Ok, so I've been watching all the great stuff happening in the news that the US Navy has been doing to support our Japanese allies through Operation Tomodachi. As you know, I'm living here in Yokohama and am currently serving on active duty in the Navy. That being said, all I can say is that I wish nothing more than to be on one of those ships contributing what I can. Sadly, I'm sitting behind a desk doing very little. Regardless, I have been trying to do what I can in clothes and financial contributions and I would like to encourage you to do the same.

On a related note, please don't buy into any of the bad news that you hear on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc. Understand that they are only trying to build their readership/viewership and aren't honestly reporting what's going on outside of the immediate area of Fukushima Dai-Ichi Reactor. If you listen to them, you'd think that the whole country is under a nuclear cloud. I can assure you that this isn't the case.

Ok, so I finally got around to changing out the 80GB hard drive on my PS3 and upgrading it to a 250GB. Long story short, this was the EASIEST hardware changeout I've ever done (and I've been building/repairing computers since 2000).

Anyway, it basically involves removing one screw and sliding the HDD tray to the right and out of the PS3. After that, remove 4 screws and pop in the new HDD. The key part to remember is to do a backup of your files prior to. To be honest, this is what gave me the most grief (until I realized that I was using a bad HDD to do the backup).

In short, there's no reason you shouldn't upgrade your hard drive if you have an old model PS3 (i.e. prior to the slim line).

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-Shoukhan

Ok, so I got a chance to go hands-on with the 3DS yesterday and have to say that I'm impressed.

Here's the list of games I got a chance to play:

Biohazard Revelations

Dead or Alive Dimensions

Ridge Racer 3D

Super Street Fighter IV 3D

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get my hands on Ocarina of Time, but I feel the games I did play gave me a good grasp of the capabilities of the system.

All in all, the 3D effect works better than advertised. What I have to say is that the effect doesn't seem to come out of the screen, but rather deeper into it. Having the slider to adjust the 3D effect was really nice as well if only because I could compare 3D and 2D. Graphically, the games could easily compare with the PS2 in terms of detail. Getting used to the analog nub was a little tricky at first, but definitely performed better than the nub found on the PSP. In particular, having a concave shape worked well in maintaining a thumb grip. My one real gripe is the glossy finish (inside and out) which will be a major fingerprint magnet.

The games did play well and were technically proficient. Ridge Racer 3D needed some work on the 3D implementation, but the others looked at or near ready for release.

After playing the 3DS, I am now a believer that this is 3D done right. Considering where I am right now, I honestly don't know if I'll get one, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't considering it. ¥25000 ($299) is a lot to pay for a handheld, so I'll most likely wait for the first price break, but if the US release has a lower price (say, closer to $199), this little machine will sell out fast.

Greetings Everyone,

So tomorrow I will be heading off to Chiba to visit Nintendo World 2011 and (hopefully) get my hands on a Nintendo 3DS. No guarantees, but rest assured that I'll be blogging about what I saw and what I was able to play with.

First off, Happy New Year Everyone!

So I've finished Assassins Creed II (including DLC) with 100% of the trophies and I have to say that I walked away very impressed with the game. Overall the game played very well and it was absolutely worth every dollar I spent on it.

I did encounter some rather annoying graphical glitches from time to time where you would see what almost looked like some of the tracing from the light source heading from objects (characters and buildings) out to infinity. That being said, I have an 80Gb PS3 from mid 2008, so that may have played a part in it. I was first introduced to the game on a friends 2010 slim model and didn't experience the issue on his console.

One other slight annoyance that I experienced was when Ezio wouldn't seem to do what I wanted, in particular during a race or chase. Now, how much of this was the game and how much was me will remain unanswered for obvious reasons. ^_^

Please understand that the above comments are purely nitpicking for the sake of writing a more complete review (in addition to the one I posted on the game's page). This was an outstanding game and if you're at all a fan of platforming and/or adventure games then you owe it to yourself to play ACII. The story is incredibly engaging, the controls are (mostly) tight, and the missions are varied. If you're like me and don't like the stealth games (such as Metal Gear and Splinter Cell), then put your fears to rest; ACII isn't at all like that. You really do have the freedom (most of the time) to tackle things the way you want. If you are a stealth player, then play like that, but if you're more of a "run and gun" type, then go head in with knifes flying and sword raised.

With the game retailing for $30 new and $25 used at most game stores, there's really no reason not to get this game and experience the story of Ezio and the Assassins versus the Knights Templar.

Well, thankfully it hasn't been as long since my last post, but it's still been longer than I'd like. I've gotten well settled on shore duty and have taken advantage of that to get some serious gaming in. As of late, my crack addiction has been Assassins Creed II as well as Bloodlines. Frankly, while Bloodlines got some pretty average reviews, being a fan of ACII, I loved it. I never did play the first AC, but from what I understand I'm not really missing all that much. Regardless, the games are really well done and frankly, they're fun (which is really what matters).

Anyway, it's time to spend some more time with the family, so have a very Merry Christmas and I hope to write again soon!

Ok, so this will be brief. Long story short, I've been on active duty in the Navy since June of 2006 and deployed to Japan since the following July. As a result of this, I simply haven't had time to either game or really do much on my free time. Granted, getting married doesn't help with that either!

I roll to shore duty soon and will try to blog/rate games more.

Stand by!

Alright, it's been over 2 years since I've last written! There's been quite a lot happening since I last posted. I'm now a commissioned officer in the US Navy stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. I'm also now married and am expecting my first child. That's the big stuff right there! Other than that, I'm now a dedicated Mac user, though I just built a Vista rig for fun. The specs are below:

Intel Q6600 processor

NVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512

4 GB Corsair Ram

Raptor X 10,000rpm 150GB SATA drive

All in all, not too shabby. I can run Crysis on High fairly smoothly (though not at smooth as I'd like) and World in Conflict is silky. Anyway, I'll try to post more, but with being underway so often, that'll be hard. See ya!

-Kiitana

Talk about needing to learn how to manage time efficiently. Not only do I have classes along with my 360, but now I've started getting into World of Warcraft. I tell you, this game is like crack! You know, I think someone should find a way for our bodies to continually go without sleep just so I can fit everything in that I want. Can you imagine how much that person would make!? Anyway, so I'm a level 13 Troll Hunter right now, but I plan on working on that really soon. Anyway, y'all keep gaming and so will I.

Matane!

Well, it's been approximately a month now, and I can say with the utmost certainty that the 13 hours in the cold and wet I waited in line was very much worth the wait for the XBox 360. So far, there have been only two letdowns in my initial trials and those are Perfect Dark Zero and Madden 06. While I've never been a huge Madden fan, I have to say that I was throughly disappointed with the utter lack of any extras. While the enhanced graphics are nice...I want more substance. Perfect Dark Zero was alright (see my review) but it really lacked in multiplayer and really just didn't do anything for me. Oh well. At least I have Need for Speed Most Wanted.

Matane!