transmission :: 5th Year Anniversary [01 Jul 2009|03:22pm]
It's kind of funny... I had this in the back of my mind for the entire month of June, but then when the day rolled around, it totally slipped my mind. And it stayed out of mind until last night when I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone. Five years ago on June 24 was the day I left Toronto for Tokyo to go work at Nova. It was a weird feeling, not one of sadness or regret, but a feeling of anxiousness. I didn't have a huge need to leave Toronto, and to be honest I always get the urge to just say fuck it all and move back home. But the thought I had when I was at the airport with my mom was that it was probably for the best that I leave and go off on my own and do something with my life, rather than stay at the bank and work there until I retire, or die from overeating. Or retire and then die from overeating. In retrospect I believe I made the decision but in the back of my mind I always wonder what it would have been like had I stayed in Toronto. Would I have made a career at the bank, or would I have eventually switched careers to something else? Would I have lost the weight I did back in Toronto or would I have continued to be morbidly obese?

I also think about how my choice is going to affect me from here on out... would the years I spent here in Japan help me at all if I choose to move back to Canada, or would they make me less valuable to a company? Are the cultural norms and attitude here going to affect how I socialize with people back home? It's all just speculation and a ton of overworrying on my part, but it's stuff that I think about from time to time, although I thought about it a lot more when I realized I've spent a half a decade in this country. I don't know what's going to happen from here on out, and I doubt I'll be as prepared as I would like to, but hey, that's life, and you gotta deal with it.

There's no doubt in my mind that moving to Japan was the best thing, and I don't regret it at all. I had to add that in case someone thinks that the above is a lot of worrying and negative thinking. I actually think moving here was the best choice I've ever made, but even the best choices come with their own baggage.

P.S. - Picture is from my girlfriend's restaurant. That's the back of it, rice field included. :D Really nice place, too bad I didn't take better pictures!
2 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Blazblue [26 Jun 2009|01:07am]
Picked up the game today after work, although i didn't get any special first shipment bonus. :/

I gotta say though, this game really raises the bar for arcade to console conversions. It is absolutely ridiculous how much stuff they've put into the game. Tons of new voiced cutscenes (granted they're not animated like in other fighters), new attacks and animations for every character, a online/lobby system where you not level up like in an RPG based on conditions met in your matches, but where you can also pass on your turn during Player Matches if you don't feel like playing or are busy with something else. Oh, and saving replays for every match? Woooooooooow. So god damn good. There are A LOT of spelling mistakes in the English version though. If I was just a regular gamer I doubt I would care too much but I guess because of work that kind of stuff sticks out to me. In the end it doesn't matter to me because I'm really enjoying the game.

I'm playing Tager right now and doing alright with him, even though he's low tier, but shit he is fucking FUN. Who would've thought giving a Zangief-like grappler the ability to project and manipulate magnetic fields to draw opponents closer? That's broken, cheap and awesome all at once!
2 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: VF5 Combo video [21 Jun 2009|06:08pm]
I was toying around with Vegas 7.0 for the first time last night because I was tired of using OEM shit like Windows Movie Maker and I wanted to see what was available nowadays. I used to use Adobe Premiere back in the day when I was working for IGN/TNL/etc. and needed to do movies and screencaps but I heard good things about Vegas, so I gave it a go. This is what I churned out in about a day. The transitions and timing need to be worked on but I'm really impressed with the program. I love how you can keyframe all of the effects and transitions now, so I'm gonna have to give it another go once I fiddle around with stuff.

leave me a comment


transmission :: What I'm Playing [08 Jun 2009|12:03am]
Killzone 2: I didn't intend to buy this but my cousin just handed to it me when I was in Toronto so I gladly took it. Very nice-looking game but it's not really capturing me like other FPS games did. The vehicle sequences are kind of boring and although the campaign is interesting so far -- I've only finished 4 stages I think -- there's nothing that makes me want to go back to it every night.

Valkyria Chronicles: Finished the entire campaign. Really good localization effort on this title, and I'm proud to have said that I have finished both the Japanese and American versions. I'm not really interested in the DLC content but we'll see... I may pick it up when there's a lull in my play time, which isn't likely this year.

MLB The Show 09: Really well done sports game, and the first one I've played since, erm, NHL08 I believe. The commentary is good and I enjoy all of the various sliders that they give you to make the games go faster. Hitting is a bitch like it is in real life, and even though I'm hitting .330 with my created player, I still get frustrated when I get owned at the plate.

Saints Row 2: Been playing a lot of this co-op with Brian on the weekends, while I clean up story mode by myself on weekday nights. The story is great so far, and I've finished off two gangs (Brotherhood and Ronin). What I really like about this game, that GTA4 really failed to do, is that it doesn't forget it's a bloody game and really lets you go wild. It also has a great co-op mode where you earn bonuses for finishing up missions with a partner online. For example, I finished an Activity with Brian a while back, and that got me infinite ammo for my pistols. Other bonuses I got had to do with my notoriety and health increases. So it basically rewards you in-game for doing everything via co-op play. Smaaart move, it's just too bad everyone loves GTA4, because Saints Row 2 is where it's at, despite all the fucked up glitches.

Dragon Quest IV: I'm at the end of the game now, and all I have to do is finish off the last boss. I may have to grind a few levels though because I tried taking on the last boss on Friday and got owned pretty badly because my defense was not up to snuff. I'm figuring that leveling up 2 or 3 more levels will get the job done. It's a classic JRPG that has a lot of charm that a lot of games are missing these days, and the pacing is just absolutely incredible. I really hate that a lot of modern JRPGs nowadays seem to clock in at 40 - 50 hours, because games like DQIV and FFVI really show that you can get your game done in 20 or 30. I have done a bunch of sidequests and went out of my way to get secret items, and I'm still at 25 hours! After I finish off the last boss, I'll be switching back to GTA: Chinatown Wars (which is really good so far), and then heading into Dragon Quest V, before starting up Dragon Quest IX. I'm undecided if I'm gonna get the JPN or ENG version of that game though...

Need to finish:
- Henry Hatsworth
- 7th Dragon (I seriously doubt I'll finish it... :/)
1 Hidden Leaf|leave me a comment


transmission :: Ha ha ha [06 Jun 2009|11:55pm]
Oh Marn, you are just so silly sometimes. Talking about this one girl's picture that he just looked at, and who had GDLK hair.

[23:54] i just wanna wrap her hair around my waste and just swing her around
[23:54]
[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<reno->') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Oh Marn, you are just so silly sometimes. Talking about this one girl's picture that he just looked at, and who had GDLK hair.

[23:54] <MarnCEN> i just wanna wrap her hair around my waste and just swing her around
[23:54] <Reno-> that's fucking gross
[23:54] <Reno-> seriously dude
leave me a comment


transmission :: The aftermath... [04 Jun 2009|04:55pm]
After all the E3 announcements, this is what I'm probably going to be buying for the next year:

Definitely buying:
Super Mario Wii
Tekken 6
Bayonetta
Assassin's Creed 2
Final Fantasy XIII
Uncharted 2
King of Fighters XII
Prototype
Dragon Quest IX
Just Cause 2

Under heavy consideration:
Modern Warfare 2
Metal Gear Rising
Fragile
Sin & Punishment 2

Under consideration:
Wii Sports Resort
Little King's Story

Next year:
Mario Galaxy 2
The Last Guardian (this is next year, right?)
God of War 3

Now I just gotta find the time to play all of them...
2 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: 10 Day Vacation [06 May 2009|04:28pm]
Had a lovely 10 day vacation in Toronto with Ibuki, and we just got back on Monday! I'm still jetlagged -- I haven't slept in about 25 hours now -- so I figured I'd write something up... but then I realized that so much happened that I don't think I could write about all of it, haha. So I guess I'll do it with pictures to help me out!

Friday
Arrived in Toronto safely, went to Swiss Chalet for dinner (YES) and then back home and unpacked, then bed.

Saturday
This was my game buying day -- although it turned out I would buy stuff on Sunday as well, but not a whole lot -- so I picked up all of this.



Killzone 2 was actually from my cousin Dan, who bought the game then realized "it was one of those first person shooter games" and gave it to me for free. Score! Thanks! The RE5 guide is for a coworker of mine, and I'm happy to have the remakes of Dragon Quest for my DS now. :D

Later on in the day I met up with my friends Junior and Russell at the mall and we had lunch before I went back home for dinner with my mom's side of the family. Lots of good food to be had!

Sunday
Went to Canada's Wonderland with my sister and Nick, her husband. It was kinda cold and rainy so we only stayed there for 5 hours before hitting Vaughn Mills mall. We went on four rides, including two rollercoasters, and it was pretty fun. Nick took this beauty while we were on the Wildbeast rollercoaster. :D My arm still hurts!



Monday
Went to Niagara Falls with my mom, stepfather, Nick and my sister. Ibuki and I rode on the Maid of the Mist tour to get super close to the falls After that we headed to my sister's place for dinner with Nick's parents also coming along. Played LIPS on the 360 and watched as Ibuki whooped my sister singing Avril Lavigne's Complicated, har har har. :D This was probably the best pic to come out of the whole batch.



Tuesday
Went shopping at Eaton Center with our friend Stefan. I bought a ton of new clothes as my old ones don't really fit anymore. We hit up Salad King near Ryerson for lunch, then Tim Horton's, then to visit my grandfather and my aunt before heading home. Funny story about Tim Horton's though... I ordered a medium black coffee and a sour cream glazed donut without really thinking and Ibuki was like "what are you doing!?" and so I gave my donut to Stefan. Then I rolled up my coffee rim (it's part of a contest that just finished) to see if I had won anything... and I won a donut. :D Guess who got to eat a sour cream glazed donut after all!? :D

Wednesday
Had lunch at a really nice korean restaurant near Christie station and then headed off with my step-father and Ibuki to see Casa Loma, which is really pretty. I was last there about, oh, 12 years ago, so everything was kind of new again to me, and I kind of forgot how nice the interior was. After that, Ibuki and I went to see the Sound of Music musical downtown. It was really good!

Thursday
We had Hanami at High Park! My mom, step-father and Ibuki all made stuff, while I... did shit cuz I'm terrible at cooking. :( My mom made the california rolls, step-father made the kim-bap, and Ibuki made the okonomiyaki, and it was all goooood! Junior, Stefan and Junior's Japanese friends all came, and we found a pretty good place in the park to have our food. After that, we headed downtown and met up with Wen, Wallace, Russell and their respective wives/fiances for karaoke. THAT was great, and OMG, the girl working there was HOT. She does kickboxing and can sing like a champ!

Friday
A little last minute shopping, then hit up the CN Tower because the weather was decent and not rainy like it was the past two days. The glass floor still scares me, even though I've been up there at least 4 times now... gaaargh. After that we went to Richtree for dinner and headed home.



Saturday
We had my brother's early birthday party on Saturday afternoon with my dad's side of the family. It was your typical Alfonso party, with everyone coming late, and way too much food being eaten, but it was good to see everyone again before I left, although I guess they were kind of surprised that I was going to be leaving the next day. Hopefully next time I come back to Toronto I can relax more and not do as many tourist spots now that Ibuki has seen most of them.



All in all a great vacation, although I wish it was a little bit longer, but I'll take what I can get!
3 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Now Playing [18 Apr 2009|01:04am]
Arcade
Virtua Fighter 5R - I'm 9th Dan, hooray. I haven't played a lot in the past three weeks... well, I've been playing about 4 or 5 days a week, but every time I go, it's basically 2 or 3 matches and then I go to the gym or go home, so I haven't played a lot of matches.

King of Fighters XII - It's pretty... yeah. The game feels floaty and unfamiliar though. Actually, something I told Arlieth was that the game feels like the transition from SF2 to SF3, in that there's so much animation now that the game just feels weird, but it's something that players will need to adapt to if they want to continue playing. It's not a bad thing that the game feels the way it does, it's just something all of us aren't used to.

Street Fighter IV - This is being played on and off because I'd rather play 5R, and I'm only keeping up this game so I'm not embarrassed when I go and play day-long sessions with the shoryuken.com crowd, heh. I like the game, but I just enjoy 5R a lot more.

CONSOLE
MadWorld - I finished this about er... I think a week ago or so? I like the game although the black/white visuals hurt my eyes quite a bit so I couldn't play it for longer than an hour and a half each sitting, even if I wanted to play more. I forget exactly how many hours I put into the game but it was something like 10 or so. Overall I liked the gameplay and it was pretty fun to just go around and kill stuff as creatively as possible. The only things I didn't particularly like was the somewhat slow movement speed (mainly when you're carrying someone around... wish it was a *little* bit faster) and I didn't like how a number of areas were arena-ish in design. I think I would've liked it a lot more if they felt more like levels than just arenas to fight in, but overall those aren't big problems with the game. Commentators were really good and so was the music, and honestly a lot of times those two things kept me playing the game for just a little bit more.

Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 - Finished this a long, long time ago... perhaps sometime around middle of March. Had a good story although I felt the graphics weren't as strong as in Kenzan. I suppose the time period of Kenzan lends itself better because there isn't as much going on as there was in RGG3. Still, it was a fun game although I don't feel that the combat system has improved very much. Overall Kenzan felt much fresher to me.

Valkyria Chronicles - I'm on chapter 7 or something of the US version, and I gotta say that the voice acting is very surprising. It's actually well done in this game, when I thought it'd be terrible. Color me surprised! still enjoying it, although since I finished the Japanese version last year I'm in no real hurry to get through the game right now. I basically play it when I don't wanna play anything else. It's been like, one chapter per week or something.

Final Fantasy XIII - At first I wasn't going to buy Advent Children and this demo, but I ended up getting it on impulse. I played through the demo three times and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The music was my favorite part of it, and then came the graphics and gameplay. The combat system feels like they took aspects of several different games (FFX-2, FFXII, Grandia) and threw in a couple of new additions to make something that feels familiar but at the same time, a bit... unfamiliar? It was something that took one playthrough to get used to.

So basically, the combat system in the demo gives you 3 ATB stocks that fill up over time, and like in some other RPGs (White Knight Chronicles, etc.) you can select your actions and they play out. In the demo your partners are automated but in the retail version I heard you can assume manual control over them. Anyway, some actions you can pick cost 1 stock, but some cost 2 or 3. In the demo, you had two attacks (Attack, Launch), and two levels of magic spells (Fire/Blizzard, Firaga/Blizzaga or whatever), and everything cost one stock except the level 2 magic spell. So you could do Attack/Launch/Fire or whatever. At first I was just choosing three right off the bat and waiting for the full bar to fill up, but then I started doing stuff like doing Attack/Launch, getting them up into the air, hope my partner does a spell to juggle them while I charge for a 3 stock Blizzaga spell to juggle them up again, and then do another one stock attack.

Two catches though; one is that you can be interrupted by any enemy while attacking and vice versa, and launching an opponent requires "breaking" them into a red state. The first concept isn't completely new (it was touched upon in FFX-2 IIRC) but in XIII you actually lose your current action when you are interrupted, so if I choose a level 2 Firaga and someone hits me just before I use it, I lose that action. But if I choose Attack x 3, I lose one Attack, but the other two still go through. This works the same against enemies too, although the variety in the demo wasn't enough to really try it out. The attack interruption thing I really like though, because it adds that touch of real-time action back into the game now that it seems that free movement has been lost.

Anyway, apparently the demo is representative of a 50% finished build of the, and 30% of the real battle system (I have no idea where people found this out) so we'll see how it turns out. I thought Final Fantasy XII was good but the Gambit system didn't really grow on me (talk about taking "Gaming the system" a little too far...) but I'm optimistic about how this will turn out.

HANDHELD
The World Ends With You - Playing through the US version right now, I'm on Day 7 with Joshua. The translation is very well done! Every character has a really good personality which shows through in the writing.

Henry Hatsworth - I saw the trailer for this on YouTube I think, and I ordered it off Play-Asia a week ago. I've been playing it for the past 3 days and it's a very fun game. For those who don't know, it's a cross between an action platformer like MegaMan, and a Tetris Attack-like puzzle game. Enemies you beat show up in the puzzle, same with power-ups. The concept is novel, and it has plenty of charm too. As a platformer it doesn't do anything special, but because of the puzzle aspect of the game, it turned out to be something unique and enjoyable.

7th Dragon - I forgot where I am, but it's only 10 hours into it or so... I kinda dropped this to play TWEWY and Henry Hatsworth, so I'll come back to it after I'm done with those games.

TO BUY?
Going to Toronto on April 24 until May 3, and this is what I'm hoping to buy while I'm back home. Any other games I should know about?
- MLB The Show 09 (PS3)
- NHL 2009 (PS3) <-- huge maybe on this, may wait till NHL2010
- Dead Space (360)
- Tales of Vesperia (360) <-- maybe on this to see how the PS3 version turns out
- Saints Row 2 (360)
- Dragon Quest IV/V (DS)
- GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS)
- X-Men Wolverine Origins (PS3) <-- maybe because I'm not confident it will be good
- Killzone 2 (PS3)
- Chronicles of Riddick (360) <-- if it's region free
13 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Things that make you go hmmm. [09 Apr 2009|09:05am]
Univ doctor arrested for lacing student's tea with sleeping powder
Thursday 09th April, 02:33 AM JST

KYOTO — A Kyoto University Hospital doctor was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of giving a female graduate student drink tea laced with sleeping powder, police said. Manabu Sasahara, a 31-year-old eye doctor from Kyoto, allegedly mixed sleeping powder into a can of tea on the student’s desk at a university laboratory around 9 p.m. on March 27, police said.

The student, 32, also from Kyoto, fainted while eating at a restaurant later, police said. The student reported the incident to the maker of the beverage, complaining something white was seen inside the can. The maker concluded sleeping powder was contained in the beverage. Sasahara turned himself in to the police Wednesday after the incident sparked outrage. Police quoted Sasahara as saying he was fond of the student and wanted to attract her attention.

He was quoted as saying he had obtained sleeping powder via the Internet using another doctor’s ID.


Source: Japan Today


Two things...

1. How can a DOCTOR think that slipping in sleeping powder into a girl's drink is going to attractive positive attention? Shouldn't doctors be a little smarter than the rest of us?

2. How can you attract a girl's attention if she's not awake? With surprise buttsex? Sigh. This country sometimes...

Somehow I feel that this guy is going to get suspended (not fired like he should) or get some other slap-on-the-wrist punishment.
3 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: So... punishment? [03 Apr 2009|10:18am]
Saitama train conductor assaulted after asking man to smoke in designated area
Friday 03rd April, 09:23 AM JST

SAITAMA —
A 23-year-old man was arrested for assault on Thursday, accused of kicking and punching a train conductor after he was warned for smoking in a non-smoking area on a JR Kawagoe station platform.

Police said Tomoya Hasegawa, a wrecking yard employee and resident of Kawagoe City, got angry at around 11.30 p.m. on March 17 when a male train conductor asked him to smoke in the designated area. He was quoted as telling the conductor: “Don't give me that, I just lit up.”

He began kicking the conductor when asked again to move to the smoking area. The man then got on the train and got off about 10 minutes later at Matoba station, and assaulted the conductor again, punching him in the face, police said.

Police said Hasegawa went to the station office and told them the conductor had a bad attitude. He left his name and walked off. Hasegawa has admitted to the assault and told police he was drunk at the time.




"told police he was drunk at the time."

Well then! That excuses everything, doesn't it!
2 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Why hello Dr. HeavyNuts [27 Mar 2009|11:37am]
An Italian doctor completed a brain operation despite having a heart attack after realizing his patient would never recover if he stopped the surgery.

Surgeon Claudio Vitale started feeling pains in his chest half way through the operation but refused to stop despite his team's urging and the pain worsening.

After finishing the surgery, the doctor had an angioplasty operation to treat his attack.

Vitale insists he's not a hero, but that he couldn't leave the patient "at such a delicate moment."

Both doctor and patient are recovering.


Source: ABC News
5 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: "Safe On Block" [23 Mar 2009|11:54pm]
Yeah, Safe On Block... not

- This has been known for a looooong time, but if you block any hit of Abel's Change of Direction, before the next hit connects, El Fuerte can do his super... I assume that just about everyone is capable of this.

- If you are in the middle of blocking Fuerte's El Fuerte Dynamite super, Zangief can Super or Ultra you out of it.

- Similarly, if Zangief starts the 720 motion for his Super/Ultra before Fuerte's body press connects, after Zangief blocks it, he can Super/Ultra Fuerte.

- If C.Viper does c.MK or c.MP canceled into Medium Thunder Knuckle, Honda can block the c.MK and c.MP and then do LP Headbutt, EX Headbutt, Super or Ultra to hit Viper before the Thunder Knuckle connects. c.HP into TK cannot be interrupted though, because of the longer block stun.

- If C.Viper does a HK Burn Kick in front of Honda, Honda can dash under it and Oicho her for free. This, of course, cannot be done with Zangief or Sagat because they're too tall. I'm betting other characters can do this, although I doubt it's possible on reaction.

Le sigh.

On a slightly related note, it's kind of ironic that 3rd Strike fans were pissed off about SF4 and lack of 3s characters, mechanics and what not, and now the game is slowly becoming more and more like 3rd Strike in regards to special techs (3s-style Option Selects) and character-specific combos...
leave me a comment


transmission :: Posing [23 Mar 2009|01:27am]
So, in #capcom (irc channel), they were talking about 3rd Strike, and one person in the chat said it best, and he said "you can tell whoever had to animate Makoto really, really loved the character", and I'd have to agree. Looking at all of her move animations and all of the followup animation is really something, and it's cool that the animations really link together smoothly for her. Her standing fierce punch is a high chop with the left hand, which can be followed up with Hayate, which is done by the right. Comboing it together, and you have a set that looks really, really damn natural to the eyes, and damn... you can even taunt after it! I can't play Makoto worth shit, but like Akira in Virtua Fighter, I just loooooove watching anyone play Makoto in 3rd Strike, because it's so damn pretty to watch.

2 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Star Ocean 4 [21 Mar 2009|09:30am]

I was going to buy Star Ocean 4 when I had the time and money to play it... then I watched this video. I don't think I'm going to buy it now. Sigh.
13 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Twitter is crap. [19 Mar 2009|11:25am]
"Tweeting is one of the worst things to ever happen to the United States of America." - Michael Raymond Wilbon on PTI 3/18

I concur with this statement 1000%. If concurring 1000% was possible.
13 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Just Framey [18 Mar 2009|12:21am]
I was playing a bunch of Virtua Fighter 5R today, as well as some Soulcalibur IV at home because I have a 2 day tournament coming up on the 28th and 29th of this month, and I came to recognize one thing I particularly dislike about the path fighting games have taken, and that's with the Just Frame concept. I kind of blame this on Tobal for introducing it, because I think they were the ones who pioneered this, but I could be totally wrong on this.

If you're not familiar with it, Just Frames are attacks where if you input a button press on a certain frame (hence the term "just frame") the properties of your attack will change. If you look at this video from Soulcalibur IV, you'll see the difference. One attack is slower and has no special effects associated with it, but the other is significantly faster and has a special gleam effect attached to it. The properties of the two moves are also different. Needless to say, the timing associated with the first move is much more lenient than the second, but the faster version is ultimately more powerful and more useful in a match.

Now that's out of the way, the reason why I dislike Just Frames in general is because it tends to create an artificial barrier of difficulty in fighting games. Ideally you'd want your ability to use the move in the correct situation to be equally as important as your ability to actually perform the move. Basically, you don't want to have your attack be so hard to pull off that it's not even worth considering in a match, but you don't want an attack that's so easy to use that you can do it whenever you want to. It's one of the reasons why I shake my head when people complain about 360 throws in Street Fighter; the dexterity required to pull off the move is on even terms with how much damage it deals and the range given to it. If you were to make the 360 throw a 720, it'd be too hard to use in a match, but if you were to go to the other extreme and make it a Hadoken input, it'd be way too easy to use.

OK, anyway! With Just Frames moves like in the Soulcalibur video I linked to above, your dexterity starts to become more important than your implementation of the move. 2D fighting games in general don't really use Just Frames all that often, but 3D fighting games looooove to throw this in to add cooler animations and effects. It's all over the place in Soulcalibur and Tekken, and in Virtua Fighter, and I feel it's something that's not necessary in the genre, and is only there to challenge the hardcore players. At best, they're a cool addition and often a crowd-pleasing sight, but at worst, they're potentially game-breaking, like what happened in Tekken 4 and JF Laser Scraper. For what it's worth though, Virtua Fighter at least makes a decent effort at balancing the hit throws (which I guess could be considered just frames) and other JF-esque moves properly, and I appreciate them. I just feel that if these companies want to attract new players, this is one of many barriers they'll have to break down.
14 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Bravo Japan, bravo. [15 Mar 2009|02:51am]
I found this sign somewhere in Kitano (near Kobe) with Ibuki when we went out for White Day.



I... I think this is the most profound sign I've read in this country so far.
5 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Random thought on Japanese games [11 Mar 2009|09:55pm]
I was talking to my co-worker on the way home about this, but at times I feel that there's a distinct double standard with regards to Japanese games and Western games. Sometimes I feel that a lot of gamers in the west are not giving the same allowances to Japanese games as they do to Western games, and often criticize Japanese games for things that they seemingly (keyword there, seemingly) forgive in Western games.

I've been thinking this for a while now, because you have games like Resident Evil 5 which gets criticized for being too much like Resident Evil 4. But then a game like Halo 3, is just as guilty of being too much like Halo 1 and 2 as RE5 is to RE4, seemingly gets off with a free pass. And hell, games that have regressed in scope (hello GTA4) get off the hook too for some reason.
10 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: Podcasting [08 Mar 2009|01:02pm]
I used to love listening to game-related podcasts when I was at work or at home, so naturally I had podcasts like 1up Yours, GiantBomb, and IGN all subscribed to via iTunes, but the more I listened to it, the more I started to dislike listening to them. Well, it would be more accurate for me to say that I dislike listening to general game podcasts instead. On top of listening to the game podcasts, I also listen to PTI, TSN's Off The Record, Savage Love, JapanToday (before it was shut down), Keith and the Girl, and a bunch of news-related podcasts.

At first I enjoyed listening to the gaming podcasts because there were some people I've met before on the shows, but the more I listened to it, the more I realized three things: 1. I dislike podcasts over an hour long, 2. Most gaming podcasts have people on the show that have a wide range of knowledge, but not necessarily a deep understanding of what they're talking about, and 3. The gaming shows almost always go off-topic, which results in my first annoyance and helps to cover up the second. It's not to say that they're absolutely clueless about games, far from it, but when I compare the knowledge base of the duo on PTI to any gaming podcast, the difference is pretty ridiculous.

The podcasts which focus on a specific genre or specific company are the ones I enjoy the most though. Gooteck's Street Fighter podcast is awesome because they're generally short, funny and feature players who actually know the subject well enough to go into detail about it. Another podcast I like was the Kojima Productions podcast for the same reasons. Now, if only 8WayRun would hurry up with their Soulcalibur podcast...
7 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


transmission :: LOL What. [05 Mar 2009|02:45pm]
Teacher forces female student to wear maid's costume in Akita
Thursday 05th March, 05:51 AM JST

AKITA — A 51-year-old high school teacher at a public school in Akita Prefecture forced an 18-year-old female student to wear a maid’s costume, telling her that she would not receive academic credits if she refused. The student reported the case to police, the local education board said Wednesday.

According to school officials, the teacher, who manages an art club at Odate High School, pressured the student to wear a maid costume for a photo contest on Sept 22 last year. He told the student that he would not give her any credits for the class unless she wore the costume. The teacher told officials he chose the student as a model because of her “cute smile.”

The teacher brought a digital camera to the session and asked three other female students to take photos of the girl while he left the room. The student later complained to a female school official, who encouraged her to report the matter to local police on Tuesday.

The teacher was quoted by school officials as saying, “It was just a joke.” He and the school principal apologized to the student and her parents on Wednesday, and immediately deleted the images of her in the maid costume.

The teacher has been suspended from managing the art club for three months, but not from teaching students in the club, according to the school officials.




LOL. "It was just a joke!", "Why so serious?" would've been perfect after that shitty excuse. Holy shit if I ever got caught doing that back in Canada and said "it was just a joke!" my ass would've been pounded into the ground.

But, I don't know what's worse, the fact that he asked for the pictures, or the fact that she went through with it for fear of not getting her credits!
8 Hidden Leafs|leave me a comment


Earlier Entries

Comments? Questions? reno@versuscity.net