Bringing Saxon Back

These last couple of days have been insanely cold in El Paso...And that could mean one of two things;

1.) We listen to Immortal

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah

or

2.) Or we listen toVIKING METAL

Metal as FUCK

As much as I love Abbath and company, I can't help but give my own shitty opinion on an amazing album. Alex here with a new installment of "Bands that Alex likes on ice in 3-D", offering you one of the best eargasms out there today; Moonsorrow's 2001 "Voimasta Ja Kunniasta" (Strength and Honor)

This album has no real story, nor is it a concept album. Its just "FUCK YEAH WARRIORS" all over. Moonsorrow gets to mix Viking/and Folk metal all into an orgy of sound that just brings you right in. Being from Finland I bet they just go outside and get inspired

Inspiration

The album begins with a soothing instrumental composed of a medley of keyboards/piano "Tyven" (Calm), a fitting introduction to something that is about to make you grow a beard and wield a battle ax. "Tyven" is then quickly transmitted towards another song "Sankarihauta"(Soldier's Grave) Story; A village in ruins, a man sees destruction and his family killed, anger so awesome beyond the comprehension of mortal man wells inside him.

(Gonna make an educated guess, but his is probably the last thing he saw)

He finds the army, tells them to "COME AT ME BRO" and proceeds to kill all but a few so they can tell the tale...Which is probably the best story of revenge ever told. The music itself is worthy of this song, the woeful/angry sounding vocals just fit in so well you can just feel the rage well up inside you. This is the kind of shit you want playing during times of intensity.....And it is just the beginning.

Track number Three is "Kylän Päässä" (A Village Away) This song....Guys, this song. "Kylän Päässä" tells the story of two foolish brothers who just have fallen prey to the lust of war and pride, not understanding the art that comes with it; it is a duty, not fun. The intensity in this song comes from all over, this is like four different songs packed into one, blending together perfectly into what could only be product of Valhalla itself ...... Your body was never ready.

Track number Four and Five are also in the list of positive things have to say, but it would make this post TL;DR more than it already is. Track Four "Hiidenpelto / Häpeän Hiljaiset Vedet"(Devil's Feild/Silent Waters of Infamy) and Track Five "Aurinko ja Kuu"(The Sun and The Moon ...Pssst Listen to them

As much as it pains me to say this word....All of these songs are. Epic...And they are, if epic wasn't so overused for stupid bullshit, if you looked for epic on the dictionary, one would find Moonsorrow as the definition.

The last song in the album "Sankaritarina"(The Story of a Hero) Is a beautiful, melancholy, 13 minute farewell. Saying goodbye to a good man and warrior is never easy, but in this world of battles it is an unavoidable risk, but knowing that one day we will all be reunited in the majestic halls of Valhalla makes it all the better. The last six minutes is what gets you the most the sorrow, sadness, the "Son I am proud" feeling that just oozes out of it. Then it fades out with a slowed down excerpt of "Tyven" and wind; feeling like the whole album was a lucid dream about to get lost in the breeze.

This journey is filled with war, treachery, loss, victory, folklore. Add Intense guitars, blasting drums, funky ass basslines,traditional folk instruments and why the fuck not some catchy as fuck keyboards and we get this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV0Ef1RHshg

(Which is my favorite song of all time)

And for only Six songs this ain't too shabby.

This record can be bought on the internet....Unless you have a cool ass record store near you that has a wide variety of music.

Until next time. See ya' Little Duckies

fate/ZERO s.1

I have the pleasure of being a Type Moon fan. Wether it be Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of Sinners) or anything Fate related, you can bet your buiscuits that Akia will be watching those shows and playing the games. This past Winter 2011 season Fate's light novel prequel fate/ZERO recieved an anime... sad part it was only the first season. Well, this coudl be sad or a happy moment depending on how you look at it. I personally found this a bit sad because the first season ended on... well you'll have to read on to find out ;)

image copyright goes out to i have no idea
[[english site for the limited blu-ray here]]

Original Novels by Gen Urobuchi
w/ illustrations by Takashi Takeuchi

Animation Studio- ufotable
Director- Ei Aoki

:series info:
Year- 2011
Season- Winter
# of eps- 13
Genre(s)- action, fantasy
Synopsis-
fate/ZERO takes place 10 years prior to the events of fate/ stay night.
This is the 4th Holy Grail War.

It's always difficult to review a show that has such a niche fan base as the Fate series has; you're either a fan or not- there is no middle ground. Amongst my friends this stands very true. I myself am a HUGE fan of the Fate series where as my good friend Elijah thinks the series itself is full of generic characters and the story is too "emo bull shit" to be considered any good. There's also my friend Jimmy who's just a fan (not to the level that I am) and there's also my other friend Ty who's fan level could possibly be bigger than mine simply because he's actually finished the visual novel while I'm struggling to do just that (it's very long). Needless to say, more of my friends like the Fate series than not. BUT I do have some friends who were interested in checking out the series but when Elijah told them King Arthur was portrayed as a girl any interest they had vanished, which is a shame considering I find this gender change was an appropriate move for a series in Japan.

I'm going to do my best and make this an unbiased overview... well more than likely this will be difficult because it's hard to overview an anime I love without being biased about the reasons I love said anime. For example this time around I had two fairly solid favorite characters rather than a few I kind of liked or called "favorite". This season my favorites were Archer (Gilgamesh) and Rider [pictured below]. Without Rider this anime would have very well lacked any good comic relief. Rider was a very well rounded character this season but revealing who he is and why he was the comedic relief would be somewhat of a major spoiler so I'll just leave this at he was a great character who didn't have to have some big plans for the holy grail to be a legit servant. In the case of Archer (Gilgamesh) he was so pompous and full of himself that the few moments he was in the show made my day- especially this one episode where Archer, Rider and Saber were drinking to show who was a true king. You'll know the episode when you see it.

Anyways, besides having some really enjoyable characters this time around fate/ZERO also had heaps of action and lots more talking. If there's one flaw this anime has it's that I sometimes wished there was more interaction between characters than just heaps of talking. I wanted much more action. MUCH! MORE! Alas, this was only the first season so I guess I can let the lack of more action slide. There was still a good amount though; possibly more than the original anime and even the Unlimited Blade Works movie. Since this is an anime based on a light novel series that's a prequel to a visual novel it's expected for there to be heavy dialogue. Other than that I can't say I found anything wrong with the anime... but my good friend Elijah would argue I'm wrong.

Elijah likes to tell me the characters are too generic and the story is too "emo". Where I can agree with the characters being too generic, I can't really agree 100% with the whole emo thing. Type Moon has a habit of making their characters look way too similar to each other. This is very evident in their work on Tsukihime and Kara no Koykai... but as far as Fate is concerned this isn't so much the case. Yes a lot of the characters have similar features but isn't that how humans are in general? We all have eyes, noses, mouths, hair and more in common. Fate even does a good job of making families look like each other which is rarely found in anime these days. Rin looks like her dad and Illya looks like her mom. Now on the note of being emo... well Fate is meant to be a dark series; fate/ZERO is no exception to this rule. In fact, it goes into some material that fate/Stay Night did not touch in the anime (the visual novel is a much different story, especially the Heaven's Feel arc) such as rape. Now don't let this scare you away from the anime- the first 2 or 3 episodes has some really heavy material that I wish more of the show dealt with . I understand there's a second season though so some if not all of what was visited in the first few episodes just may be revisited and solved. Overall if fate/ZERO didn't have some of this material it would just be another generic "fighting" anime.

By far my favorite part of fate/ZERO has to be the music.

fate/ZERO is an anime for those that are fans of visual novels and flashy animation and characters. The characters of fate/ZERO (the servants) almost require reading up on who their based on to get a full grasp of the story. Each of the servants are based on a particular legendary hero from history. Saber has been King Arthur for as long as I remember, and Archer is usually Gilgamesh. Other than these giving away who the servant is would spoil the anime so you'll just have to watch to figure it out. Part of the fun is trying to discover who the servant really is before the anime itself reveals just that. After figuring out who is who I recommend reading up on that hero if you have the chance. This really does bring more light to why the character is the way they are and it gives you the opportunity to be smart and learn something new. This also makes fate/ZERO somewhat of a smart anime in comparison to others that don't use outside material to make a story.

After finishing up this season of fate/ZERO (the second season doesn't come out till April so you're going to need something to do) try out Fate/Stay Night and then the movie Unlimited Blade Works. Both are worth watching if you enjoyed Fate/ZERO ^_^

Marginal Gaming - Introduction

I'm starting a new column on 8bitfix where I discuss what it's like to be a gamer of a certain age, the decisions you have to make as a gamer and how those decisions could lead you into becoming a contributor to gaming as a lifestyle and an art form. Don't quite understand? Take a look at the article.

Welcome to 2012

Hey there all you in the interwebz, been a while no? Ya... sorry about not being a good blogger here on AugReal >.> I plan to do much better in this new year! I have many new series planned and also want to get back to doing the ones I used to on my R//W[G] blog. I also really want to do better on reviewing anime, manga, novels and more for you guys! One of my passions is sharing my honest thoughts on what's out there as far as geek culture; not many female otaku's seem to review some of the "guy oriented" anime out there and I feel this may give female otaku the wrong idea about some of these anime (and manga for that matter) so it's one of my goals this year to do a better job of being a female voice in the world of male dominated otakudom. Hope you'll join me as I develop as a better writer/blogger and as an editor! Following is a list of series I'll be continuing and new ones I plan to try out ^_^

[[Continuing]]
1) Anime of the Week - It's a pretty simple series. I usually pick one I have finished that re-caught my eye recently or one that's currently playing in Japan. I'll even sometimes put a "why'd a bother" for a series that's kind of worth watching but could easily just be passed on.
2) Anime, Manga, Novel, Visual Novel and more Reviews
3) Manga and Anime Line-up

[[New!]]
1) 100 Books in a Year (reviews and spotlights)- Before reading a book (or after a few chapters) I'll be posting spotlights with basic info such as authors previous work, a summary and possible page count. After finishing a book i'll either make a video review or type one up. I have a goal of reading 100 books this year... it's a tough goal.

MAS8705 talks about Phoenix Wright Mash Ups

How it is going everyone! I’m MAS8705 and I am excited since I am finally going to be doing one of my rants right now! I admit that I’m a bit out of practice (considering it has been a while since I have last worked on a rant), so this rant will not have a word limit, so if you want to see under 500 words, wait till next time… Also I'm going to attempt a new style of Ranting where I use "Visual Aids" to get my point across, so if you guys don't think this is good, go ahead and tell me and I'll be sure to correct this...

It has been a great year for me: I’ve passed my classes, I’m working again, and there was the announcement of a Phoenix Wright Movie! For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer, or haven’t seen the 2nd one, here is what I’m talking about…



Now I am a big hater of this whole god damn “Video Game Movie Adaptation” series, as people (mainly f***ing Uwe Boll) have no idea what the hell to do when it comes to making a video game movie. But hey that’s a rant for another time: This movie has me excited as it is following what an adaptation is suppose to do: Retell the story it is known for, and using the same characters and no new characters (again, F*** Alice). Not to mention of the Big crossover coming soon of Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney…



Now I’ve never had the chance to play Professor Layton, but this is looks to be shaping up to be an awesome game!

Let’s face it, there are a few things in this world that I can be truly excited for: Smash Bros, Chocobos, and the story telling of the Phoenix Wright games. Hell, I bet if you mash up Phoenix Wright with anything, it will be awesome… I want you to think of anything you would want to mash up Phoenix Wright with and tell me what would be the best crossover.

…

Alright, results are coming in… and…



…



SERIOUSLY?! YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK! Why the hell would you want to mash up the awesomeness of Phoenix Wright with My Little Pony!?!

*smashes head against wall several times to calm down*

Ok, ok… I’m sorry… it’s just that my little pony, (well to me anyway) sounds like a bunch of-



*puts away Nuke Bricks*

It does sounds like a bunch of hoopla to me since I could never figure out the popularity of my little pony, even after watching the "Know your meme" segment about it... Anyway, getting back on topic, there are actually two projects on YouTube that actually do mash together Phoenix wright with My Little Pony, and (as it turns out) I am finding it very hard to look away from since it is being executed perfectly... Also I don't want to scare away those who are afraid of losing their "masculinity" as they read this topic so I'm going to throw in some manly Clips to help even out this article... Here's the first one...

There we go... :)

The first is called “My Little Investigations” which is basically Edgeworth’s investigation games done with ponies. While you would think this would be stupid, it is actually well thought out… First shown by YouTube user, GabuEx, it later developed into Team Equestrain Dreamers (they were already a team, but GabuEx was posting the videos on his channel first), they have done a few things that actually expand on the game play style off the investigations game… While you can see the videos on their new YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/EquestrianDreamers

Let me post one video that really stood out for me: The idea of “Partners”.



This is something that you would probably see in a future "Investigations" game where the partner you have can actually affect the story and progression, so this is was just mind blowing for me. Also there was a time when these guys are also RECRUITING artists and other people to help put the game together so if there are any pony lovers out there (you sick little monkeys… Couldn’t find a video for that one sadly ;( ) go to their site and apply, they need a lot of artists to put the game together. Again though, it is hard to say if they still are recruiting, but hey never hurts to ask...

OK, one more Chuck Norris Clip...

Well that was fun...

The 2nd mashup is a rather clever idea: a crossover of Phoenix Wright with My Little Pony called: Turnabout Storm

While many other people would try and post stupid dialogue with horrific voice acting, these guys have well written dialogue and pretty good voice actors, while at the same time having the look and feel of Phoenix Wright with Music while keeping it in the My Little Pony Universe. That and I feel Phoenix’s Pain about him losing his manliness the more he is in the world. Poor guy. Anyway, they also recently posted the 2nd part, so if you enjoyed the first video, be sure to watch the 2nd (I just watched it and I have to say the ending was quite the twist)...

...

Thank you Mike Haggar, I couldn't use three consecutive clips of Chuck Norris, Don't want him to come find me...

So… yea, I will admit that the fans do know how to work my little pony into the style of Phoenix Wright, and hell if I wanted to start watching My Little Pony, this probably would be the backdoor route to doing it… In fact, let’s watch one scene really fast just for the hell of it…



…

._.

O_o

@_@

Must… Watch… Poni- *Punches self* NO! NO! NO! NO! This is sick and wrong! No wonder why people seem to watch these Ponies! If you excuse me, I’m going to watch five Chuck Norris films right now to get my manliness back! I’m MAS8705 and that was my rant for today! See you next time!

*Jumps out of three story window*


Special Notice: To help balance out my time away from Augmented Reality, I will be posting a few extra articles these next few weeks, I hope you all enjoy and leave a comment down below for anything you want to be discussed… Alongside with this, I am also planning on posting a few stories I have been working on too, so if you want a preview of it, be sure to ask...

Disclaimer: I don’t hate My Little Pony; I’ve seen a few episodes and it is written a hell lot better than most other shows nowadays… Also all videos and pictures used in this rant belong to those who originally posted them and the companies they belong to...

Comicked Reality: The New Year

A new year brings new additions to Augmented Reality, including this new comic strip about the adventures of the augmented reality team behind the scenes. Look forward to new installments by a variety of Augmented Reality's fine artists!

Sexy Taco Productions Panel at Wintercon 2011 - Part 2

More from the Sexy Taco Productions panel at Wintercon 2011. It's pretty....wow. I mean, wow.