• Wednesday, June 09th, 2010
So I’ve been gaming a bit more than usual once again. I finished Red Dead Redemption the other day. For those that don’t know, it’s an open world game set in the old west around the border between the USA and Mexico in the early 1900s. You play a man named John Marsden and it’s up to you if you want to be a law abiding gunslinger or or as an outlaw. At the end of the day it doesn’t make much difference which you choose. The game’s made by Rockstar who are famous for the Grand Theft Auto series of games, and it really shows. Personally I found it a lot more enjoyable than the most recent Grand Theft Auto, GTA IV, but like that game it’s still a world made up of largely unlikable characters with the story held together by missions relying on very muddy and glitchy gameplay. My tolerance for this formula has been rapidly depleting in recent years.
I literally could ramble on for thousands of words about Red Dead Redemption’s myriad problems and glitches or the vast number missed opportunities, but when it comes down to it the game still manages to hold it’s own while remaining fun. This is something GTA IV didn’t manage for me. Fun is why many of us play games after all and I’m not about to waste time on something I don’t enjoy. I happily played this game to it’s end and I think that stands for something. I’d be more harsh on it if it wasn’t for it’s powerful ending which to me redeems where they took the story. I really have to give Rockstar credit here. Still they can’t manage to wield the emotional clout of another game I’ve been playing, Fragile Dreams: ~Farewell Ruins of the Moon~, but that’s a topic for a future post.
I kind of feel like I haven’t been watching much anime lately, but it doesn’t entirely ring true when I say it. I’ve still managed to get through a few random series with friends as well as Funimation’s Blu-ray of Evangelion 1.11 that I imported a while back. Very impressed with that I must say. Of course 1.11 is already old hat and the next movie in this new Evangelion series, 2.22, is the new hotness of the fansub world. Watching it in any format but Blu-ray though doesn’t appeal. Blu-ray revels in content like this and I’m prepared to wait for the full experience. While waiting though it’s probably best I keep away from places like CDJapan and Amazon JP. I swear they’re trying to bankrupt me with Blu-ray boxset announcements. I’ve had to draw the line at The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Blu-rays which I’d love to own being one of the best series I’ve ever seen, but four box sets at 50500yen each (NZ$833 at todays exchange rate) is far too rich for my blood.
• Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Well the latter part of 2009 and the start of 2010 just blew past me. I did my usual trick of having a half written post or two lying around, but they aren’t significant enough for me to feel the need to poach anything. I’m not one to buy into the idea of years being “lucky” or “unlucky”, but quite a few of my family and friends seem to have been having a hard time at the start of the year in various ways. Broken limbs, infectious diseases, expensive stuff breaking or just general bad times. Certainly hope that doesn’t last.
In my gaming time lately I’ve been playing Bioshock 2. Finished it last night and I was impressed with what they’ve done. I finished Mass Effect 2 fairly recently as well and it was good, although not as good as it could have been. It improved on the first game in numerous regards, but fell down in some other key areas. The dialog was rather shoddy for a Bioware game which was made all the more obvious given it was released so soon after Dragon Age: Origins. ME2 definitely wasn’t the 10/10 title many of the reviews suggest. Then again it’s by no means the first time professional reviewers threw similar accolades at flawed games (e.g. Grand Theft Auto 4). I’ve got plenty more to continue on with time permitting. Got a copy of Ace Attorney Investigations for the DS on the way, Heavy Rain is due late February, Dragon Age: Awakening in March, Persona 3 Portable in June. Bound to be others I’m forgetting.
There’s not a lot of interest in the current anime season. So far certainly nothing I can imagine wanting to pick up on Blu-ray. I’m sort of casually watching a few things to see if they go anywhere, but odds alone would suggest most won’t. Fine by me really as it’ll be nice to have a couple of months of smaller CD Japan orders. Well once the current series I’m picking up are done with anyway.
I was going to write some more personal stuff here, but the words aren’t flowing and persevering with it would probably doom this draft to oblivion so I think I’ll let it pass for the time being.
• Wednesday, September 02nd, 2009
I’ve really been feeling tired the last few days. The last month or so has been crazy busy and even thought it’s eased up now I’m still feeling really drained. Plans are looking a bit more relaxed for the next 2-3 weeks though so I think I’ll just take it easy as much as possible. Probably could do with a bit more sleep too. *looks at clock*
Been a bit preoccupied to fit in too many side activities although in my spare time I’ve been up to the usual shenanigans. Any gaming time has been spent playing BlazBlue on PS3 and Mana Khemia on PSP. I want to get back on to Persona 4, but that’s not a game casually when you have 15 minutes to spare. Anime-wise I’ve had a lot on the go although in it hasn’t required much time investment as I haven’t let myself fall behind. Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Bakemonogatari and Saki have been the favs, but even some of the seemingly B-grade shows such as Princess Lover and Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan have turned out much more entertaining than expected. I’m still importing discs directly from Japan for shows I like and it’s getting to the point where almost everything is getting a Blu-ray release. They’re all coming out region free so I’m happily grabbing them. The last disc of a few shows came out in August though and many from the next season don’t start until October so I’m going to enjoy a nice cheap September.
My Japanese language study has been going fairly well. I’m not making giant leaps or anything, but I’m pretty much constantly picking up new things and getting more proficient at the things I already knew. I’m am occasionally surprising myself too like how I recently found myself five minutes into an anime episode before I realised I didn’t have any subs turned on. Also been doing a little Manga translation on the side for practise. Incredibly slow going and there’s no way I’d put any deadlines on myself , but it’s all helping with the learning.
Installed the new MacOS X 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard) on my laptop. I may talk about it more later, but on the whole it’s about efficiency and speed. Everything feels substantially quicker. Most of the changes are under the hood and there’s some cool new technologies hiding in there.
• Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Wow, this year is just flying by. Been planning to post here for a while, but it just kept getting pushed off. My summer holiday was the longest I’d had in a few years really with me being off nearly four weeks. I managed to fit a lot in, but there’s always things we never get around to at such times.
I recently (i.e. January) bought another car which honestly has taken quite a load off my shoulders. The old one was fast becoming a money sink and it was clear big repair bills were on the horizon. It’s a shame in a way because the motor was still in great order, but the body was coming close to falling off it. It’s so nice not having to worry about the car again for the near future.
I didn’t really get in much gaming over the holidays, but I did finally complete Persona 3 FES, Fallout 3 and Disgaea 2 since my last post. Thoroughly enjoyed all three and I’m looking forward to their next iterations. I already have Disgaea 3 sitting on the shelf and the local release of Persona 4 isn’t too far away. The only game I’ve really played in the last two weeks has been Mass Effect. Picked the Xbox 360 version up for $40 which I was quite happy with.
Facing the inevitable upfront costs associated with my new car and with the way the currency performing poorly lately (especially against the yen) I’ve been cutting back on expenses a bit. While I’m quite pleased with the results, the areas I’ve been focusing on may seem a little backwards. I mean with DVDs for example rather than cutting back on the more costly Japanese R2 discs I’ve instead cut back on local R4 discs and American R1 discs. Sure I’m getting screwed on the prices, but at the end of the day I’m still spending less money overall and getting a quality product. I’m a big believer in quality over quantity.
Most of the anime series I’d been collecting on DVD through last year have recently had their last volumes released so I’ve moved on to some of the newer shows. Ga-Rei -Zero-, Akane-iro Ni Somaru Saka and Maria+Holic being the main ones all of which I’ve been enjoying a lot. I’m still not finished my code for adding subtitles to these discs, but I have a fully working proof of concept and it’s progressing nicely.
I also recently switched ISPs. I had been with ihug (now Vodafone) for 11 years, and have always had good dealings with them, but since the Vodafone buyout it’s like they’ve just stopped trying to compete any more. I’ve now switched to Orcon and while I have to admit I’m not 100% happy with their service either (the connection is noticeably slower) I’m happy to put up with because for the amount of bandwitdth I use they are a whopping NZ$70 a month cheaper than Vodafone. With numbers like that I’d have to be stupid not to switch even if it means a bit less speed.
Current Music: Jóhann Jóhannsson - Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device based on Heim\'s Quantum Theory) - Fordlândia
• Sunday, December 07th, 2008
Had a day trip up to Auckland last week for a RedHat sponsored event at the Langham hotel. I did find the event itself reasonably worthwhile in the sense it provided some case studies of the kinds of systems I’ve been working with myself in recent times. Overall though it felt very much like a hard-sell with little real technical meat. This was especially the case with the second JBoss session. Time doing something different is always welcome though.
Managed to do lunch at Kiraku on Elliot St which was just as great second time around. It’s definitely my new favourite lunch spot in Auckland. With the time we’d be getting back to Hamilton it wasn’t worth going back to work so instead we took our time coming home. It was a great day overall though. It was one of my tasks to choose the CDs for the journey and I attempted to cover the bases. Some choices were successful and others not so much. On a related note I really need to pick up more Suzanne Vega albums.
More recently one of my aunts has been staying with us for a few days. Today we had plans to go “somewhere”, but the decision on the actual destination was left to the last minute. When the time came to choose my aunt expressed a desire to visit Raglan so off we went. Of course there’s not a lot to the town of Raglan so we ended up at Ngarunui Beach which is probably one of the better surf beaches in the country. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve last been out there and I must say I’m really regretting not making it there more often. Back in the summers of my uni days there were times I’d head out to Ngarunui beach most weekends. I had two groups of friends who loved the place which meant I ended up there twice as often. (This reminds me, we really need to catch up and do this again sometime Kingsley). The day was perfect for it and I managed to completely avoid sunburn too so it was a total success all round.
On a semi-related note for those that know my reddish facial complexion and may wonder as to the cause, the real reason is unfortunately childhood sun damage. 
No doubt my skin cancer risk in later life is quite high, but unfortunately with my pale skin as a young child I used to get badly burnt with even the tiniest bit of sun exposure. My skin has adjusted in recent years such that I don’t really burn much these days, but of course that’s little help now. At this point all I can do is try to avoid additional damage.
Most of my other spare time lately has been spend with family and the like. 5-6 birthdays this month. (Yes, you read that right). I’m still not entirely back up to date with the anime this season. Caught back up with Shikabane Hime Aka which has tended to be a bit average lately, and Michiko to Hatchin while I’m really enjoying. Bring on the DVDs.
Current Mood: 
nostalgic
Current Music: Kelly Polar - Entropy Reigns (in the Celestial City) - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling
