The past few months have been really great - an incredible trip to Africa, followed by an unusually successful semester. The only downside - not a whole lot of time for gaming.

In fact, this Christmas was the first holiday in years that I didn't receive a single video game. Since I don't have my own 3DS or any console newer than good ol' N64 at school (don't get me wrong, I get to play Wii, XBox, and 3DS at my boyfriend's!), a lot of the big name titles weren't on my list this year. Glad to say, however, that I spent a good 10 hours hanging out with my brother while he played Skyward Sword, and if you haven't picked it up yet, you absolutely need to! If it's interesting enough to just watch for hours, playing must be a blast ;)

When my boyfriend first got the game, we were disappointed with the flying mechanism - it's a little difficult to control. So he didn't play it much, and I figured many of the good ratings we'd seen were probably exaggerations from long-time Zelda fans (note that Gamespot almost always rates LoZ games lower than anywhere else on the net - Skyward Sword is no exception). But when my brother got it for Christmas, he spent about 20 hours over just 2 days playing it almost non-stop. And with good reason.

Skyward Sword is a great mix of nostalgia and innovation. There are unique time-shifting puzzles that are both interesting to play and visually enchanting. Gamespot's critics frowned at the combat style, but my brother generally seems to like the new level of skill required to play, and says it makes playing for longer feel less stagnant. Seemingly small additions like the stamina meter and the new Beetle tool add a surprising amount of dimension to the game, and while some have noted that flying isn't as satisfying or exciting as sailing was in Wind Waker, the mini-games and side-quests it offer help make up a fair amount of the difference. Personally, my only complaint has been the graphic style. While colorful and inviting as always, the style is somewhere between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker - but it has neither the stunning scenery of TP or the stylized quirk of WW. It just feels lost and almost indecisive, and definitely reveals the weakness of Wii graphical capabilities in general. You do get used to it and begin to see past it soon enough, but it's quite a let-down after Twilight Princess.

I get the feeling I won't be gaming much in the upcoming semesters. I really love getting lost in a game, but I think maybe I'm outgrowing it. Real adult life is quickly creeping up on me.

Today was the first official day of summer, and my family spent the evening secluded in our basement waiting for severe thunderstorms, hurricane-level winds, and a tornado warning to pass. What great fun! The weather all passed with no incident, and I even got a little crafting done while we waited it out. Not so bad, really, except that I didn't get to go grocery shopping, and I had cinnamon rolls on the list as a treat for breakfast tomorrow. Guess they'll have to wait :(

In the world of gaming, Portal 2 was great. I really enjoyed it, although as my brother pointed out there is an awful lot of in-between-levels time where the only challenge is finding the wall you're supposed to port to next. They could have done so much more with the actual puzzles but instead added a lot of length by spacing them out more. I found that pretty disappointing, as well as the ending credit song (although the general consensus seems to be that it was better musically than the first, just not as clever with the lyrics. I still like the first game's credits better in all aspects though). I'm not sure I'd buy it again, just because if I have even one friend who owns it for Xbox or PS3 we could play on the same console and I could borrow it for the campaign. But hey, it's nice to be able to play online and replay for achievements and whatnot, so I don't regret it. It is worthwhile, after all.

If you own an N64, you need to go dig up a copy of Pokemon Puzzle League. It's similar to Tetris Attack except better, and super fun, and you should play it, and bring your friends, and it's awesome, and wonderful, and hilarious. The end.

A far as E3 goes, I honestly only paid attention to news from Nintendo and news about Bioshock Infinite (I always liked Bioshock, but between my all-things-underwater phobia and my easy-to-terrify imagination, I just couldn't stand to play it for more than a half hour or so at a time, and it just got too cumbersome to keep going, so I put it down. Finally we're out of the ocean!). I was mildly excited about the LoZ orchestration business, except that the orchestra they actually had at E3 was pretty unimpressive, and the medley they opened with was poorly arranged, in my admittedly arrogant and musically-snobby opinion ;) Of course we all can't wait for the 3DS remakes of classics like Ocarina of Time, but the big news was Wii U.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I think yet about Wii U. I always hated the name Wii for a console and the name Wii U just irritates the heck out of me, but that's completely irrelevant to its value, hah. It's definitely unique, and I love that Nintendo continues to lead the way in gameplay innovations, even if it's at the price of keeping up with cutting edge engines and graphics. I appreciate the attempts to widen the gaming audience, too - I think Nintendo is largely responsible for the now-widespread acceptance of video games because of its library of family-friendly titles. It's definitely exciting to see that they plan on expanding beyond that now, though, since I'm a lot less entertained by Wii Sports and Wii Play -type games than I am by more intense, mature gaming experiences (like LA Noire...more on that in a moment). But there are still way too many questions to be answered about it, and I'm inclined to be doubtful that the answers to them will not necessarily be the ones we're hoping for. Nintendo is concerned with keeping prices low, and I'm still annoyed with Wii motion controls (even with Wii Motion Plus, it's often very finicky and certain games are almost unplayable at points). I'm a little worried that in order to keep prices reasonable (it sounds like it will probably be around $350 for a console and new controller), they'll keep the hardware's capabilities to a minimum. I mean, they can kind of get away with it - it will still be extremely unique, and I think it's going to draw a huge audience no matter what...but how well will it work? Well enough to get by is a dying standard. The other big concern I have is the battery life of the new controller, and the way in which games will compensate for only having one per system at release. Nintendo hopes to eventually sell them separately so you might have 2 instead, but again with the pricing concern, the original intent is a single new controller, supplemented by additional Wii controllers. Remember Mario Party 3v1 games? They were always my least favorite - they just felt too unbalanced. I'm afraid that many Wii U multiplayer games may fall prey to this same problem, but I know that one's up to the game developers. The battery life of the new controller, on the other hand, is all up to Nintendo. Just have to keep our fingers crossed on that one - I personally think it would be great if it had a plug-in option, so you could play and charge at the same time. I know the world's all about wireless right now, but when you recharge a Wii controller, you have to wait hours before you can play again. If there's only going to be one of these new controllers, it would completely stop gameplay to be unable to play while it charges - unless they use regular batteries, which is always a possibility, though it could get expensive if it uses a lot of them and/or they have to be replaced too often. On the bright side, they're stepping up their standards in a lot of ways and it definitely shows a lot of promise. I'm really excited to see where the game developers take this system.

Last but not least, L.A. Noire. It's so freaking expensive. We (my brother, my boyfriend, and I) rented it for a weekend and played about 15 hours, I think. Can't disagree with anyone about it being a great game - I want to own it but just can't spare the cash right now (and hey, maybe by the time I can, the price will drop a bit). According to an interview with one of the developers, it was intended as a "play a little here, play a little there" kind of game, one case at a time. I'd like to do it that way if I get my hands on it again, since for example the homocide crimes got really redundant and actually kind of boring - although that could be due to the fact that we had only about a 50% success rate when it came to interrogations and we missed at least one clue on all but one investigation. That's the other thing, though - unlike Phoenix Wright (which is the only other even sort of similar game I've played - LA Noire feels like a rated-R, non-comedy version of the Miles Edgeworth Investigations game), you don't get corrected when you're wrong. You still get punished, but the case goes on. Finding all the clues and getting your truth/doubt/lies right will lead you to a different outcome than just barely getting by does, and I'm sure that will add a lot of replay value (as well as the open world's random crimes and hidden vehicles of course). It definitely made me feel like if we'd actually bought the game we'd get tons of extra hours of gameplay out of it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to finish it (we were almost done with disc 2 when we had to return it), and I've heard the ending is disappointing. But I can't help but feel like I need to beat it anyways. It's got a few annoying control issues and some occasional cases with too much driving or too much repetition - it's not perfect. But I think it's definitely everything it's hyped up to be.

IRL news, I leave for Africa in about 3 weeks! I'll be gone a month and will be completely video-game free except perhaps for some DS on the plane. Likely not to update much about that here except with a link to the blog I'll be writing about it after I come home.

100%'d my new copy of Picross 3D. The puzzle is great, but the game is designed like 6-year-olds are going to play it, which is obnoxious as hell. Also seriously missed the hidden bonus levels and the daily Picross from the first 2D game. That's actually worth unlocking. What do I care if I unlock a new animation? I never look at that crap anyways, you know? Crappy design. But still the puzzle itself is worth it if nothing else.

PORTAL 2 COMES OUT NEXT MONTH!!!! :D

Picked up Miles Edgeworth again, just starting the last case. I'll write a review when I finish; it's an interesting new take on the classic Ace Attorney games. Even though I'm awfully late in playing/reviewing it :3

Over spring break I pulled out Chibi Robo (NGC) and was surprised to discover what a short game it is. I haven't actually beaten it yet, but by focusing more on the story line than I did when I first played it, I've gotten about as far in only 6 hours as opposed to probably three times that much. We'll see how long it takes to finish it, if I ever get a chance now that I'm back at school. This is the busiest time of the year.

On a personal level, school's been really fun and I've been much more academically successful this semester so far. I got my first church gig ever singing on Easter as part of a quartet (the bass is a soloist from the DSO so I'm absolutely flattered to have the job!) and I'll be part of a huge choir performing the Mozart Requiem and Brahms' Nanie in a few weeks (and then again in May). All is well with family and friends and I recently signed a lease for an apartment next year. I even have a job lined up for this summer, until July when I leave for Africa! Going on a study abroad trip to learn traditional East African singing, dancing, and drumming. The only thing not working in my favor lately is a nasty little cold that came up in the night, but at least resting more than usual gives me a chance to catch up here. Life is good :)

I went looking online for DS size comparisons since I'm going to be sewing myself a new case for mine, but intend on upgrading to the 3DS when it's released (so I needed measurements for both to make something I can use for both).

I stumbled across a 2005 PSP vs DS debate article. The article itself compared hardware alone - just the specs, just the facts. But all the comments were people arguing about which was better. And pretty much everyone was like PSP TOTALLY PWNS DS! DS SUCKS!! PROUD PSP OWNER!! DS IS CRAP! DS IS ROADKILL NEXT TO PSP!! NINTENDO CAN'T COMPARE!!

So. Since I agree with the author on the original article in his/her choice to rely solely on facts, let's compare where both systems are at 5 years later. Which game console do you think has sold more systems and games for that system? In other words, let's compare the success of the system based on the success of the company, not on the opinions of the users, because we can't measure that very accurately.

As of late 2009/early 2010, the numbers are as follows:

Nintendo has sold just under 130 million DS consoles (all models) worldwide.

Sony has sold approximately 60 million PSP consoles (again all models combined) worldwide.

To bring that closer to home, it's 28 mil. for the DS in the US, and about 10.5 mil. for the PSP.

In fact, in May of this year, Sony even considered discontinuing the PSP Go altogether (faced with not only the competition of the DS but now the iPad as well).

Sorry, Sony fans. Glad you like your system, but watch your mouths before you call the DS "roadkill" ;)

Back on the internet.

Summer was great but it's so nice to have free time and wireless again!

I got TS3 Ambitions when camp ended and so far I really like it! Definitely will be writing a review once I've tried all the professions.

In other news, my DS got stolen over the summer, with Picross 3D in the top and Fire Emblem in the bottom. I was really, really upset. Luckily my boyfriend lent me his old DS so I can still play my other games, but still. Both of the games I lost are going on my Christmas list for sure. And probably the 3DS, because if Nintendo is smart they'll release it before the holidays. But we'll find out at the end of the month what's going on with that.

Also, I downloaded Minecraft and it ate my life yesterday. I'm trying to avoid it now because it's so insanely addicting. Seriously, holy freaking crap. 12 hours of my life wasted and it hasn't even been a day since I got it. For shame.

I'm spending my summer working at a Boy Scout camp because it'll be a good opportunity for me to get some teaching experience (I'll be teaching merit badges). I'm really looking forward to it (I leave Monday), except I get fewer than 24 hours off every week. Which makes the fact that TS3: Ambitions just came out absolutely tragic, cause I want it SO BAD!! I did pick up Picross 3D and my boyfriend got me Heart Gold, and they're both great (I reviewed Picross 3D here, but not Pokemon because I haven't beaten it yet, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed with it. I know Pokemon games usually get old fast, but Gold was always my favorite version anyways, and now they've added so much that I feel like there's more substance than the series has offered in the past. It's nice). Meanwhile, I don't think I'll be getting Ambitions until Christmas at this rate. But hey, maybe then I can pick it up used for a couple bucks less.

So this upcoming week is dead week (where nobody is allowed to schedule any rehearsals or performances, the dorms have extra long quiet hours, and there's no class on Friday) and next week is finals week.

You'd think we'd all be terribly busy studying, but really, this is the best time of the school year for gaming. Besides winter break, anyways. Professors are being so careful not to overwhelm anybody that they pad all the free time we're already given with reviews and optional homework assignments. Which leaves us getting a lot of studying done in class itself and guidelines for what to study ourselves (which saves time we didn't need anyways). The result? One beautifully empty week to kick back with my DS. And Picross 3D comes out tomorrow :)

About a week ago, EA announced the next Sims 3 expansion pack, Ambitions, which apparently makes Sims playable while at work. I have to admit I'm excited - we've been asking for this since the beginning, and World Adventures turned out to be a really fantastic addition to the base game. But I'm skeptical.

Vacations work because neighborhood time stops while you travel. Stopping time to play a single sim at work seems impractical, but would multi-tasking be much better? Yes, because of the open neighborhood it's now possible to switch between sims when they're across town from each other, but it's still a pain. There's a difference between challenge and nuisance and I'm just not clever enough to figure out how EA intends on weaving the work day in smoothly.

On the bright side, the more actual gameplay there is, and the less waiting for non-playable tasks to end (visiting certain community lots, going to school and work, waiting for sims to wake up), the better it gets, even if it's a little rocky. I'm looking forward to it :)

"Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

It's out. It's out it's out it's out.

Too bad I have absolutely no money to spare.

Except the dollar it costs me to buy ingredients to make guacamole.