Princess Mononoke

The by far coolest German TV channel for youngsters of my generation used to be “RTL II”. Every reasonably cool dude on elementary school watched anime after school.

Christmas Eve 2003: An, at the time even more, fabulously blond 3rd grader tunes in the aforementioned channel. The unique beauty of this movie combined with the epic score burnt into his mind. Since this was the first and last time this movie was aired uncut in Germany the boy, at the time mainly noticed the allegedly little to not at all physically legit by arrow detached limbs in the beginning.

Today I can definitely say that this movie shaped me more than any other. Every time I hear the main theme starting with the Cello and Contrabass, the landscape shot with cloud-capped mountains. Then a short crow sound and the incipient epic bassy-old-guy-narrator voice: “In ancient times a land lay covered in forests” “Man and beasts lived in harmony”. Then the camera zooming down on Ashitaka riding his awesome ibex/ antelope “Yakule”. It is just perfect and gets me every time.

The realse date for the european blu-ray is yet to be anounced. The japanese blu-ray comes in a modest book-ish design with magnetic catch.

This woodcase is exclusively sold on amazon.de

Beyond 2 Souls

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Heavy Rain was a game I had on my radar since the preview on gamescom yet I had always hasitated buying it. After finally playing it in one session with a buddy of mine at his home I was psyched to hear the Beyond 2 Souls release was only 2 months ahead.

I personally loved it and do not regret full price buy.
The main Con reviewers address is the lack of story determining decision in comparison to the prequel. This argument has o importance what so ever if you play this game the way it isnment to be which as a movie.
Don't even bring up the phrase "replay value" as you should not think in the standard game maximum achievement when playing this game. Then you won't be bothered from the potentially empty "what if else" decision.
A definition improvement in comparison to Heavy Rain is the variety in locarion s and gameplay execept the controlling of Maiden which are honstely extremely generic. However controlling Maiden looks cool and any complex mini game would have totally destroyed the playing flow.
For tereotype aware geniuses aka me there are kind of obvious indidicators where I found myself guessing the story development exactly right.

All in all Beyond2Souls is definitely an unique experience with small downsides.

Entertainment 9/10
Replay value 3/10

Battlefield series

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As Luetin declared: revive Bad Company 2. I agree.
Bad Comany 2was the first Batllefield game I played as a core gamer.Battlefield players had been waiting for a this game for a period longer than for Battlefield 3 &4 combined. In the past 3 years EA announced new battlefield content almost every month which weakened anticipations big time. But the anticipation this game had achieve was not the only reason for the (re-)gathering of this loyal commuinty. There are good reasons why this game created a community of strongly attached players i.e. DontReviveMeBro.
The new animation technology adapted from the FIFA franchise was a huge innovation. But the main reason for the core gamer circle to approve this game was the gameplay which is essentially diferent from the the standard battlefield series.
As in the shortly earlyer released Battlefield 1943 the weapons felt much more powerful because of the high impact sound effects. Yet players, especially experienced ones, would die much less quickly also considering vehicles. This led to a more infantry-based less 'campy' multiplayer experience. Less realism in return for more balanced gameplay.