Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

"I'm sorry, do you have a plan to go with that grenade?" -Nathan Drake

I recently bought Uncharted 2 because a friend of mine wanted to be able to play online with me on the Ps3. We both didn't have any online co-op games, and after some extensive research we decided this game sounded promising. I never considered that I'd try the story mode, I'm not a shooting game fan, and they've never held my interest.

It was a fluke that I decided to try the actual game itself, and I LOVED every second of it. From the very beginning to the last chapter I was enraptured by the story. The main character is a fortune hunter, Nathan (Nate) Drake, who has given up the life. However, two old friends show up with information on Marco Polo's lost fleet and the legend of the Cintamani Stone. Nate embarks on a quest to find Shambala which supposedly holds this legendary stone.

From the second you press "Start Game" you're thrown into the action.

The opening scene has Nate waking up terribly wounded in a wrecked train car that's about to fall off a cliff. You're drawn into Nate's world of betrayal, intrigue, adventure, and excitement.

One of the best parts about this game is the fact that you never feel like you're repeating yourself. In many games you'll go to a new location and it feels the same as the previous one with just a few variations in the appearance. Every chapter you end up doing something different. Whether you're saving yourself from a falling train, to stealth missions in a museum, to swinging across a giant cliff. The gameplay doesn't get stale.

The only thing that works the same throughout the game is the gunfighting, but they managed to keep it lively enough with different formations, and the way the enemy would attack that you hardly felt fatigued from repeating the process.

The story is full of intrigue and just enough mystery you keep you interested but not confused. So many games bog you down with technical jargon and complicated names that you can get confused and lost. I never once got lost in the leaps of logic, and could easily follow and it kept me eagerly ready to continue in the story to find out more. The cast of characters were all really fun and fleshed out. Nate is a fantastic hero, I love that he manages to be both the hero and the anti-hero (because a treasure thief isn't exactly a good guy). His dry sense of humor, and his own set of morals makes him a very likeable character. The two women in his life are fun additions to the story as well, where I was expecting Chloe to just be annoying fanservice she turned out to be an interesting character. They manage to make you never sure who's side she's going to be on. And Elena's history with Nate creates a fun chemistry when they're together, and their witty banter (at the worst times) helps lighten some serious moments. Even the villain was extremely well done, they managed to make Lazarevic seem extremely evil without making him too cliche'.

The dialogue was FANTASTIC, and so was the voice acting. It was extremely easy to forget you were playing a game. The cut scenes made it feel like a movie at times, but they weren't intrusive enough to have you wondering when you'd get back to playing the actual game.

I could go on forever about how wonderful this game is. The online gameplay is really fun, but I don't have anything to compare it to so you can't count on me for that.

I'm mad at myself that I haven't played the first one, but I'll be fixing that shortly. (Ordered the first one off Amazon tonight!) I look forward to getting some backstory, and getting to know this cast of characters even more.

If you have a ps3 and you haven't played Uncharted 2, GO BUY IT NOW. Believe me. It's worth it.

"I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed." Marco Polo

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (Anime)

I started watching this series back when they first started releasing the episodes in Japan. I always enjoyed the manga, so I remember posting here about how excited I was for the anime. However, I almost didn't bother finishing, I was pretty disappointed with this show.

The story of Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! (Class president is a maid!) revolves around Misaki Ayuzawa, a female class president at the once all boy school of Seika High. Misaki makes it her task to reform the wild male student's, and make Seika a successful co-ed school. As she succeeds in her goal she gains a reputation among the male population about being the "demon president" and instills fear among them.

However, Misaki has a secret. To help support her family she works part-time at a maid cafe! When Usui, a male student from Seika finds out her secret what will she do?

I feel that everything I love about this manga fell flat in the anime. I always found the story in the manga to be cute and fun, the characters lovable, and the art lovely. In the anime, the way they presented some of the situations made it feel STUPID. The art got lost in garish colors i.e.- they chose to make the uniform jackets LIME GREEN, and the characters lost some of their depth in the transfer.

I don't think it helped that I didn't care for the music they chose either. Some of it was appropriate but after hearing it in every episode it got old relatively quickly. The voice acting was done well. In particular, I really liked Misaki's voice.

Throughout the series we watch Misaki struggle through different problems. Usui becomes an odd sort of presence in her life. He enjoys teasing her and they form an odd friendship/rivalry. Usui ends up helping her out of a lot of difficult situations, and as the series progresses Misaki has to deal with her growing feelings towards Usui.

So while we have the headstrong Misaki and the trouble making Usui with their budding romance, there are a lot of fun side characters to help flesh out the story. The manager and staff of Maid Latte are a fun addition and help support Misaki. One of my favorite characters is Aoi-chan, a 14 year old internet sensation, who is famous for being cute and adorable. (And it just so happens he's a boy with a penchant for crossdressing.)

There are so many more characters all with quirks of their own that make the story different, and entertaining.

They followed the manga story-wise for the most part. I was happy that they didn't veer off and create their own ending when it was winding down to the end. They left a lot of loose ends and it seemed to hint that they may continue the series in the future.

Overall I didn't think the anime had anything overly special going for it. It felt like generic shoujo that you can find in almost any series. If you like series like Special A, it's very similar to that.

I definitely recommend the manga over the anime. I don't know if I'd bother with watching a second season.

Home sweet home

I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say....Hi. How ya doin'?

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted an entry. I started writing a review on Ghost Trick months ago and then forgot to come back. I miss blogging, so I decided I'd try to get myself back into it again. I changed my layout (I got sick of the other one) -- if I wasn't so lazy I would dedicate myself to learning things I said I'd learn three years ago, and make an awesome banner to go across the top. Alas, that has yet to happen.

I thought about starting a brand new blog. Getting a fresh start. Mainly using it for reviews since that's what I started using this one for, but I hate the idea of letting this die. In September it will actually be three years since I started this (wild!) and I enjoy looking back and seeing how much I've grown as a person! (Or at least, I feel like I've grown a lot.) A lot of things have changed since I typed up that first post -- but I'll stop there at the risk of getting too mushy.

So, it's been six months since I posted last. I've stumbled upon new fandoms that have dragged me into their clutches. The worst of which being "North and South" which is a book by Elizabeth Gaskell. My mother and I watched the BBC mini series and I instantly fell in love. (Particularly with Richard Armitage, who plays John Thornton.) I proceeded to read the book which I enjoyed immensely, if not a tad less than the mini series.


I've also joined the liege of Ghost Trick fans, and tentatively I've stepped into the Hetalia fanbase. Two other fandoms slammed into me in the forms of Disney's Tangled, and Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon. I was pleasantly surprised by both and wasn't expecting to enjoy them nearly as much as I did. (Flynn has become my favorite male Disney character.) Lately I spend a lot of time listening to the soundtracks on my Zune, enjoying the creativity they seem to inspire.

I've also been writing and drawing more. There was some time where I was too busy to do most of my hobbies, and I forgot how refreshing it is to create. It's not even that I think I'm good at these things -- it's that I enjoy them immensely and I feel happier when I do them. I'm trying to manage my time better to fit these things in.


Some exciting stuff happened the past couple months, I attended Zenkaikon for the second time this past March. One of my friends went along and we had a wicked good time. We cosplayed Ryuuji, and Taiga from Toradora! and we got to meet Todd Haberkorn. (And get a picture and autograph!) The only downside was that we didn't get Vic Mignogna's autograph, but we still got to see him which was pretty sweet. (Alas, we took no pictures together which was a total FAIL on our part.)

I also just turned nineteen, and received L.A. Noire for the Ps3 and 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors for the n Nintendo DS. I've been playing both on and off and they're pretty cool. I've been playing 999 more, and while I'm upset that I somehow managed to get my favorite character killed, I'm too curious to not finish it. I look forward to playing through it again in the future so I can get the "True Ending." WHICH I FIND IT VERY FRUSTRATING THAT I HAVE TO GET A BAD ENDING FIRST! D: I don't like bad endings!

I'm also playing the first Portal on my computer. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm SO CLOSE. I see why people love it so much. GLaDOS is hilarious with her witty (and cruel) comments.

Well, I feel I've rambled on quite enough for this post. I look forward to bringing this place back to life.

Till next time!