Valkyria Chronicles Review - Sorta

I had intended to write a full blown review of Valkyria Chronicles until I realized something. I liked this game way too much to just review it but it would probably be a 10,000 word article as I waxed poetic about all of the things I loved about this game and why YOU should love it too. That wouldn't really be fair or conducive to a real review. So instead I'm just going to tell you why I loved this game so much and why I hope it eventually gets the recognition it deserves.

I should start off by saying that Valkyria Chronicles is a Strategy RPG, but unlike any SRPG you've ever played before. All of the unit deployment and management is done on the combat map, overhead in 2D which is standard enough. However, all of your troop movement and combat is in 3rd person, and you have free movement of your troops over the field. This is a drastic departure from the grid based movement/combat of pretty much every other SRPG I've played and it is implemented perfectly. Trust me, it just works. That's about all the technical detail I want to get into, so on to the stuff I deem to be Good.

So just what makes this game so special? Two things: characters and story. Once you get past the initial bit of cheese every Japanese game seems to be instilled with, the characters are extremely likable and eventually lovable. I'm always drawn to a few characters with each game I play, but I found myself caring about nearly every main character on the screen, and even felt attached to the minor ones you only see during combat. Each character has a unique personality, voice and game traits, something I'd love every RPG to have. Second, the story will keep you motivated to see more of the game. There are a TON of story sequences here, some fully rendered in the game's beautiful anime/watercolor technique and some are just stills with voiceovers. All are very well done, with great dialog, even when the game is being silly just for laughs. Hans the Porcavian had me giggling every time he appeared. There are several twists and turns throughout and the ending was very satisfying, even if it leaves little room for a sequel.

There's not much else I can say other than try this game for yourself. It's the best 40 hours of gaming I've played in a long time, and I'm already considering a second play-through so I can unlock more characters and beat my best mission scores. Valkyria Chronicles will not get the recognition it deserves being a niche JRPG and I expect it to be very difficult to find at retail next year. Buy a copy now while you can before it becomes the next Ico on eBay, you won't regret it.

Point of No Return

My youngest daughter Camryn recently turned nine months old and suddenly she's not the little baby she was just last month. It's truly astounding how quickly kids learn and grow, watching the massive leaps she's made in just one month has kind of blown my mind. In what seems like no time at all, she's discovered how to crawl, wave hello, hold her own bottle, say "Mama" and "Dada" (although she hasn't quite connected the words to the people), pull herself up and stand on her own and get into everything she's not supposed to.

It all happened so fast and I'm now realizing the days of her being a baby are drawing to a close and she's charging off towards toddlerhood. On one hand I'm a little sad that her infancy is over but I'm also excited to see her doing all these new things. My oldest daughter Coral is nine already and I've forgotten how many new things there are to be discovered when you're little.

I suppose the next time I'm feeling this way will be when Cori starts high school and Cam heads off to Kindergarten. By then I'll officially be old and crotchety and probably won't blog about it with the whippersnappers.

No Bailout for Joo!

This image nicely sums up my feelings about the impending auto industry bailout:


I really don't see why failing, corrupt, poorly managed corporations deserve ANY money from the government. If the American auto industry isn't competitive anymore then they either need to restructure, retool, or fail. It happens to small business every day, no one is bailing out these owners or even larger companies that are just unable to cope with these tough economic times.

I foresee bad things in the future if this bailout goes through. We're fast approaching a state-sponsored economy and losing the free-market model we've had for so long. If this keeps up the government will have a managing stake in our banks, mortgages and automobiles. Of course maybe this will set a precedent and we can all apply for personal bailouts the next time we screw our finances up. Only time will tell.

The Truth about the GOP

Yes, that's right, they're DAMN DIRTY SKRULLS!



Now if only I could find a photo with the true face of a Mr. George Dubbya Bush, we could expose them for the shapeshifting aliens they really are. This explains so many things, such as why McCain's arms are so short (botched genetic code during shifting), why Palin's hair is always so impeccable and why G.W.B. is hellbent on world domination.

These hilarious images were created by Serena over at the Aspen Comics message boards. Thanks for the laugh Serena!

*I am responsible for the content of this message and imply no political bias on the behalf of Serena or Aspen Comics. Thank you for your support*

Fresh Wheels

This Saturday my wife and I had planned on having a nice dinner, doing some minor shopping and maybe checking out the Toyota dealership to see what prices on FJ Cruisers were looking like. By some strange twist of fate we ended up trading in our Chevy HHR and driving home in a brand new Mazda CX-9. I know, it makes complete sense doesn't it?

The details of this transaction are too varoius and sundry to list here, but the skinny of it is we got into this newer, much larger vehicle for roughly the same payment we've had on the HHR for three years now. Although this is not what I expected to be driving right now, I'm very happy with our purchase and I think it'll be a great car for our family. The CX-9 is huge, seats up to seven people, has AWD and drives great for such a large vehicle (it's bigger than our Ford Explorer).

Here are few pics of the new ride. And for the record, my wife said we could get a sports car for our next vehicle. I'm holding her to it!

Fringe: Getting better but...

Last time we were together I posted my issues with J.J. Abrams new show, Fringe. However, I did state I'd give the show another chance to win me over and the last two episodes have been a marked improvement. This weeks episode has finally added some truly mysterious and ominous details to the Pattern with the introduction of the new character The Observer and his ties to the Bishop family. I'm hoping this is part of the overall mythology of the show and will continue to creep up in future episodes.

This being said, I dig the addition of the new character, but he's just a tad too much like the Marvel Comics character The Watcher. Let's run down the similarities. Alien character tasked with watching the lives of Earthlings? Check. Possessing a code of non-interference but still can't help meddling? Check. Creepy bald dude with no eyebrows? Check.

Ok, I know the idea of a supernatural or alien being observing Earth is nothing new in science fiction. Marvel's Watcher is a throwback to 1950's sci-fi. Fringe is obviously very conscious of it's old school roots as well. I hope that Abrams can be a bit more subtle with his mixing and matching of all things sci-fi as we build the mythology of this show. But if we see a new character named Herald of Galaxius I'm going to lose it.

Frayed Fringes

Last night I choked down the second episode of Fringe. I had planned on writing about the premier episode last week but it didn't leave me with the warm and fuzzies, so I decided to hold off until after this week's show to form my opinion. Unfortunately, warm and fuzzies are still MIA.

Before the season started, Fringe was touted as the next big thing from uber-geek J.J. Abrams. It was going to be the X-Files only better, with an emphasis on "fringe science". They also warned that the show would "jump the shark" frequently. This should have triggered my spider-sense, but I kept my hopes high.

So, on to the show. I'll summarize my issues with Episode #1: Joshua Jackson is a complete casting bust. I assume the main function of his character (Peter Bishop) is to provide comic relief and act as a bridge between his mad scientist father and the rest of the world. He only succeeds in making lame jokes in situations where even Mulder would cringe and generally being annoying. Agent Olivia Dunham barely seems competent to be a run-of-the-mill FBI agent let alone tackling these strange "Pattern" cases. Also, the music sucks. It sounds like they took the music from Lost and just shortened it by about ten seconds.

Ok, I feel better now. On to Episode #2. Again, last night's episode started off well just like the previous week's entry. Crazy super aging baby busting out of the stripper was awesome. Dr. Bishop is a trip and right now the only reason I'm still watching this show. We also have an unsolved case from Agent Dunham's past that looks promising. The suspense was starting to build as we see the killer take new victims while Dr. Bishop works on more crazy theories. But toward the end, things start to fall apart, badly. We jump the Great White Shark by taking pictures of a dead girl's retinas. The idea that the last thing you see is burned into your eyes is something I've heard of before but they take it to new ridiculous heights. Our intrepid team is going to get these images with with a borrowed electrical impulse camera from Massive Dynamics. No explanation of what the camera is supposed to be used for or why MD just loans it out like a library book, but we accept it'll take great afterimages from expired eyeballs. Then we get our revelation, an image from the dead strippers retina turns out to be a picture of a bridge! Wait, if this supposed to be what she last saw before dying wouldn't it be the face of the guy that killed her? Or the ceiling? No, it's the bridge that she looked at three hours earlier and couldn't even see from where she died. Ooookay.

It gets better. Later in the show, the last surviving victim goes into cardiac arrest after the bad guy's dad messes with her IV. She must be saved and Peter is just the man to do it. How will he restart her heart without a defibrillator? By wrapping some bare electrical wire around two giant washers and hitting the power, that's how! Of course, instead of burning two holes straight into her chest the makeshift device reboots her perfectly. These last twenty minutes were like watching and episode of Scooby Doo. If it wasn't for you darn kids, I'd have gotten away with it!

Now, I don't have a problem with a show coming up with crazy ideas as long as they're presented with a basis in reality and are taken seriously by the show itself. Unfortunately this is one area where Fringe fails. I was a huge X-Files fan and accepted some pretty crazy stuff from that show but they always made it seem like this stuff could really happen. When Fringe jumps the shark it's almost comical, the show is laughing about it as much as I was.. It's campy in its presentation and this has completely turned me off. I'll give this show a few more episodes to see if they can attempt to ground this thing in some semblance of reality. Otherwise, I'll be passing on Fringe and forgetting about the Pattern all of Massive Dynamics mysterious goodies.

Beware the Lungfish!

For the five and a half people that actually read my blog, I'd like to recommend a new site for your perusal. My friend Greg has launched Lungfishopolis, a blog about two boys and their love for video games. Greg and Brandon are handling the writing chores and I have to say they've come out of the gates quite well. This isn't the standard preview/review site, but rather an amusing commentary from all corners of the video game universe. Knowing Greg, I'd expect to see quite a bit of emphasis on the virtues of retro gaming and an occasional rant about lacking the time to actually play everything he'd like to. Brandon has an excellent dry sense of humor and actually gets flown to Vegas to play video games. Some people have all the luck!

So head on over to Lungfishopolis, enjoy the scenery, take off your shoes and stay a while. Brain of F gives the site four Rabid Midgets out of six, nearly a perfect score on this scale!

Name that Hurricane!

Hurricane is upon us once again, and our eastern seaboard looks like it will be hammered this season by tropical storms and hurricanes. While I feel for those poor folks living in the path of these storms, it has to be humiliating to have your home blown away by something named Bertha or Gustav. In the spirit of this naming convention I have decided to choose my own equally outdated names for the next few storms, starting where Gustav left off.

Hurricane Humperdink
Tropical Storm Ignatius
Tropical Storm Jeeves
Hurricane Klaatu
Tropical Storm Leonidas
Hurricane Moe
Hurricane Nostradamus
Hurricane Opie

I don't think we'll see more than eight storms this season so I'll stop here. Should we be particularly unfortunate and end up pushing further into the alphabet, I'm sure Hurricane Zebediah will be remembered for quite some time.

Beware the Baby Hijacker

I received a very disturbing email when I arrived at work this morning. After reading it, I immediately notified the authorities and elevated our national alert status to Severe. If any of you have babies, please verify they have not been hijacked after reading the following email:


I'm not entirely sure what my fume could be or how they took a picture of it, but I am terrified. I also wonder how many people actually opened this virus laden hoax to see what the fume's picture looked like. Although ultimately an epic failure, this was some pretty hilarious spam.

John McCain: Original Fogey

The presidential race is heating up and we're getting bombarded with political ads day and night. John McCain has a slew of smear ads running right now, which in my opinion makes him look rather pathetic, but this recent ad really cracked me up.



Yeeaaaahh, ok. Not only will he save us from rising oil costs, drug dealers and taxes, but now he's also The Original Maverick™. Mr. McCain, 1986 is calling and it wants its cheesy nickname back. I had no plans on voting for McCain but after seeing these advertisements, which are obviously aimed at conservative Top Gun fanatics, my resolve to vote for Obama has increased tenfold. So thank you John McCain, you've proved to me that you are indeed the Original Tool™

Villains > Heroes

Season Three of Heroes is coming soon, and the theme this time around is Villains. I'm assuming that we see Sylar's return to badassness along with some other goofy good guy/bad guy scenarios built around our familiar cast. Hopefully they don't toss too many new characters into the mix like they did last season, we still know next to nothing about the new Season 2 newbies and it would be nice to see them developed a bit more.

The big "twist" to this next season appears to revolve around the good guys turning bad and vice versa. Alliances will change, loyalties will be tested, and mayhem will ensue. However, I'm going to spoil the entire season for you right now. I know the secret to who becomes a villain and who stays good. Ready? Ok, here it is: if the character has their hair slicked back, or dyed a different color, then they are a villain. There you have it, the earth shattering secrets of season three laid bare before your eyes. I'm really looking forward to seeing Evil Mohinder with slicked back hair go up against Evil Peter, with equally evil slicked back hair. Or imagine Evil Claire with sexy brunette locks battling Good Sylar, who strangely enough slicked his hair back for the opposite effect. I'm just curoius what they will do with the Haitian since he has no hair. I'm thinking an earring or an eye patch. Nothing says evil like an eye patch!

Ok, so you've probably figured out I'm not too optimistic for Heroes this next season. I want to like what they're doing, I really do, but it's starting to become apparent that Tim Kring has no f'ing clue how to handle these characters now and they're really reaching for something to unite the overall theme for the show. Kring has stated he's never read comic books but thinks he still understands how to create a show based on superheroes. I'm starting to lose faith in that statement, maybe he should pick up a copy of NewUniversal or Rising Stars if he wants to see how normal people with powers should be written.

Hardcore = NES?

I've written before about my love affair with the NES emulator for PSP. I've been cranking it up whenever I have about 10 minutes to kill and it's filling the time fabulously. However, the one thing I'm finding is that those old games we knew and loved are hard. Like, really hard. It's amazing how just 10 minutes on an old 8-bit game can reveal how much your gaming skillz have deteriorated over the years. I tried my hand at Bionic Commando, Contra, Joust, Ikari Warriors, Metal Gear, Shinobi and others and the results were much the same: I suck at these games now.

Perhaps my sense of timing is shot, or my hand/eye coordination, or maybe I'm just plain rusty. Or it could be that I'm too spoiled by the shiny features of modern games and they've made me lazy. I've gotten too used to unlimited lives and continues, save points and game saves, bountiful power-ups and over-powered heroes. I played through 90% of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core without even dying. I couldn't think of picking up God of War without the liberal save points scattered throughout the game. Now I find it impossible to imagine playing an entire level of a game only to die and have to start over from the beginning. But that was the kind of gameplay we all cut our teeth on years ago, and we actually had fun!

Now don't get me wrong, most modern games are more enjoyable than the majority of those classics. I don't have the time to invest in a game that will take me countless hours to master it anymore. Maybe ten years ago, but not now. So being able to play through 20 minutes of a game and actually make some progress is rewarding, especially when time to game is so limited. But, if I have one complaint against modern games, it's that they seem to be specifically designed to save you the hassle of learning how to truly play them. Sometimes I'd like to play a game without a tutorial or on-screen prompt telling me what button to push. It's rare to actually discover what a game is about before it starts holding your hand through the intro. Part of the fun of gaming is discovery and overcoming challenges. Completely take these away and you lose a bit of the magic, which is something those older games still have to this day.

So as I fire up Castlevania and prepare to tackle Stage 3 without dying, for the fourth time, I console myself with the fact that the truly hardcore gamers weren't raised playing a Playstation 3, or Xbox 360, or a Wii (hah joking!). The Nintendo Entertainment System is where real hardcore gamers were born and bred.

UPDATE: Will Ghostbusters be Slimed?

A quick update to this posting, from the good folks at G4:

Activision says Ghostbusters is not canceled. X-Play talked an Activision Blizzard spokesperson who emailed: "Regarding Ghostbusters: The Video Game: First and foremost, the game is absolutely not cancelled," but added: "In general (including Ghostbusters): The company is reviewing its options regarding those titles that it will not be publishing."

Here are two high-profile titles that are being considered for cancellation:

• Brutal Legend: The action-adventure game starring Jack Black is slated for release on the 360 and PS3 has no release date scheduled yet.
• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand: This action game starring the famous rapper in the Middle East is scheduled for a fall release on the PS3 and 360. No word yet on what the status of this awesomely ridiculous game will be. We'll be bummed if we can't play this. Look at the trailer!

This is good news for Ghostbusters, bad news for the other two games. Not that I really cared about their fate to begin with, any game with 50 Cent deserves to be canceled on principle alone.

Original posting:
According to an article over at Ars Technica this morning, the upcoming Ghostbusters game for PS3/Xbox 360 is in danger of being canceled. Apparently the merger between Activision and Vivendi has put several titles into publishing limbo and caused massive internal confusion.

I was very excited about this game after seeing gameplay footage at E3. With a script by Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd along with voiceovers by the original cast, sharp graphics and some creative mechanics, this game looked like a surefire hit. This one was on my watch-list when I buy a PS3, it would be a real shame if someone didn't jump in and buy the publishing rights to this game. I mean, who could resist blasting Slimer and riding around in Ecto-1?

Randomness

I have a few random topics on my mind today, figured they aren't worth separate posts so you get the Combo Plate Special.

First up we have Hospitals. This past weekend my youngest daughter Camryn was back in the ER with another kidney infection. She's doing fine now and will be getting follow up tests to make sure we don't have to do this again, but geez health care is just a retarded business. The first sign was when the ER doctor wanted to do a lumbar puncture on her before checking her urine and blood for infection. Seriously? Yes, let's bend her in half, jab a needle in her spine and suck out the fluid before we do the easy shit like testing pee for bacteria. Especially when she had this same test a month ago with negative results. I didn't let him do it and and behold! her pediatrician agreed with me. This lumbar procedure must be big bucks for him, I imagine every kid with a fever gets a complimentary spine stabbing from the good doctor. At least our stay was only two days this time, I'm praying we can keep her healthy from here on out.

Next up is social networking. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone's MySpace, Facebook, Blog, or Twitter page. While I truly enjoy all of these forms of connectedness, sometimes it feels like work to keep up with them all. I wish there was one superior site that could unite all of my friends and family so I didn't need Digsby to keep track of everything. I often feel like I'm slacking off if I don't have something interesting to Twitter or blog about. And forget about MySpace, I'm neither cool nor young enough for anyone to notice my page there. I suppose this is a bit of a rant, but honestly I can only be so interesting even to myself let alone a handful of friends :)

Last we have the incredible goodness that is the PSP. This thing keeps me entertained in so many ways I can't imagine not owning one. I keep up on all my TV shows, movies, anime and music with it. I store pictures of my kids and can check RSS feeds with it. It can browse the web from any wi-fi connection. And of course it plays games too. But not just PSP games! It can emulate PS1, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and NES games. I have Final Fantasy VII, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Metal Gear Solid along with several hundred games for the older systems. I have the most fun with the NES emulator though. It's amazing how good these old games look on the PSP's widescreen, I forgot just how crappy my old 13" color TV was when I was a kid. The screen shots below show a few of the games I have loaded (kudos to the old-schoolers that recognize them). The PSP has saved me from boredom countless times, in my opinion it's the best handheld available.

I think that's all I have for today's brain purging. Now I'm off to check Twitter!

Aspen Homage

If you've seen my other posts on comic book artist Michael Turner, then you already know he was an incredible artist that left us far too soon. He also touched the lives of thousands of fans and professionals during his career. As a way of saying "thank you" and paying our respects to his family, the fan community over at Aspen Comics are producing a tribute book to present to Mike's family and friends. The book will consist of pieces that are inspired by, or seek to recreate, our favorite works from Mike over the years. I decided to participate in this excellent project and submitted the following piece for the cause.


This was my stab at drawing Aspen from his comic book Fathom, and is based on the cover from issue #2. It's also the only colored piece I've ever done, seeing as how I'm colorblind and all.

I'm not sure if my piece will make it into the book, but Mike inspired me to draw it back in my college days so I felt I should take a shot at it. The folks managing this project are estimating 50-60 pieces for the book, so I think my chances of making it in are good. I will post an update when the final line-up is decided in a few weeks.

Interesting Notes About Fatherhood

Here are some random observations I’ve made during my time as a father of two girls. Three out of five fathers may or may not agree with me.

It’s totally cool to sing Hannah Montana songs and then make up alternate lyrics. This usually involves making as many words rhyme with “fart” as possible.

Puke, snot and slobber no longer illicit any reaction other than to calmly reach over my shoulder and grab a burp rag.

Colorblindness is now considered a blessing, as I do not have to participate in choosing either my daughter’s outfits.

Nine year old girls are really just 23 year-olds trapped in a small body with no cell phone.

“Free time” is the ten minutes spent showering in the morning, and the 30 minutes before you fall asleep on the couch at night.

Talking to your kids like they are adults and playing with them like you are a kid produces the best results.

It is my job, nay, my duty to get my kids wound up just before bedtime.

Disney channel theme songs are encoded with subconscious messages that keep children from blinking during shows and trick grandparents into buying yet another tube of Hannah Montana lip gloss.

If my daughter wakes up grumpy, I do my best to irritate her until she either smiles or storms off to the bathroom. Either way her mood changes!

Girls are born with the knowledge that daddy is wrapped around their little finger.

Turner Top 5

Last time I posted about the untimely death of comics artist Michael Turner. Although I'm still saddened by the loss of such a great person, I also found greater appreciation of his work as I pored over my collection. I have roughly 200 comics that Mike drew covers for in my collection, and this isn't half of what he'd accomplished over the past 15 years. After admiring these books again, I've picked out my top five favorite covers from my collection. Click through for larger images. Enjoy!

#5 - Teen Titans #1

I really loved this cover when it came out, it was the first time I had seen Mike take on any DC characters. He's always been good at those massive collages of characters but I think this one really ties together well. Plus each character has a unique look, something he was criticized for not doing early in his career.

#4 - Aspen Sketchbook #1

This book was only released on the Aspen website, but it's definitely one of his most gorgeous pieces. Aspen (center character) has such striking features in this one, and I love the sketches in progress in the background. I think the color scheme compliments it well but it's always Aspen's eyes that get me when I see this cover.

#3 - Ekos Preview

Ekos was going to be Mike's next book after he completed Soulfire. Unfortunately, his cancer treatments kept him from finishing Soulfire as planned and Ekos will never be published with his pencils. But, we do have this excellent preview book to see what might have been. The main characer Grell is pictured here, and is a huge departure from the sexy women and reality based books he had always drawn. I love the texture in this piece and how unique it was from any of his other work.

#2 - Fathom #12, covers A&B

While this is technically two covers, they're both for the same issue and were drawn as one piece. The composition of this piece blows me away, I can't imagine how long it must have taken to draw let alone lay out. I've never been great at planning out a new piece, so I really admire the talent and hard work involoved in this drawing. Plus the many hot women don't hurt.

#1 - Witchblade #4

In my opinion, this is by far the best cover Mike ever drew. This has fantasy, sexiness, horror, power, beauty and badassness all in one piece. I'm a huge Gieger fan and this piece reminded me of him immediately. It's one of the few images of Witchblade that Mike drew with the blade actually extended, and they never really touched on this power later on in the series. The color scheme is excellent as well. If I could afford it, this piece would the grail in my original art collection. For now, I'll have to be content with the poster sized version I have framed in my basement.

So there you have it, my Turner Top five. He's drawn hundreds of other stunning covers and interior work and I encourage you to hit Google or the local comic store and find your own favorites.

Michael Turner

Michael Turner, in my opinion one of the greatest comic book artists of the past 20 years, passed away on Friday after a long battle with cancer. He was only 37 years old.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike a few times and own a few pieces of his art. He was truly a nice guy, always had a smile despite sitting at a table and signing for hours on end and dealing with the everyday pain of his cancer. He even took the time to show up at last year's San Diego ComiCon, still bald from chemo, to assure fans he was getting back to work and excited to finish his cover series for Marvel and Soulfire #10. The man's talent always blew me a way, for someone who didn't even start drawing in comics until his twenties he quickly became a superstar in the field with Witchblade and his creator owned titles Fathom and Soulfire.

I'm not sure what else to say about this, other than that I'm extremely sad for the loss of a talented artist and all around excellent person. Hopefully you're resting easy now Mike, you'll be missed.

Anime Fest '08

That may sound like a super fantastic Otaku nerd convention in Tokyo, it's really just referring to an anime kick I've been on for the past month or so. It's actually quite unusual for me, I'm not a big anime or manga fan and the art style in general doesn't appeal to me at all. However I've managed to watch two full length movies, complete an entire season of one series and start a second one, with a third in the proverbial queue. Here's a quick breakdown and my impressions of each.


Series - Ergo Proxy
This is the show that started me on this downward spiral. Interestingly enough, I discovered this series by seeing the cover of a DVD at Best Buy. It looked cool so I downloaded an episode when I got home. I watched it and promptly returned to Best Buy to purchase the series. The quick and dirty on the show is this: Main protagonist Real Mayer is investigating a mysterious creature known to her only as a Proxy. Things quickly progress into a dark futuristic view of dystopia and some very deep theological and psychological ideals mashed in with classic Japanese sci-fi. I was very impressed with the animation and thankfully it never strayed into "huge eyes" territory, which is one of the reasons I stay away from most anime. Combine that with excellent voice acting and a satisfying conclusion that made me wish for a continuation of the series and I had found a true gem. I will probably watch through the 24 episode season again just to pick up on details I know I missed the first time around. I highly recommend this.

Movies - Appleseed & Vexille
I'm combining these two since they are both produced by the same studio and are really very similar in most every aspect. For me, Appleseed was more satisfying mainly due to better characters, tighter story and more cooler robots. Robots go a long way in making something cool. Both are visions of a post-apocalyptic Japan (as was Ergo Proxy) which sure seems to be a major theme with Japanese entertainment. Appleseed does a better job than Vexille in explaining the situation at hand and then resolving the story. Vexille really had me going "huh?" for most of the movie, be it with gaping plot holes, completely uninteresting characters and really stretching at times to make us care about anything in the movie. At least Appleseed makes you want to jump in a mech and kick ass, Vexille just makes you want to smack someone. If it wasn't obvious already, Appleseed is my recommendation. I have picked up it's sequel and will post an update when I watch it.

Series in Progress - Witchblade
This series is based on the American comic books from Top Cow. The comic was one of my favorites years ago when Michael Turner was handling the art chores, and recently it's been getting rave reviews under new writer Ron Marz. I had heard of this anime version when it first came out but wasn't really interested until now. Play magazine has given it glowing reviews twice so I figured I'd check it out while my appetite for anime remained high. I'm three episodes in right now and have to say I think I'm hooked. While completely different than the comics, the animation is intense with a building story line of the Witchblade vs escaped genetically enhanced weapons. There's also a certain, ahem, adult flavor to the show, with strategically placed camera shots and the almost erotic manner the main character exhibits while in combat. It sounds like a weird mix and it is, but somehow it's working. I'll update again when I finish the series.

Stuff in the Queue - Blood the Last Vampire and Blood +
The movie (Blood the Last Vampire) and series (Blood+) based on a young girl caught up in the discovery of monstrous vampires and her mysterious ability to kill them. I happened to catch about 15 minutes of this on cable one night and didn't know what it was at all until I saw the same clip on YouTube. Gotta love the intarwebs. The main thing that intrigued me was the vampires. These aren't your romantic, debonair Anne Rice vampires that have been so popular. Rather, these things are nasty, violent, and barely humanoid in appearance. I found them much more interesting and saw great potential for scary stuff to happen here.

So there you have it. I'm sure my anime obsession will burn itself out soon and give way to another push into novels or games, but for now it's keeping me entertained.

Hut hut hut hut....

While not quite as earth shattering as Greg's announcement of a new Beyond Good & Evil game, I was equally excited today to learn there will be a new Tecmo Bowl released for the Wii next year. Although it's overly simplistic and graphically inferior to pretty much every sports game released today, the original Tecmo Bowl games are still some of the most entertaining football games ever. I still fire up Tecmo Super Bowl on my PSP every once in a while (via a nifty SNES emulator).

IGN broke the news and there is next to no actual information about the game other than the confirmation it will be made. I'm still excited though, I haven't really played a football game since EA killed the genre with it's exclusive NFL license and endless boring Madden rehashes. Let's hope it makes creative use of the Wii's motion controls!

Baby Talk and the Holy Spirit

No, that title doesn't refer to the latest Indiana Jones movie or a hot new inspirational self-help book. In reality it's just about a couple of recent, highly enjoyable events in my life. And just to mix things up, I'll start with the last one first!

This past weekend was my daughter Coral's First Holy Communion. For the non-Catholics out there, this is the holy sacrament where a child takes the body and blood of Christ for the first time. Now, I'm not a super religious person, but I do hold to my traditions and this is an important one for all of my family. Cori looked beautiful and she was very poised throughout the entire Mass. She did make me laugh a bit at the end, as she asked me if she could go pee about five minutes before receiving Communion. As much as would have liked to relieve her, there was no way she was getting up at that stage of the game. So, she toughed it out, took her first Communion and then sprinted for the restroom directly after. She always has a way of making events memorable!

The reception was held at our home afterwards and one of the best nights I've spent with friends and family in a long time. Everyone ate, drank, laughed and just enjoyed each other's company for a few hours. We don't entertain at our house very often but I'm glad we did, it was nice that everyone could have a good time in our home. You can find some pics of the gala event here.

Now, on to the second part of my post, the wonderful phenomenon of baby talk. My youngest daughter Camryn is 10 weeks old now, and is quite the chatterbox for such a little person. I'm not just talking about the standard baby cooing that all infants will start vocalizing around six weeks old. This is seriously full blown baby-to-parent communication. I swear she's trying to imitate what we're saying and form words of her own. The eyes are excited, the mouth is working, the tongue is trying to make the sounds and she's chatting away. If her little body were capable of it I'm confident she would be talking in complete sentences already.

Now I know what you're thinking. This is just daddy gushing about his perfect baby, everyone's baby makes noises at that age and no baby can actually talk at only ten weeks. Ok, maybe that's sorta right, but I don't believe it :) I'm pretty sure she knows what exactly what we're saying and is really a little adult trapped in a baby's body. I'm betting her first actual words will pop out in about six months, and it'll be something like "May I have an additional four ounces of that exquisite formula?" Seriously.

Game Review - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is the latest in a series of games based on and around the events of the original Final Fantasy VII. This game, for the Sony PSP, is actually a prequel to FFVII and is centered on Zack Fair. While he only appeared in flashbacks in the original game, Crisis Core explores his character further and his influence on Cloud and Sephiroth.

The game consists of two main components: the primary Story mode and a side-quest style Mission mode. The story mode is the meat of the game and is where you’ll be getting attached to these now iconic characters all over again. Mission mode, on the other hand, is a long series of one-off mini levels that have you battling for unique materia, equipment and even bosses as you go. There are roughly 300 missions in this mode and each take about five minutes to complete.

In my opinion, Mission mode was a genius addition to the game, especially on a handheld system when 5-10 minutes might be all the time you have for a quick game. Not only can you knock out a few missions and get that all consuming sense of accomplishment, you can also build your character for the encounters you’ll face in Story mode. All of the leveling and equipment you gather applies to both modes of gameplay. Even after completing the main story mode, I still want can’t leave the world of Crisis Core thanks to these nifty little missions.

The gameplay here is actually pretty simplistic. This is real-time combat, not the turn based fare we know and love from most of the other FF games. So, this plays roughly similar to FF XII except you only control one character. You can queue up moves as you fight and scroll through abilities, materia, and potions with the L/R triggers. There are no complex combos or mini-games to learn, however you must understand the type of monster you are fighting and adjust your tactics accordingly. Materia and gear must be equipped before an encounter so this keeps you constantly thinking about how to best outfit Zack as you progress through the game.

Graphically this game is amazing. I’d say it’s right on par with God of War: Chains of Olympus in being one of the top two best looking games for the PSP. The in-game graphics are superb, with excellent characters, backgrounds, monsters and spell effects. The scenes that present the major materia summons are breathtaking and the CG portions of the game are straight out of Advent Children, so they are as good or better than anything you’ve seen in the theater. Most of the in-game cinematics are even done right in the game engine and everything still looks amazing. Square is one of those few developers that can perfectly capture emotion with their animation. I found myself locked into the facial animations of the characters during these scenes, just because they were so perfectly expressive.

As with most RPG’s, Crisis Core is fairly lengthy. I completed the game along with about 50% of the side missions in just over 35 hours, and could probably have done the core game alone in 25. For a handheld title this is pretty impressive, especially considering the tons of in-game and CG cut-scenes packed onto the disc.

Of course, the real reason to play any FF game is for the dramatic storyline. This game does not fail there, and even knowing the gist of what I should expect, Square Enix once again sucked me in with stunning visuals, incredible CG cutscenes and even the humor mixed in with the over-the-top Japanese style dialog. I really enjoyed Zack’s clichéd characteristics, for some reason in these games you just couldn’t have it any other way.

There is a ton of replay value here as well. Once you complete the game you can go back and replay it on Hard mode, while keeping your DMW, materia and stats. There is also the aforementioned Mission mode. There is a final boss in Mission mode not included in the main game, Minerva, who is undoubtedly the most difficult boss in the entire game. Clocking in with over two million hit points, it’ll take a lot of grinding and materia fusing to defeat her. I plan on working my way towards this goal now that I have the main campaign out of the way.

If you are a RPG fan, or a Final Fantasy Fan, or just looking for a great game to play, you should really try Crisis Core. Adam Sessler be damned, this is one of the best games for the PSP and would make a kick ass PS2 game as well.

Is this thing on?

So, um, it's been a while since I've even thought to post here. Not that I haven't wanted to, but this little person, namely my now two-month-old daughter, popped into my life and things just haven't been the same since. I think my brain is just now returning from Super Happy Fantastic Baby Land, so I plan on posting more of my favorite random things here again. I think my first post back will be a game review (shocking!), then some comic book updates (uncanny!) and then whatever falls out of my head after that.

So, I am off to do some writing and pretend to work, and will leave you with a picture of my new favorite distraction.

Foppa Returns!

Some folks may not know this, but I'm a huge sports fan. My favorite professional sports are football and hockey, in that order, but I'll watch the NBA and even some pro baseball if I feel like taking a nap. However, yesterday some news made me giddy about sports again. My home team, the Colorado Avalanche have resigned Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote. Yippee!

Now, anyone that followed the Avs during their glory years from the late 90's/early 00's will realize how huge these signings are. Forsberg was arguably the best player in the world during those years and Foote was the soul of the Avs defense. Of course, neither of them are the player they were 5 years ago, but honestly they don't need to be. This is going to be a huge emotional lift for the players and the fans and it couldn't come at a better time. With the Avs two points out of the final playoff spot it's time for them to make a huge push during their last 17 games.

Whether they make the playoffs or not, I'm more excited to watch Colorado hockey than I have been in a long time.

Recommended Read - The ClanDestine

Today I'm particularly giddy over a fun comic that recently crossed my radar. This title is ClanDestine, a book written and drawn by Alan Davis and originaly published way back in 1994. The title is seeing a new series released this month, but I had never read the first run and figured I'd check it out before deciding to purchase anything new. Thankfully, I was once again pleasantly surprised by the work of Alan Davis.

The story revolves around the Destine family, an enormous family of folks who all have various super powers. At first they appear to be mutants, but their powers are inherited from an immortal and invulnerable father and a mother who was an actual genie. The family lives in secrecy and hides their powers so their legacy will not be discovered. They live by the code of the Relative Stranger Protocol, where everyone has a fake identity and even newer members of the family have no idea who their relatives are and what exactly their relation is. This where things start to fall apart for the Clan Destine.

The main characters in this story are Rory and Pandora, teenaged twins just discovering their new powers who decide to take up costumed crime fighting after school. Of course, as with most teenagers, they end up getting in over their heads during a robbery and inadvertently reveal the identities of their family members. This leads to the death of their "grandmother" who actually turns out to be their older sister, and the dirty family secrets start to flow from there. The story takes off as we meet more Destine family members, learn of their unique powers and relationships as a mysterious evil force emerges intent on hunting and killing the entire family.

What I find the most fun about this series is that it takes place in the current Marvel Universe (circa 1994 at least) yet the Destine family have no desire to be superheroes. There are appearances by Silver Surfer, Spider-Man and the Avengers, but nothing is tied strictly into their individual universes. This gives The ClanDestine a completely fresh slate of characters and situations to work with, which is something seldom seen in a Marvel comic. Each character has a unique personality and the family dynamic is reminiscent of Fantastic Four, where they are at each others throats as often as they are fighting the bad guys.

However, the most enjoyable aspect of this book is Alan Davis. He has such a knack for characterization, both in his writing and his art. Every character has a unique look and the world Alan draws around them is detailed but not distracting. The story moves along a decent clip with just the right amounts of action and back-story. My first exposure to his work was with Fantastic Four: The End which is actually a very recent release in his career but had me hooked on his artistic style and storytelling right away. He's one of those artists that makes sci-fi and fantasy look so easy, you almost forget he's created entirely new worlds and characters right in front of your eyes.

This book is collected in trade format now, but you could probably find it in the $1 bin at your local shop. There are only 12 issues in the original run so it won't be very difficult to put together. I highly recommend hitting eBay or your comic store for a copy of the original series, it's required reading for any Marvel fan.

Come with me if you want to live

Those words were spoken over 15 years ago, in one of the best action movies ever made. Terminator 2: Judgment Day raised the bar for special effects and action sequences and still holds up nicely to today's computer generated effects. I remember seeing this movie in the theater with my grandmother, of all people, and being totally floored. I still watch this movie about twice a year.

So having gushed about James Cameron's masterpiece, I found myself both excited and fearful for the new Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I missed the series premier on Sunday night so I caught up on both episodes late last night. I hate giving a definitive opinion of a series after so few episodes, so for now I'll give my initial impression of the show; it's pretty good.

The series starts off in 1999 with Sarah and John still on the run, but settled down for the moment with a new relationship. But of course she knows only one thing and that is survival, for Judgment Day is always around the corner. Of course we couldn't have a show without Terminators and they inevitably track her down and start gunning for John in the middle of his new school. Thankfully, however, John had the wits to send another terminator back in time to protect him, this time in the guise of an attractive 18 year old named Cameron Phillips. Not much is known about this new terminator; what model she is, how much she knows or what she's fully capable of. The chase proceeds from there and the first episode ends with a nice twist to keep me intrigued about where the show is headed.

My main concern for this show was the acting. The only actor I know well is Summer Glau (Firefly/Serenity), and she's a fairly quirky character actor. However after the first 30 minutes I knew each actor was well suited for their role. Lena Headey is an excellent Sarah Connor, showcasing just the right amounts of intensity, fear and love for her son. Thomas Dekker is a nice change of pace from where Edward Furlong left the character of John Connor. Gone is the whiny kid full of piss and vinegar now replaced with a slightly more mature teenager who is more accepting of his coming role. Last we have the new terminator Cameron Phillips played by Summer Glau. I really found her awkward in this role up until the point that she's revealed as a terminator, and I suppose now that was the point. Once she goes into protecto-o-mode it all falls into place.

My main complaint so far is the guys they cast as the T-800 terminators. We've seen three of them so far and none were very menacing or convincing as a cyborg. Arnold never had to act robotic for you to believe he wasn't human, he just had that superhuman presence. These guys seem to be disposable so far so maybe we'll get some better actors to play our classic T-800. My other complaint is minor and they'll probably work around it, but John isn't going to be able to use the PIN crackers or other relatively low-tech hacks from 1999 here in 2007. They already address his tech lag in the second episode but I see this being a big obstacle for these characters as they try to stay hidden.

Overall I think this show has promise. If I were to rate it I'd give it 1.5 Thumbs Up. I only hope Fox gives it enough time to let us see where the story is going. They're infamous for canceling good shows before they have a chance to get off the ground *cough Firefly cough*.