It's at this point that DBGT really begins to crash and burn. The Baby Arc lasts for 24 episodes, of which only five minutes per episode are dedicated to fighting. The rest either revolves around talking about a strategy that doesn't work out or useless back-story that anyone who's watched any part of this series should already know.

The other 21 episodes are divided into two arcs: the Super 17 Arc that lasts 7 episodes and is the equivalent of a Bleach Filler Arc as far as story is concerned, and the Shadow Dragon Arc. In the latter, we get a long-winded explanation about the Dragon Balls containing positive and negative energy and we find out that when you make a good wish the negative energy increases to balance out the absence of positive energy that was used to make the wish. Then the balls each turn into dragons that want to rule the Earth ...

This doesn't even make sense! All the wishes that create the negative energy responsible for creating the dragons aren't “good” wishes. Wouldn't wishing for power be a selfish act, thereby releasing negative energy and allowing more positive energy into the ball to counteract it? Also, why is it that all of the wishes together didn't create the dragons? Why did only some wishes create dragons while others didn't?

Overall, there are way to many plot holes and not enough fighting to warrant watching DBGT. (Not to mention, this isn't even considered canon by most fans.)

Another great event was the Cosplay Auction, the basic concept being that the staff of Setsucon would put on their best Wild West versions of our favorite anime characters and auction them off for charity. Some of the best moments were during the bidding wars, when some characters were sold for as much as $200!

The favorite event, though, was “Rock Band Idol” where over a dozen bands competed on Harmonix’s Rock Band. The format of the event was the most interesting part: while notes hit was a part of the game, stage presence, crowd control, and several other factors also lead to the decision of the winners.

Vic later moved from voice actor to musical guest as he preformed a medley of his greatest hits on stage for a packed hall. After that, the dance went on until the con closed at midnight on Saturday.

The Dealer’s Room was actually a mix of dealers and the Artist’s Alley. However, for the con being on the small side, the Dealers Room had an excellent amount of choice,s from cosplay to line art. My buddies from Tekkoshocon also showed up to promote Tekko this year and test-run a Scavenger Hunt to be fully instituted at Tekko itself.

The Game Room was probably my highlight of the convention. Never did I walk into the room and not find a game being played or a game that I wouldn't mind playing. I also got my butt kicked in the Pokémon tournament.

Like I said, I love the small con, but with over 900 attendees over the two days of this con, next year it will be anything but. Fortunately, however, next year they will have yours truly to help keep the peace!

For video and interviews from the con check out Kit's independent video report here.

Setsucon Official Website

Anyway, “No Russian” aside, Modern Warfare 2’s campaign is an incredible sight to behold. The physics engine is one of the best I've seen in years, and the amount of detail in many objects is truly remarkable. Plus, there is nothing better than seeing an AI crouch behind a drywall divider and watching him collapse due to your bullets going right through it.

The plot of the game is a bit lacking, though. Yes, you have to fight off waves of invading Russian soldiers from the White House and Captiol but it's one of those things. They just as easily could have stuck the characters in any order city on the eastern seaboard and had it be just as interesting. As it were, the missions away from the US are significantly more enjoyable, probably because the designers were able to have a bit of fun developing their own unique places. Even in the US, placing the missions in random “Genericville” was a much better option.

The other problem with the story is the absence of the “wow” factor. It's great to have a big shocking event, but when it's three or four times during a game it really loses its value. Not to mention (Spoiler Alert!) the ending is one big quick time event. Yep, you get great gameplay with an above average storyline and they ruin it with a massive quick time event.

The sound of the game is very immersive, but I'm finding sound to be one of those things that it has to be good or the game is just going to be bad outright. The voice acting is superb and the soundtrack is somewhere between Halo on the high side and Fallout on the low side.

The gameplay itself isn't different from the first game. All the buttons do the same thing they've always done , and the game has the same “very easy to learn, hard to master” type of gameplay. There are also four different levels of difficulty, from Beginner to Veteran. The problem is that the game (even on a high difficulty) is only about 2 to 3 hours long and you can cruise by this game on a lower difficulty.

So. now let's look at SpecOps. This is new to the Modern Warfare games and is a very fun mode to play with friends. Basically, as either a one- or two-man group, you can play through certain Special Ops missions that relate to campaign settings. The only is that this is the only co-op part of this game – a real bummer to a person like me who loves to play with his friends.

Finally, we have the multiplayer a.k.a. "bait for seven year olds and the 20+ people who hate them." Seriously, every game I played online, I had a little kid yelling at my team on how we all sucked. Meanwhile, the kid’s gotten five kills and 24 deaths during the game. But I'm the one who sucks? ...

"For the record" this is a great game and one you should go out and get. However, I'd like to point out that, since Modern Warfare 2's release, there aren't nearly as many five-year-old brats playing Halo 3.

great.

As I started to play the game, I was excited to get into a good, old-fashioned hack-and-slash, overworld type of game. I knew about the RTS/Freedom Fighters-esque mission involved with the game and looked upon it with some interest, in the hopes that it would break up the gameplay. However, I didn't realize how incredibly often these missions would pop up. The multiplayer (which is highly lacking in expandability, as the only match type is skirmish) is also unfortunately based around this gameplay style.

The world of Brütal Legend is beautifully executed – almost enough to make you forget about the gameplay style...almost. With superb, cell-shaded art, a well-developed background mythos, and gory deaths, the developers at Double Fine definitely know how to immerse a player in a world. Add your car's ability to play songs that you unlock both in game and during the campaign and players will find that some of the best times during the game are cruising across the landscape listening to metal while running over some demented deer. Even so, this is a definite one-and done game (unless you're going for achievements).

One of the major problems I have with Brütal Legend is the amount of repeated dialogue. For a game that boasts some of the best writing and voice acting talent around, I fail to see why I'm stuck with characters saying the same four or less lines during both overworld and stage missions. It only gets worse when Eddie begins to talk, because all that seems to come out of Jack Black's mouth are dumb jokes and random puns.

Also of note is the badly-designed leveling system. In order to level up, players will need to do two different things. First, they will gain fire tributes to upgrade Eddie's car, weapons, and special attack combos. Second, players will have to free (no joke) ball-gagged dragon statues to upgrade their attributes. And when the dragons are freed, players will not even get to choose their upgrades. The game does it automatically, really taking some of the minimal customization that is in the game away from the player. The worst part of this system, though, is that it breaks up the gameplay by demanding that players move away from the Campaign for about 20 minutes at a time to go and find more fire tributes and gagged dragons.

All-in-all, my gripes with this game are small shots compared to the overall picture. Double Fine wanted to make a game for “Metal Heads,” by “Metal Heads,” and they succeeded completely, despite some gameplay slip-ups and limited replayability. So, did it live up to the hype?

Well...sort of.

fair.