Working hard, playing freaking harder!

This past month has been pretty great.  For starters, I bought a new laptop that was even cheaper than my last laptop (around the same price actually) but has the power to turn up the settings to max on every game I have and still run pretty smoothly.  I don't think anyone can really understand what a huge deal this was for me playing PC games other than those who have had a similar experience.  I wanted to get through more of my PC games, but there were too many distractions.  First, there was the release of Guild Wars 2 which turned out to be incredibly fun.


Sadly, my friend that got me into Guild Wars 2 got bored of it really quick.  Because of that, we started playing Diablo 3 again because of the addition of Paragon levels.  And then Borderlands 2 came out this past Tuesday which attracted quite a few of my friends and so we've been playing that the past week.  Then last Tuesday, I bought a Nintendo 3DS XL.  On that same day, I ordered a bunch of items on Amazon as the new law states that it requires the online retailer to start charging customers sales tax which took effect last Saturday.  I had bought 5 PS3 games, 2 Wii Games, 4 3DS games, a new mouse (Razer Deathadder), a new headset that can be used on PC and PS3, and a HDMI cable to connect my previous laptop to my big-screen TV.  Most of my items came in just this morning and I'm using the new mouse right now! (My logitech mouse has sadly started giving out in movement and clicking.  Diablo 2 & 3 probably ruined it).  There's another problem to this case: work.

So two of the projects I'm working on are getting done rather quickly now, and both teams suddenly want things completed now.  This has put me in a strain against time these past two weeks.  I'm going to have to work this weekend as well to ensure I get things done.  I'm happy to be working on music again.  It feels like it's been a while since I've given much attention to music when I've been working on SFX for so long.  I said I would draw more this year, but so far, I've got one piece of work done.  That is freaking sad.

I wanted to get back into watching animé and decided to go back to Crunchyroll to finish up Hokuto no Ken only to find out that it's not there anymore.  Why Crunchyroll?  Why do you keep putting things up I like and then taking them down?  Well, I know the answer to that (licensing and contracts with publishers), but it still makes me sad that I didn't finish the series.  On the bright side, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 is available on CR.  I was warned by a lot of friends that it was a terrible show for season 2 as 8 of the episodes were repeated.  I took heed to that warning and still watched it anyways.  It was sorta painful watching the same scenario unravel 8 times, but I think it made the last episode for that little arc worth it.  It's not something I'd want to watch again anytime soon.  I still have about 3 more episodes of the season left, so I'm hoping there's still something I'll enjoy about it in the end.

It's really hard to find Videogame music now.  Games sometimes do have soundtracks for sale, but they'll be overseas, sold for an insane amount online, or very limited in special collections.  After a bit of hunting, I was able to find a few soundtracks.  There was one I just couldn't find at all though.  I had bought Centipede: Infestation for the Nintendo 3DS and completed the game with no interest in playing the game again.  The game mostly boring with a few interesting boss battles (it's an arena top-down shooter), but what really got me playing the game till the end was the music.  The composer is Jake Kaufman who I've took notice to after his work on Contra 4.  The music in the game has a strong influence of Electronic, Drum 'n Bass, and Dubstep that made it unique.  What I eventually did was hook up my 3DS to my laptop and recorded all the song from the "Jukebox" selection of the game.  I think the true prize of Videogame music this past month was purchasing the Humble Indie Bundle 6 this week.  I had 3 of the games listed already, but I really wanted a game called "Dustforce" after watching some gameplay of it from launch and from hearing about from my friend.  The bundle included the soundtracks to all the games.  I played Dustforce the night I bought it and really liked the game.  The controls were really tricky in the beginning (well, they still are), but the game flows really well when you know what you're doing.  What I didn't expect was how amazing the music was going to be.  I've been listening to the soundtrack all week.


I just can't stop listening to it.  Not only does it supplement the gameplay, but it's so chill and makes you feel so good.

I'm going to try my very best to hold back on any other game purchases (other than crazy steam deals) until I can go through some of my previously bought games.  I feel like I'm going to be playing some of them for a very long time.  I dread the thought of having to work right now and the rest of the month, but I'll enjoy each night that I find time to play some games. (Literally over 100+ games waiting to be played).

Plenty of games, not enough time

So the Steam Summer Sales finally did roll around and I ended up buying 31 games.  I've only played about 12 of the games I've bought so far as I'm trying to burn through some of my older games first.  Then after the Steam Summer Sales, Amazon had an incredible deal I couldn't refuse: Final Fantasy XIII-2 for $15.  With free shipping offered to a purchase of over $25, I bought Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce as well.  Between then and now, I've gotten a new gaming laptop, bought Binary Domain for PC, Pre-purchased Guild Wars 2, and bought Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
It's a vicious turnabout knowing I have the means to buy the games I want now but not enough time in the day to play through so many of them as it used to be the reverse when I was in school.  Still, I put in a good amount of time into gaming ever since I got my new laptop.  I've been staying up till 3-4AM every night this past week trying out all the games I had before and turning them to the max settings.  I still end up playing a lot of League of Legends everyday since a lot of my friends play it; however, I've been making an effort to play other games such as DotA 2, Team Fortress 2, and Vindictus.  I mainly want to burn through some of my older games such as the F.E.A.R. DLCs, Red Faction Guerrilla, and Assassin's Creed so I can start playing some of the other games I bought such as Ys: Origins, FarCry 2, and Sonic Generations.

I've actually gotten a bit more productive once again when I re-established contact with the two teams I was working with.  So I'm still working on sound effects on one team while working on music with the other.  Both games are practically completed and are being refined at the moment.  As for my personal projects, I haven't touched anything for a while and haven't really found the time to work or finish them as I'm working with the two teams during the day and playing games with friends at night.

I finished Acchi Kocchi's first season and I'm really hoping for second season to be created.

It was such a cute and hilarious show!  I was a bit sad when I finished it though.  I wanted more cuteness like that!  I want to continue watching animé to take a break from constantly working and constantly playing games, so I'm considering of getting back in Hokuto no Ken and finishing it.  Still, I'd really like to find more animé like Acchi Kocchi that makes me laugh and feel happy after watching it.

August is breezing by rather quickly, and so I should really get work done and land a job sometime early next year.  If not, I really might have to considering taking classes again and going back to school.  I don't want to go back...