Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So, I got an email from Squeenix earlier.

Dear [Mogs],

Thank you for ordering from Square-Enix, Inc. on February 9, 2014. 

The following product(s) have shipped. If you paid by credit card, 

your credit card has now been charged.

Product SKU: 91224 
Product Name: HITMAN TRILOGY HD (PS3) 
Qty Shipped: 1 
Tracking Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Product SKU: 91448 
Product Name: Drakengard 3 Collector's Edition (PS3) 
Qty Shipped: 1 
Tracking Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

[...]

If you have questions about your order, 

please visit: store.na.square-enix.com/orders

Please note: This email message was sent from a 

notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. 

Please do not reply to this message.

Sincerely, 
Square-Enix, Inc. Customer Service 
store.na.square-enix.com/orders

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  It's happening!

okay, Hitman Trilogy was there to bump the order over $100 for free shipping and also because Blood Money

Well, This Year is Starting Swimmingly

There's a certain something that's come up and it's left me completely unable to sit down and focus on anything, much less write stuff.  Sorry, folks, but it happens sometimes and goddamn, do I wish this shit would stop happening to me.  Hopefully it'll clear up tomorrow.  Of course, that's what I said yesterday.  Ugh.

here's hoping that I'm just pissed off when it's over

Well, This is a Strange Problem

It's been no secret that the last couple of years have not been kind to me and I have not particularly dealt with it all that well.  I mean, it's probably not all -that- apparent through just my posts on here, but I'm sure you have parsed as much if you're a regular and it's been a constant source of frustration for me...which is a pity since most of my issues are also frustration-related.  Regardless, this year has been worse by far which is punctuated by "The Great Mogs Funk of 2013" in which Funk does not mean good things, but rather bad things like not posting for days in a row and that sort of thing.  Also the mini "Resurgence of the Great Mogs Funk" which I hadn't honestly 'announced' or declared or anything, but kind of thought it with slight disapproval in myself.

I'm not saying it's fixed.  What I am saying is that I was in the equivalent of stormy waters at the edge of a sheer cliffside which means that I felt kind of stuck and going under which is a bit cliché, but whatever.  And what I'm saying is that recently a rope dropped down and goddamned if I am not clinging to it.  Who knows what's going to happen with this rope.  Maybe it'll fray and drop me back down at some point or maybe it'll help me get over the cliff, after which I can take the rope and..er...well, I was going somewhere with that, but that part of the analogy/metaphor doesn't really translate.  But basically, as you can tell, I'm kind of like a shark in that I just have to make analogies.  Except I'm not really like a shark because the analogy I used was about drowning and goddamnit anyway

The thing is, I've felt better lately.  Ever since I got that 'rope' dropped down to me, I've been really pulling myself up and feeling better and like I can really breathe again.  What is has also introduced me to, however, is the weird feeling where I'm just finally happy again and I don't want to do anything but sit back and bask in the happiness because it's been a while.  Which means that even though I'm in particularly good moods, I find it hard to actually sit down, focus and write up a post even though I do legitimately have things I can write about.  I could write more stuff about Dynasty Warriors 8, for example, including a dissertation as to why implementing a system which has you freely gathering weapons and then introducing a hard cap to the amount of weapons you can have is dumb, especially with no options to directly compare without just moving back and forth and also not letting you just discard/sell weapons outright at victory screen or something.

Still, I do like to share these types of things in the vague sense at least, since I like being straight with you fine folks who make a habit of reading my ramblings.  So when I'm not going to be able to post or when I'm having troubles doing so, I like to...you know, say that instead of leaving you hanging.  I'd rather that it just wouldn't happen, of course, but when it does, you just gotta figure out a way to roll with it.  Hopefully soon I'll normalize again and be able to actually write things and whatnot like I'm back to usual, but until then, I'll do what I can.  Since, well, that's about it!  Thanks again for sticking around while I go through these difficulties!

seriously though, I'm doing pretty good finally

Bonus Post - What's Been Going On Lately?

Above is the song that I linked to in the New Little King's Story post I made earlier, or rather, finished earlier, which was originally going to be used in a post the previous night where I just grumbled loudly about bullshit I didn't/don't want to get into and not actually talk about -anything-.  As noted in said NLKS post (which was supposed to go up last night, meaning the rage post was from the night before last) I hit save instead of publish and then closed the tab because I was, well, pissed.  So last night, I went "Oh, that was silly, but no sense in fixing my mistake and posting it since it's got no content and is just anger" and instead started the NLKS post which explained the lack of post from the night before.  While I was writing that, as I noted on my Twitter, there was a little friend drama occurring that I got dragged into.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but when two of your friends are having a -large- fight, and you end up on the blamed end because you didn't stick up for either of them (because they were both wrong), well, it kind of hampers morale.  So, what does all this mean, exactly?

It means that it just hasn't been a good week.

Rather, August just wasn't a good month in general.  I was on-and-off with allergies, and while my mood was mostly stable, my inspiration and my actual -ability- to write sort of fluctuated which I'm sure is residual from my moping around and such from The Great Mogs Funk of 2013.  Of course, at the end of the month here, I started working again and my current work will go on until at least the 20th of this month, if not til the -end- of September.  It's not easy work.  It's manual labor work, it's intensive, and it's something that requires proper timing and precision over several hours.  It's tiring, is my point, and going from not really working to being ridiculously busy is not an easy transition to make in ideal circumstances and I am clearly not in ideal circumstances by any flip of the coin.  So it's just a lot of stuff all at once as it usually happens and it just gets in the way and is annoying.

What -hasn't- helped things is that my pool of topics to talk about of a night has shrunk considerably for the bulk of summer, and I think that has shown itself at several points.  As I've stated before, during the summer it's simply -too hot- to play my PS3 for extended periods of time because it'll just erupt into flames and drag $170 out of my wallet for a replacement for a unit that I don't even want anymore.  I have an old 80 gig with backwards compatibility and not to sound like a jackass, but I don't even want that.  I don't use it because what if my PS3 seizes up and dies while I'm playing like, Shadow Hearts:  Covenant?  Drakengard?  Those aren't easy games to get anymore and yes, while you're -supposed- to get your disc back when you get the replacement unit, who knows if there's edge cases where they go "Oh, sorry, it was lost/destroyed" and who knows what happens in that case?  It's simply easier to just -not- deal with that nonsense.

That's why the goal has shifted as such.  I believe I mentioned it in the past, but I was giving serious consideration into the 500 GB GTA V Bundle at GameStop, and when I went there this past week to pick up Killer is Dead, I did it.  I put down $50 of the whole purchase and I feel good about it.  The Super Slim is a device that I actually like the looks of, it's small, it runs cool, it doesn't draw a lot of power, and if it breaks, I can open it and get my disc.  But, of course, it's not going to break - I'm confident that, like Microsoft with the latest and greatest models of the 360, they've figured out that over-heating thing something fierce and it only happens in the edgest of edge cases now - like Store Demos and the like.  So for $270 ($220, technically since the 50 is already down) I'm getting a PS3 that would otherwise cost $300 in a different bundle with Grand Theft Auto V, something I was already going to pay $60 additionally for, and another Dualshock 3 so I can have proper couch-multiplayer if I so desire and have someone else around.  Or if I just want to switch controllers.  It seemed like a no-brainer, especially because the cool system and the 500 gigs of on-board storage means I'll...actually look into downloading PS3 games I've gotten from Plus, which is a bevy of opportunity on its own merits alone.

So what's been going on lately is a lot of change.  Which means a lot of stress which means a lot of wasted time which means that I don't get a lot of work done.  Obviously, I apologize for that and it's a silly thing overall, but, well, y'gotta have pride in whatever you do, and I certainly do here.  I'm pretty certain that people read this blog nightly, judging by the view counts, and I imagine you people are the few and the proud, as it were, so you deserve a little transparency when I can offer it.  And that's what it is.  The next few weeks are going to still be rough, but when Grand Theft Auto V comes out, I'll have not only the game, but a new PS3 that I can use and abuse wholly for entertainment purposes on an unprecedented level which will allow me to get through my backlog and allow me to provide some more content for you guys where it might otherwise be absent or lacking.  It's not too far off.

As always, thanks for reading, folks.

as if I needed another reason to be excited for GTAV, I mean have you even seen that game

Urgh.

I have no problems admitting that I sort of cheated with the portable post that I made earlier.  Specifically, if you will note, it claims to have been posted on the first even though we know I didn't post on the first because it was fucking storming and I didn't want to worry about shit that night.  So I wrote it up tonight and even though I feel like I lost my point completely, I posted it and it's there.  I'm done thinking about it.  I'm done caring about it.

I don't know why, but it's been a miserable few weeks and it's just not really letting up.  Rather, I could understand why I might've been down before, but now, I really don't get it.  All I've done for the last few days is watch Youtube Let's Play videos on my Vita and....that's about it.  I've been tempted to play games, but outside of a frustrating little bout with Soul Sacrifice, trying to try out the DLC, nothing has really happened.  I played Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen some today before my PS3 sounded like it was about to achieve flight, but I was honestly done at that point anyway.  Though, it did give me a story that will be made into a post at some point.

I feel like I do this a lot.  Really, I feel like I've done this a lot -lately-, just going on about how I feel shitty and such.  It's become something of a real problem.  I don't know if it'll really work itself out, to be honest, but it's not really something I can do much about, either.  So, all I can really say that if post quality or whatever starts to drop or what have you, well, you know why.  Sorry in advance for that.  Hopefully shaking a few things up (perhaps doing more story posts) and doing things that I -really- enjoy doing because of the process involved will help.

So, yeah.  I kind of just wanted to do a post pointing out that I cheated with the portability post, but I only did it because it honestly -should- have gone up May 31st, but I felt crappy and couldn't post it last night.  Also give a heads up that I was in a mood again.  One of those things might be important.  It is probably the former thing.  No, it's definitely the former thing.

I'm also cheating with this post but shh

Okay, I Was -Really- Sick This Time

I hate feeling like I am doing just a lot of sick posts, but, well, I can't exactly help it when I am constantly getting into varying states of sickness during these lovely Spring months.  'Lovely' meaning 'terrible', of course.  Because they are.  Terrible.  Very terrible.  The worst.

Anyway, this was a fun weekend and when I say 'fun', I mean 'full of soul-crushing agony' that you will certainly understand if you've had food poisoning and/or a particularly nasty stomach flu in recent times.  I'm leaning more towards the latter, but the point is that my Friday consisted of nasty things that are associated with those two ailments that I'm sure you do not want me to go into detail about, and my Saturday and today have consisted of recovering from said ailment.  Or rather, I should say today, since Saturday I was mostly still in a haze since Friday (the entirety of Friday, it hit around 12:30-1:00 AM) and Saturday sort of...blended in together.  Except the terrible things were mostly on Friday, of course.  Which is why I'm thinking it was some sort of 24-hour bug which is not uncommon!  And I believe two of my co-workers had just recovered from something similar.  Or just recovered from -something- nasty since one of them was still pale Thursday.  You know....the day before I conspicuously got sick.  Hmm.

Unfortunately, the horrors that accompany a sickness that I experienced this weekend sort of preclude one from getting much accomplished.  Being that I was barely able to walk around the house with only minor errors and only such occasions that deemed it necessary like hurried trips to unmentionable places or to get some water or take a pill that I don't know actually accomplished anything, I wasn't exactly in a place for gaming or anything like that either.  Strange, right?  I'm ashamed to say that I actually checked my Twitter on Saturday through my Vita because I am kind of a Twitter whore now, but that's basically been my entire involvement with technology until today.

Today....today was different.  Very different.  Feeling refreshed, even though not 100% better, I was able to plug solid hours into Dragon Fantasy Book I and actually managed to complete the entirety of its offerings.  I hope to have a write-up about it in the next few days but here's a little Spoiler Alert:  It's pretty damn fantastic.  Did you like Dragon Warrior as a kid?  If you said yes, then buy this game.  If you said no then I don't even know what to say, you heathen.  Of course I'm kidding.  Of course I am.  Mostly.  Somewhat.

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to drop in a line and let you folks know what went wrong this time around.  I did post about it on my Twitter a few times, but, again, the damn widget broke and there's not another one I can use and it's annoying as hell.  Since I got into the habit of using it for specifically this type of thing.  Oh well.  Hopefully back to normal...again....starting tomorrow!

I'm seriously not kidding what the hell is wrong with you, not liking Dragon Warrior

Sick Post Because I Am Sick

So, it has been a shit week.  One of the worst in recent memory and recent memory isn't actually too recent which is saying quite a bit.  Fun times are not being had, is my point.

Technically, I'm -not- sick at the moment, but I'm going ahead and saying so because I had a migraine for four hours, and for the last hour of it moving sent a shock of nausea and exploding pain throughout my whole body.  I'm not really over that yet, but I wanted to post something tonight, even if it was just a quick "Hey, this is what's up" thing.  Because that is what I do.

In the meantime while I recover, perhaps you should look into purchasing Guacamelee! because it is pretty good.  I'm not having the amazing "this is awesome, how awesome?  SO awesome" experience with it that a lot of other people seem to be, which might be partly because of my week, but it is a mechanically sound game with a good art style and nice sense of humor.  Being Cross-Buy, Cross-Save, using the Vita Controller functionality, having a full retail trophy list and being on a little sale for PS Plus folks (part of an indie promotion that you all better friggin' support) makes it all the sweeter.

So yeah.  Bear with me, 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.

Finally, That's Over With

Can you spot Ryu?

I find it odd that I have a sense of relief, at least greater relief than normal, now that I am more or less completely done with Game of the Year stuff.  Yeah, I'll probably still do a "Games That Weren't My Games" post since there are plenty of worthy titles that could bear that, but I don't have to do that right away by any means.  What makes it odd, I should say is that, rather than just being glad that I had so much to talk about this time around, I find that I'm just happy that I don't have to do the GotY posts any longer.  At least, not until next year, and I can honestly wait for that with no real issues.  For the last couple of days, I dreamed to be at this point where I didn't have to put down three games on a post and go on and on about why I loved them this much which was, by some measure, less and more than the games above and under it in some form.

Really, I think the thing that started to bug me is that I started feeling like it was coming off as a little self-centered.  I mean, I know it wasn't, or at least no more than any other post on this, an opinion blog about my personal feelings on things, but it was just a different feel.  I'm being silly, I realize, and perhaps I was just manifesting feelings of creative closure by projecting something else.  Since I knew every night for six days in a row exactly what I was going to write about which, in a way, was exactly like what I wrote the previous night and would be what I wrote the next night, it left little to the imagination.  It should've been perfect in that respect - I didn't have to worry about finding some news piece or picking out something that was significant enough during the day to speak on.  Yet, writing the same thing for, basically, a week straight got a little old fast I admit.

There's also a good chance that I've just written too much in the previous week and change.  Beyond my posts here, I spent the bulk of a night writing the rough draft of the prologue of the short story I've mentioned that I'm working on (nine pages typed much like these posts, but in OpenOffice Writer) and I've had a few other things that required a lot of writing here and there.  My nights have been more writing than not which is different and obviously a little taxing on me.  Not that I mind it in so many ways, of course, but strain is strain no matter what and it gets to be a little much.  Which is a sentiment that is defeated entirely by my spending three paragraphs talking about it.

My goal was to relax a bit tonight.  Of course, my definition of 'relax' seems a bit off, as it included writing this, doing another rather intensive writing thing elsewhere and playing the newly-downloaded Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus on my Vita.  It was provided free to Playstation Plus members and I've been itching to play it again, having not touched it since its initial incarnation on the Original XBox where I eventually conquered it with much struggling.  The game took me ten hours to download - ten, t-e-n, one-zero, TEN - and that was without the rather strange download pause-limbo that my games generally encounter during the overnight download when it's going to take a while.  Ten straight hours of downloading for 2.3 gigs of game and ten minutes into playing it, I had already considered deleting it.  Of course, I was playing the Ninja Challenges like a dummy and not the base game, which was a dumb thing to do.

Fifteen minutes into the story, the game re-introduced me to a move that I forgot completely about and that would have made my attempts at the challenges much much easier.  Which reinforces why it was a very dumb idea to go after them first.  So, in other words, playing the story is the right move and I've been enjoying it a lot even though I'm just in the second chapter.  I'm honestly surprised at how damn smoothly it plays, but by that same token, it -is- a rather old game.  When Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus 2 drops, if it's just as smooth, then that'll be something to truly admire and wow at, and for some reason, I actually have faith in Tecmo-KOEI's ability to do just that.  As for when I'll pick it up, well....that remains to be seen.  We'll see just how much I like this first one after playing it some more and getting in to the 'hard' parts.

And Now For Something (Somewhat) Completely Different

Tonight....tonight was a fairly trying night.  It was made more trying by the fact that my nights haven't exactly been very trying this year just yet.  As such, it was a bit strange, foreign even, and I didn't quite know what to do with it all.  That is a good problem to have, as far as I'm concerned, however - If you don't know what to do with a bad night because you're out of the habit of having bad nights, then you're quite a bit more lucky than you might think indeed.  Though it didn't last for a terribly long time, it was, unfortunately, something that lasted longer than I would have desired and as such, it made it rather difficult for me to sit down, concentrate and figure out something to post about.  So I figured, hey, I'll at least tell about that so it's clear why there isn't a more in-depth post that is about games.

I'm fine now, of course, partly thanks to the above Girls' Generation song, but mostly to some good friends in more ways than one.  It's mostly thanks to these friends that I've been able to stay in a good mood for...well, a really long time, save for a few low spots here and there.  They've made it easy enough that my spirits are naturally a bit buoyant and even when I get down, it's because of that that I can pull out of the funk fairly easily, even if it takes a bit.  Of course, when they're around and helping me directly, that will do the trick also, but that's just making it a bit easy.  Just being able to speak with these people and get that negativity out in a calm, reasonable way goes a long way towards alleviating any problems I might have.

The unfortunate bit is that today was actually a good day.  A really good day.  I completed Binary Domain's campaign mode and found it to be completely delightful throughout for the most part.  I have a couple complaints, of course, but I will deal with them on another night.  For now, I'm simply going to touch on the fact that, honestly for a first attempt at something like this (with an original IP, at least), Yakuza Studios knocked it out of the goddamn park and I almost wouldn't mind seeing them eschew a yearly release of a Yakuza game just to see what else they can do because if Yakuza and Binary Domain are any indicators (I would say they are), the studio knows quality.  Almost.  I still want Yakuza 5 localization news here and then I want some other news and then I want them working on the next Yakuza game or something.  Like, right stat like that.

Following completing Binary Domain's Campaign, I spent a bit of time with the Invasion mode of Mullti-player which I will also speak of on some other night.  Following that, however, I pulled the disk out and popped something entirely different in - my brand-new copy of Persona 4 Arena.  I never really expected that I would pick up the game, but for $20 and especially after my beyond-delightful experience with Persona 4 Golden, I absolutely couldn't pass it up.  I certainly wasn't expecting much since I am not a fighting game person and, in that regard, I'm not disappointed.  It's basically what I expected in that it looks fantastic, plays wonderfully, yet I honestly don't really care all that much.  It is a good game, I can tell that much, but it's not a game that's going to change my opinion on straight-up Fighting Games.  I doubt that there is such a game, or will be, that could do that.

Tomorrow, however, I will put my time into the very last game from 2012 that I'm going to play before I sit down and make the undoubtedly difficult decision of what game goes where on my Games of 2012 list.  I suspect I am going to have to spend quite a bit of time on the thought process behind it since, currently, I certainly cannot say whether I liked Lollipop Chainsaw more than I liked Yakuza:  Dead Souls, nor can I say that I liked Sorcery more than LittleBigPlanet Karting.  Not to mention all of the Vita games that I've played (sadly excluding Persona 4 Golden - it's a wonderful game, but it was released before and no matter how much more wonderful Golden is, which is a -ton-, it's still an updated port, thus not eligible).  It'll certainly be the longest list I've ever considered for a Games of the Year poll and, in a way, that's honestly kind of amazing.  Only a few more days to get the last minute gaming in, however.

Technical Difficulties

If only this said Technical Difficulties instead of Art Director.  Would be perfect.  Is that bad?

So, I have been playing Persona 4:  The Golden lately.  I have been enjoying it a lot.  I tried to convey that in words tonight and it didn't work out at all.  In fact, I've tried to convey a lot of things in words here lately and just haven't been able to manage it.  I have no less than three blog posts in my head that refuse to siphon themselves through my fingertips and it's the height of frustration.  I'm trying to work through it, but it's not working perfectly just yet.  So with that, I'll just have to ask that you bear with me while I try to work through this latest funk in the series of funks this year has provided.  I'll figure out something here eventually and then everything will be hunky-doory.  In the meantime, friggin' buy Persona 4:  The Golden if you haven't already.  Seriously.  Believe the hype in this one, because it does not disappoint.

Retro City Rampage is Too Awesome, Words Fail Me

I never do this.  Ever.  Or at least not in the year and change that I've been doing this blog.  I just want to preface this.

I cannot quantify Retro City Rampage with words right now.  There are words circling in my head, words that are itching to be put to keys to be put to whitespace on a computer screen, but I just can't do it.  Not right now at least.  So I'm just going to throw this up and perhaps come back to it later, I don't know.  Possibly edit in some -actual- thoughts and such when I can actually form them, but for now, all I can do is announce the high praise that is "I cannot stop playing this game for long enough to think about words.".  Because I think that -is- high praise indeed.  Seriously, if you have the cash, go buy it, or if you have the PS3, get the demo.  (There's not one for the Vita)  You really don't -need- a demo, I don't think, but if you worry even slightly that my taste and yours might diverge on this, then by all means.  But at the very least, give it a shot.

And Now, I Rest

Game of the Year posts were hard this year for some reason.  I mean, I know it was a rough (read: great) year in general for games which made it naturally hard to pick out just which was your more favorite out of this this and that, but damn.  Making me pick between a Yakuza game and an inFamous game?  Over an Uncharted game?  What the hell, 2011?  So now that it's officially done and over with, I'm just sitting back and taking a breather, getting ready for the storm that'll come tomorrow.  Not...literal storm, hopefully, just a metaphorical one that may or may not be really really bad.  Unfortunately this is another one of those "I'm warning you about something I'm not telling you about" things but in the end, does it really matter?  It's just a personal matter that likely won't affect things here too bad, so it might not be worth bringing it up.

I've taken this down-time to finally indulge in the inFamous 2 soundtrack that I've long neglected as I literally have a download queue in my Playstation Store list for one of the soundtracks, but never downloaded.  Since that would require downloading it, getting it onto my computer, getting it then onto my iPod which has a battery life of approximately shit and I just don't want to be assed with it.  Still, I've wanted to listen to it and, as usual, youtube is more than willing to let me do that.  The above is one of the nicer pieces I've heard so far, but I haven't heard the full run of the soundtracks just yet, so I'm not able to call it one of my, gasp, favorites from the game or really offer much more judgment than "It sounds pretty nice", so that'll have to do for now.  I'm sure you can draw your own opinions from it anyway.

I kinda feel bad that I just don't have more in me tonight, but I really don't.  It's a bit rough churning out posts one after another like I did the last few nights, and to top that off, I haven't been feeling too great lately.  Nothing that won't pass in time, but still, shit kinda stays with you regardless if just to try and slow you down a bit.  Hopefully after tonight's breather of just sitting back with some good music, I'll be right back to snuff.  And hopefully there'll be something friggin' news-worthy finally, as I've found it fairly rough to think of something to write about were I not doing the GotY posts.  So it's a bit thankful that I had those at least.  Though maybe I can do something about Harvest Moon DS since it's been taking up quite a bit of my time lately.  Hrmm.....we'll see I guess!  Until then, enjoy the music, seek out the rest of it to give a listen to if you haven't already, and keep on keepin' on.

Christmas Eve!

It's really hard for me to think of anything real poignant to say tonight as it's quite possibly my favorite night of any given year.  Despite the fact that it might not always be great, nor even something to celebrate depending on the circumstances of the year and its end, I can't help but feel that same sense of excitement build.  And that's a good thing; it's always good to feel that sort of happiness for just any sort of reason because I'm sure we all know that sometime life isn't too keen on giving you a bounty of reasons.  In saying that, I don't think there's a whole lot I have to say tonight, even though I like going on and on obviously, as sometimes the simplest things are the best.

Find someone you love and tell them that.

Merry Christmas, all.

Quick Note: So This is What Happened

So, the entirety of yesterday, for folks who weren't following my Twitter either on there or using the handy side-bar thing (provided it worked), I actually didn't have a phone.  This was after my internet just more or less kept resetting itself over very extended periods of time for the whole night Monday.  Like literally, I'd be sitting here or just walking by and see the DSL light and the Internet light go out, then very slowly come back on.  Minutes later, out again, etc. etc.  Obviously this is not the prime occasion to attempt using the internet.  And as such I didn't after it started, though luckily, I had managed to do a post before it did all that, which I was very happy with.

In these brief windows when the Internet light came back on on the modem, there was about 4 or 5 minutes at most when I could use the internet, though it was entirely slower than normal and posting from the PSP on Twitter was a pain because of that.  Also because of the PSP keyboard but mostly because of the whole internet would eventually die thing.  I almost managed two tweets in a row to explain this Purgatorial state of the internet, but the second would've posted in the window directly after both lights went out and after waiting about ten minutes to see if it'd come back, I just gave up.  So now I got to explain it, more or less.  And I did, so there's that.

Anyways, they fixed the issue, more or less, by coming out and disconnecting -something- that was apparently a phone line we didn't need that was possibly getting wet from all the rain we've had lately.  Apparently that'll kill your phone and internet, which is something I can only go "Who knew?!" to and shrug in a comedic manner before moving on to bigger and better things.  That's not to say I did that, as I mostly played FFT, Dynasty Warriors 7:  Xtreme Legends and watched TV with my non-internet, but, well, you know what I mean.  It's an expression and such.  And other sorts of words.

I feel bad for having missed so many posts this month without really pushing out Bonus posts to get up to quota, but you can't force yourself to write.  At least, I don't like to 'force' myself since I'm usually not happy with what I write as a result.  Still, there are a couple things that are post-worthy enough, so I might do those up tonight, or definitely tomorrow, if all goes well and my internet stays with us.  As it stands, at least I got to explain just what was up which is something I wanted to do for the whole of yesterday.  I'm sure you all understand how it can be.

The Problem with Procrastination

I don't just mean regarding me posting this post fairly late in the day, either.  While true that apparently all news has temporarily died out with the release of Arkham City (Well, anything of real interest, at least), meaning that my pool of topics I can post about is drastically reduced, I theoretically should have something to post about now.  Namely, my experience with Demon's Souls.  ....Unfortunately, as the above image of Ding Feng from Dynasty Warriors 7 might indicate, I've yet to start Demon's Souls in lieu of taking up the mantle of Ancient Chinese warriors Murder Engines, simply because damnit, I will get all the trophies in DW7 on day.

The issue here is that Dynasty Warriors 7's trophy list includes such trophies as "Reach 1,000,000 Fame in Conquest mode" and "Recruit every officer as a Sworn Ally" and other such things that take a lot of time.  Remember, this is a Japanese game, and Japanese games mean that if you want this arbitrary reward, you have to work to the bone for it, which, well....is not -dis-agreeable, I'll say.  I don't like just being handed a Gold Trophy for beating the second to last story chapter in a game, but I also don't appreciate doing something for 15+ hours for -one- Bronze trophy, either.  (Not saying either of the mentioned trophies are Bronze, as I don't know off-hand, just saying.)  I'm only at 700,000 Fame, and my method of gaining it is....a bit lacking, I suspect, so it's not going to be a short task.

Still, it's not a task that's hard or anything, merely time-consuming and when you're playing a game you enjoy, it's honestly not a waste.  And enjoying DW7 is exactly what I'm doing, thanks to Ding Feng's nearly-all-grapple moveset (that also includes a lot of punching~) and his amazing second musou attack.  Still, I think there's a difficulty here in me drawing a line where A) I acknowledge that gaining 300,000 fame in Conquest is something I'll have to do -later- and B) I put off starting Demon's Souls because I think something in me doesn't want to be absolutely crushed by the game.  I need to play more of my games, honestly, so that I can make room in my progress for other games, but I also don't want to power through them and lose out on any and all enjoyment I could get.

What I've been dancing around here about is that it's a really delicate balance, unfortunately.  Not only do I want to play more of the games I -own-, but I want to play more games that came out this year so that I have at least 10 games of this year to speak on come January 2012.  I still need to pick up a copy of Dead Space 2 and ball-up to play it, but I'm really wondering/worried about whether or not I'll still be able to get Dead Space:  Extraction if I buy a Limited Edition copy somewhere for ~$30.  (I still only see Limited Edition copies)  While it's not a deal-breaker, I have Move, Extraction is something I'm interested in, and I'd like to be able to get it as it claims I'm able to for buying a Limited Edition copy of the game.  Depending on how my monetary situation goes, I might be able to swing a couple of other games that are on the cheap now, but the problem is finding the time to play them all.

Oh well.  I'll get to it eventually.  Here's hoping for cold weather to keep my PS3 cool for long enough periods of time that I may enjoy gaming like it was supposed to be enjoyed.  Now that I know when the Vita comes out, I feel like there's a calm before I start gaming up a storm because that's exactly what I'm going to do.  My Vita is going to feel violated by the end of the week because of how much I'm going to put it through; not only with the actual Vita games, but PSP/PSOne games, checking out the internet browser (mainly seeing if Youtube works on it; it's been long enough and if it's the PS3 browser it honestly should) and other such things.  If I didn't enjoy Christmas so much, I'd be really impatient right now.

I Got Nothin'.

There is literally nothing going on today that I can write about.  I've not really been doing anything different lately.  I've been playing Yakuza 4 still, intent on finishing my Extra Hard play-through since that'll likely get me closer to a platinum trophy than I'll ever realistically get for it thanks to the Mini-Game specific ones (though I did get a turkey in bowling which is a fucking miracle) and I've kind of stalled on the Hostess Maker challenge which I pretty effectively described in that post and haven't learned more of enough to make another one.  I've actually gotten one hostess up to number 1, which meant I got to look for another of the three, but that's....hardly exciting enough.

I also haven't started my FFT challenge, purposefully because I haven't started looking at the zodiac system for the game, so I can't really write about that.  I'm still looking forward to it, and am eager to start it, it's just that...well, I want to be ready this time.  I was ready when I took on Star Ocean 2, which obviously helped since I finally conquered it.  So here's hoping that little bit matters as much as it should!  I am looking forward to being able to type about what's happened in the game, as FFT has provided me some wonderful stories in the past, so I look for more of the same.

And the only thing left would be my decision to play Demon's Souls after I finish Yakuza 4 as much as I'm going to, but I can't really type about that since I'm more or less going into the game completely blind.  Which, I'm assured is either the best way to do it or the worst.  Either way, I imagine it's going to be a punishing experience regardless so I'm not really going in with the wrong idea or anything.  I figure with Dark Souls coming out, and likely being on the Christmas List as was Demon's Souls last year, it would do me well to finally enter the world that so wants me dead.  Seeing as the servers will still be open for a year or so now, well, it seems to be a sign, honestly.  As if they're just -waiting- for me.

Waiting.

So yeah.  Sorry about the lack of content tonight folks, but I'm sure you can see my predicament here.  It's a sad day when I can't even think of enough songs for a Music! post, but eh, at least this one was from the heart or...something.  Right?

And More Atlus News

After September 20th, screens like the above of Pesona 2:  Innocent Sin for PSP will be available in English as the game has been officially announced for North American release.  Which, given it's Atlus, isn't so much a surprise, but it's nice nonetheless.  Shin Megami Tensei:  Persona 2:  Innocent Sin:  Colons for PSP is a remastering of the original game of (mostly) the same name that was previously unreleased in North America because of one of the antagonists because I don't know.  So to have a version of the game finally in America-land will be pleasant for Collectors and people who just enjoy good games alike.

I....can't really say much for this news other than it's pretty cool.  As I've discussed previously, my wadings into the Shin Megami Tensei franchises haven't been very deep, but with the whole of the main Persona series soon to be playable on the Vita (y'know, when it comes out) I may just very well catch up on them if I ever find RPG time.  Since, well, with the Vita line-up, I might be stuck in the same situation I am with my PS3, in that there will be just too much to play and I won't be able to rush through everything to get to the next thing.  Especially since I'm not the type to say "Okay, gotta beat this game in (this timeframe) so I can move on!", since I prefer to, y'know, enjoy my games.

Honestly, I can't say too much about anything tonight.  Not to derail this post into something else, but I had a rather bad issue with anxiety earlier and have been thrown off ever since, as is usually the case, so I've just been trying to relax some since.  And there really hasn't been a lot of news to bring up aside from this and the fact that my interest in One Piece just shot up dramatically in recent days.  Granted, before that, my interest in One Piece was basically non-existent but anything to get more Beat-em-up goodness.

So yeah, that is today.  Anxiety, Persona 2 for PSP in America and punching dozens of nameless pirates(?) with an anime kids extraordinarily long arms.  Just a normal Friday.

My Thoughts on Reviewing Games Here

It's been my stance (my stance is in my comment, btw) in the past that I just don't know if I'm all that capable of writing up reviews for games as, well, as you might have noticed, I tend to get a little opinionated on things.  I like what I like, and I hate what I hate, with little room for a middle-ground.  Although, I do like to think that I've eased up considerably on that, to the point where I can actually be objective on something I like or don't like and be able to present it for all its pro's and con's.  Of course, I might be wrong on this, but at this point, the only way to know for sure is by doing; something that Ghost Trick:  Phantom Detective taught me quite in-depthly over the past day.

You might have noticed that I really, really became enamored with Ghost Trick, so much so that, over the course of last night during the lovely lightning storm we had, I beat it.  And then I immediately started playing it again to try and see every facet of it once more, because I got the urge to do something I've rarely had before:  I really wanted to review the game.  Properly.

And as I thought of that, I did get my usual aversion to it, but a thought entered my head:  "Well, it's not like I haven't already kind of reviewed a few things, in a sense".  And it's true.  I have kinda done it.  I haven't done numbers or anything, which I just will not do, but I have spoken to the good parts and bad parts of various games here over the seven months I've been doing this, so to say reviewing a game is out of the question is just something I can't say.  I just haven't made it official yet.

So, I may as well:  I really do think am going to write up a proper review of Ghost Trick either tomorrow or the day after, depending on the weather.  I don't know how I'm going to do it just yet (If my buddy Chance doesn't mind, I really do like the "The Good, The Bad, The Verdict" style of his reviews and may just be tempted to borrow that), but I know I want to do it.  Not just for Ghost Trick, and I can't say I'll be reviewing everything/anything I play, or that I'll even review recent games (I know one game in particular that I want to do, and it was released waaaaaay back in March), but I want to try my hand at it now.

So, Coming Soon:  Reviews.

Bonus Post - I Feel Better

I really just wanted to share a Youtube video with you all that just makes me so happy on the inside.  There's not a lot I can, or want to say about it (for fear of spoiling the experience for you) beyond: "If you start watching it, don't stop watching it.  Trust me."