Like the title says, I had an impromptu disappearance from the blog for a week or so. I’m not quite sure what happened, but I think I was mistakenly kidnapped and wound up naked with 20,000 smelly NEETs. After a daring escape using Macgyver-like ingenuity with a paper clip, a roll of duct tape and a memo pad, I’ve returned from my unplanned absence…

What? You don’t believe my story? Well fine. I’ve been busy studying for my finals and have pretty much stayed away from the interweb and all its distractions which includes anime, blogging, looking at hentai, etc. I’ve briefly returned to do this little filler post explaining my absence that no one cared about or noticed.

Hm oh yes. I did stray from my studying regimen to buy The Orange Box on sale for $10 and play some Team Fortress 2. I’m not an FPS gamer by any means, but it was frentic and chaotic fun. There’s Portal and Half-Life 2 as well. I’m taking my time with Portal, and HL2 is pretty much a throw-in that won’t get much play time. I’m still a TF2 newbie but if anyone wants to play with me, I’m noirsword on Steam. Be sure to give me your name too so I can add you. This is also my AIM, so if you want to contact me that way to coordinate a match, feel free to do so.

PS: This pretty much translates to free kills while I learn the ropes.

I place the blame squarely on Yamcha.

I know when and where I was when it happened. I was sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight home. It was December 17, 2007. I was bored, and I had an internet connection, so to kill the time I decided to take a few minutes to try this game Yamcha had recommended. “Kingdom of Loathing”–what a nonsensical thing to name an online RPG, I thought. Well, I’d give it a spin anyway. I remember thinking as I logged on, hey, if I like this, I might get a couple of months’ worth of entertainment out of it!

Yeah, right.

One year to the day later I found myself sitting in the same airport, playing the same game, and a bit stunned at the year-long journey into a bizarre blend of pop-culture, gaming satire and surprisingly deep gameplay I’d undertaken–and am still undertaking!

The dreaded sabre-toothed lime, both feared enemy and loyal citrus-based familiar.

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Another school semester has come to an end, and I’ve gained a short respite from the drudgery of essays and tests. Instead of catching up on animu like I planned to though, something else has occupied my attention. That something would be the sheer gaming ecstasy known as Valkyria Chronicles. It has utterly consumed me. I’ve pushed aside everything on my watchlist to play this incredible game, including Clannad which I so dearly love and religiously watch. Sorry Clannad, I’ll get around to you… Eventually. At any rate, let’s talk about Valkyria for a bit.

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I didn’t do it, I swear! They were like that when I got there!

I haven’t done much in a while, but I don’t need to explain myself to you Blog readers!

So, games. I’ve been recently playing Dead Space, Fallout 3, and Red Alert 3. Might not cover them all, but I’ll cover Dead Space that’s for sure. I will cover, the Plot, the Gameplay, Presentation, and Miscellaneous stuff.

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The wonderful world of Chroma City has been conquered, overrun by terrible baddies called Inkys. They suck the color out of everything in favor of monochromatic boredom and enslave the inhabitants called Raydians. Your character, de Blob, was out of town when the attack occurred and now he and a small crew of “Color Revolutionaries” who evaded capture are now charged with bringing color back to Chroma City and to drive the Inkys out of town.

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I’m not really into the Tales franchise, but this bit of news from Kotaku was pretty intriguing. Apparently Namco Bandai is going to let consumers pick their poison by releasing two versions of the DS game. One will utilize anime cutscenes while the other will feature CG cutscenes to further the story.

The franchise’s style has always favored traditional anime designs and this version looks better. Of course the new generation of gamers are spoiled on CG graphics, so that may give the CG version the edge. Which one would you guys pick?

Dood! Saw this bit of news on Kotaku and 1-up. Disgaea’s popular cannon fodder penguins are finally starring in their own spin-off game, Prinny: Ore ga Shujinko de Iinsuka?.

According to 1-up, “it’s an action game where you control not one, not two, but a 1,000-Prinny squadron on their quest to help an extremely pissed-off Etna recover her stolen sweets[...] So you’ll be going through one Prinny after another in this 2.5D, Metal Slug-like adventure, killing ‘em off like lemmings as you traverse the game’s fantasy-themed, side-scrolling stages”.

The details are still sketchy, but it’s about damn time. The Prinnies will invade Japanese PSPs this November 20th.

Touhou is a phenomenon in the realm of otaku and has rejuvenated the dying shoot ‘em up (shmup) genre. It’s hard to believe that Touhou had such a humble beginning and has been already been around for 12 years. The series has become such a juggernaut that even people that don’t normally play shmup games have dabbled in the depths of bullet hell.

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EarthBound: King of the cult classics

Was this Super Nintendo RPG really so good I named myself after it? Oh yes, yes indeed. Earthbound’s solid fundamentals, unique setting and bizarre sense of humor have kept it fresh a decade later, and if you need any evidence just take a look at the fan community. Loyal legions of Earthbound fans are still alive and kicking after years of letter campaigns, call-ins and other ventures that have tried to bring more of Mother (as it’s known in Japan) to the West.

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Sony and Funimation are bringing downloadable anime to a PS3 near you in a big way. As part of yesterday’s press conference at E3, Sony unveiled their new video service that will allow you to purchase/rent movies and other videos on your PS3. The big surprise was the fact that Funimation was casually mentioned alongside several big movie studios during the announcement.

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