After an onslaught of man-eating titans and terminally unpopular high school heroines, another year of anime is officially in the rearview mirror. As we all huddle indoors and wait for the first Big Thing of 2014 to appear, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon of year-end award columns. After all, it’s a natural part of the otaku lifestyle to [Read more…]
We finally made it through 2013, a year that was quite an exciting one for gaming. We saw sales records break across the board with the launch of Grand Theft Auto V, the final two next-gen consoles released in November, and I can say I played so many independent games that I’m starting to really appreciate the rise of the [Read more…]
Mr. Shark tries to review Non Non Biyori, but mostly just sneezes and spills coffee everywhere.
I was making a futile attempt at organizing my anime DVD collection the other day when I noticed something interesting: a huge number of heroes in anime are mercenaries, assassins, or other miscellaneous guns for hire. Perhaps more intriguing is that by comparison, very few good guys seem to work for a real national military. The thought stuck in my [Read more…]
Can you believe it? We’re a week away from the greatest holiday ever! As a gamer, there’s only one way to prepare for celebrating Christmas. Here are the seven most Christmas-y levels out of any video game. Play one a day as you approach December 25 and you’ll be filled with enough holiday cheer to easily handle putting up with [Read more…]
Following on the heels of last week’s IndyCar preview, it seems only right that I continue this series with the most popular open-cockpit series everywhere outside the US: Formula 1. What is it? With millions of fans around the globe and roots reaching back to the early days of motorsport, Formula 1 is widely considered the world’s most popular racing [Read more…]
While Kill La Kill has been grabbing the lion’s share of attention this season, it’s not the only series to offer clever commentary on a well-established genre. In contrast to Kill’s shark-jumping action parody, Samurai Flamenco has been subtly questioning the core elements of masked superhero franchises like Kamen Rider. While the show’s biggest strength has been its witty deconstruction [Read more…]
Last Friday was the end of a two-week roller coaster for Fallout fans, sadly ending in disappointment. A very legitimate-looking “teaser” website, The Survivor 2299, fooled thousands of gamers into thinking Bethesda was preparing to announce Fallout 4. Video game blogs were discussing any significant updates as fans unraveled a complex trail of clues. Like many Fallout fans, I was [Read more…]
Winter’s not a great time to be a racing fan. Tracks go quiet as cars are retired to their team headquarters, while engineers dream of new aerodynamic improvements. To keep us all entertained while we wait for green flags to start waving, I’ll be writing season previews for some of next year’s most entertaining racing disciplines. First up: the IZOD [Read more…]
For this week, I thought we might take a break from the technical brew process and dive into the glass. Let’s look at some ways to approach beer other than cracking one open and throwing it back. As I have said before, I am by no means an expert in beer, but I can hopefully give you some tools to [Read more…]