The trailer for this short film, directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion‘s Shinji Higuchi, from Studio Ghibli aired last summer, but now we can actually watch the whole thing. It was announced not only as the company’s first foray into live action, but also as an attempt to capture an old style of Japanese kaiju filmmaking. Including: no CGI. The God Warriors are the ultimate danger in the world of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and they’re no less ominous for being placed in Tokyo. [via The Mary Sue]
A really stunning debut, I just wish I spoke Japanese.
When I find myself desperate for excuses to do anything but write a review, it’s usually because the subject matter ended up being rather disappointing. Borderlands 2 sadly falls into this category, as I have been struggling for weeks to come up with something praise worthy to write.
But I can’t let that stop me anymore, productivity must continue!! (Never give up, never surrender!!) With my house clean, laundry finished, caffeine and snacks at the ready, I am all out of excuses; its time to sit down and get this review done. Wait, what am I writing about again? Oh right Borderlands 2…hmm is that a spot over there that I missed dusting? Clearly my bout of Borderlands 2 induced ADD is persistent.
I’m a big fan of pets, from D2’s Necromancer with his hoard of minions to Pokemon’s wide selection of tamed battle pets. Maybe it’s just that I like minions, but I often find games where I have the option of having pets/minions as helpers, preferable. This is opposed to the games like Nintendogs, where the entire game revolves around the pets. Not that I don’t like these games, they are after all very cute and lovable, but I definitely prefer to go on adventures with my pets.
Though I really enjoy the hoard of mindless minions like the Necromancer’s skeletons, or the imps in Overlord, or Pikman, they aren’t very permanent. In Overlord the entire point is to sacrifice your minions, which makes it rather difficult to get overly attached to them.
Pokemon made this leap from random mass of pets, by encouraging each one be named. Not that I ever did this, because I was devoted to Pikachu. SOOOOOOOOooooo adorable. It was a hard day for me when I finally realized that Pikachu was not a very strong combatant. Never the less, Pikachu was certainly my first favorite pet. (Don’t even get me started on how much Pikachu paraphernalia I had.)
My geekiest pet award goes to my hunter dino pet that I named Grimlock. Though I originally thought that hunters in World of Warcraft would be pet collectors, akin to Pokemon Trainers, they ended up having a very limited selection of pets. This means that I chose my pets very carefully, thus Grimlock came about. Turns out that the Beast Master spec at the time was a total waste of space, so I had to give him up.
But they did put Battle Pets in WoW (probably to make it up to all those disappointed hunters) and my favorite for that is the very awesome Star Craft 2 Collectors Edition bonus pet, Mini Thor. What can I say; I have a soft spot for robots.
As for mounts, the game I play with the largest mount selection (!!!) is, by far, World of Warcraft (shocker!) And though I started my Warlock mostly because the class mount was a Nightmare and I really wanted to ride a flaming black horse, my current favorite is the very awesome Ice Skeleton Dragon mount (its actually called a Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher, but my name is really more descriptive.) =P
This review, like most of them, is long overdue. The delay is mostly owing to my abandoning the game quite early on and thinking I would come back to it. Well, to be honest, requiring myself to come back, since I didn’t feel I had played enough to give it a fair review.
But it’s become quite obvious that I am not going to return and the review will have to happen regardless. Any guilt I had, has been assuaged by the eight months of subscription I have paid for a completely inactive account – its time to be done.
As of today I have collected 301 unique pets. Considering that, when I began this quest to catch them all, I had a mere thirty, I’m quite pleased by my progress. Along with collecting, I have also been leveling my original team up and they finally reached max level, 25. My next goal is to level one of each type to max level.
Behold, the three pets who have gotten me where I am today. Spider was awesome against critters and capturing new pets, Mini Thor was anti beasts, and Onyxian Whelpling was basically good against anything else.
And for those of you who are wondering if I am doing anything to get raid ready, my Warlock’s iLevel is 451 and I have broken down and started doing Daily Quests that will actually result in good gear. So LFR is in my future and I will be ready to raid. If topping the DPS meter wasn’t a big enough incentive, then getting my warlock epic certainly is. Need lots of raids to finish it. =(
Most new games, especially overly hyped ones, seem to fall into the ‘I will probably not like this’ category. This is probably a defense mechanism I have developed over the years. Basically I would rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.
While my entire list of ‘hate to great’ is rather lengthy, there is one in particular that started clearly in the negative – Portal.
After its release people were frothing at the mouth with praise. This of course made me incredible suspicious, but also rather curious. As I hadn’t purchased the Orange Box I went looking online for information on the game. The first thing I found was this odd web puzzle version of the game, clearly a knock off. The experience was so incredibly terrible that I vowed never to bother with anything Portal again. (Yes, this was totally not fair to the actual Portal game and I know that…now.)
Fast forward to Portal 2’s release. I really wanted to try this because it was cooperative. Me = sucker for cooperative.
Long story short, I was told it was unacceptable to play Portal 2 without first playing Portal. So I did and loved it, but complained the entire time.
Skyrim is another example. I was sure that I would be bored out of my mind two seconds in; I’m still playing it. Mass Effect 2 was another, tried it mainly because a good friend was so rabid about it; ended up finishing the game. Uncharted 2, only picked it up because I thought it was going to be cooperative, got hooked anyway.
I have to admit I’m not a big fan of romance in games, at least not when it involves me as a player. No, I didn’t romance anyone in the Mass Effect series, nor in any other game I have played recently. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to some fun, given the right situation, but for me there has to be a person on the other side. Romancing an NPC feels equivalent to romancing a blow up doll, so not my cup of tea.
That being said, I don’t mind romance happening in the world, in fact Edi and Joker from Mass Effect 3 were a happy pet project of mine. I shall not delve into the psychology of a person falling for a robot or a robot having girly doubts. It’s love, let them be happy.
But they aren’t my first choice. That honor goes to Zelda and Link.
Their fates are so intertwined that they are destined to reunite in every incarnation and defend the world from evil. Nothing says we belong together quite as much as a combined destiny for all of time.
It feels like I have been trying forever to get my husband to watch anime. Having very little success, I wrote the whole thing off as a lost cause. Then just the other day the husband came home with a Gundam model kit from the hobby store. A rather surprising purchase to say the least.
When asked what prompted this purchase, he told me that he really enjoyed building Lego mechs and this seemed like an interesting new challenge. I was totally floored, because I LOVE Gundam. Whats not to love about Giant robots, come ON!
Of course I found an excuse to get back to that store as soon as humanly possible, so I could get myself a kit. The unicorn one. Oh yeah!
Which is what we did today. Side by side Gundam building. Hubby is working on the Freedom Gundam model and mine is the Master Gundam & Fuunsaiki model.
But the real win here is that he said he will watch Mobile Suit Gundam with me. Thus proving that Lego is a gateway drug for anime. Pure logic there. =)
Lots of photos of my first ever Gundam model building to follow, but first, here is how far I have gotten.
Mass Effect 3 is the final installment in the critically acclaimed third person role-playing game series. BioWare, creators of the franchise and no stranger to controversy, had fans in fits about the overall ending of the game.
I must admit to being wildly curious about what had created all the fuss and though I studiously avoided spoilers, it was impossible not to anticipate something about the ending being different.
Portal 2 is the much-anticipated sequel to the vaunted Portal, a small add on game, which hit the big time, due to its awesome power of humor and cleverness.
A rather tough act to follow, but Portal 2 manages quite well. Filled with the trademark dark humor and teleportation puzzles, but bundled in a much larger package. Portal 2 is a gigantic game, boasting a multi chapter single player story mode and a completely separate cooperative multiplayer mode.
