Today I got a big fat 1K$ paycheck, and I decided to treat myself to a PSP 3000. I got the Rock Band Unplugged bundle, but I also bought Patapon (the first one). It bought it in a heartbeat, without really thinking much, but I'm really enjoying it so far (heck it's almost 1 AM and I'm up writing this).

I was surprised to learn you could play downloadable PS1 games on the PSP. I'll probably grab Spyro, FF7 and Wild Arms. Any other suggestions?

I'll probably use it with my PS3 tomorr... err, well, later today. I'm intrigued to see how these games look on a big screen.

The console is much lighter than I expected, and setting it up for Wi-Fi was quick and easy. Complaints so far would be the glossy finish of the back, which is a fingerprint magnet, and the lack of good wallpapers for it on the PSN. But I've got to admit, I'm impressed. I still can't speak up on the battery life, but I heard it's about 7-9 hours, which is decent. Early PSP games can also be hard to come by, but the Playstation Store has a lot of them going for around 20$ in downloadable form.

So yeah, really happy with the PSP so far.

In other news, I also got "Goodbye 20th Century", a Sonic Youth biography. So far, it's just the right balance of interesting trivia and meaningful info on the records. I got my copy for 19$ (that's canadian dollars), but there was also a hardcover copy going for 30$. I'll probably get back on the book another day, when I get through all of it.

Have a nice weekend!

So, the new Sonic Youth is out. This is an album I've been greatly anticipating. So much that when it leaked, I actually downloaded it in 128 kbps just so I wouldn't want to listen to it all that much, that way I won't ruin the experience.

Today I went to HMV during my lunch hour, under the rain, running so I can get back in time, and i got it. It's brilliant. It's everything the fans were expecting and a lot of what they didn't even ask for too. And that's a good thing.

If you're not a fan of Sonic Youth yet (well you probably are, seeing as you're majoras_wrath and also the only one who actually reads these posts, or at least comments on them), pick up a copy of The Eternal. Its predecessor, Rather Ripped, was a great album, but it wasn't the total Sonic Youth experience. This is it. Every aspect of the band shines in this album. It's not their best, but it's extremely representative of all the years of experience and experimentation they have behind them.

In short, it's another five-star album in the Youth's expansive discography.

Finally! Yesterday I went to my local Best Buy and I got a shiny new 80gb PS3. I had already bought Valkyria Chronicles, and after I got the console I bought Bioshock. I also got two free games with the console, Mercenaries 2 and Prince of Persia. I'm a big fan of the former's prequel, and I liked Sands of Time (hated Warrior Within though), so I think I should be having fun with those too. Haven't had a chance to try them out though.

Next, I'm thinking about CoD4 to play online with a couple of friends, Oblivion, the first Resistance and Noby Noby Boy. Lots more too, but I'm thinking about going for those first. Man, it feels great to be current-gen. I think that's the first time in my life I'm not lagging one generation behind. Coincidentally, it's also the first time of my life I bought a console with my own money. Figures...

So far, I'm three missions into Valkyria Chronicles and about seven hours into Bioshock. The only thing that I'm a bit disappointed with is the text's size in some games. In Bioshock, I have to squint a little. In PS Home, I don't even bother. Apparently, Sony thinks the majority of their customers have a fancy-pants HDTV. My television is pretty big, but it's still a cathode ray tube TV. Oh well, I just hope most games are aware of that and try to keep their fonts at a respectable size.

Please leave congratulations, cheers and game recommendations. :D

In my electronics program, we have the opportunity to get experience during our summer break by working with real technicians. Yesterday, I got a summer job at Hospira, a company that makes and repairs medical pumps. The people there are really nice, and I'm with two guys from my class, which is awesome.

Oh and also they pay well. Like, fifteen bucks an hour. FINALLY, I'll be able to get a PS3 :D

School's out!

For those who don't know, I'm studying electronics in college, and last in the last few mounts I designed and mounted an electronic piano's printed circuit board. It was a lot of work, and mine isn't the best looking one either, but it totally works and I'm very proud of myself!

Here's a pic (new haircut too, as if you cared :P) :

If you want to hear what it sounds like, I'll upload a video on youtube eventually. There are 20 buttons, seven of which serve as secondary functions (one changes the tone, another tells the note in binary code on the five LEDs, the 5 others serve no purpose yet, but we'll be able to program the little CPU to use them eventually). The are also two still unused potentiometers, and the thing to the far right of the pic is the headphones/speaker connector. There's a ton of other stuff, mainly capacitors and resistances, plus a sound modulator, connectors (to reprogram the CPU), a crystal and a battery case.

It took about twelve to fifteen hours to design and six or seven hours to mount. Let me tell you, applying solder to a chip with about 5/1000 inch between each connection is, well, frustrating. But now it works and I can play killer 8-bit renditions of the Katamari Damacy theme on it. Yay!

Or at least it does now. I used to love Last.fm for the streaming radio. Now that they're charging for it, not so much.

It's not that it's overly expensive. Heck, 3$ a month seems fair. It's just that they're being complete a-holes about it. Just look at their blog post regarding the subject:

Today we are making the changes to the radio that were previously announced here.

This means that from today, listeners to Last.fm Radio outside of the USA, UK and Germany will be asked to subscribe for €3.00 per month, after a 30 track free trial period. In the USA, UK and Germany, where it's feasible to run an ad-supported radio service, there won't be any changes. Everything else on Last.fm (scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos etc.) will remain free in all countries, like it is now.

Currently you need a credit card (or debit card in many countries) or a Paypal account to subscribe. Due to popular demand the subscribe page now lets you buy subscriptions for a friend, so if you don't have a suitable credit/debit card maybe a friend will buy you a subscription.

You know, if they said "Okay guys, times are tough, we're sorry we have to do this, we're going to add new features so it's worth it", then maybe I would be slightly less pissed. But no, here they're just making money-loving scumbags out of themselves.

Also, why only USA, UK and Germany? Oh RIGHT, because they're the three countries with the most subscribers. Wouldn't want to lose those, eh? Well what about Canada? I live in Montreal, I'm like two hours away from the US borders, by car! I've been a loyal Last.fm user for years now, I wrote reviews, comments, I updated upcoming shows in my region, I referred a dozen friends to their website!

I got an email saying "You are being offered a free trial to Last.fm!" a few weeks ago. I thought it was for the Premium membership, which has always existed. Now I get it. It's just like when the bank sent me a letter just before I turned eighteen, saying "Lucky you, we've got awesome student prices for your transactions". It's just like when Ted the bully said he's only take half my lunch money when I was ten. It's just like my time in prison when my inmate layed beside me at night and said "Don't worry, you're new, I'll be gentle".

Just kidding. I never got my lunch money stolen.

So yeah, you know what? Screw you Last.fm. You are the best streaming radio on the internet, that's true, but you definitely aren't the only one. I'll get over you, just like I got over teddy bears.

Srlsy, I'm dying in here. This is awesome

Ah crap, no one's reading those anyway, so I figured I'd just make one blog post a week, on whatever I feel like.

Today it's about 1up.com's 101 Free Games 2009 list. Yup, that's lazy of me, I know. Still, there's some pretty awesome stuff to be found in there. Eversion is a future freeware cla$$ic.

Weeeell last night was pretty rough, so I'll make this blog post a short one. I'm done with school on monday, and so far I don't have a summer job, so expect some pretty steady blogging in the next weeks.

Peace out

►viva_hate

Hello everyone! This is the second "free indie game blog post" I'm doing. If you haven't checked the first one out, I encourage you to do so, cuz it's about an awesome 8-bit 1st-person horror/adventure game. Yeah, you read that right.

Today's game is a platformer called Dino Run. Like last week's game, it's very old-school in design. Unlike last week's game, it's all about action and quick reflexes.

The concept is simple: you're a dinosaur, and you're running from apocalypse, collecting eggs, eating smaller dinosaurs, hitchiking pterodactyls (no, really). The controls are extremely simple, so it's very easy to pick up and play, but it's also deceptively deep. Of course, you could just rush through all the levels (the wall of doom following you would make it seem appropriate), but if you want to rack up points, you'll have to take more risks, like backtracking in the levels for bonus Super Eggs, or "surfing" on the verge of the apocalypse that's always behind you.

You can also upgrade your dinosaur's characteristics with those egg, making him faster and such.

Where the game truly shines is the online multiplayer. Since the game is so unpredictable in nature, racing against your friends is bound to create some memorable moments. I remember when a buddy and I were struggling to make it uphill, the wall of apocalypse burning our dinosaur tails, he jumped to get ahead of me and got hit by a boulder that just passed above my head. Good times.

If that wasn't enough to convince you, then let me tell you this: you can make your dinosaur wear a top hat.

Yeah, really.

►viva_hate

Hello everyone!

From now on, I'm going to make one post per week about an indie freeware game I have tried. Some may be a little less indie, some may be a little less free, but I'm mostly trying to share different and inexpensive games with the GS community. You may think of these blog posts as "reviews", but I will not be giving a note on a scale of X. Liking a game or not is, after all, a subjective matter, and I can only share my personal experience with a particular game. The best way to find out if it's any good is, well, playing it!

So, this week we start out with Judith

Judith is a short first-person adventure game made by Distractionware. The first thing you will notice is probably the lovely pixel-art $tyle which really sets it apart from other games right from the first screen. It's an odd choice for a 1st person 3D game to use such retro graphics, but it's even more strange for such a mature game to have this seemingly childish appearance.

Judith tells the story of two lovers meeting in a sort of manor. The woman with whom the main character is having a relationship greets him in the garden, but when you get into the manor, she is nowhere to be found. Then, the game switches to another character's point of view, in flashbacks. What you will discover in the mansion with this character will help the search for your lover in the present time. The story clearly draws some inspiration from Blue Beard.

As I stated before, Judith is a very mature game. Without wasting any of the plot, let me simply say that it will have you doing some pretty horrible things. Hopefully, the art-$tyle keeps it from getting too heavy.

If there's one thing going against Judith, it's the extreme linearity of it all. Sure, I get it, it's meant to be a story before being a game, but still, when every room except the one where you're supposed to go is locked, it gets irritating. Also, the ending leaves many questions unanswered. I think that's on purpose though. Well if the goal was to make the player think about it over and over again after the ending, it sure succeeded with me.

Despite those flaws, Judith is still very much worthy of your time. It's a small download, it's a small games, but it's got big ideas. Do yourself a favor and give it half and hour of your time.

►viva_hate