Friday 31 July 2009

Halo ODST

Halo 3: ODST - Desperate Measures




I knew Nathan Fillion has done voice over work in previous Halo games but I had NO idea he was actually in this one with his face and everything. Even if he just acts like Captain Malcolm Reynolds in this game it will still be pure awesome! Although his name Sergeant Buck is kind of… well … crap.


Still the voice talent is looking pretty good for the rest of the squad as well; Firefly co-stars Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk are voicing Dutch and Mickey who I assume will make up the hard ass ladies man and the smart mouthed pilot/techie comedy combo. Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer will play the usual token female/love interest. Still hopefully the talent will overcome the clichéd characters.


I guess the producers must be huge FireFly & Serenity fans...like me. Makes me tempted to dust off the Xbox and get this.

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Good god why!!


I read this and had to check it was not some twisted hoax but no the literary equivalent of having your testicales beaten with a rock is now to become an MMO. Joy of Joys!


Now I know women the world over as well as my Girlfriend and her housemates will be squealing at the idea of seeing more of Edward Cullen on the internet and can interact with him (I shudder to think what some women want that interaction to be) but god I read a few passages and it is awful stuff! It seems a cross between some stupid Dawsons Creek teen problems and a soft core porno – it is definitely not the best things since sliced bread (that would be actually bread which I assume they invented just before slicing it)


Makes me hope they rush out a Harry Potter MMO quick to beat this one because if this becomes the second most popular Western MMO after Warcraft I am going to have to go get that rock!


Massively


UPDATE: Apparently it is not an MMO (sigh of relief) but the concept of a Twilight game is being worked on by a student of game design from Florida and BrainJunk Studios who are all vounteers.

Painting Log

I have decided to start a log of my painting; I will be concentrating on my Space Marines and hope to get 1500-2000 points done by the end of the year.

N – Not assembled
A – Assembled
U – Undercoated
B – Basecoated
P – Painted

Captain B
Chaplain P

Command Squad B
Razorback

Tactical Squad x10 P
Rhino A

Tactical Squad x10 U
Rhino A

Tactical Squad x10 A
Rhino A

Scout Squad x 6 U

Dreadnought A

Assault Terminators N

Land Raider B

Land Speeder Tornado U

Attack Bike B

Predator N

As you can see i still have a way to go with my next task getting everything assembled and undercoated, then working on getting them painted up. I may add in an extra squad of marines for a bit more flexiblity.

Saturday 25 July 2009

Fallout 3 DLC





I love all things fallout - i played Fallout 1,2 and 3 as well as slogging through tactics (lets not mention that fetid turd Brotherhood of steel = console crap)

However I was slightly miffed when i purchased the first disc of DLC to Fallout 3 - Operation Anchorage & the Pitt. I found that when i installed them it deleted all my save games so I am going to have to play through again, not a terrible thing as it is a great game I will enjoy playing again as a baddie - i just am a bit annoyed i lost my character with all the work that went into him. Such is life i guess.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Sam Raimi To Helm World Of Warcraft Movie

Up until now it has been something we all just expected to be made but now it's official - a World of Warcraft movie is in development with Sam Raimi brought in to direct, I recently saw “drag me to hell” and enjoyed it immensely and Spiderman was a definite success to me.

Certainly good news as most game to film adaptations have been awful – cheap films trying to sell themselves on franchises such as Street Fighter, Mario Bros, Resident Evil and anything by Uwe Boll. Max Payne was an exception as while not very good it at least was an attempt to make something of a popular franchise without it being cheap and tacky.

A rumoured 100+ million dollar budget and a quality director gives the project real weight, this is not an on the cheap cash in where only B list actors with no shame can be persuaded to come on board – I expect to see some big hitters involved in a similar vein to having Ian Mckellen, John Rhys Davies and Christopher Lee involved with Lord of the Rings.

Along with a massive fan base from all the Warcraft games (not just WoW) and aggressive marketing from both Legendary Pictures and Activision Blizzard means expectations of success will be high. Of course there is the chance of epic fail but I don’t see that happening – both studios will see the chance of ongoing films based in the universe and other Blizzard games – how cool would films be based on Diablo, Starcraft, Lost Vikings (ok the story might be a bit thin but still come on!)

Combined with the Halo and Gears of War films on the horizon I have high hopes they will herald a new beginning for films based upon video games


News from Edge

Monday 20 July 2009

Modern Warfare.....against the consumer

Apparently Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 is now 40 quid on the PC and 55 pounds on xbox or PS3 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Wow!

I realise that the pound has dropped in strentgh due to the recession but this is just using it as an excuse to overcharge people. Sure it will sell so well Activision CEO can finally build that platinum plated tank firing wads of cash at poorboy gamers for kicks but come on I know they would want to cash in on this franchise but you might as well just get the limited edition and get some night vision goggles for pretend military and peeping tom action.

Activision/Blizzard seems to be overtaking EA as the great satan of video games -

  • Dropping plenty of great IPs because they "don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises"
  • Getting into spats over games they dropped because they actually may turn out to make millions i.e. brutal legend
  • Producing any musical junk game with the title xxxxhero to make some more money from daft peripherals - a few on the horrizion could include Xylophone Hero, Tambourine Hero or my personal favourite Didgeridoo Hero where you face off with Rolf “two little toys” Harris for his wobble board!

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Games i am looking forward to

PC

Bio Shock 2 – Following on from the original with its Plasmids, iconic enemies and “that” twist it is a welcome return, especially as a big daddy prototype. More of the same from the looks of it, but that is no bad thing.

Starcraft 2 & Diablo 3 – These two go hand in hand as Blizzard does not make bad games. Yes there are people questioning the art design of D3 and whether SC2 needs to be in 3 parts but I keep faith with the quality of the studio and Blizzard knows how to make quality games.

They are not massively innovative and they do not diverge from a few key IP’s but they make fun and enjoyable games. For me Diablo 3 looks good and if I have to pay 25-30 pounds per episode for Starcraft 2 I do not mind if it is worth it.

While the merger with Activision (the new EA for money grubbing) means there will be some impact to Blizzards team. I hope it does not mean they lose its “when it’s finished” mantra. Certainly it does not appear to be the case so far.

Champions Online – Another potential “WoW Killer”

I find people throw around the idea that the next MMO will be the one to kill off WoW, much like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan were touted to do and how the Star Wars old Republic MMO will be hyped up. Instead I expect this to do very well with a few hundred thousand subscribers which would make is a success. Warhammer and Conan in their own ways are successes as neither is hemorrhaging money – PR wise they are seen as massive failures as they were supposed to do toe to toe with WoW and failed.

Warcraft is now, like the Ipod and the Wii, a cultural/popular icon which even if there are better things out there, still remains popular. Champions does look great, the nemesis system is a great idea and is a real selling point to me. Cupled with a robust superhero creation tool and varied missions this could be my next choice of MMO.


Xbox


Splinter Cell: Conviction – E3 videos have brought this game back onto my wanted list. Assasins Creed 2 may look good but I found the first game a massively over hyped disappointment, Splinter Cell was always enjoyable.
Dark Void – Rocketeer-esque jetpack and 360 degree cover system could be great from the looks of the trailers.

Mass Effect 2 – I loved the original Mass effect, I have always had a very special place in my heart for RPGs after spending hours playing through Baldur’s gate games and Fallout 1&2 in my younger days. Improving on this game and hopefully making the driving sections fun in a way that you don’t feel your driving a disabled whale with a machine gun on its head.

Bringing back some classics

Firstly Mechwarrior 4 and its expansions are going to be released free on Battletechs website,

Also Rebellion (who made Aliens vs. Predator) have picked up the rights to Ground Control, Evil Genius, Empire Earth, Lords of the Realm and Lords of Magic which were discarded during the Activision-Blizzard merger.

I really hope they make Ground Control 3 and Evil Genius 2!

From Kotaku

What I am doing – Warhammer

I have decided after a 10 year break to get back into Warhammer as part of a larger goal to do more things for myself. I will be painting for some while, I do plan to start learning how to play (I have both 40k/fantasy starting game sets)

So far I have some Space marines for 40k and Orcs&Goblins for Fantasy left over from my old gaming days, plus quite a lot of reinforcements from a cheap site called Waylander games as well as ebay.

So far I have this list planned out


HQ – Captain

HQ – Chaplain


Command Squad

Razorback


Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Melta gun

Missle launcher

Sgt with Power Fist


Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Melta gun

Plasma Cannon

Sgt with Power Fist


Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Flamer

Missle launcher

Sgt with Power Fist


Troops – Scout Squad x 6

Tellion

1 x Missle Launcher

4 x Sniper Rifles


Elite – Dreadnought Drop Pod

Multi Melta


Elite – Assault Terminators

Land Raider

3 x Thunder Hammers/Storm Shield

2 x Power Claws


Fast Attack – Land Speeder Tornado

Multi Melta

Heavy Flamer


Fast Attack – Attack Bike

Multi Melta


Heavy Support - Predator

Auto Cannon

Heavy Bolter sponsons




Not sure of the points for this, worked it out at home but it is a good mech based army with decent anti armour and anti infantry punch, plus it gives me lots of different things to paint.


My Orcs and Goblins


Black Orc Warboss - Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield, Martog's Best Basha points), Warboss Umm's Best Boss 'At, And Bigged's Kickin' Boots


Black Orc Big Boss Heavy armour, Porko Pig Stikka, Boar



Orc Shaman (lvl 2) waagh paint



Gobin Shaman (lvl 2) Staff of Sneaky Stealing



Orc Big Uns 19 Shields Full Command Morks Spirit Totem



Orc Boyz 23 Additional Choppa Full Command



29 Night goblins -2 fanatics


30 Night goblins -2 fanatics


6 wolf riders


6 Spider Riders



Black Orcs 19 - Full Command


SpearChukka x 2


Orc Boar Chariot


5 Savage orc boar boy big uns


Giant

What I am playing at the moment

Right now


Empire Total War (pc) - I am campaigning towards the end of a campaign as Britain, with America/India and the trade lanes under my control and only the Polish/Russian alliance now opposes me with France/Spain/Prussia/Sweden being ground into the dust of history. Thankfully it has been bug free but quite a few people have suffered major issues. It has been enjoyable but the AI does seem quite stupid at times.


Lord of the Rings online (pc) – I have a level 20 captain on the Eldar server, I have recently joined a nice kinship and am finishing quests around Bree and the Barrow downs. I really like how they have introduced an interesting storyline to run alongside both the books/films while you are levelling.


Fallout 3 (pc) – I bought this reduced along with the extra expansions, brilliant so far around the capital wastelands and hours of enjoyment. What more can I say.



Lined up


Call of Duty: World at War (xbox)
Prototype (xbox)
Sins of a Solar Empire (pc)
Dead Space (pc)

Tuesday 7 July 2009

First Post

This is my first post on my new blog - shall see where this goes!