VLOG #1

The other day I made a Video Log instead of writing a blog post, you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wf5rKrL08E



If you haven't seen my Taiwan Dreamin' Ep 1 yet, watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeM_ipFzDU



-IAN-

Gaming again!

I just got Street Fighter 4 on the 12th - it's a very fun game and highly anticipated. I decided to make a video review for it since it doesn't come out in the US until the 17th. So far it's been about 24 hours and I have over 2,000 views. To give you a comparison, my Da Keng Monkey video has gotten 62 views in the last 2 weeks. Taiwan Dreamin' episode 1 has 435 views and it's been up for 3 months.

My number of fans or 'subscirbers' has gone up as well. Before I started doing video game related videos I had about 20, now I have 72.

Here are the honors for my SF4 video:

#3 - Most Discussed (Today) - Taiwan

#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#52 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Taiwan

#1 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#5 - Most Discussed (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#94 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - Canada

#68 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - United Kingdom

#69 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - New Zealand

#68 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming

#41 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#3 - Top Favorited (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#11 - Top Favorited (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#76 - Top Favorited (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#22 - Top Rated (Today) - Taiwan

#85 - Top Rated (Today) - Gaming

#1 - Top Rated (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#1 - Top Rated (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#4 - Top Rated (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#44 - Top Rated (All Time) - Gaming - Taiwan

So as you can see I am very excited about this. What this means is that I have more traffic coming through my page and more people will see my videos as a whole. When I publish my next Taiwan related video many people who are not necesarily interested in Taiwan will get notice of it and possibly check it out. Very good news for me, and for my Taiwan Dreamin' project!

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVSCHbPLOI




Also, there was a big gaming convention in Taipei recently, I didn't go but it seems pretty cool. Here's a page with photos from the event, lots of pretty girls there for advertising purposes, haha!

http://www.mobile01.com/newsdetail.php?id=6995

Okay - I am still editing Taiwan Dreamin' ep 2, so I should be finished after not TOO long!

Video Game Conquest

I just felt like listing every video game I have COMPLETED, I'll see if I can remember them all. I have to say, there are many many games I have played that I never beat. Some of which I was extremely far along in.

I got to the last boss in Xenogears, and also Breath of Fire 3, without ever beating it. However BOF3 let you complete the game by giving up to the last boss so maybe I should count that version, haha! Hm, I also remember my game clock in BOF3 had over 100 hours on it, that let's you know, some of the games that don't make this list still took up quite a lot of time.

Anway, here goes nothing!

NES:
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
River City Ransom
Super Mario Bros 3
Kirby

Gameboy:
The Legend of Zelda- Link's Awakening
Lock and Chase
Kirby's Dreamland

Arcade:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Final Fight

SNES:
Mega Man Soccer
Final Fight
Street Fighter 2- World Warriors
Super Mario Kart

Dreamcast:
Shen Mue

PS1:
Tekken 2
Tekken 3
Tenchu- Stealh Assassins
Tenchu 2
Time Crisis
Bushido Blade
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy Tactics
Ehrgeiz
Ace Combat 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Metal Gear Solid
Mega Man 8
Twisted Metal 2
Road Rash

PS2:
Tekken Tag
Tekken 4
Tekken 5
Tenchu- Wrath of Heaven
Time Crisis 2
Time Crisis 3
Dynasty Warriors 2
Capcom VS SNK 2- Mark of the Millenium
DOA 2- Hardcore
The Warriors
Urban Reign
Grand Theft Auto 3
Grand Theft Auto- San Andreas
Dragon Ball z- Budokai 3
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Resident Evil- Code Veronica X
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Madden 2002 (Super Bowl)
Final Fantasy 10
Silent Hill 2

Gamecube:
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 4
Metal Gear Solid- Twin Snakes
The Legend of Zelda- Wind Waker
Mario Kart- Double Dash
NHL 2003 (Stanley Cup)
Soul Calibur 2
Tales of Symphonia

Wii:
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Resident Evil- Umbrella Chronicles
Wario Ware- Smooth Moves
The Legend of Zelda- Twilight Princess
Victorious Boxers Revolution

PS3:
Grand Theft Auto 4
Call of Duty 4
Metal Gear Solid 4
Soul Calibur 4
Assassin's Creed

PC:
Civilization
Civilization 4
Pirates
Starcraft
Warcraft 2
Age of Empires
Sim City
Sim City 2000
The Movies
Theme Park
Sam & Max- Hit the Road
Day of the Tentacle
Maniac Mansion
Space Quest 2 (or 4? I think I beat one of them...)

Much time invested, but Incomplete:
Fallout
Breath of Fire 3
Xenogears
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends 2
Dungeon Master
Star Control 2
Star Control 3
Diablo
Chrono Trigger
The Legend of Zelda- A link to the Past
Grand Theft Auto 2
Grand Theft Auto- Vice City
Pokemon Red
Gran Turismo 3
Gran Turismo 4
Battlefield 2
Counter Strike
Silent Hill
Silent Hill 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario Bros 2

Currently 'working' on:
Mario 64
Super Mario Galaxy
Zack and Wiki
Super Metroid
Super Smash Bros- Brawl
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 3
Final Fantasy XII
Zelda- Ocarina of time
Bionic Commando rearmed
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 7
Street Fighter 3

Currently waiting for:
Mega Man 9
Fallout 3
Little Big Planet
Street Fighter 4
Silent Hill 5
Tekken 6
Resident Evil 5
Dead Space
Final Fantasy 13
NHL 09
Spore (maybe?)

Photos!

Okay, I updated my flickr page, check out those photos here.

This weekend we went to Lobby. Was really fun, just talking and hanging out. Claire asked me to make a hat for Darren, so I gave it to him. It's the red one that Vic is wearing in the photo above. Vic and Darren got a bit drunk and after dancing and all that we went to McDonalds. In USA I think we don't have proper fried chicken at MC, but here you can get a 'chicken box.' It was pretty good!

The next day we went to an electronics show. It was very crowded but we were able to walk around and look at a lot of gadgets. TVs, laptops, electronic dictionaries, and so forth. Claire and Darren helped me to talk with the people in the Sony and Toshiba booths. We compared prices and did a little haggling. In the end I got that TV I mentioned las post.


After that Darren, Claire, and I went to a big bookstore near to the Hotel One building here in Taichung. I looked at the design books and magazines for a long time, was pretty cool! Gave me some ideas for things I could do. I really enjoy drawing on my scooter and the hats.

After the bookstore we went to my house to play PS3, fun times! Darren really kicked my ass in Soul Calibur 4 and Capcom VS SNK! Well here, I can show you my TV too - with Soul Calibur 4 playing on the PS3.

Well it was a fun weekend - thanks everyone! Tonight I'll have people over to watch a blue ray movie on the new TV - full HD man! AMAZING! It will be my first time to watch an HD movie actually!

I'm ALL HD baby!

High Definition... WOW! I just entered a new era of visual standards! PS3, running HD graphics, and an HD TV to display it. I can't even explain how awesome it is!

I will add photos soon, but right now I want to enjoy the TV! I had a really fun weekend. We went to a club on friday and played around. Saturday we went to an electronics show where I got a good deal on the TV. You can see an example here.

It was expensive but I think I saved up enough to make a safe purchase. Also I think if I need to sell it in the future I can make most of the money back, unlike with a vehicle. These new TVs don't suffer many of the same screen burn problems that the old ones did that would make it lose value as a second hand sale. Next post will be photos of the TV and my fun weekend!

I also want to say thank you to Claire and Darren for helping me haggle the TV and look at the different companies' booths. Without them I wouldn't have been able to get this! I am really glad I can have some great friends in Taiwan!

Console Wars

Once again, this generation, we have 3 videogame companies in a huge sales war. This time though I feel it is more interesting than ever because there is no CLEARLY better product.
The Wii is much less powerful graphically and has less space to work with, however it have many motion sensing abilities and a new balance board periphrial. It's being marketed to kids, casual gamers, and housewives.


Xbox360 is powerful - but uses DVDs, has a lot of storage space, good online components in xbox live, and some good exclusive content.

PS3 uses Blueray DVDs which are the highest capacity out there, it has plenty of storage space, works online well enough, is region free, can play the blueray movies and outputs 1080 graphics which are the highest definition available currently.

My white PS3 - to match the Wii, haha!

I went for the PS3 because of the blueray, the region free aspect, (I can play European, Japaneses, and American games.) Also some of my favorite series are still on PS3, such as Tekken and Metal Gear.

Recently the gaming industry went through a hiccup with E3, the big videogame expo, they cut it down in size and moved to a new location to try to make it manageable. Without going into the details it was a disaster and this year a lot of companies are not interested in going back. The videogame industry is HUGE pumping out tons of games which often beat the movie industry for money earned by the companies.

I am curious to see what happens in the future. People are saying that the wii is too limited and will die out soon, however sales are still going strong and beating out it's more powerful competators. Xbox360 is in a bit of a bind because Sony has the monopoly on HD discs with its Blueray DVD, as well as the fact that the Microsoft owned company is failing in Japan against the home team Sony.

My hope is that the Wii starts to get better 3rd party games, not just Nintendo owned properties. The controller has been proven to be good by various games and is just waiting for a masterpiece to put it all together. PS3 has had a slow start but they are getting rolling now. Once all the japanese companies like SquareEnix, which usually stay Japan focused start releasing their next gen games, I think we will see that because Japanese people don't care for Xbox360, that the number of games for PS3 will surpass Xbox and the once exclusive Xbox games will be ported to PS3. It seems likely to me, but we'll see.

Living here in Taiwan the gaming industry here hangs on the industry in japan. Most games here are just the japanese originals. Taiwanese who wish to play these games must either learn japanese or go online and download fan translated scripts to go along with it. Quite a hassle.

Weather - Teaching - PS3

It's getting hotter, I got a small sunburn while riding around on my scooter. I bought the PS3 like I said I wanted, so I have found myself sitting in my underwear in front of the fan playing 'Grand Theft Auto 4' quite a few times, haha! Trying not to use the Air conditioner too much. I bought 3 games, Call of Duty 4, Assassins creed, and of course Grand Theft Auto 4! Very fun! Good graphics! Good controls! State of the art!

It will get really hot, I don't know the actual temperature, and then it will pour down rain for a hour or two and cool it down. Taichung is a very sunny city, I think people are right when they say it has better weather than the others.

On the scooter the highest speed I normally get up to when driving is 80kmh, which is about 50mph. Speed limits are around 60kmh, which is about 40mph. Well I should say I've heard that is a normal speed limit because I've never seen a speed limit sign, or at least I didn't know that's what it was. I also have never seen a stop sign here, they mostly use lights. In small neighborhoods they have big mirrors at intersections sometimes to help you see if a car is coming.

Taiwanese Drivers will often slow down slightly (or not) and honk their horn as they are approaching an intersection to let others know they are coming through. I think the general understanding is that if you are coming to an intersection you may not have to stop but you better be careful! But hey, health care is cheap here, so if you don't mind having all your bones broken in a crash, at least its not too expensive to get your casts and surgery! Weee!

Back to the cram school topic, I will be working all summer, since it is not like a normal school, there aren't any big breaks in the schedule. Taiwanese Elementary School students get 2 months off for summer vacation, and 1 month for winter and a few scattered holidays. Older students, in high school, get 3 weeks summer vacation, and 1 week for winter. During those breaks the students will still be coming to the buxiban. The summer will be hot but luckily the classrooms, and most places here really, have air conditioning!

HIGH DEF!

The world is now in HIGH DEFINITION! It's the next generation in entertainment. Now to tell the truth, I am fine with our current TVs and DVDs, but HD is replacing it whether you like it or not, and truthfully it does look pretty awesome.

There is an idea in the US that in Asia you can buy electronics and media and such things much cheaper. Well I haven't seen that in Taiwan. Right now I am considering going HD with my gear. I just checked those prices and they are pretty heavy, looks even worse when you see the price in NT.


SOOOO PS3, it plays Blueray DVD, the only way to go for HD movies now that HDDVD has gone out of business. At the store up the road the PS3 bundle costs about NT$17,800. That includes any two games, an HD Cable for connecting with an HD TV, and a new Dualshock 3 controller. Its a decent deal - comes out to about US$580. I think this is affordable enough. It seems I will be able to save about US$300 - 500 a month with my current spending and work hours and all that, just guessing.

HD TV = NT$34,500 for a big one, that's about US$1,125. It's about the same as in USA... I think its a decent price for what you are getting. Maybe I can get the PS3 first, check my spending for the next month, and if I decide I can afford it, maybe get the TV.

Whenever I leave Taiwan I'd have to re-sell it or something I guess which will suck. Really, moving back to the states sounds like a super pain in the ass. Leaving USA was easy because I could just give things to relatives and so forth, but going back - I think I need to sell everything.

Xbox360 VS PS3 - HD-DVD VS Blue Ray

Well sorry to tell you this mom, but your HD-DVD just went obsolete!

In an amazing marketing move Warner Bros, Walmart, and some other big name companies have decided to go exclusively to Blue Ray technology. Similar to VHS and Betamax there were two formats of the next-gen DVDs. Back when Sony was selling Betamax they had the better product, but made it too inaccessible. This time Sony learned their lesson by putting out the comparatively cheap Blue Ray player in the PS3, and getting other companies to go 'Blue-Ray' only.

The companies backing HD-DVD decided to hurry and cut their losses by cutting off their production. This also means that PS3 now is the only video game console that can play Blue Ray movies, Xbox 360 is stuck with HD-DVD, and since Sony is competing with Xbox360 its unlikely that they will allow them to use Blue-Ray technologies on that machine.

So I am guessing there will be big HD-DVD sales and you can grab up some good quality movies cheap, but not too long down the road they will stop selling normal DVDs and you will have to move to the Blue Ray player. Now that this has happened it's likely that PS3 will see a large shift in sales, however, the Wii, which relied on its controller as the main draw, should be unaffected.

Very interesting stuff!