You may remember that I got the Summer Uniform version of Figma Haruhi a couple of months ago, and I’d always planned to get the regular uniform version eventually to get a bigger range of faces and other extras. With AmiAmi running a 50% off shipping promotion throughout February and Max Factory offering bonus accessory sets as part of their “Winter Campaign”, I figured now was a good time. While I’m very pleased with Haruhi herself, the Winter Campaign set is quite disappointing. It includes two pairs of mittens (one for Figmas, and one for Nendoroids) and a scarf (which should fit both Figmas or Nendoroids), in one of five randomly-packed colours. The scarf fits alright – though how well it actually sits on the figure will vary – and I can’t comment on the Nendoroid mittens, but the Figma mittens are all but useless. Read on for a closer look and a bit more explanation.
I love the simple, clean aesthetic of the early Figma packaging. Some of the newer boxes are a bit overdone.
One of the main factors in my decision to buy a PS3 earlier this year was the impending release of exclusive title Heavy Rain, so it was with great excitement that I received my copy of the collector’s edition today. The game – when it’s being called a video game, at least – has generated a fair bit of interest due to developer Qauntic Dream’s focus on creating realistic “digital actors” and the somewhat unconventional approach to gameplay. Perhaps more appropriately called an interactive movie, Heavy Rain tells the story of four people investigating a criminal known as the Origami Killer. The collector’s edition – available in Europe, the UK and Australia – includes a code for the game’s first downloadable episode (which will be available as paid content at a later date), a dynamic XMB theme and an “official” soundtrack (would any other kind come with the game itself?). Like the recently released collector’s edition for Mass Effect 2, this package is relatively light on features but strong on presentation and appropriately priced. Read on for a closer look at the content.
Origin: Spirits of the Past is a film by anime studio Gonzo – their first theatrical feature production, originally released in 2006. The film takes place in a dystopian future where forestation has reclaimed much of the Earth after genetic modification resulted in sentient trees. The basic premise is quite an interesting one – if a little silly-sounding when you try to explain it to someone – and is introduced in a fairly spectacular opening credits sequence. In the wake of the destruction caused by the trees’ onslaught, it seems that mankind split into two factions: those who attempt to co-exist with the trees and those who plan to reclaim the planet by force; in the film these factions are represented by the peaceful Neutral City and the militaristic Ragna. Needless to say tensions between humans and the forest are high, and are heightened further when another set of interests becomes involved.
I’d like to start this article with some thoughts on the ethics of reviewing videogames, to explain why the word “review” is absent from the heading above. The question of how much of a game one should play before being in an adequate position to review said game has been raised more than a few times in the industry, and I think it’s a very pertinent one. Reviews are largely subjective by nature – unavoidably so – but the increasingly open-ended nature of many games means that one person’s experience of a game may be vastly different to another’s. In the case of Mass Effect 2, there are simply too many factors affecting the experience for me to feel ready to review the game after just one play-through.
Haruhi Suzumiya has managed to stay on my desktop for a couple of months now, so I figured it was time for a change. I’m watching K-ON! at the moment and managed to find this great iPod-commercial-inspired wallpaper of Yui Hirasawa. The original had a pink colour scheme which I wasn’t too fond of, but that was easily adjusted. There’s no new iPhone wallpaper this time as I still quite like the Haruhi one, and it can sometimes be hard to find a picture with the right shape and composition to really shine on the iPhone’s unlock screen. Anyway, here’s Yui. Click through for download links.
In early November last year, Sega released the first two figures in a set of arcade prizes called Evangelion Vignette Centre of Tokyo-3 based on poster artwork from the Rebuild of Evangelion. Following that release of Rei and Kaworu (check them out here) comes the next pair: Asuka and Mari. The four figures come with bases that line up with each other to form the titular vignette, and combined they form quite a nice display. While it unfortunately seems like Sega has no plans to release a Shinji figure to complete the core teen cast of Evangelion with this set, the characters that are here are, thankfully, well represented with sculpts and paintwork of a standard that belies the figures’ incredibly affordable price tags.
I loved the first set of Death Note Nendoroid Puchis, so ordering Case File #02 was a must for me. They’ve arrived, and they’re just as adorable and well-detailed as their Case File #01 comrades. This set expands the Puchi Death Note collection to include characters from later in the series such as Near, Mello and Mikami as well as offering new versions of the core trio (Light, L and Misa). It’s a somewhat more lighthearted set with tennis outfits and some great facial expressions, so I think it may appeal to Nendoroid collectors who aren’t fans of Death Note a little more than Case File #01 did, but Death Note fans certainly won’t be disappointed either as it rounds out the character selection nicely.
Mass Effect was one of the first games I played on Xbox 360 and remains, in my opinion, one of the finest reasons to own the console. The sequel – the middle of a planned trilogy – has finally arrived, and this morning I picked up the collector’s edition. It is somewhat more modest in content than other recent collector’s editions (such as the impressive Assassin’s Creed II Black Edition), but more than makes up for that with its exceptional presentation.
You may remember that a bit over a month ago I showed you the results of my room redecoration (check it out here if you missed it). Well, I’ve made a few more changes since then that I’m very pleased with. Some are pretty obvious, but one may be a little harder to spot at first. As you can see I’ve added a third Ljusdal shelf from Ikea – getting it to sit in line with the one to the right of it was a pain – to spread my figures out and accomodate for more, and I’ve also set up some LED lights (also from Ikea, called Dioder) which I think give the room a much nicer atmosphere. I do still use the ceiling light, but the LEDs compliment it nicely with a much whiter light over the desk and from behind the TV. At night or when watching/playing something on the TV, I use just the LEDs alone which gives the room a comfortable, relaxed amount of light.
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing a seven-piece ensemble from Eminence Symphony Orchestra perform live as part of Wai-Con, one of Perth’s major anime conventions. Most gamers and anime fans will probably be familiar with Eminence, if not by name then through their body of work. They are a Sydney-based group that mostly plays music from anime and video games, founded in 2003 with the aim of re-connecting young people with orchestral music in a live setting. They’ve played many successful concerts both in Australia and across the globe, and after forging a high reputation for themselves have also been asked to record a number of soundtracks. You may have heard their work in games such as Valkyria Chronicles and Soul Calibur IV or anime such as Romeo x Juliet and The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk, and they will also be featured in two very high-profile upcoming releases: Diablo III and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
