Mayhem-Online

Posts Tagged ‘Gaming’

Wow its been a while since I last posted here! I actually meant to post here a while back but always got distracted by other things (just another slack excuse).

Anyway, Feet. You’re probably (not) wondering why I put up that particular title. Well I have them. I’d been having problems with my feet for a while – since the beginning of the year actually – and it got to a point that when I would walk from work to the train station (which could be a 20 minute walk and a casual pace) my feet would begin to ache, and then it got to a point that by the end of the working week I felt more like a cripple hobbling along with the amount of severe pain going through my feet, ankles, legs and knees. My Dr said that I may have a heel spur – a type of bone growth on the bottom of the heel so it feels like you are walking on a nail all day long (that was the pain I described I had). But the pain got really bad that I ended up going to a podiatrist who said “No , you don’t have a heel spur though you have similar symptoms. Your feet are flat – they have no arches so the muscles are pulling to a point where the muscle under the heel is tearing so it does actually feel like you might even be walking on the bone.” Not a nice description but that’s about what she said. Read the rest of this entry »

Its the end of another month so I figured its time for another post!

There were a few hiccups with the server this past week, but thankfully everything seems to be running okay again. WordPress has been upgraded again to the latest release, and I’ve also upgraded a couple of other programs running on my other websites.

Last week I had the week off, though I did very little. I had some intentions though I wasn’t committed to anything. It was merely a week to relax and unwind. Of course now its back to the real world again…

Over the past month I’ve grabbed a number of Gundam model kits and started building them. The panel lining is the one part that makes it take longer to put together, but granted these are not the kits where you paint and glue, they’re just the ones you stick together. I do have some Gundam markers which could make them look more detailed, but I’ve only used them on a couple of my Gundam models so far. Below are links to the images of the Gundams I’ve put together so far:

Goufy – HGUC MS07 Gouf (blue) and Gouf Ignited Yzak Custom (white)
Throne Eins (Gundam 00)
Blaze Zaku Phantom (Dearka Custom) (Gundam Seed Destiny) (view 1) (view 2)
Graham’s Custom Flag vs Gundam Exia (Gundam 00)
Graham’s Custom Flag (converted flight mode)
Strike Noir vs Stargazer (Gundam Seed Stargazer) (view 1) (view 2)
Strike Freedom (Gundam Seed Destiny) this is the 1/100 HG version
Civilian Astray DSSD Custom (Gundam Seed Destiny) (view 1) (view 2)

I’m still working on the Overflag - which looks pretty much the same as Graham’s Custom Flag only its got an extra weapon I think; and the Throne Zwei. I was intending to finish those two kits off over the week I had off but just didn’t get around to it. I would like to get a couple of MG kits (Master Grade) though the cost is the only thing getting in the way lol.

New anime series began this month in Japan. The two popular ones that started this month were Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 and Vampire Knight. I still haven’t watched all of the first season of Code Geass yet so I need to catch up on that first probably! I’ve got the five volumes of the Vampire Knight manga – currently its up to volume 8 though only 5 have been converted to English. Hopefully the rest will be coming out soon. Other new series that are actually quite good that I’m also watching are Special A – about some kids who are in a special class since their knowledge and skills put them above even the A+ students. The focus, however, is on the rivalry between the number 1 and 2 students. Its a pretty cute comedy series. Soul Eater – another comedy which strangely has two time slots, one during prime time and the other that’s labelled “The Late Show”. According to most subbers there is little difference between the two versions. A few others that are good so far are Amatsuki, Toshokan Sensou, Druaga no To: The Aegis of Uruk and the yaoi-manga based anime series Junjou Romantica. Kyou Kara Maou also started its Season 3 run though only a few subbers have picked it up. And as usual Naruto Shippuuden and Bleach continue their eternal run (along with D.Gray-man which seems to be catching up in terms of length).

Not played any games in a while. I was intending to get Final Fantasy Crisis Core for the PSP but I had other committments and couldn’t afford it at the time. I probably still won’t be able to get it just yet, maybe next payday… Since I haven’t played any games lately I kind of thought it silly to spend a lot of money when I’ve not been in the mood to play any games. I did pick up the PSP to play one of the games I had but I got bored almost instantly :\ Silly I know – I mean I have a DS, PSP, 360 and PS2 but I haven’t touched any of them for almost the entire month of April! I’ve been busy focusing on other things and not really in the mood to play… There’s also the latest expansion pack for Sims 2 (Kitchen and Bathroom) though I haven’t played that game in a while either so I’m not sure about buying that just yet.

I watched a couple of JPop concerts this month too. Namely Koda Kumi’s Black Cherry Tour and m-flo’s Cosmicolour tour. I also had a look at Namie Amuro’s Play tour but hers was a bit boring. She’s a good dancer and singer, but she doesn’t interact with the crowd and doesn’t really look like she’s enjoying herself. Ku-chan is the opposite, she smiles and laughs and gets the audience all excited and encourages them to join in. She definitely enjoys herself when she’s performing. Verbal and Taku (m-flo) are also great performers, and definitely showed a lot of enthusiasm during the concert. They had a huge number of guest artists appear which was great, although not all of the originals were there to sing. Regardless, it was a fantastic concert.

That’s been about it for this month. Though the beginning seems a long way away now lol – its a bit hazy. There’s not a lot happening this coming month. I will probably take a day off somewhere but I usually decide that in the spur of the moment lol.

So the day before it was due out here, I headed down to JB Hi-Fi to see if mayhaps they had the game in early. Sure enough they did and they were selling it at a much cheaper price than listed on a couple of the online stores. So I immediately bought it! Its 4 discs in length which kind of surprised me considering its for a next gen console (X-Box 360), however I could see why when I started playing it. Fantastic graphics and effects, and obviously an immensely huge world. Since the main character, Kaim, is an immortal, the game is likely to go on for quite a while as you search for his lost memories (as well as battle foes and stuff). I have only spent two nights on it so far, I put it on hold while I updated Animay as well as upgraded a few things. I also checked out Sims 2 on my PC to see how well it played with the new graphics card, and its a definite improvement!

Anyway, back to Lost Odyssey! I’m thoroughly enjoying it, though the bosses have had to kill me a few times before I can work out how to defeat them lol. As the game came out in Australia before the US (its due out on the 12th Feb and I got it on the 6th Feb) there are no game guides or FAQs to help give you hints on how to battle these larger monsters. All the other beasties that we fight are no problem, but the Bosses… On discovering how to defeat the first boss after several attempts, I tried to use the same technique on the second Boss but to no avail lol. Figures! But that’s the fun in playing these new games, getting killed multiple times until you find a way to defeat the boss :p

Although the graphics have great eye-candy, the animation that’s done for these characters is not anything new, and like a lot of these types of games, the characters have very slight emotions animated on their faces. The voices for the characters can be heard in either English, Japanese or Korean, with subtitles for all three. The storyline is interesting in itself, the dream ‘sequences’ are mostly text that appears on the screen describing the imagery and revealing more of Kaim’s past through his memories. These are more to evoke an emotion in the player I think, I’m not sure if there will be any more visual dream sequences that will appear, but there are four discs worth so that’s bound to happen.

Did not pick up FFXII again – which is not surprising since I got the Lost Odyssey game lol. Nevermind, I will go back to play it, perhaps I’ll alternate between the two.