Well, the exchange rate is terrible at the moment, so buying imported videogames from US/Asia is very costly right now. So it's time to look at the UK market for bargains. Fortunately, the market downturn is producing a lot of bargains that are remarkably good for the last quarter of the year / run up to Christmas.
We still don't have Tales Of Vesperia - that comes out in June 2009, and we don't have Chrono Trigger DS or Castlevania Order Of Ecclesia either - they come out in February 2009 (from what I've seen). Square Enix will be publishing the European versions of Persona 4 (PS2) and Disgaea 3 (PS3) next year, though they're made by Atlus and Nippon Ichi.
But here are some bargains I found:
For XBOX 360:
Fallout 3 and Fable 2 were under £20 each on Amazon.co.uk recently, and in-store in branches of Gamestation, last week and the week before last - though the price has gone up again.
If you want a Square Enix RPG: Last Remnant was featured on a "Deal Of The Day" offer on play.com soon after it came out - at £17.99 but it's gone back up in price again now. It's under £25 on Amazon if you're impatient, but I think it'll drop to under £20. The Tri-Ace game Infinite Undiscovery - published by Square Enix - is currently £17.99 on play.com as well. They haven't received that good reviews but I do like Infinite Undiscovery (though the achievements are annoying). I haven't tried out Last Remnant.
Pure is currently £9.99 and that's a good deal, I bought it for twice that and it's a great game - a lot of fun racing dirt buggies and doing SSX style tricks on them.
Also for £17.99 on play.com at the moment are: Farcry 2, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, if you're interested. I'm playing GTA4 at the moment and I like it a lot because I find it pretty funny, and a lot less buggy than the previous games (though this weekend I did manage to go for a date with a girl in the game, we got drunk in a bar so I thought I'd stand there waiting for us to sober up before leaving. Then all of a sudden she was lying dead on the floor, two barstools lying on her. I have no idea why, but I suspect a bug rather than natural causes).
Mirror's Edge was down to £19.99 on both Xbox 360 and PS3 over the weekend, but from the demo I played I wouldn't rate it as worth that much.
For PSP:
LocoRoco 2 and Star Ocean First Departure are £17.99 each on play.com - there haven't been very many other notable releases on the PSP for a while, IMHO.
For DS:
Some really terrible games are really popular on DS here in the UK; Brain Training and Nintendogs are still popular here, and you get DS ports of gameshows like Deal Or No Deal or Golden Balls, and board games that make no sense to play on a DS like Pass The Pigs. Wading through that, though, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker is £9.99 right now on play.com and the newest Dragon Quest Monsters game if you like those or Pokemon style collect-em-ups (I like the DQM games because you don't have to be gentle in catching monsters, so you don't have to keep anyone in your party deliberately weak just for recruiting monsters). Also, The World Ends With You is £14.99 and that's the RPG I've spent most time on this console; definitely worth it at that price, I think. Bangai-O Spirits is only £12.71 on Amazon if you want story-devoid frantic-but-intentionally-laggy shmup fun. Dragon Quest: The Chapters Of The Chosen (the remake of the 4th Dragon Quest game) is listed as £12.45 but I think it's 3rd party.
EDIT: If you're wondering why I'm listing old bargains that no longer exist, I'm just saying that even though the games are a few months - or sometimes a few weeks old, their price has halved, and it's worth checking daily for the best prices.
Monday, 15 December 2008
ALI Project style Anpanman no March!
I think the song on this video is really funny and brilliant, in a way. :D
ALI Project style Anpanman no March
Now, I know jokes don't work if you have to explain them, but I will anyway...
There is a much-loved popular long running small-children's anime called Anpanman. It is about the adventures of a hero whose head is made of a dessert which is bread filled with red bean paste, and his friends (and enemies) whose heads are also food and household objects and strange things. There's a theme song that I keep hearing (for Soreike! Anpanman), called Anpanman no March; in videos of NHK anime song concerts, in Taiko No Tatsujin games, Karaoke Revolution games, and so on. It's performed by a female twin duo called Dreaming, who are so synchronised in their performances and interviews that I find them a bit unnerving.
There is also a music group called ALI Project, whose work I really really like. I first heard them doing the OP to the anime series Noir, then I bought a non-anime album of theirs called "EROTIC & HERETIC" - which is a great album, and have liked their work ever since - the music to Avenger is the best part of the series and I listen to that soundtrack a lot, as well as their work on the .hack//ROOTS soundtracks and Rozen Maiden OP/ED themes, Code Geass ED, etc. Their current sound is distinctive; a combination of electronic and classical music, sometimes seemingly entirely chaotic at first listen but with a ton of depth to explore with further listens. They increasingly present a feeling of class and dignity and mystery, and often feature complex gothic and dark lyrics, often with references to bondage and other strictly adult themes.
So there's a big contrast from Anpanman to ALI Project. When I'd finished laughing, I realised just how brilliant the song in this video is, bridging the gap so naturally and hilariously. It sounds recognisably in the distinctive style of ALI Project, and the song suits the treatment incredibly well. The tune to "Anpanman no March" sounds like a classical piece in parts which helps, it's just really well done.
I wish the sound quality on the video was better though. XD
ALI Project style Anpanman no March
Now, I know jokes don't work if you have to explain them, but I will anyway...
There is a much-loved popular long running small-children's anime called Anpanman. It is about the adventures of a hero whose head is made of a dessert which is bread filled with red bean paste, and his friends (and enemies) whose heads are also food and household objects and strange things. There's a theme song that I keep hearing (for Soreike! Anpanman), called Anpanman no March; in videos of NHK anime song concerts, in Taiko No Tatsujin games, Karaoke Revolution games, and so on. It's performed by a female twin duo called Dreaming, who are so synchronised in their performances and interviews that I find them a bit unnerving.
There is also a music group called ALI Project, whose work I really really like. I first heard them doing the OP to the anime series Noir, then I bought a non-anime album of theirs called "EROTIC & HERETIC" - which is a great album, and have liked their work ever since - the music to Avenger is the best part of the series and I listen to that soundtrack a lot, as well as their work on the .hack//ROOTS soundtracks and Rozen Maiden OP/ED themes, Code Geass ED, etc. Their current sound is distinctive; a combination of electronic and classical music, sometimes seemingly entirely chaotic at first listen but with a ton of depth to explore with further listens. They increasingly present a feeling of class and dignity and mystery, and often feature complex gothic and dark lyrics, often with references to bondage and other strictly adult themes.
So there's a big contrast from Anpanman to ALI Project. When I'd finished laughing, I realised just how brilliant the song in this video is, bridging the gap so naturally and hilariously. It sounds recognisably in the distinctive style of ALI Project, and the song suits the treatment incredibly well. The tune to "Anpanman no March" sounds like a classical piece in parts which helps, it's just really well done.
I wish the sound quality on the video was better though. XD
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Shin Megami Tensei Imagine MMO now in beta
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine: the free-to-play MMO (developed by Cave), based on Atlus's Megami Tensei series of RPGs is now in the process of being localised to English by Aeria Games, and is now in closed beta. Actually, it has been since the beginning of December but I didn't get round to installing it until this weekend (I've been busy!)
Although it's a closed beta, Filefront are giving away 20000 free access keys, so it's not very closed if you want to join in! I got one of those keys last week, then got sent an invite from Aeria games on Friday via email, so now I have the access key spare. :/
All character data is going to be erased when it goes to open beta, so I'm hesitant to put much time into it. All I've done so far is create a character, follow the tutorial and do the first mission. My character is level six.
I was thinking, from the MegaTen games I've played, and from people's descriptions of the game, that it would be kind of like an online and demon-filled, dark, grown-up version of Pokemon. The reality is that it feels like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and playing as a beastmaster in Final Fantasy XI, and I get the feeling that the game may have borrowed some of the stylistic elements from the .hack games/anime. Well, I don't know really, since this MMO fits in the storyline between the 1st and 2nd SMT games and I only started playing at the 3rd game, so I don't know the style of those older games.
It seems that you can only summon one of your demons at a time, and you fight alongside it. You choose how to allocate stat points to your character as you level up, and which skills to train up in as you fight, and in this way you mould your character into a melee fighter, long-range shooter, or magic user. I'm completely undecided as to what I'd like to be at the moment! Before I started playing, I was under the impression that I would be controlling the demons, not both the player and their summoned demon both at once.
There's only one server (Cerberus), containing several "channels", and their load has always been labelled "sparse" when I've gone in, however it's still a bit laggy (sometimes it becomes somewhat unplayable), and there's something on the front of the site saying that everyone should suffer fewer disconnect issues now. Another issue - I did notice that during the tutorial mission, the final cutscene was subtitled in Japanese rather than English (NB: it is easy to work out what happened even if you can't understand the language). So it's definitely a work in progress. But, worth a look if you're at all interested at getting to play this part of the MegaTen series, and it's free! :D
Although it's a closed beta, Filefront are giving away 20000 free access keys, so it's not very closed if you want to join in! I got one of those keys last week, then got sent an invite from Aeria games on Friday via email, so now I have the access key spare. :/
All character data is going to be erased when it goes to open beta, so I'm hesitant to put much time into it. All I've done so far is create a character, follow the tutorial and do the first mission. My character is level six.
I was thinking, from the MegaTen games I've played, and from people's descriptions of the game, that it would be kind of like an online and demon-filled, dark, grown-up version of Pokemon. The reality is that it feels like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and playing as a beastmaster in Final Fantasy XI, and I get the feeling that the game may have borrowed some of the stylistic elements from the .hack games/anime. Well, I don't know really, since this MMO fits in the storyline between the 1st and 2nd SMT games and I only started playing at the 3rd game, so I don't know the style of those older games.
It seems that you can only summon one of your demons at a time, and you fight alongside it. You choose how to allocate stat points to your character as you level up, and which skills to train up in as you fight, and in this way you mould your character into a melee fighter, long-range shooter, or magic user. I'm completely undecided as to what I'd like to be at the moment! Before I started playing, I was under the impression that I would be controlling the demons, not both the player and their summoned demon both at once.
There's only one server (Cerberus), containing several "channels", and their load has always been labelled "sparse" when I've gone in, however it's still a bit laggy (sometimes it becomes somewhat unplayable), and there's something on the front of the site saying that everyone should suffer fewer disconnect issues now. Another issue - I did notice that during the tutorial mission, the final cutscene was subtitled in Japanese rather than English (NB: it is easy to work out what happened even if you can't understand the language). So it's definitely a work in progress. But, worth a look if you're at all interested at getting to play this part of the MegaTen series, and it's free! :D
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
One man's work is another man's play
I've never played World Of Warcraft, but I still found this little comedy video quite funny. :)
World Of Workcraft
(This is 6 months old, but I've only just seen it!)
World Of Workcraft
(This is 6 months old, but I've only just seen it!)
Monday, 8 December 2008
Yuen Shan restaurant, Sheffield
I ate in a little Chinese restaurant called Yuen Shan on Saturday. When I had finished my meal, I was all *_* [sparkly sparkly]
My boyfriend and I walked up London Road looking for a good place to eat, undecided where to go, looking for somewhere inexpensive that would sell good, tasty food, suitable for one person who wanted something interesting that they can't easily cook themselves, and one vegetarian who wanted something less adventurous. This place fitted the bill really well.
It's fairly new, and I hadn't seen it there before. There were menus and advertisements posted on the windows - a recession-busting 20% off everything, special offer. All you can eat buffet. Special Hot Pot. Then the menus had the general individual things you could order, including some really speciality exotic dishes that you don't normally see on offer, like dishes using chicken feet, cow lungs, pig ears, etc. Menus were in both English and Chinese.
As we were waiting outside, I could see that the staff were anticipating us, which scared me off a little bit. We tried to see what was on offer at the restaurant next door but the windows were steamed up, so we came back to the Yuen Shan. No regrets!
The interior is not flashy at all, it's like a little café or canteen. It seems clean - they clear down and spray clean tables immediately after customers leave. There is one big room, with a counter to the right, and toilets to the back. As we sat down, they gave us a huge pile of menus, along with free Chinese tea and prawn crackers. There are... maybe hundreds of dishes to choose from, hehe.
"Yay! Free tea! This is the best place ever! And free crackers! Oh! And they supply chilli oil as well as soy sauce!! Wow! I like this place!!" ^__^ was my reaction.
The "Eat As Much As You Can" buffet costs more than at most places in the area, and is not actually a buffet - it's table service. You choose whatever you would like on that menu and they bring it to you. That seems quite nice and far more hygenic than how it is done in most restaurants, but it seems... I dunno, embarassing to individually order so much food rather than take it. It's got a far larger vegetarian menu than most all-you-can-eat buffets.
I decided to order a "Big Plate" of boiled rice, mixed seafood and tofu. My boyfriend opted for a tofu dish and boiled rice separately. The food arrived quickly, far quickly than in most restaurants I have been to. The "Big plate" really is big! I was very impressed. The selection of seafood was good as well - great big king prawns, squid, scallops, and fried tofu. There were large slices of ginger on top which made the dish hot, and I added some of the chilli oil (which seemed to contain crushed shrimp) as well. Oh, it was gorgeous. Really well prepared. ^_^ My boyfriend's meal was a large plate of tofu and (I forget what) sauce which contained water chestnuts and peanuts and celery, together with a small bowl of rice. He seemed to enjoy it. ^_^
Around us, there were lots of Chinese patrons - who had all opted for the restaurant's speciality hot pot. From 2 people to 6 people parties, that seemed to be what everyone was eating. For this, they brought out a huge pot of boiling water over a little hot plate to keep it boiling, and put it in the centre of the table. Then they brought out plates of raw vegetables and meat and seafood and noodles, and placed those plates around the table. Each person chooses what they would like and they put the food into the pot, put the lid on and wait for it to cook. It's also all-you-can-eat, I think. Looks great, a very social way to eat, but I guess some people wouldn't like to eat with raw meat in front of them, and you risk giving yourself food poisoning if you don't cook it all properly!
So, we had a good meal, and everyone around us seemed to have a good meal as well. My dinner - a large, filling, plate of rice and seafood, and a pot of chinese tea, came to £4.80. My boyfriend's meal came to a little more due to ordering rice separately and his soft drink, but it still came to a total of under £12 for both our meals together. Really good value for money!
Are there any downsides to the Yuen Shan? well, my boyfriend tried to order a drink and it was quite troublesome - first of all the man who appeared to be the boss of the place didn't seem to understand what my boyfriend wanted at all, then he called over a waitress who also had trouble understanding what a "soft drink" is. The staff are attentive, but their poor English communication skills let it down. Also, I think you might be stuck if you can't use chopsticks, it's hard to tell whether meals will be spicy or contain nuts from the menu, a dish with oyster sauce is in the vegetarian section (unless their Oyster sauce doesn't contain oysters?), and there are no desserts on the menu. None of that really affected me, though, and I had a great time. ^_^
There are several good Chinese restaurants in Sheffield; the Wong Ting, and Mei's Restaurant are both favourites of mine which sell really excellent food, but the price is twice what you would pay in the Yuen Shan - perhaps more. This is more downmarket but is a very authentic small-scale Chinese restaurant experience with a huge range of meals to choose from, and is very good value for money. And they give you free tea! *_*
My boyfriend and I walked up London Road looking for a good place to eat, undecided where to go, looking for somewhere inexpensive that would sell good, tasty food, suitable for one person who wanted something interesting that they can't easily cook themselves, and one vegetarian who wanted something less adventurous. This place fitted the bill really well.
It's fairly new, and I hadn't seen it there before. There were menus and advertisements posted on the windows - a recession-busting 20% off everything, special offer. All you can eat buffet. Special Hot Pot. Then the menus had the general individual things you could order, including some really speciality exotic dishes that you don't normally see on offer, like dishes using chicken feet, cow lungs, pig ears, etc. Menus were in both English and Chinese.
As we were waiting outside, I could see that the staff were anticipating us, which scared me off a little bit. We tried to see what was on offer at the restaurant next door but the windows were steamed up, so we came back to the Yuen Shan. No regrets!
The interior is not flashy at all, it's like a little café or canteen. It seems clean - they clear down and spray clean tables immediately after customers leave. There is one big room, with a counter to the right, and toilets to the back. As we sat down, they gave us a huge pile of menus, along with free Chinese tea and prawn crackers. There are... maybe hundreds of dishes to choose from, hehe.
"Yay! Free tea! This is the best place ever! And free crackers! Oh! And they supply chilli oil as well as soy sauce!! Wow! I like this place!!" ^__^ was my reaction.
The "Eat As Much As You Can" buffet costs more than at most places in the area, and is not actually a buffet - it's table service. You choose whatever you would like on that menu and they bring it to you. That seems quite nice and far more hygenic than how it is done in most restaurants, but it seems... I dunno, embarassing to individually order so much food rather than take it. It's got a far larger vegetarian menu than most all-you-can-eat buffets.
I decided to order a "Big Plate" of boiled rice, mixed seafood and tofu. My boyfriend opted for a tofu dish and boiled rice separately. The food arrived quickly, far quickly than in most restaurants I have been to. The "Big plate" really is big! I was very impressed. The selection of seafood was good as well - great big king prawns, squid, scallops, and fried tofu. There were large slices of ginger on top which made the dish hot, and I added some of the chilli oil (which seemed to contain crushed shrimp) as well. Oh, it was gorgeous. Really well prepared. ^_^ My boyfriend's meal was a large plate of tofu and (I forget what) sauce which contained water chestnuts and peanuts and celery, together with a small bowl of rice. He seemed to enjoy it. ^_^
Around us, there were lots of Chinese patrons - who had all opted for the restaurant's speciality hot pot. From 2 people to 6 people parties, that seemed to be what everyone was eating. For this, they brought out a huge pot of boiling water over a little hot plate to keep it boiling, and put it in the centre of the table. Then they brought out plates of raw vegetables and meat and seafood and noodles, and placed those plates around the table. Each person chooses what they would like and they put the food into the pot, put the lid on and wait for it to cook. It's also all-you-can-eat, I think. Looks great, a very social way to eat, but I guess some people wouldn't like to eat with raw meat in front of them, and you risk giving yourself food poisoning if you don't cook it all properly!
So, we had a good meal, and everyone around us seemed to have a good meal as well. My dinner - a large, filling, plate of rice and seafood, and a pot of chinese tea, came to £4.80. My boyfriend's meal came to a little more due to ordering rice separately and his soft drink, but it still came to a total of under £12 for both our meals together. Really good value for money!
Are there any downsides to the Yuen Shan? well, my boyfriend tried to order a drink and it was quite troublesome - first of all the man who appeared to be the boss of the place didn't seem to understand what my boyfriend wanted at all, then he called over a waitress who also had trouble understanding what a "soft drink" is. The staff are attentive, but their poor English communication skills let it down. Also, I think you might be stuck if you can't use chopsticks, it's hard to tell whether meals will be spicy or contain nuts from the menu, a dish with oyster sauce is in the vegetarian section (unless their Oyster sauce doesn't contain oysters?), and there are no desserts on the menu. None of that really affected me, though, and I had a great time. ^_^
There are several good Chinese restaurants in Sheffield; the Wong Ting, and Mei's Restaurant are both favourites of mine which sell really excellent food, but the price is twice what you would pay in the Yuen Shan - perhaps more. This is more downmarket but is a very authentic small-scale Chinese restaurant experience with a huge range of meals to choose from, and is very good value for money. And they give you free tea! *_*
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Vote in the seiyuu awards
There's a new "Overseas fan's choice" category in this year's seiyuu awards (3rd annual). So that specifically people outside of Japan can vote for their favourites!
See:
http://www.seiyuawards.jp/eng/
It says:
"Enter voice actors and actress name and the name of the characters that voice actors and actress has played."
So don't forget to mention some characters as well as the name of your favourite seiyuu!
You can only vote for one person. Oh it's so hard to decide!! >_<
See:
http://www.seiyuawards.jp/eng/
It says:
"Enter voice actors and actress name and the name of the characters that voice actors and actress has played."
So don't forget to mention some characters as well as the name of your favourite seiyuu!
You can only vote for one person. Oh it's so hard to decide!! >_<
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