Currently Watching - Chivalry of a Failed Knight

One of the few 2015 Anime that I watched this year was Chivalry of A Failed Knight (The Worst One)

A total of 12 episodes and the series follows the usual Shonen/Action Tournament Anime. Follows the life and battles of Kurogane Ikki. He is indeed the titular "Failed Knight"/ The Worst One because among all the students in the school with Sword-magic, he can't enchant his sword with magic. be it elemental or otherwise. The school gives him a student rating of F (the best being an A-rank).
Most of the usual RPG elementals tropes are here (Fire, Water, Lightning).



The art direction for the last two episodes goes really out there as it takes a Grey, Black, and white with hints of red, blue, and yellow in select objects or characters. The actual picture quality of  show goes into a "Grindhouse" mode where you can see more noise and pop in the picture like it was and old film. Something odd to be sure and really got my attention...

J-list asks about the oldest Anime title you have ever seen

Anime then and now. So, what's the oldest anime you've watched?
Posted by J-List on Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Took me a few minutes to think of an answer and the oldest Anime I've ever seen is either a few episodes from the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, or Lupin The Third  series that originally aired back in the early 1970s. I am going off of Anime News Network's date info. 

The Samurai Pizza Cats are now on Crunchy Roll!

Three cats that operate a Delivery service and hero business to stop The Big Cheese. Probably one of the few English dubs that give a pass to no matter how much it changed from the original Japanese script. Mainly due to the fact that the characters in the show are anthropomorphic cats and other animals that talk like humans and the three protagonists don battle armor and launch out of a cannon.

I haven't watched the show since 2000 so the heavy pop culture references might make this an odd watch for younger Anime fans.  You can find the show on Crunchyroll's site at the time of this post, the first 18 episodes of the show are viewable for free, while the rest of the episodes are locked away for paid Premium CR users. Thanks Crunchyroll and Discotek Media for making this happen.

My opinon on the FF VII Remake gameplay trailer

I just finished watching the first gameplay trailer for the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy VII remake by Square-Enix and here are my main thoughts and hopes for any upcoming trailers.

The graphics looked good. Seems like the team working on FF VII remake is using the same high-end toolbox as the FF XV team. It's going to be fun exploring the slums and Golden Saucer with the new graphics and camera prospective.

The Action RPG like battles are ok with me. It was all about the limit break and Materia System that really stood out to me in the original game anyway. After playing several hours of Kingdom Hearts and FF Dissida, I'm quite alright with a more fluid combat system.  This gameplay trailer didn't really show the Materia system/menu at all. Only showed the first mission, with Cloud and Barret, so view of what Tifa or Red XIII and the rest of the gang look like.

One could hope that there would be another Viewtiful Joe or Okami

もしもぼくが続編を作らせてもらえるとしたらどれがいいですか…？ If II can make a sequel, which one do you want to see?

— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) November 24, 2015

Hideki Kamiya directed the original Devil May Cry game and the more recent Bayonetta games that Platinum Games has developed. I casted my vote and gave it to Okami but either Okami or Viewtifiul Joe sequel would be ok with me. 

The Legend of Zelda representing video game music on a talk show

Video Game concert tours have been happening outside of Japan since the mid 2000s Thanks to people in the Industry like Tommy Tallarico and Nobuo Uematsu. Today there are big three  video game related concert series that I know of.

• Distant Worlds (Final Fantasy) 
• Video Games Live ( A mix of Japanese and Western developed games) 
• Symphony of the Goddesses (The Legend of Zelda)

Earlier this month The Legend of Zelda music was performed on the CBS Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert. It's standard length as far as far as late night talk show musical guests go, so it must have been difficult for the arranger of the piece to condense 25 years of musical history with into just 4 minutes. Watch the video after the break.

The Back To The Future adventure game is on sale and Rocket League car DLC

Today is October 21, 2015. Big deal to Back To The Future movie fans.   Steam is having a  75% off sale on Back To the Future:The Game. An adventure game developed by Telltale Games.

Picks up after the end of the movie Trilogy and some of the original actors from the movies do voice work for the game. A.J. LoCascio does an great voice impersonation of Michel J. Fox/ Marty McFly

Rocket League is a competitive sports game where you play International Football aka Soccer by driving cars around a giant field. The Iconic Delorean is now a DLC car in the game! Complete with Flame and light streaks. This might be enough to at least get me to play the game for a few matches.

For Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown the future was today.

Well I underestimated the system requirements for Battlefront

Wow! The PC/Windows system requirements are slightly above what I was expecting. Talking about the RAM (computer's system memory) and the Graphics Card power.

CPU: Intel Core i3 6300T
-That's a processor that was released this year! Dual core at 3.3 Ghz with hyper threading. Basically telling you to invest in a full 4-core system if  you haven't already.

8GB of System RAM minimum (16 recommended). I only have 4 installed in this system now so I would be looking at an $80.00 dollar investment for 8 GB from the same brand and series I prefer. 

40 GB of Hard drive space is sort of the expected thing for "AAA" games these days so that's nothing all that noteworthy. 

Nvidia GTX 660 with 2 GB of VRAM. So I looked up the reference specs on Nvidia's website and that would be 960 Cuda cores at a clock speed of 980 MHz.  GDDR5 VRAM. This would be another $200.00 upgrade for me to get a GTX 960.

Re-watched: Tekkaman Blade II

The direct sequel to 1990s Tekkaman/ Teknoman (the name that Saban Entertainment gave it)

This being a 6-episode OAV and not a full TV show. The  Tekkamans or Radam technology  seem to favor the color red for both the good and evil ones.  The big problem presented in Tekkaman Blade II is the fact that Earth scientists finally figure out how Tek Setter (transformations) works and how to recreate it near perfectly without the mind control side-effects. Unfortunately the tech falls into the hands  of some not so nice people. While I don't think the OVA is a good stand-alone experience. Any fan of Tekkaman Blade (TV series) should take the time to watch


One thing I really answer is what happened to one of the former member of the Space Knights team from the prior show. You would have thought that Rebin would have continued to work on the Tekkaman project but no sign of him.

 I think Discotek Media is currently publishing the series on physical DVD.  The protagonist characters here were featured in a strategy-RPG game for the Nintendo DS. "Super Robot Wars W".  Sadly never released for English speaking gamers.

Attack on Titan Live action films will be in some "Chicago land" theaters

Any Attack on Titan fans  in the state of Illinois? Well the live action movies from Japan will be having a very limited release in Chicago and select theaters in the suburbs . Both parts 1 and 2 will be screened on different days and Months (September and October)

I'm not really a fan of the Anime, Only seen the first episode so far but something like this deserves a shout out. An authentic Live-Action adaptation brought over from Japan. 

http://www.attackontitanthemovie.com/ 


Just skip the intro and punch in your zip code to see if a theater near you will be showing the two films.  really neat how the map results have that custom Attack on Titan emblem for the map results.

If you put in Chicago/60606 then

Music Box Theater
 Studio Movie Grill Chatham 14
Muvico Rosemont 18

come up as results...





I'll wait and gets released on North American home video. Don't want to watch the films until I get around to seeing the Anime first.

One of the Anime Podcasts I listen to has gone into Hiatus

It's kind of sad news to hear especially if you're a long time listener to the main show. Anime-Pulse was one of the main Anime podcasts  I first listened to on a regular basis. The hosting pair chose some good names to go by. Ichigo I'm  guessing from the protagonist of (Tite Kubo's) Bleach, which had been airing in Japan/ "fan subbed" for around a year by that time. The other co-host went by the name Batou which came from (Shirow Masamune's) Ghost in the Shell. I think I started listening to them around their 10th published episode. Been a good run of 10 years talking about Anime.

I was only really subscribed via RSS to the the original show, none of the spinoffs live Manga-Pulse and VG-pulse really appealed to me. This now joins  the other Anime news/review podcast I used to listen to back in the day which was  the"Weekly Anime Review Podcast".

...

Live-Action Angel Heart adaptation? Might watch it

Not to be confused with the Hollywood film from the 1980s, Angel Heart is a Manga series drawn/ written by Tsukasa Hojo and is a sequel to the longer running City Hunter. I enjoy what I've seen of both series but it's actually nice to have are more authentic   take on this world. 

There was a  movie from 90s called City Hunter that starred well-known Action star Jackie Chan. Fun movie even has a few memorable pop culture references in it but not quite faithful to the original work. In 2011 there was that South Korean drama series.

According to this post on Crunchyroll The two major (in my opinion) roles in the Angel Heart story have been cast. Ryo Saeba  and Xiang-Ying. Anyway I hope the streaming rights to this show get picked up by Crunchyroll or it ends up  on Hulu's Asian drama section.

You can buy the older fallout games on GOG once again.

While waiting for Fallout 4 why not play the entries that started the series? Back at the start of 2014 All of the Fallout games were removed from the Good Old Games store.

Goodbyes are not forever (and war never changes). @Fallout is back, fully #DRMfree! http://t.co/DowKmrUEht pic.twitter.com/8dH6yJRBko

— GOG.com (@GOGcom) August 27, 2015

• Fallout 1
• Fallout 2
• Fallout Tactics

 The games have reappeared back in the store and are on sale for the next few days. You can get the 3 games for a mere $10.00. If you don't already own  the games via Steam this would be a good way to go because GOG tries to support newer version of Windows OSes  and DRM free.

http://www.gog.com/promo/bethesda_launch_fallout_bundle_260815

My thoughts after filling out the KONAMI heritage games survey

I don't really care about the possibility of a prize for participating in the survey. It is a good outlet to respectfully request for a Konami game series revival or sequel. A safer way than trying to "spam" their  English Twitter account.

Of all the Konami owned franchises Silent Hill was strangely omitted from the selection screen. Obviously having to due with what happened with Silent Hills/PT.  If you're a fan of Contra, Gradius, Castlevania, Vandal Hearts, Bomberman or in my specific case "Suikoden" or Genso Suikoden. This is the best way to let Konami know just how interested are you. Look I can understand that it's tough to think of 108 characters for each installment and think of an overall theme  but it's been almost a whole decade since Suikoden V was released on the PS2. Thanks konami for finally digitally releasing Suikoden II on PSN.

That's right the series never landed on the last generation consoles (XBOX 360 and PS3)  unless there was a Japan-only release I don't know about. We have yet to see what the series can look like with HD/1080p graphics.

 I'll reiterate some of the points I put on the survey.... What I like about the Suikoden series was the turn-based combat  mixed in with some strategy battles and recruiting those 108 possible characters that hang out at your base. Final Fantasy has Cid and the Suikoden series has that fast-travel character named Viki  This is also one of those RPG series that had co-op/ team up attacks like those found in Chrono Trigger. As for musical soundtrack. The 3rd game has my overall favorite theme music.

The indie game scene has been trying to fill in the void left by Contra with games like Broforce and Mercenary Kings.    




You can fill out the survey for yourself by follwing  http://mobilesurvey.blicx.com/

Humble Bundle store having a sale on Anime, Anime inspired games

Steam is not the only digital download store having a sale on Anime games this week, The Humble (Bundle) store is also taking part.  It's offering up way more than Naruto Shippuden games. Discounted games in the Anime Weekend sale include Anime-inspired games  and Japanese-role playing games

Aside from Dragon Ball Xenoverse which is the game where you can create your own fighter from the most popular races from the Anime. I think all of the Ys games ever released on PC are discounted as well. If fighting games are more your thing then Two Guilty Gear games are also listed.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/animeweekend/
Steam is only having a sale on Naruto games 

Naruto Shippudden PC Games part of Steam weakend sale

The two Naruto Shippuden games available on Steam are being discounted for the "Weekend Sale" The last time these two games were on sale was two months ago during the big Steam Summer Sale.  You can get  both games for about $20.00 dollars

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/naruto/

What a rocky start for the Street Fighter V Beta tests

The Beta tests for the upcoming Street Fighter V (Five) was supposed to start on July 23rd  but from two Youtube channels I've checked out they either can not get the game to load at all or only get as far as the training room fight ( 1 player vs dummy).
Below is just one tweet from the Official Street Fighter twitter account...

We are aware users are still having issues logging into the SFV beta. We are continuing to work on a fix. Thanks for your patience.

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) July 24, 2015

Note that the game is a console exclusive to Sony's PS4.  Capcom has been trying to make adjustments to their severs and Reboot the servers. If you want to follow the beta thread, I left a link below.

Here's the link to the official Capcom discussion thread  .

Just really disappointing because probably well over 50,000 viewers were watching the game being played at EVO 2015 but this Online multiplayer just doesn't seem to be working.  Most of the thumbnals on Twich.tv page are of error screens and face cameras of frustrated streamers.

Having to wait until early 2016 for Tomb Raider sequel to hit PC is fine

This has been the news that I've been waiting to hear. Somebody could have just said something at E3 2015 but at least it's been announced now. 

Rise Of The Tomb Raider Launches On PC Next Year - http://t.co/NX6KGcgcti pic.twitter.com/wcDpBpyq4a

— Game Informer (@gameinformer) July 23, 2015

 PC gamers may have to wait  until early 2016  release but the devs can use that time to fine tune the Windows/PC port (not have a possible Arkham Knight fiasco).  The PS4 players will have to wait the longest Holiday late 2016.

Watched some EVO 2015 streams

Evolution 2015 is  the annual gaming tournament going on right now that brings players from all over the world to compete in a variety of fighting games. The matches are being streamed on Twitch like it has been for the past few years. Evo appears to have more channels setup for the tournament.  The last few years were only 3. One main stage and the rest being side games. Now there are 7/Seven whole channels. Wow, even though I've only seen content on 4 of them.  The games that I've seen so far have been

• Ultra Street Fighter IV
• Persona 4 Arena: Ultramax
• Super Smash Bros Wii U 

In previous years I would watch for Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs Capcom 3. This year I really wanted to watch "high-level" Persona 4 Arena play. It's been quite exciting.

New Gundam's Exterior revealed

There is going to be a new Gundam series coming and so soon after Gundam Reconguista in G which came out in Japan and online streaming last year. This new Gundam unit reveal has been slow over the past few days since early July with a mere silhouette. As of the twitter post below, The head, shoulders, and chest have details and colors now

The G-Tekketsu Gundam bares its chest today but also pretty much reveals its face. It's looking tough. pic.twitter.com/5G6g65jgR4

— Tom Aznable (@TomAznable) July 13, 2015

I'm going to reiterate what I posted on an Anime from my Twitter account but the Shoulders still remind me of the Talgeese #1 from Gundam Wing. The fully revealed image seems to show a red glow on the shoulders reminding me of Unicorn Gundam.  The rest of the unit  "G-Tekketsu" shows hints of Gundam 00 (chest area).

Yokai Doctor

I recently got the first two volumes as gifts. I've only skimmed the first few pages of the initial volume but I do like the artwork so far. The Yokai designs look nice a detailed. The creator is someone named Yuki Sato and this is also the first time I've ever come across their work.

This is/was being published by Del Ray  a few years ago Unfortunately only two of a total 15 volumes (in Japan) were released to the English speaking community. It doesn't seem to be all that popular because there are no fan translations past the first two books.  Even if I don't know how the story will end I hope the two books will at least be entertaining.

Persona 4/Golden related - Meat Gum is real!?

So  You're probably thinking What this has to do with video games. The following will contain minor, specific character spoilers for Chie Satonaka of Persona 4 / Persona 4 Golden ( The PlayStation Vita update. 

At the time I thought the idea was just a Japanese joke because Japan is known for having weird flavored snacks and drinks.

This was a picture I took of an Amazon.com (US site)  listing of "Roast Beef" flavored bubble gum. forget how much it was being sold for but is not listed anymore at the time of this post...

An Anime convention gets a shoutout from the local news

For some reason I keep on forgetting about this relatively new Anime Con. Anime Midwest  happened this 4th of July Weekend and ABC Chicago gave the event a short nod on the website. This is the newer fan convention that happens in Rosemont, Illinois.  The unique thing about it is that there is a attendance limit of 10,000 fans.  I really should attend this at least once.

Hi-sCool Seha Girls final impressions (9-13)

Turning objects/items into walking, talking female protagonists seems like a trend in Japan. The first time I ever heard anything about this was the "OS-tan". That's when Microsoft and Mac OS versions get turned into girls.  So why not Sega video game systems.

from left to right: Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast

One of the best things about this is the span of history that the show goes over. From the Arcade 80s all the way to game references released in the late 2000s. Kudos to Sega and TMS Entertainment for keeping the original graphics/ looks of the various worlds that the Hardware Girls visit.  

I can see a lot of Anime viewers just dropping or avoiding this show due to the varying graphical styles, About half of each episode is just the girls trying to crack cultural jokes and puns at one another.  Strangely reminded me of The Super Mario Super Show (minus the live-action).Episodes are half the length of a normal Anime Tv series  Definitely worth watching if you were a big Sega console fan growing up.

The final episode of  the show is really bittersweet since any current gamer will probably know that the last home console that Sega made was the Dreamcast .  I kind of wish that Game Gear got more representation than just a cameo in one episode.  Oh and "Segata Sanshiro  commerical are wacky. Even more so than the Legend of Zelda wrap  What was with the "Foreigner" running gag for Sega Saturn? Did the console sell really well in North American and Europe or something?

Seeing the Shenmue III kickstarter gives me hope for another Sega series

One of the great things that happened this past E3 2015 was the announcement of  a sequel to a 14 year old game. Shenmue II. Sony even brought Mr. Yu Suzuki on on the stage to announce and launch the Shenmue III kickstarter. While the Kickstater funding is still going on, the project has already reached it's main goal...

The game I would like Sega to either remake or do  a sequel for is Streets of Rage (known in Japan as Bare Knuckle)  A side-scrolling "beat 'em up" style of game where a group of friends fight their way to a a powerful crime boss. 

The latest thing being done with the license was a port to the Nintendo 3DS with the added stereoscopic 3D effect and extra options like setting the amount of starting lives and even a level select. What I'm wishing for is not  remaster but a full, official Streets of Rage 4 for PS4, XBOX One and PC (via Steam)

Started Watching: Infinite Stratos

Having recently just finished watching  Hi-sCool Seha Girls I decided to go with a Mecha show that I initially skipped over due to bad reviews  I was seeing online even among the hardcore robot/mecha fans online.

What intrigued me about the show is that the Mech angle in this show revolves around "Power Armor" that only the female gender can activate and operate. The only exception being out main protagonist named Ichika Onimura.  This actually reminds me of two other shows from the past. Macross Frontier and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure.  The slimness of the power suits remind with of Macross Frontier in the way how the Pilot school suits allow students to fly and  had a strong school setting.  Dual! features a man being able to fight in  a robot mean for a female pilot.

Only a few episodes in an the Fanservice is really difficult to ignore. Happens often and the "camera" likes to focus and linger on the moments. It doesn't help when the main focus of the plot is how Onimura is the only guy in an all-girl school. Every girl in his class (an in the school at points) are always trying to get Onimura's attention. The real saving point for me so far is that the Power armor suits  are interesting to look at and mech designer actually makes the fighting suits have different color schemes and combat systems.


Having paused my viewing at episode 4, there is a more serious sub-plot going on that I hope develops in the 8 remaining episodes. Something that adds to the combat-sport use of the mech suits.

Hi-sCool Seha Girls episodes 5-8

This set of episodes start off with possibly the weakest one in the entire series.  Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive are tasked with trying to come up with new games by using an existing property. In this case "Puyo Puyo". An old puzzle game made by sega.  Never really played this game  since I was more into Tetris and  the various clones.  The only Sega puzzle game I actually did play in the arcade was a Sakura Taisen/Wars themed puzzle game.

Seems there are Puyo, Puyo related games released for current smartphones but only available in Japan.


Moving onto episode 6 ...

We get to see a fairly more modern Sega game. Border Break, A mech/combat game. released in Japan and Asia about 5 years ago  Showing that while Sega may no longer be making home console systems they still do develop Arcade machines. From  how it looked in the show, it seems like an evolution the Virtual-On  game series. This episode gave me that Halo Red vs Blue vibe (early seasons)  so much! if you  enjoy that show you might find this episode interesting.


Click on to read episode 7 and 8 thoughts.

Even more bad press for Warner Bros. Interactive

It has not been a very favorable few months for Warner Brothers' "games" division because the PC (Windows) ports of two big releases of 2015 have had serious bugs.   The most recent one being Batman: Arkham Knight which was released  today. According to the Wikipedia page for Arkham Knight the PC port of the last Batman game was done by Iron Galaxy Studios. Most notable for their ports of older Capcom games.  

Read this article on PC Gamer...

The previous disaster was with the release of Mortal kombat X for PC/Windows back in April. MK X was definitely the more severe release due to the issue of base game content not being initially accessible and the major problem of  Save Game data getting lost due to a patch. That was by a different 3rd party studio called High Voltage Software.  I've actually visited this place a while back.

It's especially sad to hear about these issues because both of these 3rd party developers that ported MK X and Arkham Knight are based in the state of Illinois.While I like the fact that Warner Bros. Interactive is giving these Illinois-based game development studios a chance  to work on big games, as  a gamer you just wish for a cleaner release you know?

If you still plan on playing the game on PC remember to get the latest drivers for your Nvidia or AMD video cards (links can be found in the PC gamer article above).

Final Day of the 2015 Steam Summer Sale - Anime games still discounted

Today June 21st is the final day of Steams big summer sale and a whole lot of the Anime related games that were featured last week are still on sale.

• Both Naruto Shippudden games being published by Bandai Namco
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse also published by Bandai Namco 
• Valkyria Chronicles published by Sega 
•  The first of 4 chapters of the Visual Novel Higurashi: When They Cry was released in English  last month 

At the time of this post there are just over 20 hours left in the Steam summer sale so if you were holding now is you last chance to pick up tittles on your wishlist. 

If you want Shenmue III you will need to help fund it

Not a mean joke. Can the Internet do it again? Fund a game by the original creator. The last time Shenmue was seen was way back in 2002. Going to be using the latest Unreal game engine. I don't know how difficult it was for Mr. Suzuki to get the series name and stuff from Sega but it is really cool nonetheless.


This was announced/launched during the Sony E3 2015  presentation earlier tonight. Quite the aggressive funding goal at 2 Million US Dollars.    PS4 and Windows PC (if it gets funded)


I really hope  one of the features this game comes with are recap videos. When Shenmue II was ported over to the original XBOX it came with a bonus DVD that had the cut scenes from Shenmue I... Oh there it is Unlocked if funding reaches 2.5 million. I'm really just interested in continuing the story that was left at with Shenmue II.

Quick thoughts on the Dragon Ball Super teaser

Probably the most interesting this really short teaser video was that it includes the characters from  the Battle of the Gods movie from last year. This is seems like a new thing because most of the movie characters either end up being one-offs or only get brought back for specials and stuff. That or they were already established in the original series

Does this also mean that Goku will be transforming into god form during the new series?

Note that Trunks and Goten are getting into trouble and they're still fairly young so this will take place prior to episode 286? End of the Buu Saga but prior to the final time jump in DBZ.

Summer Steam sale 2015 has begun and includes two Anime related games

The Annual Steam Summer sale started today and surprisingly two games featured on the front page are worth talking about. first up is for all of you Naruto/Shippudden fans out there Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution  is 66% off, making it just under $20.00 USD. This game was released on Steam last September. Aside from the large playable roster, playing as Mecha-Naruto is downright odd.

If I remember it right Mecha Naruto can be seen in episodes 376 and 377 of the Anime. The previous game ... Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst is also on sale for much less (under $10.00) 


Naruto Shippudden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution

Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst

The other game was originally a Sony PS3 Exclusive  and received a Windows/PC port to the surprise and joy of many. Valkyria Chronicles, Released in November of last year, can be had for $5.00 USD.  Good game if you like a  military-themed, turn-based strategy game.  I kind of cheating with this one because the Anime was made after the Video game.

At the time of this posting the titles mentioned above will be on sale for the next 40 hours.

Nintendo will be live streaming the 2015 Nintendo World Championships!

The news I was hoping to see and read from Nintendo at some point. Nintendo is live streaming the 2015 Nintendo World Championship Finals  this coming Sunday (6/14).

The #NWC are this Sunday, 6/14! We’ll be kicking off the big event with a Treehouse Live pre-show at 2:35 p.m. PT pic.twitter.com/ErKATxVPfS

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 8, 2015

   They had to give out the times in Pacific Time but I live in Illinois so we have to convert this into Central US time. Which ends up being:

4:35 PM for the Treehouse live show
5:00 PM  for the NWC main event

I'm probably going to have watch the pre-show, to find out who the player from Illinois is. Will be rooting for them to win it of course.  

Impressions on Hi-sCool Seha Girls episodes 2-4 fighting and dancing

I watched the initial episode earlier this year and after putting this series on hold for a good while I decided to continue watching by binge watching the next few episodes. Since each episode is short (just over 11 minutes w/ the intro/outro) it's easier to do than other shows.


The second episode of  Hi-sCool Seha Girls is dedicated to Sega's 3D fighting series "Virtua Fighter". The animators recreate the original graphics and animations. Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive look so much better in comparison. I'm guessing this is why We have CGI main characters. Goes better when the girls go into the other Sega game worlds...

The Otaku No Video kickstarter is raising funds

The funding requirement is considerably lower than what was needed to fund Bubblegum Crisis coming to Blu-ray in North Amerca.  With 20 days left I would be surprised if it doesn't meet the minimum goal.

Today was the Qualifiers for the World Nintendo Championships

The Qualifying rounds for the 2015 Nintendo World Championships were held earlier in the day and  while that in itself is noteworthy the reason why I had to  post about it is that one of Best Buy stores hosting the event is the one in Schaumburg, IL

Sadly I couldn't find anyone live tweeting or Blogging from the event but  I did find this one post from  TechnologyTell.com . Includes photos of potential competitors waiting in in a long line. I've been in a line like that before. Waiting for a video game Midnight release.


One of the few times I actually want to read a live event blog and no one does it. Haha. All that left is to wait until June 14th when the finals happen. Hopefully that will be streamed on Nintendo's Youtube channel.

Nintendo on Humble Bundle but no 1st party games

The main humble bundle going on right now is  for all of you  +Nintendo 3DS and Wii U owners. The official title of the bundle in the Humble Nindie Bundle meaning that is only going to include games made by indie game developers.

The only game I'm really familiar with is Guacamelee which I played on the PC. It's a good action platformer. Mighty Switch Force was developed by Wayforward which I know of from two of their classic remakes.


https://www.humblebundle.com/

Steam is having a Weekend Batman sale

All  the major games in the Arkham series is on sale this weekend on Steam to get you ready for the upcoming Arkham Knight in late June.  Giving any interested gamer a month to get through these games.

The titles included in the sale are: 

Batman Arkham Asylum:  Game of The Year
Batman Arkham City:  Game of The Year
Batman Arkham Origins

At $4.99 each, now would be a good time to pick them up if they aren't part of your library. 
While Batman Arkham Origins doesn't include the DLC like the two other games The add-ons are discounted.

I would definitely recommend that you play through Arkham City before Knight comes out. Not only for the story connection but to get familiar with free flow combat system.    


http://store.steampowered.com/sale/batman/

Fans rally together to fund Bloodstained Ritual of the Night in one day

Surprise to no one except to maybe the publisher that said "No" to Mr. Igarashi. I thought it would definitely be funded but I actually didn't expect it to be the single-day raging fire of interest that it has turned into.

It reached the minimum funding goal by around 1 PM Central US time and then when I check on the page again at around 9:30 PM it was just under 1 Million dollars raised.  

The kickstarter promo video reminds me of a video game commerical from the 1990s.  See the video below.

While the game is already been fully funded and the listed stretch goals have been reached you still have 30 days to decide if you want to be a backer . Especially the tiers where you start receiving  a physical copy and other items.

click here to go to the page

Origin Humble Bundle 2 update - Wing Commander and more added

Had to make a post about this because even more (older) great games got added to the current main deal going on the Humble Bundle site.


If you want a listing of the other games I posted up part 1 last week

Once again you will need EA's Origin digital download client/service to install these games onto your computer. What did EA throw in for those paying for the tier 2 (average) price? Older games as in pre-2000

• Wing Commander III
• Wing Commander IV
• These two Wing Commander games are the famous for having those full motion videos featuring live-actors like Mark Hamil and Malcolm McDowell in the cutscenes. Both titles are space/sci-fi flight shooter from the 1990s. A joystick is highly recommended if you plan to play it. Without a doubt, two high production Space/flight shooter games. 

• Sim City 2000
• The Classic city building/management game from Maxis. I don't think I really need to say too much about this game.  The game  was so popular that it was ported over from the PC to various home consoles of the time. A game originally from 1995.
  
  
• Ultima VII: Complete edition 
• I've never played this game but it does come with a lot of expansions A game from 1992 and the oldest game in the bundle

If you were still on the fence about getting this bundle the Average price to get both tier 1 and  tier 2 games it is hovering around $5.00 USD at the time of this post.  Less than a week left before it ends.

Just watched Battlefront trailer

It's no longer just a tease anymore. It's as real as the movie and scheduled to be released just as soon too.

I'll come out and admit to anyone reading this at 1 minute and 42 seconds into the trailer video I cried serious tears of joy. In-atmosphere Starfighter dogfights, Yes! No Outer Space but in the atmosphere you run the risk of crashing into terrain. X-Wings, TIE Fighters. Call in air strikes Y-wings for rebels and probably TIE Bombers for Imperial side.   

Most of the video was actually land-based combat but I would just spawn in the Starfighters most of the time if that turns out to be an option in the game. 


Here's what I noticed...

• Rebellion vs Galactic Empire
• Rebels had more than just human species on the battlefield 
• There will be different player classes. Trailer was more focused on the Rebel side though
• Fear the Imperial Walkers 
• You can play as Hero/Villain characters like in the previous battlefront games
• Endor, Hoth, Tatooine locations 

What I want to know more about

• What kind of force power implementation is there
• There was a Star Destroyer in the sky, will be like Elite Squadron? 

Watch the Battlefront reveal trailer for yourself ...

I certainly hope this November release date isn't some sort of hurried push  to beat The Force Awakens out the gate, which is coming out in theaters in December. DICE/EA has been receiving some bad press for Battlefield Hardline but I truly hope they make this reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront a good one.

#StarWars #Battlefront (Google Plus test)

EA going to release an info update about the new Star Wars game today

Yesterday something very interesting showed up in my inbox and it was Star Wars related.You're probably thinking it was a page or link about the Force Awakens' 2nd trailer but nope It was about the  Revival of the Battlefront series.

As a refresher since I haven't posted about it on this blog EA has tasked DICE (developers of Battlefield shooter series) with bringing back The Star Wars 3rd person shooter back to current generation consoles and PC. The first video they released were still renders and emphasis on how excited the dev team is to work on Star Wars.

Part of me hopes that they will focus on how they plant to implement vehicles and space combat in the game.  Still, Battlefront on the Frosbite game engine sounds so exciting. We'll find out later today.

The Humble Origin Bundle 2

Going on right now EA has made a fairly good bundle available on the Humble Bundle Website.  Older games and EA's Origin digital download software will be needed to redeem and download most of the games.They do offer a variation on gameplay style. RPG, RTS, FPS, and even casual.  All well known franchises that EA has published from 2002 to 2014.





What you get if you  pay at least a minimum of $1.00 USD or more...

Dragon Age Origins
- The first game in the Western developed fantasy RPG series. Developed by Bioware From 2009. The third game in the series was released last November.

Peggle
-The Casual game in tier one, I have never played this game personally but my cousins and relatives were really into it. Developed by Pop Cap Games and released back in 2007

Dead Space 2
-The Science fiction/Action Horror game. A 3rd person shooter where you had to figure out the enemy's weak point or else end up wasting ammo. Was released in 2011. There are two other main games in the series 

Medal of Honor Allied Assault
-The oldest game in the bundle is this World War II FPS game. The Medal of Honor series was originally the idea of Director  Steven Spielberg and the in-game music was composed by Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2009, Into Darkness, Jupiter Ascending)  and it includes the expansions  along with the base game.



Update: I just checked how much the EA Origin store and if you get it from there the 4 games listed above would cost you around $55.00 USD


Command and Conquer: Generals plus Zero Hour expansion
- A Real Time strategy game from from 2003, You play 3 different factions. USA, China and the GLA. At the time of release could have been considered a modern/present day themed RTS

Torchlight: Going down deeper into depths with the Lady Knight

The lady knight and her faithful white tiger have now reached the "teen" dungeon floors 13-17 and have dueled quite a few notable enemies gaining fame after besting them. getting lower into the dungeon you start to encounter enemies with ranged attacks and spellcasters.

By this point  I switched from weapon and shield to dual wielding swords. To regain some of the defense stats I lost by replacing a shield I have begun augmenting my existing equipment with gems that increase armor points. Purchased and learned the spell of self-healing since mana regenerates over time. Frees up a few blocks of inventory space too.

A feature that I thought would come more useful to me was the sending your pet into town to sell his/her inventory and well my play style is to give my pet all the unidentified item drops to hold onto. I just find it so much easier to open a town portal and sell unwanted items myself. Still nice that it is implemented though. 

Only died once so far in the game but the difficulty has certain gone up since I am nearing level 20 and downward. 

A quick DBZ: R of F thought

Son Goku's new blue hair/aura in the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F trailer is faintly reminding me of another Sayajin character when he charged up...

Broly, back in the older movies. from the 1990s, I forget which ones they are specifically though.

Saint Seiya Soul of Gold - Anime fans in Europe must be really happy

So after watching the first episode which appeared online a few days ago, I'm interested in watching more since it's actually a series about a group other than Seiya, Shun and that cast of characters. I haven't read the Manga (Japanese comic) this is based on so I could be wrong.

The one point of confusion for me is the inclusion of Norse Mythology. Asgard being mentioned a lot in this first episode When was this element added? I know that the original Saint Seiya started with Greek Mythology. Still using the classic series theme of "Brightly burning Cosmos". 

....
There also seems to be a new Saint Seiya video game coming to Sony PlayStation (3 and 4) as well as PC/Windows. Bandai/Namco as of late have been giving Anime/Gaming fans a chance to play Games based on Anime...

• 2 Naruto Shippuden Games
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse
•  yet to be released, One-Piece Warriors 3

There's a good change that the West will get a English version of the game eventually.

After watching other people play Rainbow Six: Siege... still Alpha

First of all I'm kind of surprised that Ubisoft is allowing gameplay footage of a closed alpha build to be broadcast on places like Twitch.tv and Youtube. So far the gameplay looks interesting and definitely a callback to the old Rainbow six style of gameplay. Add it the heavy emphasis on destructible doors, windows and plaster walls.


 Centerstrain01 had a very strange experience when the game wouldn't turn off the remote/robot camera view and he had to navigate his way when this graphical glitch happened

You can watch it for yourself about 2 and a half minutes into the video.


In another instance I was watching another Internet gaming personality  Angryjoeshow live stream a Rainbow Six Siege stream session and his player-character actually spawned inside one of the walls in the "House" map.

At leas we see that the multiplayer is playable but still very buggy.

Replaying the original Torchlight with some add-ons

Torchlight 1 is a game is a game I bought once the retail edition was available. That was around 2010. When it was being released by Encore. Played the game Vanquisher (ranger-style). Remember reaching the final floors of the main dungeon but I just kept on getting overwhelmed at the final boss battle. Over and over again.

Starting over from the start with a new character on Normal difficulty

The Starting Armor doesn't look intimidating at all. lol.

So which community made modifications did I decide to try out?

Someone is trying to resurrect the Descent series...

Via Kickstarter! Something that was brought to my attention via a Titter post.  The problem is that the funding is only just over 50% with only 6 days left before  the end of the fund raising period.

I've actually only ever played the  the first two games and really liked them. In short they felt like "Doom in Zero-G". You are flying this spaceship through tunnels and corridors trying to fight off enemy ships and other machines, while trying to pick up various powerups and locating the exit to each level.

The series eventually spun off into a series called Freespace? Which made it feel more like Wing Commander or X-Wing.


It seems that the game has been approved by steam Greenlight, so the game may come out at some point just with less polish due the lack of Kickstarter funds.  Using the Unreal Engine. See the video posted on Youtube.

The link to the kickstarter page can be found here.

Just finished: Blood Lad

You could say that this was somewhat influenced by either Underworld or Twilight because we have a Vampire as a main character and his nearest rival is a Werewolf gang leader.  The Vampire race seems to be the most powerful  in this Blood Lad universe.

My favorite thing aside from the various Gamer and Anime references is probably the power that Bell controls. She can create and view portals that allow her to travel or send things long distances.  Speaking of Anime references, in one episode there was a moment where Staz tries to launch a Kamehameha (from DBZ) Probably one of the few times I've seen one Fighting Anime show aware of another fighting Anime show! Staz being an Anime fan he praises Son Goku. Haha. Good to hear that May'n is still performing OP theme songs for Anime.

Just a few thoughts on the passing on Monty Oum

The first time I ever saw or read about one of his works was when the premiere episode of Dead Fantasy was releasead and featured on GameTrailers. The short description caught my attention. Mixing Final Fantasy  and Dead or Alive characters and have them fight each other.

 I thought it was an amazing piece of fan work.  Yuna, Riku, Ayane, Kasumi. Using skills based on actual video game moves gave it an authentic feel and then the 2nd part/episode just blew me away with How Tifa showed up.


He accomplished something that great with RWBY. Going  from fan film maker to creating something that is recognized by Anime fans in a good way. Even getting picked up on streaming services  like Netflix (US) and Crunchyroll.

This is also a reminder for me. I know some people who have food allergies and I can't and shouldn't eat certain foods/ingredients around them.

Flow's take on the DBZ opening theme song -music video

I was on Youtube hoping to listen to this Japanese band's song called "Days". An opening song from Eureka Seven when I saw  one of the related videos was "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" .The first opening song to Dragon Ball Z.

It's good and definitely sounds a lot cleaner than listening to the original 1989 version!

Results of my AvP Classic 2000 multiplayer session

So I was able to join the event for an hour or so. Fired up my install of Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000  I went on trying to join servers and  some of them were listed as having open player slots from the max of 8 but they were already full!  Not sure if that 8 max  is a limitation of the original game or GOG Galaxy Multiplayer servers

Ended up just hosting a Multiplayer game. Set the game for  (No teams) death match and the Meat Factory map. I like it because it's indoors and has lots of windows for observing or sniping (for preadtor species)  There were quite a few times when I would spawn right next to or "inside" of another player lol..


The only issue during the game was a player matter and not a technical one. Someone was really annoyed by the smartgun and marine pulse rifle and actually rage quit!  Still had fun. Died a ton, won a few too.

Looks like I will helping Stress Test GOG servers tomorrow

GOG aka Good Old Games posted this on their website... They are trying to stress test their Online Multiplayer servers tomorrow Feb 12, 2015.

If you live in the Central Time Zone like me then  the start time converts to 10:00 AM.

three games are listed ...

• AVP Classic 2000
• The Witcher Adventure Game
• Double Dragon Trilogy 

You'll find me playing AVP / Aliens Vs Predator. Not sure if I will be hosting or not.

Probably want to  to run the game/ Galaxy Client a little beforehand just to make sure you don't have any pending GOG Galaxy launcher/game updates to download and install.

The many faces of Lara Croft -from Twitter

It's really interesting to see how Lara's face has changed through the years. I'm especially noticing the skin tone and hair style.

Moore's law visualized through the evolution of Lara Croft pic.twitter.com/X2IJ4KH82A
— elena silenok (@silenok) January 31, 2015

From 1996 to present...

Some of the best Star Wars games in one bundle

Part of the Star Wars (Episode VII)  Force for Change  initiative Pay for games at a discount and fund a good cause (Unicef). These are for Windows PC/ Steam/Digital Downloads.



===Tier 1===
Knights of The Old Republic
Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy
Dark Forces

The first Tier requiring a min payment of 1 USD, Knights of the Old Republic is an RPG game that came before The Old Republic MMO. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows you to wield A lightsaber and force powers. Used to play this a lot over LAN.




===Tier II====
Battlefront II
Knight of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Republic Commando



===Tier III===
Empire at War (+ Forces of Corruption expansion)
Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition
Force Unleashed II

Empire at War was the Real Time Strategy game where you could lead the Rebel Alliance or Galactic Empire to victory. The Force Unleashed games  are supercharged version of Jedi Academy.  Better graphics and in-game physics engine.



This would be an excellent way to get some of the best Star Wars Games that (now defunct) Lucasarts published prior to closing down shop. I already own a lot of these games on physical media or from Steam via individual purchases

Over a Week left before this bundle expires.

Those Capsule Corp sneakers look cool

Something that I found out about via a Twitter post...

I've never heard of this brand name before ( Heredia Clothing) but according to their Twitter Page The company is based in Mexico? Anyway the ad is 30 seconds long  and features 3 pairs of sneakers themed around 3 specific Dragon Ball Z characters.

• Son Goku usual blue and orange fighting attire
• Vegeta's Saiyan armor
• Future Trunks' outfit except take away the jacket, save the Capsule Corp patch

Since I can't really find an online website for this company it must be restricted to sales in Mexico? Unless a resident there puts a pair up on E-bay or something.

 

Need a large coin to play this Pacman game

I was cruising around Youtube and this ad from Bud Light came up prior to the main video.  I was going to skip the ad after 5 seconds but I recognized the (pacman) sound effect at the start of the video. Part of Bud Light's #Upforwhatever series of ads.

It takes 3 people to put this oversized coin into the giant arcade machine slot.

Due to what the ad is promoting, I will not embed the video into my blog just hop onto Youtube and type in  Real Life Pacman into the search box. Youtube Channel is Bud Light and the video has  just about 12 Million views. While I don't drink liquor the gaming content of the ad is really cool.  Probably going to see again come the Big Game.  

Blood Lad episode 3 thoughts

The journey in the Demon world continues... Staz looking for a way to revive our female protagonist. We meet a new character, The metal-pipe wielding wolf demon. In his base form he reminds so much of that one Soul Society captain  from Bleach.  Except in street clothes and add bracer? armor on one arm.

 I couldn't stop myself from laughing when the "Taxi" of the demon world arrived on the scene. Probably my favorite part of this episode.


pictures and questions after the break

Hold off on watching Co-optitude episode 77 Due to Legend of Korra Season 4 spoilers

Co-Optitude is a Youtube web series where the Day siblings  play video and computer games  on a sofa. On the latest episode they Play Super Mario 3D World  with a guest. Legend of Korra voice actress, Janet Varney.  So hold off watching this video until after you finish Legend of Korra.


The spoiler happens within the first minute of the video so yeah. Both visual and oral spoiler so. At least the folks at Geek and Sundry put a spoiler warning on the  video info/details area.  As far as the actual gameplay goes. It's Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.

Blood Lad - Only 10 episodes, seen two so far

My main reason for watching this series is because of its short episode count  at a mere 10 episodes. A really odd number for a TV show, which has me quite wary of the fact that this Anime may possibly have no resolution at all! That would be terrible.  This number count would be more normal for an OVA series released over several Months. Makes me really wonder if this show didn't get good ratings in Japan or something...


I kind of like the male Protagonist Staz.  He's a vampire or some other type of blood sucking demon as he doesn't really catch fire or glow when exposed to Sunlight. His quirk is that he's a bit of a Anime/Gaming Fanboy. In episode two there's actually a part where Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior 1 gets referenced.

Staz drinking a Refreshment

Started Watching: Hi Scool Seha Girls

I got done watching the first episode of the show and it's actually kind of fun if you owned or know of Sega's gaming history before they stopped making Video Game consoles. I love how they introduce Dreamcast and go one my selling points is that I can access the Internet.

Sega DremCast girl reminds me way too much of the Space Channel Five protagonist. The first episode introduced only some of the personified Sega gaming consoles... DreamCast, Saturn, Mega Drive ( What Genesis is called in Japan and Europe.) Looks like the next Episode will be dealing with the fighting game Virtua Fighter. I owned this game on the PC. Akira and that Ninja dude were my preferred fighters.

So I pick a show from 2014 to start watching it's very Retro/Historical. One Down 12 more eps to go.

New Year Resolution 2015: Watch more Anime

Maybe I should clarify by stating that I should watch more recent Anime  because aside from watching the new Sailor Moon (Crystal) and  few first episodes from some 2014 shows I really didn't complete any  "Current Anime" shows at all. 

I mainly watched a few shows from 2013 and rewatched some of my personal favorites from years before. I recently finished watching Ramen/Noodle Fighter Miki. I will probably make another post about that show in a few days. 

A friend of mine did give me a recommendation for Akame ga Kill.  I don't know anything about the show and all my friend really said about the show is that I may find it quite confusing at points.