A short update

It’s been over a year since I posted here and I felt it’s time for an update (it might be short but at least it is one!).

Around the same time I stopped blogging I actually started co-casting Dota 2 on Swedish channels. I even got the honor to be co-caster and analyst for the TV coverage of DreamLeague last year, which was challenging but extremely rewarding. Since then I co-cast whenever I’m needed and available. It’s a lot of fun!

Drayich, Slop3, Bummi and Bogdan during DreamLeague S2 (photo: DreamHack)

I get kinda nervous casting Alliance games though but I’m very relieved they are doing a lot better now. Even if the results at the Frankfurt Major wasn’t what a lot of us Alliance fans hoped for, it’s still a fact that they managed to qualify. They’ve also qualified for DreamLeague (Season 4), The Defense (Season 5) in Berlin and WCA 2015 in Yinchuan. Compared to last year and earlier this year, it’s a great achievement and I’m happy for them.

I’m especially thrilled about DreamLeague and DreamHack (starts tomorrow!), since DH is the only LAN event I ever go to nowadays. Every time i reminisce about all the times I slept on the concrete floor there. I’m really thankful for DreamHack, since I always had something to look forward to twice a year. I can’t believe it’s already been 12 years since I first attended. Akke and I went there together and played mostly WarCraft III. Good old days!

Trip to Japan (2/2)

Last post was mostly about the two trips we did outside of Tokyo, so this one will be about what we did in Tokyo city.

Overall we spent most time in Akihabara. Generally we went somewhere else during the day and in the evening we went to Akihabara where, at least Akke and I, played a lot of Ultra Street Fighter IV and tons of UFO catching (versions of claw cranes). When I write “tons of”, I mean it. From not giving a care in the world about it I became totally addicted. It all started when I wanted to win a figurine for Akke that he had tried to get for a while. When I finally got it we started to understand all the quirky strategies needed to succeed in “Japanese” UFO catching. It became like a game for us, because you really need to think outside-the-box sometimes, finding the object’s centre of gravity and such. Anyway, it was super fun when you got a hang of it! Though I don’t recommend people spending too much time on it, because it quickly becomes costly.

Akke playing Pop’n Music

Dave playing Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

Akke playing Sound Voltex II

Most of my and Akke’s UFO catching prizes

More UFO catching prizes

Regarding shopping we spent most time in Shibuya and Harajuku. Harajuku Street is really cozy, love the petit boutiques there. The famous Takeshita Street is usually a bit too crowded for me, but fun in its own way. Other places we visited were Ginza, Ikebukuro, Ueno, Shinjuku and Komagome.

Akke and me posing with Totoro in Sunshine City (Ikebukuro)

Me at a cat café in Ueno

Akke stilling his cat abstinence

Akke in front of the Ameya Yokocho market sign in Ueno

Festival happenings on Takeshita Street

Harajuku Street

One of the boutiques on Harajuku Street

The famous Shibuya Crossing

Dave and Ekken recharging with some dessert

Shibuya Crossing by night

We found a One Piece store in Shibuya

Akke bought me a Cactuar necklace when we visited the Square Enix Artnia store

Beautiful Rikugien Garden in Komagome

More Rikugien Garden

Me beside a huge tree in Rikugien Garden

We also checked out different pubs and bars. Like a cocktail bar in Shibuya which made movie themed drinks. Some better than others, that’s for sure. There were a few really cool ones but most ones we tried were quite disappointing. But a nice experience overall.

Other bars we went to was the british bar The Hub, the small Game Bar A Button in Akihabara and Capcom Bar in Shinjuku, where the staff performed some short acts with scenes from games related to the things people ordered. While not a bar we also visited a maid café in Akihabara, which was weird but in a very fun way.

The cutest cocktail I’ve seen. Guess which movie? :D

My Pacific Rim cocktail in the front. Dave’s Alien drink to the left and Akke’s LotR: The Two Towers to the right

The very pretty Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cocktail

Me enjoying my pretty drink

Starting our great party night in Shibuya with happy hour in The Hub

In front of Game Bar A Button (Akihabara)

Kampai! (Game Bar A Button)

Capcom Bar in Shinjuku

Akke enjoying a Cammy drink (I forgot what I chose)

Ekken getting some delicious Resident Evil “brains” for dessert

Me with one of the maids in the maid café

We actually timed our trip with Tokyo Game Show too. We went during a business day so there wasn’t much cosplay, which was one of the things I really enjoyed when I went last time (2008). It was sweet not having to walk like penguins though, so with that said I think I prefer business days. But I wasn’t really interested in any of the upcoming game releases in Japan, so what I definitely enjoyed the most was the school area’s indie games. One of the games there was an easy-to-understand puzzle game, Trace Puzzle, which I found quite addictive. I really hope it gets released on Xbox Live or Steam!

Tokyo Game Show 2014!

Akke playing Trace Puzzle

A funny sneak ’em up-ish game in office environment

The very blue PlayStation area

Shenlong/Shenron from Dragon Ball!

Akke in front of the indie game area

Trip to Japan (1/2)

Time for an update! Since my daily life usually isn’t that exciting I tend not to write often, but last week me and Akke came home after a great vacation in Japan with our best friends. This does of course mean a lot of pics for me to share with you!

The tall buildings of Shinjuku

Taking a stroll through a park

Akihabara – A place for gamers and manga/anime lovers

Beat ’em up area

Shoot ’em up area

Me at Super Potato. We went here the same day we arrived, which the shadows under my eyes prolly reveal :D

We spent most days exploring parts of Tokyo city but we also spent half a day to “climb” Mt Takao, which I also did six years ago when I studied in Tokyo for half a year. The funny thing is that I managed to choose the exact same trail to climb even if I didn’t intend to. So the whole climbing session was filled with déjà vu feelings and I later confirmed it was the same trail when I compared photos from 2008 with the new ones. But back then I climbed during fall so at least I got to experience a different season this time around. Not like that matters much, but still!

Cool roots! The choice of “pose” can be discussed…

Happy Akke

View of a city close-by

View from the top

One of the days we dedicated to the ancient city Kamakura. We paid a visit to the Kamakura Daibutsu and then we went to the beach. To be honest I didn’t even realise Kamakura is a city close to sea, so that was a really nice surprise. The beach was wonderful and filled with people surfing on what seemed to be quite perfect waves. A refreshing sight after days of city adventures.

Kamakura Daibutsu

Went by this beautiful house on the way to the beach

Enjoying the scenery

The beach!

We found a nice restaurant with views over the beach

Caught this pretty view on the way back to the station

I will post one more update with the rest of the photos in a day or two!

Valve’s visit to the Alliance gaming house

Almost summer! The weather has been really nice this past week and spring isn’t even over. Yey for that! Not so yey is that it was like 1 month and 3 weeks since my last blog post. But here we go!

A film team from Valve was here to do some pre-TI4 stuff 1-2 weeks ago, which was fun (really cool dudes!). So I took some pictures (after asking for permission of course) ’cause I guess most of you wouldn’t say no to some “backstage” photos. My pics are from Valve’s interview sessions at the Alliance’s gaming place, and from Liseberg (a famous amusement park here in Gothenburg). Sadly EGM couldn’t join when we went to Liseberg since he had hurt his leg. But I hope we can go to Liseberg again this summer, their new rollercoaster Helix was pure awesomeness!

Loda’s first out!

Bulldog, Akke and s4 chilling.

Next up was s4 (I like the “Captain Morgan” pose).

Intermezzo: Random selfie.

EGM’s turn (after that I had to go).

Helix, my love!

Bulldog trolling around.

Battling it out in OutRun 2 SP (Bulldog won).

Loda and s4 playing Dancing Stage (it was a horrible sight).

Bulldog showing off his bear strength.

Air-hockey (team edt): Akke/Bulldog won I believe.

Valve guys’ aim put to the test in Big Buck.

Loda shocked (? :D) when playing some alien shooter game.

Posing in front of the classic swing ride (did Bulldog perhaps spot a grill? :)).

 

 

Zelda: Minish Cap & Zelda: Wind Waker HD

After a few weeks of crunch at work I reminded myself to breathe some life into this thing called ‘blog’! I’ve wanted to write about Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Zelda: Minish Cap since I finished them (on the same day and all!), which was like 3 months ago or something. So, that I will.

Zelda: Minish Cap is definitely one of the best portable games I’ve played, it’s quite different from other Zelda games but in a very refreshing way. Some of the bosses were very brilliant. And I usually praise the palace designs as the best thing with Zelda but in Minish Cap it may have been the least impressive thing, which says a lot since they were well-made too. The items also differ from other Zeldas, which is one of the reasons some of the boss fights had the very interesting design they had.

The world in Minish Cap is both bright and colorful and being able to switch between Minish size (~ant size) and normal results in a game with a lot of sneaky places and secrets, making it even more fun to explore. Yep, I recommend this game! :)

But Wind Waker HD; I never played the original version which made me quite excited about this one. I was not impressed though. In terms of Zelda it was the least enjoyable game for me, it was “okay”. The open world concept with many small islands didn’t really do it for me, at least not in the long run. And the palaces felt “empty”. Playing that “Wind Waker” was only tedious since you had to do it so often. Couldn’t they have made a shortcut button for latest played song (at least in the new version)?

But it wasn’t all bad of course, I like how they made Link’s personality. For the first time I really felt his emotions and I guess it’s thanks to the style of graphics. Some of the other characters made an impact too, so I guess that’s what I like most about this game. The bottom line: I fully understand why many people love this game, but it wasn’t the game for me.

Zelda aside, I started playing Dark Souls 2 (Xbox 360). I didn’t play the first one but I have been curious about the series since reading all the positive stuff. And I really like it: the way you have to keep your calm and have patience, the strategies you have to come up with, the bosses’ patterns you have to learn; it’s just so fun. I’m looking forward to continue my quest as soon as crunch times at work are over!

I’ll end this post with our two sleepy-heads:

Shiva & Midas

As you might have read on Akke’s Twitter, two small and curly fellows moved into our apartment less than two weeks ago. The breed is a healthy one called LaPerm and we bought them from a wonderful little cattery, Curlalot, in the midst of Sweden.

Both boys are very outgoing and playful and loves to sleep on our laps when we sit by the computer, and almost every morning I wake up with two sleeping kittens beside my pillow. I adore them so! I love to have them around and I hope they like it here as much as we like to have them here.

To honor two game series we love, we decided to name them Midas (from the item Hand of Midas in Dota) and Shiva (mainly from the Final Fantasy series, but also inspired from Shiva’s Guard in Dota 2).

Cozy time with Shiva and Midas.

Nap time, Akke included.

Playing around.

Midas.

Something (terrifying?) in sight.

Shiva.

 

 

This past month

I want to write that I will update my blog more often this year… But let’s not fool anyone. It probably won’t happen. But one can wish!

I spend my Christmas holiday together with my family at my parents’ place and then some at Akke’s parents. Yummy food and cozy atmosphere it was!

At my parents’.

After Christmas we took the train northeast to our best friends (GamingGrannar) where we played around for a couple of days. We also celebrated New Year’s there with dinner, games and party. A perfect New Year’s! Thanks to EKKen I also had a very nice hairstyle during New Year’s Eve, I’m very grateful for that!

New Year’s dinner, weee!

Akke, Dave and EKKen.

“Merging” with a painting.

Everytime we go to our friends there we try to finish at least one game and this time I wished for it to be StarTropics. I have wonderful memories of playing this adventure game with my brother and sister, and I still regard it as one of my absolute favourites on the 8-bit. After finishing it we started playing the sequel and it looks promising. The gameplay is quite different comparing to its predecessor, not necessarily in a bad way though. Some things I like better, others I don’t. But it’s a well-made sequel, can’t argue with that.

We also did other stuff during December: Me and Akke went to “Christmas at Liseberg” (Liseberg is a famous amusement park in Sweden) and had a really nice time. It’s really beautiful there during the evening, with lots of small lights.

Much lights, such amaze.

My dear Akke.

The colorful “Rabbit Land”.

In addition we had a small party with Akke’s sister, colleagues and other friends on one of the days between Chistmas and New Year’s. And the day after we went to my sister’s place to celebrate her husband’s birthday. So yes, it was a lot of fun events this past month!

Party! :]

DHW13 and more!

Last weekend DreamHack kicked off and this time (last time I was in Osaka) I could join the party! I  had an awesome time as usual, thanks to all the nice people I met! I also watched the legendary Daigo play Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, which made me a bit starstrucked. I forgot my camera back home though… So I’m sorry to say I have no pics to share this time. Instead I will give you some amazingly fun pics of our Christmas decorations:

Kitchen window.

Living room window. Plant got pimped too.

Living room corner.

From mom and dad! Love it so much.

I always get too upset and excited when Alliance play so I tried to calm myself down playing 3DS between their games at DH. Sadly they didn’t make it to the finals but there will be more chances! And one shouldn’t forget that 3rd place also is quite an achievement.

The game I was soothing my stressful soul with was Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX; after completing the fantastic Oracle series I decided to continue my “Zelda quest”. Link’s Awakening DX wasn’t as good as the Oracle games though, but it’s older and they have re-used a lot from it in the Oracle series. With that said, it would’ve of course been better to play this game before the Oracle games. Some bosses were re-used which resulted in zero challenge: the bosses overall were way too easy. Usually there are some kind of challenge when it comes to bosses in Zelda games but this was a bit disappointing. The palace designs and such were pleasing though, which is what I found most important.

The next portable Zelda game I’ll take on is prolly Minish Cap or the new A Link Between Two Worlds, depending on if I can get my hands on Minish Cap or not (it’s quite rare these days I think?).

Gamex 2013 photos

Last weekend this year’s Gamex (big game expo in Stockholm) finally opened its doors. This is like the only event a year where we get the chance to hang out with most of our gaming friends we got to know during the last decade, so we are always looking forward to it. As expected, it was a great weekend. A friend of ours also organized a get-together event at a bar Friday night, which was awesome (thanks Angelica!).

Ready for Gamex 2013!

Skylanders was popular among the younger ones.

Got a bit of DreamHack feeling here.

People having fun playing Just Dance.

At Gamex we checked out a bunch of different games and I’m especially impressed with the Swedish indie scene this year: Grief (TarHead Studio), CoBots (Digital Tuna Games) and Secrets of Grindea (Pixel Ferrets) are some of the indie games that look very promising.

Many people showed up at the get-together!

Dave, Akke and me.

Calle, Akke and me.

My two beloved ones (Akke and EKKen)!

Considering PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Akke and I decided that we’re going to buy a PS4 after trying both consoles, solely because of the announced games so far. Games like Resogun and Contrast are more appealing to us than the games that was shown on the Xbox One.

Me, Akke and our best friends fooling around in a photo booth. Sadly, for the sake of everyone involved, I had to censore the last one. x)

Some guys challenging Akke on the Wii U.

A table for the creative ones.

The cosplay competition’s top three. The Warhammer costume is simply stunning.

I also played the Final Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns demo and since I liked it a lot I decided to enter the demo competition. The one with the best completion time won the game and a really cool Play Arts Kai figure of Lightning. And I ended up doing it! It made me very happy, especially since I like the other two FF13 games a lot. Lightning is also one of my favourite Final Fantasy characters so a quality figure of her is really nice. Now I’ll just have to wait for the release next year (14th of February)!

Akke posing with a Dark Souls 2 knight and Lightning.

Akke supporting me during demo prac!

How about some 84″ Ultra HD awesomeness?

Game merchandise! Colorful indeed.

Anyway, thank you for this time Gamex! Was a great weekend. I missed Nintendo though, so I hope they will be able to join next year.

An autumn walk

Today we took a walk around the area and it’s really beautiful now with all the autumn colors so I took a couple of photos:

Akke posing by a “golden” tree.

A cute and quirky entrance.

The air is so fresh too, in addition to the wonderful smell of pine tree! Autumn is nice indeed.