syn·es·the·sia Pronunciation Key - Spelled Pronunciation[sin-uhs-thee-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
-noun
a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.

Rez is a fantastic game. It’s old news sure, but this week and last, I’ve taken it upon my duty to show it to as many friends and co-workers as I can. Which magically tends to coincide with this fascinating article. Commonly discussed amongst friends, we all wondered what it would be like to see the visualisation of sounds, words and numbers. Having a completely different sensory response to something you shouldn’t react so strangely too, is almost too preposterous to imagine being possible.

This man, does.

Meet Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who has been diagnosed with synesthesia, where his brain interprets numbers as shapes. This ability allows him to do complex mathematical computations in his head, like solving pi to the 22,500 decimal point. He’s also adept at languages speaking more than nine, and able to learn a new one within one week. Though others have similar abilities, what sets Daniel apart is that unlike most autistic savants he does not seem to suffer from disabilities common among other autistic people.

Check out the video. Very interesting; The Boy With the Incredible Brain

Hooray! Four new Tales of [etc, etc..] games! You go, series that doesn’t stick to archaic RPG standards! There is no such thing as too much of a good thing. Let the multitude of upcoming Tales games begin.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology for PSP

*Phantasia: Full Voiced Edition PSP

*Destiny PS2
Destiny screens and video

*Radiant Mythology for PSP

*Destiny 2 for PSP

So, Destiny is a PS2 remake of the original with an A-LMBS system (watch the video, they never flew that way in the original), Radiant Mythology is a completely new PSP game (which looks insanely good) and Phantasia & Destiny 2 are going to recieve ports/remakes on a handheld known for ports and remakes, yet seriously lacking in decent RPGs. Sounds like a wise decision, imo.

As to what concerns localizations, I could care less, because I decided to just import each one of them on their Japanese launches.

Oh yeah! To anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, check out Nacho Libre! It’s HILLAARRRIOUS! I almost cried at one of the jokes and I never find any of the jokes in movies funny anymore. Actually, the last movie that put me in stitches was Anchorman, which is also an awesome movie. Anyway, check it out if you want a good laugh.

Sadly, the general opinion on Nacho is 50/50. It’s a love it or hate it film, and those who hate it, hate it bad. It’s been criticized for being racist as well as a pointless/stupid film, which is hogwash, because you should already know what to expect from the previews. The reviews citing it as racist really need to be put to rest. People need to stop being so defensive and live a little. Quit complaining about being politically correct and have some fun for once

I give it 3 1/2 stretchy pants out of 5.

And last night was the death of King of Fighters 2003. What I mean by that is that I played my final match against my number one KOF rival, Toul. And I WON! In! Your! Face! The Kusunagi Clan now officially deficates all over the Orochis. I’ll be frank and admit I fell trap to two or three Maiden Mashers though. But I still won! Yehay! =D

It was a pretty tight game though. Winner at 7 and I nailed it 7-6. We even double K.O.’d from time to time, which was always bizarre and a true testament as to how we’re total equals at fighters (or just games in general). Anyway, after the match, we vowed to put K’2003 to rest and seal it away on the shelf to make way for the new King of Fighters XI which is being shipped our way as we speak. I’ll post impressions when it gets here.

All I can say is that I can’t wait to completely dominate as Oswald. Eat your heart out, Gambit.

And straight from Hong Kong, too!

Leave me alone until the import review, pls. =D

I saw the Paramount screening of Nacho Libre downtown Saturday night with several friends and wow, is it ever awesome. I haven’t laughed that hard at the theaters since Anchorman (which also, rules).

Who else saw it? It had too many funny parts for me to remember right now.

After 11 days of starting SMT3, I finally finished Nocturne Saturday night around say, 11′ish.

Unlike what I had originally intended for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, I got screwed over during the 3rd Kalpa and couldn’t unlock the True Demon Ending so I could face Lucifer. I did one of the 78′000 no-noes in Nocturne that lock away your chances to face the “final” final boss. I don’t know, but it’s almost like Atlus made it so that you really couldn’t face him unless you seriously tried or read a guide before. Which I didn’t.

I’ll admit that when I figured it out I was enfuriated. I actually started punching things. Which is completely ironic, because before starting Nocturne last week, I thought the boss fights were going to get me mad, but it was not fighting one that made me go bonkers. Plus I already faced most of the Fiends holding each Candelabra (I think the only foes I had left to face were in the 4th and 5th Kalpas) which were now useless. So the next time I decide to go for the optional boss fight, I’ll play it smart and actually read a guide the next time.

I found the game pretty easy though. The player goes through pretty mechanic routines every couple hours (new dungeon, update demon roster, match party accordingly to boss weaknesses). Plus then there’s that whole -nda/-aja dance going on half the time. I found the battles much easier than in DDS since in Nocturne, you can switch whomever you want to get the right weaknesses or strengths. You can’t do that in DDS, so playing the series backwards made Nocturne seem much easier to me..

And Kagutsuchi was waayyy too easy. I hate pushover bosses. I know developers want to let the player at least have the chance to finish the game, but I say, if they came all this way, they’re more than capable of finishing anyone off.

So aside the disappointment of a final boss and the fact that it only took two weeks to go through, the game rocks. Even if I wasn’t already a fan of Kazuma Kaneko’s creative direction, I would notice this game’s splendeur. Immediate Top 3 for best RPG this generation. And it’s not hard, dammit. ;P