It is time now for the second wave of '08/'09 reviews with today's column covering video games.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008, Xbox 360)

There was quite a bit of hype surrounding this game when it came out. It was supposed to be a Star Wars IP that the world hadn't seen since Shadows of the Empire. Did it live up to the hype? Depends on who you ask. I didn't buy it until recently, but I definitely had fun playing it. That said, there were also many points where I was frustrated out of my mind to the point of controller throwing (something I've not done in years). Some of this was due to faulty game mechanics, but mostly my own incompetence. Sadly, the game is fairly repetitive in terms of combat and I found myself relying on Force lightning to handily finish off every enemy I came across. There are plenty of options for combat such as push and choke and, of course, your lightsaber, but none of these were as handy or wholly satisfying as lightning. Oh, and for all the hype about Euphoria, never once did I see a stormtrooper grab another in mid air. 7/10

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This is based off of a screen grab from the opening of CLANNAD After Story. It was so beautiful, I wanted to try and make it desktop size. The line art was traced over a screen grab, but all the coloring was done by me. I think I picked up a bunch of lighting/coloring tips as I was making this that I hope to incorporate into future arts.

Nagisa Furukawa and CLANNAD are owned by KEY.

Sub-note: The opening theme for After Story is one of the best pieces of music I've heard this year.

The year is beginning to wind down and Christmas is just around the corner. I've consumed quite a lot of media this year, from my newfound addiction to anime and the usual domestic shows and video games. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to review what I considered to be the best of the best in each genre. Today, I'll start off with movies. I'm going to fudge a little bit and include movies released last year as well, otherwise this would be a really short list.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Honestly, I just watched this movie for the first time tonight. I will preface by saying that I really didn't have any issues with the 2003 film and saw the reboot of a reboot so close together a little ridiculous. However, that aside, the new film was enjoyable. I didn't love this film, nor did I hate it. It's pretty much the basic tale of how Bruce Banner became the Hulk and how he attempted to cope with it. There's plenty of action to go along with the story and everything flows well. One thing I will pick on, however, was how bad the CGI in this film was. At times I felt like I was watching something that had been rendered with the UT3 engine and there was even a scene where the green screen keying failed to suspend my disbelief. **7/10 **

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Fujibayashi Ryou and Furukawa Nagisa from the visual novel/anime CLANNAD (both thouroughly enjoyable).

This is a big step up for me being that there are TWO characters here. I managed to draw this within the same amount of time I generally draw one, so either I cut a lot of corners or I'm getting better. Also, I tried going for a softer style of shading which was, in my opinion, somewhat successful. Hair shading still throws me for a loop, but I'm getting better at everything else.

Characters and such are owned by KEY.

Midori Kasugano of Midori Days. The pose is based off of something in one of the earlier volumes of the manga, but this was one of my first attempts at figuring out shading and such. Not terrible, though it does look like she has leaf hair.