1up-manship

As excited as I am for Star Wars the Force Unleashed II, it feels like they're shamelessly trying to out do all other Jedi.  Just observe this trailer.




Luke Skywalker Struggled against one Rancor, oh yeah well our Jedi warrior fearlessly attacks something that eats Rancors for breakfast.

Yoda Thee Jedi Master strained  to pull an X-Wing out of a bog, well our Starkiller ripped a Imperial Star Destroyer out of orbit in the first game.

That being said I still can't wait for this game.

Lords of Cliché

There is a new Castlevania game coming out and it looks really cool.

However...  A hero with a dead girlfriend and mask that brings people back to life (supposedly).    I can't help but feel like we've seen this before.

Not to menton that Hideo Kojima is a producer (whatever that means).  He was the man that with one hand gave us Metal Gear Solid but then with the other hand inflicted Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The game is said to feature Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards, took me forever to realize that.  Just like it took me twenty years to figure out the pun in the Beatles name.) Dracula's son.  The news of this has me giddy as a school girl.  Alucard was in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the best Castlevania game I've ever played.

And so with great fear and trepidation I anticipate this game.  I am cautiously optimistic.  But they certainly have a long way to fall.

Japanese Culture

I have often bemoaned the current blend of Japanese culture which is so prevalent in video games, particularly the Japanese ones.  Now don't get me wrong I love Final Fantasy VII.  But since then I have been increasingly baffled by their culture.  Next was FF8 with it's main character who had less charisma than a brick wall.  I watched Princess Mononoke which wasn't... awful.  Then I watched Steamboy which was.  And somewhere in the middle was Howl's Moving Castle.  Then I was surprised by Spirited Away, finally a Alice in Wonderland story that made sense.  Then there was the miss-paced Ponyo.

 And I tried, honestly I did.  I watched anime, Cowboy Bebop was great and I naively thought it would all be like that.  But then Full Metal Alchemist are you kidding me?

So any way this video manages to capture just about everything in Japanese culture that I dislike.  Things which are so hard to put into words.


One thing I can put into words is Japan's strange need to promote environmentalism.  Which is also featured in the video.  It's like a dead horse they keep beating.  Sure we shouldn't destroy the environment but I can't help feeling a little like Mr. Burns.

"Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."    — CM Burns.

Katametle

I can't help but think that the inspiration for Katamari

Came from ...

a dung beetle.

And just for fun

Starcraft II

One video game for the price of three.

Team Tifa

I'm Team Tifa.  It has taken me a long time to come to this decsision.  I used to be Team Aeris big time but well, she's dead.

And as cool as necrophilia is, it's a one way street.  Cloud and Tifa deserve better than that.

And for that matter Aeris deserves better.  But hey she's got Zack.  They can be dead together.  

Or maybe it's more like this, I'm not to sure what the afterlife is like.

Pretty much sums it up

And check out this site for more fun.