Tis a good time for gaming

Before I get to the juicy stuff, I'll just have a bit of an update on my work. I'm 1/2 complete on my Street Fighter Mix and it's making me wonder if I ever want to do a mix this long again, haha. I think I should stick with individual mixes just for the sake of productivity. I started on a new composition yesterday for one of the game projects, and I heard that we're going to take that game to GDC next year (yay)! So I'm working extra hard (kinda sorta) to get the music done so that we can publish the game on XBLA in time to present at Game Developers Conference (GDC) early next year in March. I'll most likely won't be attending unless I get in free as I've heard that going a full 3 days is several hundred dollars (up to $1000 with hotel fees, transportation, etc.). Sound effects for the other project is going smoothly so far, though no real decision to choose any of the ones I created has been made. Besides those two major projects, I've finally started to work on my game two weeks ago. I'm move very slowly on it, but I've at least got most of the main gameplay down. I just need more programming, more designs, and content and then I'll get the project really rolling. Besides working on stuff like that, I'm also trying to get back more into piano and learn some new songs. Extending my knowledge to playing all sorts of different songs help me when I compose for music (I suppose...I'm still randomly playing things to create my compositions).

Now onto the gaming portion of my rant (bwahahaha)! Last week, I bought a game on Steam called Titan Quest Gold (okay, so it's two games in one package) for $5. I've been very skeptical of the game and have seen it on sale many times, but I never brought myself to getting it. I recently beat Torchlight and didn't want to continue it, but I was also very eager to play Diablo 3 (which has been pushed back to Q1 2012. So I bought Titan Quest. The first 2 hours, I was getting bored clicking on monsters. I also had the problem of going back into town every 2 minutes just to sell all the equipment I picked up. I have that habit of taking everything I see and selling them for money in RPGs. After 2 hours, I was able to choose a mastery (which determines my class) and learn new skills. Enemies started to come in large waves, but my skills allowed me to take on 10, 20, even 30 enemies because of the abilities I possessed. I was, at one point, attacking with effects of fire, poison, bleeding, sharpness, and life steal all at the same time. The game suddenly became very enticing to me! I also learned that picking up the most rarest of items was sufficient in making money (so picking up junk was taking up space in my inventory space). I was traveling around a large open world, slaying tons of enemies at the same time, picking up powerful equipment, and fighting really strong bosses. I was very happy with my purchase then, but I read online what other people thought and people said they still preferred Diablo 2 for their top-down action-RPG. I had tried Diablo 2 a few years ago (for like 5 minutes) and didn't really get into it. But seeing how it took me 2 hours to get into Titan Quest, I decided to give Diablo 2 another chance (I had the game anyways, might as well play it). Yeah, the first 1-2 hours were kind of boring, but then it pulled me in as soon as I started getting better loot (equipment), and gained new skills. More so, I started playing Diablo 2 more than Titan Quest. I still play Titan Quest, but what makes me like Diablo 2 more than most Point-n-Click Action-RPGs is that it's so fast-paced. I've been playing so many MMORPGs these many years that I forgot how fast paced an Action-RPG could be. Running around, killings hundreds of mobs, warping between cities, etc. I'm very inclined to play Diablo 1 now just so I can get the full experience of the Diablo series.

Over the weekend, I order three games on Amazon since they were in my target price range. I bought Brink for $9.99 and Bayonetta for $17.01, both for the PS3. The 3rd game is actually a birthday gift for a friend (also a PS3 game). I received the first two games yesterday and tried them out. Brink's multiplayer is dead, which I was well prepared for and is the reason why I waited until it was $10 before I got it. The game is quite challenging, and it still feels like a multiplayer experience when I'm playing solo (though, computer AIs are kinda dumb). The progression of Brink isn't what I expected. I was hoping to gradually earn my equipment along the way of leveling and gaining experience points. But the only way to get more equipment is to play the challenges, and there's only 4. So Brink won't exactly be the multiplayer-centric FPS experience I hoped for, but it'll be at least a nice distraction to play once in a while. I'll admit it's pretty fun in its own respect. I still feel ripped off by buying Homefront for $25. 4 hours of single-player campaign and 1 hours of multiplayer. Then the multiplayer community dies out completely leaving me with only 5 hours of gameplay off that game (which is sad since a game like Terraria, that I paid $2.50 for, has provided me 66 hours of gameplay and I still plan on playing it more). Bayonetta is a lot of fun, and a lot of action. Though I would have liked to pay less for it, it'll be a game that I'll enjoy. The problem is that installing it took 4.4 GB out of my hard drive. I've run out of space on my HDD, and it's becoming a real problem. I'll probably have to make some decisions to delete some installs of other games eventually.

Dark Souls came out!

Demon's Souls has made it onto my list as one of my favorite games (and I think I should consider adding Diablo 2 on that now too) and so I'm naturally very happy and excited to see the release of Dark Souls. No, I haven't bought it yet. I generally wait for games to drop in price before I buy them now since I'm never desperate to play a game on launch day anymore (except for Diablo 3, I will buy that the first day and play the heck out of it) unless I'm really really into it (such as the handheld Castlevania games). I still play Demon's Souls even now, but I try to stay away from it when I can since I get so caught up in replaying it that I neglect all other games I have that I haven't completed yet.

The Cursed Crusade is one of the games I want to get. It's a 2-player, split-screen co-op Action game. You know how rare it is to have a local co-op game nowadays? That game should be out in 3-4 days. A lot of games are coming out soon actually. Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom, The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations are among the highly anticipated games. Yup, our economy might still suck right now, but the number of quality games are still coming out.

Besides gaming, did I mention that I'm (kinda) getting back into Manga and Animé? It's super hard to balance work, games, and stuff like Manga and Animé. Especially now that I'm getting back into working out at the gym again, haha. I missed at least 3 months or more of working out. My arms are all sore now from Wednesday's workout, but my legs are surprisingly alright. One other activity I regret not doing enough of or finding the time to do is reading. I just can't bring myself to sit down and read. A book I've been very wanting to finish up is "The Art of War". It's not a novel or anything, but it has insights of those of past history and philosophy that could apply to today's time. I do like reading, but, uhh, I like other stuff much more to read as much as I want to...(music, art, gaming, etc.) Well, I think I've ranted long enough. Until next month~

Back on track...sorta

It's already the end of the month! I didn't get much done at all this month, and it makes me sad...BUT, I've been having some fun. I got to hang out with my close friends early this month right before they all went back to their respective colleges. League of Legends' Dominion mode finally came out and I've been playing that with my friend whenever we have the chance. Rusty Hearts came out and is being hosted on Steam as well. I started playing it and I happened to learn the theme for the Character Select. This has lead me to playing some more piano as I've been neglecting it for producing music and practicing guitar recently. I bought Dragon Age 2 and am loving it. The dialogues are quirky, humorous, and interesting to listen to. I finally finished Torchlight a few nights ago (after 20 hours of gameplay) only to find out that there's more after the ending. Also, the ending of Torchlight sucked...It was pretty much a "oh, I've defeated the main boss, but there seems to be more amiss and I must prepare myself" self-dialogue and that was it. Oh well, I guess I mostly enjoyed the game, but it makes me that much more excited for Diablo 3.

There's actually a lot of games to look forward to this upcoming fall/winter and next year: Dark Souls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Diablo 3, Phantasy Star Online 2 (I really hope this gets brought over to America), Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, etc. I'm hoping for some better games to come out on the Nintendo 3DS. In fact, I hope a new version of the 3DS comes out since I'm still not convinced of buying one. There's also been some great games that came out recently that I haven't got yet (mainly because I'm still working on older games I haven't finished) such as Dead Island and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I'm still looking for a job right now, and I'm searching to no avail. It seems the open slots for positions in companies this year is a lot worse than last year for some reason. Looking at the market and the economic movements (mainly on how China's economics is bringing down the global market), I'd say we're slipping back into a recession (or we never got out of it). So far the time being, I'm working on music for one project and sound effects for another. Both projects plan to be published on X-box Live Arcade, so I'm working hard to give the quality of a published game. I've been wanting to work on my own projects, but I've either been busy or lazy these past few weeks and focus mainly on job searching, practicing guitar, writing for the main blog, or working on those two projects. I work all day and by night time I just want to relax and so I've been getting back into reading manga and I've been playing games. I need to stop being lazy and start prioritizing my time. I haven't been going to the gym as I once did very often religiously each week and I do minimal floor exercises each day. There's so much I want to do, but never enough time in the day to do them. Most of my day is spent researching and writing my blog for Superpad Unplugged, though I'm not convinced that my writing has improved all that much. Oh well, I'll find a way to get thing sorted out.