Future Post on Mass Effect Sometime within a week

Got a test and a banquet/panel I have to attend in order to graduate. I won't be graduating for a year, but if I want to, guess what I have to do?

While I do love Mass Effect, I have not been playing the game as long as others and really went into the franchise blind off of everything but "It's good and you can play a woman if you wanted". I'm not disappointed with the ending, but I did feel it was rushed and not as well thought out, but otherwise, I'm fine with it. I am already playing the game on a second playthrough bumping up my difficulty to "Casual" (so hardcore, right?) The thing that annoys me the most are fan reactions to it. I don't mind that people are genuinely upset about the ending and want to voice that. Yet, it's gone too far.

I'll just voice on my opinions over art vs. commercial product and will say that the Cupcake thing I thought was just stupid. I know people think it's so clever that they gave the same cupcakes in three different colors to prove a point, but I heard of this after Bioware made a statement that they were going to reveal plans to address fan feedback. I was like, "Really, they just said they were addressing it. The cupcakes are not needed. Also, you should have made them equally bad and not delicious, but whatevs."

Expect a topic on that and ten things that annoyed me in ME3 that have nothing to do with the ending, because there is that.

I need to post new videos to the Youtubes, but I just have to live outside of the internet and equipment costs so much.

Top Ten Studs in Gaming

Tired of all these lists only focusing on women to please the man? Well, the woman would like her turn so I present what are my top ten studs of gaming. The only rule is that they must be a character meant for a video game (so no one from comic book adaptations like Arkham series counts) Not in any specific order, except alphabetical here they are.

Angel and Bodie from Dance Central 2
Balthier from Final Fantasy XII
Ryotaro Dojima from Persona 4
Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series
Klavier Gavin from Ace Attorney 4: Apollo Justice
Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil series
Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3
Snake from the Metel Gear series
James Sunderland from Silent Hill
Garrus Vakarian from the Mass Effect series


My plan was to make a video for this and I still might, but I need to finish up my Capstone and then figure out my schedule so I can graduate

Facebook Parenting

I came across this video thanks to my The Soup feed on Facebook. I'm sure you all are aware of the video at this point. It is essentially what I assume to be a Texan father who has just read a Facebook rant by his spoiled daughter that she blocked her parents from seeing in hopes that they never will. Well, when her dad was uploading software onto her laptop, guess what he saw. So, what is a irate father to do? Why get a camera, record him reading the post, tell her what will be happening as punishment for this rant, and then shooting her laptop with a .45....

I'm a bit mixed here on the good parenting bit. The daughter definitely needed to be punished for what she said and whined about in her letter and the dad makes clear that he's tried grounding her for months and that doesn't seem to work. The daughter is mostly complaining about the chores she has to do around the house and they actually are rather small chores that probably will only take 15 minutes to complete. But to shoot her laptop seems....no it is a bit much. He could have sold the laptop parts, taken out the hardrive and shot it, but the whole thing....

It seemed like these issues happen often from the dad's perspective and it always revolves around the laptop. I think the best thing would have been to wipe the hardrive clean and sell for a kid going to college or something. Shooting it is just a waste of bullets and whatever money you spent on it and whatever money you could have gotten off of it.

Sorry everyone, but I'm extremely busy doing my Capstone project in which I am translating "The Girl who Leapt Through Time". I know many of you are aware of the anime adaptation that is actually a side story of the original novel (which is what I'm doing). I need to get as much done with this as it is due sometime in March and we are already in the middle of February. There are other courses and of course, my job, that is going on. But this Capstone is one I want to get done as soon as possible. I do plan on something special for Valentine's day, but I don't want to make any promises that it will happen. I also work Valentines Day (and my conception day) with the next day being Mom and Dad's 26th anniversary....Ohhh, I'll try. I'm making a list right now!!!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all are enjoying them to the fullest. I plan on putting up a Skyward Sword Review tomorrow. Also, Jake and I were supposed to do a Halloween episode. I still want to do that, but....might have to wait till next year. If not Jake, I'll get one of my other friends to do an end of the year podcast. Tomorrow, Skyward Sword review, I have no other obligations than this.

Catherine podcast is up!!!

I have just posted Jake and I's Catherine podcast.

http://thevelvetroom.hipcast.com/rss/the_velvet_room_podcast.xml

listen and enjoy!

Persona 4 Anime and PA Japan

The Persona 4 anime is now on Hulu to watch! I believe this is going to be another deal with Funimation that they'll have the episode subbed shortly after it has aired in Japan!! So far, so good. The animation is really top notch and effectively captures the style of the game's artwork. While some things are shortened (they fight in the Midnight Channel in the first visit) due to that there will be limited episodes, I hope it stays true to the main story of the game. I do wonder if we will be seeing some of the new story elements for the PSVita version here. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but would be interesting. I don't want the adaptation to be completely loyal to the source, I find that rather boring. So far, is way more interesting to the non-canon Trinity series they did awhile ago.

I'm just going to give a brief opinion on Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Nights. I don't want to rewatch this movie just to say that it is the equivalent of when we remake their horror films, with the exception of The Ring and Ju-on 1 & 2. As a note: I understood everything they were saying and could comprehend what was happening. After Calling, I got tired of people saying I hated that game because my Japanese was admittedly weak, but I still knew what was going on. Also, it has been awhile since I watched this, so some details will probably be off.

The movie will even copy shot-for-shot the original PA, it opens with a douchey guy recording his reflection. This time, it revolves around a brother and sister, not a couple. Incest, alright. Not really because his sister has returned from America and both of her legs are in casts, unsexy casts at that. The minute she gets back, he sets up a camera in her room and records the entire night. I want to say that this might be after a few nights of restless sleep, but I literally do not recall previous mentions of hauntings. In the original PA and what we learn in PA2, there was at least three weeks of strange occurrences prior to when Micah bought the camera. In the Japanese version, it lacks any real reason for the camera other than just cuz.

The first night is just noises. Noises that I could barely hear until the dude was playing it on his computer. The Japanese are quite superstitious (ghosts > zombies according to some yosakoi club members during my study abroad) and they go rather quickly into the powder test (it's like night two). There is also the obligatory psychic friend who freaks out in the house.

Eventually, we learn that the sister ran over Katie from the original film. This caused the curse to transfer onto her and that is what is behind all this. Apparently, Japan forgot that PA took place in 2006. This remake takes place in 2010. While it may be possible that she ran over Possessed!Katie four years later, it is too much of a stretch for me. There is also PA2 that lets us know that the curse is "genetic" and should have ended when Hunter was captured, in 2006. Maybe, I haven't seen PA3 yet. The demon also apparently resembles a dog. Go figure.

The movie ends a bit differently than the original PA, as in it's boring. The sister's body is brought to the morgue and she drags her brother off screen (or into the shadows to be more accurate). A cut back and she's just smiling on the floor. It is way more predictable than Micah being thrown at the camera, despite that scene was in every trailer! And it still made me jump!!

The film was made to capture on the success of PA, which did well in Japan. I actually saw the first PA in Japan and the audience I was with was quite interesting. A lot of Japanese schoolgirls. One of them right next to me was clinging onto her boyfriend for 98% of the film. I think she cried towards the end. Despite that it is a lackluster remake, the film tries to place itself into the canon. Yet the connections with the original PA are weak and the scares are the same as in that movie. The same complaint could be said with PA2, but that film at least expanded on the mythology in a rather interesting way.

The same can be said about foreign remakes anywhere. Rarely, does it ever translate. The Ring is one of those rare ones that work. I personally found the Japanese original, Ringu, quite boring compared to the Verbenski remake. Some comments I've seen seems to fall under the pretentious thought that Japan does horror better than the US and this is a good example of that. No, no it really isn't. PA is one of my new favorite horror franchises and I genuinely find them quite heart-pounding as any good survival horror game. PA2:TN was quite boring and is too similar to PA, without any original thought or new scares. If you're curious, you should be able to find it on Youtube. Note: When I watched it, there were no videos with subtitles. I don't know if there are ones now, but take that into consideration.

Sorry for the long wait! Jake and I did record our opinions on Catherine about a month ago and I really need to get that uploaded onto hipcast. Jake and I are extremely busy. Jake has a full-time job and I have school and work at a party store during the Halloween season :shudders: It also doesn't help that we live what can take up to an hour to get to each others places, hence why we use Skype. Skype is nice, but I do want to record with him in person, so I can work on my voice not echoing.

I am starting to save up for a new computer so not only can I play The Secret World (so wanna!!), but it is also to record certain gameplay. Remember Amnesia? I still am where I left off and I have an idea on how to record Amnesia. I will also try and get some equipment to video capture to my Mac since our current PC is garbage that can only play me some Higurashi! I really cannot stand the video quality of Amnesia, I'm almost thinking of just replaying it when I get better equipment. It will be awhile though, but I do plan on finishing it!!! I also plan on playing another J-horror title for the Wii, woopee.

I'll let you guys know when the podcast is up for you to hear and I plan on doing a review of Japan's Paranormal Activity knock-off.