I Am Beat

As I write this, that Spike TV Playstation 4 event is going on and I'm just not even paying attention because I'm going to play catch-up afterward.  Really, I'd much prefer to sit here, chat with a few people, play a little of this and that and just unwind because I am just worn down from today.  In that "every part of my body is sore, why is this happening" sort of way that I hope none of you are familiar with, though I suspect at least a few of you are.  I do confess that I also wish I had a PS4 to play around with right now as some do, but I don't need one yet outside of the "but it's newwwwwww and awesoooooome" need, and I have about 24 PS3 games that I need to play through which is simply not going to happen, unfortunately.  Not soon enough, rather, as I'm not planning on migrating to a PS4 completely, even when I obtain one in (hopefully) January.  I'm not convinced I'll be able to say no to one if I see one in the wild, however....

For all those reasons above, I'm more or less taking the night off.  I don't need to - I have about six posts that I've started and simply not finished, which explains some of the holes in updates lately - but my body and my mind simply will not allow me to do anything other than recuperate.  Hopefully this event that's going on will give enough bits of news -and- information that I can expound on in a few posts to help me catch up on my count.  It's silly to worry about, but last year's number was awful and I'd like to at least make this year's bigger even if I'm not going to hit my first year again.  One of these years, I suppose.  Until then, enjoy the PS4-related goodness!

okay, so Uncharted 4 was announced, there, I said news

I'm Still Alive

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's been fairly shitty lately and I've been working myself ragged trying to keep ahead of the curve.  Literally and figuratively.  So I haven't been able to sit down and write again, but it's not like there has been a lot of news lately again.  I do have to make a post about Rune Factory 4 now that I've played a good grip of it, and I do have a post about something else already worked on.  All sorts of stuff going on that I just have to finish.  Which is...again, how it usually goes!  Over and over and over and over again.  But I -am- bucking one trend at least.

Instead of giving you some K-Pop, I'm instead leaving you with one of my favorite clips from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which is definitely my favorite movie of all time.  I feel like I have already left this clip in this blog, but I searched and could not find it.  Regardless, it bears watching over and over again because it's just absolutely wonderful.  If this doesn't get you interested in the movie, even a little, then I'm sorry, but you don't know what funny is.  Or what good things are.  Or anything along those lines.  Because it's amazing, you see.

Hopefully will be able to drop a normal post tomorrow if not two.  Here's hoping!

"Yeah, I heard about that.  It was neck and neck and then she skipped lunch."  classic

Rune Factory 4 Get!

I finally did manage to get my mitts on Rune Factory 4 and while I'd like to say I spent all night playing it, I did not.  I did, however, spend all night doing other fun stuff, so basically it was a really good day.  Which is good!  I need really good days.  But as a side-effect of the things I was doing tonight to have a good day (Well, also because it was a -long- day) I'm tired and I can't form sentences properly for the most part.  Or at least not where it concerns the Steam Machine, since that's what I was trying to write about tonight.  So instead, I'm going to post Rune Factory 4's lovely anime intro (they kept the Japanese for the American release) and bid you all good night.

So, good night!  Regular posting resumes tomorrow unless something super bad happens or something like that.

shit, I better not have just jinxed myself I will be so maaaad

Allergies Make Me Tired

Because Nature wanted to give me one last shot in the arm as a rather loud and annoying "Fuck you", after the very nice cool-down, the heat has started to come back and allergens are flying rampant in the air again.  This has reduced me to being even more tired than you would expect from waking up at 7 AM for work every morning when I am a Night Owl who sometimes called 7 AM "bedtime".  As in, going to bed for the first time during a span of hours.  I'm sure you knew what I meant, but you know how I do sometimes enjoy superfluously explaining things.  Especially when I'm tired and prone to rambling because I cannot otherwise form coherent thoughts.

I was writing a post about the Sega Sammy acquiring Index thing, but I just lost track of it, started sneezing and just got really tired, so I'm putting that on the burner to be finished tonight.  I hate doing that, but when I have to get to bed and I'm just not feeling it, nor could I be expected to, it just ain't happening.  This'll clear up soon enough, I assure you, but until then it's just kind of a process that has to be stuck out.  Unfortunately.  All sorts of fun, I assure you.

So yeah, that's about it for tonight.  Sorry for the lack of post, all.

dear Mother Nature, go screw, love, everyone

What a Long Day

As stated by the title, it has been an absurdly long day.  Mostly because it feels like a continuation of yesterday which was also an absurdly long day for the fact that I stayed up for around 24 consecutive hours because it's the weekend, damnit.  I'm stuck working the mornings for two more weeks and I'm a night owl, so it's....restrictive, so my weekends are my time to reclaim my nights...even when it's not a good idea.  As it clearly was in this case.  Don't get me wrong - I went to sleep before work today (a surprise eight and a half hours of very, very boring things) but, well, it was not very good sleep apparently.  Even though it was long sleep.  I'm sure that I do not have to explain this phenomena to you much more as I am sure that we've all been there at one point or another.

So, in this situation, I will do what I usually do - offer you K-Pop and an apology for not having anything interesting to say.  Because I just don't.  Have anything interesting to say, that is.  Just....absolutely nothing.  It's bothersome.  Still, tonight's song is a bit approachable since it's only K-Pop by virtue of being sung by a Korean Pop Star - it's in English and has quite the toe-tapping quality to it.  I'm sure some of you out there will dig it, at least.  So with that, I bid you good night, and hopefully I will have something to write about tomorrow.

I will, because I will at least be able to write -something- tomorrow as opposed to tonight

Long Day, Am Exhausted

So please, as is tradition, enjoy some K-Pop.

It's been a rough week, but hopefully things should start getting better from here, aside from it being Summer and all.  I am eagerly looking forward to June 9th when I finally get a 3DS XL to play around with, and Animal Crossing:  New Leaf to do the playing around.  I -was- actually going to write something along those lines tonight, but that'll be for tomorrow when I can focus.  Because I can't really do that now, what with being sore and achey and hot and tired.  Simultaneously.  So, yeah, g'night, folks.

Grab Bag of Gaming Thoughts

Today has just been one of those days.  I sort of floated between four different games today without playing too much of any of them in any real sense, and I'm not exactly sure why.  It's possible that it's a focus issue as that has been something of a problem lately, but it seems more than that.  I may hilariously suggest that I'm restless, having had really nothing to do today which should have been relaxing, yet I fear it had the opposite effect if this is any indication.  Still, I could also blame it on the slight remnants of the foul mood I experienced the other night since it has not completely gone away yet.  Just, y'know...mostly.  Thankfully.  Still, I'm not quite sure -what- it is, other than annoying.

As you can tell above, I played a little more Disgaea 3 on my Vita, perhaps the most time I spent with any game today, and got Dinah up to Level 9999 for the second time in her overall lifespan.  Each and every single one of her stats saw an appreciable upgrade from the last time she was 9999, due not only to the stacking effect of the whole thing, but that I jumped into her Class World the six times that were available to me and raised her base aptitudes through that.  The nice thing of that, of course, is that those Aptitude points are permanent, so the next Level 9999 will see another appreciable boost from not only this round, but the round from the next six times that I'll be able to jump into her Class World after this upcoming reincarnation.  But there is a bit of work to do yet before reincarnating her again.  Perhaps a little too much.

Disgaea 3, or at least the Vita version of it, has an option that allows a character to absorb another one once per incarnation cycle.  (So, between reincarnations, basically).  The limitation is basically that the character absorbed cannot be higher than the Sum Level of the character doing the absorbing.  So no making a level 9999 character and having a Level 1 absorb it.  Nor reincarnating a level 9999 to 1 to have a Level 1 absorb it (since the Sum Level is what matters - that reincarnated Level 1 is not, in fact, Level 1).  Beyond providing a stat boost, whatever active skills and Evilties equipped by the character stand a chance of being transferred to the character that is doing the absorbing.  So if you have a character that doesn't have a Fist forte, but you really want them to be able to use Big Bang, then just have them absorb a Martial Artist that has the skill equipped.  Bing-bang-boom.  Of course, it sounds a little better than it is.

Really, the only reason to have a character absorb another is for the skills and evilties.  The stats that are gained are a mere 3% (HP/SP excluded) which is both a weird-ass number and totally not worth the effort whatsoever.  Take Dinah, for example.  If I were going to have someone absorb her (which I would never do), the biggest boost they would receive would be 12,487 to ATK, and really, not even that because that's her adjusted stat with equipment.  So let's be lazy and just round it down to 400K because I'm not going to bother removing her equipment just for this kind of thing.  12,000 to a stat might seem like a lot but it's...well, obviously not, considering that came from a stat that was 400,000.  From a character whose Sum level is in five digits.  A character with an unholy amount of time invested into her.  When you consider that one of the post-game bosses has 1.7 Million in a single stat, it's absolutely chump change, and should only be bothered with for the little extra that it will boost your stats for the -next- incarnation.

However, as stated, the Skills and Evilties are the -real- prizes here and when we're talking in terms of this, then the ultimate goal is clear.  You want a Majin.  You want a Majin who makes it to the highest level of the Majin Class and gets high-enough level that it can learn its "Violence" Evilty and you're going to want to equip that and (possibly grind it up to 9999 before you) have your good character absorb it.  Not only do Majin's have the best base stats overall (technically; their aptitudes suck out loud and I imagine they get outclassed in specific stats by other classes, such as Defense by Heavy Knights), but that Evilty in particular is something that you want.  You want it bad.  "Violence", when equipped, cuts down all earned XP by that character by 50%, but raises -all- stats by 50%.  So, say you have your character grinded up to level 9999 already - you don't need XP, so slap that on and BAM, 50% stat boost right fucking there on top of the bump you'll have gotten from the Majin's stats.  Which, again will only be a slight bump, but it'll be amplified by Violence.

The other Majin Evilties are nothing to scoff at either.  One Man Army buffs the character's stats by 100% if it's the only unit that is available on the map and cannot be reinforced.  (So either nine other characters have been dispatched and killed, or the Base Panel has been disabled)  Revival states that, if the character's HP is under 25% at the end of a turn, it'll be raised back to full before the next turn.  And finally, Vortex sets all Aptitudes to 10%, but gives another 100% Stat Boost, which I'm not quite sure how that evens out on the positive side, but apparently it does.  The issue with Majins, beyond their abysmal Aptitudes (first-tier class has straight 65%s and the Top-Tier only has 85%s, minus Class World buffs) is that they have no Weapon Fortes so they can't learn any weapon-specific skills normally, they have shitty movement range, and I swear that they only earn 50% of XP normally.  Perhaps it's because my Majin has to kill everything single-handed that it feels like it's taking forever, but I'm almost certain that he's not gaining levels at the same gait as everything else.

Still, this can be remedied by the absorbtion method as well, really.  Make a character that can learn the attacks you want (basically a female Martial Artist.  Precision means you'll always be able to heal unless you don't keep up on it (Precision is a unique skill and can't be transferred, I am a dumb) and Big Bang is the attack you need) and get those things that you want.  Then have the Majin absorb her and slap a fist weapon on him.  Now he can grow a little easier.  Sure, it seems a little silly or perhaps a little meta to have a character that you're raising purely to get absorbed to, in turn, absorb another character, but it's Disgaea.  That is literally the name of the game here.  Well, not literally, because the name of the game is Disgaea, but you know what I mean.

The other game that I did spend a not-so-small amount of time with today was Thomas Was Alone, a game that I not only finally completed, but mopped up the last few trophies it had to offer for the full 100% completion.  Unlike Guacamelee! and Zombie Tycoon 2, Thomas Was Alone does not offer a Platinum trophy which makes sense given the comparatively small amount of game there is to offer, but the point is, if it had one, I would have it right now.  Which is really all that matters, of course.  In terms of trophies, that is, since the point that really matters, I suppose, is that I actually cleared the game, given I wasn't too sure of my chances of toughing out the last section of the game.

Thomas Was Alone is....an experience, I'll say that much.  Mostly because I'm not sure what else to say about it.  The story seems easy enough to follow and I do believe I know where it went for the most part, but there's really no...feedback or anything - you either know it or you don't and if you're like me, and you -think- you know, then you are probably overlooking something.  That's not to say it in a negative fashion, really, though I suppose something like that cannot be wholly positive either.  If anything, I imagine the last chapter is where confusion is going to set in, since the game changes in fundamental, tonal ways with as much build as you can offer in just a short little narration in the levels leading up to it and the levels involved as well.  Which is...not a lot, clearly.

Despite clearing the game, there is actually something left to it that provides a strong case for a full-game replay, which is surprising to me, but at the same time, it's not.  On top of the narration each level receives, there is also Commentary to each level.  As in, developer commentary, I would assume.  I turned the slider up for it on one level, but didn't have my headphones in, so I didn't hear much and it is unfortunately not subtitled, but it was still enough to make me interested.  If nothing else, it made me consider another playthrough with the commentary on just so I could get a little insight into the game and how it was considered and created, and if only because what other game has done this recently?  Seriously, commentary is -brilliant- as the film industry figured out oh so many years ago.  More things should do this.  I'm honestly confused as to why this isn't the norm already.

Regardless of anything, I would have to say that Thomas Was Alone is a game that I appreciate more than I enjoy.  I like the style of it, I like the way it's structured for most of it, I like the characters of it.  There's so much about the game that I like that -isn't- actually playing it, because actually playing it is....secondary.  Or at least it feels that way eventually after the story has become prevalent and enjoyable, because you're less playing to play, and more playing to get to the next level, to be fed the next bit of narration and know what's happening now.  You want to see just how Chris and Laura are getting on.  How Sarah is up to silly antics again.  How Claire still dreams of being a super hero while John seemingly already fancies himself. one.  You want to see what Paul and Grey are doing in the last chapter.  You want to actually have all of this without the need of going through the motions of jumping here and there to get to the next white outline.  So even though the game missed in that aspect, it knocked it out of the park in the others for sure.  We'll just have to see if I do make that second playthrough, really.

wow, I kind of typed a lot for a lazy day today

Tired and Cranky

If there's a few things you've gleaned about me from my blogposts, especially the more personal ones (which are rare, admittedly), one of them is probably that I have struggled lately to be positive about things and generally try and keep an upbeat attitude.  I've done a pretty good job of it with a few hiccups here and there, but it's nothing that I really try and let get me down.  The last couple days have been more of the same about that, but my erratic and silly work schedule has really taken a toll on me that I haven't really registered until tonight when I realized I have been just a cranky person the last few days.  Like, crankier than the occasional piece of snark here or there - more along the lines of full-on, 'fuck this, fuck you, fuck everything' which has been a rare thing for...well, a couple years, honestly.  Which is good that it's rare, but that does then make it a bit unsettling when it does come around.

I think when it really hit was tonight when I was plugging away at the Dragon Fantasy review I've had open since....Sunday.  It's really not coming together the way I want it to and at one point I said to myself, "Am I literally going to explain how an NES-era RPG works?  Is that literally something I'm going to do?"  For a moment, I was so annoyed with that, with the whole concept of it and that I had to consider it, that I just grumbled, saved it and closed it once more as I have three times by now.  Usually, I would try to work through it or something, but instead I did the equivalent of upending the table I was writing on and stomped away.  Admittedly, it's less violent on a computer and in this format, but still, it's bothersome at the very least.

Part of the issue is Spring, as it always is.  I complain ceaselessly about it, but I just cannot handle ridiculous heat, and in my opinion, an indoor temperature of 82 degrees -with- a fan on at 11:30 at night is fucking ridiculous.  I say every year that I'm going to look into some sort of solution, but I never do and simply end up bitching for six months on end while also being miserable for various reasons.  Hopefully this will be the year where I'm motivated enough to -actually- do something about it, since I guess there are now Space Coolers that don't have to be hung halfway out a window to work.  Or maybe that's not a new thing and I am just a dumb.  I just know that a Space Heater is....'necessary' for out here for when it gets colder (obviously, I'm not a fan) so a similar option for when it's hot out here at least should have been a possibility, though the previously mentioned window thing was an issue.  If it's not now, then this might be a bearable Spring and Summer.

Another part of my grumbling is that there are rumors moving about the internet that the just released Deadly Premonition:  Director's Cut runs a little dodgy.  Being that it was a game I was actually looking forward to getting without expecting much, it's hard to say that I'm going into it expecting something bad now, but it's not outside the realm of thought.  It's not that you'd expect Deadly Premonition of all games to be a technical marvel or even 'smooth' (it was $20 on the original 360 release, and only got bumped up for $40 on PS3 because Blu-Rays are a bit more expensive, plus the content added), but rather that you'd expect the port of a two year old game that took something like a year to do would work.  Like, decently.  But with reports of stuttering framerates and strange audio echos or tinniness, not to mention the 'graphic overhaul' doing little for the better, if not for the worse, it's hard to not get discouraged.  Being the internet, it's hard to tell what's exaggerated and what isn't, so the only true test will be playing it myself, which I am understandably wary about doing.

Basically, I'm just being cranky and grumbly and tired because of things and it's really gotten in the way of writing things that I would prefer writing.  So instead, I did this.  Since I very obviously -do- want to write, even if I'm perhaps not in the best place to do so.  Hopefully, it'll pass - after all, I have a day off tomorrow if all goes well, so perhaps a day of simply recharging, getting some Soul Sacrifice in or playing through the end of Thomas Was Alone will assuage my undercurrent of 'bleh'.  Or maybe I'll veg out and catch up on my youtube videos since there's about three dozen of them that I haven't watched yet and are just begging for a marathon session.  Several, in fact, given that the bulk of them are 30-minute videos or better.  Which just makes me glad that the Vita has a Youtube App, because I'd just say 'fuck it' otherwise.  Regardless, tomorrow looks like a day that has potential, so here's hoping.

Coming Soon: When I Don't Feel Like Hell

While it would have been super awesome if I were back 100% from my little sleep schedule debacle, I am not.  It is rather unfortunate since these last couple of days, I have felt nothing but sleepy, unmotivated and grouchy, which doesn't lend itself very well to productivity.  This is a shame, of course, as I have been lacking in that lately because of other issues...also this issue, so a lot of issues and it is bugging me.  Because clearly, I don't want to neglect this, it's just hard to think of something to write about, much less find the will and drive to do so, when you wake up at 2:30 AM, disoriented and wondering what the hell happened to the 'hour long nap' you laid down for at 7 PM.

Even though I couldn't think of something to talk about tonight in a sense (actually, I had an idea, but wasn't really feeling it tonight), I figured something out in that I can kind of give you all a little insight into what I want to get posted up in a relatively soon-ish manner which means it could be between now and...er....the end of April.  We'll go with that to stay conservative because I have no idea what's going to happen between now and then, clearly.  Thankfully, unless there's something I forgot about, there's not a new game in sight that I'm picking up until April 30th when Soul Sacrifice drops, so I can play a little catch-up on my backlog.  Which generally means fun times here.  Since if I am focused on games that I've been simmering on for a while, I can generally form them into coherent words moreso than new games.

As I've stated, I have been playing Deus Ex:  Human Revolution lately and while I'm not quite sure -what- I'm going to write of it, I'm going to write -something- about it, even if it's just a few more collection of "Adam Jensen:  Jerk with Super-Powers" stories, since that post was rather fun and I -did- manage to keep it fairly spoiler-free.  I don't want to say here that I -won't- Review it, because I just might, but every time I've considered doing so thus far, I just...haven't been into it.  I dunno, perhaps it is due to the fact that I have two other games that I want to do things with here (that came out wrong) and I want to get them out of the way first.  Or maybe it's just because I feel like I want to play the game on Normal or Easy before actually trying to make an argument of its values.  We'll see how it unfolds.

No matter what I decide, I -am- going to be talking about the game, as I said, because there are things to be said.  Things that have likely been said millions of times before already since I am a bit late to the party, but things that are still ringing out now after the whole test of time and such has passed.  I..guess.  In any case, a playthrough on Normal or Easy will likely allow me to have fun with the game rather than the current 'almost not-fun' I am in a constant state of while playing it on Hard or "Give Me Deus Ex" difficulty.  Prepare to hear me repeat myself again as I whine and grumble about the merits of making Hard Mode Hard and not Bullshit.  That is a little spoiler alert.

One of the games that I have certainly played quite a bit, yet talked almost zero about is the Tomb Raider reboot that I bought purely on a whim.  I intentionally saved my talking about the game for a review that I haven't yet written because of reasons that -should- be obvious by now.  What with the being in an up-and-down mood and sleep-issues thing going on.  Regardless of whether or not I have been able to do so before now, the intention -is- still to write a review of the game because I think I delved enough into it that I think I can speak on its positives and negatives easily enough.  When I play it a little more to...you know, remind myself of them.

Not because I just want to play the whole damn thing over again.  C...certainly not.

Er, I'm getting rather dangerously close to letting you fine folks know what I thought of the game.  And it would be a sad thing indeed if I let it slip that I think it is a wonderful game and certainly worth a purchase before I actually say that in a review.  Even if the multiplayer is a steaming pile of butts.  And steamed butts are, in fact, the worst butts known to man.  Oh, whoops.  Well, anyways, that's certainly on the agenda for some time in the near-ish future.

While I have been a little bit more vocal about REVENGEANCE, it too was a game that I was looking forward to attempting to review which I simply haven't gotten around to doing.  Of course, I'm...not quite sure on this one.  I might just have to go the Sleeping Dogs route with this and just dedicate a couple of posts to just gushing about it because the damn game is that fun.  Yet, I -do- have my gripes with it and they are well-reasoned ones, so perhaps I will manage to be unbiased enough to present something that I am comfortable with labeling as an actual review.

I will say now, however, that I hope they release they Gray Fox/Fox Blade DLC as a paid option for folks who didn't pre-order the game.  This is because, quite simply, the Fox Blade is Over-powered as shit and also provides me the experience I specifically grumbled about way back when I wasn't sure about this game.  With an upgrade to its special effect, the Fox Blade will slice and dice something fierce.  As in, you cut, things fall apart, no muss, no fuss to it.  This is, of course, game-breakingly powerful since it only -doesn't- work on bosses, but it is also pretty damn fun to mess around with.  As I told a friend:  "Throw on the Gray Fox Outfit, equip the Fox Blade, run around cutting people and yell "Hurt me more!" and you have the Frank Jaeger experience."  It is a pretty fun experience, all told.

As for what is essentially the elephant in the room at this point, I have absolutely no idea just what I'm going to do about God of War:  Ascension.  There are things I can say about the game, things I -want- to say about it, big things, but I usually reserve those big things for at -least- until after I have beaten it.  At that point, I usually know whether or not I'm even going to attempt to try and review it, if not before it.  However, that's sort of the rub:  I -can't- say those things because I -can't- beat God of War:  Ascension.  Or rather, I can, in theory, but I'm not willing to expend the effort in the attempt until I know that the game works.

I hit a rather nasty glitch in which I got to the literal end of a chapter or what have you and, for whatever reason, the doors that are supposed to open will not open.  No matter what I do.  Logically, I know that the thing I -should- attempt to do is replay the chapter to get to that point and it will likely work properly, but the thing is...well....Ascension just is not fun enough to make that a viable option.  Yes, I'm playing on Hard Mode, yes, it's another game that doesn't really get that right, and yes, it's because of those elements that I'm just not happy with the game at all.  It doesn't help that there are other problematic factors mixed in, but those are for another night.  I have the game on my "To Play" stack where it will remain until I have heard that a patch is out that fixes a bunch of the issues people are having with it.  And likely for a time thereafter.  Because I'm really not expecting them to fix re-balance the gameplay with that same patch or any other patch for that matter.

So there you have it.  I -do- have things brewing and these are certainly not all of them.  It's simply a matter of being able to sit down with a clear enough head to translate those things in my brain into words on here.  It is not always an easy task, as I'm sure you're aware, but it's something that I enjoy trying to do, at the very least.  With any luck, I'll get normalized on my sleep at least, and figure out something to do for the burgeoning allergies that will likely follow my normalization.  Since nothing can be easy or let up and just let me be because why would it.  I'm not bitter or anything, of course, why would you ask that.  You're silly.  That's silly.

Super Tired

For reasons that may or may not include the coming of Spring, the fact that I only got about three hours of sleep last night, or the fact that I got up early and went off to a convention-type thing today for three and a half hours, I am absolutely worn out.  Really, I'm just as surprised and confused as you are.  Which should be not very, considering.

There's absolutely nothing news-worthy today, and I just don't have the energy to write up something about God of War: Ascension that properly exudes the amount of seething that I need to do over how bitterly disappointed I am.  Spoiler Alert:  It might be my Final Fantasy XIII-2 of this year.  That is how annoyed I am with it.

There's that, then.  I'm just going to pack it in early tonight.  Goodnight, folks.

P.S. Dear Mogs,

Learn to draw so you can have a proper sleepy Moogle for these types of posts.

Love,

Mogs

Shit.

So.

Yesterday was shit.  Today was pretty shit as well.  Tomorrow might not be shit, but let's face it - it probably will be.

I've tried to stay positive and such and I lasted a long damn time, comparatively speaking, but I've just hit a wall and it's sucked the life out of me.  Hopefully, I'll be able to scrap together a little creativity and drive tomorrow to do a proper post, but I make no guarantees.

In the meantime, this is one of the handful of songs I've been using to try and get myself back in a good mood.  The jaunty bits of piano are really nice, while the song overall just feels fun and happy.  It helps.  It can't work miracles, but it can help.

So, yeah.  Sorry about that folks.

I'm Tired So Here's K-Pop

I don't think I've ever featured f(x), or if I have, then clearly I don't remember.  Or care.  This has been my song of the evening, forcing me to eschew Music Unlimited for the much less optimal "listen off of youtube which takes a lot longer initially" option.  Since Music Unlimited's selection for K-Pop blows chunks and got worse just recently as T-ara's album (as in the only one it had) got pulled.  Which, of course, I had ten songs off that album in my playlist, so I am not a very happy man about that.  I've enjoyed Music Unlimited while I've had it - it's a neat service, definitely, but there's absolutely no way I'm going to resubscribe for the full price when it comes time do to that.  Not unless there's, like, a meeting of the minds and Sony works out a deal with SMENT or SM Town or who the hell ever and Universal (I think those are the primary two publishers) and makes K-Pop -happen- on the service.

Which it won't.  So I mean, there is that.

Anyway, I have had problems sleeping lately, which is rather unfortunate.  To elucidate, I had to take a nap last night to supplement the couple hours I'd managed that morning.  I awoke at 6 PM.  Because of many things including a general inability to sleep and work, I didn't get to sleep again until 2 PM today.  Where I then woke up, again, at 6 PM.  I'm sure it's not the worst situation in the world and blah blah, but it sucks nonetheless and it's thrown me all off-kilter.  It also has completely prevented me from playing just about anything for an extended period of time, which means I have nothing to really talk about.  But mostly the whole 'dear god, body why won't you let me sleep' thing.

So yes.  Enjoy K-Pop and good night, folks.

Silliness

There is silliness afoot.  Silliness that is almost painfully stupid to encounter, and yet so inherently polarizing that it is just one of those things that you will never, ever be able to discuss without a vehemence showing up on at least one side.  It is a stupid argument, it is apparently big news lately, but that is the most I'm going to mention it.  Yes, I realize passive-aggressively talking about it is still talking about it and it's rather self-defeating, but we can't just brush this sort of thing off.  Neither, though, can we let ourselves be taken in and taunted with this obvious bait from folks who just don't know any better, unfortunately.  We can't play into the obvious traps and, at this point, the smart play is simply to express the correct amount of disgust and annoyance and simply move on for now.  As a diversionary tactic (which is what this is), all it requires is that it takes the heat off the point for long enough that everyone just moves on with nothing different because of it.  So, let's just move on.

I'm fairly sleepy tonight because of various things and that certainly doesn't help matters.  Following work, I lay in bed for an inordinate amount of time, worrying that I'm going to catch the thing that is going about.  I snoozed a little, but ultimately woke up once more, eager to actually do something.  Which means I debated whether to play Persona 4 Golden (as I have yet to beat it yet) or pop in Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation to get a rough approximation of its charms, as Game of the Year voting time is upon us.  I have a couple games that I need to crunch with yet, despite the slight 'cheating' air I feel about it, and AssLib is one of those titles.  At the same time, however, I still really like Persona 4 Golden, and want to finish it, lest I fall out of the groove I've pleasantly run myself into.  I only have a little bit left, so I believe powering through it is what I will do, and hopefully I'll be enjoying stabbing mans before the weekend is up.

I briefly considered sharing a couple new songs I've been listening to as of late, but that will be a thing for another night.  For now, I'm simply going to enjoy said songs while looking over my notes for a short story I'm writing.

Oh, right.  I didn't mention that.  I am writing a thing.  It is probably going to be pretty good.  Depending on how it turns out, I might turn a few excerpts into posts here to share, but that too is a thing for another night.  This night is for the wonderful sounds of foreign pop music and yawning, apparently.  Because goddamn if I am not really still tired.

I Bought Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley Today

I still don't know why.  I mean, I know why - it's because it's $7.50 in the Playstation Store for Plus Members instead of $30 and goddamned if I don't like a value.  Of course, Harvest Moon:  Hero of Leaf Valley's value was, before I purchased it, highly suspect, as it seemed to be a port of Save The Homeland, which I didn't care for at all, what with the year time limit the game has in place.  While I'm not sure if it's a hard time limit or not, I'll likely never find out as I'm not planning on playing Save The Homeland again anytime soon, and Hero of Leaf Valley is much more loose with it than previously indicated, I suspect.  This is for many reasons, but the important bit is that, when presented with the same scenario with slightly different end-goals the game did something that I suspected it was not capable of doing, being what it is:  It drew me in and made me want to play it.

I am not absolutely certain, but it seems that the time limit in this game, as opposed to Save the Homeland is two years, rather than one, which is certainly a lot easier to swallow when informed of that upfront.  I'm not sure if that's going to be correct, or if there's some sort of subtext that I missed, but the CEO of the place that is coming in to bulldoze the entirety of Leaf Valley told me that I was to have 50,000 G before two years had passed, so I'm just -saying-.  Or, rather, she said "I guess if you have that much money before we come to tear this dump down in two years, I'll sell you the deed" or something that amounted to it but semantics.  So right off the bat, you have twice the time that you have in Save the Homeland, or at least the game presents as much to you.  There is still an end-point and that's still a thing I'm not comfortable with, but I handled it with the Rune Factory games, so I believe I can handle it here.

Beyond that, after checking a few things that point out the differences between Save the Homeland and Hero of Leaf Valley, one of the big differences is that you can get married in Hero of Leaf Valley which is such a goddamn Harvest Moon standard that any game that doesn't include it is pretty permanently on my 'nope' list for this fact.  It's only a big deal because it's a goal to strive for, a meta-goal even, in a game that is built on its own meta-goals because, in most cases, it doesn't have a 'goal' itself, which is the inherent strength of the Harvest Moon series.  Learning (perhaps re-learning) that Save the Homeland doesn't include the feature while Hero of Leaf Valley does, it only served to push the former further down my list (Below Innocent Life, even because let's face it, Innocent Life at least has a goddamn dune buggy) and the latter higher up in prospective places.  Since I barely played it at that point, you see.  In all reality, I've -still- barely played it, as I'm only on Spring 8th in my save file, but I'm sure you see the distinction.

Beyond the fact that it was $7.50, I think the other reason that I bought the game is that I always, always crave having another Harvest Moon game, and one that is at least somewhat 'new' as Hero of Leaf Valley is.  Despite a quick play of Save The Homeland years ago, the place is basically a clean slate as the inhabitants of Leaf Valley are not featured in any other Harvest Moon game to my knowledge.  At least, no other game that I've played.  There is a such thing as being over-familiar with characters, you see, so any game in the Harvest Moon line that offers me an opportunity to romance women who are not Ann, Popuri and the other caste from Mineral Town is a game that I will happily attempt, if nothing else.  Even though I believe Friends of Mineral Town to be one of the better Harvest Moon games out there.  If they could just take about 90% of that game and just fill it with new characters, that would probably be the next best thing, really.

Seeing as I expect my days to be filled with Sleeping Dogs when available, having Hero of Leaf Valley serves as quite a fine counter-point.  An indulgence after another indulgence if you will.  I get to enjoy the violence, the visceral nature of Sleeping Dogs and then step into something that is wholly counter to that, yet entertaining on its own merits.  While jarring, it's a nice jarring, something that I don't think a lot of people get to experience or, if they do, enjoy, which is a little bit of a shame really.  Both are equally valuable, however, which is what I want to embed, so people who don't enjoy a good slow down with Harvest Moon or similar games are missing out I say, but not in a way that is detracting from what they're enjoying regardless.  Which sounds a little muddled now that I wrote it out, but whatever, it's late and took me like three hours to type this up because I am tired.  Off to bed, folks.

Labor Day is a Very Laborious Day

So, every year on Labor Day weekend, there's a...semi-local event that my family and I go to.  It is, essentially a large flea market held out in some field, where vendors from wherever you want to imagine come to peddle their wares.  From guns and other sorts of weapons to the plastic toys you get in Happy Meals to paperback books to knock-off purses, if you go to this event, you'll likely find something you want, even if you go in not wanting anything.  Well, in most cases; I'm pretty shackled into at least buying a couple things every year almost completely out of habit, but not totally, as I do enjoy them, but...I'll get to that in a moment.

To give you an idea of the sheer size of this event, we got to the location before 9 AM and didn't leave until Noon.  In that whole time, we only took one break, around the 11:30 mark to eat lunch and then we looked at a few more rows of vendors before we decided to leave since, well, we had finally traversed the course completely.  My Poke'walker, which I solely use as a pedometer nowadays, read 10,811 steps when I checked it on the car ride home.  I am a bit speculative on that number, but still, that's some number right there.  Not mentioning that it was also very, very muddy all throughout, being in a field and all directly after it rained for a whole day.  It didn't rain while we were there, nor did it at all today, which was welcome and the cooldown yesterday's rains provided was most enjoyable.

Regardless, it was a good time, and my 'unplanned' purchase was, simply, three Rule Books for Vampire:  The Masquerade, more or less solely because of Helloween's LP of VtM: Bloodlines (Posted the link to the first video since there's no playlist for it yet.), since it really got me interested into the mechanics of the game the video game was based off of.  I got the Core rulebook (pictured above), Kindred of the East (which I assume covers Kuei-Jin and, more or less all things Oriental/Asian in the Vampire universe), and The Dark Ages, which....well, I'll be honest and say I don't know what the hell it entails.  Vampire:  The Masquerade more or less is foreign to me yet, despite watching the entire Bloodlines playthrough.

As far as what I usually get year in and year out and, in fact, continued to do so, I picked up some T-shirts with some fairly neat designs on them, and some Venison sticks.  Nothing all that interesting, I'm sure, but I wanted to mention them anyways because, well, I really enjoy venison.  Especially in stick form.  Especially especially when it's spicy as well, which half of what I purchased are.  While other vendors had movies and games that I looked through, there wasn't really anything that I wanted nor needed, so it was sort of a bust on that front, but at the very least, I got some new reading material.  That is, of course, if I ever read the books, which is...well, it's possible that it won't happen.  I'm fickle with my books like that.

When I got home, since the temperature has dropped significantly, I turned to my PS3 for entertainment and, by that, I mean I played Yakuza 4 for a number of hours.  And by "I played Yakuza 4 for a number of hours", I mean, "I took Akiyama to the bar, got him drunk, got into fights, and repeated that for hours".  It is fairly hilarious how Yakuza 4 encourages you to have your character sloshed 24/7 as there's really no downside to it, and in fact, there's a good upside to it:  When drunk, your Heat gauge fills faster.  Not to mention, you can buy Akiyama an innate ability that raises his overall attack power while he's drunk.  So by this combination, I became the Bane of Kamurocho Street Punks and Yakuza in no time flat, laying waste to any and all who stood in my way.

It was....quite fulfilling.

So, that was my Labor Day.  The trek and a few other things I did here and there made it sort of a rough day, but Yakuza 4 more than smoothed it over to make it a pretty great day overall.  Here's hoping your day was equally as good!

Yet Another Nod to a Devil May Cry HD Collection

Yes, I realize this is the same as the one in Chance's post that was debunked.  -You- try finding a different one.

Way back in the E3 times, there were mumblings of a possible Devil May Cry HD Collection that went the whole Expo without being answered.  And, indeed, went without being spoken of again until just recently, thanks to Joystiq.  It would seem the folks over at Capcom Unity are holding an anniversary art contest for a new, unannounced game that everyone kind of defaulted to "Collection" at, considering, well, a simple equation.  10 Year Anniversary + Fan Art Contest focusing on said series + Lots of HD Collections already announced and out there + Capcom = You knew this was happening eventually.  Of course, it'd be quite a welcome addition to the HD Up-Port Collection, even if you're only getting two good games out of three.

Personally, I just can't wait to see this part in Hi-Def.



Simply because, to this day, I still don't know what the fuck.

I would write more, but it's been a really long day, and there's not a whole lot to explain about the situation.  Capcom loves them some ports, lots of other PS2 games are getting ports, here is a chance for a port, everybody wins.  Except, well, people who play Devil May Cry 2.  That is a straight-up Wargames situation, son.

It's Way Too Hot, You Guys.

Like, it is so hot.  You don't even know.  This is the time where I hate not having a fan, because, well, it is very goddamn hot and a fan would help.  I mean, I have a tiny one, but I don't have a plug for it, and it doesn't do a lot anyway.  Like, it's just a little better than those handheld ones.  I need a fan that will make my whole room like, 62 degrees.  Which sounds a lot like an air conditioner, which I don't have!  Of course.

Minecraft storms are 80% cooler than real-life storms.  FACT.

The downside of this heat in Spring is also that Spring can't just be hot.  No, it has to be a constant battle of Hot fronts and Cold Fronts taking their turn flying over head just to make everyone miserable.  Which means storms.  Which means I may be missing a post or two this week.  Just, y'know, throwing that out there as a warning.  If you find yourself going through Kupowered Withdrawals because of this, just, y'know, read my Chrono Trigger DS Posts.  "But Mogs, I already read those!"  Well, read them again.  But no, seriously, I worked pretty hard on those, so if you would read them, it would be appreciated.

This heat is also pretty much interfering with a good bit of my gaming.  I did dig out a PS2 over the weekend and start up Romance of the Three Kingdoms X again, and had some pretty good times with it.  But I'm too paranoid to turn on my PS3 since I don't want it to explode before the PSN comes back up.  Whenever that is.  Because damnit, I got the Trophy for Answering all of the questions in DW7 which rendered all of my other work completely useless.  Of course.  The guy never did get back to me, by the way.  There's the update on that.  Anyways, the point is, I don't want the PS3 to explode because then I can't synch my trophies and then we're going to have what is known as a problem.

But the PS2 doesn't need nearly as much fussing over it, as far as I'm concerned, so this is a good thing.  I might head over to Nobunaga's Ambition here soon on that, or I might power through a few PS2 games I've actually never played.  Or, y'know, play some old favorites.  I'll let everyone know what happens with that.  Or I might jump back into heavy portable gaming.  I have been playing Castlevania:  Dawn of Sorrow again for reasons I myself can't discern, as I don't even really like the game.  And Valkyria Chronicles 2 does remain unbeaten still.

All I know is that I'm still hot, cranky, tired and hungry.  So, this is probably a good place to stop.

Headache and Rambling! (Also some music, kind of.)

My head hurts because the temperature has been up and down all day. Between nearly freezing this morning with the wind blowing like it was, and then warming up later, it just hasn't been all that pleasant of a day, not mentioning that I was out and about as well.  Garage sales won't, er, browse themselves after all.  Which sucks, since that's all I did.  But after having some incredible deals from Yard/Garage sales in the past, I can't just stop going to them.

I know, technically, I should have some sort of statement out there regarding the whole PSN situation, so, well, here it is:  It sucks.  That's about it, really.  It's a big cluster-fuck made of smaller cluster-fucks and it's not going to end well, but it's not going to kill anyone either.  That's about it, really.   I mean, there's a lot of ground to cover concerning it, but I'm neither interested nor willing to do so, as you can easily find the info elsewhere and my opinion isn't exactly an informed or concerned one.  I never attached a credit card to my PSN account, and this isn't the first time a big corporation's database was hacked into and personal information (including, by default, my own) was taken.  And it likely won't be the last time.

Also in the bad ideas category is the fact that I've been listening to Kesha lately, despite not actually liking her.  Mostly because I also don't -dislike- her for some reason.  I guess it's just that she's different sounding, so there's merit in listening, as well as the catchiness of the songs, but the songs aren't genuinely enjoyable, at least not for me.  The song choices for me have been, in no particular order:

(Small windows because they're just lyric videos)

It's just a weird thing.  Like I said, I don't explicitly dislike or like her or the songs, but I can't stop listening to them.  Damn their catchiness!

Blurgh. Content that is not my Content.

I am pretty much a blob tonight with fingers.  I have absolutely no energy, no drive, nothing.  Partly because I'm just tired, partly because my mind's been doing somersaults because of the PSN stuff that is going down.  Between worrying and trying to not worry, rationalizing and doom-saying, not to mention bullshit with the weather, I have just got nothing.  Aside from, well, other things that I can distract you with.  That are pleasant.

So remember when I told you guys Mortal Kombat: Legacy ruled?  Well, two more episodes have since gone up and my stance remains unchanged.  I'm a little disappointed with Machinima's decision to make a 'censored' version to premiere and then put out the uncensored version the Friday following, as it just seems, well, arbitrary and last-minute, since I am fairly positive the first episode was uncensored.  Oh well.  As before, I will Embed here, but I would seriously suggest you to just watch from the comfort of Youtube proper.  Perhaps full screen with a drink and a small snack.  (Since the second episode is actually part two of the first, and the third is, assumedly, another two-parter.)








So, yeah.  There you go, something neat to settle up with on this most awful of evenings.

Rainy Mondays Suck.

But I guess it could have been worse, given the fact that it was supposed to storm all day.  Severely.  Which I had made preparations for.  Thanks, Meteorologists.  Keep doing what you're doing.  I would say that is why I'm not prepared to do an actual post tonight, but that would be a little false.  Half-false.  It's merely exacerbating the problem. 

As we know, I had to do an "I'm tired, so here is me rambling" post about Dragons Friday (Which, I -wanted- to do a post about Dragons anyway, and perhaps will do another, better one at some point, because I mean, Dragons.) and, well, I've been tired ever since.  I get energy at the oddest times, but overall, I've just been "Bleh" lately.  Which might sound like cause for concern, but I highly doubt it; I've had a lot of stress lately that I think is just starting to catch up with me, not to mention it's Spring, and Spring sucks.

So, honestly, I just do not have content currently.  I mean, I could talk about how I powered through Wei's story on Dynasty Warriors 7 today, but I want to save most RotK stuff for that series of posts that I honestly swear I will start at one point soon.  The big hurdle with that has been the presentation.  There are a lot of important figures to bring up, and I don't know how to detail them.  Do I go, "something something Liu Bei.

"Liu Bei, by the way, was a descendant of the Liu family which has direct ties to the Han Empire" etc. etc., Just describe what seems important at the time and let you remember while they keep getting mentioned over and over again?  Describe only events and battles in the main posts, then make special posts on a separate day dedicated solely to explaining the main players?

The other hurdle is that I haven't actually finished Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which is mostly what people consider as the history of it.  Which is silly, since the very first section involves the three Zhang's making it rain blood with sorcery.  But, whatever, I would like to read that and brush up on my actual knowledge before or during the series so it'll be fresh and I can describe events as clearly as I can while making it (hopefully) entertaining.  Which introduces yet another hurdle; Do I present the Romanticised version with foot notes saying "Here's what actually happened here"?  Do a post about the Novel version of events, collect a few of them and make a post about the actuality of those events?

Potentially, I'm over-thinking it, I understand that.  But I have a great deal of respect for history, and I want to treat it, and you the readers, with the respect and knowledge that can come with it.  I'm obviously not really a teacher on anything, but I do like to share my knowledge with others in the best way possible.  I'm sure I'll figure out a way about it; I mean, I'll have to.  Still, suggestions might be helpful!

Speaking of suggestions!  Does anyone know a reliable site with screen-caps of a lot of movies?  Finding screens of movies for my "Popcorn On" articles are a bitch to get.  Because IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes don't allow linking to their pictures.  Assholes.