November Entry

Happy Thanksgiving. I’m sure it’s not just me, but does anyone else get bombarded with mass text messages from your friends/acquaintances wishing you happiness on whatever holiday it is? Anyways…

- Work -

I’m going to try talking less about work. It’s usually something negative anyways and I’ve been starting most of my entries complaining about work.

Working off 4 computers at once makes an office hot. Then having multiple computer problems really slows down a day. At least they were nice enough to give us Friday off also instead of just Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully that happens again around Christmas time.

- Currently Playing -

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA)

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)

Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii)

*note* Hand held games only played an spare-spare time. More time devoted to console games to beat.

- Recently Finished Games -

Link’s Crossbow Training (Wii)

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games (Wii)

*note* Reviews of games are done when game is beaten.

- Cool Gaming Moment -

11.21.07 – After getting off work early, Mike and I decided to take on Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Joked around about beating it from start to finish in one day since we had lots of time to kill for the day and no other plans. We had 2 Wii Zappers and thought it would be cool to go on a shooting spree. Once we started, we kept going. My brother was there watching and taking a few turns. Mike and my hands were hurting after shooting for long periods of time. We called up AndyN to come over after work and help us out since he also had the game. So we had a team of 4 taking turns. Mike and I were a good team. My brother and Andy were really good getting tons of critical hits on zombies. We got through a huge portion of the game and it got increasingly tougher. Some of us were getting tired, our hands hurting from pulling on the trigger thousands of times…but we were determined to try and beat this thing in one sitting.

We did hit a huge wall towards the end of our gaming period. One of the final stages had a tough boss battle. This was only a 1-player stage so no team support. My brother was going through the stage and got to the boss. 5 deaths. Then I tried…4 deaths. By this time we learned the bosses patterns and knew what to do, but just executing them was hard. Then Andy gave it a shot…3 deaths. He actually did really well and took a lot of energy from the bosses. Mike was pretty tired and wasn’t sure if he wanted to try. I went again…4 more deaths. BUT...I tried again. Took down one of the bosses. Had only my handgun left and there was no more health or guns to pick up. Taking out multiple rockets with JUST a handgun is not fun. My accuracy is not the best and I HAD to hit some headshots to prevent getting attacked. I’m sure it was butt-clenching for the others to watch as it was for myself being on the one-hit-and-you’re-dead factor for a good minute or more. And then…victory. Awesome! It was hard fought. Trying to beat that boss portion took 40 minutes itself. Unfortunately we didn’t get a high enough rank in a previous stage to unlock the next stage and possibly beat the game…

That was it. We were tired, hungry, beat up…man. Our final total game play for that night was 7 hours and 51 minutes. That was a fun outing though. We were helping each other out, rooting each other on, laughing at each other, screaming at each other…whoo! Good times. It would’ve better had we beaten the game, but we had fun.

- Miscellaneous -

To those that read through Xanga, sorry, but you don’t get all that I post elsewhere. You get only these monthly updates. You miss out on game reviews, announcements, and other eventful things that happen. And since some of that is already posted up, I’m not going to repost them in this new entry. So…sorry.

Congratulations again to my cousin Sarah for getting married earlier this month.

UH-VSA, that was a fun event. Although now I have a friend that I helped years ago in HBU-VSA wanting me to help them out again. So…fight over me?

Renaissance Festival was interesting. Wish we got there earlier to do more walking and check out more things. The fireworks display was really awesome though. That night itself was really fun too. Renaissance Festival, shopping, sushi, and karaoke. Nice.

Thanks to Andy Nguyen for his late birthday present. It’s a picture book filled with pictures from my birthday. I didn’t know it was a book at first…thought it was just a fancy frame…*cough* But yeah, I’ll show it off to people sometime. Thanks, Andy.

No new car yet…ugh…

Christmas shopping is done. Maybe a few last minute gifts need to be bought, but I got the core of what I wanted to buy already.

Got myself a couple Christmas gifts.

Tenjochiki – Graceful 4 (CD+DVD)

They also had one with just the CD.

Yes, that’s Cheon Sang Ji Hee The Grace. This is their Japanese album the just released. The album is great and the DVD has 6 of their music videos. This was released on 11.14.07 and I got it 11.21.07. Early Christmas gift.

BoA* 2008 Desk Calendar

I wasn’t going to get this because originally I wanted the hanging calendar. But my wall has no space to put anymore of the calendar pieces up like I did with her 2007 calendar. So I figure the desk calendar will do fine. Still not sure if I want to keep it at home or put it at work. The desk one apparently has a 2009 calendar also that the hanging calendar doesn’t have. Cool stuff. Can’t wait for that one to get here.

And sticking with my favorite singers, here’s my final closing picture for this entry. This is Dana from Cheon Sang Ji Hee with BoA* on her birthday.

Take care.

Super Mario Galaxy & Link's Crossbow Training (Review)

Link's Crossbow Training (Nintendo Wii)

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Coming packaged free with Nintendo’s Wii Zapper is Link’s Crossbow Training. A game set in Hyrule where Link forgoes the Master Sword in favor of a crossbow…maybe one too many fairies floating around in someone’s head. Guess Link has been through a lot in one year.

There isn’t much to this “game.” You have 3 modes of play: Score Attack, Multiplayer, and Practice. Of course Practice isn’t a true mode of play, but more like training…for your training.

And in the little you have to choose from you also have a little variety of game types.

- Shooting targets/enemies while on a rail.

- Shooting enemies coming at you from all sides while staying stationary.

- Shooting enemies while going through familiar dungeons.

They vary up the types of targets and enemies to take down and keep true to the theme of Twilight Princess. But once you’ve played each type of shooting gallery, you know what to expect throughout the rest. Each stage lasts about 60 seconds and there are 3 levels per stage. 3 minutes multiplied by 9 stages is a good half-hour. Not much crossbow action.

Link’s training with a crossbow is a great way to show off how the new Wii Zapper works. But as always with most Wii games, if you really don’t have mileage with the Wiimote then you may run into some difficulty with this game and others. Even though the Wii Zapper props your Wiimote to feel more like a gun (or in this case, a crossbow), you have to get used to how your cursor flies through your screen. The Wii Zapper serves as a great guide to feel more natural while shooting.

As for the game itself…it serves more as a demo. No story, no princess to save, no true tasks to do other than shooting things that appear on screen. It’s short, it’s simple, it works. If you want to blow off steam and just shoot stuff, this is for you.

3 out of 5

-------------------------

Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii)

Rated “E” for “Everyone”

If you really need to know, this game gets a 5 out of 5. Now to tell you why.

Mario will always have adventures. As long as Princess Peach gets kidnapped, as long as Bowser has plans of domination, as long as Shigeru Miyamoto creates bigger and better games, Mario will be there. On his first true outing on the Wii, Mario soars through the galaxy to stop Bowser in his biggest plot ever; rule the galaxy with Peach by his side. As Bowser keeps upping his game, so does his foe for life, Mario.

If you played Mario 64, then you will feel right at home. Just don’t forget that your home also has a ceiling to explore. Take all the game play you enjoyed from Mario 64 (and Sunshine) and add zero gravity and you have a new world explore. From 2-D to 3-D to upside-down 3-D, Mario goes anywhere and everywhere he can. The first few times going upside-down may throw you off, but it soon becomes simple and second nature that you won’t think twice about it.

The Wiimote capabilities aren’t forced upon you so much like in most Wii titles. You do have to twist/shake your Wiimote to make Mario spin to attack and also shoot from planet to planet. There are a few parts in the game that make you use the Wiimote in innovative ways, but the core of the game is obviously in the platforming.

There is a 2-player option where you can get a friend/sibling to just point the Wiimote around to collect starbits so you can concentrate on moving Mario around. Not the best feature, but it’s not the worst thing to happen to Mario.

The story is small like in most Mario titles. Save the princess and stop the evil. Rosalina tells her story throughout the game through storybook chapters that she reads to her fellow Lumas. It’s a small way to tie up the galaxy theme with the world of Mario.

One of Nintendo’s weaker points in the current generation of console wars is in graphics. While the graphics are not super-realistic, they do shine brighter for Mario. Everything is full of color and sparkles with life. Small details seen just on Bowser (flowing hair, scales) show how far Nintendo has come. And of course with bigger and better graphics come bigger and better worlds. To some they may feel smaller since most levels consist of multiple small planets to jump around to. But the scale of the some of the planets combined make and the distance Mario travels is pretty vast.

Oh yeah, bigger and better bosses also. Can’t forget them.

Throw in an array of new power-ups (Bee Mario, Boo Mario, etc), a new female lead (Rosalina), tons of fan service (remade classic Mario music, returning characters, familiar themes and stages), 120 Stars to collect, a brother in green, a princess in pink, and a hero in red…there’s very little to dislike in this title. Just the simple display of Mario flying in at the beginning of every level shows you that he’s a hero that will remain throughout generations.

5 out of 5

MNET KM Music Festival 2007

Best Dance Music - Cheon Sang Ji Hee-The Grace

Wedding, VSA, and BoA*

11.03.04 - Congratulations to my cousin Sarah and her husband John. It was really fun to see a lot of the family together since it rarely happens anymore. Here is to your happiness.


11.04.07 - Thanks and congratulations to UH-VSA for their "A Fashionable Date" event. It was really fun and I met a lot of cool (and cute) people the last few days. Hope to hang out with some of you in the future. And just make sure next time you need me to help you that it's not last minute, ha.

11.05.07 - Happy Birthday, BoA* (21)