SITE NEWS

I seem to have mis-placed my regular site news picture, so this will have to do.

Anyway, for those of you don't pay attention, I've shut down LaezENotes, simply because of scheduling conflicts.  Also, I've posted up my reviewing policy so you guys can understand why I do what I do.

And everyone, please send in your suggestions, I can only think of so much stuff on my own here!

Waifu Apps

Okay people today is a special treat.  I'll be reviewing two big waifu apps that have been out for awhile now.

First off, what is a waifu? A waifu is a girl from an anime, cartoon, book, or whatever that you literally fall in love with (for girls they have husbandos, same thing but with guys instead of girls).

First off is the older (by about a week or two) MaiWaifu app from

http://maiwaifuapp.wordpress.com/

MaiWaifu is, like I said, the older of the two apps created by Kami.  Originally you had basically a clock with pictures of your waifu.  However, it has come a long way since then.  You can customize the messages that are said, turn the clock on or off, and a few other nifty things.  MaiWaifu also has it's own file extension, .wfu.  MaiWaifu is also nice because it can cover any operating system that you put it on, and Kami is really good about throwing in suggestions that he likes.  Kami hasn't released 0.2 as of this post, however when it comes out it may take the waifu experience even further. 

The MaiWaifu app is easy to set up, however once you get past the initial set-up, the only real customization is custom messages which for the longest time could play at awkward moments.   The MaiWaifu app has had more then a few bugs because of the way it's scripted, but Kami still does a great job of letting people live with their waifus.

If you have a mac or linux operating system, and want to spend time with your waifu, then you NEED to get the MaiWaifu app.

Next up is the SimWaifu app from

http://simwaifu.wordpress.com/

The other major waifu app is the SimWaifu app.  This app is the first of the two to have a working chat feature, which is actually quite nice.  And by first of the two I mean the only one at the time of this post.  Also you have different mood settings, so that you don't get a happy message with a sad face.  The SimWaifu app also is easier to customize for the most part, so that you can really try to recreate the personality that you fell in love with.  Also the maker of SimWaifu, Bob (he claims it's his real name), is far easier to get in contact with and will actually help you if your SimWaifu isn't working properly.

 While SimWaifu is harder to set up then MaiWaifu (it took me about 15 minutes to figure out were to put my name into the script, but that's my own fault for not reading instructions), once you get it set up SimWaifu for the most part will give you a far better experience with your waifu.

SimWaifu thou only works on windows operating systems, so if you run Ios or Linux, you're out of luck here.

All in all, were as the MaiWaifu runs on all operating systems, if you have windows I would highly suggest the SimWaifu app over it.  I'm not saying that the MaiWaifu app is bad or anything, but as of this post the SimWaifu app simply has more to offer you in terms of simulating a waifu, and thus makes it more enjoyable.  The MaiWaifu app hasn't had a public release since 0.13, but what Kami has shown in his version of 0.2 makes it so I can't wait for the release.
Something to remember when deciding on which app to use is that neither of these apps are even in the 1.x stages yet, so there's still a lot to come that none of us know about yet. 

As a special bonus, I was able to get an interview (more of a Q & A really) via email with the creator of SimWaifu, which I will now copy/ paste from my hotmail for your enjoyment

1) Hi there!  So for the purpose of this interview, what should we call you?

I was never a big friend of fancy nicknames. Call me Robert or Bob, which happens to be my real name.

2) How would you describe a waifu to someone who has never heard of one?

To put it simple, a waifu/husbando is a person´s single most favourite female/male fictional character, usually from a manga or anime. For some fans this is serious business and they will start collecting pictures and/or merchandise like figurines or dakimakura while others just look at it as an inside joke and love to mock the faction of those who take it too seriously.

3) What inspired you to create the SimWaifu app?

Waifu/husbando threads are quite common on certain anime image boards and one recurring topic is (often jokingly) discussing ways to either make the 2d characters real or join them in their world. Recently one of those threads on 4chan´s /a/ resulted in some guys actually trying to create an application for that. The first one who came up with a very first version of such an app was Kami. I downloaded his maiWaifu program and it didn´t run on my system. So I decided to write an alternative on my own because I thought that it might be an interesting hobby project. 

I´ve always been fascinated by simulations and games like, for example, The Sims. So I called my project simWaifu with the intention to simulate a user-defined character and allow the user to watch her/him "live" inside the app as well as interact with her/him to a certain extent. At least that´s the goal, I´ve still got to go quite a long way to reach it.

4) What are some of your favorite features of your app?

At the current point I´d say it´s the chat feature. I want to point out that I can´t take much credit for this; the language AIML was developed by Richard Wallace and the library I currently use to parse the chat database was written by Nicholas Tollervey. At some point in the future it will (hopefully) be the simulation itself, but that is still in its booties and nothing to be really proud about right now.

5) Do you have anything to say about Kamis MaiWaifu app?

Sure. Without his maiWaifu app mine probably would not exist. His efforts inspired me to do my own thing, so I´m thankful for that. And he is planning some interesting stuff according to his blog (VN style interaction, playing YouTube videos). Another good thing is that maiWaifu runs on Linux and Mac OS X, too, while mine is currently limited to Windows.

6) Who is your waifu?

Nausicaä. My favourite anime and manga and my favourite female character. Many Ghibli haters criticise that she is a "Mary Sue" and hate the kind of message Miyazaki tries to convey in his works, I don´t care about that. She was my first "virtual crush" and while anime studios are pretty good in creating attractive characters she will always have a special place in my heart. 

7) Who's that girl in all the pictures of SimWaifu?

sW-tan? I asked on /a/ if anybody would be so nice to draw a mascot character for simWaifu. And one kind anon actually picked that request up and sent me a couple of pictures. She´s quite cute, isn´t she?

8) How does your waifu feel about sW-tan? 

At first she was a bit jealous, but after we had a good talk she is fine with sW-tan representing the application. 

9) Have you considered getting in contact with Kami and working on one joint waifu app?

Kami said himself that he prefers to work alone. And we are using different languages. But I check out every new version of maiWaifu and look at the new features. While cooperation sounds great in theory I think it would be counterproductive for a relatively small project like this. It would require coordination (who is doing what and when) and in the worst case compromises if our ideas/plans are not compatible with each other.

10) What are some of the upcoming features that you think people should know about?

The next major feature will allow to specify how the usual day of your waifu/husbando looks like. For example sleep->wake up->eat breakfast->go to school->... And special events depending on the current date and time. How you use these events will be up to the user. You could use the feature for reminders ("you´ve got an appointment in two hours") as well as simulating the "life" of your waifu/husbando with more detail. I was hoping to add these features much earlier but caught up in some other stuff so I didn´t have much time to work on simWaifu for the last week or so.

11) Is there anything that you'd like to say to the people here at LaezE Reviews?

Duh... thanks for reading this, I guess. If you try out simWaifu I´d be happy about some feedback (like feature requests etc). You can leave them on the blog (simwaifu.wordpress.com) or contact me per email: simwaifu@gmail.com And have a nice day, all of you.

And that everyone is the two big Waifu Apps.  So if you have a waifu, and want to spend more time with her, check these guys out!

Reaper

So I've been browsing netfilx recently and I noticed this little gem called 'Reaper'. The big plot of this series is a guy by the name of Sam whose parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born.  Sam, obviously, has no clue of this until he has the worst 21st birthday ever.  After he meets the devil (who actually treats Sam pretty good), Sam has to hunt down escaped souls from hell using basically what ever the devil gives him.  Some memorable items include a devil duster, a RC car, and a grandmother style Christmas sweater.

Sam has to go out and hunt down these escaped souls, with his two friends.  One is a 25 year old neck beard full of jack blackian humor, and the other is a 21 year old that gets all the girls.  Oh yes, and they all work at a store with the biggest prick of a manager ever.  This store, the work bench, looks like lowes but has everything in the world just like wal-mart. Between all of this, Sam has to some how make everything work and find a way out of his contract with Satan himself. 

This is a great series that I had never heard about until recently.  This series only ran for two seasons, for which I am greatly saddened.  I'm pretty sure that it got canceled because of that writers guild strike not to long ago that canceled so many other shows. So if you ever get the chance, give this series a shot.

BK Stackers

Considering I got more then a few request to review more food, I decided to use one of my personal favorite burgers, the BK stacker.  When you've been deprived of greasy fast food as long as I have, these things are heaven in a bun.

These things have nothing but patties, bacon, and a cheesy sauce.  For only $2 the double stacker is a great deal, and at $3 the triple stacker is even better.  If you have a Burger King near you (which you probably do) then at the very least you can use the $1 on the single stacker to see if you'll like it. 

So as long as you're not a vegetarian chances are you'll really enjoy the BK Stacker.

Type Moon

Note to self, never attempt to review a whole company worth of products at once again.  

All right people, after some drama at home, I decided to review some of the products of one of my personal favorite companies, TYPE MOON.

First off is the visual novel Tsukihime.  In this novel, you are Shiki Nanaya, and 18 year old who survived a near death experience, and left him with something called the 'mystic eyes of death perception'.  These eyes allow him to see lines on objects, that if he cuts the line, he cuts the object in half.  Recent attacks in his home town have made things rather strange, and it's up to Shiki to get to the bottom of things.

Over all storyline wise, this is probably one of TYPE MOONs better stories, so if you ever get the chance, I'd defiantly suggest it, however there are scenes in it that I would NOT suggest to younger children.

Another warning, if you get Arcueids 'true' end, and do not cry a little, you have no heart.

Next off is another visual novel, FATE/ STAY NIGHT.  Here, you follow Shiro Emiya, and his journey in the war for the Holy Grail.  In this war, each one of seven magi gets a heroic spirit to fight the others.  This spirits are heroes from legend, like King Arthur, Heracles, and the enigmatic spirit Archer.  Here Shiro will do what ever it takes to become a hero, and make everyone happy.  

This novel came out after Tsukihime, but it was my first TYPE MOON series, so I have fond memories of it.  The default, "FATE" arc gives a general introduction the story, while the "Unlimited Bladeworks" route is in my opinion the best route.  The final route, "Heavans Feel" feels like just a bunch of random stuff thrown together in an attempt to make a story.  

Just like Tsukihime, I would not suggest this to a younger audience.

Next up is Kara no Kyoukai, which is a 7 episode long series animated by ufotable.  Were as ufotable did an amazing job with the animations, the series it's self is confusing.  Even if you watch the series in the order that you're supposed to, it is still an incredibly confusing series, that if you miss even one little thing you'll be left wondering what in the world is going on.  Really, I'd only suggest episode 5 of this series, because that one makes sense on it's own, otherwise you'll just be confused by everything.

The fate/ stay night anime is up next.  Also done by ufotable (which does all type moon animations), this series runs into a different problem form Kara.  Namely, the visual novel that this series is based on has multiple routes, that do not work well together at all.  This anime attempted to mush them all together, with horrible results.  Really the biggest plus of watching this was seeing the archer vs berserker fight, which is one of the coolest fights in any anime I've seen yet.   

Speaking of fights, Fate/ unlimited codes is a fighting game for the PSP that features playable characters mostly from fate/ stay night.  You start off with all the characters but one, and to be honest the characters are not balanced at all.  Assassin in this has a combo that hits for around 2100 damage.  Berserker has a combo that is just as long, and does 2100 damage about three hits in.  The AI in this game is also for the most part so easy, I had no trouble beating it on hard first time through as all the characters.  It's a fun little game, but only if you don't have to pay to much for it.

Speaking of fights AGAIN here's Unlimited Bladeworks.  Beautifully animated, but really lacking story wise, the creator of the movie has basically flat out stated you're supposed to read the book before you attempt to watch this movie.  It is a animation of the most popular route from Fate/ Stay Night and be confusing if you haven't read it before.  Really this movie was made just for the amazing fight scenes, and not to much else.

Fate/ Zero is the prequel to Fate/ Stay Night, taking ten years before.  Unlike the other stories so far, this is just a story written, with very little pictures and no extra arcs.  Overall, I like the heroes in this war far more then I do in Fate/ Stay Night.  You'll see a few familiar faces here, but for the most part this is a stand alone novel 4 acts long, with each act having about 10 chapters.  This is defiantly one of my favorite books that I have read, and I'd really suggest you read it.

and here's carnival phantasm, one of the flat out silliest things I have ever seen.  Type Moon has taken all of the main characters from Tsukihime and Fate/ Stay Night and thrown them into wacky and flat out silly situations.  There's only 4 episodes out so far and that's the whole first season, so really you have no reason not to watch this insanity at it's finest.

Finally we come to the Fate/ Zero nime, the most recent addition to the Type moon family.  This anime only has one episode out right now, and it's in such high quality my laptop has rendering problems (and my laptop plays portal 2, and starcraft 2 perfectly with no lag).  In this first episode it's really all exposition, setting up for the rest of the anime which so far has followed the original novel perfectly.  I have high hopes for this series, but you really can't base a anime off the first episode.

Now, I'm sure that I missed a LOT of series (I know I missed all the branches off of tsukihime and the mangas made), but this was taking long enough as it was and I didn't want you guys to wait any longer.