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Amish Otaku, PC, PS3, Video Games, Xbox 360

Fallout 3: Heaven or Hell?

Image from the Fallout 3 teaser
Bethesda

If you who haven’t already seen the teaser (I recommend it, if only to kill a couple of minutes), I’ll give you the condensed version:

Vacuum tubes, Inkspots music, radio panning out to an abandoned bus, panning out further to a ruined bus, panning out further to a ruined cityscape (arguably Washington D.C.), pulling back over craggy destroyed cement, Fall 2008 release date. The End.

… Oh, yeah, and a guy in Brotherhood-of-Steel-style power armor. Continue reading “Fallout 3: Heaven or Hell?”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Bubonic Comics: What If…#40

Free advice for thieves
Marvel Comics

What If…? was a remarkable series in that it always asked the questions us fanboys liked to debate when we would get together. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four? What if Captain America had stayed frozen until modern times? These were pressing questions we wanted to see played out.

But I guess at some point the idea men at Marvel had to run out of ideas, and WHAT IF…? #40 addressed a question no fan could have ever possibly wondered or cared about: What if Storm of the X-Men had remained a thief?

Seriously. They filled an entire issue answering this lame excuse for a question. Hmm, what if Storm remained a thief? I suppose she would probably steal things. That is what thieves do … or is it?!?!?

Well, I’m sure you’re sweating over what becomes of Ororo Munroe; I know the Watcher is, so let’s get going. Continue reading “Bubonic Comics: What If…#40”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Caught My Eye: Blade #10, New Avengers #31, World War Hulk

Blade vs. Spidey, Round 1, Fight!
Marvel Comics

Blade #10

First off, we have BLADE #10. Blade has been a great series from the very beginning. It’s written by Marc Guggenheim of the Civil War issues of Wolverine as well as the latest writer on Flash. The art is drawn by long-time comic legend Howard Chaykin.

I’d like to start out by saying that this series is the first comic I read the Wednesday it comes out. That’s not because I’m some hard-core Blade fan, but simply because it’s just that good. I have very limited knowledge of Blade outside of the three movies and short-lived television show. That being said, I had no trouble getting into this series from the first issue.

Guggenheim has an interesting way of telling the story in each comic of this series. With few exceptions, each comic is a done-in-one story that is self-contained but has over-arcing elements that give the long-time reader something to look forward to in the next issue. One of the most impressive aspects is that you get three timelines in each issue: where the story begins, a glimpse of his long past that has relevance now, and where the story ends. This might sound like it would be hard to follow, but I assure you it is not. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: Blade #10, New Avengers #31, World War Hulk”

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Amish Otaku, Music

The Protomen: Bringing the MMRO to the People

Poster for The Protomen’s April 2006 show in Nashville
The Protomen

The best way to describe The Protomen can be summed up in four words: Mega Man. Rock. Opera.

Their music is heavy and diverse. Diverse not only in the styles of songs they play but also in the depth of the sound. There’s ten people in the band, with drums, guitars, basses, synths and singers.

While their album borrows heavily from Capcom’s famous franchise both sonically and thematically, it’s their original take on these stories and sounds that is so surprising and captivating. Any Mega Man fan worth their salt knows who Proto Man and Mega Man are, but this band has the courage to flesh out the interpersonal relationships between these two brothers and their creator/father Prof. Light that were never fully explored in the 8-bit video games.

I won’t burrow too deeply into the story of the album because I don’t want to reveal any of the plot twists. Continue reading “The Protomen: Bringing the MMRO to the People”

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Amish Otaku, Features, Kosher Kuts, Manga

Kosher Kuts: King of Thorns

Survival horror is a genre that seems to be rather underrepresented in manga. Moviegoers and gamers have had their fill over the past few years with moderate success. The trick has been to balance a semblance of a story with enough thrills and chills to make it enthralling. Yuji Iwahara’s King of Thorns brings this unappreciated story type into the light. Is it a B-grade horror flick or a blockbuster page-turner?

The story begins in the present as a virus called Medusa has begun to spread among the human populace. As the name suggests, the virus causes the infected people to slowly become paralyzed and brittle, like old stone statues. A number of people who have been infected are put into cryogenic stasis until a cure can be found. When the group awakens, the laboratory they resided in is in ruins and covered in vines. They quickly discover that the world is down one human race and up one prehistoric dinosaur race. The survivors take it upon themselves to figure out what happened to the world while they were asleep and find a cure for the virus that is slowly taking over their bodies.

Continue reading “Kosher Kuts: King of Thorns”
Joshua Goldberg
Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Caught My Eye: New Warriors #1

Sofia in New Warriors #1
Marvel Comics

For all of you who are not in the know, Marvel Comics recently had a huge crossover by the name of Civil War. Basically, the New Warriors were hotshot young heroes and made a bad choice when they went into a battle they couldn’t win. That mistake cost them their lives as well as the lives of many civilians. Since then, all heroes must register their identity as well as their powers to the authorities.

This new incarnation of the New Warriors is rebelling against the current system and continuing the job of putting the baddies behind bars. From what’s been released so far, the premise is about this new team trying to make up for what the previous team did and trying to redeem them to a degree, since they were made out to be the scapegoats (or martyrs.)

Now that we have the backstory done, on to the good stuff! Continue reading “Caught My Eye: New Warriors #1”

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Amish Otaku, PS3, Video Games

The Agency: MMO Gaming Comes to the PS3

Concept art for The Agency
Sony

Get out your secret decoder rings, ’cause you’re going to need them.

Apparently, most of us weren’t paying that much attention earlier this year when Sony executive Yair Landau revealed SOE’s latest concept for an MMO. Keynoting the D.I.C.E. Summit, Landau previewed a clip of the new game – codenamed “Vista” – that gave those there a glimpse of a third-person shooter set in Prague complete with dangerous women and hot cars.

Prefacing the game’s introduction with one of the trailers from Casino Royale, Sony gave those at the Summit all they needed to know about the game at the time. It’s an MMO. Better yet, it’s a spy MMO. Continue reading “The Agency: MMO Gaming Comes to the PS3”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, DC

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #5

The Lovely Vicki Vale
DC Comics

Frank Miller redefined Batman in the late 80s with two acclaimed mini-series: The Dark Knight Returns (dealing an older Batman coming out of retirement to save Gotham yet again) and Batman: Year One (which fine-tuned Batman’s origin). While the character from the 60s television show hadn’t been as campy as the public perceived him to be for quite some time, it was Miller’s stories that brought mainstream attention to the “Dark Knight.”

Joined by Jim Lee, one of the most popular artists of the past couple decades, Miller returned to Batman for this new All Star series, which was another fresh start for the character. I don’t know if I was expecting some sort of de facto sequel to Year One or a prequel to The Dark Knight Returns, but Miller threw us all for a loop with this latest series.

The Batman presented in ASBaR is extremely confident and he enjoys what he’s doing, almost to the point of being maniacal about it. We’re introduced to this Batman through the eyes of young Dick Grayson, who would eventually become Robin, Batman’s sidekick. After attending a circus where he witnesses Grayson’s parents murdered, Batman takes the youth under his wing. That’s pretty much where the similarities to the regular story end. This Batman is scaring the hell out of Grayson. Grayson doesn’t really want to go along with Batman and is out of his wits as Batman mows through police who are chasing them, gets insulted by the person who is supposed to be saving him and is pretty much dumped off in the Bat Cave to fend for himself while Batman goes on patrol. If not for Alfred the butler, young Grayson would be forced to feed himself by eating the rats in the cave (Batman’s idea). Continue reading “All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #5”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Icon

Criminal #6: Is This What Happens When Bad Meets Evil?

Criminal #6
ICON Comics

In the pages of Daredevil, Ed Brubaker killed Captain America and showed readers what it would be like for a costumed hero to wind up in prison. His carefully laid out plots and storytelling, along with wonderful characterization, have brought acclaim to both titles and finally drawn the attention to Brubaker that he’s deserved for years.

Brubaker and Phillips worked together before on the acclaimed Sleeper for DC/Wildstorm. The story of a con man in over his head, Sleeper took characters for a superhero book called Wildcats and made a gritty crime noir story line that ended way too soon. Now the team is back in a series that doesn’t make the words gritty, hard-boiled or noirish come off has hyperbole.

Brubaker has always shown a knack for writing compelling stories dealing with the underbelly of society, from the Black Mask character in Catwoman to the Daredevil in prison. In Deadenders, a woefully underrated series from DC/Vertigo a few years back, his main character was a selfish, self-centered SOB that readers were made to care about. With Criminal, the distractions are out of the way. There are no costumed villains or shady superheroes. There are no secret societies or garish characters out of a sci-fi or James Bond movie. Criminal is straightforward in that it deals with bad people doing bad things. Maybe some of the characters aren’t totally evil… Brubaker has to give them some redeeming traits to make readers care about their fates, but none of these people will be confused with heroes anytime soon. Continue reading “Criminal #6: Is This What Happens When Bad Meets Evil?”

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Amish Otaku, PC, Video Games

Command & Conquer 3: KANE LIVES! AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!

Brotherhood of NOD base on the defense
EA

Let’s face it – we all knew it was coming. Kane was never dead, will never die, and it was just a matter of time before he crawled back up and started to wage war on GDI again. Of course, we always wondered how he managed to get all those resources overnight, but hey, let’s not let plot holes get in the way of a good game.

After the staggering success of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, many wondered if the remains of the now-extinct Westwood Studios could dust off the Command & Conquer franchise and be competitive in the RTS market once more. Were they successful? Well, you be the judge.

Actually no, I will. I’m writing the review. So there. Continue reading “Command & Conquer 3: KANE LIVES! AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!”

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