Life -

It's been a while since I made a post on here, mostly due to how much more work has been demanding of my time than ever before. I am still working on Project X Zone, although I have started Phoenix Wright 5 when it was released since then. I really can't seem to find the time to even finish these games, let alone blog about them like I used to...

I hate the idea of having to abandon this blog, but with both lack of time and the lack of content to put on here due to not having enough time to find and/or make content, I don't have much of a choice at the moment. It sucks. It feels like I can't even have a social life. I haven't been able to see any of my friends from my hometown since I moved back to NJ.

Here I am, wasting away my time at work on my birthday, reminiscing about the time when Firion and I met 3 years ago, and the time we spent together. The life I had then and now are so different... Sure, things in Florida wasn't ALL good, but my hopes of a better life with a better paying job... Well, considering the time I spend at work, I don't even know whether if this is truly a "better paying job" at all. What good is a bigger pay if you don't have the time to enjoy them? I just don't understand the work-a-holic mindset, I guess...

Well, I just wanted to let you all know I haven't completely abandoned the blog, but due to my new life, I won't be able to update the blog as frequently as I had promised.

NY Comic Con 2013!

Long story short, Vicki is here to visit for the week, and as it turns out, the week she planned to visit me also happened to be when Comic Con was going on. So... why not go to Comic Con together? So we did, for Friday, since Saturday and Sunday were all sold out when I looked.

Poll - E-mails

It's been a while, but I'm glad to see that the polls are finally working again on the site. Instead, the banner image's randomzier seems to have gone down... Anyway, here's the latest poll results!

Do you check all E-mails that you get?
Yes, I keep my inbox clean. - 1 vote
I only read E-mails I care about. - 1 vote
I don't read any of them. - 1 vote
Yes, I also check my spam box too. - 0 votes
I just use E-mails for log-ins and/or to make accounts. - 0 votes

Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses

I went to the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses on August 10th, at the NJ Performing Arts Center, of course with my 3DS in hand, ready to play in the StreetPass Mii Plaza before the concert started. There were certainly plenty of people there, with a good 50% or possibly more with their 3DSes out, especially while I was waiting in line to get myself a poster and t-shirt combo for $25. I found out that there were 3 puzzles that I wasn't aware of in Puzzle Swap; Nintendo Starlets, New SUPER MARIO BROS. U + New SUPER LUIGI U, and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Not sure how I missed out on the announcements for these... 

Journal of a Busy Person. Boring stuff.

Well, it turns out that this work schedule is too much for me to keep up with the blog. It's unfortunate, but I hardly have the free time to plan a post in an environment where I can think without distractions. I wish someone would either get some better taste in music or learn to use headphones... Instead, I have implemented Raptr and my Twitter feed on the side as a pseudo-update to the site. It isn't much, but at least there will be something new to see on the site until I finish moving to the new house.

Also, I have to say, Steam's Summer Sale this year was pretty neat, but I ended up only buying 3 games and a soundtrack. Regardless, I was able to complete the badge via collecting all the Trading Cards for the Summer Sale. I have to say, it's a neat system, and I'm pretty interested in collecting more cards now. There's a good chance that you'll be seeing games that gives cards in my Raptr feed for a while because of it.

Speaking of trading cards, I'm surprised to see that my Dark Summoner Monster Giveaway isn't taking off. I've only given out 3 monsters so far. The previous three giveaways I did were a success, but things have changed. I also want to know why Dark Summoner wants to limit our trades with Trade Tickets or whatever. I may not be able to do any more giveaways if gifting monsters continues to cost tickets to do.

That's all I can post here for now, and I'd like to do a progress report on my games again, since I haven't done one in forever. I feel the need to talk about Project X Zone some, and all these Steam games that I'll be playing will have some details I'm sure.

New StreetPass Mii Plaza!

Holy crap, new games for the 3DS' StreetPass feature! I've been waiting for something like this for quite a while, even though I still haven't gotten all the hats in Find Mii II yet.

So I went ahead and bought the bundle for $14.99, and honestly? They are certainly good games, better than Puzzle Swap and Find Mii for sure. If I were to give recommendations, I personally like Mii Force and Monster Manor in particular. I'm catching myself using up a lot of Play Coins on these games now.

If there's demand for it, I may write up a review for these games, but that may take a while considering how infrequently I get streetpasses.

Dark Summoner A Rank+ Monster Giveaway 4

Sorry to keep you all waiting, but it's finally back! The Fourth Dark Summoner Monster Giveaway, and this is certainly the biggest one so far! I am giving away the monsters listed below for free! Why? I intend on retiring from Dark Summoner very soon, and I may as well have my strong monsters be used by my readers rather than them be forgotten in an inactive account.

This is a great opportunity for new players to catch up with the competition by helping building up your team! It's first come, first serve, and I can only give one gift per person. If you see anything that you're interested in, read the instructions and requirements below to apply.

There will also be a 5th Giveaway since I have quite a few Free Dark Summons saved up due to lack of space for new monsters. When plenty of space has been opened up for more giveaways, the 5th Giveaway will commence, so check back often! 

Edit: This Giveaway is closed now. Keep an eye out for the 5th Giveaway, maybe? 

Status: Busy

Hey, once again, just a head's up update to keep you guys... well, up to date. I'll keep it short though.

1. PS3: New PS3 came in, and it works. I'd like to prioritize it while I have PlayStation Plus membership. 
2. My Schedule: Even busier than before, unfortunately. It seems like I work 8+ hours a day, 6 days a week as the norm. Certainly cuts away at my time for updating the blog. However...
3. Dark Summoner Giveaway: This is definitely happening. In fact, very soon. I'm getting the list updated for the biggest Giveaway yet, including some of my Level 70 A+ Ranked monsters and even a few AA Ranks. Wish I can give an exact date when it'll be up, but I can't guarantee any particular date with my crazy schedule. So the best thing you can do is to check back often, lest someone else grabs the monsters you want. >_<
4. Reviews: A Mario Kart 7 and Paper Mario: Sticker Star review is in the works. I know it's pretty late for a review on these games, but with how things have been, it's hard to get them published any earlier. I'm hoping they'll be a good read for anyone who's still on the fence about getting them or not. 
5. Project X Zone: I picked it up yesterday on release date, and I'm hoping I can play through it within a reasonable time for me to write a review for it as well. At least, that's my goal, but we'll see how this'll go while juggling everything else. 

Thank you for being so patient with me and my infrequent blogging as of late. Hopefully that'll change as I get a little more used to my new schedule. 

Out with the Heat, In with the New Cool(ing fan)

Recently, Pugyuu's been experiencing some overheating problems when I play some games, like League of Legends, Minecraft, and other spec-heavy games I have on Steam. I had gotten a brand new laptop cooling fan for Pugyuu because of it, but the problem persisted, mostly because the air flow was still lacking from the air's out vent.

I had done my usual maintenance for Pugyuu, like cleaning the air vent, fan, and heat sink with canned air and the likes. Dust did not accumulate in the vent like the last time Pugyuu had an overheating problem when I was playing Left 4 Dead 2. Instead, the internal cooling fan was making a little more noise than it should, and showed signs of it wobbling slightly off its axis. It turns out that the fan has aged a bit too much from high usage and is worn to the point where it isn't blowing air out very efficiently. So a replacement had to be ordered online.

Extended Torture

So I said earlier that I was going to be playing some console games, finally, and how I was going to prioritize on finishing Star Ocean: The Last Hope International finally, after 3 and a half years from launch. Well, it turns out that my PS3-less torture continues since the PS3 Phat I have here decided to break as soon as I put a disc in. It won't read the disc I put in, and the console refuses to eject the disc as well. If not for downloaded games, the console is practically useless, whilst holding my UMVC3 disc hostage.

Not sure if I've told the story about this PS3 Phat, but... here's the short story. I randomly found this PS3 Phat in the garage. It turns out my Dad had made a trade with one of his customers which got him the PS3, but never really told us about it. In the end, the PS3 Slim was announced, along with a price drop, and now the PS3 Phat keeps having issues that requires constant repairs.

The moral of the story is, trades are risky... Also, if something's been sitting in the garage for a while, it probably belongs there.

I may just buy myself a new PS3...

Leaving the Heat Behind

I'm back home in NJ once again, for a much longer stay this time. There are many things things I missed about being in NJ, like the (slightly) cooler weather, my friends and family, but one thing to note for you guys is the much faster internet speed that's available here in comparison to the services in FL. That means I'll have more time to get things done, allowing me to do more posts, most likely. I've kept you guys waiting for a whole month, pretty much, so it's about time. 

On a semi-related note, during the move, I had to make the decision of getting a PlayStation Plus membership on my PS3 to transfer some save data, since Star Ocean: The Last Hope's saves were locked from being copied, supposedly to prevent people from abusing downloaded saves for easy achievements or something. Go figure. So I may be taking advantage of the service for the 3 months I have them for, so look forward to my experiences with that. 

Soon after, hopefully I'll have a review up for Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I've waiting long enough to finish the game, I should finish it while there's nothing keeping me from playing it. I DID also pre-order Project X Zone on the 3DS though, so a review for that may pop up soon too. 

Awesome Deals - Defense Grid: The Awakening for Free

I just got word that Defense Grid: The Awakening on Steam can be downloaded for free (legally) through an activation code you can get off of Facebook, by Logitech. I tried it out, and the activation code certainly did give me a copy of the game, so I'm sharing the info to you guys too. I'm not sure how long this deal will last though, so if you're interested in getting a $10 game for free, give it a shot. You just need to "Like" Logitech and Defense Grid. You can get to the Facebook page through the link on this page.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/95948/logitech-defense-grid-the-awakening-pc-digital-download

Thanks, Logitech!

404 Error - Blog writer not found.

It really has been a while since I've been posting on my blog lately, partially due to how busy I have been with work, as well as struggling with finding a good time to sleep due to many factors that's been keeping me up. Unfortunately, this will continue for another month for many personal reasons, including a bed bug infestation (which was one of the factors keeping me up; should have discovered them sooner), moving houses twice (once back to my parents' house up north, and again to help them get into their new house), and setting up and preparing for future posts. 

Poll - POLL NOT FOUND

It's already May, so here's... wait... 

It turns out that the polls aren't working on the site for some reason, and I can't get it to show any of the votes. I'm not sure how to fix it, so... it looks like polls will be taken down until further notice from the developers. 

Setting up for a Let's Play

After looking into what is required to do a Let's Play, I went and checked out the free evaluation version of Fraps, downloaded Audacity, and tested both programs out. Fraps certainly works a LOT better than this other, commercial screen recording program I tried out for free. I think it was Screen Recorder Gold that I tried out, but I can't be 100% certain since I uninstalled it a long time ago. Audacity probably isn't a necessity, but I wanted to be able to edit my commentaries, and this program is great for doing just that. Otherwise, Fraps IS capable of recording both the game's audio as well as an external audio source like a microphone, but the audio will be compressed together, making editing not-so-easy to do.

After the recording phase, I intend on working with Windows Movie Maker first to see how much editing I can do with it. I kind of doubt that I would need high levels of editing for my videos, at least not yet, but seeing how I've heard good things about Sony Vegas Pro, that is something I will look into later on.

But one of the things that slipped my mind was the issue of Copyrights. Having had issues with copyrights before, I'd like to know where the fine line is when it comes to them so that I know not to cross what legal rights I'm allowed and not. So here are some webpages that I found were somewhat helpful in regards to copyrights.

http://socialtimes.com/fair-use-youtube_b61891

As well as the "Copyrights" link at the bottom of YouTube's page.

Searching "Copyright Laws regarding Let's Play videos" on Google provided quite a few discussions in forum threads regarding the matter, with most of them pointing out that while it's technically a legal gray area, it's unlikely that a game company will file a copyright infringement lawsuit on an individual for uploading a Let's Play video.

Sooo... in the end, I'm still a bit iffy about how much content I can put in my videos, like... whether if I could put music from other games in them, or whether if giving credits to all things included would be mandatory.

I'll try experimenting a bit with a few recordings and see how well they turn out. It's about time I get some more content on this blog anyway.

Time to Experiment

There has been a lot of "Let's Play" videos on YouTube lately, and some of which have seen quite some success at getting an audience for simply playing the game while recording. I've always wanted to do one myself, but I don't exactly have the tools for doing that quite yet. Even aside from that, I don't have a gaming partner to be in the show with either, unfortunately. That might not be all that important, but I'm not confident in my own personality to be entertaining to the audience, especially when I may be too focused on the game.

I have been talking a lot about doing experiments on this blog with very little to show for it as of yet, but I may start looking into ways of recording my gaming sessions with Fraps or possibly stream the game on Twitch. I'm not entirely sure if Pugyuu can handle all that however, but that's what the experiment will be about. I will be posting updates regarding this, as I'd really like to put more gaming related entertainment here, and possibly a lot less walls of texts I end up having. Stay tuned!

Adobe Flash Fail

Don't worry, this is just an image; not actual flash on the site.

It feels fairly frequently that Adobe wants us to update our Adobe Flash plug-ins for our browsers; at least for FireFox for me. But honestly, I find that each of these updates they give us ends up breaking something else with Flash. What's up with that? Is Adobe even checking the updates for the recent browser versions before releasing them? Seriously, I've skipped the past 5 or so updates because one of them would crash my whole browser if I tried to access my webcam to go on a webcam chat. Another time, it would stop any and all videos I try to watch after one minute or something and won't let me continue watching them. As for the latest update that it asked us not even a week ago, it's not as bad as stopping the video, but the videos lose audio after a minute. What the hell, Adobe? Get your updates straight for FireFox already.

Demotivational Post

It certainly does seem like I've been updating a lot less frequently on this blog for some reason. I shouldn't be any busier than any previous months since the start of 2013, and yet my posting frequency is only decreasing. Why is that? Well, the simple answer is that I am not sure what I should talk about. A lot of things that I had to say have already been said on the blog. I try to bring myself to be more productive, but I end up being too tired from the morning job schedules. I'm wondering whether if this could be a sign of depression causing a lack of motivation on my part to be as productive as I could be. Honestly, I wouldn't doubt it. It's nearing half a year since Firion had passed away, and I certainly don't have much to look forward to each day. And yet, I am still being oppressed by the undeserving cats in this house who are still being pampered by everyone else when Firion never got any attention at all. This isn't a healthy situation I am in, but what else is there for me to do but to shut myself away in the sanctuary that I've made in this room for Firion, all by myself?

Spring Backlog Cleaning

It's been a while since I've done my backlog updates. I've certainly done a lot since my last one, although maybe it only feels that way. It's hard for myself to even keep up with what I have left unless I do these backlog updates, so regardless of whether if you care or not, here it is!

Hidden Skill Value in Games

Many video games work with lots of numbers, as such with most computer programs. Usually in video games, you are presented with the important numerical values, like your health (HP), how much money you have, scores, and more. But there are also games where there is a hidden value that the game keeps track of that they don't show to you, and often times, this is your "Skill Value", or your proficiency at playing the game. Is there a reason for these "Skill Values" to be hidden from the players, or is it hidden because of its insignificance to the gameplay?

Deity Wars Giveaway?

So with Dark Summoner having expanded their monster limit to 150 monsters from the previous 120, I am working on building up more monsters for the 4th Giveaway. In the meantime, I am curious as to see how many people are interested in a Deity Wars Giveaway. The only thing is, the game's mechanics being as different as they are, I'm not entirely sure if I cam provide many good cards to give away for Deity Wars. I am, however, willing to if there is demand.

Street Pass Benefits

After having gotten tons of Street Passes on my 3DS at MegaCon, it made me think about how much of a benefit these Street Passes can have on your gaming experiences. A lot of times, you won't get anything very helpful, like a mediocre Coin Rush Mode score in New Super Mario Bros. 2, or some easy fight in Throwdown Mode in Dead or Alive: Dimensions. I got a pretty decent list of ProfiCards that I collected with Street Pass for Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, but as far as I know, none of them really contained any Dark Notes that were worth mentioning; no great treasure drops from bosses, no Magic Pot encounters, etc. But there were a very few that contained some very helpful elements in some games.

MegaCon 2013

I took Saturday off from work this week so that I could go to MegaCon in Florida. The only other convention that I've been to was in New York, and back then I didn't have a job, so I went and came home with nearly empty hands due to a nearly empty wallet. I've seen some cool stuff at that convention though, so I told myself then that the next time I go to a convention would be when I have money to spend at the vending booths and/or if I have a costume for cosplaying at the event. Unfortunately, I didn't get to put together a costume for MegaCon either, but at least I've been working at my job for long enough to save up some spending money.

KoL - Avatar of Jarlsberg

It's kind of late for me to write about Avatar of Jarlsberg perhaps, but I thought I should share what I've learned about the run here. Especially considering how much I am enjoying it, partially due to its low turn-gen gameplay, with how busy I've been lately.

Poll - League of Legend Roles

Holy crap, it's March already! Here are the results for the latest poll!

What roles can you play on League of Legends?
Carry - 4 votes
Tank - 4 votes
Support - 4 votes
Fighter (Tanky, Melee) - 4 votes
Assassin - 3 votes
Caster - 2 votes
Jungler - 2 votes
Initiator - 2 votes
Other - 1 vote

Total votes: 9

50k Page Views!

Wow, the site has hit over 50,000 page views! Couldn't prepare anything special for it once again. ._.; It's crazy how quickly these milestones seem to hit me. It really does make me consider having another person to help me with updating things on this site, but it's hard finding someone who I can trust to be truthful in all the words that gets posted here on the site. I mean, that is the brand image that I'm going for with The Code of Truth after all.

Although, having an artist to create some simple works for me would be most appreciated at this point since that is a talent that I lack unfortunately... Especially not if I'm drawing with a mouse. I don't exactly have plans on picking up a tablet for drawing either, and the smartphone probably isn't big enough for that. If I get desperate to the point where I have to force myself to draw something myself though, I DO have a scanner available, and with some Photoshop touches, I could possibly make it... um... presentable, but the process will be time consuming. With there being so many things that I need to work on right now, I don't know whether if I have any more time to squeeze in another thing to do, at least at a regular schedule.

Regardless, I enjoy working on the blog, and I'm always looking for the next step in making it even better.

Review - Kid Icarus: Uprising

I recently finished the Solo campaign for Kid Icarus: Uprising, and have been playing around with Together Mode as well. Does Pit's return from the NES classic Kid Icarus fly fair on the 3DS, or will he finished after this review?

Mysteriously Present

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in over a week, been having a busy week at my job. I've been working on the Kid Icarus: Uprising review, but it feels like there's so much to cover in it that I feel both overwhelmed at where to start, as well as not having enough time to finish the review within what time I have available this week. I probably won't get enough free time to finish it until Sunday, and the mysterious absence from the blog just seemed a bit questionable.

In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and talk about my experience on the game, mainly discussing the weapons I have.

First Impressions - Wii U + Nintendo Land

So it certainly took me a while to get around to setting up the Wii U. After all, it would have to be set up in the living room, and that place hasn't been cleaned in seemingly forever. Unfortunately, it came upon me to do all the cleaning, which I was fairly against doing since most of the dust that I found behind the TV and in the TV stand consisted of huge clumps of cat hairs and other thick layers of dust. Also considering it's spring pollen allergy season as well, stirring up these dust clumps is one of the last thing I'd like to do. Regardless, I had no help in vacuuming, wiping, and cleaning up the TV stand what-so-ever. My hesitation for cleaning up after the cats can be best understood if you've read my rant about them here, and my gripe against them for completely ruining Firion's life. I haven't exactly expressed my full feelings about Firion's life VS undeserving cats, but that's an ugly rant that I've omitted writing about in full detail, and neither is it the point of this post. The point HERE is my reason for why it took so long to set up the Wii U that we had since launch day.

Need for Action and Babes

Lately, I've been finding myself playing a lot more action games than... well, most of my life. It's funny how much my interests have shifted in gaming since my childhood, where I was really into RPG games. Sure, I still like them now too, but back then, I had very little interest in FPS (not that there were many good ones when I was a kid except Doom, Wolfenstein, etc. until Goldeneye 64 made FPS big), fighting games (like Street Fighter 2, which I certainly liked but sucked terribly since I didn't understand the concept of cancelling moves into specials for combos, the difference between blocking high and low, taking advantage of recovery time, hit stuns, invincibility frames, etc.), and action games. For those of you that keep up with my gaming activities, you already know that I've been playing Devil May Cry 3 and Kid Icarus: Uprising right now, both of which I am enjoying greatly. But there was a game that I had nearly forgotten about that plays fairly similarly to Devil May Cry 3 that I had already been playing, with elements of RPG, and is more of a beat'em up game in concept; Rusty Hearts.

Poll - Blog Content for 2013

It's February 1st, so it's time to bring up the results for another poll!

What do you want to see more of in 2013?
Video game reviews - 3 votes
League of Legends guides - 2 votes
Other - 2 votes
Other gaming content - 1 vote
Personal content - 1 vote
Better blog layout - 1 vote
Smartphone app reviews - 0 votes
Message forum - 0 votes

Total votes: 4

Dark Summoner A Rank+ Monster Giveaway 3

Here we go, the Third Dark Summoner Monster Giveaway! For all my readers out there, I am giving out some more monsters below for free! It's great for new players to catch up with the competition by helping building up your team! It's first come, first serve, and I can only give one gift per person. If you see anything that you're interested in, read the instructions and requirements below to apply.

Recovery into Progress

So I am officially fully recovered from whatever it was that I was sick with. I have been for a while now, I guess, but at the same time, there hasn't been too many things for me to talk about on the blog lately, despite there being plenty of things for me to do. My current goals are to get more Deity Wars galleries out since that project's been on hold for long enough it seems. Just that the events don't seem to stop on these games, so it constantly keeps you busy. Other than that, there are (barely) efforts in bringing more images to this text-covered blog. It's just a matter of balancing how I use my time at this point. In the meantime, however, I wanted to talk about several things, including my usual video game progresses that I've been seldom doing lately.

Review - Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

Do you like Final Fantasy? Do you like music games? If you said yes to both, I'm sure you've heard about Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy already. Read on to see whether if this game is worth the time saving the crystals, or if you should save your money.

Poll - Handy Devices

It's mid-January 2013, so it's time for another poll result!

What devices do you take with you?
Smartphone - 5 votes
Cell phone (not smart) - 5 votes
Nintendo 3DS - 3 votes
Older Nintendo DS - 3 votes
PSP - 3 votes
iPod Touch - 2 votes
Other mp3 player - 1 vote
Older gaming device - 1 vote
Other - 1 vote
PS Vita - 0 votes

9 voters total

First Impressions from Guild Wars 2

I've been playing Guild Wars 2, well, a lot, lately. Got my Guardian above level 30, granting me access to all 10 of my skills now. I also made a Sylvari Mesmer as well to see what the game was like from a different perspective. I can honestly say that the game is very well polished, and the best part of Guild Wars 2 to me so far is the great sense of exploration. The world of Guild Wars has always been huge, but Guild Wars 2 takes it to a new level; hopping across gaps to reach higher footholds for scenic Vistas, fighting through a cave full of enemies to get Skill Points, completing the map to get major rewards, etc.

2013: Off to a Rough Start

Happy New Year, everyone! Sorry this post is awfully late though. It seems like I caught a cold from the New Year's party. It isn't anything terribly bad, but it's a nuisance for sure.