Random Ramblings

Zelda Symphony and other stuff

2013-02-06T11:41:00.003+11:00

So on Saturday I went to the Sydney Opera House to watch the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses (Fig 1). I was a bit apprehensive about it because 1) the ticket was pretty expensive and I thought I shouldn't have forked out so much when a cheaper ticket would let me hear the same things (and I don't really need to watch the orchestra play) and 2) because I had already listened to most of the songs through the CD that came with Skyward Sword.

Figure 1. Program leaflet for The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses presented by the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Plus, I went by myself because I didn't really bother going around asking, "Hey, you want to listen to a bunch of people play music from this video game series I like? Oh, you don't like that video game series? Oh you like it, but not the music (haha, nobody exists in this category)?" So I sat awkwardly by myself (after waiting awkwardly by myself outside) while everyone around me was either dressed up as a Zelda character or wearing a Zelda t-shirt or playing Zelda on their 3DS. I wore a Pokemon t-shirt.

But then the music dimmed, and the Sydney Symphony started playing the Prelude, and the tears started flowing.

The concert hall was packed (Fig 2) and it was full of people who love Zelda and love its music. They were people who, like me, were drawn in by the magic of the ocarina and the windwaker and ... wolf howling. Strangely they played very little of the music from Skyward Sword, but you can probably see there are two harps there. They played much better than Link on his little dinky Goddess Harp.

Figure 2. The packed Concert Hall and the Sydney Symphony accompanied by Cantillation, conducted by Eimear Noone.

Anyway, after the prelude I stopped crying, since the initial shock of hearing my favourite music being played live wore out, and so I simply sat in admiration of show that Sydney Symphony, Cantillation and Eimear Noone had set out for us. Eeimar Noone, by the way, is also the composer for the music to StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, so as far as video game music goes, she's a pretty big deal. And her passion for it really showed as she conducted the Symphony. And the cheers that erupted when she drew forth the Windwaker itself to conduct the Windwaker Symphony movement was spectacular, only beaten out by the cheers for the second and third encores, which played Gerudo Valley (personally one of my favourite pieces) and the Majora's Mask medley (which I am ashamed to say I have not played!)

Speaking of Gerudo Valley, the concert inspired me to finally return to Ocarina of Time to try to beat the Gerudo Fortress, which I had previously ragequit at due to sheer amounts of bullshit. It wasn't as difficult this time around, so I quickly beat the mini-dungeon and I'll try to finish the game sometime in the next couple of weeks. Since uni is starting soon and all, so I should probably get that done and dusted.

Oh, and I did say other stuff.

But I think that's enough for now.

I guess I'll just say I watched Django Unchained and I liked it? It was reaaaaaaaaaaaaally long and it felt like it was never going to end. But then it did, and it was an all right ending. I guess. Lots of blood as per Tarantino standards.

All right I'm off.

Honours just around the corner

2013-01-22T17:00:00.002+11:00

So my supervisor returned from her holiday yesterday, and I suppose this means I'll be starting my actual honours soon. Meaning that I'm not going to have so much time for gymming and dungeon-crawling (yes I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons, say hi to my level 5 Goliath Paladin). And now is the time to reflect on what I've done in the past two-and-a-half months of holidays. Hmmmm. Not too much.

I decided to pick up learning guitar a week ago-ish (found out I have the wrong type of guitar but I'm too cheap/lazy to go out and buy another one). So I'm terrible and I slightly regret not starting to learn 2 months (years) ago. Learning Chinese also hasn't progressed very much. I should be practising writing and reading full sentences (and not the wishy washy sentences in songs that don't make sense half the time) but I'm too stuck on picking up single words that I probably won't use and trying to learn those.

I improved with my swimming somewhat; I managed to swim 600 metres last week, though my friend swam double that amount in roughly the same time. Still, being able to run 9000 metres makes me feel good. My goal is 12km in one hour, but I didn't go running last week because of rain/laziness so I might not be able to reach that in the time I set myself (before honours starts, heh). At least the city-to-surf isn't for another few months, and I should be able to get there by then.

Anyway, here's half a short-story I wrote a while ago that I still don't know how to end (hence only putting up half):

Sandy emerged from the crevice, ragged and dirty, gasping for clean air. She had not realised how deep it had been, and how quickly light ceased to penetrate the musty atmosphere trapped between the ancient granite. The skin on her arms had been cut both on the way down, and again on her way up.

“Well maybe you can grab some long-sleeves and a helmet-light, and have another go?” said Alex.

Alex Winter watched as her friend silently complied, donning a bright red jacket, and grabbed onto the rope that fed into the chasm. It would be very hot in there with the jacket, compounded by what she believed to be sulfur fumes swirling between the narrow rock walls.

Sandy ignored them, descending deeper than she had before. She thought about possibly acquiring a face mask, in case she ever needed to do this again. She hoped she wouldn’t. Her nose squirmed and contracted in protest, and her eyes began to sting and water. The pupils would dilate to accommodate for the reduction of light; she wondered if it would cause the fumes to affect her more.

Suddenly she reached the bottom. Or rather, the point at which the crevice no longer plummeted vertically down. The light from her hard-hat illuminated more dust than anything else in the cave, but it was still welcome. Now she won’t trip over her feet and embarrassingly small rocks.

Tentatively, Sandy took a step forward. She didn’t notice her breathing becoming more laborious, despite the stench that reeked heavier than before. She also didn’t notice something was drawing her in deeper, and when she finally became aware of her surroundings, she could no longer see any light besides the one radiating from her forehead. She started to panic.

Sound wouldn’t travel here from the surface, would it? she thought, as she peered at her surroundings. She was in a completely non-descript cavern, perhaps eight metres wide, but the ceiling was much higher than she thought possible. It seemed to reach further than she remembered climbing down. Just a trick of the light, she thought.

Alex wouldn’t be able to hear her down here. Sandy recalled agreeing that 3 tugs on the rope meant she found something noteworthy, while 4 meant she was in trouble. Either way, Alex would have come rushing down to her, leaving the third member of their party at the surface.

Was the fact that this cavern appeared taller than was possible noteworthy? Sandy didn’t think so. Yet she could see nothing else. No markings on the walls and no other exit save for the one she had just entered by. She took careful steps around the cavern floor, feeling for loose stones and unnatural edges. Nothing.

Well, only one thing for it now, she thought, as she leapt at the wall and found easy handholds. Expertly she scampered up the rocky wall, but the higher she climbed, the further away the ceiling appeared to be. All right, that’s noteworthy, she thought. But before she could tug on the rope, she felt three sharp tugs at her waist. She’s out of rope.

Destroying my muscles

2013-01-09T18:58:00.000+11:00

So that they may rise again from the ashes and engulf me in a criss-cross of myosin and actin filaments bulging at every junction. Then I shall open jars between my gargantuan biceps and straddle mountains with my iron thighs. Or something. Is that how it works?

I'm new to this gym thing.

And while I'm not new to swimming, it's an activity that leaves me more breathless (ha!) than I remember. Also I think I'm not moving my arms right, and it's probably terrible. Also my sister says I'm afflicted with "vertical swimming", whereby my feet drag across the bottom of the pool as they kick. This is equally if not more terrible.

Is there some way of measuring the density of my bones or my bone/muscle mass ratio? Because I think it's considerably higher than most other people. And despite what a doctor told me some years back, I think I have terrible lung capacity. And this tendency to panic when my face isn't in contact with air. I suppose these things will improve with time, but seriously I can't make my legs kick up properly =( Back to the kiddie pool practising kicks against the wall, I suppose. Can't be blaming my body for the shitty way my body moves. That's probably a fault of a different part of my body which is not familiar with how leg muscles attach to hips and such.

Gym feels easier initially but by the next day I'm horribly afflicted by can'tstraightenmyarms syndrome, which put me at a severe disadvantage in Jungle Speed. That game destroys friendships almost as fast as Mario Party!

Anyway I'll just leave this mess here:

今天, 我到游泳池去游了，然后我去了健身房。我只能游泳三百米。我的朋友能游泳一公里多。我希望我也能游一公里多。

Cisplatin

2012-12-30T21:44:00.001+11:00

So for my Honours year (starting in a month or so!) I'll be working on the cancer drug cisplatin (yay! Cancer treatment research!). Essentially this is a small platinum compound that binds to DNA, preventing its replication, thus inhibiting profileration of tumour cells. It has been employed quite successfully since the late 70's, after its anti-tumour properties were accidentally discovered (as all good scientific discoveries are) in a lab involving E. coli (oh E. coli, you sure do get around). Specifically it's one of the most commonly used drugs to treat testicular and ovarian cancer, and to a lesser extent, lung cancer and other cancers.

I'm not 100% sure where I'll be with the lab work, since my supervisors (Dr Anne Galea and A/Prof Vincent Murray; Prof Murray would have more on this on his university website if you care to look) have been working on this topic for years now so I'll jump along wherever they're up to in February. From what I understand it has to do with identifying the regions on the human genome where cisplatin binds to DNA. It's quite well established that cisplatin preferentially targets G-rich sequences (of ACGT fame), so the lab group intends to map out all such sequences in the genome via next-generation sequencing. These would be cloned into vectors and treated with cisplatin to measure the level of binding.

Additionally, quite a bit of work is being done on cisplatin analogues due to its toxic side-effects (nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, hematologic toxicity...). So similar compounds are being tested for their clinical activity in the hopes that they'll somehow be less toxic without sacrificing effectiveness. Mostly similar cis-structured platinum compounds with other branches to improve DNA-binding, etc. are being studied, and some appear to be moderately successful. It seems replacing the platinum core for a similar material like nickel, iridium or ruthenium doesn't work out the way researchers have hoped, though a group at USYD is still working on that, I think.

I've wanted to work on cancer treatment research for quite some years now (in high school I debated either this or marine biology), so I'm really excited that the opportunity is actually right in front of me. If all goes well, my plan is to do a PhD in the field and we'll see how it goes from there I suppose.

I wrote this instead of actually working on my literature review.

Marvel Hero Sketches

2012-10-14T22:21:00.003+11:00

So a while ago I decided to draw a little more seriously, after a hiatus in which I did only small doodles, and also a bit of painting I suppose. Eventually I hope to be able to adept at multiple media, but I guess most artists would want that. I opened up a new, untouched sketchbook along with a brand new set of pencils, and drew Spider-Man. I chose Spider-Man because of my long-time fanhood of the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger. He's also a character who is drawn best when in wacky poses, so I sought a bit of a challenge on the get-go. I gave up on the background quickly. The proportions are messed up and the web motif on his costume is messy, but I could live with that. It was my first attempt anyway.

Wolverine, however, is inexcusable. It highlights my ineptitude with composition as well as musculature, anatomy and poses. It shows my mindset still in quick rough doodle mode; a reluctance to go over things I know I've stuffed up and general laziness. Somehow the background is even worse than the last. I quickly decide to forgo backgrounds in most of my future drawings.

She-hulk was someone I've never drawn before. I did a quick rough sketch to get the basic feel for the character, then ripped into this one. I wanted to see how much muscle I could add to a female figure before they just stop looking like a woman. Female body-builders typically have very narrow waists, but I felt that figure was not fitting for someone who was lifting a car, so instead I had something like Olympic athletes in mind, who have less defined muscles but a more robust torso.

Nick Fury isn't technically a superhero, but recently I've read a few comics that feature him prominently, so he was at the forefront of my mind when I started this project.

I wanted more practice drawing females, so I decided on Ms Marvel. I drew the jets in the background to detail a little of her character, who was originally an Air Force pilot. I have no idea how to draw jets.

The Sentry is not a character I was familiar with growing up. However, like Nick Fury, he had recently been on my mind, and since his body type was the typical standard muscle-hero, I went with drawing him. His gloves and boots show a similar consistency of material compared to Ms Marvel; shiny rubber/leather, a material that shows up often in comic books that I thought I should get accustomed to drawing.

Why I dislike Skyrim

2012-05-14T18:41:00.002+10:00

So a few months ago I started playing Skyrim. It never gripped me to begin with, so I barely played it at all. Last weekend I had a bit of spare time so I put a few more hours into it, and to be honest I came away from it with a worse feeling for it than I had before. I'll break down what I disliked about it in a few points.

First, the puzzles in the game suck. They're either overly simple (match the icons!) or simple to the point where to make it challenging, they simply require you to find a very precise solution where nothing else, no matter how logical, works. Case in point is a puzzle that requires you to sprint through a set of stones which open a set of doors, then use "whirlwind sprint" to zoom past the open doors. Makes sense on paper. It should be simple. But it isn't. You must activate whirlwind sprint at a precise location on the floor (probably around 1m^2) to be allowed to pass through the doors. The doors stay up for a short period of time regardless, but activating whirlwind sprint at any other location causes the doors to close instantly. Bullshit. However, once you activate whirlwind sprint correctly, not only do the doors stay up indefinitely, but the cooldown on the spell is inexplicably reduced to zero, allowing you to whirlwind sprint twice in rapid succession to clear the set of doors. So not only do they turn something that should be logical into something so contrived and set-up, they didn't have the decency to allow your whirlwind sprint to clear the door in one go, instead giving you a random cooldown buff that functions only in that one spot.

The dungeons which house these puzzles are boring. They're trite and unremarkable. They vary from dark cave, dark dungeon or dark cave with snow piled up in it. They're also essentially linear, with only one way to progress from one end to the other. This is an issue that is not obviously not unique to Skyrim, but I expect far more from an ambitious open-world game.

Speaking of open-worldness, the quest progression, while branching and open-ended, invariably result in a simple compass chase that ends in either a boring conversation or one of the afore-mentioned boring dungeons. In fact it seems the only non-compass chase kind of missions are the small miscellaneous jobs you do for random people on the streets. These are obviously not integral to the plot so I fail to see why I should spend more time and effort doing them than I would just following the compass. The most interesting quest I've done is probably playing keep-away from a young girl in Whiterun. Interesting change of scenery; not sure if it really fits in with the whole Dragon-murderer characterisation though.

A lot of it comes down to what I feel is worth my time in the game. Doing miscellaneous jobs to which I don't know the outcome or reward doesn't feel worth my time. Stopping on the side of the road to mow down bandits or wolves isn't worth my time either. What's more, it seems that 90% of the time I leave my horse (from which I am inexplicably incapable of performing any basic actions), the horse either walks away mysteriously without a sound, or it zooms into the sky. Once it hit a Dragon on its way up. I'm not even kidding. I don't think the Dragon cared too much about that, just like how I don't care about anything or anyone in the game.

Speaking of anyone I didn't care about in the game, what happened to my companion? One minute I was on a horse (she can't ride a horse so she will invariably get left behind wherever you go), next minute I never hear from her again. Normally when I fast-travel to a location she'll appear next to me, but she's been missing for the past couple of hours in game time. I wasn't aware she was able to die (I never managed to kill her at least), so I guess she just bugged out and got stuck somewhere. Oh well, I don't care.

Fighting Dragons is stupid. You kill your first Dragon at level 4 (so I'm not spoiling anything here, you kill a lot of Dragons in this game), but at this level you're struggling to take down Trolls, and don't even think about fighting Giants. So if these stupid Dragons are the bane of the World...I think secretly the Giants are just waiting for the Dragons to kill all the humans, elfs, etc, then just go to town on the rest of the World. The actual act of fighting the Dragons itself is also terribly implemented. Dragons are capable of flying and roam a large tract of territory, so half the time you're literally just waiting for the Dragon to get back to your location, since you have no way of chasing it down. Your horse is far too slow (and getting on and off your horse is even slower), and as I said, you can't actually do anything while on your horse. The Dragons don't fly off to return to a more advantageous location, they return to basically exactly where they were before, so...what I'm trying to say is, Monster Hunter is a much better game.

The good thing about games that don't feature voice actors, is that when a character is bugged and has absolutely no sound coming out of them, it doesn't matter. That's normal. It's not normal in Skyrim. Obviously patches and mods address several of the issues I mentioned in the game, but honestly I don't think anything can make it more fun for me than just closing the game and starting up a different one.

Can't wait to start Arkham City in the holidays ^^

2012-04-28T15:37:00.000+10:00

Okay so blogger updated to the new universal Google layout kinda thing (which I think is very nice and clean), but I have no idea how this blog post will look compared to my previous ones.

In case you all haven't seen it yet, type "zerg rush" into google, and then get ready to spam clicks ^^

Also, this semester hasn't been too good. I have two subjects with average marks of 85+ but I don't think it really makes up for getting <70 for two midsession exams (and just barely over 70 for another), and probably getting <60 for another I did earlier this week... ><"

So.

I'll keep this short.
And get back to studying.
I really want to be able to get 90+ for at least half my subjects this semester, really need to push my marks up above 80 average.

My goal is to get first class honours, then do a PhD, in case anyone is curious as to what I actually plan to do with my life.

Oh but tonight I'm gonna watch my friends dance in a showcase =D
<3 dancing (watching dancing, actually dancing is so hard and painful xD)

Video Game Piracy

2012-02-25T11:36:00.005+11:00

I was thinking about piracy (particular with regard to video games) and I came up with several scenarios that could play out:

1. Individual purchases game --> they play the game and enjoy it --> likely to make further purchases from publisher
2. Individual pirates game --> they play it and enjoy it --> may decide to purchase future product or even current product to support developer --> leads to 1 and/or 5

3. Individual purchases game --> they play it but do not enjoy it --> low chance of future purchase or piracy of product

4. Individual does not pirate or purchase game --> does not play it --> low chance of future purchase of product
5. Individual pirates game --> they do not enjoy it --> low chance of future purchase or piracy of product --> leads to 5
6. Publisher demands restrictive DRM --> individual is presented with a frustrating and unattractive product --> individual pirates future products from publisher --> unlikely to ever purchase product from publisher again

From this short (and admittedly relatively uneducated) presentation of possible scenarios in the industry, from both the perspective of the individual and the developer/publisher, it appears that the most attractive option is 1, followed by 2. 3 through to 6 are no-win scenarios for any party. Scenario 3 cannot be helped, as this depends on opinions rather than an inherent problem with the system. Unfortunately 6 is often the default scenario for many games today, from publishers such as EA, Activision and Ubisoft.

I'm merely making an observation with the current status quo of video game piracy. For the most part the system is functioning and the appropriate parties are being benefited, though later I may delve on other related issues.

My thoughts on Skyward Sword

2011-12-27T15:38:00.002+11:00

All right, so I completed the main quest of Skyward Sword 3 days ago (exactly one month after I bought the game), and I've spent those 3 days mulling over everything in it. I'm not going to be holding any spoilers back, so if you haven't finished the game it's probably best if you just jump away to another part of the Internet. Run along now.

So first things first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km50mNRnX4U

Okay, you have now witnessed what I feel is the single greatest moment in all of Zelda history. This is a joke. The single greatest moment in Zelda history is debatable, but I honestly think Skyward Sword could put forth a few strong nominations; the scene where you forge the Master Sword, the scene where Groose follows you down into the surface, the scene where Zelda tells you that you are worthy to hold the Triforce, and the scene where you confront Demise.

The Demise fight itself was typically lacklustre, but the setting and the implications from his curse was quite spectacular and was certainly an epic finisher to the Zelda Origin Story.

Grirahim was an extremely fitting secondary antagonist - the Sword Spirit belonging to Demise and the complete polar opposite to your own Sword's Spirit; Grirahim is emotional and random, whereas Fi is calm and calculated. I absolutely loved his character progression, and in general I love the characters and personalities in this game, who I could identify with and actually care about, unlike the majority of characters from previous Zelda games, who I have mostly forgotten. Because of this, the sidequests were extremely fulfilling, and as the game comments, "helping people feels good!" Apart from Grirahim, the story of Groose and to a lesser extent, the side-story with Peatrice were enjoyable additions to the game's story, and the former character in my opinion almost justifies his joke of the game being known as The Legend of Groose. If he doesn't get a spin-off game I'm gonna get mad.

The dungeons were for the most part forgettable and lacklustre, as well as small in number. The Ancient Cistern, the Sandship (the feel of the whole area and its dungeon was breath-taking, that Captain was one of the most tragic characters in the game, as he was aware of his own demise) and Sky Keep were pinnacles of level design, but the remainder of the dungeons were trite and unchallenging. The external worlds were much more developed, as part of the game's puzzling (Silent Realm, Dragons' quests) take place in them. The Ocean was quite a spectacular area in the way it felt, though it was rather small and empty (I guess that's the point), and was actually the only area not revisited through the main story, which was disappointing. The bosses of the dungeons were also unfortunately bland (how many Arachnids are we going to fight, Nintendo? How many?), with the exception of Koloktos (possibly one of my favourite Zelda bosses of all time), and to be quite honest I did enjoy the Grirahim fights, though I would much prefer meeting a different boss in the Fire Sanctuary, and perhaps Grirahim at a different point. As for the Imprisoned...guh. That's all I have to say on him.

The previous two paragraphs sum up my opinion on the larger parts of the game, but unfortunately there were many small things that I simply cannot ignore. The dialogue boxes moved at a snail's pace, and the way the game takes you to your inventory screen whenever you pick up a new item (even ones you've picked up before, in a previous game session), even during a fight makes absolutely no sense. The world did feel very small, but at least this allowed you to be familiar with the locales and the inhabitants, each of whom felt very alive and unique. The upgrade system excited me when I first heard of it, but ultimately it was largely unnecessary (what's the point of upgrading your shields when one shield in the game is indestructible and doesn't have any elemental weaknesses?). A longer and more branching upgrade tree for each item would have been quite nice, for example, being forced to choose whether you wanted your bow to upgrade its damage, or its attack range, but not both! Or maybe an option to make your shield bash stun for longer, at the expense of being unable to increase the durability of that shield. There's no point in an optional upgrade system if there are no alternatives and no consequences of upgrading your equipment!

The controls were fine. I'm not going to comment on it. They worked more or less the way I expected it to. I have no particular opinion of them.

So ultimately Skyward Sword was the Zelda game I enjoyed the most of all that I have played (I haven't played many), but I feel previous entries were more solid design-wise and had fewer issues. The vibrant world and characters of Skyward Sword really brought it to life and made it a much more enjoyable experience, which would have otherwise been quite good, but mostly forgettable.

8/10 for the sake of being on the Internet.

Skyward Sword!!

2011-11-25T13:29:00.002+11:00

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SKYWARD SWORD!!

So I picked it up yesterday morning in eager anticipation. I've been waiting for this game since I saw the trailers at E3 last year, and now I've played about 7 hours into it. Man, I forgot how much they padded out Zelda games, but for some reason the lengthiness feels justified, and I'm absolutely thrilled that I'm nowhere near the end of the game. So I'd like to take this time to talk about my experience in the game's first 7 hours. Firstly, I'm impressed with the role they've given Zelda - she's no longer a damsel in distress, and rather she has her own mission to complete alongside you. An unfortunate hitch in the plan forced her to depart sooner than expected, so up until now, she's been running off ahead of Link in the story as she prepares for the mission. Whatever the mission actually is - I imagine it's something along the lines of cleanse the world of evil, but I'm gonna give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and hope that there's more fancy twists than that in store. I'll be honest, I didn't see Ganondorf coming at the end of Twilight Princess at all =P

Speaking of Twilight Princess, that's probably the game I would compare closest with Skyward Sword, for obvious reasons. The way combat is handled is very different, and obviously the new items add some freshness to the game's puzzles and combat, but even with the radically different graphics, the game still feels very Twilight Princess. The way Link runs, climbs and swims is mostly the same, and I imagine they probably borrowed the same animations from the previous game, but the new Link is much more athletic, which really adds to the way you explore the world. The world itself underwent a huge change, and I'd probably liken it more to the kind of world found in The Windwaker or Phantom Hourglass. It essentially feels like you're swimming in a sea of clouds and descending to remote islands, which house a dungeon as well as a unique world in them with both friends and foes inhabiting them.

Now I'm probably going to spend a bit of time talking about the combat. It still pays off, at least against the weaker enemies, to flail the remote without paying too much attention to how the enemy actually blocks, because Link is able to swing his sword faster than they can change their stance. As soon as I realised this, I was both disappointed because I thought the combat would be much more strategic, and relieved because fighting hundreds of enemies would quickly become a chore if I was actually required to put effort into figuring out all their weak spots. I've only encountered one boss fight and one mini-boss fight, but both were against sword users, which helped teach swordfighting well, but were rather uninspired characters. The boss fight was against an important antagonist, which I wasn't prepared for, since usually the first boss in any Zelda game is some nameless overgrown behemoth unique to the dungeon. I'm happy for this, since it adds more depth and familiarity to the characters you meet, rather than just some evil mastermind in the background plotting things without really having anything to do with you.

The other characters also seem more full of life than in previous games, and the vibrant colours in the environments tend to remove a feeling of lethargy from the game, which I felt was present to a small extent in the previous game. The game certainly isn't bland, and they use this well to mask the aging technology of the Wii and its blurred textures and jaggy models. Collecting bugs and other little trinkets is now actually meaningful in the game, as they're used to upgrade potions and equipment, which compels me to explore a lot more than I would otherwise.

So far I'm impressed with what Nintendo have done with Skyward Sword, and I look forward to the 40-50 (or more) hours I'll spend with the game!

Summer Holidays, b*****s

2011-11-16T18:23:00.000+11:00

上个星期六是我的最后的考试. 我已经完成两年大学, 可是现在是暑假. 下个三月我们到大学回来.

Okay that's enough Chinese for this post. =D So so far in my holidays, I've been out a decent amount. And by that I mean I went out yesterday. Monday evening was work, which I'm gonna have to get used to again, since it's the lead-up to Christmas and I work at a discount retail store. Fortunately I work after hours so I don't have to deal with crazy customers. In the meantime, it's mostly gaming for me. I've been trying to see if my (piss-weak) computer can handle streaming, and apparently it likes me enough to let me stream Portal 2, so for the next couple of days I'll try to finish that while live-streaming it =) You can find my stream's link at http://www.justin.tv/rim_eronin

Also I've also obviously been playing a decent amount of StarCraft 2. I think getting to Diamond league in these holidays would be a realistic and worthwhile goal =) Anyway, while I'm rambling on about games, I may as well mention that today I finally completed Metroid Prime Three, thus ending my journey through what I now consider to the be greatest trilogy of games ever made. That said, I've not played other highly regarded trilogies such as Uncharted (someone buy me a PS3 please) or Gears of War, but I feel Metroid Prime deserves a place on a pedestal high above a vast majority of AAA titles out there. Just listening to the music almost brings tears to my eyes; I felt a pang of sadness as I watched the credits roll past, knowing that a significant chapter in my life has just ended. The games just left such a sense of wonder and excitement, yet each of the games did so in such different ways. Prime 1 invited you to explore a forgotten world with a beautifully told history, Prime 2 presented another (two!) world(s), and filled them with melancholy monuments of ancient warriors, while Prime 3 jacked up the throttle and blasted you on an adventure alongside the Galactic Federation as you finally put an end to the Pirates and your nemesis. Such a great series will hold a place in my heart for many years to come.

Okay, that's enough for now. I shall blog again soon!

再见!