The Arrival Review

The Arrival beautifully and creatively depicts the view of an immigrant.

The Arrival is like no graphic novel I have seen before. No words are written in the story? Only pictures describe the story. This book shows how it feels to be an immigrant coming to a new land.

A scene of The Arrival.

This book and pictures can be interpreted in many ways. This is my own summary of the events of the book.

The main character of this story is a working man with a loving family. At the location of where he lives, there is some sort of hardship in which he isn't able to provide to his family. And so he alone immigrates to a foreign land to find work. This foreign land is like nothing of anything he has ever seen. The structures, customs, and cultures are all new and don't make sense to him. Alone and confused, he slowly learns more about the people who live there and fitting in with their customs.

There are very little colors in this book, and the images shown are almost random and very obscure. However, when you understand this book, you truly find how colorful and well depicted it is.

Overall Rating - 9/10

This beautiful book vaguely yet accurately shows the life of an immigrant first stepping onto a foreign land. This book must be seen, as it can really open your head to a common view that is not often seen.

Stronghold: Crusader Review

A real-time strategy game involving simulated castle building, managing an economy, and warfare. What can be better?

Set during the Crusades, Stronghold Crusader takes part in the sandy deserts. Like the Stronghold series, Stronghold Crusader is a real-time sim game. You must balance your fortifications, your economic buildings, and your army in order to halt your opponent from gaining the upper hand.

Stronghold Crusader has several game modes to play. One can play the 50 missions in the Crusader trail or create their own custom game with their own set rules. One can also alternatively take part in some historical campaigns, set in real scenarios in the past. If fighting is your style, then perhaps you'd like to simply build a castle and economy in Crusader's castle builder mode.

Players are allowed to make their own maps and scenarios to play on.

Up to eight players can participate in a single game. Players play against each other using a gaming server or a manual connection.

The graphics are rather outdated compared to games from today, though they are still pleasing and smooth. Though the famous game-play from the Stronghold games is why this game is so awesome.

When I mean sim, I truly mean sim. Similar to the Command & Conquer, you see and control everything. Building a strong economy is a very delicate process that can be approached in many angles. In order to have an army, you must have the funds and equipment to support one. Funds can be collected from taxation or by selling raw or finished materials in the market. Equipment can be made by your own craftsmen, or purchased on the market as well.

In order to support a population, they must need food. As your job being their leader, you must provide it to them through their own labor or from the market. Or even none at all. Stronghold Crusader allows the character to make many choices that could affect the their public image. Like forbidding food, one can save a fortune of gold and labor in return for major dislike. You can make large decorated gardens and statues to honor those who have fallen, or instead build gallows and torture tools to change your citizens' way of thought. Each decision has an equal or opposite effect, and players can explore those many ways to find much enjoyment in the game.

Castle building is an art. To be able to secure the stone needed and to fortify a dwelling is not easy, but the challenge to try so is always entertaining. The various NPCs in Stronghold Crusader have their own styles of building a fortified keep. You are allowed to make low walls, high walls, towers, ballistas, among many other structures to protect yourself.

Stronghold Crusader offers a wide variety of soldiers to create. There are two fractions of troops. There are the European and Arabian soldiers. Each character has unique traits and values, and can be manipulated in many ways to suit different scenarios. Siege engines can also be built in the game to add more strategic value.

Overall Rating - 8/10

Stronghold Crusader is a must have for a Stronghold fan or a strategists who want to try their skills.

Caps for Sale Review

A tale of a peddler and some monkeys.

I remember my old school librarian who was about to get rid of this book. She looked at me and asked if I wanted this book. I said sure.

Looking back at this children's book that was published in late 1987, this book really has very fine artwork. It's a book that just made me smile for no particular reason.

There is no real moral of this story like most children's book. It's just about a peddler who tries to sell caps, and monkeys are randomly in it. For no particular reason, I found it very amusing at my young age.

Overall Rating - 5/10

I miss those days. And I laughed a few times a few minutes ago when I reread this book.

Horse Dictionary Review

For those who just want to learn a few things about horses.

When I was a wee lad, my eyes laid upon this "dictionary." After picking it up, I asked my parents to buy for me, which they kindly did.

This "horse dictionary" is great for kids. Horses were and still is my favorite animal. This book really didn't give me scientific facts and numbers about horses, but it did introduce me to several breeds of horses.

After many years of which my understanding of the English language grew, I picked this book up once again. This book really does offer some pretty basic information about a variety of horse breeds. Horse Dictionary has many pictures showing a visual of each horse as well as a mini-globe showing where each breed is populated in the world.

Overall Rating - 7/10

I love this book. It's a little thing that I cherished when I was a kid. Should you go out and purchase this book? Nah. If you have a kid that's interested in horses though, try to find this book at your local library.

Xbox 360 Headset Communicator Review

An excellent tool of communication, until it breaks.

This Xbox 360 headset allows you to chat with friends and strangers alike via Xbox Live. Most Xbox 360 owners will likely start out with this headset.

The design of this headset is very simple. One earpiece and a rotatable microphone. When you'd like some privacy, this is a mute switch to turn your microphone off so you can curse your opponents without them hearing you.

Although useful and simple, there are many offsets with this Xbox 360 headset. Wearing this headset for long periods of time can give headaches and some pain to your ear. These headsets also have a reputation of breaking very quickly, such as my old one.

Today, I use a dollar store headset that works just as well and has already outlasted my old Xbox 360 headset.

Overall Rating - 2.5/10

This headset may be fine for new Xbox 360 gamers, but expect to replace it or buy a better one in the near future.

Fable 2 Review

A beautifully drawn game with adventurous game-play.

Fable 2 is a role-playing game for the Xbox 360. Set in Albion, a fictional world in a time period where firearms are a relatively new invention. A world where bandits and monsters roam the land. A world of natural beauty and magic.

The graphics of Fable 2 are very well drawn considering it's a game released in year 2008. When you're walking down Brightwood path, and the sun's ray appears on the other side of a tree, you can really feel rejuvenated by the bright sun. Or when you do business in Bowerstone Market, you can feel the livelihood of the people there chatting, gossiping and barking their wares.

And then there is the combat feature of Fable 2. Combat is composed of melee, ranged, and magic. This allows you to choose if you want to dispatch an enemy with a quick slash, a bullet to the head, a fiery ball, or a combination! As you progress through killing many enemies and performing certain actions, you will accumulate experience to upgrade your skills.

A character who has been corrupted by evil.

A very popular feature of Fable 2 is that you can choose your actions in your journey. These actions can be of selfless and kindness or greed and evil. Such actions will determine the appearance of yourself, physically and socially.

There are a variety of ways to make a living. You can do basic labor jobs that provide you an honest earning such as woodcutting or working at the blacksmith. For those more adventurous, you may help the law by completing bounty missions, or by participating in combat related competitions. And those who care nothing for others and is fueled by greed, they can plunder from others or carry out assassination contracts.

Fable 2 was one of the first games I got when I first bought my Xbox 360. It truly blew me away with the graphics and game-play. I can say there are some things about this game that doesn't make it the most fun game ever, but they are rather small and not too important. For one, fighting is a very easy task. With enough button-mashing and eventually enough upgrades, you can easily slaughter an army single-handed without a challenge. As well, there really isn't much to kill in the game. When you look at the list of monsters and bosses, there isn't much variety of opponents. Though only these small things come to mind when I try to think of bad things about Fable 2.

Overall Rating - 7.5/10

Fable 2 was a great leap in gaming technology, and still is a very fun game. I would greatly recommend this game for the average gamer.