Count_Zero

A while back I reviewed the Log Horizon anime. Since then, I’ve also decided to start reading the Log Horizon novels as well. First off is the first volume in the series. Log Horizon, at first glance, appears to be like the standard “Trapped in the MMO” game, but as covered in my review of the show – the dynamic of removing death’s sting does a lot to change the dynamics of the genre in a lot of respects. The first book is a more conventional adventure story set immediately after The Calamity trapped everyone in the world of the game. The book almost exclusively follows Shirou as a point of view character, as the population of The World tries to adapt to the situation they’ve found themselves in, and Shirou starts collecting the first members of his group of allies – Akatsuki (aka Tiny Ninja), and Naotsugu. The perspective shifts slightly on occasion to Serara, as she sees how society in Susukino is collapsing and meets Nyanta. The novel and the anime have some very pronounced shifts aside from adjustments to the point-of-view characters. In the anime, there is a clearly accessible HUD in the game world. By comparison, characters in the anime cannot access the HUD. Further, in the show, while in some flashbacks we see the game played in a Mouse & Keyboard format, the implication from the character’s experiences with the HUD is that the game had, at least for a little bit, been playable in VR. In the books, on the game has always been played Mouse & Keyboard style. This leads to another societal wrinkle – monsters are scary. Death may have not metaphorical sting, but fighting monsters hurts, and facing down a dragon is psychologically easier when you’re looking through a computer screen, instead of when it’s big as life. Other than that, the book is fairly strong. The big Three – Shirou, Naotsugu and Tiny Ninja – are fleshed out fairly early, and with it is their character dynamic. This is the case both with their character relationships, and the idea that Naotsugu and Shirou have worked together in the past and know each other IRL, while Akatsuki has played with the two before, but isn’t friends in the same way, and thus she feels a little awed at how well they work together. The book also starts laying the groundwork for some of the concepts that will be important in the next plot – the malaise filling Akiba, the state of the food, and so on, though it doesn’t quite set up what the real narrative thrust of the series will be in subsequent works. Log Horizon volume 1 is available from Amazon.com and RightStuf. Filed under: Books Tagged: fantasy, Fantasy Literature, light novels, Log Horizon

The Cloud Roads created a very interesting and narratively distinct fantasy world – one that was very different than most of the other works of fantasy that I’d read, and which had a fairly clear sequel hook. So, I was ready almost right away to move on to the next work in the series. The book starts fairly soon after the conclusion of The Cloud Roads, with the remainder of the Indigo Cloud court heading for their new home. They reach their home – the old lair of Indigo Cloud, a giant tree. However, on their arrival, they discover that the tree’s seed has been stolen, and they have to get it back before the tree dies. The first book had an interesting exploration of Raksuran culture as Moon came into Indigo Cloud for the first time. In this book, we get our first look at inter-court interactions, as Indigo Cloud is not the only Raksuran court in the area, and they have to deal with another court in the area. We also go into some additional world building in hunting down the seed, as members of Indigo Cloud end up heading for another groundling settlement in search of the seed. The settlement in question being on a leviathan – a swimming creature. Now, this already caught the interest of my inner DM in terms of interesting adventure ideas – one set on the inside of a giant tree, and the other set around (and possibly inside) a city on the back of a monstrous creature. While the setting stays unique, the narrative is a little more conventional – in this case something that begins as a heist – stealing back the seed – and ends up turning into something dramatically more involved. If I have a complaint, it’s that the power structure of the City on the Leviathan is very important to the story, and while the narrative gets into it in parts, it’s only where the politics falls into contact with the magical and ecological side of things – that the Leviathan can be controlled and how it can be controlled. The story doesn’t get into the groups of people who disagree over what should be done with that control and why they feel that way. Now, as far as the Raksura are concerned, that part doesn’t matter, as some of them aren’t really that concerned about the City and what happens to it. However, considering one of Moon’s defining traits is that he has learned how to blend into groundling society and feel out the local politics so he can pass among the people without making waves or getting into trouble – I would have thought this would have come up more often. Though, on the other hand, with the more focused exploration of Raksuran society with Indigo Cloud’s interactions with the other court, I supposed that from a time standpoint it couldn’t be helped. Filed under: Books Tagged: Books, Books of the Raksura, fantasy, Martha Wells

Before the final battle, we tour our ship. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

I saw the latest installment of the Legendary Films Godzilla Cinematic Universe! Here are my thoughts (mostly spoiler free) on Kong: Skull Island. Please refrain from spoilers until 4/15/2016, to give people at least a month to see the film. Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: film, videos Tagged: film, Godzilla, Legendary Pictures Monsterverse, vlog

Let’s Play Mass Effect 3: Part 63 – “…serene in their assurance of empire over matter.” At long last, we take down Kai Leng. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

Thus far, the three shows in the Type-Moon universe that I’ve covered: Fate/Stay Night (F/SN), Fate/Zero, and Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) have been two-cour shows – spending 24 episodes to tell their story. In the case of F/SN and UBW, they have each adapted one route from the first Fate game – with the former title dropping a few elements of UBW in to give Rider a little screen time. However, Fate was not Type-Moon’s first game. Before this came Tsukihime, which set up elements that came up later in F/SN and Fate/Zero, and it too received an anime adaptation, one that came out prior to the release of F/SN – and with only a single cour (12 episodes). The question then becomes, how well can it tell its story in half the length? The answer is… not as well. The show follows Shiki Tohno, a young man who was nearly killed in a traumatic car accident 8 years prior to the start of the series. That accident damaged his memory, and left him with the ability to see lines at which things will break when they die or are destroyed, and with it nexuses that can be struck to break things. To avoid being driven mad by these lines, he’s received special magic glasses from a mage that will repress this ability. Also following this accident, Shiki moved in with his aunt and uncle instead of living at the main house. Immediately prior to the start of the series, Shiki’s father dies, and his younger sister and the current head of the family, Akiha, has him move back into the main house. While settling in to pace of life at the main house, he ends up discovering that families as old as his have some deep, dark secrets. Further, while all of this is going on, a vampire (or someone like a vampire, called a Dead Apostle) is attacking people through the town, and Shiki ends up joining forces with an attractive female semi-vampire named Arcueid (Arc for short), to find this vampire. So, if that sounds super-cluttered, that’s because it is. The game this show is adapting has not 3 routes, like Fate, but five. There are three for the Tohno household – Akiha, and the family’s two maids Hisui and Kohaku – and two for Arc and Shiki’s classmate Ciel. The household and external routes interact some, but not entirely, with Arc not showing up in some routes entirely. The show takes the decision to basically mash most of these routes together, so the important story mysteries get covered – Arc’s hunt for the vampire, and Shiki’s investigation of the history of his family. On the one hand, this leads to most of the loose ends getting tied up. However, because the show only has 12 episodes to tell its story in, nothing is tied up satisfactorily. This also hurts characterization, which is curtailed, meaning that a lot of characters don’t get the development they need to be fleshed out for the audience. Further, while I can’t speak for the game, the need to focus so strongly on the story means that there barely any humor in this show. Even the most dark and dour of the Fate series, Fate/Zero, had some very funny moments. Here, moments of levity are few and far between. To the show’s credit, the other Fate series covered over any sense of sex or sexuality related to the characters. Here, while we don’t get any sort of involved sex scene, the romantic relationship we see in this show doesn’t feel like it has to keep it chaste, something that even fanservice-heavy romantic comedy series like To-Love-RU feel like they have to do. I really appreciate that, and it gives the story a sense that it handles sexuality in an actually mature fashion. There are rumors that the visual novel that the show is based on is due for a remake with some updated graphics and an added route. Watching the show, I get the feeling that this anime would almost merit from a re-make more. Type-Moon’s universe has established itself considerably more as a successful franchise, so hopefully a new series would get the runtime it needs to tell its story well. Tsukhime is available on DVD from Amazon.com and RightStuf. Filed under: Anime, Reviews Tagged: Anime, anime review, Type-Moon

Mushibugyo is a series that has a real issue with tonal whiplash. There are anime series that have mixed creepy elements and comedy with tremendous effect – Ghost Hunt is an anime series adapted from a light novel with some strong comedy elements, which doesn’t overlook the creepier and more horrific elements of the narrative, with a well done escalation into further horror. Mushibugyo doesn’t do that. Mushibugyo starts off with super-colorful characters, an over-enthusiastic and incredibly dense shonen protagonist, and numerous fanservice jokes, but which also contains some surprisingly horrific elements created to the show’s primary menace. The show is set in an alternate Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate, where the country is terrorized by Mushi, giant insect monsters which kill anyone in their path. To fight against them, the Shogun institutes a patrol to fight against these creatures, underneath the Insect Magistrate (the titular Mushibugyo). This leads to our protagonist, Jinbei Tsukishima, the main character, who basically shonen protagonist #3. He’s hot-blooded, he’s got a long spiky hairstyle, complete with idiot hair that sticks so far in front of his face that he could be an anglerfish. He’s more enthusiastic and energetic than Naruto, denser than Tatewaki Kuno, and more desperate to prove himself than Deku. Consequently, this makes him as annoying as hell. The rest of the team is a little better. There’s Shungiku Koikawa, a hard drinking, hard fighting, brawler of a swordsman who killed 99 people to find out who killed his mother, before joining the Office of the Insect Magistrate. There’s Tenma Ichinotani, an onmyoji with paper familiars, who is young enough to be in Middle School (at least in contemporary Japan), and who is deathly afraid of insects. There’s Mugai, the cool, calm collected samurai with stoic demeanor and a dark and mysterious past. Finally, there’s Hibachi, the only woman of the team, a ninja who specializes in explosives and bombs, who seeks to prove herself because her clan doesn’t pass these techniques on to women (due to the fact that the Japanese name for this technique is a slang term for the testes), and who is hyper-sensitive about the fact that she has a flat chest. In short, the show’s cast is a collection of very stock, rote archetypes that could have been rolled on a “Random Shonen Anime/Manga Character” table. What kept me watching through the whole show was, frankly, the bugs. The show made the bugs look and feel legitimately creepy, and that they were a real menace that the public needed the forces of the Office of the Insect Magistrate to defend against. They rip through civilians in a gruesome fashion, and while the protagonists never have a really significant failure – losing a city or a district to the monsters, the animation gets across the menace of these threats without throwing a ton of redshirt characters in their way to get massacred. This also leads to why you’ve never heard of this show, and why it hasn’t gotten a second season in spite of the ongoing manga still being in publication – or rather, the adaptation of the original manga which came out in 2009, and which got a new adaptation in 2011 which is still going. In short, the reason you haven’t heard of it is because the first episoe of this show came out literally the day before: Seriously, when dealing with giant monster rampaging monster versus overmatched human shows, most people would likely go with Attack on Titan – and most people did go with Attack on Titan. The premise was novel, the setting was inventive, the stakes were higher, and the characters got fleshed out more before being brutally murdered. In short, it hit it off better in Japan and in the us than Mushibugyo did, which also probably explains why, at present, Mushibuyo was only licensed for streaming on Crunchyroll, and has yet to receive a US home DVD release. The show got DVD and Blu-Ray releases in Japan, and the single-volume Blu-Ray releases are incredibly cheap, but I’m not sure if they have English subtitles. Keep that under consideration if you decide to pick up a copy. Filed under: Anime, Television Tagged: Anime, anime review, shonen, TV

We launch our attack on The Illusive Man and Cerebus. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

This time we cover the conclusion of Marvel’s original comic run. Opening Credits: Star Wars Theme from Super Star Wars on the SNES. Closing Credits: Chiptune Cantina Band from Chiptune Inc. – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJtiGFudFlvYMfjiU1NKJg Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: comics, Star Wars, videos Tagged: comics, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Star Wars Expanded Universe

We continue our pursuit of Kai Leng, and discover what Cerberus wants the Catalyst for. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise has been interesting when it comes the Magical Girl genre of anime. The original series was something of a conventional Magical Girl vs. Dark Magical Girl show, like the Pretty Cure franchise, with the difference being that the battles between Nanoha and her opposite number, Fate, played out a lot like a superhero fight. The later series played up this concept, with the second series, Nanoha As setting up a battle of superhero teams (or superhero and super-anti-hero teams), with Nanoha, Fate, Arf, taking on a team of opponents with more-or-less similar abilities. The series also played down the school adventure side of the traditional magical girl story, with Nanoha’s school friends, who were very much a prominent part of the narrative for the first series, being pushed to the side very early. Nanoha StrikerS dumps the “civilian life” side of the equation entirely, with series protagonists Nanoha Takamachi & Fate Testarossa working as, basically, state-sponsored superheroes, and spending all of the series well away from Earth. Previous series had introduced the Time Space Administration Bureau (or TSAB), the bureaucracy behind it, and that the government that it answers to is based on a world called Mid-Childa. StrikerS spends almost the entirety of it’s runtime there. The premise of the series is that it’s set a little over 10 years after the events of Nanoha As, which would put Nanoha and Fate in their early-to-mid 20s. Nanoha and Fate have become part of a special unit as part of the TSAB, lead by Hayate, the befriended antagonist of As. The objective of the unit is to hunt down Lost Logia, lost pieces of magitech which can be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. As part of this unit, Nanoha, Fate, and the Wolkenritter (Hayate’s now-less-dark Magical Girl superteam from As), are also training another team of, for lack of a better term, Magical Superheroes. From a narrative position this setup puts the audience in an amazing position to see how the protagonists who we’ve followed through the last two series have matured, and it’s certainly successful at that. In particular, Fate and Nanoha have become the de-facto parental figures for two kids who are now part of their unit, Erio and Caro. While they were not actually adopted by Fate, they were adopted by Fate’s stepmother – Lindy, with Fate helping to raise them in a maternal/older sister role. This leads to Fate & Nanoha. The writing of the first two series loosely implied that the two were homosexual. StrikerS, on the other hand, strongly implies that the two are in relationship with as strong a subtext as you can get without actively crossing over into text – like, stronger than the handhold in Legend of Korra. The new protagonists, Erio, Caro, Subaru, and Teana, are generally well written, and have really strong chemistry. Erio and Caro, and Subaru and Teana have some romantic chemistry, which is read stronger for me with Subaru and Teana. The overall story of the series serves to bring back together some plot threads going back to the original series. Hayate’s team, Riot Force 6, ends up coming into conflict with a mad magical scientist named Jail Scaglietti, who has been engaging in genetic engineering to create artificial mages and cyborgs for combat. The research he’s working on is similar to that that was done by Fate’s birth mother, Precia, in her attempts to raise her deceased daughter, Alicia from the dead – work that lead to the creation of Fate. The level of conflict here is nice and personal, and gives the conflict a strong direct tie to our protagonists that makes up for the lack of any real civilian life our heroes have. That said, the animation doesn’t quite back up the story. This is a 2007 anime from studio Seven Arcs, who animated the earlier Nanoha series, along with the Triangle Heart OVA, and somehow, I can’t quite say why, but the animation here doesn’t feel quite right. The Digicel animation feels a little overly flat and stilted, particularly towards the end of the series. Now, it’s been awhile since I watched the first two shows, and maybe they’re just as bad, but with this series it feels like it stands out more, especially towards the end of the show. There are also some weird decisions with the animation that seem to make little sense. The show cuts around some early stages of some very emotionally significant fights later in the series, showing the aftermath of the action instead of the action. Now, when we hit the climaxes of those fights, we see the full conclusion, but with this particular fight, the early stage was really important, and it was really disappointed with the fact that we didn’t get a chance to see it. There are some issues with the costume design. The designs for the TSAB staff, and Riot Squad 6 are fine. However, there is Jail Scaglietti’s team of combat cyborgs, The Numbers. They wear these skin-tight outfits that leave as little to the imagination as the animation budget will allow, without actually showing skin. It’s the kind of outfit that 90s comics were mocked for putting female characters in, with boob socks and precisely defined butt-cheeks. The plugsuits in Evangelion didn’t go nearly as far in their form-fitting nature. I enjoyed the show enough to finish it, but it was the characters who kept me coming back for the rest of the show, and in particular the fact that I’d come to appreciate these characters and their stories through the last two series. If it wasn’t for the writing and the characters, I probably would have dropped the show due to my issues with the animation. That said, with how the show wraps up, considering the fourth series, Nanoha Vivid (focusing on a character that Fate and Nanoha adopt in this series), has not yet gotten a US release, StrikerS does make for a decent conclusion to the Nanoha series. Nanoha Strikers had gotten a brief DVD release by Bandai USA, and is now available for streaming through Amazon Prime as part of their Anime Strike package. Filed under: Anime, Reviews Tagged: Anime, anime review, magical girl genre, Nanoha franchise

Fate/Stay Night, as a visual novel, had a several routes the player could take through the game. The original F/SN anime adapted the Fate route, with the inclusion of some elements of the Unlimited Blade Works route, with varying degrees of success. After Ufotable’s successful adaptation of Gen Urobuchi’s novel, Fate/Zero, there was question of what it would look like if they were to adapt one of the routes of the game, and in particular the Unlimited Blade Works route in its entirety. Two years ago, we got that adaptation. As with the original series, the show follows Emiya Shirou, Rin Tohsaka, and Saber (Arturia Pendragon) as they make their way through the fifth Holy Grail War, and in the process deal with some of the aftermath of the fourth war, as seen in Fate/Zero. The route itself shifts by shifting the narrative focus from just Shirou and Saber (and Saber’s background), to putting equal weight on Rin as a dual protagonist. With that, instead of focusing on Saber’s backstory, we instead focus on Archer’s backstory as a Heroic Spirit, and his connection to Shirou. In addition, because Ufotable also adapted Fate/Zero, and because Fate/Zero came out after Deen’s adaptation of the Fate route, this series takes the opportunity to go into the particulars of the previous Grail War, and how it effects the participants of this one, in a way that the Deen series couldn’t. The character dialog and motivations get a bit of a touch-up because of this. In particular, when Shirou re-affirms his personal philosophy later in the series, it makes sense through what he’s gone through that he’d continue down that route, though with mindset that because he’s informed by the information another character gives him, he’ll use that to try to avoid those mistakes. Ufotable’s animation fits with their usual high marks, to the point that when they ran into financial issues and ran into some quality hits towards the third quarter of the series, I really didn’t notice. Their writing and animation also gives some of the characters who are more background characters more life then they would have received otherwise. In particular, the character of Sakura, who is basically your standard wallflower in the Deen series, has much more energy to her, while still keeping her traits as a semi-Yamato Nadeshiko. That said, some of the comedic elements of the Deen series are more downplayed. As an example, there is a scene in the Deen anime where Shirou and Rin are fighting at school. Shirou runs down a flight of stairs, and Rin leaps down in pursuit. In the Deen version, Shirou nearly wipes out, and as Rin leaps after him, he points out that she needs to be careful because of her skirt. Rin panics and checks her skirt on her descent, ultimately nearly wiping out herself – and leading to her having a strong Tsundere reaction as she continues her pursuit. In this series, the entire chase is played completely straight. Unfortunately, as with Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works got a US release by Aniplex, which means the show is going to cost you an arm and a leg, with the DVD release costing you approaching around $80 each for Season 1 and Season 2 on RightStuf – which is still considerably cheaper than it would cost to buy it on Amazon. Filed under: Anime, Reviews, Television Tagged: Anime, anime review, Fate franchise, Type-Moon

Cerebus is attacking a communications facility – it’s time to drive them off. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

I’m continuing my reviews of the books in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series with the third book, and the most recent book to date – Endurance. Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: Books, videos Tagged: Anime, Books, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, science fiction

We head to Thessia to find a Prothean artifact. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

This past week had the 2017 DICE Awards. I have a few thoughts on the awards. On the one hand, the DICE Awards, being a juried award similar to the Academy Awards (but one where alcohol is served like the Golden Globes), didn’t have any particularly cringe-worthy stunts or overly crass attempts of humor like, for example, the VGAs and The Game Awards have had. On the other hand, we had two MCs, Greg Miller and Vanessa Chobot who had no chemistry, with Vanessa taking the awards with what felt like the appropriate amount gravitas, and Greg feeling like he was hosting The Game Awards. The rest of the presentation of the awards are what you would expect if watching an awards show, particularly an awards show put on by people who aren’t entertainers. The presentation for the awards is much more variable than your conventional awards show, with some presenters, like Matt & Erin Bozan (the head and art director of Waypoint Games, developers of the Shantae games) being incredibly entertaining, and others (Randy Pitchford in particular) being rather grating. Several awards were announced in video packages. Unlike these compilation packages at at the Game Awards, all of the nominees get mentioned, rather than just mentioning the winners. To get the nominees and winners out of the way (winners are in italics): Best Action Game: Doom, Battlefield One, Overwatch, Gears 4, Titanfall 2. Family Game of the Year: Dragon Quest Builders, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rachet and Clank, Rock Band Rivals, Super Mario Maker (3DS). Outstanding Achievement in Character: Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare (Nick Reyes), Firewatch (Delilah & Henry), The Last Guardian (Trico), Uncharted IV (Nathan Drake). Outstanding Achievement in Story: Firewatch; Inside; Oxenfree; That Dragon, Cancer; Uncharted 4. Hall of Fame: Todd Howard of Bethesda Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Inside (focus in package is on death animations), The Last Guardian, Overwatch, Street Fighter V, Uncharted 4. Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Battlefield 1, Firewatch, Inside, The Last Guardian, Uncharted 4. Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay: Battlefield 1, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, The Division. Outstanding Technical Achievement: Battlefield 1, No Man’s Sky, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, Uncharted 4. Best Handheld Game: Dragon Quest Builders, Fire Emblem Fates, Kirby Planet Robobot, Pokemon Sun & Moon, Severed. Best Mobile Game: Clash Royale, Crashlands, Gardenscapes – New Acres, Pokemon Go, Reigns. Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Abzu, Battlefield 1, Doom, The Last Guardian, Titanfall 2. Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Battlefield 1, Inside, The Last Guardian, Quantum Break, Uncharted 4. Best Strategy/Simulation Game: The Banner Saga 2, Deus Ex Go, Fire Emblem Fates, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, X-Com 2. Best RPG/MMO: Dark Souls 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Hyper Light Drifter, The Division, WoW: Legion. Immersive Reality Technical Achievement: Eagle Flight, I Expect You To Die, Job Simulator the 2050 Archives, Superhot VR, Tilt Brush. Best Immersive Reality Game: Eagle Flight, I Expect You To Die, Job Simulator, The Lab, Superhot VR. Best Sports Game: FIFA 17, Madden 17, MLB The Show 16, NBA 2K17, Steep. Winner: Steep. Best Racing Game: Driveclub VR, Forza Horizon 3. Fighting Game of the Year: UFC 2, Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-, Killer Instinct Season 3, Pokken Tournament, Street Fighter V. Best Adventure Game: Firewatch, Inside, King’s Quest, The Last Guardian, Uncharted 4. DICE Sprite Award for Independent Games: 1979 Revolution – Black Friday, Firewatch, Inside, Superhot, That Dragon – Cancer. Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: I Expect You To Die, Inside, Overwatch, Owlboy, Uncharted 4. Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction: 1979 Revolution – Black Friday (I need to play that game), Battlefield 1, Inside, The Last Guardian, Uncharted 4. Game of the Year: Battlefield 1, Inside, Overwatch, Pokemon Go, Uncharted 4. The video package for Inside in the Outstanding Achievement in Animation category put a particular focus on the death animations, which makes sense, since as with Limbo, they were noted for their brutality. Most of the nominees I couldn’t particularly disagree with, though there were some exceptions. The selection of nominees for Best Racing game felt really thin, with Driveclub VR feeling like it was nominated because they had to nominate something else in that category. It feels like perhaps that category should have been placed on hold for a year. I also have problems with the lineup of nominees for Fighting Game of the Year, considering the state that Street Fighter V was in for much of the year, the step down in quality that UFC 2 was compared to the first installment, and the fact that Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel was not nominated at all. It was surprising to see That Dragon, Cancer leave the show empty handed. On the one hand, when it won Best Indy Game at the Game Awards, Inside wasn’t out yet. On the other hand, the power of the story that game tells was enough that documentary filmmakers made films about the making of the game. That said, this is a juried award. As John Scalzi pointed out earlier this week when the Nebula Award nominees were released, there are no such thing as an automated award nomination, and my favorite games not getting nominated doesn’t mean that they were slubbed. I can be surprised by choices, and I can disagree with choices, in some cases strongly as far as Street Fighter V is concerned, but that doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy against Anime-influenced fighting games. Considering Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- made the list, that’s clearly not the case. It’s not that the nominees are objectively wrong. With perhaps one exception – The Best Racing category should have taken a break. When you have to add a game with some dramatic issues like Driveclub VR (watch Giant Bomb’s VRodeo on Driveclub VR to see that) to the list just to make sure you have a second choice, then you don’t have enough nominees to make it worth having as a category that year. Filed under: News, Video games Tagged: DICE Awards, News, Video games

To get this out of the way first – the twist for this film has been spoiled to death. I’d say it probably was spoiled in its entirety well before I was born. On the one hand, this means that the film’s ending has lost some of its punch, as we all know it’s coming. On the other hand, this means that when you come into the film, since you know the twist is coming, you also know to look for the clues for the twist in the story, and generally pay more attention to the film itself. So, the movie, on its own, is alright. The film follows an Earth expedition (presumably from the US), to a planet in the constellation Bellatrix, using an experimental FTL drive, allowing them to get to the planet a manner of months instead of years, though Time Dilation will still occur, meaning that by the time they arrive, it will be the fourth Millennia on Earth. This also is where the film runs into issues very early. I get, considering the mission is launched 10 seconds in the future, that the planet in question was not scouted for habitability before the mission is launched. What I don’t get is the fact that this mission seemed to have little to no serious planning. The mission is a one-way trip, with the crew having to colonize and populate an alien world by themselves. However, the crew is made up of four people – three men and one woman. This is iffy on several respects, both in terms of the depth (or rather lack of depth) of the gene pool of this population, combined with some rather iffy sexual power dynamics. Additionally, it seems like the crew seems to not have gotten a psych evaluation for compatability. Charlton Heston’s character, Taylor, begins as an obnoxious prick, whose interactions with his other crew members are made up entirely of mockery and ridicule of his crew members. While this allows for some character growth as he makes his way through the film, having the character start out as an asshole does him no favors. Where the film gets interesting is after Taylor and his companions land and are captured by the Apes, in particular due to Taylor’s throat being injured during his capture. We see how Taylor, and the other humans, are perceived by the Apes, particularly through the eyes of Dr. Zira and Dr. Cornelius (played by Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowell, respectively), two chimpanzee scientists who are focusing their research on humans. The Ape settlement is an interesting and well done set – with a distinct form or architecture that is both familiar, but also very visually different than most human settlements. The makeup in the film is, on the one hand, very iconic. On the other hand, it runs into the issues that other 1960s films with full face prosthetics run into – a loss of expression due to how heavy and inflexible the makeup materials are. I enjoyed the narrative exploration of Ape Society, and how Taylor reacts to it (and how it reacts to Taylor). However, the twist doesn’t feel earned. There is nothing to set up its reveal until very late in the film, aside from a handful of points (the presence of Earth primates and humans, compatible blood chemistry). A good twist, while it isn’t telegraphed a mile away, on repeat viewings has some clues that it up for the audience, once they know what to look for. Additionally, the “It was Earth All Along” was already a hoary old chestnut when Planet of the Apes came out. Women of the Prehistoric Planet (as seen on MST3K) came out two years prior, and had the same twist, and several short stories published in science fiction magazines (including one published in Galaxy, written by Richard Matheson) also used that twist. It resonates, but in terms of 50s-60s SF, it does come close to being the equivalent of “And his eyes open…” and “hand claws out of the rubble” in terms of being a stock concept. If the rest of the film wasn’t as enjoyable, the twist would have fallen flat. Due to the film’s historical significance, and the good performances from the main leads, I’d say that this film is worth viewing, but the twist only works because of the quality of the film attached to it. Planet of the Apes is available from Amazon.com. Filed under: film, Uncategorized Tagged: 1960s in film, Film Review, Planet of the Apes, science fiction film

This time we’ve found Leviathan, so it’s time to pay it a visit. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

This time we’re covering issue # 48 of Nintendo Power for May of 1993 Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Closing Music: “Welcome to Rainbow Resort” by Select Start – http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02611 Games Reviewed: The Lost Vikings – Interplay Super NBA Basketball – Tecmo American Gladiators – Gametek The Duel: Test Drive 2 – Accolade Battle Grand Prix – Hudson Super High Impact – Midway Shadowrun – Data East Batman Returns – Konami Zen Intergalactic Ninja (GB) – Konami Ring Rage – Taito Great Greed – Namco Kirby’s Adventure – HAL Labs Incredible Crash Dummies (NES) – LJN Super Turrican (NES) – Imagineer Filed under: Uncategorized, Where I Read Tagged: American Gladiators, Batman Returns, Battle Grand Prix, Game Boy, Great Greed, Incredible Crash Dummies, Kirby's Adventure, NES, Nintendo Power, Ring Rage, Shadowrun, SNES, Super High Impact, Super NBA Basketball, Super Turrican, The Duel: Test Drive 2, The Lost Vikings, Video games, Zen: Intergalactic Ninja

This time we continue our hunt for Leviathan on a remote Xeno Archeological dig site. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games, videos Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

Shoot-em-ups are one of those genres that I’m okay at. I’m never going to feel confident enough in my skills to play a bullet hell shooter, but I appreciate the design of those games and the skill that goes into them. Thus, a game like Gradius Collection for the PSP is a game that caught my attention. The title collects 5 Gradius arcade titles, generally going with the arcade versions where available (complete with the arcade BIOS check screens). The collection appears to do a pretty good job of emulating the arcade hardware, including having slowdown where it similarly would have appeared – which I’m not sure is a plus or a minus. Each game also includes the ability to save your game, with your current selection of power-ups, at almost any point from the pause menu, allowing you to pick up from the last passed checkpoint if you have to take a break, or to stick with your power-up selection if you get taken out. On the one hand, the latter case makes for a good quality of life improvement, but I can’t help but feel that it would be nice if there was a way to skip the save and load part of the process – and just let you restart from that checkpoint with your last saved power-up loadout, possibly losing a life in the process. In a way, that would be defeating the point of emulating the arcade experience, but if you’re including a Save/Load option, then including that form of checkpointing seems reasonable enough. Each title also includes the option to have an automatic power-up path you can choose from, which will optimize what power-ups you’re using based on what configuration you’ve selected. This lets you focus on evading enemy bullets and taking on targets, and also lets you avoid, for example, the Whammy option included on the power-up path for for Gradius 3. The Gradius games themselves generally play well, and are well designed, though each of the games have their little quality-of-life issues that cause problems when playing on a portable system. The checkpointing in the boss rush for Gradius 2, for example, works perfectly if you’re playing the game arcade style, as it provides a way to get enough power-ups to get back where you need to be for the boss fights. However, if you’re save-scumming, it can get frustrating, as what you want to do is save after beating each boss so if you have to shut the game down you can pick up right where you left off. Instead, it starts you off back at the beginning of the boss rush. Similarly, Gradius 3 starts with a very claustrophobic level – probably the most claustrophobic first level in the series, which requires some very precise maneuvering, which gets aggravated by some of the slowdown that comes up in that level as well. This leads to the fundamental issue that you have to keep in mind in this collection. The Gradius games are not what I’d describe as marathon friendly. Blitzing through Gradius, going on to Gradius 2, and then directly into Gradius 3 is a recipe for burnout. With, for example, the SNK and Namco collections, there’s a considerable variety of game types to be found, and even the Mega Man games have enough variety in the level designs to make them feel more conductive for playing back-to-back. The Gradius games, as side-scrolling shoot-em-ups, are just similar enough, that playing them back to back becomes the video game equivalent of eating pepperoni pizza, from the same pizzeria, for a week straight. Yeah, you like pepperoni pizza, and you like the pizza from this pizzeria, but eventually you want some variety – even if you’re staying with pizza you want some extra toppings on it. The Gradius games included in this collection play similarly enough that you don’t get the equivalent of those extra toppings. Just the inclusion of Lifeforce would go a long way toward improving this collection, due to how that title changes up the gameplay with side-scrolling and top-down stages, and with the change in checkpointing. Having that variety would make moving to Gradius 2 or 3 a little better. Additionally, the collection is rather light on extras. We have a sound test and soundtrack mode for each game, along with the opening cutscenes from the Gradius Deluxe Pack for the Saturn and Playstation, and Gradius III and IV for the Playstation. What we don’t get is concept art, pictures of the arcade cabinets, ad brochures, or manuals for each game. There isn’t even an option to replace the overlay around the screen (when you’re not in fullscreen mode) with something replicating the art around the screen on the arcade cabinets. It feels incredibly bare bones. As someone who likes the Gradius series, and who remembers Gradius for the NES as the first shooter he ever bought, I want to like this collection – and to be clear there are things to like here. Die-hard Gradius fans will be disappointed by the lack of the kind of extras you really want in a collection like this. Otherwise, it’s a good collection to take a piece at a time, beating one game, playing something else, and then coming back to it later. Just don’t make the same mistake I made and try to marathon through all 5 titles – that’s just a recipe for burnout. Filed under: Reviews, Video games Tagged: game collections, PSP, shoot-em-ups, Video games

This is a bit of an aside from my read-through of the Expanded Universe. In addition to reading Truce at Bakura, I’ve also been watching Star Wars Rebels. Having just completed season 1, I wanted to give my thoughts. While Season 1 doesn’t grab a ton from the old EU, it’s interesting to see the concepts they do keep. First off, we have the Imperial Inquisitor, who was introduced in the old West End Games RPG (which is actually cited in one of the Rebels Recon episodes – which made me squee), and the ISB, along with the idea that the Empire has stopped using clones for their Stormtroopers in place of recruits or conscripts. Also, one of the comparisons I’d seen made for this show is that it’s “the Star Wars RPG campaign that I wish I’d ran.” I agree with this assessment. Being like a RPG campaign is not a bad thing – when you’re in a good RPG campaign the players, and thus by extension their characters, have tremendous chemistry. Everyone is having fun, and when people or characters disagree, disagreements (ultimately) end amiably. People quip, and when quips misfire, they quips end up becoming amusing through how they misfire. Further, and this is where things become important when it comes to works of fiction, in an RPG campaign, everyone has a real opportunity to be in the limelight. While some characters will come out as party leaders, and will push the action in one direction or another through their behavior or because they have more of a plan than other characters, everyone has a chance in the limelight. For a TV series with an ensemble cast, this is absolutely vital. I’d say this is why Leverage worked so well – many of the writers of the show, John Rogers in particular, played RPGs. As far as the show itself goes – it’s an all CG animated show, much like Clone Wars was. What didn’t work for me in Clone Wars, and doesn’t quite work for me here is that CG as it’s used in this show feels very stilted. By comparison Fate/Zero had much more fluid and dynamic fight scenes. Now, Fate/Zero is clearly not aimed for children, but just because a show is aimed for a younger audience doesn’t mean you have to cut on quality. On the other hand, Ufotable’s Nasu-Verse shows (where their work truly shines) have either been films or OVAs (Garden of Sinners and the upcoming Heaven’s Feel films), or split-cour shows (Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works). That gives them more time to work on the episodes to maintain a constant level of quality. Still, while they make the CG work really well for space battles, and providing continuity of look and feel for ship interiors, along with gunfights, this fall apart whenever hand-to-hand combat, and lightsabers in particular come into play. Maybe watching Fate/Zero and UBW in parallel with season 1 is spoiling me, but I can’t help but feel that 2d animation gives the characters in those shows more substance and weight than the characters in Rebels does. Other than that, I really like Rebels. The writing is sharp and while it works for a young adult audience, it doesn’t feel like it’s dumbing down its material. The cast has tremendous chemistry and they play off each other well. This was definitely a good start to the new Star Wars universe. Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 is available from Amazon.com on Blu-Ray and DVD. Filed under: Reviews, Star Wars, Television Tagged: animation, Star Wars, Star Wars New Universe, Television

This time we’re hard on the trail of the Leviathan of Dis. The Moby Dick reference counts – there was a SF version of Moby Dick. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games

This time I’m taking a look at the latest installment of the John Wick series. My Review of Chapter 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9wLGUsDLRg Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: film, Reviews, videos Tagged: Film Review, Heroic bloodshed, John Wick, vlog

We get a lead on what we need to complete our superweapon. Filed under: Let's Play, Video games Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect 3, Video games