First Entry for 2014

Just checked what I wrote on New Year's Day in previous years and, surprisingly (or rather, unsurprisingly), I talked quite a lot about the game(s) that I was playing at the time: Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force 5 (2011, same year I went to Bali for a "reset" retreat); Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (2012); and Final Fantasy Type 0 (2013). Oh, and it's been a year since the world supposed to have ended ... how time flies. 

The game I'm playing right now is Final Fantasy X-2 HD, which has been quite fun, though I still have to truly understand the mechanics of the "dressphere", which makes the gameplay so much more interesting (apparently it's like the predecessor of FF XIII's system). Like Type 0 though, it's in Japanese. The English (localised) version is not released until March and I can't really wait until then (desperate to get my hands on a cool game and, sadly, neither Ys or Atelier Meruru was it). The thing is, Japanese or English, I will still need to use a walkthrough to play it. One (annoying) thing about Final Fantasy titles is that there are so many missables that I won't truly enjoy a game unless I know I'm not missing out on most of the good stuff (which players would never know about unless they're using a guide. Like, I'd already missed something silly in the first chapter of X-2 so I won't be able to 100% the game now ~ just as well I'm only a semi-completion-ist. Anyway, this game is gonna keep me entertained for another couple of months before, well, maybe I will get the English version of FF X (the original and prequel to X-2) when that is released. The gameplay is not as great so will see. Maybe there will be other good games available then (there have been talks about FF XV being released on PS Vita!! but that probably won't happen until 2016 ...). Anyway, I can always return to One Piece 2, which I really enjoy in small doses.

I almost bought another phone -- the rather stylish Nokia 7260 -- yesterday but the one available in the show is second-hand (this is an old model) so decided not to get that. Guess a good part of this year I'll just be using my Blackberry Bold 9900 (at least it no longer freaks out under the sun now, with the replaced trackpad), Sony Xperia Z and Sidekick LX 2009, with Nokia N8 as spare. 

New Year's resolutions? As mentioned in yesterday's post, I definitely would like to take a yoga teacher training course this year. Mentally I'm quite ready for it but am not sure whether I am physically (!) Other than that, I'll continue to maintain my yogic calm and, oh yes, blog more this year *lol*

Here is a photo I lifted off the Guardian website on New Year celebrations in my city...

Credit: Alan Siu/EyePress/Photoshot