Raglan Beach

Ah yes, its winter up north isn't it? I know nothing warms the heart quite like summer beach scenes from down under. However we don't live in Australia, so you'll just have to make do with one from New Zealand.

This would be the entrance to Whaingaroa Harbour (aka. Raglan Harbour) in Raglan New Zealand. Off to the left of the picture is the Tasman Sea. The Tasman Sea is the section of the Pacific that separates Australia and New Zealand.

Raglan, New Zealand is quickly becoming known as the best towns for surfing in New Zealand. There are 3 bays within a kilometer that are highly rated and because of the towns location, it rarely becomes crowded. The only people who visit the beach are locals and people from nearby Hamilton that don't want to drive an extra hour to hit the beaches on the Bay of Plenty.

If you're not into surfing or playing in the waves, you can swim in the much calmer harbour that surrounds the town.

Microtransactions

Okay, I knew that the android was full of apps that were rife with microtransactions. I knew a lot of these freemium games started easy and then grossly inflated the difficulty so you had to follow a set strategy or pay mad money to buy powerups. I knew this when I bought a tablet. What I didn't expect was just how much they try to cheat you.

I have Plants vs Zombies on PC. It was my first experience with the game but I knew there was a mobile version as well. Today I purchased PvZ for my tablet. This is NOT a freemium game. I bought it outright for money, yet the first thing that happens upon loading is an ad for some other popcap game. I don't want ads in the games I buy, maybe in the free games, but its unacceptable to have an ad in a purchased game.

Still, its  great game and aside from that annoying ad at the main menu it seems to be a complete game. Feeling like they can be forgiven because it is a great game that I enjoy I decided to download PvZ2 and give it a try. I am so disappointed. It is the same game, except they expect you to use real money to purchase plants. Or so I thought, apparently most of the plants (which will set you back $5 each) and upgrades (which are over $10 each) can be unlocked in the game just by playing through it. Nowhere is this mentioned. Most, if not all, of these plants are from the previous game. Half way in through the first world (which outs me around 20% into the game) and I have yet to see anything new apart from skins, and a superpower that is to be used when things get too difficult (aka when they artificially ramp up the difficult to make it impossible to play without spending money.)

I'll continue to play as long as I can without spending anything and report back when I reach the limit or beat the game.

Games Id like to play

Now that I have a PSP with custom firmware I am given the opportunity to play a lot of games that I have missed over the years. I have always been of the mindset that emulators play best on mobile systems. God knows that I have everything from a NES emulator to a PSP emulator (don't know why) on my nexus 10. One of the great things I have discovered about emulation is that there are a lot of games out there not released in English that have fan translations.

Here's a list of the games I am planning to play this year...

Final Fantasy I - XII : The first Final Fantasy game I played was VII, I never completed it. In fact there have only been 3 Final Fantasy games that I have completed, 8, 10, and 10-2. I am planning to start from the beginning and play through the series up through 12, I also have plenty of FF games on other consoles that I want to play.

Lunar Silver Star Harmony : A game I have wanted to play ever since 1992 and it was released on Sega CD. I have no idea why in 20+ years I have not played this.

Star Ocean First Departure & Second Evolution : This is another of the series that I have never got around to playing. No excuses, There's just always been something else I wanted to play more.

Armored Core 3 Portable & Expansions : I played Armored Core 3 a ton on the PS2. It was one of my favorite ps2 games. I never even heard that there were more expansions after Silent Line, and I want to play them.

.Hack series : .Hack/Root is probably my all time favorite anime. The games however were Never available for purchase in any of the local game stores. Now to buy then costs nearly a fortune.

Generation of Chaos series : Honestly I played quite a bit of the first PSP game. I didn't finish it, but now I find out there are 2 more games in the series. I want to play them.

All the rest : There are far too many games I want to play to list them all. Suffice it to say there are games from just about every major device since NES that I wish to play, the majority of which are RPGs.

Changing Music Tastes

Lately I have been listening to a lot of jazz, classical, and game OSTs (Original Sound Track, music that is written specifically for something) and I have noticed that I am playing music through my headset but often at the beginning of songs I am unsure if it is coming from the TV or my headset. I don't think this is a problem with my ears, but rather that the music I have begun to enjoy the most is stuff that is quiet.

I used to be a big fan of metal, hard rock, and techno. Now I find that most metal and techno songs will give me a headache. I'm still a rock fan for the most part, but I've started to appreciate the alternative style which isn't loud more and more. I know peoples tastes in music change as they get older, I always a thought that mine would change into something more modern as I have always liked older stuff. Instead I find the majority of music I listen to are by people who have been dead for decades if not centuries.

Sure there is a lot of new stuff I like from active artists, but when I go and look for other things by them I am usually extremely disappointed.