Global Ion

Minecraft Mania

2011-03-03T20:44:00.000-06:00

So yeah I seem to have been sucked into minecraft thanks to the yogscast youtube vids. Been having a blast so far and it has only been a few days. Have already got my money's worth out of this and I haven't explored nearly everything that the game has to offer yet.

Magicka: Vietnam

2011-03-01T11:50:00.001-06:00

Well I knew they were going to be releasing something Magicka related during GDC....I didn't expect this though lol. Now I don't know if this is a full new game we will have to buy or some sort of expansion pack but either way day one for me loved the original and this is such a random idea how could it not be great.

Announcement trailer here

and back!

2011-02-28T14:09:00.001-06:00

Well looks like everything is back up and running here internet wise. Need to get back into the blogging atmosphere but I suspect everything will be 100% back to normal this week and as such it is Monday so weekly update time!

Rift is set to be released this week on the first of March. I do not plan on buying it but if you are then I wish you luck and hope you have a fun time. My review of Rift is pretty much on indefinite hold since i wasn't able to see very much of the content.

A free Magicka DLC was released, Mainly just a new tongue in cheek costume and staff to poke fun at how broken the game was at release. All in good fun and free stuff is always nice though i still want a new arena or some such or PVP come on arrow head you know you want to!

Speaking of Magicka, TB and the Yogscast guys released two more of their Magicka play through hilarous as always.

And finally the Fourth Break Blade OVA has been released over in japan and hopefully i can acquire a copy definitely looking forward to that one!

Absence

2011-02-25T21:45:00.000-06:00

So yeah been really light on content this week. My internet connection has been completely gone since like Tuesday, something to do with some blown wries or something in my apartment complex. There for I have had to jurry rig my phone to use as a cell modem, thank god for android phones though or else it would have been a lot more difficult to do. I have been told i will get real internet back Next week so hopefully i will have some cool stuff to post on Monday or so until then have a good weekend everyone!

-Cheers!

Off The Hook

2011-02-23T18:53:00.000-06:00

Weekly news Update

2011-02-22T00:48:00.000-06:00

So I apparently missed about half the Rift beta because I thought it ended Tuesday and not a day or so earlier. So I will be putting up a part two of the review but it will be a lot lighter on content and just sum up some things since I missed out on some stuff. In the mean time here is the second video of TB and two other random brit guys playing Magicka!!

Rift, A Review [part 1]

2011-02-20T21:41:00.000-06:00

So yeah my thoughts on all MMOs are very biased towards World of Warcraft. It being by far the longest MMO I have ever played (on and off since closed beta back in '04) with only a slight dabbling in the likes of EQ1, LotRo and Vindictus. Having said that obviously there will be many comparisons to WoW in this and any other review I do over a fantasy based MMO so keep that in mind if you decide to further delve into my slightly structured ravings on Rift.

Starting out the Story....well it is there I really do not have a clue what is going on beyond typical fantasy cliches of great evil comes into the world and dragons, always with the dragons but any ways in MMOs as apposed to most other games i really do not care about the story much. So it isn't too much of a problem to me.

So we have two factions to choose from the Guardians, champions of the gods, and the Defiant, who wish to follow their own patch. Each faction has three races the guardians get humans, elf and dwarf.... great the three "good" fantasy races that have been used since Tolkien. Yeah let us see what Defiant has to offer, Desert dwelling humans, dark elves and some kind of brutish orc-elf blend thing. Well ok basically the opposite of the other faction but it as least looks like they put some effort into these in terms of something unique.

The character creation system is very involved with a multitude of options from eye rotation to the color of your hair highlights about a million more from WoW perhaps too many but it is fun to play around with so many options.

Now we get to something rift is known for being the class system. So basically there are 4 base classes: Warrior, Clerc, Mage & Rogue. You then get to basically pick your talent trees out of about 8 for each class. They are called Souls here. You can mix and match how you like though there are combination that obviously work better. I will say I really do like this system and the ideas of being able to have more control over how you play your character. So for my main character I chose a warrior and my Souls were: Beastmaster, Champion and warlord. This gave me a pet (I am a pet whore i love having combat companions in games) and then Two handed based attacks with champion and debuffs with warlord. This is the "optimal" combination involving these souls but I could have easily gone any random combos and i really like that idea.

Getting into game play though is where things start to go down hill imo. Again coming from WoW there is not much in the way of innovation. The combat system works exactly the same for example rogues with combo points and finishers (yes I know this didn't start with wow but again where most of my info comes from). The quests are another big let down. Just go here kill 10 things go back rinse and repeat 12 times and then you level and do it again and i just can not be bothered to even read the quest text. Now WoW back in the day were like this as well how ever before starting wow I have been leveling a dwarf shaman through the new 1-60 cata content and it is so well done now that you actually care about the stories and each zone has a contained and generally well organized story that makes you feel like you are part of something.

Now having discussed the negatives I will give the dev teams praise on the aspects of world events which completely blow WoW out of the water. The titular rifts and various invasions are a lot of fun and joining with a band of random people all on a common goal to defeat these evils from destroying the world. I scrounged all my money to get a mount for the sole purpose of being able to roam around the zone and engage in rift events.

I will release the second part of this review in order to discuss an instance and possibly PVP as well as my final thoughts!

An Update + More Magicka!

2011-02-19T13:21:00.000-06:00

Small Update today sorry for not getting anything out yesterday had some personal stuff come up that needed to be dealt with, I will have my review of Rift up tomorrow though and in the mean time I present to you a trio of Brits playing magicka! If you watch Total Biscuit you have probably already seen this but it is still a blast.

Reading....a Book!?

2011-02-17T11:25:00.000-06:00

So I enjoy reading but it seems like I just do not have the time or more precisely the will power to make the time to get into the longer novels that I enjoy. As such i have started to really enjoy Japanese light novels. They can be read in only an hour (if that) and are generally more fast paced. So I will take this time now to give a brief over view of the one I most recently finished.

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

The easiest way to explain the plot is Groundhog Day (the Bill Murray movie) mixed with Starship Troopers (the book). The protagonist of the novel is Keiji Kiriya a rookie drafted into the defense force to fight against the invading mimics a mysterious alien force. Unfortunately for our hero he is killed on his first mission out of basic training but for some unknown reason he wakes up the morning before he is killed back in his bunk. He eventually becomes an excellent soldier and encounters a young woman named Rita known through out the world as the Full Metal Bitch, the most decorated soldier of the war.

It is a very fun read with likable characters and kick ass battle scenes. The story it's self is intriguing to say the least and the reasons behind the time loop are actually explained somewhat and seem to make sense. For those of you less inclined to read a movie is currently planned with a 2012 release date and if done right could be a great blockbuster popcorn flick! You can find the book at amazon and other online book sellers and perhaps even your local book stores but don't get your hopes up at finding it at your local library it just does not seem like something they would have picked up on a whim.

Rift Open Beta

2011-02-16T11:52:00.000-06:00

So the Rift open beta started yesterday and I have been occupying my free time with it. So far it is fairly fun I really enjoy the class combo system customization is always a plus in my book. The rift events them selves are also a nice distraction from the questing. As I have been a wow nerd since that games closed beta the game does have many similarities with that game which is not necessarily a bad thing. I will write up a full review after the beta ends in a week.

One Shot Manga of Note #2

2011-02-15T02:38:00.000-06:00

Another one this one is from all the way back in 2006 *gasp*

Hotel

The story of an AI tasked with watching over a "Hotel" for million of years after the extinction of humanity due to global warming. A very insightful tale that manages to really hammer home the emotions and thoughts of the main character in so few pages. Also very touching ending if you do not feel something from it then you might want to check out if you are really alive.i only recently read it but it quickly jumped up into my top ten mangas in no time just because of the excellent story and wonderful artwork. Do your selves a favor and go read this as soon as you are able.

Weekly News Update

2011-02-14T14:19:00.000-06:00

First thing first it seems I passed the 100 followers milestone (achievement unlocked?) so I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the blog and decided to stick around!

Now I have decided to make Mondays my weekly news update day which means if I come across any news regarding anything I've mentioned so far in this blog I'll throw it in here to keep everyone up to date. Since this is the first one it is going to be kind of short but will probably get ridiculously long as the weeks get going.

Magicka:

According to Bigdownload.com Magicka has surpassed 200,000 total downloads. For a game that came out less then a month ago from such a small company this is amazing news. There was also a small magicka patch today but I have not seen the patch notes to know what has changed. If i find them before the day is out I'll edit this post to include the highlights.

And that is all the news I have, told you it would be short!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. First Impressions

2011-02-13T11:13:00.000-06:00

Acquired this game back during the Steam winter sale (stupid steam sales increasing my ever growing backlog of games) and I must say it is slowly growing on me. Only about 4 or so missions in and starting to get a feel for the game world with every NPC having their own rules and desires in this apocalyptic waste land. Also got to hear some of the story of the wishman and I am very interested in where this is heading. It took me more time then normal to get into things with this one as it is not your bog standard run and gun style FPS. Have to worry about the weight of your equipment no carrying 10 guns with 100 ammo each. Have to eat and carry medpacks as well and of course you can get tired and have to rest. Oh and the stealth aspect which I enjoy but really suck at. overall it is an enjoyable game so far and I am looking forward to seeing what else it has to offer.

A Review of Magicka

2011-02-12T05:34:00.002-06:00

The First game from a small 6 man team called Arrowhead Studios. Magicka manages to really capture something missing from most modern games Fun, Creativity and Humor. The story is really simplistic and is simply a framing device for the core mechanics basically you are a wizard and you must defeat a dark wizard from taking over the world (OF COURSE!).

For being so simplistic and cliched it somehow adds to the overall experience and enhances the humor of which there is a lot. You really do want to see what randomness will plague your little randomly colored robed mage next. Fun characters also help to flesh things out: From Vlad (who is totally not a vampire) to Admiral Agnar (It's a Trap!). The humor is fun and many times you will actually find your self both groaning and grinning at all the little references being thrown around. Just take a look at the list of achievements to get just a small taste of all the references thrown into this game.

The Combat system is where this game really shines it is an innovative and ingenous idea that I am very surprised no one has done before. Basically you have 8 different elements to choose from shown here:

Top Row: Water, Life, Shield, Cold
Bottom Row: Lightning, Arcane, Earth, Fire [wind water heart ahem]
Each element does basically what you would think they would: Lightning lets you act like emperor palpatine, fire shoots fire, earth lets you shoot a giant rock and life can heal. You can combine up to 5 of them together and then either shoot them forward, do an area of effect or hit your self with them or place the spell on your melee weapon. Some elements cancel out and can not be combined for example lightning and water can not be mixed together. There are also two "hidden" elements that of Water+Cold = Ice and Water+Fire=Steam..

So some basic spell combos would be 3 part fire + 2 part earth would make a fire ball or 2 part shield plus 3 part life would make life mines on the ground that would heal anyone that walked over them or one of the most powerful 1 part Arcane+1 part steam+3 part lightning will make a steam lightning beam that soaks a target and electrfries them (wet opponents take more lightning damage). this system is almost perfect everything just works and produces results as you would expect it to and there are so many spell combinations you will spend an hour just experimenting.

Along with the on the fly spells there are Magics which can be learned which do more advanced things such as summoning zombies or elemental minions or creating giant black hole like vortexes that suck up all the enemies throwing them into the abyss.

The Game can be played in single player but the co-op multiplayer is where this game really shine as you and 3 of your friends can choose to either go through the story mode together or simply do one of the arena challenges and suffer through 20 waves of monsters trying to rack up kills. Oh yeah and friendly fire is on so expect to hear many calls of "hey you just killed me" over vent. This is half the fun and being a dick just comes with the territory of your new found wizard abilities. You can also combine beams with your friends (or depending on you have been playing enemies) to create devastating power attacks (as shown in the SS above).

One final thought to mention is on Bugs and Support. At release the game was indeed very buggy and almost unplayable in multiplayer because of the lag and random crashes to desktops. How ever the dev team has been excellent in providing patch fixes they have put out a new patch almost every day since and have basically got most of the major bugs ironed out. Even with all the various problems me and my friends still pushed through with the game just because all the fun we were having far far out weighed the bugs and other problems that cropped up.

In conclusion Magicka has been one of the best gaming experiences I have had in recent memory. The game can be bought on Steam and several digital distribution companies and there are rumors of a console version in the works. For only 10 bucks I certainly recommend you give this one a go and give it a final score of 5 Arcane fire ice beams out of 5!

MAGICKA!

2011-02-11T13:03:00.000-06:00

So I've been playing Magicka with a few of my friends and it has been a blast. Will be writing a proper review for this game later tonight or tomorrow but in the mean time here is the trailer.

One Shot Manga of Note #1

2011-02-10T13:40:00.000-06:00

Just a little weekly post I wanted to try out to spotlight some one shot mangas that can be fun or interesting reads. One shots typically contain an entire story in just one volume so no long series to worry about with tons of back story and things.

So with that out of the way here is the first!

The Enigma of Amigara Fault

Another earthquake has rocked Japan but this one left something mysterious in it's aftermath. The quake exposed a new fault line in the mountains with strange holes in it's side, the holes have human like sizes and shapes.

This becomes a sensational news story and many people are drawn to the images on their TVs and begin a pilgrimage to the mountains to see this for themselves. When they arrive some find their own holes and are even further driven to learn about them through sheer curiosity or something unnatural no one can say but it seems to torment them until some snap and enter their hole. The hole is a perfect fit and they easily slide into the unknown. I won't spoiler where the hole ends up but it is a chilling read with a new and original story and definitely worth a read. You can find it online with a quick Google search happy reading!

Break Blade Review

2011-02-09T17:03:00.000-06:00

Story

In this world there are sorcerers who use a very specific type of magic, the controlling of Quartz. They use this for everything from controlling vehicles to operating weaponry such as giant mecha known as golems. The difference to standard magic practices is that everyone born in this world can manipulate quartz to some degree from the age of 2 children are taught this skill. Everyone that is except the main character Rygart and his younger brother, due to circumstances neither can control even the slightest bit of Quartz.

As such they are basically shunned from society as outcasts being dubbed un-sorcerers. Eventual y Rygart's father, wanting him to have a chance of a normal life, sends him to the state military academy where he meets Zess a combat genius from a rival country of athens. Hodr the heir to Rygart's own kingdom of Krisna and Sigyn a genius in quartz. Through the years the four become close friends until rygart is forced out of the academy due to a lack of money to pay tuition.

Several years pass until Rygart gets a letter from Hodr, now king, asking him to come to the capital. Turns out that Krisna and Athens are now at war. Zess is leading an Athen attack force in krisna territory and krisna is losing badly. Their only ace in the hole is an ancient golem found in the dessert but none of their pilots can control it, Hodr believes that only an un-sorcerer like Rygart is able to.

Characters

One of the highlites of the series is the belivability of the characters and how they interact. Each has their own goals and fears, faults and exceptions.

Rygart is a likable main character who is thrust into a position he had grown up believing he had no chance of obtaining, that of a golem controller. He goes through hardships and challenges in a realistic manner and breaks through his hesitations in great fashion. Hodr is a king who never asked for the title but leads his people as well as can be expected. The weight of the responsibility weighs heavily on him as he tries to do what is best for his country. Sigyn as Hodr's wife is the queen of the country and also their lead researcher in Golem development. She is kind and gentle as her country and husband face annihilation. Zess is a natural born combat leader but now he must go against his greatest friends and comrades he leads his troops well but with great sadness and is not fully aware of the ultimate outcome his country has demanded from this war.

Great secondary characters round out the cast. Each one is named and has personal history. From Zess' squad of marauding golems to krisna's millitary command hierarchy. It would take far too long to point them all out. Oh and of course Hodr's pet owl the smug bastard shown above on Rygart's head.

Action

Another aspect where the series shines. The mech combat is fast paced without devolving into complete absurdity. The Mechs themselves seem designed with a bit of thought to how they would work if transplanted into the real world. The use of tactics is a nice change of pace from shoot shoot shoot then swing sword. Each action has a consequence and the characters realize this and respong accordingly or don't and then realize their mistake.

Animation

Production IG has done a superb job bringing this manga to life so to speak in it's animation style. Movements are smooth and polished to perfection. The character design is typical anime but the detail is exquisite. the mechs them selves look beautiful and as would be expected from military hard ware that has been out in the field it gets dings and scratches from normal wear and tear and any battle damage stays there until it can be repaired back at base. Another thing to note is that they have taken the eyes and really fleshed them out compared to other animes which of course always have the traditional style but it seems that someone on the staff has an eye fetish as there are perhaps a few too many eye shots.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a Mech anime with actual substance then this is definitely something you should check out. The one fault of the series is that it isn't finished yet so giving a complete review is hard in that regard. Still if you can stand the nail biting waiting game for future installments then procure your self a copy of this great show and give it a watch!

UPS, How I loathe you

2011-02-08T22:44:00.000-06:00

OFF-TOPIC POST rant ahead captain!

So I ordered a new office chair last week on account of my recently bought previous one breaking on me and becoming unfix able. It was supposed to arrive Wednesday but I never believe them anyways and they never sent me a tracking number until Thursday saying it would be here Friday well fair enough. Then of course we get blasted with more snow then is reasonable in my state and it was delayed to the following Monday (no delivery on weekend) ok again fine I understand. Monday rolls around no package so i check and it says it is delayed once again until Tuesday this time due to "Emergency Situation" errrrr I sure didn't hear about anything that would remotely count as making packages unable to be delivered but i thought maybe they knew something I didn't (HA!) so today I happened to be home all day and still no freaking chair so i again i checked the website and now it says it was delivered to the leasing office....Infuriating they did not even come by to check if I was in or not they just took it right there not even a slip saying it was there this would not even the worst part for you see I didn't check up on it till 7 PM after the office is already closed for the day as my new chair sits (hehe) in there over night scared and alone. Now for a video that sums up everything in my post!

Roughneck Opening

2011-02-08T16:08:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to show some more love to this great series!

Starship Troopers - Adaptation Roll Call

2011-02-08T01:54:00.000-06:00

Let us take a look at all the adaptations for this Heinlein novel from 1959 going in chronological order starting where it first began.

The Novel

"There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men."

-Sergeant Zim

The novel that started this little adaptation craze...although it seemingly took several decades to occur. A story of war and humanities place in it along with the moralaty of violence. Definately controversial and in today's light the views can seem a bit jarring especialy if your political views are askewed from it. Still the millitary and combat portions specifically the power armor and drop pods of the book are very well handled and I would reocmend reading it (it is also fairly short) as it is very enjoyable and I could not put it down.

The Anime OVA

Yes indeed the first on screen adaptation, Released in 1988 in japan as Uchū no Senshi ^.It was never given an international release and the only way to find this is to track down a Laser Disc (remember those bad boys) version over in Godzilla's domain. For the time the animation was decent though the story did take several liberties with the source material. Still it was for the most part faithful to the broader ideals of the book when it came to the combat sequences (keeping in the awesome power armor). looking at the above cover one gets vague Gundam overtones and indeed it was made by the same company...and adding to this Gundam borrowed heavily on the ideas for mecha from star ship troopers so it is fun to see it come full circle so to speak. All in all it is a decent series in it's own right and worth a watch if you can track down a copy.

The Movie

Now here we get into the territory that most know. The 1997 theatrical film directed by Paul Verhoeven (of Robo Cop fame). As far as an adaptation goes this one is crap. Originally not even based on the novel instead it was a completely original screen play entitled "Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine" some one noticed the similarities to SST and the studio managed to acquire the rights and just re-named characters and settings as needed. The director hated the novel even though he admitted to not reading it. Still having said this the film is definately a guilt pleasure of mine. Many of the actors fit their roll perfectly and the SFX looks good even from todays standards, most of you have probably seen this one but if not go over to netflix and check it out.

^{The CGI Series}

^{By far my favorite adaptation. Released in 1999 this CGI cartoon took elements of the movie and added back in many of the elements misisng from the books like drop-pods and combat armor. Mix in heavy character development and orginal ideas and you come up with my second favorite all CGI cartoon (after ReBoot) I would actualy wake up at 5AM weekdays just to catch this before school started now that is dedication. The only down side is that it ended production on a cliffhanger with the bugs attacking earth and now we will never know what became of the Roughnecks as their chronicle was shot down in it's prime.}

^{The Game}

^{A Real Time Tactics game released in 2000 by MicroProse (Civilization series). Admittidly I did not get to play much of this. Only a few missions at a friends house once. But from my vague recollection it was a bog standard tactics game for the time and some what dated graphics even then. Still I am only rambling here to deny the innevitable of what comes next in this series.}

^{The Sequel}

Oh God! No...ANYTHING BUT THIS AHHHH! ok really this is the worst of the bunch. The absolute dredge of cinema as tvtropes would put it so bad it is horrible. There are honestly no known redeeming qualities to this abomination. Some how it even has worse special effects then the original even with the 7 year advance in technology. I suppose the budget difference would have to be seen to believed but honestly who ever thought they could get away with this. let us move on before I create a new blog dedicated to trashing this....thing.

The Threequel

Now this is an actual sequel in fact let us forget about the other one up there as this movie certainly does. released in 2007 Johny Rico is back from the original as are the cheesey would you like to know more proto political adds. It also finally shows us "live action" power armor in the titular mauraders. Now don't get me wrong this is by no means a good movie but compared to....well other movies it isn't as terrible and is laughably bad if anything especialy the stupid religion plot crammed in there. Still it is worth a watch if you can acquire it for free.

That pretty much wraps up most of the main adaptations there was a few board game, a line of comics and a cancelled FPS game....but hey what can i say do you want to be reading this post forever grunt!

Broken Blade

2011-02-07T21:46:00.001-06:00

Just finished the First Broken Blade (aka Break Blade) OVA. I must say I am impressed with what i have seen so far. Excellent Mech design, likable characters, and beautiful art direction, as I would expect from Production IG. I had not heard of the manga before but I will probably end up having to take an archive binge through it if the next two released OVAs are even half as good as this one.

I will give a more detailed review once I have watched the other two but as far as first impressions go this gets a: Must Watch More!

FA9Z5UE7CBH5

First Post

2011-02-07T20:56:00.000-06:00

Obligatory First Blog Post. Will be posting random nerd type things, Random Anime and Game related mostly but other things as well if they pop into my mind. Thanks for reading!