Category Archives: Gaming

Broken DS

I bought my brother a DS for his birthday on December 4, and already his L-button hardly works. He has to press it really hard for it to register. About two weeks ago, my R-button started having this problem. At first I just had to press a little harder than usual, but very quickly it got so bad that now I can hardly use the R-button at all. Then, last night, my hinge cracked. It makes me very sad.

Mikoishi DS MMO

InsertCredit had an article pointing to the homepage of Mikoishi, an South East Asian game devoloper. One of their announcements is that Mikoishi commences development of MMOG for Nintendo DS “Project K”. This is very, very intriguing to me. I wonder if they’ll go through with it, and I wonder if it’ll be very good. Regardless of what it’s like, if it comes out, I’ll purchase it on launch day if it’s actually an MMO.

Nintendo

I think Nintendo is really bringing themselves back into the market. The only console from this or the previous generation that I bought is the Wii, and I also love my DS. Both the Wii and DS are good, quality products. On top of that, Nintendo is is removing themselves from the normal competition by making their products something different. But most importantly, I feel like Nintendo has a lower-bound on game quality for third parties. It just seems like there isn’t as much crap. Yes, there’s crap, but not as much as for other systems.
To start, take the Wii. I admit that there’s a lot of crap titles on it already. However, there are a lot of fun titles as well. Twilight Princess, although really a GC port, is very fun. Trauma Center, again basically a port, is also great. Red Steel has control issues you have to get used to, but is a decent FPS, and the multiplayer is fun. Rayman is just wonderful if you like minigames. Those are the four games I have, and I’m happy with them. Monkey Ball looks good too, as does Elebits. Hell, to be honest I’ve been considering getting the fishing game. And soon we’ll have WarioWare Smooth Moves, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Mario Galaxy. A pretty great line up, I think. The system is sleek looking both physically and the UI, and the messaging system works well. The friendcode system is a little annoying, but safe for younger audiences. And the Virtual Console has wonderful potential. I’ve bought three titles from it already. What’s also really nice is the fact that the games use the controller in different ways. I like that Twilight Princess hardly uses the motion sensors. I don’t think every game should use them just because they’re there.
Now, I know it sounds like I mentioned a lot of negative too, but the competiton is interesting. I thought the X-Box was stupid, but I’m really enjoying the 360. It does have a very strong western feel, as one would expect, so I definitely wouldn’t make it my first choice. However, the games feel and look great on it, and while it gets a lot of PC ports, that’s not neccessarily a bad thing. Call of Duty 2 and Gears of War are both great on it. I really want a 360 just to play Gears of War. Plus, there are other games that look interesting for it – Call of Duty 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Oblivion, Fear, KOTOR 2, just to name a few. Although what obviously holds me back is that price tag.
Speaking of prices, this is where the PS3 comes in. I had a PSX and loved it. I don’t own a PS2, but I own many PS2 games that I play on my girlfriend’s and roommate’s PS2s. However, I think I hate the PS3. I feel like Sony slapped me in the face. There were a ton of features that were supposedly going to be in the PS3 that I no longer hear anything about, although the price is still insane. Why would I want to pay that much money for a piece of crap, anyways? The library on launch was horrible. There’s nothing I want to play on it at all. GameFAQ’s top ten games for PS3 are Resistance: Fall of Man, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and nine games that aren’t out yet. Plus, watching some footage of PS3 games on G4 made me think I was watching a PSX. The PS3s in stores seem to freeze a lot, and that shitty truck game has the nice feature of letting you fall through the road all the time.
And then there’s the PSP. There’s a few titles that look nice, I admit it. And the system itself looks nice. But wow, have you ever seen so many shitty titles? Everyone I know with a PSP stops using it very quickly.
Compare that to the DS. I have 15 games for my DS, and I’ve completed 12 of them. One of them has only one save file and my girlfriend’s using it, and the other two I’m still playing. I don’t regret any of my purchases, and there are still many more games I want to get. Seriously, I haven’t been this into a system in years, and I’ve definitely never been so in love with a handheld. The games are so fun, and there are so many of them! Plus, the wifi feature is very nice. I just beat Kirby Squeak Squad tonight, and it was a ton of fun. If I had to pick out my favorite games for the system, I’d say Trauma Center, WarioWare Touched, Feel the Magic, Mario Kart DS, and New Super Mario Bros. I carry my DS with me everywhere I go, and I play it everyday.
I know I’m really sounding like a Nintendo fanboy, and that’s not exactly how I want to come across. I enjoy playing other people’s PSPs, and I have my own memory stick. The 360 is great, and hopefully I’ll get one soon. And I’m sure the PS3 will, in time, be great too. The PS2 had a lot of great titles swimming in an ocean of shit, and the PS3 will probably be the same. It’s just odd to me that so many people are going crazy over the PS3 when it’s just not any good yet. Plus, what really amazes me about Nintendo is what a come back they’re making.
Now if only Sega could start making consoles again (and convince people to buy them).

Wii

The Wii is amazing. Standing/sitting/sleeping in line was worth it, and after owning the DS Lite since it came out as well, I have to say I’m very pleased with the new generation of Nintendo.

GunBound

Gemma made me play GunBound for her in class today. I was sing Kalissidian, and I missed the guy I was aiming for. Luckily, I hit another for one damage… which killed him. It was pretty cool. I don’t know ifI’ve ever done just one damage before. Later I was a Boomer, and the guy I was going for said my shot would hook, implying I’d miss him. My shot hooked and killed him. Stupid people.

Call of Duty 2

Even though Will got his 360 for Christmas, I just played it for the first time tonight with Colin. Call of Duty 2’s pretty sweet actually. The controller feels good in general, and surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult to play a FPS. In fact, I beat him 5-1.

Dreamcast

I had a Dreamcast since its launch. I loved my Dreamcast. It loved me. It may have been a disappointment to Sega, but it wasn’t to me. But then it broke. Years later, my dad bought my brother one from a thrift store. It didn’t have any AV cables, and we didn’t know where our old ones were. No Dreamcast. We assumed it was broken anyways so we didn’t really try to get cables. Well, my brother just bought cables for it, and it works. Because he doesn’t have any games for it, he said he’d give it to me. I’m not sure if he knows that I took all the games with me, but that’s just fine with me. Now I have a Dreamcast again!

Science Library Looks Like a Vagina

I heard that the Science Library looks like a vagina.
Anyways, I doubt if WebPageless will really come back anytime soon. I guess this is semi-permanent. Cox blocks all incoming ports entirely. It’s like my computer doesn’t exist on the Internet. In better news, Cox has at least made the speeds go up to normal DSL/cable speeds. I also tried using the AntWeb. To set that up, I had to learn how to VPN into the school. But after setting it up, I found that pages on it are only accessible to people on the UCI network.
I gave up the Start Menu and Explorer a long time ago (about a year now). But I had used Black Box menus or BBIcons. Well, I gave it all up in trade for Google Desktop Search. I works really well. I use it to launch all my applications and everything. Good program. Good organization, that Google. I loves them.
My Palm Tungsten C died completely today. The screen is totally fucked up. Like Chopsticks. That really sucks. I kinda depend on it. I’m gonna sync to my dad’s Palm to at least get my financing info off of it.
I got about a standard deviation above the mean on the CSE 21 midterm. Did well on both projects. My Kalah AI was the best in the class. The average on my CSE 31L midterm was 54%. I got 97%. I’ve aced all my 31L labs, and have done well in Classics. Turned in a concert report on Tuesday. It went well, I think.
Last weekend was cool. On Friday, gem and I went to LNP. I wore a robe for Halloween and got in early. I never had got in early before. Then we rented Chamber of Secrets and bought Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Saturday we played video games basically. Then gem, Jon, Gabby, Andy and I went to see Nnenna Freelon at the Jazz Bakery in LA. I thought it was a pretty good show. Afterwards we came back to my apartment, drank, and watched the Grudge. Gabby was too scared to watch. She kept hiding. Patrick kept scaring her. It was great. Chris was too talkative during the movie. Andy was a bitch, and we’re never watching a movie that matters with him again. Sunday gem and I worked on our labs. Christine came over, but we didn’t really get to do much. That night, gem, Jon, Gabby, and I went to Knott’s Scary Farm. It was a lot of fun, except Jon and Gabby fought a bit. But Gabby got over her fear of the big rollercoasters – kind of. Anyways, she went on it. And we got on quickly because Jon used a wheelchair.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a really fun game. I thought the chapters would suck, but they don’t really get in the way of playing.
I finished reading Starship Troopers again. It’s so much better now than when I read it in highschool or junior high. I love Heinlein. And I love that book. Totally awesome.
On Tuesday (I think) I hung out with gem, Allison, and Lauren. It was fun. Afterwards Lauren went home, and the three of us went to Denny’s to eat. Great fun! I love friends.
I hadn’t talked to Kalin in a long time, but I’m chatting with him now. Good ol’ AIM.
My mom’s birthday was the 1st, and Pete’s is the 3rd. Happy birthdays! gem and I went out to dinner with them tonight to an Italian restaurant. I had the rigotoni, and it was great.
gem’s making Gryffindor scarves for us for the Goblet of Fire release.
Tomorrow I have a history of jazz midterm at one. I feel so unprepared. It has nothing to do with computers or math. Ah! But I’ll probably do alright.

Summer Recap

  • Life
    • rode bikes with gem in Shoreline Village twice
    • listened to Squadcast podcast
    • listened to Half Hour Power Hour podcast
    • many lunches with gem
    • hung out with gem at El Camino a lot
    • napping with gem at parks
    • sushi with gem
    • Cuban food with gem
    • watched The Tempest with gem
    • Hung out with Chris, Melissa, and Alyson
    • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Chris, Melissa, Alyson, Herbert, and Herbert’s friend
    • Hung out with Herbert
    • Hung out with Christine and Linh-Nam
    • Santa Monica with gem
    • Weeding at my mom’s
    • War of the Worlds with Mom, Pete, and James
    • Cuban food with Mom and Pete
    • LAN party at William’s with William, Linh-Nam, Chris, Russell, Kamal, Lawrence
    • Disneyland with gem, Mayra, Mayra’s date Dennis
    • Disneyland with Herbert, David, Mike, Genevieve, Chris, Denise, and Denise’s cousin Ryan
    • Saw Elon Gold at the Irvine Improv with gem
    • Hung out at gem’s Irvine house with her
    • Played GunBound with gem
    • Signed James up for gmail and taught him to use it
    • Signed James up for GunBound and taught him to play it
    • Signed James up at MySpace and taught him to use it
    • Read at a park on Santa Fe with gem
    • Read and ate at a park in Signal Hill with gem
    • Went to Boomer’s with Gian, Cheryl, Christine Kang, Allison, William, and Linh-Nam
    • Went to Guppy Tea House with William, Linh-Nam, Cheryl, and Gian and ran into David, VJ, Ronelyn, and Anthony
    • Went to Hollywood with gem
    • Ran into Camille at Taco Bell
    • Lots more shopping and hanging out with gem!
    • Went to Vegas with my aunt, uncle, and cousins to visit my grandparents
    • Took pictures at Signal Hill at night with gem
    • Ate curry that gem made me!
    • Helped gem at her house, had dinner with Russell and Lauren, visited Andy, Vince and Chris, visited Mom, Pete, and Rocky
    • Went to a pet store with gem. Browsed for a while. gem bought dog treats and a pig ear for Nina (she liked them) and a pink collar for the cat (looks cute on her)
    • Got new kitten
    • Made dinner with gem for Andy, Chris, Stef, Alex
  • Gaming
    • played Kingdom Hearts
    • completed Destroy All Humans!
    • completed Final Fantasy II (US)
    • played a lot of the Sims 2
    • completed River City Ransom in normal mode
    • played a lot of GunBound, ranking up three times (single wood hammer -> double metal axe)
    • Started playing MapleStory, getting to level 13 Magician
    • Beat Dark Alliance in Extreme
  • Anime
    • Trigun
    • FF7: Advent Children
    • FF7: Last Order
  • TV
    • Firefly
  • Literature
    • Venus on the Half-Shell
    • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
    • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Short)
    • The Standard Book of Spells (Short)
    • The Wizard’s Handbook (Short)
    • The Princess Bride
  • Movies
    • H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (2005/I)
    • Oldboy (2003)
    • White Noise (2005)
    • Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
    • Spider-Man 2 (2004)
    • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
    • The Butterfly Effect (2004)
    • Blue Crush (2002)
    • War of the Worlds (2005)
    • Soldier (1998)
    • Fantasia/2000 (1999)
    • The Animatrix (2003)
    • The Notebook (2004)
    • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
    • The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
    • Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (2004)
    • American Beauty (1999)

Final Fantasy II US

Yay, I just finished Final Fantasy II (the US version of Japanese 4). Although it was a bit predictable due to being old (probably original in its time), it was still really enjoyable. Now for sleep!