The Blog of Xbolt

Castrol EDGE – Think With Your Dipstick

I like this guy’s beard.

That’s Like a Quarter-Hundred

:D

WordPress announced yesterday that they were going to drop support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4 early next year. Since my blog was started a while ago, I was using both of these. I’ve upgraded tonight. And it appears to have all gone smoothly, but if you spot any weirdness, please report it!

Mosaic Roll

It finally happened.

GUMI has a #1 hit.

I must scream to the world, my excitement from the top of someplace very high!

YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

*ahem* It’s rather fitting, really. This song was written by DECO*27, who was denied the #1 spot with Coward Mont Blanc. Even better, the PV is by akka, who also did the CMB PV. (Oh yeah, CMB jumped up 11 places from last week. Goodness all around!)

This song had 25,000 views when I first saw it on the day of its release. I knew this was going to be a hit, definitely top 5 material, possibly even top 3. But it ended up with 1.2 million points. That not only made it this week’s #1 song, but the second-biggest song of all time, just 300k points behind World’s End Dancehall.

It took a while, but I knew you could do it, GUMI.

Valkyria Chronicles is based on a video game of the same name. As I have never played it, I cannot say how closely the anime follows the game’s plot. But no matter.

Valkyria Chronicles is set in the year 1935, on the continent of Europa. (The technology is also equivalent to our real world technology from 1935. Well, for the most part.) Two powers control most of the territory. The Imperial Alliance in the east, and the Atlantic Federation in the west. The economies of both depend on a special mineral, Ragnite. It is getting scarce, so the Empire decides to declare war on the Federation, setting off the Second European War. Gaining the upper hand, the Empire decides to invade the neutral Principality of Gallia, in order to steal their Ragnite. Jerks.

When the Empire invades the small border town of Bruhl, Welkin Gunther, son of the great General Belgen Gunther of the First European War, fights alongside Alicia Melchiott, captain of the town watch. Together, and with Welkin’s sister Isara, they escape the city in General Guther’s old tank prototype, the Edelweiss. Upon reaching the capitol, they join the ranks of Gallia’s militia. Welkin is assigned to be a squad commander, and Alicia is his assistant.

But enough of the story. Let’s talk about the characters.

Before the war, Welkin was studying to be a biologist at a university. And so after becoming the commander of Squad 7, he can use the environment a bit more to his advantage. And he really thinks outside the box when coming up with his battle plans.

Alicia was a baker. And she wants nothing more than to put an end to the war quickly, and then return to baking. She is constantly reliable, and loves helping others.

Isara is Welkin’s adopted sister. She is an exceptionally gifted mechanic, and always keeps Edelweiss in tip-top shape. She has also faced a lot of prejudice, as she is a Darcsen. The Darcsens are a race of people who are very often discriminated against, because of their ancestors’ role in the near-destruction of the continent two millennia before. Despite that, she is proud of her heritage, and hopes to someday have a world where Darcsens are treated equally.

Bridgette “Rosie” Stark is the signature shock trooper of Squad 7. A tad overbearing at times, she is nevertheless a capable commander at the front lines. She is one of the people who are prejudiced against Darcsens, so she doesn’t like Isara.

Largo Potter is a gruff old veteran from the First European war. He serves as the team’s primary anti-tank guy. Not trusting in Welkin at first due to Welkin’s lack of experience on the field, Largo nevertheless becomes one of Welkin’s most loyal men after he proved himself capable of commanding.

Feladio Landzaat is one of Welkin’s college friends. He had been studying to become an archaeologist, but is now the leader of Squad 1.

But my favorite character actually lies among the Imperials. General Radi Jaeger. He is a very honorable man, putting an emphasis on chivalry in battle, and respecting those who do the same. He’s also a bit of a joker. That comes as a welcome relief after all the stuck up, arrogant jerks that are a lot of the other generals… On both sides.

Valkyria Chronicles Opening 1

I tried to find a good video, but I couldn’t find anything but stuff from the game… Either that, or totally spoiler-laden. I finally found this slideshow, I guess that’s good enough. Alicia makes the greatest facial expressions.

Alien Swarm

Okay, so on Friday, Valve suddenly came out and said “Hey guys! Guess what? We have a new game coming out on Monday, and it’s going to be free!”

And so I (and everyone else) was all like “ASDFBURGER”

Being a fan of Valve, (and free stuff,) I looked into this. Alien Swarm is a Source-ified version of a mod of the same title that came out in 2004 for UT2K4. The mod team was hired by Valve, and in between working on Left 4 Dead and Portal 2, the team was quietly working on a new version of their mod. And they’ve finally released it.

I played it a bunch yesterday, and the game is epic awesome, if a bit short. But that’s what they released the SDK for.

Confession

Epic guitar is epic.

Epic Rin is epic.

Epic is epic. Q.E.D.

And I think the trolls are finally gone this week. There are a couple old songs this week, but I think there are logical reasons for them being there. The Black Rock Shooter anime, the new Project DIVA, etc.

And finally, the third and final piece of the FMP! trilogy.

After Fumoffu, TSR goes back to the tension and drama of the original. More so, even.

If Fumoffu represented just the hilarity of the original, TSR represents mostly the military action. Some hilarious scenes, but not nearly as many as the original. So it brings the entirety of FMP! back into balance.

There is also lots more character development in TSR, especially for Kaname and Sousuke.

Sousuke Gets a Haircut (sorta)

Yeeeeeeah… All who didn’t expect that outcome, raise your hand. You get no prizes.

Sharp-eyed viewers may notice a certain cameo from some certain characters from a certain other anime that I reviewed.

UFO Bakemonogatari ED

Yeah, of COURSE there’s a Touhou version of the ED. There’s a Touhou version of everything on the planet.

Also, check out this comparison vid.

Aoibara no Sougiya

Kaito totally makes this song.

And I still smell a few trolls around the ranking this week. There are some rather suspicious-looking songs here…