Ace Combat Infinity EU/US Beta

Word has come to me that the Beta for the PS3 exclusive Ace Combat: Infinity will be held between February 4th, and February 11th. During these days you can get in on the Beta, for free, and play it as much as you want!

As far as I've been told, there's two single player missions, and three multiplayer missions. The Sortie Fuel system is implemented, but you can supposedly just "buy" more fuel for no cost.

I dunno about you, but I'm massively excited for this! Beta players, launch!

Time and Games.

I need a time turner...

I seriously need more time. My backlog is starting to fill up, as it usually does around October to January. This is after all the release time for a lot of games, with Christmas coming up in a month. Also doesn't help that I got three RPG's in the bunch to complete, and a fourth one when I get my PS3 disc drive fixed. Instead of just mentioning them vaguely, I'll list a few of the games here that I'd like to play more of, but I'm too scarce on time.

First off, there's Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen which I did a first impressions post about. I've gotten around to actually beating the game, but the post-game has so much new content, and I'm also in the midst of clearing out Bitterblack Isle. The difficulty has gone up a bit , but not too the point where it's impeding progress though. This I approve. It's also a lot darker without a lantern, meaning that oil is a lot more important now. Once I finish Bitterblack Isle, I'll mark this game as complete, as speedruns and such is more for the Mastery badge on my Backlog.

Secondly, there's Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F.  This may come out of left field, but I really, really like the Vocaloids. Sure, I wouldn't be able to name many songs for you, but when I listen to them I have fun and enjoy it. This is not something I can say for other music-genres. I've gotten through all the songs on Normal difficulty, and I'm working my way on Hard. Some of these songs are absolute mayhem and I can't keep up with the button-prompts on screen. I worry for the Extreme difficulty... Even so, I enjoy this game immensely, and I hugely approve that this game got a western release (unlike the earlier PSP version). Pick it up if you enjoy Vocaloids and/or rhythm games.

Next up is an impulse buy. Final Fantasy IX. That's right, I impulse bought this to my PS Vita. Luckily, since it is on a portable console, I'm able to find a few minutes here and there for it. I've gotten to Disc 2, but the entire squad is still under level 20. I hope this is normal, because of how story-heavy the game is in the beginning. Not a fan of the card-game gimmick included though, so I've purposefully avoided it so far. I'm enjoying the story as it has been presented so far, and the cutscenes look damn good even now.

The fourth game that I'd like more time to play is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A friend of mine got me into this game and it a fresh breath of air into MMORPG's for me. It's pay-to-play, but the first month is free (wait, isn't that what drug pushers say as well? Haha). Either way, it's a lot of fun and I'd like to get more time into it before I have to pay for more. The game also looks absolutely stunning. The weather changes from day to night,  from sunny to overcast, misty, thunderstorm, light rain, heavy wind and/or rain. It all looks stunning.

Raining sideways due to heavy wind. The sound to accompany this is great.

As if this wasn't enough games, there's Battlefield 4, War Thunder and the upcoming Ace Combat: Infinity, and a lot of anime to watch as well. Mix all that in with a visa-application for out-of-country studies and attempting to be sociable, there's not much time left to do nothing...

Anyway, that's a wrap for this post. Until next time, stay safe!

Hard times ahead.

Hello again! I'll just cut right to the chase here. Ace Combat Infinity didn't have a release date on September 25th after all. Rumors abound, some say it got delayed, others that it was the date for the Japanese beta-test.  Massively disappointed, and I'm sorry for just adding fuel to that fire... Anyway, at Tokyo Game Show just a few days ago, they put out a new trailer, this one with some length and story elements in it.

I've been studying some more Japanese recently, after a break on two weeks (mostly due to work). I've gotten around to learning て-form (Te-form), and I've started to work on Katakana. I thought Hiragana was bad when it came to characters looking a lot similar, but Katakana is much worse, haha. Seriously, just look at Ke ケand Ku ク. Damn. Well, it's not like you can learn any language in a day anyway, right? Got to put in some work for that reward.

On the anime front, I actually completed WataMote today, which marked my 150th completed anime according to My Anime List. That's a pretty big milestone, but at the same time I've seen a lot of people with tons more completed anime on their lists. I found WataMote to be really, REALLY funny, but I was slightly disappointed in the ending. Definitely worth a watch if you want something short to just laugh to. Ended up giving it an 8/10 (That's the equivalent of "Very Good" as I use the same scores as My Anime List). It's a series I could re-watch at a later time with someone who hasn't, purely for the laughs.

What?! No perfect 10?!

I'm not even halfway done with Azumanga Daioh, so there's still quite a wait time for that mini-review I'm afraid. Sorry! Anyway, that's it for this post. Stay tuned for more, and stay safe!

More Ace Combat!

Howdy! Yet another post! Ace Combat Infinity is closing in like a fast-mover on afterburners, so the Ace Combat Official Fan Page just chucked out 32 new pictures on their page! Here's my three favorites.

I've also been playing a bit of Ace Combat:Assault Horizon, mostly to brush up my "skills" (if there ever was any) for Infinity, so I got some good footage from that recently.

As a final note, making this a rather small update, I've started playing Arma 3 with the fellas at Hardcore Gaming Community. We're a good mix of new and experienced Arma players, all learning each other the ropes.

For those of you waiting for an anime update, fret not, it's on the Horizon! (Yes, another pun, better get used to them) xD

MAL is down, let's return to Comona Islands!

Yes, you read that right! Comona Islands is apparently making a grand return in Ace Combat Infinity when that pops out on September 25th! Some screenshots and a new teaser trailer were released, and I was blown away!

                                                              I cannot wait to try this out!

One thing a lot of us Ace Combat fans will notice, is that they remixed the song from the mission over Comona Islands in Ace Combat 4, and from what's heard in the trailer, it sounds great!

As you also read in the header, MyAnimeList (MAL) is down due to a DDOS attack. That's right, someone with too much time on their hands decided to DDOS a website made for people who want to keep their watched anime and manga in a neat list and discuss them with others. I'm just hoping no one loses their entire list...

Other than that, I got my new memory for my PC yesterday, and I started watching Azumanga Daioh. I can't really say anything about it yet, might give it a mini-review once I'm done with it. For now, I believe this picture explains Azumanga Daioh the best.

                                                                             :D

Back to the topic of the memory, I'll do a bit of testing and such. If it all works out properly I can start capturing gameplay again, in hopes of finding some great footage! Stay tuned for more!