I havent really read american comics for years, despite once being an avid fan (monthly standing order, the whole lot) of them. The reasons for it arent super important, just a change in taste and getting worn down by and tired of the nature of the american comic industry. But I felt a recent yearning and decided it was time for another go. But I wasnt ready to leap into one of the “Big Two’s” universes, overladen with continuity and market forces. Continue reading…
Best of 2012 – Games, Anime & Manga – An abandoned post
Planned to have these three finished in January. That clearly did not happen. I no longer have the motivation, or seemingly the ability, to put together even a mini-review for stuff. I think I’ve spent too long wallowing in the extremely toxic environment of online anime and gaming forums. Where “discussion” is largely people screaming at one another about their subjective opinions. It’s driven me to a standpoint where I just want to enjoy what I enjoy without having to explain or justify why I enjoy it. I may get around to filling in the missing entries when I re-read/watch/play the stuff in them. But some of them I havent looked at in over a year (I really should do rolling Top X lists as it would be easier to keep stuff fresh in my mind). The gaming part is mostly complete, 7 out of 10 more or less complete. Anime and Manga are more or less just list/links. Continue reading…
Best of 2013 – Half way there
I like Top X lists, I like reading them, I like arguing about them, what I dont like is writing them. Because it’s always a slog (and one which I just wasnt up to last year, I know you’re devastated dear reader – but I decided to post the semi-complete version I’ve had knocking around as a draft for months, its here). Maybe its because I always leave it to the end of the year and trying to recall stuff that I might have played/read/watched twelve months ago doesnt help. So I decided this year things would be different. I’d do one mid-year, another at the end of the year and then (perhaps) a final master list in the new year. Those who can work a calendar will be aware that we are a month past the halfway point. So (as always it seems) this is a little late. And a little short. But brevity is the soul of wit. Continue reading…
The Woeful 108 – Quarterly Update 2
I outlined my plan to deal with my backlog here and then I updated it here. So how did quarter 2 go? Continue reading…
The Woeful 108 – Imminent Collapse
I outlined my plan to deal with my backlog here and then I updated it here. There’s another update being typed up in the wings but I happened to look at upcoming releases and I cant help but feel that my will will be tested (and I’m sure regular readers will be aware how well that turns out). Continue reading…
Greenery and Impotence
Awoken by a dog barking outside and a fly buzzing in my ear. Not the worst way I’ve ever been woken up but fairly up there. Staggered out of the early morning oven my room had become and headed downstairs. Managed to get half a glass of water into me before I was roped into more agricultural work. Which a lifetime of living in the country has led me to despise. Slapped on some sunblock (rich with second hand sand) and spent an hour or so cutting down a few trees. Then it was time to sacrifice this morning’s and yesterday’s spoils to the every hungry god of the recycling plant. The first load (ooh err matron) wasn’t too bad, despite the car being so full that a sudden stop would have led to a fairly rough decapitation, it was mostly just one big tree. Back home and a bit more cutting followed by the second trip to the recycling centre. Here is where disaster struck.
Due to our victories in the war against the green the boot was packed too full to close. Science was the answer, science in the form of a few bungee cords to hold it closed. It truly is a new millennium. Anyhow, we got to the recycling centre and pulled up ready to unload (saucy). I was standing at the side of the car, pulling on my gloves, minding my own business, when something hard and travelling at a velocity that I can only describe as “unfortunate” collided with my delicate man-meats. As I doubled over in pain my mother doubled over in laughter. It seems that when she was disconnecting the bungee cords one had flown off and collided with her best chance of a perfect grandchild. I tried not to puke as she tried and failed to apologise through the laughter.
After that the third and final load was something of a blur. I had been planning to whinge about how I managed to get bitten on the head again (despite never taking off my fucking hat) but that pales in comparison to the testicular trauma mentioned above. But I’ve mentioned it anyway because I wanted to compare my twin mounds to Ms Eleniak’s (the only reason anyone watched Under Siege) and I couldn’t live with myself if I let a sweet 90’s reference like that go to waste. It was still stinging when after the third load we ventured into the metropolis of Dundalk. Dundalk is actually surprisingly even more depressing in the sun, full of the scantily clad and shittily tanned sporting even shittier tattoos. It is not a place for the beautiful people. Nipping into Dunnes for some supplies was even more depressing, some stellar child rearing on display.
I was still feeling rather sorry for myself as we headed down the Quay to trade custard creams and a wonky fan for a cylinder of gas. As I slowly cooked in the car and my mother chatted to hers I heard the siren call of the ice cream man. Not just any old ice cream man at that, no sir, Charlie’s ice cream van. I’m not shitting you, and I use no exaggeration, when I say that Charlie’s homemade ice cream is the nicest ice cream I’ve ever eaten. Went the whole hog, flake and a bit of the auld red sauce. Finally felt myself returning to something akin to human. Now I’m finally home, with the feet up and sipping a capri-sun (orange of course, I’m a gentleman). I’ve come to terms.
Brief thoughts on The Last of Us
Finished The Last of Us earlier on, my post game reverie was interrupted by having to dump a fridge (literally, not slang for a heroic bowel movement). So I’ll need to think on it further. But as it stands the ending of the game surprised me, not in a “PLOT TWIST” kind of way but more in “Oh, they actually went with that?” way. The storytelling overall was great, while the bones of the plot might not be fresh the characters and characterisation really sold it. After been unable to get into TWD, this felt like it effortlessly achieved and surpassed what that game was trying for. The story itself is perfectly suited to the world presented in the game, and the world presented is also pretty amazing. Sometimes I’d just stop and spin the camera around because the world just looked amazing. The gameplay, both stealth and combat, were tough but enjoyable. While I died a good few times it never felt cheap and it never felt like something I couldnt surpass. I’d love to see more stuff set in this world, whether its starring the same characters or not. Its probably the most believeable post apocalyptic world I’ve seen in a game. The games only shortcomings were entirely technical, while it was lovely looking (and probably the nicest looking game on the PS3) it was clearly held back in places due to lack of processing power/ram/etc. I’d love to see a “HD+” version on the PS4 or PC. The game has a “listen mode” which basically lets you look through walls, I turned it off from the beginning (which I’d recommend). But the game lacks a button to see around corners, so sometimes you can end up dicking with the camera just to see whats going on. The pacing was generally excellent, I found the game extremely hard to stop playing. There was one short sequence towards the beginning (about 2 hours in) that I did find a little tedious. But it was short and if the rest of the game wasnt so good I wouldnt even mention it. It’s easily the best game I’ve played this year. Looking forward to giving the multiplayer and NewGame+ a go.
Brief thoughts on Marvel Heroes
Finished the storyline part of Marvel Heroes, 12 hours, level 25 (soft cap lvl30, max lvl60). It’s an average to mediocre arpg that kept pulling me back in becuase of my fondness for Marvel. It does leverage the property quite well, the story is ok (nothing amazing, but then again what can you expect from Bendis when it comes to Marvel?), the locations are nicely varied, the enemies could perhaps do with a bit more variation but you get to duff up most of the standard bad guys so thats good. Similarly the bosses have a nice selection of the more popular villains. What dragged the game down for me was a) the relatively blatant cash grabs and b) its unpolished nature. Still I enjoyed most of the 12 hours I spent with it (it started a bit slow but certainly picked up). I’ll probably buy one of the 6 or 9 quid heroes and run through the story again. Not super interested in running the sparse endgame dailies at the moment (especially, and bizarrely, becuase the autogroup function doesnt work for them – which is fucking dumb). If you like Marvel and ARPG’s then I’d say give it a go (its free after all) (feel free to add me on Steam and we can “Team-Up”, SteamID is Aueberon). If you simply like ARPG’s then theres much better options out there, both F2P (Path of Exile), cheap (Torchlight 2) and not so cheap/great (Diablo III)
I’ll revisit/expand on this later when I’ve had some time to mull over it
GIWTR 01 – A Mecha in King Arthur’s Court – Part 6 – Knight Armour’s – Updates, Claymore & Dirk
Well after getting into the swing of things and designing six units I’ve learned a few things about the process and got a much better handle on how to adjust the MTS to get the results I want. So due to a better understanding of the system and the comparative expense of the Saxon Armour’s I’m going to make a few tweaks to the Sweord and Pendragon Knight Armour designs as well as introducing the Claymore and Dirk Knight Armours. Continue reading…
GIWTR 01 – A Mecha in King Arthur’s Court – Part 5 – Saxon Armour’s – Berserker & Ettin
So in the last post I started designing some of the Saxon Armours, we designed the basic “footsoldier” unit, the Ceorl as well as two versions of the officer unit, the Oegn Standard V and the elite Oegn Beowulf Variant. In this post I’m going to design two of elite Saxon Armors. The Berserker and the Ettin. Continue reading…