Sexual Harassment and You.

Follow these rules to avoid a lawsuit flying at your workdesk. :D

That's....cute.

Was busy looking through Play-Asia when I saw this. I'm not sure what other purpose it serves besides being a "diary". And that tamagotchi-like device on the box is cute.

You can buy it from Play-Asia for USD48.90(click here). If any of the readers do pick it up do let me know how it works :)

The LYN Nintendo DS Outing May Edition. And a FAQ to boot.

Figured that I should do some advertising for the outing. Anyways, this Saturday, we'll be having a Nintendo DS outing over at the McDonalds opposite Ikea. The meeting will start at 11am and will end at...well...when it'll end :p

Here's some Q&A :p

1) What do you guys do in the outing?
Play Multiplayer games such as Mario Kart DS, Clubhouse Games, Tetris DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Ouendan/EBA/Ouendan 2 and more. You can also take this time to show off your l33t skillz. Of course, you can also show off your cool DS mods :p

2) I'm not a LowYat.Net member? Can I still come?
Of course. The more the merrier. Of course, sign up later for post-outing discussions! :p

3) Erm...my games are...you know la, not the "real" kind, so can I come?
Yes you can. We don't discriminate against "ahem" users.

4) I don't have a Nintendo DS but I'm interested. Can I still come?
Well, it might be a problem to find a spare DS/DS Lite for you, unless you plan to just come as an observer. Thankfully, yours truly will be bringing a spare DS Lite along on outing day :D In case we have visitors :D

5) Why the meeting end time is so uncertain?
This depends on location, and the outing goers' free time. We all can't sit inside some place till night right?

6) I'm staying quite far away, but since most multiplayer games have the Nintendo WiFi Connection, can I use that to communicate with you guys?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. The battery consumption is very painful so as a result we do not prefer to go on WFC during outings, especially since regular wireless eats into the battery already. Furthermore, I can confirm that McDonalds opposite Ikea DOES NOT have ANY WiFi whatsoever.

7) Any preparations if I'm coming?
Charge your DS/DS Lite. Very important. We don't want you to run outta power. Unless you bring your own charger coz most of us don't.

8) Any rules during multiplayer matches?
No rules. This is just a friendly meeting. However, I advise and stress that NO cheat devices be used in the outing. Don't spoil the fun of others. We are here to have fun, not rake in wins.

(As far as Mario Kart DS is concerned, ask first if it's a snaking match or not)

9) What about behaviour? Any rules on that?
Well...no. But I'd advise NOT to get over your head. We don't want to get kicked out of the place.

10) Can I come over to annoy you people?
If you're that annoying person(s), get a life. And as reveur said over at the tagbox: fags, mofos and idiots are not allowed.:P

Hope to see you guys there on Saturday :D

Feel the heat.

Don't know what's really going on, but at twelve bloody AM, it certainly is hot. It doesn't help the really quiet mood, thanks to a certain you-know-who. In any case, nevermind, it is irrelevant. All that matters now is the heat and really, it's killing me.

(And see?! I can't even type a basic proper post!)

Finally!

Three and a half hours. A lot of near misses. A lot of WTF moments. But I finally did it.

Here's a little history.

Last Friday, someone over at GameFAQs found out about the hidden timer circle mode. The thing that makes it worth playing was it multiplies your score by x1.5. The very next day, alkaliph (a really great Ouendan player) posted a 9999999 score on Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze Cheerleader difficulty with the hidden circles option on, proving now it is very possible to max out the score counter. (It is - you can score roughly 7 million++ in Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze in the regular Cheerleader difficulty provided you never missed, multiply that and you have roughly...10.5 million?)

So having S ranked this song on the regular Cheerleaders, I thought of trying the hidden circle mode. It was a bit of a chore memorizing where are the quick-double, double, quick-triple, and triple taps. There were SO many times that I could have scored better. (To clarify on this, even though the score counter caps at 9999999, the game continues to count your score; this is reflected on your total overall score/rank menu - And I found out my final score was actually 11258610) So many 100s that were 300s in the other (failed) attempts. But in the end, after the final spinner, it was worth it.

I think I just hit a high point in my rhythm gaming life. :)

(Oh by the way, the screenshot was taken with an Emulator - but I did it on my original cart. I just transferred the replay to my R4 and just so happened the emulator uses the same style of sav with the R4. I don't have my digital camera at hand now, so I had to use this)

Now to watch Lucky Star Ep. 7. Been sitting on my HDD for some time now :p

Plagiarism and such.

While chatting with Chi-san online earlier, she made mention on plagiarism.

Ah yes, plagiarism. A word I thought I'd only hear in my university. But anyway, this gave me a thought - How do I protect my work from such. Sure, there is obviously no way I'd know someone would simply copy and paste (but I will be obviously very pissed if I see any of my works online on some other blog - even more so when I am not asked about it). So I'd take some precautionary measures. If any smart alecks try to pull a fast one on me by editing what is clearly my work and put it as theirs, I have that to back me up.

What is "that"? Look around in my blog. I'm sure you can find it.

Layout swap. (possible rants ahead)

I switched the layout abit, figured it would look a little better.

Don't you just hate assignments? I sure as hell do. But in this last one, I'm relieved. It's a thousand words, yes (1000 for those who cannot count -__-) but at least I don't have to critically evaluate X or investigate Y. I'm already doing it as I type this.

In which case, I am signing out. Ja ne~

EDIT: I have someone who's gonna be moderating/taking care/whatever the blog. So don't be surprised if *I* review something I don't play :D

Ouendan 2 review.

Ouendan 2 is the sequel to the rhythm game Ouendan, released in 2005. It didn't fare so well locally in Japan, but it was a major hit overseas, most import sites having it at #1 at one point. Is Ouendan 2 just as good as the original? I say it's a supreme improvement.

Just like Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, the main premise of the game has not changed. You tap the beats on screen according to the rhythm. Sometimes there will be slide (also known as phrase markers) which you need to slide to, and there is also the infamous Touch Screen Killer (spinners) which you usually have to spin away. It's a really well done style of play, using the touch screen to its maximum potential.

The songs? These are great Japanese songs from Yaida Hitomi's Go My Way to hyde's Countdown to even Monkey Magic from Orange Range. The songs are very much likeable and enjoyable to beat to. While they are mostly covers they do sound very much alike, very much compared to the original songs (well except one). The scenarios while mostly absurd and really impossible, but it's sort of stuck as a "trend" for Ouendan/EBA.

The difficulty is quite well balanced. Newer players will have no problems jumping in with the Easy and Normal modes, and the veterans of the series will find challenges in the upper dificulties. As for the features, Inis has taken all the good from Elite Beat Agents and made it better. Now replays are not limited to one per song, rather now you have the freedom of saving more than one replay of the same song if you wish. Furthermore now it displays the top 3 scores of the song you have attained.

One complaint of the players of the first Ouendan was the inability to skip intros (a problem in the final song of that game) and it was introduced in Elite Beat Agents and retained again for Ouendan 2. Now they have taken it another step and allows you to skip the endings of every song provided the player has seen it once. It is a very useful feature as it can cut down waiting time.

Is this worth a buy? Definitely. If you're into rhythm games and have a Nintendo DS, Ouendan 2 will keep you entertained for a very long time with massive replay value. Even if you are new to the series, it is very easy to get hooked into playing the game. It is easy to adapt to.

Final score: 9/10

You can purchase Ouendan 2 from Play-Asia. Click here!

(EDIT: I asked my source from Japan to verify, she said most if not all were covers. Thanks Chi-san)

Pokemon Pearl review

Pokemon. It has been around for more than ten years now. From the days of the old 151, it's now expanded very far to the present count of 493. How does the latest entry into Pokemon fare?

An initial view will tell you nothing has changed from the previous RPG Pokemon games. If you have played the previous ones, you will feel right at home. What are the additions to the latest addition? Well, they have changed the battle system, where attacks are based on what kind of attack it is, Physical or Special.

Graphics wise, it's definitely a step up from the GBA, but the graphics aren't all that amazing to be honest. Sound however, is great. Some of the tunes feel very Final Fantasy-ish while some feel very much original. A massive step up from the previous games.

Besides that they have added Wi-Fi connectivity. Previously in other Pokemon games, trading and battling between friends has always been limited to link cable (FireRed, Leaf Green and Emerald GBA games introduced the (defunct) wireless capability but it is not linkable with the DS' wireless connection).Now with the DS and Nintendo's WiFi Connection system, this is no longer a problem. Pokemon trades can be done across the globe. The GTS system allows for trading without friend codes while if you are trading among friends, the friend codes trading is still a viable option.

What I did not like about this game however, is that the game plays slower. While the previous installments were very fast, in this one, it does seem plays at a slower pace. I'm not sure whether is it because of the intense loading or its just plain lag but it is annoying. Also the storyline does get tedious and boring. I won't reveal too much, but if you've played Ruby and Sapphire, I think you pretty much get how the story will pan out.

My verdict? If you liked Pokemon, this certainly is a great entry and well worth adding to your Pokemon collection. However, if you haven't played Pokemon, you will have no reason to venture into the Pokemon world.

Final score: 7.5/10

Click here to buy Pokemon Pearl from Play-Asia! (US version)

Working on the blog

Well, I've added the links as well as a chatterbox. Spam away. :D

I'll be posting up a review of Ouendan 2 and Pokemon Pearl (yes it's overdue, you need not point it out -__-) soon. Stay tuned.

Power cut.

Before I start ranting, I would like to say I restarted this blog, no...wait... make that gave it a fresh start. From V14, I resetted it. There's a need for change and I think that's what this blog needs. I've been lazy for the past five months to update, but I think I should continue on.

But anyway....

Don't you just hate TNB? Right as I was about to post a blog entry the power shuts on me. Great. Just great.

It's really late at my timezone now (3.30am!), but I don't feel like sleeping. An hour before this I was playing the Pokemon Contests on my Pokemon Pearl. And here I state: Master Rank Contests = FAIL. I must have wasted the whole hour on contests which I didn't even come close to winning. Talk about disappointment.

Ouendan 2 is coming. I'll provide an update on the game once I receive it in the mail. I've been waiting for it for about a month or so now.

Life is being nasty. Screwed up my Knowledge Management assignment. For a bloody report, I left out the signature and name column. I'm bound to lose marks on presentation, that much is certain. But what worries me more is the content. I'm not sure whether was it spot on or was it a total disaster. I certainly hope not!

(This is probably what I deserved for being Konata Izumi V2. Gulp...)

The Hare Hare Yukai dance practice earlier was a failure. First, only four turned up . Second, the leader was in a bad mood. And finally, there was no coordination. (Though I do fault myself for forgetting the moves to the dance). Meeting adjourned just half an hour later..but the leader raised a possibility of cancelling the thing altogether. I'm not so sure about cancellation after what we've been through, that's for sure. In the end it is her decision, and without a leader, there is no dance.

Anyways, time to call it a day. Signing out.