PSP: A Facial Reconstruction

Last year, an unfortunate accident had left my PlayStation Portable with a scarred face. With the addition of the 100th title for the PSP, at first, I thought of upgrading my launch system to the PSP 3000 model. But then I started looking for other alternatives aside from sending it back to Sony to be fixed. I was able to find a cheap solution: a faceplate replacement I found on Amazon. Uncertain about the result, I still decided to try it out and thus the PSP surgery commences:

Before: Three deep scratches on the top right hand side of the screen.

The new faceplate.

In surgery: Don't worry, the PSP was in deep anesthesia.

After: No more distracting scratches obscuring my view. Hurray!

The new faceplate was very easy to install though there were some tricky parts to it like transferring the buttons underneath the screen that actually laid out as a long strip behind the faceplate. There were only a total of six small screws that had to be removed and resecured and while the PSP was "naked", I took the opportunity to blow off a small amount of dust that had settled on top of the actual LCD using an air duster. I am happy to see the result but things didn't end up as perfectly as I would like it to be. The last screw couldn't tighten the top right hand corner of the handheld completely, which may have been caused by a slight misalignment of the screw hole. I can't fix it now because for some reason, the head of the screw got completely busted when I tried to unscrew it even though I was using a properly-sized screwdriver to do the job. The screw must not have been sturdy enough since it was rather small. I may have to find some time to meddle with it in the future but for now, screw it! My PSP now looks pretty again and that should count for something.

Back on a Healthy Groove

After many, many months (maybe even years) of procrastination, I have finally found myself on an exercise routine. It is hard to get back into it for sure - daily habits, especially ones that require a bit of mental fortitude do take some time to develop. Since I have not missed a single one of my scheduled exercising time slots over the past two weeks, I must say that I am well on my way here. I know that I have gained some unhealthy weight over the past few years so the main reason for me to do this is to maintain a healthy lifestyle as well as denying my significant other a "chubby-gamer" husband as a bonus. My program of choice? Yourself!Fitness for the X-Box - you can read my review here where I praised the software to no end. I really tried to incorporate Eye Toy: Kinetic for the PlayStation 2 into my life as you may have noticed it being listed in my Daily Game Log several times this year but the problems with body detection and lighting were so annoying and they made me feel like I don't want to exercise instead of encouraging otherwise.

I really don't care what my weight is as long as I can get rid of the little belly bulge.

It has only been 2 weeks but I am already seeing the results of my workouts, mostly around the waist. I suppose I have to thank those grueling cardio sessions that made me curse and cry. Since I work out in the early morning, I am a bit more energetic now during the day. The one thing I haven't noticed yet is the appetite change. While I was using this program many years ago, with the physical changes came the alteration in my food consumption as well. I look forward to the time when eating a small meal would satiate my hunger. Having survive the past few weeks, I know that I am really sticking with the program. Perhaps what I need to do now is play Dance Central for the X-Box 360 in the evening to help speed up the result. Wii Fit? No thank you. Expect Yourself!Fitness to occupy the top three list of the Monthly Gaming Analysis from now on.

New Milestone Celebration

The last time I picked up a PlayStation Portable game was on September 16th, 2010. It was my 99th game for the handheld. Today marks the 100th game for my PSP library with the induction of a game with one of the coolest titles ever: Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman - another quirky strategy game from Nippon Ichi. I got my PSP on the 24th of March, 2005. Well, it is not a surprise that the PSP does struggle when it comes with producing quality software especially over the last couple of years - thus its 16+ games a year average for me. There are still a lot of PSP games I want listed on my Purchase List so even with the eventual release of the "Next Generation Portable", I am not in a hurry to get them since these games have high probabilities of being available as downloadable contents for that next Sony handheld. In addition to the new PSP game above, I also inducted The Sims: Medieval Limited Edition for the Personal Computer - abusing the Sims in such a setting should be hilarious - and Nier for the PlayStation 3, an action role playing game/shooter hybrid from Square Enix, into my Game Library. So yes, no Nintendo 3DS yet. I think I am recovering from last week's shock pretty well thus far!

The PSP is the last of my current generation platforms to reach the triple-digit count.

Games Played 03/28/2011 - 04/03/2011

- 03/28/2011 -

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

 - 03/29/2011 -

Darkspore Beta - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour - NDS

- 03/30/2011 -

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 03/31/2011 -

League of Legends - PC

Moon Diver - PlayStation 3

Yourself!Fitness- X-Box

- 04/01/2011 -

Dynasty Warriors 7 - PlayStation 3

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 04/02/2011 -

Dynasty Warriors 7 - PlayStation 3

- 04/03/2011 -

Dynasty Warriors 7 - PlayStation 3

League of Legends - PC

Moon Diver - PlayStation 3

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Review: Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch (2011)

Genre: Action

Format: Theatrical Release

Director: Zack Snyder

I love Zack Snyder for one and only one reason - the fantastic remake of Dawn of the Dead - until now. Most people probably give him accolades for 300 and Watchmen but I found those two movies to be too visually-excessive while leaving me with a huge void when it comes to the emotional pay-off. With Sucker Punch, Snyder have found the right balance between stunning his audience with over-the-top, stylish visuals and giving them enough story content.

Sucker Punch is a movie about a young woman who was admitted into a mental asylum by her evil stepfather. While there, she began to frequent a fantasy world where she must complete a quest to collect a number of important items that will assist her in escaping the mental institution. There is a gimmick of a story within a story within a story in the film though the real impact of the reality of the situation is reserved until the unpredictable finale. The thing about the storyline is that it makes little to no sense sometimes, as if things just happen for the reason to entertain the audience with wild and varied action set pieces. Then again, there is a deep and thoughtful message applied to the whole scenario, making the movie meaningful in a sort of crazy way. It is hard to explain the movie than it is to feel it. For all of the superhuman feats shown by the lovely ladies of the asylum during the action sequences, their frailties outside of those scenes become more and more apparent as the film progresses. To release the energy of high fantasy and then turn it around into a thought-provoking drama is something that takes some degree of genius and for that, I really appreciate the maturity applied to the overall tale.

The movie is filled with a lot of CG and though they don't look all that convincing, they fit the film's aesthetics perfectly. Even outside of the fantasy situations, the movie maintains a moody, artificial look to it. The action scenes are a lot of fun to watch and the fact that there are a wide variety of enemies and situations encountered throughout the movie, you will at least enjoy some of them if not all if you are into the genre. The movie doesn't waste any time moving you along to the next grandiose battle when one is over and done with so there is hardly any dull moment. Then, there is this really odd transition mechanics that transports you between the multiple layers of storytelling - it is so perplexing and mesmerizing at the same time because it doesn't even try to explain itself. This is probably one of the main reasons why the movie is so intriguing to begin with.

I really wanted to watch Insidious tonight but my significant other insisted on Sucker Punch. When you are in love, you have to make sacrifices but I am just glad that this movie ended up being quite entertaining. It is  pretty as well as pretty weird and it is brilliant by trying to appear dumbed down. It uses a lot of established conventions found in other action movies but it is unlike anything you have ever seen before because of its clever story framing device. Sucker Punch is very unique and I am definitely very impressed by it.

RATING: 4 out of 5