Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Play Log: Fun Times

I spent a good portion of this month traveling, hence the break in activity.

Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta
I believe I commented earlier that this show was pretty easy on the eyes.  That was an understatement.  The animation is honestly pretty damn topnotch sometimes.  And Kotoha is awesome.  I like her character, I like her design, I like her ability.

I went and did a bit of research concerning just where this anime sits in the continuity, and apparently it is actually supposed to be generally covering the beginning of the manga.  It sure as heck doesn't feel that way, though.  Take the vampire twins, for example, or the cop.  The story treats them as familiar characters, but they never had an introduction...

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
I think I finally understand what's been throwing me for a loop with IBO.  I don't want to make Gundam sound like some super intelligent franchise, but I do feel like they're usually more cerebral than IBO.  It's a franchise that loves to portray clashes between various philosophical and political ideals.  IBO has this as well (mainly in McGillis and Rustal), but on the whole it's less about a bunch of high-minded individuals fighting to change the world and more about people fighting to preserve what's important to them, or better their own lives.  So the battles are more emotional, more base, and more brutal.  What the show lacks in complexity it makes up for in raw impact.

Company of Heroes 2
I'm probably lying to myself even as I write this, but I don't know how much more of this game I have left in me.  It's still fun, but the community is insufferable, and it's obvious Relic's not going to add anything more to it beyond perhaps the occasional skin or balance patch.

Cowboy Bebop
This is a great show and I'm glad I finally got around to watching it.  However, as mature adventure stories go I think I liked Michiko and Hatchin more.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Play Log: War Rages Again

Company of Heroes 2 
Whelp.  I feel like by getting this game working my Surface I've re-opened a forbidden well.  I don't think I realized how much CoH2 was cannibalizing my time with other games until I found myself regularly turning to it instead of continuing Trails of Cold Steel or Grandia.

Sadly, while the game is workable on here, I think I might have to veto maps like Sittard Summer.  I love the occasional bridge game just as much as the next guy, but my poor Surface can't handle all the action that gets compressed onto that bridge.  I ended up in a 4v4 custom game with 200 popcap and double resources, and my FPS would regularly dip into slideshow territory.

In other news, Relic is inching closer to another significant balance update.  Very little of it is of much interest to me, but they're completely overhauling the PIAT, which is a godsend.  They also seem to be nerfing the AEC vs infantry which is a little bit of a bummer since unlike every other faction, Brits don't really have a mid-game option for dominating infantry.  But on the other hand it's getting a boost to its overall vehicle hunting capabilities, which is probably the bigger boon in the end.

Cowboy Bebop
This show continues to be good, but at the same time my enjoyment of it has waned a little.  I'm not sure why.

Moana
So I saw this.  It was good, but this is one of those movies that I think I enjoyed more for the visuals and animation than for the content.  The story was fine, the songs were fine, and I did like Moana as the main character.  But it's a really colorful movie, which made it fun to watch in and of itself.

Inside Out
I guess I'm playing catch up with animated movies.  I didn't think much of Inside Out based on the pitch and trailers, but I ended up really enjoying the premise.  There were a few beats here and there that I found predictable, but it was overall a pretty imaginative movie.

I also found myself rewatching Frozen in Japanese, as it was airing on TV.  I had forgotten how charming that movie was.  They clearly did an outstanding job on the Japanese dub.  I vaguely remember hearing that Frozen was absurdly popular in Japan, maybe even more so than it was in the US.  That seems to hold true, as my dormmate said he's seen it five times, and also apparently had memorized the lyrics to every tune in the movie in the process.  Him and anyone else that walked by would happily sing along to the music as it cropped up.