Ooh..my Japanese name is....

My authentic japanese name is 長谷川 Hasegawa (long valley river) 有祐 Yuusuke (have aid).
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Watashi wa Hasegawa Yuusuke desu. Dozo yoroshiku ne :D

One picture that made a whole new difference.

Well, who would have thought just a class picture of the old years would bring me back from the depths of seperation from old classmates. And also re-sparked my interest on Facebook.

Just about two weeks ago, I was bored online so I went to my rather dull and boring facebook account. At the time I didn't really use it much, probably once or twice every week but no more than that. The lack of activity factor was the main reason - why would I want to go on a site to do nothing? And yea, that time, my list of friends on Facebook was rather absymal (It actually still is now). So I thought I'd do a fun search on my old school SK Seri Mega and lo and behold I found a group.

Not just any group. I found some of my old school mates there. And the pic of my ol' 6 Seroja class. So I intro'd myself in one of the topics and commented on the pic. Within a few hours I got some replies from old friends such as Desmond and Esther :).

The rest from there? Well, I met up with Wen Jian, Esther and Sue Li (albeit for a short while) yesterday for yumcha. Had a great time talking about things nowadays (and I do realise I missed out on a lot of things :( ).

Then I managed to communicate with some other friends like Yuen Mei and Brian. Now my facebook routine has changed from once a week to like three to four times a day. Could say I'm addicted now. I'm sorta glad that I actually made the decision to search, or else..well, I'd still be pretty "isolated".

I've felt very happy about the whole thing, all this in just a matter of two weeks. :)

Well wouldn't you believe it....

http://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34691

Initial D 5. How long was it since the last version came out in Japan? Not even 2 years. -_-. Now IF it comes out I surely hope it's nothing like the crap that was ID4 because ID4 was a huge mess.

And what razorsuke said on the thread was right - no point getting good at the game because the next version comes out so fast. What the hell man. -_-..

It's official in my book. I quit Initial D 4.

Yes, you read it right. *cue WTF WTF WTF*

I quit Initial D Arcade Stage 4 as of 22nd June 2008. The game has became too frustrating to play for me and this in turn makes it money consuming. As I'm already playing Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (far more enjoyable than ID4 ever will), I will devote any arcading funds to that game from now on.

Seriously though, ID4 had its chance to redeem itself through v1.5 and the new physics completely killed the game for me. Why penalize players with an idiotic oversteer? Yes, maybe the better players will come here and say "You just don't know how to do the turn right". Well I say, forget it. The physics suck. That's my opinion, you can keep yours to yourselves. Furthermore, I have no other incentive to play when Wangan is so much more fun.

I will still be with @D4 (my Initial D 4 team) as they are still my friends and I will still go out with them on team meets. But I won't play ID4 seriously anymore...because I am frustrated. Very frustrated.

Will I ever make a u-turn to my decision? Highly unlikely, unless a miracle happens (or a new physics ver comes out which is highly unlikely now...). Will I play an Initial D 5 if it exists? Sure, why not? Just don't make them physics damn retarded as this one.

In the meantime... goodbye mountain roads (sans Hakone) and hello to the Metropolitan highways.

Mission accomplished! ...but not with a good end!

Start date: 22 May 2008
End date (supposedly): 8 June 2008
Duration: 17 days (School holiday)
Mission: Gain the next level up from battle (400 stars)
Start point: 100 stars (22nd May 2008)
Ended with: 415 stars (7 June 2008)
Total stars attained: 315. (average: 18.5 stars per day)

With the school holidays approaching I figured it would be the best time to bump my star count up (and rank up: I'm planning to go for S class for my R32). Actually, this wasn't even in my initial plan, seeing that I WAS supposed to go Penang with Team -KS- but in the end that didnt work out for me because of some "problems".

It started off badly on the first day. The first half of the day yielded only five stars out of five games. Totally lost form, kept getting 3rd or 4th...consecutively. Later that day my form improved though it didn't really "come back".

Then later, I was at my best. For the next 10 - 11 days, races kept going my way (luck played a really huge part in some of them), and I easily hauled up to 20-30 stars a day with just ten bucks. Last place finishes were a rarity. I was definitely at the peak of my game, even more so than when I used the RX-8 to battle.

Then when I reached the 370+ star mark, my form started to slide. It started as a slow downhill, then today, it became a steep cliff. I've never had a form this bad that I had literally screw myself out of sure-fire stars just because I was greedy. I did eventually reach the 400 mark on the same day, but still, there were stars that was as good as mine, only to be thrown away at the last 1km.

Nevertheless, mission accomplished. Although the end wasn't such a good thing. I wonder if I need to lay off on Wangan for abit, it seems that my form is on the slide now that its not really a good idea to battle...not for now at least.

Well, at least I managed to come close to beating my personal best of 12.11.9 with Kenji's R32 with my own...came up short by 0.2xx but its my first ever successful TA with the 3rd person camera view...so I guess there are better things to come :)

What's next? Hmm...I guess the next level up (1000 stars) isn't too hard..but that, will be for another time. :)

Disappointing day.

Today was a pretty sad day to be honest. :( Not in the best of moods.

In the afternoon, I went to MV to have some Wangan games, and i picked up the R32 while I'm at it. Then we started battling (4 players). First three to four battles were nice, getting a lot of stars out of just four bucks was awesome.

Then the world turned upside down.

After that, my luck just turned for the worse. I kept finishing third or fourth. Worse was on some of the situations it was because I misjudged the traffic of the roads. I even managed to blow a huge lead from first just to finish dead last in C1.

I had a smooth patch later where I kept getting 1st or 2nd, but just before dinner, I battled two games again. This time I had 2 plays left, and was at 598 stars, so I figured it would be cool getting 600 before I had to renew it.

Oh how bad my luck was.

I finished dead last despite leading the race on Hakone IB, meaning down to 1 play and still 2 stars short of 600. DAMN! By then I had the sense of defeat; I've never had a patch of bad runs THIS bad before in the entire history of playing Wangan in my entire life. So I took a rest after being so demoralized while Alan took my RX-8 for a battle at Hakone OB, and won it. 601 stars and still a free game.

Seeing the guy sitting next to Alan got off, I told him to come in and I took back position on my own car. Then in the battle, I finished last. Again.

I was even more demoralized by now. I was intending to test my R32 in battle, but seeing I already am in a bad patch, I figured it was best I stopped there and then. I just waited for Matt to finish his games before me and Alan went for dinner at McDonalds.

Then when the battle ends, I went and played some games with my R32. Perhaps the only positive thing of the day was that I found my R32 to be pretty great, and worth the money. I also had one battle with Matt 1 on 1 on his insistence on Osaka (which I lost, but I didn't really care anyway by now...). Also I ran Wangan Line Eastbound with my R34 with a time of 4'02"101, which is pretty bad, but I don't really care seeing I don't like Wangan Line in the first place.

At the end of the day, when I got back home, let's just say I never felt this worse. Perhaps I overrated myself and thought I was pretty good. Man, that was the worst ever thought I had. I'm not good, I'm just overrating myself.

For the next few days I REALLY need to think how I handle my battles from now on. I don't think it's the RX-8's problem (although my mind tells me it is, I know that's just an excuse), but it's the driver. Me. For now, I just want to get my R32 set up well...

I'm back.

Been a while since I updated this blog. Heh.

I didn't really update it since I am lazy honestly. But now, I think I can devote some time back seeing I have nothing to do now. I'm gonna focus more on personal life rather than gaming now so this blog won't have much gaming articles as before.

Anyways, I hope to be able to update again soon. :)

My ID4 TA video :D

Course: Irohazaka Downhill Night Clear
Time: 2'45"051 <-- OMG!! T_T
Car: Honda S2000 (AP1)
Driver: me (D4@Cypher)
Cameraman: D4@Satoshi (yes I know the vid says Alpha but that's the mistake of the editor >_>)
Editor: D4@Larmo
Song: glacial - BeForU

Yes, I know I could have filmed a better run. But hey, when you're working with limited funds I don't have many rounds to toy with.

Anyways, enjoy.

Note: Yes, the video is not on my Youtube channel, but it's on the team's Youtube channel :)

Just blabbing.

It's exactly 4am on my clock (yes I'm still awake, shut up, don't ask why) and I'm not feeling good. I keep thinking about some things that I really do not need to think about.

Yet I should be thinking about it.

.....

I don't know lah, life just sucks now.

Thoughts of the Week #1: Initial D Arcade Stage 4 : A game that fails to live up to its predecessors.

It figures that I can't leave this blog dead for too long. So I'll be active again :)

So, lets see now. It's Initial D. It has wide screen. It has better graphics and sound. Surely the game would be as successful as its predecessors.

Apparently, not.

Take a look at ANY arcade with Initial D 4 and you will find it mostly dead. In contrast, Namco's arcade racer Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (hereby referred to as WMMT3 from now on) has taken over the arcade as THE racer to play.

What has certainly gone wrong. Well, I managed to find reasons for it.

1) Lack of courses.
When Initial D 1 came out almost 4 - 5 years ago, arcade racers were given four course to choose from. When the sequel came out, it became even better, with two new courses, totalling six. And when the third installment came out, it became even better, with three courses added. Now certainly, you'd expect the fourth one to have more than that?

Not quite the case.

Sure, the fourth installment introduced 3 new courses (Lake Akina, Myogi (now a mountain based course and not the circuit one in the three previous versions) and Tsukuba), but as a trade off they removed Usui, Akina Snow, Shomaru, Tsuchisaka. Thats FOUR removed. Sure, the game engine changed (ID4 uses the Sega Lindbergh board unlike the other three), but surely Sega could have readded them? Unless they are L-A-Z-Y.

And it doesn't end there too.

2) Certain car models removed.
Yes, I know they have added the Evo IX and GDBF.

But did Sega have to remove more cars than they add?

The original lineup in the Japanese release was seriously lacking cars it wasn't funny. In V3 there were at least 30+ cars in the game. And when V4 came, at least 8-10 were missing. That included the "king" car of V3, the RX-8. Sure, they fixed things up for the English version when they re added three cars back (Miata, Altezza, RX-8), but come on, is this an upgraded version or a downgrade.

3) No transferral of cards from previous version.
This one takes the cake as the main reason why people just simply did not want to play V4. Previously you could have transferred your cars to the next version at the expense of the cost of the new card. Which is cool. You keep your points.

Then when V4 came out, you couldn't transfer the card - mostly probably because the tuning system has changed. Lots of people didn't like it coz they had to start over.

4) Tuning system was tedious.
One FT car will set you back RM450. Why?

The tuning shops that improve the car performance comes every six ejects. No, not games. Everytime you pull out the card counts as an eject. That's tedious.

Then there's thirty five performance parts to install 35 x 6 = 210.

Yup, you pull the card 210 times. Whoopeedoo.

And the card only holds 150 plays...so you have to renew the card at least once. Which brings me to my next point.

5) Error 403 says hi.
If you read my blog before, I've got this before.

You insert your card.

You pay the amount required for a new card.

Your invalid gets spit out.

.....

Nice red sign comes out saying license couldn't be dispensed. Call the technician!

Sucks doesn't it? Now most arcades know how to fix this error, but seriously, if it happens often enough, it's a problem. Considering point number 4, this is serious.

6) Lack of battle auras.
Yes, I know the Japanese have them.

But we don't.

See, the reason people battle nowadays is because they want to get to see some cool ass flame that rises up before the start of the race perhaps as super intimidation or coolness factor. I wonder why Sega did not fix the battle auras to be included. This reason alone is the reason why all the battlers stuck to the last version.

7) Weird physics that makes it difficult to play.
From those videos you see on Youtube it looks like you could try full gassing all the way and it works, right? Well yes, you can. But then halfway thru the turn you get this funky understeer. And even if you do avoid hitting the wall, you still get a funky accel penalty. WTF?

That's where penalty cancel comes in play. Perhaps the most retarded physics exploit ever. With a simple tap of the brake coming out of the turn/understeer, the accel gets restored.

Except it's not easy to execute in theory. If you don't do it right, it won't work.

So what does that mean?

a) If you don't know what is this, you're screwed in PvP battles.

b) If you don't know how to execute this properly, you're...still screwed in PvP battles.

The gap between those that know how to play and those who don't are so wide new players are deterred from playing. This also effectively makes this game have an unusual high learning curve. Sadly, the physics might look easy to play, but in theory it's not.

Conclusion
So much failure reasons that deter this game from being the game to play. I play it because I can adapt to it, but not everyone can. It's not really crowd attracting. Just shows that graphics don't drag the crowd. Just look at Wangan if you don't believe me.

Thanks for reading Thoughts of The Week #1 XD