/played
Guitar Hero (ps2)
Dragon Quest 8 (ps2)

/listened to
Podcasts…

/watched
Hmm.. nothing?

Oops, a bit late with this post. But as you can see, there isn’t much interesting to talk about. I played one hour of Guitar Hero and one hour Dragon Quest 8 this week. And didn’t watch a single movie either…

We did get Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind in the mail but haven’t found the time for it yet. Hope it’s less sad than Grave of the Fireflies though.

I’m actually thinking of getting an Intel-based Mac, but damn those things are expensive :/ And then there’s the zillion games being released this month… Damn I didn’t even get Tetris DS yet…

I guess the biggest thing happening this last week was that they broke into my parents’ place. Stealing everything that has any emotional value to them, like their engagement rings, wedding rings,… So that sucked hard. Less important is my GBA SP with my Zelda save game and my entire collection of old Gameboy games. (with the focus on gaming on this blog lately it’s worth a mention though ;))

Another reason to save up for that shotgun I guess… ^^

There are a bunch of great portable games heading our way. Now the only problem left is to decide which to buy. I’ll probably end up with all of them at some point, but have no idea what to get first. So help me out here ;)

There’s Tetris DS, which should be available this week. It’s 10 player VS-mode with only one cartridge interests me a lot. Problem is, everyone I know with a DS lives at least 40 min away.

Me & My Katamari will be released in 3 weeks, so there’s no need importing that. Question is, will it be worth the money, after I already own both PS2 versions.

Brain Age is a must have, but still 1 month away. Importing would be an option, but I don’t know how much it will differ from the European version. Also, importing tends to be more expensive and I guess I can wait a month no?

One game I might import though, is Metal Gear Ac!d 2. I skipped the first (and every other Metal Gear game), but since I’m very interested in the Metal Gear world however (storyline, characters etc). With MGA2 being card/turn-based, which is more my style than real-time stealth, I really want to give this one a try. Its release date is end June and I’m not that patient ^^.

/played
Guitar Hero (ps2)
Meteos (DS)
Odama (GC)
Riviera (gba)

/listened to
Podcasts…

/watched
Porco Rosso
Grave of the Fireflies
Kingdom of Heaven
Hackers

Not a lot of gaming this week, except for some Riviera at work, Guitar Hero at night and Meteos at family events ^^. Also tried Odama at Kurisu’s place and I was surprised, after seeing so many bad reviews and silly videos, that I was addicted instantly. It’s a pinball game mixed with some RTS Command & Conquer, one controlled with the joypad, the other with your voice. It’s insane, you have no idea what is going on but shouting “Advance!” “March Left” “Push forward” (add lots of cursing) and see your men get squashed by your own ball is very amusing and frustrating at the same time.

We did watch lots of movies, sometimes non-interactive, brain dead entertainment does the body good. Kingdom of Heaven was a pleasant surprise, pissing me off again thinking about the insanity of religious wars,… in ancient times and today. But let’s not get too serious, I keep my flame wars for other sites ^^

Finally Ghibli movies are getting more affordable. I used to import them from Japan at 50$+ per dvd, but European versions are finally easier to find, costing me less than half of what I’m used to paying. We ordered a couple and the first two arrived: Porco Rosso and Grave of the Fireflies. Porco Rosso is your typical, entertaining and beautiful Ghibli, but Grave of the Fireflies seemed to be the first Ghibli we know of to be sad all the way. It doesn’t happen a lot that we shed a tear with a movie, let alone a cartoon. But a great film nonetheless.

Just a few more Ghiblis… we’re nearing a complete collection ^^

With all this chocolate, the Easter Bunny better bring me a new liver too. Or I’ll be camping with my shotgun tonight and take his… bunny and human liver are compatible no? ;)

Happy Easter to you all. New livers for everybody!

… (it seems they are not compatible, so Elke is trying to get rid of me? ^^)

PCs are already quite dead for me, since I ditched mine 2 years ago and switched to a Mac. We still have one in the house though, which Elke uses for gaming. Everything else she’ll do on the iMac.

But with the coming of Apple’s Boot Camp, you have to be a real idiot (or just have no taste… or maybe lack the money because yes, these Intel-based Macs are expensive, so some of you are excused ^^) to let your new computer be a regular pc. With its 256mb graphics card and Intel processor, these Macs run your Windows XP without a problem and will even run Half-Life 2, at a resolution pc-gamers can only dream of. For more details, I really advice you to check out the latest episode of the 1UP Show, where you will see the stuff running very smoothly.

It’s worth the download, since you will see footage of the new PSP game Loco Roco. This game could bring some new life to the PSP, after its many PS2 ports and other crappy games. Finally fresh, original Japanese material for what is no doubt the sexiest handheld out there. Until I get my hands on a DS Lite however ^^

/played
Guitar Hero (ps2)
Dragon Quest 8 (ps2)
Riviera (gba)

/listened to
Podcasts…

/watched
Wedding Crashers

Riviera is quite a cute RPG that I’m playing during lunch breaks on the Gameboy Micro. The best thing to compare it to is an old-fashioned text-based adventure… with graphics ^^. There’s a lot of text and you can’t move around freely, which is odd, but the pretty visuals and the story sort of keep me going.

Dragon Quest 8 is hilareous, I’ve never seen such funny enemies in an RPG before (Imagine an octopus boss with Gollum’s schizo talk or Dancing Devils that shake their ass to make you dance… and make you lose your turn). I’m 8 hours in the game now, which is probably just the beginning, but I can understand that the funny story and great character design/animation by the people of the Dragon Ball series can keep you hooked for the 100+ hours you’ll need to finish the game. It has a very nice soundtrack too, which is composed especially for the Western world. Also, it includes European voice-overs (yes, even in the American version), instead of the mutes in the Japanese. If you’re into RPGs, I’d say drop what you are playing and pick this one up.

And of course, THE game of the year, Guitar Hero. It is just amazing and it’s making me reconsidering putting time in my electric guitar. I’m trying hard mode at the moment, but I think I lack the speed in my fingers. After 8 songs I had to take a break… until my fingers return to the living…

Wedding Crashers was quite funny. I doubt many people really like this type of movie, but as a fan of Dodgeball and almost every Ben Stiller movie (I should look up whether he has anything to do with this movie), this IS my kind of flick. We rent most of our movies lately though, going to the theatre is way too expensive for the quality they are releasing lately.

Finally bought the complete Lain collection! Found them cheap, finally! Haven’t watched them yet, since I still seem to remember most details even after I haven’t seen it in 5 years.

Update: Elke has been trying Guitar Hero this last half hour and is refusing to go to bed ^^. She’s beating all my scores on Medium though :/ I’m guessing knowing how to play the guitar really does make a difference? … Or maybe it’s just a feeling for music I dunno, but I’m getting ass-whooped ;)

Lol

I’ve just been standing up in front of the tv for 3 hours… my arms and legs hurt…

Yes, thanks to Guitar Hero I can hardly type. But I must! I haven’t had this much fun on the Playstation 2 since Amplitude, one of Harmonix‘ other music games. I’ve been actually moving and dancing to the music for the last couple of hours, something I don’t even do at parties! And if something can make me stand up for 3 hours, it must be doing something right.

Although most of the song names didn’t ring any bells, most of them are classics which you’ll instantly recognize. And you better do, because knowing the guitar solos in advance helps a whole lot. With the plastic guitar in your hands, you actually feel like you are the one playing those songs and that the crowd is loving/hating you depending on how perform. Whether knowing to play a guitar helps (I have a few skills, although they are very limited), I have no idea. I managed to get to the final song under 3 hours, on the medium difficulty setting, but am a bit stuck at 50% of it, where some insane guitar solo begins. If I still have feelings in my hand tomorrow, I might give it another go…

I’m not gonna give a full review or whatever here, there’s enough sites that do that better, but if I must say one thing, it’s buy the bloody game. Even if you don’t own a PS2, because then it really is time to get one. This could well be one of the best games the console world has ever seen.

Update: Ozzy goes down! Next up, Hard mode. My fingers are killing me already and it’s not even a real guitar :/

/played
Halo 2 (360)
Electroplankton (ds)
Shadow Hearts: From the New World (ps2)

/listened to
Podcasts…

/watched
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2

After 10 hours of Shadow Hearts 3, I just had to give up. The story was going nowhere. [spoilers!] I’ve visited the Grand Canyon, met Al Capone, broke into Alcatraz, fought aliens in Area 51 and am now stranded on an island with pirates. [/spoilers!] As for the main story, I have no idea where it ended up.

I also booted up Electroplankton again. We imported it a year ago (good thing too, here it’s still not out yet) and I really haven’t spent enough time with it yet. It’s not quite a game, but for details, check out one of my older posts.

Xbox never had any games I liked, except for Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volley, but hearing all the fanboys go crazy about Halo and having its price dropped to 15 euro, I just had to give it a try. So I got Halo 2, as my friends still want to play that one online. But I just tried some single player last night to get an idea. And… well… it’s pretty good. The 360 helps a lot of course, improving the graphics (through a downloaded patch) and giving it a 720p HD output.

It has an amazing soundtrack, although some ugly character design. The gameplay is pretty nice and I just love the fact that you can dual wield. The first FPS I saw doing this, was Goldeneye on Nintendo 64. I loved its 4 player-splitscreen mode, so I have a good feeling I’ll love Halo 2’s online abilities.

Getting sick this weekend (thanks to colleagues spreading their microbes and the bloody airco that they like to turn on when it gets above 10 degrees Celsius outside… ), I didn’t feel like playing too many games and turned to my DVD collection. Even though I saw Kill Bill Vol. 1 a couple of times, I never watched both movies one after another. Laying half-dead in the sofa, I had all the time in the world and did just that. A bit of Japanese culture, a bit of typical Tarantino, lots of violence… the perfect combo.

Now, can anyone please help me get Guitar Hero (ps2)? ^^ (and Exit (psp) and Phoenix Wright (ds) while we are at it ;))