Piñitas

Hey guys! We're getting real close to a decision on the buying/renting a house/apartment thing. Kinda...:P The thing is, we need to find a good place to stay at, and we want to rent for a year (in case it doesn't work out here) but renting is expensive. Buying a house is an option, but you just can't find a house that doesn't need repairs. So we'd have to rent (like a hotel) for a while...that's the situation.

Anyway, the title has to do with a yummy little bread they have around here. "Piñitas" means "small pineapples" I guess, but it's really just a regular looking bread with a layer of sugar on top. LOOK!



Also, here's an iguana.



And lastly, I finally got the S ranks on all the tracks in the "Super Excite" Gold Cup. I unlocked my last car, and it's pretty much the best one in the game (DURR). I recorded a video, which I'll have to upload later, as it's big and I'm out of time (laptop has 2 hour battery life, 20 minutes left, upload on slow connection wil take who knows how long...) soo...that is all. Goodbye.

Media

Some pics and vids for you! First off, the obligatory "me" picture.



And a funny plant on the "front lawn"...



And then our car!





And Wii gameplay footage!

Red Steel

All right, here's my Red Steel review:

The game is about this guy, an American named Scott, and his fiancee Miyu. You're gonna meet her dad, but she gets kidnapped. You meet up with him, turns out he's head of this huge clan and so you are fighting against this Japanese mafia, eventually finding their leader, Tokai and getting back the girl.

The story is all right, the dialog in game isn't the best, but you can stand it. It gets really annoying when you start a level with dialog, and then die a little after it, because then you have to listen to the same thing over and over.

The mouth movements and stuff aren't great either. The whole game is visually a little better than Halo 2. The mouth movements and stuff for instance, are just open and close the jaw. There are many levels with great lighting however, but the graphics overall are nothing "amazing", but good.ou

One thing I did like were some of the songs, or background music that plays when you get into fights. Some dramatic Japanese stuff, or some funky Japanese rock...very neat. They use a lot of the Wiimote's built-in speaker, which is cool and adds to the game's atmosphere.

The game can be a little difficult to control at first, but you get used to it quick. I did find myself spinning in circles because I wasn't pointing at the TV correctly quite a bit. You use the remote as your gun, or as a sword. You use the nunchuk for moving around and doing some moves like opening doors, reloading, or blocking sword attacks.

The sword fighting is okay. It seems to detect the motion of the swipe fine (e.g. you swing to the left or right) but doesn't angle it perfectly or anything. The sword fighting gets increasingly difficult throughout the game. In fact, in the second to last level you get into...some 15+ sword fights, it's crazy (with ninjas nonetheless!) and the last 3 fights are very hard.

Speaking of which, I beat the game, but I don't think I completed fully. I was suppose to protect a guy from dying, by sword fighting his attacker. I lost, and he killed the guy. And the guy who killed the guy died as well. A lot of dying. But I saved the fiancee! X-D So I'm gonna do that level again...

Again, I haven't been able to try multiplayer, but it'll be interesting to see because of the type of movement you must use with the controllers, to cram 4 people on one TV.

I wouldn't recommend the game unless you really want a first-person-shooter. It's a nice long game, but it's nothing super-awesome. I'd like to try Call of Duty 3 and see how that compares...

Wiiviews

TADA! Time to post some more in-depth reviews of my games for my Wii!

First up, Wii Sports:

Wii Sports comes prepackaged with the Wii, as game to pretty much show off what the Wii is basically about. It gets all the sensitivity, gyroscoping, motion sensing stuff going, and ALSO shows what a fun, family/friend game should be like. Wii Sports comes with 5 games. Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. All the games are very fun, though I personally seem to enjoy Bowling (and recently Golf) more, while my sister and dad love Boxing (dad also likes Bowling).

With Tennis, Baseball, and Golf, you can safely assume how they use the remote with it. It's as simple as swinging it around. Of course, in Golf, for instance, how hard you swing will determine the strength of your in-game swing. In Tennis and Baseball it's all about timing. With bowling, you hold down the back trigger on the remote, swing and release the button, to simulate actually throwing it. And for boxing, you get to whip out that nunchuck controller and get to the funny punching. You actually have to hold up the 2 controllers up in your face and punch! It can also detect (though it does get a little funky at times) your uppercuts or swipes.

I think Nintendo should release a sequel to Wii Sports, with more advanced gameplay. As it is now, Wii Sports is very simple, and I understand as it's the first game that anyone will experience for the Wii. It's very easy for parents to play, and that's the whole point. BUT, for those gamers who find it to simple, the advanced version could add a couple of things. For instance, in Tennis, all you get to do is swing. Your character moves back and forth by himself. Also, the power of your swing doesn't determine anything, it's just the timing of it. With the nunchuck controller, and advanced Tennis could use the analog stick for movement, and perhaps they could add the power-sensing on the remote. Or in golf, add a couple more clubs and options for a course creator or something. Baseball, perhaps they could let you play an actual 9 innings, and sense the power of your swing as well? Or even let you throw a curveball by turning the remote instead of just holding a button. Things like that!

All in all, the game is very fun, and has nice graphics and sounds as well. One of the coolest things though, is how you are able to create your own character for the Wii! They are called "Mii"'s and everyone in my family has their own. So far, the only other people we've made are Jose and Zarster (Danish friend). Eventually we'll probably fill it up with all our friends! :D

Secondly, Excite Truck:

This game's best comparison could probably be Burnout. However, it does focus more on the racing part instead of the crashing (though there are 3 minigames, one of which is a crashing arena). The game looks great, and the speed of it is quite exhilarating. The rock music adds a lot to the intense racing atmosphere, though some tracks seem to get repetitive. Speaking of tracks, there aren't that many of them. Despite you doing about 20 races in the first level (there are 2 levels, Excite and Super Excite) the 20 tracks are actually based off of a core 5 or 6 tracks. There's the Desert, Green Castle, Snowy, Island, and China tracks, and from there the other tracks just mess with that basic core (for instance, one Island tracks has a different path than the other, or could be backwards with some terrain differentiation).

There are about 15 cars or so, 3 of which you get on the start, the rest you must unlock. Most of the unlocks are pretty worthless though, atleast...I only use 2 of mine (one which has amazing air, the other great speed and turbo). The rest are just slightly better at something, and slightly worse at something else (each car has a vertain level of sped, turbo, air, and grip). You can also unlock a different paint job for each car, depending on how many times you've raced with it.

As mentioned earlier, there are 2 levels, Excite and Super Excite. As I've also mentioned in a previous post, each level has 4 cups, Bronze up to Platinum. Each cup has 4 tracks you race in. Each race will be graded, from D up to S grade, and by getting all S's in every track, in all the cups, you get to unlock Super Excite. Super Excite is an even FASTER paced version with an extra cup, Diamond. So far, i've only just unlocked Super Excite mode...

There are also 3 minigames (or Challenges, as they are called). One involves you driving through 2 pillars of light, through out the track (which gets harder as they narrow down the further you go). Another is about Rings. In the game, you can hit these switches throughout the track that change the terrain or add rings at the end of a ramp, and if you fly through all the rings, you get special bonuses. That's pretty much what that minigame is about. The last one puts you in a track, but an arena version of it, and is about smashing the other cars. I haven't played much of these, as I've been too busy racing! ;)

I'd definitely recommend buying Excite Truck, I'm sure on multiplayer it would be even better.

Phew! I'll write a review about Red Steel, a first person shooter game later. And perhaps get some pictures too...

Nerdy

WARNING! WARNING! GEEK POST!

Anyway, so I've been playing my new Nintendo, especially Excite Truck. That game rocks. Anyway, you get ranked on every course, A-D (maybe F, but I never got one), but there is also S, which is better than an A. Ok, and so there are 4 cups, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each, has 4 tracks. Now, if I complete all 4 tracks in a cup with an S grade, the cup turns into this star thing. I've unlocked some cars and such, and so I'm at the last cup (Platinum) with one track to finish, and another to get an S grade (I can't get past an A). ALL of this, is one the normal level "Excite". I suppose once I finish this, it'll unlock the "Super Excite" level, and I'll do it all over! :P

Also, I've been playing with my laptop quite a bit. I decided to install some IDEs and libraries, all in case I feel like programming something. In addition to that, I was just trying to compile DSLinux for my DS. Problem was, it failed...why? I ran out of space on my Linux partition (I have Windows and Ubuntu on my hard drive, I think Ubuntu has 9GB). So I shrank my Windows partition a bit, and in an attempt to resize my Linux partition, I ran into some problems...

First, I can't resize the partition backwards! I don't know why, and the programs I'm using (all based off of one called Parted) won't move the partition either! GAH! And when I tried to do some deletion and stuff, I apparently screwed up the numbering order of the partitions, and I had to reinstall GRUB (my boot loader). Now, I am currently backing up my Ubuntu install onto my portable drive, and getting ready to reinstall it.

I don't expect you to understand what I said...just smile and nod. :D