1. Finish AMV TKO Round 7
2. Do some much needed work on The Kremlin's screenshot and music sections.
3. Open up the pictures and reviews sections here and possibly open up a few other sections.

Not too much there, although Round 7 is taking some time. It's already been about a year since I finished Round 6, but that's moreso due to laziness on my part.

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Picked up DEATHSMILES for the 360 yesterday. Always good to see more Japanese games on that system. It's a fun little arcade shooter full of gameplay options. I'm really enjoying it so far. And besides, how can you not love a game who's tagline is "Death smiles at us all. Lolis smile back." LOL

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Junker HQ recently posted an interview with Metal Gear and SNATCHER creator Hideo Kojima where he states that he originally wanted SNATCHER to be a six chapter story but they wanted him to cut it down to two (which he did and then eventually made a third chapter for later versions). I can only imagine what the game would have been like if it had been that long.

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And the newest member of my Sakura Wars message board signature project is...

Speaking of exercise, when morning came aroud, a fitness instructor led a bunch of us in some great stretches and Tai Chi. I had always wanted to try Tai Chi, but had I known how painful the first time doing it would be, I may have thought twice about it. But, I have to admit, my body felt awake and ready to go for the rest of the day (although I was really hurting later, because I had worked a 10 hour shift just before going to the event, so add in all the walking...)

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Watched a few clips of the Haruhi movie and all I can say is my anticipation for it has just tripled. It just looks so EPIC, I can't put it into words. I've read it runs in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes, so it's going to be a good long run when it finally gets released over here.

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Also expecting a few new anime series coming my way in the mail soon. I still have to finish Gurren Lagann before the movies show up, too. I've really got to hold back for a while before I get swamped.

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STILL going VERY slowly with AMV TKO Round 7. For the dozens (...AND DOZENS!!!!!) who enjoy watching those, I'm very sorry.

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Kept up with E3 somewhat this year and all I can say is...:

360 Kinect - 1 Motion Controller = 32x
DO THE MATH!!!

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I picked up Lewis Black's newest CD and DVD. Maybe it's because I haven't been in the most cheerful of moods lately, but I found it to be one of his weakest releases. There's a few good chuckles in there, but they seemed to be few and far between. Oh well, with no George W. Bush and Dick Cheney around anymore, it's not as easy as it used to be (as he states himself).

This can't be released fast enough. Every time I see something on this, my anticipation level rises even more. Can't wait to see Alternate-Yuki in action, acting in a complete 180 from her "normal" character. I'll definitely be picking this up.

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Somebody released Drew McIntyre's WWE entrance music ("Broken Dreams" by Shaman's Harvest) and I haven't been able to stop listening to it. Phenomenal song.

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Ugh, the weather lately sucks big time. It's just sucks up my energy and it really keeps me from wanting to do anything at all. Depressing to say the least.

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Good job, Flyers. You went and made a hockey fan out of me.

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Back in my world of geek...

Finally got around to playing the FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST PS2 videogames, "The Broken Angel" and "The Curse Of The Crimson Elixir" after owning them for months and never really playing them until now. Beat the former and just started the latter to be more precise. Could this be due to the fact that I just earlier picked up the first volume of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime remake "Brotherhood"? Who knows? (I do, and the answer is yes)

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Got a TON of ideas for Round 7 of AMV TKO (including coming up with the intro just today), but I just lack the motivation and energy to do any real work on it. It will be made, I assure you, just a matter of when is the real question. But I hope to get it done soon, because I love the idea I have of the before-mentioned intro and want to see it come to life.

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One of my little internet hobbies, other than AMV TKO and making websites that don't last too long, is making signatures for use on the message boards I visit. One of those message boards in the NISAmerica board, the official board of the company responsible for finally getting a Sakura Wars game over here in America. I started a little project of sorts by trying to make a signature featuring each of the main heroines of the series, from each team (Tokyo, Paris and New York). That's a lot of sigs to be made, since it comes out to nearly two dozen sigs, especially if I make one for some of the secondary characters as well. Anyway, I like how they are coming out, and here's the sigs I've made so far:

They each have a similar look, all they while having a look and feel for each individual character (color schemes). After the Erica sig (2nd), I kind of gave up coming up with clever ways to put my internet name against the characters. I think it looks better with a simple "slap-it-in-the-corner" look, anyway. I might even go back and change the first two, but we'll see.

I actually haven't used the last one (Kohran) yet, but I try to get one done ahead of time and make a new one whenever I can. Here's hoping I get this done. The hard part is finding the right images to use. A few of those were actually made with using screenshots I made from the games, which can be a problem, quality-wise. But they ended up looking really good, in my opinion.

My friend Joe (above also, on the left) and I are still in total shock and to be honest, it really hasn't even hit me that he's gone. I think because Joe has been in closer contact with him over the past year that he's taking it much harder than I am, but I know it's going to come down on me like a ton a of bricks when it finally does hit me.

Brian, I just can't believe I'm never going to get the chance to make you laugh again, and you also making me do the same. It seems like just yesterday we were all watching BRAM STROKER's DRACULA and making fun of how horrible it was from beginning to end.

I've known the pain of losing a mother, the pain of the abandonment of a father, and now I know the pain of the loss of one of my best friends. You were one of the good ones, Brian. There will never be any replacing you and you'll always be remembered.

Still can't guarantee much coming in the future for it, but I'll be damned if I don't try to keep the site going as long as possible.

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I picked up the newest DVD release of the Magic Knight Rayearth TV series. This marks the third time I've laid down money for the series. The first being all the singular VHS releases, the second being the first and second season DVD boxsets. One could also throw in the OVA DVD release, which I also double dipped by originally buying the VHS releases. It's funny that I don't even consider MKR a personal favorite. I think a lot of my love for the series stems from the SEGA Saturn game released in the U.S. by Working Designs, which is still one of my all-time favorites.

The selling point of the new DVD release was the completely remastered visuals (looks pretty darn good) and being completely uncut with all the extra stuff not included in the original DVD releases. There is also a MUCH improved menu setup (the original releases for Season 1 had one of the worst DVD menu setups I've ever seen). Kind of sad that the English dub songs aren't present in the actual episodes (available in the extras menu), but it's still a pretty solid release.

EDIT 5/02/10:

Just wanted to add this in to show the amazing difference between the original 2000 DVD release and the remastered 2010 DVD release:

ORIGINAL RELEASE

REMASTERED RELEASE

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Picked up SUPER Street Fighter IV, even though I already owned Street Fighter IV. Is it worth picking up at the price of $39.99? Yes... yes it is. 10 new characters (35 overall), new Ultra Combos, new animated intros and outros for ALL the characters, and great online play... can't go wrong here.

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Still playing Bayonetta... still one of the most ridiculously awesome games I've ever played.

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So, Donovan McNabb is no longer an Eagle. Go 'Skins.

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Although I doubt he needs me to plug his show, I've been watching The Game Overthinker a lot lately. Never get tired of his opinions and the hilarious way he presents it. You definitely should give it a look.

I had to pay three extra dollars because I could only see it in 3D, the first time I'd ever seen a movie like that. While I will admit there were a few occurances that "looked really cool", I felt it's not a necessity in this day and age to see a movie. You want to really impress me? Make the movie some kind of hologram that DOESN'T require the glasses, and then we'll talk. And they want me to give back the glasses? Sorry, if I paid for 'em, I'm keeping 'em.

On a side note, "Despicable Me" and "Legend Of The Guardians" (two trailers shown before Dragon) are two other CG movies I might have to see.

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FINALLY picked up BAYONETTA thanks to GameStop's current deal they have going. Only played through a little so far since I have a certain other game to play through (see previous post), but here's what I have to say about it so far:

The opening stage (past the prologue stage) involves fighting some kind of angels from Heaven in a graveyard with breakdancing moves, including the usage of an endless amount of guns and bullets... all the while "Fly Me To The Moon" is playing in the background.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Awesome doesn't even begin to define this game.

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Oh a whim, I started watching R.O.D. (Read Or Die) because I thought a friend that was over would like it (he did, for the record). That includes both the three-part OVA series and the full-length TV series. I've always considered the TV series among my top favorites of all time as far as anime is concerned, and I'm starting to remember why.

I'm already through DISC 3 and if it wasn't so late and I was so sleepy, I'd be halfway through DISC 4 right now. The show is THAT good. So much so, that if there was one anime that I would suggest someone watch who wasn't particularly an anime fan in any way, I'd probably pick R.O.D. It just has a really great/groovy/silly/awesome feel to it that I think hits on so many levels. And the production values are through the roof, from the art to the animation to the music. A lot of hit and very little miss with this one, so give it a chance if you ever can. You won't be dissapointed.

The game I've waited years to finally make it to U.S. shores is just days away, and I couldn't be more excited. I don't think it's quite sunk in that a Sakura Wars/Taisen game is finally going to make it here and I don't need some translation from the internet to fully enjoy it. It's going to be weird going into one of these games cold (as in, without a translated guide) and going on whims rather than what the guide tells me, but I think that will make it even more enjoyable. Here's to this game and hopefully more of the series making it over here.

Also, I might just have to buy this game now.

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Doing work on AMV TKO Round 7? The heck you say! Yeah, looks like the creative bug has bitten me a little again, so I'm slowly but surely doing some work on it. I have a ton of ideas written down, it's just a matter of figuring out which ideas actually work on both film and paper. Then I have to figure out a decent intro and outro. So, needless to say... it's gonna be a long project.

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Got around to beating NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII at a friend's house and I have to say, it's one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, especially in the multi-player mode. And the final boss and payoff are great in my opinion. I can only imagine how incredible the game would have been with an online play mode.

Add in the unnecessary monster capturing aspect of the game (what is this, Pokemon?) and you have a somewhat confusing mess. The game in and of itself is nothing more than a fan-service frenzy for those who loved the original and just wanted a little more. I doubt all of those fans were pleased at the end, but thankfully, I felt the storyline and the (eventually) likeable new characters (Tenabrae is awesome) won me over in the end. The new voices took a while to get used to (only Collette and Kratos' original voices returned from what I could hear), but they weren't so different that you felt they were a completely different character. Lloyd's voice on the other hand was way different, and I miss his Teen Titans Robin voice (TITANS GO!!!)

With that game behind me, I decided to go back and do a second playthrough of ETERNAL SONATA, or as it's called "The Encore Mode". BIG MISTAKE. When you play in "Encore Mode", the difficulty level is shot straight through the roof. The game was hard enough the first time on normal mode!!! The boss battles are just so unforgiving. Seriously, if you don't spend an un-godly amount of hours just leveling up in "Encore Mode", you won't stand a chance.

After getting very frustrated, I decided I'd had enough and went back to the bread and butter of the TALES OF... series to give another playthrough of TALES OF THE ABYSS. Without question, one of the most popular games in the series, so much so, it's the only TALES OF... game to receive a full 26 episode TV series (others have gotten short OVA series or one shot movies). The gameplay is very much like the original SYMPHONIA game, only much, much better and easier to grasp in my opinion. Add in the easier OVER LIMIT abilities and you make a huge improvement over previous games in the series. I think it's also one of the longer games in the series, as in I clocked in my first playthrough at around 50 hours (!!!!). That's mostly because I went through a lot of the sidequests available in the first playthrough (there's apparently even more in the second playthrough). Add in some of the most likeable characters in a game I've ever played (Jade is still a jerk), another solid soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba and a great storyline, and you've got one of my personal favorites. Here's to another 50 hours.

Oh and no, I won't even think of giving TALES OF LEGENDIA another chance. I'd rather torture myself with "Encore Mode" in ETERNAL SONATA.

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Still looking for just the right job for me, but at least I'm getting some more hours as of late at my current job, so that's getting me by for the moment.

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Finally getting around to watching the rest of Gurren Lagann. I just love it so much. It's so over the top on every level that you look past any negatives about the show with no problem. You know it's a good show when I can get my friend Joe to like it. His words exactly..., "It's just so stupid but I can't stop watching it!" Yeah, that seems about right.

01. It's A New Day - The Legacy
02. I Am Perfection - Dolph Ziggler
03. I Came To Play - The Miz
04. Just Close Your Eyes - Christian
05. Return The Hitman - Bret Hart
06. Written In My Face - Sheamus
07. Insatiable - Tiffany
08. Domination - Ezekial Jackson
09. Born To Win - Evan Bourne
10. Oh Puerto Rico - Primo Colon
11. Radio - Zack Ryder
12. New Foundation - The Hart Dynasty
13. You Can Look (But You Can't Touch) - The Bella Twins
14. Crank The Walls Down - The Big Show & Chris Jericho

I was pretty close with my predictions, but I am a little surprised that both Bret Hart's new theme and The Hart Dynasty's theme are on there, seeing how similar the two themes are. Oh well, I'm happy to get both. I particularly can't wait for Sheamus' theme, though... "these words are true and I'll make you belieeeeeeeve..."

Legacy (obviously, since their theme is called "It's A New Day")
Sheamus
Zack Ryder
Evan Bourne
Dolph Ziggler
Christian
Ezekial Jackson
Bella Twins
Jeri-Show
Katie Lea Burchill
The Miz
Tiffany
Hart Dynasty
DX (one of the unreleased versions)

A lot of that has been released in some form, but quite a few not in full, so it looks like a solid release to me.

EDIT:

---""WWE The Music – A New Day" will be released exclusively for download at @AmazonMP3 Jan. 28 for just $3.99 for a limited time!"

I hope that doesn't mean there won't be a CD release, like they did for VOLUME 7 on iTunes.

EDIT #2:

Supposedly, there will be a CD release in some form or another through Amazon. Good to hear.

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After getting NARUTO SHIPPUDEN CLASH OF NINJA REVOLUTION III (whew, that's still a long name to type), I've been going back and playing other games in the CLASH OF NINJA series, trying to finally unlock everything. I have to say, that's the one thing I don't like about this series. The requirements to unlock everything take FOREVER. Still, it's a fun series in the long run, even if it's the MADDEN of anime games, in which it really doesn't change all that much with each installment.

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Got NARUTO SHIPPUDEN CLASH OF NINJA REVOLUTION III (try saying that three times fast) and RESIDENT EVIL UMBRELLA CHRONICLES (both for the Wii) for Xmas. While the Naruto game is more of the same (albeit still improved) for the series, REUC is a completely different take on the series, it being a 1st-Person shooter and all. It takes some liberties with the storylines of the original RE games it covers, but that's not an entirely bad thing. All in all, it's great to have another fun shooter game.

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Still contemplating whether or not to buy BAYONETTA (360) now or try and save some money by getting it used somewhere down the line. The demo is so amazing, it's hard to hold off from buying it.

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Although I know it won't come anytime soon, I'm still hoping for a phone call from a certain company I applied to a few months ago.

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Click here for the updates archive.

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