Hi there, just testing this crap!

Apparently, and through no fault of mine I should say, my posts have dropped to the bottom of the page.
Don't know why.
It's driving me mad.

Help.

On Better Babies

Ah, The Power of Cheese Soy

Well, my wife took little Nolan to the hospital on Tuesday, with hopes to seeing the same, wondrous female pediatrician I talked about last time. Yeah, no such luck.

As I had believed it was an allergy, my wife naturally didn't believe me. She 'kinda' did, but no. Then my mom sent us an email saying pretty much the same thing. 'Oh! Then maybe it's an allergy. Glad I thought of it.' (^_^)v Anyway, since apparently mediterranean and asian babies are more likely to be allergic to cows milk, and since he's 75% mediterranean and asian, Meg checked with this old man, who tested him for milk and eggs.

Nothing happened at first, so the doctor dismissed anything bad. Several hours later, a mark appeared on his right arm which told the doctor that he had an 'egg allergy'. This sounded strange to both of us as there's no one in our families that are allergic to eggs (that we know of). Before finding this out, however, we decided to reduce the amount of milk he drank, and switch from milk to soy. It's a lot more expensive, but, hell, give it a shot. It worked for me when I was a kid and couldn't drink cow milk.

An you know what, it's working, so far. He's no longer overly gassy, no more constant screaming (usually). He's happier! The only side effect so far is that his poo is harder, which is supposed to be normal when switching to soy. After five days, however, if it doesn't get better, I guess there's a problem.

Here's to a lifetime of Nolan being ever so healthy!

On Sick Babies and New Apartments

Good Ol' Mukonoso! "It's Very Nice!"

Well, this is the first real, non-video game related post I've made since moving into the new apartment. Hooray for much smaller and slightly smellier apartments! I only say smellier because of the rice fields next door that get a healthy dose of manure daily! Woo hoo!

It's a nice place and all, and a hell of a lot more convenient than the last place. Cheaper, too. I could do without the Yankee and Big-Car Driving hosts of our building, but what are you going to do? (I hate young people!)

Everytime I mention to Japanese co-workers that I now live ing Mukonoso, everyone immediately tells me that, 'OOOH! That's a very nice place!" When upon asking if they've ever been there, they so no. And I don't see why anyone would want to go, except to spend time with friends or relatives. There's no real appeal. It's a nice small city, but nothing extra ordinary.

My Poor Poor Squidgle

Nolan's been a bit under the weather these days. Last Monday, he started coughing and choking on his milk. After drinking, and for a long time after that, he would have terribly painful gas that refused to come out. Patting and rubbing his back only seemed to make it worse. This pain and constant crying would then make him ridiculously sleepy, which would make the crying worse.

This, of course, has lead to my wife having several panic attacks and generally being stressed out for the past week. Not a minute goes by that she isn't constantly checking on him. I tell her, whenever possible, that she shouldn't drive herself crazy over this. We know he's sick. We know we don't know what to do right now. Making yourself nuts over this situation is no good for her OR the baby. Of course, this doesn't always work.

We've been to two pediatric clinics in the area. Both times, the doctors would listen to the heart and check his throat. Both times they would give a superiorly vague analysis, then throw a bunch of medicine our way. Hooray for the Japanese medical system, where in order for a clinic to survive, a doctor must say little and push drugs! Sounds eerily like another country I know. I don't want to name names, but it's initials are The United States of America!

Anyway, towards the end of the week, we went to the local hospital where we talked to (and by we, as always, I mean my wife) a very nice pediatrician who took a lot of time to ask questions, answer ours and describe what might be happening. Today he's going back for some scheduled tests that hopefully tell us what's going on.

Soul Calibur IV (Bandai Namco)

With the fail of the allowing of the playing of my other fighting game, Capcom Vs SNK 2EO, I thought it about time that I a new one. One that actually works with my Xbox 360 as promised. One with big tools and voluptuous women. It was time I got Soul Calibur IV.

Now, I was never a huge fan of the Soul Calibur. In fact, the only arcade fighters that I really enjoy come from Capcom (mostly). However, as more and more came out about this game, the more and more I saw it, taunting me on the shelf, the more I had to wrap my skinny, pink little fingers around it. And so I made it mine. And here it is...

The Stories

In this game, there are well over twenty characters to choose from, and each has their own story that eventually link over this one singular quest. To get a hold of one or both of two very powerful swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. If they do so, some believe that it can make their dreams of freedom or world domination come true. Others have the idea that if they destroy these swords, their souls will be saved, or the world even. What ever the motivation, it's going to be a hell of a fight in getting there.

In one of the last incarnations of the game, the rank of characters was joined by other console-exclusive characters, like Link from Legend of Zelda and Spawn of Todd McFarlane fame. This time around, to coincide with the release of the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (which I hear is not really all that exciting), you get two of three Star Wars characters. If you have the Xbox 360, you get Yoda. If you have the PS3, you get fun-tastic Darth, and both consoles get the Secret or Seeker or Whatever-the-Hell-He-Is Apprentice (I can never tell what the LucasArts guys are saying).

The Game

In this game, like many 3D fighters, each character has a set move list as long as both my arms and legs if they were sewn from end to end. Learning everything takes a LOT of time and patience. Neither of which I actually have, so it makes this game a little difficult. But no matter. I'm actually learning a lot by remember the sequences of buttons I've just mashed the hell out of. Fun! What would make this process a lot easier is easier access to the moves list.

When training, if you press pause, you have to go all the way down to the middle of the list every time you want to see it. This takes a huge chunk of time out of your learning time. It would be much better if when you select the move list, it stays up every time you pause until you back out, or even have it on screen. This wouldn't work if you have a small TV, so the option would be grand.

If you're playing by yourself, you have several modes you can play. First is the Story Mode where you play a single character against many, usually two or three at a time. When you complete it, each character gets there own ending animations that confuse as much as it dazzles. Ending it also unlocks all the weapons for that character.

Next is The Tower of Lost Souls where, if you ascend, you fight on two or three floors a round, with up to three characters you choose. If you descend, you choose two characters and try to get down as far as you can. Meeting certain challenges means you get certain rewards. I'll explain a little further later on. The tower is fun, but it does tend to test your skill. I've only reached the twentieth floor ascending (which unlocks the descent) and five levels descending before seeing the flaws in my game. "What flaws?" you ask. "I suck," I reply.

You can also play the eight level arcade version with the characters of your choice. When you win, you get cashola. Coin. Monetary Remuneration! Sweet.

Character Creation

What's all this money for? And what the hell are these 'rewards' you speak of? If you've read the title of this section, you'll see it's for, ahem, character creation. The rewards are clothing, accessories and armor (or armour for our British-English speaking friends) that you can use to change the look of the current characters, or create your own with. You're allotted fifty save spots in order to do this, one for each character.

Creating my own fighters is the selling point of this game for me. I read that it is that most magic of words, 'deep', and was ever-so excited. The money you earn helps you buy these armor pieces (and some other things, like characters and illustrations). Each armor piece, and indeed the weapon you buy and equip, have certain properties that allow you to upgrade your character. From upping your health points to making you stronger, the way you balance your clothing helps you to balance your abilities.

Those abilities can be chosen for each character as well as the face, the build, voice and hair. This is very complex and fun, but I don't really think it goes far enough. How about height? Sure you don't want characters so short they can't be grabbed and thrown, but height adds a lot to the character creation. How about age. The faces that they give, although slightly varied are also very limiting. If you love character creation, then you'll be seeing a lot of the same faces rolling around.

The last point about editing the SCIV characters, or your own, you can now play them online or in the single player modes, with all the added perks you've chosen. Hooray for fun!

Multiplayer

Now, I have yet to play online, but I will. In the meantime, I hear it's frickin' sweet with very little lag, if at all, present. That should make for some great game play and A LOT of trash talk with your friends. Or enemies. Or basement dwellers. More to come when I get my bollocks handed to me on a silver platter.

Update:

I've played on Xbox Live and the game play IS great! However, it's the PLAYERS I could do without. The structure is this: you sit in a queue and wait for your time to come to play (much like a real game center here in Japan when they get fresh and popular games). You can watch other people's fights or just wait. The more fights you win, the higher your Online rank will be.

I tried joining several open queues, only to be kicked out - probably because I don't have a high enough level. Whatever the reason, it still sucks, and so did they. Not a happy Mikey. I'm gonna stick with friends only with this title's multiplayer. Now, how to convince my wife to play...

In The End...

This is definitely worth a go if you need a new fighter. If you bore easily of huge, complex and confusing move lists, I hear you, but the characters! Ah, and the booby physics! All very worth while!


Go to the Soul Calibur IV homepage.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision/Infinity Ward)

In the beginning, there was Medal of Honor. It was not the first in the way of World War II-themed First Person Shooters, but it made a clear distinction on what was good and what was Next-Gen for the time. However, over the years what was good about Medal of Honor quickly faded away until all the Franchise was was sticky mound of goo.

A real hole opened up and it was decided that a change was-a gonna come. Hope strode through on a tall white horse and called itself Barak Obama Call of Duty. It was a first person shooter like no other. With great graphics, a super cool engine, original multiplayer stuff and of course, the ability to play soldiers from three different countries, it truly was our savior. Although I never hit the first or the second game on the consoles, COD 1 and 2 quite rocked the crap out of my PC! Alas, I never played COD 3. Developed by a Treyarch and not Infinity Ward, many people complained about it. Without any real development time and other restraints, the COD series took a serious hit, and Treyarch was especially black-listed.

However, the horse rides anew, and Barak the franchise rises from the ashes with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The Story

Set during modern times, all heck has gone plum crazy in the world! In the middle east, a leader who promised real change and economic growth brought only McDonald's to the land, destroying the cattle industry and sending land prices through the roof. A terrorist group throws up a coup and fires the president, tied to a stake, with a BIG gun.

In Russia, a separatist movement - tired of the 400+ Japanese Restaurants carrying Kimura Takuya's picture - start a civil war that threatens to spread throughout the rest of the region. KimuTaku was unavailable for comment as he was too busy staring at himself in the mirror, making baby-talk about how pretty the man in the mirror really was - while pleasuring himself to the sounds of Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson - with the help of all the other SMAP members.

Unlike the other games in the Call of Duty Franchise, you will only play two different characters. You're the new boys in a platoon of the US Marines, and the British SAS. Your job? Bust through the terrorist threat and find out who's really pulling the strings of this global catastrophe and stop the world from going nuclear.

The Game

No longer using my Mac to play games, I can't comment on the the desktop version of the game. Only recently starting to play FPS games on a controller, the control set-up seemed a little weird to me in the beginning. It's a little complicated and sometimes hard to control. It's not the games fault however, as I have to learn how to hold my breath while looking down the scope and force myself to move out of position when sniping.

That's right. You've got to hold your breath! You've got two buttons for two grenades, a melee, jump and a position button when going in between prone, crouch and standing positions. Weapon reloads and selection and the D-pad is used for turning on your night-vision, selecting explosive devices and calling in helicopters and air-strikes. It's a lot, but you get used to it.

The visuals are gorgeous and highly detailed. The only thing that doesn't really work, I think is the water. You move through it like it isn't even there. The way the system works around the environment is really sweet. If you're hiding behind some tall grass, it's very likely you won't be seen (well, except on the highest difficulty setting. There, the bullets just fly at you.). And hiding behind walls isn't necessarily going to save you. Different weapons can shoot through the walls giving you damage.

Yeah! Multiplayer!

"It has the deepest Multiplayer action blah blah blah!" The first time you play online, if you are not some sort of game-playing aficionado, you are going to get your ass handed to you on a big ol' stick. It's going to be like that for a long time, too. This isn't Halo 3. There are no shields protecting you. You get shot, you die. This is real-life, bitch!

Anyway... The cool thing about COD4's multiplayer is that it gives you a lot of control. There's a perk and weapon attainment system that is combined with challenges. Challenges aren't 360 Achievements, however. All the achievements for the game are within the single-player, only.

Complete the challenges to unlock more weapons of different classes, from assault rifles to sub-machine guns to sniper rifles and more. Other challenges unlock perks, which are different abilities that give you different strengths, like carrying many grenades, or the ability to be invisible to the radar.

The number of kills you get in a row also gives you some advantages. Kill three in a row and get a radar. Kill five and get an air-strike on any position on the map. If you can kill seven, you get a helicopter that can kick the crap out of the enemy. However, if someone is lucky enough with bullets or have a couple rockets on hand, your bird can go down.

Unlike Halo, your teammates keep on coming. That is if you have an uneven team to begin with, or a couple people quit, the system logs more people on as they come online. The problem I have with this is that if you are the host of the game, you don't know it, and if you quit, the whole game goes kaput - for everyone. And lucky you, you get to hang around long enough to hear all the twelve-year-olds saying bad shit about you. Awesome!

The only other down-side of the multiplayer, besides my skills going from awesome into a nose dive to hell, is the spawning system. There is a good chance that when you spawn, you will die. More than half of my deaths, it seems, comes from being spawned in the middle of a bad-guy pow-wow. Sometimes two or three times in a row.

In The End...

If you love FPS games. Your collection is not complete without this one. And clean underwear. And pants. And couch... Wallow in it!

Go to the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare homepage.

The Orange Box (Valve)

It's a box. It's orange. It's delicious.

Valve, makers of the immensely popular Half-Life and Half-Life 2 have decided to put together a package ever so sweet. One bite and you're hooked! This one little DVD holds five games! Use you're fingers! FIVE!

Yes, that's right. The Box holds Half-Life 2, it's expansion games - Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal! Wow! How can things get any better! I'll tell you how (>~<)!!! They could've added The first Half-Life Game! That would have been nice of them, but I know there's a space issue, so I'll forgive, though, never forget. Let's begin, shall we?

Half-Life 2

In the first Half-Life, you play happy-go-lucky scientist Gordon Freeman. He has little to do with his secret half-brother Morgan, spending most of his time trying to create some sort of inter-dimensional portal. And success! He succeeds in bringing a deadly invading army into our universe, which he ultimately destroys with his trusty crowbar, Gerty. However, Freeman's whisked away by a suited gentleman for later purposes.

Half-Life 2 opens with Gordon being needed again. This time, it's the future, one that has been overrun by the other-worlders. This time, however, some of the baddies are now goodies and help Freeman as he attempts to put things back the way they are. You meet some old friends, and new ones, too. Like Dog - a giant and lovable killing machine and his owner, Alyx. AAAAlyx. She's the kind of virtual vixen that every basement dweller dreams of - and will never, EVER meet! AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

The graphics, which were already REALLY good get refined a bit further as it's now on a Next-Gen console. That means Alyx is even prettier than before... The consoles control schemes are pretty on the mark, but for a FPS, you really DO need a mouse and keyboard (in my opinion) for greater control. However, I've played this game on the PC as well, and have had no problems reintroducing myself to it. The physics in the game are great and are very relevant to gameplay. Half-Life 2 even sports the scariest moments I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The only problem I have with this game is the lack of hands. Gordon Freeman has no hands. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Episode One

At the end of HL2, Gordon is once again whisked away at an important junction of time. However, he's rescued and immediately placed back into danger. Hooray! That explosion you cause moments earlier, yeah, that screwed things up pretty badly, and you're (literally) thrown back into the thick of it. You're job now is to get as many people out of the city as possible before all things go boom! BOOM!

In terms of the updated graphics and controls, everything remains the same. However, the encounters just aren't there for me. Don't get me wrong. It's all action-packed and so on and so forth. It just seems like the actions was just piled on, after being rehashed from the HL2. Not bad. Just not great.

Episode Two

No, here's where everything picks up. Apparently, you've caused a bigger mess. A giant inter-dimensional portal is ripping apart the world, and it's your job, accompanied as always by Alyx McSexyJeans, to stop it. This time, you have to get to Alyx's father and help launch a missle carrying a solution into space. It won't be easy, though. New, and very BAD baddersons are about and will easily stop you. VERY easily.

My god. Every scene you play is riddled with heart-wrenching explosiveness. You hardly ever get a rest. It's a good thing that this is a short game. When fighting off wave after wave of not-so-friendlies, you're heart squeezes! Near-literally squeezes into some kind of prune. It even ties in nicely, if ever-so slightly with their new game Portal. "Cool," I squeal.

Portal

Imagine being a test subject for a giant building of puzzles. Figure out one puzzle to get onto the next. Sounds easy? No. Nononono. With Glados, the slightly deranged - and always hilarious - computer running the show, things get very dangerous, very quickly.

Things work pretty much as they do in the Half-Life games. This time, however, you're outfitted with a portal gun. Shoot one place, you get a blue portal. Shoot somewhere else, get an orange one. Go in one, come out the other. And now you can go places you've never imagined. The engine is really quite impressive, and as I understand it, very complex. This game really makes you think, as most puzzlers do - only this time, in a First-Person Shooter format. It's VERY short, and leaves you craving for more. Despite that, all the little hidden gems, makes this game worth playing over and over and over again. There is even a new map-pack you can download, though not for the Xbox 360, apparently. Or not yet, anyway.

Team Fortress 2

This is Valve's Class-based Multiplayer game that comes with the Orange Box. Being either red or blue, you can spawn as one of many types of characters that can perform many different kinds of actions, from building, to healing to spying.

The stylizing of the characters is very interesting. No game out there really looks like this game, and it's a plus. However, I do wish that within each class, there were several different models to choose from. Right now, there's only one per class and it's kind of boring. For me, the controls of the game weren't so hot. Everything was a bit too fast for me. Also, on the Xbox 360, the Matchmaking system is CRAP! Utter CRAP! It took me almost thirty-minutes to find anyone to play with, and for the first five minutes, it was ONLY ONE person. Team Multiplayer? Not really... Valve has their own 'LIVE'. It's called Steam, so I guess to bother hosting on both different systems would be a bit much for them.

In The End...

This mix of plastics and carbon make for one environmentally-unfriendly value that's well worth the price. The only downfall (in my mind) is Team Fortress 2, but that has more to do with politics than anything else.

Go to The Orange Box homepage.