Just three words about the NHL draft lottery — poor Red Wings. I don’t care much about this team and I kind of hoped that Ottawa would win the lottery but going from the first to the fourth position — it’s brutal. They were legitimately bad the entire season and I wouldn’t even say they were tanking — they played just really terribly. Lafreniere, if he’s actually the player everyone thinks he is, would help them tremendously.

The idea that a good team will get a star player is also ridiculous. I’ve always thought that the lottery system is better than simply assigning picks in the reverse order but c’mon! We should draw a line somewhere. Any team that has made it to this round is pretty solid. Yeah, there are some outcasts, like Montreal, Columbus or even Rangers — but even these teams are virtually composed of all-stars comparing to the Red Wings or Sens.

Hmm, good to know

Sing “Yesterday” For Me

Damn fucking shit! I can’t even describe how disappointed I am by the last episode of this anime! For 11 weeks it was awesome, I looked forward to the moment when finally Shinako and Rikuo would be together, was rooting for them and there was a glimmer of hope that their relationships had a chance. We even almost got there… only to see them breaking up the last moment. Okay, it would’ve been fine! It would’ve been realistic and expected end of this story. After all, shit happens and it’s really difficult to move from friendship to something else. It was obvious that Shinako wasn’t sure whether she needed that bothersome thing called “relationships”. It would’ve been such a sad but logical and mature ending when all four main characters end up being single but having gained new experience and maybe a new perspective in life. Instead our two adults immediately ran to their underage admirers, confessed and started going out with them. Happy fucking end. Fuck.

P.S. At least I can be happy for Kinoshita. He was an all-around nice guy, and thankfully embarked on a tour with his band just in time, avoiding all that dumpster fire of an ending.

Kakushigoto

Kumeta Koji likes puns. I mean even if someone didn’t notice that after Sayionara, Zetsubou-sensei!, Joshiraku or Katte Ni Kaizou — Kakushigoto, the newest anime based on the manga of this super talented author, will be dropping puns on you at such an alarming rate that it’ll be impossible to unsee.

Starting with the very name, which has at least 3 meanings here. The first one is the most obvious — the name of the main character is Kakushi Goto. There we go. 書くmeans “to write” and 仕事 — well, we hear this word in anime all the time, “work”, a reference to his profession as a manga artist. The funny thing is that there’s also a word 隠し事 which is also pronounced as “kakushigoto” and means “a secret” — which is simply perfect for this anime!

Anyway, Kakushigoto is not only about joking and punning around. It’s about little cute details and cute characters. Hime is super cute. Their dog, Roku, who certainly has a seiyu, is cute. Hime’s homeroom teacher looking for suspicious guys around (“Stranger-Danger!”) is also cute. Even the air-headed editor, firmly believing that he’s doing an amazing job, Tomaruin, is oddly nice.

Kakushigoto is surprisingly slow-paced and family-friendly despite the fact that the Goto-sensei draws lewd manga. Yeah, here and there we have these amazing Itoshiki-sensei-style dialogues and they are undoubtedly one of the staples of this show — but to a huge extent it’s just a story about a small family of two (oh, sorry, Roku, three of course!), their relationships and their daily life.

What’s even more surprising is that in the 12th episode we got a logical conclusion of the story. In a comedy anime consisting of only 12 episodes, with virtually no plot! Mind blowing =) A great show and another gem of this amazing season.

I guess NHL 20 is sort of my MMO game. I’ve never played an online game consistently before but considering that I waste at least an hour every day on this game, follow the news, read the forums and even know of some prominent members of the community… well, it’s what people do when they are obsessed with an MMORPG, right? =)

I even started playing HUT, the mode I’d been avoiding for years — turns out that if you don’t touch the online component there it’s quite fun! (And I even got a Brian Leetch card, one of my favorite players).

Anyway, after pouring countless hours down that hole I’m still having fun with it but there’s still a few things in the game I’d like to see improved (with the inevitable release of the NHL 21).

Gameplay: kill the hustle button. Nerf L2 twirls and puck protection when you’re gliding with it on your forehand. Allow more aggressive poke checks. Hits could use some tweaking as well. The puck should bounce more. Blind passes are way too successful, as well as blind interceptions (the way you can stop the puck should be more consistent in general). There’s also a couple of 90%-success-rate ways to score a goal, not sure if it’s possible to nerf them but would be great as well. Tune up how much players attributes affect their behavior on the ice. And a very vague thing — better AI.

Goalie controls should be more intuitive and fluid. I began playing Be a Pro as a goalie and… it’s a pain. Major pain. The way you’re moving in the crease is inconvenient and kind of unpredictable. I can’t envy guys who play this position in EASHL.

Faster menus! Yeah, surprisingly this is a problem. In HUT and World of CHEL you need to go through tons of menus all the time and it gets annoying pretty quickly.

Non-arcade 3v3 against the CPU or other players. A mode to play on the same arenas as in Drop-Ins wearing casual cloths but controlling the entire team =) A blacklist in the World of CHEL mode.

More reasons to play online versus — division system or tournaments maybe.

An option to choose a different lenght of the season in “Season mode”. Playing 82 games honestly is pretty brutal =)

I know that also people want “GM Connected” and roster sharing, if I’m not sure what to think about the former — the latter would definitely be helpful. But first and foremost — gameplay tweaks!

We’ll see soon I guess how much the new game will be different comparing to the current one. I keep my expectations low but you never know, maybe the EA NHL community will be pleasantly surprised soon =)