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This time I talk about L.A. Noire (fabulous!) and the creepy empty room is explained (so you can stop asking until you forget again).

I imagine all my subscribers survived the Raptor, I mean, Rapture…

The Raptor can open doors now…

The newest Harvest Moon to hit the DS is Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar and here are my thoughts on it.

With a series as wide-spread as Harvest Moon, each game needs to add a new twist to gameplay to make it fresh for all those addicts out there like me. It also has to adapt to the learning curve of new fans as well. HM:GB achieves both.

The purpose as told to you by Felix, the mayor-with-Vin-Diesel-arms, is to revitalize the town’s weekly bazaar. It was once a booming event, but without a farm, the people started to dwindle. This HM is the first one where you do not ship your items away and magically receive money for them - but rather, you sell them yourself in the bazaar. Actually, if it were not for the weekly bazaar mini-game, this HM would be flat and unoriginal.

At first,  I was turned off by the simplicity of it. It was vaguely reminiscent of HM: A(nother) Wonderful Life – the field is cleared, the fences are in place, you start by working the field one square at a time. However, fences were always a pain at first though, so this is points in the new-user-accessibity department. In fact, this is one of the easiest games in the series I have played so far.

So now, the bazaar functions as a mini-game. You select the items you wish to sell and then you ring a bell to summon customers. When the customers come, a number appears above their head and you press A as many time to correspond to that number. If you miss anyone, they walk away unhappy and your reputation goes down. Sometimes, folks and marriageable folk come up to you with comments or requests which also either up or down your store’s reputation. The bazaar becomes addictive and even drove me to become the potato baroness (self-awarded title) – at least, until the summer came…and killed all of my beautiful potatoes. Rookie mistake.

For the first time, I was not disgusted by half of the marriage options. Sadly, no doctor-type to default on, but there is a saucy teacher named Ivan. He’s easy to please as he enjoys chamomile and mint, both found just lying on the ground. I do wish that real-life men would want random things I picked up off the ground, but I digress! The female marriage option also offer a variety of personalities and looks. Of course, they all look like their twelve – but this is a Japanese game afterall!

Another point I did not like is that there is no mining in this game either. Mining has always been one of my favourite time wasting tasks. In fact, I have too much time at my disposal in HM:GB and I find myself waiting for the day to end. Fishing seems to be pointless as well since no town members enjoy them as gift, cooked or otherwise.

In terms of Harvest Moon games, I deem it playable and even enjoyable however, it is not my favourite. Nor is it my least favourite, mind you. If you can’t find a copy of Harvest Moon: (More) Friends of a Mineral Town then this one will do just fine.

How many times has an online exchange been struck down by those three unholy letters? Call it Internet snobbery, but I can not stand that meaningless term. I used to joke with friends over video chat when they’d type “lol,” but I could clearly see on their faces that they were not laughing out loud as they said they were. We came up with a personal term, “tol,” or “thinking of laughing,” as a cute replacement – but truthfully, even that can not save this apathetic term that taken over this generation’s vocabulary.

As of today, I told two of my closer friends, “From now, I will consciously try to abolish el-oh-el from my vocabulary,” after their responses, I nearly followed it up with a customary “lol.” It has become a reflex for myself, as with the vast majority of Internet-users, to fill the gaps in conversation with this term. “Lol,” represents disinterest, a lack-of-response, and the death of creativity.

In a real-world conversation, if someone said, “I just bought a cake,” you would not laugh at them and then stop talking – it is not funny, and frankly, that would be rude. You might ask what kind, jokingly ask for some or go off on a cake-related tangent even if you were particularly uninterested in the topic of cake (heathen!). However, if someone texted you with, “I just bought cake! Nom nom nom,” and if you were uninterested, you might follow that up with a, “lol,” and that would more or less be the end of it. There is no way to respond to “lol,” other than for the speaker to monologue or resume on another subject.

Of course, I can not discredit “lol,” in its entirety. When put to its proper usage, it is a handy short-form to express our enjoyment. I, however, will try my best to wipe it out of my lexicon and find more thoughtful replacements.

How I spent Golden Week in Japan and the best way to eat my new favourite Australian snack food! Enjoy!

Based on a true story, in a sense. With the PSN debacle, people are getting pretty stressed out about their credit card information floating around, I can’t blame them! Not me though, I’m cool as a cucumber – or so I thought. So, I was checking through my internet banking and I noticed a $75 purchase from Amazon.com. I could not remember making a $75 purchase recently and started to panic! I’ve been robbed!

Then I remembered I had purchased a Cinco-de-Mayo-themed Amazon giftcard which just happened to be valued at $75  for my buddy Robin who shipped me a PS3 copy of Portal 2.

On that note, the most crippling part of the PSN being down is the fact that I can not play co-op mode in Portal 2. Please come back soon, PSN.

Are you a bibliophile!?

Then these really sexy bookshelves are right up your alley!

I think my personal library would have floor to ceiling shelves, saucy ladder on wheels and a chaise-lounge – how about you?