Christmas Loot

Got quite a bit of stuff for Christmas this year. It mainly consisted of manga, dvd's and games. A friend of mine got me this Vizbig edition of Rurouni Kenshin volume 1. I've seen the anime, but haven't gotten around to reading the manga. Guess now's a good a time as any. Thanks Sturm.


One of my Aunt's got me these next 4 manga. xxxHolic, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. I've watched the first 2 volumes of the Tsubasa anime, but haven't gotten around to finishing it. Looking forward to reading both these series.

More after the jump....



Rosario+Vampire, and Fruits Basket are two series I'm currently reading. Just finished Fruits Basket volume 7 today and wish I got paid tomorrow instead of Thursday so I could get out to the book store to get volume 8. I really enjoyed the last half of the volume about Uotani's past.


For DVD's I got Bleach season 2, and Fraggle Rock Season 4. I'm really glad they finally decided to release vol. 4 of Fraggle Rock by itself. It really pissed me off when they announced it was originally only going to be released as part of a complete set package. Kind of disappointed they didn't keep the same style packaging and bonus stuff like they had for the first 3 seasons.


More DVD's were Family Guy Blue Harvest and Something Something Something Darkside two pack, and Smallville season 3. I really liked Blue Harvest and going to watch Something Something Something Darkside tomorrow. The plan on making a Return of the Jedi parody as well, I Have A Bad Feeling About This.


The last DVD I got was Santa Claus the Movie.


I got Gears of War, and Grand Theft Auto Episodes From Liberty City. Episodes From Liberty City contains the two DLC packs for GTA4, The Lost and The Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony. And unlike the downloaded versions you don't need the original GTA4 game to play them.


And have you ever seen a Rice Krispy treat this big? This thing weighs 2 pounds. And surprisingly it only cost 3 bucks.

How was everyone else's Christmas? Hope you all had good one.
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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Had a good Christmas here, and hope everyone else did to. Read more On "Merry Christmas"!

Fuku-bukuro Bag #1

I got the first of the two Fuku-bukuro bags from J-list in Saturday. Fuku-bukuro bags are essentially grab bags that Japanese stores make around new years which are very popular. The value of the items in the bag are always more than the price of the bag. This was the Adult Set 2 bag. I also ordered the Anime Set A which has not come in yet. I got 1 figure, 1 trading figure, 3 gashapons, 3 games, 2 dvds, and 3 magazines in my bag.


The figure was a Story Image Figure EX Yamato from G-Taste. This is the second Story Image Figure EX I've gotten the first was Saki Kasukabe from Genshiken.

More after the jump....


The 3 gashapons I got were an Evangelion Soundrop Type 2, Mugen Banana Peeling, and Soundrop "Moe".


As for the games they were Hentai Anime Poker, Chain ~ The Lost Footprints, and JAST USA Memorial Collection. I already have Chain, so will be putting that on EBay sometime this week. I haven't played any of the games inlcuded on the Memorial Collection so looking forward to playing them.



The trading figure was a Hip Parade Trading Figure.

The DVD's I got were Yulia Nova Vol 2 and Yulia Nova Vol 3. The magazines were titled Gal and Bejean

Altogether I got about $180 worth of merchandise from my $70.00 grab bag.

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Higurashi US Release Date Announced

Mangagamer has announced the release date for Higurashi: When They Cry.

The release date for the upcoming game, "Higurashi when they cry"
has been decided to December 15, 2009. This release will be the first 4
chapters of the original smash hit game made by 07th Expansion and will
be sold for 36.95 Euros.

Upon the release, MangaGamer.com will open an All Age section of the website
on December 15th. The site will be closed and unavailable during the following hours for
testing.

12/15 04:00(CET)Site Downtime
12/15 10:00(CET)Renewal Open

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Holiday Sales

Hobby Link Japan is having a Holiday Blowout Sale between now and Dec 11 (Japan Time). If you pay by Paypal you get free shipping.

Right Stuf is also in the middle of their annual 12 Days of Christmas Sale.

And J-List has their Fuku-Bukuro, or Lucky Bags, available again this year. They are basically grab bags made up of merchandise available on their site. So you won't know what you're getting until you get your bag, but the total retail value of the included items will be more than you paid for the bag. I've actually ordered 2 of these for myself.

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Capcom 3 Pack and Some Manga

While doing my Christmas shopping this weekend, I decided to pick up a few items for myself. I got this Capcom 3 pack which came with Dead Rising, Lost Planet, and Devil May Cry 4 for only 39.99 at Best Buy. I'm starting to get a huge back log of video games. Currently playing Dragon Age Origins, and have Assassin's Creed 2 waiting for when I finish that.


I also picked up some new manga. I got Higurashi Curse Killing Arc Vol 1, Negima Vol 24, and Lucky Star Vol 2. Read more On "Capcom 3 Pack and Some Manga"!

Assassin's Creed Ezio Figure

In my last post I mentioned getting the Assassin's Creed 2 Collectors Edition from Gamestop. And I had meant to have this post done by now, but got busy with Thanksgiving and all. The Collector's Edition of Assassin's Creed 2 comes with this figure of Ezio. This is a really great looking figure, especially considering it only cost and extra $20.00 over the cost of the game alone. This is actually one of two different versions of the figure. While it is the only version that was available in the US, overseas gamers had a choice of this one or a rarer black "Master Assassin" version. You can see the rare black version in this post at figure.fm

More after the jump.....



They really put a lot of detail into this figure. The shoulder cape has wrinkles in it making it look worn.


There are even stains painted onto the sash around his waist.



The face beneath the hood.


The figure and game came packaged in this tin box.


I really like this painting of Ezio on the back of the box.


The Collector's Edition also came with this art book, and a code to download two maps Santa Maria Dei Frari and Palazzo Medici.


This is the first part of Assassin's Creed: Lineage, a live action prequel to the events in the game.

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A Game, Movie, and Some Books

I picked up a couple games, a new movie, and a couple of books. I bought Dragon Age Origins, and Assassin's Creed 2, which I will make a separate post for. I got the XBox 360 version of Dragon Age. It's a pretty awesome game, although combat against large numbers of enemies can be difficult due to the lack of a top down view like in the PC version. Other than that the store and game play is really fun. There are 6 different "Origins" you can begin the game as. They are Human Noble, Magi, City Elf, Dalish Elf, Dwarf Commoner, and Dwarf Noble along with 3 different classes Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. Each class also has 4 different specializations of which you can choose 2 of. For example the Rogue can eventually specialize as an Assassin, Bard, Ranger, or Duelist.

The game allows you to make dialog choices during conversations. You will often have the option of being kind and helpful, a complete a-hole, or sometimes just kill them. Your choice not only effect how that character responds to you, but can also effect how your party members view you. Being kind and helpful to people will make party members such as Alister and Liliana like you better, but will make Morrigan dislike you. While being rude and unhelpful will have the opposite effect. If you like Bioware's other RPG titles your sure to love this one. Highly recommended.


I also picked up the Best Buy limited edition Blu-ray version of Star Trek which came with 4 metal Starfleet emblem pins. In my opinion this was the best Star Trek film ever, and I really liked the way they explained the inconsistencies in established lore. I hope Abrams decides to do a sequel.


Last up for this weeks purchases, I bought The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Ghost King. The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is the second book in the novel series that spawned the anime, and manga. It details the school festival and the filming of The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina. The Ghost King is a new Drizzt book by R.A. Salvatore, and is book 3 of the Transitions trilogy.

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Modern Warfare 2

Picked up Modern Warefare 2 last week. I got the Prestige Edition which comes with night vision goggles.

The goggles have two settings. One illuminates up to 50 feet in front of you, but uses these bright red LEDs on the front. The other setting is a stealth mode which doesn't illuminate very far in front of you, but doesn't use visible light so if your standing in the dark no one will see you.


The Prestige Edition also comes with the Hardened Edition of the game, which comes with an art book. And I'm not sure if this was exclusive to the Hardened Edition or not, but it also came with a code to download the original Call of Duty on XBox Live.

The game is pretty fun skipping between different characters in order to tell the story from different perspectives. I've played online vs mode a bit, but haven't gotten around to trying the co-op Spec Ops mode.



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New Books and a Game

Last week got a couple new manga, and a PS3 game. Picked up Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition volume 3 which includes volumes 5 and 6 of the manga. Also bought volume 4 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.



I found out later that The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya had also came out this month so headed back to Books a Million to see if they had it. They didn't have it in hardcover so I had to put in an order for it. But they had some books marked down to $1.00 on a "Last Chance" table. I got Star Wars: The Clone Wars by R. A. Salvatore, who is a great author even if he did kill Chewbacca. If you haven't read any of his books I suggest The Spearwielder's Trilogy and The Icewind Dale Trilogy. I also bought The Star Wars Super Collector's Wishbook, which is similar to Steve Sansweet's Tomart's Price Guide to Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles



Last but not least I got Demon's Souls for the PS3. This game is really fun, but it can also be really frustrating because you WILL DIE, and you will die A LOT. It's a semi-online action rpg game. The reason I say semi-online is because the bulk of the game you will be playing mostly by yourself. But under certain circumstances you can summon other players into your game to help you, or let yourself be summoned into their games. Your game can also be invaded by players intent on killing you. Players can also leave messages to help or deceive other players and leave bloodstains which is a short recording of a players death that others can view.

Anyone else playing Demon's Souls? What are your thoughts on the game? My PSN ID is Ziroc.

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Won a Guitar Controller

Logitech was giving away guitar, drum, and microphone controllers for Guitar Hero/Rockband to random followers of their Facebook fan page, and I was one of the lucky winners. I got the Logitech Wireless Guitar for the XBox 360. It's a really nice controller made from wood and steel like a real guitar. Since I don't have a Guitar Hero or Rockband game for the 360, I rented Rockband: The Beatles to try it out. It works pretty well, but the touch sensitive slide buttons on the neck don't seem to work with Rockband. Other than that it was a pretty sweet win, and one of my biggest wins as far as value ($200). Only other items I've ever won with this high a price value was a year subscription to Netflix, and a .hack// video game prize pack.



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