Too tired for a witty post title
April 5, 2009
Yeah so I sort of didn’t post at all for like, 5 weeks. Amazing how time passes when you’re busy as hell during the end of days. I’ve been doing assignments and working and flying across the world and playing some games and learning Japanese and probably some other stuff. Yeah, I guess you could say that I’ve been a touch on the busy side.
Such is the life of a student.
First off, I’ve become a Peer Tutor at my school. Not only does it land me some extra cash (always a bonus, given the current financial psudo-crisis I am finding myself in), but it’s additional work experience, and I get to help people. It could come to a shock to some, but I actually do enjoy helping others when they are willing to take it. I happen to be the web design specialist, and I think I’m the busiest tutor of the bunch. Not that the others don’t work, but I’ve helped a good amount of people by now.
Not that I’m complaining about that.
Oh yeah, I landed myself a trip to Japan that happened half way through March. I don’t have my pictures up or even accessible at this point, but when I get them I’ll be sure to dump them on the website and make everyone jealous. Let me just say that Japan is a brilliant place that I would visit again at the drop of a hat; it’s clean, it’s pretty, it’s polite, it’s so short. There are Shinto shrines in their outdoor shopping areas; just in case you need a blessing or two before you drop some Yen. My friend has a series of blog posts about the trip. If you’re curious, have a look.
Ironically it was this trip that got me back into learning Japanese (one of my silly life goals.) I’ve wanted to ever since I was a young kid into anime, and though I don’t watch anime very much anymore, the desire to learn the language remains.
Of course, by leaving for a week, I had a weeks worth of assignments to catch up on, as well as a loss in time for any assignments that had due dates in the future. It’s not a joke when I say that within a day of my return, I was doing assignments like it was going out of style. By the time Wednesday (landed 11:45 on Friday) had rolled around, I had finished 5. by Friday, I had 9 done. I was very burnt out by the time I was caught up, let me tell you.
During my flight, I finished Apollo Justice (review coming this Thursday) and picked up Front Mission for the DS again. I have successfully finished the first half of the game, and I’ve givin at least 30 hours of my life to it. The second half is even harder, apparently. I await the many Game Over screens with glee. It’s not as robust as the Play Station variations, but it’s still as mind-bendingly difficult. It’s not uncommon for battles to last over an hour. Never mind the down time when you are buying equipment and running through the arena to make enough money to upgrade everyone.
Ugh. I’m never going to play it again once I’ve defeated it. It’s a game I can live with never picking up again.
I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, But I’ve actually also picked up the new Star Ocean. It’s got a pretty quick learning curve, and it’s just as difficult as the previous versions were. Seriously, two hours between save points? This was a good design process? Well at least they droped the ‘MP Death’ from this version. What a terrible idea that was.The graphics are solid, the game-play is too. My only major issues with it are the fact that it wants to be widescreen, and so the menus are slightly cut off on my TV, and the voice acting.
Oh God, the voice acting. It’s terrible. seriously, it’s like they went to an acting school, found the people who were the bottom of the class, and threw them all into a recording studio with 15 minutes to read the script. It’s utterly terrible. Really makes the (many) cut scenes that much more painful.
I’ve also picked up Alien Hominid, Carcassonne, and Aegis Wing for the 360. Here are my brief rundowns of them:
- Carcassonne: I recently fell in love with Carcassonne at a friends house, so that was a required purchase. I’m sure I will come to hate it like Settlers of Catan.
- Aegis Wing: it’s a free download, and was made by the Microsoft Intern Team (3 guys). I’ll let that stand on it’s own. It’s free, at least.
- Alien Hominids: I’m a big fan of Castle Crashers, so I opted to pick up Beheamoths first game while it’s on the cheap – 50% off – and try it out. The first 4 minutes of the game proved to me just how much more pollished Castle Crashers is. I’m already not a fan of Alien Hominids, but I’ll at least give it the ol’ college try.
If anyone wants to friend me on the 360, my tag is “Jack Dutson” and feel free to do so.
Oh yeah, I work at Shoppers Drugmart, quit working at the Revolution Night Club in Kitchener – didn’t agree with the direction management was going – and I’m working on a sweet redesign of my resublogfolio.When I can find time to finish and slice it, It’ll be pretty sweet.
So that’s the last month summed up, here’s hoping I can post with a little more regularity for the coming months!
Corey signing off.
Cause the static singes the speakers like
A thousand Hymns of inspiration.
And the road just winds through the canyon like,
A big black snake heading for salvation and I’m getting closer to the truth
And further from the sky.Butch Walker – Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky
Categories: Personal
Tagged under: Personal, School, video games, Working, XBox 360