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Rurouni Kenshin "Samurai X" ( 1999, Action, Drama, Love, Violence, Historical,
TV )
In the eleventh year of the Meiji Era (1878), a vagabond swordsman is found wandering the streets of
Tokyo. A strange man, he carries a reverse-bladed sword and has an x-shaped scar on his cheek. He wants only to be left alone.
 However, a girl named Kamiya Kaoru accuses him of being the man claiming the identity of the legendary Hitokiri Battousai.
This man is murdering people in the name of her family's doujo. When he saves her from the real killer, she invites him to
come stay at her doujo, since he obviously has no other place to go. This is the beginning of the story of Himura Kenshin.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Himura Kenshin was known as Hitokiri (Murderer) Battousai. He was the top assassin for the reformist
group Ishin Shishi. However, when the old government was overthrown and the fighting had drawn to an end, Hitokiri Battousai
had disappeared. Kenshin wandered the countryside for nearly eleven years; the world presumed him dead or lost.
When Kenshin meets Kaoru, he is no longer Hitokiri Battousai, for he has sworn never to take another life again. His sword
is not a regular sword, but a reverse-bladed sword, meaning that he cannot kill anyone with his sword, but he can defend himself.
Kenshin is a man who is trying to escape his past, and create a future for himself. With the help of Kaoru and the others
that he meets, he may just have a chance.
Final Fantasy VIII ( 1998, Action, Drama, Love, War, RPG-Video Game, PSOne )
While calm in appearance, the serenity that blankets the
world is merely a curtain over the turmoil that threatens to surface...
An unprovoked attack against a neighboring country, an assault by a strike team
deep into enemy territory, and a declaration of war against the world, plunges a previously peaceful existence, into bitterness
and chaos. Thrust the issuing madness is a young man named Squall Leonhart. A cadet in the garden military academy of Balamb,
a lone wolf by the standards of others, Squall's relentless drive to become the best, leads him in to SeeD, an elite mercenary
unit.
His final test as a graduating cadet SeeD is to settle the growing hostilities
between neighboring countries of Galbadia and Dollet. What was already a confusing set of events take a turn to the worse
when Galbadia begins invasion on the rest of the world.
For Squall, the turmoil of the world around him is nothing compared to the turmoil
inside of him; his encounter with a free spirited young woman named Rinoa Heartilly has turned his well-ordered universe upside
down. As an intense man who thrives in the regimented discipline of the military academy, Squall finds Rinoa's carefree attitude
fascinating.
Yet, there is no time to ponder these thoughts, for Galbadia's irrational hostility
has been linked to a sorceress named Edea, a powerful magic user. The job of dealing with this new threat has fallen to Squall
and the rest of the SeeD. Focused in this new task, they only can ponder what the future will hold...
Metal Gear Solid 3-Snake Eater ( 2005, Action, Violence,
Conspiracy, Mature Language, War, PS2 )
In the future, when some gaming
historian begins to write the history of the stealth genre, it's likely that they'll start with Metal Gear. Game designer
Hideo Kojima's long-running series debuted on the MSX computer way back in 1987, and opened up new worlds of gameplay with
its unusual reliance on sneaky stealth over brute force. It also had an unconventionally complex storyline, involving the
potential proliferation of frightening new nuclear weapons. It was a far cry from the Mario-esque "rescue the princess" plots
that were just starting to become cliché at that point
. If any one game series encapsulates
the new era of the more mature video games which have emerged since the beginning of the PlayStation era, it's Metal Gear
Solid. Its complex narrative and equally complex and varied gameplay redefined the way people looked at video games and
even if the immediate sequel managed to upset the delicate balance between storytelling and interaction, Metal Gear Solid
3 doesn't look likely to make the same mistake twice.
Taking a real back-to-basics approach, Snake Eater is set in the '60s and sees you controlling
Solid Snake (or at least someone that looks like him--and is at least not Raiden from the MGS2) in a storyline that
has yet to be fully revealed.
What we've seen of the game shows a much greater emphasis on stealth than ever before, with
Snake being vastly outnumbered and appearing to spend most of his time creeping through the jungle, dropping down on guards
from out of the trees and hiding in plain sight using a variety of specialised camouflage suits. The sub-title is less nonsensical
than you might think as well since Snake must hunt and eat animals--including, you guessed it, our no-legged friends--to keep
his stamina up.
Overall the game seems more realistic than ever before (you don't even get the enemy radar to
use all the time) and should assuage those jaded by Metal Gear Solid 2's more self-indulgent moments. Snake is back,
and he's never looked better...
Blade Trinity ( 2004, Action, Sci-Fi, Violence, Mature Language )
Wesley Snipes returns as the day-walking vampire hunter in the explosive third and final
film in the Blade franchise, Blade: Trinity. When the Vampire Nation hatches a plan to frame Blade in a series of brutal killings,
he must join forces with the Nightstalkers, a clan of human vampire hunters, in an extreme battle in which the trail of blood
leads directly to the notorious vampire legend, Dracula. Written and directed by David S. Goyer, Blade: Trinity also stars
Jessica Biel as Abigail, the daughter of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who inherits the vampire-slaying duties that once
belonged to Blade (Wesley Snipes); and Ryan Reynolds (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) as Hannibal King, one of the Nightstalkers.
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