Yes, I dropped three-hundred out of the blue today. Well, not really out of the blue—I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. I’m just surprised I actually took the plunge that I didn’t think I’d take.

Next up is a 40-46″ LCD HDTV. I’m so indecisive about big purchases. I’ve been reading so many reviews and ratings, and I feel even more confused than before. Oh, and the reason behind it all:

Final Fantasy XIII. Come to me, please. Final Fantasy XIV, Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2, and God of War 3 are also welcome.

I’ve spoken about my addiction to Final Fantasy XI and consequently my obsession with Final Fantasy XIV before. Well, that was eight months ago and I’m still in the same state. I’m waiting impatiently for the online game which will destroy my social life more than both work and the internet already have.

These beautiful pictures are screenshots of a pre-rendered movie for the game. Most likely an opening scene. Besides these, a few in-game screenshots, and a page here and there of details, there hasn’t been much information released. Right now I don’t have much to say, but expect crazy fanboy entries as we move closer to a release date.

It’s been probably two or more years that I’ve been waiting for Japanese game developer SquareEnix to announce information about their once secret mmorpg codenamed Rapture. Finally, today SE announced their project as another addition to the Final Fantasy family—XIV (14) that is. All that was shown was a quick trailer, but I immediately saw a few interesting things and knew exactly what was going on. After the official teaser site went up, it became clear.

Final Fantasy XIV is either a sequel, prequel, reincarnation, or to previous FFXI (a massively multiplayer online role playing game that I dedicated [and lost] a few good years of my life to). The races seem to be the same: Hume, Elvaan, Mithra, Galka, and TaruTaru (as seen in the screenshot below and artwork even farther down).

( More screenshots, artwork, and blabbing inside… )

Nerd alert: here come the video game screenshots. Now, don’t go judging—I think things even as geeky as video game visuals can be appreciated from a design point. Take a look at how beautiful and rich these graphics are with their realistic environments and lighting.

Supposedly, the first Uncharted game (which had a beautiful tropical jungle / ancient temple setting) only used 30% of the Playstation 3’s processing power. The sequel, however, will use much more of its abilities, meaning only a more gorgeous playing environment. And here I had thought, it couldn’t get much better.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve had another rather busy week. While still waiting on approval from Sage to use their store for my window display design study, I’ve been prepping and making elements for the installations. Here are a few pics from the demos I set up in my dorm. Try to look past the bad photos, the lighting in here is for the most part terrible and my camera is from the land before time.

I’ll have more details on everything hopefully soon.

PS: my roommate got a PS3 which might have something to do with my lack of posting (I’m addicted to Uncharted). —Sigh—

After fixing Windows on my iMac, I finally got to install the Ikea stuff pack for the Sims 2, that I downloaded like two weeks ago. As someone with an [unhealthy] Ikea addiction, I’m highly disappointed with this addon. Sure, there are alot of things I love: LACK, MALM, and STORM. But the number of things missing outweighs those that are there.

Where is PAX? I want some sliding STORDAL doors with frosted glass, and fun racks and drawers inside. And dining room tables / chairs? What about JAMSUNDA! FORSA! BJURSTA!

The biggest thing I would’ve liked to have seen would be an extensive Ikea AKURUM/FAKTUM kitchen cabinet selection. It would be nice if they included most of their frame options, with a ton of door panel options (a LINJAR blue kitchen in the Sims would’ve been a great memorial, seeing as how it is being phased out in the real world).

6/10 Overall? There’s a ton of stuff that I love, but is it really worth the $20? Not really. Maybe $10 at the most. Buy it / pirate it—just don’t get too excited.

I’ve been waiting for this expansion all my life.

If you haven’t heard, the newest expansion pack for the Sims 2 (well, stuff pack) is going to be all furniture / home accessories based off real life Ikea things. All the favorites seem to be there: Malm, Poäng, Lack, Expedit, Klippan, and that creepy-ass heart pillow.

Naturally, I’ve been staring at the same screenshots and renders on the Sims site for the past week, drooling and counting down the days. There’s just one thing that bothers the hell out of me. Some objects are out of proportion. Take a look at the lack side table, in real life, it is slightly shorter than it is wide, but the Sims version is noticeably taller.

Also, the Malm beds aren’t as low as they appear in real life. I’m assuming there’s some sort of predefined height for all bed tops and table tops, so maybe that’s why they’re the way they are (perhaps if they were lower, objects set on top would hover at the preset height)? I have no idea how the Sims works, so that might be the reasoning—or the 3d modelers are just idiots.

Cue my friends reading this and calling me a nerd for bitching about this. But whatever. It’s my hot body (and birthday.