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TwitterMad Catz Fightstick Soul Edition: first impressions
January 23, 2012
I thought I’d do something a little different and write about a gaming toy. Mad Catz doesn’t exactly have a pedigree of high quality peripherals, but their Tournament Edition Fightstick arcade sticks have garnered a lot of praise. Gamers loved the Sanwa-made buttons and stick, and found it easy to modify. After Soulcalibur V was announced, Mad Catz revealed a special edition of their Fightstick with Soulcalibur art and a slightly different button layout. I didn’t even know this had been released, but I felt like maybe it was time to upgrade my existing arcade stick. It arrived today, and I put it through a few hours of light testing. Read More...
Why SOPA and PIPA are pointless and terribad
January 17, 2012
I’d like to stop ranting about cartoons and plastic boobies for a second to talk about the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. They are two stupid, pointless, dangerous bills being pushed by the entertainment industry to protect their own intellectual properties. You should write your Congressmen and Senators to tell them these bills totally suck, and if they pass I probably won’t be able to write about cartoons and plastic boobies. Read More...
Figure Review: Charlotte E. Yeager by Alter
January 6, 2012
As I’ve often lamented, the problem with most women is that they don’t have airplanes for legs. There are many benefits to having airplane legs: increased mobility, making cool noises when you’re getting ready to go, and having a great excuse for not ever wearing pants. It’s strange that it’s 2012 and scientists haven’t yet figured out a way to combine miniature airplanes with women’s legs. So for the time being, we’ll have to leave that in the fictional world of Strike Witches. Read More...
A game about (almost) nothing: Limbo review
December 29, 2011
Playdead’s Limbo is a remarkable game in that it takes the barest minimum of what makes a game, and does so much with it. Of all the minimalist games I can think of, Limbo is the most minimal. It’s two-dimensional. There are three total controls (move, jump, grab). There’s hardly a soundtrack. There isn’t even any color. Despite all this it manages to be much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a clever puzzle-platformer that evokes many emotions: fear, disgust, sadness, longing, and also a fair amount of joy. All of this without a single spoken word or piece of explanatory text. Read More...
NSFW Figure Review: Siggy (Shiggy? Sigi? Sigui?) by MegaHouse (Hobby Japan exclusive version)
December 12, 2011
Some time ago, my friend told me he couldn’t access Makigumo. After some investigation, he found that his university had blocked this site after categorizing it as pornography. Well... challenge accepted. Read More...
Figure Review: Xiao-Mei by Max Factory
December 7, 2011
It’s been a while since I last did a full on review, so I went to my shelf to see what I could shoot. Max Factory’s Xiao-Mei stood out because she’s so damn adorable. How could you not like that Tony Taka face? Xiao-Mei hails from Shining Hearts, which has been getting a lot of exposure recently in the figure world. I haven’t played any of the Shining games but they must be big in Japan. Read More...
Super Serial: Persona 4: The Animation episodes 4-7
December 2, 2011
You know what I love? Persona 4. Since the last time I checked in, the show has been very enjoyable. I like that its heroes are flawed, and I like the uplifting but not overly idealized message. It loses something by not having the interactivity of the game, but without having to run around randomly generated dungeons, the story moves along more briskly. Read More...
Re-shoot of Creators’ Labo Asuka Langley Soryu by Yamato
November 22, 2011
Sometimes, we half-ass things just to get them done. Makigumo is pretty much the embodiment of that. Okay, not really; here I don’t get things done because I don’t like half-assing with this site. But still, sometimes I rush a post just to get it out because I’m particularly enthusiastic about it, or because I feel obligated to. I did a review of Yamato’s Asuka Langley Soryu a long time ago, but it was rushed. I didn’t really like anything about the pictures I shot for the figure. It’s such a great looking piece that I felt I owed it a better set of photos. So now that I have some spare time, I decided to redo the shoot. Read More...
Drake of Persia: Uncharted 3 single-player review
November 11, 2011
Uncharted 3 can be summed up in one sentence: it does everything Uncharted 2 does, then amps up the set pieces tenfold. But maybe this isn’t as much of a winning formula as Naughty Dog thought it would be. Though I’ll always have a special spot in my heart for the Uncharted franchise, somehow I felt that this latest installment lacked magic. It’s a game where every part is good, but the product is still less than the sum of its parts. Read More...
Super Serial: Persona 4: The Animation episodes 2 and 3
October 21, 2011
While watching Persona 4, I’m reminded of just how much my decisions shaped the game. It’s strange to see the protagonist making decisions and speaking out on his own. Yuu Narukami is certainly no Cmdr. Riker (that’s what I named him). No, nothing you do in the game changes the plot until the very end, but it does shape the flavor of the game. The choices you make go a long way to define your character, so it’s strange to watch essentially the same story except with that control taken out of your hands. Read More...
