The Ups and Downs of an Anime Fan

Well, the electricity didn't shut off last night, pretty surprised by that. I guess all the trees already fell down from our last snow storm this time last month. But thing is, it's STILL snowing! Holy cow. It's snowed for 13 hours straight.

*called off work, too dangerous to drive on our small backroads*

People up north are probably more used to it, but wow, we have some deep snow. Time for sleddin'! \o/

It is CRAZY outside right now.

The news said that we were gonna get a lot of snow, 8-10 inches. That's pretty rare for KY. I'm starting to believe it though. *looks out window*

Sigh. I expect the electric to go off at any time.

Ever have so many things go on in your life that you just want to die? Yeah, I do.

First, my uncle dies. A big racket came up over that, and we're in court right now because of it.

Next, my grandpa's foot turns black because he stood in the snow at my uncle's funeral (his boy). That and him having sugar didn't help none. So they put him in the hospital, saying they might have to amputate. He's home for now, because he doesn't like hospitals. Looks like he might be getting better though. Hopefully he won't lose any toes because of this.

Next, my grandma's foot has been hurting her lately. I think she said she stepped on something sharp last week and it's taken its toll since. With her being in old age and already having lower back pain and leg pain and only one kidney, and that kidney has a cyst on it, this definitely made it worse. I've never seen my grandma cry from any kind of pain, she's a really strong woman; but I did today. She was in so much agony. It hurt me really bad. We took her to the ER. They gave her some kind of shot and some prescriptions. I believe they told her she had sciatica or something.

I just can't take it anymore.

Ahem. I was going full force into this game, thinking of how awesome it would be. I hate being let down.



You know, I'm not even going to review this one, just talk about it for a bit. Prototype is an open-world game where you are Alex Mercer, someone who has been experimented on or something, I didn't finish the game to find out fully. Well, a virus sets loose on the city and while the citizens are turning into zombies, you go around wreaking more havoc. Or something.

When I first watched the trailer for this months ago, it looked freaking awesome. I thought it would be. But the developers put too much into this game. Keeping it simple will win the race, guys, remember that. I did like that you could move around fairly quickly and do all these fancy moves, but there's just too much of it. It was like, Hulk Destroy! or maybe it was the monotonous killing. Once you beat a mission, these other little missions pop that has nothing to do with the story. And are these "JUST DO THIS TO GET POINTS" kind of jigs. I didn't have much fun when going into my third mission after seeing all these extras.

No puzzles, no decisions, no strategy, nothing much else. Just... get to the mission, run around, kill something, survive and go to the next mission. :|

This is really cliche at this point, and comparisons kill me every time I see them, but if you want an open-world game, get Infamous. Jeez, just get Infamous and pass this up. (I give that a 9) Anyone who likes this hasn't played many videos games, or just likes to destroy things. Blunt... but it's kinda true.

Yeah, so, I've been playing another Wii game. This one for much longer than MadWorld. Like I said before when I reviewed Burnout Paradise, I seldom ever play racing games, but there was one other racing game that I had to try, since its predecessor was one of the original Wii launch titles, which is ExciteBots: Trick Racing.



When I picked up my Wii back a few years ago, I picked up the Super Monkey Ball game, and another game called Excite Truck. Now THAT game was great. It was really fun, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I believe I even beat it to 100% completion. Ah well, I heard that this was coming out and decided to try it since the other was great. It has the same mechanics as the last game: you move with the Wii wheel, in a race, while earning stars (the game's point system) to get grades. You can do side twists, tricks, get massive air, all while still racing to the finish line.

Story: There is no story. It's just a racing game. NA/10

Art/Graphics: Hm, well, it looks JUST like Excite Truck, which is an obvious plus. It does look good, and I have no complaints. The only thing that bothers me is that they used the same tracks from Excite Truck in this game. While that is downer, it's still okay, since every track looks great. 8/10

Music: The score is appropriate, I believe. It's mainly there just to fill the silence, but the game doesn't have any musical notes that would make you remember it. 5/10

Gameplay: This game is a blast to play. Especially since it uses the Wii's motion controls. Anyone can drive, and it's fun to execute tricks with the Wiimote. I do have to say to anyone who has played Excite Truck to at least rent this one; it plays the same, but it has a few differences and lots of new things to do on the tracks. The trucks, or "bots" are easy to control, and you do go pretty fast on the tracks, but you can still control your vehicle. 9/10

Personal Score: This game is obviously for casual gamers and more than likely targeted for a younger audience, but I don't give a crap. I enjoyed the first, and I enjoyed this one too. Heck, even my MOM is playing this one with me, if that tells you guys anything. Take that for what you will. 7.5/10

I hardly ever break out my Wii anymore. It’s a sad thing too, that console should have lots of genuinely good games for it. I can’t say I have an entire shelf full of Wii games though, unlike for other console games. But I have wanted to play a certain Wii game for the past few months. And I finally got to the other day. It’s called MadWorld.



I didn’t know the whole premise about this game until I actually got to start playing it. Come to see, you’re this big fella who all of sudden wants to get into “Death Watch,” which is some kind of game show thingamajigger where you just kill people for ratings… I think. I didn’t get much of a story to this except going around and slicing people in half with a chain saw, throwing them into burning barrels to see them be charred, or ram their limp bodies numerous times onto spikes to get points; points that advance you to the next stage.

Story: Like I just said, what story? Lol. Well, I can’t say that I really SEEN a story that made me want to continue playing it. It was mostly hack and slash… but there are way better h/s games out there. 3/10

Art/Graphics: Well, I got to hand it to this game and its developers: they did do a nice job. This was the first game I have ever played that was in entirely black and white... with a splash of blood, of course. It does look spiffy (not counting the gore). 8/10

Music: Ha, I can’t even remember what it sounds like. The only thing I vaguely remember is “You’ll pay for that motherfucker!” I heard that phrase about 30 times per round, plus other language obscenities. Hey, that’s fine with me, it made me laugh when I heard it, but c’mon, give me some tunes. 2/10

Gameplay: Hm… I pretty much got use to playing it within the first 20 minutes of tutorial. I didn’t much care for the control scheme… it was a lot of different moves to the same button mashing and Wiimote swinging. 5/10

Personal Score: This game tried to be different, it did. I appreciate that it was different from the norm. I do enjoy a good hack and slash (God of War, anyone?), but not particularly this way. I played it for a couple hours before turning the system off, as I was hoping it would get better. Maybe I put too much expectation into it. I thought this game would have a very good story to it also, but all you do is kill people by different means. Eh, maybe someone else will like it more than me. Go for it, if it floats your boat. 2/10

I can’t say much about racing games in general. Sure, I like Mario Kart, and I would like to try Digimon Racing for the GBA, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you much. Well, I took up my controller for a game that a friend gave to me, Burnout Paradise.

Right from the get-go, this game gave me good vibes. The opening song is Paradise City by Guns ‘N Roses, which is not that bad a song, actually. It made me want to play this game, made it seem cool. I start playing this, and well, 3 weeks later, I’m still playing it. I didn’t care for racing games, I’m not a fan of Nascar either, which is probably one of the reasons I don’t give racing games like these a chance. I have played some, like Need of Speed and MotorStorm. They seem “okay”
but this game is far better than any I’ve played.

It doesn’t feel like it’s in the racing genre. You go around “Paradise City” completing challenges, and believe me, one of the things you won’t be doing much is racing. Sure, you’re always driving, but what you do in the game makes it seem second nature.

Story: There is no story in Burnout Paradise, just goals. The main goal you want to accomplish in this sense is to achieve your “Burnout License.” You start with a Learner’s Permit and work your way up by completing challenges, i.e. take down other drivers by running them off the road, doing stunts, racing, smashing through gates and billboards. It’s decent, but if you’re looking for a story, you won’t find one. NA/10

Art/Graphics: What can I say, there graphics are delicious. I always game on my HD TV with console games, so the graphics will be pretty decent with all games. This one seems polished though. The cars are smooth, shiny, and the city itself looks entirely real. 10/10

Music: Well, this gets an automatic 10/10 because you can CHOOSE your own music. Load your own playlist to listen while you’re driving around Paradise City. The game doesn’t have its own BGM, but rather plays actually songs. There is a soundtrack that plays automatically, and it does have some decent songs on it, but listening to it over and over made me want my own soundtrack. Butterfly, anyone? 10/10

Gameplay: You use your R2 button for gas, L2 for brake, and the directional button to steer. Tada! Yeah, as long as you know those buttons, playing this game is fun and easy. You drive around, either offline, or play with 7 others online completing challenges. The gameplay is simple, but there’s just so much to do, you don’t know where to start. 8/10

Personal Score: I did enjoy this game. It was a fun playthrough. Sad thing about it though, is that it doesn’t leave much room for replay value. Unless you like driving around aimlessly, I mean. I’ve about beat all the challenges, only need a couple more, but after that… unless the devs make some new downloadable content, I doubt I’ll be returning to this game. Fun, while it lasted though! 8/10

Shuriken throwing, animal possessing, fireball conjuring... sounds like an awesome job to me. Well, you can do that and more if you pick up Mini Ninjas!



Yeah, this game is simple, that's what makes it so great. It's simple, yet it has a lot of depth. The story takes place in Ninja-land (not the actual name, just giving you an idea), where peace and harmony are abound. Too bad it doesn't stay that way. The Evil Samurai Warlord has risen again, after being defeated years ago. His powers are so great, that he can create minions by using the surrounding wildlife with his evil Kuji magic. You are Hiro, and you are pretty much the weakest ninja in the village. But all of your other ninja friends have set out to conquer this evil, only to turn up missing. Now it's up to you to rescue them AND save the world.

Simple premise, eh? God I love clichés. This game was a welcome change to what I have been playing, lots of shooting, blood and stuff, and I loved every minute of this game. Easy to play, LOTS of stuff to discover and do. You get to play around with different types of magic and herbs to mix to make potions, play around with ninja weaponry... great stuff.

Think as all of this as a younger person’s game, because that’s what it is. It’s easy to play on the hardest difficulty (well, to me, anyway), and you pretty much have a guided path that you should follow.

Story: The story in this game is, like I said, is pretty cliché. But don’t let that detour you. You get to do all sorts of things along the way of getting to your goal, with a little bit of story explained along the way. Every time you find one of your friends, you get to use them along with their abilities. It definitely spiced the game up. 8/10

Art/Graphics: The graphics were great. The art style was great. I loved the way this game made enemy ninjas, I laughed many times at them (coupled with the way they sounded). The game is very nice looking throughout the whole experience. The animals you meet along the way are adorable and you just want to love on them. Alas though… 9/10

Music: Hm. I can’t say much about the music. It was nice all through the game, nothing was out of place. Pleasant background music makes a game for me. If I don’t like what I’m hearing with the game, then I’ll usually dislike it. The music matches the theme of the game and more. 8/10

Gameplay: The game is pretty large for such a simple game, especially to get all the rewards. (Trophies for PS3, Achievements for XBox 360) I got my Platinum trophy for this today; I say it took me roughly 4-5 days to complete this game. It’s not hard to figure out how to play, how to attack, climb, interact with your environment. You have an inventory that you can select to be disposable at a touch of a button; that made things easier. Figuring out each character’s moves wasn’t difficult; they pretty much use the same buttons. 9/10

Personal Score: I’m not going to lie, and you probably already noticed, but I really enjoyed this game. I was anxious to start playing before I started and now that I seen the ending, I want to play more. It’s fun to play through casually, or if you want to go all out and collect all the trophies/achievements like I did, you won’t be dissatisfied either. I like how this game turned out, it wasn’t very repetitive and it always tried to spice things up with different environments. Thank goodness at least one game did it right. 10/10

What happens when you travel to a rural village in search of a wealthy man’s riches? Solve dozens of puzzles, of course! Well, that’s what you do when you play Professor Layton and The Curious Village for the Nintendo DS.



Before I start, I’ll say that the Professor Layton series is a puzzle/detective-oriented game, where all the games are released out of order. Yeah, it’s weird, but they’re done in a way that you don’t notice.

The game starts out with Professor Layton and a boy named Luke, who I presume is his understudy, making their way to St. Mystere, in which their presence has been requested. You see, a man named Baron Reinhold has passed, and has set upon the world that whoever finds the “golden apple” will inherit his fortune. The widow of the late Reinhold has asked you to come and find this golden apple for her.
Sounds like your classy story, eh. Well, it seems that way through the first hour or two of game play, which you get to search around town, solving puzzles. And boy, you get to solve puzzles. Every time you talk to someone, they offer you a puzzle to solve either for fun or for a clue or a secret which you need to have to solve the mystery.

As the story goes on, disappearances takes place and even murder, but I won’t go into details, for those that wish to play the game later. The town they’re in is odd to say the least, and the game’s ending was unexpected.

Story: I have to say the story was solid. I didn’t notice any plot-holes or anything else like that. The ending was totally something I wasn’t expecting, didn’t see that coming. I didn’t get bored with it, but I DID get bored with the puzzles over time. I like puzzles, but wow. I toughed through it though. I’m pretty sure I have less brain cells after completing this game, but it was worth it. 9/10

Art/Graphics: The art and style was fitting, it looked nice and pretty. The anime cutscenes were a definite plus too! The art/graphics were simple, yet welcome. It seems very homey, if anyone can make any sense of that. 10/10

Music: The music in the game, to me, seemed like it was playing the same tune over and over. It didn’t bother me, nor did I find any of the music notable. It was just average, I suppose. 6/10

Gameplay: Yeah, a 5 year old can play this game. It’s simple to play, simple to figure out how to play. You can virtually traverse the whole of St. Mystere in less than a minute. That’s the one thing that I like about the DS and Professor Layton takes advantage of that: no load screens. You don’t really have to wait for anything; it loads on spot just about. 10/10

Personal Score: Eh. I can’t say that this game was extraordinary or that it was dull. I say it was probably in the middle. I was excited to start playing this game, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it. Not something that I would play again, definitely. The puzzles are fun, no doubt about that, but I think there was just too many of them, and not enough story-telling. I’d recommend this to anyone who’s got spare time to sit and play something pleasant, that’s what this is. A relaxing game. 6.5/10

Well, I'm gonna try something new to keep me using LJ. (Nothing interesting happens in my life... all the time)

I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of Netflix and how they are a movie renting service. You're signed up on a monthly plan and they send you movies through the mail (or you can directly stream some movies), and you can watch as many as you want for a certain amount a month.

Now, before I make you think I'm going in a different direction, time for a u-turn. I didn't sign up for Netflix, I signed up for GameFly. Yes, a renting service for video games. I decided to take the leap into renting since I spend so much on video games, maybe this way I can save a buck. Seriously, anyone who's chatted with me and gotten the opportunity to see my game shelf on my webcam would know how many games I already have. It'd be best to rent instead of dishing out $40-60 at a whack per game.

So, I've decided to review the games that I have played and beaten completely. I'll review games once I've completed or have dropped. I have a feeling I'll drop a few on the way, but I'll still review them. And also, discussions and comments are welcome! I'll try to make my reviews as interesting as possible. Hope you guys enjoy them!

I'll post my first review later today. =)

Pf, anyone know where to find direct downloads of Merlin episodes?

I watched season 1, it was good, want to watch season 2. I've got eps 1 and 2, but the others are harder to find... can anyone help?

M'kay, so I'm more excited for this year's anime season that any other. Because there are lots of good shows coming out!

Kampfer
I watched the first episode of this. It's a little cliche, but it's okay. About a guy getting turned into a girl to fight other Kampfers of something. I'll keep watching.

The Sacred Blacksmith
Watched the first ep of this too. It was very nicely animated, and I love the genre to begin with. Adventure! Looking forward to what this show can bring.

Letter Bee
Do I need to talk about it? Everything thing about it just looks purdy. The story has always had me interested, so here's looking forward to it! Nice OP, btw.

Inuyasha: The Final Act
YES! Inuyasha was my first anime that I collected all the DVDs for. 48 volumes, $25 each, $1,200 spending to get it. o.o Dang. But I love the show! So glad to see it continued. *dwling right now*

Fairy Tail
Shounen anyone? Yes pl0x. The mangaka has drawings similar to Eiichiro Oda, the guy who draws One Piece. Looks spiffy. I'll watch!

I guess I'll write more about new shows as soon as I check them out.

I woke up this morning to a phone call. I hate being waken up by the phone, always.

I especially hated this one. I was told my grandparents were in a car accident, and the car was totaled. If I could have counted it, I bet my heart rate was 200 or more.

That was this morning, they're home now, and they're okay. I'm so glad.

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/ModelLanding/0,1058,2019,00.html

I got that today for just $200! So excited. /o/ It looks so nice in muh room.

I know most of my friends have watched Savers, but I wonder if many more have watched Onmyou Taisenki? WHAT SPLASH HUSH

Anyway, I was browsing Youtube, and someone dubbed Savers OP1 onto Onmyou Taisenki's OP, and... it fits pretty good actually.

Ya'll check it out: Click Here!

Hrm. Been a while. Dx

The store I work at got robbed at gunpoint. Funny thing is, it got robbed on my shift, a night I was supposed to work, but had called in. I would have _DIED_ if I had gotten robbed.

And ooh, ooh! My internet has been bumped up for 175 kb/s download to ...1137 kb/s. YAY >8D

Well, whaddaya know, I gots a job!

My first job ever, and it's pretty good so far. My feet hurt to death though after. Standing up for 6 hours straight, egh.

I work night shift, so there's hardly any customers. Easiest $200/week job ever!

Tornadoes are shit.

That's all I wanted to say.

Posting the AIM convo as I don't feel like retyping it. Probably won't be around much.


BradsPad123: Been at the hospital all day. Stepdad died. they brung himn back and they flew him to the city. I'm back at my house now
Friend: Oh my god. Are you okay? Is your mom okay?
Friend: want to be left alone? *will pray for your family*
BradsPad123: I'm okay. My brother took it pretty bad. And my mom's pretty bad too. We was up there getting ready to load him into the copter to go to the city when he flatlined. Then everyone started screaming and crying, it was awful. They just barely pulled him out of it
Friend: waas it his sugar?
BradsPad123: No
BradsPad123: It was some new medicine that the doctor presribed. -_- He's had the same medicine, though a lot of it, for a few years. Thn the doctor gave him all new medicine and he hasn't been right since Thanksgiving, when he was in the hospital back then. I mean he's been out of it 24/7. Don't know when it's night or day, talks about stuff that hasn't happened. That caused him to take too much of that damned medicine today. Three whole doses; he didn't know any better.

If he doesn't pull out of this, there will be hell on that side of my family. I just know it.

Let's see, the things I got:

My grandma:
$50
A cologne gift set.

My aunt:
A paper tray for my desk
A cologne gift set.

My step-aunt:
Cologne

My cousin:
A dragon statue, nice looking.

My mom:
A light up eagle statue (also nice)
A car. (ttly surprised!)


Supposed to be getting some more from other people. Gotta give them their prezzies too.