Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the Playstation 2 is a stylish Japanese turn-based roleplaying game. The game follows a group of high school students as the discover the truth behind a string of serial murder cases that are occuring around the once peaceful country town of Inaba and the truth behind the mysterious Midnight Channel that appears at midnight on a rainy day.

The style of the game is very unique and interesting. Sharp graphics and colourful displays makes the game play like nothing you've played before. The fast-paced battle system works with a trial and error approach as you find the enemies weakness and exploit it. The absense of random encounters gives this game an automatic thumbs up.

The characters are memorable and well established. During your 60 hour stay at Inaba, you will become attached to most of the main characters and will be saddened when the game eventually ends.

The soundtrack involves catchy J-pop with English lyrics. The insertion of a free soundtrack cd was a good move on behalf of Atlus as you will want to listen to the music when you want to.

Every day in Inaba you will have to decide what you will do for the day. Will you hang out with friends and get stronger or rescue people who are in danger? Even though there is a time limit almost constantly above your head, it will never feel like you are wasting your time as you seem to be always getting stronger in the game no matter what you do.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is an interesting and enjoyable experience and it proves that the Playstation 2 can still pack a punch. My recommendation is that you should definitely seek this game out.

Okay, before you complain about the fact that this game came out all the back in April and it might just be a little bit late to post a blog entry criticizing it, I want to point out something. I only got my first Xbox 360 a month ago and I got GTA IV with it. So I've only had it for about a month and I feel that's a good time to start pointing out it's flaws. Maybe it's actually a tad late as it is. Oh well. Let's start this mini-review.

The first thing I noticed about this game is the fact that it has so much to do i it. I mean, you can catch rides in taxis, watch tv, go bowling, get drunk, err, watch tv... There's a problem here. There's so much to do in it but it seems to wear a bit thin fairly early. The only thing these activities I mentioned are there is that they are to distract you from actually playing the game, except for the taxi rides of course.

The driving controls are pathetic. In previous GTA games, it's easy to turn tight corners but on this one, trying to turn a corner will send you sliding straight into an unsuspecting police officer. Don't say that I should slow down to turn the corners because that's what I was doing. Also, don't try to handbrake. It just makes things much more difficult.

The fact that when you crash into a solid object at a high velocity will send Niko through the windscreen and into oncoming traffic is cool at first but it soon becomes a major annoyance. For example, you're chasing a guy and you almost get near him and a barrier comes out of nowhere and sends you flying into the water as you watch helplessly as the man gets away.

A problem with the previous example is that some objects don't render themselves fast enough when you are going at a high speed and you hit an invisible object just before it becomes visible. I've only had this happen to me a couple of times but it is a bit annoying and maybe I shouldn't complain this much about it.

There are many more problems with this game but it is overlooked by the ability to run innocents over with a bus, before you run into a tree and kill yourself.

Over the past week, I had no internet. Yesterday I got it back and the amount of updates to the sites I go to was fairly staggering. I'll try summarising the updates into a short list.

• 55 New Emails, none of them spam.
• Approx 10,000 words on stories that I read.
• Approx 10 new comics for webcomics such as 8-Bit Theater and Penny Arcade.
• Countless videos including a new AVGN video and two new Zero Punctuation episodes.

Before it talk about this game, I want to talk about how I got it. Apparantly, it's not out yet in Australia, it comes out at the end of October, so I ended up buying it off EBay from the UK for about $50 AUS, which is about $30 US, stupid economic crisis! Australian money was almost worth more than American money and it just dropped half way when the crashes started happening and... wait, what was I talking about again? Oh right. MegaMan Star Force 2.

Four weeks ago, I sent away for it and waited a week. I noticed something during that week. A lot can happen in such a short amount of time. But enough about my personal life, back to the end of the week.

Three weeks ago, the game arrived in the mail. I opened the package and there it was. MegaMan Star Force 2: Zerker x Ninja, the version I bought. So I started playing it. Something I noticed immediately was that it wasn't much different from the original. Okay, I kind of expected that. Capcom has a reputation for that. Or is that just the MegaMan series? It doesn't matter.

Two weeks ago, I got stuck on it. But it was at a point in the game where you'd expect that to happen. The final boss. This boss is HARD! Or was that just me and the fact that I rushed through most of the game and didn't get any powerups? Probably yes.

One week ago, I beat it. Thank god for that! And then a thought hit me. 'Oh, that's it... that's a tad disappointing.' Since I've finished the game, I might review it but since I didn't review the original and I said I was, don't count on it.

Just a quick summary of the game. The same old thing and disappointing. Sadly I expected that and that's why I bought it. Let's just wait for MegaMan Star Force 3 to come out and see if they can pick the series up. Which probably won't happen.

I noticed I haven't updated on the whole 'I'm trying to beat every Zelda game' situation so here's the most recent update.

About a week ago, I bought A Link to the Past. So far I've barely been able to play it because my two brothers constantly watch the TV that I play the Wii on and they are to selfish to let me put it in my room. Maybe that was a little uncalled for but I'm just really annoyed! I might tell you all about how hard it is to play games at my house later! So anyway, since I've barely been able to play it, I just got the Master Sword on it. Might play a little more later.

2 days ago, I bought Link's Awakening DX. This morning I got the 2nd instrument.

Since the last update I haven't finished any games. Things have been moving slowly.

When Fallout 3 ran through the Australian Classification Board the first time, it got Refused Classification. Since there is no R18+ rating for games in Australia, this meant that the game got banned. Later on, Bethesda Softworks edited Fallout 3 slightly and ran it through the Classification Board again. This time it got an MA15+ rating and was unbanned.

There was only one change to the game. All references to real world drugs in Fallout 3 (which happens a lot) was removed and the names of the drugs were changed to names that don't exist.

Now this edited version is being released worldwide (more info in the article link below), replacing all the other versions that have the word 'Morphine' in it.

I find this quite funny. I never actually thought the Australia Classification Board could tick people of worldwide but here's proof. Now the world will know what it is like to be a gamer in Australia!

Article

I found a copy of this game (GameSpot Profile) at my local JB Hi-Fi for $75 and I thought I'd buy it.

Now I know what you are thinking, 'But $75 for a MegaMan game? You're an idiot!' Well after playing through the entire game in 12 hours I came up with a reply. Yeah, I did do something stupid. But I kind of liked the game. I don't know why. I just have this soft spot for JRPG's. I just like them no matter how stupid they are but I can't be too stupid, or I will destroy it!

Now, GameSpot gave it a 6.0. Fair enough. I thought it deserved that. Seems way to much like the Battle Network series. The only real difference are the battle scenes which are now in 3D but with that said, there's nothing else to say!

I might write a review if I have time. I have LOTS of time so it's almost certain I will write one!

I originally posted this on my site http://shaun832.wordpress.com/

The taser gun. With one squeeze of a trigger, you can zap anyone or anything and cause possible permanent damage. How awesome would that be? This is a list of the things you would do if you had a taser gun.

1. Protection - You are walking down the street, minding your own business. Suddenly, a guy comes out of nowhere, holding a lead pipe demanding your money. What do you do? Pull out a taser gun and demand HIS money! Warning, do not use on a mugger holding a gun. The electric shock will cause his hand to constrict causing the trigger of the gun to be squeezed. Do not fire unless you have a death wish!

2. Long Queues - Don't you just hate those long, annoying queues? Don't you just want to have some kind of way to shorten up the line at the squeeze of a trigger? The taser gun can do that. I am not at all responsible for any legal action that might be filed against you. Use at your own risk!

3. Home Cooking - There is a cold, raw chicken sitting on your kitchen bench. Gross. It needs to be cooked. The ovens broken. What do you do? Whip out your trusty taser gun and fry it! Warning, do not handle the chicken as it is being fried. A very unpleasant death awaits you.

4. Settling an Argument - Does someone not agree with what you are saying? Point the gun at them and they will. Warning, if you got your hands on a taser gun, chances are you 'buddy' has one as well. Take care when choosing someone to pick an argument with!

5. Blackouts - The lights go out. Don't worry because you have your taser with you. Pull a light globe out from the roof or a nearby lamp and shoot the taser at the bottom of it. There, instant light. Warning, there is no light so be careful where you point the gun.

There are five things you could do if you can get your hands on a taser gun. Have fun. Also, item 3 and 5 might be against the basic laws of physics but have fun trying. Again, I am not responsible for any injuries or deaths caused by this list.

As some of you may have known by now, the next MegaMan game, MegaMan 9, has been confirmed and is being released at the end of the year. There's just one thing about this game that's really bothering me. It's 8-bit!

This is going to be the first game in the original series of MegaMan since 1996 when MegaMan 8 came out for the PlayStation.

The game was originally confirmed to only be available on WiiWare but soon it was confirmed that it will be available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

The game will contain new Robot Masters, bosses if you don't know much about the original series, including, for the first time, a female.

I'm excited about this game because of the fact that it is a new MegaMan game in the original series. That is probably the only reason I will buy it, because I enjoy the classic 8-bit MegaMan games and so do millions of people around the world.

This game will not appeal to younger gamers (I'm 15 so I mean younger!) because the game has bad graphics compared to todays games and they might judge the game by this and avoid it. A price tag of 1000 Wii Points does not help this.

Please don't screw this up Capcom!

I originally posted this on my site http://shaun832.wordpress.com/

Mornings, completely unavoidable unless you sleep in but with all the things we need to do in our busy lives, we have to endure mornings, except on weekends when there is no work. Thank god for those days! The following events are the worst thing that could happen during the morning and there will be a tip at the end to help you avoid it all. Now, try to visualise yourself in this situation.

It's the middle of the night and there's the glowing clock staring at you, keeping you awake. You try not to look at it and see if that might make the time go faster. After what feels like hours, you look back at the clock. Only a minute has passed.

Then the alarm goes off in the morning when you just get to sleep. You hit the snooze button and fall back asleep. Ten minutes later, the alarm goes off again. You hit the snooze button again and you fall back asleep. Ten minutes later, the alarm goes off again. I'm going to stop right here. What is the point of the snooze button anyway? All it does is delay the inevitability of getting up. Any intelligent person would turn the clock off at the power if he wanted to sleep in.

You eventually get out of bed after being annoyed many times by the alarm clock. You immediately jump back into the warmth of the bed because the temperature is freezing. You slowly get out of bed again and you get used to the cold.

You walk to your bathroom and you go have a shower. Guess what? The hot water is broken! Cold water splashes down on your body and it makes you shiver. Now it is freezing outside and its even more freezing inside the shower. You finish your shower, you dry yourself and you wrap your towel around your waist.

You walk to the mirror of the bathroom, pick up your toothbrush and reach for the toothpaste tube. It is empty. You decide you should probably rinse your mouth out with water instead. You get a cup, you put it under the tap and you turn it on. Unfortunately the water that comes out of the tap is unclean and it has a brownish colour. You turn the tap off and you walk back to your room to get changed.

You open your dresser and find out the only clothes you have to wear for the day are a pair of shorts that barely fit you anymore and a shirt with a huge gaping hole on the back. There is also no jumper available for you to wear. So now you are freezing and there is no way to get warm besides jumping back into bed but you might fall back asleep and become late for what you need to do.

You get changed and you go to the kitchen to get breakfast. You open the pantry and pick out a cereal box. It seems a bit light. You check the contents and find that the box is empty. This was also the last box of cereal you had.

You check the time. You are thirty minutes late to where you need to be. You groan. What a horrible morning you've had!

The above might seem horrible and unavoidable but I have some good advice that will prevent these series of events from ever happening. The best possible thing you can do is to not get out of bed until noon. I know this might seem a bit obvious but think about it, the best thing you can do to avoid mornings is to avoid mornings!

I recently borrowed an N64 controller off my friend. That works! So I've been playing Majora's Mask now.

Progress:

MM: 1 Remain out of 4

LoZ2: 1/6 complete

Games Complete: LoZ, OoT, PH, TP

Yesterday I bought Zelda 2 off Virtual Console.

PS. ITS SO HARD!

As anyone with a Nintendo 64 knows, after while long time of using it, the control stick gets worn out and becomes useless. I noticed this is a huge problem for Majora's Mask because on the control stick I have to push it forward extremely hard to make Link only just run. This is a problem because my thumb cramps up only five minutes in the game! I'm trying to get a replacement stick now off ebay but they are too expensive. $40 for 3? No way! Anyone have any ideas?

-PS I noticed you only comment on things that have the word Zelda in the title. Why?