By now, the dropping of now-former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson from the BBC due to a “fracas” with a producer has made the news. Many would think it’s not worth losing sleep over, but Top Gear fans like myself are saddened by this development, even if it had been a long time coming. With Richard Hammond and James May expressing their intent to not film without him, this version of the show seems effectively dead. It isn’t much, but I wanted to write something on what I took from Top Gear — my favorite show… in the world. (more…)
Media Archives
POWER/RANGERS: On Darkness and Deconstruction
Talk about being late to the party. However, I actually took quite a bit of time to sort my thoughts out on what I think about the short film in order to come up with this post. Perhaps it was good that I posted this only now as Henshincon — a celebration of the tokusatsu genre that had been a part of Filipino childhoods during the 90s — gets underway. I myself grew up with Power Rangers and tokusatsu shows imported from Japan (and translated into Filipino), so it seems apt for me to start off a tribute of sorts by looking into someone else’s tribute. (more…)
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number [Impressions]
It’s rare for me to await the release of a game right on day one; I’ve only done that for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- in recent years, as far as I can remember. This is one of the titles I was looking forward to this year because I love the first game, so I had to cover this game every step of the way. Therefore, here are my impressions of Hotline Miami 2 after playing it for around 3 hours or so. (more…)
Sunstone [Feature]
With Valentine’s Day having passed by and Fifty Shades of Grey becoming this growing mutated mass made of leather whips and rope that has droves of women going to movie theaters and book stores to consume what looks more like a sad example of adult writing, I thought of recommending something more human and heartfelt that still involved whips and rope as part of intimate activities (whatever makes you happy). One of the great things about Sunstone is that you don’t need to shelf out hard-earned money for a ticket — it’s free. (more…)
Reviewing My Anime Review Process
This is me confessing to struggling and being perplexed in the task at hand. In 2014, I started posting reviews of anime in this website, and I now admit that I may not be doing that well so far. Ever since taking that first step, I posted 2 anime reviews in this site, both of which were indicative of the problems I encountered in the process, and I wish to talk more about them here. They range from the difficulty with taking anime tropes and culture into account to dealing with the typical audience of the said medium. (more…)
The Dichotomy of Skill and Luck in Games
In The Co-Optional Podcast Episode 56, the guest Babylonian (formerly of Rev3Games) discussed the relationship between skill and luck when Hearthstone was brought up, which piqued my interest in the subject. It touched upon the competitive aspects of games, whether tabletop or digital. This, along with having gone on a bit of a tirade about Five Nights at Freddy’s in a Facebook thread, pushed me to look deeper into this subject. (more…)
Puzzle Forge 2 Mobile Game Review
Most of the games I ever play on mobile are either strategy or puzzle games in various forms. For the longest time, SpellTower was the only game on my phone, and I also liked Rymdkapsel. When I bought a new phone, it looked like I wasn’t installing a game on it anymore. But when I heard of Puzzle Forge 2 in a podcast, I had to try it out. From what I’ve seen, my time was certainly not wasted. (more…)
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis [Review]
After twelve episodes, the anime based from the card game has now concluded, and here’s where I assess whether it lived up to my first impressions and had jumped the shark along the way. It’s a good thing that it didn’t do so for the most part, although there are a few parts that may induce some head-scratching, especially due to how short it turned out. It’s still pretty sweet though, which made it worth tuning in. (more…)
A Hadouken Too Far? More on Platform Exclusivity
So this topic comes up again with what should be a bigger knee-jerk than the last time. Street Fighter is a bigger franchise due to its history and wider appeal, so there seemed to be more attention this time around compared to Rise of the Tomb Raider being announced as an Xbox One exclusive. With the announcement of Street Fighter V and its exclusion from the Xbox One, the waves of reactionary rage were more palpable, so much that I had to write this follow-up. (more…)
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis [Impressions]
It seems easy to dismiss an anime series with a name similar to the famous Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), but this is definitely no copycat. Shingeki no Bahamut has its own charm and flair, and it actually does do well to impress early on and promises to be a lot more later on. The name in English is “Rage of Bahamut: Genesis”, which is better to go with to avoid confusion with the other show. I’ll stick to the Japanese title though since it’s not one of those really long ones. (more…)
Commentary on the Progression of Western RPGs – Part 3
As I worked to conclude this series that may or may not have been worth writing about, I did start thinking that this had been dragged on for too long. Perhaps I was thinking that while western RPGs were worth talking about at length, the things I’ve mentioned in this series aren’t exactly new information and may even be full of holes. I do admit to those doubts, but I still have to finish what I started. (more…)