All-in-one Review thread

[Kyo]

EMSってお前どこの国に住んでんのよ！？ｗｗｗ

おいおい、俺のプロフィルを見ればすぐにわかるだろう？

Also, I think we should tone down the Japanese a bit from now on. It's technically against the forum rules to not converse in English for anything other than Idolmaster stuff.

Scottyedit: Jesus man, thank you, I've been trying to tell you guys ;-;

[h4ataraxia]

おいおい、俺のプロフィルを見ればすぐにわかるだろう？

Also, I think we should tone down the Japanese a bit from now on. It's technically against the forum rules to not converse in English for anything other than Idolmaster stuff.

Scottyedit: Jesus man, thank you, I've been trying to tell you guys ;-;

じゃぁ、アイマスの事ならおｋって言うことですね？おｋｗｗｗ（何この外道？

ok i kid, anyways i be postan a review up soon...of...something! :K
and btw did you get that book online or wut?
maybe i should do a similar review of a similar book called magical marine pixel maritan lulz

[Scotty]

You mean Mari-tan?

[h4ataraxia]

You mean Mari-tan?

yes, seems like i made a typo

[digi162]

I'm going to review the following candy I bought today:


Hey guys!  Ever wonder what diet cola tastes like in candy form?

So I saw this package struggling to hang on the rack at the store, and I thought wow, this must be really awful candy if it's sat there for so long it's peeling itself off the rack.  Especially the half price stickers were a clue, but curiosity and a dollar got the best of me and I tried out these guys.  I've had candy like this before, I know how it COULD taste but mannnnnnn it was like diet cola.  It tasted fine at first but there's this weird aftertaste.  Says it expires in a year so it hasn't gone bad or anything...

Sometimes I've lucked out with random candy purchases.  Like that peanut butter coconut flake candy, that was delicious.  This was not lucky.  Maybe 2 out of 5 stars if I could give it a ranking.

[blake307]

Warriors Orochi 1 and 2

Story: The story of warriors orochi 1 takes place where a serpant king named Orochi escapes from the underworld and then decides to test his abilities against the best warriors in the world. So Orochi creates this world combining the Three kingdoms era in Dynasty warriors and the warring states period in Samurai warriors. I thought it was pretty cool and creative to combine Dynasty warriors and Samurai warriors characters in a world created by Orochi, though most of the cutscenes in the game weren't that great, I still thought it was one of the coolest games I ever played.
Orochi 2: This story takes place shortly after Orochi was killed in warriors Orochi 2. It starts out that Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo, and Masamune Date have rebuilt their armies and are trying to gain power across the world Orochi created and therefore bring back chaos to this world. Meanwhile Da Ji, along with Sun Wukong and Kiyomori are trying to revive Orochi with a little girl, Himiko as the key to reviving Orochi.  I thought the cutscenes in Orochi 2 were a little better. Plus it was cool to be able kick ass with Orochi in Orochi's story mode.

Story: 8/10

Characters: Besides the Dynasty warriors and Samurai warriors characters. There were some other cool characters in the game like Minamoto, Fu Xi, and Orochi. The best characters in the game in my opinion were Tadakatsu Honda, Lu Bu, Masamune Date, Zhao Yun, Keiji Maeda, Guan Yu, Sun Jian, and Nobunaga Oda.


Characters: 8/10

Music: It has a really great soundtrack they put in the games. My favorite of course was Lu Bu's theme. In fact I think Lu Bu's theme in this game was the best out of all of Lu Bu's themes.

Music: 10/10

Graphics: The graphics in the game were alright for a PS2 game. But I also thought it could have been better too.

Graphics: 7/10

Gameplay: The gameplay made it pretty fun to play, with the idea of being able to switch between 3 different characters. Plus the new feature where you use your musou to deal devastating damage to your opponents was also pretty cool and most of the time way more affective than using your musou.  It can get pretty repetitive after a while. But still I thought it was always pretty fun to play.


Gameplay: 8/10


This is defidently one of my favorite games of all time since it combines Dynasty Warriors and Samurai warrior characters in a game. If you are a fan of Dynasty and Samurai warriors you defidently should check this game out. XD

Overall: 8/10

[RoninatorMarx]

Game: Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Known in Japan as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, it is the 9th (and currently final) game in the Fatal Fury series. Set 10 years after Geese Howard's death on Real Bout: Fatal Fury, the story now focuses on a new hero by the name of Rock Howard (Geese's son) (This game shows that Terry's ending in Real Bout is the canon ending).

I did a Grant playthrough, for those curious to see my moves how the game plays like.

Pt01: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdPpinBKOys
Pt02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klL30s184sg
Pt03: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzykSy-mbW4

Graphics: Don't look here if you're not expecting sprites. But if you are, let me be the first to say over the great improvement of the sprite work here. (Quote from Wikipedia: "It is known for pushing the graphical capabilities of the Neo Geo...") Still, it never left the traditional display of special effects. 10/10

Gameplay: New to this game, is the Tactical Offense Position (or TOP for short), a special area in the character's life bar. When a character's life enters this area, he gains passive regenerative ability for that entire area, as well as both increased attack and the T.O.P. move, a special maneuver that can be performed by pressing both strong attack buttons. This game has a grading system still, which provides one-half of the requirement of fighting the true final boss, Kain (having to obtain at least one "AAA" rank along the way) (the other being not losing any round).

It has up to 14 characters, 12 initially playable, 2 (Grant and Kain, last bosses for any route) with the need of a code. All balanced and neither of them plays completely the same, thus bringing out the potential of players in mastering them, as well as for their different endings.

Aside from that, the game still stays to its traditional best-2-out-of-3 1-on-1 match. 7/10

Music: Being a game in 1999, arcade-style music is still the way to go. Regardless, music fits the character who has it for a theme, and the difference in genre of music can have a psychological effect on you when you're fighting different characters. 8/10

Story and Plot: Copied from Wikipedia:

"10 years after crime lord Geese Howard's death, the city of Southtown has become more peaceful leading it to be known as the Second Southtown (having formerly been corrupted by Geese). However, a man named Kain R. Heinlein wants to take revenge on Geese for the poverty-stricken childhood he suffered and aims to become the new lord of Southtown, more violent than Geese.
Don't edit my post please! The need for it is NOT there.
Wanting to find Geese's son, Rock Howard, and understand the meaning of his legacy, Kain creates a new fighting tournament called "King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem" (a homage to my name). With the tournament and information about Rock's mother, Kain aims to make Rock join him in investigating Geese's legacy."

That being said, various characters in this game has various reasons for joining MM, such as Hotaru searching for his brother Gato (which denies but later hints it as so in her ending), him searching for some man (who is revealed to be their father). B. Jenet with the intention of looting Kain (despite the fact she's alredy rich), The Kim brothers being better than the other, and so on.

True endings can only be obtain by beating Kain, and all endings can be sorta pieced together without overlapping. Rock's ending, which is considered the canon one, is epic. Kain tells him having information about his mother (but Rock probably doesn't know that she dead by canon) and only offers info about it if he works with Kain. Terry comes in but Rock declares the oh-so epic "I'm leaving you den" line. It will probably be the basis on Garou 2. (Come on SNK, I can wait for the next KoF, but make Garou 2 please!!) 10/10

Overall: Garou doesn't really offer much in terms of gameplay. But if you're a fighter-game-maniac who just wants a good game to spend time with, Garou is definitely a choice. 35/40

[RoninatorMarx]

Edited the above review so it has a playthrough in it.

Also:

Game: Street Fighter IV (Arcade version)

So I found an arcade machine of SFIV on the mall. Eager, I tried it out and got enough data to make a sufficient review. NOTE: Sorta incomplete.

Sequel to SFII Turbo and prequel to SFIII, this game makes all lost tension between those games come back.

Graphics: 3D models are used here. Regardless, characters stand out from the stages. The ink effects found in certain points are impressive. It gives more detail when they should, and doesn't fail miserably at it. If you still recall in some SF games, character reactions vary from tongue-outs and eye-pops, they still have this in SFIV, which is why sometimes after I cleared a round, I stop and pause to look at the damage, and laugh at it. XD

This should be the part where I praise the character models, but two things came to mind when I saw this game's characters. 1) There is no fanservice. I mean, there are only two girls in the arcade version, and no jiggle physics from them. Yeah there's Chun-li, but it's been a while already, no? And, 2) here's what I like to call Fan Disservice, it goes by the name of Rufus. I mean. E.Honda's fatter, but he didn't jiggle as much as Rufus.

Overall, it's quite nice, but if they ever decide to use Rufus again, please lessen the jelly of the belly. 9/10

Gameplay: It's 3D. But gameplay's 2.5D. No surprise, as SF got more success that way. Regardless, it has new elements that makes the mastery more challenging, such as Focus attacks (powerful attacks that can become unbloackable in time) and Ultra Combos (a built-in variation of CvsS2's K-Groove). Old characters retain their moveset (with the exception for the new Ultra Combo added to everyone), though variation between fighters are good. 8/10

Music: Hmm...This must've slipped my mind. Only proof that the themes fit the battle. Since I'm pumping at most times. 7/10

Story and Plot: I'm not really sure about the plot. Bottom line, we all face Seth, some weird creature made by SIN later revealed to be one of the clones Bison intends to use for a future body and seems that he has a relation to Adel. And seems Charlie is still ALIVE!! lol I'll let you be the judge of it. For now, I don't have the money and time to try and figure out everything. lol 7/10

Overall: The game's plot heavy, but then it should be, because it should at least explain why things went on as they are in SFIII. But for now, this guy just gonna say "One of the best fighting game to pass. Die-hard fighting gamers should try this out." Next time, I should play it some more and get more data outta it. 31/40

[OverlordIX]

I'm going to review the following candy I bought today:


Hey guys!  Ever wonder what diet cola tastes like in candy form?

So I saw this package struggling to hang on the rack at the store, and I thought wow, this must be really awful candy if it's sat there for so long it's peeling itself off the rack.  Especially the half price stickers were a clue, but curiosity and a dollar got the best of me and I tried out these guys.  I've had candy like this before, I know how it COULD taste but mannnnnnn it was like diet cola.  It tasted fine at first but there's this weird aftertaste.  Says it expires in a year so it hasn't gone bad or anything...

Sometimes I've lucked out with random candy purchases.  Like that peanut butter coconut flake candy, that was delicious.  This was not lucky.  Maybe 2 out of 5 stars if I could give it a ranking.

I usually classify Haribo and other stuff like that as ‘knock-off’ candy. But it aint too bad in my opinion. I’ve seen friends get high on that stuff. lol

[Sev]

Sev reviews Tom Clancy's HAWX

HAWX is probably the third (fighter jet) flight sim to enter the next gen arena (the first two being Over G fighters and ACE COMBAT) and the first flight sim created by Tom Clancy.

Story:Taking place in the near future ,2015, HAWX takes place between Ghost Recon and Endwar. The player takes on the role David Crenshaw, an Air force pilot who joins a Private Military Company after retirement. You fly some missions for the PMC untill the PMC decides to back up some bad guys afterwords you go back to the Air Force just in time for the PMC to launch a full scale invasion of the US. You kick but save the day and the big hero. The story presentation is somewhat interesting though not interesting enough for someone to remember the details of the story and the characters are not exactly the most memorable despite Clancy's attempt to play the whole faceless hero thing. Despite this the story has enough twist and turns to earn it a 5/10

Graphics: on the whole the graphics aren't too bad. The ground is simulated using pics from google earth and everything below looks real nice at high altitude however fly in low and things get a little dicey as the once beautiful view becomes a blur of pixels. The 60 fps is quite nice though during certain battles everything gets a little choppy but not enough to ruin the game. There's a bit of shine problem kinda like the one in Halo 2 only in this case its your afterburners that shine instead of Brute hair. 6/10

Planes: this is the part where everyone praises HAWX for having around 50 different kinds of planes including the brand new F-35 and the failed Y-23. The variety being something that makes HAWX an attractive game to pilots who want to fly them all. However the lack of detail between various models just kills the variety. For example the F-15E has two seats while the F-15C has one.  According to HAWX both planes have just one seat which is an obvious error. which means instead of having 50 different planes you have a whole bunch of look alikes with different names.  This however is no big problem unless your someone who plays flight sims often in which case the lack of detail would make you throw a fit. 7/10

Gameplay: in my humble opinion i would have to say the gameplay was a little weird. Unlike most previous flight simulators HAWX features an Assistance Off mode which is necessary in order to achieve high manuvarbilty with the aircraft. However the Assistance Off mode forces an awkward side view making it hard to control the plane and almost impossible to engage the enemy with (though helpful for dodging missles). Most planes have similar maneuverability (an F-16 will fly just as good as an F-22) and the set minimum speed with Assistance On is ridiculously high. Most of the game is just go here and blow this up and there are few actual dogfights in the game leaving the player with a somewhat longing for more feeling. Your wing men have their basic attack and defend command though don't do much else unless told to. 6/10

Music: not epic but not too bad either. no reason to got buy the soundtrack though. 5/10

Overall: If your someone whos into flight sims i'd say just stick to what you got even if its not next gen (unless your playing Over G in which case any other flight sim will do.) To gamers in general i'd have to say its a game worth trying if you want to jump in or try out a flight sim but i would say get it used or on sale. I am however disappointed that the game did not live up to its pre-release hype.

Final score: 6/10

[RoninatorMarx]

That's my format!! You ripped off my format, Sev!! *rage* Nah, I'm good. You can use it. I was just surprised that you followed that. That's all. XDD

[Sev]

what can i say Marx you had a good format. blake used it too

[blake307]

what can i say Marx you had a good format. blake used it too

It's true that I do use the same format because it is a good format. I'm sure you don't mind that Marx.  

Edit: One more thing.  I'm planning on doing a review for the anime 11eyes when I have the time.

[Pizzaman]

Seeing how this is an all-in-on review thread, I think I'll review one artist I stumbled on in Pixiv:

ヘイスト厨 / Haste-chuu
http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=65512

He does regular art, but his forte lies in "things that make no freaking sense."
The lack of meaning in his manga creates humor that is only achievable through the use of his technique: incomprehensibility.

Exhibit A
If this manga was done by a layman, it'll most likely end with the producer sharing umbrellas with Haruka. How lovely.

But in Haste's case, it ends with the producer avoiding rain drops, and the rain gods targeting him with rain-lazers, only to finish with the producer actually being a kage-bunshin.

This particular piece of manga goes against the readers expectations five times.

1. Producer refusing Haruka's umbrella
2. The producer avoiding rain
3. Rain gods
4. Rain-lazers
5. Kage-bunshin

Most artists won't be able to achieve this in a 4-panel manga, but Haste does.

Exhibit B
This particular piece has no point, and no end. What Yukiho thinks to be her dream ends up being the dream of an unknown man.

What does this signify?

Nothing. Nothing at all.
It's meaning less. Nihilism.

This manga has no meaning, which makes it so funny and yet beautiful at the same time.

Exhibit C
Yukiho: "Everyone, iM@S is getting a PSP release. If you don't have one, now is a good time to buy it.
I asked my dad, and now I have a PSP too! Monster Hunter is so fun."

Ami: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Mami: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Iori: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Again, a piece of work that makes no sense, except the fact that Haste must love Yukiho.
What can you infer from this? I can't see anything, but it sure as hell is funny.


Rating:  10/10
If you enjoy works by Nekojiru like I do, then you'll enjoy Haste-Chuu's works.
When you look at his Pixiv, appreciate his "normal" artwork, but enjoy his manga too.
It's like Nekojiru's later works but without the death and violence.... and without cats.

The only downside is that if you're a fan of his regular, cute artwork, you'd be surprised how little of it exists.

[blake307]

Here is my review of 11eyes like I promised.

Story: The story takes place 7 years after Kakeru's sister committed suicide. Since then he has been living a somewhat dull life with his childhood friend Yuka Minase. But then one day he and Yuka get transported into the red night where they have to fight off demons and the black knights. That is when they meet Misuzu who rescues Kakeru and Yuka. Kakeru asks Misuzu to train him how to fight so he could protect Yuka. Along the way they also meet Yukiko, who has the ability to heal her wounds quickly, Takahisa, who has the ability to shoot fire, and suprisingly enough Kakeru's sister. The story was alright but I believed it could have been explained a lot better. I also believed that they should have explained the Black Knights motives and intentions better throughout the series. They also never explained how Kakeru got the eye of Aeon in the first place. And I thought the story was way too short. They should have made it 26 episodes like some other anime out there. I also thought the endings were pretty lame, if I were to choose between the good and bad endings shown in the last 2 episodes I would have to say the bad ending was better.

Story: 5/10

Characters: Most of the characters in the anime were pretty cool in their own way. I thought Yukiko and Takahisa made a cute couple. Misuzu and Kakeru were a pretty cute couple too. The only bad character in this anime has to be Yuka Minase. At first I thought Yuka was pretty cute but as the anime went on I realized that she was a selfish, possessive psychopath who would get upset if she saw her precious Kakeru-kun with Misuzu. She even put a razor blade in Misuzu's tea to try to kill her when it was clearly noticeable in the tea. In fact most of the words from her mouth were "Kakeru-Kun!" and it got to be pretty annoying. I looked at the comments from another anime forum and there were a lot of people who despised her so much they wanted her to die, which didn't happen. Here is my rating on the characters.

Misuzu: 10/10 for being a cool and tough character who was perfect for Kakeru.

Yuka Minase: 4/10 for being a self-centered psychopath.

Animation: I don't have anything to say about the animation. It's not the best animation I have seen in an anime but it's still alright.

Animation: 7/10

Music: Probably the best part of the series was the music. I liked the opening and ending themes for the anime.

Music: 9/10

This was the biggest dissappointment in 2009 from my perspective. When I first saw it on the anime list for 2009 I thought it seemed pretty cool but then all I got was a real dissappointment from a choppy story, lame endings, and of course that self centered and possessive Yuka Minase. If you like action animes like me you can check it out but don't expect any good storyline for this.

Overall: 6/10