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Well, this has proven rather annoying. For the first time I find myself with the desire to write about a certain something but am not allowed to. Embargo style!!! Actually, it’s self imposed but I don’t want anyone to get into trouble for it so everyone will just have to wait for my impressions of the 5th tale of souls and swords (actually, technically, it’s the 6th but that’s just being petty!)
So for now, I get to talk about something which is kinda related and also something which has been a while coming. A long time (well, not that long, but still…) ago, I purchased a Super Streetfighter IV TE fightstick round 2 and with help from Gahling over at neo empire, I was able to get it dual modded to work on both PS3 and 360 and while I was at it, I also replaced 6 of the original buttons.
But… that wasn’t enough. You see, I’m a rather vain SOB and I like having things which are different from the rest. That’s one of the big reasons why I work on garage kits instead of just buying PVC figures afterall. So after I got my stick, I played with the idea of getting some custom artwork done for it. Then I started talking with good friend and illustrator Radiant Dreamer about it. Early on, I decided on a Blazblue art as it was, and still is, my fave fighting game so it just seemed to fit. I also knew that Radiant was familiar with the game as he worked on the graffiti cover for the UK release of Calamity Trigger (which was almost universally reviled, even by himself to some degree but lets not go there…) so I asked about it and things started from there. In the end, I opted for a completely original work instead of just photoshopping some artwork you can find on the net into something usable and asked Radiant to do the deed as I knew what he was able to do by looking at some of his other works (not to mention some pretty cool Blazblue art which didn’t get used for covers, but should have!)!
Now, I received the finished piece last week and got it on my stick! You’re curious now, aren’t you?
Continue reading The Wheel of Fate is Turning. Rebel 1…
Yay! First new season of 2012! 2011 was a bit of a mixed bag in the end. There were relatively few stand out shows and even the last season didn’t really blow me away despite having some seriously big names. Hopefully, 2012 will really impress and it has a very good chance to do so, seeing as a show I have been waiting literally years for will FINALLY be airing in the spring (or at least, that’s the scheduled release date for it!). but there’s still a season between it and me so we’ll go through the usual motions first with a look back at the previous season and then a look forward to the new shows incoming!
Best Show
Guilty Crown
Pretty tough call. There were a few shows last season which were pretty good but all of them had some glaring faults. Guilty crown had problems with pacing and characterisation. The plot had long sections on some episodes which didn’t really serve any purpose other than to be padding and the main characters, at least initially, are rather unlikeable. Gai is the arrogant prick everyone loves to hate, even though you know it’s just a façade, Inori is your typical “emotionless girl” and Shu… My god, Shu. One can understand his reasoning and what he says when he goes against the grain but at the same time, he comes off like such a wimp, you just want to give him a kick in the ass to get things going. He’s not Ikari Shinji bad, but it’s similar. The problem is that the show doesn’t bother to take time to explore things in a little more detail so everything is pretty much surface level. Like the writers got the bones of the show up and then took a nap!
Having said that, the show did just enough to make me coming back for more to see what happens next without making it feel a little forced (horizon, I’m looking at you!!). It also hit the ground running and then started to fumble, while other shows are still only now just picking up the pace (shana III, Last Exile). It’s far from perfect but it’s arguably the show which kept me the most entertained last season.
Runners up: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Fate\Zero
Continue reading Anime Roundup: Winter 2012
Being in a rut sucks… After taking a little break (and doing a little gunpla again), I really feel like doing another garage kit and with my backlog as big as it is, you’d think that there’d be no problem finding one which I really felt like working on. But after working on a really big project (KOS-MOS) and then spending months on just fixing another (Himeji), I just wanted a simple, small kit which wouldn’t give me too much hassle. So that basically ruled out Bayonetta and Ceila Aintree (Not ready to tackle another 1/4 scale and Aintree has a crapload of parts). I did stumble across a very old kit which I purchased and forgot about but as I started cleaning it up, I noticed that the parts were in really REALLY bad shape. Possibly worse than Himeji… So I just stopped right there before I got really frustrated with the whole process again.
But then I remembered I bought a couple of kits from Volks a while back which should fit all my criteria. And, in the end, I decided to go with…
SABER!! It’s been a very long time since I did a Saber kit. (normally, I try to stick to a rule where I only make 1 kit of a character, but it’s been years since I completed my last Saber kit and that rule was never going to last…). This kit is part of the Try-GK line from Volks and is very very easy to tidy up and build so she seems like a great choice to get me back into gear.
Continue reading Project: Try-Saber (Part 1)
The first post of 2012! And thanks to some extended time off, I have no real projects or figure purchases to speak of (though I have another new kit to add to the queue!) so for this post, I decided to go and review the last game I purchased in 2011, Gundam Extreme vs on the PS3
Despite it being released back on the 1st of December, my copy didn’t arrive until the 23rd, just as I was about to visit the folks for the holiday!! Play Asia started shipping Playstation products to the UK again (they stopped shipping PSP stuff after ye olde Lik-Sang incident and PS3 stuff was also effected, though not PS2, strangely enough!) so I thought I’d give them a shot again. Pretty sure they weren’t this slow before…
In any case, this is the latest version of the gundam vs series which started way back on the PS2 back in 2001. This would be the 9th game in the series and the first on the current gen consoles. The previous 2 games were released on PSP and the ones before that all found a home on the PS2 (save for 1, which was released on the gamecube). The series and I have a fair bit of history, seeing as I played all but 2 in the series, the aforementioned GC game and Gundam vs Gundam NEXT, which was one of the games on the PSP. Most games in the series focused on a particular series. The first game had the first gundam series, AEUG vs Titans went for Zeta and then we had 2 games based in the SEED universe (Alliance vs ZAFT is probably still my fave in the series after all these years). But for the more recent games, they started combining series for a wider variety of more recognisable units.
Extreme Vs also marks a bit of a step back in terms of game mechanics as it does away with features which were introduced in Gundam vs Gundam which is a GREAT THING as it means that units no longer have retarded “all area” attacks they can call on. Gundam vs Gundam NEXT removed the feature too but ended up being horribly unbalanced I’ve been told.
As for game mechanics, the main points have stayed constant throughout the series. Battles are fought usually between 2 teams of 2 units. Each team have a set number of life points and choose a unit to control in the game. If the unit is destroyed, a set number of life points are deducted from the team bar. The team loses when they run out of life points. More powerful units cost more points so they can be destroyed fewer times. Using gundam SEED as an example (because it’s one of the better known shows), you can die in a GINN multiple times without too much of an issue but if you die in Freedom gundam twice, you hit Game over!
The games are also released in the arcades so the controls are fairly simple and easy to grasp but allow for quite nuanced control of your unit when you become more capable. The 4 main buttons are jump, shot, melee and change target. Different units have different numbers of attacks depending on what they can do in their series and the different attacks can be done via various button combinations or shortcuts on the gamepad. For example, The nu Gundam has access to a hyper bazooka and fun funnels as well as basic beam saber and rifle and the Strike gundam can change packs on the fly. But a unit like red frame only has his beam rifle and gerbera straight, but has more damaging melee attacks compared to other units.
For the home versions, there’s the standard arcade mode, obligatory multiplayer (both online and offline flavours) but also a mission mode which is not seen in the arcade versions. Most are basic “defeat the enemy” missions but on occasion, you find yourself locked to a specific unit and find yourself trying to recreate scenes from some of the series. Complete some missions with a certain criteria and you get emblems you can use to display on your online profile and earn trophies (I just use the Katejina Loos emblem though). Oh, and the Zudah really is CRAP!!!
That’s it for the backstory, how did the game feel?
Continue reading Mini Review: Gundam Extreme Vs
And another year passes by without incident. So it seems like a decent time to look back at the years anime and games. As per usual, the figures and whatnot won’t be discussed as they get their own post on the blogs anniversary. Still, there’s plenty to look back at without them. And for starters, here are my fave shows of the year.
Note that I haven’t included any shows which have yet to finish airing. So shows like Persona 4, Fate\zero, Kyokai Senjou no Horizon and Guilty crown get to fight it over in next years post (assuming that 1. I’m still posting by then and 2. I actually remember them!)
And now, lets get on with the rest of the stuff!
Continue reading Keep on Rolling…
Once more, with FEELING!!!
Last weeks post felt a little half finished since I hadn’t completed my plans for the Strike kit so I thought I’d use this weeks post to show it finished as well as go into a little more depth on the finished product.
And here’s how the RG Strike gundam looks after I put the parts through a few rounds of sandpaper. Truth be told, I think I’d have a hard time distinguishing the no-paint completed kit with the original OOB images. If you look closely, you will be able to possibly notice some scratch marks remaining after all the sanding (it’s not like I could make it 100% smooth again afterall) but there’s nothing which makes you instantly tell the 2 apart.
Continue reading Still Keeping it Real (Grade)
It feels like the plamos are taking over. After not building one for ages, I ended up doing 2 in 2 weeks! Last week, I built the YF-29 and this week, after receiving the Real Grade Freedom Gundam, I finally got off my ass and built my RG Strike Gundam which had been sitting there for ages (and if you think that’s bad, I still have an unbuilt MG Exia and Figurise Kamen Rider Double!!
This was how it looked straight out of the box. Unsurprisingly, it took far longer to build than the YF-29. I was really curious about the RG series when it was first announced as it was pretty much billed as a 1/144 scale kit with the details and features of a Perfect Grade! However, it wasn’t until the RG Strike Gundam was announced when I decided to give one a try. I wasn’t too bothered by the initial RX-78-2 and Zaku releases.
However, what I found out wasn’t quite what I expected…
Continue reading Keeping things Real (grade!)
Once again, after completing a painting project, I’m left with the difficult question of what to work on next!! It always happens so I should be used to it but it’s still hard to decide, especially with my backlog. Should I finally get around to building one of the try-GK kits I bought ages ago, or one of the other kits I’ve had for some time. Or should I do one of my Kiking kits???
Well, while I continue to ponder the answer, I went back to basics and built a plamo I bought ages ago, the YF-29 Durandal, Sheryl Nome Valkyrie version!
I prepped the parts ages ago but forgot about it. The kit itself was also very easy and quick to build. I think I took around 30 minutes to put it all together… And then several hours on the decals. Did I mention I hate decals?
On a completely different note, I also went to the Xmas Capcom fight club event over the weekend! It was a joint event with Namco so we got a chance to play some Streetfighter X Tekken and Soul Calibur 5. I also somehow ended up taking part in an Ono Vs Harada challenge as the 2 were present. we had 2 people join either side on an “eat as many mince pies as you can in 1 minute” challenge. Sufficed to say, I don’t want to see another mince pie for a while… But I was part of the capcom team and we won!!! Soul Calibur 5 is also, kinda not crap! I was a little worried when I played a really early build which only had about 5 characters, but the roster was filled this time and the game played much better. I think I’m settling on Pyrrah or Leixia as my main characters. Didn’t care much for Ezio though… But I digress. Back to the Durandal!
Continue reading (Durandal) Valkyrie Rising
This post is a bit late as I noticed a few minor bits which needed touching up at the last minute before I posted, but at least I get to show that I have still been doing some model kit work even though most of the posts recently have been very video game centered. And here’s the latest work. Himeji Shoukanjuu!
I actually started work on this kit a while back but it has been a very difficult kit to complete because the parts were not in good condition! I lost the photos I took of the parts prior to painting but sufficed to say, there were lots of little pinholes on the surface which needed to be repaired before I could get any work done. Then, when I painted the parts, more pinholes were discovered, which then needed to be repaired and then repainted, at which time, more pinholes were found and… well you get the idea!
In the end, the number of times I ended up rediscovering pinholes and repairing them reached nearly double digits, and that’s not including the bits I tried to repair before I went on with the undercoating and painting.
Continue reading Shoukanjuu SUMMON!!
Last one for a while, I promise! Next week, we go back to model kits but I figured that this one deserves a review of its own, given how much hype it got on its announcement and subsequent release of a demo.
As everyone probably knows, this was the game made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. Early on, the main gimmick of the game was that it would allow you to play stages as the modern rendition of sonic alongside his more classic design. Basically, it could be thought of a polite way of Sega asking the “fanboys” to STFU!!! The game has 9 stages, each taken from a game from the backlog and reworked somewhat to allow both modern gameplay elements as well as the more classic ones. Act 1 has you playing in classic mode while act 2 has you in modern mode. Once those have been completed, challenges are unlocked which allow you to collect medals, artwork and music for use in the game. These range from time trials to taking advantage of your friends abilities to clear the stage or collecting a certain number of rings. The challenges are quite varied and, for the most part, short enough for a quick burst while fuelling that addiction to get an S rank upon completion.
Earlier, a demo of the Green Hill Zone, the first stage in the game, was released to give gamers a chance to see how it was stacking up. And I wasn’t very impressed. There was a lot of noise made when some fans released an early version of a HD remake of sonic the hedgehog soon after the release of Sonic 4. the whiny fanboys used it as an example to show to sega how they wanted a sonic game to play. The project was soon shut down and we got sonic generations.
The main issue I had with the demo was that it was incredibly difficult to distinguish between the background and the enemies, especially if you were running at speed so there were many points where I ran into enemies simply because you couldn’t see them and/or react fast enough! That was then. Luckily, after playing one of the later stages at the Eurogamer expo, I found that the same issue isn’t as prevalent in later stages but how someone could call the first stage as something they genuinely want is beyond me!
Continue reading Mini Review: Sonic Generations
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