Yakuza 4 Hard Mode

Ok it doesn't look like I will be able to revive my old system long enough to retrieve the save data onto the  new system. At the very least, I managed to get the disc struck inside back - Yakuza 4 which I have yet to complete at that time. I have been grinding the game to about 80 hours plus when my old system failed leaving the story unresolved just before the conclusion.

Once I realised I have to start all over again from scratch, I decided to jump straight to Hard mode and skip the side mission, focus on finishing the story. This is sort of uncharted territory for myself because when I finish the Hard mode for part 3, I had the luxury of using the leveled up characters from my Normal mode save.  I guess I wanted the extra challenge when playing the game again since I already played the entire game up till the last boss encounter.

So one weekend of nothing about Yakuza 4 later, I have finish the story mode on Hard mode in a new save file. I remember having a harder time on part 3 even with a leveled up Kiryu perhaps part 4 has a lower difficulty curve as Sega was incorporating three new characters into the fray.

Blink Blink it's Foxdie

Here's the photograph of my playstation 3 system when I first brought it home from the dealer's shop. It was a great day, sometime four years+ ago despite paying a bit more for the Metal Gear 4 bundle but you do get your money's worth with the game and dualshock3 thrown in the package. Not to mention a coupon for free download of the PSN game PAIN which I never bother to claim.

Recently it just wouldn't start up anymore without any warning signs, it stop responding in the middle of my yakuza 4 grinding session. It's the sort of things you often hear about but never expect it to happen to you. Now the game disc is still stuck inside along with all of my precious save files which I forgot to transfer to thumbdrive.

I have since move on and got myself a Playstation 3 slim but there's this nagging feeling that I might jump into things a little too soon. Should I have gotten a Wii U instead?

Will the Playstation 4 announcement later this month cause the PS3 current price to drop?

Fatal Frame 4 Hard Mode Completion

There was a time when I would painstakingly write my game completion stats with a pen and notebook down to every last detail. It comes from my days of a NBA geek, always being fascinated with NBA statistics and scores.

Some things never change I suppose.

I recently finish the hard mode of Fatal Frame 4, something I started more than half a year ago but never quite got around to finishing it. This time, I decided to do the final few chapters all in one day over the span of roughly 3 to 4 hours with breaks in between, of course. Still a top Wii game in my opinion and one of Suda51's more mature and polished title.

Eye Opening Revelation

If you haven't notice by now, I have been playing a lot of SEGA's Yakuza lately. Upon starting slowly but surely on Kenzan, I went back to finish my second run of Yakuza 3. Playing Kenzan in Japanese made me realised I haven't got around to viewing the cut content from the english localization of Yakuza 3 which should be a breeze now that I'm taking the hard way with Kenzan. If only Yakuza 3 was a better game I would have felt more compelled to play the import but as it's, part 3 is pretty inferior when compared with the rest of the series.

Kenzan is a fun diversion even if only because of the novelty factor, like ThePatrick said it best "It's almost as if the cast of Ryu Ga Gotoku were suddenly hired to be actors in a play about Musashi". It makes you appreciate the characters even more, there's a scene in Kenzan where Majima Gorohachi loses his eye and although they aren't the same character, you can't help but glee in fanboy delight. Then there is Yakuza 4 I just started last week but haven't play enough to really get into it here, I did notice there were scenes of Majima before the eye patch in the opening video. Not sure if it’s revealed how he lost his eye in this timeline or if it’s as dramatic as Kenzan but I’m sure it will be a nice revelation for fans.

Durant is NBA's Elite

For the past few weeks, my life has pretty much consists of work, the NBA playoffs, work then more NBA playoffs. There's a conference finals game on practically every day so much so I begin to wonder how to fill the gap once the NBA finals is over. On Saturday Game 3, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City put on an awe-inspiring 4th quarter to will his team to victory. It was one of those unbelievable cold-blooded, seemingly effortless 16 straight points by a single player that just breaks the will of any opposing team.

I felt inspired but not like how you would imagine... I felt inspired to pick up my playstation 3 controller, dust off that copy of NBA 2K11 and finally hunt down that trophy designed to mock KD, the cover star of NBA 2K's rival competition - NBA Elite (which never got release of course).  Get KD to eclipse his previous career high of 48 points in a single game? I'm pretty sure he scored more than 50 points in that nuggets game this season so not a big problem. Initially I was force-feeding KD the ball so much I wondered if it would ultimately jeopardised the team to a loss but in the end, I wound up with 59 KD points on 24 of 48 shooting and a playoff win over the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Few trophies have as much history as this, I reckon this will be one of my favourites for a long time to come.

Hungry for Snake?

These are the two shirts that I picked out from the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary collection at my local Uniqlo store today. It's been a long wait for sure, I was beginning to wonder if they will make it here at all or how many of the designs are actually going to be available. Thankfully most of all the designs are there but some looked better up close than others so it made my decision much easier.

As video games have yet to achieve mainstream recognition within pop culture outside of Japan especially without a big movie franchise attached to its name, it's certainly nice to see these shirts in your regular retail outlet. Even if it means you sometimes rub shoulders with aunties who probably have no clue who solid snake is, picking the shirts next to you.

Damned Weekly Offers

My friend in Singapore was a little surprised when I didn't pick up any games during my recent trip there last month. I suppose this is because he has seen me at my worst, splurging on video games to the point he had to treat me to dinner afterwards as I simply couldn't afford such a lavish meal on my last day there. Yeah I know, I'm embarrassed by that so I made it a point not to let that happen again (the splurging of course, not the lavish meals...)

This time there were a couple of close calls like Shadow of the Damned and No More Heroes Paradise but ultimately it just wasn't as cheap as it looks after converting the dollars. I ended up having enough for a lavish meal this time even though we just had some rather affordable greasy burgers instead.

Today's Play-asia weekly special is pretty enticing, in fact they have been on quite a row recently offering Binary Domain and Never Dead just weeks after release. This week is the big kahuna, Yakuza: Dead Souls as well as Shadows of the Damned on the daily special. The only concern is Shadows happens to be the Japanese version and I didn't have time to see if it was import-friendly or not. The time was 3 hours away from the daily special expiring and there were only a few copies left. Ultimately I just had to take the chance, it's about as cheap as you can find the game selling here and just a tad cheaper than it was in Singapore. Of course, this wouldn't be a story if I failed to mention the hero's trashy looking girlfriend appearing on the cover of the box art as she was curiously absent from the others. Never underestimate the power of the string, my friend. Now it's time to make some room on my hard disk and game cupboard for my bulging collection.