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Noucome Episode 5 Impressions

James Mapley
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Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru
Episode 5 – ① Little Sister Shows Up ② Stomach Gets Upset

Living in a world of imitation is something that both helps and hinders the world of entertainment in weird ways. Obviously, since there is no need to be entirely original it allows for a lot more books to be written, films to be made, and anime to be produced, but at the same time we find ourselves with another problem; the fact that nothing is original. I hate to be too critical of Noucome since it doesn’t claim to be anything special, but this week it has proven that when the idea that separates you from the rest of the anime around you wears thin, falling back onto archetypes seems to be the only way to keep the story flowing.

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As I mentioned last week, Noucome is no work of Shakespeare, but to be honest if you looked at the advertising and somehow got that impression then frankly, you’re mad. Silliness, laughs, and otaku pandering is what you should expect and that is what it delivers. One thing that is certain though is that this show is hilarious, and this week was no exception. With the introduction of the generic imouto character, Hakoniwa Yuragi, the door was opened to a whole host of typical little sister related humour, and the jealousy that so often comes between younger sister characters and love interests. However, it really is something that we see SO often. Whenever there is a filler episode and the writer has run out of ideas, why not just throw in the main character’s little sister to spark some irrational jealousy and make the lolicons throw their money at the screen in hopes of future merch and doujins? Why not indeed…

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To cut a long story short, it was generic, cheap, and in all honesty I expected a little better from Noucome considering its relatively decent writing so far. I could go on about how the ‘little sister’ character has been worn out over the years and how adding her proved to have no significant effect whatsoever, but I will avoid that for the sake of my sanity and for the tone of this review. Instead, let’s talk about what this episode did right. Heck, how could you go wrong when the episode had so much Yukihira!

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We already know that Yukihira secretly loves Kanade, but it would seem that her emotions are becoming a lot more obvious to the people around her. Luckily for her, Kanade is the oblivious main character of a romcom so it would take someone branding it into his retina for him to notice, but the well-endowed member of the opposition team Reikadou Ayame noticed her jealousy. In fact, Yukihira had several moments weakness in this episode that she only just managed to cover up and once she actually had to leave the room when it all became too much for her. If there is one thing that keeps me coming back to this show it is the possibility of her and Kanade actually getting together. There are only 5 episodes left, so I doubt it will happen, but they have written Yukihira into a position where I really want her to end up happy.

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It is really hard to classify Noucome. In places, especially when it comes to some of the jokes surrounding the absolute multiple choice and even just Kanade in general, the writing is superb and I can barely contain my laughter. Unfortunately, that brilliance is offset by most of the side characters who have little to no impact on the story and who you hardly care for at all. If you take a look at Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, one of the best recent examples of an episodic highschool romcom, there is not a single character that I don’t care for at least somewhat. The same can be said for Oreimo, Oreshura, and I would even go as far as to include something that was quite a bad anime like Nakaimo. Noucome’s problem is that it has overloaded us with characters to the point where some of the main cast have become insignificant. Chocolat is written to be an idiot with barely any appealing factors, but at least she has some relevance to the plot. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Yuuouji who ever since episode 1 has shown us just 2 things: she is an idiot, and she gets embarrassed when someone sees her underwear. Wow … Groundbreaking character traits right there. What baffles me is that this episode we were introduced to even more characters that I doubt will end up contributing anything to the anime and we still have at least one more to go! Focus more on your foundation before building bridges or you’ll just end up with a crap bridge.

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Funny as always, but nothing particularly new. It took an entire episode to find the last member of their team and next episode should be the beginning of the tournament. Although, I did say that last week, so for all I know they could decide to spend another episode looking for the mysterious, masked member of their team that has yet to be introduced. Will Noucome be able to pick itself up and prove that is has some character behind its onslaught of comedy? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Oh, and the ‘what-if?’ scenario … Genius … Saved the episode in my opinion … Laughed for a straight minute.

For more reviews of this season’s best and worst anime head over to our Anime Impressions page and check them out!

RWBY – Volume 1 Review

Frank Inglese
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RWBY – Volume 1
Studio: Rooster Teeth Productions
Publisher: Hanabee
Format: DVD (Reviewed), Blu-Ray
Release Date: 6th November 2013
Price: $25.00 – Available Here

Overview

We live in the year 2013 and if you’re a pop culture fan and you’re NOT aware of Rooster Teeth Productions you’re seriously missing out on what’s quickly becoming one of the greatest things of our generation. They’re known for a great deal of things, from comedy to action, and work on so many different media formats that it is almost impossible to miss them. Rooster Teeth started their rise to greatness with the release of “Red Vs Blue”, an action/comedy that was created entirely through Halo’s in-game recording software.

From there they’ve have continued to expand to become the media juggernaut they are now. Their latest venture? A semi-anime series created by animator Monty Oum that takes what we’ve seen in old-school Anime and does it’s best to bring it into the new age with incredible fight scenes, unique characters and a fairly beautiful art style. This is RWBY.

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Story

RWBY has an interesting story that, while fairly unique itself, is very reminiscent of older Anime titles. What I mean by that is it sports many of the cliché or “classic” tropes that a dated Anime storyline would have, that’s not to say that “cliché” is a bad thing, certain “cliché” things are as such for a reason, why would people use them if they were something negative? Allow me to explain further: RWBY is about a young girl, Ruby Rose, who is a masterful user of a “Gun-Scythe” and a great fighter all around that gets accepted into a prestigious school, Beacon Academy, which specialises in the training of Hunters and Huntresses who are a class of fighter specifically trained to combat dark monsters called Grimm.

Ruby enters the school with her sister, Yang, and quickly learns that the years spent here will not be easy ones. Throughout the course of the first few episodes she meets her, now “rival” Weiss Schnee and silent ally   Blake Belladonna. Together these four girls will make up what is to be “Team RWBY” hence the name of the series.

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The characters within RWBY are all incredibly unique and while some have storylines that, yes like I said, are very cliché, the characters and their personalities all fit well together like a big jigsaw puzzle. Character interact extremely well, they all have defined personalities which is a big “plus” for any Anime fan, especially me. Having certain information about the series really does help you understand the story and characters a fair bit more and it’s not only knowledge of other Anime titles, it’s also knowledge of what the development team used as inspiration for the series.

You can very much tell that certain aspects of RWBY  were inspired by, not only Anime, but culture and lore, be it the Grimm who are similar enemies to the “Hollows” from Bleach or the character Sun Wukong clearly inspired by the character from the Chinese Novel Journey To The West, either that or Dragon Ball Z, it doesn’t really matter because in the end the team makes it their own.

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The fact of the matter is that the RWBY development team have clearly tried what many others have done but failed at and that is the transition between Japan and the Western Countries. I would very much compare this series to “Avatar: The Last Air Bender/The Legend Of Korra” simply by the way both series’ have been executed, it’s East meets West and they’ve done it, I’d say, almost perfectly. There are certain things that the series is lacking, some characters are almost TOO cliché as well as their storylines but for every one that doesn’t work, another one works twice as well.

In the end it is very much like Yin and Yang and the only way to truly get a grasp of what I’m saying is to simply watch it through for yourself, I guarantee you’ll understand my points more if you’ve actually seen the series. I could be looking at it the wrong way and I know this series has an extremely big fandom so I’m just going to remind you it is MY opinion and I’m trying to look at it from as many angles as I possibly can. Overall though the actual way the story progresses and pans out is fantastic and the pacing really does the rest of the series justice because they have the time to flesh out certain aspects and they allow the audience to understand things alongside the characters, very well done.

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Visuals

If I was reviewing the series as a web series and not a home video release I would be giving the visual side of it so much more credit but I’m not going to ignore the fact that it is originally a web series sully my take on how it is aesthetically, I’m going to walk a thin line here. As a series overall the visuals are “pretty good”, I’m talking in general here.

It is all CG animated which is perfectly fine in the generation of Anime we live in with almost half of the series’ coming out using small bits of CGI in their episodes. Being perfectly honest, the character models look a little rough, which is to be expected of a web series but not of a full release Anime which is what it has become, it’s still not going to muddy the waters though because the action scenes spread out through the first volume more than make up for it’s roughness.

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The animation isn’t too good during scenes where there is only talking but, to be honest, it doesn’t need to be, it would be nice if it was because it gives a series an all over professional look but what really matters the most is the high-octane, high-action scenes and RWBY possibly has the greatest fight scenes I’ve ever seen in an series. There’s no denying it.

Character designs are down right fantastic and, much like the action scenes, I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed with the designs of individual characters, all their costumes and weapons match their personalities and there’s no denying that it all just fits in harmoniously. The use of colours is also done really well, it’s obvious to see who is who and that’s something you need during the fight scenes. The world itself also looks great, once again, a little rough but still very stylish and very well done. When it comes to style RWBY has one of it’s own and it harnesses it like no other.

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Audio

Much like the Visuals, the Audio has it’s times where it isn’t as good as it could be and it just seems to be the voice acting that tends to let it down just a little bit. For the most part the voice acting is fantastic, the actors and actresses get their point across but it is clear that some are better than others and it may be the comparison of professional voice actors and those who don’t have that much experience that let the team down.

Characters like Ruby herself and Nora, who you’ll see as you watch, quickly became my favourites because their voices as well as their personalities, it just seemed to add a depth to the character and a certain air to the character that I didn’t feel from other ones unfortunately. The music is absolutely fantastic though, not just the opening theme but the entire score is great. Most of the music is fairytale-like but it tends to kick into overdrive during those more intense scenes, the mixing and matching of styles makes for a memorable soundtrack.

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Extras 

Despite the lack of physical extras like a reversible cover, a small poster or artwork of some kind, the release does have a couple gems that make the release all the more worthwhile. Behind-the-scene videos as well as the directors commentary gives good insight into the creation of a series and, if you know anything about the Rooster Teeth team, you’ll know that anything behind-the-scenes is more comedy than documentary so you’re in for a good time. The last extra is a Fan Art Highlights reel which is basically exactly how it sounds, you’ll love this if you’re a fan of the series’ art and fanart to be more specific. I would’ve liked to have seen more but, considering it’s a first release, this is actually pretty good.

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Overall

The series is absolutely fantastic. There are certain things that set it back but I don’t consider them to be blinding issues that will force the viewer into having a bad experience watching the series, it makes up for everything that it lacks in a huge way and, with the way that it is set out, as soon as you even think about not watching any more of it, it drags you back in and keeps you there for a while. Fans of Rooster Teeth will love it with a fair bit of the usual personalities making an appearance and fans of Anime will love it because on a fundamental level it has almost everything to offer. Obviously I can’t give it a perfect score because…well…it’s not perfect, however it is incredible and I can’t imagine people having more of an issue with it than the ones I’ve stated throughout the review. It’s funky, it’s memorable, it’s RWBY. 

8-5-capsules-out-of-10

Furmins Review

Zac Elawar
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Furmins
Developer: Beatshapers/Housemarque
Publisher: Beatshapers
Platform: PS Vita (reviewed), iOS
Release Date: Out Now
Price: $10.35 – Available Here

Overview

Furmins was Finnish developer Housemarque’s first venture into iOS development, released back in February, 2012. Now, the Super Stardust HD makers have licensed their mobile puzzle game to the creators of Jetpack Joyride, Beatshapers, for its porting and release on the PS Vita. Although a completely different platform, the Sony handheld utilises touch screen mechanics much like smartphones do, and so the gameplay experience here is almost exactly the same. Is it worth picking up? Well, owners of the original version need not concern themselves with this release, but everyone else should read on to find out.

Gameplay

Furmins features 108 levels spanning 9 distinct game worlds (final one being free DLC). The goal of the player is to get their Furmin/s from the starting position to the basket across the play area. Being a physics-based game, the Furmins will follow the rules of physics and therefore need some direction. There are a few key tools in doing this. In any given layout, there will be static objects that can not be altered, and then there will be moveable ones signified by a glowing outline. The player can organise these how they see fit in the pause state before tapping the play button on the top right of the screen to watch the level play out.

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One of these interactables made known early on in ‘Warming Up’ (the 1st world) is the trampoline. Strategically placing these will bounce your Furmin/s into otherwise impossible places to reach in order to collect candies on your way towards the ultimate goal of the basket. Collecting all candies on screen is another condition for 100% completion and is necessary to achieve a 3-star rating for each level. The third condition is to reach the basket within the specified time limit – taking longer doesn’t fail you, but you won’t earn that third star. There is also a bonus for completing a level without using all of the provided objects. Later, conveyor belts, bumpers, ice blocks, regulators and ropes will be gradually introduced moving into the latter part of ‘Homelands’ (the 2nd world).

Conveyor belts and bumpers can both be controlled by tapping anywhere on the touch screen, or on the rear touch pad. Doing so will reverse the direction of the conveyor belts, and activate the bumper respectively. When both are employed on the same level, the player must take note of the fact that using a bumper will also affect the conveyor belt’s direction, and vice versa, which can be easily forgotten. Ropes objects can’t be moved outside the radius permitted by their “leash” and regulators suck in any Furmins in its vicinity and shoots them out the other side. Ice blocks are cool (sorry… okay, not sorry, pun intended) in that they thaw out at different times, adding an extra timed component to the proceedings.

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With all of these mechanics considered, the game’s puzzles can get fairly complicated, with persistent trial and error becoming a necessity in progressing through it all. And all of those stars you earn act as a currency that can be paid to unlock each world at your discretion; you’re not locked into engaging them in the order they are listed. And in regards to the 8th world, ‘Cosmic Adventures’ – the toughest of them all – each individual level therein costs between 3 and 5 stars to unlock. Scores can also be compared with friends on the integrated leaderboards, so there is an added competitive edge and incentive to replay levels.

Visuals & Audio

Each Furmins levels is set against a colorful, high contrast and rich painted backdrop with 3D elements such as clouds, leaves and fog to create a sense of depth. Everything in the foreground – from interactable puzzle elements to decorative objects – follows in the visual tone of the level. With all of that being said, for some reason the visuals just don’t click and feel disconnected. Maybe it is the mix of 2D and 3D pieces, the basic, non-descript gold U.I elements or the bland model design… either way, there is a lack of consistent graphical theme.

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As a prime example of the inconsistent visuals, look at the image above; you’re collecting candy-stripe lollies with a furry creature amongst roman columns… huh? It’s just an odd aesthetic overall. Audio-wise, there is a much stronger motif. The music is generally extremely airy with wind instruments at the forefront of the score. The instrumentation in major scales aids in presenting happy, playful, dream-like environments. The sound effects on the other hand are more generic. When your rating is being calculated for a completed level, the Furmins squeal with each star attained, reminding of Angry Birds and how the birds squawk much in the same way.

Overall

Furmins is a challenging puzzler with a very good volume of content. The 108 levels will keep players busy – especially the more casual of us – for a substantial amount of time. The major gripe is the price point, which is more than triple that of its iOS counterpart. The only difference between them is the integration of the rear touch pad on the PS Vita, with no additional levels or content of any other nature. For that reason, it is hard to recommend shelling out more money for what is essentially a non-enhanced title. If you’re an iDevice owner, check Furmins out on the App Store first. If you’re not, then shelling out $10 is suddenly not such a big deal.

7-5-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

BlizzCon 2013 Unveils Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Vicky Martin
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During BlizzCon 2013, Blizzard unveiled more news regarding their free collectible card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft; set to be released later this year on PC, Mac, iPad and on iPhone and Android in the future.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft invites players to build a strategic deck, based on the nine epic Warcraft heroes from the World of Warcraft classes; Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior. There are over 300 cards available for players to unlock, via completing practice games against A.I. opponents, earning gold in duels to purchase card packs, winning a chest of loot based on your result in the Arena and disenchanting expert cards in your collection, to receive Arcane Dust to craft other cards of your choosing.

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Check out the Hearthstone Fireside Duel below, between the Priest vs. Hunter, narrated by the director of the game itself, Ben Brode.

Accordingly, Hearthstone will feature:

  • Card types: spells, weapons, minions
  • Card rarity: common (white), rare (blue), epic (purple) and legendary (orange)
  • Upgrade cards in a pack to “Golden” versions of the same card
  • Play Ranked and Unranked games to level-up your heroes and complete quests
  • Play Friendly Duels against players in your Battle.net friends list
  • Communicate Online via an emote system with the voice of the hero you are playing
  • Cross-platform compatibility to allow iPad and PC players to all be in the same pool when matchmaking
  • Arena Mode allows players to assemble a new deck from randomised cards and duel participants for rewards
  • Collection Manager for deck customisation and receive suggestions for deck-building

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In order to play the game on PC, it is required for users to have a Battle.net account, which can be created here.

Don’t miss out on the open-beta of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, to be released within the next month and sign up here now!

Madman Stops Its Streaming Of Kill La Kill

Frank Inglese
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Madman Stops Its Streaming Of Kill La Kill

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This unfortunate news came about on Friday when Madman Entertainment, one of Australia’s largest Anime distribution companies, announced that they will be ceasing their ongoing stream of this seasons’ big action series Kill La Kill. The high-octane, battle Anime produced by Studio Trigger has been running for just over a month at this point in time and, unfortunately, there was a problem with it’s service hosted by Madman that lead to the end of the streaming through the company. According to Madman, unfortunately the site servers were accessed before the actual broadcast of a particular episode in Japan, the footage of the episode was then distributed around the internet illegally.

It’s such a terrible thing to have happened to the company and, for the most part, people are hoping they can bounce back from this, I guess it just goes to show that there’s no such thing as being “too secure”, this kind of thing has happened before and it will happen again but it is still an occurrence that isn’t exactly welcome. Hopefully, like a lot of other companies, Madman will bounce back faster than you can say “Mako Mankanshoku”.

Oreshura licensed by Hanabee

Luke Halliday
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Hanabee have just announced their third and final acquisition announcement from Supanova Brisbane. The acquisition is of none other than Oreshura, the popular light novel adaptation.

They confirmed they will be releasing the series in a Japanese audio only DVD ($59.99) release on the 8th of February, 2014. The entire 13 episodes will be covered in one complete collection.

Oreshura is interesting in its portrayal of the romantic comedy genre. Rather than being a comedy about love, it is a comedy about hating love! It comes from A-1 Pictures, the studio behind series such as Sword Art Online and Anohana.

Be sure to stay tuned for further information on this Hanabee release as more details come to light.

Laike’s PC Download Deals 11/9/2013

Jamie Laike Tsui
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The best deal this weekend goes to Amazon’s 33% off PayDay 2. The game is probably hands down the best co-op game released all year. At $19.99, this is the lowest price for PayDay 2 so far. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and can’t recommend it enough. Find out more about the game in our review!

 

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Greenman Gaming has a 20% off voucher. Use GMG20-X80Z3-CU97Y when you check out to knock an extra 20% off most games, including ones already on sale!

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Golden Time Episode 6 Impressions

James Mapley
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Golden Time Episode 6 Impressions

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Golden Time
Episode 6 – Yes No

Finally, drama! After weeks and weeks of teasing us with hints of Banri’s past, light has finally been shone on the situation, lifting the veil of mystery and providing me with the emotion I have been longing for. No kidding, a small tear began to well up in the corner of my eye for the first time in a while. Far too long I have waited for a good old fashioned romance that can invoke that kind of emotion in me. Ironically, the last one that reached that level was Toradora. Yuyuko Takemiya really knows how to play on my heartstrings with her light novels and J.C. Staff seem to always do a fantastic job of translating them onto the small screen. Golden Time has the potential to be the anime of the season and considering that it is going toe to toe with Kill la Kill as a 2-cour anime, ending as spring begins to break through the clouds, that is extremely high praise.

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Why the sudden onslaught of compliments you may ask? Simply put, it is because the chips were down and everyone’s hands were thrown on the table. There was no messing around like last week. Banri took the initiative and demanded answers after months of being left in the dark about everything around him. Recollecting how he was in love with Linda for so long was the spark that lit the fuse; always treated as a friend, until the old Tada Banri was cast from his body, and replaced with the person he is now. I’m no stranger to being ‘friendzoned’ and I can vouch for Banri – it sucks. The parallels that Golden Time draws to my life and I’m sure the lives of many others are astoundingly accurate, but never moreso than when Banri just decided that enough was enough. Finally breaking, he posed a great John Mayer lyric to Kouko; friends, lovers, or nothing?

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As for Kouko’s reaction to his advances, I am unsure of how to feel. Undoubtedly, rejecting him and then sprinting after and crashing into him on a bike when he was about to jump off of the bridge was incredibly romantic. Hell, I sat up from my warm bed, embraced the cold English air, and declared, “Yes! YESSSS!” to the world because I couldn’t be happier that they are finally going to get together… However, I am unfortunately burdened with the knowledge of how that would end in real life. Clearly Kouko is not entirely over Mitsuo since it was her outburst at him that caused Banri to finally break, and beginning a relationship with someone when you are not ready is never a good idea. She said herself that her emotions were still paralysed and she took shelter in Banri after realising that he was the only one that understood her. Maybe I give women a bit too much credit, or I am secretly caring underneath my asshole exterior, but nurturing her recovery seems more important than Banri being able to wear the coveted ‘I-Have-A-Girlfriend’ badge. Having been on the receiving end of the friendzone, I can understand Banri’s pain, but realistically she needs more time and I hope that Golden Time addresses this issue, especially considering how true-to-life it has been thus-far.

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I can’t believe I’m saying it, but that wasn’t even the most exciting part of the episode. I could have never expected how Banri would drop the news to Linda that he was finally aware of her façade and her reaction was just as surprising. After being rejected in amongst all of the rest of the confusion in his life, the weight placed on his shoulders must have been huge and eventually he lost his cool. The normally calm and calculating Tada Banri dropped his guard and erupting like a volcano he let his memories fly out, catching Linda unawares and opening a whole new window of possibilities for future episodes. Banri’s once unrequited love seems to now be mirrored in Linda and considering that she came to look at the hospital every day and was so desperately trying to tell Banri that it was not her fault that she was acting so distant there is definitely something there that will not fade just because Kouko is Banri’s new girlfriend.

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Conflict with a chance of rain is my forecast for the future of Golden Time. Maybe not next episode since I can only assume that will exhibit the newly in love Kouko coming to terms with everything and most likely being exaggeratedly in love which, I can only guess, will be adorable and hilarious. The spirit of Tada Banri loved Linda for a reason and now that the chance is there I can’t imagine he’ll be quiet about it even though he can’t speak to him directly. Kouko and Banri are together, but for how long? Stay tuned and find out.

For more awesome reviews of this season’s best and worst anime, head over to our Anime Impressions page.

Check out more Golden Time impressions HERE.

Dark Matter Review

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Dark Matter
Developer: InterWave Studios
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Platform: Linux, Mac, Windows
Release Date: 17 October 2013
Price: $14.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

Dark Matter is a 2.5D platformer. Our hero, only known as The Ensign, wakes up to discover the crew of her massive ship is dead and a parasitic species of aliens now call it home. A mysterious AI has awoken her from seventy years of sleep and together they hope to escape from the ghost ship.

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Story

One A.I. survived the massive self-deletion after the ship was hit with not one, but two separate alien attacks. First, The Angels consumed the ship and left it in ruins. The survivors found themselves under attack soon after by the mysterious parasitic aliens. After a long and horrifying battle, the ship was overcome by the aliens. The last remaining AI searched through the med bays and discovered our hero The Ensign and wakes her from her slumber. The Ensign must work her way to the A.I. so they can escape the hell ship.

The story is told through by the A.I.’s recollection of the events and the diaries left by the crew in their dying days. The mood is grim and the desperation of the crew is apparent. Unfortunately, the plot gets a little lost near the end of the game. A final boss suddenly gets thrown in the way of the player and the game ends abruptly. Originally, the game ended with a confusing text epilogue. In a recent patch, the ending has been replaced with a full-fledged cut scene that quickly wraps up the plot in Dark Matter. It is a great deal better than the text epilogue. It does try to tie off a lot of loose ends in a short period of time but does little to make the ending any less abrupt. The crew diaries are probably the best part of the storytelling in Dark Matter and it is an utter shame there are not more diaries.

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Gameplay

Dark Matter is a platformer with a horror theme and an emphasis on exploration. The exploration mechanics will have players wandering around the claustrophobic hallways. There are lots of side paths to explore, but unfortunately everything is spread around so far apart, players will spend a lot of the game wandering around the ship with very little to do. The Ensign does not move very fast and has an extremely limited stamina bar for sprinting. I found the map to only be helpful half the time. It will show the rough direction where The Ensign needs to head to, but will give leave the players to wander around the halls until they find the connecting path.

Combat breaks up the monotony of wandering the halls once in a while. It is a shame that the combat is few and far between, especially once the player learns how to avoid triggering spawns. There were a few tense moments during the beginning of the game, but once players figure out that turning off the lights near enemy spawners prevents enemy from spawning, the game becomes a lot less tense.  Ammunition and med packs are created from resources enemies drop and were never really in short supply. The weapon mods weren’t particularly game changing and in the worst case scenario, the pistol has unlimited ammunition. It is a weak weapon, but it is still enough to slowly kite enemies while the player nibbles away at their health with the pistol from a distance. The combat did very little to ratchet up the tension and the fear expected in a horror game.

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The puzzle mechanics are very interesting and are easily the best part of Dark Matter’s gameplay. Unfortunately, once they are mastered, they make the rest of the game very easy. Most of the puzzles respond to light sources. Players will need to shoot out light sources so they can sneak past alien spawners safely, open doors, and avoid exploding traps. Other traps will actually require the player to shine their flashlight on the trap to disable them. Woe was the day I discovered three traps requiring darkness right beside three requiring light! The remaining puzzles are classic fetch and flip switches types that will require the player to wander around and explore.

Dark Matter is plagued with bugs. Hit detection can be a little spotty at times and the enemy A.I. seems a little lost at times. It is advertised that the enemy A.I. will adopt to players tactics, but frankly I found the A.I. wandering around as if no one was around while it was clearly taking damage about 10% of the time. The ladders also suffer from some bugs that will not allow the player to climb them. Reloading the game usually solves those problems, so they are not of the game breaking variety.

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The controls are good when they work. The player moves around with WASD and aims with the mouse. Right mouse button is used for interaction. However, I found the ledge climb mechanic could get a little fussy and would randomly decide to stop working. Holding down right mouse button will bring up the aim mode, but I found it to be only marginally useful as the mouse point’s crosshair worked perfectly.

Visuals

Dark Matter is presented in 2.5d. The game is played as a side scrolling platformer, but the graphics are all 3d. The environment is very well done. Even though one would imagine a spaceship to be a rather boring and monotonous environment, InterWave does an excellent job using the alien invasion to liven up the otherwise boring ship. The enemy design look great. The aliens are varied and actually look like they evolved for their purpose. I found the animations were probably the weakest part of the visuals. The reloading animations leave much to desire and The Ensign’s gait looks unnatural. There is a heavy emphasis on light in Dark Matter and InterWave pulls off the visual effects perfectly. Eerie shadows are cast as The Ensign’s flashlight shines into an area.

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On the hardware side, the game ran smoothly. I did not encounter any problems while running Dark Matter on my PC. There are options to lower the graphics quality for slower computers, but the game lacks detailed control on tweaking the visuals. Instead, players will have to settle for general graphics settings ranging from low to ultra.

Audio

Audio makes and breaks the horror genre. Anyone who has watched a horror movie or played a horror game on mute will tell you it is a lot less scary without the music. Dark Matter manages to pull off a really eerie atmosphere. The music and background noise is kept to a bare minimum while exploring, which makes hearing the clattering sound of alien claws against the steel hull all the more creepy. The voice actor does an excellent job of giving life to the A.I. that guides The Ensign through her journey. He strikes the perfect balance to create a lonely and tortured soul with a slight hint of monotone.

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Overall

Dark Matter has some solid ideas behind the game. Unfortunately it fails in execution. The exploration aspect of the game ultimately is extremely boring and the combat does little to solve it. The backstory is excellent, but the actual story itself feels disorganized and the game ends abruptly. The graphics and audio are done well, but the game is buggy and is in need of a good patching. At $14.99, I have a hard time recommending the game.

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Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Titan Comics’ It Came! #4 Preview

Andrew Day
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Don’t you just love the smell of comics in the morning? Well if you are a comic fan looking for your next big read then look no further. The latest issue of Titan Comics’ It Came! is about to hit store shelves, and anyone who picks it up is sure for a treat. The book which is drawing ever closer to its thrilling finale, is written like a classic, low-budget 50s sci-fi film so fans of the genre will love the tone and style of the book, while everyone else can just enjoy the great sci-fi story.

We have a few preview pages for you guys down below so be sure to check those out. If ‘It Came!’ sounds interesting to you and you want to check out some more then be sure to check out our preview for issue #3 here, and #2 here, and as always, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Titan Comics news as it becomes available.

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