Category: Amish Otaku

All the stuff I published when I ran a nerd blog

Amish Otaku, Convention Coverage, Features

Convention Coverage: Video Game Expo 2007

Most video game conventions out there are nearly impossible to get to if you’re on the east coast. All of the big names, like PAX and E3, take place on the west coast. It only makes sense since that’s where the majority of the companies reside. Thankfully, Video Game Expo is there to fill this void on the east coast.

While VGExpo wasn’t as large as the big industry events out west, it still more than held its own in terms of guests, exhibitors and events. Plus there was the opportunity to play a few unreleased games – and a lot of other games besides. Continue reading “Convention Coverage: Video Game Expo 2007”

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Amish Otaku, PC, Video Games

Legends of Norrath: TCG With a Twist

Guest Post

If you have ever played Magic: The Gathering, or one of its many successors, you probably know the addictiveness that is the Trading Card Game (TCG). For me, however, it was something new (and exciting) when Sony Online Entertainment announced their new Legends of Norrath online TCG.

Featuring cards based on the EverQuest universe, the game is similar to other trading card games in that players collect cards to build and customize their decks and then use them to compete against other players.

The core of the Legends of Norrath deck is your avatar card. It can be one of any four classes – Fighter, Scout, Mage or Priest. The rest of your deck consists of units (creatures that can fight for you in battles), abilities and equipment. Continue reading “Legends of Norrath: TCG With a Twist”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Caught My Eye: Thirteen Steps

Guest Post

As promised, this review is over the newly released comic, Thirteen Steps. It is a horror comic at the root, but it’s pretty much unlike any others on the stands today. It follows the story of a man who is a minor league baseball player by day and a werewolf by night. The main hook is that he feels pretty horrible for what he does in his altered state and needs someone who will listen to him and try to understand, but that doesn’t happen until he stumbles on an A.A.-like program called Thirteen Steps, where he can learn to deal with his affliction.

In the last review, I covered a title called GearHead, which was drawn by Kevin Mellon. When I saw this comic in Previews several months ago and noticed it was drawn by the same artist, I was pretty curious. Add to the pot that this is written by one of my favorite artists and is a horror comic and you have a combination that I couldn’t pass up. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: Thirteen Steps”

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Amish Otaku, DS, Nintendo, Video Games

Drawn To Life: DS Side-Scrollers Get Creative

Guest Post

It’s been crazy here in Oxford, Mississippi, with football season going full tilt. In fact, for three weeks straight the restaurant has been slammed with hungry game fans waiting to get their eat on.

Unfortunately, this means I’ve had little time to get my game on. What with all that cooking… Still, I’ve had some time to play some games, especially with my trusty DS always nearby. In fact, lately I’ve been able to play something that allows me to be creative while still going to town on an old-school side-scrolling platformer. Well, old-school at heart anyway. Continue reading “Drawn To Life: DS Side-Scrollers Get Creative”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

X Mutations Wolverine Two-Pack: AO on Toys

By Ahmad Chaudhary

I don’t remember how much I paid for this Wolverine two-pack, but I bought it brand new at retail price from my days of generally severe Toys “R” Us scouring and suspect I paid somewhere in the $20- to $40-dollar range. I was obsessed with X-men: The Movie. The fact that I was extremely pleased with 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of my favorite Marvel superhero team was in no small part due to Hugh Jackman’s excellent – and career-making – performance as my favorite Marvel character, Wolverine. Although Jackman, at six feet two inches tall, was nearly a foot taller than the man eventually revealed to have been born as James Howlett, he cleaned up on the screen thanks to real acting chops, no doubt gained from stage experience in his native Australia and a ripped physique he achieved exclusively for the role. Continue reading “X Mutations Wolverine Two-Pack: AO on Toys”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Caught My Eye: GearHead

Guest Post

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my absence. Recently, I started a new job, moved across state, and have been living with my in-laws while waiting for my last house to sell. Needless to say, it’s been hectic these last couple of months. Now that I turned in my tardy slip, let’s get on to the comic review, shall we?

The comic that brought me screaming and kicking back to comic reviewing is called GearHead. Basically, the premise is that the world is drastically different from the one that we know and love in that the civilized society lives in the few large cities across the country, and in the outskirts reside the outlaws and undesirables. It kind of resembles a mixture of movies along the line of Mad Max.

The main character is the mechanic daughter of a vigilante named GearHead who gets a dose of reality when she’s thrust into dangers that far exceed that of a cracked block or blown head gasket. Due to extenuating circumstances, she takes up the mantle of her lost father and begins to peel back the mystery of how messed up her world really is. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: GearHead”

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Amish Otaku, Movies

Transformers Review Response

Transformers was exactly the movie I expected it to be. It was chock full of CGI, furious robot-on-robot action and more explosions and destruction than is truly necessary. That said, it was not a good movie.

On the Internet, a lot of people are attacking Michael Bay (and rightly so), but having looked at his past work, he really was the best director for the job. One of his earliest feature films was Bad Boys, a very good buddy cop action/comedy. A few years later, he gave us hits like The Rock and Armageddon. Say what you will, these were good movies. They may have been taken over the top, but at least Bay has a genuine sense of conflict in these movies and a strong enough cast to compensate for any deficiencies in the script. Continue reading “Transformers Review Response”

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Amish Otaku, Movies

Transformers Review

Guest Post

An AO response to the live-action Transformers movie was inevitable. Initially, I had no interest in seeing it and I just wasn’t expecting that I’d be writing a response for a number of reasons. First off, I thought it was going to be terrible, which, not so coincidentally, it was. Second of all, Dan Allen had expressed interest in seeing it (his review is coming also). As much as I didn’t want to fuel Michael Bay’s career (I didn’t, since we ended up with free passes, thankfully), the notoriety surrounding the movie was too great. Everyone I know who saw it said “It was awesome,” which was pre-bolstered by generally good reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 59% and a 7.3/10 in the Cream of the Crop (the choice reviewers) section, unprecedented for anything Michael “I think I’m cool because I look like I drive a 5.0 Mustang” Bay directed since The Rock, which didn’t have nearly as high a Cream of the Crop rating. I was afraid I might even like Transformers. Putting temptation over the fact that I started an anti-Bay Transformers Facebook group months before the release, I took the plunge. I had to see it. I shot Dan an IM on Sunday and we were ready to roll for the 4:55 p.m. showing. Continue reading “Transformers Review”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened

Guest Post

I really need to become more in tune with what’s going on in comics aside from the major news that comes directly from the larger publishers.

The editor of the book describes in his introduction how he went about lining up various comic book creators and assigning them each a postcard in which to form their story.

Most of the creators involved may not be the most recognizable names. Harvey Pekar is probably the most well known, but the work also features contributions from talents like Tom Beland, Joshua Fialkov, Michael Gaydos and Stuart Moore,

The premise of the book is amazingly simple, but still wholly unique: A postcard is handed off to a comic creator and the creator needs to tell a story about the message that was written on the postcard. In some instances, the creator chose to establish a story based on the few simple words that were written on the back. Others decided to create a world from the picture on the front. Continue reading “Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

By Ahmad Chaudhary

It’s been awhile since I read this book, probably close to two months. Since then I’ve seen Feist again – not that you care, mind you, but I did so I thought I’d let you know. I’ve also managed to stumble through the six-hundred-plus page mass-market paperback version of Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets by David Simon. It was pretty fitting I read that just after Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut, since they’re both focused on, believe it or not, homicide. Since the season of Halloween and associated macabre is upon us, it also works that this was finished when it was.

Initially, I swayed from writing the JTHM review then because I wasn’t sure what I thought of the book. It made me wince more than once; although the characters are crudely designed, in black and white, it should have made the murders seem more distant and removed from my own safe and cushy Nerf life. And then, all of a sudden, somewhere around a quarter of my way through the book, it became outright hilarious. It had me laughing hysterically. If you think I’m weird and a little psycho to find the following hilarious, reserve your judgment until you’ve finished the book. Continue reading “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac”

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