Sorry that I haven't been blogging lately. Been busy with various things outside of gaming. I finished only a handful of games and by the time I finished them, I haven't felt like blogging about it. Damn you Twitter! :P Anyways, I've also been planning out a project which I'm super excited about. It's a personal hobby so it's coming out slow.

I need to give a quick thanks to various podcasts out there for giving me a shout out or reading my emails and comments recently. It's always cool to hear my name on their shows. Thank you for acknowledging my existence. XD

Here are just some VERY brief reviews about games I've beaten in the past month or two:

Red Dead Redemption (360) - EPIC. Amazing voice acting and some nice twists. Lots of fun, gorgeous graphics and music. Rockstar's best game by far.

Deadly Premonition (360) - AWESOME. The game's controls are clunky and the graphics are cruddy but the characters and story is SUPERB. Lots of cool twists and revelations that will make your jaws drop. It still gives me chills when I think back about it. One of my fave games evar.

Singularity (360) - Fun game with some cool ideas. Not quite as polished as other games in the genre but it's worth checking out. The story makes sense and the endings are quite interesting. Anyone who's played games like Half-Life 2, Bioshock or Dead Space will see the influence.

DeathSmiles (360) - Anyone who saw my Top Ten Shmups video will know I liked this game. Great visual design and excellent gameplay. Another great shooter from CAVE.

So here's a bunch of new pick-ups from the past month or so.

Final Cut Express 4 (Mac) - Another component for my project   

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Games

Movies and Anime from major sales.

Figures

Also got some sweet Hot Toys figures but I'll save that for the next post. Thanks for reading.

THEY WIN. No, seriously. They win.    

 3D - Limp
Move - Chubby
Kevin Butler - Hormones
GT5 Release Date - Hard On
Twisted Metal - SPOOGE!    

MS learned three things:

1) Present Kinect like Nintendo.

2) Ship it at announcement like Apple.

3) Give it away like Oprah.

Done.   

Haven't had time to game much over the week but I spent a huge chunk of time playing Red Dead Redemption (360). I think I'm near the end. LOVE the story and the characters are fairly interesting. The voice acting is just excellent through and through. Whoever does John Marston's voice is one of the best out there. He really gives Marston a sense of gravitas that makes him very likeable and believable. The missions have been fun overall with a handful that I could do without but there's none that I hated like in the GTA series. Love the Stranger sidequests. They're like lil short stories that add to the world's character. Btw, love the world's look too. Gorgeous lighting from night to day. Anyways, gonna finish the main story this week so I can move on to my other games. 

Also, looking forward to any surprise announcements at E3 this year. The amount of leaks coming out is fast and furious. I'm not sure there's much more to look forward to at this rate.

New stuff for this month:

Games and movies.

Second 360 for my video project + Points and Gold card - Got them all on sale so it was a nice deal.

Capcom Artbooks (Hardcover versions) - Love love love.

And a bunch of figures. My otaku-ness is coming back to me. Also got a few more coming because of the free shipping sale from HLJ.

Degenki Mags - I never bought these before so I didn't expect them to have such naughtiness...lol. XD

Lineage II Elf and Velvet Figures.

Play Arts Shiva - Gigantic figure!

Hot Toys Dark Knight DX

Revoltech Professor Layton x2

And Layton Mug

Finished Yakuza 3 (PS3) about a week ago. FANTASTIC in every sense of the word. Loved the story and characters (new and old). Fun combat, lots of entertaining sidequests and the minigames were enjoyable. Not even the edited content in the US version made the game any less epic and fun. I'm looking forward to finishing up the various sidequests in Premium Mode later. I hope Sega localizes the 4th game. I love this world. GET IT!

Also finished Alan Wake (360) last night. Awesome story and great combat. The world is really atmospheric and creepy. Personally, I didn't find the game scary at all. There are some jump scares but no dread, imo. I guess after playing through games like Bioshock and Dead Space, I'm immune to the dread factor in Wake. There are also lots of funny moments that break the tension which I appreciated. This is a really well written game and the voice acting is SUPERB. The graphics had some issues like tearing and pop-in, but it didn't ruin the mood of the game at all. The lighting effects are really well done and I loved the art design of Bright Falls. I also found the audio for the game in general to be excellent. Great use of surround and lots of awesome effects. Make sure to turn up the volume cuz the default sound is a lil low. Anyways, MUST PLAY!

Also played a few hours of Red Dead Redemption (360). I've only done some missions but it's been pretty good. The voice acting is top notch and all the characters behave really realistically. The shooting is tight, unlike past GTA open-world games. The world has a lot of ambient noises and effects that will keep you immersed. I don't like the save system or some of the other mechanics like sprinting/running but I'll deal with it. Fun game so far, will try out the multi soon. Btw, John Marston is a very cool character. Recommended.

Also, new pick-ups!

The following are components for my video project I'm planning to work on.

Macbook Pro 15.4" Anti-Glare Screen - My first Mac.

A Stand for it.

Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard - Very nice minimalist packaging.

HD PVR

Monitor/TV

Here's some other stuff I've purchased in the past few weeks.

Games and a Music CD - All new and sealed.

Yakuza 2 Figure - Finally found it!

Hot Toys Chris Redfield and Medicom Kaneda 1/6 Figures

It hurts, see you next month!

I've been playing Yakuza 3 (PS3) for the past week and a half through sporatic sessions. I'm trying to take my time because this game is AWESOME! The story continues to be amazing and keeps me playing. The sidequests are also much more fun than the previous two games and some of them have really hilarious storylines. I'm really enjoying it and now that the entire world is in 3D, I am able to fully immerse myself in the world and explore it freely. This iteration of Yakuza really feels like the Shemue games. While it doesn't have small little details like opening up dressers etc, the ability to examine things up close or explore an environment just screams Shenmue to me. The combat is also much more fluid and controls better. They really did a good job with the 3D movement too. It's a bit more fluid than the prequels. Anyways, LOVE LOVE LOVE this game! Must play folks.

New pick-ups:

Ryu ga Gotoku 4 (PS3) + Bonus - Guess what? I had to get the 4th game before they come out with those lame Best covers and I wanted the preorder bonus. If Sega doesn't localize this game, I can still play it (with a guide). :)

Super Street Fighter IV Dojo Edition (PS360) - Capcom store exclusive. Lots of cool swag but it cost more than the game alone (obviously). The Dudley t-shirt rocks. Too lazy to take pics of the included stuff but you can google, right?

Record of Agarest War LE (360) and Ikki Tousen X Impact LE (PSP) - Uh, yea, no comment. ^^;;

Avatar Steelbook (BD) + Bonus - UK Version. Really nice stuff. Why didn't the US get this stuff?

Avatar (BD) + Time Warp Season 1 (BD) - On sale.

One Piece Strong Edition Figures (Nami, Luffy, Zoro) - Actually forgot I preordered these way back. Nice quality but so darn expensive compared to the original ones.

Got Splinter Cell Conviction (360) and it's really fun. I played a few chapters on Normal last night and it's quite good. It's a lot easier than the previous SC games but there were still a few choke points with a ton of enemies which require some finesse. Graphics are nice and animations are fairly smooth but the in-game cutscenes tend to have some ridiculous screen-tearing which was annoying. But the look of the game is quite nice and the audio is pretty good. The music is excellent. Anyways, I'm gonna play more and check out the coop mode after I beat the Story mode.

Also got some pretty cool stuff. Here we go!

Got:
Gameboy Micro FFIV and Famicom LEs - Japan versions. I managed to find both of these brand new and sealed for awesome prices on eBay. The Famicom one is pretty common but the FFIV bundle was a super find. Some Japanese guy was selling it for a great price so I had to jump on it. Anyways, I got the Micros cuz of all the praise they got in various forums. I have to say that they're quite sexy in person and made of really high quality material. It's a shame that they're discontinued. So small and beautiful.

Lots of games.

Splinter Cell Conviction LE (360)

Dead or Alive Paradise LE + Poster (PSP) - Uh yea, I got it. ;) The poster was packed way too snug in the box so it was sorta bent all around (as you can see in the pic). I'm hoping I'll be able to get an exchange, ah well. The packaging is really nice all around.

Professor Layton Figures + Fireball Gashapons - Luke is not in scale with Layton which is a bummer. He looks like a giant next to him. Oh well.

SIC Kamen Rider Kabuto Figures - Sexy.

Finished Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) last Friday. My total playing time was 48 hours. Not too bad considering I didn't use a guide (yes, still sealed) and I managed to complete a lot of sidequests on my own. The story and characters didn't really grow on me like with previous FF games. I didn't find any emotional parts that were that special or interesting to me. The story itself is pretty simple and plain. I wasn't engrossed with the overall plot as much as I thought. The dialogue was pretty cheesy and awkward and there were points that were somewhat convoluted as well. I wasn't really fully immersed with the world nor did I really care about the characters at the end. And as for the ending, it was also a meh to me.

The game is still gorgeous through and through but this may be on of the weaker FF games in terms of character development and story. The best thing about the game is the combat. If you don't like the combat than you're gonna be really disappointed because it only gets harder and more complex as the game progresses. The enemies in the second half of the game are pretty ridiculous in terms of difficulty and don't get me started on the last boss. Holy crap.

Anyways, FFXIII was fun in terms of its combat but everything else like the characters/story were mediocre to me. This is definitely one of the weaker FF games in the franchise. It's gorgeous though so it's worth playing for all the eye candy. It's definitely a must-play for FF and RPG fans but everyone else should give it a rental first. It's a big commitment if you wanna beat it.

Started playing Deadly Premonition (360) over the weekend. I only played through the Prologue and I'm in the middle of the first chapter but this game is just bizarre and weird. There are some pretty hilarious dialogue which is either from the poorly written dialogue/voice acting and character animations. It's so bad but so good. If you're curious how weird it is, just check out the Quick Looks from Giant Bomb. I'll probably talk about it more once I make more progress.