Games

I’ve missed quite a few of these due to time constraints and other distractions that will just be conveniently swept under the carpet. We’ll kick things off with anime opinions and move on to other stuff.

Clannad episode 21: Nagisa is love. Nagisa in a Kanon uniform is even better. I don’t see how Nagisa gets so much flack when she is clearly the best girl of the bunch. It’s also official that the show’s run will end at 22 episodes to probably save enough content for a second season or some OVAs. KyoAni could have just went with the standard 24 episodes to extend the Kyou arc, since the TV-only viewers are still left clueless as to the specifics of Kyou’s and Ryou’s past.

Hayate no Gotoku episodes 41-42: The plot is really going nowhere in a hurry. It’s still good for mind-on-autopilot type watching. I really can’t recall what happened in these eps without going back for another watch. Like a crazy party with lots of alcohol, it’s all just a blur.

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei episode 4: The second season is simply brilliant. I dare to say that up to episode 4 it’s better than the first season, which was no slouch either. However the lack of new fansubs has left me in despair! AFK has left me in despair! Thanks a bunch.

Now onto the gaming side of things…

Hotel Dusk: This was an absolutely mesmerizing game. It’s a solid film noir mystery novel with lots of twists and turns. The story will keep you guessing until the climax at the end. The main character, Kyle Hyde, is a breath of fresh air in a world of pansy, bishounen protagonists. If you’re in the mood for a game that blends film noir styling with a complex story, look no further than Hotel Dusk. This gets a recommendation.

Phoenix Wright 3: Boring case 4 is boring. I may look at an FAQ to get through this borefest of a case just to proceed with the rest of the game.

SSBB: Yeah yeah. Everyone is talking about Brawl. Blah blah blah. Just trying to learn new characters to mix things up on wifi, all the while continuing to unlock the massive amount of hidden content.

This was my first midnight game acquisition and it was worth it. The Subspace Emissary story is surprisingly deep by SSB standards. I’m currently just going through to unlock all the characters before I venture into the wide world of wi-fi. I’ll edit this post and give out my Friend Code to any and all challengers later.

So in other words, this means that what little time I had for anime has diminished even more. There will be an update with comment soon as I try to get through my ever growing backlog of shows.

Yamcha is greatly disturbed. It was a while back (Sep 2007) that Namco-Bandai announced Duel Love, a game that pretty much looks like the girl’s version of Feel the Magic and Doki Doki Majo Shinpan. Sure the market is there seeing that girls are a huge part of the DS market, but this disturbs me so much that I’ll only give you the links here, here, and here. Proceed with caution. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to scrub my eyes with lots of soap.

Source: Kotaku

China never ceases to make me laugh. First it was Olympic Haruhi and now it’s the prospect of gaming as an Olympic sport. The ancient Greek Olympians must be rolling in their graves by now. Check out this article over at CNN. To make a long story short, a video game competition will apparently be an unofficial part of the 2008 Olympics. China even considers gaming a recognized sport.

If you’ve seen televised video game competitions before, then you already know what a travesty it is. It’s just an awful idea, because gaming as a spectator sport is a joke. Oh goodie, let’s go watch a bunch of geeks play video games! To quote the article, “…video gaming is serious business”. I like games as much as the next guy, but gaming =/= sport. Competitive eating is higher on my list of potential Olympic sports than gaming.

Source: Fortune at CNN

I’ve recently been exploring Front Mission, the original one, the turn-based mecha sim released for the Super NES in Japan, but never in America. I’ve had a copy for some time now, acquired through…surreptitious means. As is my habit, I’ll return to a classic Super Nintendo title years after I last played it mostly because I’ve forgotten how it plays. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Earthbound are examples that I re-explored this past summer, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before I returned to Front Mission. After all, I love mecha titles, and I’m fond of turn-based strategy titles as well.

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I don’t know what this is really about, but for $20 I’ll probably get it. Apparently it’s a puzzle game involving octopuses or something. Double wallet whammy because the release date coincides with Brawl. If anyone else is thinking about getting Octomania, maybe we could have a match when it comes out.

Source: Kotaku

Well, what can I say? The past few weeks (More like, month(s)) have been a blitz of gaming and all sorts of stuff. Stuff like the Orange Box (Damn Portal and it’s damn addictingness, also damn it’s impossible achievements) and, well, Bioshock.

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Anybody want free Half-Life 2 to download via Steam?

Anyhow, updating is taking a bloody long time. At least HL2 is done with.

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Anyhow, I might do s’more reviews over next week. Keep your channels tuned and your remotes primed.

Now that whatever winter solstice-related holiday you celebrate has come and gone, you probably have some spending money, some free time, or a bit of both. But what to spend it on? Certainly, you could pass endless hours seeking out only the choicest torrents or perhaps indulging in the finest sporting activities television has to offer (new American Gladiators broadcasts January 6!), but there’s bound to be something else to eat up your time.

And, in this case, your brains. The perfect thing to liven up your holiday season is some zombie-related merchandise! Everyone knows about the Resident Evil series and the recent million-seller Dead Rising, and what zombie aficionado, even a casual one, is unfamiliar with George Romero’s formidable body of work or the recent British zombie(-esque) films 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later? But if you’re looking for brain-munching entertainment that isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster or another Capcom title, we’ve got some suggestions for you to drop some holiday dough on.

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The very definition of a sleeper hit, first-person puzzler Portal from Valve’s The Orange Box unexpectedly gained massive critical acclaim and a sizable fan following after the release of the new compilation this year. Though it may just as easily have slipped under the radar, Portal has instead become the pick of the litter, attracting nearly universal praise, including glowing words from notoriously harsh Escapist Magazine reviewer Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, and inspiring discussion not only on its gameplay but even on how it could be a feminist critique of FPSes. With the year in gaming concluding, Portal is finishing strong and getting named on a lot of best-of lists for its strong style, darkly humorous bent, and ingeniously simple mechanics. Pretty outstanding for a puzzle game bundled with hallmark franchises such as Half-Life and Team Fortress and based around the idea that people like cake.

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