I must say, it didn’t take hackers very long to break the PSP’s 3.03 firmware (I think it took between one and two months this time.) Accordingly, prices of the unpatched version of GTA LCS have skyrocketed on eBay. I think I’m going to actually downgrade my PSP for this first time and install the homebrew 3.03 firmware so I can play some of my PS1 games. It’s too bad that I’m one of the suckers that will have to buy one of those unpatched GTA’s from eBay. You can find all of the necessary stuff here.

Recently, I’ve noticed that I don’t really listen to much Japanese music. I surfed Hongfire’s music torrent forums, but most of them seemed unappealing (on the basis of names?) One group name seemed very appealing, though. Even though I had never heard of them, ROUND TABLE featuring Nino seemed to catch my eye.

First off, I must say that Medieval 2: Total War surpasses its predecessor Rome: Total War. Rome was pretty much known as a cakewalk. I’d say Medieval 2 is one of the more difficult games in the series (i.e., more difficult than Medieval, but still way, way less than Shogun.) Actually, it was so hard that it took me a bit off guard when I first played it. I really wanted to write about my first playthrough in the game’s campaign, but I lost.

Wow, I’m surprised about the difference in attitude I have towards Valkyrie Profile after getting the A ending in hard mode. The story in the A ending is infinitely more times better than that of the B ending. It was even more satisfying doing it in hard mode. Therefore, I must retract the statements I made in the first post about Valkyrie Profile.

I really don’t understand why Tri-ace would have even bothered to make the B-ending, or to make the A-ending so obscure (did anyone get this ending accidentally on their first playthrough?) It seems that they really wouldn’t want people to get the “bad ending,” which isn’t really the story they wanted to tell.

I was kind of disappointed on how easy the game was though. Even in hard mode, I was able to breeze through most of the game, even the end parts. Bloodbane did give me a bit of trouble because of the fact that he can heal, but once I did a little Might Reinforce and Sap Guard, he fell pretty quickly. Fenrir was annoying because of his habit of freezing people but that was the only thing challenging about him. Loki himself was pretty easy. He had no tricky status affecting attacks or anything.

Now that I got the A ending, I’m going to continue Valkyrie Profile 2. I really don’t like the battle system that much for it; I much prefer Lenneth’s, but I’ve heard that the story is better, so I’ll bear with it.

I was recently reading the newest Games for Windows issue when I stumbled upon their best free games feature. There were some cool looking games in there (although, some were mods which I wouldn’t exactly label as “free” since you need to buy the game they are based on first…) One of the free games really caught my eye. Yup, you guessed it: RAY-HOUND.

I think this is for a Japanese kids show…. I guess that’s why it’s so cute sounding. Please enjoy.

From left to right: (top)Genshiken Vol. 1 & 2,2x2 Shinobuden Vol.1 (middle)Yoko Koto Kiku, Leave it to Piyoko Vol. 1, Sgt. Frog Vol. 1 & 2 (bottom)Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days Vol. 1, Rozen Maiden Vol. 2, Welcome to the NHK Vol. 1

Yep, got a ton of new manga again. This post is a bit late since I didn’t have anything to take the picture of the books with. I’ve already finished all of them. If I were to pick a favorite, it would easily be Welcome to the NHK. It was very hard for me to put it down while I was reading it and I am eagerly awaiting the second volume (aah, doesn’t come out until February.)

According to DailyTech, ASUS introduced the first external graphics card hub-thing (I’m not sure what you call it.) It’s called the XG station and connects to the notebook via the ExpressCard slot and provides a PCI Express x16 slot. Pricing and release date haven’t been confirmed at the moment. I think it’s pretty cool, especially with people with laptops that only have integrated graphics (yuck.) It looks kind of expensive, though.

Those with Half-Life 2 should get this. It includes maps very similar to those found in the hit N64 game Goldeneye. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how awesome that game was. Even though I initially hated this mod (I blame it on the bad map I started playing on,) this mod is clearly made of win. Some advice: This game is the most fun with a small group of players (10 max) and maps that aren’t the cave (I don’t remember its name off the top of my head). You can find out more and download the mod here.

This is pretty much like my previous post, except it deals with manga instead of games. It won’t quite be structured the same as the first and will probably contain more manga than the last post contained of games. Manga seems to be increasing in popularity in the States, therefore increasing the demand and production of localized manga. There are a couple of manga that I’ve had my mind on since late 2006.

Before I start my list, be forewarned that it might be biased towards certain genres. OK, I won’t lie, the games on the list will be mostly RPGs for the PS2 and strategy games for the PC. Don’t count on many games from other genres to make my list. That, of course, doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth checking out. Also, keep in mind that the games are ranked in no particular order. If I included ever interesting game in this list, this would be one freakin’ long post. Oh well, without further adieu, the rest of my post.