VIDEO GAMES: Toast Reviews “LIMBO” by Playdead Studios on XBox Live Arcade

Guest review time!  Faithful readers, please give a warm welcome to the latest WITWAR guest writer, Toast!  She very graciously decided to take time away from working  on her own site, A Girl and Her Blog, to review an XBox Live Arcade game for all of you.  So please, enjoy this glimpse into the mind of an enthusiastic and dedicated gamer, and be sure to check out her other posts at A Girl and Her Blog!   [click the jump-link to read on]

VIDEO GAMES: John Reviews “Hydro Thunder Hurricane” by Microsoft Studios on Xbox Live Arcade

If you’ve stopped at a highway rest stop anytime within the last eleven years, you’ve probably seen an arcade cabinet version of Hydro Thunder, Midway’s insanely popular and outlandish speedboat racing game.  Seriously, this game is everywhere when it comes to rest stops, even today!  But now, thanks to Microsoft Game Studios and Xbox Live Arcade, you can bring the fun of crazy speedboat racing home with Hydro Thunder Hurricane.  The original was a truly great arcade experience, and HT:H lives up to its pedigree.

VIDEO GAMES: John Reviews “Castlevania: Harmony of Despair” by Konami for XBox Live Arcade

Ahh, Castlevania.  One of the only two areas of popular culture where it’s cool for a guy to wield a whip (the other, of course,  being Indiana Jones.) When I downloaded Castlevania: Harmony of Despair as part of Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade promotion, I was expecting a game experience something like the genre’s most popular entry, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  While the graphics and core play controls are roughly the same as that 1997 classic, and Alucard is still one of the main characters, C:HD is an extremely different game from SotN. Gone is the story-driven, nonlinear, exploration-based single-player structure of the old days.  Instead, C:HD is an interesting mash-up of the last five big 2-D Castlevania games, and combines gameplay elements from all of them plus Gauntlet, Diablo, and (I shudder to even say its name) World of Warcraft. Do all of those elements work together? 18 hours of gameplay later, I can say that it’s certainly interesting enough to dig its hooks into me and keep me from playing several other of my recent downloads.  How do they do it? Read on!

MOVIES: John Reviews “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” Directed by Edgar Wright

Fresh from the finale of his award-winning graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim is taking the world by storm in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, directed by Shaun of the Dead and  Hot Fuzz‘s Edgar Wright.  But can Bryan Lee O’Malley’s vision of a world where romance and drama are inextricably linked to video games and over-the-top action work on the silver screen as well as it does in the pages of a comic?

The short answer is: Yes!

The long answer is: Yes, but it’s a fairly different experience (as almost any adaptation is.)

COMICS: John Reviews “Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour” by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Time to switch things up!  Since this is the final installment of the excellent six-part slice-of-life-romantic-comedy/over-the-top-video-game-action (holy-crap-that’s-a-lot-of-hyphens) graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, much of the usual introductory fare is unnecessary.  Instead of structuring my reviews as I normally do, I will invert the pyramid and start with my final summary:

• For those who have been reading and enjoying the Scott Pilgrim series up to this point, rest assured: Volume 6 brings the story to an action-packed, emotionally satisfying conclusion.
• For those who have been reading the Scott Pilgrim series and aren’t sure they like where the later volumes were heading, there’s a very good chance that Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour has brought back everything you loved about the early volumes and will make you a fan again.
• For those who haven’t been reading the Scott Pilgrim series at all, it should be rather obvious that the last volume is hardly the place to start.  Go out and pick up Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, resting comfortably in the knowledge that the whole story is a well-crafted arc and the big ending doesn’t fall flat.

And now, the specifics!

OPERATION BACKLOG SLOG (BLOG): Episode 11

Today I’ve got another interesting assembly of media items for you: A neo-classic fairy tale, a comic odyssey into very weird territory, some side projects from favorite artists of mine, and a whole slew of Mega Man-related media.  Let’s dig in!

MOVIES: John Reviews “Hot Tub Time Machine,” directed by Steve Pink

It’s not often that I get to do this, but I today I’m pleased to present you with a review of a movie that hasn’t even been released to theaters yet: United Artists and MGM Studios’  Hot Tub Time Machine.  While the title pretty much gives away the central plot point of the story, nothing shows off the charm of the film like its trailer.  “Get Tub’d!”

OPERATION BACKLOG SLOG (BLOG): Episode 10

This is the first episode of OBS to reflect the broad, sweeping changes I have enacted.  Huzzah!
Today I’ve got some excellent independent downloadable games, a great piece of computer hardware, an album by a nonexistent band, an hilarious audio/video podcast, and one of the best X-Men story arcs ever to be written (among other things.)

OPERATION BACKLOG SLOG (BLOG): Episode 9 – The Steampunk Edition

Steampunk can be a difficult subgenre to wrap one’s head around. But since the mainstream world seems to be embracing it with movies like Sherlock Holmes and video games like Epic Mickey, I figured I would take a look at the things in my collection that might be representative of the genre. We’ve got Steampunk books, movies, music, video games, anime and comics to get through, so it’s time to fire up the boilers! Full steam ahead!

OPERATION BACKLOG SLOG (BLOG): Episode 8

This update includes a fair bit of content you wouldn’t expect from someone of such niche tastes and preferences as me. The big surprise was Lady Gaga (but then again, I’ll be shocked if anyone needs to read my review to decide whether or not Lady Gaga is worth listening to.) But before we get to music, I’ll begin with the game that has been devouring all my free time since I started playing it this Sunday: