Sleeping Dogs

System: PS3

Bought:  May 26th  {Free PSN+}

Started:  May 26th
Beat:    June 19th

Trophies:  42 out of 51

Idea:  You play Wei Shen, A Chinese-American Police Officer in Hong Kong that goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun on Yee... or the Triad. Having obviously grown up in the area, Wei uses his friends and other connections to gain the trust of one of the Organizations Red Poles and thus goes deeper and deeper into the Sun on Yee.
       The game itself is open world and you get to choose from a number of things to do, favors for the locals,  drug busts for the cops, jobs from the Sun on Yee and so on.

Thoughts:  This was the first game of it's type that I played, If it weren't for having PSN+ I probably never would have thought to play it let a lone buy it.  I'm sort of glad I did, It was fun...even though I did get bored with it after finishing the main story line and while trying to Plat. it.
       I really liked the karaoke mini-game, the car racing and the actual fighting {once I got use to the controls}. Didn't really care for the motorcycle racing, the gambling/cockfighting and having to buy all the clothes and cars in the game for trophies was a little ridiculous.
      What was surprising, I really started to enjoy shooting people. I hate shooter games with a passion, but after a while of using the guns I whipped them out anytime I could.  Some dude stole a mans bag, Bang!  Didn't have to chase him.. haha... Of course the cops come but that's another fun part of the game. Running away from the Police, I am now a master at avoiding them.

The End:  The end of the game was a little disappointing, What I was expecting was some epic battle between Wei Shen and Big Smile Lee.  What I got was, A bit of a shoot out and then a bunch of Counters. Who taught Smile Lee how to fight?  He was the biggest wuss I fought in the game. Seriously, I had more trouble with Dogeyes and he was insanely cheap as well.
     Anyways, It's a bit amusing that the real "bad guy" turned out to be Wei's own Police Boss. Once Pendrew considered the job finished he turns against Wei, Leaking the fact he was a cop to the Sun on Yee almost got him killed and did get Jackie killed.
    That Bastard.

    Jackie was the greatest friend in the world, All the women in the game dumped my poor Wei but... Jackie was always there. I really wish he would have lived, left the life of crime and maybe had little Jackie babies, Unless maybe he wanted to date Wei and that'd be fine too.
    Grrrrr.

Most Frightening Person in the Game.

Characters.....

Wei Shen -  The main character.  Born in Hong Kong, he, his mother and older sister moved to America when he was 10 years old.  The move was to actually an attempt by his mother to break his sister away from the Triad, prostitution and drug addiction.  This Failed.
      Now older and back in Hong Kong, Wei is a cop and is out for a little revenge. Going undercover in the Triad he's basically after Dogeyes, The cause of his sisters downfall with a side mission to take out other annoying Triad bosses.
     In the end it really seemed like he cared for Winstons group, He certainly cared about Winston and his wife to be Peggy, probably even Winston's mom.  He was a Sun on Yee in the end, even after he went back to being a cop.

Jackie Ma - This one is sad.  A childhood friend of Wei,  Jackie even says that Wei was the only one who was ever nice to him.  He's the one who introduces Wei to Winston and gets him into the Sun on Yee,  Jackie himself is far less important then what he lets on but... he has a good heart.
    Eventually, Jackie becomes a member of the Sun on Yee as well and all throughout the game he's popping up at Wei's side. Closer to the end of the game, After Uncle Po is dead... Jackie is first buried alive only to be saved by Wei and then... After Pendrew narcs on Wei...  Jackie is tortured and killed by one of Smile Lee's men.
      Jackies death sets Wei into blood mode, He's out for some and goes after Smile Lee and kills him. Far too easy even but.. kills him.

Thomas Pendrew -  The asshole.  Seriously, He's one of the biggest assholes I've come across in a game recently. Of course he was all friendly and cop-like for a while, but then it comes out... He's a bad guy too! He had something to do with other Triad members who died and with Uncle Po who he actually killed while in the hospital, At the end of the game Wei gets a video recording of Pendrew killing Po from Aunt Jiang.
    Yep, Pendrews life won't be very pleasant in prison now that the Triad members in there know that he killed Uncle Po.  Sweet Revenge, Take that for ratting Wei out to Smile Lee.

Winstons Mother-  After Winston and Peggy are killed at their wedding, His mother shows her true demon side.  This woman is the most frightening character in the game, Hell she may be the most frightening character in any of the games I own.
    Too bad they cut away from the scenes where she's obviously chopping up Dogeyes and the other couple of poor bastards that pissed her off. That would probably be the goriest scenes in all of video game history.
    Anyways, I certainly don't want to know what she did with the left over body parts and such.
                   Uhg, Scary.

Big Smile Lee -  The big triad bad guy, At least in strategy. He certainly was a push over once I got past his goons though.  He used Dogeyes to try and take Winston's "jobs" which wasn't quite going as planned so it got a little more drastic, He had the 18k Triad attack Winston's wedding which resulted in Winston and his Bride Peggys death.
    Winston's out of the way, but Wei is pissed. The wedding massacre has another brightside the current Chairman Uncle Po dies and this brings up a vote for a new chairman. Either Smile Lee or Jiang.  To force Wei's vote Smile Lee kidnaps Jackie and has him buried alive.  This just pisses Wei off more and forces him to go save the damsel in distress.
     In the end Smile Lee has his head fed to an ice chipper so really.. Yea. He was just a lame final boss.

Tidbit- I should really write a little about Winston, but I don't feel like it. He's the Red Pole that lets Wei into the Triad and they warm up to each other and such but... he dies pretty early really.  Being the event to set the more major stuff into motion and all.



What now?   I'm not really sure.  I should start in on Final Fantasy 13-2 or maybe go through 13 again, but after this game I'm just not feeling the whole RPG thing at the moment. Maybe some God of War?  I'll figure something out eventually.

Angel Beats

Episodes:   13

How:   Netflix

Grade:   B-

Summary:   {From MAL}Otonashi awakens only to learn he is dead. A rifle-toting girl named Yuri explains that they are in the afterlife, and Otonashi realizes the only thing he can remember about himself is his name. Yuri tells him that she leads the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife Battlefront) and wages war against a girl named Tenshi. Unable to believe Yuri's claims that Tenshi is evil, Otonashi attempts to speak with her, but the encounter doesn't go as he intended.

Otonashi decides to join the SSS and battle Tenshi, but he finds himself oddly drawn to her. While trying to regain his memories and understand Tenshi, he gradually unravels the mysteries of the afterlife.

Thoughts:  This was different, It certainly kept my interest which was a bit surprising... It had it's corny moments but then... It also had me on the verge of tears.  That sound ridiculous I know, Maybe even a little embarrassing if I hadn't been watching the show alone.
        The idea of there being a place where people who had terrible lives go when they die, To sort of "relive" the dreams they couldn't have while they were alive... That really touched me.  Since my school years were full of suckage....


Who or what we have....


The Afterlife Battlefront -  A group of students in the Afterlife School who battle with "God" and his "Angel" which takes the form of the Student Council President.  They are a group of students who refuse to move onto heaven or their next life, It all depends on how you think about it.
      The group goes through their days doing crazy, relatively fun and sometimes deadly things.  They die, A lot.  Though it doesn't really matter since they are all ready dead and just come back again.

The Guild -  Housed deep underground with many traps and a high tech security system to ward off/warn them of Angel.   They make the Battlefronts weapons, Somehow they can make ammunition and such out of dirt.
      The Battlefront ventures down to the Guild early on and most the traps are somehow still armed, Leading to most of the group to be "killed" in rather amusing ways.  Of course, Angel infiltrates and the guild has to move.

Girls Dead Monster - An all female band that's pretty famous at the school,  Their main purpose however is to act as a distraction for the Battlefronts missions.  One which involves stealing the "NPCs" food coupons...

NPCs - Most the Students in the school, If their not a member of the Battlefront or Angel they are pretty much an NPC, At first it's thought that if one of the dead follow the NPCs behavior that they'd disappear, Later on it's shown that the NPCs can be manipulated and turned into "monsters".
     These Shadow Monsters eat the Battlefront Humans students and turn them into NPCs.


Yuzuru Otonashi - The main male character of the show, When he arrives at the Afterlife School he has no memories of his past.  He first meets Yuri while she is trying to "kill" Angel with an assault rifle, A little confused by the situation he stupidly tries to talk to Angel who then "kills" him.
      Further into the series it's found that while he was alive he took care of his little sister, She was his only reason for being and after she died he decided to become a doctor to help sick people.  After endless studying he's on his way for an exam and the train he is on crashes.
     The crash didn't kill him, at least not right away.  He knows he's injured but he takes care of all the other passengers during the 7 days trapped, On the last day he signs his organ donor card and encourages everyone else in the group to do the same.   He dies mere minutes before the rescue team arrives.

Yuri Nakamura - She's the leader of the Afterlife Battlefront, Her main rival is Angel for most the series and she's quite the bossy little thing.
     I never quite figured out how she died, The story is told that she was the Eldest of  Four and that one day while her parents were out of the house and she was babysitting her three younger siblings that robbers broke into their house.  These robbers couldn't find where the family had hidden their valuables so they turned to Yuri for help...
   Demented help, They wanted her to bring them the valuables and for every 10 minutes they'd kill one of her siblings.  Yuri didn't know where their parents kept the valuables so after 30 Minutes, Her sisters and brother were all dead.
   Her defiance to die and to attack "God" came from this it seems, Not being able to accept the fact that her innocent little sisters/brother were slaughtered and "God" let it happen.
    Anyways, In the Afterlife School she leads the Battlefront into most of their strange adventures and battles.  She's the one who shoots the

Kanade Tachibana -  "Angel",  For a good portion of the show she's the Enemy.  She's a bit frigid, showing very little emotion even when attacked or while attacking the Battlefront.  She has strange abilities as well, Being able to form blades on her hands, a shield to block bullets and an assortment of other powers.
     Otonashi slowly befriends Kanade which causes a whole new set of problems since a dopple  Kanade shows up to wreck havoc.
      At the end of the show, After everyone but she and Otonashi have "moved on" she finally reveals the reason why she came to the Afterlife School.   She was looking for the person who donated their heart to her while she was alive, That person was Otonashi.  She had known for basically all the series, From the moment she stabbed him in the chest in the first episode that he was the one.
    Of course, She and Otonashi hug and she disappears.  I'm not entirely sure if she was even dead... maybe she wasn't dead,dead and was just in a coma and then woke up or something.  Who knows...


Yui -  The only non main character I will touch on, I loved this girl. She was hyper, cute and extremely annoying!   A huge fan of Girls Dead Monster and after the original lead singer realizes her dream and passes on she becomes the new lead singer of the group!
        She's just freaking adorable.
      Her Living World Story is just sad, When she was two years old she was hit by a car and became completely paralyzed from there on out. It's not really said how she died but.... it was not a happy life for the poor little girl.
     She is the first person that Otonashi decides to help move on, She has a long list of things she wanted to accomplish before moving on... some a little insane. Baseball, Soccer, Wrestling Moves....  Getting Married. The last being the most difficult since she felt that no one would ever want to marry a paralyzed girl... Hinata proves her wrong though.
    He up and admits that he'd marry her, Paralyzed or not and after that she is able to move on.  ;.;

The End:    A lot of weird stuff starts to happen a little over half way through the show, Apparently the "love" levels of the Afterlife School had gotten too high and that set some crazy reset events into motion. All of the NPCs start turning into Shadow Monsters and start eating the stubborn humans that wouldn't just move on.
       There's a main baddie at the end too but it just gets all clusterfuckish and bank... Yuri kills him.  I'm not really sure why I enjoyed the show save for the fact that it was entertaining and just plain silly.
       In the End, Everyone accepts their deaths, lives their dreams and move on.  A rather disappointing ending really.....
      There is a short clip taking place in the world of the living of a guy walking down the street, passing a girl who looks like Kanade who is humming a song that one of the girls from the afterlife sang. This catches his attention and he stops.   Meh.  Happy Ending sort of?


Favorite Character{s}:   Yui,  Gotta love the Hyper Ones.
Least Favorite Character{s}:   None, No one really gave me the UHG feel.

Hanamaru Kindergarten

Episodes:  12

How:  CrunchyRoll

Grade:   B+

Summary:  {From MAL}Anzu goes to a kindergarten with her friends, the shy Koume and the eccentric Hiiragi. Together they try to attract attention from their caretaker Tsuchida. However, he is clearly more interested in the pretty Yamamoto who supervises the class next door.

Opening Song:  -  Aozora Triangle - I wanted to like this song, it's cute, perky... just.. I couldn't get into it.
Ending Song{s} -  There's lots of them, Some were okay...some not so much.  Too many to list though. The ending animations were fun to watch though.

Thoughts:  This is one of the cutest shows I've come across in a while,  I just watched one episode after another and when episode 12 was over I really wished there were more. Of course some of the ideas in the Anime were a little...strange.
   The story itself is simple, Timid man  is attracted to a rather clueless woman and isn't quite sure how to let her know. Throw in some funny little kindergarten children and you get some amusing stories.


Who we have...

Tsuchida Naozume- The main character, he's the only male teacher at Hanamaru Kindergarten and at first it had some of the parents a little nervous {male K-Teachers aren't all that common}.  Of course being the only male has him surrounded by females all day, other then his students.
    Sort of being a big kid himself he and the little boys of his class have one huge thing in common, video games.  They talk about them quite often and Tsuchida is always staying up too late playing and dragging himself to work in the morning.
    The students have given him the nickname "Breast Man" because he's always looking at Yamamoto's chest and he likes to look at dirty magazines. {Which Anzu found out while stalking him one day}.  Although he looks at her breasts he is really quite fond of Yamamoto and just can't seem to get that through to her.
   He's confessed to her a couple times and she still hasn't figured it out.

Nanako Yamamoto-  An extremely naive teacher that works with Tsuchida, she has giant breasts which I guess makes her his "type" right off the bat.  She seems to have trouble believing that a man could like her like that and is always completely oblivious to Tsuchida's feelings.
    She has a younger sister who is actually just like her when it comes to males, but can see that Tsuchida likes Nanako.
   The children absolutely adore her, even Anzu who sort of sees her as a rival for most the show.

Sakura -  Anzu's mother, She was a senior in high school when she married Anzu's father who just happened to be one of her teachers.  She and Tsuchida were friends and he was the one that told her to go for it when talking about how she loved Anzu's dad.

Anzu-   The crazy one, she's in love with Tsuchida even though she's like...five.  At first people really took it the wrong way, but throughout the series it just seems to be a running joke for everyone.  Anzu will marry Tsuchida one day!  In a way, I think this is why this show was never released on DVD in the US.
       She does pretty amazing things for a kindergartner... follows Tsuchida around and even cooks for him when he's sick. I don't remember being able to cook when I was in kindergarten.
       By the end of the series she actually attempts to help Tsuchida get with Yamamoto or at least tells him to go for it.  Oh and... She's the daughter of a woman that Tsuchida use to go to school with.

Hiiragi-  Hii-Chan to her friends, Hiiragi is an exceptionally bright child in the Cherry Blossom Group of the Kindergarten. She tends to be the one that gives Anzu ideas of how to become closer to Tsuchida, which really doesn't work too well. She frequently wears costumes and will act out that which she is wearing when people comment on it.
     Her father is an astronomer and there's really no mention of her mother,  She seems to have a bit of a crush on another student at the school named Kenji.

Koume-  The quiet one, sensitive and timid to and extreme. Much more childlike then Hiiragi and Anzu and really not so sure of herself.  In episode 10 it's revealed that her much older brother that is a little obsessed with her.. well.. in the concerned parent way.  You could almost think he was her father...






Kenji -  A second year student in the Sunflower Class, he challenges Hiiragi to see who is smarter and.. she comes out on top.  He ends up having a crush on her and calls her "Master".

Hinagiku -  She transferred to Hanamru Kindergarten{2nd Year Sunflower} because she too fell in love with Tsuchida, she considers Anzu her rival but they still get along nicely.   Her father is the head of the Yakuza and she is quite mature for her age.


The End:  "Nothing's stronger then the power of love!"   Tsuchida said this to Sakura and Anzu says this to Tsuchida.  With a sudden turn around Anzu finds it in herself to support and even encourage Tsuchida's love for Yamamoto.    Of course, Yamamoto is so dense that she has no idea that Tsuchida is confessing his love for her so... Denied.
      Poor Guy.
   While Anzu is dreaming of being an adult it's a little creepy, grown up Anzu would certainly be Tsuchida's "type" though.  Giant Tracks of Land.
    Anyways, Nothing really seems to get done in the show. Even at the end Yamamoto is still just clueless about Tsuchida but.. at least he's going to keep trying.


TidBit-  Panda,Panda,Panda Neko! Panda, Panda, Panda Neko!   I may have that song stuck in my head forever. I find myself singing it to myself while out and maybe even doing the little dance.

May ~ Maybe June will be Better.

It was a rough month.

Well, The first part of the month was fine and then on the 24th it just went to hell. Which I won't get into in this post, Perhaps a different post.

Anyways...

The Items Are...




The Bride of the Water God 12 & 13:  So we meet again, Stupid Dark Horse logo Change.  I thought it
was on on CCS, but it looks even worse with Water God.  At least the original emblem is on the side of 12,  just 13 looks funny.
     Anyways, I haven't read these in a while since the story is a little difficult to follow.  My plan is to get a whole bunch of them and re-read them one after another. That way the flow of the story should outweigh any confusion that could happen with getting a release once every...4...5... months.






















Record of Agarest War Zero:   Oh Look, It's another PS3 game.  I wasn't supposed to do this, but Half Price Books was having a sale and this was there.  I'd been looking to buy it since I played the hour long demo on the PSN.

     
Now the question is, Do I buy the first one on the PSN and play it before playing Zero or just go with Zero.







The Big Bang Theory Season 2:  I'm only kind of counting this since, It's not just for me. My dad
loves this series and this was the only season we do not have.  Every Christmas season stores put this series on sale, for some reason the 2nd Season ALWAYS sells out.  Best Buy, Walmart, Everywhere.
     So, There it was... one lonely copy at Walmart on sale for 15 Dollars.  Not the 10 Dollars I got some of the other seasons for, but... perfect.








Network Purchases:   Didn't purchase anything this month, Didn't need to. They keep throwing free games at me and I will never catch up with my backlog.

Sleeping Dogs, I don't normally play this sort of game, but near the end of the month I was like "What the hell..." and downloaded it.  It was free and actually has been quite fun to play.

Knytt Underground,  I've got it on my download list and haven't got around to actually downloading and trying it out.  May be okay.

Pinball Arcade,  Why the hell did I download this? I've never been that great with pinball games and this one isn't an exception. Certainly since you only get like.... five tables to play and the prices to download more of them are insane.
      Damn You PSN.



The Bride of the Water God 12 & 13 -  $11.05
Record of Agarest War Zero -  12.71
Big Bang Theory Season 2 -  17.00

Total;    $40.76


Free Games {The Growing List}

Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One
Darksiders
inFAMOUS 2
Quantum Conundrum
Closure
Joe Danger 2: The Movie
Spec. Ops: The Line
The Cave
MALICIOUS
Labyrinth Legends
Sleeping Dogs
Knytt Underground
Pinball Arcade