Okami, Again, in HD

So I met Amaterasu, "origin of us all that is good and mother to us all", again.

This is one of my favorite game on Playstation 2 (PS2) and to my surprise and delight, was release in PS3 in HD.

The game revolves around the goddess Amaterasu  (nicknamed Ammy in the game), who is incarnated as a wolf to rid of the evil that plagued Nippon, Orochi.

If the names are somewhat familiar to you, you may have encountered it via Japanese Comics or Manga as it is popularly known. Amaterasu and Orochi are Japanese Myth.

Ammy's ability is to use Celestial Brush to execute different skills based on what you draw. On PS3, you may now use the PS Move in order to "rollout" a piece of paper and draw lines in order to execute Ammy's skills. The PS Move is quite a nice touch to the game as it makes you actually feels that you are drawing the lines.

When I played this on PS2, I was stunned with the way the game is presented graphic wise. The Japanese painting style presentation is quite nice to look at. Now imagine my reaction when it is now shown in HD.

Also, the game is quite long, making it worth the buy.

Oh, and now it also has trophies to achieve.


13 Celestial Brush/Celestial Brush

Unwind

What if you can 'abort' your child before they reach a certain age if you realized you don't want to keep them legally. That all it takes is signing papers and then your child will be no more. That you can do this without guilt knowing that you did not really 'killed' them as all of their parts will be used by other people as spare parts when others need it.
Does using all of their body parts counts as not killing them?
This is the way of life in the book Unwind. Where unwanted children, orphaned and some being born as thirds are to be 'unwind' or 'chopped up' so that all of their parta can be used.
Connor, an unwanted son, Rachel an orphaned with no one to support and Levi, born as thirds are to be unwind. The lives of the three crosses as they face being unwind and to try to continue living until they reach the age when they can't be unwound anymore.
This book has been recommended to me by a good friend. I had a copy of this for quite sometime before deciding to read it. Good thing I did as this is a great read. Pacing is good and there is almost never a dull moment.

5 claps/claps

Mysterious Benedict Society

Another trilogy for me.
This one is a light and fun read.
The story is about a group of people recruiting gifted child. And by gifted, I mean, really gifted.
There are four main character, they were selected by Mr. Benedict by administering a series of test to special children.
One of the character has a knack for puzzles and riddles. Another with photographic memory. One athletic girl with special ability to measure distance accurately just by looking. And a very stubborn girl that likes to make rhymes.
The four of them are tasked to stop an evil plan by a person that most people trusts.
I recommend the book although there maybe times that the story seems to drag on and the children are quite lucky.
4.5/5 riddles

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

I have read a fair amount of reviews for this book that rates this one very high, and its usually associated to the Japanese movie Battle Royale.

I liked Battle Royale movie (I am currently reading the novel) so I bought this book. And what those review i have read is right, this book rocks!
It is really like Battle Royale but the story added the factor of the game being shown live ala Big Brother.

The story revolves around 12 Districts and Capitol in a dystopian setting of North America that is called Panem. The 12 Districts each sends a boy and a girl chosen by lottery to compete in what they call the Hunger Games orchestrated by the Gamemakers of the Capitol.

Katniss, the main girl volunteered as a substitute for her sister that was drawn even when the odds are against the latter. Now, Katniss must survive the game wherein each player kills one another to be the sole survivor. That is one of the obstacle of the game, Hunger, of course, is also a factor in this game, as thus terrain wherein the Gamemakers have complete control.

This book kept me at the edge of each pages as I literally sneak to the next page as every page always make me want to know what will happen next. I had hard time putting this book down even staying up late with my usual sleeping time even if I have work on that day (I slept around 1 am).

This belongs to a trilogy, and the second book, Catching Fire is already out, the last book, Mockingjay will be out sometime around August.


I highly recommend this book.

12/12 district.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Due to my reignited passion for reading, I looked for a book to read and found a review about this one.
On book caught my attention as the main character is mentally challenged.

Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism, and is very logical and usually do things by Math. The book is presented as the result of Christopher's school project and tackles his adventure when he decided to investigate the murder of his neighbor's dog. Little did the main character knew (as I have) that this will lead to his discovery of things that is far from, yet, the reason for the dog's murder.

It is quite interesting to see how an autistic boy thinks and reacts to his surrounding (of course, base on the author's understanding of autism). I loved how he usually solve problems by relating to math and logical conclusion (as I'm a math lover myself :D).

A very good read (first book, I think, that I have finished in two day's time) and I had very hard time putting this book down to do something else. The turn of events of the story surprised me as I was not expecting the way the story unfold.

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Rating: 5/5 gray cells