Today was my first foray into the world of wireless internet and I'm not impressed to say the least. Much like broadband was a pain in the ass to set up on pre-Windows 2000 machines, wi-fi really is a mission and a half. If it wasn't my connection dropping every minute or so, it was Internet Explorer not being able to access anything but the UWA home page. After about 2 hours, it finally stablised and all the bugs seem to have been ironed out. The signal strength still fluctuates somewhat (lowest is around 45%, max is around 75%) though that will be remedied with a more powerful card which I'm seriously considering now.
Managed to start my essay this afternoon, and I aim to have it at least in a close to finished state as of tomorrow. I still don't get this in-text Harvard referencing which I've been asked to incorporate so I'll have to research that one.
Traded in the Xbox GTA double pack for SNK Vs Capcom Chaos on the PS2 today. While it doesn't have the fanservice-licious cover that the Asian version sports, this image is on the back of the case so it's not a bad compromise. The port from Neo Geo's MVS system to optical disc doesn't seem all that smooth; there's noticeable load times for even the tiniest of things such as the character select screen and the in-game text is a bit Engrishy in places. Saying that, I'm very happy with the SNK characters, Mai in particular. She's packing more moves than ever and even has a new Exceed super special. The Capcom characters have made it through quite nicely too, sporting a retro look and feel; I only wish there were more characters to choose from since Capcom Vs SNK 1 and 2 had huge rosters compared to the rather meagre 36 (24 by default) on offer here.
I'm on the last episode of Sokyuu no Fafner which I've seriously been enjoying. Touted as yet another Evangelion-RahXephon (has more in common with the latter) clone, it really becomes it's own and does a number of things far better than it's predecessors. Having a much larger cast of major characters, Fafner manages to flesh them all out effectively and give them all distinct personalities. I also found myself caring about each and every one of them, whereas there were people in both Evangelion and RahXephon which I found to be disposable at best. It also has a rather odd formula for it's method of storytelling, starting off with a thick and heavy plot to establish everything within the series, and tailing it off with more a more episodic nature. The humour is also very well written, tongue-in-cheek at times and almost always dry. No slapstick laughs to be had here so you'd better look elsewhere if that's what you're after. The Fafners (the mecha) have a very unconventional design to them which I found quite off-putting at first. While I'm still not keen on most of them, there are certain units which I am quite fond off, namely the Mark Sein and the Mark Savor (tranforming model). I believe Geneon have licensed this one, why they haven't gotten it out on the shelves yet is beyond me since it has the potential to become very popular, especially with western audiences.
That's all from me, time to grab some shut-eye.
