The Kshatriya will haunt your dreams

Gundam Unicorn, the first entry in the Universal Century timeline in forever, is beyond solid- it's showing great promise. I can't think of any issues I had with the first episode other than the gigantic, yawning gulf of time between this release and the next; apparently we won't be picking up on the 2nd episode of 6 until this Fall. Then again, if it gets us this kind of quality, it's worth it. A few notes:

- Banagher Links: I haven't seen a Gundam protagonist like this in a while. Granted, that has to do a lot with still not having seen 00, but he's not your typical Gundam hero just yet. He's not overly angsty, he's not emotionless, and he's not constantly getting slapped, likely because of the first two points I just made. Granted, we're only an episode in, and I've already got the feeling in my bones that he's going to have the nearly-universal "crying in his bed" moment soon, but for now, he's the best main I've seen since Garrod Ran.

- Mecha Designs: Granted, part of the charm here is the crisp hi-def visuals, but they're pretty awesome and not incredibly ludicrous for being machines of death. The Kshatriya is ridiculous on paper (including its call sign, NZ-666) but it ends up coming off as legit scary; there's some 20-odd funnels coming at ya, and Marida Cruz does a hell of a job in matching the cold demeanor of the machine.

- Historical elements: I swear, if that's not Bernie's Zaku in the museum, I'll be shocked. Also, it was nice hearing the history report for Anaheim not mention Operation Stardust, the Grypps conflict, the Titans, etc. Looks like the federation still has its share of lying assholes.

- The score for the anime is AWESOME.

All in all, I'd recommend it- it's a great start, and so far, it's worth the purchase.

A horrible week for gaming.

Two things about gaming this week that utterly pissed me off.

DERP!!

1)Hakan. I actually am mad at myself for not being ready for this more than anything, but still, I feel I have a valid beef here. Turkish Oil Wrestling is not where I have the problem. Indeed, it's no more awkward than a Sumo walking out in public with naught but his traditional dress (as in clothing, not a skirt) and a loincloth. And even with his design, it's not like Street Fighter hasn't had an increasing interest in sideshow freaks like Necro, Twelve and Q.

However, his moves are well into Power Instinct territory, including a ridiculous Ultra where he gives the appearance of shitting out his opponent. Congratulations, SF fans: you now have your Bo Rai Cho, a character that adds nothing to the proceedings other than being sorely out of place and goofy. Might as well have him rip a huge, loud one when he does it.

Now, you might be saying "But Dan's in there and you don't have any problem with him!" No shit! Dan's hilarious because he's a rip on SNK and a clumsy ass fighter. This jackass, though?

Ono really needs to be slapped hard. He's had 3 new characters that are worth a shit in the game. The rest have been shallow jokes. Enough with the goofy, pseudo-humorous abortions- no more cooking lucha fighters, no more fatass Bob ripoffs, no more Dural clones and enough joke characters, for christ's sakes. I haven't been this turned off on SSFIV since I found out Adon's going to be shit tier and we're getting Cody and not Rolento.

2)

DERPITTY DERP!!

Yep. It's happened.

Now, my hope is that since Sony has a software wing that's actually interested in something other than the umpteenth iteration of Zelda or massive mascot fanwanks, maybe they'll actually produce software that's worth a damn. They already have the better model- they got out a solid console with a solid library and they are aligning this as what it is: a peripheral. Good. And I realize the idea is to open up the market and snare some of the people in the "Wii" market.

The problem is that Sony's already done a hell of a lot right, even without this stupid shit. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Nintendo's marketing department(s) are the big reason it's succeeding, more so than the tech. I'll gladly be proven wrong. But to me, it's a cynical look towards a market that I really don't think has as much staying power as people may say. And I worry that we're going to start losing resources that could be used much more intelligently elsewhere.

Again, I'll probably have to get over it- this isn't a reach out to me, the gamer since 1984. For me, a controller must simply be adequate. And my DS3 is already way ahead of motion tech in that respect.

What's really bugging me is we still have the overwhelming knob-slobbering over Natal to face.

Other irritants of note:

- I love me some Penny Arcade, but Tycho's latest post re: Final Fantasy XIII, PS3 VS. 360 edition, is such a meandering two-step around his disappointment in the PS3 having the better version that it's almost nauseating to read. Especially when he eschews his own advice of buying the better version if you already own both systems in favor of buying a copy for each system. Yep, he owns both- his justification is that this somehow amounts to support for it being on more than one system. A Solomon-like decision, and just as intelligent in the long run.

Dude, seriously: pick one. There's almost no reason for you to be double dipping on a fucking video game, least of all out of some cavalier notion that it's a vote for multi-platform releases. I can understand a gamer who picks the 360 Version because he'd rather have it on 360. If it's for quality reasons, he's wrong, but I understand it. What I'll never understand is essentially paying $120 for one game. Not for Tony Hawk, not for Final Fantasy. Just buy your 360 copy, condemn the goddamn resolution comparisons and be done with it. You know you want to.

- Finally, Portal 2. I'm not mad about the game, but now I'm gonna have to build a new rig to make sure I can play it. Lovely. :/