Bad Romance? Nah, Toxic Romance

TiberiusLeave a comment

Waifu who wants none of you VS waifu who wants your flesh

Back with another comparison between some toxic fixer-uppers of the 2020s: Nicole of Class of ’09 fame, and Mita of MiSide fame. I haven’t played Class of ’09 yet, but I’ve seen tons of gameplay of it as well as fan content (like the “anime” which begins with the American resource for the Life Crisis Hotline) to get the gist of how it goes, so hopefully this week’s post won’t come across as me talking with ass.

Swinging straight for the fences

Read More »

Whodunit and Howcatchem: Max Payne and Frank Columbo

TiberiusLeave a comment

Working forwards and working backwards

Long time readers know by heart my love for Max “Painkiller” Payne is outdone only by that of Detective Frank “One more thing” Columbo. But for those who are checking in from an uncharted part of the world (or galaxy), here’s my piece on Max Payne and here’s my most recent piece (as of this writing) on Columbo. Short version: play Max Payne, it’s great; and watch Columbo, it’s great.

Read More »

KanColle, Senran Kagura, iDOLM@STER: Japanese Multimedia Franchise Trifecta

TiberiusLeave a comment

A really long-time coming

Onto something now that I’d lightly touched on in this blog, but haven’t explored as thoroughly as my other talking points (“They were all dead. The final gunshot…” etc., etc.) due to regional exclusivity. Kantai Collection, Senran Kagura, and iDOLM@STER. Three pivotal and explosive multimedia franchises with libraries and treasure houses big enough for export to the colony of Mars… accessible to western fans by way of fanart, VPNs, piracy, and mastering Japanese enough to appease the organizers of the JLPT and the stalking green bird.

いいえ、やめろ！

Read More »

The Other British Invasion of 1997-2003: A Culmination

TiberiusLeave a comment

Beatles and Stones out of the way

Take a look at some of the biggest games and entertainment products to release from 1997 to 2003, look at their country of origin, and count on your fingers how many of them are British. By my estimate, there’s a handful of the most famous ones that come straight to mind. Majority video games, but also film and TV. Regular readers and subscribers know what my go-to is and we’ll get to the video games in a moment, but let’s talk about British TV a little. The Brits reading this can name some of their favorites (excuse me, favourites), but let’s look at the one that successfully crossed over to the American TV world:

Read More »

Pioneering Imageboards and Early Internet Discourse

TiberiusLeave a comment

Took ages to iron out the kinks

This may be one of the more meta posts considering the title and the state of blogs and message/textboards from introduction to zenith to modern-day. Those of you who are reading this might have an idea of what blogs, messageboards, forums, etc. are or consist of. A diary/journal, an exploration of ideas, a photo/video/now-GIF album; the way I treat it is something of a critic’s corner, newsletter, and recommendation source for otherwise niche and unknown series across media with a strong animanga focus, but sometimes heading into mainstream series.

As one such example.

Read More »

Skyland… An Intro to Sci-Fi

TiberiusLeave a comment

Back to the obscure parts of my childhood

Yeah, this one is a day late, a doubloon short, and in debt to the Charon Syndicate thanks to the Needs of the Army (and my stubborn refusal to replace anything until it physically falls off my body, because I’m El Cheapo), but it’s no big deal. The only problem here is that the topic for this week’s blog hasn’t been well-researched, so forgive me if its connective tissue doesn’t have any industrial reinforcement.

I have come to introduce ye all to an obscure French-Canadian collaborated 3D animated series known only as: Skyland.

I look at this now after 20 years and think of how far CG has evolved from the ’80s to Reboot (1994-2001) to everything going on these days.

Read More »

Edginess and Deliberate Controversy

TiberiusLeave a comment

What was understood and what was lost over a decade

This is something of a long-time coming, a background project based largely on a series of video games that capture a now long-lost era of pop culture. An aesthetic that can best be described as urban neo-gothic horror. Video games that were edgy because they made use of what they lacked technologically, benefitting from sixth generation console limitations. Uglier graphics, standard definition resolution, subpar draw distances; video game developers and by extension many film and TV directors were between the word-of-mouth/magazine coverage era and the algorithm, ludicrous speed reactions. What am I getting at? Well, if you’re a regular subscriber or you tune in regularly to this blog you may or may not have an idea of the video games I’m about to bring up:

Read More »

Freelance Journalist VS Insane Asylum

TiberiusLeave a comment

You sure you’re a sane man?

A couple of times and long before I joined the Army, I watched and eventually bought and played the video game Outlast and its DLC: Whistleblower. A first-person view indie horror video game that markets an age-old, but classic trope of haunted abandoned asylum with a twist.

Read More »

I Forgot You

TiberiusLeave a comment

A game whose title is an easily ignored command

Zero Punctuation’s review of a 2013 action-adventure video game based largely on f[clock ticking]ing with people’s memory and further contributing to collective false memory, or the Mandela effect, was on my mind not too long ago. On sale on Steam, Remember Me is something of a spearhead to Don’t Nod Entertainment’s later time-manipulation faff about, Life is Strange, only What’s Your Name Again? is more sci-fi than that other game about early-2010s hipsters and young adults who’re better off crowding Starbucks locations in Portland and making a mockery of the acoustic guitar.

Maybe, like Yahtzee suggested, it’s the butt that’s talking. “Remember Me!” Who wouldn’t?

Read More »