The Day The Music Died♫

That awkward moment when there's nothing awkward to comment on.

It's the holidays again. Third term is over. All that's left is the (supposedly) most laid-back term of our lives. I should be celebrating, I guess, but instead I salvaged my old Sims downloads from the backup of my old harddrive and sung loudly (and terribly) to old music.

I'm being somewhat social these holidays, actually. The formal is this Sunday and I have a sleep over that night. Lainey and I are organising stuff for Wednesday already. Feels good, man. It's nice to get out of the house with mah bros. Usually I don't. Mum's in a good mood, though, so I'm willing to test the boundaries and actually do something with my friends.

Speaking of the formal, I have body tape so I can make sure the dress actually fits around my rib cage properly. It's kind of bulging, rofl. I must have the strangest body shape, because there are other sections of the dress that I almost don't fit into at all.

I've found yet another guide for chest-bindings. Ah, the pain of having boobs and wanting to cosplay as a guy. See, it's okay the other way around, because it's much easier to fake having boobs when you don't. It's a lot more difficult to fake being flat chested when you're quite clearly not. Bah. According to my research, there's a good chance that I'll end up weakening the tissue in my chest due to how much goddamn fat I'm trying to flatten out. Sounds healthy.

...oh well. The things I'll (eventually) do for cosplay. If only there was a female character I actually wanted to cosplay as. All my favourite characters are male. Hm.

I've been on Pottermore recently. My wand is 9 1/2 inches long, and made of cedar with unicorn hair as the core. I was sorted into Slytherin. The unicorn hair means that my wand is less likely to swing to the dark arts, but apart from that, I'm pretty happy with what I've got. My wand is the shortest of my group... but, it's totally not about size, guys. =P
I'm nearing a hundred house points now. Which isn't... bad, but there are plenty of people with 5000 points. How? With dueling down, we can only get points by brewing potions... which takes a good 90 minutes, and you can get a maximum of 11 points per potion. 5000 points from that??? That's... yeah, I'm not going to aspire towards that. I'll just chill here with under 100 points like the cool bro I am.

Slytherin is winning, despite having the least amount of members. This pleases me greatly. 'bout time we knocked Ravenclaw down a peg or two. Heh. No, I'm just kidding, Ravenclaw bros. You guys are cool too, probably.

I was playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for a few days last week. It's very, very cool, though it's not much different from the original. Just, you know, with vastly better graphics, more item slots and an extra dimension added to the gameplay. That's exactly what I wanted from the remake, though, so that's fine. The 3D really is quite amazing. After awhile I started to get used to it, and figured that I wouldn't notice if I turned the 3D down.
...I did notice. Everything looked so much more flat (durr, GoJo. Well done) and less... I don't know, real, I guess? Not that it looks real in 3D... but I just felt much more immersed in the game world with it in 3D. It was actually quite weird to play the Wii afterwards.

What else has happened recently... No. 6 finished. The last episode was... kind of disappointing. A lot of people will disagree with me there, but... it felt kind of rushed. Not surprising, with how short the anime was, but I still felt it could've been better. I also hate how Nezumi just leaves. For no truly great reason. Was this just some excuse for there to be a bittersweet ending? Instead of saying "and they lived happily ever after", they pretended that Nezumi had some great... something to attend to, and that they couldn't live peacefully together, and ugh it made no sense to me. It just felt contrived and ridiculous.

...not that the book was much better. It ended the same way, but a little less quick and more emotional.

...I was expecting an ending that would leave me in a completely and utter mess. Instead, I just kinda felt tired and annoyed that I'd woken up at 5:30 to watch something that didn't really affect me in any way whatsoever. It was pretty sucky for me, to be honest.

Anyway this entire post has been pointless. It's just been awhile and I thought that I should make up for my lack of interesting topics to blog about. Heh.

Post-E3 2011 Nintendo Thoughts.

Nintendo's E3 conference started with a Legend of Zelda montage featuring old Zelda titles plus the newest game, Skyward Sword, as well as footage from Ocarina of Time 3D. The entire sequence was set to a live orchestra which, of course, also played a collection of old themes and the newest.

Well, Nintendo sure knows how to put on a show. Not that I expected any less from them.

It's the 25th anniversary of Zelda. Before the show started, we were promised some epic Zelda surprises. In my opinion, those surprises never came. Game-wise, at least. We got some titles being rereleased online for the 3DS, and we had some new footage of Skyward Sword. Otherwise, I didn't see much to rave about. I do have one thing to be thankful for, though; Despite the cartoonish colouring, Skyward Sword does look like Twilight Princess. I'm very thankful for that.

For the people like me who go beyond gaming when they get into a series, they did announce that there will be a Zelda Orchestra. You can go hear Zelda themes all around the world played by a live orchestra.

I will pay a huge amount of cash to see that. <3
There are also two CD's. The Zelda Symphony Orchestra will have an album made, and the OoT OST is being rereleased (I think it's just a rerelease?).

Proof that music is an important part of gaming. Screw you hardcore gamers who are all "yay graphics, yay gray-scale 'realistic' games" and ignore everything else. If enjoying proper games that tell stories and focus on more than just gameplay makes me a casual gamer, then I guess I'm a casual gamer.

I adore Shigeru Miyamoto. He is so over the top in everything he does. Iwata, on the other hand, is more well spoken and has great stage presence.
His accent is cute too. That always helps.

Anyway, that's not the games. And the games are what we're here for, yeah? Anyway, the things that stood out to me were:

- New Mario on 3DS
- OoT 3D has better framerate~
- Luigi's Mansion 2!!!!!! With multiple mansions?!?!?! <3
- Gold Zelda Wii Remote. I lol'd. And I kind of want it.
- EA is all "Yay new console". 'Bout time they joined the Nintendo party bus.
- SMASH BROTHERS. ON 3DS. YES.
- Classic game downloads. Hello Gameboy, I missed you~

The new console, the Wii U (I hate the name. I hate it a lot) has a controller that looks like a DS/PSP hybrid. Really. But it's a controller. I can't describe it very well. Basically, it's got a HD screen as well as controls, and you can use that screen simultaneously with the television. You can also use the controller on its own. I have two opinions of this.

-The controller is too clunky, I can't see this working, this is another 'Wii' gimick.
-That extra screen looks really cool and if it's used well, this could make gaming really epic.

I don't know which opinion I subscribe to yet.
It's supposed to pander to both hardcore and casual gamers. If they do this correctly, Nintendo will take the market easily. Thing is, I doubt 'hardcore' gamers are going to give the controller a look-in =_=. It's compatible with the Wii controllers, so less cash spending here.
The controller has a gyroscope as well as normal buttons and touchscreen. Basically, Nintendo are now fusing handhelds and home gaming together.
The graphics seem to be better than the Wii, from what I've noticed. I haven't seen enough to compare it to other systems, but whatever. It looks damn good. Other gamers have no reason to complain about the graphics now. Suck my balls xBox and PS3, Nintendo still wins out. Even so, why are we all that keen on graphics? If I wanted realistic, I'd look out my window.

Nintendo is really being backed by developers yet again. ♥

Overall? For Nintendo, great presentation, great entertainment. Not so good on the gaming releases, but I'm still happy. Did they come out on top of Sony? Hm. I think so, but I am rather biased =3

Also: LOL MICROSOFT. Just sayin'

Game list:

~3DS~
- Mario Kart 3D
- Starfox 64 3D
- Super Mario 3D
- Kid Icarus: Uprising (features multiplayer, apparently)
- Luigi's Mansion 2
- Super Smash Brothers
- Resident Evil
- Ace Combat 3D
- Tetris
- Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Again.
- CAVE STORY (yes that deserves caps lock)
- Resident Evil Revelations
- Driver Renegade
- Pac-Man
- Tekken 3D
- Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D
- Excite Bike (and other 3D classics via download)

~Wii U~
- A whole bunch of sports and wii fit type games. Moving on.
- Super Smash Brothers
- A hide and seek game with Mii's... well, now that Osama's gone, I guess we do need something new for hide and seek, Y/Y?
- Lego City Stories
- Darksiders II
- Assassin's Creed
- Batman
- Ghost Recon Online
- Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
- Dirt Codemasters
- Aliens Colonial Marines
- Metro Last Light
- Tekken

Nintendo 3DS

This is a copy from what I posted on my Facebook, written while I was still fangasming over the E3 stuff. Enjoy =D
--

OK. So, Nintendo has been pushing the envelope with the DS. We've had the DS, the DS Lite, the DSi and the DSi XL. First they made it smaller, and then they made it larger again. Why? Probably just to drain our wallets. It seemed pretty gimmicky and we all realized awhile ago that Nintendo needed something new in the handheld department. Something to raise the bar up just that little bit higher.
Well, it's here. The newest addition to the Nintendo family, the 3DS. Don't be confused by the name. It sounds like a DS, and the actual product looks like a DS. But it's forgivable this time, because the new features will blow you away.

To start off, I'll talk about the physical aspects. When first presented at E3, it looked like a DS lite with an extra coat of paint and redesigned cameras. It goes without saying that the 3DS is only slightly different in appearance to the DS lite. They’re about the same size. I believe there is a 0.1 inch difference in width. The final design is unknown (obviously we've only seen a prototype) but I really like the sleek look of this system. It's the same square shape with the curved edges, much like the DSi but even more curvaceous. It appears to have gone back on the matte finish (thankfully so) and seems to have a texture much like the DS lite. The area surrounding the top screen is in black, unlike the rest of the 3DS which can be in either blue or red. Or, for those who are more conservative, you can choose to have the entire console in black. There is now a home button, which I can only assume acts in the same way as the power button on the DSi when pressed down for a mere second. There is also a power button, unlike the slide from the DS lite. The power light is no longer in the middle of the DS and is now down the very front, while the headphone port has moved toward the centre of the front panel. All in all, it's a very nice design, although the power button is in an awkward position. I can easily see my right hand slipping and having myself accidentally restart the game.

Another new feature would be the joystick or, as the official site calls it, the 'slidepad'. From what I've heard, it doesn't move as much as an actual joystick does, and would probably only be used for in-game camera adjustments. There are three cameras, one above the top screen and two on the outside. The two outside cameras are for taking 3D shots (And possibly videos), which is quite possibly done by taking the images using the two different perspectives and then combining them. While I question the photo quality, this is quite a novel idea. The 3DS also has motion and gyro sensors. At E3, Satoru Iwata claimed that you could watch special content and movies in clear 3D (naming off companies such as Disney, Dreamworks and Warner Brothers, who were apparently all for the idea). The movies would be shown in widescreen on the top (3.53 inch screen, 800x240 pixel resolution), while the touch screen's use during movies is currently unknown. Both screens are LCD and the touch screen is slightly smaller, at 3.02 inches. It is able to play the old DS games (using the same game slot as the newer 3DS games as they use the same sized card) although I know that's not what we really care about at this point.

The biggest incentive to buy this handheld is the 3D aspect. Unlike the 3D televisions we're currently being told to buy, the 3DS does not require special 3D glasses. That's right; you're supposed to see the 3D graphics with your own eyes. Does that sound impossible? Yes. Is it impossible? Well, not quite.
It's not the 3D that we may have been misled to believe. No, the characters are not going to jump out of the screen. From what I've heard, the characters will just stand out more. They look like you can actually touch them. The 3D effect adds more depth, perhaps, but probably won't be too involved with the gameplay. Regardless, it's a very nice added touch and if you really dislike having the extra dimension, you can turn it off. Nintendo has stayed true to its name and made sure that it is accessible to all players. In fact, there isn't just an on/off button for the 3D graphics. There's a slider, so you can find any degree between 2D and 3D that you find comfortable. Only want a little touch of the 3rd dimension? Just slide the slider up a tiny bit. While this is more of a safety net for Nintendo in case of backlash against the 3D feature, it does give the user something else to customize. And this is never a bad thing.

While I can't say anything about the sound quality or actual gameplay as of yet (not much has really been revealed) the graphics are amazing for a handheld device. The beta screenshots are superb. I definitely see the appeal of watching movies on it (let's just hope that Nintendo executes this add-on well) and the graphics so far look very, very good. Nintendo is not known for its graphics. We all know that. But the 3DS's graphics definitely surpass the Gamecube’s and almost rival the Wii’s. Some of the games are even better than the Wii's graphics. This might not seem like much, but as I said, you have to remember that this is a handheld device. This has been spawned from the DSi which, even from a distance, looks pixelated and block-y. Yet this newer system is surprisingly smooth and clear. Hell, this is a lot better than the PSP. My only problem with it so far is that you have to be viewing the screen head on to see the image properly, and if you're even slightly too far to the side the screen will not be clear. My guess is that if you turned off the 3D effect, you would be able to see it from side angles better, but once again I can't be sure. Regardless, the general consensus online is that the 3D effect is amazing.

Onto the current games list. So far, the 3DS has had a huge response from third-party developers. Some third-party games that are confirmed to be released on the 3DS include 'Resident Evil Revelations', 'The Sims 3', 'Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy', a new Sonic game, another Final Fantasy title and another Kingdom Hearts game (the last three without final names yet). From the released screenshots, 'The Sims 3' graphics are much like what 'The Sims 2' managed on PC. They are still nice, but they aren't the greatest. However, that was the worst of the bunch, with Kingdom Hearts looking absolutely fantastic compared to its previous DS title. Of course, these don't compare to the official Nintendo games that are soon to be released. As always, a new Mario game will be created for the 3DS, as well as Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. Nintendogs now features cats as well, Paper Mario is back once again, and there will be remakes of StarFox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (!!!).

Animal Crossing appears to have had a makeover with the main characters. You can now customize more than just shirts, giving the girls dresses, skirts or pants. The characters are no longer as stumpy and have quite a bit of height added to them. They are very Mii like in appearance. The graphics are notably better than the Wii Animal Crossing and are much more in depth. The shading is done extraordinarily well and the water looks brilliant.
Paper Mario is very clean. There are a few badly rendered curves, but once again the shading is very, very good. Mario Kart, on the other hand, is a bit of a letdown. It still looks very good, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting more. The camera angle is also very awkward, so that may have impacted on my judgment of the graphics.
The original Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a very, very in depth game, and Nintendo has clearly put time into trying to recreate the original setting. It's clearly not a port from the Nintendo 64 version. The graphics are much clearer. StarFox 64 has had the most improvement, with very nice colouring and scenes that will be perfect with the added 3D.
The biggest example here would have to be Kid Icarus Uprising. The graphics don't seem to be as polished as the others, but as the first 3DS title to have a trailer I am still very impressed. The glow on Pit's wings is perfect. There's not much else for me to say about it.

Overall, the system has had much support from many third party developers, despite the fact that the console itself isn’t even complete. With exclusive content from Disney, Warner Brothers and Dreamworks, the 3DS is not just a gaming system but a tool for viewing movies. Game-wise, Konami, Ubisoft and Capcom are just three of the third-party companies bringing out new games on the 3DS (Metal Gear Solid, Assassin’s Creed and Resident Evil, respectively) while Nintendo also brings out it’s old favourites. Not to mention the sequels to NES and SNES games that are being made, allowing Nintendo to keep the ‘something for everyone’ stance that they’ve adopted. Like always, they’re attempting to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore gamers. Whether that goal has been reached is debatable (hell, we haven’t seen any actual gameplay yet. We only have titles) but so far the online fanbase is very pleased. Generally, the 3DS is not disappointing. I’m very interested to see where this new system leads, and I have a feeling that this is the dawn of a very good era for Nintendo.