Tales of Vesperia: First off, I would like to clarify that my gaming skills aren't that great. I think I'm okay at best. I also try not to get a game aggravate me, but this game is testing my patience a bit. I'm still toughing it out and have progressed through the game despite my complaints about it. I'm not sure how far into the game I am, but I'm at the point in the game where I just have the dragon rider just join Yuri, the main character, as my team member.

The game's technical aspects are top-notch hands down. The graphics and beautiful with smooth animation and vivid colors all over the place. The anime cut-scenes are well crafted themselves. The voice acting is great too as they gives shape and personality to their characters they're acting for. The music is nice, though feels typical of a JRPG game with its mostly orchestrated soundtrack. The story is okay too, nothing to write home about.

Those of you who are familiar with JRPGs will find the same old formula used in Tales of Vesperia. You venture around to different cities in a huge world map, battling enemies on your way. You make your way into a city, buying items, collecting intelligence, etc. You go into another area where you fight more enemies and eventually get into a boss fight.

The main aspect of the game that is giving me fits is the battle gameplay. This is the first Tales game I've played, so I wasn't prepared to play its real-time action battles instead of being turn-based. In battle, you have to think fast on your feet. In most battles out in the field, you'll probably have no problem defeating the enemies you'll be facing. You may have an issue where you are fighting numerous (like five or more) enemies as you or your allies try to do something, but you're continually swamped by enemy attacks for some time before you can break free.

In the midst of battle, you can pause the action and decide to use an item or change strategy. Again, you'll probably not use many items during typical field enemies, but you'll be using the menu screen (possibly) a lot during boss battles.

At the end of each battle, you will be scored on how well you fought. Attributes that affect your score are how quickly you defeat your enemies, how many items you've used, and many other details in battle. Your score affects the amount of experience you gain for your entire party.

The battle gameplay itself is simple. You walk around, you can block, attack, and use special attacks called artes. It's simply many small spurts of you're typical beat-'em-up game, pushing the buttons as fast as you can to defeat your enemies.

The thing that gets me are the boss battles themselves. Either it's the game, or I'm an idiot, but I can seem to keep my teammates alive and chew up a lot of healing items as they seem to get pummelled quick by each boss I've encountered. So much for great teammates from the AI. It usually ends up with myself and one teammate barely alive in defeating the boss. I'm also not gathering up the achievements as each boss battle has a secret mission that you can unlock if you do something specific during battle.

For now, the game is okay in my book. I'll keep on marching through the game to its end.

Rock Band 2: I was blown away the first few seconds I played the first Rock Band. It was an experience like none other. The aspect of you and your friends playing as a band. I sang, I pounded, and I strummed to my delight. It also helped that I enjoyed playing most of the songs and the inclusion of additional songs helped keep my enjoyment of the game for many months on.

My initial reaction to Rock Band 2, eh. Really, there are only a few differences between Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2. Rock Band 2 has battle of the bands, a more involved solo tour, extra challenges, and extra items for your character customization. Otherwise, the main gameplay remains the same.

I am also less thrilled with the songs in this game compare to the first. The downloadable songs continue to help, but the game couldn't match the initial impact the first game had. I'm afraid future incarnations, unless they do something drastic to it, will just be the bland same old same old. I think I'm already played out.

Song Selections

I hope you enjoy the new selection of songs I've recently discovered. All of them are linked to Pitchfork Media.

Amadou & Mariam - "Sabali" [Pitchfork Stream]

The Decemberists - "Valerie Plame" [Pitchfork via Youtube]

Hauschka - "Freibad" [Pitchfork mp3 Download and Stream]

Short Stories (Old and New)

Both of these stories are linked to my Livejournal blog.

Soul and Fire

About a month ago, I wrote my first short story in years. I was bored and somehow had an idea to write about a band breaking up and playing a somber final song at their final show. I took inspiration from two sources for this story. It took about three hours for me to flesh everything out, but I was satisfied with its outcome. I intended this story to stand alone as is, but then I had thoughts of trying to expand the story. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to grips in writing future chapters to this one. To those who haven't read this story yet, I hope you enjoy reading this story.

A Lover's Lament (Spur of the Moment)

I gathered a few pieces from my failed attempt I mentioned above and used it to write a new short story I wrote last night. It took me two hours to complete this story. With this story, I culled from an experience from times where I had to make a rash decision over a dilemma I was facing. I wanted to make this story a bit more chaotic and disorienting with its short length. It was a bit harder to write this one and I have my reservations about it, but I hope it's satisfactory to you guys.

Felt like posting an entry tonight.

Work has been brutal this week as I'm trying to wrap up project invoicing by tomorrow. I've worked pretty late on Tuesday and Wednesday and I can't wait to simply un-wind tomorrow after work. Work... work... work... my brain is fried... work... work... work...

Work has been so draining that I have failed to start performing a serious search for a new job. All I want to do after work is to watch TV, listen to music, browse the internet, and then sleep. On weekends, all I want to do is to not do much because I'm trying to regain as much energy as I can before Monday comes around. Ugh, I got to start sometime.

My brother and I added five more music albums into our ever growing music library. Here are our new additions...

Caspian - You Are the Conductor

Matthew Robert Cooper - Miniatures

Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour

Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

I listened to two of the albums so far. Mogwai's album is pretty good. Max Richter's album is amazing! Right now, I'd place it as my sixth favorite album of this year, just missing out on my top five.

My brother and I attended a music concert for this first time in ten months. We saw Mogwai and F*** Buttons play at the Starlight Ballroom in Philly last Friday. The concert was great, both bands played really well! Unfortunately, my hearing was shot two days afterward.

The user-built computer took two-steps forward and one-step back. We got a replacement motherboard unit and it seemed to work fine. However, our video card decided to kick the bucket. Now we await for another replacement and hope things work out for the better the next go-around.

Lastly, a status update on my new story I have planned. I think I have the story wrapped up, but I'll see how it really is after I finally type it down. I was getting frustrated carrying this story in my head, unable to really work on it because of actual work. I hope I'll have enough drive and energy to get something down this weekend. Since I like my stories kept short, it'll be more on the describing what's going on with very few dialogue. I work best when I splat something down quickly and fix it up afterward. It's also the next chapter to my initial story Soul and Fire. I may not have it up this weekend, but hopefully next weekend I'll have it posted here. Look for the blog title to be called either Empty Pages or Consequence.

Thanks for reading and I hope all of you are doing well!

As requested by Gum, I will dedicate tonight's entry in picking out and explaining my top five albums of 2008 selections.

But before I get to the entry, I'll like to get this little bit in. Every Friday, Harmonix announces what new songs will be available to download for Rock Band. This coming Tuesday, Harmonix will be releasing an album and six other single songs for download. I'll definitely be downloading the album, which is Rush's Moving Pictures that includes "Tom Saywer", "Limelight", and "YYZ." However, one band featured on Tuesday's downloads was surprising but great to see. Harmonix will be releasing a song from Sleater-Kinney.

Sleater-Kinney was a three member, all-female rock band that simply kick major arse. I only have their last album, The Woods, but that was one incredible album! I've never heard such aggressive and passionate set of songs from an all-female band. They have a great track record during their tenure and split up on their own accord. Definitely check them out!

Now, onto the entry...

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As of September 20th, these are my top five favorite albums released this year. Obviously, my thoughts are going to change as I continue to purchase more albums and have a change of opinion on other albums with three months left to go.

I will try my best to describe why these albums are my favorites so far. Sometimes it's hard for me to explain why these albums grab my interest, but I hope it'll be a fun read. I will also try to find a song to link under each album after the entry is posted.

5] M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Sounds Like: 1980s Synth Music, But Not Cheesy

If I played this album to most people, they'll immediately tag the album's music as cheesy 1980s synth music. Yes, almost every song here has that cheesy synth sound, guitar sound, and echo vocals some people will recognize. If you go beneath the stereotypical sound, you'll find an album that sounds beautiful, part emotional, and expresses youth, as the artist intended. It's a great album to listen to to relax and dream. It's also a great album to listen to get into that introspective mood and think how your life has gone. There are songs that gets to grooving inside, and songs that get you looking around. Again, if you can get past the synth tag and let the music truly speak for itself, you might find yourself entranced by its beautiful sound.

4] Stereolab - Chemical Chords

Sounds Like: Pop Music Mixed In With A Little Synth, Lounge, and Other Little Oddities

Chemical Chords is the perfect title for this album. The music is essentially pop music mixed in with bits from other genres to create an album full of eccentric sounds. One song, you'll find yourself in an easy-listening lounge song, the next song you'll be listening to a song with the guitars fuzzed and the synths blaring. I love the variety of sounds throughout the album's fourteen tracks. The songs aren't easy to get into at first, but after a couple of listens, you may get into the groove that this album offers.

3] Shearwater - Rook

Sounds Like: Rock, But With a Sense of Yearning and Urgency

Sure, this may sound like a solid rock record. But what makes this album stand out is the emotional outpour found in each song. Each song has it a great sense of yearning and urgency, whether it a strong, short song, or a quiet and winding song. It gives your mind a sense of adventure as you listen through the album. The band plays some great music and the vocalist sings beautifully throughout. Out of the five albums I feature on this entry, I believe this album is the easiest to get into because the songs don't have any crazy sounds to dig through to appreciate it.

2] Calexico - Carried to Dust

Sounds Like: A Mexican, Americana, Rock, and a Little Jazz Music Mix

"Two Silver Trees" blew my head out of the water the first time I heard it. That song immediately made met set to purchase their album once it was released. I was a little worried that their album might disappoint after the extreme high the song provided, but luckily the albums not only matched the greatness from "Two Silver Trees", but also exceeded it too. The album mostly grounded on a Mexican sound with the intricate guitar and horns, but they also add a little bit of normal rock, Americana sound, and a little jazz sprinkled in this fifteen track sprawling album. Even though the album contains fifteen tracks, they all breeze through in a flash all as no track exceeds four minutes. I believe that benefits the albums as you get hit with many great songs as you listen through the album. The album is pretty accessible and also easy to get into for the most part.

1] Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Sounds Like: Weird, Skewed, Indie Rock Sound

Right now, Wolf Parade holds the top spot as my favorite album this year. The band decides to go a more darker, weirder sound from their polished and pop-centric debut album. I really like the change as I feel like the songs have more of an aurora around them. The album is essentially a rock album, but it's filled with many crazy sounds around it that it will either you draw you into it like it has done to me, or may deter you. Out of the five albums featured on this list, I place this album as the hardest out of the bunch to get into because the sound is (the best way I can put it as) weird. It's also weird that my favorite track from this album is the final track. I love the final track (called "Kissing the Beehive") because of the many times the song changes within its 11-minute running time. It's weird, but the weird collage of sounds is what strikes at me the most and made me declare it as my favorite album as of this moment.

I hope you enjoyed this entry tonight. Till next entry...