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Kiki Sushi - Hillcrest

This little sushi place is located right on the corner of University and 6th. It's the one that was clearly a Kinko's before and the proprietors were just too lazy to really change the title much and simply removed a single later for the name of the restaurant. Fine with me.

The inside of the restaurant is very small with only a couple of tables and a decently sized sushi bar. I was with a larger group (6 of us), so we opted for the patio, which isn't a whole lot bigger. Once seated, it was time to look at the food offerings. The menu is pretty decent, offering nigiri, sashimi, a good selection of both basic as well as creative, fancy rolls, cheap hot food and some drink specials.

The service was quick and pleasant, no complaints there. Nothing that's gonna rock your world or anything, but efficient and friendly. I ordered the 'Sushi Special', which is a Spicy Tuna roll and 2 pieces of albacore, salmon, shrimp and yellowtail. Not bad for $14.50. Aaron and Eddie were really excited about the 'Spicy Chicken Roll', which is just as ridiculous as it sounds. Tastes alright though. Brian ordered some deep fried abortion of a roll that tasted like tempura fried ocean. Meh. Sean ordered the "Golden Gate' roll which had salmon, mango and some other tasty items. That one was fresh and delicious. All in all though, I thought my dish was the best one. The fish was surprisingly good. The spicy tuna was actually stuffed into the roll and was actually spicy. Mmmm. The nigiri was fresh tasting and well textured and the rice was just fine. All in all, a good meal.

Despite all that though, Kiki Sushi is not a place that really stood out in any way. Perhaps it's due to the millions of other sushi places in San Diego. I haven't tried all of them or anything, but I've tried a fair share of places, and a lot of them are pretty incredible. And that's not to say that Kiki wasn't good, not at all, it's just not special. It's a totally decent sushi place in the area that I would absolutely go to on a suggestion, I just probably wouldn't actively choose it. I think for me, personally, a lot of reasoning behind that is because I'm rather polar when it comes to sushi. I either gravitate towards cheap, bargain sushi (think Sushi Deli), or high quality, ambiance driven sushi (think Harney Sushi or Ra). The middle of the road doesn't usually interest me to a great degree. For better or worse, since Kiki really is just fine.

Overall Score (out of 5): 3.8

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

So I believe that I've mentioned that most of my video gaming comes from Gamefly. This means that I have a huge queue of games that I'm going through and in essence, have to catch up on. So yeah, Uncharted is a little on the older side. That being said, that's how it's gonna be until I do catch up a little more.

Alright, now the game.

Good. Quite good. Really good in fact. I, somehow, was completely unaware of what this game really was.

What I had in mind: standard action-adventure that got slightly popular due to the lack of truly solid titles in the PS3 library at the time.

Reality: incredibly polished, fun action-adventure title that excels in almost every aspect.

I should've assumed as much, considering the amount of excitement surrounding the release of the second Uncharted. And now I completely understand why. For starters, let's talk graphics. The game has really, really great graphics. This game was developed in 2007 and looks simply stunning. The colors are vibrant, the environments are well-rendered and the effects look pretty cool. And it's all the in the details as well. The grenades all emit a small mushroom-like cloud from a deep, fiery explosion. Nate's shirt gets darker and grimy when he swims, then dries back up. The water shimmers and laps at the shores. But none of this compares to the details in the locales. Tall, rocky cliffs overlooking deep oceans with trees swaying. Exotic and crumbling buildings from an ancient civilization sit on the edge while the sun burns three colors into the sky. This is literally a scene one can experience several times in the game. Gorgeous.

Now for some gameplay elements. This is where things are more of a mixed bag. The puzzling is thought-provoking but fairly easy to any veteran puzzler. Nothing crazy hard there and overall, I'm OK with that. My action-adventure games don't need to be Professor Layton. The platforming is wonderfully executed here. Nathan Drake has the upper body strength of the Hulk and jumps and swings his way across chasms, cliffs, around walls and up and over buildings. Good fun there. The action is unfortunately, not quite as satisfying. Nate can carry one type of pistol, and one type of rifle (shotgun, machine gun, sniper rifle, etc). No gun can carry a particularly large amount of ammo though, and this is to encourage players to use strategy to take out enemies, loot them, take cover and repeat. This would be fine if the gunplay were more polished. The aiming feels.... off somehow, and critical shots that could make a huge difference seem far too difficult to make. The firefights are huge at times, with swarms of enemies storming the area, taking cover, flanking you, flushing you out with grenades, shooting grenades, laser sighting you with one-shot kills weapons and utilizing what seems like perfect aim. A little ridiculous? Well... yeah. Honestly, yeah. If the gunplay were more fluid, then it would be a more joyous ride, but at times, getting through an area can be a chore, instead of a romp. However, when all is said and done, getting through any firefight is more than possible if the player exercises patience and gets a solid grasp of the funky gunplay system. So not a dealbreaker. Just frustrating sometimes.

The voice talent in this game is phenomenal. Nolan North voices a come-to-life character in Nathan Drake. Emily Rose and Richard McGonagle also do a great job with Elena and Sully. All very real characters with great personalities. The intonations, coupled with the delivery and context all create a wonderfully fun, yet dark world that is very reminiscent of a damn good Indy film. Just really solid adventuring from start to finish. The story is extremely interesting IMO. There's some really nifty foreshadowing going on early in the game and the advancement follows through to some really cool developments. As far as replay value is concerned, there are plenty of hidden treasures to find throughout the game, which gives some incentive to give the adventure a whirl at least several times through. Not a ton beyond that though.

In the end, Uncharted is a great play with a wonderful presentation, top-notch polish and well delivered story. Definitely worth a play and probably worth adding to your collection, if for nothing else, it's overall quality.

Overall Score (out of 100): 88

My 60 GB PS3 - A Hall of Famer

The PS3 has seen really amazing boosts in sales numbers since the introduction of the PS3 Slim. Good for them. Seriously. The better this platform does, the more that development will be dedicated to it. So I'm all for it. And quite frankly, Sony needed it. One might think that us old school PS3 owners might feel a little pain from the price drop, especially for what seems to be a better machine. Turns out, my specific type of console is quickly becoming a collector's item.

I think that's pretty damn cool.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/09/the-forgotten-beloved-60gb-ps3-why-its-still-so-popular.ars

City Wok - Mission Hills

So we were craving chinese food tonight and Eddie and Aaron took me to City Wok. At first, all I could think about was the South Park episode where an establishment of a similar moniker was run by an actual Chinaman who said "shitty wok". Get it? Yeah, super clever. Thanks Matt and Trey. Ok, I laughed. Fuck me.

My god I digress.

So unlike the above, City Wok is not a small mom and pop, hole-in-the-wall, authentic Chinese restaurant. It's more of a Pick-Up Stix or Pei Wei sorta joint. That being said, it was pretty damn good. The menu includes chicken, beef, shrimp, pork, vegetable and noodle options. And plenty in each category. We did family style, so I had a chance to try the Wonton soup, the house beef (City Wok beef), Sesame Chicken and Chow Mein. The Wonton soup was really good, and seemingly really healthy, comprised of a light, clear-ish broth with fresh vegetables, shrimp and of course, wontons. The two meat entrees were good as well, but not amazing. The beef had a great sauce and was accompanied by hot chili peppers, which was a huge plus. The beef was overcooked though and although the crispy texture was nice, it was also chewy. The chicken was also tasty, but lacked the strong, bold flavors I would've like for it to have. I wasn't in the mood for noodles, so I didn't really try the Chow Mein, but I do have to say that they were very thin noodles, which makes for an interesting take on the dish.

The service was definitely competent and very friendly. In fact, maybe a little too friendly. Sorta that weird, you smile so much maybe you're a clown, or maybe an evil clown thing? Like, maybe you're the fucking Joker. Whatever. The food came quick. The restaurant was also surprisingly nice. Well decorated and very clean, it puts out a solid image. The prices are reasonable, being around $7-8 for a single serving and around $11 for a full (or double) serving. Family style is a good choice if you're there with friends, if nothing else, just to try the melange of dishes.

So overall, give it a whirl. Good, decently priced Chinese food. Again, not real Chinese, mind you, but still good shit. Nothing wrong with that.

Overall Score (out of 5): 3.6

Where Is My Mind?

Ok, so I keep jumping around on this but now I feel like using a little less structure. Yeah, I know, I really am a paradigm of sanity. Just makes publishing posts less of a commitment and more of an expression. Again, we'll see. In any case, I feel like a fucking loon. We'll see what wins out.

Hodad's Burgers - Ocean Beach

Finally tried Hodad's for the first time a few nights ago. Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed it. The long line outside is bittersweet since it's annoying to stand in but is also indicative of the quality of the food and experience being offered.

Ambiance/Service

The dining room is pretty small and is composed of rows of benches, small tables and a few unique seating arrangement, such as an old VW bug. Since it's so small, the wait can be a pain. Going with a larger group will most certainly aggravate this aspect. The dining room theme is a bit gimmicky and obnoxious, but it's also fun and interesting, providing plenty to look at. Once seated, things move along pretty smoothly. The service matches the ambiance and is extremely casual, yet very friendly. The wait staff is open and shared, so there doesn't seem to be assigned sections. Everyone helps anyone. The food doesn't come quick, but doesn't take too long either. For just a burger, it seems a tad bit lengthy, but then again, good burgers usually do take a little while.

Food/Drinks/Menu

This place has been mentioned as the 'Best Burgers in San Diego' several times so I had pretty high expectations. After tasting it, I can't really say it's the best burger in town, but I can definitely say that it's a really good burger for a really good price. There's really not much wrong with the food at all. The burger was tasty, well constructed and used high quality ingredients. The only complaint I really have is that I ordered mine medium-rare and it came medium to medium-well. This isn't a particularly big deal though, since I'm not ordering a steak. As long as it isn't over cooked, I'm fine with it. The menu is fairly simple, sticking with basic burgers, chicken burgers, a tuna sandwich and variants thereof (i.e. double cheeseburgers, bacon burgers, etc.). The selection also includes traditional sides like fries and onion rings. The fries were also good, coming in the seasoned wedge fashion. I didn't try the onion rings, but the family next to me ordered them and they looked fantastic. The prices hit the spot, with most burgers costing a good amount less than $10. The best deal, IMO, is the daily special, which includes a burger, fries and a drink for $8. Damn good. They also serve beer at Hodad's but the selection isn't particularly impressive. For such a small, specialized local joint, I was a bit disappointed with their beer selection. Oh well, go for the burgers, stay for the burgers.

So in the end, I can very easily suggest Hodad's. It's fun, it's cheap and it's delicious. Be ready to wait in a line outside, but the wait is definitely worth it.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 4.0