This is Hilarious and Adorable

I would do a big post tonight but searching for news has proved poor, my gaming habits have not changed and it is storming, so I do not have a whole lot of time on the computer since the power could go out at any point.  (In fact it did, I'm posting this from a draft.)  So I was recently shown this and I really enjoyed it and felt like sharing.

Something bigger tomorrow for sure!

okay, I don't even play Smash Bros. anymore, but I still got the joke and it made me fucking laugh

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

All Wrapped Out

So, this is the first year where I've managed to secure presents for more than a choice few members of my family (namely the children) which is good!  The spirit of giving is strong in me and I love being able to give like I am.  The issue that arises, however, is that, while I like wrapping presents, I'm not necessarily a fan of wrapping presents for three days straight (as I still have more to do tomorrow).  Such a task has proven to be rather...draining and there's no big news that I can see, so I give you K-Pop.  I would like to give myself the opportunity to rest, but alas, there are action figures and kitchen gadgets and clothes to be adorned with festive trappings.  Enjoy, all!

the music honestly does help, but still, just so much wrapping

So That's What Snap Looks Like

Last week when I took a look at the UI video for the XBone, I was explicitly impressed by it, but mentioned a lament for the lack of the Snap feature that has been touted so highly.  I took it as a worrisome sign that it was not show-cased and it seems as if I were a bit premature with that.  (No jokes, please)  Of course, I didn't quite expect them to release a nearly two-minute trailer exclusively for that feature since...well, the UI video was meant to be comprehensive.  It was, too, aside from the whole "they completely left Snap out of it" thing.  Unfortunately, while the UI video was comprehensive and informative, I cannot say exactly the same thing for the Snap video as you've already no doubt learned.

It's...functional as a video showing off a feature, but it's nowhere near as good as the previous one.  It doesn't go in-depth, it doesn't -really- demonstrate the feature, but it shows that it's a thing that is possible and that happens, so I guess that's good enough in their eyes.  Or...perhaps as I feared, it's not exactly working all that great just yet, so the exposure was minimal.  Maybe not, maybe I'm just being cynical and/or pessimistic, but these are the types of things you're trying to stamp out with demonstrations, not further fueling them.  Still, that has been Microsoft's MO lately.

I'm more or less tepid to Snap as a result for now.  Some of the uses seem superfluous at best (The TV Snap is pretty much -only- good for Sports channels, since what else can you enjoy with a tiny screen and no volume?) whereas some are absolute game-changers in theory.  The internet explorer bit is something that a lot of people scoffed at because "Hurr, hurr, I look up that stuff on my computer/laptop/tablet/phone" and -yes- you can, but it's simply more convenient to bring it up on the same exact screen like that.  However, I'm worried about the versatility of it - the screen real-estate allotted is minimal, meaning the websites will be squished and I'm not sure how you would navigate text-heavy sites like GameFAQs and the like.  If the XBone pauses your game every time you Snap something, does it pause when you want to interact with it too?  Or can you do -something- to scroll the screen up a bit without breaking your game flow?  I personally doubt it, and I assume that would get ridiculously annoying eventually, but perhaps it won't actually be so bad.  This is, of course, something they could have shown off, but failed to do.

I would have liked some more examples of things you can do with Snap.  Can you, for instance, snap Skype on and do a video call with a friend or family member while playing Forza?  Can you snap on the Marketplace and buy a game to start downloading while you're running through Ryse?  Are you able to snap on any of the video services and switch audio to them, like Youtube?  That would be helpful for advanced tutorial needs, but that's one that I highly doubt, personally.  Still, any and all of this were things that they could have taken time to actually explore and explain, or even just touch on a little more than it was done, but none of them were, and I highly doubt a follow-up "Here's a second video about Snap because oops", so I suppose this time I -can- be disappointed and/or wary about the feature and its completeness.  I suppose we'll all know for sure next Friday, however!  With any luck, if all the annoying things are true, they can be addressed.

oh sure, let me just pause the game five times in a single minute so I can scroll up this site on the side so I can read the full paragraph, ob boy

The Official Playstation 4 Unboxing Video is Awesome

There's almost very little to actually say about this Unboxing video.  It gets right to it and doesn't pad time with explanations, it doesn't leave you wondering "Oh, but what about this little thing", it just shows off what's in the box with a nice, slick presentation.  A nice, slick presentation that may seem rather familiar, but good nonetheless.

Not too much longer before the front-lines of PS4 buyers will have their console in hand.  I won't be among you, but know that I salute you brave folks who are prepared to weather the craziness of a console launch.  My only launch was the Vita and it was worth it because handheld launches are...you know, lighter than consoles.  And I didn't even really get it -at- launch so much as I got it on launch day or the day after.  The point remains that I simply would not be able to manage, and that's why I'll be letting the chaos die down in the coming months before a PS4 is mine.  It will be all the sweeter from the time of anticipation...or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

anything using Daft Punk as inspiration scores some major points at base, really

In Which I'm Mostly Positive About the XBone For Once

Do I really have to preface this post with a reiteration of my past opinions on the XBone?  No?  Okay.  Because I'm not going to for now.  What I am going to do is direct you to the above video of what is apparently a real XBone running the real dashboard in real-time.  And it is rather delightful, I should say.  While I applauded the use of the PS4's UI on-stage some time back for its simplicity while still showing off the nuances, there's something to be said still for a nice sit-down, "Here is how everything works" presentation when it's handled well, and this was nice and smooth with only a couple things I can really complain about.  That's..kind of the point, obviously, and it's probably not -completely- indicative of every situation, but it's still promising.

The first thing that needs to be said is, of course, how seamlessly the game goes back into play once you resume it from the Home menu no matter what you were doing previously.  I'm personally used to this already with my Vita since I frequently pull out of a game to access the internet browser or check a Youtube video for some help, but I understand that it is a new concept to some people and am still appreciative that it works as well as I've already seen it work.  Though, I do have to agree with Chance in wondering how the One will handle the whole "People play more than one game" thing, since Yusef could have been playing a different game entirely on his XBone, or even if he was playing Forza, he still has his own instance that obviously can't really be transferred over like that.  For having "everything of yours on any XBox One" (the pinned things, it seems) available, that one thing seems like it's the most -important- thing to have, but I don't think it's actually feasible.  Though, I suppose at least that's when the whole "You can download your (bought and downloaded) games to any XBone and use them so long as it's you actually using it" comes into play, so you still -can- get to your game, and I imagine your saves can automatically go to the cloud, so you'll be able to pull it from there.  It might take a bit, given file sizes and all, but still.

I would like to call special attention to the Skype demo.  Even though I'm not a fan of Skype at all, nor do I really care about its inclusion, I have to admit that I'm really, really impressed with what they showed off.  I never would have even thought that the Kinect could be 'smart' enough to actually zoom in and follow you if you were moving about and doing that was a real smart bit of forethought.  Even though you're mostly going to be using it when you're just sitting down and playing, there's something to be said for if you have it set up in an area where there's a lot of visibility and things you can do.  Maybe you're cleaning house and talking to someone else, or something along those lines, since, hey, it's totally possible with that set-up.  I dare not think of some ways that it will -actually- get used, but the -intended- usage is neat and actually uses the Kinect to its capabilities instead of just making it kind of like a webcam for that as I might have expected.

Really though, I'm not quite sure what to think about with the whole Game DVR.  As someone who watches a lot of Let's Plays of games and the like, I clearly understand the appeal of simply watching a video game being played, and with reactions (though not necessarily facecams) but that's not really what this is for.  So the next usage would seem to be little tip videos, showing you how to do something specific or what have you, but that seems to be a little limited as it's hard to tell just how long you can make these Game DVR videos.  I understand not being able to do 'walkthrough/Let's Play' length videos for multiple reasons up to and including HDD space concerns, copyright concerns with the companies that aren't cool with those types of things and that sort of thing, but if you can only do 30-second clips (I'm sure you can do longer, it's just a matter of how, and how much longer) then...what's the point?  To be fair, this is all shared concerns for the whole Share aspect of the PS4 as well.

I do find it a bit concerning that there was not even a single instance of them attempting to use the whole Two-App thing with the Snap interface, since that's something they've been touting for a while.  The worrying idea is that perhaps it's not working up to snuff and thus wasn't shown off because it would have looked bad, but we are officially past the "Well, it kind of looks bad" phase in terms of end-game functionality.  Because we are -at- the end-game here.  The console will be released in two weeks (if you don't get it early as someone has who is in the process of being banned from Youtube, Twitter and possibly Live as we speak) and the Day One patch is already live - it's where it's going to be at launch.  Maybe that function simply won't be available - I haven't really paid attention to news about it - and in that case it can be patched in later on when it's in a working state, but still.  It's a really weird omission for an otherwise stellar little presentation.  They officially have my attention in some capacity for now.

I made it the whole post, that is kind of amazing

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

I Called It - Gravity Rush 2 Teased/Announced at TGS

Now, I'm not going to claim to be some sort of clairvoyant for seeing this one coming, but it needs to be said that, at every grumble about "oh no, Sony isn't committing enough First-Party to the Vita, blah blah blah", I said, without hesitation "you have no idea what you're actually talking about".  Or some variation of that, really.  And it all basically ended with "There's God of War coming in some fashion (likely beyond the HD Collection), Uncharted: Golden Abyss 2, hopefully an inFamous game and of course Gravity Rush 2.  Which will probably be announced at TGS, what with it being very Japan-focused and shit.  And Gravity Rush being a Japan-centric kind of game."  So, yes, I called it and I am going to gloat about that, because I don't even care whether or not I should gloat about it.

Anyone could see this coming, really - Gravity Rush was the title that was trotted out whenever the Vita was talked about, either because it looked amazing before it came out, or because it was amazing after it came out.  It did good numbers - it was never going to set the world on fire, given the hesitance to embrace the Vita by the community at large which is gradually shifting - but for what could have been expected of it, it did great, and being packed in for the Vita's first year of Plus made it accessible to everyone, thus ensuring it's a Vita game that's synonymous with the system.  So, a sequel was always expected, not just hoped for, and it was always going to happen.

The thing to wonder about now is just what's going to happen with it.  Absolutely nothing -about- the game was announced, just that teaser, so details could range from anything to everything.  The one thing that I almost worry about is whether or not the game is solely going to come out on the Vita.  One of the major whinging factors about Gravity Rush was that it was -only- on the Vita (because people don't understand the concept of exclusives) and were constantly clamoring for a PS3 version.  With nobody really wanting to commit anything to -one- system anymore, it seems, I worry that Gravity Rush 2 might be PS4/Vita which isn't bad per se, but it's missing the point.  Gravity Rush 1 -or- 2 doesn't need to be on a TV and I think that it might actually suffer from it, if not in the controls (the gyroscope, mainly, the touch controls I can take or leave) but for the sheer....feel of it, I guess.  It just fit perfectly on the Vita, and I worry that I might feel a sort of disconnect simply playing it on a DualShock 4 and staring at my TV.

It would also take the wind out of the sails of the announcement completely, since it would almost be confirming what everyone's griping about, with Sony "not committing" enough to the Vita.  A PS4 version would almost completely negate the Vita version in the ways that people....not 'care' about, but complain and speak smugly about, which just leads to a lot of annoyances and is completely not the point of the game or anything entirely.  It'll just mar something that could otherwise just be great personified and that irks me more than a little bit.  It all hinges on whether or not Sony wants to show a little loyalty to the Vita, versus scatter-shot release habits to 'ensure' that it's so much profit that nobody even knows what the fuck.  Which...seems like an unfortunately easy decision.  But we'll just have to see.  Not directly announcing it for the Vita with the teaser is making me just a...tad bit wary, I should say.

I still called that shit, and I want that on record, bitches

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

Oh My God You Guys inFamous: Second Son

It was hard doing other things with my night tonight.  It was hard to write something other than this.  It's just that after I saw this trailer, I knew there was absolutely nothing I could want more than to talk about this game other than actually playing this game.  Hopefully I will be able to make up cognizant instead of the mindless blathering of approval that I could just type up here.  Because you all know, I could just type a whole bunch of worthless, filler words of praise just to make this exorbitantly long in an attempt to make up with quantity what I can't concisely say with quality.  You know this.

First off, let's go with the obvious in this trailer, yes?  Fetch is Laura Bailey.  I....pretty much just need to say that.  It's awesome, and needs no further explanation.

Secondly, I really do enjoy the way that they show off what appears to be Delsin's main "Default" power, Typhokinesis, the power over Smoke.  (Yes, that is apparently a thing, no, I don't know, yes, I googled it, no, I still don't know)  Delsin's power, obviously, is his Chameleon ability which allows him to absorb other powers and use them, but he's been shown primarily utilizing his smoke powers not only to blast things, but to explore so that kind of sets the theme for it.  It feels fairly similar to Cole's Electric Powers which is a good thing, but there's a clear difference to them as well that I'm sure will become more and more obvious as we see it all in action more and more.  Certainly the shadow jump or whatever you want to call it is a big deal right off, and will likely set the schism for them to expand from that.

And obviously, I really do enjoy them showing off the Chameleon ability in an interesting way.  The power that Delsin receives from Fetch is apparently Photokinesis, which is the ability to control and manipulate light.  Which...makes sense, what with the Neon signs and such.  It stands to wonder just -how many- sets of powers we're going to be looking at in the game proper.  Conduits in the first two inFamous games were common, even if they were more or less grouped by power (with the important people also being different in the power category) but to be able to have shifted to their powers at any point in the game would have been huge, which is....on Second Son's platter, I assume.  The DUP don't seem to be inclined to power, but the game isn't going to be -full- of power-less enemies I would hope, so being able to leech someone in battle is...hopefully a thing.  Something that I hadn't even considered.

Goddamnit, now I want this game even more.

is it wrong to hope that there will be an electricity conduit towards the end of the game that you get to leech and pay homage to Cole with

Music! KARA Edition

It's been...quite a while since I've done up a proper Music! post even though I have been listening to quite a bit of new music recently, so with nothing else to really post about tonight, I figured now was as good a time as any.  As I am wont to do even when I'm -not- battle severe mood issues, I've been turning back to K-Pop (he says, pretending he ever left it in the first place for a slight bit of his masculinity) and among those K-Pop choices, KARA has come up more than once.  In fact, it's come up three times, which is rather convenient, as you know I generally go through three songs at a clip because I feel that's a good amount at one time.  That's just me, of course, and it's just kind of how I do things, but it's served me well so far, so I'm gonna stick with that.

The first song is not the first KARA song I've heard (that was actually "Wanna" which I'm linking here because it's not featured) and in fact, I don't know what number it is.  I just know that, of the three I'm going to show off tonight, it's my least favorite which isn't to say I dislike it, because I really do like it.  It's just, obviously, I like the other ones more.  That kind of happens sometimes.  What's surprising to me is that I don't listen to this song more often than I do, but that's generally just because I'm listening to the other songs of theirs I enjoy.  Still, this is light and fun and all of that good stuff, I just suppose it's perhaps not quite as much as the rest.  Still, first up is "Step" which may or may not actually be spelled "STEP", I don't know.  It's kind of one of those things.

It might be a surprise, but I don't actually pay a lot of attention to these videos, since I tend to just sort of pull them up on my Vita, plug in my headphones and listen while I do whatever (since they're not on Music Unlimited because why would they be on a service called Music Unlimited).  Which I am in no way bringing up because it's going to be relevant in the next video or anything like that.  I'm just stating that, having actually watched the video before I embedded it, it's a pretty perfect fit for the song.  Light and 'poppy' and such, while also keeping your attention through the actually passable dancing and wardrobe.  Of course, the real fun is the song which is...obviously the reason I brought it up.

The next is, I believe, the second KARA song I actually listened to, but I might be misremembering that and it really doesn't matter.  Like, even in the slightest, it doesn't matter.  What -does- matter is that I have this weird little thing with some K-Pop songs that I call the "Oh, damnit" moment.  The "Oh, damnit" moment is the exact moment where I mumble those words to myself and concede the fact that I am going to listen to this song for the rest of the night.  Very obviously, this next song has one of those moments and the exact moment is about twenty one seconds in when the synth or whatever that is starts kicking in.  Keep that in mind as you watch this video for "Pandora".

Remember that part where I said I don't really watch the videos?  Well, surprisingly enough with all of that set-up, it was a lie when it comes to this actual video.  I don't even know why beyond, well, the obvious, and it's really quite perplexing.  The song is, at least, something I enjoy a little more because it's just a little...heavier?  I suppose might be the word.  I don't want to say anything about 'depth' because I'll just make myself look silly, but there's some type of quality to the song that I just enjoy a little more than Step, and maybe I'm just not supposed to know what that is.  I will say that, again, aside from the obvious, I am a fan of the outfits and the hairstyles the girls sport in this one.  That's...probably the point, but I'm just saying that it worked this time.  Also babbling.  ....Mostly babbling.

The last song is basically the one of the three that I've listened to the most and, as with the other two, I cannot really provide reasons as to the why.  If I had to guess, I would say that it's got a goodly bit of variety in the sound itself, even if it is as repetitive as, well, most songs altogether.  The girls all show off a little bit of range, I feel, and are given an appropriate amount of time to sing their piece, as it were, so maybe that's what draws me more to this one since, even if it's present in the other songs, I notice it in this one.  Though, I should point out that I merely listen to this one, and would be remiss if I didn't point that out as well as a particularly ridiculous 'dance move' towards the end.  I won't tell you when, because you'll know and I am apologizing in advance for the silliness.  You will be happy to note that the single-word title theme has been maintained however with "Jumping", this last song.

...Well, I warned you.  Still, before that point, it's fairly acceptable and really, that's not bad so much as it's likely to make your eyes roll in a dismissive moment.  Surprisingly, I'm not so much a fan of the outfits here as I was in the other video, but, well, that's just a thing about it.  Still, as stated this is the song I've listened to the most out of the three for better or worse.  It's pretty much hard to think of different ways to present this type of feeling after two others of the same, but I'm sure you understand the sentiment at the very least.  Or maybe you're just listening to the song and don't care.  Or something along those lines.  Either way, I dig it, and that's pretty much what I was putting across here.  That goes the same for the other two songs before this one too.  Hopefully you dig it too.

really though, what was with that dance move I mean, you're not even being subtle

Enjoy Twenty-Five Minutes of Murdered: Soul Suspect

It's quite an interesting little game.  I'd talk about it but a 25 minute time investment seems like enough of your time for one night.  Though perhaps another night I'll edit in my thoughts and point you back here so we can hash out some of my minor complaints about it thus far, as well as the numerous little cool things the trailer has to offer.  There are quite a few instances of both things, of course.

The E3 Recaps

Almost more fun than E3 itself is the spin that people take on the events afterward.  I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone of the famous "Never" bit from Giant Bomb from years back, and there are innumerable other examples I could throw down right here.  That's not the point.  Or...it's mostly not the point.  The point is that I'm trying to lead-in to talking about the E3 recaps from VideoGamerTV, one of those Youtube groups that has all sorts of folks uploading to the same channel, I believe.  Probably.  Gonna be honest, I didn't look into them at -all- aside from collecting the recap videos because I'm at a surplus for Youtube channels I watch yet my time is heavily, heavily budgeted already, so I don't need or want more.  The recaps are hilarious, thus I'm going to talk about the recaps.

The Playstation one above was the first one of the three I saw and was quite fantastic the first time I went through it.  Of the three, it's probably the least out-and-out funny, but that's more than likely because it doesn't -need- to be funny.  One of the things it plays up pretty heavily is, of course, Sony's triumph at E3 and it does so in a way that, while humorous, really sort of captures the mood or the thinking of the majority of us that was likely going on while it was happening live.  So I didn't have to stop the video and belt out a peal of laughter at any point, but it -was- still entertaining the whole way through.  Definitely worth a watch, if just for the Indie section alone.

"Do you guys like Indie Games?  Because we've got all of them.  Fuckin' all of them.  Count it:  all of them."

If there can be anything said about the Microsoft video, it's that it 99% -only- covers the actual E3 presser, which is pretty much a good thing overall, I should say.  No sense bringing that negativity into it, though there are just a couple bits where a little snark is thrown that way if you're thinking along those lines.  It is a shame that the video was taken from a laggy livestream, thus making the video choppy as hell, but, well, that was likely the E3 experience most people got anyway, so, true to form again.  If I had to pick a favorite part of that video, it'd definitely be the bit where they tried to make sense of the "Driveatar" because.....yeah.

Good luck with that.

I've gotta be honest.  My whole reason for doing this post was just so I could post the Nintendo abridged one.  It is by far the best of the three and it is -still- funny even though I've watched it half a dozen times.  It's just stellar and really kind of captures the feeling that it might not exactly be all the games we -wanted-, but they're games we'll play and enjoy all the same.  Really, the whole thing, aside from the Wind Waker bit which I just didn't understand, is all fantastic.  It just didn't feel right -only- posting this one even though it's the one I enjoyed the most.  So really, if you haven't watched the other two, at least watch this one.

"Crotch!"

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.

Bonus Post - Man At Arms is Amazing, You Should Be Watching It

There was a post on Joystiq that showed off, what was explained as "a guy making an 80-pound replica of the Buster Sword" (which is linked in the article, so it's not embedded above, but rather one of the neater projects from the same guy) but is in reality much much more.  This isn't just some guy who slapped together a thing that looked like the Buster Sword and was 'kind of cool, I guess'.  No, no, no, no, no, this is much much different.

The 'guy' is Tony Swatton and he is the subject of a youtube-based mini-show series called "Man at Arms".  The show, as you might expect given the context so far, is all about replicating weapons from pieces of fiction, be it movies, TV shows, comics or video games, but not only replicating them, but making them actual, viable weapons in their own right.  Every weapon this man forges using his 30 years of experience is an actual, honest, deadly weapon that just happens to be modeled after something that you see and can't fathom it as being an actual thing that is made to be like that.  Hilariously, in at least one, perhaps two of the episodes of the show, he makes something that's based off of a cheaply made thing you can order to display your fandom with, to have something that is -actually- what it's supposed to be.  Specifically, the example I'm thinking of is the Bat'leth from Star Trek, which is an incredibly dangerous piece.

Completely divorced from the fact that he's actually making weapons from games we recognize, like the mentioned Buster Sword and actually a Diamond Sword from Minecraft, or cartoons we enjoy like Finn's Golden Sword from Adventure Time, this is just a legitimately cool thing.  There's just something inherently cool about being able to watch a show about something being made from scratch, so you can see what it came from and how it ended up.  This goes the next level as not only is that thing being made something that is of extraordinary quality (from being forged correctly, with function in mind), but it's something that most of us generally have no idea on where we'd even start on making it.  For instance, I certainly didn't know that metal gets de-magnetized at 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit, but I know that now.  Or that, in the instance of Finn's sword, that tempering metal in a 385 degrees for five hours gives it a golden sheen.

Being that it's a new show, there are only a few episodes (as of this writing, there are 12), and the short-form grates on me a little, mostly because I want at least a half-hour dedicated to these episodes, or like 22 minutes with commercials because I would watch it on television, but it's definitely interesting.  I don't implore you guys to watch that many things, but this is one of those times where I'm going to have to insist.  Mostly because I'm sure none of you will blame me.

Caim's sword from Drakengard anyone?  ....anyone?  shit, it's just me, isn't it

Oh Boy, That NeXtBox Presser

I had a long day today and while I worked on a breakdown post, I just didn't have it in my tank to finish it tonight.  Instead, I will share this, which I got from Chance.  Mostly because it is amazing, but also because it's fucking true, holy shit.  Really, that whole showing and the information that's come out from it and since then has been fairly dire, and the only interest I'm deriving from it, personally, is dumbfounded laughter here and there as I come to terms with the rumors that are now reality, for the most part.  But that is a post for tomorrow (barring thunderstorms), and today is a post for this video.

Also for me saying that that's it for tonight because good lord, I am tired, it's hot and my allergies are making my mind work like...uh....something to do with molasses.  Thus, this is good night, folks.

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.

Tonight is Writing Night

Which probably means I should be writing here, right?  Sorry, but I'm being a bit selfish tonight.  I've been working on a short story lately and I really want to get it written.

To that end, I've spent the bulk of the night reading and doing a bit of writing.  For the rest of the night, I hope to skew that figure towards the latter rather than the former.  In lieu of actually giving something here in written form, I do what I always do:  I give you K-Pop.

G.NA is one of the few K-Pop artists I was introduced to through Music Unlimited, which is funny when I mention that the K-Pop selection is limited on the service.  Which, to be fair, it is - G.NA, NS Yoon-G, T-ara (no longer on the service), Girls Generation (one album, basically), BoA, 4Minute and Gangnam Style.  That is....literally pretty much it.  Then again, the service -did- just introduce a Video Game Music Channel (with an absurdly small and strange selection.  Hilariously, there are Halo soundtracks but not, say, Uncharted soundtracks, or inFamous soundtracks....you know, Sony properties) so maybe it -will- actually grow.  Maybe.  Probably.  Probably not.  Right.

Anyway, 'Supa Solo' is a pretty neat track and I've been listening to it fairly often the last couple nights.  Hence why I am sharing it.

That said, time to get back to the grindstone, as they say.

It Is Nier Time

Which is to say that it's always Nier Time, but now specifically it is since I restarted it earlier today for the simple fact that, you know what?  I just wanted to play it.  It's been far too long since I last played it, having only lived it vicariously through other sources up to and including Helloween's recently started LP of the game.  The fact of it is that, however way you look at it, Nier is a pretty personal game, so watching it, reading it, living it without playing it is doing yourself and the game some degree of disservice, since it really shines brightest as you are playing it.  So, in an effort to do myself a favor and to respect the greatness of Nier and Cavia's best project, I figured that it was the best idea to forgo my backlog and play through Nier since, hey, next week is REVENGEANCE week anyway and I totally didn't realize it until earlier today which was like someone telling me it was my birthday, giving me a present and then also telling me I was the best at something.  It was a good feeling.

Getting back into Nier, well, it feels right.  Because I've only actually played through the game once personally (getting the endings beyond the first doesn't make you play the game from start all over again), I'm noticing all sorts of things I didn't really pay attention to the first go-around.  Mostly because I didn't consider it necessary to pay attention to them.  Which is, of course a mistake, and one that I will relay to you, anyone who might be eager to play through Nier which should be everybody.  Everything is important.  You might not think so.  You might think "Oh, they can't possibly make everything in the game relevant" and you would be wrong because that is exactly what happens.  It is a thing that happens.

Something that I was reminded of with my playthrough was just how early you run into Kainé.  For some reason, I didn't remember that it was, indeed, early on that you run into her and that was a welcome surprise.  A very very welcome surprise.  Kainé is, of course, the woman whose dulcet tones accompany the above teaser trailer that is, in my opinion, the absolute best teaser trailer for anything ever.  I am actually being pretty honest with that as, for some reason, I cannot help but enjoy everything that comes out of Kainé's mouth, and it's not just because of Laura Bailey's absolutely wonderful voice-acting for the character.  She's just a very excellently realized character and the VA-work is icing on top of that delicious cake.  Even with the supplemental information.

More or less, I really just wanted to get on here and post the above teaser while also gushing about Nier a bit.  Since that is kind of my bag.  Expect a lot of that until Tuesday since until then, I will be playing Nier and possibly afterwards which is strange to consider since, on Tuesday, I should likely have my Sword Lamp copy of REVENGEANCE.  Which means I should be playing REVENGEANCE.  And I will want to be playing that, but I will happily forgo the game, any game, to play Nier until I have completed it once more.  Because I just want to, and it's odd that I find a game that I want to do that with, especially in these days of trophies and such where I simply focus on getting those and then being satisfied with my conquest.  But, well, that's just part of the magic that is Nier.