6K

I am one game away from reaching 6,000 titles in my Game Library. The last two inductions are games that got left behind - Batman: The Brave and the Bold for the Nintendo Wii (I couldn't believe that I have never heard about this WayForward Technologies game until now) and Lego Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey for the PlayStation Vita. Every so often, I would stumble into older games that for some reason I completely missed when they were first released. With so many games already in my possession, I do prioritize newer titles for me to enjoy but it's nice to be able to still find these older games in mint condition - these 2 were listed as new but you just never know.

Games from 5 years ago and beyond.

Since I am getting older - can you believe that it has been close to 10 years since I started this blog? - I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that I have... a lot of video games. Do I even have the time to play all of these video game titles before I die? I have written about the estimated time it would take me to tackle about 2,000 games back in 2011... Now that I'm reaching 6,000 games, well it's quite a disturbing thought. One thing is for sure, for the longest time, I have access to a collection of games that would last me for the rest of my life here in this universe. I should be very happy about that.


Update Note: 3:40pm - Whoops! We're officially at 6,000 games thanks to an ACA NEOGEO title on the Windows store! Why Hamster Corporation doesn't release these games fast and hard on the Personal Computer is just baffling to me. I have been waiting for Waku Waku 7 to arrive on the PC and it's finally here! 7K here we go? Nah... It's too soon to be thinking about that.

Miku 2 Is Here!

My 2nd Miku figurine is here and it's the 2016 Racing ver. from Banpresto. Just like the last one, it's the hair treatment that convinced me to choose this one out of the bunch. Want to see something creepy? This was how everything looked when I first got her out of the box.

Pieces of Miku.

Despite the super psycho serial killer aftermath vibe, I can only conclude that they are trying to make sure that her face doesn't get damaged in transit. The pieces were easy to assemble and here is the result:

This should motivate me to play my Dreamcast.

Judging between the two Miku figurines I now have, I must say that I prefer Taito's approach a lot more. The Spring Clothing ver. is more whimsical and fun. With this one, she may be giving us some kind of attitude with whatever that finger action is - is she saying my name is no, my number is no or is she pointing at something? - but everything feels a bit more rigid. She's still super cute though and that is all that matters!

Curiosity Leads to Very Bad Things

I have been a Hatsune Miku rhythm game player since 2013. I got my hands on every single one of her game releases since then. I have always found Miku and her vocaloid companions' songs catchy and beautifully composed. Never have I imagined however that it would all come to this. I have been curious about her figurines for a while - I am sure I can partially thank the Skylanders series for this. This week, I decided to take the plunge and ordered a couple of her figurines. One of them has arrived and I find it... adorable.

That hair action made me pick this particular figurine.

I picked this Taito's Spring Clothing ver. as my first Miku figurine. In my current gaming reality, pretty much everything has been digitized so it actually nice to have something kind of game-related, at least to me, in physical form. Her presence really lights up my current Game Room, and I needed that because it has not been easy to be in this downgraded space compared to what I have access to before. I have another one coming and I have already cleared a spot in the corner of the room for them to occupy. I have already started thinking about getting several more. This is bad. But they are so damn cute. I have a sub hobby now apparently and that's... Miku figurine collecting?

Manual Labor

Do you miss the good old days when your physical games came with thick, detailed, potentially colorful instruction manuals? Then you need to go get yourself a copy of Summon Night 6: Lost Borders for the PlayStation 4. You know that I am all for digital download exclusivity and that everyone should fully embrace digital ownership but even I was pleasantly surprised by the instruction manual included here. The case felt heavy so I suspected that there was something else in there alongside the Blu-ray disc but I would never have guessed a colorful 70+ page manual. In the old days, I would normally go through the entirety of a game's instruction manual before playing the game and I do plan on doing that again here. I do hope that this game wasn't designed with in-game tutorials however like most modern games because then it would sour the whole experience due to the redundancy that would cause. At any rate, Gaijinworks must be commended for their efforts with this physical release. Even Nintendo has abandoned the practice of accompanying physical games with instruction manuals and these guys went all the way. Skip the digital download for Summon Night 6 and pick up the physical release now!

This is the proper way to release physical games.

Surviving Posters

As I have mentioned recently in a previous post, a majority of the posters taped to wall of my previous home didn't make the move. I ended up dumping them all out last week. The remaining usable ones have finally been posted up on my new Game Room. Even though a couple of the Skylanders roster posters are mangled beyond belief, I did end up keeping them because of all the stickers I have on them but these are rolled up and stored away. The new Game Room walls looked really bare before I have these posters up. I know there are only a few of them no but at least finally, it feels a little bit more like home again.

It's important to have the Skyrim map handy.

The crew of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II are always with me.

2013 seems like an eternity ago.

GameCube: Skin or Not?

While unpacking today, yes - when you have too much gaming stuff, it takes a very long time to sort through them, I found a GameCube custom skin that I received for reserving a copy of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness a long, long time ago. At this point in my life, is there a reason for me to hold on to this skin and keep it in its confinement anymore? I may risk misplacing the skin in the future as well because to be honest, I have totally forgotten that I even have this in my collection. Then again, is it really necessary for me to ruin the classic Nintendo GameCube look? What a delicious dilemma.

It's not the prettiest of skins but I am sure Pokémon fans would eat this up.

Sky High Skylanders

And I thought moving all my game cases to a new house and then organizing them was a pain in the buttocks, well, it's worse for these little Skylanders figurines. When space is a real issue, what's a gamer to do? All of my figurines were readily accessible in the past and were all out in the open. Whenever I booted up one of those Skylanders games, I could just easily grab one these suckers to be summoned on the portal of power in mere seconds. Now, well, it looks like playing these games will be reserved for special occasions. I have decided to leave the game cases in their respective starter packs and the Imaginators figurines will remain encased as well. As for the rest of my little friends that are not out on display, they have been put neatly away in a couple of those stackable activity chests.

I miss you guys! Can you name all the Skylanders?

Poster Posterity

Video game posters, how beautiful they are when they grace your wall. When you thought that you would be living in the same place for the rest of your short life, you then used permanent double sided tapes to stick them in place. Oh Loner Gamer, how could you be so careless. Yes, of course you should always expect that some things will not survive the trip when you are moving to a new place, especially when you have to store them for a little while before they arrive at their new home but the destruction incurred on my posters is certainly avoidable. A majority of my gaming posters, I am sure you have seen them lit up the space of the previous Game Room in the many pictures I have shown in the past, are now in tatters. Some of these posters can still be saved however by just cutting away the bad sections but their overall impact will never be the same. My advise? If you don't feel like your posters are disposable, always hang them in a large frame. It may be costly but it's the best way to keep them safe and sound for years to come.

I really love that Skylanders: Superchargers poster so it hurts a lot.

Closet Case

I forgot to post a picture of the closet in my Game Room 3.0 - Yes, it's way smaller than the walk-in closet a.k.a. Game Treasure of the past, which was capable of housing more than half of my physical gaming items I have in my possession. I crammed two dressers into the closet to maximize space and used the shelf at the top portion to stack up some of my original X-Box games on top of whatever I could fit in. I am not too happy that I ended up blocking easy access to those games but I don't use my original X-Box console that often anyway. It's all a matter of putting everything away for now. I can always make the necessary adjustments in the future.

I don't even have the desire to take these Skylanders out of their boxes at this time.

There are X-Box games behind the Maracas Controller and Sega Genesis cases.

Related Article:

Revealed! New Game Room

Game Room 3.0 Update

Working on this new Game Room has been quite challenging. The number one problem for me is definitely space. The room I'm working with is small and sacrifices had to be made when it comes to visibility and accessibility to all of my gaming items. I have the basic layout done and this is the way the room is going to look during my stay at the current residence. As I have mentioned previously, I had to rely on storing a lot of my gaming goods at other locations inside the house. Though things are looking neat and organized, there are still a lot of work to be done, especially in regards to cables and wires connectivity as well as shuffling items in between spots.  As you can see, I made sure that there is enough space in the middle of the room so that I can still enjoy venturing into the VR realm whenever I please. Things are shaping up nicely, I think.

Now equipped with a 55" 4K display.

This room is unable to contain all of the physical copies of my video games.

Related Article:

Revealed! New Game Room

Sneak Peek of Game Room Ver. 3.0

Things have been very rough over the past couple of months and for a little while there, with all the uncertainties that life has wrought upon me, I really thought that I would not be able to have a dedicated Game Room over at my future new place, wherever that may be. Now that I have landed at a new residence, I am happy to report that I am successful in reserving an extra room to be transformed into a full-fledged Game Room!

Let's change this into something more magical!

This is going to take a lot of work. The new space for my Game Room is about half the size of the previous incarnation and worser still, the closet space is only 1/4 of my last walk in closet I called my Game Treasury. Thankfully there are places in this house where I could store my non-essential gaming items but this is of course not the most ideal solution. These dispersed spaces are secured enough from the idle hands of potential house guests however so that is a relief at the very least. I will hopefully be regaining my Internet access tomorrow and let me tell you, one week without Internet is truly horrid. Before I moved into this house last week, I had access to a hotel Internet for about 2 months where I was able to at least connect to my Steam account - the only gaming devices I had with me was the Nintendo 3DS, Personal Computer, and PlayStation Vita. Sure, mobile Internet is fine but oh, the things you can do with it is somewhat limited. I will post the final look of my new Game Room once it is completed. Wish me luck!

Returning to Form

It's been a while. Quite a while, in fact. But such is life. Just when you think that everything is going to be okay, things take a sudden, unexpected turn. Two things lead to the lack of activities on this site. The most predominant reason was twitch.tv - I spent too much time creating live video content and it felt productive and immediately rewarding compared to writing though I eventually realized that was not necessary true. Then recently, I found myself being displaced from my home. I lost immediate access to my games. It took me weeks to be able to access my Personal Computer again and it took months before I was able to inch closer to stability.

As you may suspect, I am a creature who breathe and live video games. They are at the center of my existence. Thus, losing control over them hurts. A lot. The scarier thing I have learned over these last couple of months away from almost the entirety of my Game Library however is that humans are flexible little beings. Through the most painful of experiences, the most damning of situations, we grow cold and we adapt. Yes, there were moments when I thought that everything was over, that perhaps I have lived enough to enjoy what I wanted to get out of life. It's never over until it is over they said but I didn't know that the corners of the room would be so dim, so dark. It was almost an automatic process. All it needed was a little bit of optimism. Keep yourself alive long enough and you will find enough distractions to continue on.

There is still a lot of work to be done and I hope to be able to get to where I needed to be soon. I have to take things one step at a time. I plan to be more active here and post more content. I don't have access to good Internet at the moment but once I do, I also would like to continue with my adventures on twitch. It's nice to still feel motivated about life and I'm glad I'm still interested in video games.

Yoshi is definitely doing better than me.