W580i
May 23, 2008 @ 11:25 AM
 
Yesterday, my contract with Cingular/AT&T finally expired, and as such I was given the option to extend the plan by another 2 years and gain a new phone at the "new customer" prices.  I, being relatively happy with AT&T's service, decided to do this.  The decision, then, was simply deciding what phone to go with, minus the obviously expensive iPhone and a few other ridiculously overpriced phones.
 
As such, I simply chose the upgrade to my current phone - the new Sony Ericsson W580i.  It's a slider phone, which is new to me, but has all the features of my old phone, plus a higher resolution screen, 2 megapixel camera, lighting effects, and a few other new features.
 
Yup, I'm pretty content.  Yay new technology.

 
Homecoming
May 21, 2008 @ 7:25 PM
 
Yes, I'm alive.  And fortunately, I'm settling back into a normal routine after all the changes that have been going on as of late.  Graduating college has been amazing, but with the development of real life taking the place of all the time that I was in school, it's taken some getting used to.  Things are better this way, though - much better.
 
What's sad is that, despite being out of the picture for a week now, there really hasn't been much in the way of news to talk about.  I do have a few articles, just to make this post worth reading, but nothing in comparison to older posts (pre-GTA, anyway).  All courtesy of Kotaku, check out the new Silent Hill: Homecoming screens, which make me want to play through all the older games again.  Or, look into the light-blue PSP that's being released (I'd care more if it was a dark, metallic blue, but since it's not....well, moving on).
 
Finally, Xbox has a bit of news - mainly the fact that Xbox Live Arcade games are getting a boost in their size-limits, jumping from a mere 50MB up to 350MB - means we should have some better games on the way.  Or, look into the special-edition Korean Xbox 360 that Bill Gates himself brought over to the country.
 
Anyway, that's all I've got for the moment - stay tuned, to those of you that still read this...  Now that I'm getting used to life again, expect a lot more updates the way things used to be.

 
Bittersweet
May 14, 2008 @ 9:01 AM
 
OkamiBlog was falling into old habits here for a few days.  Going from updating several times each day to a 5-day hiatus, I feel like I owe an explanation to the online visitors that grace this site with their presence.  And I do have one, sort of, but first we'll touch on some of the more recent news -
 
First and foremost, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was finally detailed, courtesy of GameSpot, which is good and bad for those of us that have been waiting for an up-to-date sequel to the Nintendo 64 classics since Microsoft announced this back in 2006.  Unfortunately, the initial impressions are that Rare and Microsoft are yet again butchering a great childhood memory (as they've already done with Perfect Dark and a slew of others), as the game looks to be more of a sims-esque type of game with a heavy emphasis on vehicle creation and not so much platforming and collecting.  I'll reserve final judgment for when the game's released later this year, but it seems Rare games are going the same route as Sonic games - old classics that are falling apart.
 
Next, we have a general flurry of information coming from Microsoft on its various hit titles that are all due out in 2008, including a new Viva Piñata, the sequels to Ninja Gaiden, Fable, and Gears of War.  There's far too much information on each game to post it all on here, but GameSpot has a very nice summary of everything, each of which has links to the full articles to be checked out.  Overall, it looks like Microsoft is going to have a good year, even if they do botch the Banjo Kazooie title.
 
Finally, some new Resident Evil 5 information and screen shots have been released thanks to Kotaku, and while I'm still not sure if this game is ever going to actually come out, it is easily one of my most anticipated titles for when or if it does.
 
Anyway, that's all the information I have for the time being, though GameSpot and Kotaku both have a slew of other stuff to report on if that's of interest.  In the mean time, I will now get back to the slightly hectic, yet ultimately amazing, changes that have been going on around here.  And, while thing are more-or-less working out (finally), I'm sure there will still be interesting and riddle-filled posts here on OkamiBlog to keep readers entertained - I'm not going anywhere, after all.
 
Stay tuned, all - there will be plenty more to come.

 
Graduation
May 9, 2008 @ 12:04 AM
 
Life is good.  Confusing, but good - I'm done with school, and assuming I didn't screw any of the final exams up too badly, the grades should be decent and I will finally have my Bachelor's Degree in CIS.  It's exciting - no more homework, papers, presentations, classes...etc.
 
I'm also exhausted - up way late last night, but with very good reason.  As such, though, this entry is going to be kept to the bare minimum.  After all, now that school's out I really have no excuse to not update this, or get CoinBlock and Project GTS in the works.  

 
Mirror's Edge
May 7, 2008 @ 12:20 AM
 
Haven't updated this in a little while, and even when I did, the posts weren't making much sense.  And while a lot's happened in my personal life over the last few days, I'm going to do my best to avoid commenting on it all for the time being until I know more myself, and instead try to provide a semi-normal post again.
 
With that in mind, it's been kind of hard to find decent information to write about over the last few days as well, mainly due to game and technology news covering very little outside of Grand Theft Auto IV and all the media hype that's still going into it full-force.  While I think it's a great game, I'm getting a little tired of seeing GTA all over everything that I usually check to provide news on here...  All's not lost, though - the coolest tidbit of information that's come through courtesy of either Kotaku or GameSpot is the official trailer for Mirror's Edge, a first-person urban running game by EA Dice that looks amazing.  The colors, unique game play style, and sense of depth while running through the city is great, and can really only be shown by watching the trailer for yourself.
 
In other news, there's a slew of new information on both Resistance 2 and Killzone 2, both for the PS3 and neither of which I actually plan on linking to.  But, for anyone that cares about these two games, check out Kotaku's various news articles on the games.
 
...Yep, that's all I've got.  Enjoy.

 
Lost
May 5, 2008 @ 3:19 AM
 
Can't sleep.  Can't voice an opinion.  Can't change a damn thing.  Can, however, sketch for a few minutes.

I've been through this before.  One would think I would have learned the first time around...

 
Night Sessions
May 3, 2008 @ 2:45 AM
 
Hmm.  Not that I thought or realized that I was, but once pointed out, apparently I am actually a little off tonight.  We had a jazz concert earlier tonight  where I botched the solo in the first piece, but other than that it went pretty well - maybe that's the reason.  Regardless, I'm now finished with almost everything involving my college and school career, minus two simple tests next week, and the rest of the night following the concert was good....great, even.
 
So...why can't I shake this feeling that something is wrong?

 
Nearing Completion
May 2, 2008 @ 1:11 AM
 
One in the morning.  I just finished my senior paper, which is more-or-less a general summary of everything I've learned over the past four years at McKendree University.  This project and paper are the last step to finishing out school and graduating with a Bachelor's of Science degree, and was the last concern that I had to deal with before completing school.
 
It's been a very stressful week, but it's a good feeling to have this - a project that's been worked on since January - finally finished.  Now I simply have to put together a presentation in the morning, take a test next week, and give one last concert, and then I can finally end the school career that's been a main part of my life for the last 16ish years.
 
It's a good feeling to be so close to completion, and one big stress is about to be lifted off of my shoulders for good...

 
Prosperity & Freedom
May 1, 2008 @ 1:23 PM
 
No real excuse to update the site at the moment except that I have time to kill and wanted to put livelier music on it, but since I feel I need at least something worthwhile to post, check out Kotaku's brief rant on Obama and his views of video games and Grand Theft Auto IV.  It's entertaining.

 
Buy Two, Get One Free
May 1, 2008 @ 12:26 AM
 
A lot's happened today.  Some good, some obnoxious, but overall it's been a good day.  As such, however, I have a lot to report, and I'm going to attempt to do so fairly quickly so that I can get to bed (I'm only looking at six hours of sleep at the most, and that's if I went to bed right now, rather than writing this entry).
 
The day began with a lot of school.  This morning involved class, a concert, a rehearsal, a final exam, writing a paper, and another final exam before I was finally finished.  That'd be the obnoxious part of the day.  Fortunately, this was the longest day I'd had left, so it's technically all downhill from here to the end of school, which is more-or-less the end of this week so long as we don't count the one final I have next Tuesday.
 
I digress.  Anyway, when school let out, I made a typical trip out to GameStop on my one day off (mock me, if you will) to take advantage of the best sale that GameStop ever offers - buy two used games/movies/accessories, and get the third item free.  Whether there are things that need to be purchased or, in my case, things I've simply been putting off buying, it's always beneficial to take advantage of this deal since the company only offers it a few times in a given year.  What isn't good is that I already dropped sixty unplanned dollars this week on Grand Theft Auto IV, and as such I certainly did not need to drop a decent amount more on Guitar Hero, an extra wireless guitar, Sega Rally Revo, Midnight Club 3, or the slew of other stuff I bought.
 
I may return some of this junk tomorrow when I realize how dumb this large of a purchase was considering I have rent due, well, today since it's now officially May 1.  On that note, I've archived all of April's entries to clear up this page, and will be implementing some subtle changes from here on out - pointing out when I change the background song and adding titles to my rants being two of the points.  
 
Anyway, after spending far too much money at work on my one day off during the week, I met up with a friend or two that helped me finally get around to tuning the Eclipse and installing the cold-air intake that's been sitting in my trunk for almost a month.  The performance boost is nice, and not only do I get a boost of speed in the higher RPMs, but the car generally sounds much more aggressive now - hardly the "ricer" stereotype that's attached to the Eclipse.  Needless to say I've burnt a decent amount of gas testing out the car's new features and had a fun time doing it, though there won't be much more of that going on any time soon thanks to premium fuel being $4.09 a gallon.
 
Finally, I'll end the day with a few points of interest, all courtesy of Kotaku.  First, a minor case of retardation is shown by a man that decided to rob a GameStop for a few copies of Grand Theft Auto IV, only to be caught a few blocks away due to complete lack of planning - the only thing that an article like this makes me fear about my own job is being sprayed with mace.  But let's face it, that wouldn't do any serious or long-term damage, right?
 
In game news, Capcom released some new screen shots of Street Fighter IV, which continues to look amazing.  I particularly think the shot of Vega's cool for the simple fact that he's one of the cooler enemies, but the whole game looks great and I'm hoping it hits consoles, rather than just the (non-existent) arcades by the end of 2008.  Also, Zero Punctuation reviewed God of War: Chains of Olympus, and while I don't have the game and have very little interest in buying it, the review is typically hilarious and worth checking out regardless.  Lastly, I'll end the game news with a couple of fun videos - the first being a Wii Fit and Rayman Raving Rabbids commercial, which doesn't tell us much but provides the typical entertaining commercial that the Rabbid games have become known for (no idea what I'm talking about?  Check out the link to see for yourself).  The second is applicable towards anyone that's currently into GTA IV - the secret "heart of liberty city" ordeal where players can actually find a giant beating heart inside the statue of liberty mock-up while playing the game.  
 
Anyway, that's all the news I've got for the night.  My apologies for the one long entry, but since it's been a busy day and I haven't had the chance to update the site with smaller, individual stories, this is what happens.  In the mean time, I'm going to get to bed - tomorrow's another busy day, but I look forward to work, the end of the week, and plans for the weekend to celebrate being (almost) done with school.  Just a few more days...

 
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