/played
LocoRoco (PSP)
Animal Crossing DS (DS)
Trauma Center: Under The Knife (DS)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
New Super Mario Brothers (DS)
Brain Age (DS)

/listened to
Guns n’ Roses
Freezepop
…more podcasts

/IRL
Inline skating!
Golf!

I don’t want to know how much money I spent on games these last two weeks, but I’m all set for the summer! Wednesday I got my hands on Mario, which is just about the best tribute to the old Mario game ever. Sure brings back memories, with the first worlds being sort of a remake of the original Super Mario Bros on the NES.

Yesterday I managed to get the only copy of LocoRoco available in our shopping mall, quite expensive (54 Euro!!) but really worth it. It’s the happiest game ever made! Every few minutes the LocoRoco surprise you with another one of their cute actions making you go “OOOoooooh” all the way ^^.

Trauma Center is damn hard, I’ll really have to fight my way through the next operation. My patient seems to prefer dying over and over again :/ Phoenix Wright however isn’t really hard, but very entertaining. It’s been a while since I took a console with me to bed, but you can’t just quit in the middle of a court session now can you?

And soon you’ll be able to visit me in my own little town, Kyoto, where little suibne is hanging out paying off his mortgage to Tom Nook. Yes, the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing got me hooked a few years ago, now the addiction is all back… in portable format! Ideal for lunch breaks at work :D

And yes, there’s the real life activities, this time… golf! No I didn’t turn into a snob just yet, this was an event with our colleagues, organized by our good friend Denis. I must say, it was pretty good. Driving 140km to go just go play golf might sound crazy, but it was worth it. I forgot how pretty the south of Belgium can be, with its incredible nature showing the most beautiful views. As for the sport itself, I prefer putting as crazy as that may sound ^^. Swinging that club and hitting far wasn’t all that. Although I reached something of a 150m, my ball never went straight, left the training area and ended up near hole 6 all the time. No one got hurt (as far as I know) … :D

Fresh air, hot sun, not so good food, … good times :P Check out the pictures here.

/played
Samba De Amigo (DC)
Brain Age (DS)
Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC)
Exit (PSP)
Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP)
Streetfighter III (DC)
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC)
Mario Kart DS (DS)
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GC)
Super Monkey Ball (GC)
Tetris DS (DS)
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed (PSP)

/listened to
Guns n’ Roses
Freezepop
…more podcasts

/watched
Hackers

/IRL
Inline skating!

Omg! Outside activity in the list! Yes we’ve finally found a summer that didn’t get swallowed by an MMORPG (first FFXI, then WoW) so we have time to get out for once! We’ve taken up skating again, bought us some new gear and are now trying to prepare to join that Roller Parade stuff that’s happening all over Belgium.

As for movies, I put in Hackers again. The music and atmosphere never let me down, even though it might not be a great movie. But I love it. So there ;)

Lots of games though! That usually happens when you have these game events ;) My brain age went down to 26, while Elke reached the top score of a brain age of 20 only after 4 days of play. /sigh! The Dreamcast got some lovin’ again, we had the chance to play some PSP games and thanks to Kurt I got to play HL2:Episode 1 (only played for an hour but I’m planning on continueing.. no really!)

Next week you can expect more DS games in this list, because I’ll be replaying them all on my … DS Lite! Yes, only 5 hours to go until I can go pick it up at the store (it’s preordered so no I didn’t take a day off work :P).

Good times! ^^

Last night the gang got together to max our electricity bill and game for 8 hours straight. There was some mainstream, a bit alternative, some retro and… a train simulator. Yes, it was Wim’s…

Anyway, except for the insane temperatures reached in the appartment (god damn summer), I guess we can say it was a pretty fun evening. Tnx to ya’ll for showing up and bringing all those great toys along, a big tnx to Elke for the snacks and tnx to Denis for taking some great pictures (we forgot to take one of you damn it ;)).

Go check the gallery here!

Even though her brain age is getting younger by the day, real life doesn’t work that way :/ But who cares, birthdays are still a celebration until you hit 30 right? :D

So congratulations to my dear girlfriend Elke, lots of love and anything your heart desires. Hopefully weather predictions are wrong (as usual) and we’ll have some great weather on your birthday tomorrow!

Don’t you all be shy now to buy lots of presents (if you don’t know what, just buy something I’ll like… I don’t mind :P no I kid, there’s been a wishlist to the right of this page all these years if you wanna spend cash lol), plz tnx come again… ^^

Or feel free to send your wishes to happybirthdayelke_AT_gmail.com (remove the _AT_ replace with @, you know the drill).

/played
Halo 2 (360)
Brain Age (DS)

/listened to
Pod… casts…

/watched
Lost Season 2 Episode 4

Started again with the Lost episodes. It’s hard to find the time with this hot weather, sitting in front of the tv feels like such a waste.

And I’m still catching up on some of those so called classics I missed, like Halo 2. I’m sort of stuck since it’s starting to require FPS joystick skill which I lack completely, so I’m hoping to find someone who’ll run through it (and the original Halo) with me in co-op mode ^^. Online is hell, fun but hell. I really miss a mouse and keyboard :/

So, the game I’ve been waiting for all these weeks, finally sits in our DS. Brain Age (or Brain Training) is very addictive. Training your math skills, memory and even writing skills (it has difficulty recognizing my EIGHT!) was never so much fun.

You can compare it with the oldskool arcade high-scores, only this time, it’s more clearly a battle of the mind (even though other games are too). What keeps me going, is to keep my score as close to that of Elke’s as possible, but I’m getting my ass whooped seriously. She solves the 20 math problems under 20 seconds, where I have problems even staying near 30. That stupid 7×8=? always gets me :D. Not to mention the brain age itself, which I got down to 35 in 3 days, not too bad… only 10 years above my real age. Although, compared to Elke, who reached the brain age of 23 in the same amount of time, sort of makes me feel a bit stupid :/

Anyway, if any of you have a DS, I seriously advice it. If you don’t, get one with it. And pass by our place, there’s an option to do math battles, 16 players VS mode :D. That’s one nerd battle :P

/played
Me & My Katamari (psp)
Metal Gear Ac!d 2 (psp)
Lost Planet Demo (360)

/listened to
Lots of podcasts

/watched
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Still sucking at MGA2, but finished Katamari! Which was really worth it, no matter what the reviews say. As an end bonus, you unlock this sidescrolling 8-bit style Katamari game. Very cute!

And finally we’ve got around watching a movie again! Our last Ghibli (that we own, still need a couple) was again very much worth it. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind tells a story about a world that’s been poisoned by the industry, creating a deadly forest with mutated insects threatening the existence of mankind. Although it sounds like your typical sci-fi plot, as with every Ghibli, it is far from your mainstream story. Characters are colourful, lessons are plenty and although it might be more predictable than your typical Ghibli, you won’t be leaving your couch until the credits roll. It’s one of those movies that has you dreaming and thinking on… as with all their animated pieces of art.

And yes, finally, Brain Age is arriving this Friday. Time to smarten up! And the DS Lite is nearly among us. I’ve had the chance to try out Wim’s Lite and was very impressed. It’s even prettier than the pictures :D Preordered?… check!