LittleBigPlanet Beta

So yay, I got my hands on the LittleBigPlanet beta thanks to Nekura. I was just going to wait for the official release in a month but he had hands on two so he passed me one.

GAWD the game is cuteness overload, but at the same time, some of the puzzles are so intricate, it can get into the serious side of things. A good chunk of my weekend has been dedicated to it already and look, it's already over.

So beta's beta. Means that it's still buggy in a lot of parts - e.g. personal stats get reset to zero, pod decorations might disappear, bunny ears sometimes disappears or bends all weird, have issues connecting to other friends (both ways), serious lag issues, insane glitching during fast motion moments, one person might see something different than another person and somehow end up finishing the stage out of the blue, etc etc...

However! It's been insane fun so far. It takes up so much of your time and you don't even know it. Some of the levels built out there are really good. Playing multiplayer is so easy (when it doesn't bug out on you - which isn't always), and everyone's so good spirited and understanding, which is great.

And people have made so many stages out there already the game never ends!

End of Code Geass... Goodbye Lelouch

[code geass: hangyaku no lelouch R2 spoiler + ramble]
So has Code Geass finally, finally ended. Just a bit about the whole series in general - I love little diabolical smart guys (*cough Light*) and Lelouch is so much more charming than Light (c'mon, he's a bloody prince for goodness sake). After Light's fate, I feared Lelouch would share the same... it only does make sense that "karma" (if you would like to put it that way) will come back and get you, or you should realize your mistakes and make up for it. Well, in Lelouch's case, he thought it was the best thing to atone for his crimes... so yes... we saw his death coming. But throughout the whole series, I had that glimpse of hope that his case would be different at the end. Somehow, he'd atone for his crimes, yes, but at the same time he didn't need to die himself.

The end was just so... well, shocking for me. Who would've thunk Suzaku would (for one thing) be alive AND be the one to kill Lelouch AND take on the role of Zero. I was shocked that he died at first (finally died, FOR SURE - or so I thought) and I was all like OMG you can't leave Lelouch alone you douchebag! You guys are like BFF! Then there's C.C. At the end, she didn't get to die and now she gets to live on for another billion years! And what happened to the love you guys developed?? Lelouch just ditched her girlfriend! But at the end, C.C. was rather happy so there are many ways to interpret this. 1: Lelouch is in the world of C, and so they can keep contact (yay!) 2: C.C. after experiencing love, has a new outlook of life thanks to Lelouch 3: Now that she's not bound to the crazy schemes of the Britannia family, she's free to start over and maybe not have to do anything Geass related. But then, what would be her reason for living on then?

The first option would be the happiest, I'd say. Or my friend Hsui brought up the fact that Lelouch might've pulled a Marianna on somebody (maybe Suzaku) or maybe the guy that was pulling the wagon. I don't know but I sure hope they throw an OVA or extra episode at us. Most people aren't wishing for it, because they prefer the open interpretation, but for me... it's way too suspenseful.

So Lelouch's actual death moment. I cried. I haven't cried in a while and... I felt so upset. I know it's expected but the way that he died was so noble... so smart... so Lelouch and yet not Lelouch (because he died! c'mon!). And Nunnally. Something's up with that girl. She can read minds by touching someone! The birth of Nunnally's PSI or Geass perhaps even. But when she cried, I cried along with her. Just thinking about the scene again makes me upset. The moment was further intensified with one of hitomi's wonderful tracks.

Sigh.

There might be another story about the Geass'. Looking at the title "Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch," it's a story about Lelouch and his chapter's over. That could mean that there might be a "Code Geass: Insert someone other subtitle" about someone else. That could be draining the whole concept quite a bit, but it's just a thought that crossed my mind.

AND ONE MORE THING. R2 = R.R.! MAYBE MAYBE HUH HUH?
But wouldn't that be L.L.? I guess L2 doesn't sound really cool now does it. So let's use the R of the L instead, Rerouch Ramperouge. YES.
[/spoiler]

Importing Forevermore

So I just imported my old blog and merged it with this one. I couldn't import the comments from Forevermore cuz I used a separate service at the time.

Going through and tagging 600+ posts is going to be FUN.

Females Onry

K so this is the first Females Onry post. Means it concerns issues that may be very feminine or "female only" topics. Tags are great.

So I had my first underarm hair laser treatment the other day. I bought a package of three, so I'll be returning for more later. At first I was extremely paranoid that it would hurt like HELL so I was debating whether to get numbing cream or not. When I actually started thinking about how realistic that is for me to actually go and use it, I realized I'd be too lazy to. So I went as I am and it went a lot smoother than expected. They put this gel over my skin and then use the laser stick thing and zapped one arm at a time. It basically felt like needles digging deep into the skin, but it was an instantaneous feeling so it went by real quick. 15 minutes later, I was done. The aftermath felt just like a wax job, so it was easy peesy handle-able stuff.

Makes me wonder if laser teeth cleaning works in a similar fashion.

Ouch.

So... I dropped my Rolex on the kitchen floor today.

Unluckily it fell on the wrong (or is it perfect?) angle and the sapphire crystal crackled oh so wonderfully. Now I'm going to have to get it fixed which'll set me back a few hundred. Damn.

Onto other news... the crappy rain weather has returned which sucks. I had more to say too but I forget.

Genso Suikoden: Finish

1996 PS game finish!

The oldest game I've played as of late. And it's not a game you can underestimate either!

Story - 4.5/5
K so it's a story that revolves around war and you play the son of a respected Imperial General. Your empire is being corrupted by war (and a crazy lady), so you have to gather 108 stars of destiny to revolt against them. Every character you encounter had a part in the story, which made the story all the more interesting (minus a few random ronins who were actually related to the main/side stories).

Characters - 5/5
I really enjoyed all the characters. You'd imagine with 108 characters, you'd be unable to have any emotional attachments to them. You were only able to use a certain number of them in battle versus war battles. Everyone had their unique personality and were all pretty amusing. Even the silent hero you get to play was interesting. Favourite characters were probably Viktor and Flik. Even now I have trouble thinking Cleo's female.

Gameplay 3/5
Of course, this game's old. So if you thought Tales of Phantasia's transitions were slow, Suikoden is 10x slower with 20x slower fade in/outs. Battles were turn based, so you'd be picking all your actions before the everything was played out. You'd have no idea how fast the enemy is, if they'd be punching you first or vice versa.

Moving your character requires a lot of patience. The only way you can run in this game is to use a specific rune in your rune slot for any character in your party, but the slot is precious so you'd be using it for something else more important.

Strategic war battles are insane fun but there aren't many of them in the game. It's when you actually have a battle against the empire with all your troops, picking actions such as Charge Attack, Bow n Arrows, Magic, sneaking and spying the enemy. The animations were SO CUTE! And when you win, you'd hear your little chibi men cheering in their chibi voices.

Magic is quite different in this game. It wasn't until near the end of the game, I finally figured out how it worked. Before then, I would rely on a lot of heal items and a lot of physical violence. The last boss was amazingly easy for me when I finally got the hang of it.

Sound - 2/5
There's some pretty ridiculous sound effects in this game. Especially the little punjabi jingle (my brother calls it) when someone joins your party. The soundtrack doesn't seem especially wide ranged as it felt like I was listening to the same few tracks throughout.

Graphics - 2/5
Did I always have this category? Two words: pixel world. The whole game was extremely 2D, where your character would only move either up, down, left, right - no diagonals. There was a glimpse of a third dimension when you did critical hits during battle modes. The world map was the simplest of all world maps. At least the characters had little illustrations, in which the pixel version of them were quite well translated.

The little pixel animations were quite cute though. You'd do a little spin when someone joined your party (plus the punjabi jingle).

Overall - 3/5
If you put the visuals aside, the game is great. It becomes rather hard when you're surrounded by HD games nowadays, and I'm sure this game was considered good back in its day.

Some of the abnormal statuses were quite amusing, though unexplained. Like you'd get a bucket over your head (I assume that's blindness?), or a balloon hanging over you (you need a Needle - literally - to pop it), or a little dancing devil over your head (which meant you're poisoned).

There weren't any extra quests or difficult modes to choose from (window/sound collecting is nothing). The collecting of the 108 stars was probably the only "side quest" that was not mandatory, but why wouldn't you do it! Did I mention that drop rates for items are hell?

I'm taking a break from Suikoden before tackling Suikoden II. I'm leaning on trying Persona (Revelations). Old PS game continuation fun - GO!

Gasp 360

Hello! We finally gave in. There's a 360 sitting in our living room right now. However I've been informed that there isn't much to play on XBL right now so that's a bit of a disappointment. It's still sitting in its box... at least for a bit longer. Vesperia: it'll be a while before I get to you... I want to finish your predecessors first (Destiny 2, Rebirth, Legendia in that order).

Don't worry PS3, you're still the more loved one. The upcoming release of LBP will reinforce that.

It turns out it isn't the end of WAR for me, just for a bit longer. A friend has offered their CE key to me because of a duplicated order. I attempted to log in and send my regards to my guildies, but the queue to get into our server was over 200! Later that night, it was well over 400. The guild leader also refuses to change servers so now we're stuck. How stressful. Well the official game comes out tomorrow so I'll have to start paying for it. It's more expensive than FFXI and MH. The price is less desirable. I'd rather pay for XBL Gold and get access to more games.

Not sure what to do.

*goes to play her PSP*

The End of WAR

The end of WAR (for me) is near... like tomorrow morning kind of near. The game was fun, but not fun enough for me to go out and buy it. I have serious control issues when I'm meleeing with a mouse (which is why Disciple of Khaine was a total failure for me). Distance is my friend, so Sorceress and Zealot were my BFFs. I recorded some footage.. all glitches. I'll compile them, if I find enough... with the little time I have left.

Oh, scratch that. They closed the servers down early to prep for the CE Headstart early Sunday.

Instant Noodles

The start of this week in life was good. School continues on at its pace. Work becomes more irritable week by week.

FFXI update: Level Sync. I tried it yesterday, syncing up with a level 30-32 party in Yhoat. I kept dishing out way too much hate as a 68 RNG, but it was still fun. I can't help but feel like it was still grindy though. And my upcoming lvl70 Kriegsbeil hasn't dropped in price since I last saw it. I can't afford it, and yet I refuse to feel gimp on my ranger. However, today marks my first day for CHEAP LIMBUS. Cheaper Limbus equals cheaper ABCs (I hope!).

WAR update: Open beta started, though I haven't been playing much still. Now that FFXI is somewhat interesting again (I refuse to get sucked in!), it'll be hard for me to play more on WAR, especially when I've played through the Dark Elves story over a billion times now, and knowing it'll be wiped yet again when the game's released later this month.

As I'm filling my tummy with this awesome bubble tea, I need to force myself to make [and eat] some instant noodles later for my project. (Yes you heard me, it's for SCHOOL.)

3rd Year Commences

The new school year suddenly snuck up on me, and the first week just flew right by. The first day was Dale's morning class Tuesday. We started off with an easy warming up exercise. Finished off the day with Guu @ Aberdeen with Lisa for lunch. It was actually my first time trying out that location and it was actually pretty good. I was surprised that that location had actual sashimi dishes. We ordered too much but it was nummy.

Next day was Keith's class on CSS. He taught Dreamweaver all day. It was boring as hell so I took the time to clear out the receipts in my wallet instead. I need a topic on the website he wants us to make. I'm tempted to make a site on some game I have screenshot access to easily (coughFFXIcough) but shit I've had too many projects based on this already and it's becoming a bit stereotypical for me. (Hate myself for my own love for games?)

Thursday mornings are Rick mornings. And damn. He lectured for 4 hours straight (ok minus 30mins for the break he gave us). It was the most excruciating class since.... the last lecture class we had with him last semester. I also need a retail company subject for this project as well. For this one, I am tempted to do a video game store, but that's so cliche for me by now (on top of Keith's class subject idea) lol. SHIIIIT.

Do I need a new hobby? Be like everyone else and care about well-being, sports, ART? Hurry brain, think of something interesting soon k?