guess.
Anyway, that's that. Life is going well, birthday's comin' up, friends are visiting soon, and summer is on the way. What more can you ask for? :)
What's new with you all?