Are we here?

Hey all! Patrick here. Sorry for the lack of updates. It has been busy busy busy!! Melody is out on vacation and I just came back from a business seminar. Melody's definitely the more avid blogger, but I'll add my contribution and hopefully not make it suck too much.

As you may or may not know, we both have full time jobs. Melody is also goes to school. In addition to that, we also are both working on home businesses. For some reason she doesn't want me to post this, but I'm doing it anyway, so shhhhhh!!! Don't tell her! You can see here work at http://raindrops23.etsy.com. Yes, this is a shameless plug :)

Anyway, that's it for now. I just got Halo3 ODST, so I hope to be reviewing that when I'm done. Thanks for reading!

Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja

She said:

So when I saw this game it was like 12 bucks at game stop a year or two ago. I was looking at it and thought oh I bet Patrick will like this game... and it's by atlas, (I really like atlas). It actually didn't look like a game I would like because it said old school rpg and I'm not old school like that and it looked kind of hard. I get discourage really easily, just to let you know.

I bought it and gave it to Patrick. He was kind of excited about it and started playing it right away. He played it for seriously a few minutes and decided it sucked. Then he tossed it aside. Well granted he was playing another game at the time that he wanted to desperately finish I think it was the Zelda game.

It has been collecting dust in my DS collection (I say mine because I have way more games than Patrick, he honesty doesn't buy DS games even though I bought him a DS when we first started dating, he just usually play my games) until we started blogging. Oh yeah I should mention last November during Amazon's black Friday/cyber Monday sale Izuna 2 was really cheap and I got it because... it was a good deal! That at least was collecting dust with a plastic cover on it in my DS collection.

Most games Patrick has played that I haven't are super long RPGs on the Xbox or PS3 (I'm more of a portable gamer) or they are shooting games (I have bad hand eye coordination) and I'm not going to play those... well maybe someday I'll give them a try again.

This was one of the few games he has played that I haven't so I gave it a whirl. To be honest I thought I would go through the same experience as Patrick because he really didn't like this game and thought it was dumb. What hope did I have?

As you start the game you find out that you're an unemployed ninja traveling with other unemployed ninjas hoping to find a job, you're more like a family with a sister and a brother like figure and a dad like figure though none of them are actually related to you in any way, you just happen to be in the same ninja group. I should mention here that you're sort of a feisty girl.

You come into this town that has a lot of gods in it, and you knock over some gem thing which causes the gods to be mad at you and your group gets cursed. In fact they cursed the whole town. To help them you must confront all 6 gods and ask for the cure for the cruse they put on your group.

Each god is at the end of an old school dungeon with many floors. In the first dungeon, you're going to die a lot... and when you die you're going to lose all the stuff you collected and all the money you had. Until you beat the first dungeon you are always going to lose everything because the storage house isn't going to be unlock yet. You have to beat the first god to get the first cure to lift the curse from the girl that owns the storage house.

To me I just excepted I was going to die and lose all my stuff... I mean you're going to go through it again and get more stuff. It didn't bothered me.

Each dungeon though is super harder than the last so if you finally get to the point where you can breeze through the dungeon you're in, the next one you're probably still going to die at the first level.

After I got the storage house I was a little more careful about not dying and I always carried a talisman that can transport me out of the dungeon (the only other way out is beating the boss or dying). Though the dungeon monsters don't only get harder you also have traps to step on that can hurt you in some way. There is also a fire monster that will might burn something you carry with everyone of it's attack... so I have lost my get-out-of-the-dungeon talisman a few times because of that.

The weapons are interesting too. You can either wear a claw like weapon which gives you both offense and defense or you can use a sword that gives you only offense along with a guard that gives you only defense. Also you can stick talisman on it to make it have special attacks but it makes it weaker. Weapons can break in this game from wear and tear. I just used weapons without talisman to make them last longer because good weapons were few and far between.

I should mention that this game is turn based. So when you do something everyone else around you gets to do something before you can do something again. This only poses as a problem if you get surrounded by monsters because you are only able to hit one of them in a turn where they can all hit you in a turn. You can be surrounded on all 8 sides. To be honest being attacked by more than two monsters at any giving time is hard to beat so what I do is I hide in a tunnel so I can only be attacked at most by two monsters. If I'm in an open space with a lot of monsters I try to rush it to a tunnel opening. Though I should also mention that some floors have no tunnels, it's just one big fat open space... in this situation I try to make it to a corner so only 3 monsters can attack you at once. I have rarely survived open spaces like this, I usually die or am forced to use my get-out-of-dungeon talisman.

All in all it was a pretty fun game because you still get to level and check your weapons to make sure you are using the strongest one. Money didn't really matter in this game... the things you can buy at the store are usually really cheap so I had tons of money at the end of the game.

I didn't beat the game. I am at level 99 with Izuna and can't get through the last dungeon. I stock up with tons of things and still can't make it though. I tried 5 times already, I was able to get to about floor 23 until I get surrounded by a lot of monsters which it's basically impossible to beat them all at once... I might try a few more times but I have already moved on the Izuna 2 which is a rather fun game.

I would recommend to this people that are easy going and don't mind dying. I see why Patrick was frustrated with this game but hey it's just a game and just have fun with it.

He said :

Sorry, guys, I only have 10 minutes to write this review. Business trip and my ride leaves shortly. Should be ok since I only really played about 10 minutes of this game anyway.

Izuna started out pretty good. I liked the characters, and the story was pretty funny. Then I got into the actual dungeons. They are all randomly generated, so they are never the same twice. Anyway, I was expecting it to be at least similar to other RPG's I've played before, but it wasn't. The monsters in the level all move when you move, one square at a time. And they are all super strong. So you you end up dying a lot. You can't get away from the monsters very easily because they are basically as fast as you are. After dying way too many times for my taste, I gave up. Not my cup of tea.


Breakdown :

She said : Yea
He said : Nay

If you want this game :

Amazon : Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja

Also check out our blog giveaway

EA Sports Active: Week 2

I was going to write about my progress everyday but also I didn't want to junk up this blog by having more than one post a day and I thought it would get boring after a while.

So it's been two weeks since I started really working out and trying to lose weight.

Here is the break down.

2 pounds lost (on track with my one pound a week goal)
1 person told me I looked thinner and prettier (and no that person was not Patrick! ^_^ It was a co-worker of mine that went on vacation when I started and when she came back she was like have you been working out?)
14 days I have been sore somewhere (to be honest I thought this would go away after the first week, but nope still sore).

I'm pretty happy with the results so far and I can't wait to see what the next weeks will bring.

Though I should note here that last weekend we went to a food fest and I gained half a pound from it and Patrick gained 2 pounds... wii fit got mad at him and asked what happened, he was able to choose between 8 things and Patrick picked "I ate too much", so now when he scrolls over that date where he gained two pounds his mii says "I ate too much!". It's rather cute. ^_^

Here's a picture!


To buy it on Amazon : EA Sports Active


Also check out our blog giveaway

Blog Giveaway

Hey everyone so we thought it would be a great idea to do a blog giveaway. ^_^

This is just swag (stuff we all get) that we got from comic-con.

This is all gaming related so we thought it would be great to give away for our blog, which happens to be gaming related.

So here is the stuff.


(1) Dissidia final fantasy fan (one side good guys, other side bad guys)
(2) Brutal Legend iron-on.
(3) Harry Potter and the half-blood prince - the videogame : snap bracelet
(4) 48 hours free xbox live code

This is the back of the fan if anyone wanted to know.

Maybe someday in the future, I will be able to talk more appealing pictures. Sorry this is all you get for now.

Yeah comic con had limited video game related stuff. ^_^ Our next blog giveaway will probably be anime related swag we got from comic con.

So if this is appealing to you.

Here are the rules:

(1) Leave a comment on this blog post with your e-mail address in the form of : name (at) something (dot) com (we promise we won't sell your e-mail address ^_^), one entry per person please.

This giveaway will end next Staurday (9/12/09) at midnight (Pacific Time) and we will e-mail the winner (that will be choosen at random by random.org), they have 3 days to reply back or we will pick another winner.

International entries are welcome.

Um... I think that covers it. I will update this post if I need to add more information or something like that. Good luck everyone!

Virtua Fighter 5

He Said:

I'm not a huge fan of fighting games, but I definitely do have fond memories of Street Fighter II back in the good old days. After Street Fighter III came out, I basically fell out of fighting games all together. Virtua Fighter was never on my radar at all. In fact, I remember trying to play the original VF and being completely confused. Not like Street Fighter at all!!

Anyway, a few years ago some friends of mine introduced me to Virtua Fighter 4. At first, I played just to be social, but pretty soon , I was really having fun . . . and getting my butt kicked at the same time! Playing VF was a truly different experience when playing with people who know the mechanics of the game and can help you figure it out. Well, the in game tutorial helped too.

After I got into VF, I did try some other 3D fighting games. Let's see . . . I tried Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive and Tekken. I think those are the big ones. I liked some of them, and didn't like others, but I really think VF has ruined me for those other games. The main characteristic of the VF series, in my opinion, is the fact that you can't really just mash the buttons and expect to get any results. In comparison with other games in the field, it is not friendly to new users (hence my frustration the first time I played). Some of the new characters do seem to more "mash" friendly, but a character like Akira takes a lot of time and patience to master.

VF is not a flashy game. There are no fireballs or supernatural spirits or anything like that. It's probably the most "realistic" game in terms of the physics, so you won't be falling from hundreds of feet as part of the battle. The real appeal to this game comes from the tactics and strategy of the battle. You use just three buttons: punch, kick and block. Using various combinations along with a dodge mechanic and a counter mechanic you try to out-think your opponent. Someone could argue that all fighting games are like that, but VF really puts it on a different level.

Virtua Fighter 5 carries on the tradition of the VF series. The characters all return and it's absolutely beautiful in high definition. In addition, the XBOX version on the game has online play, and it actually works! Okay, some of the purists out there a complaining about the frame count and whatever, but that's not me.

If like fighting games and you've never tried a Virtua Fighter game, I highly suggest you give it a test drive. It's cheap now, too!

Breakdown

He said: Yea

If you want this game:

xbox360 - Virtua Fighter 5
ps3 - Virtua Fighter 5

Questions and Answers

I always think it's more interesting to know more about the people that are behind the blog so I thought it would be great to do a little Q/A with me and Patrick. Here are a few things about us that you might find interesting.

Where did you go to college?
She said: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (say that three times fast), a lot of people I know just call it cal poly, SLO (pronounced slow).
He said: University of California, Davis (or just UC Davis). Go Ags!

What did you major in?
She said: Computer Engineering. It was great. I liked it a lot. Though it was sad to be one of 2-5 girls in all my classes (class sizes were about 25-32 people)
He said: Computer Science and Engineering.

What is your job?
She said: I am a software engineer at a big company doing satellite programming. It sounds fancy... oh and it is... j/k, it's like normal coding and testing and stuff.
He said: I'm a network engineer at a big company. I don't use my computer science engineering skills at all.

What do you do in your free time other than video games, watching anime and eating?
She said: Wow really limits my answer... all I have left really is sleeping? J/k! I like to sew and make quilts (weird I know), I also do a lot of other crafts but sewing pretty much takes up most of time right now. I also go Santa Clara University part time to get my masters degree in software engineering but that's not really something I do for fun, though it could be fun at times. I also like to travel and hang out with my friends. I have a personal blog that I kept for 4 years now but this blog has taken up most of time so I haven't been saying much there. Also right now me and Patrick are working out so we can look great for our wedding. ^_^
He said: I like to hang out with Melody and sometimes play racket ball. I also build my own business through Amway Globe (if any of you guys are interested in this let me know).

How long have you two been together?
We said: We have been together for over two years now.

How did you two meet?
We said: Actually we met on eharmony, there is actually a pretty good story to this but maybe that's a blog for another day. ^_^

When is the wedding?
We said: We are hoping for next year in October.

Do you have any siblings?
She said: Yes I have one older brother who is in the video game industry in fact, he has influenced me all my life, and probably is the reason why I like video games and anime.
He said: Yup I am the oldest of 3 boys, my middle brother is going to be a helicopter pilot for the army and my youngest brother just graduated college and is a waiter currently.

Well that's all for now if you guys have any questions you want to ask, we will try to answer them in the next Q&A, unless of course they are inappropriate =P

What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver

She said :

We got this game at Fry's last month during that massive let's buy games moment I had. Well I popped this into my DS. I wasn't sure what to expect... I was hoping it would be sort of like cooking mama but different.

Well it seems the first part of it is just a recipe book. Which is cool I guess.

Then there is something called the cooking kitchen which is kind of like cooking mama but way more difficult to figure out and play.

Actually what comes to play here is that I really don't "read" instructions so I kind of think that a game would just be easy to figure out, which is why it was so hard for me to play with the cooking kitchen part of the game because I didn't read all the little things you had to do to make things work. Patrick showed me it later but by then I was already over it.

All in all I wouldn't recommend this game... good thing we got it for 10 bucks because really if I had paid more for it I would be really sad right now.

He said :

I'm not sure I should even call this a game. I THINK it's supposed to be a simulation of cooking, on the Nintendo DS. Melody picked up this "game" because she liked Cooking Mama. I, on the other hand, have never played Cooking Mama, so have no point of reference, but I'm pretty sure it's not like What's Cooking with Jamie Oliver?

I played through the tutorial . . . I think. I'm actually not sure what exactly I did. The setting consists of a virtual kitchen in the DS. The kitchen has several different sites you can visit, like a stove, a refrigerator, a cutting board, and so on. You can take ingredients from the pantry or fridge. You take pots and pans and various utensils from the pantry. You take food items to the cutting board and cut them with a knife using strokes of the stylus. You can stir things in bowls using the stylus. I don't think you can measure exactly . . . but I'm not sure. I think I made a cake. Yeah, it was a cake.

A went to another section of the game and it had recipes that I could read through. Fun!

You know, I watch food network. I actually kinda like cooking. It can be fun. This was not. Don't get it.

Breakdown :

She said : Nay
He said : Nay

If you want this game :

Amazon : What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver

Internet Channel for the Wii is now FREE!

Hey everyone so if you got the wii like when it first came out the internet channel was free... and then that changed to 500 wii points soon after.

So when we got our wii the internet channel was not free anymore and we are too lazy to pay for stuff on the wii, they really don't make it that easy to buy stuff.

Turns out right now the internet wii channel is free again! Yay us.

Also if you happened to pay the 500 wii points for it, in October Nintendo will let you choose a game at the same value to get for free. Isn't that nice? ^_^

For more info you can read it at cnet news.

Rhapsody, A Musical Adventure - bug and fix

This isn't a review... because Patrick hasn't finished the game yet.

I actually finished the game but more on that when we write our review for it.

As Patrick was going through the game, there is this one part where you are in a contest and at the end of the contest (which is at end of the 2 chapter I believe) the game should ask you if you want to save or not, anyways for Patrick when he gets to the end of the contest, it just turns black and he waited a long time and nothing happened…

He restarted the game and played the last part of that sequence again and again it turned black and didn’t do anything. Then he took the game out of the DS and wiped it down thinking it might be dust and tried again… it still turned black. Then he tried playing it on my DSi and it still did it. He gave up for the night.

Well that was a few days ago, and I thought hmmm… I bet this isn’t happening to just us.

So I googled it and it seems you have to do two things
1. L-kun out of your party
2. Do something (like talk to someone or re-filling your stats by looking at a statue)

Then try again. That totally worked for Patrick and now he can move on to finishing the game so we can review it. ^_^

The reason this didn’t happen to me because during this part of the game you lose one of your party members temporary and I didn’t think of replacing that person with L-kun which is the only member you can fill that spot with. I think I was just lazy to rearrange my members, Patrick on the other hand thought oh an empty spot in my party, and I should fill it!

Goes to show that laziness triumphs again. If you haven’t notice I’m a lazy gamer where as Patrick really wants to do everything. For me the main story and maybe a side quest or two is good enough, so I can really blast through games. Patrick needs to get every little things so it will usually take him twice as long if not more to go through a game. Another opposite we have.

Amazon - Rhapsody, A Musical Adventure