Damn you Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, damn you to hell. Playing it made me remember just how much I loved G-Force as a kid. In the U.S., Gatchaman was called Battle of the Planets and later in the mid eighties (when I watched it), it was called G-Force. I went Gatchaman crazy and bought the first few collections of this anime series on DVD. Luckily I found a place that sells them on the cheap, even though they are out of print.
Come to find out, the US versions of these were modified significantly with scripts changing, violent bits getting cut, and a talking robot added to be more like Star Wars. Luckily, the collections I’m getting were re-dubbed and uncut I guess you don’t notice those kind of things when you young.
For some reason, Collection 6 and 7 of these boxed sets are incredibly hard to find for some reason. They do have them on the Amazon Marketplace, but they are $100. If anyone knows where I could find these sets PLEASE let me know, I’d appreciate it!
Anyway, now I’m watching the series with my 7 year old son and he loves it so far! It holds up very well, especially considering that this show is from the early 70’s. Can’t wait to watch more!
2009 Game of the Year Honorable Mention: Uncharted 2
I went back in forth between this and Uncharted 2. Ultimately, Batman surprised the crap out of me while I expected good things from Uncharted 2. Rocksteady Studios really raised the bar for what licensed games should be. This all coming from a studio who for all intents and purposes had never made a “good” game.
Other fun choices:
Best Graphics: Uncharted 2 Best Artistic Design: Brütal Legend Best Action Game: Assassin’s Creed 2 Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV Best Adventure Game: Secret of Monkey Island Best Music Game: Beatles Rockband Best Platforming Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins Best Shooter: Halo 3: ODST Best Sports: Madden X Best Score: Halo 3: ODST Best Voice Acting: Uncharted 2 Best Story: Dragon Age: Origins Best Online Multiplayer Game: COD: Modern Warfare 2
I’ve never played a Legend of Zelda game before. There, I said it. Now before I get tar and feathered, let me explain.
I’m 30 years old now and I didn’t like RPG’s when I was young. I remember playing Legend of Zelda at a friend’s house and not liking it, so as a child it shaped what I thought of the series. Back when I was too young to make my own money, I’d only get two games a year…one for my birthday and one for Christmas. Therefore Zelda wasn’t ever a choice since I didn’t like the series previously (or RPG’s in general) and there were other games I new I’d like that if I didn’t get now, it’d be months and months before I get to play. Back in the PSone/N64 era, my parents bought me a PlayStation for Christmas instead of a N64, so I never got to play the N64 era Zelda games either.
Like many other gamers at the time, Final Fantasy VII opened my eyes to the genre and my fondness for RPG’s has grown from there. It’s now one of my favorite genres. The lack of Legend of Zelda in my life dawned on me with the release of Spirit Tracks.
Being the OCD gamer that I am, I knew I wouldn’t play a Legend of Zelda game unless I played at least most of them and in order. Fast forward more than 20 years later and here I am, a hardcore gamer that grew up playing the NES and SNES yet somehow never played a Zelda game (at least not significantly so). I’m changing that now.
Starting with Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I plan to go back and play most of the Legend of Zelda games in order with my goal being that I play through them all before the newest Zelda game comes out. I should be getting the GBA version of A Link to the Past any day now (I went with that version because it’s portable so I have more chances to play and finish it quickly) which I’ll be playing on my DS. Thank god for the DS Lite’s ability to play GBA games and Virtual Console for letting us download older Nintendo games, otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a chance for me to do this!
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to chronicle my time playing through 20 years worth of Legend of Zelda games from a modern perspective without any nostalgia for the series shaping my thoughts. I know there are some that probably envy the position I am in and wish they could experience some of their favorite Legend of Zelda games for the first time all over again so I’m really looking forward to playing A Link to the Past and hope I can meet my goal. Being a 30 year old parent with a family and responsibilities, I’m sure it will be tough but I think its a feasible task. I think a part of me wants to get this out there for as many people to know as possible in order to push me to complete my goal. I’ll be posting my findings and letting you know what I think along the way.
My Wii must feel so very sad these days. Not only have I not played any games on it in months, but it hasn’t even been connected to Wi-Fi in months either. I’m hoping to soon change that.
The great fall season is mostly to blame. Between Batman: Arkham Asylum, Brütal Legend, Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and others I’ve been very busy. Now that I’ve played most of what Fall had to offer, it’s time for me to go back to games that I’ve deserted along the way. This is where my Wii comes in. Between Metroid Prime Trilogy, No More Heroes, MadWorld, Super Mario Galaxy, and even the upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, I have a lot of games to play on my Wii.
I never would have thought that Dragon Age: Origins would captivate me (on the PC no less!), yet here I am posting about it. Coming from someone that’s never played either of the Baulder’s Gate games, it’s a fairly high complement. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is that I like about DA:O so much, but the fact that it’s hard for me to pick just one thing says a lot. From story, to voice acting, to gameplay and presentation, Dragon Age delivers.
If you have a PC that can run “current gen” games, I recommend the PC version which has a steadier framerate and better graphics compared to the console versions, but you can’t lose one way or another. RPG fans, this is a must play.
First of all, I love the concept of the boxart. In a day and age where most box art is either boring, or just plain bad, Borderlands’ box art stands out.
Here is some media to give you an idea of how the game looks:
This reminds me of Fallout 3, except with genuinely great shooter gameplay and Diablo like loot-whoring for weapons and ammo.
Borderlands supports 1-4 players.
Borderlands is built from the ground up to be an intuitive co-operative experience for up to four players that rewards players who work together and invest in co-op skills. Split screen is also supported.
In this rpg shooter, choose one of four distinct characters, each with their own individual skill sets. As your character grows throughout this fast-paced FPS, you choose and customize your abilities to suit your style of play.
Jump behind the wheel and engage in high-speed vehicle-to-vehicle combat, complete with spectacular explosions and road-killed enemies.
Choose from literally hundreds of thousands of weapons, each with their own manufacturers, specifications, and advantages via a revolutionary content generation system.
I’m thinking of picking this up. Not 100% sure yet, but it looks like it could be lots of fun.
I’ve played both versions and they both have their strengths and weaknesses from a visual stand point. The 360 version seems to have a little bit smoother Anti-aliasing going on, but the PS3’s is about the same. I only noticed the difference because I was comparing between the two.
The PS3’s textures although not as smooth or Anti-aliased looked to be more detailed to me. Not only that, but the blacks seem to look A LOT better on PS3. I don’t know if some of the reason for it is that my PS3 is hooked up via HDMI and my 360 via VGA. So really it all depends on what you like better. I like the deeper blacks and slightly more detailed textures with slightly less anti-aliasing. That and the Joker DLC that’s coming out. Here is comparison pics that I took between the two (click on the pictures to enlarge them).
Xbox 360 version
PS3 version
Xbox 360 version
PS3 version
The game is broken up between combat-centric and stealth-centric areas. I love the stealth because it reminds me of MGS (one of my favorite series). There are numerous ways to do the stealth-centric areas. You can either stay up high and attack from above, use batarangs for longer range take downs, or sneak up from behind and take a more up close approach.
The combat feels a lot like Assassin’s Creed’s combat which I’m very happy to hear since I really enjoyed AC’s combat. You have punch, jump, counter, and cape stun at your disposal on each face button. When the enemy has an indicator on top of his head, that means he’s going to attack. It’s not rocket science but works well. One thing that really did impress me about the combat is how fluid it looks and how good it feels to pull moves off. You just feel like Batman when you are going from one goon to the next and countering people that attack you from behind. Overall, I’m really happy with the demo. This will be a day one purchase for me.
Perhaps it’s a bit of a misnomer since it’s coming back as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, but the point still stands…it won’t be quite the same.
USM will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve enjoyed the series over the years and it’s what got me back into comics in 2001 (I have issues 13-133 in singles) so it’s sad to see it go in its current state.
To me, USM was the equivalent of comfort food. It may not always be the most delicious, but it always made you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of direction they will take with it. I don’t get this whole reboot….they should just end the Ulimate line before it turns completely to crap.
Alright, I’ve already reviewed the theatrical cut, which you can read the pros and cons of it HERE. So this will be a short review of the Director’s Cut of the Bluray release.
First off, I think I prefer this director’s cut to the original although half of the added scenes are added violence (one which is fitting and the rest not really necessary) and the other half of the footage was mainly scene extensions that added a bit more detail to the story and added lines from the graphic novel. Personally I prefer the DC, although it makes the film top the three hour mark.
The most important scene that was added was Hollis Mason’s death. It was very well done, having Mason flashback and envision he was fighting his old enemies from his vigilante days as he fought for his life and ultimately died.
The bookend to that scene was Dreiberg’s reaction to the news of his good friend’s murder at the hands of knot tops while Rorschach was interrogating someone at a bar. He basically sees a knot top at the bar that makes a comment he probably should have kept to himself considering that Dan just found out his friend was murdered which costs him an ass beating (as well as some of his teeth). My favorite part of this scene was Rorschach’s unintentionally funny (or was it?) line; “Dan…not in front of the civilians.” I believe this scene was lifted from the graphic novel.
Outside of the added footage, the quality of the audio and video is second to none. I know a lot of people hate on Zack Snyder but I really dig his eye for visuals. The movie looked gorgeous in theatres and looked incredible on my HDTV.
Audio was also crisp and clear with a punchy audio track that will give your setup a workout.
Overall, I really enjoyed the Director’s Cut and if you enjoyed the movie, I can’t imagine you liking this less.
I’m surprised how little I cared for this movie given all of the praise it’s gotten. I’m not a big vampire movie fan, but that’s not the problem I had with this movie, for me it was the pacing. The movie moved so incredibly slow and was so incredibly ambiguous that it left me wondering what the hell the point was. I’m usually all for less is more (it’s one of the reasons why I love the games ICO and Shadow of the Colussus), but here it felt like 20 minutes worth of story happened (albeit pretty decent story) in a two hour movie. I got what the movie was trying to say, I guess the problem was that nothing happened to make me care.
Usually I can at least see why people swoon over a movie but I can’t say I can see it with this one.
Posted by John Nieves 
