So I haven’t updated in a while and not much happened while I was gone.
Obviously I got lazy if you check out my games section, as I won’t be using box art any longer. The big news is that I finally “beat” Super Mario Galaxy 2 with around 85 stars. If I were 16 again, I’d have every star by now but I just don’t have the motivation to play these days. I have the time and I love the game but putting in the effort to play is not as compelling to me as it used to be. Perhaps I’m just overwhelmed with my huge backlog. Por exemplo, barely started World 2 in New Super Mario Bros Wii. Also, the last game I beat was Alan Wake on 5/19. I’m actually up to the final check point in Splinter Cell Conviction Co Op mode, I just want to get it over with already.
Music wise, I’ve been very busy lately. I’ll be seeing Perpetual Groove next week then in August I see Umphrey’s McGee and Sound Tribe Sector 9. I’ve been overwhelmed with all the album releases lately though. STS9’s acoustic set (Axe The Cables) is fantastic and I’m in for a treat when I see them perform it live.
The Derek Trucks Band also released a live album, Roadsongs. I even caught a live performance of theirs on the HDNet channel, which is airing a live performance of Robert Cray as well. Robert Randolph and The Family Band released their new album, Walk This Road. BoomBox is releasing their 2nd album, so I picked up their first release and gave them a shot. Pretty Lives released a new EP, Making Up A Changing Mind and I picked up Further by The Chemical Brothers too.
So not much news, just what I’ve been consuming lately. What will I be consuming in the following days to come, perhaps Sin And Punishment 2 and a little Crackdown 2. I’m still trying to chip away at Miles Edgeworth as well, what actually distracted me from portable gaming lately has been Tilt to Live but like Canabalt, I’ve already reached a score so high by luck that I can never come close to touching it.
It’s picture time so that means I finally have a use for the new Adobe Photoshop CS5. Let’s see if it crashes for me like CS4 would.
Well, my girlfriend and I just bought each other engagement rings.. so, I think this means we’re now engaged officially? We’ve been together over four years now and have known each other for ten. The rings are nothing special, white gold bands and I doubt we’ll get a diamond wedding ring after seeing the film Blood Diamond. That and the fact that we’re pretty poor. That should make this next part even funnier, the fact that my new sneakers cost almost as much as one of the rings. I have picky and expensive taste in sneakers but I’m the type of person that buys just one pair and wears them for five years.
Hey, I’m supporting American labor here with these New Balance though, which is more than I can say for some pro-American people who then turn around and buy sweatshop labor sneakers.
Remember how beat up my old mouse was? Check out my New Balance 992s.
This is how they looked originally.
I loved these sneakers, so much I even considered buying them in the grey and black as well. The guy at Foot Locker yesterday told me he had them in all three colors, so I wasn’t alone. I shopped around like crazy until I found the sneakers I thought were me, and these were it. For the first time in my life, I had a pair of sneakers I actually thought were a representation of myself.
Now here’s the New Balance I bought yesterday.
Don’t do a spit-take, these are actually different sneakers, I swear. See, they have baby blue laces. I kid you not, I had 992s and I bought 993s yesterday. Here’s how they look on the web since my blurry shot(see below) doesn’t do them justice, though compared to the 992 web shot neither does theirs.
They’re a lot more comfortable than the 992s, which is something I didn’t really like about my old pair after trying on a friends sneakers which practically felt like pillows on your feet. The only problem (other than looking almost exactly the same as the 992s) is possibly the baby blue laces, I’m not sure how I feel about them so I may end up getting some white ones.
I almost went with a grey pair of New Balance 498 that were only (only!?) $80 but I liked the look and feel of the 993s better. The 498s actually looked comfier but not the case when I tried them on compared to the 993s. Other than comfort, when I looked down at the 498s I didn’t quite like the look of them in the front.. yes, I’m that picky (see above). Here are the 498s.
I love the color and texture but the design in front just kind of killed it for me.
I am tempted to exchange my new ones for a grey pair. When I got the 992s, I never had a pair of blue shoes before and now I kind of like the style of grey sneakers. I also shopped around like crazy for the 992s whereas the 993s I pretty much settled on the first store I walked into.
It’s kind of crazy I bought something so similar to the previous model but just check out the past three digital cameras I’ve owned.
First I had an Olympus FE-280.
Then we thought we lost it, which we later found under the seat in my car. We got an FE-220 for cheap on eBay and it even came with a larger, 2 GB XD card.
Then we actually did lose it.. when somebody stole my girlfriend’s purse. We even lost the bigger XD card.
Eventually we couldn’t deal with the FE-220 and got an FE-5020 from Buy.com.
Our latest upgrade to this was a nice 4 GB microSD card since the FE-5020 came with a microSD to XD adapter. This works out for me since I have a microSD reader but the adapter doesn’t really fit in SD slots on most multicard readers so my girlfriend’s laptop and All-in-One PC are out of luck. The only problem with the FE-5020 (other than the color, since that was the cheapest one) is that it’s a bit blurry for indoor shots. Still, a nice upgrade from our FE-220 which mainly serves as a secondary battery now.
Time for a new gaming segment where I’m not restricted by syllable count and I get to go a little more in depth. I think it’s better to reflect on a game after you give yourself some time to sit on the experience rather than talking about it while you’re still hyped. These wont be thorough reviews but just what I’m left thinking about the game after I’ve moved on.
Before I beat No More Heroes 2 and Mass Effect 2 I actually completed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Mario & Luigi: Bower’s Inside Story and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks so here are some thoughts on these three first.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Now that I’m playing Alan Wake, it really brings me back to this game. I can’t judge this game as part of the franchise since it’s the only Silent Hill I’ve ever played. My first impression with this game was that I hated it since I failed numerous times at one of the first nightmare sequences. Considering I have a poor sense of direction, I wasn’t really feeling it and the map system in the game is pretty weak. I gave it another shot the next day, got through it no problem and I began to really love this game. I was driven by the narrative, presentation and even the puzzles. I really enjoyed the psychological profiling aspect before each chapter as well. What made this feature even more interesting, better than replaying the game, I made my girlfriend play it and we’d discuss our choices. She actually had the same problem with the game initially due to the nightmare sequences but when she gave it another shot she was able to tackle it all for herself save for one painful sequence at the mall.
Because this game was so concise, we could really absorb everything while it was still fresh. I usually end up playing games over a span of a very long time so it was refreshing to have something that didn’t just pad its length with filler content. I loved the final chapter of this game and the ending, I found it very intense. It was one of the few endings that really left me with something and I really enjoyed the music during the end of this game. As it spiraled into madness, I found it to be a flawed masterpiece as a whole.
Mario & Luigi: Bower’s Inside Story
Not a whole lot to say here since a game like this is pretty self explanatory. It’s simple fun and breaks up the tedium of most RPGs with its interactive combat and platformer/puzzle gameplay. My favorite DS RPG would still be The World Ends With You but M&L is definitely a nice time killer.
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
If it didn’t shock you enough that Shattered Memories was my first Silent Hill, I never beat a Legend of Zelda game until pretty recently with Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass. What did I do during my childhood, right? Probably rode my bike during the majority of it I guess. I enjoyed TP though I thought it dragged on during the end and I’m probably one of the few people that enjoyed PH despite the Temple of the Ocean King. I’m pretty much at the final dungeon in Wind Waker thanks to importing save files but the fetch quest at the end really derailed my adventure so I don’t know when I’ll ever actually finish the game.
On to the game itself. I love this game even more than PH for simple inclusion of Princess Zelda’s addition to the puzzles. It’s a robust handheld title that really takes advantage of all the capabilities of the platform. Another neat feature is how the game even makes you close the system and reopen it at parts. Easily one of the best killer apps on the Nintendo DS.
I’ve decided to take advantage of the new pages feature on Tumblr, so I’ve posted a treatment and monologue from my script writing course years ago. These are the only writings I have left after my HDD crashed, since we posted these on MySpace for the class. I actually had a more blog worthy article I wrote just for fun but it was lost with everything else.
I’ve been procrastinating with gaming updates here, the currently playing section hasn’t been updated in a while. Assassain’s Creed 2 has been put on hold while I tried to return to Batman: Arkham Asylum. I started playing Red Steel 2 for a while and I’m almost done with Splinter Cell: Conviction. Today I’ll probably start Alan Wake. I beat Final Fantasy XIII a while ago but I haven’t started working on a haiku yet. What’s sad is I’ve barely touched New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Fatal Frame IV. I’ve also invested a good amount of time into Saints Row 2 and GTA: Chinatown Wars months ago and they’ve been on hold forever.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
What good is this game?
I refuse to pay for Live
At least there’s Co-Op