So during my hiatus from star hill I had some time to play some games for relaxation from school work and boy were there some great ones.
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1
Oh boy, a third season of episodic games staring the freelance police. I'm such a huge fanboy of Sam & Max with their twisted humor and fresh off the amazing Tales of Monkey Island series, Telltale games really has taken adventure gaming to the next level yet again. The plot is more twisted and weird compared to the previous episodes (which is a good thing, being more inspired by the comics) with Max obtaining psychic powers that results in absolute hilarity while the two battle a new nemesis from space. This is probably the best Sam & Max game yet (yes even better than the classic 1993 hit the road game) and anyone who loves point and click game or just love to laugh should pick this up for sure!
Splinter Cell: Conviction
I'd admit that I always wanted to get into the Splinter Cell series but the slow pace and punishing game play always threw me off. This game however is a complete overhaul for its game play and I loved every second of it. You play once again as Sam Fisher, a former agent who's now gone rogue in search of his daughter's killer while uncovering a bigger conspiracy. I have never felt a stealth action game be so quick paced before and the game play changes they have done to the series makes it a better game. Sure you still can't run and gun in the game but you can stand a chance in a shoot out if you plan your actions right which I really appreciated since the other games were horrible for that. If you ever wanted to play a game that really made you feel like Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer you will eat this up for sure!
Perfect Dark 360
One of the best N64 games ever got ported to the 360 with updated controls, graphics, and online gameplay. It plays like a dream and if you ever had fond memories of playing the original, then check out this port/update as its really cheap. Oh and the farsight is still a beast and cheap to use!
Final Fantasy XIII
What can I say? Its a new Final Fantasy and its presentation is always impressing me. I also love how they simplified the game play and made it more accessible for newcomers yet at the same time having a hidden depth to it. The game is basically like Final Fantasy X without Tidus in it and thats a huge plus for me, always hated that guy with that annoying laugh and all...
The Anime-Niac's Winter Season 2010 Review
It occurs to me, now that the Spring season is upon us, that I never did do a review of the Winter season before it like I usually do. So, in order to fix this error, I now bring you a post-season look at the Winter 2010 anime season.
Durarara
Oh man I love this series. This series is set in Ikebukuro, one of the downtown Tokyo areas for those who don’t know. It’s a slice of life series, but it really manages to put a fresh spin on slice of life style storytelling. Every character is unique, and in most cases, absolutely awesome in so many ways. From the black, Russian, sushi chef, to the guy who throws vending machines at people, to the headless, Irish fairy with a scythe that rides around on a motorcycle that neighs like a horse. All the characters all stand out so well on their own, and yet they have such good chemistry together, that it’s hard not to enjoy each and every episode immensely.
Hands down, this is the best anime of 2010 so far. That said, I hope something better than this comes out in future, because that would mean we’re starting to get back into really good anime and less Moe bullshit…
Sora no Woto
Speaking of Moe bullshit… This series kind of existed during the Winter season. Now, Fleets and Chuck are of the opinion that this show sucked ass, and I won’t argue with them too much. It was nothing spectacular, the plotline was rehashed from pretty much every anime known to man, and the character designs were stolen completely from a certain other popular Moe series that wasn’t even a year old yet when they did it. This show is like someone said “Hey, let’s put the K-ON girls in the military! It’ll sell!”. Anyways, I digress, it honestly isn’t the worst anime I’ve ever seen. Parts of it made me laugh, just as much made me facepalm, but it got a few laughs. In my opinion, there was one saving grace for this show, the music. As you’d expect from a show with a title that translates into “Sounds of the Sky”, the music is really well done. I mean, first there’s the opening theme, which I absolutely loved, and then there’s the background music that actually matched the scenes really well. Also, throwing an orchestral version of Amazing Grace into the series as an insert from time to time helped quite a bit. The ending… meh, could have done with or without it, but still, music was awesome. So, if you’re like me, and you’ve stuck with a series to the end just because of the music, I’d give this a try.
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Well, this series was a disappointment. It started off rather good, and then after the first few episodes it kind of took a nosedive. In fact, I almost thought it was a Gonzo series for a while there, and then I remembered that they went bankrupt. No, this piece of shit was made by Shaft, a company that’s had a really good track record in the last few years as far as I’m concerned. It shocked me that they fucked it up that hard. Anyways, the series is about the Queen of the Vampires bringing her people into the public eye, and making a kingdom for them just off of Japan… after paying off the entire country to do so by paying off their national debt all in one go. The story revolves around all the issues that arise from this sudden movement, and mainly the Queen’s favourite servant, a werewolf named Akira’s, involvement in it all. Good start, looked promising, and then just fell through towards the end. It just seemed pointless after the first half of the series, and that pointless arc was very rushed to boot. This show gets a big fail from me.
Seikon no Qwasar
Ugh… someone remind me why I’m still watching this? Oh yeah… Anyways, Seikon no Quasar, the show about a group of individuals who each have control of an element of the periodic table, and recover their power to do so by drinking fresh breast milk straight from a woman’s breasts. Yep. It’s just as bad as it sounds. The series itself isn’t actually that bad mind you, but there’s one glaring little issue with it… censorship. Now, I can understand covering up certain parts in the name of censorship, using randomly place leaves and fog to cover up parts that can’t be shown on tv. However, that’s not what they did here. Instead, they mess with the camera angles. That’s right, the fight is happening, a big moment they put a lot of effort into animating, and what do they do? They tilt the fucking camera up to stare at clouds. Makes the show unwatchable. No matter how bad a show is, if we’re watching it, it means we want to see the fucking action! We don’t want to hear it while staring at a nearby tree! Why am I still watching it? Uncut directors edition… low quality internet streaming, but still better than the 720p tv version…
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
This series is about a school where students have the ability to summon chibi clones of themselves with attack power and HP based on their grades in order to do battle with each other for various reasons. In particular, it’s about the F class, the guys with the lowest grades in the school and their quest to prove that they aren’t useless like everyone seems to be believe, and that grades aren’t everything. That said, for a series that had that combat system set up so early on as a major plot point, there really wasn’t all that much combat. The actual battles only really took place in the first episode, and the final two. In between was your pretty standard high school anime full of running gags that got stale after the first two times you saw them. When the battles were taking place, the series was good, the strategies used were interesting, and it was fun to watch. In between, it was nothing special, and actually fairly boring. Make of this what you will, it had its good points, but largely the show failed to deliver. I don’t recommend it, but I won’t recommend you avoid it either.
Ookamikakushi
This show is like what you’d get if you combined the writers that did Higurashi, with the character designers from Peach Pit (creators of Dears, Rozen Maiden, etc). Creepy mystery plotline where no real information about what’s going on is revealed until the end of the series, with cutesy character designs. The show itself was pretty good, though Fleets will likely disagree with that statement. The mystery kept me hooked for the entire series, and they revealed the information about it so sparingly that it kept you interested for the entire thing, as well as confusing you at points with certain details that made you throw away all your assumptions. It was well executed, and didn’t continue on much past the point where the mystery was finally solved, and all issues therein were resolved. I’d definitely recommend people take a look at this series, as it’s definitely one of my top picks for the season.
Omamori Himari
Standard, in every single way, that’s probably the best way to explain this series. Fanservice everywhere, demons fighting each other, and the main character not only surrounded by women, but has some sort of mysterious power hidden within him that is supposed to make him one of the most powerful people in the world. Above all else, the female lead is constantly emo about how it isn’t right for her to be around the main character despite him, and every other character in the show constantly reassuring her that they all want her to be with them. There is nothing original about this series, at all. It reeks of having its plotline stolen from everywhere else. That said though, it’s definitely a Chuck anime, tits and fighting everywhere. Honestly, at very least, when it stole things from every other anime in existence, it only picked up the good things… well, aside from that little quality about the female lead that always pissed me off. Anyways, not the best show, but it’s at least watchable.
Ladies vs. Butlers
Oh man, this show… I honestly think this series could have traded television stations with Seikon no Qwasar to avoid the whole censorship issue as the guys who aired this seem to have no problem with showing absolutely everything. I mean, seriously, this is the kind of show that usually gets through fine with light censorship here and there, a leaf from a strategically placed tree blocking view of things and so forth. Instead, we get full on nudity at every turn. Not that I’m complaining, just noticing that the more extreme series ended up on a station that cared, and this one didn’t.
Anyways, the series is about a new transfer student at a school for rich kids, where the rich students study alongside their future maids and butlers. However, there’s only one male in the rich kid half, and three guys total in the servant half. Anyways, the series involves the interactions between him and all the other students, usually resulting in some fairly racy scenes. Anyways, series ends up focusing on the fact that two of the girls in the rich class are competing over him, but who cares, because he never fucking even noticed any of that… seriously, this guy was dense even by anime male standards. So yeah, once again, decent show, not really a must see, but it’s a great way to kill time if you need to.
Chu-bra
I don’t even know how to describe this show properly… I mean, this was perhaps one of the most well disguised shows of the season. I mean, the plot summary makes it look like one of the most creepy anime every made, but it’s really not. Anyways, since I have to say this eventually, I’ll just do it. This series is about a group of middle school girls as they learn all about underwear to suit their developing bodies, and as they make a school club to study underwear and spread the knowledge to anyone willing to learn. Yep… that’s pretty much the plot synopsis. However, this series was actually kind of light-hearted and cute. For one, the main character, Nayu, had a legitimate interest in women’s underwear, for purposes of comfort and function. Her Grandmother and her older brother were both underwear designers, and lord knows it looks like she was going to be doing that too. That mentality of hers actually draws in a lot of other people and makes them interested in it as well. It even sort of makes fun of what we’re all inevitably thinking about the plot of this series. Everyone in the show who seems to think of underwear as something erotic or naughty is shown as an idiot, a bitch, or a misguided individual who gets set on the right path by the main characters. This series was actually a lot better than I originally assumed it would be, and I recommend people give it a look.
Boku Otaryman
There’s always one of these… every god damned season. That one thing that I’m looking forward to, that I’ve heard great things about, and I wait for... So someone please tell me… WHY HAS NO ONE SUBBED THIS YET?!?!?! I mean, I don’t even see so much as a raw out for this on the internet. Why must people always do this? The series is about a working man, who is also an otaku. Far from the usual stereotype where Otaku usually get shown as Hikkikomori, or complete geeks, he’s a working individual supporting himself, and his hobby. The manga is well liked, and it’s a decently popular series, so why has it not been subbed? *sigh* Well, I hope it gets done soon…
Katanagatari
Considering this series is only four episodes in by this point, it really feels like I’m doing a first impressions review here. Anyways, the series is about a man named Shichika, heir to a martial arts style known a Kyotoryu, a martial art that has been given the title, “The strongest style of swordsmanship, which uses no sword”. That’s right, it is an unarmed martial art that focuses on disarming armed opponents, or otherwise breaking their weapon. It also treats the arms and legs of the user’s body much like blades in how it works, but this is all technical babble. Anyways, his entire family was exiled to a deserted island because the Shogun feared his father, despite the fact that his father single-handedly squashed a rebellion for him. One day, a young girl working for the Shogun comes to the island, begging him to help her on a quest to gather 12 famous swords from all corners of the country. Why would she resort to asking someone her lord exiled? Because she’s been betrayed by all those who were sent to follow her. The ninjas worked for money, but the swords were each worth far more than the Shogun could pay, so they took the information and ran. The samurai she had with her worked for honour, but the honour of wielding one of these swords was far greater, and so he left her side with one of the blades in hand. In the end, she found she couldn’t trust anyone who worked for money or honour, and so she came to him hoping to find someone who would work for the only reason left. Love. She came into his home, sat down, and asked him to fall for her. I never said she was the brightest person in the world.
Anyways, the show follows them as they work to get their hands on all the swords, fighting off many opponents, including the current owners, and the ninjas who are out to steal them. What’s interesting to note, is that the novels this is based on were written by the same author as Bakemonogatari, and you can really tell. The way this show does its dialogue is very similar to Bakemonogatari, the circular conversations that never seem to go anywhere, and yet never leave you bored for a moment, and yet this show knows exactly how to combine that with awesome action scenes. Anyways, the reason this show is only 4 episodes in at present is because it’s not airing on a normal schedule. This series airs once every two weeks or so, but the episodes are an hour long each, so it’s very worth it in the end. It’s an awesome series that keeps you waiting an wanting the next episode, and everyone should give it a watch.
Anyways, that’s it for what I watched in the winter season. Look forward to seeing my first impressions of the Spring season the minute someone subs Uraboku.
…Wait… someone already has? Well then, I have absolutely no excuse, now do I?
Durarara
Oh man I love this series. This series is set in Ikebukuro, one of the downtown Tokyo areas for those who don’t know. It’s a slice of life series, but it really manages to put a fresh spin on slice of life style storytelling. Every character is unique, and in most cases, absolutely awesome in so many ways. From the black, Russian, sushi chef, to the guy who throws vending machines at people, to the headless, Irish fairy with a scythe that rides around on a motorcycle that neighs like a horse. All the characters all stand out so well on their own, and yet they have such good chemistry together, that it’s hard not to enjoy each and every episode immensely.
Hands down, this is the best anime of 2010 so far. That said, I hope something better than this comes out in future, because that would mean we’re starting to get back into really good anime and less Moe bullshit…
Sora no Woto
Speaking of Moe bullshit… This series kind of existed during the Winter season. Now, Fleets and Chuck are of the opinion that this show sucked ass, and I won’t argue with them too much. It was nothing spectacular, the plotline was rehashed from pretty much every anime known to man, and the character designs were stolen completely from a certain other popular Moe series that wasn’t even a year old yet when they did it. This show is like someone said “Hey, let’s put the K-ON girls in the military! It’ll sell!”. Anyways, I digress, it honestly isn’t the worst anime I’ve ever seen. Parts of it made me laugh, just as much made me facepalm, but it got a few laughs. In my opinion, there was one saving grace for this show, the music. As you’d expect from a show with a title that translates into “Sounds of the Sky”, the music is really well done. I mean, first there’s the opening theme, which I absolutely loved, and then there’s the background music that actually matched the scenes really well. Also, throwing an orchestral version of Amazing Grace into the series as an insert from time to time helped quite a bit. The ending… meh, could have done with or without it, but still, music was awesome. So, if you’re like me, and you’ve stuck with a series to the end just because of the music, I’d give this a try.
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Well, this series was a disappointment. It started off rather good, and then after the first few episodes it kind of took a nosedive. In fact, I almost thought it was a Gonzo series for a while there, and then I remembered that they went bankrupt. No, this piece of shit was made by Shaft, a company that’s had a really good track record in the last few years as far as I’m concerned. It shocked me that they fucked it up that hard. Anyways, the series is about the Queen of the Vampires bringing her people into the public eye, and making a kingdom for them just off of Japan… after paying off the entire country to do so by paying off their national debt all in one go. The story revolves around all the issues that arise from this sudden movement, and mainly the Queen’s favourite servant, a werewolf named Akira’s, involvement in it all. Good start, looked promising, and then just fell through towards the end. It just seemed pointless after the first half of the series, and that pointless arc was very rushed to boot. This show gets a big fail from me.
Seikon no Qwasar
Ugh… someone remind me why I’m still watching this? Oh yeah… Anyways, Seikon no Quasar, the show about a group of individuals who each have control of an element of the periodic table, and recover their power to do so by drinking fresh breast milk straight from a woman’s breasts. Yep. It’s just as bad as it sounds. The series itself isn’t actually that bad mind you, but there’s one glaring little issue with it… censorship. Now, I can understand covering up certain parts in the name of censorship, using randomly place leaves and fog to cover up parts that can’t be shown on tv. However, that’s not what they did here. Instead, they mess with the camera angles. That’s right, the fight is happening, a big moment they put a lot of effort into animating, and what do they do? They tilt the fucking camera up to stare at clouds. Makes the show unwatchable. No matter how bad a show is, if we’re watching it, it means we want to see the fucking action! We don’t want to hear it while staring at a nearby tree! Why am I still watching it? Uncut directors edition… low quality internet streaming, but still better than the 720p tv version…
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
This series is about a school where students have the ability to summon chibi clones of themselves with attack power and HP based on their grades in order to do battle with each other for various reasons. In particular, it’s about the F class, the guys with the lowest grades in the school and their quest to prove that they aren’t useless like everyone seems to be believe, and that grades aren’t everything. That said, for a series that had that combat system set up so early on as a major plot point, there really wasn’t all that much combat. The actual battles only really took place in the first episode, and the final two. In between was your pretty standard high school anime full of running gags that got stale after the first two times you saw them. When the battles were taking place, the series was good, the strategies used were interesting, and it was fun to watch. In between, it was nothing special, and actually fairly boring. Make of this what you will, it had its good points, but largely the show failed to deliver. I don’t recommend it, but I won’t recommend you avoid it either.
Ookamikakushi
This show is like what you’d get if you combined the writers that did Higurashi, with the character designers from Peach Pit (creators of Dears, Rozen Maiden, etc). Creepy mystery plotline where no real information about what’s going on is revealed until the end of the series, with cutesy character designs. The show itself was pretty good, though Fleets will likely disagree with that statement. The mystery kept me hooked for the entire series, and they revealed the information about it so sparingly that it kept you interested for the entire thing, as well as confusing you at points with certain details that made you throw away all your assumptions. It was well executed, and didn’t continue on much past the point where the mystery was finally solved, and all issues therein were resolved. I’d definitely recommend people take a look at this series, as it’s definitely one of my top picks for the season.
Omamori Himari
Standard, in every single way, that’s probably the best way to explain this series. Fanservice everywhere, demons fighting each other, and the main character not only surrounded by women, but has some sort of mysterious power hidden within him that is supposed to make him one of the most powerful people in the world. Above all else, the female lead is constantly emo about how it isn’t right for her to be around the main character despite him, and every other character in the show constantly reassuring her that they all want her to be with them. There is nothing original about this series, at all. It reeks of having its plotline stolen from everywhere else. That said though, it’s definitely a Chuck anime, tits and fighting everywhere. Honestly, at very least, when it stole things from every other anime in existence, it only picked up the good things… well, aside from that little quality about the female lead that always pissed me off. Anyways, not the best show, but it’s at least watchable.
Ladies vs. Butlers
Oh man, this show… I honestly think this series could have traded television stations with Seikon no Qwasar to avoid the whole censorship issue as the guys who aired this seem to have no problem with showing absolutely everything. I mean, seriously, this is the kind of show that usually gets through fine with light censorship here and there, a leaf from a strategically placed tree blocking view of things and so forth. Instead, we get full on nudity at every turn. Not that I’m complaining, just noticing that the more extreme series ended up on a station that cared, and this one didn’t.
Anyways, the series is about a new transfer student at a school for rich kids, where the rich students study alongside their future maids and butlers. However, there’s only one male in the rich kid half, and three guys total in the servant half. Anyways, the series involves the interactions between him and all the other students, usually resulting in some fairly racy scenes. Anyways, series ends up focusing on the fact that two of the girls in the rich class are competing over him, but who cares, because he never fucking even noticed any of that… seriously, this guy was dense even by anime male standards. So yeah, once again, decent show, not really a must see, but it’s a great way to kill time if you need to.
Chu-bra
I don’t even know how to describe this show properly… I mean, this was perhaps one of the most well disguised shows of the season. I mean, the plot summary makes it look like one of the most creepy anime every made, but it’s really not. Anyways, since I have to say this eventually, I’ll just do it. This series is about a group of middle school girls as they learn all about underwear to suit their developing bodies, and as they make a school club to study underwear and spread the knowledge to anyone willing to learn. Yep… that’s pretty much the plot synopsis. However, this series was actually kind of light-hearted and cute. For one, the main character, Nayu, had a legitimate interest in women’s underwear, for purposes of comfort and function. Her Grandmother and her older brother were both underwear designers, and lord knows it looks like she was going to be doing that too. That mentality of hers actually draws in a lot of other people and makes them interested in it as well. It even sort of makes fun of what we’re all inevitably thinking about the plot of this series. Everyone in the show who seems to think of underwear as something erotic or naughty is shown as an idiot, a bitch, or a misguided individual who gets set on the right path by the main characters. This series was actually a lot better than I originally assumed it would be, and I recommend people give it a look.
Boku Otaryman
There’s always one of these… every god damned season. That one thing that I’m looking forward to, that I’ve heard great things about, and I wait for... So someone please tell me… WHY HAS NO ONE SUBBED THIS YET?!?!?! I mean, I don’t even see so much as a raw out for this on the internet. Why must people always do this? The series is about a working man, who is also an otaku. Far from the usual stereotype where Otaku usually get shown as Hikkikomori, or complete geeks, he’s a working individual supporting himself, and his hobby. The manga is well liked, and it’s a decently popular series, so why has it not been subbed? *sigh* Well, I hope it gets done soon…
Katanagatari
Considering this series is only four episodes in by this point, it really feels like I’m doing a first impressions review here. Anyways, the series is about a man named Shichika, heir to a martial arts style known a Kyotoryu, a martial art that has been given the title, “The strongest style of swordsmanship, which uses no sword”. That’s right, it is an unarmed martial art that focuses on disarming armed opponents, or otherwise breaking their weapon. It also treats the arms and legs of the user’s body much like blades in how it works, but this is all technical babble. Anyways, his entire family was exiled to a deserted island because the Shogun feared his father, despite the fact that his father single-handedly squashed a rebellion for him. One day, a young girl working for the Shogun comes to the island, begging him to help her on a quest to gather 12 famous swords from all corners of the country. Why would she resort to asking someone her lord exiled? Because she’s been betrayed by all those who were sent to follow her. The ninjas worked for money, but the swords were each worth far more than the Shogun could pay, so they took the information and ran. The samurai she had with her worked for honour, but the honour of wielding one of these swords was far greater, and so he left her side with one of the blades in hand. In the end, she found she couldn’t trust anyone who worked for money or honour, and so she came to him hoping to find someone who would work for the only reason left. Love. She came into his home, sat down, and asked him to fall for her. I never said she was the brightest person in the world.
Anyways, the show follows them as they work to get their hands on all the swords, fighting off many opponents, including the current owners, and the ninjas who are out to steal them. What’s interesting to note, is that the novels this is based on were written by the same author as Bakemonogatari, and you can really tell. The way this show does its dialogue is very similar to Bakemonogatari, the circular conversations that never seem to go anywhere, and yet never leave you bored for a moment, and yet this show knows exactly how to combine that with awesome action scenes. Anyways, the reason this show is only 4 episodes in at present is because it’s not airing on a normal schedule. This series airs once every two weeks or so, but the episodes are an hour long each, so it’s very worth it in the end. It’s an awesome series that keeps you waiting an wanting the next episode, and everyone should give it a watch.
Anyways, that’s it for what I watched in the winter season. Look forward to seeing my first impressions of the Spring season the minute someone subs Uraboku.
…Wait… someone already has? Well then, I have absolutely no excuse, now do I?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)