The Blogtastic Blogfest that is www.getmeoutofthis.net!

« Set Nana Spoilers to MAX POWUR! | Main | I'm some sort of shitty web developer. »

January 11, 2007

Many, Many Mini-Reviews and Comments

So, yeah, I've read the latest xXxholic. The thing that amazes me about the series is how it speaks to me so much. Sure the series is about spirits and ghosts and weird goings-on, but it's not really about that. It's about the characters, and who they are, and it's about people. It's about how people act. The latest xXxholic is mostly a story about Watanuki trying to save the Zashiki-warashi from danger, as she's trapped by some spider lady, but it isn't really about that at all. As becomes apparent, it's about how believing yourself to be worthless, even in the face of much evidence to the contrary, causes you to hurt those who care about you. Watanuki attempts to sacrifice himself for the Zashiki-warashi, even though the only reason she is in trouble was because she was trying to help him out. And it just... it's... if I took all the lessons xXxholic has tried to teach me to heart I'd be better off, I'd think. I love Cardcaptor Sakura to death, and would say it was my favorite anime in a heartbeat, but if you'd press me... get me to discuss it... xXxholic has deeper characters, and much more meaning. Cardcaptor Sakura has that, of course, but for every bit you get there, you get about 4 or 5 in xXxholic... it's just... great stuff. If you like anime and you haven't seen or read it, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Other Manga I have recently read... Q-Ko-Chan 2... nothing was solved, and this is all there is of the series. The main characters weren't even in the last little bit. FLCL was weird, but it came to a conclusion. I didn't find one here, and it disappointed me, especially after all the potential after the first one, with it's weird fairly sexual way of describing things and just the whole concept. Yeah... it was a letdown.

Welcome to the N.H.K. was not a letdown, perse, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting and, I'll admit, didn't hook me. I wasn't really depressing, like I was lead to believe. The main character is just extremely akward, but the way he expresses his depression and akwardness is so full of energy that, as a reader, I'm just sitting there being entertained instead of empathizing with him. It didn't shy away from wierd, creepy things either. There is a whole scene where the main character is going out and taking pictures of grade schooler's panties and trying to get his friend to take pictures of him doing this... it's... odd. If I really feel like another manga binge like I've been doing recently, and need something else to pick up, the next volume wouldn't be bad, but it's certianly not on my list of must-reads.

I've also bought basically all the Death Notes published so far that I haven't read (Hastings had two of them used aka half price, but it wasn't the next two, so I ended up buying like the whole thing due to that one kinda discount), but I haven't read them yet. However, the series has stayed awesome through four volumes and I assume it will keep being so. I love L. I love his expressions. I also haven't read Yotsuba&! yet, because it is full of whimsy and I am saving it for some point where I am feeling depressed, because I know it will pick me up.

What else... I watched A Scanner Darkly today. Having no knowledge of the source material, I say if you think you might like the movie, go pick it up because you will like it. It's not a OMG MUST SEE OH MY GOD! kinda film, but it's well done, and the art is neato. It honestly wasn't what I was expecting, plotwise, but not in a bad way, seeing as I had no knowledge of the source material. Anyway, it was good.

Gods, mini-reviews, huh...? What else can I review? I liked Prey. It was kinda simple when you got right down to it, and you are invincible, but it's neat. It could have been so much more, though. (I beat it, by the way, today) The Leech Gun was my favorite gun... I had some ideas on how to make it even cooler.
1) More Uses for the Secondary Fire Leeching, other than getting more ammo: Many enemies have energy-based weapons. The Leech Gun sucks up energy from nodes and then shoots it. I should be able to suck up energy blasts from my enemies defensively. Or maybe offensively. Maybe if I get up close to someone with that kinda gun, I can suck all the ammo out of their weapon to disarm them.
2)Mix and Match: There are 4 flavors of energy to fire out of the gun in the game Red (Jonathan calls it "Fire"), Ice, Lighting, and White (I guess if you wanna call the Red "Fire," you'd call this Light or Sunlight... but I think shooting people with Red or White is more fun. The blue colored energy just freezes people, so it's too icy to be called "Blue," and the Lighting just looks like Lighting, and isn't a color). You can only have one at a time in the gun. If you get another, or really, reload with anything, all the energy you had in the gun before is lost. But why does it have to be? Why can't I mix energies together in the gun for new effects? Why can't I put Ice and White together to form an Ice Beam or something? Maybe Red and Lighting would make some sort of energy blob that would explode in electricity when it hits the ground or an enemy? I dunno, but you could do some cool shit in there if you could mix like that.
Anyway, those are my ideas, if they ever make another Prey or use the Leech Gun idea in another game. There are some improvements, besides just making more types of energy to suck up.

I wonder if people like when I write these quasi-reviews. I always feel compelled to... but it's not like anyone reads my blog anyway and I rarely go in-depth like a good review should... hm...

Posted by poetfox at January 11, 2007 02:11 AM

Comments

Post a comment