bebopsamurai

So, got Killzone 2... and promptly returned it.

Huh.

Of all the 'killer app' FPS games to come out recently, I think this one's probably the biggest disappointment I've encountered, especially since it's supposed to be the PS3's answer to Halo or some shit.  Sure it looks VERY nice (if a little monochromatic) but the visuals are about the high point here.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by COD4, but GODDAMN if this isn't the most unintuitive and awkward standard control scheme I've encountered since Goldeneye back on the N64.  I had to fiddle with it for a few minutes just to get it operating near something playable, and even with all the sliders set up to max little things like turning still feel sticky and slow.  The paper-thin WWII themes are a little grating too (seriously America, there are plenty of OTHER wars you could base shit on-- MOVE ON ALREADY).  And multiplayer-- SERIOUSLY?  You have to work for ANYTHING OTHER THAN A FUCKING RIFLE???

Overall, an overrated mess.

Which brings us to VALKYRIA CHRONICLES OH SNAP!

Since I'm currently playing through this game and a review will inevitably be coming, I decided to lay out my time with the game in, since it's got this whole war-journal conceit thing going on, a journal style.  Here goes nothing.

( Chronicles of Valkyria Chronicles, Part 1 )

So I just beat Infamous and I wanted to put my thoughts down.

( I just wish Cole didn't sound like the love child of Solid Snake and Marcus Fenix. )

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Just because it's appropriate.  You know who you are :3

Kay, first off, here's a meme I borrowed from lickingbeads, since it was a stipulation of filling it out on her LJ.

( Random Stuff )

And now that I've gotten my PS3, I'm back in the current gaming generation.  Stayed up til 3 playing Infamous-- I'll have more thoughts when I run through it, but so far I'm really enjoying this-- the gameplay is fun, the story's intriguing (if bordering on the nonsensical), and I love the little touches that make it feel like a blend between playable comic book and Saturday Morning superhero cartoon (there's something oddly satisfying about beating up a gang of hoodlums, then shackling them with electric manacles "Super Friends" style XD).

And yes fandomgreen, I actually did manage to find a copy of Valkyria Chronicles and I've played a little.  So far... I'm not really sold.  It looks very pretty and the gameplay is solid (though honestly the shooting controls could stand to be a little more intuitive-- I'd honestly rather hold L to aim and hit R1 to shoot or something), but instead it's setting off every cynical bone in my body that I'm heading into another generic "war epic" anime that, like every Gundam before it, feels that it needs to sit down and lecture us on the horrors of war instead of just letting the imagery speak for itself (and hmm, convenient that there are no small Pacific-Asian countries involved with the big bad Empire killing and enslaving the Chinese, cough cough :/)

Here's the last few movies I've seen reviewed in haiku form, because I'm bored.

Drag Me to Hell:

Quite amusing, fun/
Good to see old-school horror/
Fuck that ending, though.

Land of the Lost:

More of the same Will/
Why does he get the cute girls/
You could do much worse.

The Hangover:

Pretty damn funny/
But not too original/
Take it or leave it.

Oh, and since I'm finally getting my tuition refund from my old school (though most of it is going to next semester) I have enough to get back into console gaming-- and what with all the Uncharted 2's and God of War 3's and Little Big Planets' and Arkham Asylum's coming out, the PS3 is pretty much my hands-down choice.

And I've started reading "Y: The Last Man."  Pretty damn interesting and the lead is likeable enough, though an undercurrent of resentment towards women makes me somewhat wary.  However, the excellent art, clever storytelling, solid characters and the bundle of win that is Agent 355 are more than enough to keep me reading.

And goddamn Victoria is hot.  I know that she'd probably kill me just on virtue of having a Y chromosome but sonofabitch ♥♥♥

Haven't updated in a few days (which I'm sure you all missed LOL) so have a meme I 'borrowed' from kiyuu .

The problem with LiveJournal is that we think we're close, but really, we know nothing about each other.

So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, something about fandom, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or a question about a fic of mine or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

Ask away!

Lastly, since you all know I hate Bleach with the fury of a thousand suns but unconditionally love Soifon, let's talk about the revelation of Soi's Bankai.

....

I'm... not sure what to say other than that Soifon/Samus Aran is now my badass armcannon ship.  I mean, I wasn't sure exactly what it was going to be, but THAT was about the least likely thing I could have conceived.  I mean, what makes more sense for a ninja to use upgraded from a subtle, elegant assassination weapon to... a...uh.... chaingun.

Now, if after losing an arm and now gaining a brick shithouse on the other, she still manages to lose to personalityless-arrancar-number-whatever-the-fuck-it-is, nothing will ever convince me that Kubo is anything less than a mysogynistic hack.

Okay kiyuu, here it is, uploaded for your perousal.

So.  Downloaded the "Rock Band Unplugged" demo for the PSP.

Once again, fuck you Neversoft-- Harmonix gets it right and for the record if you're gonna play a music game,

ROCK BAND > GUITAR HERO

Okay yeah, there are only three songs on the demo and you can't even play them to completion, but the point is to sell you on the gameplay and now that I have in fact PLAYED it, that's happened.  It's less the psuedo-musician fulfillment fantasy that's part of the console versions and more a frantic arcadey-style point-racking battle, but the constant shifting from one instrument to another and keeping track of each one's progress ensures that you don't get bored, which can happen in some songs when you're playing the console version.

And "Don't Stop Believin'?" YES.

Tried playing "Guitar Hero On Tour".  Turned it back the very next day.  Sorry Activision, but if you REALLY think that goddamn Guitar Grip and the awkward touchpad strumming works then you're WRONG.  Rock Band Unplugged can't come out fast enough for me-- at least Harmonix actually GETS music games and makes them fun as opposed to just finger-breaking color-matching.

And sold off my DS... Again.  I feel like i'm in an abusive relationship with this thing-- I'll get interested again over a few games, dole out the cash to play them, then get bored with them quickly and can't find anything else really worthwhile on it.  I dunno, the PSP has just been less of an overall disappointment.

Speaking of which, I've been playing the "Metal Slug Anthology" and goddamn... I'm not really into Arcade-style games but THIS IS GOOD SHIT.  it looks gorgeous, plays smooth, has a great tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.  But it really needs a health bar or something because there are plenty of situations where you WILL get shot, and since it's one-hit-kill this means that you WILL die, which means that you are gonna spend a LOT of time seeing the "Continue" screen.  Hell, if it weren't for the Unlimited Continues option I'd probably never have beaten the first one.  Cheating I know, but goddamnit I don't HAVE the cash to play something like this in an arcade.

And also got Tekken PSP.  I've been a Tekken virgin up 'til now and I gotta say... this is really nice stuff.  The combat is pretty intuitive and it looks very nice, there's tons of modes and stuff to do, but considering this IS from the team that makes Soul Calibur I suppose that's not a surprise.  Only major complaint is that sidestepping is pretty touchy, and if you don't hit 'down' just right you'll end up crouching instead or soemthing.  Other than that, this has given me some high hopes for the PSP Soul Calibur.

So animation. I love it. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most versatile tools of creative filmmaking, able to convey the most intriguing and believable stuff out there by simply requesting one simple suspension of disbelief and letting the rest go from there. And while in recent years the only options have been Shrek-esque fractured fairy tales and the occasional hit from Pixar, that's not the case this year.

Oh no, not at all. 2009's already brought us one of the smartest films in recent memory period (Coraline), a well-meaning but ultimately futile sci-fi preachfest (Battle for Terra), an overglorified tech demo (Monsters Vs. Aliens) and the latest Pixar gem (Up). But there's still plenty more to come, and that's why I'm generously going to run through the remainder of the year's diverse animated offerings and decide if they're destined for greatness or just more of the same. Either way, the Best Animated Film nominations will be more interesting than whatever contrived tragedy is up for Best Picture this year.

( BebopSamurai's 2009 Animated Movie Rundown )

So I saw "Up" and I wanted to put my thoughts down.

( If you can get through this movie without tearing up even a LITTLE, then you have no soul. )

So.  Since I'm bored and I'm probably gonna have a lot to say about "Up" after I see it tomorrow, here's a meme I 'borrowed' from fandomgreen  because why the hell not.

Name your 15 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms.

No points for picking out the obvious ;D  Feel free to ask why or to judge.

Helen/Deneve -- Claymore
Yoruichi/Soifon -- Bleach
The Prince/Elika -- Prince of Persia
Big Boss/Eva -- Metal Gear Solid 3
Faith/Celeste -- Mirror's Edge
Chie/Yukiko -- Persona 4
Phoenix/Maya -- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Azula/Ty Lee -- Avatar: The Last Airbender
Flycatcher/Red Riding Hood -- Fables
Ran/Julia -- Strawberry Shake Sweet
Maka/Chrona -- Soul Eater
Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy -- Batman
Crimson Viper/Cammy White -- Street Fighter
Fone Bone/Thorn Harvestar -- Bone
Phillip J. Fry/Turanga Leela -- Futurama

So it's no secret that I'm a big fan of video games.  Or that I'm rather cynical about most of the things I'm a fan of, either.  And since I'm constantly feeling generous enough to force my opinions down the collective proverbial throats of my f-list, I decided to list out a bunch of ideas I'd love to see become actual games, since the internet is a melting pot of self-righteous idea wars anyways.  But if any of these DO happen to ever get made, hey, at least I can say that I called it.

( 5 Games That Need to Exist Yesterday )

So, "Terminator: Salvation."

...Not too bad. Bale looks dazed half the time and it seems to have been filmed in "Gears-Of-War-Greyscale-Vision," but it does manage to get some actual sci-fi themes in there as opposed to just killing robots (even if they have at best emulated "Blade Runner" and, oddly enough, bits of "The Six-Billion Dollar Man"). Helena Bonham Carter's in there for about 5 seconds as the terminally-cancerous head of Cyberdyne (and only SHE could still look so gorgeous with a foot in the grave XD), Sam Fisher heads up the human resistance, and apparently the heart of the evil robot empire looks like a combination of high-school haunted house and the Apple Store. But it's diverting enough, and considering its softening to PG-13, it still manages to capture a lot of the original films' visceral action and brutality.

While sorely lacking in Linda Hamilton and kind of losing a bit of the ominous tension by finally showing us what the desolate machine future looks like, you DO get to see Schwartzenegger beat the crap out of Christian Bale in a naked cameo in his infamous original role, and that counts for something at least.

Still, if there's one reason to see it, it's for this.



Glad to see Guy Ritchie is back at work :D And, um, Rachel McAdams. I'm gonna go look for my eyes now 0_0

And FUCK YES THE 9 OFFICIAL TRAILER.


:LKJSD:FHPSDOIJN"SAPODKJFSAOPDJGS"DOFG"SDLF HOLY FUCKING SHIT DO WANT :DDDDDDDDD

Lastly, trying to find the Phoenix Wright Kinkmeme to no success.  Anyone with at least the journal it's on would be thanked :D

PONYO.  ENGLISH DUB. COMING AUGUST 14. THEATERS.

FFFFFUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK YEESSSSSSSS :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

So I saw "Star Trek" and I wanted to put my thoughts down.

( Abrams made something GOOD? What's next-- Yoruichi/Soifon is going to become canon? XD )

WOOOO I finally have a job again-- which means that if it's in fact full-time, I might not have to worry about taking classes to keep getting insurance ♥♥♥♥  It's at Stride Rite, which is basically a shoe store for kids up to 13, and while I've been babysitting constantly for about 4 months without any problems, I'm REALLY hoping i'm not the sort who will get annoyed by them.  I'm pretty patient with kids, but... 0_0

And I was at my cousin's Confirmation ceremony and one of my 5-year old cousins sat near me and she was talking to me before the mass started.  And she pointed out this one little girl in a polo shirt and khaki slacks...

her: "I talked to that boy there and he said that he was a girl!" :0
me: "...Well, you know that girls can wear clothes like boys, right?"
her: 8/ "...Nuh-uh! (looks again)... oh wait, now I can see she's a girl."

And apparently she thought my (single) mom and I were married. Yeah.  My sister was trying hard not to laugh out loud.  Oh, kids XD

Oh, saw "Battle for Terra"-- no full review cause there's not much to say.  Not that great (and kinda fugly), which isn't to say that there weren't some good ideas and a surprising degree of... well, maturity... to it (how often is moral ambiguity factored into kid's movies anyway?).  Basically, some interesting art direction/mechanical design, ambitious scope and a SERIOUSLY good musical score gets overshadowed by wooden voice-acting and a rogue's gallery of Every Trendy Ultra-Liberal Cause being shoehorned down your throat (environmentalism? Oh yeah.  Iraq War-parallels? You got 'em.  The evils of religion? of course...).  Please "9", hurry up and come out to prove with "The Iron Giant," "Titan A.E.," "The Secret of Nimh" and "The Incredibles" that animation is a viable and perfect place for science fiction to thrive in.

And lastly, participating in this meme from kiyuu .

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

( Got Avatar, Claymore and Persona 4. )