SSFIV UK Release 30/04/2010

SSFIV has finally released in the UK today. Hoping to put the Tournament Edition stick that I got a month ago to good use now. Mashing the buttons on it has never felt so good, sadly I do that when I'm idling at my desk at night *shrug*



Lately, I've been watching videos uploaded by players from the US. My favourite of all time since vanilla would have to be Lancecryor. This Psycho Powered machine, in my opinion provides amazing commentary which wins by default. Feel free to check out his other uploads and I recommend subscribing for those SF/Tekken fans out there. Right, I've decided to head out for a mate's Birthday and will consider getting this game. Now it's just a case of what game I should trade in...

Maximum Attack Cross II (Video)

The second mission offers a much smoother run compared to the first; Monster difficulty has been adjusted and scape dolls drop twice throughout the mission. Guess they're catering to the majority out there who prefer to play solo or as a duo. Prepare for green grass, trees, bushes, rolling boulders, traps, two boss fights and a catastrophic finish OTL



Ran this several times last night, recorded all the runs but chose the good ones. I've also removed the first block from the video since it's the same as the previous mission. Participants were myself, Ami, Blade, Keiji, Manisevi, Omega and Yuber.

Personally I really enjoyed the harder difficulty, it made healing an intense job to do. Having to manage my PP, watching health bars to staying alive myself made me concentrate constantly. Now that it's more of a cake walk, I would bring out my Anchor to smack monsters up the ass *shrug*

Soaked in and Sponging

I had doubts about updating after the release of Monster Hunter Tri. Well it seemed unlikely since it’s the only thing I’ve been doing all weekend; over 40 hours have been sunk into playtime and you could say that I'm totally hooked. Now that I think of it, why do I even bother? Loyalties I tell you! This post will serve as a mini review; and MH in general.



Prepare for eye busting paragraphs, slightly in-depth talk and shrunken screen captures.

Maximum Attack Cross II (Update)

Congratulations to all participants in the event as the target for 6,000,000 points was reached. Details are right here.

The 2nd MAX stage has released. Monsters are upped by 5 Levels so it shouldn't be much of a big deal; providing that quite a few have levelled up from the 1st stage. Drop/Type bonuses now apply here and expect video coverage soon.



This paragraph will let me mention a few things about updates too! 2/3 posts are in drafting so I'll be finalizing them later today. I've mostly been busy with MH3 and a few awesome activities in London. Signing out for now!

MH3 UK Release Day 23/04/2010

Coincidentally it was St.George's Day on the release of Monster Hunter Tri for us in the UK. Sadly, the producer Ryozo Tsujomoto and director Kaname Fujiok could not attend for the signing due to the recent Volcanic ash events. To make up for this, the first 100 who attends the opening will have a signed wii sleeve sent to them within the next few weeks. Due to the Phantasy Star Portable 2 MAX Event going live the day before, I didn't manage to catch any sleep at all. Having a coffee with six sugars before leaving the house fired me up, talk about being healthy right?



All the goodies purchased and received are included, not much on depth but I'll get things covered.

Caked out

Yuber and ami joins in on the fun in this free mission, along with Mike from PSUblog. He will be referred to his character name from now on; Ricardo. As you can see we encounter something special and I'm sure everyone loves cake, I do myself but I have to refrain since I'm lactose intolerant *head desk* This post will contain 34 screen captures supplied with my lame commentary. Would have put in a flashy screen capture for a start but instead I've gone for something special.



Ready your eyes for crotch busting, protein pumping, acts of criminality and the flashing of Oriental balls!!

Maximum Attack Cross I (Video)

Running the first event mission for the first time with Blade and Yuber, sadly there wasn't anyone to occupy the last party slot. It was fun, had hilarious moments like seeing Blade using his nanoblast only to be OHKO'd by the boss.



Video is self explanatory, collect chips that spawn randomly in area maps and kill everything in sight.
Had to edit so much out due to the 10 minute limit on youtube. Will capture the next mission when it releases!

Maximum Attack Cross is now Live!

The MAX event is now live across PSU JP and PSPo2 servers. That's right, a cross over between the two games.

All participants will donate points towards the event; this is done by defeating enemies, not only that but also the collection of data chips. We'll be getting a weapon reward each week and depending on the results, more points mean a higher element percentage for the weapon. There's more to it but I'll explain as I progress.



I've only participated in one major event and that was MAG back in 2008 on PSU. Will be covering this one throughout, hopefully MH3 doesn't stop me from doing so. That reminds me, I still need to post up about a previous mission.

To check out event progress, head over to http://phantasystar.sega.jp/psp2/max/

Nature and the Power of Twin Drills

The Maximum Attack LW Cup event happened earlier this year. It's already finished but the mission is still around for those who wish to play and collect special tickets. This was the start of an eventful night of missions so I'm taking some time off game to post these up. More to come but for the time being you can see how myself, Ami and Yuber did with the mission on A rank. This thread has more screen captures than the JUMP mission, 44 to be precise with better image quality.

The first image will be the best out of all captures. Witness amazing technics, fisting action and mohawks.

Fuelling the Hours

Kaori has made good progress over the week, mostly on-line play. Might I add that it has also been an eventful night!
Her goal to hit LV100 has been reached and to top that off, I bought everything at the Naura cake store to celebrate.



Since I'm falling behind on posts and content is building up, I have no choice but to work on them after some good sleep.
Also a reminder that 'The Maximum Attack X -Cross-' event starts in three days... Time to prepare!!

MH3 UK Signing Event

A week to go till the release of Monster Hunter Tri. Sadly, the servers will be region locked so it looks like I can't play with anyone in the US. For those who don't know about this franchise, be sure to check the video below.



Wonderful news for us in the UK, thought I'd mention it here. Copy pasta'd from the fb Monster Hunter Tri events page.

"On Friday 23rd April, UK fans of the Monster Hunter series will be treated to rare opportunity to meet the infamous series producer Ryozo Tsujomoto and director Kaname Fujiok as they come to London for an exclusive signing at GAME, Oxford Street.

The first 50 people in line to buy the game at the launch event will take home a very special Monster Hunter bag that includes some exclusive Monster Hunter items not available in the UK.

All attendees will then get the chance to meet the legendary producer and developer of the series to have their copy of this highly anticipated game signed in person. Fans are encouraged to dress in their best 'hunting' attire to celebrate the game's arrival in the UK."

Looks like I'll be bringing my Wii along for the signing since I've missed out two opportunities already.
Will update on the day since I'll be queuing up, doubt I'd get the bag since knowing the MH community here... it's huge!!!

Patisserie Justice

I couldn't resist another night on-line despite being ill. Last night I teamed up with Ami, Vorpal and Yuber from the PSO-world forums. We took part in two free-missions until it was decided to do the JUMP mission. Objective: To save the three Naura sisters. Not sure when they appeared within the Phantasy Star series. I do remember finding them and their bakery shop during the MAXIMUM G event on PSU a while back.

It was the first time doing the mission so I'll try my best to explain these screen captures taken from recordings. Before clicking on the 'Read more' button, this post consists of 22 images so expect intense loading times if you still use dial-up.



Let's see, I'll put in an obligatory tail-whip screen shot with near death experience to make a good start...

Danny Choo @ SOAS (Videos)

Thought I'd share three videos that I recorded from the Danny Choo talk last night. He encountered some technical difficulties during the keynote and this is pretty much what happened.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

An eventful night

After attending the Danny Choo SOAS talk in London earlier tonight, it got me thinking. I'm going to get a few things straight with the domain; hoping to split it up into separate pages to handle content with the main being a 'portal'. I find that I cater out quite a few things and everything seems in a mess. This would also give me the chance to experiment on new projects and so forth.

[PSPo2] Twice as Bright

Had another two attempts on the Gemaga DL mission tonight. Upon reaching Shizuru, I get him and one of the clones as rare spawns. Bad luck or have I been killed off way too much?



Not aiming to farm this mission but it's good to see progression. Currently LV10 as the hunter class which got me thinking; if the enemies will constantly be 10 levels higher, will my class level also affect their attributes?

Think I'll get back on track with story mode (hard). I love Chelsea, not because of the fact that she's a hostess and has an amazing chest... but because she's voiced by Tomatsu Haruka (did I mention that I'm an idolm@ster/Dream Club fan?) for those who didn't know. This dialogue scene is just splendid when she gets angry with *****. Link here.

Out and about

Had a busy weekend and I think the hangover and fatigue has started to kick in a day after! Haven't enjoyed the social night-life in London for quite some time and it's good to unwind every now and then.

Attended a 'cosplay picnic' by animeleague UK in the park yesterday and it was such a nice day. There was over a hundred people, free food and a dead mouse somewhere nearby in the grass. Drew CIRNO (Touhou) on a friends A3 paper roll too! Not sure how I'd describe it but it was for her project work, to have a plethora of drawn characters on it.



The day out got me thinking, how would a Phantasy Star Portable 2 cosplay work out? Who to be and so forth.
MCM EXPO LONDON in May is coming up and I could make myself work to create something awesome?!

Now that I'm recuperating I'll have to catch up with much unfinished business like site coding, link banners, social media, photos, ebay listings and video editing. Actually I'll take it as the day comes...

Have to say thanks to Mike over @ http://bumped.org/psublog/ for slapping my URL on his links, the PSUblog pretty much got me started up again on blogging. Also a big thanks to Yakumo @ http://yakumo.over-blog.com/ for her mentions on this site, it slaughtered me with a huge smile to finish off a great weekend!

Visual 'virtual world' novels

I had no idea what ai sp@ce was till I ended up googling/youtubing everything. Reasons for checking it out was due to it's collaboration with Touhou. Nicodouga featured the advertisment so I clicked it out of curiosity, link here.



Considering to have a go since I'm quite fond of visual novels. Again, it sure has been a while since I've played one. Also a virtual Akiba would do me good since I'm having withdrawal symptoms from that place OTL

Been reading Yakumo's blog for some time now... if you're into anime, games and music then do check it out.

[iPhone] CAVE Grazing

Haven't gotten this excited for an iPhone app release, hence why I'm still up trying to purchase but I guess it's still early. Bullet Hell shooters like Touhou Project and Mushihime-sama are amazing to play or watch; slap on the most insane difficulty and let rip. It's been a while since I've played myself but luckily CAVE has decided to make ESPGALUDA portable.



Despite the amount of gaming apps purchased since Jan, I haven't been bothered to play any of them. Also I can't seem to enjoy PSPo2 when travelling so this can make my train/bus journeys worthwhile. Arcade Shooters, SHMUPS or however you refer to them are like Marmite, you either love it or hate it.

[PSPo2] Technically morning

Finished a late night session of PSPo2 via Internet-Multi Mode. Did a LWG run, free mission then hosted a room to do the Challenge Mission for extend codes; It was me and Ami's first time so we had SINOW and iZoa guiding us through.

[PSPo2] Run away, little girl!

With the 'Streets of Rage' influenced DL mission released yesterday (info via psublog) I've been attempting it for some time now. All enemies are 10 levels higher than your current level and they hit so hard. My gear isn't what you would call good, as I'm still struggling to find S rank armour. However, I'm getting better after each death... Though I really should block/dodge more often now that I think of it.



The mission is not catered well for the Ranger/Force class types; fixed camera doesn't help with your line of sight.
In that case I've re-instated as Hunter to make do with these claws of mine, would have preferred fists but I didn't have a decent pair.

For those who are interested, youtube user TOSHI31SAN has uploaded his run here.

[MGSPW] TIGREX LIKE A BOSS

Cross gaming promotion has always been a win-win formula. This Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker video containing Monster Hunter just tops that. Big Boss, Tigrex, Rathalos, Trenya and RPG's? Think that says enough, now to enjoy the video!

[PSPo2] Phantasmagoria of Explosions

Every PSU player loves De Ragan, especially the free mission which has been 'set in stone' to their brains.
I had intentions of uploading the entire mission, but since I'm one with a short attention span...
Long gameplay videos just bore me unless they're tutorials of some sort or have voice even.

Hence why I've decided on a montage! Speaking of which, this video is relatively short; contains explosions, more explosions and has no special effects used whatsoever.

Due to the new capture card the colours are more vivid compared to the older videos. Less editing is needed and I'm hoping to tweak the settings slightly more to get a one to one image for quality.



BGM:【東方】UI-70 - Adventure of the Lovestruck Tomboy「東方-Phantasmagoria of Flower View

Back on topic, I'm levelling the Ranger Class as I type and progress is going well. Hopefully Lv100 will be reached by the end of the month, that or before Monster Hunter Tri releases...

Spring Cleaning Continued

In the previous update post, I've stated the following:

• New layout and theme due to the Spring season


• The ‘about’ page will be done properly


• Separate pages for categories


• All tags will be changed - lesser the better


• More relevant links on the side – blogs and such


• Adsense – unsure


• RSS, feeds and social features

I'd say that there's some coding left to do but I'll be leaving that to the side for now!

[MH3] London Session - 03/04/10

The event was being held at the Village Underground situated in Greater London. Arrived fifteen minutes early; despite walking past it the first time, taking a long detour around the main road and venturing down two or three streets. Google maps isn’t pinpoint accurate, either that or I forgot my coffee.

[PSOBB] EXP+32767

April Fools Day was nothing spectacular - an excuse to troll like you've never trolled before. Again time differences really mess up the fun since it ends at 12PM for us in the UK. So I had spent the whole day on the tablet; a second sketch is under way which is good progress for me.

Did I get fooled? Apparently so and here's how it went.. Well it's been a while since I've logged into PSOBB so what the hey, I log in only to notice a new announcement (last update was in January). This caught me off guard as I exaggerated a fat smile on my face; only to realise that this was so amazing that it became unbelievably awesome. What made it even more hilarious was that the mobs gave off EXP +32767. Props to the guys, they still care about the players.

Or so I thought.. Dang it!

[LP2] Press B rapidly to work the Post

The multi-player demo has been off to a good start! Wouldn't say that I've been having practice but it's just a case of getting lucky in this game.. for me anyway. The amount of times you can commit suicide by having your grenade shot as you throw it, or even clashing it with an opposing grenade happens a lot. Getting spawn killed to having a VS drill something up your butt too!

PSPo2 Character Fan-art

Been working on this for a while now; Guess the PSPo2 book gave me that kick in the ass to set it in some direction. Will flourish everything in due time so feel free to give comments here and see it in full here.

Conceptual Goods

The Phantasy Star Portable 2 設定資料集 (set material collection) has arrived this morning.
Couldn't miss out on this due to my interest in concept design and illustration. The book has character, weapon, stage design to storyboards and misc. This should help motivate me in doing some work for my portfolio, as I'll be applying for University later in September (fingers crossed).

Spring Cleaning

Site will be undergoing some changes within the next few nights if I'm not too busy.
Proposing some ideas here and hopefully it'll go according to plan.

• New layout and theme due to the Spring season


• The 'about' page will be done properly


• Separate pages for categories


• All tags will be changed - lesser the better


• More relevant links on the side - blogs and such


• Adsense - unsure


• RSS, feeds and social features