Platyphyllum

Hello. I'm Platyphyllum.

Friday, Sep 26, 2008

Hello everyone, it's nice to see you all today! ^_^

Anyway, yeah, I'm seriously behind when it comes to blogging so I decided to make a new blog now. Unlike LAST TIME in which I had almost nothing to blog about,this time, I've got quite a few things to blog about like books, new games, reviews, and events happening in my life so I hope you all enjoy this blog! ^_^

Games

When it comes to games, I haven't been too active lately because of school. Fortunately, I ended up seeing a teaser trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2 on GameTrailers.com and it looked rather interesting, so I decided to go ahead and buy the original Beyond Good & Evil (the PS2 version)before it fades into obscurity since I heard not many people bought it and it was a really good game.

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I just finished the first dungeon, and I must say, I'm enjoying it quite a lot! It doesn't stray much from the usual action/adventure formula, but it's still really enjoyable! I think I'm starting to see why people like this game so much and why they were really displeased when everything else ended up outselling it (I'd have been displeased to know that fact if I had bought that game around that time too!). Anyway, I'll make a full review for it once I'm done with the game so you guys can look forward to that! ^_^

I also ordered Indigo Prophecy (after watching a few videos of Heavy Rain) so, yeah, I assume that will be coming in the mail sometime soon and I'll give my impressions on that too.

Books

Strangely enough, lately, I've been reading books more than ever (something which my mother is really pleased with for some reason). Although, she probably has no idea that what I'm reading would be labeled extremely inappropriate to her Anyway, here's what I've been reading:

The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides)

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Yeah, you can pretty much tell by the title that this is something many parents wouldn't approve of Anyway, The Virgin Suicides is about 5 young girls who commit suicide (don't worry, it's not a spoiler. It's stated right at the beginning of the book and is even mentioned on the back cover) and a bunch of obsessed teenagers who contemplate as to why they did it. It was a really interesting book! It was disturbing (especially the part where the suicide attempt of Cecilia Lisbon was described in which she slits her wrists and submerges herself in a tub of warm water to accelerate the blood flow 0_o), and somewhat despressing, but definitely a nice and enlightening read.

Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)

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For some reason, all my friends (who are mostly girls) keep on raving about this book saying it's one of the best books they've ever read so I went ahead and bought it There were even a bunch of girls in their old elementary schools (in case you guys don't remember, I was still in elementary just a year ago and only made the jump to high school this year) who carried this book everywhere as if it was their Holy Bible. Well, frankly, I cannot understand what all the hype was about. This book was, by no means, bad, but it dragged on a bit. The twist that the main protagonist, Bella, was actually in love with a vampire was nice, but after reading through pages and pages, I just wish she'd stop filling in unnecessary space by ranting about how good Edward (the vampire) looked and actually let the book get on with the plot progression. It got a bit out of hand regarding that later on which was a bit of a shame because I can tell this book had potential and the preface really caught my attention. I wonder why the author went ahead and filled so many pages with unnecessary fluff and kind of ruined it. Nonetheless, the book has it's shining moments and it's not bad. Just average. I heard that the following books were worse than this so I'm kind of trying to steer clear of the Twilight series.

Oh yeah, and they're turning this into a movie. I have no idea of how it's going to last as a 2 hour feature film unless they make certain segments entirely out of Bella swooning over Edward which frankly, I'm not looking forward to.

Anansi Boys

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I've always been a bit of a Neil Gaiman fan since I like his particular $tyle. He mainly writes fantasy books and he balances his dark, gritty feel with some smart humor. When I heard about Anansi Boys, I heard it was one of his weaker, but still enjoyable books. While browsing through a bookstore, I found the book and decided to get it and I didn't regret it, because this book really is quite nice! (although a bit more light-hearted compared to some of his other works like Neverwhere) The book is filled with humor, fantasy, romance, and plot twists. it was one of the more enjoyable reads I've had so far (especially after reading the depressing The Virgin Suicides and The Catcher in the Rye ) and I found myself grinning at many of the scenes in the book. If you like fantasy, I'd recommend this.

Reviews

Yay, I wrote a new review! ^_^ The review is for the game No More Heroes. Some of you expressed interest in the game in your comments of my past blogs so I hope my review is enlightening! Here it is:

NO MORE HEROES REVIEW

If you liked it, don't hesitate to recommend it! ^_^ (and if you didn't like it, please tell me how I can improve)

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Well, that's all for now! See you all soon! ^_^

Posted by Platyphyllum, 6:22pm

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Monday, Sep 8, 2008

How Can I Breathe Without You?

Hello everyone! ^_^

Wow, it's been an extremely long time since my last blog. Honestly, August 19th? I need to get back on track However, there's a good reason for that. You all know how I just graduated a few months ago and how I got my elementary school diploma and everything? Well, my high school life officially started last week and I haven't had much time to blog because I've been hanging out with friends and everything. But, I'm making a blog right now to keep you all updated!

School

High school has been going pretty well for me actually! ^_^

For some reason, my workload for my first week and this week has been really light so far. Back in 8th Grade (the last year before high school around here I'd always get tons of homework that would take me hours to do. Now I'm getting some really easy music assignments (Music is probably my easiest subject so far),a bunch of Math that can easily be done in less than an hour, and a bit of French. My other period for this semester is Gym so I luckily don't have any homework there.

It's also really nice being able to see most of the people from my last school once again! A majority of them are going to the same school I'm going to which is nice because I'm familiar with many people! ^_^

Anyway, my brother told me that it doesn't really get too hard until Grade 11 so I guess I'll keep you guys updated on how I'm doing!

Games

Ummm...yeah.

Sadly, I have no new games and I haven't been playing much lately I have no new reviews either! I guess when school starts, I just end up shifting my focus on the stuff I do. I am planning on making a No More Heroes review sometime soon, but I feel the need to play the game a bit before making it to get used to how the game plays again and I'll get to doing that as soon as I get back my Wii which my brother accidentally left at his friend's house

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WOW, my last blog was last month and I have barely anything to talk about in my life ever since then >_< Sorry if this blog was really short, I just wanted to tell you all that I was alive and that I'm not gone from Gamespot :P

Posted by Platyphyllum, 2:22pm

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Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008

I Won't Let You Die!

Hello everyone! It's nice to see you all today!

It hasn't been that long since my last blog but...just to break my recent trend of having gaps of 3 weeks-1 month per blog, I decided to make one shortly after my last one! ^_^ Not much has been happening. I've been playing some games, I finally decided to make a big decision, and I have even more reviews to show to you guys!

Games

Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2

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Um...yes...er...I've been playing this game quite a bit and...I finished it (yes Nora, I finished ANOTHER game It looks like I'm cursed. Whenever I make a new blog, that always means I finished another game. What a horrible fate). It was a really fun game in my opinion! Fast-paced, addictive, full of replayability, and stuff like that. I actually made a review for it (more on the that later).

No More Heroes

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I know that a lot of people in my previous blog were asking me to play this and post my impressions but...I still haven't played it (Please don't assassinate me! ). Don't worry though! I'll play it by Thursday. I promise! ^_^

As for my other incomplete games...I still haven't finished Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Actually, I haven't touched it ever since I made the review for it >_< I was near the end though so I'm sure in the coming months I'll gather up enough motivation and kill the final boss. Or not.

Consoles

Well, I've sort of made a decision regarding a console that I want to get! I've decided that sometime later this year (or sometime next year), I'm going to be getting a PS3! ^_^

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To all the Xbox 360 fans and owners, don't worry. I'll be getting that too someday because there are a lot of Xbox 360 games that I want too. I'm just getting a PS3 first since I'm more interested in its games! I'm not particularly sure WHEN I'll be getting it but I already have a wish list of PS3 games figured out! Here it is if you want to see it:

LittleBigPlanet
Dead Space (I might get the PC version instead)
Prince of Persia
Eternal Sonata
Siren: New Translation (Nina knows I'm looking forward to this )
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Valkyria Chronicles
Soulcalibur IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Folklore
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

There's definitely more that's going to be added to that list (there are even games I excluded from the list because I'm a bit skeptic about them but still want to get them), but for now, I'm really looking forward to getting those games! ^_^ So all you PS3 owners can look forward to playing LittleBigPlanet, Soulcalibur IV, and those other games with me when I get mine! ^_^

Reviews

This also seems to be some sort of new feature in my blogs. Every single blog I make always seems to feature some sort of review >_< Well, I made 2 news ones for Fatal Frame III: The Tormented and Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2:

TRAUMA CENTER: UNDER THE KNIFE 2 REVIEW
FATAL FRAME III: THE TORMENTED REVIEW

If you liked them, you can recommend them using the Recommend button so that they can get a star! (This is because I have this big master plan where I will rule over the world using my starred reviews! I'm not telling anyone anymore details. Bwahahahaha)

Oh yeah, and by request, I posted a few of my reviews here on Gamespot. Check them out if you want! ^_^

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Anyway, that's all for now! See you all soon and remember.

Shadow Kuma is watching you in your sleep.

Posted by Platyphyllum, 6:37am

24 Comments | Post a Comment

My Recent Reviews

Platyphyllum has written 2 reviews.

Pan's Labyrinth

Agree (3)

Disagree (0)

To me, Pan's Labyrinth is one of the few movies (if not, the only) that I've watched which combines the concept of imagination, fantasy, war, violence, and horror (to some extent) at the same time all into one movie which is one of the reasons as to why this movie is amazing.

In this movie, you will be following the adventures of Ofelia, who is traveling to her stepfather's base (they're having a civil war) in Spain. She is going there together with her pregnant mother Carmen. When she gets there, she spots this labyrinth and suddenly, strange stuff start happening such (fairies start appearing and guiding Ofelia around, etc.).

Anyways, the actors of this movie are absolutely amazing. Their appearances and emotions are absolutely fabulous. Ofelia is a very fine example of a good character, she's a nice girl, who believes in fairy tales, and has a big imagination, and at the same time, the actress that played here manages to bring those traits to life in the movie. That's wonderful! Another great example of a character is Captain Vidal (I have no idea what the actors and actresses names are so bear with me) who is an evil, narrow minded man who kills people and just makes you want to hate him. The actor who played him manages to do this absolutely wonderfully, he, at not one moment, seems to care about anybody except himself, his points of views, and keeping his family name alive. There's tons more really good characters in this movie (Pan, Mercedes, etc.) but I wouldn't be able to list them all! Anyways, this movie does a great job with the characters. What the fantasy creatures lack in costumes and realism in appearance, they make up for with their personality and emotion. The only thing I don't like is that weird creature with those hands that he uses as his eyes, he looked really weird, and had no personality at all, and his acting was bad to some extent.

Now, this movie justifies it's R (or 14A rating if you live in Canada) very well. At first, I thought this was just going to be some fantasy movie for grown-ups that would have to do with war, etc. Well, boy, was I wrong. This movie is GRUESOME, with lots of blood, and violence. I cringed when I saw the scene in which a person's mouth was cut open (with a knife), and that very same person sewed it together with a needle and thread (ugh), and drank alcohol afterwards...well, you get the idea. There aren't too many scenes with blood and gore, but each scene goes to extreme lengths that I simply must agree with it's R/14A rating.

This movie, much like the Bridge to Terabithia, uses the concept of imagination very well. Ofelia, is a girl with a big imagination, with a big imagination, you can create a whole new world. Well, that's exactly what happens with Ofelia. She starts seeing fairies, after a while, she follows one of them and ends up in a labyrinth, where she meets Pan, a faun creature. Afterwards she starts going around and the strangest of things happen to her, such as her having to go inside a tree, to destroy this absolutely huge enchanted frog, so that she can get a golden key inside of it's belly, and give it back to Pan so that she can become the princess of this kingdom. Now, what I like most about this movie's use of imagination, is the fact that you really can't seem to tell if what Ofelia is experiencing, is a figment of her imagination, or if it's real.

The story of this movie is good, the characters are good (except for that weird eye-hand monster thingy), I like the music, I like how imagination is used. So what could it be that I find wrong about the movie that doesn't make it perfect?

Well, that would have to be that probably way more than just 50% of this movie takes place in the real world while probably less than 30% takes place in Ofelia's fantasy/imagination world. I felt as if there wasn't enough focus on Ofelia's fantasy world, I mean, in the trailer, that was what was shown, Ofelia going on various adventures, etc., but when I see the movie, I felt a bit disappointed. So that's one reason i didn't give this movie a perfect rating. Oh yeah, and another reason is that weird eye-hand creature, he wasn't vital to the story at all, he was only given a few minutes of screentime and for the entire part he was shown, he wasn't really that good of a character.

So, by all means, watch this movie if you want to! I'd recommend this to all people except those who hate reading (the movie is in Spanish and has English subtitles. I didn't have a problem with the reading, but if you're a person who hates reading, you will hate this movie, but it's really such a shame that you won't be able to see this movie because it simply is a great one).

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Posted feb 17, 2007 5:19 am pt

Bridge to Terabithia

Agree (8)

Disagree (1)

Bridge to Terabithia is an incredibly good movie which has pleased me quite a lot, thanks to its strong faithfulness to the book, it's strong emotional characters, and it's heartwarming story of two kids.

Bridge to Terabithia follows the adventures of Jess, a boy who is different from most of his classmates, making him become a loner at school simply because he is a boy who is very good at art. His life changes when he meets a girl with an incredibly huge imagination, a girl named Leslie. Through their very own imagination, they manage to create a world of their own.

Now then, what I like the most about this movie, is it's incredibly heartwarming, yet sad story of Leslie and Jess, however revealing more of this story would be absolutely spoilerrific so I'll keep my mouth shut for now.

Another thing I like is that the characters show lots of emotions! Whenever one of them is upset or sad, they really put a lot of emotion in it! When they're happy, they put up a great big smile that really makes it seem as if the movie itself was a real tale!

This movie also uses the concept of "imagination" very well too. Now, in the previews (trailers) that they showed of this movie, they made it look as if this movie was some sort of Narnia spin-off or something, well, that isn't exactly the case you see. When Leslie and Jess go to their land of Terabithia, they start using their imagination, and when they lit it wide open, they create a world of their own, which is those parts that they showed on the trailer! The normal squirrels and birds suddenly turn into fantasy creatures brought to life by computer generated graphics! Fabulous! It's nice to see a mix of live action and CG animations mixed together through a story of imagination!

Overall, this movie is very good! It reminds me of back then when Disney made very good and absolutely wonderful live action movies...those were great times, and this movie is great too! By all means, watch this movie if you must, you will not regret it at all!

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Posted feb 16, 2007 9:44 am pt