The World Cosplay Summit

Well before I went and got sick, I went down to the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya to go check out what all the hubub was about.

The truth of the matter is, I don't really like anime all that much, I find a great deal of the shows annoying and generally speaking, the vast majority of programs are more about fanservice than delivering any sort of decent plot.

That's not to say I hate all anime, if anyone is interested I do enjoy shows such as Akagi (because I love mahjong, not for the grimdark edgy character) and Kaiji, but a genuinely good show is hard to come across.

That said, this was one of the most impressive displays of fandom I've ever seen.  People roll up from all over the place dressed as their favourite characters, and they spend their day being photographed by people who cant be arsed.

It was actually a lot of fun to be at though, the costumes were impressive and they had a stage where they were hosting fun little shows and stuff, the atmosphere was pretty nice.  The cosplayers themselves are by no means shy either, you can easily flag down your favourite character and get a snap with them, they love the recognition for that costume they sunk so many hours into.

If anyone is thinking to themselves at this point "oh well its just a bunch of sad nerds dressing up, it couldn't have been that good..." well you're fucking WRONG! check this shit out!

Look at that turnout! holy shit!  Doesn't matter what age, colour or gender you are, if you love dressing up as anime characters, anyone is more than welcome to drop on.

Well there isn't really much else to say, this kind of thing is really something you have to experience for yourself, but allow me to give you the short version in the form of a single picture

I fucking love this place

Now thats some bullshit #4: The common cold

Well I was going to post about something awesome yesterday, but now it's gonna get delayed and I'm going to make this post instead.  I dunno where I got it from, but I am now currently suffering from a cold, and I fucking hate having a cold.

Colds are complete dogshit they make your throat hurt and stop you from breathing naturally through your nose.  But the worst part is that it's such a crap illness to have.  It's not quite serious enough to take you out properly, but it affects you JUST enough that you can't be bothered to do anything.

The absolute worst shit though is the inability to sleep while under the effects of a cold.  I spent all of last night sleeping in a fucking armchair because if I went horizontal my head felt like it was full of cement.

Also this shit came out of fucking nowhere!  I popped The Dark Knight DVD into my PS3 last night feeling completely fine, by the time it finished I was bunged up and my throat felt like someone had dropped a load of razors down it.

So in short, fucking having a cold, it's fucking bullshit

Japan Stuff: Osu Festival

So about 20 minutes from my place there is this cool little area of Nagoya known as Osu.  Osu on a normal day is a place full of shops and resturants and it tends to attract quite a few tourists, but yesterday, was the Osu summer festival!

What basically happens is there is a couple of events around Osu and metric shit tons of people gather to come see them and eat food out of stalls.  It's a really good day out and it has an extremely fun atmosphere that I've never really felt at a big public event before.  It's hard to describe but if anyone takes a holiday out here and has the chance, go to a festival, it's fuckin' good!

Anyway, the first thing I came across was a bunch of Taiko players.

It's almost impossible to miss these guys, the sound of these huge drums echoes through the whole of Osu and if you've ever seen people play Taiko before, it's fucking cool!  I'll attach a video of these guys at the bottom of the post.

So after walking through the rest of Osu, which was largly business as usual, I reached this

Out here was a bunch of stalls selling various types of food and all for a super cheap price.  So after picking up a hot dog we then moved on to to this...

This group of steel drum players were extremely fun to watch, but I felt rather sorry for them because just standing there to watch them in the extreme Japan heat was absolutely killer on me, I hate to think what they were feeling up there bashing away on those drums.  But still it was a lot of fun and they were doing a good job of pleasing the crowd to the point where people were just casually dancing around.  Also there was a dude running around with a flag of Trinidad and Tobago, so it was nice to see some cultural fusion.  There will be another video of these guys at the bottom of the page.

The other big thing that I came across was a Samba Parade.  It started just near where the steel drummers were and went through the entire shopping district.

There was plenty of people singing and dancing and there were even people in those cool looking Brazilian parade outfits, but it was almost impossible to get a good view of them at the start because there was just too many people.  Instead of boring you with words, I'll  post 2 videos of the parade.  The first one will give you an idea of the turnout, and the second will be a better view of the parade itself.

Video Gallery

Free Game Friday: Ninjump

Well this has not been a good week for experimenting with some freeware.  I've been busy with work and some other stuff that I've not really had a chance to break into anything new, so I'm going to tell you about something on my iPod I use to make the train journeys less boring.

Ninjump is a free game on the iPod app store and the Android marketplace, so don't feel left out if you don't own something apple related to try this out on.  The game has no real goal other than getting a high score, but as a light hearted time killer this is fine.

The gameplay is simple, you have a ninja and you tap the screen to make him jump.  Collect powerups to fly up the screen faster and don't get hit by anything or your dead.  It's a simple yet surprisingly addictive game and some really smooth visuals, so it's pretty good if your stuck with no real games to play.

That's basically all there is to it, so go give it a download! I will warn the Android users though, if you're playing this on an HTC Wildfire, it's going to run like ass.

How to improve your CV/Resume with video games!

If you are as old as I am, chances are you are keeping and up to date resume in the event that you have to apply for a job.  A perfectly logical think to do, as one requires a job in order to earn money to do pretty much anything in life.

Now in a resume, you need to big yourself up a bit right?  But how does one who has video games as his or her main hobby write that into a resume without instantly making an employer frown and throw your application in the bin.  Well the obvious answer is to never write "I enjoy video games" on your resume, but instead, put a spin on it to make yourself seem really fuckin' awesome.  So here we go!

 First of all, if you're a PC gamer, you can instantly write "I'm good with computers", because chances are you fucking are anyway.  All the crap you have to go through to make some shit run, don't let all those hours spent raging over something not working go to waste, big up those IT skills!

Now, you can write different things depending on what genre of games you're into, so use the following list

FPS= I'm a good team player/I'm good at handling tough jobs alone
RTS= I'm good at making quick decisions
RPGs (Western or Japanese)= I'm extremely creative
Platformers= Good spacial awareness
Horror= Able to handle pressure/stress
Rhythm= Good at multi-tasking
MMO's=I'm a good team player who enjoys meeting new people
Fighting=Excellent memory

I'm sure there are more you could come up with yourself!  It's just a case of applying those gaming skills to the real world!

As a disclaimer I'm not intending for anyone to take this seriously, it's just a bit of fun, but it might give someone an idea or two.

Those "Oh crap..." moments

Occasionally when you're playing a game, something will happen where you have to stop, take a minute and get slightly worried as to what is coming ahead.  These moments aren't brought about by the game being bad.  It's not "oh crap things are about to get worse", it's more "oh crap shits about to go DOWN!"

For the example I'm providing today, we return to the dungeons of Grimrock

Everything up to this point has been made of stone, then you hop down some stairs and BAM! oppressive metal prison walls everywhere.  The corridors seem darker, there isn't a natural light source in sight and as soon as you step through that door, all you can see are pits and ominous shadows.  On top of that, you get a quite worrying little message from your telepathic friend (not spoiling anything)

I stopped just past that door, so I don't know whats coming next, but it ain't gonna be pretty.

The Dark Knight Rises (Spoiler Free Review)

Well today I popped down into central Nagoya and I saw The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final movie in the Christopher Nolan Batman series.  To sum up what I thought about this movie in a few words, I thought it was very VERY good.  I enjoyed it a lot and I would happily watch it again but I don't quite think everyone will take to it like I did.

Before I continue, the reason I specified this as a spoiler free review was because I have a lot of things to say, but can't really discuss them without spoiling some stuff, so just in case, I'm doing a spoiler free version now, and then a more detailed review next week or something.

So let's talk about the good things in this movie first!  It's an extremely well shot movie and the set pieces and character design are fantastic.  On top of this, all the actors involved put out really strong performances, most notably Tom Hardy as Bane, who was an absolute joy to watch.  The story, despite my spoilerific nitpicks is also one of this movies extreme strongpoints.  There is an actual character arc here with a clearly defined ending and Nolan did an overall good job of providing some development of the Batman character.  Like I said, it's quite hard to go into any real details without spoiling things, so wait for the detailed version later.

Although the one big problem I can point out here without ruining anything, is that this is NOT (I REPEAT! NOT!) a Batman movie.  If you're expecting to sit down and watch Batman wreck some shit, you're going to be extremely disappointed.  This is a character movie about Bruce Wayne and other members of the cast and it does an amazing job of providing some depth to these characters.  I feel it's kind of a shame because I know this movie is going to be lost on some people who were expecting a straight up action flick.  Going into this film with the right mindset is key here, but I think pretty much everyone will find at least one thing to like about this movie.

Before I wrap up this post, I saw the trailer for the Total Recall remake, hyped as fuck! Hope it's gon' be good!