Gaming

Ah, the period leading up to Christmas is an enjoyable one for gamer's to say the least, and this year has been phenomenal. Infact, it's been SUCH a good period this year, that's it's actually become the WORST time to be a gamer, since it's next to impossible to afford all of what's out ><. Anyway, thankfully, due to my brother working at a rental store, I've had the privilege of playing all the new releases so far (for the 360) plus the few that I've purchased. Here's a few that have really struck a chord with me ^^.

Mirror's Edge

This is truly a new experience in gaming and deserves every award going for innovation and design. The feeling you get jumping between buildings and being chased by the police is exhilarating from start to finish. The music plays a big part in what makes the game so special, and I'm fallen completely in love with Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky. Truly an excellent song that belongs with this game. The graphics are some of the best I've seen on any console in recent memory, though a lot of their appreciation is down to whether or not you like the style of the game's design. Personally i find the combination of the white buildings/rooftops and the red "runner vision" items a really striking sight.

However, all is not perfect in Mirror's Edge, though i wish it was. Sadly the game clocks in at a measly 5-6 hours play time on the story, and that was on normal mode (i normally play casual/easy on rentals so i can see as much of the game as possible) which is the highest difficulty straight out of the box. I also believe the length of the game hampered the story. Though it built up well from the start and was quite intriguing throughout, it was completely let down with the ending. I was hoping for something spectacular, but alas i was left with the same disappointment that plagued the end of Bioshock. It was an abrupt ending and one that didn't do the rest of the game justice. My only other complaint is that missing some of the jumps can get irritating after the 4th or 5th attempt, but the game is just so enjoyable that i didn't struggle at all to find the motivation to try again.

Aside from the story mode, there's speed runs and time trials available to play. I haven't spent much time on these yet as generally stuff like that doesn't interest me, but I'm planning to try them out tomorrow for the sole reason that the gameplay is so amazing.


Gears of War 2

Now this was worth waiting for, Gears 2 is most certainly "bigger, better and more bad ass" than the first. Returning to the role of Marcus Fenix was always going to be fun, but Epic outdid themselves imo. Gears 2 has built on the story from the first game, and as such the whole thing seems to have progressed naturally. It doesn't have the problem that some sequels suffer from where they struggle to continue the original story, resulting in over the top additions that just don't work properly in the game's context. You really get the feeling that in the time between Gears 1 and 2 , the fighting hasn't stopped, the COG soldiers are still in constant battle, and when you start up the game, you're pretty much right back in the saddle.

The character's and voice actors of Delta Squad really make this game something else, they raise it above your average shooter or action game. There's a Gears movie in the works, but i honestly don't think it's required. The story, voice acting and action of the game are easily on par with anything Hollywood could produce, and this really does result in you caring for the characters. There's a really feeling of brotherhood between Marcus, Dom, Baird and Cole, they don't always take thing's completely seriously, but when thing's kick off, you couldn't ask for a better group of guys covering your back.

A lot is said about the gore content of the Gears series, and although i am of the belief that some games really don't need the gore they put in (Fallout 3 - over the top and silly, but not exactly necessary) but with Gears i really feel it's integral. This is meant to be war against one of the most vicious adversaries ever created in games/movies/literature, this isn't the sci-fi fare of Halo where there's one super soldier and laser beams going off all over the place. You get up close and personal with a locust... you're going to want that chainsaw bayonet. War isn't meant to be a pretty sight, though with graphics like these it's occasionally hard to NOT "ooh" and "aah" at your surroundings.

As with Mirror's Edge, there's a problem with the length of the story mode though, clocking in at 8-12 hours depending on difficulty/skill etc... but the multiplayer will keep you coming back for more... especially Horde!


The Last Remnant

I can't exactly review this as I have yet to play it lol. I put in a preorder for this game this morning and should be receiving it sometime mid-late next week. This was one of the game's highest up my list for the year. It's SquareEnix so i was sold on it straight away, but when SE announces that it could be the future of RPG's, you have to pay attention. Sure they could be wrong, but these guys know their stuff. The story reportedly takes around 60 hours to complete... so i can't see me complaining about length any time soon :D Here's hoping it's as good as i expect it to be!

Hamasaki Ayumi

So, been listening to Ayumi a lot again recently. She's the kind of singer I can always go back to no matter how often. I may not worship the ground she walks on in the same way I used to when I first became a fan, but there's just something about her that makes it impossible to leave her and her music alone.

Recently I pre-ordered her 10th Anniversary singles collection due for release next month. It wasn't the cheapest purchase ever, costing just under £30 including postage from CdJapan but i'll be damned if it's not worth it. I feel proud and honoured to have discovered such an amazing talent as Ayumi's, and in my 8 years as a fan I've seen her grow and mature as a singer and a songwriter. I've witnessed her throw herself into music composition, producing some of her greatest song's to date, she took control of near enough every aspect of her career, and continued to be immensely successful.

I was saddened around the start of the year, as were many many other fans, to hear about her loss of hearing in one ear, but I only loved her more when she showed so much dedication to her fans and music. She's in a position where she could comfortably retire from the music industry but she's chosen to keep going. I respect and admire her for this, as do many more of her fans i'm sure.

I have yet to find another singer that touches me in quite this way. Sure I'm a huge Morning Musume/Hello! Project fan, and proud of that fact too, but when push comes to shove, they're not in the same league as Ayumi. I'd be surprised if any other singer in the world, not just Japan, could have such a hold over me.

Hurray for the 80's and kittens!

YAY! I got new kittens :D Well, one's mine and the other belongs to my brother. My brother's is a boy called Louie, and mine's a girl called Reina (no points for guessing why :P).

Anywho, Recently discovered yet another banned that confirms i should have been born and raised in Japan during the 80's. REBECCA are FANTASTIC. Seriously, I liked what i heard a long time back from Ayumi's "Idol on Stage" performances, but those pale in comparison to the originals. It's only been a few days, but i'm ordering an album next week, though i'm torn between Blond Saurus and Poison as both have songs i really really enjoy. I would buy both but i need to buy the final Haibane Renmei DVD to complete my box set ><.


Ontop of that though, the lead singer released an English album in the early 90's called "Call me Nightlife" and i managed to track down a sealed copy for £1.30!!!!!!!! Seriously, i never even dreamed i'd find something so rare, and at such a ridiculously low price @_@



Looking forward to this cd arriving :D

Can't sleep

It's 6:50am, I can't sleep... gogo feeling crap day!

Welcome to Cardiff... Population = Scum

Ok, so perhaps it's a little bit wrong for me to get so worked up over this as it's been happening to a LOT of people for a long time now, but I can't help being pissed off about it.

Last night, my mum went to the opera with some friends from work. Since money here is pretty tight at the moment, she hasn't been out in over a year, close to two years infact by my count, so this was something pretty special for her.

Before the show started they went for a meal, and while they were eating, some scummy bastard stole £30 and my mum's debit (bank) card from her bag along with, oddly, her bus ticket. So anyway, they went to pay for the meal and my mum noticed that the stuff was missing. It must have completely ruined her night. They still went to the show, but I don't think she had as much enjoyment as she would have had, thanks to some twat taking advantage of her.

Anyway, we cancelled the card before it could be used for anything, but I feel so sorry for my mum -_-.

Last Friends

Since my brother monopolized the computer tonight, I took the opportunity to catch up on the Japanese Drama I start watching a few weeks back, Last Friends. This is easily one of the BEST series' I've had the luck to catch. I love the serious tone which doesn't seem to appear in a lot of the drama's I watch, though that's not to say there aren't any serious shows, just I generally watch comedies etc...

I'm very, very impressed with the acting from the entire cast in dealing with the various subject matter apparent in the series, such as domestic violence, gender issues etc... I'm completely blown away by Ueno Juri's performance as Ruka. She was the main element that drew me to this series as, having seen her in Swing Girls and the the absolutely FANTASTIC Nodame Cantabile I was always gonna be interested in what else she'd star in. I will say however, that I was shocked at first seeing as the two performances listed above were comedy's, and to see her perform so well in such a different role is amazing. I think in the years to come she can surely become one of Japan's top actresses, if she isn't already.

I'm also really happy to see another drama starring Eita. He's a great actor, able to perform just as well in both comedy and dramatic rolls, the one sticking with me the most bing Unfair. It's hard to describe just how good this guy is, and he brings a real element of vulnerability to Takeru, you really feel for the character. Alongside Eita however, I also need to give a mention for Nishikido Ryo, who gives another solid performance yet again. It must be a daunting task for a member of a popular boyband to portray such a sinister, violent character. I will say however that he needs to diversify his acting/roles as, seeing him in 1 Litre of Tears and Attention Please aside from Last Friends, he never seems to play any "happy" characters, but that's only a minor complaint about such a solid actor.

I haven't given details on the plot as there are other places that can give a much better synopsis than I ever could. I'm planning to go and watch episode 7 as soon as I finish this entry, then I have to wait for Kioku to sub the next episode before I can continue (though I know there are soft subs out there, I prefer to keep to hardsubs wherever possible).

Hello!

Well, I'd originally planned to do this blog on the side with my Final Fantasy XI one, and finally got around to setting it up tonight. The name? Well it was some on the spot thinking as I had planned for the title "Plan B" (With "The Azure" being Plan A) but clearly that's already been taken. So here I am with The Next Gen. I don't actually know HOW the titles came to me exactly, but I kinda like it. I'm planning to post about day to day things (what with me job hunting and all) and my interests, (movies, music, games etc...), so hopefully I shouldn't be TOO short on content to update with. That being said, I'm not sure entirely how often this will be updated, will just have to see how things go.

So anyway, some good and bad news to start things off. The good... I went to see Indiana Jones IV last night. Woo I enjoyed that movie. It had everything a good old fashioned adventure film needs... a quick pace, iconic character, amusing dialogue and some truly excellent action set pieces. I'm still undecided on the whole Indie + Aliens idea, it doesn't fit QUITE as well as I'd hoped, but I'm not going to let that detract from the sheer enjoyment i got from the movie. Great stuff ^^.

Sadly, with the good comes the bad, and what a day I've had. I was awake until 5am in the morning trying to fix a REALLY nasty spyware infection which, no matter what i did to clean it, the problem intensified to a point where I was getting windows popping up every 15-20 seconds and my system grinding to a crawl. So, it was with a depressed sigh that I pushed on with the only remaining option, (other than paying some guy to look at it for me), and reformatted the machine. Problem's gone (obviously) but I lost in the region of 30gb worth of downloads (I managed to back up a small percentage of what I had however). Anywho, I'm getting things back up to scratch now, just a few old app's missing which I need to re-download, I just hope i don't have to deal with this problem again for a loooooong time. Fingers crossed ne?

Until next time, laters ^^.