Meh, I felt like posting a list of different anime series I've watched or am watching.


Watching:

Beet The Vandel Buster
Bleach
Blood+
Busou Renkin
Cowboy Bebop
D. Grey Man
Digimon Savers
Eureka 7
Flame of Recca
Gash Bell
Hellsing
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai
HunterXHunter
Naruto (Rarely, got tired of it)
One Piece
Ramna 1/2
Rave Master
Shaman King
Trinity Blood
Tsubasa Chronicles
Trigun
Zone Of The Enders


Finished:

.hack//SIGN
.hack//DUSK
.hack//ROOTS
.hack//LIMINALITY
Chobits
Detective Conan
Dragonball
Dragonball Z
Dragonball GT
Death Note
FLCL
Full Metal Alchemist
GetBackers
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Inuyasha
Outlaw Star
Samurai X (Ruroni Kenshin)
S-Cry-Ed
Tenchu Muyo
YuYu Hakusho
Zoids
Zoids Genesis

Comment! (8) | Recommend! | Categories: Anime [t]

I may put some spoilers in, read with caution.

The Darkness starts off with your character in the back of a taxi going the way through a tunnel, with the police chasing you. It starts off a bid... odd, and of course you can't stop wondering why your character is sitting there with a gun in his hands idle while his partners are being shot, rather then helping them, but most of this chase is a cutscene. "Cutscenes" in The Darkness are actually pretty nice, since just about all of them are realtime. During the cutscenes the game gives you the ability to tilt your character's head and look around realistically, you can't completely turn your head around, but I notice something new every time I see most cutscenes.

Soon after that, your character unleashes his "Darkness" and slaughters a cemetery full of goons using his powers. The Darkness powers are where the game gets interesting. Your powers recharge whenever you're in a dark area, so usually it's in your best interest to shoot out all the lights around you except maybe one or two so you can see where you're going without your Darkness powers. If you walk in light areas, you lose Darkness energy and your powers will retreat back inside you, where you can call them out again with a push of a button. When you kill any enemies who have "evil" hearts (goons, muggers on the street, the suicidal guy on top of the building), you can consume their heart to level up your Darkness powers. As they level up, your Darkness forms will alter, their eyes will grow longer and brighter, and you'll be able to hold more Darkness energy.

Now for the individual powers.

Creeping Dark: The ability you start out with allows you to send the right head of your Darkness incarnation out to creep along the floors, easily taking down anything in it's path with a single strike. You can also use this power to climb up walls, to go through small spaces, and to reach things you couldn't normally reach.



Demon Arm: Easily my favorite power in the game, this attack lets you send a tendril of your Darkness incarnation out to attack whatever is in front of you. You can use it to break lights, impale enemies, and much more. Using the Darkness Arm you can pick up objects in front of you by holding onto the trigger, and toss it wherever you want. You can also impale enemies and toss their corpses.



Darkness Guns: Once you progress with the game, you'll receive two guns which allow you to use your Darkness energy to wield two special guns, supposed to be capable of controlling the Darkness. The right gun fires an electric jolt, usually enough to kill any enemy with two or three shots. The left gun fires an incredibly powerful pulse of energy, that kills any normal enemy with a single shot.

Sorry, no video of the Darkness Guns.

Vortex: You can use all your Darkness energy to create a vortex that will basically kill everything that gets sucked in. The more Darkness energy you had at the time of creating the vortex, the longer it will last. You can also tap the trigger while you already have a vortex out to cause it to implode. My second favorite skill.



Okay, now for the pros and cons of the game.

Pros:
-Good multiplayer play
-Fast paced action
-Unique powers
-Guns are fun to use also
-Interesting storyline
-Good controls
-Good graphics
-Realtime cutscenes

Cons:
-Your character walks REALLY slowly, while all your enemies are sprinting
-You can't use your Demon Arm ability to propel yourself forward as your character did in the cutscenes
-Multiplayer games are incredibly laggy most of the time
-It can often take a long time to figure out where you're going because of the sometimes confusing subway system

All in all, definitely something at least worth renting, though it is worth it to buy. Oh, and this was a bit short because of the fact that just about everything I could say about this one would give away massive spoilers.

Comment! (0) | Recommend! | Categories: Games [t], Reviews [t]

Soon I'll be posting some reviews of popular games I've played, for now, here's my thoughts on the Halo 3 beta test.

Okay, to start off, what I'm saying is just for the beta testing, I'm sure the game will improve plenty by the full release.

Alright, I was kind of skeptic because of the Halo 3 beta test, it felt... lacking. Where were the "amazing graphics" that they promised, where was that "incredible gameplay"?

From what I saw, the gameplay was lacking, and had some new things in it that were just.. annoying. Hitting up on the d-pad for example to talk to teammates, yes, it makes sense since you're "turning your radio on", but often in the middle of the battle you don't have time to do this. I like the fact they're allowing you to talk to non-team members in battle, but the fact that if you forgot to hit the button you could give plans away to enemies is something that should be changed. Maybe the opposite, or hitting the d-pad would TOGGLE the radio. Also, the bubble shield becomes nearly pointless in the middle of combat when a vehicle can plow right through it and crush you. I'd understand people walking through, that makes it more interesting, but the fact that a tank could mow you down while inside something that is supposed to block all projectiles seems... iffy. The power drainer also seems a bit overpowered, as you could just toss it and shoot someone once or twice with a pistol and get a kill.

Aside from those things, I was fairly pleased with the beta. Though they didn't allow us to create custom games till the retail release, we got a good taste of the fast paced combat so many of us have missed since Halo 2. A few battles I was in actually reminded me of Doom 3, going through an entire battle without blinking. The maps were well-designed and the "man cannon" lets you jump right into the battle, usually moving fast enough to avoid any sniper campers. Another thing I like is the gravity lift, which allows you to infiltrate bases much easier, stopping people from simply camping one area.

In short:

Pros:
Fast paced action
Good game mechanics
Good customization for a beta
Well designed maps
Interesting new items

Cons:
Bubble shield needs to be revised
Power drainer needs to be revised
Graphics aren't as good as Bungie bragged them to be
Radio needs toggling

I'll be posting a short review on The Darkness soon.

Comment! (4) | Recommend! | Categories: Games [t], Reviews [t]