Category Archives: Shopping

Back in full swing

Er…sorry for the unexplained extended leave of absence. Two weeks may not seem like a long time when you’re in school, but when you do blog-type stuff on a regular basis on the Internet, it kinda leaves a pretty big gap.

I’ve spent most of that time preparing for a final exam in Network Communications (which I finished earlier this morning with an A grade) and working on a small Dreamweaver project for my Web Page Development class. I had to cut back on up to 95% of my normal video game-playing in order to get them finished. On the bright side, this now means I’ve completed my first semester at DCCC, and can go back to a relatively normal work schedule (regular work and blogging). In the fall, I’m planning on moving into Flash, PHP and MySQL, and since they’re all Internet-based courses, I can take them from home without having to worry about travel expenses (except for those times when I may have to get books or other crap).

I also had to deal with a minor computer issue over the weekend, where the update to my AMD graphic card drivers screwed up almost all of the 3D graphics in the games I own. After spending a lot of time fiddling with my computer settings, I concluded that it was the new drivers themselves that were corrupted. So instead of updating to version 12.4, I’m going to stay put with 12.3 until AMD releases a new version that doesn’t make everything look like a demented checkerboard.

As a bonus, I used part of the money I won back from selling my textbook to purchase Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, which I hear is supposed to be quite a bit better than the original. I’m only about 25% done with the first Neptunia, and pretty much stopped updating my playthrough of the game to concentrate on my studies. I suppose I should try to finish the first game before even sniffing at the second, as I’m quite sure there are some things I’m going to need to know about the first game’s story for any of Neptunia mk2 to make sense. Then again, I’ve already started a new game file in Atelier Totori, even though I’m not quite done with Atelier Rorona yet. I’ll try to get an update done on that front by Wednesday.

…And some other stuff

After beating Kid Icarus: Uprising on Wednesday before school (a totally awesome game that you should pick up if you have a Nintendo 3DS) and spending the next two days trying to figure out what I needed to do to fill up the Treasure Hunt cards for more loot, I went out to GameStop today to pick up Xenoblade Chronicles and fulfill the last preorder I’ll need for a good while. I also got myself used copies of Lock’s Quest, Rhythm Heaven, and Star Ocean: Second Evolution, and got rid of some old games I had no use for in some sort of weird Yu-Gi-Oh-esque summoning ritual.

Xenoblade, as you may or may not recall, is the first of the three “Operation Rainfall” games (a fan campaign to get Nintendo to publish/distribute more Eastern-developed RPGs on the Wii), having been released in Japan and parts of Europe several months ago and finally making its way to the U.S. today. I don’t expect this to sell that many copies here since GameStop and the Nintendo shop are the only places stocking it, but I’m glad that it got here at all. I’ll probably play this one a lot between Warriors Orochi 3 (also surprisingly good; shame about the lack of English dub, though).

Star Ocean: Second Evolution is the PSP remake of Star Ocean: The Second Story, which came out on the original PlayStation almost a decade earlier. This one is supposed to have much better voice acting than the original (which, while not on a level of badness as the first Grandia, made so many battles painful to listen to), but probably isn’t all that different from the first game. I may give that one to my brother if he still cares to play with his PlayStation once in a while.

P.S. Don’t bother trading in your PS2 games toward store credit; you’ll get almost nothing for them. You’ll be better off selling them at a flea market. PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS/3DS, and PSP/PlayStation Vita games are where it’s at nowadays.

That’s coal’d, man

Another year, another smattering of games bought from the Steam Sale in search of bargains and prizes. The biggest gains I came away with are probably Fallout: New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 each. Valve also handed out special achievements to any player who completed a special holiday-themed achievement in select games, and doing so would either give you a voucher for a free game, a coupon for a discount on a game in Steam’s catalog, or…a lump of coal. However, if you collect seven of them, you can trade them in for a mystery gift (which can be either a game or a coupon). I think I was able to get 15 gifts in total, and was getting close to obtaining another one, but I wasn’t able to complete the achievement in time for me to go to work, so I was left with six lumps of coal that I couldn’t use for anything.

Of course, I also have this one 50% off coupon for Universe Sandbox that I’m sitting on, because I bought the game at 75% off the day it went on sale. I think I’ll put my Valve coupon toward Portal 2, my 1C coupon on Space Rangers (which plays like the newer King’s Bounty games, except IN SPACE!) and the Bethesda discount will be used to score Brink. I played that one a bit during the free weekend, and while it runs somewhat slow on my computer, I could probably get used to it so long as I stick to single-player. Maybe Santa Newell had something good in my for my Christmas stocking after all…

‘Tis best to give AND receive

2011 was a pretty good Christmas, though not a completely fun one…I decided to go to work today in order to earn some extra post-holiday money. Luckily, there wasn’t a whole lot of work to do, so I got through the day pretty stress-free. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Stuff I gave out:

  • two albums for Dad: Thin Lizzy’s “Shades of a Blue Orphanage” and Grace Jones’ “Inside Story”
  • The Help on DVD for Mom
  • Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs for Sara
  • a $25 iTunes gift card for my sister
  • Batman: Arkham City on PS3 for my brother

Stuff I got:

  • an LG Optimus V phone from Mom and Dad
  • a $10 GameStop gift card from my aunt
  • Kirby: Mass Attack on Nintendo DS from Sara
  • the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection from my brother
  • some money and clothes (including a shaving kit)

Gift I’m most excited about: the phone, since I can use it to get stuff from the “official” Android App Market, which I can’t do with the tablet I bought a few weeks ago. That, and I can also upload pics properly again (Virgin discontinued the picture uploading service I used on my own phone).

Gift I’m the most surprised about: Kirby: Mass Attack. I’d told Sara about in passing in an e-mail one day, but I wasn’t sure if she would actually be able to get it. I hope she enjoys what I got for her, too.

Bye weak, buy week

So the Phillies got bounced from the playoffs in the first round against the St. Louis Cardinals after the team’s bats got put to sleep against Chris Carpenter’s pitching. Then on Sunday, the Eagles beat themselves with stupid turnovers and penalties, allowing the Buffalo Bills to just sit, point and laugh. Had it not been for the Flyers shutting out the Devils or the Union clawing their way back into the playoff hunt, it would have been a lousy weekend to be a Philly sports fan.

There was a bright spot to the weekend, though…I got a chance to visit three flea markets and a farmer’s market. The latter was being held at Clark Park, probably not too far from where the “Occupy Philadelphia” protests were scheduled to take place…although I didn’t see anyone with costumes or placards until I went to the first flea market at a Presbyterian church, of all places. I managed to pick up some decent books (including Heir to the Empire, the first of the Star Wars “Thrawn trilogy” books, and a couple of Oscar Wilde plays, because I haven’t read a stage play since 12th grade Honors English and was curious), along with a few relatively current video games (Enslaved, Vanquish, and Data East Arcade Classics) from a game store located in the Drexeline shopping center. Oh, and also Mega Man X Command Mission, because I still need to play that and X8 to complete my collection. I didn’t like X7 very much, but I do intend to finish it one day.

Apparently, someone at the DCCC flea market had a hardcover copy of The Legend of Rah and the Muggles for sale for $1 (yup, the picture’s real, superfluous trademark symbols and all). I’ve heard a lot of silly things about this book, but I didn’t have any idea that it actually existed outside of the “Muggles” lawsuit. I didn’t buy it, of course; why spend money on buying a bad book for collection’s sake when you can laugh at what others have to say about it for free?