LittleBigLove

Little Big Planet is a game I want. I mean, Little Big Planet is a game I REALLY want. More than any game I've ever bought, LBP is perhaps the only game I've ever truly wanted so much. And it's for the Playstation 3.

I don't have a Playstation 3.

I can't AFFORD a Playstation 3.

Anyway. I found this display in Osaka today. It featured totally adorable gameplay and interviews with extremely happy J-players. It nearly brought a tear to my eye. Because I may never play this game. Ever.

A Spedal Gun

Here's a little gem for all you game fans.

A gun.

Not just any gun. A soft-pellet, Chinese-made crapfest of a gun that cost me about 630円.

When I opened it up, I was treated to a little surprise:
That's right, I've got my very own S.T.A.R.S. Racoon Police Department handgun from the Resident Evil games. It's probably not really from the game, more like some Chinese guy thought it would be cool to through it up there.

The best part, if you look real close, it's made especially for the 'Spedal Team".

Gundamn You!!!

What's been popular in Japan for a while are these third-person Mobile-Suit Gundam shooters. I think they're god-awful myself. Horribly unbalanced, terrible controls. But the kids here love 'em, and the newest fashion is the Gundam Pod. These bubbles of plastic, metal and wires are person booths, encase you in total Gundamness. Each one is linked to the other so you've got a-plenty of a-people trying to shoot and bash each other in the comfort of confinement. Onlookers can't watch through the booths, so they get to watch on am LCD screen outside (see below).

I personally had an idea similar to this many years ago. Instead of Gundam, however, it would be Macross (or Robotech to us westerners). I thought it would be cool to dogfight in these things, but apparently, like so many times before, I was beaten to the punch.

Half-Life 2: Survivor Arcade

With bonus shakey-cell-camera!

Every once in a while (aka, very rarely), I stop into a game arcade. This mostly happens when my wife wants to hit up some purikura (Photobooth) action. The last time I was walking about around Namba in Osaka I stopped in a game center in one of the arcades near the central train hub. (You'll notice the terminology, dear Americans - where an Arcade is not a room full of video games, but a long strip feature hundreds of stores and restaurants.) I found this. Half-Life 2: Survivor, a seated shooter based on the famous PC/Xbox game.

It's a big, speaker laden chair equipped with foot pedals and two flight joysticks. After putting in your 100円, You can choose from a multiplayer mode that uses some characters from the game, and some new ones as well. This I didn't try. Instead, I went for the campaign mode where you do your part to save the world from the evil Combine.

The game is missing something. That, pizzaz, that life that Half-Life had. It was just wave of combine soldier after wave that comes after you, slowly. The little snippets of game that you play come from the game, but so much is skipped. Especially anything involving the zombies. Didn't see a single one.

Not to mention the controls are ludicrously horrid. Trying to use the two different joysticks is a wreck, with all the buttons and configurations. Simply moving forward was not happening at too many points during my time. And such a short time it was. New games today let you play on a time limit, instead of being based on wins. Back in the day, if you died in a game, you pump in another coin. Now, you have to drop some dough every five minutes, two songs, three levels, etc. BOO!

What a Shitey Day...

So last night I was unable to sleep well. I fell asleep around 1:45, almost two, only to be awoken a couple of hours later by my son, Nolan, for feeding time. He got back to sleep around five, only to wake up at seven again. After that, no sleepy for the Mikey. I did my best to allow my wife to sleep for the whole night, which worked out. However, it meant that I was ridiculously lost on sleep. This put a lot of pressure on Meg as she needed my help, but all I am is a zombie struggling to stay alive.

Emotions than began flying ALL day. Doom and Gloom, people. Doom and Gloom. Everything has worked itself out in the end, but damn, was that a long road. It's late right now, and I shall be off to bed soon, so I can wake up early. It's game day tomorrow. It's also go get our insurance worked out day. And it's also the last day for my new illustrations to get done for Kansai Scene.

Speaking of which...

I did do another illustration that's in the current Kansai Scene, the free magazine here in the Kansai area of Japan. Check it out in my portfolio!

Soy Boy

Oh, and here's a little jewel! It's more moving pictures of the Nolan! Hurrah!

'Still Alive' Is Still SOOO Cute!

I Love the game Portal by Valve. It's a Third-Person-Shooter Puzzle game where a simple test of ability and science turns deadly due to a hilariously deranged computer. The end of the game featured one of the coolest songs to come out of a video game, and here, someone made a pretty sweet video using the lyrics as the main characters. Below is the even CUTER version of the song done for the Japanese version of the game. Enjoy!

Portal 'Still Alive Typography' clip

Portal 'Still Alive JPN Translation' video

Playing Catch-up (with bonus video)

I've been working somewhat hardish to finish the redesigns of all the other blogs I have linked to this thing, which has proven to be a bit more difficult than it should be.

However, the time is nearly here and hopefully all things will go smoothly, including some new Internet Explorer fixes that I'll give a go. If they don't work this time, I'm telling everyone to fuck off with that IE6 bullshit. I am not going to be nice about it.

But while you're here, I'll give you a bit of catch up...

Roller Baby

My wonderfully adorable son, Nolan has finally begun rolling around on his own, much to the horror of his already exhausted and not-so-alert parents. He tends to roll onto his side when he gets sleepy, but now he occasionally rolls to far, which then perplexes and upsets him. He's getting a bit more used to it. The next step? Rolling back.

I Hate The New Facebook

With no option to go back to the old style, Facebook users have been stuck with a new, and immediately distasteful new design. It's not that I think the new design is terrible per se. It's just that the mini-feed has been integrated with the wall posts, and I can't organize my (very few) applications the way I want them. I mean, thanks Facebook, for the obligatory 'Boxes' tab that no one bothers with.

I Watched A REAL Movie

I finally saw The Dark Knight! It was killing me that I hadn't been to see it, and now it's officially the very first movie that I've ever seen alone in a movie theater. In the west, for the most part, you're seen as a loser if you see movies on your own. Here, in Japan, people's schedules are all sorts of messed up, making the outing - if you can afford the nearly US $20 price tag - much more acceptable. Full review to come during the week.

Blogger Did Something Funny To My Blog

The last time I posted something serious, my blog looked great - except in IE6, but that shit's shit. When I cam back to it a while later, the posts were all coming up at the bottom of the page. I combed my HTML, but not being a complete master, I missed the little code that wasn't there before. The little code that sent it all down there. Thanks to a guy named T E D, I could fix everything up, good as new - except in IE6, but that shit's shit.

Rearranging

On Thursday, my wife and I spent almost seven hours rearranging our front room into an all-around hang-out room. My workspace and our TV and other creature comforts have been put in here, making our old living room into more of a family/guest room. Despite some early moaning from me, it's actually turned out quite nice. However, my muscles sing quite a different tune.

Sexy Disgustingness

I'm once again published in the free English Magazine, Kansai Scene. My artwork is for a piece on Japan's Ero-Guro (Erotic-Grotesque) culture, and is based on Rashoomon (Yes, there ARE two 'Os' there). For now, you can see it on the Kansai Scene website. That is, until my portfolio redesign goes through.

I Just Finished Cutting My Nails

Ahhh...

Nolan's First Laugh