Category: Miscellaneous

NYCC Day One

October 11, 2012

We had an early start today, then hopped on a train for a mini-vacation in New York City. As we have the last several years, we’re going to the New York Comic Con!

Today is KLS’s birthday as well, so that makes this little trip even more special 🙂

The show runs Thursday through Saturday, and we’ve got 4-day passes. We got to the city a few hours before the doors opened which was fortuitous, since I had to visit the Australian consulate. With that out of the way, after stops at a few shops (I spent $70 on the new Monster Hunter Jsoanese art book at Kinokuniya!), we headed down to the convention center.

For some reason I had assumed the lines would be small on this first half-day of the con, but as you can see that was hardly the case.

As usual, sensory overload was what followed. Hundreds of exhibitors filling several halls across 3 levels of a gigantic convention center…

Movies and books and comics and games and clothes, toys, cars, food and art. Free stuff everywhere, and even more (do much more!) for sale!

And then, the cosplay:

The major highlight of today was seeing the next Monster Hunter games so prominently featured at Capcom’s booth. I lined up to play the 3DS version and it was awesome. The WiiU version was also playable and has beautiful graphics. I can’t wait for these to be released.

After about 3.5 hours we were ruined. Not only had it been a long day, but we were toting heavy bags full of purchases ($280 in total already!).

We’ve only got to see maybe a half of the total show so far, and even then need to revisit the booths we skimmed today. But now it’s time for bed 🙂

iPhone Panoramas

September 21, 2012

iOS6, the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system is out. Amongst other changes comes the ability for iPhones to take panoramic photos. Here’s one I just took:

Click on it for a larger view. Not bad is it? Considering how easy the interface is to use, I’m very pleased with the implementation and the field of view. Note that the version uploaded here (not the preview above, the image you seen when clicked on) is actually one fourth the size of the original (which is 8000+ pixels wide and 6MB). I can’t upload the original file due to filesize limitations on the blog uploader.

Here’s a closeup showing the detail level:

I rescaled the above (the actual picture you see when clicked on, not the preview) to double size. You can see it’s a bit pixelated to be sure, but still quite good considering how tiny a fraction of the original panorama this snippet is.

I’m planning on using my phone as my sole camera during my upcoming Australian trip. I was a bit hesitant because I always liked the panorama mode on my camera. While the new iOS version lacks some of the functionality (you can’t change direction or limit angle for instance), it seems to do a very good job.

That Monster Hunter Post You Were All Dreading

September 20, 2012

It never rains, it pours I guess.

Last year Monster Hunter Tri-G, an expanded version of Monster Hunter Tri, was released in Japan only for the 3DS. This made me a sad, sad boy, and I desperately hoped for a port. None was forthcoming, and I had all but given up hope.

Then last week, Nintendo announced their new console, the Wii-U, and right there in the official launch unveil and announcements was the one-two knockout punch for fans like me: a brand new Monster Hunter game would launch – in America – on Wii-U and 3DS simultaneously!

Of course when I say ‘brand new’, I mean the last in a generation of games that began with MH Tri, continued with MH 3 Portable (on PSP, never localized) and MH Tri-G (3DS, never localized) and will now end with MH 3 Ultimate. Here’s the produced talking about the two games, and confirming that you can share save files and play on either the Wii-U or the 3DS:

And here’s a screenshot of the 3DS version that was playable yesterday at the Tokyo game show:

Needless to say, this announcement alone makes me weep while holding my new – beloved – 3DSXL, and makes it a dead certainty that I’ll be getting a Wii-U 🙂

But wait! There’s more… much more!

Yesterday at Tokyo game show they also unveiled this:

Monster Hunter generation 4 will begin on the 3DS, in an all-new game that includes online multiplayer, a new weapon type (the ‘insect controlling stick’), jumping attacks, monster riding, and a new species of opponent (‘insect beasts’). Obviously there’s the spider thing seen in the video, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the giant scorpions from MH Frontier make an appearance as well.

So that just about takes care of the next two years of Monster Hunting. Who’s as excited as I am?

Robot Claw