Ending B

As the title of this article suggests, I've been playing Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360. I'm roughly half-way through the game (chapter 3 of 6, so that sounds halfway to me). This is what I think so far. I'll make sure to not reveal any spoilers that I've discovered in game and out.

Hey there, baby.

RE5 seems to be taking several steps forward as far as game mechanics goes. While I've only played the co-op mode once, I enjoyed myself. A friend of mine, Mike, and I played through the first chapter (I was Sheva and he was Chris). It was just a lot of fun, though I'm having a hard time articulating why.

Ah, Chris in a wonderful moment of chivalry.

But I'm sure most of you know the old saying, "One step forward, two step backwards," right? Well, I have the feeling this is how RE5 is playing out. Item management is a nightmare in this game (they only give you nine slots per character!). RE5 divides the game up into chapters (just like RE4), but you can go back to previous chapters to stock up on ammo health items. Call me crazy, but having a surplus of supplies kinda takes away from the "survival horror" aspect. I also discovered that while there are two main characters, I can only play is Chris until I beat the game, a move that the series has never done, and quite frankly, I don't like. They also took out save-points, so the only way you can save your progress is to complete the chapter (you can quit anytime and retain any items you collect). This also means this is the first Resident Evil game ever to NOT HAVE TYPEWRITERS!

The story almost seems haphazardly put together and I also have a problem with the major "plot twist." It relies on information that they make up at the beginning of this game instead of relying on events in past games. For those of us who played Resident Evil: Code Veronica, there was a perfectly good character they could have used for the mysterious agent. All they would've had to have done is include Claire in some way shape or form (possibly as a playable character) to make it work. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to reveal spoilers in two games.

Uh... this isn't what it looks like...

Yes, I know this sounds mostly negative, but you have to keep in mind that I am not done with the game. By the end, I could really love this game, you never know. So far, I'm giving it a tentative recommendation. If you're a fan of RE, chances are you've already bought it. If your interested, I suggest you get together with a friend who owns it and give it a try (you defiantly have to play then co-op mode).

Anybody want to buy a game studio? THQ, announced that it would be shutting down newly acquired Big Huge Games, unless a buyer could be found within 60 days. Big Huge Games is the developer behind Rise of Nations and its sequel Rise of Legends. More recently they created an expansion pack for Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires III and the Xbox Live Arcade version of Catan.

I still play Rise of Nations regularly.

Big Huge Games is currently working on two new titles. The first is a multi-platform RPG, and the second is a mostly unknown Wii game. Hopefully someone will buy this great studio and allow them to keep making games far into the future.

Since I did a quick progress report for the first Clannad, I figured it would be okay to do one for Clannad - After Story. Unfortunately, there's not really a whole lot I can talk about without revealing MAJOR spoilers, so I'll keep it as vague as possible.

*ahem*. I have about... six episodes left before the finale of CAS. So far, the episodes have been pretty hit and miss. Once again, my opinion on the series is basically going to depend on whether the ending is good or not.

The characters are the same as the series before, except for...

Ushio, possibly the most adorable Anime character I've ever seen.

I'm trying not to like her, because characters that I like tend to... die. But she keeps on doing things like...

Trying and failing to eat fried rice.

Oh, and one more thing:

She has the ability to make you cry at a moments notice.

You have been warned.

So what's the latest news from Capcom on Mega Man: Legends 3? Most of the fans have been begging for some sort of continuation after Legend 2 ended on such a cliffhanger, and it seems that it's finally beginning to pay off. While no official release has been announced yet, several small hints and clues are beginning to leak through in various ways. The latest one wasn't even verbal; it was visual.

As many know, Capcom just recently released a Wii version of Dead Rising, titled "Chop Till you Drop". Anyone who has played the original also will probably remember the Mega Man outfit made available in game. So one of the first questions asked of Capcom was if said outfit would be available in the Wii version as well, or if we'd get something different. So Capcom listened and delivered ...

Very much NOT want

...Much to everyone's horror. For those who don't know, that's Roll Casket's outfit from the Mega Man Legends series. So is this a hint of things to come? Or is Capcom just teasing it's fans? For now, all we can do is wait and see (no matter how much we don't wish to see anymore).

I'm gonna give a quick summary and opinion on Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha since I finished watching all three seasons recently. First of all, I was rather surprised by its blandness. Nanoha and the antagonist Fate are two of the most popular anime characters around. To me it seemed like a very typical magical girl anime. It starts off with a young girl, Nanoha, who lives a very ordinary life going to school, hanging out with friends, and helping her parents around their shop. Then one day she sees a small injured rodent who she nurses back to health. Apparently the rodent is a transformed mage who was beaten in a fight. This mage helps Nanoha to learn that with the right trigger (a small magic orb and the word "Lyrical") she's actually a very powerful mage. Yuno (the rodent) is trying to collect some ancient magic artifacts called jewel shards, before other mages, like Fate Testarossa, can get to them. Nanoha then stumbles through the next twelve episodes slowly learning about her magic, fighting for some jewel shards, and trying to make friends out of everyone. Thats pretty much the first season. Sure some of the fights are pretty, but it really bugged me that Nanoha was amazingly powerful right from the start, while Yuno seems to get weaker the less he's needed. I also don't find magical girl transformation sequences involving 9 year old girls to be very appealing. Fortunately the anime somewhat realizes this and usually skips the transformations and starts right in with the befriending ... I mean fighting.

She gets better at this, I promise

Season two, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, ups the ante a bit by taking the original two teammates (Nanoha and Yuno) and throwing in two more. I hate spoilers (even when its somewhat obvious) so I'll not say who the two new teammates are. The plot is more interesting and has them fighting a team of four Knights who are out doing nefarious deeds for their master. Nanoha falls into her usual habit now, of shooting people with magic while spouting some nonsense about being friends, and that's season two.

Vita: You devil... Nanoha: It's okay if I'm a devil... I'll just use my hellish tools to get you to listen!

Season three, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, mixes it up by jumping forward in time a decade. This season is twice as long as the previous showings and therefore has time for a more intricate plot. Nanoha and friends are now various ranks in the Time Space Administration Bureau, and they have underlings (the four new characters). All together, this larger group makes up the newly commissioned Mobile Section Six. There are a couple small twists in the plot, but mostly the extra episodes are spent showing the day to day activities of Section Six. They train by fighting robots and each other for most of the day, then kick back and talk backstory. During these backstory scenes you learn that Nanoha and the other higher ups in this squad all have limiters on. These limiters prevent them from using their maximum magical power. This is designed to put most of the focus on the new characters and their growth. What this boils down to though is an anime that kinda feels like you're watching a 20 episode practice session for a Super Bowl team. You know that once the real game starts, it'll be awesome, but for most of the show everyone is holding back. Once the big fights start happening late in the season, it gets much more interesting. The veteran mages start to shine and Nanoha gets to show her love for a friend/enemy by shooting them with magic.

Yes, she is stopping a magical energy blade with her bare hand.

Overall, I don't recommend this anime. It's way too hyped up for what it is, which is a very standard magical girl anime with a some great fights. If you do end up watching it, I don't think you'll dislike it. It just isn't worth the time spent on it.

As the title suggests, I noticed Ending B has a shiny new layout. And this was my initial reaction:

It sure is, Philip!

I originally thought that after Clannad: After Story that Kyoto Animation would release Haruhi season two. Well, according to Wikipedia (the most "credible" source on the internet), I am totally wrong.

The only thing this girl is missing is a witch hat!

According to the Wikipedia article, K-On! (the apparent name of the anime) is about four girls who are trying to save their music club from being cut. So what's the problem? None of the girls can read music or play instruments! This actually sounds like it could be fun!

This anime will be airing in April of 2009. With this in mind, we may be able to see our friend Haruhi around October of 2009. While there is no official release date, Kyoto usually releases two animes a year; one in April and one in October.

Rock on anime girls!

K-On! Wikipedia Article

I recently upgraded and reformatted my computer (now I've got an Intel quad-core with 6GB of RAM and a GeForce 9600GT). So, what's the first thing I did with this sweet gaming rig? Well, I installed Rise of Nations so Steve and I could play a few rounds. But the next thing I installed was Tropico!

Ah, Tropico, where island paradises, city-building, and Communism meet.

Before playing, I wanted to make sure I had the latest patch. So, I head over to Wikipedia (I use Wikipedia for everything) and learn that my Mucho Macho Edition came out after the last patch was released, sweet. But wait, what's this section down at the bottom of the article? Tropico 3!? This is great, this is amazing, this is... woah, the first excitement begins to wear off as I remember my disappointment with Tropico 2: Pirate Cove. Then comes this quote from developer Haemimont Games' website "The game will return to the roots of the series, putting the player into the shoes of 'El Presidente' - a dictator governing over an island banana republic." Yay! They also mention some stuff about state-of-the-art graphics and a multiplayer mode. To me, these are all just icing on the cake, or maybe the little umbrella in the piña colada.

Tropico 3 is currently scheduled for a late 2009 release.

Kaboom!

Despite my severe sadness over the death of Jill, I decided to download and try out the Resident Evil 5 demo from Xbox Live. It's a little under half a gig in size to download, so it will take a while before you can play it. On the other hand, it is free!

First of all, while you can play the demo in a CO-OP mode, you can only play it with someone in the room (no Xbox Live). But it's a demo, so that's fine. There are two levels for you to try out: Public Assembly and Shanty Town. Public Assembly is pretty frantic with an unlimited number of zombies. You'll probably die pretty quickly. The Shanty Town is a bit more laid back, which I think is perfect for a demo.

You have both Chris and Sheva with you, but as far as I can tell, you can only control Chris. Both characters have a pistol and another weapon (Chris has a rifle and Sheva a machine gun). You'll probably use the pistol for most of the demo. It's kinda like if they let Ashley have a gun in RE4, and it's pretty damn fun.

Chris and Sheva do make a good duo, but not as good as Chris and Jill... sorry, still bitter.

I actually made it pretty far on the demo. I think I got to the end boss (a guy with a chainsaw). He made quick work of my team (mostly because I didn't have a shotgun).

This is a demo, but I hope they make some changes to a few things in the final version. First of all, this demo goes back to the old RE standby by of "One item, one item slot" and you only have eight each. I honestly hope that was just for the sake of the demo because it's a tad bit to hard to try and switch your weapon while your character sits there like a moron. Second, as I stated before, I hope you aren't stuck playing Chris the whole time. It would be cool to switch back and fourth between Chris and Sheva.

The full game comes out in March, so I'm looking forward to its release.

Jill was better.

Sorry about that...

No, no I'm not.

I found this picture while surfing Gamepro.com

I made this comic after I found out earlier today.

Poor Jill. She has suffered the fate of all my favorite characters...