I still have the touch

Today I was able help a friend out and install the homebrew channel on their Wii! It was a fairly straight forward experience. considering i didn't have to go through the mario cart exploit, like I had to when i did it on my Wii. It took me a bit to get the Fatal Frame 4 Patch installed correctly. However I did get it to work!  If your looking to get the homebrew channel and the patch installed, I highly recommend this guide!
https://zero4englishtranslation43.weebly.com/the-guide.html

Ending Thoughts on Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Of Course Spoiler Warning.

All good things come to an end, and i can say with no doubts that this Game receives 9 out of 10 Stars..  It blew my expectations away. It gave me a chilly story great effects and decent game play..

I am not going to beat a dead horse, to death but the biggest problem was the control scheme. However it overcame its problems and delivered a good game none the less. Good Job. Now to wait and see what Maiden of the Blackened Water Brings!

Fatal Frame 5 Maiden of the Black Water

Yes yes yes yes yes yes! They just released the Trailer for Fatal Frame 5: The Maiden of the Black Water! Enjoy!

Fatal Frame 4 Mid Game Reflections

(My Eyes, My Eyes!!! Spoiler Alert!)

Once again we dive into the world of Ghosts and terror for a mid game review.  Ok, actually, I am a bit further than midway.  I am on  Chapter 8: Sakuya.  Overall the game is living up the reputation that the other games have built up for it. I had a brief moment of rage when I couldn't get a picture of a Hozuki Doll in the Elevator Shaft between floors B1 and B2. However in the grand scheme of things that is relatively small.

The  atmosphere is well balanced. The only major "flaw" is that it looks much better on smaller screens such as the Wii U Gamepad screen then on the projector. Otherwise it has been nearly perfect. (I am making allowances for the issues raised by playing on a US Wii with an English patch.) There have been several places where I nearly jumped out of my seat. I do find the game mechanic that governs when items "shine" to be a little weird and slow.

Character are really being flushed out. I was not a huge fan of the developers splitting the story between 3 main characters. Early on in the game I felt that I was learning a ton of stuff of what was going on as a player, the characters were just cookie cutters. However with the passage of a few chapters, the characters have been developed nicely,  and it has me wondering how and when they are going to meet. I personally would have had the main characters have some sort of run in  by now, seeing as there is only so much coincidence and having just missed people you can honestly expect people to believe.

There have been several nice surprises in game so far, such as this little gem!

When I ran into this, I had a room full of people watching (I was showing off the game) and nearly everyone jumped. Well done design team!

Complaints. Well, lets see. I do not have any major complaints, though I do have a few annoyances
.
#1 Running. This is especially true for the two female characters that tend to do a hobble shuffling thing instead of actually running or any semblance of moving quickly. I mean seriously I have seen tennis shoes go flying when people get scared enough in haunted houses and we are dealing with real ghosts. Believe me those nice little high-heeled sandals would be long gone.

#2 Certain doll Locations. I have encountered a few dolls that, once I had encountered them, were unable to be gotten too again. Such as the doll on the well outside the hospital. Seriously, I have to wait to finish the game and start the new game plus to be able to collect this dolls. GRRR!!!

#3. The lack of threat from the main antagonist. In Fatal Frame 2, If I remember correctly, had Sae chase us through several room quite frequently. Even in the First Fatal Frame, Kirie's appearance brought a ton of dread. In this game I believe the main antagonist has maybe shown up maybe two times, and then only as a minor annoyance. She chased you at a snails pace and then immediately disappeared once you went into another room.

#4 Lack of knowledge of the main antagonist. In the previous games we knew by chapter 3 what the main antagonists name was and reason for their vengeance (or as my sister says, their malfunction). I am now in chapter 8 and the strategy guide ( Ok, I peak when I get really lost) still refers to her as "OH SHIT ITS HER!!!!!!"  I can get the whole lets keep it mysterious thing, but come on, a few facts here and there can make her appearance mean something. Right now when I see her.... Wait, lets rephrase that to the second time I have seen her, she just was a minor interruption to my doll hunting instead of the oh Shit factor the previous antagonists were.

#5 Having to go to a save point save the photos I want to keep. On the original Xbox. All I had to do was protect the pictures I wanted to save and that's it. No running to the save points to download pictures to make sure I didn't accidentally lose them by taking too many pictures during an encounter a particularly pesky ghost.  I understand the mechanic comes from the PS2 days but I really think they could have done better, considering it gets saved to the internal storage device anyway versus an external memory card.

All in all, This is a great game. Despite my few complaints,  I cant wait to finish it.
Thanks for reading!

Fatal Frame 4: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (in Depth)

    (My Eyes...My Eyes! spoiler alert!!)
Here is the more in depth review as promised. I am now in chapter 3, and I have to say I am quite surprised. I had assumed that there was one protagonist as was the case from the first three Frame Fames. I was surprised to find four playable characters, even though one doesn't last very long. Sorry Modoka.The game starts out with Modoka and Misaki exploring the old sanatorium. They are two of the five girls who where kidnapped and found later in the sanatorium.Now, 10 years later, two of the girls, Marie and Tomoe are both dead, found  in gruesome positions. Thus propel Modoka and Misaki to explore the sanatorium to try and find the cause, and to hopefully prevent a similar fate for themselves. The intro is fairly straight forward introducing the controls and camera, ending with the ghosts killing off the third girl. Sorry Modoka, I am so, so sorry. Anyway we are then introduced to Ruka, who was also one of the girls who were kidnapped. After going through her chapter, we are again brought to Misaki in the next chapter. Misaki  has her own camera  which she brought from home. (I guess there two cameras in this game?) Anyway, I spent most of this chapter hunting down dolls..

Yes, these adorably creepy things. They are scattered around the sanatorium, (as seen by my doll location page) On a whim I was going to take a picture of one. I was walking around trying to get the best picture when the reticule turned blue. Apparently you hunt these guys down to release the soul of a child inside. It doesn't affect the outcome of the game apparently, but it does unlock new costumes and lenses. (Beware Dave, I have a custom plushie of one of these being made. IT WILL find a way into your room one night!)

The second chapter abruptly ends with Misaki fighting for her life on the second floor. The third chapter begins with, who I am guessing is, Ruka's mother asking Choshiro (a cop) to go find her daughter on the island and gives him the Spirit Stone Flashlight. She warns him that the islanders have probably blossomed by now.(Still no idea what that means other than some neat graphic effects on the ghosts) When the player takes control, Choshiro is on the island in front of a building. Upon entering the building, he is attack by several ghost villagers. I saved and ended my session after that encounter. The use of the flashlight seems interesting, but I do not have enough experience with it to form an opinion at this point.

Okay, review......   I found some of the camera controls to be a little hard to get used to, and the classic controller is not supported. This makes the encounters with the ghosts a little more difficult than they should be. However, it adds to the scary atmosphere the game presents.

The game environment is definitely spooky, and worthy of a Fatal Frame game. I feel however, that the over use of darkness in certain places makes the difficulty of the game more difficult than expected. It should be noted however, that I am using projector in a room with two large bay windows. Additionally, this game released in 2008, was more than likely developed for LCD and/or CRT TV viewing.

The ghosts are absolutely phenomenal! The "blossomed" ghosts are even more so. I found the use of the ghosts and ghost "quick time events" really added to the story in comparison to earlier games. The AI seems to work beautifully and gives each ghost, what feels to be, a unique attack pattern. It had me scrambling more than once to survive an encounter.

I will briefly touch on the subject of music and audio cues. I have found, so far, in the game the use of music and cues has been well done. You have the classic camera shutter sound for those of us who have been playing the previous games and a fresh musical score to keep things interesting.

 At this point I am going to give the game 4 out of 5 stars.  Mainly due to the fact the controls are a little more difficult than they should be, there is no classic controller support, and the controls to aim and "fire" the camera seem backward to me.  This does not detract from the ample lore, great environment, spectacular looking ghosts, and excellent use of music.

Fatal Frame 4: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Ok, now its really been too long. I have been playing, I swear, I am just going to do a quick update now then a more encompassing one tomorrow. I have been playing Fatal Frame 4, The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. As you can tell, It didn't get a us release, however, that did not stop the dedicated gamers from creating a english patch that you can use with a  Modded Wii or Wiiu.

Its been fun so far.. I have learned the hard way not to play these games when i am tired, which is when i get time to play them it seams like..urg anyway, on my new page that i have added to the blog, i will post my favorite pictures I have captured with the Camera Obscura! More to follow!

Is this a Zombie?

One thing I have realized about my blog is that I have seriously neglected the anime side...oops my bad.

So with out further ado.. IS this a Zombie? isnt your typical anime. In fact i cant say there is much i can say that is typical about this anime. I guess you could classify it as a harem anime but, Most of the girls cant stand his guts (which get spilled more than once through out the series). I wont spoil to much but the main character ends up becoming a zombie magical garment girl...which is saying a lot considering he is a guy. This anime has a lot of over the top comedy which is good considering how dark it could have been. And its deffinately not something you want someone under 18 to watch.

All in all i give it 5 out 5 for its uniqueness and impressive comedy! Its a must watch in my book!

I have included a review that explains it a whole lot better than  i can!

Some guys have no luck; he’s got no pulse. That’s life for poor unfortunate, undead Ayumu. First, he was murdered by a serial killer. Total bummer. Then he was resurrected as a zombie by a cute little Necromancer. That seemed pretty cool until she moved into his house, refused to speak, and forced his rotting carcass to do all the cooking. After that, a magical girl in a pretty pink dress used her matching chainsaw to chop his corpse in half. Luckily, the Necromancer’s powers of resurrection trumped those of the chainsaw chick, so instead of dying (again), Ayumu became the world’s first magical girl zombie. There’s also a voluptuous vampire ninja who thinks zombie boy is a pervert and a hideous crayfish demon who wants to devour him. Confused? All you gotta know is this: zombies, frilly dresses, demons, and more chainsaws. Pink. It s the new dead.
 http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is%20this%20a%20zombie