Much to the probable chagrin of 서영, I bought Fallout 3 for my PlayStation 3 this morning. Recently, Home Plus has got a lot of new games in and I almost picked up Little Big Planet too, but I resisted because I’ll be playing Fallout and GTA for a while.

I’m still getting used to the game and the controls at the moment but I’m already noticing that it’s dark and gloomy a lot of the time, much in the same way GTA4 was. This is slightly more forgivable considering it’s a post apocalyptic wasteland. The slow motion kills are pretty neat but I’ve been killing more bugs than raiders which is just not as fun. Looking forward to the progression of the story and meeting new characters, getting new items and killing more mentally deranged people.

Oh, and Liam Neeson is the voice of your father :D

Ahh, I finally got it. To be honest, I could have bought it earlier if I had wanted to but I guess I just wasn’t as excited as I might have been if I were at home watching my brother play it. Anyway, I picked it up in Home Plus this morning during my morning game/music check and ran home to play it.

[EDIT] Now that I’ve had it for a day and a half I feel I can offer some opinions on the gameplay. As always, bullet point lists are my friend.

THE GOOD
- The game is huge and there is so much to see and do.
- They’ve added more ‘normal stuff‘ that you would expect to see in cities such as roadworks and accidents.
- The AI has been slandered for the police’s laziness but I think in general there has been an improvement.

THE BAD
- It seems to be eternally dark and gloomy which makes navigating difficult because the majority of the buildings are the same colour.
- Driving is a farce >_< It's so difficult to keep up speed and weave through traffic. Not fun like the old games.
- If you use all the fun cheats before you complete the game then when you are roaming around it will always be raining and dark D:
- The lock on shooting doesn't seem quite as right as before.

*goes to drive to some place, shoot some people and drive to another place*

I really, really want to play this game. There are have been few games that I’ve played where you get so invested in your character and the story. It is a lesson to all other games on the concept of immersion. Now that I’ve finished my promotional speech, check out the link below to see 5 awesome videos at Joystiq.

See the new trailers and also some background information on the franchise.

I actually bought this last week, but I was just playing it again just now and thought I’d make a mention of it. I’m yearning after a PlayStation 3 something terrible and so I needed something to amuse me in those half hour blocks of boredom. I’m pleased to say the game is pretty cool. I like the artwork and it runs perfectly on my MacBook ^^

I still want a PlayStation 3 but I figured $20 was better than $400 for the time being. Especially as I plan a little shopping this weekend before the concert ^^

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 [Wiki]
I was always going to watch this however much I expected it to be the same as Gundam and Gundam SEED and it is pretty similar. This is undeniably a good thing :D The animation is awesome as always and now in HD which adds to the flavour. The characters are all as weird and angsty as ever before with some of the best/worst names I’ve ever seen. The Gundams themselves are pretty neat too and as I’ve only watched about half way through this first series, I expect them to get better.

Also, ‘DAYBREAK’S BELL’ is awesome and ‘Wana’ is outrageously bad >> And Setsuna is kakkoi *points up* but not as cool as Lockon Stratos and his Haro because Dynames has a sniper rifle :D

Ouran High School Host Club [Wiki]
I had actually started watching this series about 8 months ago and only managed to get half way through before I lost track. This had nothing to do with the quality of the series but me just not being in the mood. I decided to finish it off because it’s a great light hearted anime with plenty of effeminate guys which I think is good, not because I’m gay, but because I think the character models are good. Honest, that’s the reason. In this case they’re all fantastically camp and brilliant because they’re trying to attract the girls so it works for them :D

Lovely Complex [Wiki]
Loved the film of the same name with Teppei in it so I thought I’d see how the anime measured up. I like it a lot and I think it’s good fun and the art is different from the norm. I’ll definitely be finishing it but have only seen the first 3 episodes thus far. OP/EP done by Tegomasu xD

Lucky Star [Wiki]
Started because I saw it and had read about it in the past. I fancied another anime that had no plot to it and revolved around a school scene. This follows a group of young girls around school and some of their activities outside much in the same way that Ichigo Mashimaro did. Only watched the first episode so far and I intend to finish it in the next week or so.

Enchanted Arms [Wiki]
I needed something other than anime to watch so I started playing Enchanted Arms for the PS3. It’s a launch title and tries to be a Final Fantasy game but obviously doesn’t really get there. The game itself is alright and the graphics are also alright given it’s release date. Story is pretty bland so actually just like a Final Fantasy game but the battle system is pretty neat. It’s based on a board of squares and your characters can move on it and attack on certain squares on the opposing side. Difficult to explain but I’m really liking it.

I think it said I’m 20% of the way through so I’ve got plenty to go. Want to finish it before I head to Korea ^^

I’ll start by thanking people who’ve wished me well in my new career and I hope to bring you lots of shiny news from Korea :D

I didn’t expect to be posting again so soon after the first but my YesAsia package arrived this morning. I was hoping it would come before I went away to Japan and thankfully it did. Check out the swag below:

Hot Issue, Always, For The World and All About Dong Bang Shin Ki: Season 2

All the Big Bang stuff was awesome. I had seen pictures and heard people talk about the quality of the packaging but was totally surprised when I got them. I love that’s there’s just not like a standard CD at all. Well they are, but inside. The outside package is built of foam and cardboard which sounds cheap but looks and feels really classy. Hey, and that’s before you mention the 3D paper dolls you can put together of T.O.P [Always] and G-Dragon [Hot Issue]. I’m not going to attempt to put them together now but I’ll leave them and maybe if I have time when I get to Korea I can take the time and put them together properly. On a random note, I decided to rip them using the Apple Lossless Encoder which gives you file sizes of 20-30MB and bit rates of around 1000 kbps. I wouldn’t normally but I wanted to see if it made any difference with the heavy beats on the tracks. More on that once I’ve listened to them a couple of times.

As for the Dong Bang DVDs, I couldn’t watch them because of region encoding. You can attempt to flash the firmware on a MacBook but it doesn’t work that often and if it breaks, that’s it. I didn’t fancy trying it so I’m waiting until I get to Korea and have bought my PlayStation 3 to watch them. It’s a month or so away but I guess it will be something to watch while I’m waiting for the Internet to be connected in my apartment ^^”

The blog is back so let’s just jump straight in with what’s been going on with me since Christmas :D

I suppose I should start with the biggest news of the year so far and that’s me getting a job as an English teacher in Incheon, South Korea. It’s a coastal province on the Western edge of the country next door to Seoul which means that I can nip into the big city for concerts and shopping. I will be working at JungChul Jr. English School which as far as I know is a private cram school. I should be working with 10yr olds which sounds great because I was worried about being horribly mocked by older pupils. At least if these guys mock me I can just ignore them ;D I got my contract through last week and it all looks pretty hot, so I’ll talk more about it once I’m out there at the end of February.

Before all that though, I’m heading over to see a friend in Nagoya, Japan. I’ll be spending 10 days there and I’m hoping to spend most of the time around the local area rather than heading into Tokyo and further afield. He’s mentioned the aquarium and some temples in the area but I think I’m most excited about visiting the JE Store. It’ll be the closest I’ve been to a major fandom of mine and I’m pretty excited ^^ For the most part though I’m just looking forward to spending time with Matt and relaxing a little before the big move. I’m currently on track with the E2 Visa application but it’s just frustrating having to rely on other people [university transcripts, criminal record check] but unfortunately it can’t be helped.

That’s the main news out the way so now I can talk about some less important, but equally awesome stuff. I don’t know how many of you know, but I decided to sell my PS3 before Christmas because I knew I would never be able to take it with me to Korea. It’s been a tough few months not having any games console whatsoever and I’m looking forward to getting to Korea and buying an 80GB model. I blame Penny Arcade podcasts mostly but I have been looking forward to playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 despite it’s poor score. Also looking forward to the Dual Shock 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Both are have some serious hype surrounding them. It would be wasteful not to take advantage of the large Korean bandwidth with some online gaming…

Lastly, I’d like to mention the Apple Keynote that was aired just recently. I’ll just quickly run through the best bits because I could go on for ages about it. The MacBook Air is my favourite thing purely because it looks stunning and is a really big step forward in the portable market. A lot of people are disappointed that a smaller portable between the iPhone and MacBook Air wasn’t announced but this is an acceptable stop gap. iPod software version 1.1.3 was also released along with a special update which brings in the missing apps such as Mail, Maps and weather. It was £12.99 for the update which originally annoyed me but I bought it anyway because I wanted the Mail app. I do like it and it works well so I’m feeling better about it.

That’s pretty much it for this update so keep checking back. I’ll be updating with pictures and news from Japan next week so stay tuned. I’ll be giving Picasa a go for storing images so we’ll see how that goes.