Okay so, Duke Nukem Forever has finally seen the light of day, and needless to say it's getting a post-launch lashing.
Some justified, some not. I've played it through, I've experienced it. I think that really the summation of the game could be put up as "1998 in 2011's clothing" and really is the victim of itself. There was absoultely no way in hell the game could be what we in 2011 were hoping or dreaming it could be.
In 1996-7 when the game was drafted, this game would have been fresh and innovative, even outstripping Half-Life 1 to interactivity and storytelling within games IF it had come out then. It didn't. So in 1998 when we saw it, it looked awesome, running on the then-shit hot Quake 2 engine. Then a few years went by of psuedo-silence before the 2001 E3 trailer literally blew everyones brains out. Even by today's standards, that was a HELL of a trailer. THAT game would have made game of the year. That didn't happen. By now, the official development time on DNF was 5 years, 3 of those with public interest. then nothing.
Literally NOTHING.
For 6 years.
The entire game industry went through SEVERAL full reiteration cycles in that time. Those who were around playing Duke 3D in thefirst place grew 10 years. If you were 12 when DN3D came out, you were 21 now, if you were 20 then you were 29. A fuckload of things happened.
Then we get a small 15 second teaser saying that Duke isn't dead. Then 3D Realms dries up, thne gets sued, then dries up more. Then in 2009 Gearbox picks up Duke's pieces.
So now we're lookign down the barrel a game that is so loaded on hope and hype that there is no chance that it could be good, lest of all if it stuck to the design docs from 1997. Which for the large part it did. Which is the problem.
not it's, yours.
Through all the development hell, the game didn't change. It's expectations didn't change over the years. Duke's humor didn't change, Duke's approach to the world didn't change. The developers despite fallout and reformation didn't change. You did. Your expectations of the game from 1998 to 2011 have changed so vastly that you're unwilling to even to enjoy this game for what it is-
A monument to the colossal fuck up that was it's development.
The game handles like a FPS from 1998, and if you're expecting anything more than that, your sights are FAR too high. The graphics are somewhat forward of that point, but only to the point where pixel shaders and polycounts are not 1998 level. AO helps the game in this respect, but don't expect Crysis.
While playing, at some point you'll probably ask yourself "Why did this game even get released?"
I have two answers, both likely worked in tandem:
1) 2K Games Recouping development costs for the project
2) Big names who worked on this game having far too much pride of craftmanship to let the game never see light.
Ignoring the lengthy time in the making, I actually didn't mind the game at all. The entire game felt like a game, which was refreshing after playing so many games trying to be movies, or reality, or comic books, or whatever. The game world worked like you would expect it to, with very few invisible wall moments. It made you constantly aware you were playing a game, which is the directly opposite of immersion. But you know what? That's fine. It's not a game to be immersed in character or story. It's game where you play a guy with a gun who's the center of his own world, and you've got shit to kill. End of story. It's actually refreshing to play a GAME game for once though, where the game knows it's a game, you know it's a game, and nobody's pretending to be otherwise. You can see it's working parts, understand how everything works by simply looking at it.
Really, if I had to pick out any bit that could be picked out for poor implementation, for certain, it would be a mid-section, romping through the desert on the monster truck. It felt stretched thin, and on average probably was the least aesthetically pleasing section of the game. If it were shorter, it'd probably have been less jarring. But no, it drags on, which is bad.
There's nothing I really can say about this game in deconstructing it that is either fair to expecations of gamers today OR the game itself without stepping on the toes of the other. The mechanics are telegraphed and overt (and apparently the console release is plagued with auto aim issues). The story is simple yet convoluted but is also played to irrelevance. The sound design is actually pretty nice, and is finished off with neat occlusion effects. The graphics are dated, but that's almost to be expected.
If I had to give an opinion on whether to buy or not, I'd say do it with three following caveats for that verdict-
1) You consider the purchase and play of this not as a purchase of a game to fill time, but as a testement to it's own nightmarish development.
2) You take no preconcieved notions about what the game could be like into it.(and play it on PC)
3) You have been waiting for this game for 12 years. You must buy it if only to say that you have it.
Me? I still love me some duke, and this game is the Duke-iest thing I've played in ages.
I'd give it a Duke/10.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
OH MY JESUS
Okay so I’m un the interlearns now… it’s a nasty sticky business, but overally I’ve gotta confess I am rather enjoying the experience… except for one unit.
I have to say, I really am not one to like book learning art. I have real issues with it, like diametrically polarized against it. I find that art in the book sense tends to be full of pretentious WANK. Two and a half pages of words to explain that could be easily done in two lines. Sociology fares about the same (which thanks to the nature of my course I must dabble in at least twice more over my 3 years). So you can imagine my chagrin with a unit that is about 50% art history reading, 30% sociology in relation to art, and the final 20% being labwork. It is mountains of unintelligible text, followed by mountains of unintelligble wank text, followed by “now lets use the crop tool”. So I spent today playing mass catch up with this unit, doing the rather large reading… WHAT IN THE LORD’S FUCK IS GOING ON HERE.
To quote my scribblings on the 10-pages
“Small summary of the Making friends with Jarvis Cocker text:
The Web. 2.0. Despite there being a perceived notion of the music industry decentralising, democratising (more power to the artists and listeners, less to record companies), this is not neccesarily the case. Let's use Jarvis Cocker as a case to sample against. Words. Words words words. Youtube. Wikipedia. More Words. Myspace. Quantifiable numbers validating that Cocker's Myspace is indeed seen. Youtube videos.Convergent Media. Thanks to WEB TWO POINT OH and SNS the artefacts of the pop idol and rockstar are being challenged, are being bridged, bringing people preceptively closer to their idols . All thanks to the web's society of archiving, we can map trends, we can correlate all kinds of social interactions, friends, top books ,etc etc.
The moral of the story- DICKS and FUCK YOU .“
Sorry, needed to vent. Having NO free time between work and being actually at Uni leaves very little time for study (mostly on weekend), even less for free time, so naturally I’m a little vent-needing.
Please excuse.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Why do I even bother? (A rant-view)
You know, there are times when I don't know why I bother with these damn Chinese cartoons and mangoes. Sure, for every space epic, or well written drama, there's 3 HORRID, and I mean insultingly horrid, pieces of crap. Usually I'm game to weather their meagre offerings, hell, I got some perverse joy out of how BAD Kampfer was, but I have been almost bested this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's BAD ANIME time.
Asobi ni Iku Yo (lit:We came to play) is bad, no two ways you splice it. Naruto levels of bad. Do not come into this expecting something to enjoy, because it will rape your soul.
So the show starts off introducing the best friend of the Main Character, in profile,surrounded by techie nerd stuff, while the plot is whispered into her ears, which she thusly recites, along with some guff about the Browning High-Power pistol, because she will be revealed to us all as a huge kinder-/k/ wet dream whom at every chance drools over firearms all the while ignoring all gun safety and almost killing everyone. We then switch to a scene which is one NGE Asuka Langley introduction, part COD4 Crew Expendable, part MGS2. The main point of this scene is to reveal character TWO of the MC's harem- a flat chested quiet girl with a traditionally long black hair and glasses, who ACTUALLY works as some free agent spy in a stealth suit and can conjure guns and shit out of nothing.You can see where this is going.
So the show is set on Okinawa, the closest thing Japan has to an island escape within affordable travel distance. It also happens to be a major US military installation, and as you'll get thumb-screwed into you, the CIA and the international intelligence agencies are apparently running some sort of stupid not-so-secret mission hiring school kids to be double agents.... what a schoolkid could possibly know or get into that a well-trained agent can't is well beyond me, but hey, this doesn't stop the show.
And now 5 minutes in, we get our Main Character introduction, the stereotypical MC nerd, whose name is so irrelevant to the plot that I have actually completely forgotten it. He's that bland, so let's call him John McBland, or JM for short.
So JM is at a party on the beach with his bearded on-vacation CIA uncle or summat 'ike dat ('tis revealed later in the episode), who promptly offers some beer to McBland as he rounds on him for being the Main Character of a harem and not having any women despite being of the exact age that all MCs are that they begin their harem. CI-Uncle then points out the plot-girl in his harem, who has massive tits, huge curves, a skintight I-can't-Believe-it's-not-NGE jumpsuit and cat ears, who has mysteriously entered teh party.
Naturally she is not from this world, she is from a planet called....*long desparate groan*... Catia. They Went there. The planet of cats is CATIA. So John and Cat-bitch start talking and shit and they become Best friends forever n ever. Not really. He then realised that he's talking to a girl and promptly passes out, which is fine by me. Hope he stays that way. Scene change and he wakes up and "oh shit there's a girl in my bed scene happens" followed by "best friend walking in and getting all pissed off at MC" scene. She's also super uppity. No one actually likes her, so let's smile at her face and pretend she's got brain tumors preventing her being pleasant.
Oh and Did I mention that this show is HUGE on fan service and cheesecake. It's constant, never ending, and gets in the way of every single thing, obstructing any virtues the plot may have had.
Normally I'm willing to let it slide when a shows got reasonable amounts of the stuff, or is blatantly a show that is marketed as so, because usually there's some payoff or redemption in plot or art, look at Kampfer or Strike Witches, but oh my god, it's just ANNOYING in Asobi. It literally ruins every scene it's in ,and it's in EVERY scene.
Returning to the plot now, the show plows the plane into international spy conspiracies tower head on, as some agents try to get their hands on uppity Cat-girl's downed space ship, and get her to leave Earth. Furthermore, there is a bunch of insane sci-fi nerds who somehow have guns, even in the only country in the world where such things are completely outlawed, who are trying to get her to leave because she isn't the aliens they wanted (as in they wanted Close Encounters or Predators, or something less mundane)... which results in a full episode of WACKY AVOIDING BULLETS HIJINKS. Also John and Cat-bitch get hooked 'cause she's in heat... because, you know..CATS!
Lemme just round up the plot summary here by saying it does not get better ,and even when the ending gets here, which thankfully is only 12 episodes from the beginning and does attempt to redeem itself by not being completely retarded, does nothing to make the plot endear itself. You will want to stuff it in a box and throw it into a river.
The voice work is merely fine, not above standard, nor below. it is exactly average. The standout character voicing is John Bland, and that's only because his portrayal is the immaculate birth of mediocrity personified.
So why is this show worse than it's last-season counterpart- Kampfer?
It's really that more annoying. Where Kampfer was overcome with being jsut hilariously over the top, the tone of Asobi makes it more grating to take in. If Kampfer was a mix of laughing gas and mustard gas, Asobi ni Iku yo increased the mustard density about ten fold, leaving you gasping for air and covering with welts as you collapse in a pile of your own vomit and blood.
So why did I NOT stop watching? fading hope that it would improve. It didn't.
To weigh out the cons-
I did enjoy two characters - The Chief Maid of Antonia, and her underling, An ex-SAS chick with a penchant for cute things. They were very nice tongue in-cheek characters which raised a smile whenever they made an appearance. They were fun. Everyone else can go back to the swamp in which they dragged themselves out of.
Picture Related (Warning- Explicit Language)
Toadie out.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's BAD ANIME time.
Asobi ni Iku Yo (lit:We came to play) is bad, no two ways you splice it. Naruto levels of bad. Do not come into this expecting something to enjoy, because it will rape your soul.
So the show starts off introducing the best friend of the Main Character, in profile,surrounded by techie nerd stuff, while the plot is whispered into her ears, which she thusly recites, along with some guff about the Browning High-Power pistol, because she will be revealed to us all as a huge kinder-/k/ wet dream whom at every chance drools over firearms all the while ignoring all gun safety and almost killing everyone. We then switch to a scene which is one NGE Asuka Langley introduction, part COD4 Crew Expendable, part MGS2. The main point of this scene is to reveal character TWO of the MC's harem- a flat chested quiet girl with a traditionally long black hair and glasses, who ACTUALLY works as some free agent spy in a stealth suit and can conjure guns and shit out of nothing.You can see where this is going.
So the show is set on Okinawa, the closest thing Japan has to an island escape within affordable travel distance. It also happens to be a major US military installation, and as you'll get thumb-screwed into you, the CIA and the international intelligence agencies are apparently running some sort of stupid not-so-secret mission hiring school kids to be double agents.... what a schoolkid could possibly know or get into that a well-trained agent can't is well beyond me, but hey, this doesn't stop the show.
And now 5 minutes in, we get our Main Character introduction, the stereotypical MC nerd, whose name is so irrelevant to the plot that I have actually completely forgotten it. He's that bland, so let's call him John McBland, or JM for short.
So JM is at a party on the beach with his bearded on-vacation CIA uncle or summat 'ike dat ('tis revealed later in the episode), who promptly offers some beer to McBland as he rounds on him for being the Main Character of a harem and not having any women despite being of the exact age that all MCs are that they begin their harem. CI-Uncle then points out the plot-girl in his harem, who has massive tits, huge curves, a skintight I-can't-Believe-it's-not-NGE jumpsuit and cat ears, who has mysteriously entered teh party.
Naturally she is not from this world, she is from a planet called....*long desparate groan*... Catia. They Went there. The planet of cats is CATIA. So John and Cat-bitch start talking and shit and they become Best friends forever n ever. Not really. He then realised that he's talking to a girl and promptly passes out, which is fine by me. Hope he stays that way. Scene change and he wakes up and "oh shit there's a girl in my bed scene happens" followed by "best friend walking in and getting all pissed off at MC" scene. She's also super uppity. No one actually likes her, so let's smile at her face and pretend she's got brain tumors preventing her being pleasant.
Oh and Did I mention that this show is HUGE on fan service and cheesecake. It's constant, never ending, and gets in the way of every single thing, obstructing any virtues the plot may have had.
Normally I'm willing to let it slide when a shows got reasonable amounts of the stuff, or is blatantly a show that is marketed as so, because usually there's some payoff or redemption in plot or art, look at Kampfer or Strike Witches, but oh my god, it's just ANNOYING in Asobi. It literally ruins every scene it's in ,and it's in EVERY scene.
Returning to the plot now, the show plows the plane into international spy conspiracies tower head on, as some agents try to get their hands on uppity Cat-girl's downed space ship, and get her to leave Earth. Furthermore, there is a bunch of insane sci-fi nerds who somehow have guns, even in the only country in the world where such things are completely outlawed, who are trying to get her to leave because she isn't the aliens they wanted (as in they wanted Close Encounters or Predators, or something less mundane)... which results in a full episode of WACKY AVOIDING BULLETS HIJINKS. Also John and Cat-bitch get hooked 'cause she's in heat... because, you know..CATS!
Lemme just round up the plot summary here by saying it does not get better ,and even when the ending gets here, which thankfully is only 12 episodes from the beginning and does attempt to redeem itself by not being completely retarded, does nothing to make the plot endear itself. You will want to stuff it in a box and throw it into a river.
The voice work is merely fine, not above standard, nor below. it is exactly average. The standout character voicing is John Bland, and that's only because his portrayal is the immaculate birth of mediocrity personified.
So why is this show worse than it's last-season counterpart- Kampfer?
It's really that more annoying. Where Kampfer was overcome with being jsut hilariously over the top, the tone of Asobi makes it more grating to take in. If Kampfer was a mix of laughing gas and mustard gas, Asobi ni Iku yo increased the mustard density about ten fold, leaving you gasping for air and covering with welts as you collapse in a pile of your own vomit and blood.
So why did I NOT stop watching? fading hope that it would improve. It didn't.
To weigh out the cons-
I did enjoy two characters - The Chief Maid of Antonia, and her underling, An ex-SAS chick with a penchant for cute things. They were very nice tongue in-cheek characters which raised a smile whenever they made an appearance. They were fun. Everyone else can go back to the swamp in which they dragged themselves out of.
Picture Related (Warning- Explicit Language)
Toadie out.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
So THAT's where my hat was....
Fuck bricks, you can say what you want about the Japanese, but they are nothing if not deviously clever with technology.
See this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmSoLpzhqUk
That is a live concert with No one actually performing the vocals. That's Vocaloid plus SOLID Holographic projection, with a guy on guitar and two guys on Synths/ drums.
How's that for mind blowing?
The sheer magnitude of the applications of this kind of technology are literally endless.Sure, we've all imagined those standard Star-Wars-esque telecommunication devices, but what about using the stuff to make an otherwise empty room appear to contain a small crowd? What about things like creating whole holographic diversions for a fraction of the price of actually doing the same of actual material? So, Japan, I tip
my hat at thy and raise my glass on high.
Speaking of Japan, let's have a look into non-synthetic music for a second.
I love music, music is awesome. Almost everything from classical to Urban (though with the latter, it's treated more case-by-case), it's all game. Everyone as a home genre, some sect of music that they inescapably latch to. For, me, as no surprise, it's Ska, and I am willing to share my passion with anyone who'll give me 5 minutes.
Now, I wasn't actually aware that Japan had a scene for this stuff, but after following a trail of breadcrumbs left through comments around the interhighways, I came to this exact realisation. What's more, it's a reasonably robust ska scene in Nipponland, which makes me just that much more curious to delve in and see what's on offer.
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, The Sideburns, Blue Beat Players, it's all great stuff and a real embracing of all 3 eras of the music. However, I wanted to bring to the table one band to the table today - Ore Ska Band (Literally- We're a Ska Band). They're a real treat, playing some tapping tunes which draw mostly from that classic two-tone sound, with some nice brassy horn lines. This, combined with three part harmonies and that flat out over-syllabic tendancy of the language, create one of those things you have to hear to appreciate.
Do the lyrics match the music? I have no god damned clue, I don't speak the moonrunes. Although, this band has given me the one reason to bother learning. To hell with Anime, stuff for kicks or other pretentious cloaked intentions, I want to know what they're singing about, just to bring that level of understanding up a notch. That being said, not knowing does not by any means diminish the listening experience, it's music that just beckons to be danced to.
Another point to bring up, OSB are one of only a handful of bands that play the genre that I know of that have started well after the late 90's "Summer of Ska". Just saying.
That's it for me for the first time in several months. Expect the uptick to increase as we get closer to the D (tm)
Also, while we're here- Sergio Mendez & Brasil '66 - this is required listening.
See this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmSoLpzhqUk
That is a live concert with No one actually performing the vocals. That's Vocaloid plus SOLID Holographic projection, with a guy on guitar and two guys on Synths/ drums.
How's that for mind blowing?
The sheer magnitude of the applications of this kind of technology are literally endless.Sure, we've all imagined those standard Star-Wars-esque telecommunication devices, but what about using the stuff to make an otherwise empty room appear to contain a small crowd? What about things like creating whole holographic diversions for a fraction of the price of actually doing the same of actual material? So, Japan, I tip
my hat at thy and raise my glass on high.
Speaking of Japan, let's have a look into non-synthetic music for a second.
I love music, music is awesome. Almost everything from classical to Urban (though with the latter, it's treated more case-by-case), it's all game. Everyone as a home genre, some sect of music that they inescapably latch to. For, me, as no surprise, it's Ska, and I am willing to share my passion with anyone who'll give me 5 minutes.
Now, I wasn't actually aware that Japan had a scene for this stuff, but after following a trail of breadcrumbs left through comments around the interhighways, I came to this exact realisation. What's more, it's a reasonably robust ska scene in Nipponland, which makes me just that much more curious to delve in and see what's on offer.
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, The Sideburns, Blue Beat Players, it's all great stuff and a real embracing of all 3 eras of the music. However, I wanted to bring to the table one band to the table today - Ore Ska Band (Literally- We're a Ska Band). They're a real treat, playing some tapping tunes which draw mostly from that classic two-tone sound, with some nice brassy horn lines. This, combined with three part harmonies and that flat out over-syllabic tendancy of the language, create one of those things you have to hear to appreciate.
Do the lyrics match the music? I have no god damned clue, I don't speak the moonrunes. Although, this band has given me the one reason to bother learning. To hell with Anime, stuff for kicks or other pretentious cloaked intentions, I want to know what they're singing about, just to bring that level of understanding up a notch. That being said, not knowing does not by any means diminish the listening experience, it's music that just beckons to be danced to.
Another point to bring up, OSB are one of only a handful of bands that play the genre that I know of that have started well after the late 90's "Summer of Ska". Just saying.
That's it for me for the first time in several months. Expect the uptick to increase as we get closer to the D (tm)
Also, while we're here- Sergio Mendez & Brasil '66 - this is required listening.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
So, Medal of Honor.
So, apaprently I had access to the Medal of Honor beta. Given some playtime,I can safely say several things.
The first of these things is that the UI is FRIGGIN ATTROCIOUS. I know there is a orange/blue color thing that generally is one of those.. things, that has been shown to draw the human mind in like it a strobe light, but it's goddamn horribles. It's overstated tosay the least, eye raping to say the most. Worst of all it jsut doesn't work.
The menus need serious work, ranging from being vaguely non-functional through to just plain bizzarre.
Oh sure, I've seen WORSE designed interfaces, but this is probably up there as one of the less impressive out of a AAA title. It looks bad, it functions.. oddly, it's an allround dissappointment.
Gameplay has me confused though. It's clear that DICE was brought in on the project to make some sort of fusion BFBC slash COD game, and that's pretty much exactly where the game sits, from what you can play of it in the beta. Push mode from Bad Company, Closer combat from Modern Warfare. Here's my problem-
Why does this game exist? The Teamplay-ness is pretty alright, but it's detracted by that MW2-like fast pace, so it's nowhere near as coherent as BC2 for that aspect. Then there's the fast-pace shooter elements and levelling, which are very much like MW2 (all be it disfigured by ODD kit customising menus), but because of the teamplay elements , it's somewhat slower than it's inspiration, so it's not as coherent as MW2. You're left with a multiplayer game that tries to do two things, but pulls neither of them well enough to impress upon me.
I will say that the graphics, even on low are MUCH nicer than either of the other two games. So I guess that's a plus, even if at this point all the aniamtions are recycled from Bad company 2.
To be honest, I'm more interested in the Singleplayer. They've been saying a lot of big things about the SP in this game, and I REALLY hope they deliver on it... but the MP, as far as I care right now, give it a miss.
The first of these things is that the UI is FRIGGIN ATTROCIOUS. I know there is a orange/blue color thing that generally is one of those.. things, that has been shown to draw the human mind in like it a strobe light, but it's goddamn horribles. It's overstated tosay the least, eye raping to say the most. Worst of all it jsut doesn't work.
The menus need serious work, ranging from being vaguely non-functional through to just plain bizzarre.
Oh sure, I've seen WORSE designed interfaces, but this is probably up there as one of the less impressive out of a AAA title. It looks bad, it functions.. oddly, it's an allround dissappointment.
Gameplay has me confused though. It's clear that DICE was brought in on the project to make some sort of fusion BFBC slash COD game, and that's pretty much exactly where the game sits, from what you can play of it in the beta. Push mode from Bad Company, Closer combat from Modern Warfare. Here's my problem-
Why does this game exist? The Teamplay-ness is pretty alright, but it's detracted by that MW2-like fast pace, so it's nowhere near as coherent as BC2 for that aspect. Then there's the fast-pace shooter elements and levelling, which are very much like MW2 (all be it disfigured by ODD kit customising menus), but because of the teamplay elements , it's somewhat slower than it's inspiration, so it's not as coherent as MW2. You're left with a multiplayer game that tries to do two things, but pulls neither of them well enough to impress upon me.
I will say that the graphics, even on low are MUCH nicer than either of the other two games. So I guess that's a plus, even if at this point all the aniamtions are recycled from Bad company 2.
To be honest, I'm more interested in the Singleplayer. They've been saying a lot of big things about the SP in this game, and I REALLY hope they deliver on it... but the MP, as far as I care right now, give it a miss.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Can't sleep, housemates will eat me. (when it rains it pours)
So here I am writing vertically in my room, completely bottomed out. REally, I haven't felt so low since high school, and believe me if you knew me through year 8,9,10 you should know that that was indeed a dark fucking hole in my life.
Yeah I'm back there, back in the hole.
It's the night I confirms my monthlong paranoid fear that my housemates were indeed out to get me because I am, in my own words, a high maintenance fuckup with nothing but trouble for them. The worst thing is, the monster of my mind that I thought I had tamed years ago, all the barbs,stings and verbal punches they haveused on me all point to that monster being at large.
For those who don't know, I'm a dyspraxic, I have both motor and Developmental Dyspraxia (which for a quick blurb, see US NINDS For a better description, see Wikipedia ). It permeates it's way through my life like some invisible python, striking when I've got my back turned. Think you've got fine motor skills down? OH NO! THERE GOES A PLATE WITH FOOD. Think you've remembered something, something that you only needed to remember maybe for half a day? OH NO, WHERE DID THAT MEMORY GO? OOPSIES. Irregular routines? YOU MISSED A STEP.Quick what did you have for breakfast? YOU CAN'T. Time management and logical processing? HA. Social Abilities? NOT TODAY SON. Sometimes it ain't a problem ,you know? You can get through a day, a week a month, fine, nothing goes wrong, then BAM. Right in the face, a week where everything that makes dyspraxia such a nightmare to live with comes haunting from high. You'll forget a bus, drop a plate, spill a cup, forget to lock a door, not manage a social interaction, find an exam you won't be able to write more than 5 minutes of without suffering debilitating hand pain, Trip and fuck up your nice smart business pants, misjudge someone's intentions and then to top it all off find out that all your friends now hate you because of it, and they want you out.
Like they say, when it rains, it pours. Goddamn is it pouring today. Could really do with an umbrella, or some understanding, Either or.
Yeah I'm back there, back in the hole.
It's the night I confirms my monthlong paranoid fear that my housemates were indeed out to get me because I am, in my own words, a high maintenance fuckup with nothing but trouble for them. The worst thing is, the monster of my mind that I thought I had tamed years ago, all the barbs,stings and verbal punches they haveused on me all point to that monster being at large.
For those who don't know, I'm a dyspraxic, I have both motor and Developmental Dyspraxia (which for a quick blurb, see US NINDS For a better description, see Wikipedia ). It permeates it's way through my life like some invisible python, striking when I've got my back turned. Think you've got fine motor skills down? OH NO! THERE GOES A PLATE WITH FOOD. Think you've remembered something, something that you only needed to remember maybe for half a day? OH NO, WHERE DID THAT MEMORY GO? OOPSIES. Irregular routines? YOU MISSED A STEP.Quick what did you have for breakfast? YOU CAN'T. Time management and logical processing? HA. Social Abilities? NOT TODAY SON. Sometimes it ain't a problem ,you know? You can get through a day, a week a month, fine, nothing goes wrong, then BAM. Right in the face, a week where everything that makes dyspraxia such a nightmare to live with comes haunting from high. You'll forget a bus, drop a plate, spill a cup, forget to lock a door, not manage a social interaction, find an exam you won't be able to write more than 5 minutes of without suffering debilitating hand pain, Trip and fuck up your nice smart business pants, misjudge someone's intentions and then to top it all off find out that all your friends now hate you because of it, and they want you out.
Like they say, when it rains, it pours. Goddamn is it pouring today. Could really do with an umbrella, or some understanding, Either or.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Review- WORKING!!
Can I preface this by saying WHERE THE HELL IS THE GODDAMN MANGA OR THE VN?! I know Working is indeed an adaption of a combo manga VN series, however I can find neither hide nor hair of them on the internet, other than spurious claims that they exist. Goddamn I want MORE.
Now onto the review.
Slice of life, Comedy, Workplace (what's that? NOT A SCHOOL AND IT'S A SLICE OF LIFE?! SHAKU HORA)
Moe - 2.5/5 - Can get a bit moe, but not enough to make you hate yourself for liking it.
Violence - 3/5 Lots of animated punching, mainly one character. No gore, not intended to be srs violence... think slapstick on steroids.
Cheesecake - Nil
Pandering - Nil
Cheese - Some. It can get cheesy.
A Family restaurant in Hokkaido one day during the middle of winter finds itself short a service attendant. Send out Popura Taneshima to go find anyone interested. Souta Takanashi, after mistaking her for a someone much younger than he (as it turns out, she is his senior), he agrees to work at Wagnaria, restaurant full of lively characters. These range from the seemingly innocous Popura Taneshima who has a height complex (hey it least it isn't BREASTS again, also, see what they did there?), to the katana-weilding chief Yoshiyo Todoroki. 13 episodes of intrigue, character development and comedy ensues. I'd give away more, but I'm not too sure how much more can be given away without ruining it. Like a parfait.
As probably eluded to by peicing the puzzle so far, you may have already figured, this a character-driven show. There is no big dramatic moment that any one of the characters is driving towards from the beginning ( or at least not traditional storytelling sense of the word, there is a conflict resolution and such and I don't want to give too much more than that away). It is of itself simplistic, but for a Slice of Life series, simple is fine, especially when it's pulled off well.
Anybody who's worked in a restaurant or fast food joint should feel pangs of familiarity about the place watching this, regardless of how bad it was where you were. You were always surrounded by a cast of crazies, each with their own bunch of odd and interesting things about them. Working brings THAT feeling straight to animation, and brings it well. With a bunch of colourful characters, that bittersweet mix of work and happenstance ,and of course the relieved walk away at the end of the day, it knows it's strength lies in the workforce. Popura the midget, Souta the worshipper of all things cute, Mahiru the androphobe (yes it's real, and so is gynophobia), Jun the gossipmonger kitchenhand, Yachiyo the Chief, the list goes on, eachof them created specifically to be an ingredient for HYJINX. The characters all play off each other without becoming grating, and it all feels natural which is indeed a credit with a series with this many ODDITIES.
The show also manages to weave in a few undercurrent narratives into the overall structure. These range from ones that subtly make their way into the main happenings, like the unrequited love of Jun toward Yachiyo. Others are mostly implied, like Kyouko's previous life as what can be safely assumed as a gang thug. I can't say these aren't unwelcome, it certainly gives extra depth to what could be a very flat piece.
In short, story is well played out and written, characters feel natural yet odd and unique. For laughs, there's one "normal" character in the show and she loses it when she is observed to be quite un-normal by virtue of not being as quirky as the rest of the crew. It's quite bizarre.
To go with the crazy characters that Working has, Working brings some decently executed character designs. Most of the time, you see characters in work uniforms, which I suppose are somewhat less interesting school uniforms by needs of utility trumping individuality, but it's rarely an issue, Working gives each character it's own readily attributable uniform tweaks. On top of that, there seems to be none of that uniform character height issue in here (please tell me I'm not the only one who notices this when it's prevailent). All the characters are readily identifiable and have just the right balance of authenticism and creativity to not come off either as "too cartoony/stereotypical-anime-y" or as too bland ina real world sort of way.
Animation in Working isn't like Haruhi Suzumiya (where a large percentage of the animation team of the entire company were spent dedicating their time to animating everything that could possibly move in every frame ever), it falls very much into the traditional anime framework, which is in essence animation on a budget. Don't get me wrong, the animation that's there is really great quality stuff (despite a couple of rough hiccups during the second ep), but it's not as expansive for keyframes or percentages of screen real estate moving as the former. On the bright side it is a lot cleaner than K-on Season 1 was, and there's enough animation there to get the point across with just the right amount of conviction. A cautionary note for people who don't like chibification- there is some in this, you may rage. Don't worry, because it's for solidifying punchlines, not for it's own sake.
VA for Working is rather excellently cast and performed. From Kana Asumi as Poplar to Eri Kitmura as Yachiyo, every casting choice was well thought out here. Oh and Daisuke Ono. Yeah, each character was well cast here, expertly performed too. Never once did I actually suspect that Daisuke Ono was in fact Daisuke Ono.
Background art is well done, enoguh that it never really glaringly looked out of place or badly drawn. To it's credit then, I suppose.
I gotta say, I really do love the soundtrack to this thing. It's brilliant. For a change, all the catches, stringers, and background music, all done with live instruments, and it's an eclectic mix of mostly Light Music, Rockabilly, 4-bar rock and Third-wave Ska. Actually, the opening, Someone Else, is now on permenant loop in my head with it very notable Goldfinger-cross-RBF style to the Horns and 'tar . I really have to give Okabe Keiichi a mound of credit for beng elcectic in his music styles but staying right the hell away from the synthesiser.
(ed note:Except for two tracks. goddamn it, almost flawlesss victory)
Overall,
Working!!, a show about working, and everything that doesn't involve actually working. Well executed hilarity with JUST enough oddball for it to be endeering. Major props for clean music and non-school setting, can be a bit static, but easily overlooked most of the time. Summary- a great watch, isn't going to win awards (thoguh I suspect it wasn't intending to). Good for all company.
RATING-
3 Poprawrs out of 5.
A rating of 3 means that it's overally entetaining. It's bad points outweight it's good.
Now onto the review.
Slice of life, Comedy, Workplace (what's that? NOT A SCHOOL AND IT'S A SLICE OF LIFE?! SHAKU HORA)
Moe - 2.5/5 - Can get a bit moe, but not enough to make you hate yourself for liking it.
Violence - 3/5 Lots of animated punching, mainly one character. No gore, not intended to be srs violence... think slapstick on steroids.
Cheesecake - Nil
Pandering - Nil
Cheese - Some. It can get cheesy.
A Family restaurant in Hokkaido one day during the middle of winter finds itself short a service attendant. Send out Popura Taneshima to go find anyone interested. Souta Takanashi, after mistaking her for a someone much younger than he (as it turns out, she is his senior), he agrees to work at Wagnaria, restaurant full of lively characters. These range from the seemingly innocous Popura Taneshima who has a height complex (hey it least it isn't BREASTS again, also, see what they did there?), to the katana-weilding chief Yoshiyo Todoroki. 13 episodes of intrigue, character development and comedy ensues. I'd give away more, but I'm not too sure how much more can be given away without ruining it. Like a parfait.
As probably eluded to by peicing the puzzle so far, you may have already figured, this a character-driven show. There is no big dramatic moment that any one of the characters is driving towards from the beginning ( or at least not traditional storytelling sense of the word, there is a conflict resolution and such and I don't want to give too much more than that away). It is of itself simplistic, but for a Slice of Life series, simple is fine, especially when it's pulled off well.
Anybody who's worked in a restaurant or fast food joint should feel pangs of familiarity about the place watching this, regardless of how bad it was where you were. You were always surrounded by a cast of crazies, each with their own bunch of odd and interesting things about them. Working brings THAT feeling straight to animation, and brings it well. With a bunch of colourful characters, that bittersweet mix of work and happenstance ,and of course the relieved walk away at the end of the day, it knows it's strength lies in the workforce. Popura the midget, Souta the worshipper of all things cute, Mahiru the androphobe (yes it's real, and so is gynophobia), Jun the gossipmonger kitchenhand, Yachiyo the Chief, the list goes on, eachof them created specifically to be an ingredient for HYJINX. The characters all play off each other without becoming grating, and it all feels natural which is indeed a credit with a series with this many ODDITIES.
The show also manages to weave in a few undercurrent narratives into the overall structure. These range from ones that subtly make their way into the main happenings, like the unrequited love of Jun toward Yachiyo. Others are mostly implied, like Kyouko's previous life as what can be safely assumed as a gang thug. I can't say these aren't unwelcome, it certainly gives extra depth to what could be a very flat piece.
In short, story is well played out and written, characters feel natural yet odd and unique. For laughs, there's one "normal" character in the show and she loses it when she is observed to be quite un-normal by virtue of not being as quirky as the rest of the crew. It's quite bizarre.
To go with the crazy characters that Working has, Working brings some decently executed character designs. Most of the time, you see characters in work uniforms, which I suppose are somewhat less interesting school uniforms by needs of utility trumping individuality, but it's rarely an issue, Working gives each character it's own readily attributable uniform tweaks. On top of that, there seems to be none of that uniform character height issue in here (please tell me I'm not the only one who notices this when it's prevailent). All the characters are readily identifiable and have just the right balance of authenticism and creativity to not come off either as "too cartoony/stereotypical-anime-y" or as too bland ina real world sort of way.
Animation in Working isn't like Haruhi Suzumiya (where a large percentage of the animation team of the entire company were spent dedicating their time to animating everything that could possibly move in every frame ever), it falls very much into the traditional anime framework, which is in essence animation on a budget. Don't get me wrong, the animation that's there is really great quality stuff (despite a couple of rough hiccups during the second ep), but it's not as expansive for keyframes or percentages of screen real estate moving as the former. On the bright side it is a lot cleaner than K-on Season 1 was, and there's enough animation there to get the point across with just the right amount of conviction. A cautionary note for people who don't like chibification- there is some in this, you may rage. Don't worry, because it's for solidifying punchlines, not for it's own sake.
VA for Working is rather excellently cast and performed. From Kana Asumi as Poplar to Eri Kitmura as Yachiyo, every casting choice was well thought out here. Oh and Daisuke Ono. Yeah, each character was well cast here, expertly performed too. Never once did I actually suspect that Daisuke Ono was in fact Daisuke Ono.
Background art is well done, enoguh that it never really glaringly looked out of place or badly drawn. To it's credit then, I suppose.
I gotta say, I really do love the soundtrack to this thing. It's brilliant. For a change, all the catches, stringers, and background music, all done with live instruments, and it's an eclectic mix of mostly Light Music, Rockabilly, 4-bar rock and Third-wave Ska. Actually, the opening, Someone Else, is now on permenant loop in my head with it very notable Goldfinger-cross-RBF style to the Horns and 'tar . I really have to give Okabe Keiichi a mound of credit for beng elcectic in his music styles but staying right the hell away from the synthesiser.
(ed note:Except for two tracks. goddamn it, almost flawlesss victory)
Overall,
Working!!, a show about working, and everything that doesn't involve actually working. Well executed hilarity with JUST enough oddball for it to be endeering. Major props for clean music and non-school setting, can be a bit static, but easily overlooked most of the time. Summary- a great watch, isn't going to win awards (thoguh I suspect it wasn't intending to). Good for all company.
RATING-
3 Poprawrs out of 5.
A rating of 3 means that it's overally entetaining. It's bad points outweight it's good.
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