Games, Jacket and Blindsight
Nintendo DS (light)
I am the kind of person who likes to buy things in advance (for future use). I like to be well-stocked and I do not mean just for food..there are other kinds of hunger: entertainment and adventure hunger (games), knowledge and stories hunger (books and magazines), aesthetic hunger (beautiful cloth), domestic provision hunger (I can buy winter jacket in the summer), because I know the moment will come when I will need/want this things and it will be time to put them to good use. Being able to project hypothetical situations many steps in advance, I cannot count as well as Rogier, but I am very good in abstract thinking and putting pieces of the puzzle together or seeing abnormalities or patterns in the big picture (boy, do I praise myself.. J )..
I also tend to have very long introductions, but where I lead is - no matter how long ago I bought something - the time will come for me to use it. So, I buy something when I can (if I can), knowing I might not touch it for quite some time..in extreme cases for years, but at some point, when the moment is right, I will use my purchase and will enjoy it to the absolute fullest. With certain goods you need to catch the moment and grab them as with time they tend to become “out of stock” items and we can’t have it, can we? So, I might not have a priority or time to use something, when I buy it, but it does not mean I waste money or buy it for nothings…it just waits its turn. Amazing how with years I get less and less time and get more and more busy..I really hope Rogier&I will be very rich very soon and can retire peacefully to some warm gorgeous place, where we will have enough resources and time to dedicate it to each other, our kids and our hobbies.
About 5 years ago I bought Nintendo DS light, I think it just came out then. At the same time I bought 2 Castlevania games: Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. I knew such games will be sold out very soon and wanted to spare myself a pain to look later via second-hand stores, which seriously overprice rare and most-wanted item (like they do with Tales of Vesperia, for example..gets up to 90 euro per game! Glad I got my copy when it was released) For some reason, I regarded portable consoles inferior and too kiddy. I was wrong and I take it back. And I think I even know the reason. With game industry evolution and improvement of graphics for HD consoles I became a loyal “graphic whore” - how the game looks is very important to me. I want it to be pretty, whether it is cartoon/manga style or as realistic as possible, it should be pleasing to the eye. Portable consoles understandably performed much lesser in graphics department and I childishly thought it to be reason enough not to focus on portables. Although now I days portables become better and better (Wii U, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS). Drifting away, as usual..So, 5 years ago I bought my DS might with 2 games and let it stand on my game shelf for a loooooooooooooooong time. Since Rogier came into my life I seriously reconsidered my priorities and DS just wasn’t one of them. But when we got married and prepared to go on honeymoon, the question of entertainment came up. Usually we take books, Sudoku, cards and laptop, but this time I decided to try something “new”. It was a perfect time for my DS, finally. On the eve of departure I opened the box for the first time to test that everything works well, before taking it with me on honeymoon. And from that moment I was hooked. It was so cute, comfi and addictive…The game I tried out first was Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin -a great game by itself and great addition to C-vania series. I played it whole honeymoon, every day somewhat. Why was I so prejudgmental about graphics? Yea, it wasn’t PS3, but it was still very nice in its own way and it was portable gaming device…for a gaming lover like me - what was my problem? Why didn’t I try it sooner? But, maybe, it was for the better. When we returned from our holiday I made an investigation on what is hot in DS world…and during the course of a few weeks acquired complete -to-date set of professor Layton games. I am currently on PL and Curious Village and loving it! I do love good anime, good detective story and puzzles! All-in-one was just a god’s gift to me. J Im about 60% through with the game and have a strong feeling I already know Villages secret, but this besides the point. Whenever I face a particularly interesting puzzle, I always offer it to Rogier. Must admit, he solves math puzzles better/faster than me..But I am also proud of that. But I am better with abstractions, as I mentioned. With my tight schedule, when do I find the time to play it? On my way to and from work, in the train and during the lunch time for about 15-20 minutes.
My gym subscription expired after honeymoon and I decided not to renew…way to expensive and after the wedding we are getting our belts tighter than ever with Gierie. I did promise Rogier I will keep sporting, but I am yet to live up to it..So far it is once a week and I really must pick it up.
Prof. Layton games are lovely, lovey, lovely! Such a candy for a curious mind. Our brain needs constant training, like our bodies to stay in shape. So, I found another entertainment trick to make myself happy J
PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS and Kingdom Hearts
For Xmas I expect to acquire PS Vita or Nintendo 3DS..for Vita there is only 1 game that interest me so far, but the crucial in my dictionary - Uncharted: Golden Abyss. One of my favorite gaming series (next to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Assassins Creed and Tales of ….) On 3DS there are more games I want to play - Tales of Abyss, Kingdom Hearts: DDD and next year new Castlevania coming out. Generally, Vita does not sell as good as expected and has very week gaming line to change it..
In the end of October AC: Liberation comes, but this is simply not enough and there are no guarantees it is going to be a really great game yet, as portable installment of AC series were not that superb, let’s say. To buy Vita just for Uncharted seems over the top..even that I LOVE Uncharted world..we will see.
Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, back in my earlier gaming years, when I just started to acquire taste for PS2 it was my Bible. Game that mixed Disney universe with Final Fantasy and deep values like friendship love and honor in a very attractive package - I adored that game. Now the first part (together with DS KH: Recoded) comes to PS2 in HD. I would love to play it again! As it is hard to enjoy it playing on PS3 and on a big HD screen - the quality of the picture suffers immensely. I missed all installments of the series on portable devices so far, but, maybe, for the better, as I hate fillers and the reviews for the games were not as good as for PS2 installments. I hope DDD will be great and looking forward to HD remix on PS3 to satisfy my nostalgia.
Final Fantasy XIII
With the little amount of time I can dedicate to gaming now, I can play a game on PS3 or Xbox for a few months. Little steps, big breaks, but nevertheless enjoyable progress..Before the wedding I finished Final Fantasy 13, which I played for 2 months I think if not more. I did like it as a whole, but it was definitely not a WOW-game for me. I do like Japanese aesthetics, but the story was way far stretched, the characters were so over dramatic and they behavior was too often too ridiculous for me to take it serious. Take Tales series from Namco - the cutest thing ever, design like cartoon (anime), but I take these characters with all their kawaii more serious than those of FF13. What I really enjoyed was battle system: endless experiment with better tactics, changing battle teams, assigning different roles to team members, playing with paradigms.. introduction into battle mechanics was graduate and functional. Really loved that part. Story was not convincing for me and they world was uninteresting, locations bleak for FF, although beautifully executed in graphics terms, but not to my taste. This is the second FF game I played, so I cannot complain too much about games linearity, but I always appreciate freedom of choice in the game. Even Kingdom Hearts gave me more freedom, letting choose which world I want to visit first. Overal FF13 was an interesting experience with great battle mechanics and pretty graphics, but will not take place in my hit list as a game you must play before you die. J
Witcher 2
When we returned from the honeymoon, there was a time to choose another game for the big screen. I wanted a change of scenery after FF and went with Witcher 2: Assassin of the Kings. I finished it on Saturday, I think. Really enjoyed the game. Very mature, dark and realistic fantasy from Polish game makers (inspired by Andjey Sapkovsky books about garland the Witcher, professional demon slayer) This game is full of politics, hard game-defining choices, interesting battle mechanics and satisfying story. The game is not for kinds..too many mature themes and bad language. Too much politics for kinds as well, but I enjoyed this part..its hard to figure whom to trust and who is worthy..To be honest there are VERY few characters to really like…everybody has an agenda and everyone walks on corpse to achieve their goals, but so is life, usually…we wish we could make perfect choices and achieve best results, but often a choice that benefits one party, severely damages another. In Witcher you can make choices, which will deeply influence your future game..you will side with fraction and you will go places, which you wouldn’t have encountered if you did not make this choice..different quest lines, different locations..different priorities..everything is up to you. I sided with Iorveth - rebel elf ataman of Scoia’tel guerilla unit, who hates humans and wages war against those who oppress non-humans. Iorveth is amazingly interesting character, the game is worth playing just for his story alone. The game is set in a fantasy world, where mysterious assassin kills kings of the Northern kingdoms for yet unknown reason. When the king Foltest, to whom our hero is an advisor, is killed witcher Geralt is wrongly accused as he was found near the body of the king, being too late to rescue him. The commander of king’s special forces Roche helps Gerlat escape in exchange of the promise to find the real killer and bring him to justice. Accompanied by Roche and Triss (sorceress and advisor to another fallen king), Geralt departs on this quest. Later, after the series of quests, Gerlat needs to pick whom he will join in adventures and who’s cause he will support more: Roche (svae temeria - Foltest’kingdom from anarchy, bring his kids ot reign and find the king’s assassin) or Iorveth (battle for Ponter Valley - an area that is a cross between three other kingdoms and can become a free land, a kingdom of its own for those, who cannot find justice elsewhere). Witcher 2 takes players seriously and assume they possess some degree of intelligence, as I mentioned the game is very mature and not only in adult themes and bad language, but also plot, intrigue and politics, supported by hard decisions. There are no right or wrong choices, the game does not have a punishing meter, you choose your own way and the game unfolds in accordance with the choices you make and there will be consequences. This is what I really liked.
What I did not like is that game does very little effort in introducing the mechanics and tactics to you. Prepare to visit the game menu a lot, read and scroll through endless descriptions until you find the right one. Usually RPGs have solid introductions into “how to play”. Not Witcher 2. It lets figure it out all by yourself through trial and error method, combined with getting through all game legends and basics in the menu. It irritated me a lot in the beginning. Sometimes you see quick references in the right bottom corner of the screen when you encounter something new, but this appearance is so brief that you clearly do not have time to read it. So game demands you to take an effort into getting to know its rules, but when you do, the result will be pleasantly rewarding. I want more games like Witcher: mature, with different choices and consequences and interesting mechanics. The game does not try to copy anything, it offers something of its own, occasionally making fun of and references to classical fantasy themes like Lord of the Rings, for example. At the same time, I wish there were more likable characters in the game..yeah, life can be a bitch, but still there is a place for good people in it and it is what you make it. Yes, big political picture is very complicated, there is no good or bad guys..everyone is fighting for their own cause. Overall very good RPG and fantasy game that I can easily recommend.
Tales of Graces F
After gloomy, bloody, gory, mature and serious Witcher 2 I needed some Kawaii as usual. The process of choosing a new game is always a treat for me. Luxury problem, as I call it..which candy to choose…white chocolate, milk chocolate, with nuts or, maybe, some other dessert, different entirely. Kawaii in my book usually means cartoonish Japanese RPG and what better example out there than Tales series. Not so long ago I ordered the newly release for EU Tales of Graces. We always have to wait a year or two or three before JRPG like Tales comes to the West…isn’t it clear for Japanese that their Namco games are super popular and always sold out with us? Of course, localization must take really long time, but they also used to take ages in deciding whether bringing these games to the West would make profit..and yes, we do need cute kawaii..at least I do need a mental innocence from time to time with help of Tales game. Tales of Graces is a remake and is not top-notch design, although awfully cute still, but I know that Tales of Xilia are already confirmed for the West in 2013 and cannot wait! Jum-jummy! For now I am perfectly content with Tales of Graces f. I only played for 1 hour so far yesterday, but I just love this innocence and cartoonism, fairy tale is fairy tale and I want some.
I think it will keep me busy for a few months so I can survive till ACIII and Tomb Raider come out.I do not know what to expect from re-imagined DMC..Dante is not Dante and Vergil is not Vergil..weeeeeeeeird. But I will give it a chance. I hate how the remodeled Dante and were are his signature gray hair? Dragon Age 3 is announced, but it will take so long before the release yet..pfff..Not sure if Metal gear Solid: Revengeance will be my piece of cake, but reviews will tell..what else do I look forward to in gaming world? New Prof. Layton, of course and really really good rpgs..more of them..but these take ages to develop. Elder Scrolls will go multiplayer and online, I wonder…Then, of course, I should not forget about the Last of Us (from Naughty Dog, the maker of Uncharted)..I hear rumors about Dishonored being something special..and that it is a cross between AC and Bioshock..Although Bioshock is a solid good game, there is something boeh-bleh about it like Amelie movie…something makes me feel unwell about it, maybe design and human deformation themes and mutations?..Hm, so I do not know about this one. Hitmam and Black Ops 2 are not exactly my games, I Play for story not for shooting..this is why I did not buy Brderlands 2 either..but H & BO2 still have a chance. And, of course, I really look forward to new generation consoles. I think they will come in 2014. Same team that made L.A. Noire is now making similar game, where 1930x Shanghai is the scenery. I like a good detective story, so bring it on. Slowly, but steady games become smarter..I hope deep rich in it own mythology games from BioWare Bethesda Naughty Dog and Square Enix or Ubisoft will keep coming. Many studios downsize nowadays.. and it takes many people to make a really big game like Skyrim, for example..so I wonder what the future holds, but my hopes are high. Playing games is amazing pastime, especially, when you loved one is just 2-3 meters away from you, playing his own. Mists of Pandaria released on 25 September, so Rogier is heavily into it at the moment. J
Probably, by the time the new gen consoles come out I will have other problems and priorities..like babies J But for now, I spare my free time and divide it carefully among my desires. J
My new MEXX jacket.
Love my new MEXX jacket. For year I was looking for something that would check out on the following criteria’s for an autumn jacket:
1. Anti-rain: (something I really really need in NL with its unpredictable and usually bad weather) The material should be water-reflecting..so it does not get wet, when its pouring here..and it does in AMS region..A LOT.
2.Anti-wind: once again - Netherlands - flat as pancake, no protection from mountains, so it winds in all directions all the time.
3.With a big hood (as it rains often and umbrella are annoying)
4. My size and slim-cut fitted. Usually, if I find something that answers to the first 3 criteria’s, it looks like a cover case from the airship
5. It should be long, till my knees with primal goal to cover my ass, in this cold rainy and windy Amsterdam weather..
I found it all in my new Mexx jacket and boy am I happy I got it! It took some convincing of Rogier to let me buy it, but now I am super happy with it. Finally a good protection for my goods J In addition my new jacket has warm pockets. So, congratulations on my steal ;)
Latest Book I listened to: Peter Watts - Blindsight.
As always, no time to read, so I listen on my way to work and back from it, or when I eat during lunch. If you like hard science fiction, like really rock hard - this is for you! It is definitely for me. This is one of the best books I ever read., the best imagination First Contact and one of the best description of realy different alien. Not some stupid humanoid in different color like in StarTrack. I’ve read Blindsight before, but I am so impressed with this book that I wanted to refresh it in my mind. Especially now that I got especially interested in science books (non-fiction). Blindsight is a brilliant book and I cannot give enough praise to it, although I have read on amazon that it is hard to read and understand blab la…I do not think so. I think is amazing and brings up very important questions, also moral ones. This is a Hugo nominated book, so it is no joke. It is SO satisfying for the hungry mind that I could not get enough of it. Thisis by far the best First Contact story I ever read..finally someone is capable to imagine something ENTIRELY different from us. Reviews on the book:
In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story.
Sf's best visionaries have played out the ever-popular theme of alien first contact in so many different ways that fresh variations are now in short supply. Yet Watts manages an entirely unique approach in this mind-bending novel. In 2082, with utopia waiting just down the electronic pipeline in a virtual domain called Heaven, Earth experiences the sudden shock of a baffling extraterrestrial visitation in the form of bright probes that surround the globe. Within days, the lights vanish, leaving only a faint signal of outbound communication near the Kuiper belt. Possessing few clues about the aliens' culture or intentions, scientists dispatch an unlikely exploration team that includes a linguist with multiple-personality syndrome, a cyborg biologist, and a spectral captain whose genetic code incorporates vampirism. Watts packs in enough tantalizing ideas for a score of novels while spinning new twists on every cutting-edge genre motif from virtual reality to extraterrestrial biology. Watts' fifth, finest, most-fascinating book.
Reading something like this always motivates me to write my own stories, but unfortunately I do not have knowledge enough to write hard sci-fi, but I do have a few ideas that I do not think were described in other books often. One day I will J Who knows..u never know, where your imagination may lead you. If Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray made it…why can’t I? haha Although from the examples above you can clearly see that all that woman want is a true love. Read and learn guys, no matter how smoochie it is there are plenty tips for you how to win a woman’s heart: true, unlimited, eternal love J..Not everyone wants eternal, but I think most want true and unlimited.