Dark Souls 2 Gameplay

So IGN just released a 12 minute Dark Souls 2 gameplay reveal.  Dark Souls probably one of my favorite games of the past five years so I was certainly excited to see footage of the game.

My initial impressions are that it certainly looks like more Dark Souls, which isn't a bad thing.  There is certainly a graphic fidelity and physics improvements and hopefully it's a lot more optimized than the first game which had some performance issues.   Things like lighting torches don't seem to be great feature improvements although if a lot of areas in Dark Souls 2 are like the Tomb Of Giants in the first game then it's definitely a welcome addition to the game.  Enemies breaking through walls certainly seems like it could be a frightening feature where you are trying to avoid tough enemies but they keep coming after you.   Also another thing to notice is that dual wielding could somewhat be an option as there seems to combat animations that complement such a style.  Hopefully we'll see some more in the near future.

adding the gameplay trailer as well.

Favorite Winter 2013 Anime

Winter 2012-2013 season is basically wrapping up with quite a few anime shows ending this week.  Even though i haven't watched all of what was available during the season I felt that I needed to make a small list of my favorites that I watched.

Haganai NEXT

The second season of Haganai (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT) is what I found the most entertaining and funniest shows you can watch this season..  It basically keeps the momentum going from the first season with Kodaka and the rest of the Neighbors Club getting into hilarious situations practicing friend making skills.

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

I felt this was probably one of the best "slice of life" shows out this season which is mostly about a group of high school outcasts who live in Sakura Hall which is meant for so called "troublemakers" of the school.  There was certainly funny moments, a fair amount of drama to sort of get the emotions going, and an amazing casts of characters which make you miss them when it's all over.

Blast of Tempest

What I liked about Blast of Tempest (Zetsuen No Tempest) is that it tells a well thought out story about two friends who both share a tragic past due to someone significant in their lives passing away, thus spiraling into a chain of events that involves magic, apocalyptic world trees, and a bit of Shakespeare.

THE UNLIMITED - Hyobu Kyosuke

A spin-off story from the Zettai Karen Children (Psychic Squad) series, if you don't know much about the universe it's more or less about a criminal organization named P.A.N.D.R.A. and their leader Hyobu Kyosuke. He commands a group of Espers(physic power users) who seem to have an agenda against normal humans and ultimately wants to wipe them out.  The action scenes are pretty exciting and the characters are fairly likable for the most part.  Add in some espionage to the mix and you get a fairly interesting plot.  For a 12 episode anime it's really well put together and fun to watch.

Robotics;Notes

Robotics;Notes I found a pretty interesting because I found the story a bit of a mind twist as it definitely played the on it's strengths of tossing in a plot and turning it on it's toes just when you think you have figured it out.  Watch if you are interested in conspiracy theories, sci-fi, little bit of video games, robot building and fighting.  Not to mention that it takes place in the much heralded Steins;Gate universe.

Oreshura

I do watch my fair share of harem themed shows though most of the time I find them repetitive but Oreshura seems to be self aware of itself and the plot is certainly dumb but it is all good fun and comedy as you watch Eita Kido get blackmailed by Masuzu Natsukawa into a fake relationship and does his best to avoid his childhood friends finding out their relationship is a fake since they are all in love with him.

Didn't finish watching or ongoing that is still probably worth watching.

• Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World)
• Psycho-Pass
• Chihayafuru (season 2)

Games I've Been Playing - March 2013

I think it's been a pretty slow year in terms of games that have interested me but I'll go ahead and give my thoughts on some of the games I've been playing this month.

Starcraft 2 - Heart of the Swarm

I think what I am most impressed about Heart of the Swarm so far is the way it is telling the story.  I have not seen any other RTS deliver a proper story in the same kind of way.  You can tell Blizzard spent a decent chunk of money to create the CG cutscenes and story elements.  While interactions and conversations aren't as interesting as the Wings of Liberty stuff it is still pretty cool to go around and talk with zerg creatures about how to approach missions and whatnot.

As for gameplay in the campaign I think most of it is fairly interesting so far.  Most of it revolves controlling Kerrigan who plays a major role in each mission and is basically your go to unit to achieve victory.  It almost feels like cheating having her around all the time.  The upgrade systems work a bit differently than Wings of Liberty but you effectively enhance each of your units with a special power.  For example zerglings have two upgrade paths, one evolution is that you can have them able to leap up and down from cliffs or evolve them to spawn three at a time instead of the usual single unit.  Kerrigan also works in a similar way, she can gain levels and at various tiers she can gain a new ability from two different branches of power, you can freely respec abilities so it's not a deep commitment into what abilities you want to use which is a big change from Wings Of Liberty

Don't want to make this sound like a review as I'm only around the halfway point in the game but I still feel that Heart of the Swarm is a great RTS for what I have played so far.   I still haven't gotten deep into the multiplayer but that is mostly due to being scared of getting blown away by people who have been playing since Starcraft 2's launch.

World Of Warcraft - 5.2 patch

I've sort of been playing Mists Of Pandaria the past few months, though I pretty much don't log in as often as i used to.   But 5.2 content patch was released recently and I've been doing a few of the new LFR(Raid Finder) instances.   While the difficulty isn't up to par with normal raid instances I still enjoy them but I don't know if it's MMO fatigue or what I feel that the boss encounters just don't feel unique anymore.   It's like all the design aspects of a raid encounter have been exhausted, some may be due to some mechanics being stripped out for LFR and some of it is just reuse of older boss mechanics.     I think my time in WoW is winding down to it's end but I still enjoyed Mists of Pandaria alot more than Cataclysm.

Bioshock Infinite

The game is under my radar so i'll leave this spot blank for now but it's probably the biggest release to come out this year so far.  

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou - Short Review

The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is a little mix of everything. If you want humor, love triangles, drama and life lessons to be learned then this is probably something you should watch.  It's mostly about high school teens who get outcast from their dorms into Sakura Hall which is meant for trouble making students.

The plot revolves around Sorata Kanda who was kicked out of the dorms and moved to Sakura Hall for taking care of a cat and meets Mashiro Shiina who is a very talented artist but so inept of taking care of herself that Sorata has to do it for her thus you sort of get the idea where the title of this anime comes from.  Sorata ends up inspiring the other students of Sakura Hall with his actions and in the process they become friends and work on projects together(mostly anime and video game related) which strengthens their bonds and friendships as they experience success and failures pursuing their goals.

The story is well told, the animation is really nice to look at, and voice acting really well done. I certainly hope they decide to continue the anime with a second season as this first season was definitely one of the best anime for winter 2013.

5/5

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions - Short Review

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions or Chūnibyō Demo Koi ga Shitai! is a 12 episode anime that I watched over the weekend which certainly made me laugh and pulled at my heart strings at the same time.  The story revolves around a few teenagers who have experienced or are experiencing "8th grade syndrome" or Chunibyo, which is basically another way of saying that they escaped reality by imagining they had powers that they do not really have and hide themselves behind that persona.

Yuta smacking Rikka

While the entire cast of characters were all fairly interesting you couldn't help be drawn to the main characters of the story which revolves around Yuta Togashi a guy who is recovering from his delusional past and trying to live a normal life in his new high school who ends up meeting a girl named Rikka Tanashi who lives above his apartment and is currently in her own delusional world while always wearing an eye patch to cover her "wicked eye".   Their awkward relationship evolving from annoyance to mutual love for each other was something very interesting to watch as the tone and pacing of the story is very comedic at first but eventually becomes very serious in the last few episodes as you find out about the true issues behind why Rikka hides herself behind her delusions.

Rikka showing her "Wicked Eye"

I enjoyed this anime a lot as it has a good mix of humor, action, and serious moments that don't get overly complicated.   The production values are excellent as are most anime's done by Kyoto Animation and visuals for the action scenes are very nice contrast to the every day high school scenarios throughout the series.  Without getting too philosophical the message this anime tries to portray is fairly simple.  We all have embarrassing quirks about our personalities and we shouldn't force ourselves to hide it as those qualities are a part of us and who we are.  At least that's what I got out of it.

You can currently watch this anime on the Animenetwork.

Rating: 5/5