Sneak Preview

I promised last post that I’ll be covering a ton of the games this week. Trouble was, I was too busy with that epic thing I was talking about. That plus playing a few games here and there nearly took all my free time this week. Right now, I have nothing to post about that epic thing and I’m kind of going against what I said I’d be doing come today. At the earliest, I’ll be having some pretty awesome pictures uploaded tomorrow plus more detailed information on everything. Right now, the best I can do in my state of mind would be a sneak preview on what to expect tomorrow (or the next day).

I’ll probably concentrate all my posting powers to three games, namely, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Cursed Mountain and Batman: Arkham Asylum. I’d say the game I’m most excited to talk about would be the Batman game. I’m actually burning with desire to write at the moment already. I’m just stopping myself since I’m pretty sleepy already and I know I’ll write something better tomorrow. Metroid Prime’s a Nintendo classic so I’ll just mention some impressions here and there. Cursed Mountain’s a new kid on the block, and a pretty interesting kid at that. Besides those three, I’ll also talk about a bit of the other things listed on my previous post. Sadly, I cannot give impressions on two of those games in that list: Fallout 3 and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. As you might have noticed, those two things were lined up with “(hopefully)” which already tells you that I had doubts on those two getting to me in the first place.

My muscles are aching and my eyes are craving for rest. So that’s it for tonight.

Gaming Coverage Soon…

The ACET is coming up and it’ll be pretty busy this weekend. I’ve been wanting to post about a couple of things, but I barely have the time. As of now, all I can do is give you an overview of what to expect from my post next week. Needless to say, it’s gonna be a pretty amazing week next week. If all goes well, I’ll be posting up a pretty awesome picture of myself.

COVERAGE NEXT WEEK:

• Rock Band 2
• Metroid Prime Trilogy
• Cursed Mountain
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade (hopefully)
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Fallout 3 (hopefully)
• “Prototype + Assassin’s Creed”
• a little bit of Starcraft (if I’m up to it)
• DotA (if I have the time)
• the epic thing I mentioned earlier (sneak preview)

It’s pretty obvious that I’ve completely saturated anime right now. I’ve just been reading mangas here and there but nothing really special. It’s pretty hard to rant on games these days since I have to rely on other decent computers to get information on all the good ones (case and point, “Prototype + Assassin’s Creed”). Anyway, look forward to all the good stuff next week.

Only on The Haven…

AnimExplosion (and other stuff)

Probably the biggest thing going on these days, and incidentally, something I’ve been dying to blog on about for so long is this latest AnimExplosion. I mentioned in my previous post about such beginnings with a little manga called The World God Only Knows and then moving on to Clannad the visual novel. I actually extended right after to completing season 2 of the anime, Clannad After Story. It’s an amazing series but you can’t really categorize it as romance since it deals with a whole range of emotions other than love. I read in Wikipedia that Clannad was named so because it’s the Irish word for family. Looking back at all the things that’ve been happening in the story, I realized that this was indeed the central theme, more so than romance or friendship or comedy. With that said, I can never recommend this series to those looking for ecchi or even tsundere. At the very core, Clannad can be described as pure drama, a telenovela as my sister pointed out. I’m pretty amazed at myself for getting through something like that, but then again, I don’t always get around with this kind of genre and Clannad isn’t bad at all. One thing I’d like to express here though (and it might be a spolier): Why was the world messing with the Tomoya Okazaki?! It’s like his life was being screwed on purpose!

Besides the anime, I actually finished one playthrough through the visual novel. I ended up with a ending I very much desired, although I do have to say I worked pretty hard for that. Countless save files have been wasted on trying to unlock that very intimate ending. I think people around have said that the arc I was trying to finish was the hardest since you had like five vital dialog trees. Mess one up and you get the bad ending. It was a good ending though. I can’t spoil it here but if you’re interested, there’s an OVA adaptation of the arc which was included in the Clannad After Story set. Actually, I watched this OVA on the net right before doing the proper second season and it gave me a very weird feeling. Clannad is set in such a way as to disregard this OVA as anime canon so you get this feeling that the events in the OVA never happened. Pretty weird and back then, very frustrating.

Finishing Clannad meant I’ll have no new anime to cling on. I was sad to see it go because, even if Clannad wasn’t bad, it wasn’t the thing I was really looking for. And so I spent countless times looking for the next series that will fall prey to my viewing. Enter, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This one’s pretty famous, but this was the only time I was able to watch it properly. As far as I know, this anime wasn’t broadcasted in chronological order so it was kinda confusing if you watch it that way. So, there I was with something new to watch. The cool thing about this series is that you’ll never get tired of everything that’s going on, even you feel that it’s getting too lame. In any case, I managed to go through most of the episodes of the “first season” as I’d like to put it. In fact, I just realized right now that the “second season” was just a rebroadcast of the first season with an extra set of episodes included. I’ve roughly gone through most of the “first season” and after seeing that much, I’d say they wouldn’t put much in “season two” that’s interesting. With that said, I’m still left with my dilemma.

Well, despite these downsides, there’s one good thing that I’m reliving. I’ve probably mentioned Love Hina so many posts ago and probably declared it then as my number one romance manga. With all this lack of anything, I went back to the manga and tried to get all that nice love back in my head. Being 123 chapters long, it’ll be a while until I get everything back but I’m already relishing the past. The weird thing though, and sometime I was completely expecting, is my now downgraded view of the series. Back then, it was definitely number one for me, practically because it was my real first stab at romance in anime. Right now, approximately one year and many more romance animes after, I figure that Love Hina couldn’t be at the top. It remains to be one of my favorites though, since it contains the kind of love story that I want. In terms of presentation, I’d probably grade other anime I’ve watched better. When all is said and done, I still like Love Hina a lot and I’m practically wishing for an anime that follows the story and the comedy more closely. (fingers crossed)

And now we go to the gaming section, which only contains two important updates. For the Wii side, September is a pretty big month since a lot of awesome titles are coming up for our household. It’s gonna be pretty hectic since there’ll be Metroid Prime Trilogy, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Cursed Mountain and Spectrobes: Origins. To top it off, we just acquired Rock Band 2 last weekend, so it’s gonna be hell with all the different genres (respectively, FPS, 2D Action, Survival Horror, RPG and Music/Rhythm). There are also a couple of games coming out this month which I can’t wait for. For the Wii, it’s gonna be Dead Space Extraction. Being a Dead Space fan, I can hardly pass off this oppurtunity to get something really cool. And to segway to this next section (other than Wii console section), I’m also waiting fervently for the PC release of Batman: Arkham Asylum. It’s said to be the best superhero game ever made which is pretty amazing since before it took that spot, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was the top. Apparently, I’m hearing a lot in school about this game which is saying something. When it comes to gaming, our school’s practically unpredictable when it comes to latest trends, and I have yet to see a mature game become a school-wide gig.

You might see that Other Media category highlighted at the bottom which should indicate something out of the ordinary is happening. Actually, it’s just a simple case of broadening my music which now includes Muse, a band I deemed hardcore long ago. In fact, it was so hardcore then that I couldn’t really take in all their songs. It was only recently that I realized that I can’t treat their songs like I do with Fall Out Boy or All-American Rejects. There’s a hidden depth of epicness in every song they release which makes them pretty unique.

And oh yeah, it’s September already! You know what that means… ;D

The Consequences of Not Blogging

Seriously, a lot has happened these past two weeks that it’s so hard to keep up with all the feeling and emotion of each moment. I’ve tried to get this post up for a long time, but there’s just so much going on with all the Reader’s Theatre practices, college applications, general school work and class get-togethers. This fact has been bugging me for such a long time that I actually dedicated it to become the title of this post. What’s going to happen now is a mixed glimpse on everything that’s been happening all those days I was gone.

Probably the biggest news these two weeks is my immense progress with Super Mario Galaxy. I’ve already completed 120 stars and I’m about to play as Luigi. It was an epic feat, really. I had to push through those last few galaxies to finally achieve my goal. I’ve heard from a lot of comments on the internet about the intensity of a certain Purple Comet challenge on Toy Time Galaxy. I thought it wouldn’t be that difficult but it really was. The bad thing about that stage was no one would tell you that you needed to leave some tiles as a path for returning to your starting point. It’s kinda complicated. If you don’t understand, you should look at some video on YouTube or something. Well, with all that said, I’m glad I’m done. I’d take on Super Luigi Galaxy at a slower pace, I think, since Super Mario Galaxy 2 is what I’m really looking forward to now. (I’m still not yet done with No More Heroes)

The next biggest set of news I have is a little game called Clannad. I’m talking about the visual novel, of course. I downloaded this one a long time ago, but it’s only now that I careered through the whole of it. If you’re a visual novel fanatic, you probably know that these games have an extreme number of dialog trees and various endings. It’s too far to be a sim game though since it’s as it’s called, a novel. The dialog trees are just the different endings you can encounter given different choices to different scenarios. The scenario I happen to encounter had a pretty sad ending, and I was following the whims of my instinct then. Not going into details, let’s just say the main character of the story had a really bad run-in with two other characters which left me very very irritated. I almost wished that the story I “read” during my first playthrough was the anime adaptation instead. Now that I’ve said that, I really wish they make iterations of Clannad encompassing all the story arcs. That would be awesome. It might make my heart explode too…

I think I forgot to mention the little gig I had a few days ago which actually triggered my complete return to the Clannad game. Actually, this little gig activated my anime fuel again, especially the visual-novel style. This little manga that I’ve read only for so long is called The World God Only Knows. It’s a pretty crazy anime manga since it deals with an otaku, Keima Katsuragi, who’s a master at dating sims. He’s so good that in gaming circles, he’s called the Capturing God, the one who could capture any virtual girl’s heart. Apparently, this piece of news reached some demon guy in hell who’s having this problem capturing “spirits” trapped in the hearts of human girls. The demon sent his assitant, Elsia de Lute Irma to recruit the Capturing God so that they could get their hands on the human girls. The trick to getting the spirits was to make that girl fall in love which is where Keima would come in. The problem was Keima considered girls in real life to be way inferior to virtual girls. It’s a very absurd scenario which, I admit, had me interested for a while. The one thing that I don’t like the most out of this series is the fact that the girls Keima captures lose their memories after the spirit is released. It’s like nothing happened. Without that fact, I could almost see this one to have DNA^2 potential, but no. It chose to be a lame story with the main character hitting all the girls without them ever remembering it. I stopped reading right after Keima capture the second girl which happened to be a tsundere type (awesome). After that, I was really psyched again for all that good stuff, with memories of ToraDora, Clannad and True Tears flashing before my eyes. With that, I continued my Clannad visual novel trek.

Other anime news should include the following: Shakugan no Shana’s end and Bakemonogatari(?). Because of that pretty cryptic ending for Shakugan, I’m waiting anxiously for that season 3. I seriously doubt they’ll take the love triangle thing to the next level which is a pretty sad reality. Bakemonogatari is still a pending gig, but the first episode alone gave me amazement and doubt at the same time. We’ll see where this goes with the next seven episodes…

Finally, I’d like to end with some special news on Starcraft (take note, not Starcraft 2). I’ve been a fan of RTSs since my childhood days, although I’m pretty bad at most of them. Probably, the only RTS that has held my gaze for so long  is Starcraft, which to me remains one of the most epic games of all time. Not ever have I felt the need to become a professional gamer in any game before except with Starcraft. For a long time, I’ve been testing build orders, mastering micro tactics and playing with an AI or two. Just recently, I was able to test those skills with another person with the same ambitions. It ended with two thoughts: my loss and increased will. Just hours after I lost my matches, I was already thinking of the strict training regimen I’ll be following in the weeks to come. I think I’ve come up with a pretty good way to train with a single AI which basically attempts to mimmick the timing of each build order, something I haven’t done before. I did lose, but it’s not to say I didn’t learn anything out of that.

The Consequences of Not Blogging? ONE LONG POST.

After So Long…

I haven’t mentioned this but it’s been pretty much media hush these days when it comes to Starcraft 2. Before today, the biggest thing that came up was probably Battle Report 3 and the podcast I downloaded from SC2GG.com which details some interesting stuff about the Starcraft 2 build then. While the multiplayer aspect in Starcraft 2 for me is pretty engaging, there’s still the untapped potential of the story-mode campaign which I’m really looking forward to. Needless to say, there hasn’t been much that has surfaced with it comes to story-mode. If I’m not mistaken, the latest one regarding these was the footage of the first minute of Starcraft 2’s intro which was pretty epic in all respects.

Anyway, I just had the urge to announce that finally there’s new media coverage for Starcraft 2 from the fansites that I’ve been following. It details a Blizzard press event which took place almost a month ago. If I assume correctly, the fansites didn’t post this up until now because of some restriction from Blizzard during their time with the latest build. It was probably all timed since Blizzcon 09 will be taking place within the next 7 days and they probably have a new build to show off.

Well, what did the fansites post up? Basically, articles on everything  during the beginning of the single player campaign. Before now, all I know about the campaign was the video from Blizzcon 07 with the guys showing off the new “briefing room” interface for the game. It was all pretty cool, with the dialog trees, upgradable tech and subplots that was just everywhere. Now, to get one up on all those, we’ve got new videos that kick so much ass. But I’m really getting ahead of myself. Let’s take this step-by-step.

The hardcore thing that I believe the Starcraft 2 single player experience brings the most is the way your missions are laid out. I’ve wanted something like this on an RTS ever since. Long ago, when this blog was barely existing, I’ve whispered to myself that I want the Starcraft 2 Star Map layout to be like the World Layout in Sonic and the Secret Rings but with better interface and more blinking stuff. It’s a lame comparison, but back then, I was just barely scratching the surface in gaming. This latest news has completely confirmed what I believed to be the most appropriate path to the best RTS experience. In addition to this already incredible feature, they added a lot more with those dialog trees I’ve mentioned and the slick interface inside the Hyperion (or inside the Mar Sara bar). You could literally go to a couple of places inside the ship and interact with the people in a pseudo-Sims-like feel. Another cool part is the unlocking of upgrades which can be done with money or finding special items throughout your playthrough of the campaign. I believe there’re about three of those so-called “shops” where you can purchase your desired upgrades. Just to name, there’s the “mercenary shop”, there’s the Armory and there’s the Lab. Mercenary shop is in quotes since that’s the best way to put. In actuality, it’s just a guy who trades money for super units called mercenaries.

If you notice, I just outlined a summary of the stuff here. The objective of this post is not to display what’s already been displayed, but to rant about what’s been displayed. Everything is just so awesome that it deserves one post from me. Haha…

VIDEO COVERAGE

Starcraft 2 Single Player Coverage HD

Blizzcon 08 Intro Cinematic HD (Old Rivals)