I'm feeling rather lethargic recently, but I haven't been working THAT hard this month. I've been getting my portfolio straightened out and it's finished! Or so I thought. I might be applying to a position that involves working with sound effects and not music. So now I've got to find some of the work I did with sound effects, which makes me nervous. Sound effects isn't exactly my forte and I enjoy working with music more. But it's been exactly 3 years as of this month since I've had a real job, so I need to take advantage of the opportunity now that it's available. On the bright side, my resumé has been updated and looks stronger. I've also updated my LinkedIn account, though I really need to add a picture to it. I guess I mainly feel tired whenever I think about having to look for job openings and going through the whole process of applying since I've done it so many times in the past 4 years. But once I've gone through some job searches, I want to get back into working with some more projects while I wait for a response back.
I finally have a PS Vita! Yay! And then a week after, fans complain that the PS Vita is being ignored entirely by Sony during the Gamescom Convention. I said I'd buy a PS Vita if Phantasy Star Nova or Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus was being released here in America, and the latter was announced for a physical copy release. It was quite the day when I decided to buy one, because it was apparently sold out EVERYWHERE. I went around the city to three different GameStops and 2 Targets and picked up Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and Hyperdimension Neptunia PP while a PS Vita slim Bundle was nowhere to be found. I decided to go home and buy one from Amazon because I still saw it available 2 days prior that day. I get on Amazon only to find out that they're sold out and the sellers listed were posting it for $250 rather than the original $200. I looked online in other stores and every store was sold out other than BestBuy. So I ended up ordering it online from BestBuy while I bought Ys: Memories of Celceta and Persona 4 Golden along with a PS Vita Slim Grip on Amazon. Amazingly, I got the PS Vita 2 days after and got to play it over that weekend. I tried Hyperdimension Neptunia PP for about 40 mintues before I switched it back to Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and decided to take it one game at a time. I've already accumulated 38 hours on RO ACE in the past 3 weeks and love it!
And I love it even more when my grip came in because it's not comfortable holding the PS Vita, just like the PSP. The grip makes it less portable, but it's a world of difference in ergonomics. But the device is not without faults. It took way too long to just set up the system to play. The device has WAY too many arbitrary functions and makes me wonder if they would have saved more money if they hadn't spent so much on certain things (besides the applications, there's the backside touch sensor that's rarely used). It's quite evident that Sony isn't making a huge profit out of the Vita because they're not restocking it in stores and they're not promoting it as often as they should. I also don't like how the battery life is barely 5 hours. I have to recharge my PS Vita every 1-2 days while I recharged my 3DS every 6-8 days when I first got it (meaning when I was playing it every day). Despite its shortcomings, I really like my PS Vita and really enjoy Ragnarok Odyssey ACE as my first game for it. I can't wait to play all the other games I'll be getting for it.
One game I played a whole bunch recently was Dishonored. I had heard so much about the game but never really looked into it because I had always planned on getting it when it was cheap enough. I had purchased it back in Steam Winter Sales 2013 but didn't get around to playing it until the summer time. I finally played through it all in July and loved it! I played it through two more times just to try out new things. First time around, I played it entirely stealth. Second playthrough, I went as aggressive as possible and killed everyone I came across. On my last run, I tried to get through the game as fast as possible while killing as few people as possible (which ended up being 4-5 people, I think) and finished at around 3 hours when it took me 18 hours the first time to beat it. The game's a beautiful mix between Action and Stealth and works so well together. Dishonored was a really good game and I enjoyed playing it enough time to play it 3 times in a row. And then I played a bunch of games that I thought was okay or boring. I finally got through ICO and thought it was okay. The game's solid with its design and concept, but I was only mildly entertained by it. The Swapper was also okay. Although the idea behind the game and level designs were great, I got kind of bored after a while. Platformines started off being really fun, but became really stupid as I finished it. It's also one of the very few games where I had to mute the music because it was so distracting and annoying that I couldn't keep it on anymore:
I finally got through Arcania: Gothic 4 and Arcania: Fall of Setarrif this week. I bought those two games back in Steam Summer Sale 2012. The game was full of graphic glitches, the combat was boring, the voice acting was really off in a lot of parts, and I was always at a loss of where to go next. Throughout the entire time, I was wishing I was playing Divinity 2 or Two Worlds 2 instead. I considered quitting the game many times but was stubborn and kept to it. Arcania wasn't a very good game, yet I kind of had a fulfilling adventure from it. Traveling around the open world, meeting all sorts of quirky characters, and fighting a bunch of enemies all felt like an adventure from a fantasy novel. So in a sense, I enjoyed the experience of adventure and didn't enjoy the gameplay so much. It's hard to describe the game's worth, but I supposed I can say that I don't regret playing through it. I also understand why people were so upset with Fall of Setarrif after I finished it in 2.3 hours. It's essentially a more conclusive ending to the original game, but it wasn't that great.
After completing ICO, I've finally started Final Fantasy XIII-2. The gameplay is the same and so it's not that exciting; however, I find the story of the game to be compelling and interesting compared to the first one. I'm enjoying it.
In terms of animé, I've been watching Love Live! School Idol Project.
I remember seeing the game on iOS and downloaded it to play it and thought it was only okay. You get songs really slowly, and the songs aren't as memorable. But then a friend recommended that I watch the animé and so I did after I finished "Is the Order a Rabbit?" I really enjoy the show! I haven't been paying that much attention to animé since it's already hard to enough to keep up with videogames, but there certainly are a lot of shows I want to watch. I still lean more towards Slice-of-Life and comedy animé, though. I'm not sure if I can handle watching anymore depressing shows. Even so, I feel like I should really watch Attack on Titan and Evangelion (both original and new).
I really do feel tired and just want to play games and watch animé all day, though. But I think it's a really bad time for me to be doing that right now. I want to stay productive. Even if I can find a job opening to apply for, I still want to spend the day making more music and working on projects. The idea of being able to play games freely and enjoy myself at this time does sound very inviting, though.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Don't end just yet, Summer!
Man, what a crazy month! Starting from June, there was the E3 conference to start off the Summer. Following that was the Steam Summer Sales that began a lot sooner than I thought. Despite my efforts, I still ended up spending twice as much as I wanted to for the sales. Then I started playing Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty while watching the playoffs for DotA 2 on the first week of July. Then EVO 2014 streams started that weekend with some of the craziest matches in fighting game history; One being BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Grand Finals (Starting at 01:40:58) that had 7 match points before Garireo reached the ultimate victory. That was definitely THE most intense Grand Final of EVO this year. I also enjoyed the finals for Super Smash Bros. Melee. There was also the Grand Final for Ultra Street Fighter IV, which wasn't as exciting; however, there was an interesting fact about the winner: He used a Playstation 1 gamepad throughout the tournament. I don't know how he did it. That controller used to give me blisters all the time before they introduced the dual analog sticks. My favorite EVO moment this year was Justin Wong related, just like last year.
Starting at 12:18. It's the last match with 2 points for both players, and the victor will move onto the Grand Finals. Justin Wong is down to his Akuma, who can easily be taken out in one combo, and Filipino Champ had brought out his Phoenix with a level 5 meter which transforms her into Dark Phoenix. At that pivotal moment when Filipino Champ got the hit confirm at 12:26, I immediately thought "it's over, Justin lost..." But to my surprise, Filipino Champ X-Factored and dove in WITH his support out to hopefully end it right there. In that crucial moment, Justin Wong was able to react to it with a Messatsu-Goshoryu, (a special Shoryuken/Dragon Punch) which has a good amount of frames of invincibility during start-up, and make contact with both characters of Filipino Champ which finished the match right there. I kept wondering if it would have been different if Filipino Champ was a bit more patient and stalled those last 20 seconds (Justin Wong used to do that ALL the time!). Still, it was one of those great moments that makes watching these matches streamed live worth it. Right after EVO was the DotA 2 International which holds the record for highest reward pot of over $10 Million in e-sports history. Unfortunately, I've been so worn out from watching so many streams, keeping up with work, and trying to clear games that I didn't follow The International very closely and ended up missing the Grand Finals. I heard it was pretty decisive and wasn't that fun to watch compared to the lower brackets and early playoffs.
In between all that news following, game buying, and stream watching madness, I managed to get some work done. I had finished the Ultima Exodus Remix Project I've been working on and successfully uploaded all 10 tracks on Youtube.
All 10 tracks are in that player there. With the project finally completed, I started finishing up loose ends with projects I was working on before this week. Right after that, I'm going to need to start looking at job openings again, but this time for Audio rather than Quality Assurance. It's causing a bit of stress as more time passes and my chances of finding a job becomes slimmer. But I refuse to give up and work at a job that I won't allow me to get better with music and learn more about game development. Until I find one, I might continue doing more remix projects, because remix, arranging, and covering videogame music has been something I've been wanting to do all my life and wasn't able to until just recently.
In terms of games, I'd say I've been playing a lot more enjoyable games compared to what I played back in April and May. I finally got around to finishing Dragon's Crown and was presented with end-game content with a lot more I can do! It was surprising to see after the credits ended and there was more to the game. I finally got around to finishing Dead Rising 2 as well, and it was so painful. There were some aspects I really enjoyed out of the game, but it mostly frustrated me. There isn't much to say about it. One of my friends bought me Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae for my Birthday and I played it days after and finished it pretty quickly. For a Indie developed Hack-n-Slash, I thought it was solid. It was challenging, had a lot of combo options and skills, a decent amount of unlockables, and a very pretty main character. Phantasy Star Portable, I've had on my PSP since 2009 and never beat because of how incredibly grindy it got at the end. I tried one last time as I've played it off and on for the past 4 years after graduating, but I still wasn't able to defeat the final form of the last boss and so I gave up. I watched the ending cinematics on Youtube and considered the game to be finished under my excel sheet. Magicite was one of the games I bought during the Steam Summer Sale. It's an Action-Platformer with crafting aspects and rogue-like elements. It's like a mix between Terraria and Risk of Rain. I played the game quite a bit with two of my friends and I managed to finally beat it twice: once solo and the 2nd time with my friends. I also finished Resident Evil 6 with a friend recently and really enjoyed it a lot! I can see why a lot of fans are upset with it as it's a lot less about exploration, puzzles, and horror and a bigger focus on Action and cooperative play. I thought Capcom did a great job making a fun co-op game with long-time favorite characters of the series. I had bought a lot of 2D platformers during the Steam Summer Sale and ended up being very disappointed in a lot of them. Inescapable was short, boring, and had a dumb ending. Oniken had incredible cutscenes that truly felt like a NES game, but took some of the worst aspects of Action-platformers for its game play and design. Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, I didn't have much expectations for, but I bought it because Jake "Virt" Kaufman created the music for it. The game wasn't that great, but the ending credits song by A_Rival is amazing!
Then there were 2D platformers I got that were pretty good or incredible! 1001 Spikes is one of the incredible ones! There are so many games that want to capture the retro, 8-bit era magic of games but don't quite get it other than mimicking the graphics with some annoying chip-tunes that screams "generic videogame music!" But 1001 Spikes seems to get it right! Rather than emulating a game for the NES and saying that it's retro, it has all the concepts of a retro game with a modern mind behind it. 1001 Spikes is a difficult, troll-a-thon, platformer that consists of very short, but very challenging levels that are all intricately designed with a defined concept behind it. Every jump, every enemy, and every trap are carefully placed for reasons of player reaction, challenge, and opposition. It's a game where you will die a lot but learn from with each try with a satisfaction of completion at the end of each level. Memorization is required and so is quick reflexes and reactions. Much like Dragon's Crown, I thought I had completed the game when it starts playing a cinematic and then presents more gameplay at the end! Besides the many modes and content available, there's also a ton of extra characters to play as. Some that are quite familiar from other game franchises. It's just one surprise after another with this game, and I love it! The last Hardcore platformer I played that felt this great was Super Meat Boy. One of the secret characters in 1001 Spikes is Nyx from NyxQuest. I remembered the game but never got it, and so I did during the Steam Summer Sale. It was a short 3 hour adventure, but it had some really nice gameplay that utilizes the mouse to move everything around and the keyboard to jump, fly and glide towards safety. It was a pretty fun game and I only hated one of the levels. Another 2D platformer I got that I absolutely loved was Abyss Odyssey. I actually pre-ordered it and didn't even know much about it. I saw a trailer for it during E3 and said "it looks kinda like Castlevania and I'm craving for a Metroidvania game right now." There were many surprises in store for me in this game as the combat system is inspired by fighting games, particularly Super Smash Bros. Fighting is similar to Super Smash Bros. with the ability to skill cancel like in Street Fighter or the game Valdis Story. The game has some rogue-like elements where the levels, enemies, item placements, shops, and altars are randomly generated. This game is also very tough, but not in the same way as 1001 Spikes. Contrary to 1001 Spikes, you CAN'T memorize anything in Abyss Odyssey since everything changes every time you play. The combat system has a lot of depth to it for being so heavily associated with Super Smash Bros. and it kept me wanting more as I played the game. The music is great too!
Along with the game, I also get the soundtrack for free for pre-purchasing and I'm glad I did. I'd say I played Magicite (23 hours) and Abyss Odyssey (25 hours) the most recently. Others games I've completed recently are: StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (working on Heart of the Swarm now), Killer is Dead (which I loved), and Sniper Elite V2 (it was sorta fun).
I've got a lot of stuff ahead of me in the next month such as looking for a job in audio, finishing up projects, and clearing more of my backlog.
P.S. I started watching an animé called Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? (Is the Order a Rabbit?) and it's so cute I can't contain myself!
Starting at 12:18. It's the last match with 2 points for both players, and the victor will move onto the Grand Finals. Justin Wong is down to his Akuma, who can easily be taken out in one combo, and Filipino Champ had brought out his Phoenix with a level 5 meter which transforms her into Dark Phoenix. At that pivotal moment when Filipino Champ got the hit confirm at 12:26, I immediately thought "it's over, Justin lost..." But to my surprise, Filipino Champ X-Factored and dove in WITH his support out to hopefully end it right there. In that crucial moment, Justin Wong was able to react to it with a Messatsu-Goshoryu, (a special Shoryuken/Dragon Punch) which has a good amount of frames of invincibility during start-up, and make contact with both characters of Filipino Champ which finished the match right there. I kept wondering if it would have been different if Filipino Champ was a bit more patient and stalled those last 20 seconds (Justin Wong used to do that ALL the time!). Still, it was one of those great moments that makes watching these matches streamed live worth it. Right after EVO was the DotA 2 International which holds the record for highest reward pot of over $10 Million in e-sports history. Unfortunately, I've been so worn out from watching so many streams, keeping up with work, and trying to clear games that I didn't follow The International very closely and ended up missing the Grand Finals. I heard it was pretty decisive and wasn't that fun to watch compared to the lower brackets and early playoffs.
In between all that news following, game buying, and stream watching madness, I managed to get some work done. I had finished the Ultima Exodus Remix Project I've been working on and successfully uploaded all 10 tracks on Youtube.
All 10 tracks are in that player there. With the project finally completed, I started finishing up loose ends with projects I was working on before this week. Right after that, I'm going to need to start looking at job openings again, but this time for Audio rather than Quality Assurance. It's causing a bit of stress as more time passes and my chances of finding a job becomes slimmer. But I refuse to give up and work at a job that I won't allow me to get better with music and learn more about game development. Until I find one, I might continue doing more remix projects, because remix, arranging, and covering videogame music has been something I've been wanting to do all my life and wasn't able to until just recently.
In terms of games, I'd say I've been playing a lot more enjoyable games compared to what I played back in April and May. I finally got around to finishing Dragon's Crown and was presented with end-game content with a lot more I can do! It was surprising to see after the credits ended and there was more to the game. I finally got around to finishing Dead Rising 2 as well, and it was so painful. There were some aspects I really enjoyed out of the game, but it mostly frustrated me. There isn't much to say about it. One of my friends bought me Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae for my Birthday and I played it days after and finished it pretty quickly. For a Indie developed Hack-n-Slash, I thought it was solid. It was challenging, had a lot of combo options and skills, a decent amount of unlockables, and a very pretty main character. Phantasy Star Portable, I've had on my PSP since 2009 and never beat because of how incredibly grindy it got at the end. I tried one last time as I've played it off and on for the past 4 years after graduating, but I still wasn't able to defeat the final form of the last boss and so I gave up. I watched the ending cinematics on Youtube and considered the game to be finished under my excel sheet. Magicite was one of the games I bought during the Steam Summer Sale. It's an Action-Platformer with crafting aspects and rogue-like elements. It's like a mix between Terraria and Risk of Rain. I played the game quite a bit with two of my friends and I managed to finally beat it twice: once solo and the 2nd time with my friends. I also finished Resident Evil 6 with a friend recently and really enjoyed it a lot! I can see why a lot of fans are upset with it as it's a lot less about exploration, puzzles, and horror and a bigger focus on Action and cooperative play. I thought Capcom did a great job making a fun co-op game with long-time favorite characters of the series. I had bought a lot of 2D platformers during the Steam Summer Sale and ended up being very disappointed in a lot of them. Inescapable was short, boring, and had a dumb ending. Oniken had incredible cutscenes that truly felt like a NES game, but took some of the worst aspects of Action-platformers for its game play and design. Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, I didn't have much expectations for, but I bought it because Jake "Virt" Kaufman created the music for it. The game wasn't that great, but the ending credits song by A_Rival is amazing!
Then there were 2D platformers I got that were pretty good or incredible! 1001 Spikes is one of the incredible ones! There are so many games that want to capture the retro, 8-bit era magic of games but don't quite get it other than mimicking the graphics with some annoying chip-tunes that screams "generic videogame music!" But 1001 Spikes seems to get it right! Rather than emulating a game for the NES and saying that it's retro, it has all the concepts of a retro game with a modern mind behind it. 1001 Spikes is a difficult, troll-a-thon, platformer that consists of very short, but very challenging levels that are all intricately designed with a defined concept behind it. Every jump, every enemy, and every trap are carefully placed for reasons of player reaction, challenge, and opposition. It's a game where you will die a lot but learn from with each try with a satisfaction of completion at the end of each level. Memorization is required and so is quick reflexes and reactions. Much like Dragon's Crown, I thought I had completed the game when it starts playing a cinematic and then presents more gameplay at the end! Besides the many modes and content available, there's also a ton of extra characters to play as. Some that are quite familiar from other game franchises. It's just one surprise after another with this game, and I love it! The last Hardcore platformer I played that felt this great was Super Meat Boy. One of the secret characters in 1001 Spikes is Nyx from NyxQuest. I remembered the game but never got it, and so I did during the Steam Summer Sale. It was a short 3 hour adventure, but it had some really nice gameplay that utilizes the mouse to move everything around and the keyboard to jump, fly and glide towards safety. It was a pretty fun game and I only hated one of the levels. Another 2D platformer I got that I absolutely loved was Abyss Odyssey. I actually pre-ordered it and didn't even know much about it. I saw a trailer for it during E3 and said "it looks kinda like Castlevania and I'm craving for a Metroidvania game right now." There were many surprises in store for me in this game as the combat system is inspired by fighting games, particularly Super Smash Bros. Fighting is similar to Super Smash Bros. with the ability to skill cancel like in Street Fighter or the game Valdis Story. The game has some rogue-like elements where the levels, enemies, item placements, shops, and altars are randomly generated. This game is also very tough, but not in the same way as 1001 Spikes. Contrary to 1001 Spikes, you CAN'T memorize anything in Abyss Odyssey since everything changes every time you play. The combat system has a lot of depth to it for being so heavily associated with Super Smash Bros. and it kept me wanting more as I played the game. The music is great too!
Along with the game, I also get the soundtrack for free for pre-purchasing and I'm glad I did. I'd say I played Magicite (23 hours) and Abyss Odyssey (25 hours) the most recently. Others games I've completed recently are: StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (working on Heart of the Swarm now), Killer is Dead (which I loved), and Sniper Elite V2 (it was sorta fun).
I've got a lot of stuff ahead of me in the next month such as looking for a job in audio, finishing up projects, and clearing more of my backlog.
P.S. I started watching an animé called Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? (Is the Order a Rabbit?) and it's so cute I can't contain myself!
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