This week I have mostly been watching... "Hellsing" ("Herushingu")

Hellsing is a superbly paced Japanese anime series set in present-day England. It is centred around the work of a small military outfit - the Hellsing organisation - who's main purpose is to hunt down and kill all manner of underworld beasties (mostly vampires). While there are moments of humour, this is definitely not the stuff of Buffy & Angel! For the first couple episodes, I almost stopped watching because of the incredibly dire English accents of the voice-over artists but once you get past this, there is a wonderful set of characters for you to watch develop and interact.

The main protagonists are Alucard, a fantastically dark vampire with all sorts of demonic powers, and Seras Victoria, a recently turned ex-cop who slowly comes to terms with her new power over the course of the series. Over the 13-part series the story unfolds a little each time, - thankfully with no filler episodes - interspersed with a multitude of cool fights and interesting baddies. This is a superb series, suitable both for anime-nuts and those who have never seen any but like a brooding story-line.

This week I have mostly been playing... Legend of Zelda, The: Twilight Princess (Wii)

First let me just state that Twilight Princess is amazing and can easily stand proud beside the previous Zelda greats. I didn't really take to the N64 Zeldas but I did love Link's SNES outing and, for me, the Wii's take on Zelda has made the transition to 3D gameplay a real joy to behold. The graphics are lush, the puzzles are challenging and the controls are tuned to perfection. You no longer have to use a clunky analogue stick to aim a bow and the new fishing system made me feel like I had a fish on the end of the remote.

This game is primarily a romp through lots of dungeons but outside that there is also plenty to do. I'm a fan of the bug collecting and fishing but there are various other mini-games including snow-boarding and white-water rafting. The dungeons themselves all have an individual look and feel which draw you in. The Orc camp in particular gives you a wonderful sense of drama and panic, with explosions all around and never-ending swarms of enemies. Twilight Princess also gives you a massive world to explore outside of the dungeons which slowly expands as you play. If you are swithering over whether or not to buy a Wii, buy it along with a copy of Twilight Princess and you shan't regret it; this is Nintendo at their best!