This week marked the conclusion of arguably one of the greatest shonen anime story arcs of all time in Hunter x Hunter’s York New City Arc. With one arc ending another always begins and NTV have already begun the big sell for the Greed Island arc, the infamous story arc Togashi’s manga that popularized the ‘inside a video-game’ type storylines in anime and manga.
NTV have updated their Hunter x Hunter website with a number of new promotional features for Greed Island, including the poster which can be seen to the right. The poster features a variety of the new characters that will be a part of the Greed Island arc.
Greed Island focuses on Gon and Killua as they venture into the titular Greed Island video-game in search of information that could help Gon in his greatest hunt of all, finding his father the legendary hunter Ging Freecss.
The Greed Island arc begins next week with episode 59. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Hellsing Studio: Gonzo Publisher: FUNimation Release Date: November 13th, 2012 Format: DVD Price: $34.98 – Available Here
Overview: Hellsing has gotten a similar treatment to Fullmetal Alchemist in that the original anime release of both occurred during the run of the manga and therefore differed from the manga itself. They both also saw a second series, each with an additional word title, Ultimate and Brotherhood respectively, that followed the plot of the manga more closely. Because of this, both original series live in a kind of limbo parallel to the manga and redone anime. In light of this, the re-release of Hellsing as an anime classic a little more than a decade after its original gives the opportunity to look back at the original attempt and how it stacks up today.
Story:
Hellsing is not necessarily a “who” in this story, but a “what”. An organization dedicated to killing all undead, such as vampires and ghouls, to protect the United Kingdom and the Queen that was founded by the Hellsing family that still heads it. So, while there is a person named Hellsing, they are by no means the main character though by any means a minor one either. Looking for an actual main character for this series comes down to two, both incidentally being of the living dead the Hellsing Organization is so adamant about killing, though working for them.
Alucard, or Arucard as his is called in the Japanese and listed in the credits, is one of the most powerful vampires in existence to the point of being a completely unfair opponent compared to those he has to fight. As awesome and bad ass as he is that doesn’t leave much in terms of stakes early on, but luckily that is where the other main character comes in. Seras Victoria is a newly turned vampire floundering in what to do with her new unlife, hesitant to take lives and refusing to drink blood makes her a more easily relatable as a character. Considerably weaker, she is also more likely to garner the viewers concern than a certain seemingly invincible character. While the story isn’t directly focused on just these two characters, they are pretty much the only two always doing something. Others stand around giving orders early on, but eventually get to prove why they’re in charge.
The story itself doesn’t quite focus on vampires as contemporary understand sees them, instead the Hellsing Organization is contending with technology induced vampires that they refer to as Freaks to differentiate them from the likes of real vampires, like Alucard and Seras. One of the problems of the series though is that for a 13 episode series it has a real problem with resolution. Early on they are simply reacting to these Freaks popping up, but the plot of finding out who is making them and why, never gets any closure to the point that those unfamiliar with the series may even take Hellsing Ultimate to be a sequel series only to find a different version of the story. While the story that is present is good, that failing is a little disheartening as 13 episodes building up to ambiguity on such big questions.
Visuals:
Being made back in 2001, it is expected that the quality may not be up to what it is today, but finding it fullscreen came as a very big surprise when so used to almost everything being widescreen now. The look of the show is still good, if a little flat though it does fit the overall style presented. For the most part the use of color is very skewed to the more black and red, which makes the offset of the bright blue of specific characters’ eyes and other colors a great contrast when they come up, though with the level of blood and gore lots of red is expected. The previews for the coming episode breaks the mold a bit though and features a more comical artistic approach that adds a bit more fun into the series so focused on fighting the undead.
Characters are designed well for the series, with a good variety of outfits for the main characters instead of being stuck in the same outfit throughout the series. Alucard’s style is pretty hard to match by any of the other characters though, with his red duster or many of the other outfits he ends up in. The greatest diversity in look comes from Seras though, while mainly in her uniform she does go back to civilian garb pretty often and each time it is different and interesting, though she does tend to wear a lot of mini-skirts.
Audio:
The music of Hellsing is not what one might expect from just looking at the series or hearing what it is about as the series does actually use a decent amount of more rock and jazzy music as well as the strings and tones related to the more suspenseful and horror like parts of the show. The opening theme “Cool – The World without Logos” by Yasushi Ishii serves as a good song to fit the stylistic cool that fits Alucard throughout the series, as he doesn’t really sweat anything instead doing things for the enjoyment of it. The closing theme “Shine” by Mr. Big was actually a number one hit at the time in Japan and fits more as a good theme for Seras as relating more to her new life as a vampire and wanting to do well. The voice acting maintains the level expected of an anime, even one from a decade ago. The English dub goes the small extra bit to give the characters a British accent for most of the characters, but the Japanese voice actors though do tend to give a bit of a better performance.
Extras:
The extras a somewhat limited, but at least offer more than trailers and textless opening and closings. Other extras include a Staff Interview about the original making of the series by Gonzo, giving insight into everything from character designs, to the music, to digital photography at an pretty early stage of development. Also included are the original commercials, though some are actually for the original soundtrack and not the anime itself and watching them back to back makes one a little sick of the work Pioneer. An interesting aspect of the textless opening and closings for the series was the fact that there are 3 versions of the closing that can be viewed, though the only difference comes down to just the final few seconds of each. Finishing up the extras are some trailers in the form of two trailers for Hellsing and a selection of FUNimation releases.
Overall:
While probably seen as a great series in its first run, Hellsing does suffer a few problems in the form of dangling plot and lackluster visuals by today’s standards. For the most part the content that is present is a good watch, this is probably best left for fans of the series that didn’t pick it up before. New viewers may find themselves let down by the lack of finality and either passing up Hellsing Ultimate or looking to it for answers, neither of which being satisfying for those posed in Hellsing. I give Hellsing Complete Series Anime Classics
Fans of Attack on Titan have gotten good news after good news this week.
First of all the long awaited anime adaptation of the popular manga series was announced and now the official trailer for the anime has been released and it looks absolutely glorious.
The trailer which can be seen below features a variety of scenes from the series but most predominantly featured is the original titan invasion and Eren Jaeger’s battles with them, which looks beautifully animated I must say.
The Attack on Titan anime is set for release in Spring 2013. Yuuki Kaji has been tapped to play lead role of Eren Jaegar.
Be sure to check out the trailer below and let us know your thoughts on the Attack of Titan anime series in the comments section.
C For Control Studio: Tatsunoko Production Publisher:Siren Visual Format: DVD Release Date:Out Now Price: $49.95 (Buy Here)
Overview
C For Control, as Siren Visual call it, is an anime series based around the concept of money and what it means to have it. While beginning to write this review, I have to admit that I had a hard time working out what this series is actually called. The spine of the DVD case reads like this: “The money of control and Possibility CONTROL” and the Wikipedia entry on the series reads as this: “[C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control”. So I settled on what it says on the Siren Website for the titling.
Story
The story of C For Control focuses around the Financial District, a realm linked to reality that is run by the Midas Bank. What makes the Financial District interesting is that it serves as a way for selected individuals to make large amounts of money quickly through Deals. Now, what makes Deals interesting, is that they aren’t your standard business deals. They are, rather, more closely resembling battles to the death… only without the death.
The main character, Kimimaru, is brought to the Financial District by a representative of the Midas Bank and is suddenly found to be in possession of a large amount of wealth. However, to gain access to this wealth he must first offer up his future as collateral for gaining the money from the bank. In the Financial District, he is not alone. There are many other Entrepreneurs like him with access to the bank.
Initially, this series looks like your traditional battle monster Anime series with money as a central theme. However, to my surprise, battles in this series were used sparingly and the series focused largely on the overall plot. I actually liked the way the plot progressed in this series, and with the exception of one major hiccup (there’s a sudden jump from one plot to the next around halfway), it was told pretty well. I liked the way that there was a smaller plot-line that got the main character to investigate further into the Financial District, I liked how there was a plot about the effects of Midas money on the real world economy and I liked the personal character plots that were told throughout the story.
Ultimately though, the story was really about the philosophy behind living. You can live to make lots of money, thus ensuring you can always live. Or you can live, but you will always ensure that you will be almost out of money. It’s these kinds of comparisons that make the story both personable and great. Of course the best medium would be to find a way to make lots of money without making your life about working, but for most of us, that is highly unattainable.
This is the motivation behind most of the supporting cast in the Financial District, they need that little bit of extra cash to ensure their futures are as bright as possible. But what’s it mean when you bank against that future and you lose all of your money? Should your future then be taken away from you? Can the bank then take anything you’ve earned with its money in regards to a metaphysical future? Apparently yes. You see this happen in the series as well with characters going missing, areas becoming disheveled and not only has the country gone into depression, so has life itself.
Overall the story in C For Control is layered pretty well. Not only does it have story branches personal to the characters in the main cast, but it also has an overall storyline that raises many philosophical questions. As an aside, you also learn a little about money and economics.
Visuals
Visually speaking C For Control has a pretty decent looking art design, especially when it comes to the Entrepreneurs battle partners and some of the character designs, however it does have moments where things look a little off. Most predominantly of these moments are anytime the bank dude with the pink hair appears.
I’m not entirely sure what it is with the guy that looks a little bit like Michael Sheen (much like his performance in Tron: Legacy) with pink hair, but in most instances he looks like he was CGI’d over the top of the show post-production. This is because he appears to be moving at a much more fluid rate than the cast, as well as having a shadow that appears to be of an entirely different type in comparison to the rest of the cast. This stylistic choice has been an odd one, as it makes the character seem out of sync with the rest of the series, bringing the overall quality down instead of up.
The Financial District itself offered a nice visual opposite to the real world in that it was much more bland, but still much more interesting. Many of the characters refer to it as a reflection of our own world, but I don’t quite see it. If anything it’s bringing attention to the bareness of reality by having itself be visually bland.
Overall, the visuals in C For Control were quite enjoyable, however, there was the small issue of a major character looking completely out of place. CGI and Anime do not mix, they never have outside of minor effects, and they never will.
Audio
There is a lot of overuse in some tracks found in this series. I’m not going to withhold that fact. The battle theme is the one that stands out the most with this. Not only does it pop up for combat, but it also pops up in any moment that is even remotely confrontational. However, this is also a really great track that not only fits these scenes, but also stands up really well on its own. However, if you don’t like the particular piece, then you will be really annoyed each time you hear it. Which will be frequently.
Honestly speaking, the English dub on this show works fine. I don’t want any of this subs vs. dubs nonsense here. If you want to listen to the Japanese track, it is there for you to do so. It’s not a bad sounding track and neither is the English.
Extras
C For Control has a few extras, such as Audio commentaries, Clean opening and ending animations, trailers and the like. The commentaries are definitely worth a listen and if you liked the opening and ending videos, then you should definitely check them out clean.
Overall
Overall, C For Control was an amazingly enjoyable experience. It was an experience I went in not expecting to have (who wants to learn about economics) and only really expected there to be a slight plotline that was used in order to excuse awesome monster battles. Instead we had an awesome story that had monster battles in it. This, I believe, is what made this series most memorable.
Today, Namco Bandai have revealed the sequel to the hit Dark Souls is being released. The title named Dark Souls 2 is being developed by FromSoftware and is being published by Namco Bandai Games. The game is coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 devices.
What’s most interesting about this sequel is there will be server based multiplayer for players looking to work together in completing the challenges laid out within the game. As for the excruciating challenge to players from a gameplay perspective, Dark Souls II looks to continue that tradition.
Here are some quotes from the developers –
“Dark Souls II retains the core essence of Dark Souls while evolving to present new twists and challenges that are sure to please longtime fans and attract new comers to the series,” says Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “FromSoftware is going to take a very dark path with Dark Souls II; players will need to look deep within themselves to see if they have the intestinal fortitude to embark on this journey.”
“This new chapter in the Dark Souls saga presents opportunities for us to drive innovation in gameplay design, develop an entirely new story, and expand the scope of the world in which the player interacts with the game. We have taken these necessary steps with Dark Souls II in order to evolve the overall experience of the Dark Souls series,” says Tomohiro Shibuya, FromSoftware Director on Dark Souls II. “The entire development team is striving to make Dark Souls II an experience that is fresh while not forsaking its roots in presenting players with challenging gameplay. Our goal is to surprise and delight our fans with new experiences and plot twists while enticing new players to join our dark journey.”
Be sure to check out the age-gated website here for more info.
Today Konami provided a nice little media dump in the form of new gameplay video and screenshots for their upcoming title, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The videos can be seen below and are certainly worth checking out thanks to the killer sword action that Platinum Games has devised for the title as well as some customization options players have for Raiden and the screenshots are also found below and cover the same type of enemies shown in the videos.
As for the enemies in the videos, they are named Ray and Mafutisu and they will be encountered once the game is released Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 19th in North America and February 22nd in Europe.
Castlevania will be seeing another title added to its repertoire says Konami Digital Entertainment. Titled as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (long title), the game is to be released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS on March 5th, 2013 in North America.
What can we anticipate to see in this upcoming title? Well, as the title implies the story will begin 25 years after the events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Mirror of Fate will exclusively look at the mysterious background of Trevor Belmont, the son of Dracul. With the return of Dracula, Trevor departs from his son – Simon – on a quest to enact vengeance on his mother’s murderer, his father. But before he departs from his son, Trevor hands him a pendant containing a part of the Mirror of Fate.
Be sure to stay updated on the latest “Lords of Shadow” news by checking out Castlevania’s Official Lords of Shadow Facebook page.
Focus Home Interactive and Spiders Studio must be very unimpressed with the state of game trailers today as when releasing the first non-teaser trailer for their upcoming Mars: War Logs, they make it a point of mentioning that it is in fact 100% Dubstep free. Instead opting for the much slower “Feel the Sunshine” that sets the mood on the mostly red dust planet.
The trailer doesn’t offer too much, but it does show off a little bit of some of what the game will hopefully offer in terms of combat. Showing a little physical, gun, and cyberpunk-style Technomancer ability as lead Roy Temperance faces off against some seemingly low level guards. While pretty sparse it will be interesting to see how all those combat elements come into play when out and about in the full RPG world of Mars.
Mars: War Logs will let players fill the role of Roy on the water devoid planet to side with the renegades his been labeled as in Spring 2013 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC. Players can check out the first trailer embedded below.
Today Activison has revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be getting a balancing patch very soon for the Xbox 360 and the PC and right now actually for PS3 users and while a number of things have been fixed up in patch 1.04, the most notable changes are the nerfs to two items in the game.
First all SMG weapons have been given higher levels of recoil when fired from the hip and reduced bullet penetration to reduce the complaints of their powerful close-combat capabilities. Secondly the UAV scorestreak will now require the player earn 425 points rather than the 350 points that were originally needed.
The rest of the patch notes can be seen below.
New Features & Feature Improvements
Added support for posting Live Stream URLs to Twitter.
Improved audio/rumble responsiveness when hitting enemies with gunfire.
Improved overall communication of Double XP when enabled.
AAR better communicates how much XP was earned in each match.
Added the ability to “View League Teams” from any player’s Playercard.
Added the ability to “View Playercard” from League solo leaderboards.
Added a number of security system enhancements.
Added Hardcore Kill Confirmed playlist to the Hardcore category
Issues Addressed
Fixed a rare hang (“Awaiting Textures”) upon loading into maps when joining a session in progress after fresh boot.
Game now resets the Care Package for a non-owner if the owner re-rolls the package using the Engineer perk.
Players with Black Hat PDA can no longer hack a Care Package faster than the owner can capture it.
Addressed an exploit where modified console hackers could maliciously spread infected films to other users.
Added a fail-safe to prevent spawn trapping in CTF.
Increased sight checks on turrets to improve spawning algorithms.
Fixed a number of new UI error messages reported by users.
Addressed a number of issues that would cause friendly/enemy color indicators on equipment and scorestreaks to display as the wrong team.
Improved overall Theater and Live Streaming stability.
Improved film rendering stability and made progression bar more accurate while rendering a film.
Addressed issues which prevented some master challenges from being completed.
Precision challenge “Wet Work” will now unlock with 10 kills.
The wins challenge will now account for all FFA modes when ending a match with a tie (if you are in the top 3).
Players that help with the “Synchronized Attack” challenge now get credit for it.
Players will not be able to manually take control of their AGR if they die at the exact moment that their AGR deploys.
Emblem Editor no longer closes the current emblem when discarding changes.
Players using Ghost will no longer be invisible at all times in Custom Games with the mini-map option set to “constant”.
Players using Ghost and a Suppressor attachment will no longer appear on the enemy’s minimap while shooting and moving while a UAV is up.
The median for the K/D graph in the AAR is set to 1.0 instead of 0.0.
Players can no longer get on top of the shrubs in Nuketown 2025.
Thermal vision overlay no longer appears using the VTOL glitch.
Kills from the explosion on the explosive crossbow bolt now count towards challenges.
Counter UAV no longer remains for the rest of the game after a host migration.
Clan tag is no longer locked immediately after prestige.
Offline profiles can no longer be exploited to join online games when an online profile is also signed in.
Multi-team games no longer count as a tie if an entire team quits.
Fixed an area in Express where K9 Unit dogs could get stuck.
EMP grenades no longer affect the CODcaster HUD.
Party Privacy count no longer affects how many bots will spawn in Combat Training.
Shadows seen through sniper scopes now render more correctly.
Players can no longer stand on invisible collision in Carrier.
“Drop Shot” medal is no longer awarded after standing back up.
Players can now copy a custom class to the extra prestige slot.
Gameplay Balancing:
Scorestreaks:
UAV: cost increased from 350 to 425.
Lightning Strike: added 750ms delay
Equipment/Grenades:
Bouncing Betty: increased the grace period between trigger and activation by 200ms.
Sensor Grenade: increased the range (now 1000 units), frequency (now 800ms between pings), and amount of time (now 6s) that players appear after explosion.
Concussion Grenade: decreased movement penalty and turn speed penalty when hit.
SMGs:
All: increased hip fire recoil.
All: increased max hip fire spread from 4.75 to 5.
All: reduced bullet penetration.
MSMC: increased recoil slightly.
PDW-57: increased recoil slightly.
Assault Rifles:
All: reduced idle sway for more reliable long-range aiming.
XM8: reduced lethal range of 3-hit kills from 250 to 50 inches.
XM8 + Select Fire: increased recoil.
FAL OSW + Select Fire: increased recoil.
SWAT-556 + Select Fire: increased recoil.
MTAR: Made auto aim values consistent with all other assault rifles.
It’s shaping up to be a great week to be a frugal gamer. Maybe not as great as a Steam sale week, but pretty close.
The Weekend Deal this week are two great indie games. First up is Hotline Miami at %50 off. This top down shooter is reminiscent of an older simpler age in video gaming and is an absolute steal at $4.99 USD. Pick up your copy here. Next we have FTL: Faster Than Light priced at $5.99 USD (40% off regular price). This rogue like space exploration game is great to play in short bursts but be warned, its extremely addictive. I personally supported this game back when it was on Kickstarter and I don’t regret it at all. I highly recommend picking up this game here.
GreenMan Gaming is running a Winter Voucher week by releasing a new 25% off code that will be valid between 1200 GMT Friday December 7th and 1200 GMT Friday December 14th. These can be applied to most titles on the GMG store on top of any sales. Additionally GMG will be releasing daily codes that provide large discounts on many recently released games. Major deals include 30% off Guild Wars 2 Digital Edition, 35% off Hitman Absolution, 40% off Skyrim, 30% off Fary Cry 3, Assassin’s Creed 3, and the Borderlands 2 Season Pass. The most impressive deal will be on Thursday the 13th of December when Chivalry will be 50% off plus an additional 25% if the coupon is used. Check out the full listing of discounts at GMG and the 25% off code here.
GMG is running a few major sales. I recommend picking up Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition at $4.98 USD, Bastion at$4.49 USD, and Hitman: Blood Money, Tropico 3, World of Goo, Defcon: Everybody Dies all at $1.99 USD each. These prices do not include the extra %25 coupon that can be found in the link above. Most of these games should be eligible for the extra discount. These games are a mixed bag of Steam and GMG Capsule downloader, so read carefully. Check out our review of Bastion here.
Get Games is running a sci fi sale with games up to 75% off. Titles of interest include Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Steam at $7.49USD and Bioshock 2 for $4.99 USD. Check out the full sale here. Read our review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution here and our review of Bioshock 2 here.
Finally, GoG.com is running a Myst themed weekend promo, knocking down the price by %60 for DRM free downloads of the Myst series, Uru Complete Chronicles, and The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition. The Myst series is a video gaming classic that should be considered a must play for every adventure and puzzle game enthusiast. Check out the sale here.
This week marked the conclusion of arguably one of the greatest shonen anime story arcs of all time in Hunter x Hunter’s York New City Arc. With one arc ending another always begins and NTV have already begun the big sell for the Greed Island arc, the infamous story arc Togashi’s manga that popularized the ‘inside a video-game’ type storylines in anime and manga.
Fans of Attack on Titan have gotten good news after good news this week.
