Carrion I was kinda hyped for this game, then Huber's review left me a little concerned. Glad I went for it! The game has some issues but nothing too serious. First kudos for the monster's animation, feels great to control, very responsive and with good animation details. Honestly this alone makes it worth playing it. And as you power up it becomes more and more satisfying to wreak havoc. On the other hand when you take control of Humans we go to the polar opposite of quality, badly animated, like really bad. Furtunately these moments are short, and when they become part of the combat puzzle you can actually have some fun without the poor animation ruining it. Level design is good, intuitive. I can't even say if the game has a map, never felt the need to look for it. Never gets disorienting, you just follow the path of least resistance and you'll get where you need to. It works particularly well with your character being a formless beast. The atmosphere is good too, music does a lot of the heavy lifting. Quality atmospheric and cinematic music. My only complain is the lack of low end in the mix. Sound design is all over the place, sometimes brilliant, like when you reach near the surface and you hear rain falling outside, others silly bad, like with the humans screaming. Art direction is ok. Does it's job but just that and nothing more. It's a shame. Kinda generic, dull. Loved that's just 4h, feels right being that short. The ending is simple and elegant.

In the Mood for Love Two neighbors become close after learning their spouses are cheating on them. Wong Kar Wai is a king of visual storytelling, and this film is no exception. The way he uses color and his framing to sell the intimacy and emotional arc of these characters is genuinely masterful, and Maggie Cheung nails that feeling of barely contained despair. I will say that I was hoping for a bit more catharsis by the end, but that's probably the point. Still an incredible watch. A- Battles Without Honor and Humanity The story of the Yamamori clan as the fight to make their mark in post-war Hiroshima. This is my first yakuza movie ever, and I watched it pretty much exclusively because I thought the title and poster were rad as hell. This film is about as '70s gritty as they come, with each kill punctuated by wailing horns and strings. The story itself is rather convoluted and disjointed, with characters switching sides and being offed at such a rate that even the narrator couldn't help me keep track of it all. It probably doesn't help that the characters speak in such a thick accent that they might as well be speaking Korean - even with closed captioning on, I had to re-watch some of the early scenes several times to understand what was being said. The cast is also sprawling. Major characters drop in and out of the plot for long stretches of time, and their re-introduction would almost always result in a head-scratching "wait, who were they again?" moment. The performances ran the gamut from solid to "remembering why I typically don't like the typical Japanese style of acting," with Sugawara being a notable standout. Ultimately, once I stopped thinking too hard and just let things flow I found myself having a good time, and I'm definitely curious to explore this genre a bit more. B-

I got all the DLC for FighterZ and Tekken 7 on sale on my birthday. I bought some cargo shorts with my bday money as well. And I used my Books a Million gift card to but Avatar - North and South Hardcover online.

@FF7Cloud I think that changes the format of what we're going for. I think each person nominating one game within a time limit, making as good a case for that specific game as they can, and then the community voting on a consensus pick is the way to go. If you're making a multiple game list, you're going to have to come up with multiple arguments why someone should vote for each of your five games over any of the other games on your list.

Not so much watched, but I finished reading my deluxe edition set of Battle Angel. Fun read that has alternate, what if ending for the original series. Now I have to start ordering Last Order, and then finally, Mars Chronicles.

The Fiend x Alexa Bliss continues after that brief swamp match weirdness?! Now THIS is something! Yes! jizzedinmypants.jpg

@DMCMaster it's insane that happened more than a month before release

I'm not familiar with the character before this, but Akira Kazama's art design looks sick. I'm excited to see how she plays.

One of my favourite laugh out loud moments that was touched on in EZAs spoiler mode but I don't think they noticed. When Yusuke rearranges Futaba's action figures, they're in the Ginyu Force poses. One of my favourite references of all time.

Thanks @tokeeffe9 for moving this!

Yup, seems like a good place for it!

Feels good man!

@oscillator Thanks for sharing. I've just ordered it, gonna have my hands on it tomorrow!

@ffff0 @Axel Seconded, it might be a good opportunity for you to plug it for non-forum regulars, explain how it works in more detail and what you do to organise it, explain how you do 2 every year, one for the year past and a retro one. It's sort of what Community Showcase is for, I think :)