Coco's video collage of her first birthday. She's just too damn cute!
She's really come a long way since we got her from her foster parents (she's a rescue dog). She definitely seems happy now, and though she's still a bit skiddish and timid, she's nothing like when we first got her (we couldn't even touch her then, much less hold her or pick her up).
I usually have a protein shake around 10pm as my last meal/snack of the day. It usually consist of a packet of Myoplex (chocolate lover's variety pack), a frozen banana, a few ice cubes and a cup of water. It's pretty tasty, but I don't like eating so many carbs that late. So I decided to get some vanilla creme Myoplex Lite instead and mix it with water, ice and a less carby fruit.
That crap is disgusting. Don't buy it unless you like the taste of chalk. The first time, I made it with water, ice and fresh raspberries. I could barely finish it. Second time, I made it with Yoplait french vanilla yogurt, water, ice and fresh strawberries. The Yoplait helped, but that defeats the purpose of low carb and it still wasn't even good. Ugh.
I'm sometimes known as the guy who doesn't like music. I usually tell people that when they inquire about my musical tastes. But it's not actually true. It's just that it's very hard for me to find music that I like. I tend to like very melodic music, which is hard to find on the radio or in modern popular music.
I do like classical music, but the really melodic pieces seem to be the famous ones that we've all heard a million times. I've tried listening to some not-so-famous classical music but still have a hard time finding those catchy melodies that I like so much.
You know what is really melodic and catchy? Classic 8 and 16 bit video game music! So I end up listening to Kohiha Radio most of the time which is more or less awesome!
It's been a secret fantasy of mine to be able to play an instrument really well... so I can play all my favorite video game music. Silly, I know... but if you're a gamer, how cool would that be??
I recently found on YouTube tons of videos of people performing live versions of video game music. I'm massively jealous. Here are a few choice picks. The first one is especially incredible. Bonus if you can name the game and song.
I just beat it on Path of the Warrior. My save game time was 15 hours and total playing time 24 hours over a span of 3 days. Just for comparison sake, it took me 24 hours over two days to beat Ninja Gaiden Black.
First, let's address the difficulty. You know how Tomonobu Itagaki was saying that Ninja Gaiden II will be more accessible (read "easier") than its predecessors? It's a joke. It must be an inside joke for Team Ninja. I don't remember being beat down this badly in Ninja Gaiden Black and I didn't even know how to play properly back then (instant charge ultimate technique, what's that??), I'm supposed to be a seasoned veteran now!
So, what do I think of the game? It's the most frustrating and most satisfying game I have ever played.
Well, "frustrating" might be the wrong word. There are a lot of mechanisms in place to make it less frustrating than it's predecessors. Here's a nifty list.
So maybe I just mean "brutally difficult" instead of "frustrating", although the game does take quite a few cheap shots at you so there is some level of frustration baked in still. I suspect they use all the health regening as an excuse to make the fights more difficult.
The game is massively satisfying on multiple levels. First off, because it's so difficult, it's satisfying just to move forward and make progress. You really feel like you've accomplished something.
Second, the combat is truly amazing. The depth and the precision of the fighting system is unrivaled in this genre. There is no room for button mashing in this game. All the aspects of a dedicated fighting game are present:
They even added a little something extra that they call "obliteration techniques" which are stylish (cool camera zooming and angles) finishing moves on wounded enemies.
Third, the animation is spectacular. The moves are so crazy over the top (without being cheesy) that you never get bored with them. It also helps that there are so many of them. Each weapon has tons of moves, combos, ultimate techniques and obliteration techniques. What's even cooler is that the obliteration techniques differ according to what limb the enemy is missing, your orientation to them, and even the environment sometimes.
Lastly, it's disgustingly violent. Remember playing games back in the day and wondering, "I'm hitting this guy with a massive sword, why aren't his limbs coming off?" Problem solved. Any combination of the following can happen:
Sometimes after a good combo, your enemy will just be arms, legs, half a body, and a rolling head on the ground. It's awesome.
So what's bad about the game?
But who really cares about that? It's all about the fighting and stylish violence!
Final thoughts... the rational side of me wants to give it 3 out of 4 stars because of the technical issues and absurd difficulty, but it's just too damn fun and entertaining. 4 out of 4 stars!
These pictures really don't do it justice. You need to see it on a high def tv at full 60 frames per second. It actually looks nothing like these pictures (where are the weapon tracers??)
