Still looking to build interest in the site and whatnot:
http://gamingvisionnetwork.blogspot.com/
I've written a number of reviews for the site in the past month or so. Go read them, check out the rest of the site, and let us know what you think!
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Maybe one of these days I'll get off my ass and blog more regularly on here again. Until next time...
--JT
What's going on guys (or whoever still reads this)? I know it's pretty much been ages since I last posted anything. There's a few reasons for that. Either:
A) I'm a lazy bastard
B) I'm busy helping run local fighting game tournaments
C) I have been working on a site
D) Did I say I'm a lazy bastard?
So yea, I haven't really been on here much. I still lurk the forums, but that's about it. Anyways, I'm back for today to basically pimp some of my crap out. As pointed out above, I've been working on a site; more specifically, I've been working with a few friends on a little gaming blog/site. Please check it out:
http://gamingvisionnetwork.blogspot.com/
We've been doing podcasts since the beginning of the year, and now we're starting to publish some of our own game reviews. Check out my reviews of Ninja Gaiden 3 and Journey. Just check out the site in general, comment, let us know what you think, yada yada yada. Let us know if there's anything you want to see or get a review of.
Also, I've also do live gameplay streams here and there. More often than not if I'm streaming it, I'll probably also doing a review on it too sometime. Come follow me on twitch.tv and watch:
Anyways, that's about it for now. Hope you guys are doing well. Catch ya around.
--JT
I'm back with some new figures to my collection. The first two are Persona 3 figures I picked up from a friend of mine who was selling some of his stuff, and are ones I've been meaning to get my hands on for some time. I also picked up a model kit of Protoman after seeing how Mega Man turned out last month. Anyways, it's showtime!
Akihiko Sanada
First up, here we have the always serious Akihiko Sanada. He's a 1/10th scale figure that stands at approximately 7 inches tall. By default, his pose features him holding his evoker ready for battle. The face on this figure really captures the serious look of his character.
Akihiko also comes with swapable arms for an alternate pose of him putting on his gloves (which you almost never see him without throughout the entirety of Persona 3).
Persona 3's Main Character
Also picked up from a friend of mine is this 1/10th scale figure of the main character of Persona 3. He also stands at about 7 inches tall and features him readying his evoker for battle.
I really like the little details on this figure. Particularly, how he's wearing his headphones and mp3 player around his neck.
Like Akihiko, the MC also has an alternate arm/pose; this time replacing his evoker with a tarot card.
Did anyone happen to notice the oddly shaped bases that both Akihiko and MC were standing on? These two happen to be designed to stand side-by-side with the complete base. Time for the badass tag team!
I need to thank my friend once again for selling these two figures to me. Both of them are nicely made figures, and are hard to come across nowadays (especially the MC). Now my Mitsuru figure won't be as lonely.
Protoman Model Kit
If you remember the Mega Man figure I picked up last month, it was a model kit which requires assembly. It was quite a cool figure to put together; cool enough for me to pick up the model kit of Mega Man's brother Protoman. His parts are similar to what came with Mega Man, so let's move to the completed figure.
As you can see, he comes with his trademark shield and scarf. The shield attaches to his back like shown, but he can also hold it in his hand ready to protect himself.
@#$% yea! Much like Mega Man before, I'm fairly pleased with how Protoman turned out. He resembles his character well, and he can be posed quite easily too. Now Mega Man's got someone to play with...
... As well as someone who can cover his back.
--JT
The Blue Bomber is back once again! This time in print form within the pages of the Mega Man Tribute. Just as they did previously with the Street Fighter Tribute, Udon has put together this 300-page compilation of fan art for Mega Man. It's simply wonderful seeing the variety of art s-tyles and interpretations of this beloved franchise.
The majority of the book is art for the c-lassic series Mega Man and characters/robot masters. However, there's also some love for the other MM sub-series: X, Zero, and Legends (yay!). Enough with the talking, and let's have the pictures to show how awesome this book is.
This book is simply worthwhile for any Mega Man fan. Until next time...
--JT
As mentioned last week, I'd be back with some pictures of the contents of my Disgaea 4 bundle. That's not all to show today either! I also received last week a new Mega Man figure. Enough goofing off for now; let's get on with the show...
Mega Man Model Kit
This here is a model kit of c-lassic Mega Man made by Kotobukiya. This thing differs from the usual figures I get in that I actually have to build it myself. The contents of the box are all of the individual parts and instructions:
Essentially, it's cut pieces out of the mold, and snap them together. Fairly simple stuff. When put together, you get a nifty little figure like this:
Neat thing about this Mega Man figure is that 1) it's fairly posable, and 2) it comes with a few accessories. His hands come in closed and open varieties, and there's two different attachments for his mega buster. He's also got a couple of different faces that can easily be swapped around. There's also an energy tank that he can hold in his hand, but I haven't gotten around to painting it (since it was just molded in the same blue as his body) or applying the "E" decal.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this figure. It captures the look of the original blue bomber incredibly well, and the posability of it allows some fun to be had in how it's displayed. Most certainly, I'm going to have to consider picking up the model kit for Mega Man's brother Protoman sometime in the future.
Disgaea 4 Premium Figure Edition
As I mentioned last blog, I got in early the Premium Figure Edition of Disgaea 4. This set is exclusive to the Nippon Ichi Software America online store. The set includes the Disgaea 4 Premium Edition, the box w/ the nine trading figures, and a soundtrack disc. The soundtrack disc is actually pretty nice since it has 24 tracks; in comparison the OST that was packed in the Japanese LE was two discs with a total of 31 tracks. So we're not missing out on too many tracks.
So let's first take a look at What's included in normal Premium Edition that you can order elsewhere?
There's a small 36-page artbook, a trading figure of one of the main characters Fuka Kazamatsuri, the game itself, and a slightly oversized box to hold it all. The Fuka figure we'll see in a bit. As for the little artbook, it's pretty much standard fare for pack-ins on Limited Edition versions of games. There's a couple small sketches/drawings of Disgaea 4's main cast, some drawings of the various character c-lasses in the game, background images from the game, and a couple promotional images.
Not too bad considering the Premium Edition is priced at $60, while the bare game by itself would be $50. But who cares about that? We're here to check out the exclusive figure set that defines the Premium FIGURE Edition. First up:
Four of the main characters of the game. From left to right: Fuka Kazamatusuri, Vulcanus, Valvatorez, and Fenrich. Fuka is the one figure you get in the normal Premium Edition. Each figure stands a just under three inches tall with their base. Despite their small size, these figures are pretty nice and detailed well. These four in particular are probably my favorites in this set. Volcanus has a cutely coy look to her, while Valvatorez looks like a badass that he is.
From left to right: Desco, Axel, and Fallen Angel Flonne. Desco is an interesting character in-game (which I won't spoil here), while Axel is... well, Axel. I personally hate his character. Anyways... Fallen Angel Flonne is a fanservice gift to Disgaea fans, and she's still as adorable as ever.
Finally, here's Archangel Flonne, Emizel, and a prinny. Archangel Flonne is just as she appears in Disgaea 4; just as any other figure of her, still adorable regardless of incarnation. Emizel, the Netherworld President's son, and captured nicely here. Then there's the series staple mascot, the Prinny. While adorable, you don't want to be trying to hug one of them as they'll stab you in the back. That and they've got a tendency to explode when thrown...
Time for a group shot!
In general, I'm pretty happy with this Premium Figure Editionset. Sure,this full set isn't cheap; butgiven everything included here, I thought it was worth it.Now I just need to figure out where amidst my figure collection to display them. Thank you NIS America for shipping my order mad early so I could play Disgaea 4 almost a week earlier than most people! BTW, so far Disgaea 4 is pretty fun. If you're a fan of the series, go play it! I'm certainly going to go back to playing it now. Until next time...
--JT
... Hello Disgaea 4!!!
I'll be back at some point with the contents... must play... NOW!
--JT
so I haven't been too active on here in a little while. Well, I've been heavily occupied with an assortment of stuff (mostly gaming). A lot of it having to do with competitive fighting games. I went to two major tournaments in the last two months: East Coast Throwdown in Morristown, NJ and Evolution 2k in Las Vegas, NV. I've also been holding monthly gatherings at my place for Garou: Mark of the Wolves since March. Along with my gatherings, I've been doing live streams of them online. *shameless plug*Check out my Ustream page for the archive footage of past events:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jt4mtb
If anyone wants to catch one live, I've been running these things on the third Friday of each month; the next gathering is actually this coming Friday night (8/19). The stream usually goes up around 9-10pm EST (GMT -5) depending on when people arrive; so come check us out.
Also before moving on, it's time for one more shameless plug. Last weekend of August, there's going to be a tournament here in Philadelphia called Summer Jam. I'm planning on running a side tournament in Garou during the event. Hopefully if all goes well, that side tournament will also be streamed.
Anyways, not consistently blogging once again leads to me playing catch up on here with showing what I've picked up in the past few months. Once again, it's a ton of games. First off real quick, my copy of this finally arrived:
The Valkyria Chronicles Design Archive. This is the english localized book of the japanese VC Development Artworks that I got over a year and a half ago. It's pretty much exactly like the 400-page JP book, but no longer in moon runes! If you want to see what's inside, just check out my previous blog on the JP book: http://www.gamespot.com/users/jt4mtb/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25785701
Now to actual 'new' old games. Collecting and playing games is not a cheap hobby...
Sega Genesis:
Jungle Strike
Shadow Dancer - The Secret of Shinobi (JP)
Strider (JP)
Super Nintendo:
Act Raiser
Arcana (box and instructions in awesome condition)
Nintendo:
Astyanax
Jackal
Ninja Gaiden (w/ instructions)
If you're wondering about why I've got the japanese Mega Drive copies of Shadow Dancer and Strider, I pretty much got them for their awesome box art. Seriously, go look up the US box art for these games... they're absolutely terrible.Thankfully, I can still play these gameson my US Sega Genesis. Most Mega Drive games are not region locked, so you just need a passthrough device of some sort (like a Game Genie) since the shape of the cart differs.
Xbox:
Beyond Good and Evil
Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge
Gunvalkyrie
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Nintendo DS:
Radiant Historia (w/ bonus piano arrangement cd)
Meteos
One quick thing to comment on here is if you have a DS and like JRPGs, go find yourself a copy of Radiant Historia NOW! It's a fantastic RPG with an intriguing plot and great music; Radiant Historia was one of the few RPGs I've played in recent memory that had me hooked on playing constantly until I finished it.
PS1:
Elemental Gearbolt
Fear Effect
Metal Slug X
Time Crisis Project Titan
Namco GunCon 1
A couple more PS1 games to the list, including two light gun games. Naturally since I was picking up some light gun games, I needed a Guncon to play them as they were intended.
The big pile of PS2 additions:
Beyond Good and Evil
Neo Geo Battle Colliseum
Phantom Brave (w/ bonus soundtrack cd)
Rogue Galaxy
Silent Hill 3
Time Crisis 3 (w/ two Guncon 2 guns!)
Vampire Night
Zone of the Enders
Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner
Yes, that is another copy of Beyond Good and Evil you see there. The game is good enough to warrant buying multiple copies off! :P Other than that, the big catch was finding Time Crisis 3 with both guns; oh light gun games... why are you so much fun to play? Also, I'm taking another stab at the Zone of the Enders games. I remember picking up the second one years ago, but not liking it for some reason I don't remember. However, after now playing through the first game and somewhat enjoying it, I'll be giving 2nd Runner another shot. We'll see how this goes.
Finally, the most notable addition to my collection: I got my hands on a Sega CDX. For anyone not familiar with this thing, the CDX is essentially a Genesis and a Sega CD combined into one and shrunk down in size. No need for more than one power supply. Of course now that I've got this, I can now play Sega CD games. What better way to start into the Sega CD than with:
Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm
Silpheed
Sonic CD
Sonic CD by itself is a c-lassic, while Android Assault is a fun horizontal shoot-em-up. I also have a copy of Flashback: The Quest for Identity on the way here too.
Well, that about sums up the last few months in gaming. I really haven't been playing too much current generation games lately; there's very few new games that catch my attention anymore. Well, that's the case for now until Disgaea 4 drops next month... Until next time...
--JT
Fresh out of the shipping box is this Mega Man X figure from Bandai's D-Arts series. This future Blue Bomber stands at about 5.5 inches tall. He's an action figure, thus his body contains a number of moveable joints. This means you can arrange him into a number of stances and the set includes a a handful of alternate parts (hands, arm buster, buster shots) to complement that.
Normally, I'm not too into action figures as most of the ones I've touched are either incredibly stiff and not very poseable, have joints that stick out/ugly, and/or the figure doesn't really look that great. X here really doesn't fall into any of those traps. He's pretty poseable, his joints blend into his looks well (partially helped by the fact that he's a robot), and the look of the figure is pretty faithful to the character.
X also happens to have two alternate faces. Unfortunately, I don't show them here; that's mostly because his helmet is a pain to get off in order to swap faces. Oh well. At least I can now have the ultimate battle here...
C-lassic vs X... who's more awesome? Real answer: The Metool chilling there is more awesome than both combined.
--JT
Just arrived today (well, more like yesterday) is the latest material collection for the BlazBlue series. Very much like the previous material collection, this 144-page book contain an assortment of images related to the latest version of the game BlazBlue Continuum Shift. There's a number of promotional images featured along with alternate art by some of Arc System Works' artistic staff.
Just like before, there's also a collection of all the unlockable images within the game too.
Then there's of course the character art for the new and old characters. All five of the new characters (Tsubaki, Hazama, Valkenhayn, Mu-12, and Platinum) get four pages each for showing off their portrait art, story/arcade mode images, concepts, and sketches. As for the rest of the returning cast, they each get 2 pages to show off their updated portrait and story/arcade images.
The remainder of the book is rounded out with sketches of secondary characters in the BB universe along with a few relationship charts.
Also, there happens to be a lot of love for Noel and Rachel in this book. Just a quick teaser:
Until next time.
--JT
Today's blog will be somewhat short. Remember last blog those Mega Man blind box figures I nabbed? I picked up one more box over the weekend. Who did I get this time?
None other than Mega Man's older brother Protoman! Why is such a simple character design as he is such a badass? It must be the scarf...
On to the other bit for today, I just got in the mail a shirt I ordered last week:
This shirt features the chibi versions of BlazBlue characters Ragna, Noel, and Tsubaki holding hands around the word "Hope". Aside from being another piece of BB merchandise, there's another cool thing about getting this shirt. All proceeds from these $20 shirts go to Japan to help with the earthquake relief effort. Not only that, but Aksys Games (NA publisher of Arc System Works' games) will match every dollar; so essentially for every shirt sold, $40 will go to Japan! So for you BlazBlue fans in the US, pick up one of these shirts from the Aksys Games store!
http://www.aksysgames.com/store/#hope_shirt
Note 1: Aksys is only shipping w/in the USA. Sorry Canada, Mexico, and anyone overseas.
Note 2: As of this post, all size Medium shirts are sold out.
--JT
Log in to comment