‘Editorial’

April 19th, 2021 Editorial, Featured 1 Comment »

PlayStation 2 Region Free Modification – MechaPwn Tutorial

2021 has been an incredible year for the PlayStation 2 modding scene. The PS2 may be over twenty years old now, but the community around it is still quite strong. Earlier this year, MechaCon was dumped in full. This allowed for people to investigate ways to modify this “security chip”. As a result, the MechaPwn exploit now exists.

MechaPwn allows certain models of the PS2 to break away from the system’s region locking. Once completed, it turns retail PS2s into a developer kit of sorts, enabling the ability to run retail PS1 and PS2 discs from any region on your system.

This is extremely exciting news for anyone who owns PS2 or PS1 discs from other regions but only has access to a PS2 from one specific region. Or, those who have multiple region systems may prefer to use one system for convivence sake. Yes, there have been many ways to play games from different regions on a PS2 in the past. These include modchips, Swap Magic discs and more. However, none of these are as convenient or cheap (if you don’t already have a solution in place) as the new MechaPwn option.

Before digging too deep into MechaPwn, interested parties must be aware of a few key points.

  1. This exploit only works on PS2 systems from model number SCPH-500xx and up. That includes some late model original PS2s and all PS2 Slim models.
  2. This exploit (as set up in my instructions below) only enables playing retail discs. It does not enable the ability to play burned discs.
  3. This exploit requires usage of a homebrew application to run initially. I will describe some methods of accessing the homebrew application below.
  4. If performed improperly, this mod can potentially brick your PS2. “Bricking” refers to rendering a system inoperable.
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January 14th, 2019 Editorial, Site News No Comments »

Welcome to the Year of Horror

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Movies are a necessary part of my life. In particular, horror films latched onto me at an early age and I’ve never been able to shake them off. It all started with glimpses of horror such as TV airings of Child’s Play and the Psycho remake of all things. Just stealing a quick peek at these was enough to scare the heck out of me, leaving years of worry in their wake. Would I be killed in the shower? Would Chucky somehow come and kill me – in the shower? Yes, these were legitimate fears at the time. Even Goosebumps and Alone in the Dark managed to creep me out on more than one occasion.

As I entered middle school – and started frequenting Blockbuster Video – my interest in horror began to grow. There I was able to access movies such as The Birds and The Shining. I wholeheartedly enjoyed them and wanted much more. Somehow my interest then veered fully into Italian horror and the wide world of giallo. While I don’t quite love giallo as much as I did back in high school, I do still appreciate when a horror film features a powerful visual aesthetic.

Unfortunately, life always seems to get in the way of movie-watching. Back in high school and through early college I’d watch one or more movies a week. This totally took a nosedive later in college and then once work began. Now, though, I think it’s time to rejoin the world of film fans.

My goal this year is to focus on horror movies because I’ve been neglecting them for way too long. I’ve still not seen so many cult and classic titles from the genre. I’d love to cross some off my list. To aid in that effort, I’ve joined streaming service Shudder. But that’s just in addition to the library of horror films that are already in my collection sitting unwatched. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Pixel Pacas began its life as a video game review site. However, it is also just the site that I own, and therefore I made the executive decision to include movie reviews as well. I’ll be attempting to keep the content “separate” by utilizing different tags for movie posts. Otherwise, there will indeed be a mix of video game and movie content posted here whenever there’s time to write it!

April 11th, 2017 Editorial, Featured No Comments »

Checking Out Steam Releases in March 2017

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It’s time for the third of my monthly Steam summary articles. As usual, expect to find some information about the total number of games released in March as well as how many of them were Early Access and/or virtual reality releases.

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March 14th, 2017 Editorial, Featured No Comments »

Checking Out Steam Releases in February 2017

The Shadows of Pygmalion Featured

Last month, I decided to try my hand at keeping track of Steam releases in 2017. It just seemed like the right time, as 2016 was a landmark year of releases for the service. This year is also poised to be quite different once Valve shutters Steam Greenlight.

Defined as a failure practically out of the gate by Valve, Greenlight stuck around for years regardless. At the beginning, getting Greenlit meant something. At this point almost anything gets Greenlit given enough time. Once its gone, we should see an eventual decline in the number releases. I don’t know if we’ll notice that this year, though, as thousands of Greenlit games still haven’t launched on Steam. In any case, let’s get on with the data.

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February 21st, 2017 Editorial, Featured No Comments »

Emulation, Me, and the Raspberry Pi 3

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Featured

Emulation is one of those things that became an obsession from the minute I learned of it. This all began one day in high school when a friend asked to borrow a PS1 game of mine. When it came time to return it, he told me about playing it on his PC. My immediate reaction was something along the lines of “What do you mean?” Instead of explaining himself fully, he cryptically only gave the name of the emulator. Thus began an obsession.

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February 6th, 2017 Editorial, Featured No Comments »

Checking Out Steam Releases in January 2017

dacapo3rSteamReleases

2016 was an interesting year for Steam. According to Sergey Galyonkin of Steam Spy, 38% of games available on Steam were released in 2016. That means 4,779 titles hit the popular digital marketplace in a single year. The news shocked many, though just makes sense given the increasingly thin barrier that Steam Greenlight presents to getting onto the storefront.

My belief is that 2017 will be another record-breaking year for Steam – albeit not to the same ridiculous level that 2016 was. Of course, if Valve does something like remove the Greenlight requirement entirely then I’ll easily be proven completely wrong. In any case, I wanted to know more but didn’t want to wait on Steam Spy to provide information. This led me to creating my own method of collecting Steam release data that I intend to keep up with throughout the year.

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April 16th, 2015 Editorial No Comments »

I Made My First Game!

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Writing about games has been a hobby of mine since I was about 14. Sure, at the time it was pretty awkward, hyper-opinionated (and not even MY opinion – but the resounding one from game blogs of the time!) stuff. However, all that stuff disappeared after deleting the LiveJournal years ago so I couldn’t relieve it in all that cringe-worthy glory even if I wanted to. So, basically I’ve been writing about games for 10 years (although only about half of that has been with actual, established websites). And for all that discussion of games, I had never myself taken game creation into my own hands.

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January 15th, 2015 Editorial, Featured No Comments »

Leah’s Top Five Played 3DS Games of 2014

Over the years, the 3DS has grown to become one of my favorite gaming systems ever. There are just so many incredible games that have been released on the system so far, and there are plenty more to come (especially with all the cool stuff that was just announced during the most recent Nintendo Direct!). While it’s rare for me to jump on new game releases anymore, the 3DS is an exception judging by my Activity Log. So, let’s check out my top five played 3DS games of 2014!

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5. Tomodachi Life

I was pretty excited when Nintendo first announced that they were bringing Tomodachi Life to North America. The Nintendo Direct that showcased it was incredibly zany and weird – how could you not love a game like this? While Tomodachi Life didn’t end up meeting my expectations in the end, I still had a lot of fun having in-game versions of my family and other characters interact with each other in hilarious situations. Oh, and I was able to marry Naoto Shirogane, so that’s a plus.

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4. Disney Magical World

Disney Magical World is one of those games you probably think is supposed to be aimed towards the youngsters. Well, it might be, but it’s still surprisingly entertaining and offers a lot for the older crowd. It feels a lot like a Rune Factory game, which is a series I love, so Disney Magical World definitely clicked with me. Plus there’s tons of customization! I still haven’t “beat” Disney Magical World because it’s such an expansive game, but maybe I can get around to doing that sometime this year.

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3. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

I think the original Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was one of my favorite games of 2012. So, it’s no surprise that I took an immediate liking to its sequel. Everything in Curtain Call has been improved upon from its predecessor. It also offers tons more songs, Quest Medley mode, and a very entertaining Versus Battle mode. All of these combined make for a lot of time spent with the rhythm game. Now Theatrhythm Dragon Quest has been announced, and while I’m not as big a fan of Dragon Quest like I am with Final Fantasy, I know I will probably play that a lot, too!

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2. Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life is one of those games that I had no idea I would be spending so much time on. There’s just so many sidequests and whatnot to delve into! In fact, I’ve been messing around with non-story stuff so much that I still haven’t beat the main game. I am pretty close to beating Fantasy Life, though, only because I’ve decided to shift my attention from mastering every Life and fulfilling requests for a brief moment.

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1. Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

Ah, of course a Pokémon game is number one on my list (though my playtime is not nearly as much as the hundreds of hours I used to spend on each individual Pokémon game). In any case, I still easily succumb to the series’ siren call and buy each and every iteration. And how could I resist a blast to the past with a Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire remake? Alpha Sapphire has definitely given me a healthy dose of nostalgia while still offering plenty of new additions, and in my playthrough, I’ve barely scratched the surface. Maybe if I ever have the time, I’ll try to actually catch ’em all.

There you have it, folks. 2014 was a pretty awesome for the 3DS. Now here’s hoping that 2015 is just as great, or perhaps even better!

January 1st, 2015 Editorial, Featured 2 Comments »

2014 Reviews in Review

Mount Your Friends Featured

2014 is over! Wow, what a year it has been in regards to video games and my relation to them. Ever since I began reviewing my feelings about games have changed – but more importantly so have my habits. Last year was probably the first when I fully realized that the more I review the less time there is to play just for fun. But isn’t reviewing fun? Certainly, the titles reviewed are almost always selected by me… yet there’s something different about playing with the intent of writing. Work is work, no matter what, and maybe it’s a bad thing to combine my main hobby with work to such an intense degree.

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November 4th, 2014 Editorial 2 Comments »

Why Hatoful Boyfriend is a Visual Novel You Should Play

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Hatoful Boyfriend is a visual novel which originally launched in 2011 by Hato Moa. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that the internet populace really took notice of it – even so, that was still a fairly niche audience. The fact that the game didn’t play nice with some modern OSes certainly didn’t help things. For whatever reason, Hatoful Bofyriend was then tweaked by Mediatonic to run on newer systems (alongside a few other little modifications/additions). It was around this point when a much larger audience took notice thanks to the remake’s release on Steam. Now, the game has “Overwhelmingly positive” reviews but most of which are done firmly tongue in cheek rather than much focus on possible merits.

The biggest trend that appeared was one of mock shock and jokes. Certainly, Hatoful Boyfriend was made to amuse, but the way so many reacted said one thing – they weren’t actually going to play it. Unfortunately, the oddball concept of a young woman going to high school with birds (and possibly falling for them) was too much for many to handle.  But in what way is this so different from most other visual novels currently on Steam? They tend to offer flighty impossible tales, often with implausible love interests (ex: the trope of tons of girls falling for one incredibly average guy).

One reason that I felt many distanced themselves far from Hatoful Boyfriend is because they cannot “be” the protagonist as they’re so used to. So far, most dissing of the game I’ve seen comes from guys who 1. don’t want to date pigeons 2. don’t want to date male pigeons. To be fair, no one should want to date pigeons – but something about the otome aspect makes it even harder for certain players to grasp. This is a shame and hopefully these players will reconsider playing a game that is about amusement and a simple story instead of serious romantic pursuits.

If you avoid Hatoful Boyfriend because it just seems too weird then I also ask you to reconsider. Yes, it is weird, and that’s part of the charm. This game offers a surprising amount of endings and is not just about being a goofy mess. Certain storylines are surprising in their emotional resonance.  Every bird has their own personality which compels one to learn more about them. Although it is not a modern classic of the visual novel genre by any stretch it is a fine value for its cost. There is so much more to this game than meets the eye – and so many people are missing out on it.

Are there problems with the experience? Yes, such as a very poor fast forward/skip text feature. The text appears the same as its original version, grammatical oddness and all. Still, Hatoful Boyfriend deserves more respect than it has received. If you ever find yourself running low on visual novels to play, then please pick it up. You might be pleasantly surprised.