Blog, Blog, Bloq

 The name Birdie Wing might not evoke anything out of the general anime audience despite coming out of a large corporation like Bandai Namco.  But, I'm here to spread the good word on this golf anime. This original title from Bandai Namco Pictures is now partway through its second season. And to be honest, it is one of the most entertaining week-to-week shows out there. The energy and plot lines are so chaotic that trying to predict all of the outcomes requires attentive details at times.  One of the bigger reasons I can think of as to why people are not tuning in would be the inclusion of sport, and golf specifically. Sports anime are relatively popular, yet golf isn't the most gripping sport to display. So, the sell on an individual sport like this one is rather difficult. The hotness right now are these heavy action series by miles and they're not slowing down. But as Birdie Wing falters in this landscape, it makes up for in having heart and the willingness to top the ...

 I was recently able to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and it was solid. Not amazing, nor was it terrible. The film has some amazing action set pieces that made me elated in the theatre and some instances where I was just baffled.  As a movie, there aren't many interesting things that transpire or happen to the characters across the film in terms of development that aren't named Mario. While some people might say that, "Well, it's for children." This problem isn't persistent across all films for kids. The first Sonic movie did not deal with character and story issues like this even while being a template movie. Regardless, the movie works fairly well as a piece of Mario media because writing has not been a strong suit in the series' main 3-D titles quite like the Blue Blur has. While I am not an expert on Mario games, this is what I have gotten out of the franchise's attempts to inject me with their storytelling.  So, if you would rather not be spoil...

 A little over a week ago I decided that I was going to clean up the last of the achievements in Fallout: New Vegas. Not my favorite Fallout out of the 3D titles, but one that I don't mind playing again. Many of my remaining achievements were ending and faction based, so there was not much trouble there. The big hurdle was going through the casino bans and caravan games because I had always found them to be annoying and wasteful of my time.  Much of my early time was sitting at the Blackjack tables or farming Ringo for Caravan wins. Without the helpful guides that have been made over the years and watching Fallout related videos on YouTube, I probably would have left the game unfinished. While Caravan can be gamed pretty easily, getting kicked out of the three major casinos is tedious. This was especially true when the dealer top decks an ace and a face or 10 card. It really made the experience feel like a chore more than an achievement. On the upside, the money I got for this...

 Scream VI has recently released and I was fortunate enough to see it last week. For me, the movie was great as a horror film but leaves a bit to be desired in the Scream department. My reasoning boils down to the mystery being lost in this film as the Ghostface crew this time around felt half-baked. If you couldn't tell already, I will be going into spoiler territory. Now let's dig in. In Scream VI, we follow the Carpenter Sisters along with Chad and Mindy to New York as they attend college. Very similar to Scream 2 when Sidney and Randy head off to college. When we get into the Ghostface department, the VI team seems to just kind of blend into the background. Being an ensemble film with a large cast, it is hard to give every character their time. Yet the core returning cast felt very defined and established when the credits rolled and I was very content with where the Carpenter's and the Twins were heading.  This led to the new characters who were mostly killed off except...

 One of the things that I have been doing lately is playing Soulcalibur II on Xbox Series X. The game is fun and I love the Weapon Master Mode so much because it gives replayability and rewards for winning challenge specific battles. You can get different weapons, costumes, characters, and stages by working through it. This is the main component for getting the full roster while also adding extra characters. The mode also including a story makes the experience that much more fruitful as the added experience from Weapon Master makes a more casual player, like me, more enthralled with the title. A very similar vibe to Mortal Kombat's Konquest modes in their 3D era.  What makes this mode so rad to me is that I own the game on the original Xbox and the Series. So, I am willing to play through this mode across different generations and on two versions of the game. While I never finished it on the original Xbox, I decided I was gonna do that for the HD version. It was just one of th...

 For people who have not finished or played Bayonetta 3, I ask that you refrain from looking at this piece as I will be discussing the ending to Bayonetta 3 in addition to my thoughts on the game as a whole. With that out of the way let's begin.  The combat and some of the new gameplay sections in Bayonetta 3 are really good and some of them are not so great to really bad. The main story fights against groups of enemies and singular enemies were done super well with a nice flow to combat sequences that made the dance very satisfying and a joy to play. While some of the challenge areas were downright atrocious, especially in Viola sections. For those that don't know, Viola is a DMC type of character where dodging is not her activation for Witch Time, and instead you have to parry. This contradicts the flow of many Bayonetta sequences, making the game feel uncomfortable in some areas. These areas include Witch Time damage only portions and big enemies that have an invisible wall...

 For most of January, I finally got around to playing Elden Ring. One of the hottest games of last year that most certainly had lived up to the hype. While the game has fantastic storytelling, world design, and overall exploration. I found myself being at a disadvantage many times due to the playstyle that I go with in FromSoftware games. That style is the good old fashioned, "Big weapon that hits hard while dodging everything" strategy. For most bosses this did not pose an issue because many of the enemies in this game can be taken to task by the colossal weapons. So, my weapon of choice for much of this was Greatsword, the weapon based on Gut's Dragonslayer from Berserk. A mighty weapon that made the Radahn fight very enjoyable for me. Just two people big sword swinging, and I even managed to get a riposte off on him. This lets you know that even the biggest fighters could fall to this strategy. Yet there were a few fights that necessitated the use of back-up weapons or...