The year has started off pretty quiet.
I went to see The Hateful Eight, which was super fantastic. I went in without knowing ANYTHING about the movie and when I was told at the line that it's almost 3 hour long western, I didn't know if I was going to make it out of the theater with my sanity intact. But damn, Tarantino knows how to make interesting westerns. While in theater, I asked about the Star Wars posters since it had it's last show on previous night and I got the big poster they had in the movie hall.
Other than that I haven't been watching a whole lot of stuff. I'm looking forward to going to see Deadpool next weekend though. Last weekend I also went to friend's place and we started watching Monty Python boxset that I've had sitting on my shelf untouched for quite a while. At their place we also had a blast playing some Trials Fusion. He had the expansion that let's you ride as a cat riding an unicorn and that was way funnier than it should have. We also played Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes which I hadn't done for quite some time and gathered all the XOF badges to unlock Deja Vu and Jamais Vu missions for him. I had forgotten how nice that title was also, the friend actually likes it more than The Phantom Pain but I wouldn't got that far. I need to give my copy a proper playthrough again and try to complete it.
At home I've been playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I finished the story long time ago, but I still have tons to do. I played it all day today and I barely managed to get from 62% completed to 66%... Toooo much stuufff....
I've also been playing some Splatoon which I've been wanting to put more time into, but haven't found myself in the right mood. I did quite a bit, I've gotten from level 8 to 16. I took part in my first Splatfest Barbarians vs Ninjas.
Marie is the best squid and ninjas are cooler than barbarians, but the question was about the playstyle and strategy so in honesty's name I had to side with Callie and Barbarians. And we won. I was bit worried about going into Splatfest still being a newbie, but I was actually doing way better than I do in regular battles since I didn't need to play against the Japanese elite for once. I've also been playing ranked matches, which also took my by surprise. I thought it was just Turf Wars, but with people competing over ranks and with loser getting nothing but it has entirely different modes. I like the tower control a lot.
I also played all the way through the hero mode (single player) and beat it, it was pretty fun too. The last battle was really cool and I can't get enough of the song that plays towards the end of it. I need to add it to my top tracks list.
My favorite weapons are Splattershot Jr, Carbon Roller and Krak-On Splat Roller.
That just about sums up what I've been doing this year so far. Well, besides buying stuff.
I got the December Loot Crate which for now is my last Loot Crate. I love the shirt's design, but the quality was pretty disappointing. The print on it is the type that cracks, I already have couple cracks in the print of my shirt... Other shirts of last year didn't have that problem so I don't know what they were thinking. I like tin cases so the Halo 5 ammo box was nice and the Han Solo was okay for Pop! Vinyl thanks to it at least being a bobblehead. BB-8 socks and Galaxy Quest emblem were okay. (But in case I've never said it before, Galaxy Quest is really good movie.)
I'm bit disappointed that I didn't get the January crate, it was really nice and Loot Crates will always have a shirt from now-on. If the quality stays up, I might have to resubscribe. I also ordered the Equip Loot Anime crate that hasn't arrived yet, but I know what's in it and I'm not impressed. They also announced yet another type of crate that is all about game merchandise, I need to see the quality of the stuff they include before I go and test it out.
I had pre-ordered Dragon's Crown artbook that should have come with a wallscroll and mug and some other stuff, but the store I pre-ordered it from didn't get those sets after all and cancelled my order. It was a bummer since the extra merchandise was the main draw towards that, but I still ended up getting the standalone artbook from Amazon. It smells really good. It's not as expansive as I was hoping for, it doesn't even have all the artwork that the thin book that came with pre-order of the game had.
I also got another package of random Japanese stuff. I don't normally order them this frequently, but the magazine in this order came with big Detective Conan poster and I just really wanted it... Also the store I order these from also restocked on Grave of the Fireflies Sakuma Drops which I've been wanting to get despite not really caring for the movie all that much which probably makes me a bad person in some sense.
I also got some Metal Gear Solid related stuff and took an updated picture of my collection.
The new additions are MGSV:TPP statues of Big Boss and Ocelot, A Hideo Kojima Book and Metal Gear Solid 2 Subsistence (It always annoyed me that I only have silver label copy of the game, so I had to fix that.) There's also a small frame with picture in it, the picture is cover of the novelization of The Phantom Pain that I got. I thought it would've had illustrations in it, but it's just plain Japanese text. So pretty much waste of money for me, but at least it was only like five euros with shipping and the cover art is really nice. Here's a better look at the statues. They were exclusive to some Japanese retail stores lottery that had many TPP related prizes.
That's about it. I'll leave you with the last sentence from TPP novel.
英雄 よ, ありがと そして さよなら。
[Hero, thank you and goodbye.]
=== UPDATE: February 18th ===
Found some good deals again, so I ended up buying bunch of games.
I got Halo 4. I guess, that's all I can really say about it. It's a series that I appreciate, but I've only played story of first game and some Halo 3 multiplayer. ODST had a nice collector's edition, so I gave this one a shot since I found it for 15 euros. It wasn't as impressive as the ODST Collector's Edition.
I was really interested in Assassin's Creed Unity before it actually came out and was a total mess, but I watched some revisit reviews and they said that a lot of the worst problems have been fixed or at least notably reduced and I got the game for 15 euros too, so figured why not. Also I've been quite interested in Syndicate and while I heard a lot of reviewers say that the series is getting stale, I have yet to actually play any of them other than couple hours of very first one and Black Flag, so it's still all new to me.
Dishonored is another game that I got for 15 euros. I bought it for last gen, but never got around playing it. It's still on my to do list, so figured that I'd get the Definitive Edition for when I finally get around playing it. Street Fighter V set me back a bit more than 15 unfortunately, but it came out faster than I realized and I got a sudden urge to get it. It was a reason why I ordered a fightstick quite a while ago. Game is pretty fun, but it has so very little content right now that it's ridiculous even on Capcom standards as far as I know. But it has Cammy and Zangief and that's really all that matters. A lot of the reason why I felt an urge to get it because I'm going to friends place on weekend and thought it might be good fun for the evening since neither of us is good at Street Fighter.
And then there's a game that I've legit wanted for a long time, Life is Strange. I played a bit of it on PC and was quite sold, but I have as little interest in playing on PC as ever. And the collector's edition came with a soundtrack that I really wanted and the artbook is actually really nice even though it's a small one.
And I bought Hobbit because it came with replica coins and I like coins and crap.
=== UPDATE: February 24th ===
I've been super lucky in Animal Crossing lately. I got couple awesome characters moved from my cartridge save to my digital main town and after starting a new town on the cartridge I got a town with several awesome characters. Marshall, Whitney and Ankha are super popular dream villagers from what I've heard. Cherry and Eugene are some of my personal favorites. My main town also already has Wolfgang who's super cool wolf. I hope I can transfer these to my main town one day, but currently my main is filled with lame animals...
But I'm more excited about the stuff I've bought since last update, finally got some items that I've wanted for a long time. I've been dying to get my hands on Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection with the artbook, but they go for really high prices. I managed to find a good one, although I had to import it from Japan. But I'm really happy that I finally got the artbook since other artbooks don't really go into promotional work and merchandise stuff.
And from the same website I also found The Phantom Pain collector's edition, so I decided to get it also. Again for the art booklet which is small but really nice. But as a gigantic bonus that I didn't even think about at first is that I now have another region copy of the game that counts as a new game, so I can replay the whole thing on my account and it of course has the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, which will be interesting. Artbook sample gallery.
And because I failed to include the collector's box of TPP collector's edition, here it is by the side of the MGS Legacy Collection.
So yeah, that was the most exciting stuff ever. Well, until today when I got Bravely Second End Layer Deluxe Collector's Edition. The game is supposed to come to stores in couple of days, so I'm super surprised that I already have it. I've never gotten anything on time, let alone early... I never got around playing Bravely Default even though I was a big fan of it's spiritual predecessor The 4 Heroes of Light but it's still on top of my 3DS to-do list. Bravely Second Collector's Edition is really nice and the artbook makes me really want to go ahead and play it. But I don't know if it would really require playing the first game first. I like the representation of this CE, when you open it up the lid has a nice big picture of Agnes and all the things nicely put in on two layers.
It's bit disappointing that the soundtrack is once again just a mini album and not a full soundtrack, but the figurine is nice and the artbook is super nice. Proper retail artbook quality and Akihiko Yoshida is really close to getting the legendary Senpai status.
Click for Imgur gallery with samples.
And here's a better look at the figurine.
Maaan, what a great month.
=== UPDATE: April 8th ===
I saw Batman v Superman while ago, I didn't like it. It felt like a bad DC cinematic universe trailer that somehow lasted for two and a half hours. My favorite moments in the movie were single frames and Wonder Woman's theme song in the soundtrack, nothing else really stuck with me. I hated Luthor, I hate the actor and I hate the piss poor writing of this awful version of him. I have faith in Batfleck though, I would go see him in a Batman movie. But speaking of Superman, I started reading one of his comic series called Superman: American Alien, really good stuff. On TV I caught up with The Walking Dead, the finale was bullshit. But I'm so happy that we finally got Negan. I've also been reading the comics, I'm so glad that we'll be seeing more Negan. Besides TWD, I got my brother to watch Archer and he notified that they actually started a new season this week. I'M SO HYPED! How did I not hear about this earlier!? Oh, and JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE PART IV: DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE ANIME HAS FINALLY STARTED. Quality in trailers seemed bit meh, but the final thing looks really good. I've read the part in manga and it's my favorite so far, so I'm really happy.
Speaking of Jojo, I started buying the comics since Viz is doing really nice hardcover releases right now.
I need to get rest of the Part I, but I couldn't resist getting the first volume of Part II as soon as it came out.
I cancelled my LootCrate subscription after December crate after having it for a year, but I quite liked the January crate so I couldn't resist ordering it when they did one of their leftover sales. I also decided to try their Loot Anime crate, which was really disappointing. But I kept my subscription because they announced a crate with Jojo item. If it disappoints me then I'm done with LootAnime. Here's the items from January Loot Crate and February Loot Anime that I liked. They also had shirts which were nice, but not in the picture.
I was really hyped for Hyrule Warriors on Wii U, but never got around playing it so I was doubting if I wanted to get the 3DS port. I liked the idea of the compass clock, so I decided to get it and I've been keeping my 3DS with me lately so I might actually get around finally playing it since I currently spend few hours a week in bus for work.
Mass Effect is one of my all time favorite series, but honestly I haven't thought about it in a while now. Maybe I should replay them. But I received a statue that I pre-ordered way way back when it was first announced and was released just recently. I didn't like the Kotobukiya's Bishoujo statues of FemShep or Liara because of the anime face, but thanks to the mask she looks pretty much like she did in the games, though I don't remember her a** being so...
...
...Erm, huh, wha- Right, that was my month. The end.
=== UPDATE: April 13th ===
Dark Souls III came.
That's really all I have to say about that right now. I've been too busy playing Fallout 4, so I've only installed the game on my console but haven't played it. It's the nicest collector's edition in Souls series so far, even though it still had a metalpak instead of steelbook.
I went to see The Hateful Eight, which was super fantastic. I went in without knowing ANYTHING about the movie and when I was told at the line that it's almost 3 hour long western, I didn't know if I was going to make it out of the theater with my sanity intact. But damn, Tarantino knows how to make interesting westerns. While in theater, I asked about the Star Wars posters since it had it's last show on previous night and I got the big poster they had in the movie hall.
Other than that I haven't been watching a whole lot of stuff. I'm looking forward to going to see Deadpool next weekend though. Last weekend I also went to friend's place and we started watching Monty Python boxset that I've had sitting on my shelf untouched for quite a while. At their place we also had a blast playing some Trials Fusion. He had the expansion that let's you ride as a cat riding an unicorn and that was way funnier than it should have. We also played Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes which I hadn't done for quite some time and gathered all the XOF badges to unlock Deja Vu and Jamais Vu missions for him. I had forgotten how nice that title was also, the friend actually likes it more than The Phantom Pain but I wouldn't got that far. I need to give my copy a proper playthrough again and try to complete it.
At home I've been playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I finished the story long time ago, but I still have tons to do. I played it all day today and I barely managed to get from 62% completed to 66%... Toooo much stuufff....
I've also been playing some Splatoon which I've been wanting to put more time into, but haven't found myself in the right mood. I did quite a bit, I've gotten from level 8 to 16. I took part in my first Splatfest Barbarians vs Ninjas.
Marie is the best squid and ninjas are cooler than barbarians, but the question was about the playstyle and strategy so in honesty's name I had to side with Callie and Barbarians. And we won. I was bit worried about going into Splatfest still being a newbie, but I was actually doing way better than I do in regular battles since I didn't need to play against the Japanese elite for once. I've also been playing ranked matches, which also took my by surprise. I thought it was just Turf Wars, but with people competing over ranks and with loser getting nothing but it has entirely different modes. I like the tower control a lot.
I also played all the way through the hero mode (single player) and beat it, it was pretty fun too. The last battle was really cool and I can't get enough of the song that plays towards the end of it. I need to add it to my top tracks list.
My favorite weapons are Splattershot Jr, Carbon Roller and Krak-On Splat Roller.
That just about sums up what I've been doing this year so far. Well, besides buying stuff.
I got the December Loot Crate which for now is my last Loot Crate. I love the shirt's design, but the quality was pretty disappointing. The print on it is the type that cracks, I already have couple cracks in the print of my shirt... Other shirts of last year didn't have that problem so I don't know what they were thinking. I like tin cases so the Halo 5 ammo box was nice and the Han Solo was okay for Pop! Vinyl thanks to it at least being a bobblehead. BB-8 socks and Galaxy Quest emblem were okay. (But in case I've never said it before, Galaxy Quest is really good movie.)
I'm bit disappointed that I didn't get the January crate, it was really nice and Loot Crates will always have a shirt from now-on. If the quality stays up, I might have to resubscribe. I also ordered the Equip Loot Anime crate that hasn't arrived yet, but I know what's in it and I'm not impressed. They also announced yet another type of crate that is all about game merchandise, I need to see the quality of the stuff they include before I go and test it out.
I had pre-ordered Dragon's Crown artbook that should have come with a wallscroll and mug and some other stuff, but the store I pre-ordered it from didn't get those sets after all and cancelled my order. It was a bummer since the extra merchandise was the main draw towards that, but I still ended up getting the standalone artbook from Amazon. It smells really good. It's not as expansive as I was hoping for, it doesn't even have all the artwork that the thin book that came with pre-order of the game had.
I also got another package of random Japanese stuff. I don't normally order them this frequently, but the magazine in this order came with big Detective Conan poster and I just really wanted it... Also the store I order these from also restocked on Grave of the Fireflies Sakuma Drops which I've been wanting to get despite not really caring for the movie all that much which probably makes me a bad person in some sense.
I also got some Metal Gear Solid related stuff and took an updated picture of my collection.
The new additions are MGSV:TPP statues of Big Boss and Ocelot, A Hideo Kojima Book and Metal Gear Solid 2 Subsistence (It always annoyed me that I only have silver label copy of the game, so I had to fix that.) There's also a small frame with picture in it, the picture is cover of the novelization of The Phantom Pain that I got. I thought it would've had illustrations in it, but it's just plain Japanese text. So pretty much waste of money for me, but at least it was only like five euros with shipping and the cover art is really nice. Here's a better look at the statues. They were exclusive to some Japanese retail stores lottery that had many TPP related prizes.
That's about it. I'll leave you with the last sentence from TPP novel.
英雄 よ, ありがと そして さよなら。
[Hero, thank you and goodbye.]
=== UPDATE: February 18th ===
Found some good deals again, so I ended up buying bunch of games.
I got Halo 4. I guess, that's all I can really say about it. It's a series that I appreciate, but I've only played story of first game and some Halo 3 multiplayer. ODST had a nice collector's edition, so I gave this one a shot since I found it for 15 euros. It wasn't as impressive as the ODST Collector's Edition.
I was really interested in Assassin's Creed Unity before it actually came out and was a total mess, but I watched some revisit reviews and they said that a lot of the worst problems have been fixed or at least notably reduced and I got the game for 15 euros too, so figured why not. Also I've been quite interested in Syndicate and while I heard a lot of reviewers say that the series is getting stale, I have yet to actually play any of them other than couple hours of very first one and Black Flag, so it's still all new to me.
Dishonored is another game that I got for 15 euros. I bought it for last gen, but never got around playing it. It's still on my to do list, so figured that I'd get the Definitive Edition for when I finally get around playing it. Street Fighter V set me back a bit more than 15 unfortunately, but it came out faster than I realized and I got a sudden urge to get it. It was a reason why I ordered a fightstick quite a while ago. Game is pretty fun, but it has so very little content right now that it's ridiculous even on Capcom standards as far as I know. But it has Cammy and Zangief and that's really all that matters. A lot of the reason why I felt an urge to get it because I'm going to friends place on weekend and thought it might be good fun for the evening since neither of us is good at Street Fighter.
And then there's a game that I've legit wanted for a long time, Life is Strange. I played a bit of it on PC and was quite sold, but I have as little interest in playing on PC as ever. And the collector's edition came with a soundtrack that I really wanted and the artbook is actually really nice even though it's a small one.
And I bought Hobbit because it came with replica coins and I like coins and crap.
=== UPDATE: February 24th ===
I've been super lucky in Animal Crossing lately. I got couple awesome characters moved from my cartridge save to my digital main town and after starting a new town on the cartridge I got a town with several awesome characters. Marshall, Whitney and Ankha are super popular dream villagers from what I've heard. Cherry and Eugene are some of my personal favorites. My main town also already has Wolfgang who's super cool wolf. I hope I can transfer these to my main town one day, but currently my main is filled with lame animals...
But I'm more excited about the stuff I've bought since last update, finally got some items that I've wanted for a long time. I've been dying to get my hands on Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection with the artbook, but they go for really high prices. I managed to find a good one, although I had to import it from Japan. But I'm really happy that I finally got the artbook since other artbooks don't really go into promotional work and merchandise stuff.
And from the same website I also found The Phantom Pain collector's edition, so I decided to get it also. Again for the art booklet which is small but really nice. But as a gigantic bonus that I didn't even think about at first is that I now have another region copy of the game that counts as a new game, so I can replay the whole thing on my account and it of course has the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, which will be interesting. Artbook sample gallery.
And because I failed to include the collector's box of TPP collector's edition, here it is by the side of the MGS Legacy Collection.
So yeah, that was the most exciting stuff ever. Well, until today when I got Bravely Second End Layer Deluxe Collector's Edition. The game is supposed to come to stores in couple of days, so I'm super surprised that I already have it. I've never gotten anything on time, let alone early... I never got around playing Bravely Default even though I was a big fan of it's spiritual predecessor The 4 Heroes of Light but it's still on top of my 3DS to-do list. Bravely Second Collector's Edition is really nice and the artbook makes me really want to go ahead and play it. But I don't know if it would really require playing the first game first. I like the representation of this CE, when you open it up the lid has a nice big picture of Agnes and all the things nicely put in on two layers.
It's bit disappointing that the soundtrack is once again just a mini album and not a full soundtrack, but the figurine is nice and the artbook is super nice. Proper retail artbook quality and Akihiko Yoshida is really close to getting the legendary Senpai status.
Click for Imgur gallery with samples.
And here's a better look at the figurine.
Maaan, what a great month.
=== UPDATE: April 8th ===
I saw Batman v Superman while ago, I didn't like it. It felt like a bad DC cinematic universe trailer that somehow lasted for two and a half hours. My favorite moments in the movie were single frames and Wonder Woman's theme song in the soundtrack, nothing else really stuck with me. I hated Luthor, I hate the actor and I hate the piss poor writing of this awful version of him. I have faith in Batfleck though, I would go see him in a Batman movie. But speaking of Superman, I started reading one of his comic series called Superman: American Alien, really good stuff. On TV I caught up with The Walking Dead, the finale was bullshit. But I'm so happy that we finally got Negan. I've also been reading the comics, I'm so glad that we'll be seeing more Negan. Besides TWD, I got my brother to watch Archer and he notified that they actually started a new season this week. I'M SO HYPED! How did I not hear about this earlier!? Oh, and JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE PART IV: DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE ANIME HAS FINALLY STARTED. Quality in trailers seemed bit meh, but the final thing looks really good. I've read the part in manga and it's my favorite so far, so I'm really happy.
Speaking of Jojo, I started buying the comics since Viz is doing really nice hardcover releases right now.
I need to get rest of the Part I, but I couldn't resist getting the first volume of Part II as soon as it came out.
I cancelled my LootCrate subscription after December crate after having it for a year, but I quite liked the January crate so I couldn't resist ordering it when they did one of their leftover sales. I also decided to try their Loot Anime crate, which was really disappointing. But I kept my subscription because they announced a crate with Jojo item. If it disappoints me then I'm done with LootAnime. Here's the items from January Loot Crate and February Loot Anime that I liked. They also had shirts which were nice, but not in the picture.
I was really hyped for Hyrule Warriors on Wii U, but never got around playing it so I was doubting if I wanted to get the 3DS port. I liked the idea of the compass clock, so I decided to get it and I've been keeping my 3DS with me lately so I might actually get around finally playing it since I currently spend few hours a week in bus for work.
Mass Effect is one of my all time favorite series, but honestly I haven't thought about it in a while now. Maybe I should replay them. But I received a statue that I pre-ordered way way back when it was first announced and was released just recently. I didn't like the Kotobukiya's Bishoujo statues of FemShep or Liara because of the anime face, but thanks to the mask she looks pretty much like she did in the games, though I don't remember her a** being so...
...
...Erm, huh, wha- Right, that was my month. The end.
=== UPDATE: April 13th ===
Dark Souls III came.
That's really all I have to say about that right now. I've been too busy playing Fallout 4, so I've only installed the game on my console but haven't played it. It's the nicest collector's edition in Souls series so far, even though it still had a metalpak instead of steelbook.
