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.

Finally, I also checked out Borderlands (360). Been playing it solo and it's been alright so far. The story is pretty bland and the missions are quite simple. The world is quite barren but at least the look of the game isn't boring like with Fallout 3 so it doesn't wear me out. I think it's okay so far and collecting different guns is pretty addictive. Maybe I'll play some coop later cuz there are moments which are quite tough at my current level. Backtracking is really annoying though especially with the lack of NPCs to entertain me. Anyways, will play more soon.

Finally able to play more Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) now that PAX East is over. Made a ton of progress. Got through a tower dungeon very quickly. The enemies and bosses weren't that tough. Also did a lot of the optional quests in the current chapter that I'm on. It's been going pretty smoothly. I'm currently about 37 hours into the game. Fun fun.

New stuff from March. Got:

Games.

Movies.

Wii Netflix Disc - Will probably check it out once and never use it again.

Headphone and Cammy figure.

So Day 2 of PAX East was way more eventful. There were way more people as expected and that meant longer lines. Unlike Friday, I couldn't even get into a few panels because of the lines. Some people lined up an hour early! Ugh. So if you had other panels you wanted to go to that were only one hour away, you might not even get in. It was pretty bad. Good thing the PA guys said they'll look for a larger convention hall next year. Btw, I didn't go to Day 3 which is today as I post this. Too tired. So no pics for the last day. Besides, it might be the same ol' pics anyways.

Sorry for the lack of cosplay pics but I had no interest in them. You guys might find them easily in other blogs/sites.

I decided to go after the doors opened instead. That meant I didn't need to wait in the Queue Room like yesterday. Much better. My coworker bailed on me and decided to skip the con! Why? Who knows, but he missed out on the best day to go. I wanted to go to the N'Gai Croal and Kotaku panel but the line was so long that they actually cut off the line. That sucked big time. Who knew it would be so popular?

I decided to waste some time so walked around for a bit. Here are pics of the Console Free Play room that I mentioned in the previous post. Like I said, I didn't bother playing any games there since I own all of them.

The Steel Battalion Tourney room. Yea, weird eh? They had a tourney for an old Xbox 1 game with the big ass controllers all set up. I couldn't really watch the people play cuz it was crowded. And look, there's a guy with a Kobun mask on in there. He actually wore that all day!

I actually bumped into Wombat again outside the Console room. Took a pic with him and chatted for a lil bit. Then I decided to go to the Penny Arcade TV live commentary panel with Gabe and Tycho in the Main Theater to waste some time. It was already in progress when I entered but I caught a good chunk of it and it was funny.

The crowd watching on the second floor with me. It wasn't packed.

After this event, I tried to meet with some other online buddies. They planned on watching the PA make-a-strip panel. Since I had nothing else to do, I joined the line all by my lonesome. Yea, it's weird to be in line with a bunch of nerds and have nothing to say to them when you're alone. It took a while but they finally let people into the Main Theater. Unlike the live commentary, the line and crowd was massive.

I'm in a NERD HERD!

Inside the Main Theater (first floor this time). Everyone here is waiting for the show to start.

The panel was very entertaining and quite long. It basically consists of Tycho writing out a script on screen and Gabe drawing an entire comic strip live. It's preplanned simply because Gabe had a sketch to work with that he posted up before he started. While he's drawing, Tycho would answer questions from the crowd. Pretty good stuff.

I only took shots after Gabe finished the pic. But it was very cool to see his process of drawing everything out by hand. It was all Photoshop folks. He never used any other programs even for the word balloons. All done by hand.

The final strip.

After the panel, I met up with my SoS buddies finally. Some people gave me awkward reactions when I greeted them. I found it curious since we chat and play games online occasionally. I guess I was being too friendly? Anyways, people sorta split up to do their own thing. I stuck basically with Beige and his wife. We went to check out the PAX Merch booth but they sold out the scarves! Argh.

I got this impulse purchase instead (it's a statue):

Waiting with Beige and his wife for the MMO panel. Great couple and fun to hang out with. Thank you for babysitting me, lol. During this time, I saw a kid with a red balloon tied to his backpack going up the escalator. Guess what? I yelled out "JAAAYYYSSSUUNN!". His reaction was priceless and other people around me copied what I did. Love it. Anyway, had a good time and went to a random panel about MMOs. Not a huge interest to me but it was informative.

See those t-shirts they have on? I bought one from him. SoS REPRESENT! :)

After following them around for a while, I decided to go to the Joystiq Podcast Live panel. I wanted to go to the Retronauts Podcast Live panel but it was scheduled 30 minutes AFTER the Joystiq panel started. Such overlapping was just brutal for me cuz I really wanted to see both. But I chose Joystiq simply because I know the Stiq guys better. We've chatted and played games online so I had to support them. I met Justin outside while lining up and he was really thankful I came. Great guy.

The line on the left is for Joystiq while the line on the right is for the concert.

The Joystiq boys in action. Great opening with a Space Ghost cartoon with their voices dubbed over it. The rest of the panel was mainly Q&A and it was hilarious.

The end of the panel was hilarious. Everyone was told to stand up and hug their neighbors. It was one of the happiest panels I went to. Everyone left feeling good. Btw, that big screen shows a live list of tweets for their show. I got a few in there.

The boys chatting with the fans after it ended. I greeted all three of them in person and they all recognized me from our online chats and multi games. They made me feel like an old friend. Btw, Chris is definitely a giant of a man. Dang yo.

After this was all over, I left. I was sooo tired after a full day of activities. So like I said, no Day 3 for me. It was fairly chaotic and dealing with crowds is just not my thing. But this experience was fairly positive. I hope to meet people I didn't get a chance to meet next year. Should be fun and I'll be more prepared when PAX East returns.

Adios.

This was my first PAX and my first gaming convention in general. I didn't really have any plans but to meet people I admire or know from online gaming forums. I made some progress with a few panels and bumped into a few people I didn't expect. I managed to meet up with a few dudes but I didn't get a chance to meet everyone. Maybe tomorrow. I didn't stay all day since standing in line and walking around can drain ya pretty quickly especially with the amount of people there. I guess sitting in the office all day has really f-ed up my stamina.

The crap you got when you enter. Nothing interesting.

The lines at the beginning of the day. The crowd is doing a game that is on screen. Don't ask me how the cameras track them. It was cool to see.

More lines...

An example of one of the halls you'll be staring at when you're going from one event to another. You'll probably get sick of it after about an hour or two.

Journalists vs Developers Panel. Fairly entertaining and I bumped into a few people unexpectedly after it ended. I didn't get a chance to shake hands with Patrick Keplek or Chris Kohler but I said hi to Jeff Green and a few other notable dudes there.

JEFF!

WHOA, another Jeff!

Whoa, Ryan Scott!

And finally, ManGOD! I didn't get a chance to talk to him but I snuck in a pic anyways. Hope you don't mind Shane, lol.

Online Gaming Communities vs "Real Life" Relationships Panel. I only went to this strictly to meet Wombat. It was actually interesting and their topic was actually about me, lol. He did a great job and I got his fancy business card. I have arrived! :)

I snuck in a pic or two of Wombat chatting with his fans after the panel before I left. I was starving at that point.

Ate at food court and then returned to check out the Exhibits floor. Pretty crowded and not a lot of games I wanted to play asap. I also checked out the Console Free Play room (no pics) but I had no interest since I owned every single game there, HAHA.

After roaming around bored here, I went to the Irrational Games meet-up outside the building. A REALLY cute girl gave me a t-shirt. Wish I knew her name, huhu. It was cold so I was glad the meet-up wasn't long. They did a group pic of us there. Hope I got into the final pic just cuz I love Irrational Games.

The swag. Some buttons and a t-shirt. If anyone who was there knows that short cute girl, tell her I said hi. :P

I also accidentally went inside the Main Theater where there was a 3D demonstration from Nvidia. I missed half of it but it was cool. Anyways, I met up with a few guys from a gaming forum and we chatted for a bit. After about an hour, I went home. Still early when I left but I wasn't interested in any meet-ups at a bar etc. Anyways, Saturday will probably be more eventful if I can survive it.

Btw, one of the funniest things you'll see is people constantly having to recharge their iPhones and iPod Touches. People are constantly tweeting (like me) so I bet they're draining those batteries fast. But the Hynes has really spotty wireless and even my coworker who uses AT&T had trouble with the 3G network on his phone. Many nerds in one place = clogged internets.

Shalom.

Playing two big games this month. Got God of War 3 (PS3) and Final Fantasy XIII (PS3). They're as big as you can get, amirite? ;) Btw, NO Spoilers, as usual.

So GoW3 arrived yesterday and I played around 4 hours of it on Normal. The game's graphics and audio is phenomenal so far. The scale is just epic and story is as over the top as usual. The 7.1 surround plus heavy use of my subwoofer makes this game an audio feast. Definitely a game worth checking out with a home theater setup. The visual upgrades are to be expected and everything is crisp and clear with no loading screens which is a technical feat. They did a great job hiding the loading stuff.

The gameplay is just as fun as the original and the bosses are amazing and fun. Really well designed boss battles and they made good use of Kratos' new powers. They implemented many old weapons and powers with a twist which is a nice callback to the previous games. Even the puzzles are easy to figure out and not frustrating. Loving the game so far. One MAJOR gripe I have with the game's controls is the double jump. It doesn't seem as responsive as the previous games from what I remember. I had some dumb fall deaths because of this. I mentioned this on Twitter and got a ton of responses that agreed with me. So hey, we're not crazy, the double jump is somewhat broken. Anyways, loving the game so far.

Another game I was playing before GoW3 was FFXIII. This is another beautiful game both technically and artistically. Whether you like the character designs or not, the world and creatures that inhabit the world are well designed and look great. Great color palette. The music is also excellent. I really love the dungeon music, each track is better than the next and never gets old or tired. Sadly, the English dub quality is inconsistent. The worst offender is the voice actress for Vanille. For the first 10 hours, she's unbearable with her fake hyper anime chick impressions. But thankfully, she calms down later and the quality of her dub is improved. It's a good thing Vanille's design is attractive or else I would vomit everytime she spoke. Everyone else's dub is good with Sazh and Fang being my fave. They're the most natural of the group, imo.

The writing is your typical anime-ish JRPG fare. The quality of the script ranges from average to cheesy/cliched. It seems after all this time, they couldn't improve the dialogue to make it more natural and less awkward. But the characters did grow on me and they have fairly good chemistry as the game goes on. The game's battle system is the real winner. The real-time battles are fun and exciting. The first 10 Chapters of the game was a cakewalk for me. I only died 3 times with one death/loss from a mandatory Doom timer which was lame. But Chapter 11 is where the game ramps up in difficulty so I find it fairly challenging now. I'm playing it like it's a RTS and it's working for me. My major gripe is the inability to save custom Paradigms when I change my Battle Teams. Everytime you switch out a member, it resets the Paradigms! Square-Enix, what the hell?

The game is extremely streamlined with no real overworld nor any actual sidequests of consequence. Some might like it but old school JRPG fans will be disappointed. Overall, FF fans and JRPG fans should check it out. Everyone else should be cautioned that this game ain't for everyone. If you never played any FF games, especially FFX (this developer's previous FF game), then maybe a rental is a better option. I'm enjoying it.

Btw, I was temp banned from NeoGAF for saying "sigh" in a thread. Pretty funny since the mod said I was trolling the Wii when I was being sarcastic. And he happened to ban me on the day I posted a pick-up for a Wii game. Good job mod, you got mad at me for one word that didn't mean anything, lol.

Also new pick-ups!

PAX East 3 Day Pass - Hope to meet cool people there.

Canon Digicam - So small!

GoW3 UE (PS3) + Fragile Dreams (Wii) + Bonus OST

FFXIII Galore (PS3) - US version, LE Guide (still sealed cuz not needed so far), AUS LE + Bonus Lithos and Faceplate

Heavy Rain UK LE (PS3) - Gorgeous box and inner packaging.

Yakuza 3 (PS3) - KAZUMA~!!!

Bayonetta LE Guide

Miles Edgeworth DSi LE Cases x2

Finished BF: Bad Company 2 (360) single player last week on Normal. Fun game although I didn't find it any better than the first BC. The level designs are more varied and diverse. It's a lot less repetitive and made traversing the levels a bit more fun than the first game. The world is pretty well animated with every piece of foliage swaying in the wind and gusts of wind blowing around. And the best thing is the ability to destroy any structure like with Red Faction: Guerilla. That was really fun during some sequences but also mind blowingly frustrated if you died from it.

The audio is hit or miss with me just like with the first game. I found the surround mix to be inconsistent and the shots sounded boomy. Some people like this aspect of the audio but I sorta found it lacking. It works fine for shots heard in the distance but anything up close sounds wrong to me (for a video game). Anyways, it's alright. Music is nothing special and the voice acting is alright. The dialogue between the four bros is great and well worth listening during the calm sections. Most are optional so make sure to check them out by standing still when they're all together.

I also tried out the multi and it's fun and addictive although I haven't had a chance to play with people in my friend's list so I've been fumbling around solo. Everyone does do their part to help each other which was cool. I never played previous Battlefield games online so this was all new to me. The maps are large which is a blessing and a curse. Anyways, the game is fun and worth checking out. It's fun but it's nothing special. Btw, the story is basically one big parody of the Modern Warfare series. Lots of jokes and various other silly aspects of the MW series are mentioned. Some people might like it.

I also finished Dante's Inferno (PS3) over the weekend in one sitting. Contrary to what many reviewers have said, I found the game extremely fun and enjoyable. It's a GoW clone for sure but it's an excellent clone. The game has pretty tight controls and some really fun powers and moves. The only part of the game that frustrated me were some of the level designs. There were too many death falls which was totally unnecessary. They also have some pretty annoying timed puzzles but they were few and far in-between, thankfully. Trial and error levels should not be made these days.

The graphics are good although I've seen better. The world in Hell is really well designed artistically though. It really looks horrible and gross but the game manages to change it up between each ring that you enter. The monsters and bosses are the real highlights. Their designs are really creative and quite impressive. I would say that this game had some of the more unique monster designs I've seen recently in any game. Some of them were quite unexpected which was a good thing. And many of them were really fun to fight. Great job there. But I wish the regular enemies weren't recycled so much.

The music and voice acting is superb as well. I found the music totally appropriate and had all the bombastic epicness we should expect from this game. The voices were really great especially certain characters like Virgil and Lucifer. They have this real gravitas to their voices which made them really cool characters. Everyone else was also equally impressive. The surround effects for the world with Hell like the souls screaming in pain with other ambient noises were also well done. It made the world quite immersive and chilling sometimes.

The story wasn't bad either. It's not uber amazing but it worked for what it was. I would say the game's story is on par with GoW. If you disagree, you should take off your rose-tinted glasses and replay the GoW games. They're really not that different when it comes to their storytelling. Overall, great game and quite fun. If you loved the GoW games, and you want more of the same, check this game out.

Finally, I also got the Heavy Rain DLC, "The Taxidermist", from my preorder. I'm not gonna get into it much but it's great. There are a lot of various outcomes in it which will add to the replay value. The voice acting for Madison was also wayyy superior than the voice in the main game. It seems the voice actress was changed which probably explains it. The writing for her thoughts were also way better. It's much more natural and witty. Dear Quantic Dream, PLEASE keep this voice actress for all future Madison DLCs, she's much better. Overall, really fun and tense just like the main game. I look forward to all future DLC because of this. Great stuff.

So because of the fat PS3 clock fiasco right now, I can't continue trophy hunting Heavy Rain today or want to attempt to play any other game on my PS3. So let's just wait it out and see if Sony can fix this soon...

Update: Looks like the issue fixed itself.

Anyways, new pick-ups from February.

N7 t-shirt. I won this from a random drawing. Yay, free stuff rules. :D

Mushihimesama Futari Hori Arcade Stick.

EspGaluda II [Normal and LE versions] - Got the Normal version cuz it's region-free but the LE is not. I wanted the faceplate from the LE. It's nice.

Magna Carta 2 Faceplate and Bayonetta Preorder OST.

More movies and games - Self explanatory

Mass Effect 2 Signed Lithographs.

Thanks to Bob aka Mr. Blizzard PR Masta, he got me an invite for the Starcraft II Beta (PC). So now I'm in and currently downloading it, wheee~!!!! Thanks man. :D

Also, been playing Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS) and Heavy Rain (PS3). I haven't finished either game yet but I'm loving both. Here are my impressions for both:

I'm pretty much near the final stretch in Miles Edgeworth. Terrific localization once again with plenty of excellent writing and humor. It's not quite as funny as the original Phoenix Wright trilogy but it's better than Apollo Justice. The new full body sprite parts make the exploration more streamlined and easier. It has that old school point and click feel but not really. But I sorta miss the character sprites that talk to you directly. You only see the sprites face in one direction from a sideview now. It doesn't give you that feeling that they're talking to you like with the previous games which gives off a slight disconnect. Oh well. But, I still love the game and love all the cameos and characters that return from the previous games. Some of them will surprise you. And all the new characters are quite excellent as well. They fit right in with the Ace Attorney universe. Btw, make sure you play the original Wright trilogy to really appreciate all the callbacks and in-jokes. It's hilarious. Highly recommended!

I also played a good chunk of Heavy Rain and it's a great experience so far. The graphics are pretty nice even though the characters hit the uncanny valley a couple of times and look wonky. But the audio is superb. The surround effects are excellent and is quite immersive. The voice acting is hit or miss but most are good even though some people have obvious French accents. It's not a big deal though. There are a lot of really cool sequences and I just find the whole design and look really slick. The walking controls can be a bit clunky but the quicktime events are well done. This game ain't perfect but it's worth playing for the experience. I like the feel of the game's atmosphere a lot. Btw, the music is EXCELLENT. Anyways, check it out.

New pick-ups for this month will be posted next time. :)

Finished Bioshock 2 (360) last week. In order to avoid spoilers, I will post some quick impressions. The game was a lot shorter than the original but the gameplay is much improved featuring better guns and improved powers. The story wasn't as good as the original which was somewhat disappointing. It's not as scary/creepy either so some people might find it more approachable. There are a few interesting characters and extra backstory for fans of the first game but the overall story ain't as good. It still has some very cool moments though.

Anyways, fans of the original Bioshock should play this stat. It's fun and still engaging. But if you haven't even touched the original, you should play that first instead. It's required to enjoy the sequel. Recommended.

In other news, I'd like to give a big shout out to Penny-Arcade. They sent me my prize. Only 500 made. :)

Front:

Back:

Games and other stuff.

Bioshock 2 Figures

AVATAR stuff. Yes, I'm a fan.