My "Local" Agenda...

It's late, yet I feel that I should write a little to unload the information out of my head.  It's the end of the fourth week and I feel like every week has been a finals week for me this quarter.  I have not eaten a proper breakfast in the past 2 weeks and I have been going to sleep quite late every night now and failing to attend some of my classes.  2 weeks ago, I host a Game Making competition in the Videogame Development Club of UC Irvine and accepted the responsibility of audio for both teams.  To make it short, it was a productive experience that was both tiring and fulfilling.  I am still waiting for the judges to make their decision.  Our Vice President was able to get faculty members of the Game Culture and Virtual Worlds Department of UC Irvine, employees from Obsidian Entertainment, and the producer of Diablo 3 to judge our games.  It's very exciting, but that week spent working on the music has really taken a toll on both my schedule and health as I haven't been getting enough sleep or proper rest.  Every night I worry about getting work for my classes done and dreading the classes I feel is wasting my time.  I have already missed 2 assignments due to shortage of time and not knowing about them.  I keep a scheduler at hand and I still have assignments that slip past me.  Either the teachers are not stating the assignments clearly enough or I seriously have way too much on my hands.  I have 10 assignments this weekend that's all due all across this weekend (with the exception of one essay).  This high stress is really difficult to handle, and I can usually cope with it when I play videogames, play piano, or draw.  But I've been so busy that I rarely get to do any of them let alone sleep.  I get to play about 2-5 hours of Videogames a week if possible, 1-3 hours of piano a week, and barely 30 mins of drawing if I'm lucky and I'm just sitting somewhere at school waiting for a club meeting to start.  To say the least, I'm very unhappy and feel rather depressed with my situation.  I really want to concentrate on building a portfolio, creating a great resume and start applying for jobs now while I still can.  My classes are doing very little to help me in my career or make me feel good about my work.  There are nights where I feel I should just drop out of college and learn the actual way of getting a job.  I've gone so far in my studies that I feel that it'd be a waste though, and I'm a very stubborn student who doesn't like to give up.  If I didn't have as much homework, studying and reading as I did now and didn't have letters reflect my value as a student or person, I would be enjoying my studies so much more and possibly be even learning something from my classes.  Unfortunately, I have about seven weeks of school left and am so deep in work right now that I fear the possibility of failing some of my classes.

It isn't just this quarter though.  The finals week of Winter quarter 2010 was very stressful, even though it was only Chinese Art History.  I couldn't sleep the night before the exam and had only 2 hours of sleep.  Then when it was all over, I thought I could enjoy my spring break only to go home and get sick (cold maybe? I never found out) for the rest of the week and didn't start recovering until Saturday of Spring Break.  What was great about spring break was not having to deal with school and having "some" good things happen to me.  Upon returning home for spring break, I found out that the Game Crazy that I visited once a week back in Sacramento City College was shutting down and had games 20% off.  I went in and saw that they had Persona 3 FES and couldn't let up the chance, so I bought it for $24.

Then I went to Costco, still with my family, and saw Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 and Pokemon SoulSilver for Gameboy DS.  I couldn't resist and couldn't decide, so my dad let my get both.  Happy with my new games, I went home and remembered that a friend left his Modern Warfare 2 for PS3 at my house.  The day I started feeling the sickness, I got a call from a friend I haven't seen in 1.5 years and had him over to hang out.  He stayed from Monday to Friday morning.  We played Modern Warfare 2, DotA, Phantasy Star Online and some Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  But at one point in spring break, my sickness had my allergies affected too and I couldn't breath, see, or think.  He knew I was sick, but still came over to hang out anyways.  So I was mostly watching him play games while I suffered the effects of allergies raping my face while coughing and sneezing.  To end Spring Break, one of my computer stopped displaying and essentially stopped working.  It was possibly one of the worst spring breaks I've ever had so far.

I don't think I should stay up any longer, I have a mid-term to study for, an essay to write, and 8 other assignments to attend to tomorrow.  hmm, actually a few more things:

I signed up for the Beta testing of Genesis A.D. on ijji.com and was selected as one of the beta testers.  I had the incentive of winning prizes, but didn't win any and doubt I'll win anything.  But I feel that it's good practice and experience in game testing since I'll be applying for that position in my first step to the Interactive Entertainment Industry.  It's quite fun, though the gameplay does take a bit of adjusting to play efficiently.

I'm also keeping my eye on a game called "Lead & Gold" which I really want to get.  It's only $15, so it's very tempting.  Lots of tempting deals actually.  Left 4 Dead 2 is $20.09 right now, but I don't feel like getting it now.  I wish I had more time to play games and do more productive activities I enjoy...

Winter Quarter 2010

I guess I missed making a post for January, I've been way too busy.

I actually wanted start off paying my respects to Fuzzy, our family pet chicken. He died earlier today and I was informed by my dad about it soon after when I called home. He was the last of the four pet chickens we raised. We've raised Fuzzy up to about 9-10 years and have gone through many memories with him. I'm sad he's gone, but now he can crow all he wants in heaven. R.I.P. Fuzzy (2001-Feb.5, 2010)

My sister was especially close to Fuzzy, it was her favorite. The four pet chickens were mainly my sisters to raise, though it ended up being our dad taking care of them the most. We all helped out to take care of them, and I helped take care of Fuzzy during my three years of Junior College when I was living by myself (waking up to his crowing every morning, gah...) He was an odd one, he would crow at odd times of the day and even night (yes, 4AM night...or morning, whatever).
Aside from the sad news I recieved earlier today, my work schedule has become a hurricane of madness. Dunno how many times I've said this already, but: 3 classes, 3 clubs, 3 recreations, 5 game projects, and 1 independent studies. For my classes, I have Chinese Art History, Culture Flows: Asia, and Project in Technology Hacking. It's a lot more work than I previously anticipated, but I'm hanging in there (somehow). I'm still in the same clubs: Videogame Development Club, Kendo Club (for extra practice), and Tomo no Kai. At the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC), I'm taking classes for Kendo, Iaido, and Kyudo (Japanese fencing, katana techniques, and archery respectively). For the game projects, I am mainly working as audio for the groups, a bit of design to finish up one project, and play testing a game close to being published. My independent studies is with a Professor on debugging a editor program he created for his research by making a game out of it and reporting all the errors and glitches I run into. I have a full plate to chow down on, but don't really have the stomach to take it all in (that being the time to do all of them).

Because of this crazy schedule I put myself into, I've been getting only minimum sleep. On Friday and Saturday nights, I would stay up playing videogames, yet I haven't touched any yet since I've been drawing tonight as well as blogging at this moment. (dang, 4:30AM...) I'm prepared to graduate, and I still haven't heard from the JET Program to know whether I get to go to the next step in getting into the program and get to study in Japan for a year while teaching English. I'm also thinking of interning at Blizzard Entertainment this Summer as someone in the industry had suggested me to do. I feel somewhat lost as I know what I WANT to do, but not sure what I'm good at to pay the bills (growing up sucks, lol). As much as I enjoy the "freedom" (if you could call it that), I miss having free time to experiment and work on things I like and being actually able to PLAY videogames. This quarter really is messing me up, but it's also building me up as well as I've been meeting quite a bit of people in the Interactive Entertainment Industry. I even got to go to Blizzard Entertainment for a presentation, but that's as far as I am at liberty to tell (I wanna protect the company you know?) If I did get hired for intern at Blizzard, I'd probably apply for QA for WoW or the unnamed MMO they announced last year or as a map designer for Starcraft 2. To be honest though, I really hope that Starcraft 2 gets out by the time I graduate though. I can't wait to buy the game and start making maps like I did back in High School~

Man I have a lot to blog about. Writing was something I used to hate a lot (I think) because I was forced to do monotonous assignments of reading and reporting long papers of topics I didn't care for too much. I think I started liking writing a bit by Jr. High because of an awesome teacher (I still remember his name, Mr. Holt) and became more competent in structure and grammatical syntax (though I'm pretty sure that my skills in writing from vocabulary choice to spelling is still flawed) from Mrs. Connors (if it weren't for her, I don't even know if I could have survived the rest of High School). ANYWAYS, my point is that I've realized I really like writing, as long as I'm passionate about what I'm writing. It's also a way for me to reflect upon myself and let my mind run free (and have all of you reading suffer from it, bwahahaha. Though probably no one reads my blog...)

I've finally started drawing again (here and there) and I can't get over how bad I am at it. I want to practice more, but given the limited free time I have, I usually spend on practicing on music or playing videogames ('cause I'm trying learn more about design, honest~). I'm glad I bought Acoustica Mixcraft, I've been able to improve on using audio programs and train my ears for various tasks. I really don't know what I'm going to do as a career (other than wanting to be in the Videogame Industry) because I still love drawing, I do videos, I do photography, I love music, I always have crazy designs, and I enjoy creating stories. I want to do everything right now, maybe I'll find what I'm good at and do that as my career as work and do everything else as a hobby.

OKAY, aside from all the boring and sad stuff, I am rather excited for 2010 line-up of games. 2009 was a scary year for the Industry because of the recession that caused financial upkeep problems and the termination of certain developers such as Pandemic studios. Here's what we get to look forward to this year:

Starcraft 2 - PC

Oh c'mon, who's NOT excited for this game?  I really want to get this game mainly for the map editor as it was the original Starcraft that really inspired to go into the path of the Interactive Entertainment Industry (although I always had that intention my whole life).

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce - PS3

Missing out on an awesome $10 deal for the original PSP version, I'm excited to hear that it's being released for the PS3 with hi-res graphics.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - PS3

Not surprising as I am a big Castlevania Fan.  Being developed by another company, I am expecting epic battles, innovative gameplay, and memorable game time when it finally comes out.

Metroid: Other M - Wii

Let's just say I'm a big fan of all games as Metroid is one of them as well.  I have not play a Metroid game where I felt it was poorly made or a waste of time.  Along with Team Ninja's association with Nintendo, this game is going to be more exciting than ever before as well as shedding some light on the story.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 - PSP

Yup, second one is coming out and I haven't even started the first one.  I'm still play Universe, haven't gotten to the expansion, and I barely got anywhere on Zero.  I'm still playing Phantasy Star Online, that's how good the series is! =P

Ragnarok Online DS

Yay, they're actually bringing it to America.  According to Gamespot, it's in 10 days.  I'm so tied down with everything else, I doubt I'll be buying any new games anytime soon.

That's it for now, I really need sleep @_@; (frick it's 5:10AM!!!)

School, Life, and Videogames~

Hey everyone, us UC students just finished our 5th week of Fall Quarter and I, with many others, are exhausted already and wants the quarter to end.  I do feel as if the quarter is going someone quickly, but it's also very stressful as I haven't been able to enjoy a weekend of this quarter other than the one on week 1.  I recieved my mid-terms back this week and ended up with a "B" and a "C-".  Anyone who knows me well enough is aware of how I do not like getting anything lower than a "B".  It's like the danger zone for me and I never feel safe in my academics standings whenever that happens.  Those who say "you could just take the class again next quarter because you'll know everything" make me think "why in the world would I want to take a class over again when I hated it so much the first time around?"  Aside from those 2 mid-terms, I'm not liking one of my other classes because we keep recieving so many assignments.  I do (somewhat) like my Computer Game Development class.  My group is working on a 3rd-person 3d Action-Platformer using the Unreal Tournament 2004 Engine influenced by the game "Mirror's Edge."  I rather not get into detail of why I'm getting frustrated with the class, but I do like the fact that I'm working with something related to my future career.

Speaking of Game Development, I took up 6 game projects and now put myself in a very busy schedule.  I'm on Sound/Music for an RPG, Side-Scroll Shooter, 3D Action-Platformer, and 2D Action Horror Game.  Then I have 2 independent games I'm working on.  One game I'm making is a follow up to something I created for class and the other is for a professor I'm working with in my Game Culture Concentration.  Yup yup, very busy and wish I had more time away from the boring classes I have to go through.

I feel very videogame deprived since I haven't been playing all that much lately and because of all the good games suddenly coming out and tempting me.  2 Games for sure I'm buying is Phantasy Star Zero for DS and Castle of Shikigami 3 for Wii.

I'm super excited for Phantasy Star Zero since I enjoy the Phantasy Star series, the amount of weapons and story they're implementing into this game, and the ability to play over the internet cooperatively with people around the world!!!  Castle of Shikigami 3 is actually getting somewhat old (about a year or 2) but I've been getting back into shooters after playing Touhou and Valkyrie Sky as well as re-watching the video Mushihimesama-Futari.  It's also because CoS3 has 2 player co-op and I wanted something to play with my sister and friend over this winter break.

The graphics are nice, the game is challenging, but I hope I can at the very least change the voices back to Japanese (I played the Japanese demo on PC).

It looks impossible, but I think it'd be fun to try it out.

Free Online game with 4-player co-op and RPG elements.  Check on Right Panel.

Putting Phantasy Star Zero ($40) with Castle of Shikigami ($30) would cost me up to $70 plus tax.  I'm not even working in a real job right now, so using money really puts a hole in my wallet.  This makes it hard for me when I look at the other games out there.  Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out very soon:

Then this week, I got to try out DJ Hero (on its launch day no less) and I gotta say it's pretty fun.  I also love the stuff Daft Punk does:

Today, I went back to try out Tekken 6 since I forgot to on tuesday when I was playing DJ Hero:

This guy makes him look like nothing, but I got to the boss today.  It wasn't even fair..... One game in particular that really caught my attention though was Borderlands.  It's an Action sort of FPS RPG that can be played online with 3 other people for a 4 player co-op.

It's $60 for Console and $50 for PC, and I'm having a really hard time deciding whether I should get this game or not.  I'm leaning a lot more towards waiting for it to become cheaper before I actually buy it, but it's an RPG I can play with my FPS friends!!!  Yeaaaaah, lot's of good games out.  For those of you that play DotA, "League of Legends goes free-to-play".  No seriously, check their website.  It's created by those who were involved with making DotA, so the designs of the game is sure to be familiar and entertaining to those who've played DotA before.  Not sure when I'll get around to trying it since I have so much work...Another game to look out for if you're a DotA fan is "Heroes of Newerth."  The game "Demigod", that was also inspired by "DotA", was/is fun, but didn't have as many characters which was something that disappointed me a little.  But the game mechanics were a lot easier to pick up and play with others.

Moving away from Videogames, I got a chance to watch the first episode of the anime "K-On" and loved it.  I like the way Kyoto Animation animates and draws their characters as it's easy on the eyes and enjoyable to follow.  The stories that they transition from the manga (as it is a 4-Koma style Manga) are true to the story with more details that make it its own (like they did with Lucky Star).  And I love music, so a story about 4 girls getting together and playing music really interested me.  There's a Bassist, guitarist, drummer, and keyboard player (and I play all 4, yay!) all have a distinctive personality and charm about them that really relates to the viewers or makes them a bit more attatched.

Yeah, that's Mio (mmm, I wouldn't mind having that figurine, but it's $88...- -;).  She's my favorite character so far which surprised me since I play the Bass the least (I don't have one, I play my friend's).  I liked the part in the first episode where Ritsu kicked Mio in the leg, made me sorry for Mio, but still laughed.  I didn't know it before, but appearently EVERYONE loves Mio as I read stuff on forums and blogs.  I don't blame them after seeing the amazing ending credits theme song "Don't Say Lazy" at the end of the episode.

Mmmm, sexy right? XD  Yeah, this anime is fairly new, but I think they already brought it over with english dubs to the states already.  It's voiced by Christine Vee.  No offense at all to her, but I don't like the english dubs of any of the Kyoto Animation animes, they sound so weird and out of character.  I think what really urked me was the english version of "God Knows..." from Suzumiya Haruhi  no Yuutsu.  If you've watched the original Japanese version, avoid listening to the english version.  On the other hand, I think Christine Vee did a decent job on the english version of "Don't Say Lazy".  Still, I perfer the Japanese version more.

Okay, time to cook dinner and go to Kendo and hopefully play some videogames tonight before I work like crazy tomorrow!!! XD

Life and school

I got back from Tomo no Kai's Semi about an hour ago, and I'm so glad that I went.  Thanks to Tricia for convincing me to go, I would have so missed out.  And thanks to all my Tomo friends for cheering me up tonight, becuase I've been having a very difficult week/month/quarter.

[Get ready, 'cause it's a lot of complaining]  It's mainly due to school.  This quarter, I was juggling 5 classes (20 units), 3 clubs (I'm staff for one of them), 2 recreational classes at the ARC, and in between I was signing up for housing, subletting for the summer, enrolling into classes, and getting ready to get into the Game Culture Program.  4 out of 5 of my classes are boring, I recieve 3-4 essays average a week, I barely get time to enjoy my World of Warcraft class (Game Design), and I'm only doing very average in my classes.  After a while, I got used to the consistant flow of the quarter, until mid-terms hit.

Stu Art 11A - History of Contemporary Arts class is very difficult to follow, and so I had a hard time writing a good paper for mid-terms (got a b-).  In my Visual Culture class, we have critiques on our artworks.  Before I presented mines, the people ahead of me showed theirs and people clapped and commented on them.  After presenting mines, the whole class was silent for the longest time....and when I did get some comments, they were negative ones are questions that challenged my project's intention.  I wanted to make my 3rd project really good, so I started planning right away.  I planned out to have 7 of my friends in the video, and we had very little time to work on it.  To make it things shorter: Everyone was busy on separate days, so I changed the story so that I could film each person individually.  I looked all morning the first day just trying to find a camcorder I could used.  After filming my first footage on the first day in the grass, I started having an allergic reaction, so my skin got really itchy and I started sneezing a lot.  When I finally got my footage recorded and tried to load it onto my video editor, none of them could read the format (MPEG).  I spent 6 hours just trying to find codecs and convertors and nothing was helping.  I just found out about 2 days ago that the Window's movie maker on my Vista side of the laptop works with it, it just freezes every few moments on me.  So I'm still working on the video.  But what worries me now is that I have 3 other projects other than that to finish and present this week.  So I'm already freaking about this, and more happens this month that makes it worse.....

I go to the counsoler's office often to check on my schdules and classes and see what requirements I could fulfill.  When we were looking through classes for next quarter, we realized that I had conflicting times for a series I need for my Major and for my minor.  Because of this, I have to stay an entire year longer in order to finish one of the series.  I chose to finish my Major series first because it was more important.  I really don't know what to do, 'cause I could drop my minor and graduate by next year.  If I stay an extra year, my parents have to support me fully, which I don't want to burden them with.  I'm still keeping that option open right now, and I got 4 classes (16 units) that I could sign up for.  Then more problems occured.  When my window opened, I couldn't sign up for all my classes except for Asian Art History.  I went to the Arts office again to straighten it out.  My interactive arts class couldn't be taken because I did not take 65A - Digital Imaging (I petitioned).  So now I have to petition for that class too (still haven't got a response).  I was able to get into my Artists as Writers class by having one of the counsoler's lifting whatever was blocking me from enrolling to get in.  My Independent studies I'm not sure how it goes yet, but I might not get to get the credits for it until next quarter.  So I was left with 8 units at that point.  Then on the same day I recieved a message about my housing (which was yesturday (May 29th at night), I get a e-mail that says my writing class had a schedule change, and it conflicts my Asian Art History Class.  So now I'm back to 4 units again.  I don't get financial aid unless I have 12 units or more.  I think the most frustrating thing more than anything was housing.....

Living in Campus Village has benefitted me a lot this year academically and mentally because of the enviornment and atmosphere.  I worked on trying to get into Campus Village again, and when I finally did, it kept erroring when I tried to accept it.  I was so busy during that time that I didn't get a chance to ask for help.  1 day before the deadline, I was already in a rush to get to classes and run errands.  I went into the housing office to get help and they got me through the process and I accepted it.  Then afterwards, I found out that I, myself, had to find someone to sublet my apartment over the summer since CV doesn't do it for me.   If not, I have to pay $1500+ just having it for the summer.  I knew I was signing a contract from June to June though.  So I'm still going through this stress of trying to find someone to sublet from me.  I was having troubles looking for friends to live with at CV next year, and I finally found 3.  Sucks, 'cause all 3 didn't get in.  Not only that, I found out that I got placed on the far end of campus village farthest from the campus grounds, on the bottom floor, next to the streets when I asked for a 2nd floor apartment close to the campus and community center.

If you've read up to this point, I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you would care enough to know how I'm feeling right now.  This isn't a first of dealing hardship, but I write like this to blow off some steam.  I think going to semi helped me more than anything.  Please message me or let me know that you have read this so that I know that my friends (you) care.  Thanks, and good luck to all of you on your finals.

Mid-terms and school

I'm making another short rant for the month of April.  Time is so limited and valuable now.  School, sleep, clubs, homework, downtime, lab/discussions, everything takes up time.  I'm averaging about 3-4 essays a week and about 2-3 reading assignments a week (sometimes more).  Then every 3 weeks, I have 2 projects to work on with the work on top of that.  I still go to all my club meetings and discuss on what I need to do for Videogame Development Club and Language Exchange Program.  I still keep up the work for those two clubs too.  Going to Tomo no Kai is my downtime (just to chillax and hang-out).  I'm taking Kendo and Iaido this quarter, but I skip wednesday's iaido practice since I have a class that conflicts time with it.  With all these going on, I fell behind in the class I like the most and the one I like the least: Game Design (World of Warcraft Class) and History of Contemporary Art respectively.  This weekend, I have a lot of work again, but I'm trying to catch up on both those classes.  I recieved my first Mid-term, which is a take home Essay that's 4-6 pages long for my History of Contemporary Art class.  That class is just torture to all the studio arts students of UC Irvine.  It's dead boring, hard to follow, and feels very useless as part of our academics.

But enough of the depressing stuff.  Times are tough now for everyone, especially with this "swine flu" talk going around the world.  It's really scary to hear about such things when they're so close to you, becuse you don't know what's going to happen but know it's going to be bad if it DOES happen.  Still, I've been trying my best to enjoy life if possible throughout these past 5 weeks.  I tried out the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS and fell in love with the Opening song "Makenai Kokoro" sung by young and talented Okumura Hatsune (奥村初音) who is also very pretty! XD  But really, she started writing her own music around the age of 10, has done a few dramas, and has an incredibly beautiful singing voice.  I've never heard of her before actually, and I thought her voice was familiar when I first heard the song.  Anyways, the game so far has a great balance between action and story since Phantasy Star Online (PSO) was more about action and Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) was more about story.  It meets halfway between the two and makes it a enjoyable game for both PSO and PSU players as well as new players.  The controls are more similar to PSO than PSU but lacks the amount of feature customization when creating a character.  It's not that bad as you get to choose from a good amount (more than Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Shining Soul).  The graphics are great for a Nintendo DS, and the gameplay is just as fun as the past Phantasy Star games.  The sound effects of the game is a bit harder to judge since they sound very old-computer-ish like sounds, but it makes it funny and reminiscents old retro games.  The controls are a little hard to get used to, but new features in the game make it a new experience for returning fans and new ones (you can actually dodge and block now!!!)  Still, the story is told  by short clips of video and mostly reading, so I wasn't able to read the dialogue very well when going through the intro.  The good thing was I could read the names of the items and weapons that I picked up.  I can't wait for this game to come out in America, I'm so going to buy it so I could play online!!!

[Just a funny video I watched last quarter.]

I don't want to continue too long, but here's some other short rants:

World of Warcraft: I'm falling behind in my class like I said before, but I'm (sorta) having fun.  I have a Druid at level 15 (when everyone else is level 30) for my class and I started a Hunter not too long ago but don't have time to play it.  I also want to play a rogue, but I don't know if I have the time to do so.  I really hope I catch up with the class so I could group/instance/raid with them.

Puzzle Quest Galactrix: I tried it out and it's different from Puzzle Quest: Challange of the Warlords.  It's easier to create combos, but it's also more unexpected of what's going to happen next.  Fun game, not sure how often I'll get to play it though.

Space Siege: Wow, I can't believe I didn't play this earlier.  The game mechanics is actually really fun and more action than Dungeon Siege.  Along with being able to have more control over attacking and dodging, not having to worry about misc. items keeps the game going without having to constantly sort through my equipments.  I should really play this through LAN with someone, I think it's worth it.  One thing that does bug me is getting used to the controls the first time playing it.

-Well, I have about 30 minutes before I go to my Tomo no Kai meeting, so I think I'm going to play WoW for just a moment.  We're going to Karaoke tonight, so it should be fun (hopefully).

Accomplishments and Anticipation

The past 3 weeks have been a crazy ride of work, and it's not even over yet.  In taking a bit of time to unwind at the moment, I wanted to reflect on recent accomplishments and think about things to look forward to.

[Hagakure - Book]

I finally finished reading Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai!  I recieved it as a christmas present 2 years ago from my sister, and I thought it was strange since she knows I don't read too often.  Well, I started reading it earlier this year and stopped for the whole summer (I did not read at all this summer).  It was kinda hard to get into since it was supposed to be deep, intellectual anecdotes that follows the many philosophies of being a samurai and of how to act as a human being.  Some passages were actually inspiring, though it would be difficult to recall a specific one at the moment.

Throughout the last half of the book however, it was mainly about chopping heads off and performing seppuku (cutting one's stomache out at the death of one's master or as a consequence for one's foolishness).  So many stories of cutting a man down and blood flying everywhere and lopping heads off....it was funny and scary at the same time.  Did you guys know that you can stop the bleeding of a wound from drinking a mixture of horse feces and water?  LOL, yeah.....we have alternatives to stop the bleeding in our advanced technological age of medicine.  All in all it was a interesting book and I do not regret one bit in reading it.   Thanks to my sister for buying the book for me.  "It was about samurais and Japan, so I thought you'd like it." - Sam  (I did like it, very much.  Thank you).

[Draglade - DS Game]

It took me a while to get around beating this game, but I managed to find the time to finish it.  It's a mix of rhythm music with fighting genres into one game.  An activity or sport known as "Grapping" becomes the biggest thing in the world.  The player takes the role as one of 4 characters, and each one has their own ambition and story behind why they want to enter in the competition to become a Major grapper (kinda like going pro in a sport in real life).  Each character uses a "G-Con" (summons your weapon) to strike the opponent and create melodies out of the strikes.  This is called grapping, and you can customize the melody and the way it sounds so that you'll get the sound you want when you perform a combo.  The game can get quite challenging, and I've never played on wi-fi; however, I'm pretty sure there are some crazy pro players out there.  The concept is intuitive in that you can change the sound of your combo, combine different bullet sets to use in battle, and combine the attacks together to create some wicked moves.

Graphics are pretty nice.  They have duplicate npcs and monsters, but I'm not complaining.  The animation is pretty smooth, although the controls need a bit of getting used to.  The story mode I finished was Hibito's, the flame glade user.  He says a lot of corny fire puns like "Play with fire and you'll get burned" or "I'll heat things up".  There isn't actually any voice overs, and the dialogue is kinda weird because of the translations (I should get a job at Atlus as a translator [Atlus resides in Irvine, CA]).  The music is okay and distinguishable, though the most memorable tune would be the title theme (which I don't know the name of).  Story is very simple and predictable, but it was still fun to play along with it.  The boss battles get pretty intense, and I think that's what makes worth playing the game (besides making your own "beat").  Overall, I'd give this game about a 7.5/10 or so on the top of my head.  Oh yeah, there's co-op quest mode too, I haven't tried it yet, but that's a plus too!

[Visual Culture Project - Video]

I'm not complete yet, but got most of it done.  I just have to compose, mix, arrange the music and edit the film.  I've spent most of the past 3 weeks working on this, and since I think I'll like it, I'm probably gonna put it up on Facebook.

[Fallout 3 - PC Game]

I'm sorry to say that I haven't played (or possibly heard of) Fallout or Fallout 2.  But when I heard about Fallout 3, I still wasn't interested.....until I heard it was an RPG game.  I do love games of all genre, but after the explosion of games that came out when there was once 4 major consoles (now 3, sorry Sega) I started to become very careful on what game I choose to play that won't take up so much time so that I can play other ones.  Anyways, I heard nothing but great reviews about Fallout 3 (except that it's full of glitches).  The graphics are amazing with its crazy rendering of an entire city and vast land areas to travel to.  The quest system keeps the players coming back for more (I heard you could be busy an entire year just by playing the game).  And the concept is completely different from the once top down view and action/rpg mix.

Man, pretty violent....

[Left 4 Dead - PC Game (Steam)]

I used to hate zombie games a lot.  Especially when Resident Evil first came out, I asked "why do they make games that freak you out?"  Well,  I learned later that it was the same reason why they make horror films: "For the thrills and chills....I guess?"  Anyways, it gets your blood pumping and it got really exciting when they started making those zombie games action genres.  Left 4 Dead is a 4-player co-op Action Horror survival FPS game that pits you and 3 of your friends with a city filled with zombies everywhere.  It uses the steam system, so we can expect the controls and graphic rendering to be good.  It looks pretty crazy from what I've seen so far from this game.

I'm not going to say that it's an original concept with super intuitive gameplay and all (especially since past games on steam such as Counter-Strike, The Specialist, and Half-Life all had some sort of play vs. hordes of zombie mods implemented on the server's list), but I am very excited that there is a (supposedly) decent multiplayer co-op game coming out that my friends agreed on trying out.  A demo is available on the steam engine Nov. 11, so you'll know that I'll be trying it out this up coming weekend.

So that's it for now, I should go cook dinner, work on my Videogame development work for tommorrow, and continue my visual culture project by starting on the music!  (So tired....)